Thoughts From the Train - Throsby - My Really, Really Safe Seat

I live in the federal seat of Throsby, which encompasses a fair chunk of the Wollongong and Shellharbour LGA's and reaches into the Southern Highlands. Created in 1984, it has only had two representatives in the 36 years of its existance, both Labor. It is what could be called the stereotypical safe seat with Labor sitting on a 16.5% margin and a very large rusted on voting base.

Politically this means that Throsby tends to be used to parachute in Labor candidates, is usually at the back of the line when it comes to election sweeteners and generally gets put waaaay down the priority list for the other parties.

Just a quick aside - I'm sooo not a fan of the head office selecting candidates model that the ALP and others use. While Jennie George has proven herself to be a good representative for the region and the Labor Candidate Stephen Jones is proving that he's treating the campaign seriously, the idea that the rank and file should be overridden so easily just doesn't sit right with me.

Anyway, back onto topic.

Part of what makes Throsby a safe Labor seat is the attitude of the other parties to trying to capture it. It's a vicious circle - it's a safe Labor seat so we won't waste money on trying to capture it, so it continues to be a safe Labor seat. Oh they'll put up candidates, because they can't be seen to be dropping the seat altogether, but the campaigns are usually limp to non-existent, leaving most people to wonder who the hell it is that is looking out at them from the ballot paper.

Take for example the Nationals candidate for Throsby, Alan Hay. The only information I could find on him came from the nationals own website (he's listed under NSW candidates). From what it looks like there isn't even a brochure site for him, hell, he doesn't even rate his own page on the Nationals website.

The Liberal candidate, Juliet Arkwright at least warrants her own page on the Liberals web site, but they seem to have forgotten what she looks like, and if you want to contact her, you apparently need to go via the Liberal party offices in Sydney.

Peter Moran, the Greens candidate, also gets his own page , no, the woman dominating that page isn't the candidate for Throsby, no matter what the site says. She's Lee Rhiannon,  a senate candidate and obviously more important when it comes to getting elected than Peter Moran. However if you persevere and scroll down you will actually find content from Peter himself.

Before I finish, I would like to point out that the one who seems to be doing the most work to take the seat is the one who probably needs to put in the least amount effort. Stephen Jones, the Labor candidate has been out pounding the streets, has his own web site, twitter account (which he actually utilises to communicate with people) and more.

I may not agree with his parties policies but Stephen Jones is showing a hell of a lot more respect to the people of Throsby than the others.