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THE POLL BLUDGER RICHMOND
Richmond has covered the north-eastern corner of New South Wales since federation, shrinking steadily over time in response to ongoing coastal development (so that it no longer includes the river that gave it its name). Once a jewel in the National/Country Party crown, it provided party leader Doug Anthony with a seat from 1957 until his retirement in 1983. Anthony had assumed the seat on the death of his father Larry, member from 1937. He in turn was preceded by Roland Green, who had held the seat from the Country Party's creation in 1922. The party's grip loosened as the seat became increasingly dominated by Byron Bay and Tweed Heads, the watershed event being party leader Charles Blunt's defeat in 1990. On that occasion the seat was contested by independent anti-nuclear activist Helen Caldicott, producing a rash of new enrolments from Nimbin-area hippies. When Caldicott fell just short of overhauling the Labor candidate, her preferences produced a 7.1 per cent swing to Labor and a shock victory for their candidate Neville Newell. Doug Anthony's son Larry failed to recover the seat for the Nationals in 1993, but he romped home with an 8.5 per cent swing on his second try in 1996. A 6 per cent swing in 1998 brought Anthony back down to the wire, and he again survived only narrowly in 2001. With the effect of the GST on caravan parks then biting as a local issue, many blamed Labor's failure to win on a fraught preselection that produced CPSU official Jenny McAllister as a candidate, prompting rival Julie Nathan to run against her as an independent (although with little success). The seat finally fell to Labor in 2004, when their candidate Justine Elliott scraped over the line by 301 votes, after a 1.9 per cent swing. The Nationals candidate is Sue Page, who unsuccessfully contested preselection for the better prospect of Page. | |