Political deals, plans and rumours
WHAT a week it’s been in politics, with tempers getting frayed and things hotting up in the seat of Dubbo, and beyond.
This week the third party campaigner Anyone But Nats is in the spotlight, being dobbed in to the Electoral Commission by the The Nationals for offering three months free NBN to people who display Anyone But Nats’ electoral corflutes in their front yards.
The Nats are quoting a section of the Electoral Act which states you’re not allowed to offer a “promise or offer to give or confer, any property or any other benefit of any kind... to influence or affect any person’s election conduct”.
Anyone But Nats said they’re doing nothing wrong by offering free NBN.
Speaking of Anyone But Nats, the last time I looked, the group’s Facebook page had less than 1000 likes, which doesn’t seem to indicate the groundswell of anti-nats support that some suggest is out there. It might be a classic case of everyone living in political bubbles until the votes are counted on the night.
Another thing that may, or may not, help voters is an upcoming Dubbo community forum being staged by Anyone But Nats. It’ll be held at Dubbo RSL’S theatrette on February 21 starting at 6pm. THERE’S heightened interest in the lives of those brave souls who’ve put their hands up for public office and some interesting facts are coming out of the woodwork, not necessarily relating to the issues at hand.
I’d been asked a while back if Mathew Dickerson had changed his name as a young bloke and that stirred something in the dark, dim recesses of my mind, so I asked him about it and got this reply.
“My christened name was Mathew Thomas Roy Dickerson but when I was young I started using the name Mathew A Dickerson as I liked what the initials spelt and I used it in my business name of MAD Screen Printing,” Mr Dickerson wrote.
“I legally changed my name to Mathew A Dickerson when I was in my teens and also used the name MAD Industries as one of my other early business names.”
I remember reading years ago about a bloke who was arrested for driving over the limit in South Australia and he’d legally changed his name to Fish/n/chips, and I’ve had a weird fascination about people changing their names ever since.
I once considered changing my name to Tedric, Lord of the Marshes and Prince of Alien Realms, but unfortunately that moniker was already taken.
ANYONE But Nats threw about 400 cats amongst the pigeons this week when they posted an email from Dubbo Nat’s campaign director Peter Bartley pretty much smashing all other candidates in sight and claiming his candidate Dugald Saunders was facing an uphill battle to retain the seat of Dubbo for the Nationals.
First thing I did was contact Peter Bartley to confirm he’d written that email, that it wasn’t in fact fake news, and he confirmed he was its author.
It’s certainly stirred things up. Here’s one paragraph from the email:
“The election is a real David v Goliath with Dugald facing a cashed up independent willing to spend up to an estimated half a million dollars in a bizarre attempt to try and buy himself a seat in the NSW Parliament, while not having any policies or taking a stand on any issues, and a Labor opponent who resorts to personal attacks on Dugald and constant gutter sniping.”
Needless to say that didn’t go down too well.
This from Mathew Dickerson: “I am disappointed that the National Party does not understand that the community at large has moved past the old-fashioned attack politics.
“This letter, sent to Nats Members, accuses me of breaking the law with expenditure almost three times the legal cap. It is hypocritical in accusing me of trying to buy the seat on one hand while asking for a donation on the other hand so the Nats can attempt to buy the seat.
“It accuses all four opposing candidates of being law breakers and shows incredible insensitivity by asking the people who have been most impacted by the drought for a donation.
“Even though I expect this type of behaviour from the big parties, I am disappointed at how quickly they have sunk so low,” Mr Dickerson said.
Labor’s Stephen Lawrence, who