Don't let federal independent blowback kill-off NSW election

The blowback from the "WinShott" debacle over climate change and a carbon tax has the potential to kill off any real change in leadership and balanced management in NSW.

As the state prepares to go to the polls to elect either a Liberal National coalition or a Greens Labor coalition, federal independents Tony Windsor and Rob Oakeshott are making it almost impossible for independents in NSW to get elected.

The blowback from the WinShott decision to support the Labor government's carbon tax will be that voters no longer have confidence in independent candidates being, well, independent.

And if they have no confidence in the claims of independence made by independents, they will vote for minor parties because they also hate the big parties in NSW.

The real issue though is that Windsor and Oakeshott were never really independents.

They were both disenfranchised party members with natural leanings to the left.

Not all independents are closet lefties, or for that matter drum-beating conservatives.

The late Peter Andren, independent member for Calare in the NSW central west, was a true independent with no party affiliation.

Andren's voting record demonstrated a strong balance between left and right on any number of issues and he was always concerned that he be seen to be acting so that he could not be framed as a party stooge.

This position made life hard for him, to the point where he once remarked to me while on the campaign trail for an independent local government candidate, that if the parties really wanted to, they could have 'knocked me over with a feather'.

Andren, unlike Windsor and Oakeshott, was in the Ted Mack mould - he was interested first and foremost in the citizens who had elected him and the issues that concerned them.

Sadly Peter Andren is no longer around to defend the reputation of the independent.

In this, a Labor party operative told me earlier in the week that only two independents in NSW will survive - Richard Torbay (Northern Tablelands) and Greg Piper (Lake Macquarie).

If he's right, then NSW is in trouble. Most independents have traditionally provided balance and rationality in parliaments. They table inquiries that governments and oppositions don't want tabled. They put stuff in the public square that special interests and lobby groups don't want to be seen in public.

The WinShotts have badly damaged the Independent brand through narrow thinking, poor judgement and personal interest.

They were elected by their constituents because they campaigned as independents.

The question now, for all other independents, at state, federal and local level elections is how to get away from the smell when the WinShott beast changes its direction every day blowing its stench over all other independents.

If I might pose an answer to my own question, it would be to ask voters in NSW to look closely at their candidates - party candidates and independents and examine what they really stand for and what they will deliver if elected.

In the Legislative Council in NSW for example there has been no independent member for the past four years.

Whatever the result in the lower house, a strong upper house is vital for the next four years so that all policy and planning can be examined in detail and made transparent.

The Legislative Council is the house of review of everything that is planned to happen in NSW.

It is in the Legislative Council that decisions are made about whether or not issues and matters are right for citizens but it needs to be independent of government.

Only independents can deliver independence in the Legislative Council. But it is not as easy as that. The voting paper for the Legislative Council will include a large number of parties using the system to get voters to put a single number 1 above the line.

Groups have been jockeying for months getting 'sleeper 'candidates in groups of 15 so they can have a voting square above the line. It costs less than the price of a second hand car and if they get the right percentage of votes, they get it all paid back anyway, so no skin.

The average punter wants to get in and get out of the polling booth as quickly as possible - so a 1 above the line does the trick.

But this makes a mockery of the true independent who has to rely on voters finding them on the far right hand side of the ballot paper, then going to the trouble of selecting 15 names below the line and marking all 15 squares.

The voting process was hard enough on independents - the WinShotts have destroyed the incentive to think about them at all.