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

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.