Cross benches key to real change in NSW

What type of person decides to stand for a seat in the state parliament of NSW, what qualifies them to represent their chosen constituents, and what motivates them to run either as party candidates or as independents?

Are there, or should there be, factors that qualify or disqualify the 498 candidates for the Legislative Assembly and the 311 candidates for the Legislative Council beyond being on the electoral role?

The direct democracy advocates would say there is nothing to preclude all citizens of the state from taking turns at sitting in the red and green leather benches in Macquarie Street.

Indeed, I spent the day there as part of the so-called People's Parliament in early March and being in the House creates a sense of power and occassion that is unmatched in other places.

The question though is not about power because a fixed number of candidates will take up the seats – in the Upper House there are 311 candidates competing for 21 spots.

If you subtract the 'dummy runners' – the candidates who are there to split the vote; the disaffected former party candidates who want to get back at their former 'team mates'; and the party candidates who are invested with the idea of accumulating power for power's sake, what's left over?

Probably a handful of individuals across a range of ages and capabilities who would bring to the parliament a different perspective.

It's unlikely to happen though given that those individuals are not well-funded nor do they have time to think up and fabricate campaign events and stunts.

Fabricate events and stunts are part of the game.

The parties spend millions of dollars devising stunts because they know at the end of the campaign, when they get their candidate elected, they will recoup every dollar of their large investment through public campaign funding.

This savage division between the parties and the rest of the candidates – the naïve independents, the groups forming as parties to remove parking meters and to get voting squares above the line – preserves the parliamentary status quo because the parties know their advertising investment will be refunded.

Not so the hapless losers – and there will be many given that in the upper house alone there are 311 competitors for 21 prizes.