Cross benches key to real change in NSW

Metropolitan media support for the hoopla and fluff anchors the process.

Even the ballot paper, especially for the upper house, is strategically set up to favour parties and groups who are elevated to a position of importance above the line.

Yes Dorothy, there is a wide black line on the Legislative Council ballot paper demarcating those who get special treatment and those who must appear to be lesser candidates, ungrouped below the line.

The ungrouped rabble below the line still get to pay $500 each to nominate and to go through the campaign process albeit with different levels of expertise and energy.

But for the most part, they don't get their money back at the end of the dog fight.

Ends. words 1730

• Richard Stanton, a political communication lecturer at the University of Sydney, is one of the ungrouped independent candidates below the line on the Legislative Council ballot paper.