Earlier this week Cr Duffy said he would have voted for the Nationals in Bathurst and even his choice in Orange would come down to a toss of the coin.

He attacked Labor’s campaign manager in Bathurst, Matt Martin, for an expletive-laden Twitter feed and alleged abusive behaviour at a pre-polling station in Lithgow.

Cr Duffy said Mr Martin was unfit to be campaign director and pointed to Mr Martin’s expletive-laden Twitter feed as proof.

The Twitter feed, which is headed with the disclaimer that “views, when expressed, are entirely my own”, features plenty of colourful descriptions of conservative MPs including “John F***ing Howard”, “the mad f*****’s running the country” in reference to Tony Abbott and “homophobic c***head” in reference to former Victorian premier Jeff Kennett.

Cr Duffy said Mr Martin’s airing of his views was not helping the local Labor branches.

“Twitter is publicly available to everyone and I don’t care what your religion or political persuasion is, that sort of language is unacceptable in anyone’s terms and people will shy away from it,” he said.

But Cr Duffy said Mr Martin was not the only problem for Labor.

He accused the party of taking electorally popular but political irresponsible stands on the electricity privatisation and council amalgamations.

“When people like Paul Keating, Bob Carr, Martin Ferguson and David Borger – former prime ministers, premiers and ministers – agree with privatisation, I think you have to sit up and listen,” he said.

He was also critical of Labor taking electorally-popular, but politically-irresponsible, positions on electricity privatisation and council amalgamations when previous Labor prime ministers, premiers and ministers had supported privatisation.

Mr Fitzsimon said it was Cr Duffy’s assessment and he was not bothered by individuals’ comments. 

“Cr Duffy is not a central or pivotal figure in the local Labor campaign,” he said.

“Most thinking voters will take it with a grain of salt and make their own decision in the end.”

Mr Fitzsimon acknowledged previous leaders supported electricity privatisation, but it was a “flawed concept” dumped by Labor in the past four years.

With Labor’s experiences in the seat of Orange a source of frustration for those who have previously contested the seat unsuccessfully, Mr Fitzsimon did not think Cr Duffy’s comments were a symptom.

“I feel that safe seats are not good for democracy and didn’t want it to become a one-horse race,” he said.

danielle.cetinski@fairfaxmedia.com.au