NEEDING to overcome overwhelming odds to beat the Nationals’ Scott Barrett hasn’t deterred most political parties from lining up for the Orange byelection.
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Three months out from the ballot Mr Barrett is a $1.03 chance to win according to sportsbet.com.au, while Labor and the Greens are long odds at $34.
The city’s Labor branch have yet to decide whether a candidate will contest the November 12 vote, but former Labor candidate Bernard Fitzsimon said the overwhelming odds to beat Mr Barrett were not a deterrent.
“A decision is still to be made but I’m pretty sure they will contest,” he said.
Despite a strong showing in the July federal election, Pauline Hanson’s One Nation party won’t contest the Orange seat.
Brian Burston, who is expected to become the 11th senator for NSW in the coming days, said the party was not registered to contest a state byelection.
“We have no candidate for the byelection but we will contest the state election in 2019,” Mr Burston said.
Greens candidate Janelle Bicknell conceded it would be an uphill battle to win the seat but was content to focus her campaign on integrity and new ideas.
Ms Bicknell said she wanted to see jobs, climate change and regional development at the top of the election’s talking points.
“It’s about making sure our ideas are heard,” she said.
“A solar farm will help regional jobs and the economy and we’re supporting Inland Rail at Parkes, which will be good for jobs.
Mr Fitzsimon – who lost the 2015 election for the seat of Orange to now-Federal member Andrew Gee – lamented another probable Nationals victory later this year.
“It’s like Stockholm Syndrome: you always end up voting for your captor. We’ve seen business confidence plummet, cuts to health and education and problems at the hospital,” he said.
“Anyone who votes National, no matter who their candidate is, is voting to maintain an extremely inequitable status quo for regional people.”
Mr Fitzsimon said he doubted whether Mr Barrett would be able to overturn forced council amalgamations or the ban on greyhound racing.
He argued cuts to services had been brutal, removing funding from TAFE and health services.
“The jobs are just bleeding away, they’re hemorrhaging,” he said.