Seriously, this bloke is the goods. I know that most pollies have about as low a standing as used car salesmen, but this bloke is different, so far as I can tell. An honest and completely competent politician who has my respect and that of most of the electorate.

Sounds like an oxymoron, an honest competent politician, but there you go. I doubt you are old enough to remember Sir Phillip Reginald Lynch, but there was one who took the standing of politicians to a new low. Alan Ramsey wrote the best (worst!) un-euology I’ve ever had the pleasure of reading for the National Times when Lynch kicked the bucket.

...] commentator Possum gives us an informed urban view of the goings on within the national party. Read the whole article here. Some of the juicier [...

Barnaby has let it be known that he is interested in contesting this seat. This would be laughable, except for one thing. It is possible that Tony Windsor is thinking of retiring at the next federal election. Definitely not confirmed, but the rumour mills are working.

However in the state seat of Northern Tablelands which covers a lot of the same territory, we have an independent representative, Richard Torbay. He also has a seemingly unassailable majority. He is speaker of the lower house in NSW.

The rumour is that Richard Torbay may well wish to jump into Federal politics by running for the federal seat of New England if Tony does not contest. My feeling is that Richard Torbay would be a shoo-in. He is the most hard working politician I have ever had contact with. He is very genuine and has integrity in spades.

I suspect that if Barnaby went up against Richard, he’d be done like a dinner.

That said, if I was Barnaby, I’d stay where I was. Everyone was crapping on about Bronwyn Bishop’s leadership aspirations when she changed houses and all that happened was she disappeared from public view.

If the Nats are serious about their survival they’ll break from the Coalition – the Libs take more seats off the Nats than Labor does anyway. For the long term that would give them barganing power by having the balance of power in the Senate for just about every government, as well as having the power in the Reps of deciding government in any tight election.

So if Barnyard is serious at saving the Nats, the question becomes one of which house is best for the leader of such a Party to reside in?

I agree with you – there is no real reason why Barnyard couldnt lead the Nats from the Senate, but it’s not a view widely shared, probably because it’s a little unorthodox (and he’d need a good, high profile deputy in the Reps to boot). The one thing a Reps change has going for it is that a safe rural seat is a lot safer than any National Party Senate position.

DrMick,

Katter is the weakest of the Independents, only getting 42% of the primary vote (compared to Windsor at the 07 election and Oakeshott at the by-election getting primary votes in the low 60’s). If Barnaby stood in Kennedy, the ALP would probably decide the winner via preferences – a position neither Katter nor Barnaby would be too keen to explore one would imagine!

I think Barnaby would be much happier moving to the Reps via a seat which doesn’t rely on the charity of other parties to win.