Labor in Richmond is politically bankrupt. It only managed to scrape together 4.2% of the vote in Byron and 18% compared to the Greens 14% in Lismore during the 2008 council elections. It did not run a candidate in Tweed Heads. It does not have a state seat in the area.
Local supporters struggle to defend a sitting member that votes the opposite way in Canberra than she promised during preselection. She has disappointed voters on transport, health and education.
Even rusted on Laborites like Mungo McCallum publicly despair.
The ALP has gone well past the time when, in the words of that famous colloquialism, you either piss or get off the pot.
The problem is that the ALP has deserted its traditional role as a progressive party. Since time immemorial politics has been a debate between the hawks and the doves – the dominators and the nurturers. Last century that divide separated the rights of capital versus those of labour. The ALP had a clear role.
This century the divide is between those who want to nurture our resources to give our grandchildren a future, and those who would dig them up and sell them to buy the latest plasma screen. The politics of the twenty first century will be divided into greens and browns.
Ironically, here in Richmond, the conservative candidates are running on their green credentials. Alan Hunter is regenerating a swamp on his Tyagarah farm, Joan van Lieshout is building a Sustainability Institute in the Nightcap ranges.
Justine Elliot is left alone to defend the rights of miners to dig up or poison farmland of international conglomerates to buy up the farm and the factories that formed the backbone of regional Australia and sell them overseas.
As she woodenly parrots the party line, progressive voters flood to The Greens seeking real action on global warming, a humane response to refugees and a responsible approach to economic development.
Conservative voters are tempted to stick to the parties they know, but are increasingly aware that there is a huge gap between what local candidates say in elections and how they vote when they are in Canberra. But that’s the topic for another column.
In the meantime, watch the numbers in Richmond closely. We could well be the first electorate to send a lower house Green to Canberra. Vote this election, to send Joe to Canberra.
Joe Ebono is the Greens candidate for Richmond. His election website is www.joe4richmond.org