Tony Windsor’s decision to contest the seat of New England against Barnaby Joyce at the coming election — finally announced this morning after a long, almost Oakeshottian period of speculation — is a welcome one.
It’s a good thing for the voters of New England, who will now find their local member far more attentive to their needs than he would otherwise have been. It’s also good news from a policy perspective — Windsor based his election pitch on issues that are not only important for New England and other regional electorates but for the whole country: education funding, an effective NBN, balancing agriculture and fossil fuel exploitation. All are issues where the government has backed away from good policy and where Barnaby Joyce and the Nationals have proven ineffective at representing regional and rural communities.
Over a long period, Tony Windsor has shown he is an independent, thoughtful, open-minded and good-humoured politician. His own voters recognised that when, despite being an independent, he built up his primary vote to well over 60% between 2001 and 2010. Even if Windsor is unsuccessful against Joyce in New England — the benefits of incumbency may prove too large to overcome — his return to political debate is welcome. It is likely to mean issues of concern to regional communities will be given a significantly greater focus in an election that looks likely to be dominated by major party scare campaigns on tax.
It’s such a pity that this, how did you describe him, “independent, thoughtful, open-minded and good-humoured politician” made such a fundamental career limiting political mistake when he backed Gillard in 2010. That one act has destroyed his political future.
Tony Windsor made his “career limiting political mistake” by deciding what was best for his electorate, by leveraging his unique position for maximum advantage and return for New England. Many in the electorate are thankful for this but others couldn’t see past their conservative noses and the seduction of 3 word slogans (axe the tax, stop the waste etc) to see the good he was doing. It was a hypocritical reaction for as Windsor himself said, “if they wanted a conservative, they could have voted for the Nationals candidate”.
@David,
A big call seeing that Windsor has only announced his candidacy today and the election is the best part of 4 months away (at least).
That’s a (very) long time in politics…
David, your backhander is regretful. As for Windsor “backing Gillard” well no; Windsor backed parliamentary process i.e. some 540 items of legislation passed through two Houses by a Gillard led minority government.
How many for the past and present PM, with full control of the lower House? Parliamentary democracy is based upon those in power negotiating with their opponents in opposition.
OneHand – if Windsor does not win, again, on the primary vote, then the New England electorate will deserve Barnaby Rudge – hopefully as an Opposition back bencher.
In which case he would resign immediately and retreat to a swathe of sinecures on a bunch of CSG & mining boards for past services rendered.