Marrickville candidates duel for votes at forum

Sitting state member for Marrickville Carmel Tebbutt faced off with her Greens opponent, Marrickville Mayor Fiona Byrne, at a community forum at Marrickville Town Hall on February 17, with a vocal crowd of over 100 voters attending to see the two candidates go head-to-head on local issues.

A key theme of the evening was questions from educators, with a strong contingent of teachers turning out to question Ms Tebbutt especially over what they felt to be Labor’s insufficient level of support for the public school system.

Ms Tebbutt focused on highlighting her experience and achievements in government, and emphasising that The Greens could not form a viable opposition party.

“Come March 27, if Labor is not successful, it doesn’t matter that people will have voted Green in Marrickville,” Ms Tebbutt said. “There are only two choices – a Labor government or a Coalition government. I can remember what the last Coalition government did to NSW, and it did punish the state – it particularly punished the poor, the marginalised and the disadvantaged. I can remember the dismantling of the child protection system, the destruction of the public housing system – and I don’t want to see it again. And a vote for a Green in Marrickville will help deliver a Coalition government.

“I want to represent this seat, because I want to continue and finalise work on the light rail, railway station improvements, the disability services package, and investment in our public schools.”

Ms Byrne meanwhile focused on the “Greens vision” and how it applied to Marrickville. “We have long-term planning [credentials] – we’ve spent 20 years on Marrickville Council building a foundation and looking at long-term planning for the area,” she said. “Even if you vote for a progressive Labor candidate, things like electricity privatisation can still happen – so how is that effective?

“I think if you elect a Green voice into the NSW Parliament, you will actually hear that voice – because we actually work on projects the community believes are important to them.”

Ms Tebbutt’s margin over The Greens at the 2007 election was 7.5 per cent. Current polling puts The Greens’ primary vote on around 12-13 per cent of the total statewide vote, an improvement on the 9 per cent they achieved at the last state election in 2007. The seats of Balmain and Marrickville are widely regarded as the party’s two best chances of snaring their first representation in the NSW Legislative Assembly.