THE TWEED SHIRE
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Volume 1 #4 Thursday, September 18, 2008 Advertising and news enquiries: Phone: (02) 6672 2280 Fax: (02) 6672 4933 editor@tweedecho.com.au adcopy@tweedecho.com.au www.tweedecho.com.au
LOCAL & INDEPENDENT
Women the big election winners The big winners from Saturday’s Tweed Shire Council election are Katie Milne of The Greens and independent candidate, Dot Holdom. With just over 60 per cent of the vote counted, Ms Milne’s position is marginally better than Ms Holdom’s with less than 1,000 votes separating the pair. Together with Community First independent Barry Longland, they are sitting a few points shy of scoring half the primary votes counted. Reports of a potential mayor emerging from among the three has taken up much media focus, as well as speculation on the street. But such an assumption rests on whether one of these groups will be able to chalk up an added, and all-important, fourth spot on the seven-seat council. Either Ms Milne or Ms Holdom would need to pull through one of their running mates, Kevin McCready or Lindy Smith, respectively. With pre-poll, institutional and postal votes not due to be tallied until later this week in Sydney, it could be a tense wait. Nearly 40 per cent of the vote remains outstanding. Alternatively, support could theoretically come from one of the other elected candidates.
Dot still cautious Who ever it may be, Dot Holdom refuses to be drawn on the question. She considers any such talk premature. ‘People should just take a chill-pill,’ she told The Echo. ‘We don’t even know who’s been elected just yet, and we probably won’t know for some time. ‘Obviously, it’s a tense period for my running mate Lindy Smith. I’ve told her that she’s in for a real fight, but to take heart. ‘It ain’t over till the fat lady sings. ‘And all this talk about the mayoralty is just a wee bit arrogant to be perfectly honest. We haven’t finished listening to the people yet. ‘And as long as the vote is being counted, they are still speaking thank you very much.’
Ms Milne, when contacted by The Echo the day after the poll, said she was very pleased with The Greens’ electoral showing in the Tweed and across NSW. ‘I’m ecstatic, and honoured,’ she declared. At this stage it looks almost certain that former mayor Warren Polglase will be safe, though he has suffered a noticeable drop in primary support compared to the 2004 election. From topping the poll four years ago, he has fallen to third place, considerably behind the main protagonists.
Conservative hopes The Liberal Party’s Joan van Lieshout may not yet be among the winners, but she is certainly among the grinners. Sitting on a figure of about 11 per cent, she is a few hundred votes behind Mr Polglase and not far away from the quota required to be elected which is 12.5 per cent. The distribution of preferences is expected to further help Ms van Lieshout’s cause, suggesting her first run at council will likely result in the popping of champagne corks. Independents Kevin Skinner, Phil Youngblutt and possibly Tania Murdock also remain in the running to secure a berth. Depending on the votes to be tallied and the flow of preferences, it is still possible that a mayor could come from the ranks of one of these five contenders. The Greens, Community First Independents, and Ms Holdom each encouraged voters to preference one another’s candidate groupings. All three ran strong sustainable development and open-government themes in their respective campaigns. The possible election of a woman mayor on the Tweed follows the trend in neighbouring shires Byron and Lismore City where women have been elected to the job of mayor. The Greens’ Jan Barham won an overall majority in the first-preference ballot for the position of mayor while in Lismore, Jenny Dowell, running as an independent, also won the mayor’s job. Hanging them out to dry. Mayoral hopeful Dot Holdom, who scored the biggest personal vote at Saturday’s election, had her feet firmly back on the ground on Monday, doing those everyday household chores.
■ Election day postcard – page 2 ■ Dot tells it like it is – page 4 ■ Poll count – page 4
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