Another disaster for Labor

In yesterdays by-election for the NSW seat of Northern Tablelands, Labor not only did badly, it crashed and burned.  On current trends Labor might with a bit of luck get 10% of the vote as opposed to the National’s Adam Marshall on around 63%. 

This seat was once held by Labor during the 80s but was then taken by the Nationals until it was won in 1999 by the independent, Richard Torbay who resigned under the cloud of the Eddie Obeid scandal. Labor’s vote has been steadily declining over the years.  With his 60+% up for grabs, it appears Labor has done little in making inroads.

There would be little point in counting preferences, but even this would not bring much joy to the party as their candidate is currently running third to independent, Jim Maher who is on 13% currently. 

The Greens are well down on about 4% so their preferences would be unlikely to put Labor into second place, given the others who are likely to go to Maher or the Nationals.