barnaby is going to steamroll windsor alp 9.7%

LOL ALP gets 9.7%


FEDERAL independent Tony Windsor's days look numbered following the Coalition's overwhelming win in the weekend's Northern Tablelands state by-election, with voter feedback on the ground against perceived Labor/independent deals.

With Labor achieving just 9.7 per cent of the vote, independent local mayor Jim Maher 13.5 per cent and the Nationals winning 63 per cent in Richard Torbay's old state seat, all signs point to a Nationals' Barnaby Joyce win over Mr Windsor in New England in September.

Northern Tablelands takes up 46.5 per cent of the New England electorate and registered a 60 per cent independent vote at the last federal election and 63 per cent at the last state election.

The majority of the rest of the seat is in the state seat of Tamworth, where Tony Windsor won 63 per cent of the vote at the last federal election, but which swung from an independent to the Nationals at the last state election.

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Labor and National Party sources are talking of voters associating the independents with the damaged Labor brand after former state MP Richard Torbay quit over allegations before ICAC of illegal donations by Labor.

They also feel betrayed by the Windsor-Gillard minority government and imposition of the carbon tax.

Although party officials said internal polling showed it would be a close contest, it also showed Mr Joyce in front.

"A lot of people said to me that if we wanted Labor we would've voted Labor, and that they feel cheated in general," new National Party MP Adam Marshall, 28, said of the growing anti-Windsor feeling in the electorate.

"There was a lot of people that simply wanted to talk about their frustration with the federal government that they couldn't wait until September to express their displeasure.

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