MARGINAL SEAT REPORT

LINDSAY

By Jason Blue (our correspondent is a working journalist who wants to keep his job)

"There is a distinct trend emerging where councillors are using this forum to mud-sling." The normally passive Penrith Mayor, David Bradbury, was being roasted. Again. "I am sick of this witch hunt."

He is the city's youngest Mayor at 25, a rising star of the ALP and now confirmed as the candidate for the Federal seat of Lindsay after the other two preselection candidates bowed out of the ballot before it took place.

Originally from Fairfield, Bradbury moved to Penrith, the heartland of Lindsay, several years ago, contesting the 1999 local government elections in East Ward. Then, he was number two behind the Deputy Mayor, Greg Davies, but nowadays you can't help but notice he's moved up the pecking order.

He is articulate, well-mannered, even-tempered. Most functions he speaks at are left gob-smacked at his confidence and intelligence. He is the sort of person senior citizens like to proclaim as a 'nice, polite young man.' His CV should simply read: politician. During his university days, he worked with the transport unions, and later with political consultants, Hawker and Britton. A former NSW Young Labor president, he holds two degrees, one in law and another in government administration. But his most potent credential is that he is the protege, and a former employee, of NSW ALP president, Senator Steve Hutchins.

Based in western Sydney, Hutchins is an unmistakable component of the dominant right faction, having that king-maker capacity most rank and file dream about, and not surprisingly, his influence over Bradbury's career has been like the midas touch. Doors have been opened, and in the process shown how far the heft of Sussex Street goes. During his thank you speech to council at last September's mayoral election, Bradbury wasted little time in thanking his party, and specifically Hutchins, for without him it is conceivable this young talent may have been left on the vine for a few more terms.

Rumblings about his ambitions to Federal politics were rife at the time, and have since divided Penrith Council. Where the council was once independent-Liberal controlled, the ALP's numbers, boosted by the 1999 local government elections, have shaken the conservatives, and a Labor mayor now hoping to ascend to Canberra is an injustice of grotesque proportions to the Liberals (although Crs Jim Aitken and Ross Fowler, both Liberal, have stood for the state seat of Penrith while sitting on Council).

The refrain has been the ALP's abuse of the mayoral role to further Bradbury's political career. But it wouldn't be the first time such profile-building use of the chains has occurred. Over the years, at least three Labor mayors have entered state parliament, however none have won a federal seat.

ALP preselection for Lindsay was scheduled for last weekend. The preselection method, an N40 ballot, was itself enough of an indication of how much the party wants Bradbury in the seat. Instead of all rank and file members in the electorate - some 220 - given a vote, an FEC is assembled, where delegates from each of the branches in Lindsay vote on behalf of their fellow members. But the FEC only makes up 50 per cent of the vote. The remainder comes from head office's administrative committee which is heavily aligned to the right.

Bradbury's primary opponent was Jeff Collins, also from the right. A firefighter, solicitor, electrician, family man, the 40-something Collins is a stark contrast to the newly married, youthful and politically privileged Bradbury. Collins' line is that he is a man with life experience, a rank and file contender with a hard-work background that most Lindsay electors could relate to. Collins was touted by his fellow Kingswood branch members (incidentally the branch accused of stacking the 1998 federal election preselection in favour of Cathy O'Toole) as the candidate with the most rank and file support. Bradbury, they said, didn't have the numbers on the ground. Whether or not that is true we will never know. As soon as Collins announced his intention to stand for preselection three weeks ago, the N40 ballot, which would seem to favour Bradbury, was called. However, last Thursday, before the ballot could be held, Collins and another candidate, Eleanor Cannings, declared their withdrawal from the the race, leaving Bradbury the winner.

Even with preselection in the bag, Bradbury has more to worry about than winning a federal seat. Collins claims the preselection, some six months late, was stacked in the favour of the young mayor. He also says the interpretations of branch boundaries were changed, eliminating much of his support from the FEC. A formal complaint is before Labor's national executive.

Meanwhile back at council, the Libs are turning up the heat. Three weeks ago Cr Ross Fowler asked a series of seemingly benign questions about information requested on a property. It seemed to be stock standard stuff of local government general business. Who made the request? he asked of a council director. A hesitant reply. Senator Steve Hutchins. The property, it turns out, is owned by Jackie Kelly, the incumbent Liberal Lindsay MP.

Fowler was quick to draw a link between Hutchins and Bradbury. "He is, or was, your employer, was he not Mr Mayor?" Hutchins confirmed he had made a request to Council for information on Kelly's property. The motivation was explicitly political.

"These enquiries were intended to ascertain if the premises concerned could accommodate the four people who were enrolled there and claimed to be living there," he said. (Kelly has claimed a former staffer, Nick Berman, was living at her home at the time of the 1998 federal election, a claim Labor is hoping is false.) Hutchins had written to Special Minister for State, Chris Ellison, in September 1999 regarding allegations of electoral rorting levelled at Kelly and the Liberal Party. His response came in January this year, and in the mean time, he said, he set out on his own investigations.

In doing so, Bradbury has been seriously implicated. He personally followed up on a verbal request from Hutchins about whether information on private property could be provided, and then personally handed a written request from the Senator to a council officer. Of course, he breached no procedures; technically, there was nothing wrong with passing on a request from a constituent.

But in the political game, technicalities like this don't count for much. And the Libs have not levelled a specific accusation at Bradbury, preferring instead to bandy about innuendo, threatening to call ICAC and puffing great billows of acrid, reputation-contaminating smoke about the council chambers, making it very difficult to fend off the attacks. One wonders whether ICAC would take the complaint seriously - after all, they investigate corruption of established systems, they are not the morality police. It really is the imagery of the situation that is probably most damaging. A Senator, asking his employee, the mayor of Penrith and ALP candidate-to-be for Lindsay, to help him dig up dirt on the opposition. It doesn't matter if Bradbury followed the right procedures, the question being asked is whether he thought it was right to be involved in requesting that sort of information, considering his position. And even if he has a clear conscience, it doesn't seem to be the most politically prudent way to go about it.

Although he is bright, well-connected and usually politically savvy, Bradbury has a long way to go until the general election. His term as mayor finishes in September, long enough for Liberal teeth to sink well and truly in. And that's before he's even reached parliament.

Source - SMH website

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