McCormack margin could hurt Riverina

Michael McCormack is to be congratulated on a thumping victory and he goes to Canberra carrying the hopes of his electorate.

But his healthy 16 per cent margin will help neither him nor his voters when he goes in to bat for funding for local projects.

The knife-edge result delivered on Saturday night will ensure the new government is again focused on retaining and winning marginal seats at the next election, and that’s bad news for Riverina.

We’ve just endured a campaign where the electorate was all-but ignored by senior members of both sides of politics and television coverage on Saturday confirmed the electoral black spot.

While panel members dissected the votes in marginal seats such as Dobell, Corangamite and Lindsay, Riverina could not have been further from their minds.

MPs on the panels, who traditionally let their guard down a little on election night, proudly referred to the strong campaigns their parties had run in those seats, again highlighting their neglect of Riverina voters.

Mr McCormack himself might end up wishing he hadn’t won so many votes.

Still, Saturday night’s Riverina results held few surprises for voters.

The Labor Party’s Tim Kurylowicz again struggled to resonate with voters, increasing his primary vote by three per cent on the 2013 result.

With 86.5 per cent of the vote counted, Mr Kurylowicz finished with 26 per cent of first preference votes while The Greens’ primary vote was up about half a per cent on the 2013 result to 4.3 per cent on Saturday.

The remaining three candidates, Richard Foley, Phil Langfield and Glenn O’Rourke combined for 12.6 per cent of first preference votes.

So the campaign for Riverina has left the electorate right back where it started – a safe Nationals seat left floundering at the periphery of Australian politics.

Mr McCormack has been, and I am sure will continue to be, a staunch supporter of the Riverina and a good representative.

The concern surrounds how big a voice he will be given for our electorate no matter who gets in power.  

What does Saturday’s federal result, or non-result as it were, mean to the Riverina?

It could mean our sitting member may be a part of the opposition or part of a government relying upon deals with independents to hold power.

These independents will want assurances for their allegiance which will chew up chunks of the available money for projects.

Being such a safe seat for the Nationals, Riverina may also miss out on funding for projects to other electorates which are more closely contested.

Our northern neighbours in Calare, which includes towns such as Lithgow, Orange, Bathurst, Mudgee and Wellington, are in the same boat as us.

The new member for Calare, the National’s Andrew Gee, won his seat by 13 per cent.

With these two electorates safely in the National’s grasp, there could be a massive funding black spot in the centre of the state.

If the Coalition fails to make a government and Labor come into power, it could be even worse for the two electorates with the sitting members looking across the House of Representatives at the decision makers.

Unfortunately neither of these options hold much hope of increased funding or new projects for the Riverina. 

We will have to wait and see.