25 August 2010: By Belinda Noonan

Federal Labor Members, John Murphy in Reid, Anthony Albanese in Grayndler and Tony Burke in Watson will return to Federal Parliament with their “safe” margins wiped out after inner-west voters delivered the certain message that they are not happy.

John Murphy’s 28,249 primary votes in Reid was a 10.91 % swing against and one thousand votes below Liberal candidate Peter Cooper’s 29,242. Green preferences pushed Mr Murphy over the line, a scenario that was repeated across Australia.

Similarly, Tony Burke and Anthony Albanese were thumped in Watson and Grayndler. Minister for Population and Sustainability, Tony Burke recorded a 9% swing against Labor in Watson and Minister for Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government, Anthony Albanese had his margin cut from 55% in 2006 down to 46.76%.

Not reported widely in the mainstream media was that Grayndler required a recount after the Greens beat Liberal in the primary vote.As of Wednesday 25 August,Grayndler is still being counted.

Green candidate for Grayndler, Sam Byrne won 26% of the vote, ahead of 24% for 19-year-old Liberal, Alexander Dore. This means a real headache for Anthony Albanese and, even more so, for his wife NSW Deputy Premier and Member for Marrickville, Carmel Tebbutt.

With postal votes and absentee votes still coming in for Grayndler and preferences still being counted, Albanese is ahead of Bryne with 54.37% of the votes after the distribution of preferences.

Greens vote on the rise

Greens candidate, Sam Byrne is overjoyed at the result and has thrown the gauntlet down for the coming NSW elections next March and also for Grayndler in the next Federal Election, which could be sooner rather than later if Gillard or Abbott are not able to achieve stable government with the three Independents.

“It’s amazing that we are even talking about the possibility of the Greens taking Grayndler, previously considered one of Labor’s safest seats,” Sam Byrne said. “The Greens have overtaken the Liberals. The margin is now small and the Greens will be fighting hard for this seat in the next election.”

Liberal and Labor all but ignored the inner west in the Federal Election campaign, choosing instead to focus resources on “more marginal” seats in Sydney’s outer-suburbs and Queensland.

The anger demonstrated by voters who live on Sydney’s outskirts for the continuing lack of infrastructure and broken promises is just as palpable in the inner west as the M4 and M5 deliver frustrated drivers into Strathfield and Beverly Hills, at which points traffic grinds to a halt every morning and afternoon.

Overcrowding on rail and bus routes adds to the pain. Standing room only on packed trains arriving into Strathfield, Burwood and Ashfield and returning in the evening is sapping commuters’ energy, productivity and patience.

Even the weekends are a nightmare. Try driving along Frederick Street, Ashfield past Bunnings or making it down Burwood Road across Parramatta Road to Cintra Park, Concord for Saturday sport?

Informal votes rise A disturbing trend revealed in the Australian Electoral Commission’s results, is the rise in informal votes, with the highest in NSW recorded in Blaxland (Auburn, Villawood, Merrylands areas) at 14.22%. Tony Burke’s Watson seat is up 5% from 2007 to 13.57%, Reid recorded 9.21% of all votes as informal and Grayndler 7.13%.

The lowest informal vote count in NSW comes from the two Independents. Tony Windsor’s, New England at 3.6%, closely followed by Independent Rob Oakeshott’s seat Lyne at 3.67%. That these two seats lead NSW for the lowest informal vote and its Members hold the key to stable government is a sobering statistic and a lesson that should be heeded by the major parties. Other seats with low informal vote counts include Bradford and the hard fought Bennelong, which has a large Chinese and Korean population and, which, was won by tennis ace, John Alexander from Maxine McKew.

Warning delivered to State Members If they didn’t before, every NSW Labor sitting member now knows exactly how their constituents feel. The Greens are coming and targeting seats where they believe they can win. In NSW that means the inner-west. The Liberals should also take heed. It’s time to go local.