Little more for Iemma to do against Mr Impossible – ELECTION DAY: [1 All-round Country Edition]
Stapleton, John. Weekend Australian; Canberra, A.C.T. [Canberra, A.C.T] 24 Mar 2007: 7.
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Abstract
THE party leaders spent the final day of the election campaign doing what they have been doing for the past five weeks — Peter Debnam working to achieve the seemingly impossible and Morris Iemma repeating his mantra of “there’s more to do”.
The Liberal leader spent the day in a seat he cannot hope to win, Rockdale, held by Planning Minister Frank Sartor with a margin of 15.9 per cent. It was a last stab at highlighting the failings of a Government that includes controversial ministers such as Mr Sartor, Treasurer Michael Costa and Energy and Ports Minister Joe Tripodi.
Full Text
THE party leaders spent the final day of the election campaign doing what they have been doing for the past five weeks — Peter Debnam working to achieve the seemingly impossible and Morris Iemma repeating his mantra of “there’s more to do”.
The Liberal leader spent the day in a seat he cannot hope to win, Rockdale, held by Planning Minister Frank Sartor with a margin of 15.9 per cent. It was a last stab at highlighting the failings of a Government that includes controversial ministers such as Mr Sartor, Treasurer Michael Costa and Energy and Ports Minister Joe Tripodi.
Mr Debnam was among friends. You could tell — they were wearing Liberal Party T-shirts.
But gallant to the end, he refused to write off Liberal candidate Lili Gestakovska’s chances of achieving a shock victory over Mr Sartor today.
“We’ve got a fantastic candidate,” he said. “Everybody acknowledges Frank Sartor has been one of the worst and most arrogant ministers in the state. It’s up to the people of Rockdale what they want to do. We’re going to find out tomorrow what they do.”
Earlier Mr Debnam had stood at Captain James Cook’s landing place at Kurnell, near the proposed site for the Government’s desalination plant. “I have never known a sorrier Government than Labor in NSW,” he said.
Mr Iemma finished the campaign focusing on improving Sydney’s transport system.
Addressing students at Sutherland TAFE, he once again promised that a re-elected Labor Government would make rail and bus services its top priority.
“It has been the No1 priority. I identified it as the Government’s No1 priority. It continues to be so and it will be so over the next four years,” Mr Iemma said.
Later he stopped for a sandwich in Camden, southwest of Sydney, where shop owner Kerri Lysle chatted jovially with the Premier before slipping him a curly one about his former boss, federal Labor heavyweight Graham Richardson.
“I saw on the (TV) news last night someone was saying you were trained by … who is that fat, grey-haired politician?” she said. “They said you were trained by him and I thought, `Oh no, that’s not going to go well’.”
Mr Iemma played a straight bat. “I worked for him,” he replied.