Mud Flies In North Shore

Sydney Morning Herald

Wednesday May 22, 1991

By MARY BOSON

The battle for the seat of North Shore took a nasty turn this week with both Liberal and Labor candidates branding the Independent candidate a stooge for the other party.

Car bumper stickers that suggested voting for an Independent was a 75 per cent vote for Labor appeared in Mosman.

North Shore was recently expanded to include parts of the old blue-ribbon Liberal seat of Mosman. This boundary change pits the Independent member for North Shore, Ms Robyn Read, against the Liberal member for Mosman, Mr Phillip Smiles.

In other developments:

* Ms Read reported Mr Smiles to the returning officer for distributing unauthorised election material;

* she referred documents believed to have been distributed at a pre-polling booth to a defamation lawyer as well as to the returning officer;

* Mr Smiles accused Ms Read of being anti-environment and of mud slinging in her election pamphlets.

Mr Smiles denied responsibility for the bumper stickers, saying he believed they had been produced by a Young Liberals group. He said they had not been distributed on his behalf.

Ms Read said the stickers were "totally scurrilous and disgusting".

She produced records from the Legislative Assembly Library that showed where a division had been called on a second reading of a bill before Parliament, she had voted with the Government 16 times, with the Opposition 21 times, and against both parties once.

Ms Read said she had always voted against the Government when it moved to stop debates and had generally voted for a suspension of standing orders(normally moved by the Opposition). She said if these votes had been included in the calculations this would have produced a skewed result.

Mr Smiles said his research had shown that Ms Read had voted with the Opposition 72.4 per cent of the time. He did not know if that figure included votes against the gag and suspension of standing orders.

"I asked a parliamentary librarian to do it for me," he said.

Also this week the ALP candidate, Mr Stephen Torpey, warned his supporters not to vote for Ms Read because she had shown herself "not to be a friend of Labor and she certainly does not stand for Labor principles".

Ms Read said the mud slinging showed neither party liked Independents"because our job is to break down the terrible deadlock of power that the two parties have".

"The Independents are no friends to either Labor or Liberal," she said.

Mr Smiles said Ms Read was antienvironment because she had voted against legislation to establish the Environment Protection Authority.

Ms Read said she voted against the legislation because the Government would not allow her to move amendments to the bill that environmental groups had asked for.

"This sort of smear campaign has done my opponent no credit at all," Ms Read said. "This is the last desperate act of a desperate man."

Mr Smiles said he would rather vote for legislation that was a step in the right direction and amend it later than argue over the fine print.

He said the winner of the seat would be decided by as few as 400 votes, but complained that Ms Read had deliberately misinterpreted some of his comments and actions in her election pamphlets.

Ms Read asked in her latest pamphlet: "Who do you want to represent you? A Liberal candidate who complains about his "small" salary, who lobbied for developers to build a 200-room resort hotel on Long Reef golf course through his private consultancy firm?"

Mr Smiles said he had never complained that his salary was too small and no longer operated the firm.

Ms Read had to resort to mud slinging because her achievements in Parliament were so limited, he said.

"If Robyn Read's list of achievements were mine I'd be embarrassed," he said. "It's not a reflection on her, because she does try hard. It is a reality that you have to be in one of the major parties to be able to change things."

Ms Read said she had pointed out Mr Smiles's consultancy work because she believed the public had a right to know when an MP was assisting developers.

"I am not whispering smears and innuendo," she said. "I continue to believe that the electors of North Shore are intelligent and discerning and that they will see through Mr Smiles.

"I much prefer my politics with dignity. I think it's a great shame that my opponents have given this campaign this dimension."

* The returning officer for North Shore, Mr Malcolm Wilson, has asked electors to familiarise themselves with the new boundaries of the seat before they vote.

"It's much better for voters to sort this out before they get to the polling place," he said.

The boundary follows the Harbour foreshore from Berry Island, Waverton, to Balmoral Beach, up Awaba Street to Spit Road, along to Spit Junction, along Military Road to Falcon Street, up the Warringah Freeway to Chandos Street, down Chandos Street to St Leonards station, along the railway line to River Road, along Berry Creek to Berry Island.