Cynical heartland voices its disgust

IT was the ultimate political statement: a new Liberal premier of NSW choosing to deliver his victory speech at the the Parramatta Leagues Club 

Geoff Lee 280311

IT was the ultimate political statement: a new Liberal premier of NSW choosing to deliver his victory speech in front of an adoring crowd at the working-class mecca of the Parramatta Leagues Club.

Just a few short years ago, that scenario would have been as incongruous as NSW Labor choosing to hold their election night celebrations on Sydney's exclusive north shore.

But having achieved the unthinkable and won over the city's west -- and, in doing so, hundreds of thousands of the most rusted-on of Labor diehards -- Mr O'Farrell couldn't resist the symbolism of dancing over Labor's corpse in what has been a Liberal graveyard for the best part of 60 years.

Parramatta is the geographical heart of Sydney, and was, until yesterday, considered Labor heartland.

But as Kristina Keneally admitted on Saturday night, in recent years Labor has lost its heart. And a swag of strongholds across the western Sydney heartland, including Parramatta, Londonderry, Granville, Riverston, Mulgoa and Smithfield, were lost too.

Having just achieved a 26 per cent swing, the new Liberal member for Parramatta, Geoff Lee, offered a simple assessment yesterday of how Labor got it so wrong in its own backyard.

"Labor simply forgot about the people of Parramatta. People became so cynical, so sick of the Labor spin, that they just wanted them out," Mr Lee told The Australian yesterday.

He nominated law and order, transport and health as the issues that mattered most to the constituents of Parramatta, "and on all three counts, Labor failed".

"Parramatta is about the same size as Adelaide and yet Labor treated this place like a small suburb," Mr Lee said, referring to the major rail and road projects that were promised but never delivered, and the lengthening waiting times at Westmead Hospital.

But with Labor holding a 13.7per cent margin before the election, Mr Lee knew that he could not win the seat without wooing lifelong ALP voters.

"When I was doorknocking across Parramatta, I came across many people who said, 'I have never voted Liberal in my life, but I just can't vote Labor this time'," said Mr Lee, 44. "And judging by the 26 per cent swing, a lot of those people were true to their word."

Nearby, George Mitin, 75, a member of the ALP since emigrating from Romania 20 years ago, said the Labor loss was "a good thing". "I am a member of the Labor Party, and I am glad they lost," Mr Mitin said as he waited for a bus outside Parramatta's Westfield shopping centre.

"They haven't delivered anything for the people of Parramatta for years."