Get ready to vote again in council byelection on March 18

After the tragic death of Councillor Fred Borg late in December, a byelection needs to be held to fill the vacancy on Campbelltown Council.

Our spies tell us the decision has already been made and the byelection will be on Saturday, March 18.

Campbelltown, unlike other council areas, is one giant ward when it comes to elections.

Which is good for democracy in that independents need fewer votes to get elected.

But it’s bad for ratepayers’ money and ratepayers themselves because everyone has to vote in a byelection.

The State Government failed to bring in reforms which would have allowed the automatic election of the candidate with the most votes who missed out last September, which in this case would have been the Christian Democrats’ candidate (Fred Nile Party).

Not only will it costs us all a packet, much more than $100,000 and maybe as high as $500,000, the result is pretty much a foregone conclusion, with Labor poised to add an eighth councillor to its elected ranks.

Having won more than 40 per cent of the vote in September, Labor’s candidate on March 18 will breeze home.

Even the Liberal Party concede this is what will happen.

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And just on Labor, the talk on the street is that their number eight candidate at the September elections, young Benny Gilhome, may get the chance to run again on March 18.

It’s not set in concrete yet but neither is it far off at this stage.

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As some of my sharper readers will know I was appearing in court today to defend a charge of driving over an island at my local roundabout in Ruse.

But it ended up being much more than that, as is the way with these things.

I hadn’t been in Campbelltown Court for many years so had forgotten how hot it gets upstairs during summer, especially if you decide to show His or Her Honour some due respect by wearing a jacket.

But I wasn’t in the queue to register my appearance five minutes when one of the lawyers who works for one of our valued advertisers, Duffy Law Group, introduced himself.

Which made me feel a little guilty in that I wasn’t employing the skills of a trained lawyer for my case.

Speaking of trained lawyers, soon afterwards I spotted the silver mane of veteran legal eagle Bruce Hanrahan.

We had a chat before going our separate ways.

But inside the court waiting to be called I was witness to a couple of highlights worth repeating here.

One was the hearing into the notorious case of the  kidnapping of three pygmy marmoset monkeys  from the Symbio Wildlife Park in Helensburgh that created a social media storm late last year.

And in sentencing the young fellow for the kidnapping, the judge in Campbelltown Court lamented the lack of media coverage of court proceedings these days.

Such coverage was now diluted, His Honour said among other things.

You can say that again, Your Honour.

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Speaking of dwindling newspaper coverage, we also hear that the end is nigh for the harness racing bible being produced out of Tabcorp Menangle.

The talk is that the paper will become an online edition only – surprise, surprise – some time this year.