Seven years ago Di Bell was in Washington DC as the Twin Towers in New York City and the Pentagon, a few kilometres from where she was working, were hit. This year she was happy to be in Milang as the sun rose over Lake Alexandrina and Channel 9 was there to greet the new day with the weather report.
Local school children demonstrated how to clean the tube-worm encrusted turtles, read the weather report and chatted with the reporters about their valiant efforts to save the turtles. When the assembled crowd heard the news of the purchase of Toorale Station in north-western NSW there was a hearty cheer.
Di then settled into writing a submission for the Senate “Inquiry into water management in the Coorong and Lower Lakes”. The River, Lakes and Coorong Action Group had already lodged their submission. Will any other candidates in the Mayo by-election, apart from Di Bell share their ideas with the Senate Committee? http://www.aph.gov.au/Senate/committee/rrat_ctte/index.htm
Back in Stirling, the count continues with more postal votes being added to the primary vote for each candidate. The Greens candidate Lynton Vonow conceded. Team Di are still watching the process being played out. There are a number of helpful guides to preferential voting. This one is useful: http://www.eca.gov.au/systems/single/by_category/preferential.htm
There are seven minor parties and Independents whose share of the vote ranges from 0.29% to 2.50%. Their combined tally is some 7,163 votes, more than the difference between Di and the Greens and probably enough to bring the Liberals to 50% plus one. To whom will these votes flow? Certainly not all to one candidate.
The AEC has said the results should be available in a day or two. Whatever the final tally, it is clear that a number of residents of Mayo have become engaged in the political process through the Team Di campaign and want to continue to work together on local issues.
