Well the dirt is beginning to fly on the NSW North Coast as the battle for voter allegiance hots up in the electorates of Page and Richmond.
Nationals supporters are not repeating their now famous whispering campaign which falsely accused a past Labor candidate of drug running, nevertheless during this federal election they are showing enough venom to have rated a mention or two in the local media.
"A spokesperson for Ms Elliot said the call to keep it clean followed revelations that staff at a local hospital had received a postcard fraudulently claiming that Labor would introduce compulsory unionism and a fee of $20 per week per worker."
"The Echo has unfortunately found itself used as a vehicle for a dirty-tricks campaign of slurs and innuendos through a letter which we recently published denigrating Labor candidate Janelle Saffin.
The Northern Star had already refused to publish the letter and we should have done the same.
On closer investigation the letter writer turns out to be a recent recruit to the National Party and the information he was peddling came from a controversial Sydney columnist making wild and spurious remarks against Ms Saffin, remarks which have already been roundly condemned by the editors of the region's two daily newspapers.
To her credit, Ms Saffin ignored the attacks, both then and now."
Not a peep is being uttered out loud about the reputations of Nationals candidates because of that party's penchant for sending threatening letters to local correspondents in letters to the editor columns (including defenceless pensioners) and past litigation against regional newspapers.
Although one delicious rumour about the Nationals candidate for Page has broken past this barrier of fear.
The Northern Rivers Echo articles yesterday:
