Talk about cruelty to dumb politicians. In one of the more unusual moments of the campaign, six feral billy goats were press-ganged into racing each other while towing a politician sitting in a cart.
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The race took place at the Comboyne Agricultural & Horticultural Association show on the NSW mid-north coast.
NSW National MPs Andrew Stoner (Oxley) and Leslie Williams (Port Macquarie) and a federal colleague David Gillespie (Lyne) took on Labor candidates Fran Armitage and Kristy Quill.
Port Macquarie mayor Peter Besseling also went along for the ride. Besseling stood as an independent for Lyne in the last federal election but it all ended in tears when leaking oil from his campaign bus was blamed for causing an accident in which three people were injured.
His goat suffered no such problem and Besseling came home just behind Armitage leaving the Nationals out of the running.
Feral goats and politicians gather for the Comboyne goat race.
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March 5, 2015
Comboyne A&H president Rodney Fisher dreamed up the goat race five years ago and builds the sulkies. He said the politicians have gone "completely mad" over goats."We had a full field of politicians this year for the first time, but it could also have something to do with the election year," he said.
Coal seam gas bag
Usually a Liberal urger, the talkback radio host Alan Jones surprised many among the 1200-crowd at Bowral's Corbett Gardens by tearing into the Baird government.
His subject was coal and the locals are fearful about the spread of coal mining in the Southern Highlands. Jones shared the podium with some climate change warmists, including the Australia Institute's Richard Dennis and local farmer Peter Martin.
Since starting to get hot under the collar over CSG in Queensland and northern NSW, Jones has appeared at rallies alongside Greens and others of his mortal enemies.
Of course, Jones has a tendency to go on so long that little time is left for his fellow speakers.
Jones was at it again on Saturday, speaking for near 60 minutes. Luckily perhaps, local Liberal MPs Jai Rowell and Pru Goward had previous engagements and missed his spray.
Hemp, hemp, hooray
After years of angst over to inhale or not, the preferred drugs of sixties' long hairs seems to have found favour among most varieties of NSW politicians.
The Liberals, Labor and the Nationals have all come out in favour of the use of marijuana for terminally ill patients. Now the NSW Greens have gone a step further.
They want the legalisation of hemp food products. Greens MP and agriculture spokesman Jeremy Buckingham says there is a $1 billion plus international hemp food products market.
"Australian farmers are missing out on this opportunity because of politicians from the Liberals, Nationals and Labor lack the political courage to bring our regulations in line with the rest of the world," he said.
Pecan and rice farmer Frank Boyle of Nimbin Valley Rice was happy to sell hemp seeds: "I would definitely grow hemp as part of my crop rotation if I could sell it to Australian consumers."
Calling candidates
The Governor David Hurley issued the writs of election on Saturday.
Nominations to stand in the NSW election close on Thursday, March 12.
<a href="/interactive/2015/nsw-election/electorates/electorates.html?el=Oxley" _rte_href="/interactive/2015/nsw-election/electorates/electorates.html?el=Oxley">Key facts on NSW electorates</a>
