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RE-ELECTED Bathurst MP Paul Toole wants to see work on the city’s new $6.6 million ambulance station start by the middle of his four-year term.
Mr Toole was comfortably returned at Saturday’s state election, with a swing of around six per cent against him.
With around 54 per cent of the vote counted late yesterday, Mr Toole had secured almost 60 per cent of the first preference votes and was ahead of Country Labor’s Cassandra Coleman 66-34 on a two-party preferred basis.
Mr Toole yesterday said his campaign team had run a “solid and professional” campaign and he looked forward to representing Bathurst again.
“We won 43 of the 44 booths across Bathurst on primary votes and the one we didn’t, at Kandos, we only lost by 14 votes,” he said.
“It was a very strong performance from my team, but the work doesn’t end here.
“I will continue to work for everybody in the electorate regardless of how they voted on Saturday, and that work starts today for the next four years.”
The ambulance station promise was the biggest carrot for Bathurst voters during the election campaign, and Mr Toole said he would be pushing to get the job done.
“The money’s there but there is still a bit of work to go as far as the planning goes, including deciding on a site,” he said.
“But I want to see work started sooner rather than later. By the middle of the term I would hope to see some work started on physically building the new ambulance station.”
Mr Toole was a new face in Macquarie Street when first elected four years ago, but by the end of that term had been elevated to the Baird cabinet as Local Government Minister.
And he hopes to continue in that role when the new cabinet is announced.
“There are still a few seats in doubt but I expect [Premier] Mike Baird will sit down this week and start working on his cabinet,” Mr Toole said.
“We have done a lot of work in the local government portfolio and put the Fit For The Future package on the table for councils to start the restructure process, so I would really like the opportunity to continue that work.”
But there was something for everyone in Saturday’s result. Ms Coleman managed to claw back many of the Labor voters that backed Mr Toole four years ago and The Greens’ Tracey Carpenter had the party’s vote nudging 10 per cent with a strong performance.
Ms Carpenter said scrutineers on Saturday night reported The Greens’ preferences were running fairly evenly between Labor and the Nationals, despite Labor being preferenced number two on The Greens’ how-to-vote cards.
“What that indicates is that about half our voters were generally more conservative voters who were willing to give me a go,” she said.
“That suggest they are very concerned about coal seam gas and renewable energy targets.”
Ms Coleman said she was very pleased with the result and would run again “in a heartbeat”.