PREMIER Mike Baird’s halo has slipped a little as a result of a less-than-impressive performance in state parliament this week.
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The enormously popular Mr Baird has won a reputation as a plain-speaking politician with a keen understanding of ordinary Australia.
And he has been riding high in the polls for as long as anyone cares to remember, seemingly untouched by the reputation for untrustworthiness or trickiness that burdens so many of his colleagues.
Until now.
The people of Sallys Flat, Hill End, Turondale and surrounds have every reason to feel badly let down by Mr Baird’s response to a direct question about their backyard being shortlisted as a possible site to host a new permanent nuclear waste dump.
In parliament this week, the Greens’ MP for Balmain, Jamie Parker, asked Mr Baird directly if his government supported Sallys Flat being on the shortlist of six potential sites.
It could have been answered with a simple yes or no and should have been if Mr Baird wished to be true to his straight-shooting reputation.
But, instead, Mr Baird evaded answering the question on no fewer than three occasions, choosing instead to launch an irrelevant attack on the state’s Labor Opposition.
It was a deeply disappointing display and one that leaves the traditionally conservative people of Sallys Flat scrambling to find any conservative politicians to support them.
The Nationals’ federal MP for Calare John Cobb has angered locals in the area with his flippant dismissal of their concerns over the safety of the nuclear waste which could be stored at Sallys Flat, and now the leader of the state’s conservative government has refused to put concern for the people of Sallys Flat ahead of concern for his colleagues in Canberra.
Our region deserves so much better.