THE ‘Bill’ bus rolled into town on Monday carrying Labor party faithful and a rugged up Senator.
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Fresh from his appearance on ABC News Breakfast, Senator Sam Dastyari stepped into a breezy Goulburn morning and a waiting welcome from local Labor members.
The bus was on a national tour, which started in Cairns and made its way to Canberra and Goulburn. Following the obligatory photo opportunity at the Big Merino, it was on to Melbourne.
On his whistle stop, Mr Dastyari was at pains to point out it was part of “back to the future” grassroots campaigning.
For Greens Senate candidate, Michael Osborne, the opportunity was too good to refuse.
Towing his 1970s green caravan, he photo bombed the bus, parked outside the courthouse.
“You call that a bus?” Mr Dastyari yelled.
Not exactly a bus but a statement jokingly dubbed the ‘caravan of courage.’ Mr Osborne and local Greens members took it to Gullen Range wind farm on Monday as part of his campaign.
The Newcastle-based engineer and Councillor is also taking his message across the country.
“I’ve had stalls in Coonabarabran, Narrabri, Nowra and Wollongong and people are saying the same thing,” Mr Osborne said.
“People are disillusioned with the main parties and they want something different. I’ve been a State and Federal candidate before and I can tell you, something is going on in NSW.”
Moreover, he felt Greens leader Richard Di Natale was seen as “reasonable” with decisions based on “evidence based policy.”
Local Greens member Bill Dorman said no preference deals with Labor had been struck.
Across Belmore Park, the major party disillusionment theory wasn’t resonating.
Joined by Labor’s Hume candidate Aoife Champion and former Senator Ursula Stephens, Mr Dastyari said the party was in a “winnable position.”
“I think there is a lot more in play and a lot more volatility than people anticipated,” he said.
“You have a (Liberal) MP nowhere to be seen and a whole other part of the electorate in the southwestern suburbs of Sydney.
“There is an opportunity for us to defy every expectation and get a stellar result (in Hume).”
He praised the swing Senator Stephens was able to achieve in the State campaign and said it was also possible federally.
“What was old was new again,” hence the ‘grassroots’ Labor campaign focused on town hall meetings where anyone could ask questions, and of course, the bus.
“Gone are the days where you can run a campaign about big advertising buys and think that’s how you win,” Mr Dastyari said.
“Campaigns of the future is an old style, the soap box, walking down the street and having people out there.”
Ms Champion also spruiked the importance of core issues like Medicare, education funding and corporate taxation.
“The issues we campaigning on are the ones that matter to people...they are our mainstays,” she said.
But Mr Dastyari told the Post there were no funding announcements for Goulburn or Hume at this stage.
“There is something for Goulburn in the latter part of the campaign but if I told you, I’d have to kill you. That would not be good news story - politician killing journalist,” he said.
Also in the vault are several annoucements for the Camden end of the electorate.
With that he boarded the bus, holding donuts and biscuits given to him by a member.
Meantime, the Greens caravan set off for greener pastures and a waiting wind farm.