The worldly art of Richard Torbay

This independent MP rose from thirty-year-old Armidale councillor to NSW parliamentary speaker. Now he plans to take on Tony Windsor for the Nationals. In Inside Story Frank Bongiorno looks at a politician who won’t stand still • PROVIDED that you weren’t a Labor MP heading for political oblivion, the television coverage of federal election night in 2010 was not without its lighter moments. For me, the greatest amusement came when the two men who would ultimately decide which party would govern the country for the next three years, Rob Oakeshott and Tony Windsor, were interviewed by telephone. The likelihood of a hung parliament had been widely touted for weeks, yet in neither case was a camera on the spot for a live interview. Were Tamworth and Port Macquarie too far off the beaten track to get the full treatment? A year and a half later, readers of the Armidale Express learned that Richard Torbay, the independent member for the NSW state seat of Northern Tablelands (and one-time Labor Party member), was almost certain to seek National Party endorsement to run against Tony Windsor in New England at the next federal election. It was only after the paper had run several articles about Torbay’s likely decision to abandon independent status in favour of party endorsement that the matter became a national news story… Read the full story Photo: Local Government and Shires Associations of NS