THE calculus is not about police numbers, crime statistics or budget constraints. The biggest obstacle to securing a police station for the Bay and Basin is an altogether different set of numbers: the margin by which the seat of South Coast is held by the government.
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South Coast is comfortably held by the Coalition and highly unlikely to fall to Labor at the March election. The Liberals know it and so does Labor and that is why neither will commit to a new station, despite the pleas of their respective candidates.
The politicians will publicly deny it but privately that is exactly how priorities are set in the lead-up to elections.
And there seems to be a growing realisation of that stark fact among the long suffering Bay and Basin residents who are now talking openly about wanting an independent to step up. Such a representative would not be new for the electorate. John Hatton held the seat for over two decades.
So deep is the frustration, so red-hot the anger, there is a very real sense among residents that if an independent were to come forward they would harness the groundswell of dissatisfaction with both major parties over the law and order issue and wrest the seat from the government.
Both major parties would be wise to weigh up that prospect and listen seriously to the very loud, very direct message delivered to them this week.
The Bay and Basin communities feel betrayed by both parties – as Les Boucher from Sanctuary Point put it, “left on the scrapheap”. In the months leading up to the next election, that anger is set to intensify and it would be a foolish government or opposition that ignored it.