NDEPENDENT Member for Northern Tablelands and recent Nationals recruit, Richard Torbay, has described claims he attempted to become Premier in the dying days of the NSW Labor government in 2009 as a complete lie.
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Mr Torbay, who was then speaker of the NSW Parliament, said it was no secret that he had been approached by Labor Minister John Della Bosca to join the party to become a candidate for Premier in 2009, and that he had refused the offer.
“There’s not a shred of truth in it, Mr Torbay said.
“I made it quite clear I would not consider joining the party and that was the end of it. That was reported extensively in the media.”
On November 25, 2009 Simon Benson from The Telegraph reported;
“ ‘…I was approached informally,’ Mr Torbay said.
‘When I stopped laughing, I respectfully declined. I came into this Parliament an independent and I will leave an independent.’
“In those days it was a case of spin the bottle to find someone to replace Premier Nathan Rees who was being dumped,” Mr Torbay said.
“It’s nothing more than a smear campaign and a desperate attempt by Labor to protect the federal independents who are keeping them in government.”
Labor’s general-secretary, Sam Dastyari, claims a fortnight after that meeting with Mr Della Bosca, Mr Torbay called him into his office where he pulled $200 out of his wallet and offered to join the ALP on the spot, if Mr Dastyari would guarantee him the numbers to become premier.
Mr Torbay denied the conversation ever took place.
At the time of the claimed offer Matthew Thistlethwaite was the general-secretary of the party, not Mr Dastyari and Mr Della Bosca has backed Mr Torbay’s version of events.
“Mr Torbay has proved he will befriend anybody to advance his political career and I wish him luck but even Billy Hughes drew the line at joining the National Party,” Mr Dastyari told the Sydney Morning Herald.
Senator John Williams has said it was to be expected.
“Even Labor has outdone itself with its extraordinary false claims attempting to link The Nationals candidate for pre-selection in New England Richard Torbay with backroom deals in NSW,” Senator Williams said.
“In my view this is all about propping up the Member for New England Tony Windsor who is under pressure on all fronts, most notably from his constituents.”
Nationals leader, Warren Truss, said Sam Dastyari had served himself up on toast.
“…the Labor Party has been exposed with another bare-faced lie, this time trying to smear the reputation of a man who only 48 hours ago decided he would seek pre-selection for The Nationals and maybe run against Labor’s prop Tony Windsor,” Mr Truss said
Country Labor Duty MLC for Northern Tablelands, Mick Veitch, has condemned Mr Torbay for seeking National Party pre-selection for New England.
“Mr Torbay has shown that he is just another politician,” said Mr Veitch.
“Today he has lost all credibility. I feel for all those people who trusted and voted for Mr Torbay because he was an Independent. They must feel betrayed.
“Many, many people have been let down by Mr Torbay. This is sheer rank political opportunism. Rather than contest a National Party pre-selection Mr Torbay should be apologising to the people of Northern Tablelands.”
