Cross benches key to real change in NSW

In the lower house there are 498 candidates competing for 92 spots on the green leather.

The losers will get nothing from the public purse, no refund from the generous taxpayers they so eagerly wish to represent.

The spoils, as they say go to the victor and the victors under the present voting system are always the parties.

After March 26 the Liberal National coalition may become the home team and the Labor Greens coalition the visitors but that's about all that will change.

The clue to real change for NSW lies in transformation of the voting system so that political parties compete within the same arena as anyone else seeking to do their civic duty.

Equally, it lies in the need to reconnect the major cities with their economic, cultural and geographic heritage beyond the Blue Mountains – the sandstone curtain that divides urban and regional NSW.

Major transport routes south and north – the Hume and Pacific highways have done much to create a reconnection.

It's now time to build the Bell Freeway linking Windsor with Lithgow and to rebuild the Newell into a superhighway from Victoria to Queensland with Dubbo as the pivotal industrial base.

Neither the Liberal National coalition nor the Labor Greens coalition are going to support such an important reconnection because they are busy looking after the inner city constituents who demand more bicycle tracks and more bus lanes at the expense of motor vehicle drivers.

Indeed, there is a good argument for cycleways and bus lanes, but not at the expense of equally important parallel transport links.

One would be forgiven for thinking the junior Liberal National coalition partner would push hard for such large scale development as a super Newell instead of promising one or two overtaking lanes.

Not so. National party members and candidates have been busy lying low making themselves into small targets rather than battling with their biggest competitor, the noisy junior partner in the Labor Green coalition.