A mature Australian voting public tolerates parachuting of candidates into electorates when exceptional leaders are popular, inspire hope, prove preferable to competing local party members and bring leadership expertise to the parliament. Former PM Bob Hawke was the member for the 65 per cent Labor seat Wills, while NSW Premier Neville Wran represented Bass Hill, a Western Sydney seat that I cannot recall him ever visiting, having lived nearby. With the definition of a “local” coming under scrutiny in the federal electorate of Parramatta, I guess candidates should rejoice that the electorate isn’t rural. It’s a well known adage that country people can never forgive newcomers for not being born in their town and it takes 30 years to become a local (“Labor MP Charlton works hard to shift blow-in tag from 2022” , DT, 29/4). Strangely, most opposition to Andrew Charlton is coming from the Labor Party. The Labor Council increased rates by 3.5 per cent as it became known that he bought a house in 2022 and now the NSW Labor government is opposing his valiant quest to save the colonial heritage at the Old Women’s Prison and Hambledon Cottage from the blighted scourge of skyscraper overdevelopment and high-density living. Supporting nuclear power and a genius at matters economic, it is disappointing that the Member for Parramatta has been muted in his first three years in the parliament. Sadly, if he is failing to give voice to the issues that matter to him personally, what voice will he give to the 117,000 voters looking for advocacy? Alan Sexton, North Parramatta 30Apr2025