Katrina Hodgkinson has been out of the role as Member for Cootamundra for less than a week and she’s already living her best life.
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She spent almost 20 years as an elected member around this region and during that time, while she’s always spoken her mind, she’s had to be quite measured.
There is being outspoken and then there is what she did.
Is this the real Katrina?
It’s hard to imagine that to be true but what else are we supposed to think?
Politicians with a sharp tongue rarely go over well in a region as conservative as the one we live in.
We can’t imagine she’d be able to slur another candidate in the fashion she did on Thursday and get away with it.
But she pulled no punches when she took a dig at the new Shooters, Fishers and Farmers Party candidate for Cootamundra.
Would she have done this if she was still representing the electorate?
Sure, she’s retired, she’s out.
But do her duties, her responsibilities and her representation of the region really stop the moment she’s out of the seat?
The official duties end but the ties to the community still remain.
The people who voted for you, who put their trust in you, must be wondering if it was all a lie.
For someone who has spent so much time representing and fighting for the people of this area, it would be nice to think she’s not going to throw her hands up straight away.
It’s the equivalent of going home, putting on your track pants and putting your feet up.
You’re at home, you’re off the clock and you just want to be yourself.
But for someone who had such a public image for so long, is this too soon to taint it like this?
There are so many questions surrounding the incident and we don’t have all the details yet.
Perhaps it was a mistake or an unfunny joke.
But the National Party is on a fine tether in the region.
Comments like this could make undecided voters lean in a very different way come election day.
Uncertainty has plagued the future of the National Party of late but it’s not uncommon for the actions of one to harm an entire political party.
Could this be the final straw that upsets a usually safe seat?