UNCONTACTABLE and a complete unknown to even his own party leader, No Land Tax (NLT) candidate Joe Sidoti is Wagga’s man of mystery this election.
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According to information supplied to the NSW Electoral Commission, Mr Sidoti resides in the wealthy inner-west Sydney suburb of Balmain, but not even NLT leader Peter Jones was able to confirm that when contacted by the Advertiser.
Last week, Mr Jones, a former unionist and ex-Labor Party member, was also unable to provide contact details for Mr Sidoti when asked by the Advertiser. Mr Jones did not answer calls on Tuesday.
The Advertiser managed to contact Mr Sidoti’s son on Tuesday afternoon, a Sydney-based property developer by the same name, who said his father was out of town and would call back on Wednesday.
The emergence of NLT, who are running candidates in all 93 lower house seats and 16 in the upper house, has been described as a “strange anomaly” by Charles Sturt University history and politics lecturer Troy Whitford.
“I think (running in Wagga) is an awareness-raising campaign to latch on to upper house seats,” Dr Whitford said.
“I don’t see them as any great threat to the Liberal position.”
Numerous other NLT candidates who live in Sydney are contesting regional electorates located hundreds of kilometres from their homes.
In neighbouring Cootamundra, NLT candidate Elio Cacciotti also resides in Balmain, while the party’s Albury contender John Marra lives in Smithfield, in Sydney’s west.
Mr Jones told the Advertiser last week the party was running in country seats to give regional people a “voice”.