NATIONALS candidate for New England Barnaby Joyce hit the ground running at the weekend after winning the party’s preselection ballot.
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The ballot was cast on Saturday, with Mr Joyce polling strongly against fellow preselection candidate David Gregory.
“David did a very good job,” Mr Joyce said.
“It was probably my experience in politics that got me the strong numbers.”
Mr Joyce said he had begun meeting with residents of the New England, starting with attending the Pirates rugby union game following the preselection ballot on Saturday.
He made an appearance at Youth Fest in Bicentennial Park the same day and yesterday visited the Kootingal Pumpkin Festival where he fielded plenty of questions from the public and visited his parents at Danglemar near Woolbrook.
“It’s about humbly putting yourself before the people,” he said.
“People are asking what my policies are because people don’t want this election to be about personalities.”
Mr Joyce said he was always going to return to the New England and already owned a property in the region.
“I moved away for work,” he said. “I’m happy to be home.”
Mr Joyce said his policies would centre around ensuring people in New England had access to services, which would be under pressure due to the government’s financial position; law and order with more connection between a person’s social contract of what’s expected of them and things like social security, and health, roads and green tape.
Mr Joyce said there needed to be a focus on nation-building infrastructure to ensure Tamworth remained the predominant commercial centre of the New England, the inland rail and ensuring the New England Highway was maintained because it was a “vital road artery”.
Member for New England Tony Windsor said he wasn’t surprised Barnaby Joyce had won the Nationals preselection ballot in Tamworth, claiming it was a set-up.
“It was a set-up, as most of their preselections are,” Mr Windsor told Fairfax Regional Digital.
“I would imagine he’s won by a resounding majority so he can claim he’s got a resounding majority.”
The pair will now face off in six-months of campaigning to win the hearts of the New England electorate, who will cast their votes on September 14.
Mr Windsor said he wasn’t looking at the other candidates as if they were threats and they were “entitled to stand just as much as anyone else”.
He told Fairfax Regional Digital he was focused on the current parliament, not one which did not exist yet.
“My game plan is to work in this current parliament, there’s still a lot more to do,” Mr Windsor said.
“Barnaby might be happy to leave Queensland behind now, but I’m not going to leave the electorate behind to start fighting a campaign for another parliament that doesn’t exist yet.”
Mr Joyce said whatever people decided in September’s federal election would be the right choice.
NSW Nationals chairman Niall Blair said by moving to the lower house Senator Joyce was demonstrating his commitment to the region.
“Barnaby is leaving a safe seat in the senate to represent the area in which he grew up, against a four-term MP who has the full support of the Labor government,” he said.
“They don’t come much more committed than that.”