Former Tamworth mayor councillor Warren Woodley was a guest speaker at the Enough is Enough rally in Martin Place, organised after this month’s sentencing of Kieran Loveridge, the man who king-hit and killed Thomas Kelly in Kings Cross.

In the shadows of state Parliament, Cr Woodley told a crowd of more than 500 about a similar king-hit attack in Tamworth in recent weeks and said it was time authorities “got serious about sentencing. We can’t just keep talking about it; people in Sydney, people in Tamworth want action”.

“It’s hard for us to get our voice heard in the bush, but we stand with you today,” Cr Woodley said.

“No one is immune to the scourge of drugs and violence.”

But Cr Woodley, who threw away his notes and made the speech off the cuff, earned the biggest roar when he turned his attention to drug dealers.

“These drug dealers are living in luxury while thousands of children die from drug abuse,” he said.

“Then, if they’re unlucky enough to get caught, they go to jail, where they get nice beds, nice TVs and nice meals.

“I’m sick of it; I don’t want to pay for them, I don’t want feed them, I want them put down.”

Other speakers focused on the state government’s plans to toughen laws around king hits.

After a public outcry over Loveridge’s sentencing, the government announced it would introduce legislation next year for a new offence, similar to Western Australia’s so-called “one-punch law”.

Loveridge was jailed for five years and two months, but the NSW Director of Public Prosecutions will appeal the sentence on the grounds it is manifestly inadequate.