AN ARMIDALE grandmother who captured headlines last year for an audacious mine protest has announced she will run again as the Greens candidate for the seat of Tamworth.
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Pat Schultz, a mental health worker and seven times Greens election candidate, said CSG mining and the looming sale of electricity poles and wires were the key local battleground issues for the March 28 state poll.
“We’re very concerned about CSG and the fact mining could take precedence over farming,” Mrs Schultz said.
“If there’s coal beneath the surface, generally you have good soil on the surface.
“And look at where CSG mining is moving into – the Hunter Valley, Liverpool Plains and Darling Downs; all our best farming land.”
She said she would fight to retain full public ownership of electricity poles and wires: “No aspect of electricity should be privatised”.
Opposing the government’s TAFE restructure and the issue of political donations would also form part of the local campaign, she said.
Mrs Schultz, 63, ran for the seat of New England at the 2013 federal election, garnering 4.3 per cent of primary votes.
Last April, she was convicted and fined for locking herself to a drill rig truck in protest of a massive Santos CSG project in the Pilliga.
Greens MP John Kaye will visit the region tomorrow to campaign with Mrs Schultz and Northern Tablelands Greens candidate Mercurius Goldstein.
Mrs Schultz joins sitting MP Kevin Anderson, independent Peter Draper and Labor’s Joe Hillard as the contenders for Tamworth.