IT WAS a week of highs and lows and water woes in the New England electorate, as the campaign for the region’s top job heats up.
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The week wasn’t without its fair share of controversy, with claims of electoral bribery, backlash over milk prices and the overuse of that golden phrase on the campaign trail – “election commitment.”
Some might say, they wouldn’t want it any other way as the focus of the nation and the election shifts to our region and the election promises from the Coalition keep rolling in.
With a little under a week until the official nominations for the seat are due to the Australian Electoral Commission, there appears to already be 10 candidates in the running.
In no particular order, there are sitting MP Barnaby Joyce for The Nationals, independent candidate and former MP Tony Windsor, David Ewings for the Labor Party, Mercurius Goldstein for the Greens, Jamie McIntyre for the 21st Century Party, Archie Lea for the Christian Democrats, David Mailler with Country Minded, independent Philip Cox, Online Direct Democracy candidate Robert Walker and independent Rob Taber – all of whom will have political profiles published in The Leader in the lead up to election day.
Mr Windsor has just finished a tour of the region with seniors advocate Everald Compton in a series of forums in Armidale, Tamworth, Glen Innes and Inverell, as he canvasses the views of the region’s elderly and vulnerable.
On the back of an historic $10 million “election commitment” to the Liverpool Plains water project, Mr Joyce was swept off to Northern Queensland for deputy prime ministerial commitments.
Mercurius Goldstein outlined a number of Greens policies which would directly benefit farmers, such as
$75 million for on-farm sustainable agriculture research, after the party was criticised for supporting a ban on the live cattle trade and wide-scale land clearing.
Tomorrow at Bicentennial Park, Mr Goldstein, Mr Windsor and Mr Taber will talk to voters about their policies on climate change and renewable energy at a rally organised by local community groups.
On Monday, we’ll see Mr Joyce and Mr Windsor battle it out on national television as ABC hosts its flagship political television program Q&A on our front door step from the Tamworth War Memorial Town Hall.
What a week for the New England electorate.