Tamworth councillor Mark Rodda is the latest to put his hand up, running as an independent. He says people are sick of party politics and wants to give the people back their voice.

Incumbent MP and Nationals candidate Kevin Anderson is seeking to be re-elected for a third term, and this is shaping up to be his toughest campaign yet.

However, Mr Anderson is no stranger to tough campaigns – in 2011 he overthrew popular independent Peter Draper, who had held the seat for more than a decade, and comfortably fought off Mr Draper in 2015 while increasing his margin.

When quizzed on the upcoming election, Mr Anderson’s go-to response is: “I have a saying, which is ‘look after the people and the politics will take care of itself’.”

What Mr Anderson means by that, is he’ll be relying on his record over the past eight years and asking people to judge him on what he’s achieved in that time.

For the past couple of years, the Shooters, Fishers and Farmers Party has been breathing down the neck of the Nationals, going after the party’s traditional strongholds (they won the 2016 Orange by-election, the first time the Nationals had lost the seat in almost 70 years).

Tamworth is no different. SFF candidate Jeff Bacon has been running a very strong campaign for almost half a year now. He’s been pushing hard on upgrading Werris Creek Road, even going as far as asking Tamworth Regional Council to count the number of heavy vehicles that use the road every day (about 550). Mr Bacon has also been a vocal advocate for more police in region.

He, like Cr Rodda, says many people in the electorate are disillusioned with the current state of politics, and in particular with the National party.

Stephen Mears also signalled policing was a major issue and is campaigning for Tamworth to get a second police station, possibly in South Tamworth.

TAFE will be another key battleground he says.

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