After one of the most colourless election campaigns on record in Wagga, locals will head to the polls tomorrow to decide who serves the electorate in state parliament for the next four years. To help you make up your mind, we asked candidates to nominate their top three battleground issues and give us a final sales pitch.
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Keith Pech – Christian Democratic Party
- Trustworthiness, honesty and respect: It's essential for effective government for people to work with government and the government to work with the people.
- Competence in leadership and vision: You need to be competent in what you're doing – competent in being able to effectively govern and produce policy and laws.
- Serving the voters: A desire on behalf of the candidate and the party to be a servant of the people and not just be looking to the next election.
The Christian Democratic Party has shown continually that it will stand and fight for what is in the best interests of the people of NSW. Is this election only about which party can seduce voters with the best promises or who will spend the most money on any particular program? I hope people see beyond that and make their decisions based on who has shown they can be trusted and who has shown they can be relied upon to make good decisions for the people in both the short and long term. Only the CDP has shown itself to be trustworthy, honest and willing to serve the people without fear or compromise. A vote for any other party will just give us more of the same, as we’ve seen. We have proven you can put your trust in the CDP.
Dan Hayes – Country Labor
- TAFE: It's been decimated and Labor will rescue it.
- Electricity network privatisation: Let’s keep public assets in our hands and not privatise our assets to pay for Sydney roads.
- Cuts, cuts, cuts: Cuts to almost every sector, including health, education and domestic violence services – you can't expect the same level of service if you keep cutting them.
This election, the people of Wagga get to choose between myself and a party that puts people first and is willing to invest in the community in which we live, or they can keep the current government that is selling out the people to pay for roads in Sydney. While we remain a safe seat, we continue to miss out, lose out and be forgotten about. We have seen jobs go and cuts made, we need a strong voice. It's time for a change.
Kevin Poynter – The Greens
- Infrastructure: Infrastructure is important – things like connective public transport and freight will drive our economic future.
- Education: Ensuring a well-resourced and effective public education system is vital – we owe it to our children.
- Domestic and family violence: Building communities where our women and children are safe from domestic and family violence must be a priority for us.
This election is an important opportunity for us to decide what sort of community we are. The Greens base all of our policies on people and building communities. We’ve put forward a range of policies to deal with social issues such as addressing domestic violence and ensuring that we have a broad based plan to address the issues around drug and alcohol abuse. We’ve also put forward a vision for the future, committing to $20 billion of infrastructure to support transport, public and affordable housing, education, sports and recreation opportunities without the need to give public assets to private enterprise. This election allows the community the opportunity to decide if there is a role for government in building the future or if private enterprise is going to be relied on for all of the heavy lifting. We believe there is a balance which includes public investment in our future.
Paul Funnell – Independent
- Drug squad and increasing police numbers for Wagga: This is a must – every family is affected either directly or indirectly by the need for more law and order. This will have a ripple on effect throughout the entire region.
- Jobs, decentralisation and critical infrastructure: It benefits small business which is the real engine room of not just our region, but the entire nation – the infrastructure will draw the business and the people, driving growth and prosperity.
- Increase health services/facilities: The drive must continue to acquire for the people of our region, those things that people of other regional areas and the city, take for granted – palliative care, prostate nurses and equal nurse/patient ratios.
I urge the people of the Wagga district to vote for true representation. This means a vote for change from what we currently have. This is not change for change’s sake. This is so the long list of burning issues – whether it be water and food security, jobs of choice for our children, law and order, infrastructure, save our poles and wires, stopping government cost shifting, stopping coal seam gas, bridges and roads that keep us safe, the list goes on – can be taken up and represented by a proactive local member that will fight the good fight for the people he is meant to represent, and show strong leadership. What we currently suffer from in this region is representation of the governing party in our electorate. This is back to front. This is why our region is constantly overlooked when it comes to vital, forward thinking, visionary plans.
Daryl Maguire – Liberals
- Health: Health has always been a priority with the major hospital development in Wagga under way and Lockhart Hospital completed, plus an extra 374 nurses and allied health workers employed on the front line.
- Policing and law and order: Increased officer numbers to the region as a priority and the rebuild of the courthouse facility under way.
- Transport infrastructure: The Kapooka Bridge rebuild and Gocup Road upgrade under way and fully funded, as promised.
After 16 years of Labor’s economic vandalism, NSW has been turned around and is now number one again. The day the Liberals/Nationals were elected, $61 billion worth of projects commenced here in Wagga and across the state. The campaign run by Labor and the unions, both locally and statewide, has been the most deceitful and negative in memory; based on lies. They have provided no policy position to assist this electorate and we cannot afford to have a Labor government. We cannot afford to return to economic mismanagement, nor to put at risk major infrastructure projects like the Wagga Base Hospital and the dozens of other projects across the state now under way under this government. Only a Baird Liberal representative can promise and deliver this infrastructure. We have a plan to keep the economy strong.
