Mr McDonagh grew up in Sydney, but says even as a child he was keen to try life in the bush.

"I've always loved agriculture and always felt out of place in the city, even as a kid," he said.

"When I was in Sydney, I started an MBA at Charles Sturt University and came down to see some of the lecturers and I was absolutely amazed by Wagga.

"People said 'G'day'. I'd been trying to do it for years - looked at different blocks - and I thought it was now or never.

"Wagga is a great city. It has a strong economy, backed by agriculture. It's got CSU, TAFE, health, agriculture. We have the [contingencies] so that when we do actually go through a drought or a recession, our economy can still thrive."

Mr McDonagh, who has lived at Oura for 10 years, stood for the SFF at the Wagga byelection in September 2018.

The 47-year-old said he was drawn to the party because of "the way they do politics".

"The Coalition is not actually working. I don't think the Coalition actually works for the people in regional NSW. It is a very city-centric government," he said.

"They have promised the school maintenance backlog will be finished by the end of the year. You have to ask the question: 'Why hasn't it been done? You've had eight years.

"We've got issues with nurse-to-patient ratios in hospitals. Why don't we have better ratios here? That's impacting patient care and could actually risk lives."

Like many others, Mr McDonagh believes the establishment of the rural medical school in Wagga will encourage regionally trained doctors to stay in the regions.

He is also keen to see closer links between the TAFE and university systems to make ongoing study easier.

He said after the harried campaign for the byelection, the pace going into the general election has been more relaxed, but he is hoping to build on the issues his party took to the 2018 poll.

"In the last election we ran on drugs and alcohol services, the infrastructure, roads, school maintenance backlog, things like that," he said.

"Now what we've seen since is a perceived increase in crime in Wagga and, where we were talking about police numbers before, we are now seeing in the local area command evidence of shortages of police and how that impacts the community.

"Where I was talking about drug and alcohol services before, I've now been and spoken with of the drug and alcohol services and there's like 10-week waiting periods for people to get in.

"There's also domestic violence issues, costs of living, juvenile justice and juvenile offending as well.

"Where we are sort of going with this is that yes, we have this crime issue now and the council is trying to do more and get more involved, but if we just look at that from an enforcement perspective, we're not actually dealing with the issue that causes these problems, so I would like to see a more holistic approach to it."

Mr McDonagh said anecdotal evidence from people working in the juvenile justice system suggest many young repeat offenders face issues at home.

"Now if you look it, what are the issues at home? What other supports can be provided?" he said.

"Is it as simple as saying 'your child is out offending repeatedly, there is something going on in the home, the child is doing XYZ'. Should those parents be going through mandatory parenting classes to try and get that responsibility back onto the parents?

Mr McDonagh supports the SFF policy of mandatory ankle bracelet tracking of repeat offenders on bail, "but ideally, we would like not to have offenders".

"This is the hard part from a political perspective - you really need to be able to put things in dot points that people can grab, but you can't do that with societal issues. They are complex," he said.

"Trying to get that understanding out there, it is a challenge."

Mr McDonagh, who works in IT, says he is also keen to see more done about domestic violence.

"No one should live at home in fear for their life and no one should be suffering that type of abuse," he said.

If these issues are not what voters expect from an SFF candidate, Mr McDonagh said the party has "matured".

"There's a whole lot more to the party. Traditionally we were an upper house party," he said.

"But in the lower house, we need to be able to talk about everything. You do need to be more community-minded and look at things from a statewide perspective."

Going into a general election just six months after a byelection, Mr McDonagh has encountered a fair degree of "voter fatigue".

But, he said, there is also a lot of feedback from voters and one issue he believes will become increasingly important is water.

The SFF has been vocal on the Murray-Darling Basin Plan and, Mr McDonagh says, water should be very important to voters in the Wagga electorate.

"Our river is the lifeblood to the area and our farmers make a huge economic boost to the community," he said.

SFF leader Robert Borsak pays Mr McDonagh that most Australian compliment of being "a good bloke".

"He came to us. We didn't seek him out. He found out we were looking for a candidate. He's not really a shooter. He's just a community-minded person who wants to try to do something for the community and for the city of Wagga," Mr Borsak said.

Mr McDonagh polled just under 10 per cent of the primary vote in the Wagga byelection.

"We were quite pleased. We came into it quite late," he said.

This time, Mr Borsak is hoping that will increase to 15 per cent, or even a little higher.

"This time around, I think the people of Wagga will see, perhaps that Shooters, Fishers, Farmers is developing into a real potential alternative to The Nationals," he said.

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