As NSW voters get ready for the poll on March 23, seven candidates have put their hands up for the seat of Wagga. Country Labour's Dan Hayes has drawn the number five spot on the ballot paper.
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After tilts in 2015 general election and the 2018 byelection, Dan Hayes is standing in Wagga for the third time.
"My political early outlook was predominately under John Howard and nothing ever quite fit with what he was doing and what the government was doing," Mr Hayes said.
"The more I paid attention and grew into it, I thought it was the Labor Party that did the huge social reforms, the ones that changed the country and, I think, statewide, where I've found my attraction to health and education predominantly.
"These things are very, very important. I know that sounds extremely glib, but in regional and rural areas, not being able to access health care puts our life expectancy lower than people in the city. Education levels are below.
So there's crime and cost of living, and - it sounds like our slogan - but health and education.
"I've been letterboxing a lot in the last week or two, and doing it all over Wagga, and you look at some of the areas that you know are struggling, and you think 'ok, what do we actually do here, what is the role of me as a councillor here and if I was lucky enough to be elected - or if not for whoever is elected - what is their role here?'
"And I think about my daughter. Someone asked me 'oh are you doing this for your kid?" and I said 'actually no, my daughter's lucky enough, she's got me, her mum and her mum's partner and all that. We do alright.
"But there are many, many families out there that are not. They are corks in the ocean. They are affected by whether a TAFE course is $500 or $1500 or is free, and the difference between public health care and being able to get back to work if they need to be, and even if they have to travel 200 or 300 kilometres for basic health care.
"Wagga is the biggest inland city in NSW and people are travelling to Wodonga and Canberra to access women's health services. It blows my mind. Why isn't that here?
"After 60 years of being under Conservative members, their priorities are elsewhere. That's the difference between the two parties, where their priorities are.
"We have a new hospital building. Surgery being offloaded to the private hospital and operating theatres are empty.
"We saw Collingullie school go into recess for the second year in a row. The enrolments were dropping. This was seen and nothing really was done."
A practicing psychologist, Mr Hayes 38, is also on Wagga City Council.
"People are busy with their lives, so often the policies that are around will impact them but they will talk about what's happening at the school and they do it from the frame of what's happening in their life, their family, their children," he said.
"The cost of living comes up all the time. We know wage stagnation isn't really a state issue, but people keep coming up all the time and saying 'things are getting more expensive, but I'm not getting any more money in the bank'. Whether that's electricity or food and the like. Some of those things we can have some control over, some of those things we can't.
"People do talk a lot about crime in Wagga. They often talk about it in the frame of what's in the paper or on the TV, but the stats clearly show domestic violence is the number one issue in crime in Wagga.
"That doesn't mean there isn't anything that more or less important, but that's by sheer numbers and we know how under-reported it is.
"So there's crime and cost of living, and - it sounds like our slogan - but health and education.
"People want to talk about how they went to hospital and how long they had to wait or that they couldn't see someone and had to go to Canberra or Sydney, or what happened at their kid's school or how they don't feel prepared to get a job after they leave.
"What each person brings to me is quite an individual story and while you can't make a policy that's going to nagivate each and every one of those, you can make generally good changes."
This change, Mr Hayes believes, should include greater forward planning for the city's infrastructure needs. Better public transport is a priority.
The youngest of three boys, Mr Hayes was raised in Wagga, where his parents had their own business. He has spent almost all of his adult life in the city.
"Wagga is very different to when I was 15. I think whatever town you live in, people always complain there is nothing to do. I don't know whether it's because I'm older or Wagga has changed, but it seems like a much better place with a greater variety of activities," he said.
According to Mr Hayes, being a councillor has brought him a much greater knowledge of Wagga,
"There's a running a joke that when ever the mayor can't get to something, an invitation goes out to the councillors and nine times out of ten, if I can make it, I will do it. I just love it," he said. "There's always these amazing things I never heard of. It's really opened things up to me.
Wagga mayor Greg Conkey said Mr Hayes did indeed often put up his hand, when the call went out for someone to represent the council at an event.
"He is very quick to put up his hand," Councillor Conkey said. "Dan is very energetic and enthusiastic."
Although, Cr Conkey joked, Mr Hayes was not always quite so enthusiastic about some early morning starts.