The husband, father, former combat medic, business owner, law student and nurse was a baton bearer in the 2016 Commonwealth Games, has walked the Kokoda Trail and has trekked more than 700 kilometres from Lockhart to Bourke to raise money for charity.

Now he is looking to add being a councillor to his list of achievements and responsibilities.

At 28-years-old, Mr McKenzie is running in this year's Wagga City Council election as the second name on the Supporting Diversity ticket, which is being led by incumbent councillor Rod Kendall.

Raised in Lockhart, Mr McKenzie was inspired to run for council for the very first time due to his passion for providing a younger perspective on the challenges facing the region.

If elected, he plans to push for big improvements to the infrastructure across Wagga to make the city more liveable and capable of hosting big events.

"I'm young and I know what young people want and they want the same as what people in the city get, which is concerts and sporting events," Mr McKenzie said.

"We need to fix the roads but also have the infrastructure in place to bring these big events to the region because it's a growing city and we know that."

As a proud Indigenous man, Mr McKenzie would also like to improve the representation of Aboriginal culture across Wagga.

He said this could be done by bringing more Indigenous art into the city and improving the recognition of traditional land across the region.

"We're on Wiradjuri land and I think we can do more to acknowledge and pay homage to that," Mr McKenzie said.

"I believe we could allocate more funds to recognising traditional Indigenous places and also look at bringing Indigenous artists more into the city and promoting them by being proud of our Indigenous heritage."

He'd also like to see the region's young people have more of a say in the direction the city is headed.

"As a 28-year-old, a business owner and someone who has a family with three kids, I want young people to get a voice in this council," Mr McKenzie said.

"I want people to be heard and supported irrespective of their age, gender, sexual preferences or cultural background - no one will be discriminated against on my watch."

Through his past work as a private investigator, Mr McKenzie believes he has developed communication and negotiation skills which would leave him in good stead to be a successful councillor.

"I have people skills which make me effective at dealing with people in conflict and I'm sure in the future there will be conflict and it will be important how we manage it," he said.

"We need to be respectful in our debates. We can have our views but we need to share them without attacking people's character."

In the lead up to this year's election, The Daily Advertiser has profiled the candidates looking to secure a spot on Wagga City Council.

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