Wagga business consultant Mark Jeffreson will be Labor's candidate for the seat of Riverina in the next federal election, which is due to run in May at the latest.
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Mr Jeffreson said the one of the issues he will campaign on will be the economic recovery as the nation moves out of COVID-19 restrictions.
"The economics have gotten a bit worse since 2019, not everything has been in the government's control but a lot of things that are in the government's control, they have lost control of, and that has led to economic impacts, particularly small to medium businesses," he said.
"There are businesses that have been pretty resilient and they have been given government funds when it turned out they didn't need it, and they didn't give it back.
"Meanwhile small to medium businesses who were crying out for [assistance], didn't get it and now they are heading for the wall in record numbers."
Mr Jeffreson, age 64, owns a firm that offers business consulting and has been living in Wagga since 1987.
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"Within the spending that was done during the pandemic, which we supported, there was something like $27 billion that went into resilient businesses; if that money had just gone into the economy in a much more targeted way, people would be doing a lot better now," Mr Jeffreson said.
"Now that the support has lessened, people are on their own and it's really affecting businesses and particularly their employees and particularly in the regions.
"I also plan to raising the issues of economic management, or lack thereof, a lack of strategic direction the government has taken and the environmental impact of what they do ... everything the government has done has been a catastrophe from bushfire response, the COVID-19 response, the vaccine response and the aged care crisis."
Mr Jefferson ran for Labor in Riverina during the 2019 federal election, winning just over 30 per cent of the two-party preferred vote.
"Running for political office was quite different from anything else I had done before as I had been in the business and corporate world," Mr Jeffreson said.
There could be a wider field contesting Riverina this time around, with Dean McRae announcing his candidacy for the Liberal Democrats, Pennie Scott running as an independent, and Clive Palmer's United Australia Party announcing candidates for all seats via full-page newspaper adverts.
Mr Jeffreson said he expected more independent and minor party candidates to come forward and he claimed this would be in response to "disaffection" with Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce.
"We're running as an alternative government to a government that has been completely chaotic; the day-to-day running of the country is something they can't do, when crisis strikes they are nowhere and they do nothing when they are tested," Mr Jeffreson said.
Incumbent Riverina MP Michael McCormack has been preselected by the National Party to run and has recommitted to standing for office again despite losing his position as party leader, cabinet minister and deputy prime minister.
Mr Jeffreson acknowledged that Riverina was a difficult seat to contest against an incumbent but said he would approach the challenge like he did in 2019.
"I can say what I like, Mr McCormack can say what he likes and the other candidates can say what they like and then everyone who is eligible in Riverina can go and have a vote," Mr Jeffreson said.
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