Popular UNE students president and Uralla grazier David Mailler has thrown his hat into the ring for the seat of Northern Tablelands in the March 28 state election.
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According to betting site sportsbet, incumbent Adam Marshall is even to keep his seat, with Labor candidate Debra O’Brien a long shot at 33 to 1.
But that has now changed with Mr Mailler’s entry into the race.
That’s because he is forming a new political party, the Country Party of Australia, to rival Mr Marshall and The Nationals.
“I’m sick of the duopoly of the Libs-Nats; one wears a blue tie and suit, the other R M Williams,” Mr Mailler said yesterday.
“Neither are effective in truly representing rural Australia.”
He says a “game changer” for the election will be the long-awaited upgrade of Armidale Hospital.
“If I’m elected, I will hold the government to account on the upgrade come the 2020 election,” Mr Mailler said.
Yesterday, Mr Marshall met with NSW Health Minister Jillian Skinner to discuss the upgrade.
He presented Ms Skinner with 4000 signed letters, emails and messages of support from the Armidale and Inverell communities for the upgrades to both hospitals.
“It is time for the minister to show us the money so we can get on with construction and enhancing our region’s health services,” Mr Marshall said. Greens candidate Mercurius Goldstein cautioned against any monies for an upgrade coming from the private sector.
“We want Mr Marshall to make it completely clear any upgrade of Armidale Hospital will not be outsourced to the private sector,” he said yesterday.
Labor candidate Debra O’Brien also weighed into the debate.
“When you have a public hospital in 2015 that uses coal fired boilers, as we do in Armidale, where elderly people sometimes have to shower in freezing water, then you have criminal neglect of our health services,” Ms O’Brien said.
“If I were elected in the Northern Tablelands with a LNP government in NSW, I would join the health workers’ campaign to redevelop the decrepit Armidale hospital and I would answer their calls. Talk is cheap; money buys hospitals.”
Mrs Skinner made the hospital’s upgrade a priority in 2012, when Independent Richard Torbay held the seat of Northern Tablelands. Mr Mailler said he wanted to make the seat marginal to attract funding.
“Everyone knows there’s a lot of pork barrelling in seats with swinging voters,” Mr Mailler said.
“If the Northern Tablelands became a marginal, it would put pressure on The Nats to fund infrastructure.”
He also wanted to fund financial counselling services for graziers which he said had been whittled away in recent years.
“We also have to look at the mental and physical health of graziers and farmers and ensure they are receiving the help,” he said. The election will be held on March 28.