THE National Party of Australia’s Parkes candidate Jamie Chaffey said he is confident in the late stages of his campaign, citing his early-on blitz of the region which included door knocking the entire town.
Mr Chaffey has visited Broken Hill four times, and by Election day would have been campaigning for nine months.
“When I say visit it’s not flying in for a day and going again,” he said.
“I’m here for a week at a time. I’ve door knocked all of Broken Hill and that’s not a simple thing to do.
“I’ve met goats, I’ve met dogs; there’s a lot of domesticated and non domesticated goats around here, and some of them that are very protective of their yard!”
Mr Chaffey said his campaign is based on respect and communication right across the electorate.
“The dedication to do the kilometres, 33,000km I’ve driven in the car and 24,000 doors I’ve knocked on over that period of time,” he said.
Hoping to take the reins from retiring Parkes MP Mark Coulton, who’s held the seat since 2007, Mr Chaffey said he put in the work early to be confident on community issues as the Federal Election looms.
“I didn’t want to be at this stage of the campaign and say, ‘here I am, talking about me and the things that are important to me’ or the things that I think are important to the Parkes electorate,” he said.
“That would be wrong, that would be arrogant.
“I was committed right from the very start, as soon as I was preselected, that I wanted to do the work and wanted to know the issues so I can be very confident in this part of the campaign.”
Mr Chaffey said the issues he has found to be common in the Broken Hill region are not unique.
“Many of the issues that I heard here are consistent,” he said.
“There’s some unique ones but there are a lot of recurring themes right across all of the communities no matter if they’re population is 18,000 like Broken Hill, 53,000 like Dubbo, or 2000 in smaller communities.
“People tell me the cost of living is something that keeps them awake at night.”
During the door knocking, Mr Chaffey said he has never seen so many people living in caravans, a sign of rising prices.
“I’ve been door knocking and I’ve been campaigning for other people for many, many different times, many elections, state and federally,” he said.
“I’ve never seen the amount of caravans that are now parked at the front of a house or in a driveway where people are living in them.
“It is frightful to think of the stress and the pressure that’s out there in our communities.
“I’m sure it’s consistent right across regional Australia, but it really stood out to me, particularly on those hard days of 42 degree heat.
“You’re pushing yourself and feeling sorry for yourself but then you’re looking at the pressure and the stress that people are under.
“That’s something that’s not been lost on me, and I know it’s not lost on the National Party or the Coalition when you look at the policies that are being released.”
According to Mr Chaffey, the issues in the Broken Hill area are consistent problems.
“Consistently aged care is a problem, childcare is a problem,” he said
As for indigenous issues. Mr Chaffey said the party remains committed.
“We’re committed to our Indigenous communities,” he said.
“In fact, Mark, the past member, in the time that I spent with him during this campaign, the time that I’ve known him, and before he announced he was going to retire and I put my hand up; he would often talk about the relationships that he had in the Indigenous communities, how important they were and how the majority of those commitments that he had made were making a big difference.
“We want everyone to get ahead; Jacinta Nampajimba Price is our shadow minister and she’s already committed to have a royal commission into the sexual abuse of Indigenous kids.
“We’ve always been committed, and we always will be committed.”
Mr Chaffey said it’s time to be responsible in these tough times.
“We are talking about being responsible, we can’t keep just throwing money at a problem and hope it’ll go away,” he said.
“You’ve got to fix it, you’ve got to get people in the room and get it sorted.
“You’ve got to have a vision for the nation not in a three year cycle, but a long term vision.
“We’re focused on the cost of living and the things that we can do that will make a difference instantly.”
