THE Shooters Fishers and Farmers Party candidate for Parkes, Stephen Pope, is heading towards the end of his campaign as election day looms, travelling around the electorate and sharing his passion for regional communities with soon-to-be voters.
The party was created in 1992 with the underpinning ideologies of protecting freedom, rights and culture, for generations to come.
Mr Pope is an Indigenous man who grew up on the coast in the stunning Nambucca Heads.
After moving to Dubbo for work and watching the last two elections take place, he decided to run for candidate and try to make a change in his community.
“Why I got into politics is because I’ve been in the background for the last two state elections and the Dubbo City Council elections,” he said.
“What I’m mainly pushing for is to give the farmers a fair go.
“The farmers are just behind the eight ball all the time now.”
Other key campaign pillars for Mr Pope are urging for more housing to be built in regional areas to attract a larger workforce, and having liaison officers to support communities that don’t have manned police stations.
“I’m pushing for getting liaison officers put into local towns so the people can have some type of police; Indigenous liaison officers and non-Indigenous,” he said.
“I think they should make an incentive for them to be assigned to work in small towns.
“So they don’t have to worry about looking to rent or buy a house in the town.”
Mr Pope said many of the police stations in the region are unmanned.
“They have police stations, but they don’t have police officers,” he said.
“You press a button on the front door and it goes to the nearest station, so it could be Dubbo or Broken Hill.
“All the Coalition is doing is throwing money at the towns that actually have police officers to stop crime.”
Mr Pope said that domestic related offences are very common in the region.
“Domestic violence out in the bush is rampant, and there’s no one to support victims,” he said.
“Someone rings up, it might take an hour, it might take two hours for police to get there.”
Housing is another passionate topic for Mr Pope, with him urging State and Federal Governments to spend more housing funding in regional areas, or else face a lack of essential products.
“I’m advocating for a big cause, in Warren there’s 29 empty blocks; that could be 29 houses,” he said.
“The funding is going over the mountains; everything goes to the city.”
Mr Pope said that without intervention, he predicts soaring food prices.
“I think the prices of food and produce will just go through the roof, to the point supermarkets and consumers will have to buy food from overseas to support the Australian people,” he said.
He also is focusing on other improvements to communities, like road maintenance.
“I was out in Broken Hill a couple of weeks back and was amazed how bad the roads were around the town.”
Mr Pope said that the reaction to his campaign has been predominantly positive and welcoming.
“It’s been pretty good because a lot of people want a change of parliament from (The Nationals),” he said.
