JAMIE Chaffey’s commitment of $10 million to Broken Hill’s airport will be hard to achieve due to Labor’s election win; but that won’t stop the fight.
The Nationals’ candidate for the Parkes electorate, he was successful in securing the seat, which had been held by Mark Coulton for 17 years.
Mr Chaffey won the Parkes seat with 60 per cent of the vote, succeeding Mr Coulton amidst an 8.03 per cent swing against Nationals.
“I took nothing for granted,” he said.
“That’s why I was campaigning so consistently right across the Parkes electorate for nine months.
“I’m really proud of the support that I was given in a time across the nation where there was a massive swing to Labor. I think I think it was a good result – one I’m proud of.”
Mr Chaffey said infrastructure was a big concern for the Broken Hill community.
“In Broken Hill, age care, child kid and infrastructure, like the airport, were the big talking points,” he said.
“I’m really proud of the commitment that we made during that campaign period.
“That is if the Coalition were successful and come into power that would have followed through.
“We made a commitment of $10 million, unfortunately that’s not the case now because we’ve seen a massive swing to Labor right across the nation.
“During the campaign, the Parkes Labor candidate didn’t match our commitment, so we won’t see that money going into the airport redevelopment.
“Once the polls have been declared and I then become the member of Parkes -that’s my challenge to make sure that whoever is the Minister of Infrastructure, Aged Care, Childcare and Healthcare and all of the other areas, clearly understand that they can’t leave the Parkes electorate and regional New South Wales out in the dark.
“We deserve to get our fair share and sometimes that’s funding. Sometimes it’s in policy and regulation.”
Mr Chaffey said his work ethic won’t change once he is sworn in.
“I do need to obviously wait until the polls are declared and I officially become the member for Parkes,” he said.
“I’ll be looking at the electorate officers, talking to staff, getting all of that settled down and then straight to Canberra to start the process of training and inductions and meet with my fellow National Party MPs.”
He said he was really proud of the campaign across all candidates.
“It was a really respectful campaign and obviously we all wanted to win.
“It was a big field at this election but I’m particularly proud of the way that we all conducted ourselves as candidates and also our members of the political parties and supporters from right across those 10 candidates.
“I think on all the polling booths over the two-week period I haven’t heard of any issues or concerns.
“So, to run that respectful campaign, it’s something I’m certainly proud of and I think we all should be.
“I think it was there was much respect across the board.”
Mr Chaffey thanked those in Broken Hill who voted for him.
“I’ve learned a lot over that nine-month period about Broken Hill, for those that didn’t vote for me, I will still represent them with 100 per cent of my passion and energy.
“I can’t wait to get back to Broken Hill and learn more and meet more people.”
