Sconeite to Run in Federal Election

LABOR have nominated Scone resident David Ewings to run as their candidate for the federal seat of New England in the upcoming election.

Discussing the overpass: David Ewings, Labor candidate for seat of New England and Joel Fitzgibbon, federal member for Hunter.

Mr Ewings was originally from Whyalla in South Australia, has lived in the Hunter for more than a decade working in the defence force and together with his partner Bec Lloyd has lived in Scone for three years, where he worked as a coal miner.

David is currently a contract fitter with the defence force after being made redundant in mining last year.

“I decided to run because there are issues in this electorate I feel strongly about and broader issues that affect this electorate and the time for sitting on thee sidelines and complaining about the process was over so when the opportunity was presented to me I felt that  had to take it up,” said Mr Ewings.

“Ordinary people want a voice, Barnaby Joyce doesn’t represent ordinary people he represents a part of the electorate which is important, but working class and disadvantaged people want an advocate,” he said.

David said he was passionate about a range of issues with education being a key focus.

“We’re seeing an intent to defund education in this electorate,” he said.

“While it is a state issue it is funded federally, so it is still an important issue to talk about at a federal level.

“I’d like to see Scone TAFE stay open and see funding put into it, I was made redundant from a coal mine last year and I wasn’t there only one and there may be more in the future and those people need a point of education and TAFE is crucial to that,” he said.

“I was educated through the TAFE system in my trade and so if we are going to reskill and we are going to make transition in other areas of the economy then we need to have TAFE and vocational training,” David Ewings said.

Already Mr Ewings has visited Armidale, Tamworth, Quirinidi and Werris Creek to speak with residents and said towns had many issues in common.

David Ewings and Bec Lloyd with their dog Bailey

“Farmers are worried about the impact of mining on agricultural land which is always contentious and there needs to be strict environmental standards adhered to, there needs to be the protection of ground water and I personally don’t support CSG and Labor has had a moratorium on that for quite some time,” said Mr Ewings.

“but mining is still an important part of the economy s I am not anti-mining, but we need to make sure we put mines in places where mines can go and we protect prime agricultural land,” he said.

“The NBN is another issue, people in the bush tend to be more disadvantaged than their city counterparts and I don’t see why that should be the case they want the same access to services that everybody else has,” he said.

“They want to be able to get on the internet and take part in the technological world, they want efficiencies in their business which is really important, so they don’t want this twice as expensive, half as fast NBN that thee coalition seem to be intent on rolling out,” he said.

In conclusion he said he would like to see more young people enroll to vote and for people to think about the policies they are voting for.