David Mailler – Country Minded Candidate

David Mailler is a founding member of the Country Minded party and spent the first three weeks running his campaign from the cab of his tractor.

He said they formed the party because they wanted to get regional Australia back on the map.

David Mailler, Country Minded candidate visiting Scone for the last time in the campaign, earlier this week.

“Rural Australia generates 85 percent of the wealth but only has 20 percent of the say and that’s an issue,” said Mr Mailler.

“We are about regional communities, not just farmers and we’re not against the cities, we just want regional Australia to be recognised for the contribution we make, how we contribute to the cities and how we can work together as a nation without this strong divide,” he said.

LAND USE SYNDERGIES

For a farmer David has a surprisingly pragmatic view of agriculture and mining preferring not to view it as conflict but to recognise the synergies to find the balance.

“We need to recognise that we have a reliance on agriculture and mining,” said Mr Mailler.

“To have a sustainable agricultural sector we need a sustainable mining sector too, because 50 percent of food production is reliant on fossil fuels at the moment,” he said.

“Farmers rely on the resource sector for oil, steel production and all of the bi-products of fossil fuels,” he said.

“The Greens say no new coal, but it’s just not that simple there are flow on effects,” he said.

“And I don’t think solar panels on everyone’s roof is the answer either, because it will be the lower socio-economic people in our community who are renting and are stuck paying for our now gold plated poles and wires and that’s not an equitable outcome either,” he said.

“We can’t go back to living in caves, so we need to understand the synergies between the two industries to look at how we can sustain both industries,” David Mailler said.

SUATAINING OUR REGIONAL COMMUNITIES

“There is an 18% youth unemployment rate in the New England electorate and that is a symptom of regional Australia not having proper investment over the last 40 years,” said Mr Mailler.

“It needs to be recognised that regional areas create critical wealth and for that to be sustainable we need to start properly reinvesting back into our regional communities,” he said.

“Central to that is innovation and empowering rural communities to shape their own future.

“It makes me angry when I hear politicians in Canberra talk about how the NBN will allow you to download five movies at once, they simply don’t understand how critical proper internet speeds are for our communities to do business, for our children to access education and the realm of possibilities that can bridge the gap to regional Australia,” he said.

“They are still arguing over the NBN and it just needs to be built and stop being caught up in politics of who has the best system, because in the meantime we are falling behind,” he said.

“The government keeps waiting for things to get to crisis point before they consider investing in regional Australia, Scone is seeing that with the bypass that keeps getting dragged out,” he said.

“We need some vision and the major parties are only concerned about getting themselves re-elected, not long term innovative policies,” David Mailler said.

The Country Minded party are also running candidates in the Senate: Country Minded in Scone.