Merriwa meets the by-election candidates: An overview

LAST night at the Merriwa RSL Club, candidates for the upcoming Upper Hunter by-election were given their first opportunity to convince residents why they should be the next elected member of parliament.

Eleven candidates were each given five minutes to deliver their campaign platform to the Merriwa community, with only Alan De Audney and Bruce MacKenzie absent.

Residents were actively engaged in issues surrounding the electorates future, which sparked a thorough three-hour discussion about the following topics:

• The future of mining and retention of mining related jobs;
• The potential glyphosate ban;
• Supporting farmers impacted by an Ausgrid transmission line proposal;
• How to increase and then replace coal royalties;
• Improving rural health care access and facilities;
• Renewable waste materials and what do do with them;
• Improving telecommunications;
• Impacts of Merriwa’s 2004 amalgamation;
• Prime agricultural land near mines.

Scone.com.au will be releasing stories covering all topics discussed and what candidates had to say about them, as well as individual candidate campaign profiles.

More to follow.