Premier’s Singleton whistle-stop tour

DURING a whistle-stop tour of Singleton today, Premier Gladys Berejiklian said National Party candidate David Layzell is the key to the Coalition maintaining a strong and stable government.

“The Deputy Premier and myself need him on my team to have a strong and stable government. We need him to help us keep doing the job we’re doing,” the Premier said.

“To have a local voice to tell you as the Premier or the Deputy Premier what’s going on, I can’t tell you how important that is,” she said.

“It gives you that extra confidence when you’re making decisions. I won’t pretend that I don’t need that,” she said.

The Premier and Deputy Premier maintained the campaign would not solely focus on the mining industry and asked voters to consider the National Party track record in the region.

“Whenever I hear arguments about this industry versus that industry, to me that argument comes from the political class and the elites, because the community just gets on with it,” Ms. Berejiklian said.

“The one household you might have someone going down the mines, you might have someone working in the equine industry, someone working in agriculture, that’s this community to a tee,” she said.

“Our focus also has to be on jobs, jobs, jobs, no matter where you are in our state, that is our biggest challenge.

“We’ve always said we need to support the traditional forms of energy as well as invest in new ones, because it’s all about jobs.

“Our Government has been an enabler, whether it’s in infrastructure in projects, schools and hospitals, this community will continue to receive the support we’ve provided and build on the work we’ve done.

“You’ll hear a lot of things from a lot candidates and a lot of leaders, including myself but i think the people of the Upper Hunter will work it out in terms of what the track record is, who they can trust, who they can rely on,” Premier Berejiklian said.

Mr. Barilaro said the Nationals have always found balance when it comes to energy policy, before calling out Labor for selecting a pro-mini candidate.

“Just because there’s a by-election and they’ve [Labor] picked former CFMEU rep and miner, it doesn’t mean they’re all of sudden seeing the road to Damascus where they’re pro mining,” Mr. Barilaro said.

“They haven’t been, they haven’t been consistently, have a look at the debates in parliament, how they’ve sided with the Greens. They’ve consistently talked down mining and coal in this region so I don’t believe anything that Jodi has to say,” he said.

“Thanks Jodi for turning up, finding your way to the Upper Hunter, thank you for picking a former mining candidate but it doesn’t change the platform,” Mr Barilaro said.