ROY Butler was back in town last week as part of a two-week tour of the Barwon electorate and was offering local people a pizza while they chatted about issues of concern.
Mr Butler is the candidate for the NSW Shooters, Fishers and Farmers Party for the vast and recently volatile seat of Barwon for the March state government election.
A long-time public servant, Mr Butler has taken five months full-time leave so he can cover the thousands of kilometres needed to visit as many communities as possible from his home-base in Mendooran.
“Mostly people who come to see me are gathering information about me and where I stand on the things that concern them,” Mr Butler said. “I go to different places in a town to meet different people.”
“Hopefully, people see this as a point of difference to other candidates – there’s a level of openness,” he said.
“It’s just me, I don’t have minders sitting around me.”
From Coonamble he was off to overnight at Carinda, before heading on to Walgett and Narrabri where he will attend a NSW Farmers Association ‘meet the candidates’ forum before circling back to Broken Hill and making his way back home.
“Hopefully people see my commitment to the electorate,” Mr Butler said.
“I’ve got a caravan on behind me to keep costs down and so I can stopover in smaller places.”
“I’ll also pull up if I see a farmer in his driveway,” he said.
“People are concerned about coal seam gas, the Murray Darling Basin plan and climate change,” Mr Butler said.
“You’ve got to make your town a good place to live and it makes it difficult to attract people if the government keeps stripping services and jobs,” Mr Butler said.
While Mr Butler certainly didn’t break the bank buying pizzas from Danielle McHugh’s new bistro at the Sons of the Soil Hotel, he did manage to catch up with quite a few people in the street and by dropping into local businesses.
“I’m really happy that people are politically engaged,” he said.
