Ahead of the NSW State Election on March 25, Port News readers have told us what issues matter most to them.
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We have reached out to the candidates for the seat of Oxley, which encompasses Telegraph Point, Wauchope and surrounds, to get their response to the top three issues on the minds of voters and how they will tackle these issues if they are elected.
The number one issue for the Oxley electorate is rentals and social housing, followed by food and transport costs and hospital beds and wait times.
You can read about the top issues for the Port Macquarie electorate and the candidates responses here.
Each candidate was given 100 words to tell voters their stance on the issue and how they would address it.
Below, in ballot paper order, are their responses.
Rentals and social housing
Dominic King (The Greens)
Immediately introduce a rent freeze and get rents back under control.
End unfair no grounds evictions.
Introduce better minimum standards in rental accommodation.
Invest $1 billion to deliver 2,500 public and social homes in regional NSW each year for the next 10 years.
Resource local councils and communities to regulate the number and location of short-term rental accommodation non-hosted dwellings.
Require property developers to include at least 30 per cent affordable housing in all new large private residential developments.
Ban the sale of public housing and public land suitable for housing.
Gregory Vigors (Labor)
NSW Labor will remove or reduce stamp duty for 95 per cent of first-home buyers.
It will also abolish the NSW Government's forever land tax on the family home.
For renters it will protect tenants from unfair evictions, ban the practice of secret rent-bidding and implement a Portable Bond Scheme
Further, NSW Labor will work with the Albanese government on its national plan to spend $10 billion to build 20,000 social housing properties and 10,000 affordable homes for frontline workers such as police, nurses and cleaners over the next five years.
Troy Irwin (Independent)
Channel people where possible out of renting and in to affordable home ownership.
A big part of this is job security and part of it is migration to job areas this will take considerable burden off rental shortage and welfare.
Michael Kemp (The Nationals)
This is a state-wide issue, made more difficult by the recent 10 rate rises in a row, increasing cost of living pressures and difficulties of service provision due to cost.
A lack of available land and rezoning delays are a barrier to building more homes.
I encourage councils to investigate dual occupancy rules, and higher density housing in towns.
The 50/50 state and federal funded project at the Masonic Centre in Bellingen and the state funded project at the old RTA site in Wauchope are wonderful examples of recent attempts to address the difficulties of finding a house.
Rent assistance and 70+ cost-of-living provisions that are available through Service NSW are measures that I would recommend everyone can look into in order to alleviate the cost pressures of renting and the current cost of living struggles.
Food and transport costs
Dominic King (The Greens)
Establish NSW Food Systems Council to develop a sustainable food strategy.
$300 million Regenerative Agriculture Centre, providing free training and funding for farmers to shift to regenerative, climate-resilient practices.
$500 million Urban Agriculture Fund, supporting First Nations 'bush food' industry, creating thousands of jobs.
End large-scale food waste; implement 'food miles' labelling.
Mindful and Sustainable Living a core subject in schools, teaching permaculture, cooking, science and health through edible gardening.
Major regional areas will have frequent, reliable and accessible bus services, taking people where they need to go, when they need to go.
Gregory Vigors (Labor)
A Labor government will play its role in reducing the cost of living by stopping the sell-off of public assets to the private sector (which subsequently hikes up prices), ensure energy security and keep prices and down and attack housing affordability with more than ten different initiatives.
Troy Irwin (Independent)
Food and transport costs can be dramatically reduced with affordable energy.
It's the cost of fuel and energy that has to be addressed.
Michael Kemp (The Nationals)
It is clear that the cost of food and transport is rising, especially in the Macleay.
It is impacting families that already have high enough bills due to the cost of energy production, food production and fuel.
Under a NSW Liberal-National Government, we will be keeping costs as low as possible with the regional seniors and regional students and apprentice's travel cards.
We have also ruled out any new taxes and as a small business owner, I know what it means to manage finances.
I will do everything I can to help the people of Oxley with these cost-of-living pressures.
Hospital beds and wait times
Dominic King (The Greens)
The Greens have a comprehensive plan to rescue our health service including:
Introducing safe nurse-to-patient ratios.
Abolishing the public sector wage cap.
Giving a real pay rise to our healthcare workers with annual pay rises above inflation to keep them from leaving NSW.
Bolstering the public community health sector so you can access a GP, allied health professional, dentist or mental health professional through your local public community health centre - for free.
Gregory Vigors (Labor)
Labor will build many new hospitals in the state.
Labor will recruit 1200 new nurses, opening up many beds and reducing wait times.
Labor will also address the number of staff leaving the health sector by more funding, support, training and assistance to ensure as many beds as possible are open and waiting times are reduced.
Troy Irwin (Independent)
Our experiences have been very positive.
Both my partner and I have had to go through the local medical system with injury and illness. All the people involved have been fantastic.
Our local medical is filled with gems. For us to listen and act upon what the doctors, the nurses, the paramedics, the police, etc they know the solutions, it's up to us to support them.
Michael Kemp (The Nationals)
The region is growing, and with an ageing population comes the increased pressures on hospitals and healthcare workers to meet the demand.
The biggest factors concerning wait times is the number of people presenting to emergency departments with primary health concerns and workforce fatigue faced by our healthcare workers.
An increased number of GP's and better access to primary healthcare options would go a long way into easing the pressures on our hospitals.
To achieve this, I will work to introduce incentives to attract essential frontline health workers to the regions and to keep the wonderful staff we already have.
I will work with the federal government to create opportunities for more patients to receive outpatient and community care, which would free up more beds in our hospitals.
This would be on top of the NSW governments current plans to increase regional and rural GP and healthcare worker placements and their commitments to increasing the number of doctors, nurses and paramedics in regional and rural NSW.
We need to do more, to continue improvise and adjust to the demands being placed on our health sector. As a physiotherapist, I understand these demands and will put practical solutions in place to help adjust to our environment.
*Note: The three remaining candidates, Bianca Drain (Sustainable Australia Party- Stop Overdevelopment/corruption), Megan Mathew (Legalise Cannabis Party) and Joshua Fairhall (Independent) have not provided responses, nor have they reached out to the Port News.
