GREENS party founder Bob Brown came to Glen Innes on Thursday to back local candidate Mercurius Goldstein in the race for the seat of New England on July 2.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Mr Brown has many fond memories of Glen Innes and the surrounding areas from his childhood and said Mr Goldstein was a high quality candidate.
“Merc would be the best thing going for the New England electorate if he were to be elected on July 2, even though we know that is a long shot indeed,” he said
“People in rural areas are voting Green more and more now, in fact there are almost as many people voting Greens in the bush as there are in the city.
“A lot of people in the bush know that things are changing, not least the climate, Barnaby Joyce and the LNP are ticking off on more coal mines and it is only the Greens that are saying that having a clean energy future and a better farming future at the same time makes good common sense.”
Mr Goldstein said if elected on July 2 he will fight for the New England community to have a strong and sustainable educational and agricultural future.
“I will fight for a strong public TAFE system, to fairly fund our rural schools in the communities that depend on their public schools and to make sure we have a sustainable agricultural future for the region,” he said.
“We need to secure Australia’s farming future through research into agricultural methods making sure there are ways for farmers to find the most efficient ways to operate.
‘We will also protect the Liverpool plains from coal mining and CSG and support the local livestock industry, the hundreds of jobs in the region that we can bring back to the New England region by processing our domestic food locally and passing those jobs on to other Australians in the supply chain.”