Shooters Fishers and Farmers Party candidate for Bathurst Brenden May today announced the start of his campaign for next year’s state election.

He called-out Nationals Minister Paul Toole for being too closely-aligned with the Liberal Party.

“The Nationals have failed our electorate, and Paul Toole just does whatever the city Liberals tell him to do,” Mr May said at Mount Panorama today.

“Let’s not forget, that Paul Toole supported the greyhound racing ban, and supported forced Council mergers despite them being bad for his own electorate. What’s next?

“The Nationals support spending $2 billion on new Sydney stadiums while only half that amount of money is being spent on drought relief for the entire state. They need to get their priorities in order.”

As a local farmer who’s lived in the electorate all his life, Mr May believes he’s in touch with local issues. He promised to be open and approachable in contrast to his opponent.

“I keep hearing from locals that they can’t get a meeting with Paul Toole locally, so they go next door to Philip Donato instead. That’s not good enough,” he said.

“We need a local representative who’s willing to listen, and my mission between now and election day is to hear from locals about what matters to them.

“Bathurst deserves better.”

Mr May’s Shooters Fishers and Farmers Party colleague and Member for Orange Philip Donato said that the same result as the Orange by-election could happen again.

“Bathurst is on a smaller margin than what I faced in Orange in the 2016 by-election,” Mr Donato said.

“The issues here are similar and people are tired of being taken for granted by the Nationals. There’s no reason why Brenden May can’t achieve the same result here in Bathurst.

“There’s a mood for change in the Central West, and people here have been able to look over the border and see all the extra funding and attention that an area gets when it’s no longer a safe National Party seat.”

Download Brenden May's press release here.