While the main players have all now made their candidate selections for the federal seat of Eden-Monaro, two independents are also preparing to stand for election.
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‘One person can make a difference’
Mr Thaler, who has stood for election previously, is throwing his hat in the ring for both state and federal election campaigns. He said should a tilt for the NSW seat of Monaro be successful he would withdraw from the federal race given the votes are likely within months of each other.
“[However,] I don’t need to be elected to make a difference,” Mr Thaler said this week.
“I stand for election to make more people aware of who I am and what I’ve done – one little bloke can have a national impact.”
Mr Thaler owns the Singleton solar farm and said the virtual net metering he instigated at the facility is now being used at renewable power plants across the country. It means regardless of where the generation plant is located, it’s power can be “accessed” from anywhere on the grid through an accounting mechanism.
He said an example is the University of Technology in Sydney being powered by the solar energy generated at Singleton.
“I’m looking to the future and our children. I have five kids now growing up in an era of metadata retention and facial recognition being utilised by authorities even via local government CCTV. It’s George Orwell’s 1984 on steroids.
“I reject the necessity of any of that. It’s as if we all have to be assessed as guilty – and even then we can’t stop a guy, who was being watched, from taking a knife into Bourke St.”
Mr Thaler said he was standing to bring about awareness of “dark times” at the hands of representatives from all three tiers of government.
“We aren’t getting the representation we need, or what we elected. We don’t see them unless they show up to hand out awards.
“We’re suffering because local councils are ignoring the will of the people.”
‘Taking regional Australia to next level’
Meanwhile, Tumut businessman Mr Sheldon said the recent ousting of the Prime Minister, the state by-election in Wagga and Labor’s recent announcements were the catalysts for his decision to stand as an independent.
“I was a member of the Liberal Party until recently but enough is enough and tendered my resignation. I also wrote a letter to the Wagga Daily Advertiser before the by-election about voters supporting an independent in show of their disgust at the rabble we call politics today, the same needs to happen in Eden-Monaro at a federal level. We need to hold the political parties to account, Eden-Monaro deserves more,” Mr Sheldon said.
As a child Mr Sheldon grew up in Canberra and spent many holidays on the South Coast from Merimbula through to Mollymook. His first job out of school was as a jackaroo on the Green’s sheep station out of Nimmitabel at Kybeyan. During this period he played for the Cooma Red Devils and also gained representative honours with NSW Country.
Mr Sheldon has worked with the Canberra Times and for the past eight years been part owner of the Monaro Post independent newspaper.
Since moving to a property outside Tumut in 2003, Mr Sheldon has been actively involved in the visitor economy and the political scene at a local and electorate level, firstly as chair of the Tumut Region Tourism Association, then as a board member and chair of Tourism Snowy Mountains and FORTO.
In 2011 he was elected chair of the Australian Regional Tourism Network (ARTN) and spent many hours walking the halls of Parliament House and the relevant federal departments creating a network of contacts and pushing for enabling infrastructure, connectivity and the importance of developing a 2030 tourism action plan for regional Australia.
An advocate for the development of regional tourism, Mr Sheldon believes it is time to take the importance and development of regional Australia to the next level.
“For too long now I have sat back and listened to the politicians of the day talk the talk when it comes to regional Australia with short-term solutions and little long-term big picture initiatives. I also have business interests on both sides of the mountain.
“The Eden-Monaro electorate is our national capital’s backyard and there is much future-proofing required for the millennials, generation alpha and beyond without mentioning our ageing population.
“The Eden-Monaro electorate should be the showpiece of the nation as it is the gateway to Canberra. We need to look beyond tomorrow,” he concluded.