COUNTRY Alliance candidate for tomorrow’s state election David Snelling says he has had a “gutful” of the major parties.
Mr Snelling told the Warragul & Baw Baw Citizen he decided to stand for election because he believed his party could bring common sense to politics.
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“The reason I got into all of this is I just had a gutful of nothing getting done the right way, there was no common sense left in politics,” he said.
“That’s what Country Alliance is about, getting some common sense back.”
He said the key issues for him this election were drug usage, the introduction of junior motorcycle permits and the condition of roads.
“I really want to push for a junior motorcycle permit enabling 14 – 18 year olds to ride motorcycles in the bush, under supervision obviously, and also on farms for part time work,” Mr Snelling said.
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“Under the OH&S laws they can’t do that.
“The ice epidemic we have in our region [is also a concern].
“I’ve had a big push for a lot of funding to set up some rehab centres around regional Victoria.
“We’re spending millions and millions and millions of dollars on the Ebola virus on the other side of the world and we can’t fix the epidemic we have in our own state at the moment.
Mr Snelling said he did not support decriminalisation as a way to reducing drug usage “but I don’t want to see the addict persecuted”.
“Ice is an evil drug. Anything that can stop being manufactured, it being sold, people getting addicted needs to be done.”
Asked whether he felt the Country Alliance message resonated with more metropolitan population centres of the electorate like Warragul and Drouin, Mr Snelling said “our message is very clear and very positive to a lot of people in regional areas.”
“The majority of people in regional cities are country people,” he said.
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“They might live in a city but they’re in a regional area, they’re very close to the bush, they’re very close to the farms, a lot of people who live in regional cities grew up on farms.”
