Shooters Fishers and Farmers Party Candidate for Cootamundra Matthew Stadtmiller will be running for the seat of Cootamundra in the March 23 election.
Harden’s Matthew Stadtmiller will be the Shooters Fishers and Farmers candidate after announcing with SFF Wagga candidate Seb McDonagh at Oura near Wagga last Thursday. The Daily Advertiser, Prime, Win and Nine attended the launch with both SFF candidates highlighting the divide between city and country, pointing out the apparent neglect the country towns in their electorate have imposed on them.
Stadtmiller said, “Keep voting Nationals if you keep wanting to see feasibility studies into new rail lines that get covered up after the election.
“Keep voting Nationals for tax dollars spent on stadiums in Sydney, not bridges in the bush.
“Keep voting Nationals if you want our local hospitals to continue to lose services.
“Keep voting Nationals for roads that are falling apart and pose a risk to the safety of your friends and family.
“Keep voting Nationals to see police taken off country streets, as our communities become less safe.
“The recent funding for the Harden Racecourse facility of over $900,000 was announced with a giant cheque at the Kite Festival and before the money was in Hilltops Council’s account and before the joint heads of agreement was signed. “The same giant cheque was used to announce over $800,000 for McLean Oval. The best the Nats could do was provide $9,412 to provide partial funding for a storage shed in 2015.
“Since the Shooters Fishers and Farmers ran in the October 2017 by-election the funding has started flowing, the only way it will keep flowing is if you vote SFF. If the seat isn’t marginal and the government doesn’t think it will lose it, it will stop spending. “Make it marginal and keep the pressure on, that is the only way we will get more.
Stadtmiller highlighted the forcibly merged Hilltops Council as an utter failure. He said, “Staff have left in droves, some areas are getting far more than others and the culture of secrecy has stifled debate and prevented the rate payer from knowing what has gone on.
“The Young Highschool/Library project begs a lot of questions. I’d like to see a report released to the public which would show how skewed the process has been. I’d like to know who commissioned the report and how and why they came to their findings. I don’t believe the Library was ever going anywhere else then at the school. Now well over $20 million dollars will be spent in a place where the residents of Young let alone Hilltops residents, don’t want it to go.
“The Rural Fire Shed looks to have stalled after 4 years of work and residents can expect a sharp rise in rates on top of that. Both town and rural will be affected.
“We are meant to feel warm and fuzzy that we have been given money for shiny things while our roads and bridges suffer, no jobs have been provided and there is no future for Harden or the electorate under the current government.
“For me the amalgamation has been all about who can make money from it. We now have an IT system at Hilltops which has cost upwards of $5 million dollars. By the time you add licencing and consultants it has been a fortune and for what?. Harden had a new and modern system in operation in 2012 which was the same system as Cootamundra’s. This should have been rolled out across Hilltops, the whole process has been a farce and it’s the rate-payer that pays in the end. Anyone telling you this merger is working is in Disneyland.
The William Bradford Bridge is an accident waiting to happen and needs urgent attention according to SFF candidate Matthew Stadtmiller. It is located west of Harden on the Burley Griffin Way.
“I have started a petition for 24 hour police stations in all stations across the electorate and new stations in Young and Cowra. I am campaigning on fixing our roads and bridges and I want education to be fairly and equally funded across the area. Our students aren’t performing at the level they could be. They are under resourced and our teachers need more support and resources to teach our kids. Across the electorate our schools are underperforming. Education is vital to our future.
“It doesn’t matter how visible the member is on social media it matters what she can deliver. At the moment it has only been what the Government has estimated will be enough to hold on to the seat. She is petitioning her own Government over Cowra hospital. She is actually in Government. Why would she need a petition. It is nonsense. She can supposedly call Gladys and get it done if you believe what they said at the by-election.
“It’s time for change. If the SFF weren’t around we would be getting the same shabby treatment as yesteryear. “If the election proves as close as it looks like it will, the SFF may hold the balance of power in both houses which means more for your community than you have ever had before and proper representation.
