NSW election 2023: Regional voters against major parties’ net zero plans

Regional voters are getting ready to send a message to both major parties not to take them for granted or hurt their local economies with net zero policies determined by city dwellers, new polling has revealed.

Regional voters are getting ready to send a message to both major parties not to take them for granted or hurt their local economies with net zero policies determined by city dwellers, new polling has revealed.

According to polling released Tuesday by the Institute of Public Affairs, more than 50 per cent of voters across the seats of Dubbo, Bathurst, Orange, and Upper Hunter said that they planned to vote for someone other than a Coalition (National) or Labor candidate.

In a sign that regional voters are increasingly sceptical of net zero policies being pushed by both major parties, only 35 per cent of the 1095 locals surveyed said they trusted politicians who “tell me that jobs in renewables will replace jobs being lost in mining and agriculture.”

The level of distrust was highest in Upper Hunter, where previous research by the IPA found that as many as one in four local jobs in mining and agriculture were put at risk by net zero policies.

And nearly three in four voters surveyed – 72 per cent – said that “city based members of parliament take regional NSW for granted.”

The survey comes in the wake of recent research suggesting that the net zero plans of both

Labor and the Liberals could cost 138,000 jobs in regional NSW.

“While the leaders of the major parties are focused on inner-city Sydney, there is a palpable anger in regional communities that they are being ignored by their local representatives this election,” said IPA deputy executive director Daniel Wild.

“Australia relies on our regions to put food on our tables and keep the lights on, and yet, a typical worker in regional Australia is over three times more likely to have their job put at risk by net zero than a typical worker in the inner cities.”

“The IPA is committed to undertaking research on the local communities most impacted by the policies created by the political class and inner-city elites, such as net zero, who never suffer the consequences or incur the costs.”