Parkes’ candidates looking to win your vote this election

Each candidate has their idea of the growing concerns surrounding the seat of Parkes. Find out why each candidate believes they should win your vote.

Australian Prime Minister, Scott Morrison has finally called the election. On Sunday, he met the Governor-General with May 21 the official date for voters to cast their ballots.

For the people of Parkes, there are seven candidates who are vying for the opportunity to shape its future and lead the largest electorate in NSW.

Meet your candidates below:

Mark Coulton in Gilgandra and Dubbo.

Mark Coulton MP: National Party of Australia

Incumbent member for Parkes, Mark Coulton is returning for his sixth election, and is steadfast in continuing to improve the electorate.

Mr Coulton was first elected in 2007 following the restructure of the Parkes electorate to include Gwydir in its borders. The former Gwydir Shire Mayor has remained in the seat ever since.

He spoke about the struggles faced by the government since the last election, with natural disasters and Covid-19.

“I think it’s interesting in this job, you have a long-term plan and then you deal with the stuff that comes up,” Mr Coulton said.

“So, obviously the pandemic has pretty well dominated the last term of government but the long-term things that you’re working on don’t change much.”

Despite leading Parkes through a pandemic, Mr Coulton is pleased with some of the policies implemented, addressing the growing health and employment crisis in the electorate.

“A new cancer centre is now operating in Dubbo which was really needed for Western NSW,” he said.

“We’re also training doctors with the Sydney University medical school that’s just opened up.

“We’re broadening out into telecommunications with more opportunities for people to connect to broadband services.

“The biggest issue we’re facing right now is local people, we have a lot more jobs than people to fill them. We’ve increased the scope of regional migration through the designated area of migration agreement in the Orana region, based out of Dubbo - so we can bring more of those skills in.”

Although having to spend “159 nights in motels” across the electorate, Mr Coulton said he wouldn’t swap his seat for a city one because he “enjoys the country town aspect and individual communities”.

Jack Ayoub, Labor.

Jack Ayoub: Labor

Jack Ayoub was born and raised in Coonabarabran and while incumbent MP Mark Coulton held a margin of 16.9 percent in 2019, Mr Ayoub said the people of Parkes want change.

Following the death of his parents at a young age, Mr Ayoub “saw the full force of a regional community”. With more than tens of thousands of dollars raised to send Mr Ayoub to Sydney University, it was at St John’s College where he found his passion for leadership and the Labor Party.

Starting the St John’s forum, Mr Ayoub invited guests to speak to students, including former Premier of NSW, Bob Carr.

“And I built a friendship with Bob, through that I met former senator John Faulkner who is a great mentor to me. He’s someone I think of who was in a generation of politics that everyone respects,” Mr Ayoub said.

“I had all these gripes, all these complaints about politics, I ought to pick up a shovel and get involved.”

Having lost more than 40kg since 2019, Mr Aouyb is ready to unlock the abundance of potential sitting within the regional communities.

“To me, regional communities [have] great innovators, they’re great missionary thinkers in many regards,” he said.

“To my mind, there are some fundamental and key foundations that we are missing in this part of the world.

“If I were elected I would be putting so much vigour and energy into making the telecommunications in our region absolutely royal gold standard.

“We know that if you want access to good education in your region, you want people to stay in this region as they’re getting educated - they’ve got to have connectivity.

“There is a new cancer centre that is fantastic, I support that wholeheartedly. What has not been acknowledged in planning is that the vast number of people will be forced to travel to Dubbo and a lot of those people cannot afford to stay in commercial accommodation.

“If we won this seat, we’d have a lot of bargaining power in Canberra. For me, the goal is to win, but ultimately I want to put this region on the political map.”

Peter Rothwell, Liberal Democrats candidate.

Peter Rothwell: Liberal Democrats

Peter Rothwell is a multi-generational farmer, living at Mendooran since 1998 and has become disillusioned with the National Party.

“In the last couple of election cycles I have become more disenchanted with the coalition. If you look back at the Liberal and National party, way back when, they were focused on the individual, limited government, let’s get out of the people’s way, let them operate their businesses and let the market sort itself out,” Mr Rothwell said.

“They have been walking further and further away from that ideal, and to a point now where I went ‘enough is enough’.”

Describing himself as “fiscally conservative”, Mr Rothwell is concerned at the over-spending by the current government.

“It always used to be that Liberal governments were conservative with their spending, but at the moment, there is really no difference between Liberal and Labor.”

After speaking with community members from Parkes, Mr Rothwell has seen a similar trend from business owners who are also losing trust in the major parties.

“Every business and person I speak to have been national voters and every one of them is totally disillusioned. I’m shocked, I haven’t yet found one that is fully behind them,” he said.

“[People] are saying ‘finally we have a sensible alternative’.

“We’d like to have enough of a voter base where the Nationals do have to sit up and listen.”

Petrus Van Der Steen, UAP candidate.

Petrus Van Der Steen - United Australia Party

Returning for the second time, Petrus Van Der Steen will contest the seat of Parkes, representing the United Australia Party.

Living just over the border in New England, Mr Van Der Steen has a background in music, travelling throughout the Parkes region, attending gigs on weekends, finding an understanding of what the people want from their elected candidate.

A former swing voter, Mr Van Der Steen came across Clive Palmers’ United Australia Party and aligned with their core values, attracted to the economic plan set out for Australians.

“The government is currently making it more difficult for us because they want to hide their lies and their schemes into their policies,” Mr Van Der Steen said.

“We want to take the government out of the bedroom and out of our lives and put it back on healthcare, on defence.”

Mr Van Der Steen hopes to attract more people to Parkes.

“We need to bring back life into the region. People are losing hope and confidence in life,” he said.

“We need proper facilities and with more money coming in we could actually afford it. Clive already set aside 40 billion as a boost for healthcare and mainly for regional [towns] because the city has already got everything.

“We are not beholden to [lobbyists], we are free. We want to take care of the people, we don’t make any pledges so that they can later hold it against us.”

Trish Frail, Greens candidate.

Trish Frail : Greens

Trish Frail is a Ngemba woman from Brewarrina, running a small business and has entered the world of politics “to give a voice for first nations people and a voice for women”.

“Neither one has ever had much of a voice here in the Parkes electorate. Hopefully I can help change that and make improvements out here,” Ms Frail added.

“I want to achieve better health for everybody out here, especially people in small villages, they really don’t have health options unless they travel an hour away.

“When we do have to travel to see a doctor, at times you might be able to get assistance with funding [but] they don’t take into account that you have to travel there, stay the night, see the doctor and potentially have to stay another night. I would be looking at that closely.”

Aligning with the ethos and values of the Greens, Ms Frail is adamant about introducing renewable energies into the electorate.

“Why can’t we have renewable energy lighting our streets?” Ms Frail said.

“I acknowledge that we do have a lot of mines [in Parkes], at times we do need what they’re mining, however, we need to push towards renewable energy.”

Ms Frail understands the strength of the National Party in Parkes, making it one of the safest seats in NSW, but is “asking people to see what the Nationals have done, look at the environment, look at what’s happening with the bushfires, the droughts, the floods. The Greens are the party to make change”.

“I will really work hard for this electorate, I will be the voice for Parkes, I am not afraid to say anything.”

Benjamin Fox, IMOP.

Benjamin Fox - Informed Medical Options Party

After teaching for 11 years, Benjamin Fox has thrown his hat into the ring for the seat of Parkes, representing the Informed Medical Options Party with the goal of making a “stand for myself and all other citizens who have been discriminated against”.

Mr Fox added: “For all the teachers, paramedics, nurses, firefighters - paid or volunteer, and any other industry who fired staff for not accepting a vaccine with no long term safety data.”

Mr Fox has taken aim at government restrictions imposed during the pandemic.

“I want to see less government and more freedom. Let all the skilled staff members return to their jobs and careers regardless of vaccine status and help relieve the staffing issues in our schools, hospitals and retirement homes,” he said.

Having lived in Dubbo, working at both Dubbo Christian School and Dubbo College, Mr Fox lost his position following his refusal to be vaccinated.

“I’m no longer a teacher after being ostracised, discriminated against and segregated from my career and community, seeing the overreaching government implement illogical hypocritical rules and regulations,” he said.

“First hand I’ve been catapulted into hard times and this gives me empathy and an understanding that many current politicians lack.”

The Dubbo News has contacted independent candidate Stuart Howe for comment.