Defeated candidate for Parkes John Clements has criticised Mark Coulton’s political record, while championing the achievements of fellow independents Tony Windsor and Bob Katter.
Mr Clements, who finished third of the five candidates with 10.7 per cent of the primary vote, claimed that Mr Coulton of The Nationals, who was re-elected with 58.34 per cent, would not be able to deliver benefits for the people of Parkes.
He also said that Mr Coulton’s record and approach was inferior to those of his independent colleagues, the Federal Member for New England, Mr Windsor, and the Federal Member for Kennedy, Mr Katter.
Mr Clements’ main accusation was that Mr Coulton had failed to address “the local issues which are relevant to the people of Parkes”.
“Coulton’s campaign was entirely focused on the negative aspects of the Gillard government, not the local issues which are relevant to the people of Parkes,” Mr Clements said.
“Even in celebrating his success in the polls...Mr Coulton has not presented a plan for the electorate and has not recognised the local issues that are the focus of the independent candidates who do hold the balance of power.”
Mr Clements also said that with Australia facing a hung parliament, independents would be better able to deliver benefits to rural Australia than The Nationals.
“Over the last 25 years, rural Australia has been stunted by The Nationals’ unwillingness to use the balance of power (they have) held in every parliament.
“Finally, independent MPs have the opportunity to apply this influence to make real changes and effectively direct the next Australian Government.
“I have been involved in developing the policies which will benefit regional Australia and will continue these discussions with Tony Windsor and Bob Katter in coming days and weeks.
“The intention is to deliver policies that will directly benefit regional Australia through recurrent, formula-based funding, not the politically driven handouts we’ve seen and suffered through for years.”
Mr Clements also accused Mr Coulton of having a negative approach to politics, which he said had hurt the people of Parkes.
“As a National Party member, Mark Coulton has joined party political mud-slinging and personal attacks that have resulted in a hung parliament, rather than making efforts to address local issues for the electorate of Parkes.
“Rather than playing blame games and making the personal attacks that were the basis of Mr Coulton’s campaign, our approach will rebuild regional Australia and see a quantum shift which will create biggest opportunity rural communities have seen in years. We want to guarantee that regional Australia will benefit from good policy and funding.
“Mark Coulton has spent the better part of three years driving around and meeting people, but not actually doing anything about local issues.
“This will be discovered in the coming weeks and months as the independent MPs grab their opportunity to make a real difference to regional NSW.”
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