NSW Opposition Leader Luke Foley today announced Muswellbrook mayor Martin Rush will again run as the Country Labor candidate for Upper Hunter in next year’s state election.
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Mr Foley, who visited the Upper Hunter electorate on Monday and Tuesday, said the long-time local and experienced politician had the right credentials to take on the Liberals in the seat.
“I’m delighted to have a candidate like Martin Rush running for the Upper Hunter electorate,” he said.
“He has shown his conviction and commitment to the local community over a number of years and he will make a great addition to Labor’s strong line-up of candidates.
“The Upper Hunter will have a clear choice come next March – a government that puts Sydney stadiums before our children’s’ education and our families’ health, or Labor which will always put schools and hospitals before stadiums.
“The Upper Hunter community deserves much more than what it is getting under the Nationals, who have shown they are just a rubber stamp for their Sydney-centric Liberal partners.”
Mr Foley has been visiting towns across the state to highlight the Berejiklian-Barilaro Government’s “wrong priorities from wasting hundreds of millions of dollars on the Sydney light rail project and WestConnex toll road to ripping the guts out of TAFE and failing to invest in education generally.”
Mr Foley said the decision to spend billions of dollars on knocking down and rebuilding two Sydney stadiums while 100,000 children are being taught in demountables and elective surgery waiting lists are at record highs is the “height of irresponsibility”.
Martin has been a fierce advocate for protecting agricultural land, for a return of State Government mineral royalties to the Upper Hunter, for TAFE, jobs and for hospitals and health services.
From 2000 to 2003, he worked as a solicitor in private practice – principally performing legal-aid work on rural court circuits. Since 2004, Martin has practiced as a barrister in commercial, industrial and safety law.
He has been the Mayor of Muswellbrook since 2008.
Martin and Country Labor recorded one of the largest swings against the National Party at the last election of 20.8 per cent turning the seat into a marginal one.
Mr Rush said he will be a strong voice for the Upper Hunter community that has been poorly served by the National Party that has “slashed the number of available courses at Scone TAFE”
“I look forward to being part of a strong Labor team in country NSW; a team that has a progressive and fair plan for rural and regional communities,” he said.
“I have lived in country NSW my entire life. The Labor Party was forged in rural Australia and we have many supporters in the bush. Every day I’m seeing more and more workers reconnecting with Labor’s core values of a fair go for all.
Mr Rush said he will be fighting to stop the National Party “dismantling government services in rural and regional NSW by cutting education, health, and emergency service budgets.”
“The National Party has proven it can’t be trusted in government. It promised to protect agricultural land and provide certainty for the future of the coal industry but, instead, it has increased uncertainty for landholders and the approval times for coal mining development has blown out to three and a half years in some cases,” he said.
“At a time when employment in the mining and energy sector in the Upper Hunter is increasingly uncertain it is absolutely imperative strategic land use planning is undertaken upfront to provide all industries investment and development certainty.
“We should be investing in intensive agriculture and drought proofing our farms – instead the dairy and other intensive agricultural industries are vanishing under the National Party.”
