Upper Hunter candidates make their pitch at 2019 Scone Chamber state election candidates' forum

A 'meet the candidates' forum hosted by Scone Chamber at the Scone RSL Club on Wednesday night gave the community the chance to hear first hand candidate's stance on some of the most pressing issues in the shire.

In attendance were four of the eight candidates: Greens' Tony Lonergan, Shooters, Fishers and Farmers' Lee Watts, Country Labor's Melanie Dagg and sitting Nationals MP Michael Johnsen. There was one apology offered, from Christian Democrats' Richard Stretton, who could not make the event.

Sustainable Australia's Calumn Blair, Animal Justice Party's Claire Robertson and Liberal Democrats' Mark Ellis are also contesting the seat.

Candidates were given six predetermined questions to address within 15 minutes each, with topics centring around small business, innovation, infrastructure funding, TAFE and climate change.

Mr Lonergan grew up on a sheep and wheat farm west of Muswellbrook. After a stint overseas he returned to the area and has been a high school science teacher since 1998 working at various schools across the Upper Hunter.

Mr Lonergan has a strong stance on climate change, stating it as the main reason he is running for the Greens.

He wants to see all coal-fired power stations closed by 2030 and replaced by 100 per cent renewable energy.

"In the meantime they need to be upgraded so they're meeting standards that are applied in most other countries," he said.

Mr Lonergan also addressed the impacts of drought and its affect on small business as being an issue close to his heart, directly linking the drought to climate change.

Melanie Dagg grew up in Cessnock and now lives in Branxton with her husband and two children. Her family have lived in the Hunter for generations. She is a councillor and deputy mayor at Cessnock City Council and has worked for the federal member for Hunter Joel Fitzgibbon.

Mrs Dagg said she decided to run as Country Labor's candidate for the Upper Hunter because she believes "funding schools and hospitals is more important than vanity projects like Sydney stadium splurges".

She spoke of casualisation of the workforce and Labor's plan to "move towards more permanent work and fairer pay" and said the current government were "demolishing" TAFE, selling off land and building "internet cafes". 

She said if Labor wins government on March 23, they will introduce a renewable energy target for NSW, set in law as part of new climate change act requiring 50 per cent of the state's energy to be generated from renewable sources by 2030.

Lee Watts has lived in Scone for more than 40 years, raised a family in Scone and has been a councillor for 14 years with terms as mayor and deputy mayor.

"Under both major parties we have seen very little difference when it comes to funding for this area," she said.

"If the National/Liberals are in government during the worst drought in a century and all they can claim they can do for farmers is to give them loans they have to repay with interest but can still get behind their Liberal masters and rebuild perfectly good stadiums in Sydney then they have strayed well from where they established to be."

Mrs Watts said she was running for the SFF party this time because they are "the only viable alternative with regional NSW".

"They have 'farmers' in their name for a reason, they are not running candidates in city seats," she said.

She asked how much of Labor's recent multi-million dollar funding promise for TAFE would actually be spent within the Upper Hunter electorate and said if elected the SFF would slash regional taxes with its zonal tax policy which would exempt all regional businesses from payroll tax and commercial vehicle and property stamp duty for the next five years.

The sitting member, who lives in Scone, said in the Upper Hunter Shire there has been $203 million of capital investment from the state government alone in the last four years he has been member.

"There is a lot more work to do yet," he said.

In response to Mrs Dagg's comments on TAFE he said it was "a kick in the teeth to the staff of TAFE and everyone involved in TAFE to call the new, modern, Connected Learning Centres Internet cafes."

"They are far more sophisticated than that," he said. "They provide a range of courses that were never available before to people and we are building one here in Scone."

He also addressed the water pipeline between Scone and Murrurundi. 

"In 2014, when we had that terrible situation in Murrurundi when I was the mayor and we had to cut the water off, there was myself, the general manager at the time, a couple of councillors - not here - going out there literally door-knocking, delivering water to people and doing what we could do help people," he said, taking direct aim at councillor Lee Watts, the SFF candidate.

"As a result of that I was able to secure the money to build that pipeline. Who has control of that pipeline? Council. This is no criticism of council, I know there is a process. But don't go blaming other people for what's actually in your control."