Tamworth local Laura Hughes has been announced as the ALP candidate for the seat of New England in the upcoming federal election.
Hughes unsuccessfully stood as the ALP candidate in 2022, and was also on the local council ticket for the party last year for Tamworth in an unwinnable spot.
Laura says she is eager to continue building momentum and fighting for a fairer, more equitable future for the people of New England.
“In 2022, we made incredible progress together, and I am deeply grateful for the support and encouragement from our community,” Ms Hughes said.
“This time, we’re aiming even higher—to challenge Barnaby Joyce and ensure New England’s voice is heard loud and clear in Canberra. Together, I know we can achieve even more for our region.”
As part of her campaign, Hughes says she is focused on delivering vital services for the community, including improved healthcare access. She advocated for the Medicare Urgent Care Clinic in Tamworth, which opened its doors on 30 October 2023.
“This clinic is already making a real difference for families, ensuring they can access the care they need without delay,” Ms Hughes said.
The Tamworth urgent care clinic is federally funded, and provides walk-in and bulk-billed GP services to anyone with a Medicare card, and it open extended hours. The services are a welcome relief for many, taking the pressure of emergency rooms and ensuring availability of a doctor to those who can no longer afford the gap fees at their local GP. Some people from parts of the region who cannot get in to a GP at all have also been making day trips to Tamworth to use the service.
The service is also dramatic contrast to the state funded Urgent Care service announced with much fan fare in Armidale, that was an utter failure, creating significant confusion, before being officially abandoned by UNE Life in November last year. With a transient and younger population than most regional centres in the state, and being closer to the most significant doctor deserts of Inverell and Glen Innes, the demand for urgent care services in Armidale arguably exceeds that of Tamworth.
Hughes joins other declared candidates Brent Larkham, the One Nation candidate who began his campaigning by singing all over the region on Australia Day, and Independent serial candidate Natasha Ledger, who announced she would contest yet another election after being cleared of domestic violence charges last year. Barnaby Joyce has also previously indicated he does intend to contest the seat again.
The electorate has significantly changed since the last election, now taking in all of the Gwydir and Muswellbrook shires, yet bizarrely not Gunnedah. The Australian Electoral Commission has confirmed it disregarded all the objections to the inexplicably odd redistribution decision because they only cared about getting an acceptable number of voters in the electorate. The redistribution does not change the nominal position of the electorate as a safe National Party seat.
However, the serial New England candidates will have their work cut out to embrace the complex array of issues across the redefined electorate.
The inclusion of Muswellbrook now means the two ends of the electorate are in significant conflict: the north significantly benefiting from energy transition with jobs, growth and wealth flowing, and only comparatively minor land use conflict creating concerns, while the southern end is having its heart ripped out and its very identity destroyed, facing significant job losses and potential collapse of communities in the years ahead.
The voters of Muswellbrook have access to significant urban public transport, including multiple services a day into Newcastle and Sydney, while many voters in the north of the electorate don’t have access to so much as a taxi, and the lack of rail services north of Armidale continues to be an emotionally charged issue.
It’s an easy day trip for a Muswellbrook resident to see a specialist at John Hunter, compared to the three day expedition for voters in the north, and there’s no shortage of local GPs – including bulk billing and extended hours GPs, while the average wait to see any GP in, say, Inverell is still measured in months – if you can get on a doctor’s books at all.
And on and on, there are very few issues on which the experience of New Englanders and the people of the Hunter align. Cost of living is likely to be a common pain point, although it’s a very different conversation if you’re talking about the price of groceries in your four local big brand supermarkets plus multiple fruit and veg shops, bakeries and butchers… or the price of everything in your single general store.
Which issues the election will turn on will emerge soon enough, as will the rest of the candidates. The election must be held no later than May 17.
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