STANDING firm by his political allegiance, Lake Boga’s Chris Lahy is again running for the Mallee seat with the Australian Citizens Party.
It is Mr Lahy’s fifth attempt at the seat, after running in 2007, 2013, 2016 and 2019.
In the 2019 federal election, he received 0.44 per cent of the vote for Mallee.
Mr Lahy said he would need a miracle to take the seat of Mallee, but wanted to provide an alternative for voters.
“Most of my adult life, I have been dedicated to aiding the community and in particular giving my time to youth affairs and personal development, even before I had children of my own,” he said.
“I’m also very passionate about the future of the agricultural sector, especially after my family was given little choice other than to leave the dairy industry over 15 years ago.”
Mr Lahy said his decision to “get political” came in a period he described as a “perfect storm”.
“One of my sons has a disability and I was battling the state-based health systems in Victoria and New South Wales to get adequate healthcare and support assistance for him,” he said.
“Around the same period, the dairy industry was dealing with its own battles for survival.
“Farmers were facing a ‘green drought’ because, whilst there was plenty of water available, farmers couldn’t access it.
“Our water entitlements had been reduced and to buy more, we were facing highly inflated water prices.
“Meanwhile, the dairy industry’s guaranteed pricing for milk production was being stripped away under deregulation.”
Mr Lahy said the idea of being forced into more debt because of deregulation and water pricing, plus his son’s needs, turned him towards politics.
That’s when he found the Citizens Electoral Council, now rebranded as the Australian Citizens Party.
The party said its politics would revive the nation with economic development and growth facilitated by national banking like that of the old government-owned Commonwealth Bank.
The Citizens Party’s platform will return productive industries to health by “reversing the deregulation and privatisation enacted since the Hawke-Keating era”.
Mr Lahy said the party gave him the knowledge and understanding to “realise we have to fight to overturn these government decisions which are literally killing off the rural sector”.
“The government can do the good, but that means abandoning their free-market ideology and following what the Australian Citizens Party has outlined for the future development of the country,” he said.
“Speculation and financial gambling, such as what has happened with water rights since they were separated from property rights, must be outlawed.
“As bad as it was for me 15 years ago, it is even worse now for farmers who have to compete with aggressive global speculators and environmental demands, for access to affordable water.
“We must support the food and fibre producers of this country.
I firmly believe that the party’s water, power and transportation projects, plus other great infrastructure plans, funded by a government-owned national bank, are the only way to revitalise regional Australia and return hope to struggling farmers, small businesses and the youth of this nation.
“With the prospect of another historic economic depression on the horizon, inflation and interest rate rises, supply chain blockages and a drum-beat for war, it has never been more urgent to consider the welfare and interests of the next generations.”
Mr Lahy said young people needed hope, optimism and vision for the future.
“I would like to see free access to tertiary education, access to affordable housing, and local training incentives especially in regional areas like the Mallee,” he said.
The father-of-five is a refrigeration technician.
With candidate nomination now closed, Mr Lahy will contest the safe Nationals seat alongside incumbent Anne Webster (Nationals), Carole Hart (Labor), Sam McColl (Greens), Stuart King (United Australia Party), Vanessa Atkinson (One Nation), Sophie Baldwin (Independent) and Claudia Haenel (Independent).
