Independent Candidate for Macquarie Tim Williams on the issues that concern this marginal electorate.

With the amount of campaign literature flowing through mailboxes, residents of the Macquarie electorate could be forgiven for thinking that the Federal election is a two horse race.

However, independent candidate Tim Williams offers an alternative for those jaded by bi-partisan politics.

The Springwood-based 26-year-old’s tilt at the November 24 election will be his second run, having been beaten out in 2004 by Liberal member Kerry Bartlett.

Mr Williams firmly believes that independence allows a candidate to run for the community, free of potential conflicts of interest.

“As a true independent you don’t take funding from businesses or unions to help you in your campaign,” Mr Williams said.

“I’m of the opinion that independents should come to politics without the indoctrination of a party and without using the party background as a platform to get them into politics.”

According to Mr Williams, the issues concerning the electorate the most are the environment, roads and transport, and health and aged-care services.

To address the environmental concerns, Mr Williams would like to see a focus on renewable energy rather than a nuclear solution, and a phasing out of clean coal technologies.

“There’s not much money going into research in (the area of capacitors to store renewable energy), and yet we are still throwing millions of dollars into clean coal which is still a dirty, polluting way of generating electricity,” Mr Williams said.

“I’d like to see the money directed towards energy storage methods so that renewables really do become viable for base-load power.”

Mr Williams is particularly concerned that a returned Coalition Government could see the Lithgow area as a “prime location” for a new nuclear facility.

“The key thing for any nuclear power plant is where the jobs are required and Lithgow is an area where governments would try and put more things like power stations, because there’s still a need for jobs in the area,” Mr Williams says.

“I don’t think that most people want nuclear power in their area, and to be honest I don’t think it’s the clean, green option that everyone makes it out to be.”

Mr Williams would also like to see a more radical overhaul of the current IR laws than that proposed by Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard.

“I think that the older industrial relations system was working very well. We’d seen a massive reduction in strikes and we’d seen a substantial increase in productivity. I just can’t see why the old system wasn’t a good system to keep,” Mr Williams said.

However, the independent candidate also believes that the Howard Government’s laws had one redeeming quality – the inclusion of a workplace ombudsman on top of centralised powers.

“ Labor’s proposal is a one-stop-shop, and I’m a little concerned that a one-stop-shop isn’t going to be the answer to having a fair way of looking after the industrial needs of everyone,” Mr Williams said.

Following the redistribution, Macquarie now encapsulates part of the Calare electorate, formerly held by long-standing independent member Peter Andren.

Mr Williams feels that, while Mr Andren’s departure from politics may have created an independent shaped void, he still has his work cut out for him.

“The majority of people in the new Macquarie are from the part of the electorate that have voted for major parties for a long time, so I don’t think it’s going to make the job of any independent any easier in terms of actually winning office,” Mr Williams said.

In 2004 Mr Bartlett took the seat by around 17 per cent after preferences. However, the redistribution meant that Macquarie assimilated areas of the Central West including the Bathurst region, which NSW Labor traditionally holds. A recent Sydney Morning Herald analysis predicted a notional margin of 5 per cent in favour of the ALP candidate Bob Debus.

“There are a lot of people (in Macquarie) who have never voted independent and are fairly new to independent politics. There’s still a great deal of work to be done to convince people, and of course to remind independent voters that there is an option to have an independent voice,” Mr Williams says.

Foremost among the hurdles facing an independent in any electorate is the issue of profile. By now, the faces of Mr Debus and Mr Bartlett are fairly recognisable across the seat.

“The advantage that I’ve got is that people are very receptive to independent candidates,” Mr Williams says.

“They’re prepared to talk to you, it doesn’t matter which side of politics they’re from. I get a fair hearing.”

To counter the recognition factor, the independent candidate is running a grass roots campaign.

“I am self-funded, and I don’t have party resources that they have, but I do have volunteers helping me. If anyone wants to help I can always use a hand, so I put the call out there for anyone that wants to help out and get involved at a grass-roots level and hand out flyers they’re always welcome to.”