Helping create better access to funding for innovative ideas, creating pathways for youth employment, boosting small business opportunities and easing traffic congestion at the eastern end of the Oxley Highway.
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The Nationals' candidate for Cowper Patrick Conaghan has earmarked these areas as among key planks in the run up to the May federal election.
Mr Conaghan lives in Port Macquarie and has worked as a solicitor for the past 18 years.
He was also a police officer for 12 years, including time as a detective and police prosecutor.
Mr Conaghan said aged care was a key driver for employment opportunities across Cowper but specifically in Port Macquarie.
He said there were other issues relevant to Cowper's other major centres including the Coffs Harbour by-pass and employment in Kempsey and the Nambucca Valley.
"Within the Cowper electorate I have met people within the small business sector that have brilliant ideas to either establish or grow their business," he said.
"And these entrepreneurs, sometimes, need some assistance in where and how they can source government funding to move forward.
"These innovators are there within the community and I am really keen to help them establish or grow.
"Many of these innovative ideas are flowing from already established operators within the small business sector. So helping them grow, to create jobs and more opportunities, is beneficial to the wider community."
Many of these innovative ideas are flowing from already established operators within the small business sector. So helping them grow, to create jobs and more opportunities, is beneficial to the wider community.
- Patrick Conaghan
The Nationals' candidate said the growing aged care industry would also require more trained staff into the future.
"One of the challenges for the industry is to attract employees into that sector," he added.
Mr Conaghan said, if elected, he saw his role as helping people succeed.
"I spent several years as a councillor on North Sydney Council and will use that experience to work with all levels of government," he said.
"During that role, I would have spent some countless hours per week specifically on council issues, while maintaining my practice.
"That experience taught me a lot."
A federal election is due in May, 2019.
Mr Conaghan confirmed he was a member of the Liberal Party in the early 2000s during his stint as a councillor.
Andrew Woodward will contest the seat of Cowper for Labor and Dr Sally Townley is The Greens candidate.
Independent candidate at the 2016 election and former federal Lyne MP Rob Oakeshott is yet to confirm if he will contest the next election.
