Mylestom's Allan Green is not your usual candidate.
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He's a rank outsider who has thrown his hat into the Cowper ring because he feels he has a moral obligation to do so.
"The signs are all there that we are headed for another depression, like the one in the 1930s - I really fear that," Allan said.
"My father's stories of starving during those years have stayed with me. All our banks are into derivatives, we have no food reserves and we have no manufacturing."
Allan intends to run on a platform of schemes to stimulate industry and drought-proof western NSW.
"I would like to see the equivalent of the Snowy Hydro scheme built on the Nymboida - that would drought-proof the Murray-Darling region.
"We also need to buy back the General Motors plant and develop a local car industry again.
"And I would like to see food processing plants reopened - there is no food being preserved, we import everything and all our assets have been sold.
"Tariffs need to be reintroduced and while I support free trade, it has to be fair. We have lost ownership of our own country and our debt has doubled. It is sheer stupidity."
Allan says his vision would prioritise food, clothing and shelter for all citizens, as well as an increase of all social security.
The signs are all there that we are headed for another depression, like the one in the 1930s - I really fear that
- Cowper candidate, Allan Green
His criticism is particularly scathing of the banks:
"They need to be regulated - we didn't need a Royal Commission to tell us that.
"The only people with whom Jesus Christ lost his patience was the bankers - and nothing has changed since then."
He says all this is extremely distressing to watch, which is why he is standing up to be counted.
"The ineptitude in the management of this country is appalling. Our politicians lack real life experience, which is where the real lessons are learnt.
"I can be very persuasive and if elected I would make sure all the decisions being made were truly in the national interest."
Allan's own background is a city-born fellow whose first love is agriculture.
"I headed out bush pretty quickly, having completed some agricultural training. I was seriously injured in a horse-riding accident in the 1970s, so we returned to the coast. I've worked as a shearer and in abattoirs and later I worked in the Attorney General's Department in the courts at Coffs Harbour.
Allan's other pet project is the testing of cancer drugs.
"I am importing a product from Canada that works - I am living proof of that. But the Australian Government refuses to fund the testing.
"Where there is something that can benefit the many, I believe the Government should provide the money to support that. We are losing too many people to cancer - we need to search more widely for cures."
Ute Schulenberg
Journalism was always my plan but plans being what they are, I did not get to realise it until my early 40s ... and have loved every minute since. For me community journalism is the most intimate and honest place to be in this field - telling the stories of people I live with, side-by-side, every day. It is an honour.
Journalism was always my plan but plans being what they are, I did not get to realise it until my early 40s ... and have loved every minute since. For me community journalism is the most intimate and honest place to be in this field - telling the stories of people I live with, side-by-side, every day. It is an honour.
