Mr Duddy was in town to attend the NSW Farmers Association’s Mining Taskforce meeting last Thursday (a full report on that meeting appears on Page 5), and to met with other community groups including the chamber of commerce and the Barrington Gloucester Stroud Preservation Alliance in the lead up to the March state election.

Mr Duddy, well known, for his role as the former spokesman of the Caroona Coal Action Group said he has taken the step into standing for state parliament in a bid to ensure rural issues are represented in Macquarie Street.

“So few people understand rural issues and how they affect people on the ground.”

Mr Duddy said it was one thing to legislate changes, but another to understand how those legilstative changes actually played out in rural communities.

He said his campaign was about regional reform and making sure we live in healthy, sustainable communities.

Mr Duddy said in the Upper Hunter there’s agriculture, vineyards, thoroughbreds, tourism and mining and while all of these industries have co-existed to a point for a long time, there’s now a shift in the dynamics, with mining bringing the region to it’s knees and smothering out other industries.

Mr Duddy said he welcomed the coalition’s land use policy announced last week, which aims to balance the needs of agriculture and mining.

“It makes the right sounds, but there’s a long way from turning that policy into legislation.

He said pressure must be applied to ensure that the coalition’s policy is turned into meaningful legislation where everyone is protected

Mr Duddy said the region, and the state, needs to have proper diversity.

“We need our eggs in 25 baskets not one,” he said.

Mr Duddy said mining will always be a part of the mix, but it should not be favoured over every other industry.

Mr Duddy said along with land use issues other issues in the Upper Hunter include access to medical services and doctor numbers, failing infrastructure, police numbers and unemployment.