Independent candidate for Farrer Michelle Milthorpe was in town on Wednesday, April 30 to meet with residents.

Mrs Milthorpe has been travelling throughout Farrer since September, with Moama being one of the final towns on her campaign trail before the election this weekend.

She was at the St Mary’s pre-polling station throughout the day, alongside the Moama Woolworths and Moama Bowling Club for meet-and-greet sessions.

She said the community response had been positive while she was at pre-polling.

“I had a few people stop and have a chat and I think they were grateful that I was there,” she said.

“It's a shame that you can't split yourself up, particularly around 126,000 sq km. There's only one of me.”

According to Mrs Milthorpe, the concerns have been varied throughout the electorate, but the most common concern she’s heard from voters has been access to healthcare, aged care and mental health services.

Issues around water buybacks have also been voiced throughout the electorate, which she said she was against, as she has seen the pain they have caused farming communities.

She also said federal policies from both sides were lacking a regional focus.

“This lack of a regional focus has been huge,” she said.

“Whilst we have federal policies for both sides saying that they're advocating for bulk billing, it doesn’t mean anything if you can’t see a GP. Childcare subsidies don’t mean anything if you can’t access childcare.

“Immigration has come up as an issue in a number of towns — we need migrants to be doing a lot of jobs, so for them to just say a blanket cutting of immigration is not okay for us. We can't survive without those workers in our communities.”

In place of cutting immigration, Mrs Milthorpe is advocating to introduce a place-based model of decision to meet the varying needs of each community.

With the election this weekend, Mrs Milthorpe said she was looking forward to it.

“The feel has been really positive, and I've got so many wonderful volunteers around the whole electorate... which has been fabulous,” she said.

“Obviously I didn't do this to lose. I'm really keen to make sure that we have a regional voice advocating for regional people, and putting that lens over all policy and decision-making is so important.’’

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