Aaron Tyrell is the One Nation Party candidate for the federal Nicholls electorate.
A lifelong local, Mr Tyrrell has worked as a dairy farmer since leaving high school in 2001.
He is also a father of two school-aged children and the husband of state Member for Northern Victoria Rikkie-Lee Tyrrell.
“As a local to the area I understand the impacts bad governance plays on our community,” he said.
“I am running to give disillusioned voters a sensible alternative to the tired major parties.”
Mr Tyrrell said the cost of living, fuel and energy prices, water management and red tape were among the biggest concerns facing the Nicholls community.
On representing Nicholls at a national level, Mr Tyrrell said, “I would be on the crossbench if elected and that can be a very powerful position to be in for the Nicholls electorate.”
When it comes to addressing regional access issues such as health care, employment and housing, Mr Tyrrell said he would work directly with ministers responsible for these portfolios to ensure they understood local needs.
His proposed tax reforms include introducing a “Couple Splitting Tax”, where any couple with at least one child would be taxed as a single entity rather than as two individuals.
This change would be expected to save couples on an average income up to $11,000 per year.
He is also proposing to reduce the fuel excise tax and remove the beer tax in licensed venues.
On housing, Mr Tyrrell said population growth needed to be addressed.
“The initial cause of this crisis ... is our immigration policies.”
Mr Tyrrell said he did not support the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water, describing it as “simply another government department made up to squeeze even more money out of hard-working Australians for no results whatsoever”.
As a dairy farmer, he called for water resources to be directed to agriculture first.
“Our local producers are the professionals, they have generational knowledge that you cannot learn from a book,” he said.
“We want to see our children have the opportunity to continue on growing the produce we grow now, but they won’t get that opportunity if there is no water to do so.”
To stay up to date on election day, check in on the Riv website as McPherson Media Group will be running a live blog on May 3 featuring content from polling booths across Nicholls as well as live poll updates.
12°C