Independent candidate for the seat of Dubbo Mathew Dickerson said he expects other candidates will spend more than him in the lead up to the election.
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As an Independent candidate, the spending cap for Mr Dickerson is $184,200. From the beginning of the campaign Mr Dickerson said he had planned to spend no more than $100,000 of his own money.
The candidate said there was a cap and he wan’t going to go anywhere near it.
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“I feel quite confident that the other candidates will spend a lot more than I will because I’m using my own money,” he said.
“We have to submit everything to the electoral commission and I’m not interested in breaking the law to try and win a seat, I’m interested in staying out of jail and being a law-abiding citizen. I haven’t been in trouble with the law throughout my life and I’m not interested in doing it now.”
I’m not interested in breaking the law to try and win a seat...
- Mathew Dickerson
In the 2015 election, the disclosures lodged with the Electoral Commission NSW show Troy Grant’s election expenditure was $99,999.
Labor candidate Stephen Lawrence’s campaign cost $18,436 and independent Col Hamilton racked up $8815. Four other candidates, including the Green’s representative, said no electoral expenditure was incurred.
Mr Dickerson said while he was going to do what was required by law, he wouldn’t be responding to other candidates or parties “throwing things” at him about his campaign costs.
“One of the things I’ve learned when I started talking to people was that they’re absolutely sick to death of candidates, parties, politicians continually throwing mud at one another,” Mr Dickerson said.
“I've been rung a number of times by different media outlets to respond to accusations [on campaign spending] and every single time I’ve said and will continue to say until the end of the campaign that I’m not worried about what other candidates say about me, I’m worried about talking to people in this electorate, and that’s what I’ll continue to do.”
The capped expenditure period for a state election started on October 1 ad ends on the election day in March.