MEMBER for Parkes Mark Coulton is furious at his political opponents for branding him 'lazy', and said they should focus more on developing policies than delivering personal attacks.
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The Nationals MP is going around again in May's election, hoping to keep a hold of a seat he has held since 2007. Parkes is currently a safe seat, with Mr Coulton holding a 33.82 per cent lead on a two-party basis, and earning 50.76 per cent of the primary vote in 2019.
Last week Labor's candidate for the upcoming election Jack Ayoub, who also ran in 2019, accused Mr Coulton of becoming 'complacent' and questioned why he was even running again.
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Mr Coulton said he's happy to engage in discussion about how things could be improved in the electorate, but under no circumstances will he cop the description 'lazy'.
"That's incredibly offensive, I spend the equivalent of 20 to 40 hours per week in the car driving around this electorate," he said.
Mr Coulton said while he isn't conceding a Coalition loss at the election, he is more than capable of being a good local member from opposition, having done it from 2007 to 2013.
A major part of his upcoming campaign would be about protecting workers in mining regions such as Gunnedah.
"None of the predictions are talking about a demise in the coal industry in the short term, so I think those workers are very secure," he said.
"In terms of reaching net zero my electorate is doing more than anywhere else in Australia to do that, we've got massive solar, we've got wind farms, we're developing mines for lithium and cobalt and rare earths.
"All of the things we need for a cleaner, more modern technology-driven economy, so we're actually going to need more mining jobs in my electorate not less if we're going to reach net-zero by 2050."
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