Narrabri High School teacher Joshua Roberts-Garnsey to run for Labor in Barwon

Joshua Roberts-Garnsey - who moved to Narrabri in 2021 to become a science teacher at Narrabri High School - said when the Labor party asked him to run in Barwon it was an offer too good to refuse.

"I was approached late last year and asked if I was interested in being the candidate and I just couldn't turn it down," he told the Daily Liberal.

"It's such a great area and there's a really strong sense of community here and I just really wanted to be someone who can represent the area and be a really big voice for regional people."

"I want to give a voice to the people and fight for Barwon's fair share."

Though he's new to Narrabri, Mr Roberts-Garnsey has long had a connection with Barwon. Every school holiday growing up he stayed with his grandparents in the small town of Gwabegar, 238 kilometres north of Dubbo.

"It was my happy place, I really loved it there. I've always had a strong connection with the community around here," he said.

"My grandparents were actually really big Labor supporters and my grandfather often talked about Bob Hawke and how much he respected him."

With Mr Roberts-Garnsey's full-time job as a school teacher and volunteer work as a football coach keeping him busy, campaigning in the state's largest electorate as a first-time candidate will be no easy feat.

"It's a wonderful, diverse electorate and I'm trying to do as much as I can with the time that I've got. At the moment I'm primarily focused on things I can do in my area in the afternoons and on my days off," he said.

"I actually got Earth and Environmental Science up and running at Narrabri High for the first time ever so between campaigning, I'm trying to get my lessons ready so that the kids aren't going to be disadvantaged just because their teacher is a public servant."

"But I've got some plans in the works to visit different parts of the community - I'd really like to get out to Walgett and Cobar and out to Broken Hill again."

The seat of Barwon takes up roughly 44 percent of NSW's land mass and includes key towns such as Bourke, Brewarrina, Narrabri, Walgett, Gilgandra, Warren, Nyngan, Condobolin, Cobar and Broken Hill.

The seat - held by the Nationals since 1950 - was considered a safe seat for the party until 2019 it was picked up by the Shooters, Fishers and Farmers with just under 33 percent of the primary vote. Labor's candidate attracted 20 percent of the vote.

Running against Mr Roberts-Garnsey will be former Country Women's Association leader Annette Turner for the Nationals and incumbent Roy Butler who will stand as an independent after walking away from the Shooters, Fishers and Farmers party.

Mr Roberts-Garnsey said he's "not making any predictions" about how the votes will fall this time around and is focused on getting out and meeting as many people in the community as he can.

"I don't try to make any predictions on what's going to happen - I try to just take it one day at a time and see how I go," he said.

"The most important thing for me is just meeting the community and showing that I care, getting out there door-knocking and talking to people."

Being a teacher himself, getting teachers out into the bush is a key priority for Mr Roberts-Garnsey.

"You go into teaching with this idealism that education breaks the cycle of poverty and breaks the cycle of abuse - but at this point in time if we can't get teachers into the classrooms, and can't challenge students and educate them then all is going to be lost," he said.

"We're letting kids down and we need to address it, it's a crisis."

Other concerns he'll be talking to voters about in the lead up to March 25 include giving a voice to rural and regional young people, improving health outcomes and the housing crisis.

"In terms of health - we've been really disadvantaged in rural communities with regards to staffing numbers," he said.

"In our town we constantly see people posting on local notice boards looking for rentals. They're crying out for somewhere to live and the house prices out here keep escalating and it's pricing people out of the market."

"If we can't give people affordable housing we can't keep them here and we can't expect them to be able to contribute to the economy."

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