The leader of The United Australia Party, Craig Kelly was in Launceston on Saturday morning, as he announced the Tasmanian candidates for the federal election.
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He announced Diana Adams and Alan Hennessy as candidates for the State Senate, along with Northern Tasmanian candidates Darren Dobbermien for Braddon, Kyle Squibb for Bass and Jason Evans for Lyons.
Candidate for Lyons Kyle Squibb said that the main issues he wants to address in the upcoming election include fuel prices and cost of living.
" A massive issue at the moment over the last couple of months has been fuel prices down here in Tasmania," he said.
"Quite a lot of people I speak to are worried about the predicted interest rate increases. Some Tasmanians are worried about this and how it will impact their cost of living, with fuel and supermarket trips being expensive."
Candidate for Lyons Jason Evans said that better roads for the area were needed.
"Looking at the Bass Highway driving along there between Launceston and Devonport, the number of fatal accidents we have had in the last 12 months, we need to look at finishing these roads. Lyons is a massive area and a lot of those back roads do need a lot of funding."
Having worked in aged care for many years, Candidate for Braddon Darren Dobbermien said that an issue of concern he wants to raise is the wellbeing of those at aged care facilities.
"I have seen the quality and standard of the food that they serve to the residents and it does concern me," he said.
"Nutritional value for seniors in aged care is an important issue I want to raise."
Mr Kelly also said that police were investigating after he was egged during a rally in Melbourne on Friday, and said that he hoped Victoria Police will prosecute.
"We can have in our society where it's acceptable for someone to sneak up behind someone and hit them in the back of the head with an egg," he said.
"That's not what we want to see in Australian politics. People can bail us up and ask tough and hard questions, that should be part of the job, but when it comes to physical violence, we need to stamp this out as it cannot be a part of our Australian society.
"We have to set the precedent that violence against elected officials cannot be tolerated in this country."
Mr Kelly said he believed the issues most pressing to voters in Tasmania included infrastructure, repaying debt, stimulating economic growth in rural areas and farm land ownership.
"The roads down here need a lot of improvement," he said.
"Every time I've been down here people are always talking to about how their should be better transport links, especially between the corridor down to Hobart. That should be of the standard that we see in other capital cities.
"Unless Australia's unprecedented debt is urgently remedied it will cause all mortgages to default as interest rates rise. It will cause Australians to lose their homes, and it will also remove the underlying security for all our small businesses."
When asked on joining with any other parties, depending on how many seats United Australia wins in the election, Mr Kelly said they need to "wait and see."
"It depends on the election, but if that was the case we would set forward what our policies are and we would discuss with both major parties as to who would give us the greatest support in our policy proposal," he said.
Other candidates for Tasmania include Lisa Matthews as candidate for Franklin and Sandra Galloway as candidate for Clark.
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