The former Wodonga mayor was finally unveiled as the party’s candidate on Wednesday after being the only nomination for preselection.

Mr Byatt revealed he had only been a member for about a month, but added he had started having “serious conversations” about contesting Indi six to eight months ago.

One of his first tasks will be appointing a campaign manager for the battle to win the seat held by independent Cathy McGowan since 2013.

At the top of top of his policy wish-list was job security in all areas including the large centres such as Wodonga to remote areas like the Upper Murray, where he is originally from.

“No one could argue they are not unique in their own right and all require different sorts of strategies and approaches,” he said.

“But at the end of the day, there is an absolute inter-relationship between those regional hubs and those surrounding smaller catchments and towns.”

Senator Bridget McKenzie joined Mr Byatt in Wodonga with the press conference taking place in close proximity to one of his former workplaces as the general manager of tourism body, Destination Albury-Wodonga.

She confirmed the party had “coalesced” around him as its best chance of winning, in response to a question about there only being one nomination for pre-selection compared to six in the recent Mallee pre-selection.

“We all know there were several people interested in being the National Party candidate,” she said.

“But we are team players and I’m absolutely confident each and every member of the National Party in the seat of Indi is absolutely rock solid behind Mark Byatt.”

Mr Byatt said one of his proudest achievements in five years as Wodonga mayor was laying the groundwork for the CBD makeover.

“I do take a little bit of pride in what we did in creating the city heart and bringing governments on board,” he said.

“We were never going to be able to build the heart of the city of Wodonga on our own.

“You can’t please everybody, but what you need to do is get the information on the table and be very clear about the evidence base you are building.

“At some point you are going to be making decisions that people aren’t comfortable with.”

Mr Byatt was also mayor when the controversial waste management levy was in play and had been subsequently panned by an Ombudsman’s report last year.

He spoke about the report findings for the first time on Wednesday and was confident there would be no voter backlash from the result of $18 million wrongly being taken from ratepayers in the view of Ombudsman Deborah Glass.

“The Ombudsman’s report has provided the information on the table and the council of the day has done their best to deal with it,” he said.

“I don’t think anybody deliberately went about orchestrating anything wrong in that space.

“I think the council has taken a position to move forward and unpack it and be quite clear with the community what they are trying to do in the space.”

Mr Byatt also put a positive spin on his late entry into the Indi battleground.

“Timing is everything and we’ve gone through proper process to get to this point,” he said.

“I don’t think you can under-estimate process.

“Process is what it is and it needs to be right.

“You need to be full bore at this and the process has been solid.”