Candidates Lauriston Muirhead and Dean Moss have laid down strong stances on climate change and political transparency in the first of Albury election forums, absent of Liberal Justin Clancy, and with him, contested debate.
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The Labor and Greens representatives answered in similar fashion to four questions put forward by Reproductive Rights Rural NSW on Saturday.
The pair agreed more funding was needed for mental health care, and Mr Muirhead said he would be meeting soon with Albury Wodonga Health to understand their needs.
Mr Muirhead outlined the Labor Party's policy for an affordable housing land register, designating 25 per cent of identified government land for properties, and Mr Moss floated a requirement of developers to set aside land for such housing.
"On top of social housing, the crisis accommodation we have in this area is completely insufficient," he said.
"I know that when women and families fleeing family violence turn up to services in Albury, they're often turned away."
The high school teacher, in talking to his stance on political donations, spoke of the Liberal Party dramas involving Hello World, and his statement that there needed to be a Federal Anti-Corruption Commission received applause from the 25 people present.
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"Locally, there was a politician who may or may not have been misusing their funds … to go out of the state, there were some consequences to that and apologies," he said.
"I'm not suggesting that politician did the wrong thing, what I'm telling you is our system is so broken we don't know and we will never know."
Mr Muirhead said he personally wanted to see an Australia without political donations.
"As soon as you have donations, you have a corruption of the democratic processes really," he said.
"In the meantime, I would like to see immediate transparency and preferably an end to oversees donations, because I think Mr. Adani is not doing it out of the goodness of his heart."
Mr Clancy said in a prepared statement that NSW had the toughest regulations in the country around donations and said it was "paramount all political funding is transparent and free of foreign influence".
Both men at the forum made their support of women to not be further criminalised for abortion clear, as per the fourth topic.
"To quote Kath Day from Kath and Kim, 'I've got two words for you: ask women'," Mr Muirhead said.
"I think we'd all love to live in a world where there's no need for terminations … but until that world exists, I think there's an obligation on the state to provide accessible, free, helpful, legal and safe services."
Mr Clancy did not indicate his position but noted increased discussion around “fetal personhood” laws which would result in a person who seriously injures a pregnant woman potentially being charged with harming both the woman and her fetus.
"As recognised by the Premier, any such change to legislation needs to ensure it does not have unintended consequences that impact on the rights and legal personhood of the pregnant women," he said.
At the comment from one person in the crowd that "NSW funding seems to stop at Wagga", Mr Muirhead urged the group "not to vote Liberal".
The candidates also said:
On climate change:
"Don't let people say you're against mining, because you can mine safely, what we're against is burning coal" - Lauriston
"It was the election of Tony Abbott in 2013 that got me motivated (in politics) … the most horrible thing that happened at that time was we moved backwards on climate change and they're still taking us backwards" - Dean
On mental health:
"Nolan House wasn't adequate 20 years ago, let alone now. I'd be seeking money and working with all levels of government" - Lauriston
"My understanding is Friends of Nolan House wants a whole new facility … we need to have stronger interventions" - Dean
"My vision is we continue to build awareness …. the NSW Liberals and Nationals have funded in the 2018 budget the design of a redeveloped acute mental health facility in Albury" - Justin
On social housing pressures:
"Labor will get rid of no-fault evictions" - Lauriston
"Here in Albury the wait times if you're looking for accomodation for a one to three bedroom house it can be five years before you find a home" - Dean
"The Liberals and Nationals are rolling out the largest investment pf social housing in NSW history" - Justin
