THE Veterans' Affairs Minister says Indi voters should choose the Nationals candidate over his Liberal Party rival because Canberra is not a place for someone on "training wheels".
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Darren Chester, Nationals member for Gippsland, made his comment during a visit to Wodonga on Thursday.
He was asked by The Border Mail why should a voter in Indi opt for the Nationals contender Mark Byatt over his Liberal counterpart Steve Martin when they were both part of the Coalition.
"I think they should look very closely at the individuals themselves and make the assessment on their capacity to do the job," Mr Chester said.
"The seat of Indi doesn't want to send a new member to Canberra who's on training wheels they want to send someone who has got a vast amount of experience in representing this region and they want to send someone who has a proven capacity to fight to deliver good results.
"Canberra is not a place for shrinking violets and I think Mark Byatt is someone who has demonstrated time and again that he's prepared to stand up for the community."
Mr Chester said although the former Wodonga mayor, like Mr Martin, had never been an MP he had been a regular visitor to Canberra to lobby and "knows how the parliamentary system works".
Mr Martin responded in a matter-of-fact way to Mr Chester's appraisal.
"Darren is entitled to his view," he said.
"Having people that are in the thick of family life, that have a strong connection to industry, have experience about delivering major projects - I think those are all really important skills.
"I think we need to see a broad range of skills in parliament, not just bureaucrats or people that have been part of thinktanks or lawyers.
"An engineer can't hurt for a government that has got to deliver a big infrastructure program."
Mr Chester was commenting at Wodonga's Huon Hill hotel where he met current and past defence personnel and talked about their needs.
He said particular concerns included mental health services and the ability to get a job in civilian society.
Soldier On Albury-based based programs officer Natarsha Knights-Lewis, who helps servicemen and women and their families, was among those at the meeting with Mr Chester.
She said the forum heard about the need for services to be accessible to aid the health and wellbeing of past and present Army members.
