The battle for Indi between the Coalition candidates, who hope to work within an elected government, and the independent, who wants to carry on a legacy, only became harder to pick after last night's forum hosted by The Border Mail.
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By the end of the two-hour forum, it became clear that Helen Haines and Steve Martin in particular have a strong rivalry based on their passionate ideas for the region.
"What we've seen in politics, particularly in the past 10 years, is a lot of infighting, rather than fighting for a good case. I think what someone like me can bring to this is the advocacy skills," Dr Haines said when asked if she would be a fighter or facilitator.
She also addressed one of the key issues that could arise if she was elected as an independent in a hung Parliament: would she chose the Coalition or Labor?
The answer was to examine policies on climate, access to rural health, education and infrastructure.
"It's not about negotiating and making a king or queen out of anyone, it's about having good, strong governance in Australia in a precarious situation," Dr Haines said. "I can't tell you that choice now because I haven't seen what they could give to me in regards to those policies.
"Once I had seen that, then I would make my decision based on what does this mean for Indi and what does this mean for rural and regional Australia."
Helen McGowan was one of the members of the crowd, asking who would continue the legacy of her sister, and retiring Indi MP, Cathy McGowan. Mr Martin said he could continue's Ms McGowan's passion.
"What's even better than having a local candidate who is out there listening, trying to understand the issues and advocate for them outside of government, is someone who can do it inside government," he said.
"The difference is, I want to argue it so it influences national policy."
By the end of the night, the two were questioning each other.
Mr Martin defended the Liberal Party's decision to send out attack pamphlets claiming that a vote for an independent is a vote for higher taxes under a Labor government, saying "it raised some big issues".
"I would love Helen to rule out supporting Labor and supporting Labor's taxes, which I believe would be an incredible impost on our community," he said.
Dr Haines said she would only support the proposed taxes under conditions.
She pushed Mr Martin three times over whether he was supporting the tactic of negative pamphlets being sent to voters, before he eventually nodded.
"Clearly you are," she said.
"I would just challenge Steve: if he's elected to be the member for Indi, but the Labor Party is in government, what table does he plan to sit at then and what influence will he have?"
Earlier in the day, the Auditor-General announced it had launched a performance audit after Ms McGowan earlier this month complained about the way she believed the National Party had used government grants for "party political purposes".
Asked if he was worried, Nationals Indi candidate Mark Byatt said he backed the government's decision.
"These projects in my experience go through a pretty rigorous set of criteria and guidelines," he said.
"I've got confidence for those projects."
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