Nationals, Liberals and Greens candidates discuss top issues facing North West Central before by-election

A lack of housing, a skilled worker shortage and a need for more medical facilities have been raised by the three candidates vying for the North West Central seat as key issues facing the region. The electorate which covers 820,591sqm and includes 14 Shires will go to the polls for the by-election on September 17 with early voting opening on August 31. The region includes the Shires of Exmouth, Ashburton, Cue and Northampton. Vince Catania, who won the seat for Labor in 2008 before defecting to the Nationals party a year later, officially notified Legislative Assembly Speaker Michelle Roberts of his resignation from State Parliament on August 8 with Ms Roberts confirming the date of the by-election via a writ to the WA Electoral Commission the following day. Nationals candidate and owner of Carnarvon’s Port Hotel, Merome Beard, will face off against Liberal candidate and pastoralist Will Baston while Exmouth local Niels Glahn-Bertelsen has been named the Greens candidate. Speaking to the Pilbara News, Ms Beard said if she was elected part of her role would be keeping the State Government accountable. She said some of the main issues impacting the Gascoyne and Pilbara included the lack of accommodation and workers. “And then we’ve got things like the solar eclipse which are going to impact all of this region and clearly that needs a lot of thought and it’s going to need some investment as well to make sure that its successful from a safety perspective and from a tourism experiences perspective,” she said. Ms Beard said a concern was whether the towns would be able to cope with the big number of travellers expected. “If there’s an influx of people between Geraldton and Tom Price, it’s how do they cope with that? How do the regions cope with it? How is it going to be resourced?,” she said. “What will the clean-up look like? And what will the impact be on the environment as well?” Ms Beard said she had spent a “period of time” working for the retired member and grew up in the region. “I’ve had a business for 20 years. So I have a fairly in depth understanding of the challenges, the issues and the opportunities for the region,” she said. Meanwhile Mr Baston told the Mid West Times the main issues in the electorate were access to regional health services, the need to address youth crime, the rising cost of living and the shortage of workforce housing. Mr Baston said there simply was not enough access to medical services across the electorate, with locals not having access to the minimum health service they deserved living in Western Australia. “At a minimum there needs to be on-ground health service provision that matches the needs of local people. Also, the patient assisted transfer system is limiting access to health services and needs to be increased in line with fuel price rises,” he said. “Secondly, the State Government needs to support and grow the volunteer emergency services which in many of our communities are shrinking. “Thirdly, there is a major opportunity to leverage the needs of the many FIFO and DIDO projects where it may be possible to co-share health services across the electorate.” Greens candidate Mr Glahn-Bertelsen was focusing his agenda on the environmental crisis at Ningaloo Reef, midwifery services and the housing crisis impacting the greater Midwest and Gascoyne region. Carnarvon midwifery services, wage rises, the housing crisis, juveniles in jail and Kalbarri cyclone recovery are all issues on his radar. Mr Glahn-Bertelsen said tackling the climate crisis was a start to solving those issues. “It’s no surprise that our essential services like midwifery are suffering,” he said. “We need to see real wages growth here in Western Australia. “I’ve seen the real-world impacts of the climate crisis not just threatening our environment but driving up the cost of insurance, while power bills skyrocket.” Last year’s election had a total voter turnout of 73.76 per cent.