Colin Hamilton

DAILY LIBERAL

Saturday Feb 14th 2015

Independent candidate to stand for Dubbo seat

"The Liberal National coalition and Labor are well bedded with big coal and big gas and it would seem the race to exploit Australia's raw materials at any cost by all and sundry has reached full steam," Mr Hamilton said.

"How can any person or party supposedly representing the bush allow the continued constant trashing of prime agricultural land and precious water supplies, endangered native species and Aboriginal places of significance in the Leard and Pilliga (forests) and jeopardise the only significant recharge area of the Great Artesian Basin.

"Take a look at which companies made large donations to political parties at the last election and you'll find that any morals the current government may have had were too easily disposed of in lieu of mining approvals.

"The Liberal National Coalition promised to clean up the mess left by the previous Labor government and have shown time and again in recent months they have failed.

"The Coalition says it has put a gas plan in place but there are gaping holes and no reference to human health, air quality studies or Aboriginal communities.

"There is overwhelming evidence about contamination of water supplies and total devastation of the land."

Mr Hamilton is well-known in the Dubbo electorate for his participation and achievement in farming and community groups.

He was involved in the Macquarie Valley irrigation industry for more than a decade, gaining deep understanding of ground water aquifers and hydrology.

He is Deputy Chairman of the Narromine Irrigation Board of Management and project co-ordinator overseeing a $60 million federally-funded development to modernise the irrigation scheme.

"A lot of effort was devoted to minimising transmission losses in open channels to improve operational efficiencies," Mr Hamilton said.

He is chairman of Macquarie 2100, an organisation that evolved out of a landcare group in the Macquarie Valley.

"The group was charged with implementing a 100-year plan put together by the communities of Warren, Trangie and Narromine back in the late '90s," Mr Hamilton said.

"The objective was to try and make the area a better place to live."

In the past three years Mr Hamilton has been a volunteer ambulance officer at Trangie, a town that does not have full-time paramedics.

"If there is a need for ambulance officers in Trangie and the surrounding area they are diverted from Warren or Narromine," Mr Hamilton said.

"The volunteers first on scene assist where we can until full-time paramedics arrive."

Mr Hamilton lives on the farm he grew up on and in recent years has exited the irrigation industry to concentrate on dryland farming, predominately running sheep and cattle.