As the major parties’ promises, mudslinging and cheesy photoshoots flow thick and fast on the federal election campaign, real people are showcasing the spirit of their electorates.

Nathan Free is a third generation fruit and vegetable grower from Tresco who can see a lot of issues that need addressing and has donated two crates of organic butternut pumpkins to Independent Mallee Candidate Sophie Baldwin to start the goodwill ball rolling.

“We’ve been farming organically now for about 12 or 13 years,” said Nathan.

“We were conventional stone fruit and vegetable growers. Then we saw an opportunity, and an opportunity that actually aligned more with our values to grow a better plant to make a better product to send off to market for a growing amount of consumers.”

Sophie Baldwin is running as an independent in the National Party strong hold of Mallee.

“The election is getting close, and people need to decide what change they want to see,” said Ms Baldwin.

Ms Baldwin is a single mum of two kids who worked three jobs at times to put food on the table.

“Mallee towns feel let down by the major parties. The residents are fed up with party politics while our real issues go unaddressed.

“For example, speaking with residents in Kerang on Saturday, issues including better roads, investment in rail, refugees, housing, ICAC, the Murray-Darling Basin, action on climate change and of course day care and lack of doctors,” she said.

For Nathan Free, there are key issues that he would like to see addressed for his business and community.

“The big thing is roads. The roads at the moment have really been quite dangerous. There’s a lot of effort needed to get them tidied up and make them safer all around the state.

“Also, securing a good work force for the rural areas. Without the workforce, we can’t put the food and fibre on the plate.

“As well as just making sure we’ve got manufacturing capacity in the rural areas and making sure that then there are ways to upgrade the power infrastructure.

“As we saw during COVID-19, having one big facility in Melbourne or over at Murray Bridge, or like the big abattoirs that went down during COVID-19 and took out a lot of activity for both of the farmer and security for the consumer.

“We need the whole supply chain, fruit and vegetables, and the manufacturing and processing.”

The pumpkins donated to Ms Baldwin will now be sent to Maryborough.

“We heard of this great initiative of the Maryborough Rotary Club that seeks to raise money to assist victims of domestic violence,” said Ms Baldwin. “The Rotary Club’s president, Gary Higgins, explained the project to us in January and I couldn’t think of a better use for the pumpkins.”  

This article appeared in The Koondrook and Barham Bridge Newspaper, 5 May 2022.