In front of a small crowd of 20 people to respect the current COVID-19 advise showstealer1829 steps to a small podium in the Mildura Settlers covention room, the site where he has launched his campaign twice before, taking the mic and looking into the camera as his launch is streamed over Facebook Live

Ladies and Gentlemen, it is that time again, that time where the decision of the future of our country, the future of our electorate here in Nicholls is turned over to you, the voting public. Today I stand once again in front of you to ask you for your support, to continue the work we have been doing for the people of Nicholls. Today I once again announce my intention to stand for re-election as your member for Nicholls. Today we launch our campaign to keeps Nicholls as one of the most important electorates in the country.

I note with a touch of ironic amusement that the LNP has chosen to run against us in this election, I say ironic amusement because I find it ironic that the LNP have suddenly started to pretend to care for the people of Nicholls. They certainly did not care during the last election for the people of Nicholls, when they did not ever consider the seat worthy of even fielding a candidate to stand in. They certainly have not shown any respect for the people of Nicholls during the current parliament and yet they believe that suddenly the people of Nicholls are important now. And yet we have their candidate Mr. Horror, a man who jumps from state to state, seat to seat, looking for a opportunity to jump himself into the house of parliament, the last time we saw him run for the house he was Western Australia, the other side of the country, trying to win the seat of Pearce, last election he stood for the Senate, not for the Senate seat in Victoria mind you but the senate and now we find him here, trying to make the people of Nicholls believe he cares for them.

I also find it ironic he chose Ballarat of all places to launch his campaign. For just a short drive from Ballarat is the town of Bendigo, and Bendigo can attest to our dear LNP friend just what benefits have come to the people of Nicholls since we have started this journey together, to make the electorate of Nicholls one of the most important in Australia. We secured funding from the Porridge government to improve Bendigo station, to make it one of the strong regional rail hubs in the country, we made improvements to the Swan Hill line, improving efficiency and puncuality and opening new tourism corridors and opportunities for people in those areas, we began phase 1 of our plan to bring passenger rail services back to Mildura, We shone a light into the rural GP shortage that threatens to become a crisis, a crisis that has led to a bill that I have co-wrote with the leader of the opposition being debated in Parliament as we speak. A bill that will introduce a National Strategy that will ensure the people of Nicholls, as well as people in ALL rural communities of Australia will have access to GP services and critical healthcare needs in a timely manner. We have ensured that Australia's young talent in the developing field of E-Sports are one of the most well supported in the world, ensuring that that talent is nurtured and can show the world that we are one of the best sporting nations in the world whether in the real world or the virtual world.

Mr. Horror also mentioned the things the government has tried to do for the people of Nicholls and I'm glad he has brought that up, over the coming days I will be talking to farmers, to show just what the government policies have actually done for these people, he mentioned especially the Agricultural Protection bill, a bill that I opposed in parliament and tried to amend to make it fairer for Australian farmers, but because the Government has it in it's idea that "China Bad" they forced it through their way and have driven farmers and their families to the wall.

He also mentioned the Australian Dairy Bill, a bill that does nothing to support farmers with rising feed, equipment and maintenence costs and indeed because of the price floor it introduces making Australian Dairy more expensives actually harms dairy farmers even more, as a great success for rural Australia.

This is just a few examples ladies and gentlemen of a government that has lost their way, a government whose major party used to market itself as the party of the bush, the party of the battlers, the party for rural communities and this is what they've done to them. We can not, we must not allow them to send Nicholls back to the dark ages where it was forgotten.

Our work has been hard, it has been a struggle, there is no denying that but that is the spirit of Nicholls, we fight for each other, we stand together and we do not stop until the work is done. And our work is not done. We need to fight on, we need to ensure that the National Strategy for GPs is installed, we need to rebuild East Gippsland after the devestating fires, we need to support our local businesses, sporting clubs and communities through the greatest health and economic crisis our generation has seen, We need to continue the work on the Bendigo and Swan Hill lines and expand that to phase 2, which will bring much needed improvements to the Ballarat and Traralgon lines and begin the laying of new track on the Mildura Passenger line. We need to rebuild and renovate the Shepparton Hospital. We need to make sure our farmers get the support THEY need. Not the support the government thinks they deserve.

That is why our job is not yet done, ladies and gentlemen, that is why once again I ask for your support. I ask for your trust, but most of all I ask for your belief in our community, in our work, in our dream. Together we can continue to show Australia that even the electorates without parties can be heard. Together we can make a difference.

Today we start our fight anew, and today we begin our next phase of making Nicholls the most important electorate in Australia. Thank you very much.