Former independent New England MP Tony Windsor today confirmed that he will challenge sitting Nationals MP Barnaby Joyce.
Windsor was one of a group of independent MPs who enabled Labor to form a minority government after 2010 federal election.
The Labor blueprint for a predominantly fibre National Broadband Network played a key role in that decision, and Windsor confirmed today that he still backed the original idea of a fibre-to-the-premises (FTTP) NBN rollout
“It has to be fibre to the home,” he said today. The approach should be “do it right and do it with fibre”, Windsor said.
Other issues cited by Windsor were Shenhua Watermark coal mine, climate change, renewable energy and the Gonski school funding plan.
Windsor retired in late 2013 before that year’s federal election after holding the seat of New England since 2001.
His federal political career was preceded by a decade-long stint as a member of New South Wales’ lower house.