The Central Western Daily is a paper for the  Orange region and our readers include as many staunch Labor voters as there are rusted-on Nationals and committed Greens.

While they have much in common they also have many different priorities so it would be presumptuous to try and tell them how to vote.

This election, though, we do have a position on who you should not vote for.

Two of the five candidates on your ballot paper today have done nothing to earn your vote and have no interest in representing your region.

As far as we can tell, neither John Gilbert from the Christian Democratic Party (Fred Nile Group) nor Juan Fernandez from No Land Tax has even visited the electorate during the campaign.

Or, if they have, they have made no effort to notify the CWD which has attempted to contact them by phone and email.

Both candidates seem to have gone out of their way to avoid speaking to this newspaper.

So if they’re not willing to put in the smallest effort to earn your vote, then you would be selling both yourself and your electorate short by supporting them.

Worse, if either candidate was able to collect four per cent of the vote then they would be entitled to claim electoral expenses back from the taxpayer. That is, you would be paying them for their inaction.

At best theirs is a cynical attempt to build recognition for party candidates in the Legislative Council, the state’s upper house.

By contrast, The Nationals’ Andrew Gee, Labor’s Bernard Fitzsimon and The Greens’ Janelle Bicknell are all local people who have the electorate’s best interests at heart. 

They have a real desire to see the electorate go forward and offer you a choice on how that should be done.

They are the only real candidates in this contest.