Voters will head to the polls on Saturday to decide who they want to be their representative in NSW Parliament for the next four years.

Six candidates will contest the seat of Maitland in the 2015 election.

Incumbent Liberal MP Robyn Parker has announced that she will not recontest the seat, so all candidates are newcomers this time around.

The Greens, Liberal, Labor and Christian Democratic Party have each fielded candidates. 

An independent is also in the running and micro-party, the No Land Tax Party, has a Sydney-based candidate who wants to represent the electorate.

Ahead of election day, the Mercury asked each candidate to tell voters why they should be made the next member for Maitland.

The candidates were each allowed 350 words to sell themselves and their policies, with a strict condition that their submissions dealt only with their vision for Maitland – not what they believed other parties or candidates had not, or would not, achieve.

I am a 43-year-old, married father of two, a JP and former building society manager. 

Being a councillor, having founded a local charity, and formerly owned and operated a small business for over a decade, I feel I have what it takes to best represent Maitland moving forward.

I was born and raised in Maitland and have been a city councillor for the past six years.

My key issues include retaining the emergency department (at a minimum) at Maitland Hospital upon the construction of our much-needed public hospital in Metford. 

The growing suburbs to the west of the city will only increase the need for close emergency department access.

Constructing new schools in our growing city is a must, in particular a primary school in the west. 

In many cases, our students are being overloaded into demountable buildings with rapid growth in enrolments in the past few years. We need to plan for our schools now.

Supporting the retention of the rail line into Newcastle is also a commitment I make to the people of Maitland. 

Removal of seamless public transport into the coast and heart of our major regional neighbour, after 170 years, makes no sense. Convenient public transport and cycleways are important for our city into the future.

I will move to return TAFE fees back to affordable levels. Our workforce of tomorrow is at risk when the costs of their training is pushed beyond what is affordable for the average student.

With my experience in local government, I understand the growing pains of our city and will fight for a greater commitment of funding to roads and easing traffic congestion in Maitland. 

Forward planning and commitments are needed now to improve the bottleneck problems and stop them from getting worse.

We must ensure our police and emergency services are well resourced. A growing city needs an increase in emergency services staff numbers.

I value my independence, and though I urge people to allocate preferences, I am not recommending one party over the other in this election. 

Please value your vote.

As a business owner and mother of two teenage children, I understand the pressures faced by local families in our growing city. 

I chose Maitland as the place I wanted to raise my family. 

I love the lifestyle here, and believe we have the best of both worlds with our proximity to Sydney, without the crowded feel of a big city. 

I run a local travel company, cafe and conference centre which employs over 25 people. My business helps people to enjoy tourism experiences and creates jobs in regional areas across Australia. 

I have worked on boards and committees of a number of government, community and industry associations over the past 20 years, including the Women’s Network Hunter which I helped establish in 2005. 

I see privatisation of the electricity network, jobs and infrastructure for our growing city as key issues in this election. 

I have been a strong advocate for Maitland already. As a candidate for public office over the last 15 months, I have been able to secure funding for the following projects under a Labor government: 

* Ensuring the new Lower Hunter hospital remains in public hands.

* Keeping the existing Maitland Hospital open when the new hospital opens. 

* Reinstating the rail line back into Newcastle and establishing the Hunter Transport Authority.

* Delivering a new primary school in the west of Maitland.

* Delivering a new high school in Maitland.

Luke Foley and the Labor team have taken a new approach for NSW, which will deliver a high-quality health system with more nurses and paramedics, innovative methods of health service delivery, an excellent school system and a rescue package for TAFE which will reverse fee hikes and abolish the Smart and Skilled privatisation program. 

We will do this without privatising our electricity network.

To find out more visit www.anewapproach.com.au/policy

If I am elected this weekend, Maitland will continue to benefit from having a voice in government. 

This is important because whenever the member for Maitland has been a member of the government, Maitland has seen investment. Whenever the MP isn’t a member, the city has received no investment.

If elected, my focus will be on three key areas.

Firstly, I will work with the government to ensure that all of the promises made during the last four years that are yet to start or be completed are finished, or, at worst case, commenced. This means that the work started by Robyn Parker MP will be completed for Maitland’s benefit.

Secondly, I will ensure that Maitland continues to receive more than its fair share of government support, due to our status as the second fastest growing area in NSW. 

This means that vital infrastructure will be built at a speed that matches the pace of growth of all of the new housing developments and that additional infrastructure is built for the city.

Thirdly, I will focus on working with all levels of government to find a solution to the region’s unemployment problem, particularly youth unemployment. 

I will work to identify ways for businesses and education providers to come together and identify strategies that connect the students with jobs, and the businesses with schools, so that we don’t send kids into welfare programs. 

Our $20 billion infrastructure investment, of which $6 billion will be spent regionally, will create jobs and reinvigorate local communities.

I am passionate about our city and ensuring that we continue to grow and thrive, and making sure that we receive our fair share.

 I want to build a place where my kids and grandkids can thrive, and I believe that I can play a major part in that build. 

I would be honoured to represent our city as the next member for Maitland.

There are two key issues I need to talk about before addressing my vision for the people in the Maitland electorate. They are trust and change.

Firstly trust. I ask Maitland voters to keep this in mind before voting. Who do you trust, taking into consideration issues like cutting the rail line, building a public hospital and privatising our poles and wires?

And change. It is often said there are only two certainties in life – death and taxes. But there is a third – change. Change is constant. It’s like life – life happens while you’re busy doing other things. Same with change. 

The question I ask voters is: Do you want business as usual in your daily politics or are you happy to embrace change? 

The Greens are about changing a broken political system.

Which brings me to the future. 

I, as a member of the Greens, have a vision for this city which is based on three things – jobs, jobs and more jobs. 

Green jobs for the future, with the manufacturing industry and TAFE playing major roles in helping to develop skills for our workforce in the transition from coal to renewable energy. It can be done. 

The Greens also have a massive infrastructure plan which would see local people employed on local projects, with a concentration on young workers.

Our motto for this election is: keep it clean. We stand for:

* Clean air for people to breathe.

* Clean environment for our children to grow up in.

* Clean politics – no more brown paper bags.

* Clean public transport instead of more cars on the road.

* Clean water and soil by stopping coal seam gas fracking.

* Clean jobs for the future.

* Clean energy for home and industry.

We support a new public hospital in Metford, but also need to fix our current hospital which is bursting at the seams. 

Maitland is growing rapidly and subsequently putting more pressure on our hospital. 

We need to be spending money on this hospital until a new one can be built. 

We are opposed to coal seam gas and future coal mining which affects our farmland and water.

I am a community nurse and am passionate about politics, recognising that the political arena is the hub of decision-making for the direction of our society’s future.

My vision for Maitland is for a thriving centre in the heart of the Hunter Valley, with services and facilities that provide an excellent standard of living for all the residents of our beautiful city.

I am passionately committed to saving Maitland Hospital for the ongoing provision of acute care to Maitland area’s rapidly growing population – especially in Maitland’s western, northern and southern suburbs – for whose residents travelling out to Metford could mean the difference between life and death.

I will also fight to retain the railway line from Maitland into Newcastle station, as I know that this long-standing transport facility matters enormously to the people of the wider Maitland area. 

I will promote:

* Safe and well-maintained roads.

* Care for our environment.

* Honesty and transparency in government.

* Protecting our communities.

* Justice both in the political arena and in our communities.

* Protection of the sanctity of life – by opposing anti-life policies.

* Retaining Special Religious Education in public schools.

With strong family values, I am firmly committed to ensuring that the next generation of young people grow up with a foundation of respect, responsibility and solid values to promote a healthy and happy future for all Australians. 

To this end I will advocate that scripture in our schools not be displaced by humanism, but rather that our children are allowed the opportunity to learn that they have a loving heavenly Father, who made them and loves them, and from which knowledge every person may derive hope, meaning and purpose in life.

I will promote life in our society and resist moves to hasten the death of the frail and vulnerable, including the elderly, infirm and unborn. 

I am strongly committed to working hard for the wellbeing of all my constituents in the Maitland electorate.

This candidate has not been in contact with the Mercury and did not attend the ballot draw that all other Maitland ­candidates attended.

The Mercury contacted the party’s head office in Sydney ­several days before publication, but received no response.

Where to vote in Maitland on March 28: