A schoolteacher has left the classroom and entered the political arena as the Labor candidate for the seat of Farrer.
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Kieran Drabsch quit his job at Murrumbidgee Regional High School to contest the Federal election on May 18.
He's hoping to teach a lesson to Liberal incumbent Sussan Ley who, he believes, could very well lose her hitherto safe seat after 18 long years.
"There is a mood for change in this electorate," Mr Drabsch said.
"Sussan is in the fight for her life politically and it's very important that we don't give her another three years to continue treating this electorate with neglect."
He's not the only one feeling optimistic; many of the independent candidates say they have a fighting chance to win for the first time in almost two decades.
Mr Drabsch attributes this shift in the winds to growing dissatisfaction over lack of services in regional areas - something he's promising to improve if elected as Member for Farrer.
"Sussan talks the big talk but if we look at her record she doesn't deliver," Mr Drabsch said.
"She's been a member of cuts chaos and scandal, and that's all she can deliver."
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One of his election promises will be to get more funding for understaffed classrooms, which he is intimately familiar with as a former teacher at Murrumbidgee Regional High.
He's promising more funding for schools and early education in neglected regional areas, which he says is necessary to make a "fairer Farrer".
"We want a fair go for education, a fair go for health, and a fair go for employment," Mr Drabsch said.
Another item on his election promises list will be a royal commission into the Murray Darling Basin Plan, as well as an independent national water theft task force.
He's also pushing for a judicial inquiry into "Barnaby's irrigator mates" as well as an anti-corruption watchdog to keep an eye on the federal parliament.
"I don't believe in 'Barnaby specials', but Sussan does," Mr Drabsch said.
"She's never been on a water committee she actually hasn't stood up for her community within her own party."
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