NICK Shady has always been on the conservative side of politics, but he freely admits to his frustrations with all sides of the political spectrum, both left and right.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The Ballarat-based grain grower is running as an independent in the upcoming Federal Election, expected to be held in late May.
Mr Shady said there was more to conservative politics than what was being portrayed throughout Australia.
"I'm frustrated with the quality of leadership at a federal level on both parties," he said. "Especially after the state election it was pretty disheartening as to where the conservative side of politics was going."
Mr Shady said he wanted to provide a different style of leadership for Ballarat and considers his platform as "conservative with a social conscience".
He said he did not wish to play games with voters, saying it was up to the electorate to choose.
"At the end of the day, a lot of people don't even look at the card and to be honest, it's something I don't want to get into. I've always been a Liberal voter and in reality we are in a Labor electorate, if you're happy the way things are in Ballarat, vote for who you believe," he said.
"I'm standing as an independent because I believe my policies are a blend of both and I don't want to be ringing someone at head office asking if I can say this or that."
One of Mr Shady's policies is to see a halt on immigration to Australia until infrastructure has caught up with the population.
"I want to see my children be able to a get full time job," he said.
"When people come in, they go to places like the west of Melbourne like Melton. We're talking 125,000 more people to cities like Melbourne and Sydney every year.
"Melbourne is building its new rail tunnel, and this is before the electrification to Melton, that's going to take years, how is that going to cope?"
Mr Shady said Australia should work to reduce debt before another recession comes along.
"We've got a huge amount of debt," he said. "The debt has to be paid back at some stage. We've built our growth on cheap interest rates and debts, we are not producing much, we are moving paper around.
"It's not like our debt is going into the manufacturing industry. We live in a bubble of low interest rates and easy credit."
Have you signed up to The Courier's daily newsletter and breaking news emails? You can register below and make sure you are up to date with everything that's happening in Ballarat.