Noted adventurer, businessman and environmentalist Huw Kingston will throw his hat into the ring for the next federal election.
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Mr Kingston will stand as an independent candidate to challenge energy minister Angus Taylor for the seat of Hume.
He said that he believed major parties have lost sight of why we elected them.
"We need to keep our elected representatives focused on governing, not game playing, on good decision making not political posturing," Mr Kingston said.
"The focus should be on tackling the enormous challenges facing us – none more so than climate change."
Mr Kingston, 55, is a resident of Bundanoon and has lived in the Hume electorate for 25 years.
He has operated small businesses and is a renowned adventurer and travel writer.
In 2015 he completed a 12-month circumnavigation of the Mediterranean from Gallipoli back to Gallipoli, by kayak, foot, ocean rowboat and bike.
In the process he became the biggest ever individual fundraiser for Save the Children Australia.
After witnessing the inundation of plastics on the world’s seas and shores, Mr Kingston is a strong campaigner against single-use plastics.
His ‘Bundy on Tap’ campaign resulted in Bundanoon becoming the world’s first town to stop selling still bottled water in 2009.
Together with several other awards, this initiative led to him being named by Time Magazine as one of their Worldwide Responsibility Pioneers.
Mr Kingston has owned a cafe/bike shop, operated an events and tour company, and organised some of Australia’s most celebrated mass-participation outdoor adventure events including the Highland Fling cycling event.
He said that he was emphatically a small businessman and after nearly 30 years of operating small businesses, he understood "the real challenges such businesses face."
"I am listening to the people of Hume, as well as the experts, and will formulate and champion policies in parliament to achieve the best outcome for my electorate," he said.
His particular concerns include the urgency for meaningful action on climate change, support for small business in regional Australia, encouragement of the renewable energy sector (recognising its potential to generate jobs), investment in modern and efficient public transport (in particular the Very Fast Train), and the need to tackle childhood obesity.
Mr Kingston would also like to see fixed four-year terms for the Federal Parliament.
"No Government can make or implement good policies for Australia’s future with an election every two to three years," he said.
"Of one thing I’m certain, now more than ever, there is a climate for change."
For more information about Huw Kingston and his campaign for the Hume electorate visit www.huwforhume.com.au
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