While the main players have all now made their candidate selections for the federal seat of Eden-Monaro, independents are also preparing to stand for election.
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Mr Thaler, who has stood for election previously, is throwing his hat in the ring for both state and federal election campaigns. He said should a tilt for the NSW seat of Bega be successful he would withdraw from the federal race given the votes are likely within months of each other.
“[However,] I don’t need to be elected to make a difference,” Mr Thaler said this week.
“I stand for election to make more people aware of who I am and what I’ve done – one little bloke can have a national impact.”
Mr Thaler owns the Singleton solar farm and said the virtual net metering he instigated at the facility is now being used at renewable power plants across the country. It means regardless of where the generation plant is located, it’s power can be “accessed” from anywhere on the grid through an accounting mechanism.
He said an example is the University of Technology in Sydney being powered by the solar energy generated at Singleton.
“I’m looking to the future and our children. I have five kids now growing up in an era of metadata retention and facial recognition being utilised by authorities even via local government CCTV. It’s George Orwell’s 1984 on steroids.
“I reject the necessity of any of that. It’s as if we all have to be assessed as guilty – and even then we can’t stop a guy, who was being watched, from taking a knife into Bourke St.”
Mr Thaler said he was standing to bring about awareness of “dark times” at the hands of representatives from all three tiers of government.
“We aren’t getting the representation we need, or what we elected. We don’t see them unless they show up to hand out awards.
“We’re suffering because local councils are ignoring the will of the people.”
