National Party leader David Littleproud campaigning in Coffs Harbour

ABC NEWS (Australia)

The National Party is hoping to hold on to all its seats in this election and is now campaigning hard to pick up some more.  David Littleproud is continuing his wombat trail today, stopping in Coffs Harbour.

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00:00The Nationals leader David Littleproud continues his wombat trail.

00:05Today he's in the marginal seat of Cowper on the mid-north New South Wales south coast.

00:12He's in Coffs Harbour, he's pounding the pavement and visiting businesses in a local business

00:17precinct downtown.

00:18At the moment he's in a motorbike shop and he's been talking to businesses this morning

00:23about the opposition's plan to halve the fuel excise, so effectively giving people a discount

00:29at the Bowser.

00:30That seems to be going down with the types of constituents that the Nationals are speaking

00:35with specifically here today.

00:38Business owners are also talking about some of the challenges they're facing in this cost

00:42of living crisis, so staff shortages but also the cost of staff and generally just everything

00:48going up in price.

00:50The Nationals seat of Cowper is an interesting one.

00:53It's the one that they are most concerned about out of all their seats across the country.

00:57Of course those seats are in the more rural and remote and regional locations.

01:01This one faces an interesting challenge from an independent by the name of Kaz Heiss.

01:07Kaz Heiss contested this seat in the last election and she is doing so again this time

01:11round.

01:12She managed to reduce this margin to just 2.4% at the last election, so the incumbent

01:19Pat Conahan, a former police prosecutor, does have a challenge on his hands.

01:24He'll be hoping that coalition policies like the plan to halve the fuel excise will help

01:30his chances.

01:31But the Nationals are certainly also playing into issues around cost of living like housing.

01:37There's going to be a housing announcement later on today, $11 million to extend and

01:43implement sewerage works for housing out at Bellingen, outside of Coffs Harbour.

01:49The other big issue around in this electorate is local crime.

01:53So particularly youth crime, home invasions, burglaries, a local issue but it will be interesting

01:58to see how that plays out federally at the ballot box.

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