Candidates contesting the seat of Mount Gambier at this month’s State Election were front and centre at the Women in Business and Regional Development’s community forum last week at City Hall.

Independent Troy Bell, Labor’s Katherine Davies and Liberal Ben Hood answered questions from the public on a range of issues including health care and regional investment.

‘The Great Debate’ was emceed by ABC radio SA host Narelle Graham with questions submitted via text or live from the audience during the forum.

A question directed at Mr Bell asked if the two court cases he has pending against him will affect his ability to represent the people of Mount Gambier.

“I have maintained my innocence all the way through (and) I look forward to my day in court where I can prove that,” replied Mr Bell.

“The faith that this community has shown me I work so bloody hard to repay that every day I can.

“Anybody comes into my office with an issue we will go to the absolute ends of the earth to support them, to help them because I know what it’s like when life is not treating you fairly.

“Yes it’s an issue, I will face it, I look forward to putting it to bed, finally … getting on but every day it drives me harder and harder.”

As always health in the region was a hot topic with Ms Davies asked if Labor was elected to run the state in two weeks, was there any intent on the re-emergence of Transforming Health to the region’s health system?

Ms Davies said she believed in the promises and polices outlined by Labor they were investing in health in the region.

“I listen to them talk about it in 2020, I listened to them talk about it in 2021 about the fact they do think the regions actually matter and so I do not believe there is going to be a fallback of Adelaide centric (funding),” she said.

Mr Bell slammed the program, saying “no one talks about Transforming Health in the walls of parliament … and there’s probably a good reason for it; it was an absolute disaster”.

Despite Mr Bell repeatedly claiming Premier Steven Marshall was the “biggest disappointment” of his political career, when asked whether Liberal or Labor had a better chance of delivering good government for the state he chose the Liberals.

“To answer your question honestly, I think the Liberal Party have the best team … because out of the two they have broad representation from regional South Australia as well as representation from obviously the CBD and metro areas of Adelaide but the problem I see is that team is handcuffed and put in a corner and not listened to,” he said.

“They’re not effective in driving the change and the investment in regional South Australia so from a structural point of view I think the Liberal Party potentially have the best team but it’s not working and that’s my honest opinion.”

Mr Hood was questioned how he could make sure his religious affiliations did not affect the way he would carry out his job if he were to be elected as the Member for Mount Gambier.

“We all have beliefs if you’re an atheist or you’re a Christian or you’re a Hindu or anything else,” he said.

“We all have beliefs, and they are what form us but as a member for Mount Gambier you are representing everybody.

“You are representing the young, the old, vulnerable, powerful, you are representing everyone, and you do that with equity.

“You make sure that you listen to everybody, that you represent people’s views.

“I would listen to everybody, and I would ensure everybody is represented the best I possibly could irrespective of their beliefs or mine.”

While all parties agreed the region should be grown by creating new industries the candidates said other issues had to be addressed before that could happen.

“We have to tackle the issue of water from a scientific … and equitable point of view.

“We need to get the fundamentals right (first),” Mr Bell said.

“I would love to establish a medical marijuana factory here producing cannabis oil for kids who have got epilepsy.

“It is out of reach, the oil works, and they cannot afford it.

“There is no THC in it, it does not give you a high and all that type of stuff, we have got to get away from that concept but (we should look at) those industries where we can change people’s lives.

“I have got my eye on the (old) Bunnings’s building because it has got to be indoors, there has to be no contamination and it has all got to be secure.

“It is heartbreaking when you have got kids with epilepsy and their parents cannot afford the oil, it just rips your heart out.

“We could be doing something about it.”

Mr Hood agreed saying “we need to get the water issue right”.

“The science is happening at the moment to ensure we may be able to do something with the 150 gigalitres that goes through our drainage system and being able to bring that back in the environment and utilise that water resource so we can grow more, and we can be more productive,” he said.

“By 2050 we’re going to have to feed 70% more people in the world and Mount Gambier with our amazing water and our amazing soil, we have the opportunity to grow the food for the world and I’m excited about that.

“We have great opportunity we just have to get the underlying infrastructure right.

“We have every opportunity and all that we need to do is jump up and down and make a hell of a lot of noise to ensure it happens.”

Ms Davies also agreed with the other candidates saying they needed to get the foundations right, however the foundations she prioritised were health and housing.

“We need to make sure that if we’re bringing in a new industry down here they need to live somewhere and they need to have access to health services,” she said.

“If our health services are buckling because we have got too many people then we cannot expand our industry so that’s what I would be looking at before we start growing this region any further … because we already have nurses and teachers who have got nowhere to live.”