Growing up on undulating farmland in a dairy farming family in Kangaroo Valley, Felix Nelson brings local experience as the Shooters Fishers and Farmers (SFF) candidate for the upcoming Kiama by-election.

Nelson’s first order of business in his campaign is the Hampden Bridge in Kangaroo Valley which he sees as one of critical importance for the agricultural sector.

“She’s [Hampden Bridge] 127 years old now and has done incredibly well, but unfortunately would appear to have fallen by the wayside with the appropriate maintenance schedules,” he said.

“This isn’t casting stones at one side, both of the two parties [Labor and Liberal] have been in charge in the time that this bridge has been decaying.”

Nelson explained the weight reduction on the Hampden Bridge has been halved to now a 23-tonne load limit which excludes the entire Kangaroo Valley corridor for heavy vehicles and means the local livestock transport industries have to take a major detour via Picton Road.

“It then forces all those trucks to then come all the way back through the northern end of the Kiama electorate and through Wollongong,” Nelson said.

“That’s a huge detour and that is their [the government’s] current working condition.”

The Minns Labor Government has pledged $500,000 in planning for a permanent new bridge and too blamed the previous Liberal-National government’s maintenance for the deterioration.

Liberal candidate Serena Copley said the Liberals see the need for the maintenance.

“We want urgent planning for a solution to be done in consultation with the Kangaroo Valley community,” Copley said.

Nelson said while he is well versed across many industries the one thing that sets him apart from other candidates is the party he is aligned with.

“We get to capitalise on the political experience within the party, in that it is a party that’s been around for a long time and has a good staffing network,” he said.

“It has good connections with the elements of the existing government but isn’t beholden to the government.

“So, the real advantage I see with the SFF party specifically, is that we already have two members in the upper house who have, in this term of government, established a good working relationship with the government without selling their values and their constituent base down the river.”

NSW Upper House Member and SFF party member Mark Banasiak shared why it is important for SFF to have a candidate like Nelson in the by-election race as an alternative to the two major parties.

“Both the major parties have let the region down in the past, [they] have seen it as a safe seat and probably haven’t given it the attention that it’s deserved,” Banasiak said.

“We’re quite happy to provide the community with an opportunity to place their vote somewhere else and hopefully get some traction and some more things delivered.”

In 2016, the SFF created history in the seat of Orange, where the Nationals, who held the seat since 1981, suffered a devastating 34 per cent swing in the by-election, which Nelson is using as his inspiration.

“[There] is a worked example that a SFF candidate can stand for a seat that is not traditionally been theirs and has been safely held by another party,” Nelson said.

“And I think that’s an interesting example that if people want to have a look at the possibilities of what we’re proposing for the area, that it can be very successful with a smaller party that has good working relationships across the upper and lower house.”

Banasiak was more reserved, but believes if anyone can do it, Nelson can.

“Look it’s going to be a challenge, but Felix is a fantastic local community member, and he has historic roots,” Banasiak said.

“Anything is possible and he’s [Nelson] going to give it a red-hot go, it’s an opportunity for people to see positive change.”

When asked about his political heroes, Nelson confessed to being a student of history and uses this as his political compass.

“My political inspiration comes from what has been achieved by various wartime Prime Ministers for their ability to get things done when things need to get done,” he said.

“That is my inspiration that it can be done, [that] we can get the wheels rolling on projects when they need to get rolling.”

Nelson joined the armed forces after leaving high school and served in Afghanistan as an artillery observer in 2012 which he sees as a “keynote of the career”.

His wife is a nurse and they are raising a young family in the Kiama electorate.