He will run as an independent candidate endorsed by the Country Party of Australia (CPA) for Northern Tablelands.

David and his brother, Goondiwindi farmer Peter Mailler, are in the process of establishing the CPA, but it will not be registered with the Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) in time for the March election, but the fact remains a vote for him is a vote for the CPA.

“I am running as an independent only on the basis that the principles I stand for can’t be registered in a party yet,” David said.

He said in six weeks, the CPA had gathered about 150 membership applications of the mandatory 500 required by the commission to register the party.

While one commentator described David is the “wild card” in the battle for Northern Tablelands, another comment on social media labelled the CPA as being Nationals of a different colour.

It is the latter tag David fervently denies and said voters should not confuse the two parties.

“I’m conservative by nature, but I’m disillusioned and disaffected with the conservative representation we’re getting,” David said. 

“We don’t have that advocate that we desperately need to acknowledge the problems, and then empower the local communities to resolve the problems, and create resilience in our regional economies.”

David said the party was all about creating politicians for the people, not for the party or a coalition of parties, and one that could swing the balance of power back towards the bush. He said the CPA was about the very integral issue of rural viability.

“That’s everything that is sustained by the farm gate. All the business that actually sustain those communities, the bakers and the butchers and so on, they’re all part a big part of any agricultural community,” he said.

Peter Mailler has said the problem was that, politically, there was not an acknowledgement of the problems rural viability faced.

“If politics really understood the problems involved in providing a viable foundation for agriculture, then we wouldn’t have the current native vegetation laws, we wouldn’t have to protest about coal mines being opened up on prime agricultural land,  and we wouldn’t have to watch towns in the Riverina dying because they’ve lost 20 per cent of their agricultural water on flawed science,” Peter Mailler said.

Member for Northern Tablelands Adam Marshall said he had always been a strong advocate for his electorate.

“I always put people and their issues first and let the politics take care of themselves,” Mr Marshall said.

“That’s how I always operate. I always take the lead issues from the community, and the issues I champion are a reflection of what my communities needs are.”