Ten Northern Tablelands candidates at 2023 NSW election

Incumbent, Nationals' candidate Adam Marshall was first elected to Gunnedah Shire Council at the age of 19 before serving as deputy mayor from 2007 and mayor from 2008 to 2012.

He briefly left politics to complete his tertiary studies at the University of New England and was elected representative of Northern Tablelands at a byelection in 2013.

Mr Marshall said he would continue to fight for access to better health outcomes in the regions, improved infrastructure especially roads, and to reduce the impact of the cost-of-living crisis.

"The cost of living is a big issue, particularly as interest rates continue to rise, putting extreme pressure on people's household budgets," Mr Marshall said.

Labor candidate Yvonne Langenberg said if she is elected she would push for improvements in health, education and small business.

Ms Lagenberg worked for about 35 years as a registered nurse in public and private health and owns Boobooks, employing five people, on Beardy Street in Armidale.

Ms Lagenberg supports the 44 recommendations handed down by the Rural Health Inquiry established by Labor.

She said we need to ensure goods and services are bought, provided and contracted locally "because of the flow on effect it has on other businesses in the area being able to do well".

As for education, Lagenberg said she fully supports Labor's promise to lift the cap on teachers' wages and transfer about 10,000 of those on temporary contracts to permanent ones.

Independent candidate Natasha Ledger was a Uralla Shire councillor for five years from 2016 to 2022 and has lived locally for about 23 years.

Her top three issues for the campaign are: refusing rate rises, increased funding for regional infrastructure and reinstating the disused train line from Armidale to Wallangarra.

"The train represents a vital economic corridor both locally and further afield, reducing household freight fuel and food costs," Ms Ledger said.

Her fourth campaign issue is to build an incinerator between Inverell and Glen Innes, to burn waste to create energy.

"Regional tips are coming to the end of their lifecycle, and we have a real and tangible waste issue regionally and nationally."

Greens Party candidate Elizabeth O'Hara is a former high school teacher who taught for 40 years in the Northern Tablelands before retiring two years ago.

She was born in the town of Glen Innes where she grew up and later attended the University of New England in Armidale where she currently lives.

As a member of the Greens Party, Ms O'Hara said housing affordability, a 15 per cent pay rise for paramedics and teachers, fully funding public education and giving everyone access to quality public health, are her key issues.

Ms O'Hara has been active in campaigning against fossil fuel companies across the Pilliga and Liverpool Plains and the protest to stop logging in the Styx River Native Forest near Armidale.

"The Greens are determined to bring integrity back to politics by banning all corporate political donations, end pork-barrelling and bring gambling under control in NSW," Ms O'Hara said.

"We have a comprehensive plan to put communities first and return power to local councils and we will restore our democratic right to protest."

Margaret Hammond was born and raised in Guyra and is a mother to two children.

She currently runs a successful Airbnb guest house while moonlighting as a singer.

Free speech, government transparency and efficiency, education and health are the areas she is most focused on ahead of the March 25 election.

"There is too much red tape and overreach," Ms Hammond said.

"I think people can use their own good sense to make decisions without the government having to come in and tell them how to do everything."

She said there also needs to be more manufacturing in regional areas to encourage people to stay.

Peter O'Loghlin served 12 years in the Navy, including two tours of Vietnam, and has lived in Murwillumbah on the NSW north coast, in the Lismore electorate, for about 20 years.

He spent about two decades living in various places, including a stint in New York, suffering from PTSD before he turned to cannabis as a way to ease his ills.

"It's about time we did away with the law on drugs which is doing harm to us in a number of ways, economically for a start," Mr O'Loghlin said.

"We're practically standing up publicly confessing to criminality just to get the square on the ballot paper. But it gives everybody a safe way of having a say in this matter."

Mr O'Loghlin said minors should not be exposed to cannabis. However, he said other by-products of the weed such as hemp clothing and cannabidiol were also a part of their campaign push leading up to the election.

Darshan Wood, nicknamed Billy, has lived in Guyra for about 16 years after he made the big city-to-country move from Brisbane in 2007.

His agenda items for the 2023 election have tapped into local town sentiment, with a pledge to put trains back on the disused Main North tracks from Armidale to Wallangarra.

"A good part of the electorate doesn't have rail service," Mr Wood said. "And a good part of it has been neglected north of Armidale for decades."

He would also split the Guyra and Armidale councils, saying the May 2016 merger has created more problems for the two towns because of their distinctiveness.

And he would make the state take more accountability for bigger infrastructure projects, such as bridges and dams "rather than passing it on to councils and local governments".

Gary Hampton has lived with his family in Inverell since 2010. At the end of December 2022 he retired from his career as a public school teacher.

Mr Hampton would ensure schools are fully staffed and more fairly funded across NSW under standards set by the Gonski Review.

"I know it's difficult to attract staff," Mr Hampton said.

"But we need to look at different ways to attract professional people and to retain people in country areas."

He said he would also increase the number of scholarships available to public school students.

Michael Hay was born and raised in Armidale where he works as a fabricator welder and onsite supervisor at Rose Valley Steel Works.

If elected on March 25, Mr Hay said he would build a tunnel through the mountains direct to the coast to cut fuel costs, improve access to health for those in the bush, and step up reparation of roads.

"My wife has a brand new car and it's got 4000 kms on it and she has destroyed one tyre already," Mr Hay said.

"It's at the point where we just can't dodge the potholes anymore."

Mr Crowe's office was contacted by ACM but did not provide a response.