David Mallard, a former Charles Sturt University psychology lecturer in Bathurst and parliamentary adviser who has lived in Orange for the past five years, said he was pre-selected several weeks ago but due to work commitments could not announce his candidacy until yesterday.

Since December he has been an adviser for Greens spokeswoman on human services and community resilience Jan Barham.

Despite the seat of Calare traditionally being a safe Nationals seat, Dr Mallard said he hoped to provide an alternative voice to the two major parties.

“Whether or not I win, I want to provide a genuine alternative,” he said.

“If polling in the area goes the same way as nationally then I expect a swing further toward the Coalition.”

Despite this, Dr Mallard is yet to decide where his preferences will go.

He said he would like to see what the other candidates had to offer.

His job is to campaign to the people of Calare, not only for the lower house seat but on how important the Greens’ balance of power is in the Senate.

It was likely the Coalition would win power but it was important people recognised what the Greens could do in the Senate by using lead Senate candidate Cate Faehrmann to shift policy from that position, he said.

Dr Mallard said he would represent Calare on issues such as the Macquarie pipeline, funding cuts to universities, fighting for cleaner energy in the area, such as wind farms, and raising the Newstart allowance.

He said there were alternatives to water security for Orange and regional universities were the ones to suffer the most from federal cuts to education.

“If you want professionals to live and work in regional communities you have to train them here,” he said.