ONE question from Greg Kachel sparked an angry response from Richard Torbay at Wednesday night's 'meet the candidates' forum at the Inverell RSM Club.

Introducing himself as the former manager of 2NZ Mr Kachel asked the Northern Tablelands MP if he planned to serve a full term if re-elected and also asked if he endorsed last week's "rants" by New England MP Tony Windsor.

"Greg, fair dinkum, you work for Senator Williams. Don't stand up under the guise of being the former manager of 2NZ," Mr Torbay tersely answered before adding that he would serve out a full term if re-elected and dismissed Mr Windsor's comments as a federal matter that he wasn't going to buy into.

Mr Kachel is chief of staff to Nationals senator John Williams.

Four out of the five candidates who are standing for Northern Tablelands at the March 26 state election were in Inverell on Wednesday night.

The exception was Sarah Frazier, Labor's teenage candidate, who attends university in Sydney.

Along with Mr Torbay, Nationals candidate Charlie McCowen, The Greens' Pat Schultz and Isabel Strutt from the Christian Democratic Party answered questions from the local audience.

The Native Vegetation Act dominated much of the discussion with all candidates in favour of farmers being compensated if land had to be locked up.

Other topics raised during the forum were health services and transport in regional areas, supermarket prices and daylight savings.

© 2011 Inverell Times

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