Council elections: Matthew Sharpham wants staff back in Ray Walsh House

Matthew Sharpham is a busy man.

Between raising two kids, running a small ag-tech drone business, doing charity work abroad, and working as a comms and technology supervisor for NSW Police, he says he never imagined running for Tamworth Regional Council (TRC).

"I never thought I'd run for local government, but between the SRV [Special Rate Variation] and Ray Walsh House, those really pushed me," Mr Sharpham said.

The Tamworth man says he travels quite a bit for work, both domestically and internationally, and has seen families and businesses alike come under pressure from runaway inflation.

As such, Mr Sharpham says he'll be running for council in September to try to get TRC to tighten its wallet and cut back on any services unrelated to roads, rates, or rubbish.

"I think they're jumping the gun and trying to build bigger and better at a time when people are hurting," he said.

"It's time for organisations, especially on a local level, to cut back a little bit and focus on the things that matter: roads, garbage, sewer, water, all that sort of stuff."

He says Ray Walsh House in particular is an example of the local council biting off more than it can chew.

In June 2022 the former council headquarters was deemed unfit for staff after the air conditioning on Levels 1, 2 and 3 stopped working, and fixing it was deemed a health risk due to asbestos.

TRC is currently investigating options for the potential "future disposal" of Ray Walsh House.

Council has also resolved to make all reports on the building publicly available and to undertake community consultation to help decide its future.

But Mr Sharpham says consultation should've started well before now, preferably back in 2022.

"There's no approval for what they're looking into so far," Mr Sharpham said.

He also doubts the costings put together by Public Works NSW which estimate the price of refurbishing the building will be between $52 and $65.5 million.

Mr Sharpham became active in politics during the COVID-19 pandemic.

He says he "very briefly" joined the Liberal party, but left because he felt COVID-19 lockdowns and vaccine mandates were hurting businesses.

"I have conservative views, I'm a conservative at heart," he says.

"But the reason I joined the Liberal party was to try and navigate the COVID rubbish that was happening at the time, all the lockdowns and stuff, but when I saw that was fruitless I actually left before the 12-month mark."

Mr Sharpham then ran against Barnaby Joyce as an independent in the 2022 federal election.

During that election Mr Sharpham was endorsed by a group known as The Australia Project (TAP), an anti-vax organisation which advocates for Australia to leave the WHO [World Health Organisation].

At the time he described himself as an 'outer member' of TAP but he told the Leader he's no longer involved with the group.

"I'm friends with the guy that runs the chapter here, and I met people through that, but I'm not sure they [the Tamworth chapter] exist anymore," Mr Sharpham said.

On his Facebook page Mr Sharpham has described COVID-19 as "the spicy flu" and shown support for politicians from Pauline Hanson's One Nation party.

Outside of business and politics, one of Mr Sharpham's personal passions is charity work.

He and his wife Jane, a naturopath, run a charity in the south of Africa which has been involved in a number of health and educational initiatives in Zambia.

"It started very early days with the church we go to here in Tamworth, then we decided to get a bit more personally involved," Mr Sharpham said.

"My wife does a lot with women's health through nutrition and re-usable sanitary - or period - kits. I do the other side, I've got a business over there that's helping to support an orphanage."

If elected to TRC in September, the business owner said his biggest focus would be on ensuring council's decisions were informed by the will of the majority.

"I don't think local councillors should necessarily come in with a policy as such, they should be coming in with the view that if there is a decision to be made, they'll do their due diligence to find out from the majority what they want," he said.

"At the end of the day the ratepayers and residents are the ones who fund the town and need to have a say in how it's run."