By PAUL MILLAR
ADRIAN Schonfelder has burned a few bridges in the past but the byelection candidate for Geelong’s Kildare ward has at least considered building a new one.
The 40-year-old surveyed residents about building another bridge at Queen’s Park but decided against it and now says he’s opposed to council rate rises.
As a Labor candidate for Flinders at the 2010 federal election he made national headlines when he accused then-opposition leader Tony Abbott of influencing people to commit suicide with his religious views on premarital sex and abortion.
Mr Schonfelder said he quickly apologised, stepped down as the candidate and was injured in a car accident soon after.
He had been a member of the Liberals before switching to Labor but was now unaligned to either party and had only an interest in politics, he said.
The latest candidate to emerge for the ward considered himself “interesting” rather than controversial.
Mr Schonfelder also considered himself well-versed in local issues, saying he had “lived, been educated and worked in Kildare ward at the local Safeway (now Woolworth’s) supermarket and was a paper boy for the Independent“.
“I’d like to make a difference,” he said.
Mr Schonfelder also supported the retention of Geelong Saleyards as a council-owned asset.
He recently addressed council, saying the saleywards were essential to local farming communities. He wanted them modernised to become a regional centre for stock sales.
Calls to sell the saleyards were one of the main reasons he was standing for the ward, which former councillor Stretch Kontelj vacated for a job promotion in England.
Mr Schonfeler said he would also challenge for the seat at the next election.
Governing was about listening, he said, and he was listening to residents of Kildare.
Nominations officially open on Thursday and close on 15 September before a postal vote in October.
