Long-term Central Australian resident Blair McFarland founded the Central Australian Youth Link Up Service with Tangentyere Council, which aims to prevent petrol sniffing among young people, in 2002. The former Alice Springs mayoral candidate has continued his work with substance misuse and youth justice ever since.

As the freshly announced Greens candidate for Lingiari, Mr McFarland said he had been considering having a crack at federal politics for years as he has been unhappy with the work of the federal government for a long time.

He spoke about his vision for the electorate if elected.

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Environment

Mr McFarland said what he sees as inadequate action from the government to combat climate change was a major driving force in his decision to run.

"Rather than trying to act in the best interests of the people, they're [the federal government] actually acting in the best interests of big business and the extractive industries," he said.

"With every degree of global warming, the atmosphere can hold 70 per cent more water. And so there's going to be more and more floods, and the fires the year before [are also going to become more frequent].

"It's certainly something that motivated me to throw my hat in the ring because when my grandkids ...they asked me what I did to try and head this off, at least I can say I ran, I tried."

He said he was particularly concerned about rising temperatures in his electorate which already regularly battles temperatures above 40C.

"Another issue which has impacts down here is the rising cost of power. It means that people out bush can't air condition their houses, in town as well."

Mr McFarland said he believes fracking and water security were major issues for Lingiari constituents, especially in Katherine.

"I know that a lot of local residents are concerned about both mining and the cotton push, having seen what happened in the Murray Darling Basin," he said.

"I think they're concerned that the Daly and Rover Rivers are going to wind up like the Murray Darling."

Crime

Mr McFarland said he would fight against a "tough on crime" approach if elected.

"Getting tough on crime equals getting expensive on crime," he said.

"Putting people in jail is a ridiculously expensive exercise."

He said he would fight for an increase in welfare payments, such as Jobseeker, as part of a plan to combat crime.

"Welfare reform that makes people even poorer - these are not things that are going to reduce crime. If you make people poor, you will increase crime," he said.

"People will basically have absolutely no respect for a system that starves them and their families.

[And] you're looking at a whole strata of people who are in extreme grinding poverty. And that's the reason why...they've got nothing to lose."

Housing

Mr McFarland said there was a desperate need for more social housing to be built in Katherine and across the NT.

"There's a serious shortage of housing. If you have that social housing, you take a lot of pressure off the rental market," he said.

"The resources are there to ease that problem substantially. The problem is the lack of political will."

Economy

So, how would all of this be funded? Mr McFarland said he would look to running deficits and taxing large corporations.

He said running deficits, using the example of Robert Menzies prime ministership, has previously resulted in lower unemployment and more money going back into the economy.

"Everyone's sort of [been] focused on a surplus for a while, and the Coalition did although they're backing away from it now. But what is the surplus other than...tax money that's been collected but not spent on services for the people you are collecting it from?" he said.

"A surplus is something you should be ashamed of because it shows you're not managing the economy."

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