WANGARATTA GP Julian Fidge will contest the 2022 federal election but he's realistic about his chances and rather hopes to influence future political policies by his mere presence.
An independent has held the seat of Indi since Cathy McGowan won the seat in 2013 and prior to that it has been held by a major party to the right of centre.
But for Dr Fidge it's not about winning, but more about giving his party policies some airtime to perhaps influence decisions and the major party policies.
He used the example of the Wangaratta drug and rehabilitation centre that is soon to be opened, a facility he advocated for back in 2012 when he was contesting the state election for the Country Alliance Party.
"We put together a policy with Odyssey House about what was needed for rural Victoria in terms of drug and alcohol rehabilitation," Dr Fidge said.
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"The Labor Party took it up and of course they got elected and what happened was they created rehabilitation centres in Warrnambool, Wangaratta and Gippsland.
"I only got 10 per cent of the vote, but I still managed to influence policy and it really taught me that just by participating in the process you can have an influence."
Fast forward a decade and Dr Fidge is having his third go at a federal election, this time with the Liberal Democrats.
Dr Fidge launched his campaign on Tuesday with his party's pledge to cut the 44.2 per litre fuel tax, a policy which isn't new to the Liberal Democrats, but perhaps greatly significant considering the current extreme price of fuel at the bowser.
High fuel prices have started to have an impact on family budgets directly when filling up, but also on the price of goods and services exacerbated by the associated transport and freight costs that affect the bottom line.
Indi voters proved that they were drifting away from the major parties in 2013 when McGowan was elected, but Dr Fidge remains grounded in his hopes.
"I don't have any unrealistic expectations, this is a four cornered contest and I'll be left trying to scrap together whatever is left over from Liberal, Labor, Greens, Nationals and the Independent, Helen Haines," he said.
"There won't be much left over but I can argue policy and maybe I can influence them, we'll see."
He said the Liberal Democrats stand by lower taxation, smaller government, and more freedoms and they have "very sensible, workable ideas and they think outside the box".
"Things like vaccine mandates, you can't force people to be vaccinated if they don't want to," Dr Fidge said.
"People get very anxious and distressed and the MRNA vaccines are obviously novel and a new invention and they haven't been tried on a large scale before.
"All of the COVID vaccines were rushed and AstraZeneca has been withdrawn and we don't use it for anything anymore."
Another out of the box idea Dr Fidge referred to was allowing vehicles to travel faster on the freeways if a trial program deemed it safe.
He used the example of state Liberal Democrats MP Tim Quilty who has been pushing for speed limits to be increased on major freeways.
"This is obviously something they need to do just as a pilot on the Hume Freeway, northbound or southbound," he said.
"I don't think it would cause an increase in accidents and you would have to prove it by doing a pilot."
Dr Fidge said he's happy to be with the Liberal Democrats to have party backing through administration, policies and to check his thinking.
"I'm really looking forward to this election with a contest of ideas with all my colleagues on the hustings," he said.
Dr Fidge joins six others in the Indi race including incumbent Helen Haines (Independent), Nadia David (Labor), Benjamin Gilbert (Greens), Ross Lyman (Liberal), Elizabeth Fisher (Nationals), and Stephen Williams (United Australia Party).
