THE WA Shooters, Fishers and Farmers Party is taking a gamble to win more seats in the WA Parliament at next year's State election.
The party has endorsed candidates for three regional Upper House seats, with Agricultural Region MLC Rick Mazza moving to contest the South West, while Stuart Ostle, Jarrahdale, will replace him in the Agricultural Region, and Stefan Colagiuri, Coolgardie, will contest the mining pastoral region.
Mr Mazza said while he enjoyed representing the Agricultural Region it was the decision of the party's executive for him to contest the South West seat - up against Labor heavyweight Alannah MacTiernan.
"I'm moving to the South West because the party aims to grow the number of elected members it has in the parliament," Mr Mazza said.
"The party considers that we have a solid presence in the ag region, a very good candidate in Stuart Ostle and I was best placed to take a bit of risk and contest the South West."
He said the party came within a few hundred votes of securing a seat in the Mining and Pastoral Region in the past two elections and felt confident this time around, with three of the sitting members retiring at the next election.
Mr Mazza said they were still in the process of finalising candidates for the metropolitan regions and a number of Lower House districts, but the party hoped to field someone in every seat.
Mr Colaguiri, who joined the party when it was established in WA and was vice chairman for a number of years before being elected to the State executive in 2014, stood as a candidate in the Mining and Pastoral region in the 2017 election.
He said he campaigned hard and was disappointed to have missed out by less than 200 votes.
Mr Colaguiri has been self-employed for 32 years around Kalgoorlie and runs a small transport and hire business.
He said he would be standing on the issues of attracting people back to the Goldfields city and improving the roads and reducing red tape and regulations on mining prospectors and firearms dealers.
"Kalgoorlie is the end of the line," Mr Colaguiri said.
"It is one of the largest regional cities in Australia and doesn't get much support from anyone.
"The population has been in decline, though it is steady at the moment, and that has impacted local businesses.
"We need to attract more people back to the region and create more local jobs.
"The Great Eastern Highway from Merredin to Kalgoorlie is a death trap.
"It's not on.
"It needs to be seriously upgraded."
Mr Colaguiri said other unsealed roads in the region were also costing the transporters time and money because of the "appalling state" of them.
He said there were many sporting shooters in the region and they were sick of the "constant changes to firearms dealers".
"I would like to see something concrete for dealers to abide by rather than the constant changes we have been seeing," he said.
Mr Colaguiri said most prospectors were responsible people and they wanted to get in there and operate - but bureaucracy prohibited them from doing so.
"I'd like to reduce the bureaucracy controlling the area," he said.
Mr Ostle ran in the Darling Downs by-election last year and polled at 4.2 per cent of the vote overall.
"In the area of Jarrahdale I received 9.6pc of the vote," Mr Ostle said.
He has been a member of the party since 2016 and was put up as a Federal representative in 2018.
Mr Ostle is from a family farm in the Moora District and is involved in marron farming as well as selling real estate.
He said he decided to get involved because he was "watching what was going on and I'm not happy".
"It's one thing to jump up and down about it - it's another thing to put your hand up and do something," Mr Ostle said.
"I liked the party because we are not hiding from anything - we are who our name says.
"It's important to me to be honest about what I stand for."
Mr Ostle said water was a big issue that he would be looking to address if elected.
"We need answers, and we need a plan," he said.
The Shooters, Fishers and Farmers Party in WA has six written policies on its website - focusing on greater freedom to enjoy the sports and recreational pastimes loved in the State, as well as less red tape and bureaucracy for landholders, farmers and miners to deal with.
Mr Ostle said a further six policies had been agreed on and would be added to the website in coming weeks - including transport and water, as well as strengthening its policy on fisheries.
The party is hoping to field a candidate in every seat - including the metro area where Mr Colaguiri said they have "strong support" from the shooting and fishing community.