Carol Sparks, the former Glen Innes Severn Council mayor who attracted national attention during the black summer bushfires, will challenge Barnaby Joyce at the federal election with a clarion call on climate change action.
With one eye on the nearby flood disaster in the northern rivers and the ongoing impacts of the 2019-20 bushfires still causing anxiety in her region, Sparks says she will be standing up for the voiceless in the National party-held electorate of New England in northern New South Wales.
