(no subject)

Popular NSW independent MP Peter Andren has been diagnosed with cancer and has pulled out of this year's election contest.

Mr Andren, 60, said today the health scare had come like a bolt from the blue but he was determined to fight the illness and restore his health.

But while he would serve out his current term as the member for Calare, the former Bathurst TV newsreader said he would no longer go ahead with plans to stand for the Senate at this year's election.

"Unfortunately the diagnosis and available interventions to treat this cancer are not very encouraging but I am taking advice on several treatment regimes," Mr Andren said.

"I remain the Member for Calare until the dissolution of the current parliament and my staff will attend to the business of the electorate with the same skill and professionalism they have shown for more than a decade.

"Because of the nature of the illness and treatment phase I have reluctantly decided to withdraw from the upcoming Senate election and will be putting all my energies into my recovery over the next fwe months.

"I thank everyone for their concern and thoughts and ask that my privacy be respected at this difficult time."

Mr Andren has held the regional seat of Calare which covers Lithgow, Bathurst and Orange since 1996.

At the last election he won a massive 71 per cent of the two-party preferred vote, making him one of the State's most popular MPs.

But after last year's electoral redistribution radically changed the boundaries of the seat, he announced he would stand as an independent candidate for the Senate.


I was really sad to hear about this. Peter Andren is a truly principled man, the type of person there needs to be more of in government. At the last election he stated he supported asylum seekers, and explained to his electorate why. His vote went up.

I'd been going to urge my family and anyone else who would listen to me to put him at number 1 in the senate voting (in NSW).

(no subject)

Popular NSW independent MP Peter Andren has been diagnosed with cancer and has pulled out of this year's election contest.

Mr Andren, 60, said today the health scare had come like a bolt from the blue but he was determined to fight the illness and restore his health.

But while he would serve out his current term as the member for Calare, the former Bathurst TV newsreader said he would no longer go ahead with plans to stand for the Senate at this year's election.

"Unfortunately the diagnosis and available interventions to treat this cancer are not very encouraging but I am taking advice on several treatment regimes," Mr Andren said.

"I remain the Member for Calare until the dissolution of the current parliament and my staff will attend to the business of the electorate with the same skill and professionalism they have shown for more than a decade.

"Because of the nature of the illness and treatment phase I have reluctantly decided to withdraw from the upcoming Senate election and will be putting all my energies into my recovery over the next fwe months.

"I thank everyone for their concern and thoughts and ask that my privacy be respected at this difficult time."

Mr Andren has held the regional seat of Calare which covers Lithgow, Bathurst and Orange since 1996.

At the last election he won a massive 71 per cent of the two-party preferred vote, making him one of the State's most popular MPs.

But after last year's electoral redistribution radically changed the boundaries of the seat, he announced he would stand as an independent candidate for the Senate.


I was really sad to hear about this. Peter Andren is a truly principled man, the type of person there needs to be more of in government. At the last election he stated he supported asylum seekers, and explained to his electorate why. His vote went up.

I'd been going to urge my family and anyone else who would listen to me to put him at number 1 in the senate voting (in NSW).