The Upper House candidate visited the Wimmera on Wednesday.

The father of two, who lives in Dunolly, is considering moving to the area.

“I’ve been here many times before, but never with the view of actually moving into the area,” he said.

“It’s really changed in the past 15 years. What a growing community – it looks quite vibrant and healthy. There’s a good energy about the place. I really like what I see.”

Mr Di Biase has a degree in viticulture, and a career in laboratory and research work.

He said his party had two key projects for economic renewal in rural Victoria.

“The first one is an export incubator, where you take a small business and walk them through every step to exporting to Asia in particular, and connect them with the right people,” he said.

“The second part of that is a rail connection from western Victoria to the Inland Railway, which would allow us to get our goods to south-east Queensland within 24 hours, and then off to Asia 24 hours after that.

“The second project is farm rates – taking the burden off the farmers by changing the way rates are assessed.”

Mr Di Biase said he nominated for the Senate because he loved country towns.

“I’m seeing how there’s a big decline. It’s almost like every week the government is making it harder for people to live anywhere outside of a regional centre,” he said.

“I think that’s wrong, because it weakens our country.

“It’s like a game of Jenga – you start taking enough bricks out of one section, and eventually it will collapse. That’s what I believe will happen to Victoria.”