Nicholas Rupolo, Narrandera Argus

The NSW Labor party has moved to deregister Country Labor from the NSW Electoral Commission with new rules designed to boost representation of voices in the bush on policy and in parliament.

Thirty per cent of winnable seats for Labor in the Legislative Council will be designated for regional and rural representatives at the next election.

As well as that, 30 per cent of Labor members on party committees will need to be from the regions to strengthen the rank and file influence on policy under new rules passed unanimously at the NSW Labor Party Conference recently.

Country Labor has operated as a separate sub-branch of NSW Labor that contests elections in regional and rural NSW since 2000.

Shadow Agriculture and Regional NSW Minister Mick Veitch says the easiest way to move forward to gain a stronger voice from the bush and the Riverina in the party was to deregister Country Labor.

“The crucial part of that is our policy development process and make sure we have policies that engage right across rural and regional NSW,” Veitch said.

“The Labor party has been in regional NSW for going on 130 years, we’ve always been there and we will contest council and state seats and federal seats as we always do. On Saturday it was about strengthening the rank and file in the regions.

“For me the biggest change was the rule change where we now reserve 30 per cent of winnable seats in upper house ticket to people who live in regional NSW. That’s a substantial change from the way it currently stands.”

Labor leader Chris Minns has identified the path to victory for the next election against Premier Dominic Perrottet will be in Western Sydney, but the 42-year old stressed Labor’s battle stretches to Western NSW.

Minns referred to engaging and winning seats in the bush at the party conference.

“There are major issues confronting the people of our regions,” said Minns.

“The Labor Party has always been at its strongest when it is strong in the bush – this is the lesson of Labor titans like McKell, Wran and Carr.

“But to be strong, to be relevant in the regions – we need good, sensible policy.”

Bob Carr’s 10-year reign saw Labor hold regional seats like Bathurst and Barwon while back in the 1940s William Mckell held Dubbo, Lower Darling and even the Murrumbidgee seat which included Coolamon, Narrandera and Leeton.

Mr Veitch acknowledged Labor has an opportunity to capitalise on the failings of the Coalition in health and education in the Riverina, particularly in the aftermath of the ongoing rural health inquiry.

Murrumbidgee local health district has been revealed to be under stress and workers in the MLHD are in precarious working conditions.

“The rural health inquiry has highlighted a lot of the failings particularly around staffing, resourcing of the health system,” Veitch said.

“The testimony of councillor (Paul) Maytom the other day, Leeton’s got a brand new, refurbished operating theatre, but it’s not open, why would invest in hard physical infrastructure if you are not employing people to do the work?

“There are issues with regional education as well, teacher shortages are a problem. There are policy areas like this where we will be developing policy to take to the next election.”

Labor picked up one regional seat at the last election when Janelle Safin won the seat of Lismore.

The regional seats held by the government of Dubbo, Upper Hunter and Goulburn are considered marginal.

However, if Labor is to have any success it will be battling not just sitting government members but a likely cohort of independent candidates and challengers from the Shooters, Fishers, Farmers party.

This article appeared in the Narrandera Argus, 21 October 2021.