Contributor, ARR.News

Rural Aid has released its 2024/25 Impact Report, revealing a year where practical assistance, mental health and wellbeing and community-led recovery helped thousands of farming families withstand worsening pressures across rural Australia.

A new report from the Food Connect Foundation reveals how community-owned food infrastructure can build resilience into Australia’s food system at a time of rising climate, health and supply chain pressures. Co-authors Rose and Pekin, alongside social impact expert Elise Parups, will discuss the report and potential impact in a national launch webinar at 11:30am AEST, Thursday 27 November.

Shadow Minister for Regional Development, Local Government and Territories, and Member for Mallee Dr Anne Webster says Friday afternoon’s quiet shelving of Labor’s proposed default speed limit reduction is a victory for Coalition advocacy and common sense.

Regional Cities NSW (RCNSW) has led a delegation to Sydney to progress joint solutions to the most pressing issues facing regional cities across the state. With talks centred on housing, infrastructure, regional aviation and water security, the delegation sought to strengthen its partnership with the Minns Government to ensure regional cities continue to grow and prosper.

The ambitious trial to reintroduce native marsupial species into Sturt National Park is on track, say Wild Deserts conservationists. Western quolls, bilbies and golden bandicoots are slowly taking back a ‘low-cat’ area of the desert – the massive Wild Training Zone of more than 100km2 in Sturt National Park in NSW.

Queensland’s horticulture sector is doing far more than feeding the nation – it’s contributing more than $6 billion to the state economy each year and supporting almost 45,000 jobs, according to a new report released today by the Queensland Fruit & Vegetable Growers (QFVG).

Last Friday night the Minns Labor Government voted down NSW Nationals amendments to strengthen laws for repeat youth offenders. While the Government’s Bill essentially adopts the Victorian position - the machete capital of Australia - our amendment would’ve seen NSW adopt the Queensland position that has been in place since 1899 ... ARR.News asked a further question of Mr Kemp.

Member for Central Wheatbelt, Lachlan Hunter MP, has slammed the Cook Labor Government for signing off on the controversial Perth waste dump planned for York. He says this is one of the most blatant betrayals of a regional community in recent memory. “After years of sustained community backlash, countless submissions, rallies, petitions and meetings, Labor has arrogantly pushed ahead with turning York into a dumping ground for Perth’s rubbish,” Mr Hunter said.

The Western Queensland Alliance of Councils (WQAC) has called on the Australian Government to reject proposals to reduce the default speed limit on unsigned roads outside of built-up areas, warning that such a change would impose unnecessary costs, undermine regional productivity and fail to address the real causes of road trauma in rural and remote Queensland.