Nasik Swami, Naracoorte Community News

Shadow Minister for Regional Health Services Penny Pratt says the state government has failed to offer real incentives in the budget to attract and retain doctors and nurses to the region. Ms Pratt said she was “very disappointed with last week’s State Labor Budget, which ploughed an extra $2.3billion just into health but did nothing to offer real incentives”.

There is very little in the federal budget for towns like Naracoorte in regional South Australia. And with the new budget, the government has put the heavy lifting at the feet of the community, with very limited spending in the region to counterbalance the increasing costs. That’s how the shadow minister for finance and tax reform, Heidi Girolamo, has described the new budget, claiming it would only “bring economic hardships”.

The Tatiara District Council is headed for a $2.9million loss this financial year, thanks to some “extraordinary circumstances”. The loss, which the council administration says is “largely due to grants not received yet,” was discussed at the council’s meeting in Bordertown on June 13.

It was not just an ordinary bus tour of the district. It was a tour that included some of the elected counsellors of the Naracoorte-Lucindale Council on a bus, witnessing the various conditions of some of the roads in the district. As fascinating as it sounds, Cr Peter Ireland described the tour as an important one, giving elected members the opportunity to be “out in the field and not just be making decisions from the council chambers”.

The Naracoorte Lucindale Council will do what it can within all townships of the district to provide an environment where business can thrive. That’s the assurance from mayor Patrick Ross to all businesses in the district, which are still recovering from Covid-19 and now feeling the pinch of inflationary pressures. While many businesses in the district failed to remain open after the pandemic, Mr Ross says small businesses in town were “very risky”.

Naracoorte and Lucindale have been nominated for South Australia’s Agricultural Town of the Year Awards 2023, pinning the importance of the district’s $411million primary production sector. Public voting is now open to choose the top 10 agricultural towns in the region, and the Naracoorte Lucindale Council is encouraging locals to register their votes for the towns ... “...and highlights the practises of those within the agricultural sector and the benefits that flow onto communities”: Council chief executive officer Trevor Smart.

The Naracoorte Library will be used as a new children’s university hub. This move is to support home-schooled children in the Limestone Coast region by extending learning outside of schools. Confirming this, Naracoorte-Lucindale Council CEO Trevor Smart said the children’s university hub will enable children and their parents to come together and engage with others in a bid to learn.

South Australia is facing a teacher shortage crisis that is “deeply affecting” schools in country towns like Naracoorte. Highlighting this, Australian Education Union (SA Branch) president Andrew Gohl says the government needs to provide improved conditions and incentives to hire and retain educators in rural areas ... He said teachers were burning out at rates never seen before, with half of them planning to leave in the next five years.

Every morning, busloads of students leave Naracoorte for their secondary education in schools in Mount Gambier and Lucindale ... Many other parents choose boarding schools in Victoria and Adelaide, where students live during each school term ... While this could be a matter of choice for many, why do you think this is happening, and what’s driving the parents to make this decision when we have a public school in Naracoorte?

An education union has called for bold changes in the way the South Australian Education Department manages education across the state, particularly in country schools. Australian Education Union (SA Branch) president Andrew Gohl says for over a decade, governments have banked on the goodwill of educators to keep their system running ... the Department’s own Country Education Strategy highlighted several areas that needed improvement, including the attraction and retention of staff, incentives, access to student support services, country housing, and conditions.