Infrastructure

The Kerang Memorial Hall was a flurry of activity at Tuesday’s VNI West Information Sessions ... From landholder engagement to environmental concerns, aboriginal cultural heritage, and even local, George Warne, was there as Transmission Company Victoria’s (TCV) agricultural advisor.

A group of very concerned East Greenmount residents is banding together in an effort to put a halt to plans to construct a series of wind turbines along the escarpment at Ramsay and East Greenmount. The group of residents, who do not wish to be named, met with local Member for Condamine and Shadow Energy Minister Pat Weir on Monday to discuss what the best options moving forward are to have the project stopped.

Australian owned company Martinus Rail, has been awarded a $403.5 million contract to design and deliver enhancement works on the 183 kilometres of track between Albury to Illabo and the 170 kilometres of track between Stockinbingal to Parkes.

The NSW Government has declared the Northern Rivers a formal reconstruction area to help support the building of homes after last year’s devastating floods. Minister for Planning and Public Spaces Paul Scully said the declaration allows the NSW Reconstruction Authority (NSWRA) to make prompt decisions to influence reconstruction and aligns with the election commitment to accelerate the approval of new housing...

Patrick Goldsmith. Southern Yorke Peninsula residents are concerned about their phone coverage after being hit with a 12-day outage. Angela Schmidt, who operates Charles Street Hair and Beauty, Yorketown, was without phone reception from Saturday, June 10 until Wednesday, June 21.

Donald has experienced a few floods in its lifetime; however, usually there is at least some warning from the encroaching Richardson River. The flood occurring on Thursday morning, June 22, was not due to the river, though. The cause of this flood, and subsequent main highway shutdown in Woods Street, was due to a burst water pipe.

A new community health service for Yanchep and the surrounding areas has been announced by federal Health and Aged Care Minister Mark Butler. The ECU Health Centre Yanchep will include two co-located, integrated, multidisciplinary health facilities, providing services designed to meet the current and future health needs of the rapidly growing Yanchep area, while improving health and wellbeing outcomes.

A suite of new planning rules designed to protect River Murray regions from future flood events and assist with a strong recovery and rebuild are coming into effect this week. To fast-track the region’s recovery the interim changes will come into immediate effect from Thursday, providing a quicker building approval process for the influx of applications expected.

Of the two budding NT government art galleries, one is making news: The one in Darwin, because construction is under way. At the opposite end of the Territory, and of government attention, there is no news about the Alice Springs “national” Aboriginal gallery because its senior director, Tracy Puklowski, is not able, not willing, not permitted, not whatever to answer media questions.

The 2023-24 Queensland State Budget, delivered last week, has been harshly condemned by Member for Condamine Pat Weir, who says the people of his electorate have again missed out on significant investment.

Premier Peter Malinauskas and his Cabinet Ministers will visit Kangaroo Island today [22 June 2023] and tomorrow as part of the State Government’s Country Cabinet. Demonstrating the Government’s commitment to regional South Australia, this is the fourth in a series of Country Cabinets – which has already taken the Premier and Ministers to Port Pirie & Port Augusta, Mount Gambier and Yorke Peninsula.

NSW Farmers has welcomed a Parliamentary Inquiry into undergrounding powerlines, calling it a win for common sense and community safety. Multiple renewable energy projects proposed or under construction in regional areas would require new power lines to connect them to the grid, Energy Transition Working Group chair Reg Kidd said, but too often landholders were being ignored by the big developers.

Patrick Goldsmith. The state government’s announcement of a $20 million funding allocation across four years for deteriorating jetties has been labelled as inadequate by Yorke Peninsula stakeholders. Almost 40 jetties across the state, owned by the government but leased to councils on 50-year terms, must vie for the new funding announced in the state budget ...

Patrick Goldsmith. Just four months after focusing its efforts entirely on Yorke Peninsula for Country Cabinet, the state government has left the region without much to celebrate ... "It makes for two budgets in a row where we’ve seen little investment in our area. In the glossy budget overview there was precious little for a number of regions and we suffered the absolute embarrassment of not even being listed": Member for Narungga Fraser Ellis.

The Local Government Association of South Australia has acknowledged State Budget which aims to deliver cost of living relief and address the state's housing and health crisis but has warned the government has missed an opportunity to engage closely with councils on meaningful funding to support local communities. LGA President Dean Johnson said while the State Government’s spending on measures to address housing affordability and availability were a step in the right direction, greater investments were needed to improve long-term liveability, regional health and local economic growth.

Victoria’s roads will continue to worsen after the State Government confirmed this week there is no additional funding for repairs after floods last year. Roads Minister Melissa Horne was lost for answers on Wednesday as a Public Accounts and Estimates hearing heard that the Government’s road asset management budget has been cut 25 per cent in this year’s budget.

The farmers invited by Member for Mallee, Dr. Anne Webster, met with the Nationals leader David Littleproud, shadow ministers and senators, with Dr. Webster saying Mallee communities were being railroaded into accepting the $3.3 billion VNI West project. "I am deeply concerned for the region and fear Labor is railroading the community over thousands of kilometres of prime farmland and irrigation districts for a project that will have an enormous cost blow-out and detrimental consequences," Dr. Webster said.

Haystacks Solar Garden members who purchased a solar garden plot have now voted an overwhelimg ‘yes’ to loaning $730,800 to Grong Grong Solar Farm - hosts of the Haystacks Solar Garden - to help construct the much anticipated 1.5MW solar array. The project has been three years in the making to get to this point navigating a pandemic, two energy price crises and innovating every step of the way in the Australian energy system to create something that has never been done before in our nation.