Where does all the money go?
How many troubled children in Central Australia fall under the umbrella of the National Indigenous Australians Agency (NIAA)? Surely that was a known number upon which Anthony Albanese’s $250m “special grant” was based.
New healthcare service for Robe
The Robe community will soon benefit from a new healthcare service that will significantly improve access to primary care. Robe is one of only two locations in regional South Australia, alongside Ceduna, to be selected for the expanded Nurse Practitioner Primary Care Pilot program, which aims to offer more healthcare options for residents in the region.
Funding campaign gathers momentum
The Corryong Neighbourhood Centre (CNC) has thanked the community for its support for the ‘1000 Steps to Sustainability’ campaign to ensure its future. "We have raised just over $20,000 directly into the CNC account as at Wednesday lunchtime and will have details on UMIF donation account receipts when we receive the report at the end of the week," said CNC o-ordinator, Sara Jenkins.
Mining battle
Proposed mining for rare earths elements in the Limestone Coast is facing opposition from local producers and residents. Many sections of the community are concerned about how mining would impact production in one of the state's key agricultural regions.
Under Federal Government – Climate zealotry takes priority
The Federal Labor Government’s inability to read the international political climate and instead press on with its domestic climate agenda, demonstrates that the Prime Minister isn’t focused on the struggles of the Australian people, Member for Mallee Dr Anne Webster said this week.
Albanese Government supports continued operation of Rex: Gallagher, King
The Albanese Government is ensuring Rex Airlines regional services will continue, supporting the administrators on next steps. The Government ... acquire $50 million of debt from Rex’s largest creditor, PAGAC Regulus Holdings Limited (PAG), an important step to prevent an adverse outcome for regional communities, such as liquidation, and ensure the continued connectivity of Australia’s regional and remote communities.
The Riverland’s scramble for eggs
Madison Eastmond. Riverland consumers are currently facing empty egg shelves and purchase limits as shortages continue to impact major supermarkets. Glenview Poultry Farm owner and South Australian and Tasmanian director of Egg Farmers of Australia, Darren Letton, told The Murray Pioneer the shortages are due to a range of consumer, governmental, and environmental factors.
Cash must be ‘King’ this year
Towards the end of this 2025 year, all Australians have been guaranteed continued access to using cash by special mandated legislation. This development at Federal level will be one of the most important advances facing each of us personally in the near future as it will hopefully deter those who set out to steal our hard-earned money.
Opposition leader visits Hall Gap
Mallee business owners under persistent threat of bushfire told Leader of the Opposition Peter Dutton they cannot secure the insurance they need to protect their livelihoods, after his visit organised by Member for Mallee, Dr Anne Webster.
New clean energy resource under our feet
A new report from Geoscience Australia, in collaboration with the Geological Survey of New South Wales, has found elevated levels of natural hydrogen and helium in locations throughout New South Wales.
Centre faces funding shortfall
Two unforeseen acts just prior to Christmas have placed the future of the Corryong Neighbourhood Centre (CNC) and the community bakery in financial jeopardy. Firstly, the Australian government delayed providing $85,000 of grant funding, which had already been spent, until May 2025.
$7.2 billion for a new Kwinana port
On November 11 last year the WA Premier all but confirmed the project will go ahead. The only question is how much the Feds will stump up and how much influence will the unions have on the final design.
Foreign owned and controlled TransGrid is disconnected from regional Australia
The ever-increasing number of stories of the difficulties faced by landowners when dealing with transmission network builder, TransGrid, points to an organisation with no knowledge of, and no interest in learning about, the land, and the peoples living on that land, through which they are building those networks.
$20.9m funding for Murray-Darling Basin water savings – Where’s the benefit?
Hugh Schuitemaker. Senior Riverland politicians have questioned the potential benefits of a multi-million dollar environmental plan to use treated wastewater – rather than Murray River water – to water public areas and “to supply some industries”. The Federal and State Governments last month announced $20.9m in funding to build infrastructure allowing local governments to substitute Murray River water with storm water, treated wastewater or other alterna-tive water sources.
Saving Alice in 2025: it starts today
My journalistic work in the Territory began early on Christmas Day 1974, looking down from the aircraft of Deputy Prime Minister Jim Cairns onto the Northern Territory capital that had been all but annihilated by Cyclone Tracy.
Trump holds the keys to right to repair
As a second Trump presidency looms on the horizon, one pressing issue for America's and Australian farmers remains unresolved: the unfettered right to repair their own agricultural machinery. With both groups at loggerheads with the big farm machinery manufacturers over who gets the right to access software locks to repair complex tractors and headers, what happens under Trump could impact where this long running debate finally settles.
New levies legislation makes obligations clearer: DAFF
New and improved agricultural levies legislation will replace the existing framework next year, making the levy system more user friendly for participants and making it easier for them to understand their obligations. More than 50 pieces of legislation governing over 110 levies and charges – across 75 commodities and 18 bodies that receive levies – are being streamlined into five Acts and subordinate legislation.
Hard talk – Loss of essential services
Many essential service providers, including the government, are “abandoning” rural towns like Naracoorte in South Australia … We asked Naracoorte Lucindale Council mayor Patrick Ross, Minister for Regional Development Clare Scriven, Shadow Minister for Regional South Australia Nicola Centofanti, and Federal Member for Barker Tony Pasin why our towns are losing essential service providers and what needs to be done to help our frustrated communities.
NIC welcomes MDBA’s refreshed approach on constraints, calls for firm Government commitments: NIC
National Irrigators’ Council (NIC) has welcomed the refreshed approach proposed by the Murray-Darling Basin Authority (MDBA) to relax delivery constraints in the Murray-Darling Basin to value add environmental benefits for rivers and floodplains but warns that firm commitments from Basin governments are critical to ensure the program’s momentum is not lost.
Think, question
Ian Penno. Getting around lately and in general discussions mainly with locals, it is satisfying that they are still thinking for themselves and in their own minds questioning the management and direction of our great region, state and country. Courage must be to ask the questions out loud and demand answers ... Water ... Fair go for horticulture transition ... Energy ...
Transmission lines – “Don’t think, do!” – More on the landholders’ fight
Peter Hobbs. This article which is intended to be a follow-up and one motivated by Charltonian Glenda Watts’s Letter to the Buloke Times Editor ... Glenda’s message is simple but significant in the process developed by the Victorian Government underpinning the construction of transmission lines in rural Victoria ... What follows is a dissection of these seven steps outlining [TCV's] shortcomings...
Albanese government announces news bargaining incentive
The Albanese Government says it intends to establish a news bargaining incentive to ensure big digital platforms such as Facebook contribute to the sustainability of news media in Australia. As a hyperlocal public interest publisher Yanchep News Online has had some issues in the past with Facebook (owned by Meta) especially during Covid-19 when its algorithm couldn’t seem to work out that information attributed to the WA Department of Health had in fact been provided to Yanchep News Online by the department.
