Politics

“When our children come to us, and we’re available, we are there, and we’re listening, and it could just be just 30 seconds, it could be something very important they want to tell us, then stop and listen, send that message that we are available.” These thoughts come to a town that spends a great deal of time talking about a cohort of children, different ones from year to year but always around 50 to 120 of them, out in the streets at night, breaking into homes and businesses, trashing, stealing cars, torching some.

A major mains replacement project on South Western Highway is the first part of a $9.6 million State Government investment over 10 years to improve water supply reliability in the Bunbury region ... The existing 100mm pipes were replaced with 200mm pipes and capacity was improved which will increase water supply and pressure to the Bunbury Airport to boost the firefighting capacity, Bunbury Regional Prison and meet future development needs.

From the excitement of the woodchop to prized cattle and champion sponge cakes or marmalades that used secret family recipes, it was an event that survived and thrived. Now, one of Queensland’s proudest regional traditions – The Maleny Show – and those who made it great, will feature in a special documentary film.

VFPA welcomes the Federal Government’s announcement to reverse the highly contested rainfall regulation, known as ‘water rule’, under the Carbon Farming Initiative (CFI) ... The announcement means the Australian Government will permanently remove this perverse rule from the Carbon Farming Initiative Regulation from 1 June 2024.  

Blake Lee. Almost 120 young people from across Victoria attended the Y’s (formerly YMCA) Victorian Youth Parliament Week, held from June 25-30. Representing regions right across the state, 20 teams of six Youth Parliamentarians aged 16-25, worked together to develop a bill on an issue relevant to their lives. These bills were created with the help of volunteer Taskforce members, and then debated in Victoria’s Parliament House.

Viv Markham. Since the 1960s, heritage has been an important part of Maldon’s persona. It’s therefore surprising that the recently published and updated Maldon Design Guidelines (MDG) was not announced with a little more fanfare.

An SA Legislative Review Committee inquiring into radiation therapy in the Limestone Coast is underway in State Parliament. A written submission by the Limestone Coast Radiation Therapy Working Group includes the awful experiences of many forced to travel to Adelaide, including Naracoorte’s “Lisa” and “Graham Hinze”.

I note that some at Denmark WA object to deliberate burning by the government department called DBCA. On television I have seen the matter briefly addressed by two botanists, Dr Joanna Young and Prof Stephen Hopper. They were showing a politician a recently burnt swamp, with ugly damage to the peat. A nasty sight, but was it the whole truth, or only part? We might remember Aristotle’s discussion of the perils of omitting, deliberately or accidentally, part of the truth (enthymeme).

Just months out from the River Murray Basin Plan 2024 deadline, the Federal Labor Government has just woken up to the real prospect that, despite their election commitment, the Basin Plan might not be delivered in full and on time. It has been revealed that the Federal Water Minister, Tanya Plibersek, has written to the Murray-Darling Authority asking “whether the plan has any prospects”...

Tweed Shire Council is playing host to nine mayors from across NSW and their respective executive leaders  as part of a program aimed at promoting and growing regional cities in the State ... The visitors are  being taken on a tour of the Tweed starting at the Tweed Civic Centre before attending the new inclusive playground, Goorimahbah, at Jack Evans Boat Harbour, Tweed Heads followed by a site visit to inspect the upgrade of the Point Danger Lighthouse on the border between NSW and Queensland.

The NSW Government attended a cultural burn, on the eve of NAIDOC week at Nellingen last week organised by The Batemans Bay Local Aboriginal Land Council. The cultural burn was an opportunity to support the renewal of culture through the use of fire while promoting knowledge sharing with Crown Lands’ bushfire mitigation staff.

The decision by the Federal Government to establish a Community Engagement Review to maximise engagement around electricity transmission and renewable energy developments has been welcomed by GrainGrowers as a positive step forward ... Mr Turton said the GrainGrowers National Policy Group had recently considered the issue of agricultural land use and had called for meaningful engagements with landholders and communities about proposed development sites.

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.

Rapid electric vehicle charging options are opening across the state, with multiple DC rapid-charging sites launching on 4 July 2023 ... The South Australian Government and the RAA is switching on the first of 54 DC rapid and ultra-rapid charging stations in the Statewide EV Charging Network, in Nuriootpa.

A frustrated Katter’s Australian Party (KAP) Leader and Traeger MP Robbie Katter will write to Queensland Child Safety Minister Craig Crawford, as well as the Parliament’s bipartisan Community Services and Safety Committee, calling for a sweeping inquiry into the State’s broken “resi-care” program ... “Resi-care is a complete disaster, and is failing not only the kids unfortunate enough to be lumped in with the arrangement but also the workers who staff the programs and the broader community": Robbie Katter.

AMA (NSW) President, Dr Michael Bonning, said the expansion of the GP Single-Employer Model is a big win for patient access to quality health services in rural and regional communities in NSW. Dr Bonning said the Model, which allows doctors to train in State-run hospitals as well as private clinics, will provide funding for 80 rural generalist GPs in NSW from next year.

Cheers of celebration and relief from James Creek residents erupted when the Northern Regional Planning Panel refused approval for a controversial $33 million 336 lot subdivision on James Creek Road ... When the DA was put on public exhibition three times in 2022 and 2023, council received 100 submissions and a petition with 171 signatures against the subdivision.

Sheep and cattle farmers are planting hundreds of thousands of an elite variety of Oldman Saltbush across Australia’s southeast this winter to supplement feed during dryer conditions heralded by a potential El Nino. Anameka Saltbush is a specially selected variety of the drought-tolerant native shrub, developed over 15 years by CSIRO.