State politics

Since the beginning of March this year, an extra 9,499 proactive police patrols and activities have been conducted on the Darling Downs as part of a leading police operation aimed at enhancing community safety ... Police have charged 385 adults with 744 offences while 186 juveniles have been charged with 328 offences.

The new South Australian Wild Dog Management Strategy 2023-2033 has just been released! The Strategy aims to eradicate wild dogs inside the dog fence, stop incursions through the Dog Fence and maintain dingoes for their ecological and cultural roles outside the Dog Fence (whilst protecting the cattle industry and the public).

The Victorian government has not replied to the RFA Major Event Review 18 months after it was submitted despite its 37 recommendations on forest management after the devastating 2019-20 bushfires ... Dr Tony Bartlett AFSM, as a science adviser to Forestry Australia, took the fight to the National Bushfire Preparedness Summit in Canberra last week.

The Rockliff Liberal Government is a proud supporter of Legacy and this week we proudly welcomed the Legacy Centenary Torch Relay to Tasmania ... “It was an honour to be in Pozieres, France, as part of the Frank MacDonald Memorial Prize Tour when the Legacy Centenary Torch Relay began on April 23": Minister for Veterans’ Affairs, Guy Barnett.

Will Hunter. It is feared a historic crane located on an allotment listed for sale as part of a Department for Infrastructure and Transport land disposal in Port Wakefield may be at risk. The allotments … were listed for sale with Ray White Yorke Peninsula after Wakefield Regional Council advised DIT it had no interest in acquiring any of the land identified for disposal.

Three Palmers Island prawn farms at the centre of the White Spot outbreak in the Clarence River have entered the final stage of decontamination as part of the NSW Department of Primary Industries DPI eradication response ... The extension of the Control Order was a devastating blow for the Clarence prawn trawl industry and trawler operators like Dean Opalniuk, who received no income from prawns this year, where he would usually average $3000 a week in season, leaving him with a business that was worth more than $200,000, now being worthless.

Nazis in the Wheatbelt, hidden nests of white supremacists, who would have known that our sleepy regional country towns are nests of Neo-Nazi racism? ,,, our WA farmer Labor member for the Agricultural Region, Darren West MLC claimed opponents of the Voice were "voting with" Nazis and white supremacists, both during debate on the proposed Indigenous advisory body in Parliament and in an online Facebook post.

The 2022 official audit of VicForests has found an average 96 per cent compliance with the state's forestry environmental standards ... This audit was conducted according to four themes: environmental values in State forests, conservation of biodiversity, operational planning and record keeping, and coupe infrastructure for timber harvesting operations.

Stronger powers to allow NT Police to stop and search individuals for knives and other dangerous weapons are now in operation in the Northern Territory. Earlier this year, the Territory Labor Government strengthened the Police Legislation Further Amendment Bill 2023 to allow our Police to use hand-held scanners to detect concealed weapons.

Imagine building half of Perth in three years because that's what's needed to accommodate the nearly one million people that are expected to arrive between 2022 and 2025 ... No doubt, some will trek inland to the smaller country towns but don't expect them to stay long as the Federal government has recently moved to introduce new visa rights making it easier for migrants who have taken one of the regional work visas to bail from the bush and retreat to the big cities, leaving the businesses that sponsored them in the lurch.

After the heritage debacle Tony Buti is on notice by his backbench. After this year's ATAR results come out he will be on notice by the State's parents. By the next election, if he does not leave his mark on education, he will be like those kids who did not take the hard route through school, wondering what his next job will be.

Peter Sedgwick. Our Season opening was held last Saturday ... The weather was very sunny and many members came to have a bowl. Maree Edwards, MLA for Bendigo West, came to open the season.  

A new program designed to tackle regional skills shortages in the housing and planning sectors is being established through a State and Local government partnership ... the Grow Your Own program is a joint initiative between the Malinauskas Government and Local Government Association – focused on training local talent and providing pathways to grow regional councils’ planning workforce.

As the Victorian Labor Government’s closure of the state’s native timber industry fast approaches the December 31 trigger point, New South Wales timber harvesters met with Senator Jonathon Duniam, Shadow Minister for the Environment, Fisheries and Forestry, and Sussan Ley, Member for Farrer and Deputy Leader of the Opposition to highlight the importance of the industry to the local economy and forest and fire management.  

The start date for this year’s Victorian fire season has been set by fire authorities, following a hotter and drier start to spring and warmer conditions ahead ... The CFA will be introducing further FDPs for Victorian municipalities in the coming months, based on assessments of the amount of rain, grassland curing rate and local conditions.