State politics

Despite years of warnings, public protests, approaches to Ministers and Members of Parliament, and, in particular, the vocal opposition of the very active Community Action for Windsor Bridge (CAWB) group, Roads & Maritime Services in NSW insisted on building the new Windsor Bridge across the Hawkesbury River in exactly the wrong location.

Barkly MLA Steve Edgington met with the team from Sun Cable this week – the company which has signed a milestone agreement to advance the $22 billion Australia-AASEAN Power Link). Mr Edgington said the project will see up to $8 billion invested in the Barkly which will host the largest solar farm and renewable energy system in the world.

“The damage to residents is they don’t feel safe in their own homes and there’s nothing the police can do because the courts just let them go" ... "We have had many break-ins and a lot of public assets damaged and it just goes on and on. Just months ago there was about $80,000 of damage to the Bowls Club and now it’s not available for public use and we can’t afford to fix it. We have spent tens of thousands of dollars fortifying buildings to keep the vandals out. They are not just stealing but destroying everything – it’s ridiculous”: local resident and Barkly Regional Council CEO, Steve Moore.

The NSW Government has provided another $50 million in relief to the State’s farmers who are still feeling the effects of drought by waiving Local Land Services (LLS) rates for the third year, Minister for Agriculture Adam Marshall announced today.

Last week Kyogle mayor Danielle Mulholland said she couldn’t hold onto the news any longer or she would burst when the announcement was made that Kyogle Council would receive $40.3 million in state funding to replace 84 bridges.

Narrandera’s century old police station has been branded as outdated and the community’s plea for a new station will be on the NSW Police Minister’s desk this week. Member for Cootamundra Steph Cooke has heeded the call from Narrandera Shire Council and is due to speak with Minster for Police and Emergency Services David Elliott.

NSW Farmers and the Country Women’s Association of NSW (CWA of NSW) are alarmed by a proposal that would stifle community consultation on the Inland Rail project. It comes as the NSW Minister for Planning the Hon Rob Stokes MP has issued an order declaring the construction of the Inland Rail in NSW as a critical state significant infrastructure project.

The NSW State Government announced on 10 March 2021 that The Minister for Planning will issue a new section 9.1 direction (to the Koala SEPP) to ensure that only the Minister, and not councils, will be empowered to rezone land used for primary production to an environmental zone (E zone), or to rezone land currently in rural zones 1, 2 and 3 to other rural zones.

Mayor Greg Christensen said a survey will open next Wednesday 17 March and encouraged the Scenic Rim community to have their say on Council's first-ever region-wide growth management strategy.

Nicholas Rapulo. Yanco Agricultural High School students have blasted the NSW Department of Education, saying they are feeling unheard, unvalued and un-nurtured over their run-down dormitories. The girl’s dormitories have been unfit for the students for the better part of 20 years, and their promised repair has been delayed once again.

In yet another blow to the state’s intensifying harvest labour crisis, NSW has missed an opportunity to be part of a DFAT-run program that enables seasonal workers from Fiji and Vanuatu to work on local farms. National fruit and vegetable crop losses resulting from the workforce conundrum now exceed $50 million, and the outcomes of today’s National Cabinet meeting confirm NSW is lagging behind other states and territories in developing a short-term solution.

Member for Cook Cynthia Lui says last week’s trip to Weipa was a “positive experience” and that she left with a better grasp of issues facing the Western Cape. It was the MP’s first trip to the area after more than 550 days and constituents were happy to have face time with the elected member.

Hon Keith Pitt MP joined local member for Mallee Dr Anne Webster and Senator Hon Bridget McKenzie, in Mildura today to talk water with the Murray River Group of Councils. Mayors of the six member councils welcomed the opportunity to directly raise their concerns about the impacts of the Basin Plan on the region on behalf of northern Victorian communities.

Adam Marshall, Minister for Agriculture and Minister for Western NSW, Media Release, 5 March 2021 The NSW Government will lift the ban on the use...

The place where an Australian tennis legend was born, the Barellan Tennis Club courts, was renamed to honour the local Goolagong family in a moving ceremony on Saturday.

Nicholas Rapulo. The National Party’s efforts to suppress the release of a $500,000 feasibility study into the revival of the Narrandera to Tocumwal rail line has failed with the report set to see the light of day. A motion put forward by the Shooters, Fishers, Farmers Party in New South Wales parliament passed the upper house last month meaning the report, which has been hidden away, will be released to the public.

NSW Farmers supports a decision to lift the moratorium on Genetically Modified (GM) crops, provided farmers have a choice and that any genetically modified organism has been approved by an independent, science-based Australian regulator. The NSW Government will lift the ban on the use of GM crops by allowing an 18-year moratorium to lapse when the Gene Technology (GM Crop Moratorium) Act 2003 is due to expire on 1 July 2021.

New South Wales Government Minister Kean, Minister for the Environment, constantly says he "follows the science". A noble ideal, but only if what he is sprouting is science.

Today’s sod turning at regional South Australia’s Monarto Zoo officially marks the start of construction on a new state-of-the-art Safari Gateway Visitors Centre. Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Development Michael McCormack said the $16.7 million project would provide enormous economic benefits to Monarto and neighbouring regions.

Speak Up Campaign chair Lachlan Marshall said removing policy makers out of regional centres and locating them in city offices has resulted in isolated decision making, where local knowledge is disregarded. He described the Snowy Hydro Scheme as “a great example of the disconnect between the southern food bowl and the city decision-makers”, and is concerned that under the latest water strategy the NSW Murray would “miss out again”.