State politics

Patrick Goldsmith. Marion Bay will get its long sought-after boat ramp upgrade after Yorke Peninsula Council received $3.04 million through the state government’s South Australian Boating Facilities Fund ... Concept plans for the ramp were endorsed by council members in October, but only approved by the Department for Infrastructure and Transport last week.

Jenny Pollard. A crowd in excess of 100 people turned out for the Transmission Company Victoria (TCV) information meeting held at Charlton Park last Wednesday evening. TCV is a recently formed company tasked with the "early works" stage of planning the Victorian section of the Victoria to New South Wales Interconnector West (VNI West) transmission line project.

Australia’s first raw sugar shipment to the United Kingdom under the new Australia-United Kingdom Free Trade Agreement (A-UKFTA) was loaded in Townsville on 10 July 2023, opening an important new market for the Queensland sugar industry. Under the new agreement, which came into place on 31 May 2023, tariff-free raw sugar exports to the UK have resumed for the first time in 50 years...

The Victorian Farmers Federation (VFF) has expressed concerns about misleading information being provided to farmers who may be impacted by the proposed VNI-West transmission project. VFF President Emma Germano said the Australian Energy Market Operator (which is planning the project on behalf of the Victorian Government) had released information to landholders designed to pressure them into signing away access to their land.

Mrs McArthur said the trifecta of mortgage stress, rental compliance and tax increases, will result in ‘rental providers’ seeking easier financial options ... “This rental crisis will become increasingly obvious in regional cities like Geelong, Bendigo and Ballarat as we draw closer to the Commonwealth Games."

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.

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.

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”...

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 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.

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.

A new project to monitor and develop a guide on the management of woody thickening through fire regimes on Cape York Peninsula will begin next month ... “There is growing evidence of marked changes in woody structure across the region, and this can affect pastoral production as well as the biodiversity of the country”: Toby Eastoe, Cape York NRM Biodiversity & Fire Programs Manager.

New laws designed to protect and manage Aboriginal cultural heritage in Western Australia started on July 1 with the Cook Government saying they were modernised and improved to prevent another incident like what occurred at Juukan Gorge ... Prior to the implementation of the Aboriginal Cultural Heritage Act 2021 almost 30,000 people signed an e-petition calling on the government to delay the start date by a minimum of six months.

The gathered people were angry, frustrated and sad. Many took the mic and spoke and for some it was clearly uncomfortable to bare their sorrow as they shook and their voices broke ... Henry Luong told people to “use your rage and make it your power”.