Following a meeting with local business owners in Canowindra, in which they raised concerns about the lack of police presence in the town due to an infilled job vacancy since April, I took this up face-to-face with the Deputy Commissioner.
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I am pleased NSW Police have now responded, having announced that the vacancy will be filled in October. In the interim police will be tasked to perform proactive duties.
It's important for communities such as Canowindra to have a regular visible police presence and police engaged with their community.
READ MORE: Windows broken at Canowindra High School
Thanks to Deputy Commissioner Gary Worboys for listening and responding to this community need.
Drought Relief for Famers: A Community Crisis
On Tuesday this week the Nationals - a party which constantly says it's "for the bush" - voted against financial aid for struggling farmers and rural communities.
In the worst drought our state has experienced, with 98.7% in drought, this impacts everyone.
When farmers cannot afford to plant a crop, pay their contractors, pay their rates or maintain their tractors, where will this leave our local economy?
We already know the answer to that, with many small business owners feeling the pinch.
This in turn affects regional employment - there is no end to this downward spiral without a Government willing to sit up, pay attention to those who actually know what's going on in regional communities, and do what needs to be done.
Cumbersome, time-consuming low interest loans are not the answer.
When we have a crisis, we need swift action to make sure money is circulating in small towns.
As my Shooters Fishers and Farmers Party colleague Roy Butler recently stated in Parliament, "When a person crashes a car, we do not send a team of planners to tell them how we will fix the road; we send emergency help.
We need to make sure everyone is okay before we plan to prevent the next crash."
We have informed the Government, who seem to have a one-track focus on building more city infrastructure to pander to their electorates, exactly what we need.
The Government needs to urgently and immediately take the following five actions Roy Butler moved in parliament to support our regional community:
- Inject cash into the most drought affected communities through cash or local voucher rebates;
- provide grants to allow outstanding creditors to be paid; transition legacy loans into zero or low-interest loans to alleviate our farmers skyrocketing levels of debt;
- establish a resowing and restocking grant to allow farmers to show their commercial and government financiers that they have the capacity to generate income when the rain returns;
- and provide financial support to retain employees.
Not surprisingly, it was the Liberal-National Government who held this very necessary amendment back, which would have easily passed had the Government thrown their support behind regional communities.
Instead, they stood together in solidarity against us, against our farmers by each voting 'no' for these drought support measures.
This drought is a natural disaster, and must be treated as such.
My Shooters Fishers and Farmers Party colleagues and I will not be quiet until our regional areas are allocated the financial support they need to get through this crisis, and therefore keep not only our regional economy safe, but our families alive.
If the Nats are for the bush, I'd hate to see how they'd act if they were against it.
