Local Government News

Don Page
State Matters

Representation for the North Coast

In recognition of the special needs of the North Coast, the fastest growing region in the state, the Coalition has announced a new position of Shadow Minister for the North Coast. This means the North Coast will now have formal representation in the Shadow Cabinet.

In the next 25 years in the North Coast region there will be approximately twice as many people aged over 65 than currently reside in the area. At the same time, young families are increasingly viewing the North Coast as a desirable location for raising their children.

As a result, there is a strong and growing demand for health, transport and community services across the North Coast and we need to ensure services match the growing population and demographic change.

The region's growth rate is well above the state average and the region is geographically a long way from the political capital of NSW. There is a feeling locally that the region is disadvantaged by our distance from the centre of government. Giving the North Coast a voice at the Shadow Cabinet table will redress this situation.

Having lobbied for the creation of the position, I am pleased to take on the responsibility of this new role in addition to my existing responsibilities as the Member for Ballina. I particularly look forward to consulting with local organisations and individuals in the North Coast region and bringing their voice to Shadow Cabinet.

I have also been appointed Shadow Minister for Skills Development and Training and Shadow Minister for State and Regional Development.

Farmland Protection Policy

I recently wrote to the Minister for Infrastructure and Planning requesting the Department of Planning revisit the Farmland Protection Policy with a view to designing a completely new policy that does not suffer the serious shortcomings of the current proposal.

Recent submissions received from professional planners and landowners show support for the protection of farmland for future food and fibre production, but there are a number of key issues of concern with the draft Farmland Protection Policy in its current form.

Some of the key concerns are:

• The obvious larger areas of good commercial scale agricultural land should be strongly protected.
• The current farmland policy fails to balance and integrate ecological, economic and social factors.
• The policy only utilises one criteria i.e. soil landscapes, and fails to include a range of existing valid criteria e.g. existing settlement patterns, land values and other standard criteria such as slope.
• The use of a single criteria results in the policy mapping being far too blunt. The long-standing existing policy of five agricultural land classes is far superior and could easily be utilised as a basis for the policy mapping.
• The policy currently 'catches' land which is clearly not suitable for future commercial scale agriculture, i.e. large areas which are steep, vegetated and rocky or are too steep for safe machinery use but are mapped as significant farmland.
• The farmland policy can be interpreted to encourage commercial scale agriculture adjoining residential areas. This would appear to be promoting land use conflict.

I am awaiting the Minister's response in regard to the issues raised and I will keep you informed of any developments.

Tidy Towns Program

2005 Keep Australia Beautiful Tidy Towns kits and entry forms are now available from my office. Entries can be made in this year's competition by Tidy Town committees, individuals, progress associations, landcare groups, chambers of commerce, local councils, schools, businesses, registered clubs, and tourism associations.

Those choosing to enter can nominate an overall town, a project or a combination of both. For example, projects as part of Landcare, Coastcare, Streamwatch or similar can be entered.

Entries close on June 13 and I encourage as many local individuals and organisations as possible to enter.

Office contacts

Address: PO Box 1018, Ballina, NSW, 2478
Phone: 6686 7522
Fax: 6686 7470
Email: Don.Page@parliament.nsw.gov.au

Thomas George
Canberra Connection

Flashing lights at school Zones

A Liberal/Nationals Coalition Government will install flashing lights at NSW schools indicating the operation of 40km/h school zones. We believe it is necessary to increase motorists' awareness of the operation of school zones. NSW is already lagging behind South Australia, Queensland and Victoria, who have been effective in reducing speed up to 12km/hour and child pedestrian injuries. The Carr Labor Government announced a trial of flashing lights in February 2003 and is still yet to report its findings. Many drivers ignore or are unaware they are entering a school zone. Flashing lights indicate to drivers days and times that the zones are enforceable. The Coalition will ensure high risk schools will receive flashing lights first.

Rotary Centennial Conference

I was honoured to attend and officially open the Rotary International District 9640 Centennial Conference at the Lismore Workers Club last Friday night. Congratulations to Brian Wheatley and his committee on the wonderful program for the weekend, which included speakers such as Father Chris Riley, Maj Gen Peter Arnison, Sir Clem Renouf and Dame Carol Kidu.

Workplace Fatalities Bill

In a significant win for the National/Liberal Coalition and people power, the Carr Labor Government has withdrawn its flawed Workplace Fatalities Bill. I held a forum last week to informed local business people of the impacts of the Bill, which would have been disastrous for employers. Recently Minister Della Bosca wrote a letter indicating I was scaring local businesspeople. Obviously my concerns were legitimate with the Minister now withdrawing the Bill.

$38,347 for Lismore sports

Four Lismore electorate sporting organisations have benefited from the allocation of $38,347, announced under the 2004/2005 Capital Assistance Program. This program is one of the most important avenues of assistance for local sporting organisations.

The following projects to benefit from this year's funding are:

• $8,210 for the construction of a tennis shed at the Federal Community Centre Park;
• $8,669 for playground equipment at Peace Park;
• $4,468 for a basketball/netball half court and playground area at Wadeville Reserve Trust; and
• $17,000 for the improvement of access, safety and security to existing the clubhouse at Newpark Football Grounds in Kyogle.

Country shows

Country shows are under threat from State Government charges and red tape and recently in Parliament The Nationals moved a motion to debate the future of country shows. During the debate I declared that we would not stand by and watch Labor destroy one of regional Australia's greatest institutions - the country show. The major issue currently facing country and regional shows is the extra cost to have police attend and the introduction of the National Livestock Identification Scheme (NLIS). I also called on the Carr Labor Government to waive the excessive charges for police attendance and grant a three-year moratorium to enable show societies to phase in the NLIS. I highlighted show society concerns regarding OH&S requirements, public liability insurance and maintenance of buildings on showground property. Mr Carr must immediately act now to withdraw the police charges, support the introduction of NLIS and provide further support for maintenance of buildings.

Office contacts

Address: PO Box 52, Lismore, NSW, 2480
Phone: 6621 3624
Fax: 6622 1403
Email: lismore@parliament.nsw.gov.au or www.thomasgeorge.com.au