I try to be upbeat, I am always looking for the silver lining, but I can’t pretend this is an easy time for any of us.

COVID has cruelled our school holiday trade – tens of millions of dollars didn’t come to our businesses and communities.

We are very much still getting back on our feet after years of drought, our capacity to keep taking these hits just isn’t there.

Please in any way you can support local businesses during this time.

If you are a business please reach out for support, there is money there from the government.

Restrictions, and the threat of tighter controls, border closures etc … constantly hang over our head. I know after 17 months of this we are all weary of it.

The sooner we can be rid of it, the better.

There are ongoing concerns about the virus coming to Regional NSW – we all have to do our part to stop it.

Remember the virus doesn’t travel and spread, people travel and spread it.

We all have to follow the health advice, but we don’t have to accept the closed door secrecy surrounding advice and the decisions government is making.

There are growing calls from Members of Parliament (including myself) and the media demanding better access to information.

We deserve transparency around the information that is affecting our lives.

I will stop talking about COVID, but one last thing.

I have asked the NSW Health Minister to reduce the time for testing prior to essential workers leaving Greater Sydney from seven days before leaving to three.

This must happen to protect the regions. I am awaiting a response.

Weather updates

Some good news is rain and continuing good flows in our wet rivers. The rain has allowed agriculture to get going again in a way we have not seen for a long time.

Supply chains have been activated, jobs created and finances heading back towards the black.

We still have a way to go, but it’s looking good – very good.

The other good news is the funding that has flowed from state and federal governments to our councils.

There are projects in every shire and the unincorporated area that will drive tourism, improve services and roads.

Hundreds of millions of dollars making our communities better places to live.

I am going to reduce my movement around the electorate this week in light of what is happening, will move meetings to Zoom or Microsoft teams.

My offices are still operating and will be happy to assist with anything you would like to raise.

Local government elections postponed

Over the weekend the NSW Minister for Local Government Shelley Hancock postponed the local government elections set to take place in September.

The minister has announced that the local government elections will now take place on Saturday, December 4, 2021.

This decision was made by the Minister based on advice from the Electoral Commission and NSW Health.

I became aware when the decision was gazetted meaning there was no ability to debate or discuss the postponement.

I know there are a number of people who are disappointed by this decision, our councils have already been in place a year longer than they were elected for.

I have written to the Minister seeking a solution for regional areas that would allow us to proceed to elections as planned.

Future of Gas Statement

There’s some good news and some bad news in the NSW government’s finally released Future of Gas Statement.

The good news is the NSW government will not release further areas for gas exploration in NSW, including parts of Far West NSW near Wilcannia and Broken Hill that were recently assessed under the strategic release framework.

The Zombie PELs covering the land surrounding Coonamble, Baradine, Gilgandra and Coonabarabran have been extinguished. The extinguishing of the zombie PELs is a hard fought win for these communities, they’ve lived with the uncertainty of gas exploration and extraction on their land for far too long – I welcome the certainty that this decision brings The PELs that remain enable the Narrabri gas project and really set it up for future expansion based on a number of facts that have been proven wrong and inaccurate several times over.

The Future of Gas Statement trots out the same old unsupported statements around cheap energy and hundreds of jobs that we all know not to be supported by evidence (just reports from Santos).

The NSW government is still misreading the room on Narrabri gas – we have just been through the worst drought in living memory which showed us just how important groundwater is and our regional communities know how important groundwater is – punching through those groundwater aquifers to get gas places the entire future of Narrabri and surrounds at enormous risk. For gas that isn’t worth it.

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