A return to parliament this week ready to discuss Barwon issues

By ROY BUTLER, BARWON MP

It has been a big two weeks mostly spent on the road around the electorate. I have been out and about to Cobar, Louth, Wanaaring, Tibooburra, Milparinka, Broken Hill, Wilcannia, Topar, Nyngan, with a couple of brief stops outside the electorate in Narromine and Dubbo.

This week I will be back in parliament, ready to discuss with ministers the issues I have been talking about with constituents, councils, and other organisations in Barwon.

New cars for electoral offices

As the member for the biggest electorate in NSW, covering 44 per cent of the state, I have three electoral offices – in Broken Hill, Cobar and Narrabri. But there is a lot of distance between each, which means the staff in my offices still have vast differences to cover to reach the entire electorate.

From Cobar to Narrabri is five hours’ drive, from Narrabri to Broken Hill it is nearly ten hours, and Broken Hill to Cobar is four hours and even many of the towns and localities within the responsibility of each electoral office can still be a bit of a drive.

It’s important to me that my team and I assist people all over Barwon. Getting my team mobile has been vital to deliver mobile offices in remote communities and get people into meetings across the electorate.

Not everyone in Barwon has transport, so bringing services to people has been a key principle.

My team had been driving older vehicles in the last term, which were not as safe as a newer vehicle, and were having some maintenance issues.

Three new vehicles have been delivered by my staff out to Narrabri and Cobar and another is on its way soon to Broken Hill.

Incentives for health workers

In June last year the previous government announced an $883 million scheme to offer critical health care workers a $10,000 incentive to move to the bush. At the time I said $10k was not enough to convince people to uproot their lives in the city and move to the country. But the week before last Premier Chris Minns announced his government would double that amount to $20,000. While there are still many other things to sort out for existing staff and for those thinking of making the move, such as improving wages and conditions, doubling the incentive is getting closer to something that might entice more health workers to take up jobs in Western NSW.

Gas policy consultants

The recent revelations that consultancy firm Ernst & Young provided services to Santos in 2021 whilst working on the “Future of Gas Statement” for NSW government has brought the issue of government transparency and conflicts of interest back into the spotlight.

The issue is particularly important to Barwon, because the Future of Gas Statement renewed several PELs to support the future of the Narrabri gas project. My position is unchanged. I don’t want the project to proceed. This is just more evidence that the entire process of the previous government pushing on the gas project has been flawed.

The general public has no visibility on the relationship between government and consultancy firms and what the firms are being paid for. This lack of transparency undermines the trust we should have in our government.

This particular case doesn’t pass the pub test. In the interest of integrity, I will discuss a review with the relevant ministers into the Future of Gas Statement to truly understand what has happened here. Around $1bn was spent on consultants between 2017 and 2023.

Walgett Pre-School fire

Last week I was saddened to hear the news that two buildings had been destroyed by fire at the Walgett Pre-School. This was a terrible thing for the town and the police are still investigating the deliberately lit fire. On the day it happened I was on the phone with Pru Car, the Deputy Premier and Minister for Education discussing what needed to be done. Interim arrangements have been made to make sure that schooling continues and temporary buildings are being sent to replace the burnt ones. This week in parliament I will be talking to the minister about the situation in Walgett.

Nyngan and Wee Waa health care working groups

Both the Wee Waa Health Service Working Party and the Nyngan MPS Working Group met last week to continue working on the problems of staff shortages in their respective towns. The Wee Waa meeting, which took place last Tuesday, was attended by Minister for Health, Ryan Park. Unfortunately I couldn’t be there, due to prior commitments, but I will be catching up with the minister this week to discuss issues raised and the actions that need to be taken. One major concern in Wee Waa is getting a doctor with VMO rights into the hospital. Once a doctor is confirmed, it will be easier to recruit nursing staff. The minister is keen to work through the issues and recognises Wee Waa hospital is a fantastic facility that needs to be properly utilised and to operate at its full capacity.

I was, however, able to make it to the Nyngan meeting, on Wednesday, where the discussion was about the terms of reference of the working group and about some of the work already being done to recruit nurses. Also covered were the problems with things such as childcare, accommodation and wages to attract and retain staff. I have given a commitment to keep taking these issues to the relevant ministers, because there is no quick or easy solution and this will require action across several ministerial portfolios. I have also asked the Health Minister if he can make it to the next meeting at Nyngan.