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Letter: Bush short-changed on populist rubbish
I read your recent article “Right wing politics destroys the brain” and prior to becoming the NSW Farmers President many years ago, I would have argued against it. However, after close contact with both State and Federal Governments, I know what you have written is 100% correct.
The mechanics of government is very complex, bound by tight law that does not allow the glib nonsense peddled by populists. Thankfully it is usually fact-based, except when politicians occasionally interfere close to elections.
I recall going to Canberra to argue a position for farmers but found bureaucrats who were very informed and knowledgeable about the subject. To get change I had to know my stuff or I was beaten by the detail. They sometimes become bogged down in that detail, but you don’t beat it with populist vague concepts.
The populist stuff does not even rate a mention in Canberra and Sydney parliament houses.
Like most things in life, the answer lies in the centre, not hard right or left bleating, but reasonable, well-thought-through policy. Most Australians are in the centre and if the Coalition gets its act back together again it will capture the centre and become Government again.
The recent Barnaby Joyce train will lose steam as it is less than 10% of voters who will support it close to an election.
The worry is because all the One Nation preferences do not come back to the Coalition, it will help keep Albanese in power for the next term of Government.
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Letter: New England BESS projects get certainty with government contracts
I am writing in response to your recent article on Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) facilities proposed for the New England region. While the article presents these projects as environmentally friendly and beneficial, it fails to address several critical issues that are of genuine concern to local communities.
Firstly, BESS facilities are not as “green” as they are often portrayed. The environmental cost of battery production, including mining, processing, transportation, and eventual disposal, is substantial. These impacts are rarely accounted for in public discussions, yet they are integral to assessing whether such projects are truly sustainable.
More concerning is the clear and present risk to public safety. Large-scale lithium battery installations carry well-documented fire, explosion, and toxic smoke hazards. These risks are magnified in regional areas where emergency services are limited, response times are longer, and local infrastructure is not designed to manage industrial-scale battery incidents.
It is also important to note that many of these facilities are owned by foreign interests and are heavily subsidised by Australian taxpayers. Without government subsidies, grants, and favourable regulatory treatment, these projects would not be commercially viable and would likely never proceed. Despite this public investment, there is little to no meaningful return for local communities in terms of lower power prices, energy security, or long-term economic benefit.
The broader move away from fossil fuels has also exposed a troubling trend: successive governments have sold critical energy assets to private companies that prioritise profit over people. This is not an abstract concern. While not directly related, the privatisation of Telstra provides a clear warning. Promised improvements never materialised; instead, cost-cutting and shortcuts degraded services, forcing the government to spend billions on the NBN to repair the damage.
There is a real risk that energy policy is following the same path. If these projects fail to deliver reliability and affordability, it will ultimately be government—and taxpayers—who are left to clean up the mess by rebuilding publicly funded power generation to restart the economy.
For communities to make informed decisions about their health, safety, and economic viability, reporting on BESS facilities must be balanced, transparent, and honest. This includes acknowledging environmental trade-offs, safety risks, financial realities, and long-term consequences—not just the promotional narratives provided by developers and government agencies.
I encourage more critical examination of these projects so regional Australians can have a genuine say in decisions that will affect them for decades to come.
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Letter: Joyce sideline
Rural people have always had conflict with the Nationals saying one thing in the bush and another when they went to Canberra. The perils of Coalition.
But they do get into power sometimes to make change.
The One Nation commentary never becomes more than that. Always talk the talk, never the walk.
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Letter: Your Coulda Woulda Shoulda stories
Dear Team,
A huge thank you! This story covers everything that is of utmost importance to Armidale/New England Region. That $400,000 you mention? Yes, I too wonder have queried where that money is coming from. Of course, I know it is coming out of the ARC’s pocket… aka the ratepayers.
I believe we need ACCC to have a look at this particular issue. We have had dodgy mayors in the past – needing, on two different occasions, Administrators to be appointed. Unfortunately, they didn’t clean up the mess; they only added to it… hence why I think ACCC is a better avenue than complaining to the Minister for Local Government.
Could you send your FOI responses to them – with missing questions? Is it time for ABC’s 4 Corners to be asked to look into it?
Just to be clear, ALL the subjects you tackled – $400,000, Hospital figures and roads all add up to malfeasance… particularly the Armidale one.
I would like to add Barney Street Armidale to the list of roads – this very busy road – ambulances, school buses and tradies use this road a lot – is in a despicable condition… so much so that locum doctors (FIFO), do not want to be housed in those pods which were designed for them – fronting Barney St, on the hospital grounds. The noise of the vehicles going past is too loud. They now spend off-duty time at places such as Moore Park Motor Inn, etc. However, whilst the locums can move to a quieter part of town, the residents along Barney Street cannot!
Do I really have to visit every house opposite the Hospital with a Petition before Council does up the road?
Again, many, many, thanks for all that you do.
Very sincerely,
Deni McKenzie
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Letter: More voices added to call for better rural health
I refer to the article by Kath Jacobs (081225) More voices added to call for better rural health.
Dr Joe McGirr Independent MP for Wagga Wagga must be commended for acting on this health situation that has afflicted regional & remote NSW communities for at least a decade.
Together with the review enquiring into de-amalgamating the Hunter New England Local Heath District initiated by Roy Butler, Independent MP for Barwon, there may be half a chance for improvement to health services in regional & remote NSW.
About one-third of NSW population lives comfortably outside that pollution filled, congested, over-crowded city and pay taxes the same as all NSW voters. Equity demands that those country voters get at least one-third of the Health budget. This is not happening in Health, or any other NSW portfolio. Why has it taken so long for local regional politicians tor recognise the problems in their electorates?
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Letter: Barnaby’s political manoeuvring has consigned the electorate to irrelevance
I refer to the article by R K Crosby Joyce confirms One Nation switch as staff depart & community patience hardens
I concur that Barnaby’s political manoeuvring has consigned the electorate to irrelevance, just as his inactivity over twelve (12) years has done little, if anything, to improve the lives of New England voters. Indeed, the needs of the voters were irrelevant compared to the behaviour of the elected representative.
Since his election, the main growth in the electorate has been the economic and social stagnation. Even the flow of federal funds for infrastructure improvement & maintenance has dried up; think the Tenterfield By Pass funded from the 2013 Gillard Labor Budget but slashed by Abbott (likely as payback) when he heard that Windsor had retired. Barnaby was reported as laughing, and has done nothing to replace that essential funding to make the Tenterfield CBD more than a fatal accident waiting to happen.
Meanwhile, the killer Bolivia Hill upgrade and the Scone CBD By Pass have been completed from the same tranche of federal funding and now benefit the voters. But wait; there was the Telecom communications tower located on a billionaire fan’s property that provides a rental income to trickle down into the isolated community.
When has it been any different?? Barnaby has always put his personal ambitions before the best interests of the voters who elected him. Cover-ups are a speciality, allegations of sexual harassment, playing away from home until caught by pregnancy, withholding health information that may impact election results. Essentially nothing positive has been done!!
How many thinking business persons would employ a stockman, clerk or labourer, who sat in the shed while others did the work and contributed nothing to the common wealth except boosting the income of every pub that they passed ….. for 12 years??
I am reminded that the defection of Torbay from Independent to National$ certainly proved the point that betraying New England voter trust for personal gain was unpopular, and likely fatal politically if ever tested at an election.
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Letter: our health system fails to meet men where they are
Dr Tanvir Kapoor’s comments (“More care for utes than health” 30/11) reflect a much broader systemic failure – not a lack of concern among rural men, but a health system that fails to meet them where they are.
It’s true that young men in the bush will service their utes religiously. They depend on them and understand the consequences of neglect. For health, we’ve never built the same sense of ownership, ease or immediacy. Rural men aren’t avoiding care because they don’t care, they’re avoiding long waits, long drives, and the fear of being judged in small communities.
If we want young men to show up earlier, we must remove friction, normalise help-seeking, and bring care into trusted local environments, the same way rural communities have built acceptance around mental health, farm safety, and road safety over the last decade.
Rural men aren’t disengaged from their health, they’re disengaged from a system that wasn’t designed around the realities of regional life. If you work 12-hour shifts, live 90 minutes from a clinic, and don’t have a GP you know or trust, the idea of “just going in” simply doesn’t reflect how care works outside the cities.
We need to shift from episodic, clinic-centric healthcare to continuity-based, community-embedded models, where care can reach people where they live and work.
The Royal Flying Doctor Service (RFDS) model shows this works, with consistent clinicians, outreach clinics, and place-based trust building. We need to extend these principles across regional Australia so early intervention becomes the norm rather than the exception.
Australia doesn’t have a rural men’s health problem – we have a rural access problem.
The data shows rural men tend to present late, often only to emergency departments, because earlier pathways simply aren’t visible, convenient or consistent.
The next wave of innovation needs to combine trusted clinicians who are seen regularly, not sporadically; local hubs in towns, farms and workplaces where care is easy and discreet;
and connected digital tools to close distance without losing continuity.
When we make care familiar, local and low-friction, men engage. When we don’t, they wait until the crisis hits. Redesigning access is not optional – it’s urgent.
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Letter: Barnaby, it’s time to go.
Article: Barnaby, it’s time to go
I refer to the above article by R K Crosby.
I support the finding ”Almost 60% said they do not want Joyce to change his mind and run again” which is hardly an endorsement of twelve (12) years of political inactivity on behalf of the voters.
During this period the New England electorate has stagnated economically and socially due mainly to the inactivity of the ”representative of the voters (?)”. In 2013 his predecessor Tony Windsor INDEPENDENT achieved feral funding for upgrading the killer Bolivia Hill and the Scone By-Pass, now two completed projects benefiting both locals and through travellers.
The then aspiring candidate was reported as ”laughing” when the then COALition Opposition Leader struck out the achieved funding for the Tenterfield CBD By-Pass, an accident waiting to happen at any one of the three pedestrian crossings of the New England Highway. Perhaps this was personal payback for Windsor supporting LABOR after the 2007 tied election?
Nothing achieved in twelve (12) years is hardly effective representation of ”the best interests of the voters”. Still, the installation of a Telstra mobile telephone communications tower on a property owned by a billionaire ”fan” does come with an annual rental income.
Perhaps the announcement of his retirement at the next feral election has more to do with the changes in the NOtional$ New England Electoral Council, with the (shock!! horror!!) election of a ”woman” to the important position of Chairperson of the Tamworth Branch. Is this an indication that the ladies of Tamworth are over the atrocious misogynist male behaviour of the ”boys know best” club??
REGIONAL INDEPENDENTS GET THINGS DONE FOR THEIR COMMUNITIES.
What do NOtional$ do??
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Letter: blame for council underfunding
Dear Editor,
Regarding the story Albo fund our Councils!
Well may the new Nationals Member for Parkes complain about the inadequate funding of NSW local government, but this conveniently overlooks the constitutional fact that local government is a function of the NSW state rather than the Federal Parliament, and the quiet compliance of his predecessor during the nine years of Coalition misgovernment.
Perhaps the former Mayor of Gunnedah will take on the Department of the Premier & Cabinet about the transfer of many state costs into the local government accounts to balance the NSW budget. Oh dear, that would be embarrassing so the Office of Local Government has been flicked off elsewhere by the Minns NSW Labor rather than fix the under-funding problem.
Letter: Railway renewal as political spending equity
I refer to the Siri Gamage article; Merits of Regional Rail Renewal vs a Rail Trail: Failures of Decision-Making in New England (14 November 2025).
I continue to be amazed by the antics of the elected Armidale Regional Council (ARC) Councillors spending up big on developing a ”bike path to nowhere to see nothing” at a future foreseeable on-going expense to long suffering ARC ratepayers. As a political sceptic one must ask, ”Who benefits from this proposed ratepayer expense?”
The only beneficiaries appear to be the interstate trucking industry isolating New England from the world to protect their government subsidised use of highways. Or, perhaps an aspiring ARC Councillor seeking to fulfil family expectations for a political career, and prepared to spend whatever is necessary to gain pre-selection from the New England Campaign Committee that benefits from ”political donations” from the trucking industry.
I am amazed by the fact that the Main North Line (MNL) between Armidale and Jennings Wallangarra was closed by the then Nationals MP who also allowed a highway upgrade to be placed immediately on top of the rail line at Sandy Creek. Voters obviously have short memories and little interest in benefiting from politics.
The best interests of New England voters are poorly represented at federal level, and no better by the newly elected NSW Nationals MP.
Why do both these alleged representatives of the voters completely ignore the petition of about 10,000 voters demanding the same government subsidised public transport access to the world as enjoyed in the Sydney Basin where billions are spent on railway upgrades and the Rozelle rolling carpark??
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