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Voters pinning their hopes on cost of living relief from a Coalition government should think again.
Peter Dutton’s shadow treasurer, Angus Taylor, was asked repeatedly on ABC radio recently to name a single Coalition policy to combat cost of living pressures. Each time he failed to name one, eventually claiming that “good economic management” and “managing taxpayers’ money very, very carefully” were the Coalition’s solution.
So what was the Coalition’s record on “good” economic management and their “very, very” careful management of taxpayers’ money when they ran the show from 2013 to 2022?
Here are some reminders: $20 billion of JobKeeper funds went to firms whose revenue was actually rising during Covid; blatant rorting of the NDIS; car park rorts and sports rorts.
And billions of dollars blown away on Scott Morrison’s bungled French submarines; big delays and massive cost blow outs on the Snowy Hydro 2.0 project; $30 million handed over for a property valued at $3 million near the western Sydney airport and the failure to properly organise the vaccine roll out in the initial stages of the pandemic.
Also the disgraceful Robodebt scheme and cover-up; many billions of dollars spent outsourcing public service work to large private consultancies; the bungling of our relationship with China resulting in $20 billion trade bans on Australian exporters; and inflation at more than double the current rate under Labor.
Best of luck if you’re relying on Mr Joyce’s party to help you with cost of living.
For more information or to get involved, please visit laurahughesnewengland.com.au.
Got something on your mind? Go on then, engage. Submit your opinion piece, letter to the editor, or Quick Word now.
Barnaby’s legacy just rotten policy
Regarding Barnaby’s legacy vs Dutton ideology story published by New England Times 15/4/2025.
Barnaby Joyce was told it was a bad idea to move the pesticides regulator (APVMA) to Armidale and he did it anyway.
The move has been found to have been disastrous. It’s been a hotbed of regulatory failure, incompetence, industry capture and extensive allegations of staff misconduct. And its failures are down to one man: Barnaby Joyce.
A damning review of the agency was released in July 2023 https://www.agriculture.gov.au/sites/default/files/documents/APVMA%20-%20Strategic%20Review%20Report.PDF
Among the findings:
- The APVMA was too supine in its use of enforcement powers for fear of upsetting the industry and too inclined to see its role as helping industry, not regulating it;
- Its review program was so poorly resourced and conducted that some chemicals had been under “review” for two decades;
- It can’t do the public service’s basics in areas such as procurement and financial management;
- It has an extraordinarily high volume of complaints from staff, ranging across all areas, including allegations of nepotism, mental health concerns, failures of complaints-handling and inappropriate behaviour.
The chair and CEO both resigned.
Not only did taxpayers have to stump up $25m for relocating the APVMA, but time and again the independent report identifies Joyce’s decision to move the APVMA from Canberra to Armidale in 2016 the key reason for many of the problems.
Another review, by Ernst & Young in 2016, spelled out just how ill-advised the move was. Despite the report being commissioned by Joyce’s own department, at Joyce’s request, it still found “the economic benefits for the Australian economy associated with moving the APVMA from Canberra to Armidale are modest. This is because the strategic and operational benefits of having the APVMA operate out of Armidale appear to be limited”.
The move would be a net cost to the Commonwealth, and the “risks associated with moving the APVMA are significant”.
For consultants being paid to give Joyce a reason to move the agency, it was a remarkable report — they told him it was a terrible idea instead. And the biggest risk was that “the APVMA may be unable to relocate, or recruit and replace, key APVMA executive, management and technical assessment staff”.
That’s exactly what happened, according to the report, which found “less than 15 of approximately 140 full-time employees stayed with the APVMA”.
“Only a small proportion of previous APVMA staff moved from Canberra to Armidale,” the report found, “and it may be inferred that the new staff and lack of previous APS [Australian Public Service] knowledge and experience impacted the operations of the APVMA.”
Overall: The relocation of the APVMA’s main office to Armidale fundamentally changed the APVMA — if for no other reason than the APVMA had a very significant turnover of staff, including a change in CEO, associated with the relocation. This turnover of staff would have inevitably resulted in a loss of corporate knowledge, a loss of corporate culture and a loss of experience and knowledge of what it is to work within the APS. This may include practical awareness of foundational public service principles, such as the need to adhere to the APS values.
So exactly what Joyce was told would happen if he moved APVMA to Armidale happened, and it trashed the agency.
The Nationals are renowned for shameless pork-barrelling. Usually, the only victims are taxpayers and the public interest. But the victim here is an agency with the important task of regulating the chemicals that enter Australia’s food chain at the source, an agency that was used as a pork plaything by Joyce, despite clearly knowing what would result.
The New England Times talks of the APVMA move as Joyce’s legacy and it being a positive thing. It was nothing more than a rotten piece of public policy.
Nuclear support melting down; water question unanswered
RE-Alliance has been working with rural and regional communities navigating energy projects for more than a decade. We recently released polling across several proposed nuclear communities, which found support for nuclear reactors in those communities was very low. The polling of 1250 regional residents was conducted by respected research firm 89 Degrees East, which is a member of the Research Society of Australia.
The data revealed only 22% of people in Central West NSW support nuclear, 24% in Central Queensland, 32% in Hunter, 24% in south west WA and just 31% in Gippsland. Interestingly, regional communities also don’t believe that nuclear power is capable of bringing down their energy bills anytime soon (just 13%) while 72% said renewables would bring bills down faster.
Further, a report released by former Land and Water Australia CEO Professor Andrew Campbell has found an extra 200 gigalitres of annual water allocation would need to be acquired from farmers and other water customers to cool the proposed nuclear reactors. The report also found half the reactors couldn’t be built because there isn’t enough water to cool them and another 40% would have to be turned off regularly due to lack of water.
RE-Alliance will continue to push that all energy projects being proposed in regional and rural Australia contribute to the strength and resilience of our regions and that clear information is readily accessible.
No cost of living relief from the Coalition
Voters pinning their hopes on cost of living relief from a Coalition government should think again.
Peter Dutton’s shadow treasurer, Angus Taylor, was asked repeatedly on ABC radio recently to name a single Coalition policy to combat cost of living pressures. Each time he failed to name one, eventually claiming that “good economic management” and “managing taxpayers’ money very, very carefully” were the Coalition’s solution.
So what was the Coalition’s record on “good” economic management and their “very, very” careful management of taxpayers’ money when they ran the show from 2013 to 2022?
Here are some reminders: $20 billion of JobKeeper funds went to firms whose revenue was actually rising during Covid; blatant rorting of the NDIS; car park rorts and sports rorts.
And billions of dollars blown away on Scott Morrison’s bungled French submarines; big delays and massive cost blow outs on the Snowy Hydro 2.0 project; $30 million handed over for a property valued at $3 million near the western Sydney airport and the failure to properly organise the vaccine roll out in the initial stages of the pandemic.
Also the disgraceful Robodebt scheme and cover-up; many billions of dollars spent outsourcing public service work to large private consultancies; the bungling of our relationship with China resulting in $20 billion trade bans on Australian exporters; and inflation at more than double the current rate under Labor.
Best of luck if you’re relying on Mr Joyce’s party to help you with cost of living.
For more information or to get involved, please visit laurahughesnewengland.com.au.
Parallel elections in Australia and Canada
Since the late March 2025 announcement of election dates, electoral opinion polls in both Australia and Canada have shown dramatic shifts. Prior to these announcements, opposition parties in both countries were consistently leading the polls and were considered near-unbeatable contenders for victory. However, following the official confirmation of election dates—Australia’s for May 3, 2025, and Canada’s for April 28, 2025—the political landscape changed drastically.
In both nations, the ruling government parties have surged ahead in the polls, overtaking the opposition parties as the new frontrunners. This sudden shift has raised questions about the dynamics at play in these two similar democratic systems. While the reasons behind this change are still being debated, it is clear that public opinion can be highly volatile, especially as the election dates approach.
This significant change in both countries highlights the unpredictable nature of electoral campaigns and the critical role that official announcements play in shaping voter sentiment. As we move closer to election day, it will be interesting to see how these trends evolve and what impact they will have on the final outcome.
Has Barnaby gone quiet on Nuclear?
Peter Dutton says his nuclear power policy is “probably the biggest energy economic policy offered by an opposition in our country’s history.” So why have Dutton and Barnaby Joyce, a man not averse to spruiking, gone strangely silent on nuclear?
Maybe it’s that recent nuclear projects around the world have been plagued by massive cost blowouts and delays. Or maybe it’s that most experts say electricity produced from nuclear is more expensive than renewables. Possibly it’s because it’s actually illegal to whack up nuclear power stations at their proposed sites?
It could be that the Coalition has no idea where it would source the massive volumes of water needed for nuclear facilities. Maybe they don’t know how to store deadly radioactive waste or how to address nuclear’s real health and safety risks.
But the real explanation is that nuclear is not the “the biggest energy economic policy offered by an opposition in our country’s history”. It’s simply the biggest con job.
I want my child to have their phone
As a parent of a child at Armidale Secondary College, I think it’s time we have a conversation about how the mobile phone ban is wrong.
If our kids were safe at school, then all those high and mighty reasons for banning phones might apply. But as noted in the story about this week’s lockdown, lots of kids still have their phones and it’s just another way the school system can bully our kids and plays favourites.
Not long after the ban on phones in school was introduced, I heard my eldest telling my youngest about some places in the school that were not safe to go, and a warning about not picking up dropped pencils. When I asked her about it, she explained it, but also dismissed it as being normal kid stuff.
I was horrified. But the school doesn’t care, they’ve known about it since before the merger, and there’s no good that comes from complaining – your kids just get targeted and bullied more. So I told my kids to keep their phones, and keep them on, and start videoing any time something seems wrong.
It is completely wrong to suspend kids for having a phone, or recording something out of the ordinary. And what is most wrong is that they haven’t suspended every kid that had their phone and was recording, but are again playing favourites and targeting some. One of my kids did record the goings on last Tuesday, but they were not suspended. Is that because I have learned not to complain?
I want my kids to have their phones. I want them to be able to call for help, or record a video any time they don’t feel 100% safe.
I’d also like to have a school where I feel safe raising these kinds issues without having to worry about retribution.
Got something on your mind? Go on then, engage. Submit your opinion piece, letter to the editor, or Quick Word now.
Can police stop threatening teenagers to make us feel better, please?
I was horrified to read today’s story about the ‘new’ police response to youth crime “Going to lock you up’: cop warning for regional youth” New England Times 19/3/2025. It sounded like the cops were intending to just go lock kids up to make other people feel better.
The Deputy Commissioner of Police should not be threatening children with the most base ‘we’re coming to get you’ threat. What on earth was he thinking? Was he auditioning for a role in a horror film?
I don’t want juiced up young, inexperienced police trolling the streets of Tamworth looking for kids to lock up just to hit some kind of quota, like they do with speeding fines. I don’t want officers ripped out of small country towns that already don’t have a 24/7 police presence either. These extra police have to come from somewhere – and that’s the only two options I know of.
I understand that people are concerned about the increasing severity of crime – there’s not more crime, and there is no crime crisis, it’s just different kind of crime that people aren’t used to. It’s scary and confronting, and of course something should be done about it.
But as any parent of a teenager will tell you, threatening them doesn’t work. They think they’re invincible, and are only likely to do more of whatever you’re trying to stop. I’m not a very smart person, I didn’t go to uni or anything, but even I know that.
Politicians and police leadership should be ashamed of themselves for jumping up and down on this issue. The rhetoric from Tamworth MP Kevin Anderson on this has been just as bad as that deputy commissioner.
Go get tough on yourselves and your own poor performance. If you want to do something about crime, then perhaps deal with the fact that everyone is broke, rather than wasting money making yourselves feel better and achieving absolutely nothing.
Local media loss hurts
Just a quick note to say I am really appreciating the efforts New England Times is going to in order to ensure voters are properly informed this election. With the loss of our local paper, and the demise of our local radio stations to basically unlistenable, I often feel like we are abandoned as a community. It’s so important that we know what is going on and I hate Facebook. Obviously the Times can’t be everywhere, and TV news covers even less, so there will still be a fairly big information gap. I hope there will be some discussion from local candidates during the election about the state of local media and the detrimental impact it has on places like Inverell.
Tourist $$$$
I would like to thank you for today’s article about are tourist dollars necessary for a town. I was very interested to maybe realise why we have so few really interesting things here compared to the likes of Uralla especially & other smaller towns. So thank you very much Deni for your article thoroughly enjoyed it.
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