Cootamundra-Gundagai Regional Council gets Minister’s support to prepare for a demerger

The Minister for Local Government has today announced that the demerger of Cootamundra-Gundagai Regional Council into two separate councils is to proceed.

On 3 October 2023, the Minister announced his support to split Cootamundra–Gundagai Regional Council provided it could develop a robust implementation plan for two separate councils.

The implementation plan developed by the Council would then be subject to a Public Inquiry and recommendation of the NSW Local Government Boundaries Commission. This was the only legislative option available to achieve a demerger of the Council.

The Minister met with Mayor Abb McAlister and the Member for Cootamundra in Gundagai earlier today to release the Boundaries Commission and Public Inquiry reports.

The path is now clear for the Council to commence the detailed transition work needed to initiate the dissolution of Cootamundra-Gundagai and establish two new councils.

The Council will establish a transition management office to prepare the specifics of the demerger, including allocation of assets, liabilities, funding, shared service arrangements, staffing and governance arrangements.

Completing the detailed planning and transition work is essential to ensure each Council has the best start following proclamation.

This work will also inform the drafting of legal instruments by the NSW Government required to establish the two new councils.

The Office of Local Government will continue to support Cootamundra-Gundagai including monitoring the implementation of Council’s demerger proposal, and work with the Council to identify funding sources to support the transition to two new council areas.

Minister for Local Government Ron Hoenig said:

“Cootamundra and Gundagai are two councils that should never have been merged.

“The work by the Boundaries Commission confirms what the Council had been saying since 2016 and what I had been saying since 2012 – the former government’s ‘Fit for the Future’ policy was only a ruse to effect widespread amalgamations.

“Within several years of the merger I spoke with Mayor Abb McAlister and remember being impressed with the work the Council had done calculating the cost of the merger on the new Council. The community’s opposition was not just philosophical – it was financial and practical.

“It was for that reason in October 2023 that I decided I would do whatever I could within my power under the Act, to enable this demerger.

“Now, the detailed transition work needs to be led by the Council, and the councillors elected in 2024 who have the mandate to do it. They are best positioned to drive this process forward and should be the ones to shape the future of their respective communities.

“Demerging a council is significantly more complex than amalgamating one. The Council’s own implementation plan highlighted there is still a lot of work that needs to be done to get to a point where two new councils can be proclaimed.

“I am confident Mayor McAlister and the elected councillors can do what is required of them to reach this outcome so we can finally close this disappointing chapter in local government history.

“Let Cootamundra-Gundagai Regional Council serve as a cautionary tale for future governments and academics who believe that merged councils provide better economies of scale and better services.

“May it stand as the folly that it was, so we can finally discard forced amalgamations for amalgamations sake into the waste bin of history.”

Progressing a revitalised Gosford waterfront

The Minns Labor Government is progressing the revitalisation of Gosford’s waterfront with a focus on enhancing public space and improving connectivity in the short term while providing opportunities for longer term investment.

Following market sounding and feasibility studies on how to best revitalise Gosford’s waterfront in line with the $8.5 million election commitment, the NSW Government is designing and costing an active transport shared pathway between Gosford and Point Clare.

The shared pathway would cut the time to cycle and walk between the two destinations and improve connections further south to Tascott, Koolewong and Woy Woy via the Brisbane Water cycleway.

The Government will also prepare a targeted public domain plan and will deliver improvements to the public domain in the next 18 months.

From today, the community has an opportunity to say what features and projects they would like to see in the public domain plan and help prioritise their delivery on the Gosford Waterfront.

This could include features like better lighting and visibility, fitness equipment, children’s playground equipment, picnic tables and seating, or a boardwalk.

Please visit https://www.hccdc.nsw.gov.au/gosford to have your say by Sunday, 17 August 2025.

The Government is also identifying projects for the waterfront that can be delivered in the longer term.

Minister for Planning and Public Spaces, Paul Scully said:

“The Minns Labor Government has listened to the community and is revitalising Gosford’s waterfront with targeted improvements that can be delivered in the short term.

“We want to make sure we’re getting this right and enable Gosford waterfront to continue to evolve into a vibrant destination linked to the city and its surrounds that the fast-developing capital of the Central Coast deserves.”

Minister for the Central Coast, David Harris said:

“With $2.3 billion worth of development activity well underway and a dynamically changing skyline, Gosford is finally fulfilling its enormous potential.

“Activating the waterfront is a vital piece of Gosford’s revitalisation picture and I’m pleased to be part of a Government that’s progressing this project.

“Please take this opportunity to complete the survey on which public space improvements you would like to see prioritised on the Gosford waterfront.”

Member for Gosford, Leisl Tesch said:

“After years of glossy plans with no certainty over what can be delivered along the Gosford Waterfront, the Minns Labor Government is planning for Gosford’s future, informed by detailed market sounding and feasibility studies about the realistic short and long-term outlook for our city.

“Gosford is quickly transforming into a city that we can be proud of and it is important that our waterfront reflects Gosford’s place as the heart of the Central Coast.

“It is particularly exciting to see funding allocated towards design and costing for a shared pathway between Gosford and Point Clare, recognising our community’s vocal support for this vital active recreation link.”

Australia needs a Statement of National Principles

We live in an increasingly fractured, polarised world where principles and values we once took for granted in Australia are being undermined. 

There’s no single person, movement, organisation or country to blame and there’s no single date that can be pinned down as to where it all went wrong. Marxism and its unhinged modern adherents protesting everything from Israel to climate policy and ‘trans’ rights are certainly at the core of it, but it’s only fair to say conservative leaders of the past are as much to blame for failing to counter it effectively much sooner. 

Irrespective of blame, today the Albanese Labor government gets away with doing things that would simply not be acceptable in Australia a generation or two ago. 

They’ve allowed rising antisemitism to go unchecked, and even encouraged it by supporting terrorism over democracy. They defend the drugging and mutilation of children, and men invading women’s sports and private spaces, in the name of ‘trans’ activism. 

They spend tens of billions of taxpayer dollars every year funding a net zero policy which achieves nothing but increase our electricity costs and cripple our economic productivity – they even defend the clearing of native rainforests to cover our landscape with their giant wind turbines. 

They are deliberately risking our critical military alliance with the world’s most powerful nation, the United States, and leaving Australia more vulnerable to international aggression than we have been at any time since the start of the Second World War. In the meantime they are deliberately cultivating and kowtowing to the power which primarily threatens peace and order in our region, communist China. 

Labor may have won the 2025 election, but that hasn’t made the problems Labor created go away. We still have a cost-of-living crisis. We still have a housing crisis. We still have declining economic productivity, record immigration, reduced defence capabilities, increasing debt and huge budget deficits. The Coalition – which ran just about the the worst election campaign in living memory this year – gives no Australian any hope of a strong alternative government to oppose Labor’s incompetent excesses. 

A generation or two ago, certain non-partisan principles were taken for granted: Australia is a democratic Western nation which supported other democracies like the US and Israel. Australia opposed tyranny, terrorism and authoritarian regimes because they violently denied self-determination and basic human rights. Australia supported those rights: voting; freedom of speech and religion; privacy and property rights. 

How certain of these principles are you today? 

Bringing this to a head in recent days is the Albanese Labor government’s effective ghosting of our major military ally while the Prime Minister flies off to China for six whole days to be wined and dined by our most potent military adversary. 

For decades, Australia’s defence has primarily been funded by American taxpayers. America’s nuclear deterrence has prevented global war between major powers, America supplies us with our military platforms and our advanced weapons, and under AUKUS America will hand over to Australia the most closely-guarded military technology on the planet: nuclear propulsion. 

Yet our current Labor government is publicly appearing less than grateful for this generous support from the ‘arsenal of democracy’, and is to all appearances sucking up to China – by far and away our largest trading partner, but also a country which routinely commits acts of aggression against Australia as if it’s entitled to do so and is not hiding its intentions to militarily and economically dominate our region. 

America wants the countries it has protected to step up and do some of the heavy lifting by increasing their defence spending. Nearly all of them have agreed to do so; Australia under Labor is one of the very few gambling that it won’t have to. Labor is gambling with our national security. 

The mistake Labor is making is purely political. It’s not principled. Labor – with its extreme left faction dominating the party – hates everything American and especially despises the current US president and his unique brand of politics. Labor fails to appreciate the relationship between our two countries will endure beyond the current occupants of the Lodge and the White House. 

It’s impossible to imagine Bob Hawke – Labor’s most successful and longest-serving Prime Minister – supporting this profound mistake. Hawke was a noted champion of the US alliance despite the fact the very conservative Reagan and Bush (senior) administrations were in the White House, and a major critic of communist China (especially after the massacre at Tiananmen Square in 1989). Hawke understood principles. Even Paul Keating – a vocal admirer of China – knew enough not to jeopardise our relationship with America. 

Albanese obviously didn’t get the memo, and now our relations with the United States are declining when we can least afford it. President Trump has demonstrated he is prepared to act decisively – even punitively – to prompt allies to start pulling their weight, and if Albanese doesn’t wake up he may find us way down the list of America’s priorities when it comes to defence and trade. We’re already facing increased American tariffs on steel, aluminium and pharmaceuticals. AUKUS is also under review by the Trump administration. This is not in our best interests. 

Australia needs a statement of binding national diplomatic principles to ensure transitory political partisanship does not risk important international relationships that must endure beyond every three-year Parliamentary term. 

At a minimum, these principles should include: 

  • aligning our national interests with those of countries with similar systems and values: secular representative democracy, the rule of law, international peace and order, protecting and promoting fundamental human rights and freedoms; 
  • opposing authoritarianism and supporting democratic movements; 
  • opposing and condemning terrorism both domestically and abroad; 
  • opposing communism, Marxism or any similar movement under the ‘socialist’ banner as anti-democratic; and 
  • having a defence force capable of deterring credible threats and aggression, able to deploy in support of allies and able to defend Australia independently. 

This statement needs to say who we are and what Australia stands for on the international stage. It needs to be binding on every government we get, every Prime Minister, every diplomat from the Foreign Minister down. 

Statement on Joint Outcomes of the China-Australia Annual Leaders’ Meeting

1. At the invitation of H.E. Li Qiang, Premier of the State Council of the People’s Republic of China, The Hon Anthony Albanese MP, Prime Minister of Australia, undertook an official visit to China from 12 to 18 July. Prime Minister Albanese visited Shanghai, Beijing and Chengdu, Sichuan.

2. During the visit to Beijing on 15 July, H.E. Xi Jinping, President of the People’s Republic of China, met with Prime Minister Albanese. Premier Li Qiang and Prime Minister Albanese jointly convened the Annual Leaders’ Meeting. H.E. Zhao Leji, Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress, also met with Prime Minister Albanese. The leaders exchanged views in depth on China-Australia relations, as well as on key regional and international issues.

3. At the Annual Leaders’ Meeting, the leaders reaffirmed their support for the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership and reiterated the importance of a mature, stable, and constructive bilateral relationship. They agreed to continue to grow the bilateral relationship, enhance exchanges and cooperation in areas of shared interest, uphold their respective national interests, and navigate their differences wisely.

4. Consistent with the Statement on Joint Outcomes issued in Canberra in June 2024, the two sides reiterated the importance of the 1972 Joint Communique on the Establishment of Diplomatic Relations between the People’s Republic of China and Australia and restated their commitment to their respective national policies and positions contained therein, including mutual respect, equality, mutual benefit, stable development and Australia’s commitment to its one-China policy.

5. The leaders acknowledged the importance of regular engagement between leaders, ministers and officials on both sides in support of the ongoing stabilisation and development of the bilateral relationship. They welcomed the resumption, since the last Annual Leaders’ Meeting in June 2024, of the Fourth Strategic Economic Dialogue in September 2024, and welcomed the upcoming session to be hosted by Australia later this year. They looked forward to holding the Foreign and Strategic Dialogue and the Joint Ministerial Economic Commission in China in 2025.

6. The two sides reaffirmed the importance of the UN Charter and the WTO. They agreed to continue to work together in the UN, WTO, G20, APEC, East Asia Summit and other multilateral platforms. Australia looked forward to a successful APEC 2026 and supported China’s hosting. The two sides attached importance to cooperation under the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement. They acknowledged the importance of a fair, open and non-discriminatory business environment.

7. The two sides reaffirmed support for people-to-people exchanges and highlighted the important role these played in deepening the bilateral relationship. They welcomed the increasing number of visitors travelling in both directions, underpinned by the growing number of direct flights. They welcomed the important role played by the China-Australia High Level Dialogue and plans to hold the next meeting later this year in China.

8. The two sides agreed to continue or expand engagement in:

  • Political dialogue, including through continuing the Annual Leaders’ Meeting, the Foreign and Strategic Dialogue, the Strategic Economic Dialogue, the Joint Ministerial Economic Commission, as well as other government-to-government mechanisms.
  • Bilateral trade, including through the participation of both leaders in the Australia-China CEO Roundtable meeting in Beijing on 15 July. The two sides recognised the importance of the China-Australia Free Trade Agreement (ChAFTA) for promoting bilateral economic and trade relations and welcomed a review of the ChAFTA. China welcomed Australia’s participation in the China International Fair for Trade in Services (CIFTIS) as this year’s country of honour and the China International Import Expo (CIIE). Both sides welcomed the conclusion of the WTO Agreement on Electronic Commerce and committed to its incorporation into the WTO framework. In line with this, they would also explore potential ways for cooperation on the agreement’s interim implementation.
  • Climate change, energy and environment, through agreement to establish a new Policy Dialogue on Steel Decarbonisation, and through continuing exchanges between officials on climate change and the environment, including on transparency-related issues, dryland farming, climate-smart agriculture and the green economy. They looked forward to holding the Ninth China-Australia Ministerial Dialogue on Climate Change in 2025 in China.
  • People-to-people links, and other exchanges in culture, sports, education, innovation, academia, aviation, health and tourism, including through resumption of the Australia China Tourism Dialogue. Australia continued to welcome Chinese students and to value their contribution to Australian society. Both sides welcomed more young Australians travelling to China for visits and exchanges, including through international youth exchange programs and initiatives. The leaders welcomed their National Museums’ exchanges of culturally significant exhibitions.
  • Border enforcement, building on existing bilateral law enforcement cooperation in our mutual interest against forms of crime including counter-narcotics, transnational and organised crime and cyber-telecom scams.

9. The leaders witnessed the signing of the following MOUs and Protocols:

  • Memorandum of Understanding Between the Ministry of Commerce of the People’s Republic of China and the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade of Australia Regarding the Implementation and Review of China-Australia Free Trade Agreement in 2025-2026
  • Memorandum of Understanding Between the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade of Australia and the Ministry of Culture and Tourism of the People’s Republic of China on Tourism Cooperation
  • Protocol of Phytosanitary Requirements for Export of Fresh Apples from Australia to China Between the General Administration of Customs of the People’s Republic of China and the Australian Government Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry
  • Protocol of Phytosanitary Requirements for Export of Chinese Jujube Fruits from China to Australia Between the General Administration of Customs of the People’s Republic of China and the Australian Government Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry
  • Memorandum of Understanding Between the General Administration of Customs of the People’s Republic of China and the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry of Australia on Paperless Certification of Agricultural and Food Products
  • Strategic Cooperation Agreement Between China Media Group and Tourism Australia

10. The leaders agreed to convene the next Annual Leaders’ Meeting in 2026. China welcomed the invitation of the Australian side for Chinese leaders to visit Australia at a mutually convenient time.

Investiture of the Victoria Cross for Private Richard Norden

The Victoria Cross for Australia has been formally presented to the family of the late Private Richard Norden, in recognition for his bravery and dedication to service during the Vietnam War.

Private Norden’s gallantry during the Battle of Fire Support Base Coral in Vietnam in 1968 has never been forgotten.

In November last year, Governor-General, the Honourable Ms Sam Mostyn AC announced that His Majesty The King had approved the awarding of the Victoria Cross for Australia for Private Norden.

Today at a special investiture ceremony in Rockhampton, Australia’s highest military honour was presented to Private Norden’s widow, Mrs Robynn Freeman.

The awarding of the Victoria Cross reflects Private Norden’s courage and selflessness in the heat of battle.  

On 14 May 1968, Private Norden’s platoon came under heavy fire during the Battle of Fire Support Base Coral.

Using his initiative and demonstrating a depth of care for his fellow soldiers, Private Norden rescued a wounded soldier and recovered the body of another, with very little cover and under intense enemy fire.

Private Norden displayed a complete disregard for his own personal safety. His courage and selfless acts resulted in the enemy position being secured and likely saved the lives of many others on that day in 1968.

Private Norden died in the line of duty while serving as a member of the Australian Capital Territory Police in 1972.

Today marks an historic occasion for Australia and the Australian Defence Force and a particularly significant day for Private Norden’s family.

Deputy Prime Minister, Richard Marles:

“Private Richard Norden’s bravery during the Battle of Fire Support Base Coral exemplifies the values we hold as Australians – those of tremendous courage and mateship.
 
“Under fire from the enemy, Private Norden did not hesitate as he moved forward to help his fellow wounded soldiers.
 
“I am honoured to have attended today’s investiture ceremony to see Private Norden recognised with Australia’s highest military honour.”

Minister for Defence Personnel and Minister for Veterans’ Affairs, Matt Keogh:

“When we say ‘Lest We Forget’ that’s a call to action to never forget the service and sacrifice of Australia’s personnel. 

“I’m so pleased that today, almost six decades after his heroic act, his family are finally receiving this important acknowledgement of his selfless service.

“Private Norden personified the ANZAC spirit – disregarding his own safety to put his mates first.

“I want to acknowledge and thank the veteran community for your advocacy for the appropriate recognition of Private Norden.”

Strengthening Defence’s space edge

For the first time, the Australian Defence Force will establish a purpose-built space workforce. 

The 2024 Defence Workforce Plan highlighted the need to recruit and retain highly‑specialised personnel for emerging capabilities, including space. 

To meet the demands of the evolving space domain, Defence will soon begin targeted recruitment and training for highly specialised roles to grow its existing space workforce across areas including satellite communications and operations, position, navigation and timing, intelligence and surveillance. 

Defence’s current space workforce consists of diverse Navy, Army and Air Force personnel. From 2026, Air Force direct entry will be available for roles including Space Operations Specialist and Space Operations Officers. 

Emerging space capabilities are a focus of Exercise Talisman Sabre 2025, with Defence personnel working alongside international partners to conduct real-time and on-demand space demonstration exercises in Townsville.

During the exercise, personnel will use commercially-available data to provide timely and accurate reporting on space events and activities to support military operations. 

The evolving space domain demands highly specialised roles, requiring targeted career development and training continuums. The workforce will eventually cover the full spectrum of space mission sets, including: 

  • Satellite communications
  • Position, navigation and timing
  • Space domain awareness
  • Missile warning
  • Satellite operations
  • Space control
  • Intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance; and
  • Environmental monitoring.

Beyond the technical edge, an Australian Defence Force career in space operations will offer some truly extraordinary opportunities. From working with cutting-edge satellite systems and commercial partners, to contributing to joint and coalition operations, members will be part of a frontier mission at the intersection of science, strategy and service.

This purpose‑built space workforce would continue to work alongside Australian industry and commercial operations to deliver the capabilities and outcomes required by our strategic circumstances. 

Minister for Defence Personnel, the Hon Matt Keogh MP:

“Our region is rapidly evolving, and space is a critical operational domain. By establishing a permanent space workforce, we are preparing Defence to lead, integrate and innovate in this contested and congested environment.

“Space capabilities will play a critical role in the execution of activities as part of Exercise Talisman Sabre 2025 alongside existing operational domains of maritime, land, air and cyber.

“People are at the centre of our advantage. Defence is building a sustainable space workforce through targeted recruitment, career pathways and joint training. 

“The evolving space domain demands highly specialised roles and will provide our people with opportunities to shape how Australia operates in space.”

Media note:

During a visit to Townsville, Minister for Defence Personnel, the Hon Matt Keogh MP had the opportunity to see first-hand the work of the Joint Commercial Operations (JCO) Pacific Cell as it conducted dynamic and time sensitive space activities. 

The JCO Pacific Cell undertaking these exercises brings together personnel from Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Canada and Republic of Korea, with the Philippines, Thailand, Singapore and India joining as participants. 

The JCO is also being supported throughout the exercise by the Australian Bureau of Meteorology’s space weather team.

Clandestine Koala Translocation Program results in Koala Deaths – Labelled Animal Cruelty and calls on Minister and Premier to Explain

A NSW Government Koala Translocation project, claimed to promote genetic diversity in south-east NSW has gone horribly wrong with 13 koalas translocated and 7 dead, leading to calls to explain how the project got off the ground, halt all translocations of koalas in NSW and investigate whether any charges for animal cruelty should be laid against those responsible.

Greens MP and spokesperson for the environment Sue Higginson says “What’s happened is deeply disturbing, tragic and cruel. How this even past muster as a Koala “conservation program” is unfathomable, something has gone radically awry and the Minister for the Environment Penny Sharpe is staying quiet, but she and Premier Chris Minns must explain.

“This level of experimentation with our endangered koalas is cruel, was a catastrophic failure and should not have happened. The control settings around this translocation experiment were obviously fundamentally flawed and I don’t think the public would find this level of experimentation with our endangered koalas at all acceptable.

“The evidence over many years shows that translocation of koalas is fraught with risk and failure. It is deeply concerning that the Government allowed thirteen healthy koalas to be taken from their habitat in the Upper Nepean State Conservation Area all the way to South East Forest National Park where there are no koalas. Given the outcome, it’s clear they shouldn’t have.

“Koalas are not expendable, any and all translocation programs must be immediately stopped and the ethics and controls around such programs need to be reviewed transparently and publicly. In this case there needs to be an investigation as to whether animal cruelty laws have been breached. It is hard to reconcile that only a few months ago wildlife carer Tracey Dodds was prosecuted for animal cruelty charges for caring for a rescued kangaroo that had to be euthanized.

“It’s a stark and tragic reminder that the only sure way to protect koalas and avoid their current dire trajectory of extinction is to protect them from predation, road strike and disease now, where they currently live and to improve and extend that very habitat.

“It’s deeply distressing and sends a very cynical message that the Government is focussed on high risk and failed koala program effort while it continues to allow the destruction of core koala habitat for development and logging of high quality koala habitat in the forests of the promised Great Koala National Park, with no end in sight.

“The Minns Labor Government promised to protect koalas, but it’s been over 2 years, they haven’t established the Great Koala National Park, changed any laws to better protect koalas, they haven’t even completed the review of the NSW Koala Strategy and the Minister for the Environment is staying quiet about what has happened here.

Premier Chris Minns victim-blaming of Kathleen Folbigg is callous and cruel

Greens MP, spokesperson for justice and solicitor Sue Higginson has condemned the comments from Premier Chris Minns after he refused to meet with Kathleen Folbigg on Monday.

The Premier told a press conference he would refuse Ms Folbigg’s request for a meeting, saying:“There’s a lot of difficult calls for me to make as Premier. This isn’t one of them.”

“… like every citizen in the state, she’s entitled to take her matter to the courts and sue the NSW government, but this is a complex issue given she won’t do that.”

Ms Higginson has recommended that the Premier undertake trauma-informed communication training to avoid further hurtful comments being made toward victims of injustice and school himself in the functions of the justice system.

NSW Greens Justice Spokesperson and solicitor Sue Higginson MLC said, “I’m shocked at the disparaging language Labor Premier Chris Minns is using when talking in public to Kathleen Folbigg and I am concerned about his lack of understanding of our justice system.

“The Premier Chris Minns has essentially engaged in victim-blaming, and he should be more mindful when talking through the powerful media to a woman who has lost four children to a rare genetic disease and who was wrongfully imprisoned for decades by the State he represents.

“Ms Folbigg is owed some form of compensation by the NSW Government and a request to meet with the Premier is literally the bare minimum. Instead, the Premier has criticised Ms Folbigg for requesting a meeting and seeking an accepted method of compensation rather than engaging in drawn out expensive civil litigation against the State of NSW

“Saying, as Premier, that you make hard decisions but “this isn’t one of them” – it’s incredibly callous and cruel particularly in the circumstances while Ms Folbigg is simply exercising her rights to access justice and has in fact spared the State protracted legal proceedings.

“Ms Folbigg has chosen not to sue the NSW Government after being wrongfully convicted. Chris Minns is repaying her grace and her choice with ghosting, accusations and dismissals. The Premier and his advisors need further training in trauma-informed communication, basic compassion, how to respect human dignity and the justice system.

“Misogynistic and dismissive tone is not what people expect from the Premier and it is retraumatizing for a woman who has been the victim of an historic miscarriage of justice.

“The Premier should apologise to Ms Folbigg, and the public and he should meet with her. There is no conflict of interest here. It’s a serious case of justice delayed, is justice denied. Ms Folbigg has waited too long. I am now in discussions with the opposition and other members of the cross bench in the Parliament about what further steps we can take to end this drawn out denial of justice.”

Treasurer’s housing targets are pie in the sky

There is an urgent need for tax reform if Labor wants to solve the housing crisis according to Greens housing spokesperson, Senator Barbara Pocock.Treasury has kyboshed Labor’s targets and Pocock says all they are doing is helping wealthy investors to corner the market with the 50% discount on capital gains tax and lucrative negative gearing arrangements.Senator Barbara Pocock:“Jim Chalmers said yesterday that Labor can deliver their promised 1.2 million new homes – well, someone needs to tell him he’s dreaming.”Without reform to the tax concessions for property investors this supply side solution will never solve the housing crisis. House prices will continue to rise, rents will continue to spiral and wealthy investors will acquire most of those new homes while first home buyers continue to miss out.”We need more homes to be built, but we also need to make sure first home buyers and owner occupiers are actually able to purchase them.”Currently, 70% of home lending is going to people who earn over $200,000 a year. To make home ownership accessible to those not on a top tier salary, we need to tackle the tax problem by limiting negative gearing and scrapping the capital gains tax discount.”The tax changes proposed by the Greens, would allow 850,000 people to live in a home they own and bring many of the 31% of households who rent into home ownership.”Rent Assistance“People struggling with high rents who are relying on Commonwealth Rent Assistance should be given immediate relief through an increased rate.”This government must raise income support levels above the poverty line and work with the states and territories to control unlimited rent increases and make lasting improvements to renters rights. Nobody deserves to teeter on the knifepoint of housing instability.”

TAFE NSW Orange receives $635,000 for industry ready upgrades

Aspiring nurses in the Central West are set to benefit from a $635,000 investment to upgrading nursing training facilities at TAFE NSW Orange, ensuring Diploma of Nursing students’ graduate job-ready with the latest industry skills.

The Minns Labor Government is delivering on education in the region, transforming two existing four-bed wards into a cutting-edge simulated hospital environment.

The revamp will include purpose-built additions such as a clean preparation area, dirty utility, and a fully equipped training bathroom; all designed to replicate real-world clinical settings.

Students will train using the same equipment they’ll encounter on the job, including medical services panels at every bed, a medication fridge, and a lockable medicine cabinet, helping the build the confidence and competence to step straight into the healthcare workforce.

Orange is home to one of the largest regional health hubs in NSW. Nurses account for over 42% of the Western NSW Local Health District workforce, making this investment a critical part of strengthening the pipeline of skilled local nurses who can meet growing community needs. 

Minister for Skills, TAFE and Tertiary Education, Steve Whan visited the campus today to tour the existing nursing facilities and announce the funding package.

Work is set to commence later this year and will be completed by mid-2026.

Minister for Skills, TAFE and Tertiary Education, Steve Whan said:

“The Minns Labor Government record $3.4 billion investment in TAFE NSW and the skills sector is helping to futureproof regional campuses and train critical workforces.

“This investment will set students up for real-world success now and into the future, not just in the classroom but in the region’s hospitals, clinics, and aged care facilities where they’re urgently needed.

“TAFE NSW Orange plays a vital role in training the next generation of nurses, and these upgrades will ensure students can confidently transition their skills from the classroom to the workplace.

“Whether it’s in Orange or across the Central West, we want our future nurses to have the best possible start, and that begins with world-class public training facilities”.

Member for Orange, Phil Donato said:

“I welcome this announcement of $635,000, that will go directly towards upgrading nurse training facilities at the TAFE NSW Orange Campus. These added education facilities will ensure a pipeline of job ready nurses to enter the workforce.

“I appreciate the NSW Government has recognised that this upgrade will not only attract more regional students but go a long way to retaining them as part of a valued and skilled workforce.”