16 News

The NSW Minister for Agriculture Tara Moriarty has announced that the fire ants site detected late on Friday 19 January south of Ballina has today been destroyed and is no longer a risk to the community living in the immediate area.

To manage the risks of spread, a biosecurity control order has been put in place with immediate effect, restricting movement within the surrounding 5km area of the site in Wardell, south of Ballina.

Department of Primary Industry teams will support the local businesses and community who will need to lock down movement of landscaping, gardening, and building materials plus machinery until inspected and checked.

The NSW Government is working closely with the Commonwealth and the Queensland Governments, plus Ballina Shire Council. Experienced teams are on site and today chemically eradicated the infestation and treating a radius of 500m from the site.

Following detection of the fire ants the NSW Government instigated its action plan covering – eradication, control, tracing, and engagement of local businesses and community.

The fire ants in Wardell were originally reported in by a member of the community to the NSW Biosecurity Hotline on Friday 19 January and confirmed as fire ants late that day.

The NSW Department of Primary Industries team moved swiftly with colleagues from the National Fire Ant Eradication Program and Ballina Shire Council to destroy the fire ants, control the site, start tracing the source and survey the surrounding area.

The team will continue activities with sniffer dogs and boots on the ground to determine the extent of any infestation, undertake genetic testing of the fire ants, as well as engaging and supporting the impacted local community and businesses.

The following types of materials cannot be moved out of the 5km zone: mulch, soil, compost and manure, growing media, hay, chaff, silage, potted plants, turf, agricultural and earth moving equipment, grass/vegetation and clippings.

Everyone is urged to continue vigilance in keeping an eye out for fire ants, reporting suspected ants to the NSW Biosecurity Hotline at 1800 680 244 or online.   

There are strict restrictions for moving material from control areas. Breaching the emergency biosecurity order carries penalties of up to $1.1 million for an individual and up to $2.2 million for a corporation.

More information on fire ants and control restrictions

Minister for Agriculture Tara Moriarty said:

“Our teams were prepared for this discovery of fire ants south of Ballina and immediately implemented our response plan and destroyed the fire ant site.

“Red imported fire ants are an invasive pest and that is why the Minns Government increased the NSW contribution to eradication from $15 million to $95 million last year.

“Biosecurity is a shared responsibility and I encourage everyone to continue to check their properties for these pests. With the summer cross-border travel in peak times I ask everyone to be careful of what they’re moving and where.

“We will continue to keep the community informed of progress and will continue working closely with industry, the local community and our state and federal counterparts.”

The NSW Government has today announced that former Chief Justice of the NSW Supreme Court, the Honourable Tom Bathurst AC KC will conduct a review of state laws regulating incitement to violence. 

Mr Bathurst, who is currently the Chairperson of the NSW Law Reform Commission, will review the policy objectives and effectiveness of section 93Z of the Crimes Act 1900 (NSW).

The review will consider similar laws in other jurisdictions, including the UK, and consider options for reform of section 93Z.

The review comes in the wake of concerns raised by some community groups about the effectiveness of section 93Z, which makes it an offence to publicly threaten or incite violence against a person on the grounds of race or religious belief or affiliation.  

This follows recent procedural changes to section 93Z to streamline prosecutions, removing a requirement for the Director of Public Prosecutions to agree to the prosecution.    

The Terms of Reference for the Review are currently being developed with Mr Bathurst.

Premier of NSW Chris Minns said:

“There is no place in NSW for hate speech or incitement to violence. We live in a multicultural society, and it is vital that we have laws that protect people who come from communities all around the world and call NSW home.”

“This review, to be conducted by one of the State’s most respected legal minds, will be considered and thorough and help provide the community with confidence that our laws are operating effectively. 

“The widespread loss of life and impacts of war in the Middle East is traumatic for many families and communities. The impacts are felt deeply by many. 

“The NSW Government is deeply committed to ensuring that all communities are able to live peacefully without fear of violence, or threats of violence. 

“Along with our legal frameworks, NSW has a deep commitment to maintaining social cohesion and many measures in place to raise awareness, to educate and strengthen community cohesion.” 

Acting Attorney-General Ron Hoenig said:

“This review is an important step in ensuring we are strengthening our legal frameworks and working to promote social cohesion.”

“NSW has many support services in place for people experiencing vilification including access to help from the NSW Anti-Discrimination Board and NSW Police.  

“But if there is more to be done, we will do it, because we are committed to protecting our harmonious, multicultural community.” 

The Wollongong community has provided feedback and support for 3 new bus layover sites, with planning work set to continue in 2024.

A 3-week consultation period revealed support for the plan to relocate the existing bus layover at Marine Drive to 3 new sites in the Atchison Street car park, Wollongong Train Station car park and Oak Flats Train Station car park.

Transport for NSW received 328 survey responses and 7 submissions during the consultation period from 6 to 26 November 2023, with respondents including bus drivers (7.3% of respondents), bus users (25.3%) and car park users (30.5%).

Key themes included the need for suitable facilities for bus drivers along with concerns over congestion and a loss of car parking spaces.

The community was positive about the relocation of the Marine Drive bus layover and supportive of a site more centrally located in Wollongong CBD, closer to other modes of transport.

Transport for NSW, in collaboration with Wollongong City Council, local bus operators and the Transport Workers’ Union, reviewed more than 20 locations as part of the site selection process and considered all necessary requirements including passenger outcomes, layover capacity, vehicle access, route coverage, adjacent land use, driver safety and access to facilities.

Design and planning work will progress on the new layover sites in 2024, including detailed bus service and operational planning to inform a business case to permanently relocate the bus layover to the new sites.

It is proposed that the project will be delivered in a staged process, with development of the Atchison Street car park site to be the first priority.

The site on Atchison Street will provide 11 bus parking spaces and facilities for bus drivers to rest and rejuvenate between shifts including bathrooms, kitchen facilities and space to relax. The community will be kept informed as the project progresses.

A community consultation summary report has been released and can be found on the Transport for NSW website.

Transport Minister Jo Haylen said:

“Bus layovers are an important part of bus operations. They ensure our drivers are safe, rested and comfortable, and have easy access to facilities like bathrooms and kitchens, which is a huge benefit for both drivers and passengers.

“Each selected site is located close to a train station and a bus stop, the natural starting and stopping point of many bus routes, reducing unnecessary extra trips between the final stop and the new layover.”

Member for Wollongong Paul Scully said:

“We have done a lot of careful work to make sure the community’s voices were heard and transport needs understood during this consultation process, while balancing the essential needs of our frontline public transport workers.

“The move from a single layover site at Marine Drive to 3 layovers across the Illawarra will help local bus services continue to expand while supporting the Illawarra region into the future.”

Today the reality of the challenge facing the NSW Government in tackling the housing crisis has been laid bare, further highlighting the significant need for the once in a generation planning reforms that the government introduced in December last year.

While these reforms will take time to effect significant housing uplift, these changes will deliver hundreds of thousands of well-located, well-designed and well-built homes close to transport, jobs, services and amenity over the coming years.

All advice and industry feedback is that these reforms will have the major impact on housing uplift that our city and state so desperately needs.

The NSW Labor Government has been clear that while building 75,000 new homes off a base of only 48,000 completions in 2022 will be a big challenge, the goal is to meet the states 377,000 housing goal over the 5 years of the accord.

The NSW Government is determined to meet the state’s housing goals under the 5 year housing accord, and it’s the major announcements that the government made only weeks ago that will help get us there.

These reforms include: 

• Changes to low to mid rise housing – with the aim to increase capacity for an additional 110,000 homes in well-serviced areas by the end of 2029.
• Infrastructure contributions reforms – a program designed to ensure supporting infrastructure is aligned to housing delivery, so we don’t end up with suburbs having no schools or sewage systems to support growing communities.
• The Transport Oriented Development (TOD) program, the first of which will deliver state-led rezonings within 1,200 metres of 8 priority transport hubs. The second will deliver a new SEPP to increase the capacity for more mid-rise housing and mixed-use development within 400 metres of 31 other well-located transport hubs and town centres.
• More affordable housing – the introduction of a new bonus Floor Space Ratio (FSR) of up to 30 per cent and a height bonus of up to 30 per cent where a proposal includes a minimum of 15 per cent of the gross floor area (GFA) as affordable housing.
• Transparency – we’ve committed to publishing performance tables to identify best performing councils and to show the performance of government approval processes as well.

NSW is the best state, in the best country in the world but it’s getting harder for people to move here, to start a family, or start a business. Every step the NSW Government is taking is to help tackle this issue.

Minister for Planning Paul Scully said:

“We are reforming planning rules to support the delivery of thousands of new homes and a pipeline of housing supply into the future, and are determined to meet our housing goals.

“If there’s no supply, there’s no homes for the next generation. The NSW Government is not going to turn their back on housing, it’s a basic need.

“We’ve inherited a confused and confusing planning system from the previous Liberal Government that has delivered the housing crisis that NSW residents are experiencing today.

“I think most fair-minded people will recognise that our reforms are significant and need time to take effect.  I think they also recognise that there are many factors that influence housing like interest rates, and access to finance and materials.

“The NSW Government is starting from a long way back but has taken immediate action to turn around housing completions of the incredibly low base of only 48,000 homes delivered in 2022.”

The NSW Government is helping teachers and educators get ready for term 1 2024, with the new option to renew their mandatory Working with Children Check online in as little as 10 minutes.

The new renewal option saves busy workers up to 1 hour and allows people to complete the administrative task from the comfort of their own home or office.

Teachers, childcare workers, and volunteers are among the roughly 1.9 million people in NSW who hold a Working with Children Check, and those in regional areas will particularly benefit from the new online renewal option.

More than 3000 people have renewed their WWCC online since the option launched late last year, with 98% providing a ‘thumbs up’ in their feedback on the transaction.

The online verification for WWCC is a significant step in the NSW Government’s digital identity journey, removing the need to share copies of physical documents and cards to prove an identity.

The identity checks use advanced facial verification technology that can securely verify a person’s identity and detect their presence through a liveness check, to confirm authenticity.

Service NSW will confirm the identity of a person by matching their live facial scan with the reference image associated with them, such as the photo that was taken when a driver licence was issued.

To preserve privacy and safeguard against fraud, photographs used for verification are immediately and permanently destroyed after the real-time check is completed.

Renewing a WWCC using digital proof of identity is optional and people can still apply in-person at Service NSW.

Minister for Customer Service and Digital Government Jihad Dib said:

“The new online option for renewing your Working with Children Check is a great example of how we are using technology to improve access to government services and helping people save valuable time.

“The state’s teachers, volunteers and childcare workers no longer need to travel to a Service NSW Service Centre to renew their Working with Children Check.

“The new process is streamlined, efficient and secure, cutting the transaction time from 70 minutes to 10 minutes on average and helping to pave the way for more uses of photo verification technology in the future.”

Executive Director Identity NSW Lenka Bradovkova said:

“Digital Working with Children Check renewals allow those who need to renew this important credential to do so without needing to present documents in person at a Service Centre to prove who they are.

“We hope this new option will become the go-to renewal method for essential workers looking to easily meet their compliance obligations and reclaim valuable time.”