{"id":1965,"date":"2019-03-18T23:45:25","date_gmt":"2019-03-18T23:45:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/?p=1965"},"modified":"2019-03-18T23:45:25","modified_gmt":"2019-03-18T23:45:25","slug":"labor-backs-drought-stricken-farmers-over-sydney-stadiums","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/2019\/03\/18\/labor-backs-drought-stricken-farmers-over-sydney-stadiums\/","title":{"rendered":"Labor backs drought-stricken farmers over Sydney stadiums"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Shadow Minister for Primary Industry and Rural Affairs, Mick Veitch, has slammed the Nationals for supporting the $2.2 billion knock down and rebuild of Sydney stadiums while thousands of farmers continue to struggle through drought.<br \/>\nMr Veitch said that he had taken a bi-partisan approach to drought assistance policy in NSW, but the stadiums policy needed to be called out for wasting precious taxpayer money.<br \/>\n\u201cMichael Daley and Labor have taken a bipartisan to direct drought assistance. We won\u2019t politicise it.<br \/>\n\u201cBut we won\u2019t back down on stadiums. Farmers and rural communities are telling us this $2.2 billion Sydney stadiums splurge is the wrong priority. They have every right to feel angry with the Nationals.\u201d<br \/>\nDaley Labor\u2019s top 10 positive policies on drought are:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>Providing an additional $1 billion for a Safe Water Safe Future fund to improve water security and quality in regional communities<\/li>\n<li>Topping up the Farm Innovation Fund with another $350 million and maintaining current funding levels of direct drought assistance<\/li>\n<li>Waiving Local Land Services\u2019 charges for all farmers<\/li>\n<li>Waiving rents for 1,700 western lands leaseholders<\/li>\n<li>Funding a new drought mental health package which includes training and employing 50 mental health outreach workers dedicated to supporting drought-affected communities, an extra $20 million to partner with not for profit mental health groups in regional areas to complement existing services and an extra $3 million for improved technology for rural tele-health initiatives<\/li>\n<li>Spending an additional $50 million on weeds and pests<\/li>\n<li>Appointing a Dairy and Fresh Food Advocate to stop price-gouging of farmers and primary producers<\/li>\n<li>Doubling funding for Landcare to $32.5 million<\/li>\n<li>Providing an additional $11.25 million for frontline biosecurity efforts<\/li>\n<li>Extending the wild dog fence<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>Mick Veitch said: \u201cThese are just some of the many commitments Labor is making in the regions.<br \/>\n\u201cUpgraded hospitals and new schools also make up Labor\u2019s list of priorities across NSW because we will put schools and hospitals before Sydney stadiums.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Shadow Minister for Primary Industry and Rural Affairs, Mick Veitch, has slammed the Nationals for supporting the $2.2 billion knock down and rebuild of Sydney stadiums while thousands of farmers continue to struggle through drought. Mr Veitch said that he had taken a bi-partisan approach to drought assistance policy in NSW, but the stadiums policy &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/2019\/03\/18\/labor-backs-drought-stricken-farmers-over-sydney-stadiums\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Labor backs drought-stricken farmers over Sydney stadiums&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1965","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nswnews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1965","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1965"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1965\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1965"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1965"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1965"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}