A Liberals and Nationals Government will establish a Regional Parliament in its first year, delivering on a commitment to reconnect with the communities that sustain NSW.
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Under the policy, the NSW Parliament will sit for a full week in a regional city, with both the Legislative Assembly and Legislative Council conducting Question Time, debating legislation and undertaking the full business of Parliament outside Sydney.
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Opposition Leader Kellie Sloane said it is important to bring the political process to regional towns and cities and remind those on Macquarie Street of the world outside the city.
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“While travelling across NSW this year what I’ve heard from regional communities is that they often feel forgotten and their voice doesn’t matter,” Ms Sloane said.
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“As someone who was brought up in the country, I feel strongly about addressing that.”
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“Regional NSW grows our food, powers our economy, supports our exports and drives so much of our prosperity. The regions do most of our heavy lifting and therefore deserve a Parliament that is prepared to come to them.”
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Under the plan the host regional centre would be selected following a transparent, competitive process overseen by a multi-party parliamentary committee.
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Communities would then have the opportunity to bid to host Parliament, showcasing their region, industries and local priorities.
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“This is not about symbolism. It is about making better decisions through better understanding,” Ms Sloane said.
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“When Members spend a week living, working and engaging in regional communities, they return to Sydney with a deeper appreciation of the impact government decisions have on families, farmers, small businesses and local industries.”
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The NSW Liberals and Nationals said the initiative would also deliver significant economic benefits to host cities.
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Beyond the immediate economic injection, the annual sitting would place a national spotlight on the host region, showcasing its industries, attractions and investment opportunities to the rest of the state.
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“Government works best when it is close to the people it serves,” Ms Sloane said.
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“An Annual Regional Parliament will strengthen democracy, improve public policy, benefit the host region and send a clear message that regional New South Wales is central to our state’s future.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A Liberals and Nationals Government will establish a Regional Parliament in its first year, delivering on a commitment to reconnect with the communities that sustain NSW.\u00a0Under the policy, the NSW Parliament will sit for a full week in a regional city, with both the Legislative Assembly and Legislative Council conducting Question Time, debating legislation and … Continue reading “Taking parliament to regional NSW”<\/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-40496","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\/40496","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=40496"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40496\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40497,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40496\/revisions\/40497"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40496"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40496"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40496"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}