Photo caption: Federal Member for Parkes Mark Coulton pictured with NALAG CEO Trudy Hanson in Dubbo. NALAG has received a $1,100 Volunteer Grant to train more counsellors.
Changes to the Parkes electorate
On Friday the Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) released its 2024 redistribution proposal for New South Wales which will see the Division of Parkes grow to include the Bland, Forbes and Parkes shire councils, while losing the remainder of the Gwydir Shire to the Division of New England.
Overall, this isn’t a bad result for the Parkes electorate – we’re gaining some strong towns in Parkes, Forbes and West Wyalong.
I am sorry to see the upper half of the Gwydir Shire, which includes my hometown of Warialda, move to the New England electorate. That means that once I retire at the next election, I will no longer live in the Parkes electorate which is personally disappointing, having represented this electorate for so long and been so invested in it.
The biggest challenge for whoever is the next Member for Parkes will be the increase in geographical size of the Parkes electorate – from 393,413 square kilometres to approximately 406,755 square kilometres. The electorate was already well and truly the biggest in the state and this increase will make it even more difficult to get to each town regularly.
For more information about the proposed redistribution for New South Wales, including maps for each electoral division, visit: https://www.aec.gov.au/redistributions/2023/nsw/proposed-redistribution/index.html
Catching up with grant recipients
Last week in Dubbo I had the opportunity to catch up with three of the recipients of the Australian Government’s 2023-24 Volunteer Grants program.
I caught up with members of ORISCON which is a vibrant cultural community group dedicated to preserving and celebrating the rich tapestry of Indian sub-continental heritage in Dubbo. They received a $4,000 grant which will be used to purchase a trailer to assist with event set up as they put on multiple events a year (which I often attend) to bring people together and celebrate their culture with the wider community.
The National Association for Loss and Grief (NALAG) Dubbo branch was awarded a $1,100 grant which they will use to train more counsellors to provide support for people dealing with loss and grief. It was lovely to catch up with CEO Trudy Hanson, who told me there has been a massive uptick in the number of people wanting to be counsellors now that it can be done remotely.
Orana Physical Culture Club also received a $1,000 grant and it was great to drop in on one of their practises to hear how this funding will be used for staff training and to purchase new equipment.
Murray-Darling Basin compensation package
The Labor Government last week announced a $300 million compensation package for Murray-Darling Basin communities impacted by water buybacks.
While I generally welcome any funding for my electorate, any compensation would be minor compared to the impact that taking water out of production would have on our Basin communities.
Water is a permanent stimulus that provides jobs and wealth for communities and can’t be replaced by a one-off stimulus project.
The Labor Government needs to stop using the people of my electorate as bargaining chips to get votes in inner-city seats. We’re constantly seeing the Government pandering to people in the inner-city, damaging the economy and amenity of electorates like mine for not a lot of benefit when it comes down to it. The Murray-Darling Basin is in ephemeral system and the idea that we can control it from a room in Canberra is nonsense.
