NSW Government Urged To Release Costings On Promises

BY JARROD MELMETH

The state opposition is calling on the NSW Government to come clean about how it plans to pay for their promises leading up to the state election.

Labor says the Government's Pre-election Budget Update confirmed that the state net worth has fallen by $2.4 billion, the surplus has fallen by $273 million and the Berejiklian Government has not announced a single savings or revenue measure.

Shadow Minister for Finance and Member for Cessnock Clayton Barr said the government are making promises which cannot be funded by the existing budget.

"For the last 8 years, the way that the government has balanced the books has essentially been to sell the farm; you sell the kitchen sink, sell the caravan, sell the boat, sell the trailer.

"They have sold everything in New South Wales to, what they call to balance the books. It is a furphy. Eventually, you run out of things to sell.

"Going forward they're continuing to make promises they cannot afford which means they have to keep on selling stuff," Mr Barr said.

Labor says they have had all of their policies and promises costed by the parliamentary budget office and Mr Barr says he "challenges the government to do the same."

Another blow to train manufacturing in the Hunter

BY MICHAEL COOK and JESSICA ROUSE

The state’s new regional rail fleet may not be built by manufacturing companies in the Hunter, following the Berejiklian Government’s failure to commit to a local build.

The regional fleet manufacturing would involve renewing the aging Xplorer and Endeavour fleets as well as the XPT. The Australian Manufacturing Union (AMU) believes it would be an important opportunity to invest in the state's heavy manufacturing industries and particularly in Newcastle.

Union Secretary Tim Ayres is disappointed the government's failed on their promise to build trains in regional NSW yet again.

"Well this is another jobs disaster for NSW, the liberal government wants to send blue collar jobs offshore which is another multi-million dollar rail contract with no commitment for local jobs. Over the course of the last two years, the NSW government has sent $4 billion worth of train jobs offshore."

Putting the contract to Hunter manufacturers would be an opportunity to reverse the trend of lost jobs in manufacturing since 2011 and turn it around according to the AMU.

"The government's been out there telling anybody who'll listen that they're going to deliver this project inside NSW and have failed on that commitment. The story that the government is telling today is that they're going to build a maintenance facility in Dubbo is just another in a long line of broken promises and distortions of what it's really going to take to rebuild train manufacturing in NSW," said Tim Ayres.

The government has announced they'll build a maintenance facility in Dubbo, but the union wants more assurances jobs still won't be taken offshore.

"These tenders have not been let there is still plenty of time for the NSW government to make it clear to local industry that these tenders should be done on the basis of a Newcastle build and a regional maintenance centre so there's still plenty of time for the government to do the right thing here but yesterday's announcement was a very disappointing and it shows that they've just gone back to their bad old ways," said Tim Ayres.  

Ice-related deaths doubled in regional areas

BY JESSICA ROUSE

Regional and rural areas are at the top of the list of being the worst for drug related deaths including here in the Hunter.

Research compiled by the National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre has found methamphetamine-related deaths in Australia have doubled between 2009 and 2015.

Shadow Health Minister Walt Secord is calling on the Berejiklian government to hold a drug summit at State Parliament to discuss challenges and possible new treatment measures for drug use and overdose particularly involving the drug ice.

The research also found 43 per cent of ice-related deaths were from overdose and 41 per cent of them were in regional and rural areas.

Shadow Health Minister Walt Secord
Image @WaltSecordMLC

Walt Secord says it's been nearly 18 years since the last drug summit and too much has changed for current measures to combat drug usage to still be applicable.

"Drug use in NSW and Australia has significantly changed over the last two decades - ice has replaced heroin, and I think it's time that we do new approaches to the challenges particularly in rural and regional areas."

He also says he's seeing firsthand how bad drug-related problems, particularly with ice are getting, with his shadow ministerial office receiving letters, emails and telephone calls from the parents of young people addicted to ice on a regular basis. 

Walt Secord says it's time to gather experts together to find better solutions and better treatments. 

"Drug use in NSW has significantly changed since the last drug summit. At that time we brought together family members, judges, doctors, medical experts, paramedics, everyone involved in that sector - we all came together and people with good will all worked together."

Foley: Medowie High School will happen under Labor

BY JARROD MELMETH

15 years after a Medowie High School was first put to parliament, the NSW State Opposition have reconfirmed their 2015 election promise to build the school.

In 2015, NSW Labor went to the polls promising a new $40 million high school during its first term if elected.

NSW Labor Leader Luke Foley was in Medowie on Tuesday to announce the re-commitment and to also call on the government to deliver the project.

The 2016 census has revealed that Medowie is home to almost 10,000 people, with almost 3,000 residents being aged between 0 and 19 years old. The census also shows almost 500 high school students are travelling outside of Medowie to attend school.

The nearest government high school to Medowie is Irrawang High School which, in 2016 had a maintenance backlog of $1.53 million and received only $1.1 million in funding from the State Government in May.

Hunter River High School is the next closest government high school to Medowie which also had a maintenance backlog of $1.46 million before receiving only $1 million from the same government funding.

NSW Opposition Leader Luke Foley said only Labor is prepared to invest in what our public schools need.

"Six years of neglect means we now have a school overcrowding crisis.

"When it comes to investing in our children's education, Labor will do so much more than the Liberals and Nationals," Mr Foley said.

The calls for a public high school in Medowie first began in 2002, when the then Member for Paterson Bob Baldwin acknowledged the community's need for a high school in the area.

Last week NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian was in the Hunter boasting record spending on education in the state which Member for Port Stephens Kate Washington says is laughable considering Medowie is being shunned once again.

"I have been involved in the local campaign for the past 11 years and other people have been involved in it longer than me.

"We have known that we have needed a high school there for so long now and yet the current government continues to ignore the need and the demand from the community.

"It is about our kid's education and their health and well-being. When they are spending over two hours on a bus every day to get to and from school, that takes a lot of time out of their day and out of their ability to connect with their friends and the community.

"From everything I am doing in Parliament; I keep calling for it, I keep being told that it is not needed, so I am now convinced that the only way that we will see a high school in Medowie, is if Labor is elected in 2019," Ms Washington said.

Luke Foley & Kate Washington in Medowie on Tuesday.
Photo Source: Twitter @Luke_FoleyNSW

Lack of specialists giving Hunter families the run around

BY DANIELLE RIES and JESSICA ROUSE

Swansea MP Yasmin Catley is calling on the Berejiklian government to provide more ear, nose and throat (ENT) specialists for families in the Hunter.

It comes after a Belmont family was forced to pay $4,000 to see an ENT specialist due to a lack of appointments available to the public in the region.

"It is just staggering to think that we are not providing services to our children in our region. At the same time, we've got a government that is constantly gloating about the rivers of gold they have received through privatising everything that's not nailed down. Yet we cannot provide health services to children in our area," said Yasmin Catley.

The Member for Swansea has written to the Minister for Health, calling on him to urgently expand services across the Hunter and to clarify exactly how many children are currently waiting for ENT services throughout the Hunter New England health district. 

"This government has got its priorities all wrong. It needs to start to make sure that it is looking after the people of NSW. It is appealing to think that here we have a child who has a result of not being able to get into a specialist service for in excess of a year and almost become profoundly deaf and therefore experienced terrible developmental delays."

State Government Silence on Newcastle Contamination

BY RACHEL STORER

A recent Macquarie University report has revealed that large parts of inner-city Newcastle contain soil with an alarming cocktail of heavy metals leftover from the city's industrial past.

Member for Newcastle, Tim Crakanthorp, has called on the State Government to act but has been met with silence.

In January Mr Crakanthorp contacted the NSW Minister for the Environment, Gabrielle Upton, to discuss the serious issue.

"The main issue is that this report was released in January and it's now April and nothing has been done," he said.

"The government is dragging their heels on this issue and Minister Upton needs to realise the enormity of the issue at hand."

Mr Crakanthorp is calling for further studies to be conducted to provide more information to the residents of Newcastle regarding the risks they may face and how to manage contamination if required.

Mr Crakanthorp has said Newcastle does not want another "Williamtown debacle" but it appears that the state government is happier to ignore the existence of the report than deal with it.

Newcastle MP, Tim Crackenthorp