Voters from the bush who are in town for the Sydney Royal Show might have marked their ballot papers in the city, but they're expecting big things in the country from the Baird government.
The Coalition sustained a swing towards Labor and appears to have secured 52 seats to Labor’s 32, out of a total of 93, to form government.
The Land canvassed the views of regional residents at Sydney Royal. Mobile phone coverage, health services, finding a balance in the city-country divide and coal seam gas loom as issues the Coalition will need to address in its second term.
- ”Milby”, Condobolin
Barry Crouch (left) with Brian Terry, a retired farmer from Condobolin.
"Mobile coverage is a big issue for us and one that we would like to see them sort out. We need mobiles at harvest to organize transport and generally we need them to talk to different members on the farm."
- retired farmer from Condobolin
Pictured above with Barry Crouch
"Health is the issue I’d like to see them work on. We do have a hospital in Condobolin but it’s very low key. They need to keep the services up to us.”
- ”Greenville”, Galore
"The government spends too much time and money on Sydney-centric initiatives. The roads in the bush are shocking, but all the attention is on Sydney"
- ”Bindaree”, Quirindi
Nick Lee pictured with his wife, Prue.
“Usually people in the Liverpool Plains are conservative voters, but this year I changed my vote. The Coalition hasn’t been prepared to give us any support at all. In the next four years I would like to see some decent research and results on the how ground water will be affected by coal seam gas.”
Despite a Labor scare campaign, voters backed Premier Mike Baird’s $20 billion “poles and wires” electricity privatisation pitch, which will fund an ambitious plan of infrastructure investment.
Premier Mike Baird won a second term in government on Saturday night
"We decided to be open with the people of NSW and … we exposed ourselves to a big scare campaign - I believe it was the biggest scare campaign in state history," Mr Baird said on Saturday night.
"And as a result we lost some good people tonight."
He said the government would "work every day for you, to make your lives better".
However, it still remains to be seen if his party will have the numbers needed in the Upper House to approve the 99 year lease of the state’s electricity assets.
Mr Baird said he has no "plan B" to deliver funding to infrastructure development.
Infrastructure is a significant concern for many regional voters, but a burning issue in the bush has been the deeply unpopular native vegetation land clearing laws.
Last week, Deputy Premier Troy Grant finally moved to fix the issue and voters will now be counting on him to deliver.
Mr Grant finally announced the government would implement all 43 recommendations of last year’s Biodiversity Legislation Review, which included replacing the Native Vegetation Act, the Threatened Species Act and parts of the National Parks and Wildlife Act.
He gave the government a November deadline to produce draft legislation to reform the current system.
The resources sector has also caused significant consternation in this election.
Resources and Energy Minister Anthony Roberts bought back CSG exploration licences across vast swathes of the state as voter unrest flared over the issue (at a rumoured cost of $200,000 each).
Last year, the Coalition promised to implement the full suite of recommendations from NSW Chief Scientist Mary O’Kane’s report into coal seam gas (CSG) when it was returned to office.
Massive reform would need to be rammed though parliament to achieve Professor O’Kane’s reforms, which
would mean staring down the powerful gas industry.
Complete adoption of the her recommendations would require a seismic shift away from current regulation and place added cost and risk on CSG companies.
Mr Roberts pledged a halt to new exploration until the reforms are in place, but as yet no deadline has been set to form new laws.
Similarly, Mr Roberts promised to reform land access laws in NSW, which are a major source of frustration for farmers.
As coal mining in particular continues to expand, many rural residents will be watching the reform process with interest.
The government said it would adopt all 32 recommendations of an independent review of the arbitration process, which was conducted by senior counsel Bret Walker, but no timeframe was put in place.
