IN RELEASING his new “State Priorities”, Premier Mike Baird said “you need to set priorities in order to achieve results”.
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It is just a shame his priorities don’t include anything for country NSW.
Across the 30 priorities and eight pages of the Premier’s glossy plan there is no mention of agriculture, primary industries, rural affairs or regional development.
The picture on the cover is of Sydney’s skyscrapers – which just about sums it up.
The Premier’s focus begins and ends with the Sydney CBD.
Rural NSW is entirely absent from the Premier’s plan for the future of NSW.
It is as if regional NSW just doesn’t exist. It is an omission that is both stunning and sobering.
The Premier either doesn’t know, or doesn’t care, that agriculture is a key part of NSW’s economy.
This is despite the fact there are 175,000 people employed in the food and agriculture sector.
NSW farmers export more than $8 billion in agricultural produce each year and it is a growing industry with the value of NSW’s food and agriculture exports increasing by an average of 13 per cent each year during the past five years.
None of this success rates a mention in the Premier’s plan.
But while all this is disappointing, it is not surprising.
In 2011, the Coalition promised to create 40,000 jobs in rural and regional NSW in its first term.
This promise was broken. Instead, unemployment increased by more than 34,000 and regional unemployment increased from 5.9 per cent to 8.3 per cent.
The promise of 40,000 jobs was just a cruel and cynical lie.
In one of his first acts after being re-elected this year, the Premier abolished the positions of the Minister for Western NSW and the Minister for the North Coast.
These were clear signals he was not interested in regional issues and did not want to hear from regional representatives.
The Nationals MP, Kevin Humphries, put it plainly:
“We’ve worked hard to put Western NSW around the Cabinet table on a number of different issues... but you’ve kicked everybody in western NSW in the guts, and I don’t use that term lightly.”
Since then the government has continued to ignore regional areas.
The TAFE facilities at Scone, Murwillumbah, Trenayr, Narrandera, Corowa and Grenfell are all to be completely sold.
Other towns face having their TAFE campuses carved up and subject to partial sale.
All up, there are 21 regional towns facing TAFE cutbacks or complete closures.
Students wanting to study primary industries at Scone will have to drive 120 kilometres to undertake studies at Kurri Kurri.
Driving education opportunities out of regional towns will make it even harder for people to train or retrain and get new skills.
Enrolments at TAFE are down by 80,000 since 2011 and the skills shortage will impact on primary industries as much as any other.
NSW needs a regional plan.
Luke Foley is leader of NSW Labor
