Daley woos regions as Labor climbs off the canvas

Mr Daley represents the southern Sydney seat of Maroubra in the NSW Parliament but his family history extends to dairy and beef cattle. His grandfather Ray was the president of the North Coast Dairy Farmers Association.

In his maiden speech in 2005 he declared he had a “great affinity with the people of rural and regional New South Wales”. “My forebears, having immigrated from Ireland, all came from the land: on my mother's side, from the Burragorang Valley before it was flooded to make way for Warragamba Dam, and on my father's side, dairy farmers scattered along the coast of the State, but principally in Kempsey.”

Mr Daley, The Land understands, actually plays out his rural affinity by holidaying with his family in the regions. He consulted his shadow primary industries minister Mick Veitch recently on where to visit in southern NSW with his family. The Tumut MLC was only too ready to offer up a number of great attractions from Tumut to Wagga Wagga. Mr Daley likes visiting craft breweries, which are growing businesses in many regional towns.

Meantime, many will be asking if Mr Daley has the same extreme views on eliminating the existing native vegetation rules as his predecessor Luke Foley, who was dumped after allegations he had harassed an ABC reporter.

Mr Veitch could not say if Mr Daley would bring in a more conciliatory approach with the farm sector on native vegetation legislation. He confirmed though that all shadow ministers had been asked to resubmit policies for review in the next two weeks.

Any watering down of Mr Foley’s position, that also included to stop land clearing, may not be known as Mr Daley seeks a new partnership with his new deputy leader, the left’s Penny Sharpe (shadow environment minister), who holds similar views as Mr Foley on native vegetation.

Mr Daley though was quick to accuse the Berejiklian-Barilaro government of hoodwinking regional NSW.  “Just weeks ago, the Auditor-General found that regional NSW has been cheated out of almost half of the infrastructure spending they were promised. Today, we have a two speed economy and we are at risk of a two speed society,” he said. “Every time I hear the Berejiklian-Barilaro Government boast about the economy, I’m reminded that regional NSW lost 17,000 jobs over the last five years. We’re going backwards in the bush.”