Rural lives matter.
Three simple words but a comment made in The Land's survey sums up the overall sentiment of what people are thinking about the NSW government in rural and regional NSW.
It's been nearly a year since the NSW election at which the government changed hands and Labor was voted in.
The Land asked readers to rank the NSW Labor government on its policies, election promises, funding and whether it has done enough for regional and rural NSW. Participants ranked the government from 1 to 10 on the issues, with one being the the least happy.
The verdict was a resounding fail with readers (301 polled) giving the NSW government an overall mark of 36 per cent on delivering for issues impacting on the bush.
The highest mark was for biosecurity where the government scored 4.45/10. This is despite the government announcing a biosecurity commissioner and topping up its funding to $95 million in the fight against red imported fire ants.
The Land put the reader's report card to Country Women's Association president Joy Beames who said when the government scores less than 3 out of 10 on the survey when it comes to representing the needs of rural NSW it means "these communities are aware of the inaction, and they're losing faith".
"We are not seeing cut-through by the government and even more concerning, at times we are seeing a complete dismissal of rural communities' concerns, as evidenced by the ongoing refusal to consider a rural crime inquiry and its continuing support for coal seam gas development near Narrabri," Mrs Beames said.
"And this is obviously registering with rural and regional NSW communities."
Mrs Beames said the CWA was having ongoing discussions with government representatives on many issues and "they're saying all the right things, but we are not seeing these words translate into meaningful action.
"We hope the outcomes of this survey, combined with our ongoing advocacy and that of other groups, are a wake-up call for the government to step up and show country communities they're listening," Mrs Beames said,
"We appreciate there are many well-meaning people in decision-making roles that impact rural, regional and remote communities, but we remain concerned the many issues facing these communities are not being given the priority they deserve."
NSW Farmers' president Xavier Martin said many people in rural, regional and remote communities took quite a few steps backwards last year, and the association wasted no time in bringing these matters to the attention of the new government.
In addition to the association's key election pillars of road and rail infrastructure, biosecurity, farm productivity, workforce and land use pressures, Mr Martin said it also brought forward acute concerns such as the feral pig problem, renewable energy transition, rural crime and federal buybacks of productive water.
Mr Martin said ministers had generally been open to discussing the issues with the association with positive announcements, such as the new biosecurity commissioner.
He said the feral pig control program was a step in the right direction, but there needed to be ongoing commitments.
"At the same time, we were deeply disappointed with the Water Minister's (Rose Jackson) surprise decision to slash coastal harvestable rights, although since then we have seen a willingness to listen to farmers in the paddock about practical issues with water metering and floodplain dysfunction," Mr Martin said.
"The energy transition and renewable energy zones - something that was put in place under the previous government - continues to cause angst among affected landholders as they navigate land use conflicts.
"Politics is a game of inches and turning around some of these problems will require playing the long game."
Landcare NSW CEO Turlough Guerin said the investment in Landcare had been significant which was good for sustainable agriculture, the environment and workforce participation. Landcare last month was given a $59m lifeline by the government when it finally delivered on its election promise.
Of the 154 anonymous comments in the survey, there were only seven in favour of the Labor government, many suggesting that most of the problems in rural NSW (and indeed in Australia) were leftovers from previous Coalition governments.
"This government can't fix all of that in one year. However, they have hit the ground running and continue to work hard," one reader said.
Another simply put: "no big scandals ... overall good job."
But the message was clear by the majority of readers surveyed who felt the government had done a "poor job in explaining itself to rural NSW and (was) missing in action in implementing many of it's promises".
Health topped the list for concerns with readers saying the sector needed "urgent attention" including mental health. In their communities there were concerns of nurses having to work via telehealth due to a lack of doctors, there were six to eight week wait times for a general practitioner appointment and hours to travel to specialists.
There was a plea from one reader: "please do not close more pathology labs at rural hospital sites. It will cause doctors to not be able to utilise and maintain their skills and lead to losing them from rural sites. It will turn the hospitals into nothing more than transfer stations creating more ramping of ambulances at base hospitals as patients will be transferred to access initial diagnostic pathology."
Another was appalled the government withdrew the $250 fuel card from rural pensioners as they relied on it to travel to and from distant medical appointments.
One of the answers to the health crisis was for all graduating doctors to do a stint in the bush before they were allowed to practice.
With many kilometres of roads not being touched for decades there were calls for immediate upgrades. Other issues highlighted were the lack of police, education, a push for windfarms, cost of living and electricity price hikes.
For many, the water policy was a shambles, especially in the Murray Darling Basin "debacle". Building dams was the answer for some readers, while many were disappointed the Wyangala Dam wasn't going ahead to "protect the future of farming".
Readers didn't want the government to take the "softly, softly approach" on rural crime with "concerns young offenders and their disregard for victims made a mockery of the notion of justice in this state".
There was also disappointment in the "gutting" of the NSW Department of Primary Industries and associated departments for regional development. And many had fears small business, especially retail, would be on the "verge of being non-existent" which would hurt the economies of rural towns. Another issue in this sector was Workcover was not "workable" for small business.
Some criticised the government for promoting electronic vehicles and renewable energy instead of investing in doctors and school teachers.
One solution was for every politician to spend at least one month every year on the western side of the Blue Mountains, volunteering on farms so they could "actually see how hard some people are doing".
"The old saying that NSW stands for Newcastle, Sydney, Wollongong still holds true with the Minns' government," one reader commented.
"It would be nice if governments would be proactive rather than reactive. No one seems to plan with consideration for the future."
But the one comment that aptly summed up the survey was: "Grades speak for themselves".
