Thursday, 20 June 2024
Subjects: 2024-25 NSW State Budget, proposed AEC federal boundary changes.
E&OE…
Dave Eisenhauer: Steph Cooke is joining us on the line from Parliament House. Steph, a very good morning to you.
Steph Cooke: Good morning to you Dave, and good morning to your listeners this morning. And yes, I'm coming to you from Macquarie Street. Parliament is sitting this week; it's the final week before we head to a winter break over a few weeks, so it's a very, very busy time down here. I think there's something like 15 or 16 pieces of legislation that we are dealing with this week, so quite busy.
And in amongst that, I've got a number of stakeholder meetings; whether it be in the water space or whether it be in relation to matters impacting our local electorate, I always take the opportunity to make sure that we have our voice heard.
Dave Eisenhauer: My word. And so, we’ve seen this morning a minus three or four around the southwestern districts, out around the Central West; you've been in Young for a number of years, we get to minus three or four here, that's rather warm compared to what the Cherry Capital turned out on a morning like this morning, Steph.
Steph Cooke: Absolutely. On my walk to Parliament House this morning, I of course see plenty of Sydney-siders, and they're standing on street corners and they're shivering away and it's a balmy seven degrees in Sydney (laughs). I guess it's all about the climate that you're used to, isn't it?
Dave Eisenhauer: Exactly right.
Steph Cooke: So, certainly not as cold here in Sydney as it is out in our part of the world. And I'll be honest with you, I can't wait to get back home.
Dave Eisenhauer: Let's talk the week that's been: ‘the good, the bad, and the missed opportunity’ that came out of the Budget. You of course as the Member for Cootamundra have been watching this State Budget delivered only a few days ago now. There's some really interesting information that has been coming through since the delivery of the Budget.
Steph Cooke: Handing down the State Budget is such an important day on the calendar for people right across New South Wales, and I think it's an indication of what we can expect in the future. It provides an update on what has already been delivered, and it's really an opportunity for the government to set down their short-term priorities, and their long-term vision.
And I think with respect to the Cootamundra electorate, if I can start in that space, it was very much a hit-and-miss Budget again this year. So on the upside, the biggest wins are the $45 million that will go towards continuing the Cowra Hospital redevelopment. That's a $110.2 million project. It has been hard fought for over and over again over the last seven years that I've had the great privilege of being a local member.
And we were very worried when the Coalition lost government that this project would be scrapped. I'm very pleased that the Labor Government has sought to continue that project and they've demonstrated their ongoing commitment to it by allocating $45 million in the next financial year, so that the building works can continue over the next 12 months, which is really good news.
And on top of that, they are setting aside additional money to ensure that we have the health workers in that hospital once it is built and opened, because the last thing we need is a brand new shiny hospital and no one to work in it. So, I'm pleased that common sense has prevailed and they will be providing additional funding for staffing. So, that is good news and thank you so much to the people of Cowra who continue to back me in on this project when I do come to Macquarie Street. It's been hard fought for over a lot of years.
Dave Eisenhauer: It's not the only one though, Steph. Temora's benefited as well.
Steph Cooke: Temora has benefited, and I think that's the only other real win that we can talk about this morning with respect to this State Budget. So, having a look at the Temora situation, this was an $80 million hospital that in government we announced and were very much committed to.
We then found ourselves in Opposition and it was another project that very much had a cloud hanging over its head. And in this year's Budget, what we've seen is the Labor Government commit an additional $15 million to that project to ensure that the nurses' quarters could be built as outlined in the Clinical Services Plan.
So I'm very, very grateful and relieved in fact that this will now proceed because we are in the middle of a housing crisis; that has been well-acknowledged. It's not just impacting the city, it's impacting our towns and villages. And when we have a new hospital built in Temora, nurses' quarters are vital to ensuring that those health clinicians and nurses that come and work in our communities, have some good decent accommodation while they are working and while they look for more permanent accommodation in town, whether it be a long-term rental or whether they purchase a property in town. So, I'm pleased that that has been catered for.
Dave Eisenhauer: And of course, these are very important facilities, particularly in a farming community as you're very much well-aware. These hospitals are real emergency service centres. We need them as close to the incident as possible, and the most up-to-date modern treatment facilities.
Steph Cooke: You’re absolutely right, Dave. I'm so passionate about this area, particularly noting what we're going through with the Cootamundra Hospital at the moment with a proposal to cut maternity, theatre, and pathology into the future in that hospital. I'm so passionate about people being able to receive the healthcare that they need as close to home as possible.
And so whether that is in the situation of an emergency, whether it's about having your baby locally, or even whether it's having those minor but important surgical procedures, let's try and make sure that people can have these operations and these procedures and healthcare close to home so that they don't have to travel to either Temora or Young or Wagga or one of the other hospitals in the region just to get that care.
We know the cost-of-living pressures, and the difficulties in travelling from one location to another. It's really, really important that people be able to get that care close to home and that's what I'll continue fighting for.
Dave Eisenhauer: Transport's a big one. The Sheahan Bridge in Gundagai as we know, is getting lots of work done. There's lots of assessments and tests and all sorts of things happening, but another $2.8 million towards continued planning for the upgrade of the Sheahan Bridge at Gundagai, Steph. That is a positive.
Steph Cooke: Look, that is a positive to make sure that that planning work can continue. But Dave at some point, we're going to need to see from this government, the infrastructure; the capital money that is needed to undertake those significant upgrades.
Dave Eisenhauer: Yeah, a lot more than $2.8 million.
Steph Cooke: It's going to be a lot more than $2.8 million. And there are people in our communities that would question another multimillion-dollar announcement for planning. But look, if that's work that needs to be conducted prior to a major infrastructure upgrade, of course, we must see those processes through. So, I am pleased to see that there.
But I think overall with respect to roads, it’s a case of missed opportunities. We know that ongoing investment in roads is really, really critical. And particularly in an electorate the size of Cootamundra, we will need to see more from this government into the future with respect to roads.
And there's some other missed opportunities as well Dave, including delaying funding for the Boorowa preschool that was announced a few months ago. I was actually expecting to see some money put behind that announcement in this year's Budget. We haven't seen that, so we know straight away that there'll be nothing happening in that space for the next 12 months to speak of.
Policing again has been overlooked and we know that we need that $19 million brand-new police station for Young, and that has been overlooked again. And of course water security, and drought preparedness; not much mentioned in those spaces either. So, a few disappointments in those areas, Dave.
Dave Eisenhauer: And as we've talked before, we shouldn't have to wait until we see dams run dry… we need to have this water security Steph Cooke, so desperately. At the moment, it's easy to sit here and look at and say, “There's plenty of water in the dams. They're right, there's plenty of grass growing, everything's fine”. But we shouldn't have to wait until we see a drought and the culling of livestock and those sort of things happening, for the government to actually start to activate this drought-proofing. Water, it's worth more than gold.
Steph Cooke: Absolutely, Dave. Look, I couldn't have said it better. With respect to water, as you say, when you look around and you see that our dams are full and our waterways are flowing nicely, you can be lulled into a false sense of security really, when I would argue that now is the time to do the work, while we are not in the midst of a crisis where you're just trying to get through day by day by day.
As we saw in 2022 when we had those terrible floods, you just literally go from hand to mouth day to day when faced with a crisis. And there's not the opportunity to address the bigger issues and the underlying causes, and what more can be done to prevent the human impact and the impact on our environment, our economy, our livestock, the whole lot.
So, now we have that breathing space and I think it's the perfect time and the perfect opportunity to start investing in that critical infrastructure, so that when we do hit those dry times, it can be called upon to do its job and it's an invaluable job.
But unfortunately, we are not seeing that vision – those plans put in place – and so the real worry is as we come towards our summer, is that we face the prospect of water issues coming back around.
You and I have had many discussions in the past about communities on boil water alerts in the last summer period. We don't want to see that for the community of Yass again. We don't want to see it for the community of Boorowa; they spent nearly six weeks of last summer on a boil water alert. That's just unacceptable in this day and age. There are other communities across New South Wales facing similar circumstances, and that work, and that investment needs to happen now to avoid those situations into the future.
Dave Eisenhauer: And it's also about investment in areas like that under your old portfolio in emergency services; these improvements in our water infrastructure such as Wyangala Dam, such as looking at the way that we collect our water, where it's coming from, what's in front of it, where's it getting swept in. It's the flooding. It's when we see our causeways being blocked up by trees and things, and we see water flooding the farms and places like that. These projects are not just to bring water into these communities, but it's also to keep it out when we do have those bad times, that seems to have been overlooked as well.
Steph Cooke: Oh, absolutely. And again, it's an area that I'm particularly passionate about, having spent so much time in so many devastated and impacted communities and standing in sodden, destroyed crops of farmers; gosh, right across New South Wales Dave there was not a community not impacted in 2022.
And the more that we can do in that flood mitigation space the better, like raising walls so that we can not only capture additional water when it does fall for future use during dry times, but to also give greater control over the releases from dams when we do see increased rainfall.
And if you've got better control over those releases, then you have less of an impact on the downstream community, especially downstream farming communities so that you don't get that land inundation that will otherwise happen with smaller storages.
So, there's so much work – so much opportunity – to be done in this space, which not just has those long-term effects, but along the way creates jobs and economic growth while that infrastructure development occurs. So, there's just so many wins coming out of such investment, but it does require planning and it requires vision. And I'm hoping that at some point this government will turn their attention to that space.
Dave Eisenhauer: If we turn to the federal boundary electorate changes Steph, I thought I'd just touch base on that too. I know we're talking state issues here, but what's your thoughts there on the proposal with these boundary changes?
Steph Cooke: There's been some surprises in my mind and we'll just have to wait and see what the final boundaries look like.
But from a state-to-federal perspective, I've always worked very closely with the Federal Members regardless of what party they're from or what the issues are, because at the end of the day, we get the best outcomes for communities when you have local, state, and federal alignment in terms of what our communities need.
So, the more closely we work together, the better the outcomes for communities. And I've always done my best, sitting there in between local and federal, to make sure that we identify what those issues are and what those challenges are, and make sure that where there is the need for either state or federal investment, that we're really working together to deliver that to communities.
Dave Eisenhauer: Interesting times ahead Steph, as we go into the winter break. But I mean, that doesn't mean that the work stops. The work actually increases, even more time for visiting around the district. And we love talking about trying to find ways to get more police into our districts, to make our districts, our regions more emergency-service-friendly, if you like, if that's the way to say it. More resilient is the word that we used during the Black Summer fires, that became quite the word. There's always work to do Steph, and we'll be talking more about the Budget in a fortnight's time. Steph, thank you very much for taking time up there in Macquarie Street today to have a chat to us. Really appreciate your time.
Steph Cooke: Not a problem at all, Dave. It's lovely to catch up.
Dave Eisenhauer: Member for Cootamundra, Steph Cooke thank you.
