INTERVIEW WITH RICHARD SPENCE 1350 2LF YOUNG

Friday, 30 May 2025

Subjects: Pink Zones and Coppicing in West Wyalong, Mapping Issues and Ground Truth Concerns, William Bradford Bridge Safety Concerns, Drought Assistance, Cootamundra Pathology Petition.

Richard Spence: Welcome into the studio. 10 minutes past eight. Steph. Cooke, Member for Cootamundra, good morning. Steph.

Steph Cooke: Good morning, Rich, and good morning to your listeners this morning.

Richard Spence: and you've been very busy right across the electorate in recent times, always, always. Steph, and one thing that comes to my attention at the moment that you addressed in Parliament this week is the pink zones for land clearing and where and where it can and cannot be done.

And there's a bit of confusion with a practice called coppicing. I've not heard of this before this week, I looked it up, and it's a very, I guess, an aggressive pruning process which allows for a regrowth and sustainability in that, but that's in the crosshairs of these zonings, what's been happening? What's it all about?

Steph Cooke: Oh, look, Rich, you've summed it up to start with, really, really well, we have a situation out at West Wyalong, where, you know, most of your listeners will be familiar with that part of the world. It's west of where we are now, in the electorate, where farmers have been coppicing eucalypt and broombush varieties of native plants for over 100 years, and these farmers produce eucalyptus oil, and they produce the broombush fence panels that you'll see in a number of communities, and they're particularly popular along the eastern seaboard and the coastal areas.

What's happened is these farmers have found themselves, as you say, in the crosshairs is a good way to describe it, in 2005 so we're going back 20 years Science was put together which identified the land that they do their farming on as critically endangered, and that Science, which in and of itself, is now contested led to a classification in 2010 that this was critically endangered ecological community.

The problem we have is that at that time, and I must say, since, land holders argue that they have never been part of a consultation process around how that listing came to be, and the implications.

Move forward to 2017, and Pink mapping was applied to those areas and about 6% of New South Wales. So, a tiny amount of pink mapping was applied, called a transitional map, and it was applied to areas that had a critically endangered ecological community classification.

And as a result, these farmers from that point forward, were unable to touch their land in any way, shape or form, however, because they were not consulted and were not aware in 2017 and I digress momentarily to say that I was elected at the end of 2017, this came in prior to my election, and I was never made aware of it as the local member, they continued their harvesting practices.

And in about 2021, but certainly at the end of last year, land holders out there began receiving prosecution notices for land clearing.

Now to bring it back to your point about coppicing, coppicing is a form of aggressive pruning, as you say, it does not kill the plant, and in fact, it regenerates more quickly and more strongly, and the plant is healthier for it. These plants are coppiced every two to three years for eucalypt and every seven to eight years for broombush.

We argue it is not land clearing, because land clearing is the killing and complete removal of vegetation of some kind. So, these two industries that have been in operation for over 100 years are now ground to a halt out in West Wyalong, these farmers are unable to make a dime.

Their production has been brought to a complete standstill, and we have been working with the departments and with the government since, to try and get this resolved quickly, under, out of the gaze of the media, simply recognising that this is a something that started 20 years ago. The dominoes have been falling, mostly unbeknownst to all of us, and unfortunately, the last domino has fallen, and these industries are no more.

And so, on Wednesday, I had a group of these farmers come to Sydney, because we have been unable to resolve this in a timely fashion.

Richard Spence: because a lot of the mapping was done on modelling from Sydney and not on the ground to see exactly what's happening and where things are.

Steph Cooke: Of course, that's a very, very valid point, and I not just returning to the original science that we now contest, but since then, other layers of mapping have been applied.

There are now six separate layers of mapping over that area, the pink mapping still remains, but at the end of the day, the point you make is correct. None of it has been ground truth. It has all been done from a desktop, using satellite imagery, and I've sat in here before talking to you about the issue we've had with the wetlands mapping, where we've had table drains, farm sheds, Lake centenary in Temora, incorrectly mapped as wetlands.

Here we have the same mapping tools used by government to incorrectly map land, and it has brought two viable industries who also have an incredibly important role to play in the sustainable management of ecological communities to a standstill.

We've been unable to resolve it, and that's why these farmers, at my invitation, came to Sydney to talk to all members of parliament about what they're experiencing and that we need to get it resolved.

Richard Spence: Hopefully there will be meaningful change with this and the fight won't end there, that's for sure.

Now, moving on to William Bradford bridge, there was another crash, a serious crash, just a couple of weeks ago there that's on the back of other major crashes over the last couple of years. It needs to be widened. It's along the Burley Griffin Way. It's a major thoroughfare for transport and commuters and the like. What? What is being done about that?

Steph Cooke: Well, I continue to raise this issue with the New South Wales Government. We have a situation where that bridge is simply outdated, and as a result, it is unsafe. The Burley Griffin Way, as we know, is one of the key east west routes through New South Wales, it is a regional road that is shared by cars, tourist towing caravans, heavy vehicles and road trains and school buses, amongst other types of vehicles.

We have argued consistently that we need either a new bridge at that location, or we need the existing bridge to be either duplicated or widened significantly. I will continue to raise this issue. I'm deeply concerned that we are going to see a catastrophic incident there and potentially loss of life, and no one wants to see that.

I think what I find frustrating about this situation is that we're not talking about a bridge that needs to traverse Sydney Harbor or go over the Murrumbidgee like the Sheehan bridge. We're talking about a bridge that is across the Demondrille Creek. It is not a significant ask, I don't believe that we have that bridge either widened or replaced, it's not a huge piece of infrastructure.

Will it cost money? Absolutely, but we have been asking for this for some time now, and it's not, to the best of my knowledge, it's not even on the priority list of government to replace.

Richard Spence: And I've seen images and video on social media of the bridge. It's got the double white lines. The bridge is so narrow that it goes down to a single white line in the middle, and cars they span across that white line. So, it is a, is a narrow bridge, it is very concerning, but some might ask, and I had a caller just before, and I will ask, this is, has anything changed in recent years? Why wasn't anything done when the coalition was in government?

Steph Cooke: Yeah, that's a, that's a great question. I mean, this is an issue that as local member, I've been raising now for eight years. Yes, eight years.

Richard Spence: So when, when the coalition was in government?

Steph Cooke: That's correct? Yeah, absolutely, and so work was done under the coalition government on the bridge. There was about four and a half million dollars spent to upgrade the barriers on either side of the bridge to put in increased signage, flashing lights to alert motorists to the nature of the bridge that they were approaching from either side, and at the end of the day, whilst any safety improvement like that is welcomed, it's certainly better than nothing.

At the end of the day, it doesn't take away from the fact that a new or widened bridge is what is required, and as local member, regardless of who is in government at the time, it is my responsibility, and one that I take very seriously, to advocate on behalf of our constituents, regardless of who's in government, and so I will continue to do that.

It is my desire, as I've said always and a number of times on this program, to work with the government of the day. This is not about a blame game, this is about acknowledging that we have a piece of infrastructure that is outdated, unsafe and needs to be addressed.

Richard Spence: and it is on the high-speed limit part of the road as well. That's, that's the other concerning factor.

Steph Cooke: Yeah, absolutely. I mean, this is a 100 kilometre zone, and people will be well familiar with the fact that the bridge itself is at the is at the sort of the bottom of the creek, so you on approach, you are downhill from both sides and it's scary, and particularly scary if the oncoming vehicle is a heavy vehicle or a larger vehicle, like a bus.

So, I will continue on this Rich until we get the outcome that our communities deserve.

Richard Spence: Yeah, that's very important that hopefully you get something done sooner rather than later.

And we've been in drought conditions for quite some time now, there was some relieving rain we got across the last weekend and late last week, has that been enough to bring relief to the drought conditions?

Steph Cooke: Well, we're very grateful for the rain that we've had across the electorate. Some places have received more than others, of course, as it as it usually goes, and whilst it is absolutely welcomed, and will, and has put water into dams and will start to get those winter crops that were dry sown underway.

We need to make sure that that those in the city recognise that one rain event is not enough to pull us through the dry conditions that we've been experiencing. We are still declared drought by the New South Wales Department of Primary Industries.

Richard Spence: and you brought that to the attention of Sydney listeners on Sydney radio and television, that while they were experiencing all that downpour and all the rains and flooding, we were still not receiving anything at that time.

Steph Cooke: Absolutely, it was. It's definitely a case of sort of two, two different states at the moment, with that, with chalk and cheese conditions experienced, and I was very glad to have been able to bring that to the attention of the parliament and of course, people living in Sydney and along the coast.

I think as we head into winter, whilst we should be able to get those winter crops underway with what we've received, farmers are telling me that, number one, we do need to see follow up rains to make sure that those crops get up out of the ground and remain healthy.

And the second thing is that pasture growth now is going to be very difficult. We're moving into those very cold winter conditions that you were talking about at the top of the program,

and with frosts and cold nights and limited sunlight hours, the pasture growth will be limited, and that will most likely mean that many farmers will continue to hand feed, supplementary feed, over the months ahead, and that's exhausting when you're doing it day in, day out.

Richard Spence: And is there drought assistance available?

Steph Cooke: Not a lot Rich, there are loans available that farmers can apply for, but one of the points I've been making over the last several weeks is, we could do with some assistance from the government, particularly in the space of transport subsidies, and for that very reason that I mentioned about farmers needing to bring in fodder and feed and perhaps send their stock out for adjustment to other places, it's not it's not it's not a lot of money.

In the last drought, I think farmers were entitled to around $40,000 under that program. So, per farmer, it's not a lot to be asking for, but it goes a long way to helping them with their day-to-day farming operations. And that's what I'm calling for.

Richard Spence: okay, and something that's been in the news for quite some time, and a bit of a win. I guess you could say the Cootamundra Hospital pathology lab, it will remain open, thanks in part to, or in a great deal to that petition you had circulating that from around the community.

Steph Cooke: Oh, look, it's a huge win, huge win, Rich. It wouldn't matter whether, I could be in my role for the next 10 years, and I might not ever experience another outcome like this one. It shouldn't have come to that, but regardless, it would not have happened without the more than 11,000 people that signed that petition.

And so, I might use this opportunity again to thank anyone who's listening this morning, or if you're speaking to anyone who's listening. Thank you so much for signing that petition. It has been tabled before the New South Wales Parliament. It will still go to debate, and that's coming up this coming Thursday, at four o'clock. In the New South Wales parliament. I'll put some more news out about that so people can tune in and watch it live, for those that have got nothing better to do on a Thursday afternoon at four o'clock, but at the end of the day, this was so important to the community of Cootamundra, so important to the community of Young the pathologists that work in those services, and ultimately to the patients that rely so heavily on now, pathology services where we're chuffed with the outcome.

Richard Spence: Yeah. So that decision was made to keep it keep it open. It was made to keep it open. But just for some clarity, what does it mean, though, that it's got to be debated in parliament still.

Steph Cooke: Yeah. So, because the petition reached more than 10,000 signatures it it's presented to the New South Wales Parliament, and it's debated regardless. So, there will be a discussion about the history of this petition, how it came to be and we will express our gratitude for the outcome that we wanted has been achieved, but we can't take away from the fact that there's a second part to that petition, and that relates to the provision of drugs and equipment for New South Wales ambulances, as it relates to Intensive Care Paramedics.

So that will now be another Dragon for us to slay, because it's equally important in small rural communities that our ambulance officers have everything they need to save lives in those critical moments the

Richard Spence: terrific work you're doing right across the electorate. Steph, thank you for coming in.

Steph Cooke: Thanks for having me.

Richard Spence: and we'll catch up you with you again next month.