INTERVIEW WITH RICHARD SPENCE 1350 2LF YOUNG

Friday, 28 March 2025

Subjects: Federal Election, Bribbaree Public School, Maternity, Bush Babies, Wallendbeen Bridge

 Richard Spence: Welcome to the phone. Steph Cooke, Member for Cootamundra, good morning. Steph.

Steph Cooke: good morning, Rich and good morning to your listeners this morning, I'm coming to you from Parliament House, for the benefit of listeners, this morning, we have another sitting day today, and then I'll be heading home to the electorate and can't get back there quick enough.

Richard Spence: that's for sure, a lot to talk about this morning, particularly the breaking news that the Prime Minister has gone to the Governor General to call a federal election date of third of May. I believe,

Steph Cooke: that's correct. The Prime Minister this morning has made his way to see the Governor General of Australia, and there we would see now we have a date, finally, for an election. It feels to me like we've been in a bit of a campaign mode for some time now, but we've now got, officially, five weeks of a federal campaign people in and around the listening area for 2LF, probably already know that the federal state of Riverina has undergone significant boundary change, as a result of a redistribution. So now that area of Boorowa, that last little bit piece of the Hilltops, will come into the federal seat of Riverina, a little bit like in the last state distribution when that Boorowa area moved into the state seat of Cootamundra that I have the great honour of representing.

So it's a good time for people to double check their electoral enrolment make sure that they are on the roll at their current address and that that they'll be ready in any event, then for a federal election, noting that voting is compulsory and so is preferential voting. So, bit of a difference there between the state and the federal system, where in New South Wales, you only have to number one box to make your vote ballot. At a federal level, you need to number every single box. So, it's a game on, I guess, and you know, we look forward to understanding the outcome of the federal election on the Third of May.

Richard Spence: Yeah, and this announcement comes on the back of the federal budget announced on Tuesday and last night's federal budget reply from the opposition.

Steph Cooke: That's exactly right Rich, which has been a very, very busy week on the federal scene. As you mentioned, we've had both budget and budgeting reply speeches this week, and it really does set that platform for what both the Albanese government and the opposition led by Peter Dutton have got to offer for Australia, more broadly, and also for our state of New South Wales and indeed people at a local level,

I've made some commentary earlier in the week around the federal budget. I haven't had the opportunity to respond to Mr. Dutton's reply last night, but the federal budget by Jim Chalmers earlier in the week was disappointing, I must say, from a regional, New South Wales perspective, we've seen, as we have in New South Wales cuts to a number of funding programs over the last couple of years, I was very much hoping, especially with a federal election looming, that we would see a restoration or a launching of programs at a federal level that would support our communities, and it was very short on that, and of course, we all know that everyone is struggling at the moment with cost of living pressures everywhere I travel throughout the electorate, it's the number one issue that people raise with me, the cost of putting food on the table for their kids, the cost of sport for kids these days in particular, has been something that's raised with me over and over again, and of course, the cost of petrol.

And we know that in regional areas, we have to travel vast distances to get to where we need to go for health or education or other purposes, and that's a big difference from what people in the city experience. So, there's no doubt that there's two very distinct offerings out there now. And I would encourage everyone to have a good, hard look at what both political parties are offering, and let's make you know, good decisions for not just ourselves and our immediate family, but for our communities and our future generations.

Richard Spence: for sure, and at least now we do have that date, the Third of May for the federal election, so we can plan for that and yeah, and study and investigate and work out where we're going to place our votes. But moving back to the electorate, there's some great news. Firstly, we'll start with this, the Bribbaree Park. Public School saved from permanent closure.

Steph Cooke: Oh this is so exciting Rich and probably why I'm more upbeat than usual on Friday morning, particularly for a sitting week, we got news formally last night that the Bribbaree Public School that was headed for recess, which we know is just a precursor to permanent closure has been put off by this government. This is the New South Wales Government.

This is a battle that really kicked off in November of last year, I wrote to the Education Minister immediately when I got wind that this was a plan of theirs to put the school into recess. Potentially look at merging Bribbaree Public School with Quandialla Public School that raised a whole range of concerns at a local level, and more broadly, the signal that extends around the importance of small schools right across rural New South Wales and particularly in our electorate, where about a third of our schools have got less than 20 kids.

And so it was really an important fight to have, I've met with the community a number of times. I've had parents write in to me about the impact that this would have on them and their children, and have had a number of people from the Bribbaree community, more broadly, write into me expressing their concerns, reflecting on how important Bribbaree Public School has been to that community for over 100 years, and so off the back of that campaign, we got news last night, the school is to remain open.

They have 11 enrolments. We are looking to build that school up over the years ahead, as we are in public schools right across our electorate, and it's a good news story for our electorate this morning.

Richard Spence: It certainly is a great win for a Bribbaree Public School. But the news is not so good in the health sector, with the hospitals, there's concerns with the reduced services, particularly maternity is in focus. There's a petition going around Bush babies petition with reduced maternity services right around the state, and that impacts our electorate as well.

Steph Cooke: Absolutely Rich and I had the opportunity to meet with the CEO of Bush babies a couple of days ago, Jen Laurie. We had a very long discussion, well over an hour about the impacts of cuts to health services that are happening in regional New South Wales, and in particular, what that means for maternity services.

We don't have to go back too far rich when I'm on your program talking about the threats to maternity theatre and pathology at the Cootamundra hospital, those you know, those concerns gave rise to a petition of our own, and that's to say, pathology services, that laboratory, that all important laboratory at Cootamundra, the hospital there, that petition of ours is now sitting at 8000 signatures and climbing every day, and we are getting closer one signature at a time to that number of 10,000 that we need to bring the debate to the floor of the New South Wales parliament.

Now what we also know is that if pathology goes then the risk to maternity at the Cootamundra Hospital just increases even further, and that was a point that was made by the select committee, a parliamentary committee of New South Wales parliamentarians that has been looking for some time into regional, rural and remote health services. They have noted in their report released just in the last 24 hours, and I'll quote from it, it says ‘the committee is also concerned that a potential change to pathology services at Cootamundra hospital may impact obstetric services for that community.’

But here's the thing, we've got New South Wales pathology looking to close that laboratory at the Cootmundra Hospital. We are fighting against that because we know it will have flow on effects. We've got a parliamentary committee that shares those concerns, and we've got the Bush Babies organization that has stood up a petition of their own to save maternity services right across rural, regional and remote New South Wales. This just goes to indicate how fragile our rural health setting is at present and the concerns that we have for our communities, our small regional communities, we deserve the best health care that can possibly be afforded to rural people, and we want to see a strengthening of those services, not a slashing of those services.

You know, every time I start talking about this, I become incredibly passionate about what we're trying to do, and my final point on this would be, please, if you haven't yet had the opportunity to sign our petition to save those services in Cootamundra, please do so. You can drop into our office. We can email you the form. We need those originals back, but we really need to bring our voice to the New South Wales parliament on this issue.

Richard Spence: And on the maternity, I've seen the alarming reports where women are having to travel more than an hour to other hospitals, and they're already under stress, the bigger hospitals that they've got to travel to, and they're in vulnerable circumstances when they're about to give birth.

Steph Cooke: I couldn't put it better myself, Rich, that's exactly what's happening. And the last time that we had a maternity service closed was under the former Labor Car government. We have been able to maintain and sustain maternity services since that time, throughout the duration of the former coalition government, we're now back to the point where we trying to save our services again, and in that case, bringing it back to your point about women traveling that last maternity service to close was West Wyalong.

And now we have people from that community and further afield, in the Bland Shire, having to travel at least an hour to get to the Temora hospital the birthing services there, or if they are higher risk, they need to go right through to the Wagga Base Hospital, which is under enormous pressure, as we have talked about previously, it's unacceptable we cannot have the maternity service in Cootamundra close, because that will mean that we've got more women traveling to give birth at either Young, Temora or Wagga, and I think our community, particularly in Cootamundra, deserves a bit better than that.

Richard Spence: that's for sure. Now, moving on to the Wallendbeen Bridge as a positive update. Finally, with that one.

Steph Cooke: this has been a long running battle Rich, but we are making progress. I can update the community that the construction of the bridge deck itself is complete. It has been complete for some time. However, what is required is new approaches, road approaches that connect that bridge to the rest of the Burleigh Griffin Way.

The reason we need those new approaches is that the new bridge is much bigger, wider and built to modern specifications, and it is also higher. And that takes account that takes into account the fact that our train services, our freight trains, are now double stacked, increasingly double stacked. And so, this is important work that needs to be undertaken.

Early works are set to commence next week. There will be a major construction period in May, weather permitting, and I'm hoping that this signals a real acceleration of the completion of that new bridge now, and I am hopeful that we can get the bridge, the new bridge, open by this year's harvest. That is what I am pushing up for on the on the New South Wales Government and on Transport for New South Wales. But there's a long way to go, yes, and I'll continue to advocate until this bridge is completed and open for the community.

Richard Spence: That's absolutely incredible. That's going on four years since the original bridge was damaged.

Steph Cooke: Oh, it's extraordinary rich, absolutely, and it's just been one battle after another for all manner of different reasons, but this is, this is good news. I have to acknowledge it. It's good news. The sooner that we get on and get these road approaches built, the sooner the new bridge can be opened, not just for the benefit of the community, although that is the number one priority, but we also know that that Burley Griffin Way is a major freight route, east to west through our state, and it's also a major route for our travellers, whether they be tourists or people traveling for work, right through our electorate.

And time and time again, we've had issues with that temporary bridge, and we need all of that to be well and truly behind us. That can only happen when this new bridge is open. So rarely a week goes by, if not a day goes by where I'm not discussing this matter with someone or another, and I'll continue to work hard on it until we get it opened.

Richard Spence: And in other good news for the region, additional paramedics being deployed.

Steph Cooke: Oh, this is another good news story. This week, we've got 23 new paramedics coming to our electorate. 16 of those will be based at Young, which is fantastic. That will allow for the addition of a new day shift for our community in and around Young seven days a week. It's long overdue. We have been short staffed on the paramedic scene for a number of years now, particularly the last couple so we welcome this announcement and the arrival of these 23 new paramedics. The other seven will be located in Temora.

And of course, what we've heard in recent weeks, more than ever, is that vacancies in Wagga have meant that paramedics in the lower half of the electorate, whether it's Gundagai, Cootamundra, Coolamon, Ardlethan, Temora, those paramedics have been called into Wagga to backfill shift vacancies in that centre, we're also seeing some new paramedics being deployed to Wagga, another 10 there, so that should take the pressure off the lower half of the electorate, which in turn takes pressure off the Young ambulance service that will need to step up and backfill when, when we've got, you know, station moving up to fill vacancies in other stations.

So this is a very interconnected health service, and these paramedics will certainly make a difference in our community.

Richard Spence: They certainly will Steph, and we've just run out of time, but thank you very much for getting on the phone and sharing all that information with us. I know you've got a busy day ahead at Parliament, but we always appreciate when you come by.

Steph Cooke: Thanks so much rich. And I look forward to catching up with you in a couple of weeks where we have more to talk about. No doubt

Richard Spence: in amongst Easter and the Anzac Day weekend, thanks a lot, Steph.

Steph Cooke: Thank you, Bye.