For the past 12 years the Northern Tablelands has been represented by the “Independent”, Richard Torbay. What have we got to show for this?
The NSW Department of Planning’s report in 2008 concluded that the only two areas of NSW losing population were the northern and north-western areas of the State. However we regard this conclusion, the State’s bureaucrats would have been using it in their work with the government and its policies. The conclusion would have been central to all discussion about the funding of essential infrastructure in our electorate.
When we look around us at the critical degradation of our essential infrastructure and development in this region, it appears that we have little about which to be happy.
Despite his intimate relationship with the State Labor Government, Richard Torbay does not appear to have been at all effective in correcting this attitude in considerations about the Northern Tablelands.
Throughout regional NSW we need major and immediate investment in our transport, business, energy, and industry infrastructure. We need far less complicated regulations and compliance requirements. We need major improvements in health facilities, particularly in centres such as Inverell. And we need a more focused approach to our regional identification. Tourism and lifestyle simply do not bring enough full-time jobs to employ the young people who wish to stay in the region.
When we look at the condition of rural health services in NSW we confront similar disappointment. The revised Federal Government policy on health funding does nothing to correct the scarcity of doctors in rural regions in NSW. The president of the NSW Rural Doctors’ Association, Dr Tilak Dissanayake, Coolah, insists that rural areas are losing doctors. About 50 per cent of rural doctors are trained overseas, and they stay for about two to three years “burned out with excess workloads”.
Richard Torbay does not appear to have been at all effective in correcting this problem in the Northern Tablelands.
Another problem of immediate critical importance to our rural electorate is the effectiveness of Rural Fire Services. Brian McKinlay, president of the Rural Fire Service Association, has been calling on the NSW Labor Government to remove the costly rental charges against the Rural Fire Service. The charges, at commercial rates, are for the use of public land by the RFS for essential equipment such as bushfire communication towers, and these costs are significant. According to Brian McKinlay, “these rental charges had been introduced in the past decade as a result of the whole-of-Government edict to achieve commercial returns on land rentals”. (The Land, February 24, 2011, p. 41).
Despite being the member for 12 years, Richard Torbay does not appear to have been at all effective in opposing and correcting this problem in the Northern Tablelands.
Since 1981 the Northern Table-lands has been represented by a politician drawn from the Armidale district. A major consequence of this has been the overwhelming idea that what is good for Armidale must be good for everyone else. The idiocy of this attitude was starkly illustrated in the struggle to prevent Armidale City taking over the Shires of Guyra, Uralla and Walcha.
The lifestyle and latte attitudes that are so attractive to the comfortable middle class, which dominates Armidale, have little attraction in the rest of the electorate, where increasing employment opportunities, improved infrastructure, and a more widely based and effective health delivery are far more important.
Despite his 12 years as member, Richard Torbay does not appear to have recognised, and nor has he understood, the concerns of the electors in these areas of the Northern Tablelands.
Taking a wider view of the concerns throughout the electorate it is clear that it is time for the Northern Tablelands to rid itself of the “Armidale attitude”. We have had it for 30 years; no longer can we afford to carry its weight. If we want growth and development, a sounder and more secure future, we need to look elsewhere.
In this election we should look to Charles McCowen, the candidate from the Tenterfield region, to see if we can elect someone with a more positive attitude towards the electorate. Perhaps we will find a new member with the sorts of political understanding and capacities demonstrated by former Tenterfield politicians, Henry Parkes and the Bruxners.
At the very least we would be electing a representative who has a seat at the table where policy is being decided. Charles McCowen will have a direct personal involvement in formulating policies that would benefit the electorate. His voice will be crucial in expressing a strongly focused regional viewpoint to balance the metropolitan focus we have suffered under for far too long.
Only strong party government can formulate, organise and implement the sorts of improvements we need. Charles McCowen’s understanding of the wider electorate and his far greater access to the heart of the new government are essential to reinvigorate and unleash the potential of the Northern Tablelands.
Bruce Watson,
Kentucky NSW
