The Northern Rivers Times Edition 130

I SHALL FIGHT TO SAVE OUR SCHOOLS: SAFFIN

By Janelle Saffn MP State Member for Lismore

THE Nationals in the NSW Government are ploughing on with their half-baked plan to close Murwillumbah’s four public schools, merging them into an American-styled mega school campus. A halfbaked plan that will do nothing to advance the educational outcomes for local students.

This is despite widespread community concern and outright opposition.

Tweed Shire Council on 5 December 2022 formally objected to the proposed Murwillumbah Education Campus -- State Signifcant Development (SSD16848913) due to ‘remaining concerns’ about ‘a number of unresolved matters’.

Council then wrote to NSW Minister for Education Sarah Mitchell MLC, inviting her again to meet with community representatives, Parents & Citizens, students and families affected by the NSW Government’s decision to move ahead with the Murwillumbah Campus and closing the four public schools in Murwillumbah.

A move that I fully support.

Since the meeting I arranged with the Minister at Murwillumbah High, at which we were promised to be sent the ‘educational benefts’, we have not received even one word.

Janelle Saffn MP State Member for Lismore

educational beneft. We all know that.

We all know that it is a cost cutting exercise and that the Murwillumbah community will not gain educational benefts, will not get the Performing Arts Centre promised, will lose space for students, will lose country school identities, will have traffc and bus mayhem, and to top it off, will lose 20 teachers and four administrative staff.

Given Council’s formal objection on outstanding matters and the widespread and continued community opposition to the mega campus, the NSW Government

should withdraw its development application before the start of the 2023 academic year.

If elected at the March 25 State Election, a Minns Labor Government will kill off the Nationals in Government’s half-baked plan and instead will keep open Murwillumbah High School, Wollumbin High School, Murwillumbah East Public School and Murwillumbah Public School.

We will consult these school communities on much-needed infrastructure upgrades to these schools, and continue with the upgrades underway. This

election commitment was made by NSW Shadow Minister for Education Prue Car and myself at a community meeting in Murwillumbah on 16 November 2021, and was reaffrmed by NSW Labor Leader Chris Minns when he met with stakeholders at a public education forum in Murwillumbah in late September.

A little over two years ago, former Deputy Premier and Nationals leader John Barilaro (now not on the scene) and his colleagues rode into town to announce his half-baked thought bubble of closing four schools without any prior consultation and now they are left cleaning up the chaos.

I shall fght to save our schools.

Pothole repair funds a win

MY lobbying for extra funding to fx pothole-riddled local and regional roads across the Lismore Electorate in the wake of this year’s foods has paid off but the problem deserves more attention going into 2023.

I’ve been raising the pothole issue with the NSW Government before and since the foods, and I welcome the $50-million Fixing Local Roads Pothole Repair Round as a win from that sustained, strategic advocacy.

It’s a start but what would really help our local councils is if The Nationals in Government honoured their 2019

election promise to transfer 15,000 kilometres of regional roads from local councils to State ownership.

The Nationals have shown no sense of urgency in delivering this key election commitment.

NSW Minister for Regional Transport and Roads Sam Farraway MLC even had the audacity to claim that it’s not a burning issue for councils.

Tell that to local people whose tyres and suspensions are being wrecked on deteriorating country roads or to mayors and general managers trying to keep up with their road maintenance backlogs.

From last month (December 2022), 94 regional councils are receiving their share of the Fixing Local Roads Pothole Repair Round.

The grant allocations included:

• Lismore City Council -- $422,000.

• Kyogle Council -- $415,000.

• Tweed Shire Council – $428,000.

• Tenterfeld Shire Council -$579,000.

Energy plan essential

PARLIAMENT was recalled for one more sitting day (Wednesday, 21 December), throwing my diary into a new level of chaos, so I again apologise for missing some end-of-year engagements.

Both Houses sat to pass the Energy and Utilities Administration

Amendment Bill 2022, essential for households and businesses here in the Northern Rivers and Northern Tablelands regions.

In the Legislative Assembly, there were only two speakers –NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet and NSW Opposition Leader Chris Minns, who said: NSW Labor supports the bill. We join the Premier in supporting the Albanese Federal Government’s energy plan, which will deliver price relief to families and businesses. We support a bipartisan and Federation-wide response to the energy crisis gripping our State and the entire country. We support the Premier’s decision to recall the Parliament to deal with this legislation as a matter of urgency. Intervention in the energy market is desperately needed for families whose ambitions and budgets have been shattered by unsustainable energy price rises. It is needed for thousands of businesses whose energy input costs are sending them to the wall. It is needed by hundreds of thousands of employees whose businesses and jobs will be at risk if the bill does not pass.

HAPPY NEW YEAR: State Member for Lismore Janelle Saffn is approaching 2023 with complete optimism and wishes readers of The Northern Rivers Times all the best for the year ahead.