EDUCATION, tax, rail and decriminalising abortion dominated the agenda of Tamworth man and Young Nationals vice chair Michael Hansen during his first state conference.
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He was among more than 300 grassroots Nationals members in Broken Hill at the weekend touching base with party leaders and MPs, and voting on what the party should adopt as policy.
The conference was the last hurrah for veteran Nat MLC Duncan Gay, who announced his retirement on Thursday, while Premier Gladys Berejiklian was the first state Liberal leader in more than two decades to address the conference.
The Young Nats put forward eight of the 66 motions debated at the conference.
Mr Hansen, who serves as Tamworth MP Kevin Anderson’s media advisor, had all three of the motions he put forward passed.
Mr Hansen’s first motion – calling on the NSW government to implement an independent model for school-based career advisers and to promote vocational training in schools – was passed unanimously.
The second motion he put forward was introducing a compulsory tax file number for year 9 students.
“It was debated well, and for good reason,” Mr Hansen conceded.
“There were concerns about it having a Big Brother approach.”
He hoped the motion would send the message to young people that you are going to need a job at some stage.
Mr Hansen’s third motion called on the state government to expedite the delivery of the new passenger train services in NSW, which had the backing of roads, maritime and freight minister Melinda Pavey.
“NSW is rolling in cash compared to the other states, there’s no reason why this can’t be done sooner,” Mr Hansen said.
Mr Hansen also vowed to fight to decriminalise abortion after the women’s council’s motion to move it from the crime act into the health act fell over.
“I was disappointed it didn’t get up, it didn’t even get to a vote,” he said.
“We had a chat with the women’s council and are looking to form a working group to lobby state MPs on that.”
Tamworth-based egg producer Bede Burke chaired his third consecutive NSW Nationals Conference.
A major motion to have passed unanimously at the conference was the Nationals vowing to drop the term ‘Coaltion’.