Delivering the best budget outcomes, drought assistance and support, and the growth of the region were the cornerstones of Kevin Anderson’s State of the State address at Diggers on Tuesday.
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The address was received by over 90 local stakeholders, including Tamworth Regional Council general manager Paul Bennett and Mayor Col Murray, the latter even taking centre stage to assist Mr Anderson during the Q&A component.
Mr Anderson began by speaking of the $3.9 billion surplus budget, with record $87.2 billion infrastructure spend.
“The government has the money to invest, my job is to help it flow into Tamworth,” he said.
The local member then spoke on jobs growth, and how the NSW unemployment rate of 4.9% is the lowest of the three eastern states.
“Locally we still have work to do, the Tamworth and Gunnedah rates both dropped 0.3 per cent in the last financial year to 5.5 and 5.6 per cent respectively,” he said.
“We have identified the areas of skills shortages in Tamworth…..there will be many prospective employment opportunities, and the forecast growth areas include construction, aged care, early childhood and real estate.”
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The member then spoke about driving down the costs of living, with a particular focus on young families, naming reductions in CTP green slip costs, energy rebates and the first home buyers scheme, as well as the popular Active Kids and Creative Kids programs.
Locally Mr Anderson touched on the work he is doing in conjunction with local council, including the continuing attempt to attract the Qantas pilot academy, as well as a greater university presence, as well as the proposed intermodal transport hub.
“Not being able to get a park in the main street is a good sign – Tamworth has had 539 DA approvals in the last financial year worth $171.4 million, while Gunnedah have had 58 approved, worth $19.3 million,” he said.
The long time member then addressed the growing call for the government to stump up on drought subsidies, and while he made no concessions, he did state that he had spoken to Deputy Premier John Barilaro regarding the “loud and clear message”.
Lastly Mr Anderson addressed three questions from the crowd, one from Andromeda Industry’s Ray McLaren regarding the $4 billion sell-off of the Snowy Hydro scheme, and if that was “part of the state government’s strategy to sell off the energy industry”.
Mr Anderson responded that it was not, and countered by stating “that the entire $4 billion had been quarantined to be spent on regional NSW.”
Realtor Dean Cummins than quizzed the member regarding Tamworth being identified as one of two NSW centres with forecasts of population growth hitting the 100,000 mark in the near future, and questioned whether a target date had been set.
Mr Anderson responded that both Tamworth and Wagga had been chosen as the northern and southern hubs for the state, before Mr Murray took the microphone and asked the room to consider how Toowoomba has achieved similar growth targets over 15 to 20 years.
“100,000 is possible. One of the things that Toowoomba have been able to achieve is the incredible support and push from their business sector,” Mr Murray said.
“City management and city growth is not something that just council alone can deliver, it’s not something just our local member can deliver, or something that just our federal member can just deliver, it is something that can do collectively when the whole of us push collectively in the same direction – that is what’s possible and absolutely achievable.”
Mr Murray then earmarked the year 2035 to achieve that target, before Mr Anderson was asked about water infrastructure in regards to growth, of which he said that “Dungowan Dam and water security is constantly being discussed.”
