Thank you New England
A special thank you to the people of the New England for placing their faith in me and the Coalition Government to deliver for them again. To all the people in Scone and Aberdeen right up north to Liston and Tenterfield, to Inverell and Ashford and Walcha, and smaller centres like Nowendoc and Niangala and of course our big towns like the country music capital, Tamworth and the city of Armidale, this result is something that says to me I'm going to continue working as hard as I can on your behalf to respect the incredible honour that you have placed in me.
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I'm so proud of my team, the National Party and what we achieved for rural and regional Australia and we will keep working to look after your interests, making sure we continue to deliver effective service, whether that's on small issues or big infrastructure - rest assured my service to people in the New England will continue as strong as ever.
Barnaby Joyce, New England MP
Moore Creek subdivision
It appears that TRC will continue growth at any cost. Water is vital, you can't survive without it. With hotter drier summers and indeed drier all year round cannot see how Tamworth can sustain 100,000 people but they are only interested in the dollar signs. We will all suffer when Chaffey runs dry at the end of year.
Graeme Reeves, Calala
Hats a no go
You're Welcome at Wests, except if you arrive with a hat on. I really enjoy being a member of Wests, it's a great Leagues club and I've had some good times there.
Recently, my wife and I decided to go to The Courts, it was a cold drizzling night and we walked from where we lived nearby dressed appropriately for the conditions.
I had a hat on, a small weatherproof hat, and as we stepped inside and stood in the line-up to swipe our cards I was about to remove my hat when some members sitting near the entrance yelled out that hats were not allowed in the club.
It's a small club and people looked up. My wife was embarrassed and I was very annoyed.
Clubs such as this wouldn't dare ban the Burka or the Turban, if they did it'd be a national news story the next week, but the rules banned my hat.
This restriction may be a leftover from a rule book published in the 60's, a time when you couldn't even enter a club without a necktie, but look at what we've got now in clubland.
On the night I entered my club I saw ripped jeans, floppy old Ugg boots, tracky dacks and multi-coloured gym boots everywhere, but by entering the club wearing a hat, I might have been banned.
With the great bar staff there this would've been highly unlikely, but I feel justified in bringing this up.
Tamworth Council and others spend lots of money promoting our two Country Music Festivals each year, and this makes us what Lee Kernaghan describes in his song, a Hat-Town.
I reckon the team at Wests need to consider their role in the promotion of this city and what part it plays in the tourism space.
I'm not suggesting that it's all about hats but isn't it time we revisited that out-of-date old rule book and bring the whole thing into the 21st century?
David Foster, Tamworth