Sitting Member for Lismore, Janelle Saffin, has announced election commitments aimed at what she says is making local communities safer, keeping public schools open, protecting our natural environment, and removing a costly regulation from one local government area.
Ms Saffin says that while the range of commitments she has secured from NSW Labor is diverse, they tackle issues she has been lobbying on with local community groups, local councils and regional organisations since 2019.
‘The Nationals and Liberals in Government have not yet taken up what are essentially community needs despite numerous opportunities to do so.
‘Yes, these projects are needed, and importantly, they have been properly costed and budgeted for.
A longer list of priority projects
‘I have an even longer list of priority projects to work through across our electorate and the Northern Rivers, and I have the drive to see them through during a second term.’
Ms Saffin says on the natural and the built environment, it is past time for us to attempt to seek agreement about actions we can take together about big issues that have no simple or easily attainable solution if the parties do not talk to each other. ‘Farmers can help us lead the way and we need to ensure that we include them in all decision making processes.
‘That has been my goal and will be how I will continue to act if re-elected and I will keep working to ensure our region can address environmental, energy and climate challenges, restoring the health of our rivers, our soils and saving our koalas.’
Ms SAffin says the Minns Labor Government will:
- Keep open Murwillumbah’s four public schools, consulting all school communities on infrastructure upgrades, including the continuation of Murwillumbah High’s capital works.
- Additional policing resources for Murwillumbah Police Station, starting with $3.7 million for recruitment of additional officers, provision of other services and upgrades, and an implementation plan to make Murwillumbah Police Station 24/7. This commitment delivers on a promise made by The Nationals in 2007 but never kept.
- Deliver $5 million to Resilient Lismore, in partnership with Reece Foundation, for their Two Rooms and a Bathroom rollout to 250 flood-impacted homes as well as restoring essential plumbing to at least 100 homes.
- Allocate $250,000 to develop an Economic and Environmental Recovery Plan for the Northern Rivers region and Tenterfield Shire LGA to help eight local government areas ‘build back better’ from the 2022 floods and better prepare for future natural disasters.
- Deliver $2 million to Tweed Shire Council to fund urban flood mitigation projects prioritised from the outcomes of the Murwillumbah Central Business District Drainage Study.
- Significantly boost funding for Lismore Women’s Health & Resource Centre as part of NSW Labor’s $100-million investment in 20 women’s health centres across the state over five years.
- Remove the EPA waste levy from Kyogle Local Government Area, saving Kyogle Council and local ratepayers an estimated $400,000 a year.
- Allocate $5 million for four high-priority, shovel-ready projects to start the Northern Rivers Watershed Initiative, a 10 to 15-year strategy aimed at improving water security and catchment health of the Tweed, Brunswick, Richmond and Evans river catchments.
- Deliver $1.4 million to Northern Rivers Wildlife Hospital towards construction and commissioning of the purpose-built hospital facility at Wollongbar, located on the border of Ballina and Lismore electorates.
- Provide $110,000 to Lismore’s Friends of the Koala Incorporated for a chlamydia vaccination program ($75,000) and a koala data base ($35,000).
All of these commitments are contingent on NSW Labor forming Government at the State Election on 25 March, 2023.
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