The Leader of the Opposition in the NSW Legislative Council, Penny Sharpe, spoke to the media late yesterday about former minister Stuart Ayres being cleared of wrongdoing in regard to John Barilaro's appointment as NSW Trade Commissioner in New York.

Today's scheduled hearing for the Upper House committee inquiry into the appointment of Mr John Barilaro as Senior Trade and Investment Commissioner to the Americas has been cancelled.

The questions and controversy over John Barilaro’s appointment as the Senior Trade and Investment Commissioner to the Americas, highlights a growing web of wheeling and dealing behind closed doors.

Deputy Premier John Barilaro may have made it clear yesterday that the combined bipartisan appeal from Mayor of Tweed Chris Cherry and local MPs held no sway with him, but they are pushing ahead with discussions on a Tweed Shire border control regardless.

The state government’s regional housing taskforce meetings due to happen in Ballina next week have been shortened and shifted online.

The misallocation of public funds to benefit partisan interest, to the detriment of making such decisions based on merit, is nothing new in the state of NSW. However, the blatant justifications of the practice by the current coalition government are something new.

In a much-hoped-for move, the NSW Government and the China Shenhua Energy Company Limited have reached a $100 million agreement in which Shenhua will withdraw its mining lease application and surrender its development consent for the Shenhua Watermark Coal project at Breeza on the Liverpool Plains.

After being rejected in no uncertain terms by the Ballina Shire Council and vocal members of the Lennox Head community, the World Surf League Championship Tour is now going to Newcastle from 1-11 April this year.

An extraordinary meeting of Ballina Shire Council was held yesterday afternoon to discuss the controversial proposal to hold the World Surf League competition at Lennox Head this Easter.

While the National Party demands that no effective legislation is brought in to protect koalas and their habitat there is a significant risk that  both State and Commonwealth legal obligations will be contravened if post fire logging continues under existing agreements.