By Paul Hemsley New South Wales Premier Barry O’Farrell has yielded, at least in part, to demands from councils that he keep his key election promise to return planning control to local governments after Minister for Planning Brad Hazzard indicated the Macquarie Street may now compromise over electorally unpopular new planning legislation. The Premier’s concession […]
19 September, 2013
By Paul Hemsley and Julian Bajkowski The New South Wales state government led by Premier Barry O’Farrell has mounted an ambitious push to make councils more “small business friendly” through a new carrot-and-stick regime that will reward achievers with a certificate but also publicly list laggards that the state and shopkeepers believe need to lift […]
13 September, 2013
By Julian Bajkowski Sydney’s jam packed city centre is officially on track for its biggest transport and access shake-up in half a century after the New South Wales Government publicly released a key document spelling out how new tram and rail lines, bus routes, bicycle paths and vehicle access will be tightly woven together for […]
11 September, 2013
By Julian Bajkowski and Paul Hemsley New South Wales Premier Barry O’Farrell is facing a fresh revolt in the state’s local government sector over controversial changes to planning powers after the peak group for councils warned it could hit Macquarie Street and big developers where it hurts the most – development approvals. Local Government NSW […]
11 September, 2013
By Paul Hemsley The New South Wales Department of Premier and Cabinet has warned councils that they must quickly get their act together in reporting complaints made about them by constituents and ratepayers to the state government. This firm reminder has come in the form of a circular from the chief executive of the Division […]
6 September, 2013
By Julian Bajkowski Australia’s official body for dentists has taken a bite out of Australia’s main political parties over what it claims is a “deafening silence” over local governments controversially removing fluoride from town water supplies against the interests of public health. The Australian Dental Association (ADA) is warning that taxpayers and the federally funded […]
5 September, 2013
By Julian Bajkowski The New South Wales government has added to a downpour of public sector cloud computing policy announcements in the past week, revealing the state’s departments and agencies will now be compelled to put the popular technology into the mix for assessment when making technology purchases. Announced by Minister for Finance and Services […]
3 September, 2013
By Julian Bajkowski When it comes to speed limits on Queensland’s roads, it seems just about everyone has an opinion … and almost as many are prepared to tell the state government exactly what they think. That’s the message that the Sunshine State’s Minister for Transport and Main Roads, Scott Emerson, seems to be getting […]
21 August, 2013
Doctors, nurses, paramedics and police officers have formed a potent alliance to push for regulatory changes to liquor laws to reduce harm and improve public safety. This is their argument. Every week, emergency service workers see innocent lives shattered at the hands of alcohol-fuelled violence. Every week another family somewhere in the country learns first-hand […]
20 August, 2013
By Paul Hemsley New South Wales Minister for Finance and Services and the Illawarra, Greg Pearce MLC, has finally been sacked by the state’s Premier Barry O’Farrell following a fresh revelation of a conflict of interest related to his Cabinet position. In an terse and unambiguously worded a statement issued unexpectedly late on Thursday afternoon, […]
2 August, 2013
By Julian Bajkowski Australia’s peak rail group has hit out at the Coalition’s promise of $6.7 billion in funding to fix the Bruce Highway in Queenslad, labelling the promise a short-sighted quick fix that squibs real commitment by the government to rolling out integrated transport infrastructure. Australian Rail Association chief executive Bryan Nye has hit […]
17 July, 2013
By Paul Hemsley and Julian Bajkowski The concerted push to add swift and serious passenger transport capacity to Sydney’s notoriously gridlocked Eastern Suburbs has continued at pace after New South Wales Minister for Transport Gladys Berejiklian signed key agreements with Randwick City Council, Centennial Parklands and the University of NSW (UNSW) to support the building […]
5 July, 2013
By Julian Bajkowski The New South Wales O’Farrell government has squeezed the trigger on a deeply unpopular push by the shooter’s lobby to gain much greater access to the state’s National Parks, forests and reserves by abolishing the highly controversial Game Council of NSW that had been put in charge of controlling the amateur hunting […]
4 July, 2013
By Julian Bajkowski Powerful property development industry group Urban Taskforce Australia has thrown down the gauntlet to New South Wales Premier Barry O’Farrell over local government reforms, saying that Sydney’s 43 existing councils need to be boiled down to just six “regional groupings with Councils of Mayors and Shared Service Centres.” The property lobby is […]
2 July, 2013End of content
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