Councils converge in Harden for mayoral summit

Mayors and general managers from all over the Cootamundra electorate gathered in Harden last Friday for a summit coordinated by local member Steph Cooke. Temora Shire mayor Rick Firman and general manager Melissa Boxall, with Hilltops, Weddin, Cowra, Bland, Coolamon, Cootamundra-Gundagai, Junee, Narrandera also represented. Mayor Firman said a key topic of the summit was the allocation of Financial Assistance Grants from the state government. Temora Shire have lost $580,000 in general purpose grants, and received an additional $700,000 for roads. Methodology has not been made public as to how these figures were decided, with the mayor calling for greater transparency. "When you try to reach out to obtain the calculations in terms of the methodology, they're not being provided, which is extremely frustrating" Cr Firman said. "I think it's important that no rural, remote and regional council should be worse off in the general component of the financial assistance grants or the roads component. "You can't have councils worse off because it just seemed to be some, under this draft, big winners proposed and significant losers. "It has the potential to divide, and that's what we're seeing across the state." In the ninth instalment of the summit, Ms Cooke believes it to be an important forum for local government in the area. “It's an opportunity for me to bring together all of the mayors and general managers of the Cootamundra electorate to talk about the issues that are top of their list in terms of my advocacy for them in the NSW Parliament,” Ms Cooke said. In the room were Shadow Minister for Health, Regional Health and Mental Health, Sarah Mitchell MLC and Shadow Minister for Agriculture and the Prevention of Regional Crime, Brendan Moylan MP. “Our rural and regional communities deserve access to great healthcare close to home, and it was good to be able to speak about some of the specifics and what is needed in these communities with the local government representatives,” Ms Mitchell said. “I know that, particularly here in this area, there are calls for funding for the Coolamon MPS." "The issues down here are really the same issues in the northern end of New South Wales in terms of agriculture and farming,” Mr Moylan said. “That is the slow but sure deterioration of our research stations, our difficulties with water, and particularly the red and green tape that government is putting on our agricultural and farming sectors.”

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