State of the bush: The Daily Telegraph Bush Summit 2024
Barnaby Joyce has called the push for renewable energy the “most divisive thing” he has seen in his time in politics in a fiery debate with Matt Kean at the Bush Summit.
Bush Summit
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The Daily Telegraph’s Bush Summit event in Orange today has brought politicians, policymakers and regional leaders together to address the challenges facing regional communities.
Hosted by Sky News’s Peter Stefanovic, News Corp’s Bush Summit heard from The Daily Telegraph’s editor Ben English, Premier Chris Minns, MPs Barnaby Joyce, Jason Clare and Phil Donato as well as expert panels discussing issues around the economy, energy, housing, healthcare and the future of our regions.
Read on to see how the Summit, supported by Rossi Boots, Commonwealth Bank, Qantas, Woolworths and NBN, unfolded.
KEY UPDATE:
11.59AM: POWER BILLS CRIPPLING PEOPLE
Barnaby Joyce has called the push for renewable energy the “most divisive thing” he has seen in his time in politics in a fiery debate with Matt Kean.
“It has split communities down the middle. It has made good friends (go) for each other’s throats,” he told the Bush Summit while sitting on the Great Debate panel with former NSW treasurer and energy Minister Mr Kean – now the Chair of the Climate Change Authority.
Mr Kean agreed power bills were going up and “cost of living was crippling people” – saying one of the key reasons was the war in Ukraine, which drew groans from the crowd.
Mr Kean said: “The reality is today the cheapest way of delivering reliable energy is firmed renewables. That’s not me saying that, that’s the CSIRO – one of our most trusted institutions – and AEMO (Australian Energy Market Operator) the engineers who run our energy system.”
But Mr Joyce wasn’t having it, replying: “What is this? The Wizard of Oz,”
“Honestly, I’ll tell you where the truth lies. Ladies and gentlemen, when you get that little thing in the mail with a … power bill, there lies the truth.
“Now I’m gonna pose one question to you, forget that AEMO … quoting all that fantasia or ‘what might happen in the future’, has that power bill been going up or down?”
Mr Joyce described wind towers as “swindle factories” and renewable energy as a “fantasia”.
“We are going to be mugged by reality on this one … if we keep going down this path, the lights are going to go out,” Mr Joyce said, adding tangled legislation would slow down building new energy like nuclear.
“You were the deputy Prime Minister of the country Barnaby … you could do something about it,” Mr Kean said.
Mr Kean added he wasn’t “opposed” to nuclear”.
“I’m supportive of the facts, I’m not opposed to nuclear per se, but … nuclear is three to five times more expensive than firming renewables,” Mr Kean said, prompting a barrage of rejections from the New England MP.
Mr Joyce also added polling while the Coalition was in government showed nuclear power wasn’t popular and it was therefore not followed up until now.
AS IT HAPPENED:
2.55PM: COMMUNIQUE TARGETS CRIME, KEY WORKERS, GREEN ‘LAWFARE’
The Daily Telegraph’s Bush Summit has wrapped up after coming up with the 2024 Communique list of action points, read out by editor Ben English.
Issues to be tackled include crime and a key worker incentive scheme, with Mr English saying various processes to recruit key workers should be streamlined.
“We believe they should be harmonised … for police, nurses, teachers and GPs, let’s harmonise them,” Mr English said.
The communique also recommended a review of “green lawfare”.
“On the back of this disastrous McPhillamys decision, we call on the federal government to undertake an urgent inquiry into … green tape approvals, processes and hurdles that are delaying and derailing legitimate economic jobs generating projects,” Mr English said.
The top 10 resources and energy projects should be short-listed on a priority list and given “the saloon passage”
Birds in the Bush, a volunteer domestic violence advocate body founded in Orange, should also be rolled out across the state
Indigenous pathways also “need to be respected” he said.
The Environmental Defenders Office also should be defunded, with Mr English querying “Why are taxpayers funding something fighting things that are being done for taxpayers?”
The ban on the McPhillamys gold mine should also be reviewed, with the summit “Calling on the federal government to reverse the decision”.
Also, housing and labour issues should be tackled with a targeted immigration policy.
“We should be matching (towns crying out for workers) with our immigration policy,” he said.
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2.15PM: CLUBS FILL VITAL SERVICE GAPS
Michael Boland, head of the Broken Hill Musicians Club City Council, said regional NSW is being abandoned by crucial services, highlighting discrepancies in funding between the city and country for issues including autism, suicide, youth crime, domestic violence and emergency services.
Mr Boland said country towns rely on clubs for vital services to fill the gaps.
“Regional people know what regional people need,” he said.
“Regional clubs are the backbone of our regional communities,” he said.
He said the club grant scheme must remain vital for regional communities.
“If it goes into the state revenue. It will never be seen. It will go to the pet projects of politicians … to the basket weavers of Balmain, the chalk artists on The Rocks,” he said.
1.55PM: THE BIGGEST TREE-CHANGERS
Millennials lead the bush tree change movement, according to Regional Australia Institute CEO Liz Richie.
Ms Richie said regional NSW was on the precipice of change.
“We have seen record movement to regional Australia; it averages anywhere to 16 to 20 per cent above pre-pandemic levels. The biggest movers are millennials,” she said.
“We need to ensure we have the people to fill the jobs, the build the houses,” she said.
CommBank personal finance expert Jessica Irvine said young people should look to the regions as an affordable price point.
“We aren’t going to be a nation of megacities. We don’t want to be nation of megacities. We want to live in our beautiful regions, but we to ensure we have a plan to make it work,” added Ms Richie.
1.15PM: CRICKETER’S PRAISE FOR HOMETOWN
Australian Cricketer and Orange local Phoebe Litchfield has praised her hometown for supporting her in her cricket journey.
“I played all sports growing up and kind of fell in love with cricket … I think the pathways I had in Orange … they were really supportive.
She said her new-found fame was “pretty weird.”
“It’s my favourite thing to come back home and see everyone. It’s nice to come home and ground myself,” she said.
“Growing up here choosing to pursue sport in the country as opposed to the city, it’s an easy decision,” she said, due to the way her community “got around me and welcomed me in.”
She said she has had friends leave their homes to come to Orange based on the community.
“It’s such a great community,” she said.
1.45PM: SPEAKMAN ‘FLABBERGASTED” AT MINE BLOCK
NSW opposition leader Mark Speakman said he was “flabbergasted” at Federal Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek’s decision to block a gold mine at Blayney near Orange.
“It’s an extremely disappointing decision,” Mr Speakman said outside The Daily Telegraph’s Bush Summit. “It’s not only the hundreds of millions of dollars of royalty revenue for New South Wales that we look like we’re going to lose but hundreds of permanent jobs.”
He said it sent a terrible message to investors that they could go through the planning process at a cost of millions of dollars only to have the rug pulled out from under them at “the eleventh hour”.
Mr Speakman attacked the “lack of transparency” surrounding the decision and called on Ms Plibersek to release the reasons given to her by an Indigenous group outside the Orange Local Aboriginal Land Council for blocking the mine.
“You’ve got a minority of people who’ve basically been allowed by the Minister to hijack the system,” he said. “The report that’s been reliable hasn’t been released.”
1.36PM: PREMIER HINTS AT SPEED CAMERA MOVE
Cars and other light vehicles could be policed by average speed cameras in a bid to drive down the state’s road toll.
Premier Chris Minns has revealed his government is considering the change, following a “dramatic increase” in road deaths over the past year.
Currently, average speed cameras only enforce heavy vehicles. The cameras calculate the time taken to drive between two points and calculate the vehicle’s average speed.
Asked by The Daily Telegraph weekend editor Anna Caldwell if the cameras could be extended to regular cars, Mr Minns said he had not “announced any changes in policy” but suggested it was on the cards.
“We’re looking at potential options to try and slow people down,” he told the Bush Summit.
He said tougher speeding enforcement is not directed at bush drivers, but city residents going on holidays.
He said crashes often occur in “the shoulder seasons, where metropolitan people go on holidays up the North Coast or down the south coast,” he said.
12.46PM: KIDS LOSE OUT IN CITY v BUSH DIVIDE
Federal education Minister Jason Clare has spelt out the gap between students in the city and the bush in a candid speech at the Bush Summit.
“About one in ten kids are in the lowest NAPLAN category. It’s one in three kids who are in that category from poor families. It’s one in six kids who are in that category from regional Australia, and it’s every second kid in a really remote part of the country. And most of these kids never catch up.
He said it was often children in “the bush who are most likely to miss out”.
“It’s why I said Western Sydney and the Central West have a bit in common. It’s not something we whinge about … But we also can’t ignore the fact that we live in a country today where still not everyone is getting the same crack,” he said.
He said to address the teacher shortfall which is particularly sharp in regional NSW, more university students studying the profession had to finish their degrees, while more had to be encouraged to take up the studies in the first place.
11.36AM: POLICE STRETCHED, UNDER RESOURCED
The Bush Summit is tackling one of the key issues in the regions – crime – with a panel hosted by chief reporter Josh Hanrahan repeatedly discussing the lack of police in rural NSW as one of the major challenges.
Orange MP Phil Donato, a former police prosecutor, said there had to be more initiatives to attract cops to the regions.
“Police are stretched. They’re under resourced,” he said.
Vanessa Vazquez, founder of volunteer organisation Birds in the Bush, said police shortfalls made it difficult to enforce AVOs.
“If we have AVOs in place, we need to ensure that we have the police and the power to closely monitor repeat offenders, so that these women have more protection,” she said.
“But we can’t do that without having the police numbers to be able to look at these more serious offenders.”
10.50AM: MINNS’ HOPES FOR BLOCKED GOLD MINE
Premier Chris Minns, in discussion with Daily Telegraph weekend editor Anna Caldwell, has voiced his support with helping fast track changes which could help the McPhillamy's gold mine proposed by Regis Resources open for business.
“I’ve personally spoken to Regis … we want it to go ahead. We think it’s too important for Blayney, for regional economies … at the end of the day, like any Premier … we just want this to get up,” he said.
Mr Minns said he hoped the NSW Government could help fast track an alternative site for a tailings dam, after the initial site was hit with a section 10 by Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek.
He said the original development application for the mine was submitted in 2019 and that he didn’t want an alternative site to take five years to pass through state planning systems.
“We hope it’s a modification to the development application (and) we just can get on with it,” he said.
He stopped short of calling for Federal Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek to front the Bush Summit and talk to Blayney locals.
The Premier joked he was “flat out with my own government,” but said he personally found it good to speak to Blayney locals and leaders.
“I am hopeful we can get an outcome. I think it is important for regional communities, it’s great for jobs, will drive investment, drive economic growth.
10.30AM: BARNABY’S PRAISE FOR NATION’S RICHEST WOMAN
Federal Member for New England Barnaby Joyce has praised mining magnate Gina Rinehart while addressing the Bush Summit.
“Australia should have 20 Gina Rineharts, but I don’t think we are not going to have any more Gina Rineharts unless you start removing some of the regulations and get this nation going.
“She continues to look after our nation. She could have been based in Monaco or Singapore. She’s not,” he said.
He said Summit attendees would be sitting in the room “economically naked” if it were not for Ms Rinehart.
“Take a look at the person next to you. Their shirt comes from overseas. Their trousers come from overseas … Somebody somewhere must put something on a boat and send it in the other direction for you to be able to do that,” he said.
“The person who puts things on the boat, who has done that in splendid form is Gina Rinehart,” he said.
10.30AM: MAGNATE’S CALL OVER GAS
Ms Rinehart has used the Bush Summit to call for the rapid development of natural gas resources in Australia, as well as saying the federal government should cut the fuel excise.
“It is clear that our governments have got energy policy wrong. Our bills just keep going up. Demand and supply has been interfered with, and our energy system is increasingly unreliable,” Ms Rinehart said in a prerecorded statement.
She said governments should pursue natural gas, instead of wind farms or solar.
“By all means put these on your properties if you want to … But let those who want reliable energy, have it,” she said.
10.20AM: TIME TO LISTEN TO NATION’S HEART
The Daily Telegraph’s 2024 Bush Summit has kicked off, with editor Ben English saying the event continues to bring some of the country’s most influential decision makers to the country five years after the inaugural summit.
“Thus – no doubt with the best of intentions – an immense and potentially life- changing economic opportunity for the region has been lost because a piece of land has been deemed too precious to sustain those who actually live on it.”
“Now, as then, The Bush Summit brings together the most powerful decision makers in Australia – leaders in politics, business and the community – and puts them in touch with the most important people in Australia: You,” he said.
He said, while the bush wasn’t struggling with drought like it was in 2019, there were other challenges springing up.
“We see this in law and order, the most basic prerequisite for any safe and civilised community,” he said.
“Country cops are under numbered and overstretched and troublemakers know this.”
He added city-based politicians often made things harder for those in the bush.
“Many of you would be familiar with the current controversy over Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek and the decision to block the $1 billion McPhillamy’s gold mine,” he said.
9.20AM: WIND FARM PROTESTS OUTSIDE SUMMIT
The Daily Telegraph’s 2024 Bush Summit has kicked off with a protest, with anti-wind farm campaigners out the front of the event.
Brandishing signs saying “we do not consent” and “minimum 6km setback from our homes”, the campaigners set up at what is sure to be a packed event including politicians Premier Chris Minns and New England MP Barnaby Joyce.
“They’re ruining the environment and wrecking regional Australia,” one protester said of wind farms.
It comes as energy shapes up as one of the key issues to be debated at Thursday’s Bush Summit.
9AM: THE 72 ROADS ACROSS NSW BEING FIXED
A notorious stretch of road on the Mitchell Highway where an Orange family narrowly avoided tragedy last year will get vital upgrades, as part of a $200 million regional road safety blitz to prevent over 2,000 deaths or serious injuries.
Premier Chris Minns will make the announcement in his address to the Telegraph’s Bush Summit in Orange on Thursday.
“Any life lost on our roads is a tragedy,” Mr Minns said.
The Daily Telegraph can reveal that the Minns government will undertake 72 road safety projects across rural, regional and remote areas of NSW in a bid to drive down the road toll and get bush drivers home safely.
Deaths on regional roads make up about two thirds of all road deaths, despite regional communities only amounting to a third of the state’s population. – FULL STORY
9AM: REPORT CARD FOR REGIONAL NSW
True Aussie battlers, regional and country NSW punch above their weight when it comes to hurdles like the economy, crime, health and education. At the Bush Summit, we assess the state of the regions. – FULL STORY
Originally published as State of the bush: The Daily Telegraph Bush Summit 2024
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