Plus ‘stinky little fish’. Welcome to Galah Weekly, our award-winning newsletter keeping you up to date with regional headlines that matter, plus other delightful things from life beyond the city. By Dean Southwell, who never forgets who funds all those promises.
We’re going to the polls on 3 May in a federal election in which cost-of-living pressures will be the central theme and opinion polls point to a hung parliament.
The major parties are offering choices that include the Albanese government’s small but surprise tax cuts outlined in Tuesday’s budget and Opposition leader Peter Dutton’s plan to cut fuel excise.
These are a few of the headlines in a frenetic week that included the government’s controversial late move to save salmon farms on Tasmania’s west coast.
The government’s plans to call an April election without delivering a budget were spoiled by Tropical Cyclone Alfred, itself a major factor in budget measures.
Labor Its election pitch is now largely based on a budget relatively light on specific regional measures but headlined by tax cuts for all worth about $5 a week from July 2026 and $10 a week in 2027.
It also includes $150 in energy rebates for all households and one million small businesses to be delivered late this year and $7.9 billion to reach a target of 90% of GP visits bulk-billed by 2030.
Coalition Opposition leader Dutton has pledged to repeal the tax cuts announced in this week’s budget, though they have already been pushed through the Senate. Instead, he’s promised to cut the fuel excise for a year soon after the election, saying it would save a typical driver about $14 a week.
The Coalition’s plan to introduce nuclear power is an obvious contrast to Labor’s continued rollout of renewables, and this week Dutton outlined a plan to reserve more gas for the domestic market.
He has committed to cutting public sector jobs but largely reserved other policy detail for the election campaign.
Health Aside from broad measures that include increasing GP training places and cuts to the cost of medicines, 50 new urgent care clinics will be built across the nation. The 17 regional clinics on the list include Bathurst and Nowra (NSW), Warrnambool (Vic), Gladstone and Mackay (Qld), Geraldton (WA) and Victor Harbor (SA).
Infrastructure and communications There’s a promise of $3 billion to roll out the NBN full-fibre network for a further 622,000 premises, more than half of them in the regions. The upgrade would move users from NBN’s fibre-to-node network to a faster, more reliable direct connection.
Roads Most of the major programs were already announced or promised, highlighted by $7.2 billion for safety upgrades on Qld’s Bruce Highway. There is also an extra $465 million for regional NSW roads.
Disaster relief Tropical Cyclone Alfred is expected to be a bigger cost to the national economy than the 2022 floods and the budget includes an extra $1.2 billion for recovery efforts.
Agriculture Among the few specific measures announced was $20 million for a Buy Australian campaign and $3 million to develop a food security strategy. As farmers face uncertainty over Trump tariffs, more than $6 million has been allocated for international engagement and market access work.
Environment and land management $250 million will protect an extra 30 million hectares of land in the next five years, and $55.2 million over four years will extend lease arrangements with the traditional owners of Booderee, Kakadu and Uluru-Kata Tjuta national parks.
Industry There’s funding for a $2.4 billion SA-federal package to save Whyalla’s troubled steelworks, and $3 billion to support Australian-made green metals, such as aluminium and iron.
Defence An increase in spending includes a missile project at Williamstown, near Newcastle, a radar project in Canberra, and a troop carrier program in Bendigo.
Social programs Regional communities will benefit from the national three-day childcare guarantee giving families at least 72 hours of child-care subsidy each fortnight for early childhood education and care regardless of activity levels. There will be 100 subsidised hours per fortnight for families caring for a First Nations child. More than $506 million has been allocated to Closing the Gap programs in the NT.
Legislation to protect salmon farming in Tasmania’s Macquarie Harbour was rushed through federal parliament despite unease within government ranks and fiery opposition from Greens, independents and environmental campaigners. Even actor Leonardo DiCaprio weighed in.
Debate over the impact of salmon farms in Tasmanian waters has raged for at least a decade. Macquarie Harbour, on the state’s west coast, is home to the endangered Maugean skate, which has been a focus of environmental concerns.
The Albanese government’s amendments to the Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act – supported by the Coalition – stop its own Environment Minister, Tanya Plibersek, from reconsidering a 2012 expansion of farms in the harbour.
Debate this week included Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young bringing a dead salmon into the chamber to demonstrate her opposition, and Tasmanian senator Jacqui Lambie accusing the government of putting “stinky little fish” ahead of cost-of-living relief.
Salmon farming directly employs 2000 people in Tasmania and the late legal move has been criticised as a flawed effort to shore up votes that might set a precedent for other environmental assessments.
Late last year the government announced $28 million to improve Macquarie Harbour water quality and another $3 million was allocated in Tuesday’s budget for a captive breeding program.
A WA Wheatbelt town is offering a $20,000 incentive to keep its local butcher shop open as the existing owners prepare to sell up after 30 years in business.
Some towns have offered incentives in the search for GPs. In Pingelly (population 1000), shire chief executive Andrew Dover said keeping main-street shops occupied was vital for the town’s economic health and the butcher helped bring customers to other businesses.
The shire’s $20,000 offer is conditional on the business staying open on weekdays and Saturday mornings and would have to be repaid if the business closed within two years.
The search for Teddy, a King Charles cavalier spaniel puppy that went missing from a country town almost five years ago has turned into a million-dollar court case that must be destined for the screen.
Shannon Wheeler last saw Teddy – her son’s dog – in the yard of her home in the western NSW town of Young in June 2020. Days after reporting him missing to police, putting up posters and posting on social media, she called in pet detective Anne-Marie Curry.
The SMH’s Harriet Alexander has tracked what happened as the hunt for Teddy ended up in court and a defamation case almost as bizarre as an Ace Ventura movie.
The case was effectively dismissed last month but defendants Wheeler and Curry and the plaintiffs were out of pocket an estimated $1 million.
And Teddy is still missing.
The wine vintage is in full swing around the country, but Kalgoorlie doesn’t normally spring to mind when people think of the grape harvest.
Mine surveyor Geoff Paynter says the WA gold town has a history of Italian immigrants tending backyard vineyards. He established his Binduli Winery with late wife Kathryn in 2001, growing mostly shiraz grapes for port.
Kalgoorlie has a similar climate to winegrowing regions such as SA’s Riverland and the NSW Riverina, says Paynter, though water is his biggest challenge.
Meanwhile, Victorian winemaker Mark Walpole is capitalising on Australians’ growing love for unusual wine varieties as he harvests the first commercial crop of two Italian varieties. Walpole has spent eight years establishing petit arvine and cornalin vines in his Beechworth vineyard.
Galah Issue 12 is already landing in subscribers' mailboxes ahead of our on-sale date of 7 April, and she’s a beauty. If you have your copy already, please email us a “Galah in the wild” shot – we love to see them. And if you don’t have a copy yet, you can always pre-order or subscribe online or find your nearest stockist.
Of the photos coming in via Instagram, we have noticed an emerging trend of kind-men-holding-Galahs (see two examples below) which we fully endorse and would like to see more of.
Art lovers in Shepparton can float in a pool while also immersed in an amplified audio installation by Melbourne artist Sarah Retallic. It’s among events at the Shepparton Festival, which includes street walks, performance, music, literature, visual arts and food in and around the northern Victorian city. On 4-13 April. Read more
Guest curator Christine Willcocks has selected artists with a common love of Northern Rivers landscapes for an exhibition that spans painting, sculpture, installation, film and sound. At Grafton Regional Gallery, NSW, until 27 April. Read more
Artist Dale Frank has spent more than a decade turning his historic Hunter Valley property into a giant canvas. His botanical gardens are designed as an immersive sculpture across more than 20 hectares and feature more than 6000 mostly dry-species plants rescued from building sites and farms or grown from rare seed. Singleton, NSW, 30 March. Read more
Interview: Emma Hearnes
Award-winning author Dianne Wolfer has a knack for uncovering remarkable true stories. Her latest book, Soaring with the Sugarbird Lady, follows the journey of Robin Miller, a trailblazing pilot and nurse who flew solo across north-west Australia in the late 1960s, delivering life-saving polio vaccines on sugar cubes to remote communities.
Tell me about where you live and work.
The south coast of Western Australia inspires my writing. I love the strong sense of community in regional towns, and Kinjarling/Albany is home to many creative people.
What draws you to historical fiction?
Once an event or person sparks my imagination, I enjoy delving deeper, especially when I’m waylaid by small, fascinating things during the research process. I need to edit some out as I hone the story, but I think that knowing them broadens my understanding and makes my writing stronger.
What captured your attention about Robin Miller?
Many years ago I read her book Flying Nurse and was inspired by how much she achieved. As well as being an aviator at a time when most people didn’t think women should be pilots at all, Robin was a nurse, midwife and author. She was resilient, kind and had a great sense of fun.
What message do you hope young readers take from Miller’s story?
She saved many lives. And she never gave up on her dream of becoming a pilot. I hope young readers will see that each one of us can make a difference, that hard work, determination and courage are stepping stones to becoming whatever you dream of becoming.
The Qld government is spending an extra $24 million to help landholders control surging fire-ant infestations as flooding helps spread the pest.
Sixty people have recorded extreme reactions to stings in the past month, more than 20 have required hospital attention, and businesses say they are spending millions on control measures.
Under the previous state government, Qld landholders in fire-ant suppression zones were responsible for eradication efforts on their properties. The Crisafulli government has abandoned that approach and the extra money will pay for drone or helicopter baiting efforts.
Logan City Council posted warnings this month about fire ants forming rafts to navigate waterways.
We’d love to hear about the news, events and people that should be making the headlines in the Galah Weekly newsletter. Share what’s new(s) in your neck of the woods with us at newsie@galahpress.com
