There are a lot of excited children across the electorate this week with presentations ceremonies underway and the last day of school all but upon us.
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It was an exciting week at Taronga Western Plains Zoo with Environment Minister Mark Speakman dropping in to officially open the African Savannah Experience.
Scholarship up for grabs. I would like to take this opportunity to urge artists and arts workers aged 18-25 in the Dubbo electorate to apply for a $10,000 Young Regional Artist Scholarship (YRAS) to help reach their career goals.
The YRAS program will invest in 100 scholarships to the value of $1 million in total over four years, and hopes to see the initiative unearth talent in the area.
This program provides an enormous leg-up to talented youth who are dedicated to their art and want to connect with renowned art organisations and training opportunities.
It is designed to cover all art forms to help young regional artists develop their careers through skill development opportunities.
Round Two of the NSW YRAS for 2016-17 is open until February 20 2017. For more information on the application process, assessment and eligibility criteria, go to www.arts.nsw.gov.au or email arts.funding@arts.nsw.gov.au.
New fleet of trains. Last week I welcomed the NSW Government’s decision to re-invest $300 million in savings from an order for new trains for the Sydney train network in the new country fleets.
The contract for the new XPT fleet will also set a target for 100 per cent assembly in NSW, with a preference towards regional NSW, meaning more jobs for regional areas.
Earlier this year, the NSW Government announced that it would commit a further $50 million to speed up the delivery of new XPT trains, which would see the procurement process kicking off in the first half of next year – two years earlier than promised.
It’s fantastic that a faster, modern, comfortable train fleet is on the way for rail passengers in the bush but it’s even better that there’s been a commitment to assemble large parts of these new trains in the area where they will be used. Rail passengers in the bush deserve modern, comfortable trains that require less maintenance and are more reliable. The new fleet will replace the 60 XPT passenger cars currently operating on the NSW TrainLink network.
It is expected that the new XPT trains will be on the tracks by the early 2020s.
Positive trends for rural crime. As always, I would like to commend the police in the Dubbo electorate for their exceptional work in fighting local crime. The most recent quarterly data from the Bureau of Statistics and Research (BOSCAR) is a testament to the proactive work of local police in detecting and preventing crime. In the 24 months to September 2016, only one of the 17 major offence categories showed a significant upward trend across NSW, while eight categories showed downward trends.
