Independent Member for New England Tony Windsor showed a cool and steady hand last Thursday night in the Armidale Town Hall as he outlined to the 200-strong crowd; the reasons for his decisions and the benefits that have flowed to Regional Australia, particularly in the New England, during a minority government.
For over two hours, the issues varied from the Armidale Hospital funding issue to the carbon tax and the NBN rollout. The audience was attentive and the mood was far more positive than hostile. The balance of power wielding political veteran took it all in his stride, calmly and openly responding to the questions from the floor.
With the recent announce-ment made by the NSW Health Minister Jillian Skinner, Deputy Premier Andrew Stoner and Member for Northern Tablelands, Richard Torbay, that the State Government is ‘pledging’ $10 million towards the Armidale Hospital Redevelopment if the Federal Government commits further funding, Mr Windsor explained in depth that the NSW Government removed the Armidale Hospital funding application for consideration by the Federal Government. He said that there is no application (costed or otherwise) on the table. Mr Windsor was at a loss to explain where the $10 million figure came from but said that, if the NSW Government decided to call and treat Armidale Hospital as a top priority, then the funding would be found, though proper processes would need to be followed.
“This is not about health (though it should be), this is about politics,” Mr Windsor said.
Mr Windsor explained that the carbon tax is simply paving the way for an emissions trading scheme (ETS) that would be compatible with other schemes around the globe, adding that all of the major political parties, leaders and sometime prospective leaders would have headed in the direction of establishing an ETS.
The Independent praised Armidale for being proactively progressive, particularly with the NBN. “Not that it would be a good thing but, if a change in Government leads to a scrapping of the (NBN) rollout, think of the infrastructure advantage that Armidale will have,” Mr Windsor said.
While the rollout is purported to cost $40 billion over 10 years, Mr Windsor said that he expects and can live with a blow-out in the budget. He did seek to clarify that the current base $40 billion is actually $27 billion, with NBN Co to function as a private business, expected to earn significant revenue and contribute $13 billion over the 10-year period.
Questions put to Tony Windsor included funding to re-establish the Pat Dixon Medical Centre; Regional Development Australia Funding assessment; a Moratorium on foreign investment of farming land; his support of the minority government when people in his electorate didn’t vote for Labor; The Royal Commission into child abuse; and the lack of fibre NBN at the Armidale Airport and Acacia Park.
“There were a number of reasons that I wanted to hold this Town Hall meeting; firstly to thank the Armidale community. Out of all of the communities, this is the one that has seen real opportunities from the hung parliament, right from day one and embraced them,” said Mr Windsor.
“From the support of the NBN rollout, the way the University is keyed in with that, as well as commercial enterprise, I think that is exciting.”
