New England Manifesto 2 - developing inland New England

This post is the second follow up to New England manifesto & the NSW elections setting out suggested questions to be asked of New England candidates at the March NSW elections.

Question

How will your policies help develop inland New England, the Tablelands, Slopes and Western Plains?  

Background

This question has been deliberately left open and non-prescriptive to give candidates full opportunity to put forward their own ideas.

Inland New England has been in structural decline for a very long time. As late as 1977, official projections as well as local sentiments still saw the possibility of significant growth (Atlas of New England Geography, Geography Department, Armidale 1977). Decline accelerated after 1977.

Most recently, there has been some renewed population growth, but this is coming off a low base. To compound problems, official planning is based on statistical projections that have low to zero growth built in. This type of thinking can become a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Over the last fifty years, the policy responses intended to address inland New England's decline have been sporadic, ad-hoc and ineffective. We need to turn this around.

Candidates responses to this question will be subject to detailed evaluation to measure the likely direct costs and benefits of the ideas. Generalised, state wide policy proposals will be evaluated in terms of their local effects.  

New England Manifesto 1 - a new self government referendum

This post is the first follow up to New England manifesto & the NSW elections setting out suggested questions to be asked of New England candidates at the March NSW elections.

Question

Will you support the holding of another referendum on self-government for Northern NSW during the term of the next NSW Parliament?

Background

Not all New Englanders support statehood, although a large number do.

For those of us who do support statehood, this is a critical question. However, even those who do not, who still believe that the existing system can meet New England needs, can support the idea of another vote on purely practical grounds.

Since the narrow loss at the 1967 plebiscite, political parties have been able to play one part of Northern NSW against another. Strong support for another referendum will force those who want to preserve the constitutional status quo to try to demonstrate that it still does or can work.

New England can't lose from this question.     

New England manifesto & the NSW elections

Back last August in Time for a New England manifesto I said:

What would you like to see included in a broader New England manifesto? We need a campaign document that will not just guide the independents, but also provide a platform across the broader North.

My post yesterday, NSW Labor, the coalition & the New England interest, looked at the difficulties involved in getting people to focus on New England needs at a time of political polarisation.

New England is very divided, divided on party political lines, divided on local and regional lines. This makes it hard to develop real cooperation.

Over the next few weeks, I plan to feature on this blog a series of questions that, together, might lay the base for a New England manifesto. Necessarily, these questions will focus on areas of potential agreement across New England. By exposing them in this way, readers will have a chance to provide input.

Each question will be followed by a policy backgrounder explaining it's importance.

By the end of February, the questions will be consolidated into a questionnaire that can be sent to every candidate in Northern New South Wales. The answers will then be analysed and presented prior to the elections so that voters can make their own judgements.

Candidates will be given a chance to refine their views.We are interested in ideas as much as positions. Further, the results will be presented objectively, recognising that all candidates will have a range of views.

To do all this, we are going to need your support. It's quite a big job. 

If you would like to participate in the project, email me @ ndarala(at)optusnet(dot)com(dot)au.