The General Manager and I attended the Centroc quarterly meeting in Canberra last week. This was an extremely worthwhile and productive meeting with the opportunity to discuss issues of importance for the Forbes Shire and the wider community.
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The Minister for Aged Care and Indigenous Health, Ken Wyatt, was one of the speakers. I asked about the issue of increasing respite care and Mr Wyatt agreed this was an issue the Federal Government needs to be examining. I also asked about the recognition and remuneration of people working in aged care. We have some wonderful people working in the industry and it’s important they’re appropriately recognised and rewarded. Mr Wyatt told us to expect news very soon.
The Federal Minister for Infrastructure and Transport, Darren Chester, was another guest speaker and he talked about the upgrade of the Pacific Highway. This work is expected to be complete by 2020. The Minister for Regional Development discussed the fact that there is a significant amount of money in the pipeline for regional projects. We discussed this funding at yesterday’s Council meeting and rest assured we’ll be working extremely hard to have some shovel ready projects prepared to take advantage.
I’ve been speaking with Vanfest Event Manager, Matt Clifton, and ticket sales continue to climb. Around 6000 day tickets have now been sold. This event is great news for Forbes and the thousands of visitors will make an enormous economic injection into our community.
We’re also encouraging residents to get involved with home hosting for the Parkes Elvis Festival. Finally, the Orange Male Voice Choir will perform at Town Hall from 2pm on Sunday. It’s a performance not to be missed.
