James Roberts , General Manager - Group Fraud Management Services at Commonwealth Bank appeared on the Country Viewpoint to discuss scams sinking regional Aussie businesses and unsuspecting online users.

The conversation comes off the back of a recent interview with cybersecurity expert Stephen Kho a week ago on the Flow, along with new research highlighting over half of Australians are more concerned about scams compared to four months ago.

To add fuel to the fire, more than one in four Australians have also reported being contacted by scammers at least six times a week.

The NSW Labor shadow minister for regional transport and roads says the Opposition has been waiting for today's (Tuesday 7 February 2023) budget update from the Coalition government before releasing their funding pledge for regional roads, saying poor budget management in Sydney contrasts with the now $2 billion plus they say needs to be spent on the road maintenance backlog across regional New South Wales. We discuss betterment - building damaged roads to a better standard to be more resilient to future disasters, and the long process of enabling councils to hand roads back to state government to manage.

On his first day of his own planned breakaway from administering the Coober Pedy Council, Tim Jackson talks about what's great about living in the town, his recent concerns about anti-social behaviour by visitors to the town - and calls for SA Water to buy the estimated $12 million dollars worth of council water assets to wipe out the in-trouble council's $10 million in debt. The Council has been under administration for four years and was blocked from electing a new council by state parliamentarians just prior to November's local government elections due to continuing governance concerns.

One Nation's first MLC elected to the South Australian parliament, Sarah Game, says she's the only opposing the Malinauskas Labor government's Voice to Parliament bill for indigenous South Australians. She says the bill is thin on detail and could give the right to representatives elected solely by indigenous people to speak on any issue in the State Parliament.

Zachary Whale from GrainGrowers appeared on the Country Viewpoint this week.

The General Manager of Policy and Advocacy at GrainGrowers, who says he is 'passionate about grains and ag policy', discussed the peak body's pre-budget submission on the show - calling on federal government support for the industry.

Several talking points were outlined including: a significant upgrade in funding for freight networks and regional roads, including $1 billion over four years through the Regional Infrastructure Recovery program. Implementing the National Biosecurity Strategy and establishing a sustainable funding
model for biosecurity. Increasing opportunities for domestic manufacture of fertiliser, chemicals, fuel, and spare parts and more.

The NSW Farmers' head of policy and advocacy Annabel Johnson farms at Murringo and knows from first-hand experience the importance of being able to get a farm firefighting unit out to a fire, sometimes due to the tyranny of distance well before other firefighting units can arrive. The NSW Farmers are calling on the NSW government to give conditional licensing to the units as this summer's bushfire threat grows, also calling for public land managers to do their part to prevent catastrophic bushfire.

Michell Wool's Andrew Partridge shares the good news from the trading floor of a strong market for wool producers flat out shearing at the moment as the Australian Wool Exchange does a roaring trade.

The man who could be the next New South Wales treasurer says the premier has it wrong on how the state economy is travelling, and despite yesterday's attack on Labor's alleged lack of a small business policies, some have already been announced and more are coming. With the Reserve Bank of Australia meeting on Tuesday and expected to raise interest rates another 25 basis points to contain inflation, Daniel Mookhey says the land tax policies of the government will hurt householders' personal budgets.

The northern Victorian Nationals MP and leader of the state party raises alarm at the state of regional Victorian roads prior to the pandemic and flooding, let alone now and calls for the state authorities to repair roads. Peter Walsh MP for Murray Plains says past Victorian Electoral Commission reviews into representation structures in regional councils haven't always worked out how councils wanted, and encouraged residents in Yarriambiack, Gannawarra, Northern Grampians and Buloke shires to have their say. We discuss the influx of new Nationals MPs into state parliament, what that means for the coalition agreement and shadow cabinet, and the new responsibilities Peter Walsh and his deputy, member for Lowan Emma Kealy, now have.

The Liberal Party's MP for the state's largest federal seat, Grey, talks with Flow listeners about a recent federal government funding announcement for William Creek residents near Oodnadatta with the Royal Flying Doctor Service, the state of regional roads and addresses concerns voiced by others from Coober Pedy to Ceduna about alcohol-fuelled anti-social behaviour as federal parliamentary sittings resume this coming Monday.