FlowNews24

For FlowFM listeners in the NSW Riverina and western NSW, through to northern, western and south coast Victoria and across regional South Australia, we speak with the marketing manager and private dietician Glenys Zucco from Dairy Australia about the benefits of dairy and milk products and increased consumption in Australia.

The shadow minister for local government in South Australia, Sam Telfer, responds to the written attack minister Geoff Brock launched on the now former Coober Pedy administrator and the Liberals' handling of the town's water supply (read the full Ministerial comments here: https://www.flownews24.com.au/post/brock-attacks-jackson-s-coober-pedy-record). As the member for Flinders including the Eyre Peninsula, Mr Telfer also responds to the latest advice to FlowFM from SA Water regarding the progress of selecting a site and then building a desalination plant to address water security for the lower Eyre Peninsula

The shadow assistant minister for infrastructure and transport Tony Pasin tells FlowFM 'the drums are beating' on politicians' return to Canberra for an attack on the diesel fuel tax rebate. The South Australian MP for Barker talks about his motion in parliament this week calling on the government to spend 100% of its revenue from fuel tax on road improvements and repair, discusses the contribution electric vehicles aren't making to the road network and the inflationary pressures for Australians the Reserve Bank of Australia is trying to address by again raising the cash rate by 25 basis points on Tuesday.

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.