FlowNews24

From State Parliament on Wednesday 17 November, Emma Kealy MP the Nationals member for Lowan tells Flow the pandemic powers debate has been powerful and urges western Victorian MLC Andy Meddick to rethink not only his position but his stance on freedom to protest given his stance on activists going to protest on Victorians' farms. Ms Kealy also discusses cuts to life skills programs in her electorate and takes aim at 'virtual' bushfire shelter plans for the bushfire season in the local area.

'Cashed up' metropolitan councils could lose funding to remote and financially disadvantaged regional councils in a funding model the Mildura independent is exploring that would benefit the Yarriambiack and Buloke Shire councils in her electorate if she secures state and/or federal support

The currently independent member for Narungga leaves open the door to returning to the Liberal fold even if elected as an independent in the Yorke Peninsula seat at the March 2022 State Election, as he targets improving country health coverage in the seat - and addresses the extent of pandemic powers - in this interview with Rikki on Flow

The AWU national secretary hits back at Agriculture Minister Littleproud's record on representing workers in the horticulture sector and the minister's comments on Flow about on how closely connected union leaders are to farm workers, the Minister saying they needed to get closer than '30,000 feet above them flying over them'.

Minister McKenzie has made her landmark speech on what the federal government means by 'regionalisation', wanting population to grow faster in regions than in the capital cities - enabled by water security and energy security, which could include nuclear small modular reactor technology to provide reliable, baseload energy. The Minister also notes thats preserving prime agricultural land from urban sprawl and energy projects is also important - but largely up to the states and councils.

Securing fertiliser among other things could be a challenge for 2022/23, Brett says, as he shares an innovative way one farmer has secured a harvest machinery operator to get through a labour-constrained harvest.