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Edgar Adams' Editorial

Posted by Edgar Adams on 4 September 2020
Edgar Adams' Editorial

2020 a difficult year but more to come

We started 2020 with bushfires, although we dodged a bullet there it could have been catastrophic.  This was followed by storms in early February that caused a lot of damage and beach erosion and by the end of the month COVID19 had hit and we were all self isolating.

Somehow we have dodged a bullet on COVID19 as well, and while retail and hospitality businesses are suffering most of the businesses that CCBR has spoken to are doing okay.

The building and home renovation sectors are busy as is the manufacturing sector.

Tourism is doing okay and this will continue into the foreseeable future with our national border closed at least until mid next year.

Those businesses that rely on sporting events are having a tough time.

Restaurants and cafes are doing it tough as they manage the social distancing rules but the nimble ones have turned to take away  and doing well out of that to the extent that they will probably maintain that service in the long run.

A high proportion of our commuter population are working from home and saving money on fares and petrol.  Somewhere along the line that must feed back into the local economy.

There is no question that JobKeeper payments have propped up many businesses who were in trouble prior to all this.  2019 was not a good year for many businesses across the board with many saying they felt we were in a recession.

All through 2019 the Federal Government was not listening to the business community and it seems that right now the only state who is, is NSW.  Certainly Victoria and Queensland are not and this is having a big impact on our state.

The Premier and the NSW Government has handled this pandemic exceptionally well and NSW, in terms of the economy in particular, will do better in the long run than the other states.

 That of course is due to the billions that this government is pouring into infrastructure and into the regions, thanks to the Minister for Regions, John Barilaro.

Western Sydney in particular is being showered with money from every direction.

This cash splash is thanks to the privatisation of the 'poles and wires' and sundry other state infrastructure plus the $4.2 billion Snowy Hydro Legacy Fund.

When you add all this up you have to ask, "What has the Central Coast got?"

And the answer is precious little!!

There are three obvious reasons for this:

A dysfunctional Central Coast Council,

We voted the wrong way at the last State Election in 2019, and

Who are we?

A dysfunctional Central Coast Council

The amalgamation of Gosford and Wyong Councils has turned out to be a disastrous move.

The amalgamation was intended to put an end to the Gosford vs Wyong arguments that never stopped.

This is due to the introduction of the Ward System and, more importantly the shape of the Wards which favours councillors whose focus is totally on Wyong or on maintaining a welfare attitude towards the region.

Not one councilor has a big picture view of the Central Coast a region of over 340,000 people or where it will or should be in twenty years time.  Most can't see beyond next week!

And we have to put up with them for another year thanks to COVID19.

We vote the wrong way

The Central Coast, traditionally, is a Labor voting region and the only time that it changed to Liberal was at the 2011 State Election and for one term only.

The end result is that the Labor Party in government has always taken us for granted and the Liberal Party treats us as with contempt.

Who are we?

The Central Coast region comes under the responsibility of the Department of Regional NSW and Minister John Barilaro.

We are a region and we are the only region with one council.

Edgar Adams
Author:Edgar Adams
Tags:Editorial

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