FEDERAL Member for Parkes Mark Coulton is headed to Canberra for talks on the future of the Rural Financial Counselling Service (RFCS) NSW Central West and its Bourke equivalent.
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Under federal reform they will combine next year in the new RFCS NSW Central region that will cover more than 50 per cent of the state and have about half the budget and counsellors of the current RFCS NSW Central West region.
On Friday the federal Nationals came under fire from Bogan Shire mayor Ray Donald for not preventing the funding cut.
"This has slipped under the radar fairly quietly and that's a bad reflection on our Nationals' representatives who haven't banded together and said to the bureaucracy 'look this will decimate the service and we're not prepared to accept these major changes'," he said.
In response Mr Coulton said he would attend the office of Minister for Agriculture and Water Resources Barnaby Joyce next week "to discuss the issues that have been raised with me regarding future funding arrangements for the RFCS" in the Parkes electorate.
The MP said at the national level the RFCS was a "demand-responsive" program supporting farm families in need.
"It is my understanding that overall funding for the RFCS has increased from $13.49 million in 2012-13 to a budgeted $14.54 million in 2016-17," he said.
"As the federal member representing one third of rural and regional NSW, I am very supportive of the RFCS maintaining its core funding in order to continue providing this vital counselling service."
