A NSW Health study showed that the $6 million the NSW Liberals and Nationals Government has spent so far to provide free whooping cough (pertussis) vaccine since March 2015 had been a great success.

Not a single child has died from whooping cough since the NSW Government introduced a free whooping cough vaccine for pregnant women.

We have invested $22.75 million in NSW immunisation programs in 2017-18. We are committed to protecting babies and young children in this state from potentially deadly, vaccine-preventable illnesses.

The Australian-first study, published in the journal Vaccine, included 234 infants from NSW, half of whom had contracted the highly contagious respiratory disease.

I am urging all pregnant women to the whooping cough vaccine, which is free and easily accessible from GPs, antenatal clinics and Aboriginal medical services.

Whooping cough vaccines are given to children at six weeks, four months, six months and 18 months under the Commonwealth’s National Immunisation Program, followed by boosters at four and 12 years of age.

On average, 1500 children under 5 years have had whooping cough in NSW each year since 2009. This sadly includes four infant fatalities, the last in August 2014.

I applaud the major improvements in Dubbo crime rates following the addition of new crime squads and police in the region under the re-engineering of the NSW Police Force.

Although as a community there is still crime challenges, the latest Bureau of Crime and Statistics and Research report illustrates we are moving in the right direction.

I would like to commend the outstanding work of police in the Orana-Mid Western Police District for making inroads into a number of major offences, and praise the determination of officers.

Significant drops of up to 41 per cent were recorded across a number of crime categories including break and enters, motor vehicle lefts and stealing from a dwelling or person.

The community should be more confident than ever the new policing structure for regional NSW will ensure high-quality, targeted services to our region.

Today I am pleased to announce that Dubbo community is set to benefit from a raft of road infrastructure improvement projects which will provide the city with improved travel times and better safety and connectivity.

The NSW Government has allocated almost $200 million for work to soon start and being planned in the NSW hub and busy heavy vehicle route of Dubbo.

These five city-shaping projects are great news for Dubbo and will help to shape the city and community for generations to come.

Planning for the upgrade of the Newell Highway and Mitchell Highway intersection will involve upgrading the intersection to support safe movement of high productivity vehicles up to 36.5 metres long.

The intersection will be upgraded to signals and will reduce congestion and travel times for local and highway traffic.

The $14 million project to upgrade the intersection of Cobra and Fitzroy streets in Dubbo will provide additional lanes for the intersection approach and departure, in order to improve traffic flow and improve road user safety.

Traffic lights will be installed and replace the existing roundabout at the intersection to improve motorist, pedestrian and cyclist safety.