Along with Bruno Efoti of Tradies Insight and the Dubbo Mens Shed, I was proud to make the event happen and it was terrific to be able to make a significant announcement on the day.

Bruno is the man behind Tradies Insight and is doing a great job, while we couldn’t have done it without the terrific support of the Men’s Shed, who had their volunteers there bright and early providing the awesome sausage sandwiches and bacon and egg rolls.

The breakfast was the perfect place to announce that through our Better Business Reforms, the NSW government will save tradespeople from having to renew their licences every three years, which it is estimated will save the industry $52 million over ten years.

This reform will reduce renewal fees from up to $605 every three years to just a $51 processing fee for tradies to update their details every five years.

To be able to make that announcement at an event put on for our local tradespeople was tremendous, as  that industry have been pivotal in helping this government deliver what has been a golden era for investment and infrastructure development in the Dubbo electorate

These reforms will provide significant savings to our tradespeople, and that filters into the work that Tradies Insight is doing because financial strains are one of the main contributing factors to mental health issues within this industry.

Minister for Better Regulation Matt Kean will introduce the Better Business Reforms, which also includes reforms to increase transparency for consumers, into parliament later this month.

During the week I also had the pleasure of heading out to Narromine to announce $1.5 million worth of funding to the town’s council from the NSW Government.

The money comes from the Stronger Country Communities Fund, and Narromine Shire Council was successful in receiving grants for four significant projects within the local government area.

Almost $200,000 will be spent on enhancing Burns Oval at Trangie, a similar amount will be used for compliance upgrades for swimming pools in both Narromine and Trangie, and more than $265,000 will be dedicated to streetscapes in those two towns and also Tomingley.

But the big item was $900,000 for the council to spend on the Narromine Aquatic Park refurbishment and a splash park for the facility.

Congratulations to Narromine Shire Council for sourcing this funding, which will be of enormous benefit to the communities within its LGA

It was announced last week that NSW had once again topped the ladder when it came to tourism figures for the recently completed financial year.

That should come as no real surprise as NSW is a prosperous state moving forward rapidly, but the pleasing aspect of the figures was how much regional centres contributed to our overall statistics.

With facilities such as Taronga Western Plains Zoo, Wellington Caves, the wineries in Mudgee and the aviation sector of Narromine, the Dubbo electorate more than holds its own when it comes to being able to draw people to our region.

For the 12-month period 32.9 million domestic visitors (+9.3 per cent) stayed 103.3 million nights (+6.7 per cent) and spent $19.8 billion (+15.2 per cent) across NSW.

Central NSW posted a 15 per cent increase in visitor growth, and across regional NSW as a whole visitor numbers grew by nine per cent.

The NSW Government has set the State’s first regional tourism target of $25 billion in visitor expenditure in rural and regional NSW by 2030, so that every corner of NSW gets its fair share of the record tourist dollars and we are working hard to make that become a reality. Until next week, Troy