The unfortunate thing about living west of the Blue Mountains is that you get used to benign neglect.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Over the last two decades, unless there's a byelection on, it feels like most politicians and bureaucrats would be hard pressed to find Griffith on a map without Google's help.
And now, with the creation of the Department of Regional NSW, we know, they can't find Griffith or the MIA on a map.
There's a scene in The Simpsons, where Krusty the Clown admits he took a bribe for his vote in a film competition and says; "I said the quiet part loud and the loud part quiet".
It captures perfectly what the Deputy Premier John Barilaro and the NSW Government have done.
The new department is a clear signal that the feeling of benign neglect is anything but benign - it's deliberate.
The services we receive west of the Blue Mountains aren't at the same level people receive in Newcastle, Sydney or Wollongong.
No-one is asking for services that operate on the scale these large cities work on, but not having to travel for hours to receive healthcare would be a nice change.
Healthcare is the most obvious area which is lacking but it's not limited to there, it's everything, transport, education, we have to work much harder to receive the basics.
The creation of the Department of Regional NSW only confirms what the Nationals' opponents have been saying all along - that the Nationals don't have a voice in government or that they've forgotten who got them to Macquarie Street in the first place.
The Shooters, Fishers and Farmers, Labor, the Greens and any independent who wants to try it on, now have the best campaigning tool courtesy of the state government.
MORE EDITORIALS
It has to be said, this department has been set up to combat things like drought, bushfires and the COVID-19 pandemic.
It was only in February that the Deputy Premier was out telling everyone to support businesses and communities affected by drought and bushfires. COVID-19 has the potential to compound the problems regional NSW faces.
Creating an entirely new department in the state's public service seems like a waste of valuable dollars. And the question has to be asked what happens to the department once the pandemic and drought is over?
The problem becomes that because we're used to receiving very little that we'll accept a few crumbs from the table.
We shouldn't.