Squalor, doctors, policing, and teachers are among the issues that Gunnedah Shire Council will slap on the table at the NSW Local Government annual conference in November.
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The four motions were agreed to by Gunnedah councillors at the ordinary meeting on August 16, and are expected to be presented to NSW Local Government (NSWLG) representatives before being voted on at the annual conference in Sydney from November 12 to 16.
Gunnedah mayor Jamie Chaffey, deputy mayor Rob Hooke and councillor Kate McGrath will represent the shire.
Squalor
Cr Chaffey said living next to a property that has turned to squalor can be "quite disappointing" for neighbourhoods and also have a negative impact on a person's quality of life.
He said hoarding and squalor is a complex issue that can involve costly legal expenses for local governments.
"So this motion is going to the conference for debate across the 128 councils in local government," Cr Chaffey said.
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![A house that has turned to squalor has an impact on the livelihoods of other people living in the neighbourhood, says Gunnedah mayor Jamie Chaffey. Photo file A house that has turned to squalor has an impact on the livelihoods of other people living in the neighbourhood, says Gunnedah mayor Jamie Chaffey. Photo file](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/184392265/a7c64a58-fbb1-41c4-8411-9558956b89c6.jpg/r0_52_1017_626_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
Doctors
To attract more overseas-trained doctors to rural and remote areas beyond the outer reaches of metro areas, the Gunnedah Shire Council wants the Distribution Priority Areas (DPA) reversed.
Last year the federal government made changes to the DPA, which had previously made it mandatory for Overseas Trained Doctors (OTD) and some medical graduates to do their time in remote or rural areas before they could work in the cities.
Now OTDs are able to immediately relocate to large regional centres and some outer metropolitan areas.
"The way it is at the moment, a foreign doctor can move to Sydney, catch a train and then go to Wollongong or Newcastle and still be eligible [to work there]," Cr Chaffey said.
"So we want to see that change so that they're [overseas-trained doctors] are not eligible [to work] if they live in a metro or an outer metro area."
Policing
Gunnedah Shire councillors have also agreed on a motion to call for the First Response Police Agreement (FRPA) to be installed at every police station across the state.
Cr Chaffey said the FRPA will mandate a minimum number of police at a police station according to the number of incidents within that policing area.
"In Gunnedah, I believe the numbers [of police] that we have here are nowhere near aligned with what the actual need is, based on the reports of incidents within the Shire," Cr Chaffey said.
"And I believe that's not only the case for Gunnedah but for many police stations in rural and regional NSW."
Teachers
And Cr Chaffey said they are calling on the state government to return to the negotiating table with the state's teachers over an ongoing pay dispute.
"That's an item that will not necessarily be supported by all at the conference but it will be debated, and if it's successful it'll become the position of the NSWLG," he said.
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