Water and roads were top of the list when Member for Cootamundra Steph Cooke invited council mayors and general managers to share what they wanted to tell the NSW Government.
Ms Cooke invited representatives from all nine Local Government Authorities as well as two water county councils to discuss ideas, concerns and experiences at the third Cootamundra Summit in Junee.
With the new NSW Parliament has come new Ministers with new portfolios, allowing Ms Cooke a chance to gather feedback from across the Cootamundra electorate about what is important to communities.
“It was a fantastic opportunity to get all of the mayors and general managers together in one place so they could share their ideas with me, which I can then take to Parliament House,” Ms Cooke said.
“We had a really useful and honest exchange about how councils viewed what the NSW Government is doing, what’s working well and what might need some refinement, and we spoke about what they would like me to do as their Member of Parliament.
“I’m really grateful to all the mayors and general managers, as well as representatives from Central Tablelands Water and Goldenfields Water County Council, for travelling to Junee for this summit.
“Being an MP is truly a team effort, and it truly is an honour to work with representatives from Bland, Coolamon, Cowra, Cootamundra-Gundagai, Hilltops, Junee, Narrandera, Temora, Weddin, and the two water county councils, so that we can work in unison for all of our wonderful communities across the electorate.”
Ms Cooke told the forum she had met with the new Minister for Water, Melinda Pavey, in Parliament and had presented a list of priority projects for the electorate. Ms Cooke also listened to the forum’s thoughts on the transfer of maintenance responsibility of select regional roads to the NSW Government.
