I last visited Nancy & Col’s “Slice of Heaven” probably 35 years ago (with the kids) and I still admire them for what they do, and what they established & maintained on a shoestring budget, through their love and dedication to animals. 

Gunnedah is a great little town, which still manages to maintain a wonderful, friendly, village atmosphere, and last week lunch, with a couple of beers and a lot of chatter went down well.

I’m informed that Australian Zoos are the most “popular experience” enjoyed by adults and children. 

Over a 12-month period Nancy and Col’s place attracts thousand of visitors, with actual the number close to the total population of the township.

Even with the Sydney population at 4.5 million, Taronga Zoo can’t boast such a participation level. 

It’s general knowledge that the Koala Park survives with a strong volunteer labour support base and the sponsorship of money local business houses.

I suspect that it is this wonderful mix of cash support and in-kind support that the state government can't get its head around. 

It just does not fit the government's interpretation of what a Zoo should be, according to the regulations.

Sure Nancy & Col probably don’t always dot the i’s and cross the t’s, but so what, their ‘system’ works and without the ‘system’ the Koala Park would not exist. 

This autocratic state government has shown poor judgment in other matters. 

The greyhound industry “back down”, when the Premier “got it wrong” and our local member “got it wrong”,  comes to mind. 

Perhaps the Next “NEXIT” is right ?

Have the National learned anything from their defeat in Orange? Can we expect them to begin to start standing up to Mike Baird? 

The ban on greyhound racing was quickly reversed when it became obvious that the Nationals were threatened, surely it is not to late to reverse the forced mergers of councils. 

The long-term effects of these mergers will be devastating for these small rural communities. 

It would make more sense to provide assistance to those councils with financial and/or management problems, after all we have had various state governments with the same problems without merging states.

Is the sale of the Land Title Registry going to go ahead unchallenged by the Nationals, especially when it appears that Premier Baird proposed to spend the bulk of the money received on the construction of a stadium in Sydney?

It is times our elected representative represented the electorate and not just the party line. Mr Baird could not govern without National support. 

It is time he was reminded of this.

If we keep going on the current trend, there will be 30 more people in New South Wales killed on our roads before Christmas.

After decades of reductions in road trauma, New South Wales is set to record the highest number of fatalities since 2009 and regional areas are suffering the most.

I fear we have become accepting of road trauma as a price we have to pay for a modern transport system but I refuse to believe that more than 300 people have to die each year on NSW roads. For those of us who live outside the city, it’s alarming that you are more likely to be killed or injured on regional roads than anywhere else.

Road safety needs to become more of a partnership between governments, police and the community. Each of us has a role to play as we push towards safer drivers, in safer cars on safer roads.

As individuals, it’s time for us all to take responsibility for our own safety on the roads and the safety of our passengers and other road users. No more excuses for speeding, drink driving or checking text messages – we owe it to each other to adopt a safety culture every time we get behind the wheel.

It’s also time for governments to work with motorists rather than blame them, and it’s time for record spending on better roads. During the recent election, the Federal Government announced more than $300 million to build infrastructure projects across the State.

It comes on top of existing funding commitments for road blackspots, safety treatments, heavy vehicle rest areas and highway upgrades including the $10.7 billion Pacific Highway upgrades.

This week I will be driving from Sydney to the Queensland border to see first-hand the progress. It is a major commitment to building better and safer roads because we understand the link between a safe road environment and reductions in fatalities and serious injuries.

We know that sober, drug free drivers who are not speeding will still make mistakes and we need to work with all levels of government to provide roads which offer more protection, particularly in regional areas.

The need for ‘protection’ extends to the vehicles we drive. There’s a reason why the Coalition government supports the Australasian New Car Assessment Program to crash cars and provide transparent information on the results.

The best Christmas present you can give your family and friends is to get home safely.