Councils from across the region have taken their concerns to Canberra, with positive expectations that the new Labor federal government will listen to local councils regarding the reforms they want, to fund regional infrastructure.
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Mayor of the Liverpool Plains Shire, Doug Hawkins said while they're yet to see action, he believes the Albanese government has expressed a clear interest in addressing regional issues, such as infrastructure.
"I gathered from all the talks that I was involved in, that there's certainly a new era now for cooperation," he said.
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The national meeting revealed that metropolitan and regional councils had many of the same concerns around housing and the cost of living.
However, councils of the New England Joint Organisation were united behind a motion from Gunnedah Shire Council mayor, Jamie Chaffey, which called for a greater allocation of money for regional resource-generating areas.
Mr Hawkins said the region deserves a more equal portion of funding from financial assistance grants.
"I don't think we get anywhere near as much back in funding to maintain the roads that all the industries need to put wealth into the country," he said.
"The half-a-billion tonne of grain that goes out of this region each year goes a long way towards feeding the population. I think we have something like 90,000 movements of heavy lorries on our roads, and we're not getting enough money back to maintain them."
Tamworth Regional Council mayor, Russell Webb said housing was also a huge item on their agenda, with many regional councils having experienced exacerbated housing shortages following population movement and growth.
Mr Webb said they need to reach agreements on funding models for social housing with both the state and federal governments.
"When we look at the rental vacancies, they're very low in our region," he said.
"The only way that you can provide affordable housing is not so much through the private sector, but it's through the private sector partnering with public sector."
Cr Hawkins said his discussions about housing at the General Assembly showed how important it was that all three levels of government on both sides cooperate.
"I think there's an absolute willingness there on both sides of politics to do that, and they need to. Because we're [councils] the people on the ground, we're the ones who get the concerns. They don't see that," he said.
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