Very local, state, national and the wider world, in everyday language, for people who haven’t got all day.
Not much happening today. Just the way we like it. Betty’s on the crossword, Kevin’s resting his eyes, and the world can wait till after the toast. (Image by AI. Betty awarded it a gold star for the kookaburra and a firm “see me” for the spelling.)
Why I’m doing this
Like a lot of you, I don’t have hours to sit and trawl through the news. Between work, family and everything else that lands on the to-do list, keeping across what’s actually going on falls to the bottom of the pile. So I’ve started doing the digging for you.
I’ll post these whenever I get the time – no set schedule, no promises. When life gives me a window, I’ll do the rounds and put one up. But the idea stays the same every time: a quick, no-jargon round-up of the stuff that actually touches your week, pulled from the papers worth reading so you don’t have to.
Grab a cuppa. This won’t take five minutes.
Very Local: what our community actually asked the Premier
The big one this fortnight was the NSW Community Cabinet at The Pavilion on May 19. More than 300 of us turned up to put questions straight to Premier Chris Minns and most of his cabinet. You’ll have read the Council’s media release about the projects it pitched (Spring Creek, the Bombo Waste Treatment Plant, the Kiama Sports Complex). That’s all worthwhile, but it’s the big-picture stuff. Here’s what ordinary residents got up and asked, because that’s the part that tells you what’s really worrying people around here.
Overdevelopment and our town’s character. This was the question that opened the night and drew applause. Locals asked why Kiama, a heritage town, is being pushed to take so much high-density development when there’s approved land elsewhere. One resident put it bluntly: South Kiama Drive already has around 400 approved lots and Jamberoo around 1,000, so why are luxury apartments worth millions being proposed in the middle of town where ordinary families can’t afford them, while we lose car parks and town space? Minns said he respected the concern about “character,” talked up a meeting with the Mayor about opening up new housing to the north of town, and pitched what he called “density done well.” Make of that what you will.
The Princes Highway land grab. A resident said the government is acquiring far more land than needed for the highway upgrade – in their case about 2,000 square metres – leaving a service road just 10 metres from their son’s bedroom instead of over 100 metres away. They also slammed being given only 14 days to wade through a 1,000-page environmental document. The Premier admitted it was “deeply regrettable” but said you can’t build infrastructure without sometimes taking private land.
Parkinson’s nurses. Lesley Errington from Parkinson Support Kiama pushed for funding for Parkinson’s specialist nurses in country regions, arguing they save the public hospital system money. Health Minister Ryan Park wouldn’t pre-empt the budget but said they’re “looking at that very, very closely.”
The South Coast rail line. A union rep asked when we’ll get a firm commitment to upgrade and electrify the line. Minns acknowledged a decade of underinvestment in heavy rail while Sydney got new metros, pointed to an emergency repair package, and said any commitment needs a fairer share of federal infrastructure money.
EV charging. A local who started a transport business using an electric vehicle said there are no fast chargers in the Kiama area at all, forcing him to leave the LGA to recharge. Minns pointed to statewide funding and, tellingly, linked the push to “dramatic rises in petrol and diesel prices as a result of the Middle East.” (Hold that thought for the international section.)
Other questions covered youth crime prevention, Indigenous housing funding, food waste, and staffing and plastic waste at the new Shellharbour Hospital.
Read more: Was the Kiama boycott brave, or an own goal? See bottom of post
Across NSW (State)
The cost of living is still the headache that won’t quit. Sydney remains the dearest city in the country, with house prices tipped to push past $1.88 million this year. There’s one small mercy for renters, though. After years of relentless rises, things have finally steadied, with Sydney house rents holding around $780 a week, the longest calm spell in nearly a decade. Groceries, mind you, are still pinching everyone.
Housing supply is the theme tying the state together, and as the Community Cabinet showed, it’s landing hard right here on the South Coast.
Across the Country (Federal)
Treasurer Jim Chalmers handed down a big-swing Federal Budget on May 12. The bits that matter for ordinary households:
Fuel relief. A $14.8 billion package to shore up fuel supplies and ease petrol prices, a direct response to trouble overseas (more on that in a tick).
Housing tax shake-up. The government wants to limit negative gearing to new builds from July 2027 and change capital gains tax, aiming to give first-home buyers a fairer shot. The Opposition is dead against it.
The tightrope. The Reserve Bank is so worried about inflation that Governor Michele Bullock has signalled she’d rather risk a recession than let it run loose. So Chalmers is walking a fine line between giving people relief and making prices worse.
Around the World (International)
The big one is a US and Israel war with Iran, which has been running for weeks now, and it’s a big reason your petrol’s gone up. This week Trump warned of fresh attacks within “two or three days” if there’s no deal, while Iran says it’ll widen the war if it’s hit again. Much of the fighting centres on the Strait of Hormuz, a key oil shipping lane, which is squeezing fuel prices the world over. That’s the same petrol pain our EV bloke raised at the Community Cabinet, so it really does reach all the way down to Kiama.
In Gaza, a fragile ceasefire is wobbling, and there’s been global outrage after several countries, including Italy, France, Canada and the Netherlands, summoned Israeli ambassadors over the treatment of captured aid-flotilla activists.
The bottom line: trouble in the Middle East pushes up oil, oil pushes up petrol and prices here, and that’s why so much of the Budget was built around it. It’s all connected, even from the South Coast.
Read more: Was the Kiama boycott brave, or an own goal?
When Premier Chris Minns brought his Community Cabinet to Kiama on May 19, one chair sat conspicuously empty. Cr Mike Cains stayed away “out of principle,” arguing the meeting was “theatre rather than listening” and branding the state’s housing target and the council’s Performance Improvement Order “ultimatums.”
Give him this much. When you believe the deck is stacked, fronting up and smiling for the cameras can feel like lending cover to a done deal. A boycott makes noise. It gets a headline.
But noise isn’t leverage, and leverage was exactly what was on offer. A Community Cabinet is one of the rare days the Premier and half his ministry are physically in town and obliged to sit and listen, with more than 300 residents getting straight answers and commitments on the record. If your gripe is that the government won’t listen, the empty chair hands them the perfect reply. We were here; you weren’t. You can’t be ignored from a meeting you chose to skip.
The Mayor and the other councillors turned up and put Kiama’s case to the Premier directly. That’s the harder, less glamorous job. Get your concerns on the record, and make the government say no to your face. It rarely trends, but it’s how small councils claw back ground against the state, where the leverage is lopsided at the best of times.
So on the day Kiama most needed every voice at the table, one of its loudest stayed home. Principled? Maybe. But from where we’re sitting, it looks a lot more like a free kick handed to the other side.
Cr Cains is welcome to respond. The comments are open, and we’ll happily run his reply.
Over to you, Kiama: brave stand, or own goal? Have your say below.
Sources: The Pulse Illawarra, Illawarra Mercury, South Coast Register, Sydney Morning Herald, Al Jazeera, The Conversation, and others.