THE GENERAL MANAGER Phone: 02 6392 3200 Doc ID: 827724 POST OFFICE BOX 17 Fax: 02 6392 3260 2866 Your Ref: Contact: Dale Jones Website: www.cabonne.nsw.gov.au ABN: 41992 919 200 02 6392 3200 Email: [email protected]

Date 7 March 2017

Submission from Mayor of re: Australian Senate inquiry on the relocation of government bodies to regional areas

Cabonne Shire

Cabonne Shire is a Local Government area located in the Central West of NSW. The Shire has an area of 6017 square kilometres and a population of 13,500.

Cabonne is unique in that it doesn’t have one major centre of population, consisting of 11 small towns and villages ranging in population from 200 to just under 2,000 people.

Agriculture is Cabonne’s major industry, with grain production, wool growing, beef production and wine growing being the major components.

The Shire is the home to the Manildra Group’s flour mill at Manildra, where the MSM canola processing mill is also located. Between them the two mills employ about 300 people.

Bordering the major regional city of Orange (population 40,000), Cabonne is also an increasingly popular tourist destination with its major drawcards being its renowned food and wine products, heritage sites, natural attractions and quaint villages.

Relocating Corporate Commonwealth Entities

Cabonne Council fully supports the principle of decentralisation and would welcome the relocation of Commonwealth departments or entities to the Shire or the Central West region.

In this regard, Cabonne Council would be willing to discuss with the Government any incentives it may provide to make such a move successful.

While Council recognises that any relocation of a Commonwealth entity would probably be to a larger regional centre, Cabonne Council would be keen to work with neighbouring councils and Commonwealth and State Government agencies to develop a suitable relocation package to the Central West of NSW.

Many people make a lifestyle choice to live in Cabonne while employed in Orange and other nearby centres and Council is confident this would be the case if a Commonwealth entity was relocated to the Central West.

An injection of jobs into the region would have significant flow-on benefits to Cabonne, considerably strengthening its economy.

We have witnessed this with the relocation of the then NSW Department of Agriculture (now NSW Department of Primary Industries) to Orange in the early 1990s. With 730 employees, the department helps to underpin the Central West economy.

Since its decentralisation, the department has generated a number of ancillary industries and businesses which have made the Orange region an agricultural hub.

I would be pleased to discuss this further with any member of your committee or the Member for Calare Andrew Gee.

Yours faithfully,

Cr Ian Gosper Mayor of Cabonne

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