We have held three street marches in the town against the attempt to forcibly amalgamate our Rural Land Protection Board with the one at Mudgee and cut services. We have experience and that is why we were so determined and so well organised. I was confident that we would get the classroom returned because we backed them into a corner. Both the Commonwealth Bank and the Westpac Bank have withdrawn services. The National Bank is open only three days a week.
Unemployment is high because most people are either rural workers or work for the county council.
The council has cut its staff and properties cannot afford to hire rural hands. Her own property had returned a negative income for the last five to six years. I run this agency because we cannot make a living on the land. We are not even getting the price for lamb that we got 20 years ago. With the closure of the meat packaging plant at Aberdeen, there is no place to market meat locally.