Drought-affected farmers and businesses in the regions will first and foremost be on the agenda for new Minister for Better Regulation and Innovation and NSW Nationals Member for Tamworth Kevin Anderson.
Mr Anderson said his electorate office had been inundated with complaints about a cumbersome, clunky application process for drought support and assistance that took too long to fill out.
“I had a meeting with the Premier Gladys Berejiklian and Deputy Premier John Barilaro, and spoke with Agriculture Minister Adam Marshall about what we need to do to make it easier for drought-affected landholders, farmers and businesses to access the support and assistance they need,” Mr Anderson said. “In some instances the applicant can be halfway through an application, their internet drops out and they have to start all over again. So I’m looking to try to simplify the process and we want to make it easier for people to access the support and assistance they need. We have started the work to see what we can do there.”
“When I discussed this red tape issue with the Premier, she absolutely agreed with me from her visits to drought-stricken areas in NSW she was getting the same feedback.”
“I’ve been tasked with doing this job to look at making it easier to get this important assistance and support,” Mr Anderson said. “What we want to try and do is to come up with a scheme of ‘Tell Government Once’. Once you put your details in, like you do for Service NSW account, all that information is there, you don’t have to go back to scratch to start the process over again. It avoids a time-consuming, sometimes frustrating process. People just won’t engage if it’s too hard.”
