Dugald Saunders - State MP for Dubbo (26th February, 2024)

The State MP for Dubbo, Dougal Saunders, visited the studio and discussed the recent heatwave in Wellington. He also mentioned the successful State Cup for touch juniors held in Dubbo, which had a large turnout. Saunders praised the organization of the event and mentioned the NRL preseason challenge in Mudgee, where the new lighting at Glenwillow was completed. He also mentioned the upcoming NRL season, which will start in Vegas for the first time ever. Saunders briefly discussed the country championships for horse racing, highlighting the victory of a horse named Lockdown Gamble. He then talked about the need for a regional inquiry into crime in regional New South Wales to find solutions for rising crime rates. NXS and Jimmy Barnes, 10 minutes past 8, 2FM Breakfast, top of 36 degrees in Wellington today. Going to be a sunny day, currently 20.5 degrees. In studio with me, he surprised me this morning, I thought he was going to be on the phone. State MP for Dubbo, Dougal Saunders, good morning. G'day mate, good to see ya. Good to see you in person, meeting for the first time. Absolutely, welcome to Dub Vegas. Oh, thank you very much. It's obviously, I mean you just mentioned 36 there, and it's been a really hot weekend as well. Oh yes. It's a bit punishing to be doing things like playing touch footy, but nonetheless. It was a great, it looked like a massive turnout. I walked past it I think on Saturday afternoon, and it was just chockers. Yeah. There were people absolutely everywhere. It was really good, anywhere between sort of 6,000 and 9,000 people. Wow, okay. I think it's the estimated growth of Dubbo for the weekend. So I started Friday, ran Saturday finals yesterday, and just an incredible turnout again for Dubbo. This was the northern section of the State Cup for touch juniors, and look, literally people from everywhere. And last year was the first time Dubbo had hosted it. They've then got the contract for the next three years. So it's an amazing thing. Well done to Dubbo Regional Council, Dubbo Touch Association. Honestly, organizing something like this is massive, and all reports I've had is that it went really well. Again, I popped down there for a look. I'm glad I wasn't running around. Awesome for Dubbo to have those sort of things here, and well done to everyone involved. A hundred percent. I mean, another big event that was on nearby was the NRL preseason challenge at Mudgee, and that was a great turnout as well, about 5,000 people there. Yeah, look, just under five. And for a trial game between two sides that probably were at the bottom of the table last year. Yeah, let's probably get started with a fresh year, fresh year, fresh slate. Don't tell me you go for one of them. No, no, no. No, okay. Look, Tigers have struggled. I think they will look to do better this year, but they did get beaten. Dragons looking okay, a fair bit of work to do for the Drags. And look, they're pretty familiar with Mudgee. They've been there as part of Charity Shield for the past number of years now, the Dragons, and they were there again on the Friday, did a bit of work in the community, ended up winning that game. The feature of the game, though, was the fact that the new lighting is now complete at Glenwillow, and it's up to a standard now at 1,600 lux, which is 4K HD, all compatible. And it's, to my way of thinking, it's probably equal to the best regional ground in Australia for broadcast capacity now at night. So it's exceptional. We gave, the former coalition government, gave just over a million bucks to the Midwestern Regional Council to upgrade those lights. They are now absolutely phenomenal. So big thumbs up there. The training camp is just about to get started being built there. Glenwillow is one of those hubs of sports excellence, and it's fantastic for our region. Well, I know the NRL absolutely loves television, so they should be pretty happy with that one. Yeah, and look, of course, they're in Vegas this coming weekend. Next weekend is the actual start of the NRL season for the first time ever. Not starting in Australia, starting in Vegas. That's a strange fact to put out there, but the way it's gone. It is, and look, it's one of those things where they're really working hard to try and sew up a TV deal with the states as well. But look, trying all sorts of different things, and maybe it'll work. We'll see. We'll see. Apparently there was country championships on for horse racing. I'm not too well aware of this, but apparently it was quite an event. Giddy up. It certainly was. Mudgy Race Club yesterday hosted. Look, I often do this after a trial game or an NRL game. There's a race meeting, and yesterday was country championships. The feature event was won by a fantastically popular horse, Lockdown Gamble, which was bought during the lockdown, as in COVID, bought by a local fellow called Terry Mack, who is, look, a bit of a battler. He loves horses. He's got a few horses. He's the sole owner of this horse, which won yesterday. Trained by David Smith, it is off to the big one now, and just an exceptional atmosphere when that horse won for locals. So well done, and country champs. It's, look, it's a chance for— there's about eight different races around regional New South Wales. Mudgy's turned yesterday, heads to, I think, Moorooya next weekend, and then continues the circuit. But a fantastic afternoon again for Mudgy yesterday afternoon. That is the first horse name that I think can be taken quite literally. Literally. It was in lockdown, and it was a gamble. It was both of them. It covers all the bases. Now, I've heard there's something to do with a regional crime inquiry going ahead. What's going on with that? Yeah, look, I guess the thing is it's not going anywhere, unfortunately. Yeah, it's not. The police minister, Yasmin Katli, the premier, both under pressure, and I think we saw last week during budget estimates, which kicks off again tomorrow, some really good questioning from our opposition members around why there isn't support for this. And it's not just about pointing the finger at regional areas and saying we've got a problem. It's saying across regional New South Wales, things are spiking in certain areas, and people want to know what can be done about it. Now, police do an exceptional job, including here in Dubbo and right across our region, but they need more support. And it includes from the magistrates. It includes from other programs and diversionary opportunities. But if you don't get people together and discuss what those opportunities are, you never find a solution. And we're seeing children as young as 11 stealing cars semi-regularly and then being released on bail very quickly to be back in the community. Now, nobody wants to see young people in jail for the rest of their lives, but we do want to see programs in place and working between police, magistrates and different groups to help come up with solutions. So, you know, a regional inquiry into crime run with a series of crossbenchers in parliament and getting the experts involved is a really good way of clarifying that. We did it when we were in government for regional health. This government should do it on crime, and they should be doing it now. Well, it sounds like it's absolutely necessary to just understand what is actually going on and the steps we can take to improve the situation. Absolutely. It's not a witch hunt. It's about solutions, getting the right person in the room to come up with solutions across the board. That's what we want to see. Let's get on with it. Thanks for coming in, Dukes. We'll chat in a couple of weeks. Good on you. Thanks, Keegan. Cheers, mate. ZOOFM Breakfast. You're on ZOOFM Breakfast.