Bureaucracy Is Choking the Bush – It’s Time to Cut the Red Tape

Independent Member for Murray, Helen Dalton MP, has called out the bureaucratic systems that are suffocating rural communities and preventing farmers and families from doing what they do best — producing food and fibre, while sustaining the regions. 

Speaking in NSW Parliament yesterday, Mrs. Dalton quoted German economist Max Weber, whose 150 year old theory of bureaucracy still rings true today. 

“Our farmers aren’t battling drought or flood right now—they’re battling red tape. They’re tangled in a web of rules created by people who don’t live in the bush, don’t understand it, and aren’t elected,” Mrs. Dalton said. 

In her speech, she exposed the way farmers have had their water sources reclassified as “wetlands” by bureaucrats far from the Riverina, often without their knowledge, leading to severe penalties and business collapse. 

Mrs. Dalton has also slammed the Murrumbidgee Local Health District (MLHD) for failing to provide appropriate medical services to the Western Riverina. 

“We need a Western Riverina Local Health District. We are sick of being dictated to by distant bureaucrats who wouldn’t last five minutes in our hospitals or GP clinics,” Mrs. Dalton said. 

Mrs. Dalton is calling for: 

• An end to unnecessary water buybacks 

• Urgent changes to Water Sharing Plans 

• Breaking away from MLHD 

• Decisive action on rural health and infrastructure 

• A return of decision-making power to regional communities 

Mrs. Dalton said: “If you want Australian food on your table and Australian fibre on your back, cut the red tape and let us do what we do best — provide for the nation.”