Ms McGowan dispelled that notion in a strongly-worded column in The Border Mail on Monday when she slammed the Federal Government’s proposed childcare reforms.

In a bid to try and push almost $4 billion in savings through the Parliament, the government sought to increase childcare subsidies while making cuts to family tax benefits and paid parental leave.

The result, Ms McGowan pointed out, was an important service for rural families – mobile childcare – being put at risk in the long term.

Education Minister Simon Birmingham was upset at the criticism, labeling it “political grandstanding” but Ms McGowan had support in Senator Nick Xenophon, who blasted the government for tying the childcare savings to funding for the National Disability Insurance Scheme.

“As a negotiating tactic, this is as subtle as a sledgehammer. Pitting battling Australians against Australians needing disability support services is dumb policy and even dumber politics,” he said.

All we ask for as residents of regional Australia is to be heard.

As MsGowan rightly pointed out, we are resilient, clever, productive and make up a third of the country’s population, contributing massively to the national economy.

We deserve the same opportunities city folk get and that means getting the same access to childcare as those in metropolitan centres.

Albury Council's planning and development committee deserves a pat on the back for rejecting a Black Uhlans development proposal.

The committee turned down the plans based on concerns about parking requirements but it came after NSW Police lodged a lengthy submission to the council opposing the bikies’ proposal amid concerns over links to drug trafficking and violence.

The same committee will now be faced with another divisive issue when it considers an application by the operators of a strip club and brothel in Drome Street to expand the venue.

While the proposal will no doubt raise moral questions, it at least doesn’t have the same “outlaw” element as the Black Uhlans’ application.