Over the next four days, 130 circus practitioners will take part in workshops, forums and performances. For the brave of heart, there’s also an opportunity for the public to try their hand at the trapeze that’s set up in Machattie Park on Saturday and there will be a fire show in the park on Saturday from 9pm.

Congratulations to the staff at BMEC for co-ordinating the festival and to the team of volunteers, including students and staff from CSU and the PCYC, who have helped bring the festival to life.

Bathurst Cycle Classic

THE Bathurst Cycle Classic is also on this weekend. Don’t miss the excitement of the criterium racing on the Kings Parade circuit in the CBD. 

The family fun challenge will also be held on Saturday in the CBD when our cycling champions of the future will get to try the criterium circuit for themselves.

Entries for the Blayney 2 Bathurst Cyclo Sportif on Sunday have reached a new record, with more than 2300 cyclists set to take part in the 70km and 110km events. 

The fully-road closed event is popular with both local and visiting cyclists. 

If spectating is more your style, why not join in the excitement of the finish line in the pits at Mount Panorama and enjoy a leisurely Sunday lunch in the Village with street food, great coffee, wines, cider and craft beer.

Youth Week

YOUTH Week activities are well underway and will wrap up with a disco bowling night on Friday.

The week’s activities have included barefoot bowls, an escape room activity at the library and a chance to discover your inner Ninja Warrior at the PCYC. Congratulations to the Youth Council for organising a great week and a celebration for our city’s youth.

THE NSW Government is taking the next step towards making mobile phone enforcement technology a reality on our roads by calling on potential providers to present practical, technology-based solutions to address the problem.

The public call-out seeks to identify potential technology and suitable suppliers for a system that will detect mobile phone offences on our road network. 

Developing this technology would be a world-first and is one of the priorities of our Road Safety Plan 2021. 

It’s worth remembering that at 60 kilometres per hour, a car travels 33 metres in two seconds. Take your eyes off the road to look at your phone for a few seconds and you continue to travel virtually blind.  

From 2012 to 2017, there were 184 crashes that involved the illegal use of a mobile phone. These crashes resulted in seven deaths and 105 injuries.

As part of the Road Safety Plan 2021, the NSW Government outlined its plans to implement legislative changes to allow camera technology to enforce mobile phone use offences.

The Road Transport Legislation Amendment (Road Safety) Bill 2018 was introduced into the NSW Legislative Assembly on March 6, 2018. NSW is the first jurisdiction to introduce such legislation in Australia. 

More than 40,000 people were fined by NSW Police for illegal mobile phone use in the 2016/17 financial year.

The technology will complement the NSW Government’s current approach to addressing illegal mobile use which includes education campaigns, a total mobile phone ban for all novice drivers (learner, P1 and P2 drivers) under the Graduated Licensing Scheme and police enforcement.

For more information, visit www.tenders.nsw.gov.au.

Register births online

BABIES born in NSW from today will have the opportunity to be among a new generation whose births will now be registered online for the first time.

The new online birth registration system will cut the time and effort required for new parents to obtain a birth certificate.

The previous paper-based system used by the NSW Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages (BDM) relied on pen and ink and was subject to postal delays.

This new easy-to-use process can be completed in around 20 minutes and new parents will receive their baby’s birth certificates up to two weeks earlier than the old storkmail system. 

The new online registration process has been communicated to the nearly 90 birthing hospitals across NSW.

Based on the two pilot hospitals we’ve been monitoring, BDM is confident that more than 90 per cent of births can be registered online instead of on paper. 

New parents are given information on how to register their newborn by the hospital before mum and bub head for home.

Births have to be registered within 60 days and birth certificates will continue to be provided in paper form. Visit www.bdm.nsw.gov.au/newborn or call 13 77 88.

Youth Week

NSW Youth Week, the annual celebration of young people across the state, has been held this week. This year’s theme has been “Unity through diversity”. 

Thousands of youth have been involved in organising activities including photography exhibitions, writing competitions and hip-hop dance classes.

NSW Youth Week offers young people an opportunity to connect with both their peers and their local community. 

It is also an opportunity for me to hear directly from young people about ways the NSW Government can progress its services.

The NSW Government provides over $240,000 in matched funding to local councils across the state to support locally-led community events.

NSW Youth Week is celebrated from April 13-22.

To find out what events are happening in your area, visit www.youthweek.nsw.gov.au.