I am proud that our city has an opportunity to host the opening round of the Supercars series.

We have plenty to look forward to over an exciting weekend with two 250km races.

Drivers, support crews, families, friends, and their supporters will descend on Bathurst this weekend to watch the event and ultimately shop, dine and stay in our city.

In turn, this will provide a substantial boost to our local economy and highlight the Bathurst region to our visitors.

Bathurst is renowned as the home of motor racing and events such as this prove this fact. It also provides an opportunity for us to demonstrate that our region has so much more on offer for visitors and residents alike.

Make sure to visit the National Motor Racing Museum this weekend. With over 100 racing cars and motorcycles, as well as other items, the constantly changing selection of exhibits ensures there's always something new to see.

Picnic in the Parade

JOIN us for a picnic in Kings Parade this Friday, February 26 from 4-7pm. Enjoy live music, markets, giveaways and on-stage appearances from your favourite Supercars drivers.

Picnic in the Parade will be a great night out under the stars to kick off the Repco Mount Panorama 500. For more information, visit www.bathurst.nsw.gov.au

Inland Sea of Sound

INLAND Sea of Sound has started and will run through to February 28.

The event will take place as a series of intimate concerts over four nights and one day in the centre of Bathurst featuring guest headliners and some of our finest local musicians.

The car park behind the Australian Fossil and Mineral Museum will be transformed into a summer wonderland.

The event will feature the following performances:

Friday, February 26

Venue: BMEC Theatre, 8pm

Artist: Kate Ceberano

Be seduced by the vocal prowess of Kate Ceberano, accompanied by guitarist Ben Butler, returned from the USA, where he performed with Sting and Bruce Springsteen. Our local musical support for the night is the extremely talented local singer-songwriter Andy Nelson with his amazing new five-piece band. Price: adults $45, conc $38.

Saturday, February 27

Venue: Car park behind the Fossil Museum, 8pm

Artist: C.W. Stoneking

Get set for a balmy night outdoors with headliner C.W. Stoneking, a blues storyteller who is one of a kind. C.W. will be supported by another artist who can't be pigeon-holed, the incomparable Mo'Ju, winner of best song and best album at the 2018 National Indigenous Music Awards. Price: adults $45, conc $38.

For more information, visit inlandseaofsound.com.au

REAL estate, robotics and social media are just some of the 20 new online vocational education and training (VET) courses to be made available to every government high school student in 2022.

In addition to existing face-to-face VET, year 11 and 12 students will have the opportunity to study online courses that will give them in-demand skills for the workplaces.

These courses will form part of their HSC and contribute to their ATAR.

These new courses will allow local students to receive world-class skills training and will help them build skills across emerging industries, including advanced manufacturing, technology and engineering.

I am excited to see students get the opportunity to access these new courses as part of the NSW Government's Curriculum Reform.

The new online courses are a win-win for students.

Not only does it make them instantly employable, they also have the choice to pursue further education in fields with plenty of career opportunities.

Specifically designed for high school students, the new online courses cover a range of future-focused industry sectors including cyber security, data analytics, accounting, horticulture, gaming, community and health services.

Developing these online courses was also about making VET more available in regional NSW.

These are exciting areas for young people to be studying and puts them in the best place to find a job in dynamic industries, helping to build a safer and stronger regional NSW.

Ready to build on housing policy

THE first stage of the NSW Government's new housing policy will make it easier to deliver much-needed social and affordable housing by removing roadblocks within the planning system.

Changes to the Housing SEPP (State Environmental Planning Policy) will stimulate housing supply by fast-tracking development, where applicable, with self-assessment and declaring State Significant Development status for larger projects.

The economic impacts of the pandemic highlighted how many people live under housing stress and these changes will remove roadblocks so we can supply much-needed affordable and social housing.

Being able to help those who are vulnerable and help with the provision of affordable housing are important responsibilities for this government.

Councils will also have greater powers to determine the size of secondary dwellings in rural areas and how far they have to be located from the principal dwelling.

By June 2021, we will have increased the number of new homes for more vulnerable people in communities across all of NSW by more than 150 per cent.

This change to the planning rules will only help to increase this target.

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