Hay Shire Council expects to maintain its cash position in the General Fund, despite substantial operating deficits for the next five years.

Council said, apart from the pool replacement and new road works, the forecasts are to spend less than 60 per cent on average of its depreciation cost on capital renewal over the rest of its Long-Term Financial Plan (10 years).

We put out the call, and you answered – hidden abuse is happening right now in our town.

“The nice neighbour you have next door - and have known your whole life, isn’t always who you think they are behind closed doors,” one person told us.

“It happens in ‘good’ families too,” said another.

A third said they were ‘lucky’ because their abuse has stopped.

“Almost everyone has a story. Some are lucky that the abuse stops, like me, but it took me calling the police to have a shock effect to achieve that. I am a lucky one.”

After the recent articles dealing with family violence published in The Riverine Grazier by Kimberly Grabham and myself, we offered our community an anonymous portal to share personal stories.

We received a dozen responses, including two from outside Hay, in neighbouring towns.

They told us of physical violence, including punching, hitting, spitting, kicking and sexual assault. They told us their finances are controlled, and that having their home broken into is a regular occurrence.

One told us of historic child sexual abuse at the hands of an uncle.

Despite a swing against her, and Labor winning the federal election in a landslide, Liberal Party incumbent Sussan Ley appears poised to retain the seat of Farrer.

At time of publication Ms Ley held an estimated 62 per cent of the vote, ahead of first-time independent candidate Michelle Milthorpe, who is expected to capture more than 20 per cent of the vote tally.

Labor’s Glen Hyde is trailing the two forerunners on just over 15 per cent.

The Cobb Highway cotton gin, operated by Australian Food and Fibre (AFF) has entered its tenth year of processing.

Since 2015, the Hay gin has processed 1.2 million bales. That’s enough to produce a whopping 258 million pairs of jeans or 1,440 million tee shirts.

Hay Shire Council has welcomed the announcement that Pottinger Wind Farm (Someva/AGL) and Bullawah Wind Farm (BayWa r.e) have been granted access under the South West Renewable Energy Zone Access Rights Scheme announced last Wednesday.

“This will be a real boost to our local economy,” Hay Shire Mayor Carol Oataway said.

“We’re looking forward to working with both Someva /AGL (Pottinger) and BayWa r.e (Bullawah) to ensure these developments benefit our community now and into the future.

Read how our own Kimberly Grabham, credits the support of Alice, from Linking Communities Newtwork, in helping her escape homelessness.