Local Federal MP Sussan Ley is in major trouble after it has been revealed that she billed the taxpayer so she could go visit Queensland and buy a place as well as enjoy the life up there.

The seat of Farrer is a safe Liberal seat but with Ley’s misdeeds and a backlash against the Liberals and Nationals in NSW which was clearly evident in the state seat of Orange last year when the Nationals lost a seat that was previously considered untouchable for any party other than the Nationals.

With the amount of money MPs receive, it is the publics view that it should be of no trouble to MPs, Premiers or Prime Ministers to buy their own air ticket and pay for their own lodgings instead of leaving it up to the people to pick up the tab.

It remains to be seen if Ley resigns or is fired from the Turnbull ministry, there is also the possibility that she resigns from Parliament which would force a by-election that could change politics in the local area forever.

The ALP’s challenge in Farrer in the last election was derailed by the candidate having to pull out of the contest early in the campaign but a full on ALP effort could result in a win and slim down the Coalition majority.

These are going to be interesting times.

EDIT 11:10am 9/1/17: Sussan Ley steps aside as Health Minister.

DNS readers are a hungry bunch of readers and over the last year we’ve noticed that our story on the early success of Papa’s Rich Noodle still receives over 100 views a month from people either wanting their number or location.

Pizza is also a highlight for readers as we have had many visits from people wanting to know the phone number or address to That Pizza or Cressy Pizza whilst earlier in 2015 we had many people interested in Green Pepper Pizza before a fire knocked them out of operation.

It is still too early to tell if getting the details of the Pizza stores is as much of a drawcard to readers as the Noodles story but it is all but certain that Deniliquin residents have confidence in what is being served for dinner around town.

Bon Appetite.

December 31 2016

2017 is just hours away and so we are sitting here watching time tick away and we got to thinking why not end 2016 creatively by looking up songs with the word party in it.

Deniliquin loves to party and there is every chance at least one of these songs will be heard tonight as the hours go by and the fun goes on.

We got everything from the recent to the hits of the 90’s and even one from the 60’s so there is a bit of variety to choose from.

Miley Cyrus – Party In The U.S.A.
The Black Eyed Peas – Don’t Stop The Party
Luke Bryan – Crash My Party
Sam Hunt – House Party
Jason Aldean – My Kinda Party
Shawn Mendes – Life Of The Party (Lyric Video)
Vengaboys – We like to Party! (The Vengabus)
Jessie J – It’s My Party
Robbie Williams | Party Like A Russian – Official Video
Shania Twain – Party For Two ft. Billy Currington
S Club 7 – S Club Party (Official Music Video) – Rachel Stevens
Will Smith – Party Starter
S.O.A.P. – This Is How We Party
Five – Rock the Party
Lesley Gore – It’s My Party (1965)

If you really want to stretch things out you could go with bands with ‘Party’ in their title and we can think of two, The Party Boys and The Party.

The Party Boys were a band of rotating musicians and The Party were a group that spun off from the 1980’s – 1990’s version of The Mickey Mouse Club.

The Party Boys – He’s Gonna Step On You Again (Great Quality)
MMC – Season 4 – The Party – I wanna be your boyfriend

To really stretch things, we have to have this song from ABBA titled ‘Happy New Year’ and this writer had the misfortune one year to watch a music marathon on Aurora channel and a snippet of ‘Happy New Year’ was played before the running of ads and after the running of the ads and so by midnight ABBA were very unpopular.

Enjoy the music

Deniliquin has spoken clearly when it comes to asking about extended supermarket trading hours and more cameras at Deniliquin Plaza.

Should the towns Supermarkets have longer trading hours?

Voters say they are satisfied with the current trading hours with 57% saying No to extending trading hours.

This question may be worth revisiting in the future due to the ‘No’ vote only having a 7% majority.

After months of reading reports of cars being hit in the car park of Deniliquin Plaza, we asked this question to see if residents believe there should be more cameras to capture these events.

Voters believe that the current arrangements are satisfactory with 62% of voters voting ‘No’ to the Plaza needing more cameras.

Like the previous question, it may be worth revisiting the question in the future to see if thoughts have changed from todays results.

Conclusion

This is the first time that the ‘No’ vote has had the majority of votes in one or both the polls that we have put up for voting.

It will be interesting to see what voters will choose in the next round of voting, if anyone has a question (a sensible one) that they’d like put up for people to vote on please let us know.

When 2015 said goodbye and 2016 said hello few imagined that the world would experience what it has this year.

Our year was expected to be a quiet one, 2015 brought 60 site visits and so it was hoped that 120 site visits would happen to make it a great year as everyone likes to beat and/or double their previous effort.

Now that 2016 is just over 12 hours away from ending, we take a look at some of the local events that occurred this year.

January 2016 was a quiet month for DNS as we were still figuring out what to do during the second month of Summer for we were still pretty unknown but we did write about radio stations and the fact boxing for fitness was an option of Deniliquin.

February saw that river users noticing the Edward was looking a little green and by the 26th it was all but certain it was Blue-Green Algae and it lasted for a long time until the Red Alert ended in late June.

February was also the month that a great moment on the running track was shared with the world.

Deniliquin also turned Blue in February in support of local nurses as changes meant a lowering of services and more at the Hospital.

March had World Water Day where locals gathered in the Waring Gardens and walked along the river and it was also a month that the residents of Deniliquin shown it really cares for others by donating to many great causes.

April opened with April Fools Day came along and something special had to be created in order to make it a really good day, we think we succeeded with this post.

April 2 was World Autism Awareness Day and it brought new awareness to locals to all things about Autism from what it is and the stigmas and myths that are attached to it.

May saw The Deniliquin Fine Wine & Food Festival and also the end of Deniliquin Council as it and Conargo Shire were merged to create Edward River Council whilst on the weather front a new May rainfall record was set as almost 100mm of rain fell during the month.

June saw the end of the Blue-Green Algae crisis that had made the river unusable for months, the bad news was that it was now winter and the river isn’t much fun in winter.

DNS took the opportunity to look back at the TAFE Art Expo that took place in June 2015, an event that was memorable to those who participated or attended.

July opened to confusing times as Channel Nine and Ten swapped affiliates with WIN going to Ten and Southern Cross going to Nine after many years being the opposite and it took some time to remember it.

Target caught fire and has knocked out the popular store ever since though it is expected to reopen sometime in the first quarter of 2017.

August saw the closure of the local HCF branch which upset a lot of people for those who needed services that internet or phone calls couldn’t solve have to now travel far to get the services they need.

August saw registrations take place for Basketball and Little Athletics and both are doing well.

A fire erupted at Green Pepper Pizza and Deni’s Diner causing severe damage to the business that was going through great times when the fire happened.

September brought in the Deniliquin and District Transport Industry Wall of Fame and the fall of another monthly rainfall record, Bendigo Bank had a BBQ for Camp Quality and it was Muster time again at the end of the month.

Flooding occurred for the first time this year when the Edward peaked at 7.06m but the flooding story wasn’t over

October saw the second flood as the Edward went from Minor Flooding to Moderate Flooding on October 10 and continued on its merry way until October 17 where it peaked at 8.62m.

Locals mobilised to help each other out and kept each other up to date on the latest situations to keep the waters from causing maximum devastation.

October was also the month Light The Night was on and funds were raised at the Waring Gardens on the night of October 7 in support of the Leukaemia Foundation.

November opened with a big mystery on what was going on the corner of Cressy Street and the business was announced to be ‘That Pizza’, residents flocked to the new Pizza shop and were rewarded with Pizza that suited their desire.

Residents started drumming up support for updated playground equipment and DNS started putting polls on the website to see what locals want or don’t want around town.

December was a fairly quiet month but there was still plenty to do in town as Christmas preparations got underway with Fairs, Services and Christmas Lights being well attended or seen by locals.

That was 2016 through the eyes of DNS, we thank our readers for being around us this year, our website has been seen almost 25,000 times this year (so much for 120), we have just over 1,400 likes on Facebook and a half dozen people on Twitter.

We’ve seen the good times and the bad, victory and defeat, happiness and grief for us and for those around us in the town that we love and we always hope for the good times for all.

We wish our readers a pleasant end to 2016 and a good 2017.