Shadow Portfolio — 23 March 2026

The Member for Parkes, Mr Chaffey, used his parliamentary time on 23 March to highlight two distinct issues facing his electorate: agricultural recognition and a chronic shortage of child care access. On the agricultural front, Mr Chaffey recognised the Eather family's Bellevue Pastoral Company near Narrabri, recipients of the 2025 Weekly Times Coles Farmer of the Year award [TA-260323-house-068fade26cde:s050].

The family operation, running since 1936, spans both broad-scale irrigation farming of cotton and durum wheat and dryland farming of wheat, canola, sorghum and pulses, now led by its third and fourth generations [TA-260323-house-068fade26cde:s050].

The more substantive policy matter raised was the state of child care access across the Parkes electorate. Mr Chaffey described the region as a "childcare desert" and pointed to the November closure of a Broken Hill preschool as a concrete example of families being left without care [TA-260323-house-068fade26cde:s152]. He also reported a direct constituency intervention: Explorers Early Learning, a long-day-care centre in Broken Hill, had experienced significant delays in the approval of its Child Care Subsidy application after filing in January, and sought the Member's assistance in February [TA-260323-house-068fade26cde:s152].

The centre has since opened. The episode positions Mr Chaffey as both a critic of structural child care gaps in regional areas and an active advocate navigating federal administrative processes on behalf of local providers.