Release: ATA ramps up Country Chapter

The Australian Taxpayers’ Alliance, the nation’s largest grassroots advocacy group representing taxpayers, today announced they are ramping up their Country Chapter. The ATA’s Country Chapter led by Mick Etheridge in Dubbo, NSW focuses on bringing the same principles we fight for at the ATA to rural and regional Australia including lowering taxes, reducing burdensome regulation, and ending government waste.

"We value the hard work put in by Mick Etheridge and others in our Country Chapter. Australia needs people on the ground advocating for the issues most impacting their communities,” said ATA Policy Director, Emilie Dye. “So many government abuses happen on the local and city levels.”

“Country folk are often ignored in favour of feel-good policies coming out of Australia’s cities. What sounds good in paper sitting on a Sydney-based bureaucrat’s desk doesn’t necessarily work on the ground in Dubbo or in other regional towns.”

“Right now, Dubbo is dealing with government waste at its worst. The government is spending $195 million in taxpayer dollars to build a bridge the people living in the community don’t want.”

“Nearly 10,000 residents of a town with a population of only 38,000 have signed a petition object to the bridge. And yet the government still isnt listening.”

"Country people want more of a say in their government. They don't need cookie-cutter infrastructure projects, subsidises, or handouts. They need the government to take a step back and give them the freedom they need to grow their own communities.”

"The  ATA is pushing for a more efficient, effective, transparent, and  accountable government both locally and federally. Policies should prepresent the interests of the people.”