Battery fire in a garbage truck.

This week marks the launch of a major new phase of the successful ‘Never Bin A Battery’ campaign rolling out across New South Wales.

Fires caused by the incorrect disposal of household batteries and products with em­bedded batteries are a growing hazard. In NSW, Fire and Rescue have responded to more than 280 incidents caused by lithiumion batteries this year alone.

Meanwhile, the waste industry reports an estimated 10,000 to 12,000 battery-related fires a year nationwide, posing a significant risk to human health, the environment and to critical infrastructure that we rely on to process waste.

NSW Environment Protection Authority (EPA) Executive Director of Programs and Innovation Alexandra Geddes said, “Every­one has a role to play in the safe use and disposal of batteries, which should never be disposed of in kerbside bins.”

The campaign reminds people to:

• Tape the ends of small loose batteries with clear, sticky tape

• Keep them safe in a ventilated, glass container

• Drop them off at nearby B-cycle collec­tion points, like supermarkets and hard­ware stores

• Dispose of large batteries (5-20 kg) for free at Community Recycling Centres

• Drop off items with embedded batteries for free to one of 34 CRCs participating in the embedded batteries recycling trial

Arts Out West are calling all artists with disability in Central Western NSW to submit their work for POV: art | disability.

Arts Outwest: Final Call Out. POV: art | disability closes this Sunday 23rd Novem­ber. If you’ve been thinking about submit­ting your work, now is the perfect time to complete an application. POV: art | disabil­ity is all about celebrating diverse perspec­tives and showcasing the incredible tal­ent within our community. Whether you’re an emerging artist or have been creating for years, we would love to see your work represented in this year’s exhibition. Apply here: socialfutures.org.au/service/pov-art-disability/

Forbes Business Chamber: Make sure you have Friday 12 December, 5pm – 9pm locked in your diaries. Templar and Rankin Streets will be closed off for a night of en­tertainment, food, market stalls and kids rides! Plus a special guest will be making an appearance…

PCYC Parkes: Massive shout out to Bun­nings Forbes and Discount Dave’s Parkes. Our Halloween Disco was an absolute spectacular success — and it wouldn’t have been the same without their amaz­ing donations. Lollies thanks to the legends at Discount Dave’s. Decorations thanks to the awesome team at Bunnings. Your sup­port helps us keep creating fun community events just like our Halloween Disco. We’re so grateful.

NSW Government: Plastic bread tags, non-compostable fruit stickers, unrecycla­ble sushi takeaway containers and singleserve condiment bottles packages will be phased out. Safer, recyclable alternatives are coming. We’re also requiring takeaway food and beverage packaging items to be recyclable, redesigning takeaway contain­ers, regulating harmful chemicals in pack­aging, and banning helium balloon releas­es. Find out more: www.epa.nsw.gov.au/Your-environment/Plastics/plastics-plan-20

Forbes Youth Action Team: Got your P1 (Red Ps) and aged 17–20? Sign up now to start collecting rewards! Here’s how to join: Download the app and sign up, fill out a quick 10-minute survey, drive as you normally would and complete the post-trial survey to get paid. Your information is kept secure and will only be used by the Univer­sity of Melbourne for research. For more info or to sign up, visit: https://feedbacktrial.net/#faq

Visit Parkes Region: Escape to the Parkes Region and discover the charm of Trundle. A town rich in heritage, heart, and a pub that’s impossible to miss! From its welcoming community to its iconic land­marks, Trundle offers a slice of country life you won’t forget. For information on the Parkes Region visit: bit.ly/4fWlQzW

Trundle is situated 65km north-west of Parkes on “The Bogan Way”.

Pictured at the Sir Henry Parkes statue in the centre of Parkes, nurses and midwives rallied together for community and government support to increase staff and safety at the Parkes Emergency Department.

Nurses and midwives working at Parkes Hospital rallied in their own time, in the centre of town on Tuesday, 18 November to raise serious concerns about understaff­ing in the emergency department (ED).Members of the NSW Nurses and Mid­wives’ Association (NSWNMA) Parkes Hospital Branch say they’re working with unsafe staffing levels on a regular basis.

This is resulting in increased workloads, staff burning out and safe patient care be­ing compromised.

Along with staffing concerns, the Branch is seeking dedicated after-hours security personnel and appropriate administration support, with the ED reception desk cur­rently unmanned for 20 hours a day. This has resulted in nurses performing non-clin­ical duties including answering phones and booking transport.

O’Bray Smith, President, NSW Nurses and Midwives’ Association, attended the rally in support of the Nurses and midwives and said “ The staff are working in really unsafe conditions here at Parkes, they’ve only got two nurses on a shift for about 16hrs a day, which is really unsafe for the amount of admissions that they get. This community deserves safe staffing levels and they don’t have it.”

“Nurses do not come out on the street lightly, they’ve been to the internal meet­ings, they’ve been to management, they’ve written letters, they’ve done basically eve­rything they could possibly do to engage management in this and they have just hit a dead end” Said O’Bray Smith.

We also spoke to an emotional Tania Elsley who is a NSWNMA Parkes Hospi­tal Branch delegate working in the emer­gency department of Parkes Hospital, she said “We are here today because there is a drastic care issue and a concern from the nursing staff at our hospital that people are falling through the gaps of the care we can deliver. We are exhausted, in the last two years four senior clinicians have left the emergency department due to burnout.”

“We are asking for one senior clinician on every shift, that is three extra staff per day.

Parkes, Forbes, Mudgee and Cowra have the same sort of demographic, the same bed capacity, we are supposed to have the same sort of staffing, but we do not.”

“My passion drives me, it is why we are still here, and it is unfair. The community needs to start writing letters to MPs and start their own petitions. When you come to emergency and you think your care is substandard it is not because I didn’t want to deliver it, it is because I can’t,” said Tania Elsley.

Concerned community members can write letters asking for MP’s to advocate on their behalf, including Mr Philip Donato MP, Member for Orange phildonato.com.au/contact/ The Hon. Ryan Park MP, Minister for Health and Regional Health https://www.parliament.nsw.gov.au/members/Pages/Member-details.aspx?pk=58 The Hon Ste­phen Lawrence, MLC www.parliament.nsw.gov.au/members/Pages/Member-details.aspx?pk=2297 or the Hon. Chris Minns MP, Premier of NSW www.parliament.nsw.gov.au/members/Pages/Member-details.aspx?pk=108