Across the country, things are happening at a local level that have an impact nationally. Around the Grounds sheds a light on the stories you might not hear about in the traditional media.

Let’s start with some more info on what the hell happened in New South Wales over the weekend.

Mid North Coaster reporter Ellie Chamberlain was one of the thousands without power after a storm thrashed the MNC, as well as the Upper Hunter and Northern Tablelands.

You can’t help but feel for this community so far this year. Having already been impacted by ex-tropical cyclone Alfred and flooding in March.

Ellie has been covering the clean up and recovery, as thousands of properties are still without power.

Read up on that story by clicking on the link below 👇

And check out some of the video reporting Ellie has filed from on-the-ground👇

A council in western Victoria is straight-up refusing to acknowledge the realities of the world we live in, and while it’s concerning, it’s also bloody entertaining.

Two months ago, the Warrnambool council rejected a flood mapping plan backed by the state government. Some councillors were questioning the “supposed science” of the data at the time.

Zara Cuthbertson, at the West Vic Brolga, reports the councillors have now approved a home to be built on land that’s known to be at risk of flooding.

One councillor added that they believed the subdivision “should never have proceeded in the first place”, but the council had an “obligation to the landowners” to allow the build to go ahead.

Sounds promising.

Read that story by clicking below 👇

Jacob Wallace at the Gippsland Monitor was in the coastal town of Inverloch recently, about two and a half hours outside Melbourne.

He asked locals if gambling had impacted them — or anyone they knew — and if they thought gambling advertising should be banned.

Australians lose around $31 billion a year to gambling. At the same time, gambling advertising is everywhere.

The government is yet to respond to a parliamentary inquiry into gambling in Australia. Published two years ago, the Murphy report’s key recommendation is the ban of gambling advertising.

On Monday, the Productivity Commission released a report spelling out why emissions reduction is so important for the country’s waning productivity. I promised I’d have some more on this today, and I’m happy to provide.

I was having a look at some of the recommendations from the report, and one caught my eye.

“The government should create a simple, nationwide star rating system to show how well a home can handle things like floods, fires or heat.”

Do you think this would work?

What would it do to property values?

For my full breakdown, here’s the video below 👇