No matter what the turmoil, Christmas arrives like a country town after a long drive. A town we have arrived at in the evening where we know friends and family are waiting and a meal is being prepared. There will be moments of laughter, excitement, joy and possibly sadness, possibly some awkwardness and tensions. It is all in the management. The main thing is don’t overthink it, try firstly to enjoy it. If dinner is not a top hat extravaganza that is OK.

Christmas, like Christ, asks of you to also look out for those to whom this is the loneliest time of the year. Parents who are separated from their children, families that have fallen apart and people who are excluded. If we just try to make something better, something easier, something less sad, then we are doing a good thing.

Christmas comes and Christmas goes and the purpose of Christmas is certainly not to have yourself buried in credit card debt so that the joy of Christmas then becomes a financial burden for the start of the New Year.

For Australia and especially Sydney and the Jewish community the year finished in a horrific sullying of a national ethos by murderous, barbarous Islamic fundamentalists.  We are all so sad, not bitter but hardened and determined that this will not happen again. 

All in all, for our New England and Upper Hunter, we have had a pretty good season, and prices are good as well, so the farms and the towns should have some money floating around and that will help our economy. I hope the New Year sees this continue. I am looking forward to continuing my visits to the many communities across the Electorate, including the newly added areas of Gwydir Shire and Muswellbrook Shire. The establishment of a satellite electorate office in Muswellbrook is progressing, and further details will be available soon.

I am happy that my fight to rid our nation of Net Zero is getting somewhere and this should further help to stop power prices crippling us. We now need to get Labor to drop Net Zero and go back to the cheapest power, coal fired power. This is going to be difficult, but the alternative is economic suicide.

Anyway, soon so many of us will be on the road to see family or eagerly waiting for family and friends to arrive. Drive safely as tragedy is not what future Christmases should be remembered for.

Over 2,000 years ago another family was on the road and they had no luck finding a motel. They kind of ended up in the back shed on a farm where the mum had a baby, Jesus. That child changed the world and made it a better place. I believe He was the Son of God, but whatever you believe you cannot deny that it was of monumental benefit in how we are to treat each other. Very much worth celebrating!