We watch, we wait, and we write; our ears pricked for any mention of the Hunter and anything that may affect our community.

Lately, there's been a lot. Although you'd hardly notice if you listened to the brief, dismissive mention the region gets - even when we're in the middle of an outbreak and facing a prolonged lockdown.

If we have submitted questions before the press conference, occasionally the NSW Health media team will ask one of the Sydney journalists at the conference to ask one. Occasionally.

But like NSW Premier Gladys Berejikian might say: "Please know... can I just say... I wish I had a crystal ball".

By their very nature, press conferences - and the information shared at them - tends to trigger more questions.

And we have questions.

But getting the answers isn't as straightforward as it should be.

Our emails, phone calls and even text messages to the large media teams behind the Premier, the Deputy Premier, the Health Minister and the health department are largely ignored. But we persist.

Our pleas for the Premier and chief health officer to answer questions with regional press via Zoom - like the Victorian government did during its outbreak - have not yielded a response. But we persist.

When we do receive a response - any response - it's always a broad, vague statement that doesn't address our questions. And insultingly, these statements lump all of the regions - with their myriad individual concerns - together.

Anywhere outside of Sydney is "the bush", even the Central Coast which was "Sydney" enough to be under the lockdown restrictions, but regional enough for the government to - briefly - pinch their Pfizer vaccines.

It now appears NSW Health has taken greater control of the local messaging during this outbreak too, with media access to our trusted health voices mostly limited to recorded video messages, and responses to our queries requiring a higher level of approval before they are released, often after deadline.

With each day the Hunter has "a number of cases", "I think it was 13 or 14 overnight?" it becomes more and more apparent that regional media needs greater access to the state's leaders. We need answers. And our community deserves them.

Our concerns there were too many loopholes allowing people from Sydney to travel to Newcastle were not heard.

Our concerns our proximity to Sydney made us more vulnerable to the virus leaking into our community were not heard.

Our concerns our vaccine appointments would be cancelled and redirected to Sydney - despite these vulnerabilities - were not heard.

And now here we are. COVID-19 is in our community. It's in our aged care facilities. And we are stuck back at home living with the consequences our community knew was coming, even without a crystal ball.

And we are listening to a Sydney-centric press conference.

IN THE NEWS:

Every time a Sydney journalist asks a question about regional communities, it has been said a bush reporter gets its wings.

We are whooping and cheering and encouraging them to keep going, keep asking - egging them on like an outside chance coming up the side - as we earnestly wait for the answer.

But after the Premier or Health Minister flicks the question away like a bug on their arm, the questioning swiftly moves on, and regional media resumes its pattern of emailing and calling and texting to get some clarity. Some answers. Any answers.

Our community has noticed. Because our community is tuning in to these press conferences too.

This week, Business Hunter expressed its concerns over access to information that was more Hunter-specific.

"The press conferences at 11am each day are really useful in terms of getting the state-wide picture and understanding the significant issues still facing Sydney," CEO Bob Hawes said.

"But the Hunter is NSW's second largest economy and our business resilience and bounce-back post-COVID will impact the entire state.

"We really need local representation somehow at these Q&As so that our businesses and communities can understand impacts more quickly and clearly."

We understand that the Premier, the Health Minister and the team at NSW Health are busy.

"This is a one-in-a-hundred year pandemic", after all.

But we are not asking much.

I suspect our fellow regional media colleagues would agree that even a semi-regular opportunity to speak with the state's leaders would be greatly appreciated by a large community which is feeling left out of the conversation.