Riverina, Murray businesses have their say at Business NSW roundtable

Riverina businesses gathered for a two-hour roundtable this week to discuss the future of local businesses in the region. Photo: Jarryd Rowley.

More than 40 attendees sat in on a regional business roundtable this week, with Minister for Regional NSW Tara Moriarty and local MP Dr Joe McGirr leading the conversations.

Organised by Business NSW, the roundtable saw groups from industries including agriculture, tourism, accounting and the NBN explain their concerns and aspirations for businesses.

Business NSW Regional Director Riverina Murray Serena Hardwick said, “For too long we have marketed the liveability of our region as the drawcard and we are competing against every other region when it comes to this.”

“What I want people to know about our region is that we are diverse, innovative, resilient and competitive. We are not offering a job, but a career with plenty of opportunity to boot,” Ms Hardwick said.

“There is this misconception that we are all agriculture, and while I acknowledge the huge contribution our agricultural community makes to the economy, we are so much more than this. Our capability in advanced manufacturing, defence capability, food manufacturing, health services, education, transport and visitor economy to name just a few should be acknowledged.”

Minister for Regional NSW Tara Moriarty expressed her gratitude for business leaders taking the time to attend the conference, stating that the roundtable was a fantastic opportunity to hear directly from local businesses.

“A lot of the themes that came through today are what I hear from across regional NSW not just the Riverina and Murray regions and these are the things that we are working on as the NSW Government,” Ms Moriarty said.

“I think that what businesses are saying is, there’s a distinction between the very successful and wonderful agricultural industry, that we have across the region that we want to continue to thrive well and truly into the future.

“It’s a really important sector, for the region and for the NSW economy. But a lot of the businesses today are talking about the fact that regional NSW has a lot more to offer than just agriculture.

“We love agriculture, but there’s a lot of small to medium business enterprises that have great operations manufacturing, adding value, adding to the produce that’s grown locally, and we can support both opportunities with a great agricultural sector into the future, but also, small business in regional NSW can thrive.