Lunch with NSW Premier Minns facilities dialogue with regional businesses.
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00:00Hi, how are you doing?
00:07Good to see you.
00:08Thanks for having us.
00:09How are you?
00:10Yeah, feeling better.
00:11Yeah, feeling great.
00:12Oh, wonderful.
00:13Yeah.
00:14Sammy, how are you, buddy?
00:15Hey, how are you?
00:16Nice to see you.
00:17Thanks for having us.
00:18We're doing it in here, aren't we?
00:19Yeah.
00:20We're doing it here.
00:21Actually, I would like to invite, first of all, I'd like to invite Aunty Bender up to
00:35welcome us to this most beautiful part of New South Wales.
00:39Put your hands together, please, for Aunty Bender.
00:42Good morning, and thank you very much for inviting me along to come and do the, what
00:50in the country.
00:51I am a proud Daringanj woman, and as the elder of my tribe at the moment, my clan, I am the
01:02official person in my clan that does all the welcoming.
01:05I know all of the dignitaries from Baker, so I would like to say a warm welcome to you,
01:11Premier Mills, and to all of the dignitaries that came with you.
01:17So, on behalf of the Daringanj people, I would like to extend a warm welcome onto my country
01:26and say, djibangurri, welcome, welcome, welcome.
01:31I acknowledge the rate base and the ability, particularly for regional councils, to meet
01:37their responsibilities, where New South Wales governments in the past, Labor and Liberal,
01:43have just said, oh, it's all local councils' fault.
01:45I've really resisted the urge to do that, particularly for regional communities, because
01:48unlike city councils, you're also responsible for water.
01:51You've got vastly more roads than a Sydney council does, and when a road goes down, everybody,
02:02you know, it can cripple a local community, and the economy can just absolutely collapse
02:08in on itself.
02:09So, you need a fair rate base without the program of how these special rate variations
02:15go through.
02:16I acknowledge that.
02:17We don't want to add to your burden.
02:18So, whatever we do has to be transparent, and it needs to be acknowledged that it's
02:22the state moving, and it's not the responsibility of the local mayor, who's trying, you know,
02:26inadvertently, to make life harder for local businesses and households.
02:30That's a fair point.
02:31Great.
02:32So, we're going to move to the close that bridge twice in the last two months.
02:37We have to pay our staff up to one hour to drive to go and service a client in the community.
02:43We're not going to claim that funding from anywhere, but that, as a business, is costing
02:49us.
02:50So, I'd like to put forward, you know, when something like that happens.
02:54It's a major infrastructure issue.
02:56When something like that happens, is there anything you can take forward and do about
03:01it?
03:02The other thing I wanted to talk about is skill shortages.
03:06We have 42 staff.
03:07We're always looking for staff.
03:10Our books are always open.
03:12What we've found since COVID is mental health in the workforce is pretty tough.
03:18Is there anything you can do for workers to help sustain good mental health?
03:25Thank you.
03:26I might let the dog handle the ownership.
03:29No, while we've got the lake bridge, it has been an issue.
03:34Look, I commend Transport for New South Wales and the way they can support the community
03:38on it.
03:39The original proposal was altered on the basis of community feedback.
03:43So, it's currently closed at the moment and for another two weeks.
03:48So, it will soon be open.
03:50And they took measures for the general community in terms of pedestrian access and buses, free
03:57buses down there.
03:59But it was, I have to admit, it was the business community that suffered the greatest in that.
04:04And I mean, I couldn't say unless the New South Wales government subsidised all the
04:10businesses for loss of income.
04:13But you have to realise, and we all do, the distance that people travel.
04:18I think the business, the issue about the well-being of workers is very close to everyone's
04:27heart and particularly in my other hat of Parliamentary Secretary for Health and Regional
04:32Health.
04:33Disability care, health care, it's a compassionate profession that you go into.
04:40But what's been forgotten, and we exhaust our compassion on our clients, is who cares
04:46for the carers.
04:47And again, if I revert back to the trauma that many people have experienced over the
04:53past five years, which is still ongoing with the natural disasters.
04:57So, I just feel that one of the things that I could do, and I know the Minister for Health
05:03is very open to this, and also the Minister for Mental Health, is to raise the significance
05:09of mental health as being recognised as much as physical health, both in terms of prevention
05:16and also intervention as much as possible.
05:19So, it all certainly goes back clinically to what you provide with primary care and
05:27the adverse point of contact.