Minister Tara Moriarty visit

Minister Tara Moriarty announced $15 million in initial funding from the Sustainable Communities Program

Transcript

00:00I'm delighted to be here in Griffith today to announce the first round of the Sustainable

00:05Communities Program. I'm opening the first round of this program today. Applications are open for

00:12businesses who've got great ideas for innovation and to expand and to be able to employ more people

00:19today with the first $15 million available for eligible applicants. We know that the

00:25Federal Government are implementing their water buyback scheme here across the region. They're

00:31entitled to do that. The New South Wales Government doesn't support water buybacks

00:35in the way that the Federal Government are doing them, but we can't stop that.

00:38So I am not going to miss the opportunity to get this $160 million to invest across

00:45the Southern Basin in communities just like this one. This money is an opportunity for us to look

00:50at how we can further foster that and make sure that our business grows and also look at how we

00:56can foster skills now and in the future to foster rewarding careers and also skill development.

01:04I'm not a minister and we're not a government who wants to just come down and impose

01:07what we think should happen. We're here to hear directly from the community and businesses in

01:11the community about how we can invest and support them to be successful. So I look forward to hearing

01:17from businesses directly today and I'll commit to continuing to hear directly from the local

01:22community about the best way to get value for every dollar of this $160 million in investment.

01:30I want to get money out the door into businesses, into the community as soon as possible.

01:34It's not fair to communities to have to wait and see what happens when I know that there's concern

01:39across the community. So getting this first $15 million out the door as an initial investment

01:44is part of the arrangement with the federal government but this has been in the planning for some time.