Prime Minister Scott Morrison will headline The Daily Telegraph’s second Bush Summit
The second Daily Telegraph Bush Summit will explore ways the bush can thrive during Australia’s coronavirus recovery, with Prime Minister Scott Morrison the headline speaker.
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Prime Minister Scott Morrison will headline the second Daily Telegraph Bush Summit, which is set to explore ways the bush can thrive during the nation’s coronavirus recovery.
The summit, which will take place in Cooma at the end of August, will bring together business leaders, experts, politicians and stakeholders to examine the challenges facing bush towns following a year of drought, bushfires and coronavirus.
“At last year’s Bush Summit in Dubbo we could not have contemplated the world we are now living in, nor the difficulties we are now facing, particularly in rural and regional Australia,” Mr Morrison said.
“This year’s Bush Summit is a reminder that our economic and environmental future depends on the success of regional and rural Australia.”
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At the top of the agenda will be examining how the bush can benefit from regionalisation of the workforce, with the potential for previously desk-bound city dwellers to make a tree change and work remotely in a post-COVID world.
The nationwide ban on international travel during the pandemic also poses a chance for regional communities to monopolise the Aussie tourist dollar, with this year’s Bush Summit to explore how businesses can maximise that opportunity.
The Daily Telegraph Rural Advisory Panel chair Jillian Kilby said the coronavirus pandemic had “thrust the spotlight on regional Australia” and “put the regional lifestyle we enjoy out here into a new light”.
“COVID-19 has reshaped the way people think about where they holiday, how they work and why they undertake long commutes to dense CBDs,” Ms Kilby said.
“We’ll be talking about these opportunities and more in Cooma, to continue to showcase the positive narrative of life and business in regional, rural and remote Australia.”
The summit will also explore if infrastructure funding can be redirected to support a regional workforce.
This year’s summit comes after the horrific 2019/20 bushfires, which burned through more than 5.4 million hectares in NSW.
Rain has brought relief for some communities but almost 90 per cent of the state is still in drought.
Dairy farmer Sam Nicholson, from Jones Island near Taree, is having a good season, but is still paying off bills from the drought.
“We really need a good season to get back on top of things,” he said.
Mr Nicholson has used government programs such as the instant asset write off and efficiency grants to invest in his business.
He would welcome more people heading from the city to the bush as remote working becomes more commonplace.
“Supporting those small rural communities has a big flow-on effect,” he said.
Originally published as Prime Minister Scott Morrison will headline The Daily Telegraph’s second Bush Summit