Mercury Bush Summit 2024 – What it is and how you can be involved
The Mercury Bush Summit kicks off in Launceston on Tuesday. Here’s what it is all about and how you can be involved. >>
Bush Summit
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Some of the most respected voices in rural and regional Tasmania will share their views on the challenges and triumphs of often neglected parts of the state at the Mercury Bush Summit in Launceston on Tuesday.
The Bush Summit began in New South Wales in 2019 to highlight a sector struggling in the grip of a drought. It’s primary objective has been to achieve better outcomes, improve services and identify new opportunities for rural and regional communities to present to federal and state governments.
Since 2023 it has become a national event and this year there is a series of six summits held across regional locations in Australia in Queensland, Victoria, Tasmania, South Australia, New South Wales and Western Australia.
Political leaders and policy makers will be joined by regional leaders to discuss a range of issues including agriculture, energy, infrastructure, health, cost of living, technology, crime and education.
The Mercury has invited an impressive line up for Tuesday’s Launceston Summit.
The event will be hosted by Sky News chief news anchor Kieran Gilbert and broadcast on the Mercury’s website, Sky News and Sky News Regional.
Premier Jeremy Rockliff and Opposition Leader Dean Winter will give their perspectives on the key issues facing the state’s regions with live interviews.
Richmond great and Tasmania Devils consultant Jack Riewoldt will share his insights into the mood and pride in Tasmania as the state prepares to enter the AFLW and AFL in 2027-2028, as well as on the power of sport to unite communities.
There will also be an interview with Launceston’s colourful mayor Matthew Garwood.
Key to the Summit will be three panel discussions: Thriving Regional Communities –
Retention & Attraction of Workforce; Growing our Rural Industries; and Rural Technologies.
The Mercury has assembled a quality line up for these panels, concentrating on speakers with lived experience in the bush – real people with real stories.
Dr Sally Street
Dr Sally Street is a GP obstetrician and passionate rural generalist living in Penguin, on Tasmania’s North-West Coast.
Dr Street graduated from the University of Queensland in 2012. She then completed training terms in Brisbane and far north Queensland before going to regional NSW (New South Wales) to finish her ACRRM (Australian College of Rural & Remote Medicine) fellowship training. She spent three years in NSW working between general practice and the district hospital and then spent two years working in East Arnhem Land, NT.
As a true generalist, Dr Street has interests in anything and everything but perhaps a most special interest in medical administration, medical leadership, women’s health and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health. She is a part of the Tasmanian ACRRM training team as the Regional Director of Training.
Dr Street is convinced the future of rural healthcare will look different to the past, and she is excited to be helping to shape this for the rural, remote and First Nations communities in Tasmania.
Lee Whiteley
Mr Whiteley, a Tasmanian-born and raised North West Coaster, has had a diverse career working in and driving success in high-level industry organisations.
He began his career as an automotive electrician working with small businesses in the North West before joining the Elphinstone Group where he worked his way up to hold an executive position. Mr Whiteley also held a global role as Vice President with Danish company Vestas Wind Systems and most recently was a senior executive with UTAS.
He recently took on the role as CEO of the award-winning organisation Rural Alive and Well, which aims to provide early intervention suicide prevention for rural and remote communities.
Mr Whiteley is motivated by the challenges associated with bringing together the people, organisations and resources required to promote and sustain progress and energised by positive outcomes, Lee is looking forward to helping drive forward the practical and tangible support that Rural Alive and Well provides.
Karen Robinson
Ms Robinson has been the CEO of Rural Youth Tasmania for nearly 10 years. As the majority of Tasmanians know Rural Youth annually deliver Agfest, Tasmania’s premier rural event. In 2024 Agfest delivered $24,561,046 to the Tasmanian economy! Ms Robinson strongly believes in the potential of young people and is extremely proud of what Rural Youth offers – seeing it as another avenue for young people to gain experience and confidence in their personal and professional lives. Filling a gap which cannot be met easily in the traditional education space.
Ms Robinson is also a director of Self Help Workplace – a social enterprise which provides meaningful employment for Tasmanians living with disability.
Ian Sauer
Mr Sauer as TasFarmers President has been actively involved in agriculture, natural resource management, policy formulation, project development, management, and community development for the past 30 years
He has represented community groups at state and federal government policy level, as well as being a representative of national and state committees and boards.
At local and regional levels Mr Sauer has been responsible for, and involved in, the development, implementation and monitoring of priority research projects, practical application projects and pilot projects which have successfully secured, from government and private industry funding for their development and execution.
Bec Duffy
Ms Duffy grew up on King Island and attended boarding school in Launceston. At age 14 she decided she wanted to be a winemaker and completed her Oenology degree in Adelaide in 1998. After graduating she worked vintages in MacLaren Vale, Napa Valley and Coonawarra, before securing a full-time winemaking position at Capel Vale in Western Australia where she worked for five years. Ms Duffy returned to Tasmania in 2006 and has been the co-owner and winemaker at Holm Oak Vineyards for the past 12 years. Over this time she and husband Tim have established Holm Oak as one of Tasmania’s leading family owned wine brands. Ms Duffy has been recognised through a number of wine industry and business awards. She is also a board member of Rural Business of Tasmania and Treasurer of the Tamar Valley Junior Football Club.
Ian Herbert
Mr Herbert is manager of Ag Nutrien in Longford. Agriculture, rural life and regional communities are central to Mr Herbert’s life – they always have been. Mr Herbert was born and raised on a mixed farming property in central-west NSW, he attended a small, rural central school, where he developed a strong sense of ‘pitching in’ and ‘giving back’ to the community.
After completing a Bachelor of Applied Science (Agriculture) in Wagga Wagga, Mr Herbert worked as an agronomist for several years before returning to work on the family farm for five years. Mr Herbert and his wife Catriona then moved to Tasmania, where he managed a significant mixed farming enterprise in the Fingal Valley. A back injury saw Mr Herbert transition from active farm life into a role with Tasmanian Irrigation. Mr Herbert then took on a leadership role with Southern Farming Systems and in 2019, Nutrien Ag Solutions seconded him into his current management role.
Mr Herbert is a long-term Board member for Toosie – a regional aged-care facility – an active member of the local fire brigade and regularly participates in fundraising and charitable events and activities.
Dr Fiona Kerslake
Dr Kerslake grew up on a mixed enterprise farm in the Central Highlands of Tasmania. A graduate of the University of Tasmania with both a Bachelor of Agricultural Science with Honours, and a PhD in viticulture, she has always maintained her passion for delivering outcomes for Tasmanian agriculture. During her academic career, she delivered internationally recognised research with on ground impact for Tasmanian wine producers. She concluded her time at the University as the head of Horticulture at the Tasmanian Institute of Agriculture.
Dr Kerslake now works in industry, following her passion for useful applications of technology on-farm. She splits her time between two local businesses: Ag Logic which provides a range of precision agriculture and agricultural monitoring services and products to Tasmanian farmers and Bitwise Agronomy an AI agtech start-up delivering yield forecasting in high value, intensive horticulture crops in Tasmania and across the globe.
Duncan Farquhar
Mr Farquhar is the Tasmanian Operations Manager for soil carbon project developer AgriProve. AgriProve are pioneers with market mechanisms to provide farmer incentives to drawdown atmospheric carbon to soil. Climate change presents great opportunity for Australian farmers with soil carbon as a new industry. Adoption of carbon farming is set to deliver a step change in agricultural productivity across the agricultural industry and cash from credits is beginning to flow. Mr Farquhar is an agricultural scientist originally from Winnaleah in the state’s North-East. He has led technology adoption in Tasmanian horticulture and the Australian wine industry. Mr Farquhar’s focus is on landscape function, optimising energy, biodiversity, nutrients, water and people in productive agroecosystems.
Gavin Williams
Mr Williams was appointed Chief Development Officer Regional and Remote at NBN in October 2019, bringing more than 10 years of experience at NBN Co and 30 years within the telecommunications industry across Australia.
In this role, Mr Williams has broad accountability for NBN Co’s fixed wireless and satellite services, the development of infrastructure across regional Australia, and the community and stakeholder engagement functions pertaining to regional Australia.
Mr Williams has held leadership roles that have spanned engineering, product management, marketing and strategy disciplines across consumer, business and wholesale markets.
James Roberts
Mr Roberts is the General Manager of Group Fraud at the Commonwealth Bank of Australia overseeing the bank’s prevention, detection and response to external fraud. Mr Roberts also serves on the Board of the Australian Financial Crime Exchange. He has worked in the financial services and fraud industry for more than 20 years and has extensive experience in investigating and managing fraud and financial crimes.
Mr Roberts will provide an exclusive update on the bank’s fraud and scam protection and prevention technology and discuss how this latest development (in partnership with Telstra) will protect Australians from significant financial losses.
How to catch the Mercury Bush Summit 2024
Attend
There are still places available to attend the Mercury Bush Summit in Launceston
It runs from 8.30am -2.30pm on Tuesday August 27, at the Tram Sheds Function Centre in Invermay.
Watch on Sky News
Sky News will broadcast the first hour of the Mercury Bush Summit from 10am
and the full program on Sky News Regional, Sky News Election Channel.
Watch a live stream
The Mercury Bush Summit will be available as a live stream on Skynews website skynews.com.au and the Mercury website themercury.com.au
TV Special
The Bush Summit 2024 30-minute special will air on Sunday September 1 at 5:30pm AEST on Sky News, Sky News Regional and SkyNews.com.au.
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