The state government has launched its Make the Move campaign, spotlighting stories from first responders, healthcare workers, and educators who have made the move from metropolitan NSW to regional NSW.
The campaign predominantly targets people living in Sydney. But, to boost the number of essential workers in regional parts of the state, it is also targeting Adelaide audiences.
The hope is to encourage key workers from South Australia to consider a move to regional NSW, including Broken Hill. And it’s seen a war of words between the Premiers of each state.
“The NSW government is serious about ensuring the people of regional NSW have access to quality critical services,” NSW Premier Chris Minns says.
“A robust regional workforce is a vital part of that. Regional NSW has so much to offer, and this campaign aims to show essential workers the opportunities and benefits that become available when they make the switch from the city.”
“I can understand why they would be doing that,” SA Premier Peter Malinauskas said on Wednesday.
“We’re doing a far better job at being able to attract people to our state. This state’s got a lot of things going our way. Increasingly it’s been talked about in other parts of the country and we welcome that,”
Mayor Tom Kennedy, not surprisingly, has his take on the Make the Move campaign which features the Silver City as a possible place of relocation in regional NSW for South Australians targeted by the campaign.
“For Broken Hill, most relatives or friends live in Adelaide,” says the Mayor.
“That’s where Broken Hill people go,” he said. “It’s only wise, I suppose, to target South Australians to bring them back to Broken Hill or for their first time to Broken Hill considering so many people from Broken Hill go to Adelaide when they move or move there for schooling and eventually come back. It’s the obvious thing to do.”
Mayor Kennedy pointed to a State of the Nation Report: Social Connection in Australia 2023 published by Loneliness Awareness Week, which found one in three Australians feels lonely. It found 35 per cent of people who live in rural areas are lonely and those living in more regional and remote areas were more likely to be socially isolated than those living in metropolitan cities.
“One of probably the biggest selling points for a place like Broken Hill is if you come out here and you’re young, you’re not going to be lonely,” Mayor Kennedy said.
“You get to play cricket. You get to play football. You get to play soccer. You make lots of friends. That’s probably Broken Hill’s biggest selling point to young people is if you come to Broken Hill, you’re not going to be lonely.”
