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On Monday morning at Kiama Pavilion, at a hastily arranged Business Illawarra Forum with the Premier and Treasurer, we were told this visit was “business as usual”, part of a series of forums with Business Chambers and nothing to do with the Kiama by-election.

It didn’t feel that way.

With a familiar campaign gloss - set-piece talking points about hospitals, schools, and long-horizon reforms - the assembled room full of small business leaders was nonetheless taking their rare audience with Labor's economic leadership and bursting with urgent pressures: insurance renewals, energy bills, workforce and housing, approvals that don’t stick, trains that don’t turn up, and support programs that have quietly disappeared.

That cognitive dissonance is exactly why I’m running in the Kiama by-election.

For years I’ve done the unglamorous work of helping small businesses survive and then grow - listening to retailers, tradies and in offices, connecting operators to each other and to practical support.

As president of the Berry Chamber, our community delivered three straight Top Small Tourism Town wins - proof that when local business has a plan and the right scaffolding, a whole town lifts.

Later this year I’m a finalist for Business Illawarra’s awards after being named Kiama’s Outstanding Business Leader 2025, recognition that belongs to a region that backs its doers, not just its talkers.

Last week in Sydney, I represented Berry as the NSW Government’s brilliant UPTOWN program kicked off for our cohort: catalytic funding designed to help venues and producers extend the weekend into weeknights with music, collaborations, and smarter marketing.

Berry’s “Extend the Weekend” plan is now moving from pitch to delivery with $200,000 to activate our struggling hospitality sector - it’s the sort of close-to-the-ground support that turns policy into actual patrons, shifts and gigs.

I’m thrilled to see Labor was back on Wednesday to announce that Kiama has suddenly secured $200,000 for the much-needed Special Entertainment Precinct so our live music and hospitality ecosystem can build audience with clearer rules and less red tape.

Momentum matters, but so does consistency.

If we want confidence to return after four tough years, business needs to know that what

starts will be sustained.

What the forum confirmed is that small business doesn’t need more speeches that admire the problem and shift the conversation back to Macquarie St agendas.

We need six practical shifts - now.

1. Insurance that works. Stop funding essential services by loading levies onto insurance premiums. The Emergency Services Levy on policies is a textbook perverse incentive that discourages people from insuring properly. And as icare costs spiral, and the system groans under the weight of spiralling mental health claims that trap victims to their tormentors, the answer can’t just be bigger premiums for compliant employers - fix the broken settings and the misaligned incentives.

2. Lower energy bills for business. Electrification support has to move beyond households. Help cafés, workshops, and light manufacturers switch equipment, electrify fleets, and cut bills with the same urgency we’ve seen for home solar panels and battery storage. Lower costs would mean more hours, more hires, and more headroom to invest.

3. Housing where the jobs are. Productivity isn’t a slogan - it’s a commute time. Get affordable and social housing near transport so essential workers can live close to shifts, and unlock build-to-rent, social housing investment and key-worker supply that also kickstarts the construction pipeline.

4. Trains that are reliable, frequent and fast. We need a Sydney–Bomaderry service we can plan our days around - and we need to end the single-track handbrake south of Kiama. Tourism, healthcare, education, and tradies all rely on timetables that don’t crumble weekly on infrastructure and timetables that haven’t improved in 25 years of neglect by both major parties.

5. Tailored support that eases cash-flow strain. Reinstate Business Connect - Business owners don’t want another compliance seminar; they want an advisor for eight hours who helps them price, hire, digitise, and sell. Scale precinct programs like UPTOWN and guarantee future rounds for regional communities only just getting started. We need to get the life back into our village streets and see our cafes and pubs filled with mid-week life, live music, local producers, and real customers.

6. Commercial and industrial land that’s usable. Open up employment land so operators can expand locally and hire locally. Match planning rhetoric with approvals that stick to evidence, and hold decision-makers to clear, timely benchmarks so investment isn’t lost to inconsistency.

If Monday’s forum had one redeeming feature, it’s that the Premier and Treasurer heard the gap - between policy horizons and weekly cash-flow reality.

Close that gap and the rest follows: safer streets with active venues, apprenticeships because books are healthy, main streets that hum on Thursdays, and families who can afford to live near their work.

Small business is the engine of our regional economy.

I’ve seen what happens when we fuel it: three years of top-tourism recognition in Berry, new precinct funding rolling out in Berry and Kiama, and operators ready to turn the lights on if government keeps its promises steady.

That’s the work I’ve been doing for years. That’s the standard I’ll hold myself and any

government to.