I felt I needed to send a response to a recent piece I read in The Area News about Griffith lacking the things required to attract people there. 

I am a 37-year-old agriculture professional from Canada and I recently lived in Griffith for a year and a half with my wife and two young kids.

So not a millennial, but not far off I suppose.  

Why did we move to Griffith in 2014?

Opportunity in agriculture.

Why did we leave to go back to Canada?

Opportunity in agriculture and we missed our family. Not because Griffith lacked anything we needed. When we came to Griffith, everyone said "why here?" And we said "why not?"

And, since leaving, I still see a lot of comments about what Griffith doesn't offer, rather than what it does offer. I guess I'd like to say that, from this Canadian's perspective, Griffith has a lot to offer. 

There's a good selection of shops, a nice golf course, amazing sports oval, a nice movie theatre, great schools with even better teachers, little traffic, an airport, lots of sunshine, good quality water, but, most importantly a lot of welcoming, friendly people that made us feel as welcome as our own family would have (and we miss them a lot).

To be fair, I grew up near a small Saskatchewan town of 500 people. So maybe to me Griffith was big and had lots of stuff.  

But a place to live is just that, and it is what you make it. It's easy to think the grass is greener in the next paddock, but trust me, it often isn't. 

Be proud of your little city and the wonderful people in it, and take the time to brag about what you do have, not what you don't. I'm not sure how you sell the fact that you have a welcoming community full of friendly people, but you do. And if you can sell that, maybe then people will come.

Wes Anderson

Canada 

FOR MORE than three years we have been ignored and not one of 30 unanswered debate challenges have even been in the planning stage.

Thanks to a meeting with a bank person who we have promised not to name, the first public debate is on the horizon – even if it takes a few weeks to achieve. The Area News  does not like graphs or rows of figures, but we still like The Area News and we like graphs and figures.

A graph showing derivatives of each of the Australian Big Four Banks far larger than their equity has been our Holy Grail for more than three years. We have rows of derivatives in billions of dollars for each of the “big four” stretching back to 1997.

Citizens Electoral Council (CEC) is prepared to debate those with anyone from any one of the four,  any time and any where. Sussan Ley’s Griffith office will re-open on Monday and we look forward to meeting her representatives.

Brian Mills

I ENCOURAGE community and government organisations in the region to apply for funding for environment and tourism projects under the NSW government’s new $300 million Regional Growth – Environment and Tourism Fund.

The fund aims to increase tourist visitation by supporting regional environment and tourism infrastructure projects to help grow and diversify regional economies across the state.

This is great news for our region and I strongly encourage our local organisations to pitch for the funding. For more information visit www.industry.nsw.gov.au/rgetf.  

Adrian Piccoli

Member for Murray