In the wake of heavy discussion regarding MidCoast Council’s tourism branding name and concept development, Mr Stevens outlined the potential for businesses to work congruently with council’s economic team and councillors to benefit the community.

Mr Stevens was confident council’s projected cash flow to the local economy through the Destination Management Plan (DMP) could come to fruition.

However, any increase in cash flow needs to take sooner effect. 

“The economic team put together an opportunity for us as businesses to engage with them, to help form their strategy moving forward and they are thoroughly listening to us.

“We really want to be able to see this strategy that was developed at the end of last year and went through last year with thorough community consultation.

“In 2019, it could be the year where some of that $695 million starts flowing into our local economy.

“If you ask local businesses like I have, hundreds over the last seven months that I have been involved with the Taree Business Chamber, they’re all saying we need help now.

“It’s all good and well to say how things will be in five years time- businesses are struggling now and they need help now,” Mr Stevens said.

Mr Stevens owns local business Kinetic Medicine.

He outlined how an attractive tourism brand can provide multi-layered benefits to his business and others in the region. 

“In my business, I have to hire tertiary educated professionals to come work for me.

“I’ve had to hire people from as far as Bendigo or Brisbane because no one from Newcastle or Sydney is interested in coming to work in Taree, Forster or Gloucester where we have clinics. 

“They either don’t know where that is or just aren’t interested.

“If we’ve got a strong, local brand that describes our region for tourism purposes, that helps me attract quality health care professionals to the area.

“It means that our tremendous population of people that have disabilities and chronic disease actually have a better chance at living a better way of life.

“That means their kids when they come here to visit them think highly of the place.

“When my employees’ families come to holiday here, they’re spending their bucks here and not in Port Macquarie or south-east Victoria or the south coast for example.

“We need a solid policy for how they are going to do it,” Mr Stevens said.

Mr Stevens’ approach stems to the stigma that surrounds empty buildings in the area.

“When we ask people what they have, some concerns of things they would like to see change within Taree, they have a concern over who are the residents in occupancy of businesses premises within town.

“Concerns they aren’t retailers or small businesses but they are employment agencies.

“They’re the only tenants that some landlords can get and landlords need tenants otherwise they’ll go broke too.

“We really need to ensure that businesses thrive so they can take up these empty shop fronts, they fill our streetscape with vibrancy so people actually come to town and go ‘there’s something happening here I really want to be here, I want to move here, I want to bring my family back here’. 

“These are the things that keep our town afloat.

“When new businesses come in, we need to support them,” Mr Stevens said. 

Mr Stevens reiterated the need to solve issues surrounding the ‘Barrington Coast’ brand name immediately.

“What we really need is for the elected representatives of the people, the councillors who have the power to veto, support, push and champion amongst the people and use the powers of social media for good rather than destruction.

“I’d encourage anyone to get in touch with especially councillors Epov, Bell and McWilliams because they’re the three that have lodged this rescission motion that is going to put us back months.

“We need councillors to understand that they don’t have time to wait for the next ordinary meeting to make a decision.

“They made their decision, let’s get behind it, let them be brave to tell us why and then we can have a chance at turning this land into some place that it deserves to be,” Mr Stevens said.