Murray Valley Voice At Pm's Table
Sydney Morning Herald
Monday April 21, 2008
WHEN the Prime Minister unexpectedly invited Merrill Boyd to join him at his table for breakfast at Parliament House yesterday, the summiteer from the Murray Valley felt it was an action that symbolised the 2020 weekend.
"I felt it was very inclusive that he would invite me," she said. At the table was media figure Lachlan Murdoch and senior NAB banker Ahmed Fahour.Ms Boyd said the summit proved to her the Government was committed to listening not only to the voices of the famous and the powerful but to the voices of rural communities. The mother of three from a small irrigation farm at Berrigan said the event had provided wonderful access to many of Australia's most influential people."I think it certainly met my expectations and if what's been developed progresses then it will have succeeded."Ms Boyd said the barriers to building strong country communities had been identified and she felt her own vision to attract skilled "tree changers" from cities through tax incentives and better services and facilities had been taken on board by the summit.Ms Boyd is chief executive officer of the Murray Valley Community Action Group - an organisation committed to protecting an irrigation-dependent region as more water is sought for the environment. She told Mr Rudd about her unhappiness with the "non-transparent" way taxpayer-funded organisations were buying farmers' water entitlements and how the process was rendering some irrigation districts unviable.
© 2008 Sydney Morning Herald