More than 200 delegates attended each day of the NGIA “Share the Vision – The Road Ahead” National Conference in Adelaide, 15-17 February.

Highlights included the official opening by His Excellency the Honourable Hieu Van Le, Governor of South Australia; a session with outstanding storyteller in Glenn Cooper AM of Coopers Brewery; and the comic genius of Dan Gregory from The Impossible Institute.

Senator Anne Ruston, Assistant Minister for Agriculture and Water Resources (Horticulture), spoke of her background in nursery production horticulture before addressing the growing disquiet about the transition to Horticulture Innovation Australia Limited, and the importance of peak industry bodies in the consultation process for determining levy funding priorities.

The 2016 Nursery & Garden Industry national conference had support funding by Horticulture Innovation Australia Limited with co-investment from Nursery & Garden Industry Australia and funds from the Australian Government.

Project code: NY13702

More information:
• Full wrap-up of the 2016 conference

The next generation gathered recently to discuss the current state of the nursery industry and provide their thoughts on where they see the industry in five and ten years’ time.

The inaugural future leaders’ forum was held on 15 February, in the lead up to the 2016 National Industry Conference in Adelaide.

The participants represented the diversity of the industry, including growers, wholesale and retail, and spent four hours workshopping issues that aren’t just relevant in Australia, but are being considered world-wide:

• Promoting our industry as a career of choice.
• Training, education and professional development.
• Industry research and development priorities.
• Industry Structure Review
• Communicating with and engaging industry

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Assistant Minister for Agriculture and Water Resources, Senator Anne Ruston, addressed the 2016 National Conference, with attendees encouraged by her clear support of the nursery industry and the importance of industry associations.

The full text of her speech follows:

Thank you very much for the invitation to address your conference.

My path to being a Senator and now the Assistant Minister for Agriculture and Water Resources was not designed – in fact I am somewhat of an accidental politician.

After a short stint in the mid-nineties as an adviser to the SA Government, I have spent the majority of my working life associated with irrigated horticulture and viticulture.

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