Spotlight on the Shire

Our CEO Damien Vella hosted Spotlight on the Shire on Friday 11th September, the Sutherland Shire Business Chamber’s forum bringing together local business leaders and NSW Premier Chris Minns at Doltone House, Sylvania Waters.

Alongside outgoing Chamber President Jeanne Zweck, Damien put the questions local businesses want answered directly to the Premier, on a day when workforce availability, housing, and infrastructure were front of mind for everyone in the room.

What stood out:

“Really pleased with how Friday went,” Damien said afterwards. “The strongest theme for me was just how connected everything is here. You can’t talk about jobs without talking about transport. You can’t talk about housing without talking about the infrastructure to support it. Good to get that in front of the Premier directly.”

It’s a theme that plays out directly in Breen’s own experience operating from Kurnell, at the end of the peninsula. Attracting and retaining workers to the site is genuinely harder when public transport and road infrastructure haven’t kept pace with growth happening elsewhere in the Shire. The same logic runs through almost every issue facing the region, jobs depend on transport, housing depends on infrastructure, and none of it can be solved in isolation.

Why forums like this matter

Breen has operated on the Kurnell Peninsula for 77 years, and events like Spotlight on the Shire give local businesses a genuine seat at the table when decisions about the region’s future are being made.

Thank you to the Sutherland Shire Business Chamber for the opportunity to host this year’s event.