Is there a level playing field here then? Of course not. How naïve. Business development relies on a whole host of playing fields, none of which is identical to every other offering. There’s the playing field of state industrial relations, the field of available grants, the field of council rates and concessions, the fields of state, commonwealth and local council investment in precinct infrastructure and services, the field of council town planning rules and development restrictions.

Do shop owners in Lavington get the same deal as shop owners on Dean Street? Or in Jindera?

Policies and priorities change; governments are flush with funds or cash-strapped. Like everything we’re all used to by now, the one sure thing in life is change.

Let’s take an example. Some people were surprised when I congratulated Seeley International on its proposed move from near Albury Airport to Wodonga. I had spent a bit of time with their management, showing them the options for their planned expansion of facilities. They didn’t see what they wanted in Albury’s existing or planned industrial estates.

Heavens! As an almost billion-dollar international corporation, they could have bought up half of Dean Street and set up shop there if they wanted. From what I’ve read, they plan to place their factory on an urban fringe – which will be a great convenience for their commuting workers from both sides of the border. Their land investment won’t hurt the bottom line either, compared to moving right out of town. Fortunately, they found what they wanted nearby. Jobs safe.

They got a financial deal from Wodonga Council and Victoria. But as the Victorian Premier was at pains to avoid saying while on the Border, Commonwealth funding exists to help Victoria and South Australia replace jobs lost when the Commonwealth finally pulled out of propping up the multinational car manufacturers in those states.

Maybe the Victorian government wasn’t all that keen to put its hand in its own pocket or to use this federal money to create replacement jobs for all the auto workers based in Broadmeadows or Altona. Three hundred kilometres away is not really going to help those workers, is it?

As some have noted, is it the role of government to enter the game of ‘picking winners’? Cashing-up one business ahead of another, or in preference to a competitor?

We all know local regional businesses which are struggling. Who chooses which ones to save? How much taxpayer/ratepayer money should be turned into chips to fuel a bidding war between neighbours?

I just had the Deputy Premier here in Albury, talking to businesses, councils, and organisations about applying for a share of the new $1.3 billion NSW Regional Growth Fund. I can’t speak for the other side of the Murray, but the NSW government has many programs to assist businesses – new, transferring location, or simply continuing to trade and work right where they are. Training, energy, growth, reducing costs. They’re out there. On any number of playing fields.

If you are looking at Albury and Wodonga, and all you see is competition, you are running down a path to nowhere. Strip away the spin, and here on the Border, we are one workforce, one economy.