Ms Berejiklian visited the city on Wednesday to address Armidale Business Chamber’s forum, taking questions from business owners after a presentation about the budget.

Bev Bett from Bett’s Transport in Walcha used the opportunity to point out some of the impediments facing local businesses.

 “With the payroll tax, we can only employ five people because then we attract payroll tax,” Ms Bett said.

“We can always get employees, but it’s really hard with the tax. We want to grow because we’re going into food and we’ve also grown into live cattle export.

“Because we want to do that, we feel as if the payroll tax is [limiting our ability] to grow.”

Ms Berejiklian conceded that the payroll tax was a burden for businesses, but said it was a necessary measure. 

“I hear you, and I’d love to be able to change the way we collect our state taxes,” she said.

“But that’s why Premier [Mike] Baird and I are pushing so hard for federal tax reform because that will then give the states more flexibility.

“Forty per cent of our revenue comes from the [Common-wealth], 39 per cent of it comes from our state taxes. If we gave too much relief in an area of taxation, that means we’ve got holes in the budget of billions of dollars every year.”

Ms Berejiklian said the state government was working toward boosting job numbers in regional NSW.

“[Workers] can get a job in Armidale,” she said.

“There are a lot of businesses expanding.

“I was actually pleasantly surprised by the number of people I met [on Wednesday] who were from Sydney.

“Armidale has that potential.”

Outside the forum, Ms Bett said moving the business to Brisbane would give the company more scope for growth, given the different taxation regulations.

“We’d be better off in the city, but we’ve chosen a lifestyle.”