The future of Wollongong’s economy and employment
Statement:
Community Voice will make the Wollongong economy and job creation the highest priority of the new Council. The City has one of the highest rates of unemployment in Australia and past initiatives have failed to bring it down in any meaningful way. We will emphasise the central importance of maintaining a competitive and innovative manufacturing sector and to diversify the City into new job opportunities.
Wollongong is currently confronted by yet another serious economic crisis that threatens the lives of new generation of workers and their families. The announcement by Bluescope to wind back its Port Kembla operations will result in the loss of over 3,000 jobs in the steelworks and local businesses. These workers and their families must be supported by the whole community.
We need to ask why, in the middle of Australia’s longest resources boom, manufacturing workers are feeling the brunt of this crisis? Like other cities, particularly in south eastern Australia, the “sell it off cheaply quarry economy” boom is destroying employment opportunities in Wollongong’s manufacturing, tourism and education industries.
Wollongong needs a value-added steel industry. We should aim to develop the City as a national centre of engineering, advanced technologies and manufacturing industries and emerging green manufacturing industries. However, Wollongong has been badly let down by BHP, the company that established the under-resourced and low value- added Bluescope and OneSteel, and walked away from the steel industry and emerged as BHP-Billiton, the world’s largest resource company.
Economic leadership in Wollongong is weak. Management is poor. This crisis has nothing to do with the carbon tax. There is a lack of clarity and determination to build a strong economy. Council cannot be passive. Councils in successful global and Australian cities are pro- active in building economic opportunities for people and local firms.
The Federal and NSW Governments have responsibilities to the workers of Wollongong. A Community Voice Council will work with other cities and industrial regions in Australia to make a strong case for a national inquiry into Australian manufacturing. We believe the inquiry should investigate how we can maintain a viable manufacturing industry through:
• Policies to ensure that currency movements do not increase the volatility of some of our most efficient industries.
• Outline long term plans for expansion of steel-intensive industries including rail, pipelines, mining infrastructure, building and construction sectors.
• Increase depreciation allowances to encourage investment in new plant and equipment.
• Support growth of industry networks with strong R&D, skills and access to markets.
• Increasing revenue from mining companies to invest in high productivity industries.
The announcement of the Federal Government to establish Illawarra Region Innovation and Investment Fund with $30 million is a welcome first step. The best way to spend this money is to engage local business and a democratically elected council and community rather than relying on Canberra’s bureaucrats.
In addition to calling for immediate action to maintain a viable steel industry, Community Voice has a Plan for Jobs. We will:
1. Establish an Office for Sustainability and Economic Development, to encourage, amongst other things, investment in green entry level jobs and diffusion of technologies and skills to local firms. We will ensure that staff indoor and outdoor staff will be trained and focused on skills for a sustainable economy.
2. Work with local industry, unions, education and training providers and the community to prepare a people-centred economic strategy for Wollongong. The focus will be on upgrading skills, supporting business start-ups, facilitating networks of firms in new growth industries (eg sustainability, creative industries, advanced technologies and manufacturing, knowledge spinoffs from university).
3. Seek community engagement in establishing capital works priorities to revitalise the CBD, including attracting quality office space for business services, highlighting heritage and civic assets, a dynamic cultural life, improved amenities and infrastructure.
4. Focus on strengthening village and town centre economies through strategic plans that encourage work and living opportunities close to public transport, including growing the home-based business sector.
5. Introduce a Young Entrepreneurs program to tap and nurture local creativity and innovation.
6. Implement tourism strategies that are aligned with initiatives to improve the liveability of the city for residents (eg events, amenities and heritage assets).
7. Identify surplus employment lands that could be utilised to encourage investment in clean technologies in old industrial areas including cogeneration.
8. Work with business, employment service and education and training providers to undertake sophisticated economic and labour market planning, including partnerships.
9. Approach the Illawarra Business Chamber, unions and TAFE to establish a well-designed “100 Mentors Initiative” to be implemented within the first 12 months of a Community Voice led Council. This includes investigating options to access funding for redundant workers to be trained as mentors for young people at risk.
10. Ensure that planning instruments (LEP, DCP) will provide a sound and consistent legal framework to permit development based on clear principles of sustainability, economic and local employment opportunity and amenity and an efficient and transparent planning approval system.
11. Encourage investment in affordable housing around under-utilised public transport nodes and a shift away from greenfield and escarpment and coastal housing.
12. Provide undergoing support for unemployment workers through improving amenities, services and activities in community centres and community forums.
Community Voice will work with the community to create a City that has a sustainable economic base and is actively addressing the issue of high and long-term unemployment.
Authorised by Michael Organ
Mob: 0468 548 709
Too touchy feely. Thats whats been eroding n destroying manufacturing n business in general in Australia. Anyone, me as well, could with a government handout grant set up employment opportunities and a growing manufacturing business. But as usual, the hander outers want too much control. Ie,. they want to b seen doing the handing out etc. When i and everyone else says, stop taking and we wont need the handouts. Stop the touchy feely stuff n we can look after ourselves much better then any touch feely government. I could for instance startup manufacturing alternative energy manufacturing installing company or anything really, or an employment agency like all the others that have latched on to the handouts. Offer up the hand outs , all I ever c is all talk and handouts to big business like holden, ford, bhp, blue scope, origin etc etc. Puh, they employ bugger all as a percentage. How about offering up the cash into smaller grants to small business to expand n manufacture??? Small business employee 96% of the workforce.