Economics & Business Forum
Peter Sniekers
Issues
- also difficult for private landholders to host visitors - risks, inappropriate visitor behaviour
- strong community is the envy of all capital cities
- Transport is a big weakness
- small acreages
KEY ECONOMIC STRENGTH
kids leave but they return for the lifestyle
KEY ECONOMIC WEAKNESS
- transport
- government policy
- 35-40 year olds are leaving with their children
- not enough range of education/employment opportunities
WHAT WILL A SUSTAINABLE NEW ENGLAND LOOK LIKE?
- diversification of industry based on value-adding
- long-term policy on knowledge based industry - research informed
Conversation Map of Economics & Business Sustainability Analysis
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Detailed Economics & Business Sustainability Analysis
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Comments on Economic
From an Economics / Business point of view, and in your opinion:
What are the Region's Strengths and Assets (past and present)?
Our strengths are our water supply; our climate; our cultural diversity; our education facilities; our natural beauty
What are the Region's Weaknesses and Liabilities (past and present)?
Our distance from markets; our distance from raw products; our topography in that every route into and out of Armidale has a steep mountain range making transport costs higher.
What are the Region's Opportunities (looking to the future – current and emerging)?
I believe our opportunities are in the retirement industry particularly for retired professional people that want to live and interact in an informed community. Niche industries such as Petals, EA systems, New Horizon, Aspen. Ecotourism i.e. Fleet Helicopters; walking tours; fishing and wildlife tours. Internet business'
What are the Region's Challenges (looking to the future – current and emerging)?
Fuel costs; Securing a natural gas supply; finding other niche industries suitable for Armidale
What does a sustainable New England Region looks and feel like? In what ways will it be different to how it is today?
It will have greater focus on sustainable living; more people using active and passive solar technology; More people growing their own food;
What do you need to be able to better address sustainability?
SLEX is a great start, but we need to sell our strategies better on waste (council has a good strategy). We need to do more to encourage developers to build homes to suit Armidale rather than just rely on basix
Bruce Whan
Sustainability Strengths of Region
UNE as key part of Region
Water
Cooler climate (less cooling required in summer)
Well educated and informed population
Location - mid way between Sydney and Brisbane, height above sea level
Transport (rail and air)
Weaknesses
Reliance on UNE
Current water use practices (not used in sustainable way - like Tamworth)
Cold climate (need for heating)
No light industry
Domestic housing poorly designed (aspect, passive solar)
Lack of capitalisation (eg to do big development our way rather than needing to rely on developers capital - like Woolworths - and then development is done their way)
Lack of northern transport
Lack of public transport
Over reliance on cars
Sustainability Challenges
Enhance population control
Water becoming more challenging
Availability of land due to past degradation (eg. arsenic poisoning of orchards)
Lack of political power/influence
Long distance from major centres and need for transport
Sustainability Opportunities
Influence builders/developers to use ESD
Renewable energy production (wind)
Sunlight
Joining the Economic Group in the Sustainability Forum at NERAM on the 22 September I sensed that the conversation tended to return to discussions of business development, including the hoary old chestnut of attracting multinationals, business investment, and potential in selling off our common entitlements. So it was more business development than economic considerations. Near the end of the session the topic of growth from within the community was raised. Had there been more time - and perhaps a broader spread interests present - perhaps the discussion might have turned to more creative ways to discuss economics from the ground up. Its funny how commerce, industry, and other politically powerful interests tend to quarantine "the economic". I raised gambling as an economic issue, but was told it belonged in the social. Where are the unemployed and family voices that really have to deal with economic development, its consequences, and who are in the strongest position to make economic change at the micro-level? Let's not pretend that the neo-liberal consumer society is going to be sustainable, its already crashing. The bail-out of the US Financial sector by the Fed, suggests there is now a born-again Marxist (well at least a materialist) in the White House! So perhaps we need to think further on what we mean by sustainable economy for New England, and how we go about developing one.
And this raises for me (Adam B) that the make up of the working groups, and the subject topics for the working groups, for Phase II of the strategic planning need to be considered thoughtfully.
How can we structure this process in a way that also gets this organic cross fertilisation of ideas and connections? Paradoxical I know, however this is in many respects an era of paradox, a time of paradigm storms and great change - hopefully more better than worse.
Wouldn't an "Open Space" style process allow for more free flow of discussion around the topics. This takes out the restriction of the silos that have been created through the topics and the way they were discussed.
Silo thinking is a trap that many organisations fall into and is one of the major problems with Government responses to issues such as regional development. Because everything is so interconnected and influenced, there needs to be "holistic" view used to work on the issues that face our community.
The "business capacity" of our towns is influenced by the economic capacity of the people. If there is a significant social issues around gambling and say health, then the econmic capacity of the people is reduced and less $ are spent in the town.
Linkages analysis needs to be done to look at these types of issues.
the knee bone conected to the hip bone
everything connects to everything so if we have skewed economic policies they will affect our social and environmental policies - lets get real about complex systems and stop compartmentalising everyhting - divide and conquer - unite and survive
Why is it that everytime there is a discussion about the viability of a community (be it local, state or country - and for that matter the world), is the focus on growth to solve the problem. Growth of business (usually in numbers of businesses and people employed) and therefore growth of the population.
Whay can't we look at stability (or gorwing through natural increase) as focus for a sustainable future???
Is there are ways to improve the econmic capacity (and lets focus on that here due to the topic) without increase in the number of people in the area or our towns???
What impact would this have on our decisions and the influences on other areas such as social, political and environmental areas?