The Good Oil by Rod Brown*
Julia Gillard says the next 10 years will be the decade of infrastructure. Nice hype, and it’s a something that local councils should file away for future reference.
Sure she was in a euphoric mood in getting Senators Xenophon and Fielding onside regarding the national broadband network legislation. And she needed a boost to prove she has an agenda.
But infrastructure has traditionally been a core part of the Labor philosophy, so we want to see the hype translate into the hard stuff, such as hospitals, western Sydney rail, disability services, Indigenous health, irrigation systems.
In the meantime, our Cockatoo members are getting on with scoping proposals for the Federal infrastructure programs in the New Year. We are responding to Regional Development Minister Crean’s call for cross-council collaboration, and innovative ways of getting infrastructure projects off the ground.
We’re finding it hard to get the private sector and State Governments to kick the tin – nothing new I guess and the South Australian government looks like winning our Scrooge Award.
Contestability
versus creativity
We are also developing creative local solutions, in line with Crean’s mantra. But gee, most Federal officials aren’t any help.
Let me explain. In the bad old days, we were encouraged to actively work with companies to find solutions to their problems. I recall a work colleague quoting the legendary mandarin, Nugget Coombes, who once said that that ‘the function of a good bureaucrat is to make possible the realisation of other people’s dreams’.
Well I spend a lot of time looking for such bureaucrats, and avoiding the cardigans of which I’ve written about previously.
So last week we were mulling over how to integrate a business incubator into a community centre, and I rang my old department to find someone who was full bottle on the subject. The Department used to have an incubator program.
Well to my joy I found the guru, who also knew of our work on clusters, precincts and smart infrastructure. Unfortunately, despite trying a few angles I couldn’t ‘engage’ him.
He was straighter than Bill Lawry’s bat, and basically said that the Department assesses funding submissions in a highly competitive environment, and cannot give advantage to one party over another.
So what’s the solution? The best practice option would be to reduce the emphasis on competitive programs, and for Ministers to encourage bureaucrats to collaborate with stakeholders. But I’m dreamin’.
Perhaps the next best option is to engage the staff of the RDA committees who, although quasi bureaucrats, are not bound by the Canberra orthodoxy.
Frank and fearless
I am reminded of wonderful insights offered by Canberra based academic Dr Kathy McDermott, in her book titled ‘Whatever Happened to Frank and Fearless? – the impact of new public management on the Australian Public Service.”
She really nails it:‘Vying for ministerial attention is not just about being interesting or novel, or even open and contestable…and the competition of ideas is not a simple contest on an even ground, where the best idea wins. In practice it takes place in a highly landscaped playing field in which interests and interdependencies create gently rolling hills, pitfalls, wind tunnels and extensive deserts – and where the goalposts are moved constantly.’
Indeed, many ideas sit in deserts – but it doesn’t necessarily mean they are dumb ideas. They may be just waiting for rain! That’s where collaboration can help you find partners who can provide a reality check, re-jig your ideas, improve the funding mix and help you lobby Ministers.
Community Cabinet
Clontarf in Queensland hosted the first Community Cabinet meeting under the Gillard Government in early December. These events are a great opportunity for councils to sell themselves and to get Ministers thinking about projects and issues within your region.
Every Minister attends, or at least that was the arrangement under the Rudd regime, and there is a Q&A session followed by one on one meetings with Ministers.
These meetings may not be as regular as in the past – they were previously held every five to six weeks. There is no forward schedule for security reasons. We have been drafting submissions for councils. Please contact us if this interests you.
Food policies
Former Labor Minister Dr Neal Blewett is heading a review of food labelling, and the Secretariat is located in the Department of Health. Therein lies the rub – most of the submissions have focused on health and food safety. So we’re seeking a meeting to highlight how weak food labelling is harming regional Australia.
For example, food labelling usually states that ‘this product is made in Australia from local and imported ingredients.’ This tells us nothing – it’s certainly not consistent with consumers’ growing demand to know exactly what they are eating. A bout of food poisoning from imported product would force the issue.
While on the subject of food, cruising the supermarket aisles one can find many tinned food lines from Italy, Netherlands, UK, USA and so forth at very low prices. Now these are relatively high cost countries and there is a good probability that it is dumped, that is the prices are significantly lower than in the home country.
But strangely there is little evidence of anti-dumping cases being brought forward. We are mulling over an approach to new Agriculture Minister Joe Ludwig, who was a champion for stronger anti-dumping policies when he was in Opposition.
In the meantime, if you support the likes of Beerenberg, Maggie Beer, and Bega Cheese, you support not only local companies, but those creating jobs in regional Australia.
Beginning of the end for bank oligopoly
By the time you read this, Treasurer Swan will hopefully have made a ground breaking announcement to reduce the market power of the four banks. The trigger was the shadow Treasurer Hockey’s stoush with Mike Smith, CEO of the ANZ Bank.
The latter compared Hockey to Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and added, “Peter Costello was a very good treasurer, people like Malcolm Turnbull understand this stuff and are very creditable”.
Now ordinarily Swan might have tried to make political capital out of Smith’s swipe at Hockey. But the public uproar, the knife edge political situation and the longstanding protection of the banks meant Swan had to actually do something. If his announcement is a wet lettuce leaf, Swan has committed political suicide.
Workshops
Now more than ever, councils should be brainstorming their options and developing strategies to maximise your positions with the Federal Government. This is what we do. Please contact us for more details.
May you all have a happy and safe Christmas!
*Rod Brown is a Canberra-based consultant specialising in industry/regional development, investment attraction, clusters and accessing Federal grants. He also runs the Cockatoo Network. He can be contacted at apdcockatoo@iprimus.com.au or phone
(02) 6231 7261.
Go to the blog at www.investmentinnovation.wordpress.com for 550+ articles on issues relevant to Local Government.
