The Good Oil by Rod Brown *
Last month’s column about regional tourism ambassadors reminded me of a funny night a few years back in a trendy bar in South Yarra. I was having a few drinks with friends, and I sidled up to buy a round. Next to me, perched on a stool, was Bill Hunter, the grizzled actor in Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, Muriel’s Wedding, BHP ads and so forth. He shot me a glance and said, “G’day.”
The conversation went something like this.
Rod: “Hi, don’t I know you from somewhere?”
Bill gives me an age-old look: “Yeah, I reckon. Bill’s the name.”
Rod: “Pleased to meet you. My name’s Rod and I’m from Canberra. I reckon you taught me how to swim at Warragul swimming pool in 1957 or 1958. We were a bunch of skinny kids standing around, and you swum a length and a half of the pool (Olympic-size) under water. You were the talk of the town for the next week!” Bill’s eyes bulged: “Bugger me dead, that could be right.
I grew up in Traralgon down the road, and I’d missed the ‘56 Olympics because of glandular fever, so I was a swimming instructor for a couple of years…it’s my buy, what will you have?”
Rod: “I’m in a shout thanks, with those guys over there.”
Bill glances at the suits ten metres away: “Not good enough, eh? You look like a bunch of f…. public servants anyway. So while you’re here, I’ve got a bone to pick with you. My mum still lives in Traralgon, and you bastards are stuffing her around with her pension!”
I withstood a serve about the inhumanity of Government. Rather than back off, I spent the next hour drinking Fosters with whisky chasers with Bill. We talked about everything except movies, and got on famously.
I was telling the story to some Local Government folk later, and Graham Pearce, then CEO of East Gippsland Shire, mentioned that he’d recently telephoned David Williamson in Sydney about him becoming a regional ambassador. Williamson reportedly waxed lyrical about fishing and swimming in the Mitchell River as a kid when his father, a bank manager, was posted to Bairnsdale for a few years. David had very happy memories and apparently offered to assist in a promotional campaign.
Moral of the story? People do not forget their roots. Imagine Bill Hunter and David Williamson teaming up to promote Gippsland! But Graham moved on to the Sunshine Coast and the impetus was lost. The idea is still sound, and some day it will take off.
Hall’s Gap – fun in regional politics
About six months later, I was invited to a conference at Hall’s Gap in western Victoria. I sensed it was a set up when I arrived because the car parks were full. It was around 1995 and the Federal Government’s regional development was in full swing.
The Keating/Howe government was encouraging regional stakeholders to think expansively about their areas. Indeed, the seminar was to bed down the Greater Green Triangle concept, a large cross border region taking in Colac, Warrnambool, Hamilton, Portland, Mount Gambier, and Naracoorte. There was a fascinating bunch of community leaders such as Tom Lindsey, Paquita Lamacraft, Grant King, Gordon Forth and Rory McEwan (now a SA Minister).
The problem was that, unbeknowns to me, someone in my Department had been giving these folk a very hard time, demanding answers about their regional vision, objectives, strategies, ownership and project priorities. The locals reckoned they’d met these requirements, and now they wanted action, specifically the MONEY!
So my presentation about Federal objectives and guiding principles went down like a lead balloon. The audience responded with comments about ‘pie in the sky’ ideas of the Whitlam era, bureaucracy gone mad, con jobs, snail’s progress and the like. On reflection, it was fair comment. Thank God the chairs were bolted to the floor.
A South Australian Government official spoke after me, with equally disastrous results – no, worse results. He was told to get back over the border and stay there! The crowd was not in the mood for cross-border rhetoric.
Next up was the Victorian Government speaker (who holds the same position to this day) and with the advantage of speaking last, he made the right soothing noises. He confided to me later, “Don’t forget Rod, this region thinks it invented regional development!”
I recently received verification from one of the regional champions – “Well, Canberra reckoned that the boundaries should extend to Geelong or Ballarat, with either of those cities as the hub. Everyone in the region had been fighting this for years…no one was listening and we were about to get seriously marginalised…we had spent 18 months getting ground level agreement on where the boundaries roughly should be and we had some person from Canberra drawing lines on a map about whose characteristics he knew zip…I think someone in the region was stirring the pot too…he was good at loading guns and handing them out.”
Your correspondent learned three valuable lessons – beware of full car parks, matrix management in bureaucracies, and stakeholders looking for action.
Wind Turbines
As foreshadowed in this column, the major study into wind energy has now been released. It is an excellent report, and the Government will surely accept its recommendations. The report knocks the wind out of the flakier investment ideas. However, there are still solid opportunities, and communities with no prospect of being connected to the main electricity grid should, if not already, be doing some homework on wind turbines. The following extract highlights the no-nonsense tone of the report.
Overall the Review Panel considers that the wind industry has a considerable task ahead if it is to become competitive as a renewable energy sector in its own right. This task may be helped by cost savings associated with local manufacture. However it is currently unknown what the national grid’s capacity will be to absorb significant quantities of intermittent generation.
Claims of the potential for developing a major export industry are viewed with some scepticism. However the industry itself is adamant that opportunities exist.
For most renewable energy technologies, at this early stage of MRET (the mandatory renewable energy target, established by the Government) there is little evidence in Australia of exclusive intellectual property, significant research efforts, natural cost competitiveness or market advantages.
Solar PV provides the only exception. Niche exports may become viable but little evidence exists to date that the industry could be a major world player. See www.mretreview.gov.au
Auslink
John Anderson had to get a win on Auslink and Roads to Recovery – congratulations to ALGA, the State LGAs and the Australian Automobile Association.
* Rod Brown’s Canberra based consultancy group, Australian Project Developments Pty Ltd, specialises in industry/regional development and government liaison. For further information telephone (02) 6231 7261 or email apd@orac.net.au
