The Good Oil * by Rod Brown
Back in November, we began describing hubs that could comprise a pan-Australia development framework to spark local and foreign investment. First cab was Queensland, with 12 hubs. Second up is New South Wales, which is fascinating because of its population, resource base, international recognition and the reticence of the NSW Government to chase investments.
Sydney, Newcastle and Wollongong also dominate NSW politics and development agendas, which means regional cities and towns need to be aggressive.
Why are hubs important? First, they enable a city or town to generate economies of location and of scale. Second, hub concepts generally align with the region’s competitive advantages, and thus make it easier to attract government support for supporting infrastructure and so forth. Third, hubs are a good selling point to potential investors. Indeed, investment attraction efforts in Europe and North America are largely built around hubs.
By my reckoning there are around 20 primary hubs in NSW. Outlined below are some hub angles for you to tease out and modify. In most OECD countries, 60–70 per cent of regional investments come from firms already in the region (that is, expansion investment) – so it’s important to accommodate their needs as well when positioning the region for new investment from external sources.
A. Sydney and surrounds
North Sydney–North Ryde – already the densest agglomeration of multinationals in Australia, where the competitive advantages include the co-location of research agencies and the northern Sydney lifestyle. Hub angles – biotechnology, ICT, creative industries.
Western/SW Sydney – a myriad of economic activity with significant nodes at Parramatta, Norwest Park, Penrith, Campbelltown. Hub angles – ICT, defence technology, logistics and packaging, food processing, light engineering.
Inner Sydney – forever Australia’s international gateway. The CBD, Australian Technology Park (Redfern) and Fox Studios (SCG) provide focal points. Hub angles – financial and retail services, ICT, creative industries such as fashion, media and so forth.
Newcastle – a huge upside as it sheds its Steel City image. Population of over 500,000 and a fierce sense of pride. Airport, seaport and nearby waterways. Hub angles – education, energy and environmental management, mining services, transport and logistics, creative industries.
Central Coast – a seachange area, close to Sydney, but lower housing and industrial land costs. Hub angles – light manufacturing, food processing, home based activities, enviro-tourism.
Wollongong – lifestyle, beaches, accessibility, excellent university campus with a new business park, strong industrial base. Hub angles – similar to Newcastle, but with less regional connectivity.
B. Northern Rivers
Tweed Valley – vibrant, fast growing (80,000 population) and part of a cross border seachange zone. Hub angles – tourism, fishing, sports equipment, marine and creative industries.
Lismore – approaching 50,000 population, and close to iconic tourism nodes of Ballina (busy airport) and Byron Bay. Hub angles – education (Southern Cross University), Grain Foods CRCs, timber, tourism, agriculture.
Grafton – gateway to Yamba and Maclean. Sense of history, Big River feel and laidback lifestyle. 17,000 population. Hub angles – tourism, horticulture, timber.
C. North Coast
Coffs Harbour – a sizeable city (67,000 population) with natural beauty. Second busiest airport in NSW. Hub angles – seachange, aquaculture, horticulture, marine industries, tourism.
Port Macquarie – the other book end, exhibiting similar size and opportunities as Coffs. Airport. Hub angle – the core of a major growth corridor that includes Kempsey, Taree, Forster-Tuncurry.
Nambucca Valley – situated between the two. 20,000 population and growing. Hub angles – seachange, tourism, lifestyle, agriculture, home based businesses.
D. New England
Armidale – older centre, with real country style. Population of 25,000. University of New England as an anchor. Identified by NSW Government as part of Country Centres Growth Strategy. Good airport, and could be a key node of inland rail project. Hub angles – agriculture, education, three CRCs – beef, sheep and poultry!
Tamworth – its Country Music festival has put it on the map, with a good population base (37,000). Good airport. Hub angles – agriculture, equine industry, country music, lifestyle industries.
Please tell us where we went wrong with the above! Let’s get a debate going. We will examine NSW’s six other primary hubs next month. They’re in the central west and south, and very important at a national level.
Secondary hubs
Primary hubs create spinoffs and synergies for secondary hubs. For example, if Tamworth is strong, there is a knock on effect for Gunnedah and Narrabri. We estimate NSW might have around 50 secondary hubs, and they can be jointly marketed with the primary hubs.
Meanwhile, if you want to generate job opportunities and investment leads, feel free to contact us for a free initial chat.
CSIRO in
snappy mood
The CSIRO has flatly refused to comply with a request to clear their media statements with the Prime Minister’s office. CSIRO scientists have argued this is censorship, and have forced a backdown. The head of the Department of Innovation, Industry, Science & Research (DIISR) wasn’t amused, nor was Minister Kim Carr, who had previously announced a major review of innovation programs.
The hot goss is that the CSIRO ploy could seriously backfire, and some of its Cooperative Research Centres will be closed unless they begin to deliver, which would have major implications for universities and regional development.
New regional development paradigm?
Labor is to establish a Regional Development Agency (RDA) and Infrastructure Development Australia (IDA), but it will take time. It also has to decide what to do with the Regional Partnerships Program as well as the Area Consultative Committees, instead of them being treated as rustic ornaments. A round of consultations will commence in the new year. The door is open for Ministers Albanese and Gray, two ambitious power brokers, to craft a powerful integrated regional agenda involving the RDA, IDA, ACCs and a remodelled RPP. There is also scope to do some intelligent joint agendas with the States and Local Government.
Thinkers-in-Residence for towns
Adelaide City Council’s excellent Thinkers-in-Residence program brings in experts from interstate and overseas to inject fresh perspectives on urban land form, industry development, environment, governance systems and so forth.
We’re extending the concept to regional cities and towns, because they too can deliver great lifestyles and a sense of community. But they don’t have much clout or recognition.
Since floating the proposal among our Cockatoo network, reaction has ranged from ‘long overdue’ to ‘our ratepayers don’t want outsiders telling us what to do’. Everyone to their own, I guess. Anyway, the program we are putting in place has three steps.
Firstly, the local Council or development agency identifies the specific expertise required, such as entrepreneurship, investment attraction, infrastructure alignment, international tourism, education, environmental management, water technology, social welfare, re-invention strategies, local government finance. Secondly, we prepare the submission to the appropriate funding agencies. Lastly, we call for expressions of interest from our Cockatoo network, and provide the local agency with four to five nominations (mix of local and overseas) from which to choose.
If you can see the opportunity, please email us. Further
information is available on our
blog ( www.investmentinnovation.wordpress.com) which also has over 400 articles on issues relevant to Local Government.
*Rod Brown is a Canberra-based consultant specialising in industry/regional development, investment attraction, clusters and accessing federal grants. He can be contacted at apd@orac.net.au or phone (02) 6231 7261.
