ID predicts that local jobs were expected to fall by 8.1 per cent (1139 jobs) in the same period, rendering it the 4th worst impacted among regional LGAs in terms of percentage of jobs lost, with more than 70% of accommodation industry jobs either lost or reliant on JobKeeper.
While this week’s report was focused on the forecast impact of bushfires & the Covid19 pandemic on the Bega Valley Shire’s economy, significantly the report also highlighted the fact that the local economy was already languishing.
According to ID, the shire’s capacity to pursue economic recovery is hindered by the fact that there has been zero growth in the local economy, including jobs, in the three years to December, 2019. Coupled with a low rate of building approvals in the same period & a high reliance on impacted industries, such as tourism, & a high level of part-time work, the risk to the shire’s economic recovery is even greater.
In other words, the Shire’s economy was already in deep trouble prior to the recent disasters, with all the indicators suggesting that the underlying problems were structural in nature, such that most state & federal government infrastructure expenditure & council initiatives were unlikely to overcome the problem.
The association believes that council has long pursued the wrong strategy in attempting to secure the successful development of the shire’s economy, in particular in pandering to major retail organisations that take substantial wealth out of our community, & in conjunction with the state government, squandering millions of dollars in pursuing the pipe dream that international tourism will be our economic salvation, including the “white elephant” at Merimbula Airport, already headed to a cost of $20M & still going.
Given our shire’s comparative economic standing with the rest of NSW, the association believes that the state & federal governments should be making a major practical investment in the shire by committing to the relocation of government agencies to the area.
Back in 2013, the then
Deputy Premier, Andrew Stoner, heralded the
NSW State Government’s
10 year commitment to regional development, although, with a few exceptions, the reality of that commitment has been confined to funding infrastructure projects, rather than by making a significant investment in regional economies by decentralising some of its own activities.
The association understands that there are more than 130 government agencies in NSW that maintain 45 regional offices in half a dozen regional cities or towns. Only five of those agencies have head offices located in a regional city or town.
The NSW Government employs more than 330,000 full-time equivalent staff, with the bulk of those in Sydney. The Commonwealth Government employs almost 250,000 staff, of which 35,000 are located in regional areas.
Given the Bega Valley’s standing in the economic stakes, as identified by the ID Report, would it really be too much to expect the state & federal governments to both step-up & relocate some of their activities to our shire?
Certainly the permanent assignment of hundreds of state & federal government positions would not only provide a direct financial contribution to our Shire, but also contribute a wider financial stimulus to our community, as has been demonstrated in other NSW regional cities & towns such as Dubbo, Orange, Bathurst, Wagga Wagga, Nowra, Queanbeyan, Wollongong & the Illawarra.
Such an investment would certainly give substance to claims by our political masters that “we’re all in this together”.
John Richardson
Secretary/Treasurer
Bega Valley Shire Residents & Ratepayers Association
Tel: 0264945669
Email: secretary@begavalleyshireratepayers.asn.au
Website: http://www.begavalleyshireratepayers.asn.au