“Fostering regional development through

targeted research”

Andrew McEwen

Manager Economic Development City of Thuringowa

Getting priority & action

• Luck or a random event? (Marginal electorate)

• Rational choice? (Rational planning)

• Messy! (incremental planning or crisis)

Sustainable development features

• Partnership and collaborative culture• Genuine stewardship leadership• Engaged community 1% directly• Futures orientation• Shared Vision & regional plan• Strategic approach• Industry network clusters• Learning region• Enterprise culture• Cultural milieu

Challenges facing NQ

• 10% growth• Major infrastructure issues (energy, transport etc)

• Object of planning rather than a subject of planning• Lack of co-ordination and integration• Ad hoc election cycle driving funding• Lack of engagement in planning processes• Lack of future orientated planning • No genuinely shared vision for the future• Skills shortage and housing affordability• Focus on current opportunities rather than emerging

challenges and opportunities.

Strategic Choice:- gaining attention and achieving priority• Rational comprehensive

planning• Social action:- direct

action politics• Social planning

• Community organising

• Research, development and diffusion

• Faith and optimism

• Not preferred option• Winners & losers• Indirect tends to deal with

consequences• Longer term partnership• Requires shared agenda• Less threatening, based

on evidence & can change assumptions

Research and development

• Gain attention• Identify costs and benefits• Focus the agenda • Provide alternative policy options• Shapes the strategic conversation• Innovation and diffusion cycle• Shifts the context• Tipping point• Emergent strategy

Influencing the strategic conversation

• Policy and strategy changes are an emergent phenomena

• Draws from the strategic conversation of influential people (tipping point)

• Influencing the “Influential people”• NQ Economic Development Conference • Platform for launching research & the strategic

conversation• Open planning to engage and to identify

challenges and issues

SEQ Footprint from 1981 to 2026Wayne Delafroce QUT

SEQ and Regionalisation

• SEQ to grow by 1000 people per week• An additional 1.3m people by 2026• This growth is both an enormous

opportunity an challenge• Population growth has underpinned

economic growth QLD• Over centralisation of this growth could put

this at risk

Regional centres can cater for some of this growth

• 2005 SEQ plan required $66B for 1.3m people in SEQ• SEQ already faces infrastructure shortfalls in power,

water & transport• Regional centres such as NQ are already growing rapidly• Regional Queensland has the ability to cater for some of

this growth• There is an opportunity for state government to

compliment growth in SEQ with a balanced investment in 21st century regionalisation

Attraction of Queensland

People come for a mixture of reasons

• Destination awareness• Lifestyle and quality of life• Employment opportunities• Sea change • Competitive housing prices• Most decentralised state

Disappearing attraction of SEQ

AEC study we commissioned & are releasing says

continued growth of SEQ will lead to:• Increased traffic congestion• Reduced air quality • Loss of environmental corridors & green space• Escalating costs of housing• Chronic water shortage• Higher infrastructure costs of SEQ vs. Regions

The risks of the centralised approach

Emerging diseconomies of scale in SEQ could

lead to either:

A decrease in population growth to the state

Or

An unplanned shift of these people to regional Qld.

So what is the problem?

AEC study shows that continued growth to SEQ is

less than optimal:

• Higher residential development costs and density• Road congestion & increased travelling distances• Access & availability of adequate water supply• Cost of infrastructure development• Housing access and affordability• Loss of open space and environmental quality• Generally loss of quality of life that attracts people

So what can we do?

AEC Study found that a properly thought out

regionalisation strategy in areas like Townsville-

Thuringowa would:• Be $10,900 cheaper per person for infrastructure• Provide savings of $2.4b for the state government• Add over $3B to regional economies• Save $9B in private construction costs• Reduce the loss of quality of life in SEQ• Maintain attractiveness of Qld with more affordable

housing than SEQ

Effective regional planning

• Currently there is a glad bag of programs run by different departments

• The success of SEQ Plan should be a pointer for all regions

• It is a comprehensive regional plan with legislative underpinning & one co-ordination body

• There are clear performance measures for the office of urban management

Genuinely leading smart regions

• Opportunity to develop overacting plans through upgraded lending smart regions program

• A strategic development framework for infrastructure and growth

• Provide legislative underpinnings and one co-ordination body to oversee implementation

• Development of a co-ordinated strategy to attract industry investment and people

• Maintaining unbalanced growth in SEQ will have negative impacts on SEQ and the entire state

Prima facie case has been established

• Need to shift to a co-ordinated and balanced approach to regionalisation

• Such regionalisation will be cheaper for state and reduce pressures on quality of life in SEQ.

• It is a complex and difficult task but not impossible• We can achieve greater return to regions and the

whose state.• Infrastructure savings will be realised over time• Opportunities for balanced development of SEQ

and our regions

Smart regions

• Agreed regional plans and priorities for regional development

• Upfront infrastructure plans like SEQ to attract people

• Industry incentives investments based on agreed regional competitive advantages

A WIN WIN FOR SEQ AND THE REGIONS

• The proposal to transfer a percentage of growth from SEQ to the regions offers a win win for all Queenslanders.

• The program to attract people and industry to regions would be cost neutral with infrastructure savings financing any costs involved

• Less pressure on SEQ will reduce pressure on the very lifestyle that people find attractive in SEQ.

• We wish to enter into a constructive dialogue with the Qld government to maintain the balance in development of SEQ and the regions, which has provide the foundation for sustained growth for all Queenslanders

Current Outcomes

• Research and paper presented to 2006 NQ EDC• Media coverage and interest from ‘pollies’• Presented to Community Cabinet• Has been recognised as a real option• Is currently being assessed

Next steps:- continuation of the strategy

• October 2007 NQ Economic Development Conference

• Theme of “building prosperous partnerships”• Objective of getting commitment to region

development and an infrastructure plan• Community organisation

– Partnership development strategy and continued research development and diffusion strategy

New research project Gaining attention and getting attraction

• Climate change: water energy and the new dynamics of competition

• 330 industry sector analysis• Water, energy, wages, land, skills, GH gases,• Comparative assessment of the new competitive

advantage of NQ vs. other states and regions• Identify industry and companies to target to shift• Model impact to different strategies• Focus political attention “Giving them a why”

Problems & Needs

Strategic Intervention

R&D & Diffusion

Set Context

Influence Conversation

Tipping Point

Set Agenda

New Policy

Problems & Needs

Strategic Intervention

Research & Development

Set Context

Influence Conversation

Tipping Point

Set Agenda

New Policy

Innovation&

Diffusion

Community DevelopmentPartnership

Alliances

Summary / Questions