What is Acceptable to the Community?

Community acceptable development, that appears to be the big challenge for our new council.  The Rockhampton region needs to keep growing in population unless residents are happy to pay higher rates and/or receive fewer services.  Costs are unfortunately going to continue to rise, greater efficiencies alone in how Council business is conducted I imagine won’t be able to prevent the need to raise more revenue or debt to provide just the existing services.  The mining/resources boom is looked upon as the saviour, either directly or indirectly.  However, are we prepared as a community to accept coal ports in Keppel Bay?  I, for one, am not keen on coal dust being blown over Capricorn Coast beaches and beyond.  What if a viable coal seam was discovered in the Hedlow district would we as a community be accepting of CSG wells dotting this picturesque environment?

We look to our near neighbours Mackay and Gladstone and compare their growth to ours, wondering why we are missing out.  However, are we as a community willing to readily accept the social costs this development has caused?  If the mining/resource boom is the saviour and ways were found to achieve community acceptance of certain projects, what is plan B, if something like the carbon tax was to result in the coal companies picking up their ball and going to China or Russia – what then? (Though all of east coast Australia would find itself paddling upstream with just one paddle if this happened.)  Basically we have made too many mistakes in our past which have contributed to the situation the region is in now.  Not enough diversity with our industry base has been developed making our local economy strong enough to maintain healthy growth should the mining/resource boom end. Of course Rockhampton isn’t the only region in this boat.

From next week our new council has a big challenge to find that acceptable balance of development, lifestyle and environment.  The Rockhampton Region is blessed with a beautiful environment, as one mayoral candidate says, “one of the best places on the planet”.  A day sailing around the Keppel’s, driving to 5 Rocks, paddling on the Fitzroy or fishing at Stanage Bay confirms this.  An environment that provides us opportunities to enjoy a great lifestyle.  This is what we need to be aggressively promoting and target the indirect benefits of the mining/resources boom, a place for workers and their families to live, to play.  We need a pro-active council, with new thinking to make this happen.  For example – a council that holds talks with the lease holders of Great Keppel Island (Towers Holdings) to see if there are opportunities to use the existing infrastructure or the island to help house some of the workers on Curtis Island, instead of leaving it just sitting behind security fences. Imagine what this could stimulate.  A Council that proactively collaborates with Gladstone and other regions to maximise the benefits, short and long term, of its mining/resource boom, and determine ways the regions can prosper after the boom. For example fast train infrastructure connecting the regions to not only transport workers but develop tourism opportunities. A pro-active Council that sets its own direction and tells the State Government what is needed, like a high school for Gracemere or unique foreshore development for Yeppoon, instead of waiting to see what it may be offered to co-fund. 

From next week the new council needs to do (or hopefully update) a SWOR (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and risk) analysis of the region. Then armed with the information be pro-active in generating community acceptable development seeking both state and federal government as well as private sector support.  Our region has been too reactive and narrow minded for too long. Today is an opportunity for a real change.  A change that just might be up to the challenge of stimulating community acceptable development, attracting more people to the region, broadening our revenue base, putting on hold further steep increases in our rates and/or debt.

An Enthralling Bricks & Mortar Journey

“Hey we got to go into the store on the corner, they’ve got a football field in the middle of it, I bet I can score more goals then you.” “Not before we go into this dress shop I just got a text saying they’ve just received a new range from my favourite designer in my size, I got to see what it looks like on me on their life size interactive screen”. “I just got a text too; we can get 2 coffees for the price of one just across the street”.

Will this be East Street, Rockhampton in a few years? One hopes something like this will happen. In a way it’s got to. More competition for shopper’s dollars will drive it. Competition like a Westfield Shopping Centre with two hundred plus shops, 3000 brands, open 24 hours a day seven days a week with trolleys ready now to take Central Queenslanders money. This is no aspiration for the future it’s here. Didn’t you notice it getting built; after all it’s a huge site. In fact Westfield declared it was ready for business with a full page advertisement in last Saturday’s paper.  Not a bricks and mortar shopping centre an online shopping centre. On-line shopping, how convenient is that. And it is going to get even easier to do, as technology continues to delve into the realms of science fiction. The 2002 movie “Minority Report” is now practically reality, well the shopping part anyway.  Apparently you’ll be able to buy online just by putting on a pair of glasses, no computer screen needed. Will online shopping (or e-commerce) be a nail in the coffin of bricks and mortar stores or energises them. What will the shopping centre of the future look like and what of locally owned stores?  I’m no shopaholic, but my general observation of shopping centres is that they’re pretty much the same.  The size may vary but the general mix of tenants in all centres is pretty much the same, national stores and franchises.  A walk around any regional city CBD however reveals stores you don’t find in shopping centres.  Sure it might be a rent issue, but maybe because of it CBD shopping can reveal a surprising variety of shops, products and services.  Shopping can be just going to pre-determined destinations to buy particular products.  It can also be a journey, a social occasion, interacting with people, making unplanned visits to stores and purchases.  Thus I see the challenge for retailers, particularly local businesses is to make this journey enthralling, maybe even enchanting.  Technology is going to continually raise the benchmark of what enthralling is.  Awesome service and competitive pricing will also be essential for local shops to survive.  However hasn’t this always been the case?  Online shopping can be viewed as a threat or an opportunity. Westfield decided to go online because of the threat of online stores like E-Bay, but now they see it as an opportunity to expand into markets like Central Queensland without building a physical centre. Personal experience with a local business threatened by cheaper online stores provided a surprising result. After they got their e-commerce web site built, and with some promotion through Facebook not only did they start getting online orders but visitation to their bricks and mortar store also increased. The variety of stock their web site revealed resulted in more people dropping into the store, paying more than they could have online. It’s got to the point the business has employed an additional team member.  There will always be shoppers who want to enjoy the journey as much as their purchases.  The journey will quite likely evolve to standing in front of life size screens waving your hands around to see what you look like in the latest fashions with the co-ordinating accessories, clicking the Facebook link to get friends opinions before making a purchase.  A sports store (or any store) having a digital football (soccer) field on the floor encouraging the customer to play a game with a digital ball.  An enthralling journey, that’s the challenge for local retailers.  Provide an off-line experience that shoppers enjoy, they’ll go online and let others know.  Being unique provides the locally owned and operated business the opportunity to stay open on and off line. If you’re a retailer what kind of future are you going to create for your customer?

What's the Plan for the Region

Trundle, ever heard of it?  Up to a few weeks ago I hadn’t, but this town in NSW of less than 500 people now has its own weekly national television show – Country Town Rescue.  To attract people to live in their dying town five homes were offered at a $1 a week rental.  This raw reality program demonstrates what a community can do to keep their small country town just that, hopefully for the next five, ten, fifty years.

While definitely not a dying region I wonder that the Rockhampton region needs to do to attract more people to live here.  Could towns like Marlborough, Bajool, Westwood or Mount Morgan benefit from a Trundle like initiative?  Or is the plan to sit on our hands as more services leave these towns encouraging people to leave for the bigger centres, all in the name of efficiency.

 What is the plan for the whole of the Rockhampton region?

The Council has a vision for the region to be the most liveable community in the world. However their website gives little detail. (Just finding the vision statement in the website is a challenge.)  Does everyone in the region buy into this vision anyway?  This to me has been the biggest failing of amalgamation for our region; the lack of a plan on how to include all the communities that make up the Rockhampton Region to truly feel a part of it.  The Name for the regional council was wrong.  Changing it though is maybe not the most prudent use of rate money’s.  The top down approach Council seems to be taking rather than a bottom up (grassroots) approach is wrong.  For people to buy into a forced amalgamation they need to feel their views are heard.  Council did conduct their “Be Heard” workshops but I understand only 51 recommendations were received.  A sign that more work needs to be done to encourage people to feel a part of the region and thus more willing to contribute. To assist we need a slogan that reflects positively on the whole region.  Extending Rockhampton City Beef Capital of Australia title to the whole region is a big brother top down approach and not the answer.  Perhaps a competition could be conducted to gain grass roots input for a slogan and hopefully acceptance of it.  A slogan will help in the region’s branding, giving people a reason to think more about Rockhampton region.  If Council does nothing and brands like Great Keppel Island Resort, Zilzie Bay, and Gracemere develop their own separate image without a blanket regional slogan then the fracturing will continue.  Just look at Las Vegas, with all the multi million dollar casinos, hotels, resorts, ego’s, etc., one unifying statement brings it all together, - ‘what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas’. That was planned, it didn’t just happen.

Amalgamation has not been perfect, but was it perfect before?  The next Council needs to bring a new approach to the way amalgamation is managed; de-amalgamation is not the solution to the current problems.  New thinking is needed and a plan on unifying all the communities that make up Rockhampton region needs to be prepared.  Our region is changing; we can manage the change or sit by and see what happens. Much like what has happened for the past ten years or more.  Inaction that now sees the Rockhampton Region not benefitting as much as it should from the current resource boom.  Fail to plan, then plan to fail.  Before all the Mayoral candidates fall over their feet to say they are in favour of de-amalgamation in an effort to win votes, I urge them to look for new ways to make amalgamation work.  In the long term I believe amalgamation will make us all stronger.  Strong leadership and a willingness to listen are needed.  Maybe like the LNP did with Campbell Newman, bring in someone new without the baggage, without the old prejudices.  It’s going to take some time to achieve, but if we all feel part of our region, part of a unifying plan and vision, then together we will all be stronger communities and region for it.  Something Trundle I believe will become with its warts and all portrayal of living in a country town.

Make One of the Lights at the End of the Tunnel a Train

Be interesting to see if any of the Mayoral aspirants respond to this column with their aspirations.

A producer of Sixty Minutes was on the phone to the Mayor’s office, “we want to do a feature story on Rockhampton, a city that despite being in the heart of Australia’s greatest ever resource boom is identified as one of the ten most disadvantaged cities in Australia.  We feel there is an interesting story here and want to get local perspectives on the reasons behind this.  Would the Mayor be available for an interview?”

How would our five Mayoral aspirants handle that scenario?  An opportunity to sell Rockhampton, or make excuses and pass blame for poor planning, or simply decline the national television exposure.  If the opportunity was accepted how would the next Mayor respond to the following questions (especially if asked during Beef Week)?

(i)                   Do you believe persisting with the Beef Capital of Australia slogan has negatively affected people’s perception of Rockhampton as a place to re-locate to?

(ii)                Why hasn’t the Council been more pro-active in fighting for the early roll out of the National Broadband Network (NBN)?

(iii)               Why in a region screaming out to fill jobs does Rockhampton have an unemployment rate of approximately 7%?

(iv)              Why do 10000 people want to de-amalgamate from the Council?

(v)                If the resource boom were to end tomorrow, what would be Rockhampton’s future?

(vi)              It’s been described as the gap in the Queensland map.  Why is that?

(vii)             Why should people consider moving to Rockhampton to live?

(viii)           What is Rockhampton doing to attract new industry/jobs to Rockhampton?

(ix)              Why in the eye of the resource boom are property prices flat?

Hopefully the next Mayor in this scenario would accept the opportunity and see the national coverage offered as exactly that, an opportunity.  An opportunity to start reversing the negative image created from previous national coverage Rockhampton received of last years flood.  Despite being seemingly behind the eight ball in comparison to other centres in Central Queensland, like Mackay, Gladstone and Emerald and a high percentage of disadvantaged in the community, in the right light and with genuine enthusiasm these apparent weaknesses can become our strengths.  Rockhampton region has people wanting work; Rockhampton region has affordable housing; Rockhampton region offers both sea change and tree change lifestyles; Rockhampton region has the chance to learn from other regions mistakes as it actively pursues opportunities its geographic position provides.

Of course the Sixty Minutes reporter would be trying to paint a picture of poor planning, poor leadership, a region grown reliant on government incomes and spending; but a vibrant Mayor brimming with genuine enthusiasm could positively respond to the above questions, not dwelling on the past, but projecting an image of a region ready to go forward, ready to meet the new challenges that lay ahead. A Mayor that’s not weighed down with baggage, but one with a new set of eyes, has a long term plan and will persistently fight to see solid foundations are correctly laid. 

The Mayor would be a salesperson for the region that through their enthusiasm inspires others to get involved at grass roots level eager to help lay the solid foundations for the community.  A salesperson that inspires others to live, work, play and invest in the region.  A salesperson that sees the national exposure a Sixty Minutes interview would offer as part of a platform to build a new dynamic vibrant image of Rockhampton region. 

Let’s hear more about the Mayoral candidate’s aspirations for our regions future than who didn’t do what so many years ago. We’re in a new era, with new challenges, new opportunities.  It’s time Rockhampton region embraced a new direction and dared to dream big.  Hopefully one of the five Mayoral aspirants agrees and sees one of the lights at the end of the tunnel is a train; a fast train travelling between Rockhampton and Gladstone, and eventually west out to Alpha and beyond.