Covid support for businesses crucial to sustaining migration and infrastructure growth

The head of a national consulting firm has outlined what he says will be the key to supporting business on the Sunshine Coast as the booming region recovers from the pandemic.

The head of one of Australia’s largest advisory firms says Covid-19 support for businesses will be crucial to the Sunshine Coast sustaining its rapid growth.

PricewaterhouseCoopers Australia chief executive Tom Seymour said certainty around regulations and clarity for businesses would be critical to enabling small and medium enterprises in the region to rebuild.

Mr Seymour said business support would be vital to ensuring the region could sustain long-term the accelerated growth being driven by interstate migration and large-scale infrastructure projects.

It comes amid a sharp rise in migration from the country’s capital cities following the shift to remote working during the Covid-19 pandemic, enabling workers to live in regional areas for lifestyle reasons and a lower cost of living.

Mr Seymour said current and future public infrastructure would play an important role in supporting the region’s rising population numbers and improving productivity.

Supplied Editorial Fwd: PwC's Tom Seymour op-ed

“If you’re in the Sunshine Coast and you’ve got to drive down to Brisbane three days a week it’s still a disincentive, so the rail corridor project is critical as it links to interstate migration and that ability to do highly paid jobs and it brings in a permanent, highly skilled workforce which spend money and generates downstream,” Mr Seymour said.

“A real critical piece of infrastructure that will pay dividends is the airport extension with the new runway that’s been built because that will take volume. I think the economics of that project really fit in and link to that workforce dynamic.”

A report by property experts Direct Collective indicates the Sunshine Coast’s economy which is currently worth around $17b is estimated to nearly double to $33b by 2033.

As businesses look to pick up from Covid-19 lockdowns and restrictions, Mr Seymour said ongoing support and easing regulations would be vital for companies moving forward.

“Certainty around regulations, clarity and ease to do business is going to be important and skills and access to talent and policies around that are what I think are business will be looking at on the Sunshine Coast,” Mr Seymour said.

“At this stage of the pandemic we need clarity and consistency in the rules and restrictions coming out of it as we open up.

“How we go away from government support to letting people have a free run and not intervening with lockdowns and restrictions, opening borders, and a consistent way to get international tourists back, it’s really going to be about those policies which are at the state level.”

The proposed rail system connecting Maroochydore to Brisbane as part of the state’s 2032 Olympics has been earmarked as one of the major projects being delivered as part of the event.

PwC has conducted research into the plans, however the company did not wish to comment on its preference between light or heavy rail.

PwC was engaged by the Sunshine Coast Council in July, 2019 to deliver a crucial report on the council’s controversial mass transit project.

PricewaterhouseCoopers produced its Sunshine Coast Mass Transit Preliminary Business Case interim findings report in January, 2020.

Mr Seymour will be attending the Sunshine Coast Business Council lunch event as a keynote speaker on Friday to discuss challenges and opportunities for the region’s business sector.