Townsville Mayor Jenny Hill lobbies for piece of pie
Townsville Mayor Jenny Hill has called for a major shake up of regional zoning in order to stop cities like the Sunshine Coast and Gold Coast from hogging the bulk of funding.
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TOWNSVILLE Mayor Jenny Hill has called for a major shake-up of regional zoning to stop cities such as the Sunshine Coast and Gold Coast from hogging the bulk of funding.
The ambitious declaration was made in response to a recent population growth report by the Regional Australia Institute, which analysed data from the 2011 and 2016 Census to track movements of people in and out of regional regions.
Cr Hill said that the group tended to focus on its membership base and Townsville was not a member.
The “Big Movers” report listed Townsville the third most attractive for Millennials behind the Gold Coast and Sunshine Coast but Cr Hill said this was largely due to our high Australian Defence Force presence and two universities. She said it was a concern and challenge for local government to be constantly bidding against places such as the Sunshine Coast and the Gold Coast for events and infrastructure funding that could have major long-term economic benefits for Townsville.
“We do suffer and it’s has to be a real debate we have with government, particularly at a federal level because how do they define regional?” Cr Hill said.
“It’s a very small pie of funding and for them to be considered as regional when in reality they benefit from massive infrastructure spends in the Brisbane area, it just means there’s less money that flows into regional areas like Townsville, Ayr, Home Hill, Ingham and all our smaller surrounding communities.
“If you’re within an hour or two hours from a capital city and you’re screaming for high-speed trains so you can move workers in and out then you’re not really a regional city and don’t face the same challenges.”
Despite unprecedented job losses caused by COVID-19 nationally, Cr Hill said Townsville would be in a better position than other regional communities trying to claw themselves out of the recession.
“I’ve spoken to a lot of former Townsvillians who’ve moved back during the COVID lockdown and are operating their businesses semi-remotely from here,” she said.
“It was far more comfortable in North Queensland than it was in Sydney CBD.
“The reality is that it can be cheaper living in the regions, especially when buying houses, schools and all the bits and pieces in between.
“We’ve got to have a net migration if we’re going to grow Townsville.”
Net migration into the area has been slightly more than 1 per cent for the best part of the past decade.
“We need to pull those people either out of the capital cities or the other way is through migration and that’s a debate we need our community to understand.”
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Cr Hill said diversification of private industry was an untapped area that needed a lot of immediate attention to capitalise on the region’s potential in luring big companies to Townsville.
“We proved it with Adani. It wasn’t just about setting up here, it’s the lifestyle that attracted people and the fact we want those businesses in our region and I think they’ve become the poster boy,” she said.
“A lot of people forget that Telstra runs one of Australia’s biggest call centres out of Townsville so the ability to do that is because a lot of the business inputs are a lot less than in Brisbane, Sydney or Melbourne.
“We’ve been doing quite a bit of work in the background to try to get big tech companies here and that’s why the Lansdown area is extremely important.”
Not only is Townsville the largest garrison city in Australia but its defence industries potential is enormous, and Cr Hill said it could be one of the major industries for long-term economic security of the region. Townsville will soon cement itself as a leader in cyber security with the development of a node designed to protect businesses from cyber attacks as part of delivering the Smart Townsville strategy.
Federal Government figures report cybercrime costs the economy more than $1 billion a year and with businesses increasingly going digital, safeguarding personal and business data has become a national priority.
More than 17,000 cyber security jobs will be needed in the next five years and Cr Hill wanted Townsville to be in a position to fill them.
Certificate IV in cyber security is to be delivered by TAFE Queensland at its Pimlico campus from July 13, 2020.
“You take companies like Cubic for example. Its head office is in Townsville so a lot of the work they do for defence is here,” she said.
“There are a lot of opportunities for other companies to piggyback off that technology as we lead into the 21st century.”
Originally published as Townsville Mayor Jenny Hill lobbies for piece of pie