How Mackay renewable energy jobs will deliver more than coal
The economics guru claims Central Queensland’s ‘new economy’ will generate more wealth and jobs for the region than the ‘old economy’ of coal.
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The coal industry continues to blow gold all over Central Queensland on the back of a dramatic escalation in prices, but economics guru Professor Ross Garnaut AC believes new industries will deliver even more for the Mackay region.
“For this region as a whole, the new industries can deliver more than coal has,” he said.
“That doesn’t mean coal disappears overnight and the current high prices mean that everyone in the industry can do very well.
“The important thing is that we make the best of those high prices.
“Use the higher incomes to invest in sustainable things.”
The professor — speaking at the Resources Centre of Excellence’s 2022 LeadIn conference alongside a host of innovators, government officials and local students — highlighted low-cost renewable energy and low-cost biomass fuel as two industries that could extend and amplify the region’s wealth.
“They are huge for the bigger region, extending from Gladstone in the south along the coast to Mackay and Townsville in the north, and inland through the Central Highlands to the beginning of the plains.
“This region is one of the world’s great sources of low-cost energy and low-cost biomass for industry.”
Professor Garnaut argued these industries would exceed coal in job creation.
“These are scarce and valuable and they will give rise to many more manufacturing and processing jobs than the old economy because it’s going to be much cheaper to use cheap Australian fuel and energy within Australia, rather than exporting it,” he said.
“Whereas coal is just as cheap in Japan or China as it is in Australia.
“So it gives our industry an advantage in the new economy.
“In this region, the Mackay coast in particular and inland through Isaac, the Central Highlands, it is wonderful country for biomass.”
The former economic advisor to Prime Minister Bob Hawke argued the federal government had been a “bit myopic” in the past decade, but said state and local government and some elements of private enterprise were more long-sighted.
He singled out mining behemoth BHP as an example of a ‘future-orientated’ enterprise.
“BHP has embraced the future,” he said.
“It recognises that coal has been a very good business for them, and at the moment it is still contributing very good profits, but they are investing in a more diverse future.”
The company has begun to roll back its exposure to coal in the Bowen Basin, offloading its Poitrel and South Walker Creek coal mines to Stanmore Resources.
It has also committed to achieving net zero carbon emissions by 2050 and will invest in critical minerals, or the minerals expected to underpin a ‘green economy’, such as copper and nickel.
Professor Garnauts predicted BHP’s investments in critical minerals would prove to be “very profitable.”
Professor Garnaut also advised governments and business to capitalise on current high prices and reinvest the profits into new and sustainable industries.
A role model lifting the tide
Artificial Intelligence guru Brooke Jamieson sees a bright future for Mackay.
She is now based in Brisbane as head of enablement - artificial intelligence, machine learning and data at blackbook.ai, an artificial intelligence consultancy firm.
But Ms Jamieson says the era of remote work could prove to be a boon for her former home.
“I think now, especially with remote work, there is such an opportunity for people to work remotely for global companies, even in the region,” she said.
“Having role models working within the community that are working here will really bring up the tide for everyone.”
Ms Jamieson was educated at North View State School, Fitzgerald State school, North Mackay State High School and St Patrick’s College before pursuing a degree in pure mathematics at the University of Queensland.
She returned home for a speaker slot at the LeadIn conference and said she was impressed at the innovative energy she saw coursing through the region.
“It’s really good to be back and see the focus on innovation that is happening,” she said.
“There are people really excited about new ideas coming in and new ways of thinking and working coming into the existing industries that are here now and the industries of the future.”
Ms Jamieson spoke at length about the role of data in the new economy and described her job as talking to people to find the questions and then talking to data to find the answers.
“It’s about the interface between highly technical developers and engineers and really non-technical business leaders who know they have a problem but don’t necessarily know how to solve that,” she said.
She highlighted her company Pipe AI product as an example of optimising business practices.
“We have a computer vision product called Pipe AI which uses artificial intelligence to analyse CCTV footage from inside pipes to detect and categorise faults that they find, and then do predictive maintenance on top of that.”
Ms Jamieson also spoke one-on-one with students on the day and said they were excited to learn what types of jobs were out there waiting for them after school.
Looking to the future
In addition to Ms Jamieson, students from Mackay State High School and Mackay North State High School mingled with leading intellectuals and innovators across the mining, tech, space and consulting industries including futurist Anders Sorman-Nilsson, data expert Melissa Wiscicki, Gilmour Space’s James Gilmour and Professor Ross Garnaut.
Mackay North State High School Grade 10 students Jacob Meikle and Amity Chase-Hodgson said it was an impressive event.
“I really liked the first part when it was the professor and Anders and they were talking about mineral resources in our area,” Jacob said.
“We’ve got our own resources to supply ourselves.”
Amity said the diverse nature of technology fascinated her.
“I’ve found there are so many aspects to technology and how everything is evolving and there are so many different fields to discover,” she said.
“It was an interesting thing to come to and learn about.”
Amity believes Mackay has a prosperous future.
“I think a lot of good people that are going to do great things are going to come out of Mackay,” she said.
Mackay North STEM teacher Stacey Austin said there was still a gap in communication between local industry and schools.
“Letting the kids know what is available, I think that’s a key part of the plan to keep the kids here, so that they can see exactly what they’ve got offered around here,” she said.
“A lot of our best and brightest are down in UQ and all those universities down in Brisbane because they don’t really see the big future and opportunities here that they get down there yet.”
In between the seminars and panel discussions, the students had the chance to test out GW3’s latest innovation in Virtual Reality tech.
The GW3 headset, built by Adelaide’s ThinkDigital, takes the viewer on an ‘economic tour’ of the 90,000 sqkm Mackay Whitsundays region.
After testing it out, Arya Patel said it was an immersive experience and expressed his keen interest in the future possibilities of VR.
“You don’t have to be in that space to experience it,” he said.
“I think it’s going to be really useful for the future, for virtual conferences.
“Right now, it’s at the beginning stage.
“There is a lot more potential for more immersiveness.”
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