The same could be argued about every facet of council.. sure the CEO and other officers and councilors take an interest in economic development or road infrastructure or waste services or whatever but there needs to be a focus on looking directly at what businesses can be attracted to the region, what projects are underway or in various stages and how council can assist to fast track / work with investors to smooth the process.

It would also be great to have someone genuinely look at where council can support local business. Does council even care about this?

If a local company can provide a service to council whether it be graphic design, sub-contract earthworks or even the oil that goes in council vehicles, at a price similar to that offered elsewhere, then council should buy / engage / utilise the local product.

I can list several very clear examples of where this currently isn’t happening and this disappoints me. It might not seem important to some but by using local suppliers council is keeping ‘our’ rate money local for longer.

As for what economic development officers can achieve or were achieving under former councils:

Maryborough – Urban renewal process – under the new council this has been continued but not with the same vigor and persistance as the old council. Council has not continued to publicly lobby stake holders in this project – the lower reaches of Kent Street are still an eyesore how many years on?

Get rid of the mangroves – yes it is an economic development issue – lets count how many plants need to go and find where to plant ‘replacements’ and get on with it. Doing so could encourage stakeholders to develop their projects – marinas / river-side apartments / retail precincts etc will attract business from outside (sailing community) this will tie in with the next project I will mention – the marine industry precinct.

Marine industry precint – stalled allegedly due to GFC – the best excuse for non-achievement if ever there was one. News flash – the GFC barely touched our wonderful nation. The smart businesses are all thriving but those who were unprepared for the downturn or unable to adapt to changing conditions have struggled.

Lets get the industrial type businesses out of the Bay’s marina leaving more room for tourism orientated businesses and development and lets get a decent cluster of manufacturing businesses on the river in Maryborough. Marine Precint = Jobs

Hervey Bay – We need to identify future industries that aren’t solely reliant on tourism. Tourism is struggling globally so lets diversify. A good economic development strategy and thorough research will help point the way.

Tiaro – I understand was actively encouraging the aquaculture industry among other ‘hinterland’ type cottage industries very actively. This push to create a cluster of similar activities seemed to have been gaining good ground but under the new council I have not heard of anything further. We need to develop industries in the hinterland areas.

Sorry to be lengthy but those are just a few examples of what has been achieved and what could be achieved.

Please for our sake and that of our children (who I hope will stay in the region) lets get on with fixing our unemployment crisis – we need jobs and now!

How many Tourism officers do we have or Animal control officers?

We need more jobs and we need them now. It is a shame council has abandoned economic development.

State Government should not be expected to attract the right businesses and opportunities to our region, rather, council needs to set the direction and tap into State resources to jointly attract new investment and jobs.

Was Paul talking about 650K people, that suggests 325K workers. Ipswich is close
to other industrial/commercial areas unlike the Fraser Coast. I would suggest even
in the good times, this region has reached worker saturation point. We need new
employemnt prospects and we need them now. To keep developing without jobs
can only have one outcome and it isn’t a good one.

When talking of jobs for his area, was he talking full time or part time?
Because in this region much of our work is part time, which is why we are at the
bottom of the poverty scale according to QCOSS.

While it is good to listen and learn, there is a huge differnce between Ipswich and
here.

Sadman