Maitland Business Chamber Election Debate

Speech by Kellie Tranter

15 February 2007

What do you see as the major employment and business opportunities in Maitland over the next decade?  Where will they come from, what resources will be required?

If I had the ability to accurately foresee business opportunities over the next 10 years do you think I would or should share my secrets?  Unfortunately, I don't have that ability, so my comments are probably a matter of speculation rather than prediction.

In the short term, as things stand, the development of new housing and industrial estates promises significant employment opportunities, as does the expansion of coalmining in adjacent areas.  The spin-off areas that service the mining industry obviously will benefit from the mining boom, which I suspect will continue over the next decade, and the projected expansion of the mining sector should create increased and potentially new business opportunities.

The creation of many other opportunities will depend substantially on government policies at all levels of government.  At the Federal level, one sad example that comes to mind is the bio-diesel plant at Rutherford.  Imagination, innovation and a lot of hard work by those people produced a viable industry with a very wide expansion potential, but a simple change in Federal Government policies; that happened to favour one of the large oil companies; has probably significantly dampened those opportunities.

We have got the same thing at State level.  One example that I know of is a person with entrepreneurial talent who thinks that grey water should be integrated into BASIX standards - which is obviously sensible given our current water problems - and who has the expertise and capacity to implement those obviously necessary changes.  He's ready to go but the State Government isn't.  That's a potential export industry for the Hunter Valley that I will bet will be lost to better connected entrepreneurs.  But then again you all saw Dame Edna on Tuesday night launching her campaign for PM with a grey water proposal for Sydney Harbour!

The reality is that the job of the State Government - and of any government - is not to stifle opportunity.  Finding opportunity is not the Government's job, that's your job.  What the Government has to do is to make sure as far as it can that what happens in the State is truly for the benefit of all its citizens.  If business activities or business opportunities that are not inconsistent with that common interest arise, then the State Government has to ensure that business isn't held back by unnecessary regulation, by short sited objectives and by punitive tax regimes.

And also at the State level much depends on Government funding coming into the area, both in terms of properly funding the operation costs of social support networks and essential services like schools and hospitals and in terms of proper spending on infrastructure maintenance and improvement.  Proper funding will provide direct additional employment and reduced underemployment.  It would also provide business opportunities in the local area in terms of demand for local skills and material for local suppliers.  But if history is any guide you would have to be looking through rose coloured glasses to expect much from Macquarie Street without outspoken local representation, and that is what I hope to be able to provide.

Finally Local Government also needs to look at what it can do to enhance employment and business opportunities.  Its policies contribute significantly to the competitive environment in which business operates and they must be as favourable to business and as favourable to increased employment of those of adjacent areas, if not better.  I think there's room for improvement.  Without changes in the regulatory system competitors from other States, particularly Queensland and Victoria, have a walk up start.

Apart from those things, I think long-term opportunity comes from a positive social cohesion and from better education and training of young people.  If we can enhance the education and skills of young people we are likely to develop more young entrepreneurs, we are likely to have a more stable and better paid workforce, and we are likely to have less negative drains on our resources - like the cost of vandalism and crime, policing and court and rehabilitation systems.  But that depends on an attitude shift, not the opportunistic short term, quick fix promises that the major parties drag out at election time and then shelve for the next four years.

What is your vision for the community?

My vision for the community is substantially irrelevant.  What is more important is the visions that the community has for itself.  Unfortunately at the moment I suspect that that vision is not clear.  What we need to do is to get the community thinking, listen to what they say and formulate long term goals and plans to support them.

What we must always remember is that governments only govern with the consent of the people who elect them: people need to realise that and governments ought never to forget it!

We all know that people are tired of fighting for basic services that every good government should provide; they're tired of listening to parliamentary debates that don't focus on real issues.  We want a responsible government that serves the needs of the people that it represents.  You are all here expressing concern about the future, about the Maitland area or the Maitland electorate; think of how much better off all of the people in this electorate would be if governments spent our money on frontline services instead of opinion polls, advertising, politicians' pensions and consultancy fees.  Doesn't that suggest an obvious start?

People have to look outside themselves and their own self-interest to realise that we are all members of the community.  Our role is not to exploit opportunity; our role is to take advantage of opportunities that arise in the course of a joint effort to further the interests of everyone who forms part of our community.  One follows the other; the opportunity will be there and the better off our community is, the greater those opportunities will be.

My vision is that the community will understand and meet the colossal challenges they face.  It's not going to be easy; the challenges include: global warming (which even the United States has finally and very belatedly acknowledged), water scarcity - about which nothing needs to be said, foreign debt and our dependence on mineral exports, ageing population, skills shortages, affordability of essential services in the long term and so on and so forth.

What is the single most significant skill that you bring to the Maitland electorate?

Humility.

Unfortunately we have fallen into the trap of treating our politicians like rock stars.  Regardless of the outcome post March 24 - I am no better than you now and will be no better than you then.

The ability to think and act as a true independent is another skill.  I have had a lot of experience in representing people, and in pursuing their best interests.  But I regard those as subsidiary skills that I can draw on to ensure that I can act without fear or favour in serving the best interests of all people in the Maitland electorate.