A mining boom would dramatically alter life in South Australia and there would be a pressing need to start planning and building for it now, even if it meant borrowing and sacrificing SA’s triple-A credit rating.
This was the constant theme of a recent conference in Adelaide, organised by the Committee for Economic Development of Australia.
If WA’s experience over the past five years was any guide, even non-mining employers would be fighting for staff, the conference heard. There would be a demand for more electricity, more office blocks, more roads and major port facilities, more buses and schools – and more water.
House prices, commercial and residential rents would rise – housing affordability could become a big issue if the government did not act.
There would be intense environmental battles, and even a decline in the quality of fine dining as hospitality workers migrated to better paid jobs. Want a taxi at 5 am? Forget it – they’ll all be busy taking fly-in, fly-out workers to the airport.
The conference brought speakers from industry and local government in the West to Adelaide to discuss “WA resources overview: successes, challenges, and lessons for South Australia”.
The credit crisis and the fears of global recession were almost swept aside. Yes, there was a slowdown, but judging by most of the speakers, it had come as almost a welcome relief. Professor Clive Palmer, founder and CEO of Mineralogy Pty Ltd, assured the conference that only about 10 per cent of China’s exports would be affected by a slowdown in the US, the equivalent of lopping one per cent off China’s 12 per cent growth rate.
The huge migration of people from the Chinese countryside into the cities was forcing them to build the equivalent of five Sydneys every year, he said. The rush to supply China with the necessary raw materials had lured staff in WA from the government to the private sector, resulting in a lack of experience and expertise in the public service. This meant that approval for projects was sometimes held up for two, three or even five years.
The CEO of the City of Perth, Frank Edwards, noted that the value of building licences issued in the city had gone from $387 million in 2002/3 to $1.2 billion in 2007/8, and that did not include $2 billion in infrastructure projects.
At the same time, the number of people living in the inner city had risen by 12 per cent over the past five years, bringing a large increase in demand for the arts and cultural activities.
Passions were running high over the need for long-term vision and quality buildings versus the often brutal architecture designed to maximise the density and height on a site.
John Nicolau, chief economist at the WA Chamber of Commerce and Industry, suggested South Australia needed to think about where it would get the necessary workers and skills. WA is expected to need another 400,000 workers over the next 10 years, and on current trends it would be 150,000 people short by 2017.
(20min delay)