Articles

Tuesday 10 April 2012

Welcome to the first edition of Ideas for a new North for 2012.

Once a fortnight, we will be bringing you an update on important news and views on Northern Australia.

The NT News had this to say on 25 March: “Darwin is undergoing an economic revolution…it will be the Houston of northern Australia – vigorous and wealthy.”  Click here for the full editorial.

There are even more concerns about housing affordability in FIFO mining towns. The NT News has highlighted soaring property and rental prices. And a new FIFO route has just begun between Albany and the Pilbara.

Companies are looking overseas for employees as a reult of worsening skills shortages. The federal government will begin holding a series of expos across America to attract skilled workers to Northern Australia. Western Australian Skills Minister Peter Collier has been in a stoush with Labor Immigration Minister Chris Bowen over visa restrictions affecting Irish workers.

There’s worrying news from China and international commodity markets. This article from the Wall Street Journal warns of slowing sales growth in China.

And it’s not just in mining. Western Australian farmers are increasingly worried about food commodity prices as well.

On the federal front, on May 8, Treasurer Wayne Swan will deliver his fifth consecutive budget. He has promised a $1.5 billion surplus. He has foreshadowed changes to tax concessions for the mining industry, including the diesel fuel rebate.

The budget will be an opportunity for the federal government to outline a vision for Northern Australia and should include preliminary proposals for a Special Economic Zone.

IFANN will keep you posted in the lead up to the budget.

If you’d like more information on our vision for a new North please contact the Director of the project, John Shipp, at jshipp@ipa.org.au or on 0429 706 661.

Also visit our website: www.andev-project.org/

As always, please feel free to share your vision for a new North by emailing me at jroskam@ipa.org.au.

Article featured in the March 2012 edition of Australian Resources and Investment Magazine – Volume 6 Number 1.

Why is it so difficult for some people in our government and in the media to understand that we need to keep Australia cost-competitive to entice business and investment, and that investment is good for Austalia if we want to see our standards of living improve instead of the opposite?…

For more, view the PDF.

Happy Birthday Tad…

For more, view the PDF.

Mining magnate Gina Rinehart has put forward a thought-provoking idea – to move thousands of Federal Government bureaucrats from Canberra to Alice Springs…

For more, view the PDF.

Australia’s wealthiest person wants to shift federal bureaucrats out of Canberra and base them in the bush and the country’s north…

For more, view the PDF.

She could sit on a yacht, take it easy on the beach, or selfishly stay out of everyone’s reach…

For more, view the PDF.

Article featured in the December 2011 edition of Australian Resources and Investment Magazine – Volume 5 Number 5.

Sometimes I think we, as a nation, forget important fundamentals. Natural resources and people on the land and in our north contribute a major portion of the wealth of our country…

For more, view the PDF.

West Australia: Business Hub in the Twenty First Century

Today I intend to outline very briefly, as excellent speakers before me have also given their views on this, our economic situation, speak about the challenges facing us as a nation and also mention the opportunity before us to transform ourselves into a growing business hub for this century, should we choose that path. …

For more, view the PDF.

Article featured in the September 2011 edition of Australian Resources and Investment Magazine – Volume 5 Number 4.

Most Australian governments have had some understanding of the large capital investment required for long development horizons and the need to attract substantial investment. Mining is a high-risk business and commodity prices set on the world stage are notoriously volatile over the life cycle of any project. There is enormous international competition for capital and governments that introduce greater risk and expense do so at the peril of their own economies and people…

For more, view the PDF.

North Queesland – The Case for a Special Economic Zone July 19 2011

For more, view the PDF.