The Regional Australia Institute has released a new report, entitled “Rethinking the Future of Northern Australia – More than Mines, Dams and Development Dreams”.
In a well reasoned and considered report, The RAI suggests that
the vast potential of northern Australia is being held back by serious bottlenecks in infrastructure and human capital, but strategies for sustainable economic and population growth need to shift beyond the simple solutions and polarised debate of the past 50 years.
For those living and working in rural areas, the importance of providing genuine pathways to skilled employment for local populations, particularly young-people, is paramount. We understand in great detail, the challenges of ageing rural populations and structural adjustments. This is more than just a “microcosm” of the challenges facing our national economy.
Working in the field of skills development, labour markets and rural and regional planning, the nature of this model of collaboration and its result, has genuinely raised my interest and admiration.
The genesis of this idea [among others] came about during a meeting of 11 School Councils in 2005.
I have had the honour of attending the dual official opening[s] of the $AUD 11.3 Million dollar, Central Ranges Trade Training Centre, a unique collaboration of nine Government and Catholic secondary schools spanning a potential student population of some 3,500 across the shires of Mitchell and Murrindindi and the City of Whittlesea.
I say “unique” with genuine intent. It is rare [at least in my 30 years of experience] to see a level of collaboration, governance and coordination, that sees a number of individual schools, TAFE Colleges [Goulburn Ovens and Kangan Batman], Industry partners and a community-based planning network [Central Ranges LLEN] agree to fore-go individual funding, to maximise and pool available funds to establish a distributed network of infrastructure and human resources to supply a quality and depth of training opportunity that is clearly greater than the some of its parts.
Today in Seymour, the “Northern Hub” was officially opened by the Federal Minister for Skills and Training, The Honourable Brendan O’Connor and the Member for McEwen, Mr. Rob Mitchell. This completed the “bookend” of the opening of the Southern Hub, at Whittlesea Secondary College, just over a week ago. This complements the two other minor hubs, established and on-stream in 2012 at Alexandra Secondary College and Assumption College Kilmore.
In this expanded regional network, there are schools from the Government and Catholic sectors, their key leaders, school Principals, have chosen to take on a level of planning complexity and responsibility that is not easily reconciled with their “day-to-day” core-business, yet is clearly in the best interests of young people and employers throughout the region to gain access to training facilities and high-level qualifications in key areas of long-term skill-shortage.
Broadford Secondary College, as lead school in the consortium, coordinated and managed the five year project, yet received no capital investment. Seymour College and Whittlesea Secondary College, provided technical, programmatic and planning expertise and shared this with all schools and partners. This is what genuine leadership is, at the community level, these leaders have taken responsibility to build something for a region and the young people within it, well-beyond their individual school gates…
The other partners, specialists, governments and individuals have all contributed, having recognised the depth of collaboration and commitment of this consortium. To also complete such a complex task on budget and ahead-of-time, certainly challenges the stereotypical view of the public sector.
A genuine model of cluster-collaboration with concrete, long-term success. Congratulations to all involved.
The Central Ranges Trade Training Centre Consortium
There is NOTHING like access to HIGH-SPEED and RELIABLE broadband infrastructure.
I have NOTHING like access to HIGH SPEED and RELIABLE broadband infrastructure.
A small rant regarding my network access today……
I have been involved, both personally and professionally, in the planning and development of information and telecommunications projects for Education, Business and Communities for almost 30 years. Most recently, my focus has turned to my region and my own needs. This seems as reasonable a case-study as any I have previously seen or worked on.
We understand the links between telecommunications access and income creation. The economic drivers for regions are many, but telecommunications infrastructure is non-negotiable in my view.
I live approximately one-hundred Kilometres from Victoria’s capital city, Melbourne [Australia’s second largest city, soon to be its largest]. As a rural resident, I live on a property without access to copper-based ADSL services [ ADSL + Distance/Loss = Bad ] and have to satisfy myself with wireless technology and services from Telstra that do not come close to those of my friends, colleagues, customers or even competitors.
My day-to-day business, my children’s education and even my community’s connectedness relies on high quality telecommunications infrastructure.
This should be a challenge to all local councillors and prospective State and Federal politicians and/or candidates.
The most recent review of the National Broadband Network [of which I am a supporter] three-year rollout map highlights what I can only describe as the “Central Victorian NBN Banana..”
The current and planned lack of access is obvious. This is a map of planned activity for the next three years. This is not the only such “Banana” in the state, but it is the one that concerns me most at present.
Given the HUGE demographic challenges being faced in this peri-urban region as well as the most recent effects of the catastrophic “Black Saturday” bushfires, I am still at a loss to understand how this region in particular will not be considered for NBN infrastructure to at least beyond 2016-17, if at all?
It is ironic that in an area of Victoria that has worked with State and Federal MP’s that have included, Fran Bailey MP, Marsha Thompson MP, Bill Shorten MP and Stephen Conroy MP as well as regional and local councils for much more than a decade to improve telecommunications and other services [such as gas pipelines], we are no closer to improved broadband infrastructure.
It seems prescient that local organisations [of which I was involved] presented both successive State and Federal Governments with a telecommunications network infrastructure plan, preliminary engineering and business case ELEVEN years ago.
The map below, which matches my “NBN Banana” was a logical network outline presented to both State and Federal Governments nine years ago – pre NBN…and was the basis of planning for a number of years by both local councils and related organisations.
This was euphemistically called a community of integrated networks or “C.O.I.N’s”
When the most detailed socio-economic scan of the Macedon, Mitchell and Murrindindi shires was completed in March 2004, it highlighted little if any coordination of education provision with health, youth or other services.
A number of communities within this region demonstrated some of the highest rates of youth disengagement [and associated social and economic problems] in the state. This was combined with labour-market dynamics that suggested a large section of the population was loosing ground in all areas of employment and training outcomes at a time when the nation was growing strongly.
The percentage of non-job ready adults was growing alarmingly, well beyond comparable regions.
A cross-sectoral and community alliance of local and regional providers already existed and was working to develop strategic initiatives designed to reform programme and service delivery to the communities they served.
At the time [2004] an alliance was formed between local governments, local progress associations and the Central Ranges Local Learning and Employment Network Inc to lobby Governments for improved telecommunications infrastructure.
The Objectives of the network were:
The network was intended to provide services to a range of agencies, communities and individuals in the region, including:
There were some relevant case studies that demonstrated the effectiveness of this type of collaboration. These included:
The Gippsland Education Precinct; and
Many similar networks existed. The goal was to create a series of bridges between existing networks and build capability, particularly in our smaller communities, with a view to synchronizing and expanding delivery right across the learning needs of our communities and our local economies.
[End of 2004 reprint]
Eleven years on and this can only be described as a failure for our [my] region.
Given the the hundreds if not thousands of hours that have been devoted by many many community and regional groups to improve broadband access for the region, it appears we are left with the “NBN Banana”.
This situation is not good for my business, as everything I do, based on my telecommunications access, is at least a factor of FIVE more expensive and a factor of TEN slower than my colleagues, clients and competitors. Even within small geographic areas, the inequity of access to such services is substantial and profound. This applies equally to the services, businesses and regional development opportunities that would or could be based around appropriate telecommunications infrastructure.
The situation for education and training providers, for those seeking to improve their skills and access to online services [because of distance and cost] also face the same structural inequality built in to our local economy.
The extrapolation of such a small case study for strategic regional and national development is clear.
In a Federal election year, rural and regional telecommunications infrastructure needs to be a major strategic priority.
At a local level, regional and council representatives need to re-consider the implications for our local economies, now and in to the future and should consider re-establishing the strategic imperative around telecommunications and consider “getting the band back together”, the alliance of numerous community organisations that worked so hard to make broadband access a priority for our region.
Let’s hope we don’t slip on the peel…
As has been reported in May , the CRLLEN has been successful in securing 0.248 Million from the Federal Government’s Community Based Demand Aggregation Broker Programme. The project is a joint partnership between the Macedon Ranges, Mitchell and Murrindindi Shires. Macedon Ranges Shire will be the lead agent.
The project is the Central Ranges Community Based Demand Aggregation Broker. The broker will work with individuals, businesses, councils and other broadband users to aggregate demand in their region and then attract the best mix of broadband service providers for local needs
The CRLLEN is working with Federal, State and Local government jurisdictions to identify the needs of communities, businesses and individuals across the CRLLEN area and develop strategies that will produce a coherent telecommunications strategy that will support increased investment, employment and education opportunities across the region.
The July 2003 meeting of the Ministerial Council for Education, Employment Training and Youth Affairs (MCEETYA) endorsed the National Bandwidth Action Plan – Learning in an online world 2003-06 as the basis for the development of the National Implementation Plan.
The National Implementation Plan 2004-05 provides the detail critical to realising the intent of the action plan, including identification of opportunities for collaborative work with the other education sectors and Commonwealth agencies. The plan is responsive to national and jurisdictional strategic policy initiatives and to changing market conditions. It recognises that increased connectivity and improved infrastructure are critical to maximising educational opportunities afforded by digital content and services.
The National Broadband Strategy announced in March 2004 addresses the recommendation of the Broadband Advisory Group that the Australian
Government adopts a coordinated approach to broadband in a national strategy. It provides funding for the:
A key element of the strategy is the appointment of the National Broadband Advisor for Education who will work closely with the school sector.
The National Implementation Plan 2004-05 leverages opportunities that flow to the school education sector from the National Broadband Strategy.
For the full story, follow this link.
Link: ICT strategy takes shape!.