What Does the Data say about our future?

Data, Data, Data. How do we see our future? Data is not an opinion it is “fact” and when you start to compile the data it starts to tell a story…Simon Kuestenmacher (Top 50 Demographer in the world) explained.  That was until COVID-19 reared its ugly head and then data changed course.

The data tells us people are now moving away from metropolitan Melbourne since it has become easier to work from home. We have higher earning professionals moving to regional towns bringing their skills and higher incomes with them and increasing the local economy.

The data tells us that our immigration rates dropped from 250,000 a year to -70,000 a year as less immigrants are unable to come to Australia for education or employment, and more are returning to their homelands.

These are just two statistics that are very insightful for regional areas, given their significance impact on both housing and employment.

The data shows renting houses becomes less affordable as the regional population grows. The shift of the professional workforce from metropolitan Melbourne also increases house prices. If you are a lower to middle income worker, buying that house, that “Australian dream” is getting further away. It made me think of my children and grandchildren going into the future. What does it hold if we don’t make significant change now? Simon suggests as a region we need to invest in infrastructure, and we need to do it now. This will go a long way to ensure there are no housing shortages in the future.

Immigration! The agriculture sector relies heavily on immigrants in rural areas for milking, farm hands, and fruit and vegetable picking jobs. In some circumstances we have our natural resources going to waste because we haven’t got the manpower in our country to maintain these areas of work. As a region we need to look at how we train our workforce to fill these labour shortages.

Another positive is with the spread of the country’s population the pandemics become less transmissible because we are creating low density living around our country. This should help Governments start to consider infrastructure more seriously, not only in capital cities but around rural and regional areas as well.

This made me think the Leadership Great Southcoast Program is going to be even more valuable going into the future, to be able to help and support the vulnerable in our region is going to be very significant process heading into the future.

A huge thanks you to the all the presenters on another mind opening program day; Simon Kuestenmacher from The Demographics Group, Brendan Rae from Solaris Farms and Charles McElhone from Dairy Australia. These speakers really gave us an insightful look at the economy and the dairy industry from both sides of the fence.

Craig McLeod LGSC Participant 2021

Fearless leadership at the Mid-Year Retreat

“Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better, do better”. Maya Angelou

As we navigate through COVID and our ever changing environment – it was timely for the leadership team to pause, reflect and assess; to further develop our learning goals and leadership strategies as we near the half way mark of the LGSC program.

It was important for the team to reflect on the lessons learnt thus far, reflect on our own commitment and offer each other the wonderful gift of feedback whilst remaining curious on our journey. Messages which were delivered with compassion, empathy and understanding.

On a person level – I have always struggled with receiving feedback – even when it may be accurate. The moment you hear the words, you naturally become anxious and your mind begins to race and you find yourself in a very uncomfortable and unfamiliar position.  Your first instinct can often be defensive; to deny and justify your position without fully understanding the intent of the messaging.

However, once you have taken the time to dissect what has been delivered, the ability to use the honest empathetic feedback in a constructive manner means that we can learn from our weaknesses because without taking on board a well-intentioned critique, it is difficult to improve. Appropriate feedback, focused on specifics, gives all of us perspective and can open our eyes to things that we may have overlooked or indeed, never considered.

When we are defensive (instead of accepting and implementing change) we run the risk of on missing out on the important message.

It’s imperative to look at the feedback objectively and not emotionally – which can be easier said than done – but it is mark of a good leader and indeed, leadership itself.

Although we have little control over people’s opinion we do have control over how we respond to criticism.

It is important to thank the person for the gift of feedback as it comes from a place of conciliation and gratitude. Be curious about the intentions of the feedback. It will open your mind and build on the feedback to create value.

A big thank you to Corrinne Armour for facilitating the retreat and empowering us to be better leaders. Corrine’s knowledge, passion and continued support is greatly appreciated and has had an impact on us all in our journey.

Ella Credlin – 2021 Program Participant

Port of Portland connects LGSC to the world

Think global, act local was brought to life during the Taking an Industry Perspective Leadership Great South Coast (LGSC) Program Day at the Port of Portland. The grand setting of one of Victoria’s major international ports and the range of local manufacturing, energy and trade speakers allowed participants to reflect on the interplay between the major gains from international trade and the value of supporting domestic production and labour.

Steve Garner, Executive Director of Keppel Prince Engineering and Chair of the Committee for Portland, gave us a clear-eyed perspective on the strong business case for increased investment in renewable energy production and grid upgrades in Victoria and nationally. He also spoke passionately about the need for businesses to look beyond the mere dollar amount when deciding where and how to source materials and labour. Steve believes strongly in the numerous benefits and positive flow-on effects of sourcing labour and inputs locally. This strong ethic has clearly guided Steve well through his long and successful career as an engineer and founder of a manufacturing powerhouse.

Ailiche Goddard-Clegg and Loren Tuck from Deakin Hycel, a ground-breaking hydrogen research centre at Deakin University in Warrnambool, opened our minds to the huge potential of hydrogen energy use in Australia. Like most Australians, hydrogen energy was a fairly new idea for the LGSC group and not one typically included in the clean energy discussion. Ailiche and Loren helped dispel some of the confusion around the different types of ‘green’, ‘blue’, ‘brown’, ‘fuchsia’ and  ‘rainbow’ hydrogen, and got us thinking about how hydrogen could transform how we power the transport and gas industries of the future. It was also exciting to hear that Warrnambool is leading Australia’s hydrogen research and innovation, creating new local education and employment opportunities and strengthen the Great South Coast economy.

In the closing discussion of the day, participants expressed how disconnected they felt from the world of manufacturing, trade and energy production because they work in disparate industries. We were reminded by our Executive Officer that every industry relies on products and services delivered by essential manufacturing industries. Therefore, all our purchasing decisions in our professional and personal lives have flow-on effects throughout the supply chain and can be an implicit vote for domestic or international manufacturing, jobs and investment.

Thank you to the Port of Portland for hosting us and to all the speakers that gave up their time informing and inspiring the LGSC participants – Scott Hamilton Panel Member, Australian-German Energy Transition Hub and Senior Advisor, Hydrogen Australia, Smart Energy Council, Greg Tremewen, CEO Port of Portland, Steve Garner, Executive Director Keppel Prince Engineering, Mark Riley, Financial Controller Portland Aluminum, Ailiche Goddard-Clegg, Hycel Communications and Engagement Coordinator, and Loren Tuck, Hycel Project Officer at Deakin University,

LGSC 2021 Program Participant Heather Smillie

Resources for Regions

Have you ever struggled to find project or initiative funds or not had adequate resources to do your job properly? Well, our latest Safety and Wellbeing Program Day had both these in spades. Why is it that metropolitan Melbourne receives the majority of funding and resources while the country areas are under resourced?

The court system comparison from metro to county is staggering. In Melbourne, the court system is all about rehabilitation over conviction with people having access to  resources like the Neighbourhood Justice Centre and The Assessment and Referral Court (ARC). In the country we do not have this availability and that is one reason why country conviction rates are so high.

These issues don’t stop there, we learned that the police force is undermanned with many resources being diverted to cover the COVID-19 response in Melbourne, which stretches our local force to cover the basics of policing.

The resource issue continues in the mental health and addiction fields. We struggle with long waiting lists to get a bed for drug and alcohol rehabilitation.

I would like to see the gap close for all these fields. To borrow a quote from Carolyn Howe we need to use our voices and speak up, speak up for adequate funding for our region, speak up for adequate resources to aid our overworked providers. Because together, we can make change happen.

I would like to thank our fantastic presenters, Carolyn Howe, Accredited Specialist Children’s Law, Chris Asenjo, Detective Senior Sergeant- Manager, Family Violence Investigation Unit, Emma Mahoney, CEO Women’s Health and Wellbeing Barwon South West (LGSC Alumni), Christine Williams, Associate Nurse Unit Manager Drug and Alcohol Withdrawal Services and Chris Healy Research Fellow/Clinical Simulation Educator- Deakin Rural Health.

Paul Dunn, 2021 Program Participant