It’s time we secure our future

TOWNSVILLE is a city in recovery mode and the release of the 2016 Census results on unemployment show how far our city has fallen and how vital stimulus in our local economy is.

In total, there was a difference of 570 jobs between the 2011 and 2016 polls but that figure would be magnified when taken in consideration of the city’s population growth.

We know 800 jobs went overnight when Queensland Nickel went under, displacing Yabulu refinery workers.

This was followed by other job losses arriving in their dozens as firms across the city began to fold in what have been harsh conditions for business.

The council’s restructure – designed to address bureaucratic bloat created as a result of amalgamation in 2008 – has also added hundreds to these figures in voluntary redundancies but promises to deliver savings to ratepayers.

The net figure of 570 suggests many were able to find other work, but the city remains gripped by a jobs crisis.

This is why it is vital that, now the city is on the cusp of a revival, work is put into ensuring there is enough diversity in the economy to weather any kind of storm.

Many local families are excited by the prospect of Adani and its associated projects firing up, but there are also major developments happening in renewables, new technologies and other cutting- edge industries – the jobs of tomorrow.

It is for this reason that the fresh push for development of reliable, despatchable power is so exciting for the North.

There is no quicker way to grow an economy than enticing private investment in the region.

The building of a coal- fired power plant in our region will give private enterprise the confidence to invest in our region and create new industries and jobs that will grow and support our community in the decades to come.

Incentivising such an investment would also put some money where our governments’ mouths are with their rhetoric about Northern Australia.