Geelong’s new golden era
WITH the impending opening of WorkSafe’s new headquarters, it is good to see Geelong’s social insurance cluster continuing to thrive into the new year.
WorkSafe, together with fellow social insurance powerhouses — the Transport Accident Commission (TAC) and the National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA) — are changing the landscape of Victoria’s second city, and bringing an abundance of opportunity to Geelong’s business community.
The relocation and establishment of these three government bodies has already provided an immense economic boost to our city and region and as the demand for skills increase, so does the opportunity for new and existing businesses in Geelong to provide infrastructure support.
There is ample evidence of the benefits emerging from these demands, particularly in Geelong’s growing tech industry.
As the home to leaders in educational software with the likes of Tribal Group, app and web developers such as Enterprise Monkey and the soon-tobe-home to tech giant Live Tiles, opportunities for local businesses to support government agencies has already been established.
As a specific result of the emerging social insurance sector, Geelong is attracting a diverse array of companies to our region.
One new member of Geelong’s business community is Dialog Information Technology.
Among Australia’s leading IT service providers, Dialog recently opened a new office in Geelong after being attracted by the state and federal governments’ investment into supporting Geelong’s social insurance cluster.
Established in 1979, Dialog has domestic and international offices and specialises in providing IT enabled solutions to help solve challenges.
The company employs 1300 staff and is consistently growing.
While its move to Geelong was part of a commitment to bring 200 new digital technology jobs to Victoria, Dialog’s principal account executive, Brian Fitzpatrick, confirmed that its main motivation was Geelong’s growing social insurance cluster.
“We believe our investment into the Geelong market will better enable the region to cope with the increased demand for skills, particularly as new large organisations like WorkSafe and the NDIA settle in,” Mr Fitzpatrick said.
Dialog is now providing mobile application development services and digital consulting services to the TAC, as well as professional services in the form of business analysis to the NDIA.
Even with this growth, the Committee for Geelong believes there is still a need for Victoria’s second city to further solidify its national and international status as a hub for social insurance. As evidenced by our research report, Winning from Second: What Geelong can Learn from International Second Cities, there is further potential to expand Geelong’s world-wide status.
Australia has an opportunity to be a global leader in social insurance, and the success of the social insurance organisations located in our city demonstrates that Geelong can lead this expertise.
With both state and federal elections looming, it is vital that local businesses support the growth of Geelong’s social insurance sector and, more specifically, the relocation of Federal Government agency Comcare from Canberra to Geelong.
This relocation will cement Australia’s social insurance centre of excellence as being unique to Geelong city and the region, and provide great opportunities for Geelong’s business community to further connect and thrive.