With the East Coast being battered by floods unseasonal rains and floods there is enormous amount of roadworks to be done not just in rectification but in correction of the emissions of the past. If we can expect more unseasonal monsoon style events, we need to take note of the need for substantially improved road building, not just in the major arteries but in country areas as well.
Regional Australia desperately needs an upgrade of the road systems and that means governments need to spend serious money and to lift their game in terms of expectations of the quality of the job.
The days of just patching up potholes and moving on should be over!
We should mention dams above as well! Australian Earthmoving, and the Author of this story, Warwick Lorenz have been campaigning with the Federal and State Government’s now for almost a decade for water security for regional Australia.
This is not some kind of new inspiration that will solve all of our problems but rather an old inspiration that never got up! The Federal Government’s move to finance $5.4 billion for the Hell’s Gate Dam on the Burdekin River in Queensland is a first-class step forward but is only a fraction of the work that needs to be done.
It was calculated by the Abbott Government, (Barnaby Joyce and Tony Abbott combined to bring their influence to bear on this), that drought proofing Australia would cost approximately $30 billion dollars. That was a decade ago so you can imagine now we’re talking about $60 to $80 billion. Sounds like the cost of one nuclear submarine!
Surely it’s time we shook off our lethargy and did something about developing this fabulous country.
A NEW ERA OF INSECURITY
The Ukraine war and the impending potential conflict with China over Taiwan means that we can no longer be the sleepy 26 million people occupying a vast island continent! The pressure is on to develop the country and that means bringing in loads more immigrants. The right immigrants, people who want to work and who bring their talents to better develop the huge possibilities of Australia should be made welcome.
Here are the benefits of another 10 million workers. It will take a Government with the imagination and courage to get involved in what mounts to nothing less than “Changing the Australian Landscape”.
Now you know why this story is directed at the earthmoving industry! We know we have the gear, we know we have the expertise. What we will need is lots more equipment, more willing employees and to ability to apply the finance to the massive projects to lift Australia out of the doldrums.
HERE’S A LIST OF THE BENEFITS
- More Taxes
Everybody I talk to at the moment says they’re looking for employees and are advertising and getting no response. It doesn’t matter if we’re talking about Farmers, hospitality people, involved in manufacturing and particularly the construction business. The shortage of willing talent in this country can’t be ignored.
It seems to me that the Government’s got two possibilities here, they can start paying dramatic baby bonuses in which case we might get a dividend in 25 years time or, go back to a serious campaign to recruit the right people that we need to help bring the country on.
It doesn’t matter what country they come from, who cares about their religion or color. What we need is talented people who want to work! It can’t start happening soon enough. These people will pay taxes.
In the process of paying taxes they will do quality work but will enrich the country by helping us to develop while they enjoy a better life! This will give us a sense of increased security and, enable us to fund an increased Defence capability.
- Developing Regional Australia
We have the opportunity to move away from our reliance on $350-$400 billion worth of mineral exports per year. When it comes to agricultural production, we export around 65% to 80% of what we grow, thus playing a vital role in feeding the world
We have to accept the reality that the world population is still growing at an alarming rate with the possibilities of 8 billion within reach within a decade. It’s sobering that in 1945, the end of the Second World War; the world population was 3 billion. You can see the pressure is on agriculture to produce quality food and fibre!
Australia is ripe for that except for one factor. WATER SECURITY!
With ‘stop-start’ programs like the Ord River, we’re embarrassed to see huge reservoirs of water, The Ord Dam particularly, with massive flows pouring into the Arafura Sea every day. The lack of distribution networks of channels to get that water into grazing land!
Why is grazing country the problem? It’s simple, that land can be converted into a high-value cropping land, therefore producing lots more income for Australia
You could echo that same concept everywhere in the country particularly when you think back to the 6-year drought that devastated our Agricultural Industries!
We need a more even spread of population. It’s incredible to think that 65% of us all live in 4 cities. Worse, 85% of us live on the Coast. In other words, the inland is as empty as it was 200 years ago!
Regional Australia can be developed but it needs first and foremost water and secondly transport networks to bring us all closer together. It takes money, which brings us back to benefit number one, more taxes!
- Help the Environment
This is something that seems to terrify our Politicians! We can no longer blame a tiny minority of the population who subscribe to a fanatical green agenda that doesn’t want to develop anything!
Those well-meaning folk don’t realise that this country will not survive without developing itself. When we know that our Asian neighbors already know as much about the possibilities of Australia as we do. For that matter, they may even know more.
The Greens should be promoting the idea of drought proofing the country.
“Build those Dams, Plant Trees”! What a slogan! Then they’d be doing something proactive instead of just trying to stop progress.
In a world of growing population, we can’t solve climate change issues doing nothing! The Hunter Valley and Queensland’s coalmines once were huge primeval forests. With water those forests can be recreated, Australia could develop as a major lumber supplier to the world.
More jobs, more wealth, more security, for your children and grandchildren!
- Mining is growing but what about value adding?
How about instead of allowing the economy to be supported by a quarter of a million involved in the mining industry, who by the way are doing a fabulous job of extracting huge amounts of bulk material and shipping it North, we could start processing ourselves.
Anybody who’s looked at history knows that the real money is in value adding, not supplying raw material. We don’t even have enough people to mine the products let alone process it
Visionaries like Twiggy Forrest believe in an Australian steel industry that can compete with our Chinese customers! Of around 1.6 million tons of steel produced each year, China produces half, we know with Iron Ore from Australia.
The same comment applies with Copper. Copper is the new currency as more electric cars we build the more copper we’re going to need. Ok. Let’s go!
Not so fast. First of all we have to get a Government that’s got the breadth of understand to know the depth of what needs to be done! They will need the ability to sell it to the population, so we bring all Australians along with us on this program. Everybody wins!
Development, means more wealth. More wealth means more taxes, more taxes means more military security, more education, better health services, better transport systems. I think it’s called civilization!
Our industry can make a huge impact but we need leadership at State, Federal and even Local Government levels. We could build those hundred dams that Tony Abbott and Barnaby wanted to build. Let’s be bold!
IF NOT NOW. THEN WHEN?
