Robert Oakeshott (Lyne, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise tonight to report to the House, and also back to the electorate of Lyne, on some of the targeted strategic planning issues that several of us have been working on in the local area of the Mid-North Coast to try and achieve some real, long-term outcomes in both employment and education. I arrived 18 months ago in what could only be considered a changed environment in this place, with a vote being put to the House in the first fortnight of my coming here with regard to an $80 billion stimulus package. So it is an understatement to say there was both a lot happening normally within the role of the Commonwealth government and, at the time of the financial storms and the response from government in the form of a stimulus plan, that it was a particular time of Commonwealth swirl with regard to the amount of money and activity that the Commonwealth was engaging with the community on.

It was for that reason a few of us sat down early on in my time in federal politics and decided to try and be a bit strategic. The key areas that we focused on included trying to get Regional Development Australia up and running—I am really pleased to see that has now happened—and also the transition from area consultative committees across to RDAs.

There was and still is a great deal of interest in the education and training reforms that we are seeing in the post-Bradley environment, and all the key words—collaboration, pathways and pipelines—that we hear constantly in regard to the issues of change in the field of education. The third area was in relation to our region being identified as a priority region with regard to employment and accessing things such as a local employment coordinator and the development of a Jobs Plan. The strategic decisions we made were to focus in around those three general themes and to really hit 2009 as hard as we could, in an effort to maximise those and then to pop out the other side with a plan that hopefully incorporated all three of those general themes—and we are now at that point.

I will summarise some of the events of 2009 sitting underneath those three general areas. We established an education and skills forum. Our area was one that received two Australian technical colleges—

Julia Irwin (Fowler, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Two!

Robert Oakeshott (Lyne, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Two! It was a long process of seeing those transitions at a community level into a role either within the education sector—and Catholic education sector—in Port Macquarie, or within the local government, the Greater Taree City Council, to take on the building in the Taree community. So thankfully that was not lost to the community.

As a consequence, the flow-on from that was the establishment of an education and skills forum. All the private, public, secondary and tertiary sectors were sitting in a room and talking every three to four months. I was surprised that this was not happening before I arrived. I was surprised at how difficult it was for many people within the education sector to sit in a room and talk. But now we have some really vibrant discussions going on in what I consider to be a relatively seamless approach to education in our local area—and from that better outcomes as a consequence.

In 2009 we had several very good Keep Australia Working forums as part of being the priority region. From that, we have some detailed strategic planning and half-a-dozen core areas to focus on. As well, we saw the establishment of the RDA mid-North Coast and the morphing of the state and federal government regional department areas. That requires more resources and support, and more belief from government in the RDA network and the belief that regional development actually matters. But we are pleased that this has finally happened and that there is something on the ground that can play an advocacy and lobbying role, and it is doing that now. We also held a very successful jobs expo at the start of this year. Thank you very much to Centrelink for its role in putting a letter in everyone’s letterbox and for drawing a very big crowd and some very good outcomes. The expected outcome of 250 jobs being found on the day was substantially beaten by the 400 actual jobs found on that one day. The model of having a one-stop supermarket-type expo is one that we want to replicate, not necessarily doing it without too much government support—other than the Centrelink letter—but rather empowering the community to do it.

In the past couple of years we have had two very successful business industry showcases, which are more about long-term engagement with career advice for school-aged children. The latest one was held last month and was very successful. We are into the second year of engaging the innovation festival. While there have been about 15 years of innovation festivals throughout Australia, I was surprised that it was not happening on the mid-North Coast but I am encouraged now that it is happening. We have had the second innovation festival. It is still going on this month and it has now, in just two years, become the biggest of all the regional innovation festivals within Australia, as far as the event program is concerned. The community is engaged very strongly in that.

As well, there are the Deadly Days. For those that do not know what a Deadly Days is, I would encourage you to find out. The North Coast Institute of TAFE—but I think other TAFE providers also do it—put on an Indigenous-specific expo of both career advice and entertainment. It is a point of contact that demystifies what education and TAFE in particular is about. They had attendances this year at the three campuses of over 500 potential Indigenous students. The results are that Indigenous engagement within TAFE and within the education sector of the mid-North Coast has skyrocketed, which is a lesson for others to replicate. The figures for unemployment within the Indigenous community on the mid-North Coast in August 2006 were one in four—that is, 26½ per cent. It is shameful, as the reflection on everyone within the system, that we are at that level. I am thrilled that we are now, at a community level, starting to turn that around.

These are all steps that have been taken under those general themes and we are now starting to roll the end of the priority employment region into, hopefully, some well-resourced Regional Development Australia work. We will start the transition across there. It is important that RDA does get well funded into the future. As we see these priority employment areas start to wind down, it is necessary that RDA starts to wind up at the same time. I would hope that government members and ministers take that on board. We are going to basically carry the strategies of the last 12 months across to the RDA and place a great focus on the education changes—and I think very exciting education changes—that are happening through the post-Bradley review.

We have had a good hit over the last 12 months and we think that is going to create some long-term change. We cannot force people to go into education—it is the centrepiece of all of this—but I once again urge my community under the general name of ‘study for a job, study for a job, study for a job’. It is the key to all of it, coming out of and representing a low-SES region, if we can get more people engaged in certificates II, II, IV and beyond. There are individual benefits through participation, but there are also now well-documented productivity gains at a community level. I cannot guarantee jobs as a consequence of it, but it is the best ticket anyone can buy if they are wanting to improve their chances.

This is not only about hitting up government; this is also about hitting up community and increasing the aspiration. I think it is happening. We have some really exciting things percolating on the mid-North Coast, and the combination of the strategy that we have been running over the last 18 months with that increased activity at the community level I think leads to some pretty exciting times. (Time expired)