Last week saw the publication of some encouraging figures on employment in the ACT. The Australian Bureau of Statistics showed that ACT private sector employment grew at 22 per cent last year, four times the national average. The main areas of growth were hotels, restaurants and tourism. The projections for next year were also good — only 3.3 per cent of businesses predicted cutting staff and 17 per cent predicted expansion.
But the message in the figures must be tempered by a couple of other factors. Public-sector employment fell by 3 per cent. Further, ACT employment growth is coming off a comparatively low base after substantially reductions in employment of previous years. And a fair amount of the high growth must be discounted by the structural change in the ACT which has seen huge cuts in the federal public service transmogrify into private-sector jobs through out-sourcing. That is no bad thing, but it cannot be counted as all new growth.
The figures are further confirmation that the ACT has changed permanently from a public-sector dominated economy to one in which the private sector has the major role.
They also confirm that the ACT has managed the change well. The ACT’s major industry — public administration — was dealt a severe blow. It was akin to the blows suffered by other regions whose major industry has gone or been cut: steel from Newcastle; manufacturing from South Australia, textile, footwear and clothing from parts of Victoria; various agricultural products from other parts of Australia. The difference has been that the ACT has bounced back. The ACT Government is entitled to some credit for that. Of equal importance has been the high education levels of ACT people, enabling them to adapt to new employment opportunities.
But we must not be too self-congratulatory. The well-being of a city or region cannot be counted just in the latest job figures or latest income figures. A whole range of quality-of-life matters are of equal importance. Indeed, there is a danger that amid the desire to gets jobs and income, quality-of-life matters are sacrificed. Eventually, the down-grading of quality of life results in poorer economic performance.
The ACT can only continue to attract industry, jobs and income if living conditions remain excellent. Education standards, urban and suburban amenity, health standards, care for the aged and those out of work, appropriate dealing with drug and crime problems, the maintenance of public infrastructure like roads, quality water and electricity supply and so on, are all crucial to the continued economic well-being of people in the territory. It means that government and business must always look beyond the immediate bottom line.
On that score there have been some worrying events recently, both at a territorial and national level. At the territory level, education and health budgets have come under constant threat while there has been money found for the “”big event”. The big event, whether it is the preparation of a stadium suitable for Olympic soccer and other sports or a car race, is not a bad thing in itself, provided each event is not seen like some cargo cult, but properly analysed for benefits to the people of the territory.
At the national level, the constant funding attacks on the universities are likely to have a far greater adverse impact on the capital than cuts in the public sector. The latter can be overcome and often done without. The former are fundamental to wealth-generation in the long-term.
Short-sighted decisions like the axing of the Urban and Environmental Program in the Research School of Social Science and other chops and restructuring at the ANU can undermine all the work on the economic front to attract jobs and industry.
Unless, governments and industry keep an eye to the long-term they will lose the environment that enables the job and wealth generation that so concentrates their attention.