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Govt points to “economic transformation” as regional growth evaporates

Trade and Investment Minister Martin Hamilton-Smith insists a “pragmatic program of work to transform the economy” will inevitably help solve the state’s migration woes, as the latest Bureau of Statistics figures show South Australia’s regions grew by only 970 people in the year to March.

Sep 27, 2016, updated Sep 27, 2016
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and Minister for Defence Senator Marise Payne at the announcement of a major infrastructure announcement at Harrington Park in South Western Sydney yesterday. Photo: Mick Tsikas / AAP

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and Minister for Defence Senator Marise Payne at the announcement of a major infrastructure announcement at Harrington Park in South Western Sydney yesterday. Photo: Mick Tsikas / AAP

The figures, published last week, show SA regional growth increasing by only 0.3 per cent of the national total population growth of 317,100 – well down on previous trends – prompting renewed calls for changes to the state’s migration programs to boost regional jobs growth and a warning that the closure of Arrium could see regional population figures go backwards for the first time.

Local media made much of NSW Senator Marise Payne’s parochial dig yesterday, when she sneered that a surging western Sydney would be “infinitely more interesting” than Adelaide.

But the infinitely more concerning point missed amid the affront was the statistic that prompted the barb. Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull made the point that a million people would move into the western Sydney region in the next 20 years, noting that that was “equivalent to Adelaide’’.

“If only that was true,” said migration agent Mark Glazbrook, who last month sounded a warning over SA’s declining population prospects.

“Greater Western Sydney has faster population growth, greater economic activity and prosperity and lower unemployment than Greater Adelaide [and] this is something that should deeply concern the PM.”

He told InDaily that last week’s stats showed “regional growth in NSW was higher than the total population [growth] of SA last year, and there’s more people that live in regional Victoria than live in the greater Adelaide area”.

“It’s quite concerning,” he said.

But Hamilton-Smith notes that while western Sydney’s growth is outstripping Adelaide’s, “there’s some significant growing pains there in terms of housing prices and infrastructure”.

“Mr Glazbrook runs a migration business and I wish him well with it,” he said in response to Glazbrook’s concerns, instead emphasising SA’s status as “a medium growth state in a high-growth country”.

The ABS figures showed SA’s population grew by 9700, or 0.6 per cent, in the year to March – its lowest growth level in 12 years.

This reflected an increase in net overseas migration (9400 people) and natural increase (6200), less net interstate migration (5,900 people).

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But it was well below NSW (103,200 or 1.4 per cent), Victoria (114,900 or 1.9 per cent) and Queensland (61,800 or 1.3 per cent).

 

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Hamilton-Smith emphasised “this has been an issue for many decades”, pointing out that “the largest brain drain we ever experienced was in 1994 following the State Bank”.

“The best way to deal with it is to transform the economy to create the jobs,” he said.

“The answer is not to have a large number of migrants coming to SA if there’s not a job for them; the answer is to transform the economy… to get maximum benefit out of the subs and naval shipbuilding program, to grow our exports [and] create the jobs that then lead to population growth; not to have large numbers of migrants here unemployed.

“There’s always been an outflow of young people from SA, which is a regional [centre] to the bigger cities – the question is getting them back later.

“It’s quite normal for there to be an outflow from sub-national economies like ours, the question is getting them back and that comes down to housing affordability and quality of life questions.”

Hamilton-Smith said there were jobs in the regions, fuelled by export growth, that were filled by “transitory migrants and backpackers”.

“People are hiring, so there’s employment growth out there,” he said urging people “not to talk the state down by lamenting the fact that Adelaide’s population growth is not the same as Sydney or Melbourne”.

“It has never been, and Sydney and Melbourne have a different dynamic at play.”

Hamilton-Smith emphasised that “by OECD standards, SA is growing significantly in overall terms”.

“A lot of states in the OECD would love to have population growth like SA’s,” he said.

But Glazbrook says “you can always compare what we’re doing here to somewhere else to get a rosy picture”.

“When you consider national growth or even South Australian growth, to only achieve 970 [in regional SA] is very alarming,” he said.

“If Arrium does close and people move from the regions to the city, it’s quite possible regional SA will decline not grow.”

Asked if this had happened before, he said: “Not that I’m aware of,” pointing to data from 2010 that showed regional SA growing at around 5000 people a year.

“So there’s been quite a sharp decline in recent years, which could be on the back of mining,” he said.

Glazbrook warned regional centres would face issues retaining “essential services”, and said employers in rural areas had told him while they were keen to hire, they were having trouble filling jobs.

“They can’t find the people they need to maximize their growth opportunities,” he said. “If you could put the right people into our regions it would create more jobs.”

Opposition spokesman Tim Whetstone noted more people continued to move interstate (27,467) than arrive from other states (21,580), with a net loss over the borders of 5887 people in the 12 months to March.

“South Australia’s net population loss interstate is now almost double the 10-year average of 3,480 and directly related to an unemployment rate that spiked over 8 per cent last year,” Whetstone said in a statement.

“Too many South Australians are forced to leave their home and family and head interstate in search of steady work… high net interstate migration is also the reason SA’s population growth was less than half the national average in the last 12 months.”

He said the Liberals would “focus on addressing the population loss through easing cost pressures for SA businesses and backing new businesses, innovation and industries, and in turn, growing the economy and creating jobs”.

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