Perth continues to grow

[Guest The Pom Queen]

New research urges Western Australia to tackle longstanding political fights such as retail trading hours and daylight saving, and to embrace asset recycling to boost infrastructure, as part of a plan to ­attract residents in the ­absence of a mining boom.

A new paper by consultancy firm PwC, as part of The Australian’s Better Cities initiative, finds that while resources will unquestionably remain the backbone of the West Australian economy, the state needs to develop other industry sectors to act as “shock absorbers’’ when commodity ­cycles turn.

The report — If you build it, will they stay? Capitalising on Perth’s boomtime legacy— finds the most recent mining boom has left a strong legacy.

Lead author and PwC managing partner Justin Carroll said one of the most important ingredients for a city to prosper was strong population growth, and Perth needed to find new ways to continue to attract and retain citizens.

“The legacy of the boom means that Perth is not the same city it was 10 years ago and it has been revitalised with new world-class facilities. We must build on this to ensure Perth is an even ­better city to live, work and play.

“To further flourish Perth needs to continue to diversify its economy beyond the resources sector, capitalise on its proximity to Asia and its time zone, and ­embrace Perth’s culture of scientific and technical innovation.’’

The PwC report says rumours of a mass exodus from Perth have been “greatly exaggerated’’. WA’s population continues to grow but at a slower rate than during the mining and construction boom.

But greater Perth had the fastest rate of decline of any Australian capital city in net domestic migration between the 2012 ­financial year and the 2016 financial year.

The outflow of domestic mig­rants was offset by net overseas arrivals, which remained strong at 13,600 in the year to June 30.

The report finds there have been many innovations coming from WA, particularly in the fields of medical research, mining and agriculture, and advises Perth to capitalise on these strengths to become a global research hub.

It says WA fails to attract many overseas ­students ­despite sharing a time zone with key Asian capitals. But it also calls on the state to tackle issues such as daylight saving, taxation, local council reform, trading hours and a resistance to big change.

WA is also advised to be more receptive to partnering the priv­ate sector on big infrastructure projects and to consider asset ­recycling and value capture, which are being deployed in NSW as the state embarks on a massive infrastructure spend.

[Collie]

Huge potential over here but not sure there is the vision, skills or aptitude to capitalise on it.  May have been spoilt by the resouces boom, there doesn't seem to be the political will to diversify.

Perth could be the back office of Asia, particularly Singapore.  The time zone is a huge advantage.  The point about the education sector is an interesting one.

There is still plenty of building going on but rents and property prices continue to fall.  There are a lot of people commuting to the East (a different form of FIFO), migrating East or overseas.  I see posts about break leases every week.  Accomodation aside, the cost of living has stayed stubbornly high.  Price of a meal out out, a few drinks even a coffee is about Sydney +20%.  Surely, it can't continue.

Labour markets are very competitive and where there is work rates are way down (30-40% lower than Sydney/Melbourne or Perth 2013).

[VERYSTORMY]

The problem is getting change. I remember the last debate about daylight savings and the West Australian letters page full of things like "It will ruin my curtains" or "The cattle will be confused" (A lot of people actually thought it meant there would be less total sunshine as if the world was going to stop its spin) 

Then, the best thing the state government have come up with to replace resources is tourism. I am sure the well paid miners on 100k a year will relish minimum wage tourism jobs as an alternative. 

[Nemesis]

16 minutes ago, VERYSTORMY said:

The problem is getting change. I remember the last debate about daylight savings and the West Australian letters page full of things like "It will ruin my curtains" or "The cattle will be confused" (A lot of people actually thought it meant there would be less total sunshine as if the world was going to stop its spin) 

Then, the best thing the state government have come up with to replace resources is tourism. I am sure the well paid miners on 100k a year will relish minimum wage tourism jobs as an alternative. 

Not sure about WA but there are still people in Queensland who believe that if they had daylight saving it would mean an extra hour of sunshine every day as each summer day would become 25 hours long. 

Edited July 30, 2017 by Nemesis

[Parley]

That was Flo Bjelke Peterson who said that about fading the curtains.

Everyone knows it is a joke. Most of this stuff comes up in Queensland.

Why would people want to live in Perth though when it is so remote ?

[simmo]

56 minutes ago, Parley said:

That was Flo Bjelke Peterson who said that about fading the curtains.

Everyone knows it is a joke. Most of this stuff comes up in Queensland.

Why would people want to live in Perth though when it is so remote ?

For some, it's the remoteness that is the draw.  Most would say its boring but to some it's heaven.

each to their own

[Parley]

...........

Edited July 31, 2017 by Parley

[Collie]

On 7/31/2017 at 12:01, Parley said:

Why would people want to live in Perth though when it is so remote ?

Well, it should be big enough to be self sustaining.

It does have the raw materials to be a fantastic city, great beaches (and plenty of them), super climate (little or no humidity).  The Swan river is not quite Port Jackson but is still pretty attractive with the foreshore largely accessible to the public.  It is fairly easy to get around by car but the public transport could do with some improvement

Asia is pretty accessible (closer than Sydney or Melbourne) with Singapore a 5 hour flight away.  It will be interesting to see if there is an impact from the direct Europe flights next year.

Lots of potential but a ways to go on capitalising on it. 

 

[ScottieGirl]

I don't get the remote thing. Sydney is remote, 8 hours to Asia, 23 hours to Europe, 14 hours to the US. Ok Brisbane and Melbourne  are nearer but they are similar Aussie  cities. I  get the small town thing but not the remote.

[Parley]

1 hour ago, ScottieGirl said:

I don't get the remote thing. Sydney is remote, 8 hours to Asia, 23 hours to Europe, 14 hours to the US. Ok Brisbane and Melbourne  are nearer but they are similar Aussie  cities. I  get the small town thing but not the remote.

Don't you ?

Perth is the most remote capital city in the world.

 

[ali]

14 minutes ago, Parley said:

Don't you ?

Perth is the most remote capital city in the world.

 

I think it's actually Hawaii that wins that title

[starlight7]

It is remote- and it gets to you .It is like another country and gets left out of things.  Partly due to high fares connecting it with the rest of Australia.  There are many discount fare opportunities between the other state capitals- but rarely Perth. The connection between Perth and the rest of Australia is difficult and they tend to get ignored or even discriminated against.

[Collie]

3 minutes ago, starlight7 said:

It is remote- and it gets to you .It is like another country and gets left out of things.  Partly due to high fares connecting it with the rest of Australia.  There are many discount fare opportunities between the other state capitals- but rarely Perth. The connection between Perth and the rest of Australia is difficult and they tend to get ignored or even discriminated against.

If you can plan your travel in advance, you can get good fares.

I flew SYD-PER return nearly monthly for 21/2 years.  WIth a bit of planning and watching the sale fares you can get good fares, I often got $350 return with Virgin at reasonable times (did the red eye a few times but got too hard).  It is a long way, generally 5 hours coming west and 4 going east.  Most of my fares were $350-$500 return with Virgin.

[s713]

I don't think there is the vision or skill-set in Perth to make things happen without 'the boom'. The place will languish until the next boom happens, whether that is next year, 5 years or 20 years. Might never happen. The place is skint having dwindled the profits of the last boom on God knows what. What has remained in the main is boom prices which are making Perth untenable as a place to live to a decent life, never mind as a holiday destination.

I totally get the remote thing. Once you have spent 10 years holidaying and day-tripping in Perth/WA, you need to go further afield to stop yourself going mad. And the price is prohibitive, that's if there is the capability to get there. And being remote massively impacts on the price of goods and services here, it doesn't East Coast.

Perth is a nice place in general but it's a boom and bust town, always has been, always will be.

[Rallyman]

Closer to Cape Town by 60km than to sydney I believe I read somewhere along the way 

never been over that side of oz but will visit one day 

[Bobj]

9 hours ago, Rallyman said:

Closer to Cape Town by 60km than to sydney I believe I read somewhere along the way 

never been over that side of oz but will visit one day 

And make sure you see the Kimberlies...

 

 

Or else...

 

Cheers, Bobj.

[starlight7]

What need to happen is some more settlements between Perth and Adelaide,  The Saudis can do it, why can't we? Not just a cost factor more a keenness to develop and a bit of foresight. 

[Collie]

22 hours ago, starlight7 said:

What need to happen is some more settlements between Perth and Adelaide,  The Saudis can do it, why can't we? Not just a cost factor more a keenness to develop and a bit of foresight. 

Yep - could easily have 2-3 Adelaide sized cities along the south coast

[s713]

I always thought that they should throw more money at Gero, try to turn that into more of a major hub and then concentrate on development in between. Perth's a bit too congested now but state sponsorship and business incentives for Gero might start to help.

[timmybuddha]

They are trying to attract more people to gero now and things theres been alot of tourist etc activities lately but it has a long way to go..i agree..it could go and be better but sadly alot of the people in gero themselves havent got a clue from what i have seen.

Edited August 15, 2017 by timmybuddha