Content
A Regional or Feudal Future
20 May 2006
After being away from the University overseas for seventeen
days, one of my initial tasks on return is, as usual, to catch up
quickly on regional media. Thus, I read seventeen 'Dailys' in one
hit rather than being drip-fed every day.
Important, recurring themes in the development of the Coast are
thrown into sharper focus when the span of articles are taken
together.
I noticed that one of the Coast's major unresolved issues, for
example, was raised again by Minister Desley Boyle in relation to
possible amalgamation of Councils. Almost paralleling that issue
was the report on Ted Fitzgerald's address that different,
competing centres are emerging that make Maroochydore's status as
the major regional centre less than a certainty.
The coverage raises the question of whether regional unity
really does matter, or is disunity acceptable or even desirable in
the name of competition and individuality.
For me, regional unity is vital on the big issues. Some of those
big issues have been identified by SunROC as their priorities. In
particular, a focus on the knowledge economy, job generation, and a
technology precinct have been identified as a regional priority
with respect to Sippy Downs and the University.
The announcement by the Premier that a hospital complex would be
built next to the University was entirely consistent with the
SunROC priority. As the Premier has pointed out, it is world's
best-practice to collocate hospitals and universities, because
joint programs and research will lead to more knowledge economy
jobs and spawn new, related industries nearby in the emerging
technology precinct.
Minister Cummins openly backed the Premier and hailed the
announcement as Smart State thinking at its best.
The decision was consistent with the South East Queensland
Regional Plan for Sippy Downs to be a 'knowledge hub' and the
Premier's own view that it would also soon be a 'heath hub'.
The Mayor of Maroochy also developed an election blueprint on
job generation in the new economy, and expressed support for such
developments near the University.
From all these official sources there appears to be unity. It
might have been expected that all of these people involved would
have welcomed and sustained their commitment to the collocation
prospects.
No one could possibly argue a case that the job-generation
impact of the hospital could be greater elsewhere on the Coast.
Yet, we have disunity on the issue with Maroochy Shire Council
and Kawana interests competing directly for the hospital, when
world's best-practice examples palpably contradict those
arguments.
This issue that should have so unified the Coast and presented
us with unique infrastructure, has become enmeshed in the politics
of the original decision-making process, and the opportunism of
other interest groups.
The original decision was sound even though the process may have
been flawed. The original decision should stand.
We therefore still have a long way to go to achieve regional
unity on the huge issues that face the Coast. If collocation is
compromised, the extensive regional rhetoric about unity will be
cruelly exposed as a sham, and the residents of the Coast will be
the losers.
Residents everywhere in the Twenty-first Century will
increasingly be concerned with well-being, job security, quality of
life and health, and the way that communities elsewhere are
addressing this future is by collocating or amalgamating the power
of hospitals and universities. Collectively they can accomplish
more than they can separately. Anything other than collocation will
be a compromise and it is a pity that we remain so feudal that we
can't unequivocally recognise this.
Professor Paul Thomas is Vice-Chancellor of University of
the Sunshine Coast