THIS week I’d like to talk a little bit about the changing world and the part that local government plays in foreseeing these changes and adapting infrastructure and services to suit. There’s an old quote that says, ‘generals always prepare to fight their last war’; we at council can’t afford to make this mistake and ignore the future to plan infrastructure and services to suit the past.
My Father, for example, wore a woollen suit to work every day of his professional life, as would every one of his colleagues. A mere two generations have passed and yet you would be hard-pressed to find people in that same profession who would even consider dressing that way. The wool industry has been faced with moving tastes but has been slower than many to adapt to changing fashions. 30 years ago, we were producing a billion kilograms of wool a year in Australia. We have seen a sharp decline in our lifetimes, now we’re producing less than 300 million kilograms and unfortunately the price of that wool currently sits at a very low ebb.
The industry has not committed enough to products that are more suitable for the younger generation and unfortunately the wool industry appears to be stumbling here. Like every business, it needs to be changing constantly, we can’t keep selling the exact same products we sold two generations ago.
The advent of the mobile phone has had far reaching consequences for every one of us. Everything it seems is done by phone nowadays. From catching up with family to work emails to advertising through social media and beyond. Even my own vices like golf have felt the effect. We take scores on our phones, we have GPS to see how far we are from the green and the apps take all the paperwork out of it. It’s unbelievable how much change we’ve seen in a relatively short period. We find ourselves now moving into a cashless society with many people choosing to bank and even pay on their devices.
Our habits have changed and indeed continue to change. Drive through coffees and home deliveries have recently become the norm. Had these businesses never changed to meet the needs and wants of their customers, they’d have gone broke. In order to be successful in any business, you have to be open to changing. We’ve also seen radical changes in sport in recent years. With the increased participation of women and girls in football, new requirements for resources and infrastructure have come with it. Football, hockey, netball and tennis are all played at night now and even the surfaces they play on have changed to synthetics.
Government broadly, and council more locally have to provide the infrastructure to meet growing and changing needs for the new generations and the new world.
One of the biggest changes we’ve all felt in our corner of the world is a seismic shift in demographics. This is a common concern across a lot of country towns, populations are getting older and there are fewer opportunities for education or employment for young people, contributing to the brain drain that plagues many country communities.
A very stark reminder of this is the still-raw decision to close the Glenthompson pool. The demographics of this town have altered dramatically in the last 30 years and as a result, the school and pub has closed and unfortunately the pool was not being used enough to justify the ongoing running and maintenance costs. We want to provide opportunities and infrastructure for Glenthompson that is more appropriate for the ageing community. Men’s sheds, art workshops and galleries and small boutique retail may be a better fit to help to bridge social connections in the town. We look forward to workshopping these ideas to find the appropriate solution with the Glenthompson community.
We are hearing more and more about mental health in our lives and how important it is for us and for our community. Isolation during the COVID lockdowns brought mental health to the forefront of our social consciousness and the government in turn responded to these emerging trends. We have services in town now like Brophy and headspace in the region and now we’re set to open a mental health clinic in Hamilton to cater for these needs that have been created out of a changing society.
It remains the duty of council to observe changes within the community and to be forward thinking about what will be required by society in the future. Council must provide services that both reflect the needs of the people and improve the quality of life in our area. It’s easier to tackle a problem when you understand your place in the solution and for council that means carefully considering the Shire and its residents, knowing our capabilities and allocating resources to maximise the good we can do.
