TRACY MCKELLIGOTT: The Lake Macquarie Economic Development Package will unlock the region’s potential is the headline of the media announcement from the Labor side this morning. It is “an Albanese Labor Government will work with Lake Macquarie City Council and the NSW Government to unlock the region’s economic future”. Now how are we doing that? They’re establishing a permanent dredge for the Swansea Channel, and they’re extending the Newcastle Mines Grouting Program which was obviously aimed at mine subsidence affected areas here in Newcastle.
Joining me on the line to talk about it a little bit further is Pat Conroy MP, who is the Member for Shortland. Good morning and thanks for your time, Pat.
PAT CONROY, MEMBER FOR SHORTLAND: Good morning, how are you?
MCKELLIGOTT: I’m good, thank you. Now we haven’t spoken in quite a while. How are you going?
CONROY: I’m good, good. I had a good summer break other than there being lots of rain around, and now it’s just gearing up for election. 54 days to go, my tip is May 14 – so actually it’s 53 days.
MCKELLIGOTT: 53 days and counting. Now obviously this is a big issue for Newcastle and the Hunter. The Swansea Channel is just continually an issue. The dredging is something that’s been thrown around between all levels of government. We just want something done about it, Pat.
CONROY: Absolutely. I get contacted about this issue all the time, and everyone that I talk to doesn’t care who solves it, they just want it solved. They don’t care about local or state or federal levels of government. They just want a permanent dredge so that we can keep the channel open, so they can use their boats if they have them, so that we can attract tourists to the area and bring in heaps of tourist dollars, and so that we can just enjoy our beautiful lake. And so that’s why I am really delighted that Labor will be announcing today a permanent solution by establishing a permanent dredge to make sure the Swansea Channel is kept clear.
MCKELLIGOTT: So how will that operate? Will that dredge be handed over to Lake Macquarie Council?
CONROY: Yes absolutely. So Council approached me last year with the request and they basically said ‘if you can spend $10 million purchasing the dredge, we will take on or work with the State Government to do the operational or maintenance costs’. So we’ll purchase the dredge and hand it over to the Council, and they will work out whether they fund the operations, or hopefully they can get some assistance from the State Government. But either way they said ‘from the feds, we just want you to help buy the dredge, and then we will run it’, and that means it will be permanently on station in Lake Macquarie. They might lend it out when it’s not needed to the Central Coast lakes because obviously they have similar problems, but only when it’s not needed in Lake Macquarie.
MCKELLIGOTT: How big an issue is it? I mean, I’m hearing lots and lots of people can’t get their boats in and out. Is it that big an impediment to our tourism sector down there at the lake?
CONROY: Oh absolutely, and in fact an independent study a few years ago said that if a permanent dredge was established, it would increase visitors to Lake Macquarie by 150 per cent.
MCKELLIGOTT: Wow.
CONROY: And it would drive an extra $40 million of tourism revenue over a decade. So it’s really significant, and it’s not just about attracting visitors, but we are missing out on events right now. I know that the Royal Yacht Club up at Toronto have a charity regatta that they had to cancel this year because boats just couldn’t get into the lake. Lake Macquarie Marine Rescue have publicly said this is an urgent priority because they spend a lot of their time pulling boats off the sandbar when obviously we want them free and available to do obviously rescues and making sure that people’s lives aren’t in danger. So it’s not just from a tourism point of view although it is very significant. It’s also from a safety point of view.
MCKELLIGOTT: Wow. You don’t think about that side of things, but yeah. Now a couple of years ago, we obviously had the commencement of the Newcastle Mines Grouting Fund which was to assist developers with, you know, the repair and the subsidence issues that just are throughout Newcastle. You know, it’s a major issue here. How big an issue is it out at Lake Macquarie?
CONROY: Oh it’s as big if not bigger quite frankly given there’s lots of both operating and legacy coal mines all through Lake Macquarie. And it’s an issue – anyone who has gone through a renovation of their own home or built a new home knows they have to go to the Mine Subsidence Board to get clearance, and for anyone trying to build a multi-rise building, it is an even bigger issue because they just don’t know what the costs are.
So the scheme in Newcastle has been very successful. Anyone who drives through the CBD of Newcastle can see all of the cranes in the sky, and they are working because the developers have confidence that if the cost of dealing with subsidence, the grouting underneath the building, if that exceeds a certain level then they get help from this fund. So that gives them the certainty that they can go to the bank and borrow the money to do these projects, and we want to extend that to Lake Macquarie.
And the biggest CBD that will benefit from that is Charlestown. Obviously it's close to Newcastle, but lots of mines run underneath it, and Dantia, the economic development cooperation has stated that if this grouting fund is extended to Charlestown, that will bring forward or make possible $450 million worth of new building work in Charlestown, and that alone will deliver 2,500 jobs to people in the Lake Macquarie area. So it’s a really important way of not only getting more jobs into the area, but also helping solve the housing shortage that we’ve got at the moment.
MCKELLIGOTT: That is a big issue, I was going to mention that to you finally – we do have a big housing issue, we do have an affordability issue, we have a social housing issue, we have a rental crisis issue. What are the plans from the Opposition to try and arrest some of those problems?
CONROY: Yeah, well there’s sort of three points of how we do it. We increase supply, so the grouting fund and other things will allow the construction of more dwellings, particularly affordable dwellings is really important. We’ve also put aside $10 billion for a housing fund to help improve affordable housing. Secondly, we need to improve affordability by getting people’s wages growing. So we’ve said we will help with that by promoting more secure work, ending the scourge of where labour hire means that people are doing the same job but getting paid a lot less than permanent workers, so giving workers a wage rise. Importantly and distressingly, the average worker in this country has gone backwards $800 in the last year alone because wages alone haven’t kept up with inflation, so getting wages growth is important. And third, just getting people into jobs, and that’s why this package will deliver over 12,000 jobs through the four things announced. So it’s about people getting jobs, those jobs being secure so that they can have good wage rises, and then encouraging the construction of more homes and apartments so that there are homes that people can actually buy or rent.
MCKELLIGOTT: I think we’d all agree that wage rises are essential, but Pat at the moment a lot of businesses are on their knees. How is business going to afford to give these pay rises?
CONROY: Well it’s about giving them the certainty that they can afford it, and one way is by lowering their power prices. So Labor’s climate and energy policy that we announced last year that I’ve come on your program to discuss will lower the power price for an average household by $275, and will lower power bills for small and medium and in fact large businesses. So we will improve business conditions through that, and secondly if people do get wage rises, what do they do with that money? They’ll spend it in the economy, particularly low-income earners. And that’s one of the lessons out of the COVID crisis is that the stimulus measures that had the greatest impact was giving money to low-income workers and those on government income payments, because people at that income level, they tend to have to spend everything they earn, and that will stimulate the economy and that will employ people in businesses. Yes we’ve got an issue with business conditions and we’ve got to lower the cost of electricity for businesses, but people getting a decent wage is good for business, it’s not bad for business.
MCKELLIGOTT: Well look, thank you so much for your time, I really appreciate it. What time is this announcement happening today?
CONROY: Catherine King, Dan Repacholi our candidate for Hunter, and I will be making the announcement at 11.30am this morning down at the Pelican foreshore. So it’s exciting times for Lake Macquarie.
MCKELLIGOTT: It certainly is, and great timing. Today’s the best day to do this because after today, you’re all rained out. So good timing.
CONROY: Thanks very much, have a great morning.