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Slow road ahead, but this is where our future jobs will come from

Queensland can’t sit still and rely on coal to generate a living.

Feb 17, 2020, updated Feb 17, 2020
Military manufacturing is expected to become a big employer for the state, with production of the Rheinmetall Boxer combat vehicle to move to Brisbane under a $5 billion contract.

Military manufacturing is expected to become a big employer for the state, with production of the Rheinmetall Boxer combat vehicle to move to Brisbane under a $5 billion contract.

It’s been a while since the Space Base was trotted out as a new and shiny jobs prospect. It sits alongside the Gladstone steel smelter, the PNG gas pipeline and the Bradfield Scheme as nice ideas, but …

While the space base may only be something politicians trot out in an election year, it’s a pretty important symbol of what’s going on Queensland.

To put it bluntly, Queensland has a pretty limited future unless we start to diversify. Coal’s days are numbered, more so for thermal than coking. Politics can only prop it up for so long and when it goes, it will have a big impact on thousands of jobs, a stack of regional communities and the billions of dollars in royalties that underpin the State Budget.

This is a touchy area for the Palaszczuk Government and its jobs mantra and it has blundered in this area before. Notably when Treasurer Jackie Trad told Parliament that coal workers should retrain because its days were numbered.

The Government is making an effort to diversify but at the moment change is slow and coal remains king.

There are industries that are emerging as vitally important but they all have their issues.

Health care has become the state’s biggest employer and as a wealthy population ages it will demand more and better services.  The aged care sector was rocked by the findings of the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety and needs dramatic reform. Planning laws may also have to change to take in new types of care.

Tourism is likely to be a big player, but it is a low-wage industry and still made up of mostly cottage businesses and suffers badly from natural disasters or when the dollar increases or viruses erupt. It needs major reform and has to overcome the perception that it’s not a place where you can build a good-paying, stable career. Wage theft is a big issue.

Mining and resources won’t go away. It’s still vital and Queensland produces a lot more than just coal. Copper, zinc, bauxite and lead all have life, as does gas. Vanadium could be a giant to replace lithium-ion batteries, but it’s starting well behind. The industry is nearing a crisis point when it comes to a skills shortage. The sector will become more automated and is desperate to attract STEM graduates. The highly prospective North West Minerals Province could be a huge driver of the future but its remoteness holds it back.

Manufacturing, particularly for the military. The production of the Rheinmetall Boxer combat vehicle will move to Brisbane under a $5 billion contract.  While politicians talk up the prospect of a “khaki Queensland”, this is a long way off, but war is not going away.

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Space and aeronautics. The Palaszczuk Government claims there could be as many as 6000 space-related jobs by 2036, but aeronautics is already here. The major universities are offering aeronautical engineering degrees and Boeing, Qantas and Virgin are big players in this space and an example of how Queensland can attract and create industries. Queensland is home to about 30 per cent of the Australian aeronautics with about 300 businesses and 4200 jobs.

Events are big business in Queensland, just ask anyone trying to find a hotel bed when the State of Origin is on. This is an area where the arts sector has proved to be a national leader. QPAC, the Queensland Ballet and GOMA are huge crowd-pullers and the industry needs a lot more support.

Education Go back 30 years and you would have been laughed at if you said education would be a big export for Queensland, but it is. Queensland’s international education and training export revenue eclipsed $5 billion for the first time last year. This is a politically sensitive sector that needs careful handling and faces huge challenges. India should be a target.

Energy: The likely death of coal will not mean the end of Queensland’s role as an energy hub. Renewables are big business in the state and there is a groundswell of support for the potential development of a hydrogen industry. Biofuels is a sector that is already up and running and a QUT report in 2018 suggested biofuels could deliver more than 8000 direct and indirect jobs and generate $1 billion a year in revenue if a national mandate was implemented.

There is already development in this area with the United Petroleum plant at Dalby is already expanding its plant to produce 100 million litres of ethanol from sorghum.

Agriculture is a sector that remains a bedrock of the economy and politically volatile. A lot of work needs to be done on sustainability.

 

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