Briefing given to regional media by a panel of experts from Southern Cross University.

A Quick Regional Perspective on the 2003 NSW Budget


The economy of the North Coast should continue to grow from this Budget and the unemployment rate can be expected to fall slightly.

Although there is increased funding in this budget for key areas such as health, education and welfare, it remains to be seen is how much of the increased funding goes into the Newcastle-Sydney-Wollongong axis, and how much flows into regional areas such as this where there is heavy demand for services and assistance for low income families.

There are no surprises in the education and training elements of the budget for North Coast residents. Overall, it addresses education areas of State and national importance.

While there is an increase in funding over all to the health sector in yesterday's budget, there is no funding directly targeted to addressing the current significant shortfall in registered nurse numbers or in places available for undergraduate study in the Bachelor of Nursing.

There were no significant announcements overtly linked to tourism that looked at visitor management or product development. There were some specific statements about additional promotion of regional NSW, but the figures involved were very small.



Some Specific Regional Announcements



· $267 million has been allocated to the Northern Rivers Health Service (an increase of 9.4 per cent)

· new fire engines have been allocated to Grafton, Murwillumbah and Casino and an emergency response vehicle to Byron Bay

· There will $7.4 million of $9.4 million for a new health and hospital facility at Kyogle and some money for the planning stage of the refurbishing of Richmond Clinic at Lismore Base Hospital.

· There is $4.4 million available for the Alstonville bypass but since it is to cost $36.5 million it is only a very small beginning.

· Some money is to be spent on a Community Renewal Program for housing at Goonellabah and $500,000 on mineral exploration in Northern New South Wales.

· Bryon Bay will benefit from the new sewerage system which should help alleviate one of the problems caused by tourists.

· $4.4million has been allocated to buy out Commercial Fishers’ licences from the Cape Byron Marine Park.

· A further $150,000 has been allocated to employ two extra rangers for the Cape Byron Marine Park to educate the public and enforce the rules.



Economic

Comments attributable to Professor Lawson Savery (Executive Dean, Division of Business)

Overall I would expect that over the next few years the economy of Northern rivers will continue to grow from this Budget and that the unemployment rate will fall slightly.

This is an economically responsible budget because the Treasurer has designed a balanced budget (on approximately $36 billion, the surplus is forecast to be $878 million). With this the NSW Government intends to repay more of the State Debt so reducing the debt to $4 billion (or 1.5 per cent of the Gross State Product: The value of the State’s economic output) from $12.2 Billion or 7.4 per cent of Gross State Product in 1995. This is important because it reduces the payment of interest on the debt which must be met from budget and is estimated to have been reduced by $1 billion a year since 1995.

There is increased funding in key areas such as $9.3bn (11% increase) for health, $803m (25% increase) for DOCS, police (9% increase), $8.1bn for education and training, an extra $220m for transport, and $29bn (22% increase) for a 4 year program of capital works. These increases have been funded by a 2% gain in revenue through stamp duty from Sydney's property market and new taxes imposed on gambling and city car parking. While an economic downturn would place these increases under threat, revenue is predicted to keep rising, affording future budget surplus between $300 -800 million.

A number of initiatives may prove to be two-edged swords. For instance, the buying out of commercial fishing licences in the Cape Byron Marine Park could have both positive and negative influences because people who commercially fish keep other people employed (for example, boat builders, fishmongers, etc) but removing the Fishers should cause fish to return with benefits for recreational fishing and tourists.

For businesses: from the 1 January 2004 trainees will be treated the same as apprentices, there will be no payroll tax but they will be subject to a workers’ compensation levy.


Regional Tourism

Attributable to Dean Carson (Head of Centre for Regional Tourism Research):

The key tourism announcements in the budget are directed almost entirely at the promotion of destinations and development of marketing campaigns. There were no significant announcements overtly linked to tourism visitor management or product development.

There were some specific statements about additional promotion of regional NSW, but the figures involved were very small. For example, while $2 million has been allocated to regional tourism organisations, there are 16 of these, meaning just over $100 000 each on average - which may support one or two domestic campaigns throughout the year.

The development of regional tourism may be affected by various initiatives announced in the State budget including: heritage; environment; transport; infrastructure and natural resources; small business; and regional development. However, the tourism flavour was certainly one of promoting increased visitation, defining a narrow role in this for Tourism New South Wales.

The announcement of free access to the Australian Tourism Data Warehouse for tourism operators is interesting. The rate of uptake of online technology by small tourism businesses has been quite low, despite the benefits of being able to advertise your product worldwide over the Internet. Free entry to the Get Connected program may be the inspiration for many operators to get online. There was no other indication of how the State Government plans to foster tourism business development; it has been apparent in the past that tourism businesses have difficulty accessing standard small business and regional development programs.

There were announcements concerning the development of public tourism related assets. These include upgrades to transport networks, upgrading facilities at Lake Ainsworth, providing additional support for regional arts development and environmental resource management. This may serve to enhance the attractiveness of some areas in this region.

Tourism New South Wales has recently undergone substantial restructure. The budget provides Tourism NSW with additional resources for marketing and promotion, but I suspect key challenges remain in terms of resourcing the coordination of tourism-related initiatives within the bureaucracy, and shifting attention from purely promotion of tourism to product development and management.


Education and Training


Comments attributable to Professor Martin Hayden (Head of the School of Education):


There are no surprises in the education and training elements of the budget for North Coast residents. Overall, it addresses education areas of State and national importance.

Of particular interest for regional Australia is increased expenditure on student transport, on services for students in rural schools, and on the living-away-from-home allowance for secondary students required to live away from home to access a secondary school.

This education budget emphasises infrastructure development rather than on upgrading professional skills and encouraging the professional commitment of teachers.

Perhaps the biggest disappointment of this budget is that only an additional six million dollars is allocated in 2003-04 to the professional development of teachers. This amounts approximately to an additional $150 per teacher - that will not meet the professional development needs of teachers looking to create quality learning environments, provide educational leadership and emphasise whole-of-life learning.

There is no mention of looming teacher shortages, of pressure to increase the salaries of teachers, or of any need to stem the flow of public school students to private schools.


However, the NSW Government should be congratulated for a number of spending commitments included in its 7.1 per cent increase in expenditure on education in 2003-04:

· Increased funding of early childhood education, particularly through the Priority Schools Funding Program (PSFP), is welcome and overdue.
- The focus is on a reduction in class sizes, to an average of 20 children in kindergartens in 425 PSFP schools across the State.
- This commitment requires an increase in teachers – as indicated in the budget papers, an additional 14,074 new teachers will be employed over the next four years, mainly in the early childhood education area.
- The School of Education at Southern Cross University is well positioned to contribute to this growth through its excellent Bachelor of Education program.

· Increased funding in the area of student literacy in schools is also welcomed, as is increased funding to assist disadvantaged young people, particularly if also disabled, requiring incentives to pursue additional studies as an alternative to unemployment.
- These are areas of social importance requiring committed government leadership and a determination to achieve international benchmarks.
- It is perhaps a pity that the increase in funding for student literacy projects is not matched by an increase in funding in the area of numeracy.
- The field of numeracy education is one in which the Southern Cross University School of Education has internationally-recognised expertise.

· The substantial increase in funding for information and communication technologies in schools, particularly through provisions for increased bandwidth for schools, will enhance the standing of NSW public education in terms of the Internet-based access provided to students in public schools.
- It is a pity though that the increase in commitment to bandwidth is not better matched by the increase in allocation to the professional development of teachers in the use of the latest computer technologies – an increased allocation of $4.4m. in the new budget to the Technology in Learning and Teaching program will not achieve much across the State's 40,000 teachers in public schools.

The proposal to establish a casual teacher call centre will increase administrative efficiency in the public school system by providing principals with faster access to casual teaching support.


Nursing

Comments attributable to Dr. Chris Game ( Head of the School of Nursing and Health Care Practices)


Clearly whilst there is an increase in funding over all to the health
sector in yesterday's budget, there is no funding directly targeted to addressing the current significant shortfall in registered nurse numbers or in places available for undergraduate study in the Bachelor of Nursing.

There is a small amount of funding targeted for education that may well assist in recruitment and retention strategies, however, the major effect on recruitment and retention is the working conditions of registered nurses and these have clearly not been addressed in
this budget.

Social and Welfare

Comments attributable to Trevor Lucas (Lecturer, School of Social Sciences):

Although there is increased funding in this budget for key areas such as health, education and welfare, it remains to be seen how much of the funding goes into the Newcastle-Sydney-Wollongong axis, and how much flows into regional areas to deliver more for low income families.

The Northern Rivers region of New South Wales has the highest rate (46%) of adults and their families who receive a pension or welfare benefit compared to the national average (32%). In a submission to a Welfare Reform Reference Group, The Northern Rivers Social Development Council estimated that 36% of all children in the Northern Rivers are in
families which receive a Commonwealth pension or benefit.

With a high concentration of children and their families living in poverty in the Northern Rivers region, a 5.9% real cut in the public housing budget will impact with less public housing available.

Of the $29bn capital works program, part of this will be spent on roadworks and tunnels in and around Sydney. The Northern Rivers requires growth and improvements to its capital infrastructure to retain existing jobs, for creation of new jobs, to expand its economic growth and to improve regional families access to services.

While DOCS has received additional funds for extra child protection staff to investigate a 119% increase in reported cases since July 2002, preventative and alternative childcare programs received a paltry $47 million state-wide. This is a concern for child protection staff in regional areas who are hard pressed to find appropriate alternative housing for children who are unable to live with their parents. According to NCOSS, a TAFE-based childcare diploma course will cost an extra $450 a year and this is likely to impact on the children's services workforce because attracting qualified staff to regional areas can be difficult.

Out of the 11% bigger health budget, the NSW government will spend $205 million on a new institute for cancer and it faces the prospect of wage increases for nurses and other public sector workers. The specialised area of mental health received a mere 2.5% increase in spending in real terms.