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Council meets with Productivity CommissionLatrobe City Council deputy mayor, Councillor Graeme Middlemiss hosted a meeting with the Federal Government’s Productivity Commission to discuss regional economic transitions this week. By Portal Admin - 24th February 2017 - Back to News "Clearly Latrobe City is an area with a rich history in economic transition and we are delighted to have the opportunity to share our experiences, lessons, triumphs and failures with the Productivity Commission Team," Cr Middlemiss said.
"In sharing our story we were very clear that any examination of transition needs to start with a firm grounding in the history and experience of any community and, in our particular case, how it is that the economy of the Latrobe Valley became so inextricably linked and dependent upon the power generation industry.
"We further discussed an example of a poor economic transition – our experience of privatisation. This was an enormously difficult time for our community, it had wide ranging social and economic impacts on our community, some of which we have never recovered from.
"The sense of loss and abandonment, the overwhelming message sent by the government of the day that this community didn’t matter still haunts us today. Our message to the Commission was that these social and emotional impacts can be as crippling to a community as poor economic policy.
"We did discuss the transition before us and what we’re doing different this time. We talked about the virtues of the approach that led to the Strength Led Transition document – a document filled with the brilliant ideas, insights and aspirations of our community. We acknowledged the importance of our community in this process and the need to give the community a hand on the steering wheel.
"There were considerable discussions about the role of local government as chief advocate and lobbyist on behalf of its community.
"We’re very mindful that our current experience is very different to previous transitions. The support and efforts of the state and federal governments has been exceptionally good; we’ve enjoyed a strong sense of partnership and there have been regular commitments that our community will not be left to falter, we will not be left behind."
Latrobe City Council has been invited to provide a late submission to the Commission’s inquiry into regional economic transitions.
"Being invited to write a submission to be included in the report means that Council can guarantee our community-led focus on a just transition is delivered directly to the Australian Government. Additionally, the Commission will be conducting a community workshop after the interim report has been delivered and Latrobe City Council will be helping to organise this event," Cr Middlemiss said.
Council will now prepare its submission. The Productivity Commission’s interim report will be delivered to Government in April, with a final report to be delivered by December.
Media Enquiries:
Cr Kellie O’Callaghan, Latrobe City Mayor
Telephone: 0400 696 324
Cr Graeme Middlemiss, Latrobe City Deputy Mayor
Telephone: 0417 379 059
Media Relations Office
Telephone: 5128 5458
Source: www.gippsland.com Published by: support@gippsland.com
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