Edgar Adams' Editorial

There’s an election coming on! You may not have noticed but some of our councillors have been working hard at getting their names on the front pages of the papers.
Gosford Councillor Malcolm Brooks, the Liberal Party’s darling, has come out making crazy statements and Clr Holstein from Gosford and Wyong Mayor Warren Welham have been running their own weight loss competition. All brainless stuff but it is free advertising and it will get more frequent as we move towards the September Local Government elections. The papers love it.

What the papers didn’t bother to print was a comment made by Wyong Councillor, Neil Rose at last month’s Economic Update Breakfast. Councillor Rose asked a question of Councillor Doug Eaton, who was one of the speakers, about his views on the amalgamation of Gosford and Wyong Councils. Councillor Eaton responded that he always thought it was a good idea.

The amalgamation of Gosford and Wyong Councils has to get onto the agenda. The Central Coast is too interlinked for the two Councils to continue to carry on as though they each lived in a different world.

The performance over our water supply, although it has died down lately, is a classic example while the decision by both Councils to go it alone on economic development when they each decided to stop funding Business Central Coast shows that the good of the region as a whole is not in their heads.

And if we are having that debate then we should also consider, at the same time, an elected Mayor. Changing mayors each year is a joke. How would a business survive if it changed CEOs every year. The annual argy bargy and backdoor deals that get done solely in the interests party political posturing shows that none of these people have any other interest in mind than getting their names in the papers.

We report this month on the Australian Regional Economies Conference 2008 (AREC 2008), held at Terrigal in early May, the EnergyAustralia Central Coast Manuacturers’ Association’s Innovation Awards and the Hunter Valley Research Foundation’s half yearly report on the Central Coast economy.

Two themes came out of the AREC. The first - for regions to grow they had to nurture home grown small business. It is these businesses that are locked in to a region that are our future. The second – regions need to embrace and encourage education.

The Manufacturers Awards highlighted the value of our local businesses in their Innovation Awards and the HVRF has shown that the Central Coast needs to change its attitudes to education. The educational attainments of our people are among the lowest in the state and this is a situation that must be changed. It can be done if we all get behind it but it is not something that can be left to the government. We all have to participate and encourage learning in our region.

This is an issue that must be community driven. Politicians and bureaucrats can only do a certain amount. It’s a bit like taking a horse to water but you can’t make it drink. It can be done and it will probably take twenty years, but we need to set out a strategy which involves the teaching profession, bureaucracy, business, parents and the community at large. There are a lot of retired people out there who could also help. It’s a big task but it can be done.

Edgar Adams
Editor

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