Economy requires fewer hurdles

So much of what happens in Townsville's economy is driven by the regions around us. It was great to join the Townsville Enterprise team recently on their road trip west to get insight into the opportunities and challenges of our neighbouring regions and what they hold for North Queensland. The focus of many of our conversations with local Mayors and businesses was Copperstring.

There's excitement for this project all the way through to Mount Isa. It's hard to imagine just how much of a catalyst this can be for the long-term prosperity of our wider region. More than just its $5B construction cost - in itself a phenomenal economic injection - it will open up major new investment opportunities from renewable energy to new economy mining and minerals.

It struck me during the discussions that the challenges we're facing in Townsville are the same right across our region. As Colliers' latest Property Market Report highlighted, we have an exciting future ahead but we need to overcome serious economic bottlenecks to achieve it. Most acutely, this is a shortage of workers combined with a shortage of housing to be able to grow our population. This is just as much an issue for North Queensland's rural towns, and in the west, water constraints and a need to upgrade transport infrastructure, including road and rail, are further problems for future growth.

Copperstring opens up the opportunity for North Queensland to be more relevant to Australia and the world's economy than ever before. The planning phase of this mammoth project should also be a time to sharpen the policy agenda around these hurdles.

"I urge our leaders to take this opportunity to invest not just in this new energy infrastructure, but in the communities that can be transformed by such a game-changing initiative."

Peter Wheeler, Managing Director | Townsville Bulletin, realcommercial 04.10.2023