Regional Recovery. We can’t wait until Xmas or March. We need to act now.

Regional recovery has to be national and inclusive. It has to include everybody. It has to include all industry sectors. It has to include the 47 non-city regions and the 5 major cities.

Economic complexity is focused in the cities. But the regions contribute disproportionately to the value of Australian exports, mainly through tourism, agriculture and mining.

Regional tourism has been hit hard by COVID with the closure of borders to international tourists, though mining, energy and agribusiness continue relatively unscathed.

So tourism regional recovery has to focus on “domestic” tourism for the time being and remain flexible enough to respond to new outbreaks of the epidemic.

We can refresh regional tourism by including more “local knowledge” into tourism offerings, not just the usual “big tourism wholesaler” content, but local stories, local history, local environment, local wildlife, local culture, local myths and local events from a host of smaller tourism providers that may be of interest to tourists as well.

So that Australians are surprised afresh at what is available in regions that they thought they knew.

During COVID restrictions and perambulations (exercise) around Brisbane, I have happened upon lots of new places, with plaques and notices explaining historical events that I never realised existed. Certainly not something promoted by the council or Tourism Queensland. 

Everywhere I walked I found new and interesting things about the history of Brisbane that I knew nothing about, as well as new information on birds, animals, geology, environment, culture and events.

Connect information (text, images, video, audio) to location (street address, or longitude and latitude) and we have a simple way of refreshing and enriching the standard tourism offering with interesting, holistic knowledge. Simple, low cost and everybody can contribute to increase the richness of the information and experience on offer. See https://www.unrealaustralia.com

Refreshing domestic tourism then also refreshes international tourism for when Australia is once again ready to open the doors.

Regional economic recovery has to also support high growth firms in agriculture, creative industries, defence, education, energy, ICT, manufacturing, medical and health, METS, robotics and smart trades as well as tourism.

Innovation in these sectors can be leveraged across all regions in Australia. And many products, solutions and services in these sectors also have export potential in markets overseas.

50% of new jobs come from high growth firms – scaleups. There are lots of them. And they are spread across all regions in Australia – city and non-city.

Scaleups come from all sectors and regions, not just ICT. High growth companies are typically 50% high tech and 50% low tech.

Research shows these companies are disproportionately innovative and the innovation appears to cause growth.

Innovative companies grow twice as fast (in employment and sales), typicallygrowing at 20% per year over the past three years.

High growth companies affect the surrounding business environment – a 5% rise in employment from high growth firms leads to a 1% increase in the surrounding region.

We have scaleups in all our productive industries – and we need to support them all.

So we need to do two things at the same time. Focus on encouraging domestic tourism by refreshing the tourism offering, and identifying and supporting high growth firms across regional Australia.

We have generated deep knowledge from the mining industry, which can be applied elsewhere – water, pollution control, safety, waste management, space, recycling, robotics, off road vehicle automation, defence, energy, remote control systems, AI and drones.

Much of this knowledge is valuable in countries facing similar issues to us. Especially issues with energy, water, pollution, environment, safety and remote control systems = Export.

And we can apply that same intellectual horsepower to other industries – assistive technology, disability services, aged care, energy, waste management, soil health, aquaculture, housing, preventative medicine, manufacturing, sport and recreation = More Export.

COVID 19 will impact our economy for years.

Digital disruption will impact our economy for decades.

Both disruptions have to be managed strategically.

We have the brainpower of CSIRO/Data61 and the 38 research based universities ready to engage with industry. We have resources in the ground, on the ground and in the innovative minds of students, teachers and business leaders across Australia.

We just need to connect them up. With focus. And direction.

RED Toolbox is structured to reflect the Australian economy, its regions, its scaleups, its innovation, its opportunities and the potential of collaboration and sharing.

ED Toolbox is structured to map the disruptive impacts of digital technology and COVID, and what that means to the future of work and jobs.

And we can start right now. We don’t have to wait for COVID to die down.

We can work on refreshing tourism and engaging with high growth businesses using all the online tools at our disposal. All the social media tools plus email and events.

When COVID dies down in a region, we can shift to “real world” capability building events. If it sparks up again, we shift back to online events. Or a mix of the two. 

We don’t have to wait to push forwards on the recovery. We can start right now.

We can work across all regions in Australia. We can work across all industry sectors. In the cities and in the bush. But our initial focus should be on domestic tourism and high growth businesses. 

That is where we can get a quick return on investment and build a productive foundation for our future at the same time - mitigating risk by spreading the investment across all regions and all productive industry sectors.

We have to spread our energy across more industries than just mining. 

We have to spread risk across more markets than just China. 

We have to engage the whole nation, not just the cities and we have to include all Australians in this endeavour.

Because COVID isn’t the only disrupter at this time. Digital technologies have also disrupted educational and work requirements permanently.

So we have to manage both disruptions successfully. And we can.

But that means starting now.

The RED Toolbox - https://theredtoolbox.org is a collaboration platform for Australian productive industry. 

The ED Toolbox – https://www.edtoolbox.com.au is a sister platform for High Schools to help students better plan future study and work options.

One platform leads to another. 

Because we don’t have to just connect industries and regions, we need to connect generations. And expedite collaboration within silos, between silos, within states and between states and regions. Joining up the brains. 

ED Toolbox is about considering possibilities. RED Toolbox is about connecting and collaborating Australia’s intellectual resources to realise potential – innovation, sustainability, investment, export and future of work and jobs.

Jobkeeper and Jobseeker have given us breathing space.

But we now need to move into action. We can’t wait until Xmas or March. We need to act now.