National diversified developer Fortis has officially launched Crest &amp; Walker, its latest Brisbane apartment development, with construction now underway on the 20-storey Newstead project.

Award-winning builder BINAH has commenced construction on the Bureau^Proberts-designed building, which will deliver a limited collection of 65 two and three-bedroom apartments on Kyabra Street.

[smartcode_project:default project_id=145922 project_image_fid=373556]

The project marks Fortis' fourth active residential development in Brisbane, following River House, which is nearing completion, alongside projects in New Farm and Hamilton as the national developer continues to expand its South East Queensland pipeline.

Fortis General Manager – Development Queensland Dan Boman said Crest &amp; Walker reflects the developer's long-term commitment to delivering design-led residential projects in Brisbane's established inner-city suburbs.

"We're proud to be strengthening our presence in Brisbane with Crest &amp; Walker, particularly in such a sought-after lifestyle destination as Newstead," Boman said.

"Every Fortis project is shaped by its context, and we approach each one with the respect and care it deserves.

"Our focus is always on creating places that feel connected to their neighbourhood and elevate the everyday experience for residents. Newstead continues to evolve as one of Brisbane's most sought-after urban communities, and Crest &amp; Walker reflects our ambition to contribute meaningfully to that story."

[smartcode_project:default project_id=145922 project_image_fid=373559]

Positioned between Gasworks Plaza and James Street, <a href="https://www.apartments.com.au/new-apartments/crest-walker-newstead-12-kyabra-street-newstead-qld-4006">Crest &amp; Walker</a> has been designed as a boutique residential address offering privacy and generous living spaces within one of Brisbane's most established lifestyle precincts.

The building features a contemporary brick podium softened by integrated landscaping, while the upper levels are characterised by restrained architecture and enduring materiality. Interiors have been designed to maximise natural light, acoustic performance and long-term liveability.

[smartcode_project:default project_id=145922 project_image_fid=373583]

Residences comprise spacious two and three-bedroom floorplans, with two-bedroom apartments priced from $1.55 million and three-bedroom, half-floor residences from $3.95 million.

Residents will have access to a wellness-focused rooftop featuring a swimming pool, sauna, steam room, landscaped dining spaces and outdoor lounge areas overlooking Newstead and the Brisbane CBD.

[smartcode_project:default project_id=145922 project_image_fid=373571]

Sales are being managed by Slaite Projects, with Fortis expecting strong demand from owner-occupiers seeking a high-quality, design-focused apartment in one of Brisbane's most tightly held inner-city suburbs.

Completion of Crest &amp; Walker is slated for late 2028.

[smartcode_project_cta:default project_id=145922]

Joel Robinson

Fortis expands Brisbane pipeline with launch of Crest & Walker in Newstead

The enormity of delivering a true skyscraper in Australia's new development market is often overlooked.

It has taken the best part of a decade since plans for Chevron One were first unveiled, but the 52-storey tower is now complete, with residents collecting their keys and moving into what has become one of the Gold Coast's most recognisable new landmarks.

Rising 127 metres above Chevron Island, Chevron One stands almost twice as high as any other building on the island. Its scale places it alongside the trio of towers at Jewel, arguably the last truly significant addition to the central Gold Coast skyline when they were completed around six years ago.

While there are several developments underway around a similar height to Chevron One, they are more concentrated within clusters of the highest towers in the city. The fact Chevron One sits within a developing precinct, looking back at the other high-rise developments in Surfers Paradise and Broadbeach, makes it a different proposition altogether. It will certainly become a reference point on the Gold Coast skyline.

[smartcode_project:default project_id=6515 project_image_fid=68833]

Developer Bensons Property Group is behind the 52-storey tower, which has just shy of 250 apartments, along with an exhaustive list of resident amenity spread across what is the largest development site ever assembled on Chevron Island.

The tower has been the talk of the town for years, says Ray White Projects Gold Coast agent Caitlin Rosenboom, who is selling the remaining apartments.

"People have been watching Chevron One go up for years," Rosenboom says, adding that many prospective buyers have been surprised by the scale of the views once they step inside.

"It's only when they walk through a completed apartment that they truly understand the position of the building," Rosenboom says.

"The views are jaw-dropping. Whether you're looking east over the ocean, across Surfers Paradise, along the river systems or out to the hinterland, every level offers something different but equally impressive."

[smartcode_project:default project_id=6515 project_image_fid=360215]

One of Chevron One's defining advantages is its location on the eastern side of Chevron Island on Stanhill Drive, a position which protects the views forever.

"There's only one row of houses between Chevron One and the water, and the height restrictions along the river means views from Chevron One can never be built out,"&nbsp;Rosenboom says.

While new apartment developments continue to emerge across the Gold Coast, Rosenboom says opportunities to secure a completed apartment with this level of outlook are becoming increasingly rare.

"The size of the site is something that would be incredibly difficult to replicate today," she says.

"That's allowed Chevron One to deliver the sort of amenity, open space and resident facilities that very few projects can offer. There are not many completed apartment buildings on the Gold Coast right now that can compete with the combination of scale, quality and amenity."

[smartcode_project:default project_id=6515 project_image_fid=68839]

There's around 2,000 sqm of amenity solely for the use of residents of Chevron One. Club One features a uniquely shaped swimming pool that mirrors the footprint of the building itself, set within a extensively landscaped gardens. There's also an indoor pool and spa, a fully equipped gym with a Pilates room, a yoga garden, a bookable private dining area and lounge that can host up to 30 people, and a 24-hour concierge service.

As for the buyers, Rosenboom is fielding enquiry from everywhere: Sydneysiders and Melburnians looking at the new and off-the-plan market following the changes in the Federal Budget, as well as those looking to relocate, through to South East Queenslanders seeking either a permanent home or a weekender bolthole.

"The Gold Coast lifestyle continues to resonate with people relocating from the southern states, and when they see the views and the quality of what's been delivered at Chevron One, it becomes very easy for them to understand the appeal," Rosenboom says.

A diverse mix of one, two and three-bedroom apartments remain available, with each offering "something a little different", be it the orientation and views, configuration, or level, to suit a wide variety of buyers.

The remaining apartments are ready to inspect in person, by appointment.

[smartcode_project_cta:default project_id=6515]

A decade in the making: Residents to move into Chevron One as construction wraps up

A general rule of thumb in new apartment developments is that the penthouses get the rooftop.

It's a formula that's become commonplace across Australia's apartment market. Residents might have access to a pool, gym or barbecue facilities on a dedicated lower level, but the most desirable outdoor spaces are typically reserved for the highest-priced homes at the top of the building.

<a href="https://www.apartments.com.au/developers/sherpa-property-group">Sherpa Property Group</a> has taken the opposite approach.

Rather than dedicating the rooftop to a handful of buyers, the Gold Coast developer has made it the centrepiece of its Flourish collection, creating expansive shared spaces from the best vantage point in the building.

The philosophy has reached its most ambitious expression at <a href="https://www.apartments.com.au/new-apartments/flourish-soleira-palm-beach-1150-1160-gold-coast-highway-palm-beach-qld-4221">Flourish Soleira</a> in Palm Beach, where two rooftop precincts connected by a skybridge will deliver one of the most extensive lifestyle offerings seen in a residential apartment project on the Gold Coast.

[smartcode_project:default project_id=150017 project_image_fid=374053]

"We're seeing a clear move toward developments that offer more than just an apartment," Sherpa Group founder Christie Leet said.

"People want spaces that support how they actually live, whether that's working from home, staying active, or spending time with family and friends.

"That's where amenity becomes critical. It's not just about what's included, but how those spaces are designed to be used every day."

[smartcode_project:default project_id=150017 project_image_fid=374052]

The breadth of amenity has already attracted buyers across multiple demographics. Younger first home buyers have been drawn to Soleira's one-bedroom apartments, a product rarely delivered in Palm Beach, while families have responded to practical inclusions such as the shallow children's pool adjoining the main lap pool and the extensive communal recreation areas.

Instead of a single rooftop, Soleira delivers two distinct lifestyle zones.

[smartcode_project:default project_id=150017 project_image_fid=372547]

The southern rooftop has been dedicated to wellness, featuring a gym, yoga and Pilates studio, work-from-home facilities, a wellness centre, spa, and hot and cold plunge pools.

The northern rooftop focuses on recreation and entertaining, incorporating a heated resort-style pool, private dining rooms, pizza ovens, barbecues, a golf simulator, children's recreation areas, and what is expected to be the Gold Coast's first rooftop basketball court, which will also double as a squash court.

[smartcode_project:default project_id=150017 project_image_fid=374054]

Beyond the rooftops, Soleira will introduce 1,500 sqm of curated retail beneath the towers, creating one of Palm Beach's first genuinely mixed-use lifestyle precincts where cafés, restaurants and convenience retail become part of residents' everyday lives.

Sherpa has also retained management rights across the development, allowing it to oversee the long-term operation of the building through a 24-hour concierge model. The developer is also exploring additional revenue streams within the precinct aimed at helping offset ongoing body corporate costs for residents.

[smartcode_project:default project_id=150017 project_image_fid=370962]

While Soleira is the largest project Sherpa has delivered, the rooftop-first philosophy has been evolving for several years.

It began with <a href="https://www.apartments.com.au/new-apartments/amargo-6-12-sixth-avenue-palm-beach-qld-4221">Flourish Amargo</a>, the first project released under the Flourish brand. Rather than competing at the ultra-luxury end of the market with oversized half-floor and full-floor residences, Sherpa focused on creating lifestyle-driven apartments supported by resort-style shared spaces.

Amargo introduced more than 800 sqm of rooftop amenity, combining wellness facilities, heated pools, entertaining areas, cabanas, pizza ovens and private dining spaces into what was designed as an extension of residents' homes rather than a facility used only occasionally.

[smartcode_project:default project_id=146527 project_image_fid=366550]

That approach continued with Flourish Oasis, where the same amenity-led philosophy was refined into a more boutique development. Strong demand from Sherpa's growing VIP database saw much of the project sold before it reached the broader market, reinforcing buyer appetite for apartment communities centred around shared lifestyle experiences.

Flourish Amargo is slated for completion mid-way-through next year, with Oasis to be delivered by late 2027. Flourish Soleira is expected to complete in 2030.

[smartcode_project_cta:default project_id=150017]

Sherpa takes amenity to the sky as Flourish Soleira captures booming Palm Beach demand

As apartment living continues to evolve across Sydney's growth corridors, the quality and distribution of shared spaces is increasingly shaping how residents experience home. Rather than functioning as add-ons, amenities are being embedded into the daily rhythm of a building, supporting everything from quiet retreat to social interaction, often within a single vertical community.

At <a href="https://www.apartments.com.au/new-apartments/aeris-melrose-park-nursery-street-melrose-park-nsw-2114">Aeris</a> in Melrose Park, this approach is resolved through a layered amenity offering that unfolds from ground level through to its upper podium. Developed by <a href="https://www.apartments.com.au/developers/sekisui-house-australia">Sekisui House Australia</a> in partnership with Hankyu Hanshin Properties, the project introduces 468 apartments across two towers and a mid-rise building, positioned at the highest point of the broader masterplan.

[smartcode_project:default project_id=426 project_image_fid=359199]

The amenity experience begins at street level, where two courtyards sit within a landscaped setting that connects residents to the wider network of parks and green spaces. These green spaces are not isolated pockets but part of a wider pedestrian network that links Aeris to the surrounding <a href="https://www.apartments.com.au/developments/melrose-park-nsw-2114">Melrose Park</a> precinct, including Central Park, future schools, and the Town Centre opening in July 2026. The result is a transition that moves from public to private without abrupt boundaries, allowing residents to pass through shaded, tree-lined environments before reaching the building itself.

Moving upward, the focus shifts to the level five podium, where the primary communal facilities are concentrated. This space brings together a 16-metre swimming pool, outdoor seating areas, and a communal BBQ zone arranged to take advantage of elevated outlooks. Seating is positioned beneath pergolas, creating pockets of shade that extend the usability of the space throughout the day. The pool edge aligns with views toward the wider district, reinforcing the sense of elevation that defines the project’s positioning.

In the adjacent building, this is complemented by quieter, more contemplative spaces, including an outdoor cinema set within the same level. Positioned to operate primarily in the evening, it introduces a different tempo to the shared environment, shifting from daytime activity to after-hours use without requiring separate zones.

[smartcode_project:default project_id=426 project_image_fid=360299]

The podium also accommodates an intimate private resident gym. Located on the lower levels, it gives residents convenient access to fitness facilities without leaving the building.

Above, the elevated podium sky deck extends the amenity offering, providing additional open-air spaces with elevated outlooks across the surrounding landscape. While more restrained in program, this upper level reinforces the project’s vertical progression, from ground-level greenery to elevated outlook, allowing residents to move between distinct spatial conditions within a single address.

This distribution of amenities reflects a deliberate response to how residents use space across the day. Sekisui House Australia Sales and Marketing Director Peter Kalaf points to the role these shared areas play in shaping buyer demand. Aeris has been conceived as more than a collection of apartments, with the podium pool, gym and outdoor cinema forming part of a broader lifestyle offering that extends the home beyond each individual residence.

[smartcode_project:default project_id=426 project_image_fid=360300]

What distinguishes Aeris is not the inclusion of these elements individually, but how they are arranged in relation to one another. Active, social, and passive spaces are layered vertically rather than separated, allowing residents to choose between them without leaving the building or moving far from their apartment. This proximity supports both routine use, such as a morning swim or evening workout, and more occasional gatherings, whether around the BBQ area or within the cinema setting.

The amenity design also sits within a broader framework of connectivity across Melrose Park. The Melrose Park Town Centre, anchored by Coles and Dan Murphys, features a mix of retail, dining, health and lifestyle offerings, bringing everyday convenience closer to residents. By the end of the year, more than five hectares of parks and open space, equivalent to around seven football fields of green space on residents' doorstep, will further enhance the precinct, allowing the internal facilities at Aeris to operate as an extension of the wider neighbourhood rather than a substitute for it.

Construction at Aeris continues to gather momentum, with ground floor slabs expected to be completed in late 2026 before the first sections of the buildings begin to rise above ground.

[smartcode_project_cta:default project_id=426]

Elevated amenity anchors daily life at Aeris, Melrose Park

Repeat buyers are one of the strongest measures of confidence in any apartment development.

At <a href="https://www.apartments.com.au/new-apartments/era-newcastle-west-124-126-bull-street-newcastle-west-nsw-2302">ERA</a> in Newcastle West, some purchasers are returning to <a href="https://www.apartments.com.au/developers/gwh">GWH</a> after living at the developer's One Apartments. Their decision to purchase again was driven by the quality of life they found after moving into their first GWH home.

Keith Wilton had spent years living in a house in East Maitland before deciding it was time for a change. Apartment living had always been on his radar, but he was selective about what he wanted.

<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/FH_1EzB-1vs?si=XScVlP1ERsTDJoME" title="YouTube video player" width="560"></iframe>

"I had some boxes I wanted to tick," he says.

Keith points to the open-plan design, generous outdoor areas and considered inclusions as key reasons One Apartments worked for him.

“One of those things was a nice indoor open plan area, but also I wanted a nice outdoor open area that I could entertain on in summer or Christmases or birthdays,” he says.

He also found value in the smaller details, from integrated appliances to shared resident spaces including the pool, cinema and rooftop areas.

[smartcode_project:default project_id=135096 project_image_fid=356818]

After comparing several developments, he chose One Apartments because of GWH's longstanding local reputation and his own experience working with the developer on a commercial project more than a decade earlier.

"I knew that they were local, that the quality of the build was going to be up there. I'd looked at other apartment complexes around and close by, and I just knew that here was a better decision location wise."

Today, Keith says the move has completely changed how he experiences Newcastle.

"I enjoy living in this location because it's more of a lifestyle change. That Newcastle city living where you can walk to restaurants and bars and even beaches and parks and even shopping across the road."

[smartcode_project:default project_id=135096 project_image_fid=356828]

Beyond the location, he says it's the sense of community that has surprised him most.

"Everyone loves living here because they chose to live here, but everyone looks out for each other. It's a real great community feel here."

For Aimee and Lyle Goodman, the journey started almost by chance.

<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/tsioMLcnjas?si=zq-ys3JuWpfa5hFv" title="YouTube video player" width="560"></iframe>

The couple happened to be having coffee in Newcastle when they noticed the site where One Apartments was about to begin construction.

"We were aware GWH was planning a development," Aimee says. "We made one phone call and things moved pretty quickly after that."

As busy business owners, they initially thought apartment living would simply reduce the maintenance that came with larger homes. Instead, it fundamentally changed how they spent time together.

"We actually catch up more as a family now," Aimee says.

"We've had homes with big yards and lots of space, but everyone ended up in different rooms. Here we'll have dinner together, the kids can play, and we spend far more quality time together."

[smartcode_project:default project_id=135096 project_image_fid=356829]

Lyle says their confidence came from GWH's reputation within Newcastle's building industry.

"I know people who've worked across different apartment projects, and whenever GWH came up the feedback was always the same. They're rock solid. They're quality."

That confidence only grew throughout the buying process.

"One of the things that really impressed us with GWH was the whole process, was the communication," Lyle says. "It was consistent, it was regular, there was no problem if we had some weird questions, there was no problems in getting answers."

[smartcode_project:default project_id=135096 project_image_fid=351104]

Aimee says one moment stood out.

"The project actually finished on time. We realised we needed to hurry up and sell our house because everything was happening exactly when they said it would."

The positive experience at One Apartments ultimately gave all three buyers the confidence to purchase again with GWH, this time at ERA.

Their confidence reflects what many buyers are seeking in today's apartment market. Location remains important, but so too does certainty around delivery, quality and long-term liveability.

[smartcode_project:default project_id=135096 project_image_fid=356822]

ERA builds on those foundations with 280 one, two and three-bedroom apartments across two landmark towers in <a href="https://www.apartments.com.au/developments/newcastle-west-nsw-2302">Newcastle West</a>.&nbsp;

Designed by <a href="https://www.apartments.com.au/architects/fk-australia">Fender Katsalidis</a>, the project will include more than 2,000 square metres of resident amenities, including a resort-style pool, gym, sauna, private cinema and rooftop entertaining spaces overlooking the harbour and coastline.&nbsp;

The development is also within walking distance of the Newcastle Interchange, Honeysuckle, Darby Street, the harbour foreshore, restaurants, retail and the city’s beaches, continuing the walkable lifestyle that existing GWH buyers say has transformed how they live.

[smartcode_project:default project_id=135096 project_image_fid=356826]

For Keith, the appeal remains straightforward.

"You feel at home even before you've moved into your home."

For Aimee, the change is measured in time.

“I just felt like I had more time,” she says.

[smartcode_project:default project_id=135096 project_image_fid=351102]

Construction at ERA is now underway, with more than half of the residences already sold and limited two and three-bedroom apartments remaining in the East Tower release. Priced from $980,000 for two-bedroom residences and $1.46 million for three-bedroom residences, buyers can secure an apartment with a 10 per cent deposit, with premium homes offering ocean views from Level 8 and harbour views from Level 10.

ERA is also backed by Resilience Insurance's 10-year Latent Defects Insurance policy, providing protection against structural or waterproofing defects for 10 years after completion. The project is anticipated to be completed in early 2028.

[smartcode_project_cta:default project_id=135096]

From ONE to ERA: Why buyers are choosing GWH again in Newcastle West

Economy

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GUEST OBSERVATION
After much anticipation, the European Central Bank (ECB) finally announced some important policy changes that have seen the euro weaken by around one and a half cents against the Australian dollar. 
The fall reduces the cost of imports from the eurozone by over A$3,000 for every €100,000 in a little over a week.
So why has the ECB caused the sharp move in the currency?
Most of the talk has been around the decision to reduce the deposit rate for bank deposits. Going forward, the ECB will charge commercial banks a fee in the form of a negative deposit rate for parking funds with them. This is a first for a developed nation and is aimed at forcing the banks to release capital, i.e. lend more so the real economy can get easier access to money. A real headline grabber!
The other less sexy measure was a new Targeted Long Term Refinancing Operation, with the acronym TLTRO, likely to replace the previous LTRO. The difference? This one is now targeted (just add T to the beginning). This policy is another injection of cash into the banking sector with some caveats attached which make it more targeted than the previous version. Commercial banks now have to use the money specifically to lend it out to the private sector.
In its accompanying statement, the ECB decided to “intensify the preparatory work related to outright purchases in the ABS market”. In other words, it's now committed to embarking on a European-style quantitative easing program which will serve to weaken the euro.
But it’s not all about the euro
Coinciding with a weaker euro, we have seen the Aussie strengthening on the back of some better than expected domestic economic data and a rosier outlook for China. In this context the local unit has pushed through 94 US cents and is seeing some calls for parity once again. The combination of these two forces sees the AUD/EUR cross-rate edging closer to 0.7, a level not seen since November last year.
<img src="https://www.smartcompany.com.au/images/stories/vrondas%201606%20graph.jpg" alt="">
Whilst the trend is expected to continue, the <a href="https://www.ozforex.com.au/forex-tools/my-fx-dashboard?mode=advanced" target="_blank">chart above</a> highlights what could be a significant resistance point around 0.7116. For those businesses importing from Europe, a move above 0.7 to this level could represent a good opportunity to hedge some future exposures and lock in an exchange rate some 11% better than what it was in January of this year. Such significant cost savings should help deliver a better bottom line for businesses in the next financial year.
<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/jimvrondas">Jim Vrondas</a> is Chief Currency strategist, Asia-Pacific at <a href="https://www.ozforex.com.au/?cid=1300">OzForex</a>, a global provider of online international payment services and a key provider of <a href="https://www.ozforex.com.au/news-commentary/daily">Forex news</a>.
This article first appeared on <a href="https://www.smartcompany.com.au/" target="_blank">SmartCompany</a>.
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Negative interest rates a boon for Aussie importers

<html><body>
GUEST OBSERVATION
Northern Australia has vast potential for development. Just one proposed agriculture project of the many that I’m currently aware of would cover an area as big as metropolitan Brisbane, Australia’s third largest city.
Other single farms could be as large or larger than the entire <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ord_River" target="_blank">Ord River scheme</a> in Western Australia, home to mainland Australia’s biggest freshwater dam at Lake Argyle, which can store roughly <a href="https://media.bom.gov.au/social/blog/39/when-dam-size-matters/" target="_blank">20 times the water in Sydney Harbour</a>.
Those are just some of the major projects on the drawing board for northern Australia, which have attracted the interest not only of Australian investors, but also investors from the US and China. Such foreign investment will be crucial to what happens over the next few decades in places such as the <a href="https://www.daff.qld.gov.au/business-trade/development/industry-development/flinders-gilbert-agricultural-zone" target="_blank">Flinders and Gilbert river catchments</a> in north Queensland.
But with vast potential also comes vast, and as yet not entirely well-understood, challenges. For instance, how do we fund the infrastructure to capture, store and distribute the water from the wet season to support agriculture all year round? And where are the most appropriate places to <a href="https://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/csiros-dam-hunt-helps-plan-for-north/story-fn59niix-1226948824851" target="_blank">build proposed new water storages</a>?
Those are some of the questions being asked again, with the federal government this week asking for public comment on its new <a href="https://northernaustralia.dpmc.gov.au/sites/default/files/papers/green_paper.pdf" target="_blank">Green Paper on Developing Northern Australia</a>. The paper is a precursor to a new national policy for our north.
<a href="https://62e528761d0685343e1c-f3d1b99a743ffa4142d9d7f1978d9686.ssl.cf2.rackcdn.com/files/50889/area14mp/9gvrmhs8-1402536073.jpg"><img src="https://62e528761d0685343e1c-f3d1b99a743ffa4142d9d7f1978d9686.ssl.cf2.rackcdn.com/files/50889/width668/9gvrmhs8-1402536073.jpg" alt=""></a>
Northern Australia — particularly the Ord, Flinders and Gilbert river regions — have long been talked up as having potential for greatly increased agriculture, close to Asia. However, as the 2012 Feeding the Future paper noted, there are sensitive issues including indigenous land-use rights and environmental management. Source: <a class="source" href="https://www.dfat.gov.au/publications/feeding-the-future/feeding-the-future" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">Feeding the Future, Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, 2012</a>, <a class="license" href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">CC BY</a>
Released this week by Deputy Prime Minister Warren Truss, the green paper is a good start in the process of developing a plan for the north.
The risk to successful development in the north is in underestimating both the scale of the opportunity and the scale and complexity of the challenges. Many past attempts at development have failed on both these counts.
So there is much work still to be done before being able to predict if this new push to develop northern Australia will succeed where past plans have failed.
Economies of scale
If Australia’s new national policy for developing northern Australia is to get anywhere, one of the most important issues for it to address is the huge scale of investment required to get major new projects off the ground.
We also need to define the paths to winning a significant share of high-value Asian markets.
The green paper suggests the northern economy should be diversified into areas other than mining and energy. Tourism and agriculture — and I’ll largely focus on agriculture, as it’s my area of expertise — are the two main options identified.
<a href="https://62e528761d0685343e1c-f3d1b99a743ffa4142d9d7f1978d9686.ssl.cf2.rackcdn.com/files/50876/area14mp/cz3mkfgr-1402534545.jpg"><img src="https://62e528761d0685343e1c-f3d1b99a743ffa4142d9d7f1978d9686.ssl.cf2.rackcdn.com/files/50876/width237/cz3mkfgr-1402534545.jpg" alt=""></a>
The six possible policy directions to develop northern Australia covered in the new Green Paper. <a class="source" href="https://northernaustralia.dpmc.gov.au/sites/default/files/papers/green_paper.pdf" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">Green Paper on Developing Northern Australia</a>, <a class="license" href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">CC BY</a>
Some past failures in agriculture in the north can be attributed in transplanting agricultural technology from the south, rather than re-inventing it for the new northern environment.
Globally we have had much more research and development delivering technology into temperate agriculture rather than tropical agriculture, where we now have the greatest need in Australia and globally.
Australian research and development capability in this area is strong, and should provide a competitive advantage in developing our north, one of the few remaining areas in the world with potential for agricultural expansion.
Article continues on next page. Please click below.
<hr class="system-pagebreak">
Working with local conditions
The green paper cautiously does not attempt to pick winners in backing specific industries.
Agriculture in the north may continue to depend upon the established industries <a href="https://www.qaafi.uq.edu.au/nbra" target="_blank">such as beef</a> for some time, but new agricultural ventures will have a wide range of options, requiring careful evaluation. Agricultural and food products that can thrive in northern Australian conditions need to be identified.
The scale of investment is a big challenge. For example, establishing new farms in remote northern locations could require new roads and rail to get the products to a port or market.
As the <a href="https://www.propertyobserver.com.au/https://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-06-10/coalition-launches-green-paper-nothern-australia/5512456" target="_blank">Deputy Prime Minister noted this week, water storage and distribution systems</a> may need to be constructed. But new dams aren’t cheap, meaning large-scale investments would be needed.
<a href="https://62e528761d0685343e1c-f3d1b99a743ffa4142d9d7f1978d9686.ssl.cf2.rackcdn.com/files/50870/area14mp/jn726d7k-1402529974.jpg"><img src="https://62e528761d0685343e1c-f3d1b99a743ffa4142d9d7f1978d9686.ssl.cf2.rackcdn.com/files/50870/width237/jn726d7k-1402529974.jpg" alt=""></a>
Despite covering almost half of Australia’s mainland, northern Australia has a relatively small population of just over one million people, or 5% of all Australians. <a class="source" href="https://northernaustralia.dpmc.gov.au/sites/default/files/papers/green_paper.pdf" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">Green Paper on Developing Northern Australia p.3 (a higher resolution image was not available)</a>, <a class="license" href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">CC BY</a>
Single farms as big as the entire Ord River scheme or possibly even larger are now being considered. That has major implications for the policies that need to be developed by government to attract large-scale investment.
Businesses of this type might resort to a fly-in, fly-out workforce, following the mining industry’s example. But the social implications of fly-in, fly out farming need to be better understood.
Investing in success
Development of the north will require that governments at all levels create an investment environment that will attract the significant capital essential for new ventures in the north. That means getting the balance right between removing red tape and ensuring investment in sustainable industries.
A key to success for Australian agriculture will be in successfully targeting high-value niche markets for food products in Asia.
These Asian markets are large and — despite the niche label — are able to take all that Australia can produce of most foods, as I’ve written about <a href="https://theconversation.com/australian-trade-beats-aid-in-boosting-global-food-security-22546" target="_blank">for The Conversation before</a>. Niche markets tend to pay higher prices, but they may also be highly competitive and require sophisticated marketing and quality control.
But rather than just producing food and then exporting it for others to process further, on-farm processing in northern Australia is likely to be essential to many businesses.
We’re not talking about small, family-run farms, but big businesses, covering bigger areas and able to capture greater economies of scale.
Alongside business, Australian scientists will have a key role in delivering the appropriate new crops, new animals and new farming systems that will be necessary for agriculture to succeed in the north.
Developing more remote areas of northern Australia comes with bigger challenges than setting up new ventures in established areas like the Murray-Darling region.
But the opportunities are there. Now we need to ensure that government policy settings and business plans are well-targeted, so that developing northern Australia finally moves on from being a long-held dream to becoming a reality.
Robert Henry is director, Queensland Alliance for Agriculture and Food Innovation at University of Queensland.
Robert Henry receives funding from University of Queensland, Queensland Government, Australian Research Council and Rural Industries Research and Development Corporation.
This article was originally published on <a href="https://theconversation.com" target="_blank">The Conversation</a>.
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Giant steps needed to build up northern Australia’s potential

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The RBA's head of financial stability Luci Ellis has repeated the view that Australia's central bank won't be introducing ‘‘macroprudential’’ policy restrictions on higher-risk lending in order to preserve financial stability.
Despite limits on loans with high loan-to-valuation ratios being introduced in Canada, Sweden, Norway, Israel, Korea and Hong Kong, Ellis defended the RBA's caution.
‘‘We view macroprudential policy as something to be subsumed into the broader financial stability framework,’’ Ellis said in a speech to the University of Adelaide Economics Department.
“We recognise that quantitative restrictions were already tried in the 1960s and 1970s – and didn’t always work so well.
‘‘The division between ‘microprudential’ supervision, narrowly focused on individual institutions, and system-wide ‘macroprudential’ supervision, never made much sense to us in Australia.’’
Ellis stressed the central bank’s tools for promoting financial stability were the ‘‘telephone’’, a reference to calling APRA and raising concerns, and the ‘‘microphone’’, a reference to the RBA's public comments.
"Exposing and warning of risks can ideally change behaviour, and steer the system away from higher-risk outcomes," she said.
Her speech follows last week’s warning from APRA which unveiled new draft guidelines on how to manage risks in the mortgage market.
Ellis said APRA and the RBA were already well equipped to promote financial stability.
‘‘The rationale for carving out particular bits of the prudential framework under separate governance – which is what people mean nowadays by ‘macroprudential tools’ – appears to be that supervisors cannot be relied on to discharge their duties with system-level concerns in mind,’’ she said.
‘‘That might be true in some countries, but not in Australia and at least some other countries.’’
In framing the objectives of financial stability policy, Luci Ellis noted whenever housing prices boomed people worried that housing has become unaffordable. 
"Of course, if prices are rising, it must be that someone can afford those prices.
"If they are motivated by speculative expectations, though, prices can run ahead of levels that can be sustained in the longer term.
"So there can be a financial stability angle to those concerns, if a future fallout is likely to harm the real economy, either directly or via distress in the financial system.
"But the real policy concern here is that other people get priced out.
"It is fundamentally a question of distribution, particularly intergenerational distribution.
"This is not in the remit of financial stability policy, and the two goals should not be conflated.
"But we should be mindful of this equally legitimate goal of public policy, which is to ensure that everyone can access appropriate shelter that they can reasonably afford.
"Sometimes this goal mutually supports the goal of financial stability.
"But as we saw in the US housing meltdown, if you get the policy response to an affordability issue wrong, the consequences for financial stability can be dire," she outlined.
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jchancellor-FAypfDUnLy

RBA shies away from macroprudential housing policies, but microphone at the ready

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Hundreds of electricians are out of work after a major national electrical contracting firm with annual revenues of $350 million collapsed into receivership on Monday. 
At its peak, Pacific Services Group employed 1300 staff nationwide, across 40 active project sites and 14 offices, however the group's headcount fell to around 700 employees by the time of its collapse.
Major projects overseen by Pacific Services Group included works at the Chadstone Shopping Centre and Royal Children’s Hospital in Melbourne, the NBN rollout in Tasmania and the Lotus Glen Correctional Facility in Queensland.
The group, based in North Melbourne with offices across Australia, was created through an initial investment by Wolseley Private Equity in 2006 in a bid to become the nation’s largest electrical, data and communications engineering company.
Between February 2006 and October 2009, Pacific Services Group went on a buying spree, acquiring Elecraft in Victoria, Russell Smith Electrical in Tasmania, Boffa Russo in South Australia, Richard Flanagan &amp; Co in Queensland and RSE Electrical in NSW.
However, the electrical firm soon hit financial hurdles, with <a href="https://www.afr.com/p/opinion/kordamentha_takes_control_of_pacific_lDV8jauszuDjsyWGRvareL">The Australian Financial Review</a> reporting Pacific Services Group had lost a major maintenance contract with retail giant Woolworths.
In July of last year, then-chief executive Peter White announced Pacific Services Group had received a $10 million injection from investors, and had secured a deal to restructure its debt from lenders.
“The recapitalisation will inject fresh money into PSG and restructure the group’s debts in a manner that will significantly strengthen the group’s financial position. You will all see the practical impact of this over the following weeks and months,” White said at the time.
“Thank you all for your support over the past few months; it has been a challenging time for us all. The recapitalisation provides us with a robust platform on which to move forward and to bid for the projects that are in the market. We look forward to continuing to work closely with you on both existing and new opportunities.”
Despite the cash injection, by September, Pacific Services Group announced it had appointed former Tyco Fire Protection Services APAC operations director Jeffrey Bretz as its new chief executive.
However, Bretz was unable to turn the company around, with PPB Advisory partner Craig Crosby appointed as an administrator, while Scott Kershaw, Michael Brereton and Craig Shepherd of KordaMentha were appointed as receivers earlier this week.
The Victorian state secretary of the Electrical Trade Union, Troy Gray, blasted the company’s management in a statement provided to SmartCompany, saying the company’s electricians, who had made millions of dollars for the company, including 200 in Victoria, would be left without an income.
“It's not just 200 workers. It's the families of these 200. They don't have an income. They can't get their entitlements, we're told by the government, for 40 weeks. We call on the government to fast-track that,” Gray said.
“Many of these workers will not get re-employed. The construction industry in Victoria isn't fantastic at the moment and they need those entitlements. The annual leave, banked RDOs, they need to live on, to buy food with.”
In a statement, Crosbie told SmartCompany he was still investigating Pacific Services Group's finances, and would report back to creditors by the end of the month.
"We are mindful of the impact on employees and are working with the Electrical Trades Union, the receivers and managers and PSG management to ensure entitlements are calculated as a matter of urgency," Crosbie says.
“We understand the receivers and managers have ceased to trade the businesses. At this stage it is unlikely that funds will be available to meet unsecured creditor claims. In the event the PSG companies are wound up and there are insufficient funds to pay employees, they will be entitled to lodge a claim under the federal government’s Fair Entitlement Guarantee scheme. The administrators will facilitate this process."
“We have notified the Department of Employment that a Fair Entitlements Guarantee claim is being prepared and we will do everything in our power to secure FEG funding and process employee claims as quickly as possible.”
The collapse follows the administration of another multimillion-dollar electrical contracting business called Global Electrotech in <a href="https://www.smartcompany.com.au/growth/32891-leading-wa-electrical-services-contracting-business-collapses--industry-is-shot">July of last year</a>.
This article first appeared on <a href="https://www.smartcompany.com.au/" target="_blank">SmartCompany.</a>
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asadauskas-o9wSWMRiAW

Short circuit as $350 million electrical contractor collapses

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GUEST OBSERVATION
When should a young person start getting paid as an adult?
It depends on where the money is coming from, according to current government policy - policy that is sending conflicting messages about the true value of young people to Australia’s economy.
In March, the Fair Work Commission (FWC) decided to alter the General Retail Industry Award so that 20 year olds would receive the “adult” rate of pay instead of the current rate of 90%. They will now be eligible for the full adult rate once they have been in the job for six months. This means that 20-year-olds will be treated virtually the same as those aged 21.
And yet in May, the federal budget proposed that unemployed people under the age of 25 would no longer qualify for the Newstart allowance of $510 a fortnight, currently available to people after they turn 22. People under 25 will have to apply for the lower Youth Allowance of $414 a fortnight at the full rate.
Currently, the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ACCI) is <a href="https://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/policy/business-push-on-sunday-penalties/story-fn59noo3-1226940798835#mm-premium" target="_blank">leading a campaign</a> to lower Sunday penalty rates, arguing that it will create jobs for young people.
These measures send contradictory messages about when young people officially join the mainstream “adult” workforce. Let’s look at each in turn.
First the FWC decision. The Australian Retailers Association has argued that changes to the system of junior rates could discourage employers from appointing young people. But as Damian Oliver from the University of Sydney has <a href="https://theconversation.com/adults-in-all-but-pay-the-case-for-increasing-youth-wages-16030" target="_blank">pointed out</a>, some employers already pay young people in this age group at the adult rate.
Parts of the manufacturing and construction industries - significant employers of young males - have already removed junior rates for many categories of workers aged 18 to 20. Coles and Woolworths, the two largest employers of young people in the retail sector, have already removed junior rates for 20 year olds from their enterprise agreements.
Casual work is on the rise
At the same time, young people face an increasingly casualised workforce, with access to full-time secure work happening later in life. The steady decline of full-time job opportunities over the last 20 years has meant that many teenagers must make do with part-time and casual work, in which associated entitlements such as access to flexible holidays are not available. Combine this with the ever-increasing challenges of entering the housing market and young people find that the secure markers of “adulthood” enjoyed by previous generations are often out of reach. Recognition of a fair level of pay commensurate with “adults” is one of the few concessions available in a fluid job market.
Recent surveys of business show concern that young people lack loyalty to their employers. Loyalty is a two-way street. Recognition of the value of young people’s labour through wage levels, with the expectation that in return young people will stay with employers, is one way of addressing this concern, so the FWC decision is potentially positive in this regard.
The Australian Industry Group has suggested: “The emphasis should be on preserving employment in the industry, not on imposing higher costs,“ but a more sophisticated response is required that both ensures fairness as well as providing youth employment and training opportunities. Arguably, wage rates could be traded off against traineeships with a qualification at the end or other benefits.
A less sophisticated approach is to lower penalty rates. ACCI Chief executive, Kate Carnell, <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/small-business/trends/acci-prioritises-youth-unemployment-20140521-38naz#ixzz33XBhZTkq" target="_blank">recently suggested</a> that “With youth unemployment rates going up, and the policies announced in the budget… you could get more jobs, especially with the young market, very quickly with movement on weekend penalty rates”.
With major employers of young people such as retailers joining the campaign, there is some justification to potentially opening up job opportunities. But again, the value of young people’s work (and rest) is ambivalent. While it may create jobs, it may also inadvertently contribute to the broader lack of security that permeates the youth labour force. And the argument that these jobs will lead to secure employment becomes problematic given that teenagers in part-time work are only <a href="https://www.fya.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/FYA_HYPAF_Full_Report_PDF.pdf" target="_blank">slightly more likely</a> to move into full-time employment than those who are unemployed.
Earning or learning
Under the government’s new earning or learning regime, jobseekers under the age of 30 will have to wait six months before receiving unemployment benefits, depending on their work history. In one stroke, this policy effectively extends the age of transition from school to work by five years. It does this by treating young people under 30 as one category, consisting of those who apparently need economically punitive motivation to seek work. Advocates of this policy may characterise this as an “incentive”, but the outcome is the same: if you’re young and not earning or learning, you will not be supported by government support derived from societal taxation.
What this does is to extend the economic definition of unemployed youth to the age of 30. It stands in contrast to the FWC’s implied judgement that 20 year-olds should be treated the same as those aged 21. The latter decision affords entitlements to a fair wage to younger Australians, the former denies entitlements to later in life. One step forward, two steps back.
At the heart of the FWR decision is that “the discounted rate for all 20-year-old retail employees is not a fair and relevant minimum safety net”.
Beneath these decisions is a social question: “When does a young person become an adult?” Prior to this decision, 18 year-olds working in retail are paid 70% of the full adult rate (i.e. the wage applied to those over the age of 21). 19-year-olds are paid at 80% of the wage, and so on until at age 21 they are recognised as “adults”.
What changes between the ages of 20 and 21? Based on the evidence, the Commission found there to be “little difference in the duties and responsibilities assigned to 20 and 21-year-old retail employees”. And what changes between the age of 21 and the age of 30?
A consistent message needs to be sent to young people about their economic status as “adults”. Recognising their work through providing the adult wage level is one small way of doing this, while addressing the discrimination evident in the way young people are paid.
The FWC described the decision to change the retail award as a special case and that this would not necessarily lead to similar findings for other awards. The federal government’s policy to alter conditions for receiving Newstart Allowance has yet to make its way through the Senate.
When viewed in combination, these approaches to youth employment suggest we are some way off from sending a consistent message to young people about the value of their work to the economy.
Lucas Walsh is associate professor and associate dean (Berwick), faculty of education at Monash University.
This article was originally published on <a href="https://theconversation.com">The Conversation</a>. 
Photo courtesy of Flickr/<a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/" target="_blank">Creative Commons</a>.
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jake-cSmGT7VXVf

Earning, learning or confused: Mixed signals on jobs for young

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Paradigm was the buzz word when Australia was handcuffed to a hung parliament, so to be different let’s take a look at Australia’s property paradigm and what we can expect to be reading about the direction Australian property is headed in coming months.
Many vastly differing opinions are front and centre at the moment, for some strange reason commentaries keep reverting back to Australia’s property boom in 2003/04 – which I am struggling to accept.
In 2003/04 Australia was basking in an unprecedented period of economic growth together with a booming resources sector, which for want of a better expression, this may be better described as the old economy given our resources sector is now in decline.
The latest capex figures were released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) this week which revealed that total capex fell by 4.2% in the March quarter. Most notable was the mining industry which declined by 8.7% in the March quarter with total new capex now 5% lower than this time last year. As Australia moves from mining to non – mining industries the building sector was suggested as the biggest benefactor from mining and also declined by 7.4% in the March quarter. Capex has now fallen by 8.5% over the last two quarters – which puts the Australian capex on par with the largest six month decline since the recession back in 1993.
There are many questions that today remain unanswered given there is growing opinions that Australia’s long-term planning may need an immediate visit back to the drawing board as these unknown economic irregularities have Australia steering into unknown waters. Certainly the latest capex figures indicate that our productivity is headed completely in the wrong direction.
With interest I have been closely watching the ANZ – Roy Morgan weekly consumer confidence rating which has revealed that confidence is now down 15% since the Abbott government first started spruiking its budget policies. This has brought about a most unusual trifecta given we see confidence, terms of trade and property prices (apparently) in decline. What we are seeing today is a complete opposite to what happened back in 2003/04 although the cash rate back then was approximately double what it is today and from 2003/04 the cash rate steadily increased to 7.25% in 2008 only to be halted by the global financial crisis.
<a href="https://www.rwm.com.au/files/2014/05/27-05-2014-12-25-40-PM.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-8564" src="https://www.rwm.com.au/files/2014/05/27-05-2014-12-25-40-PM.jpg" alt="27-05-2014 12-25-40 PM" width="595" height="357"></a>
Source: Macro Business
Although what is conflicting is the property dynamic over the same period for residential term loans to households which may very well explain why we are starting to see the early signs of the property markets easing. Although it must be noted that the traditional real estate markets have only recorded modest capital growth when compared to the outer Sydney areas that have posted unprecedented capital growth.
It is anyone’s guess when the RBA will start increasing the cash rate again although most agree that they will remain where they are for some considerable time to come.
<img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-8565" src="https://www.rwm.com.au/files/2014/05/27-05-2014-1-10-16-PM.jpg" alt="27-05-2014 1-10-16 PM" width="696" height="347">
 
Source: Digital Finance Analytics
With interest this week I read Ian Macfarlane on central bank policies, inflation and China on <a href="https://cuffelinks.com.au/ian-macfarlane-central-bank-policies-inflation-china/" target="_blank" title="Cuffelinks">Cuffelinks</a>. What I find most interesting about China is that aside from them being a number one client for buying our iron ore, which is now in decline, they are fast becoming the number one foreign purchaser of our real estate.
What that in itself may suggest that given their insatiable interest in Australian real estate prices will flat line for some considerable time to come as they are definitely a noteworthy driver of real estate today – this reinforces the mislead perceptions/predictions that real estate values will fall.
The biggest question marks over Australian real estate are quite simple and twofold – what will happen to the markets when the cash rate goes back to some form of normality say at 7.50% which represents a 200% increase? Lastly, they keep mentioning negative gearing and given the Australian government’s debt position there will come a time when this great tax deduction is re-examined.
Although maybe we are looking at the wrong paradigm given nobody can explain why the ASX surged to a six year high this week?
Obviously I must have missed something?
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robertsimeon-hRNTwJyXkQ

Australia's contentious property paradigm: What we can expect to hear about in the future

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GUEST OBSERVATION
The Pilbara has had a remarkable boom in recent years, but with the current slowdown comes questions about its long-term future. The need to diversify the local economy is obvious, but how do you do this? In our report, <a href="https://www.pilbara2050.net" target="_blank">Pilbara 2050</a>, we have explored how networked infrastructure could help in this transition.
The Pilbara’s energy generation, transmission and rail systems are operated separately by mining, petroleum and energy companies on a combination of gas and diesel with very little grid present. The result is high costs and carbon emissions. Connecting the existing power infrastructure into a grid would not only make a more resilient system, but it would enable electrifying of the railroads and mining pits which would reduce everybody’s operating costs and massively reduce carbon emissions.
Agriculture is emerging as a viable alternative to the region’s mineral resources, now that much more water has been found. But the fundamental question remains: where will power come from and how will bulk goods be transported? Renewable energy has a big future in the Pilbara as the area has the highest concentration of solar radiation on earth. Diesel could be replaced with renewable energy at a much lower cost. It would also create the pre-conditions for other more energy intensive industries to establish themselves. Without it, they will likely choose other regions to set up shop.
Attracting new businesses requires a lower cost base
A study by Regional Development Australia found the cost of doing business in the Pilbara is <a href="https://www.rdapilbara.org.au/resources/site1/General/Publication%20Reports/RDA%20Business%20in%20Pilbara_SinglePages.pdf">40% more expensive</a> than Perth and even higher when compared against other parts of Australia. Much of this cost is due to a premium placed on the price per kilowatt hour of electricity from more expensive inputs. It would seem sensible to try and find mutually beneficial solutions like the completion of power grids and shared rail systems to lower the costs of operating in the region.
These ideas are not new, but historically mining and petroleum companies prefer to just look after their own power and rail systems. This week, former Western Australian Labor MP <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/comment/larry-graham-whos-responsible-for-the-pilbaras-future-20140524-zrn60">Larry Graham</a> said “private companies that built and own the railways will not, and should not, put their vital lifelines under someone else’s control”.
This raises important philosophical questions: do governments have the requisite capabilities to manage the infrastructure issue? And to what extent is competition affected by creating integrated networks?
For answers, we have looked at other international locations that have faced a similar predicament and either through government intervention or market-based decision making, have worked to link common networks to the benefit of all.
Network options
<ul>
<li>State sharing</li>
</ul>
The <a href="https://www.mosi.org.uk/media/33871840/electricityinbritain.pdf">Central Electricity Board</a> was established in 1926 in the UK to standardise the nation’s electricity supply. Until then, the industry consisted of more than 600 electricity supply companies and different areas operated at different voltages and frequencies. The Board established the UK’s first synchronised AC grid, which by 1933 covered most of England. In 1938, this started operating as a national system called the National Grid. The Board was dismantled when the grid was nationalised in 1947.
<ul>
<li>Private integrated</li>
</ul>
In the airline industry, a <a href="https://www.princeton.edu/~achaney/tmve/wiki100k/docs/Codeshare_agreement">codeshare agreement</a> is an arrangement where two or more airlines which compete for the same markets, form a strategic alliance to share the same network routes. A ticket can be purchased from either carrier, but the flight itself is actually operated and managed by only one of the participating airlines. Under such agreements, costs are shared between the carriers who might otherwise struggle to make the flight route economically viable on their own.
<ul>
<li>Private and government integrated</li>
</ul>
The London Underground <a href="https://www.tfl.gov.uk/corporate/about-tfl/culture-and-heritage/londons-transport-a-history/london-underground?intcmp=2777">opened in 1863</a> and was the world’s first networked train passenger system. It was originally built by private enterprise but nationalised in 1948 and since then has been run under a combination of private and public partnerships.
In the UK, various aspects of the mobile networks are shared, including with the government. In Australia, for example <a href="https://www.afr.com/p/business/companies/vodafone_forces_re_jig_of_mobile_GMUpTHI0VUgg4KpluxTLfK">Optus and Vodafone</a> share mobile towers and network coverage to provide better services at a lower cost to customers. Since 1991, cash ATMs are another example of privately shared networks.
<ul>
<li>Shared value approach</li>
</ul>
In Canada, the oil sands industry has historically operated with separate parallel entities, ignoring the cumulative environmental impacts of their activities, resisting further environmental legislation and the need to talk to one another. But an approach called <a href="https://hbr.org/2011/01/the-big-idea-creating-shared-value">Shared Value</a> developed by Harvard professors Mark Kramer and Michael Porter, resulted in <a href="https://www.cosia.ca/">Canada’s Oil Sands Innovation Alliance</a> being established, in which major companies have <a href="https://business.financialpost.com/2014/03/07/a-joint-venture-with-capp-canadas-oil-sands-innovation-alliance-collaboration-for-the-environment/?__lsa=e6a8-390d">shared</a> more than 560 technologies worth a total of US$900 million.
This article continues on next page. Please click below.
<hr class="system-pagebreak">
Getting the public/private balance right
The argument that private companies would - and should not - cede control over access to critical infrastructure is not borne out in these case studies. Despite often cited business concerns around the loss of control and risks to business continuity, evidence suggests that in fact integrated public planning can be extremely cost effective and everybody is a winner.
There can be big benefits for all when you get a proper network going. In the Pilbara, the private sector hasn’t been good at that. Until now, there has been a reluctance to push ahead with utilising the existing electricity transmission infrastructure to create an interconnected grid. The <a href="https://www.allens.com.au/pubs/comp/focomp21sep12.htm">outcome of legal attempts</a> for greater rail sharing has often seen the requirement for sharing lessened.
Graham also argues that governments have an “inability to operate effectively”. The Pilbara Development Commission and <a href="https://www.perthnow.com.au/news/western-australia/was-17-billion-question-can-pilbara-cities-become-reality/story-fnhocxo3-1226857364273">Pilbara Cities</a> has shown government has plugged a great deal of the infrastructure deficit in the Pilbara created from the commodities boom.
At the heart of this debate is whether the private or public sector can deliver best. Governments and business can and do work together well. The biggest functioning networks are always built by an integrated state.
With the right philosophical basis, West Australian problems could be addressed holistically. In the Pilbara, without the creation of mutual networks and benefits of scale, the economic diversification prize will remain illusive.
Jemma Green is senior research fellow at Curtin University.<img src="https://counter.theconversation.edu.au/content/27076/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" style="line-height: 1.3em;"> Peter Newman is professor of sustainability at Curtin University.
Peter Newman and Jemma Green received funding from Dampier Port Authority for the Pilbara 2050 Report
This article was originally published on <a href="https://theconversation.com" target="_blank">The Conversation</a>.
Photo courtesy of Wikimedia.
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As slowdown looms, Pilbara will need networks to thrive

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Over the past week or so there’s been no shortage of comment on the federal budget. It’s sure to be an ongoing discussion and I would like to look at a few less publicised topics that went under the radar.
The first concerns the search for a new Secretary for the NSW Department of Planning and Environment and whoever this person might end up being, it’s a position we should all be interested in.
Currently the state government’s planning reforms are treading water, and progress which is vital to the development industry is in the hands of the new look cabinet and in particular with the new Planning Minister Pru Goward. Labelled as the biggest shake-up of planning in more than 30 years, the planning overhaul has been in limbo since November 2013.
Under the previous Planning Minister Brad Hazzard, plans remained deadlocked including the key aim of a new fast-tracked development pathway. However there are community and industry concerns about the planning reforms and so the new Secretary and Ms Goward will face a few hurdles.
This newly created position was one of the first steps taken by the Minister and brings together the functions of planning, environment, heritage and local government and as noted in the recruitment advertising calls for candidates able to shape the future of planning and the environment in the state. For many years planning delays and red tape have been seen as holding back the development industry. While according to Meriton’s boss Harry Triguboff, affordability has also been impacted making it harder for first time buyers and inflating prices.
There are many reasons why this role will be keenly watched after applications close on 8 June.
Building Products On The Up
On a related but somewhat different path, only one day after the federal budget was announced a statement from CSR announced a full year net profit of $72.0 million, up a very impressive 143% with a statutory net profit of $88.1 million.
CSR noted that building products earnings increased by 20% with growth across most businesses, and that building approvals for both detached and multi-residential housing continue to grow strongly.  According to CSR this trend is expected to lead to increased demand over the next few years as multi-residential projects near completion and in another positive sign for the industry CSR also notes a solid pipeline of transactions currently under negotiation.
In February, Boral Limited also announced another healthy result with a 73% increase in net profit for the six months ended 31 December 2013. The Building Products division’s significant turnaround was in part due to the tailwind of improving housing construction demand in New South Wales and Western Australia.
The results from CSR and Boral do indicate that a move to see stronger development activity is now starting to take hold. The trend is further underlined by the ASX Materials Index which has increased by 8.34% in the last 12 months, while the related Industries Index has also increased by 9.45% over 12 months.
These figures are important as they point to how successfully we are moving from the resources construction boom. While the Resources Index rose 8.16% over the last 12 months the three-year trend is down 9.11%.
Planning Needs to Get in to Step
The pending appointment of a new planning and environment supremo for NSW and the need for new planning laws to be sorted out, may appear to be some distance from either of the boardrooms of CSR or Boral. However these two news items are linked because they point to the continued transformation of the national economy.
And while I have avoided direct comment on the federal budget, its strong infrastructure focus will no doubt impact CSR, Boral and similar companies and our future new department secretary as well. In a wider context new residential developments will soon come into the picture as planning rules for NSW are re-visited and as the construction sector benefits from strong infrastructure spending.
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The property topics that have flown under the radar

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Consumer attitudes towards the housing market took a tumble in the latest Westpac Melbourne Institute Index of Consumer Sentiment.
The index tracking assessments of ‘whether now is a good time to buy a dwelling' fell by 6% to its lowest level since November 2010, when the Reserve Bank had been lifting interest rates.
It is now 25% off its highs of September last year. 
Westpac chief economist Bill Evans says it was unlikely to be solely a response driven by the recent federal budget. 
"Respondents have been lowering their confidence levels for some months. 
"Between September last year and April the Index had already fallen by 20%.
The confidence around housing is particularly fragile in the major states with the index being down by around 30% from September’s highs in both NSW and Victoria. 
"Concerns over high prices and limited affordability are likely to be the key reasons behind these trend," the report said.
The overall Westpac Australian consumer sentiment fell sharply in May, posting its lowest level since August 2011 following the government's budget.
The survey of 1,200 people showed the pessimists exceed optimists.
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Now is not a good time to buy a Sydney or Melbourne home: Westpac confidence index

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Ratings agency Standard &amp; Poor’s has warned Australia’s AAA credit rating is at risk unless substantial cuts are made to the budget.
Lead sovereign analyst for S&amp;P, Craig Michaels, told the <a href="https://www.afr.com/p/national/australia_aaa_credit_rating_at_risk_5qqhkQyjknWnUmQ6RXwPLK">Australian Financial Review</a> the agency was looking to see the government improve budget performance over the next few years.
If it looked as though “sizeable budget deficits were considered acceptable at the political and the community level then we might reassess, certainly, government commitment and also potentially the trajectory for public sector debt”, Michaels told the newspaper.
Despite this warning, a spokesperson for S&amp;P said the ratings agency currently has a stable outlook on Australia’s AAA rating. 
“Which effectively means there's less than a one in three chance of a rating change in the next two years,” the spokesperson says.
We asked three economists, Shane Oliver from AMP Capital, Warren Hogan from ANZ and Alan Oster from the NAB, whether Australia’s credit rating is really at risk.
Also asked was <a href="https://www.smartcompany.com.au/finance/32623-standard-poors-faces-us-court-over-credit-ratings">whether credit ratings even matter</a> in light of a string of recent court cases against the ratings agency in which S&amp;P’s lawyers argued claims to its ratings being “independent”, “objective” and “free of conflicts of interests” are just marketing “puffery” anyway that “reasonable investors” shouldn’t rely on.
Is Australia’s AAA credit rating really at risk?
Oliver: “It’s not particularly surprising [S&amp;P] would say this. It’s always an issue for Australia as we have relatively strong fundamentals but that doesn’t mean we are not vulnerable.”
Oliver says S&amp;P’s warning “partly supports the government’s line of reasoning that we have to keep the budget under control” but the question is how this is done.
Oster: “Really what [S&amp;P] are saying is there is less than a one in three chance they will change [the rating] if the budget doesn’t get through.”
“Those comments are looking a little bit political,” he says.
Hogan: “The important point is the Australian government can lose its AAA rating more quickly than other governments and the reason for that is we have a lot of leverage in our economy outside of government as we have very high household debt and very high foreign debt.”
Hogan says because of this even though Australia’s debt is only projected to go to 15%, if it did reach 30%, Australia would be under some pressure even though countries like Germany have debt levels of 100%. 
“I think what S&amp;P is getting at is it would become worried if the government puts forward a budget repair program that is blocked, it would see that as a material impediment to improving Australia’s financial system,” he says.   
Does it matter if Australia loses it’s AAA rating?
Oliver: “Cynics might argue they often just reflect current conditions anyway, but by the same token they are reflecting valid concerns which are out there.
“One might question the role the ratings agencies played in facilitating the bubble in and around the US sub prime mortgages.”
“But I would say we would ignore it at our peril, all S&amp;P is really saying is common sense.”
Oliver warns Australia could be at risk of going down the path of European countries where debt levels spiral out of control.
“We shouldn’t care so much about the rating, it is more about the consequences that flow from escalating debt levels,” he says.
“It would be wrong of Australians to just shoot the messenger and say ‘It’s just S&amp;P what do they know, they got sued by the US government’.”
Oster: “It matters in terms of psychology.”
“This is not one of the ratings agencies finest hours. They have a track record of making sensational comments.  If Australia’s net debt is a problem then there aren’t any AAA countries in the world.” 
Hogan: “Right now a downgrade would be unlikely to have a material impact on the cost of finance for the government and that is really the main channel credit ratings impact.
“Right now it isn’t a problem, but that doesn’t mean it won’t become one as Australia is a very small economy and highly integrated into the world economy. 
“To not have a AAA rating could make Australia a riskier proposition should the international situation change.”
This article first appeared on <a href="https://www.smartcompany.com.au/" target="_blank">SmartCompany</a>.
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