Growing pains in Australian regions in transition: Evidence of the “resource curse” or an absence of integrated planning?

Growing pains in Australian regions in transition: Evidence of the “resource curse” or an absence of integrated planning? Conference Paper

Sustainable Development in the Minerals Industry Conference

• Author(s): Hoath, Aileen, Greer, Lindsay, Haslam McKenzie, F
• Published: 2011

Link to resource Report broken link

Abstract: The recent sustained expansion of export-oriented mineral extraction projects in Australia has been accompanied by socio-economic, governance and environmental trends frequently identified in the literature as markers of a "curse" that afflicts resource dependent national economies. Such trends are highly spatialized. Goodman and Worth (2008) for example draw attention to processes of deindustrialisation associated with a strengthening dollar and redistribution of high paid jobs, that have exacerbated disparities between the mineral resource rich states of Western Australia and Queensland and the New South Wales manufacturing-based economy. Simultaneously, studies in remote, sparsely populated, mining localities reveal similar intra-regional disparities between indigenous populations, the service sector and elite mining enclaves in terms of access to housing, jobs, services and key infrastructure. This paper is concerned with elucidating the impacts of new and expanding mining operations within two established agrarian regions which are also richly endowed with mineral wealth. It draws on grounded research conducted through the CSIRO Regions in Transition project which closely examines several communities experiencing growth due to mining in localities which hitherto have been dominated by agriculture. The transition to a new industry base brings with it considerable costs and benefits associated with new population cohorts, work opportunities and regional development. Although the notion of "resources curse" offers a useful framing device, following Norman Long s(1996) observation that the global is always experienced and acted on locally, we argue that understanding complex site specific layers and networks of meaning, experience and structure through which the impacts of new mining are mediated is crucial to effective policy formulation and more equitable distribution of economic and social benefits. Through our research conducted in entirely different parts of Australia, we examine whether the issues identified are in fact evidence of the resource curse or rather impacts occurring at the regional level that are driven by intersecting/ overlapping extra-regional, and often more powerful, influences. We also consider whether better informed and more prescient planning could avoid regional level growth problems, and thus devise strategies for other communities and regions which would assist in avoiding some of the adverse consequences experienced in the case study sites examined and the broader economy and society affected by industry change and growth.

• Urls: https://web.archive.org/web/20110313081858/http://www.aims.rwth-aachen.de:80/downloads/Abstractvolume_March%204.pdf (scroll to page 57 of 84)
• Publisher Location: Aachen, Germany
• Keywords: mining, sustainability, growth