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Welcome to our December 2022 E-NEWS.

In this final edition of our newsletter for the year, we've compiled a collection of things to read and watch in the key themes we've been working on: Housing, Workforce, Business Preparedness and Circular Economy.


 

In housing this year, we've focused on providing information and ideas to generate accommodation solutions for key workers on the Mid North Coast. Key workers are those people whose jobs are so essential that our society would grind to a halt without them - people who work in health, education, food production and retail, hospitality, cleaners, transport and law enforcement. We've surveyed key workers to find where the pain points are in housing (yep, you guessed it: not enough affordable or appropriate housing in the places where key workers need to live), and produced a report on Mid North Coast housing.

We also made a film! Our Spaces: a short film about the housing revolution happening inside our homes tells the stories of 8 households across the Mid North Coast who are sharing their homes in unexpected ways. If you haven't seen it at one of our two public screenings this year, do yourself a favour and watch it - our watch party page has everything you need 😊

Ignite MNC 2022 had a keen focus on housing as well, with housing experts Michele Adair, Nicole Woodrow, Claudia Conley and Ian Ugarte sharing their knowledge with us from the stage. We also have two awesome videos on housing from Ignite 2021: one on the future of housing,  and the other on innovation in housing supply.

We've also been busy collecting resources, tools and ideas for a housing toolkit to support housing solutions .

And if that's not enough, check out this reading list for more information and resources about the housing crisis:

Australia has been crying out for a national housing plan - The Conversation: hopefully the newly appointed National Housing Supply and Affordability Council will help provide solutions.
Quantifying Australia's unmet housing need - a report prepared for the Community Housing Industry Association: There are currently over 640,000 Australian households whose housing needs are not being met.
Rental Affordability Index November 2022: Annual research tracks rental affordability across Australia and highlights the experiences of disadvantaged households.
Ian Ugarte and the co-living model: Ian Ugarte is not your average property developer. He wants to create affordable housing options by converting large 4 bedroom homes into 4 micro apartments to service the needs of working singles and couples.
Take the pledge and get a flatmate! Our partnership with flatmates.com.au has enabled us to provide an easy mechanism for people on the Mid North Coast to be or have a flatmate.

Our Spaces - preview
2022 was another tough year for Mid North Coast businesses. While we were mercifully free from lockdowns, COVID-19 was still playing havoc, making many people unwell and contributing to ongoing and severe workforce shortages in many sectors. We know there is support out there for businesses, with all levels of government providing programs, resources and funding opportunities, but finding what you need can sometimes be difficult. To help, we've put together a Mid North Coast Business Support Hub on our website, which includes resources such as Grants & Funding, Programs & Support, Wellbeing Resources and Shop Local Programs.

Advocacy is always an important role for RDAMNC, and among other advocacy work in 2022 we continued to push for greater telecommunications coverage across the region, submitting a region wide response to the Federal Government's guidelines for the Blackspots Program. Here is our original submission to the Regional Telecommunications Review.

A couple of great videos from last year's Ignite MNC on Business Preparedness includes Tim Cotter's presentation on the quadruple helix: a way of working that enables the secret sauce of collaboration to occur, and Phil Preston's presentation on Preparing for disruption in a positive way.

We've got some great resources for you as well:

The Small Business Natural Disaster Preparedness and Resilience Inquiry Report was tabled in Federal Parliament on 10 November 2022 and made 16 recommendations, acknowledging the critical nature of small and family businesses to disaster prone areas.

Building Small Business Resilience: a website from the NSW Government Small Business Commissioner with useful resources including guides to building a business continuity plan, recovering from disaster, and insurance claims.



Workforce is another key pillar for RDAMNC this year, and with the ongoing workforce shortages in almost every sector,  there is plenty of work to do.  An RDAMNC survey of 102 businesses has identified a whopping 971 positions vacant.  In 2023 we will update the North Coast Employment Strategy incorporating some bold suggestions to turn this around.  

One of the ways we assist in this space is through the Skilled Migration Program which provides the application and approval structure for the 491 and 494 visas. RDAMNC is the Regional Certifying Body for these visas, useful for employers who need a position filled and cannot do so with local labour, and vital for skilled workers from overseas, who can use these pathways to permanent residency in a regional Australian community. As part of delivering this program we have facilitated three employer and community information sessions this year - one via a webinar in July, and two more sessions in Coffs Harbour last week. We have plans to deliver more information sessions next year across the Mid North Coast region.

We have been very concerned about challenges young people face in entering the workforce and earlier this year, we commissioned a report on the Importance of Career Advisers in creating links between schools and industry, and young people and work.

Workforce was one of the themes for Ignite MNC this year; one of our keynote speakers at Ignite MNC 2022 was Warren Kennaugh, Executive Performance Coach extraordinaire, who talked about bringing the team back and seven principles of the workplace. We also had a panel of workforce experts facilitated by Scotty Schindler, including Dr Cath Cosgrave, Ben Archer, and Owen Lednor. They shared some great wisdom with the audience including:
  • In order to keep people, you need to look after the new arrivals including the needs of their families (the kids need to be in the right schools, the person’s spouse needs to have access to work, and they need to have a place to live).
  • Explore age groups that are different from your usual focus. We talk a lot about attracting young people, but older demographics come with a lot of useful soft skills, and they are usually more committed to a location.
  • Identify any signs of ‘Entitlement recruitment’ – it’s not just about what your potential employee can offer you; it’s just as much about what you as an employer can offer your potential employee.
Some excellent reading includes:

Hybrid Working in Australia: Research from Swinburne University of Technology about hybrid working in Australia shows the changing role of the workplace and the sustained importance of flexible work to worker retention and attraction.

Workplace trends 2023: Think working from home, the rise and rise of e-commerce and the importance of focused, lifelong learning.

Workplace Wellbeing: Great resources from the Black Dog Institute, including six ways you can help contribute to wellbeing in your workplace.

Circular economy. There are clear economic benefits to a strong circular economy, including creating new types of jobs, supporting innovation and resource efficiency, as well as increased productivity. A strong circular economy has other significant benefits, notably in waste management, with landfill nearing capacity in all of the Local Government Areas on the Mid North Coast, and in increasing the regional capacity, resourcefulness and resilience of the Mid North Coast, especially in times of disaster.

RDAMNC undertook a Mid North Coast Circular Economy research project this year, supported by the Mid North Coast Joint Organisation (MNCJO). The purpose of the project was to locate existing projects in the region and identify opportunities and blockages to the development of a more circular economy. In order to inform the project, we engaged in desktop research, conducted a regional survey, and facilitated four public forums across the Mid North Coast. We discovered that:
  • Most of the current circular economy projects in the region are led by industry or government, with some notable examples being led by small not-for-profits, including a textile recycling project organised by Willing and Able, and a plastics recycling project run by MiiMi Aboriginal Corporation in partnership with The Plastic Collective and Gowings.
  • Opportunities to further develop the circular economy on the Mid North Coast include expanding communication networks to facilitate sharing information and ideas, greater collaboration across Local Government Areas, and education programs to increase community participation.
  • Potential limitations and difficulties to the expansion of a Mid North Coast circular economy include the geographic and demographic barriers of the region, including small, isolated populations and the tyranny of distance, infrequent opportunities for networking, perceived lack of support by government, and narrow profit margins which act as a disincentive for business.
The Mid North Coast Circular Economy report in January - stay tuned. We are looking forward to continuing our work in this area next year.

There are some great Circular Economy resources out there - here are a few:

Circular Australia
Ellen MacArthur Foundation
Australian Circular Economy Hub
Global Australia
NSW Circular Economy Hub
 

 

If you've still got Christmas shopping to do, don't forget to keep it local wherever you can.  In 2022 RDAMNC spent $50 or more with 74 small businesses based in the Mid North Coast - 14 of these were in creative industries who have been hit hard during Covid.  Your personal and business spend really counts in the region.

We're getting ready to shut down for a couple of weeks, and maybe you are too - whatever you're doing, we wish you a safe and happy season.


See you next year!
Kerry




Kerry Grace
Director of Regional Development and CEO
Regional Development Australia Mid North Coast
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