IN the week of Halloween, we were visited once again by the spectre of high-speed rail. Conjured out of purgatory by none other than former prime minister Paul Keating, the notion of linking Newcastle to its state capital was pitched last Tuesday as a government-led infrastructure spend that, Keating thinks, could kick-start an economy "idling at the lights".
Although there's nothing new in the idea, people tend to listen to Paul Keating. Linking the two cities, according to the former Labor leader, "would completely change the housing pressures in Sydney" as it would "essentially turn Newcastle into a suburb of Sydney".
Let's pause on that thought. Newcastle is in a critical moment of growth, physically and psychologically. Cosy between its global port and hinterland, the regional capital is sporting early shoots of green as the state government's $650 million investment in the city centre tops out. New accommodation options are coming online, two of them of the highest order, and residential developments continue to fill the western skyline. In boardrooms and at the committee level, the region is acknowledging a diversity deficit and prioritising social equity. In 2019 we outgrew small town thinking.
That said, the future of our region remains comfortably familiar. From where I'm sitting it looks like modest population growth and a steady uptick on a couple of liveability metrics. Business as usual means that by 2036 we're still disproportionately white, we're still in our cars and we're still tub-thumping about parking or a new bypass. Familiar is no longer good enough.
The difficult reality we face, as the people who lead and love this region, is that there are other Newcastles in this world, both literally and metaphorically. Indeed, Australia has no shortage of coastal cities with less than a million people. A high-speed train to Sydney does not a global city make.
The Hunter is an exceptional region that should be doing more exceptional things. For a region privileged in its geography, accessibility, workforce and amenity we are not punching above our weight. The largest regional economy in the country can do better than ease housing pressures in Sydney.
Recently I asked a very well-known Sydneysider what he saw in the Hunter's future. The individual is one of the chief decision-makers in this state and has a better than working knowledge of our region and its assets.
"You have to figure out what the point of Newcastle is," he replied. "You're doing too many things and are world best at none."
The comment cuts deep and fast into something that for too long we have evaded in the Hunter. With 600,00 people, we are big enough to matter but small enough to require surgical precision. Put simply, we can do anything but not everything. With the limited resources we have, both financial and human, we need to make decisions about who we are and take out to the world a clear and honest proposition. Our world and our climate are changing. Equitable growth in 2019 looks nothing like it did 20 years ago. Our emerging workforce is international and has some of the lowest rates of car and home ownership in a century. They're going to want good jobs and good mass transit in a vibrant and affordable city.
Most importantly, if we are to be a truly global player, and I believe that we can be, then we need to stand for something in the 2020s. All chips on the table. Go hard or go home.
The Committee for the Hunter creates a new opportunity for us to coalesce and to focus. More importantly, it could provide a forum in which we all agree to lift the bar high enough that we become bound to a new culture of strategic risk taking and international benchmarking. To do this, the committee will need to work with its membership to facilitate difficult conversations and to inspire cutting-edge thought leadership. It will need to be a clearing house of ideas that is relevant, responsive and diverse. Nothing can be off limits and personal or party politics must be dumped at the door.
Above all else, the committee needs to be a triage for opportunity. It needs to work with members to shore up a genuine and compelling narrative about our region that combines achievements to date with unapologetic ambition. It must identify and articulate our core business, singling out the industries and markets that must be prioritised and around which everything else can attain clarity of purpose.
The 2020s must be the decade we stop tripping over ourselves. With a resourced and respected Committee for the Hunter, as well as continued efforts from our industry, elected and community leaders, we must once and for all nail the definition of this region and build a civic machinery that can grow it.
If we are to be the energy capital of the nation, let's write energy policy. If we are to be a UNESCO City of Design, let's fuse arts and manufacturing. If we want to lead the world in health and medical research, let's give them a Nobel Laureate.
This stuff is no longer wishful thinking. If we are serious about being an emerging global city, we must take seriously the work and responsibilities that the category demands. No more easy targets and low hanging fruit. No more hiding in the familiar.
High-speed rail may help Sydney, but first we need to help ourselves.
- Matt Endacott is an urban planner. He was the only Australian selected for the Next City emerging leaders' summit in California this year.
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