Demography is our destiny. Based on current population growth rates the Tamworth Regional Council area will have a population of about 150,000 within 100 years.
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I believe the number will be more like 225,000 to 250,000, due to changes in government policies around a more balanced approach to population distribution.
It will be realized within the next two decades that it is in the national interest to achieve a better population dispersal across the regions.
We will see immigration policies where 50% of arrivals would be located outside the major cities. People are our most important resource.
It will be imperative into the next century that we develop our understanding of how and why our population changes. It will become a fundamental prerequisite in developing effective economic, social and environmental policy frameworks.
Planning and the provision of infrastructure to support this population and maintain our quality of life will be a major challenge for governments.
Water, sewerage and transport infrastructure, energy supplies, education and health systems will all require smart and innovative solutions.
Subject to technological advancements and evolving community attitudes, to support 200,000 people and associated commercial activities will require a quadrupling of water storage and sewerage infrastructure.
The key factor that will differentiate success from failure in the next 100 years is leadership. To many people in the political and corporate world have diminished the importance of leadership.
Just like our futures are ultimately determined by the quality of leadership at a global level, our community’s destiny is decided by the quality of its local leadership.
Therefore, agendas for prosperity in the Tamworth region over the next 100 years will ultimately succeed or fail based on the quality of its local leadership at three levels – political, community and individual.
Political will be the quality of civic leadership and its capacity to visualize and strategise desirable futures. Community will be the quality of leadership from service clubs, schools, non-government sector organisations, corporate bodies, business and community groups.
Individual leadership will be derived from people adopting some form of genuine personal responsibility to improve some aspect of community life.
Our next 100 years will require thinking around:
- Overhauling our education and learning systems. Currently we teach people to be job-takers and future -takers, rather than job-makers and future-makers. We need to produce leaders with the skills and motivations to envision purposeful futures, chart the journey, and motivate and inspire others to join the journey.
- Developing the governance frameworks that enables decision-makers to use their imaginations to travel into the future and visualize all the emerging possibilities, all the options, and all the threats. All futures are part chance, part choice. Communities who fail to understand their futures through the use of imagination will compromise their opportunities.
- With global population reaching 11 billion within 100 years, nature will not keep up with demand for food. This will create opportunities for this region to play its part in feeding the world. Our airport will have international freight facilities.
- Finding solutions to technology disruptions will be a major challenge. Civic leadership will have to make complex decisions to prepare for these challenges. Take for example driverless cars. The effect of this transition will run through many aspects of our economy, affecting land use, transportation infrastructure, budgets and associated policy frameworks.
- Personal flying drones replacing cars. Council will need introduce new regulatory frameworks and construct the skyways and supporting infrastructure like car parks and refueling facilities.
- Council meetings will be transformed. Councillors, the media and members of the public with the use of holograms will be able to attend meetings virtually.
The only limit to the Tamworth region’s future in the next 100 years will reside in its leadership, its imagination and its enterprise.
