Have you heard the story of the blind man selling oranges? His son, an economist, tells him a recession is looming, he needs to cut his order with suppliers as people won’t be buying as many oranges. So he does and being blind doesn’t see the numbers of customers who walk past as he begins to run out of oranges. He thanks his son for the advice; ‘you were right people are buying less’. Our future is not necessarily set from what we see based on economic forecasts, trends or hopes; it is largely created by our own actions – what we do. As we reflect on 2013, let’s determine what actions are required to make 2014 a year we sell more oranges. 2014 is going to be more competitive; rationalisation in the mining/resource activity is causing every Queensland council to look at ways to fill the hole caused to its local economy and how to keep some momentum going. Alpha, the Galilee Basin, appears to be the beacon to achieve this. Can we even imagine the infrastructure (and the money) required to mine and transport a possible 70 million tonnes of coal a year? Councils will need to project a strong image of we’re open to all the opportunities associated with this. To Rockhampton Council credit they have been more pro-active in this field. To help achieve this though requires us to continually demonstrate our capability and desire for more growth. How we talk of the region, how we support the businesses that are here, how we view the glass as half full or half empty. It will be our actions that will determine if we sell more oranges; it will be our actions that create our future.
This is my last column for the year. I like to share a phone call I received to last week’s column. How do you dry a rain sodden ant bed tennis court? Pour a 44 gallon drum of oil over it then set it alight. This was done so Ken Rosewall and Mal Anderson could play Pancho Gonzales and Ken McGregor here in Rocky. Thank you Norb for sharing your recollection. Have a happy, safe Christmas and here is to the great 2014 that we’re going to make of it.