General News
25 September, 2024
Mount Isa-based Labor candidate calls for career diversity in North West
Georgia Heath says she's running for election so that she can discuss important issues.
Labor's candidate for Traeger Georgia Heath says her formative experiences in local government during the Holden plant closures in South Australia has shaped her outlook on the need for traditional “company town” communities to embrace economic diversification.
Ms Heath was managing library and customer core services at the City of Playford in the northern suburbs of Adelaide in the closing weeks of 2013.
She was in a meeting at the council offices when someone rushed in to announce there had been a radio news report claiming Holden, one of the biggest employers in the Playford area, intended to close its manufacturing plant, which would see 1700 workers lose their jobs.
“Pretty much everyone in that room had a partner who was working for Holden,” she recalled.
“In that moment the women in that meeting went from being in a two-income family to all of a sudden being the sole income earner as well as the main emotional support for the family.
“It had a devastating impact. It was a moment you never forget.”
In stark parallels to Mount Isa Mines, the Holden plant had been the backbone of the Playford community – the area had been born when Holden not only brought its manufacturing plant but also cheap bank loans to enable newly settled workers to build homes and raise their families.
Ms Heath said she witnessed the sense of shock and loss reverberate through the community as the social and economic impacts of the closure took hold.
Having since relocated to Mount Isa where the wife and mother of three operates a national consultancy firm from her home office, Ms Heath said she believes cities such as Playford and Mount Isa must embrace new technology to widen the available economic scope and worker skill set.
“The mining industry will always have its ups and downs, but we need to make sure there are those good economic opportunities for partners so that no matter what happens in the mining industries, families continue to have reliable incomes,” she said.
“We need to find those new opportunities that will bring new money into the region that we haven’t been able to tap into before. So, to take my case – I’m working in Mount Isa bringing in money from South Australia through my business, which I am spending in Mount Isa.
“For the first time in our history, we could be working from Doomadgee or Cloncurry or Mount Isa – anywhere with an internet connection – and working for companies from all over the world.
“I know there are people currently living in Mount Isa who are working for companies based in Sweden or New Zealand. They are living in Mount Isa and enjoying all the benefits the lifestyle here brings but working for businesses based all over the globe.”
Despite the massive 24.8 per cent margin enjoyed by Robbie Katter, Ms Heath said she believed the Miles government had delivered a policy platform that justified reelection.
“I think Labor is embracing core values such as addressing cost of living pressures and providing economic opportunity – they are embracing policy ideas that are leading the rest of the nation,” she said.
Ms Heath said the Miles government’s commitment to the CopperString rollout was an example of Queensland Labor providing economic boosting infrastructure that could foster diversification opportunities across the region.