'Keep your kids out...abuse will offend" - Land owner red tape, white papers and green banners put Townsville economy "at risk"

Image: Sign erected in Harvey Range area in Charters Towers 

Lay of the Land

Rural land owners remain uncooperative and the federal government’s innovation policy being deployed as part of the Townsville City Deal is still immature and conservative in its industrial scope, while the Green minority fundamentalist movement is seeking the destruction of capitalism and carbon-based industries in Townsville North Queensland.

Townsville North Queensland is having to battle tooth and nail to realise the ambitious goal of becoming “the place to invest” in Queensland.

As the climate change union and socialist green power converge in coalition to fight the existing establishments of political power, Townsville Mayor Cr. Jenny Hill is saying Townsville is ‘open for business.’

But in Townsville, the “guard dogs and the galahs” are bailing up the postman at the city gates and the farmers in Charter Towers are warning parents with kids “keep out” or “my abuse could offend”.

Nevertheless, the message of hope is getting through; causing business confidence to increase and the predicted property spruikers to bait the hook.

The early adopters are recruiting staff as job advertisements have jumped by 48% on latest reports.

Still, the materials of industry are being challenged at the producers’ gate while the fruit of Northern Australia’s natural resources are again being abandoned in a protracted climate change storm.

But the questions on many property investors lips are directed towards the uncertainties. And the biggest threat to Townsville sustained property growth is this – Is the activist’s actions against industry seasonal or is it the new universal state of doing business in North Queensland?

The minority fundamentalists’ actions could strike a gaping wound however to the faculties of hope, desire and goodwill in the eyes of the Adani Carmichael coal mine, Magnus Resources Battery Gigafactory, and the Singapore Army training area, all of which are depending on billions in capital backing and land supply.

With respect to the largest industrial projects, what could Townsville be risking in economic terms?

These three projects alone are the largest private and non-government investments amongst many investments occurring in North Queensland. Townsville residents are overwhelmingly positive about the impact. But the go-ahead of part or all of the projects is subject to fringe groups individual rights, extreme ideology and the political agenda of disruptive alliances.

Scope of projects

The industries being touted as the next golden age for industry and economics in Townsville are major contributors to the expected drive for population growth over 200,000 in the next few years.

Multiple billions of dollars in defense training, mining and manufacturing contracts make the stakes for the economy, political leadership and industry very high indeed. The collective investment by these companies is over $25 billion with a potential life span of over 50 years.

Adani Carmichael coal mine

The Adani project is expected to bring into the Queensland economy $16.5 billion for the coal mine and $2 billion for the rail line construction to connect the mine from the Galilee Basin to Abbott Point near Bowen, generating an estimated 10,000 jobs over the life of the mine.

Adani says the jobs will be 4000 to build the mine, 3000 to build the rail line while 1400 are expected to work in the mine on an ongoing basis.

The Australian company headquarters has already been announced in the Telstra building in Townsville. The company has already placed advertisements calling for jobs for the Townsville office. The estimated number of jobs Adani proposes to employee in the Townsville office are approximately 500 in total.

Initially, 200 jobs are being created. Jobs have also been advertised in Rockhampton, at the mine site and Abbott Point port at Bowen. Senior investment jobs have been called in Brisbane, Sydney, and Melbourne. The Townsville office will accommodate the remote operations centre as new remote controlled driverless machinery is expected to be used at the mine site.

Adani has already invested $3.3 billion in purchasing the Abbott Point Port. AECOM will employee 70 staff in Townsville to carry out surveying and design of the rail line. The port is located a short distance north of Bowen in the Whitsundays district.

Downer EDI mining has been awarded the largest contract to build and operate the mine in the Galilee Basin. The Melbourne based mining and infrastructure engineering firm is unlikely to impact on the Townsville economy with the $2 billion construction contract as it has an established organisational base in southern capital cities and central Queensland.

Green groups determined to “blockade” the mine site have written directly to the Managing Director of Downer demanding the withdrawal of the Downer relationship with Adani. The Green group warns Downer the “blockade” action will escalate and target shareholders. “Please choose wisely. The world is watching,” the letter concluded.

The fly-in fly-out hub for the mine is yet to be confirmed. Adani has identified Townsville and Rockhampton as the two options so far. With the construction of the mine needing 4000 jobs, it is anticipated that both cities including Mackay will be identified as fly-in fly-out hubs for the sheer volume of people and goods to be transported.

As the mine moves into an operational phase, the fly-in fly-out impact is expected to reduce and one location could be announced as the preferred site. The selection of the operational transport hub will be essential for the ongoing growth of the Townsville economy.

Construction of the mine and employment of the majority workers will be conducted by Downer based in Melbourne. Therefore, the fly-in fly-out headquarters may not be determined by Adani exclusively.

The Indian mining company has placed a loan application for the construction of the rail line with the Northern Australia Infrastructure Fund for $1 billion. The approval of this loan is yet be finalised.

Other critical funding has not been achieved by Adani. The construction of the mine is unlikely to commence for another 5 years, a major projects pipeline report from BIS Oxford Economics has forecast.

Singapore Army Training Initiative

The Singapore Army Training Initiative is expected to generate $2.2 billion of economic impact in Queensland over 25 years.

A KPMG report identified that $36.2 million will go into the Townsville economy per year after the construction is completed. The report also estimated that $143 million will impact the Townsville economy during the first 7 years of construction.

The construction phase is due to begin in 2019 and finish in 2026 at which time the Singapore military will begin training exercises for the next 25 years.

However, the 23 land owners around the existing Australian Army High Range field training area are yet to negotiate a deal with defence. The economic impact to Townsville will reduce and even diminish to negligible benefits altogether if the Singapore Army is forced to move to another region.

Rockhampton is a competitive option as the Singapore military has based its air force for the past 25 years. Also, if the Shoalwater Bay training area is where defence can secure existing Commonwealth land, the Rockhampton region is likely to receive the lions share of the $2.2 billion economic impact.

The Singapore Army is expected to rotate 2000 to 4000 troops through the training facility over an 18-week period each year for 25 years.

Battery Gigafactory

Magnus Resources and its consortium of United States investors and the Townsville City Council is initially investing $2 billion in the 15Gwa battery storage manufacturing factory generating 2000 jobs in manufacturing and supporting a further 5000 indirect through the global supply chain.

The company reports also that the initial project is just the beginning of plans for the 400-hectare industrial site at Woodstock to expand their operations. Construction of the factory could begin within the next 12 months with the consortium already signing off on the pre-feasibility study. Production is expected to begin by 2020.

The gigafactory relies on graphite supply from the Magnus Resources mine in Tanzania. However, the government of Tanzania has created uncertainty around the company’s capital raising capacity due to the Tanzanian government unexpectedly raising taxes on the miner.

Magnus Resources shares have dropped by half and were suspended from trading on the Australian stock exchange. The Magnus chairman, Mr. Poullas said the tax change would have no impact on the Townsville project.

At a nearby site, an independent investor is building a 142-megawatt solar power facility consisting of 450,000 solar panels. It is being constructed at the Ross River Solar Farm on a mango plantation north of Townsville.

Other projects

The Townsville economy is expected to benefit from $1.5 billion in infrastructure projects in the next 12 months. The stimulus coming from the stadium project, roads, water, rail and port investments is an approximate $1.2 billion more than last year, a BIS Oxford Economist shared with an RDA and Infrastructure Association forum last week in Townsville.

Threats to progress

Although the infrastructure projects are positive to the local economy, the stimulus is short term. “At the moment there is a lot of politics. The policy environment can be very toxic,” Mr. Adrian Hart said.

As land owners in the Charters Towers area dig their heels in on the Singapore Army training deal and Green groups disrupt the progress and delivery of the Adani project by threatening more “blockade” protest action on the ground, even more court action and a massive international public relations campaign, the world’s largest coal mine project and the battery gigafactory still have serious supply hurdles to cross.

Red tape, white papers and green banners are literally suffocating the life out large scale industries in Townsville North Queensland.

The impact on public opinion in Australia from protest groups is significant enough for the Indian energy company to undertake a $1.4 million advertising campaign to counter the Green activists across Australia.

Further reading:

Treasurer sparks free market concerns over Domain Central $6 million revamp

Townsville sold out by PM Turnbull Smart City Deal

Turnbull Trio Caught with smoking gun – Townsville Smart City Deal’s Catastrophic Legacy

Townsville Smart City Deal Exposed as National Security Threat

Guide to selling a luxury home

Guide to 22 knockout marketing tips to sell a home

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Smart city Townsville, creative city … whose city is it?

Image: Smart Cities Challenges - Bank Information Security

Smart City - In 2007 US creative cities “guru” Richard Florida was flown up to Noosa to tell the local city council how they, too, could become a creative city.

Noosa was one of a long line of cities across the globe queuing up to pay big bucks to the US-based academic-entrepreneur. “Being creative” had become an almost universal aspiration. Who would not want to be a creative city?

And so Creative [insert name of city here] signs sprang up in the most unlikely places, along with stock shots of creative young things hunched over laptops in cafes.

Ten years later, different gurus are being flown around and the signs have been replaced by Smart [insert name of city here]. The stock shots are much the same, but now the young things are being innovative, disruptive and above all “smart”. That’s the trouble with fast policy: here today, gone tomorrow.

Below the surface more tectonic shifts can be felt. In its first outing in the mid-1990s the “creative city”, associated with thinkers such as Charles Landry, was an energising vision of a new role for cultural creativity in our cities.

Now expanded in democratic fashion beyond the world of “high art” to embrace popular, everyday creativity, culture would be a key resource for the 21st-century city.

Culture could re-activate the decayed industrial zones of the inner city, breathing new life into the dead infrastructures of factories and power stations, dockyards and tram depots, schools, barracks and banks. Culture could renew stale urban identities, catalyse new aspirations and stamp a different global brand on long-dormant cities.

And with the creative industries – culture plus all things design and digital – all that was needed were some creative people and a bit of entrepreneurial flair. Then we would have one of the industries of the future.

Creativity broke cities away from the old bureaucratic top-down planning silos of the industrial city and let them approach the future holistically. Culture would be what cities do best, earning a living and enjoying it at the same time.

By the time Florida had left Noosa the discontent was growing. Big investments in photogenic CBD developments seemed more intended for the creative class than local citizens, generating massive real estate profits while the suburbs languished unloved.

Creative industries turned out not to be so inclusive after all. They failed to soak up all those unemployed dirty industry workers and were reliant on educated workers willing to work their way up on low pay and high debt.

The turn of the smart city

Since the global financial crisis the energising vision has been around social justice, citizenship and the right to the city, with a return of community and activist-focused arts activities. Creatives are now less Californian start-ups and more counter-cultural “post-capitalists”.

Enter the Smart City, creativity without all those messy cultural bits. The tech start-ups were just as cool, the fab labs and hacker spaces just as disruptive, but now slotted onto a very different agenda.

This too promised a re-invention of the city, not now a cultural re-imagining but a complete re-tooling of the social and governmental infrastructure of the city. Courtesy of some very big global tech companies, a new digital infrastructure could be rolled out, applying sensors, data-capture devices and large-scale computing power to urban life.

Smart cities are data cities, promising efficient management of transport and utilities, security, and customised commerce. If the early Creative City embraced the messiness of city life, viewing it not as chaos but creative fecundity, the Smart City give us a clean utopian picture of the perfectly transparent city.

It’s messy on the surface, but with a big data back-room providing bespoke information for almost any aspect of urban living your care to ask for. What’s not to like?

A corporate taming of creativity

The app increasingly represents the
corporate-driven pacification
of the internet. AAP

That the brains of the Smart City – as envisioned by its corporate promoters – are increasingly embedded in its walls rather than its inhabitants reveals much about the trajectory of the digital economy so closely tied to Florida’s conception of the Creative City and its industries.
Internet scholar Jonathan Zittrain has described the rise of “app” culture as a betrayal of the creative potential unleashed by the mainstreaming of the internet. If the open internet was messy and chaotic, Zittrain argues that it was correspondingly “generative”, promoting experimentation and creativity.

By contrast, the “app” represents the pacification and domestication of the internet: its transformation from a productive medium to an infrastructure for consumption and marketing. Apps sort our music and photos for us, tell us where to eat, how to get there, and what to watch afterwards. The price of the newfound convenience that renders smart phones so addictive is a shift in the balance of control away from the end user.

For Zittrain, the “applified” world is, “one of sterile appliances tethered to a network of control” – which is not a bad description of the corporate blueprint for the Smart City.

As urbanist Adam Greenfield has observed, the corporate world has taken the lead in both envisioning and promoting its version of the “informated” city. It looks suspiciously like the commercial internet projected out into physical space.

The promise is one of efficiency, convenience and security: smart streets that adjust traffic flow in real time, walls that change images to suit our tastes (which have become indistinguishable from market preferences), even floors that cushion us when we fall.

For all the talk of disruption, the paradoxical promise of the smart city is one of data-driven efficiency and predictability. The promotional materials feature the same smart young things, freed up from the impositions of daily life (traffic, shopping, routine decision-making, even driving), to do … what?

Whose city is it?

There are surely possibilities here, but the version of smart city as automated city looks inhuman. It promises to serve people by rendering them increasingly efficient, perhaps to the point of their own redundancy.

To subject the future of the city to the corporate imaginary is to concede too much to the galloping privatisation of our cultural and informational infrastructure.

What if the right to the city were also a right to participate in shaping its information infrastructures and their implementation? Can we envision an alternative to centralised corporate control of the city’s data? And how might public priorities be redefined in ways that distinguish them from the private imperatives of the ruling tech giants?

These are the guiding questions for our June 15 symposium in Melbourne, which explores the possibility of another kind of urban culture beyond the tightly controlled formats of the Smart City/Creative City.

Author: Justin O'Connor and Mark Andrejevic from

Further reading:

Townsville sold out by PM Turnbull Smart City Deal

Turnbull Trio Caught with smoking gun - Townsville Smart City Deal's Catastrophic Legacy

Townsville Smart City Deal Exposed as National Security Threat

Guide to selling a luxury home

Guide to 22 knockout marketing tips to sell a home

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Bust the regional city myths and look beyond the ‘big 5’ for a $378b return

Townsville City - Capital of North Queensland

Investing in regional cities’ economic performance makes good sense. Contrary to popular opinion, new research out today shows regional cities generate national economic growth and jobs at the same rate as big metropolitan cities. They are worthy of economic investment in their own right – not just on social and equity grounds.

However, for regional cities to capture their potential A$378 billion output to 2031, immediate action is needed. Success will see regional cities in 2031 produce twice as much as all the new economy industries produce in today’s metropolitan cities.

Drawing on lessons from the UK, the collaborative work by the Regional Australia Institute and the UK Centre for Cities spotlights criteria and data all Australian cities can use to help get themselves investment-ready.

Build on individual strengths

The Regional Australia Institute’s latest work confirms that city population size does not determine economic performance. There is no significant statistical difference between the economic performance of Australia’s big five metro cities (Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth and Adelaide) and its 31 regional cities in historical output, productivity and participation rates.

So, regional cities are as well positioned to create investment returns as their big five metro cousins. The same rules apply – investment that builds on existing city strengths and capabilities will produce returns.

Rapid population growth is driving
the Gold Coast economy, making it a ‘gaining’ city.
Pawel Papis from www.shutterstock.com

No two cities have the same strengths and capabilities. However, regional cities do fall into four economic performance groups – gaining, expanding, slipping, and slow and steady. This helps define the investment focus they might require.

For example, the report finds Fraser Coast (Hervey Bay), Sunshine Coast-Noosa and Gold Coast are gaining cities. Their progress is fuelled by high population growth rates (around 2.7% annually from 2001 to 2013). But stimulating local businesses will deliver big job growth opportunities.

Similarly, the expanding cities of Cairns, Central Coast and Toowoomba are forecast to have annual output growth of 3.2% to 3.9% until 2031, building on strong foundations of business entries. But they need to create more high-income jobs.

Geelong and Ballarat have low annual population growth rates of around 1.2% to 1.5%. They are classified as slow and steady cities. But their relatively high creative industries scores, coupled with robust rates of business entries, means they have great foundations for growth. They need to stimulate local businesses to deliver city growth.

Get ready to deal

Regional cities remain great places to live. They often score more highly than larger cities on measures of wellbeing and social connection.

But if there’s no shared vision, or local leaders can’t get along well enough to back a shared set of priorities, or debate is dominated by opinion in spite of evidence, local politics may win the day. Negotiations to secure substantial city investment will then likely fail.

The federal government’s Smart Cities Plan has identified City Deals as the vehicle for investment in regional cities.

This collaborative, cross-portfolio, cross-jurisdictional investment mechanism needs all players working together (federal, state and local government), along with community, university and private sector partners. This leaves no place for dominant single interests at the table.

Clearly, the most organised regional cities ready to deal are those capable of getting collaborative regional leadership and strategic planning.

For example, the G21 region in Victoria (including Greater Geelong, Queenscliffe, Surf Coast, Colac Otway and Golden Plains) has well-established credentials in this area. This has enabled the region to move quickly on City Deal negotiations.

Moving past talk to be investment-ready

There’s $378 billion on the table, but Australia’s capacity to harness it will depend on achieving two key goals.

• First, shifting the entrenched view that the smart money invests only in our big metro cities. This is wrong. Regional cities are just as well positioned to create investment returns as the big five metro centres.
• Second, regions need to get “investment-ready” for success. This means they need to be able to collaborate well enough to develop an informed set of shared priorities for investment, supported by evidence and linked to a clear growth strategy that builds on existing economic strengths and capabilities. They need to demonstrate their capacity to deliver.

While there has been much conjecture on the relevance and appropriateness of City Deals in Australia, it is mainly focused on big cities. But both big and small cities drive our national growth.

Author: Leonie Pearson republished from


Further reading:

First home buyers grant “Pitted” by Queensland Treasurer

Guide to selling a luxury home

Guide to 22 knockout marketing tips to sell a home

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Council chambers development exposes false international bank representation

Image: Team Jenny Hill and Councillors
Photo thanks: Townsville Bulletin

Breaking story

International banks are setting up global networks of "intermediaries" like the NSW-based Eastbrook Medical Centres (EMC) who have purchased the old Thuringowa council chambers site in Kirwan.

They plan to develop 132 residential units and to recruit finance "actors" in the community to team up with trusted professional partners as part of a global "finance innovation" scheme targeting non-profit organisations.

Pressure is escalating on the Townsville City Council (TCC) over these plans to develop the old Thuringowa council chambers site with seventy residents so far registering their objections against the development.

Community in the dark

If that isn’t enough for the TCC to cope with in the fog of its bitter organisational restructure, local Councillors are being called to answer questions involving powerful international banks seeking to profit from some of Townsville's most vulnerable people receiving support from the non-profit sector.

The resident’s inquiries are being ignored and left unanswered.

This is not the type of intermediaries people may think are used by large companies and trusts to plant funds in offshore bank accounts to avoid paying taxes in Australia. Nor is it intended to siphon money away from companies that can't pay their debts to creditors.

However, the underlying methods of layering accountability, outsourcing services and, masking potentially unethical practices to raise funding, are deceptive communication tactics that are real, whilst aiming to secure the perception of the public in believing local representatives are honest and trustworthy.

Meanwhile, the seventy residents’ distrust in local Councillors’ representation concerning the unit development so far has raised even more questions, to say the least.

Could these communication tactics be what is keeping the Kirwan public in the dark?

The middlemen

EMC has 16 medical centres located across three states in Victoria, NSW and Queensland, including two on the Gold Coast at Burleigh Waters and Southport, and one at North Mackay.

Individual directors and executives of EMC have excellent academic and professional credentials and there would be no reason for concern about the management of the company.

On the EMC website, the company said it "aims to be the best distribution for healthcare allowing patients to access a range of allied health practitioners and specialists who supplement the family general practice."

The business strategy of the Townsville-bound health service seeking "social investment" organisations is to "partner with exceptional doctors who share their vision of integrating entrepreneurship with social investment and partnership doctors".

However, a direct impact from an environmental, safety and peaceful enjoyment perspective concerning the freedom of community groups using the adjoining sound shell, children's playground and car parking area to access Dan Gleeson park is being fought on one front.

Local voices

In these engagements, the Thuringowa Brass Band is ready to "sound the horn over plans for 132 units to be developed next to its practice area", Association Secretary Mr. Cutler said to the Townsville Bulletin on 5th April this year.

This week Mr. Cutler confirmed he has not received direct contact from the TCC or local Councillors. "Council is not responding to our concerns", Mr. Cutler said.

Also, Mr. Ian Frazer from Kirwan wrote a scathing letter to the editor of the Townsville Bulletin on April 5th saying "council owes it to Kirwan and beyond to rein in this plan."

The TCC is considering the development application from EMC on the old Thuringowa Council site at Kirwan, directly opposite the Kirwan State High School on Thuringowa Drive.

Deputy Mayor Les Walker commented to the Townsville Bulletin and said."The development fits well with the City plan" but has not returned multiple calls from the Brass Band Association or TREN researchers.

On a much broader and concerning front, serious questions are being asked about foreign banks, insurance companies and foundations that are unaccountable to the Australian public.

These companies are organising to extract profits and capital returns from unsuspecting non-profit organisations including charities in Townsville North Queensland.

Global disruption and backlash

It seems the TCC and all levels of governments are behind an alleged Marxist-style "social investment" agenda in Australia and that Townsville has landed fair and square in the cross hairs of this global commercial profit-making and government savings scheme.

The political champion of the UK model, ex-Prime Minister David Cameron resigned after the UK people voted at a referendum to exit from the European Union because they felt they were losing their social and cultural identity.

The British Prime Minister pledged to support closer integration with European countries, but the majority of the UK people disagreed and felt their society was being dismissed and losing relevance in a big Europe.

Creative “social investment” initiatives have been developing in the UK for the past 16 years and the people of England have had enough.

A UK-based think tank, Society Exchange, has condemned the scheme because it is "failing charities". They provided an alarming report to the UK government claiming multiple reasons why the most vulnerable people are being neglected.

It is alleged EMC is also an "actor" in the UK-based "social investment" initiative where funding for social housing, charities, non-profit sector and non-government organisations are being funded with private capital and government grants because their advisory committee is being chaired by one of the architects and founders of the UK scheme, Sir Ronald Cohan.

EMC has made it clear they are seeking “social investment” partners in Townsville.

To get these funds working, fifty percent of the risk is being sold to individual shareholders and a significant amount is funded by government grants through Trusts legalised by government heads and managed by capital fund managers.

What is driving change?

In Australia, the Social Enterprise Development and Investment Fund (SEDIF) was established to fund employment and welfare improvement initiatives but was ended in 2016.

The SEDIF model, however, continues and is managed by three private fund managers in Australia including Social Ventures Australia, Foresters Community Finance, and Social Enterprise Finance.

These fund managers were set up with a non-refundable $20 million from the federal government. The SEDIF model is based on advice from the American-based Rockefeller Foundation and Monitor Institute in the United States.

All states and most politicians are thirsting for funding wherever they can get it. TCC has proven its desperation for funding, and now the local Councillors avoid talking with frustrated local residents about this escalating set of concerns.

This thirst for money could be compromising the integrity of executive government, operational supply, accountability and even the sovereignty of the entire country.

International networks that fundraise for “social investment” opportunities are very sophisticated. New funding initiatives are advertised on a global database to attract capital from superannuation funds, international social banks, corporately wealthy individuals as well as small private investors.

Self-determination rights of the people and social justice is being put at risk. Whether this applies to large-scale social funding policy or gifts of humble access for community groups, seeking certain access to premises to play music, residents feel they are being stonewalled by the politicians whose job it is to represent the people.

Rational view

A Deloitte's Report tabled for the New Zealand government on “social investment” schemes has refrained from the temptation of progressing financial innovations using private capital and potentially handing irreversible control of public resources for its most vulnerable people in society, to banks and private capital interests.

Instead, the NZ government is maintaining the traditional role of government to control social investment programs, unlike the Australian government.

How did the scheme get started in Australia?

A social innovation strategist from the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations (DEEWR), together with an American consultant, inter-departmental heads, and the expert advisory committee were established to design and road test the "social investment" initiative for Australia.

Lawyers from each government department set up the legal accountability framework and consultants specialising in process improvement produced a report on the success of the SEDIF in Australia titled Lessons from the Implementation Process.

False representation

As one who is well versed in reviewing government studies, and having read the "Lessons from the Implementation of SEDIF" document, it becomes evident that the consultants and government committees’ main focus were on how they can satisfy and attract banks to offer capital into social services portfolios.

The heads of department and committee representatives seek private capital on the mutual understanding with the banks, that government grants rendered to the intermediary, are controlled by managed fund and bank executives as defined in the Big Society Capital Articles of Association.

Currently, government grants are issued directly to charities and non-profit organisations and service providers.

Instead of asking what is in the best interest of the Australian people, the community, society as a whole and our cultural values, the government heads learnt in the Lesson of the Implementation Process report, how we can get more money into government social policy initiatives. This was in spite of the ethical, societal and sovereign risks that are seemingly breaking up the fabric of British society now.

If government funding is engaged, the relevant department head or committee assesses the case for granting the “social investment” fund with taxpayer contributions.

The United States Social Impact Bonds (SIB) model has now been adopted by the Australian government for the purpose of raising private investment into the non-government, non-profit and charities sector. SIBs have already been sanctioned in NSW for criminal parolees and child protection programs.

The nuances of control and power articulated in the lessons of the SEDIF report are jaded in favour of the big bank's interests like a customer survey seeks to understand buyer needs and behaviours, so more product can be targeted at the consumer and sales targets can be achieved.

The Rockefeller Foundation calls it “innovation finance” and the governments of Australia are down the throats of the domestic and international banks, hook line and sinker.

Trusting the banks and corporations

In light of the most recent federal budget, the government levied taxes from the "big four plus one" of Australia’s banks. Raking in billions of dollars in profits, and now to no one’s surprise, mortgage holders are being slugged higher interest rates to offset the cost of the government's levy on the banks.

So why are banks not working with the government to share some of their massive profits for the good of society? Why are governments seemingly partnering with banks in this way to raise more taxes, yet bank profits are being protected?

The consistency of the banks' policies and behaviour in Australia is focused on one thing, profits. This is certainly the case across the world too. Predicting with a certainty of profits in shareholder returns, the massive salaries paid to executives and fund managers is what drives the bank's priorities and decision making.

So why would the Townsville community trust, international banks and executive fund managers, to serve the interests of vulnerable people like the Kirwan residents who are seeking simple responses to phone calls from local Councillors and getting no satisfaction?

The Secretary of the Thuringowa Brass Band Association said, “If our community funds are going off shore to banks this is a real concern.”

Work in progress

TREN is conducting extensive research into the "social investment" agenda impacting Australia and Townsville North Queensland.

The body of general information on the various players involved, including non-profit organisations and social groups, is extensive across the world. No conclusions have been established yet and individuals or corporations are not being investigated individually.

But the body of stories and events about innovative financing initiatives creating a causal catastrophic conflict of interest between banks, governments and investors is growing.

The consequence of social instability and injustice for charities by big society capital is developing in Townsville North Queensland and the broader Australian community.

For example, ordinary property investors and home owners could be impacted from the structural changes arising from more social housing funding.

Our subscribers will have exclusive access to the research paper when it is completed. 

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Further reading:

Development of ex-Thuringowa Council chambers killing the brass

Guide to 22 knockout marketing tips to sell a home

Guide to selling a luxury home

Real truth about negative gearing changes in Morrison budget

Reserve Bank June 2017 Rate Announcement

Top Price Property of the Week

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