We should be concerned about population
It’s been around 16 months since the State Election that saw Barwon change hands for the first time in 70 years. I have worked harder and longer than I ever have in my life to try and give you the best representation that is possible.
Over the course of this time, and in the lead up to the people of Barwon electing me to represent them I have made regular public comment about quality of life, and the need to make our communities good places to live. It’s partly a subjective concept, so let’s dig into it a bit.
Good places to live have good employment opportunities, quality educational outcomes for all levels of education and training, services are easy to access, Public infrastructure is of a high standard and accessible. Less tangible elements include a sense of community, feeling like you belong and have a social role in a group of people. These are homogeneous concepts. Common to every person in Barwon.
My team and I began collecting the metrics for all of these features of communities, by agency - Health, Education, Police, Human Services, NSW Electoral Commission, Local Government Area and using ABS data.
The amount of work to analyse, interpret and make sense of this data was, and is, mammoth.
While going through this process, one thing become clear to me and my team. There is one unarguable metric that defines success of Government.
This metric transcends every other data set, including announcements around how much “record investment’ has been made in a given area.
Population. Bums on seats in regional communities.
I'm sharing some of the data and facts we have collected through our research, the work on what the NSW Government should do is ongoing.
What are population projections?
The NSW Population Projections estimate the future NSW population based on assumptions for fertility, life expectancy and migration. They represent possible demographic futures based on the best assessment of how the NSW population may change over time, including population size, age profile and residential location. These projections are based on assumptions known at the time of publication. These projections are a tool used by the Government in the planning of services and infrastructure such as schools, hospitals, transport and community services.