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Structural Adjustment Packages: Definitions, Opportunities and Lessons. Professor Andrew Beer Centre for Housing, Urban and Regional Planning University of Adelaide. What Do We Know, What Don’t We Know?. Structural adjustment in the Illawarra A Tale of Two Cities
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Structural Adjustment Packages:Definitions, Opportunities and Lessons Professor Andrew BeerCentre for Housing, Urban and Regional PlanningUniversity of Adelaide
What Do We Know, What Don’t We Know? • Structural adjustment in the Illawarra • A Tale of Two Cities • Personal and regional adjustment • The Riverland Experience • Lessons to be Learned
Two Cities: Birmingham and Adelaide • MMAL Lonsdale April 2004, MG Rover May 2005 • Adelaide • Structural Adjustment Fund for SA (SAFSA) • Redundancy payments from MMAL • Worker assistance via JobsNetwork • Birmingham • Minimal redundancy payments • Range of government actions via MG Rover Taskforce & Advantage West Midlands
Riverland Futures Taskforce • Riverland Futures Taskforce • $20m structural adjustment fund established by SA Government (Riverland Sustainable Futures Fund) • Now administered through RDA Committee • Limited take up, slow take up • And does it address the region’s fundamental needs in an era of capital mobility?
Opportunities and Lessons • Labour market adjustment • Haynes notes labour assistance packages more effective in buoyant economic conditions • Redundancy payments can have perverse (?) impacts • Labour mobility is a critical issue – the Oswald thesis • Acquisition of formal qualifications key
Opportunities and Lessons • Structural adjustment • Packages tied to the region affected, limit the spillover • Tension between supporting industries that will grow and the industries workers will move to • Time frame • Bailey et al note the importance of slowing the adjustment process • Significant action in advance of Rover collapse in Birmingham, on-going company support in SA • Public sector leadership in planning for and managing adjustment