Cowra Council has expressed its concerns over the NSW Department of Planning Industry and Environment's (DPIE) population projections used to form key government and business investment decisions.
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Brought up as a late Mayoral Minute at the September 27 Ordinary Council Meeting, Councillor Bill West reported that councils across NSW had criticised the projections with actual population growth usually outstripping them.
As such, council will write to the local member, Steph Cooke, the Minister for Planning and the Central NSW Joint Organisation asking for a review of the projections over the last 20 years compared with actual population changes, a clear explanation of the methodology used to arrive at the projections, and objecting to these figures being used to guide investment decisions.
"It is something that I think is quite important, that we go down this path," Cr West said.
"Sometimes you think, 'Well why are we doing this because no one is going to listen? It's just doing the same old, same old'.
"But I think that the standard you walk past becomes a standard you accept and if you don't raise concerns, you don't raise the issues, then people just tend to march forward."
The DPIE data pack projections indicate Cowra can expect to see a population increase of 150 from 2021 to 2036, while the Central West and Orana region will see an increase of 14,450 from 2021 to 2041.
Cr West said those projections were "just not on".
"It goes back to the conversation we had earlier about the expressway or a fast route over the mountains," he said.
"This region is predicted to be in the top seven regions of Australia by 2031 by Infrastructure Australia, so it's not a pipe dream and being fanciful about how good we are.
"We are a community in a region that should be growing considerably, is growing considerably, and it's being held back by some of these sorts of reports.
"I can speak from personal experience with the clinical services plan at Cowra Hospital, it made it difficult and almost impossible to argue for a greater population and greater services because the conversation always went back to 'we need to work off Department of Planning population figures and projections'.
"So it does have a significant impact."
Cr Bruce Miller agreed, saying he was "appalled" by the documents.
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"I've argued many, many times in the past about the the poor use of statistics to paint us into a really bad position," he said.
"I think that we should be making a very, very strong statement about this, because this will impact on the growth of rural and regional NSW going forward.
"We should be shouting this from the rooftops, that we actually do not support in any shape or form these proposed documents being utilised at all.
"They should be debunked, it's what they deserve and we should be making sure that they are.
"I can recollect that some of these figures they've utilised stating populations going backwards, significantly going backwards, and they've not even come close to being factual."
Cr Peter Wright also said the numbers didn't line up and failed to take into account recent trends seen in the COVID pandemic.
"I think they've got to bring into the discussions the improvement of infrastructure we discussed earlier with getting people across the mountains quicker and also the take up of technology," he said.
"I think they would have found this out in the pandemic, a lot of people can work from home and don't have to be in the in the city.
"With agriculture the way it is at the moment, and I hope we're not just riding the crest of a wave, but the importance of it will be tied to future development of areas like ours.
"I know I live in the past, but in 1970 when they're building the dam out there, we had nearly 1100 kids at the Cowra High School and we haven't come close to that since.
"Infrastructure, things like that, can have a big bearing on how a shire grows."
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Matthew Chown
Some of my favourite memories growing up are of picking up a newspaper and learning about the world. This inspired me to become a journalist and tell local stories with a passion. Email: matthew.chown@austcommunitymedia.com.au
Some of my favourite memories growing up are of picking up a newspaper and learning about the world. This inspired me to become a journalist and tell local stories with a passion. Email: matthew.chown@austcommunitymedia.com.au
