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 Personal and regional adjustment The Riverland Experience Lessons to be Learned

The Illawarra

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 $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