Structural Adjustment: 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

Site of MG Rover, mid 2008

Labour Market Status, Southern Adelaide, Wave 2 and Wave 3

Labour Market Outcomes: Change in Income Since Leaving Mitsubishi

Labour Market Outcomes Industry of Most Recent Job, Wave 2

Dealing with Labour Market Immobility: 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 where it impact is felt, 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