Foreword from the Premier
Continue to innovate or stagnate. That is the stark choice facing all Queenslanders as the 21st century starts revealing new challenges for societies throughout the world.
We either continue to innovate and create the jobs of tomorrow for our children so that we maintain one of the best standards of living in the world. Or we stagnate as the State becomes little more than a beach for tourists from those parts of the world that have been prepared to innovate.
We have a brilliant environment, great climate and an enviable lifestyle.
Our economy is booming, and our unemployment rate is the lowest in more than a generation. Much of this has come about as the result of the first stage of my Government’s Smart State Strategy.
When I first put the Smart State Strategy in place in 1998, we focused on broadening the economy from just a rocks and crops culture to create new industries and make traditional industries smarter. We worked hard to make Queensland a centre for new technology industries, from electronic games to biotechnology, and created an aviation industry with 5000 new jobs. We have expanded Queensland’s export performance and reformed our education system. Queenslanders who used to go interstate or overseas to gain exciting jobs are now staying here – or returning to Queensland.
So why do we need to continue changing? Why do we need to move on to the next phase of Smart State?
If we don’t continue to change, the Sunshine State will still be a comfortable place in which to live. But we will be overtaken by those states and countries that are willing and anxious to change and embrace the opportunities the future offers. If we don’t continue to change, Queensland will become a technological and education backwater, slumbering in the sun.
If we don’t change, we won’t create the jobs of tomorrow. Unemployment will rise and once again we will start exporting our brains interstate and overseas. If we don’t change, our standard of living will – for the worse.
We must move with a new spirit of enterprise and new programs in our education, culture and industry, or we stand still and fall back. We have the willingness to do this. We need the skills as well. All of us have a responsibility to contribute our talents, our labours and our ideas – for the benefit of our great State.
Through our innovative enterprise, and our strong pursuit of trade opportunities, we will take Queensland to the world, showcasing the best of our skills, talent and achievements born of our dynamic and culturally diverse society.
Smart Queensland: Smart State Strategy 2005-2015 is about building tomorrow’s Queensland today.
PETER BEATTIE MP
PREMIER AND MINISTER FOR TRADE
