There’s a problem for many citizens of the Yass Valley. Perhaps there’s more than one, but this problem affects a fair percentage of residents. In fact between 1990 and 2001 the numbers of those potentially affected rose by 20.7 per cent, and has no doubt risen since. These people make their living through agriculture, forestry or fishing.
We used to have in Yass a business which supplied agricultural machinery: tractors, balers and all the equipment needed on farms of various kinds. Now we don’t have such a business. So farmers who want to buy a tractor, or probably more accurately have to buy a tractor, since the average debt weighing over the heads of Aussie farmers is said to be $750,000 – these people have to call in at machinery suppliers in Queanbeyan, Goulburn, Young, Cootamundra and Harden to compare prices, models and good deals. Time and money are wasted, and Yass Valley doesn’t profit.
Then the tractor or piece of machinery breaks down, needs a service, or a part needs replacing. Away you go outside the Shire seeking what you need. If you have to take the whole tractor, it’s not much fun. Tractors are strong, not speedy, and the undevoted followers who have to trail behind you all the way to Young are usually unamused. Again you’ve had to take business outside the area, and you’ve spent a significant sum on fuel.
So what can we do? Suggestion one. Could the Yass Valley Council sponsor, assist, lure someone to establish such a business in Yass? That’s not the council’s role, I hear you cry. But wait a minute. We don’t have to go very far back in history – perhaps less than a year – to find that the prevailing attitude of business to government was rather different than it is today. There was a perception, perhaps stronger than that – a determined mind set – that government should stay out of business.
It used not be the role of governments to underpin businesses. Businesses sank or swam, and were proud to do so. “Governments have no role to play in business,” was the edict. If only governments would leave business to business the country would function more efficiently, more cost effectively, and everyone would prosper. Business can make a buck while governments cannot.
As clouds started to build over the global economy business began turning its eye to government. What was happening? What was government going to do about it? Suddenly the impression was: “We need you, government, and all your money!”
And governments came to the party. In Australia, the government used our money to guarantee the banks, helping to keep banks afloat. The takeover of US banks caused an uneasy feeling in that country: was the capitalist capital of the world becoming effete and socialist? But now those hesitations seem to have been quashed, in time for what used to be the premier company in the US to beg the government for a helping hand. The money invested in keeping GM alive is enormous; business seems no longer ideologically opposed to government intervention.
In our capital cities money is spent lavishly by governments on events, exhibitions, visits by overseas cultural groups, and sporting teams to make money. Can’t we, in a smaller way, do that too?
So there is no ideological problem, I believe, to Council coming to the rescue. There could be a financial problem. That is for Council to decide, but keeping Yass money in Yass must also be one of Council’s ambitions. Which leads us to possible solution 2.
Council has a fair sized base on Yass Valley Way, where council vehicles and machinery are attended to when necessary. Could that be extended to include attentions to agricultural machinery? Could the Council itself set up such a facility, and put the proceeds into an appropriate fund, such as rural roads? And would you, rural or town reader, support such a move? Or can you think of another solution?
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