School closures will increase skill shortages and threaten agricultural expansion - Sunday 5 February, 2012

Attracting the required skills to compliment major agricultural developments across the state will be in serious jeopardy if Labor and the Greens succeed with closing schools.
One of the key impediments to expansion in agriculture is skill shortages, particularly in the dairy industry.
Under the proposed criteria for school closures announced in the School Viability Reference Group Report released last week, more than 40 schools across the state could face the axe, including three in the North-West within 45 kilometers of a major dairy development at Smithton.
The development of the $70 million dairy facility, as well as three and possibly more irrigation schemes in the region has the potential to create hundreds of jobs and bring many skilled workers and families to the area.
Investment and development in irrigation infrastructure it vitally important to growing skill sets, and has the potential to place regions like the North-West, and the North East including Ringarooma, where  major irrigation schemes are also underway, on a long-term and viable economic future.
But without our rural schools our ability to attract young families to rural areas will decrease.
It is no secret that when young families seek to further career opportunities and move to areas in regional Australia, a major criteria in their decision making is the proximity of the local school.
Schools are the hub of any rural community and the very social and community infrastructure that keeps many communities alive, and we need to be doing whatever we can to attract people to these areas, not drive them away.

Attracting the required skills to compliment major agricultural developments across the state will be in serious jeopardy if Labor and the Greens succeed with closing schools.
One of the key impediments to expansion in agriculture is skill shortages, particularly in the dairy industry.
Under the proposed criteria for school closures announced in the School Viability Reference Group Report released last week, more than 40 schools across the state could face the axe, including three in the North-West within 45 kilometers of a major dairy development at Smithton.
The development of the $70 million dairy facility, as well as three and possibly more irrigation schemes in the region has the potential to create hundreds of jobs and bring many skilled workers and families to the area.
Investment and development in irrigation infrastructure it vitally important to growing skill sets, and has the potential to place regions like the North-West, and the North East including Ringarooma, where  major irrigation schemes are also underway, on a long-term and viable economic future.
But without our rural schools our ability to attract young families to rural areas will decrease.
It is no secret that when young families seek to further career opportunities and move to areas in regional Australia, a major criteria in their decision making is the proximity of the local school.
Schools are the hub of any rural community and the very social and community infrastructure that keeps many communities alive, and we need to be doing whatever we can to attract people to these areas, not drive them away.