About ANDEV - Andev Project

"Ultimately, if we are to get serious about developing the large untapped area in the north of our country we need to make sure that governments cut red tape, decrease government costs they impose and reduce impediments to development. Australia must always strive to be cost competitive."

All Australians will benefit from the development of Northern Australia through the creation of Integrated Development Zone(s) that include an efficient decentralized regulatory system, less regulations, one stop shop for all Government approvals, personal and business taxation system that drives growth and a long-term commitment from all levels of Government to the strategic importance of Northern Australia and its economic and social development.

Australians for Northern Development & Economic Vision (ANDEV).

Back in 2010 when setting up ANDEV its name and each word was carefully chosen.

There are two parts – Australians for Northern Development and Economic Vision.

Australians for Northern Development

Australia’s economy is heavily reliant on the mining and resources industry. As a December 2011 Deloitte Economics Report highlighted “It is the economic activity to the north and west which is defining Australia’s prospects, and protecting the country against the weak global economic environment.” This was again highlighted in 2020 during the Covid -19 shutdown of many parts of the Australian and Global economy.

We are steadily losing our competitive advantage in many areas and this trend must be corrected if Australia is to continue to prosper. Existing industries need to be made more competitive and new industries need be attracted to Northern Australia.

And Economic Vision

Without a vision of the future we don’t know what we have to do now to get to where we want to go. Economic vision provides the framework for ANDEV polices. That vision calls for economic reform to drive the transformation of Northern Australia. ANDEV is a strong advocate for simplified and reduced regulation and lower costs of doing business.

There is a range of practical incentives that can be introduced to encourage investment and new businesses to Northern Australia and that attract an appropriate skilled workforce. Rather than ad hoc policies ANDEV calls for a Integrated Development Zone (IDZ) or series of IDZ’s to be established that contain incentives for investment, reduced overall taxation, sensible fit for purpose reduced regulations, streamlined decentralized institutional structures that include government departments located to the North, that are there not to hinder but to encourage business and community development.

Although rarely spoken about in Australia, IDZ’s are a global tried and proven concept dating back to the early 20 th century. UNCTAD World Investment Report 2019 on Special Economic Zones noted that globally there were 5,383 Special Economic Zones (SEZ), which come in many different forms and another 500 in the pipeline. UNIDO supported the first World Summit on SEZ’s in Monaco in November 2019 organized by FEMOZA the World Free and Special Economic Zones Federation. FEMOZA was established in Switzerland 1999 as an NGO. It has official observer status with the UNCTAD (UN Conference on Trade and Development) and UNIDO (UN Industrial Development Organization).

ANDEV style supportive Government policy settings in Northern Australia can improve competiveness and catalyze opportunities in the following sectors:
Minerals, energy (gas and oil), renewable energy (solar, wind, tidal), agriculture, aquaculture, tropical medicine, space industry, value adding processing of resources and manufacturing that becomes viable with the availability of competitively priced energy and particularly renewable. Development of these opportunities brings ancillary private and public activities with a simultaneous increase in population.

The focus here is on activities that have existing or potential comparative advantages.

We need people who care about the long-term future of Northern Australia to speak up about these issues. If you are one of these become a voice of the North! Together we speak louder.

It is a common myth that much of this area is uninhabitable. With the right policies, there is the potential for huge population growth and the expansion of towns and cities. With large untapped water resources and productive agricultural rich soil the region has significant potential for development.

Population

While it contains 44% of Australia only 5% of Australia’s population lives there.

Skills shortages

Skilled shortages exist generally in Regional Australia and in particular in Northern Australia.

Emerging competitors

Global competition is a growing threat to Australia and in particular the large number of Countries that have SEZ’s is a major source of this increasing competition. In the iron ore sector for example the favorable differential in transport costs between Australia and Brazil is declining.

Regulatory burden

IPA report” The $176 Billion tax on prosperity” 2016 estimates that based on econometric studies that the economic cost of red tape in Australia is A$176 Billion per annum. This is 11% of Australia’s GDP and double the revenue from company tax or spending on education.

Agriculture

Northern Australia receives on average more than 60% of the Australia’s rainfall. It is more than 2 million GL of rainfall every year. (CSIRO 2015) This is enough water to fill a tank the size of the MCG to a height of 80,000 kms! Most rain falls in summer. However there are knowledge gaps in northern surface and ground water systems that must be filled. Over millennia there has been each year major rainfall run off into the ocean and into ground water systems.

What needs to be done?

What’s it like to be a North Australian? It’s not all bad. But it’s not all good either. When it comes to the people governing us, many of us feel neglected. Because our governments don’t live up here they don’t take our special circumstances into account when they make the rules and regulations that govern us. Which is why ANDEV is a strong proponent of the establishment of Integrated Development Zones in Northern Australia. In order to realise the possibilities which exist, policies must be put in place which will attract investment and encourage growth in Northern Australia. What ANDEV hopes to achieve will not just improve Northern Australia but the entire nation. Some of these policies should include:

Integrated Development Zones ( IDZ)

ANDEV supports the creation of a ‘Northern Economic Zone’ that will offer tax advantages to attract and retain investment. Integrated Development Zones (IDZ) have been very successful internationally in encouraging economic growth in underdeveloped regions. The zone may offer, for example:

One-stop-shops for regulation

One of the major factors deterring investment in Northern Australia is the lengthy regulatory process which must be completed before a new project can begin. The situation would be vastly improved if regulation was streamlined and environmental approvals were fast-tracked.

One way to achieve this is to have one-stop-shops to administer and enforce regulations on behalf of all levels of government.

This would replace the current system which duplicates approvals between state and federal government leading to costly delays.

It is particularly important that environmental regulation, or ‘green-tape’, is streamlined to create more jobs, wealth and opportunities.

Regional skilled migration visas

Skilled shortages exist generally in Regional areas and in particular Northern Australia. Governments and Education institutions need to monitor these needs and be attuned to these shortages. In order to combat these shortages, the government must make it easier for skilled migrants to live and work in North Australia. One way to do this would be through migration agreements where a condition of the visa is that a person lives and works in the regions of Northern Australia.

Water management

To make the most of the exciting agricultural possibilities in Northern Australia, we must encourage dam construction and investment in irrigation to make better use of North Australia’s abundant annual rainfall. If water is harnessed effectively, then it can support agricultural development and the creation of a Northern Food bowl as well as other water-dependant initiatives. Overflow water from water courses should be put to productive use to support and grow agriculture production.

Infrastructure provision

For industries and communities to prosper, an integrated transport plan that provides the road, rail, port and air infrastructure to facilitate the movement of goods and services and to provide ease of access to the region and beyond is required. In order to fund this, the private sector should be encouraged to invest in infrastructure, through Public Private Partnerships (PPP) where necessary. Private sector involvement will help drive economic growth and can take various forms including technical assistance contracts; build, own and operate contracts; and complete privatisation. There is also the opportunity for the government to form PPPs with the private sector. Multi use infrastructure provided by private or public or private public partnerships can act as enablers of developments.

Northern Australia is different from the rest of the country. To achieve its potential, it requires policies tailored to the needs of the region and the communities, and not inflexible, one-size-fits-all policies which do not encourage expansion.

Northern Australia has been ignored for too long. The opportunities are boundless. ANDEV’s vision is to make sure that Northern Australia’s potential is realised.

McMillan Woods Global Awards 2012 – Award for ‘Visionary CEO of the year’

Speech by recipient Mrs Gina Rinehart

Good evening.

It is such a pleasure and honour to be in your country again and to receive this important award.

I am particularly pleased to be judged as the Global Visionary CEO. Thank you so much.

When we look around the world today we see too many countries in debt like my home country, Australia, and so many people yearning for leaders who have a vision of the future that captures our minds and hearts, and provides opportunities for the future.

My family and I have shared such a vision for the development of Australia’s vast but lowly populated Northern Australia that would grow the North and help Australia.

Together with a group of like-minded concerned Australians, we created in 2010 the organisation called Australians for Northern Development and Economic Vision or in short, ANDEV, which I chair. We are pursuing as free market entrepreneurs or simply free market economy believers, the vision of the creation of a powerhouse economy in the North of Australia that welcomes investment and businesses, cuts taxes and excessive regulations and better compliments the dynamic economies of our Asian neighbours.

We are gathering more members and have an active Voice of the North participation program. Political support with some exceptions, has not been rapid, for this much needed initiative for Australia’s future, but is growing.

Minerals, metals, food, and a range of goods and services developed in partnership with key partners from our Asian neighbours are the future.

We at ANDEV see this as our future together with Asia.

I would encourage you to visit ANDEV’s website and contact us should you wish for further information.

I have three of my honorary ANDEV executive with me here tonight.

Jan, Imants and Greg – please stand – all of whom have been with me for the commencement of ANDEV, and I would like to share this award with them and all the other members of the honorary ANDEV executive , and ANDEV members, including my daughter Ginia who is also with me.

We would be pleased to speak with members of this large gathering about the vision and action of ANDEV on such things as Special Economic Zones. Your SEZ at Iskandar has been, and continues to be, a world class example of how successful a SEZ can be.

Again thank you for your award, which means a great deal to me and the ANDEV members, and thank you for including me again in this spectacular global occasion.

I wish you all a happy and healthy future, and continuing opportunities with your special economic zone.

Gina Rinehart

Chairman

Hancock Prospecting Pty Ltd

Northern Australia and Then Some

Fresh stocks of Gina Rinehart’s new book have just arrived. Gina’s father Lang Hancock wrote his own book, Wake Up Australia, to outline his vision of the essential place of mining at the centre of the nation’s economic and political future, in 1979.

Now John Singleton, in his tribute to Northern Australia and Then Some, writes that people need only read two books to understand “the future of Australia and its destruction by government”.

“Read Lang’s book and it will light up your mind. Read Gina’s book and it puts our future under the brightest light I have ever seen,” he wrote.

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