Published 9/10/2023, Edited 11/10/2023
The Australian Government should rapidly establish special economic and research zones with co-location of research, industrial and residential hubs across the country with the coordination of all levels of government and local communities targeting desired outcomes, research priorities and involving significant targeted foreign investment from other governments and sovereign wealth funds, international and local businesses with preconfigured training and employment pathways.
Australia should not receive funds gained from tax evasion, money laundering or from the exploitation of states that have experienced and continue to experience the ongoing effects of historical injustice such as the Democratic Republic of Congo or any other countries which have been subjected to historical injustice. Such funds should be returned to the source of their exploitation, for the benefit of the people of those countries (not for the benefit of their political leadership, or multinational corporations seeking to unfairly exploit the growth potential of those countries and their people).
Alternatively, investors should disclose the origins of the funds, and the government should seek a mandate (ideally consensus or by self-determined process) from the local communities and the communities from which wealth was expropriated (through historical, social or environmental injustice) on whether certain purposes should be exempt from such disclosure (such as transitioning to a net-zero economy without coal and gas extraction, the development in First Nations communities as well as other parts of remote, regional and rural Australia).
Some specific companies for which this disclosure must, in my view, be required include the three biggest current supporters of the Voice to Parliament - Black Rock, State Street Corporation, and the Vanguard Corporation. As a separate matter, these entities should put more effort in divesting from all fossil fuel investments, stop undermining democracy and capturing states as well as the mandates of their governments via corporate lobbyists, catalysing regime change in unstable societies, and move towards a global moratorium on investment in the manufacturing of lethal weapons. They should also consider breaking themselves up into smaller entities so that the global funds management industry is not a triopoly, and seek to immediately improve the conditions for the poorest, neediest and weakest persons and countries on our planet. The people who envisioned democracy, did not envision the hyper-militarised, state-captured, climate-disaster ridden state of global affairs that we find ourselves in.
Hubs should have access to government coordinated transit, infrastructure and workers. Hubs should have variable (0% - 50%) area-bound corporate taxation regimes based on local community, public interest and industry priorities, viability as well as investment potential in that order. This model could also partition out many partisan-political debates about funding priorities from Federal and State Parliaments, and enable a devolution of power to local communities.
Any and all foreign and domestic private investment in facilities and capital should not be removable from any hub or from Australia. All intellectual property from every joint venture must be shared with the Australian Government.
Hub locations must be determined with the consent of local communities, including First Nations people's voices and should be placed near existing areas optimal for research, development, production and worker access, as well as targeting regional, rural and remote communities for development opportunities with their mandate and for the purposes of equalising socio-economic opportunities across Australia.
There should be a publicly accessible nationwide register of all sacred First Nations sites to guide location choice, and for the protection of those sites, as any such site can only be deemed sacred, alterable or removable by the self-determined decision making process of each community of First Peoples and people they give that right to with free prior and informed consent.
Each hub should have a central dedicated publicly accessible forum which commemorates the local First Nations culture and neighbouring cultures with architectural marvels or monuments, and is designed as a physical forum with hybrid meeting capability for consensus decision making or other self-determined governance processes by local communities.
Example hub/fund list:
First Nations agriculture, aquaculture and industry fund/hub
Marine and terrestrial agriculture and irrigation fund/hub
Marine and Antarctic research fund/hub
Robotics, prosthetics, cybernetics, modular and digital and IoT technology fund/hub
Atmospheric, orbital, astronomical research fund/hub
Super heavy industry fund/hubs (machine-building facilities)
Digital technology free and de-growth fund/hub
Transit technologies fund/hub (roads, trains, electric vehicles, road electrification with wireless charging and power transmission)
Governance optimisation and proactive regulation institute (could use existing facilities like the Mt Buffalo Chalet, considering its history)
Institute for sentience, interfaith and cross-cultural connection (could use existing facilities like the Mt Buffalo Chalet, considering its history)
Institute for artificial intelligence, metadata security, privacy and ethics (could use existing facilities like the Mt Buffalo Chalet, considering its history)
Waste reprocessing, repurposing, upcycling, repair and innovation hubs (0-10% corporate tax at commencement)
State run or funded right-to-repair, DIY hubs in local communities (neighbourhood associations, community houses and non-for-profit organisations) placed based on surveyed local demand
State or Local Council run or funded green space and urban agriculture hubs and initiatives utilising plant metadata, community mapping and artificial intelligence to reduce food mileage, food waste and maintenance
High-yield renewable energy and rewilding hub (0-10% corporate tax within the geofence of the hub until 2030, with the subsequent corporate tax rates to be determined by local communities, the Australian people and/or based on the proximity of reaching climate targets and/or proliferation of emerging renewable technologies throughout the world and/or with progressive or adjustable or fixed-increase tax rates, set to a ceiling or until the business is no longer viable for large private operators)
Mining, Materials and Remediation Hubs (Latrobe Valley, and other Coal Power hubs, eg MGA Thermal Blocks)
https://www.mgathermal.com/tech
https://www.newcastle.edu.au/newsroom/featured/the-missing-block-to-build-an-all-renewable-electric-grid