Friends discuss Shepparton's future

S

hepparton’s future was recently discussed among a group of friends.



Shepparton at play.

Most came to the conversation with substantially different values and ideas about how the place should proceed, but all, with some caveats, were guardedly optimistic about the city’s future.

Naturally, all saw the city’s potential, or otherwise, through personal prisms, be that adherence to an ideology that favours growth, in all its forms; a steady “as she goes” view that is about consolidation of existing strengths; or what might be considered a Luddite view, being something of a retreat from modernity to a more localized community that builds its resilience.

One fellow said the Goulburn Valley, and Shepparton in particular, had benefitted from the “accident of birth”, saying it had long been fortunate in that many with an entrepreneurial spirit had been born here.

“We need more of them,” he said.

True, but the “entrepreneurial spirit” of last century, as appropriate as it was then, is no longer what is needed and although that same endeavour is still essential the circumstances in the world suggest a redirection – a new “spirit”.

The neo-liberals of the world see growth as the solution to every human dilemma, while many others, however, see our insistence on bigger, better and faster as the root of our troubles.

Personally, pessimism prevails as I peer into the darkness of the future through the neo-liberal blinkers of our present governments, State or Federal.

One in the group placed his faith in technology, mentioning the unexpected arrival of the motor car and how it rid London’s streets of near knee-deep horse manure.

That, he argued, was a wonderful example of how technology leap-frogged a problem and opened the world to new vistas.

The Shepparton of yesteryear.

Technophiles face not just an issue of too much horse manure, but a spiralling world population pressing relentlessly for more stuff, creating a world in which resources of all kinds are becoming fewer, rarer and so increasingly expensive.

And so what does this mean for Shepparton?

Many obvious needs arise, but primary among these is leadership.

We can lament the performance of State and Federal Governments, but that which can have the biggest immediate impact on our lives is what happens at municipal level.

Shepparton needs to be directed and built to survive what is evolving in the 21^st Century and not what was happening several decades ago.

Present leadership in the City of Greater Shepparton appears to be in disarray with divisiveness instead of the critically needed collaboration, cohesion and cooperation.

Shepparton needs, rather than the present vacuum, leaders who are acutely aware that we face serious energy and resource constraints and so those same people need to act with a bold plan to build a city that will endure.