Abstract
Although it is widely accepted that the resources sector makes a significant contribution to national and state economies, information about how it impacts on local and regional economies is much scarcer. Understanding the spread of economic stimulus and subsequent indirect business and consumption effects is important because of the changing patterns of business operations, employment and supply chains in the resources sector. The focus of the research reported in this paper was to identify the geographical spread of economic impacts from the resources sector across Queensland. The results of the analysis demonstrate that incomes and expenditures from the resources sectors are widely distributed across the state, and generate significant flow-on effects. It is notable that the industry makes a strong direct contribution in many of the more remote areas of Queensland, helping to underpin economic conditions in those regions. Expenditure from the resources industry has indirect impacts on the business environment in many areas, and generates substantial levels of production in south-east Queensland and central Queensland in particular.
Highlights
The resources sector, encompassing mining, gas, energy and minerals processing industries, makes a major contribution to the Australian economy, through the key resource states ofWesternAustralia and Queensland (Garton 2008, Lim et al 2009)
Greater reliance on external suppliers and contractors has led to increased development of business supply chains, which are often located in regional hubs and major centres (Rolfe et al 2007)
This study is different from the ACIL Tasman 2004-05 study because it applies a sample of primary spend data from the resource companies to accurately calculate the direct and indirect economic impacts at the Local Government Area (LGA) level, instead of estimating impacts from total revenue injected
Summary
The resources sector, encompassing mining, gas, energy and minerals processing industries, makes a major contribution to the Australian economy, through the key resource states ofWesternAustralia and Queensland (Garton 2008, Lim et al 2009). From the 1990s, many mining companies reduced their provision of housing in mining towns and responsibility for employees outside of work hours, introduced greater use of business suppliers and contractors, for non-core operations, and changed a number of work patterns, including moves towards longer shift patterns (Rolfe et al 2007, Zheng et al 2007). These changes have had the effect of diffusing the impact of direct mining expenditures in two main ways.
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