Property Point

If you believe the narrative of the climate change lobby, we are all doomed unless massive changes are made to how we live, work and operate our economy.

There’s a list of things we have to eradicate, most of them enjoyable and central to how our economy operates, if we are to survive.

Rib fillets are bad, vegan patties are good. Coal-fired power stations are evil, wind farms are angelic. The traditional motor car is Satan’s steed, an electric vehicle is heaven on wheels.

The imminent demise of the fuel-powered motor vehicle means it is only logical to think of petrol stations as the blacksmith shops of the early last century.

The writing was on the wall for blacksmiths when Henry Ford started rolling his cars off the production line over 100 years ago.

It was the same for video stores about 15 years ago. In the blink of an eye they went from being on every street corner to extinction.

Are petrol stations the video shops of our time? Apparently not, judging by the number of new ones dotting the Mackay landscape.

New petrol stations are popping up everywhere and, while it clearly means that the investors believe your SUV is going to be around for a while, it is also a significant vote of confidence in Mackay’s economy and that of regional Queensland.

I imagine setting up the infrastructure for a service station is a little on the costly side and you wouldn’t do it unless you felt your product had a future and that the economy in that particular area was going to be strong enough to support your business.

It’s just another sign that the Mackay region is doing well and that our economy is powering along.

ANZ senior economist Catherine Birch recently spoke at a Resource Industry Network event and spoke at length about the positivity in our region.

She had good things to say about the resources sector and the strength of our economy generally.

One of the things she pointed out is that job vacancies in central Queensland are double the pre-pandemic level. So rather than having the challenge of unemployment, we have the challenge of finding people to do the work that local businesses need done.

And there is plenty of work to be done. She noted that our resources sector had diversified when we needed to find alternative markets when China put a ban on our coal. But Ms Birch also made the point that China is lifting those bans and we should be full steam ahead with exports to that country.

She didn’t say anything about all our new petrol stations but I’m sure she’d think the growth in that area is another vote of confidence for our region. That’s good for business and good for real estate.

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