A TAMWORTH businessman and education advocate said the city would need to establish a full scale university and attract public sector jobs to lift its socio-economic rating.
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A recent report by the office of local government revealed Tamworth lagged behind a number of regional counterparts in its levels of education and employment.
Surveyor Mitchel Hanlon said Tamworth suffered from “brain drain”, losing tertiary students to the cities and lacked high-paying public service jobs to keep people from looking for careers elsewhere.
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Mr Hanlon rankled at the notion of other towns “getting stuff Tamworth missed out” on.
“For example, the tax office in Albury, the army and air force bases in Wagga Wagga, the APVMA in Armidale, where’s our equivalent,” he said.
When asked what government department would be a good fit for Tamworth, Mr Hanlon said there probably needed to be a “policy think tank” to come up with a way forward.
“People keep thinking about a model that works, but it’s about what works for Tamworth,” he said.
“We have to be innovative come up with new model.”
He said immigration would also be key for Tamworth’s continued growth.
Last week, the Prime Minister Scott Morrison signalled the country’s annual migration intake could be cut to help metro over-population which migrant advocates said could impact regional areas.
Mr Hanlon said regional towns did not have the population growth to demand investment without immigration.