Wollongong is standing on a burning platform, but with courage and good planning it can jump to safety, writes entrepreneur GEOFF McQUEEN.Over the past couple of years, I've been increasingly worried about the future of our city.The past 30 years have not been kind to our region. Our traditional industrial and manufacturing base has shrunk in terms of employment, and while positives have emerged from the University of Wollongong, declines have not been offset by new developments.While those of us who love our city have stoically tried to do our bit to overcome these handicaps, we are facing more threats to our economic viability than ever.In the short to medium term, two main forces will impact upon Australia's economy, particularly our industrial sectors.The first is a move to a carbon-constrained future, which is currently getting all the attention in regard to carbon pricing.The second, and deeper threat, is Dutch disease.After the discovery of the world's largest gas field, the Dutch currency, the guilder, went through the roof. This meant the international competitiveness of Dutch exporters plummeted, decimating manufacturing.While carbon pricing and Dutch disease are having a negative economic impact in lots of Australian communities, there are few, if any, that are threatened as much as our city and region, given our energy-intensive industries and dependence on exports.I recently heard a story about a man who was working on an oil platform in the North Sea. He awoke to an explosion and realised his entire oil platform was on fire. Surrounded by flames, he barely made it out to the platform's edge, suspended 30m above the freezing water.As the fire approached, he had mere seconds to react. He had to choose. He could remain on the platform, and inevitably be consumed by flames, or he could jump eight storeys into the dark, cold waters. He decided to jump.In ordinary circumstances, he never would have considered plunging from such a height into the North Sea. But, of course, he needed to take extraordinary action - and he survived.I believe Wollongong, too, is on a burning platform.While we can all recall rounds of retrenchments in the region, - at the steelworks, the closure of Bonds, Midford and recently Poppets - we ought to consider the bigger picture.In the two years to 2010, BlueScope Steel has suffered a decline in the revenue in its coated and industrial products division of more than 20 per cent. This division, which is pretty much the Port Kembla plant, went from more than $6 billion in sales in 2007-08 to less than $4.75 billion in 2009-10. And this is just sales. Profit from the division was down 85 per cent over the same period.The other hard number is 72 per cent. That is how much the Australian dollar has increased in value compared with the United States dollar since late 2008. That has meant that for every local exporter, the cost of every person on payroll, every megawatt of electricity, and the rest, increased by more than 70 per cent, assuming the prices stayed the same in Australian dollar terms.If our platform has been smouldering for the past few decades, it is now well and truly on fire.These are big challenges, but they are not insurmountable.The first step is admitting we have a problem, but if you look at the public debate, we have not begun the journey.In seven weeks, Wollongong residents will elect a new council. So far, all I've heard from any of the aspirants are motherhood statements. Instead of the leadership we need in these tough times, we're mostly seeing "activists" trying to follow in the footsteps of failed councils like Marrickville and Leichhardt.Hopefully as the poll gets closer they'll start to articulate a concrete vision that addresses our precarious situation.At the state and federal level, our representatives are not out in front on this issue, either.I can understand why. Changing the nature of an economy is not easy, cheap or fast. It takes longer than an electoral cycle and our safe-seat status makes it difficult to get the support of any government for the investments we need.You would be a very courageous politician to acknowledge these truths in front of the voters, unless you had a plan to solve the problem.How can we solve this problem? The best way is to look at what other cities have done.We are not the first community in the world to face serious challenges like this. I have researched three examples of cities in similar situations.One is Sheffield, England. The setting of The Full Monty, the home of British steelmaking is our industrial twin.Sheffield went into a long, steep decline from the 1970s, as its uncompetitive mills closed and tens of thousands of people relocated. After 30 years of decline, Sheffield finally made some tough decisions a decade ago. It is now one of the most prosperous parts of Britain with a focus on technology, business services and high-tech manufacturing.Detroit, US, known as Motor City, is a cautionary tale. It has gone from the fifth largest city in the US to 18th. Detroit is a warning to all of us who think heaping government money onto a single industry is the answer. Even $50 billion in bailouts to the car industry and tax credits for green jobs haven't stopped the rot.Finally, there is Waterloo, Canada. Located 100km from Canada's largest city, Toronto, Waterloo is our Canadian doppelganger.When its rubber and leather manufacturing sector declined in the 1980s, civic leaders got together and decided to build a new technology industry based on the strength of their university. The result has been amazing. Over three decades, Waterloo has transformed its economy with the tech sector growing from $300 million revenue in 1997 to more than $19 billion in 2007. The best-known product of Waterloo's success is undoubtedly RIM, the company behind the successful Blackberry mobile phone.One vision - creative, high-tech and very liveable.Fundamentally, Wollongong needs to take strong and deliberate action to reshape its economy if it wants to achieve its potential. The alternative is that we will just be a place for commuters to sleep, the disadvantaged to despair and the young to leave.Education, financial services and tourism are opportunities for our economy. There is also an important role for the technology industry, particularly the creation of a start-up culture. Using Waterloo as a model, we can reinvigorate our economy by creating an environment that harnesses our smart graduates and encourages them to stay and build companies here.There is no silver bullet. But we do need to find ways to say yes and not no as a community. The debate needs to be about our prosperity, not building heights.The most important next step is to raise the alarm. Unless our city wakes from its slumber to realise the platform it is dozing on is not just smoking but on fire, we will end up like Detroit.Through honest and open debate, and with a sense of urgency and purpose, we can pull off a Waterloo.We can argue about the details of any vision, but surely we agree that our city has too much potential to watch it go up in smoke.