Championing the voice of regional Australia

It’s that time of year where new economic policies are dropping at a rate of knots and the front pages are dominated by politicians talking about the cost of living - you can all but smell the Federal Budget around the corner.

With every new announcement, my radar, probably just like yours, is firmly searching for ‘what’s in this for our regions?’. For over a decade, the RAI has been highlighting the concerns about a one-size-fits-all approach to national policies that wrongly assume that metro areas and regional areas can be considered in the same light, and by addressing singular levers, we will create the same outcomes.

This concern was raised yesterday at the second meeting of the?National Alliance for Regionalisation ?where more than 30 of the country’s most influential peak bodies have united to advance the targets in the?Regionalisation Ambition 2032 ?and our work to “rebalance the nation”. This group, which includes the Business Council of Australia, Australian Industry Group, the Australian Medical Association, the Migration Institute of Australia, Rural Doctors Association of Australia, Minerals Council of Australia, Regional Capital Australia, National Farmers Federation, the Planning Institute of Australia and many more, I assure you, has their regional lens firmly fastened.

What our data and research tell us, and what our regions know well, is that regional economies are uniquely different and diverse. Due to this, they require unique, overt, and targeted policies, ideas and solutions that focus on the challenges and opportunities in our regions.

The objective of the Alliance is to share knowledge and provide national leadership to ensure the targets remain relevant and central to decision-making for regional Australia over the next decade. This will include making joint submissions to government; sharing data and research; communicating progress against targets; and working with Australia’s highest profile decision makers to champion the voice of regional Australia.

With such a range of sectors represented, the RAI team has undertaken a lengthy desktop review of each and every policy position represented within the Alliance. This work will shape and guide the direction we take.

As such, the Alliance has identified the top five common policy priorities among the Alliance that best align with the targets set in the Regionalisation Ambition 2032.?

These include:

1. Skills for today and the future
2. Migration and settlement in our regions
3. Post-school qualifications and career pathways
4. Housing
5. Resilience of our regional communities, places, and businesses

Other critical areas, such as health, are not ignored in this priority list. In fact, many of these policy priorities cover a range of different industries. In health for example, we cannot address our current shortage of regional health workers if we don’t address policy priorities in areas such as skills, housing, and resilience – they are all interlinked.?

As CEO of AI Group Innes Willox commented in our first meeting, when you look at the list of priorities for regions right now much of this boils down to “jobs, jobs, jobs”. And it’s clear to see in this update that?regional job vacancies ?have once again bounced back to hit 93,000, which only seeks to reconfirm a worrying trend. Top of mind for us is that jobs are only one piece of a bigger issue that delves into factors of population, liveability, sustainability and innovation – in short our Ambition.

However, when it comes to jobs, the RAI, with the support of our members, including?the Alliance , the?Regional Australia Council ?and the?Regional Activators Alliance ?will continue to provide a national, regional voice and activate a range of solutions. Over the next few months, we will be launching a new series of content through our?Move to More ?initiative that doubles down on the need for metro-based awareness, including a firm target of secondary migrants to highlight the record levels of employment opportunities in our regions. We’re delighted to highlight the story of Anil and Ruju Acharya, who have come to Temora from Nepal via Sydney. Anil is a civil engineer with our member, Temora Shire Council and Ruju works in her chosen field of dentistry. The pair are relishing their life in the Riverina town, enjoying the wide-open spaces; the social (and coffee) scene and importantly, the chance to advance their careers.

The RAI is also focusing on sharing programs through our networks of businesses, governments, NFPs and locally-led solutions that are helping to secure skills and talent. As always, if you have launched a new and innovative employment strategy in our rural and regional communities, we’d love to hear from you.

Next month at my?National Press Club address , many of our members will be in the room when I will talk about our Regionalisation Ambition and how this work is the key to unlocking a better and brighter future for Australia. Focusing on the themes of our nation’s biggest challenges including housing, jobs and skills which are more acutely felt in our regional communities. As such, the RAI's upcoming report on The Big Skills Gap will help to decouple the data and tell a compelling story about what is really happening in this country.

As we closed the Alliance session yesterday, the attention was squarely refocused on the work at hand: the agreed priorities within the Alliance that ultimately will provide the missing piece of the puzzle – a strong, powerful and united voice. The Regionalisation Ambition 2032 provides one single vision that is shared and that is gaining much-needed national and international attention.

Australia, it’s time to rebalance the nation,

Liz Ritchie – CEO