Time to talk up regional opportunity
Living in regional Australia, I am always amazed at the wonderful opportunities our towns and districts provide for people willing to have a go.
A few weeks ago I was in Wagga Wagga where I was made aware of two businesses – a parts supplier and a local food and hospitality business – that are growing from strength to strength despite the impact of the GFC, high Australian dollar and lost revenue through local people buying online.
This is a story we don’t tell to the outside world enough.
Instead, droughts, industry decline and the hardship that exists alongside opportunity realised dominate the media view of regions.
For a while I’ve had a sense that things have got a bit out of whack and that maybe we haven’t been presenting a positive enough image to outsiders.
I wasn’t clear, however, on just how deep this negative perspective had become.
The Regional Australia Institute (whose Board I Chair) launched its Stocktake of Regional Research a few weeks ago.
Through this project, RAI has identified 1500 research articles and 281 data sources from the last ten years that considered Australia’s regional development.
I was stunned to learn that only 10% of these articles looked at new opportunities for growth and prosperity and how regional areas could take advantage of them. Rather than identifying ways we can grow and change for the better, most research looked instead at economic problems and other issues in regional communities.
If we combine a negative research picture with what the media presents on regions it does not help our cause.
No wonder bureaucrats often look at you blankly when you talk positively about the bush.
I think it is time that we moved past being so negative to outsiders about things in the bush.
We all know that as well as challenges, there is enormous opportunity and potential out in the regional communities that is just waiting to be realised. But we need to research it so we can understand our potential and make good decisions for the future. We also need to talk it up a bit so people outside the regions can see it too.
RAI’s stocktake has identified some exciting areas of opportunity for regional areas that need more work. These include maximising local and sustainable benefits from the resource sector, positioning regions (particularly rural ones) to benefit from the Asian Century and harnessing the National Broadband Network to drive economic growth. These are just some of the great examples of where regional potential might lie which we will be working on.
This is a shout out to others in the bush to join RAI in identifying, understanding and promoting the opportunities we have in regional Australia.
The findings of RAI’s stocktake and an online searchable database of regional research and data is now available at www.regionalaustralia.org.au. You can also use the site to let us know about your ideas for research on regional issues.
By Mal Peters, Chairman of the Regional Australia Institute
Originally published in Mal’s column in The Land on 29 November 2012
RAI’s stocktake has identified some exciting areas of opportunity for regional areas that need more work. These include maximising local and sustainable benefits from the resource sector, positioning regions (particularly rural ones) to benefit from the Asian Century and harnessing the National Broadband Network to drive economic growth. These are just some of the great examples of where regional potential might lie which we will be working on.
