The Regional Australia Institute (RAI) has announced Toowoomba as the next location in its national event series – Regions Rising - to held next month on Thursday, 3 November.
RAI CEO Liz Ritchie will deliver a keynote address at Regions Rising – Queensland, presenting RAI’s latest data on jobs, housing and population movement in regional QLD.
“As millions of Australians either choose to stay in the regions, or make the move, this surge in popularity brings with it opportunity and challenges for the Sunshine State,” Ms Ritchie said.
Regional job vacancies have continued their overall trend run of growth, reaching a new record of more than 91,000 advertised jobs in August 2022.
“Queensland accounts for almost one third of all jobs advertised in regional Australia, with more than 26,900 available right now,” Liz Ritchie said.
“This event will provide government, industry and regional leaders with the RAI’s insights into the unique settings facing Queenslanders,’ Ms Ritchie said.
“We are delighted to work with our Regional Activator Alliance member, Toowoomba and Surat Basin Enterprise (TSBE) to bring this event to Queensland, alongside our national event series partners - Nutrien Ag Solutions and NBN Co.
Queensland Minister for Regional Development, the Hon Glenn Butcher, will also deliver a keynote address.
At the RAI National Summit in Canberra last month, the RAI launched the Regionalisation Ambition 2032 – A Framework to Rebalance the Nation. It places 20 key targets to strengthen our regions and close the divide between life in the city and the country.
“This Ambition sets a target of 11 million people living prosperously outside the capital cities by 2032, that 500,000 more than current estimates,” Ms Ritchie said.
“Regionalisation is about delivering on the potential of regional Australia and rebalancing our nation – and we look forward to highlighting what this means for Queensland,” Ms Ritchie said.
“People are voting with their feet and looking for a different life beyond our capitals. Move to More is now more apparent than ever before. But we can’t shift the population dial further if the critical issues facing regions aren’t addressed,” Ms Ritchie said.
“Nationally, we’ve seen more than a 100 percent jump in job vacancies in the last 2.5 years. More than 3.7 million regional Australians live in a ‘childcare desert’. Regional home building approvals have declined in five out of the last 10 years. Remote students do half as well as their metropolitan counterparts in NAPLAN.
“I look forward to addressing these issues in Toowoomba as we know they are all interlinked, complex and equally important,” Ms Ritchie said.
Tickets for Regions Rising Queensland are now on sale and can be purchased here.
For media enquiries contact:
Alexandra Macaulay
Regional Australia Institute
0409 652 465
[email protected]