Call of the wild: Plans afoot to get more going bush
Twenty per cent of people living in capital cities say they want to move to the country, but new plans are afoot to turn wishful thinking into reality.
An assembly of western Queensland councils has heard that a āpromotional blitzā involving television commercials and roadside billboards will soon be launched encouraging more people to head bush.
Regional Australia Institute CEO Liz Ritchie explained to the forum in Richmond in the stateās far north west, that of the people in cities expressing a desire to relocate, almost half were prepared to make the move in the next 12 months.
āThe appeal of the regions is more of a factor than any dissatisfaction they have with city life,ā she said.
āThey want more space, more time with family, better connection to the environment and extended community, less stress and debt and overall reduction in the cost of living.ā
Speaking ahead of a panel discussion, Ritchie also outlined moves to inject more corporate funding into regional projects, announcing growth in the Regional Australia Council 2031, a concept her organisation launched last year.
Part of the groupās mission, she said, was generating jobs growth in the regions, prioritising the talents of āhumans over headquartersā and building on the momentum of the decentralised workplace accelerated by Covid.
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āWorking flexibly has proved to result in the higher levels of productivity and mental well being,ā she said.
āFor the first time in history we can truly create a national employment market where location is no barrier.
āWe can work where we live and live where we love.ā
Ritchie was joined on stage by State Regional Development Minister Glenn Butcher, LNP Queensland Senator Susan McDonald, Carpentaria Mayor Jack Bawden and Longreach Mayor Tony Rayner and Queensland Resources Council economics policy director Andrew Barger.
The topic was meant to address if regional growth fuelled by population shift away from city centres would amount to the new post-Covid reality.
Instead, panellists focused on traditional barriers that have cause inequity between rural folk and their city cousins, such as poorer access to healthcare and education, fewer job opportunities and high transport costs, especially exorbitant airfares on regional routes.
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Butcher said regional Queensland was experiencing a āmajor upliftā in new development, particularly the construction of solar farms and other renewable energy hubs.
āBut we have to make sure we have the capacity to put that energy into the national energy market,ā he said.
āThereās no point building new solar farms throughout western Queensland if we canāt deliver the electricity through the policy.ā
Cr Bawden said investment in his region was held back by the reluctance of banks to lend capital to younger people looking to buy land or build businesses.
āAccess to finance is a major issue. We want young people with families to come here and build our regions,ā he said.
āItās a waste of time bringing people out here if they canāt raise the funds to build a house.ā
McDonald, who hails from the north-west region near Cloncurry, said her government was determined to address āstructural barriersā to regional growth, despite Prime Minister Scott Morrison a day earlier rejecting the idea of building a quarantine facility in Toowoomba, Australiaās second largest regional inland city next to Canberra.
āHaving grown up here and having so many discussions with people around kitchen tables we know what our potential is, weāve only been held back by the lack of structural change by government,ā she said.
The Western Queensland Alliance of Councils assembly continues until Wednesday.
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