CATHERINE KING – MEDIA RELEASE – NFF REGIONALISATION AGENDA LEAVES NATS IN THE DUST – TUESDAY, 23 FEBRUARY 2021

Today’s release of the National Farmers’ Federation’s Regionalisation Agenda highlights just how much more could be done to harness the growth of regional Australia and drive our nation’s recovery from COVID-19.

By laying down clear markers on how a real regionalisation agenda could reshape the regions, this report also highlights how far the National Party has fallen.

Regional Australia is ready for a change, but to reach its potential it needs a strategic approach which invests in growing productivity and building connections with the wider nation and the world. It also needs a new approach towards the infrastructure priority lists which too often prioritise city projects providing a short-term boost over regional projects which can set up generations of growth.

As the NFF identifies, a better regionalisation approach should build on the existing strengths of regions, investing in what they do well and making them even better.

This requires a long-term vision, not the short-termism and pork barrelling we see time and time again from the National Party and the Morrison Government.  

Recent ABS figures show domestic migration to our regions increased during the pandemic, with a record 11,200 Australians moving out of the capital cities during July, August and September last year, while overall a fifth of city-dwellers are looking to relocate to the regions.

This is a real opportunity to reshape regions and the Australian economy but under the current Government’s haphazard approach it will be missed.

The Nationals have overseen sport rorts, dodgy Western Sydney Airport land deals, Building Better Regions Fund scandals, excluded NSW’s fire-ravaged south coast from regional recovery funding and allowed funding for women’s sport in the regions to go towards a pool in North Sydney.

Hopefully, the Government reads this report and commits to doing better in the future. But I won’t hold my breath.

TUESDAY, 23 FEBRUARY 2021