Think tank urges policymakers to allocate more resources to regional Australia
The Regional Australia Institute (RAI) has urged policymakers to increase the share of housing and essential services directed to regional areas, following the release of its latest report showing that regional communities continue to lag behind metropolitan centres in key measures of liveability.
The think tank’s Regionalisation Ambition 2032 report tracks progress on 25 targets set to guide regional Australia’s development over the next decade. These targets are grouped under six pillars: population, jobs and skills, liveability, health, sustainability and resilience, and productivity and innovation, with results benchmarked against metropolitan outcomes.
This year’s findings show that while 18 targets are advancing and four have regressed, the overall pace of improvement is insufficient to achieve the 2032 goals. The report comes as regional Australia experiences the largest movement from cities to the regions in two decades, excluding the COVID period.
“RAI’s research found that 40% of city dwellers are considering a move to the regions,” said Liz Ritchie (pictured top), chief executive of the Regional Australia Institute. “Combine this demand with the population growth already happening, and regional Australia could be on track to be 40% of the country’s total population by 2032.”
She also highlighted the economic significance of regional Australia, which contributes nearly 40% of national GDP and is central to exports and food production.
The RAI has proposed that 40% of all national decisions, including housing, representation, and migration, should be directed towards regional Australia. This would mean, for example, that 40% of the 1.2 million homes under the National Housing Accord would be built in regional communities, 40% of national decision-making roles would be held by regional representatives, and 40% of new migrants would settle in regional areas.
“‘40 for the regions’ is recognition that regional Australia has a different set of challenges to our cities and one-size fits all decision making doesn’t always deliver equal outcomes,” Ritchie said. “Australia has been caught on the hop by a regional renaissance with critical services, infrastructure and skills playing catch up to population growth. An urgent intervention, like this commitment, would at least ensure that regional Australians are getting the proportionate focus they deserve.”
The RAI’s third annual progress report is being released ahead of its National Summit at Parliament House, which will bring together over 400 regional leaders. The report notes improvements in areas such as recruitment, NAPLAN results, post-school qualifications, and disaster resilience. However, setbacks were observed in school attainment, rental vacancies, and the proportion of highly skilled workers.
Despite some progress, none of the targets have yet reached or surpassed metropolitan benchmarks. “The gaps in health outcomes are particularly stark,” Ritchie said. “Australians in the cities are accessing Medicare services, 70% more than regional Australians. While the number of medical practitioners is growing faster in regional areas than metro, the difference in the number per 100,000 of population is still more than 100, and for allied health workers the difference is 150.
“In other critical areas, metro housing approvals were triple regional approvals. There is a 15-percentage point difference in school attainment rates and while NAPLAN results are improving, our regional kids need additional help at twice the rate of metro kids. Three years of annual data now shows us that incremental progress won’t get regional Australia to equity of outcomes without big ideas and interventions.”
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