Australia Moving Forward with ‘Regionalisation’
Australia Moving Forward with ‘Regionalisation’
A report by RIA (Regional Australia Institute) showed the new trend of people moving from big cities to regional areas are driven by work from home arrangements, affordable properties, improved broadband access, lack of congestion and alternative lifestyles.
In particular, millennials located in the region opted to stay in the country or transferred to other regional areas rather than move to capital cities.
The Gold Coast, Newcastle and Sunshine Coasts were placed on the top three regional locations favoured by millennials. Other popular destinations include Greater Geelong, Cairns, Toowoomba, Ballarat, Maitland, Greater Bendigo and Lake Macquarie
RIA’s chief executive Liz Ritchie noted that today is the perfect time for the industry, government and regional communities to work together to push for the regionalization of the workforce.
Australian governments have previously encouraged people to work and live the regional by offering relocation grants and by setting up government offices outside major cities. Analysts recommended boosting local jobs and improving the education system to further attract people to live and stay in the regions.
Job Opportunities in the Region
Construction
The Federal and state governments have made joint investments to create construction jobs to deliver infrastructure projects and road safety upgrades.
The additional investments play a major part in the Commonwealth’s JobMaker plan to boost the local economy as it recovers from the pandemic:
NSW
$1 billion - the combined investment of commonwealth and New South Wales government.
The funding will be allocated to repair 11 congestion hotspots around Sydney, road upgrades and safety projects across regional NSW, supporting a total of 5,450 direct and indirect jobs.
It will also help in accelerating the NSW’s Fixing Local Roads program, which will help fix, maintain and seal priority council roads and other road construction projects in the next 12 months, which also meant creating thousand of jobs.
Other projects include Pinch Point Program that aims to decongest freight and bus services across Sydney’s metropolitan road network.
VIC
The Victorian government invested 1 billion dollars to fast track 7 construction projects that would uplift the economy and create jobs. The projects were spearheaded by the state-sponsored Building Victoria’s Recovery Taskforce.
The projects include building commercial and residential buildings, affordable housing, supermarket, retail and office space and solar farms.
QLD
$415 million - the combined investment of commonwealth and Queensland government
The funding will go to several infrastructure projects like Burke and Gregory Developmental road improvements and Gateway Motorway Flyover while also providing creating 700 construction jobs and supporting local businesses and contractors.
WA
$223 million - the combined investment of commonwealth and West Australian government
The investment will go to Regional State Road Safety Improvement Program to improve roads (1) dualling of Great Eastern and Bussell Highways, (2) upgrades to key tourism roads like Exmouth Road and key freight roads like Toodyay Road. These infrastructure works will create more than 1000 construction jobs. To reduce run-off-road crashes, the program will also widen, seal or install audio-tactile line markings on more than 20 regional routes.
SA
$145 million - the combined investment of commonwealth and South Australian government
The investment includes the (1) Regional Road Network Package to treat pavements, seal shoulders and enhance road safety that will benefit the freight industry and regional communities (2) development of routes in the North-South Freight and between Murray Bridge and Sturt Highway and (3) transformation and modernisation of Heysen Tunnels below the South Eastern Freeway. The projects will also support more than 200 construction jobs that will benefit locals and communities in the state.
NT
$53 million - combined investment of commonwealth and North Territory government
The financing will go to (1) upgrading of major routes like Stuart, Barkly, Carpentaria and Victoria Highways like sealing shoulders and improving guardrails, truck stops and audio-tactile line markings (2) improving safety around remote intersections and roadhouses and (3) widening and sealing shoulders at critical points along Litchfield Park Road.
TAS
$46 million - the combined investment of commonwealth and Queensland government
The funding will be used for (1) road enhancements like widening, surface work and bridge strengthening) for Railton Main Road and Richmond Road (2) electronic signages in school zones (3) construction of a pedestrian underpass, with disability access, on the Midland Highway at Campbell Town.
ACT
$35 million - the combined investment of commonwealth and Queensland government
The investment will be used to improve and develop the following infrastructures: Monaro Highway, Northbourne Avenue, Mitchell light rail stop, Tuggeranong Parkway and four key intersections in Belconnen and Woden. ACT Senator Zed Seselja, said the investment brings total Commonwealth funding of $770 million for transport infrastructure in the ACT
Agriculture
Keeping with the momentum post-pandemic, the agriculture industry is generating jobs in regional areas – about one job for every 1000 tonnes of grain produced, according to ‘The Grains Industry’s Value in Regional Economies’ report by RIA (Regional Australia Institute) and GRDC (Grains Research & Development Corporation).
According to GRDC’s head of industry and gov’t relations Justin Crosby, grains make up a quarter of the agriculture industry, which demonstrates its critical role as a backbone of the country’s regional economies.
He said that for every 100,000 tonnes of grains produced, on average there are 87-grain production jobs in QLD & NSW, 121 in VIC, SA and TAS and 54 in WA. And for every grain worth $10 million in gross value it generates, on average, 22-grain production jobs in the northern growing region, 41 jobs in the southern region and 17 jobs in the western region.
Automotive & Mining
BHP Mitsubishi Alliance (BMA) introduced 34 autonomous trucks that will build new skilled jobs in regional Queensland.
BMA will invest $100 million to back auto-truck introduction at Daunia Mine in Central Queensland. The investment will create more than 150 project-related jobs and 56 permanent roles.
The Minerals Council of Australia reassures that there will be no job losses with this development and just further demonstrates that technology and innovation is a major achievement for the Australian minerals sector.