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Regional Development Ministers agree on three sphere regional cooperation

Regional Development Ministers from the Commonwealth, the States and Territories, and a representative of Local Government, met recently and agreed to a clear approach for improving services to people living in regional Australia.

Responding to the need for better coordination and cooperation between the different spheres of government identified at the Regional Australia Summit, and the subsequent Northern Australia Forum in Katherine, the meeting was chaired by the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Transport and Regional Services, John Anderson.

Ministers agreed in principle to a framework for ensuring that duplication and overlap is eliminated.

The meeting also considered areas where there was actual agreement on cooperation of services, ranging from Rural Transactions Centres to Regional Solution funds.

Specifically, all spheres of government agreed to:

• build alliances and bilateral agreements for delivering localised community programmes including business centres, shop fronts, Rural Transaction Centres and government information access centres;
• collaborate on the development of publications and information dissemination to provide a streamlined and accessible source of information on government programmes to people living in regional Australia;
• collaborate on economic, social and environmental objectives to ensure sustainability for local communities; and
• encourage better utilisation and leveraging of funds through collaborative assessment of project applications.

The meeting also addressed some critical, ongoing issues in regional Australia including: infrastructure; attraction and retention of professionals in rural and regional areas; investment in regions; business development; zone rebates; and fly-in, fly-out operations and consequences for local communities.

Ministers agreed that substantial funds need to be applied to improving and developing infrastructure in regional Australia and that infrastructure is a joint responsibility of the States and Territories, the Commonwealth and Local Government.

It was agreed that all governments are responsible for creating the appropriate regulatory, taxation and business support environment to facilitate the development of infrastructure.

The Ministers resolved to maintain a cooperative dialogue and to establish a framework within which a range of regional development issues and appropriate strategies would be considered.

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