Communiqué - 03 November 2000
GOVERNMENTS COLLABORATE FOR A SUSTAINABLE FUTURE FOR REGIONAL AUSTRALIA
The three tiers of government agreed today on how to progress plans for improving coordination and collaboration for the benefit of regional Australia.
Convened by Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Transport and Regional Services, John Anderson, Commonwealth, State and Territory Regional Development Ministers and the Australian Local Government Association met in Canberra and agreed on a framework for cooperation and guiding principles. They committed to:
- minimise duplication and overlap
- encourage communities to set their own priorities
- cooperate with each other
- cooperate with the private sector
- use existing systems wherever possible
- build on the competitive and comparative advantage of regions, and
- consult with each other wherever possible, where new programmes and services are being developed.
The focus is on what is deliverable and achievable. 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.
Importantly, today's meeting also addressed some critical, ongoing issues in regional Australia, with State governments leading discussion and providing direction in:
- infrastructure (Victoria and Tasmania)
- attraction and retention of professionals in rural and regional areas (Western Australia)
- investment in regions (New South Wales)
- business development (Queensland)
- zone rebates (Queensland) and
- fly-in, fly-out operations and consequences for local communities (also Queensland).
The meeting 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 Commonwealth, the States and Territories and Local Government.
They agreed that all governments are responsible for creating the appropriate regulatory, taxation and business support environment to facilitate the development of infrastructure.
On the issue of zone rebates, in light of the issues raised by State and Territory ministers, the Minister agreed that within current constitutional and budgetary constraints, he will consult with affected Federal members and relevant Ministers on issues of equity. Two other areas which State ministers agreed to explore further were the relationship between resource royalties and the development of local communities and the social and employment impact of resource developments.
Demonstrating this theme of coordination and collaboration in action, the recent Northern Australia Forum held in Katherine agreed that governments will work collaboratively in key areas of northern development identified during the forum.
This spirit of cooperation exemplifies the approach identified and endorsed by today's meeting at which the Ministers resolved to maintain the dialogue with a view to establishing a framework in which a range of regional development issues may be canvassed and appropriate strategies considered.
Specific recommendations were developed by a special taskforce of senior officials, established after the first meeting of all spheres of government in March this year.
Further reports will be provided on the progress of implementation.