Simon Crean (Hotham, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Regional Australia, Regional Development and Local Government) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for his question, because this was a very important initiative that we have addressed in the budget through three different concepts in recognising the combination of pressures of growth, the need for cities to plan better to accommodate that growth, and the ability to build on a successful program which was developed by the regions and through which the regions are attracting population to them.

This program is known as Evocities. It comprises seven cities in regional New South Wales from Dubbo down to Albury. These cities got together and decided that they should market themselves as a collective with difference in amongst the seven of them—an approach that said. 'We are growing and we have economic diversity. Instead of living in Sydney and making that your home, why don't you think about coming out to our part of the world?' There has been a very successful take-up, with many hits on the website that was established and some significant initial movements going in that direction.

I might say that this will work very well with the New South Wales government's initiative, if they persist with it in the budget, whereby they are going to give a $7,000 incentive for people to move to the regions. This is a marketing exercise that can sit well with other state government proposals as well, of course, as the ones that I have just outlined in our broad thrust. So here is an opportunity for regions to, as part of the attraction mechanism, look to creatively using the different programs not just within the Commonwealth portfolio but also within the state. The Evocities program is a partnership between the Commonwealth government, the state government and local government.

So successful has that program been that we have included in the budget a fund of $11½ million for other groupings of cities to develop their own strategy to draw and attract people to them. We know that some of these communities are great places to live. Those of us who frequently travel out to these regions—and some in this chamber who live there—know the great attributes of these places. But, if you are going to attract people to these places, obviously there has to be economic activity and diversity. That is the patchwork. That is the economy in transition. That is why we have programs to invest in infrastructure and skills and to actually help diversify that economic basis.

It is also the fact that, if you are going to draw people to those areas, you have to make them liveable cities. They have to have the range of services and opportunity. That is why we are investing in improving the hospital system out there and putting funding into the universities and the TAFE facilities. But the more exciting opportunity exists with the rollout of the National Broadband Network. This is what is going to really enable the regions to join the dots. If they have the physical infrastructure—a university, a TAFE, a hospital—think of what they can do through e-education and ehealth initiatives through the National Broadband Network. So far as the diversification of the economic model is concerned, think of what the National Broadband Network is going to enable the regions to do, by way of e-commerce, to develop new businesses, home based businesses, community based businesses. I do not know whether people saw that Four Corners program about the significance of the rollout of the National Broadband Network. There was a very good example in it of a business that has already established itself in Armidale—the Eastmon Digital photography business—which said that, if it can get the bandwidth and the broadband speed, it will be able to double its size. That means people not having to live in Sydney to be part of this system but being able to locate themselves and make communities and raise families in the regions. That can be part of the way in which we address the patchwork approach.

Here we have an initiative that was developed on the ground. We are prepared to fund it, and we urge regions to look creatively at how they can use it, not listen to the carping and negativism that comes from the other side of the parliament, the Liberal and National parties.

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