Rebalancing settlement to maximise productivity

IT IS ESTIMATED that for every 100,000 Australians who choose to live in regional centres rather than state capitals, an additional $50 million will be released into the national economy over the next 30 years.

Throughout its inquiry into the development of cities, the Committee on Infrastructure, Transport and Cities has heard much about the potential benefits of rebalancing Australian population settlement across cities and regional centres. It will now discuss practical strategies to redirect settlement with the Regional Australian Institute at a public hearing in Canberra tomorrow.

Committee Chair, John Alexander OAM MP, said it may be possible to achieve a polycentric model of settlement in Australia, where regions are home to a network of larger and smaller social and economic centres.

“Most Australian already live near an urban centre, whether it’s a state capital like Sydney or a regional centre like Albury-Wodonga,” Mr Alexander said.

“Increasing connectivity between communities large and small and leveraging regional centres for future growth will benefit us all.”

The Regional Australia Institute said that substantially shifting “patterns of urbanisation in Australia will require coordinated policy change across land use planning and development, taxation arrangements, infrastructure, investment and migration”.

“Currently our migration policies and urban development arrangements promote sprawling, high population growth major cities and low to moderate growth in surrounding regions.”

 

Public hearing details: 

 5.00 pm – 6.30 pm, Tuesday, 17 October 2017 
Committee Room 1R3, Parliament House, Canberra

5.00 pm: Regional Australia Institute
6.30 pm: Close

The proceedings will be broadcast live (audio only) at aph.gov.au/live.

Further information on the inquiry, including the full terms of reference, is available on the Committee website.

Interested members of the public may wish to track the committee via the website.

ENDS