One year after the Regional Australia Summit - much still to be done

The Committee formed by the Government following the Regional Australia Summit called for a "comprehensive and convincing response to the challenges faced by regional Australia." More than a year on, the nation's most disadvantaged regions are still waiting.

Today the Australian Catholic Social Welfare Commission release a discussion paper, 'Regional Australia in a Globalised Economy: Towards a Responsible Framework for Regional Development', which addresses the nation's glaring regional disparities and calls on the Federal Government to adopt a coherent framework for regional development.

Mr Toby O'Connor, Executive Secretary, said "Economic reforms implemented by successive Federal Governments, and international economic integration or 'globalisation', have had diverse impacts at a regional level within Australia. Despite the benefits that may have accrued to the economy as a whole, globalisation has had destructive consequences for many of the nation's regions, while others again have experienced tremendous prosperity.

"Of particular concern is the persistent and worsening social disadvantage in many regional communities. While the Commission welcomes the Government's rediscovery of the nation's regions and its significant, if belated, rural health initiatives the challenges posed by structural economic change demand coherent and sustainable regional development strategies" he stated.

"In the new economic context, primary responsibility for development planning must be devolved to regional communities. But the Federal Government must assist regions in the co-ordination of planning, and simultaneously commit itself to a full range of programmes - especially for infrastructure and service provision - to provide employment, stimulate economic growth and assist private enterprise in regional communities. Policies emphasising 'self-reliance' or resourcing 'local leadership' are not likely to be sufficient for the renewal of these regions."

"An implicit acceptance that some regions and their communities may suffer for the benefit of the economy as a whole, as is the case with the National Competition Policy framework, must be flatly rejected. The distributional consequences of economic reforms must be integral in designing policy - not merely considered as an afterthought."

Mr O'Connor concluded, "The context of globalisation may very well require that the activities of Government be recast in important ways, but the responsibility for the common good, for ensuring distributive justice and in particular for the nation's most impoverished regions, remains inviolate."