Cr Blumel predicts regional renaissance through Regional Development Australia

21 March 2010 Cr Blumel predicts regional renaissance through Regional Development Australia

Chair of Regional Development Australia (RDA) Sunshine Coast, Cr Debbie Blumel, predicts that the Sunshine Coast is on the cusp of a regional renaissance following the resounding success of the inaugural RDA National Networking Forum held at Parliament House in Canberra last week. Chairs and deputy chairs of fifty-five RDA organisations from across Australia gathered in Canberra for an intensive round of meetings and presentations.

Cr Blumel said that the historic event, hosted by the Hon Maxine McKew, Parliamentary Secretary for Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government, provided extensive opportunities to network with a range of ministers and departmental heads on matters relevant to the Sunshine Coast.

These included Hon Anthony Albanese, Minister for Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government; Hon Lindsay Tanner, Minister for Finance and Deregulation; Senator the Hon Mark Arbib, Minister for Employment Participation and Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for Government Service Delivery; Hon Martin Ferguson, Minister for Resources and Energy and Minister for Tourism; Dr Mike Kelly, Parliamentary Secretary for Water; and Senator the Hon Ursula Stephens, Parliamentary Secretary for Social Inclusion and the Voluntary Sector.

Senior officials from a range of Australian Government agencies, including Treasury, Health and Ageing, Veterans and Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy among many others, provided an overview of strategic directions, programs and initiatives of interest and relevance to the Sunshine Coast. "Ministers encouraged us to marshal the institutions of government and get them working for us," said Cr Blumel. "It's an invitation too good to refuse!"

Cr Blumel said, "The Canberra event was an unparalleled opportunity to raise issues with the ministers personally and build their understanding of regional development issues across the greater Sunshine Coast region.

"I conveyed the message that the Sunshine Coast has felt the pain of decades of rapid population growth and was now keen to protect the environment and liveability of our region. I pointed out that for us, a more robust economy would need to come from productivity gains -- from better infrastructure and unleashing opportunities for cooperative government and industry relations."

"RDA Sunshine Coast is the new formal inter-governmental vehicle to achieve practical outcomes through improved regional cooperation and cohesion. This will be achieved by building on and advancing work already undertaken by the three levels of government and other regional institutions and sectors."

"The event also provided an opportunity to see our region from the national perspective -- to see ourselves as others see us. By discussing our major challenges and exchanging ideas, commonalities and differences could be identified. For example, some regions are experiencing community demise due to declining population and are providing incentives to encourage people to move there. Others are concerned about the effect of fly in - fly out working arrangements on a generation of children growing up without their fathers from one week to the next. That helps put our region's problems in perspective.

"Here on the Sunshine Coast, we are on the cusp of a regional renaissance. Our Sunshine Coast RDA committee will be casting the net broadly across economic, community and sustainability issues. The possibilities are limited only by our imaginations, our appetite for innovation, our openness to collaboration, and the strength of our ambitions for a more prosperous and liveable region.

"The federal government is making an extraordinary commitment to RDA at the national level. The ministers are demonstrating an optimistic can-do attitude and they have great expectations of us to be a can-do region. Cutting across boundaries is their philosophy and most defining quality. It must also become our mantra.

"Over coming months, the RDA Sunshine Coast members will undertake a listening tour across the region to workshop the problems and solutions that people and industries want us to consider. There is much that we can do to achieve a more prosperous, liveable and sustainable region with support from the three levels of government working cooperatively with industry and community.

"Within months, my committee will endorse our road map for regional renaissance -- for economic prosperity that is socially inclusive and ecologically sustainable."

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Publish Date: 22 Mar 10