ALGA Publishes 2006 State of the Regions Report.
The Australian Local Government Association [ALGA]released it’s highly valuable State of the Regions Report yesterday, 27th November.
The survey of Australia’s 64 regions is commissioned annually by the Australian Local Government Association (ALGA) from National Economics. This is the 9th survey undertaken by National Economics.
Editors Note: The Central Ranges LLEN Board commissioned National Economics in 2002 and 2004 to produce the CRLLEN Environmental Scan. A document and data set that has been highly valued by planners across our region. An enhanced scan of the LLEN region will be published in 2007.
The 2006 State of the Regions survey is set against a backdrop of accelerating of population growth in the ‘resource zones’ and a ten-year land boom that saw land values triple between 1996 and 2005 creating a housing affordability crisis for renters and first home buyers.
Despite improvements in broadband usage, the lack of connectivity in parts of regional Australia translates to an inability to attract new industry and well trained productive workers. Lower land costs make these regions attractive to low-income earners, fixed-income retired or semi-retired households.
Regions with higher concentrations of low and fixed income earners tend to be less attractive to young people and skilled workers which further reduces the skills base and accelerates the loss of skills and critical mass for improved connectivity.
The key to reversing this vicious cycle is to reverse the flow of skills and improve connectivity – both transport and communication – between relatively disadvantaged regions and successful regions as well as international markets. The report says Australia’s local government areas could resemble California’s Silicon Valley, given a boost to regional innovation, and mentions the Bendigo Community Telco as an example.
The report paints a picture of regions and local communities fighting back by innovating and generating investment. It shows that:
- Improved employment conditions in rural regions are encouraging greater levels of working age migration to some rural regions
- The baby bounce continues in core metro and lifestyle regions
- Local communities can take action to improve the speed and coverage of their internet services [Note: See our Broadband Broker Project]
- High productivity regions are ageing relatively slowly
- The capacity to innovate depends on knowledge networks at the regional level
- Australia’s major centres are forming innovation clusters that attract high tech start ups
- The land boom in Australia increased the self-perceived wealth of households across the nation
The report praises the Australian Government’s major broadband initiative – Broadband Connect and Clever Networks – which will have flow-on benefits and shows that much of the current investment in upgrading broadband services focused on upgrading existing exchanges in successful regions to higher bandwidths that provide higher speeds.
The report found that Australia’s most successful regions, when measured by the number of patents per 100,000 population and high tech start-ups, are still the major cities, particularly Sydney, and Melbourne.
It is evident that the major centres, with their internationally networked businesses, universities and research centres attract more firms, and the impact of this is that dense clusters of activity create a higher level of patent applications.
Municipalities that are (financially) smaller or (geographically) larger face additional disadvantage due to longer travel times and scale. The report finds that the quality of service each dollar can purchase can vary considerably between municipalities.
The resources necessary to give disadvantaged councils a better chance to play a more effective role in improving economic performance outcomes will in the main have to come from grants or other revenue enhancing measures.
Regarding council infrastructure, the report estimates that $2.3 billion in extra money is needed to bring resource-poor local government regions infrastructure up to the general standard. On the issue of road finance, the report advocates a move to road finance through user charges with council rates only paying for maintaining local access roads.
I highly commend this report to all LLEN members and those community members that have an interest and stake in sustainable regional development.
[Source: ALGA]
Related Links
[Central Ranges LLEN News]
