Australian Politics and Policy - Senior, 2019a

Regional policy
Policies impacting regional Australia
Traditionally, the Commonwealth has viewed regional development as a state
responsibility because the states have constitutional responsibility for transport,
resource management, infrastructure, land use activities, planning, the environment
and local government, all of which are important to rural, regional and
remote places. The distinction between regional policy and other general policies
that have impacts on regional Australia is often blurred. Some national policies
have more of a regional impact or focus than others, but they are not necessarily
referred to as regional policies. For example, water and climate policies, energy
and transport policies and National Competition Policy have all had a considerable
influence on regionally based industry sectors and, in some cases, the liveability
of rural, regional and remote communities, but their influence is not limited to
the regions. Aboriginal interests, for example, are rarely specifically articulated in
regional policy, partly because of the different ways these interests are incorporated
into institutional structures. Generally, there is a separation of responsibilities and
governance structures for regional development and Aboriginal affairs.
Even at the state level, regional policy has had decreasing prominence as
businesses and populations have gravitated to the capitals. However, there have been
some exceptions when, for political or market reasons, governments have re-focused
their policy and investment attentions on the regions. Perhaps the most outstanding
example of this was the introduction of the Royalties for Regions program by the
Western Australian (WA) government in 2008, which will be discussed below.
Postwar period
TherehavebeenperiodswhentheCommonwealthhastakenamoreovertregional
policy position, imposing policies that have had significant influence on regional
Australia. The post–Second World War period was the first time the Commonwealth
specifically used regional policy as an economic mechanism to assist
Australia to transform from a wartime to a peacetime economy through domestic
reconstruction and a national regional development program. The Commonwealth
encouraged postwar migrants to relocate to regional areas by sponsoring jobs on
major infrastructure projects such as the Snowy Mountains Scheme and hydroelectricity
projects in Tasmania. Returned servicemen were incentivised to take up
soldier settlement blocks throughout rural areas to repopulate the hinterlands and
reinvigorate Australia’s agricultural industry.
At the same time, the Australian government encouraged particular sectors to
develop, which had both direct and indirect impacts on regional areas and local
economies. This was done through various reconstruction policies, rather than
specific regional development policies. For example, tariff protection and import
controls in the postwar period enabled manufacturing and new factory jobs, some,
butnotall,ofwhichwereinregionaltowns,suchasGeelong,Newcastle,Whyalla
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