Australian Politics and Policy - Senior, 2019a

Regional policy
The Abbott and Turnbull governments’ regional policy agenda
Little changed with regard to regional policy under the Abbott and Turnbull
Coalition governments (2013–18). As noted, the hallmarks of 21st-century regional
development are intermittent commitment, blame-shifting, poorly resourced
policy and rebadging of old initiatives. In 2016, under the Turnbull government, the
Commonwealth reviewed the RDA committees, recommending their cessation. 48
The review supported regional-specific solutions and the alignment of regional
development boundaries with those of states and territories. It also recommended
‘strengthening regional economies by promoting economic investment opportunities
in regional Australia to the national and international market’, 49 in line with
the global reorientation policies espoused since the 1980s.
However, the author of the review, Warwick Smith, considered the Commonwealth
commitment to regional Australia aspiecemealatbestandperhapseven
tokenistic: ‘the Australian Government, along with most state and territory governments,
have not shown total commitment to the RDA programme’. 50 Smith
identified a range of structural inefficiencies that hindered the functionality of
RDA committees, but perhaps the most fundamental weakness of the program was
thelackofappropriatefundingorsupporttoenablethecommitteestodeliver
the Australian government’s regional agenda: ‘The Australian government delivers
its broader policy and programs, even regional programs, in isolation to, and
separately from, the RDA programme.’ 51
The budget allocation for RDA committees has not changed for a decade,
despite costs increasing over that time. In large jurisdictions such as WA and the
Northern Territory, additional challenges such as the high costs of doing business
in many rural, regional and remote places, travel time over large distances, poor
connectivity and problematic telecommunications services, further undermining
the efficacy of RDA committees. The annual budget of $18 million is expected
to fund the entire national RDA program, across 52 committees. This essentially
pays the salaries of the executive directors, with little left to achieve the central
purpose of the committees: to support the development of regional Australia.
Funding allocations available for projects, and decisions regarding how and where
the funds will be spent, are often determined by other Commonwealth government
commitments or local federal politicians’ agendas, rather than the local RDA
committee or agreed funding priorities.
The arrangements reflect the ‘new’ paradigm of regional development,
exhibiting ‘the familiar mixture of unconnected regional programs; inadequately
resourced regional structures … and an unflinching faith that spending large
48 Commonwealth of Australia 2016.
49 Commonwealth of Australia 2016, 7.
50 Commonwealth of Australia 2016, 2.
51 Commonwealth of Australia 2016, 2.
683