Australian Politics and Policy - Senior, 2019a

Regional policy
structurally on the periphery’. 56 It is not surprising then that regional development
initiatives and policies have lacked consistency, causing duplication and widening
service gaps across multiple government levels.
According to Sotarauta and Beer, ‘to most observers, the regional development
system in Australia appears chaotic and underfunded relative to needs’. 57 The lack
of uniformity and consistency of both Commonwealth and state regional
development agencies have contributed to a national regional framework that is
without coherence. 58 Consequently, ‘fragmentation’ in regional development has
been a major problem, with policy responsibility frequently shared between the
federal, state and local spheres of government’ 59 and a slew of organisations,
including many from the private sector, involved in the delivery of regional
development programs. There are no signs that these trends are likely to change
while Australian regional development policy is characterised by ‘modest government
investment and locally provided inducements’. 60
References
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Canberra: ABS.
Beer, Andrew (2015). Structural adjustment programmes and regional development in Australia.
Local Economy 30: 21–40. DOI: 10.1177/0269094214562171
—— (2007). Regionalism and economic development: achieving an efficient framework. In A.J.
Brown and Jennifer Bellamy, eds. Federalism and regionalism in Australia: new approaches, new
institutions, 119–34. Canberra: ANU Press.
—— (2000). Regional policy and development in Australia: running out of solutions? In Bill
Pritchard and Phil McManus, eds. Land of discontent: the dynamics of change in rural and
regional Australia, 169–94. Sydney: UNSW Press.
Beer, Andrew, Alaric Maude and Bill Pritchard (2003). Developing Australia’s regions: theory and
practice. Sydney: UNSW Press.
Brown, A.J., and Jennifer Bellamy, eds. (2007). Federalism and regionalism in Australia: new
approaches, new institutions. Canberra: ANU Press.
Collits, Paul (2012). Is there a regional Australia, and is it worth spending big on? Policy: A Journal of
Public Policy and Ideas 28(2): 24–9.
—— (2008). The Howard government and regional development. AustralasianJournalofRegional
Studies 14(3): 287–312.
Commonwealth of Australia (2017). Regions 2030: unlocking opportunity. Canberra: Department of
Infrastructure, Transport, Cities and Regional Development.
—— (2016). IndependentreviewoftheRegionalAustraliaprogramme. Canberra: Department of
Infrastructure and Regional Development.
56 Eversole 2016, 132.
57 Sotarauta and Beer 2017, 214.
58 Beer 2000.
59 Dollery, Buultjens and Adams 2011, 241.
60 Beer 2015, 22.
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