One of the key challenges of regional communities is the attraction and retention of population. Whilst our main cities continue to grow and increasingly groan under the weight of both domestic and international migration, regional and remote Australian townships are often faced with very low or negative population growth that impacts upon the ability for these communities to prosper, which, in turn can magnify the population leakage to larger centres.
The Federal Government, as part of its upcoming Population Policy is set to unveil plans to introduce mandatory settlement for some new skilled migrants into regional areas for periods of up to five years – albeit part of an effort to ease the burden of population pressure on Sydney and Melbourne, with the benefit of producing a direct skilled worker injection for regional communities.
Whether seeking to attract, encourage or in this case legislate population increases into regional Australia or simply trying to retain existing population, the core challenge remains the same – people (generally) are attracted to larger centres because of what they offer – amenity and opportunity.
The factors that encourage residents to remain in regional communities are broadly the same, whether they be long term residents or recently arrived migrants – employment, access to appropriate health and education facilities, infrastructure and support services and an adequate level of retail and leisure opportunities. In other words, a good level of liveability.
The catch – in many/most cases the level of amenity and supporting infrastructure available to a community is directly determined by their size, which in turn determines the level of upper level government funding.
AEC Group work with regional communities across Australia to assist in developing applied programs that address how to keep people living and prospering in our regional townships. We believe the key outcome to be targeted from regional development initiatives is the creation of new investment opportunities and jobs.
AEC are able to provide support and Strategy Development across:
Economic & Tourism Development
Investment Attraction
Advocacy Planning
International Relations
Workforce Development
In addition to strategy development, assistance is also available to provide research and analysis that supports funding applications that can assist in delivering outcomes for communities by way of upgrading infrastructure, supporting community development and providing sporting and leisure facilities.
For any regional development enquires, please contact the AEC team.