The Honourable Anna Bligh
27/04/2010
Forums across Queensland to push regionalisation
Premier Anna Bligh today announced that cabinet ministers will fan out across Queensland on Tuesday May 4 to get feedback and ideas on regionalisation.
"We want to encourage more of the 2100 people coming to Queensland each week to settle in the regions," Ms Bligh said.
"We're considering how we can influence more people to call the regions home and developing a plan to make that happen to better manage future growth.
"This was the focus of the Queensland Growth Management Summit in Brisbane on March 30 and 31.
"Now, as the next step, I'm sending ministers out to the regions to talk to key stakeholders.
"We want their ideas about how we can work together in partnership to attract people to the regions," Ms Bligh said.
Ministers and Parliamentary Secretaries will host regionalisation forums in the following locations:
• Cairns - Ministers Desley Boyle and Geoff Wilson and Parliamentary Secretary Steve Wettenhall
• Townsville - Ministers Craig Wallace and Peter Lawlor
• Mackay - Ministers Tim Mulherin and Neil Roberts and Parliamentary Secretary Jan Jarratt
• Toowoomba - Minister Rachel Nolan and Parliamentary Secretary Peta-Kaye Croft
• Rockhampton - Ministers Robert Schwarten and Annastacia Palaszczuk and Parliamentary Secretary Julie Attwood
• Gladstone - Minister Stirling Hinchliffe and Parliamentary Secretary Simon Finn
• Bundaberg - Minister Phil Reeves and Parliamentary Secretary Murray Watt
• Mount Isa - Minister Cameron Dick and Parliamentary Secretaries Betty Kiernan and Michael Choi.
Ms Bligh said: "Regional Queensland is a great place to live and our research shows 1 in 10 new Queenslanders who settle in South East Queensland would be prepared to make the regional shift if the incentives were right.
"One incentive being considered for this year's state budget is a $3,000 boost to the first home owner's grant for people buying homes outside South East Queensland.
"And some regional Mayors have said we should consider moving more government agencies to regional Queensland.
"We want to hear more suggestions and feedback from people on the ground who have local knowledge and know their region back to front," Ms Bligh said.
In addition to discussing regionalisation, ministers will take the opportunity to talk to local community leaders about their views on daylight saving in South East Queensland as part of their consultation.
Participants, including local government, industry, Regional Development Association Committee members and community leaders will discuss the following questions:
1.What should the State Government do to encourage regionalisation?
2.How can the regions be more involved in the regionalisation strategy?
3.What strategies would best encourage people to move to your region?
4.How can all levels of government partner to deliver stronger regions?
5.What might Government do to support more sustainable/liveable communities?
6.Do you think Queensland should have split time zones for daylight saving?
Ms Bligh said: "At the Queensland Growth Management Summit I committed to developing a Queensland Regionalisation Strategy, for consultation by the end of the year.
"The discussion at the forums will feed into the policy development of that consultation paper and I will be very interested to hear what ideas and feedback are generated."
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1 comment:
This is typical of QLD government ‘tokenism’ in community engagement re a key topic of particular importance to Rockhampton regional area.
I have found out through contacts, that DEEDI was requested to provide invite names late last week, within strict guidelines [‘hand-picked’] from a few key agencies like RDA, Regional Council, RRD, DEEDI and several large well-known [connected] business people.
My concerns are:
• We need well planned growth in CQ region ... and particularly need to encourage growth in Rockhampton District to support pending skill shortages from major projects to the west and south. Rockhampton has not grown like other centres in CQ region. Since early 1900s, Mackay's population has grown 18x, Gladstone by 21x, compared with Rockhampton by a poor 4 x.
• There are some key reasons why people are not attracted to live in Rockhampton District ... and similarly, why they don’t stay [retention in Health, Education and other key agencies is poor]. Poor planning, lack of industrial land, lack of forward thinking and poor attraction of 'essential / expected' city services are just some of the issues.
• Anna talks about wanting us to work together in partnerships to attract people to regions,but not all Govt agencies and Community Development / Lobby / interest groups have been invited to provide input [at the Rockhampton event].
• The timeframe, from invitation -> date of event is so short that most busy business / interested people will have other plans ... this typical government rushing of tokenism consultation portrays one of being non-genuine.
• Anna wants to hear ‘suggestions and feedback’ from people on the ground [grass-roots] who know their region well ... well I’m sorry to say that’s not what she’ll get from outdated, old conservative thinking RRC Councilors, new RDA reps, a short-sighted tourism focused development board with no strategic economic development capability, or several well connected businesses interested in protecting their own patch.
I'm not anti-government ... I believe in true participative community engagement that values collaboration and partnerships, towards agreed solutions / actions.
However, this process is blatantly flawed.
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