Page 1082 - Week 04 - Wednesday, 20 March 1991
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Regional Economic Development
MRS NOLAN: Mr Speaker, my question is addressed to the Chief Minister and it is in relation to regional development. Chief Minister, what steps is the Government taking to facilitate regional economic development?
MR KAINE: Mr Speaker, I think the facts demonstrate that the Government is in fact doing a great deal to facilitate regional economic development. Much of my energies over the last year and a half have been devoted to establishing Canberra as the centre of a region greater than just the Australian Capital Territory itself, recognising, of course, that there are major interrelationships between ourselves and that region out there and the people that live in it, and that we are not an island.
In fact, we are working quite closely with the New South Wales Government in the preparation of an economic development strategy for the south-east region of New South Wales. I have mentioned this many times before, I think, both in this chamber and out of it. The purpose of that strategy is to identify a direction for the development of the regional economy over the next five to 20 years, and opportunities for economic growth based on matching regional strengths to local, national and international market opportunities.
The strategy also aims to identify private sector, government and community actions and initiatives needed to capture those opportunities that are identified. The successful implementation of the strategy, of course, will depend on the support and commitment of the entire regional community. I think we are seeing that many of the shire councils in this region are quite strongly behind the regional initiatives that the Government has taken, and there is strong evidence that they are very much in favour of this regional approach.
To facilitate community involvement in the preparation of the strategy, a series of briefing meetings, workshops and interviews have been held with key individuals right throughout the region over recent months. The latest series of workshops has focused on identifying potential development opportunities for the region and the actions and initiatives that need to be undertaken to realise those opportunities; in other words, to identify where there are gaps in the economic development at the moment and what we, in conjunction with the regional shire councils in the State of New South Wales, can do to fill those gaps and to turn them to our advantage. The next stage of the strategy involves a series of advance feasibility studies on selected development opportunities.
Mr Connolly: I raise a point of order, Mr Speaker. Are we getting close to having one of those ministerial statements that we continually have in question time, or are we going to get a concise answer to the question?
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