Regional Australia feeds and powers the country, dominates our exports and generates almost 40 per cent of national GDP.
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And research by the Regional Australia Institute (RAI) shows that 40 per cent of city dwellers are considering a move to the regions.
"Combine this demand with the population growth already happening, and regional Australia could be on track to be 40 per cent of the country's total population by 2032," says the CEO of the RAI, Liz Ritchie.
"But Australia isn't ready. Progress is positive, but way too slow."
That's why the institute, an independent think tank that advocates for regional Australia, is calling for "urgent intervention" by national leaders and policymakers to ensure liveability in regional Australia keeps pace with population growth and demand.
The RAI launches its "40 for the regions" campaign this week as its latest annual report card on life in regional Australia shows large gaps in liveability outcomes for regional Australians compared to people living in the major metropolitan cities.
The third Regionalisation Ambition 2032 report card tracking the results of 25 targets to guide prosperity in regional Australia shows 18 targets progressing and four targets going backwards.
Targets fall into six categories: population; jobs and skills; liveability; health; sustainability and resilience; and productivity and innovation.
The institute is warning that overall progress across all targets in 2025 has been "too slow across most targets to meet the 2032 ambition".
The report is being released as part of RAI's national "Regions Rising" summit at Parliament House in Canberra on October 7 and 8, which will be attended by more than 400 regional leaders from around Australia.
"Australia has been caught on the hop by a regional renaissance with critical services, infrastructure and skills playing catch up to population growth," Ms Ritchie said.
"This is why we recommend a 40% future - where all national decisions from now on, have a 40 per cent carve out for regional Australia to match the reality of where Australia is headed"
The "40 for the regions" campaign calls for:
- 40% of the National Housing Accord's planned 1.2 million to be built in regional communities;
- 40% of new migrant settlement to be directed to the regions to address skills shortages; and
- 40% of seats at national decision-making tables across private and public sectors to be reserved for regional interests.
"40 for the regions is recognition that regional Australia has a different set of challenges to our cities and one-size fits all decision making doesn't always deliver equal outcomes," Ms Ritchie said.
"An urgent intervention, like this commitment, would at least ensure that regional Australians are getting the proportionate focus they deserve."
The latest Regionalisation Ambition 2032 progress report shows positive gains in improving the recruitment difficulties faced by regional businesses, NAPLAN results, post-school qualification attainment rates and the number of regional areas with a moderate to high levels of disaster resilience.
But regional targets for school attainment, rental vacancies and the proportion of highly skilled workers went backwards.
Also, positive movements towards targets in the regions did not match or exceed the outcomes experienced in metropolitan areas.
Ms Ritchie said the gaps in health outcomes were "particularly stark"
"Australians in the cities are accessing Medicare services 70 per cent more than regional Australians," she said.
"While the number of medical practitioners is growing faster in regional areas than metro, the difference in the number per 100,000 of population is still more than 100, and for allied health workers the difference is 150."
In housing, approvals in metropolitan cities were triple the approvals in regional areas.
School attainment rates showed a 15-percentage point difference between regional and metro areas and while NAPLAN results were improving, regional chilldren needed additional help at twice the rate of children living in metropolitan cities.
"Three years of annual data now shows us that incremental progress won't get regional Australia to equity of outcomes without big ideas and interventions," Ms Ritchie said.
The Regional Australia Institute recently announced a strategic partnership between its Move to More online portal and leading regional employment platform ViewJobs.
Replacing Seek as the official jobs partner of Move to More, ViewJobs will power movetomore.com.au's job search function, connecting job seekers around the country to regional roles and helping regional businesses tap into a broader talent pool of potential workers.
Launched in March 2024, ViewJobs now reaches more than 5 million Australians a month in partnership with the regional news network of ACM, publisher of this masthead.
