Cathy McGowan’s “call to action” on decentralisation inquiry

The investigation was established in June this year and released an issues paper last week.

An interim report is set to be released by December 31 ahead of a final version being tabled by February 28 next year.

Decentralisation has been a hot topic in federal politics in recent times due to Agriculture and Water Resources Minister Barnaby Joyce’s controversial move to shift the Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority (APVMA) from Canberra to Armidale, in his northern NSW electorate of New England.

But Ms McGowan wants to ensure the decentralisation issue isn’t swamped by politics and has backed the Select Committee’s inquiry as a means of broadening its potential for regional development outcomes and policy longevity.

Nationals deputy-leader and Regional Development Minister Fiona Nash has also been active in pushing the government’s decentralisation policy, announcing earlier this year that a high level process involving cabinet ministers had been established to identify which departments, functions and entities in ministerial portfolio were suited to decentralisation.

She said all portfolio ministers would be required to report back to the federal cabinet by August on which of their departments, functions or entities were suitable.

“Departments will need to actively justify if they don't want to move, why all or part of their operations are unsuitable for decentralisation,” she said in April.

In a speech in parliament this week, Ms McGowan spoke about the newly released issues paper and the ongoing Committee inquiry.

“I would also like to put on record the support of the Prime Minister for this particular inquiry and acknowledge his support for it,” she said.

“As a Committee we have a really important task: to look at a best-practice approach to regional development and to look at the decentralisation of Commonwealth agencies and the action that the Commonwealth can take to encourage greater corporate decentralisation.

“I want to particularly stress that there are only 10 more days for submissions to come in, so it's a call to action to the people in my community and all around Australia - to get your skates on, because we need your input.

“If you want to appear before the inquiry as we travel around Australia, you have to put a submission in.

“I just need to say 'submission' is a fancy word for a letter and the letter has to have three things in it: it has to describe what your issue is, it has to be addressed to the right people - so you have to get those details right - and, importantly, it has to have a recommendation telling us what you think needs to be done.”

Ms McGowan said the inquiry was needed because “for too long, I believe that regional Australia has been governed by policy silos that are disjointed and not connected”.

“I know it's really hard for people in the city to actually understand that the country is different and that we're not all homogeneous and not all the same,” she said.

“If we're going to do good policy implementation, we have to recognise regional and social differences, and that's been hard for government to do.

“There is this whole problem we've faced of trying to say to a government that has to look after two-thirds of the land mass of Australia, 'You have to pay attention to the people who live there, because they understand’.

“We call this place based planning.

“I know it's really hard for the people in the cities to understand, but we in the country get it and we know how to do it and we know what's good for our community.

“So you've got to engage with people and particularly local knowledge.”

Ms McGowan said it wasn’t only about physical connectivity – mobile phone coverage, the NBN and public transport that works - but about how you bring people together at the micro level in a community, at a local government level, at a regional level, at a state level and then at a Commonwealth level.

“That is quite an art because you've got to break out of your silos, which are often issues based, and come together around a region,” she said.

“That's been a challenge and I don't think we've done it really well in the past and I'm optimistic that with this inquiry we'll do it better.

“Regional Australia contributes one-third of our national output and it's home to something like 8.8 million Australians.

“It provides major jobs for people.

“It's a formidable contributor to the national economy.

“What I'm hoping with this inquiry is that not only do we take what we know works but we actually do the planning, position ourselves and ask: where does regional Australia exist in the future?

“It's a really important inquiry and we need to do it well.”

Ms McGowan said the inquiry was seeking to address three core areas; what's working, what could work better and what role can the Commonwealth play to bring it together.

“We talk about best practice,” she said of the issues paper.

“How do you grow the population base?

“How can you share opportunity?

“How can we develop the capacity of regional Australia?

“What's the role for leadership?

“What's the role for education?

“How do we grow and diversify our economic base?

“How do we have vibrant, cohesive and engaged regional communities?

“It's not just about infrastructure.

“It's not just about decentralising departments

“We're looking at vibrant, cohesive and engaged communities.

“How do we get people to know that they've got a real stake in the future?”

Ms McGowan said the Commonwealth’s role in supporting corporate decentralisation was another aspect of the inquiry.

“I want to pick up on a couple of the terms because I'm really going to be advocating hard in my community to get submissions on this but also in the committee,” she said.

“What do we have to do to encourage early-stage equity or debt finance to support start-ups and establish businesses in the region?

“We need to examine access to capital for regional businesses, including agribusiness, manufacturing and technology, and we need to consider the adequacy of businesses in their access to early-stage accelerators or incubators, including access to business mentors, business networks and capital.

“How do we retain skilled labour and how do we leverage strong transport and communication connectivity?”

Committee deputy-chair and NSW Labor MP Meryl Swanson said “for a stark example of ill-thought-out decentralisation, we need look no further than the Deputy Prime Minister's controversial and ultimately failed decision to move a government crop and veterinary chemical agency to his own electorate”.

“The agency shed jobs, employees were not happy with the forced move, and some workers had to work out of a local McDonald's because their new office wasn't ready,” she said.

“The fallout from the agriculture minister's grand decentralisation vision was, I believe, pivotal in sparking this select committee investigation.

“If nothing else, we learnt that this was not the platform for an arbitrary decision.

“It requires investigation and it requires consultation, analysis and, crucially, planning.

“As federal parliamentarians, we have a responsibility to make sure regional and rural areas and their communities are not left out of our nation's planning.

“I am loath, however, to uproot families and shift them to the country or expect an existing community to simply assimilate a great chunk of potentially disgruntled neighbours into their tight-knit communities because one government minister thinks a pork barrel might be good.

“This is not a one-size-fits-all situation and we impose our will on others at our peril.”

Labor NSW MP and Shadow Minister for Regional Services and Regional Communications Stephen Jones said decentralisation and regional development are not ends in themselves and “nothing more than empty slogans unless we address these issues”.

“The purpose of this inquiry and the purpose of the issues paper is to find answers to some of the problems,” he said.

“We've heard a lot of talk about decentralisation over the last few months.

“I've been a little bit cynical and I've made some comments, perhaps unkind - to the government.

“I've made the observation that a lot of it is more pub talk than reality.

“We keenly await the outcomes of the Minister for Regional Development's cabinet process where she has asked that each of the agency heads identify those agencies, parts of agencies or functions which can be transferred to regional Australia.

“We keenly await the outcome of that analysis.”

But Committee Chair and Queensland LNP MP Dr John McVeigh said there was “much enthusiasm and capacity” in rural and regional Australia to house Commonwealth departments and the committee was mindful that decentralisation “is not an end in itself”.

“Regional growth, long-term employment opportunities and sustainability must be the driving factors, along with the improvement of government services,” he said.

“The key focus for this committee will be on measuring the success of recent decentralisation policy - that is, determining the net benefit of moving government entities from one location to another.

“In addition to the economic impact of decentralisation policy, the committee plans to examine the family, social and community impact of this approach.

“The committee will also examine more closely the issue of corporate decentralisation.

“In particular, the committee is keen to explore how the actions or policies of the Commonwealth can encourage corporate entities to relocate to non-metropolitan areas.

“For example, what are some of the barriers to relocation?

“What can be done to remove them?

“The committee has identified some examples of private companies establishing a presence in regional Australia and hopes to learn more about the experiences of these companies.

“The committee is also interested in corporations that have established a base in regional areas only to withdraw at a later date.”