A once-in-a-lifetime opportunity is in front of us to reshape Australia's economy and it is regional centres that should play a major role.
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That is the message from a number of Ballarat's leaders who say the coronavirus crisis has proven exactly how regional communities could thrive into the future.
Committee for Ballarat chief executive Michael Poulton said the committee was advocating for connected regions in a post-COVID-19 world.
"Melbourne can't continue to grow and maintain its livability because congestion kills it, so the question is 'how do you take one million people out of Melbourne in 10-15 years time?'" Mr Poulton said.
"What this COVID-19 period has shown us is you don't have to go into a big city office.
"If we can go from five per cent to 15 per cent at home or commute once or twice a week, that way you can enjoy the benefit of regional living.
"There is a desire of people to seek a lifestyle. What can we offer? Cheaper prices absolutely, Ballarat has bush on door step, connections to the city, great education.
"If you get Ballarat growing, our regional areas are also growing. You create not only interconnection, but intra-connections, more frequent transport to Maryborough, Beaufort, Creswick, Horsham, all opportunities are there."
Councillor Samantha McIntosh is a recent past chair of Regional Cities Australia, she is an advocate for the 'hub and spoke' model of growth which concentrates on a regional development idea.
Essentially the model allows a city such as Ballarat to be a hub centre, with towns such as Beaufort, Ballan, Creswick and Daylesford acting as the spokes.
She says the idea would enable regions to work collaboratively, rather than all going after separate pieces of the one, often limited, pie.
"We've talked a lot about it at RCA over the past couple of years and we can see that regional Victoria can hold the solutions to population pressures on capital cities," Cr McIntosh said.
"When you move to the regional capitals, there are so many benefits, - fresh air, space, affordable housing, alternative ways of living.
"Hub and spoke is communities together, rather than fighting for the same thing which is the biggest difference, a collaborative approach.
READ MORE: Regional cities; What are we missing out on?
"You can come up with a package of projects that all work together. There's always limited funding and it's absolutely limited to regional communities, which get nowhere near what capital cities do."
Cr McIntosh said an example was the work alongside Hepburn Shire which lobbied for mountain bike paths, which can one day connect across all the region.
Ballarat MP Catherine King, who is also the opposition's regional development spokesperson, is better placed than most to understand what needs to happen.
She said while the 'hub and spoke' idea would work well in Victoria, she is not sure if it would have the same success in other parts of the country like Western Australia or far north Queensland
Ms King said there was no 'one case fits all' approach that was a best fit across the country. "There is now a real opportunity to reset a whole lot of things about the Australian economy," Ms King said.
Earlier this week, opposition leader Anthony Albanese made a speech, while not policy, set Labor's agenda going forward.
He called for sweeping investment in social housing to boost construction jobs, an increase in the manufacturing industry, particularly given our over-reliance on PPE equipment from overseas, and major infrastructure projects such as high speed rail to regions.
READ MORE: Why policy matters to regional Australia.
Ms King said regions should play a crucial role in Australia's future economy.
"What we have seen is it is highly possible for people to work from anywhere," she said.
"We've also learned the important role of government and government services. How many have had to rely on social security and the health system?
"One of the things pointed out to me strongly is there has been a decline in Commonwealth jobs in our region. I think the Victorian Government's GovHub is a terrific model. We need to start to look at how we invigorate Commonwealth services jobs and deliver services in our regions. Making sure we have those and increase those in the community.
"The private sector is spending huge money on office blocks in CBDs; what this crisis has taught us is people can work anywhere, in Ballarat, Bendigo and hundreds of communities all around Australia.
"That takes urban congestion away and makes our cities more livable as well."
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