THERE’S no surer way to start a dinner party argument than to bring up the Government’s controversial decentralisation policy.
From the claims the policy only exists as a vehicle for National Party pork-barreling (from the Federal Opposition and metro media outlets) to statements the plan is economically poor (from the Productivity Commission) there has been no shortage of people weighing into the debate.
And while the Government has contrived to make a meal out of what should be a simple exercise by providing the Opposition with easy ammunition such as the move to relocate the Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority (APVMA) to Armidale, in Barnaby Joyce’s own electorate, the merit in the policy should be clear.
Sure, there is ambiguity, but that is more to do with the policy’s rollout, such as Mr Joyce’s hardline stance on the APVMA’s relocation from Canberra to Armidale.
Examine the matter further and you’ll find the vast majority of farm groups have backed decentralisation as a vehicle to boost regional communities.
There are compelling arguments behind moving some Government functions to regional areas.
Firstly, within the agricultural space the benefit of having feet on the ground in the bush rather than holed up in an ivory tower in Canberra is a no-brainer.
While a central office is a useful conduit to ensure an organisation is accessible to all, getting staff out and in tune with the reality confronting farmers will be a massive winner for the ag sector.
As a blueprint, you would favour the hub and spoke model with multiple regional offices being implemented by the Grains Research and Development Corporation (GRDC) rather than the wholesale uplifting and replanting of APVMA staff to Armidale.
Small and nimble teams across more areas spread the economic benefit of highly skilled jobs across more centres while also ensuring all regions share in the spoils of added jobs, something at present the Coalition is not doing, with all regional centres receiving Federal Government jobs as a result of decentralisation being in either Queensland or NSW.
But the benefits will not be confined to the regional or rural centres that see an influx of skilled workers.
In the editorial of Melbourne’s The Age newspaper on Monday, it was noted the major constraint on Melbourne’s economic growth was the increasing burden of traffic congestion.
This increased congestion is also foremost among the concerns for Sydney and south-eastern Queensland residents with peak hour traffic snarls virtually bringing the major cities to a standstill daily.
Having some Government jobs in sectors that do not require them to be in the city moved elsewhere would not solve the problem but it would help ease the strain.
But why stop at simply Government jobs, further down the track it would be great to see private organisations given incentives to move to a rural or regional centre?
In many cases it would not be practical, but in others it could aid their business and a more even distribution of Australia’s population could only benefit the nation as a whole.
Looking abroad in Europe or North America, you see nations with a healthy distribution of prosperous regional towns servicing equally vibrant rural communities. Many comment these small to medium sized cities combine the best of both worlds, with country style ease of lifestyle combined with the cosmopolitan atmosphere of the city.
In Australia, however, it is the capital cities or bust.
As our large cities push towards the five million people mark they are rapidly becoming less livable, while politically the disproportionate clout they exude comes at the expense of truly national policy.
The fatuous argument spouted by economic rationalists that market forces should be the only driver of investment and that Government needs to sit out shows the regrettable consequences of letting students out into public life without having got past the first chapter of their Economics 101 textbook.
The spin-offs of creating vibrant business communities with a critical mass of job options will help set up a rural Australia that is sustainable for the long term and able to help create its own tax revenue to allow the necessary investment to unlock the latent potential in the agricultural sector.
It can only be good for the nation. While the Productivity Commission continues to salivate over the service-based economies thriving in metropolitan areas, rural Australia continues to be the powerhouse of the currently outré concept of creating an exportable product to help the national terms of trade.
Imagine an environment where a larger chunk of voters were based in regional areas, where Government investment plans for these areas were not an arbitrary decision based primarily on shoring up votes in the marginal seats of the larger regional cities.
In spite of the role of the Outback in the national psyche, in reality Australia has evolved to be a society that places a much lower regard for its agricultural sector.
Decentralisation is not going to magically change that overnight, but the case for continuing with the policy is compelling.