Article courtesy of the Weekend Australian.
News Corp’s Bush Summit presents a welcome and much-needed opportunity to bring about focus on all the good things, the challenges and the opportunities that encompass regional Australia.
With my family’s pioneering and agricultural background in regional and remote Australia going back to the mid-1800s in the Pilbara and back even before that, and more recently in mining, I’ve had the opportunity to share a very special history and many experiences in the Australian outback.
I know the beauty of the country and when I lived there for years, loved my life there.
Boarding school was not a desired alternative to being in the bush! However, I also know of the challenges we face in our north, like access to 24-hour airstrips capable of servicing the RFDS jets, lack of hospitals, lack of dentists and vets, continual reduction in medical services such as maternity and birthing.
Economically we increasingly struggle, given government policies which are not conducive to attracting investment – investment necessary to keep us internationally competitive, and to maintain our living standards, and to help combat welfare dependency in rural and remote regions.
As I look across the vastness from our agricultural properties in the Kimberleys, I see the potential for the creation of jobs to give families and children a future in our north, jobs in industries that can help feed and clothe other Australians and our allies. What is required, though, are policies to help attract investment.
For many years, I have shared my economic vision for helping to develop Northern Australia and that is why I founded ANDEV, Australians for Northern Development and Economic Vision.
It is about successful policy initiatives such as economic zones with reduced taxation and government red tape, to attract investment.
Successful as shown in many countries, indeed over 8000 such economic zones are operating successfully overseas, but not yet in Australia.
It’s about letting people work, such as our patriotic veterans or senior Australians who are hampered by onerous red tape and only permitted to work several hours per week – if more, they face serious financial consequences.
It’s about placing more defence facilities in our vulnerable north.
For a few years, Northern Australia was on the radar. There was focus on policy development and ANDEV policies were paraded and supported. A white paper was developed.
There was excitement as politicians across major parties were talking up these initiatives that would help drive new investment and jobs and hugely benefit our north.
However, outback Australia, including Northern Australia, the engine room for so much of Australia’s revenue, is no longer the flavour of the month and I feel much of that policy energy is lost.
Hopefully this Bush Summit can re-energise interest in our north, despite the obvious problem: 85 per cent of Australians, and 85 per cent of the voters, live in our cities.
It’s time to call for better policies for those who work and live in our bush. No longer do we want pollies to visit and say they love and appreciate us, but then deliver legislation that promises more hardships for us.
This is one of the reasons I started national agriculture and national mining and related industries days, to listen to those in the bush, give them a voice, instil pride in what they do and the huge contribution they make, include some dazzling speakers, and, to celebrate all those who work and live in our bush.
Please visit our websites www.miningday.com.au and www.nationalagricultureandrelatedindustriesday.com.au and join us for this year’s national days.
Our Qantas charter this year leaves from Sydney and Perth on the morning of November 21, and returns to Perth, after dinner, November 22, with dinner shouted by Roy Hill under the Pilbara skies, and with our delicious 2gr wagyu!
Gina Rinehart is the executive chairman of Hancock Prospecting and chairman of S. Kidman & Co, and Hancock Agriculture, the national presenting partner for the Bush Summit.
