March 13, 2025 • 14 mins
Political candidates chasing votes in the Shoalhaven have been warned to keep the issues close to home. We chat with Liz Ritchie from the Regional Australia Institute on why your vote will matter.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
I heartshall Haven.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
Do I think that every metropolitan MP understands regional Australia. No,
I don't, and I think there's a great opportunity to
shift their gaze to understand that regional Australia is. It's
our time.
Speaker 3 (00:19):
Hello Pete Andrea with you Okay, Regional Australia. Listen up.
This next federal election is going to be very much
about the way you vote, so don't think otherwise. All
sides of politics will do themselves few favors if they
underestimate the Bush vote and try to keep the city
centric contingent happy. So when you're holding that little pencil
(00:40):
at the ballot box, you might want to ask, will
the personal party I'm voting for deliver what's best for
my neck of the woods? And in the shoal Haven
that's the seat of Gilmore currently held by the ALP.
And there's a long list of issues that need sorting,
a shortage of housing, high rents, the state of local
roads and lack of GPS. You can't help but feel
(01:02):
whoever wins this federal election, the policies need to be
about rebalancing the nation to improve the livability of regional communities.
Especially since the COVID pandemic saw a wave of city
slickers move away from the metros. Liz Ritchie is the
CEO of Regional Australia Institute, and she has some strong
(01:23):
ideas on how our pollies should be working their campaigns.
My news colleague Darren Katrupi sat down with Liz to
discuss the very different challenges we face in the regions.
And whilst there'll always be the bigger picture stuff like
the cost of living and the transition to renewable energy,
the hot topic is still about creating and keeping jobs.
Speaker 2 (01:45):
Transition and the impacts of transition is front of mind
and so what comes with that are still you know
the big ticket issues like housing the workforce, how do
we skill, how do we reskill, how do we think
about what those jobs will be? And you know, the
centerpiece of both those issues key issues are people. So
(02:10):
where are we going to get the people from that
we need to actually meet the future work demands. So
you know, when we look at you know, the challenges
in Regional Australia, we know that it's these sort of
perennial big issues that don't seem to go away, and
they're in some ways, big wicked challenges, which is why
(02:32):
at the Institute, you know, we've tried to take a
very holistic and strategic, long term approach to some of
this work, and you know there's a whole lot more
to be done. I mean, you could talk about where
we're sitting with childcare. It's a whole nother conversation because
without good childcare, we know that people can't go to work.
(02:53):
So there's this really important deep understanding that's required at
a sort of regional lens, but also from a macro lens,
which says, you can't seek to solve any one of
these issues that are impacting regional communities within a transition
if you don't seek to solve them all at the same.
Speaker 4 (03:14):
Time, bearing in mind that a lot of these issues
aren't necessarily unique to region or Australia either, but they
obviously have more impact out in the regions. Is there
any sign of things improving, like housing and the amount
of workers. It seems like since COVID everything got turned
on its head and there doesn't seem to be an
(03:35):
end in sight or is there?
Speaker 2 (03:37):
Yeah, I mean, unfortunately when it comes to housing, Look,
there isn't a silver bullet Unfortunately I wish there was.
We really are playing catch up, and there are many
things that are happening, you know, whether it's through a
policy lens or whether it's through that sort of investment stream.
There's certainly targets in place to build the houses, but
(03:59):
again targets won't get you very far if you don't
have the builders and the tradees. So I know that
there's been a visa streams. It's going to be dedicated
to improving and opening that pathway to bring in more
trade skills to the country, which we know we need.
But we need to be looking at our education facilities
(04:20):
and fast tracking you know, how are we thinking about
skills in this country and ensuring that some of the
cross border skill barriers that we seek to have in
this country can be removed where we've got you know,
people who are skilled in one state but not in
another to do certain tasks within their trade. So skills
(04:44):
recognition is a major issue that is being addressed, but
is actually taking much more time than we'd like to
see do.
Speaker 4 (04:52):
Regional Australian voters have a chance to impact on the
balance of power at the upcoming election. Bearing your mind
that you know all the Poles say it's going to
be pretty close.
Speaker 1 (05:05):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (05:05):
I mean, look, you've got to always think that Regional
Australia's voice matters. Your vote matters always, and in its
incumbent on all of us as citizens, particularly regional citizens,
to think carefully about our vote. You know, it's not
enough to say, well, you know, we don't have enough
(05:26):
people or enough population to make a difference, because anything
can happen. You know, we've seen that in the past,
and the worst situation is to sit back and think, well,
my vote doesn't count. It always counts, and everybody's got
a local member, and you know you've got to make
that vote work for you as best you can. I
think we you know, traditionally swinging seats tend to do
(05:50):
better in fact in relation to achieving their outcomes, and
unfortunately that's sort of a sad real but you know,
I think there's there's always a way to make an impact.
You've just got to think strategically about your region and
what it is that you seek to be both now
(06:11):
and into the future.
Speaker 3 (06:13):
More soon of our conversation with Liz ritchie CEO of
the Regional Australia Institute, including her advice to any politician
or candidate who still thinks there just aren't enough votes
to matter in the regions.
Speaker 1 (06:27):
I heartshoal Haven. I heartshoal Haven more.
Speaker 3 (06:34):
Now of our chad with Liz Ritchie, the CEO of
Regional Australia Institute and as the only think tank on
the regional landscape, Liz and her team have dissected the
data to provide a snapshot of the key issues our
politicians need to keep front of mind if they want
to fast track a more productive and booming nation. Regional
(06:55):
Australia definitely pulls its weight. It currently feeds the nation,
it powers the nation, and drives the top ten ex boards.
We represent thirty seven percent of the population and ninety
percent of Australia's renewable energy projects will sit in our backyards.
Darren Katrupy continues our chat with Liz Ritchie.
Speaker 4 (07:16):
Do you think our politicians have realized that they can't
really afford just to be city centric on their policies,
but they really need to give serious consideration to how
we are faring in the bush.
Speaker 1 (07:28):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (07:29):
Look, I think it's a big and broad question and
I don't sort of want to provide you with a
big and broad answer, but the reality is that some
understand it better than others. And look, I think this
is just a fact of the times and there are
you know, we work across all sides of politics. We're
(07:51):
a fiercely independent institute and that's really important to us
and who we are because we need to be we
need to work with all sides of government and because
we know that at some point the tides change, and
so you know, ensuring that we have the best opportunity
(08:13):
to put our case forward for and on behalf of
regional communities is really important to us as an organization
who represents and does research on behalf of regions. Do
I think that every metropolitan MP understands regional Australia. No,
I don't, and I think there's a great opportunity to
(08:34):
shift their gaze, as I call it. And this isn't
just aimed at politicians. This is a theme that we've
been carrying over the last few years to also speak
to corporate Australia, to directors, to executives, to people who
work in the community to understand that regional Australia is
(08:56):
it's our time. As we say, it's sort of our
time in regional Australia because we are seeing a transition
like no other. We talk an awful lot about the
net zero transition, but what is also a foot and
coming like a speeding train is the demand for more
(09:16):
opportunities to live in regional Australia. So I'll share some
facts with you in twenty twenty three. In fact, from
twenty twenty one to twenty twenty three, we took a
poll every year how many city dwellers want to move
to regional Australia or are considering, and for consistently it
came back at twenty percent, coming off the back of COVID.
(09:38):
Our last pole has just produced a double that figure,
so we're now looking at forty percent of city dwellers
don't want to live in the city. So that is
a major shift in our society's expectations, wants and wishes
for their future. So how are we preparing for this?
(09:58):
And this is something that I I want all politicians
who are going to take a seat at the table
in our democracy to understand that regional Australia is our
future and we need to do a lot better at
understanding how these policies impact those communities because we've quite frankly,
(10:19):
we've got to play catch up.
Speaker 4 (10:21):
What about those issues on the ground when, for instance,
being able to see a GP if you move to
the bush, you know that's obviously not as easy as
it is if you live in one of the big
cities where you've got tens of medical centers on almost
every street corner.
Speaker 2 (10:38):
No, it's a major issue, major, major issue. We just
can't seem to do enough here and so that's when
I say we need to double down. I mean, I
know it can be hard if you're in a capital
city to see a GP. So there's some semblance of
understanding what it might be like to know it's not
next week, it's next month for many regional communities. So
(11:02):
it's been able to put themselves in the shoes of
constituents who live in regional or remote parts of Australia
to actually be able to receive just a basic service
that we would consider a human right to go and
see a GP. There's been many efforts to try to
close this, but we still haven't landed the plane.
Speaker 4 (11:23):
With the housing in skills shortage, it's sort of there
at opposite ends. You can't have one without the other,
has anyone being able to get anywhere neat cracking that
egg because without one, we can't have the other, and
vice versa. I know we have people coming into the
regions that are moving from the city, but then they
turn around and say no because they couldn't find anywhere
(11:45):
to live.
Speaker 2 (11:46):
Unfortunately, it really is moving a lot slower than we'd
like to see. But this is why we developed the
Regionalization Ambition twenty thirty two. This is why we have
a ten year plan. We've been in front of this
issue well before or it became a national headline. We've
tracked job vacancies in regional Australia from around the forty
(12:07):
thousand mark in twenty nineteen to nearly one hundred thousand
through COVID back to about the mid seventies. At the moment,
you know, we're tracking those jobs and what's happening in
regional Australia. We've busted those myths that say there's no jobs.
You know, there are such an abundance of employment. So
that has changed the landscape has changed. What we need
(12:29):
to see around housing is we have to play catch
up here. I mean, nobody predicted a global pandemic. But
if someone had ran the numbers to see that housing
was not keeping pace with population prior to the pandemic,
we would have seen that this was an inevitable outcome. Now,
(12:52):
unfortunately we didn't do that work. We didn't get in
front of the population movement, and now we're playing catch up.
So the best thing that we can do is learn
from the past and start to do that very necessary
population planning and spatial mapping. We've got the trend lines,
(13:13):
we know the sentiment, we know that the nation's love
affair for regional Australia is very real. So how are
we going to respond to that?
Speaker 4 (13:25):
Just finally, any advice for the major parties, in fact,
any candidates leading up to the election about what they
should think and do for regional Australia, Well, the worst.
Speaker 2 (13:36):
Thing you could do is ignore regional Australia, which I
don't think any party is intending to do. I think
that they all see the significance of regional Australia and
I would really love to see the work being done
to ensure that regional Australia is at the center of
their policies rather than in some cases being a bit
(14:00):
of an afterthought. So how do you start to think
about a nation where regional Australia's population is edging towards
fifty percent? Because that's where we're headed.
Speaker 3 (14:11):
Some sound advice therefore, any local candidates well into the
campaign blitz for office or re election. So as Liz
Richie says, don't underestimate the value of your vote in
the shoal Haven. Get enrolled, get out there and vote.
It can shift the balance of power. I'm Pete Andrea.
That's all for this episode of iheartshal Haven, proudly supported
(14:33):
by the New South Wales Government. Catching next time
Speaker 1 (14:40):
I heartshoal Haven.
I heartshall Haven.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
Do I think that every metropolitan MP understands regional Australia. No,
I don't, and I think there's a great opportunity to
shift their gaze to understand that regional Australia is. It's
our time.
Speaker 3 (00:19):
Hello Pete Andrea with you Okay, Regional Australia. Listen up.
This next federal election is going to be very much
about the way you vote, so don't think otherwise. All
sides of politics will do themselves few favors if they
underestimate the Bush vote and try to keep the city
centric contingent happy. So when you're holding that little pencil
(00:40):
at the ballot box, you might want to ask, will
the personal party I'm voting for deliver what's best for
my neck of the woods? And in the shoal Haven
that's the seat of Gilmore currently held by the ALP.
And there's a long list of issues that need sorting,
a shortage of housing, high rents, the state of local
roads and lack of GPS. You can't help but feel
(01:02):
whoever wins this federal election, the policies need to be
about rebalancing the nation to improve the livability of regional communities.
Especially since the COVID pandemic saw a wave of city
slickers move away from the metros. Liz Ritchie is the
CEO of Regional Australia Institute, and she has some strong
(01:23):
ideas on how our pollies should be working their campaigns.
My news colleague Darren Katrupi sat down with Liz to
discuss the very different challenges we face in the regions.
And whilst there'll always be the bigger picture stuff like
the cost of living and the transition to renewable energy,
the hot topic is still about creating and keeping jobs.
Speaker 2 (01:45):
Transition and the impacts of transition is front of mind
and so what comes with that are still you know
the big ticket issues like housing the workforce, how do
we skill, how do we reskill, how do we think
about what those jobs will be? And you know, the
centerpiece of both those issues key issues are people. So
(02:10):
where are we going to get the people from that
we need to actually meet the future work demands. So
you know, when we look at you know, the challenges
in Regional Australia, we know that it's these sort of
perennial big issues that don't seem to go away, and
they're in some ways, big wicked challenges, which is why
(02:32):
at the Institute, you know, we've tried to take a
very holistic and strategic, long term approach to some of
this work, and you know there's a whole lot more
to be done. I mean, you could talk about where
we're sitting with childcare. It's a whole nother conversation because
without good childcare, we know that people can't go to work.
(02:53):
So there's this really important deep understanding that's required at
a sort of regional lens, but also from a macro lens,
which says, you can't seek to solve any one of
these issues that are impacting regional communities within a transition
if you don't seek to solve them all at the same.
Speaker 4 (03:14):
Time, bearing in mind that a lot of these issues
aren't necessarily unique to region or Australia either, but they
obviously have more impact out in the regions. Is there
any sign of things improving, like housing and the amount
of workers. It seems like since COVID everything got turned
on its head and there doesn't seem to be an
(03:35):
end in sight or is there?
Speaker 2 (03:37):
Yeah, I mean, unfortunately when it comes to housing, Look,
there isn't a silver bullet Unfortunately I wish there was.
We really are playing catch up, and there are many
things that are happening, you know, whether it's through a
policy lens or whether it's through that sort of investment stream.
There's certainly targets in place to build the houses, but
(03:59):
again targets won't get you very far if you don't
have the builders and the tradees. So I know that
there's been a visa streams. It's going to be dedicated
to improving and opening that pathway to bring in more
trade skills to the country, which we know we need.
But we need to be looking at our education facilities
(04:20):
and fast tracking you know, how are we thinking about
skills in this country and ensuring that some of the
cross border skill barriers that we seek to have in
this country can be removed where we've got you know,
people who are skilled in one state but not in
another to do certain tasks within their trade. So skills
(04:44):
recognition is a major issue that is being addressed, but
is actually taking much more time than we'd like to
see do.
Speaker 4 (04:52):
Regional Australian voters have a chance to impact on the
balance of power at the upcoming election. Bearing your mind
that you know all the Poles say it's going to
be pretty close.
Speaker 1 (05:05):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (05:05):
I mean, look, you've got to always think that Regional
Australia's voice matters. Your vote matters always, and in its
incumbent on all of us as citizens, particularly regional citizens,
to think carefully about our vote. You know, it's not
enough to say, well, you know, we don't have enough
(05:26):
people or enough population to make a difference, because anything
can happen. You know, we've seen that in the past,
and the worst situation is to sit back and think, well,
my vote doesn't count. It always counts, and everybody's got
a local member, and you know you've got to make
that vote work for you as best you can. I
think we you know, traditionally swinging seats tend to do
(05:50):
better in fact in relation to achieving their outcomes, and
unfortunately that's sort of a sad real but you know,
I think there's there's always a way to make an impact.
You've just got to think strategically about your region and
what it is that you seek to be both now
(06:11):
and into the future.
Speaker 3 (06:13):
More soon of our conversation with Liz ritchie CEO of
the Regional Australia Institute, including her advice to any politician
or candidate who still thinks there just aren't enough votes
to matter in the regions.
Speaker 1 (06:27):
I heartshoal Haven. I heartshoal Haven more.
Speaker 3 (06:34):
Now of our chad with Liz Ritchie, the CEO of
Regional Australia Institute and as the only think tank on
the regional landscape, Liz and her team have dissected the
data to provide a snapshot of the key issues our
politicians need to keep front of mind if they want
to fast track a more productive and booming nation. Regional
(06:55):
Australia definitely pulls its weight. It currently feeds the nation,
it powers the nation, and drives the top ten ex boards.
We represent thirty seven percent of the population and ninety
percent of Australia's renewable energy projects will sit in our backyards.
Darren Katrupy continues our chat with Liz Ritchie.
Speaker 4 (07:16):
Do you think our politicians have realized that they can't
really afford just to be city centric on their policies,
but they really need to give serious consideration to how
we are faring in the bush.
Speaker 1 (07:28):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (07:29):
Look, I think it's a big and broad question and
I don't sort of want to provide you with a
big and broad answer, but the reality is that some
understand it better than others. And look, I think this
is just a fact of the times and there are
you know, we work across all sides of politics. We're
(07:51):
a fiercely independent institute and that's really important to us
and who we are because we need to be we
need to work with all sides of government and because
we know that at some point the tides change, and
so you know, ensuring that we have the best opportunity
(08:13):
to put our case forward for and on behalf of
regional communities is really important to us as an organization
who represents and does research on behalf of regions. Do
I think that every metropolitan MP understands regional Australia. No,
I don't, and I think there's a great opportunity to
(08:34):
shift their gaze, as I call it. And this isn't
just aimed at politicians. This is a theme that we've
been carrying over the last few years to also speak
to corporate Australia, to directors, to executives, to people who
work in the community to understand that regional Australia is
(08:56):
it's our time. As we say, it's sort of our
time in regional Australia because we are seeing a transition
like no other. We talk an awful lot about the
net zero transition, but what is also a foot and
coming like a speeding train is the demand for more
(09:16):
opportunities to live in regional Australia. So I'll share some
facts with you in twenty twenty three. In fact, from
twenty twenty one to twenty twenty three, we took a
poll every year how many city dwellers want to move
to regional Australia or are considering, and for consistently it
came back at twenty percent, coming off the back of COVID.
(09:38):
Our last pole has just produced a double that figure,
so we're now looking at forty percent of city dwellers
don't want to live in the city. So that is
a major shift in our society's expectations, wants and wishes
for their future. So how are we preparing for this?
(09:58):
And this is something that I I want all politicians
who are going to take a seat at the table
in our democracy to understand that regional Australia is our
future and we need to do a lot better at
understanding how these policies impact those communities because we've quite frankly,
(10:19):
we've got to play catch up.
Speaker 4 (10:21):
What about those issues on the ground when, for instance,
being able to see a GP if you move to
the bush, you know that's obviously not as easy as
it is if you live in one of the big
cities where you've got tens of medical centers on almost
every street corner.
Speaker 2 (10:38):
No, it's a major issue, major, major issue. We just
can't seem to do enough here and so that's when
I say we need to double down. I mean, I
know it can be hard if you're in a capital
city to see a GP. So there's some semblance of
understanding what it might be like to know it's not
next week, it's next month for many regional communities. So
(11:02):
it's been able to put themselves in the shoes of
constituents who live in regional or remote parts of Australia
to actually be able to receive just a basic service
that we would consider a human right to go and
see a GP. There's been many efforts to try to
close this, but we still haven't landed the plane.
Speaker 4 (11:23):
With the housing in skills shortage, it's sort of there
at opposite ends. You can't have one without the other,
has anyone being able to get anywhere neat cracking that
egg because without one, we can't have the other, and
vice versa. I know we have people coming into the
regions that are moving from the city, but then they
turn around and say no because they couldn't find anywhere
(11:45):
to live.
Speaker 2 (11:46):
Unfortunately, it really is moving a lot slower than we'd
like to see. But this is why we developed the
Regionalization Ambition twenty thirty two. This is why we have
a ten year plan. We've been in front of this
issue well before or it became a national headline. We've
tracked job vacancies in regional Australia from around the forty
(12:07):
thousand mark in twenty nineteen to nearly one hundred thousand
through COVID back to about the mid seventies. At the moment,
you know, we're tracking those jobs and what's happening in
regional Australia. We've busted those myths that say there's no jobs.
You know, there are such an abundance of employment. So
that has changed the landscape has changed. What we need
(12:29):
to see around housing is we have to play catch
up here. I mean, nobody predicted a global pandemic. But
if someone had ran the numbers to see that housing
was not keeping pace with population prior to the pandemic,
we would have seen that this was an inevitable outcome. Now,
(12:52):
unfortunately we didn't do that work. We didn't get in
front of the population movement, and now we're playing catch up.
So the best thing that we can do is learn
from the past and start to do that very necessary
population planning and spatial mapping. We've got the trend lines,
(13:13):
we know the sentiment, we know that the nation's love
affair for regional Australia is very real. So how are
we going to respond to that?
Speaker 4 (13:25):
Just finally, any advice for the major parties, in fact,
any candidates leading up to the election about what they
should think and do for regional Australia, Well, the worst.
Speaker 2 (13:36):
Thing you could do is ignore regional Australia, which I
don't think any party is intending to do. I think
that they all see the significance of regional Australia and
I would really love to see the work being done
to ensure that regional Australia is at the center of
their policies rather than in some cases being a bit
(14:00):
of an afterthought. So how do you start to think
about a nation where regional Australia's population is edging towards
fifty percent? Because that's where we're headed.
Speaker 3 (14:11):
Some sound advice therefore, any local candidates well into the
campaign blitz for office or re election. So as Liz
Richie says, don't underestimate the value of your vote in
the shoal Haven. Get enrolled, get out there and vote.
It can shift the balance of power. I'm Pete Andrea.
That's all for this episode of iheartshal Haven, proudly supported
(14:33):
by the New South Wales Government. Catching next time
Speaker 1 (14:40):
I heartshoal Haven.
Popular Podcasts
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
Therapy Gecko
An unlicensed lizard psychologist travels the universe talking to strangers about absolutely nothing. TO CALL THE GECKO: follow me on https://www.twitch.tv/lyleforever to get a notification for when I am taking calls. I am usually live Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays but lately a lot of other times too. I am a gecko.