According to the Australian Newsroom Mapping Project, there have been 200 contractions of news operations since March. But ‘news deserts’ were a growing problem long before coronavirus.
Small newspapers across Australia are closing or going digital-only in the economic fall-out from the coronavirus pandemic. This is what we need to do to save them.
Migrants who’ve settled in regional Australia find jobs, get on with the locals and feel safe. So the government wants to know how to encourage more migrants to move there.
A greater focus on the well-established migrant populations and second-generation youth is crucial when planning for the social and economic well-being of rural and regional areas.
In the early 20th century, voters in rural Australia began to organise politically for the first time – and proved crucial to the ousting of the reformist Labor government in 1913.
Population growth has pros and cons, and the Morrison government’s plan is less about a change in immigration numbers than about increasing the benefits and minimising the costs.
Capital city populations are growing twice as fast as the rest of Australia, because of the employment and business opportunities and lifestyle on offer to both new migrants and long-term residents.
Encouraging migrants to move to regional areas could be a win-win’ scenario, as long as policymakers pay attention to five key factors.
After waiting eight months for the government response to a major report on regional Australia, the outcome has been underwhelming, sticking to the same old ideas.
The industrial patterns of mining shaped many Australian towns, which found varied uses for disused mine sites. The mining boom ensures the challenges these sites present will be with us a long time.
Grey nomads travel Australia because they have the desire and the means to do so. Could future generations end up following in their footsteps because they can no longer work and stay in one place?
Efforts by governments to redirect population growth to regional Australia have never worked. Even if such policies could be made to work, they probably wouldn’t be worth the costs.
We read about and watch other people moving to the coast or country and, in doing so, sometimes we’re persuaded to join the seachangers and treechangers ourselves.
A new parliamentary report has taken an informed and sensible approach to developing regional Australia, without simply focusing on the contentious issue of decentralisation.
With the emerging emphasis on regional City Deals and Smart Cities funding, perhaps Australia is beginning to find its way to a national cities policy, rather than just a big cities policy.