Barnaby Joyce on facing the drought and rural women.
Some in the Nationals would like Barnaby Joyce back in the leadership before the election. Joyce says if the leadership were offered, he would be up for it - though he insists he is not canvassing.
The Walk Together marches across Australia in 2015 showed how welcoming regional communities are to refugees.
Richard Milnes/AAP
New research shows that refugees in regional Queensland have found it very easy to make friends and feel safe and comfortable raising children in their communities.
For some young women, a perceived lack of career opportunities is a significant barrier to relocating to rural communities.
Dan Peled/AAP
Research shows that young women are more ambivalent than young men when it comes to employment opportunities and other reasons to relocate to rural communities.
The committee has laid out a far-reaching and highly practical work program for regional development.
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A new parliamentary report has taken an informed and sensible approach to developing regional Australia, without simply focusing on the contentious issue of decentralisation.
In some rural Australian towns, there’s nobody left to help the elderly or coach cricket teams.
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Volunteers have long been the lifeblood of rural communities. But as their numbers shrink, remote towns are at a loss for how to replace them.
To enhance the opportunities for children, we need to ensure we have vibrant and valued rural communities with a strong social and economic future.
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A government review of regional, rural and remote education tells us we need to recognise the uniqueness of and understand successes in these communities to improve outcomes for these students.
Sexual harassment against women is more prevalent in male dominated sectors such as mining and agriculture.
Tony McDonough/AAP
The big cities are still magnets for tourists, but often they find the smaller towns offer a more satisfying taste of local life. It's why rural tourism can be 'the perfect small town business idea'.
It's not the first time Australia has grappled with concerns about affordable housing. History offers insights that can help inform contemporary debates and policies.
The Elvis Express travels from Sydney to Parkes for a festival, now in its 25th year, that has transformed the town.
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Outside the capital cities and the coastal fringes, the towns and people of rural and regional Australia have had to be inventive to get through the tough times.
A lack of differences in major policy areas such as agriculture and trade means local project funding – for roads, boat ramps and the like – reinforces the adage ‘all politics is local’.
AAP/Alan Porritt
On the big national policies affecting non-metropolitan Australia, such as agriculture and trade, the major party differences are minor. That's why the election focus turns to local projects.
While politicians like Malcolm Turnbull and Barnaby Joyce do the traditional photo-ops, fewer people than ever are taking on farming, which can no longer support vibrant rural and regional communities on its own.
AAP/Tracey Nearmy
What are the issues facing rural and regional Australia? The challenges are many and varied – and only some have made the national political agenda – but these areas deserve better than neglect.
Farming land in New South Wales.
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Growing population, growing demand for food, climate change: Australia's rural lands are facing a number of pressures. So how can we sustainably use them in the future?
Current policies aren’t working – it’s time to open the door to other suggestions.
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Current incentives used to recruit more teachers to work in rural and regional schools aren't working. But could the health sector offer up some possible solutions?
Rural internet users are about to have two satellites launched as part of the nbn.
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Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull reiterated the importance of the National Broadband Network (NBN) for regional and rural Australia in an address to the NBN Rebooted conference in Sydney last week…
There is a higher density of gun ownership in country areas in Australia relative to cities. Does this explain recent homicides on farms?
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The recent multiple homicide in a small Victorian township, coming barely a month after a mass shooting in rural New South Wales, may give the impression that firearm-related murders in rural Australia…
