REGIONAL Development Minister Simon Crean conceded yesterday there could be some argument about which parts of Australia should benefit from the $9.9 billion promised to regional areas over the next decade.
But he said the government planned to implement a new approach to regionalism, encouraging local communities across the whole continent, including capital cities, to come up with strategies for their future, The Australian Financial Review reports.
Mr Crean told the National Press Club in Canberra yesterday that the funding promised as part of a deal with independents Tony Windsor and Rob Oakeshott, would be earmarked for "non-urban" areas where roughly a third of the population lived.
He said this would not include Newcastle, north of Sydney, which would be deemed urban but it was unclear at this stage whether it would include the Gold Coast. "Of course, there'll be some definitional argument about that," he said.
Coalition regional development spokesman Barnaby Joyce attacked the government over its inclusion of the Gold Coast in a list of local government areas that could benefit from a $200 million regional housing program announced during the election campaign. "If we don't watch out, I think Rushcutters Bay [in Sydney] will be included in regional Australia," he said.
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