Dear Mr Murphy

Thank you for your letter of 4 July 2011 concerning a petition recently submitted to the Standing Committee on Petitions concerning the decentralisation of population from cities to towns. I apologise for the delay in replying. In accordance with Standing Order 209(b), I would like to make the following response.

The Australian Government is committed to improving both the liveability of our urban areas and effectively building our regions in order to enhance the wellbeing of all Australians. To this end, Sustainable Australia — Sustainable Communities: A Sustainable Population Strategy for Australia aims to enhance opportunities of current and future generations through more effective anticipation, planning and responses to the impacts of a changing population on our economy, environment and communities. This includes managing the impacts of a changing population, particularly in our urban and regional areas.

The Strategy's focus is to ensure that we have in place the necessary policy settings and governance arrangements to deliver improvements in our wellbeing at the local, regional and national levels into the future. Australia's regions will be better connected with the rollout of the National Broadband Network, which can enable internal migration through facilitating more widespread access to health services, education and specialist services that are typically found in major cities. The National Broadband Network will also facilitate more opportunities for people to engage in teleworking — broadly defined to include work undertaken at home, use of mobile devices in transit or at a different place of business or telecentre.

Effort and coordination is required across governments, portfolios and sectors to secure our economic prosperity, improve the liveability of our cities, suburbs and regions and protect our environment. Among the most important things we can do to take pressure off our major cities is to ensure that regions are more attractive places to live, work and build a future. State, territory and local governments have critical roles in the provision of infrastructure and services that impact the sustainability of the population. The varied ways in which population changes impact across Australia demands effective policy and program responses from all levels of government that can be precisely targeted to specific communities, be they national, regional or local.

My Department's Promoting Regional Living program builds on the success of the Evocities initiative with $11.5 million provided over four years to support non-capital cities implement strategic and targeted marketing strategies, to promote the benefits and opportunities of living and working in those cities. Cities that have strategies in place for future growth needs will also be eligible for support.

Priorities that may have particular relevance to these cities include: access to critical transport infrastructure; current skills base and future skills needs; new opportunities for private sector participation and partnerships; opportunities to maximise the use of broadband for the purpose of expanding business enterprises and the delivery of services; opportunities to attract new and recent migrants; social inclusion; water and energy efficiency; affordable housing options; and climate change and environmental adaptation and management.

Similarly, my Department supports the Regional Development Australia committee network, which is made up of local leaders who volunteer their time to work with government, business and community groups to help address the economic, social and environmental issues affecting their communities. A key priority for many Regional Development Australia committees is to consider how to attract people to move to live in their regions, particularly from major cities. This can be encouraged by the region offering diverse employment opportunities, good transportation links, a good standard of community facilities and a wide range of services.

I understand that the Minister for Immigration and Citizenship is writing separately to the Committee on matters raised in the petition that fall within his area of responsibility.

Thank you for raising this matter with me.

from the Minister for Regional Australia, Regional Development and Local Government, Mr Crean