Lisa Chesters (Bendigo, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

There is always lots of talk in this place about what is going on in our regions. Some are quite alarmist and say our regions are dying. It could not be further from the truth. Our regions are vibrant. We have community leadership; we have community energy; we have community heart.

We had representatives from my own electorate of Bendigo, from the three shires that I proudly represent, come and meet with many people this week in Canberra, in Parliament House. I am talking, of course, about this year's participants in the Loddon Murray Community Leadership Program. This program aims to develop leaders of vibrant, sustainable communities by engaging, encouraging and empowering members of the community in leadership roles.

The program, which runs every year from February to November, aims to develop and build the participants' skills, knowledge, abilities, understanding and networks. It assists them in becoming effective community leaders—engaged with their political leaders, engaged with their business leaders and engaged with their own communities. The program in my part of the world has operated since 1998 and has had almost 400 graduates over that time.

The region that it covers is not just my electorate. It covers 11 local government areas. It also covers the electorates of Murray and Mallee. Its aim is basically to dispel the myth about our small towns. Its aim is also to develop and encourage the participants and the strong community will that exists within their own home towns.

Every year the program accepts up to 25 participants and they are engaged in a number of programs and projects, not just locally but also nationally. That is why this week the program's participants were in Canberra. It feels like a lifetime ago now, but I met with them on Monday, here in this place. In a short discussion I asked them: 'If you were the federal member for Bendigo, if you were the Prime Minister, what would you do for our region? What are some of your ideas that I can share with the House and with my colleagues about what would make our small towns in our part of the world that much stronger?'

The list is not only inspiring but a good task list for any local member or any government that wants to see small regional towns in Victoria grow. It includes job creation and making sure that we have a diverse range of jobs available. We cannot forget about the need to create white-collar jobs, not only so that professionals will stay in the region but to give some of the graduates from our local university a reason to stay.

The list also includes youth engagement and youth unemployment—tackling the youth unemployment crisis by having entry-level jobs but ensuring that we have a strong, inclusive youth engagement program from the grassroots, learning from young people what they care about. One of the participants said that we need to celebrate what is positive and be positive. We need to stop talking negatively, stop talking down our towns, be positive and encourage people to share the good stories of our small communities. The environment featured, as did making sure that we were promoting environmental outcomes, not just economic outcomes—making sure in every conversation we were having about economic growth that it was not at the expense of the environment.

A strong recommendation from one participant was constitutional recognition for Australia's first people, acknowledging in our Constitution that there were people—proud owners of this land—before the rest of us came.

There was also a strong discussion about the need to decentralise, about the need to build our transport systems in the region, about fast rail, about having freight rail so that we can get produce from our country areas to port quickly for exports. In fact, there was a very strong focus on food: the celebration of food and the foodie culture, which is taking off in our part of the world.

There were so many ideas coming from this group, and it is great to be able to share those and place them on the record. These are amazing community leaders who do our community proud and will continue to do our community proud as they continue on this program.