Local councils are calling for a plan to get one in three public servants to regional SA
Regional parts of South Australia are losing residents to the city. Councils have suggested they have a solution
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Almost one in three public servants would be employed in the bush under a plan being pushed by the association representing local councils.
The Local Government Association of South Australia has spruiked the idea as part of a broader plan to get more people living and working in regional and rural parts of the state.
SA Treasurer Rob Lucas has played down the suggestion but LGASA president Sam Telfer said the aspirational target could help to stem the flow of people leaving the regions.
“Many regional towns and communities are struggling to retain or attract people due to a limited range of employment opportunities,” Mr Telfer told the Sunday Mail.
“The Government can play a vital role in addressing this through developing a plan to transition a larger number of public service jobs to regional areas.”
In its submission to an inquiry – looking into labour migration agreements – LGASA said efforts should be made to decentralise SA government services to achieve at least 30 per cent of the State Government public service being based outside of greater Adelaide.
“Decentralising government services outside of metropolitan Adelaide over time would create more – and different – jobs in these communities, Mr Telfer said.
“Increasing economic diversity in regional areas helps to build community resilience and to attract and maintain important services such as healthcare and education.”
He said decentralisation had the capacity to help build economic resilience by reducing regional communities’ reliance on primary industry. Mr Telfer said it would also make regional communities more resilient to disaster, drought and other climate related events.
Census data, commissioned by the Sunday Mail in 2018, showed regional parts of SA had seen drops in population of up to almost 20 per cent.
The data showed every council area that has seen a decline in population in the past decade is in regional or remote SA with almost a third – 22 of 69 – of local government areas experiencing a decrease in people between 2006 and 2016.
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But Mr Lucas said increasing the number of public servants in the bush, from the current level of about 19 per cent, was not the answer.
“Given that approximately 20 per cent of our population live in regional areas, the fact that we’ve got 19 per cent of our public sector workforce outside of the metropolitan area is a very good result,” he said.
“The Government has no plans to pursue a target of 30 per cent.
The Government recognises the enormous importance of our regions as a key economic driver for the state and is investing significantly in regional road projects and infrastructure upgrades, as well as schools, hospitals, housing and tourism to help ensure continued positive economic and jobs growth.”
In South Australia previous bids to move public sector workers out of the CBD has been beset with challenges.
A plan by the former Labor Government to move hundreds of public servants out of the CBD was scrapped by the new Liberal Government in 2018 after struggling to convince hundreds of workers to relocate to Port Adelaide.