Onshoring could lead to more regional opportunities

The shift to onshoring in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic could help develop more regional centres in Australia

Bendigo Bank managing director Marnie Baker says there is potential for more regional areas to be used for call centres and distribution centres. Aaron Francis/The Australian

The shift to onshoring in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic could help develop more regional centres in Australia, according to Bendigo and Adelaide Bank chief executive Marnie Baker.

Speaking at the Road to Recovery roundtable hosted by The Australian and the Business Council of Australia, Ms Baker said there was a potential for more regional centres to be used for call centres and distribution centres as companies looked to keep more of their businesses in Australia.

“With the borders closed, a lot of companies are looking to bring parts of their business back onshore within Australia, and perhaps the regions,” she said.

“Whether it’s call centres, distribution centres and other sorts of corporate infrastructure, there’s an ability to do that.”

She said more work needed to be done to encourage investment in regional areas, including infrastructure projects such as the Hells Gate Dam near Townsville that could make a big different to local business.

“There was already, pre-COVID, a number of projects which had been identified and actually approved and were just waiting for funding from either a federal or state government or both. Fast-tracking those projects would kickstart the economy and help with recovery. They just need to be funded and get going.”

The Australian and the Business Council of Australia, online round table of a small group of executives discussing COVID and the economy. Picture: Britta Campion / The Australian

Ms Baker said Bendigo and Adelaide Bank, which is the fifth largest lender in Australia, had being able to “thrive” with headquarters in regional Australia.

“We should be promoting a lot of large corporates considering taking parts of their operations back onshore, to consider moving to regional areas,” she said.

Ms Baker said there could also be more funding for projects in areas that had been hit by bushfires, including infrastructure that had been damaged.

“If you were to fund projects in some of those areas which were hit by the bushfires it would lift those areas,” she said.

She said governments also needed to be more open to temporary visas for shortages in regional areas such as seasonal workers for the agricultural sector.

“Opening up to migration is going to be really important from a regional perspective,” she said.

“Things around visas and opening up access for seasonal workers in the agricultural sector — or returning to the four-year temporary ones we had in place — is going to be really important.”

Ms Baker said there was also more of an acceptance by business of staff being able to work remotely, which also opened up the possibility of more jobs for people living in regional areas.

She said the pandemic had also highlighted the importance of having a healthy lifestyle, with many regional areas having had no cases of COVID.

“Being able to live and work and operate a business (in regional Australia) with this sort of lifestyle has been accentuated through something like this health crisis.

“Living in a regional area is a real advantage.”

BCA chief executive Jennifer Westacott said unleashing the potential in regional areas would help boost the economy and take the pressure off infrastructure in the major cities.

She said the announcement of key infrastructure and other projects in regional Australia would also help attract other businesses to an area.

“If you get a project started in a region, a whole lot of the supply chain starts getting mobilised. A whole lot of people start relocating to the project which is starting to go ahead.”

“We should just get started on some of the projects.”