Editor’s view: National Bush Summit 2024 gives regional Australians recognition they deserve
Ten million Australians live outside the five big capital cities, and their huge contribution to the nation deserves recognition in the form of critical outcomes from our politicians, without the bull, writes the editor.
Opinion
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Ten million Australians do not live in the five big capital cities, and it is to support them that each year The Courier-Mail and our company’s other mastheads across the nation devote a fortnight solely to raising their concerns – and celebrating their contribution to this nation – through our Bush Summit series.
This year’s national event will be in Townsville tomorrow, a regional centre chosen because of the huge role it plays in critical exports of agricultural and mining products through its port – and the massive contribution it makes to national security through being home to the army’s spear-point, the 3rd Brigade.
Tomorrow’s Townsville summit will be followed by events each day next week in every other state – in Bendigo, Launceston, McLaren Vale, Orange and Port Hedland.
Among the 350 at tomorrow’s summit will be the Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, Opposition Leader Peter Dutton, Premier Steven Miles, Opposition Leader David Crisafulli – plus a small army of other politicians. It will be the state’s pre-eminent collection of powerful people this year, a sign of the importance that they too put in those Queenslanders who choose to not live in the capital city.
The Bush Summit began in 2019 as an initiative of the Sydney Daily Telegraph to bring attention to the needs of those in regional NSW who were facing the devastating drought that preceded the horrific bushfires of that summer.
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The summit has grown each year since that inaugural outing in Dubbo, to go national last year – a move designed not only to ensure all of Australia was covered, but so that local issues could be shared nationwide and that any national issues surfaced could have any barriers to their success cleared.
Last year’s series delivered more than 20 critical outcomes for people who live in regional Australia, including, directly, the appointment of a Minister for Regional Health in NSW and $92m for mental health units at regional hospitals across Queensland.
Based on what our reporting has surfaced this year, our demands will include to commit to a long-term plan to “finish” the Bruce Highway and to commit to building a new bridge over the Gilbert River and to start work on sealing the Gulf Savannah Way.
We will demand of government that the data identifying where teacher shortages are be made public, and that there is a clear commitment to increasing school attendance rates for Queensland’s Indigenous kids.
We also believe the government needs to develop an action plan to better recruit police officers to work in the regions, and to commit to building a new hospital in Charters Towers, as well as cutting the wait times for gynaecological elective surgeries outside the South East.
But these are just the start, and we wait with bated breath for what announcements the Prime Minister and Premier will be packing in their overnight bags as they head north to attend tomorrow’s summit.
As both Mr Albanese and Mr Miles know well, politicians ignore regional Queensland at their peril.
With both facing elections in the next six months, we would hope whatever they promise is significant and meaningful.
We also challenge them to bring something that is genuinely new.
Regional Queenslanders have a finely tuned bulldust radar, and so will quickly sniff that in any pledges that are reheated or include funds that have already been allocated.
Originally published as Editor’s view: National Bush Summit 2024 gives regional Australians recognition they deserve
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