Regional politicians are lining up their policy pitches ahead of the looming federal election.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Deputy Prime Minister and Nationals Leader Michael McCormack and Labor's Regional Communications and Regional Services spokesman Stephen Jones opened the Regional Australia Institute's Regions Rising summit at Old Parliament House on Thursday.
Mr McCormack said his Coalition government was delivering regional growth through relocating public sector jobs to regional towns, investing in tertiary and trade apprenticeship scholarships, as well as funding infrastructure to stimulate construction jobs and industry growth.
The federal budget this week committed $552 million for regional trade apprenticeships, and 100 university scholarships, $100 million for regional airports, and $100 billion for regional roads - on top of last year's $10 billion commitment to the inland rail Melbourne to Brisbane freight link.
RAI co-chief executive Dr Kim Houghton said impending industry automation would vary across regions, but "high-tech", "high-touch", and "high-care" roles would be at the forefront.
"Regional Australia needs different skills, the types of jobs will change and the role of education will be more critical than ever before," he said.
Mr McCormack praised RAI's regional jobs report, released at the summit, which argued for new policies to address a shift in workforce demands from manual labour to tertiary education.
"What a fantastic report it is," Mr McCormack said.
Mr Jones issued a challenge to both sides of politics to abandon the rhetoric demonising migrants, which is "morally and ethically wrong".
"We cannot say to people living in our near regions, whether it's the Pacific, Asia, the Middle East: 'We want you to buy our beef, our sheep, wheat wool fibre coal iron ore but we don't trust you'," he said. "We cannot kid ourselves that the debates we have in parliament, and things we say in the media, aren't heard."