News

News Corp’s Bush Summit presents a welcome and much-needed opportunity to bring about focus on all the good things, the challenges and the opportunities that encompass regional Australia.

With my family’s pioneering and agricultural background in regional and remote Australia going back to the mid-1800s in the Pilbara and back even before that, and more recently in mining, I’ve had the opportunity to share a very special history and many experiences in the Australian outback.

I know the beauty of the country and when I lived there for years, loved my life there.

Boarding school was not a desired alternative to being in the bush! However, I also know of the challenges we face in our north, like access to 24-hour airstrips capable of servicing the RFDS jets, lack of hospitals, lack of dentists and vets, continual reduction in medical services such as maternity and birthing.

Economically we increasingly struggle, given government policies which are not conducive to attracting investment – investment necessary to keep us internationally competitive, and to maintain our living standards, and to help combat welfare dependency in rural and remote regions.

As I look across the vastness from our agricultural properties in the Kimberleys, I see the potential for the creation of jobs to give families and children a future in our north, jobs in industries that can help feed and clothe other Australians and our allies. What is required, though, are policies to help attract investment.

For many years, I have shared my economic vision for helping to develop Northern Australia and that is why I founded ANDEV, Australians for Northern Development and Economic Vision.

It is about successful policy initiatives such as economic zones with reduced taxation and government red tape, to attract investment.

Successful as shown in many countries, indeed over 8000 such economic zones are operating successfully overseas, but not yet in Australia.