Regions need to rise up after budget

Inside the Macquarie Home Stay centre in Dubbo, women anxiously wait to give birth, cancer patients rest after treatment and others recover from hip and knee surgery.

It is a home away from home for people who need to travel from remote areas to the western NSW city for specialist medical treatment.

The facility applied for $2.45 million under the coalition's Building Better Regions fund to construct 26 new units to meet a growing demand, before the program was cut and repackaged in Labor's first budget.

Managing director Rod Crowfoot worries he will have to wait two years for federal government support.

"What do we do with all the sick people now?" he says, adding that he had to turn away 170 patients last month.

"Illness doesn't discriminate and you don't plan for it. Health is such a critical challenge for people in the regions."

The National Party has seized upon the scrapping of the $1.38 billion coalition fund, holding up delayed community projects as an example of Labor neglecting regional Australia.

Many MPs have taken to Facebook to lament initiatives central to life in country communities: a refreshed sports pavilion in rural Victoria, a saleyards upgrade in South Australia and a rail trail tourism project in the NSW New England region.

But Regional Development Minister Catherine King says funding was neither assessed nor granted by the former government when applications closed in February, two months before the federal election was called.

Labor replaced the fund after an independent audit found the coalition ignored guidelines and departmental recommendations when handing out Building Better Regions grants.

Communities will be able to apply for funding under the new $1 billion Growing Regions and Regional Precincts programs from early 2023, Ms King says.

Professor John Cole from the University of Southern Queensland's Institute for Resilient Regions regards such debate as typical of regional politics.

"Communities already feel under-represented and they feel like no one listens to them," he says.

"They see government only really interested in the populated centres. There's an underlying resentment and, of course, that plays into the politics.

"But anyone being absolutely objective couldn't say there's no money for regional Australia in this budget."

Australian Local Government Association president Linda Scott, a Labor councillor for the City of Sydney, says the new funds will help regional towns recover from a string of floods, fires and cyclones.

"Federal funding to our regions is more important than ever and these new programs will help councils build stronger, more liveable communities," she says.

Health groups are pleased the government honoured its election promise to build a rural workforce, in a $143.3 million four-year package filled with incentives to lure doctors to the bush.

The Rural Doctors Association says it wants to see a plan for a new funding model for country doctors, stressing Labor's earlier decision to classify metropolitan suburbs as workforce priority areas took doctors away from the regions.

The Regional Australia Institute think tank, which received $5 million over three years to continue its research, says the government performed a balancing act to strengthen the regions amid budgetary pressure.

Chief executive Liz Ritchie points to the commitment to build one million new homes, $921.7 million to strengthen vocational training to address skills shortages and $757.7 million for better rural connectivity.

Regional Australia will also benefit from the $15 billion National Reconstruction Fund, focused on resources, agriculture, forestry, defence and low emissions technologies, she says.

The complex barriers and opportunities for growth in regional areas could not be addressed in a single budget.

"It requires a holistic, long-term approach from all tiers of government as well as local communities, industry and businesses, all working together collaboratively," Ms Ritchie says.

Prof Cole says enterprising regions will get their share in the multi-billion dollar spend.

"The first principle of resilience is being self organised.

"It's about taking control of your own destiny and being being proactive."

"There's no doubt it's easier to access things like healthcare in the cities; that's the tyranny of distance in regional areas. 

"But it's up to the states, it's up to the regions themselves to be involved in the discussion." 

The Dubbo community has been proactive in fundraising for the home stay centre, raising $1 million in donations, and will continue helping as many patients as possible.

But regions are tired of being a political football, Mr Crowfoot says.

"This was not pork barrelling. This is a genuine human need."