While the Central Coast has been lumped into the Six Cities vision, there is another group called Regional Australia Institute that is working on a similar vision for regional Australia.
Last week, the Six Cities Commission launched its vision for a connected region of six cities from Newcastle to Nowra’s Shoalhaven area via the Central Coast and the three cities of Sydney East, West and Central.
This week, Regional Australia Institute held a conference in Canberra to launch Regionalisation Ambition 2032.
It wants to “rebalance the nation” by moving an extra 500,000 people to the regions to a target of 11M living outside the capital cities by 2032.
“In each city, great jobs are 30 minutes by public transport from great homes. We enjoy a greater range of lifestyle choices connected to economic opportunity and most people live in vibrant local centres and neighbourhoods where all our daily needs are met within a 15 minute walk,” the website explains.
The detail includes six region shapers. These are:
An embedded First Nations voice
A connected Six Cities Region
Housing supply, diversity and affordability
Inclusive places linked to infrastructure
Powering local jobs and economies
Climate-resilient green cities
The regional plan sounds pretty similar but it is content with five key pillars:
Jobs and skills
Liveability
Population growth
Productivity and Innovation
Sustainability and Resilience
The regional institute says it has seen more than a 100 percent jump in job vacancies in the last 2.5 years and more than 3.7 million regional Australians living in a ‘childcare desert’.
Regional home building approvals have declined in five out of the last 10 years. Remote students do half as well as their metropolitan counterparts in NAPLAN.
The regions are looking for a holistic and integrated framework for the future growth.
So are the Six Cities.
“For regionalisation to be truly realised, it needs to be a collective effort, a national effort to rebalance the nation – and all Australians have a part to play,” the regional group said.
The Six Cities Commission said that to capture the benefits of the Six Cities Region it has to guide conversations with government, business, community, the not-for-profit sector and universities and research institutions.
Where is the Central Coast in all of this?
We used to be a region but now we’re a city – one of six cities apparently.
And the Council has its own vision for the Coast – set out in the Community Strategic Plan (CSP) 2018-2028.
Actually, Council says it is the community’s vision, reflecting what matters most to the people of the Central Coast.
In it, the Council is planning for an additional 41,500 new homes to accommodate projected growth to 2036.
Read the three visions for yourself:
Regional: https://www.regionalaustralia.org.au/
Six Cities: https://greatercities.au/
CSP: https://cdn.centralcoast.nsw.gov.au/sites/default/files/Council/Operational_Documents/full-report.pdf
