Infrastructure Priorities for the Regions
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Version 0.1 Infrastructure Priorities for the Regions Key findings to inform Victoria’s 30-year infrastructure strategy update December 2020 Table of Contents 1. Executive summary .............................................................................................................................................. 3 1.1 Summary of recommendations ............................................................................................................................... 5 2. A regional lens to prioritise infrastructure ......................................................................................................... 8 2.1 An overview of our approach .................................................................................................................................. 8 2.2 Introducing the frameworks ................................................................................................................................... 10 2.2.1 Comparative advantage framework ........................................................................................................ 11 2.2.2 Addressing regional disadvantage framework ........................................................................................ 14 2.3 Drafting recommendations .................................................................................................................................... 16 2.4 Stakeholder submissions ...................................................................................................................................... 17 3. Regional Victoria’s infrastructure priorities ..................................................................................................... 20 3.1 Realising regional Victoria’s economic potential ................................................................................................... 20 3.1.1 Enhancing access and productivity ......................................................................................................... 21 3.1.2 Supporting industry resilience ................................................................................................................. 24 3.1.3 Unlocking industry growth opportunities ................................................................................................. 26 3.2 Strengthening regional communities ..................................................................................................................... 29 3.2.1 Connecting people and services ............................................................................................................. 30 3.2.2 Fostering health, safety and social inclusion ........................................................................................... 34 4. Detailed recommendations ................................................................................................................................ 38 4.1 Comparative advantage recommendations .......................................................................................................... 39 4.2 Addressing regional disadvantage recommendations ........................................................................................... 71 5. Appendix A ........................................................................................................................................................ 109 Worked examples .......................................................................................................................................................... 109 Comparative advantage framework .................................................................................................................... 109 Addressing regional disadvantage framework .................................................................................................... 113 6. Appendix B ........................................................................................................................................................ 115 List of stakeholder submissions ..................................................................................................................................... 115 About us ........................................................................................................................................................................ 117 Infrastructure Priorities for the Regions 1. Executive summary Victoria’s regions are as diverse as they are spectacular. From Gippsland to the Mallee, and Great South Coast to Ovens Murray, each region contains a diversity of experience, strengths, opportunities and challenges. Long-term trends such as changes to local economies, urbanisation, population growth and decline, and climate change are affecting our regions more than ever before. The 2019-20 bushfires and the COVID-19 pandemic have caused major disruption and accelerated the pace of change. Each of Victoria’s regions is responding to these shared drivers of change in different ways. Infrastructure Victoria committed to build a deeper understanding of infrastructure needs and impacts in regional and rural Victoria as part of Victoria’s first 30-year infrastructure strategy in 2016. Over the last three years, we have built our knowledge of regional communities, examining the unique opportunities and challenges facing each of Victoria’s regions and exploring recommendations which seek to address them. Infrastructure Priorities for the Regions is one of several work programs that has helped to inform Victoria’s draft 30-year infrastructure strategy update. We have engaged extensively with stakeholders from across Victoria’s nine regions: Barwon, Central Highlands, Gippsland, Goulburn, Great South Coast, Loddon Campaspe, Mallee, Ovens Murray and Wimmera Southern Mallee. This engagement has been invaluable in building our evidence base, testing our findings, shaping our recommendations and allowing us to draw on the extensive knowledge and expertise residing within the regions. While our work has demonstrated the unique character of each of Victoria’s regions, it has also illustrated the extent to which infrastructure needs are shared across them. However, regional Victoria’s infrastructure needs are very different to those in Melbourne. Our work has therefore confirmed that regional Victoria faces issues and opportunities which are specific to regional areas, and that solutions designed for Melbourne cannot simply be transplanted. A clear message emerging from our research has been the need for a dual focus when considering regional infrastructure. Victoria’s regions have economic and industry strengths that can help deliver regional economic growth into the future. But within the regions, people living in some areas have access to fewer resources and services, which influences individual, family and community opportunities and outcomes. The Infrastructure Priorities for the Regions program has developed two complementary frameworks which provide a new and structured approach to prioritising potential infrastructure solutions to specific regional challenges and opportunities. One aims to identify investment priorities that build on regions’ unique economic advantages to activate regional growth opportunities (Comparative advantage framework). The other seeks to strengthen regional communities by improving economic, health, education and social inclusion outcomes and addressing relative disadvantage (Addressing regional disadvantage framework). The frameworks are built upon a series of outcomes statements which collectively define the regional constraints and opportunities that infrastructure investments will seek to address: Comparative advantage framework: − Deliver greater productivity and efficiency. − Provide better access to markets. − Support industries to be more resilient to economic shocks and climate change. − Unlock new industry growth opportunities. Addressing regional disadvantage framework: − Improve economic outcomes for individuals by increasing access to jobs and businesses or reducing the costs of living. − Improve education and health outcomes by increasing access to health, education and social services. − Improve social inclusion outcomes by increasing access to social and civic infrastructure. While Infrastructure Victoria has used the frameworks to identify infrastructure solutions that will achieve the specific outcomes of our Infrastructure Priorities for the Regions work, we believe they have broader potential application and could be applied to infrastructure planning and prioritisation work in other contexts. Informed by the Comparative advantage and Addressing regional disadvantage frameworks, our work program identified and developed 22 draft recommendations that collectively respond to many of the infrastructure-related opportunities and challenges facing Victoria’s regions. These recommendations cover a wide range of sectors, aiming variously to enhance 3 productivity for regional businesses, open up new industry growth opportunities and improve access to jobs, health, education and social services for regional communities. In drafting our recommendations, we have targeted infrastructure solutions that respond to the shared challenges and opportunities across Victoria’s regions. Taken together, they seek to support regional economic development and to enhance regional Victorians’ quality of life. While some of our draft recommendations propose building new infrastructure, more