Evocities Chair Kevin Mack said that moving public servants out of the cities is “not the solution” to attracting people to regional Australia, and would like to see governments “do more” by way of incentives.
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Mr Mack, who is also the Mayor of Albury, addressed the Armidale Council on Wednesday night, before heading to Tamworth on Thursday, where he also took the councillors through two workshops looking at what has been and can be achieved.
On Wednesday he told the Armidale councillors that the APVMA move from Canberra to Armidale was not ideal, although did have some positives.
“It has been a good result in terms of relocating the administrative hub, but it wasn’t ideal in getting the expertise they require, they are still in Canberra” he said.
“You don’t want to force people to do anything, but have them part of the journey – make regional areas more attractive.”
“The major cities are choking on their own infrastructure, moving public servants is not the solution, it might be part of the solution.
“We need to see mass migration – the government needs to use incentives for businesses and industry.”
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For the last six months the Evocities campaign has been hitting city commuters hard, specifically through billboards on areas of congested roads where citysiders are often stuck in traffic, particularly in Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne, but also Canberra.
Billboards stating that almost every job in all seven of the Evocities is no further than ten minutes from home, while housing prices is obviously another point of engagement.
“We want to try to leverage off that unhappiness,” Mr Mack said.
“The NSW and federal government need to start thinking seriously about how they are going to relieve that congestion.
“Victoria are offering a 50 per cent discount in payroll tax to industry if you relocate the business to a regional area.”
Locally Mr Mack believes that Tamworth is on the right track to growth, particularly in regards to the Inland Rail and Intermodal Hub, which will “open up the inland to the Asian market.”
He also gave a nod to Tamworth tapping into the equine market through the AELEC, as well as attracting the recent NRL game as part of a package to make the city more attractive.
TRC Director of Business John Somerlad said that the Evocities marketing program, which has been operating for eight years, gives the city “more bang for our buck” in attracting growth.
“We have to keep driving the message home to Sydneysiders that there is an alternative to hour long commutes and high costs of houses,” he said.
“Tamworth sells itself in terms of being a regional Sydney, but the cost of housing and jobs is the big thing.
“People will come providing they can get a job that is professionally satisfying. We would like to think we could attract more professional people, therefore we need more jobs in the professional sector.
“Now we need the help of the NSW government to drive industries that employ those people into regional areas.”