Research Reports

Essential Services in Urban and Regional Australia – a Quantitative Comparison

Newly released research has for the first time quantified the extra costs faced by Australia’s non-metropolitan residents in accessing essential Government services, and highlighted the need to find better ways to deliver essential services in regional Australia. The research, commissioned by the Australian Farm Institute and carried out by the National Institute of Industry and Economic Research (NIEIR), used census and other objective data to calculate the costs faced by all Australian residents in accessing essential services such as doctors, hospitals, schools, TAFE colleges and universities. These costs were then compared between metropolitan, urban and rural residents.

In releasing the report, Australian Farm Institute Executive Director Mick Keogh explained that the focus of the research was on developing a method to enable essential service accessibility to be compared between regions, and over time.

'This means that both politically and practically, the provision of essential services to non-metropolitan and especially rural residents is a major challenge.'

'Lack of transport infrastructure investment, and a likely increase in fuel costs as climate change policies are implemented will also reduce the accessibility of essential services in regional Australia, and necessitate more efforts by governments to improve service accessibility or to compensate rural residents for the lack of service access' says Mick Keogh, Australian Farm Institute Executive Director.

Full Report
November  2009, pp. 1 - 81 (81 pages)
Publisher: Australian Farm Institute
Author: National Institute of Economic and Industry Research (NIEIR)
ISBN 978-0-9806912-5-2 (Print)
ISBN 978-0-9806912-6-9 (Web)