RDAs play a role in helping to drive economic growth, innovation and entrepreneurship in regions through facilitating investment in community, industry and the environment. RDAs assist to bridge the regional development gaps in regions by working with a broad range of stakeholders across sectors and supporting the delivery of identified Australian Government strategic priorities.
As representatives of their local communities, RDAs will:
• focus their activities and strategy on delivery of the Regional Investment Framework in their region, including investment in people, places, services, and industries and local economies
• support regional stakeholders, including local government and the not-for-profit-sector, to seek grant opportunities that advance strategic regional priorities
• support decarbonisation efforts and the transformation to a net zero economy and enable regional linkages between sectors to achieve these aims
• build the evidence for economic development, including innovation and diversification strategies
• facilitate meaningful engagement across the three levels of government to ensure investments deliver better outcomes for regions, and
• contribute relevant data and local intelligence to support the evidence base to inform regional development strategies, program design and policy responses.
RDAs use their local, cross-sector expertise and regional voice to:
• collaborate with integrity, transparency, respect and accountability
• engage with diverse communities, especially First Nations people
• support the Government’s ambition of ‘no one held back and no one left behind’, and
• support gender equality opportunities in their regions.
RDA Peel Strategic Plan 2021-25
While the Peel Regional Investment Blueprint to 2050 sets out the region’s aspirational vision and goals to 2050 the RDA Peel Strategic Plan 2021-25 provides Governments, stakeholders, potential investors and policy and decision makers
with a better understanding of the region, its issues and its strategic priorities that will drive development and growth in a sustainable way.
Australian Government Regional Priorities
The Australian Government’s Regional Investment Framework prescribes the Priority Focus Areas for Government investment, which is in line with a commitment to deliver responsible
investments that make a real and lasting difference in the regions.
The guiding principles of the Regional Investment Framework are:
• Realising the Government’s ambition of ‘no one held back and no one left behind’ requires specific regional investment across portfolios.
• Australia’s regions and their economies are diverse, with each having unique strength and challenges.
• Delivering on the potential of regional Australia requires building on each regions’ unique strengths, including helping regions undergoing significant economic change to transition or adapt to specific structural challenges.
• Place-based decision making that draws on the experience of local government alongside regional bodies must guide investment in our regions.
The priorities of this plan align to the Priority Focus Areas of the Regional Investment Framework:
– Meeting the needs of, and providing opportunities for First Nations People.
– Supporting the transformation to a net zero economy and decarbonisation.
– Achieving gender equality.
