The Australian Regional Development Conference will explore the issues and opportunities facing Regional Australia today and into the future. | The Regional Australia Institute (RAI) is an independent policy think tank and research organisation that advocates for change to build a stronger economy and better quality of life for the future of regional Australia. Su McCluskey is the CEO of the Regional Australia Institute (RAI), the first national independent policy think tank devoted to regional issues. Gumboots were essential at the muddy Walcha property. Beirut's horror explosion was caused by ammonium nitrate, a nitrogen-based fertiliser banned in Australia, igniting. Search over 20,000 rural real estate listings online including farms, rural property and acreage for sale. As well as a broad understanding of policy implementation, her personal experience running a beef cattle stud in Yass, NSW gives her grassroots insight into regional and rural issues.Su was named the winner of the 2013 Australian Financial Review and Westpac Regional Women of Influence Award and the 2014 winner of the Women in Australian Agribusiness outstanding contribution to policy category. Buy rural and agricultural books and DVDs online. Cowra Council has moved quickly to change the weekly lamb sale day to Wednesday. My goal as a community member in regional Australia is to see regional communities reach their potential and ensure living standards are equivalent to the rest of Australia. High rainfall zone farmers seek best results from Angus cattle herd. Regional Australia Institute CEO Jack Archer believes regional towns can prosper if access to professional services are improved.
co-CEO, Regional Australia Institute Day 2 // Regional Policy Masterclass - Frontier // 5 April The Regional Policy Masterclass – Frontier provides an opportunity for policy makers and regional leaders to contextualise and understand best practice in policy development. The state government's release of its floodplain harvesting policy resolves little, say Darling, Menindee irrigators. THE Regional Australia Institute (RAI) is ready to depart from timid bureaucratic shadows and adopt a more aggressive and vocal public advocacy agenda targeting Canberra, says CEO … Liz is a change agent, a researcher, a Director and an extremely passionate advocate for regional Australia. Regional Australia Institute | 3,537 followers on LinkedIn | RAI advocates for change to build a stronger economy and better quality of life in regional Australia. THE Regional Australia Institute (RAI) is ready to depart from timid bureaucratic shadows and adopt a more aggressive and vocal public advocacy agenda targeting Canberra, says CEO Jack Archer.The RAI was established with seed funding out of the $10 billion deal for regional Australia struck by independent federal MPs Tony Windsor and Rob Oakeshott to form government with Labor in 2010, in the hung parliament.RAI Chair Mal Peters has positioned the organisation to be an independent think-tank to fill knowledge gaps that can assist policy-makers and to evolve over time towards financial autonomy, in a model similar to the Australian Farm Institute.But the regional policy think-tank has struggled to carve out a clear niche in backing the concerns of its rural constituents, despite publishing several important research reports and developing a useful regional competitiveness index.Mr Archer replaced inaugural RAI chief executive officer Su McCluskey last July but with its $8 million seed funding almost evaporated, his group wants to up the ante in strategic political debate and commentary, to defend and attack regional issues.Mr Archer said it was about time his organisation stepped up and delivered genuine impact for regional advocacy - with the alternative outcome being a sharp descent into extinction and irrelevance.“We need a stronger debate about the future of what’s happening in the bush,” he said.“It’s a critical period with economies turning back to the cities, even though there are strong opportunities in agriculture.“We’ve got a choice between good growth in cities, stabilising and growing the situation in rural areas and getting those communities back on track, or just this continual slow decline that everyone’s had for so long.“We’ve got a chance to turn that around but if we keep doing the same thing we’ve been doing for the last 20 to 30 years it won’t happen.”Mr Archer said the RAI was extremely passionate about regional Australia’s future and understood the solution was about embracing opportunities rather than just “whinging about the down sides”.“It’s time for us to step up and have an impact on public debate and apply all of the work that we’ve done over the past four years, putting the substance behind what we say,” he said.“I really want to start a different conversation about what’s happening in the bush and lift the conversation up to the next level, about what the future looks like.“We want to be that frank and independent voice for the bush.”The RAI’s change of attitude to become more outspoken and hawkish is due to its gradual maturing, Mr Archer said.He said the concept of a regional policy think-tank was unfamiliar to stakeholders at the start.He said the RAI didn’t have a long digestion period and came about quickly but after spending four years capacity-building and gathering policy evidence which previously didn’t exist, it was now time to take the next step.“When we talked to people about what the organisation can do to make a difference we didn’t get a clear answer but now we have one,” he said.Mr Archer said agriculture was “crucial” to the RAI’s agenda especially communities that depend on farming for economic and social prosperity and employment.He said projects the Institute plans to focus on in the new parliament include leadership capacity building and being proactive to help regional businesses getting “up on their toes”.“We need smart businesses and people in the regions being successful and growing and if that happens a lot of other things will come into line,” he said.In terms of digital connectivity, Mr Archer said the government’s pending decision on its universal service obligation policy would be one of the biggest made for the country, in the past 10-20 years, to see if they got it right and improved the standard of regional communications, or a “story of neglect” would continue.He said the not-for-profit Institute’s seed funding was “pretty much exhausted now” but it had other financial support from businesses like Bendigo Bank and NBN Co and some state governments with more needed, to survive and prosper.Mr Archer said regional Australia had two options governing its survival.He said in other countries like the US people were disaffected and “pissed-off” with politics and casting “angry votes” which was also the case at the recent federal election where One Nation had success.Mr Archer said regional Australia could go down that pathway of the public voting for chaos and being annoyed or it could pull together, work harder and ask what the future looked like.“I think we’ve got all of the evidence we need to look at these issues but the public discussion around how many more people we could have living in the regions and how much more vibrant it could be is not really there,” he said.“We want to put that on the radar and lift the quality of debate and hopefully see better policies coming through at the national level and also have leaders in the bush feeling more confident about what they can do, to make a difference.” The Australian Regional Development Conference is pleased to announce Su McCluskey, Chief Executive Officer, Regional Australia Institute as a Keynote Speaker. CEO, Regional Australia Institute For 20 years, Liz has worked across the corporate, government and the not for profit sector, most recently with Westpac and CEDA in WA. Australia's Horse Trading Magazine. Search thousands of classified ads ONLINE Australia's wool market slumped after auction recess last week as global consumers remain MIA.