It has taken five years, but the Murray-Darling Medical School now looks like getting off the ground thanks to $95 million in this week’s Federal Budget.
The benefits will be slow to trickle out, but the project will play an important role in bringing services to rural areas longer term.
With an extra $4 billion for small rural and regional hospitals, and a boost to suicide and mental health funding, rural and regional health will be more attractive as a career option, and hopefully provide better services.
The $225m for the development of satellite technology will be a game changer for agriculture. Not all the tech is there yet to take full advantage of this, but satellite accuracy of 2-5cm will open the door to a swathe of new gear.
Farmers will eventually be able to ditch their expensive on-ground hardware used for positioning and do what they need to through their smart phone, bringing a big cost saving. It will open the market to virtual applications like mothering of livestock, virtual fencing and health monitoring.
On infrastructure, it appears most of the spend for NSW is already locked into Inland Rail, and its associated infrastructure, such as the rail duplication at Port Botany.
At the other end of the supply chain is $51.3m to grow exports. This will be effective if it builds relationships overseas and reduces political risk, as we’ve seen in Russia with kangaroos, or chickpeas in India. Producers also need help to meet export protocols.
If successful, the next logical step would be regional export airports, as raised at Outlook this year, to get the produce direct to market and could be built faster than Inland Rail.
It is questionable how the $200m for local governments and not-for-profits for new commercial enterprises might help decentralisation while a cloud remains over rural communications.
Rural businesses struggle to attract staff because skilled people don’t want to move to areas with poor connectivity.
Another questionable area was the lack of funding for adapting to our variable seasons, especially in the face of the drought now unfolding.
The continuation of the $20,000 asset write-off was a smart move, and one that will continue to help small business.
So, while there is some useful stuff in this budget, we’re still not seeing an overall plan to get our rural economy cranked up properly.
