In light of the recent bushfire emergency that occurred over spring and summer, Regional Capitals Australia (RCA) has engaged with our membership to determine how the fires impacted regional capital cities.
One of the key findings was that 25 per cent of our members were directly impacted by bushfires and 50 per cent had a bushfire event in their region.
Regional capital city councils were involved in the response through the provision of support staff, heavy machinery and community facilities. However have continued to act as a regional service hub and have reported increased stress on city infrastructure such; hospitals, airports, road and housing.
Impacted members have also indicated there will be long term economic impacts in their region, and as has been widely reported, these impacts will predominately be felt across:
- primary production;
- tourism; and
- retail.
Members also indicated they would like to ensure that support for recovery is provided across these areas:
- Disaster grants;
- Small business stimulus;
- Tourism and event marketing;
- Community resilience; and
- Economic infrastructure
Regional Capitals Australia is mindful of these impacts and call for assistance, in our recent delegation to Canberra we had the opportunity to brief the office of the Hon David Littleproud, Minister for Agriculture, Drought and Emergency Management on ways in which we can work with the Government to support the recovery of our member cities and regions.
We will continue to engage with our federal members of parliament on this important issue.