2 August 2014
The Morning Bulletin
THE FEDERAL Government has committed to realising the potential of the country’s north.
It will produce a White Paper on Developing Northern Australia that sets out a clear, well-defined policy platform.
Northern Australia is broadly defined as the parts of Australia north of the Tropic of Capricorn, spanning Western Australia, Northern Territory and Queensland.
It is an area of about three million square kilometres, with a population of about one million people.
It is proposed that by 2030 northern Australia could drive growth by:
- developing a food bowl, including premium produce, which could help to double Australia’s agricultural output;
- growing the tourist economy in the north to twomillion international tourists annually; and
- building an energy export industry worth $150billion to the economy, with a major focus on clean and efficient energy, providing major increases to resource exports.
There are also opportunities to leverage some of Australia’s broader strengths within the region, including:
- establishing world-class medical centres of excellence in the north;
- creating an education hub with world-class vocational and higher education campuses in selected areas; and
- growing Australia’s exports of technical skills related to resources and agriculture into a $7billion a year industry.
Courtesy of the Morning Bulletin