25 February 2014
ABC News
Leaders from Western Australia’s Pilbara, Kimberley and mid-west have met their eastern counterparts to swap notes on developing northern Australia.
Regional Development Australia (RDA) committees from WA, Queensland and the Northern Territory attended the recent Northern Australia Alliance Forum in Darwin.
The alliance is planning a joint submission to a northern white paper the Commonwealth Government is developing.
RDA Pilbara chairwoman Fiona White-Hartig says the alliance has shared goals on agriculture, defence, transport, as well as trading and tourism relationships with Asia.
“A lot of the issues that came up we found weren’t just a challenge in our own local shires but actually were in the whole region, so it was great to be able to talk to others say in Cairns and Darwin, the Kimberley, the Gascoyne, Alice Springs and find out that we all have similar issues and that we’re working towards a similar goals,” she said.
She says she believes the white paper submission will have more weight if it comes from a united front.
“We’ve formed a Northern Australia Alliance which obviously will have huge benefits to have a large group to make a submission and like I said, most of our issues are very similar or the same across the board and we will be making a submission on behalf of that northern alliance,” she said.
Courtesy of ABC News