The South West is one of Western Australia’s nine recognised regions located outside the Perth metropolitan area. Fronting the Indian and Southern oceans, covering 24,000 square kilometres and including 12 local government areas, the South West is the most populous and economically diverse of WA’s regions.

Of the landmass that comprises the region, about two-thirds is made up of State Forest, National Parks and regional parks, with the southern forests being the largest component. About 25% is occupied by agricultural and rural uses, with about 8% used for industrial and urban development.

The economy benefits from the combination of the commodity rich hinterland (agriculture and mineral resources) in close proximity to a working port. Alumina refining and associated construction play a major role in economic output and employment. Agriculture, forestry and associated processing are significant sectors supplying dairy, beef, vegetables and wood/timber products for domestic consumption and increasingly for export markets.

Historically, timber production and agriculture have been the predominant land uses within the Margaret River region, which has some of the most productive agricultural land in the State. The agriculture sector is diverse and includes a variety of cropping, viticulture and wine, fruit, flower and vegetable production, olives and olive oil, pasture production and livestock - beef and dairy cattle, sheep and deer, timber and artisan cheese production.

Gippsland offers a variety of natural attractions like nowhere else in Victoria. From rugged alpine mountain ranges, historic rural towns to pristine beaches, Gippsland is a diverse place attracting local and international visitors all year around.

The tourism industry in Gippsland is an important contributor to the region’s economy, worth $2.4 billion in direct and indirect expenditure per annum. Gippsland has outperformed regional Victoria for domestic and international visitation percentage growth, with 10.8 million visitors to the region annually. The visitor economy supports over 3,000 businesses who derive the majority of their income from overnight and daytrip visitors.

Strongly backed by the government, multiple projects have been put into place to further Gippsland’s visitor economy. This includes the $48 million upgrade of the Philip Island Nature Park, the $30 million Latrobe Creative Arts Precinct and the $13.9 million West Gippsland Arts Centre.

The Far North Queensland region is centred on the coastal city of Cairns. The region includes Daintree and Mossman to the north, Innisfail to the south and the Atherton Tablelands to the west. It contains a number of world heritage-listed areas, including the iconic Great Barrier Reef, and the Wet Tropics and Daintree rainforests, which are major world biodiversity hotspots and significant international tourist destinations.

Protecting the world’s largest living structure (the Great Barrier Reef) and the oldest continuously surviving rainforests (the Wet Tropics) – as well as the other spectacular natural areas in the region – is a huge challenge and needs resources.

These World Heritage Areas are important to Australians and global citizens alike so we also need people outside the region to join and support us in giving voice to the local community members who speak and act for these globally-recognised natural wonders.

Much of the RDA Murray Regions’ economy is driven by agriculture, timber production, viticulture, horticulture, health care, retail, manufacturing, construction and tourism.

Of critical importance to the RDA Murray Region is water availability. The Region is situated on the Murray River and is reliant on the river system for its contribution to production, tourism and liveability.

The Australian nut industry is experiencing its largest expansion in a decade with the farm gate value expected to rise from $1billion in 2018 to $1.7 by 2025. Permanent nut tree infrastructure (including irrigation) and plantings are expanding significantly in the Murray Region

The Wheatbelt is so called because of its extensive agricultural industry. The region is the primary producer of cereal crops in the state and contributes other agricultural products such as canola, olives, vegetables, wine grapes, honey, citrus fruits and livestock.

Whilst agriculture remains the dominant industry, the economy of the region is also supported by mining, commerce, retail, manufacturing, fishing and tourism.

The natural and cultural attributes of the region make it extremely versatile in tourism service and product offerings.

Support for local government, business and communities is required to capitalise on the opportunities presented by the regional, state, national and international tourist sectors. A collaboration model across 42 shires is required.

A ‘Wander the Wheatbelt’ online platform is being investigated with short term opportunities to boost tourism.

The Toowoomba’s region’s economic role as a smart region, an agricultural centre, knowledge and research region and freight and logistics hub, provides enormous strengths and competitive advantages. This role will be pivotal in the region positioning itself to catch the next wave of industry, employment and investment opportunities.

Those industries with a relatively high knowledge worker content and which present opportunities for growth in the Toowoomba region, include business services such as financial and legal services, education and training, specialist health care and wellbeing, scientific and technical services to agriculture and mining, including specialist agriculture-related research and technology industries, and the creative industries, particularly creative services like architecture and design, communications and marketing and digital content.

Culture and creativity are part of our Tasmanian story – it’s who we are and what we do and why we do it. It touches every facet of our lives.

Tasmanian culture is our most treasured asset, which no other people and no other place can replicate. It is the source of our pride, our regret, our mutual understanding, and our most honest and reliable engine of growth. Our culture is an expression of who we are, what it feels like to be Tasmanian.

Tasmanians express it to each other and tell our 60,000 year-old stories to visitors and to the world. We feel it in our museums, galleries, natural environment and historic places. We hear it and read it and watch it, play with it, wear it, bring it into our homes, taste it, and, most importantly, we share it.

Flinders University’s award-winning New Venture Institute is a leader in the innovation and entrepreneurial ecosystem in metropolitan Adelaide and in regional South Australia and has supported over 327 local start-ups to date.

For more than 40 years Flinders University has been a leader in the Creative Industries with a global reputation which has contributed to making Adelaide an international leader in the Arts.

The University of Adelaide’s Australian Institute for Machine Learning, Lot Fourteen’s first anchor tenant, is a global leader in machine learning and artificial intelligence. In addition, Lot Fourteen based industry will link with the University’s leading capability in cybersecurity, data analytics and entrepreneurship and will connect with students to develop new innovations through work integrated learning and internship opportunities.

The University of South Australia’s mission is focused on educating highly skilled professionals for the South Australian workforce and producing knowledge through applied research in Health, IT, Engineering and Future Industries, Education, Arts and Social Sciences and Business.

Anyone can have a great idea or come up with an innovative solution to a problem. The hard part when you’re in a region can be getting access to the help you need to turn ideas into a business and a business into a global success story. Advance Queensland is helping Queenslanders to grow their business and build an innovation economy.

The Whitsunday Climate Innovation Hub, an initiative of the Whitsunday Regional Council, is aiming to improve the resilience of the Whitsunday region in the face of increasing climate change hazards, such as storm tide and coastal erosion. The Hub acts as a think-tank, bringing together national and international experts in law, climate adaptation, finance, insurance, tourism and agriculture, and provides climate information to the wider community.

The Central Coast is a region of New South Wales, Australia, lying on the Pacific Ocean north of Sydney. Towns like Terrigal and Avoca Beach feature expansive beaches and surfing. The Entrance is a resort area offering a range of recreation at the confluence of the ocean and Tuggerah Lake, a saltwater wetland. The city of Gosford is the main commercial hub and visitor gateway.

As a region, we have economic opportunities in front of us – the digital revolution, emerging local industries, smart technologies, a growing innovation eco-system, and a desirable growing visitor economy.

Ipswich economy is driven by high value industries of manufacturing, health care and social assistance, retail trade, education and defence. Ipswich is located in a prime location in South East Queensland, between Gold Coast to the south, Toowoomba to the west, Brisbane to the east, and the Sunshine Coast to the north.

The arts and creative industries impact us all, collectively and individually, in myriad ways.

Creative industries are an evolving mix of sectors spanning arts, culture, screen, design, publishing and advertising. They cover disciplines as diverse as game development and graphic design, fashion and filmmaking, performing arts and publishing, architecture and advertising, media and music, comedy and craft. They include activities that are commercially-driven and community based, experimental and export-intense.

The University of Melbourne is Australia's Number One university and is a world leader in education, teaching and research excellence.

RMIT University, officially the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, is a public research university in Melbourne, Australia.

Monash University is a public research university based in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Named after prominent World War I general Sir John Monash, it was founded in 1958 and is the second oldest university in the state.

Victoria University is a public research university based in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. It is a dual-sector university, providing courses in both higher education and technical and further education.

La Trobe University is a public research university based in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Its main campus is located in the suburb of Bundoora. The university was established in 1964, becoming the third university in the state of Victoria.

Swinburne University of Technology is a public research university based in Melbourne, Australia. It was founded in 1908 as the Eastern Suburbs Technical College to serve those without access to further education in Melbourne's eastern suburbs.

The region is renowned domestically and internationally for its premium seafood, high quality agricultural product, and the pristine nature of its landscapes, seascapes and conservation parks.

The regional economy is primarily driven by the agriculture, manufacturing, fishing, tourism and mining industries. While these industries are well established, aquaculture, food, renewable energy, and health and community services are fast developing as major sources of employment and revenue generation.

Whyalla is unique having a substantial industrial base, providing mining, engineering and steel manufacturing services.

The region is the base for renewable energy generation – solar, wind, hydrogen, satellite launching and smart green manufacturing.

The region is popular for high quality and very different nature-based tourism experiences. The region’s pristine natural parks, coastal environment and Aboriginal tourism product are key attractions.

The region also has some of the world’s highest quality mineral resources of magnetite, graphite, zircon and kaolin. The mining industry is expected to have additional growth in future years when developing mines and prospects progress from exploration to operation.
This will create numerous employment and business opportunities and further diversify the regional economy.

Renewable energy is growing due to the region’s natural assets of consistent wind resources, abundant sunshine and high wave action. The region has an estimated 300 cloud free days per annum, making it ideal for large-scale solar energy farms. The wave climate on the west coast of the Eyre Peninsula is the best available in South Australia for wave harnessing technologies.

The Sunshine Coast encompasses beach resorts, surf spots and rural hinterland in southern Queensland, Australia. It stretches from the coastal city of Caloundra, near Brisbane, north to the Cooloola section of the Great Sandy National Park, home to multicoloured sand dunes, mangrove forests, and shallow lakes. Upscale Noosa Heads has boutique shops, waterways, and walking trails through Noosa National Park.

The Sunshine Coast’s economy continues to evolve into a modern, ‘smart’ economy based on sound growth across numerous high valued and knowledge-based sectors including professional business services, innovative manufacturing and numerous high-tech start-ups.

The strength of the regional economy is based in its diversity and strength across a number of key sectors including healthcare, education, finance and professional business services.

The Sunshine Coast is home to industry disruptors like Youi, Huddle, Gourmet Garden, Country Chef, Ambrose Building, Auto & General, Get Wines Direct and Office HQ.
Businesses tap into an inspired workforce of more than 83,000 students across University of Sunshine Coast, two TAFE campuses and more than 150 registered training organisations.

The Great Southern is Western Australia’s southernmost region, bordered by the Southern Ocean where the coast stretches for approximately 250 kilometres. Spanning over 39,007 square kilometres, the region represents 1.5% of Western Australia’s total land mass and extends inland for 200 kilometres.

Deemed as one of the most liveable regions in WA, the Great Southern is renowned for its unspoilt natural environment including white sand beaches, tall timber forests, wildflowers and a spectacular rugged coastline complete with whales, dolphins and other marine life, the region has an inspiring and diverse tourism offering.

The Great Southern region is known for its primary production, natural and harvested fishing, aquaculture, award winning vineyards, fine food and wine culture, ecotourism and natural attractions.

The City of Albany, the State’s oldest European settlement (settled in 1826) is the region’s administrative, business and financial hub.

With over 400km of pristine coastline as well as vast national and state parks, the NSW south coast is the third most visited region in NSW, attracting 4.9 million visitors (excluding figures for Jervis Bay).

This equates to 12.3% of total visits made within NSW making the Far South Coast one of the state’s most popular tourist destinations. This annual visitation is a balanced division between day-trippers and overnight visitors.

Over 70,000 international visitors travel to the Far South Coast region each year.

Brisbane has rapidly emerged as an influential leader in the Asia Pacific and a highly desirable place to do business. The city’s growing global recognition was accelerated by its highly successful staging of the 2014 G20 World Leaders Summit. Capitalising on its enhanced international reputation, Brisbane is shaping itself as a vibrant hub and world leader attracting industry sectors that are globally scalable in the new world economy.

New investment helps to establish Brisbane as a global hub for competitively advantageous industries. Brisbane’s strong growth prospects can be leveraged to attract new investment to the city, even during a time when global investment trends are weak.

Specific advantages linked to Brisbane include:
 competitively positioning Brisbane within Asia as a global centre of excellence for mining and energy technologies
 a desirable location to support fly-in fly-out operations
 significant and growing capacity in innovative manufacturing, ICT, design, creative industries, biomedical, education, research, food manufacturing, clean technologies, aviation and logistics
 large and continuing infrastructure investments  a single council looking after most of the
capital city economy
 a world class air and sea port located close to the city, with capacity to accommodate new industrial developments within the precinct at Australia TradeCoast.

In an Australian first, The City is also creating an advanced Innovation Hub for the blue economy to test and develop new marine practices and technologies that could help sustain vibrant blue economies across the globe.

Our research forecasts an exponential growth in Cockburn’s defence sector over the next decade.

Like many industries, there is a genuine skills gap within the defence sector, and it’s expected to grow as demand does. Without hubs like the one we’re proposing, this will only become a bigger issue.
Joining us in the world-class Innovation Hub will be researchers collaborating across four major universities. Specialised registered training organisations will provide training and upskilling, while PhD students from UWA will deliver research opportunities and help bring products to market. Finally, equity investor group Perth Angels and not-for-profits Business Station and Business Foundations are also onboard with a focus on providing business advisory support.

Up to 40 Blue Economy businesses will be guided to bring their ideas into commercial reality, with access to services which will build capacity and capability.

As an advanced research hub for the Blue Economy, Cockburn will test and develop new marine practices and technology.
This Innovation Hub was designed to help the City of Cockburn grow local jobs, all of which will increase the wellbeing and quality of life for our communities.

Who can work from home?
The ability for people to do their job from home is strongly tied to their occupation and the tasks they are required to perform. Working from home is particularly suited to office-based workers such as managers, professionals and clerical and administrative workers, where workers use computers, interact less with the public, do not perform outdoor work or physical activity, and do not work with immovable structures, materials or equipment.
Census data from 2016 shows that approximately 35% of workers had jobs that were amenable to working from home. This potential to work from home is associated with higher levels of education and higher incomes, and full-time jobs.

Why didn’t these people work from home before the pandemic?
Prior to the pandemic, the technology allowing many people to work from home existed — but very few took it up. HILDA data show that, in 2019, around 8% of employees had a formal work-from-home arrangement, and worked a median of one day per week from home. Overall, around 2% of total hours were worked from home. Census data from 2016 also suggests that a small proportion of workers (5%) worked from home instead of commuting on census day.
A number of reasons can be advanced for low take-up of work-from-home arrangements prior to the pandemic. Management practices and cultural norms in workplaces, and stigma associated with working from home, may have discouraged remote work. Firms would have been reluctant to invest in the technology and systems for large-scale working from home, given uncertainty about its benefits. As the CEO of Morgan Stanley explained in 2020:
If you’d said three months ago that 90% of our employees will be working from home and the employer would be functioning fine, I’d say that is a test I’m not prepared to take because the downside of being wrong on that is massive. (Cutter 2020)