The key theme from the 2023 Queensland Futures Institute Growing Opportunities for Queensland’s Regions forum was the resilience and diversity of the State’s regions and strong leadership from Local Councils to meet the accessibility, infrastructure, and social needs of their communities. Having weathered impacts of Covid, the growth of the regions must be underpinned by continued strong governance and a rethinking of the necessary funding models required to support this.
There are many opportunities for the regions over the next decade in the lead up to the Olympics, which require investment in infrastructure to allow visitors to explore our State. Sustainable growth will be key to balancing the economic benefits of this with well-planned urban development which does not come at the cost of the environment. This will likely also require collaboration across all levels of government to achieve.
