A Fairer Go for Communities That Generate Wealth for Tasmania

www.tas.greens.org.au
The Tasmanian Greens today launched a Royalties for Regions Policy, which would see a fund created to return more of the revenue from mineral royalties to the communities which generate that wealth.

Greens Leader Nick McKim MP said that the policy is based on values like fairness and equity, and on the Social Inclusion Commissioner’s recommendations to address social disadvantage in Tasmania’s regional centres by improving services.

Mr McKim said the Greens’ Royalties for Regions Policy, which would see a minimum extra $10m per year directly allocated to local communities across Tasmania, could fund projects like:

· Permanent GPs and health centres

· Rebates on electricity and water bills

· Sports Centres

· Community Centres and Community Housing

· Better regional transport

· Building social enterprise capacity

“For too long Tasmania’s regional communities have missed out on a fair share of the wealth that they generate. It’s time that they saw a fair return for their efforts,” Mr McKim said.

“People in Tasmania’s mining communities work hard to generate wealth for Tasmania, and they deserve services that better reflect their importance to Tasmania’s economy.”

“This policy does not impact on Tasmania’s budget bottom line. It is designed to address disadvantage in regional Tasmania by ensuring a fairer allocation of royalties targeted at improving facilities and services.”

“A similar scheme is bearing fruit in Western Australia and we are proposing a framework to deliver similar outcomes for regional communities in Tasmania.”

“We need to ensure that we retain young families in regional areas, and the best way to do this is to improve community services in those areas.”

Mr McKim said that the Fund would be overseen by an independent Board which would ensure that politicians could not use it for pork barrelling.

“Projects will be funded on the basis of need and equity by an independent Board with no politicians involved.”

Mr McKim also said that the Greens’ Royalties for Regions Policy would extend to the forest industry once it becomes profitable enough.

“Forestry communities also deserve to benefit from a similar scheme. But due to poor public policy settings by the Labor government, forestry is just not profitable enough to be considered for inclusion at this stage.”
Nov22_Royalties for Regions Initiative_N McKim_ATTACH.pdf
Nick McKim MP Greens Leader