Accessibility of Essential Services in Urban and Regional Australia

The extent to which governments have an obligation to provide a core set of essential services to all taxpayers, irrespective of their place of residence, is a topic of regular political debate. Of particular concern is the quality of telecommunication, health and education services in rural and regional Australia. A major weakness of discussions on this issue has been the lack of objective data available to compare the accessibility of essential services between locations and over time. The Australian Farm Institute contracted NIEIR to quantify rural disadvantage in access to essential services.