Regional development: some issues for policy makers

This paper focuses on regional development. It draws attention to the considerable diversity of nonmetropolitan regional conditions and explains the processes underlying them; identifies the potential for considerable community conflict on many issues; discusses policy dilemmas and the responsibilities and roles of different tiers of government. The paper questions the proclaimed rural crisis and the industry it has spawned, and assesses the implications for policy. To do this, it examines critically the claims of regional disadvantage and examines the factors that influence regional economic and social conditions. These matters provide a policy context that contains several other important dilemmas - including the extent to which the biophysical environment acts as a constraint and the ways in which interest group conflict shapes community preferences and people's understanding of their difficulties.