Over the last few weeks, I’ve been observing the changing seasons and watching a gorgeous tree outside the Regional Australia Institute (RAI) office transform. The once naked, sculptural branches are now full of bright green leaves and pink blossom. Bees buzz incessantly around the flowers, whilst birds come and go – sometimes sheltering from rain, sometimes stealing a twig or a two for a nest. It’s spring in all its glory, but it’s also a thriving microcosm, every part connected and influencing each other. Much like regional Australia.
Interconnectedness is a concept I often think deeply about. It is the basis of my north star, the Regionalisation Ambition – a 10 year framework for regional Australia, which is designed to help direct the actions of government, industry and community towards achieving a greater proportion of Australians living prosperously in the regions by 2032. It recognises that for the regions to become more robust, inclusive and balanced, then 20 interconnected targets need to be met. These targets cover issues like increasing the share of skilled workers in the regions, ensuring annual building approvals keep pace with population growth and doubling the proportion of new migrants settling in the regions. All are interconnected and influence each other, and like the tree, all help to support regional Australia’s thriving ecosystem. As famous organisational theorist Russell Ackoff said, “A systems problem is never simply about the sum of the parts, it’s about the product of its interactions.”
That ‘systems-thinking’ approach is truly at the heart of the RAI’s latest research report, Circular Economy in Action: Regional Perspectives, which the Hon. Catherine King MP, Minister for Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government launched at our Regions Rising Tasmania event in Launceston last week. The report was discussed at length during a panel session, featuring Peter Freak, the Vice Chair and Tasmanian Director of Charitable Reuse Australia; the Hon. Pam Allan, the Chair of the Tasmanian Waste Resource and Recovery Board; Michael Attard, Team Leader Sustainability, Infrastructure and Assets Network at the City of Launceston; Diane Rae, the CEO of Ewenique Enterprises and facilitated by Simon Pryor, the RAI’s Director of Research and Policy. To witness the enthusiasm and engagement in the room for circularity was truly awe inspiring and demonstrates the potential this research has to impact national conversations.
I’m further excited by this report, because circular economies in their most basic form have been deeply embedded in regional Australia for a long time. As the daughter of a farmer, who grew up in Deniliquin in the NSW Riverina, nothing went to waste on our property. If we could reuse, remodel, recycle or re-appropriate something we did. Often, that item was given a new life, doing something completely different to its original intention. We certainly never called it a circular economy. We certainly didn’t describe it as a systems approach. But in essence that’s what we were doing, and that’s what it was. We were reducing consumption, increasing resource efficiency and reducing waste. We were looking at our challenges holistically and understanding that pulling out a single weed, in a single paddock wasn’t going to make a difference – the whole district needed to get involved. Yet again, like the tree and like regional Australia, in a circular economy every part is connected and influencing each other.
A new wave of circularity is upon us, and this was more than evident at this month's Australian Circular Economy Forum hosted by Circular Australia. I was honoured to be a panellist thinking about the opportunities for regional Australia under the backdrop of the net zero transition. The evolution from fossil fuels to renewables is underway, as is a change from linear economies to circular ones. Both transformations are happening in tandem and at pace, due to impending deadlines relating to emission reductions and renewable generation. Both are also presenting enormous opportunities for the regions.
What our research uncovered is that there are some incredibly innovative circular practices already underway in regional Australia. Often these have been championed by highly motivated locals or evolved in a region due to its pre-existing industrial landscape. The RAI found examples of regional councils setting long-term plans and working with local industry to accelerate circular projects; of collaborations across the public and private sectors to reduce waste and cut costs; and of significant private investment in recycling plants in regional communities.
However, circular economies remain in their infancy in regional Australia. Whilst there is an extensive amount of research about circularity in an urban context, there is little that considers what drivers, barriers and challenges exist in regional Australia when adopting and establishing circular practices. It’s vitally important that regional frame of reference is considered, especially in light of the impending release of the Circular Economy Ministerial Advisory Group’s final report and the Productivity Commission’s current enquiry into ‘Opportunities in the Circular Economy’. We know this is a space the Australian Government is active in, and we look forward to working with government to ensure the regions are supported to not only champion circularity, but to be leaders in it too.
Inevitability, it all comes back to interconnectedness. Whether it be establishing a circular economy, supporting regional communities, or nurturing a single tree’s microcosm– it hinges on every part being connected and every part influencing each other. By joining the dots, taking in the whole rather than the singular, and appreciating the long-term vision rather than the short-term wins, you can create a system that thrives, and for nature, for our communities, for our world, that’s what we want. If you’re ready to be part of that sort of system I encourage you to reach out – because it’ll be by the product of our interactions that we’ll drive that momentum to thrive.
Liz Ritchie, RAI CEO.