News
Regions Rising progress report has some good and some other news for regional Australia
A new report has found that regional Australia is a better place to live, work and invest than 12 months ago, but some challenges remain, and you may not be surprised what they are.
The Regional Australia Institute’s Regionalisation Ambition 2032 Year 1 Progress Report was released at its Regions Rising National Summit on Wednesday, September 13.
Institute chief executive Liz Ritchie said progress had been made on 20 targets to “rebalance the nation” over the past 12 months, but housing and growing the regional workforce needed “urgent focus”.
The report found that 90,200 jobs were advertised in regional Australia in July this year, 2.7 per cent higher than last year.
The institute’s ambition was for recruitment difficulty to fall below a measure of 40 per cent, but it had instead increased from 64 per cent to 69 per cent.
Regional Victoria saw the highest increase in overseas arrivals, jumping by 474 per cent between 2020-21 and 2021-22 and also recorded the second largest growth (behind Tasmania) in business owner-managers between 2016 and 2021, at 10.5 per cent.
Monthly building approvals in the regions have declined, with regional Victoria’s 38.4 per cent being the second largest fall behind Western Australia.
Pental purchase
Pental, which has manufacturing and sales operations in Shepparton, has been bought by a division of DuluxGroup in what is believed to be a multimillion-dollar deal.
DuluxGroup has confirmed that one of its divisions, Selleys, has reached an agreement to acquire the Pental Consumer Products business.
The deal includes Pental’s consumer brands (except Bondi Soap and Duracell) and the Shepparton manufacturing operations.
A spokesperson for DuluxGroup said the deal was still subject to a few steps, including shareholder approval, but if successful, was expected to be completed by the end of October.
The spokesperson said manufacturing would continue as it was in Shepparton, and employment would be offered to all current employees.
They also said Selleys and DuluxGroup had a track record of acquiring quality businesses and investing in them so they grew over time, and that was the plan for the Pental business, including the Shepparton operations.
Domestic violence leave for small business employees
Employees of small businesses are now entitled to 10 days of paid family and domestic violence leave.
The changes include part-time and casual employees and came into effect on August 1.
The federal reform means employees can take family and domestic violence leave if they need to do something to deal with the impact of family and domestic violence, and it’s not practical for them to do so during their work hours.
Employees are entitled to:
- Ten days of paid leave for non-small businesses (employers with 15 or more employees on February 1, 2023).
- Five days of unpaid leave for small businesses (employers with 14 or fewer employees on February 1, 2023).
The leave is available upfront each 12-month period from the date the employee commences work.
It will not accumulate from year to year if it’s not used.
Free degrees for prospective secondary teachers
The shortage of secondary teachers in regional areas is well documented, and now the Andrews Government has announced its latest plan to solve the problem.
The government says it will make studying to become a teacher in state secondary schools in Victoria free by offering scholarships that cover the cost of degrees.
The scholarships will be available to all students who enrol in secondary school teaching degrees in 2024 and 2025.
The scholarships are part of a $229.8 million package that includes $27 million for the Targeted Financial Incentives Program, which provides up to $50,000 to teachers from Victoria, interstate and overseas who take up rural, remote and otherwise hard-to-staff positions in government schools.