By Jane Bardon
Developing more of northern Australia for farming and harmonising
state laws have been set as rural priorities at the Prime Minister's 2020
ideas summit in Canberra.
But it is only the start of tackling problems faced by industries and
communities in country areas.



After some scepticism about the Canberra talkfest, most of the 100
rural delegates felt it was worthwhile.



Many of the farmers, business people, health workers and scientists
had never before had such an opportunity to work together to put forward
solutions to government.



They strongly endorsed Liberal Senator Bill Heffernan's call to expand
agriculture in the wet north, as a way to prepare for climate change.



Federal Agriculture Minister Tony Burke was the rural section joint
chair.



"There's an urgent need to conduct that research, to coordinate some
of the siloed research that's already occurred and work out to what extent
we can harness the opportunities we have as a nation at the moment to become
part of the solution on global food shortages," he said.



"We've got, in the north of our nation, one of the few parts of the
world where there's an opportunity to really increase agricultural
production."



Premiers, including Victoria's John Brumby, promised action on the
rural delegates' call to do more to harmonise different state regulations,
which are causing havoc to rural industries across everything from transport
to planning.



"The incentive fund is a great way to do it," he said.



"The states that perform, the states that drive the productivity
improvements, the states that get rid of the dead hand of regulation, get
some incentives. Those that don't get penalised."



Co-chairman Tim Fischer outlined the rural section's proposals to
encourage more people to move to, and stay in, country Australia.



On his list was "incorporation of rural studies into a national rural
education program, establishing centres of excellence in agricultural
studies in rural and regional locations and in classrooms across Australia,
children should be encouraged to grow something real."



Controversial topics



Discussion of areas of disagreement, like whether Australian should
adopt more genetically modified crops, was not suppressed.



Meat processor Roger Fletcher was involved in a controversial
discussion about changing drought relief.



"Exceptional Circumstances does at times leave people where they don't
try to move forward, they just sit there," he said.



"And we can do a better thing for those farmers to either help them
move on, or improve their sustainability. They can't stay on Exceptional
Circumstances for 20 years, for example."



Mr Fletcher was philosophical that his proposal to abolish state
governments just failed to get up.



But in other sections, such as climate change, some delegates felt the
more difficult solutions were shied away from.



Larissa Brown is from the not-for-profit Centre for Sustainability
Leadership in Melbourne.



"I felt some of our discussions were hijacked by the brown coal lobby,
she said.



"One key idea was that we don't build any more coal-fired power
stations until carbon capture and storage is tested and can be commercially
viable."



Government priorities



Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has already committed to addressing the two
main rural priorities.



"As I went to the rural group, they presented me with the proposal for
uniform licensing regulation of surface transport - we've got to look at
that one very quickly."



Chairman of the Inland Railway project, Everald Compton, brought a
proposal to the summit for 30 major freight hubs.



He says it is now up to the delegates to keep the pressure on the
government.



"The success of this will depend on how many of us start ringing up
politicians, bureaucrats and money people and saying, let's not hang
around," he said.



"Let's go to government and say we want to partnership with you to
achieve these things. We just can't sit back and leave it to Kevin Rudd and
Anna Bligh and Morris Iemma and John Brumby. That's not going to happen.



"We've got to get down there into the ring and do something about it."



Future farm fund



The youth delegates of the Rural 2020 Summit have put forward their
own recommendations. They want more money, and they want new programs.



Delegate Ben Kent is a state government town planner from rural
Western Australia.



He says at the youth summit, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd was
enthusiastic about a plan to establish a government and industry fund to
help farmers better adapt to climate change.



Mr Kent says the youth delegates feel the mining industry would also
contribute.



"Their main mandate is to keep the population up in rural areas so
they don't want to see people flocking to the cities, because they want
people to work in their mines," he said.

"So with them putting money into this bank, it would allow for a
better agricultural sector and obviously more people flocking to rural
areas."

As well as securing the future of rural industries, the summit's rural
section will tackle how the communities which support them can be
regenerated.

Youth summit delegate Naomi Godden is a social policy researcher at
Monash University.

She says giving rural young people better access to higher education
is a major priority.

"The idea which came out includes reform to youth allowance, to make
sure that all rural young people have access to it so they can access
tertiary education, to make all rural young people eligible for a tertiary
access allowance to help them with relocation costs," she said.

"Also, the Federal Government should fund a rural education alliance,
as a national peak body for rural education to ensure we have a strong voice
in policy development."


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