Three strategies to supercharge communities right across Australia

Mobilising communities to drive rural and regional transformation

Last week, I spoke to attendees at the inaugural Regional Australia Institute’s Regions Rising  event series at Old Parliament House, in Canberra about how regional communities can come together to drive rural and regional transformation.

The theme of the event was Regional Futures and it firmly focused on identifying and capturing the key issues impacting regional communities across Australia.

One such issue is access to equitable levels of funding, health care, education, transport, infrastructure and technology.

I’ve always lived and worked in rural and regional Australia. I grew up in Cohuna - a small town in Northern Victoria on the Murray - and I‘ve spent my adult life living on the outskirts of Bendigo.

There are a few things I know about country people. We’re resilient, we’re clever and we have a strong sense of community. We also face a number of key challenges that our friends in the city don’t – or at least don’t experience as severely.

We also don’t like a hand out – we’d much prefer a hand up. Throughout my time at Bendigo and Adelaide Bank, I’ve had the privilege of offering our customers and the communities they live and work in a hand up. Primarily, by helping them to finance their homes, farms and businesses, but also by playing a role in empowering them to take control of their community’s economic security, which has led to amazing social outcomes.

This flips the dominant narrative about the plight of helpless and declining rural communities, and it shines a light on inspiring stories of empowerment, revival, renewal and world-leading innovation.

This event gathered people from all walks of life – politics, government, business, not-for-profits, academia and community leaders. We were all there for one reason – to make rural and regional Australia the best it can be. 

We wanted to send a message that the whole country can enjoy the benefits of prosperity, not just a handful of rich regions. A rising tide does not necessarily lift all boats – it needs the right strategy and collective effort and the path to achieving this goal will require collaboration. I spoke about the role each of us needs to play in this collective effort for long-term success, and the things we can do now to achieve better outcomes in the short-term.

I shared with the audience, the following short story about the small community of Warburton in Victoria’s Yarra Ranges. It’s inspiring and goes to the heart of the theme of my presentation.

One day, about ten years ago, two men were playing golf on the steep local course which has the picturesque and ever flowing Ythan river running through it.  

These two golfers had an idea, what if they could restore the town’s old hydro scheme. It had operated a hundred years ago and supplied electricity to the community before the town was connected to the energy grid. If they could get it up and running again, they thought it could provide their town with a consistent renewable energy option and a return of sustainable profits to the community.

Ten years and $1.2 million later the Warburton Community turned on its own Hydro Power Plant, capable of powering the equivalent of 150 homes. The majority of profits generated from the new system are returned to important community initiatives.

It’s an example of a community determined to achieve valued self-reliance and to have the ability for it to generate its own income and help determine its future. The project shows what can happen when community, business and government combine for the greater good.

Now that’s just one community. Picture what could happen if this was occurring right across Australia.

So, how do we do this?

It’s pretty easy, and it starts by stepping aside and getting out of their way, but in doing so offering that hand up. Each of us - be us from business, government or not-for-profit - can extend that hand, and there are three important ways we can do this:

1.    Reduce complexity and make it easy. The communities we partner with tell us government needs to reduce complexity and streamline funding pathways. They would love to work with government to build a simple and consistent approach across the three tiers, so that it’s easy for community to partner at a local, state and federal level. A simplified process would also make it easier to include other funding partners (both for profit and not for profit) in the mix. There’s also a strong sense that great initiatives shouldn’t succeed or fail based on a community’s ability to fill in a grant application.

2.    Encourage collaboration, not competition. Competition for grants shouldn’t pit neighbouring communities against each other, rather it should encourage them to seek out shared opportunities and collaborate. When these sorts of barriers are successfully navigated, incredible things can be achieved for entire regions – not just one community.

3.    Remember the little guys. Smaller communities are often at a disadvantage when it comes to competing for grant programs that are focused on economic development. Yet, strong evidence exists to show that small communities are pragmatic and resourceful – they extract maximum value from relatively small investments and are proactive in maintaining community assets. Amenity and public realm investments in smaller communities have a significant positive impact in boosting civic pride and resilience, particularly where local services and facilities have either been lost or are under pressure to remain viable.

The trust, goodwill and genuine connection we’ve established with Australian communities, has been strongly influenced by our Community Bank® initiative which has been a profound enabler of prosperity in rural and regional Australia.

The unique community-led solution was developed in 1998, after a number of Australian banks withdrew their branch services. Closures often targeted smaller, country communities and had a significant impact on the economic prosperity of these towns. 

But resilient, clever, community-minded regional Australians put a stop to this trend and worked with us to develop the Community Bank® - the original Shared Value business model.

The partnership sees Bendigo Bank form a franchise agreement with a community that has displayed it’s capable of owning and operating a bank branch. Once the Community Bank® is operating and profitable, the revenue made from the banking business is shared equally between Bendigo Bank and the community. The Community Bank® board, which is made up of local volunteer leaders, then distributes earnings to local shareholders and invests capital into local initiatives. 

In 20 years, we’ve opened 320 branches and communities continue to want to partner with us. Almost 1,600 people are now employed by Community Bank® branches nationwide, and about $92 million was paid in salaries last year alone.

Since its inception, Community Banking has generated more than $205 million for reinvestment in communities and this money has been spent addressing local needs, desires and aspirations as chosen by the community. The flow on economic impact has been significant.

Imagine what we could collectively achieve if we worked alongside empowered communities - of which we know there are many - to tackle the complex and diverse set of challenges facing rural and regional Australia. Positive, profound and lasting change is possible – a visit to almost any Community Banking town or region will show you that.

At Bendigo and Adelaide Bank, we know that successful customers, create successful communities, which leads to a successful bank, and only in that order.

The simple act of banking – something we all do – can and should, if administered correctly, have a positive impact on Australian communities. But this is only possible if that bank has a genuine belief that its purpose is to feed into prosperity – not off it.

I’d like you to ask yourself, whether your financial institution is doing this? If you don’t like the answer and want to be part of what we do, then let’s talk – or leave a comment below.

This is an exciting time to be a rural and regional Australian and we all have an important role to play in shaping what happens next. The efforts we make today to strengthen and improve our communities and regions, will transform all of Australia for decades to come.

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This is an excerpt from a speech I delivered on 4 April 2019 at the Regional Australia Institute’s Regions Rising Event Series in Canberra.

 To read my speech in full, please click here