Regional Development Australia Murraylands and Riverland (RDAMR) announce a new double-headed approach to transforming the region.
Ben Fee, RDAMR Chief Executive (CE), will be joined at the helm by Julie Bates, newly appointed Chief Operations Officer (COO), to progress much-needed regional transformative programs while continuing to deliver RDAMR’s traditional project-based support to regional businesses and communities.
Jodie Hawkes, RDAMR Chair, reflected that regional development is not a simple ‘build it and they will come’ proposition, pointing to ongoing housing supply issues, the complexities of water recovery and its impacts on communities, access to reliable workforce, and under-resourced regional healthcare, as just a few examples.
“Our business and community leaders know that complex problems require complex solutions. This is why RDAMR is forming a Regional Alliance to focus on large-scale and long-term programs to help transform our region for a more resilient and sustainable future”, said Mrs Hawkes. Julie Bates, RDAMR COO, has been a familiar face in the region since joining RDAMR in 2016. Starting as the Tourism Development Manager for the Murray River Lakes and Coorong Tourism Alliance, she has spent the past few years leading business development at RDAMR, driving initiatives that support local businesses and communities.
“Through programs like the Agri Food Tourism Development Program, and by working closely with local businesses and communities on the Foundation for Rural and Regional Renewal’s Community Impact Program and PIRSA’s Investment Pipeline, it is clear that long-term support leads to stronger, more resilient regional businesses and communities,” Ms Bates said.
“However, delivering lasting transformative change can be challenging when support often comes in the form of short-term grants and inconsistent project funding. We need to ensure ongoing access to these vital services, which I am committed to maintaining. But beyond that, we must expand our regional development toolkit to provide more sustainable, long-term solutions,” she added.
Ben Fee, RDAMR CE, has been developing a suite of large-scale and long-term, transformative programs from many of the shorter-term initiatives run by RDAMR over recent years, and will be solely focusing on these over the coming months, thanks to Julie Bates taking over the operations of RDAMR.
“Transforming a big and complex regional ecosystem takes deep system understanding, trusted networks, targeted interventions and time. By way of example, RDAMR set a vision in 2020 for our region to be internationally recognised as a vibrant, world-leading circular economy by 2030 and, late last year, the Australian Government’s Circular Economy Ministerial Advisory Group (CEMAG) recognised in their final report, The Circular Advantage, that several RDAs are prioritising circular economy regional development strategies – exemplified by the Murraylands and Riverland RDA. That’s national recognition at the halfway mark of our ten-year vision … so we’re on track!”
Mr Fee went on, “Another example is, in August of 2022, we connected our regional water stakeholders with the Deputy Premier, Susan Close, who is also the Minister for Environment and Water, because we knew the Murray-Darling Basin Plan was facing a review in 2024. As it turned out, the review was delayed until mid-2026, but from these discussions, PIRSA is now developing a whole of government ‘water transition’ business case that we hope will bring hundreds of millions of dollars to our region in the coming months.”
RDAMR is looking to progress transformative strategic programs like these in partnership with public and private regional business and community leaders through a Regional Alliance. The Regional Alliance will ask, “What do we want our region to look like in 50 years?” Importantly, the Regional Alliance will set to work on gathering the resources and know-how to deliver on these strategic programs, positioning our future generations for success through place-based, collaborative leadership.
Media contacts:
Claire Garner – Strategic Business & Communications Manager
M: 0423 533 354 | E: cgarner@rdamr.com.au
