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Question Time: Regional Focus

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Event Status

Beyond the city gates (okay, the urban sprawl) lies regional Australia: home to around a third of the nation’s population. Too often missing from the national conversation, the regions will be the focus of this Question Time event. We’ll examine the issues facing country communities and shine a light on the advances and innovations that are changing regional Australia as we know it. Think infrastructure, transport, the NBN, disaster management, exports and climate change.

As Australia’s population continues to amass around its major cities, we’ll examine our reliance on those in the country. We’ll consider, too, how regional communities can have a stronger voice in national debates – and how they can influence policy and decision-making at  government level. Vibrant, adaptable and integral to our future: come and find out about what’s happening … out there. 

Madeleine Morris hosts a full hour of audience Q&A with a panel including Su McCluskey, immediate past CEO of the Regional Australia Institute, rural leader and Voices for Indi president Alana Johnson and Mark Muller of R.M. Williams Publishing.

Based out of town, but have questions? 

By popular demand, we’re offering everybody the chance to contribute remotely to Question Time: Regional Focus. We’ll stream the event live via Periscope (download the app to your Apple or Android phone or tablet), and relay some of your questions to the panel in Melbourne on your behalf. Follow @wheelercentre or keep an eye on our Twitter feed to see when it’s getting started.

As usual, we’ll post a podcast soon after it’s over.

Featuring

Madeleine Morris

Madeleine Morris is a Melbourne-based reporter for ABC television’s 7.30. She was formerly a presenter for the BBC in London and reported from dozens of countries before returning to her native Australia. She is the author of Guilt-Free Bottle-Feeding: Why Your Formula-Fed Baby Can Grow ... Read more

Su McCluskey

Su McCluskey was named the winner of the 2013 Australian Financial Review and Westpac Regional Women of Influence Award. She was the 2014 winner of the Women in Australian Agribusiness outstanding contribution to policy category, and was a Panel Member on the Harper Review’s Competition Policy Rev... Read more

Mark Muller

Mark Muller is editor-in-chief of R.M.Williams Publishing. This multi-award winning business is devoted to telling stories from rural and regional Australia. It produces a range of magazines, books, and digital publications including the flagship R.M.Williams OUTBACK magazine. Muller grew up ou... Read more

Alana Johnson

Alana is widely recognised for her work in rural development and gender equality. In January 2020 she was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia for her services to women. A pioneer of the rural women’s movement in Australia, Alana is a founding member of Australian Women in Agriculture Inc.... Read more

Location

The Wheeler Centre

176 Little Lonsdale Street Melbourne Victoria 3000

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The Wheeler Centre acknowledges the Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung people of the Kulin Nation as the Traditional Owners of the land on which the Centre stands. We acknowledge and pay our respects to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and their Elders, past and present, as the custodians of the world’s oldest continuous living culture.