Regional Investment Framework

The Regional Investment Framework is a new approach to how the Australian Government delivers regional investment – valuing local voices and priorities, being informed by and building the evidence, operating with flexibility, integrity and transparency, and coordinating across governments to make investments work better for regions. It provides an integrated and coordinated framework for regional development regardless of a region’s economic circumstances.

Realising the Government’s ambition of ‘no one held back and no one left behind’ requires specific regional investment across portfolios.

• Australia’s regions and their economies are diverse, with each having unique strengths and challenges.
• Delivering on the potential of regional Australia requires building on each regions’ unique strengths, including helping regions undergoing significant economic change to transition or adapt to specific structural challenges.
• Place-based decision making that draws on the experience of local government alongside regional bodies must guide investment in our regions.

The key objectives across Government are: 

• Meeting the needs of, and providing opportunities for, First Nations people.
• Supporting the transformation to a net zero economy and decarbonisation.
• Achieving gender equality

This will be achieved by investing in these four focus areas:  

The Framework guides the Government’s approach to design and delivery of regional initiatives. It will influence decision making in Budget processes, drive meaningful collaboration across and between governments, embed data and evidence to support better outcomes, and ensure local voices are heard and influence responses.