Recent events in Victoria highlight the importance of politicians paying attention to the rural voice and the issue of rural well being. The substance of this paper demonstrates the capacity of rural communities to contribute a missing link in the chain of decision making in regard to the future well being of regional Australia.
To achieve such a change requires new relationships with policy makers and planners in the creation of partnerships with community organisations.
If community’ is re-established as the location of significant human experience and the meeting of human need~ (Ife 1995. p.l31) then the fundamental change needed to work with the diversity of communities throughout rural Australia can begin.
Read this article by Dr Helen Sheil, Director, Centre for Rural Communities Inc, published in the Journal of Regional Policy and Practice v 10.1, May 2001.