As Australians, we’ve always been proud to say we rode on the sheep’s back to grow our economy and our nation. Our agricultural producers - including our grain, sheep and cattle farmers, our fishermen and women, our wine and grape growers and makers, our dairy farmers and our blockies among others – have been the backbone of our local and export economies for decades.

When you add in our mining and resources industries, it’s evident we are a productive nation where our people have worked hard to grow, dig and build products to establish our economy.

Without Whyalla we wouldn’t have had steel. Without Port Augusta - and before green energy - we wouldn’t have been able to power Eyre Peninsula. Without Port Lincoln and the South East, we wouldn’t have a reputation for supplying quality grain, dairy and clean and green seafood. And without the Riverland, Barossa and McLaren Vale, we wouldn’t have strong wine and citrus industries.

Producers from each of these regions have a commonality - other than powering our economy - they share a common need to access markets with minimal delay. That could mean providing a safe and speedy route to a port, a regional city, Adelaide, other parts of the nation and beyond.

However, our road and rail infrastructure has not always been up to scratch. While it may take several state and federal budget cycles, upgrading and duplicating the Augusta, Dukes and Sturt highways is essential to ensure our regional businesses can access markets safely and quickly. We cannot grow our exports if we cannot access markets.

Safety is also essential for anyone using those routes, including truck drivers, sales reps, farmers transporting produce or travelling families. Business SA has prioritised improving our regional road infrastructure for the sake of our state’s future economic prosperity. If our productive regions aren’t thriving, our state can’t be.

Reliable regional infrastructure that enables access to markets also includes ensuring our rail lines are accessible. With the rail line to Port Lincoln unfortunately now closed, there will be a significant increase in road usage on the Eyre Peninsula. Freight traffic is also increasing throughout the Riverland - often on substandard or narrow routes. Rail could again be considered to facilitate access to markets.

We’re mindful that companies such as grain-handler Viterra have steadily reduced rail operations in both the Murray Mallee and in Eyre Peninsula grain growing regions for commercial reasons, but we also need reminding that Victoria provides wide-spread rail freight access to northern cities such as Mildura, which recently benefited from upgrades under the $440 million Murray Basin Rail Project.
 
The State Government’s 2019-20 budget contained an $834m-spend to fix the state’s regional roads over forward estimates. The government is budgeting to spend $11.9 billion on infrastructure over that period, while debt is projected to grow to $21.3b. That’s record debt, but the state must spend its pennies - albeit borrowed pennies - to ensure our regions prosper, infrastructure improves, jobs are created and we grow our export markets. We can’t ignore our regions.  

This article was originally published in the South Australian Business Journal on Tuesday 20 August 2019.

Martin Haese is Chief Executive Officer at Business SA.