A Question of Balance?: The Fate of Balanced Development as a Regional Policy Objective in New South Wales

Abstract

This thesis is a study in public policy analysis. Specifically, it is a study of regional policy change at the national level in Australia and in New South Wales since the 1960s. It charts, and seeks explanations for, one of the most important shifts to have occurred over this period - the abandonment by governments of any serious attempt to address the issue of metropolitan primacy. The core element of the thesis is the notion of "balanced development", the idea that there should be a more even spread of population and economic activity between Sydney and the rest of the State. This has been a unifying philosophy of successive generations of regional advocacy groups who have resented Sydney's dominance of the State's economy and who perceive in metropolitan primacy a major source of the continuing problems of non-metropolitan regions. The thesis explains balanced development and places it in the context of wider, ongoing debates about the future of regional Australia and the perceived "city-country divide". The responses of governments (both New South Wales and Commonwealth) to the persistent calls for balanced development are explored through a detailed analysis of regional policies since the 1960s. There was a "high tide" period from 1965 to 1976 in which governments tried to address metropolitan primacy with some vigour, through various decentralisation programs. Since then, no government has seriously attempted to repeat the approaches of the 1960s-70s. Several potential explanations for the decline of balanced development as a policy objective are suggested in turn - flaws in the idea itself; changing regional conditions that have led to new problems demanding government attention and to the emergence of challenging new policy ideas; the ineffective performance of key interest groups in lobbying governments; changing ideologies and policy priorities; and institutional barriers within government. Where appropriate, concepts from the public policy literature are used to frame questions in relation to the explanations offered. While the explanations offered have merit, each provides only a partial accouunt of the rejection by successive governments of balanced development. Each explanation must be considered as part of a policy "jigsaw", interconnected to other explanations. Similarly, there was no single point at which government "rejected" the idea of balanced development - shifts in regional policy and the adoption of new approaches have occurred incrementally. The thesis attempts to come to grips with one of the most important changes to have taken place in the thinking of governments about regional policy in Australia in the last forty years. In doing so, it offers fresh insights into regional policy processes and into the policy process generally in New South Wales.