Scott Morrison will make a major job-creation pledge on Wednesday promising to create 450,000 new jobs over the next five years in regional Australia.
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The pledge to regional Australia reflects one third of the 1.3 million new jobs over the same period that the Prime Minister has already committed a re-elected Coalition government to delivering.
A third of Australians are found in the country's regions along with a third of its economy, Mr Morrison explained.
"Regional Australia can trust the Coalition to deliver on an economic plan for the regions because creating opportunities - city and country - is part of our DNA," he said.
"We understand that regional Australia is the lifeblood of our country - it's home to one in three Australians, accounts for almost a third of our national economy and a similar share of small businesses."
He said the government had the "runs on the board" to deliver on the promise, which builds on 1.9 million jobs created since the Coalition government came to power nine years ago, and with a national unemployment rate now down to 4.0 per cent.
The government's figures say there are almost 50,000 fewer unemployed people in regional Australia than when the Coalition came to office.
"Our economic plan is backing our regions to grow even more, and create hundreds of thousands of jobs, with more than $21 billion in the budget being invested into developing Australia's regions," Mr Morrison said.
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The Prime Minister touted investments with the potential to create jobs and drive growth and productivity in regional areas including the government's $7.1 billion for our Energy Security Regional Development Plan, $2 billion for our Regional Accelerator Program, and $1.3 billion for regional telecommunications.
The government's jobs plan leans on measures announced in last month's budget, including $3.7 billion to support 800,000 new training positions and its $120 billion infrastructure pipeline.
It plans for the jobs growth to span generations by boosting regional apprentices by providing an additional 5 per cent wage subsidy in the first year of a regional apprentice over and above that for the rest of the country.
Harley Dennett
Former federal politics bureau chief for the Canberra Times, via a career that's taken me from rural Victoria to Washington DC. Telling the stories of my local LGBTI community brought me to political journalism, where I've covered eight budgets, four national elections in two countries, Defence, public service and international governance.
Former federal politics bureau chief for the Canberra Times, via a career that's taken me from rural Victoria to Washington DC. Telling the stories of my local LGBTI community brought me to political journalism, where I've covered eight budgets, four national elections in two countries, Defence, public service and international governance.
