The face of regional jobs across the country is changing rapidly and a plan to meet demand is needed now – according to the Regional Australia Institute.

This plan delivers five key recommendations to better balance Australia's population growth – taking pressure off capital cities and presenting great benefits to the rest of the country.

This report directly addresses the biggest change to Australian regional policy in decades – the introduction of collaborative approaches and ideas of long-term regional deals.

Decades of reform to service delivery across Australia has introduced a diversity of publicly and privately provided services, aimed at improving both access and quality. But the gaps between regions and metropolitan areas on many measures of service provision and socio-economic outcomes are persisting. The smaller and more remote the community, the greater these gaps...

This report argues that consistent face-to-face access to service delivery professionals is an important part of improving outcomes in small towns and in improving longer-term economic and social prospects in some of Australia’s most disadvantaged places.