Albany Mayor urges State ties to the regions ahead of WA election

City of Albany Mayor Dennis Wellington wants the State Government to build closer ties with regional centres which he says do not get enough recognition for their contribution to the WA economy. Mr Wellington is chairman of the Regional Capitals Alliance, a group representing regional WA’s top 10 most populated local governments. Each local government is represented by its respective mayor or president and chief executive at regular meetings in Perth. The alliance employs a Perth-based executive officer to lobby State ministers, the Premier, department heads and Federal officials in Canberra. With less than three months until the election, Mr Wellington said the group was formulating its pitch to WA’s major parties on behalf of the 250,000 people living across the State’s 10 regional capitals. He said it would be important for the State Government to listen to the expertise of regional local governments and regional industries when planning for the future. According to the Regional Capital Alliance, its 10 local governments account for $71 billion worth of port production, and $4b worth of agriculture, with a gross regional product of $33b. “A lot of our financial gain comes out of regional areas and we want to get a better recognition of that and better result for our dollar,” he said. “It is difficult to get government departments located in country areas. “But local governments are already there with a workforce, so why wouldn’t you want to work with them? “We want to be part and parcel with the conduit to get things going. “That’s just a matter of working alongside them instead of working against each other so that the whole of regional WA can benefit.” Mr Wellington said the group would be advocating for investments to secure the jobs and industries needed to boost regional populations. According to a report by the group, there are 880 proposed regional capitals projects across the 10 local government areas to the value of $3.6b.