City versus suburbs or regions?

This disproportionate allocation of resources and opportunity can lead to an ‘us and them’ rivalry where regions and suburbs will increasingly feel divorced from the economic and lifestyle opportunities so readily available to the inner city. This is only made worse when some of the very beneficiaries of this preferential treatment sneer at the suburbs or regions as somehow second-rate places full of second-rate people. In the USA Hillary Clinton once called them “deplorables.” Joe Biden this year let slip with “garbage.” How did it end for them?

We can still avoid this in Queensland. We do not want to be a class society based on a geography of privilege but instead one where our respective strengths are exploited and our weaknesses supported. There are very good reasons to support the continuing economic development of Brisbane’s inner-city economy. There are also very compelling reasons to invest in similar economic opportunity in run down suburban and regional centres. What is good for one may be different for the other – but the effort and interest to understand what is needed should be equally apportioned.

The suburbs and regions appeal to me because it strikes me this is where so much unrealised potential lies. It’s also where most of us work, live and play. Personally, I think it’s great to see our inner-city economy shake off the covid lockdown impacts and be bouncing back, as good as ever. I also believe we’d be a better city-region if we could say the same about our suburbs; we’d be a better state if we could say the same about our regions, and we’d be a better nation if we could say the same about us all sharing access to similar lifestyle and economic opportunities. 

There could be many more voices from the city calling for this.