The three regional independents are calling for more spending on infrastructure outside the capital cities, but a leading demographer has warned not all areas are equally deserving.
According to The Australian Financial Review, Peter McDonald, professor of demography at the Australian National University, questions whether anything will help reverse the historic shift from the country to cities and from the inland to the coast.
In a recent study for the Local Government Association of Queensland, he predicted that the state's population would grow 54 per cent in the next two decades but the north-west, which covers half of the seat of Kennedy, would rise just 12 per cent.
He said targeted investment, payroll tax incentives and housing subsidies might encourage people to move to a few growth areas, such as Mackay, which would then grow faster than the rest of the state.
Professor McDonald said the mining boom didn't necessarily justify building infrastructure in regional areas. He said the mining workforce largely operated on a fly-in, fly-out basis from coastal cities like Perth or Cairns.
The population of Mount Isa, in the seat of Kennedy, has barely grown in the past decade. Professor McDonald said it made more sense to spend money in the areas where fly-in, fly-out miners had permanent homes.
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