The most pressing challenge facing non-metropolitan Australia is how to build an economically productive, socially viable and ecologically sustainable future. Regional Australia is experiencing a period of major restructuring.

Regional industrial growth has slowed, about one fifth of primary producers are expected to leave agriculture within the next decade, many inland country towns are likely to contract and there is increasing pressure on the agricultural and extractive industries to develop more sustainable forms of production.

There are also many opportunities for regional Australia: in niche marketing of goods for export; in value-adding before goods are sold; in the provision of public and private infrastructure; and in the creation of new industries in fields such as recreation, retirement and eco-tourism.

The tasks are to modify those forms of production which are environmentally harmful and to ensure that the 'blend' of current forms of production with some of the new innovative options occurs in a manner which benefits regional Australians.