Without taking any action regional Australian towns and cities will grow by more than one million people over the next 10 years, but a major national body wants to push that number up higher.
The Regional Australia Institute (RAI) think tank's 2032 strategy includes a goal of adding 500,000 extra people to the regions, many of whom would be encouraged to leave their capital city homes.
That would bring the country's regional population to 11 million.
The Rebalance the Nation project has been met with a mixture of enthusiasm and reluctance from regional centres, many of which are struggling with housing, staffing and infrastructure shortages.
Source ABC News (Tara Cassidy)
