McBain Talks About Rural Leadership

Have you heard of the Australian Rural Leadership Foundation (ARLF)? It’s a not-for-profit organisation that specialises in delivering tailored and ethical rural leadership development programs and initiatives.

On the 26th October, Kristy McBain MP was invited to a dinner to mark the release of ARLF’s 2022 Annual Report, and said: “Our Government is listening to local leaders and in June the Prime Minister announced the Australian Local Government Association will again attend meetings of the National Cabinet and the Council of Federal Financial Relations annually. In the lead-up to the Jobs and Skills Summit I convened roundtables and discussed with key regional local government stakeholders some of the big issues facing rural and regional Australia. And yesterday our government’s first Budget outlined the foundational steps we are taking in our investment approach to Australia’s regions.

“We’re serious about bringing regional leaders to the table. We’re serious about talking to our communities and working in genuine partnership on place-based investments. Our regions are incredibly unique. They’re incredibly diverse, and there is no one-size-fits-all approach for us. But we do have to work with each other to solve the challenges and harness our opportunities. Empowering local leaders to bring their own views to government, to have the confidence, skills and pathways to represent and advocate for their communities is key, and the work of the Australian Rural Leadership Foundation is so important to this.

“Through initiatives like Leading Australian Resilient Communities program, the Foundation’s working with a range of partners to provide up to 26 leadership scholarships across 10 regions, something that we are really proud to be supporting. And some of this valuable work is being undertaken in my own electorate of Eden-Monaro.

“And I want to give a shout-out to all those local leaders who are tonight and will be for weeks to come in communities in New South Wales, Victoria and Tasmania dealing with floods. Community members who are working together to build flood levees, communities who have come together to sandbag, communities who are helping others through what is probably one of the worst times of their life, and community members who are stepping up, engaging with politicians, engaging with support agencies on behalf of those who can’t find the strength to do that at the moment.

“Right across regional Australia there are people who don’t see themselves as leaders. But that is exactly what they’re doing. And this is why the work that you’re doing is incredibly important because it provides people an understanding that leadership isn’t a title. Leadership is something that some people find themselves in, step up to do and some people really excel at it and get it together.”

You can learn more about ARLF here: https://rural-leaders.org.au/

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