Chief executive of the group, Townsville-based Glenys Schuntner, said the white paper, which was designed to concentrate the federal government’s policies on the progress of the region north of the Tropic of Capricorn, and was the central topic of its meeting last Tuesday.

The committee’s recent bimonthly meeting was “an opportunity to meet in Mount Isa and consider the white paper’’, she told The North West Star during a break in proceedings at the Ibis hotel, in Isa Street, to meet the area’s movers and shakers. 

The committee, the former AusTrade senior manager said, represented “one loud, united voice” for the prosperity of the area that covered a quarter of Queensland, from the Gulf to Boulia, and from the Outback to the Great Barrier Reef, and the white paper informed the way forward to the next stage: investment.

The regional advocates were excited by last month’s budget funding for “beef roads” and the extra funding that accompanied the white paper, and its mention of key projects, such as thoroughfares like the Flinders, Hann and Barkly highways, and Outback Way, that were fundamental to opening up the land for economic exploitation.

Infrastructure visions, like the Tennant Creek to Mount Isa rail link, also may open up the region to additional mineral projects as the Alice Springs to Darwin connection help initiate new ventures along its corridor, as well as new avenues for trade across the Top End, she said.

Extra tourism numbers to region are also benefits that may spring from the increased transport infrastructure, as well as regional employment during the construction phases, Ms Schuntner said.

She hoped the white paper’s focus on water resources among other things, would speed development on the Flinders River and in other irrigation projects.

The region could also offer its expertise in rural and remote health management with its experience with telemedicine, medevac care techniques and dry tropical diseases, as well in biosecurity in cattle production and aquaculture, she said.

The meeting, which is held alternately in Townsville and Mount Isa, saw the dozen members of the body discuss issues raised in the report and progress of current programs.

The committee, which is one of 55 across Australia and 123 in Queensland, that was formed as an initiative of the federal Department of Regional Development and Infrastructure, is moderated by Julia Creek resident and North West Hospital and Health Service chairman Paul Woodhouse and includes Normanton’s Bob Owen, the director to the Mount Isa Centre for Rural and Remote Health, Professor Sandra Knight, and Hughenden councillor Greg Jones, the Mayor of Flinders Shire.