TARGETS have been set for the Murray Mallee across sectors from health to population growth, as part of South Australia’s Strategic Plan.
The State Government has started a push to make the strategic plan more applicable to regional and rural areas.
As part of this, the Strategic Plan Community Engagement Board began consulting with a steering group of local people about the different targets set through the plan for the Murray Mallee, which encompasses all of the Murraylands.
The various targets in the plan relate to the region’s economy, population, health and crime.
Community engagement board chairman Peter Blacker said the plan was a “living document” designed to evolve with communities.
“Whilst we want to stretch targets, it is a community wanting to get there, it is no point having targets that are totally possible, and no good if they are impossible,” Mr Blacker said.
He said government and non-government agencies would help the community at a regional level to reach its goals.
On top of the consultation with the steering group, the engagement board held a community meeting in Murray Bridge last Monday night to further develop the priorities and aims for the region.
State Member for Hammond Adrian Pederick attended the meeting and said he would have liked to have seen better dialogue between the audience and the board members.
He slammed the target setting process, saying the State Government should be more concerned with fixing the River Murray’s problems, which would in turn have a positive impact on the region’s outcomes.
“Instead of running around with all these lovely targets, they should get out here and make sure we get our share of road funding and health services,” he said.
Proportion of population
with healthy body weight
Region - Healthy body weight (percentage)
State average 42.4
Murray Mallee 37.8
Adelaide Hills 44.9
Barossa 41.6
Eyre and Western 35.7
Far North 30
Limestone Coast 35.1
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Mu rray Mallee needs to get moving
THE Murray Mallee community is being urged to get out of the house and start exercising or participating in sport.
This is the latest aim to come from South Australia’s Strategic Plan, which sets out to see the region meet or exceed the State average.
At present, 73.9 per cent of the Murray Mallee population participates in exercise, recreation or sport, which is down on the State tally of 82.6pc.
The Standard sports columnist Harold McLaren is an avid observer of sports trends and said there was no doubt there had been a decrease in the number of people playing sport.
Mr McLaren said he had noticed a few contributing factors to the lower numbers.
“If we look at it in two lights, for the ones that play sport there is far more opportunities then there ever was in the past, but because there’s so many things on now days a lot of children don’t play,” he said.
Mr McLaren said the change in work hours meant a lot of people worked on the weekend, and this had made a difference to player numbers.
“Overall there is less people playing sport because there is such a diversity of interests,” he said.
Many of the junior sports programs are thriving, including Auskick, Roo Ball (junior soccer) and Little Athletics.
Murray Bridge Little Athletics immediate past president Geoff Wegener said last season there were about 90 children participating, and the season before that there was a record number of 98.
Little athletics runs from mid-October through to March and is for children ranging from 3 to 16 years of age.
Mr Wegener said the retention rate could often drop once the participants entered their teenage years but there was a shift away from this trend just recently.
“I have had a group of athletes who have come though and they are basically sticking with it, in the under 13s and under 12s,” he said.
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R egion unhealthy compared to State average
THE Murray Mallee will need to improve its health if it wants to fall in line with South Australia’s Strategic Plan targets by 2014.
The Murray Mallee is lagging behind many of its regional counterparts in the areas of smoking, body weight, sport participation and mental health.
The Government wants to see a 10 per cent reduction in young smokers - those aged between 16 and 29 - by 2014.
For the Murray Mallee, 25.1pc of people in this age group smoke and the strategic plan outlines a reduction to come in line with the State average of 21.3pc in six years. Another target is to increase the proportion of Murray Mallee adults with a healthy weight to the State average of 42.4pc.
Presently, only 37.8pc of adults in the region have a health body weight (a body mass index betweem 18.5 and 25).
This means more than 60pc are overweight.
However, when it comes to life expectancy the Murraylands, which is incorporated into the Hills Mallee Southern region, is higher than the State average.
The statistics and strategic plan aims were discussed at a meeting last Monday with community members and the Strategic Plan Community Engagement Board.
Mannum’s Dr Peter Joyner addressed the small group of people at the meeting about the health requirements of the region.
“Our region is diverse, we need to have services which are appropriate and local for the emergency care,” Dr Joyner said.
“We need also to have an integrated, coordinated approach so we don’t just get lost.”
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