Now you see it; now you don't. Looking for the 'remote advantage' in the development of Northern Australia: Developing Northern Australia: recognising remote mixed-market economies

One challenge for Northern Australian development is national sampling cannot adequately represent the drivers of economic participation in sparse populations across remote Australia. Over the last four years the Cooperative Research Centre for Remote Economic Participation’s (CRC-REP) programs have gathered data with remote Aboriginalcommunities, industries and service sector representatives in parts of remote NorthernTerritory, South Australia, Queensland and Western Australia. As a synthesis of findingsfrom those projects and relevant literature, we ask what and how ‘mixed-market’ activitiescontribute to structures of economic participation in a sample of remote communities in Central Australia. Finally, we consider what this insight contributes to the discourse ofsustainable development in Northern Australia.
‘Mixed-markets’ are those which combine the opportunity and investment of both market and non-markets, such as government or philanthropy. Clustering a sample of remotecommunities in Central Australia, we compare employment and industry participation datawith the presence or lack of local mixed-market structures and activities. We determine thatnational data is not adequately representing the scope of mixed-market economic activitieswhich are so essential to remote Australians. In light of unpacking this finding, we describe anumber of key findings and address three of the key issues. The first is the scale required tointerpret the values and variables asserted through customary, natural and linguisticcharacteristics that contribute to mixed-market activity. The second is the burgeoning andvaluable remote capacity and advantage which is associated with mixed-markets and thatunderpin those activities; and the third examines how the benefits flowing from these can inform the agenda for the sustainable development of northern Australia (AustralianGovernment 2013; Northern Territory Government 2013).