Prospects for regionalism in Indigenous Community Governance

Abstract:

This presentation will begin by discussing the 'in-between' and often 'counter-factual' status of regionalism in Australian politics. It will argue that ideas about regionalism are often used as critiques of existing institutional structures and processes at the local, State/ Territory and Commonwealth levels of Australian government, in attempts to modify and improve them. But what precisely the improved regional arrangements should be is often elusive and different in different policy areas or domains. Also the existing institutional structures and processes of Australian government, at the local, State/ Territory and Commonwealth levels, have lives and logics of their own, which are not so easily modified. Regionalism thus has somewhat limited prospects within Australian politics generally.