Fixing the Hole in Australia’s Heartland: How Government needs to work in remote Australia
Fixing the Hole in Australia’s Heartland: How Government needs to work in remote Australia Report
- Author(s): Walker BW, Porter DJ, Marsh I
- Published: 2012
- Publisher: Desert Knowledge Australia
Abstract: Over the past 30 years, it has become the most urbanised continent in the world. Australia’s view of itself has shrunk to its coastal fringe. More than 85% of our population lives within 50km of the coastline and our system of democracy and national economy has progressively been altered to serve the coastal areas and the large mass of people in urban Australia. In numerous ways, this has been at the expense of how remote Australia and its people and communities are governed, leading to what is nothing less than a crisis in governance, and an urgent need for systemic change. Remote Australia is that part of the Australian landmass (approximately 85 per cent) distant from centres of economic and political decision-making. And yet it makes a significant contribution to national wealth with 60 per cent of the nation’s mining platform operating in remote Australia. In effect, with the exception of the cities of Melbourne, Adelaide, Perth and their immediate hinterlands, remote Australia is what is left of the nation once you go beyond the plains west of the great divide. How do the residents of remote Australia, a population larger than that of the ACT or of Tasmania spread over 85 per cent of the continent, see themselves and their situation? Largely, and fairly, as ill served by government.
- Urls: https://eprints.utas.edu.au/15065/, https://eprints.utas.edu.au/15065/1/Fixing_the_hole_in_Australia%27s_Heartland.pdf
- Publisher Location: Alice Springs
- Keywords: Aboriginal