Policy for desert Australia is characterised by distant policy
development processes and a divided political geography built on
relationships to the nearest coastal city. The dominant coastal
perspective results in access to services, funding programs and
expertise that may not be appropriate for desert Australia.
Cross-border activities must put enormous efforts into linking
diverse players who may place little political priority on
collaboration. With the best of intentions, institutional
arrangements and cultures are often imported from more densely
populated areas. Programs often struggle to find efficient ways of
delivering resources to small communities, which end up with many
small grants, and an unsustainable administrative burden both
locally and in the program delivery agency. The result is a strong
tendency towards supply rather than demand-driven services with,
for example, house insulation standards or employment programs
mainly defined for more densely populated coastal areas.
