We have now submitted our bid in Round 12 for the Cooperative
Research Centre for Remote Economic Participation. With this bid,
and our plans for a complementary research institute, we are
absolutely determined that desert Australia – three quarters
of our continent – will not be abandoned in terms of a
dedicated research effort. A long and a short version of the
CRC-REP bid application can be found down the right-hand side of
this page.
Peter Gordon at Economic Futures Australia has described why the
need for consolidated research in the desert remains so
important:
“Australia’s potential can’t be realised
without us, as a people, understanding the potential of our
deserts, as they are so important to our continent. To work out
what this potential is, we need to spend a lot more time thinking,
researching and engaging with desert communities and industries
– in the past the focus has been too narrow, on specific
issues. Instead we need a broad, systematic view of the deserts,
how they can benefit us and how we can look after them.”
Here is the structure our the proposed CRC for Remote Economic
Participation:
Program 1 - Regional Economies
Mining, pastoralism, tourism and the arts already generate great
wealth in remote Australia. There is also potential for remote
areas to supply clean energy to the nation and SE-Asia. The
regional economies of the future will depend particularly on
skilled workforces.
This Program will deliver an understanding of the distribution
and mobility of labour across remote Australia and develop models
for integrated and diversified regional economies that overcome the
volatility of distant markets. Its themes include:
- Mobility and labour markets: This will seek
better ways to predict and understand mobility in the remote
workforce, leading to improved services and employment
opportunities
- Maximising regional impact of mining
investment: This theme will find ways to optimise the
spillover benefits from mining activities to remote communities and
areas.
- Climate and energy futures: This theme will
assist remote Australians to understand impacts and adaptation
strategies to cope with climate change and identify how regional
economies can be positioned to capitalise on boundless supplies of
low-greenhouse gas emitting solar and geothermal energy.
Program 2 - Enterprise Development
Remote Australia has some 40,000 micro and small-to-medium
enterprises – many more, per capita, than in the rest of
Australia. Developing a thriving enterprise sector is a fundamental
way to overcome economic disadvantage in remote Australia. Our
research will focus on ways to achieve step-change in the
operations of existing industries, the creation of new industries
and the identification of new markets. It will deliver successful
models appropriate to remote locations and inclusive of Aboriginal
culture. The themes are:
- Economic participation from cultural
knowledge: In this theme we will work with Aboriginal
people to develop social and cultural outcomes tied to business
opportunities. It will include projects that develop
culturally-acceptable models for the commercial use of plants,
optimising value chains in the Aboriginal art industry, development
of Aboriginal cultural tourism and the use of land to engage in the
carbon economy.
- Technology and innovation transforming remote
businesses: We will use leading edge technologies to
reduce variability in current production systems, improve business
efficiency and understand technology adoption in remote businesses.
Our work will focus on the precision systems for the pastoral
industry and efficient and profitable production of native food
plants.
Program 3 – Investing in People
Underpinning the economic participation in its various forms is
appropriate schooling, training and pathways work and livelihoods.
Unfortunately, low retention rates at school, low literacy and
numeracy levels, the lack of appropriate jobs following vocational
and educational training, and low health and wellbeing standards
interact to inhibit the potential of many tens of thousands of
people to participate in remote economies.
This Program will deliver education system research that will
better prepare remote residents for economic participation.
Research into wellbeing outcomes will provide evidence for policies
which foster the kind of economic participation that improves
peoples’ lives. The themes will be:
- The interplay between health, wellbeing, education and
employment: Here we will initiate overdue long-term
studies to explore the links between education, improved
socio-economic conditions and better health and wellbeing,
especially for Aboriginal communities.
- Pathways to work and enterprise: Developing
effective pathways to work and enterprise is a key factor in
improving remote economic participation. This theme will work with
industry, and education and training providers to develop
strategies that ensure remote people can engage with the workforce
or become effective entrepreneurs.
- Remote education and training: This theme is
aimed at finding evidence-based answers to the obvious shortcomings
of the remote education system. It will lead to better schooling
and training services. All of these themes embody a complex system
problem characterised as a 'wicked' problem, for which we will
employ soft systems methodology.
