Measuring Indigenous economic activity in six remote NT communities Professor William Mitchell Centre of Full Employment and Equity Charles Darwin University and University of Newcastle

Centre of Full Employment and Equity Aim of Project  The purpose of this research Project is to develop a set of indicators that measure Indigenous economic activity in six target communities: -Ntaria -Ramingining -Angurugu -Umbakumba -Milyakburra -Tiwi Islands

The six study regions MILYAKBURR A TIWI ISLANDS

Centre of Full Employment and Equity Project design … literature  Literature review on issues relating to regional development and measurement of economic activity in remote indigenous communities.  Conceptual issues.  Frameworks.

Centre of Full Employment and Equity Project design … profiling the study areas  Literature review on issues relating to regional development in remote indigenous communities.  Detailed statistical profiles of the six target communities – with comparative analysis between 2006 and 2011 Censuses.  Experimental benchmarking against selected comparable regions in Australia.  Detailed analysis of Australian Tax Office data from to by postcode to profile income and related information.

Centre of Full Employment and Equity Project design … modelling  Develop a broad economic framework (input-output) for assessing regional development in remote Northern Territory communities. -Estimates of economic activity including measures of community regional product. -Integrate NTG Department of Business Job Profiles into hybrid IO model (Key Sector analysis). -Conduct interviews with local engagement officers (Strengthen the Key Sector analysis). -Measures of labour demand shortages (CDEP Case Study).

Centre of Full Employment and Equity Project design … data inventory  Provide a detailed inventory of existing relevant data sources within existing Northern Territory Government agencies and apply that data, where possible to the development of the economic profiles.

Centre of Full Employment and Equity Project design … additional indicators  CofFEE Economic Prosperity Index and Employment Vulnerability Index: -Attempt to fine tune these to provide synthetic estimates for the six case study regions  CofFEE Functional Economic Regions (CFERs): -The CFERs for the Northern Territory will be updated using 2011 Census Journey to Work data and new spatial datasets constructed based on the new geography.

Centre of Full Employment and Equity Census data profiles  Demographic and economic profiles are available from the 2011 Australian Bureau of Statistics Census of Population and Housing (collected August).  Available Labour Force data for indigenous and non- indigenous includes: -Employment – full-time, part-time, total -Unemployment -Not in Labour Force  Can be broken down into public/private  The Labour Force data is enumerated by persons.

Centre of Full Employment and Equity NT Department of Business Job Profiles  Data collected June-July  Data reflects those businesses reported as operating in the town at the time of data collection.  Data is based on jobs rather than the Census focus on persons.  Why would they be different? -Multiple job holders. -Job sharing.  Indigenous status assigned by “business representative”.

The six study regions MILYAKBURR A TIWI ISLANDS

Centre of Full Employment and Equity Data issues - Ntari

The six study regions MILYAKBURR A TIWI ISLANDS

Centre of Full Employment and Equity Data issues - Ramingining

The six study regions MILYAKBURR A TIWI ISLANDS

Centre of Full Employment and Equity Data issues - Umbakumba

The six study regions MILYAKBURR A TIWI ISLANDS

Centre of Full Employment and Equity Data issues - Angurugu

Centre of Full Employment and Equity Progress …  Literature survey nearly complete.  Detailed profiles nearly complete.  Delay in establishing contact with relevant officers in each community – Federal employees. We are awaiting permission.  Ethics clearance cannot be completed until we have names of relevant people to interview.  Development of modelling framework – technical work done – now experimenting with Job Profile information to modify “top-down” IO data to create hybrid approach.

Centre of Full Employment and Equity Prognosis …  The data difficulties are substantial – especially with no Job Profile data for the Tiwi Islands and Milyakburra.  It is unclear whether we will get permission to work with the community contact officers.  There is considerable uncertainty about the Census data.  The Project will deliver a guide to what steps should be taken in the future to ensure that the aims of the Project – to develop a set of indicators that measure indigenous economic activity in six target communities – is possible.

Centre of Full Employment and Equity END OF TALK