Research Reports and Working Papers

The Department of Local Government, Housing and Community Development, Northern Territory Government, engaged the Ground Up team at the Northern Institute, Charles Darwin University, to provide research around people’s experiences of managing their houses and housing situations in two remote Aboriginal communities – Galiwin’ku and Santa Teresa. CDU researchers worked together with researchers from Yalu’ Marŋgithinyaraw Aboriginal Corporation in Galiwin’ku, and with researchers from Tangentyere Research Hub in Santa Teresa. They visited people in their homes, and spoke to them about their experiences with rent, repairs and maintenance, contractors and government. They also asked them about ways NT government can support people to manage their households, and be safe and healthy at home. 

The Northern Land Council engaged the Ground Up team at the Northern Institute to develop monitoring and evaluation processes suitable for two sites of their Community Planning and Development Project – Galiwin’ku and Gapuwiyak. Research in these communities has followed a GroundUp approach, working collaboratively with local co-researchers, collecting stories and developing sets of M&E criteria which make sense in the places where they arise.

This project is part of the Regional Australia Institute (RAI)’s Inquiry Program 2019, as approved by the Secretaries and Directors’ General meeting of December 2018. It is part of The Future of Regional Jobs theme that explores various employment contexts, and the continuing challenges associated with matching local skills with evolving economic opportunities shaping the regional landscape.

The focus of this project is specifically on remote regions, which are characterised by their sparse permanent population, the distance to access generic services (government, commercial and main industry clusters), and their commonly recognised limited skill pools and less diverse economic capabilities. The latter dimensions are usually perceived to create particular challenges to targeted workforce development and harmonisation thereby undermining the potential establishment of a sustainable economic base.

Literature Review on Public Procurement: Theories, evidence and implications for regional Australia
Public procurement is an intriguing ‘field’, given its apparent and deceiving blandness as a topic, its undeniably huge importance for governments, for industry and for entire economies (only relatively recently acknowledged), and because it has attracted in the last few decades sudden interest and enthusiasm for its ‘promises' to furthering public policy, yet unmatched by much research scrutiny. As a field of enquiry or policy it appears to never have been properly framed, neither claimed by any particular academic discipline nor been the subject of intense academic debates. Increasingly assorted sources have come to claim some parts of the policy territory surrounding public procurement to attempt placing government procurement ‘on the agenda’, but without offering clear ways to integrate that variety of views on the topic; which has resulted in much more advocacy commentary about its potential than in-depth research about its efficacy.

Tangentyere’s Integrated Support Program (ISP) Evaluation
In June 2017, researchers from the Ground Up team within the Northern Institute of Charles Darwin University (CDU) were engaged by Tangentyere Council to undertake an evaluation of their Integrated Support Program (ISP). In the evaluation, CDU would facilitate stakeholder engagement and participation through meetings and workshops, focusing on the effectiveness of the program itself as well as its processes. The evaluation also articulates with Tangentyere Council’s desire to implement Evidence Based Policy and Practice (EBPP) more broadly across its service provision portfolio. Part of CDU’s role was to work closely with the Tangentyere Council Research Hub (TCRH) which undertook work with program participants and key Town Camp stakeholders.
This Final Report details the evaluation process, its findings and a series of recommendations. This report will be accompanied by a separate document (which we are calling the ‘Evaluation Toolbox’) which provides a program and resources for ongoing evaluation.

Territory Population Update - New Population Statistics for December 2018
Population figures published by the Australian Bureau of Statistics on 20th June 2019 show that the total Estimated Resident Population of the Northern Territory stood at 245,854 at the end of December 2018. This is a decline of about one thousand people over one year earlier and represents a growth rate of -0.4%. The population of 245,854 gives the Territory just under a 1.0% share of the national population of 25.18 million.

Literature Review on Public Procurement: Theories, evidence and implications for regional Australia - Prepared background analysis for the Regional Australia Institute, September 2018
Public procurement accounts for a significant amount of economic activity, which is why it has become important as a public policy domain for governments (at all scales) pursuing economic development goals, and increasingly as a means to address other types of social objectives. As a field of study, it spans across many disciplines, and remains to this day poorly integrated and rarely analysed or reviewed as a whole. For these reasons, it suffers from the absence of a universal conceptual framework, is short on standard or accepted practices, and is particularly deficient for its exceedingly limited use of credible evaluations producing reliable empirical evidence.
Despite all this, many governments seem to be increasingly calling on public procurement as a mechanism to tackle an increasingly wide range of social objectives (such as Indigenous economic participation for instance) hoping that entrusting some of those to private businesses will overcome the social challenges that conventional and dedicated policy instruments had proven powerless to solve. This survey shows that there are real dangers that relying on public procurement could be to the least ineffective or even prove significantly harmful if procurement processes become ‘captured’ by a variety of private interests and result in undermining governments’ accountability. Small regions lacking critical administrative and legal capabilities appear particularly exposed to such forms of abuse, especially if too many decisions regarding important social choices bypass conventional checks and balances, and inhibit public scrutiny.

Territory Population Update - New Population Statistics for June 2018
Population figures published by the Australian Bureau of Statistics on 20th December 2018 show that the total Estimated Resident Population of the Northern Territory stood at 247,281 at the end of June 2018. This is a slight decline (-236 people) over one year earlier and represents a growth rate of -0.1%. The population of 247,281 gives the Territory just under a 1.0% share of the national population of 24,992,369.

Territory Population Update - New Population Statistics for March 2018
Population figures published by the Australian Bureau of Statistics on 20th September 2018 show that the total Estimated Resident Population of the Northern Territory stood at 246,688 at the end of March 2018. This is an increase of 306 people over one year earlier and represents a growth rate of 0.1%. The population of 246,688 gives the Territory just under a 1.0% share of the national population of 24,899,077.
The graph below illustrates how the Territory’s population has changed over recent years. Following strong increases to the middle of 2013, population growth has been modest in subsequent years. Over the quarter 1st January - 31st March 2018 population declined by an estimated 183 people.

The bar chart below shows how the Territory’s population growth rate over the year ending 31st March 2018 compares with that of the other States and Territories and Australia as a whole. The Territory’s population growth rate of 0.1% is the lowest of all jurisdictions, followed by South Australia at 0.7%. Victoria experienced the highest growth rate (2.2%).

Revised estimates of the population of the Northern Territory in 2016 by Indigenous status, along with regional and local estimates, were published by the Australian Bureau of Statistics on 31st August 2018. Detailed statistics are available in the ABS publication Estimates of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians. This brief summarises a few key points.

As of 30th June 2016 the Indigenous population of the Territory was estimated to be 74,546, representing 30.3% of the Territory’s total population. The Indigenous population has grown by 5,696 (or 8.3%) since 2011; the non-Indigenous population grew by 8,690 (or 5.3%) over the same period. The graph below shows the size of the Territory’s Indigenous and non-Indigenous populations in 2011 and 2016.

The Indigenous population of Australia as a whole in 2016 was estimated to be 798,365. The Territory therefore is home to 9.3% of Australia’s Indigenous peoples.

Profiling capacity to support older people in remote communities to age in place
Two key objectives underpin the Commonwealth government’s funding system for remote Indigenous communities. The first is to make the funding system more flexible and stable, to ensure that delivery of services in small communities is cost effective and sustainable. The second is to enable the funding to be used in the development of culturally appropriate support for older people, shaped by customary values and practices. The purpose of our investigation was to examine against these objectives, the practical reality of delivering support for ageing in remote Indigenous communities in central Australia. In short, our study questions were: In the light of the current funding arrangements, what forms of service delivery for older people ageing in remote communities, have been developed? What are some of the key achievements and challenges in supporting ageing in place in remote Indigenous communities?

Synthesising Northern Territory Population Research: A report to the Northern Territory Department of the Chief Minister
In September 2017, the Northern Territory Department of the Chief Minister contracted the Demography and Growth Planning research team at Charles Darwin University to synthesise twelve years of research on the causes and consequences of population change in the Territory and advise on strategies for stimulating population growth. Each of the eight chapters in this report commences with a short summary of the chapter’s purpose, its core messages and recommended actions.

Remote Engagement Coordination - Indigenous Evaluation Research (REC-IER)
The Remote Engagement Coordination – Indigenous Evaluation Research (REC-IER) project was funded through the NTG Department of Housing and Community Development. The aim of the research was to develop community specific strategies for evaluating the engagement and coordination performance of government in the four project locations – Galiwin’ku, Ngukurr, Ntaria and Ali Curung

This brief reports on an exploration of the experience of ageing in a remote community within the Northern Territory. It aims to deepen current understanding of what determines resilience for individuals and communities of seniors who choose to grow old in small, isolated communities outside of main urban centres.

This report, five years on, compares the recommendations of the Inquiry with the perceptions and experiences of older people living in one remote community in the Northern Territory (NT).

The aim of this project was to explore the experiences of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in Darwin when a cyclone, bushfire or severe weather event strikes and in its aftermath, and to identify determinants of vulnerability from the perspective of these communities. 

The purpose of the Safe Streets Audit was to examine crime and safety issues in the Northern Territory urban communities of Darwin, Katherine and Alice Springs and to help inform effective strategies to reduce the actual and perceived risk of victimisatio

The goals of this program were to improve understanding of the contemporary functioning and interactions of Aboriginal and Western governance traditions, and grow capacities and understandings in governance and leadership in remote communities.

This project developed, implemented, evaluated and reported upon systems for the properly supervised inclusion and active participation ‘from country’ of Indigenous knowledge authorities, in Australian higher education courses, through the use of emerging digital technologies.

The aim of this research was to investigate Aboriginal perspectives on volunteering, and to explore processes and practices through which non-government organisations and service providers might support Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander volunteers.