Creating a pipeline for sustainable and inclusive development: A research synthesis for developing new pathways for the northern Australia

New optimism and confidence in the future of northern Australia was sparked through the Commonwealth’s launch of the Developing Northern Australia White Paper in 2015. The White Paper in effect, was seeking to build the governance, policy and delivery systems necessary to secure the nationally important development opportunities that northern Australia provides. This foundational policy architecture comprised some 51 implementation actions covering research and development, workforce development, feasibility assessment, concessional loans, major infrastructure programs, trade development and the overarching governance of the agenda.

Building on a synthesis of some seven years of strategic research across the Cooperative Research Centre for Developing Northern Australia (CRCNA) and targeted northern Australian investment from the National Environmental Science Program (NESP), this paper seeks to explore both the successes and challenges facing the White Paper in its first 7 years of operation. It also draws on the directions emerging from past Northern Australian Joint Select and Standing Committee inquiries and Ministerial Forum priorities and discussions, other Commonwealth, State and Territory reforms processes, the annual priorities emerging from the Developing Northern Australia Conference (DNAC) and various other research activities concerning the development of the north.

Methodologically, in line with global and national understandings of development, this paper considers that outcomes from White Paper policies need to be sustainable and inclusive while building community and regional resilience. The development and infrastructure investment approaches taken in the north also need to be able to meet well defined national, state and territory investment principles. In this context, development needs to cater for supporting large, medium and small business sectors; ensuring that policies can build a diverse economic future. With this in mind, this paper analyses progress and lessons learned across all steps of the investment pipeline needed to secure quality investments for economic, social and environmental progress across various project proponents from the not-for-profit, private and government sectors. Finally, development also needs to adjust to the challenges that a rapidly changing climate presents; a factor that will have significant and increasing implications for the investment pipeline. This applies to adaptation to the impacts as well as management of local, regional and national emissions amelioration.

These investment pipeline steps progress across the following layers: (i) research, development and extension (RD&E); (ii) human and institutional capacity building; (ii) strengthening First Nations institutions (iii) place-based partnership building; (iv) land use planning and infrastructure planning; (v) feasibility and development assessment; (vi) finance brokerage and closure (from all sectors); and (vii) public sector investment in major enabling infrastructure. I consider that this investment pipeline also relies on the health of the wider trade environment in which this investment occurs, as well as the overall system of governance of the northern Australian agenda.

Given the current refresh of the White Paper Action Plan, this analytical framework has enabled me to look at the operation of original White Paper initiatives (and subsequent refinements) in each step of the pipeline, explore where the strengths and weaknesses were in each step in the system, and finally to recommend actions that could be considered to strengthen the northern Australia agenda over the next five years. Broad finding across this analysis suggests that:

• There have been some outstanding successes in establishing a stronger northern Australian development investment pipeline, including at least foundational investments in RD&E (e.g. through the CRCNA), the establishment of targeted concessional loans (e.g. through the Northern Australian Infrastructure Facility (NAIF)) and major enabling infrastructure packages (such as the Beef and Strategic Roads Packages);

• While there were significant successes, some steps in the pipeline were less well developed, or serviced by short term or one-off investments or actions versus the development of more systemic responses. There were, for example, key gaps and weaknesses in human and institutional capacity building, place-based partnership building, land use/infrastructure planning and tenure resolution, and development project feasibility assessment;

• While there were some 10 White Paper actions focused on Indigenous led development, there was limited partnership built with the North’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in their design. While this issue was partly resolved through the creation of the Indigenous Reference Group (IRG) and Accord, there was no cohesive implementation of IRG Accord outcomes; and

• The original White Paper actions primarily focused on externally sourced, large corporate sector investment, with less focus on building small to medium business economies in situ. This suggests weaknesses in any economic theory applied within the original Whitepaper.

With these systemic strengths and weaknesses in the northern investment pipeline in mind, this analysis leads to some 27 targeted recommendations that might be considered for inclusion in the refresh of the Developing Northern Australia White Paper Action Plan.