Changing Scale, Mixing Interests: Generational Change in Northern Territory local government

Abstract

This article examines recent local government reform in the Northern Territory from two perspectives. The first is a quantitative perspective on population and finances, which focuses on the mixing of diverse interests in the recent changes. The second is a more observational perspective gained from working with one pre-reform local government and the larger local government that has replaced it. The article argues that the recent changes are generational in nature in three distinct and significant ways. It also argues that the greater challenge for the new local governments may be their vast geographic scale, rather than their mixing of diverse interests.