The role of the defence sector in the regional economy of Central Australia

Abstract

There has been an increasing amount of literature regarding the political economy of the Northern Territory dealing with a wide range of topics, such as Aboriginal development and the role of the public and private sectors in the economy. Less has been written on the Central Australian regional economy. This thesis enters the debate from the point of the special case of the defence sector in the Central Australian regional economy. By examining the structure of the regional economy from work by Elderton (1988) and Crough, et al. (1989), it is argued that the defence sector is a special case of the public sector in the local economy. The Central Australian economy is featured by a long history of public sector subsidisation of private wealth accumulation. The reasons for the colonial occupation of the region were and continue to be largely strategic rather than purely economic. In this context there has been the development of a defence sector in the region that maintains a basic disarticulation or removal from the locality and thus has a different role to other elements of the public sector. This disarticulation is seen in terms of both a strategic level and subsequently at an economic level. The US military and intelligence presence in the Joint Geological and Geophysical Research Station in Alice Springs and the Joint Defence Facility at Pine Gap require a removal from their locality in order to operate at a global strategic scale. The indalee Over-the- Horizon-Radar also maintains a disarticulation from the region due to its national strategic operating scale. The exception to this is the local army reserve detachment (NORFORCE) which requires a basic link with the locality for its operation. The thesis reveals the economic disarticulation of the defence sector and raises the question of whether the sector plays any role in sustainable and equitable development in the region. In synthesising the theory of the ’new’ regional geography with the empirical findings of the research, the thesis argues that the defence sector’s raison d'etre lies outside the Central Australian region. So, even in terms of the dominant development ideology, defence has no real role in regional development outcomes. From the perspective of preferable development goals, defence is a hindrance to the achievement of preferable futures for Central Australia. Show more