Prospects for Regionalism in Indigenous Community Governance

Abstract

This presentation will begin by discussing the ‘in-between’ and often ‘counter-factual’ status of regionalism in Australian politics. It will argue that ideas about regionalism are often used as critiques of existing institutional structures and processes at the local, State/ Territory and Commonwealth levels of Australian government, in attempts to modify and improve them. But what precisely the improved regional arrangements should be is often elusive and different in different policy areas or domains. Also the existing institutional structures and processes of Australian government, at the local, State/ Territory and Commonwealth levels, have lives and logics of their own, which are not so easily modifi ed. Regionalism thus has somewhat limited prospects within Australian politics generally. In Australian Indigenous Affairs prospects for regionalism are similarly limited, though far from non-existent. The presentation will discuss ATSIC’s regionalism as it has developed over the last fi fteen years, as an instance of fairly large-scale Commonwealth-driven regionalism which has clearly had its problems as well as some strengths. The presentation will then discuss a Northern Territory Government-driven move from localism towards regionalism in the governance of discrete Indigenous communities, which it will note is a far smaller scale of regionalism than ATSIC’s. Torres Strait’s regionalism will also be discussed as an example of strong regionalism built on micronationalism, but which also strongly respects local autonomy. The presentation will conclude by arguing that regionalism is not a panacea in Australian Indigenous affairs or Indigenous community governance and that its potential, as an ‘in-between’, ‘counter-factual’ is generally oversold. However, if viewed modestly, regionalism does have some prospects for contributing slightly to addressing some fairly complex and often quite intractable issues of Indigenous community governance.