The Problem
From the Kimberley, to Kakadu, to Uluru, to Cape York, Northern Australia is one of the very few large natural areas remaining on earth. Unlike in other parts of Australia, our natural places remain largely unspoilt by extractive industry.
However, the nature of northern Australia is facing unprecedented threats. A new approach is needed.
The Northern Myth
Since colonisation, large-scale extractive development of northern Australia has been a policy obsession for successive Australian Governments. According to this narrow vision, the extraordinary natural and cultural values of northern Australia are conceived of largely as a deficit, with the north’s “true potential” as yet unrealised and only to be achieved by coping more heavily industrialised areas in Australia and globally. The promise of northern development has largely remained a myth at best, and an abject failure at worst. Extractive projects have repeatedly failed to invigorate northern Australia’s economy as desired by policy makers, with billions wasted in public subsidies. A new approach is needed.
Climate Change
Northern Australia faces a stark future due to climate change. Much of northern Australia will be unlivable if global temperatures increase by around 3 degrees, and this could become a reality within two generations. Natural disasters are increasing, with more intense cyclones, erratic rainfall and more frequent flooding predicted across the north. Four of our world class ecosystems are showing signs of “collapse” - our savanna ecosystem, the arid interior, the Great Barrier Reef, and the mangroves of the Gulf of Carpentaria.
Fossil fuel expansion
Northern Australia is already the locus of the LNG export industry, with 10 LNG export hubs dotted across the northern coastlines of Queensland, the Northern Territory and Western Australia. Multiple new gas fields are planned to supply these export hubs for decades to come, including Woodside’s Browse Basin, the Kimberley’s Canning Basin, and the NT’s Beetaloo Basin. These projects are incompatible with a safe and liveable climate for northern Australia.
Industrial agriculture
The cotton industry similarly planning unprecedented expansion across northern Queensland, Western Australia and the Northern Territory. If left unchecked, industrial-scale development will lead to deforestation and unsustainable water extraction over potentially hundreds of thousands of hectares of northern Australia. We can’t repeat the mistakes of the Murray Darling Basin here in northern Australia.
Taxpayer subsidies
Many of the large-scale development projects pursued in northern Australia have been or are proposed to be heavily subsidised by the Australian taxpayer. Billions of dollars of public money have already been wasted on failed projects across northern Australia. Decisions about funding these projects have tended to be infected with optimism bias, leading to poor environmental, social and economic outcomes for communities in northern Australia. Furthermore, they entail a diversion of vital funds to secure genuine economic and social wellbeing in the north, which is a region that experiences high levels of poverty, poor essential service provision, and failing infrastructure.