Development in the Tropics update

The Development in the Tropics team (DITT) recently completed workshops with the Commonwealth, Queensland, and Northern Territory governments for the Marine and Coastal Hub’s Regional Planning in Northern Australia scoping study. This achievement is a major milestone in the project and has made a valuable contribution to the northern dialogue relating to high profile federal and state/territory policies for regional planning across the north.

Workshops involved various departmental staff responsible for land use planning, development assessment and approval, environmental protection, compliance and enforcement, infrastructure, water and agriculture policy, major development financing, domestic and international trade, and Indigenous Australian policy. Workshop discussions were highly productive and focused on place-based approaches to development decision making and the success factors for protecting and enhancing the environmental, cultural, social, and economic values of northern Australia.

DITT and workshop participants collectively explored key development pressures and challenges for development in northern Australia, making development decisions within the current multi-jurisdictional statutory and policy frameworks, and opportunities for reform to improve outcomes for key northern values. DITT will now turn its attention to analysing and evaluating the research findings from the 42 stakeholder interviews and government workshops conducted since April as they prepare to finalise the scoping study report for publication later this year.

A key emerging finding is the need for improved regional data analytics to support evidence-based decision-making across public and private sectors. Accordingly, DITT has been working closely with the Western Australian Biodiversity Science Institute (WABSI) to promote synergies between their Shared Analytic Framework for the Environment and regional planning/regional governance.

DITT and WABSI’s partnership will culminate in a jointly delivered Western Australian government workshop later this month, and represents a strong, strategically aligned research capability into the future.
Importantly, many of the project’s findings reflect the outcomes of the Developing Northern Australia Conference where a diverse stakeholder network operating across the north met to share their experiences and progress from the past year.

The Conference highlighted the important role the north will play in Australia’s economic future while also acknowledging the significant challenges ahead. These include geopolitical and supply chain security issues in the Indo-Pacific, increasing biosecurity threats, transitional risks associated with net-zero and the economic pandemic recovery.

As identified in the scoping study and discussed at the Conference, the revival of the Ministerial Forum presents a welcome opportunity for visionary Commonwealth, State and Territory collaboration for inclusive place-based approaches to sustainable development for better regional outcomes.