In search of northern vision

In the current election campaign, both the major parties have identified plans for Northern Australia as being an important part of their election platform. Remarkably, both visions have striking similarities, and either could have been penned by the mining industry. It is time our federal politicians looked beyond a quarry vision to ask where is the real economy of the north.

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s latest proposal for ‘special economic zones’ in northern Australia bore a striking similarity to the Coalitions ‘Developing Northern Australia’ vision paper released in June this year. It also spoke of ‘personal tax incentives’ and ‘planning of economic zones’ around Darwin and Cairns/Townsville.

Rudd’s plan pledged to "work with business and other levels of government to help the region tap into the rapidly-growing markets of Asia. This is a key part of Labor’s plan to keep Australia’s economy strong by creating new jobs for the future as the decade-long China resources boom is coming to an end."

Again, the language bears a striking similarly to the Coalitions vision of the northern ‘food bowl’ supplying Asian markets into the future. Missing from both plans is proper recognition of the existing natural and cultural values of Australia’s north.

In fact, Northern Australia is currently home to world-renowned natural and cultural landscapes from Cape York to Uluru, from the Great Barrier Reef to the Kimberley. These are the very places that make the region attractive to a massive international tourism market.

When politicians talk about bold plans for the north, we must make sure they don’t repeat the mistakes of the south.

Short-term, blinkered thinking around the Murray-Darling Basin led to decades of strife as Australia had to manage dwindling water supplies during drought. This is only now being resolved, at a $13 billion expense to the taxpayer and ongoing pain to the environment.

Both parties are pushing the mirage of economic prosperity on the back of mass agricultural industrialisation, but Northern Australia’s soils and intermittent rainfall make it unsuitable as a ‘next frontier’ or a food bowl for Asia. 

A report from the Federal Government’s Northern Australia Land and Water Taskforce – the most thorough review of the region’s water and soil science ever conducted – has confirmed Australia’s north is not vacant land and it should be actively managed for resilience and sustainability.

The report found that northern Australia’s soils are too infertile, rainfall unpredictable, geography unsuitable for large dams and evaporation rates are too high to support large-scale agriculture.

These findings have been backed up be leading regional academics, including Professor Andrew Campbell, Director of the Research School for the Environment and Livelihoods at Charles Darwin University in Darwin, who recently stated, “The idea that we'll be producing huge volumes of food to meet the 70 per cent increase in world food production that's required by 2050 from the soils and water resources of Northern Australia, I think that's misguided.”

It’s not a coincidence that most of Australia’s greatest natural treasures are to be found in the north. We need to safeguard the rivers, the delicate soils and natural carbon stores of northern Australia that will keep our country healthy in the long term and provide meaningful livelihoods to the Indigenous communities living in these parts of Australia.

There are many fine examples of eco-tourism projects securing benefits both for the environment, local tourism, and creating meaningful employment for Indigenous communities.

One of the best recent examples I have experienced is the Mossman Gorge Centre. This iconic indigenous staffed eco-tourism Centre north of Cairns offers visitors to the World Heritage listed rainforest environment a unique point of genuine engagement with Indigenous culture, as well as providing training for future employment for local Indigenous people. This is an example of the types of trailblazing initiatives that policy makers should note.

Sustainable long term development opportunities in the north means boosting investment in nature and culture based tourism, carbon farming and expansion of the renewable energy industry, land and sea management services, and the creative arts – including Indigenous arts and crafts – and are vital to maintaining the health of iconic national landscapes, from the Kimberley to Cape York.

Sustainable economic vision for the north needs to match the nature of the country and capitalise on its natural assets in the long term, not focus on a short term quarry vision that will merely repeat the costly mistakes make down south.

Politicians from all sides need to listen more carefully to people living in Australia’s north who know the true values and limitations of Australia's precious northern landscapes.