Stoeckl, Natalie, Esparon, Michelle, Stanley, Owen, Farr, Marina, Delisle, Aurélie, and Altai, Zulgerel (2011) Socio-Economic Activity and Water Use in Australia's Tropical Rivers: a case study in the Mitchell and Daly River catchments: final report for The Tropical Rivers and Coastal Knowledge Research Consortium. Report. Charles Darwin University, Darwin.

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Abstract

Using an extensive array of data from several different sources, this report describes how water-use input-output models were firstly built and secondly used to explore the way in which Indigenous and Non-Indigenous incomes, employment, and consumptive water demand changes in response to the growth of different industries in two, remote, river catchments in Northern Australia (the Mitchell and the Daly). It finds that: 1) There is an asymmetric divide between Indigenous and Non-Indigenous economic systems in Northern Australia. Given the lack of employment and business opportunities, workplace skills, and the other infrastructure prerequisites for development, local Indigenous people are very unlikely to benefit from the stimulus of any of the north’s existing industries. This situation is likely to persist unless, or until, there is structural change. 2) Some industries may be able to generate significant business income and/or incomes for some householders, but will not necessarily deliver localised benefit in terms of, for example, employment (be it Indigenous or otherwise). 3) Water multipliers differ by orders of magnitude depending upon assumptions made about the numbers of litres of water consumed per dollar output particularly in the Agricultural sector. This clearly highlights the fact that water-saving technologies are vitally important. 4) Both Agriculture and mining are capable of generating significant income flows. But, unlike growth in the government, health or educational sectors, growth in the agricultural sector is associated with significant growth in consumptive water demand.

Development strategists and/or policy makers may thus need to explicitly acknowledge both the monetary and non-monetary impacts of different development options (not all of which will be negative), seeking to identify ways in which to exploit synergies and redress tradeoffs. This will allow policy makers to capitalise on opportunities that do not place un-due strain upon the region’s natural resources (water being but one of many important examples). Where tradeoffs exist, policy makers may need to make conscious decisions about what it is they wish to 'develop' (e.g. Regional income or regional employment? Regional income or Australian income?). Moreover, they may need to think about innovative methods of redressing some of the potential problems arising from tradeoffs, ensuring that the methods take account of the structural idiosyncrasies of these small northern economies (i.e. the asymmetric divide noted above).

Item ID:	19245
Item Type:	Report (Report)
ISBN:	978-1-921576-37-9
Keywords:	river and coastal settings, Indigenous and Non-Indigenous economic systems, northern development scenarios, water-use input output models
Related URLs:	http://www.track.gov.au/sites/track.boab...
Date Deposited:	20 Jan 2013 23:32
FoR Codes:	14 ECONOMICS > 1402 Applied Economics > 140205 Environment and Resource Economics @ 30% 14 ECONOMICS > 1402 Applied Economics > 140218 Urban and Regional Economics @ 30% 14 ECONOMICS > 1499 Other Economics > 149902 Ecological Economics @ 40%
SEO Codes:	91 ECONOMIC FRAMEWORK > 9199 Other Economic Framework > 919902 Ecological Economics @ 100%
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