Remote Wisdom: Eidos Congress, Brisbane - 7 November 2014
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Transcript of Remote Wisdom: Eidos Congress, Brisbane - 7 November 2014
Remote Wisdom
Innovation for remote Australia
and its relevance to policy Friday, 7 November 2014
Ninti One is a not-for-profit company that builds opportunities for
people in remote Australia through research, innovation and
community development.
Ninti One also manages the CRC for
Remote Economic Participation and
external consultancy projects.
2
Introducing Ninti One
3
Precision Pastoral Management Tools Project
Northern Beef Industry Analysis
• In the last decade (1998-2008)
• Costs have escalated
• Debt levels have doubled
• Returns on Assets have been only
0.3 - 2%
5
• In 2013, no further improvement
• Poor business performance due to
poor herd productivity
6
Research Questions • What new technologies can
assist the beef industry?
• Can we add technologies to the
RLMS to benefit producers?
• Can we build an integrated
decision-making tool?
• How much benefit is there for
beef producers in using this
tool?
7
8
Benefits for beef producers
• Better matching of stocking rates to
available pasture
• Improved liveweight gain and calving rates
• Improved land condition
• Increased ability to make strategic
decisions
• Improved profitability
9
How are we doing it?
1. Stakeholder consultations
2. Feasibility/Scoping Study
3. Prototype development
4. Business Plan
5. Focus Groups
6. Research & Demonstration Sites
7. Commercialisation
10
Progress to date
• Stakeholder discussions
• Literature review of 62
technology products
• 35 shortlisted & 4 selected
• Human & Animal ethics
approval
11
Progress to date
• Advisory committee appointed
• PPMS Prototype developed
• Business plan undertaken
• Student project
12
13
Progress to date
• Developed our PPMS prototype
Progress to date
• Expressions of
Interest (n=25)
• First three sites
selected
14
Current Research Sites
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Research Methodology
• Quantitative and qualitative
methodology
• Validation of technology products
• Business analysis and economic
evaluation
• On-going feedback and
development of PPMS
16
How are the research sites going?
• “Tarrina”, Qld, drought &
destocking
• Newcastle Waters Station, NT,
well above average wet season
• Glenflorrie Station, WA, average
to above-average summer
17
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For further information, please contact:
Sally Leigo
Email – [email protected]
Phone – 08 8951 8144
Questions?
Remote Education Systems Project
Remote education: A ‘problem’ in search of solutions
• Numerous reviews and policy responses but little to show for the
effort and investment.
• Responses so far have focused on:
• English language, literacy and numeracy
• Compliance measures
• Attendance strategies
• Residential boarding schools
• More Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander teachers
• Teacher retention, recruitment, incentives
• Programmatic approaches to pedagogy (e.g. DI, AL)
20
No significant change over 6 years
21
-
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013
Attendance rates, very remote schools
-
100.00
200.00
300.00
400.00
500.00
2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013
Year 5 numeracy results, very remote schools
-
50.00
100.00
150.00
200.00
250.00
300.00
350.00
400.00
2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013
Year 3 reading results, very remote schools
Very remote schools with…
Up to 80% Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students
>80% Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students
RES project aim
To find out how remote Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities
can get the best benefit from the teaching and learning happening in and
out of schools.
Research questions
• What is education for and what can/should it achieve?
• What defines ‘success’ from the remote Aboriginal and Torres Strait
Islander standpoint?
• How does teaching need to change to achieve ‘success’?
• What would an effective education system in remote Australia look
like?
Important focus
• Amplifying the voices of remote community stakeholders
22
RES Project data sources
• Derived from analysis of publicly available datasets (my school
and Census)
• Community surveys in 10 remote communities
• Observations from site visits in 3 jurisdictions (WA, SA, NT)
• Engagement of over 190 remote education stakeholders in formal
qualitative research processes (20 Thinking Outside The Tank
sessions)
• Dare to Lead Snapshots in 31 Very Remote schools
• Reading of the relevant research literature
• 6 Post-graduate research projects in progress (topics include
technology, curriculum, health-wellbeing-interplay, year 12
completions, boarding schools)
23
3 years in, here are some key learnings from RES
• Success isn’t necessarily what we think it is.
• Nor is the concept of ‘aspiration’.
• Local people often see these things differently from non-locals.
• Context complexity demands more than simplistic responses.
• Responses need to consider an advantageous education, rather than
focusing on ‘disadvantage’.
• Communities are strong influencers of educational outcomes.
• Pathways through school to economic participation are unclear.
• While early years learning matters, learning for teenagers and parents
also matters.
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An intentional strategy
• Education Departments, Independent and Catholic systems
• More than 900 stakeholders engaged
• Thinking Outside the Tank sessions: more than 190 engaged
• Community involvement and collaboration
• Academic writing (see http://crc-rep.com/remote-education-
systems/project-outputs)
• Dissemination (e.g. Garma)
Think differently
Talk differently
Respond differently
What do the findings suggest?
• Working with communities is essential.
• Strengthen local school governance.
• Investment in community development to complement investment
in schools.
• Recognise ‘success’ through alternative measures.
• Recognise the different ‘qualities’ of teachers needed for remotes.
• Build contextually relevant ‘red dirt curriculum’ which connects to
‘red dirt economies’.
• Offer a mix of local delivery and boarding options.
• Create knowledge exchange partnerships.
26
Towards impact
• Connecting with current policy agendas (e.g. attendance,
boarding, community engagement, ‘teasing’)
• Filling evidence base gaps with a view to future trends (e.g.
‘Red Dirt Curriculum’, boarding schools)
• Engagement with university partners on quality teacher
preparation for remote contexts
27
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For further information, please contact:
John Guenther
Email – [email protected]
Phone – (08) 8959-6049
Questions?
Population Mobility & Labour Markets Project
Why worry?
• In Wadjela world view: Geography and mobility critical to
economic outcomes:
• Economic participation
• Labour supply & employment outcomes
• Income
• Consumption
• Access to services
• Education
• Health
• etc.
• Economics of delivering services and providing infrastructure
• Functions of Statehood
• Governing/policing
• Counting and measuring
• Taxing
30
Policy can never be passive
• Government decisions inevitably shape where people are and
when:
• Infrastructure provision
• Zoning, planning, land release, etc
• Models of service delivery and housing provision
• Temporal dimensions – working week, school holidays, public
holidays
• Implications for remote vs. non-remote Australia
31
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander livelihoods in
remote Australia
Health
Employment Family & kin
connections
Education
Wellbeing Culture
Income
Country
Socio-economic outcomes
• Remote vs. non-remote
• Generally lower outcomes in remote vs. non-remote Australia
• Issues facing Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians
• Life expectancy 20 years lower - Infant mortality rate 2 to 3 times higher
• Suicide twice as prevalent
• Rate of incarceration 13 times higher - 23 times higher for juveniles
• Half as likely to complete high school
• etc …
• Only some of this disadvantage can be attributed to remoteness
33
Underlying assumption of culture as a barrier
• Empirical evidence actually shows positive associations with cultural engagement and identity:
• Self-assessed health
• Completion of Year 12
• Probability of being employed
• Less likely to be arrested
• Lower alcohol abuse
• Mental health/subjective wellbeing
• Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander culture should be seen as
part of the solution to disadvantage, not part of the problem.
34
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Mobility
• From first engagement, mobility patterns have been seen as
‘problematic’:
• Initially seen as random and unproductive
• The many policies to ‘civilise’ and ‘assimilate’ had the
deliberate aim of sedentarisation
• To this day, mobility seen as inconsistent with mainstream models
of service delivery and attempts to ‘Close the Gap’.
35
Limited contemporary evidence
• “…policy makers who contemplate the effects of temporary mobility on
the spatial pattern of demand for services do so in an information
vacuum.” (Taylor: 2006)
• Virtually all ‘representative’ studies based on Census data
• Known to undercount Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander
peoples (eg. Alice Springs Town camps)
• Use of culturally inappropriate constructs
• Case study evidence – limited and dated
36 36
The CRC-REP’s ‘Mobility Project’
• Methodology: surveys in 25 Remote communities in Central
Australia, to provide:
• A better understanding of the factors driving temporary
mobility
• Empirical estimates of the extent and patterns of temporary
mobility
• Development of a computer-based model with capacity for
prediction and scenario planning
37
Key lessons from the literature
• The traditional drivers of kinship, culture and country have proven
to be extremely resilient
• “Attachment to place and community prevail, irrespective of a
history of changing government policies. There appears no
reason to expect that these attachments will change in the
foreseeable future.” (Memmott et al. 2006)
• “Even after 200 years of colonisation … involving radical
dispossession of Aboriginal groups and … severe curtailment of
their freedom to move around their country, nearly 70% …
recognised a homeland or traditional country” (Morhpy 2010)
38 38
Engaging Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people
• Like culture, mobility will
not be seen as a
‘problem’
• Seeing like a State
(James C. Scott
1998)
• Need for culturally
appropriate
constructs
39 39
40
Some preliminary findings: 400 surveys completed across 25 communities
41
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
Food &grocery
shopping
Othershopping
Banking Health Centrelink Carservice/parts
Ave
rage
tri
ps
pe
r ye
ar
Trips away from the community to access services
41
Trips involving an overnight stay
- average of 15 per year
42
0 5 10 15 20 25
For work
Cultural activities
See a doctor/other health svcs
Holidays
Football
Visit family and friends
Shopping
Percent of overnight trips
Main reason for going
42
Issues of Vehicle Access Only 42% of respondents had a current driver’s licence
43
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
Yes Most of thetime
Sometimes Not very often Only in anemergency
No
Pe
rce
nt
Can you access a vehicle when you need to?
Issues of Vehicle Access
Major labour market implications
Proportion in employment
With driver’s licence 62%
Without driver’s licence 22%
High vehicle access (always/most of
the time)
50%
Low vehicle access 27%
44
Mobility Project Outcomes
• Improved planning and decision making by:
• Remote communities
• Service providers/delivery
• Policy makers
• Employers and jobseekers
• Information reported back to communities for use in own planning
and representations
• Work with end users to improve models of service delivery in remote
Australia
• Forecasting and scenario modelling capacity for policy and planning
• Map labour stocks and flows for remote employers
45
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Questions?
For further information, please contact:
Mike Dockery
Email – [email protected]
Phone – (08) 9266-3468
Enduring Community Value from Mining Project
48
Why is research needed?
To understand the deeper push-and-pull affects of demographic
and economic change in remote communities.
To design responsive and responsible public policy.
To gain a deeper understanding of the impacts of mining.
49
Project Research Questions
What constitutes enduring community
value from mining?
What are the enduring benefits and costs
during and beyond a mine’s life and for
who?
What strategies can assist communities
manage risk and resilience?
50
Research locations and methodologies
• Collaborations with mining companies in the Pilbara (WA) and
Northern Territory and northern South Australia.
• Measuring the impacts of long-distance commuting on
communities including:
• The local economy & economic diaspora
• The commuting worker
• The family in the source community
• Community services
• Health and education services
• Gaps in service provision for long-distance commuting workers
and their families
• Long-distance commuting could be better managed and
understood. There are also benefits.
• Fundamental corporate reassessment about corporate social
responsibility is required.
• Life cycle planning must be responsive.
• Government has a vital role.
51
Research results have found
Value for mining for Aboriginal people is much harder to achieve and
maintain.
• Push and pull factors
• Enduring cultural considerations
• Transience of business
• Legal frameworks do not always work in Aboriginal communities
favour.
52
Research results have found
Policy implications
• Research results are informing government and community
policies and strategic plans:
• A pilot study conducted by the Western Australian Department
of Justice to more accurately track domestic violence, drug
and alcohol abuse and incidence of crime by employees who
identify as long distance commuters in the resources and
allied industries.
• Community strategies to embrace FIFO workers and their
families.
• Changes to the way some large mining companies:
• conduct their employee induction
• engage with employee families
• engage with local communities and enhance services
• Organise employee rosters
53
54
For further information, please contact:
Fiona Haslam McKenzie
Email – [email protected]
Questions?
55