Blackwell, B, Fischer, A, McFarlane, J and Dollery B (in press). 'Employment leakage by Local Government Area in the Northern Territory, Australia: The roles of industries, including mining', Journal of Developing Areas (2015)

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Dr Boyd Blackwell, CRC REP and University of New England (UNE)
Dr Andy Fischer, University of Tasmania!
Mr Jim McFarlane, UNE
Prof. Brian Dollery, UNE!
Dr Steve Blake, CRC REP & Curtin University!
Employment Leakage by Local Government Area in the
Northern Territory, Australia:"
The Role of Industries, Including Mining
Anvil Rock, Central Arnhem Land
‪www.richardgreen.net.au
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Background to research
• 5 yr Post-doc Research Fellowship
• Enduring Community Value from Mining project
• CRC REP researchers throughout the country
• Remote Economic Participation

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MORE
VULNERABLE
TO MENTAL
HEALTH
ISSUES
A SNAPSHOT OF REMOTE AUSTRALIA
ABORIGINAL AND TORRES STRAIT ISLANDERS IN REMOTE AUSTRALIA:
OF
AUSTRALIA
LANDMASS
45%OF
AUSTRALIA’S
EXPORTS, $90 BILLION
60%OF THE NATION’S
MINING PLATFORMS
OF
AUSTRALIA’S
POPULATION
ONLY
LOWER
INCOMES AND
HIGHER COST
OF LIVING
PLACE OF
INTERNATIONAL
ENVIRONMENTAL
SIGNIFICANCE
85%
2.3%
40,000
SMEs
nintione.com.au
82%AGED 15–24 ARE
NOT ENGAGED IN
EDUCATION
1 IN 5HOUSEHOLDS WITH INTERNET
CONNECTION, COMPARED
TO 4-IN-5 OF THE REST OF
THE POPULATION
OVER 60%OF ALL HOUSEHOLDS IN
VERY REMOTE AREAS IN THE
NORTHERN TERRITORY ARE
SUBJECT TO OVERCROWDING
VERY LOWPARTICIPATION IN: MINING,
AGRICULTURE, GOVERNMENT
SERVICES AND TOURISM
35%OF THE ADULT POPULATION HAS AN
EDUCATION LEVEL BELOW YEAR 10
3%HAVE ATTAINED
A BACHELOR
DEGREE OR ABOVE
OLDESTLIVING CULTURE
IN THE WORLD
1,100DISCRETE
COMMUNITIES
HALFOF THE POPULATION IS
UNDER 24 YEARS OLD
MORE THAN 50SPOKEN LANGUAGES
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Characteristics of
Remote Australia (RA)
• Most of mineral and oil and gas
resources are in RA
• Greater representation of
Aboriginal & TI people
• Life and business difficult
• Limited public services
• Has barriers that Archipelago
Australia does not experience
• Wealth source nexus economic
development/resources received
Outline of article
• Introduction
• Data and methods
• Results
• Discussion
• Concluding comments
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Introduction
• Migration
• Mining, Remote Australia
• Supply factors
• International labour mobility
• Internal labour migration -
between LGAs
• Paradigm shift - choice
• NT - suis generis
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LGAs, remoteness,
& mining
Figure 1: NT’s LGAs
‪www.localgovernment.nt.gov.au
Figure 2: ARIA, ‪www.ala.org.au
Figure 3: CORE, www.nt.gov.au
Remote (~6)
Very Remote (~12)
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Data
• ABS 2011 (ABS 2013)
• Accessed from ABS TableBuilder interface
• Based on No. of people employed
• Constrained by:
• Place of Work (POW)
• + Usual Place of Residence (PUR)
• where these are different LGAs –
‘commuters’
• Where they are the same – ‘local employment’
• POW cross referenced with:
• 111 industry sub sectors (conversions from
720)
• All NT LGAs - 17 in total incl. Unincorporated NT
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Methods
• Internal labour migration
• People commuting outbound (gain)
• People commuting inbound (leakage)
• Net leakage = leakage-gain
• Employment income
• Assumed 111 sub sector average salaries/wages
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Literature context - internal migration studies
• Carson (2011) skilled labour for NT - change in people’s place of residence 2001-2006
• Core-Periphery does exists Australian states
• BUT not NT: weak C-P patterns between NT and SA, and regional ties with regions of northern
Queensland and Western Australia
• Our study differs: inbound & outbound between home and outside LGA in given census year -
better understand medium term (within a year) commuting of workers
• Productivity Commission (2014) used SA4 rather than LGA to review LDC
• SA4 poor level of regional breakdown of regional & remote NT (simply called ‘Outback NT’)
• versus our 17 LGAs and 11 industry sub sector classification
• our focus is on commuting more generally between LGAs and associated income leakage and gain
• regardless of distance and time
• KPMG (2013) estimated distance between place of work and place of usual residence where the
distance was > 100km - again a focus on LDC
• undertook own survey
• silent on commuting and its associated leakage for the NT and its regions
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1. Local employment and income
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2. Inbound,
outbound
employment &
leakage and gain
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3. Net income and employment leakage
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4. Mapped net leakage
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5. Net leakage relative to local employment
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6. Principal Component Analysis
Non-ferrous metal
ore mining
Public Administration and
regulatory services
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7. Average industry subsector income net leakage

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8. Percentage of industry subsector income net leakage
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Policy Implications
• Substantial leakage from most LGAs
• Also substantial gains from those returning with income
• Most LGAs and ALL remote LGAs - net leakage
• Exceptions (i.e. net gains):
• Wagait, Palmerston, Litchfield and Alice Springs
• Core-Periphery theory explains net gainers
• but not consistently explain net leakage or gain for population centres
and nearby periphery
• Remote LGAs experiencing net leakage associated with mining -
sourcing workers from outside local LGAs
• Manufacturing employment concentrated LGAs experience net leakage
regardless of remoteness
• Geospatial visualisation identifies leakage vulnerability from labour
mobility
• BUT this is a ‘double=edged’ sword
• also provides adaptability during job losses from down-turns
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Conclusion
• Leakage is important for better understanding our economy and how it works
• Particularly interesting is the reliance on labour mobility in NT
• This provides for leakage but also an inherent flexibility in tough times
• Also provides business and workers with greater choice and efficiency - where to
work, where to live and who to employ
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References
• ABS (2013) TableBuilder, Place of Work, Place of Usual Residence, Employment, ABS,
Canberra.
• Unless where noted, photos (except title page) are from ‪scottbridle.com
• Most of material forming part of forthcoming or in progress articles – contact Boyd for
updated on boydb@une.edu.au or 0428 520 887
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