ABSTRACT
Regional development policy in remote Australia has long been focused on three objectives population growth to secure a larger share of national government transfers and political representation, development of resource based industries to create local economies, and closing the gap' between Indigenous and non-Indigenous residents in terms of health, education and economic status. In remote Australia, as in these other remote jurisdictions, there have been occasional successes regarding the former two objectives periods of population growth have occurred from time to time, often linked to boom' periods in resource industries. Potential policy guides in remote Australia are more likely to have formal education qualifications, and qualifications that are relevant to their field of endeavour, than those in other parts of rural and regional Australia. Remote regions clearly have different experiences in terms of policy guides but there are also important differences between the patterns of staff turnover in the Northern Territory compared with other remote regions.
