Aboriginal people living in remote communities across Australia stand to benefit significantly from a proposed national research effort enabling them to participate more fully in the economy, a study by Access Economics has found. Indeed the whole of Australia will be nearly $3 billion better off if the Indigenous gap in remote and very remote Australia is closed, the report says.
Senator the Hon Kim Carr, the Minister for Innovation, Industry, Science and Research has today announced a major investment in remote Australian research and innovation. Vibrant regional economies, more jobs for Australians in remote areas, better education and more enterprises for Aboriginal people are the goals of a new national research organisation. The Cooperative Research Centre for Remote Economic Participation (CRC-REP) will be a public good research centre with a major focus on delivering solutions to economic disadvantage in remote Australia.
ObjectiveThis project will improve remote Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people’s social, health and economic opportunities by linking them with services that make them ‘work-ready’. An evidence base will be developed to allow policy-makers to move away from the view that mobility works against economic participation and towards a view in which mobility is understood and accommodated.Summary
Much of Australia's wealth is created in our remote regions, yet many of the people who live there are excluded from the economy. The impact of this on the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander population in particular is acknowledged by the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) as a national policy priority through the National Indigenous Reform Agreement (Closing the Gap).
The Cooperative Research Centre for Remote Economic Participation (CRC-REP) is focused on delivering solutions to the economic disadvantage that affects remote Australia. Through our research, CRC-REP provides practical responses to the complex issues that can restrict full economic participation.
