Northern Australia's development is constrained by lack of access to a skilled workforce made of people who are committed to seizing long-term opportunities in the region. This deters local business activity and can result in leakage of many of the benefits of major projects through long-distance supply and fly-in-fly- out workforces. The region needs to bolster its skilled workforce to enable industry development, service delivery and infrastructure provision.
Most local government areas in the region experience consistent negative internal migration, with more people leaving for other Australian locations than arrive from them. While there are many long-term committed residents in the Northern Territory, around 1 in 12 people who live there depart each year, although in 2020 this trend began to improve.119
To support the ambitious objectives laid out in the Our North, Our Future agenda, there needs to be a highly capable, and much larger workforce.
To meet this need, it will be necessary to overcome the challenges of widely dispersed communities, high churn rates and static or falling populations in many locations.
Investment in infrastructure that enhances connectivity and improves the liveability of Northern Australia's cities, towns and communities will help to resolve this problem by attracting and retaining skilled workers and their families though all life stages.