Governing North Australian Landscapes for a Better Future

Building on the historical and contemporary understandings of North Australia outlined in previous chapters, this chapter explores the major systemic governance challenges facing North Australian communities and landscapes. It then teases out key decision-making initiatives that could be applied to weave a more inclusive and sustainable set of outcomes through the focused reconciliation of three well understood political tensions that operate at landscape-scale across the North (i.e. economic development, biodiversity conservation and the protection and promotion of Indigenous rights and interests in country). Key priorities for systemic governance reform are considered, starting from the grass roots strengthening of Indigenous-led and local governance systems, through to genuine bipartisan and cross-jurisdictional cooperation on policy and investment priorities.