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УДК 332.1 (94)
© D.B. Carson, D.A. Carson
Mobilising Labour in Remote 'Boom' Towns for Economic Diversification: The case of Tennant Creek, Australia
New economic opportunities in remote areas are often linked to major private and public sector investment projects which are controlled by external decisionmakers and lead to temporary periods of economic 'boom'. There is little agreement in the literature about the extent to which local communities in remote areas can benefit from such opportunities and access employment in industries dependent on external decision-makers. This article investigates the case of Tennant Creek, a small and remote settlement in the Northern Territory of Australia, and provides a methodological framework for examining the diversification potential of local economies dependent on externally driven economic opportunities. By analysing local labour changes from 2001 to 2011, the research examined the town's capacity to mobilise its labour force and diversify in response to new opportunities offered by a range of economic 'booms' in the mining, construction, transport, tourism, health, education and government service sectors. The results suggest that Tennant Creek has been able to adapt its local labour force to some degree to take advantage of new economic opportunities. However, concerns remain about the town's strong dependence on public service sector employment, major unrealised potential in the tourism and transaction service sectors, and declining participation of Indigenous residents in economic boom industries. Keywords: remote, boom town, diversification, labour change, Tennant Creek.
Д.Б. Карсон, Д.А. Карсон
Мобилизация рабочих для экономической диверсификации удалённых быстрорастущих городов: случай города Теннант Крик в Австралии
Новые экономические возможности в отдаленных районах часто связаны с крупными частными и государственными секторами инвестиционных проектов, которые находятся под контролем внешних лиц, принимающих решения, что приводит к временным периодам экономического «бума». Существует множество разногласий в литературе о степени, в которой местные общины в отдаленных районах могут извлечь выгоду из таких возможностей и доступа к занятости в отрасли, зависящей от внешних лиц, принимающих решения. В статье исследуется случай Теннант Крик, малого и удаленного поселения в Северной территории Австралии. Ключевые слова: отдаленность, городской бум, диверсификация, трудовые изменения, Теннант Крик.
Introduction
Settlements in sparsely populated or remote areas in countries like Australia, Canada, the United States and the Arctic European nations are commonly perceived to be inherently disadvantaged socially and economically because of their isolation from social services, and economic and political power centres [Carson, Ensign, Rasmussen and Taylor, 2011; Huskey, 2011]. Even when economic opportunities present, as has been the case in a number of remote locations as a result of the mineral and oil and gas resources 'booms' of the past decade, the benefits are believed to accrue primarily to distant large urban centres where resource extraction companies are based [Argent, 2013]. Income derived from employment in the resources sector is channelled away from sparsely populated areas by the use of non-resident and temporarily resident labour, with little in the way of local employment [Carrington and Pereira, 2011].
Huskeyhas questioned whether this perceived entrenched disadvantage is an unavoidable consequence of isolation and a lack of critical mass of population and local economic resources [Huskey, 2011]. Through a series of case studies of small settlements in remote parts of Alaska, Huskey demonstrated that local engagement in various economic activities is possible and can deliver local social and economic benefit. The purpose of this paper is to examine Huskey's arguments about the potential for sustainable local economic development through a case study of a small (population 3500) and isolated settlement in Australia's Northern Territory. Tennant Creek (see Figure 1) is the Northern Territory's fifth largest settlement. It is located 1000 kilometres south of the capital city of Darwin and 500 kilometres north of Alice Springs(population 25 000), which is the nearest settlement with a population over 1000 people. Tennant Creek has long been considered to be socially and economically disadvantaged as a result of its isolation, small population, rela-
tively large Indigenous population (35% of the population, compared with 2% nationally), and high levels of violent crime and anti-social behaviour. The Index of Economic Resources (part of the Socio-Economic Indexes for Areas (SEIFA) derived from the 2011 Australian Census of Population and Housing) ranked Tennant Creek among the most disadvantaged 10% of locations across Australia [Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2011].
Figure 1: Location of Tennant Creek in the Northern Territory
Between 2001 and 2011, and particularly between 2006 and 2011, substantial new economic development opportunities were presented for Tennant Creek:
• A number of new mines were opened in the immediate region, including the Chariot and Malbec gold mines(opened in 2003 and 2004) and the Boo-tu Creek manganese mine (opened in 2005), accompanied by a number of additional mining exploration projects.
• A railway connection between Alice Springs and Darwin that opened in 2004 included a major transit facility in Tennant Creek for both passengers and freight.
• New scheduled air services between Darwin and Tennant Creek and Alice Springs and Tennant Creek commenced in 2010, ending a period of 15 years without any regular scheduled air transport.
• Tourist numbers and leisure visitor nights increased substantially in 2010-2011, after a relatively weak tourism performance in the early to mid-2000s [Tourism Research Australia, 2013].
• Major policy initiatives to address Indigenous socio-economic disadvantage in the Northern Territory commenced in 2006 ('Closing the Gap') and 2007 (the 'Northern Territory Emergency Response'), and these initiatives included substantial funding for increased health and education services in particular in Tennant Creek and other Northern Territory settlements [Thomas, 2008].
• A major Indigenous housing construction program for the town was implemented in 2008 [Jefferies et al, 2011].
• A new minimum security prison facility was opened on the outskirts of the settlement in 2011.
This presents a diverse range of economic activities, providing opportunities for employment and entrepreneurship in the transport, construction, mining, hospitality, health, and government services sectors, as well as the potential for flow-on employment and entrepreneurship in linked sectors and in the retail industry. Over the period that these new activities have commenced, there is no evidence that any pre-existing activity has experienced a major decline. The agricultural sector, based primarily on broad-acre cropping and cattle grazing, was largely spared from the impacts of the 'Millennium Drought' experienced across much of Australia between 2001 and 2010 [van Dijk et al, 2013]. There may have been some impacts of a suspension (and subsequent decline) in export of live cattle to Indonesia that began in 2011.However, this occurred right at the end of the period under review here, and impacts on industry employment are difficult to ascertain from the last census.
Central to Huskey's argument that even very small and isolated settlements can experience sustained economic growth [Huskey, 2011] was the need for local economies to be able to diversify in response to new opportunities. The potential for diversification means the capacity to rapidly mobilise local human resources in response to political, social and economic change, as well
as to bring in external human (and financial) capital to supplement and complement, rather than displace, local labour. The story of Tennant Creek emphasises that resource extraction (including mining, fishing, forestry and pastoral-ism) is not the only potentially valuable economic activity in sparsely populated areas. These areas have also long been associated with defence, transport, and more recently tourism economies, as well as substantial industries built around the delivery of health and social services particularly to Indigenous populations [Guerin and Guerin, 2009;Huskey, 2011; Schmallegger, Carson and Tremblay, 2010]. These activities can also be subject to 'boom and bust' cycles and a reliance on external investors and external and temporary labour. What is not known is whether and how the potential mix of opportunities available to settlements in sparsely populated areas can be exploited for more local benefit.
Evidence of the potential for diversification in the local economy can be found in the characteristics of the labour force and how these change over time. Local economies with high diversification potential enable resident labour to shift between industries and occupations as labour demand changes. Local economies with high diversification potential are able to exploit, rather than be exploited by, externally sourced and temporary human capital [Weeden, 1985]. Local economies with high diversification potential create employment in what O'Malley termed 'transaction services' industries - finance, property and legal services [O'Malley, 2012].
In the context of Australia's sparsely populated north, it has beenargued that particular attention needs to be paid to the capacity to mobilise Indigenous and female labour [Taylor, Larson, Stoeckl and Carson, 2011]. Indigenous people and women are often excluded from economic development opportunities in sparsely populated areas which are perceived as dominated by 'male' industries (mining, forestry, fishing, transport, construction, defence) and by temporary economic activity that demands spatial mobility from the labour force.
This case study examines the extent to which the high level and diverse nature of the economic opportunities presented for Tennant Creek over the past five to ten years have impacted the characteristics of the local labour force, and whether those impacts demonstrate Tennant Creek's potential for local economic diversification. In particular, the research examines the extent to which jobs held by Tennant Creek residents shifted towards the industries within which the opportunities arose - mining, transport, hospitality and retail (as a proxy for tourism), construction, health, education, and government administration along with transaction services. The case study also examines the changing nature of entrepreneurship, and the occupation and skill levels of people working in the town as additional evidence of diversification potential. In general, labour forces with higher skill levels (demonstrated through universityqualifi-cations) and higher proportions of managerial and professional workers are more able to adapt to changing conditions [Gordon, 1995]. Finally, the case study examines characteristics of the Indigenous and non-Indigenous, male and
female, and resident, non-resident and temporary labour forces. As well as contributing to the discourse around economic potential for settlements in sparsely populated areas, this research provides a methodological framework for examining the diversification potential of local economies.
Methods
Data were drawn from the 2001, 2006 and 2011 Australian Census of Population and Housing (www.abs.gov.au) with a focus on 2006 and 2011 data which can be accessed using the 'Tablebuilder' online database allowing for greater customisation of data output than was possible in 2001. Ten-nant Creek was considered to be the Statistical Local Area of that name. The Census variable 'labour force status' was used to identify people who participated in the labour force (i.e. who were working or actively seeking work), and whether those people were employed or unemployed. Industries were those described in the Australian and New Zealand Standard Industrial Classification (ANZSIC). While the classification was revised in 2006, the industries of core interest to this research remained consistently defined. For the purposes of this paper, those industries are collectively labelled 'opportunity industries' as they encompass the economic opportunities described for Tennant Creek. Opportunity industries for Tennant Creek were:
• Mining,
• Construction,
• Retail trade and Accommodation and Food Services (as a proxy for and referred to here as tourism),
• Transport, Postal and Warehousing (referred to as transport),
• Financial and Insurance Services and Rental, Hiring and Real Estate Services (as a proxy for and referred to here as transaction services),
• Public administration and safety (referred to here as government administration),
• Education and Training (referred to here as education), and
• Health Care and Social Assistance (referred to here as health).
ANZSIC includes nine other industries, and the distribution of employment across all 19 industries was summarised using a Herfindahl Index (HI) of concentration [Clemenson, 1992; Carson, 2011]. HI scores range between 0 and 1. Higher HI indicates higher concentration of employment in few industries. Clemenson considered an index score of 0.3 or greater to indicate high concentration and therefore low diversification [Clemenson, 1992].
The Census does not specifically identify entrepreneurs, but it does identify people who state that they own or manage their own business, and this has been used as a proxy for entrepreneurship. The Census does record educational qualifications, identifying bachelor degree holders, graduate diploma and graduate certificate holders and postgraduate degree holders as what are termed here 'university qualified' people. The Census categorises
occupations as managerial, professional, and labourer. In addition, this research describes technicians and trades workers, community and personal services workers, and machinery operators as 'skilled or semi-skilled workers'.
These variables were separately analysed for people who considered themselves to be Indigenous (Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander) and those who did not consider themselves Indigenous or did not state their Indigenous status. The variables were separately analysed for males and females. These analyses were specifically focused on identifying change in the representation of Indigenous people and females in the labour force.
The Census records the place of usual residence of a person on Census night (that is where the person intends to reside for the largest part of the calendar year in which the Census was conducted). It also identifies the place of usual residence five years prior to Census night, and the place where the person usually works. From these variables, the research identifies three types of workers: 1) 'Long term resident' workers were those who had a place of usual residence in Tennant Creek on Census night and five years prior to Census night. 2) 'Newly resident' workers were those who had a place of usual residence in Tennant Creek on Census night but a place of usual residence elsewhere five years prior to Census night. This group was used to represent 'temporary' workers. 3) 'Non-resident' workers were those who had a place of usual residence on Census night outside of Ten-nant Creek, but who stated their usual place of work as being Tennant Creek.
Results
Workforce Structure
There were 1103 residents of Tennant Creek participating in the labour force in 2001, and this increased to 1177 residents in 2006 and 1267 residents in 2011. There were 1188 jobs in Tennant Creek in 2001, 1072 in 2006, and 1116 in 2011. Employment of Tennant Creek residents was relatively highly concentrated in a few industries in 2001, with a HI of 0.31. Employment became more concentrated in 2006 and 2011, with a HI of 0.36 at both points in time. Overall, there were 119 more jobs in the opportunity industries in 2011 than in 2001, and 36 more jobs in 2011 than in 2006. However, Table 1 shows substantial job growth in government administration, health and education, and decline in tourism and transaction services. Interestingly, there was a decline in health jobs between 2006 and 2011.
Table 1:
Number of Tennant Creek Residents Employed in 'Opportunity' and 'Transaction' Industries 2001-2011
Industry 2001 2006 2011 Change 20012011 Change 20062011
Mining 14 24 28 14 4
Transport 27 11 24 -3 13
Tourism 203 203 173 -30 -30
Health 146 185 170 24 -15
Education 118 131 143 25 12
Government Administration 131 252 286 155 34
Construction 93 70 96 3 26
Transaction services 87 26 18 -69 -8
Total 'opportunity' industries 819 902 938 119 36
Herfindahl Index 0.31 0.36 0.36 0.05 0.00
The number of Tennant Creek residents with university qualifications increased from 158 in 2001 to 251 in 2011, involving an increase from 14% of the labour force having qualifications in 2001 to 20% in 2011. This coincided with a doubling of managerial jobs during the period (from 73 to 144), and a 30% increase in the number of professional jobs (from 177 to 229). There was no change in the number of skilled/ semi-skilled or labourer jobs. In addition, there were 17 more business owners (128 in total) resident in Tennant Creek in 2011 than in 2006. The largest number of business owners worked in the tourism industry (29 in 2006 and 39 in 2011) and in the construction industry (19 in 2006, 24 in 2011). There were 12 business owners in the transaction services industries in 2006, but none in 2011.
Mobilising Labour
Indigenous residents were 34% of the resident labour force in 2006, and 31% in 2011. Indigenous people were 30% of the workforce in 2006 and 27% in 2011. Indigenous representation in the opportunity industries overall decreased by 4% (from 251 to 228 jobs), with increases only in the small industries of transport (eight jobs in 2011) and transaction services (three jobs in 2011) where there had been no Indigenous people working in 2006. The largest decline in representation was in the health industry, where Indigenous residents went from comprising 42% of the resident workforce in 2006 (77 jobs) to just 28% in 2011 (48 jobs). A less dramatic decline in representation from 22% (29 jobs) to 17% (24 jobs) occurred in the education industry, while representation in government administration remained at
38
around 38% (99 jobs in 2006 and 105 jobs in 2011). The Indigenous workforce was much more concentrated in fewer industries than the non-Indigenous workforce, as reflected in the HI for Indigenous employment which was 0.43 in 2006 and 2011, compared with a non-Indigenous HI of 0.34.
Just nine Indigenous residents (1% of the adult population) had a university qualification in 2006, compared with 17% of the non-Indigenous working age population (157 people). While the number and proportion of Indigenous people with qualifications increased in 2011 (25 people or 3% of the working age population), the same was the case for the non-Indigenous population (230 people or 24% of the working age population). Indigenous people held 14% of managerial jobs in 2006, declining to 13% in 2011. Indigenous people held 24% of professional jobs in 2006, declining to 23% in 2011. Indigenous people held 48% of the labourer jobs in 2006, declining to 45% in 2011. However, Indigenous people were 10% of business owners (11 people) in 2006 and 16% (20 people) in 2011.
The overall labour force participation of women increased from 52% of the working age population in 2006 to 53% in 2011. Male participation rates were 56% at both times. Male and female unemployment was 7% at both times. Females were slightly less than half of the total resident workforce, with 526 employed in 2006 and 582 in 2011. However, female employment was concentrated in fewer industries, with a HI of 0.41 in 2011 (up from 0.39 in 2006) compared with 0.34 for males in both 2006 and 2011. Females increased their representation in the health (from 61% of the health workforce in 2006 to 71% in 2011) and government administration (from 45% to 52%) industries. Overall, females increased from 51% of opportunity industry workers to 53%.
Females were substantially more likely than males to have university qualifications. Over two thirds of the 168 qualification holders in 2006 were females, and while this declined to 62% in 2011, there were 156 qualified females in the resident labour force at that time. Females were similarly over-represented in the professional workforce (66% of professionals were females in both 2006 and 2011), but under-represented in the skilled/semiskilled (about 35% of the workforce) and labourer (30%) workforces. The proportion of managers who were female declined from 46% to 39%, but the proportion of business owners who were females remained at 30%.
In 2006, there were 654 employed long term residents of Tennant Creek (58% of the workforce), 384 newly resident workers (34%) and 85 non-resident workers (8%). In 2011, there were 639 employed long term residents (53% of the workforce), 473 newly resident workers (40%) and 85 non-resident workers (7%). The long term and non-resident workforces were similarly diverse in terms of industries of employment in 2011 as they were in 2006, with HI of 0.35. However, the HI for the newly resident workforce was 0.38 in 2006 and 0.40 in 2011, suggesting an increase in concentration of employment.
The non-resident workforce in 2006 was primarily employed in government administration (17 people), agriculture (14 people), mining (12 people) and health (10 people). In 2011 the main industries of employment were health (16 people), construction (15 people), and agriculture and mining (10 people each). There were no non-resident workers in the construction industry in 2006, and there were 9 non-resident workers in government administration in 2011. Non-resident workers were more than half of the total agricultural workforce, and about one quarter of the mining workforce.
Overall, Table 2 shows that long term residents comprised 5% less of the opportunity industries workforce in 2011 (51%) than in 2006 (56%). Despite this, long term residents gained comparatively more jobs in mining, transport, tourism and transaction services. However, these gains were outweighed by comparatively fewer new jobs in health, education, government administration and construction accruing to long term residents.
Table 2:
Number of Long Term Residents, Newly Residents and Non-Residents Employed in 'Opportunity' and 'Transaction' Industries 2006-2011
2006 2011 Representation of Long Term Residents
Industry Long Term Resident s Newly Resident NonResident Long Term Resident s Newly resident NonResident
Mining 4 6 14 18 11 10 29%
Transport 7 3 3 17 7 0 17%
Tourism 105 95 9 103 69 11 6%
Health 109 74 10 80 91 16 -13%
Education 69 59 8 69 70 6 -3%
Government Administrati 161 93 17 151 133 9 -7%
on
Construction 59 9 0 65 31 15 -28%
Transaction services 14 9 0 13 7 0 4%
Total 'opportunity' industries 528 348 61 516 419 67 -5%
Long term residents were more than three quarters of business owners in 2006 and 2011, with 96 business owners in 2006 and 106 in 2011. Long term residents, newly resident and non-resident workers were all more likely to have
university qualifications in 2011 compared with 2006. Around 40% of both newly resident and non-resident workers had such qualifications in 2011, compared with 30% of newly resident workers and 22% of non-resident workers in 2006. Around 8% of long term resident workers had university qualifications in 2006, and 13% in 2011.Long term residents maintained their share of managerial jobs (around 65%) and professional jobs (around 40%), but went from having 68% of labourer jobs in 2006 to 53% in 2011. Newly resident workers compensated for the loss of share of long term residents.
Discussion and Conclusions
According to Clemenson's Herfindahl Index benchmark [Clemenson, 1992], the Tennant Creek workforce is, and has been since 2001, highly concentrated in a small number of industries. This lack of point-in-time diversity is not in itself a sign of economic disadvantage. Huskey's challenge for small settlements in sparsely populated areas is to have the capacity to shift the workforce between industries as new opportunities arise [Huskey, 2011]. This shifting appears to have occurred to some extent in Tennant Creek, with approximately 120 of the 154 new jobs for residents emerging in the industries associated with the new economic opportunities that were documented in the introduction to this paper. There was also some evidence in the transport, health, and construction industries of 'serial specialisation' - the capacity to load up the workforce at very specific points in time in response to opportunities. For transport and construction this meant relatively large workforces in 2001 and 2011, but relatively low in 2006. For health, there was a 2006 workforce peak.
Despite these encouraging indicators, there are some concerns in the broader picture of the changing characteristics of the Tennant Creek labour force. While there was a substantial shift towards the opportunity industries, the focus of the shift, both in absolute and proportional terms, was on the public service activities of health, education, and government administration. These three industries accounted for less than half of the employment in the opportunity industries in 2001, but nearly two thirds of employment by 2011. Transport and construction workforces fluctuated in size without substantial overall growth, but the major unrealised opportunities appeared to have been in tourism and in transaction services. Transaction services experienced an 80% decrease in workforce size over the period, which would be seen by O'Malley as an indicator of poor diversification potential [O'Malley, 2012], as the dominant externally managed industries do not require local transaction services. Nevertheless, the challenges that the public services present in terms of potentially diverting attention from other opportunities and having limited need for transaction services are balanced out by the relatively large scale at which public services can act even in a small town when compared with private developments in mining and construction (but not so much in retail and hospitality).
What cannot be assessed from this research is what happens to the workforce growth that has been focused on public services activities when those programs and policies are wound down or wound up. Both the Northern Territory and Australia have had changes in Government in 2012 and 2013, and some of the initiatives relating to Indigenous health and remote area service delivery have already been substantially redesigned, and there are likely to be new approaches to the structuring of health, education and government administration activities in the Northern Territory. If this results in a withdrawal of workforce from these industries, then that would be coupled with the collective decline in the other opportunity industries and could be crippling for the Tennant Creek economy.
Most at risk under this scenario would be the resident Indigenous population. Indigenous employment in the opportunity industries declined between 2006 and 2011, and all of that decline could be attributed to a loss of 29 jobs in the health industry. There was also a loss of 6 jobs in education, and a gain of only 6 jobs in government administration. Clearly what was behind the poor performance of the Indigenous workforce was a shift in the overall workforce to more highly skilled (meaning requiring higher levels of qualification) jobs. The niches that had previously been filled by local Indigenous labour (especially labouring jobs) became less relevant during the period, while there was limited increase in the diversification potential of the Indigenous workforce demonstrated by increasing numbers with university qualifications. Time is again an important issue here, as priming the Indigenous workforce through improved education and training is likely to be a task that takes longer than the timeframe within which specific economic opportunities emerge and disappear. Real thought therefore needs to be given to what sort of education should be encouraged for the Indigenous workforce. More generalist education, which might open up managerial and semi-skilled employment opportunities in a number of industries, may be more beneficial in the long term than specialist education which could limit engagement to one industry.
The same concerns are not apparent for the female workforce, despite previous observations of the relatively poor status of female workers across the Northern Territory as a whole [Carson, 2011]. The concentration of employment in the public service activities and the professional occupations appear to favour females. Again there is the longer term concern about whether those attributes can be shifted to other industries if and when the public services activities wind down.
The evidence is that long term residents have been more able to take up opportunities in the non-public services opportunity industries than in the public services industries. Long term resident employment in mining, transport, and tourism increased even as overall these industries declined relative to health, education and government administration. Long term residents also appeared better able to capitalise on entrepreneurship opportunities, with long term residents remaining over-represented among business
owners. However, as with the Indigenous workforce (and there is obviously a substantial overlap between Indigenous and long term resident workforces), there is a need to better prepare long term residents to take advantage of public services opportunities. This could be through generalised education as previously mentioned, and through identifying and encouraging entrepreneurial opportunities in health and education in particular.
In conclusion, the research presents a mixed 'report card' on the potential for diversification in Tennant Creek. There is evidence that the identified opportunity industries did stimulate workforce growth and diversification overall between 2001 and 2006, but the benefits accrued mainly in the public services industries of health, education, and government services, and these jobs were more likely to go to newly resident workers and non-Indigenous workers.
While the issue of time remains, and the research has not presented any forecasts of the characteristics of the workforce that may emerge particularly if investment in the public services activities is wound down, what has been presented here is a detailed examination of the response of one settlement to a diverse set of economic opportunities that presented over a relatively short period of time. The research broadly supports the argument that small and isolated settlements can respond to the changing labour demands brought about by these opportunities [Huskey, 2011], but that settlements should be cautious about the extent to which different parts of the workforce are mobilised. It appears that long term residents, newly arrived workers and non-resident workers are primed to engage with different sorts of opportunities. Our suggestion is that entrenching diversification potential in the settlement requires better strategies to more fully engage long term residents. Finally, the research approach may be useful for comparative analysis of diversification potential of different settlements in different sparsely populated areas not just in Australia but around the developed and developing world.
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