Indigenous mobility and the Northern Territory emergency response

A number of commentators have suggested that the Northern Territory Emergency Response (NTER), introduced in June 2007, has promoted the movement of Northern Territory Indigenous people away from remote areas towards towns. Using both census and interview data the authors show that rural to urban movement in the Northern Territory has been well established since at least 1991. Mobility patterns are complex and many moves are simply short-term. But the long-term trend amongst Indigenous people follows the rural to urban pattern that has been observed in numerous other locations within Australia and overseas. Indeed, in the short term the NTER is as likely to inhibit mobility from more remote locations to urban centres as it is to promote it. Copyright. Monash University and the author/s