Why people move into and out of the Territory and its likely future population will be among the issues discussed at the Charles Darwin Symposium in Alice Springs next week.
Senior Research Fellow with Charles Darwin University’s School for Social and Policy Research, Dr Tom Wilson will look to answer population movement questions through his presentation Demographic trends and challenges at the Symposium on 28 September.
“Levels of migration into and out of the Territory are very high relative to population size and higher than for any other state or territory,” Dr Wilson said.
“Given the Northern Territory Government’s policy position of reducing population turnover and encouraging population growth through migration, it is essential that the determinants of migration are understood in order for policy intervention to be effective.”
Dr Wilson will discuss how the Territory’s population is likely to evolve over the next couple of decades given the current trends in the Territory and the rest of Australia.
“Questions such as to what extent will the Territory’s population age, how might the Territory’s demography be affected by the imminent slowdown in the growth of the labour force age groups nationwide, and how much are the Indigenous and non-Indigenous populations likely to grow by, will all be addressed using population projection scenarios which will suggest some answers to these questions.”
Dr Wilson’s presentation will form part of the free public forum titled A Skilled Workforce for Regional and Remote Australia: Keeping, Attracting, Training. The forum is designed to generate discussion and debate about the ideas of workforce development, with a keen eye on various existing and future alignments of people, skills, work, structures and place.
The Symposium will run from 8.30am to 5pm on Friday, 28 September at CDU’s Alice Springs campus and is open to members of the public. Entry is free.
For more information go to www.cdu.edu.au/cdss.