So, What Exactly Do You Do?

Now that's a good question. In fact, sometimes I ask myself exactly that on quiet Friday afternoons or when I return from trips out to the Lands (the two worlds of my work in Alice Springs and what happens out there being so different...)

Here is a brief appraise, complete with plain english translation:

• Manage the Regional Partnership Agreement (RPA) that the Ngaanyatjarra Council signed with three levels of government last year

Real world interpretation: Prepare for the six weekly meetings, including drafting papers on progress with agreements we've made, following up on things we said we'd do (including hassling as necessary), working out what we want to put on the agenda, talking with key staff in each of the governments to make sure we're not dazed and confused on the day. Here's a recent photo I took of the Ngaanyatjarraku Shire office, where we held the last Regional Partnership Committee meeting (the beauty of the shot didn't quite match the beauty of the meeting...).

• Progress core projects committed to under the RPA and the one 'regional' Shared Responsibilty Agreement

Meaning: Because the RPA is new, and the core projects were also new, everyone is feeling their way. As a result, we are often starting with a blank canvas. So I've spent a bit of time designing templates or writting down a plan of action for completing the various projects (eg internal capacity review, annual evaluation, red tape reduction). Then, having decided how we're going to do it, I usually end up being the one that has to do the work by the deadline. This involves discussions with Ng Council senior staff on projects that relate to their area, and drawing all the information together into a palatable and acceptable form. Here's a photo of me participating in RPA-related planning discussion with some of the senior Ng leaders (Alice Springs, Apr 06).

• Ensure effective development and implementation of regional SRAs

Huh?: This hasn't really got off the ground yet. We have one education regional SRA in draft, but it's mostly being handled by the Ng Manager responsible for education and training. There is a signed regional agreement on municipal services, but my main involvement has been to keep afloat some of the longer term projects. And there is an employment SRA in the pipeline, but there's too much other debris in the pipeline so that one's not really moving.

Instead of this, I usually end up getting drawn off into ad hoc projects that have been characterised as 'RPA projects', because that characterisation is a handy form of leverage with the governments. For example, I have recently been preparing applications to access the Remote Air Subsidy Scheme (to help keep Ng Air in the air) and researching the superannuation co-contribution to work out how we can get that from the ATO in the hands of the most second most financially disadvantaged people of Australia (who do, incidentally, put aside $20 of their benefits into a retirement savings account each week - a not insubstantial amount when you're only getting $235 a week to live on).

(Mr Winston Mitchell, the Ngaanyatjarra Council Chairman).

• Provide support for DK-CRC projects relating to the Ngaanyatjarra Lands, facilitate growth in DK-CRC capacity relating to SRAs and RPAs, and other project work as directed

What's this DK-CRC thing? Desert Knowledge Cooperative Research Centre (CRC) part-fund my position, so I spend 1.5 to 2 days a week working for them on research projects that relate to the Ng Lands. Since the extent of DK research on the Ng Lands is a bit unclear at the moment, I tend to focus on doing research into government policy and funding (with my speciality, of course, being Commonwealth government programs). So the 'other work' is most of what I do at the moment.

While the scope of work I did in Canberra was broader, and the degree of 'interruption' by unpredictable requests (ie the Minister's office) much greater, there nevertheless remains some strong similiarities. I still find myself in a largely white bureacracy working in Indigenous affairs (the irony of which doesn't escape me). We continue to struggle with the fact that we seem no closer to finding the most effective way to engage with people on the ground (and the notion of 'engagement' itself remains problematic). No less immediate is the challenge of fitting national strategies to local resourcing and capacity. And the day to day politics (there - Ministerial; here - personal) take up much of the energy and time that could be more productively spent on creative solutions.

But perhaps that is just the nature of work, and perhaps I should just get used to it!