This important report was jointly commissioned by the partners to the Wadeye COAG-ICCP trial involving the Northern Territory Government, the Australian Government Department of Family and Community Services, and the Thamarrurr Regional Council.

The relatively poor social and economic status of the Aboriginal population of the Thamarrurr region represents a cost to the people themselves and to the Australian nation. The report measures the full impost to government of sustaining the status quo of low labour force participation, low employment and occupational status, low income status, low educational participation and outcomes, high housing occupancy rates, high crime and custody rates, and high morbidity and mortality rates against a background of rapidly expanding numbers.

Please Note: This document is now available in revised and expanded form as CAEPR Working Paper 28. (8 July 2005)