Mutual obligation, the CDEP scheme, and development: prospects in remote Australia

First defining the boundaries of remote Australia, noting that about 70 per cent of the 265 Community Development Employment Projects (CDEPs) that existed in 1996, fall within this jurisdiction, this paper provides a brief assessment of the economic impact of the CDEP scheme in this remote region. McClure's and Pearson's prescriptions for facilitating Indigenous engagement with the real economy are examined and the author's own views on how the CDEP scheme, with modification, could be used as an institutional framework for Indigenous economic development are discussed.