The Remote Community Closure Debate: an Analysis of the 'Value' of Remote lndigeneity in Australia

In 2014 the Western Australian Premier, Colin Barnett, announced that up to 150 of the State's 27 4 remote Aboriginal communities might be closed. The period that followed saw a polarising public and political debate revealing fundamental tensions in the way the Australian nation state's Indigenous minority Is approached in policy terms. In this thesis, I argue that the contrasting values inherent in the remote community closure debate reflect ongoing tensions in this liberalist state's attempts to negotiate a cohesive coexistence with its Indigenous minority, in a context where 'value' primarily holds legitimacy if expressed in monetary terms.