The Barkly Regional Deal is the first regional deal in Australia. It is a 10-year commitment between the Commonwealth, the Northern Territory Government and the Barkly Regional Council to the Barkly region, with an investment of $78.4 million.

The Barkly Regional Deal is unique in that it is the first ‘city deal’ agreement in a remote location. What sets it aside from other ‘city deals’ is the addition of local community leadership at the decision-making table with the government partners.

The interim governance arrangements were formed quickly to take advantage of the opportunity to address urgent key priority issues in the Barkly region in late 2018. It was acknowledged that getting region wide governance arrangements in place was a crucial element to be actioned within the first 12 to 18 months of the Deal implementation.

In February 2020, the interim Barkly Regional Governance Group reviewed several potential governance models that could be established in the transition of governance arrangements to be more regionally representative. They formally endorsed an option that will see the creation of the Barkly Regional Aboriginal Alliance.

The Barkly Governance Coordinator will implement three phases in supporting the transition of the governance arrangements in the Barkly:

1. Lead extensive engagement working closely with Aboriginal leaders across the Barkly communities, to test the Barkly Regional Aboriginal Alliance idea in the community context and then establish a process for representatives to join the Alliance.
2. Prepare a consolidated list of representatives on the new Alliance.
3. Support the design of the transition process of aligning the new Barkly Regional Aboriginal Alliance into the restructure of the existing interim Barkly Deal Governance arrangements.

Please see the attached position description for more information about the role.