Northern Territory Coordinator-General for Remote Services

As part of the announcement of Working Future on 20 May 2009, the Chief Minister appointed Mr Bob Beadman as the Northern Territory Coordinator-General for Remote Services.

The Coordinator-General’s role is to work collaboratively with other parties to oversee, monitor, assess and advise in relation to:

Development and delivery of government services and facilities in the 20 Territory Growth Towns to a standard broadly comparable with that in non-Indigenous communities of similar size, location and needs elsewhere in Australia, including through:
- Improvements to the coordination of the development and delivery of such services and facilities.
- Reforms to the development and delivery of such services and facilities.
Progress towards achieving the national Closing the Gap targets in the remote towns and communities of the Northern Territory.
Planning and strategic investment, in cooperation with the Commonwealth Coordinator-General, in the 15 locations identified under the National Partnership Agreement on Remote Service Delivery.
Progress on implementing the six steps of the Working Future policy.

The Coordinator-General has been appointed with broad powers that allow him to request information, documents and assistance from Territory Government agencies.

Profile – Bob Beadman, Northern Territory Coordinator-General for Remote Services

Mr Bob Beadman’s career in the Australian and Northern Territory public services spans more than four decades. From 1958 to 1973 Bob worked for the Australian Government in the Departments of Interior, Works, Treasury and Education and Science.

In 1973 Bob started his career in Indigenous affairs, working for the Department of Aboriginal Affairs, which became ATSIC in 1990. He worked in various capacities around Australia in Canberra, Townsville, Brisbane, the Torres Strait, Darwin and Alice Springs. Some of his key appointments during this period included: Senior Private Secretary to the Minister of Aboriginal Affairs; Regional Director (Northern) Darwin and Regional Director Central Australia Alice Springs; First Assistant Secretary, Heritage and Legal Division with responsibility for the Aboriginal Land Rights Act (NT) Act 1976; and A/Deputy Chief Executive Officer, ATSIC.

During this period Bob held responsibility for a number of high profile issues, including the International Border between Australia and the newly independent Papua New Guinea, land rights at Wreck Bay in the Jervis Bay Territory of the Australian Capital Territory, the Uluru Handover and the delivery of inalienable land title to the Gurindju people at Wattie Creek in the Northern Territory. Other international work included representing the Australian Government in Geneva at the International Labour Organisation in 1989 to revise the Indigenous Tribal Peoples Convention, and the United Nations Working Group on Indigenous Populations in 1990 to help to develop the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People.

In 1994 Bob was appointed as Secretary of the Northern Territory Government Department of Lands, Housing and Local Government, and Chief Executive Officer of the Office of Aboriginal Land Development. He held both positions until he retired in 2001. During this time Bob led the reform of public housing policy and local government, created the Indigenous Housing Authority of the Northern Territory, and overhauled the library grants program.

Bob is a permanent resident of Darwin and is actively involved in community affairs through various engagements, including as Chair of the NT Grants Commission, Chair of the Swimming Pool Safety Review Committee, and Member of the Red Cross Communities for Children Committee.

He will work closely with the Minister for Indigenous Policy to oversee the implementation of a Working Future.

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