Financialising governance? State actor engagement with private finance for rural development in the Northern Territory of Australia

Abstract

Growing investments in food and farmland have raised concerns about the potential implications of the financialisation of the Australian agri-food sector. However, little is known about how these investments are negotiated in practice - what people and tools structure agricultural investments and drive their outcomes. Emerging research on this topic has largely focussed on private sector actors, with the state positioned as a structural driver which, through broad neoliberal policies, creates conditions which promote financialisation. Indeed, the 2015 White Paper on ‘Developing Northern Australia’ articulates a governance rationality that indicates the responsibility for allocation of economic resources should rest with financial investors. Yet excessive attention to this agenda risks underplaying the difficult, uncertain, work of government officials seeking to translate this into practice. This research explores the work of local Northern Territory government officials as they seek to translate two key aspects of the Developing the North program into practice: attracting finance capital, and moderating its activities. An appreciation for the difficult work of translation allows us to move beyond a view of the state as a merely passive actor in financialisation, to consider ways that individuals within government work actively to assemble patterns of financial investment.