The Last Seventeen Years: a personal perspective on the Commission's work and its achievements

Abstract

My task is to reflect personally on some of this Commission's work over the last 17 years and how it has helped me refine my knowledge of the nature of rural spatial systems, the processes shaping them, the problems and opportunities arising, transformations being made, and the role of both governments and communities in attempting to steer the course of events. Over all this time, I have found international perspectives a valuable contribution to the formulation and reformulation of my ideas about Australian rural affairs, assessing how they differ from other nations, and estimating the extent to which my own country's policies and strategies are effective in shaping economically efficient and environmentally sound ruralities. All this in turn has shaped my thinking about the core notion of sustainability - what does it mean and how useful is it? This piece is lightly referenced because, to some extent, it draws on hundreds of papers delivered over many years.