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  • 4/29/2024
The Northern Territory is experiencing a population drain losing thousands of residents over the past year alone. A leading demographer says the sinking numbers mean the Northern Territory government is unlikely to reach its ambitious population target of 300-thousand people by 2030.

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Transcript
00:00In her Adelaide backyard, Paige Tehan reflects on her time living in a totally different
00:08part of Australia.
00:09I loved Darwin.
00:11It was, I felt like every day was a bit of a vacation just because of the heat.
00:16Having moved from Melbourne during the COVID pandemic, Paige planned to stay in the NT
00:21for six months, but actually lasted three years.
00:25In the end, after a group of people tried to steal her dog, Oreo, she felt too unsafe.
00:32I was walking her one morning and someone tried to steal her off me.
00:35So after that, I just called my partner and I was like, I think I'm just ready to go.
00:40Paige's departure last year contributed to the NT's lowest annual net interstate migration
00:45rate on record.
00:47Almost 17,400 people left the NT, while just over 14,100 people arrived, putting net migration
00:55numbers well into the negative.
00:58Although crime can act as a tipping point, residents usually leave due to a multitude
01:04of factors, the main ones being family and work.
01:08People are weighing up these, you know, in tandem with everything that's going on in
01:13their lives and perhaps other people's lives, their friends and families down south.
01:19Interstate departures are not the biggest factor at play though.
01:22What's contributed more so in this case is the lack of arrivals.
01:28As for the NT government's goal of increasing the total population from 252,000 to 300,000
01:35by 2030.
01:36Unfortunately, that target will not be able to be reached.
01:39Yeah, so we'll continue to work for that target.
01:41We always knew it was going to be tough around getting to that figure.
01:45A population pipe dream for a sparse territory.

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