Is policy the problem or the solution for Indigenous people? A Rejoinder to

in a recent issue of Agenda, the reference to ‘wicked problems ’ was an attempt to extend the debate over ‘the intervention ’ by drawing on the theorising in public policy about appropriate responses to complex, multi-dimensional problems; problems which are intrinsically hard to define because multiple stakeholders have differing perspectives on what the underlying problem is: ‘wicked problems ’ (see also Commonwealth of Australia 2007). In the last issue of Agenda Gary Johns (2008) asked whether the underlying cause of Indigenous disadvantage in the Northern Territory is a ‘wicked problem’ or the result of ‘wicked policy ’ of ‘self-determination’. Johns argues that Indigenous disadvantage can only be solved by changing the system of government support and infrastructure so that people face the true costs of their decision to stay in remote communities — that is, to encourage mobility to more buoyant labour markets where jobs are available. More generally, Johns argues for a policy of ‘economic integration’, on the grounds that the modernisation project is (necessarily) inconsistent with cultural maintenance