However, the figures do point to some possible missed opportunities for Aboriginal people as 135 of the 336 positions filled by non-Aboriginal people in the Agricultural industry were unskilled labouring positions. Aboriginal people of labour market age. Thus 12 per cent of Aboriginal, compared with 59 per cent of non-Aboriginal residents of labour market age, held positions. There is no clear evidence from the remote statistical local areas demonstrating that AEDP has resulted in the development of additional conventional labour markets through particular enterprises. The comparative statistics suggest that Aboriginal people in both the statistical location areas analysed are not gaining equitable access to conventional labour markets.
Aboriginal people are under-represented in almost all conventional labour market industries.
If this analysis of the ABS data of the two remote areas is indicative of the situation of other remote Aboriginal families' communities, then serious problems exist in remote areas. The problems appear to be the compatibility of the Aboriginal Employment Development Policy's primary remote area strategy and the achievement of Active Society policies. After five years of operation, AEDP remote area strategies have not achieved significant outcomes for Aboriginal families in terms of equitable access to the conventional labour market. The long-term danger of the creation, growth and institutionalisation of a second labour market, which exists outside the conventional labour market, is that it could reinforce the exclusion of many remote area Aboriginal families from the conventional labour market. The institutionalisation of such exclusion would deny remote Aboriginal families the opportunity of higher wages and the occupational benefits of the conventional labour market.