Since Federation, people in regional and remote Australia have argued that decisions affecting their lives are too often made far away in Canberra.

Since the capital was established on Ngunnawal Country in 1913, "Canberra" has become shorthand for distance and disconnection — for policymakers governing communities they have rarely, if ever, visited.

It is a perception Labor's special envoy for remote communities, Marion Scrymgour, is determined to challenge.

Speaking exclusively to National Indigenous Times, the Mparntwe/Alice Springs-based MP describes a role that stretches well beyond the boundaries of her vast electorate of Lingiari — the second largest in the country — which covers all of the Northern Territory's remote Indigenous communities.

Her remit, she explains, extends across the nation's north and into overlooked pockets across the country.

"If we look across northern Australia," she says, "you've got Western Australia, you've got North Queensland and all of those communities... you've got the APY lands — which is often out of sight, out of mind."

She adds that remoteness is not confined to geography alone, with communities in New South Wales and Victoria — routinely seen as more connected to the big cities — that are as remote as anywhere else.

"They need the attention of the government just as much as anyone."

Since taking office, the Labor government has framed regional prosperity as central to its agenda, rolling out initiatives such as remote jobs programs, a housing partnership with the NT Government and the First Nations Economic Partnership. For Ms Scrymgour, those commitments are being backed by practical investment that allows communities to stand on their own feet.

In some cases, she argues, upfront spending is unavoidable if long-term self-sufficiency — and ultimately self-determination — is the goal, noting, "the policy framework and the settings need to just be right". Economic development, she adds, cannot happen in isolation.

How do you expand economic development if the road network isn't there, the Labor MP asks.

"In some of these regional and remote communities ...the infrastructure has been left wanting."

She is quick to reject the idea that responsibility for remote Australia sits solely within Indigenous affairs. Real change, Ms Scrymgour says, requires coordination across portfolios and ministers.

"It's working across all of the ministers," she says. "[Communications Minister] Annika Wells...one of the biggest issues and challenges in regional and remote is communications. So how do we work with her?"

The envoy role, created this term by the Albanese government, comes with constant demands. Every community has pressing needs.

Trying to satisfy all of them at once, Ms Scrymgour reflects, risks spreading resources too thin — being everything to everyone "will never do justice to anyone". Instead, the focus is on building local capability, including through measures like the lauded government's food subsidy program.

A visit to one of Australia's most isolated regions offered a practical example of self-determination

"When we went to Christmas Island, they've got this hydroponic project — because they get isolated from the mainland — so they're growing. This is stuff that we could do in communities," she says.

"Communities have talked for a long time about market gardens, so why aren't we working with remote communities and with industry partners to make this stuff happen.

"Food security isn't just about having a store there with good, subsidised food. It's also giving people the capacity to grow their own food."

Drawing on her Catholic schooling, she references the parable of Jesus feeding the 5,000 to illustrate the point: the potential is already there if people are equipped properly.

"If we can just give the tools to our communities, a lot of our communities can do this stuff," she says.

"I look at the jobs program on the Tiwi Island...it's kicking goals. Young people are saying, 'We want to work in this program.' Because people can now see the outcomes that are happening."

Ms Scrymgour strengthened her majority at the last election in a seat the Coalition had targeted heavily, even as the NT government swung away from Labor. From her base in Mparntwe/Alice Springs — often held up as a case study for regional challenges — she acknowledges the town's difficulties but resists framing them narrowly.

"I think that it's not just an Aboriginal thing, I think it's a community thing," she says.

"As their local member, I need to do everything that I can to make sure that our government policies and programs are reaching everybody."

She also rejects any suggestion that her portfolio is limited to First Nations constituents. In her view, remoteness itself is the issue, and anyone living far from major centres deserves equal attention. Over the next year, she plans to spend more time on the ground, listening directly to communities.

"That's what's really important," she says. "I think if you live in a regional, remote community, we should be able to take, those concerns to the highest level of government."

For Ms Scrymgour, closing the distance between Canberra and the bush is less about symbolism and more about presence, turning policy into practical outcomes, and ensuring that people in the country's most isolated places see government not as something far away, but as something that works alongside them.