Warren Snowdon (Lingiari, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for External Territories) Share this | Hansard source

I am pleased to be able to speak to this motion, and can I thank those who have contributed already, particularly my friend from Perth, the member for Perth.

I agree that there is a serious need for infrastructure and economic development in Northern Australia; I absolutely disagree that this government 'wants to maximise Northern Australia's enormous untapped potential' and that 'the Prime Minister has adopted measures that will end years of government inertia on developing this region'. That is the biggest load of codswallop that I have heard in a long time.

In 1996, after the Keating government was defeated, the first thing almost the Howard government did was to knock off a regional roads program in the Northern Territory and get rid of the Office of Northern Australia. That is what they did. That tradition has continued, because in this last budget they have strangled regional development of Australia; they have cut funding to education for Northern Australia that will affect constituents in my electorate; they have showed a pitiful interest in funding infrastructure in the north by committing less money to the Northern Territory than they are for the ACT; they have made education and training a second tier issue, with savage cuts to schools; they do not understand there can be no development without serious commitment to education and training—and that is very clear; they have endangered the future of Charles Darwin University and made a tertiary education unaffordable thousands of people in Northern Australia. That is not a bad start for a government that is supposed to be committed to Northern Australia!

I can say this: one of the things that I am most concerned about is the way they have stood aside to passively watch the town of Nhulunbuy get gutted because of a decision made in hubris by the current Northern Territory Chief Minister not to do a deal with Rio Tinto over gas to Gove. That has meant halving the size of the town. If the government were actually committed to Northern Australia they would have been in there with a rescue package. They haven't been near the place. I have to say to those on the other side who think that somehow or other Tony Abbott is different from the rest—he ain't.

oil and gas But I do say we are doing significant things in Northern Australia and we ought to be very proud of them. In the Northern Territory, for example, we know already that there has been great work done in oil and gas, tourism, cattle and buffalo, and horticulture. We know that ConocoPhillips and INPEX's success in bringing gas onshore will lead to further development of the Top End, particularly the Darwin region, as a world-class oil and gas hub; we know that cattle and buffalo will become more attractive as the Asian middle classes grow; we know that AAco need to be congratulated for their investment in the abattoir at Livingston outside of Darwin—$80 million worth is not an enormous vote of confidence in that industry; we know about the iron ore developments in the Roper Valley; we know about developments in the Indigenous tourism training and investment; and we know about the strong gains made in horticulture. The Darwin rural area produces $180 million to $200 million worth of produce a year. They produce more mangoes with higher value than in Queensland. Melons are worth $50-$60 million. There is Asian fruit and vegetables—bok choy, kalian, choy sum, dragon fruit et cetera of around $40 million. Vietnamese-Australian farmers working in the Darwin rural area are turning over $60 million a year, the same as Ord stage 1. This is significant work that is being done that is not understood by this parliament and certainly not understood by this government.

There are huge impediments to Northern Australia growing and they are partly the responsibility of government. We have seen funding cut to CSIRO. We need to understand the science of the north. Cutting funding to Northern Australian institutions will not help. The Northern Australia and savanna CRCs, the CSIRO, Desert Knowledge, Charles Darwin University all need support.

There are huge impediments to what is happening in the Northern Territory, and some vandals are making what is happening in Northern Australia their own province. I am now talking about the Northern Territory government and its attitude to water. They are carving up the Territory's priceless water resources for their mates. A prominent CLP pastoralist, a candidate in the last election at Mataranka, has been given 5,000 megalitres of water. That is enough to run a significant number of farms. When asked what she was going to do with that water, she said she did not know. So this water was allocated not out of some plan for production but on the basis that someone wanted to get economic benefit out of trading and water. Another CLP figure, a fundraiser for them, received 21,000 megalitres in the Daley only recently and this person has never grown a thing in his life.

Water is a huge issue for Northern Australia. Understanding the science of water is absolutely fundamental. Making allocations based on your political mates is not the way to do good science or react to what is needed in Northern Australia.

I congratulate finally the chair of the Joint Select Committee on Northern Australia for the magnificent work he is doing in leading that committee in his deliberations and travelling around the north.

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