Gary Gray (Brand, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Resources) Share this | Hansard source

I embrace the opportunity to speak on this debate today. Northern Australia has received a lot of attention by this parliament and that in the main has been due to the tireless efforts of the member for Leichhardt who through his lifetime in this parliament has devoted a substantial portion of it to a better understanding of the opportunities and fragile nature of Northern Australia.

In many ways, because Northern Australia has such a small population and is such a large area—that entire area of our continent north of the Tropic of Capricorn to the Arafura Sea and the Cook Strait—this part of our countryside is represented by a relatively small number of parliamentarians who in turn also represent every strain of the politics of this parliament.

So it means that Northern Australia really does not have in this place a consolidated, powerful caucus that can win votes and act in the interests of Northern Australia. To pursue the interests of Northern Australia, we need to do it through logical, carefully considered debate and with a commitment to developing our north through an understanding of the fragile nature of Northern Australia and also through a lot of common sense. What I have always enjoyed about my experience in Northern Australia is that the politics, the investment and the practicalities of Northern Australia are so solidly driven by common sense.

It has always seemed to me that Gladstone on our east coast has a lot more in common with Karratha on our west coast than Gladstone or Karratha have with the various capital cities of their states, Brisbane and Perth; that Broome and Cairns have more in common than Broome has with Perth or Cairns has with Brisbane; that Mount Isa in the great minerals province of the north-west of Queensland and Newman and Tom Price in the Pilbara have everything in common—logistics, power generation, health, Indigenous issues, cares, concerns and opportunities; that the mining provinces of Northern Australia have more in common with each other than either have with the capital cities of their states is self-evidently the truth.

Northern Australia is the home to a small but vibrant population. It is the home to some of the most innovative agricultural practices. It is the home to our northern beef industry, a billion-dollar industry. It is the home to our iron ore exporting industry, which next year will export in excess of 800 million tonnes of iron ore—contributing around a quarter of the entire state revenue of the government of Western Australia. We must consider the importance of our coal exports through Queensland, the importance of uranium mining, the importance of developing our hydrocarbon reserves off Australia and the importance of doing it all right.

We have had a substantial amount of work done by our parliament over the course of the last decade commencing with the insightful work that was started by the member for Leichardt through the Northern Land and Water Task Force, which considered the catchments through Northern Australia as distinct from the geography of Northern Australia itself. That work stands as a seminal piece of work in considering land and water use through Northern Australia. We must be cognisant of the environmental needs of water flows through Northern Australia, while, at the same time, the capacity for mosaic farming opportunities allows us to look carefully at how we can expand our horticultural and agricultural industries through Northern Australia. Other speakers have spoken of the great gains that have been made in horticulture by Vietnamese farmers in the Northern Territory generating in excess of $50-million worth of product each year through their insightful use of land and water.

We are getting there in Northern Australia but we need careful consideration—not a political debate about Northern Australia—based on the science, based on careful land use and based on the interests of the environment and of the people of Northern Australia.

See this speech in context