Luke Gosling (Solomon, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I am appreciative of the opportunity to reflect on, and to pass on some information about, how we're going in the northern capital of Australia. It has been quite some time since a member of the government, a minister, has been to Darwin, so here's a bit of a heads-up on what's happening in the capital of the north. We've got a huge project that many members would have heard of called the Ichthys INPEX project. It's a big gas project that will literally keep the lights on in Japan. It's been in the construction phase for many years now, and this year it's winding down out of that construction phase. About 9,000 people are working on that project at the moment, but that number will decrease to an operational level of just 300—such is the level of automation these days.

For our relatively small capital city, this will be a big hit to our population. Of course, that becomes problematic for us because, whenever we drop in population, the estimated resident population also drops, which leads to a drop in our GST revenue that we depend on so much to provide services to a population that is spread over a massive land mass—one-sixth of the Australian continent. So, out of those 9,000 people, we are going to lose 3,000 to 3,500 locals. Those people will be new entries progressively throughout the year onto the job market in the Northern Territory.

I do not intend for this to be a political or partisan rant, but I'll just stick to the facts. The $5 billion NAIF has not spent a dollar in the Northern Territory. No job-producing projects have been funded under the Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility. That's why we've launched a Senate inquiry into the NAIF to see what's going wrong, what can be fixed et cetera. We were hoping that that $5 billion facility that the government have been talking about for almost three years now would have had some projects come online so that we don't lose those INPEX workers interstate or to the unemployment lines. Unfortunately, not a dollar has been spent.

The other thing we were hoping is that, like other jurisdictions, like Townsville or Launceston, our City Deal would be signed—confirmed—but it's been nine months. We were hoping that it would be signed so that, again, job-producing projects could start and we could then have those jobs for Territorians and keep our GST funding, which is so essential to providing services. As we heard this week, we're not closing the gap in the Northern Territory in so many ways and, like everyone else in Australia, we want jobs, apprenticeships and work for our kids when they leave school. However, so far, on those two counts, we're still waiting.

To give you an understanding of the size of the hit to our economy, the INPEX project is one of the biggest construction projects in the world and it's been pumping about $10 billion a year through the economy. That hasn't spread across the economy. Some people have done very well; some people have been adversely affected. But that is a large amount of money going into the economy year after year during this project and, for the relatively small revenue base that we do have, it's been very important.

To put that in context, the NT government's infrastructure cash this financial year, which is the biggest infrastructure spend in the Northern Territory's history, is $1.75 billion. As I said, it's a small revenue base for the Northern Territory government to work with; however, that is the biggest infrastructure spend in the Territory's history, so the loss of that INPEX project, moving out of construction and into operation, is going to be a big hit. That's why we're hoping for some, or any, commitment by the Commonwealth to our northern capital and the Northern Territory.

Tourism is also increasingly important as a sustainable source of economy-building development. The Northern Territory government yesterday announced $103 million as a stimulus package for the tourism industry. That is very important. We're trying to grow the Chinese market, so it's great that that commitment has been made by the Northern Territory government, which has put up $100 million of investment, primarily into the Darwin CBD. We are hoping through that city deal process that that will be met by the Commonwealth. The new minister, Minister Fletcher, has said he will come up in early March but has already ruled out signing the deal, which is a shame to say the least. What would be preferable is, should the Northern Territory government have all their ducks in a line and be ready—which I'm sure they will be by the time he comes up in early March—if he meets with the Lord Mayor of Darwin, Kon Vatskalis, and the Northern Territory government and simply lets us get started, signs the deal and makes sure that his boss, the Prime Minister, is good to his word. He promised the people of Darwin, Palmerston and the Top End that this city deal would bring prosperity and jobs, so it's about time that we signed and sealed that deal so that we can get those projects started.

Earlier today, I talked about the tourism campaign. As I said, tourism a very important part of our economy, employing 17,000 Territorians, either directly or indirectly. One of the current initiatives—and I give credit to Tourism Australia for this—is they are really going after the US tourism market. In the way that Crocodile Dundee captured the imaginations of thousands and thousands of Americans in the past, we're hoping that there can be some goodwill and also smarts provided by some investors out there to invest in another Dundee film. Bring back Dundee! I'll just wrap up by encouraging everyone to jump onto the NT News website, where they have started the Bring Back Dundee campaign, and sign that petition. I think another Dundee film would be good for the country.

Mr Byrne interjecting—

I could play the lead. Chris Hemsworth has been part of the ads. I think, on behalf of most Territory blokes, we're happy that he is a good representative of us. He is Thor. He did well in the ads. We have so much talent. We have so many amazing scenic places in the Top End that that film would be a cracker. Jump onto the NT News website and sign the petition to bring back Dundee. We would appreciate that. Warren Snowdon may be having a cameo in there somewhere! It's unsure. Maybe he could be a crocodile-attack victim! But that is yet to be confirmed. I don't want to mislead the House.

I will make a final plea to the government: there are a number of ways that you can assist us and a number of ways that have already been committed to by the government to assist us with job-producing projects that will assist us as we transition out of the construction phase on the INPEX project into operation.

Debate interrupted.

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