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

I want to bring to the attention of the House two issues of importance to my seat of Solomon—Darwin and Palmerston in the far north. On Friday I visited Jingili Primary School, which is in my electorate, and I promised young JD, a student there, that I would take his message direct to the Prime Minister. I do so now: JD says, 'We need more funds for our primary school.' With $70 million cut out of education in the Northern Territory, it's a message that I hope the Prime Minister takes on board.

Secondly, yesterday I heard the member for Dawson raise some valid concerns about human rights abuses in China, but he then went on to say that the lease of the port of Darwin to the Landbridge Group should be terminated because of what he said were its links to the Chinese government. I point out to the member for Dawson that it was those opposite, the conservative Abbott-Turnbull government, that leased our port to a foreign entity, and I point out that it was his colleagues that took the big dollars for a 99-year lease of our strategic northern port. Where was the member for Dawson when news of this deal surfaced? He was nowhere to be seen. And where was the Prime Minister? He was laughing at the President of the United States, saying that he should read the NT News. Well, this Prime Minister should read the NT News because it says he simply does not care— (Time expired)

See this speech in context