Natasha Griggs (Solomon, Country Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That this House:

(1) commends the fantastic work that the Minister for Trade and Investment and the Government are doing to make northern Australia’s economic development a priority;

(2) notes that the Northern Australia Investment Forum, the next stepping stone in bringing Australia’s broader strengths to Northern Australia, will focus on:

(a) the important initiatives highlighted in the White Paper on Developing Northern Australia to help business capitalise on the region’s strengths by removing barriers to investment; and

(b) showcase investment opportunities on offer and in prospect in the north; and

(3) recognises:

(a) that Northern Australia accounts for a significant share of Australia’s exports with more than half of Australia’s sea exports leaving via northern ports;

(b) that the north will account for 42 per cent of the Australian economy by 2040, up from 35 per cent in 2011; and

(c) the exciting potential for increased investment, trade, infrastructure and agriculture production in the north and the job opportunities this could create.

My motion commends the fantastic work that Minister Robb and the coalition government are doing to make northern Australia's economic development policy. My motion notes that the Northern Australia Investment Forum, the next stepping stone in bringing Australia's broader strengths to northern Australia, will focus on (a) the important initiatives highlighted in the White paper on developing northern Australia to help business capitalise on the region's strengths by removing barriers to investment and (b) showcasing investment opportunities on offer and in prospect within the north.

My motion also recognises that northern Australia accounts for a significant share of Australia's exports with more than half of Australia's sea exports leaving via northern ports. My motion acknowledges that the north will account for 42 per cent of the Australian economy by 2040, up from 35 per cent in 2011. My motion recognises the exciting potential for increased investment, trade, infrastructure and agriculture production in the north and the job opportunities this could create.

Talk of developing the north of Australia has been going on for more than a century. When all is said and done, an awful lot more has been said than done. North Australia has an abundance of mineral resources. We have tens of millions of hectares of land for agricultural production and energy resources but perhaps, most importantly, we have a few hundred thousand tough, tenacious and innovative people who are ready and willing to make the most of the sometimes harsh environment that we live in. But with the best will in the world and the best resources in the world, no industry is going to thrive if it cannot get their goods to market.

North Australia needs infrastructure. We need pipes to take gas from the northern fields to the southern homes that need heating. We need roads to move livestock from the vast stations of the interior to the coast, and we need deepwater ports so that they can be loaded onto ships for export. That is why the Abbott government commissioned the north Australia white paper. The north Australia white paper is a comprehensive road map to nation building across tropical Australia.

North Australia has all the ingredients for a prosperous economy. The white paper brings those ingredients together. This is a plan to build the infrastructure that will allow industry to thrive and develop so that we all benefit. The white paper includes measures to unlock north Australia's potential across six areas: simpler land arrangements to support investment; developing water resources; growing the north as a business trade and investment gateway; investing in infrastructure to lower business and household costs;·reducing barriers to employing people; and improving governance.

This is not a document designed to sit on the shelf and gather dust; this is a plan that is already being implemented. Between the 2015 budget and the white paper launch, more than $6 billion has already been allocated to major infrastructure projects. We have a $5 billion concessional loans scheme, which will bring together private sector innovation with public sector resources to invest in the sorts of projects to grow economies; the sort of projects that create jobs.

In November, an invitation-only event will be held in my electorate in Darwin to bring together high-level decision makers to discuss north Australian investment opportunities. North Australia can offer investors what no other part of the world can: untapped resources and shovel-ready, high-performing projects, all located within a stable, First World economy. The Australian government's investments are already starting to pay off: $100 million has been allocated to upgrade northern cattle roads, $20 million to support native title bodies and $17 million to secure property rights—and the list goes on.

Within my electorate of Solomon, we are already seeing the north Australia white paper gain traction. Members of the business community whom I have met with are very excited about the possibilities. Darwin is already a key strategic link between Australia and Asia. As the north Australia economy grows, the number of goods flowing through Darwin will increase.

Russell Broadbent (McMillan, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Is the motion seconded?

Warren Entsch (Leichhardt, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I second the motion.

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

Can I thank the member for Solomon for this motion on the books and can I recognise our chairman of the Joint Select Committee on Northern Australia, the bald-headed, moustachioed—

Mr Perrett interjecting—

Then it is not a mirror—Mr Entsch. Last Saturday evening, I was fortunate enough to attend the 110th anniversary of the Labor Party in the Northern Territory. I say that because the very fibre of the Labor Party across northern Australia has been the north, its development and its development interests. We all support the idea of having an investment forum in the north as part of the process of developing it, and as a flow-on from the white paper. However, I just counsel a number of things. It is really very important that if these sorts of investor round tables are to take place, they will achieve very little unless Aboriginal traditional owners and those with an interest in native title on land across the north of Australia are involved. Native title and the statutory titleholders to the land such as through the Northern Territory land rights act have an interest in the majority of the land across the north. I am sorry to say, but I think simpler land arrangements often mean weakening title interests. That is, of course, affecting the interests of Aboriginal people and Torres Strait Islander people in the north of Australia.

Across the Northern Territory, all of traditional owners in the Northern Territory own more than 50 per cent of the landmass and more than 85 per cent of the coastline. If this forum is like so many others before it, it will not have acceptable outcomes unless it is engaging with and involving traditional owners of the land across the north. I would encourage those involved with this process to ensure they are taking proper account of the interests of native title holders and traditional owners of land in northern Australia.

Another issue confronting the north is water. So much of the northern development will always be dependent on sustainable water supply and access.

The Rudd government in 2007 convened the Northern Australia Land and Water Taskforce, which examined the long-term strategic potential for land and water development with particular emphasis, but not limited to, the capacity of the north's future agricultural development.    The Martin and Henderson Labor governments were part of that process and had, as a critical objective, set up strategic Indigenous reserves, SIR, program.

The SIR program was aimed at allowing Aboriginal traditional owners to have perpetual, exclusive and inalienable rights to a share of water from aquifers, rivers and creeks. The idea was that that water could be used by Aboriginal people for economic or environmental activity that would generate prosperity for their communities. The policy was developed by the Indigenous Water Policy Group and driven by the North Australian Indigenous Land and Sea Management Alliance, NAILSMA, formerly led by Joe Morrison, now at the Northern Land Council, and Peter Yu, formerly of the Kimberley Land Council.

But the election of the Mills-Giles CLP government in 2012 was to change everything. Immediately after the election, the CLP government tore up the SIR, denying Aboriginal people the opportunity to participate in their own economic future and development. It gets worse. The same CLP government then handed out huge allocations of water to other non-Indigenous interests, including to a local magistrate who was also a large donor to the CLP and to a prominent CLP member and pastoralist who stood against me at the last federal election. She admitted she did not know what she was going to do with the allocation. We now know, though, because she has applied to subdivide her property with a selling feature being the large water allocations that go along with the sale of the land. These sorts of rorts cannot be allowed to continue. If we are interested in actually developing the north properly, we need to have a rational approach to all resource development, including the allocation of water.

For NAILSMA, payback was swift. With the deeply flawed Indigenous Advancement Strategy, NAILSMA applied for funding to continue and grow their work. Sadly, they were unable to get any funding. Their record is second to none in terms of demonstrating on a scientific basis how our environment can be developed in a sustainable way to the benefit of all northern Australians and indeed the nation as a whole.

Of the $10 million over four years that NAILSMA applied to the ISA for, they received nothing—zilch, zero, not a red cent. It makes you think that those opposite and the Minister for Indigenous Affairs want northern development all right—they do want it—but not with Aboriginal people being engaged or having ownership of the outcomes.

Warren Entsch (Leichhardt, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise today to add my support to the member for Solomon's motion and to commend the Minister for Trade and Investment for his tireless efforts in this area.

The Northern Australia Investment Forum will be held in Darwin from 8-10 November. It will focus on attracting investors and exposing them to opportunities in the north, supported by the publication of an investor-ready project. I am aware of many projects that will be put forward at that time, and there is a great deal of enthusiasm for participation in that event. As I have said before, the white paper on developing northern Australia is all about government being an enabler, attracting investment and promoting the right investment conditions for projects to get off the ground, independent of financial support from government.

The China-Australia Free Trade Agreement is another key measure. It is a central part of the government's work to build a strong, prosperous economy. Together with Australia's free trade agreements with Japan and South Korea, the China FTA will set our country up for long-term prosperity. These three agreements will create thousands of jobs, make households close to $4,500 better off, and boost GDP by an estimated $24.4 billion between 2016 and 2035.

Today I am pleased to provide an update on some of the key measures of the northern Australia white paper. The $5 billion Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility opened on 1 July. Criteria are being finalised by Treasury, covering geographic eligibility, the types of infrastructure able to be supported and financial criteria to be met. Draft criteria will be released soon for consultation with relevant interested parties. Discussions are underway with the Northern Territory and Queensland governments to start the pre-feasibility of the Mount Isa to Tennant Creek railway, and looking at feasibility for the upgrade from Mount Isa through to Townsville port for that rail system.

There is a significant number of other projects that I am aware of, with proponents that are very keen to participate in this fund. There is the $600 million northern Australia roads package; submissions from Queensland, Northern Territory and Western Australia will be invited from later this month. There is the $100 million 'beef roads' investment; the first industry forum will be held in Rockhampton at the start of October. Priorities are expected to be finalised in early 2016.

There are the pilot land reform projects in the north; the Attorney-General working group has been established and they will be inviting applications for funding in late 2015, with more efficient native title processes progressing through the COAG Indigenous land review. There will be options to use exclusive native title rights for commercial purposes.

The Northern Australia Insurance Premiums Taskforce is on track to report back in November. And we would expect to see some significant positive outcomes there in dealing with the current crisis that we have.

The design and implementation plan for the $500 million Water Infrastructure Development Fund is in the process of being signed off. We are on track to begin our feasibility assessment of Nullinga Dam in Queensland and the Ord stage 3 in Western Australia. Discussion has started with the Queensland government, and more updates are expected in the coming months. Work is also progressing with the Joint Select Committee on Northern Australia's inquiry into developing aquaculture opportunities in northern Australia. There is a huge opportunity for the expansion of Australia's aquaculture industry.

There are some great opportunities in this area, and we look forward to a hearing in Canberra tomorrow night with the Departments of Agriculture, Foreign Affairs and Trade and the Environment, and CSIRO. So I look forward to giving updates in the future about these magnificent opportunities for northern Australia.

Bob Katter (Kennedy, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

You are quite right in noting that in northern Australia $40,000 million comes out of the coal industry every year; $75,000 million out of the iron ore industry, $11,000 million out of the aluminium industry, $15,000 million out of the gold industry and $10,000 million out of the beef industry. In fact, the vast preponderance of Australia's export earnings comes out of North Queensland. Then there is the Galilee rail line. For three years Clive Palmer was going to build it, but now he is not going to build it. GVK, Gina Rinehart's Indian company, was going to build it, but now it is not going to build it. Mr Adani was going to build it and we do not know whether he is going to build it now or not. For heaven's sake, every inch of railway line built in Queensland was built by the government into the coalfields. They have to be multiuser facilities. To quote the great Andrew Forrest in Western Australia, the decision by Charles Court not to build that railway line as a government railway line—in sharp contrast to what we did in Queensland—cost that state 25 years. They were behind in their development. If the Gaililee line were built tomorrow, you would get $7,000 million and 20,000 jobs for the next 100 years—just for $2,000 million for a railway line. It would not be $5,000 million; it would be just $2,000 million, which you would get back every year from the state government by way of mineral royalties and payroll tax.

I table today one of the most damning documents in Australia. It has a picture of Cape York Peninsula and a picture of Victoria. They are both the same size in area. Cape York has three times more rainfall, yet it has 141,000 head of cattle and Victoria has 4.2 million head of cattle. Why aren't the cattle there? For two reasons: in 25 years the governments of Australia have refused to give title deeds. It is no use saying a tribe owns it, because that is not ownership—that is a statement of aspiration. It is not an ownership title deed. We need to give these 4,000 First Australians up there who cannot get a job, because there are no cattle up there and there is nothing else much happening up there, title deeds and irrigation, which is the other factor that we need desperately. We also need government guarantees on loans for the development of these various projects.

I constantly hear reference to the Georgetown proposal and the Mareeba proposal. I was up in Georgetown the other day, and all I know is that I got my backside kicked a hell of a lot over that particular project. There are probably some who are in favour of Nullinga—and I do not criticise the member for Leichhardt, because he was officially approached by people about this—but nobody in Mareeba wants Nullinga. So could the government please get in step with North Queensland and what they are going to do? This government has given $3 million and the previous government gave $3 million to the upper Burdekin scheme, and I do not know how many hundreds of millions have been spent on the upper Herbert scheme. So there are two schemes I can name straight off.

The member for Leichhardt, or one of the previous members, was dead right in talking about prawn and fish farming. We said—and I was the minister that sort of was involved in getting the industry started in Australia—that we would catch up with Thailand by the year 2000. Thailand was on $2,000 million. We are languishing on $600 million. Not only have we not caught up with them but we have actually gone backwards from where we were whilst Thailand has gone on to $10,000 million a year in the prawn and fish farming industry. We should be doing $20,000 million in the prawn and fish farming industry in Australia.

If you give us a lazy little government guarantee for $90 million—and maybe in this case we would like a grant—to build a canal, we could give you a $6,000 million a year phosphate industry, and that is not including the iron ore, copper and zinc that would be opened up with that canal. We cannot get the product out—it has got to go all the way back to Mount Isa and Townsville. With silicon there is $5,000 million. That is $50,000 million, and then there is ethanol. There would be 500,000 jobs. All we ask for is a guarantee of a little bit of money. You cannot tell us you are giving us $5,000 million and give— (Time expired)

Ian Goodenough (Moore, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Is leave granted for the member for Kennedy to table his document?

Leave granted.

Debate adjourned.