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

The Northern Territory is still assessing the impact of devastating GST cuts. Chief Minister Michael Gunner and Treasurer Nicole Manison are hoping to be in Canberra later this week to meet with the Prime Minister and the Treasurer. The point is: we have a massive amount of unmet need and historical infrastructural deficit in the Territory that will stop us from realising the development of the north and the realising of the huge potential of the Northern Territory for our nation. We need to lead in closing the gap, not continue to go backwards. We have huge potential in the Top End and we want the opportunity to develop our industry and resources and to maximise our unique access to those massive Asian markets. More than ever, we are looking to our local industry and businesses and ways that we can boost our local economy and grow local jobs. We are also looking for the infrastructure investment that has been promised by this government, which to date, to be honest, has not been delivered. We have got absolutely nothing to date from the Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility.

Then there is the Minister for Defence Industry, the member for Sturt, Christopher Pyne, who has promised us a share of the defence pie, stating that defence expenditure will not be localised into one state—we all know that he is talking about South Australia. But we in the Northern Territory are part of a Commonwealth. You may say that other states will be benefiting, but we are not seeing it in the Territory, where we have a very significant defence presence but very little local contracting or infrastructure services to support it. I have just been meeting this morning with the Executive Director of the Master Builders Association NT, David Malone, and some of the members of the MBA. As they say, this government is not currently joining the dots for local defence companies. On the one hand, it is promising to ensure the benefits of defence industry expenditure will be shared nationally, but then the government is unable to align contracting and tendering packages to meet the pool of local skills and capacity. Northern Territory businesses and industry are cut out of a lot of defence industry tenders right from the get-go, as these contracts are tailored to meet the profile and experience of southern companies. This must change. We in the Northern Territory want to be given the same respect as any other Australian businesses.

Recently I have hosted visits from shadow ministers, including the member for Canberra and the member for Grayndler, and next week I will host the shadow minister for defence, the member for Corio. We are meeting key industry groups, government, local construction companies and small operators to discuss how they can compete and attract defence industry contracts big and small. We have the capacity in the Northern Territory and we hope that we are given the opportunity to use it.