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

I want to provide an update on the continuing work of the Northern Territory government with the Prime Minister, the federal Treasurer and the senator for the Northern Territory, Senator Scullion. They continue to build on the constructive and positive relationship that they have in order to deal with what is a clear and present threat to the viability of our budget in the Northern Territory. I am speaking about the GST calculations that have been made. It looks like, over the forward estimates, there will be somewhere in the vicinity of up to $2 billion less funding for the Northern Territory. We are not advocating any change to the way the Commonwealth Grants Commission makes those calculations, but we are appealing to the federal government to enter into some direct funding relationships so that we are able to continue to provide education, health and infrastructure development in the Northern Territory.

The Chief Minister of the Northern Territory, Michael Gunner, has had several conversations with Senator Nigel Scullion. Even though the Prime Minister did visit Darwin for the 75th anniversary of the bombing of Darwin recently, we would like and request that the Prime Minister becomes actively engaged in talks with the Northern Territory government in order to discuss where the opportunities may be for Commonwealth support.

Obviously, the national partnerships are one area in which the Commonwealth can support the Northern Territory; increases to funding for tourism infrastructure would be another. In the lead-up to the 2016 election Labor announced that $1 billion of the $5 billion in the Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility would be set aside for tourism infrastructure. This is because we realise that tourism infrastructure is vital for improving our services to tourists, whether they be domestic tourists or tourists coming from overseas.

We have world-class natural features, but we also have thriving and diverse capital cities across the north. I was reflecting on the coalition's policy for the City Deal for Townsville, and I have taken the liberty of amending the coalition government's City Deal policy by replacing 'Townsville' with the word 'Darwin'. I like the sound of it, and I like the idea of the Commonwealth entering into a deal with the northern capital of Australia, Darwin, to improve our city, because we do need some infrastructure. That will provide jobs not only in construction but also in tourism as people come to see the magnificent tourism that we have to offer in the north.

One of those ideas is a world-class arts museum, and I am very proud that today I, with Senator James Paterson, a Liberal senator from Victoria, have started the Parliamentary Friends of Museums, Galleries and Libraries group. It is our intention to make sure that museums, galleries and libraries are at the forefront of people's thinking in terms of protecting the cultural heritage. But I also go into it with some bias because, in the Northern Territory, we are keen on establishing a world-class arts museum in the city of Darwin—and I was very upfront with the good senator about that right from the start—but, of course, museums and galleries play a very important role all around Australia.

So I would like to make a couple of tweaks to the coalition's City Deal with Townsville and say that Darwin is a city with immense potential. With a population of around 120,000 and thousands of regional businesses, we are the capital of the north and we provide services to a massive land mass—one-sixth of the Australian land mass is the Northern Territory. To provide services to the people living in those communities, which will help to close the gap, is of national importance, and we do hope that we can continue to work constructively with the Prime Minister, with the federal Treasurer and with Senator Scullion to achieve that aim.