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

I rise tonight to talk about the concerns that my constituents in Darwin—the capital of the north—have about the current Northern Territory economy and the strong perception that this federal coalition government is not doing enough to meet their 'developing the north' mandate. I also rise tonight to talk about the sheer hypocrisy of those opposite when it comes to developing the north and to point out the policy decisions of those opposite that in fact go completely against their own developing the north rhetoric.

The coalition government likes talking the talk about developing the north, but it looks like it's doing everything within its power to withdraw federal government support from the Northern Territory. Firstly, there are the direct job cuts to Commonwealth agencies. From the time the member for Warringah came to power in 2013 through to the Turnbull era, about 450 Australian Public Service jobs have been lost in Darwin. I've talked in this place about the cuts to the Australian Electoral Commission. The AEC office has been completely gutted, from 15 employees down to three. This includes the unit that specifically goes out and educates and enrols Indigenous Territorians; it has been cut: 15 down to three—decimated. Twenty-five thousand Territorians are eligible to be enrolled but are not enrolled. What do we do? Cut nearly the complete AEC office in Darwin. It's ludicrous.

Apart from the serious concerns that we have about those job cuts, how is this decentralisation? The Deputy Prime Minister—and I must withdraw the comments I made in an earlier speech when I thought he was going to be the 'former Deputy Prime Minister'; it was incorrect; he is still the current Deputy Prime Minister—is moving a whole Commonwealth agency to his electorate. Now we hear from the member for Hunter that the government has more plans to move another agency, or another corporation, to another coalition-held electorate. We are trying to keep the economy going in the north by holding onto the public servants that we've got there and that are there to enrol people.

There is also the Australian Bureau of Statistics. We've got the same-sex marriage postal survey that will be run by the ABS. This government has just decimated the ABS office, from 34 jobs down to 15. This directly affects our economy, because if we can't count Territorians—they live in remote and regional places—we're going to have a smaller estimated resident number and so we're going to get less GST. This will really hurt our community; it will hurt the Territory. So it's hard to see how losing Public Service jobs from a big regional capital—in fact, the capital of the Northern Territory—is anything like decentralisation. In fact, this government has moved some of those jobs to Brisbane. That's the opposite of decentralisation.

The cuts in the budget to Charles Darwin University by those opposite mean 65 to 75 more jobs being lost. We don't need that. It's not helpful. If those opposite honestly want to develop the north—and I've talked to the current Deputy Prime Minister about this—then I hope the second minister for developing the north or the third minister for developing the north takes this nationally important project seriously. There are a couple of things that the federal government could do. As I mentioned to the current Deputy Prime Minister just the other day, we need to get the Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility operating. The NAIF was announced two years ago. It has been legislated for over a year. It is yet to spend a dollar in the Territory. This is a $5 billion fund. The rhetoric sounded good. Now we hear there's another corporation that sounds like it's doing a lot but is perhaps not doing much on the ground. We need the NAIF to start working.

There is one thing, in the time remaining, that the Prime Minister and current Deputy Prime Minister can do: bring forward the funds for the city deal with Darwin. It's really important that we get some funds into our northern capital. The city deal MOU has been established, so bring forward that funding, please.