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

I'm very proud that the Northern Territory is now open to everyone. All Australians can come to the NT without the need to quarantine. I'm so proud of the role that Darwin has played this year in serving as a national hub of repatriation, processing and onboarding during our greatest health crisis in living memory. We played a major role from the outset of this crisis by repatriating Australians from Wuhan in China to Howard Springs in Darwin. The Territory stepped up again by welcoming 180 Australians off the Diamond Princess cruise ship. I'm proud of our role now in receiving Qantas repatriation flights from India, the UK, Singapore, France and Germany to start flying all those Australians who are stranded overseas home. The planes land in Darwin, and passengers spend two weeks at the Howard Springs quarantine facility. This facility is maintained by the NT government and is vital to our national interest. It would be great if we could do even more for this effort. The federal government should support the Territory if it wants to increase our burden-sharing capacity in future crises. Well done to the Northern Territory government. We stand ready to help the nation in the future.