Patrick Dodson (WA, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Reconciliation) Share this | Hansard source

In respect of the ministerial statement on developing northern Australia, I move:

Motion to take note of documents nos 4, 6, 7, 13, 22, 23, 29, 51, 57, 59, 64, 72, 87, 92, 121, 157, 183, 185 and 200 moved by Senator Ciccone. Consideration to resume on Thursday.

Motion to take note of document no. 9 moved by Senator Faruqi. Consideration to resume on Thursday.

Motion to take note of documents nos 14, 27, 46, 47, 106, 141, 151, 180 and 194 moved by Senator Siewert. Consideration to resume on Thursday.

Motion to take note of document no. 15 moved by Senator Rice. Consideration to resume on Thursday.

I rise in response to the minister's statement to deliver a reply on behalf of my colleague, the shadow minister for northern Australia, Senator Watt. Labor shares the government's commitment to our nation's north. For decades, Labor has called for and supported its economic development, the protection of its fragile environment, the provision of quality health, education and other services to its people and the empowerment of our large First Nations population. Unfortunately, though, in northern Australia what we've seen from this government is what we've seen in so many other areas—plans off in the never-never which take forever to get out the door. In this statement it is interesting to see the government is blaming COVID-19 and last year's bushfires for its lack of progress in northern Australia. In reality, the government was struggling to deliver for the north well before Australia had ever heard of COVID-19.

The people of northern Australia have been waiting a long time to see the type of change that was promised. As the government admits in its statement, it still hasn't fulfilled all of the measures it announced five years ago. That's because the north Australian white paper is a prime example of what this government loves doing most—a big flashy announcement and zero follow-through. Five years on, the white paper must be gathering dust in the bottom drawers of an office somewhere. It's been slow progress for a plan that was supposed to mark the beginning of a new era of growth in northern Australia. Time after time, the government talks about the north's potential, but what it doesn't seem to understand is that people in the north are looking for action to realise that potential.

It's easy to lose count of how many reviews and rehashes of programs the government has announced for northern Australia in the last few years. Ask someone living in the north: they don't want another announcement from this government; they want delivery. The north Australia white paper is the crowning jewel. Its big-ticket announcement was supposed to be the Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility, now widely referred to as the 'non-action infrastructure fund'. It has been a huge disappointment to northern Australia and Australians in the north. The government is always happy to talk about how much they have approved or how much they're going to spend from the NAIF, but they're dead quiet when you ask, 'How much has actually gone out the door and into communities?' There's probably a good reason why they don't like to talk about that.

It's taken more than five years to squeeze out less than five per cent of the funding. Less than five per cent of every dollar promised for northern Australian projects has actually been delivered. This means it would take 116 years to finally complete the program if it kept going at the current spending rates. The NAIF has spent more on itself in administration costs than it has across all of Queensland: $10 million on job-creating projects, $31 million on itself. Not a single Queensland project north of Townsville has received a single dollar from the NAIF. The government has now given itself another five years to try and hit its funding targets, but communities in the north can't keep hanging on for funding to trickle down.

Labor has been calling for major projects for the NAIF for three years, and finally, recently, we saw the Morrison government admit its failures and commit to a much-needed overhaul of the program. Money must start getting out the door faster so that it can start turbo-charging northern Australia's recession recovery. Communities in the north are some of the harshest hit by the economic fallout of COVID-19 and have been repeatedly let down and forgotten by the Morrison government. The decision to pull back JobKeeper support too early has hurt businesses and workers across northern Australia, particularly in areas like Cairns, Townsville, Darwin and the Kimberleys, which have been hit hard by the international border closures.

With a bit of big-picture thinking and national leadership, northern Australia has a great opportunity to lead the way out of the COVID pandemic. The remote working opportunities that many of us have embraced during the COVID period have opened doors for many workers and businesses to expand beyond the city skyscraper. The work the state governments have done in the north during the pandemic has been tough. They've had to take tough decisions, but they have kept people safe and helped businesses to reopen to the customers on the doorsteps. This hard work was recently recognised at both the Northern Territory and the Queensland state elections, where voters backed in these decisions.

The government has always failed to follow through on its promises to create new jobs in the region. An article in the Townsville Bulletin over the weekend revealed that around three-quarters of the NAIF's staff live in Sydney—about 1,400 kilometres from the southernmost point of northern Australia. We also recently found out that the government doesn't have a single full-time worker stationed in North Queensland at the North Queensland Water Infrastructure Authority—not one. The authority has been operational for 18 months, and the best the government can do for the people of North Queensland is a team in Canberra, consulting on important projects for North Queensland, including the Hells Gate dam, the Big Rocks weir and the Hughenden irrigation scheme projects. It's becoming increasingly clear that the Morrison government's northern Australia agenda is northern in name only. Perhaps, with that level of attention to detail, it shouldn't be a surprise that they had to scrap the National Water Infrastructure Loan Facility, which failed to deliver a cent of its $2 billion fund. But, hey, at least they delivered the announcement. The ministerial statement makes it clear that all the Morrison government has delivered for northern Australia in the last five years since the white paper was launched is a series of announcements.

We all want to see the northern parts of Australia flourish. A strong northern Australia is good for the whole country. But, at the moment, the federal government is unable or unwilling to make that happen. People in the north want more than platitudes about their potential and resilience. It's time the Morrison government got on with the job and started delivering real results for northern Australia, rather than just talking about it and doing nothing. Northern Australian people need better than this.

I seek leave to continue my remarks later.

Leave granted.