Nova Peris (NT, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise tonight to speak in the adjournment debate on the situation in the Gove community of the Northern Territory, which is facing the closure of the Rio Tinto refinery in the town. There has been much focus on the troubles within Australia's manufacturing industry lately—and rightly so. Workers in the automotive industry in Adelaide, Melbourne and Geelong face a bleak future. So, also, do workers in Shepparton at SPC. There has been a great deal of attention on the plight of workers and their families, and my thoughts are with these hardworking Australians.

However, there has been less attention on the remote Gove region of the Northern Territory, a region that faces an equally uncertain future. It is a town where thousands of people face losing their jobs as a result of the announced closure of the Rio Tinto refinery. The plight of the people in Gove may have received less attention than other communities, but I am glad to say that it has not escaped the attention of the opposition leader, who travelled to Gove last Friday along with me, the member for Lingiari and the local Northern Territory member, Lynne Walker. I commend the opposition leader, Bill Shorten, for coming to Gove. It stands in stark contrast with the Prime Minister, who simply refuses to visit the town.

In a moment I will briefly outline the events that have led to the announced closure of the refinery, but I just want to point out that the closure of the refinery is also a broken election promise of the Abbott government. A coalition election policy document, 'Federal Coalition Supports Gove's Long Term Future', was released on 29 July last year. On the first page it stated that the coalition government would ensure a long-term solution that would keep the Pacific Aluminium Gove refinery open. They have broken this promise, and the refinery is closing.

The Gove community welcomed Bill Shorten last Friday. He met with many locals. The closure of the refinery affects everyone—the whole town. It affects the workers at the refinery. It affects the businesses in the town. It affects the Yolgnu people and the traditional owners who have an agreement with Rio Tinto. It affects the public servants, teachers, nurses, police and others who no longer have positions as the town shrinks. I can recall from my own personal experience that the town is losing up to 60 people a week. It is going to go from 4,500 people to 500 or 600 people within the next 12 months. I had meetings with the small-business owners. One of the ladies there who owns a tackle shop—fishing is quite big there—has a long-term lease which she cannot get out of. She currently pays $11,000 a month. There is no financing package being made available to her and her current income is $300 a day.

Mr Shorten and I went to Nhulunbuy High School, and I was personally affected just listening to the stories of the young Territory kids who started preschool there and are now doing their year 11 and 12 studies. A young boy stood up and said there are no businesses that are now offering apprenticeships. It is so sad, because there is so much talk about the development of northern Australia and this whole town is left with nothing—no-one has come there; and Rio Tinto, the CLP government and the federal government have refused to go and speak and engage with these people.

One of the most disturbing moments of that day was meeting the Yolgnu people and the Yirrkala community, where I met the leaders from the Gumatj clan group. The refinery has been there for 40 years, so almost a whole generation of Aboriginal people have lived and grown up with the refinery. Aboriginal people are saying, 'We are sad. We are feeling pain. Our spirit is broken because our balanda friends are leaving this community.' This place has had a huge impact on this community, and they have felt abandoned by so many people.

I will now outline the events that have led to this situation. Firstly, in the lead-up to the closure of the refinery the actions of the CLP government were disgraceful. They were totally incompetent in the way they dealt with and spoke to the people in the community. They provided nothing but false hopes and gave very little direction to the community of where to go. Pacific Aluminium and their parent company, Rio Tinto, requested that the NT government sell them excess gas to allow them to operate more efficiently. After a protracted process the CLP government announced that it was a done deal: 300 petajoules of gas would be provided. The then chief minister, Mr Terry Mills, travelled to Gove and announced that the NT government had agreed to the supply of gas. However, briefly afterwards, Terry Mills was rolled while overseas by the now chief minister, Adam Giles, who then did a backflip and announced he was breaking the deal the government had done with Rio Tinto. He was going to provide only half that amount: 175 petajoules. It was not long after this broken deal that Rio Tinto announced that they were going to close the refinery.

The refinery is now closing. The coalition's promise is broken, and Tony Abbott and his government have walked away from Gove. Gove needs a package to save the town. The announcement of the closure of the refinery came at around the same time as the announcement from Holden that it was going to stop manufacturing cars in Australia. It took just days for Tony Abbott to announce a $100 million assistance package for Holden workers. $100 million is completely inadequate for that industry, but it is $100 million more than the workers of Gove have been offered. They have heard nothing from the Commonwealth government. There has been no assistance package, no structural adjustment package and no attempt to support or promote replacement industries.

To elaborate on that, Gove is crying out for a replacement. They are saying, 'Bring people to Gove. We want something here. We have all the infrastructure and we do not want to lose it.' Knowing what is happening with Northern Australia, it would be an absolute disgrace to this country if we cannot move forward and support this town.

In closing, I would like to thank comrade Lynne Walker, the member for Nhulunbuy in the Northern Territory parliament. She has been working tirelessly and she is an incredible and well-loved and well-respected politician in the area. For Lynne it is not just about politics; it is about the future of her town. I might add that her three children were born in the town.

When opposition leader Mr Bill Shorten travelled to Gove on Friday, he saw for himself the high regard the people of Gove have for Lynne Walker. Regardless of what happens in Gove, the workers, families and businesses know that her entire focus will be on their welfare and their wellbeing.

I will be working closely with Lynne Walker and the member for Lingiari to try to ensure that the NT government and the Commonwealth government assist the Gove community. They made false promises to this community. The Prime Minister has not visited the Northern Territory since the election. I call on him to visit Gove very soon to meet with the workers, the families, the businesses and the Yolngu people and put together a package to help this community out.