Ms MARTIN - 1999-06-08
We would like a reasonable answer, and not one that takes 10 minutes. What contract conditions do you have in place to guarantee the successful railway tenderers will engage Territory employees and subcontractors, and what strategies does you government have in place to address the Territory’s chronic skill shortages to make sure young Territorians will be trained in time to benefit from the project, including provision for training within the project itself?
ANSWER
Mr Speaker, there are strategies in place, with regards to the issues the Leader of the Opposition raises. I certainly don’t intend to dwell in terms of the dollar figures and the parameters that are being negotiated in the fineness of this contract. The Minister for the AustralAsia Railway has information that would be of interest to this House with regards to the consortium and some of the parameters of the contract that may be revealed. I will leave that up to him to decide that, and I refer the question to the Minister for the AustralAsia Railway.
Mr COULTER: Mr Speaker, it is interesting that this particular consortium is providing information to us that indicates that 70% of the project will be local content. Now, when they say ‘local’, of course, they mean Australian and particularly South Australian and the Northern Territory. The memorandum of understanding that the Northern Territory has with South Australia highlights that jobs are being sourced within the Northern Territory and materials within the Northern Territory, and then into South Australia and then the rest of Australia, in that particular order.
The ISO has played a very pivotal and major role in trying to identify job opportunities and supply contracts with all the consortiums. They’ve met with them on a number of occasions and there is indeed a detailed strategy to try and capture a lot of that work here into the Northern Territory. The documents that I provided the House with last week from Access Economics also go to a great deal of trouble to suggest the number of jobs that will be generated in the Northern Territory. Indeed, they go on to say that just the very fact of the railway being here, we’ll have a population increase, I think, of 6500 people, and the number of jobs in the Northern Territory was over 1000 jobs.
With regards to the Aboriginal content and the Aboriginal employment, the consortiums were to negotiate with both the Northern Land Council and the Central Land Council, and you heard Mr Fletcher on the radio this morning saying that he intended to do that through the government, and to work with the land councils to try and maximise the employment opportunities through Aboriginal communities throughout the Northern Territory.
This project, because it travels the length of the Northern Territory, the spine of the Northern Territory, and the communities that it will travel through, will have great economic benefit right across the Northern Territory. If you live at Borroloola and Timber Creek there might be a little bit of travelling time to get to work, but certainly the spine, the central spine of the Northern Territory will benefit greatly from this particular project. So all those things are in place ...
Ms Martin: What about Territorians and training?
Mr COULTER: Territorians and training as well, opportunities that can be provided, or job opportunities in that regard. Remember, 17 million cubic metres of Territory dirt has to be shifted.
Ms Martin interjecting.
Mr COULTER: There are strategies in place. We looked at, for example, the Mount Todd model, which I thought was an ideal model, particularly for Aboriginal people, to try and get Aboriginal employment. That’s the sort of detail that we have asked consortiums to consider in providing job opportunities. A very important major part of winning the contract is to get those job opportunities and not to source steel from anywhere else …
Ms Martin: How is the training provided?
Mr COULTER: Well, let’s get a project first. But let me assure you that is in there. We’re happy to give you a briefing on all of this, but we have not overlooked that factor.
Can I, whilst I’m on my feet, just simply say that this consortium is well known to me. I was hosted by the Brown and Root group of people in Houston from 3 to 6 May of this year, and I caught up with Dick Chaney over in Houston as well. They are not an insignificant company over there. Brown and Root is wholly owned and guaranteed by Halliburton, and the Chief Minister had the opportunity of meeting with Michael Kinaird and Dick Chaney here in Darwin earlier on this year. Some of the projects that they’re building over there and that they took me to includes a basketball stadium that seats 43 000 costing US$250m. It is an open baseball stadium which is air-conditioned. There is a ring road around Houston, billions of dollars worth of project that they’re involved in. They are a great company and I believe they will add substantially to the success of this project.
Genesee and Wyoming, I met with them in 1997 at the Princeton Club in New York. They are a great railway corporation out of America and it’s great to see them on board as well. Barclay Mowlem would be well known to a lot of people here in the Territory. They, of course, are involved in the wharf, and I guess they wouldn’t like me saying that project first, because there’s been a few problems out there, but it is being fixed …
Mr Stirling interjecting.
Mr COULTER: Yes, they’re fixing the problem. But Barclay Mowlem is one of the large sleeper manufacturers in Australia. I visited their Rockhampton plant just recently, and I believe that they will also add substantially to the project. MacMahons have been in the Territory on and off for many, many years. We have had some difficulties with them from time to time, most notably the gas pipeline to McArthur River, but they’ve built a lot of roads and infrastructure here in the Northern Territory, and its great to see them involved.
The MPG logistics through the Mayne Nickless organisation, my association with them goes back to 1996. They are the largest Australian logistics and transport corporation, and it is also good to see Hutchison Port Holdings involved in there. I met with them in Hong Kong in 1997. Eddie Tay is a great port operator over there, in one of the busiest world ports in Hong Kong, and to have them backing up this corporation is also significant.
We have a great project in front of us here. Let the negotiations begin, and I will back our public service in terms of our men and women against these great corporate giants from around the world, and I bet you that our public service will match these people eye to eye, toe to toe, and negotiate a very good deal for the Northern Territory. I wish them well in the negotiations and also, of course, the Chief Minister’s involvement with the Premier of South Australia and the Prime Minister to believe in this project now.
And you should come on board, you should do that. The opposition shouldn’t be here, bagging the gas pipeline, the Northern Territory University or anything else that we’ve built in the Northern Territory. When will you ever learn? Come on board; its going to be a great success story. It is going to happen. Stop your stupid questions about the Chief Minister having failed at anything. Get on with it. Enjoy it. Try and adopt a bipartisan approach to this project. It will provide jobs. It will provide jobs, employment, and success for the Northern Territory and South Australia for many decades to come and I wish everybody well in the negotiating process.
ANSWER
Mr Speaker, there are strategies in place, with regards to the issues the Leader of the Opposition raises. I certainly don’t intend to dwell in terms of the dollar figures and the parameters that are being negotiated in the fineness of this contract. The Minister for the AustralAsia Railway has information that would be of interest to this House with regards to the consortium and some of the parameters of the contract that may be revealed. I will leave that up to him to decide that, and I refer the question to the Minister for the AustralAsia Railway.
Mr COULTER: Mr Speaker, it is interesting that this particular consortium is providing information to us that indicates that 70% of the project will be local content. Now, when they say ‘local’, of course, they mean Australian and particularly South Australian and the Northern Territory. The memorandum of understanding that the Northern Territory has with South Australia highlights that jobs are being sourced within the Northern Territory and materials within the Northern Territory, and then into South Australia and then the rest of Australia, in that particular order.
The ISO has played a very pivotal and major role in trying to identify job opportunities and supply contracts with all the consortiums. They’ve met with them on a number of occasions and there is indeed a detailed strategy to try and capture a lot of that work here into the Northern Territory. The documents that I provided the House with last week from Access Economics also go to a great deal of trouble to suggest the number of jobs that will be generated in the Northern Territory. Indeed, they go on to say that just the very fact of the railway being here, we’ll have a population increase, I think, of 6500 people, and the number of jobs in the Northern Territory was over 1000 jobs.
With regards to the Aboriginal content and the Aboriginal employment, the consortiums were to negotiate with both the Northern Land Council and the Central Land Council, and you heard Mr Fletcher on the radio this morning saying that he intended to do that through the government, and to work with the land councils to try and maximise the employment opportunities through Aboriginal communities throughout the Northern Territory.
This project, because it travels the length of the Northern Territory, the spine of the Northern Territory, and the communities that it will travel through, will have great economic benefit right across the Northern Territory. If you live at Borroloola and Timber Creek there might be a little bit of travelling time to get to work, but certainly the spine, the central spine of the Northern Territory will benefit greatly from this particular project. So all those things are in place ...
Ms Martin: What about Territorians and training?
Mr COULTER: Territorians and training as well, opportunities that can be provided, or job opportunities in that regard. Remember, 17 million cubic metres of Territory dirt has to be shifted.
Ms Martin interjecting.
Mr COULTER: There are strategies in place. We looked at, for example, the Mount Todd model, which I thought was an ideal model, particularly for Aboriginal people, to try and get Aboriginal employment. That’s the sort of detail that we have asked consortiums to consider in providing job opportunities. A very important major part of winning the contract is to get those job opportunities and not to source steel from anywhere else …
Ms Martin: How is the training provided?
Mr COULTER: Well, let’s get a project first. But let me assure you that is in there. We’re happy to give you a briefing on all of this, but we have not overlooked that factor.
Can I, whilst I’m on my feet, just simply say that this consortium is well known to me. I was hosted by the Brown and Root group of people in Houston from 3 to 6 May of this year, and I caught up with Dick Chaney over in Houston as well. They are not an insignificant company over there. Brown and Root is wholly owned and guaranteed by Halliburton, and the Chief Minister had the opportunity of meeting with Michael Kinaird and Dick Chaney here in Darwin earlier on this year. Some of the projects that they’re building over there and that they took me to includes a basketball stadium that seats 43 000 costing US$250m. It is an open baseball stadium which is air-conditioned. There is a ring road around Houston, billions of dollars worth of project that they’re involved in. They are a great company and I believe they will add substantially to the success of this project.
Genesee and Wyoming, I met with them in 1997 at the Princeton Club in New York. They are a great railway corporation out of America and it’s great to see them on board as well. Barclay Mowlem would be well known to a lot of people here in the Territory. They, of course, are involved in the wharf, and I guess they wouldn’t like me saying that project first, because there’s been a few problems out there, but it is being fixed …
Mr Stirling interjecting.
Mr COULTER: Yes, they’re fixing the problem. But Barclay Mowlem is one of the large sleeper manufacturers in Australia. I visited their Rockhampton plant just recently, and I believe that they will also add substantially to the project. MacMahons have been in the Territory on and off for many, many years. We have had some difficulties with them from time to time, most notably the gas pipeline to McArthur River, but they’ve built a lot of roads and infrastructure here in the Northern Territory, and its great to see them involved.
The MPG logistics through the Mayne Nickless organisation, my association with them goes back to 1996. They are the largest Australian logistics and transport corporation, and it is also good to see Hutchison Port Holdings involved in there. I met with them in Hong Kong in 1997. Eddie Tay is a great port operator over there, in one of the busiest world ports in Hong Kong, and to have them backing up this corporation is also significant.
We have a great project in front of us here. Let the negotiations begin, and I will back our public service in terms of our men and women against these great corporate giants from around the world, and I bet you that our public service will match these people eye to eye, toe to toe, and negotiate a very good deal for the Northern Territory. I wish them well in the negotiations and also, of course, the Chief Minister’s involvement with the Premier of South Australia and the Prime Minister to believe in this project now.
And you should come on board, you should do that. The opposition shouldn’t be here, bagging the gas pipeline, the Northern Territory University or anything else that we’ve built in the Northern Territory. When will you ever learn? Come on board; its going to be a great success story. It is going to happen. Stop your stupid questions about the Chief Minister having failed at anything. Get on with it. Enjoy it. Try and adopt a bipartisan approach to this project. It will provide jobs. It will provide jobs, employment, and success for the Northern Territory and South Australia for many decades to come and I wish everybody well in the negotiating process.
Last updated: 09 Aug 2016