Mr BURKE - 2003-08-14
The Darwin to Alice Springs railway, which the CLP proudly delivered for Territorians, was left in your hands at the change of government. The first train is just five months away and, after two years, you have secured only one customer for our industrial park.
In the two years you have had, how many national and, importantly, international contracts has your government helped broker to ensure the railway is a success and achieves the CLP vision of an AustralAsia land/sea bridge into the Asia Pacific region?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, I welcome the question because, only at lunch time today, I was meeting with Michael Fox who is the General Manager of Property for Toll Holdings. They are our first tenants into the Business Park, which was only the commitment for $9m made by this government last December. A lot of work has taken place in the interim. That announcement was made today, and it is a great one for the Territory.
The announcement last December was $9m into the development of a Business Park - a significant commitment from government. Today’s announcement from Toll, Australia’s leading freight and logistics company with a long history of working in the Territory, is worth $17m over the next four years. The first stage of their building a consolidation and distribution facility - and it will be state of the art - is $6.5m. As Michael Fox said today: ‘We signed the contract with government at lunch time yesterday and we started work straight away’. That is on the first stage, which is $6.5m, and includes new cold storage facilities.
We were delighted to hear Toll say again that they are committed to local industry participation and growing local jobs. That is what we want to hear from companies who work in the Territory, that they are committed to local industry, local participation and local jobs.
I congratulate Toll on being the first tenant in the Business Park. They are a great Australian company. The money that was committed by this government last year is the first stage. Michael Fox talked about the opportunities for Toll here. As a company, they are committed to moving freight by rail, so theirs is a big commitment to the new rail project. They see those opportunities for moving goods into Asia now opened up because of the rail and the port.
I am pleased to stand here with this great new story for the Territory. We have heard a lot from the opposition this week, bagging opportunities and developments that have been strongly supported by our community. The only voice of dissent is our whingeing, whining, negative opposition.
I have never stood in here and denied that the railway project was put together under the previous government, and I have congratulated the Country Liberal Party, particularly making a point of the work that was done. I remind the Country Liberal Party that we supported the railway wholeheartedly. It had bipartisan support through those difficult days - let me remind the Opposition Leader - of the final negotiations and legislation. Do not try to pretend, opposition, to rewrite history.
You would expect the strong bipartisan support that Labor, in opposition, gave to the railway and the port development, would be there from the opposition with such a major development as our waterfront redevelopment and convention centre. But, no, not there at all. The anti-development opposition, the anti-development CLP, can only find negatives about a significant development for Darwin - local jobs, local businesses, support for tourism and new opportunities. What do we hear? Carping and bagging.
Considerable work has been done in Australia and overseas to promote the central trade corridor of rail and port, and that work will continue. We are working, through the Office of Territory Development, very closely with FreightLink and we will see those opportunities emerge. As the Opposition Leader knows only too well, they do emerge slowly. What we have to see is the new trade route operating, which is very critical for any business looking at the opportunities of a new trade link. They want to see it operating and we are working very closely with them.
We are talking about the opportunities in Darwin, the economic development that is happening here, and there is a lot of interest. There have been a lot of business people, both from Australia and Asia, visit Darwin to look at those opportunities. We will continue to work with them because, when the first train arrives here on 17 January next year, what it will be is the start of opportunities for the Territory. It is not the end point; it is the start of growing business, jobs and real economic growth for the Territory. I thank the Leader of the Opposition for his question. I also thank some hard-working public servants, who were the ones who finalised this contract. They did the hard work with the contract with Toll, and will be continuing with the other businesses that want to set up in the Business Park. I thank the AustralAsian Trade Route Group task force, and the chair, Brian O’Gallagher, from the Office of Territory Development; from DIPE, we have Neville Jones and John Coleman, who both made an immense contribution; and from the Department of Justice, Alastair Shields. They did the work, and they will continue to do it.
In the two years you have had, how many national and, importantly, international contracts has your government helped broker to ensure the railway is a success and achieves the CLP vision of an AustralAsia land/sea bridge into the Asia Pacific region?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, I welcome the question because, only at lunch time today, I was meeting with Michael Fox who is the General Manager of Property for Toll Holdings. They are our first tenants into the Business Park, which was only the commitment for $9m made by this government last December. A lot of work has taken place in the interim. That announcement was made today, and it is a great one for the Territory.
The announcement last December was $9m into the development of a Business Park - a significant commitment from government. Today’s announcement from Toll, Australia’s leading freight and logistics company with a long history of working in the Territory, is worth $17m over the next four years. The first stage of their building a consolidation and distribution facility - and it will be state of the art - is $6.5m. As Michael Fox said today: ‘We signed the contract with government at lunch time yesterday and we started work straight away’. That is on the first stage, which is $6.5m, and includes new cold storage facilities.
We were delighted to hear Toll say again that they are committed to local industry participation and growing local jobs. That is what we want to hear from companies who work in the Territory, that they are committed to local industry, local participation and local jobs.
I congratulate Toll on being the first tenant in the Business Park. They are a great Australian company. The money that was committed by this government last year is the first stage. Michael Fox talked about the opportunities for Toll here. As a company, they are committed to moving freight by rail, so theirs is a big commitment to the new rail project. They see those opportunities for moving goods into Asia now opened up because of the rail and the port.
I am pleased to stand here with this great new story for the Territory. We have heard a lot from the opposition this week, bagging opportunities and developments that have been strongly supported by our community. The only voice of dissent is our whingeing, whining, negative opposition.
I have never stood in here and denied that the railway project was put together under the previous government, and I have congratulated the Country Liberal Party, particularly making a point of the work that was done. I remind the Country Liberal Party that we supported the railway wholeheartedly. It had bipartisan support through those difficult days - let me remind the Opposition Leader - of the final negotiations and legislation. Do not try to pretend, opposition, to rewrite history.
You would expect the strong bipartisan support that Labor, in opposition, gave to the railway and the port development, would be there from the opposition with such a major development as our waterfront redevelopment and convention centre. But, no, not there at all. The anti-development opposition, the anti-development CLP, can only find negatives about a significant development for Darwin - local jobs, local businesses, support for tourism and new opportunities. What do we hear? Carping and bagging.
Considerable work has been done in Australia and overseas to promote the central trade corridor of rail and port, and that work will continue. We are working, through the Office of Territory Development, very closely with FreightLink and we will see those opportunities emerge. As the Opposition Leader knows only too well, they do emerge slowly. What we have to see is the new trade route operating, which is very critical for any business looking at the opportunities of a new trade link. They want to see it operating and we are working very closely with them.
We are talking about the opportunities in Darwin, the economic development that is happening here, and there is a lot of interest. There have been a lot of business people, both from Australia and Asia, visit Darwin to look at those opportunities. We will continue to work with them because, when the first train arrives here on 17 January next year, what it will be is the start of opportunities for the Territory. It is not the end point; it is the start of growing business, jobs and real economic growth for the Territory. I thank the Leader of the Opposition for his question. I also thank some hard-working public servants, who were the ones who finalised this contract. They did the hard work with the contract with Toll, and will be continuing with the other businesses that want to set up in the Business Park. I thank the AustralAsian Trade Route Group task force, and the chair, Brian O’Gallagher, from the Office of Territory Development; from DIPE, we have Neville Jones and John Coleman, who both made an immense contribution; and from the Department of Justice, Alastair Shields. They did the work, and they will continue to do it.
Last updated: 09 Aug 2016