2013-02-12
Madam Speaker Purick took the Chair at 10 am.
Madam SPEAKER: Honourable members, I have received from Her Honour the Administrator Message No 4 notifying assent to bills passed in the November and December 2012 sitting of the Assembly.
Madam SPEAKER: Honourable members, I advise that on 23 January 2013, the resignation of the former member for Wanguri, Mr Paul Henderson, was submitted to me by letter pursuant to section 18 of the Northern Territory
(Self Government) Act. I table the letter.
Mr ELFERINK (Leader of Government Business): While I am on my feet, Madam Speaker, I seek leave to make some comments in relation to the letter of resignation.
Leave granted.
Mr ELFERINK: Madam Speaker, friends, Territorians, countrymen, lend me your ears because today I have not come to praise Henderson, but to bury him.
As far as I am concerned, the timing of this by-election has been the product of a member who has, throughout his political career, seen opportunity through a political lens rather than through the lens of the people he purports to serve.
I was not surprised to hear of the member of Wanguri’s resignation. I had cause to visit his office during the November sittings and that office did not remotely look like the man had moved in.
The boxes were still on the floor; the items in those boxes were not put away or shelved. It was, for all intents and purposes, a storeroom. There was no attempt by the member for Wanguri to move into that office because he was a man who had no intent to remain in that office. He was clearly on his way out. I suspect he made that decision at about 10 pm on 25 August 2012.
However, he did not do the right thing by the people of Wanguri. Did he see his duty as being to the people of the Northern Territory, and the people of Wanguri, to serve them, or to serve, exclusively, the interests of the Northern Territory branch of the Australian Labor Party?
The answer must be in the latter because if he had brought a by-election, whilst it would have been annoying for the people of Wanguri, at least they would have had representation. The member for Wanguri has been a dead man walking in this House ever since 25 August last year. His contribution to debates in this House has been minimal to say the least. From memory, he has been on his feet on three occasions since that time and there was only one contribution, I recall, of any substance. This person comes from the Graham Richardson Labor philosophy of whatever it takes. The book The Fixer: The Untold Story of Graham Richardson makes that philosophy quite clear. The Fixer would do anything to fix what had to be fixed through that Labor prism.
As a consequence of this member’s decision, it is beyond my memory, and I suspect the memory of many people in this House, that any member has ever vacated their seat at a time of parliamentary sittings knowing full well the people of their electorate would be abandoned and not represented in this House. That is a reprehensible decision from a person who, in his maiden speech said, and I quote:
I see the back of an empty chair and wonder how that serves them as best he can. Perhaps the principles which guide him are the ones articulated in The Fixer: The Untold Story of Graham Richardson.
We have had, and the public of the Northern Territory have had, the unedifying spectacle of the Prime Minister’s intervention into the Northern Territory branch of the Australian Labor Party over the last few weeks - a shameful affair. The only light in that affair was the Crossin family, who have been so awfully treated by members on that side of the House as well as the Prime Minister, have stuck loyally to the Labor Party, a loyalty that I don’t believe the Australian Labor Party deserves.
The tawdry affair we have seen going on in the Labor Party has being ghastly. I, as the Education minister, receive telephone calls from journalists seeking to have Ms Peris’ personal records become a matter of public debate.
Ms LAWRIE: A point of order, Madam Speaker! Relevance. I understand this is a grubby stunt, but he was discussing the resignation letter of the member for Wanguri, which has nothing to do with this subject matter.
Madam SPEAKER: There is no point of order.
Mr ELFERINK: Madam Speaker, I will make the link for the Leader of the Opposition. I was being asked to divulge information about the employment history of a person who had worked for the Education department of the Northern Territory. I point blank refused to engage or embarrass any person in those circumstances and will continue to do so.
The reason I received those calls was that it was clear from the journalists asking the questions that the leaks were coming from inside the Australian Labor Party. ‘We have some dirt, just make these records available and you will find the dirt for the edification of the Labor Party so we can embarrass the Prime Minister.’ That was, essentially, what I was being asked to do: to become complicit in the Australian Labor Party’s tawdry little fight. Why? Because the timing of the resignation was suspiciously close - this is the link the Leader of the Opposition would like us not to talk about - to the preselection process for the Senate in the Northern Territory Branch of the Australian Labor Party.
What was Mr Henderson planning to do? Mr Henderson was planning, I suspect, to seek that upcoming seat. However, he did not understand there was a process, which is surprising considering the amount of times he has had to roll over to the federal Labor Party in the past. He clearly did not seem to understand there was capacity for the Prime Minister to interfere in Territory politics for a Senate seat - the state’s House - be it with a captain’s pick.
There you have it! All of a sudden the seat is vacated; the preselection process for the Australian Labor Party is on foot to elect their new team member. There is a bit of shuffling in the background, they axe poor old Senator Trish Crossin - the blood is still dripping off the hatchet - about to make the big move. ‘Oh goodness gracious me, the captain has made a decision; I did not expect that.’
All of a sudden, I started getting telephone calls asking for release of information about a public servant who, at that stage, was not the selected candidate for the Senate seat - she was Nova Peris, citizen. People were telling me, ‘You have to release the information’. My message to the teachers and other public servants who work for me, as a minister, and, I hope, for the rest of this government, is they can take comfort that I take their personal employment records seriously and will not use them for political advantage for any political party, particularly the tawdry set of operators on the other side of this House.
Not only were the boxes in his office full and unpacked, but the lights were off in the Wanguri office today. Perhaps there is one little fluoro flickering pathetically in the background, but short of possibly the storeroom out the back being used to run the Labor Party’s campaign for the Wanguri by-election, if you knock on the door as a citizen of Wanguri will you get to speak to the local member who is supposed to be in parliament today? No, you will not. This is an abandonment of duty - a duty the member professed when he took up his position in this House.
The new occupant of that office is the member for Casuarina. I am wondering if we should start calling that office the waiting room.
Madam Speaker, I move that I complete my statement at a later date.
Ms LAWRIE (Opposition Leader): Madam Speaker …
Madam SPEAKER: Could you pause for one minute, please.
Ms LAWRIE: Madam Speaker, you have given me the call so I seek leave to respond to his statement.
Madam SPEAKER: Please be seated. I am seeking advice from the Clerk. Opposition Leader, you need to seek leave to speak.
Ms LAWRIE: Madam Speaker, I seek leave to respond to the statement.
Leave denied.
Ms Lawrie: Madam Speaker, they want to gag the fact the former Chief Minister, the member for Wanguri, sought leave because he wanted time with his family ...
Madam SPEAKER: Opposition Leader, please be seated.
Ms Lawrie: That was a grubby stunt with not a grain of truth to it.
Mr Tollner: Chuck her out!
Madam SPEAKER: Member for Fong Lim, you are on a warning!
Madam SPEAKER: Honourable members, I advise the writ has been issued for election to the Legislative Assembly for the Division of Wanguri. This will be held on Saturday, 16 February 2013.
Mr GUNNER: A point of order, Madam Speaker! The time is 10.15 am and we have not started Question Time. I ask the government that we have a full hour for Question Time.
Mr Elferink: So noted.
Continued from 28 November 2012.
Ms WALKER (Nhulunbuy): Madam Speaker, the opposition will be supporting the Victims of Crime Assistance Amendment Bill 2012 (Serial 10). I understand that, essentially, this bill seeks to increase the amounts payable to the victims levy, which, as the Attorney-General pointed out in his second reading speech, is payable by those who break the law and for whom a finding of guilt is made.
This revenue is what funds the Victims Assistance Fund which provides for victims of crime. Tomorrow, it is likely we will be debating amendments to the Sentencing Act around mandatory sentencing with a focus on offenders and perpetrators of violent crime. Today we are discussing an important bill seeking to provide greater support to the innocent victims of crime.
I will read a short section of an opinion piece in the New South Wales Law Society journal by lawyer, Tony Vella, about victims’ compensation. He opens this article with this:
The opposition most certainly shares this view, which is why, in 2006, the Labor government, under then Attorney-General Mr Peter Toyne, introduced the Victims of Crime Assistance Bill (Serial 45), which sought to repeal and replace the Crimes (Victims Assistance) Act, and with it a new administrative scheme to provide victims with assistance to ensure victims of crime had access to compensation for rehabilitation from injuries sustained as a result of crime, as well as critical support services like counselling. Of course, there needed to be adequate revenue available through a levy to meet those costs.
The Attorney-General, in his second reading speech, detailed the increases in levies and the opposition has no issue with those increases. I place on the record my thanks to Mr Sam Burke from the Attorney-General’s office for providing me with a chart which provides an overview of the levies imposed across the different jurisdictions. There are quite wide-ranging dollar amounts across the states and territories, but this will see the Northern Territory up there with South Australia, while in places like Tasmania the levies are very low.
Some of these jurisdictions also have provisions in place whereby the court has some discretion in waiving a levy in certain circumstances. The Northern Territory does not have those provisions nor am I suggesting we should, although there are those who believe we should.
However, given the significant increases, at a time when the cost of living in the Northern Territory has risen dramatically and Territorians are trying to work out how to pay power bills which have increased by 30%, I would like to hear from the Attorney-General as to what measures will be in place and what steps can be taken to recover fines, given offenders’ capacity to pay will be challenged.
Recovering debt is a challenge across all jurisdictions, including governments, regardless of political persuasion. This is why, in 2008, the Labor government took steps to address this issue by way of a Justice Legislation Amendment Bill to allow the Fines Recovery Unit greater powers to collect and enforce debts owed to the Northern Territory by persons who owed a debt pursuant to the relevant acts. I remember it well. It was one of my first speeches in this House and my first contribution to a debate in the area of justice.
The amendment expanded the role of the Fines Recovery Unit to be able to go directly to the offender in order to recover fines and penalties incurred for the Victims Assistance Fund. It is, of course, the Fines Recovery Unit’s core business to collect fines and penalties owed to the Northern Territory. By virtue of this being their core business as a government agency, the Fines Recovery Unit has access to information held by government which is essential in locating persons who owe money under the act.
Further to this, the Fines Recovery Unit has wide-ranging powers including suspending licences and vehicle registrations, seizing property and garnishee of wages or salary to enforce payment of debts.
The amendment meant taxpayers would not have to foot as much of the bill associated with the scheme and the cost of recovery. I am interested to hear from the Attorney-General what other tools he might have at his fingertips to recover fines and, especially, how he intends to recover monies from those with a limited capacity to pay; it is something of a dilemma.
This is at the heart of the concerns of NAAJA, which wrote to the Attorney-General and provided me a copy of that letter in my capacity as the shadow. That letter was dated 27 November 2012 and described the increases as, and I quote, ‘unrealistic’.
I can only assume his response to NAAJA’s concerns and proposals, representing as they do Indigenous Territorians and some of our most disadvantaged people at that, was perhaps, ‘No, sorry we cannot accommodate you’. I am conscious we are talking about people who have committed crimes, but NAAJA has a responsibility to best represent the interests of its clients.
The letter included a request for consideration to allow courts some discretion, where there is no or limited capacity to pay, to be able to convert fines to community work.
I note the Victims of Crime Assistance Act is currently under review, and I have had the opportunity to view the issues paper, which I found online, and see interested parties and stakeholders have until 31 March to lodge a submission. I expect many organisations, including NAAJA, and perhaps individuals, will seize that opportunity to prepare a submission.
Given a review of the act is currently under way, I wondered why these amendments have been brought forward now and not as part of the wider review which will, no doubt, see other amendments drafted and brought before this House. I suspect the answer is the government seeks to raise this additional revenue sooner rather than later. The Attorney-General was very clear about this bill fulfilling an election commitment which, indeed, it is. It is listed in the document titled Country Liberals Costings and Savings Northern Territory Election August 2012. The foreword is signed by the Chief Minister and the new Attorney-General, boldly asserting their election promises have been fully costed and funded.
However, we know Treasury, in assessing the CLP’s costings for election commitments, found flaws and cost blow outs. On the strength of Treasury’s findings which, not surprisingly, the then opposition rejected, it concerns me that savings commitment No 4 in that document asserts, and I quote:
I am sure the Attorney-General will address this in his reply, but, essentially, the question is: can Territorians have confidence in these figures? Can victims of crime have confidence that the increase to the victims of crime levy is about better outcomes for victims of crime as opposed to better outcomes for revenue raising.
I note in the Attorney-General’s second reading speech the intention is, in raising additional revenue, the operational cost of the Crimes Victims Services Unit, which administers the fund, will have less reliance on an annual budget allocation through appropriation.
It is encouraging to see in 2011-12, out of the total cost of the Victims of Crime Assistance Scheme, $4.687m - 77% - was paid to victims and 23% was paid in administration costs. That is a considerable improvement from the figures going back to 2002-03, where only 58% of the cost of the scheme was paid in assistance to victims alongside 42% in administration costs.
The shift in these figures and a more efficient service spending more on victims and less on administration is a direct result, I understand - I am sure you will correct me if I am wrong, Attorney-General - of shifting the administration process from a court-based process to an administrative decision-making framework. That is a very positive improvement.
I could not see anything in the December 2012 mini-budget, nor in the media release from the Attorney-General on the subject other than that $2m raised through levies will be used to implement the safe homes policy. We have not seen the details of that yet, but I understand it is part of the commitment to support victims of crime. I look forward to hearing more about that.
The additional money raised through the increased levy must, obviously, be for the benefit of victims of crime and, hopefully, not magically found to support, for instance, election commitments to Tracy Village Social and Sports Club of $100 000.
I place on the record my thanks to Mr Mike Campbell from Victims of Crime NT, who took time out of his busy day to speak with me last week about the increase in levies and what it will mean for his organisation. It goes without saying that additional resources are welcomed. He made a point of how we recognise the need for funding to go into crime prevention, but we must never forget the important reality that we also need adequate funding to respond to support victims of crime.
Victims of Crime NT is an emergency service which also relies upon the support of volunteers. Mr Campbell is hopeful some of the additional funds they expect to receive will allow training of volunteers to better equip them to support victims of crime. You issued a media release, Attorney-General, following the mini-budget, that the organisation had received a funding boost of $100 000 - a good thing.
The opposition has no problem with the amendment which will see future levy amounts set by regulation rather than amendment to the act - a sensible move. Having flicked through those regulations, it is curious to see in Schedule 3 the long list of what are described as compensable injuries and the corresponding standard amount of financial assistance. One of the review questions was whether these amounts need to be reviewed. The answer is yes, and what a difficult thing it is to place a monetary amount on physical disability of a person whether it be temporary or permanent. What a sad state of affairs it is that we in our community have individuals who see fit to hurt others and the impact on those victims of crime, often violent crime.
There is no escaping the fact, as I mentioned at the beginning, and I quote:
I cannot let the opportunity pass to remind this new government, and the Attorney-General, that as long as they fail to act on the causes of crime by tackling issues like alcohol, which is at the core of 70% of offending behaviour and violent crime in the NT, they will continue to fail in their duty to protect Territorians from crimes of violence. They like to put up the notion they are tough on crime but we have, in reality, seen no action on alcohol other than the removal of the Banned Drinker Register and associated schemes with it. They have replaced it with nothing other than much talk amongst several ministers, who all seem to have a stake and say in alcohol policy from the Attorney-General to the Health minister to the Business minister to the Minister for Central Australia, all competing with sometimes conflicting views around approaches to alcohol. To add to that, the Chief Minister’s approach to tackling alcohol and drunks is to boldly step up and tell people to stop drinking.
Mr Deputy Speaker, I thank the Attorney-General for bringing this bill before the House and I commend it to honourable members.
Mr WOOD (Nelson): Mr Deputy Speaker, I did not realise there had been a sudden change in the Notice Paper and was expecting the Mandatory Minimum Sentencing Bill to be debated. I realise this morning’s Notice Paper was slightly different than that handed out at a very late time this morning. I will have to speak as I remember the bill.
I have also read NAAJA’s concerns about increasing the levy. However, I support the bill because it is good to have enough funds to ensure victims of crime are compensated adequately.
One of my concerns is this is a tax; one is a fine and one is a tax. The tax is there because you say the scheme is short of money. My concern is who decides what money goes to the victims of crime and what goes to administration of the scheme. It would be worth, in an annual report this year, to show the increase in money due to these changes in the legislation and what percentage of money raised has gone to administration versus the bank holding the victims of crime money. That is important.
In relation to payments, NAAJA’s concerns were that if the levy becomes too great people already at the bottom of the economic pile who sometimes are repeat offenders will not have the money to pay the fines. Their concern is whether we will send more people back to prison because it will just go around and around.
My understanding is payments can be made through Centrelink, but there have been some problems. Can the minister advise if there have been issues in relation to deductions through Centrelink for these levies? If so, could you explain whether the process is smooth and would not cause people to go into debt or put them through the revolving door of not paying fines, ending up in gaol and going back out again.
I would like to see how the concerns of NAAJA have been addressed because they are reasonable concerns. Their job, obviously, is dealing with many people in the low socioeconomic level. There are quite a few around our larger towns and cities in the Northern Territory.
I support the bill, Attorney-General, but I would like to have some of the issues raised clarified. I presume you responded to their concerns. Perhaps you could give us an idea of your response.
Mr ELFERINK (Attorney-General and Justice): Mr Deputy Speaker, I will address a few of the issues raised by members opposite. I thank them for their support because this was an election commitment. We went to the last election issuing media releases saying we would do this. The reason we did was because we operated under a presumption we believe is generally supported by the community at large and, because of the support by members opposite and the independent, a presumption those members also understand and embrace. The presumption is if you commit an offence which creates a victim - particularly offences which injure people - not only should your punishment be meted out to you, but you should also be paying something directly back to the victim you have created.
There are two components to this. That is why we have the system structured in such a way that it is not just rolled up into one bundle of money which is the fine you pay. This levy is clearly stated as a separate levy, described as a tax, if I understood the member for Nelson correctly.
Underneath this are some straightforward principles of law. The punishment the courts mete out from time to time by way of restraints on liberty or alternative economic punishments have an exemplary quality to them in the sense they are not just a damages claim lodged on behalf of the victim by the Crown, rather they are an exemplary process. There is a class of conduct of such a nature that we will not ask the average punter to seek damages through the normal tortious processes. We, as the Crown, will step in and ensure we do so, upon a finding of guilt, in a punitive fashion. That punitive fashion attracts the fine, the prison sentence, the good behaviour bond or whatever else.
The second component is much more in the nature of a tortious claim for damages. It would be unreasonable to ask the courts to approach every criminal offence with this damages component tacked on the side and then ask them to deal with it as a damages claim.
If you look at cases in the law of tort you can see damages such as loss, suffering and injuries are extremely difficult to assess because a myriad of different factors come into play. Over the years they have tended to become more formulaic in their nature. This is reflected in some of the comments made by the member for Nhulunbuy. I will return to that later.
We, arbitrarily, as a parliament have the awkward task of creating a fund - a trust account - for those victims. As a parliament we choose to approach this in the only way we can. We cast a net into the future and hope it falls exclusively on a certain class of conduct to the exclusion of all else. As a metaphor, you can understand from a fishing perspective it would be pretty hard to cast a net into the sea and catch one type of fish to the exclusion of all others. Because of the clumsy nature of the way parliament works in this area, it is necessarily what has to happen. We then stick an arbitrary figure onto the side of these other penalties.
I understand the comments of the member for Nhulunbuy about how ghastly and macabre having a list of injuries is where you have a quantity attached to each one of them. The first time I ran into that was when I was a trolley pusher at Coles in Darwin. In the tea room there was something from the union which had a bill of fare where the loss of an eye was worth this much, the loss of two eyes was worth this much and down it went. It went down to fingertips, and I remember thinking, ‘Gee, for that amount of money I could probably do a fingertip’.
They had the same problem at that time with compensatory injuries in the workplace we have as a government in assessing what you pay in compensation at a criminal level. In the tort cases there is now almost a formulaic approach. Because there have been so many cases, you can look at the large number of judgments dealing with damages claims and get an idea of what you will be paid in compensation, subject to a number of factors which apply.
The problem is, whilst that is formulaic in nature - as is the schedule you referred to, as was the notice on the tea room wall when I was working in Coles as a 14-year-old boy – unfortunately, with that type of process, you end up with formulas which are macabre and ghastly. I am always open to a better suggestion. If we were to ask the courts to carry out this assessment process considering all those formulaic approaches, you can well understand the court system would become bogged down, particularly when you are dealing with victims assistance levies attached to very minor offences.
One would struggle with the concept that a police officer who gives you a speeding ticket on the side of the road must then make an application to the court to have it determine the potential damages that could have flowed from that speeding. We would not ask a court to do that, it would be absurd. That is why we have this arbitrary structure which, as the member for Nhulunbuy rightly says, has been changed over time.
She pointed out the former Attorney-General’s changes to the legislation in this area. Dr Peter Toyne was stuck with the problem as well, and I note comments from the member for Nhulunbuy, particularly in relation to the ratio of expensive administration to actual amount paid out.
I remember that debate. I am a bit rusty on it - it was eight years ago - but, in essence, the argument was we have two major problems with this system. One is that administration soaks up much of the dough. Two, and alternatively, it is a bloody expensive system. It paid out a great deal in compensation. You had the macabre reality of containing the expense it was starting to impose on the taxpayer.
I pick up the comments from the two members who have skirted around this, or dealt with the area directly depending on which member we are talking about as to whether or not this money goes back to the victims. I can assure you the money is traceable because it goes through a form of trust account – it does not go into the Central Holding Authority - which means we can track it and track it well. The statistics the member of Nhulunbuy relied on were based on that capacity to track.
However, even if it was paid into the Central Holding Authority you know full well the money would be returned to victims because the system still costs more in payouts and to run than it generates in revenue. Even if there was no trust account and it was done through a grants system through the government, money in from the system is less than the money which goes out to the system. Whilst you could not track a dollar coin, necessarily, through the system, you could be comforted by the fact the system was paying out more. The moment the system started to make more money than it paid out it would take the nature the member for Nelson was talking about; it would have the flavour and nature of a tax. But it is not really a tax because it costs more to run than we extract from it.
Even with these amendments in the system - and these are sharp increases, there is no doubt about it - we will not cover the cost of running the system. The system, at the moment, costs in the order of $5m; I have it written down somewhere but will not quibble over the nickels and dimes. Even with these increases the income will be in the order of $2.8m so we are still well short of the $2.2m or the break-even point. If we were to pursue the break-even point – you can do the mathematics yourself - you can understand we would get to the point where the levies would, in many instances, be much more than the associated punitive fine they were attached to. You have to strike a balance at some point.
The question with any balancing act is: where do you put the fulcrum? In the world view of the Northern Territory government you have to put it in a place where you believe you can attain the optimal balance. I accept comments by both members in relation to CAALAS’ position, but you have to remember CAALAS sees the world through the prism of lawyers. I do not blame them; they are lawyers and provide a legal service. However, like any lawyer, they are duty bound to defend the rights of their client.
All the cases CAALAS pursues, deals with or defends when dealing with people who are subject to this levy are criminal matters. Two observations come from that. One is CAALAS, like a good firm of lawyers, will always act in the best interests of their client. When you have, like CAALAS, a class of client, you will not only act in the interests of your present clients, you will act in the interests of future clients. Hence, their complaint this will be expensive and, in some instances, difficult for people to pay.
This brings me to the second point: if you do not want to pay this levy do not commit the crime. Do not do the bad guy stuff.
I have goofed up ladies and gentlemen. I have the advisors waving a paper in front of me saying it is NAAJA not CAALAS and they are correct. It is NAAJA because Jonathon Hunyor signed the letter. Thank you. I have had CAALAS on my mind for other reasons in recent times so I am sure you will forgive me.
The second point is what we hope will flow through this, particularly with some decent support from media organisations making this public, is people will realise it becomes more and more expensive to commit offences.
In the past I have copped speeding fines. Attached to that is a victims assistance levy amount. You pay those amounts because you do not really want to contest them; on those occasions I have been guilty. Perhaps it is my age, perhaps it is because fines have increased that I no longer relish getting speeding fines - not that I ever did - but I am no longer blas about them because they are very expensive. I find myself being far more attentive to my speedometer nowadays than I used to be. In this blessed day of miracles and wonder, the establishment of a cruise control button on my dashboard is one of the most oft-used pieces of equipment in my car, perhaps after the accelerator and the brake. When I set the speed I do not have to look down at the speedometer and can look at what is going on around me ...
Mr Wood: Do not forget to turn it off when you go lower.
Mr ELFERINK: Fortunately, the moment you hit the brake it turns itself off. I use the device in the areas I find myself being tempted to speed - Bagot Road, Stuart Highway, Tiger Brennan Drive etcetera - because I am mindful of the expense of getting pinged. Mind you, from time to time, I have stickers on the side of the car identifying me and whistling past people at a zillion miles an hour is probably not a good idea. Another potential penalty through public censure is a vehicle to place restraints on me.
The other question raised by the member for Nhulunbuy was: Why now? She answered her own question two or three sentences later when she said this was an election commitment. Yes, it is an election commitment. We are reviewing the process because I asked for it to be looked at but, nevertheless, it is a revenue raising exercise, I make no bones about it. However, it is a revenue raising exercise with a very specific intent in mind: returning the money collected from the people who pay the levy to the victims. It is this process which enabled me, as Attorney-General, when visited by Mike Campbell et al from Victims of Crime NT to tell them they were going to receive $100 000.
Can I regale honourable members with a story because I confess to a certain amount of glee from it? They came into my office aware we had made commitments during the election campaign in relation to proper support for their organisation. The transmission letter I sent a couple of days before had not yet reached them. Whilst they were angling for an extra $30 000, I confessed to a moment of confusion. I thought, ‘Are they asking for $30 000 more?’ It then occurred to me they had not received the letter and I was able to tell them they were receiving $100 000 with a view to ongoing funding. There was a long pause while all this sunk in.
One of the great joys of being a minister in government is when you deliver news like that it is heartily received and most welcome. Whilst this is not about me, I confess to an element of selfish satisfaction that we were able to do this for the organisation.
The issue of the periodic payment process through Centrelink was also raised. My understanding is the problem is not at our end; we can deal with that quite easily. There seems to be a glitch at the Centrelink end. If Centrelink wants to contact us in relation to how those systems can be improved, we will be happy to accommodate them. However, we will deal with those issues as we have to.
I believe that touches on all the matters raised today bar one. I return to the matters raised by NAAJA. As part of the process of the review, the process of working off fines will be looked at. Keeping the election commitment to use this money to restore victims, as far as possible, to a place they were before they were offended against is what this bill is about today.
My advice to people who become NAAJA and CAALAS clients is: do not do it and we will not ask you to pay. It is that simple. If NAAJA and CAALAS want to make further submissions in relation to programs to pay it back we will accept that through the review process.
I have now dealt with each of the issues. I thank honourable members for their support for what is sensible legislation. It places the onus of compensation, to a much larger degree, on the shoulders of the people who commit acts which, ultimately, potentially or actually, are compensable.
Mr Deputy Speaker, I commend the bill to the House and look forward to its passage.
Motion agreed to; bill read a second time.
Mr ELFERINK (Attorney-General and Justice) (by leave): Mr Deputy Speaker, I move that the bill be now read a third time.
Motion agreed to; bill read a third time.
Mr WOOD (Nelson)(by leave): Madam Speaker, I present a petition from 4115 petitioners relating to the Humpty Doo Fire Station closure. Madam Speaker, I move that the petition be read.
Motion agreed to; petition read:
Mr CLERK: Madam Speaker, pursuant to Standing Order 100A, I inform honourable members that responses to petitions No 1 and 3 have been received and circulated to honourable members. The text of the responses will be placed on the Legislative Assembly website. A copy of the responses will be provided to the members who tabled the petitions for distribution to petitioners.
Madam SPEAKER: Honourable members, it is with deep regret that I advise of the death, on 15 January 2013, of Mr Hans Vos, a noted Darwin architect, developer and keen yachtsman.
I advise honourable members of the presence in the gallery of the family and friends of Mr Hans Vos. On behalf of honourable members, I extend a very warm and sincere welcome to you today.
I remind honourable members that on completion of debate I will ask members to stand in silence for one minute as a mark of respect to Mr Hans Vos.
Mr MILLS (Chief Minister): Madam Speaker, Barb, friends and family, we never thought this day would ever come.
I move that this Assembly express its condolence at the passing of Hans Vos, former principal of an international architecture practice, architect, building designer, master planner and visionary Territorian. We offer our deepest sympathy to his family and friends.
Johannes Cornelis Vos, or as we knew him, Hans Vos, was a town planner, a designer of buildings and projects and a visionary who was recently appointed an Honorary Fellow of the Australian Institute of Architects. Few people have had such a direct influence on our capital city as Hans. He was a true Territorian through and through.
He arrived in Australia with his family in the early 1950s as a seven-year-old from Holland. He was the eldest of four boys. His father had been a printer in Holland and worked with the underground during World War II forging identification papers and counterfeiting money. When the war finished, Hans’ father was unable to recover his printing presses and other assets which had been taken to East Germany. Mrs Vos was a dressmaker.
The family considered three options for their future: Canada, South Africa and Australia. Mr Vos Snr thought Canada would be as cold as Holland and was no fan of the cold. He was concerned about the political stability of South Africa, so Australia, as third choice, won out.
Once settled in Perth, Mr Vos Snr realised yoghurt was not available in Australia so he started to import it and was known as ‘Mr Yoghurt’.
Hans flunked out of high school in the fourth year due to his support of the family endeavours such as night-time milk rounds, thus the end of his formal education. Leaving home in 1962 when he was just 22 years of age, he was determined to drive around Australia. The first job he had was in Port Hedland digging trenches and, believe it or not, shooting snakes. Apparently, the snakes had fallen into the trenches after heavy rains and it was Hans’ job to shoot the reptiles before the pipe layers got there.
He then moved to Carnarvon where he had a job riding and breaking in horses on a station. He spent some time in Mullewa, my home town. It is such a delight when you find people who know a little town. Hans knew it well.
In 1963 he arrived in Darwin. Hans told a story of driving up the Stuart Highway, at that time a one lane sometimes bitumen road. Driving over the McMinn Street Bridge, he turned left and headed for the port. When he reached Stokes Hill Wharf he asked a wharfie if he knew where Darwin was. The wharfie told him he had just driven through it. He and a mate originally planned to spend two weeks in Darwin and spent the next three nights camped under the Tree of Knowledge until the police moved them on.
With a little drafting experience from Perth, Hans landed a job with the NT Planning Department and looked over the shoulder of an architect, Harcourt Long, who produced the first town plans of Darwin after World War II.
Hans left Darwin for three years to go crocodile shooting in the Gulf of Carpentaria, then to Townsville and the Great Barrier Reef before heading for a year of abalone diving in Bass Strait. Hans returned to Perth but answered an ad for a draftsman back in Darwin, got the job and moved to the Territory for good.
Hans was one of those people who could not look at anything without thinking outside the boundaries of whatever it was he was seeing. Isn’t that such a good description of Hans? It was such a delight having conversations with him because he had perspectives which were refreshing, stimulating and which certainly stimulated discussion. You always left with a different view after spending time with Hans.
He said he worked backwards. He visualised a completed project then worked back to ensure it happened. His mantra was, ‘Define the purpose of a building, research how its inhabitants really use the space, then match and complement the purpose with the structure’.
Hans was a partner at Woodhead before retiring five years ago. Hans is best known, of course, for the Cullen Bay project. He was so passionate about this that he sold his house to finance the planning processes. Originally, the then Chief Minister, Paul Everingham, told Hans no one would want to live at Cullen Bay. Hans plugged away, despite sceptics and critics, and it took him 10 years to complete that project.
There are so many of his buildings, it is hard to pick any particular one out. Hans said his favourite project was not a building but the Cenotaph on the Esplanade commemorating those who died in Australia’s wars. Hans said before his redevelopment of the Cenotaph 20 or 30 people would attend functions there, now there are thousands. He was especially proud of that.
Hans was also responsible for the Northern Territory University master plan; the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, another Tracy Award winner; the Darwin international terminal; and the Territory Insurance Office building. Perhaps one of the most notable fans of Hans’ work was media baron, Rupert Murdoch. Hans won the job to build the Darwin newspaper’s offices on McMinn Street. When Mr Murdoch saw the finished project he commissioned Hans to design News Limited’s massive printing and publishing plants across the world: Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide, and Hong Kong with the South China Morning Post. Hans spent five years on these projects.
Sailing was another passion in his life. He built two boats, the first of which he sailed in the first Darwin to Ambon Yacht Race and then up the Victoria River to re-enact the voyage of The Beagle. Hans was quietly fearless, with the same attitude toward sailing he had to architecture. If it was dangerous, Hans would simply work out the best way to overcome the danger.
Former Deputy Chief Minister, Barry Coulter, tells a story of a hair-raising trip from Ambon to Darwin with massive seas whipped up by force 7 winds. Those who knew Hans know this is a true description from Barry. With the yacht being thrown around like a cork in a washing machine, Hans calmly faced the seas with a smile on his face. He had worked it out.
Hans had intended to sail around the world with his wife Barbara, but his passion for architectural pursuits won the day and he remained on land. The architectural and planning merit of Hans’ work has been recognised previously. A bigger contribution from these projects can be found in changes in the Darwin community’s self-perceptions and related aspirations.
Hans led many to realise Darwin did not have to remain a quaint outback centre and that a future with infrastructure facilities and services to match world standards was an achievable goal. These perceptions also became available to visitors, an essential ingredient for Darwin and the Northern Territory to be taken seriously as a target for major investment and the future growth of the Commonwealth. Hans should be recognised more for his part in these huge changes. Hans said he needed just three to four hours’ sleep each night. He saw sleep as a complete waste of time; he would rather be using his time creatively.
One of his favourite songs was the Beatle’s hit Here Comes the Sun, for it was the sun Hans really loved.
He claimed he had seen perhaps 95% of sunrises in his life, and he tried to face at least one bedroom to the east in the houses he designed so the sunrise was viewable every morning. Hans said he did not wish to leave any particular legacy but was proud of the TIO building and the conversion of the old Vestey’s water tank at Darwin High School.
In addition to the above, Hans was loved and respected by all those who were fortunate enough to cross his path. He was a gentleman in the truest sense of the words with a love of fine red wine. At his farewell - I knew it would happen - as we walked into the room everywhere to be seen was a fine red in people’s hands. What a lovely way to say goodbye.
Hans’ second favourite song was Rod Stewart’s Sailing. It is perhaps fitting to quote the last lines of that song:
Thank you, Hans.
Ms LAWRIE (Opposition Leader): Madam Speaker, I wish to extend my sincere condolences to the family and friends of Hans Vos. Hans Vos passed away on 15 January at Royal Darwin Hospital after his battle with cancer.
Hans moved to the Territory, as we have heard, in 1963 as a 20-year old tourist. I have the same anecdote as the Chief Minister, but the words I have been given are quotes. He once said, and I quote:
That was 50 years ago. Since then, he did not look back. He was involved in Darwin business, architectural design and the development of our city since that day. He saw a plan for the Territory and wanted to be involved. In 1972, he established his own planning and design practice. He always had a vision for the future, always looking ahead. Even though some of his ideas were controversial, he was never afraid to put his plans and ideas forward. This made him one of the Territory’s most notable architects.
He was among the thousands of Territorians to witness the powerful Cyclone Tracy on Christmas Day 1974 which tore through the Top End. He was living in Jingili at the time the storm hit and his house was reduced to a shell. Even though he had no roof, I am told he still invited his neighbours Pat and Bob Dent over for a drink, as Territorians do.
His architectural and design work was not only noted in the Territory but, as we have heard, by News Limited mogul, Rupert Murdoch, who went on to contract him to build state-of-the-art facilities in Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney and Hong Kong after seeing our own NT News building in 1985. The headquarters were three times larger than the old Mitchell Street premises and provided a much bigger room for the printing press which boosted production and efficiency.
In September last year, he was rewarded for his significant contribution to architecture in Australia, particularly in the Northern Territory, with his appointment as an Honorary Fellow of the Australian Institute of Architects. This was celebrated at Government House where Her Honour Sally Thomas AM, Administrator of the Northern Territory and Mr Ross Connolly, representing the Australian Institute of Architects, made the presentation.
Hans is well-known to Territorians for his design of Cullen Bay Marina, first drawn up more than 20 years ago. At the time, many people did not want this development to proceed. Cullen Bay Marina has gone on to become one of the most popular spots in Darwin and now hosts a range of restaurants, stores and housing for both residential and commercial operations. It has become one of the most prestigious addresses in the Territory with properties well into the $1m mark.
More known for his work in the Top End, he was also involved in the master planning of the Desert Springs Estate in Alice Springs, the first integrated golf course and residential development built in Australia. He continued to work on various developments in Central Australia.
One of the later developments he was involved with is the $60m development project currently under way at Coolalinga. This complex will boast three major stores, a seven storey office block, 60 small shops, restaurants and a street market. The housing estate next to the shopping precinct will have 150 homes housing more than 400 people. This gives the rural people of the Territory access to facilities our suburbs have. It is unfortunate Hans will not see the result of the Coolalinga project, but I am sure his work and concepts will continue to live on in future projects and his vision will carry through in existing and upcoming developments. He was a Darwin architect with a vision and passion for ascetic design.
On a personal note, I want to give my condolences to Barbara. Those of us who have been in public life in the Territory for some time have known this couple for a long time and seen they have been pretty well inseparable. You could literally, when you met them at various functions, see the love and binding devotion they had for each other.
I heard the stories of when love first blossomed in Singapore for Hans and Barbara. My deepest condolences to Barbara, but I know Hans would have enjoyed the recognition he has received since his passing.
He will be remembered by all who knew him. I stand today with my colleagues to remember him and the service he provided to Territorians.
Mr TOLLNER (Health): Madam Speaker, I am pleased to support this condolence motion. I knew Hans Vos reasonably well; he was a lovely bloke and we rubbed shoulders on a whole range of things in recent years. It was a pleasure to work with the man and, as has been described this afternoon, he was a visionary. He was a bloke who could see things into the future most of us could not, and that type of person needs to be valued and recognised by the community. Of course, he has left his mark on Darwin. It is very difficult to look around Darwin and see something Hans had not been involved in.
He was a big thinker - a bloke who thought outside the square as others have said. The Cenotaph, the TIO building, Cullen Bay and the range of other buildings and projects he was involved in shower him with glory.
My most recent involvement with him was of a different nature. The children of Minmarama community on Dick Ward Drive came to see me about a year ago wanting a basketball court. They did some promotion around town and started raising money by distributing telephone books, sold sausages at Bunnings and did an amazing job raising money. However, they needed some help and corporate support to make that basketball court a reality. I organised for Hans and a range of other business people to come into my office for a meeting and the kids from Minmarama put on a presentation and wowed and wooed everybody, and no less a man than Hans himself. Hans took that project on almost as a personal one.
There is something to be said for seeing a group of young Indigenous kids growing up in not the best environment getting out and doing something and Hans was dead keen to support them. He designed that basketball court, he prevailed on his employer at the time to put up some money. Gwelo Developments supported it and, through their amazing efforts and Hans’ leadership of the project, the Minmarama crew now have their basketball court and it has been a splendid community event.
There would be few sadder than the Gwalwa Daraniki Association at Hans’ passing because Hans has been a supporter and, over the years, they have grown to love and respect Hans. Their involvement with Hans was with the design of Arafura Harbour. I found it heartening to hear the Opposition Leader refer to Cullen Bay and how controversial that was before it was constructed. I compare that, somewhat, to Arafura Harbour.
I have said in the past that plan, that design was quite visionary. For somebody to come up with that design really is a credit to that person’s imagination - their future vision for what could possibly be a wonderful development. I was very disheartened when the government canned it before any process was undertaken. When people pull that part of themselves out, lay it on the table for the world to see, and for others to back that idea with money, the least we as a community can do is look at it and make a fair assessment. I was very disappointed that did not occur. I hope in the future, Hans’ legacy in relation to Arafura Harbour can at least be put through a process where we can have some community consultation, some environmental assessments done, and a range of other processes that need to be gone through. It would be only fair to Hans’ legacy. However, that is another matter.
Hans was a lovely down-to-earth bloke. To look at him you could have been looking at any other ragtag Territorian fond of getting around without shoes or a shirt. However, the reality is quite often you can judge a person by their friends. Look at this eclectic group we have here today. It did not matter whether you were a former Chief Minister or one of the great developers of the Northern Territory, a great architect, draftsman, accountant, or the person on the lowest rung of life, Hans seemed to fit in with them all and everybody who knew him loved and respected him.
There is a massive hole in the Northern Territory with the passing of Hans. I feel enormously proud to have known the man. He was a lovely guy, very easy to work with. You could provide criticism on virtually anything and he did not take it to heart. He was a man who was content within himself, had the courage of his own convictions and a desire to put that out there for the community to look at. We are enormously blessed having had Hans Vos in our community for so long and his memory will not be forgotten.
To Barbara, the Vos family, and all the friends who have joined us today, thank you very much for coming and thank you for being such loyal and wonderful supporters of the great Hans Vos.
Mr WOOD (Nelson): Madam Speaker, it is obvious from hearing other people’s versions and knowledge of Hans Vos that I only know a small portion of that life. Having been to the funeral at Christ Church Cathedral recently, The life he had I certainly did not know much about. I would like to say something about the life I shared with Hans Vos.
He was a sailor; I certainly am not a sailor. He drank red wine; I do not drink wine. However, I like town planning; he, obviously, was a great town planner and architect. He was visionary. I regarded him as a friend, perhaps not the type of friend who wines and dines with a person, but someone with whom I could discuss something without fear or favour. We certainly had some debates from time to time.
People would understand. I know the people behind me; I feel like I am at a Development Consent Authority meeting. There is a range of developers, town planners, some surveyors and, I presume, people from the department. I am trying to put the case that Hans Vos was a good bloke even though I did not always agree with him.
He has left his mark, especially from a town planning point of view. One of the great documents that came out in the 1990s was the Darwin Regional Land Use Structure Plan. Graham Bailey is behind me and he had much to do with that, so did Hans Vos.
Hans Vos was also involved in the development of Palmerston. I remember talking to him one day about the good old Elizabeth River dam and he was explaining what that design was meant to do. We moved to the development of Palmerston. Palmerston might have been one of those town plans built by luck. David Veal must have been in charge of the department at that time and Hans was either a contractor or working for him. The government wanted some planning done for Palmerston quite quickly. He told me they were in a four-wheel drive looking around the bush seeing where things might go and went down that escarpment and became bogged. Immediately, David Veal, said, ‘That’s it. On top of the hill is where it goes.’ That is about where Palmerston is today.
I am sure there was more planning to it, but it gave me the impression that sometimes planning is done in a hurry to suit the government. Perhaps that is not always the best way to do things, but it gave me the idea he was a down to earth person, not scared to get his feet in the mud, walk the bush and look at what was to be designed.
Of course, we have Weddell, an issue before us today. It was an issue for the previous government and has been around a long time. He was part of the design of Elizabeth River dam. The reason I regard him as a friend is because - I heard people say at the funeral he was stubborn – well, he may have been, but there is nothing wrong with being stubborn as long as you listen to the other person’s point of view. I found discussions with him about his design of Elizabeth River dam and his concepts quite enlightening. I did not agree with it, but he listened to my point of view. We both shared, to some extent, a vision from a different direction.
He did not hold any grudges against me, and I enjoyed his company when we started to talk about town planning. You could see he was visionary and had the Darwin region at heart. That is one of the things I will always remember him for. He had the ability to put forward great ideas, and not all people with great ideas have them turn into something practical. Ask Burley Griffin what happened to his original plans. Canberra might have his name stuck to the lake, but it is not quite the plan he designed because the bureaucrats were involved.
He has left his mark at Cullen Bay. Member for Fong Lim, Cullen Bay is different to the Arafura Harbour concept. He was involved in the government’s new Greater Darwin Land Use Plan, which is a revamped version of the old one.
For something closer to home, he was involved in Coolalinga. If anyone has been there recently you would have seen how Coolalinga has gone ahead. He was involved in the second lot of plans. I will probably get into trouble for saying this, but the developers originally had somebody from Brisbane do some design work. That was knocked on the head. The one which did not get knocked on the head was designed by Hans Vos.
He understood where these buildings were going and who they would serve. They were to be in the rural area and would serve locals. They needed to have a flavour which reflected a shopping centre in a rural area. Hans Vos was able to show that.
I know Even Lynne is here today and if there is to be a tavern in Coolalinga Shopping Centre, or if there is going to be a fine bottle shop serving red wine, it should have Hans Vos’ name on the front of it. That would be fitting. He lived in the rural area and enjoyed wine. It would be nice if he could be remembered close to where he lived and for something he enjoyed doing.
Hans Vos was a great person who cannot be replaced. Sometimes people say, ‘Do not think you cannot be replaced’. Hans Vos was a one off. He was like the No 1 FJ Holden; it was the only one. He brought something we will find hard to replace: vision and controversy. There is nothing wrong with that. If we do not have controversy in town planning we will have dull planning. He brought controversy with vision.
Darwin and the Territory will be worse off without him. He will be a great loss to Barbara and I extend my deepest sympathy. He will be a great loss to his friends behind me who worked with him for many years, and he will be a great loss for ‘friends’ like me, who enjoyed his wisdom, vision and his ability to pass on his knowledge. We, as Territorians, have lost someone very special. May he rest in peace.
Mr ELFERINK (Attorney-General and Justice): Madam Speaker, I also wish to contribute to this debate. Few people in this room would be aware I am the son of a Dutch architect; there are some parallels for you. I asked my father a few years after he stopped drinking, ‘Why did you stop drinking, Dad?’ I was expecting him to tell me it was because it was a problem in the family, financial issues, whatever, but his answer was, ‘I lost my colour’. I have long wondered what on earth that meant, and to understand what that meant gives you an insight, perhaps, into the way Hans Vos perceived the world.
An architect is not a technical person, an architect is an artist. Architecture, when done properly, is a sensual exercise in the sense it pertains to what you see, how a building makes you feel, what impression you get from a room, interior design, those types of things. Those things provide colour to an artist’s life.
The difficulty for an architect is they have to find the balance between form and function. In the case of Frank Lloyd Wright, one of the great architects of the 19th and 20th centuries, he could not, or would not, distinguish between form and function. Much of the philosophy of Frank Lloyd Wright can be found in Alain de Botton’s recent philosophical work on architecture. The philosophy and everything aside, it is about the sensuality; the flavour of what that form of art makes you feel and see.
To give some context to that observation, perhaps the best example I can give is his involvement in the golf course in Alice Springs. Mark Twain - Samuel Clemens - once observed golf was a good walk spoiled. However, because of the passion for design brought to it, irrespective of the game, the golf course could never be a good walk spoiled. It was demonstrable in its form, shape and presence that there was a love and passion built into that golf course. To this day, when I walk the golf course in Alice Springs, which does require a certain amount of bushwalking, I love being there.
I am familiar with the passion for colour and development because I mixed with an architect every day of my life. The parallels between my father and Hans Vos were similar in a number of areas. Not only were they Dutch and architects, but they had a passion for development; however, not development for development’s sake. In an era when Soviet architecture was capturing so much not only of the Soviet world but, for some reason, alienating concrete found its way into the psyche of many of the architects in the west, artists like Vos and his ilk resisted it. The art of Hans Vos was reminiscent of the work of Frank Lloyd Wright where form and function were melded so completely into one they were utterly inseparable. It was never, in Hans’ case, crass; it was always subtle.
In Cullen Bay, the apartments on the seaward side are reminiscent of an environment Darwin had never seen but a romantic environment of other nations. The sea point area in Cape Town, South Africa, is not, in its mood and flavour, dissimilar to what has been captured in the units along the seafront in Cullen Bay. That small piece of sea point in South Africa, even during the apartheid years, was somewhere apartheid could not creep in because of the mood of the people who occupied that space.
The artist’s canvas is our living environment. It is the place we live in, we breathe, we love, we get angry, whatever. It is a place where we are passionate and considerate, and it is on that canvas, when properly painted or sculpted, our moods and the way we perceive things are changed. The way my mood changes and the way I see Cullen Bay is a direct result of somebody sitting in front of a drafting board - a CAD system nowadays – and thinking, ‘What brush strokes am I going to make to change the mood of people who visit this place?’ It is not crass; it is not like Antoni Gaudi in Barcelona whose church is described as magnificent but looks like a mishmash of unreconciled ideas. For Hans Vos it was not about unreconciled ideas, it was about reconciliation with the built environment.
The artist in Hans Vos is ever present in the work he did. True to the legacy of Frank Lloyd Wright, Hans understood one important thing: the truth is always more important than just the facts.
Madam SPEAKER: Honourable members, Mrs Barbara Vos, friends of Hans Vos, I also extend my sincere sympathy to you on the loss of your husband, friend and father. In my dealings with him he was a true gentleman, a remarkable person - will continue to be a remarkable person - and was genuinely a nice guy. I pass on my sincere sympathy to you, Barbara, on the loss of your husband and life companion. His memory and life will live on in us forever.
Ms FINOCCHIARO (Drysdale): Madam Speaker, I would like to make a short contribution to this condolence motion today because I was very fortunate to have been able to meet Hans, despite his illness, close to the end of his life. I have to thank Barbara for making that possible because it has certainly enriched my life. Many of the things he said have resonated with me and will continue to for a long time to come.
He welcomed me into his home. I was incredibly intimidated to meet him. I had grown up around Lands and Planning, town planning particularly, my whole life so his was a name very familiar to me.
With an enormous collage map of Palmerston from 1985 my dad gave me, I trudged to the top of the apartment and spent a couple of hours with Hans which I will never forget. His passion for planning and vision was so infectious. I sat in awe as he flipped through the most beautiful drawings. The minister talked about colour - he had some wonderful things in his mind he was able to transfer onto paper. For someone who is not artistic it was very inspirational to me. Something I learnt from Hans is nothing is impossible.
A few times I raised what I perceived to be issues and, to him – he was very polite, but nothing was beyond the reach of the Territory to Hans and nothing was beyond the reach of mankind. I took that message away.
His life story has been very eloquently captured by other members, so I will not go into it. However, the celebration of his life that I attended was beautiful. Whilst it was terribly sad, it was so perfect. Everyone was celebrating and reflecting many wonderful things. It was not a miserable time; it was one of celebration and reflection.
He had a full and rich life and made an enormous impact on the lives of many people and the Territory. I gathered that from the short time I knew him. To Barbara, Sam and I send our deepest condolences to you. Also, the Finocchiaro and Burke families who knew Hans. Thank you for the opportunity to meet him; I will always remember it.
Motion agreed to.
Members stood for one minute of silence as a mark of respect.
Madam SPEAKER: I thank honourable members for their contributions to the motion to the life and legacy of Mr Hans Vos. I ask members of the family and friends to adjourn to the Main Hall for afternoon tea.
Mr MILLS (Chief Minister): Madam Speaker, today I inform the House of the work government has undertaken on behalf of the Northern Territory to secure certainty around future gas supply, thus allowing the Territory to release up to 300 petajoules of its gas for use by Pacific Aluminium in the Gove refinery.
This has been a very interesting journey, one that has not only stirred the hearts, minds and the deep anxiety of the good families of Nhulunbuy and the Gove area, but has also stirred the interest of the Australian nation and brought to light some issues around energy security.
It is a journey which has taken me through the halls of the Commonwealth parliament, to Nhulunbuy, meetings in Perth and boardrooms of Europe, culminating in a request to the Rio Tinto board in its London head office.
This journey has allowed knowledge to be amassed - the building of knowledge for all concerned about the energy demands and supply of the Northern Territory and Australia today and into the future. All who have been following this journey, which started with a request from Rio Tinto’s subsidiary, Pacific Aluminium, for a 10-year gas supply for its Gove mine refinery operation, now have a much broader understanding of the current known gas resources, the current availability of the proven gas supply, the future possible gas deposits that could be proven for supply, and the knowledge that more exploration will bring more gas to the market.
The other significant point which has been learnt on the journey to ultimately bring gas to Gove is the Northern Territory is not alone when it comes to ensuring we have a secure and long-term supply of known energy supply at a cost acceptable to governments, business consumers and, of course, domestic consumers.
We also know more now about the makeup, workings and aspirations of a number of major companies involved in the entire gas supply and demand stream and how they can influence the future of a jurisdiction by the decisions they make in their boardrooms around the globe.
Most of all, we have learnt that when dealing with a finite amount of a known energy supply, we will be confronted at all levels with varying levels of risk, and this risk will have to be weighed up against profits and viability of commercial interests, the long-term needs of Territorians, the national and local economic interests, the interests of landholders and, most importantly, weighed up against the livelihoods of families and individuals. It is not a one dimensional issue; it has many aspects to it.
There are two stories to tell which travel in parallel to one another for at least part of the journey of bringing gas to Gove. Let me start at the point when the Country Liberal government attracted ConocoPhillips to the shores of Darwin to build an onshore LNG plant and supply the Power and Water Corporation as a foundation customer.
ConocoPhillips’ onshore site was originally going to supply gas to the Territory for its ongoing energy needs as well as its core purpose of converting raw gas to LNG. On losing government in 2001, the Country Liberals were of the firm belief that a portion of ConocoPhillips’ gas would be aggregated with our existing supplies from the Mereenie Basin to supply Power and Water generators.
The Labor government continued with this belief for some time, but then dropped the ball and made the decision to not take up the offer of being a foundation customer and not wanting the gas for domestic use despite knowing that by 2009 we would be in a desperate supply situation. This is evidenced by details in the Estimates Committee hearings of 2003 and 2004.
In 2003, the Chairman of Power and Water told The Estimates Committee Power and Water was in negotiations with ConocoPhillips regarding gas supply to the Channel Island Power Station. A year later, the same chairman told the Estimates Committee that any offer of gas to the Northern Territory by ConocoPhillips, I quote, ‘had fallen away’. It was in Labor’s third year of government that it dropped the ball on gas for Territorians. This is past history and it is disappointing the Labor government of the day did not insist on domestic gas for Territorians. The same can be said of the arrangements negotiated with INPEX in encouraging them to Darwin.
I accept the issues around gas reservation are a challenge to the industry. However, we must always ensure we provide our own capacity and access to domestic gas because the needs are significant going forward. It is grossly hypocritical of the Labor Opposition Leader to demand an urgent decision when she, and her former government colleagues, sat on their hands when first approached by Pacific Aluminium.
How is it the then Labor government did not tell Pacific Aluminium in January last year that they could have the 10 years of gas requested? Why is it the then Labor government sat on the letter of 19 January 2012 and did not reply until July that year, just before the election?
Even after seven months of dithering, did the then Chief Minister undertake to do what the now Leader of the Opposition had being calling for me to do? No. After seven months he told Pacific Aluminium, in a reply letter, he would establish a small high-level working group made up of Pacific Aluminium and senior Northern Territory government staff to work on gas to Gove. It sounds like a cosmetic response to a real problem.
He also confirmed an amount of gas equal to approximately four years’ supply could be provided and the 10-year supply requested by Pacific Aluminium could only proceed if they guaranteed replacement of our contracted reserves. I remind the House that this response by the former Labor government took seven months.
Two weeks after the election in August last year, I announced I had set up a working party to work on gas to Gove. Within one month of coming to office I confirmed the offer of the previous government and that gas was available if the conditions of replacement could be met.
Since that time, I have undertaken an intensive journey to assist Pacific Aluminium find a solution to their problems with the cost of energy in Gove. I say ‘their problems’ deliberately because it was not until the Rio Tinto subsidiary, Pacific Aluminium, approached government that it became our problem too.
How did this suddenly come about you may ask? I can tell members of this House this is not a sudden occurrence and the situation Rio Tinto has found itself in has been in the making for a long time. In fact, it has been happening since Rio Tinto bought Alcan’s interest in the Gove operation in 2007.
Rio, it is widely reported, paid too much for their aluminium assets and, in Gove’s case, poured hundreds of millions of dollars into upgrading the refinery to make it more efficient. In that time the price of aluminium on the world market had fallen and the Australian dollar had strengthened, adding to the woes of the operation in Gove. A bad business decision! According to Rio Tinto’s new chairman, Sam Walsh, the Gove operation has suffered nearly $1bn in after tax losses since the purchase in 2007.
The gas to Gove proposition will require an additional $1.2bn spend to get it running on gas. This spend is made up of approximately $500m for ENI to upgrade their infrastructure to allow for the new volumes of gas to flow, $200m for the Gove refinery to convert their generators to gas, and $500m to construct the new pipeline to Gove. With gas to Gove in place, the Gove refinery will have at least a 10-year guaranteed supply.
The journey of understanding also includes the knowledge of what gas is available, or likely to become available, to the Territory now and into the future.
Let me start with the gas we know we have available now - gas that could flow today. The Northern Territory, through the Power and Water Corporation, has a contract with ENI for approximately 740 petajoules of gas, and a first option on another possible 100 to 120 petajoules of gas. The contract is on a take and pay basis from 2009 and could provide gas to the Territory until at least 2034.
Santos also has a known gas supply and currently has approximately 78 petajoules for sale which could be diverted to Gove and, indeed, has been offered, along with our 100 to 120 petajoules to Pacific Aluminium.
Apart from these two gas resources, there is little other gas available that could flow today into the marketplace apart from an emergency supply which can be taken from the ConocoPhillips site and Bayu-Undan fields under special conditions.
However, there is more gas out there, some of it in proven reserves and other possible resources which are very much in the infancy stages of proofing. We all know about the Sunrise field and its vast reserves and how this has been dedicated to a massive floating LNG project.
One of the critical reasons I went to Paris was to talk to GDF SUEZ as part owners of the Petrel and Tern gas deposits and to discuss with them the possibility of access to their gas reserves for our future needs. These fields have also been flagged for a possible floating LNG - that is the current position of GDF SUEZ - and the owners want to wait for these plans to develop further before they take on any other commitments for this gas.
ENI, who with the Power and Water Corporation is currently contracted with us, has another field called Penguin Deeps which they have scheduled to be drilled and proven up later this year. This one field, if proven, could be brought online in a very short time frame and with a relatively small capital expenditure. We all have very high hopes for this field.
While we are in the west, let us not gloss over the biggest gas story to ever reach the shores of the Northern Territory, and I recognise the great work done by the former Chief Minister, Clare Martin, in persuading the company to look at Darwin as a potential site. This project, as most members would know, is significant in world terms and will bring with it long-term economic benefits to the Northern Territory but, as you also know, all the available gas, in the first instance, will be shipped offshore once converted to LNG.
On 19 November 2012, Santos announced a significant gas discovery at Crown-1 exploration well, only 60 km west of the Ichthys field and 20 km west of the Poseidon field.
The Caldita and Barossa fields in the Timor Sea north of the Tiwi Islands are entering into a farm-out arrangement with the South Korean conglomerate, SK Group. A drilling program will be undertaken this year.
Recently, the Commonwealth government granted seven new exploration permits for offshore Northern Territory and Western Australian acreage which will see well over $200m invested in these offshore areas over the next three years. Onshore in the Northern Territory, there are also very prospective areas for gas, including work being done by world-class companies such as Hess, Statoil, Total, Santos and ConocoPhillips.
Over the last few years, intensive exploration programs across the Northern Territory have led to approximately 90% of onshore or near onshore acreage either being granted or under application. I understand my colleague, the Minister for Mines and Energy, will be delivering a major statement on the opportunities for oil and gas development in the Northern Territory in this House in the near future. I will not elaborate on all the work currently being proposed to prove up new supplies of gas, but would like to highlight one significant find which looks very prospective.
Armour Energy has a large gas acreage of around 33m acres in the McArthur, Georgina and South Nicholson Basin of the Northern Territory into Queensland which the owners hope to prove up further with an intensive drilling program involving up to five drill rigs over the next Dry Season.
I wanted to make a deliberate point about this field and Armour Energy, the company that owns it, because the company believes it can offer upwards of 30 petajoules a year, by as soon as 2015-16, into the Northern Territory market.
That pretty much sums up the gas story as it stands today: what is on tap now and what is possible into the immediate future.
Let us turn to the gas to Gove proposal Pacific Aluminium would like to realise to make their operations in Nhulunbuy viable. Viability is a very subjective term when talking about a large industrial business such as the Gove mine refinery. Are we talking about annual positive cash flow and profitability, are we talking about a break-even proposition, or are we talking about a good rate of return on cash invested? As I said earlier in the statement, there are things we have discovered on the journey to bringing gas to Gove and, in regard to Pacific Aluminium’s operation, we learnt the following:
it was purchased at an inflated price
it required a huge capital expenditure of around $3bn to increase its throughput
the operation has bled cash since its purchase in 2007 at a reported rate of somewhere between $10m and $20m per month
after tax losses have been reported at close to $1bn in a little over five years
it now needs an additional $1.2bn capital spend between ENI’s upgrades, the Gove generator conversions and the construction of a pipeline to Gove to ensure long-term sustainable profitability.
Rio Tinto has just finalised negotiations and signed a new 42-year agreement with traditional owners under the Aboriginal Land Rights Act, therefore securing the ongoing tenure of the Gove operation.
Gove, and the mining and refinery operations there, contribute significantly to the Northern Territory’s economy at an estimated $500m a year. This includes direct jobs in both the bauxite mine and the alumina refinery, the support jobs in Nhulunbuy, training in the region, local maintenance contracting businesses in the town, major contractors and suppliers in Darwin and, of course, taxes, royalties and lease fees. The gas pipeline to Gove proposal will be a major project for the Territory which will ramp up almost immediately. The total spend to connect the Blacktip gas field to the refinery at Gove will be in the order of $1.2bn.
As stated, ENI will spend in the vicinity of $500m on gas infrastructure to cope with connection issues and increased flow rates. Pacific Aluminium will have to spend approximately $200m in Gove to convert the operation to gas. Both these projects will bring jobs and benefits to the Territory and Territory businesses, and will increase the capacity and efficiency at both ends of the pipeline.
Let us turn to construction of the gas to Gove pipeline and the construction opportunities and ongoing benefits this $500m capital investment will bring to the region. The components of the project as supplied by Pacific Aluminium are worth detailing for everyone’s benefit:
capital costs of more than $500m, including pipe and other materials estimated at $100m and a compressor station estimated at $50m
However, there is more. The future benefits not calculated in immediate cash in the economy that will bring bankable returns in the future are manyfold and include the opportunities for new finds of gas along and adjacent to the pipeline corridor. This is significant.
Obviously, any new gas in the region would have the advantage of being more of a bankable opportunity with a pipeline available to transport the gas to market. The construction of the pipeline will see, no doubt, more onshore gas exploration and development with more fields proven in the region. By far the greatest opportunity presenting if we supply 300 petajoules of our contracted gas to Gove is we have immediately doubled the size of the market in the Northern Territory and, at the same time have, in general terms, halved the known supply. That is the issue. This will be the single biggest carrot to attract new explorers into the market and provide a new incentive for current operators to bring their known reserves to market.
To assist with what I have just been saying about exploration opportunities, another initiative I am able to report is that the Commonwealth and the Northern Territory governments have developed a memorandum of understanding to encourage further onshore and offshore exploration and development. The MOU is important to strengthen the ties between the Territory and the Commonwealth and to outline a framework of cooperation to ensure not only exploration and development of gas is encouraged and supported benefitting the local and national economy, but also so the Northern Territory can secure a long-term energy supply.
Referring again to the journey the gas to Gove exercise has taken us on is the realisation we do not currently have in Australia a national strategic approach to the energy needs and infrastructure requirements of and for our great nation. While the Commonwealth government has its role in regulation and looking after the national interests, and the states and territories are committed to the development and regulation of assets, there is no real discussion taking place on the need for Australia to develop its energy resources and internal energy infrastructure in a way we can self-guarantee our future energy needs.
This could be because of the abundance of coal-fired energy supply along the eastern seaboard, and could partly be due to the foresight of our forebears to develop the significant national project in the 1950s, the Snowy Mountains Scheme, providing a cheap source of power to our southern regions. It may well be the time for another major project of national significance.
I am talking of linking our great nation with a pipeline grid so we can share the nation’s resources with all Australians now and in the future. This is not a pie-in-the-sky dream; it is eminently doable and timely. I have spoken to my federal counterparts on both sides of politics and asked for their assistance in raising this issue onto the national agenda and providing positive support in moving it forward.
I would like to look at the feasibility of a connecting pipeline between Tennant Creek and Mount Isa to join the Territory with the eastern seaboard. To this end, the federal coalition will commit $1m, upon coming to government, for this study. Much preliminary work has already been conducted on this and it is eminently achievable.
However, on another tack altogether, I share with members the stark deficiency of robust corporate knowledge surrounding the whole oil and gas story in the Northern Territory which has come to light from the request by Pacific Aluminium for a gas supply to Gove. We are sitting on an oil and gas rich province surrounded by others with similar resources, whether we look at our onshore prospects, our offshore prospects or to our neighbours in the north and to the west. Our greater region is resource rich and we, in the Northern Territory, will need to have our eye on the ball with regard to strategic planning and opportunity for investment in the energy sector. We should never be caught short again with an approach for gas as we have seen from Rio Tinto’s request for support. On the other hand, we should always be aware of opportunities for more investment and development of this important sector. To this end, I am talking to my Cabinet colleagues about how we can form a strategic energy directorate which will sit in the Department of Mines and Energy to bring a strategic focus to our future energy needs and be constantly surveying the horizon for opportunities in the energy sector.
I am talking in the context of oil and gas in the first instance, but I make the strong point that an energy directorate would also bring the important renewable energy sector into the future energy matrix.
Let us turn to the other element of this gas story which has been mostly overlooked: the people of Gove and the Nhulunbuy region in general. These are families that have been living in Gove for the entire 40-plus years of its history, and the traditional owners whose ancestors have lived in the region for thousands of years.
The jobs and wealth created by the Gove bauxite mine and the alumina refinery and the positive socioeconomic benefits the operation drives in Yirrkala and communities throughout the east Arnhem region are enormous. The direct benefit to businesses in Darwin is somewhere in the order of $150m. I have said before in this statement, the direct spend into the Territory economy is somewhere around the $500m mark. A pipeline from Katherine to Gove and a source of gas from ENI provides Rio Tinto with a sustainable cost of energy for the next 10 years, which should ensure the Gove alumina refinery continues to operate.
In conclusion, let me put everything into perspective for members of the House and remind them and all Territorians how we arrived at the place we now find ourselves.
First, a group of people sitting in a boardroom on the far side of the world made some bad business decisions. Instead of taking accountability for those decisions to their shareholders, they have decided either the Australian or the Northern Territory government should bear the burden of their mistakes, and the innocent workers at the Gove alumina refinery and that community should bear the consequences. This is not the behaviour the Northern Territory government expects from mining companies which seek the right to explore for and develop the resources owned by the people of the Northern Territory.
The Northern Territory is, however, a small family in the world community and the Northern Territory government has to react to the difficulties experienced by its family members no matter who has caused these problems.
The Northern Territory government will not, therefore, desert the people of Gove. We will seek to ensure the ongoing viability of the Gove operation while at the same time, importantly, put policies in place to ensure this set of circumstances does not occur again. We will also examine closely the capabilities of companies seeking to explore and help in the development of the Territory. That examination will include a review of those companies’ past behaviour.
I want to assure the people of the Territory that the government has not come to a decision on this matter lightly, but has pursued every viable option to make gas available to the Gove refinery without placing future gas supply to electricity generation at risk.
I announced yesterday the Northern Territory government will direct the Power and Water Corporation to release up to 300 petajules of gas from its current contract with ENI Australia for use in Gove. We will require ENI Australia to provide a guarantee that the electricity generation requirements of Power and Water Corporation can be met until at least the end of 2026. We will also require that, for any reason, should the Gove alumina refinery not continue to operate then the gas will be returned to Power and Water Corporation without penalty.
I mentioned earlier the Northern Territory would put policies in place to ensure the situation does not reoccur and that the issue of domestic gas availability is not exclusively a Northern Territory issue, it is a national issue requiring a national response. That is why my government will be actively working with the Commonwealth and other state and territory governments to strengthen and secure the Australian energy market.
I will be taking items for discussion to COAG, including the development of a truly national pipeline grid and the consideration of a national gas reservation policy, or other mechanisms which will guarantee all Australians are able to share the benefits of our natural resources.
The government will aggressively pursue options for ongoing domestic gas supply by working closely with companies such as GDF SUEZ, INPEX, Santos and Armour Energy and others who have indicated a desire to work with us to solve these future problems.
Finally, I want to assure Territorians this has not been an easy decision for government. I also want to assure you we have examined and weighed all the options and believe this is the only reasonable decision at this point in time. The Territory will play an important and ongoing role in the energy needs of Australia and the region.
Mr Deputy Speaker, I move that the Assembly take note of the statement.
Ms LAWRIE (Opposition Leader): Mr Deputy Speaker, this ministerial statement confirms what everyone already knows: the last four months have seen the most incompetent handling of a major issue by a Chief Minister in the history of the Northern Territory.
This ministerial statement is like a boy’s own journey. He describes his bungling and dithering as an ‘interesting journey’.
Listen to the third paragraph of the statement:
It is great the member for Blain had an interesting journey and went around the world. You could have solved this issue, Chief Minister, four months ago sitting at your desk in Darwin. The solution you announced yesterday has been sitting in your in-tray for four months.
Mr Deputy Speaker, I draw your attention to the state of the House.
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER: Ring the bells.
A quorum is present.
Ms LAWRIE: Thank you. The last four months has had former CLP leaders shaking their heads in disbelief and industry leaders completely baffled that they were having to deal with someone so clearly out of his depth. I cannot resist pointing out that only a week ago the Chief Minister described the agreement he reached yesterday as the, and I quote, ‘Delia Lawrie model’.
Although it was not just the Delia Lawrie model, it was bleedingly obvious as a model - the model everyone else could see should have been agreed to four months ago. Remarkably, in this statement, the Chief Minister concedes I have been calling on him for months to do the deal he did yesterday.
Before I go any further, I will quickly point out that the NT News reported the Chief Minister had already agreed to provide the gas before he met Rio Tinto in London because everyone in the industry knew he had already backflipped. He went all the way to London to meet with Rio Tinto about a decision he had already made. That is how this four-month debacle ended; the Chief Minister travelled to London for a meeting about a decision he had already made.
The member for Nhulunbuy will detail the effect of this bungling and dithering Chief Minister’s inability to arrive at a decision until yesterday. She will provide detail of the devastating effect it has had on the residents of Nhulunbuy and the region, but I will go through the history of the sorry tale of the last four months from the time the solution arrived in the Chief Minister’s in-tray until he agreed to the deal.
11 October: in October, Pacific Aluminium announced a formal review of the Gove refinery. They requested a 10-year supply of gas. Terry Mills said, ‘No’. He did not go to Gove and the solution sat in his in-tray.
Early December came and went. There was no solution and Terry Mills did not go to Gove. He said he would have a solution by Christmas, but it remained in his in-tray.
Christmas came and went. Terry Mills promised by New Year. He went on holidays. He did not go to Gove. The solution sat in his in-tray. Terry Mills finally went to Gove after persistent requests by the member for Nhulunbuy but gave them no comfort. He refused to provide the gas requested.
17 January: the Minister for Mines and Energy went to Texas to talk about gas; he did not go to Gove. The Minister for Mines and Energy has not been to Gove since being elected nearly six months ago. Did the Minister for Mines and Energy tell the conference in Texas the Northern Territory was pursuing a domestic gas reservation policy or was that just hot air from Terry Mills? Answer that one, Minister for Mines and Energy, if you contribute to this debate today.
23 January: Terry Mills put a so-called deal on the table: delay any decision until September. It was immediately rejected. Terry Mills, at that stage, was still refusing to provide the 10-year supply of gas to Gove.
Mr ELFERINK: A point of order, Madam Speaker! For the sake of probity, the Opposition Leader continually refers to Terry Mills. I remind the honourable member of the standing order in relation to referring to members by their electorate rather than appropriate pronouns.
Madam SPEAKER: Thank you, member for Port Darwin. If you could refer to members by their electorate, Opposition Leader.
Ms LAWRIE: Yes. A bit of sensitivity! On 31 January the deadline day arrived ..
Mrs Lambley: It is called respect.
Ms LAWRIE: I do not have any respect for a man who dithers for four months and causes grief and pain for the people of Nhulunbuy and the region. I do not have to respect him, I have no respect for him, and a heap of Territorians who were out the front at lunchtime also do not have any respect for him.
31 January: the deadline day, arrived and the Chief Minister said he could not provide the 10-year supply of gas as required. He said, and I quote:
Yet the deal he announced yesterday, which only two weeks ago he called the Delia Lawrie model, is exactly the deal he described as the Delia Lawrie model which would increase power bills by 75%. He said this was based on advice from Power and Water yet has refused to table that advice. I know why. He was not telling the truth.
Pacific Aluminium pointed out he has not raised this figure in any discussions with them. With all the discussions the Chief Minster has had on gas to Gove, never did he say to the companies involved it was because he was concerned it would mean an increase of power and water tariffs of up to 75%. Why? He simply was not telling the truth.
3 February: the Chief Minister spoke on ABC radio. When asked what he would say to the people of Gove he said, quote:
Is he for real? Is that what he wanted to tell the people of Gove who were anxiously waiting for a decision to be made? ... a rambling incoherent babbling about a context.
A community meeting was held in Gove. Instead of attending that meeting the Chief Minister was filming by-election ads in Wanguri. He did not even send a minister to represent him. He then flew off to Perth on a last minute mercy dash to save Gove but did not. He heard from the companies in Perth what he had heard for four months - what was required to seal the deal - and the solution continued to sit in his office in-tray. He then went to Canberra, Singapore, Milan, Paris and London to hear what he had heard for four months, with the solution sitting in his in-tray.
As we know, before he met with Rio Tinto in London he decided to backflip on his intransigence and acknowledge a 10-year supply of gas to Gove was a necessary deal. He had his meeting with Rio Tinto and flew home. Yesterday, we received the announcement he had backflipped; he had signed the four-month-old solution that had been sitting in his in-tray all along, adding though, a ridiculous claim that there is a condition Rio Tinto agrees to operate the refinery. Why would they purchase gas if they were not going to use it?
We have had at stake 1600 jobs and a $500m contribution to the Territory economy through the refinery operation in Nhulunbuy. We have had many spurious, misleading claims on what this is about. I will deal with some in the statement.
In the statement, the Chief Minister claimed, regarding ConocoPhillips, there was a ‘firm belief’ a portion of the gas would be aggregating to our existing gas supplies. That is not a firm CLP gas reservation policy of 15% for domestic use; that is his view of a firm belief. They might have been whistling Dixie in some bizarre way, but there was no 15% CLP gas reservation policy - something he and his sidekick, the Treasurer, have been lambasting the Labor government for.
The CLP had no policy and, of course, Labor could not reset the bar in negotiations with ConocoPhillips. If we had tried to at that point, we would have no LNG industry in the Territory. If we had been mad enough to try to change the playing field after ConocoPhillips had landed by insisting on a domestic gas reservation with INPEX, they would have had a polite cup of tea with us and returned to the boardrooms of Japan to pursue the LNG deal in Western Australia.
This Chief Minister is so foolish he would have us believe we are somehow captured by this smokescreen that he went to Canberra to talk about a national gas reservation policy. Chief Minister, Tony Abbott has not backed your policy; Julia Gillard has not backed your policy. Everyone is having a polite cup of tea with this fool and, then, getting on with the real business. A national domestic gas reservation policy is literally putting up the ‘closed for business’ sign when, instead, we need to be pursuing gas exploration.
Anyone in the industry, anyone who understands the industry and the competitive global environment knows that. That is how embarrassing it has become. This Chief Minister has become such an embarrassing fool on not only the national stage, but the global stage.
Going to ENI, Santos, and GDF SUEZ to say, ‘I would not mind some of Petrel Tern’ - industry sources are saying, ‘Thanks very much for that’, being really polite, ‘but we are going to sell our gas to the customers we have been lining up with’. This smokescreen of romping around the world with his Batman cape on saving us all has been a fool’s trip. Unbelievable!
Four months ago, the win/win was sitting in the in-tray. The 10-year supply of gas to Gove is a win/win. It saves 1600 jobs, some 800 direct, the others indirect. It provides for the deals to be done to ensure the refinery continues to operate, keeping vibrancy in the region and putting some $500m into our domestic economy. Importantly, it opens up the pathway for a pipeline to be constructed; that is a major project. It also opens up exploration. Santos, in Mereenie, is a clear onshore petroleum and gas opportunity in the Northern Territory, not just in Central Australia around Alice Springs, but real opportunities around Tennant Creek. Of course, ENI has the Penguin field. A doubling of the gas market is a win/win in investment in the Territory in oil and gas exploration.
That was obvious to everyone involved four months ago. The Chief Minister uses weasel words now to say he has seen these companies and everyone is keen to explore. Really, Sherlock? We all knew that. Industry leaders knew that four months ago, but you dithered.
What I find curious is the faceless men sitting behind the Chief Minister and his Treasurer controlling this government. Come forward, Ted Campbell, and tell us how you are being paid to tell the Chief Minister of the Northern Territory there was an extraordinary risk to the Territory’s future energy if he agreed to the 10-year gas supply to provide Power and Water freeing up its gas with ENI and selling to Pacific Aluminium. Ted Campbell, you provided that advice to the Chief Minister, you have side-kicked the Treasurer, and it has meant four months of dithering. You are very wrong and have caused much grief. You have been backed by Barry Coulter, sitting in the back room, and we know how much Barry Coulter is being paid …
Mr ELFERINK: A point of order, Madam Speaker! Whilst I appreciate the Opposition Leader’s enthusiasm, she is now verballing people who have no capacity to defend themselves in this House. I ask she be counselled to exercise restraint before restraint is imposed.
Madam SPEAKER: Thank you, member for Port Darwin. Opposition Leader, please be careful with your wording about people who are not present in the parliament.
Ms LAWRIE: I would be delighted if Ted Campbell and Barry Coulter explained their role in this farce and dithering of the Chief Minister of the Northern Territory. Industry leaders certainly know what their role is. Industry is under no illusion as to what has been led in the bizarre notions and advice provided to the Chief Minister. This bizarre notion we are at incredible and - in the Chief Minister’s own words - extraordinary risk to our future energy supply. Yet, in his statement today, he says there is not much risk because all these companies are exploring and we are lucky because we are sitting in the midst of an oil and gas industry. It was extraordinary Ted Campbell and Barry Coulter provided shoddy advice to the Chief Minister. However, even more extraordinary ...
Mr ELFERINK: A point of order, Madam Speaker! Once again, she is engaging in borderline defamation. Accusing people of shoddy advice, who have no defence in this House, is outrageous and directly contrary to the instruction you gave the Leader of the Opposition.
Madam SPEAKER: Thank you, member for Port Darwin. Opposition Leader, continue please but be careful with your wording.
Ms LAWRIE: This is the member for Port Darwin, the man who would gag any democratic debate in the Northern Territory. No wonder you cannot get the votes to knife the Chief Minister. You are the only person who will vote for you. There is no one else on your side willing to vote for you. When the leadership challenge is on next week you will be voting for yourself, John.
Mrs Lambley: You should be watching your back. Your back is just as vulnerable as any.
Ms LAWRIE: Goodbye, Robyn. Seriously!
Madam SPEAKER: Order!
Ms LAWRIE: They do not like the truth. They do not like to hear we know what advice has been provided by whom to whom. We know Ted Campbell and Barry Coulter have been providing advice to government on the supply of gas to Gove to keep the refinery open. The advice was as shoddy as it comes. It was an extraordinary risk to the Territory’s future energy needs and that is the line the Chief Minister trotted out all through November, into December and January, until he capitulated yesterday. All of a sudden, there is no extraordinary risk to our future energy supplies because he has discovered there are companies out there exploring. This has been a shambles - an absolute disgrace.
It is very clear to us, having watched this debacle, if the member for Blain had been Chief Minister there is no way the Territory would have landed the Ichthys project, the nation’s second-largest major project. Thank God we had Paul Henderson as Chief Minister of the Northern Territory to pursue and land that project.
The contrast could not be starker. Henderson and the way he handled securing the INPEX project, Mills and the way he has fumbled on Gove. Mills has dithered, been embarrassing and his comments have been flat out wrong. It has been a debacle. He set false deadlines, offered ludicrous agreements and has made false statements. He has blamed everyone else but himself, all the time putting at risk 1600 jobs and $500m into the Territory economy. He could not have found a better fail in the way someone handled this if he tried.
It is despicable how he has been obfuscating. So despicable he claimed the Henderson government was only prepared to offer four years. No, turn to page 2 of the letter and you will see the offer of a 10-year supply of gas with, quite reasonably, a large amount of detail set out in conditions defining the deal. That was an important pathway offer which gave Pacific Aluminium the opportunity to say to Rio, ‘We are dealing with the Territory government; it is at the table negotiating with us. Will you set up a gas task force?’
However, Mills would have you believe he set up the gas task force. No, one was set up and in place prior to the election. That is another furphy from Mills, but there has been a plethora of them in this mishandling of gas to Gove.
The gas task force was in place. The Chief Minister of the day, Paul Henderson, had made it clear. ‘You can have four years on this basis or 10 years meeting these conditions. A task force is in place, negotiate.’ This was well before the game changing announcement by Pacific Aluminium that the refinery was facing closure.
That is a detail the CLP would want no one to be aware of because they want to run the myth we sat on it for seven months. There was no refinery closure for the seven months we were in discussions with Pacific Aluminium, and our discussions were constructive. We had a gas task force and were in constructive negotiations, in stark contrast to the current government.
Previously, Pacific Aluminium could meet with the Chief Minister on a regular basis and have discussions with senior public servants sitting around a table. With a change of government, what happened? They were shunted off to Barry Coulter and Ted Campbell. It was hard to get to the Chief Minister and when you did it was all about, ‘Well, what was the advice from Barry Coulter and Ted Campbell?’ Their advice was, ‘This is an extraordinary risk to the future energy needs of the Northern Territory’. What a lot of nonsense proven by the actions of the Chief Minister yesterday when he finally capitulated, got Cabinet across the line, and was able to make the announcement after four months of dithering. The Chief Minister was taking his boy’s own journey to look like the action man when, in fact, he was making the Territory a laughing stock.
Industry knows, Australia - whether it is Tony Abbott or Julia Gillard - will not be pursuing a domestic gas reservation policy because they will not put up the ‘closed for business’ sign. Tony Abbott has not said, ‘I am with you, Terry Mills. I agree we need a domestic gas reservation policy.’ No, he has not, and they are all quietly hoping the CLP gets its act together and deposes this bumbling incompetent fool of a Chief Minister so they do not have to continue to be embarrassed ...
Mr ELFERINK: A point of order, Madam Speaker! I am sure the Leader of the Opposition can work her way through a speech without personal abuse to the point where I have to ask it be called unparliamentary. I ask her to restrain herself from that type of language.
Madam SPEAKER: Thank you, member for Port Darwin. Opposition Leader, you have the call.
Ms LAWRIE: Thank you. It has been an unedifying four months for the Northern Territory where the leaders of industry ask, ‘How does this government not see a win/win when confronted with one? How does this government not understand the supply of gas to Gove?’ It is gas that is excess to Power and Water’s needs. They contracted too much gas so it is a saving if you want to split hairs around that. It is not going to turn the lights off like the Treasurer at one stage wanted us to believe in one of her bizarre contributions to this debate - that would take another half hour. No, it is not going to turn the lights off at Power and Water. Yes, enough exploration has been prompted from this decision to provide much opportunity for Power and Water for future contracted gas beyond 2027. No, you chose to scare people with maybe the lights will turn off if we do not do this, maybe power and water tariffs will go up 75%, or why we do not have a domestic gas reservation policy - all the bizarre furphies.
The fact is there was no domestic gas reservation policy under the previous CLP government. It is also a fact there is no domestic gas reservation policy under the CLP government, despite the hot air of Terry Mills. This could have been agreed to four months ago. The agreement yesterday was the agreement sought four months ago. Industry had been advising the government of the drilling opportunities of ENI, Santos, yet you still perpetrated the myth there was an extraordinary risk to the Territory’s future energy. Where are the documents you relied on to say this could have caused a 75% increase in power and water tariffs? Show us the documents! Table them!
This has been a disgraceful episode in the Territory. We have gone from incredible confidence in business as a jurisdiction a year ago, particularly around us being the oil and gas hub for northern Australia, and now we have the industry which prompted the confidence in the Territory economy going forward shaking its head in disbelief with what they are hearing from this Chief Minister around the domestic gas reservation policy and the nonsense spouted by the Chief Minister and the Treasurer throughout this debacle.
The opposition consistently called for this gas deal to be signed. Consistently we have said, ‘Terry Mills get out of the way, agree to it, and let everyone get on with it’.
He finally got there yesterday but only after the families of Nhulunbuy suffered, businesses in Nhulunbuy had already started to downsize and lay off workers, and after families have uprooted and left Nhulunbuy to live elsewhere because of the uncertainty created by the bungling of this Chief Minister. It is a sad state when we see a conservative Chief Minister putting up the ‘closed for business’ sign in the Northern Territory. That is what we have witnessed for the last four months.
Mrs LAMBLEY (Deputy Chief Minister): Madam Speaker, it is a pleasure to support the Chief Minister’s statement on gas to Gove. Listening to the Leader of the Opposition, I ask what on earth that was about. It was probably one of the poorest speeches I have heard from the Leader of the Opposition. It was reflective of a woman who is quite deluded, irrational and trying hard to cling on to any sense of credibility she can possibly scrape together.
Mr McCARTHY: A point of order, Madam Speaker!
Madam SPEAKER: Before your point of order, I advise honourable members of the presence in the gallery of Sanderson Middle School students and the Night School Program senior students accompanied by Mr Glenn Gonzales. On behalf of honourable members, I extend a warm welcome to our visitors and hope you enjoy your tour and your time in Parliament House.
Mr McCARTHY: A point of order, Madam Speaker! We have heard the Leader of Government Business outline appropriate language. We learn our lessons and, if the truth hurts, then take it on board and get real. This member is already starting to use inappropriate language. I call relevance, Madam Speaker. I am interested in what the Deputy Chief Minister has to say in a proper, rational, and polite way.
Madam SPEAKER: Thank you, member for Barkly. Deputy Chief Minister, you have the call.
Mrs LAMBLEY: Thank you, Madam Speaker. I challenge the member for Barkly to point out what offensive or unparliamentary word I used. I do not believe he has one in mind because I did not use an inappropriate word.
I have, obviously, hit a raw nerve because the member for Barkly gave me less than a minute before he raised a point of order. We just heard the Leader of the Opposition give a rather poor and lacking response to a substantial statement on the best piece of news for the Territory for some time.
This is fantastic news for the Northern Territory. We, as the government, are extremely excited and proud of the Chief Minister for achieving what he has over the last few weeks and months. He has been working day and night to achieve a result, not just for the people of Nhulunbuy, but all the Northern Territory.
I was quite bewildered by the Leader of the Opposition’s speech. She talked about leaders of industry expressing dissatisfaction. It is interesting she says that because, over the last five-and-a-half months I have been in this position, I have been talking to many leaders of industry; probably not as many as my colleague, the Chief Minister. They are telling me the former Treasurer did not talk to anyone. She did not seek advice from business or industry leaders. They did not have her knocking on the door, ringing, or convening meetings to seek advice from these people with a wealth of information, knowledge, and experience. She did not avail herself of networking with any leaders of industry. It is bewildering that the Leader of the Opposition came into the Chamber today and quoted leaders of industry. There is something wrong in what the Opposition Leader has presented today. I doubt she ever speaks to leaders of industry. She is possibly misleading the parliament on this issue.
She talked about how she felt the Chief Minister was bungling and dithering and used the word ‘disgraceful’. Yes, they are derogatory terms from the Leader of the Opposition and I am quoting them.
I considered those words in relation to her performance over the last four-and-a-half years as Treasurer – the worst Treasurer in the history of the Northern Territory. We have proof of that because the debt per capita we now face in the Northern Territory is the worst of any jurisdiction in Australia, thanks to the former Treasurer.
She has the hide, the gall, to accuse the Chief Minister, who clinched the greatest deal in the recent history of the Northern Territory for all Territorians, to call him a bungler and ditherer when the former Chief Minister sat on a letter for seven months. He had a seven-month window of opportunity to clinch the deal for the Northern Territory, for the people of Nhulunbuy, and sat on his hands. That is what I call bungling and dithering. She has been deliberately misleading parliament by saying there was some great reason he did not respond for seven months.
The Chief Minister took a couple of months to conduct a thorough investigation. He was not going to take the word of the former government. He is no fool, no idiot; he is a man of substance and behaves and performs with great prudence and management skill. Our Chief Minister has great judgment. People should be very happy to have a solid, firm hand in charge. All the former Treasurer was good at was racking up the credit card bill and ensuring our deficit was blowing out each year to the extent where our debt is unmanageable and we have had to make some serious decisions. Yes, she will stand out the front with the rallying union people, taking their side but taking no responsibility for the state of the economy because she is a person with very little substance in relation to political astuteness and judgment.
She does not dither; she makes rash, impulsive, bad decisions. That is what we are wearing in the Northern Territory now. She should not criticise the Chief Minister for achieving something that has not been achieved for many years in the Northern Territory. He has clinched the deal to provide great security for the people of Nhulunbuy and people across the Northern Territory. More than anything, it opens the door to great economic prosperity and growth - what this government is all about.
We are not about taking the credit for one company. The Leader of the Opposition mentioned how fantastic it was the former government clinched the INPEX deal. All they can pin their credibility on is one company - one of great substance, I am not running INPEX down. Goodness me, we are all dependent on INPEX because of how poorly the former government performed in setting up a real economic base for the Northern Territory. The only thing they can pin their 11 years of governing the Northern Territory on is INPEX.
We committed, during the election campaign, to setting up a three-hub economy, an economy of great substance. It is not the INPEX economy, but a substantial economic base based on mining, agriculture and tourism. The deal struck by the Chief Minister for gas to Gove is consistent with that.
People of the Northern Territory should be shaking his hand not carrying on outside Parliament House like they were at lunchtime today ridiculing him and putting him down. They should have been yelling through the microphone what a great job Terry Mills has done in securing a real future, a future of substance, for the Northern Territory. Without substance, more of us will be losing jobs. It will not be just the public servants; it will be businesses closing and people losing their jobs right across the public and private sector.
Thanks to Terry Mills, we have turned the corner just five-and-a-half months into government and are right on track to creating this substantial, real economy based on a real commitment to ensuring mining is able to flourish and expand in the Northern Territory, not just settle for racking up things on the credit card. The only thing people will remember the former Labor government for is free water park admission to the lucky people who live in Darwin.
We have made substantial decisions involving great investment in the Northern Territory. We are working hand-in-hand with the federal coalition. Tony Abbott has described his vision for the northern part of Australia, one which includes sending quite a number of public servants north to the sparsely populated areas of the northern part of Australia which, of course, includes the Northern Territory. The former Labor government failed to substantially increase the population and create a more efficient economic base.
Today we celebrate, commend and praise our Chief Minister for sealing this deal; for coming to the table with all the players across the world to an agreed position to ensure the future for the people of Gove.
I am astounded the member for Nhulunbuy could, in Question Time, criticise and ridicule the Chief Minister for what she has been begging him to do for the last couple of weeks. There was no thanks, no sign of appreciation just waa, waa, waa, more whingeing and complaining. Five-and-a-half months ago, her government failed to come up with anything resembling a solution to the problem. The Chief Minister, representing the Country Liberals, solves the problem and does not get so much as a thank you from the member for Nhulunbuy. She should be ashamed of herself. She should be ashamed she does not have the dignity and self-respect to thank him for what he has done.
The Chief Minister, however, acknowledged the member for Nhulunbuy in this Chamber today for her contribution to helping the people of Nhulunbuy. He had the dignity, the sense of humanity to acknowledge her part in representing the needs of her constituents. Did I hear a response from the other side of the room? Does she intend to applaud and thank the Chief Minister of the Northern Territory for the fantastic, tireless work he has done over the last months? I doubt that, because what we hear is a bunch of whingers, people struggling to keep together, who continue to insinuate there are leadership problems on this side of the room. I am looking at a very ordinary bunch of people who are not hanging together. They obviously do not like their leader. She is not representing their best interests because she is no role model herself.
All she has done in this Chamber ever since I have been around is criticise and belittle people who are unable to defend themselves. That is exactly what we heard earlier. We heard the Leader of the Opposition belittle people who have been assisting the Chief Minister, the government, in very high-level negotiations. She had the gall to name people who are extremely prominent, specialist, professional people in their area. She has the gall to criticise certain people without whose expertise and knowledge it would have been very difficult to sit at the negotiation table with the industries and come to the very well-considered and thoroughly thought-out position we have.
It is unbelievable the Leader of the Opposition could criticise, for 30 minutes, the extremely accomplished work of the Chief Minister. This is a day of celebration, a day on which we should put aside our political hats and thank God this agreement has been reached, the 1100 workers in Nhulunbuy will retain their jobs, there will be even more money pouring into Nhulunbuy over the coming years to establish the conversion from diesel to gas, and there will be even more money coming into Nhulunbuy to set up the pipeline and all that goes with it. This is an exciting era we are entering of great growth and economic injection unparalleled in that part of the world for many years.
In relation to the comments of the Leader of the Opposition, we need to discount them and see them for what they are - bitter, twisted, angry - a person who has failed in her time as Treasurer and now all she can do is criticise and make unconstructive and sometimes hurtful remarks about people who are not here to defend themselves.
I support what the Chief Minister has achieved, his statement on gas to Gove, and acknowledge the diligence and perseverance of the Chief Minister in ensuring this historic deal could be struck. The role of the Chief Minister in these negotiations has been exemplary - simply outstanding. The Northern Territory government has now guaranteed a gas supply for the Gove refinery and it is now up to Rio Tinto to make a commitment to keep the operation open. We have agreed to release 300 petajoules of gas over 10 years. As all members of the Chamber would be aware, in unlocking gas for Gove, the Mills’ government will secure the future of Nhulunbuy and the east Arnhem region for the next decade.
Yesterday’s decision by the Mills government is subject to a commitment from Rio Tinto assuring the ongoing operation of the Gove alumina refinery, and from ENI confirming details of their guarantee to supply gas to the Power and Water Corporation until 2026.
Not only does it make sense for the region, it also has enormous economic benefits for the Territory as a whole, as stated already. Throughout this long and thorough negotiation process it has been important to ensure the best possible deal can be struck which not only protects Nhulunbuy and surrounds, but also ensures Power and Water Corporation, and the assets it manages on behalf of the broader Territorian community, are put in the strongest position in this deal.
To that end, I congratulate the Chief Minister for his work. He has gone to necessarily extreme lengths. The Leader of the Opposition has criticised him for travelling around the world to meet each and every stakeholder involved in this process. As a new government, as a new Chief Minister, it was the only way to go; it was the only choice he had. He had to face these people - meet with them at the table to negotiate the best deal for the Northern Territory.
However, what we hear from the other side is criticism he could have made all the decisions from behind his desk. The Leader of the Opposition said that previously. She said he could have stayed at his desk and made all the decisions without even meeting these people. Then, in the next breath, she criticised him for not going to Gove on a dozen occasions. He did go to Gove and he spoke with the people; he faced the people and listened to what they said. One thing this Chief Minister is good at is facing people and listening to them, regardless of what they say, and engaging in meaningful communication. He is always willing to front people, always willing to communicate but it is not always possible, as we saw today.
The Opposition Leader was off on a tangent saying he could do it all behind his desk, as Henderson probably tried to do although he lost the letter at some point; it took him seven months to respond to the letter. He must have sat at his desk too long, the piles of paper became mixed up and he lost the letter he needed to respond to. Perhaps that is an explanation. The philosophy of the former Labor government - you sit behind your desk and see what happens.
This could not have happened quickly; the negotiations needed to take time. We are still in the early phases of government - not even six months into a four-year term. We are still quite new and, if I was in the Chief Minister’s shoes, I would have taken time to look under every stone and ensure I understood exactly who was who in the zoo and what was going on.
The speech from the Leader of the Opposition is indicative of a woman who has no real idea of the process of negotiation, what is required, and the value of meeting people face-to-face. She did not like to meet face to face, she liked to hide away. She did not seek advice from the leaders of business and industry throughout Darwin.
Mr WESTRA van HOLTHE: A point of order, Madam Speaker! I request the member for Araluen be granted an extension of time, pursuant to Standing Order 77.
Motion agreed to.
Mrs LAMBLEY: These negotiations could not have happened quickly. Whilst being acutely aware of the ongoing community angst about the future of Gove, the Northern Territory government had to ensure all avenues and options were explored. This is called good management, prudence, doing things thoroughly and well. The former Labor government was not good at doing things well and acting prudently. We know that because of the debt and deficit they left us - absolute evidence of no prudence and no good management.
Through the Chief Minister’s efforts, we have exacted commitments from both sides of federal politics which will assist in developing future energy and gas assets. This goes a long way to alleviating the potential negative downstream impact to Power and Water Corporation.
The Country Liberals government has a strong tradition of providing clean gas energy options to Territorians going back decades. The Territory’s second Chief Minister, Ian Tuxworth, turned his back on the heavy fuels which had powered the Territory for decades and secured construction of a 1500 km gas pipeline between the Amadeus Basin in Central Australia and the Channel Point Power Station. This provided Territorians with one of the cleanest energy sources at the time, and gas continues to serve the Territory well. That was done years ago when Ian Tuxworth was around. He had a vision.
We now have a Chief Minister with a fantastic vision - a real vision to give us a substantial real future, not one about water parks and the superficiality the former Labor government specialised in. We are talking about substance, not superficiality. This is the type of vision Territorians came to expect from previous Country Liberals governments.
Yesterday, the Chief Minister paved the way for a new frontier in gas with the first steps in the eventual construction of a gas pipeline between Tennant Creek and Mount Isa which will see the Territory linked to the national gas grid. This is big exciting stuff. It is what people should be talking about at their kitchen tables tonight over a beer or lemonade. Husbands and wives should be talking about the wonderful vision of the Chief Minister of this government. Linking us into the national gas grid will mean enormous opportunities for business and industry. This is fantastic stuff and we should all be extremely excited.
Development will not happen overnight, but when it occurs it will be a win for the Northern Territory and the rest of Australia. It is generally agreed there are enormous amounts of gas in Northern Australia and this will open the way for the shared allocation of the resource from around Australia.
However, back to Gove, it is in all Territorians’ interests that this historic deal goes ahead. Once again, I applaud the Chief Minister for his efforts. The Mills government is committed to working with energy companies in the future to develop the domestic energy market and secure the long-term future of Territorians. It is impossible to understate the importance of the Gove refinery to the east Arnhem region and the Northern Territory economy more generally.
In 2011-12, the estimated contribution of the alumina refinery added about $365m to gross value. In the same year, the mining of bauxite was estimated at around $408m. We are talking big money.
This is not just about Nhulunbuy although, obviously, the people of Nhulunbuy will be the direct beneficiaries of the gas to Gove deal. It is about a workforce across the Territory and working on creating the three hubs we went to the election on. One of our election platforms was creating substantial investment in mining, agriculture and tourism.
The workforce, including mining generated from this project, is over 1550 with around 1200 of those based in Gove. It is a measure of the significance the Mills government places on the Gove refinery and its contribution to the Territory that we have taken the decision to make the Territory’s gas available to keep the refinery open. I await with interest the final announcement by Rio Tinto in the coming days.
Mr VATSKALIS (Casuarina): Madam Speaker, I would like to debate the Chief Minister’s statement. However, first, I would like to clarify some things. The member for Araluen said this deal is very important for Nhulunbuy. The only thing we have at the moment is an offer; we do not have a deal. The deal will be done when Pacific Aluminium says it will keep the alumina refinery open. It is common knowledge in the sector that the Pacific Aluminium refinery in Gove loses about $30m a month.
The member for Araluen said we should be celebrating this. I would celebrate if the decision by the Chief Minister to provide gas was made four-and-a-half or five months earlier rather than now. I can tell you how much celebrating is happening. Today’s The Australian headline is ‘Northern Territory rolls over on Rio gas supply’, and the first paragraph states:
That is how the rest of Australia is seeing it, not as a cause for celebration. That is the opportunity the Chief Minister missed. If he had done it four- and-a-half months ago it would be a different story. We would not have the situation of big businesses losing faith in the Territory government to make a timely decision to support them. He had to fly to Canberra, Singapore, Paris and London to ensure this would happen. He could have done that from Darwin.
Today, we had an excuse trying to divert attention from his inability to make a timely decision by pointing the finger at the previous government, the previous Chief Minister - security of supply, the gas reservation policy and others. I will go into those one by one.
The situation with the Rio Tinto alumina refinery in Gove was well-known not over the past seven months or the past year, but over the past four years. Rio Tinto had plans to change the fuel in Gove. It even had a plan to import coal from Queensland and export alumina using the same boats. We rejected this because it would be impossible to persuade the people of the Territory there would be a coal-fired power station in east Arnhem. Rio Tinto then proposed a gas pipeline to Gove and provision of gas to Gove.
At the same time, we negotiated with ENI and Power and Water Corporation for the supply of gas and the construction of the pipeline from Blacktip to the central pipeline which goes through the centre of the Territory. I am sure - the Minister for Mines and Energy can get the information from the department - the whole corridor from Elsey Station to Arnhem was clear apart from 34 km the traditional owners had objected to following a tragic accident where an anthropologist and pilot were killed.
Several times I met with the Pacific Aluminium CEO. We discussed that and offered any assistance to revisit the corridor of the pipeline to confirm it because if you cannot get the pipeline through you cannot get gas. If you do not have gas there is not much point putting a pipeline in, but the situation with gas in the Territory is not what the government is describing.
Let me start from the beginning. When ConocoPhillips initially came to the Territory the price of gas became very expensive because America switched from conventional fuel - heavy oil and coal - to LNG and significant environmental legislative changes, especially in California, demanded all power stations change to a cleaner fuel. That demand, of course, pushed the price up and ConocoPhillips was not very keen to sell locally unless the price matched what they could get from export. As I correctly pointed out, there was no gas reservation policy of the CLP for an obvious reason - most of the gas coming to the Territory today is not produced within the Territory or within Territory waters. It is produced from Western Australian or Commonwealth waters and the gas companies are not the owners of the gas, they are producers. The owners of the gas are the people of the state the gas is produced in.
That would create some interesting questions about a gas reservation policy to reserve gas for the Territory from gas belonging to Western Australian or the Commonwealth. Under the Northern Territory (Self-Government) Act, the Territory cannot compulsorily acquire it because it would be a compulsory acquisition without adequate compensation. Also, a gas reservation policy is a form of taxation on the companies producing gas and a form of subsidy to the companies which acquire the gas at a reduced price.
No government would be very popular if it tried that policy in other sectors. For example, the cattle industry produces 500 000 animals for Indonesia and we put a reservation on companies which demands 80 000 of these stay in the Territory. Cattlemen, or the cattle industry, would not be very happy with that. The same applies to a gas reservation policy.
Also, I cannot see a gas reservation policy from either political party in Canberra. Neither the Labor Party nor the Liberal Party has, had, or ever discussed a gas reservation policy. Both parties believe in the free economy and will allow the market to dictate prices and where gas is sold.
The members opposite talk about the letter from Rio Tinto to Paul Henderson, the then Chief Minister. A response to that letter was provided by Paul Henderson immediately: four years gas supply to Rio Tinto, up to 10 years should supplies be explored and found in the Territory. We said it was okay for the Chief Minister to take about five months to decide but, of course, if any other government takes time to make a decision or negotiate an outcome that is not acceptable. You cannot have it both ways. The letter was provided; assistance was provided by our government to Rio Tinto, not only assistance to provide gas, but also to clear the corridor for the pipeline.
Do not get me wrong, I am pleased the Chief Minister finally made this decision. My argument is that decision should have been made four months ago when the issue first arose and we knew Pacific Aluminium and Rio Tinto were considering closing down the alumina refinery in Gove. It is not only about the township of Gove, it is about east Arnhem. It is not only that 15 people will leave Gove; those 15 people mean the high school is unsustainable and there will not be the services we take for granted such as the hospital, obstetricians, clinics, dentists - all the things people take for granted in east Arnhem will not be there. Also, do not forget the people who made a significant investment buying a property or business in Gove; that investment would be wiped out.
The other thing I find unbelievable is the statement by members opposite that if we give gas to Rio Tinto the lights will go out. The lights will not go out. The Northern Territory government has an agreement with ConocoPhillips for the provision of emergency gas. That agreement says ConocoPhillips will give gas to Power and Water Corporation and, in exchange, Power and Water will provide the same volume of gas back when it has adequate supplies. The same agreement can be negotiated with INPEX, and I believe INPEX will have no problem providing the gas.
Also, Mereenie Loop is not exhausted; there is still gas. There is not adequate gas to produce LNG, but enough gas to provide about 20% of the current needs of Power and Water so gas can also be provided to Rio Tinto.
Another matter is risk to the Territory. In 2001, there were six oil and gas exploration applications in the Northern Territory. Today, the Northern Territory is covered with exploration applications for oil and gas and the results are very encouraging.
The minister for Mining visited Houston. Congratulations, I like that because he has to promote the Territory. He probably visited Houston to talk to them about opportunities in the Territory. In the McArthur Basin, Armour Energy has drilled a number of wells. One of these wells produced a flow equivalent to 3.3 million static cubic feet per day, and it is estimated there is gas in that particular well of 130.7 BCF. That is one well in one region of the McArthur Basin. That is not to mention the Beetaloo Basin, where Falcon Oil & Gas has been exploring actively for oil and gas.
In 2013, RPS Energy estimated the gross prospective resource potential in that area and found about 162 TCF potential resource of gas. ConocoPhillips has three TCF and Blacktip has one TCF. The potential for gas in the Territory is enormous. There is no risk because if you look for it you will find it. They did it with manganese, copper, uranium and iron ore. I am perplexed with the proposal for a pipeline from Mt Isa to Tennant Creek to connect to the pipeline in the Territory. The coalition promised $1m if elected in the next election.
I call on the Minister for Mines and Energy to repeat the exploration initiative I put in place with the oil and gas companies. We put dollar-for-dollar up to $100 000 for exploration companies to explore for minerals. Do the same for oil and gas companies and you will see how many companies actively look for oil and gas. If you get 20 or 30 and 10% find oil and gas, it means three companies will find gas and there will be no risk to the Territory. We know there is gas out there. The seismic surveys have clearly shown there is gas. There is enough gas for LNG, for export, and the potential to link Alice Springs to Moomba and to have a true national network with gas from the Northern Territory to the rest of Australia.
The Labor government put in $1m per year for three years and saw exploration increase from $50m in 2007 to $220m in 2011 - a 500% increase in six years. Do the same with oil and gas and many companies will start exploring. Some will do the exploration themselves, like Santos and Hess, but there are some small ones who will actively look for oil and gas and will find it.
The situation with alumina can be repeated in other industries. Others can ask the Territory for assistance and the Territory should provide it.
The Leader of the Opposition was right to criticise public servants because the word was public servants pulled the wool over the eyes of the Chief Minister by highlighting the risk which resulted in the Chief Minister being reluctant to make a decision. Speaking to an ex-CLP minister who knows the situation, he was at a loss to explain why the Chief Minister could not make a decision: why he would not show initiative and act quickly to provide gas to Rio Tinto. After all, the gas is not free; it is to be purchased so the company will receive the money and the condition is we will supply gas for 10 years subject to more gas being found. When more is found, you return it to the Territory government. It is a win/win situation.
Unfortunately, we are in a losing situation because the Territory government has lost face and the Chief Minister is known as someone who dithers and cannot make a decision.
I find it extraordinary that the Deputy Chief Minister criticises the Leader of the Opposition for attacking people who helped the Chief Minister but have no right of reply. First thing this morning we saw the Leader of Government Business breaking convention in this parliament by attacking the ex-member for Wanguri for resigning. The ex-member for Wanguri is unable to reply to that attack.
Again, you cannot have it both ways. Sometimes decorum is necessary in this House. A person who retires deserves to do so with dignity and nobody has the right to criticise the reason or way somebody retires. There might be things you have no idea about; there may be reasons why people decide to retire. I have not seen that before in this parliament ...
Mr WESTRA van HOLTHE: A point of order, Madam Speaker! Relevance. The member for Casuarina has gone off on a tangent. This statement is about gas to Gove and has nothing to do with the utterances of the Leader of Government Business in this House regarding a completely different topic.
Madam SPEAKER: Thank you, member for Katherine. There is some connection given the past member for Wanguri was the Chief Minister and involved in some discussions. I am prepared to give some flexibility at this point in time. Member for Casuarina.
Mr VATSKALIS: Thank you, Madam Speaker. I was highlighting the fact the Deputy Chief Minister complained about the Leader of the Opposition naming people who had no right of reply. It is the same thing the Leader of Government Business did today. You cannot have it both ways!
Businesses have now lost faith in the Territory government. The Northern Territory Minerals Council today called on the Northern Territory government for a real strategic plan for the mining industry in the Territory. The situation for Gove reverberates around industry.
I am quite happy to explain my plan for the mining industry. It is the one the current Minister for Mines and Energy took with him to China. He changed the front page, which had my photograph and prologue, and used exactly the same plan and investment attraction. He took the same booklet we produced when in government, and I am very pleased he did because it was a good book. It means it had a result and was a good plan.
I hope he will take it in the future. I am very happy to give him a redraft and a new copy. If your enemies take your work and present it as their own it must be good.
We had a plan for the Territory and you have seen it. There are mines such as Bigrlyi, Western Desert Resources, Sherwin Iron, the expansion of ERA, the expansion of Groote Eylandt, the expansion of McArthur River and Xstrata, and all the exploration currently taking place in the Northern Territory from north to south - from Rum Jungle to Minemakers to Mithra Resources and all the people exploring in the Territory.
I suggest the minister has a meeting with his department and seeks a briefing, otherwise I am quite happy to give one. I will be providing a briefing to the oil and gas conference in Sydney in March about oil and gas opportunities in the Northern Territory and the fact a Labor government, when we come to power, will not have a gas reservation policy but, instead, will help the industry and respond to the industry when it needs it. We will not dither when making decisions, especially important ones like Gove.
Madam Speaker, I am pleased the Chief Minister finally made the right decision. It was the right decision for Gove, east Arnhem, and for the industry. However, I call on the Chief Minister to really look at the industry and the future of the Territory with regard to oil and gas. Instead of talking about a national network, let us spend the money discovering oil and gas resources in the Northern Territory. The industry will then build its own network and national grid in Australia.
Mr WESTRA van HOLTHE (Mines and Energy): Madam Speaker, goodness me, sometimes I do not know where to start when I listen to the contributions from the opposition. Sometimes, I am absolutely gobsmacked at the levels to which the former government – now the opposition and thank God they are in opposition - will stoop to in addressing what is probably one of the most critical issues facing the Northern Territory at this moment in time.
I cannot believe this whole gas to Gove thing has attracted so much vitriol from the opposition. This is a day to celebrate. This is a day to grab hold of the work done by the Chief Minister and celebrate the results of that hard work. As I said, I do not quite know where to start. Goodness me.
Let us start with the Leader of the Opposition. Clearly, what the Leader of the Opposition knows about the oil and gas industry in the Northern Territory could be written on a postage stamp. That became evident as I heard her lame contribution to this debate. The Deputy Opposition Leader described it in a similar vein, but it was probably one of the worst speeches I have heard in this House. There was no substance, just a vitriolic attack politicising what should be an embracing of a very important decision made by this new Northern Territory government. I am astounded the opposition, particularly the Leader of the Opposition, could find no good in the work the Chief Minister has done. In five-and-a-half months he has done what those - let us call them super heroes because they believe they are - on the other side of the House could not achieve.
We heard the former Chief Minister received a letter from Pacific Aluminium requesting gas and it took him seven months to reply. A couple of points rang true when I heard the contribution by the Leader of the Opposition and, to put it together with some facts which have emerged from the debate around gas to Gove, I can only draw the conclusion there is an enormous amount of professional jealousy coming from the other side of the House. They thought, ‘Holy cow, how did the Chief Minister manage to do that?’ They criticise and whinge because it took too long, according to them, and this decision should have been made four-and-a-half months ago. It is easy for them to sit on the outside, throw a few stones, see what splashes they can make in the pond - a very shallow pond. However, there is so much more to this which, clearly, by the standard of debate in this House, they simply do not understand.
I am really disappointed the member for Casuarina, being the former Minister for Mines and Energy, states the deal should have been done four-and-a-half months ago and there is no risk to the Territory because of gas supplies that are coming on board. Yet, what these buffoons on the other side of the House do not understand - they do not want to hear the story - is there is still risk associated with this. We are working to mitigate the risk as best we can, but the contract for the supply of gas from Blacktip only goes so far. Should Rio Tinto agree to our conditions for provision of that gas, it will mean the gas field will be depleted much sooner than the period of the contract we have gas to provide electricity to consumers of the Northern Territory, particularly the Top End. That is fine and we suspect there will be gas; we probably know there will be more gas coming online in that time. The Territory is highly prospective for gas; however, at what cost? That is the inherent risk now and we need to deal with that.
The member for Casuarina completely missed that point in his debate and it disappoints me. I thought he understood what oil and gas means, contributes, and how it sits in the overall scheme of the economy of the Northern Territory. Shame on him for making a half-hearted attempt at contributing to this debate!
There has been much criticism of the Chief Minister heading overseas. That demonstrates the point of difference between the former Labor government and the current Country Liberal Northern Territory government. If those opposite believe they could sit in their office, make a few phone calls and pull together a deal of this nature, let me tell this House and Territorians listening, thank God they are no longer in government. You are not in government because you are lazy and lost your focus, if you had any beyond a four-year term. That is why you are sitting in the opposition benches now.
You have been replaced by a government with vision beyond a four-year electoral cycle prepared to make the hard decisions and hard calls. Not only that, we are prepared to put in the hard work required to pull together deals to set the Territory up for generations to come. That is why the Chief Minister was quite right to take an appropriate length of time to deal with this important issue for the Territory.
The member for Casuarina quoted the head of the Minerals Council saying we need some plans. Where was your plan? How many new mines opened during your tenure of government of 11 or so years?
If you are going to use quotes like that, member for Casuarina, let us have another quote from the interview where Drew Wagner, Executive Director of the Minerals Council, said on the ABC today in response to a question:
Mr Wagner replied:
Mr Elferink: Hang on, that is industry.
Mr WESTRA van HOLTHE: Industry said that. Thank you for the interjection, member for Port Darwin.
If you are going to throw quotes around about what industry says, you better consider the whole quote.
The Minerals Council was asked:
The Minerals Council reply was - this is industry:
They are the words of the Minerals Council of the Northern Territory, supporting what the Chief Minister and this government have done to bring this deal to where it is today.
For those on the opposition benches who like to criticise, that is your prerogative. We will defend our position. However, clearly, industry is also supportive of the points of view being put forward by the Treasury benches. You should, as the old saying goes, put that in your pipe and smoke it!
Today I have heard the opposition trying to defend the indefensible ...
Ms Walker: Defend the people of Gove.
Mr WESTRA van HOLTHE: I pick up the interjection from the member for Nhulunbuy. She said, ‘Defend the people of Gove’. Member for Nhulunbuy, that is exactly what we have done. However, instead of taking seven months to write a letter with the assumption some major deal could be struck over the telephone, we have taken a far more strategic view to support Gove, eastern Arnhem Land and the whole of the Northern Territory. This is bigger than just Gove, without a doubt. This is about energy security for the Northern Territory and, ultimately, Australia. That is why I was so pleased when the Chief Minister announced he had been working towards connecting the Northern Territory into a national grid.
The Weekend Australian reported that in years to come the domestic supply of gas from the eastern states will dwindle, not necessarily because the supplies will dry up, but because most of that gas will go to offshore markets. That rang pretty well with me because I was thinking, ‘Great, the Northern Territory is highly prospective for gas’. The Member for Casuarina said there was 162 trillion cubic feet in one field. There have been estimates the Territory holds as much as 200 trillion cubic feet of gas.
It would be wonderful if we could provide some of that gas through a pipeline connecting Tennant Creek to Mount Isa for domestic use across Australia. We would be an enormous exporter of gas, potentially internationally - we will be when INPEX comes online – but also into states across Australia.
We are in a prime position to take responsibility for not just setting the economic direction of the Northern Territory around the provision of gas and all the good things that happen for the Territory, but being part of a much bigger picture and our position in this great country of Australia. That is where we need to be thinking, not as the opposition would, in four year cycles.
The member for Nhulunbuy has surprised me through this gas to Gove debate over the past few months. Rather than take this issue seriously in a bipartisan approach, the member for Nhulunbuy has chosen to politicise this. I wondered why she would take that stance. I am going to clutch at a few straws here. I believe she is so desperately thinking about the next election cycle, the future of Gove and her position as an elected member in parliament, the impact the closure of the refinery at Gove will have on the population statistic of her electorate, and whether her electorate might, ultimately, be subsumed into another electorate, and that will put her out of a job in about August 2016. The member for Nhulunbuy is probably far more self-interested in this debate than she would let on, and that is disgraceful. We have seen other examples of the member for Nhulunbuy trying to politicise things and it falling in around her eyes, as well in issues around power cards in Yirrkala etcetera
Ms Walker: Buddy, I am coming back at you on that one.
Mr WESTRA van HOLTHE: I pick up the interjection. Please come back at me on that. I am looking forward to it. I am ready for you, member for Nhulunbuy.
In a more strategic sense, the Chief Minister spoke about energy policy. One thing is for sure, under the former government there was no overarching policy which dealt with the future supply of energy for the Northern Territory. It is not just about being able to provide gas for Power and Water to generate electricity. What about gas to Gove? What about gas for the myriad of other enterprises coming online over the next five, 10, 15, 20 years? What policy will be set in place to deal with those issues? From the former government, there was none.
Consequently, the Chief Minister and I have been in discussions around the formation of an energy directorate, a group of highly professional people pulled together, some from resources we already have within departments. They will be looking at the strategic direction of energy policy for the Northern Territory for generations to come. It is that strategic approach the Country Liberals are renowned for. If I think back to the days of former CLP governments - the opposition would have us believe that in 2001 the Northern Territory was a barren wasteland and they built the whole place, but we know that is not true – they had a great deal of vision for the Territory. Look at the major infrastructure they built when in government. Let us face it; the CLP built the Territory without a shadow of a doubt.
The Labor government rode on the coat tails of all the work done by the CLP and, at the same time, spent every red cent they could get their hands on to plunge the Northern Territory into enormous amounts of debt. We, as the new responsible government in the Northern Territory, have to fix that.
I conclude by saying the new Chief Minister of the Northern Territory has done a remarkable job getting to where we are today. Notwithstanding those who would criticise the time it has taken, the timing has been extremely good. He has worked extremely hard. The work and dedication that has gone into this sets a point of difference between the former lame Labor government and the current new Country Liberal government of the Northern Territory.
Ms WALKER (Nhulunbuy): Madam Speaker, I will be taking a very local view in my response to the Chief Minister’s statement. I am speaking as the member for Nhulunbuy and as the voice of this parliament for hundreds and hundreds of people who have been through an incredibly difficult time – months of waiting, being led to believe an announcement will be made, only to find they have been let down with no news.
Finally, the news came through yesterday. I thank the Chief Minister for the decision he arrived at. It is a good decision, the right decision, a welcome decision in that it secures the future of Gove – almost; we are waiting to hear confirmation from Rio that they accept the offer on the table. I am hugely optimistic they will. Most certainly, it was the right decision but it was a long time coming.
I find, on a personal level, the Chief Minister to be a decent human being. He and I have had a number of conversations over the last few months on the subject of gas to Gove. However, I find him to be falling short in the leadership qualities associated with this. This has been a real test of his leadership. Whilst I applaud him for coming through with the result we needed not just for Gove but for the Territory, I am incredibly disappointed with the very long journey, if we are talking about journeys - that was the theme of his statement - to reach the point we have finally arrived at.
I want to place my journey on the record, as well. I speak not only as the elected representative of the people of Nhulunbuy since 2008, it has also been my home for 23 years. It is a very special place to me and my family. It is where I moved to take a teaching job, where I met my husband, and my three children were born at Gove District Hospital. It is where I had enormous opportunity, after leaving education, to take up a role with the mining company Nabalco as it was then. Whilst I am often referred to as a former school teacher, more of my working life has been spent in the mining industry at Gove than teaching. When I talk about being tagged as a school teacher, Gove is very much tagged as a mining town. It is a mining town but it is much more than that. I am not exaggerating when I say not only Gove the town, but the region has been through something of a crisis.
The good news announced yesterday by the Chief Minister is too late for some. Many families have already left Gove in light of the uncertainty and worry should gas not be delivered and operations mothballed. Families with the capacity to move on, namely those who had contract jobs with the mining company, took the decision to jump ship. This was not an option for the business community. They had nowhere to go but stick with their businesses which were virtually worth nothing; you could not sell them to anybody. It was too late for some families, taking into account we were hoping, and led to believe, there would be a decision before the end of the year. That decision never came and people could not wait any longer. They were mindful of their kids needing to start a new school year and worried they might be competing with hundreds of other workers looking for jobs in the mining sector. Many of those families have gone.
Whilst this decision will give a good degree of confidence to the local businesses, it is not before many of these businesses have already downsized. The worry for them precedes the October announcement from the company about their strategic plan. Many businesses had been downsizing but when that announcement came it made matters really difficult. Many jobs have been lost and many business owners have been incredibly worried.
What has been missing from this debate is the enormous contribution the town has made to the region and the Territory in its legacy going back to the start of operations in 1971 when the first bauxite was stockpiled and the first alumina exported in 1972. Millions of dollars has been generated out of the region into Territory and federal coffers. It is not just about the town; it is about the enormous contribution to the region and the Territory.
The issue of gas to Gove, whilst reaching this point in the last 12 months or so, is a legacy issue of successive companies going back to Nabalco. Nabalco was talking about gas to Gove when I was working for the company. It had been identified back then that not only did the company need to switch to a cheaper source of fuel through gas, it needed a cleaner source of fuel, and it needed to look at minimising risks associated with shipping in thousands of tonnes of heavy fuel oil to run the power station every six weeks or so on big tankers from Kuwait.
After Nabalco was bought by Alcan, a Canadian company, and the move was made to the G3 expansion project, even though there had been two, possibly three, memoranda of understanding signed, one being Blacktip, they did not eventuate. I put this back on the company and its successive owners that, in the vision for the future of the company and shareholders, it chose not to make the capital investment necessary to convert to gas, to secure gas, to bring gas in through a gas pipeline - all the things we are now dealing with - and we know Alcan chose to invest money in the G3 expansion.
If I go back to the plans in place to prepare for gas many years ago, a significant body of work had been completed in surveying a gas pipeline corridor across Arnhem Land from the Stuart Highway all the way through to Gove, which came at some cost. People may recall a helicopter went down as part of the survey team near the homeland community of Donydji. Four people lost their lives in that accident: the pilot who, together with his family, I knew very well; a senior TO from Donydji; an anthropologist from the NLC, and a senior representative from ENI, I believe.
Madam Speaker: Epic.
Ms WALKER: Epic, thank you, Madam Speaker.
There has been an enormous cost when we look at people’s lives lost. The gas to Gove issue has been around for some time. The crunch came last year because of enormous losses Pacific Aluminium could not sustain. Rio had announced it was creating a subsidiary of its unprofitable businesses within the bauxite and alumina group and the Gove operation was amongst them.
It is amongst the businesses up for sale. It is the only one with a very good grade of bauxite attached to it just 19 km away by an overland conveying system, which makes it a very attractive prospect, and even more so now we have the gas deal almost secured.
Obviously, those losses are not sustainable; small businesses cannot sustain those losses. Rio has sustained losses over a long period of time. Their shareholders are demanding a greater return. Hence, we have seen a couple of CEOs at Rio move on as a result of those losses and failure to perform. Pacific Aluminium, as a subsidiary, is in a breakeven position taking into account it is working well down that pathway. In finding cost efficiencies it has, through a process of natural attrition - no sackings, no forced redundancies - seen workforce numbers reduced to be more efficient. There have been process operational improvements as to how it does business which has reduced cost and, of course, a fairly significant factor will see the increase in bauxite exports.
I used to know off the top of my head how many million tonnes per annum were exported. It was about 6.5 million tonnes pre-G3 then up to 8 million tonnes per annum. They will boost that with further bauxite exports.
The other critical factor in trying to reach a breakeven position is to find a cheaper energy source. It is a great sigh of relief that has almost been secured - just waiting to hear from Rio Tinto now. Then there are things entirely beyond their control: the strong Australian dollar and the downturn in the mining sector no sooner than the G3 project had been completed to enable them to increase capacity. There was no point doing that because there was no market to sell the alumina, and that has been an increase in competition in the last five years or so with very efficient alumina producers in India and China. That is the position Pacific Aluminium, as a subsidiary of Rio Tinto, has had to come from.
During this whole saga, Gove people have been made to feel marginalised. They felt their voices had not been heard, and that included feeling completely abandoned during this process by the Northern Territory government and the Chief Minister. There was plenty of positive media in the early days beyond the announcement of 24 October and expectations were created, ‘We expect to be making an announcement very soon. We are feeling very positive. No stone is left unturned’, all that type of rhetoric. However, when we came to certain days and were expecting something to be announced, nothing - silence.
When we reached December the Chief Minister said we could expect an announcement by the end of the year. These dates came and went and small wonder people started to become increasingly anxious about what was happening. It did not help that, during this time, nobody from the Northern Territory government, including the Chief Minister, came to Gove.
I read a quote in the paper from the Resource minister to the effect, ‘We do not need to show our faces in Gove, we just need to get gas to Gove’. I made a phone call to the Chief Minister’s office and we played phone tag for a couple of days. I was most grateful to receive his call back on a Sunday afternoon. He thought I was seeking an update on negotiations. I said to him, ‘I appreciate that but you really need to come out here, Chief Minister, and meet with people in Gove. There would be great advantage in you talking face-to-face with them.’ It was a Sunday and we must have been in the midst of Parliamentary sittings, perhaps right at the end of the year. I said to him, ‘I know how incredibly busy you are. You have a lot of travel to do. If you cannot get to Gove could you at least organise a teleconference and talk with the stakeholder group that has rallied and calls itself the East Arnhem Regional Futures Alliance?’ I told him the chair was Klaus Helms and said I was sure if he did not know Klaus he would know of him. He said, ‘Yes, I know him’.
It was agreed I would send Mr Helms’ contact details to the Chief Minister. Later that night, once I landed in Darwin coming in for sittings, I had a message from the Chief Minister saying he had made contact with him and had a teleconference organised on the Monday of the second week of sittings. I was really pleased about that and the people in Gove who sat around the table that morning were really pleased to have an assurance from the Chief Minister that, whilst he could not get there, he explained what he was doing. That was good.
The other really difficult thing for Gove people in feeling marginalised is the role the media plays. The member for Namatjira knows all too well how mischievous media can be in putting things out that are not always accurate or trying to steer people towards a certain point of view. Online comments, social networks - Gove people were being branded as just mining company people. ‘You have had it too good for too long, get over it. Government is not coming to rescue you and taxpayers are not coming to rescue you.’ This was not helped by furphies about the risk to the Northern Territory. It was coming from the Northern Territory Government that the risks associated with releasing gas would, potentially, put power prices up by 75%.
I asked in Question Time this morning if the Chief Minister could table where that advice came from. I did not get a clear answer but that became a very divisive issue: ‘You people in Gove are putting the whole of the Northern Territory at risk by asking for gas’. It goes back to the point this is not just about Gove, this is about a community which generates employment right across the region for traditional owners - economic opportunities - but it is also a really important regional service centre. It is not just a mining town; 50% of ratepayers in the town of Nhulunbuy are mining personnel. The remaining 50% can be split evenly between private business and government services. If there is a reduction in that town there is no other option but a reduction in businesses and government services throughout the region.
There were stories of doom and gloom; nobody was talking about the future opportunities. We have the glass half empty not half full. Whilst we knew these negotiations were difficult, nobody was talking about the $1.2bn spend from Rio Tinto to go with this: $500m for a pipeline and, with that, the creation of jobs to build it; the opportunities, if it is going along the Central Arnhem Road, to do some roadworks; $200m - and that figure may even be higher - to convert the steam power station within the refinery to a gas-fuelled station; $500m we know Gove contributes annually to the Territory economy – it may be higher than that - and around $200m contribution to Territory businesses, including Gove businesses.
In the meantime, while all this was happening and the people in Gove were feeling completely abandoned and marginalised, the community rallied. The East Arnhem Regional Futures Alliance, headed up by Klaus Helms and David Suter, our chair of the Chamber of Commerce, brought people together. It was not just businesses; NGOs and Northern Territory public servants were part of that group. What they were trying to do was rally in looking at worst case scenarios. They were fearful they were staring down the barrel of gas not coming to Gove. Nobody was talking about what happens if gas does not come to Gove. There was always that, ‘No, no, we are positive, we are optimistic’, but nobody was talking about what happens if gas does not come.
This group rallied. They put together business surveys which went out to people right across the community asking if they could quantify what the loss would be to their business, what their investments were, how many people they employed, what training opportunities they provided, all of that. In rallying, this group drove it because they could not wait for anybody else to do it or wait for an announcement from the government.
A community meeting was finally held on 14 January. This was only two weeks out from Rio Tinto’s deadline, so people were getting pretty anxious. This community meeting was organised for all stakeholders within the community by the East Arnhem Regional Futures Alliance. I inquired with the organisers whether an invitation had been sent to the Chief Minister. I had issued a media release calling on the Chief Minister to attend this meeting; people in Gove really needed to hear from him. I had another conversation with the Chief Minister – no, sorry, we missed calls. I was pleased to see the Chief Minister took my advice that he needed to be there. I said in a message I left on his phone, ‘You do not need to be there to make an announcement’ ...
Mr WOOD: Madam Acting Deputy Speaker, I move the member be granted an extension of time pursuant to Standing Order 77.
Motion agreed to.
Ms WALKER: Thanks, member for Nelson, and thank you, Madam Acting Deputy Speaker.
I had said to the Chief Minister he did not need to be there to make an announcement, an update would be helpful but, more importantly, to have the opportunity to listen to people’s fears and have the opportunity to ask questions. As members of parliament, we all know that face-to-face contact shows you are listening and are high on the agenda. This was a community in crisis.
That meeting was very positive. The Chief Minister was very positive and upbeat. He sat side-by-side with Mr Sandeep Biswas from Pacific Aluminium, who was also positive. Mr Biswas was also very clear about the fact the company was not looking for handouts or taxpayer funds to build pipelines or rescue them, or cheap deals on gas but, rather, they were negotiating for commercial rates within the appropriate marketplace value.
What was interesting at that meeting is that most people who attended were feeling somewhat negative and kept pressing the Chief Minister to talk more about what happens if gas does not come to Gove, what is the worst case scenario. In responding, the Chief Minister stated, ‘Obviously, we have contingency plans, but my entire focus is on getting gas to Gove’. That did not really give people a great deal of confidence because they were worried there was some avoidance and, in not wanting to talk about gas to Gove, perhaps there were no plans.
It was also interesting that there were assurances from the Chief Minister that no government services to Nhulunbuy would be cut: health, education and everything else that happens there. Yet, at the same time, there are some positions in the public service that have not been filled because of the advice from their Darwin CEOs, or whoever within the agency, was, ‘No, let’s wait until we hear about the outcome of gas to Gove’. That has not helped people’s degree of confidence. If we have the bureaucracy in the public service stating to agencies in Gove, ‘No, we are not recruiting to that position at the moment; we are going to hold until we get a result’, it is incredibly disappointing.
Beyond that roller coaster of a ride waiting for all those announcements, the next thing we heard was on 23 January - one week out from Rio’s deadline - a media release from the Chief Minister about a deal on the table for gas to Gove. This announcement stated, ‘We do not have an announcement to make. We do not really have anything to say other than we are handballing this back to Rio Tinto and ENI to get sorted.’ Amazingly, it also stated they were asking Rio Tinto to continue to work together in good faith and for an eight-month extension on negotiations. Everybody in Gove read that and thought, ‘He is mad. He obviously has no plan to resolve this.’
The next step was a rally on Wednesday, 30 January - driven by absolute desperation - for the community to be heard and say what was at stake. It was organised for midday on Wednesday, 30 January. Media had been invited and attended, unlike the Chief Minister or any member of Cabinet. The Resource minister might have been there; he is a key stakeholder in this. I was disappointed the Minister for Indigenous Advancement and Regional Development was not there. Regional development would fit in with what was happening in Gove at the time. No messages were sent. It was sad to see a senior public servant in Gove have to deliver a message on behalf of the Chief Minister.
We know that public servant very well; we are a close-knit community and nobody wanted to shoot the messenger. We felt for him having to deliver a significant message on behalf of the Chief Minister. The Chief Minister was not there because he was filming a television advertisement in Leanyer, in the seat of Wanguri. People were pretty disappointed to hear the Chief Minister was more interested in shoring up votes for the CLP in the by-election rather than going to Gove. Two flights a day, charters at his disposal but, no, he could not get there.
It was also disappointing the member for Katherine could not get there. Facebook is a funny thing; you need to be careful about what you put on Facebook sometimes because it might come back to bite you. This harks back to when the Attorney-General darted out of Cabinet last week to attend a bus crash scene because he is the Minister for Education. School children were involved and there was much debate about whether it was a smart thing to do or not. On the ABC Facebook page the member for Katherine wrote, ‘Well, I applaud him for his efforts in doing that. He cares about his job and if there was a serious mining incident I would be doing exactly the same. I would be getting out there.’ I put back to him, we had a very serious situation in Gove, a mining town in crisis, minister, and, in five-and-a-half months we have not seen you. We have not heard from you and that is disappointing. We did not see Senator Scullion there. The member for Lingiari was there and, thankfully, managed to change his schedule to attend the rally.
I should add, there is no shortage of travel when it comes to some of our members opposite, and so they should - trying to attract business and investment in places overseas whether it be Indonesia, Texas or China. The Resource minister can go to all those places to attract investors but somehow cannot manage to get out to Gove.
The day of that rally saw a significant announcement from the Chairman of the NLC, Mr Wali Wunungmurra. He placed an open letter to the Chief Minister in the Northern Territory News giving him every good reason why he needed to get on with it and make a deal. It was a significant announcement and sign of support given Mr Wunungmurra mentioned the fact he opposed the mining operations back in 1963 - the only surviving signatory to the bark petition which went to Canberra petitioning against mining operations. Now the wheel had turned because in 2011 he was a signatory to the historic agreement which saw the renewal of leases for a further 42 years and here he was, this day, begging the Chief Minister and his government to step up, get this resolved quickly, stop being so risk averse and recognise the opportunities for everybody who lives there. Obviously, TOs are significant stakeholders.
At that rally, business people, families, kids - it was the first day of school, midday, really hot, so it was difficult for some people to get there. A number of business owners locked their businesses so they could get out there for an hour-and-a-half. Several people spoke, but what really stood out for people was a speech by a 12-year-old girl on her first day at high school - India Russell. She made a heartfelt plea for the Chief Minister and the Northern Territory government to step up and resolve this, this is a place she knows and loves and she did not want to move. She really struck a chord in everybody’s heart because this is how everybody else was feeling on that day. A community on the brink of crisis is not too strong a term!
I need to talk about the plight of local businesses. Essentially, selling a business or home in Nhulunbuy has not been an option and people’s entire lives, livelihoods, and years of work have been on the line. The downturn in business associated with the uncertainty and the number of jobs lost can be quantified at around 25-30% downturn in most businesses. There are regular articles in our local paper about the hardship people are going through and the uncertainty because people are not spending money there. That affected businesses further. Whilst we encourage people to shop locally knowing that businesses are more expensive to run and prices are higher, people were staying away from local businesses and going online.
This has been a significant issue for my community; it has really rocked people. There has been an increase in demand for mental health services – depression – I am not being dramatic, this is very real. Even my 12-year-old son was anxious saying, ‘Mum, we might have to leave. Is that what’s going to happen to us?’
I welcome the Chief Minister’s announcement, I look forward to Rio Tinto’s announcement, but it has been a difficult road. The answer was at the Chief Minister’s fingertips. If getting on a plane made him feel better it was a good thing to do. In the end, it achieved a result but not before he put at risk people’s lives, confidence - but we will move forward. I thank the Chief Minister for bringing this statement before the House.
Mr WOOD (Nelson): Madam Acting Deputy Speaker, I welcome the Chief Minister’s statement; it came in late last night. I also thank the member for Nhulunbuy for her contribution which highlights the passion and great emotion she has in relation to this critical issue affecting many people’s livelihoods, not just in the township but also the region.
I have not commented on the gas apart from in conversation with other people because, from afar, it is not always easy to work out what is going on. When you rely on the media you tend to become a little confused about what people are saying. That becomes more confused, as the member for Nhulunbuy said, through social media, which has changed the way we communicate sometimes for the good and sometimes for the bad in our society. The member for Nhulunbuy said this is about the livelihoods of many people.
I have some questions I hope the Chief Minister can answer. From afar, some people said we should not be subsidising Gove, it is a mining town. If the company decides to pull the pin because the price of aluminium is cheaper elsewhere, that is life. That is a reasonable comment in relation to many mining communities. They are subject to world prices and the resource running out. I could understand where people were coming from.
However, can we do something? Not just say it is all too hard, can we do something because there is good quality bauxite in that region and it can be mined. The difference now is we have a refinery, but how do we refine aluminium at a competitive price? We have to get gas to Gove. However, who will pay for the infrastructure? The Chief Minister mentioned several figures in relation to that. I might step back from the issue of who will pay and ask more general questions and, hopefully, the Chief Minister can answer those.
He says there will be a guarantee of gas from Power and Water and ENI for another 10 years. However, what happens if Pacific Aluminium pulls out of the process? What will happen to the contract with ENI? Is the 10-year supply of gas based on a guarantee Pacific Aluminium will continue to refine bauxite? If they do not continue to refine bauxite what will happen to the contract? Will that mean the contract is null and void and ENI has an opportunity to renegotiate it at a different price?
Also, Chief Minister, this arrangement will allow the Northern Territory to have a gas supply from ENI to 2026; originally it was to 2034. After that, will the price of gas be renegotiated and, therefore, be higher? It is some time away, but the original price for gas was set for the life of the Blacktip gas field. What are the arrangements now we have a shorter period where gas can be supplied to the rest of the Northern Territory?
Will the announcement the Chief Minister made today mean Territorians will see any increase in electricity prices? It is a bottom line question and a basic one people would like an answer to. Will electricity prices increase because of this new arrangement with Pacific Aluminium to supply gas?
In relation to the pipeline, I understand the Commonwealth government will back this.
Ms Walker: Underwrite.
Mr WOOD: Underwrite, thank you, member for Nhulunbuy. There is $500m for ENI to upgrade its pipelines, $200m for the refinery, and $500m for the pipeline to go across Arnhem Land. If the pipeline commences and Pacific Aluminium pulls out, who is responsible for the cost of the pipeline? They are some of the questions I would like answered.
It is the same with ENI. If it starts to upgrade the pipeline and Pacific Aluminium pulls out, who bears the cost? The $200m is for the upgrade of the refinery, Pacific Aluminium’s refinery, so it would wear the loss.
The Chief Minister mentioned LNG and the possibility of providing gas to Gove by LNG ships similar to the way gas is supplied to Japan from ConocoPhillips now. Was that an option in any negotiations? Gove has a considerably sized port and large ships go there. My understanding of the supply of LNG, which the Chief Minister mentioned at the start of his statement, is in relation to the reserve of gas for domestic purposes.
When these negotiations were occurring, I believed we should have a percentage of gas reserved for domestic supply. My understanding of the phone call with the company was if the Northern Territory government, or any company in the Northern Territory, wanted gas they would sell it at market price. Was there an opportunity for gas to be supplied from ConocoPhillips? Of course, that would be clean gas because the carbon and some of the pollutants are removed through the facility in the middle of Darwin Harbour. I imagine it would be higher priced gas than natural gas that went along the pipeline and am interested to know that.
I do not know if the Chief Minister, in his broader vision of what was happening, considered the use of geothermal energy. I asked this question in the last sittings of parliament. There was a comment on ABC Country Hour that Pacific Aluminium had been approached by a company which supplied geothermal energy. I have since heard it in another media report and am interested to know if there are any real teeth in this report or is it just someone blowing in the wind? I am a great fan of geothermal energy, but it has not been proved at Innamincka. They have had various problems with it. Has the Chief Minister heard similar reports about the use of geothermal energy to supply Gove?
The Chief Minister raised the important issue of a gas grid around Australia. If it is possible it is certainly a great concept. For the Territory, if we can have gas from other sources to supply a grid, there are chances to open up more industry. An example - and I am not an expert, perhaps the member for Katherine can put some light on it - one of the largest phosphate mines being developed at the moment is on the Barkly Highway. Of course, there is no power supply to that area and the company developing it would have to put in its own generating plant. I imagine it would be supplied by diesel. The word is some manufacturing processes of phosphate will be done in Tennant Creek because it is on the gas line and available for that type of facility.
Is there an opportunity for a gas pipe along the Barkly Highway which would also help this company developing the phosphate mine to develop industry where the phosphate is being mined? Having done one trip to Arnhem Land and looked at some of the outstations, many of which run on diesel, as there have been upgrades in telecommunications because of the fibre-optic line out to Gove where people can access the line and get better communications, if there was a gas pipeline to Gove people could run power stations on cleaner gas rather than expensive diesel. You could look at pipelines going to Maningrida, Millingimbi, Ramingining as well as places which rely on diesel being brought in, at least in the Wet Season, by barge. Not only is it a very expensive form of transport, it is also an expensive form of energy.
There are other advantages. There is not much emphasis in the discussion about benefits to a broader area if gas went to Gove. However, what would happen to this pipeline? If planning for the pipeline is for the Pacific Aluminium facility, is there planning for it to be large enough to supply energy to communities? Has the Chief Minister taken that into account in his discussions about a pipeline?
The Chief Minister also spoke about reservation of gas. He asked if the Labor Party should have taken up the issue with ConocoPhillips initially. I was trying to find information about the development of ConocoPhillips, which goes back to 1997. I looked up the environmental impact statement and could not find anything about reserving gas. If you read the report you get the impression ConocoPhillips intended to supply Japan with gas from that gas field using big LNG ships which go out of the harbour at the moment. Negotiations, of course, took place later on. We are able to use gas from ConocoPhillips for power stations in the Top End if there is a shortage of gas or a disturbance to the gas supply, for whatever reason; we have an emergency backup supply of gas.
Chief Minister, can local people buy gas direct from ConocoPhillips, and will local industry be able to buy gas from INPEX? Do their contracts allow another supplier to step into the market? My understanding is you can buy gas at full market price. Of course, that raises the question if you wanted to reserve 15% of the gas - that is the aim in Western Australia - what happens if you do not need that gas?
Do you store it somewhere and the next year have an extra 15%: so 30 %? How do you accommodate reservation of gas and what price would you pay for that reserved gas? Would it be full market price, or would you be telling a commercially operating company that sells gas at market price to make a profit? At what price would you expect that gas to be sold? If it is market price, is there any great advantage for Australian customers?
Oil is drilled in Bass Strait but we do not pay the Australian price to produce it; we pay the Singapore price. Producing oil in Australia, because of its proximity to the big cities, would be cheaper than bringing it from overseas. However, we pay a world price based on the Singapore price for our own oil. How would the reservation of gas work? Theoretically, it is a good idea. I do not know how it works in Western Australia, but we live in a market economy.
Parties such as the Country Liberal Party promote the idea of the free market: no interference in the market. However, by reserving gas you are interfering in the market. If you were slightly more socialist, you would say we own the gas and should be entitled to have it for our own use at a reasonable price. As much as I appreciate the concept, I am unsure how it would work in practice. Perhaps the Chief Minister could shine some light on that because he raises it in his statement.
Chief Minister, thank you for your ministerial statement today. You have been around the world and people can comment whether that was good or bad; I am not going to get into that argument. In the end, there is the possibility things will look good for Gove although we do not have that guarantee yet.
Hopefully, Pacific Aluminium will take up the challenge. Obviously, it has a lot of money involved and is losing money. Someone has to make some serious decisions to spend more money to make gas a reality. I hope it happens. It is not just about Gove, it is the entire Arnhem Land district because of the other benefits gas into that area could bring.
I also support looking at an overall concept of a gas grid, especially if we can relate that to where future mining facilities might occur. There is the phosphate mine on the Barkly Tableland and the iron ore facility near Limmen National Park. They all require large amounts of energy to operate and if we can supply gas to those companies it makes them more competitive. That means a better future for those companies in the Northern Territory.
Thank you, Chief Minister, for your statement. I appreciate all the hard work you have done. We can say it could have been done this way or that; however, if Gove can have a long future, a more certain future, it would be a good thing for not only the people in Gove and Arnhem Land, but the people of the Northern Territory. Thank you.
Mr MILLS (Chief Minister): Madam Acting Deputy Speaker, I would like to make some comments, but it is important to not conclude my comments for a very good reason. Cabinet made a significant decision yesterday, having assessed the risk profile for the Northern Territory, finding a way of reducing that risk through understanding it, and making a subsequent decision. That decision now rests with the Rio board, which I understand will be meeting tomorrow. From there will be the confirmation. Effectively, the ball is in their court. I seek, at the end of these preliminary comments, leave to complete my remarks at a later hour waiting for that final decision so there is completion of this statement.
Before doing so, I thank members for their different contributions, some constructive some not so. Everybody would, if they were honest, know there are such levels of complexity around these matters and it is much easier to criticise than understand as, sadly, was displayed by the Leader of the Opposition.
The first point to reinforce is yes, it is about the families and the community of Gove and how to secure their future through the maintenance of an energy supply to allow the refinery to continue. We have been asked to supply some energy and that decision has been made after significant risk assessment and how it can be reduced. That secures Gove in the event Rio makes the positive decision.
The next issue was to secure the Territory because by securing Gove you put at risk - this may be difficult for the people of Gove to comprehend given the pressures the Gove community was under. Do not think for a moment, member for Nhulunbuy, I was not unaware or unsympathetic. I chose to use my energies to solve this issue and hoped people understood.
There was, on the face of it as clearly understood, evidenced by the material presented by the former Chief Minister and not properly grasped by the Leader of the Opposition - not being rude, but not understood - that in making provision for Gove the Territory is very much exposed. Yes, there were calculations of worse case scenarios if gas could not be found; you would end up resorting to the use of heavy fuel oil to produce electricity in the Territory. On that basis, the worst case scenario is you end up with colossal increases in power prices. That is not an unrealistic scenario. You have to look at the worst and the best and find a way through.
One was to secure Gove and then secure the Territory’s energy supply. We recognise the increase in demand for domestic gas could cause prices to increase so we need to increase supply. That is why, when we consider the reserves and how we keep the exploration activity up, we have to talk about a serious issue: connectivity to a broader domestic market which provides us with security.
This is a very real agenda item and very much a part of the whole story. Increased demand must be matched with increased supply to provide us with the forward security.
I appreciate the member for Nhulunbuy making reference to Klaus Helms. He played a very significant role guiding the community in its difficult time. I commend him. I phoned Klaus yesterday before the press conference. Klaus has done an extraordinary job.
The comments from the member for Nelson with regard to gas reservation - following my public comments on this matter, I am not putting myself up as a proponent of gas reservation. It is a response to the need for energy security and saying if the industry cannot assist in strengthening domestic security then, inevitably, there will be a debate about gas reservation. It is not to say gas reservation is now an adopted policy position, but it has been responded to if we cannot achieve security. The belief on our side of politics is that you achieve security by balancing supply and demand. That is why we have the challenge for industry to work in this space. It has been responded to because it is inevitable that if you cannot work in the space of increasing supply, then there will be increased demand and that would bring in gas reservation. However, if we work together, if industry meets the challenge of helping to develop a framework where we could have a contribution towards the construction of a pipeline to increase access to the domestic market and think nationally, that would be a way of achieving the objective of energy security.
Going to contributions from members, particularly the Leader of the Opposition who, clearly, reads what she wants to then extrapolates the most cynical, nasty, and offensive commentary around. The letter written by former Chief Minister Henderson to Sundeep Biswas plainly states four years’ supply would and could be made available. He says, however, ‘If you want some more you guys find it. You have to secure a heads of agreement with a gas supplier to deliver an agreed volume. You sort that problem out; I have done what I need to. I have given you four years, you find the rest. You have to ensure, if you get a heads of agreement, we are paid back.’ That is why it was rejected. That is why all that was put on the table was four years’ supply.
The so-called 10-year supply - I have noticed people on Facebook say, ‘Read it carefully, it says 10 years’. If you read it carefully and honestly there is no deal for 10 years. It was, ‘We will give you four, you find the rest and ensure you cover us’. They said, ‘That is not a deal’. That deal was confirmed because we started our negotiating position on the same basis. Read it carefully, be honest, grow up, wake up. This is serious business. Obviously, we have children in charge of a political debate thinking it is a political exercise. It is very serious.
I would now like to hold off because we are at the stage where the decision has been weighed, considered and made on the basis and principles I have outlined. I seek leave to conclude my remarks after the Rio Tinto Board, and Sam Walsh, have reported back to the Northern Territory their intention. Their intention, I hope and expect, will be to commit for a defined period of time and honour their contract with the people of Gove and the Northern Territory and keep that refinery going. The ball is now in their court, and I am looking forward to their response. I seek leave, therefore, to continue my comments at a later hour.
Leave granted; debate adjourned.
Mr ELFERINK (Leader of Government Business): Madam Speaker, I move that the Assembly do now adjourn.
Madam Speaker, I particularly want to congratulate Mr Richard Coates for his service to the people of the Northern Territory, and place on the Parliamentary Record my thanks to him and the government’s thanks.
Richard Coates was the Director of Public Prosecutions, and retired from the position on 31 January 2013. Mr Coates was admitted to practice in Melbourne in 1974 and holds a Bachelor of Laws from Melbourne University. While working in private practice in Melbourne, he was provided with the opportunity to undertake short periods of work in the Northern Territory, which included working with the Central Australian Aboriginal Legal Aid Service in 1975 and with the North Australian Aboriginal Legal Aid Service in 1978.
In 1986, Mr Coates moved to the Territory to take up the position of Principal Legal Officer with the Central Australian Aboriginal Legal Aid Service. He appeared in all circuit courts in the region and conducted trials and justice appeals in the Supreme Court. He served as the Principal Legal Officer with the Central Australian Aboriginal Aid Service in Alice Springs from 1986 to 1988. In 1988, Mr Coates was appointed as a stipendiary magistrate and, whilst based in Darwin, he presided in most of the magistrates courts across the Northern Territory. In 1990, he took up a position as the first Director of the Northern Territory Legal Aid Commission and, while working in that role, he also presided for periods as a Chair for the National Legal Aid and the Australian Legal Assistance Forum.
In 1992, Richard was appointed as the inaugural Chair of the Escort Agents Licensing Board, a position he held with distinction until the board was replaced in 2000 by the Northern Territory Licensing Commission. Between 1997 and 2000, Mr Coates occupied the position as Chair of the National Legal Aid, the body representing Australia’s eight legal aid commissions. During his time in the chair, Mr Coates worked with Australia’s Directors of Public Prosecutions to identify changes in their respective business practices, which would create greater efficiencies in the criminal trial process. He was instrumental in the development of a best practice model for the determination of indictable crime, which promoted early prosecution disclosure, front-end loading of resources by both sides, and identifiable sentence discounts for early guilty pleas.
He was also a council member of the Australian Institute of Judicial Administration and the Northern Territory Law Society. In November 2001, Mr Coates was appointed Chief Executive Officer of the Northern Territory’s new Department of Justice and remained in that position until his appointment as the head of the DPP on 1 February 2006. Mr Coates retired from his position on 31 January 2013.
I place on the record my thanks to Mr Coates for his service to the people of the Northern Territory and the exemplary way he has gone about his business. I wish him very well in retirement but, as I said at his retirement function the other day, I suspect it might not be too long on the banana lounge with a drink in a pineapple with an umbrella in it, because he is a man who will find something to occupy his time rather than just putting his feet up.
I also wish to pay tribute to Ms Helen Roseanne Drummond, who was a justice of the peace. Today we acknowledge and honour the memory of Helen Roseanne Drummond who passed away peacefully on 10 October 2012. Ms Drummond is survived by her twin brother, Mr Ivan Drummond, her two sisters, Maree and Judy, and her brother, Luke. Ms Drummond was a long-time Territorian having lived in the Northern Territory since 1974.
Helen was appointed as a justice of the peace on 22 January 1988 and served almost 25 years in this role. At the time of appointment, Ms Drummond was the Town Clerk of the Nauiyu Nambiyu Council at Daly River. As a long-serving member of our community, Ms Drummond came highly recommended for appointment and her subsequent services as justice of the peace were a great asset to the local community and police. Ms Drummond was an active member of the community, and for the past 12 years was involved in the Northern Territory Justice’s Association Incorporated, where she held the position of registrar until her passing.
Ms Drummond was always willing to be involved in community programs and offered her assistance to the community wherever she could. She will be remembered for her contribution and dedication to the people of the Northern Territory. In the presence of my parliamentary colleagues and on the public record, I take this opportunity to celebrate Ms Drummond’s life, her commitment to the community, and to pass on my sincere condolences, on behalf of the Northern Territory government, to Ms Drummond’s family on her passing. A letter of condolence has been provided to Mr Ivan Drummond of Leanyer.
As the Education Minister, I also wish to talk of the 2012 NTCET results. A total of 1209 Year 12 students were awarded an NTCET in 2012, an increase of 65 students since 2001. Sophie Phiip of Darwin High School was the NTCET Year 12 student with a University degree aggregate of 79.8 out of a possible 80. Wow!
The top NTCET Year 12 Indigenous student was Jamie Collins who studied at Darwin High School. I note that both the top Indigenous student and the top student were from Darwin High School. Darwin High School did particularly well, a great compliment, of course, to Marion Guppy and her successor, Trevor Read.
A total of 134 Indigenous students received an NTCET in 2012, with 23 of them studying in remote communities. The top 20 students in 2012 came from Darwin High School, Katherine High School, St Philips College in Alice Springs, and Casuarina Senior College. The Northern Territory Board of Studies awards ceremonies in Alice Springs, and the ones in Darwin, honour the outstanding efforts of Year 12 students. In fact, the NT Board of Studies awards did much more than that, but I do want to place on the record my particular sense of impression with Sophie Philip and Jamie Collins, and all the other students we saw in the Great Hall the other day as part of the board of studies awards night.
The performances of these students can only enliven in one a sense of optimism about the future. They were lively, amazing young people and, as I said to them the other night, they are limited only by the boundaries of their passion and imagination. I wish them all very well into the future.
Mr McCARTHY (Barkly): Madam Speaker. I wish in this adjournment debate to first table a letter which I believe is a very good summary of the current government and the challenges it has brought upon itself. For the benefit of Hansard, it is taken from the Centralian Advocate, Tuesday 18 December 2012. It is from Phil Walcott from Alice Springs. Phil writes:
I read that and thought Phil is a learned Territorian, an intellectual, a discerning member of the community in his politics, a person who has spent much time in the gallery of Parliament House observing, and a candidate. One would expect those opposite would take note of Phil’s letter as it is an element in the community which is respected and makes a positive comment.
I would like to talk about trying to do business with this government, as an MLA. It happened to me on Friday 18 January 2013 when I had to do some business, so I thought I would conduct it in town and it would be good research as well.
I needed a registration inspection for my 1986 Toyota Hilux and, upon going to a registered service agent, I was engaged in a four-way conversation with conservative constituents who were highly critical of the government and what was happening. After conversing with those constituents and trying to keep the balance, trying to make them understand the difference in policy and direction and the way this government is choosing to do business, I had to move on to Motor Vehicle Registry.
I was the second customer in Motor Vehicle Registry and there were two public officers serving at the counter; the other customer was getting a licence, which was good to see, and I had to renew a registration. Rather than queuing or waiting, I had a conversation with the officer at MVR and was surprised to see the registration bill for the old Hilux had increased by over $100, and I presumed there had to be a $20 fee applied for having a conversation with that wonderful MVR officer at the counter.
I happened to notice the Power and Water office next door had some activity and discovered it was the last day of operation for Power and Water in Tennant Creek, in the Peko Road Government Centre.
As I exited the Government Centre after conducting my transactions, I bumped into a Power and Water agent from Ali Curung who was purchasing his bulk issue of power cards. He alerted me to the fact that the Power and Water authority in Tennant Creek was not open for business after Friday 18 January as that officer was moving on to another position.
I took up the inquiry with the Minister for Essential Services, Minister Westra van Holthe, who I e-mailed on 18 January, writing:
I was pleased to receive a response from the minister’s office on Friday, 18 January at 3.19 pm. The response said:
To cut it short, I never heard from the minister, and I am very disappointed.
The electorate officer conducted a search on 31 January 2013 and did the background information to try to inform this constituent on how they would move forward with their purchase. Over that period, I received no communication from Minister Westra van Holthe, whatsoever. I found that to be arrogant, I found it to be, as Mr Walcott wrote in his letter, taking us for granted.
Having the privileged position of being a former minister in the Labor government, working with an incredible team of people in a ministerial office, we responded to everything. A single-line e-mail received the same response as a four-page letter or a formal submission. We made sure we responded to everyone. I find this is a sign of arrogance or, is it a sign of incompetence? I will let Minister Westra van Holthe decide whether he is inefficient, incompetent, or just purely arrogant and does not give a hoot about the people in the Barkly.
Madam Speaker, I need this information to take back and inform the constituents, as I requested in December 2012.
Mr GILES (Braitling): Madam Speaker, to know your history is to know yourself. This is why I am convinced Australia’s Constitution should take a longer view of our nation’s history. The Australian story did not begin with Federation. It did not begin only when the Dutch, British and other Europeans came to visit this vast continent. It began with cultures that have outlasted any in Europe or the Middle East: the oldest living culture in human history.
That history and its ancient connection to this land is part of the inheritance of all Australians, and we need to incorporate this into our cultural and social landscape. That ancient connection is part of what makes Australia unique. When I have travelled the globe I am often struck by how many other nations value their history, and their history pre-settlement; they draw strength and pride from the past; they cherish it. We can learn something from them.
In this land we have a story even more captivating and, yet, we do not grip it as tightly as many other countries. Perhaps this is because of the divide that has never really been bridged between Aboriginal people and those who came in the past 225 years. Acknowledgement of pre-settlement history would allow the breakdown of barriers to help share culture and build us as one.
Aboriginal people, denied formal recognition that they were even here, have held their culture tightly as their own, sharing it on our terms. Other Australians have sometimes been fearful to suggest it is part of our shared story, mindful of the mistakes of the past. However, it does not have to be this way. It strikes me that many Aboriginal people in remote Australia are culturally rich and economically poor, and many city dwellers - I count myself as one of them - are economically rich but sometimes culturally poor, or they do not have the vastness of culture, or the cultural aptitude, they so desire. Many of them have a longing for cultural enrichment. Many Australians want to have Aboriginal culture as part of their lives and their children’s lives; they see the enormous potential in it. Many Aboriginal people would love to see the day when our whole nation acknowledges the enormous value of our culture - a day when Australia finally acknowledges, in its founding document, that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples were here, inhabiting this land, and that this remarkable history is now part of every Australian’s shared story. I firmly believe that such a moment would help to bind the social fabric of our nation, that it would fix the hole in Australia’s heart and bring us closer together. We may, finally, be able to repair the lingering sense that we are two separate peoples, rather than one indivisible nation.
I believe Australians are over the days of us and them. We all want to be at peace with our past, and we can only get to that point if we can recognise our full history. There is an implicit transaction on offer in the quest for constitutional recognition. It is the final step in what Australia began back in the 1967 referendum. The rest of the nation would be saying to Aboriginal people, ‘We value you and your cultures’, and Aboriginal people would be saying, ‘We will share this with you’.
However, I must confess I am a convert to this cause. There was a time when I thought constitutional recognition was a wet issue; I have always been more outcomes-focused as a person. I am a practical and conservative politician who has long believed in the power of jobs, education and economic development to transform lives, but as I have thought about it more deeply and reflected on the cultural difference of Indigenous Australians, particularly from a geographic perspective, I have become increasingly convinced that the practical and symbolic go hand-in-hand; they are both parts of the whole.
I believe Indigenous recognition at a referendum will give our constitution a stronger backbone. It will proclaim loudly of Aboriginal people and culture that this is part of us, this is part of who we are as a nation. But you do not change the constitution lightly, and ours has helped deliver strong, stable government and institutions throughout time. I hear those who say, ‘If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’, and previously that has been the basis of my complacency on this act of symbolism. However, in a couple of important respects, it is broken and it does need fixing. You only have to look at section 25 of the constitution which says the states can ban a race of people from voting. Those views are from yesteryear. Sure, it is part of Australia’s history, but let us advance Australia from now on, fairly.
There is a proud conservative tradition in this country of safeguarding our heritage and traditions. Constitutional recognition of our nation’s Indigenous history fits squarely in that legacy. There are also proud traditions in liberal and conservative history of opposing racism, slavery and discrimination. Never forget that it was under Menzies, urged on by Liberal MP, Billy Wentworth, that Aboriginal people, federally, got the vote. It was under Holt that the great moment of national unity at the 1967 referendum came about. In 1970, Sir Henry Bolte’s Liberal Victorian government handed back 4000 acres at Lake Tyers, and 583 acres at Framingham to two Aboriginal Trusts; and it was Wentworth, as Aboriginal Affairs minister, who first proposed giving the Gurindji people control of their land at Wave Hill Station.
The Liberals have always been part of the philosophical basis that has been symbolically formed to drive our nation. Malcolm Fraser passed the first Land Rights Act, and John Howard pushed for Indigenous constitutional recognition in 1999.
So, how can we continue to leave untouched the sections of our constitution that still let governments discriminate and ban a whole race of people from voting? We need a referendum that allows the Australian people to take away from governments the power to discriminate based on race, and we need a referendum to ensure our founding document reflects our full history as a nation. Only then can we say we truly know ourselves.
Ms FINOCCHIARO (Drysdale): I take this opportunity to wish everyone in my electorate a very happy New Year. I am certainly looking forward to the opportunities and challenges 2013 will present, and it will be my first full calendar year as their local member. We will see what is to come.
Australia Day has just passed and it was a weekend full to the brim of activity. I want to thank many people in Palmerston who helped make that weekend such a special and memorable one. My Australia Day weekend started with the Australia Day Ball which I went to with my family. I thank Kiy Gill from the Australia Day Council, and all of her team, for putting on such a spectacular event. It is no mean feat to pull off a ball of that magnitude and she did it with style. I am sure we will see more of that young woman.
The following morning I was up very bright and early. The City of Palmerston, in conjunction with the Palmerston Australia Day Committee and the YMCA, put on a spectacular family fun day at Palmerston pool. It was really great to see that event happening and so many Palmerston families taking advantage of the activities that were put on for them. We had an amazing blow-up obstacle course that took up most of the pool and young and old very much enjoyed that. It was great to be able to cool off because it was a very hot day. Caroline Reynolds was also there with her blow-up castle and rock climbing wall, which is always a tremendous hit with the young ones, and the Coffee Angels put on coffee, so it was great.
From the Australia Day Committee in Palmerston, of course, Mary and Dave Oliffe, who are just about involved in everything you can think of in Palmerston, were there. Dave was working very hard on the barbecue, and Mary was busy ensuring all the children who came through the pool had various Australia Day iconic trinkets such as little kangaroos and koalas, Australian flag tattoos, and the small things that help put a really special touch on such a wonderful family event. Maggie Schoenfisch, another strong woman in our community who is just about on every committee there is, was making her mark for Palmerston seniors. It was the first time I had met Bev and Maurie Johnson, but the Chief Minister tells me they are absolute Trojans in the Palmerston community and I am sure I will be seeing much more of them. Cath Cockcroft, who was not there on the day, had put her elbow to the wheel in pulling off such a wonderful event.
Some of the volunteers on the day, including me, were Darryl and Janette Ashby, Jane Porter who made all the cakes - there was a fantastic little cake stand where people would come and grab their free coffee and cake - Linda Heidstra, Fiona Lynch, George Loch; and I also thank Peter Chandler, the member for Brennan, for supplying his fantastic barbecue. For community groups who have not taken advantage of Pete’s barbecue you absolutely must, it comes on the back of a trailer with marquees and the works, it is free of charge, and I am sure he would not mind me plugging it to you.
From the Family Fun Day, I went straight to Marlowe’s Lagoon where I was really pleased to be involved in a tree-planting event. In June last year, four riders from overseas who were raising money for a charity called Greenfleet left Palmerston on their 18 000 km cycling journey around Australia. Their plan was to raise enough funds to plant 8000 native trees during their journey. They had returned to Palmerston where they started this great adventure and were much skinnier than when they left, I can assure you; I have seen the before and after photos. We did an excellent tree planting, and I thank Pam Robinson, OAM, who is the environment and climate change strategic planner for the City of Palmerston and a staunch advocate for equality of women. I know Pam very well and she did a tremendous job. Thank you to Nick and Jimmy who, sadly, were the only two out of four who made it back to Palmerston, but you can imagine 18 000 kms is a huge distance to ride. I am glad at least two of them made it back. The other two are fine; they just could not complete the journey.
Following the tree planting, I went to the Palmerston Golf and Country Club where Alzheimer’s NT was the chosen charity by Cazalys for a Golf Day. They were having a wonderful time. Darren from Cazalys really worked very hard to pull that event together. Cazalys runs a charity Golf Day every year and each year it is for a different charity; this year was Alzheimer’s Australia. It was appropriate that it was Alzheimer’s, considering that the Australian of the Year is Ita Buttrose, who is the Alzheimer’s patron.
Thank you to those guys, I had an excellent time. I was scooted around the course on a buggy that sounded like it needed a good service, but it was a very good afternoon. Following that, the City of Palmerston, of course, put on its flag raising and citizenship ceremony, which had a really good crowd. It was an excellent vibe. We ended up having 90-plus new Australian citizens on the day, many were children and families. It was a wonderful experience, and I was so proud to be there in my capacity as member for Drysdale.
I am especially proud to say Margot Cox, one of my constituents, received Citizen of the Year. I will be speaking about her in adjournment later in sittings because it probably requires a couple of days in a row to cover her tremendous life. I will tell you all about that another time.
Also, Brad Svanfields was winner of the Palmerston Student Citizen Award. Brad attends one of the schools in Drysdale, and I have sent my congratulations to him for this remarkable achievement. He is a remarkable young man.
I also was very excited to see the Palmerston Senior Songsters win the Community Event of the Year, they do an excellent job. Marg Lee, who orchestrates that group, was my Year 2 primary school teacher at Gray Primary School. It is wonderful to see her doing all these great things, as she always was back in the day.
I want to mention a couple of other groups which were also nominated for the Community Event of the Year: Satellite City BMX, Palmerston and Rural Seniors Week, and Palmerston 50+ Tuesday Club. It was very good.
Following that was the Australia Day Ambassadors reception at the City of Palmerston hosted by Mayor Ian Abbott. I thank him for the invitation, and Aldermen Malone, Forrest, Byrne and McKinnon for making me so welcome at that event after such a very long, hot day; it was excellent.
The next day I was back at it again. The Palmerston Magpies were having an all-day Aussie Rules footy day for families. It was really good. I could not be there all day, but I was there from about 3.30 pm until quite late at night. I thank Paula Gerschwitz, Marie Thomson, Jade and Mel Rodda and Matt Layden for having me and getting me so involved. Poor Jade had been walking around all day selling raffle tickets so when I arrived he launched on me before I even made it through the member’s lounge and recruited me to help him sell tickets. We raised a significant amount of money for the club, which was really good.
Also, thank you to Southern Districts. They were a really good crowd and worked really well with the Maggies. That was another excellent day.
That concluded my Australia Day. I slept very well on Sunday night, and look forward to speaking in adjournment about Margot Cox, one hell of a Territorian.
Mr MILLS (Blain): First, I take this opportunity to respond to a question the member for Nelson asked during Question Time. The question asked for an extraordinary amount of detail and there is no intention not to provide the information, it is simply not able to be provided in the breadth requested and specificity as requested by the honourable member at this point. However, at this stage I can provide what I have been able to get. The question was regarding statistics around the operations that extend from the Humpty Doo Fire Station.
The following is what I have been able to get in the time allowed; more information will require much more manpower. What I have is for fire stations in Darwin: grassfires, 172; motor vehicle accidents, 126; structure fires, includes first response and backup, 65; fire alarms, 1035. For Marrara: grassfires, 232; motor vehicle accidents, 79; structure fires, 43; and fire alarms, 483. For Palmerston: grassfires, 215; motor vehicle crashes, 131; structure fires, 26; and fire alarms, 48.
That is what I can get at this point. Many more man-hours are required. If this does not satisfy, we will provide that information, but it will require a fair amount of work.
I place on the record congratulations to the Northern Territory recipients of the 2013 Australia Day Honours list. The granting of this honour represents an acknowledgement of the outstanding service to the Territory community by 11 Territorians. Given the detail around these recipients’ service to the Territory, I seek leave to, at the conclusion of my remarks if I am not be able to conclude all these details, that they be incorporated into Hansard because it is important that this record is placed on the Parliamentary Record for all to see so we can together celebrate their contribution.
The first one is Mr Tony Warramarrba AO, Alyangula. He was appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia in the General Division for distinguished service to the Indigenous community of the Groote Eylandt Archipelago through leadership and advocacy for improved services and infrastructure. He has been:
Chairman, Anindilyakwa Land Council
Director, Anindilyakwa Mining Trust
Mr Wurramarrba has contributed to various Indigenous organisations, including:
Machado Joseph Disease Foundation
Northern Australian Aboriginal Justice Agency
Mr Wurramarrba was leading negotiator in the successful conclusion of a Regional Partnership Agreement with BHP Billiton which resulted in mining continuing on Groote Eylandt and increased investment in new infrastructure and services.
Mr Paul Cattermole AM from Darwin was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia, General Division for significant service to the community of the Northern Territory through planning and management of major sporting and cultural events. He has been the General Manager of the Northern Territory Major Events Corporation since 1998. He has been involved in the development of the Darwin Round of the V8 Supercar event and 13 significant annual major events in the Northern Territory, including:
Alice Springs Masters Games
Annual Round of the Australian Superbikes
Dr Bruce William Walker AM from Alice Springs was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia in the General Division for significant service to the Indigenous communities of remote Australia and the Northern Territory, and to the sport of cricket. There is an enormous list of career Dr Walker’s acknowledgements as:
Director, Desert Knowledge Australia since 2006; member of Steering Committee 2000-04
Director, National Australia Day Council since 2006
Chairman, Audit and Risk Committees since 2010
Chairman of John Flynn Uniting Church Council, Alice Springs, 1984-90 and 2009-12
Chairman, Central Land Council Audit and Risk Committee since 2012; Deputy Chair 2010-12
Chairman, CAT Project Pty Ltd since 2007
Director, Centrecorp Foundation since 2009
Director, Remote Focus Project, 2010-12
Chief Executive Officer and founder, Centre for Appropriate Technology 1980-2010
Project Director, Desert Peoples Centre, 2004-10
Director, International Development Support Services Pty Ltd 1004-2005; commercial consulting company of Oxfam Australia
Member, National Reference Committee, Frontier Services 1995-2005; agency of the Uniting Church
Dr Walker’s awards and recognition include the Centenary Medal, 2001.
Ms Patricia Gweneth Angus PSM, Darwin was awarded the Public Service Medal Northern Territory Public Service for outstanding public service to Health and Housing policy, and programs and services to Indigenous people in the Northern Territory. Ms Angus was the most senior Indigenous executive in the Department of Housing and Local Government and Regional Services and its predecessors from 1998 until her retirement in 2012. During her years with the department, Ms Angus held a range of senior executive positions in operations and policy roles, including Assistant Secretary. Most recently, she was the Executive Director, Strategic Policy Development Coordination. She was a truly professional public servant; she shaped strategic thinking, cultivated productive working relationships, exemplified personal drive and integrity, communicated influentially and achieved results for successive governments and, most importantly, for clients.
Ms Angus embodies living in two worlds, equally at home in the bush and in remote areas as she was in high level cross-jurisdictional forums negotiating on behalf of the Northern Territory government. Her experience and advice significantly improved the capacity of the department to design and implement programs and policies which benefited all Territorians. She demonstrated a strong commitment to improving service delivery to the Aboriginal Community and to improving the capacity and systems for Indigenous people to participate actively in society.
Ms Angus was a role model for Indigenous public servants, and was always willing to mentor and assist others. She believed that the public service can lead the way in translating effective education systems into real job opportunities for Indigenous people, and was a strong supporter of diversity in the workforce.
Mrs Jennifer Gail Prince PSM, Darwin was awarded the Public Service Medal Northern Territory Public Service for outstanding public service and leadership, particularly as Under Treasurer for the Northern Territory. Mrs Prince joined the Northern Territory Public Service in 1979 with the Department of Health and Community Services as the Director of Administrative Services for the Royal Darwin Hospital, and then merged the intergovernmental area responsible for negotiating health funding with the Commonwealth. In this role, Mrs Prince was involved in many policy initiatives and reforms including aged care development, the development of the first Northern Territory Private Hospital, improved arrangements for allied health professionals and the development of private sector health providers.
In 1984, she was seconded to the Chief Minister’s Office to undertake a number of reviews, including superannuation arrangements and, in 1985, moved to the Northern Territory Treasury to take up a role in the intergovernmental area as Director, Public Finance. She was in this role until 1989, at which time she left Darwin.
Mrs Prince returned to Darwin in 1997 to take up the Deputy Under Treasurer position, maintaining her responsibility not only for the Public Finance area, but also taking on the whole-of-government fiscal responsibilities, including the development of the Territory’s Budget and the financial management and reporting for the Northern Territory.
Over the same period, the Northern Territory was looking to find substantial savings across government and to rationalise services. Mrs Prince formed part of a senior strategic team that developed the guidelines for the review and was involved in the development and assessment of proposals to improve service delivery across the Northern Territory public sector. Mrs Prince also developed an improved process of assessing agency funding bids by Budget Cabinet. This process was successful in focusing both agencies and Cabinet’s attention on issues of importance, and is a process that has continued to be built on and refined since 1999.
In 2002, Mrs Prince was appointed to the position of Under Treasurer. In this role, she showed exceptional leadership and ensured that Treasury has grown and developed as an organisation which is highly respected by both the Northern Territory government and other agencies within the Northern Territory public service.
Sergeant Paula Maree Dooley-McDonnell APM, from Alice Springs was awarded the Australia Police Medal, acknowledgement of a long and distinguished career in the Northern Territory Police Force. Sergeant Dooley-McDonnell has demonstrated exceptional investigation leadership skills throughout her service with the Northern Territory Police, and her commitment to the task at hand has ensured that the community has been extremely well served. She has provided 23 years distinguished and dedicated service throughout the Northern Territory and continues to be a most respected and loyal officer.
Her initial service in Alice Springs was within the General Duties Section prior to her undertaking relief duties in Prosecutions followed by a transfer to School Based policing. After a short return to General Duties, Sergeant Dooley-McDonnell began her service with the Alice Springs Criminal Investigation Branch, where she was selected into Taskforce Regulus (Falconio Investigation) when it was in its infancy and remained on the task force through its lifespan. After her excellent performance with Taskforce Regulus, she further developed her skills and became heavily involved in the field of sexual assault investigation, gaining praise from not only the victims but also their families and the medical and legal practitioners involved.
Sergeant Dooley-McDonnell then assisted in the implementation of the initial Child Abuse Taskforce in Alice Springs, responsible for the investigation of child abuse reports through the Southern Command of the Northern Territory Police Force.
After this, she returned to the General Duties area and became a successful supervisor of a patrol group, often in the higher position of Watch Commander. She then assisted in the police aspects of the implementation of the Patrol Coordinator initiative. The Patrol Coordinator’s role is the coordination of patrols involving multi-agencies, both government and non-government, to combat instances of antisocial behaviour within Alice Springs. Once again, Sergeant Dooley-McDonnell’s excellent work during the initial set up and roll-out of this initiative brought praise from all participating agencies.
Sergeant Dooley-McDonnell’s awards and recognition include the Commissioner’s Commendation as a result of her involvement with Taskforce Regulus.
Superintendent Kristopher John Evans APM, Darwin was awarded the Australian Police Medal, acknowledgement of a long and distinguished career in the Northern Territory Police Force. Superintendent Evan’s career spans over 30 years’ distinguished and dedicated policing service throughout the Northern Territory and previously with Victoria Police. Superintendent Evans was appointed to the Northern Territory Police Force in 1989. After completing recruit training, he served on Groote Eylandt prior to transferring back to Darwin where he served in the General Duties division of the Darwin Police Station. While remaining in Darwin, he also served as a detective with the Major Crimes Section for a number of years.
The year 1996 saw the continuation of Superintendent Evans’ service in remote localities as the Officer in Charge of the Oenpelli Police Station and the granting of detective status when he became a Detective Sergeant and the Officer in Charge of the Katherine Criminal Investigation Branch. From this position he went further afield and served as the Officer in Charge of the Tennant Creek Police Station.
He was promoted to Superintendent in 2002 and transferred back to Darwin where he has served as the Divisional Officer in the Drugs and Intelligence Division, Territory Support Division, Major Crime Division and the Darwin Metropolitan Division.
Superintendent Evans has also performed higher duties as the Commander of the Crime and Specialist Support Command and the Darwin Metropolitan Command. Superintendent Evans has also been responsible for the coordination of the
9th National Chemical Diversion Congress, and was appointed as the Project Manager/Coordinator of the Police Remote Community Drug Strategy.
Superintendent Evans’ outstanding commitment, dedication and decisive leadership have ensured the community of the Northern Territory has been extremely well served.
Mr Mark Richard Fishlock ESM, Wanguri was awarded the Emergency Services Medal, acknowledgement of a distinguished contribution to the Northern Territory Emergency Service and the community. Mr Fishlock joined the Harts Range Emergency Service Volunteer Unit in 2004, becoming the Unit Officer three years later. In 2008, he moved to Darwin where he joined the Darwin Emergency Service Volunteer Unit and, within a year, assumed his current appointment as its Unit Officer. Mr Fishlock’s personal commitment to the Northern Territory Emergency Services is exceptional; he had developed the Darwin unit into a cohesive, well trained and responsive Emergency Volunteer Unit.
He is the driving force behind fundraising activities and pursues every opportunity to receive grant funding, not only to improve the unit’s response capability but also to the benefit of all Northern Territory Emergency Service volunteers. Operationally, Mr Fishlock’s commitment has also been exceptional. He has dedicated himself to ensuring he is personally trained and available for all call-outs, participating in countless road accidents, land searches, air and maritime searches, and vertical rescues. Without hesitation, he deployed interstate twice to provide assistance in response to the Queensland floods and tropical Cyclone Yasi.
An exemplary volunteer, Mr Fishlock is a person with enormous passion and dedication, and he serves his community with distinction.
Mr Fishlock’s awards and recognition include the Conspicuous Service Medal, 1998, awarded while serving in the Royal Australian Air Force.
Mr Desmond John Nelson OAM, Alice Springs, was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia in the general division for service to conservation and the environment, particularly in Central Australia. Mr Nelson has contributed to the understanding of the plants of Central Australia for over 56 years. He collected the first Central Australian specimen for over 50 plant species between 1952 and 2004, and has remained active in Central Australian ecology and botany since his retirement.
He is a voluntary consultant for local and government groups, a regular guest speaker, author/co-author of a number of papers and articles dealing with botany, ecology and the history of the Northern Territory, plus a book on his activities with the CSIRO.
Mr Nelson’s career acknowledgements include:
Senior Technical Officer in Botany and Ecology, Division of Land Resources Management, CSIRO (Alice Springs) 1973-90
Mrs Leslie Irene Huggins OAM, deceased, Apollo Bay, Victoria was awarded the Medal for the Order of Australia in the General Division for service to local government and the community of Alice Springs. There is an enormous list of career acknowledgements which include:
Mayor, Alice Springs Town Council 1983-92; Deputy Mayor 1982-83; Alderman 1978-92; Town Planning Authority 1982-91
Member, Northern Territory Local Government Association 1983-89; President 1984; Association’s Representative to the Territory Anti-Litter Committee 1985-91
Foundation Secretary, Alice Springs Spastic Council 1969; President 1969-73; Patron from 1988
Foundation Secretary, Central Australian Aviation Museum; Life Member since 1977
Foundation Member, Araluen Arts and Cultural Trust; member 1980-86
Official Visitor, Giles House Remand Centre 1985-92
Official Visitor, Alice Springs Correctional Centre 1985-91
Member, Royal Flying Doctor Service, Central Section 1982-92
Member, Northern Territory Australia Day Committee
Deputy Chairman, Alice Springs Australia Day Committee 1983-91
Chairman, Central Australia Olympic Games Appeal Committee 1984-92
Member ABC National Advisory Committee 1989; Member, ABC Advisory Council, Northern Territory 1988
Chairman, Territory Tidy Town Committee 1981
Foundation Secretary, Alice Springs Branch, Australian Stockmen’s Hall of Fame and Outback Heritage Centre 1982
President, Alice Springs Toastmistress Club 1980
Member, Hamilton Downs Youth Camp Committee 1989-92
Patron of a range of organisations in the Alice Springs district, including: Alice Springs Dog Obedience Club; Alice Springs Town Council Social Club; National Heart Foundation, Northern Territory; Holyoak Foundation; and Alice Springs Little Athletics Club
Justice of the Peace from 1989.
Mrs Higgins died on 18 April 2012.
Finally, Warrant Officer Class One Stephen Michael Greenall OAM, Anula was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia in the Military Division for meritorious service as the Artificer Sergeant Major of the 5th/7th Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment, as Maintenance Manager of Joint Logistics Unit North, and as the Electrical and Mechanical Engineering Warrant Officer in the 1st Brigade.
Warrant Officer Greenall has demonstrated a level of professionalism and technical competence which has produced outstanding results.
Serving with distinction in three demanding appointments, he questioned accepted norms and implemented local reforms to deliver greater efficiency for Defence. His efforts have contributed significantly to the operational success of the 1st Brigade.
Madam Speaker, I thank you for your indulgence to have the details of these fine Territorians included and incorporated into Hansard.
Ms LAWRIE (Karama): Madam Speaker I wish to speak about the extraordinary, despicable and cowardly attack this morning by the member for Port Darwin on the former Chief Minister, Paul Henderson.
For those who missed it, the member for Port Darwin took the unprecedented step of speaking to a routine notice from you advising the Chamber of the resignation of the member for Wanguri, to, in the member for Port Darwin’s despicable words, ‘bury the member for Wanguri’. We know not everyone gets into the minutiae of politics in parliament, but there are certain conventions in parliament: practices that allow for fairness and, generally, just being a good sport, showing some respect. One convention is that you do not normally see the use of parliamentary privilege to dump a bucket of trash on a retired member. Another is that, if there is such an attack, giving someone the opportunity to respond on their behalf is afforded.
This morning, the member for Port Darwin used the opportunity to trash a very well-liked, highly regarded and highly respected former Chief Minister of the Northern Territory, Paul Henderson. The member for Port Darwin then used his position as Leader of Government Business to gag, to disallow anyone to rise to the defence of the former Chief Minister. It was a cheap and cowardly shot. It shows a lack of character or decency by the member for Port Darwin. While we all generally ignore the planned theatrics and over-the-top performances of this pathetic man, to think that he can give such a speech shows the height of his arrogance, his hypocrisy and his ignorance.
Whatever the member for Port Darwin believes privately - to trash the reputation of a very fine man who has contributed 14 years to his community of Wanguri and to the Territory as a whole, who brought the second largest project in our nation’s history to the Territory, who put us on the global map with the opportunity to do business and create world-class jobs for the children of the Territory - whatever the member for Port Darwin privately believes about this man, he showed by his contribution today that he is, as ever, out of touch with reality.
Maybe the pressures of being regularly mocked in the community are getting to the member for Port Darwin as we see his increasingly bizarre antics such as rushing off out of a Cabinet meeting to check on the welfare of children in a school bus when emergency services are there with the ambulance and police to do their job; it is not his job. He also has obviously been the subject of many people mocking him with his appearance, as he said,’as the water boy at the bar table’ in a court appearance.
Maybe he is just pouring out the frustrations he feels about his own inadequacies and failings. The member for Port Darwin’s memory is also very selective and hypocritical. In 1995 the former member for Fannie Bay and former Chief Minister, Marshall Perron, retired a year after being elected and the by-election was set for Saturday 17 June 1995 just three days before the sittings on 20 June. What does the member for Port Darwin think about that? Or when the former Chief Minister and member for Jingili, Paul Everingham, pulled the plug a year after the 1983 election?
His hypocrisy knows no bounds. We all know he says what he wants when it suits him, but how does he keep a straight face when he looks at himself? Sitting not more than three feet from him are the member for Blain, who missed a week of sittings to go to Taiwan for a junket, and the member for Sanderson who missed a week of sittings to go on a course. Where is the member for Port Darwin’s outrage there? What a hypocrite.
The member for Port Darwin should be ashamed of his actions, but we know he never will be. He should be embarrassed by his actions, but he is not. He should apologise for his disgraceful attack, but we know he will not.
Member for Port Darwin, you really do bring the parliament to a much lower level than I have ever witnessed and I have watched parliament in the Territory from when it was the Legislative Council. If you want to go on a cowardly attack and bring yourself into disrepute, do not break the convention of this parliament by gagging an opposition who should have the right to respond.
Motion agreed to; the Assembly adjourned.
MESSAGE FROM ADMINISTRATOR
Message No 4
Message No 4
Madam SPEAKER: Honourable members, I have received from Her Honour the Administrator Message No 4 notifying assent to bills passed in the November and December 2012 sitting of the Assembly.
RESIGNATION OF MEMBER
Member for Wanguri
Member for Wanguri
Madam SPEAKER: Honourable members, I advise that on 23 January 2013, the resignation of the former member for Wanguri, Mr Paul Henderson, was submitted to me by letter pursuant to section 18 of the Northern Territory
(Self Government) Act. I table the letter.
Mr ELFERINK (Leader of Government Business): While I am on my feet, Madam Speaker, I seek leave to make some comments in relation to the letter of resignation.
Leave granted.
Mr ELFERINK: Madam Speaker, friends, Territorians, countrymen, lend me your ears because today I have not come to praise Henderson, but to bury him.
As far as I am concerned, the timing of this by-election has been the product of a member who has, throughout his political career, seen opportunity through a political lens rather than through the lens of the people he purports to serve.
I was not surprised to hear of the member of Wanguri’s resignation. I had cause to visit his office during the November sittings and that office did not remotely look like the man had moved in.
The boxes were still on the floor; the items in those boxes were not put away or shelved. It was, for all intents and purposes, a storeroom. There was no attempt by the member for Wanguri to move into that office because he was a man who had no intent to remain in that office. He was clearly on his way out. I suspect he made that decision at about 10 pm on 25 August 2012.
However, he did not do the right thing by the people of Wanguri. Did he see his duty as being to the people of the Northern Territory, and the people of Wanguri, to serve them, or to serve, exclusively, the interests of the Northern Territory branch of the Australian Labor Party?
The answer must be in the latter because if he had brought a by-election, whilst it would have been annoying for the people of Wanguri, at least they would have had representation. The member for Wanguri has been a dead man walking in this House ever since 25 August last year. His contribution to debates in this House has been minimal to say the least. From memory, he has been on his feet on three occasions since that time and there was only one contribution, I recall, of any substance. This person comes from the Graham Richardson Labor philosophy of whatever it takes. The book The Fixer: The Untold Story of Graham Richardson makes that philosophy quite clear. The Fixer would do anything to fix what had to be fixed through that Labor prism.
As a consequence of this member’s decision, it is beyond my memory, and I suspect the memory of many people in this House, that any member has ever vacated their seat at a time of parliamentary sittings knowing full well the people of their electorate would be abandoned and not represented in this House. That is a reprehensible decision from a person who, in his maiden speech said, and I quote:
- I come to this parliament striving to put something back, to make a contribution and a difference to individuals I will come into contact with as well as organisations as a whole. I am honoured to take my seat in this place and to represent the good people of Wanguri. I will strive to the best of my abilities, on principles that guide me, to serve them as best I can.
I see the back of an empty chair and wonder how that serves them as best he can. Perhaps the principles which guide him are the ones articulated in The Fixer: The Untold Story of Graham Richardson.
We have had, and the public of the Northern Territory have had, the unedifying spectacle of the Prime Minister’s intervention into the Northern Territory branch of the Australian Labor Party over the last few weeks - a shameful affair. The only light in that affair was the Crossin family, who have been so awfully treated by members on that side of the House as well as the Prime Minister, have stuck loyally to the Labor Party, a loyalty that I don’t believe the Australian Labor Party deserves.
The tawdry affair we have seen going on in the Labor Party has being ghastly. I, as the Education minister, receive telephone calls from journalists seeking to have Ms Peris’ personal records become a matter of public debate.
Ms LAWRIE: A point of order, Madam Speaker! Relevance. I understand this is a grubby stunt, but he was discussing the resignation letter of the member for Wanguri, which has nothing to do with this subject matter.
Madam SPEAKER: There is no point of order.
Mr ELFERINK: Madam Speaker, I will make the link for the Leader of the Opposition. I was being asked to divulge information about the employment history of a person who had worked for the Education department of the Northern Territory. I point blank refused to engage or embarrass any person in those circumstances and will continue to do so.
The reason I received those calls was that it was clear from the journalists asking the questions that the leaks were coming from inside the Australian Labor Party. ‘We have some dirt, just make these records available and you will find the dirt for the edification of the Labor Party so we can embarrass the Prime Minister.’ That was, essentially, what I was being asked to do: to become complicit in the Australian Labor Party’s tawdry little fight. Why? Because the timing of the resignation was suspiciously close - this is the link the Leader of the Opposition would like us not to talk about - to the preselection process for the Senate in the Northern Territory Branch of the Australian Labor Party.
What was Mr Henderson planning to do? Mr Henderson was planning, I suspect, to seek that upcoming seat. However, he did not understand there was a process, which is surprising considering the amount of times he has had to roll over to the federal Labor Party in the past. He clearly did not seem to understand there was capacity for the Prime Minister to interfere in Territory politics for a Senate seat - the state’s House - be it with a captain’s pick.
There you have it! All of a sudden the seat is vacated; the preselection process for the Australian Labor Party is on foot to elect their new team member. There is a bit of shuffling in the background, they axe poor old Senator Trish Crossin - the blood is still dripping off the hatchet - about to make the big move. ‘Oh goodness gracious me, the captain has made a decision; I did not expect that.’
All of a sudden, I started getting telephone calls asking for release of information about a public servant who, at that stage, was not the selected candidate for the Senate seat - she was Nova Peris, citizen. People were telling me, ‘You have to release the information’. My message to the teachers and other public servants who work for me, as a minister, and, I hope, for the rest of this government, is they can take comfort that I take their personal employment records seriously and will not use them for political advantage for any political party, particularly the tawdry set of operators on the other side of this House.
Not only were the boxes in his office full and unpacked, but the lights were off in the Wanguri office today. Perhaps there is one little fluoro flickering pathetically in the background, but short of possibly the storeroom out the back being used to run the Labor Party’s campaign for the Wanguri by-election, if you knock on the door as a citizen of Wanguri will you get to speak to the local member who is supposed to be in parliament today? No, you will not. This is an abandonment of duty - a duty the member professed when he took up his position in this House.
The new occupant of that office is the member for Casuarina. I am wondering if we should start calling that office the waiting room.
Madam Speaker, I move that I complete my statement at a later date.
Ms LAWRIE (Opposition Leader): Madam Speaker …
Madam SPEAKER: Could you pause for one minute, please.
Ms LAWRIE: Madam Speaker, you have given me the call so I seek leave to respond to his statement.
Madam SPEAKER: Please be seated. I am seeking advice from the Clerk. Opposition Leader, you need to seek leave to speak.
Ms LAWRIE: Madam Speaker, I seek leave to respond to the statement.
Leave denied.
Ms Lawrie: Madam Speaker, they want to gag the fact the former Chief Minister, the member for Wanguri, sought leave because he wanted time with his family ...
Madam SPEAKER: Opposition Leader, please be seated.
Ms Lawrie: That was a grubby stunt with not a grain of truth to it.
Mr Tollner: Chuck her out!
Madam SPEAKER: Member for Fong Lim, you are on a warning!
STATEMENT BY SPEAKER
Issue of Writ
Issue of Writ
Madam SPEAKER: Honourable members, I advise the writ has been issued for election to the Legislative Assembly for the Division of Wanguri. This will be held on Saturday, 16 February 2013.
Mr GUNNER: A point of order, Madam Speaker! The time is 10.15 am and we have not started Question Time. I ask the government that we have a full hour for Question Time.
Mr Elferink: So noted.
VICTIMS OF CRIME ASSISTANCE AMENDMENT BILL
(Serial 10)
(Serial 10)
Continued from 28 November 2012.
Ms WALKER (Nhulunbuy): Madam Speaker, the opposition will be supporting the Victims of Crime Assistance Amendment Bill 2012 (Serial 10). I understand that, essentially, this bill seeks to increase the amounts payable to the victims levy, which, as the Attorney-General pointed out in his second reading speech, is payable by those who break the law and for whom a finding of guilt is made.
This revenue is what funds the Victims Assistance Fund which provides for victims of crime. Tomorrow, it is likely we will be debating amendments to the Sentencing Act around mandatory sentencing with a focus on offenders and perpetrators of violent crime. Today we are discussing an important bill seeking to provide greater support to the innocent victims of crime.
I will read a short section of an opinion piece in the New South Wales Law Society journal by lawyer, Tony Vella, about victims’ compensation. He opens this article with this:
- There cannot be any dispute that the State has a duty to protect its citizens from crimes of violence being committed against them. It is also a fact that, although the relevant authorities may do everything in their power to give effect to this principle, there will be instances where the authorities may not be present to protect those citizens when they end up being the victims of crime.
It is in those instances where the State has not managed to prevent acts of violence being committed against its citizens that it steps in, and through its schemes of counselling and statutory compensation, says ‘sorry’ to victims and offers them counselling, as well as compensation for injuries suffered.
The opposition most certainly shares this view, which is why, in 2006, the Labor government, under then Attorney-General Mr Peter Toyne, introduced the Victims of Crime Assistance Bill (Serial 45), which sought to repeal and replace the Crimes (Victims Assistance) Act, and with it a new administrative scheme to provide victims with assistance to ensure victims of crime had access to compensation for rehabilitation from injuries sustained as a result of crime, as well as critical support services like counselling. Of course, there needed to be adequate revenue available through a levy to meet those costs.
The Attorney-General, in his second reading speech, detailed the increases in levies and the opposition has no issue with those increases. I place on the record my thanks to Mr Sam Burke from the Attorney-General’s office for providing me with a chart which provides an overview of the levies imposed across the different jurisdictions. There are quite wide-ranging dollar amounts across the states and territories, but this will see the Northern Territory up there with South Australia, while in places like Tasmania the levies are very low.
Some of these jurisdictions also have provisions in place whereby the court has some discretion in waiving a levy in certain circumstances. The Northern Territory does not have those provisions nor am I suggesting we should, although there are those who believe we should.
However, given the significant increases, at a time when the cost of living in the Northern Territory has risen dramatically and Territorians are trying to work out how to pay power bills which have increased by 30%, I would like to hear from the Attorney-General as to what measures will be in place and what steps can be taken to recover fines, given offenders’ capacity to pay will be challenged.
Recovering debt is a challenge across all jurisdictions, including governments, regardless of political persuasion. This is why, in 2008, the Labor government took steps to address this issue by way of a Justice Legislation Amendment Bill to allow the Fines Recovery Unit greater powers to collect and enforce debts owed to the Northern Territory by persons who owed a debt pursuant to the relevant acts. I remember it well. It was one of my first speeches in this House and my first contribution to a debate in the area of justice.
The amendment expanded the role of the Fines Recovery Unit to be able to go directly to the offender in order to recover fines and penalties incurred for the Victims Assistance Fund. It is, of course, the Fines Recovery Unit’s core business to collect fines and penalties owed to the Northern Territory. By virtue of this being their core business as a government agency, the Fines Recovery Unit has access to information held by government which is essential in locating persons who owe money under the act.
Further to this, the Fines Recovery Unit has wide-ranging powers including suspending licences and vehicle registrations, seizing property and garnishee of wages or salary to enforce payment of debts.
The amendment meant taxpayers would not have to foot as much of the bill associated with the scheme and the cost of recovery. I am interested to hear from the Attorney-General what other tools he might have at his fingertips to recover fines and, especially, how he intends to recover monies from those with a limited capacity to pay; it is something of a dilemma.
This is at the heart of the concerns of NAAJA, which wrote to the Attorney-General and provided me a copy of that letter in my capacity as the shadow. That letter was dated 27 November 2012 and described the increases as, and I quote, ‘unrealistic’.
I can only assume his response to NAAJA’s concerns and proposals, representing as they do Indigenous Territorians and some of our most disadvantaged people at that, was perhaps, ‘No, sorry we cannot accommodate you’. I am conscious we are talking about people who have committed crimes, but NAAJA has a responsibility to best represent the interests of its clients.
The letter included a request for consideration to allow courts some discretion, where there is no or limited capacity to pay, to be able to convert fines to community work.
I note the Victims of Crime Assistance Act is currently under review, and I have had the opportunity to view the issues paper, which I found online, and see interested parties and stakeholders have until 31 March to lodge a submission. I expect many organisations, including NAAJA, and perhaps individuals, will seize that opportunity to prepare a submission.
Given a review of the act is currently under way, I wondered why these amendments have been brought forward now and not as part of the wider review which will, no doubt, see other amendments drafted and brought before this House. I suspect the answer is the government seeks to raise this additional revenue sooner rather than later. The Attorney-General was very clear about this bill fulfilling an election commitment which, indeed, it is. It is listed in the document titled Country Liberals Costings and Savings Northern Territory Election August 2012. The foreword is signed by the Chief Minister and the new Attorney-General, boldly asserting their election promises have been fully costed and funded.
However, we know Treasury, in assessing the CLP’s costings for election commitments, found flaws and cost blow outs. On the strength of Treasury’s findings which, not surprisingly, the then opposition rejected, it concerns me that savings commitment No 4 in that document asserts, and I quote:
- We will increase the victims of crime levy to raise $1.5m a year or $6m over the forward estimates.
I am sure the Attorney-General will address this in his reply, but, essentially, the question is: can Territorians have confidence in these figures? Can victims of crime have confidence that the increase to the victims of crime levy is about better outcomes for victims of crime as opposed to better outcomes for revenue raising.
I note in the Attorney-General’s second reading speech the intention is, in raising additional revenue, the operational cost of the Crimes Victims Services Unit, which administers the fund, will have less reliance on an annual budget allocation through appropriation.
It is encouraging to see in 2011-12, out of the total cost of the Victims of Crime Assistance Scheme, $4.687m - 77% - was paid to victims and 23% was paid in administration costs. That is a considerable improvement from the figures going back to 2002-03, where only 58% of the cost of the scheme was paid in assistance to victims alongside 42% in administration costs.
The shift in these figures and a more efficient service spending more on victims and less on administration is a direct result, I understand - I am sure you will correct me if I am wrong, Attorney-General - of shifting the administration process from a court-based process to an administrative decision-making framework. That is a very positive improvement.
I could not see anything in the December 2012 mini-budget, nor in the media release from the Attorney-General on the subject other than that $2m raised through levies will be used to implement the safe homes policy. We have not seen the details of that yet, but I understand it is part of the commitment to support victims of crime. I look forward to hearing more about that.
The additional money raised through the increased levy must, obviously, be for the benefit of victims of crime and, hopefully, not magically found to support, for instance, election commitments to Tracy Village Social and Sports Club of $100 000.
I place on the record my thanks to Mr Mike Campbell from Victims of Crime NT, who took time out of his busy day to speak with me last week about the increase in levies and what it will mean for his organisation. It goes without saying that additional resources are welcomed. He made a point of how we recognise the need for funding to go into crime prevention, but we must never forget the important reality that we also need adequate funding to respond to support victims of crime.
Victims of Crime NT is an emergency service which also relies upon the support of volunteers. Mr Campbell is hopeful some of the additional funds they expect to receive will allow training of volunteers to better equip them to support victims of crime. You issued a media release, Attorney-General, following the mini-budget, that the organisation had received a funding boost of $100 000 - a good thing.
The opposition has no problem with the amendment which will see future levy amounts set by regulation rather than amendment to the act - a sensible move. Having flicked through those regulations, it is curious to see in Schedule 3 the long list of what are described as compensable injuries and the corresponding standard amount of financial assistance. One of the review questions was whether these amounts need to be reviewed. The answer is yes, and what a difficult thing it is to place a monetary amount on physical disability of a person whether it be temporary or permanent. What a sad state of affairs it is that we in our community have individuals who see fit to hurt others and the impact on those victims of crime, often violent crime.
There is no escaping the fact, as I mentioned at the beginning, and I quote:
- … that the State has a duty to protect its citizens from crimes of violence being committed against them.
I cannot let the opportunity pass to remind this new government, and the Attorney-General, that as long as they fail to act on the causes of crime by tackling issues like alcohol, which is at the core of 70% of offending behaviour and violent crime in the NT, they will continue to fail in their duty to protect Territorians from crimes of violence. They like to put up the notion they are tough on crime but we have, in reality, seen no action on alcohol other than the removal of the Banned Drinker Register and associated schemes with it. They have replaced it with nothing other than much talk amongst several ministers, who all seem to have a stake and say in alcohol policy from the Attorney-General to the Health minister to the Business minister to the Minister for Central Australia, all competing with sometimes conflicting views around approaches to alcohol. To add to that, the Chief Minister’s approach to tackling alcohol and drunks is to boldly step up and tell people to stop drinking.
Mr Deputy Speaker, I thank the Attorney-General for bringing this bill before the House and I commend it to honourable members.
Mr WOOD (Nelson): Mr Deputy Speaker, I did not realise there had been a sudden change in the Notice Paper and was expecting the Mandatory Minimum Sentencing Bill to be debated. I realise this morning’s Notice Paper was slightly different than that handed out at a very late time this morning. I will have to speak as I remember the bill.
I have also read NAAJA’s concerns about increasing the levy. However, I support the bill because it is good to have enough funds to ensure victims of crime are compensated adequately.
One of my concerns is this is a tax; one is a fine and one is a tax. The tax is there because you say the scheme is short of money. My concern is who decides what money goes to the victims of crime and what goes to administration of the scheme. It would be worth, in an annual report this year, to show the increase in money due to these changes in the legislation and what percentage of money raised has gone to administration versus the bank holding the victims of crime money. That is important.
In relation to payments, NAAJA’s concerns were that if the levy becomes too great people already at the bottom of the economic pile who sometimes are repeat offenders will not have the money to pay the fines. Their concern is whether we will send more people back to prison because it will just go around and around.
My understanding is payments can be made through Centrelink, but there have been some problems. Can the minister advise if there have been issues in relation to deductions through Centrelink for these levies? If so, could you explain whether the process is smooth and would not cause people to go into debt or put them through the revolving door of not paying fines, ending up in gaol and going back out again.
I would like to see how the concerns of NAAJA have been addressed because they are reasonable concerns. Their job, obviously, is dealing with many people in the low socioeconomic level. There are quite a few around our larger towns and cities in the Northern Territory.
I support the bill, Attorney-General, but I would like to have some of the issues raised clarified. I presume you responded to their concerns. Perhaps you could give us an idea of your response.
Mr ELFERINK (Attorney-General and Justice): Mr Deputy Speaker, I will address a few of the issues raised by members opposite. I thank them for their support because this was an election commitment. We went to the last election issuing media releases saying we would do this. The reason we did was because we operated under a presumption we believe is generally supported by the community at large and, because of the support by members opposite and the independent, a presumption those members also understand and embrace. The presumption is if you commit an offence which creates a victim - particularly offences which injure people - not only should your punishment be meted out to you, but you should also be paying something directly back to the victim you have created.
There are two components to this. That is why we have the system structured in such a way that it is not just rolled up into one bundle of money which is the fine you pay. This levy is clearly stated as a separate levy, described as a tax, if I understood the member for Nelson correctly.
Underneath this are some straightforward principles of law. The punishment the courts mete out from time to time by way of restraints on liberty or alternative economic punishments have an exemplary quality to them in the sense they are not just a damages claim lodged on behalf of the victim by the Crown, rather they are an exemplary process. There is a class of conduct of such a nature that we will not ask the average punter to seek damages through the normal tortious processes. We, as the Crown, will step in and ensure we do so, upon a finding of guilt, in a punitive fashion. That punitive fashion attracts the fine, the prison sentence, the good behaviour bond or whatever else.
The second component is much more in the nature of a tortious claim for damages. It would be unreasonable to ask the courts to approach every criminal offence with this damages component tacked on the side and then ask them to deal with it as a damages claim.
If you look at cases in the law of tort you can see damages such as loss, suffering and injuries are extremely difficult to assess because a myriad of different factors come into play. Over the years they have tended to become more formulaic in their nature. This is reflected in some of the comments made by the member for Nhulunbuy. I will return to that later.
We, arbitrarily, as a parliament have the awkward task of creating a fund - a trust account - for those victims. As a parliament we choose to approach this in the only way we can. We cast a net into the future and hope it falls exclusively on a certain class of conduct to the exclusion of all else. As a metaphor, you can understand from a fishing perspective it would be pretty hard to cast a net into the sea and catch one type of fish to the exclusion of all others. Because of the clumsy nature of the way parliament works in this area, it is necessarily what has to happen. We then stick an arbitrary figure onto the side of these other penalties.
I understand the comments of the member for Nhulunbuy about how ghastly and macabre having a list of injuries is where you have a quantity attached to each one of them. The first time I ran into that was when I was a trolley pusher at Coles in Darwin. In the tea room there was something from the union which had a bill of fare where the loss of an eye was worth this much, the loss of two eyes was worth this much and down it went. It went down to fingertips, and I remember thinking, ‘Gee, for that amount of money I could probably do a fingertip’.
They had the same problem at that time with compensatory injuries in the workplace we have as a government in assessing what you pay in compensation at a criminal level. In the tort cases there is now almost a formulaic approach. Because there have been so many cases, you can look at the large number of judgments dealing with damages claims and get an idea of what you will be paid in compensation, subject to a number of factors which apply.
The problem is, whilst that is formulaic in nature - as is the schedule you referred to, as was the notice on the tea room wall when I was working in Coles as a 14-year-old boy – unfortunately, with that type of process, you end up with formulas which are macabre and ghastly. I am always open to a better suggestion. If we were to ask the courts to carry out this assessment process considering all those formulaic approaches, you can well understand the court system would become bogged down, particularly when you are dealing with victims assistance levies attached to very minor offences.
One would struggle with the concept that a police officer who gives you a speeding ticket on the side of the road must then make an application to the court to have it determine the potential damages that could have flowed from that speeding. We would not ask a court to do that, it would be absurd. That is why we have this arbitrary structure which, as the member for Nhulunbuy rightly says, has been changed over time.
She pointed out the former Attorney-General’s changes to the legislation in this area. Dr Peter Toyne was stuck with the problem as well, and I note comments from the member for Nhulunbuy, particularly in relation to the ratio of expensive administration to actual amount paid out.
I remember that debate. I am a bit rusty on it - it was eight years ago - but, in essence, the argument was we have two major problems with this system. One is that administration soaks up much of the dough. Two, and alternatively, it is a bloody expensive system. It paid out a great deal in compensation. You had the macabre reality of containing the expense it was starting to impose on the taxpayer.
I pick up the comments from the two members who have skirted around this, or dealt with the area directly depending on which member we are talking about as to whether or not this money goes back to the victims. I can assure you the money is traceable because it goes through a form of trust account – it does not go into the Central Holding Authority - which means we can track it and track it well. The statistics the member of Nhulunbuy relied on were based on that capacity to track.
However, even if it was paid into the Central Holding Authority you know full well the money would be returned to victims because the system still costs more in payouts and to run than it generates in revenue. Even if there was no trust account and it was done through a grants system through the government, money in from the system is less than the money which goes out to the system. Whilst you could not track a dollar coin, necessarily, through the system, you could be comforted by the fact the system was paying out more. The moment the system started to make more money than it paid out it would take the nature the member for Nelson was talking about; it would have the flavour and nature of a tax. But it is not really a tax because it costs more to run than we extract from it.
Even with these amendments in the system - and these are sharp increases, there is no doubt about it - we will not cover the cost of running the system. The system, at the moment, costs in the order of $5m; I have it written down somewhere but will not quibble over the nickels and dimes. Even with these increases the income will be in the order of $2.8m so we are still well short of the $2.2m or the break-even point. If we were to pursue the break-even point – you can do the mathematics yourself - you can understand we would get to the point where the levies would, in many instances, be much more than the associated punitive fine they were attached to. You have to strike a balance at some point.
The question with any balancing act is: where do you put the fulcrum? In the world view of the Northern Territory government you have to put it in a place where you believe you can attain the optimal balance. I accept comments by both members in relation to CAALAS’ position, but you have to remember CAALAS sees the world through the prism of lawyers. I do not blame them; they are lawyers and provide a legal service. However, like any lawyer, they are duty bound to defend the rights of their client.
All the cases CAALAS pursues, deals with or defends when dealing with people who are subject to this levy are criminal matters. Two observations come from that. One is CAALAS, like a good firm of lawyers, will always act in the best interests of their client. When you have, like CAALAS, a class of client, you will not only act in the interests of your present clients, you will act in the interests of future clients. Hence, their complaint this will be expensive and, in some instances, difficult for people to pay.
This brings me to the second point: if you do not want to pay this levy do not commit the crime. Do not do the bad guy stuff.
I have goofed up ladies and gentlemen. I have the advisors waving a paper in front of me saying it is NAAJA not CAALAS and they are correct. It is NAAJA because Jonathon Hunyor signed the letter. Thank you. I have had CAALAS on my mind for other reasons in recent times so I am sure you will forgive me.
The second point is what we hope will flow through this, particularly with some decent support from media organisations making this public, is people will realise it becomes more and more expensive to commit offences.
In the past I have copped speeding fines. Attached to that is a victims assistance levy amount. You pay those amounts because you do not really want to contest them; on those occasions I have been guilty. Perhaps it is my age, perhaps it is because fines have increased that I no longer relish getting speeding fines - not that I ever did - but I am no longer blas about them because they are very expensive. I find myself being far more attentive to my speedometer nowadays than I used to be. In this blessed day of miracles and wonder, the establishment of a cruise control button on my dashboard is one of the most oft-used pieces of equipment in my car, perhaps after the accelerator and the brake. When I set the speed I do not have to look down at the speedometer and can look at what is going on around me ...
Mr Wood: Do not forget to turn it off when you go lower.
Mr ELFERINK: Fortunately, the moment you hit the brake it turns itself off. I use the device in the areas I find myself being tempted to speed - Bagot Road, Stuart Highway, Tiger Brennan Drive etcetera - because I am mindful of the expense of getting pinged. Mind you, from time to time, I have stickers on the side of the car identifying me and whistling past people at a zillion miles an hour is probably not a good idea. Another potential penalty through public censure is a vehicle to place restraints on me.
The other question raised by the member for Nhulunbuy was: Why now? She answered her own question two or three sentences later when she said this was an election commitment. Yes, it is an election commitment. We are reviewing the process because I asked for it to be looked at but, nevertheless, it is a revenue raising exercise, I make no bones about it. However, it is a revenue raising exercise with a very specific intent in mind: returning the money collected from the people who pay the levy to the victims. It is this process which enabled me, as Attorney-General, when visited by Mike Campbell et al from Victims of Crime NT to tell them they were going to receive $100 000.
Can I regale honourable members with a story because I confess to a certain amount of glee from it? They came into my office aware we had made commitments during the election campaign in relation to proper support for their organisation. The transmission letter I sent a couple of days before had not yet reached them. Whilst they were angling for an extra $30 000, I confessed to a moment of confusion. I thought, ‘Are they asking for $30 000 more?’ It then occurred to me they had not received the letter and I was able to tell them they were receiving $100 000 with a view to ongoing funding. There was a long pause while all this sunk in.
One of the great joys of being a minister in government is when you deliver news like that it is heartily received and most welcome. Whilst this is not about me, I confess to an element of selfish satisfaction that we were able to do this for the organisation.
The issue of the periodic payment process through Centrelink was also raised. My understanding is the problem is not at our end; we can deal with that quite easily. There seems to be a glitch at the Centrelink end. If Centrelink wants to contact us in relation to how those systems can be improved, we will be happy to accommodate them. However, we will deal with those issues as we have to.
I believe that touches on all the matters raised today bar one. I return to the matters raised by NAAJA. As part of the process of the review, the process of working off fines will be looked at. Keeping the election commitment to use this money to restore victims, as far as possible, to a place they were before they were offended against is what this bill is about today.
My advice to people who become NAAJA and CAALAS clients is: do not do it and we will not ask you to pay. It is that simple. If NAAJA and CAALAS want to make further submissions in relation to programs to pay it back we will accept that through the review process.
I have now dealt with each of the issues. I thank honourable members for their support for what is sensible legislation. It places the onus of compensation, to a much larger degree, on the shoulders of the people who commit acts which, ultimately, potentially or actually, are compensable.
Mr Deputy Speaker, I commend the bill to the House and look forward to its passage.
Motion agreed to; bill read a second time.
Mr ELFERINK (Attorney-General and Justice) (by leave): Mr Deputy Speaker, I move that the bill be now read a third time.
Motion agreed to; bill read a third time.
PETITION
Humpty Doo Fire Station Closure
Humpty Doo Fire Station Closure
Mr WOOD (Nelson)(by leave): Madam Speaker, I present a petition from 4115 petitioners relating to the Humpty Doo Fire Station closure. Madam Speaker, I move that the petition be read.
Motion agreed to; petition read:
- We the undersigned, ask that the government reverse its decision to close the Humpty Doo Fire Station. We believe that this decision to close the fire station will mean longer response times, will put lives and properties at greater risk, does not take into account the growing population of the rural area, does not take into account the increase in traffic especially haulage trucks on our highways, and has been done without any consultation with the community or local electorate members.
RESPONSES TO PETITION
Petition Nos 1 and 3
Petition Nos 1 and 3
Mr CLERK: Madam Speaker, pursuant to Standing Order 100A, I inform honourable members that responses to petitions No 1 and 3 have been received and circulated to honourable members. The text of the responses will be placed on the Legislative Assembly website. A copy of the responses will be provided to the members who tabled the petitions for distribution to petitioners.
- Petition No 1
O’Ferrals Rock Declared as a Conservation Zone with Heritage Listing
Date presented: 24 October 2012
Presented by: Mr Tollner
Referred to: Minister for Lands, Planning and the Environment
Date response due: 13 March 2012
Date response received: 10 December 2012
Date response presented: 12 February 2013
Response:
In response to the petition, I will initiate an amendment to the Northern Territory Planning Scheme to rezone O’Ferrals Rock from Zone FD (Future Development) to Zone CN (Conservation). This will provide the community with the opportunity to support the conservation of the site. It is not necessary to consolidate the site with the adjoining park, as the designation of Zone CN (Conservation) will protect O’Ferrals Rock from development.
I am pleased to advise that there is a shell midden located at the O’Ferrals Rock site and that the midden is automatically protected by the Heritage Act.
The Department of Lands, Planning and the Environment will determine the extent of this midden and make some further inquiries about the possible heritage significance of O’Ferrals Rock. It is important to note that the Heritage Council, in accordance with legislation, is the only authorised body to formally initiate an assessment of heritage significance. On completion of its investigations, the Department will refer the matter to the Council for its consideration. If a third party wishes to nominate O’Ferrals Rock for heritage listing, they may do so at any time by submitting the appropriate nomination form to the Heritage Council.
Petition No 3
Cyclist and Pedestrian Safety on Charles Eaton Drive
Date presented: 27 November 2012
Presented by: Mr Giles
Referred to: Minister for Lands, Planning and the Environment and Minister for Transport
Date response due: 26 March 2013
Date response received: 18 January 2012
Date response presented: 12 February 2013
Response:
Works have already been planned to seal the shoulders on Charles Eaton Drive on both sides. This will alleviate the immediate concerns of the petitioners and provide a safer cycling and pedestrian experience on Charles Eaton Drive.
Tenders for this work were opened in late October 2012 and closed on 10 November 2012. Works should commence in early January 2013 and be complete by late January 2013, weather permitting.
A strategic plan for this area is being developed with all parties which will incorporate the airport, Marrara Sporting Complex and future developments in the airport area with strong linkages to the McMillans Road shared path. Meetings held in September 2012 with Darwin Airport Corporation, City of Darwin and the Department of Transport have commenced this planning process and will continue early next year. Once this plan is completed it will address the requirements for signalised crossings from McMillans Road shared path to the airport and Marrara Sporting Complex.
The Department of Transport is working with stakeholders, including Bicycle NT, and regularly meets with these groups to canvass issues, discuss plans and coordinate action.
The Northern Territory government is continuing to develop shared off road paths to provide safe and convenient cycling opportunities for Territorians.
STATEMENT BY SPEAKER
Death of Mr Johannes Cornelis Vos
Death of Mr Johannes Cornelis Vos
Madam SPEAKER: Honourable members, it is with deep regret that I advise of the death, on 15 January 2013, of Mr Hans Vos, a noted Darwin architect, developer and keen yachtsman.
I advise honourable members of the presence in the gallery of the family and friends of Mr Hans Vos. On behalf of honourable members, I extend a very warm and sincere welcome to you today.
I remind honourable members that on completion of debate I will ask members to stand in silence for one minute as a mark of respect to Mr Hans Vos.
CONDOLENCE MOTION
Mr Johannes Cornelis Vos
Mr Johannes Cornelis Vos
Mr MILLS (Chief Minister): Madam Speaker, Barb, friends and family, we never thought this day would ever come.
I move that this Assembly express its condolence at the passing of Hans Vos, former principal of an international architecture practice, architect, building designer, master planner and visionary Territorian. We offer our deepest sympathy to his family and friends.
Johannes Cornelis Vos, or as we knew him, Hans Vos, was a town planner, a designer of buildings and projects and a visionary who was recently appointed an Honorary Fellow of the Australian Institute of Architects. Few people have had such a direct influence on our capital city as Hans. He was a true Territorian through and through.
He arrived in Australia with his family in the early 1950s as a seven-year-old from Holland. He was the eldest of four boys. His father had been a printer in Holland and worked with the underground during World War II forging identification papers and counterfeiting money. When the war finished, Hans’ father was unable to recover his printing presses and other assets which had been taken to East Germany. Mrs Vos was a dressmaker.
The family considered three options for their future: Canada, South Africa and Australia. Mr Vos Snr thought Canada would be as cold as Holland and was no fan of the cold. He was concerned about the political stability of South Africa, so Australia, as third choice, won out.
Once settled in Perth, Mr Vos Snr realised yoghurt was not available in Australia so he started to import it and was known as ‘Mr Yoghurt’.
Hans flunked out of high school in the fourth year due to his support of the family endeavours such as night-time milk rounds, thus the end of his formal education. Leaving home in 1962 when he was just 22 years of age, he was determined to drive around Australia. The first job he had was in Port Hedland digging trenches and, believe it or not, shooting snakes. Apparently, the snakes had fallen into the trenches after heavy rains and it was Hans’ job to shoot the reptiles before the pipe layers got there.
He then moved to Carnarvon where he had a job riding and breaking in horses on a station. He spent some time in Mullewa, my home town. It is such a delight when you find people who know a little town. Hans knew it well.
In 1963 he arrived in Darwin. Hans told a story of driving up the Stuart Highway, at that time a one lane sometimes bitumen road. Driving over the McMinn Street Bridge, he turned left and headed for the port. When he reached Stokes Hill Wharf he asked a wharfie if he knew where Darwin was. The wharfie told him he had just driven through it. He and a mate originally planned to spend two weeks in Darwin and spent the next three nights camped under the Tree of Knowledge until the police moved them on.
With a little drafting experience from Perth, Hans landed a job with the NT Planning Department and looked over the shoulder of an architect, Harcourt Long, who produced the first town plans of Darwin after World War II.
Hans left Darwin for three years to go crocodile shooting in the Gulf of Carpentaria, then to Townsville and the Great Barrier Reef before heading for a year of abalone diving in Bass Strait. Hans returned to Perth but answered an ad for a draftsman back in Darwin, got the job and moved to the Territory for good.
Hans was one of those people who could not look at anything without thinking outside the boundaries of whatever it was he was seeing. Isn’t that such a good description of Hans? It was such a delight having conversations with him because he had perspectives which were refreshing, stimulating and which certainly stimulated discussion. You always left with a different view after spending time with Hans.
He said he worked backwards. He visualised a completed project then worked back to ensure it happened. His mantra was, ‘Define the purpose of a building, research how its inhabitants really use the space, then match and complement the purpose with the structure’.
Hans was a partner at Woodhead before retiring five years ago. Hans is best known, of course, for the Cullen Bay project. He was so passionate about this that he sold his house to finance the planning processes. Originally, the then Chief Minister, Paul Everingham, told Hans no one would want to live at Cullen Bay. Hans plugged away, despite sceptics and critics, and it took him 10 years to complete that project.
There are so many of his buildings, it is hard to pick any particular one out. Hans said his favourite project was not a building but the Cenotaph on the Esplanade commemorating those who died in Australia’s wars. Hans said before his redevelopment of the Cenotaph 20 or 30 people would attend functions there, now there are thousands. He was especially proud of that.
Hans was also responsible for the Northern Territory University master plan; the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, another Tracy Award winner; the Darwin international terminal; and the Territory Insurance Office building. Perhaps one of the most notable fans of Hans’ work was media baron, Rupert Murdoch. Hans won the job to build the Darwin newspaper’s offices on McMinn Street. When Mr Murdoch saw the finished project he commissioned Hans to design News Limited’s massive printing and publishing plants across the world: Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide, and Hong Kong with the South China Morning Post. Hans spent five years on these projects.
Sailing was another passion in his life. He built two boats, the first of which he sailed in the first Darwin to Ambon Yacht Race and then up the Victoria River to re-enact the voyage of The Beagle. Hans was quietly fearless, with the same attitude toward sailing he had to architecture. If it was dangerous, Hans would simply work out the best way to overcome the danger.
Former Deputy Chief Minister, Barry Coulter, tells a story of a hair-raising trip from Ambon to Darwin with massive seas whipped up by force 7 winds. Those who knew Hans know this is a true description from Barry. With the yacht being thrown around like a cork in a washing machine, Hans calmly faced the seas with a smile on his face. He had worked it out.
Hans had intended to sail around the world with his wife Barbara, but his passion for architectural pursuits won the day and he remained on land. The architectural and planning merit of Hans’ work has been recognised previously. A bigger contribution from these projects can be found in changes in the Darwin community’s self-perceptions and related aspirations.
Hans led many to realise Darwin did not have to remain a quaint outback centre and that a future with infrastructure facilities and services to match world standards was an achievable goal. These perceptions also became available to visitors, an essential ingredient for Darwin and the Northern Territory to be taken seriously as a target for major investment and the future growth of the Commonwealth. Hans should be recognised more for his part in these huge changes. Hans said he needed just three to four hours’ sleep each night. He saw sleep as a complete waste of time; he would rather be using his time creatively.
One of his favourite songs was the Beatle’s hit Here Comes the Sun, for it was the sun Hans really loved.
He claimed he had seen perhaps 95% of sunrises in his life, and he tried to face at least one bedroom to the east in the houses he designed so the sunrise was viewable every morning. Hans said he did not wish to leave any particular legacy but was proud of the TIO building and the conversion of the old Vestey’s water tank at Darwin High School.
In addition to the above, Hans was loved and respected by all those who were fortunate enough to cross his path. He was a gentleman in the truest sense of the words with a love of fine red wine. At his farewell - I knew it would happen - as we walked into the room everywhere to be seen was a fine red in people’s hands. What a lovely way to say goodbye.
Hans’ second favourite song was Rod Stewart’s Sailing. It is perhaps fitting to quote the last lines of that song:
- Oh Lord, to be near you, to be free.
Thank you, Hans.
Ms LAWRIE (Opposition Leader): Madam Speaker, I wish to extend my sincere condolences to the family and friends of Hans Vos. Hans Vos passed away on 15 January at Royal Darwin Hospital after his battle with cancer.
Hans moved to the Territory, as we have heard, in 1963 as a 20-year old tourist. I have the same anecdote as the Chief Minister, but the words I have been given are quotes. He once said, and I quote:
- I was travelling around Australia and the plan was to stay in Darwin for a fortnight to earn enough money to buy petrol and drive on. I drove over the Daly Street Bridge, turned left into McMinn Street and kept going. I then found myself at the end of Stokes Hill Wharf. I was a bit puzzled and I said to a burly wharfie: ‘Where am I? How do I get to Darwin?’ ‘You’ve just driven past it, you mug’ was the reply.
That was 50 years ago. Since then, he did not look back. He was involved in Darwin business, architectural design and the development of our city since that day. He saw a plan for the Territory and wanted to be involved. In 1972, he established his own planning and design practice. He always had a vision for the future, always looking ahead. Even though some of his ideas were controversial, he was never afraid to put his plans and ideas forward. This made him one of the Territory’s most notable architects.
He was among the thousands of Territorians to witness the powerful Cyclone Tracy on Christmas Day 1974 which tore through the Top End. He was living in Jingili at the time the storm hit and his house was reduced to a shell. Even though he had no roof, I am told he still invited his neighbours Pat and Bob Dent over for a drink, as Territorians do.
His architectural and design work was not only noted in the Territory but, as we have heard, by News Limited mogul, Rupert Murdoch, who went on to contract him to build state-of-the-art facilities in Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney and Hong Kong after seeing our own NT News building in 1985. The headquarters were three times larger than the old Mitchell Street premises and provided a much bigger room for the printing press which boosted production and efficiency.
In September last year, he was rewarded for his significant contribution to architecture in Australia, particularly in the Northern Territory, with his appointment as an Honorary Fellow of the Australian Institute of Architects. This was celebrated at Government House where Her Honour Sally Thomas AM, Administrator of the Northern Territory and Mr Ross Connolly, representing the Australian Institute of Architects, made the presentation.
Hans is well-known to Territorians for his design of Cullen Bay Marina, first drawn up more than 20 years ago. At the time, many people did not want this development to proceed. Cullen Bay Marina has gone on to become one of the most popular spots in Darwin and now hosts a range of restaurants, stores and housing for both residential and commercial operations. It has become one of the most prestigious addresses in the Territory with properties well into the $1m mark.
More known for his work in the Top End, he was also involved in the master planning of the Desert Springs Estate in Alice Springs, the first integrated golf course and residential development built in Australia. He continued to work on various developments in Central Australia.
One of the later developments he was involved with is the $60m development project currently under way at Coolalinga. This complex will boast three major stores, a seven storey office block, 60 small shops, restaurants and a street market. The housing estate next to the shopping precinct will have 150 homes housing more than 400 people. This gives the rural people of the Territory access to facilities our suburbs have. It is unfortunate Hans will not see the result of the Coolalinga project, but I am sure his work and concepts will continue to live on in future projects and his vision will carry through in existing and upcoming developments. He was a Darwin architect with a vision and passion for ascetic design.
On a personal note, I want to give my condolences to Barbara. Those of us who have been in public life in the Territory for some time have known this couple for a long time and seen they have been pretty well inseparable. You could literally, when you met them at various functions, see the love and binding devotion they had for each other.
I heard the stories of when love first blossomed in Singapore for Hans and Barbara. My deepest condolences to Barbara, but I know Hans would have enjoyed the recognition he has received since his passing.
He will be remembered by all who knew him. I stand today with my colleagues to remember him and the service he provided to Territorians.
Mr TOLLNER (Health): Madam Speaker, I am pleased to support this condolence motion. I knew Hans Vos reasonably well; he was a lovely bloke and we rubbed shoulders on a whole range of things in recent years. It was a pleasure to work with the man and, as has been described this afternoon, he was a visionary. He was a bloke who could see things into the future most of us could not, and that type of person needs to be valued and recognised by the community. Of course, he has left his mark on Darwin. It is very difficult to look around Darwin and see something Hans had not been involved in.
He was a big thinker - a bloke who thought outside the square as others have said. The Cenotaph, the TIO building, Cullen Bay and the range of other buildings and projects he was involved in shower him with glory.
My most recent involvement with him was of a different nature. The children of Minmarama community on Dick Ward Drive came to see me about a year ago wanting a basketball court. They did some promotion around town and started raising money by distributing telephone books, sold sausages at Bunnings and did an amazing job raising money. However, they needed some help and corporate support to make that basketball court a reality. I organised for Hans and a range of other business people to come into my office for a meeting and the kids from Minmarama put on a presentation and wowed and wooed everybody, and no less a man than Hans himself. Hans took that project on almost as a personal one.
There is something to be said for seeing a group of young Indigenous kids growing up in not the best environment getting out and doing something and Hans was dead keen to support them. He designed that basketball court, he prevailed on his employer at the time to put up some money. Gwelo Developments supported it and, through their amazing efforts and Hans’ leadership of the project, the Minmarama crew now have their basketball court and it has been a splendid community event.
There would be few sadder than the Gwalwa Daraniki Association at Hans’ passing because Hans has been a supporter and, over the years, they have grown to love and respect Hans. Their involvement with Hans was with the design of Arafura Harbour. I found it heartening to hear the Opposition Leader refer to Cullen Bay and how controversial that was before it was constructed. I compare that, somewhat, to Arafura Harbour.
I have said in the past that plan, that design was quite visionary. For somebody to come up with that design really is a credit to that person’s imagination - their future vision for what could possibly be a wonderful development. I was very disheartened when the government canned it before any process was undertaken. When people pull that part of themselves out, lay it on the table for the world to see, and for others to back that idea with money, the least we as a community can do is look at it and make a fair assessment. I was very disappointed that did not occur. I hope in the future, Hans’ legacy in relation to Arafura Harbour can at least be put through a process where we can have some community consultation, some environmental assessments done, and a range of other processes that need to be gone through. It would be only fair to Hans’ legacy. However, that is another matter.
Hans was a lovely down-to-earth bloke. To look at him you could have been looking at any other ragtag Territorian fond of getting around without shoes or a shirt. However, the reality is quite often you can judge a person by their friends. Look at this eclectic group we have here today. It did not matter whether you were a former Chief Minister or one of the great developers of the Northern Territory, a great architect, draftsman, accountant, or the person on the lowest rung of life, Hans seemed to fit in with them all and everybody who knew him loved and respected him.
There is a massive hole in the Northern Territory with the passing of Hans. I feel enormously proud to have known the man. He was a lovely guy, very easy to work with. You could provide criticism on virtually anything and he did not take it to heart. He was a man who was content within himself, had the courage of his own convictions and a desire to put that out there for the community to look at. We are enormously blessed having had Hans Vos in our community for so long and his memory will not be forgotten.
To Barbara, the Vos family, and all the friends who have joined us today, thank you very much for coming and thank you for being such loyal and wonderful supporters of the great Hans Vos.
Mr WOOD (Nelson): Madam Speaker, it is obvious from hearing other people’s versions and knowledge of Hans Vos that I only know a small portion of that life. Having been to the funeral at Christ Church Cathedral recently, The life he had I certainly did not know much about. I would like to say something about the life I shared with Hans Vos.
He was a sailor; I certainly am not a sailor. He drank red wine; I do not drink wine. However, I like town planning; he, obviously, was a great town planner and architect. He was visionary. I regarded him as a friend, perhaps not the type of friend who wines and dines with a person, but someone with whom I could discuss something without fear or favour. We certainly had some debates from time to time.
People would understand. I know the people behind me; I feel like I am at a Development Consent Authority meeting. There is a range of developers, town planners, some surveyors and, I presume, people from the department. I am trying to put the case that Hans Vos was a good bloke even though I did not always agree with him.
He has left his mark, especially from a town planning point of view. One of the great documents that came out in the 1990s was the Darwin Regional Land Use Structure Plan. Graham Bailey is behind me and he had much to do with that, so did Hans Vos.
Hans Vos was also involved in the development of Palmerston. I remember talking to him one day about the good old Elizabeth River dam and he was explaining what that design was meant to do. We moved to the development of Palmerston. Palmerston might have been one of those town plans built by luck. David Veal must have been in charge of the department at that time and Hans was either a contractor or working for him. The government wanted some planning done for Palmerston quite quickly. He told me they were in a four-wheel drive looking around the bush seeing where things might go and went down that escarpment and became bogged. Immediately, David Veal, said, ‘That’s it. On top of the hill is where it goes.’ That is about where Palmerston is today.
I am sure there was more planning to it, but it gave me the impression that sometimes planning is done in a hurry to suit the government. Perhaps that is not always the best way to do things, but it gave me the idea he was a down to earth person, not scared to get his feet in the mud, walk the bush and look at what was to be designed.
Of course, we have Weddell, an issue before us today. It was an issue for the previous government and has been around a long time. He was part of the design of Elizabeth River dam. The reason I regard him as a friend is because - I heard people say at the funeral he was stubborn – well, he may have been, but there is nothing wrong with being stubborn as long as you listen to the other person’s point of view. I found discussions with him about his design of Elizabeth River dam and his concepts quite enlightening. I did not agree with it, but he listened to my point of view. We both shared, to some extent, a vision from a different direction.
He did not hold any grudges against me, and I enjoyed his company when we started to talk about town planning. You could see he was visionary and had the Darwin region at heart. That is one of the things I will always remember him for. He had the ability to put forward great ideas, and not all people with great ideas have them turn into something practical. Ask Burley Griffin what happened to his original plans. Canberra might have his name stuck to the lake, but it is not quite the plan he designed because the bureaucrats were involved.
He has left his mark at Cullen Bay. Member for Fong Lim, Cullen Bay is different to the Arafura Harbour concept. He was involved in the government’s new Greater Darwin Land Use Plan, which is a revamped version of the old one.
For something closer to home, he was involved in Coolalinga. If anyone has been there recently you would have seen how Coolalinga has gone ahead. He was involved in the second lot of plans. I will probably get into trouble for saying this, but the developers originally had somebody from Brisbane do some design work. That was knocked on the head. The one which did not get knocked on the head was designed by Hans Vos.
He understood where these buildings were going and who they would serve. They were to be in the rural area and would serve locals. They needed to have a flavour which reflected a shopping centre in a rural area. Hans Vos was able to show that.
I know Even Lynne is here today and if there is to be a tavern in Coolalinga Shopping Centre, or if there is going to be a fine bottle shop serving red wine, it should have Hans Vos’ name on the front of it. That would be fitting. He lived in the rural area and enjoyed wine. It would be nice if he could be remembered close to where he lived and for something he enjoyed doing.
Hans Vos was a great person who cannot be replaced. Sometimes people say, ‘Do not think you cannot be replaced’. Hans Vos was a one off. He was like the No 1 FJ Holden; it was the only one. He brought something we will find hard to replace: vision and controversy. There is nothing wrong with that. If we do not have controversy in town planning we will have dull planning. He brought controversy with vision.
Darwin and the Territory will be worse off without him. He will be a great loss to Barbara and I extend my deepest sympathy. He will be a great loss to his friends behind me who worked with him for many years, and he will be a great loss for ‘friends’ like me, who enjoyed his wisdom, vision and his ability to pass on his knowledge. We, as Territorians, have lost someone very special. May he rest in peace.
Mr ELFERINK (Attorney-General and Justice): Madam Speaker, I also wish to contribute to this debate. Few people in this room would be aware I am the son of a Dutch architect; there are some parallels for you. I asked my father a few years after he stopped drinking, ‘Why did you stop drinking, Dad?’ I was expecting him to tell me it was because it was a problem in the family, financial issues, whatever, but his answer was, ‘I lost my colour’. I have long wondered what on earth that meant, and to understand what that meant gives you an insight, perhaps, into the way Hans Vos perceived the world.
An architect is not a technical person, an architect is an artist. Architecture, when done properly, is a sensual exercise in the sense it pertains to what you see, how a building makes you feel, what impression you get from a room, interior design, those types of things. Those things provide colour to an artist’s life.
The difficulty for an architect is they have to find the balance between form and function. In the case of Frank Lloyd Wright, one of the great architects of the 19th and 20th centuries, he could not, or would not, distinguish between form and function. Much of the philosophy of Frank Lloyd Wright can be found in Alain de Botton’s recent philosophical work on architecture. The philosophy and everything aside, it is about the sensuality; the flavour of what that form of art makes you feel and see.
To give some context to that observation, perhaps the best example I can give is his involvement in the golf course in Alice Springs. Mark Twain - Samuel Clemens - once observed golf was a good walk spoiled. However, because of the passion for design brought to it, irrespective of the game, the golf course could never be a good walk spoiled. It was demonstrable in its form, shape and presence that there was a love and passion built into that golf course. To this day, when I walk the golf course in Alice Springs, which does require a certain amount of bushwalking, I love being there.
I am familiar with the passion for colour and development because I mixed with an architect every day of my life. The parallels between my father and Hans Vos were similar in a number of areas. Not only were they Dutch and architects, but they had a passion for development; however, not development for development’s sake. In an era when Soviet architecture was capturing so much not only of the Soviet world but, for some reason, alienating concrete found its way into the psyche of many of the architects in the west, artists like Vos and his ilk resisted it. The art of Hans Vos was reminiscent of the work of Frank Lloyd Wright where form and function were melded so completely into one they were utterly inseparable. It was never, in Hans’ case, crass; it was always subtle.
In Cullen Bay, the apartments on the seaward side are reminiscent of an environment Darwin had never seen but a romantic environment of other nations. The sea point area in Cape Town, South Africa, is not, in its mood and flavour, dissimilar to what has been captured in the units along the seafront in Cullen Bay. That small piece of sea point in South Africa, even during the apartheid years, was somewhere apartheid could not creep in because of the mood of the people who occupied that space.
The artist’s canvas is our living environment. It is the place we live in, we breathe, we love, we get angry, whatever. It is a place where we are passionate and considerate, and it is on that canvas, when properly painted or sculpted, our moods and the way we perceive things are changed. The way my mood changes and the way I see Cullen Bay is a direct result of somebody sitting in front of a drafting board - a CAD system nowadays – and thinking, ‘What brush strokes am I going to make to change the mood of people who visit this place?’ It is not crass; it is not like Antoni Gaudi in Barcelona whose church is described as magnificent but looks like a mishmash of unreconciled ideas. For Hans Vos it was not about unreconciled ideas, it was about reconciliation with the built environment.
The artist in Hans Vos is ever present in the work he did. True to the legacy of Frank Lloyd Wright, Hans understood one important thing: the truth is always more important than just the facts.
Madam SPEAKER: Honourable members, Mrs Barbara Vos, friends of Hans Vos, I also extend my sincere sympathy to you on the loss of your husband, friend and father. In my dealings with him he was a true gentleman, a remarkable person - will continue to be a remarkable person - and was genuinely a nice guy. I pass on my sincere sympathy to you, Barbara, on the loss of your husband and life companion. His memory and life will live on in us forever.
Ms FINOCCHIARO (Drysdale): Madam Speaker, I would like to make a short contribution to this condolence motion today because I was very fortunate to have been able to meet Hans, despite his illness, close to the end of his life. I have to thank Barbara for making that possible because it has certainly enriched my life. Many of the things he said have resonated with me and will continue to for a long time to come.
He welcomed me into his home. I was incredibly intimidated to meet him. I had grown up around Lands and Planning, town planning particularly, my whole life so his was a name very familiar to me.
With an enormous collage map of Palmerston from 1985 my dad gave me, I trudged to the top of the apartment and spent a couple of hours with Hans which I will never forget. His passion for planning and vision was so infectious. I sat in awe as he flipped through the most beautiful drawings. The minister talked about colour - he had some wonderful things in his mind he was able to transfer onto paper. For someone who is not artistic it was very inspirational to me. Something I learnt from Hans is nothing is impossible.
A few times I raised what I perceived to be issues and, to him – he was very polite, but nothing was beyond the reach of the Territory to Hans and nothing was beyond the reach of mankind. I took that message away.
His life story has been very eloquently captured by other members, so I will not go into it. However, the celebration of his life that I attended was beautiful. Whilst it was terribly sad, it was so perfect. Everyone was celebrating and reflecting many wonderful things. It was not a miserable time; it was one of celebration and reflection.
He had a full and rich life and made an enormous impact on the lives of many people and the Territory. I gathered that from the short time I knew him. To Barbara, Sam and I send our deepest condolences to you. Also, the Finocchiaro and Burke families who knew Hans. Thank you for the opportunity to meet him; I will always remember it.
Motion agreed to.
Members stood for one minute of silence as a mark of respect.
Madam SPEAKER: I thank honourable members for their contributions to the motion to the life and legacy of Mr Hans Vos. I ask members of the family and friends to adjourn to the Main Hall for afternoon tea.
MINISTERIAL STATEMENT
Gas to Gove
Gas to Gove
Mr MILLS (Chief Minister): Madam Speaker, today I inform the House of the work government has undertaken on behalf of the Northern Territory to secure certainty around future gas supply, thus allowing the Territory to release up to 300 petajoules of its gas for use by Pacific Aluminium in the Gove refinery.
This has been a very interesting journey, one that has not only stirred the hearts, minds and the deep anxiety of the good families of Nhulunbuy and the Gove area, but has also stirred the interest of the Australian nation and brought to light some issues around energy security.
It is a journey which has taken me through the halls of the Commonwealth parliament, to Nhulunbuy, meetings in Perth and boardrooms of Europe, culminating in a request to the Rio Tinto board in its London head office.
This journey has allowed knowledge to be amassed - the building of knowledge for all concerned about the energy demands and supply of the Northern Territory and Australia today and into the future. All who have been following this journey, which started with a request from Rio Tinto’s subsidiary, Pacific Aluminium, for a 10-year gas supply for its Gove mine refinery operation, now have a much broader understanding of the current known gas resources, the current availability of the proven gas supply, the future possible gas deposits that could be proven for supply, and the knowledge that more exploration will bring more gas to the market.
The other significant point which has been learnt on the journey to ultimately bring gas to Gove is the Northern Territory is not alone when it comes to ensuring we have a secure and long-term supply of known energy supply at a cost acceptable to governments, business consumers and, of course, domestic consumers.
We also know more now about the makeup, workings and aspirations of a number of major companies involved in the entire gas supply and demand stream and how they can influence the future of a jurisdiction by the decisions they make in their boardrooms around the globe.
Most of all, we have learnt that when dealing with a finite amount of a known energy supply, we will be confronted at all levels with varying levels of risk, and this risk will have to be weighed up against profits and viability of commercial interests, the long-term needs of Territorians, the national and local economic interests, the interests of landholders and, most importantly, weighed up against the livelihoods of families and individuals. It is not a one dimensional issue; it has many aspects to it.
There are two stories to tell which travel in parallel to one another for at least part of the journey of bringing gas to Gove. Let me start at the point when the Country Liberal government attracted ConocoPhillips to the shores of Darwin to build an onshore LNG plant and supply the Power and Water Corporation as a foundation customer.
ConocoPhillips’ onshore site was originally going to supply gas to the Territory for its ongoing energy needs as well as its core purpose of converting raw gas to LNG. On losing government in 2001, the Country Liberals were of the firm belief that a portion of ConocoPhillips’ gas would be aggregated with our existing supplies from the Mereenie Basin to supply Power and Water generators.
The Labor government continued with this belief for some time, but then dropped the ball and made the decision to not take up the offer of being a foundation customer and not wanting the gas for domestic use despite knowing that by 2009 we would be in a desperate supply situation. This is evidenced by details in the Estimates Committee hearings of 2003 and 2004.
In 2003, the Chairman of Power and Water told The Estimates Committee Power and Water was in negotiations with ConocoPhillips regarding gas supply to the Channel Island Power Station. A year later, the same chairman told the Estimates Committee that any offer of gas to the Northern Territory by ConocoPhillips, I quote, ‘had fallen away’. It was in Labor’s third year of government that it dropped the ball on gas for Territorians. This is past history and it is disappointing the Labor government of the day did not insist on domestic gas for Territorians. The same can be said of the arrangements negotiated with INPEX in encouraging them to Darwin.
I accept the issues around gas reservation are a challenge to the industry. However, we must always ensure we provide our own capacity and access to domestic gas because the needs are significant going forward. It is grossly hypocritical of the Labor Opposition Leader to demand an urgent decision when she, and her former government colleagues, sat on their hands when first approached by Pacific Aluminium.
How is it the then Labor government did not tell Pacific Aluminium in January last year that they could have the 10 years of gas requested? Why is it the then Labor government sat on the letter of 19 January 2012 and did not reply until July that year, just before the election?
Even after seven months of dithering, did the then Chief Minister undertake to do what the now Leader of the Opposition had being calling for me to do? No. After seven months he told Pacific Aluminium, in a reply letter, he would establish a small high-level working group made up of Pacific Aluminium and senior Northern Territory government staff to work on gas to Gove. It sounds like a cosmetic response to a real problem.
He also confirmed an amount of gas equal to approximately four years’ supply could be provided and the 10-year supply requested by Pacific Aluminium could only proceed if they guaranteed replacement of our contracted reserves. I remind the House that this response by the former Labor government took seven months.
Two weeks after the election in August last year, I announced I had set up a working party to work on gas to Gove. Within one month of coming to office I confirmed the offer of the previous government and that gas was available if the conditions of replacement could be met.
Since that time, I have undertaken an intensive journey to assist Pacific Aluminium find a solution to their problems with the cost of energy in Gove. I say ‘their problems’ deliberately because it was not until the Rio Tinto subsidiary, Pacific Aluminium, approached government that it became our problem too.
How did this suddenly come about you may ask? I can tell members of this House this is not a sudden occurrence and the situation Rio Tinto has found itself in has been in the making for a long time. In fact, it has been happening since Rio Tinto bought Alcan’s interest in the Gove operation in 2007.
Rio, it is widely reported, paid too much for their aluminium assets and, in Gove’s case, poured hundreds of millions of dollars into upgrading the refinery to make it more efficient. In that time the price of aluminium on the world market had fallen and the Australian dollar had strengthened, adding to the woes of the operation in Gove. A bad business decision! According to Rio Tinto’s new chairman, Sam Walsh, the Gove operation has suffered nearly $1bn in after tax losses since the purchase in 2007.
The gas to Gove proposition will require an additional $1.2bn spend to get it running on gas. This spend is made up of approximately $500m for ENI to upgrade their infrastructure to allow for the new volumes of gas to flow, $200m for the Gove refinery to convert their generators to gas, and $500m to construct the new pipeline to Gove. With gas to Gove in place, the Gove refinery will have at least a 10-year guaranteed supply.
The journey of understanding also includes the knowledge of what gas is available, or likely to become available, to the Territory now and into the future.
Let me start with the gas we know we have available now - gas that could flow today. The Northern Territory, through the Power and Water Corporation, has a contract with ENI for approximately 740 petajoules of gas, and a first option on another possible 100 to 120 petajoules of gas. The contract is on a take and pay basis from 2009 and could provide gas to the Territory until at least 2034.
Santos also has a known gas supply and currently has approximately 78 petajoules for sale which could be diverted to Gove and, indeed, has been offered, along with our 100 to 120 petajoules to Pacific Aluminium.
Apart from these two gas resources, there is little other gas available that could flow today into the marketplace apart from an emergency supply which can be taken from the ConocoPhillips site and Bayu-Undan fields under special conditions.
However, there is more gas out there, some of it in proven reserves and other possible resources which are very much in the infancy stages of proofing. We all know about the Sunrise field and its vast reserves and how this has been dedicated to a massive floating LNG project.
One of the critical reasons I went to Paris was to talk to GDF SUEZ as part owners of the Petrel and Tern gas deposits and to discuss with them the possibility of access to their gas reserves for our future needs. These fields have also been flagged for a possible floating LNG - that is the current position of GDF SUEZ - and the owners want to wait for these plans to develop further before they take on any other commitments for this gas.
ENI, who with the Power and Water Corporation is currently contracted with us, has another field called Penguin Deeps which they have scheduled to be drilled and proven up later this year. This one field, if proven, could be brought online in a very short time frame and with a relatively small capital expenditure. We all have very high hopes for this field.
While we are in the west, let us not gloss over the biggest gas story to ever reach the shores of the Northern Territory, and I recognise the great work done by the former Chief Minister, Clare Martin, in persuading the company to look at Darwin as a potential site. This project, as most members would know, is significant in world terms and will bring with it long-term economic benefits to the Northern Territory but, as you also know, all the available gas, in the first instance, will be shipped offshore once converted to LNG.
On 19 November 2012, Santos announced a significant gas discovery at Crown-1 exploration well, only 60 km west of the Ichthys field and 20 km west of the Poseidon field.
The Caldita and Barossa fields in the Timor Sea north of the Tiwi Islands are entering into a farm-out arrangement with the South Korean conglomerate, SK Group. A drilling program will be undertaken this year.
Recently, the Commonwealth government granted seven new exploration permits for offshore Northern Territory and Western Australian acreage which will see well over $200m invested in these offshore areas over the next three years. Onshore in the Northern Territory, there are also very prospective areas for gas, including work being done by world-class companies such as Hess, Statoil, Total, Santos and ConocoPhillips.
Over the last few years, intensive exploration programs across the Northern Territory have led to approximately 90% of onshore or near onshore acreage either being granted or under application. I understand my colleague, the Minister for Mines and Energy, will be delivering a major statement on the opportunities for oil and gas development in the Northern Territory in this House in the near future. I will not elaborate on all the work currently being proposed to prove up new supplies of gas, but would like to highlight one significant find which looks very prospective.
Armour Energy has a large gas acreage of around 33m acres in the McArthur, Georgina and South Nicholson Basin of the Northern Territory into Queensland which the owners hope to prove up further with an intensive drilling program involving up to five drill rigs over the next Dry Season.
I wanted to make a deliberate point about this field and Armour Energy, the company that owns it, because the company believes it can offer upwards of 30 petajoules a year, by as soon as 2015-16, into the Northern Territory market.
That pretty much sums up the gas story as it stands today: what is on tap now and what is possible into the immediate future.
Let us turn to the gas to Gove proposal Pacific Aluminium would like to realise to make their operations in Nhulunbuy viable. Viability is a very subjective term when talking about a large industrial business such as the Gove mine refinery. Are we talking about annual positive cash flow and profitability, are we talking about a break-even proposition, or are we talking about a good rate of return on cash invested? As I said earlier in the statement, there are things we have discovered on the journey to bringing gas to Gove and, in regard to Pacific Aluminium’s operation, we learnt the following:
it was purchased at an inflated price
it required a huge capital expenditure of around $3bn to increase its throughput
the operation has bled cash since its purchase in 2007 at a reported rate of somewhere between $10m and $20m per month
after tax losses have been reported at close to $1bn in a little over five years
it now needs an additional $1.2bn capital spend between ENI’s upgrades, the Gove generator conversions and the construction of a pipeline to Gove to ensure long-term sustainable profitability.
Rio Tinto has just finalised negotiations and signed a new 42-year agreement with traditional owners under the Aboriginal Land Rights Act, therefore securing the ongoing tenure of the Gove operation.
Gove, and the mining and refinery operations there, contribute significantly to the Northern Territory’s economy at an estimated $500m a year. This includes direct jobs in both the bauxite mine and the alumina refinery, the support jobs in Nhulunbuy, training in the region, local maintenance contracting businesses in the town, major contractors and suppliers in Darwin and, of course, taxes, royalties and lease fees. The gas pipeline to Gove proposal will be a major project for the Territory which will ramp up almost immediately. The total spend to connect the Blacktip gas field to the refinery at Gove will be in the order of $1.2bn.
As stated, ENI will spend in the vicinity of $500m on gas infrastructure to cope with connection issues and increased flow rates. Pacific Aluminium will have to spend approximately $200m in Gove to convert the operation to gas. Both these projects will bring jobs and benefits to the Territory and Territory businesses, and will increase the capacity and efficiency at both ends of the pipeline.
Let us turn to construction of the gas to Gove pipeline and the construction opportunities and ongoing benefits this $500m capital investment will bring to the region. The components of the project as supplied by Pacific Aluminium are worth detailing for everyone’s benefit:
capital costs of more than $500m, including pipe and other materials estimated at $100m and a compressor station estimated at $50m
However, there is more. The future benefits not calculated in immediate cash in the economy that will bring bankable returns in the future are manyfold and include the opportunities for new finds of gas along and adjacent to the pipeline corridor. This is significant.
Obviously, any new gas in the region would have the advantage of being more of a bankable opportunity with a pipeline available to transport the gas to market. The construction of the pipeline will see, no doubt, more onshore gas exploration and development with more fields proven in the region. By far the greatest opportunity presenting if we supply 300 petajoules of our contracted gas to Gove is we have immediately doubled the size of the market in the Northern Territory and, at the same time have, in general terms, halved the known supply. That is the issue. This will be the single biggest carrot to attract new explorers into the market and provide a new incentive for current operators to bring their known reserves to market.
To assist with what I have just been saying about exploration opportunities, another initiative I am able to report is that the Commonwealth and the Northern Territory governments have developed a memorandum of understanding to encourage further onshore and offshore exploration and development. The MOU is important to strengthen the ties between the Territory and the Commonwealth and to outline a framework of cooperation to ensure not only exploration and development of gas is encouraged and supported benefitting the local and national economy, but also so the Northern Territory can secure a long-term energy supply.
Referring again to the journey the gas to Gove exercise has taken us on is the realisation we do not currently have in Australia a national strategic approach to the energy needs and infrastructure requirements of and for our great nation. While the Commonwealth government has its role in regulation and looking after the national interests, and the states and territories are committed to the development and regulation of assets, there is no real discussion taking place on the need for Australia to develop its energy resources and internal energy infrastructure in a way we can self-guarantee our future energy needs.
This could be because of the abundance of coal-fired energy supply along the eastern seaboard, and could partly be due to the foresight of our forebears to develop the significant national project in the 1950s, the Snowy Mountains Scheme, providing a cheap source of power to our southern regions. It may well be the time for another major project of national significance.
I am talking of linking our great nation with a pipeline grid so we can share the nation’s resources with all Australians now and in the future. This is not a pie-in-the-sky dream; it is eminently doable and timely. I have spoken to my federal counterparts on both sides of politics and asked for their assistance in raising this issue onto the national agenda and providing positive support in moving it forward.
I would like to look at the feasibility of a connecting pipeline between Tennant Creek and Mount Isa to join the Territory with the eastern seaboard. To this end, the federal coalition will commit $1m, upon coming to government, for this study. Much preliminary work has already been conducted on this and it is eminently achievable.
However, on another tack altogether, I share with members the stark deficiency of robust corporate knowledge surrounding the whole oil and gas story in the Northern Territory which has come to light from the request by Pacific Aluminium for a gas supply to Gove. We are sitting on an oil and gas rich province surrounded by others with similar resources, whether we look at our onshore prospects, our offshore prospects or to our neighbours in the north and to the west. Our greater region is resource rich and we, in the Northern Territory, will need to have our eye on the ball with regard to strategic planning and opportunity for investment in the energy sector. We should never be caught short again with an approach for gas as we have seen from Rio Tinto’s request for support. On the other hand, we should always be aware of opportunities for more investment and development of this important sector. To this end, I am talking to my Cabinet colleagues about how we can form a strategic energy directorate which will sit in the Department of Mines and Energy to bring a strategic focus to our future energy needs and be constantly surveying the horizon for opportunities in the energy sector.
I am talking in the context of oil and gas in the first instance, but I make the strong point that an energy directorate would also bring the important renewable energy sector into the future energy matrix.
Let us turn to the other element of this gas story which has been mostly overlooked: the people of Gove and the Nhulunbuy region in general. These are families that have been living in Gove for the entire 40-plus years of its history, and the traditional owners whose ancestors have lived in the region for thousands of years.
The jobs and wealth created by the Gove bauxite mine and the alumina refinery and the positive socioeconomic benefits the operation drives in Yirrkala and communities throughout the east Arnhem region are enormous. The direct benefit to businesses in Darwin is somewhere in the order of $150m. I have said before in this statement, the direct spend into the Territory economy is somewhere around the $500m mark. A pipeline from Katherine to Gove and a source of gas from ENI provides Rio Tinto with a sustainable cost of energy for the next 10 years, which should ensure the Gove alumina refinery continues to operate.
In conclusion, let me put everything into perspective for members of the House and remind them and all Territorians how we arrived at the place we now find ourselves.
First, a group of people sitting in a boardroom on the far side of the world made some bad business decisions. Instead of taking accountability for those decisions to their shareholders, they have decided either the Australian or the Northern Territory government should bear the burden of their mistakes, and the innocent workers at the Gove alumina refinery and that community should bear the consequences. This is not the behaviour the Northern Territory government expects from mining companies which seek the right to explore for and develop the resources owned by the people of the Northern Territory.
The Northern Territory is, however, a small family in the world community and the Northern Territory government has to react to the difficulties experienced by its family members no matter who has caused these problems.
The Northern Territory government will not, therefore, desert the people of Gove. We will seek to ensure the ongoing viability of the Gove operation while at the same time, importantly, put policies in place to ensure this set of circumstances does not occur again. We will also examine closely the capabilities of companies seeking to explore and help in the development of the Territory. That examination will include a review of those companies’ past behaviour.
I want to assure the people of the Territory that the government has not come to a decision on this matter lightly, but has pursued every viable option to make gas available to the Gove refinery without placing future gas supply to electricity generation at risk.
I announced yesterday the Northern Territory government will direct the Power and Water Corporation to release up to 300 petajules of gas from its current contract with ENI Australia for use in Gove. We will require ENI Australia to provide a guarantee that the electricity generation requirements of Power and Water Corporation can be met until at least the end of 2026. We will also require that, for any reason, should the Gove alumina refinery not continue to operate then the gas will be returned to Power and Water Corporation without penalty.
I mentioned earlier the Northern Territory would put policies in place to ensure the situation does not reoccur and that the issue of domestic gas availability is not exclusively a Northern Territory issue, it is a national issue requiring a national response. That is why my government will be actively working with the Commonwealth and other state and territory governments to strengthen and secure the Australian energy market.
I will be taking items for discussion to COAG, including the development of a truly national pipeline grid and the consideration of a national gas reservation policy, or other mechanisms which will guarantee all Australians are able to share the benefits of our natural resources.
The government will aggressively pursue options for ongoing domestic gas supply by working closely with companies such as GDF SUEZ, INPEX, Santos and Armour Energy and others who have indicated a desire to work with us to solve these future problems.
Finally, I want to assure Territorians this has not been an easy decision for government. I also want to assure you we have examined and weighed all the options and believe this is the only reasonable decision at this point in time. The Territory will play an important and ongoing role in the energy needs of Australia and the region.
Mr Deputy Speaker, I move that the Assembly take note of the statement.
Ms LAWRIE (Opposition Leader): Mr Deputy Speaker, this ministerial statement confirms what everyone already knows: the last four months have seen the most incompetent handling of a major issue by a Chief Minister in the history of the Northern Territory.
This ministerial statement is like a boy’s own journey. He describes his bungling and dithering as an ‘interesting journey’.
Listen to the third paragraph of the statement:
- It is a journey which has taken me through the halls of the Commonwealth parliament, to Nhulunbuy, meetings in Perth and boardrooms of Europe ...
It is great the member for Blain had an interesting journey and went around the world. You could have solved this issue, Chief Minister, four months ago sitting at your desk in Darwin. The solution you announced yesterday has been sitting in your in-tray for four months.
Mr Deputy Speaker, I draw your attention to the state of the House.
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER: Ring the bells.
A quorum is present.
Ms LAWRIE: Thank you. The last four months has had former CLP leaders shaking their heads in disbelief and industry leaders completely baffled that they were having to deal with someone so clearly out of his depth. I cannot resist pointing out that only a week ago the Chief Minister described the agreement he reached yesterday as the, and I quote, ‘Delia Lawrie model’.
Although it was not just the Delia Lawrie model, it was bleedingly obvious as a model - the model everyone else could see should have been agreed to four months ago. Remarkably, in this statement, the Chief Minister concedes I have been calling on him for months to do the deal he did yesterday.
Before I go any further, I will quickly point out that the NT News reported the Chief Minister had already agreed to provide the gas before he met Rio Tinto in London because everyone in the industry knew he had already backflipped. He went all the way to London to meet with Rio Tinto about a decision he had already made. That is how this four-month debacle ended; the Chief Minister travelled to London for a meeting about a decision he had already made.
The member for Nhulunbuy will detail the effect of this bungling and dithering Chief Minister’s inability to arrive at a decision until yesterday. She will provide detail of the devastating effect it has had on the residents of Nhulunbuy and the region, but I will go through the history of the sorry tale of the last four months from the time the solution arrived in the Chief Minister’s in-tray until he agreed to the deal.
11 October: in October, Pacific Aluminium announced a formal review of the Gove refinery. They requested a 10-year supply of gas. Terry Mills said, ‘No’. He did not go to Gove and the solution sat in his in-tray.
Early December came and went. There was no solution and Terry Mills did not go to Gove. He said he would have a solution by Christmas, but it remained in his in-tray.
Christmas came and went. Terry Mills promised by New Year. He went on holidays. He did not go to Gove. The solution sat in his in-tray. Terry Mills finally went to Gove after persistent requests by the member for Nhulunbuy but gave them no comfort. He refused to provide the gas requested.
17 January: the Minister for Mines and Energy went to Texas to talk about gas; he did not go to Gove. The Minister for Mines and Energy has not been to Gove since being elected nearly six months ago. Did the Minister for Mines and Energy tell the conference in Texas the Northern Territory was pursuing a domestic gas reservation policy or was that just hot air from Terry Mills? Answer that one, Minister for Mines and Energy, if you contribute to this debate today.
23 January: Terry Mills put a so-called deal on the table: delay any decision until September. It was immediately rejected. Terry Mills, at that stage, was still refusing to provide the 10-year supply of gas to Gove.
Mr ELFERINK: A point of order, Madam Speaker! For the sake of probity, the Opposition Leader continually refers to Terry Mills. I remind the honourable member of the standing order in relation to referring to members by their electorate rather than appropriate pronouns.
Madam SPEAKER: Thank you, member for Port Darwin. If you could refer to members by their electorate, Opposition Leader.
Ms LAWRIE: Yes. A bit of sensitivity! On 31 January the deadline day arrived ..
Mrs Lambley: It is called respect.
Ms LAWRIE: I do not have any respect for a man who dithers for four months and causes grief and pain for the people of Nhulunbuy and the region. I do not have to respect him, I have no respect for him, and a heap of Territorians who were out the front at lunchtime also do not have any respect for him.
31 January: the deadline day, arrived and the Chief Minister said he could not provide the 10-year supply of gas as required. He said, and I quote:
- We are looking at ongoing financial exposure under the Delia Lawrie model of upwards of $1bn and, according to Power and Water Corporation, that would take the form of up to 75% increase in power charges.
Yet the deal he announced yesterday, which only two weeks ago he called the Delia Lawrie model, is exactly the deal he described as the Delia Lawrie model which would increase power bills by 75%. He said this was based on advice from Power and Water yet has refused to table that advice. I know why. He was not telling the truth.
Pacific Aluminium pointed out he has not raised this figure in any discussions with them. With all the discussions the Chief Minster has had on gas to Gove, never did he say to the companies involved it was because he was concerned it would mean an increase of power and water tariffs of up to 75%. Why? He simply was not telling the truth.
3 February: the Chief Minister spoke on ABC radio. When asked what he would say to the people of Gove he said, quote:
- A decision is made in the context and that context is being established. I am working to establish a context where an important decision can be made.
Is he for real? Is that what he wanted to tell the people of Gove who were anxiously waiting for a decision to be made? ... a rambling incoherent babbling about a context.
A community meeting was held in Gove. Instead of attending that meeting the Chief Minister was filming by-election ads in Wanguri. He did not even send a minister to represent him. He then flew off to Perth on a last minute mercy dash to save Gove but did not. He heard from the companies in Perth what he had heard for four months - what was required to seal the deal - and the solution continued to sit in his office in-tray. He then went to Canberra, Singapore, Milan, Paris and London to hear what he had heard for four months, with the solution sitting in his in-tray.
As we know, before he met with Rio Tinto in London he decided to backflip on his intransigence and acknowledge a 10-year supply of gas to Gove was a necessary deal. He had his meeting with Rio Tinto and flew home. Yesterday, we received the announcement he had backflipped; he had signed the four-month-old solution that had been sitting in his in-tray all along, adding though, a ridiculous claim that there is a condition Rio Tinto agrees to operate the refinery. Why would they purchase gas if they were not going to use it?
We have had at stake 1600 jobs and a $500m contribution to the Territory economy through the refinery operation in Nhulunbuy. We have had many spurious, misleading claims on what this is about. I will deal with some in the statement.
In the statement, the Chief Minister claimed, regarding ConocoPhillips, there was a ‘firm belief’ a portion of the gas would be aggregating to our existing gas supplies. That is not a firm CLP gas reservation policy of 15% for domestic use; that is his view of a firm belief. They might have been whistling Dixie in some bizarre way, but there was no 15% CLP gas reservation policy - something he and his sidekick, the Treasurer, have been lambasting the Labor government for.
The CLP had no policy and, of course, Labor could not reset the bar in negotiations with ConocoPhillips. If we had tried to at that point, we would have no LNG industry in the Territory. If we had been mad enough to try to change the playing field after ConocoPhillips had landed by insisting on a domestic gas reservation with INPEX, they would have had a polite cup of tea with us and returned to the boardrooms of Japan to pursue the LNG deal in Western Australia.
This Chief Minister is so foolish he would have us believe we are somehow captured by this smokescreen that he went to Canberra to talk about a national gas reservation policy. Chief Minister, Tony Abbott has not backed your policy; Julia Gillard has not backed your policy. Everyone is having a polite cup of tea with this fool and, then, getting on with the real business. A national domestic gas reservation policy is literally putting up the ‘closed for business’ sign when, instead, we need to be pursuing gas exploration.
Anyone in the industry, anyone who understands the industry and the competitive global environment knows that. That is how embarrassing it has become. This Chief Minister has become such an embarrassing fool on not only the national stage, but the global stage.
Going to ENI, Santos, and GDF SUEZ to say, ‘I would not mind some of Petrel Tern’ - industry sources are saying, ‘Thanks very much for that’, being really polite, ‘but we are going to sell our gas to the customers we have been lining up with’. This smokescreen of romping around the world with his Batman cape on saving us all has been a fool’s trip. Unbelievable!
Four months ago, the win/win was sitting in the in-tray. The 10-year supply of gas to Gove is a win/win. It saves 1600 jobs, some 800 direct, the others indirect. It provides for the deals to be done to ensure the refinery continues to operate, keeping vibrancy in the region and putting some $500m into our domestic economy. Importantly, it opens up the pathway for a pipeline to be constructed; that is a major project. It also opens up exploration. Santos, in Mereenie, is a clear onshore petroleum and gas opportunity in the Northern Territory, not just in Central Australia around Alice Springs, but real opportunities around Tennant Creek. Of course, ENI has the Penguin field. A doubling of the gas market is a win/win in investment in the Territory in oil and gas exploration.
That was obvious to everyone involved four months ago. The Chief Minister uses weasel words now to say he has seen these companies and everyone is keen to explore. Really, Sherlock? We all knew that. Industry leaders knew that four months ago, but you dithered.
What I find curious is the faceless men sitting behind the Chief Minister and his Treasurer controlling this government. Come forward, Ted Campbell, and tell us how you are being paid to tell the Chief Minister of the Northern Territory there was an extraordinary risk to the Territory’s future energy if he agreed to the 10-year gas supply to provide Power and Water freeing up its gas with ENI and selling to Pacific Aluminium. Ted Campbell, you provided that advice to the Chief Minister, you have side-kicked the Treasurer, and it has meant four months of dithering. You are very wrong and have caused much grief. You have been backed by Barry Coulter, sitting in the back room, and we know how much Barry Coulter is being paid …
Mr ELFERINK: A point of order, Madam Speaker! Whilst I appreciate the Opposition Leader’s enthusiasm, she is now verballing people who have no capacity to defend themselves in this House. I ask she be counselled to exercise restraint before restraint is imposed.
Madam SPEAKER: Thank you, member for Port Darwin. Opposition Leader, please be careful with your wording about people who are not present in the parliament.
Ms LAWRIE: I would be delighted if Ted Campbell and Barry Coulter explained their role in this farce and dithering of the Chief Minister of the Northern Territory. Industry leaders certainly know what their role is. Industry is under no illusion as to what has been led in the bizarre notions and advice provided to the Chief Minister. This bizarre notion we are at incredible and - in the Chief Minister’s own words - extraordinary risk to our future energy supply. Yet, in his statement today, he says there is not much risk because all these companies are exploring and we are lucky because we are sitting in the midst of an oil and gas industry. It was extraordinary Ted Campbell and Barry Coulter provided shoddy advice to the Chief Minister. However, even more extraordinary ...
Mr ELFERINK: A point of order, Madam Speaker! Once again, she is engaging in borderline defamation. Accusing people of shoddy advice, who have no defence in this House, is outrageous and directly contrary to the instruction you gave the Leader of the Opposition.
Madam SPEAKER: Thank you, member for Port Darwin. Opposition Leader, continue please but be careful with your wording.
Ms LAWRIE: This is the member for Port Darwin, the man who would gag any democratic debate in the Northern Territory. No wonder you cannot get the votes to knife the Chief Minister. You are the only person who will vote for you. There is no one else on your side willing to vote for you. When the leadership challenge is on next week you will be voting for yourself, John.
Mrs Lambley: You should be watching your back. Your back is just as vulnerable as any.
Ms LAWRIE: Goodbye, Robyn. Seriously!
Madam SPEAKER: Order!
Ms LAWRIE: They do not like the truth. They do not like to hear we know what advice has been provided by whom to whom. We know Ted Campbell and Barry Coulter have been providing advice to government on the supply of gas to Gove to keep the refinery open. The advice was as shoddy as it comes. It was an extraordinary risk to the Territory’s future energy needs and that is the line the Chief Minister trotted out all through November, into December and January, until he capitulated yesterday. All of a sudden, there is no extraordinary risk to our future energy supplies because he has discovered there are companies out there exploring. This has been a shambles - an absolute disgrace.
It is very clear to us, having watched this debacle, if the member for Blain had been Chief Minister there is no way the Territory would have landed the Ichthys project, the nation’s second-largest major project. Thank God we had Paul Henderson as Chief Minister of the Northern Territory to pursue and land that project.
The contrast could not be starker. Henderson and the way he handled securing the INPEX project, Mills and the way he has fumbled on Gove. Mills has dithered, been embarrassing and his comments have been flat out wrong. It has been a debacle. He set false deadlines, offered ludicrous agreements and has made false statements. He has blamed everyone else but himself, all the time putting at risk 1600 jobs and $500m into the Territory economy. He could not have found a better fail in the way someone handled this if he tried.
It is despicable how he has been obfuscating. So despicable he claimed the Henderson government was only prepared to offer four years. No, turn to page 2 of the letter and you will see the offer of a 10-year supply of gas with, quite reasonably, a large amount of detail set out in conditions defining the deal. That was an important pathway offer which gave Pacific Aluminium the opportunity to say to Rio, ‘We are dealing with the Territory government; it is at the table negotiating with us. Will you set up a gas task force?’
However, Mills would have you believe he set up the gas task force. No, one was set up and in place prior to the election. That is another furphy from Mills, but there has been a plethora of them in this mishandling of gas to Gove.
The gas task force was in place. The Chief Minister of the day, Paul Henderson, had made it clear. ‘You can have four years on this basis or 10 years meeting these conditions. A task force is in place, negotiate.’ This was well before the game changing announcement by Pacific Aluminium that the refinery was facing closure.
That is a detail the CLP would want no one to be aware of because they want to run the myth we sat on it for seven months. There was no refinery closure for the seven months we were in discussions with Pacific Aluminium, and our discussions were constructive. We had a gas task force and were in constructive negotiations, in stark contrast to the current government.
Previously, Pacific Aluminium could meet with the Chief Minister on a regular basis and have discussions with senior public servants sitting around a table. With a change of government, what happened? They were shunted off to Barry Coulter and Ted Campbell. It was hard to get to the Chief Minister and when you did it was all about, ‘Well, what was the advice from Barry Coulter and Ted Campbell?’ Their advice was, ‘This is an extraordinary risk to the future energy needs of the Northern Territory’. What a lot of nonsense proven by the actions of the Chief Minister yesterday when he finally capitulated, got Cabinet across the line, and was able to make the announcement after four months of dithering. The Chief Minister was taking his boy’s own journey to look like the action man when, in fact, he was making the Territory a laughing stock.
Industry knows, Australia - whether it is Tony Abbott or Julia Gillard - will not be pursuing a domestic gas reservation policy because they will not put up the ‘closed for business’ sign. Tony Abbott has not said, ‘I am with you, Terry Mills. I agree we need a domestic gas reservation policy.’ No, he has not, and they are all quietly hoping the CLP gets its act together and deposes this bumbling incompetent fool of a Chief Minister so they do not have to continue to be embarrassed ...
Mr ELFERINK: A point of order, Madam Speaker! I am sure the Leader of the Opposition can work her way through a speech without personal abuse to the point where I have to ask it be called unparliamentary. I ask her to restrain herself from that type of language.
Madam SPEAKER: Thank you, member for Port Darwin. Opposition Leader, you have the call.
Ms LAWRIE: Thank you. It has been an unedifying four months for the Northern Territory where the leaders of industry ask, ‘How does this government not see a win/win when confronted with one? How does this government not understand the supply of gas to Gove?’ It is gas that is excess to Power and Water’s needs. They contracted too much gas so it is a saving if you want to split hairs around that. It is not going to turn the lights off like the Treasurer at one stage wanted us to believe in one of her bizarre contributions to this debate - that would take another half hour. No, it is not going to turn the lights off at Power and Water. Yes, enough exploration has been prompted from this decision to provide much opportunity for Power and Water for future contracted gas beyond 2027. No, you chose to scare people with maybe the lights will turn off if we do not do this, maybe power and water tariffs will go up 75%, or why we do not have a domestic gas reservation policy - all the bizarre furphies.
The fact is there was no domestic gas reservation policy under the previous CLP government. It is also a fact there is no domestic gas reservation policy under the CLP government, despite the hot air of Terry Mills. This could have been agreed to four months ago. The agreement yesterday was the agreement sought four months ago. Industry had been advising the government of the drilling opportunities of ENI, Santos, yet you still perpetrated the myth there was an extraordinary risk to the Territory’s future energy. Where are the documents you relied on to say this could have caused a 75% increase in power and water tariffs? Show us the documents! Table them!
This has been a disgraceful episode in the Territory. We have gone from incredible confidence in business as a jurisdiction a year ago, particularly around us being the oil and gas hub for northern Australia, and now we have the industry which prompted the confidence in the Territory economy going forward shaking its head in disbelief with what they are hearing from this Chief Minister around the domestic gas reservation policy and the nonsense spouted by the Chief Minister and the Treasurer throughout this debacle.
The opposition consistently called for this gas deal to be signed. Consistently we have said, ‘Terry Mills get out of the way, agree to it, and let everyone get on with it’.
He finally got there yesterday but only after the families of Nhulunbuy suffered, businesses in Nhulunbuy had already started to downsize and lay off workers, and after families have uprooted and left Nhulunbuy to live elsewhere because of the uncertainty created by the bungling of this Chief Minister. It is a sad state when we see a conservative Chief Minister putting up the ‘closed for business’ sign in the Northern Territory. That is what we have witnessed for the last four months.
Mrs LAMBLEY (Deputy Chief Minister): Madam Speaker, it is a pleasure to support the Chief Minister’s statement on gas to Gove. Listening to the Leader of the Opposition, I ask what on earth that was about. It was probably one of the poorest speeches I have heard from the Leader of the Opposition. It was reflective of a woman who is quite deluded, irrational and trying hard to cling on to any sense of credibility she can possibly scrape together.
Mr McCARTHY: A point of order, Madam Speaker!
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Visitors
Visitors
Madam SPEAKER: Before your point of order, I advise honourable members of the presence in the gallery of Sanderson Middle School students and the Night School Program senior students accompanied by Mr Glenn Gonzales. On behalf of honourable members, I extend a warm welcome to our visitors and hope you enjoy your tour and your time in Parliament House.
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Mr McCARTHY: A point of order, Madam Speaker! We have heard the Leader of Government Business outline appropriate language. We learn our lessons and, if the truth hurts, then take it on board and get real. This member is already starting to use inappropriate language. I call relevance, Madam Speaker. I am interested in what the Deputy Chief Minister has to say in a proper, rational, and polite way.
Madam SPEAKER: Thank you, member for Barkly. Deputy Chief Minister, you have the call.
Mrs LAMBLEY: Thank you, Madam Speaker. I challenge the member for Barkly to point out what offensive or unparliamentary word I used. I do not believe he has one in mind because I did not use an inappropriate word.
I have, obviously, hit a raw nerve because the member for Barkly gave me less than a minute before he raised a point of order. We just heard the Leader of the Opposition give a rather poor and lacking response to a substantial statement on the best piece of news for the Territory for some time.
This is fantastic news for the Northern Territory. We, as the government, are extremely excited and proud of the Chief Minister for achieving what he has over the last few weeks and months. He has been working day and night to achieve a result, not just for the people of Nhulunbuy, but all the Northern Territory.
I was quite bewildered by the Leader of the Opposition’s speech. She talked about leaders of industry expressing dissatisfaction. It is interesting she says that because, over the last five-and-a-half months I have been in this position, I have been talking to many leaders of industry; probably not as many as my colleague, the Chief Minister. They are telling me the former Treasurer did not talk to anyone. She did not seek advice from business or industry leaders. They did not have her knocking on the door, ringing, or convening meetings to seek advice from these people with a wealth of information, knowledge, and experience. She did not avail herself of networking with any leaders of industry. It is bewildering that the Leader of the Opposition came into the Chamber today and quoted leaders of industry. There is something wrong in what the Opposition Leader has presented today. I doubt she ever speaks to leaders of industry. She is possibly misleading the parliament on this issue.
She talked about how she felt the Chief Minister was bungling and dithering and used the word ‘disgraceful’. Yes, they are derogatory terms from the Leader of the Opposition and I am quoting them.
I considered those words in relation to her performance over the last four-and-a-half years as Treasurer – the worst Treasurer in the history of the Northern Territory. We have proof of that because the debt per capita we now face in the Northern Territory is the worst of any jurisdiction in Australia, thanks to the former Treasurer.
She has the hide, the gall, to accuse the Chief Minister, who clinched the greatest deal in the recent history of the Northern Territory for all Territorians, to call him a bungler and ditherer when the former Chief Minister sat on a letter for seven months. He had a seven-month window of opportunity to clinch the deal for the Northern Territory, for the people of Nhulunbuy, and sat on his hands. That is what I call bungling and dithering. She has been deliberately misleading parliament by saying there was some great reason he did not respond for seven months.
The Chief Minister took a couple of months to conduct a thorough investigation. He was not going to take the word of the former government. He is no fool, no idiot; he is a man of substance and behaves and performs with great prudence and management skill. Our Chief Minister has great judgment. People should be very happy to have a solid, firm hand in charge. All the former Treasurer was good at was racking up the credit card bill and ensuring our deficit was blowing out each year to the extent where our debt is unmanageable and we have had to make some serious decisions. Yes, she will stand out the front with the rallying union people, taking their side but taking no responsibility for the state of the economy because she is a person with very little substance in relation to political astuteness and judgment.
She does not dither; she makes rash, impulsive, bad decisions. That is what we are wearing in the Northern Territory now. She should not criticise the Chief Minister for achieving something that has not been achieved for many years in the Northern Territory. He has clinched the deal to provide great security for the people of Nhulunbuy and people across the Northern Territory. More than anything, it opens the door to great economic prosperity and growth - what this government is all about.
We are not about taking the credit for one company. The Leader of the Opposition mentioned how fantastic it was the former government clinched the INPEX deal. All they can pin their credibility on is one company - one of great substance, I am not running INPEX down. Goodness me, we are all dependent on INPEX because of how poorly the former government performed in setting up a real economic base for the Northern Territory. The only thing they can pin their 11 years of governing the Northern Territory on is INPEX.
We committed, during the election campaign, to setting up a three-hub economy, an economy of great substance. It is not the INPEX economy, but a substantial economic base based on mining, agriculture and tourism. The deal struck by the Chief Minister for gas to Gove is consistent with that.
People of the Northern Territory should be shaking his hand not carrying on outside Parliament House like they were at lunchtime today ridiculing him and putting him down. They should have been yelling through the microphone what a great job Terry Mills has done in securing a real future, a future of substance, for the Northern Territory. Without substance, more of us will be losing jobs. It will not be just the public servants; it will be businesses closing and people losing their jobs right across the public and private sector.
Thanks to Terry Mills, we have turned the corner just five-and-a-half months into government and are right on track to creating this substantial, real economy based on a real commitment to ensuring mining is able to flourish and expand in the Northern Territory, not just settle for racking up things on the credit card. The only thing people will remember the former Labor government for is free water park admission to the lucky people who live in Darwin.
We have made substantial decisions involving great investment in the Northern Territory. We are working hand-in-hand with the federal coalition. Tony Abbott has described his vision for the northern part of Australia, one which includes sending quite a number of public servants north to the sparsely populated areas of the northern part of Australia which, of course, includes the Northern Territory. The former Labor government failed to substantially increase the population and create a more efficient economic base.
Today we celebrate, commend and praise our Chief Minister for sealing this deal; for coming to the table with all the players across the world to an agreed position to ensure the future for the people of Gove.
I am astounded the member for Nhulunbuy could, in Question Time, criticise and ridicule the Chief Minister for what she has been begging him to do for the last couple of weeks. There was no thanks, no sign of appreciation just waa, waa, waa, more whingeing and complaining. Five-and-a-half months ago, her government failed to come up with anything resembling a solution to the problem. The Chief Minister, representing the Country Liberals, solves the problem and does not get so much as a thank you from the member for Nhulunbuy. She should be ashamed of herself. She should be ashamed she does not have the dignity and self-respect to thank him for what he has done.
The Chief Minister, however, acknowledged the member for Nhulunbuy in this Chamber today for her contribution to helping the people of Nhulunbuy. He had the dignity, the sense of humanity to acknowledge her part in representing the needs of her constituents. Did I hear a response from the other side of the room? Does she intend to applaud and thank the Chief Minister of the Northern Territory for the fantastic, tireless work he has done over the last months? I doubt that, because what we hear is a bunch of whingers, people struggling to keep together, who continue to insinuate there are leadership problems on this side of the room. I am looking at a very ordinary bunch of people who are not hanging together. They obviously do not like their leader. She is not representing their best interests because she is no role model herself.
All she has done in this Chamber ever since I have been around is criticise and belittle people who are unable to defend themselves. That is exactly what we heard earlier. We heard the Leader of the Opposition belittle people who have been assisting the Chief Minister, the government, in very high-level negotiations. She had the gall to name people who are extremely prominent, specialist, professional people in their area. She has the gall to criticise certain people without whose expertise and knowledge it would have been very difficult to sit at the negotiation table with the industries and come to the very well-considered and thoroughly thought-out position we have.
It is unbelievable the Leader of the Opposition could criticise, for 30 minutes, the extremely accomplished work of the Chief Minister. This is a day of celebration, a day on which we should put aside our political hats and thank God this agreement has been reached, the 1100 workers in Nhulunbuy will retain their jobs, there will be even more money pouring into Nhulunbuy over the coming years to establish the conversion from diesel to gas, and there will be even more money coming into Nhulunbuy to set up the pipeline and all that goes with it. This is an exciting era we are entering of great growth and economic injection unparalleled in that part of the world for many years.
In relation to the comments of the Leader of the Opposition, we need to discount them and see them for what they are - bitter, twisted, angry - a person who has failed in her time as Treasurer and now all she can do is criticise and make unconstructive and sometimes hurtful remarks about people who are not here to defend themselves.
I support what the Chief Minister has achieved, his statement on gas to Gove, and acknowledge the diligence and perseverance of the Chief Minister in ensuring this historic deal could be struck. The role of the Chief Minister in these negotiations has been exemplary - simply outstanding. The Northern Territory government has now guaranteed a gas supply for the Gove refinery and it is now up to Rio Tinto to make a commitment to keep the operation open. We have agreed to release 300 petajoules of gas over 10 years. As all members of the Chamber would be aware, in unlocking gas for Gove, the Mills’ government will secure the future of Nhulunbuy and the east Arnhem region for the next decade.
Yesterday’s decision by the Mills government is subject to a commitment from Rio Tinto assuring the ongoing operation of the Gove alumina refinery, and from ENI confirming details of their guarantee to supply gas to the Power and Water Corporation until 2026.
Not only does it make sense for the region, it also has enormous economic benefits for the Territory as a whole, as stated already. Throughout this long and thorough negotiation process it has been important to ensure the best possible deal can be struck which not only protects Nhulunbuy and surrounds, but also ensures Power and Water Corporation, and the assets it manages on behalf of the broader Territorian community, are put in the strongest position in this deal.
To that end, I congratulate the Chief Minister for his work. He has gone to necessarily extreme lengths. The Leader of the Opposition has criticised him for travelling around the world to meet each and every stakeholder involved in this process. As a new government, as a new Chief Minister, it was the only way to go; it was the only choice he had. He had to face these people - meet with them at the table to negotiate the best deal for the Northern Territory.
However, what we hear from the other side is criticism he could have made all the decisions from behind his desk. The Leader of the Opposition said that previously. She said he could have stayed at his desk and made all the decisions without even meeting these people. Then, in the next breath, she criticised him for not going to Gove on a dozen occasions. He did go to Gove and he spoke with the people; he faced the people and listened to what they said. One thing this Chief Minister is good at is facing people and listening to them, regardless of what they say, and engaging in meaningful communication. He is always willing to front people, always willing to communicate but it is not always possible, as we saw today.
The Opposition Leader was off on a tangent saying he could do it all behind his desk, as Henderson probably tried to do although he lost the letter at some point; it took him seven months to respond to the letter. He must have sat at his desk too long, the piles of paper became mixed up and he lost the letter he needed to respond to. Perhaps that is an explanation. The philosophy of the former Labor government - you sit behind your desk and see what happens.
This could not have happened quickly; the negotiations needed to take time. We are still in the early phases of government - not even six months into a four-year term. We are still quite new and, if I was in the Chief Minister’s shoes, I would have taken time to look under every stone and ensure I understood exactly who was who in the zoo and what was going on.
The speech from the Leader of the Opposition is indicative of a woman who has no real idea of the process of negotiation, what is required, and the value of meeting people face-to-face. She did not like to meet face to face, she liked to hide away. She did not seek advice from the leaders of business and industry throughout Darwin.
Mr WESTRA van HOLTHE: A point of order, Madam Speaker! I request the member for Araluen be granted an extension of time, pursuant to Standing Order 77.
Motion agreed to.
Mrs LAMBLEY: These negotiations could not have happened quickly. Whilst being acutely aware of the ongoing community angst about the future of Gove, the Northern Territory government had to ensure all avenues and options were explored. This is called good management, prudence, doing things thoroughly and well. The former Labor government was not good at doing things well and acting prudently. We know that because of the debt and deficit they left us - absolute evidence of no prudence and no good management.
Through the Chief Minister’s efforts, we have exacted commitments from both sides of federal politics which will assist in developing future energy and gas assets. This goes a long way to alleviating the potential negative downstream impact to Power and Water Corporation.
The Country Liberals government has a strong tradition of providing clean gas energy options to Territorians going back decades. The Territory’s second Chief Minister, Ian Tuxworth, turned his back on the heavy fuels which had powered the Territory for decades and secured construction of a 1500 km gas pipeline between the Amadeus Basin in Central Australia and the Channel Point Power Station. This provided Territorians with one of the cleanest energy sources at the time, and gas continues to serve the Territory well. That was done years ago when Ian Tuxworth was around. He had a vision.
We now have a Chief Minister with a fantastic vision - a real vision to give us a substantial real future, not one about water parks and the superficiality the former Labor government specialised in. We are talking about substance, not superficiality. This is the type of vision Territorians came to expect from previous Country Liberals governments.
Yesterday, the Chief Minister paved the way for a new frontier in gas with the first steps in the eventual construction of a gas pipeline between Tennant Creek and Mount Isa which will see the Territory linked to the national gas grid. This is big exciting stuff. It is what people should be talking about at their kitchen tables tonight over a beer or lemonade. Husbands and wives should be talking about the wonderful vision of the Chief Minister of this government. Linking us into the national gas grid will mean enormous opportunities for business and industry. This is fantastic stuff and we should all be extremely excited.
Development will not happen overnight, but when it occurs it will be a win for the Northern Territory and the rest of Australia. It is generally agreed there are enormous amounts of gas in Northern Australia and this will open the way for the shared allocation of the resource from around Australia.
However, back to Gove, it is in all Territorians’ interests that this historic deal goes ahead. Once again, I applaud the Chief Minister for his efforts. The Mills government is committed to working with energy companies in the future to develop the domestic energy market and secure the long-term future of Territorians. It is impossible to understate the importance of the Gove refinery to the east Arnhem region and the Northern Territory economy more generally.
In 2011-12, the estimated contribution of the alumina refinery added about $365m to gross value. In the same year, the mining of bauxite was estimated at around $408m. We are talking big money.
This is not just about Nhulunbuy although, obviously, the people of Nhulunbuy will be the direct beneficiaries of the gas to Gove deal. It is about a workforce across the Territory and working on creating the three hubs we went to the election on. One of our election platforms was creating substantial investment in mining, agriculture and tourism.
The workforce, including mining generated from this project, is over 1550 with around 1200 of those based in Gove. It is a measure of the significance the Mills government places on the Gove refinery and its contribution to the Territory that we have taken the decision to make the Territory’s gas available to keep the refinery open. I await with interest the final announcement by Rio Tinto in the coming days.
Mr VATSKALIS (Casuarina): Madam Speaker, I would like to debate the Chief Minister’s statement. However, first, I would like to clarify some things. The member for Araluen said this deal is very important for Nhulunbuy. The only thing we have at the moment is an offer; we do not have a deal. The deal will be done when Pacific Aluminium says it will keep the alumina refinery open. It is common knowledge in the sector that the Pacific Aluminium refinery in Gove loses about $30m a month.
The member for Araluen said we should be celebrating this. I would celebrate if the decision by the Chief Minister to provide gas was made four-and-a-half or five months earlier rather than now. I can tell you how much celebrating is happening. Today’s The Australian headline is ‘Northern Territory rolls over on Rio gas supply’, and the first paragraph states:
- Rio Tinto has forced the Northern Territory government to release public gas supplies to power the company’s loss-making alumina operations in a move that exposes taxpayers to billion-dollar risk.
That is how the rest of Australia is seeing it, not as a cause for celebration. That is the opportunity the Chief Minister missed. If he had done it four- and-a-half months ago it would be a different story. We would not have the situation of big businesses losing faith in the Territory government to make a timely decision to support them. He had to fly to Canberra, Singapore, Paris and London to ensure this would happen. He could have done that from Darwin.
Today, we had an excuse trying to divert attention from his inability to make a timely decision by pointing the finger at the previous government, the previous Chief Minister - security of supply, the gas reservation policy and others. I will go into those one by one.
The situation with the Rio Tinto alumina refinery in Gove was well-known not over the past seven months or the past year, but over the past four years. Rio Tinto had plans to change the fuel in Gove. It even had a plan to import coal from Queensland and export alumina using the same boats. We rejected this because it would be impossible to persuade the people of the Territory there would be a coal-fired power station in east Arnhem. Rio Tinto then proposed a gas pipeline to Gove and provision of gas to Gove.
At the same time, we negotiated with ENI and Power and Water Corporation for the supply of gas and the construction of the pipeline from Blacktip to the central pipeline which goes through the centre of the Territory. I am sure - the Minister for Mines and Energy can get the information from the department - the whole corridor from Elsey Station to Arnhem was clear apart from 34 km the traditional owners had objected to following a tragic accident where an anthropologist and pilot were killed.
Several times I met with the Pacific Aluminium CEO. We discussed that and offered any assistance to revisit the corridor of the pipeline to confirm it because if you cannot get the pipeline through you cannot get gas. If you do not have gas there is not much point putting a pipeline in, but the situation with gas in the Territory is not what the government is describing.
Let me start from the beginning. When ConocoPhillips initially came to the Territory the price of gas became very expensive because America switched from conventional fuel - heavy oil and coal - to LNG and significant environmental legislative changes, especially in California, demanded all power stations change to a cleaner fuel. That demand, of course, pushed the price up and ConocoPhillips was not very keen to sell locally unless the price matched what they could get from export. As I correctly pointed out, there was no gas reservation policy of the CLP for an obvious reason - most of the gas coming to the Territory today is not produced within the Territory or within Territory waters. It is produced from Western Australian or Commonwealth waters and the gas companies are not the owners of the gas, they are producers. The owners of the gas are the people of the state the gas is produced in.
That would create some interesting questions about a gas reservation policy to reserve gas for the Territory from gas belonging to Western Australian or the Commonwealth. Under the Northern Territory (Self-Government) Act, the Territory cannot compulsorily acquire it because it would be a compulsory acquisition without adequate compensation. Also, a gas reservation policy is a form of taxation on the companies producing gas and a form of subsidy to the companies which acquire the gas at a reduced price.
No government would be very popular if it tried that policy in other sectors. For example, the cattle industry produces 500 000 animals for Indonesia and we put a reservation on companies which demands 80 000 of these stay in the Territory. Cattlemen, or the cattle industry, would not be very happy with that. The same applies to a gas reservation policy.
Also, I cannot see a gas reservation policy from either political party in Canberra. Neither the Labor Party nor the Liberal Party has, had, or ever discussed a gas reservation policy. Both parties believe in the free economy and will allow the market to dictate prices and where gas is sold.
The members opposite talk about the letter from Rio Tinto to Paul Henderson, the then Chief Minister. A response to that letter was provided by Paul Henderson immediately: four years gas supply to Rio Tinto, up to 10 years should supplies be explored and found in the Territory. We said it was okay for the Chief Minister to take about five months to decide but, of course, if any other government takes time to make a decision or negotiate an outcome that is not acceptable. You cannot have it both ways. The letter was provided; assistance was provided by our government to Rio Tinto, not only assistance to provide gas, but also to clear the corridor for the pipeline.
Do not get me wrong, I am pleased the Chief Minister finally made this decision. My argument is that decision should have been made four months ago when the issue first arose and we knew Pacific Aluminium and Rio Tinto were considering closing down the alumina refinery in Gove. It is not only about the township of Gove, it is about east Arnhem. It is not only that 15 people will leave Gove; those 15 people mean the high school is unsustainable and there will not be the services we take for granted such as the hospital, obstetricians, clinics, dentists - all the things people take for granted in east Arnhem will not be there. Also, do not forget the people who made a significant investment buying a property or business in Gove; that investment would be wiped out.
The other thing I find unbelievable is the statement by members opposite that if we give gas to Rio Tinto the lights will go out. The lights will not go out. The Northern Territory government has an agreement with ConocoPhillips for the provision of emergency gas. That agreement says ConocoPhillips will give gas to Power and Water Corporation and, in exchange, Power and Water will provide the same volume of gas back when it has adequate supplies. The same agreement can be negotiated with INPEX, and I believe INPEX will have no problem providing the gas.
Also, Mereenie Loop is not exhausted; there is still gas. There is not adequate gas to produce LNG, but enough gas to provide about 20% of the current needs of Power and Water so gas can also be provided to Rio Tinto.
Another matter is risk to the Territory. In 2001, there were six oil and gas exploration applications in the Northern Territory. Today, the Northern Territory is covered with exploration applications for oil and gas and the results are very encouraging.
The minister for Mining visited Houston. Congratulations, I like that because he has to promote the Territory. He probably visited Houston to talk to them about opportunities in the Territory. In the McArthur Basin, Armour Energy has drilled a number of wells. One of these wells produced a flow equivalent to 3.3 million static cubic feet per day, and it is estimated there is gas in that particular well of 130.7 BCF. That is one well in one region of the McArthur Basin. That is not to mention the Beetaloo Basin, where Falcon Oil & Gas has been exploring actively for oil and gas.
In 2013, RPS Energy estimated the gross prospective resource potential in that area and found about 162 TCF potential resource of gas. ConocoPhillips has three TCF and Blacktip has one TCF. The potential for gas in the Territory is enormous. There is no risk because if you look for it you will find it. They did it with manganese, copper, uranium and iron ore. I am perplexed with the proposal for a pipeline from Mt Isa to Tennant Creek to connect to the pipeline in the Territory. The coalition promised $1m if elected in the next election.
I call on the Minister for Mines and Energy to repeat the exploration initiative I put in place with the oil and gas companies. We put dollar-for-dollar up to $100 000 for exploration companies to explore for minerals. Do the same for oil and gas companies and you will see how many companies actively look for oil and gas. If you get 20 or 30 and 10% find oil and gas, it means three companies will find gas and there will be no risk to the Territory. We know there is gas out there. The seismic surveys have clearly shown there is gas. There is enough gas for LNG, for export, and the potential to link Alice Springs to Moomba and to have a true national network with gas from the Northern Territory to the rest of Australia.
The Labor government put in $1m per year for three years and saw exploration increase from $50m in 2007 to $220m in 2011 - a 500% increase in six years. Do the same with oil and gas and many companies will start exploring. Some will do the exploration themselves, like Santos and Hess, but there are some small ones who will actively look for oil and gas and will find it.
The situation with alumina can be repeated in other industries. Others can ask the Territory for assistance and the Territory should provide it.
The Leader of the Opposition was right to criticise public servants because the word was public servants pulled the wool over the eyes of the Chief Minister by highlighting the risk which resulted in the Chief Minister being reluctant to make a decision. Speaking to an ex-CLP minister who knows the situation, he was at a loss to explain why the Chief Minister could not make a decision: why he would not show initiative and act quickly to provide gas to Rio Tinto. After all, the gas is not free; it is to be purchased so the company will receive the money and the condition is we will supply gas for 10 years subject to more gas being found. When more is found, you return it to the Territory government. It is a win/win situation.
Unfortunately, we are in a losing situation because the Territory government has lost face and the Chief Minister is known as someone who dithers and cannot make a decision.
I find it extraordinary that the Deputy Chief Minister criticises the Leader of the Opposition for attacking people who helped the Chief Minister but have no right of reply. First thing this morning we saw the Leader of Government Business breaking convention in this parliament by attacking the ex-member for Wanguri for resigning. The ex-member for Wanguri is unable to reply to that attack.
Again, you cannot have it both ways. Sometimes decorum is necessary in this House. A person who retires deserves to do so with dignity and nobody has the right to criticise the reason or way somebody retires. There might be things you have no idea about; there may be reasons why people decide to retire. I have not seen that before in this parliament ...
Mr WESTRA van HOLTHE: A point of order, Madam Speaker! Relevance. The member for Casuarina has gone off on a tangent. This statement is about gas to Gove and has nothing to do with the utterances of the Leader of Government Business in this House regarding a completely different topic.
Madam SPEAKER: Thank you, member for Katherine. There is some connection given the past member for Wanguri was the Chief Minister and involved in some discussions. I am prepared to give some flexibility at this point in time. Member for Casuarina.
Mr VATSKALIS: Thank you, Madam Speaker. I was highlighting the fact the Deputy Chief Minister complained about the Leader of the Opposition naming people who had no right of reply. It is the same thing the Leader of Government Business did today. You cannot have it both ways!
Businesses have now lost faith in the Territory government. The Northern Territory Minerals Council today called on the Northern Territory government for a real strategic plan for the mining industry in the Territory. The situation for Gove reverberates around industry.
I am quite happy to explain my plan for the mining industry. It is the one the current Minister for Mines and Energy took with him to China. He changed the front page, which had my photograph and prologue, and used exactly the same plan and investment attraction. He took the same booklet we produced when in government, and I am very pleased he did because it was a good book. It means it had a result and was a good plan.
I hope he will take it in the future. I am very happy to give him a redraft and a new copy. If your enemies take your work and present it as their own it must be good.
We had a plan for the Territory and you have seen it. There are mines such as Bigrlyi, Western Desert Resources, Sherwin Iron, the expansion of ERA, the expansion of Groote Eylandt, the expansion of McArthur River and Xstrata, and all the exploration currently taking place in the Northern Territory from north to south - from Rum Jungle to Minemakers to Mithra Resources and all the people exploring in the Territory.
I suggest the minister has a meeting with his department and seeks a briefing, otherwise I am quite happy to give one. I will be providing a briefing to the oil and gas conference in Sydney in March about oil and gas opportunities in the Northern Territory and the fact a Labor government, when we come to power, will not have a gas reservation policy but, instead, will help the industry and respond to the industry when it needs it. We will not dither when making decisions, especially important ones like Gove.
Madam Speaker, I am pleased the Chief Minister finally made the right decision. It was the right decision for Gove, east Arnhem, and for the industry. However, I call on the Chief Minister to really look at the industry and the future of the Territory with regard to oil and gas. Instead of talking about a national network, let us spend the money discovering oil and gas resources in the Northern Territory. The industry will then build its own network and national grid in Australia.
Mr WESTRA van HOLTHE (Mines and Energy): Madam Speaker, goodness me, sometimes I do not know where to start when I listen to the contributions from the opposition. Sometimes, I am absolutely gobsmacked at the levels to which the former government – now the opposition and thank God they are in opposition - will stoop to in addressing what is probably one of the most critical issues facing the Northern Territory at this moment in time.
I cannot believe this whole gas to Gove thing has attracted so much vitriol from the opposition. This is a day to celebrate. This is a day to grab hold of the work done by the Chief Minister and celebrate the results of that hard work. As I said, I do not quite know where to start. Goodness me.
Let us start with the Leader of the Opposition. Clearly, what the Leader of the Opposition knows about the oil and gas industry in the Northern Territory could be written on a postage stamp. That became evident as I heard her lame contribution to this debate. The Deputy Opposition Leader described it in a similar vein, but it was probably one of the worst speeches I have heard in this House. There was no substance, just a vitriolic attack politicising what should be an embracing of a very important decision made by this new Northern Territory government. I am astounded the opposition, particularly the Leader of the Opposition, could find no good in the work the Chief Minister has done. In five-and-a-half months he has done what those - let us call them super heroes because they believe they are - on the other side of the House could not achieve.
We heard the former Chief Minister received a letter from Pacific Aluminium requesting gas and it took him seven months to reply. A couple of points rang true when I heard the contribution by the Leader of the Opposition and, to put it together with some facts which have emerged from the debate around gas to Gove, I can only draw the conclusion there is an enormous amount of professional jealousy coming from the other side of the House. They thought, ‘Holy cow, how did the Chief Minister manage to do that?’ They criticise and whinge because it took too long, according to them, and this decision should have been made four-and-a-half months ago. It is easy for them to sit on the outside, throw a few stones, see what splashes they can make in the pond - a very shallow pond. However, there is so much more to this which, clearly, by the standard of debate in this House, they simply do not understand.
I am really disappointed the member for Casuarina, being the former Minister for Mines and Energy, states the deal should have been done four-and-a-half months ago and there is no risk to the Territory because of gas supplies that are coming on board. Yet, what these buffoons on the other side of the House do not understand - they do not want to hear the story - is there is still risk associated with this. We are working to mitigate the risk as best we can, but the contract for the supply of gas from Blacktip only goes so far. Should Rio Tinto agree to our conditions for provision of that gas, it will mean the gas field will be depleted much sooner than the period of the contract we have gas to provide electricity to consumers of the Northern Territory, particularly the Top End. That is fine and we suspect there will be gas; we probably know there will be more gas coming online in that time. The Territory is highly prospective for gas; however, at what cost? That is the inherent risk now and we need to deal with that.
The member for Casuarina completely missed that point in his debate and it disappoints me. I thought he understood what oil and gas means, contributes, and how it sits in the overall scheme of the economy of the Northern Territory. Shame on him for making a half-hearted attempt at contributing to this debate!
There has been much criticism of the Chief Minister heading overseas. That demonstrates the point of difference between the former Labor government and the current Country Liberal Northern Territory government. If those opposite believe they could sit in their office, make a few phone calls and pull together a deal of this nature, let me tell this House and Territorians listening, thank God they are no longer in government. You are not in government because you are lazy and lost your focus, if you had any beyond a four-year term. That is why you are sitting in the opposition benches now.
You have been replaced by a government with vision beyond a four-year electoral cycle prepared to make the hard decisions and hard calls. Not only that, we are prepared to put in the hard work required to pull together deals to set the Territory up for generations to come. That is why the Chief Minister was quite right to take an appropriate length of time to deal with this important issue for the Territory.
The member for Casuarina quoted the head of the Minerals Council saying we need some plans. Where was your plan? How many new mines opened during your tenure of government of 11 or so years?
If you are going to use quotes like that, member for Casuarina, let us have another quote from the interview where Drew Wagner, Executive Director of the Minerals Council, said on the ABC today in response to a question:
- I’m well. Thanks so much for your time. How do you think the government has handled this deal?
Mr Wagner replied:
- Look, I think the government has handled this deal very prudently. I think they’ve certainly taken the time to fully understand what the ramifications are of all outcomes and all decisions and I think, ultimately, we’ve ended up at a good place.
Mr Elferink: Hang on, that is industry.
Mr WESTRA van HOLTHE: Industry said that. Thank you for the interjection, member for Port Darwin.
If you are going to throw quotes around about what industry says, you better consider the whole quote.
The Minerals Council was asked:
- Certainly, taken the time, you say. Do you think they’ve taken too much time?
The Minerals Council reply was - this is industry:
- Not at all. I think this has been obviously a very large decision that the Chief Minister and his Cabinet have had to make on behalf of all Territorians. I think that the process has been undertaken diligently, and while some opponents will say it took too long and it possibly took too many Frequent Flyer miles, but ultimately we’ve come to the correct decision at the correct time.
They are the words of the Minerals Council of the Northern Territory, supporting what the Chief Minister and this government have done to bring this deal to where it is today.
For those on the opposition benches who like to criticise, that is your prerogative. We will defend our position. However, clearly, industry is also supportive of the points of view being put forward by the Treasury benches. You should, as the old saying goes, put that in your pipe and smoke it!
Today I have heard the opposition trying to defend the indefensible ...
Ms Walker: Defend the people of Gove.
Mr WESTRA van HOLTHE: I pick up the interjection from the member for Nhulunbuy. She said, ‘Defend the people of Gove’. Member for Nhulunbuy, that is exactly what we have done. However, instead of taking seven months to write a letter with the assumption some major deal could be struck over the telephone, we have taken a far more strategic view to support Gove, eastern Arnhem Land and the whole of the Northern Territory. This is bigger than just Gove, without a doubt. This is about energy security for the Northern Territory and, ultimately, Australia. That is why I was so pleased when the Chief Minister announced he had been working towards connecting the Northern Territory into a national grid.
The Weekend Australian reported that in years to come the domestic supply of gas from the eastern states will dwindle, not necessarily because the supplies will dry up, but because most of that gas will go to offshore markets. That rang pretty well with me because I was thinking, ‘Great, the Northern Territory is highly prospective for gas’. The Member for Casuarina said there was 162 trillion cubic feet in one field. There have been estimates the Territory holds as much as 200 trillion cubic feet of gas.
It would be wonderful if we could provide some of that gas through a pipeline connecting Tennant Creek to Mount Isa for domestic use across Australia. We would be an enormous exporter of gas, potentially internationally - we will be when INPEX comes online – but also into states across Australia.
We are in a prime position to take responsibility for not just setting the economic direction of the Northern Territory around the provision of gas and all the good things that happen for the Territory, but being part of a much bigger picture and our position in this great country of Australia. That is where we need to be thinking, not as the opposition would, in four year cycles.
The member for Nhulunbuy has surprised me through this gas to Gove debate over the past few months. Rather than take this issue seriously in a bipartisan approach, the member for Nhulunbuy has chosen to politicise this. I wondered why she would take that stance. I am going to clutch at a few straws here. I believe she is so desperately thinking about the next election cycle, the future of Gove and her position as an elected member in parliament, the impact the closure of the refinery at Gove will have on the population statistic of her electorate, and whether her electorate might, ultimately, be subsumed into another electorate, and that will put her out of a job in about August 2016. The member for Nhulunbuy is probably far more self-interested in this debate than she would let on, and that is disgraceful. We have seen other examples of the member for Nhulunbuy trying to politicise things and it falling in around her eyes, as well in issues around power cards in Yirrkala etcetera
Ms Walker: Buddy, I am coming back at you on that one.
Mr WESTRA van HOLTHE: I pick up the interjection. Please come back at me on that. I am looking forward to it. I am ready for you, member for Nhulunbuy.
In a more strategic sense, the Chief Minister spoke about energy policy. One thing is for sure, under the former government there was no overarching policy which dealt with the future supply of energy for the Northern Territory. It is not just about being able to provide gas for Power and Water to generate electricity. What about gas to Gove? What about gas for the myriad of other enterprises coming online over the next five, 10, 15, 20 years? What policy will be set in place to deal with those issues? From the former government, there was none.
Consequently, the Chief Minister and I have been in discussions around the formation of an energy directorate, a group of highly professional people pulled together, some from resources we already have within departments. They will be looking at the strategic direction of energy policy for the Northern Territory for generations to come. It is that strategic approach the Country Liberals are renowned for. If I think back to the days of former CLP governments - the opposition would have us believe that in 2001 the Northern Territory was a barren wasteland and they built the whole place, but we know that is not true – they had a great deal of vision for the Territory. Look at the major infrastructure they built when in government. Let us face it; the CLP built the Territory without a shadow of a doubt.
The Labor government rode on the coat tails of all the work done by the CLP and, at the same time, spent every red cent they could get their hands on to plunge the Northern Territory into enormous amounts of debt. We, as the new responsible government in the Northern Territory, have to fix that.
I conclude by saying the new Chief Minister of the Northern Territory has done a remarkable job getting to where we are today. Notwithstanding those who would criticise the time it has taken, the timing has been extremely good. He has worked extremely hard. The work and dedication that has gone into this sets a point of difference between the former lame Labor government and the current new Country Liberal government of the Northern Territory.
Ms WALKER (Nhulunbuy): Madam Speaker, I will be taking a very local view in my response to the Chief Minister’s statement. I am speaking as the member for Nhulunbuy and as the voice of this parliament for hundreds and hundreds of people who have been through an incredibly difficult time – months of waiting, being led to believe an announcement will be made, only to find they have been let down with no news.
Finally, the news came through yesterday. I thank the Chief Minister for the decision he arrived at. It is a good decision, the right decision, a welcome decision in that it secures the future of Gove – almost; we are waiting to hear confirmation from Rio that they accept the offer on the table. I am hugely optimistic they will. Most certainly, it was the right decision but it was a long time coming.
I find, on a personal level, the Chief Minister to be a decent human being. He and I have had a number of conversations over the last few months on the subject of gas to Gove. However, I find him to be falling short in the leadership qualities associated with this. This has been a real test of his leadership. Whilst I applaud him for coming through with the result we needed not just for Gove but for the Territory, I am incredibly disappointed with the very long journey, if we are talking about journeys - that was the theme of his statement - to reach the point we have finally arrived at.
I want to place my journey on the record, as well. I speak not only as the elected representative of the people of Nhulunbuy since 2008, it has also been my home for 23 years. It is a very special place to me and my family. It is where I moved to take a teaching job, where I met my husband, and my three children were born at Gove District Hospital. It is where I had enormous opportunity, after leaving education, to take up a role with the mining company Nabalco as it was then. Whilst I am often referred to as a former school teacher, more of my working life has been spent in the mining industry at Gove than teaching. When I talk about being tagged as a school teacher, Gove is very much tagged as a mining town. It is a mining town but it is much more than that. I am not exaggerating when I say not only Gove the town, but the region has been through something of a crisis.
The good news announced yesterday by the Chief Minister is too late for some. Many families have already left Gove in light of the uncertainty and worry should gas not be delivered and operations mothballed. Families with the capacity to move on, namely those who had contract jobs with the mining company, took the decision to jump ship. This was not an option for the business community. They had nowhere to go but stick with their businesses which were virtually worth nothing; you could not sell them to anybody. It was too late for some families, taking into account we were hoping, and led to believe, there would be a decision before the end of the year. That decision never came and people could not wait any longer. They were mindful of their kids needing to start a new school year and worried they might be competing with hundreds of other workers looking for jobs in the mining sector. Many of those families have gone.
Whilst this decision will give a good degree of confidence to the local businesses, it is not before many of these businesses have already downsized. The worry for them precedes the October announcement from the company about their strategic plan. Many businesses had been downsizing but when that announcement came it made matters really difficult. Many jobs have been lost and many business owners have been incredibly worried.
What has been missing from this debate is the enormous contribution the town has made to the region and the Territory in its legacy going back to the start of operations in 1971 when the first bauxite was stockpiled and the first alumina exported in 1972. Millions of dollars has been generated out of the region into Territory and federal coffers. It is not just about the town; it is about the enormous contribution to the region and the Territory.
The issue of gas to Gove, whilst reaching this point in the last 12 months or so, is a legacy issue of successive companies going back to Nabalco. Nabalco was talking about gas to Gove when I was working for the company. It had been identified back then that not only did the company need to switch to a cheaper source of fuel through gas, it needed a cleaner source of fuel, and it needed to look at minimising risks associated with shipping in thousands of tonnes of heavy fuel oil to run the power station every six weeks or so on big tankers from Kuwait.
After Nabalco was bought by Alcan, a Canadian company, and the move was made to the G3 expansion project, even though there had been two, possibly three, memoranda of understanding signed, one being Blacktip, they did not eventuate. I put this back on the company and its successive owners that, in the vision for the future of the company and shareholders, it chose not to make the capital investment necessary to convert to gas, to secure gas, to bring gas in through a gas pipeline - all the things we are now dealing with - and we know Alcan chose to invest money in the G3 expansion.
If I go back to the plans in place to prepare for gas many years ago, a significant body of work had been completed in surveying a gas pipeline corridor across Arnhem Land from the Stuart Highway all the way through to Gove, which came at some cost. People may recall a helicopter went down as part of the survey team near the homeland community of Donydji. Four people lost their lives in that accident: the pilot who, together with his family, I knew very well; a senior TO from Donydji; an anthropologist from the NLC, and a senior representative from ENI, I believe.
Madam Speaker: Epic.
Ms WALKER: Epic, thank you, Madam Speaker.
There has been an enormous cost when we look at people’s lives lost. The gas to Gove issue has been around for some time. The crunch came last year because of enormous losses Pacific Aluminium could not sustain. Rio had announced it was creating a subsidiary of its unprofitable businesses within the bauxite and alumina group and the Gove operation was amongst them.
It is amongst the businesses up for sale. It is the only one with a very good grade of bauxite attached to it just 19 km away by an overland conveying system, which makes it a very attractive prospect, and even more so now we have the gas deal almost secured.
Obviously, those losses are not sustainable; small businesses cannot sustain those losses. Rio has sustained losses over a long period of time. Their shareholders are demanding a greater return. Hence, we have seen a couple of CEOs at Rio move on as a result of those losses and failure to perform. Pacific Aluminium, as a subsidiary, is in a breakeven position taking into account it is working well down that pathway. In finding cost efficiencies it has, through a process of natural attrition - no sackings, no forced redundancies - seen workforce numbers reduced to be more efficient. There have been process operational improvements as to how it does business which has reduced cost and, of course, a fairly significant factor will see the increase in bauxite exports.
I used to know off the top of my head how many million tonnes per annum were exported. It was about 6.5 million tonnes pre-G3 then up to 8 million tonnes per annum. They will boost that with further bauxite exports.
The other critical factor in trying to reach a breakeven position is to find a cheaper energy source. It is a great sigh of relief that has almost been secured - just waiting to hear from Rio Tinto now. Then there are things entirely beyond their control: the strong Australian dollar and the downturn in the mining sector no sooner than the G3 project had been completed to enable them to increase capacity. There was no point doing that because there was no market to sell the alumina, and that has been an increase in competition in the last five years or so with very efficient alumina producers in India and China. That is the position Pacific Aluminium, as a subsidiary of Rio Tinto, has had to come from.
During this whole saga, Gove people have been made to feel marginalised. They felt their voices had not been heard, and that included feeling completely abandoned during this process by the Northern Territory government and the Chief Minister. There was plenty of positive media in the early days beyond the announcement of 24 October and expectations were created, ‘We expect to be making an announcement very soon. We are feeling very positive. No stone is left unturned’, all that type of rhetoric. However, when we came to certain days and were expecting something to be announced, nothing - silence.
When we reached December the Chief Minister said we could expect an announcement by the end of the year. These dates came and went and small wonder people started to become increasingly anxious about what was happening. It did not help that, during this time, nobody from the Northern Territory government, including the Chief Minister, came to Gove.
I read a quote in the paper from the Resource minister to the effect, ‘We do not need to show our faces in Gove, we just need to get gas to Gove’. I made a phone call to the Chief Minister’s office and we played phone tag for a couple of days. I was most grateful to receive his call back on a Sunday afternoon. He thought I was seeking an update on negotiations. I said to him, ‘I appreciate that but you really need to come out here, Chief Minister, and meet with people in Gove. There would be great advantage in you talking face-to-face with them.’ It was a Sunday and we must have been in the midst of Parliamentary sittings, perhaps right at the end of the year. I said to him, ‘I know how incredibly busy you are. You have a lot of travel to do. If you cannot get to Gove could you at least organise a teleconference and talk with the stakeholder group that has rallied and calls itself the East Arnhem Regional Futures Alliance?’ I told him the chair was Klaus Helms and said I was sure if he did not know Klaus he would know of him. He said, ‘Yes, I know him’.
It was agreed I would send Mr Helms’ contact details to the Chief Minister. Later that night, once I landed in Darwin coming in for sittings, I had a message from the Chief Minister saying he had made contact with him and had a teleconference organised on the Monday of the second week of sittings. I was really pleased about that and the people in Gove who sat around the table that morning were really pleased to have an assurance from the Chief Minister that, whilst he could not get there, he explained what he was doing. That was good.
The other really difficult thing for Gove people in feeling marginalised is the role the media plays. The member for Namatjira knows all too well how mischievous media can be in putting things out that are not always accurate or trying to steer people towards a certain point of view. Online comments, social networks - Gove people were being branded as just mining company people. ‘You have had it too good for too long, get over it. Government is not coming to rescue you and taxpayers are not coming to rescue you.’ This was not helped by furphies about the risk to the Northern Territory. It was coming from the Northern Territory Government that the risks associated with releasing gas would, potentially, put power prices up by 75%.
I asked in Question Time this morning if the Chief Minister could table where that advice came from. I did not get a clear answer but that became a very divisive issue: ‘You people in Gove are putting the whole of the Northern Territory at risk by asking for gas’. It goes back to the point this is not just about Gove, this is about a community which generates employment right across the region for traditional owners - economic opportunities - but it is also a really important regional service centre. It is not just a mining town; 50% of ratepayers in the town of Nhulunbuy are mining personnel. The remaining 50% can be split evenly between private business and government services. If there is a reduction in that town there is no other option but a reduction in businesses and government services throughout the region.
There were stories of doom and gloom; nobody was talking about the future opportunities. We have the glass half empty not half full. Whilst we knew these negotiations were difficult, nobody was talking about the $1.2bn spend from Rio Tinto to go with this: $500m for a pipeline and, with that, the creation of jobs to build it; the opportunities, if it is going along the Central Arnhem Road, to do some roadworks; $200m - and that figure may even be higher - to convert the steam power station within the refinery to a gas-fuelled station; $500m we know Gove contributes annually to the Territory economy – it may be higher than that - and around $200m contribution to Territory businesses, including Gove businesses.
In the meantime, while all this was happening and the people in Gove were feeling completely abandoned and marginalised, the community rallied. The East Arnhem Regional Futures Alliance, headed up by Klaus Helms and David Suter, our chair of the Chamber of Commerce, brought people together. It was not just businesses; NGOs and Northern Territory public servants were part of that group. What they were trying to do was rally in looking at worst case scenarios. They were fearful they were staring down the barrel of gas not coming to Gove. Nobody was talking about what happens if gas does not come to Gove. There was always that, ‘No, no, we are positive, we are optimistic’, but nobody was talking about what happens if gas does not come.
This group rallied. They put together business surveys which went out to people right across the community asking if they could quantify what the loss would be to their business, what their investments were, how many people they employed, what training opportunities they provided, all of that. In rallying, this group drove it because they could not wait for anybody else to do it or wait for an announcement from the government.
A community meeting was finally held on 14 January. This was only two weeks out from Rio Tinto’s deadline, so people were getting pretty anxious. This community meeting was organised for all stakeholders within the community by the East Arnhem Regional Futures Alliance. I inquired with the organisers whether an invitation had been sent to the Chief Minister. I had issued a media release calling on the Chief Minister to attend this meeting; people in Gove really needed to hear from him. I had another conversation with the Chief Minister – no, sorry, we missed calls. I was pleased to see the Chief Minister took my advice that he needed to be there. I said in a message I left on his phone, ‘You do not need to be there to make an announcement’ ...
Mr WOOD: Madam Acting Deputy Speaker, I move the member be granted an extension of time pursuant to Standing Order 77.
Motion agreed to.
Ms WALKER: Thanks, member for Nelson, and thank you, Madam Acting Deputy Speaker.
I had said to the Chief Minister he did not need to be there to make an announcement, an update would be helpful but, more importantly, to have the opportunity to listen to people’s fears and have the opportunity to ask questions. As members of parliament, we all know that face-to-face contact shows you are listening and are high on the agenda. This was a community in crisis.
That meeting was very positive. The Chief Minister was very positive and upbeat. He sat side-by-side with Mr Sandeep Biswas from Pacific Aluminium, who was also positive. Mr Biswas was also very clear about the fact the company was not looking for handouts or taxpayer funds to build pipelines or rescue them, or cheap deals on gas but, rather, they were negotiating for commercial rates within the appropriate marketplace value.
What was interesting at that meeting is that most people who attended were feeling somewhat negative and kept pressing the Chief Minister to talk more about what happens if gas does not come to Gove, what is the worst case scenario. In responding, the Chief Minister stated, ‘Obviously, we have contingency plans, but my entire focus is on getting gas to Gove’. That did not really give people a great deal of confidence because they were worried there was some avoidance and, in not wanting to talk about gas to Gove, perhaps there were no plans.
It was also interesting that there were assurances from the Chief Minister that no government services to Nhulunbuy would be cut: health, education and everything else that happens there. Yet, at the same time, there are some positions in the public service that have not been filled because of the advice from their Darwin CEOs, or whoever within the agency, was, ‘No, let’s wait until we hear about the outcome of gas to Gove’. That has not helped people’s degree of confidence. If we have the bureaucracy in the public service stating to agencies in Gove, ‘No, we are not recruiting to that position at the moment; we are going to hold until we get a result’, it is incredibly disappointing.
Beyond that roller coaster of a ride waiting for all those announcements, the next thing we heard was on 23 January - one week out from Rio’s deadline - a media release from the Chief Minister about a deal on the table for gas to Gove. This announcement stated, ‘We do not have an announcement to make. We do not really have anything to say other than we are handballing this back to Rio Tinto and ENI to get sorted.’ Amazingly, it also stated they were asking Rio Tinto to continue to work together in good faith and for an eight-month extension on negotiations. Everybody in Gove read that and thought, ‘He is mad. He obviously has no plan to resolve this.’
The next step was a rally on Wednesday, 30 January - driven by absolute desperation - for the community to be heard and say what was at stake. It was organised for midday on Wednesday, 30 January. Media had been invited and attended, unlike the Chief Minister or any member of Cabinet. The Resource minister might have been there; he is a key stakeholder in this. I was disappointed the Minister for Indigenous Advancement and Regional Development was not there. Regional development would fit in with what was happening in Gove at the time. No messages were sent. It was sad to see a senior public servant in Gove have to deliver a message on behalf of the Chief Minister.
We know that public servant very well; we are a close-knit community and nobody wanted to shoot the messenger. We felt for him having to deliver a significant message on behalf of the Chief Minister. The Chief Minister was not there because he was filming a television advertisement in Leanyer, in the seat of Wanguri. People were pretty disappointed to hear the Chief Minister was more interested in shoring up votes for the CLP in the by-election rather than going to Gove. Two flights a day, charters at his disposal but, no, he could not get there.
It was also disappointing the member for Katherine could not get there. Facebook is a funny thing; you need to be careful about what you put on Facebook sometimes because it might come back to bite you. This harks back to when the Attorney-General darted out of Cabinet last week to attend a bus crash scene because he is the Minister for Education. School children were involved and there was much debate about whether it was a smart thing to do or not. On the ABC Facebook page the member for Katherine wrote, ‘Well, I applaud him for his efforts in doing that. He cares about his job and if there was a serious mining incident I would be doing exactly the same. I would be getting out there.’ I put back to him, we had a very serious situation in Gove, a mining town in crisis, minister, and, in five-and-a-half months we have not seen you. We have not heard from you and that is disappointing. We did not see Senator Scullion there. The member for Lingiari was there and, thankfully, managed to change his schedule to attend the rally.
I should add, there is no shortage of travel when it comes to some of our members opposite, and so they should - trying to attract business and investment in places overseas whether it be Indonesia, Texas or China. The Resource minister can go to all those places to attract investors but somehow cannot manage to get out to Gove.
The day of that rally saw a significant announcement from the Chairman of the NLC, Mr Wali Wunungmurra. He placed an open letter to the Chief Minister in the Northern Territory News giving him every good reason why he needed to get on with it and make a deal. It was a significant announcement and sign of support given Mr Wunungmurra mentioned the fact he opposed the mining operations back in 1963 - the only surviving signatory to the bark petition which went to Canberra petitioning against mining operations. Now the wheel had turned because in 2011 he was a signatory to the historic agreement which saw the renewal of leases for a further 42 years and here he was, this day, begging the Chief Minister and his government to step up, get this resolved quickly, stop being so risk averse and recognise the opportunities for everybody who lives there. Obviously, TOs are significant stakeholders.
At that rally, business people, families, kids - it was the first day of school, midday, really hot, so it was difficult for some people to get there. A number of business owners locked their businesses so they could get out there for an hour-and-a-half. Several people spoke, but what really stood out for people was a speech by a 12-year-old girl on her first day at high school - India Russell. She made a heartfelt plea for the Chief Minister and the Northern Territory government to step up and resolve this, this is a place she knows and loves and she did not want to move. She really struck a chord in everybody’s heart because this is how everybody else was feeling on that day. A community on the brink of crisis is not too strong a term!
I need to talk about the plight of local businesses. Essentially, selling a business or home in Nhulunbuy has not been an option and people’s entire lives, livelihoods, and years of work have been on the line. The downturn in business associated with the uncertainty and the number of jobs lost can be quantified at around 25-30% downturn in most businesses. There are regular articles in our local paper about the hardship people are going through and the uncertainty because people are not spending money there. That affected businesses further. Whilst we encourage people to shop locally knowing that businesses are more expensive to run and prices are higher, people were staying away from local businesses and going online.
This has been a significant issue for my community; it has really rocked people. There has been an increase in demand for mental health services – depression – I am not being dramatic, this is very real. Even my 12-year-old son was anxious saying, ‘Mum, we might have to leave. Is that what’s going to happen to us?’
I welcome the Chief Minister’s announcement, I look forward to Rio Tinto’s announcement, but it has been a difficult road. The answer was at the Chief Minister’s fingertips. If getting on a plane made him feel better it was a good thing to do. In the end, it achieved a result but not before he put at risk people’s lives, confidence - but we will move forward. I thank the Chief Minister for bringing this statement before the House.
Mr WOOD (Nelson): Madam Acting Deputy Speaker, I welcome the Chief Minister’s statement; it came in late last night. I also thank the member for Nhulunbuy for her contribution which highlights the passion and great emotion she has in relation to this critical issue affecting many people’s livelihoods, not just in the township but also the region.
I have not commented on the gas apart from in conversation with other people because, from afar, it is not always easy to work out what is going on. When you rely on the media you tend to become a little confused about what people are saying. That becomes more confused, as the member for Nhulunbuy said, through social media, which has changed the way we communicate sometimes for the good and sometimes for the bad in our society. The member for Nhulunbuy said this is about the livelihoods of many people.
I have some questions I hope the Chief Minister can answer. From afar, some people said we should not be subsidising Gove, it is a mining town. If the company decides to pull the pin because the price of aluminium is cheaper elsewhere, that is life. That is a reasonable comment in relation to many mining communities. They are subject to world prices and the resource running out. I could understand where people were coming from.
However, can we do something? Not just say it is all too hard, can we do something because there is good quality bauxite in that region and it can be mined. The difference now is we have a refinery, but how do we refine aluminium at a competitive price? We have to get gas to Gove. However, who will pay for the infrastructure? The Chief Minister mentioned several figures in relation to that. I might step back from the issue of who will pay and ask more general questions and, hopefully, the Chief Minister can answer those.
He says there will be a guarantee of gas from Power and Water and ENI for another 10 years. However, what happens if Pacific Aluminium pulls out of the process? What will happen to the contract with ENI? Is the 10-year supply of gas based on a guarantee Pacific Aluminium will continue to refine bauxite? If they do not continue to refine bauxite what will happen to the contract? Will that mean the contract is null and void and ENI has an opportunity to renegotiate it at a different price?
Also, Chief Minister, this arrangement will allow the Northern Territory to have a gas supply from ENI to 2026; originally it was to 2034. After that, will the price of gas be renegotiated and, therefore, be higher? It is some time away, but the original price for gas was set for the life of the Blacktip gas field. What are the arrangements now we have a shorter period where gas can be supplied to the rest of the Northern Territory?
Will the announcement the Chief Minister made today mean Territorians will see any increase in electricity prices? It is a bottom line question and a basic one people would like an answer to. Will electricity prices increase because of this new arrangement with Pacific Aluminium to supply gas?
In relation to the pipeline, I understand the Commonwealth government will back this.
Ms Walker: Underwrite.
Mr WOOD: Underwrite, thank you, member for Nhulunbuy. There is $500m for ENI to upgrade its pipelines, $200m for the refinery, and $500m for the pipeline to go across Arnhem Land. If the pipeline commences and Pacific Aluminium pulls out, who is responsible for the cost of the pipeline? They are some of the questions I would like answered.
It is the same with ENI. If it starts to upgrade the pipeline and Pacific Aluminium pulls out, who bears the cost? The $200m is for the upgrade of the refinery, Pacific Aluminium’s refinery, so it would wear the loss.
The Chief Minister mentioned LNG and the possibility of providing gas to Gove by LNG ships similar to the way gas is supplied to Japan from ConocoPhillips now. Was that an option in any negotiations? Gove has a considerably sized port and large ships go there. My understanding of the supply of LNG, which the Chief Minister mentioned at the start of his statement, is in relation to the reserve of gas for domestic purposes.
When these negotiations were occurring, I believed we should have a percentage of gas reserved for domestic supply. My understanding of the phone call with the company was if the Northern Territory government, or any company in the Northern Territory, wanted gas they would sell it at market price. Was there an opportunity for gas to be supplied from ConocoPhillips? Of course, that would be clean gas because the carbon and some of the pollutants are removed through the facility in the middle of Darwin Harbour. I imagine it would be higher priced gas than natural gas that went along the pipeline and am interested to know that.
I do not know if the Chief Minister, in his broader vision of what was happening, considered the use of geothermal energy. I asked this question in the last sittings of parliament. There was a comment on ABC Country Hour that Pacific Aluminium had been approached by a company which supplied geothermal energy. I have since heard it in another media report and am interested to know if there are any real teeth in this report or is it just someone blowing in the wind? I am a great fan of geothermal energy, but it has not been proved at Innamincka. They have had various problems with it. Has the Chief Minister heard similar reports about the use of geothermal energy to supply Gove?
The Chief Minister raised the important issue of a gas grid around Australia. If it is possible it is certainly a great concept. For the Territory, if we can have gas from other sources to supply a grid, there are chances to open up more industry. An example - and I am not an expert, perhaps the member for Katherine can put some light on it - one of the largest phosphate mines being developed at the moment is on the Barkly Highway. Of course, there is no power supply to that area and the company developing it would have to put in its own generating plant. I imagine it would be supplied by diesel. The word is some manufacturing processes of phosphate will be done in Tennant Creek because it is on the gas line and available for that type of facility.
Is there an opportunity for a gas pipe along the Barkly Highway which would also help this company developing the phosphate mine to develop industry where the phosphate is being mined? Having done one trip to Arnhem Land and looked at some of the outstations, many of which run on diesel, as there have been upgrades in telecommunications because of the fibre-optic line out to Gove where people can access the line and get better communications, if there was a gas pipeline to Gove people could run power stations on cleaner gas rather than expensive diesel. You could look at pipelines going to Maningrida, Millingimbi, Ramingining as well as places which rely on diesel being brought in, at least in the Wet Season, by barge. Not only is it a very expensive form of transport, it is also an expensive form of energy.
There are other advantages. There is not much emphasis in the discussion about benefits to a broader area if gas went to Gove. However, what would happen to this pipeline? If planning for the pipeline is for the Pacific Aluminium facility, is there planning for it to be large enough to supply energy to communities? Has the Chief Minister taken that into account in his discussions about a pipeline?
The Chief Minister also spoke about reservation of gas. He asked if the Labor Party should have taken up the issue with ConocoPhillips initially. I was trying to find information about the development of ConocoPhillips, which goes back to 1997. I looked up the environmental impact statement and could not find anything about reserving gas. If you read the report you get the impression ConocoPhillips intended to supply Japan with gas from that gas field using big LNG ships which go out of the harbour at the moment. Negotiations, of course, took place later on. We are able to use gas from ConocoPhillips for power stations in the Top End if there is a shortage of gas or a disturbance to the gas supply, for whatever reason; we have an emergency backup supply of gas.
Chief Minister, can local people buy gas direct from ConocoPhillips, and will local industry be able to buy gas from INPEX? Do their contracts allow another supplier to step into the market? My understanding is you can buy gas at full market price. Of course, that raises the question if you wanted to reserve 15% of the gas - that is the aim in Western Australia - what happens if you do not need that gas?
Do you store it somewhere and the next year have an extra 15%: so 30 %? How do you accommodate reservation of gas and what price would you pay for that reserved gas? Would it be full market price, or would you be telling a commercially operating company that sells gas at market price to make a profit? At what price would you expect that gas to be sold? If it is market price, is there any great advantage for Australian customers?
Oil is drilled in Bass Strait but we do not pay the Australian price to produce it; we pay the Singapore price. Producing oil in Australia, because of its proximity to the big cities, would be cheaper than bringing it from overseas. However, we pay a world price based on the Singapore price for our own oil. How would the reservation of gas work? Theoretically, it is a good idea. I do not know how it works in Western Australia, but we live in a market economy.
Parties such as the Country Liberal Party promote the idea of the free market: no interference in the market. However, by reserving gas you are interfering in the market. If you were slightly more socialist, you would say we own the gas and should be entitled to have it for our own use at a reasonable price. As much as I appreciate the concept, I am unsure how it would work in practice. Perhaps the Chief Minister could shine some light on that because he raises it in his statement.
Chief Minister, thank you for your ministerial statement today. You have been around the world and people can comment whether that was good or bad; I am not going to get into that argument. In the end, there is the possibility things will look good for Gove although we do not have that guarantee yet.
Hopefully, Pacific Aluminium will take up the challenge. Obviously, it has a lot of money involved and is losing money. Someone has to make some serious decisions to spend more money to make gas a reality. I hope it happens. It is not just about Gove, it is the entire Arnhem Land district because of the other benefits gas into that area could bring.
I also support looking at an overall concept of a gas grid, especially if we can relate that to where future mining facilities might occur. There is the phosphate mine on the Barkly Tableland and the iron ore facility near Limmen National Park. They all require large amounts of energy to operate and if we can supply gas to those companies it makes them more competitive. That means a better future for those companies in the Northern Territory.
Thank you, Chief Minister, for your statement. I appreciate all the hard work you have done. We can say it could have been done this way or that; however, if Gove can have a long future, a more certain future, it would be a good thing for not only the people in Gove and Arnhem Land, but the people of the Northern Territory. Thank you.
Mr MILLS (Chief Minister): Madam Acting Deputy Speaker, I would like to make some comments, but it is important to not conclude my comments for a very good reason. Cabinet made a significant decision yesterday, having assessed the risk profile for the Northern Territory, finding a way of reducing that risk through understanding it, and making a subsequent decision. That decision now rests with the Rio board, which I understand will be meeting tomorrow. From there will be the confirmation. Effectively, the ball is in their court. I seek, at the end of these preliminary comments, leave to complete my remarks at a later hour waiting for that final decision so there is completion of this statement.
Before doing so, I thank members for their different contributions, some constructive some not so. Everybody would, if they were honest, know there are such levels of complexity around these matters and it is much easier to criticise than understand as, sadly, was displayed by the Leader of the Opposition.
The first point to reinforce is yes, it is about the families and the community of Gove and how to secure their future through the maintenance of an energy supply to allow the refinery to continue. We have been asked to supply some energy and that decision has been made after significant risk assessment and how it can be reduced. That secures Gove in the event Rio makes the positive decision.
The next issue was to secure the Territory because by securing Gove you put at risk - this may be difficult for the people of Gove to comprehend given the pressures the Gove community was under. Do not think for a moment, member for Nhulunbuy, I was not unaware or unsympathetic. I chose to use my energies to solve this issue and hoped people understood.
There was, on the face of it as clearly understood, evidenced by the material presented by the former Chief Minister and not properly grasped by the Leader of the Opposition - not being rude, but not understood - that in making provision for Gove the Territory is very much exposed. Yes, there were calculations of worse case scenarios if gas could not be found; you would end up resorting to the use of heavy fuel oil to produce electricity in the Territory. On that basis, the worst case scenario is you end up with colossal increases in power prices. That is not an unrealistic scenario. You have to look at the worst and the best and find a way through.
One was to secure Gove and then secure the Territory’s energy supply. We recognise the increase in demand for domestic gas could cause prices to increase so we need to increase supply. That is why, when we consider the reserves and how we keep the exploration activity up, we have to talk about a serious issue: connectivity to a broader domestic market which provides us with security.
This is a very real agenda item and very much a part of the whole story. Increased demand must be matched with increased supply to provide us with the forward security.
I appreciate the member for Nhulunbuy making reference to Klaus Helms. He played a very significant role guiding the community in its difficult time. I commend him. I phoned Klaus yesterday before the press conference. Klaus has done an extraordinary job.
The comments from the member for Nelson with regard to gas reservation - following my public comments on this matter, I am not putting myself up as a proponent of gas reservation. It is a response to the need for energy security and saying if the industry cannot assist in strengthening domestic security then, inevitably, there will be a debate about gas reservation. It is not to say gas reservation is now an adopted policy position, but it has been responded to if we cannot achieve security. The belief on our side of politics is that you achieve security by balancing supply and demand. That is why we have the challenge for industry to work in this space. It has been responded to because it is inevitable that if you cannot work in the space of increasing supply, then there will be increased demand and that would bring in gas reservation. However, if we work together, if industry meets the challenge of helping to develop a framework where we could have a contribution towards the construction of a pipeline to increase access to the domestic market and think nationally, that would be a way of achieving the objective of energy security.
Going to contributions from members, particularly the Leader of the Opposition who, clearly, reads what she wants to then extrapolates the most cynical, nasty, and offensive commentary around. The letter written by former Chief Minister Henderson to Sundeep Biswas plainly states four years’ supply would and could be made available. He says, however, ‘If you want some more you guys find it. You have to secure a heads of agreement with a gas supplier to deliver an agreed volume. You sort that problem out; I have done what I need to. I have given you four years, you find the rest. You have to ensure, if you get a heads of agreement, we are paid back.’ That is why it was rejected. That is why all that was put on the table was four years’ supply.
The so-called 10-year supply - I have noticed people on Facebook say, ‘Read it carefully, it says 10 years’. If you read it carefully and honestly there is no deal for 10 years. It was, ‘We will give you four, you find the rest and ensure you cover us’. They said, ‘That is not a deal’. That deal was confirmed because we started our negotiating position on the same basis. Read it carefully, be honest, grow up, wake up. This is serious business. Obviously, we have children in charge of a political debate thinking it is a political exercise. It is very serious.
I would now like to hold off because we are at the stage where the decision has been weighed, considered and made on the basis and principles I have outlined. I seek leave to conclude my remarks after the Rio Tinto Board, and Sam Walsh, have reported back to the Northern Territory their intention. Their intention, I hope and expect, will be to commit for a defined period of time and honour their contract with the people of Gove and the Northern Territory and keep that refinery going. The ball is now in their court, and I am looking forward to their response. I seek leave, therefore, to continue my comments at a later hour.
Leave granted; debate adjourned.
ADJOURNMENT
Mr ELFERINK (Leader of Government Business): Madam Speaker, I move that the Assembly do now adjourn.
Madam Speaker, I particularly want to congratulate Mr Richard Coates for his service to the people of the Northern Territory, and place on the Parliamentary Record my thanks to him and the government’s thanks.
Richard Coates was the Director of Public Prosecutions, and retired from the position on 31 January 2013. Mr Coates was admitted to practice in Melbourne in 1974 and holds a Bachelor of Laws from Melbourne University. While working in private practice in Melbourne, he was provided with the opportunity to undertake short periods of work in the Northern Territory, which included working with the Central Australian Aboriginal Legal Aid Service in 1975 and with the North Australian Aboriginal Legal Aid Service in 1978.
In 1986, Mr Coates moved to the Territory to take up the position of Principal Legal Officer with the Central Australian Aboriginal Legal Aid Service. He appeared in all circuit courts in the region and conducted trials and justice appeals in the Supreme Court. He served as the Principal Legal Officer with the Central Australian Aboriginal Aid Service in Alice Springs from 1986 to 1988. In 1988, Mr Coates was appointed as a stipendiary magistrate and, whilst based in Darwin, he presided in most of the magistrates courts across the Northern Territory. In 1990, he took up a position as the first Director of the Northern Territory Legal Aid Commission and, while working in that role, he also presided for periods as a Chair for the National Legal Aid and the Australian Legal Assistance Forum.
In 1992, Richard was appointed as the inaugural Chair of the Escort Agents Licensing Board, a position he held with distinction until the board was replaced in 2000 by the Northern Territory Licensing Commission. Between 1997 and 2000, Mr Coates occupied the position as Chair of the National Legal Aid, the body representing Australia’s eight legal aid commissions. During his time in the chair, Mr Coates worked with Australia’s Directors of Public Prosecutions to identify changes in their respective business practices, which would create greater efficiencies in the criminal trial process. He was instrumental in the development of a best practice model for the determination of indictable crime, which promoted early prosecution disclosure, front-end loading of resources by both sides, and identifiable sentence discounts for early guilty pleas.
He was also a council member of the Australian Institute of Judicial Administration and the Northern Territory Law Society. In November 2001, Mr Coates was appointed Chief Executive Officer of the Northern Territory’s new Department of Justice and remained in that position until his appointment as the head of the DPP on 1 February 2006. Mr Coates retired from his position on 31 January 2013.
I place on the record my thanks to Mr Coates for his service to the people of the Northern Territory and the exemplary way he has gone about his business. I wish him very well in retirement but, as I said at his retirement function the other day, I suspect it might not be too long on the banana lounge with a drink in a pineapple with an umbrella in it, because he is a man who will find something to occupy his time rather than just putting his feet up.
I also wish to pay tribute to Ms Helen Roseanne Drummond, who was a justice of the peace. Today we acknowledge and honour the memory of Helen Roseanne Drummond who passed away peacefully on 10 October 2012. Ms Drummond is survived by her twin brother, Mr Ivan Drummond, her two sisters, Maree and Judy, and her brother, Luke. Ms Drummond was a long-time Territorian having lived in the Northern Territory since 1974.
Helen was appointed as a justice of the peace on 22 January 1988 and served almost 25 years in this role. At the time of appointment, Ms Drummond was the Town Clerk of the Nauiyu Nambiyu Council at Daly River. As a long-serving member of our community, Ms Drummond came highly recommended for appointment and her subsequent services as justice of the peace were a great asset to the local community and police. Ms Drummond was an active member of the community, and for the past 12 years was involved in the Northern Territory Justice’s Association Incorporated, where she held the position of registrar until her passing.
Ms Drummond was always willing to be involved in community programs and offered her assistance to the community wherever she could. She will be remembered for her contribution and dedication to the people of the Northern Territory. In the presence of my parliamentary colleagues and on the public record, I take this opportunity to celebrate Ms Drummond’s life, her commitment to the community, and to pass on my sincere condolences, on behalf of the Northern Territory government, to Ms Drummond’s family on her passing. A letter of condolence has been provided to Mr Ivan Drummond of Leanyer.
As the Education Minister, I also wish to talk of the 2012 NTCET results. A total of 1209 Year 12 students were awarded an NTCET in 2012, an increase of 65 students since 2001. Sophie Phiip of Darwin High School was the NTCET Year 12 student with a University degree aggregate of 79.8 out of a possible 80. Wow!
The top NTCET Year 12 Indigenous student was Jamie Collins who studied at Darwin High School. I note that both the top Indigenous student and the top student were from Darwin High School. Darwin High School did particularly well, a great compliment, of course, to Marion Guppy and her successor, Trevor Read.
A total of 134 Indigenous students received an NTCET in 2012, with 23 of them studying in remote communities. The top 20 students in 2012 came from Darwin High School, Katherine High School, St Philips College in Alice Springs, and Casuarina Senior College. The Northern Territory Board of Studies awards ceremonies in Alice Springs, and the ones in Darwin, honour the outstanding efforts of Year 12 students. In fact, the NT Board of Studies awards did much more than that, but I do want to place on the record my particular sense of impression with Sophie Philip and Jamie Collins, and all the other students we saw in the Great Hall the other day as part of the board of studies awards night.
The performances of these students can only enliven in one a sense of optimism about the future. They were lively, amazing young people and, as I said to them the other night, they are limited only by the boundaries of their passion and imagination. I wish them all very well into the future.
Mr McCARTHY (Barkly): Madam Speaker. I wish in this adjournment debate to first table a letter which I believe is a very good summary of the current government and the challenges it has brought upon itself. For the benefit of Hansard, it is taken from the Centralian Advocate, Tuesday 18 December 2012. It is from Phil Walcott from Alice Springs. Phil writes:
- Being a very interested ‘party’, I’ve been keenly observing the performance of the newly elected NT Government … since 25 August.
I’ve concluded that all that was promised by way of positive mantra has been very quickly eroded into oblivion: punishment models rather than rehabilitation; recompense or reward models appear to have become the core agenda of this twelfth government since 1978. After 11 years in the ‘political wilderness’ one would have thought that they’d have learnt better.
In a few short months we’ve had unprecedented rises in utility fees from January 1st next year, rises in government fees and charges that punish people who don’t renew some licences online (instead of rewarding those who do), defunding strategic youth support services (eg. CAAC programs for refuge), job losses and departmental restructuring, ‘jobs for the boys’ (not too many girls), establishing various commissions which are appointed rather than elected, decommissioning the BDR without replacing it, giving rise to a huge spike across the NT of unregulated binge consumption behaviour, blatant disregard and verbal abuse in the Chamber towards opposition and independent members which is politically motivated rather than constructive, and the list goes on.
- Crude, nasty comments to other members across the Assembly, (see Hansard), by seasoned as well as newer members have contributed to portraying this government in a light that is bullish, arrogant, self-serving, devious, controlling and devoid of connection with the people in constituencies across the jurisdiction. I guess that’s all a part of the ‘party machine’ at work.
Some government ministers are so overloaded with portfolio responsibilities they find it difficult to function adequately. Some naive new members who operate by threats and unsubstantiated innuendo add nothing to the mix that was promised to be so positive.
And this just four months into a four year term. The incumbents will have much to answer for over the years to come. There will be portfolio reshuffles and perhaps a spill for the leadership. I urge people to think about that. Que sera sera.
Like many other Territorians, I’ll continue to observe and vote accordingly next time around.
- Phil Walcott
Alice Springs.
I read that and thought Phil is a learned Territorian, an intellectual, a discerning member of the community in his politics, a person who has spent much time in the gallery of Parliament House observing, and a candidate. One would expect those opposite would take note of Phil’s letter as it is an element in the community which is respected and makes a positive comment.
I would like to talk about trying to do business with this government, as an MLA. It happened to me on Friday 18 January 2013 when I had to do some business, so I thought I would conduct it in town and it would be good research as well.
I needed a registration inspection for my 1986 Toyota Hilux and, upon going to a registered service agent, I was engaged in a four-way conversation with conservative constituents who were highly critical of the government and what was happening. After conversing with those constituents and trying to keep the balance, trying to make them understand the difference in policy and direction and the way this government is choosing to do business, I had to move on to Motor Vehicle Registry.
I was the second customer in Motor Vehicle Registry and there were two public officers serving at the counter; the other customer was getting a licence, which was good to see, and I had to renew a registration. Rather than queuing or waiting, I had a conversation with the officer at MVR and was surprised to see the registration bill for the old Hilux had increased by over $100, and I presumed there had to be a $20 fee applied for having a conversation with that wonderful MVR officer at the counter.
I happened to notice the Power and Water office next door had some activity and discovered it was the last day of operation for Power and Water in Tennant Creek, in the Peko Road Government Centre.
As I exited the Government Centre after conducting my transactions, I bumped into a Power and Water agent from Ali Curung who was purchasing his bulk issue of power cards. He alerted me to the fact that the Power and Water authority in Tennant Creek was not open for business after Friday 18 January as that officer was moving on to another position.
I took up the inquiry with the Minister for Essential Services, Minister Westra van Holthe, who I e-mailed on 18 January, writing:
- Dear Minister
I received a complaint from a remote community Power and Water agent in the Barkly Region re the availability of power cards from the Tennant Creek Power and Water office on Peko Road from 18 January 2013. The constituent was unable to purchase power cards during the month of January 2013 as the authorised Power and Water Customer Service Officer was on leave; however, it was announced today that the position had been cut, therefore, no longer providing over the counter service in Tennant Creek. The constituent is an agent for Power and Water supplying power cards for sale through a registered business that serves a remote community of more than 500 residents.
Can you please provide the details of how the constituent can purchase the necessary power cards in the future for Power and Water customers? Please note that the constituent travels 400 km round trip by road, weekly, to purchase power cards as well as other stores in Tennant Creek and needs the situation resolved urgently in the interests of Power and Water, its customers, and the agency customer base that has been created through this important regional and remote business.
Thank you for your consideration of my correspondence, and I look forward to an urgent response to inform the constituent and resolve this issue.
Yours sincerely
Gerry McCarthy, Barkly MLA.
I was pleased to receive a response from the minister’s office on Friday, 18 January at 3.19 pm. The response said:
- Good afternoon, thank you for your email relating to the availability of power cards from the Tennant Creek Power and Water office. Your query is being actioned and will have a response shortly.…
Thank you.
Kind regards,
Rhian Kirby
Personal Assistant to Hon Willem Westra van Holthe MLA.
- Hi Rhian, thank you for the acknowledgement of my inquiry on behalf of the Barkly constituent delivering an essential service to a remote community. I am eagerly awaiting a reply.
To cut it short, I never heard from the minister, and I am very disappointed.
The electorate officer conducted a search on 31 January 2013 and did the background information to try to inform this constituent on how they would move forward with their purchase. Over that period, I received no communication from Minister Westra van Holthe, whatsoever. I found that to be arrogant, I found it to be, as Mr Walcott wrote in his letter, taking us for granted.
Having the privileged position of being a former minister in the Labor government, working with an incredible team of people in a ministerial office, we responded to everything. A single-line e-mail received the same response as a four-page letter or a formal submission. We made sure we responded to everyone. I find this is a sign of arrogance or, is it a sign of incompetence? I will let Minister Westra van Holthe decide whether he is inefficient, incompetent, or just purely arrogant and does not give a hoot about the people in the Barkly.
Madam Speaker, I need this information to take back and inform the constituents, as I requested in December 2012.
Mr GILES (Braitling): Madam Speaker, to know your history is to know yourself. This is why I am convinced Australia’s Constitution should take a longer view of our nation’s history. The Australian story did not begin with Federation. It did not begin only when the Dutch, British and other Europeans came to visit this vast continent. It began with cultures that have outlasted any in Europe or the Middle East: the oldest living culture in human history.
That history and its ancient connection to this land is part of the inheritance of all Australians, and we need to incorporate this into our cultural and social landscape. That ancient connection is part of what makes Australia unique. When I have travelled the globe I am often struck by how many other nations value their history, and their history pre-settlement; they draw strength and pride from the past; they cherish it. We can learn something from them.
In this land we have a story even more captivating and, yet, we do not grip it as tightly as many other countries. Perhaps this is because of the divide that has never really been bridged between Aboriginal people and those who came in the past 225 years. Acknowledgement of pre-settlement history would allow the breakdown of barriers to help share culture and build us as one.
Aboriginal people, denied formal recognition that they were even here, have held their culture tightly as their own, sharing it on our terms. Other Australians have sometimes been fearful to suggest it is part of our shared story, mindful of the mistakes of the past. However, it does not have to be this way. It strikes me that many Aboriginal people in remote Australia are culturally rich and economically poor, and many city dwellers - I count myself as one of them - are economically rich but sometimes culturally poor, or they do not have the vastness of culture, or the cultural aptitude, they so desire. Many of them have a longing for cultural enrichment. Many Australians want to have Aboriginal culture as part of their lives and their children’s lives; they see the enormous potential in it. Many Aboriginal people would love to see the day when our whole nation acknowledges the enormous value of our culture - a day when Australia finally acknowledges, in its founding document, that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples were here, inhabiting this land, and that this remarkable history is now part of every Australian’s shared story. I firmly believe that such a moment would help to bind the social fabric of our nation, that it would fix the hole in Australia’s heart and bring us closer together. We may, finally, be able to repair the lingering sense that we are two separate peoples, rather than one indivisible nation.
I believe Australians are over the days of us and them. We all want to be at peace with our past, and we can only get to that point if we can recognise our full history. There is an implicit transaction on offer in the quest for constitutional recognition. It is the final step in what Australia began back in the 1967 referendum. The rest of the nation would be saying to Aboriginal people, ‘We value you and your cultures’, and Aboriginal people would be saying, ‘We will share this with you’.
However, I must confess I am a convert to this cause. There was a time when I thought constitutional recognition was a wet issue; I have always been more outcomes-focused as a person. I am a practical and conservative politician who has long believed in the power of jobs, education and economic development to transform lives, but as I have thought about it more deeply and reflected on the cultural difference of Indigenous Australians, particularly from a geographic perspective, I have become increasingly convinced that the practical and symbolic go hand-in-hand; they are both parts of the whole.
I believe Indigenous recognition at a referendum will give our constitution a stronger backbone. It will proclaim loudly of Aboriginal people and culture that this is part of us, this is part of who we are as a nation. But you do not change the constitution lightly, and ours has helped deliver strong, stable government and institutions throughout time. I hear those who say, ‘If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’, and previously that has been the basis of my complacency on this act of symbolism. However, in a couple of important respects, it is broken and it does need fixing. You only have to look at section 25 of the constitution which says the states can ban a race of people from voting. Those views are from yesteryear. Sure, it is part of Australia’s history, but let us advance Australia from now on, fairly.
There is a proud conservative tradition in this country of safeguarding our heritage and traditions. Constitutional recognition of our nation’s Indigenous history fits squarely in that legacy. There are also proud traditions in liberal and conservative history of opposing racism, slavery and discrimination. Never forget that it was under Menzies, urged on by Liberal MP, Billy Wentworth, that Aboriginal people, federally, got the vote. It was under Holt that the great moment of national unity at the 1967 referendum came about. In 1970, Sir Henry Bolte’s Liberal Victorian government handed back 4000 acres at Lake Tyers, and 583 acres at Framingham to two Aboriginal Trusts; and it was Wentworth, as Aboriginal Affairs minister, who first proposed giving the Gurindji people control of their land at Wave Hill Station.
The Liberals have always been part of the philosophical basis that has been symbolically formed to drive our nation. Malcolm Fraser passed the first Land Rights Act, and John Howard pushed for Indigenous constitutional recognition in 1999.
So, how can we continue to leave untouched the sections of our constitution that still let governments discriminate and ban a whole race of people from voting? We need a referendum that allows the Australian people to take away from governments the power to discriminate based on race, and we need a referendum to ensure our founding document reflects our full history as a nation. Only then can we say we truly know ourselves.
Ms FINOCCHIARO (Drysdale): I take this opportunity to wish everyone in my electorate a very happy New Year. I am certainly looking forward to the opportunities and challenges 2013 will present, and it will be my first full calendar year as their local member. We will see what is to come.
Australia Day has just passed and it was a weekend full to the brim of activity. I want to thank many people in Palmerston who helped make that weekend such a special and memorable one. My Australia Day weekend started with the Australia Day Ball which I went to with my family. I thank Kiy Gill from the Australia Day Council, and all of her team, for putting on such a spectacular event. It is no mean feat to pull off a ball of that magnitude and she did it with style. I am sure we will see more of that young woman.
The following morning I was up very bright and early. The City of Palmerston, in conjunction with the Palmerston Australia Day Committee and the YMCA, put on a spectacular family fun day at Palmerston pool. It was really great to see that event happening and so many Palmerston families taking advantage of the activities that were put on for them. We had an amazing blow-up obstacle course that took up most of the pool and young and old very much enjoyed that. It was great to be able to cool off because it was a very hot day. Caroline Reynolds was also there with her blow-up castle and rock climbing wall, which is always a tremendous hit with the young ones, and the Coffee Angels put on coffee, so it was great.
From the Australia Day Committee in Palmerston, of course, Mary and Dave Oliffe, who are just about involved in everything you can think of in Palmerston, were there. Dave was working very hard on the barbecue, and Mary was busy ensuring all the children who came through the pool had various Australia Day iconic trinkets such as little kangaroos and koalas, Australian flag tattoos, and the small things that help put a really special touch on such a wonderful family event. Maggie Schoenfisch, another strong woman in our community who is just about on every committee there is, was making her mark for Palmerston seniors. It was the first time I had met Bev and Maurie Johnson, but the Chief Minister tells me they are absolute Trojans in the Palmerston community and I am sure I will be seeing much more of them. Cath Cockcroft, who was not there on the day, had put her elbow to the wheel in pulling off such a wonderful event.
Some of the volunteers on the day, including me, were Darryl and Janette Ashby, Jane Porter who made all the cakes - there was a fantastic little cake stand where people would come and grab their free coffee and cake - Linda Heidstra, Fiona Lynch, George Loch; and I also thank Peter Chandler, the member for Brennan, for supplying his fantastic barbecue. For community groups who have not taken advantage of Pete’s barbecue you absolutely must, it comes on the back of a trailer with marquees and the works, it is free of charge, and I am sure he would not mind me plugging it to you.
From the Family Fun Day, I went straight to Marlowe’s Lagoon where I was really pleased to be involved in a tree-planting event. In June last year, four riders from overseas who were raising money for a charity called Greenfleet left Palmerston on their 18 000 km cycling journey around Australia. Their plan was to raise enough funds to plant 8000 native trees during their journey. They had returned to Palmerston where they started this great adventure and were much skinnier than when they left, I can assure you; I have seen the before and after photos. We did an excellent tree planting, and I thank Pam Robinson, OAM, who is the environment and climate change strategic planner for the City of Palmerston and a staunch advocate for equality of women. I know Pam very well and she did a tremendous job. Thank you to Nick and Jimmy who, sadly, were the only two out of four who made it back to Palmerston, but you can imagine 18 000 kms is a huge distance to ride. I am glad at least two of them made it back. The other two are fine; they just could not complete the journey.
Following the tree planting, I went to the Palmerston Golf and Country Club where Alzheimer’s NT was the chosen charity by Cazalys for a Golf Day. They were having a wonderful time. Darren from Cazalys really worked very hard to pull that event together. Cazalys runs a charity Golf Day every year and each year it is for a different charity; this year was Alzheimer’s Australia. It was appropriate that it was Alzheimer’s, considering that the Australian of the Year is Ita Buttrose, who is the Alzheimer’s patron.
Thank you to those guys, I had an excellent time. I was scooted around the course on a buggy that sounded like it needed a good service, but it was a very good afternoon. Following that, the City of Palmerston, of course, put on its flag raising and citizenship ceremony, which had a really good crowd. It was an excellent vibe. We ended up having 90-plus new Australian citizens on the day, many were children and families. It was a wonderful experience, and I was so proud to be there in my capacity as member for Drysdale.
I am especially proud to say Margot Cox, one of my constituents, received Citizen of the Year. I will be speaking about her in adjournment later in sittings because it probably requires a couple of days in a row to cover her tremendous life. I will tell you all about that another time.
Also, Brad Svanfields was winner of the Palmerston Student Citizen Award. Brad attends one of the schools in Drysdale, and I have sent my congratulations to him for this remarkable achievement. He is a remarkable young man.
I also was very excited to see the Palmerston Senior Songsters win the Community Event of the Year, they do an excellent job. Marg Lee, who orchestrates that group, was my Year 2 primary school teacher at Gray Primary School. It is wonderful to see her doing all these great things, as she always was back in the day.
I want to mention a couple of other groups which were also nominated for the Community Event of the Year: Satellite City BMX, Palmerston and Rural Seniors Week, and Palmerston 50+ Tuesday Club. It was very good.
Following that was the Australia Day Ambassadors reception at the City of Palmerston hosted by Mayor Ian Abbott. I thank him for the invitation, and Aldermen Malone, Forrest, Byrne and McKinnon for making me so welcome at that event after such a very long, hot day; it was excellent.
The next day I was back at it again. The Palmerston Magpies were having an all-day Aussie Rules footy day for families. It was really good. I could not be there all day, but I was there from about 3.30 pm until quite late at night. I thank Paula Gerschwitz, Marie Thomson, Jade and Mel Rodda and Matt Layden for having me and getting me so involved. Poor Jade had been walking around all day selling raffle tickets so when I arrived he launched on me before I even made it through the member’s lounge and recruited me to help him sell tickets. We raised a significant amount of money for the club, which was really good.
Also, thank you to Southern Districts. They were a really good crowd and worked really well with the Maggies. That was another excellent day.
That concluded my Australia Day. I slept very well on Sunday night, and look forward to speaking in adjournment about Margot Cox, one hell of a Territorian.
Mr MILLS (Blain): First, I take this opportunity to respond to a question the member for Nelson asked during Question Time. The question asked for an extraordinary amount of detail and there is no intention not to provide the information, it is simply not able to be provided in the breadth requested and specificity as requested by the honourable member at this point. However, at this stage I can provide what I have been able to get. The question was regarding statistics around the operations that extend from the Humpty Doo Fire Station.
The following is what I have been able to get in the time allowed; more information will require much more manpower. What I have is for fire stations in Darwin: grassfires, 172; motor vehicle accidents, 126; structure fires, includes first response and backup, 65; fire alarms, 1035. For Marrara: grassfires, 232; motor vehicle accidents, 79; structure fires, 43; and fire alarms, 483. For Palmerston: grassfires, 215; motor vehicle crashes, 131; structure fires, 26; and fire alarms, 48.
That is what I can get at this point. Many more man-hours are required. If this does not satisfy, we will provide that information, but it will require a fair amount of work.
I place on the record congratulations to the Northern Territory recipients of the 2013 Australia Day Honours list. The granting of this honour represents an acknowledgement of the outstanding service to the Territory community by 11 Territorians. Given the detail around these recipients’ service to the Territory, I seek leave to, at the conclusion of my remarks if I am not be able to conclude all these details, that they be incorporated into Hansard because it is important that this record is placed on the Parliamentary Record for all to see so we can together celebrate their contribution.
The first one is Mr Tony Warramarrba AO, Alyangula. He was appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia in the General Division for distinguished service to the Indigenous community of the Groote Eylandt Archipelago through leadership and advocacy for improved services and infrastructure. He has been:
Chairman, Anindilyakwa Land Council
Director, Anindilyakwa Mining Trust
Mr Wurramarrba has contributed to various Indigenous organisations, including:
Machado Joseph Disease Foundation
Northern Australian Aboriginal Justice Agency
Mr Wurramarrba was leading negotiator in the successful conclusion of a Regional Partnership Agreement with BHP Billiton which resulted in mining continuing on Groote Eylandt and increased investment in new infrastructure and services.
Mr Paul Cattermole AM from Darwin was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia, General Division for significant service to the community of the Northern Territory through planning and management of major sporting and cultural events. He has been the General Manager of the Northern Territory Major Events Corporation since 1998. He has been involved in the development of the Darwin Round of the V8 Supercar event and 13 significant annual major events in the Northern Territory, including:
Alice Springs Masters Games
Annual Round of the Australian Superbikes
Dr Bruce William Walker AM from Alice Springs was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia in the General Division for significant service to the Indigenous communities of remote Australia and the Northern Territory, and to the sport of cricket. There is an enormous list of career Dr Walker’s acknowledgements as:
Director, Desert Knowledge Australia since 2006; member of Steering Committee 2000-04
Director, National Australia Day Council since 2006
Chairman, Audit and Risk Committees since 2010
Chairman of John Flynn Uniting Church Council, Alice Springs, 1984-90 and 2009-12
Chairman, Central Land Council Audit and Risk Committee since 2012; Deputy Chair 2010-12
Chairman, CAT Project Pty Ltd since 2007
Director, Centrecorp Foundation since 2009
Director, Remote Focus Project, 2010-12
Chief Executive Officer and founder, Centre for Appropriate Technology 1980-2010
Project Director, Desert Peoples Centre, 2004-10
Director, International Development Support Services Pty Ltd 1004-2005; commercial consulting company of Oxfam Australia
Member, National Reference Committee, Frontier Services 1995-2005; agency of the Uniting Church
Dr Walker’s awards and recognition include the Centenary Medal, 2001.
Ms Patricia Gweneth Angus PSM, Darwin was awarded the Public Service Medal Northern Territory Public Service for outstanding public service to Health and Housing policy, and programs and services to Indigenous people in the Northern Territory. Ms Angus was the most senior Indigenous executive in the Department of Housing and Local Government and Regional Services and its predecessors from 1998 until her retirement in 2012. During her years with the department, Ms Angus held a range of senior executive positions in operations and policy roles, including Assistant Secretary. Most recently, she was the Executive Director, Strategic Policy Development Coordination. She was a truly professional public servant; she shaped strategic thinking, cultivated productive working relationships, exemplified personal drive and integrity, communicated influentially and achieved results for successive governments and, most importantly, for clients.
Ms Angus embodies living in two worlds, equally at home in the bush and in remote areas as she was in high level cross-jurisdictional forums negotiating on behalf of the Northern Territory government. Her experience and advice significantly improved the capacity of the department to design and implement programs and policies which benefited all Territorians. She demonstrated a strong commitment to improving service delivery to the Aboriginal Community and to improving the capacity and systems for Indigenous people to participate actively in society.
Ms Angus was a role model for Indigenous public servants, and was always willing to mentor and assist others. She believed that the public service can lead the way in translating effective education systems into real job opportunities for Indigenous people, and was a strong supporter of diversity in the workforce.
Mrs Jennifer Gail Prince PSM, Darwin was awarded the Public Service Medal Northern Territory Public Service for outstanding public service and leadership, particularly as Under Treasurer for the Northern Territory. Mrs Prince joined the Northern Territory Public Service in 1979 with the Department of Health and Community Services as the Director of Administrative Services for the Royal Darwin Hospital, and then merged the intergovernmental area responsible for negotiating health funding with the Commonwealth. In this role, Mrs Prince was involved in many policy initiatives and reforms including aged care development, the development of the first Northern Territory Private Hospital, improved arrangements for allied health professionals and the development of private sector health providers.
In 1984, she was seconded to the Chief Minister’s Office to undertake a number of reviews, including superannuation arrangements and, in 1985, moved to the Northern Territory Treasury to take up a role in the intergovernmental area as Director, Public Finance. She was in this role until 1989, at which time she left Darwin.
Mrs Prince returned to Darwin in 1997 to take up the Deputy Under Treasurer position, maintaining her responsibility not only for the Public Finance area, but also taking on the whole-of-government fiscal responsibilities, including the development of the Territory’s Budget and the financial management and reporting for the Northern Territory.
Over the same period, the Northern Territory was looking to find substantial savings across government and to rationalise services. Mrs Prince formed part of a senior strategic team that developed the guidelines for the review and was involved in the development and assessment of proposals to improve service delivery across the Northern Territory public sector. Mrs Prince also developed an improved process of assessing agency funding bids by Budget Cabinet. This process was successful in focusing both agencies and Cabinet’s attention on issues of importance, and is a process that has continued to be built on and refined since 1999.
In 2002, Mrs Prince was appointed to the position of Under Treasurer. In this role, she showed exceptional leadership and ensured that Treasury has grown and developed as an organisation which is highly respected by both the Northern Territory government and other agencies within the Northern Territory public service.
Sergeant Paula Maree Dooley-McDonnell APM, from Alice Springs was awarded the Australia Police Medal, acknowledgement of a long and distinguished career in the Northern Territory Police Force. Sergeant Dooley-McDonnell has demonstrated exceptional investigation leadership skills throughout her service with the Northern Territory Police, and her commitment to the task at hand has ensured that the community has been extremely well served. She has provided 23 years distinguished and dedicated service throughout the Northern Territory and continues to be a most respected and loyal officer.
Her initial service in Alice Springs was within the General Duties Section prior to her undertaking relief duties in Prosecutions followed by a transfer to School Based policing. After a short return to General Duties, Sergeant Dooley-McDonnell began her service with the Alice Springs Criminal Investigation Branch, where she was selected into Taskforce Regulus (Falconio Investigation) when it was in its infancy and remained on the task force through its lifespan. After her excellent performance with Taskforce Regulus, she further developed her skills and became heavily involved in the field of sexual assault investigation, gaining praise from not only the victims but also their families and the medical and legal practitioners involved.
Sergeant Dooley-McDonnell then assisted in the implementation of the initial Child Abuse Taskforce in Alice Springs, responsible for the investigation of child abuse reports through the Southern Command of the Northern Territory Police Force.
After this, she returned to the General Duties area and became a successful supervisor of a patrol group, often in the higher position of Watch Commander. She then assisted in the police aspects of the implementation of the Patrol Coordinator initiative. The Patrol Coordinator’s role is the coordination of patrols involving multi-agencies, both government and non-government, to combat instances of antisocial behaviour within Alice Springs. Once again, Sergeant Dooley-McDonnell’s excellent work during the initial set up and roll-out of this initiative brought praise from all participating agencies.
Sergeant Dooley-McDonnell’s awards and recognition include the Commissioner’s Commendation as a result of her involvement with Taskforce Regulus.
Superintendent Kristopher John Evans APM, Darwin was awarded the Australian Police Medal, acknowledgement of a long and distinguished career in the Northern Territory Police Force. Superintendent Evan’s career spans over 30 years’ distinguished and dedicated policing service throughout the Northern Territory and previously with Victoria Police. Superintendent Evans was appointed to the Northern Territory Police Force in 1989. After completing recruit training, he served on Groote Eylandt prior to transferring back to Darwin where he served in the General Duties division of the Darwin Police Station. While remaining in Darwin, he also served as a detective with the Major Crimes Section for a number of years.
The year 1996 saw the continuation of Superintendent Evans’ service in remote localities as the Officer in Charge of the Oenpelli Police Station and the granting of detective status when he became a Detective Sergeant and the Officer in Charge of the Katherine Criminal Investigation Branch. From this position he went further afield and served as the Officer in Charge of the Tennant Creek Police Station.
He was promoted to Superintendent in 2002 and transferred back to Darwin where he has served as the Divisional Officer in the Drugs and Intelligence Division, Territory Support Division, Major Crime Division and the Darwin Metropolitan Division.
Superintendent Evans has also performed higher duties as the Commander of the Crime and Specialist Support Command and the Darwin Metropolitan Command. Superintendent Evans has also been responsible for the coordination of the
9th National Chemical Diversion Congress, and was appointed as the Project Manager/Coordinator of the Police Remote Community Drug Strategy.
Superintendent Evans’ outstanding commitment, dedication and decisive leadership have ensured the community of the Northern Territory has been extremely well served.
Mr Mark Richard Fishlock ESM, Wanguri was awarded the Emergency Services Medal, acknowledgement of a distinguished contribution to the Northern Territory Emergency Service and the community. Mr Fishlock joined the Harts Range Emergency Service Volunteer Unit in 2004, becoming the Unit Officer three years later. In 2008, he moved to Darwin where he joined the Darwin Emergency Service Volunteer Unit and, within a year, assumed his current appointment as its Unit Officer. Mr Fishlock’s personal commitment to the Northern Territory Emergency Services is exceptional; he had developed the Darwin unit into a cohesive, well trained and responsive Emergency Volunteer Unit.
He is the driving force behind fundraising activities and pursues every opportunity to receive grant funding, not only to improve the unit’s response capability but also to the benefit of all Northern Territory Emergency Service volunteers. Operationally, Mr Fishlock’s commitment has also been exceptional. He has dedicated himself to ensuring he is personally trained and available for all call-outs, participating in countless road accidents, land searches, air and maritime searches, and vertical rescues. Without hesitation, he deployed interstate twice to provide assistance in response to the Queensland floods and tropical Cyclone Yasi.
An exemplary volunteer, Mr Fishlock is a person with enormous passion and dedication, and he serves his community with distinction.
Mr Fishlock’s awards and recognition include the Conspicuous Service Medal, 1998, awarded while serving in the Royal Australian Air Force.
Mr Desmond John Nelson OAM, Alice Springs, was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia in the general division for service to conservation and the environment, particularly in Central Australia. Mr Nelson has contributed to the understanding of the plants of Central Australia for over 56 years. He collected the first Central Australian specimen for over 50 plant species between 1952 and 2004, and has remained active in Central Australian ecology and botany since his retirement.
He is a voluntary consultant for local and government groups, a regular guest speaker, author/co-author of a number of papers and articles dealing with botany, ecology and the history of the Northern Territory, plus a book on his activities with the CSIRO.
Mr Nelson’s career acknowledgements include:
Senior Technical Officer in Botany and Ecology, Division of Land Resources Management, CSIRO (Alice Springs) 1973-90
Mrs Leslie Irene Huggins OAM, deceased, Apollo Bay, Victoria was awarded the Medal for the Order of Australia in the General Division for service to local government and the community of Alice Springs. There is an enormous list of career acknowledgements which include:
Mayor, Alice Springs Town Council 1983-92; Deputy Mayor 1982-83; Alderman 1978-92; Town Planning Authority 1982-91
Member, Northern Territory Local Government Association 1983-89; President 1984; Association’s Representative to the Territory Anti-Litter Committee 1985-91
Foundation Secretary, Alice Springs Spastic Council 1969; President 1969-73; Patron from 1988
Foundation Secretary, Central Australian Aviation Museum; Life Member since 1977
Foundation Member, Araluen Arts and Cultural Trust; member 1980-86
Official Visitor, Giles House Remand Centre 1985-92
Official Visitor, Alice Springs Correctional Centre 1985-91
Member, Royal Flying Doctor Service, Central Section 1982-92
Member, Northern Territory Australia Day Committee
Deputy Chairman, Alice Springs Australia Day Committee 1983-91
Chairman, Central Australia Olympic Games Appeal Committee 1984-92
Member ABC National Advisory Committee 1989; Member, ABC Advisory Council, Northern Territory 1988
Chairman, Territory Tidy Town Committee 1981
Foundation Secretary, Alice Springs Branch, Australian Stockmen’s Hall of Fame and Outback Heritage Centre 1982
President, Alice Springs Toastmistress Club 1980
Member, Hamilton Downs Youth Camp Committee 1989-92
Patron of a range of organisations in the Alice Springs district, including: Alice Springs Dog Obedience Club; Alice Springs Town Council Social Club; National Heart Foundation, Northern Territory; Holyoak Foundation; and Alice Springs Little Athletics Club
Justice of the Peace from 1989.
Mrs Higgins died on 18 April 2012.
Finally, Warrant Officer Class One Stephen Michael Greenall OAM, Anula was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia in the Military Division for meritorious service as the Artificer Sergeant Major of the 5th/7th Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment, as Maintenance Manager of Joint Logistics Unit North, and as the Electrical and Mechanical Engineering Warrant Officer in the 1st Brigade.
Warrant Officer Greenall has demonstrated a level of professionalism and technical competence which has produced outstanding results.
Serving with distinction in three demanding appointments, he questioned accepted norms and implemented local reforms to deliver greater efficiency for Defence. His efforts have contributed significantly to the operational success of the 1st Brigade.
Madam Speaker, I thank you for your indulgence to have the details of these fine Territorians included and incorporated into Hansard.
Ms LAWRIE (Karama): Madam Speaker I wish to speak about the extraordinary, despicable and cowardly attack this morning by the member for Port Darwin on the former Chief Minister, Paul Henderson.
For those who missed it, the member for Port Darwin took the unprecedented step of speaking to a routine notice from you advising the Chamber of the resignation of the member for Wanguri, to, in the member for Port Darwin’s despicable words, ‘bury the member for Wanguri’. We know not everyone gets into the minutiae of politics in parliament, but there are certain conventions in parliament: practices that allow for fairness and, generally, just being a good sport, showing some respect. One convention is that you do not normally see the use of parliamentary privilege to dump a bucket of trash on a retired member. Another is that, if there is such an attack, giving someone the opportunity to respond on their behalf is afforded.
This morning, the member for Port Darwin used the opportunity to trash a very well-liked, highly regarded and highly respected former Chief Minister of the Northern Territory, Paul Henderson. The member for Port Darwin then used his position as Leader of Government Business to gag, to disallow anyone to rise to the defence of the former Chief Minister. It was a cheap and cowardly shot. It shows a lack of character or decency by the member for Port Darwin. While we all generally ignore the planned theatrics and over-the-top performances of this pathetic man, to think that he can give such a speech shows the height of his arrogance, his hypocrisy and his ignorance.
Whatever the member for Port Darwin believes privately - to trash the reputation of a very fine man who has contributed 14 years to his community of Wanguri and to the Territory as a whole, who brought the second largest project in our nation’s history to the Territory, who put us on the global map with the opportunity to do business and create world-class jobs for the children of the Territory - whatever the member for Port Darwin privately believes about this man, he showed by his contribution today that he is, as ever, out of touch with reality.
Maybe the pressures of being regularly mocked in the community are getting to the member for Port Darwin as we see his increasingly bizarre antics such as rushing off out of a Cabinet meeting to check on the welfare of children in a school bus when emergency services are there with the ambulance and police to do their job; it is not his job. He also has obviously been the subject of many people mocking him with his appearance, as he said,’as the water boy at the bar table’ in a court appearance.
Maybe he is just pouring out the frustrations he feels about his own inadequacies and failings. The member for Port Darwin’s memory is also very selective and hypocritical. In 1995 the former member for Fannie Bay and former Chief Minister, Marshall Perron, retired a year after being elected and the by-election was set for Saturday 17 June 1995 just three days before the sittings on 20 June. What does the member for Port Darwin think about that? Or when the former Chief Minister and member for Jingili, Paul Everingham, pulled the plug a year after the 1983 election?
His hypocrisy knows no bounds. We all know he says what he wants when it suits him, but how does he keep a straight face when he looks at himself? Sitting not more than three feet from him are the member for Blain, who missed a week of sittings to go to Taiwan for a junket, and the member for Sanderson who missed a week of sittings to go on a course. Where is the member for Port Darwin’s outrage there? What a hypocrite.
The member for Port Darwin should be ashamed of his actions, but we know he never will be. He should be embarrassed by his actions, but he is not. He should apologise for his disgraceful attack, but we know he will not.
Member for Port Darwin, you really do bring the parliament to a much lower level than I have ever witnessed and I have watched parliament in the Territory from when it was the Legislative Council. If you want to go on a cowardly attack and bring yourself into disrepute, do not break the convention of this parliament by gagging an opposition who should have the right to respond.
Motion agreed to; the Assembly adjourned.
Last updated: 04 Aug 2016