2012-10-30
Madam Speaker Purick took the Chair at 10 am.
Madam SPEAKER: Honourable Members, I advise of the presence in the gallery of Year 8 Palmerston Christian School students accompanied by Mrs Ana Abbott. On behalf of honourable members, I extend a warm welcome to our visitors and hope you enjoy your visit to Parliament House.
Members: Hear! Hear!
Mr ELFERINK (Leader of Government Business): Madam Speaker, I seek leave of absence be granted to the member for Brennan from 12 pm today to the close of business on 31 October 2012.
The member for Brennan has to attend the Melbourne Land Warfare Conference. Whilst it sounds like an unusual title for a conference a minister needs to be at, it is very important for the function of the role of Defence Support in the Northern Territory. This is the only meeting this year at which all ministers will be available with defence support roles nationally. In light of that and the very important role that Defence Support has in the Northern Territory, particularly considering the size of the defence presence, we on this side of the House believe, and I am certain members on the other side of the House will accept, that the presence of the minister at such an important conference warrants his pardon from this House.
Leave granted.
Bill presented and read a first time.
Mr MILLS (Minister for Police, Fire and Emergency Services): Madam Speaker, I move that the bill be now read a second time.
The purpose of this bill is to insert new powers for police to obtain a sample of saliva from a suspect to test for the presence of dangerous drugs. The Police Administration Act Amendment Bill 2012 is to implement the government’s commitment to law and order during the first 100 days in office. There are community concerns about the level of unlawful assaults on or around licensed premises in the Northern Territory.
Studies suggest the relationship between prohibited drug use and/or abuse and human interpersonal violence is profound, costly, and undeniable. Certain dangerous drugs can increase the likelihood of violence because of their direct effects on the individual. The risks to public safety posed by dangerous drug abuse have long been recognised by society, particularly when used in combination with alcohol. The community is concerned about the growing use of illegal drugs. Dangerous drugs are one of the significant problems affecting the health and welfare of the Northern Territory population.
There is also a need to protect the safety of innocent people whose lives may be endangered by the inappropriate behaviour of people taking dangerous drugs and assaulting someone. Both anecdotal and scientific evidence suggests use of certain dangerous drugs can seriously affect an individual and make them extremely dangerous to others.
Currently, police do not have any power to direct a suspect to provide a sample of saliva to test for the presence of dangerous drugs. The current provision in the Police Administration Act allows police to take a sample of saliva or a swab, but does not expressly provide police with any power to take a sample of saliva to test for the presence of dangerous drugs. The power conferred in the bill will mean the police will have express power to obtain a sample of saliva from a suspect to test specifically for the presence of dangerous drugs.
The proposed method is saliva testing which is a reasonable and unintrusive way of obtaining a sample of saliva to test for the presence of dangerous drugs. The power will operate where, subject to regulations:
(a) a member of the police force suspects, on reasonable grounds, that a person has committed an offence
(b) the person is in lawful custody in relation to the offence; and
(c) the member, or another member of the police force, suspects on reasonable grounds that there may be a dangerous drug present in the person’s body.
A member of the police force holding the rank of senior sergeant or higher, or in charge of a police station, may approve:
(a) the taking of a sample of the person’s saliva
(b) the testing of the sample for the presence of a dangerous drug in the person’s body.
The sample of saliva may be taken in accordance with the approval of a member of the police force giving directions to the person to provide a sample, or a member of the police force may take the sample from the person. The person is not taken to have provided a sample unless the sample is sufficient to allow testing for the presence of a dangerous drug in the person’s body. A member of the police force may use reasonable force when exercising his or her powers under this section.
The introduction of the bill is part of a two-stage process to amend legislation to allow police to comprehensively target crime by equipping Northern Territory police with the necessary tools to effectively combat unlawful assaults committed with the suspected presence of a dangerous drug in the body.
Stage two will involve amendments to the Criminal Code Act and Sentencing Act to formulate the necessary offences of unlawful assault where the suspect is believed to have a dangerous drug present in their body. Stage two will be progressed by the Department of the Attornery-General and Justice in due course.
This bill is a powerful statement of this government’s commitment to law and order in the Northern Territory.
I commend the bill to honourable members and table a copy of the explanatory statement.
Debate adjourned.
Bill presented and read a first time.
Mr MILLS (Lands, Planning and the Environment): Madam Speaker, I move that the bill be now read a second time.
This bill delivers an important election promise to establish an independent planning commission for the Northern Territory and is a major step forward in planning properly for the Territory’s future.
The Northern Territory is positioned for a period of significant growth. The work of the planning commission will be vital in upholding the great character and lifestyle of the Northern Territory in the face of this significant growth. Good planning is essential to ensure growth delivers benefit for all Territorians. There is no substitute for up-front planning, analysis, thought and discussion to ensure the right results for the community. A successful planning system facilitates sustainable economic growth, protects environmental, cultural and heritage assets, and connects people and place. It underpins the provision of adequate and affordable housing and employment, fosters urban renewal, and integrates land use with infrastructure provision.
The planning commission will play an important role in ensuring that the planning system in the Northern Territory provides a framework that delivers these things for Territorians. The consequences of failing to plan properly are significant, such as, falling behind on infrastructure needs, failing to provide enough land for housing and jobs, and inadequate planning for the infrastructure that communities need such as essential services, transport networks, schools, and health centres. Collectively, these failures act as a handbrake on the economy. The establishment of the planning commission will rightly put the spotlight back on strategic planning, both in the city and the bush. Putting strategic planning in place in the bush will help remote communities to grow. Also, with more effort put into strategic planning at the front end of the planning process, development assessment at the back end of the planning process will be simplified and streamlined.
The planning commission will fill a gap in the strategic planning of the Territory. It will not duplicate the existing role of government agencies or statutory authorities in regulation, including the Development Consent Authority. The role of the Development Consent Authority remains unchanged.
The planning commission will also restore confidence of industry and community in the planning process. There will be engagement with the community at the earliest stages of the strategic planning process and Territorians will have a strong voice in how their community develops. Issues will be identified and resolved early in the planning process, giving industry and the community confidence and certainty about how our cities, towns, and suburbs can develop.
I will now turn to the draft bill before the Assembly and describe its features in detail. Most notably, the bill amends the Planning Act. The Planning Act provides for the appropriate and orderly planning and control of the use of the development of land. The objects of the Planning Act fully accord with the aspirations this government has for the planning commission and remain unchanged by this bill.
The bill is in several parts structured around the existing structure of the Planning Act. New Part 7A of the bill deals with the establishment, functions, powers and independence of the planning commission. The amended act will commence on a date fixed by the Administrator. Membership of the planning commission is specified in section 81F of the bill. The planning commission will be comprised of:
a chairperson
the chairpersons of the Development Consent Authority, the Heritage Council and the Environment Protection Authority
a representative of the Local Government Association also appointed by the minister
the minister may appoint up to five additional members to the planning commission.
Last month, I announced the future appointment of Gary Nairn as Chairman of the planning commission following the passage of this bill. Gary Nairn comes to the role with a background in land surveying and mapping, and currently operates his own consultancy business specialising in business development, spatial information, and property matters.
He lived in the Territory for 15 years during the 1980s and 1990s and was involved in the planning and design of key developments including Bayview, Palmerston and Cullen Bay. He served as Parliamentary Secretary to Prime Minister John Howard from 2004 to 2006 with responsibility for water reform and the Science, Engineering and Technology Unit, and was Special Minister of State from 2006 to 2007.
The chair will have a crucial role in guiding the planning commission in its early days of operation. Gary Nairn is eminently qualified to do this, having a proven track record in planning and establishing strong relationships across government and the wider community.
The composition of the planning commission purposely includes the chairs of three bodies with statutory decision-making powers with regard to development. The inclusion of the chairs of the Development Consent Authority, Heritage Council, and Environment Protection Authority will provide for a greater shared understanding of the aspirations of the planning system in delivering outcomes for Territorians.
Clauses 81G to 81J of the bill deal with the duration and conditions of the appointment of members and set out the circumstances under which a member ceases to hold office. Members will be appointed for a term of up to two years and will be eligible for reappointment at the expiry of their term.
Clauses 81N to 81Tof the bill relate to the conduct of the commission business. They provide for the commission to meet as often as necessary, but at least four times per year; for the chairperson to preside; for members to appoint another of their number as chair if the chairperson is absent; and for the quorum to be a majority of members with decisions by majority and the casting vote for the chairperson.
Commission members and former members are protected from liability if they are acting in good faith carrying out the work of the commission (clause 81Z).
Staff and facilities to enable the planning commission to properly perform its functions must be provided by the Chief Executive of the Department of Lands, Planning and the Environment under clause 81E.
Staff of the commission will be public servants subject to the direction of the chairperson (clause 81E(2)). To properly carry out its functions the commission will be able to co-opt professional advice on a project-by-project basis, as required.
I anticipate that the planning commission will be fully appointed and staffed by the first half of 2013. A starting point for the commission might be the development of a comprehensive long-term plan for the Darwin region that picks up from the Darwin Regional Land Use Structure Plan of 1990 and builds on the discussion paper released in 2010. This body of work will include revisiting greenfields land release, infill and urban renewal sites, strategic industrial land in Darwin Harbour and locations for infrastructures such as a new sea port and general aviation airport in the longer term.
The planning commission may also have a role in developing land use plans for major remote towns including Ali Curung, Borroloola, Kalkarindji/ Daguragu, Elliott, Galiwinku, Gapuwiyak, Gunbalanya, Maningrida, Numbulwar, Papunya, Yirrkala and Yuendumu.
This bill recognises that the planning commission will be established as an independent body and must perform its functions and exercise its powers independently and impartially, and in the public interest. Clause 81B sets out the functions of the commission, which are to prepare integrated strategic plans, and provide guidelines and assessment criteria for inclusion in the NT Planning Scheme.
A secondary role for the commission will be to provide advice to the minister on significant developments. The integrated strategic plans prepared by the planning commission will identify future transport corridors, utility corridors and sites for essential facilities. They will support urban renewal and provide guidance through master plans on where and how communities or urban areas should grow (clause 81K(1). Clause 81K(3) sets out examples of matters the planning commission may include in the master plans. These matters are broad ranging, including housing, transportation, economic development, the environment, open space and conservation.
It is clear from this list that government expects the planning commission to take an integrated approach to strategic planning. The strategic plans developed by the planning commission may give rise to amendments to the NT Planning Scheme under Part 2 of the Planning Act. This will ensure there is better integration of strategic planning policies with the NT Planning Scheme. This addresses an area of need previously highlighted by the Property Council of Australia in their 2010 and 2012 Development Assessment Report Cards.
Clause 13B requires that the minister must follow the usual procedures under Part 2 of the Planning Act when dealing with amendments to the NT Planning Scheme requested by the planning commission. This includes the requirement to put planning scheme amendments on exhibition, giving notice to local authorities and holding reporting-body hearings. This ensures transparency surrounding the work of the commission.
Additionally, clause 81Y of the bill requires the commission to make an annual report to parliament, further enhancing the transparent operation of the commission. Clause 81B(d) requires the planning commission to carry out community consultation in the development of strategic plans and guidelines. It is the intention that there will be engagement with the community early in the planning process and that Territorians will have a strong voice in how their community develops. Better and more effective community participation at a strategic level enables the community to participate in formulating a vision for a region or subregions. This provides for simpler and more focused community involvement in later stages of the planning process.
The strategic plans developed by the planning commission will provide a better context for the individual planning and development decisions during the development consent process.
A secondary role of the commission is to provide advice to the minister about the strategic implications of proposed significant developments. A significant development is defined in section 50A as one where the development may have a significant impact on strategic planning and land use of the Territory; or, where the carrying out of the development or subsequent use of land may have a significant impact on the natural environment or existing amenity.
This impact is not confined to the land upon which the proposed activity will take place but includes adjoining land, and other areas of land that might be affected because of the development, such as areas downstream of the development.
For developments identified as being significant, the planning commission is required to provide a written report to the minister about the development. The report may deal with the strategic planning implications of the proposal and Crown land that may be suitable for the proposal.
It is anticipated that in the great majority of cases the planning commission will provide its report to the minister well before a development application is lodged. As such, intersection of the planning commission’s role in significant developments with the development consent process will be minimal.
However, if the commission has not given the minister a report on a significant development prior to a development application being lodged, the Development Consent Authority must bring the application to the attention of the minister. The minister will decide whether the proposed development is a significant development and, if necessary, request the planning commission to provide a report on the significant development. This report may, in turn, be provided to the Development Consent Authority and must be considered by them when determining the development application.
In line with the existing provisions within section 85(3) of the Planning Act, the minister may direct the Development Consent Authority at any time before an application is determined, that the minister is the consent authority for a particular development application. The minister may also be the consent authority for an application of a division if the Development Consent Authority is not established in relation to the area of land in which the development proposal relates.
If the minister is the consent authority for the development, then he must take into account the commission’s report when considering the development application under Division 3. If the minister makes a determination contrary to the commission’s report, he must table the reasons why in the Legislative Assembly within six sitting days of making the determination. This demonstrates government’s commitment to transparency in its dealings with the planning commission.
To ensure there is no conflict of interest for the Chairman of the Development Consent Authority, clause 81M(1) states that the Chairman of the Development Consent Authority must not take any part in the commission’s consideration of a significant development proposal or the preparation of a significant development report in relation to the proposal, unless the proposal relates to a development for which the minister is the consent authority.
Furthermore, clause 81U deals with disclosure if a member has a personal interest in a matter to be considered by the commission. The member must be disregarded for the purposes of constituting a quorum and must not take part in any deliberation of the commission about that matter.
I have outlined all the key features of the draft bill and I hope from this it is clear that with the establishment of the planning commission comes a renewed focus on strategic planning for the Territory, one that enables sustainable growth of our cities and towns as great places to live, and ensures that planning reflects the expectations of the community.
This bill provides for a planning commission that:
is independent
is able to perform its functions impartially and in the public interest
operates transparently, requiring tabling in parliament if the minister does not follow the advice of the planning commission
provides certainty for the community and industry about what land uses can happen where
provides integration through cross-membership of the planning commission with environment, heritage and local government representatives along with a broad remit in strategic planning; and most importantly
places people and their choices at the heart of planning for the future.
Madam Speaker, I commend the bill to the Assembly, and I table the explanatory statement to accompany the bill.
Debate adjourned.
Mr MILLS (Chief Minister): Madam Speaker, as part of my election campaign platform I promised that a Country Liberals’ government will develop a three-hub economy which ensures the Territory is not dependent on individual projects to keep the economy strong.
The Administrator’s address presented to this House on the opening day of the Twelfth Assembly, just one week ago, noted:
Economic diversification will enhance the standard of living of all Territorians by generating higher economic growth, greater employment and income growth, which will, in turn, enable flow-on economic activities, greater economic linkages and interactions in the domestic economy, creating more wealth.
Economic diversification will create a more vibrant and resilient Northern Territory economy better placed to accommodate and deal with external impacts like the high Australian dollar and fluctuations in commodity prices and volumes.
Let me take each component in turn. The Australian reported on 2 May 2012 in an article titled ‘Resources Investment Pipeline Keeps Flowing’:
Our mining capabilities are massive, the same applies to our resources, and we believe there is the potential to expand and diversify into new commodities and new regions. It is the aim of my government to ensure these things happen.
For example, the NT Business Review noted in July 2011 that the rewards for the company that threads the needle in the Northern Territory’s Georgina Basin are vast. It is one of the few remaining virtually unexplored onshore oil and gas basins in the world.
The Business Review Australia, in May 2012, noted:
The article read:
This government will support active mineral exploration companies built on the investment by China in Territory mineral exploration projects, and work with the many businesses expending time and effort.
A great deal of what the earth wants can be found in our own back yard. An example was provided in The Australian on 17 August 2012 and I quote:
Why is this a big deal for us? Because the NT has samarium in its rare earth mix at Nolans Bore. What we do not have, unfortunately, is a state-of-the-art processing plant. This reflects the previous government’s failure to identify a suitable industrial site.
Only one year ago, the Chief Executive of Darwin Port Corporation, Terry O’Connor, commented on the greatest resources boom in NT history. He estimated there were 40 mines between Darwin and Alice Springs due to go into production in the next few years, and most of them would export their minerals through East Arm Port. It is disappointing to know those projects are hamstrung by the decisions the previous government failed to fulfil, and that its responsibilities in regard to infrastructure investment, increasing port capacity and diversification have been unmet.
Our commitment to Territorians is about expanding the economy. In relation to our mines and energy hub, we will use our higher education institutions - in particular Charles Darwin University, the North Australia Centre for Oil and Gas and its trade, training and process control facilities - to educate the next generation of skilled workers in this important and growing field.
We have heard the concerns of local businesses that many of the contracts associated with resource projects in the Territory are going to overseas and interstate companies. They are receiving some contracts for work that would naturally go to Territory businesses because of their location, such as civil works and general construction, but Territory businesses are capable of more and we want them to gain access to more complex, higher-skilled work that will deliver long-term job opportunities for current and future generations. Remember, these are the businesses that you will need to help you during the operational phase of your projects.
This government has lobbied vigorously on behalf of local industry to secure more contracts for work associated with the Ichthys gas project. We have pushed for onshore contracts to be broken up into smaller parcels that are a better fit for Territory business and industry, and for those parcels to be offered earlier than originally planned. We have been doing this in partnership with local businesses, the Industry Capability Network, as well as the Chamber of Commerce and its Manufacturers Council.
Just last fortnight, a tender for a large fabrication contract was offered to NT firms on the basis that any work performed must be performed in the Territory. This great opportunity is a direct result of our team NT visiting Japan with the single purpose of flying the flag for NT industry when they met JKC representatives.
There are many local firms with the capacity to fill these contracts, which include the fabrication of steel structures, ladders, walkways, pipes and platforms.
Minister for Business, Peter Chandler, and I have spoken to a number of senior management of both INPEX and JKC to push the case for local businesses. Recently, I met INPEX Chairman, Mr Naoki Kuroda in my office where, among other things, we discussed the potential for Territory industry to become further involved as the Ichthys project grows. Already, INPEX has spent $1bn in the Territory and some major contracts have been awarded: a $340m contract for a workers village at Howard Springs, and a $200m contract for the gas plant foundations at Wickham Point. My government will continue to lobby to ensure the Territory business industry prospers as the gas pipeline and the facility are constructed.
It is no surprise that the federal government’s White Paper on Australia’s future engagement with Asia identified Darwin’s key role in this important area. When the White Paper identifies opportunities like:
it is important to note that my government has already moved to capitalise on our vision for a three-hub economy servicing the Territory and engaging in the region.
The White Paper goes on to say:
I am heartened by our concrete commitment to increasing the opportunities for business and workers in the mining and energy sector and the attached benefits that will flow through the economy. However, most importantly, it is more than just my government’s vision, the job is to bring the Commonwealth to the table and preparing to:
I have commissioned the Office of Asian Engagement to immediately develop a response to the White Paper to guide the Territory’s strategic planning and policy formation to best capitalise on this exciting part of the Territory’s future. Our plan for a three-hub economy was developed with a firm eye on Asian engagement and expanding links with our Asian markets. My government also has plans to establish an Australia/Indonesia forum conducted at Charles Darwin University where senior figures from both countries will meet and develop ideas.
Achievements so far: the government has committed to broadening the NT’s export base to make the pastoral sector more sustainable. Further developing livestock export markets is an important step to ensuring the long-term sustainability of this vital industry to the Territory. Earlier this month, I was pleased to meet a delegation from Trung Dong Corporation that visited Darwin to witness the loading of cattle prior to its departure to Vietnam. This was a consignment of 1500 head of cattle which marked the start of imports for this company and the second shipment of cattle to depart for Vietnam in recent times. Discussion with the Trung Dong Corporation indicated that based on the success of the first shipment they would be looking at importing approximately eight shipments a year or around 12 000 head of cattle. This will inject around $10m to $12m into our pastoral sector.
The Commonwealth still has plenty of work to do to convince Asia it is serious about improving links. The ban on live cattle trade to Indonesia eroded trust in the region and undermined confidence. It is no coincidence that my first overseas visit as Chief Minister will be to Jakarta and early next year I will have some meetings in Japan.
The minister for Primary Industry has already travelled to Indonesia with a view to increase the Territory’s live cattle export trade which was severely damaged by Canberra’s kneejerk and irresponsible decision to ban the trade overnight. Minister Westra van Holthe’s visit gave him the opportunity to see firsthand how the effects of the live cattle ban have impacted upon all facets of the trade and associated businesses.
The challenge now is to begin the process of rebuilding our relationship through partnerships and open discussion. Indonesia welcomes the significant work undertaken by Australian and Indonesian industry in regard to live cattle exports which has seen a dramatic improvement in animal welfare standards through the export supply chain assurance system. This open and transparent system allows for complete traceability of cattle exported from Australia to ensure the animal welfare requirements are being adhered to. The strengthening of this industry is vital to the regional and remote areas of the Territory where much of our cattle production takes place.
We have also had early success in our plan to build international partnerships in education. The Territory has an agreement that will see students from a leading South Korean university based in Darwin for training and job placement. Under the agreement between Ansan University and Darwin-based International College of Advanced Education, final last-year hospitality students will transfer to Darwin for up to four months to further their English language skills and to work in local businesses. An initial tranche of about 20 South Korean students will arrive in Darwin at the end of January, with the potential for up to 100 students to be placed here every year. The program will help students develop language and job skills while Territory hospitality businesses will benefit from the skilled-up staff. The Korean students will be employed as cooks, waiters, food and beverage attendants. They will be in Darwin on working holiday visas and will be paid at or above the industry award.
While the signs are encouraging, there is still plenty of work to do in engaging with private and public training provider schools and Charles Darwin University to ensure that more overseas students take advantage of the Territory’s rich educational and training opportunities. For example, my government is supporting Charles Darwin University’s plan to establish a campus in the Darwin Central Business District which will have direct benefits for the tourism industry, overseas students and local businesses. The number of international students can only be expected to grow.
Food exports to Asia present an exciting opportunity to capitalise on the vast natural resources available in the Territory. We are at the height of the mango season – an industry that is worth $60m a year. The Northern Territory is now the biggest mango producer in Australia. We are harvesting the best fruit and getting it to market first.
Fishing and agriculture are highly visible examples of the potential for growth but there are also enormous opportunities within the Ord River Irrigation Scheme in Western Australia. Minister for Primary Industry and Fisheries, Willem Westra van Holthe, has already travelled to Kununurra to continue building partnerships with the federal and Western Australian governments to tap into potential areas for development. Talks have taken place with the Miriuwung Gajerrong Corporation and local traditional owners to investigate the potential development of Northern Territory land into the scheme. The economic opportunities the scheme presents are great and will be at the forefront of any discussions on how the Northern Territory can benefit from future development.
But more than just the production of food, it is getting those products to market. My government has already identified the need for better transport and logistics, whether it is air services to regional centres for freight and for passengers or by linking in long-haul carriage by road and rail to port and beyond.
Revitalising our tourism industry is another key component of our three-hub economy. The Australian dollar affects visitor arrivals to Australia and the Territory in two ways. First, it makes Australia and the Territory more expensive holiday destinations, especially for visitors from key source markets such as the UK and the Eurozone. Second, it continues to encourage Australians and Territorians to holiday overseas. Declining passenger numbers to the Territory led to a rationalisation of airline seating capacity in 2011-12 which, combined with the loss of Tiger Airlines’ service to Alice Springs, made it more expensive and difficult to travel to the Territory.
The Department of Business has received feedback from many long-term local tourism operators who have great difficulty in finding suitable and affordable accommodation for their clients in Darwin. Many of the current hotels and motels are leased and occupied by workers involved in major projects and the detention centre. This situation is an example of how increased demand for one sector of the economy impacts adversely on other sectors’ ability to meet the requirements and expectations of this market. The excessive demand for worker accommodation is creating constraints and inflationary pressure on the tourism and hospitality industry. Tourism should be a major driver of jobs and investment but has steadily lost its gloss and prestige over the past decade. The industry is in desperate need of a major shake-up but I will leave it to the Minister for Tourism, Matthew Conlan, to update the House on important initiatives in his statement later today.
In conclusion, it is our goal to develop a three-hub economy and build on the enormous potential presented by the Territory’s rich natural resources and envious geographical proximity to Asia, but there are real challenges. We need to address key issues such as affordable housing, availability of skilled workforce, restoring the social fabric of our communities and making the Northern Territory an even more attractive location for investment.
The Northern Territory has a bright future and Territorians and Territory businesses are capable of much more than just mining or oil and gas developments, as important as they are. We are committed to growing a bigger, stronger economy that will deliver greater prosperity and long-term job opportunities now and into the future.
Madam Speaker, I move that the statement be noted.
Mr GUNNER (Fannie Bay): Madam Speaker, I thank the Chief Minister for his statement about the three-hub economy. We had highlights of it during Question Time prior to the Chief Minister delivering his statement.
I want to talk principally on the international education section. Unfortunately it was rather slim in the Chief Minister’s contribution. It is something I find quite interesting. As a Caucus and party we support the efforts of the university as an exporter. As a deliverer of education, the Charles Darwin University can be classified as an exporter. It does a fantastic job. As the shadow education minister I have had the pleasure of catching up with Barney Glover. I know the Chief Minister has met with him as I am sure has the Minister for Education. I know the Chief Minister in his roles in previous terms has talked with Barney. A lot of information is missing from the Chief Minister’s statement but might be coming later in other contributions.
Mr Mills: From the Education minister.
Mr GUNNER: Yes, from the Education minister about how we can work with the university because there are slim pickings in this statement. It only mentions 20 students from Korea, which is good, and support for our project to build a university campus at the waterfront centre. It is good to see that the CLP supports that and will be contributing and working with Charles Darwin University around that campus. A university campus in the city centre is something Darwin lacks.
I was going to the local university when, under the previous CLP government, the campus in town was closed and relocated to Casuarina.
It is important that we have parts of the university campus in our city centre. Having university students in our city centre provides a sense of positivity. I have no problems with there being a campus at Casuarina and campuses at Palmerston and elsewhere, that is fantastic.
I know Charles Darwin University has a process of putting campuses in places outside of Darwin altogether and it has campuses in other cities. But it is important to a have a campus in our city centre. It is something that has been lacking in Darwin for quite a long time. The energy you can get from students in our city centre is something that would make a positive contribution to Darwin beyond education.
That has been touched upon in this statement and I am looking forward to the Education minister’s contribution later about how else the CLP intends to invest in international education. How will it partner with our university? How will we grasp the economic opportunities coming to the Northern Territory over the next few years? They do not fall in your lap; they do not happen by accident. You have to work and plan for them and it takes the pressure of public service to do that. I know our Education department has close relationships with Charles Darwin University and I am making the assumption they will continue to have those close working relationships where government and university can partner to make sure we train our own and grow our own for the jobs coming over the next few years. We have to do that work to get those jobs. It is critical.
When world-class projects come to town and Territorians do world-class work on those projects, suddenly they become a valuable entity in themselves. I have no doubt we will see - if we do the work right – Territorians, both individuals and companies, starting to export their work and skills to other parts of the world based on the work they are doing on world-class projects in Darwin. That is one of the benefits of having something like INPEX come to town. As a Territorian or a Territory company you can do world-class work on a world-class project and suddenly you have skills that are exportable to other parts of the world. We will start seeing more Territorians on the world stage as a result of the work we will be doing on world-class projects like INPEX.
That is critical and something you have to plan for. You must have good relationships with something that is captured in education. That is not in this statement but the Minister for Education will hopefully touch on some of those things, such as how we will be training and working with our Territory population to grasp those opportunities, not just from INPEX, but from the other hubs the CLP like to talk about and how we will be working with those sectors. It is not just the university, there are other education providers in the Northern Territory, but Charles Darwin University is the main player in the Territory.
How will we be working with the university to deliver for our own and grow our own, and what will we offer to attract other people to be educated in the Territory? We have a good combination of location and quality of education that should appeal to people in our neighbouring countries.
It is important that we work with the university by selling the educational opportunities we have in the Territory to our Asian neighbours and work with Charles Darwin University to value-add to that export industry. It already exists, but how can we grow it and keep working with Charles Darwin University around the Asian engagement strategy to ensure we attract those students to the Northern Territory - more than just the 20 mentioned in the Chief Minister’s statement. I am sure the Minister for Education will talk about some of the overseas students who make up our mix in the Territory.
We can also export our education opportunities to other states and territories. However, there is a challenge coming from Charles Darwin University which I am sure the CLP is aware of. We have to work closely with them around some of the deregulations happening in the university environment to ensure Charles Darwin can continue to compete. Now is the time when Charles Darwin needs support from government to ensure it can continue to grow, provide quality education, and meet the challenges that are happening in the Territory - growing challenges, growing opportunities. It will need help during the next few years as the university sector, nationally, grows through a process of deregulation to create competition. We should not be afraid of competition; we should use it as an opportunity, but that means we have to partner with the university. We have to work with it to ensure we use that challenge as an opportunity to elevate what Charles Darwin University can provide.
There are some challenges for the new CLP government. I am interested in hearing what the Education minister has to say about how the CLP will work with Territory students to grasp the opportunities that are coming, and how the department restructure - and the savings that are happening within the Education department – will impact on those partnerships, those opportunities, and those things we are doing to improve our educational services.
We often say in this House there is no silver bullet, but to paraphrase - education is the silver bullet; it just travels very slowly. We always have to put an investment into education. It is not something we should ever walk away from; we should always be wary of how and where we cut within education.
Education and health are often the two things you should build your budget around. Within those areas you have to be careful about what you do, how you do it and where you do it. You do not want to lose people - corporate knowledge in the Northern Territory in particular, where our small population and turnover is critical. We have to be really careful we do not lose people with good corporate knowledge, good understanding of the Northern Territory and how things work. We have to be very careful about what we are doing. We are hearing some reports - obviously, things have not being finalised yet going into the 4 December budget, but we have been hearing very strongly in some reports on education about where the CLP is looking to find savings and this causes some concerns.
We have to be really careful about what we do in the education space because decisions there can ripple for years to come. We have to be very careful about what we do in that education space. We have some concerns about what they are doing there. We do not want to lose professional public servants and we do not want to lose or have a reduction in the services we are offering in education.
At the end of the day, it is about the child and the classroom or the adult training in a new set of skills. It is about the person who is learning. We want to ensure we do not make decisions that are going to impact on that person and, as a result, in the Northern Territory we are not grasping opportunities that are here for us.
You have to do the work. You cannot take it for granted that it is going to come; you cannot take it for granted that we will suddenly have boom times because projects like INPEX are coming. You have to invest in our own and, by having that broad set of skills base through the Northern Territory population we know we can embrace challenge and opportunities to come. Even better, we might have Territorians entrepreneurially creating. It is really important we create our own opportunities as well. Much of that comes out of a sound investment in education.
You cannot make mistakes around education because you may not see the consequences of a decision today for years to come. You have to be very careful about what you do in that education space. I am looking forward to the CLP Education minister’s contribution on what the CLP is doing because it was a bit of a teaser in the Chief Minister’s statement - a page-and-a-half. I have no doubt the Chief Minister has a greater passion and belief in education than has been reflected in his statement. I am sure we will hear some of that later from the new Education minister about what we are doing in this space in the next few years to ensure we are growing our own in the Northern Territory.
Debate suspended.
Madam SPEAKER: Honourable members, it is with deep regret that I advise of the death on 3 October 2012 of Mr Arthur Alexander (Saus) Grant, a former Assistant Police Commissioner and well-respected Territorian.
I advise honourable members of the presence in the gallery of the family and colleagues of Mr Grant: Mrs Norma Grant; Ms Grant, a granddaughter; Mrs Robyn Hibbard, a close family friend; Acting Commander Sean Parnell; and Michael Grant. Honourable members, I ask that you welcome these people to this very important occasion.
Mr MILLS (Chief Minister): Madam Speaker, I move that this Assembly express its condolences at the passing of Arthur (Saus) Grant, a leading police officer, a great family man and well-respected Territorian, and offer our profound sympathy to his family and friends.
I pay tribute to a leading police officer and a well-respected Territorian. Arthur Alexander Grant - or Saus as he was called by everyone except his mother - hailed from a town called Canowindra in country New South Wales. Born in 1937, he was raised on the family farm, the sixth of 10 children.
Saus moved to Darwin in 1959 to join the police force. It was the beginning of a distinguished career, marked by numerous professional accomplishments. Saus was intelligent, resourceful and hard-working. For the first 10 years of his career he worked in the Uniform Branch, the Criminal Investigation Branch, and as Officer-in-Charge of the Pine Creek Region. He then went on to lead the Training Branch where he supervised the training of many former and current members of the Police Force.
In 1974, Saus was one of only two successful candidates from the Police Forces across Australia, and one of 20 from Commonwealth countries to be selected to undertake an Executive Development Course with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in Ottawa.
Following Cyclone Tracy, Saus’ family was evacuated to Sydney. However, Saus remained in Darwin to play an instrumental role in maintaining law and order in during the rebuilding phase - such was his dedication to the Territory.
Saus was appointed Assistant Commissioner in 1975 and moved to Alice Springs to take charge of the Southern Command. At just 37, he was the youngest officer to have held that rank in any Australian Police Force.
On 14 July 1977, Saus was awarded the National Medal for:
In 1982, Saus received a transfer back to Darwin to take control of Northern Command. He was again recognised with a civilian medal on 3 September 1985, and was the recipient of the Australian Police Medal for his distinguished service on Australia Day 1986. Saus was recognised with a Paul Harris Fellowship, named for the founder of Rotary, in 1989.
Saus retired in 1992 after 33 years of service. He continued to play an active role in the Retired Police Association.
That is Saus on paper, but on a personal level, he was a terrific family man who lived his life by a high moral code. In 1961, he met Norma Helen Bailey who was in the first squad of women inducted into the Northern Territory Police Force. They married in 1962 and had three sons: Michael, Tony and Matthew.
I was moved by eulogies given by each of the sons at Saus’ funeral. Their love and respect for their father is something we strive for as parents. They also spoke of the great love their parents shared and the positive effect it had on their family life. They remembered the time spent together, the things he did for them as a father, and his role as a doting grandfather who played a significant role in the lives of his grandchildren.
The moral codes Saus lived his life by was also mentioned in these eulogies: his values of fairness, accountability, trust and integrity. He was described as applying these sensitively at home, unwaveringly as a policeman, and intelligently as a member of the community. His sons spoke of the legacy being passed on to his children and grandchildren. Saus and a group of his workmates were responsible for instilling this code into the Northern Territory Police Force. These are values that govern the force to this day. These values have also been passed on to the Territory community in general. What a legacy to bestow.
Saus was interested in everyone he met. His keen interest in genealogy was not limited to his own ancestry. His genuine interest, as well as his fairness and kindness, saw him remembered by people from all backgrounds, regardless of the length of time they spent with him. Saus was a man who spent all his adult years serving the community. He was a man who loved and valued his family. He was a man who was well-respected and much liked and was a man many looked up to.
In his passing, the Territory has lost a great man who will be missed. My thoughts and prayers are with Saus’ family and friends.
Ms LAWRIE (Opposition Leader): Madam Speaker, I join with so many others who knew Saus Grant in offering my condolences to his family on his passing. Saus passed away suddenly on 3 October this year. Although it is of little consolation at this sad time, it should be of some comfort to know that in his passing we can celebrate a long and productive life which made a significant contribution to our Territory community.
Saus was raised on a farm in country New South Wales and came to Darwin in 1959 seeking opportunity and adventure. He joined the Northern Territory Police Force in that year. To put the matter into some historical context, 1959 was the year in which Darwin was first granted city status although its total population at that time was barely more than 10 000 people. Saus worked in what was then called the Uniform Branch at the Darwin Police Station.
My mother met Saus back in those early days, and lived in the same hostel as Norma. I would like to put her comments about Saus on the record. I will quote my mother, Dawn Lawrie:
Because Saus was interested in people and family histories he quickly came to know the stories and interrelationships in the community. That made him an effective police officer because he was known and trusted by the old Darwin people, and because the majority of crime in those days was solved on the basis of information from the community.
In 1961 he met Norma Helen Bailey who was, as we have heard, in the first squad of women inducted into the NT Police Force, also from country New South Wales. In another of life’s many coincidences, Saus and Norma had lived 60 miles apart for the whole of their early lives but only became aware of each other’s existence on meeting in the Northern Territory.
As I said, there is some remote connection to their meeting because when Norma first came to town she was staying in the same government hostel in which my mother was staying. That was on the site of what we now know as the Transit Centre in Mitchell Street, and longer-term Darwin residents will remember that the hostel was still standing until the Transit Centre was built. Saus was accommodated with the other single police officers at the Mariner Hostel, which was strategically located right down the other end of town on The Esplanade. There are many old funny Darwin stories emanating from those two distant hostels.
Saus courted Norma, obviously successfully, and they married and went on to have their three lovely sons and celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary earlier this year. Saus and Norma moved to Pine Creek at the beginning of 1964 and had three very enjoyable and interesting years there. Pine Creek Station was responsible for a huge area and police officers were on patrol 18 days out of every month. Saus became well-known on the various stations, meat works, Aboriginal communities, mines and other settlements within the region.
Saus was transferred back to Darwin at the end of 1966 and worked in the Criminal Investigation Branch. His exemplary work practices and attention to detail led to his appointment as the Officer-in-Charge of the newly established Police Training College in 1969. He remained in that position until Cyclone Tracy. The officers he trained over that period remember him as a hard, but scrupulously fair, taskmaster. He also remained interested in and supportive of their careers after they had left the training college and gone onto operational work. Saus played a significant role in the reconstruction process following Cyclone Tracy. He was appointed Assistant Commissioner in July 1975, no doubt partly in recognition of his work during that time.
Between 1975 and 1982 he was head of the southern command based in Alice Springs. His integrity and capacity for hard work was also recognised there and he became a valued member of that community as well.
In 1982 he transferred back to Darwin to head up the Northern Command and remained there until his retirement in 1992 on his 55th birthday. Of course, the socioeconomic landscape has shifted since then and those of us presently in the workforce can only dream of retiring at the age of 55.
What it meant for Saus was that he enjoyed 20 years following his retirement in which he travelled extensively with his wife, devoted himself to his grandchildren, and cultivated his relationships with the old Darwin families that had begun so many years ago?
A beautiful memorial service was held at St Mary’s Star of the Sea Cathedral in Darwin on 10 October and Saus was recognised and honoured with a police guard of honour. The turnout at that ceremony was a truly fitting tribute to his standing in the community. I recall remarking to the Police Commissioner inside St Mary’s at the end of the service that old Darwin was turning out that day to show their respects to Saus. We heard beautiful eulogies from his three sons, Michael, Tony and Matthew, lovely readings from his grandchildren as well as the little ones with the offertory.
The measure of a life well lived is through the lives it touches. Saus’ family, friends and former colleagues can confidently say his life was well lived. May he find peace and comfort, and may we all find peace and comfort now we have seen the remarkable legacy this very fine man of decency and integrity has left for the Territory, shining through in his fine sons and his many beautiful grandchildren.
My deepest condolences to you, Norma, and your family.
Mr ELFERINK (Attorney-General and Justice): Madam Speaker, I pass on my condolences to the family of Saus, particularly his widow, Norma.
I was in the police force for about 10 years before Saus retired. I joined in 1983 and he retired in 1992, as the Leader of the Opposition pointed out. I remember my first impressions of Saus Grant - I only discovered after his death that his name was Arthur - but my first impression as a frightened 17-year-old police cadet was this grim figure who used to move about the police station, then in Mitchell Street, just across the road from this House. I remember what I considered to be a very stern figure but, of course, as a 17-year-old first year police cadet you cannot differentiate, particularly at that level of immaturity, the difference between a dignified disposition and grimness. Through the eyes of a 17-year-old, those two are not easily separated.
As time passed there were certain things I discovered about Saus - I still feel uncomfortable referring to him as Saus; I am more comfortable referring to him as Assistant Commissioner. What I realised, and what I came to discover about Saus Grant, or Assistant Commissioner Grant, was that I could trust him as a source of advice, I could go to him and not have a raised voice cast in my direction. And whilst he expected the very best of me as a very young police officer, he never asked me for the impossible. Only with hindsight do you realise that when you deal with people like that, they are not riding you and are not trying to make your life difficult as a police officer, they are challenging you to become better than you are. Through that process, some of their capacity, thoughtfulness and consideration rubs off on you.
I realise in hindsight that Saus was not grim or dour, he was very patient. He was patient in being a leader and taking people along with him. At no time in my career as a police officer did I ever hear a raised voice from Assistant Commissioner Saus Grant. He always carried himself with complete composure and, whilst it was a very businesslike approach, it was always thoroughly ethical, moral and upright. By conducting himself in that fashion he left for all of us who cared to look, even after he retired, a legacy we could touch upon as to what it was and should be to be an upright, decent and effective police officer.
I know the Grant family; one of my first partners in the police force was Neil Grant, and we had some wonderful times together. The influence of Saus Grant could be seen through Neil and Kenny, who I met a few years later in the police force. As Attorney-General, it was my great pleasure to have his son, Michael Grant, as my Solicitor-General. He is a very fine fellow and a reflection of his father in many ways.
I thought about a single word to describe Saus Grant, and I have already heard it several times here today. The word which sprung into my head was ‘dignified’.
I will finish with an observation by Aristotle:
Mr HENDERSON (Wanguri): Madam Speaker, I thank the Chief Minister for bringing this condolence to the parliament. It is very fitting that this afternoon we speak about an incredible man.
I am pleased to contribute to this condolence because Saus had a long and distinguished career in the Northern Territory Police Force and was loved and highly regarded by so many people across the Territory. My contribution this afternoon is informed by my father-in-law, Tom Baker, who served with Saus for many years, and my mother-in-law, Joy Baker, who was very close to the Grant family.
As we have heard, Saus joined the Northern Territory Police Force in 1959 and retired in 1992. Thirty three years is a long, proud and very distinguished career. We have heard that Saus retired as an Assistant Commissioner and was awarded the Australian Police Medal in 1986.
What a difference it must have been for Saus to come to the Northern Territory in 1959 from rural New South Wales; that was a huge decision back in those days. As the Leader of the Opposition said, Darwin was a town of 10 000 people. Over his 33 years, what a change Saus saw across the Northern Territory and within the police force. I have not gone back to the annual reports of 1959; I do not know whether they had to be tabled in parliament, so I am unsure how many police officers served in our police force in 1959, but it was obviously very different to the police force today.
According to my father-in-law, and other police officers I have spoken to from that era, in many ways Saus laid the groundwork for today’s modern, highly professional and highly regarded police force. His contribution to the integrity of the police force and the standing the police force has in our community today should not be understated.
Over his 33 years of service, Saus mentored and trained so many people, including very many in his years in charge of the Police College. He personally and positively influenced the careers of so many police officers who went on to become very senior officers in the police force. These include - and it is not an exhaustive list - former Commissioner Mick Palmer, Assistant Commissioner Robin Chalker, Assistant Commissioner Graeme Charlwood, my father-in-law Commander Tom Baker, and Commander Terry O’Brien, just to name a few - all police officers who are very highly regarded and all recipients of Saus’ guidance and influence.
As we have heard, he had many personal qualities. He was a compassionate man, not just with his work colleagues but with the broader community as well and, and as we have heard, a man committed to living his life through a very strong moral code. He was passionate about the welfare of fellow police officers, not only at work but also away from work. He was always the first to offer help, assistance or advice to a fellow member going through a hard time.
Some personal reflections from Tom and Joy: The Baker and Grant families were very close. My wife, Stacey, went to school with Tony in Alice Springs and both matriculated in the same year from Alice Springs High School. Joy reflected in a note to Norma, on hearing of Saus’ passing, how Saus was the first to visit her in hospital in Alice Springs when she gave birth to their fourth child, Jessica. I do not know what Tom was doing at the time or why Saus was the first to visit; I have to get to the bottom of that issue. However, during that visit Saus spoke lovingly of Norma and his mother and talked about the special glow women have in motherhood. Joy has never forgotten that visit.
Saus was also a great supporter of Tom and once went to see him play rugby league for United at Anzac Oval. It was the only time that Saus went to cheer Tom on because Tom was a legend in his own mind as a player for the United Rugby League team. Unfortunately, Saus was running five minutes late for the game and Tom had been sent off within the first five minutes. Saus was so disgusted at Tom’s lack of regard for the rules of the game - he had been sent off within five minutes and had violated his own personal commitment to the code of fairness in his sport - that he never went to see Tom play rugby league again. I suppose that tells part of the story. However, Tom and Saus played squash together in Darwin for many years and shared very many memorable social occasions, but over a few glasses of red wine some might not have been as memorable as others.
Tom would like to have acknowledged here this afternoon that he held Saus in extremely high regard in so many ways and that all the Baker family were very saddened to hear of his passing. I offer my personal condolences to Norma, Michael, Tony and Matthew. I know you are all very proud of Saus, his life, his compassion, and his achievements. The Baker family share so many fond memories as well.
Saus made a huge contribution to the finest police force in Australia and, therefore, to the Northern Territory. May he rest in peace.
Mr WESTRA van HOLTHE (Primary Industry and Fisheries): Madam Speaker, I thank the Chief Minister for bringing this motion to the House.
It is with great sympathy that I note the passing of Arthur Alexander ‘Saus’ Grant on 2 October this year. Until his recent passing I did not know his Christian names; I have only ever known him as Saus. I think back to my young days as a police constable and the penchant Australians seem to have for shortening names. I remember agonising for a very long time about what name Saus might have had that could have been shortened to Saus. I never figured it out, but it was always an interesting exercise to go through.
Saus joined the Territory Police Force on 29 July 1959 with the registered number of 116. That says much about the man; a registered number going back that far means he was a police officer in the days of real frontier policing in the Northern Territory. I am sure it was an amazing time to be a police officer and can only imagine the experiences he had as a junior constable all those years ago. He served until 7 June 1992, reaching Assistant Commissioner before retiring after a notable career, which as has been pointed out, was a career of 33 years.
On 26 January 1986, Saus was awarded the Australia Police Medal which is an outstanding award reserved for Australian police officers who achieve distinguished service in the force. Looking back at that date makes me feel like a young fellow because I joined the police force on 20 January 1986, just six days before he was awarded that medal. He had already been in the job 27 years when I joined the police force.
Saus played an active part in the Retired Police Association of the Northern Territory and was recently responsible for producing the Citation magazine in partnership with Peter Simon. As a former Territory police officer, I had the privilege to meet Saus. He was well respected and much liked by his former colleagues. As the member for Port Darwin pointed out earlier, he was always an imposing figure to us junior constables - a little headmaster-like, perhaps. With that said, junior constables in those days knew their place. This is why I probably did not know Saus very well. You did not fraternise much with brass, you tended to stay on the ground floor of the Alice Springs Police Station and not venture upstairs too often unless you had a good reason to be there.
Like all Territory police officers, and many of them are notable, Saus was amongst those who achieved some amazing results under very trying circumstances. There are stories you hear about some of the well-respected police officers in the Territory. I was never part of this story but I heard it enough times to think it had some creditability: Apparently, Saus had gone away to do a course in police management. When he came back he was talking with his colleagues in the commissioned officer ranks and was asked if what he learnt at the course would benefit the other police officers around him and the people who worked for him. He was reputed to have replied, ‘I am not going to waste that stuff on those so-and-sos’.
As I analysed that, I do not know that Saus did not intend to share it with us. I do not think he needed to because of his management style and the person he was; he was able to manage the police officers and resources around him and deal with day-to-day policing without having to go to the books because he was a police officer who had come through the ranks. He had done the hard yards and he was able to bring that level of capability and capacity into the role he had as a senior police officer.
I express my condolences to Saus’ family. His contribution to the Northern Territory police will be remembered for a long, long time.
Mr STYLES (Sanderson): Madam Speaker. I rise today to add to what has been said about a great Territorian, Saus Grant APM. I arrived in Darwin to join the police force in 1981 and for me, as it was for my former colleagues the members for Port Darwin and Katherine, Saus Grant’s reputation preceded him. He was always known as a fair man and one came to find he was very highly regarded and revered by other police officers who had been here for some time. He was a great leader of men and a great role model.
He and his wife, Norma, have raised three fantastic sons who provide a great contribution not only to the Territory but to the Australian community.
Saus was one of those guys who got the job done. One of the quiet achievers who did not need to scream and shout; wherever he moved, things happened and the job was done. One of the most important things he did was look after the troops. We always hear these days that people in management roles do not necessarily look after their employees, but Saus Grant was one of those people who really did a fantastic job. He cared and he demonstrated that in so many different ways.
I recall during the most tragic time of my life when my wife was suffering from cancer, Saus Grant was there on a regular basis to check on how I and my family were going. He turned up time and time again, quietly, with a supporting hand on your shoulder. That is something I will carry for the rest of my life.
The measure of a police officer is not necessarily the laws they uphold, it is the way they do it. It is the care and compassion people show when they look after people and have to apply the law.
Saus Grant’s legacy to all those he touched on his journey is why he is held in such high esteem by all members of the Territory Police Force.
He has obviously transferred that to his family and to so many other police officers. That is probably one of the reasons the Northern Territory Police Force is one of the most highly regarded police forces, not only in Australia, but in the world. It is because of people like Saus - the way he trained police officers, and through his role modelling – that we enjoy one of the best police forces in the world.
As a sign of respect, members stood for a minute’s silence.
Madam SPEAKER: On behalf of honourable members, I also pass on my sincere condolences to Mrs Norma Grant and the Grant family on the loss of your husband, father, grandfather, colleague and friend. May you receive some comfort from the generous and kinds words that have been expressed today by members of this parliament.
Motion agreed to.
Mr ELFERINK (Leader of Government Business): Madam Speaker, we realise that government business is on foot; however, the Treasurer has a short statement to make to the House which is current and of some importance.
Ms LAMBLEY (Treasurer) (by leave): Madam Speaker, I thank the Chamber for their indulgence.
Following receipt of a draft of the progress report from the Renewable Management Board about the state of Territory government finances, the position of the Power and Water Corporation was confirmed against earlier preliminary advice. The Power and Water Corporation is in such a financial position that without government underwriting, it would not be able to continue as a going concern. A private company would have been moved into administration in such circumstances.
I was also made aware of the existence of correspondence exchanged between the then Treasurer and the Chair of the Power and Water Corporation Chairperson over 12 months ago, where the board was aware of the state of the corporation and they alerted the then Treasurer, and now Opposition Leader, to the state of the finances.
While I am appalled at what appears to be a reckless approach to the operation of this organisation, driven by pure political self-interest by the then Treasurer, that will have to be a matter for another day.
The board also has a role in the running of this organisation. Consequently, on Monday I asked for the resignation of the Chair of the Power and Water Corporation Board. She told me she would provide that resignation without delay. I have now received her resignation.
The CEO of Power and Water Corporation has been made aware of this resignation and has informed the staff. I acknowledge that the current chair has been a member of the board for the past 12 years. I will be meeting with the board later today and will be discussing who will fill the chair position in the short term.
Late last night I formally received the Renewable Management Board progress report and I have sent it to my department for advice. I understand the Chief Minister will be making that report public as soon as we have received the necessary advice, which will be either late tomorrow or early Thursday.
I expect to be making further announcements regarding the Power and Water Corporation in coming days. I want to be very clear on this: the gravity of the position of the Power and Water Corporation should not be in any way underestimated.
Continued from earlier this day.
Ms LAWRIE (Opposition Leader): Madam Speaker, I contribute to the ministerial statement on the three-hub economy delivered by the Chief Minister today.
It is interesting that we have to reach the very end - page 19 about the Ord River - before there is a single mention of opportunities for Indigenous Territorians in the development of their land. And that is the only mention, one paragraph:
It is interesting that a government which prides itself so significantly on being very much the spokespeople for Indigenous Territorians issues a three-hub economy statement with one single mention of the opportunities of regional economic development for Indigenous Territorians.
You are a sham and are exposed as such in this ministerial statement. Whether you look at any of your three hubs - mining and energy, the opportunities in education and tourism, or our positioning in relation to the Asian century - you need to understand the opportunities that exist for regional economic development. They are abundant, but they are abundant only with working with the owners of a significant part of the Northern Territory land, the traditional owners.
Take tourism, for example. Any grasp or understanding of the opportunities in tourism in the Territory, the future of tourism, the product we have in the Territory and growing tourism as an economic hub – as the CLP says it will do – would have you talking volumes on the opportunity of growing the Indigenous tourism product in the Northern Territory and attracting the large Asian market to that exciting product through the Asian gateway of Darwin and the Darwin International Airport, out international hub airport.
But, no, none of that has been mentioned in the three-hub economy statement, completely missing the point of why a tourist would want to come to the Northern Territory. They do not want to come to the Northern Territory to see a carbon copy of another place in Australia, such as the eastern seaboard, they come because of the exciting Indigenous tourism product we have. I know that under our former Tourism minister, the former member for Arnhem, very strong work was done in encouraging the development of Indigenous tourism businesses and enterprises across the Northern Territory.
Mr Westra van Holthe: Tell us if that actually closed the gap anywhere.
Madam SPEAKER: Order!
Ms LAWRIE: I know the member for Katherine is a little sensitive because I am pointing out how much you miss when you put your hastily cobbled together statements before this House. Instead of chuckling, you might want to talk about the tourism enterprise the Jawoyn are running at Nitmiluk in a funding partnership from the previous Labor government. But, perhaps I am pushing a few buttons there.
It is extraordinary that the entire ministerial statement makes only one scant mention of Indigenous Territorians and any opportunity for any traditional owners. That is on page 19, and is just one paragraph talking about the opportunity of the Ord.
Regarding the opportunity of the Ord, what we have is rhetoric and no substance. The Ord was subject to much grandstanding and rhetoric by the CLP in the lead-up to the election, ignoring the fact that the Northern Territory was already a partner on the task force in pursuing the future potential of the Ord. The current minister made a reference to the Ord Stage 3 today.
What we have seen, though, is despite the minister for Junkets - as I now call the member for Katherine, who likes to board that plane and head out of the Territory whenever he possibly can. He is a frequent flyer; he gets the tip for the frequent flyer so far. He headed over to Kununurra to look at the potential areas for development. However, there is no mention anywhere of the infrastructure and the quantum of infrastructure investment required to realise the Ord Stage 3. Whilst there is a scant reference in the statement to talks having taken place with the traditional owners, there is not one mention of their requirements for payments if their land was to be developed.
I will be watching with great interest when the mini-budget is handed down on 4 December because we have rhetoric without substance in this ministerial statement. I will be looking for the tens of millions of dollars set aside for any settlement of native title to develop the Ord Stage 3. I will be looking for an amount in the vicinity of $200m in capital to develop Ord Stage 3. I know the members opposite are chuckling. That shows their ignorance. I know what you fail to realise – there are significant infrastructure requirements to develop Ord Stage 3.
If the members opposite think they are going to rely on their new-found friends - as the member for Braitling would have us believe; he has discovered that Canberra exists and that it exists to go seeking infrastructure funding from – and that somehow Canberra will stump up all of this infrastructure required to develop Ord Stage 3, and the tens of millions of dollars required to settle any native title issues, they are kidding themselves. The reality is that Canberra is on a significant belt-tightening pathway of its own. If you think someone will magically stump up a magic pudding to meet your rhetoric, then you are in la la land.
Maybe that is why you are slashing and cutting a swathe through the budget of the Northern Territory. Maybe it is because you have come to a realisation that your rhetoric and promises - your unfunded promises in the election - simply cannot be met without slashing and burning through the existing Territory budget. Maybe it has dawned on you that you have set yourself a whole host of pain headed your way - as the member for Barkly pointed out last week - in your unfunded election commitments.
In his statement the Chief Minister talks about diversifying the economic base for the benefit of all Territorians. The CLP would have us believe we were a one-trick wonder in government by landing the nation’s second-largest major project, the $34bn Ichthys project. Well you do not reach the point of fast becoming the oil and gas hub of northern Australia through investment in the marine supply base at East Arm just by landing one major project. You have to send the investment signals out there in terms of the foreign investment picture. A clear example of where the investment signals cross resources - not just oil and gas, but across resources - is in the area of mineral exploration.
Mineral exploration in the Territory grew by 31% to more than $195m under Labor. We were sending the clear signals via the fine work done by the then Chief Minister, the member for Wanguri, and the minister for Resources, the member for Casuarina, where they consistently went into China and Japan with the mineral investment exploration strategy. We drew down a $195m investment into mining exploration, growing that, as I said, by 31%, under Labor. But that is a truth the CLP wants to bury in the sand and ignore.
We also provided a tax environment which would attract business. We maintained the lowest taxing regime in terms of small and medium-sized businesses through the decade of a Labor government. Creating the lowest tax environment was another key attractor to investment in the Territory in terms of business. We heard bizarrely from the Treasurer today that it was the INPEX project that took us through the global financial crisis. That goes to show she does not understand that for three years before the capital investment started to draw down from that Ichthys project by INPEX, it was a $4.6b infrastructure investment by the Labor government giving small and medium-sized businesses right across the Territory real capital programs to construct, that literally kept the doors of businesses open; kept our construction sector at a growth capacity gearing up for when the major project would start to hit its straps. We are just seeing the start of that now. Critical also to that capital works program was the investment in the Power and Water Corporation and the construction of the new prison. I note that the CLP rail against both.
Private investment is surging back, quite aside from the $34b INPEX/Total investment. We have seen a $750m Montara oil field expansion. We have a $60m investment at Darwin Airport. I thought that would have rated a mention if you are saying tourism is a part of your three-hub economy, but there was no mention of it by the government. Also, production commenced on the $1.1bn Kitan oil field, as well as multiple defence redevelopments that amount to something like a $200m expenditure by the Australian government in defence infrastructure across the Territory.
All of these factors are missing from your three-hub economy. You do not mention defence in your three-hub economy. Given that defence is such a significant investor in our Territory and a contributor to our economy, given that we will only see growth in the prospect of that, and given it was so important for the Minister for Business to board a plane, leave parliament and go to a conference about defence, you would expect there to be mention of it. But it is a completely off the agenda for the CLP who simply have no idea. It is not in the three-hub economy.
And where did we leave the economy? Well, they would think it was just one major project. Again the inconvenient truth gets in the way of the CLP rhetoric. DeLoitte’s Access Economics forecasts the Territory’s economic growth to be the strongest in the nation over the next five years and we saw the CommSec report just last week forecasting the Northern Territory to have the second strongest economic growth across the five years at a ten-year high. You do not reach that point without investing right across the economy.
Resources will be more amply covered by the former minister for Resources and the shadow but, as I said, the inconvenient truth for you - a 31% increase in exploration in the Territory - there is no mention of that. There is no mention of the investment made in capital in the Darwin Port. The bulk mineral loader that exists at the port today was not there under a CLP government, and you cannot grow mineral resources trade across the port without a bulk mineral loader.
The Nolans Bore, which is the Arafura Resources rare earths project, was given scant mention in the ministerial statement, saying there is, unfortunately, not a state-of-the-art processing plant for that. I ask the government, are you proposing that you would offer Middle Arm as a site and a location for the processing plant for the Nowlans Bore mine? If you are, you have not read about some of the toxic by-product that would occur. I know you describe the Ichthys project as a 19th century project and one that should not be in the middle of Darwin Harbour, well I will give you a tip, if you consult with the Darwin and Palmerston communities on the location of a processing plant for Arafura Resources for the Nolans Bore mine and you propose Middle Arm - I look forward to the community’s response to that. I also look forward to find out how it could possibly meet any environmental impact study on its location in the harbour.
Yet, you are posing the question in your statement as to why a state-of-the-art plant cannot be in the Northern Territory when Arafura Resources wanted to locate it in Middle Arm. If that is a clear signal that under the CLP government you are open for business, open for Arafura Resources to put a processing plant in Middle Arm, you need to come clean with the Northern Territory community and sort that one out right away.
Or, are you proposing to put that industrial site at Glyde Point? If you are proposing a site at Glyde Point, where is the $500m investment in infrastructure? I will be having a careful look at your 4 December mini-budget for that.
The point you make in the statement about wanting to put the minerals through East Arm Port ignores the fact that there is a bulk minerals handling facility there, and investment in conveyor belts and hardstand.
The statement talks about the importance of education, yet I note there is no recognition of the importance of the Charles Darwin University business and hospitality school in the Darwin Waterfront Precinct. I welcomed a very minor mention last week by the Chief Minister in this parliament that the business and hospitality campus for Charles Darwin University would be proceeding at the waterfront - another great Labor initiative. You talk about education and the importance of education as an economic hub, yet you fail to mention there will be a new business and hospitality campus in the Darwin CBD, open and operated by Charles Darwin University. One of the things I love about that project and that great Labor vision of bringing the university into the city and making our city a true university city, is that it is linked with the NRAS rental housing subsidy scheme the Commonwealth Labor government has. Not only will it provide state-of-the-art facilities for people wanting to study business and hospitality in the heart of our CBD, at the waterfront, it will also have student accommodation.
Any of us who know the importance of getting that all-important international student to the Territory and the spend they bring with them would understand the importance of that student accommodation at the waterfront. What an exciting project for Charles Darwin University to show as it travels through Asia in terms of the opportunity to grow education. But there was no mention of that in this statement.
I welcome that the CLP in government now has some good things to say about the Labor government in Canberra. It has found they are not all mad because it is congratulating the government’s white paper on Australia’s future engagement with Asia. It is recognising how important Darwin will be in this important area, looking at our proximity to Asia, our natural attributes, our potential sites for new ports, and expanding liquefied natural gas processing.
It is fantastic the CLP can finally see there might be some opportunity in working with the government in Canberra. I hope the Chief Minister ensures planning commences immediately for an economic forum focusing on the Asian century to be hosted in Darwin, sending invitations to all our Asian neighbours, and understanding we have important trading relationships not just with China and Japan, but, with Indonesia, Thailand, the Philippines and Vietnam, to name a few of our closest neighbours. There is a challenge I am laying down for the Chief Minister in responding to this statement - get out there, roll up the sleeves, and have an Asian century economic forum hosted in Darwin. Invite our neighbours and really engage and create this white paper as a platform for the Asian gateway trade opportunities we know we could yield.
You would think, having listened to the bizarre antics of the member for Katherine in Question Time today, that we have no relationship with anyone in Asia except China and Japan. Well, the President of Indonesia chose Darwin as the site of the Australia-Indonesia Ministerial Forum. He chose Darwin as the site and recognised the importance of that. There was a very strong commitment from the then Labor government of the Northern Territory to ensure we have Bahasa language across our schools. I was looking for that detail in his statement, looking for the reassurance that commitment would be delivered and it was missing, despite the Chief Minister having said on several occasions that he would focus on Indonesia first and foremost in regard to Asian engagement.
I had the pleasure of catching up with the Ambassador to Singapore just last week. We recognised the importance of air links between Darwin and Singapore. Again, despite this statement talking about the Asian century and tourism, there is no mention of SilkAir and the opportunity those SilkAir flights from Singapore to Darwin can yield for our tourism industry and our business industry.
It is not mentioned because it is an inconvenient truth that Labor pursued, with industry partners, the SilkAir flights to Darwin, bringing that all-important business class traveller to Darwin into this Asian gateway that we are.
We saw in this statement a reference to cattle and the shipments to Vietnam. There is no mention that the Labor government went out …
Madam SPEAKER: Your time has expired.
Mr CONLAN (Tourism and Major Events): Madam Speaker, that was very well done. It was a shame you ran out of time Leader of the Opposition. Congratulations again on finding your niche in life. You are doing a wonderful job as Leader of the Opposition - just extraordinary stuff, very impressive.
Member for Katherine, I hope you continue to clock up hundreds of thousands of Frequent Flyer points in your role as the minister for Primary Industry and a Minister of the Crown in the Northern Territory. It means you are out there doing something. It means instead of sitting around twiddling your thumbs, asleep at the wheel like previous ministers, certainly the previous ministers for Sport and Tourism who did nothing, it is incumbent on you to go to the airport, board an aeroplane and promote the Northern Territory anyway you can. I encourage more of it and I hope you clock up hundreds of thousands of frequent flyer points over your time as minister because it means you are doing something. Get off your backside, member for Katherine, and get out there and promote the Northern Territory right away!
This is what it is all about and this is the legacy this government has inherited - the idle, the stationary. It was very hard to mobilise previous ministers, particularly in tourism.
Tourism is one of the pillars of the three-hub economy the Country Liberals’ government is committed to developing. I am pleased to have the opportunity in the House to explain why tourism is so important to the Northern Territory and the Northern Territory economy. What I want to outline in this statement is the plans we have to revitalise tourism in the Northern Territory.
The importance of tourism in the Territory is unquestioned on this side of the House. The NT has a higher reliance on tourism than any other state or Territory in Australia. It is a major economic driver with a broad impact on many other industry sectors. It generates a significant number of jobs in the Territory. Across the Northern Territory, one in eight people are employed in the tourism sector through tourism or hospitality. People employed directly due to tourism make up 6.1% of the Territory workforce compared to 4.5% nationally, which underlines the importance of tourism to the Northern Territory economy.
Our tourism industry is made up of nearly 700 businesses, including accommodation providers, attractions, tour and transport operators, and vehicle and vessel hire companies. The great majority - that is about 90% - of the industry is made up of sole traders; that is, micro and small businesses owned and operated solely within the Northern Territory. Tourism contributes an estimated $1.4bn in gross value-added product to the NT economy, which cannot be underestimated. That is, 8.5% compared to 5.3% nationally. Gross value-added is considered to be the most accurate measure of tourism’s contribution to the economy.
This higher than average contribution means the Northern Territory economy has a higher risk factor in the event of external shocks to the industry such as terrorism and disease. We have seen both of those in recent years: wars and natural disasters. That is important because tourism is a vulnerable industry, in regard to global impacts and its high reliance on discretionary spending and competition for share of wallet. The industry can be further affected by the higher Australian dollar - as we are seeing - and the health of the global economy. We are all experiencing that and are very aware of that.
The tourism dollar is competing against other leisure activities such as entertainment and shopping, or life commitments such as paying the mortgage, education expenses - whatever it might be - those everyday family expenses every single Territorian has to undertake. The total contribution tourism makes to the economy consists of direct and indirect contributions. Tourism has a broad impact on many industry sectors, all of which could be affected by its susceptibility.
The industries that directly contribute to tourism gross value-added in the NT include air, water, rail and other transport, accommodation, cafes, restaurants and takeaway food services. The indirect or flow-on effects of tourism demand include the supply of goods and services produced by non-tourism industries to satisfy the demand of industries directly supplying visitors. In the hotel industry, for example, this might include fresh produce supplied to it, and the electricity used to generate its power component to run the hotel.
The people creating the demand are not fly-ins or fly-outs who typify mass tourism; the people who come to the Territory are seeking a holiday with meaning and a purpose that indulges their special interests and fulfils the particular reason for which they have travelled - the Northern Territory is a relatively specialised tourism destination. This may be in the form of interactive learning which exposes them to different cultures or one that provides them with a physical or philological challenge. Experiential travellers - as they are called in the market speak - seek holidays that will provide them with a sense of personal enrichment. In other words, they are here for the experience. For many, the experience itself matters more to them than the destination. They are willing to travel great distances and pay substantial amounts towards having the experience. Consequentially, these travellers often yield high profits for tourism operators.
While the profit yield from these visitors is generally slightly higher than average, these travellers do not expect a superior quality of value for money. Many of these travellers rely on lead users to alert them to new places so they can explore them before they are discovered by the masses. In other words, word-of-mouth promotion often provides the motivation for subsequent visitation. To sustain subsequent visitation to the Northern Territory, destinations desired by these sorts of travellers need to be accessible. Given that the Northern Territory occupies about one sixth of Australia’s total land mass we have plenty of places for these people to explore.
Despite the importance of these travellers to the Northern Territory and the tourism industry, it cannot be discounted that visitors come here to enjoy the delights of the warmer weather, which provide an escape during the winter months. I have to qualify some of those comments because in my neck of the woods, that is Central Australia, it can get mighty cold; but we also experience some of the most glorious winter weather in Australia, blue skies, 25 degrees during the day. Okay, it gets cold at night, but nothing really beats an Alice Springs winter if you want to experience that part of the world.
Nevertheless, it is just not happening. In the last 10 years our market share of international holiday visitors staying overnight has declined from 13% to 7.9%. Over the same period, our market share of domestic holiday visitors staying overnight has stayed more or less the same, going from 1.3% to 1.4% - a minute increase - so it has stagnated. If we look at where they went during this period, about twice as many international holiday visitors stayed overnight in Central Australia compared with the Top End, whereas more domestic holiday makers stayed overnight in the Top End than Central Australia. We are seeing two types of experiences here.
With the new focus on marketing the Territory as a whole, it is predicted visitors will explore areas which previously may not have been considered. If we look more broadly at the figures for all visitors, not just holiday makers, for the year ending 30 June 2012, total domestic visitor numbers to the Northern Territory increased, but international visitation has continued to struggle. We need to focus our approach to further stimulate demand across the Northern Territory. Total international visitation during the same period was down 14% to just 263 000. However, I have to say that based on information provided to me by Tourism NT a couple of weeks ago, there was encouraging growth from the United States, which is up 7%, and north-east Asia, including China, which is up 9.1%.
The USA is now the Territory’s equal largest source market, equal with the UK. Who would have thought that that would be the case? Traditionally, the UK is our strongest market. I am unsure but this could be largely attributed to the ‘Oprah effect’ following the visit by the talk show queen last year.
Total visitation from most of the Territory’s key European markets and the UK declined in Australia, resulting in visitor numbers to the Top End declining by 12% and to Central Australia by 15%. There is a great deal of work to be done to arrest this decline in international tourism, particularly in Central Australia, and to grow and disperse this domestic recovery.
Under the stewardship of Tourism NT’s current CEO, John Fitzgerald, steps have been taken to explore the potential of other source markets like the education and cruise markets. Internationally, all the signs point to challenges to maintain visitation from our traditional western markets and increase our share of markets like China.
China’s outbound travel market is one of the fastest growing in the world. We have seen that emerge over recent years. Everyone is excited about China and the impact it could have on Northern Territory tourism, but our market share is less than 1% of Chinese visitors to Australia. We need to do something about that. If that could be increased to between 3% and 5% by 2020, it would deliver between 30 000 and 40 000 visitors per year, making China one of the top three international markets to the Northern Territory, based on current measures of international visitation.
However, as part of this government’s Asian engagement strategy we are also looking beyond China to capture the international market. As part of its future direction, Tourism NT has taken a leadership role in enhancing and enriching the industries focused on the East. In November it is running the inaugural NT China Operator Mission, providing representatives of seven Northern Territory businesses with fantastic opportunities to make key leisure and business events contacts over six days in Shanghai, Beijing and Hong Kong.
Let us turn to the domestic market. Recent increases in domestic visitation occurred across all purposes of visit, but particularly in business, which was up by 17%. People visiting friends and relatives was up by 29%, and people on holidays was up by 10%. This suggests that the number of visitors with a distinct reason to come to the Territory has increased; however, those who have a choice of location are not as likely to choose the Northern Territory as a destination to visit. It is interesting that tourism, when you break it down, really is about a lot of statistics and data and this is what we are seeing emerge as we look at the landscape of tourism throughout the Northern Territory.
If we look at the business segment we can expect some growth to occur naturally in this area because of people flying from major resource projects and other business activities. However, this segment includes business events which are worth approximately $51m to direct delegate expenditure in the Northern Territory, which is approximately $10m for Central Australia and $41m for the Top End. Those statistics are from the Alice Springs and Darwin Convention Centres, so we are looking at about $51m for those business events.
There is great potential for growth in the business events market and we want a bigger slice of that for the Northern Territory. There is no reason why Alice Springs and Darwin cannot become major destinations for business events and conventions in the future. We will do everything we possibly can to make sure that happens. A Tourism NT initiative to attract more meetings, conferences and incentive groups to the Territory kicked off in Brisbane last week and is travelling to Canberra, Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide this week, promoting what the Territory has to offer and showcasing 10 Territory businesses.
Business events is one of the highest yielding sectors; on average when delegates stay for a conference in Darwin they stay seven nights and spend approximately $3465.00 per person. In Alice Springs they stay five nights and spend about $2050 per person. The value of business events is an important component of the tourism industry. Despite the positive impacts these visitors have on the Territory economy, there should be a focus on encouraging the visitor for a return to the leisure market and to come here for a holiday.
The Chief Minister was a school principal so he would be particularly interested in the opportunities that have been identified for tourism in education, both of which are priorities for this government. There is a strong focus on learning Indigenous history in schools across Australia. This presents an opportunity to conduct this learning through excursions on location. To give you an idea of the size of this market, in 2011 there were 9435 schools in Australia and they tended well over 3.5m students. If we can attract primary and secondary school groups from the Northern Territory and interstate, tourism will receive a significant boost. The Northern Territory has a rich traditional culture and this can be used to provide a strong educational experience. Contrary to what the Leader of the Opposition was alluding to, we do take Indigenous tourism very seriously. We take all parts and sectors of tourism across the Northern Territory very seriously. Indigenous tourism has played a major role in that.
We can reasonably expect to increase visitation to the Northern Territory, increase visitation to attractions and enjoy repeat visitation from schools. This is not going to be a walk in the park for us. The principal challenge we face is providing value for money. For interstate schools, the cost of reaching the Northern Territory can be prohibitive. As I said, it can be quite expensive to come to the Northern Territory. Even for schools within the NT the cost of travelling can be quite prohibitive, daunting and perhaps even unattainable for some schools. Tourism NT is working with the industry to address this considerable challenge and we will do everything we can to alleviate any of those stumbling blocks or hurdles so we can make this happen.
Another potential growth area is the cruise industry. In 2011-12, 43 cruise ships visited Darwin; they carried over 50 000 passengers, the highest on record. An estimated $8m was spent in the Northern Territory by cruise travellers. The flow-on effects to Territory businesses are considerable. Cruise spend, refuelling and so on contributed to an estimated $55.5m, according to the Australian peak body Cruise Down Under. The cruise industry globally is now experiencing a period of rapid growth, especially in Australia. Tourism NT is aiming at the cruise market overall and believes Darwin and the Top End are ideally situated to attract cruise ships visiting the northern part of Australia and those venturing into Southeast Asia and beyond.
Tourism NT is currently going through the process of assessing quotes to develop a feasibility study that will build a business case to attract small to medium cruise ships with up to 500 passengers to home base their operations in Darwin for all or part of the year, utilising the Territory’s existing marine and tourism infrastructure. It expects to award a tender in the coming days - that is my advice. The study is anticipated to be completed by the end of 2012. Following that, it will be putting a case to the cruise companies to make Darwin a home base. I, as minister, will be doing everything I can to ensure our cruise ship industry is once again invigorated, lifted, and Darwin becomes a major port for our cruise market.
There is a good reason why the decision was made to link the portfolio of Tourism with Major Events, as Major Events contributes handsomely to the tourism dollar.
On Saturday, 20 October, I had the honour of officially closing the 14th Alice Springs Masters Games. It is always a little sad to close the games but, nevertheless, it was great to be there as the Sports minister to do that.
Mr TOLLNER: A point of order, Madam Speaker! Pursuant to Standing Order 77, I seek an extension of time for my good friend, the member for Greatorex.
Motion agreed to.
Mr CONLAN: The Alice Springs Masters Games was a wonderful event. The town of Alice once again experienced the influx of nearly 4000 participants from interstate and overseas, many accompanied by support teams, friends and family. There was, of course, a huge Territory component as well.
Events like the Masters Games, the Finke Desert Race and the V8 Supercars are all hugely popular. They draw crowds, put money into the coffers of local businesses, and attract national and international publicity.
I have taken some time to explain why tourism is so important to the Territory. This is just part of the story of the Northern Territory, as they used to say. The shape of things to come was another old jingle for a Toyota commercial - the Toyota 4Runner: look out, this is the shape of things to come. This is what it is all about for us.
The Leader of the Opposition did not get everything she wanted in this statement; however, there will be more statements. They will not be the ministerial propaganda puff pieces we saw delivered by the previous government. We will have statements outlining this government’s priorities and what we are doing. They will not be totally aspiration-based or what we would like to do, but what we are going to do. The tourism industry will form part of a three-hub economy for this government and the Northern Territory.
This Country Liberals government is committed to reinvigorating the tourism industry for the benefit of all Territorians. Major Events and all my portfolios have been strung together. I feel like I am the maitre d’ of the Northern Territory. I should have on my business card, Matt Conlan, maitre d’ and stand on the border shaking hands. It is the bums on seats portfolio. It is about getting people to the Northern Territory, shaking their hand and saying: ‘Welcome, get out there and explore’. It is incumbent on all of ministers, and everyone in this House, to ensure that happens.
We bang on about who is jetting interstate left right and centre. Let us get out there and sell the place, and if it means you have to jump on an aeroplane and spend a couple of days in Sydney, so be it. I do not think there would be one single Territorian who would begrudge you that. You can fly business class and have a glass of champagne in the chairman’s lounge if you want; as long as you are out there doing hard work for the Territory no one cares.
Plans are being developed to place Tourism NT headquarters in Alice Springs instead of Darwin. There will obviously be a presence in Darwin. The government has heard the message from the community that it wants the regions and more remote areas of the Northern Territory to be respected and resourced. If there was ever an example of a Darwin-centric government the result of the previous election was it - the regions had been starved, under-resourced and disrespected for far too long.
Central Australia and Alice Springs in particular have been hit hard by the decline in tourism. Moving Tourism NT’s headquarters to Alice Springs will do much to invigorate the social and economic environment in Alice Springs. We need to place agencies and departments throughout the Northern Territory, where appropriate, to give the regions back some of the clout they so richly deserve. We believe it will energise tourism operators and give their confidence an enormous boost as well. It will also bring the industry closer to the government and allow the regions to once again prosper and give them that much-needed lift.
This decision is not about taking from one and giving to the other. That point has to be made; it is not about putting Alice Springs in front of Darwin, or any of that nonsense. We still need a presence in Darwin, Katherine and Tennant Creek. It is about one product. It is not about a Darwin Harbour cruise versus a camel ride in Central Australia or a boat cruise up the Katherine River. It is not one is better than the other; it is all a Territory experience, and the product is the Northern Territory. That is this government’s vision: the Northern Territory is on sale; we promote the Northern Territory as a destination.
The key to our plan is reconstituting Tourism NT as a commission and appointing the Board of Commissioners to provide strategic direction. I have introduced a bill to that effect, which we will debate at length on Thursday. The board will comprise of individuals of the highest calibre. The Chair designate is Michael Bridge, CEO of Airnorth and Chair of the Regional Aviation Association of Australia, a position he has held for the last seven years. He is a long-term Territorian who has a deep understanding of local issues and is extremely capable of realising the Territory’s economic and tourism potential. He is a great choice and will do the Territory proud and will certainly deliver.
I say this because, during Michael’s 23 years with the Airnorth group, he has overseen the growth of the company from a small charter company to what has now become Australia’s second oldest continuously operated airline, with revenues of $90m per annum, operating some of the world’s most technologically advanced jet aircraft into some of the world’s most remote destinations. He has done a wonderful job. It is a great success story for the Northern Territory and something Michael Bridge and all Territorians, can be very proud of. Michael is a great ‘get’ for us to be heading up the Tourism Commission. Airnorth employs more than 200 Territorians and carries nearly double the entire Northern Territory population each year - no mean feat.
The reason it is so important to have the right structure and the right people driving it is because Northern Territory Tourism relies on Tourism NT to set the marketing direction for the Territory. The volume of small tourism businesses combined with the Territory’s small population base, remote locations, and other unique aspects means Tourism NT has traditionally played a stronger leadership role for industry than most other state and Territory counterparts.
Mr Bridge will be working with me to identify the right candidates to discharge that responsibility and have tourism in the Territory really firing. We cannot undersell that and underestimate what we are going to do. I know it is all words at the moment for you but watch this space - you watch it happen; this will fire.
I am delighted to say that Tony Mayell CEO of the previous Northern Territory Tourism Commission will be returning to the Territory to become CEO of the new reconstituted Tourism NT, and will also have a seat on the board. He will be based in Alice Springs. Tony has also been appointed Executive Director of the Southern Region for the Department of the Chief Minister. This dual appointment further cements our commitment to the regions, making tourism a pillar of our three-hub economy. Tony will not just be the CEO of Tourism, he will also be heading up the Chief Minister’s Department in Alice Springs. That is giving him real clout to crash through and get some of this stuff on the road to get this thing going.
Together with the other commissioners, they will seek to maximise the potential of all the initiatives I have described, for the benefit of all Territorians. That cannot be underestimated. Again, this is for the benefit of all Territorians: you guys over there, us guys over here - for everyone - for our kids, for the future of our families, the whole bit - the whole lock, stock and the two smoking barrels. Whatever it might be, this is about one product for the whole of the Northern Territory.
The new reconstituted Tourism Commission will provide strategic advice and guidance on how to address the many challenges that lie before us - and there are a number of them. Tourism has changed, despite what we claim you have not done, and the previous minister failed to do. Despite all that, tourism has still changed, and the way we go about attracting tourists to the Northern Territory and wherever you might be trying to attract tourists to, has changed. So, there are many challenges that lie before us, but we believe this will be a source of innovation and inspiration for the whole tourism industry.
As part of a three-hub economy we take tourism very seriously; it will form part of the three-hub economy; it will form part of the future of the Northern Territory; it will put the future of the Northern Territory back into the hands of Territorians, and on that, Madam Speaker, I commend the statement to the House.
Mr VATSKALIS (Casuarina): Madam Speaker, I was very pleased to hear the member for Greatorex speaking about tourism. He actually gave some insight into what he is going to do for tourism and what he is planning to do for tourism. I commend him for that because I have the same passion for tourism as he has. I collected some frequent flyer points by flying to China to attract tourism to the Territory. I was very pleased to be in China when CCTV, the biggest state channel in China, screened a documentary about the Territory to 700 million people.
I was looking forward to the Chief Minister’s statement because I thought it would be a detailed, deep analysis of the economic opportunities for the Territory and provide some new ideas; but instead we got a muddled statement, a shallow statement with no vision and no ideas proposed, nothing at all. It was just a statement to fill the time. Obviously the other side has no business to put before the House, so let’s put a statement together, that will take a few hours so Tuesday will be taken up and on Wednesday we have some legislation to introduce and we can do that. I know that is how politics works.
This statement showed Territorians what the previous Labor government achieved, because many of the things highlighted in the statement were put in place by the previous Labor government. Many people have spoken to me about how the CLP government is trying to erase any memory of the Labor Party and its achievements over the past 10 years. We have seen that happening slowly in many areas, such as not saying exactly what happened and how it happened, or who did it. All of a sudden, within nine weeks, they are claiming everything that happens now is their work and happens because they are in power.
The only thing I agree with the Chief Minister about is the need for diversification of our economy and the opportunities of the Northern Territory. The good old days have long gone and we have to think outside the square, we have to broaden our horizon. We live in Darwin in the Northern Territory, and many times I have said that to our south there are about 30 million people, while to our north there are two billion people, and two billion people means for us two billion opportunities in various sectors.
I turn my attention first to mining and energy. It was mentioned before by the Leader of the Opposition that one of the statements the Chief Minister made some time ago was that the INPEX project is a 19th century project. Today we had every person who spoke here praise INPEX; some even went so far as to say that it was INPEX that saved the Territory from the global financial crisis. It was not INPEX, it was this Labor government. It was this Labor government that took the Territory to the world; it was this Labor government that declared the Territory is open for business; it was this Labor government that introduced the Territory to Japan, China and other Southeast Asian countries.
The Chief Minister says he supports exploration. I remind him that it was his party, when in government, that intentionally stopped exploration in the Territory by withholding hundreds of licences for exploration in different areas of the Territory because they did not want, as a matter of principle, to negotiate with Indigenous Territorians who happened to have the land where exploration was about to take place.
My colleague, the member for Wanguri, was the first Mining minister and he still describes how he walked into his office and found a pile of exploration licenses stamped ‘not to be processed’ under the CLP government.
We support exploration and we ensured exploration happened in the Territory. In 2006, the exploration expenses in the Territory were $50m; last year exploration expenditure in the Northern Territory was $220m – that did not happen by accident; that happened because we went out promoting the Territory. I do not say that because I was a minister in the Labor government, organisations like the Fraser Institute said so. The Territory rated eleventh out of 300 jurisdictions, states and countries around the world as the place to do business in mining. The Northern Territory was rated first in Australia as the place to do business in mining. This is because we are proactive in promoting mining in the Territory and in assisting mining development.
I would like to mention Bootu Creek, Territory Iron, Western Desert Resources, Sherwin Iron, Ilmenite Resources, Mine Makers, and the oil and gas exploration, Hess, Falcon, PetroFrontier, Central Petroleum - the Territory today is covered with exploration applications for the whole land mass of the Northern Territory.
The name Arafura came up and the Chief Minister blamed the Labor government for not providing land to the Arafura to establish their plant. Arafura met once with the department of Mines, never met with the minister, never met with me. Arafura wanted land very close to the harbour. Unfortunately, some of the by-products of Arafura would not be beneficial for the harbour. One of their by-products was uranium. You can imagine the reaction of anyone in the greater Darwin area when you propose to produce uranium in the middle of the harbour.
Arafura acquired land in South Australia that is not near the waterfront. It is well away from the waterfront in industrial land. That shows that even other states would not give Arafura the land they require near the waterfront. We supported Arafura in every stage of its development. We even supported Arafura and its Chinese partners to overcome some of the difficulties they faced in Australia. I personally intervened on behalf of their Chinese partners to explain some of the firm’s requirements and to explain to the Foreign Investment Review Board the owner’s requirement for investment by the Chinese-owned enterprise ECE to Arafura.
When the Chief Minister talks about other ports in the Territory, it was this Labor government and me who proposed that Western Desert Resources uses the Bing Bong Loading Facility in Borroloola as a second port. It was me who proposed to the federal minister, Martin Ferguson, that the possible development and future development of a second port in the Territory, and the Bing Bong in particular, would be beneficial not only for the Territory, but also for the development of Western Queensland mining projects. I am pleased to say that Western Desert Resources had talks with Xstrata which are progressing very well.
It was our government that worked very closely with the Charles Darwin University to develop faculties and facilities to train people to support mining. It was the Labor government and me personally who instigated the geologist scholarship program in the department of Mines, which provides a three-year scholarship of $12 000 a year to Territorians to study geology - I believe one of your family members was a beneficiary of that scholarship - to attract and retain future geologists in the Territory.
We worked very closely with every project in the Territory to ensure that projects in the Territory use Territory companies for their construction, running and maintenance. We did that with ConocoPhillips and INPEX. We assisted companies to up-skill. It is very alarming to hear now that some of the local companies will not bid for INPEX contracts because they cannot meet their standards or they do not think they have the ability to meet their standards.
I noticed that the Chief Minister said he spoke to INPEX and asked them to consider local companies. Do not just talk to INPEX! Make sure your government is providing the opportunities and assistance to local companies to up-skill to meet the very rigorous occupational health and safety standards and engineering standards INPEX, and projects like INPEX, demand from companies who want to work there.
We helped companies and we expect this government to do the same. Today, we heard some very disturbing news, the Meijin company that made an offer to Western Desert Resources pulled out of this agreement and Western Desert Resources announced it is not aware of the reason behind it. I suggest that the government meets with Meijin on their proposed trip to China and finds out why they did not proceed with this acquisition and suggests to Western Desert Resources that if they cannot proceed with Meijin, they find someone else to assist the development of their mines.
I agree with the member for Greatorex, I would not complain about the minister travelling. As a minister I travelled many times in the past four years. I went to China 12 times. I propose to the minister that he build on the good work we did with the China development extraction strategy. There is work to be done there. People in the department have the knowledge and the contacts. I said before this is not about politics, it is about the Territory. I would be very happy to assist and talk to the minister, or his department, or with the minister and the department, to ask companies to invest in the Northern Territory.
At the same time, I suggest that the minister does not travel when problems arise in the Territory. When Pacific Aluminium made its surprise announcement to review its operation in Gove, the minister went to New Zealand to attend a conference. I would have travelled to Canberra to talk to Martin Ferguson and others to find ways to assist Pacific Aluminium with a pipeline or to review the operations in Gove.
I notice with interest the Chief Minister’s comments with regard to the white paper recently released by the Australian government. It is a great paper. It describes things the Territory has done for a long time. Some of these were done by our predecessors, the CLP - expansion to Asia, mainly to Indonesia, at the time. However, many were in our own time.
We proposed Darwin as the gateway to Asia, we helped Darwin to be the gateway to Asia and the Territory to be the forefront of Australia to Asia. We developed an Asian investment attraction strategy, we travelled to Japan, Korea and China. I encourage the minister to do exactly the same. Go to Japan, Korea and China! That is where the emerging companies are and they need the commodities the Territory has in vast quantities and they have the money to invest in the Territory.
We worked together with the Chinese Embassy. We briefed the Chinese Ambassador on many occasions, and they assisted us to meet people in China we would not have met otherwise. With them we developed a booklet which describes Darwin and properties to all potential investors to the Territory, and some of the taxation and industrial relations arrangements. It was written in Chinese. I urge the minister to build on the work done by the previous government and the department to attract other investment from Asia.
With regard to education, we have developed strong links with Asia not only in tertiary institutions, but also in secondary institutions. I believe Taminmin College and Dripstone Middle School have strong relationships with Kibito High School in Japan, while CDU has links with Haikou, the Beijing Institute and Hebei Institute in China.
We have seen the development of the Confucius Institute following the visit to Darwin by the Vice President of China Mr Xi Jinping and, of course, the Chinese government this year sent a university professor from Fujian to teach Mandarin at CDU.
In box 6.7 in chapter 6.3, ‘Adaptability’, in the white paper there is reference to creating opportunities for Indigenous Australians. Only once in the Chief Minister’s statement is there a reference to Indigenous Australia and that is only in relation to Ord River. There is no reference to Indigenous Australian involvement in the cattle industry, the mining industry, horticulture, agriculture or tourism.
I have said many times before in this parliament that Indigenous Territorians have many opportunities for employment where they live, where mining, cattle or agriculture are the industries which thrive in their region. I strongly encouraged, and in some cases legislated for, companies that wanted to develop mines in the Territory to put in place training and employment programs for Indigenous Territorians. I was very pleased to see McArthur River Mine has employed about 50 Indigenous young men in Borroloola, who do not do the work no-one else wants to do, they drive trucks in the mine. The same thing applies on Groote Eylandt and in Gove.
We also legislated for companies to put in place a community benefit trust account, the same way they have in Borroloola where the companies, apart from paying the royalties to the government, put in money. So when the mine finishes there will not only be a big hole in the ground left behind, but infrastructure, training opportunities or things the community needs. I found it surprising, going to Borroloola, to find that a community of 30 000 people does not have their own bakery or butcher shop. The bread and meat comes from Darwin frozen.
These are the opportunities that mining companies can provide to the area, to provide the opportunities for the finance for Indigenous people in those areas to acquire their own businesses or start new businesses. I remember very well when Cameco in Canada started mining in some of the Indigenous areas; they helped Indigenous people establish their own transport companies to service Cameco in the area. That company was so successful that in 10 years time, it expanded to provide services throughout Canada.
I say to the Northern Territory government and the Chief Minister in particular that we should not miss this opportunity with the white paper. We should engage all sectors of the community: education institutions, Indigenous groups of the Territory, and both political parties should work together to place the Territory in the vital position to serve not only Australia, but also Southeast Asia.
With regard to cattle, unfortunately we have put all our eggs in one basket, Indonesia. There are things that happen in Indonesia that are beyond our control. Some of the political issues in Indonesia will dictate the action that Indonesia will take tomorrow. One thing I have realised in the past two years is that the political situation and the political push and shove within Indonesia will dictate how many cattle come from Australia, when, and where. We have seen now that Indonesia wants to become self-sufficient. That is very ambitious. They will probably reach it, but not in the time frame they want.
Under the previous CLP government, we lost markets. We lost Vietnam, the Philippines and Malaysia. Under our government, we renewed links with Malaysia and Vietnam. We had 1000 head of cattle exported to Vietnam in 2011 and, of course, we had another 1000 exported to Vietnam recently. That meant the system we put in place worked and was not just selling cattle, but the department providing technical support to establish the feedlots and upgrade the abattoirs. I encourage the minister to continue that work because people do not just want to buy cattle; they can buy cattle from anywhere. What they cannot buy is the help with the systems we provided.
The minister told us he went to Indonesia but he did not tell us who he met there. Did he meet any of the ministers? The minister for Trade is vital and a very good friend of Australia. Did he meet minister Suswono who is one of the ministers who pushed very strongly for self-sufficiency and, subsequently, for the reduction of imports from Australia?
Talking about food exports and the development of the Territory as the food bowl of Asia can be quite difficult due to the price difference between food produced in Asia and food produced here. However, we have opportunities for making the Territory a food bowl and food source for Australia and the emerging middle class of Asia. I am very proud to say that for the past 10 years we worked very hard with the horticulture and agriculture industries and today the Territory is the biggest supplier of mangoes in Australia. We have done it with mangoes; we can do it in other areas.
Before I finish, I come to the fishing industry. The three-hub economy is missing something that would support it; that is, commercial fishing. In the past few weeks the Territory government has not supported the fishing industry, in particular, the commercial barramundi fishing industry, with the closure of Chambers Bay and Finke Bay. I have with me a letter to the Chief Minister from Kevin Enniss, a commercial fisherman, that was provided to him on 16 October and, more recently, a letter by Ziko Ilic and Carmel Ball titled ‘Sharing our resources, Fresh NT Wild Caught Barramundi’. I seek leave to table those letters because they highlight the plight of the commercial barramundi fishing industry. With regard to the closure of these areas, it was vital ...
Mr WESTRA van HOLTHE: A point of order, Madam Speaker! I move the member for Casuarina be granted an extension of time, pursuant to Standing Order 77.
Motion agreed to.
Mr VATSKALIS: I seek leave to table these two letters as well, Madam Speaker.
Leave granted.
Mr VATSKALIS: Thank you, member for Katherine.
The commercial fishing industry is important for the Territory. We have the opportunity to market our fishing industry throughout Australia and abroad as a clean and sustainable industry because we are sustainable. We only harvest 8% of our seafood resources when other countries harvest up to 30%.
The fishing industry here gives a unique opportunity to provide new jobs and new enterprise to Indigenous Territorians. I remember visiting the Tiwis and watching them farm barramundi. That was a fantastic opportunity for Indigenous Territorians and I was alarmed that I could not see one Indigenous person employed there. Most of the people were fly-in fly-out. There are opportunities at Groote Eylandt, Borroloola, Wadeye, and the coast line around the Northern Territory for commercial barramundi fishing, farmed barramundi fishing or other activities that are currently exploited by people who sometimes do not live in the Territory and come from as far away as Tasmania.
I find it ridiculous that we have people who come from Tasmania, lease a barramundi licence and fish in the Territory when someone who lives in Wadeye cannot do that or has not done that, or somebody who lives in Groote Eylandt has not done that and could not do that. Trepang, beche-de-mer or sea cucumber, is a species that Indigenous communities can successfully farm and make into a viable fishing operation.
There are many challenges for the fishing industry. We are and will be competing with other states but we can also work cooperatively with other states.
Finally, the Ord is something I pushed very hard for. The reality is the cost of the Ord and the rough estimates for the Territory alone for our area would be in excess of $300m. This is something the Territory currently does not have the capacity to do.
The other problem is that no negotiations can start with the Indigenous people in the area. Western Australia started these negotiations 10 years ago and with the WA government’s Royalties for Regions scheme there is significant money to be provided in the area. The federal government also came to the party to provide money. I had successive discussions with Gary Gray, the minister who was responsible for the Ord. We had meetings with the Western Australian government. I put different proposals to the Western Australians on the way to develop the Ord because I know we have a card in our hands.
The companies that want to develop the Ord, want the whole Ord not just one section now and something in the future. That is why I made it clear to the Chinese companies that visited me and proposed to open the Ord that we were happy to work with them as long as they put the infrastructure in place; these companies were actually keen to do so. The only thing they wanted to make sure of was that we were clear on the negotiation with the Indigenous traditional owners and cooperation with the federal government.
The Territory has a bright future. I always said that the Territory has a bright future and can provide opportunities for all Territorians irrespective of whether they live in Casuarina, Palmerston, Katherine, Yuendumu, Nguiu or Bathurst.
The mining, fishing, agricultural and horticultural industries are vital for the Territory and they are job generating industries. Let us grab this opportunity, let us not lose the opportunity, let us not play politics with it. I am happy to work wherever I can with my counterpart irrespective of whether he or she belongs to a different political party, especially if they are in power now. Governments come and go, but the reality is we do not want the opportunities for the Territory to go away; we want them to come here.
Mr WESTRA van HOLTHE (Primary Industry and Fisheries): Madam Speaker, I support the Chief Minister’s statement on the creation of a three-hub economy for the Northern Territory. I have listened to a number of the contributions, particularly those of the member for Casuarina and the Opposition Leader. I always like to give credit where credit is due and after listening to the two contributions by those members opposite, it is clearly the former minister for Primary Industries and Mines and Energy who has a far better understanding of life in the Territory when it comes to the economy and how primary industries, fisheries and mines and energy contribute.
Instead of listening to the carping and whining of the Leader of the Opposition, the member for Casuarina had a far more reasoned debate and contribution to all of this. I appreciate his offer to assist in any way he can. I might even consider that, member for Casuarina, and how you might be able to assist, bearing in mind that it is the department that carries with it the corporate knowledge from government to government. Thank you, nonetheless.
There is a general understanding when you are comparing Labor politics with the conservative side that in general terms Labor does not do primary industries very well; you can go right across the country and find examples of that.
Notwithstanding the efforts of the former minister, you can see why there was a collective sigh of relief across the Northern Territory when the Country Liberals were elected on 25 August, because it became apparent that the Leader of the Opposition hates primary industries. The way she went on about the Ord clearly said to me she had no interest whatsoever, and still has no interest, in finding ways to grow the Territory’s economy through the primary industry sector. I heard a rumour that the former minister and the current Leader of the Opposition were quite at odds over many things that went on in their government and the Ord was one of those. I can see now why they were at loggerheads over this. A minister who was probably trying to do the right thing, confronted by a mean-spirited Labor Party stalwart who had no interest in developing primary industries in the Northern Territory, let alone for the regional benefit it might bring to the western part of the Territory and Katherine. Now I come to understand clearly how and why that occurred.
Having said that, the member for Casuarina said these things are hard. Yes they are, but that does not mean that you do not pursue them. We have a number of goals, some of them are aspirational goals, but nonetheless we have them. Where we see there will be economic benefits to the Territory we will pursue those goals, no matter how hard they are. That is what government is all about, confronting those challenges, building the Territory against the odds, despite the difficult terrain we might have to cross. The problem we had with the last 10 or 11 years of the Labor government is that they were not prepared to go over the hard terrain and make those hard decisions. It was not within their thinking.
The essence behind developing a three-hub economy is to ensure that the Northern Territory is not dependent on just one project or industry. Two of these three hubs, food production and exports, and mining and energy, fall within my portfolios and align directly with the functions of the Department of Mines and Energy and the Department of Primary Industry and Fisheries. The Territory’s major resource-based industries of primary industry, fisheries, and minerals and energy account for around 10% of the total Territory workforce and for around 8% of all businesses engaged in the Territory economy. However, ABS data shows that mining and energy remains the single biggest contributor to the Territory’s economy, accounting for over 17% of economic activity from all sources, both private and public.
The mining industry is the Northern Territory’s largest industry and is crucial to the economic growth of the Territory and the development of our regions. Mining directly employs nearly 4000 Territorians, including many Indigenous Territorians, with many more employed in related industries.
At this juncture, the member for Casuarina and the Leader of the Opposition both went to great pains to point out there was little mention of Indigenous Territorians in the Chief Minister’s statement. Why do we have to continue patronising Indigenous Territorians by separating them from the rest of us? For goodness sake, are we not all Territorians? Do we have to constantly refer to Indigenous Territorians, non-Indigenous Territorians, Indigenous Australians or non-Indigenous Australians? When are we going to be politically mature enough to talk about Territorians, all Territorians, not because of the colour of their skin? When will we be politically mature enough to talk about all Australians?
That goes to the crux of what this government is all about. We want to develop the Northern Territory for all Territorians regardless of whether you are black, white, come from the Philippines China, Indonesia, or anywhere else. If you are a Territorian and you live here, we are going to grow the Northern Territory’s economy for the benefit of all of you, not just select groups.
I turn to what I was saying before. In 2011-12 the value of mining production was approximately $2.8bn and the combined total value of the production and manufacture of minerals and energy is estimated to have been over $7bn. This industry is predicted to increase by over 10% to $8.5bn in 2012-13. However, the combination of the Territory’s rich resources and emerging projects provides tremendous potential for the industry to expand, which will increase the prosperity and development of the Territory, particularly to our regional areas which is most important.
This government is dedicated to working with industry to make this happen. We are unambiguously supportive of exploration and the responsible exploitation of our resources. This government has a strong commitment to openness and transparency, and will ensure there is a regulatory framework which provides an environment of certainty for the industry to operate in.
For many decades the Territory economy has been supported by a number of long-term, world-class mines such as Ranger, Gove, Groote Eylandt and McArthur River. These mines underpin the regional economies in the areas in which they operate, and the government will continue to work with their operators to ensure they have every opportunity to thrive and remain important contributors to the Northern Territory for many years to come.
However, we cannot rely on these mines forever. It is of some concern that it has been many years since a major new mine commenced operation in the Territory. Clearly, the Territory needs a pipeline of new projects coming in to production in order to establish the next generation of mines for the Territory.
With this in mind, it is pleasing to note many potential mining projects are at an advanced stage across the Territory. This includes five proposed new mining projects currently undergoing environmental assessment, and six that have completed environmental assessment and are in the mining approvals process. Many of these are large, potentially long-term mining projects such as the proposed iron ore projects of the Roper River area which have potential to be in production within the next year.
I pick up on the point made by the member for Casuarina earlier about Meijin and the sudden withdrawal of its support for Western Desert Resources. I have taken some advice on this and understand the project will go ahead nonetheless and moves will be made by me, as the minister, and the department, to better understand the reasons behind this change of thinking. However, at the end of the day, decisions by investment companies such as Meijin will be theirs to make based on the circumstances that exist for them at the time. Of course, if there are ways we can assist or provide information, we will endeavour to do that.
There are also many emerging projects in Central Australia that have the potential to significantly increase this industry’s contribution to the economy of the Alice Springs region. The Territory is also emerging as an important player in the global petroleum industry. Downstream gas processing is a tremendously important industry for the Territory economy as Darwin becomes one of Australia’s leading LNG hubs. This government will continue to work to encourage further investment in downstream processing and to ensure that Territory business has the opportunity to maximise the benefits presented by major projects such as the INPEX LNG plant.
The Territory’s petroleum industry is about to expand further with the recognition of the vast potential of onshore regions of the Territory for unconventional petroleum such as shale oil and shale gas. This year, shale gas and shale oil exploration activity has moved to a new level in the Territory with a number of promising early results. As regulators, this government will work with industry to address community concerns around horizontal stimulation of wells - or fracking as it is more commonly known. Shale gas and oil exploration in the NT is geologically and technically very different to coal seam exploration which has caused so much controversy in the eastern states and, of course, the United States of America. This favourable geology, combined with best practice regulation and safeguards being implemented by my department, point to a positive future for this exciting industry in the Territory.
This government will work with industry to continue to keep the community informed and allay any fears that exist around the application of these new technologies. This government is well aware that the future of our mining industry relies on a healthy exploration industry. It is only by encouraging and supporting companies to explore new ground that we will continue to grow the industry. In a globally competitive environment for attracting exploration, the Territory government has an important role to play in highlighting the benefits and opportunities for explorers to commit their exploration dollars here in the NT.
Exploration in the Territory has been at record levels with around $210m spent on exploration for minerals in the last financial year. However, we need to continue to work hard to maintain and grow these high levels of exploration, given falling prices for many of the commodities and difficulties faced by small explorers to raise funds for exploration. I believe that with increasing knowledge and understanding of the Territory’s huge resource potential we will continue to raise the NT’s profile in the global industry and prove that we are a good investment.
It is a priority for this government to ensure the Territory is an attractive place to invest in exploration and mining. For this reason, a key platform of our pre-election mining policy was to continue to support the pre-competitive geosciences programs undertaken by the geological survey in my department. As minister, I clearly understand the importance of providing high-quality, accessible geosciences data and exploration incentives to attract explorers to the Territory and make their exploration more effective.
There are already numerous examples of how the geological survey activities had led to new discoveries by industry over recent years, and I will continue to support these efforts to grow the industry further. But attracting explorers into the Territory is just one challenge. We also need to ensure companies can raise the funds they need to undertake meaningful exploration and projects towards actual development.
The government recognises that foreign investment in our resources sector is absolutely vital to provide the necessary capital to fund large-scale exploration and mining developments in the NT. Over recent years, China has become an increasingly important player in our resources industry and there is no doubt that our relationship with China is a critical element to the growth of the industry.
To that end, in a few days time I will be personally leading a business mission to China based around the China Mining Congress in Tianjin. This business mission will include one of the largest mining industry contingents ever invited to join a Territory government delegation. This includes a number of junior companies with projects in the NT that need a major investor to help them get their projects over the line. Assisting these companies attract investment can have tremendous long-term benefits for regional areas of the Territory, but attracting international investment into our exploration and mining sectors in not all about China. This government will be seeking a diversity of international investment in the NT, including other key markets such as North America, Japan, Korea and other emerging economies in our region.
Finally, while I have already indicated the new government is pro-development, we take our regulatory responsibilities seriously. This government supports the responsible development of our mineral resources and following of due process with regard to those regulatory approvals. Put simply, projects which meet regulatory guidelines, including environmental obligations, and adequately address economic, cultural and social outcomes, will be approved.
This government also appreciates the importance to industry of the timeliness of regulatory approvals to enable greater certainty in planning. I am already working with my department to investigate and identify greater efficiencies in the approvals process. While I believe the current regime is robust, we should always strive for improvement where possible.
This government aims to work closely with the mining industry to be open and transparent about how the industry is performing, and to ensure the community is well-informed with factual information about exploration and mining. To that end, we encourage mining companies, particularly those dealing with controversial issues, to make the effort to get out into the public space and provide the factual information, not emotional information, but straight down the line information about their project.
This government is dedicated to the creation and support of the three-hub economy. It is determined to not only tell the world, but show the world the Territory is open for business. We will not let the Territory become dependent on the success of one industry. The creation of the three-hub economy means we are placing our eggs in different baskets.
One of the three hubs is food exports. There is tremendous potential to expand both export and domestic markets for Territory products. The three factors which will contribute directly to this goal are growth in plant industries, growth in animal industries, and improved market access.
One of our election commitments was to separate the departments of minerals and Energy from Primary Industry and Fisheries to facilitate better investment for each industry sector. This has already been achieved. Under this government there will be greater focus on research and development for key crops.
As the NT mango production currently occurs over a limited period, there is a strategy to expand this window utilising new root stocks, new varieties, new geographic production regions, and evaluating production management practices to advance or delay fruit maturity.
Ms ANDERSON: A point of order, Madam Speaker. Pursuant to Standing Order 77, I seek an extension of time for the minister.
Motion agreed to.
Mr WESTRA van HOLTHE: I thank my colleague, the member for Namatjira.
Of the 5000 tonnes of mangoes exported annually from Australia, approximately 60% is Northern Territory fruit, which is exciting. The main markets currently are New Zealand, Singapore, Hong Kong, United Arab Emirates, Japan and China. There is tremendous potential for the China market to expand, and Russia has also been identified as an emerging market for Territory mangoes.
Improved biosecurity was a key element of this government’s primary industries election platform. Current research to develop an alternative protocol for fruit fly has the potential to provide for direct export out of the port of Darwin without requiring post-harvest treatment for mangoes. Should this occur, there is the potential for significant cost savings for the industry as well as environmental benefits for minimal pesticide use.
To meet the demands of expanding markets, our horticulture industry requires new land releases to be opened. As the relevant minister, I have already travelled to Kununurra, as has been pointed out by a number of people in this House today, to inspect, firsthand, the development potential of the Ord River Scheme and to speak to key regional stakeholders.
Another of our election commitments was to establish a unit to advance the Territory component of the Ord River scheme. While there has been no formal decision on how the NT land in the Knox Plain and Keep River areas will be developed, my department is working with its counterparts in Western Australia and with traditional owners to ensure early engagement and respectful consultation occurs before addressing native title, environmental clearances and biosecurity issues.
Banana production in the Top End has huge potential with Woolworths and Coles now requiring suppliers to source 30% of their production outside of North Queensland. My department is already working to ensure local growers can take advantage of this opportunity. Northern Territory primary industry, which includes the farming of cattle, other livestock, horticulture and mixed farming, forms an integral part of this government’s plan for a thriving three-hub Northern Territory economy that will create jobs and opportunities for Territory families.
In particular, our beef cattle industry plays a key role in providing jobs, training and economic benefits to some of our most regional and remote areas. Our cattle industry is worth more than $200m a year to the Northern Territory. It is important to point out, in light of some of the things that have been said here, that the live cattle export industry was commenced under the former CLP government and the work of blokes like Mick Palmer should not go unmentioned in the engagement they provided within Indonesia and other parts of Southeast Asia to develop that trade.
The Territory is home to around 200 pastoral leases and has a total cattle herd of around two million head. Up to two thirds of these cattle are sold to the live export trade. There is real potential for the Territory herd size to increase to 2.5 million in the next 10 years, given factors such as sustained markets, favourable seasonal conditions, and a commitment from this government - and this is important - to support industry to ensure greater efficiency in herd production, intensification of cattle enterprises and better land utilisation.
While the live export trade substantially increases returns for cattle producers and creates jobs, the Australian government’s temporary ban on live cattle exports to Indonesia and the subsequent halving of Indonesia’s import quota has thrown the Top End’s cattle industry into turmoil. As well, the weight limit of 350 kg for feeder cattle, which has been strictly in force since 2010, remains in place. This government believes the pastoral industry is a substantial contributor to the Northern Territory’s economy and we have already begun to re-engage with Indonesia, our largest overseas live export market, and are working to substantially increase live cattle export quotas.
We strongly support the Territory’s beef cattle industry and we will do all we can to repair the damage done by the Australian government’s temporary live export ban. This government is supporting the beef cattle or pastoral industry and working to ensure it is profitable. To help the pastoral industry bounce back, we are working closely with industry associations such as the Live Export Association and the NT Cattlemen’s Association, and we will establish a high-level ministerial council to provide a direct line of communication between me, as the relevant minister, and the pastoral sector.
However, as the outlook for the Territory cattle industry remains challenging, this government is dedicated to widening the opportunities for pastoralists and my department is working with industry to investigate and develop new live export markets and the establishment of local processing facilities. There is strong potential for new regular live export markets in Vietnam, the Philippines and Malaysia. My department is working closely with the Department of the Chief Minister and with the NT Livestock Exporters Association and the NTCA to maintain existing markets and develop new livestock trade opportunities overseas. The department is a keen participant in industry delegations. It is responsible for the preparation of feasibility studies and provides technical services and training to the industry, as well as providing training to new importers prior to receiving shipments of Territory cattle.
An alternative market for cattle not suitable for live export is the establishment of an abattoir in the Top End. My department has been providing facilitation support and technical advice to a number of potential abattoir proponents, with the principal proponent, Australian Agricultural Company, well ahead with plans to establish a processing plant in the Livingstone area. This abattoir will be on a large scale, processing around 2000 cattle every week, and will supply meat to restaurants and wholesale markets in the Territory and interstate. On much smaller scales are the establishment of abattoirs on Elsey Station and another near Ngukurr. While these abattoirs will provide jobs in the bush, training opportunities, and an alternative market opportunity for nearby pastoralists, importantly, they will provide a source of fresh meat for local communities.
One of this government’s election commitments related to the review of export yards to ensure the capacity keeps pace with industry growth. This review is already under way in consultation with the Northern Territory Livestock Exporters Association. This government is determined to develop the Territory as a leader in horticulture research. To this end, I have instructed my department to research the establishment of an annual horticulture research and extension seminar which will involve the industry and key government agencies. Now that Primary Industry and Fisheries is a stand-alone department it is better placed to facilitate enhanced investment and development in the industry, including ensuring robust biosecurity measures are in place to protect agriculture and the future potential of our primary industry.
A wide range of Territorians and visitors depend upon or enjoy the healthy state of our fisheries. Many Aboriginal communities have strong customary links with our aquatic environments and rely on fish for food, culture and potential economic development opportunities. Our commercial fisheries and aquaculture industries have a combined value of over $50m and provide valuable supplies of high quality seafood such as mud crab, tropical snappers, barramundi, shark and mackerel to restaurants and retail markets.
The government is already delivering on its election commitment to develop a resource sharing framework to enable evidence-based analysis to be applied to resolve access and resource attribution issues and give industry the certainty it needs to invest with confidence. The government is striving for the equitable distribution and optimal use of resources for all sectors while maximising public benefit. We are actively looking at what can be done to help the commercial fishing industry grow and prosper, and I recently met with the NT Seafood Council to seek its views on the priority fisheries that can be further developed to increase seafood production in the Territory. Most of the Territory’s existing fisheries have growth and market expansion potential.
The government is engaging with industry to address the priority infrastructure needs to protect and enhance the viability and profitability of our primary industries. We will continue to work with and for Indigenous Territorians to afford them every opportunity to be involved in the seafood industry and to play a key role in the expansion of the Territory’s commercial fishing industry under the three-hub economy, including significant development opportunities in the form of food-to-community projects, and small and large-scale business ventures.
This government is committed to reducing the regulatory burden on Territory fishing businesses and will put in place procedures, policies and legislation to ensure the Territory’s regulatory environment is efficient and effective. The government will continue to support the Territory’s aquaculture industry by providing technical support and research targeted to improve production, maximise economic returns and protect the industry from biosecurity threats.
I am running out of time; however, I want to say in closing that we will continue to work with industry to ensure the primary industry and fisheries and mining and energy sectors remain strong and buoyant across the Northern Territory, that they grow commensurate with the requirements of the Northern Territory’s economy, that they can contribute well into the future by bringing on new mines, new production mines and ensure every Territorian has the chance to benefit from the work being done in this sector.
Mr WOOD (Nelson): Mr Deputy Speaker, I thank the member for Katherine for the best speech I have heard on primary industry since I came to parliament. I wish it was a speech on its own so we could contribute to many of the things you said. I missed the first part, but what I heard of the rest was a breath of fresh air.
The other great thing is that we now have a Department of Primary Industry and Fisheries and a Department of Mines and Energy. I never want to see the Department of Resources again because for so long - I have said it many times - the department of Primary Industry was always the poor cousin of the previous government. I am very pleased to see the contribution you have put forward today, minister. That does not mean I do not have any questions, but that is what parliament is about.
I understand you were talking about the Chief Minister’s statement - the three-hub economy. I am not really rapt in this idea of the three-hub; it reminds me of a three-wheeled car. I would rather the idea of a multi-hub economy. I have always said we cannot rely on mines and energy, or some of those major industries only; we have to diversify. When times are tough and one industry goes down, at least you have other industries which can keep the economy moving along.
There is great potential for agriculture and horticulture in the Northern Territory. There are doubters out there who say we will never be the food bowl of the world. They are probably right, but we might be what I would call the saucer. We can contribute to the food production of the world.
I am probably going to get away from the few notes I wrote because, listening to the minister, I enjoyed what he was saying, and it raised some issues I have wanted to raise for some time and have probably mentioned before in speeches. It is great the government is going to have a look at the Ord River. Ord River Stage 3 is not as simple as people think; it is complex because of native title. There were proposals for an extension of Keep River National Park as well, so there is a fair bit of work to be done. However, we have to keep moving.
The issue about which the government has to indicate whether it agrees with or not - and I will put up my hand and say I agree - is whether it will support the company that wants to grow genetically modified cotton. The member for Katherine comes from a region where a seven-year trial of GM cotton was shown to be environmentally okay. If anyone has doubts they just need to obtain a copy of the results of that experimental work, and they will find that you could not have a crop that was sprayed less and it only uses the same amount of water as mangoes and peanuts use today.
There is still great potential in the Ord. But also we really need to work hard on mapping those areas in the Northern Territory that are also suitable. I went down last year - I think it was, or the year before - towards Mistake Creek which is an Indigenous cattle station. On the way, you go across the Negri River which feeds into Lake Argyle. There are soil types through that area, towards Timber Creek, very similar to that of the Ord River area. What is the potential of using some of that land for horticulture and intensive agriculture? Of course, we have the Sturt Plateau which is ideal climate-wise, soil-wise, and rainfall-wise, and has underground water potential for other forms of agricultural development besides the cattle industry. If we are serious about increasing food production in the Northern Territory we have to ensure all the required information is there.
One of the failings of the CLP government in years gone by was because we did not tell farmers the right information; that is, the Douglas Daly. The Douglas Daly was promoted as not quite the food bowl, but it was going to develop into agricultural production of sorghum, soya bean - I think it might have even been canola; I might be wrong. There were plans to bring people up from Queensland who would take up farms in the area and develop that land agriculturally in the Douglas Daly. Unfortunately, people did not realise that although there might be a 50 or 60 inch rainfall, it does not always come evenly. It comes at different times of the year and many of those crops need fairly consistent rain to be successful. They may be all right under irrigation, but they certainly were not all right relying on natural rainfall in the area. To some extent Fleming - which is a town in the Douglas Daly where the silos still stand - is testament to poor decision-making based on poor information.
Of course, the Douglas Daly has moved on, it now has hay production, there is some vegetable production in the area, and it has intensive beef production. It has moved on from what it was originally meant to be, but it has not quite grown into what was envisaged when our planners decided that Fleming would be the town in that area.
It was also good to hear the minister talk about more research and development into cropping. That is the only way you are going to move forward to develop primary industry in the Northern Territory; research and development has to be continuous. Many crops are specific to this part of the world. Sometimes commercial people will not put the money in because they do not see the return at the moment, but that is where government has to step in and put some money in to look at those various crops. Rice is a good example. The previous Northern Territory government had been doing experimental work at the Coastal Plains Research Farm on rice varieties. Some of that information is also valuable to other parts of Australia, especially Kununurra where they are looking for rice varieties that are not subject to some of the fungal diseases - or blast, as it is called.
I appreciate what the minister has contributed today. I would like it as a statement so I can get my teeth into it overnight and see all the matters he has put forward today, which would make a fulsome discussion.
He also touched on food exports to Asia. I am pleased to see he did not say just Asia. We must take our place in part of the food production cycle for Australia. We have our Dry Season when other parts of Australia are having their winter, and that in itself, temperature wise, climate wise, is advantageous to producing crops that can be sold down south. We produce many watermelons in the Dry Season, but they are fairly limited because, if it is 10C in Melbourne, it is not watermelon eating time. Whilst some of the crops are good crops to grow, they are not always the right crop to eat when you are living in a colder climate.
The minister talked about a fair and equitable distribution of the fishing stock. I totally agree, but I find that at odds with the government’s decision to close down the remainder of Finke Bay and Chambers Bay. The objective of the Fishing Act is to have an equitable share of the resource. At the moment, one of the mistakes - and that is what politics promises to sometimes - is we tend to say one group can have this area at the expense of another group.
We are trying to bring this debate on and I am not sure it will happen tomorrow, because there was still a fair bit on the general business paper, but I hope the government does not make any decision about the future of those two bays until we have had a proper debate in this parliament about those two very important decisions the government has proposed, which I believe are wrong. They are poor decisions and they are unfair to the commercial industry. In this case, I believe both the commercial and the recreational fishing people can live side by side; that is what we should be aiming for.
In relation to tourism, there is an area which is often left out. The government has put a great deal of emphasis on saying we need to get out into the regions. Well, you are not going to get out into the regions until you develop infrastructure in the regions. The member for Braitling spoke about it last week. There are many issues that must be sorted out, and I have spoken about these before.
One is the ownership of roads. Roads cannot be on private land if you are asking public authorities such as councils or governments to put money into them. We need to sort out the ownership of roads. We need to sort out the leases in these growth towns so we can create some certainty for business to invest, and for tourists to be able to travel to these places without having to go through too much bureaucracy. Once we get over some of these issues we have a far better chance of developing internal tourism, especially from the broader Australian local market - many people do not go into those remote communities because of the difficulty in doing so - then we can expand that into international markets.
There is a lot of talk about tourism and I suppose it will be the big, flash type approach to tourism, but there is a great opportunity for developing industries in remote areas. It will not happen though until the infrastructure has improved because people simply will not go out there.
Sixty-five-year-old people with caravans are not going to travel to Kintore in a hurry because they will probably come back without a caravan. These things have to be worked through. They are not cheap; I know the minister was talking about all these roads he is looking at but the reality is called dollars. It does not matter whether you are in government or this mob were in government, you have to live in the real world and if you do not have the money you cannot do all the things you hope to do. That does not mean you cannot dream, and that is important.
This is a bit of a funny statement because it is called the three-hub economy statement but cattle pops up on its own in here and the white paper pops up, so I was a little confused as to whether it was a four-hub or a five-hub economy. Cattle is in this document on its own and it is, and will continue to be, the main centre of agriculture in the Territory. I did note recently that goats – and this is not something I just woke up about - are exported from the Northern Territory, especially from the rural area of Darwin to, I think, Brunei and other places that need those goats for their religious festivals. That has been happening for quite a long time. It is only a small market but it is a market that we sometimes forget about.
In relation to mining and energy, I get mixed messages sometimes when the government talks about mines and energy because I remember the fuss over Angela Pamela, which was all right, people were concerned about uranium 20 km from Alice Springs. But the point was that the company wanted to explore. If the decision had to be made whether the mine could go ahead, we should have done the exploration first to find out if there is a source of uranium there worth exploring. When you consider that Queensland has now said it will allow the exploration in mining of uranium, from memory - I am not sure whether Mary Kathleen or Rum Jungle was the first uranium mine, but both of those mines were producing uranium over 60 years ago and now the Queensland government has come back and said it is willing to allow that exploration.
New South Wales is now looking at the same thing, Western Australia has allowed mining of uranium, South Australia has had it for quite a while, the Northern Territory has one of the biggest uranium mines in the world, supplying 1% of the total electrical energy of the world and I think it is 10% of the total uranium sales of the world, so it is extremely important. I do not know whether the minister gave ERA a mention but sometimes ERA comes in for an awful lot of knocking. If you go there and see the amount of work they are doing environmentally with the salt brine plant that distils the water to a point where it is so clean they have to put it back into a natural wetland to absorb more salt so they can release it into the natural environment.
They are doing an extremely large amount of work to be environmentally friendly and are also working with the Aboriginal community so they get the maximum benefits. The boarding school that has been built at Jabiru by Brustolin Builders is a result of royalties from ERA. There is a gentleman who writes for the NT News who talked about all the downsides of uranium, but you have to live in the world of reality. China is continually building nuclear power, India will continue to build nuclear power even if there are some issues at times with them, because they realise the only way they are going to get away from gas, coal and diesel production is through using nuclear power. Solar and wind, fine no problem, but major industrial countries that require major power seven days a week, 24 hours a day, need a form of power they can rely on whether it is overcast or the wind has stopped. That is why there will be continual growth, especially in those heavily industrialised countries of nuclear power and we have the product to export.
Again, I am unsure whether the minister mentioned the importance of the new phosphate mines near Tennant Creek. If anyone was listening to the Country Hour recently it was discussing this issue and the potential for it to increase jobs in Tennant Creek by up to 500 jobs if they take the raw product and develop it into a fertiliser, or forms of chemicals that can be used in industry or agriculture. If they built a plant in Tennant Creek it would employ up to 500 people. They could also build it on-site; however, at the moment they are looking at the possibility of building it near Tennant Creek. That one mine could turn Tennant Creek around just because of the number of jobs that could come from value adding to the raw product to be dug out of that mine on the Barkly Highway.
I probably cannot resist it; the Chief Minister has spoken about INPEX. I find it a little laughable in some ways because, through the election campaign, I copped a fair bit of flak about the site of the INPEX village. I have a photograph of a sign which says:
In this document the Chief Minister mentions the workers camp and puts a value on it - a $340m contract for the workers village. I am the one who did not want it on that site; however, if you read the debate on 18 August 2009, the move to build it on a different parcel of land was defeated by both sides of parliament. I find it strange that this particular notice went up on someone’s fence. Another strange thing is there was no CLP logo attached to it, but the person who wrote the authorisation was P Allen 2/228 McMillan’s Road Jingili NT, which happens to be the headquarters of the CLP. Someone did not bother to put his name on it, or at least make it clear that is who put it up. I was peeved that someone did not have the courage to say who they were.
It is a bit rich to say how great it is to have a $340m contract for a workers village and then tell me, and everyone publically on the side of the road, ‘You voted for me and look what you got’ which is basically saying ‘what a mess’. If you looked at the documents - a media release that called me a village idiot along with Mr Henderson - which said:
That was just rubbish. I have had continual meetings with INPEX and JKC about these issues and people who have never been out there before turn up at a meeting and say:
The only reason they did not see me is because they were not out there. This is what they say:
I do not know whether Sean Kildare read that, but that is not a pat on the back to INPEX and JKC. However, I know those companies, in consultation with me and the community, did much work to ensure the development of that camp caused as little disruption as possible. However, there was disruption. We lost all the trees, we had dust and it was and still is a major issue for the people in the area. This media release even contained things that were not true. It said the candidate Judy Cole said:
I do not want to guess too much, but the member for Braitling was at that meeting; it was good to see him turn up for a meeting there. I know in Alice Springs you have breather pipes on sewerage but you do not have them in the Darwin area. You do not have leaking sewage pumping stations because this pumping station is exactly the same as all those through Darwin and Palmerston. If this one is faulty then we have a lot of trouble right through the suburbs of Darwin.
There were many things said. I do not mind if people have a go at me, but the underlying theme through this was that the government was not happy with INPEX. I raise that issue because now they are meeting with the Japanese, which is good,, but they should be reminded they were not exactly out there praising them and wishing them all the best. Anyway, it is water gone past now, but it should at least be recorded.
One of the other issues in relation to all of this development - INPEX, the abattoirs, and some of the other projects that are coming on - is how we increase Indigenous employment. The matter that concerns me …
Mr GUNNER: A point of order, Mr Deputy Speaker! I move that the member for Nelson be granted an extension of time pursuant to Standing Order 77.
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER: I just want to point out that the clock has stopped running, so you have one minute left, member for Nelson.
Mr ELFERINK: A point of order, Mr Deputy Speaker! To assist the House, generally when the clock runs in the last minute the point of order is called. Have we come to the end of time? For the sake of the peace of the House, I move that honourable members allow an extension of time under Standing Order 77, and we will ignore the fact that the clock ran down before someone noticed.
Motion agreed to.
Mr WOOD: Thank you, member for Port Darwin. I will be quick.
There are two other issues which are important. One is that in the Northern Territory we still have the danger of the haves and have nots. This area I live in has a new prison being built. Whether you like it not, it is creating a large number of jobs. There are 350 to 400 people working on the prison; it will go up to 650 people. The INPEX village will have about 650 people working on its construction. A new shopping centre is proposed at Coolalinga that will employ a large number of people. We also have the abattoirs which will employ a large number of people. Queensland Country Life last week talked about trying to increase the numbers of Indigenous employees in the abattoir, for males and females. If we, as a government, do not try to promote ways of getting those people from remote areas jobs as part of the boom in this area, then we will continue to have the haves and have nots.
We can fly people in from interstate to work here, why can we not fly Indigenous people who have the skills to this region and set up facilities for them? For instance, could we build an Aboriginal hostel at the abattoir where people know they will have a good bed, a good feed and a good job, and then go back to their communities after a couple of weeks work? I am worried that the Top End will have great growth, yet not every other part of the Territory will benefit from that growth. It concerns me where you have high unemployment in Indigenous communities, that they will not be part of this growth.
Skills might be lacking, but why are we not developing the skills? The abattoir is one of the classic examples where we should be getting more Indigenous people working. They have natural skills in that area. I have watched them bone a bullock out in the bush. They have some idea how to do it. It might not be perfect for putting into plastic bags, but the skills they have naturally could be enhanced by some training and encouraging people to come to the Top End, get some work for a couple of weeks, and fly people back home. If we talk about the benefits of this economic boom in the Northern Territory, then we have to ensure everyone has a chance to participate in the wealth that is created, otherwise we will continue with the haves and have nots.
My second last point is the relationship between the Northern Territory and Timor-Leste. The Chief Minister has spoken about the relationship with Indonesia. By all means, it is the third or fourth biggest country in the world and the biggest Muslim country in the world, we need to have a good relationship with Indonesia, but Timor-Leste is the poorest country in the world.
People may have seen the Four Corners documentary on gas. We might say it is great that all the gas comes to the Northern Territory and develops this industry, we can export it overseas; however, if we want Timor-Leste to be a stable, modern country, it must have a share in the gas resources in the Timor Sea. We cannot leave Timor-Leste out of the equation. Some people might say it gains some benefits through royalties, that is fine, but why is it not getting benefits through industrial production? Why are we not employing them and developing those industries in East Timor?
When I visited Dili about three years ago with a parliamentary delegation, that was one of the hot topics. One thing that put a barrier between us and them was we were not willing to talk about gas production and the sharing of that production with East Timor.
It is an area I hope the Chief Minister can comment on in his summing up. I appreciate he has put Indonesia high on his agenda, that is very appropriate. We are living in a cave if we believe Indonesia is not important to Australia. Australia may not be as greatly important to Indonesia, but it is very important to us. We are a small country population-wise, and Indonesia is a huge country. That relationship is good. Timor-Leste is the poorest country in the world with low employment and a very poor standard of living in many places. You do not have to go far out of Dili and you will see people well and truly on the poverty line earning a pittance to keep their family alive.
However, there is a great resource in the Timor Sea which tends to be - people may know more than I, but you get the feeling it is a one-way share - the big industrialised countries get the biggest share and Timor-Leste gets the crumbs. I hope to hear if the minister has any comments on that.
The government has mentioned industrial developments, especially around the Darwin region. It would be good to hear where that industrial development will be. I have seen the Darwin regional plans the CLP has put out. The Labor Party put out similar plans, and most of it centres on Gunn Point Peninsula. I do not have a problem with that, but I have not seen how you will fund that. It is an enormous amount of money. You will have to build new roads, connect power to the area, and set aside the right land with roads, water and sewerage, and you will have to build a port there.
It would be good to see what the government’s plans are in relation to increasing the industrial area for development in the Darwin region. If we get more people who want LNG plants, can someone tell me where they will go? Middle Arm Peninsula has pretty well run out of places to put them. If you are going to put them somewhere else, the government needs to say where they will go and how much they will cost. Nothing is going to come free and the Gunn Point Peninsula has been proposed as an area for development for at least 20 or 25 years. Nothing has happened in the meantime.
I thank the minister for his statement. The three-hub idea is too narrow; we should have a multi-hub economy and there are probably many other things I have not spoken about. There are small economies like art, Indigenous art, and defence. I am sure you could have a small mixed economy where you have small business operating in a niche market and that could be anywhere in the Territory. That is part of your economy as well.
While we talk about the three-hub economy we narrow it down too much because there are many other options, big and small. They will not all hit the headlines but there are many options that will help our economy become a better economy. If we keep talking about the economy and do not include the rest of the Territory, including people from remote communities, in the benefits of the booming economy, then we have not achieved anything. As the minister said in his statement when he talked about economic prosperity:
If he believes that then that is good, but how that will happen in reality is the $60m question. I hope it does happen and I will be watching and asking the questions if it is not happening.
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER: I would like to acknowledge the former Speaker and member for Nightcliff and the former member for Johnston in the Speakers Gallery at the moment.
Members: Hear, hear!
Mr VOWLES (Johnston): Before I start I would like to say g’day to the former member for Johnston and the former member for Nightcliff. Good to see you Chris and Jane.
Mr Deputy Speaker, I welcome the first ministerial statement of the new government touching on tourism. Some would say this is a real opportunity to get into the nitty-gritty of what the Country Liberals have been working on in 11 years of opposition. I admit I expected something strong, something with teeth. After 11 years in opposition, I was expecting more detail, more vision. I was disappointed.
As shadow minister for Tourism and, given all the fanfare the CLP has created about their three-hub economy and tourism’s important role in our economy, I was looking forward to the tourism section, in particular. I, like many Territorians in the tourism industry, was very disappointed. The important tourism sector that employs more than 10 % of our workforce and contributes $1.4bn to our economy deserves more.
The Chief Minister’s ministerial statement highlights to me that, according to the CLP government, the tourism industry is the poor cousin in their three-hub economy. It is the poor cousin with no detail, no outline of their programs or initiatives by their leader. Eleven years in opposition and this is all they have to offer us, apart from the dislocation and disruption to the industry by throwing a grenade into Tourism NT and creating jobs for mates and supporters in Alice Springs.
As brief as it was, I will speak to the statement where it covers tourism. It is true that we, like every other jurisdiction in Australia, are faced with difficulties in the tourism industry with the high Australian dollar. This is self-evident. Then the Chief Minister spoke about the competing demand for accommodation for tourist visitors versus workers in our growing major projects. I agree that managing these pressures is an area we need to work on with industry, but the Chief Minister’s statement seemed to talk about the current pressure on the accommodation sector in Darwin as a bad thing.
There have been some pressures on short-term accommodation, which are consequences of INPEX and economic growth. But more companies are seeing opportunities in developing serviced apartments and owners of newly constructed apartments are capitalising on this growth in our local economy. There are new properties that are coming on-stream, for example, the Halikos C2 property on The Esplanade and the redevelopment of the old MLC office building on Smith Street for tourism accommodation. New investments are adding to tourism infrastructure and the smart money is looking to capitalise on the tourism spin-offs from the development of the gas industry in Darwin.
I did not hear one squeak from the member for Greatorex, the minister for Tourism, about the impact of the 2007 intervention on the availability of hotel and motel accommodation in Alice Springs. Like good business people everywhere, everyone was busy enjoying the benefits of that injection of money into the Alice Springs economy.
However, the Chief Minister has failed to outline what he, as leader, is doing about programs and initiatives to combat these difficulties faced by the tourism industry. If I wanted to hear a commentator, I would pick up a newspaper or watch the news.
Unfortunately, this statement only appears to provide commentary on tourism with no details about what the government is doing for this very important industry. A sad reflection of the Chief Minister’s personal priorities; he is seemingly more interested in the Ord River than tourism across the Territory.
The tourism industry is ever-changing and working in hard, challenging times. The only way to achieve the best outcome for the tourism sector is to talk to the industry and support the development of fresh and appealing tourism products, in short, to be smart - talk to the people who know.
If this government was serious about tourism it would be talking to the industry - talk to the tourism sector, talk to the investors in the industry and talk to the operators on the ground. Unfortunately, this is not happening with this government.
This new CLP government appears not to be in the business of consulting when it comes to tourism. Before the election it consulted no one about its plans to move Tourism NT to Alice Springs. It did not come into the open to say this was its intention during the campaign and ask what the tourism industry thought about it. No, this government thinks it knows best, and we now see this government forcing legislation through this parliament without talking to the industry again. This CLP government is not in the business of talking to people who work in the industry and that is very disappointing.
The Chief Minister’s statement mentioned the recently released federal government’s white paper, Australia in the Asian Century. He did not go on to say how his government plans to align with the white paper but, perhaps, that is coming. Once again, I was left wanting.
I thank the minister for Tourism for his short statement about his passion for tourism in the Northern Territory and for outlining some parts of the CLP’s vision - the government’s vision of how the Territory will go forward in the tourism sector.
He mentioned the Masters Games. I also attended the Masters Games; it is a fantastic event which has bipartisan support. I appreciate and thank the minister for Sport, who is also the minister for Tourism, for his bipartisan support in allowing me to provide the opportunity to hand out medals to people there. It is a great event and something that really drives the economy in Alice Springs, and we need to keep focusing on that.
The work of the former Labor government was very much in the space when it came to tourism in the Asian market. In particular, tourism, with the strong support of the former minister, has been working hard with industry guidance here and overseas to position the Territory to grow and benefit from the emerging tourism markets to our north.
At the end of 2011, the then minister for Tourism launched a discussion paper on activating the China market. A number of key short, medium and long-term activities were well under way under the banner of six key priority areas being identified. These were: understanding the market; aviation success; Northern Territory industry capability; developing the experience; partnerships and marketing communications.
It is clear we are in front in building key relationships and tapping into the growing Chinese tourism market. Again, any work in this space, if it is to be successful, needs to have its forefront consult with the tourism industry. I can only hope this CLP government changes its current strategy of not consulting sooner rather than later, for the sake of the industry.
I am left with very little detail to respond to from the Chief Minister’s first ministerial statement to parliament about the three-hub economy. What has been revealed is, according to the CLP, tourism is the poor cousin in the three-hub economy with little detail being provided about its program and initiatives. Similarly, the poor cousin given the minister they have chosen to put in charge of it; a minister already notorious for doing things his way and not listening to anyone. Now he is a minister, his decisions affect all Territorians. The minister is notorious for not listening and making ranting, raving speeches and whining about having to come to Darwin, his workplace in the Legislative Assembly. As a minister, he is already notorious for not consulting with industry. However, I digress.
I welcome the news today I heard of Virgin Australia’s investment into Tiger Airways, a $62.5m investment into growing Tiger Airways. I really hope the minister for Tourism has picked up the phone and called Virgin Australia to try to get some more flights into the Territory.
I look forward to further detail from the government when it comes to tourism and their three-hub economy. It is a pity the Chief Minister had none, and was simply commenting on the current situation.
Motion agreed to; statement noted.
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER: Honourable members, I table the Auditor-General’s October 2012 Report to the Assembly.
MOTION
Print Paper – Auditor-General’s October 2012 Report
Mr ELFERINK (Leader of Government Business): Mr Deputy Speaker, on behalf of the Chief Minister, I move that the report be printed.
Motion agreed to.
Mr ELFERINK (Leader of Government Business): Mr Deputy Speaker, on behalf of the Chief Minister, I move that the Assembly take note of the report and that the Chief Minister has leave to continue his remarks at a later hour.
Leave granted; debate adjourned.
Mr ELFERINK (Leader of Government Business): Mr Deputy Speaker, I move that the Assembly do now adjourn.
Today I deal with a very important issue. I am glad, in hindsight, of the way I dealt with this issue the other day, because it deals with the allegations the Leader of the Opposition levelled at the member for Daly. Whilst those allegations were not tabled - and I am now grateful they were not tabled - it has, in the intervening days, provided us, on this side of the House, with an opportunity to look into the nature of these allegations.
I pause briefly to redescribe to the House the nature of the person who was described by the Leader of the Opposition as being a victim - and an Aboriginal victim at that.
It has given us an opportunity to do some homework. I am going to table several statements in the course of this adjournment debate. During my tabling of these statements, I will point out something very important.
Unlike the Leader of the Opposition, the people in the statements and documents will be identified - and they are happy to be identified through this process. The first item I table is a photocopy of a statement by Preston Higgins, the member for Daly’s son. It deals with the nature of a person who was at many of the polling booths during the campaign. I seek leave to table that document.
Leave granted.
We on this side believe we have identified the person who the Leader of the Opposition was referring to. In deference to keeping that person anonymous, we have blocked out the name. So, the blocked out text you will see is the name of the person who was speaking to the Leader of the Opposition.
In this statement, it becomes very clear, very quickly, that there is a predisposition of conduct of that person, which raises some questions as to the motives of that person and, perhaps, the motives or the reasons she - if this is the person we think it is - approached the Leader of the Opposition.
The second statement is from a person by the name of Benjamin Porter-Hardy who was assisting the member for Daly during the campaign. During the campaign, Mr Porter-Hardy, who was a backpacker, was also exposed to this person and saw how this person was conducting herself. Amongst other things, he described the person as being abusive and somebody who was belligerent by nature also engaging in what seemed to be racially-motivated comments. I seek leave to table that statement.
Leave granted.
Mr ELFERINK: Madam Speaker, the third statement is from a fellow by the name of Bartley Travis Johnson who was assisting the member for Daly. Mr Johnson was working for the member for Daly during the campaign. In the statement, he quotes the person whom we believe is the person who has been speaking to the Leader of the Opposition, and the very language that the Leader of the Opposition says this person found so offensive, according to Mr Johnson, is language this person used as part of her own vocabulary. I seek leave to table a statutory declaration in relation to that matter.
Leave granted.
Mr ELFERINK: I go on to table the statement of Samuel Higgins, also a son of the member for Daly who was assisting his father during this campaign period. Mr Higgins makes observations about the conduct of this person - whose name again has been obliterated on this photocopy for the purposes of protecting her identity - and quotes some pretty unpleasant language not only directed towards the member for Daly, the CLP candidate for Daly at the time, but also towards Mr Bill Risk of the First Nations Party. Once again, it goes to the nature of the person whose is making the allegations.
Madam Speaker, I seek leave to table the statutory declaration of Samuel John Higgins.
Leave granted.
Mr ELFERINK: I go back to a second statement from Preston Higgins, who talked about the period he spent at the Palumpa booth during the 2012 election. Mr Higgins says he was with the now member for Daly during this time. It was a short time at Palumpa - and we are now talking about the Palumpa booth specifically – and he said:
That is from Preston Higgins. I seek leave to table that document.
Leave granted.
Mr ELFERINK: Madam Speaker, finally I come to a statutory declaration made by a fellow by the name of Ken James. Ken James is of Unit 3/62 Kalymnos Drive in Karama. He relates a circumstance I suspect may have been the circumstance which led to the complaint being made to the Leader of the Opposition.
Madam Speaker, I will table this in a second. Basically, there was an exchange of some sort. The reason I am not sure this is actually the exchange being complained about is it is so substantially different as to raise a question as to whether we are talking about the same issue. However, it says, Gary Higgins was approximately five metres from me when I heard Gary tell that person - and that person was making certain suggestions about the CLP being behind the intervention - this was at the only Palumpa booth during that election campaign as I understand it. That person was basically repeating falsehoods, at which point the member for Daly said something to the person which is nothing like the allegation made by the Leader of the Opposition. The member for Daly at that stage accused that person and said, ‘you are talking shit’. That is the colloquialism that was used. Then as soon as that was said, the person who was two metres from me, turned around towards Rob Knight and yelled out at the top of her voice, ‘Rob, Gary just called me a ...’ and then used the ‘c’ word which we all know.
This was very loud and in front of about 10 or so community women who were walking in to vote. Rob Knight was a bit in shock and there were a number of voters around. The person, who is not named, had just yelled this bad word out. Mr James heard Knight say, ‘shush, shush, go and write it down’. At no stage did he hear Gary Higgins say the ‘c’ word and he was looking at him whilst this exchange was going on.
Madam Speaker, I seek leave to table the statement from Ken James.
Motion agreed to.
Madam Speaker, these people are prepared to be named. The allegations made by the Leader of the Opposition are about unnamed people supported by unnamed witnesses, so-called witnesses, and if the Leader of the Opposition has any courage, she will leave this place and make this allegation outside the House and see what flows from it.
Ms FYLES (Nightcliff): Madam Speaker, tonight I acknowledge that last Friday was World Teachers’ Day and I would like to take the time to acknowledge the fantastic work of our teachers, particularly in my electorate. I have a number of schools: St Paul’s Primary School, Nightcliff Primary School, Essington School, the Northern Territory Open Education Centre, and the Greek School.
Teaching is an extraordinary occupation. The efforts of our teachers are amazing. You cannot be late; you have a classroom of students waiting for you. You cannot be unprepared as they will quickly work this out, and you cannot pop out for a quick coffee or visit the bathroom as you have this classroom of students you are responsible for.
It was lovely to take the opportunity to thank our teachers and school staff for the effort that they put in. Each year, World Teachers’ Day is celebrated in October and I know that many of my colleagues here would have a tradition of taking cakes and a morning tea to the schools but I thought it would be nice tonight to speak and acknowledge my schools and the staff.
Nightcliff Primary School has over 500 students. It is a beautiful school spread over gorgeous grounds. The middle school is amazing. I had the privilege of touring the school in recent weeks and meeting with the staff. It is a fantastic school leading the way with technology. The Essington School is well known and has an enormous amount of students. I believe the numbers are over 1000. The Northern Territory Open Education Centre is a school itself. It provides education from Rapid Creek to all over the Territory. The Greek School is a traditional Greek school that students attend on Saturday mornings. It was wonderful to be there last Saturday to share in Oxi Day which is their independence day.
That is a little about the schools in my electorate. I take this opportunity to thank all the staff and the teachers at those schools for their ongoing efforts throughout the year. I look forward to catching up with them over the coming few weeks as they head towards the end of school.
Ms PURICK (Goyder): Mr Deputy Speaker, I will speak about two issues, one is a very happy issue and that is to compliment and commend one of my constituents, Joy Wood, who is part of the Australian team who is now in Miramar, Argentina, to compete for five days in the 2012 World Field Archery Championships of the International Field Archery Association. She will be there for approximately two weeks with the Australian team. Joy will be competing in the Veteran’s Women’s Long Bow Division in which she currently holds the Australian record for all three of the IFAA competition rounds, and the pacific region record for two of the rounds. Joy is not only a participant in this sport, she is also a coach. Her coaching achievements include: for three years in a row - 2002, 2003 and 2004 - Joy was a finalist in the Coach of the Year Category of the NT Sports Awards and was nominated for coach and sportsperson categories on several other occasions.
In 2003, she was one of the 43 recipients from over 1000 applicants to receive a Sports Leadership Grant for Rural and Remote Women from the Australian Sports Commission and the Office of the Status of Women to assist in completion of the Level 2 Field Archery Coaching Course. There are only seven other level 2 field archery coaches in Australia and five of them are in New South Wales. As the Northern Territory branch coach, she held courses to train 37 field archery coaches and nine instructors throughout the Northern Territory, 20 coaches in Queensland and five in Victoria, and has coached mainly beginner and more advanced archers at club level. All Field Archery Australia coaches, Joy included, are volunteers who do not receive payment. She received awards at Litchfield Council Australia Day presentations in two separate years for her efforts in promoting archery in the local rural community and elsewhere.
Her sporting achievements are also exemplary. In 2004, Joy travelled to the World Field Archery Championships in Watkins Glen, USA, and was placed third in the adult women’s long bow, which is a remarkable achievement from someone from the Northern Territory competing on the world stage. In 2005, she travelled to the regional championships in New Zealand breaking two pacific regional records for that division.
In 2006, she broke both ankles four weeks before the WFAC was held in Hervey Bay, Queensland. She purchased a second-hand motorised wheelchair so she could still compete and she won the gold medal.
In 2007, the Pacific Regional Championships were held in Sale, Victoria, where Joy broke the existing record in all three rounds and still holds two of the records.
In 2010, sadly, Joy sustained a crush fracture of her L2 vertebrae in a car accident. It was a long time before she could compete again, so she elected to move into the veteran’s division, which is over 55 years of age, where consideration is given which reduces the amount of walking required. In 2011, at the Pacific Regional Championship, she set new records in the two rounds that were shot.
With all these ailments and accidents she has incurred over the last short while, she has still gone on to compete, not only at a Territory and national level, but at an international level. I wish Joy, and her team mates, all the best in this championship and I am sure she will come back with trophies of the gold colour.
The second thing I wanted to mention was in regard to the intersection of Freds Pass Road and the Arnhem Highway which has, in the last six months, been upgraded somewhat but is still less than satisfactory. The Student Representative Council of the Taminmin College Senior School has started to lobby local members and highlight what it believes to be serious safety issues at that intersection.
I would like to read into Hansard its letter, and I trust the Minister for Transport and roads will look into this very serious issue as presented by the schools in that area.
Dear member for Goyder
It is a busy intersection and the Arnhem Highway is busy. Not only is there residential traffic, there is the traffic that services the Jabiru and the Ranger Uranium Mine. There is also a large increase of road trains on the Arnhem Highway. One of my constituents stood on the highway for one hour and in that hour there were 22 triple road trains going either way. That intersection, in particular, even with the upgrade - and I have been there and looked at what the students are saying. The visibility is poor when you are turning left westward, to try to see traffic from the right.
I urge the minister to take this matter on board and have his department look at it to see how they can better improve this intersection for the safety of all people.
Ms LAWRIE (Karama): Mr Deputy Speaker, I seek leave to table a written complaint to the Anti-Discrimination Commission.
Leave granted.
Ms LAWRIE: Mr Deputy Speaker, I have received leave from the Assembly to table a written complaint to the Anti-Discrimination Commission dated 28 August. It contains the grossly offensive and vile words you said to an Aboriginal woman at the Palumpa polling booth. You will be brought to account for what you have said.
No despicable actions taken by the member of Port Darwin in this Chamber tonight in trying to weasel away and create a shroud of doubt around your words will save you from being brought to account for the words you uttered to a woman that day at the Palumpa mobile polling booth. As I said before, I will not utter those words in this House because they are so grossly offensive and vile. They are now on the public record for anyone to read. I will be ensuring the media receives a copy of the Anti-Discrimination Commission papers tabled today and that they know they are on the public record and can be published.
It is through the actions of the member for Port Darwin, where he sought and was granted leave to table statutory declarations, that I felt this parliament was now open to granting leave to table documents in relation to this grossly offensive and vile incident.
Member for Daly, you clearly spoke the words. You have had a team of your supporters write down things to defend you. I have not seen the statutory declarations, and I surely hope, for their sake, they have not perjured themselves. From the little I heard from the member from Port Darwin, since when is a backpacker a psychologist? If you start to pick apart some of the comments the member for Port Darwin made they are very disturbing. It is very disturbing when men get into the space of going after and blaming a woman for a violation that is perpetrated on her.
Think very carefully, member for Port Darwin, about what you have done and what you have put your name to in this Chamber.
Motion agreed to; the Assembly adjourned.
VISITORS
Madam SPEAKER: Honourable Members, I advise of the presence in the gallery of Year 8 Palmerston Christian School students accompanied by Mrs Ana Abbott. On behalf of honourable members, I extend a warm welcome to our visitors and hope you enjoy your visit to Parliament House.
Members: Hear! Hear!
LEAVE OF ABSENCE
Member for Brennan
Member for Brennan
Mr ELFERINK (Leader of Government Business): Madam Speaker, I seek leave of absence be granted to the member for Brennan from 12 pm today to the close of business on 31 October 2012.
The member for Brennan has to attend the Melbourne Land Warfare Conference. Whilst it sounds like an unusual title for a conference a minister needs to be at, it is very important for the function of the role of Defence Support in the Northern Territory. This is the only meeting this year at which all ministers will be available with defence support roles nationally. In light of that and the very important role that Defence Support has in the Northern Territory, particularly considering the size of the defence presence, we on this side of the House believe, and I am certain members on the other side of the House will accept, that the presence of the minister at such an important conference warrants his pardon from this House.
Leave granted.
POLICE ADMINISTRATION AMENDMENT BILL (Serial 4)
Bill presented and read a first time.
Mr MILLS (Minister for Police, Fire and Emergency Services): Madam Speaker, I move that the bill be now read a second time.
The purpose of this bill is to insert new powers for police to obtain a sample of saliva from a suspect to test for the presence of dangerous drugs. The Police Administration Act Amendment Bill 2012 is to implement the government’s commitment to law and order during the first 100 days in office. There are community concerns about the level of unlawful assaults on or around licensed premises in the Northern Territory.
Studies suggest the relationship between prohibited drug use and/or abuse and human interpersonal violence is profound, costly, and undeniable. Certain dangerous drugs can increase the likelihood of violence because of their direct effects on the individual. The risks to public safety posed by dangerous drug abuse have long been recognised by society, particularly when used in combination with alcohol. The community is concerned about the growing use of illegal drugs. Dangerous drugs are one of the significant problems affecting the health and welfare of the Northern Territory population.
There is also a need to protect the safety of innocent people whose lives may be endangered by the inappropriate behaviour of people taking dangerous drugs and assaulting someone. Both anecdotal and scientific evidence suggests use of certain dangerous drugs can seriously affect an individual and make them extremely dangerous to others.
Currently, police do not have any power to direct a suspect to provide a sample of saliva to test for the presence of dangerous drugs. The current provision in the Police Administration Act allows police to take a sample of saliva or a swab, but does not expressly provide police with any power to take a sample of saliva to test for the presence of dangerous drugs. The power conferred in the bill will mean the police will have express power to obtain a sample of saliva from a suspect to test specifically for the presence of dangerous drugs.
The proposed method is saliva testing which is a reasonable and unintrusive way of obtaining a sample of saliva to test for the presence of dangerous drugs. The power will operate where, subject to regulations:
(a) a member of the police force suspects, on reasonable grounds, that a person has committed an offence
(b) the person is in lawful custody in relation to the offence; and
(c) the member, or another member of the police force, suspects on reasonable grounds that there may be a dangerous drug present in the person’s body.
A member of the police force holding the rank of senior sergeant or higher, or in charge of a police station, may approve:
(a) the taking of a sample of the person’s saliva
(b) the testing of the sample for the presence of a dangerous drug in the person’s body.
The sample of saliva may be taken in accordance with the approval of a member of the police force giving directions to the person to provide a sample, or a member of the police force may take the sample from the person. The person is not taken to have provided a sample unless the sample is sufficient to allow testing for the presence of a dangerous drug in the person’s body. A member of the police force may use reasonable force when exercising his or her powers under this section.
The introduction of the bill is part of a two-stage process to amend legislation to allow police to comprehensively target crime by equipping Northern Territory police with the necessary tools to effectively combat unlawful assaults committed with the suspected presence of a dangerous drug in the body.
Stage two will involve amendments to the Criminal Code Act and Sentencing Act to formulate the necessary offences of unlawful assault where the suspect is believed to have a dangerous drug present in their body. Stage two will be progressed by the Department of the Attornery-General and Justice in due course.
This bill is a powerful statement of this government’s commitment to law and order in the Northern Territory.
I commend the bill to honourable members and table a copy of the explanatory statement.
Debate adjourned.
PLANNING AMENDMENT BILL
(Serial 6)
(Serial 6)
Bill presented and read a first time.
Mr MILLS (Lands, Planning and the Environment): Madam Speaker, I move that the bill be now read a second time.
This bill delivers an important election promise to establish an independent planning commission for the Northern Territory and is a major step forward in planning properly for the Territory’s future.
The Northern Territory is positioned for a period of significant growth. The work of the planning commission will be vital in upholding the great character and lifestyle of the Northern Territory in the face of this significant growth. Good planning is essential to ensure growth delivers benefit for all Territorians. There is no substitute for up-front planning, analysis, thought and discussion to ensure the right results for the community. A successful planning system facilitates sustainable economic growth, protects environmental, cultural and heritage assets, and connects people and place. It underpins the provision of adequate and affordable housing and employment, fosters urban renewal, and integrates land use with infrastructure provision.
The planning commission will play an important role in ensuring that the planning system in the Northern Territory provides a framework that delivers these things for Territorians. The consequences of failing to plan properly are significant, such as, falling behind on infrastructure needs, failing to provide enough land for housing and jobs, and inadequate planning for the infrastructure that communities need such as essential services, transport networks, schools, and health centres. Collectively, these failures act as a handbrake on the economy. The establishment of the planning commission will rightly put the spotlight back on strategic planning, both in the city and the bush. Putting strategic planning in place in the bush will help remote communities to grow. Also, with more effort put into strategic planning at the front end of the planning process, development assessment at the back end of the planning process will be simplified and streamlined.
The planning commission will fill a gap in the strategic planning of the Territory. It will not duplicate the existing role of government agencies or statutory authorities in regulation, including the Development Consent Authority. The role of the Development Consent Authority remains unchanged.
The planning commission will also restore confidence of industry and community in the planning process. There will be engagement with the community at the earliest stages of the strategic planning process and Territorians will have a strong voice in how their community develops. Issues will be identified and resolved early in the planning process, giving industry and the community confidence and certainty about how our cities, towns, and suburbs can develop.
I will now turn to the draft bill before the Assembly and describe its features in detail. Most notably, the bill amends the Planning Act. The Planning Act provides for the appropriate and orderly planning and control of the use of the development of land. The objects of the Planning Act fully accord with the aspirations this government has for the planning commission and remain unchanged by this bill.
The bill is in several parts structured around the existing structure of the Planning Act. New Part 7A of the bill deals with the establishment, functions, powers and independence of the planning commission. The amended act will commence on a date fixed by the Administrator. Membership of the planning commission is specified in section 81F of the bill. The planning commission will be comprised of:
a chairperson
the chairpersons of the Development Consent Authority, the Heritage Council and the Environment Protection Authority
a representative of the Local Government Association also appointed by the minister
the minister may appoint up to five additional members to the planning commission.
Last month, I announced the future appointment of Gary Nairn as Chairman of the planning commission following the passage of this bill. Gary Nairn comes to the role with a background in land surveying and mapping, and currently operates his own consultancy business specialising in business development, spatial information, and property matters.
He lived in the Territory for 15 years during the 1980s and 1990s and was involved in the planning and design of key developments including Bayview, Palmerston and Cullen Bay. He served as Parliamentary Secretary to Prime Minister John Howard from 2004 to 2006 with responsibility for water reform and the Science, Engineering and Technology Unit, and was Special Minister of State from 2006 to 2007.
The chair will have a crucial role in guiding the planning commission in its early days of operation. Gary Nairn is eminently qualified to do this, having a proven track record in planning and establishing strong relationships across government and the wider community.
The composition of the planning commission purposely includes the chairs of three bodies with statutory decision-making powers with regard to development. The inclusion of the chairs of the Development Consent Authority, Heritage Council, and Environment Protection Authority will provide for a greater shared understanding of the aspirations of the planning system in delivering outcomes for Territorians.
Clauses 81G to 81J of the bill deal with the duration and conditions of the appointment of members and set out the circumstances under which a member ceases to hold office. Members will be appointed for a term of up to two years and will be eligible for reappointment at the expiry of their term.
Clauses 81N to 81Tof the bill relate to the conduct of the commission business. They provide for the commission to meet as often as necessary, but at least four times per year; for the chairperson to preside; for members to appoint another of their number as chair if the chairperson is absent; and for the quorum to be a majority of members with decisions by majority and the casting vote for the chairperson.
Commission members and former members are protected from liability if they are acting in good faith carrying out the work of the commission (clause 81Z).
Staff and facilities to enable the planning commission to properly perform its functions must be provided by the Chief Executive of the Department of Lands, Planning and the Environment under clause 81E.
Staff of the commission will be public servants subject to the direction of the chairperson (clause 81E(2)). To properly carry out its functions the commission will be able to co-opt professional advice on a project-by-project basis, as required.
I anticipate that the planning commission will be fully appointed and staffed by the first half of 2013. A starting point for the commission might be the development of a comprehensive long-term plan for the Darwin region that picks up from the Darwin Regional Land Use Structure Plan of 1990 and builds on the discussion paper released in 2010. This body of work will include revisiting greenfields land release, infill and urban renewal sites, strategic industrial land in Darwin Harbour and locations for infrastructures such as a new sea port and general aviation airport in the longer term.
The planning commission may also have a role in developing land use plans for major remote towns including Ali Curung, Borroloola, Kalkarindji/ Daguragu, Elliott, Galiwinku, Gapuwiyak, Gunbalanya, Maningrida, Numbulwar, Papunya, Yirrkala and Yuendumu.
This bill recognises that the planning commission will be established as an independent body and must perform its functions and exercise its powers independently and impartially, and in the public interest. Clause 81B sets out the functions of the commission, which are to prepare integrated strategic plans, and provide guidelines and assessment criteria for inclusion in the NT Planning Scheme.
A secondary role for the commission will be to provide advice to the minister on significant developments. The integrated strategic plans prepared by the planning commission will identify future transport corridors, utility corridors and sites for essential facilities. They will support urban renewal and provide guidance through master plans on where and how communities or urban areas should grow (clause 81K(1). Clause 81K(3) sets out examples of matters the planning commission may include in the master plans. These matters are broad ranging, including housing, transportation, economic development, the environment, open space and conservation.
It is clear from this list that government expects the planning commission to take an integrated approach to strategic planning. The strategic plans developed by the planning commission may give rise to amendments to the NT Planning Scheme under Part 2 of the Planning Act. This will ensure there is better integration of strategic planning policies with the NT Planning Scheme. This addresses an area of need previously highlighted by the Property Council of Australia in their 2010 and 2012 Development Assessment Report Cards.
Clause 13B requires that the minister must follow the usual procedures under Part 2 of the Planning Act when dealing with amendments to the NT Planning Scheme requested by the planning commission. This includes the requirement to put planning scheme amendments on exhibition, giving notice to local authorities and holding reporting-body hearings. This ensures transparency surrounding the work of the commission.
Additionally, clause 81Y of the bill requires the commission to make an annual report to parliament, further enhancing the transparent operation of the commission. Clause 81B(d) requires the planning commission to carry out community consultation in the development of strategic plans and guidelines. It is the intention that there will be engagement with the community early in the planning process and that Territorians will have a strong voice in how their community develops. Better and more effective community participation at a strategic level enables the community to participate in formulating a vision for a region or subregions. This provides for simpler and more focused community involvement in later stages of the planning process.
The strategic plans developed by the planning commission will provide a better context for the individual planning and development decisions during the development consent process.
A secondary role of the commission is to provide advice to the minister about the strategic implications of proposed significant developments. A significant development is defined in section 50A as one where the development may have a significant impact on strategic planning and land use of the Territory; or, where the carrying out of the development or subsequent use of land may have a significant impact on the natural environment or existing amenity.
This impact is not confined to the land upon which the proposed activity will take place but includes adjoining land, and other areas of land that might be affected because of the development, such as areas downstream of the development.
For developments identified as being significant, the planning commission is required to provide a written report to the minister about the development. The report may deal with the strategic planning implications of the proposal and Crown land that may be suitable for the proposal.
It is anticipated that in the great majority of cases the planning commission will provide its report to the minister well before a development application is lodged. As such, intersection of the planning commission’s role in significant developments with the development consent process will be minimal.
However, if the commission has not given the minister a report on a significant development prior to a development application being lodged, the Development Consent Authority must bring the application to the attention of the minister. The minister will decide whether the proposed development is a significant development and, if necessary, request the planning commission to provide a report on the significant development. This report may, in turn, be provided to the Development Consent Authority and must be considered by them when determining the development application.
In line with the existing provisions within section 85(3) of the Planning Act, the minister may direct the Development Consent Authority at any time before an application is determined, that the minister is the consent authority for a particular development application. The minister may also be the consent authority for an application of a division if the Development Consent Authority is not established in relation to the area of land in which the development proposal relates.
If the minister is the consent authority for the development, then he must take into account the commission’s report when considering the development application under Division 3. If the minister makes a determination contrary to the commission’s report, he must table the reasons why in the Legislative Assembly within six sitting days of making the determination. This demonstrates government’s commitment to transparency in its dealings with the planning commission.
To ensure there is no conflict of interest for the Chairman of the Development Consent Authority, clause 81M(1) states that the Chairman of the Development Consent Authority must not take any part in the commission’s consideration of a significant development proposal or the preparation of a significant development report in relation to the proposal, unless the proposal relates to a development for which the minister is the consent authority.
Furthermore, clause 81U deals with disclosure if a member has a personal interest in a matter to be considered by the commission. The member must be disregarded for the purposes of constituting a quorum and must not take part in any deliberation of the commission about that matter.
I have outlined all the key features of the draft bill and I hope from this it is clear that with the establishment of the planning commission comes a renewed focus on strategic planning for the Territory, one that enables sustainable growth of our cities and towns as great places to live, and ensures that planning reflects the expectations of the community.
This bill provides for a planning commission that:
is independent
is able to perform its functions impartially and in the public interest
operates transparently, requiring tabling in parliament if the minister does not follow the advice of the planning commission
provides certainty for the community and industry about what land uses can happen where
provides integration through cross-membership of the planning commission with environment, heritage and local government representatives along with a broad remit in strategic planning; and most importantly
places people and their choices at the heart of planning for the future.
Madam Speaker, I commend the bill to the Assembly, and I table the explanatory statement to accompany the bill.
Debate adjourned.
MINISTERIAL STATEMENT
Three-Hub Economy
Three-Hub Economy
Mr MILLS (Chief Minister): Madam Speaker, as part of my election campaign platform I promised that a Country Liberals’ government will develop a three-hub economy which ensures the Territory is not dependent on individual projects to keep the economy strong.
The Administrator’s address presented to this House on the opening day of the Twelfth Assembly, just one week ago, noted:
- The economic prosperity of the Northern Territory is one of its greatest assets, built not only on its natural resources but also on the belief that an individual can prosper through personal determination and perseverance.
Economic diversification will enhance the standard of living of all Territorians by generating higher economic growth, greater employment and income growth, which will, in turn, enable flow-on economic activities, greater economic linkages and interactions in the domestic economy, creating more wealth.
Economic diversification will create a more vibrant and resilient Northern Territory economy better placed to accommodate and deal with external impacts like the high Australian dollar and fluctuations in commodity prices and volumes.
Let me take each component in turn. The Australian reported on 2 May 2012 in an article titled ‘Resources Investment Pipeline Keeps Flowing’:
- The Northern Territory accounts for 1% of the country’s economic output, yet holds 9% of its definitive investment projects ...
Our mining capabilities are massive, the same applies to our resources, and we believe there is the potential to expand and diversify into new commodities and new regions. It is the aim of my government to ensure these things happen.
For example, the NT Business Review noted in July 2011 that the rewards for the company that threads the needle in the Northern Territory’s Georgina Basin are vast. It is one of the few remaining virtually unexplored onshore oil and gas basins in the world.
The Business Review Australia, in May 2012, noted:
- The ‘Gas Rush’ Heads to Australia’s Northern Territory’
The article read:
- It is being compared to the gold rush of the 1850s: exploration permits and applications are flooding into Australia as energy miners set their sights on the Northern Territory, a largely untapped source of gas.
This government will support active mineral exploration companies built on the investment by China in Territory mineral exploration projects, and work with the many businesses expending time and effort.
A great deal of what the earth wants can be found in our own back yard. An example was provided in The Australian on 17 August 2012 and I quote:
- Toshiba Corp has developed a powerful motor magnet that does not contain the rare earth, dysprosium, but, instead, holds another rare earth, samarium.
Make no mistake, this is a big deal.
Why is this a big deal for us? Because the NT has samarium in its rare earth mix at Nolans Bore. What we do not have, unfortunately, is a state-of-the-art processing plant. This reflects the previous government’s failure to identify a suitable industrial site.
Only one year ago, the Chief Executive of Darwin Port Corporation, Terry O’Connor, commented on the greatest resources boom in NT history. He estimated there were 40 mines between Darwin and Alice Springs due to go into production in the next few years, and most of them would export their minerals through East Arm Port. It is disappointing to know those projects are hamstrung by the decisions the previous government failed to fulfil, and that its responsibilities in regard to infrastructure investment, increasing port capacity and diversification have been unmet.
Our commitment to Territorians is about expanding the economy. In relation to our mines and energy hub, we will use our higher education institutions - in particular Charles Darwin University, the North Australia Centre for Oil and Gas and its trade, training and process control facilities - to educate the next generation of skilled workers in this important and growing field.
We have heard the concerns of local businesses that many of the contracts associated with resource projects in the Territory are going to overseas and interstate companies. They are receiving some contracts for work that would naturally go to Territory businesses because of their location, such as civil works and general construction, but Territory businesses are capable of more and we want them to gain access to more complex, higher-skilled work that will deliver long-term job opportunities for current and future generations. Remember, these are the businesses that you will need to help you during the operational phase of your projects.
This government has lobbied vigorously on behalf of local industry to secure more contracts for work associated with the Ichthys gas project. We have pushed for onshore contracts to be broken up into smaller parcels that are a better fit for Territory business and industry, and for those parcels to be offered earlier than originally planned. We have been doing this in partnership with local businesses, the Industry Capability Network, as well as the Chamber of Commerce and its Manufacturers Council.
Just last fortnight, a tender for a large fabrication contract was offered to NT firms on the basis that any work performed must be performed in the Territory. This great opportunity is a direct result of our team NT visiting Japan with the single purpose of flying the flag for NT industry when they met JKC representatives.
There are many local firms with the capacity to fill these contracts, which include the fabrication of steel structures, ladders, walkways, pipes and platforms.
Minister for Business, Peter Chandler, and I have spoken to a number of senior management of both INPEX and JKC to push the case for local businesses. Recently, I met INPEX Chairman, Mr Naoki Kuroda in my office where, among other things, we discussed the potential for Territory industry to become further involved as the Ichthys project grows. Already, INPEX has spent $1bn in the Territory and some major contracts have been awarded: a $340m contract for a workers village at Howard Springs, and a $200m contract for the gas plant foundations at Wickham Point. My government will continue to lobby to ensure the Territory business industry prospers as the gas pipeline and the facility are constructed.
It is no surprise that the federal government’s White Paper on Australia’s future engagement with Asia identified Darwin’s key role in this important area. When the White Paper identifies opportunities like:
- proximity to Asia, natural attributes, potential sites for new ports, and expanding liquefied natural gas processing industry
it is important to note that my government has already moved to capitalise on our vision for a three-hub economy servicing the Territory and engaging in the region.
The White Paper goes on to say:
- ... great opportunities to become a world-leading centre for engineering, financial, medical and education services.
- Australian food producers and processors will be recognised globally as innovative and reliable producers of more and higher-quality food and agricultural products, services and technologies to Asia
I am heartened by our concrete commitment to increasing the opportunities for business and workers in the mining and energy sector and the attached benefits that will flow through the economy. However, most importantly, it is more than just my government’s vision, the job is to bring the Commonwealth to the table and preparing to:
- work together with business and the Northern Territory government to accelerate Darwin’s evolution as a sophisticated, liveable city built around a gateway to Asia, and a regional hub for a large number of goods and services, through coordinated infrastructure planning and international engagement activities.
I have commissioned the Office of Asian Engagement to immediately develop a response to the White Paper to guide the Territory’s strategic planning and policy formation to best capitalise on this exciting part of the Territory’s future. Our plan for a three-hub economy was developed with a firm eye on Asian engagement and expanding links with our Asian markets. My government also has plans to establish an Australia/Indonesia forum conducted at Charles Darwin University where senior figures from both countries will meet and develop ideas.
Achievements so far: the government has committed to broadening the NT’s export base to make the pastoral sector more sustainable. Further developing livestock export markets is an important step to ensuring the long-term sustainability of this vital industry to the Territory. Earlier this month, I was pleased to meet a delegation from Trung Dong Corporation that visited Darwin to witness the loading of cattle prior to its departure to Vietnam. This was a consignment of 1500 head of cattle which marked the start of imports for this company and the second shipment of cattle to depart for Vietnam in recent times. Discussion with the Trung Dong Corporation indicated that based on the success of the first shipment they would be looking at importing approximately eight shipments a year or around 12 000 head of cattle. This will inject around $10m to $12m into our pastoral sector.
The Commonwealth still has plenty of work to do to convince Asia it is serious about improving links. The ban on live cattle trade to Indonesia eroded trust in the region and undermined confidence. It is no coincidence that my first overseas visit as Chief Minister will be to Jakarta and early next year I will have some meetings in Japan.
The minister for Primary Industry has already travelled to Indonesia with a view to increase the Territory’s live cattle export trade which was severely damaged by Canberra’s kneejerk and irresponsible decision to ban the trade overnight. Minister Westra van Holthe’s visit gave him the opportunity to see firsthand how the effects of the live cattle ban have impacted upon all facets of the trade and associated businesses.
The challenge now is to begin the process of rebuilding our relationship through partnerships and open discussion. Indonesia welcomes the significant work undertaken by Australian and Indonesian industry in regard to live cattle exports which has seen a dramatic improvement in animal welfare standards through the export supply chain assurance system. This open and transparent system allows for complete traceability of cattle exported from Australia to ensure the animal welfare requirements are being adhered to. The strengthening of this industry is vital to the regional and remote areas of the Territory where much of our cattle production takes place.
We have also had early success in our plan to build international partnerships in education. The Territory has an agreement that will see students from a leading South Korean university based in Darwin for training and job placement. Under the agreement between Ansan University and Darwin-based International College of Advanced Education, final last-year hospitality students will transfer to Darwin for up to four months to further their English language skills and to work in local businesses. An initial tranche of about 20 South Korean students will arrive in Darwin at the end of January, with the potential for up to 100 students to be placed here every year. The program will help students develop language and job skills while Territory hospitality businesses will benefit from the skilled-up staff. The Korean students will be employed as cooks, waiters, food and beverage attendants. They will be in Darwin on working holiday visas and will be paid at or above the industry award.
While the signs are encouraging, there is still plenty of work to do in engaging with private and public training provider schools and Charles Darwin University to ensure that more overseas students take advantage of the Territory’s rich educational and training opportunities. For example, my government is supporting Charles Darwin University’s plan to establish a campus in the Darwin Central Business District which will have direct benefits for the tourism industry, overseas students and local businesses. The number of international students can only be expected to grow.
Food exports to Asia present an exciting opportunity to capitalise on the vast natural resources available in the Territory. We are at the height of the mango season – an industry that is worth $60m a year. The Northern Territory is now the biggest mango producer in Australia. We are harvesting the best fruit and getting it to market first.
Fishing and agriculture are highly visible examples of the potential for growth but there are also enormous opportunities within the Ord River Irrigation Scheme in Western Australia. Minister for Primary Industry and Fisheries, Willem Westra van Holthe, has already travelled to Kununurra to continue building partnerships with the federal and Western Australian governments to tap into potential areas for development. Talks have taken place with the Miriuwung Gajerrong Corporation and local traditional owners to investigate the potential development of Northern Territory land into the scheme. The economic opportunities the scheme presents are great and will be at the forefront of any discussions on how the Northern Territory can benefit from future development.
But more than just the production of food, it is getting those products to market. My government has already identified the need for better transport and logistics, whether it is air services to regional centres for freight and for passengers or by linking in long-haul carriage by road and rail to port and beyond.
Revitalising our tourism industry is another key component of our three-hub economy. The Australian dollar affects visitor arrivals to Australia and the Territory in two ways. First, it makes Australia and the Territory more expensive holiday destinations, especially for visitors from key source markets such as the UK and the Eurozone. Second, it continues to encourage Australians and Territorians to holiday overseas. Declining passenger numbers to the Territory led to a rationalisation of airline seating capacity in 2011-12 which, combined with the loss of Tiger Airlines’ service to Alice Springs, made it more expensive and difficult to travel to the Territory.
The Department of Business has received feedback from many long-term local tourism operators who have great difficulty in finding suitable and affordable accommodation for their clients in Darwin. Many of the current hotels and motels are leased and occupied by workers involved in major projects and the detention centre. This situation is an example of how increased demand for one sector of the economy impacts adversely on other sectors’ ability to meet the requirements and expectations of this market. The excessive demand for worker accommodation is creating constraints and inflationary pressure on the tourism and hospitality industry. Tourism should be a major driver of jobs and investment but has steadily lost its gloss and prestige over the past decade. The industry is in desperate need of a major shake-up but I will leave it to the Minister for Tourism, Matthew Conlan, to update the House on important initiatives in his statement later today.
In conclusion, it is our goal to develop a three-hub economy and build on the enormous potential presented by the Territory’s rich natural resources and envious geographical proximity to Asia, but there are real challenges. We need to address key issues such as affordable housing, availability of skilled workforce, restoring the social fabric of our communities and making the Northern Territory an even more attractive location for investment.
The Northern Territory has a bright future and Territorians and Territory businesses are capable of much more than just mining or oil and gas developments, as important as they are. We are committed to growing a bigger, stronger economy that will deliver greater prosperity and long-term job opportunities now and into the future.
Madam Speaker, I move that the statement be noted.
Mr GUNNER (Fannie Bay): Madam Speaker, I thank the Chief Minister for his statement about the three-hub economy. We had highlights of it during Question Time prior to the Chief Minister delivering his statement.
I want to talk principally on the international education section. Unfortunately it was rather slim in the Chief Minister’s contribution. It is something I find quite interesting. As a Caucus and party we support the efforts of the university as an exporter. As a deliverer of education, the Charles Darwin University can be classified as an exporter. It does a fantastic job. As the shadow education minister I have had the pleasure of catching up with Barney Glover. I know the Chief Minister has met with him as I am sure has the Minister for Education. I know the Chief Minister in his roles in previous terms has talked with Barney. A lot of information is missing from the Chief Minister’s statement but might be coming later in other contributions.
Mr Mills: From the Education minister.
Mr GUNNER: Yes, from the Education minister about how we can work with the university because there are slim pickings in this statement. It only mentions 20 students from Korea, which is good, and support for our project to build a university campus at the waterfront centre. It is good to see that the CLP supports that and will be contributing and working with Charles Darwin University around that campus. A university campus in the city centre is something Darwin lacks.
I was going to the local university when, under the previous CLP government, the campus in town was closed and relocated to Casuarina.
It is important that we have parts of the university campus in our city centre. Having university students in our city centre provides a sense of positivity. I have no problems with there being a campus at Casuarina and campuses at Palmerston and elsewhere, that is fantastic.
I know Charles Darwin University has a process of putting campuses in places outside of Darwin altogether and it has campuses in other cities. But it is important to a have a campus in our city centre. It is something that has been lacking in Darwin for quite a long time. The energy you can get from students in our city centre is something that would make a positive contribution to Darwin beyond education.
That has been touched upon in this statement and I am looking forward to the Education minister’s contribution later about how else the CLP intends to invest in international education. How will it partner with our university? How will we grasp the economic opportunities coming to the Northern Territory over the next few years? They do not fall in your lap; they do not happen by accident. You have to work and plan for them and it takes the pressure of public service to do that. I know our Education department has close relationships with Charles Darwin University and I am making the assumption they will continue to have those close working relationships where government and university can partner to make sure we train our own and grow our own for the jobs coming over the next few years. We have to do that work to get those jobs. It is critical.
When world-class projects come to town and Territorians do world-class work on those projects, suddenly they become a valuable entity in themselves. I have no doubt we will see - if we do the work right – Territorians, both individuals and companies, starting to export their work and skills to other parts of the world based on the work they are doing on world-class projects in Darwin. That is one of the benefits of having something like INPEX come to town. As a Territorian or a Territory company you can do world-class work on a world-class project and suddenly you have skills that are exportable to other parts of the world. We will start seeing more Territorians on the world stage as a result of the work we will be doing on world-class projects like INPEX.
That is critical and something you have to plan for. You must have good relationships with something that is captured in education. That is not in this statement but the Minister for Education will hopefully touch on some of those things, such as how we will be training and working with our Territory population to grasp those opportunities, not just from INPEX, but from the other hubs the CLP like to talk about and how we will be working with those sectors. It is not just the university, there are other education providers in the Northern Territory, but Charles Darwin University is the main player in the Territory.
How will we be working with the university to deliver for our own and grow our own, and what will we offer to attract other people to be educated in the Territory? We have a good combination of location and quality of education that should appeal to people in our neighbouring countries.
It is important that we work with the university by selling the educational opportunities we have in the Territory to our Asian neighbours and work with Charles Darwin University to value-add to that export industry. It already exists, but how can we grow it and keep working with Charles Darwin University around the Asian engagement strategy to ensure we attract those students to the Northern Territory - more than just the 20 mentioned in the Chief Minister’s statement. I am sure the Minister for Education will talk about some of the overseas students who make up our mix in the Territory.
We can also export our education opportunities to other states and territories. However, there is a challenge coming from Charles Darwin University which I am sure the CLP is aware of. We have to work closely with them around some of the deregulations happening in the university environment to ensure Charles Darwin can continue to compete. Now is the time when Charles Darwin needs support from government to ensure it can continue to grow, provide quality education, and meet the challenges that are happening in the Territory - growing challenges, growing opportunities. It will need help during the next few years as the university sector, nationally, grows through a process of deregulation to create competition. We should not be afraid of competition; we should use it as an opportunity, but that means we have to partner with the university. We have to work with it to ensure we use that challenge as an opportunity to elevate what Charles Darwin University can provide.
There are some challenges for the new CLP government. I am interested in hearing what the Education minister has to say about how the CLP will work with Territory students to grasp the opportunities that are coming, and how the department restructure - and the savings that are happening within the Education department – will impact on those partnerships, those opportunities, and those things we are doing to improve our educational services.
We often say in this House there is no silver bullet, but to paraphrase - education is the silver bullet; it just travels very slowly. We always have to put an investment into education. It is not something we should ever walk away from; we should always be wary of how and where we cut within education.
Education and health are often the two things you should build your budget around. Within those areas you have to be careful about what you do, how you do it and where you do it. You do not want to lose people - corporate knowledge in the Northern Territory in particular, where our small population and turnover is critical. We have to be really careful we do not lose people with good corporate knowledge, good understanding of the Northern Territory and how things work. We have to be very careful about what we are doing. We are hearing some reports - obviously, things have not being finalised yet going into the 4 December budget, but we have been hearing very strongly in some reports on education about where the CLP is looking to find savings and this causes some concerns.
We have to be really careful about what we do in the education space because decisions there can ripple for years to come. We have to be very careful about what we do in that education space. We have some concerns about what they are doing there. We do not want to lose professional public servants and we do not want to lose or have a reduction in the services we are offering in education.
At the end of the day, it is about the child and the classroom or the adult training in a new set of skills. It is about the person who is learning. We want to ensure we do not make decisions that are going to impact on that person and, as a result, in the Northern Territory we are not grasping opportunities that are here for us.
You have to do the work. You cannot take it for granted that it is going to come; you cannot take it for granted that we will suddenly have boom times because projects like INPEX are coming. You have to invest in our own and, by having that broad set of skills base through the Northern Territory population we know we can embrace challenge and opportunities to come. Even better, we might have Territorians entrepreneurially creating. It is really important we create our own opportunities as well. Much of that comes out of a sound investment in education.
You cannot make mistakes around education because you may not see the consequences of a decision today for years to come. You have to be very careful about what you do in that education space. I am looking forward to the CLP Education minister’s contribution on what the CLP is doing because it was a bit of a teaser in the Chief Minister’s statement - a page-and-a-half. I have no doubt the Chief Minister has a greater passion and belief in education than has been reflected in his statement. I am sure we will hear some of that later from the new Education minister about what we are doing in this space in the next few years to ensure we are growing our own in the Northern Territory.
Debate suspended.
STATEMENT BY SPEAKER
Death of Mr Arthur Alexander (Saus) Grant
Death of Mr Arthur Alexander (Saus) Grant
Madam SPEAKER: Honourable members, it is with deep regret that I advise of the death on 3 October 2012 of Mr Arthur Alexander (Saus) Grant, a former Assistant Police Commissioner and well-respected Territorian.
I advise honourable members of the presence in the gallery of the family and colleagues of Mr Grant: Mrs Norma Grant; Ms Grant, a granddaughter; Mrs Robyn Hibbard, a close family friend; Acting Commander Sean Parnell; and Michael Grant. Honourable members, I ask that you welcome these people to this very important occasion.
CONDOLENCE MOTION
Mr Arthur Alexander (Saus) Grant
Mr Arthur Alexander (Saus) Grant
Mr MILLS (Chief Minister): Madam Speaker, I move that this Assembly express its condolences at the passing of Arthur (Saus) Grant, a leading police officer, a great family man and well-respected Territorian, and offer our profound sympathy to his family and friends.
I pay tribute to a leading police officer and a well-respected Territorian. Arthur Alexander Grant - or Saus as he was called by everyone except his mother - hailed from a town called Canowindra in country New South Wales. Born in 1937, he was raised on the family farm, the sixth of 10 children.
Saus moved to Darwin in 1959 to join the police force. It was the beginning of a distinguished career, marked by numerous professional accomplishments. Saus was intelligent, resourceful and hard-working. For the first 10 years of his career he worked in the Uniform Branch, the Criminal Investigation Branch, and as Officer-in-Charge of the Pine Creek Region. He then went on to lead the Training Branch where he supervised the training of many former and current members of the Police Force.
In 1974, Saus was one of only two successful candidates from the Police Forces across Australia, and one of 20 from Commonwealth countries to be selected to undertake an Executive Development Course with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in Ottawa.
Following Cyclone Tracy, Saus’ family was evacuated to Sydney. However, Saus remained in Darwin to play an instrumental role in maintaining law and order in during the rebuilding phase - such was his dedication to the Territory.
Saus was appointed Assistant Commissioner in 1975 and moved to Alice Springs to take charge of the Southern Command. At just 37, he was the youngest officer to have held that rank in any Australian Police Force.
On 14 July 1977, Saus was awarded the National Medal for:
- diligent long service to the community in hazardous circumstances, including in times of emergency and national disaster, in direct protection of life and property.
In 1982, Saus received a transfer back to Darwin to take control of Northern Command. He was again recognised with a civilian medal on 3 September 1985, and was the recipient of the Australian Police Medal for his distinguished service on Australia Day 1986. Saus was recognised with a Paul Harris Fellowship, named for the founder of Rotary, in 1989.
Saus retired in 1992 after 33 years of service. He continued to play an active role in the Retired Police Association.
That is Saus on paper, but on a personal level, he was a terrific family man who lived his life by a high moral code. In 1961, he met Norma Helen Bailey who was in the first squad of women inducted into the Northern Territory Police Force. They married in 1962 and had three sons: Michael, Tony and Matthew.
I was moved by eulogies given by each of the sons at Saus’ funeral. Their love and respect for their father is something we strive for as parents. They also spoke of the great love their parents shared and the positive effect it had on their family life. They remembered the time spent together, the things he did for them as a father, and his role as a doting grandfather who played a significant role in the lives of his grandchildren.
The moral codes Saus lived his life by was also mentioned in these eulogies: his values of fairness, accountability, trust and integrity. He was described as applying these sensitively at home, unwaveringly as a policeman, and intelligently as a member of the community. His sons spoke of the legacy being passed on to his children and grandchildren. Saus and a group of his workmates were responsible for instilling this code into the Northern Territory Police Force. These are values that govern the force to this day. These values have also been passed on to the Territory community in general. What a legacy to bestow.
Saus was interested in everyone he met. His keen interest in genealogy was not limited to his own ancestry. His genuine interest, as well as his fairness and kindness, saw him remembered by people from all backgrounds, regardless of the length of time they spent with him. Saus was a man who spent all his adult years serving the community. He was a man who loved and valued his family. He was a man who was well-respected and much liked and was a man many looked up to.
In his passing, the Territory has lost a great man who will be missed. My thoughts and prayers are with Saus’ family and friends.
Ms LAWRIE (Opposition Leader): Madam Speaker, I join with so many others who knew Saus Grant in offering my condolences to his family on his passing. Saus passed away suddenly on 3 October this year. Although it is of little consolation at this sad time, it should be of some comfort to know that in his passing we can celebrate a long and productive life which made a significant contribution to our Territory community.
Saus was raised on a farm in country New South Wales and came to Darwin in 1959 seeking opportunity and adventure. He joined the Northern Territory Police Force in that year. To put the matter into some historical context, 1959 was the year in which Darwin was first granted city status although its total population at that time was barely more than 10 000 people. Saus worked in what was then called the Uniform Branch at the Darwin Police Station.
My mother met Saus back in those early days, and lived in the same hostel as Norma. I would like to put her comments about Saus on the record. I will quote my mother, Dawn Lawrie:
- I first met Saus and his peer group of new recruits when I lived in the Commonwealth Hostel in Mitchell Street in the early ’60s. Even then he was known as Saus, and he was the same then as he was to remain all of his life - an absolute gentleman with a lovely smile and a great sense of humour, but also with a great commitment to the NT police force. His fellow recruits looked up to him, and even then he was regarded as a leader.
At the same time, I met the love of his life, Norma, who also lived in the hostel and was in the very first intake of female police in the Northern Territory. I remember the women had to be in plain clothes and wear gloves and stockings. Norma was also regarded as an outstanding recruit and very supportive of the others in that intake, and extremely kind to a couple of women who wondered what they were letting themselves in for.
- Saus and Norma’s engagement and subsequent marriage delighted all who knew them with Saus being considered as a future commissioner, even at that early stage of his career. Darwin being Darwin I would often run into one or both of them over the years and they never changed. They were the same warm and lovely people with Saus demonstrating all the very best characteristics of a police officer: firm, intelligent, aware of the community he served and a man of absolute integrity and probity. It has been an honour to have known him, and I extend my condolences to the lovely Norma and his family.
Because Saus was interested in people and family histories he quickly came to know the stories and interrelationships in the community. That made him an effective police officer because he was known and trusted by the old Darwin people, and because the majority of crime in those days was solved on the basis of information from the community.
In 1961 he met Norma Helen Bailey who was, as we have heard, in the first squad of women inducted into the NT Police Force, also from country New South Wales. In another of life’s many coincidences, Saus and Norma had lived 60 miles apart for the whole of their early lives but only became aware of each other’s existence on meeting in the Northern Territory.
As I said, there is some remote connection to their meeting because when Norma first came to town she was staying in the same government hostel in which my mother was staying. That was on the site of what we now know as the Transit Centre in Mitchell Street, and longer-term Darwin residents will remember that the hostel was still standing until the Transit Centre was built. Saus was accommodated with the other single police officers at the Mariner Hostel, which was strategically located right down the other end of town on The Esplanade. There are many old funny Darwin stories emanating from those two distant hostels.
Saus courted Norma, obviously successfully, and they married and went on to have their three lovely sons and celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary earlier this year. Saus and Norma moved to Pine Creek at the beginning of 1964 and had three very enjoyable and interesting years there. Pine Creek Station was responsible for a huge area and police officers were on patrol 18 days out of every month. Saus became well-known on the various stations, meat works, Aboriginal communities, mines and other settlements within the region.
Saus was transferred back to Darwin at the end of 1966 and worked in the Criminal Investigation Branch. His exemplary work practices and attention to detail led to his appointment as the Officer-in-Charge of the newly established Police Training College in 1969. He remained in that position until Cyclone Tracy. The officers he trained over that period remember him as a hard, but scrupulously fair, taskmaster. He also remained interested in and supportive of their careers after they had left the training college and gone onto operational work. Saus played a significant role in the reconstruction process following Cyclone Tracy. He was appointed Assistant Commissioner in July 1975, no doubt partly in recognition of his work during that time.
Between 1975 and 1982 he was head of the southern command based in Alice Springs. His integrity and capacity for hard work was also recognised there and he became a valued member of that community as well.
In 1982 he transferred back to Darwin to head up the Northern Command and remained there until his retirement in 1992 on his 55th birthday. Of course, the socioeconomic landscape has shifted since then and those of us presently in the workforce can only dream of retiring at the age of 55.
What it meant for Saus was that he enjoyed 20 years following his retirement in which he travelled extensively with his wife, devoted himself to his grandchildren, and cultivated his relationships with the old Darwin families that had begun so many years ago?
A beautiful memorial service was held at St Mary’s Star of the Sea Cathedral in Darwin on 10 October and Saus was recognised and honoured with a police guard of honour. The turnout at that ceremony was a truly fitting tribute to his standing in the community. I recall remarking to the Police Commissioner inside St Mary’s at the end of the service that old Darwin was turning out that day to show their respects to Saus. We heard beautiful eulogies from his three sons, Michael, Tony and Matthew, lovely readings from his grandchildren as well as the little ones with the offertory.
The measure of a life well lived is through the lives it touches. Saus’ family, friends and former colleagues can confidently say his life was well lived. May he find peace and comfort, and may we all find peace and comfort now we have seen the remarkable legacy this very fine man of decency and integrity has left for the Territory, shining through in his fine sons and his many beautiful grandchildren.
My deepest condolences to you, Norma, and your family.
Mr ELFERINK (Attorney-General and Justice): Madam Speaker, I pass on my condolences to the family of Saus, particularly his widow, Norma.
I was in the police force for about 10 years before Saus retired. I joined in 1983 and he retired in 1992, as the Leader of the Opposition pointed out. I remember my first impressions of Saus Grant - I only discovered after his death that his name was Arthur - but my first impression as a frightened 17-year-old police cadet was this grim figure who used to move about the police station, then in Mitchell Street, just across the road from this House. I remember what I considered to be a very stern figure but, of course, as a 17-year-old first year police cadet you cannot differentiate, particularly at that level of immaturity, the difference between a dignified disposition and grimness. Through the eyes of a 17-year-old, those two are not easily separated.
As time passed there were certain things I discovered about Saus - I still feel uncomfortable referring to him as Saus; I am more comfortable referring to him as Assistant Commissioner. What I realised, and what I came to discover about Saus Grant, or Assistant Commissioner Grant, was that I could trust him as a source of advice, I could go to him and not have a raised voice cast in my direction. And whilst he expected the very best of me as a very young police officer, he never asked me for the impossible. Only with hindsight do you realise that when you deal with people like that, they are not riding you and are not trying to make your life difficult as a police officer, they are challenging you to become better than you are. Through that process, some of their capacity, thoughtfulness and consideration rubs off on you.
I realise in hindsight that Saus was not grim or dour, he was very patient. He was patient in being a leader and taking people along with him. At no time in my career as a police officer did I ever hear a raised voice from Assistant Commissioner Saus Grant. He always carried himself with complete composure and, whilst it was a very businesslike approach, it was always thoroughly ethical, moral and upright. By conducting himself in that fashion he left for all of us who cared to look, even after he retired, a legacy we could touch upon as to what it was and should be to be an upright, decent and effective police officer.
I know the Grant family; one of my first partners in the police force was Neil Grant, and we had some wonderful times together. The influence of Saus Grant could be seen through Neil and Kenny, who I met a few years later in the police force. As Attorney-General, it was my great pleasure to have his son, Michael Grant, as my Solicitor-General. He is a very fine fellow and a reflection of his father in many ways.
I thought about a single word to describe Saus Grant, and I have already heard it several times here today. The word which sprung into my head was ‘dignified’.
I will finish with an observation by Aristotle:
- Dignity consists not in possessing honours but in the consciousness that we deserve them.
Mr HENDERSON (Wanguri): Madam Speaker, I thank the Chief Minister for bringing this condolence to the parliament. It is very fitting that this afternoon we speak about an incredible man.
I am pleased to contribute to this condolence because Saus had a long and distinguished career in the Northern Territory Police Force and was loved and highly regarded by so many people across the Territory. My contribution this afternoon is informed by my father-in-law, Tom Baker, who served with Saus for many years, and my mother-in-law, Joy Baker, who was very close to the Grant family.
As we have heard, Saus joined the Northern Territory Police Force in 1959 and retired in 1992. Thirty three years is a long, proud and very distinguished career. We have heard that Saus retired as an Assistant Commissioner and was awarded the Australian Police Medal in 1986.
What a difference it must have been for Saus to come to the Northern Territory in 1959 from rural New South Wales; that was a huge decision back in those days. As the Leader of the Opposition said, Darwin was a town of 10 000 people. Over his 33 years, what a change Saus saw across the Northern Territory and within the police force. I have not gone back to the annual reports of 1959; I do not know whether they had to be tabled in parliament, so I am unsure how many police officers served in our police force in 1959, but it was obviously very different to the police force today.
According to my father-in-law, and other police officers I have spoken to from that era, in many ways Saus laid the groundwork for today’s modern, highly professional and highly regarded police force. His contribution to the integrity of the police force and the standing the police force has in our community today should not be understated.
Over his 33 years of service, Saus mentored and trained so many people, including very many in his years in charge of the Police College. He personally and positively influenced the careers of so many police officers who went on to become very senior officers in the police force. These include - and it is not an exhaustive list - former Commissioner Mick Palmer, Assistant Commissioner Robin Chalker, Assistant Commissioner Graeme Charlwood, my father-in-law Commander Tom Baker, and Commander Terry O’Brien, just to name a few - all police officers who are very highly regarded and all recipients of Saus’ guidance and influence.
As we have heard, he had many personal qualities. He was a compassionate man, not just with his work colleagues but with the broader community as well and, and as we have heard, a man committed to living his life through a very strong moral code. He was passionate about the welfare of fellow police officers, not only at work but also away from work. He was always the first to offer help, assistance or advice to a fellow member going through a hard time.
Some personal reflections from Tom and Joy: The Baker and Grant families were very close. My wife, Stacey, went to school with Tony in Alice Springs and both matriculated in the same year from Alice Springs High School. Joy reflected in a note to Norma, on hearing of Saus’ passing, how Saus was the first to visit her in hospital in Alice Springs when she gave birth to their fourth child, Jessica. I do not know what Tom was doing at the time or why Saus was the first to visit; I have to get to the bottom of that issue. However, during that visit Saus spoke lovingly of Norma and his mother and talked about the special glow women have in motherhood. Joy has never forgotten that visit.
Saus was also a great supporter of Tom and once went to see him play rugby league for United at Anzac Oval. It was the only time that Saus went to cheer Tom on because Tom was a legend in his own mind as a player for the United Rugby League team. Unfortunately, Saus was running five minutes late for the game and Tom had been sent off within the first five minutes. Saus was so disgusted at Tom’s lack of regard for the rules of the game - he had been sent off within five minutes and had violated his own personal commitment to the code of fairness in his sport - that he never went to see Tom play rugby league again. I suppose that tells part of the story. However, Tom and Saus played squash together in Darwin for many years and shared very many memorable social occasions, but over a few glasses of red wine some might not have been as memorable as others.
Tom would like to have acknowledged here this afternoon that he held Saus in extremely high regard in so many ways and that all the Baker family were very saddened to hear of his passing. I offer my personal condolences to Norma, Michael, Tony and Matthew. I know you are all very proud of Saus, his life, his compassion, and his achievements. The Baker family share so many fond memories as well.
Saus made a huge contribution to the finest police force in Australia and, therefore, to the Northern Territory. May he rest in peace.
Mr WESTRA van HOLTHE (Primary Industry and Fisheries): Madam Speaker, I thank the Chief Minister for bringing this motion to the House.
It is with great sympathy that I note the passing of Arthur Alexander ‘Saus’ Grant on 2 October this year. Until his recent passing I did not know his Christian names; I have only ever known him as Saus. I think back to my young days as a police constable and the penchant Australians seem to have for shortening names. I remember agonising for a very long time about what name Saus might have had that could have been shortened to Saus. I never figured it out, but it was always an interesting exercise to go through.
Saus joined the Territory Police Force on 29 July 1959 with the registered number of 116. That says much about the man; a registered number going back that far means he was a police officer in the days of real frontier policing in the Northern Territory. I am sure it was an amazing time to be a police officer and can only imagine the experiences he had as a junior constable all those years ago. He served until 7 June 1992, reaching Assistant Commissioner before retiring after a notable career, which as has been pointed out, was a career of 33 years.
On 26 January 1986, Saus was awarded the Australia Police Medal which is an outstanding award reserved for Australian police officers who achieve distinguished service in the force. Looking back at that date makes me feel like a young fellow because I joined the police force on 20 January 1986, just six days before he was awarded that medal. He had already been in the job 27 years when I joined the police force.
Saus played an active part in the Retired Police Association of the Northern Territory and was recently responsible for producing the Citation magazine in partnership with Peter Simon. As a former Territory police officer, I had the privilege to meet Saus. He was well respected and much liked by his former colleagues. As the member for Port Darwin pointed out earlier, he was always an imposing figure to us junior constables - a little headmaster-like, perhaps. With that said, junior constables in those days knew their place. This is why I probably did not know Saus very well. You did not fraternise much with brass, you tended to stay on the ground floor of the Alice Springs Police Station and not venture upstairs too often unless you had a good reason to be there.
Like all Territory police officers, and many of them are notable, Saus was amongst those who achieved some amazing results under very trying circumstances. There are stories you hear about some of the well-respected police officers in the Territory. I was never part of this story but I heard it enough times to think it had some creditability: Apparently, Saus had gone away to do a course in police management. When he came back he was talking with his colleagues in the commissioned officer ranks and was asked if what he learnt at the course would benefit the other police officers around him and the people who worked for him. He was reputed to have replied, ‘I am not going to waste that stuff on those so-and-sos’.
As I analysed that, I do not know that Saus did not intend to share it with us. I do not think he needed to because of his management style and the person he was; he was able to manage the police officers and resources around him and deal with day-to-day policing without having to go to the books because he was a police officer who had come through the ranks. He had done the hard yards and he was able to bring that level of capability and capacity into the role he had as a senior police officer.
I express my condolences to Saus’ family. His contribution to the Northern Territory police will be remembered for a long, long time.
Mr STYLES (Sanderson): Madam Speaker. I rise today to add to what has been said about a great Territorian, Saus Grant APM. I arrived in Darwin to join the police force in 1981 and for me, as it was for my former colleagues the members for Port Darwin and Katherine, Saus Grant’s reputation preceded him. He was always known as a fair man and one came to find he was very highly regarded and revered by other police officers who had been here for some time. He was a great leader of men and a great role model.
He and his wife, Norma, have raised three fantastic sons who provide a great contribution not only to the Territory but to the Australian community.
Saus was one of those guys who got the job done. One of the quiet achievers who did not need to scream and shout; wherever he moved, things happened and the job was done. One of the most important things he did was look after the troops. We always hear these days that people in management roles do not necessarily look after their employees, but Saus Grant was one of those people who really did a fantastic job. He cared and he demonstrated that in so many different ways.
I recall during the most tragic time of my life when my wife was suffering from cancer, Saus Grant was there on a regular basis to check on how I and my family were going. He turned up time and time again, quietly, with a supporting hand on your shoulder. That is something I will carry for the rest of my life.
The measure of a police officer is not necessarily the laws they uphold, it is the way they do it. It is the care and compassion people show when they look after people and have to apply the law.
Saus Grant’s legacy to all those he touched on his journey is why he is held in such high esteem by all members of the Territory Police Force.
He has obviously transferred that to his family and to so many other police officers. That is probably one of the reasons the Northern Territory Police Force is one of the most highly regarded police forces, not only in Australia, but in the world. It is because of people like Saus - the way he trained police officers, and through his role modelling – that we enjoy one of the best police forces in the world.
As a sign of respect, members stood for a minute’s silence.
Madam SPEAKER: On behalf of honourable members, I also pass on my sincere condolences to Mrs Norma Grant and the Grant family on the loss of your husband, father, grandfather, colleague and friend. May you receive some comfort from the generous and kinds words that have been expressed today by members of this parliament.
Motion agreed to.
STATEMENT BY TREASURER
Power and Water Corporation Board
Power and Water Corporation Board
Mr ELFERINK (Leader of Government Business): Madam Speaker, we realise that government business is on foot; however, the Treasurer has a short statement to make to the House which is current and of some importance.
Ms LAMBLEY (Treasurer) (by leave): Madam Speaker, I thank the Chamber for their indulgence.
Following receipt of a draft of the progress report from the Renewable Management Board about the state of Territory government finances, the position of the Power and Water Corporation was confirmed against earlier preliminary advice. The Power and Water Corporation is in such a financial position that without government underwriting, it would not be able to continue as a going concern. A private company would have been moved into administration in such circumstances.
I was also made aware of the existence of correspondence exchanged between the then Treasurer and the Chair of the Power and Water Corporation Chairperson over 12 months ago, where the board was aware of the state of the corporation and they alerted the then Treasurer, and now Opposition Leader, to the state of the finances.
While I am appalled at what appears to be a reckless approach to the operation of this organisation, driven by pure political self-interest by the then Treasurer, that will have to be a matter for another day.
The board also has a role in the running of this organisation. Consequently, on Monday I asked for the resignation of the Chair of the Power and Water Corporation Board. She told me she would provide that resignation without delay. I have now received her resignation.
The CEO of Power and Water Corporation has been made aware of this resignation and has informed the staff. I acknowledge that the current chair has been a member of the board for the past 12 years. I will be meeting with the board later today and will be discussing who will fill the chair position in the short term.
Late last night I formally received the Renewable Management Board progress report and I have sent it to my department for advice. I understand the Chief Minister will be making that report public as soon as we have received the necessary advice, which will be either late tomorrow or early Thursday.
I expect to be making further announcements regarding the Power and Water Corporation in coming days. I want to be very clear on this: the gravity of the position of the Power and Water Corporation should not be in any way underestimated.
MOTION
Note Statement - Three-Hub Economy
Note Statement - Three-Hub Economy
Continued from earlier this day.
Ms LAWRIE (Opposition Leader): Madam Speaker, I contribute to the ministerial statement on the three-hub economy delivered by the Chief Minister today.
It is interesting that we have to reach the very end - page 19 about the Ord River - before there is a single mention of opportunities for Indigenous Territorians in the development of their land. And that is the only mention, one paragraph:
- Talks have taken place with the Miriuwung Gajerrong Corporation and local traditional owners to investigate the potential development of Northern Territory land in the scheme.
It is interesting that a government which prides itself so significantly on being very much the spokespeople for Indigenous Territorians issues a three-hub economy statement with one single mention of the opportunities of regional economic development for Indigenous Territorians.
You are a sham and are exposed as such in this ministerial statement. Whether you look at any of your three hubs - mining and energy, the opportunities in education and tourism, or our positioning in relation to the Asian century - you need to understand the opportunities that exist for regional economic development. They are abundant, but they are abundant only with working with the owners of a significant part of the Northern Territory land, the traditional owners.
Take tourism, for example. Any grasp or understanding of the opportunities in tourism in the Territory, the future of tourism, the product we have in the Territory and growing tourism as an economic hub – as the CLP says it will do – would have you talking volumes on the opportunity of growing the Indigenous tourism product in the Northern Territory and attracting the large Asian market to that exciting product through the Asian gateway of Darwin and the Darwin International Airport, out international hub airport.
But, no, none of that has been mentioned in the three-hub economy statement, completely missing the point of why a tourist would want to come to the Northern Territory. They do not want to come to the Northern Territory to see a carbon copy of another place in Australia, such as the eastern seaboard, they come because of the exciting Indigenous tourism product we have. I know that under our former Tourism minister, the former member for Arnhem, very strong work was done in encouraging the development of Indigenous tourism businesses and enterprises across the Northern Territory.
Mr Westra van Holthe: Tell us if that actually closed the gap anywhere.
Madam SPEAKER: Order!
Ms LAWRIE: I know the member for Katherine is a little sensitive because I am pointing out how much you miss when you put your hastily cobbled together statements before this House. Instead of chuckling, you might want to talk about the tourism enterprise the Jawoyn are running at Nitmiluk in a funding partnership from the previous Labor government. But, perhaps I am pushing a few buttons there.
It is extraordinary that the entire ministerial statement makes only one scant mention of Indigenous Territorians and any opportunity for any traditional owners. That is on page 19, and is just one paragraph talking about the opportunity of the Ord.
Regarding the opportunity of the Ord, what we have is rhetoric and no substance. The Ord was subject to much grandstanding and rhetoric by the CLP in the lead-up to the election, ignoring the fact that the Northern Territory was already a partner on the task force in pursuing the future potential of the Ord. The current minister made a reference to the Ord Stage 3 today.
What we have seen, though, is despite the minister for Junkets - as I now call the member for Katherine, who likes to board that plane and head out of the Territory whenever he possibly can. He is a frequent flyer; he gets the tip for the frequent flyer so far. He headed over to Kununurra to look at the potential areas for development. However, there is no mention anywhere of the infrastructure and the quantum of infrastructure investment required to realise the Ord Stage 3. Whilst there is a scant reference in the statement to talks having taken place with the traditional owners, there is not one mention of their requirements for payments if their land was to be developed.
I will be watching with great interest when the mini-budget is handed down on 4 December because we have rhetoric without substance in this ministerial statement. I will be looking for the tens of millions of dollars set aside for any settlement of native title to develop the Ord Stage 3. I will be looking for an amount in the vicinity of $200m in capital to develop Ord Stage 3. I know the members opposite are chuckling. That shows their ignorance. I know what you fail to realise – there are significant infrastructure requirements to develop Ord Stage 3.
If the members opposite think they are going to rely on their new-found friends - as the member for Braitling would have us believe; he has discovered that Canberra exists and that it exists to go seeking infrastructure funding from – and that somehow Canberra will stump up all of this infrastructure required to develop Ord Stage 3, and the tens of millions of dollars required to settle any native title issues, they are kidding themselves. The reality is that Canberra is on a significant belt-tightening pathway of its own. If you think someone will magically stump up a magic pudding to meet your rhetoric, then you are in la la land.
Maybe that is why you are slashing and cutting a swathe through the budget of the Northern Territory. Maybe it is because you have come to a realisation that your rhetoric and promises - your unfunded promises in the election - simply cannot be met without slashing and burning through the existing Territory budget. Maybe it has dawned on you that you have set yourself a whole host of pain headed your way - as the member for Barkly pointed out last week - in your unfunded election commitments.
In his statement the Chief Minister talks about diversifying the economic base for the benefit of all Territorians. The CLP would have us believe we were a one-trick wonder in government by landing the nation’s second-largest major project, the $34bn Ichthys project. Well you do not reach the point of fast becoming the oil and gas hub of northern Australia through investment in the marine supply base at East Arm just by landing one major project. You have to send the investment signals out there in terms of the foreign investment picture. A clear example of where the investment signals cross resources - not just oil and gas, but across resources - is in the area of mineral exploration.
Mineral exploration in the Territory grew by 31% to more than $195m under Labor. We were sending the clear signals via the fine work done by the then Chief Minister, the member for Wanguri, and the minister for Resources, the member for Casuarina, where they consistently went into China and Japan with the mineral investment exploration strategy. We drew down a $195m investment into mining exploration, growing that, as I said, by 31%, under Labor. But that is a truth the CLP wants to bury in the sand and ignore.
We also provided a tax environment which would attract business. We maintained the lowest taxing regime in terms of small and medium-sized businesses through the decade of a Labor government. Creating the lowest tax environment was another key attractor to investment in the Territory in terms of business. We heard bizarrely from the Treasurer today that it was the INPEX project that took us through the global financial crisis. That goes to show she does not understand that for three years before the capital investment started to draw down from that Ichthys project by INPEX, it was a $4.6b infrastructure investment by the Labor government giving small and medium-sized businesses right across the Territory real capital programs to construct, that literally kept the doors of businesses open; kept our construction sector at a growth capacity gearing up for when the major project would start to hit its straps. We are just seeing the start of that now. Critical also to that capital works program was the investment in the Power and Water Corporation and the construction of the new prison. I note that the CLP rail against both.
Private investment is surging back, quite aside from the $34b INPEX/Total investment. We have seen a $750m Montara oil field expansion. We have a $60m investment at Darwin Airport. I thought that would have rated a mention if you are saying tourism is a part of your three-hub economy, but there was no mention of it by the government. Also, production commenced on the $1.1bn Kitan oil field, as well as multiple defence redevelopments that amount to something like a $200m expenditure by the Australian government in defence infrastructure across the Territory.
All of these factors are missing from your three-hub economy. You do not mention defence in your three-hub economy. Given that defence is such a significant investor in our Territory and a contributor to our economy, given that we will only see growth in the prospect of that, and given it was so important for the Minister for Business to board a plane, leave parliament and go to a conference about defence, you would expect there to be mention of it. But it is a completely off the agenda for the CLP who simply have no idea. It is not in the three-hub economy.
And where did we leave the economy? Well, they would think it was just one major project. Again the inconvenient truth gets in the way of the CLP rhetoric. DeLoitte’s Access Economics forecasts the Territory’s economic growth to be the strongest in the nation over the next five years and we saw the CommSec report just last week forecasting the Northern Territory to have the second strongest economic growth across the five years at a ten-year high. You do not reach that point without investing right across the economy.
Resources will be more amply covered by the former minister for Resources and the shadow but, as I said, the inconvenient truth for you - a 31% increase in exploration in the Territory - there is no mention of that. There is no mention of the investment made in capital in the Darwin Port. The bulk mineral loader that exists at the port today was not there under a CLP government, and you cannot grow mineral resources trade across the port without a bulk mineral loader.
The Nolans Bore, which is the Arafura Resources rare earths project, was given scant mention in the ministerial statement, saying there is, unfortunately, not a state-of-the-art processing plant for that. I ask the government, are you proposing that you would offer Middle Arm as a site and a location for the processing plant for the Nowlans Bore mine? If you are, you have not read about some of the toxic by-product that would occur. I know you describe the Ichthys project as a 19th century project and one that should not be in the middle of Darwin Harbour, well I will give you a tip, if you consult with the Darwin and Palmerston communities on the location of a processing plant for Arafura Resources for the Nolans Bore mine and you propose Middle Arm - I look forward to the community’s response to that. I also look forward to find out how it could possibly meet any environmental impact study on its location in the harbour.
Yet, you are posing the question in your statement as to why a state-of-the-art plant cannot be in the Northern Territory when Arafura Resources wanted to locate it in Middle Arm. If that is a clear signal that under the CLP government you are open for business, open for Arafura Resources to put a processing plant in Middle Arm, you need to come clean with the Northern Territory community and sort that one out right away.
Or, are you proposing to put that industrial site at Glyde Point? If you are proposing a site at Glyde Point, where is the $500m investment in infrastructure? I will be having a careful look at your 4 December mini-budget for that.
The point you make in the statement about wanting to put the minerals through East Arm Port ignores the fact that there is a bulk minerals handling facility there, and investment in conveyor belts and hardstand.
The statement talks about the importance of education, yet I note there is no recognition of the importance of the Charles Darwin University business and hospitality school in the Darwin Waterfront Precinct. I welcomed a very minor mention last week by the Chief Minister in this parliament that the business and hospitality campus for Charles Darwin University would be proceeding at the waterfront - another great Labor initiative. You talk about education and the importance of education as an economic hub, yet you fail to mention there will be a new business and hospitality campus in the Darwin CBD, open and operated by Charles Darwin University. One of the things I love about that project and that great Labor vision of bringing the university into the city and making our city a true university city, is that it is linked with the NRAS rental housing subsidy scheme the Commonwealth Labor government has. Not only will it provide state-of-the-art facilities for people wanting to study business and hospitality in the heart of our CBD, at the waterfront, it will also have student accommodation.
Any of us who know the importance of getting that all-important international student to the Territory and the spend they bring with them would understand the importance of that student accommodation at the waterfront. What an exciting project for Charles Darwin University to show as it travels through Asia in terms of the opportunity to grow education. But there was no mention of that in this statement.
I welcome that the CLP in government now has some good things to say about the Labor government in Canberra. It has found they are not all mad because it is congratulating the government’s white paper on Australia’s future engagement with Asia. It is recognising how important Darwin will be in this important area, looking at our proximity to Asia, our natural attributes, our potential sites for new ports, and expanding liquefied natural gas processing.
It is fantastic the CLP can finally see there might be some opportunity in working with the government in Canberra. I hope the Chief Minister ensures planning commences immediately for an economic forum focusing on the Asian century to be hosted in Darwin, sending invitations to all our Asian neighbours, and understanding we have important trading relationships not just with China and Japan, but, with Indonesia, Thailand, the Philippines and Vietnam, to name a few of our closest neighbours. There is a challenge I am laying down for the Chief Minister in responding to this statement - get out there, roll up the sleeves, and have an Asian century economic forum hosted in Darwin. Invite our neighbours and really engage and create this white paper as a platform for the Asian gateway trade opportunities we know we could yield.
You would think, having listened to the bizarre antics of the member for Katherine in Question Time today, that we have no relationship with anyone in Asia except China and Japan. Well, the President of Indonesia chose Darwin as the site of the Australia-Indonesia Ministerial Forum. He chose Darwin as the site and recognised the importance of that. There was a very strong commitment from the then Labor government of the Northern Territory to ensure we have Bahasa language across our schools. I was looking for that detail in his statement, looking for the reassurance that commitment would be delivered and it was missing, despite the Chief Minister having said on several occasions that he would focus on Indonesia first and foremost in regard to Asian engagement.
I had the pleasure of catching up with the Ambassador to Singapore just last week. We recognised the importance of air links between Darwin and Singapore. Again, despite this statement talking about the Asian century and tourism, there is no mention of SilkAir and the opportunity those SilkAir flights from Singapore to Darwin can yield for our tourism industry and our business industry.
It is not mentioned because it is an inconvenient truth that Labor pursued, with industry partners, the SilkAir flights to Darwin, bringing that all-important business class traveller to Darwin into this Asian gateway that we are.
We saw in this statement a reference to cattle and the shipments to Vietnam. There is no mention that the Labor government went out …
Madam SPEAKER: Your time has expired.
Mr CONLAN (Tourism and Major Events): Madam Speaker, that was very well done. It was a shame you ran out of time Leader of the Opposition. Congratulations again on finding your niche in life. You are doing a wonderful job as Leader of the Opposition - just extraordinary stuff, very impressive.
Member for Katherine, I hope you continue to clock up hundreds of thousands of Frequent Flyer points in your role as the minister for Primary Industry and a Minister of the Crown in the Northern Territory. It means you are out there doing something. It means instead of sitting around twiddling your thumbs, asleep at the wheel like previous ministers, certainly the previous ministers for Sport and Tourism who did nothing, it is incumbent on you to go to the airport, board an aeroplane and promote the Northern Territory anyway you can. I encourage more of it and I hope you clock up hundreds of thousands of frequent flyer points over your time as minister because it means you are doing something. Get off your backside, member for Katherine, and get out there and promote the Northern Territory right away!
This is what it is all about and this is the legacy this government has inherited - the idle, the stationary. It was very hard to mobilise previous ministers, particularly in tourism.
Tourism is one of the pillars of the three-hub economy the Country Liberals’ government is committed to developing. I am pleased to have the opportunity in the House to explain why tourism is so important to the Northern Territory and the Northern Territory economy. What I want to outline in this statement is the plans we have to revitalise tourism in the Northern Territory.
The importance of tourism in the Territory is unquestioned on this side of the House. The NT has a higher reliance on tourism than any other state or Territory in Australia. It is a major economic driver with a broad impact on many other industry sectors. It generates a significant number of jobs in the Territory. Across the Northern Territory, one in eight people are employed in the tourism sector through tourism or hospitality. People employed directly due to tourism make up 6.1% of the Territory workforce compared to 4.5% nationally, which underlines the importance of tourism to the Northern Territory economy.
Our tourism industry is made up of nearly 700 businesses, including accommodation providers, attractions, tour and transport operators, and vehicle and vessel hire companies. The great majority - that is about 90% - of the industry is made up of sole traders; that is, micro and small businesses owned and operated solely within the Northern Territory. Tourism contributes an estimated $1.4bn in gross value-added product to the NT economy, which cannot be underestimated. That is, 8.5% compared to 5.3% nationally. Gross value-added is considered to be the most accurate measure of tourism’s contribution to the economy.
This higher than average contribution means the Northern Territory economy has a higher risk factor in the event of external shocks to the industry such as terrorism and disease. We have seen both of those in recent years: wars and natural disasters. That is important because tourism is a vulnerable industry, in regard to global impacts and its high reliance on discretionary spending and competition for share of wallet. The industry can be further affected by the higher Australian dollar - as we are seeing - and the health of the global economy. We are all experiencing that and are very aware of that.
The tourism dollar is competing against other leisure activities such as entertainment and shopping, or life commitments such as paying the mortgage, education expenses - whatever it might be - those everyday family expenses every single Territorian has to undertake. The total contribution tourism makes to the economy consists of direct and indirect contributions. Tourism has a broad impact on many industry sectors, all of which could be affected by its susceptibility.
The industries that directly contribute to tourism gross value-added in the NT include air, water, rail and other transport, accommodation, cafes, restaurants and takeaway food services. The indirect or flow-on effects of tourism demand include the supply of goods and services produced by non-tourism industries to satisfy the demand of industries directly supplying visitors. In the hotel industry, for example, this might include fresh produce supplied to it, and the electricity used to generate its power component to run the hotel.
The people creating the demand are not fly-ins or fly-outs who typify mass tourism; the people who come to the Territory are seeking a holiday with meaning and a purpose that indulges their special interests and fulfils the particular reason for which they have travelled - the Northern Territory is a relatively specialised tourism destination. This may be in the form of interactive learning which exposes them to different cultures or one that provides them with a physical or philological challenge. Experiential travellers - as they are called in the market speak - seek holidays that will provide them with a sense of personal enrichment. In other words, they are here for the experience. For many, the experience itself matters more to them than the destination. They are willing to travel great distances and pay substantial amounts towards having the experience. Consequentially, these travellers often yield high profits for tourism operators.
While the profit yield from these visitors is generally slightly higher than average, these travellers do not expect a superior quality of value for money. Many of these travellers rely on lead users to alert them to new places so they can explore them before they are discovered by the masses. In other words, word-of-mouth promotion often provides the motivation for subsequent visitation. To sustain subsequent visitation to the Northern Territory, destinations desired by these sorts of travellers need to be accessible. Given that the Northern Territory occupies about one sixth of Australia’s total land mass we have plenty of places for these people to explore.
Despite the importance of these travellers to the Northern Territory and the tourism industry, it cannot be discounted that visitors come here to enjoy the delights of the warmer weather, which provide an escape during the winter months. I have to qualify some of those comments because in my neck of the woods, that is Central Australia, it can get mighty cold; but we also experience some of the most glorious winter weather in Australia, blue skies, 25 degrees during the day. Okay, it gets cold at night, but nothing really beats an Alice Springs winter if you want to experience that part of the world.
Nevertheless, it is just not happening. In the last 10 years our market share of international holiday visitors staying overnight has declined from 13% to 7.9%. Over the same period, our market share of domestic holiday visitors staying overnight has stayed more or less the same, going from 1.3% to 1.4% - a minute increase - so it has stagnated. If we look at where they went during this period, about twice as many international holiday visitors stayed overnight in Central Australia compared with the Top End, whereas more domestic holiday makers stayed overnight in the Top End than Central Australia. We are seeing two types of experiences here.
With the new focus on marketing the Territory as a whole, it is predicted visitors will explore areas which previously may not have been considered. If we look more broadly at the figures for all visitors, not just holiday makers, for the year ending 30 June 2012, total domestic visitor numbers to the Northern Territory increased, but international visitation has continued to struggle. We need to focus our approach to further stimulate demand across the Northern Territory. Total international visitation during the same period was down 14% to just 263 000. However, I have to say that based on information provided to me by Tourism NT a couple of weeks ago, there was encouraging growth from the United States, which is up 7%, and north-east Asia, including China, which is up 9.1%.
The USA is now the Territory’s equal largest source market, equal with the UK. Who would have thought that that would be the case? Traditionally, the UK is our strongest market. I am unsure but this could be largely attributed to the ‘Oprah effect’ following the visit by the talk show queen last year.
Total visitation from most of the Territory’s key European markets and the UK declined in Australia, resulting in visitor numbers to the Top End declining by 12% and to Central Australia by 15%. There is a great deal of work to be done to arrest this decline in international tourism, particularly in Central Australia, and to grow and disperse this domestic recovery.
Under the stewardship of Tourism NT’s current CEO, John Fitzgerald, steps have been taken to explore the potential of other source markets like the education and cruise markets. Internationally, all the signs point to challenges to maintain visitation from our traditional western markets and increase our share of markets like China.
China’s outbound travel market is one of the fastest growing in the world. We have seen that emerge over recent years. Everyone is excited about China and the impact it could have on Northern Territory tourism, but our market share is less than 1% of Chinese visitors to Australia. We need to do something about that. If that could be increased to between 3% and 5% by 2020, it would deliver between 30 000 and 40 000 visitors per year, making China one of the top three international markets to the Northern Territory, based on current measures of international visitation.
However, as part of this government’s Asian engagement strategy we are also looking beyond China to capture the international market. As part of its future direction, Tourism NT has taken a leadership role in enhancing and enriching the industries focused on the East. In November it is running the inaugural NT China Operator Mission, providing representatives of seven Northern Territory businesses with fantastic opportunities to make key leisure and business events contacts over six days in Shanghai, Beijing and Hong Kong.
Let us turn to the domestic market. Recent increases in domestic visitation occurred across all purposes of visit, but particularly in business, which was up by 17%. People visiting friends and relatives was up by 29%, and people on holidays was up by 10%. This suggests that the number of visitors with a distinct reason to come to the Territory has increased; however, those who have a choice of location are not as likely to choose the Northern Territory as a destination to visit. It is interesting that tourism, when you break it down, really is about a lot of statistics and data and this is what we are seeing emerge as we look at the landscape of tourism throughout the Northern Territory.
If we look at the business segment we can expect some growth to occur naturally in this area because of people flying from major resource projects and other business activities. However, this segment includes business events which are worth approximately $51m to direct delegate expenditure in the Northern Territory, which is approximately $10m for Central Australia and $41m for the Top End. Those statistics are from the Alice Springs and Darwin Convention Centres, so we are looking at about $51m for those business events.
There is great potential for growth in the business events market and we want a bigger slice of that for the Northern Territory. There is no reason why Alice Springs and Darwin cannot become major destinations for business events and conventions in the future. We will do everything we possibly can to make sure that happens. A Tourism NT initiative to attract more meetings, conferences and incentive groups to the Territory kicked off in Brisbane last week and is travelling to Canberra, Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide this week, promoting what the Territory has to offer and showcasing 10 Territory businesses.
Business events is one of the highest yielding sectors; on average when delegates stay for a conference in Darwin they stay seven nights and spend approximately $3465.00 per person. In Alice Springs they stay five nights and spend about $2050 per person. The value of business events is an important component of the tourism industry. Despite the positive impacts these visitors have on the Territory economy, there should be a focus on encouraging the visitor for a return to the leisure market and to come here for a holiday.
The Chief Minister was a school principal so he would be particularly interested in the opportunities that have been identified for tourism in education, both of which are priorities for this government. There is a strong focus on learning Indigenous history in schools across Australia. This presents an opportunity to conduct this learning through excursions on location. To give you an idea of the size of this market, in 2011 there were 9435 schools in Australia and they tended well over 3.5m students. If we can attract primary and secondary school groups from the Northern Territory and interstate, tourism will receive a significant boost. The Northern Territory has a rich traditional culture and this can be used to provide a strong educational experience. Contrary to what the Leader of the Opposition was alluding to, we do take Indigenous tourism very seriously. We take all parts and sectors of tourism across the Northern Territory very seriously. Indigenous tourism has played a major role in that.
We can reasonably expect to increase visitation to the Northern Territory, increase visitation to attractions and enjoy repeat visitation from schools. This is not going to be a walk in the park for us. The principal challenge we face is providing value for money. For interstate schools, the cost of reaching the Northern Territory can be prohibitive. As I said, it can be quite expensive to come to the Northern Territory. Even for schools within the NT the cost of travelling can be quite prohibitive, daunting and perhaps even unattainable for some schools. Tourism NT is working with the industry to address this considerable challenge and we will do everything we can to alleviate any of those stumbling blocks or hurdles so we can make this happen.
Another potential growth area is the cruise industry. In 2011-12, 43 cruise ships visited Darwin; they carried over 50 000 passengers, the highest on record. An estimated $8m was spent in the Northern Territory by cruise travellers. The flow-on effects to Territory businesses are considerable. Cruise spend, refuelling and so on contributed to an estimated $55.5m, according to the Australian peak body Cruise Down Under. The cruise industry globally is now experiencing a period of rapid growth, especially in Australia. Tourism NT is aiming at the cruise market overall and believes Darwin and the Top End are ideally situated to attract cruise ships visiting the northern part of Australia and those venturing into Southeast Asia and beyond.
Tourism NT is currently going through the process of assessing quotes to develop a feasibility study that will build a business case to attract small to medium cruise ships with up to 500 passengers to home base their operations in Darwin for all or part of the year, utilising the Territory’s existing marine and tourism infrastructure. It expects to award a tender in the coming days - that is my advice. The study is anticipated to be completed by the end of 2012. Following that, it will be putting a case to the cruise companies to make Darwin a home base. I, as minister, will be doing everything I can to ensure our cruise ship industry is once again invigorated, lifted, and Darwin becomes a major port for our cruise market.
There is a good reason why the decision was made to link the portfolio of Tourism with Major Events, as Major Events contributes handsomely to the tourism dollar.
On Saturday, 20 October, I had the honour of officially closing the 14th Alice Springs Masters Games. It is always a little sad to close the games but, nevertheless, it was great to be there as the Sports minister to do that.
Mr TOLLNER: A point of order, Madam Speaker! Pursuant to Standing Order 77, I seek an extension of time for my good friend, the member for Greatorex.
Motion agreed to.
Mr CONLAN: The Alice Springs Masters Games was a wonderful event. The town of Alice once again experienced the influx of nearly 4000 participants from interstate and overseas, many accompanied by support teams, friends and family. There was, of course, a huge Territory component as well.
Events like the Masters Games, the Finke Desert Race and the V8 Supercars are all hugely popular. They draw crowds, put money into the coffers of local businesses, and attract national and international publicity.
I have taken some time to explain why tourism is so important to the Territory. This is just part of the story of the Northern Territory, as they used to say. The shape of things to come was another old jingle for a Toyota commercial - the Toyota 4Runner: look out, this is the shape of things to come. This is what it is all about for us.
The Leader of the Opposition did not get everything she wanted in this statement; however, there will be more statements. They will not be the ministerial propaganda puff pieces we saw delivered by the previous government. We will have statements outlining this government’s priorities and what we are doing. They will not be totally aspiration-based or what we would like to do, but what we are going to do. The tourism industry will form part of a three-hub economy for this government and the Northern Territory.
This Country Liberals government is committed to reinvigorating the tourism industry for the benefit of all Territorians. Major Events and all my portfolios have been strung together. I feel like I am the maitre d’ of the Northern Territory. I should have on my business card, Matt Conlan, maitre d’ and stand on the border shaking hands. It is the bums on seats portfolio. It is about getting people to the Northern Territory, shaking their hand and saying: ‘Welcome, get out there and explore’. It is incumbent on all of ministers, and everyone in this House, to ensure that happens.
We bang on about who is jetting interstate left right and centre. Let us get out there and sell the place, and if it means you have to jump on an aeroplane and spend a couple of days in Sydney, so be it. I do not think there would be one single Territorian who would begrudge you that. You can fly business class and have a glass of champagne in the chairman’s lounge if you want; as long as you are out there doing hard work for the Territory no one cares.
Plans are being developed to place Tourism NT headquarters in Alice Springs instead of Darwin. There will obviously be a presence in Darwin. The government has heard the message from the community that it wants the regions and more remote areas of the Northern Territory to be respected and resourced. If there was ever an example of a Darwin-centric government the result of the previous election was it - the regions had been starved, under-resourced and disrespected for far too long.
Central Australia and Alice Springs in particular have been hit hard by the decline in tourism. Moving Tourism NT’s headquarters to Alice Springs will do much to invigorate the social and economic environment in Alice Springs. We need to place agencies and departments throughout the Northern Territory, where appropriate, to give the regions back some of the clout they so richly deserve. We believe it will energise tourism operators and give their confidence an enormous boost as well. It will also bring the industry closer to the government and allow the regions to once again prosper and give them that much-needed lift.
This decision is not about taking from one and giving to the other. That point has to be made; it is not about putting Alice Springs in front of Darwin, or any of that nonsense. We still need a presence in Darwin, Katherine and Tennant Creek. It is about one product. It is not about a Darwin Harbour cruise versus a camel ride in Central Australia or a boat cruise up the Katherine River. It is not one is better than the other; it is all a Territory experience, and the product is the Northern Territory. That is this government’s vision: the Northern Territory is on sale; we promote the Northern Territory as a destination.
The key to our plan is reconstituting Tourism NT as a commission and appointing the Board of Commissioners to provide strategic direction. I have introduced a bill to that effect, which we will debate at length on Thursday. The board will comprise of individuals of the highest calibre. The Chair designate is Michael Bridge, CEO of Airnorth and Chair of the Regional Aviation Association of Australia, a position he has held for the last seven years. He is a long-term Territorian who has a deep understanding of local issues and is extremely capable of realising the Territory’s economic and tourism potential. He is a great choice and will do the Territory proud and will certainly deliver.
I say this because, during Michael’s 23 years with the Airnorth group, he has overseen the growth of the company from a small charter company to what has now become Australia’s second oldest continuously operated airline, with revenues of $90m per annum, operating some of the world’s most technologically advanced jet aircraft into some of the world’s most remote destinations. He has done a wonderful job. It is a great success story for the Northern Territory and something Michael Bridge and all Territorians, can be very proud of. Michael is a great ‘get’ for us to be heading up the Tourism Commission. Airnorth employs more than 200 Territorians and carries nearly double the entire Northern Territory population each year - no mean feat.
The reason it is so important to have the right structure and the right people driving it is because Northern Territory Tourism relies on Tourism NT to set the marketing direction for the Territory. The volume of small tourism businesses combined with the Territory’s small population base, remote locations, and other unique aspects means Tourism NT has traditionally played a stronger leadership role for industry than most other state and Territory counterparts.
Mr Bridge will be working with me to identify the right candidates to discharge that responsibility and have tourism in the Territory really firing. We cannot undersell that and underestimate what we are going to do. I know it is all words at the moment for you but watch this space - you watch it happen; this will fire.
I am delighted to say that Tony Mayell CEO of the previous Northern Territory Tourism Commission will be returning to the Territory to become CEO of the new reconstituted Tourism NT, and will also have a seat on the board. He will be based in Alice Springs. Tony has also been appointed Executive Director of the Southern Region for the Department of the Chief Minister. This dual appointment further cements our commitment to the regions, making tourism a pillar of our three-hub economy. Tony will not just be the CEO of Tourism, he will also be heading up the Chief Minister’s Department in Alice Springs. That is giving him real clout to crash through and get some of this stuff on the road to get this thing going.
Together with the other commissioners, they will seek to maximise the potential of all the initiatives I have described, for the benefit of all Territorians. That cannot be underestimated. Again, this is for the benefit of all Territorians: you guys over there, us guys over here - for everyone - for our kids, for the future of our families, the whole bit - the whole lock, stock and the two smoking barrels. Whatever it might be, this is about one product for the whole of the Northern Territory.
The new reconstituted Tourism Commission will provide strategic advice and guidance on how to address the many challenges that lie before us - and there are a number of them. Tourism has changed, despite what we claim you have not done, and the previous minister failed to do. Despite all that, tourism has still changed, and the way we go about attracting tourists to the Northern Territory and wherever you might be trying to attract tourists to, has changed. So, there are many challenges that lie before us, but we believe this will be a source of innovation and inspiration for the whole tourism industry.
As part of a three-hub economy we take tourism very seriously; it will form part of the three-hub economy; it will form part of the future of the Northern Territory; it will put the future of the Northern Territory back into the hands of Territorians, and on that, Madam Speaker, I commend the statement to the House.
Mr VATSKALIS (Casuarina): Madam Speaker, I was very pleased to hear the member for Greatorex speaking about tourism. He actually gave some insight into what he is going to do for tourism and what he is planning to do for tourism. I commend him for that because I have the same passion for tourism as he has. I collected some frequent flyer points by flying to China to attract tourism to the Territory. I was very pleased to be in China when CCTV, the biggest state channel in China, screened a documentary about the Territory to 700 million people.
I was looking forward to the Chief Minister’s statement because I thought it would be a detailed, deep analysis of the economic opportunities for the Territory and provide some new ideas; but instead we got a muddled statement, a shallow statement with no vision and no ideas proposed, nothing at all. It was just a statement to fill the time. Obviously the other side has no business to put before the House, so let’s put a statement together, that will take a few hours so Tuesday will be taken up and on Wednesday we have some legislation to introduce and we can do that. I know that is how politics works.
This statement showed Territorians what the previous Labor government achieved, because many of the things highlighted in the statement were put in place by the previous Labor government. Many people have spoken to me about how the CLP government is trying to erase any memory of the Labor Party and its achievements over the past 10 years. We have seen that happening slowly in many areas, such as not saying exactly what happened and how it happened, or who did it. All of a sudden, within nine weeks, they are claiming everything that happens now is their work and happens because they are in power.
The only thing I agree with the Chief Minister about is the need for diversification of our economy and the opportunities of the Northern Territory. The good old days have long gone and we have to think outside the square, we have to broaden our horizon. We live in Darwin in the Northern Territory, and many times I have said that to our south there are about 30 million people, while to our north there are two billion people, and two billion people means for us two billion opportunities in various sectors.
I turn my attention first to mining and energy. It was mentioned before by the Leader of the Opposition that one of the statements the Chief Minister made some time ago was that the INPEX project is a 19th century project. Today we had every person who spoke here praise INPEX; some even went so far as to say that it was INPEX that saved the Territory from the global financial crisis. It was not INPEX, it was this Labor government. It was this Labor government that took the Territory to the world; it was this Labor government that declared the Territory is open for business; it was this Labor government that introduced the Territory to Japan, China and other Southeast Asian countries.
The Chief Minister says he supports exploration. I remind him that it was his party, when in government, that intentionally stopped exploration in the Territory by withholding hundreds of licences for exploration in different areas of the Territory because they did not want, as a matter of principle, to negotiate with Indigenous Territorians who happened to have the land where exploration was about to take place.
My colleague, the member for Wanguri, was the first Mining minister and he still describes how he walked into his office and found a pile of exploration licenses stamped ‘not to be processed’ under the CLP government.
We support exploration and we ensured exploration happened in the Territory. In 2006, the exploration expenses in the Territory were $50m; last year exploration expenditure in the Northern Territory was $220m – that did not happen by accident; that happened because we went out promoting the Territory. I do not say that because I was a minister in the Labor government, organisations like the Fraser Institute said so. The Territory rated eleventh out of 300 jurisdictions, states and countries around the world as the place to do business in mining. The Northern Territory was rated first in Australia as the place to do business in mining. This is because we are proactive in promoting mining in the Territory and in assisting mining development.
I would like to mention Bootu Creek, Territory Iron, Western Desert Resources, Sherwin Iron, Ilmenite Resources, Mine Makers, and the oil and gas exploration, Hess, Falcon, PetroFrontier, Central Petroleum - the Territory today is covered with exploration applications for the whole land mass of the Northern Territory.
The name Arafura came up and the Chief Minister blamed the Labor government for not providing land to the Arafura to establish their plant. Arafura met once with the department of Mines, never met with the minister, never met with me. Arafura wanted land very close to the harbour. Unfortunately, some of the by-products of Arafura would not be beneficial for the harbour. One of their by-products was uranium. You can imagine the reaction of anyone in the greater Darwin area when you propose to produce uranium in the middle of the harbour.
Arafura acquired land in South Australia that is not near the waterfront. It is well away from the waterfront in industrial land. That shows that even other states would not give Arafura the land they require near the waterfront. We supported Arafura in every stage of its development. We even supported Arafura and its Chinese partners to overcome some of the difficulties they faced in Australia. I personally intervened on behalf of their Chinese partners to explain some of the firm’s requirements and to explain to the Foreign Investment Review Board the owner’s requirement for investment by the Chinese-owned enterprise ECE to Arafura.
When the Chief Minister talks about other ports in the Territory, it was this Labor government and me who proposed that Western Desert Resources uses the Bing Bong Loading Facility in Borroloola as a second port. It was me who proposed to the federal minister, Martin Ferguson, that the possible development and future development of a second port in the Territory, and the Bing Bong in particular, would be beneficial not only for the Territory, but also for the development of Western Queensland mining projects. I am pleased to say that Western Desert Resources had talks with Xstrata which are progressing very well.
It was our government that worked very closely with the Charles Darwin University to develop faculties and facilities to train people to support mining. It was the Labor government and me personally who instigated the geologist scholarship program in the department of Mines, which provides a three-year scholarship of $12 000 a year to Territorians to study geology - I believe one of your family members was a beneficiary of that scholarship - to attract and retain future geologists in the Territory.
We worked very closely with every project in the Territory to ensure that projects in the Territory use Territory companies for their construction, running and maintenance. We did that with ConocoPhillips and INPEX. We assisted companies to up-skill. It is very alarming to hear now that some of the local companies will not bid for INPEX contracts because they cannot meet their standards or they do not think they have the ability to meet their standards.
I noticed that the Chief Minister said he spoke to INPEX and asked them to consider local companies. Do not just talk to INPEX! Make sure your government is providing the opportunities and assistance to local companies to up-skill to meet the very rigorous occupational health and safety standards and engineering standards INPEX, and projects like INPEX, demand from companies who want to work there.
We helped companies and we expect this government to do the same. Today, we heard some very disturbing news, the Meijin company that made an offer to Western Desert Resources pulled out of this agreement and Western Desert Resources announced it is not aware of the reason behind it. I suggest that the government meets with Meijin on their proposed trip to China and finds out why they did not proceed with this acquisition and suggests to Western Desert Resources that if they cannot proceed with Meijin, they find someone else to assist the development of their mines.
I agree with the member for Greatorex, I would not complain about the minister travelling. As a minister I travelled many times in the past four years. I went to China 12 times. I propose to the minister that he build on the good work we did with the China development extraction strategy. There is work to be done there. People in the department have the knowledge and the contacts. I said before this is not about politics, it is about the Territory. I would be very happy to assist and talk to the minister, or his department, or with the minister and the department, to ask companies to invest in the Northern Territory.
At the same time, I suggest that the minister does not travel when problems arise in the Territory. When Pacific Aluminium made its surprise announcement to review its operation in Gove, the minister went to New Zealand to attend a conference. I would have travelled to Canberra to talk to Martin Ferguson and others to find ways to assist Pacific Aluminium with a pipeline or to review the operations in Gove.
I notice with interest the Chief Minister’s comments with regard to the white paper recently released by the Australian government. It is a great paper. It describes things the Territory has done for a long time. Some of these were done by our predecessors, the CLP - expansion to Asia, mainly to Indonesia, at the time. However, many were in our own time.
We proposed Darwin as the gateway to Asia, we helped Darwin to be the gateway to Asia and the Territory to be the forefront of Australia to Asia. We developed an Asian investment attraction strategy, we travelled to Japan, Korea and China. I encourage the minister to do exactly the same. Go to Japan, Korea and China! That is where the emerging companies are and they need the commodities the Territory has in vast quantities and they have the money to invest in the Territory.
We worked together with the Chinese Embassy. We briefed the Chinese Ambassador on many occasions, and they assisted us to meet people in China we would not have met otherwise. With them we developed a booklet which describes Darwin and properties to all potential investors to the Territory, and some of the taxation and industrial relations arrangements. It was written in Chinese. I urge the minister to build on the work done by the previous government and the department to attract other investment from Asia.
With regard to education, we have developed strong links with Asia not only in tertiary institutions, but also in secondary institutions. I believe Taminmin College and Dripstone Middle School have strong relationships with Kibito High School in Japan, while CDU has links with Haikou, the Beijing Institute and Hebei Institute in China.
We have seen the development of the Confucius Institute following the visit to Darwin by the Vice President of China Mr Xi Jinping and, of course, the Chinese government this year sent a university professor from Fujian to teach Mandarin at CDU.
In box 6.7 in chapter 6.3, ‘Adaptability’, in the white paper there is reference to creating opportunities for Indigenous Australians. Only once in the Chief Minister’s statement is there a reference to Indigenous Australia and that is only in relation to Ord River. There is no reference to Indigenous Australian involvement in the cattle industry, the mining industry, horticulture, agriculture or tourism.
I have said many times before in this parliament that Indigenous Territorians have many opportunities for employment where they live, where mining, cattle or agriculture are the industries which thrive in their region. I strongly encouraged, and in some cases legislated for, companies that wanted to develop mines in the Territory to put in place training and employment programs for Indigenous Territorians. I was very pleased to see McArthur River Mine has employed about 50 Indigenous young men in Borroloola, who do not do the work no-one else wants to do, they drive trucks in the mine. The same thing applies on Groote Eylandt and in Gove.
We also legislated for companies to put in place a community benefit trust account, the same way they have in Borroloola where the companies, apart from paying the royalties to the government, put in money. So when the mine finishes there will not only be a big hole in the ground left behind, but infrastructure, training opportunities or things the community needs. I found it surprising, going to Borroloola, to find that a community of 30 000 people does not have their own bakery or butcher shop. The bread and meat comes from Darwin frozen.
These are the opportunities that mining companies can provide to the area, to provide the opportunities for the finance for Indigenous people in those areas to acquire their own businesses or start new businesses. I remember very well when Cameco in Canada started mining in some of the Indigenous areas; they helped Indigenous people establish their own transport companies to service Cameco in the area. That company was so successful that in 10 years time, it expanded to provide services throughout Canada.
I say to the Northern Territory government and the Chief Minister in particular that we should not miss this opportunity with the white paper. We should engage all sectors of the community: education institutions, Indigenous groups of the Territory, and both political parties should work together to place the Territory in the vital position to serve not only Australia, but also Southeast Asia.
With regard to cattle, unfortunately we have put all our eggs in one basket, Indonesia. There are things that happen in Indonesia that are beyond our control. Some of the political issues in Indonesia will dictate the action that Indonesia will take tomorrow. One thing I have realised in the past two years is that the political situation and the political push and shove within Indonesia will dictate how many cattle come from Australia, when, and where. We have seen now that Indonesia wants to become self-sufficient. That is very ambitious. They will probably reach it, but not in the time frame they want.
Under the previous CLP government, we lost markets. We lost Vietnam, the Philippines and Malaysia. Under our government, we renewed links with Malaysia and Vietnam. We had 1000 head of cattle exported to Vietnam in 2011 and, of course, we had another 1000 exported to Vietnam recently. That meant the system we put in place worked and was not just selling cattle, but the department providing technical support to establish the feedlots and upgrade the abattoirs. I encourage the minister to continue that work because people do not just want to buy cattle; they can buy cattle from anywhere. What they cannot buy is the help with the systems we provided.
The minister told us he went to Indonesia but he did not tell us who he met there. Did he meet any of the ministers? The minister for Trade is vital and a very good friend of Australia. Did he meet minister Suswono who is one of the ministers who pushed very strongly for self-sufficiency and, subsequently, for the reduction of imports from Australia?
Talking about food exports and the development of the Territory as the food bowl of Asia can be quite difficult due to the price difference between food produced in Asia and food produced here. However, we have opportunities for making the Territory a food bowl and food source for Australia and the emerging middle class of Asia. I am very proud to say that for the past 10 years we worked very hard with the horticulture and agriculture industries and today the Territory is the biggest supplier of mangoes in Australia. We have done it with mangoes; we can do it in other areas.
Before I finish, I come to the fishing industry. The three-hub economy is missing something that would support it; that is, commercial fishing. In the past few weeks the Territory government has not supported the fishing industry, in particular, the commercial barramundi fishing industry, with the closure of Chambers Bay and Finke Bay. I have with me a letter to the Chief Minister from Kevin Enniss, a commercial fisherman, that was provided to him on 16 October and, more recently, a letter by Ziko Ilic and Carmel Ball titled ‘Sharing our resources, Fresh NT Wild Caught Barramundi’. I seek leave to table those letters because they highlight the plight of the commercial barramundi fishing industry. With regard to the closure of these areas, it was vital ...
Mr WESTRA van HOLTHE: A point of order, Madam Speaker! I move the member for Casuarina be granted an extension of time, pursuant to Standing Order 77.
Motion agreed to.
Mr VATSKALIS: I seek leave to table these two letters as well, Madam Speaker.
Leave granted.
Mr VATSKALIS: Thank you, member for Katherine.
The commercial fishing industry is important for the Territory. We have the opportunity to market our fishing industry throughout Australia and abroad as a clean and sustainable industry because we are sustainable. We only harvest 8% of our seafood resources when other countries harvest up to 30%.
The fishing industry here gives a unique opportunity to provide new jobs and new enterprise to Indigenous Territorians. I remember visiting the Tiwis and watching them farm barramundi. That was a fantastic opportunity for Indigenous Territorians and I was alarmed that I could not see one Indigenous person employed there. Most of the people were fly-in fly-out. There are opportunities at Groote Eylandt, Borroloola, Wadeye, and the coast line around the Northern Territory for commercial barramundi fishing, farmed barramundi fishing or other activities that are currently exploited by people who sometimes do not live in the Territory and come from as far away as Tasmania.
I find it ridiculous that we have people who come from Tasmania, lease a barramundi licence and fish in the Territory when someone who lives in Wadeye cannot do that or has not done that, or somebody who lives in Groote Eylandt has not done that and could not do that. Trepang, beche-de-mer or sea cucumber, is a species that Indigenous communities can successfully farm and make into a viable fishing operation.
There are many challenges for the fishing industry. We are and will be competing with other states but we can also work cooperatively with other states.
Finally, the Ord is something I pushed very hard for. The reality is the cost of the Ord and the rough estimates for the Territory alone for our area would be in excess of $300m. This is something the Territory currently does not have the capacity to do.
The other problem is that no negotiations can start with the Indigenous people in the area. Western Australia started these negotiations 10 years ago and with the WA government’s Royalties for Regions scheme there is significant money to be provided in the area. The federal government also came to the party to provide money. I had successive discussions with Gary Gray, the minister who was responsible for the Ord. We had meetings with the Western Australian government. I put different proposals to the Western Australians on the way to develop the Ord because I know we have a card in our hands.
The companies that want to develop the Ord, want the whole Ord not just one section now and something in the future. That is why I made it clear to the Chinese companies that visited me and proposed to open the Ord that we were happy to work with them as long as they put the infrastructure in place; these companies were actually keen to do so. The only thing they wanted to make sure of was that we were clear on the negotiation with the Indigenous traditional owners and cooperation with the federal government.
The Territory has a bright future. I always said that the Territory has a bright future and can provide opportunities for all Territorians irrespective of whether they live in Casuarina, Palmerston, Katherine, Yuendumu, Nguiu or Bathurst.
The mining, fishing, agricultural and horticultural industries are vital for the Territory and they are job generating industries. Let us grab this opportunity, let us not lose the opportunity, let us not play politics with it. I am happy to work wherever I can with my counterpart irrespective of whether he or she belongs to a different political party, especially if they are in power now. Governments come and go, but the reality is we do not want the opportunities for the Territory to go away; we want them to come here.
Mr WESTRA van HOLTHE (Primary Industry and Fisheries): Madam Speaker, I support the Chief Minister’s statement on the creation of a three-hub economy for the Northern Territory. I have listened to a number of the contributions, particularly those of the member for Casuarina and the Opposition Leader. I always like to give credit where credit is due and after listening to the two contributions by those members opposite, it is clearly the former minister for Primary Industries and Mines and Energy who has a far better understanding of life in the Territory when it comes to the economy and how primary industries, fisheries and mines and energy contribute.
Instead of listening to the carping and whining of the Leader of the Opposition, the member for Casuarina had a far more reasoned debate and contribution to all of this. I appreciate his offer to assist in any way he can. I might even consider that, member for Casuarina, and how you might be able to assist, bearing in mind that it is the department that carries with it the corporate knowledge from government to government. Thank you, nonetheless.
There is a general understanding when you are comparing Labor politics with the conservative side that in general terms Labor does not do primary industries very well; you can go right across the country and find examples of that.
Notwithstanding the efforts of the former minister, you can see why there was a collective sigh of relief across the Northern Territory when the Country Liberals were elected on 25 August, because it became apparent that the Leader of the Opposition hates primary industries. The way she went on about the Ord clearly said to me she had no interest whatsoever, and still has no interest, in finding ways to grow the Territory’s economy through the primary industry sector. I heard a rumour that the former minister and the current Leader of the Opposition were quite at odds over many things that went on in their government and the Ord was one of those. I can see now why they were at loggerheads over this. A minister who was probably trying to do the right thing, confronted by a mean-spirited Labor Party stalwart who had no interest in developing primary industries in the Northern Territory, let alone for the regional benefit it might bring to the western part of the Territory and Katherine. Now I come to understand clearly how and why that occurred.
Having said that, the member for Casuarina said these things are hard. Yes they are, but that does not mean that you do not pursue them. We have a number of goals, some of them are aspirational goals, but nonetheless we have them. Where we see there will be economic benefits to the Territory we will pursue those goals, no matter how hard they are. That is what government is all about, confronting those challenges, building the Territory against the odds, despite the difficult terrain we might have to cross. The problem we had with the last 10 or 11 years of the Labor government is that they were not prepared to go over the hard terrain and make those hard decisions. It was not within their thinking.
The essence behind developing a three-hub economy is to ensure that the Northern Territory is not dependent on just one project or industry. Two of these three hubs, food production and exports, and mining and energy, fall within my portfolios and align directly with the functions of the Department of Mines and Energy and the Department of Primary Industry and Fisheries. The Territory’s major resource-based industries of primary industry, fisheries, and minerals and energy account for around 10% of the total Territory workforce and for around 8% of all businesses engaged in the Territory economy. However, ABS data shows that mining and energy remains the single biggest contributor to the Territory’s economy, accounting for over 17% of economic activity from all sources, both private and public.
The mining industry is the Northern Territory’s largest industry and is crucial to the economic growth of the Territory and the development of our regions. Mining directly employs nearly 4000 Territorians, including many Indigenous Territorians, with many more employed in related industries.
At this juncture, the member for Casuarina and the Leader of the Opposition both went to great pains to point out there was little mention of Indigenous Territorians in the Chief Minister’s statement. Why do we have to continue patronising Indigenous Territorians by separating them from the rest of us? For goodness sake, are we not all Territorians? Do we have to constantly refer to Indigenous Territorians, non-Indigenous Territorians, Indigenous Australians or non-Indigenous Australians? When are we going to be politically mature enough to talk about Territorians, all Territorians, not because of the colour of their skin? When will we be politically mature enough to talk about all Australians?
That goes to the crux of what this government is all about. We want to develop the Northern Territory for all Territorians regardless of whether you are black, white, come from the Philippines China, Indonesia, or anywhere else. If you are a Territorian and you live here, we are going to grow the Northern Territory’s economy for the benefit of all of you, not just select groups.
I turn to what I was saying before. In 2011-12 the value of mining production was approximately $2.8bn and the combined total value of the production and manufacture of minerals and energy is estimated to have been over $7bn. This industry is predicted to increase by over 10% to $8.5bn in 2012-13. However, the combination of the Territory’s rich resources and emerging projects provides tremendous potential for the industry to expand, which will increase the prosperity and development of the Territory, particularly to our regional areas which is most important.
This government is dedicated to working with industry to make this happen. We are unambiguously supportive of exploration and the responsible exploitation of our resources. This government has a strong commitment to openness and transparency, and will ensure there is a regulatory framework which provides an environment of certainty for the industry to operate in.
For many decades the Territory economy has been supported by a number of long-term, world-class mines such as Ranger, Gove, Groote Eylandt and McArthur River. These mines underpin the regional economies in the areas in which they operate, and the government will continue to work with their operators to ensure they have every opportunity to thrive and remain important contributors to the Northern Territory for many years to come.
However, we cannot rely on these mines forever. It is of some concern that it has been many years since a major new mine commenced operation in the Territory. Clearly, the Territory needs a pipeline of new projects coming in to production in order to establish the next generation of mines for the Territory.
With this in mind, it is pleasing to note many potential mining projects are at an advanced stage across the Territory. This includes five proposed new mining projects currently undergoing environmental assessment, and six that have completed environmental assessment and are in the mining approvals process. Many of these are large, potentially long-term mining projects such as the proposed iron ore projects of the Roper River area which have potential to be in production within the next year.
I pick up on the point made by the member for Casuarina earlier about Meijin and the sudden withdrawal of its support for Western Desert Resources. I have taken some advice on this and understand the project will go ahead nonetheless and moves will be made by me, as the minister, and the department, to better understand the reasons behind this change of thinking. However, at the end of the day, decisions by investment companies such as Meijin will be theirs to make based on the circumstances that exist for them at the time. Of course, if there are ways we can assist or provide information, we will endeavour to do that.
There are also many emerging projects in Central Australia that have the potential to significantly increase this industry’s contribution to the economy of the Alice Springs region. The Territory is also emerging as an important player in the global petroleum industry. Downstream gas processing is a tremendously important industry for the Territory economy as Darwin becomes one of Australia’s leading LNG hubs. This government will continue to work to encourage further investment in downstream processing and to ensure that Territory business has the opportunity to maximise the benefits presented by major projects such as the INPEX LNG plant.
The Territory’s petroleum industry is about to expand further with the recognition of the vast potential of onshore regions of the Territory for unconventional petroleum such as shale oil and shale gas. This year, shale gas and shale oil exploration activity has moved to a new level in the Territory with a number of promising early results. As regulators, this government will work with industry to address community concerns around horizontal stimulation of wells - or fracking as it is more commonly known. Shale gas and oil exploration in the NT is geologically and technically very different to coal seam exploration which has caused so much controversy in the eastern states and, of course, the United States of America. This favourable geology, combined with best practice regulation and safeguards being implemented by my department, point to a positive future for this exciting industry in the Territory.
This government will work with industry to continue to keep the community informed and allay any fears that exist around the application of these new technologies. This government is well aware that the future of our mining industry relies on a healthy exploration industry. It is only by encouraging and supporting companies to explore new ground that we will continue to grow the industry. In a globally competitive environment for attracting exploration, the Territory government has an important role to play in highlighting the benefits and opportunities for explorers to commit their exploration dollars here in the NT.
Exploration in the Territory has been at record levels with around $210m spent on exploration for minerals in the last financial year. However, we need to continue to work hard to maintain and grow these high levels of exploration, given falling prices for many of the commodities and difficulties faced by small explorers to raise funds for exploration. I believe that with increasing knowledge and understanding of the Territory’s huge resource potential we will continue to raise the NT’s profile in the global industry and prove that we are a good investment.
It is a priority for this government to ensure the Territory is an attractive place to invest in exploration and mining. For this reason, a key platform of our pre-election mining policy was to continue to support the pre-competitive geosciences programs undertaken by the geological survey in my department. As minister, I clearly understand the importance of providing high-quality, accessible geosciences data and exploration incentives to attract explorers to the Territory and make their exploration more effective.
There are already numerous examples of how the geological survey activities had led to new discoveries by industry over recent years, and I will continue to support these efforts to grow the industry further. But attracting explorers into the Territory is just one challenge. We also need to ensure companies can raise the funds they need to undertake meaningful exploration and projects towards actual development.
The government recognises that foreign investment in our resources sector is absolutely vital to provide the necessary capital to fund large-scale exploration and mining developments in the NT. Over recent years, China has become an increasingly important player in our resources industry and there is no doubt that our relationship with China is a critical element to the growth of the industry.
To that end, in a few days time I will be personally leading a business mission to China based around the China Mining Congress in Tianjin. This business mission will include one of the largest mining industry contingents ever invited to join a Territory government delegation. This includes a number of junior companies with projects in the NT that need a major investor to help them get their projects over the line. Assisting these companies attract investment can have tremendous long-term benefits for regional areas of the Territory, but attracting international investment into our exploration and mining sectors in not all about China. This government will be seeking a diversity of international investment in the NT, including other key markets such as North America, Japan, Korea and other emerging economies in our region.
Finally, while I have already indicated the new government is pro-development, we take our regulatory responsibilities seriously. This government supports the responsible development of our mineral resources and following of due process with regard to those regulatory approvals. Put simply, projects which meet regulatory guidelines, including environmental obligations, and adequately address economic, cultural and social outcomes, will be approved.
This government also appreciates the importance to industry of the timeliness of regulatory approvals to enable greater certainty in planning. I am already working with my department to investigate and identify greater efficiencies in the approvals process. While I believe the current regime is robust, we should always strive for improvement where possible.
This government aims to work closely with the mining industry to be open and transparent about how the industry is performing, and to ensure the community is well-informed with factual information about exploration and mining. To that end, we encourage mining companies, particularly those dealing with controversial issues, to make the effort to get out into the public space and provide the factual information, not emotional information, but straight down the line information about their project.
This government is dedicated to the creation and support of the three-hub economy. It is determined to not only tell the world, but show the world the Territory is open for business. We will not let the Territory become dependent on the success of one industry. The creation of the three-hub economy means we are placing our eggs in different baskets.
One of the three hubs is food exports. There is tremendous potential to expand both export and domestic markets for Territory products. The three factors which will contribute directly to this goal are growth in plant industries, growth in animal industries, and improved market access.
One of our election commitments was to separate the departments of minerals and Energy from Primary Industry and Fisheries to facilitate better investment for each industry sector. This has already been achieved. Under this government there will be greater focus on research and development for key crops.
As the NT mango production currently occurs over a limited period, there is a strategy to expand this window utilising new root stocks, new varieties, new geographic production regions, and evaluating production management practices to advance or delay fruit maturity.
Ms ANDERSON: A point of order, Madam Speaker. Pursuant to Standing Order 77, I seek an extension of time for the minister.
Motion agreed to.
Mr WESTRA van HOLTHE: I thank my colleague, the member for Namatjira.
Of the 5000 tonnes of mangoes exported annually from Australia, approximately 60% is Northern Territory fruit, which is exciting. The main markets currently are New Zealand, Singapore, Hong Kong, United Arab Emirates, Japan and China. There is tremendous potential for the China market to expand, and Russia has also been identified as an emerging market for Territory mangoes.
Improved biosecurity was a key element of this government’s primary industries election platform. Current research to develop an alternative protocol for fruit fly has the potential to provide for direct export out of the port of Darwin without requiring post-harvest treatment for mangoes. Should this occur, there is the potential for significant cost savings for the industry as well as environmental benefits for minimal pesticide use.
To meet the demands of expanding markets, our horticulture industry requires new land releases to be opened. As the relevant minister, I have already travelled to Kununurra, as has been pointed out by a number of people in this House today, to inspect, firsthand, the development potential of the Ord River Scheme and to speak to key regional stakeholders.
Another of our election commitments was to establish a unit to advance the Territory component of the Ord River scheme. While there has been no formal decision on how the NT land in the Knox Plain and Keep River areas will be developed, my department is working with its counterparts in Western Australia and with traditional owners to ensure early engagement and respectful consultation occurs before addressing native title, environmental clearances and biosecurity issues.
Banana production in the Top End has huge potential with Woolworths and Coles now requiring suppliers to source 30% of their production outside of North Queensland. My department is already working to ensure local growers can take advantage of this opportunity. Northern Territory primary industry, which includes the farming of cattle, other livestock, horticulture and mixed farming, forms an integral part of this government’s plan for a thriving three-hub Northern Territory economy that will create jobs and opportunities for Territory families.
In particular, our beef cattle industry plays a key role in providing jobs, training and economic benefits to some of our most regional and remote areas. Our cattle industry is worth more than $200m a year to the Northern Territory. It is important to point out, in light of some of the things that have been said here, that the live cattle export industry was commenced under the former CLP government and the work of blokes like Mick Palmer should not go unmentioned in the engagement they provided within Indonesia and other parts of Southeast Asia to develop that trade.
The Territory is home to around 200 pastoral leases and has a total cattle herd of around two million head. Up to two thirds of these cattle are sold to the live export trade. There is real potential for the Territory herd size to increase to 2.5 million in the next 10 years, given factors such as sustained markets, favourable seasonal conditions, and a commitment from this government - and this is important - to support industry to ensure greater efficiency in herd production, intensification of cattle enterprises and better land utilisation.
While the live export trade substantially increases returns for cattle producers and creates jobs, the Australian government’s temporary ban on live cattle exports to Indonesia and the subsequent halving of Indonesia’s import quota has thrown the Top End’s cattle industry into turmoil. As well, the weight limit of 350 kg for feeder cattle, which has been strictly in force since 2010, remains in place. This government believes the pastoral industry is a substantial contributor to the Northern Territory’s economy and we have already begun to re-engage with Indonesia, our largest overseas live export market, and are working to substantially increase live cattle export quotas.
We strongly support the Territory’s beef cattle industry and we will do all we can to repair the damage done by the Australian government’s temporary live export ban. This government is supporting the beef cattle or pastoral industry and working to ensure it is profitable. To help the pastoral industry bounce back, we are working closely with industry associations such as the Live Export Association and the NT Cattlemen’s Association, and we will establish a high-level ministerial council to provide a direct line of communication between me, as the relevant minister, and the pastoral sector.
However, as the outlook for the Territory cattle industry remains challenging, this government is dedicated to widening the opportunities for pastoralists and my department is working with industry to investigate and develop new live export markets and the establishment of local processing facilities. There is strong potential for new regular live export markets in Vietnam, the Philippines and Malaysia. My department is working closely with the Department of the Chief Minister and with the NT Livestock Exporters Association and the NTCA to maintain existing markets and develop new livestock trade opportunities overseas. The department is a keen participant in industry delegations. It is responsible for the preparation of feasibility studies and provides technical services and training to the industry, as well as providing training to new importers prior to receiving shipments of Territory cattle.
An alternative market for cattle not suitable for live export is the establishment of an abattoir in the Top End. My department has been providing facilitation support and technical advice to a number of potential abattoir proponents, with the principal proponent, Australian Agricultural Company, well ahead with plans to establish a processing plant in the Livingstone area. This abattoir will be on a large scale, processing around 2000 cattle every week, and will supply meat to restaurants and wholesale markets in the Territory and interstate. On much smaller scales are the establishment of abattoirs on Elsey Station and another near Ngukurr. While these abattoirs will provide jobs in the bush, training opportunities, and an alternative market opportunity for nearby pastoralists, importantly, they will provide a source of fresh meat for local communities.
One of this government’s election commitments related to the review of export yards to ensure the capacity keeps pace with industry growth. This review is already under way in consultation with the Northern Territory Livestock Exporters Association. This government is determined to develop the Territory as a leader in horticulture research. To this end, I have instructed my department to research the establishment of an annual horticulture research and extension seminar which will involve the industry and key government agencies. Now that Primary Industry and Fisheries is a stand-alone department it is better placed to facilitate enhanced investment and development in the industry, including ensuring robust biosecurity measures are in place to protect agriculture and the future potential of our primary industry.
A wide range of Territorians and visitors depend upon or enjoy the healthy state of our fisheries. Many Aboriginal communities have strong customary links with our aquatic environments and rely on fish for food, culture and potential economic development opportunities. Our commercial fisheries and aquaculture industries have a combined value of over $50m and provide valuable supplies of high quality seafood such as mud crab, tropical snappers, barramundi, shark and mackerel to restaurants and retail markets.
The government is already delivering on its election commitment to develop a resource sharing framework to enable evidence-based analysis to be applied to resolve access and resource attribution issues and give industry the certainty it needs to invest with confidence. The government is striving for the equitable distribution and optimal use of resources for all sectors while maximising public benefit. We are actively looking at what can be done to help the commercial fishing industry grow and prosper, and I recently met with the NT Seafood Council to seek its views on the priority fisheries that can be further developed to increase seafood production in the Territory. Most of the Territory’s existing fisheries have growth and market expansion potential.
The government is engaging with industry to address the priority infrastructure needs to protect and enhance the viability and profitability of our primary industries. We will continue to work with and for Indigenous Territorians to afford them every opportunity to be involved in the seafood industry and to play a key role in the expansion of the Territory’s commercial fishing industry under the three-hub economy, including significant development opportunities in the form of food-to-community projects, and small and large-scale business ventures.
This government is committed to reducing the regulatory burden on Territory fishing businesses and will put in place procedures, policies and legislation to ensure the Territory’s regulatory environment is efficient and effective. The government will continue to support the Territory’s aquaculture industry by providing technical support and research targeted to improve production, maximise economic returns and protect the industry from biosecurity threats.
I am running out of time; however, I want to say in closing that we will continue to work with industry to ensure the primary industry and fisheries and mining and energy sectors remain strong and buoyant across the Northern Territory, that they grow commensurate with the requirements of the Northern Territory’s economy, that they can contribute well into the future by bringing on new mines, new production mines and ensure every Territorian has the chance to benefit from the work being done in this sector.
Mr WOOD (Nelson): Mr Deputy Speaker, I thank the member for Katherine for the best speech I have heard on primary industry since I came to parliament. I wish it was a speech on its own so we could contribute to many of the things you said. I missed the first part, but what I heard of the rest was a breath of fresh air.
The other great thing is that we now have a Department of Primary Industry and Fisheries and a Department of Mines and Energy. I never want to see the Department of Resources again because for so long - I have said it many times - the department of Primary Industry was always the poor cousin of the previous government. I am very pleased to see the contribution you have put forward today, minister. That does not mean I do not have any questions, but that is what parliament is about.
I understand you were talking about the Chief Minister’s statement - the three-hub economy. I am not really rapt in this idea of the three-hub; it reminds me of a three-wheeled car. I would rather the idea of a multi-hub economy. I have always said we cannot rely on mines and energy, or some of those major industries only; we have to diversify. When times are tough and one industry goes down, at least you have other industries which can keep the economy moving along.
There is great potential for agriculture and horticulture in the Northern Territory. There are doubters out there who say we will never be the food bowl of the world. They are probably right, but we might be what I would call the saucer. We can contribute to the food production of the world.
I am probably going to get away from the few notes I wrote because, listening to the minister, I enjoyed what he was saying, and it raised some issues I have wanted to raise for some time and have probably mentioned before in speeches. It is great the government is going to have a look at the Ord River. Ord River Stage 3 is not as simple as people think; it is complex because of native title. There were proposals for an extension of Keep River National Park as well, so there is a fair bit of work to be done. However, we have to keep moving.
The issue about which the government has to indicate whether it agrees with or not - and I will put up my hand and say I agree - is whether it will support the company that wants to grow genetically modified cotton. The member for Katherine comes from a region where a seven-year trial of GM cotton was shown to be environmentally okay. If anyone has doubts they just need to obtain a copy of the results of that experimental work, and they will find that you could not have a crop that was sprayed less and it only uses the same amount of water as mangoes and peanuts use today.
There is still great potential in the Ord. But also we really need to work hard on mapping those areas in the Northern Territory that are also suitable. I went down last year - I think it was, or the year before - towards Mistake Creek which is an Indigenous cattle station. On the way, you go across the Negri River which feeds into Lake Argyle. There are soil types through that area, towards Timber Creek, very similar to that of the Ord River area. What is the potential of using some of that land for horticulture and intensive agriculture? Of course, we have the Sturt Plateau which is ideal climate-wise, soil-wise, and rainfall-wise, and has underground water potential for other forms of agricultural development besides the cattle industry. If we are serious about increasing food production in the Northern Territory we have to ensure all the required information is there.
One of the failings of the CLP government in years gone by was because we did not tell farmers the right information; that is, the Douglas Daly. The Douglas Daly was promoted as not quite the food bowl, but it was going to develop into agricultural production of sorghum, soya bean - I think it might have even been canola; I might be wrong. There were plans to bring people up from Queensland who would take up farms in the area and develop that land agriculturally in the Douglas Daly. Unfortunately, people did not realise that although there might be a 50 or 60 inch rainfall, it does not always come evenly. It comes at different times of the year and many of those crops need fairly consistent rain to be successful. They may be all right under irrigation, but they certainly were not all right relying on natural rainfall in the area. To some extent Fleming - which is a town in the Douglas Daly where the silos still stand - is testament to poor decision-making based on poor information.
Of course, the Douglas Daly has moved on, it now has hay production, there is some vegetable production in the area, and it has intensive beef production. It has moved on from what it was originally meant to be, but it has not quite grown into what was envisaged when our planners decided that Fleming would be the town in that area.
It was also good to hear the minister talk about more research and development into cropping. That is the only way you are going to move forward to develop primary industry in the Northern Territory; research and development has to be continuous. Many crops are specific to this part of the world. Sometimes commercial people will not put the money in because they do not see the return at the moment, but that is where government has to step in and put some money in to look at those various crops. Rice is a good example. The previous Northern Territory government had been doing experimental work at the Coastal Plains Research Farm on rice varieties. Some of that information is also valuable to other parts of Australia, especially Kununurra where they are looking for rice varieties that are not subject to some of the fungal diseases - or blast, as it is called.
I appreciate what the minister has contributed today. I would like it as a statement so I can get my teeth into it overnight and see all the matters he has put forward today, which would make a fulsome discussion.
He also touched on food exports to Asia. I am pleased to see he did not say just Asia. We must take our place in part of the food production cycle for Australia. We have our Dry Season when other parts of Australia are having their winter, and that in itself, temperature wise, climate wise, is advantageous to producing crops that can be sold down south. We produce many watermelons in the Dry Season, but they are fairly limited because, if it is 10C in Melbourne, it is not watermelon eating time. Whilst some of the crops are good crops to grow, they are not always the right crop to eat when you are living in a colder climate.
The minister talked about a fair and equitable distribution of the fishing stock. I totally agree, but I find that at odds with the government’s decision to close down the remainder of Finke Bay and Chambers Bay. The objective of the Fishing Act is to have an equitable share of the resource. At the moment, one of the mistakes - and that is what politics promises to sometimes - is we tend to say one group can have this area at the expense of another group.
We are trying to bring this debate on and I am not sure it will happen tomorrow, because there was still a fair bit on the general business paper, but I hope the government does not make any decision about the future of those two bays until we have had a proper debate in this parliament about those two very important decisions the government has proposed, which I believe are wrong. They are poor decisions and they are unfair to the commercial industry. In this case, I believe both the commercial and the recreational fishing people can live side by side; that is what we should be aiming for.
In relation to tourism, there is an area which is often left out. The government has put a great deal of emphasis on saying we need to get out into the regions. Well, you are not going to get out into the regions until you develop infrastructure in the regions. The member for Braitling spoke about it last week. There are many issues that must be sorted out, and I have spoken about these before.
One is the ownership of roads. Roads cannot be on private land if you are asking public authorities such as councils or governments to put money into them. We need to sort out the ownership of roads. We need to sort out the leases in these growth towns so we can create some certainty for business to invest, and for tourists to be able to travel to these places without having to go through too much bureaucracy. Once we get over some of these issues we have a far better chance of developing internal tourism, especially from the broader Australian local market - many people do not go into those remote communities because of the difficulty in doing so - then we can expand that into international markets.
There is a lot of talk about tourism and I suppose it will be the big, flash type approach to tourism, but there is a great opportunity for developing industries in remote areas. It will not happen though until the infrastructure has improved because people simply will not go out there.
Sixty-five-year-old people with caravans are not going to travel to Kintore in a hurry because they will probably come back without a caravan. These things have to be worked through. They are not cheap; I know the minister was talking about all these roads he is looking at but the reality is called dollars. It does not matter whether you are in government or this mob were in government, you have to live in the real world and if you do not have the money you cannot do all the things you hope to do. That does not mean you cannot dream, and that is important.
This is a bit of a funny statement because it is called the three-hub economy statement but cattle pops up on its own in here and the white paper pops up, so I was a little confused as to whether it was a four-hub or a five-hub economy. Cattle is in this document on its own and it is, and will continue to be, the main centre of agriculture in the Territory. I did note recently that goats – and this is not something I just woke up about - are exported from the Northern Territory, especially from the rural area of Darwin to, I think, Brunei and other places that need those goats for their religious festivals. That has been happening for quite a long time. It is only a small market but it is a market that we sometimes forget about.
In relation to mining and energy, I get mixed messages sometimes when the government talks about mines and energy because I remember the fuss over Angela Pamela, which was all right, people were concerned about uranium 20 km from Alice Springs. But the point was that the company wanted to explore. If the decision had to be made whether the mine could go ahead, we should have done the exploration first to find out if there is a source of uranium there worth exploring. When you consider that Queensland has now said it will allow the exploration in mining of uranium, from memory - I am not sure whether Mary Kathleen or Rum Jungle was the first uranium mine, but both of those mines were producing uranium over 60 years ago and now the Queensland government has come back and said it is willing to allow that exploration.
New South Wales is now looking at the same thing, Western Australia has allowed mining of uranium, South Australia has had it for quite a while, the Northern Territory has one of the biggest uranium mines in the world, supplying 1% of the total electrical energy of the world and I think it is 10% of the total uranium sales of the world, so it is extremely important. I do not know whether the minister gave ERA a mention but sometimes ERA comes in for an awful lot of knocking. If you go there and see the amount of work they are doing environmentally with the salt brine plant that distils the water to a point where it is so clean they have to put it back into a natural wetland to absorb more salt so they can release it into the natural environment.
They are doing an extremely large amount of work to be environmentally friendly and are also working with the Aboriginal community so they get the maximum benefits. The boarding school that has been built at Jabiru by Brustolin Builders is a result of royalties from ERA. There is a gentleman who writes for the NT News who talked about all the downsides of uranium, but you have to live in the world of reality. China is continually building nuclear power, India will continue to build nuclear power even if there are some issues at times with them, because they realise the only way they are going to get away from gas, coal and diesel production is through using nuclear power. Solar and wind, fine no problem, but major industrial countries that require major power seven days a week, 24 hours a day, need a form of power they can rely on whether it is overcast or the wind has stopped. That is why there will be continual growth, especially in those heavily industrialised countries of nuclear power and we have the product to export.
Again, I am unsure whether the minister mentioned the importance of the new phosphate mines near Tennant Creek. If anyone was listening to the Country Hour recently it was discussing this issue and the potential for it to increase jobs in Tennant Creek by up to 500 jobs if they take the raw product and develop it into a fertiliser, or forms of chemicals that can be used in industry or agriculture. If they built a plant in Tennant Creek it would employ up to 500 people. They could also build it on-site; however, at the moment they are looking at the possibility of building it near Tennant Creek. That one mine could turn Tennant Creek around just because of the number of jobs that could come from value adding to the raw product to be dug out of that mine on the Barkly Highway.
I probably cannot resist it; the Chief Minister has spoken about INPEX. I find it a little laughable in some ways because, through the election campaign, I copped a fair bit of flak about the site of the INPEX village. I have a photograph of a sign which says:
- Nelson voted independent and got a 2000-plus workers camp.
In this document the Chief Minister mentions the workers camp and puts a value on it - a $340m contract for the workers village. I am the one who did not want it on that site; however, if you read the debate on 18 August 2009, the move to build it on a different parcel of land was defeated by both sides of parliament. I find it strange that this particular notice went up on someone’s fence. Another strange thing is there was no CLP logo attached to it, but the person who wrote the authorisation was P Allen 2/228 McMillan’s Road Jingili NT, which happens to be the headquarters of the CLP. Someone did not bother to put his name on it, or at least make it clear that is who put it up. I was peeved that someone did not have the courage to say who they were.
It is a bit rich to say how great it is to have a $340m contract for a workers village and then tell me, and everyone publically on the side of the road, ‘You voted for me and look what you got’ which is basically saying ‘what a mess’. If you looked at the documents - a media release that called me a village idiot along with Mr Henderson - which said:
- The Henderson government and independent member for Nelson need to explain why proper planning processes appear to have been abandoned at the proposed Howard Springs INPEX workers’ village.
That was just rubbish. I have had continual meetings with INPEX and JKC about these issues and people who have never been out there before turn up at a meeting and say:
- Residents are outraged at the lack of consultation surrounding the proposed changes and the fact that Gerry Wood and the Henderson Labor government appear to be missing in action.
The only reason they did not see me is because they were not out there. This is what they say:
- The Labor government, in association with Gerry Wood, appears to have given developers INPEX and JKC carte blanche to change what they want from the plan that was originally given development approval.
I do not know whether Sean Kildare read that, but that is not a pat on the back to INPEX and JKC. However, I know those companies, in consultation with me and the community, did much work to ensure the development of that camp caused as little disruption as possible. However, there was disruption. We lost all the trees, we had dust and it was and still is a major issue for the people in the area. This media release even contained things that were not true. It said the candidate Judy Cole said:
- ... the enclosed sewerage holding tank could result in sewage seeping into the water table or the Howard Springs during the wet.
- There are also concerns held at the smell of raw sewage from about 2500 workers leaking through the breather pipes and having a seriously detrimental impact on the amenity of residents.
I do not want to guess too much, but the member for Braitling was at that meeting; it was good to see him turn up for a meeting there. I know in Alice Springs you have breather pipes on sewerage but you do not have them in the Darwin area. You do not have leaking sewage pumping stations because this pumping station is exactly the same as all those through Darwin and Palmerston. If this one is faulty then we have a lot of trouble right through the suburbs of Darwin.
There were many things said. I do not mind if people have a go at me, but the underlying theme through this was that the government was not happy with INPEX. I raise that issue because now they are meeting with the Japanese, which is good,, but they should be reminded they were not exactly out there praising them and wishing them all the best. Anyway, it is water gone past now, but it should at least be recorded.
One of the other issues in relation to all of this development - INPEX, the abattoirs, and some of the other projects that are coming on - is how we increase Indigenous employment. The matter that concerns me …
Mr GUNNER: A point of order, Mr Deputy Speaker! I move that the member for Nelson be granted an extension of time pursuant to Standing Order 77.
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER: I just want to point out that the clock has stopped running, so you have one minute left, member for Nelson.
Mr ELFERINK: A point of order, Mr Deputy Speaker! To assist the House, generally when the clock runs in the last minute the point of order is called. Have we come to the end of time? For the sake of the peace of the House, I move that honourable members allow an extension of time under Standing Order 77, and we will ignore the fact that the clock ran down before someone noticed.
Motion agreed to.
Mr WOOD: Thank you, member for Port Darwin. I will be quick.
There are two other issues which are important. One is that in the Northern Territory we still have the danger of the haves and have nots. This area I live in has a new prison being built. Whether you like it not, it is creating a large number of jobs. There are 350 to 400 people working on the prison; it will go up to 650 people. The INPEX village will have about 650 people working on its construction. A new shopping centre is proposed at Coolalinga that will employ a large number of people. We also have the abattoirs which will employ a large number of people. Queensland Country Life last week talked about trying to increase the numbers of Indigenous employees in the abattoir, for males and females. If we, as a government, do not try to promote ways of getting those people from remote areas jobs as part of the boom in this area, then we will continue to have the haves and have nots.
We can fly people in from interstate to work here, why can we not fly Indigenous people who have the skills to this region and set up facilities for them? For instance, could we build an Aboriginal hostel at the abattoir where people know they will have a good bed, a good feed and a good job, and then go back to their communities after a couple of weeks work? I am worried that the Top End will have great growth, yet not every other part of the Territory will benefit from that growth. It concerns me where you have high unemployment in Indigenous communities, that they will not be part of this growth.
Skills might be lacking, but why are we not developing the skills? The abattoir is one of the classic examples where we should be getting more Indigenous people working. They have natural skills in that area. I have watched them bone a bullock out in the bush. They have some idea how to do it. It might not be perfect for putting into plastic bags, but the skills they have naturally could be enhanced by some training and encouraging people to come to the Top End, get some work for a couple of weeks, and fly people back home. If we talk about the benefits of this economic boom in the Northern Territory, then we have to ensure everyone has a chance to participate in the wealth that is created, otherwise we will continue with the haves and have nots.
My second last point is the relationship between the Northern Territory and Timor-Leste. The Chief Minister has spoken about the relationship with Indonesia. By all means, it is the third or fourth biggest country in the world and the biggest Muslim country in the world, we need to have a good relationship with Indonesia, but Timor-Leste is the poorest country in the world.
People may have seen the Four Corners documentary on gas. We might say it is great that all the gas comes to the Northern Territory and develops this industry, we can export it overseas; however, if we want Timor-Leste to be a stable, modern country, it must have a share in the gas resources in the Timor Sea. We cannot leave Timor-Leste out of the equation. Some people might say it gains some benefits through royalties, that is fine, but why is it not getting benefits through industrial production? Why are we not employing them and developing those industries in East Timor?
When I visited Dili about three years ago with a parliamentary delegation, that was one of the hot topics. One thing that put a barrier between us and them was we were not willing to talk about gas production and the sharing of that production with East Timor.
It is an area I hope the Chief Minister can comment on in his summing up. I appreciate he has put Indonesia high on his agenda, that is very appropriate. We are living in a cave if we believe Indonesia is not important to Australia. Australia may not be as greatly important to Indonesia, but it is very important to us. We are a small country population-wise, and Indonesia is a huge country. That relationship is good. Timor-Leste is the poorest country in the world with low employment and a very poor standard of living in many places. You do not have to go far out of Dili and you will see people well and truly on the poverty line earning a pittance to keep their family alive.
However, there is a great resource in the Timor Sea which tends to be - people may know more than I, but you get the feeling it is a one-way share - the big industrialised countries get the biggest share and Timor-Leste gets the crumbs. I hope to hear if the minister has any comments on that.
The government has mentioned industrial developments, especially around the Darwin region. It would be good to hear where that industrial development will be. I have seen the Darwin regional plans the CLP has put out. The Labor Party put out similar plans, and most of it centres on Gunn Point Peninsula. I do not have a problem with that, but I have not seen how you will fund that. It is an enormous amount of money. You will have to build new roads, connect power to the area, and set aside the right land with roads, water and sewerage, and you will have to build a port there.
It would be good to see what the government’s plans are in relation to increasing the industrial area for development in the Darwin region. If we get more people who want LNG plants, can someone tell me where they will go? Middle Arm Peninsula has pretty well run out of places to put them. If you are going to put them somewhere else, the government needs to say where they will go and how much they will cost. Nothing is going to come free and the Gunn Point Peninsula has been proposed as an area for development for at least 20 or 25 years. Nothing has happened in the meantime.
I thank the minister for his statement. The three-hub idea is too narrow; we should have a multi-hub economy and there are probably many other things I have not spoken about. There are small economies like art, Indigenous art, and defence. I am sure you could have a small mixed economy where you have small business operating in a niche market and that could be anywhere in the Territory. That is part of your economy as well.
While we talk about the three-hub economy we narrow it down too much because there are many other options, big and small. They will not all hit the headlines but there are many options that will help our economy become a better economy. If we keep talking about the economy and do not include the rest of the Territory, including people from remote communities, in the benefits of the booming economy, then we have not achieved anything. As the minister said in his statement when he talked about economic prosperity:
- Economic diversification will enhance the standard of living of all Territorians by generating higher economic growth, greater employment and income growth.
If he believes that then that is good, but how that will happen in reality is the $60m question. I hope it does happen and I will be watching and asking the questions if it is not happening.
____________________
DISTINGUISHED VISITORS
Mrs Aagaard and Dr Burns
DISTINGUISHED VISITORS
Mrs Aagaard and Dr Burns
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER: I would like to acknowledge the former Speaker and member for Nightcliff and the former member for Johnston in the Speakers Gallery at the moment.
Members: Hear, hear!
____________________
Mr VOWLES (Johnston): Before I start I would like to say g’day to the former member for Johnston and the former member for Nightcliff. Good to see you Chris and Jane.
Mr Deputy Speaker, I welcome the first ministerial statement of the new government touching on tourism. Some would say this is a real opportunity to get into the nitty-gritty of what the Country Liberals have been working on in 11 years of opposition. I admit I expected something strong, something with teeth. After 11 years in opposition, I was expecting more detail, more vision. I was disappointed.
As shadow minister for Tourism and, given all the fanfare the CLP has created about their three-hub economy and tourism’s important role in our economy, I was looking forward to the tourism section, in particular. I, like many Territorians in the tourism industry, was very disappointed. The important tourism sector that employs more than 10 % of our workforce and contributes $1.4bn to our economy deserves more.
The Chief Minister’s ministerial statement highlights to me that, according to the CLP government, the tourism industry is the poor cousin in their three-hub economy. It is the poor cousin with no detail, no outline of their programs or initiatives by their leader. Eleven years in opposition and this is all they have to offer us, apart from the dislocation and disruption to the industry by throwing a grenade into Tourism NT and creating jobs for mates and supporters in Alice Springs.
As brief as it was, I will speak to the statement where it covers tourism. It is true that we, like every other jurisdiction in Australia, are faced with difficulties in the tourism industry with the high Australian dollar. This is self-evident. Then the Chief Minister spoke about the competing demand for accommodation for tourist visitors versus workers in our growing major projects. I agree that managing these pressures is an area we need to work on with industry, but the Chief Minister’s statement seemed to talk about the current pressure on the accommodation sector in Darwin as a bad thing.
There have been some pressures on short-term accommodation, which are consequences of INPEX and economic growth. But more companies are seeing opportunities in developing serviced apartments and owners of newly constructed apartments are capitalising on this growth in our local economy. There are new properties that are coming on-stream, for example, the Halikos C2 property on The Esplanade and the redevelopment of the old MLC office building on Smith Street for tourism accommodation. New investments are adding to tourism infrastructure and the smart money is looking to capitalise on the tourism spin-offs from the development of the gas industry in Darwin.
I did not hear one squeak from the member for Greatorex, the minister for Tourism, about the impact of the 2007 intervention on the availability of hotel and motel accommodation in Alice Springs. Like good business people everywhere, everyone was busy enjoying the benefits of that injection of money into the Alice Springs economy.
However, the Chief Minister has failed to outline what he, as leader, is doing about programs and initiatives to combat these difficulties faced by the tourism industry. If I wanted to hear a commentator, I would pick up a newspaper or watch the news.
Unfortunately, this statement only appears to provide commentary on tourism with no details about what the government is doing for this very important industry. A sad reflection of the Chief Minister’s personal priorities; he is seemingly more interested in the Ord River than tourism across the Territory.
The tourism industry is ever-changing and working in hard, challenging times. The only way to achieve the best outcome for the tourism sector is to talk to the industry and support the development of fresh and appealing tourism products, in short, to be smart - talk to the people who know.
If this government was serious about tourism it would be talking to the industry - talk to the tourism sector, talk to the investors in the industry and talk to the operators on the ground. Unfortunately, this is not happening with this government.
This new CLP government appears not to be in the business of consulting when it comes to tourism. Before the election it consulted no one about its plans to move Tourism NT to Alice Springs. It did not come into the open to say this was its intention during the campaign and ask what the tourism industry thought about it. No, this government thinks it knows best, and we now see this government forcing legislation through this parliament without talking to the industry again. This CLP government is not in the business of talking to people who work in the industry and that is very disappointing.
The Chief Minister’s statement mentioned the recently released federal government’s white paper, Australia in the Asian Century. He did not go on to say how his government plans to align with the white paper but, perhaps, that is coming. Once again, I was left wanting.
I thank the minister for Tourism for his short statement about his passion for tourism in the Northern Territory and for outlining some parts of the CLP’s vision - the government’s vision of how the Territory will go forward in the tourism sector.
He mentioned the Masters Games. I also attended the Masters Games; it is a fantastic event which has bipartisan support. I appreciate and thank the minister for Sport, who is also the minister for Tourism, for his bipartisan support in allowing me to provide the opportunity to hand out medals to people there. It is a great event and something that really drives the economy in Alice Springs, and we need to keep focusing on that.
The work of the former Labor government was very much in the space when it came to tourism in the Asian market. In particular, tourism, with the strong support of the former minister, has been working hard with industry guidance here and overseas to position the Territory to grow and benefit from the emerging tourism markets to our north.
At the end of 2011, the then minister for Tourism launched a discussion paper on activating the China market. A number of key short, medium and long-term activities were well under way under the banner of six key priority areas being identified. These were: understanding the market; aviation success; Northern Territory industry capability; developing the experience; partnerships and marketing communications.
It is clear we are in front in building key relationships and tapping into the growing Chinese tourism market. Again, any work in this space, if it is to be successful, needs to have its forefront consult with the tourism industry. I can only hope this CLP government changes its current strategy of not consulting sooner rather than later, for the sake of the industry.
I am left with very little detail to respond to from the Chief Minister’s first ministerial statement to parliament about the three-hub economy. What has been revealed is, according to the CLP, tourism is the poor cousin in the three-hub economy with little detail being provided about its program and initiatives. Similarly, the poor cousin given the minister they have chosen to put in charge of it; a minister already notorious for doing things his way and not listening to anyone. Now he is a minister, his decisions affect all Territorians. The minister is notorious for not listening and making ranting, raving speeches and whining about having to come to Darwin, his workplace in the Legislative Assembly. As a minister, he is already notorious for not consulting with industry. However, I digress.
I welcome the news today I heard of Virgin Australia’s investment into Tiger Airways, a $62.5m investment into growing Tiger Airways. I really hope the minister for Tourism has picked up the phone and called Virgin Australia to try to get some more flights into the Territory.
I look forward to further detail from the government when it comes to tourism and their three-hub economy. It is a pity the Chief Minister had none, and was simply commenting on the current situation.
Motion agreed to; statement noted.
TABLED PAPER
Auditor-General’s October 2012 Report
Auditor-General’s October 2012 Report
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER: Honourable members, I table the Auditor-General’s October 2012 Report to the Assembly.
MOTION
Print Paper – Auditor-General’s October 2012 Report
Mr ELFERINK (Leader of Government Business): Mr Deputy Speaker, on behalf of the Chief Minister, I move that the report be printed.
Motion agreed to.
MOTION
Note Paper – Auditor-General’s October 2012 Report
Note Paper – Auditor-General’s October 2012 Report
Mr ELFERINK (Leader of Government Business): Mr Deputy Speaker, on behalf of the Chief Minister, I move that the Assembly take note of the report and that the Chief Minister has leave to continue his remarks at a later hour.
Leave granted; debate adjourned.
ADJOURNMENT
Mr ELFERINK (Leader of Government Business): Mr Deputy Speaker, I move that the Assembly do now adjourn.
Today I deal with a very important issue. I am glad, in hindsight, of the way I dealt with this issue the other day, because it deals with the allegations the Leader of the Opposition levelled at the member for Daly. Whilst those allegations were not tabled - and I am now grateful they were not tabled - it has, in the intervening days, provided us, on this side of the House, with an opportunity to look into the nature of these allegations.
I pause briefly to redescribe to the House the nature of the person who was described by the Leader of the Opposition as being a victim - and an Aboriginal victim at that.
It has given us an opportunity to do some homework. I am going to table several statements in the course of this adjournment debate. During my tabling of these statements, I will point out something very important.
Unlike the Leader of the Opposition, the people in the statements and documents will be identified - and they are happy to be identified through this process. The first item I table is a photocopy of a statement by Preston Higgins, the member for Daly’s son. It deals with the nature of a person who was at many of the polling booths during the campaign. I seek leave to table that document.
Leave granted.
We on this side believe we have identified the person who the Leader of the Opposition was referring to. In deference to keeping that person anonymous, we have blocked out the name. So, the blocked out text you will see is the name of the person who was speaking to the Leader of the Opposition.
In this statement, it becomes very clear, very quickly, that there is a predisposition of conduct of that person, which raises some questions as to the motives of that person and, perhaps, the motives or the reasons she - if this is the person we think it is - approached the Leader of the Opposition.
The second statement is from a person by the name of Benjamin Porter-Hardy who was assisting the member for Daly during the campaign. During the campaign, Mr Porter-Hardy, who was a backpacker, was also exposed to this person and saw how this person was conducting herself. Amongst other things, he described the person as being abusive and somebody who was belligerent by nature also engaging in what seemed to be racially-motivated comments. I seek leave to table that statement.
Leave granted.
Mr ELFERINK: Madam Speaker, the third statement is from a fellow by the name of Bartley Travis Johnson who was assisting the member for Daly. Mr Johnson was working for the member for Daly during the campaign. In the statement, he quotes the person whom we believe is the person who has been speaking to the Leader of the Opposition, and the very language that the Leader of the Opposition says this person found so offensive, according to Mr Johnson, is language this person used as part of her own vocabulary. I seek leave to table a statutory declaration in relation to that matter.
Leave granted.
Mr ELFERINK: I go on to table the statement of Samuel Higgins, also a son of the member for Daly who was assisting his father during this campaign period. Mr Higgins makes observations about the conduct of this person - whose name again has been obliterated on this photocopy for the purposes of protecting her identity - and quotes some pretty unpleasant language not only directed towards the member for Daly, the CLP candidate for Daly at the time, but also towards Mr Bill Risk of the First Nations Party. Once again, it goes to the nature of the person whose is making the allegations.
Madam Speaker, I seek leave to table the statutory declaration of Samuel John Higgins.
Leave granted.
Mr ELFERINK: I go back to a second statement from Preston Higgins, who talked about the period he spent at the Palumpa booth during the 2012 election. Mr Higgins says he was with the now member for Daly during this time. It was a short time at Palumpa - and we are now talking about the Palumpa booth specifically – and he said:
- ... and did not hear him verbally abuse or carry on to a person at the location. In fact Gary was very himself and spoke when spoken to.
Gary attended the Palumpa Store with me to get some drinks for the trip to Port Keats. We then left Palumpa to Port Keats prior to the polling booth opening, as Gary had to attend a funeral at Port Keats.
At no point did Gary abuse or call names or say any derogative comments towards any person at Palumpa
That is from Preston Higgins. I seek leave to table that document.
Leave granted.
Mr ELFERINK: Madam Speaker, finally I come to a statutory declaration made by a fellow by the name of Ken James. Ken James is of Unit 3/62 Kalymnos Drive in Karama. He relates a circumstance I suspect may have been the circumstance which led to the complaint being made to the Leader of the Opposition.
Madam Speaker, I will table this in a second. Basically, there was an exchange of some sort. The reason I am not sure this is actually the exchange being complained about is it is so substantially different as to raise a question as to whether we are talking about the same issue. However, it says, Gary Higgins was approximately five metres from me when I heard Gary tell that person - and that person was making certain suggestions about the CLP being behind the intervention - this was at the only Palumpa booth during that election campaign as I understand it. That person was basically repeating falsehoods, at which point the member for Daly said something to the person which is nothing like the allegation made by the Leader of the Opposition. The member for Daly at that stage accused that person and said, ‘you are talking shit’. That is the colloquialism that was used. Then as soon as that was said, the person who was two metres from me, turned around towards Rob Knight and yelled out at the top of her voice, ‘Rob, Gary just called me a ...’ and then used the ‘c’ word which we all know.
This was very loud and in front of about 10 or so community women who were walking in to vote. Rob Knight was a bit in shock and there were a number of voters around. The person, who is not named, had just yelled this bad word out. Mr James heard Knight say, ‘shush, shush, go and write it down’. At no stage did he hear Gary Higgins say the ‘c’ word and he was looking at him whilst this exchange was going on.
Madam Speaker, I seek leave to table the statement from Ken James.
Motion agreed to.
Madam Speaker, these people are prepared to be named. The allegations made by the Leader of the Opposition are about unnamed people supported by unnamed witnesses, so-called witnesses, and if the Leader of the Opposition has any courage, she will leave this place and make this allegation outside the House and see what flows from it.
Ms FYLES (Nightcliff): Madam Speaker, tonight I acknowledge that last Friday was World Teachers’ Day and I would like to take the time to acknowledge the fantastic work of our teachers, particularly in my electorate. I have a number of schools: St Paul’s Primary School, Nightcliff Primary School, Essington School, the Northern Territory Open Education Centre, and the Greek School.
Teaching is an extraordinary occupation. The efforts of our teachers are amazing. You cannot be late; you have a classroom of students waiting for you. You cannot be unprepared as they will quickly work this out, and you cannot pop out for a quick coffee or visit the bathroom as you have this classroom of students you are responsible for.
It was lovely to take the opportunity to thank our teachers and school staff for the effort that they put in. Each year, World Teachers’ Day is celebrated in October and I know that many of my colleagues here would have a tradition of taking cakes and a morning tea to the schools but I thought it would be nice tonight to speak and acknowledge my schools and the staff.
Nightcliff Primary School has over 500 students. It is a beautiful school spread over gorgeous grounds. The middle school is amazing. I had the privilege of touring the school in recent weeks and meeting with the staff. It is a fantastic school leading the way with technology. The Essington School is well known and has an enormous amount of students. I believe the numbers are over 1000. The Northern Territory Open Education Centre is a school itself. It provides education from Rapid Creek to all over the Territory. The Greek School is a traditional Greek school that students attend on Saturday mornings. It was wonderful to be there last Saturday to share in Oxi Day which is their independence day.
That is a little about the schools in my electorate. I take this opportunity to thank all the staff and the teachers at those schools for their ongoing efforts throughout the year. I look forward to catching up with them over the coming few weeks as they head towards the end of school.
Ms PURICK (Goyder): Mr Deputy Speaker, I will speak about two issues, one is a very happy issue and that is to compliment and commend one of my constituents, Joy Wood, who is part of the Australian team who is now in Miramar, Argentina, to compete for five days in the 2012 World Field Archery Championships of the International Field Archery Association. She will be there for approximately two weeks with the Australian team. Joy will be competing in the Veteran’s Women’s Long Bow Division in which she currently holds the Australian record for all three of the IFAA competition rounds, and the pacific region record for two of the rounds. Joy is not only a participant in this sport, she is also a coach. Her coaching achievements include: for three years in a row - 2002, 2003 and 2004 - Joy was a finalist in the Coach of the Year Category of the NT Sports Awards and was nominated for coach and sportsperson categories on several other occasions.
In 2003, she was one of the 43 recipients from over 1000 applicants to receive a Sports Leadership Grant for Rural and Remote Women from the Australian Sports Commission and the Office of the Status of Women to assist in completion of the Level 2 Field Archery Coaching Course. There are only seven other level 2 field archery coaches in Australia and five of them are in New South Wales. As the Northern Territory branch coach, she held courses to train 37 field archery coaches and nine instructors throughout the Northern Territory, 20 coaches in Queensland and five in Victoria, and has coached mainly beginner and more advanced archers at club level. All Field Archery Australia coaches, Joy included, are volunteers who do not receive payment. She received awards at Litchfield Council Australia Day presentations in two separate years for her efforts in promoting archery in the local rural community and elsewhere.
Her sporting achievements are also exemplary. In 2004, Joy travelled to the World Field Archery Championships in Watkins Glen, USA, and was placed third in the adult women’s long bow, which is a remarkable achievement from someone from the Northern Territory competing on the world stage. In 2005, she travelled to the regional championships in New Zealand breaking two pacific regional records for that division.
In 2006, she broke both ankles four weeks before the WFAC was held in Hervey Bay, Queensland. She purchased a second-hand motorised wheelchair so she could still compete and she won the gold medal.
In 2007, the Pacific Regional Championships were held in Sale, Victoria, where Joy broke the existing record in all three rounds and still holds two of the records.
In 2010, sadly, Joy sustained a crush fracture of her L2 vertebrae in a car accident. It was a long time before she could compete again, so she elected to move into the veteran’s division, which is over 55 years of age, where consideration is given which reduces the amount of walking required. In 2011, at the Pacific Regional Championship, she set new records in the two rounds that were shot.
With all these ailments and accidents she has incurred over the last short while, she has still gone on to compete, not only at a Territory and national level, but at an international level. I wish Joy, and her team mates, all the best in this championship and I am sure she will come back with trophies of the gold colour.
The second thing I wanted to mention was in regard to the intersection of Freds Pass Road and the Arnhem Highway which has, in the last six months, been upgraded somewhat but is still less than satisfactory. The Student Representative Council of the Taminmin College Senior School has started to lobby local members and highlight what it believes to be serious safety issues at that intersection.
I would like to read into Hansard its letter, and I trust the Minister for Transport and roads will look into this very serious issue as presented by the schools in that area.
Dear member for Goyder
- We are writing to inform you of our concern about the dangers of the Freds Pass Road and Arnhem Highway intersection and the section of highway encompassing the post office and the United service station. On Wednesday afternoon and Thursday morning of the first week of term three there were two collisions in less than 24 hours at the intersection. Thankfully these collisions did not result in any fatalities but they were still very serious incidents. This intersection is the main access to three schools: Humpty Doo Primary, St Francis of Assisi and Taminmin College.
Two students and a teacher from Taminmin were involved in one collision, and a Humpty Doo student was involved at the other collision. This intersection is also the main access point to a light industrial area, emergency services, shops, a medical centre and residential land.
We, the Student Representative Council of Taminmin College Senior School, are concerned for the safety of students and members of the public at this intersection. There has been an increase of traffic along this highway, and the stretch from this intersection to the Humpty Doo Hotel is a well-known busy spot. Only last year, our community was shocked by the shattering death of a student who had just completed Year 12. She was killed in a crash in this dangerous stretch of road.
- After the recent alterations to this intersection ...
... it has been noticed that the adjustments cause impairments to visibility when turning out of Freds Pass Road at peak times.
- ... installing traffic lights at the Freds Pass Road and Arnhem Highway intersection, similar to the upgrades to the Stuart Highway and Arnhem Highway lights and the new traffic lights on Jenkins Road, which were done in preparation for increased traffic from the INPEX project and the construction of the city of Weddell. We also strongly recommend a reduction in speed for this section or possibly installing merging lanes for the traffic joining the highway. The Freds Pass Road upgrade has been ineffective and needs to be re-examined.
We hope you will give this matter the urgent attention it requires.
Yours cordially
The Student Representative Council Taminmin College Senior School.
It is a busy intersection and the Arnhem Highway is busy. Not only is there residential traffic, there is the traffic that services the Jabiru and the Ranger Uranium Mine. There is also a large increase of road trains on the Arnhem Highway. One of my constituents stood on the highway for one hour and in that hour there were 22 triple road trains going either way. That intersection, in particular, even with the upgrade - and I have been there and looked at what the students are saying. The visibility is poor when you are turning left westward, to try to see traffic from the right.
I urge the minister to take this matter on board and have his department look at it to see how they can better improve this intersection for the safety of all people.
Ms LAWRIE (Karama): Mr Deputy Speaker, I seek leave to table a written complaint to the Anti-Discrimination Commission.
Leave granted.
Ms LAWRIE: Mr Deputy Speaker, I have received leave from the Assembly to table a written complaint to the Anti-Discrimination Commission dated 28 August. It contains the grossly offensive and vile words you said to an Aboriginal woman at the Palumpa polling booth. You will be brought to account for what you have said.
No despicable actions taken by the member of Port Darwin in this Chamber tonight in trying to weasel away and create a shroud of doubt around your words will save you from being brought to account for the words you uttered to a woman that day at the Palumpa mobile polling booth. As I said before, I will not utter those words in this House because they are so grossly offensive and vile. They are now on the public record for anyone to read. I will be ensuring the media receives a copy of the Anti-Discrimination Commission papers tabled today and that they know they are on the public record and can be published.
It is through the actions of the member for Port Darwin, where he sought and was granted leave to table statutory declarations, that I felt this parliament was now open to granting leave to table documents in relation to this grossly offensive and vile incident.
Member for Daly, you clearly spoke the words. You have had a team of your supporters write down things to defend you. I have not seen the statutory declarations, and I surely hope, for their sake, they have not perjured themselves. From the little I heard from the member from Port Darwin, since when is a backpacker a psychologist? If you start to pick apart some of the comments the member for Port Darwin made they are very disturbing. It is very disturbing when men get into the space of going after and blaming a woman for a violation that is perpetrated on her.
Think very carefully, member for Port Darwin, about what you have done and what you have put your name to in this Chamber.
Motion agreed to; the Assembly adjourned.
Last updated: 04 Aug 2016