E&OE TRANSCRIPT
RADIO INTERVIEW
ABC RADIO DARWIN – MORNINGS WITH ADAM STEER
ADAM STEER, HOST: If the punters are correct at 9:09 on this lovely Tuesday morning, the Prime Minister Scott Morrison will in the next few days take a drive to Yarralumla and ask Governor-General David Hurley to issue writs for a federal election. And if the punters remain in their winning ways, the election will be called. Both sides of politics keen to take what they see are winnable seats, which include both Northern Territory House of Representatives seat Lingiari and the Darwin seat of Solomon. The incumbent is the Labor backbencher Luke Gosling, facing off against not only the CLP’s Tina Macfarlane, but now it appears to include two former CLP heavyweights who say they will be running as independents. And part of the battleground, well, it will be Darwin Port. Luke Gosling, good morning.
LUKE GOSLING, MEMBER FOR SOLOMON: Hello Adam. It's great to be with you. Haven't been in talking to you for a long time. It's good to see you.
STEER: The ABC is reporting the former vice president of the CLP, Jed Hansen, and former CLP candidate Kylie Bonanni, will run as independents in the seat of Solomon. How concerned are you that voters disillusioned with the current government, disillusioned with the Morrison government, will put their vote elsewhere?
GOSLING: I trust that the people of Solomon and the people of the Territory know what's going on, know what the difference is between federal and Territory issues and probably have a more clear-eyed view of those things and you're giving them credit for, Adam.
STEER: Do you see the independents as a threat?
GOSLING: Anyone can put their hands up at any election, and it's totally the prerogative of individuals out there. If they've got individual axes to grind with members of their former parties, so be it, it’ll all play out. But obviously, I'm not thinking about that too much because we've just had a budget, and I'm just continuing to do what I've always done and get out there and talk to people about the issues that concern them.
STEER: Okay. Well, let's move to the budget. Last week, obviously, the federal government announced the budget. They also announced plans for what they describe as a new port for Darwin as part of a $2.6 billion spend for the Northern Territory over the next 11 years. It's weirdly buried in the budget with no money allocated to specific projects. What's your understanding of how much money has actually been earmarked for the project?
GOSLING: You’ve got to consider what's real and what's not, ie. what's actually physically in the budget and what's an aspiration for the future, what may or may not be wrapped up deep in the detail. You got to wonder, though, if, given that Scott Morrison himself was the Treasurer when the port was leased for 99 years to a Chinese company, you've got to wonder whether they wouldn’t own a new port, come out and announce it, rather than have it come out through a Senate estimates process.
They haven't released the report on whether the port should be taken back or not. Why wouldn't they do that if they’re going to commission a new port? I was at the Australian Defence Conference here in Darwin yesterday and talked to a whole heap of people and everyone's scratching their head a bit and can't really see where this announcement is, whether it's real or not. And that's a bit of a concern because these
are the people who are involved in that industry. Obviously, we welcome any investment for the North and in particular for Darwin, but I think we're going to just look at what the Government wants to do, what stacks up, what makes sense and take it from there.
STEER: Well, this is what the Chief Minister told Joe Laverty earlier on today. He says the money's for Middle Arm.
AUDIO – NT CHIEF MINISTER MICHAEL GUNNER: “I think there's been some misinterpretations of the investment. We're doing manufacturing at Middle Arm. We set it up for that, sustainably. We're doing the environmental de-risking upfront. It's going to be low- to net zero manufacturing. Suncable’s coming past, going to dump 800 megawatts of renewable energy into the Northern Territory. Perfectly set up for a low- to net zero manufacturing, so essentially do it off renewables. Santos's already announced they're doing the carbon capture with the backfill from Bayu-Undan, so they're switching across the Barossa. They'll leave the pipe out to Bayu-Undan so we can do carbon capture. Inpex announced $800 million into carbon capture the other day. So us and the private sector have been working on this for a while, Australian Government’s recognised that and come to the table.
“For Middle Arm to work it needs billions of dollar essentially in common user infrastructure. You can't use East Arm or other port facilities in the harbour for this. So for example, Inpex had their own port facilities be able to build Inpex, it couldn't come through East Arm. So Middle Arm needs its own facility, $1.5 billion in port infrastructure there. Defence have used a variety of spots in the harbour, including their own base at Coonawarra, and they're also using Inpex facilities from time to time, is my understanding. So this facility would be available for use for defence use if they want, I think that's what's got the attention, but it's not a commercial port, we're not going to be loading cattle over it, we’re not going to be sending raw minerals out over it. It's there for Middle Arm and what's happening in Middle Arm.
JO LAVERTY, HOST: I did wonder how Landbridge might feel about all the business going somewhere else. Now there's only $1.4 billion of the Energy Security and Regional Development Plan, which is forwarded in the next couple of years. And after that, it's kind of beyond the budget forecast. So we're definitely going to get it, right?
GUNNER: So it's going to be done by intergovernmental agreement. So essentially between us and the Australian Government, payment is conditional just basically on the project being ready, it’s essentially a $2.6 billion line of credit with the Australian Government. It's incredible.”
STEER: Okay, so it's incredible, says the Chief Minister of the Northern Territory. Will Labor match that commitment if they win power?
GOSLING: So the real question here, Adam, is who do you trust to actually deliver for the North? We've had roads funding that's been committed by this Coalition Government where there's been nothing over four years, and then nothing. Kakadu, we've just heard, it's been announced in the 2019 election, $220 million: next to nothing. I've talked to people in industry that say there's next to nothing that's gone out there. So they were always going to get the headlines, right, the front page headlines, and they'll get more front page headlines when someone flies up to Darwin and re-announces funding that isn't even in the forward estimates. It's not even over the next four years. But what we're committed to is real funding. There'll be funding that actually goes to work with the NT Government, real dollars on the ground to get what needs to be done done. And that’s what I think is important.
STEER: $40 million of it is in the budget. They are making plans out of it for 2024.
GOSLING: $40 million out of a $2.6 billion in the budget. That is – that is tiny.
STEER: That's just for 2024. Will Labor match the commitment if you win power?
GOSLING: You're asking me whether we'll match $40 million over four years? Mate, we'll smash that out of the park. I mean, the Territory—
STEER: I’m asking if you're going to commit to it. Let's move on from there.
GOSLING: The Territory has always done better under Federal Labor. Why? It’s because we actually get the funds onto the ground and build the hospitals and build Tiger Brennan and things like that, Adam. So I think we just judge them on their track record, which is not much.
STEER: 4 Corners last night revealed allegations of military misconduct from Australian Defence Force and particularly the SAS against Indonesian or pro-Indonesian forces when operating in Timor after independence 20 years ago. You served in Timor. Were you aware of any misconduct by Australian military forces?
GOSLING: No, not at all. And this is another situation, a little bit like Afghanistan, where unfortunately – and I spoke with another Timor veteran about this this morning, and I had a couple of calls late last night about it, because people who served in Timor wanted to talk about it. And overwhelmingly it's, you know, we did such great work and continue to do such great work in Timor and people do get concerned, veterans do get concerned that somehow people are going to look at what they did there differently. I didn't watch the program last night. Just from the conversations I've had this morning, though, there's a bit of a feeling that
they're all being slighted with the same brush. I understand that there was some commentary made about the INTERFET commander at the time, General Cosgrove. But really. I think that for a start, we should give everyone their day in court. If there were allegations made, they should be tested. Of course, we're not standing for Russian war crimes and we shouldn't stand for war crimes by anyone. But they need to be tested through a court process. And we shouldn't tar every soldier who's served with the same brush.
STEER: You co-founded a not-for-profit charity in Timor-Leste. You were never made aware of defence misconduct in Timor? Misconduct that is now a two-part series on 4 Corners.
GOSLING: There's another part, is there? Okay, I'll try and try and catch up on iView. But look, I, through many years in Timor, whether it be working with the President, running a charity or serving with the military over there, never heard about any misconduct by Australian soldiers. Quite the contrary, all I did see on the ground was compassionate soldiers, sailors, and aviators representing their country and doing an amazing job.
STEER: Luke Gosling, good to talk to you as always. Thank you.
GOSLING: Thanks, Adam.
ENDS
