KATIE WOOLF, HOST: Joining me live in the studio is the Member for Solomon, Luke Gosling. Good morning to you, Luke.
LUKE GOSLING, MEMBER FOR SOLOMON: Good morning, Katie.
WOOLF: Luke, some big news this morning, the vaccine mandate, it's lifted from the 16th of June.
GOSLING: Great news.
WOOLF: Good news from your perspective?
GOSLING: Yeah, absolutely. I've been talking to the now Chief Minister and the Chief Health Officer for several months now, just about, you know, what's the plan for normalizing? What's the plan for moving? We're coming up to the dry season. The data coming from the health people would suggest that it is a pretty manageable risk. So I really welcome the Chief Minister's announcement this morning.
WOOLF: And do you reckon it's going to have much of an impact when you talk about the workforce shortage that we are experiencing really all around Australia, but particularly here in the Northern Territory?
GOSLING: It’ll make some impact. But I think there will be people who are encouraged to come to the Territory that maybe discounted it because they maybe had two jobs but weren't sure about the third. But there's also without a doubt a need for us to get some workers coming from overseas. That was part of the discussions that we've just had in Jakarta with the President of Indonesia. Obviously our first priority always is to get our own kids into those jobs, to get our own kids trained up. And that's why AFederal Labor has committed to so much vocational education and training, free spots, and more university spots because we want our own kids in the jobs. But the reality is that the message from business industry is that we haven't got enough people and we want to grow our economy in a sustainable way. So that's part of the mix.
WOOLF: Well, that's exactly right. I mean, we obviously always want to make sure that we can employ locals where we can. But we've got a situation right now. Even just a bit earlier this morning, we've spoken to Alex Bruce, the CEO of Hospitality here in the Northern Territory, who had said there are some businesses that should be open for lunchtime trade and various other things that simply can't because they don't have the staff. So it's pressing.
GOSLING: Yeah, 100 per cent. And at the same time you've got so many people in the hospitality industry in Indonesia who are keen to get skilled up. So whether it be a visa where they come and work with us for a while, which would be great for our businesses, and just good for the vibe that we are an Asian city or a multicultural place. So yeah, there's a bit to work through there, but they're also really wanting our tourists to come back. And maybe not even necessarily to Bali, maybe try some other locations in Indonesia. There's more and more people that are middle class in Indonesia now that can actually afford to visit Australia as well. So part of it was saying, you know, this city, Jakarta, with almost as many people as our whole country, that's smoggy as. So come and see the stars, come to the Territory, get out to Kakadu, get out to the outback, to our national parks and, and I think more and more of them will do that.
WOOLF: And so Luke, that work force situation was part of the discussions that were had on that trip to Indonesia that you've just come back from. What else was on the agenda?
GOSLING: The cattle industry. There's some biosecurity threats in Indonesia in terms of foot and mouth disease and something called lumpy skin disease. So we've offered – and it's been accepted by the Indonesian side – some assistance so they can keep that at bay because obviously we want to help them with their herd, but we also don't want to risk our herd. They love our beef over there. We just had some great conversations around that, but we had a really high-powered CEO team: Commonwealth Bank, Fortescue, Twiggy Forrest’s mob talking about green hydrogen. Sun Cable’s CEO was there. So as well as Territory sunshine being cabled over to Singapore, Indonesia is quite interested in that because they are burning so many fossil fuels to keep the power on for 270 million people. They want Territory sunshine cabled there in the future. So that was great to have them there. But also companies like Thalys that maintain our patrol boats down at Larrakeyah. For instance, a lot of people might not know that they run a lot of air traffic control through Asia. But also local companies here in Darwin. So there are companies here that are looking to Indonesia instead of supply chains from China, diversifying to Indonesia. So I was able to hook some of those companies up with Indonesian companies that want to do business.
WOOLF: There seems to be a bit happening.
GOSLING: Yes.
WOOLF: Hey, just talking workforce shortage again for a moment, just talking about those discussions that were held in Jakarta, how long do you reckon it's going to take or how quickly do you think that we are going to see some Indonesian people coming across and able to fill some of those shortages in the Territory, for example?
GOSLING: Yeah, I'm hoping it's not going to be too long at all given that the Chief Minister is heading down to Canberra for talks next week and that'll be around things like AAI, building those amphibious aircraft, and it'll be around workforce. What we've got is the DAMA, as people would understand. So what could be possible is changes to the DAMA that facilitate those short-term workers. We already have a seasonal worker program with picking mangoes, melons, etc. So I think that it doesn't at the moment from my understanding
WOOLF: Yeah, right. Okay. So that's definitely on the cards.
GOSLING: I very much hope it can be. I don't want to get ahead of the Chief Minister’s meetings next week, but I'm very confident. And the Prime Minister going as his first bilateral trip to Jakarta – and I've led delegations there in the past, I've been there with the Prime Minister and the Foreign Minister Penny Wong in the past. So it's a matter of really building on relationships that we already have. But for the first time with a big business delegation, they're really reaching out to us. They'll be visiting here soon and we can continue those conversations.
WOOLF: We know Anthony Albanese the Prime Minister was in the Northern Territory yesterday and there was some discussion around the port lease again being back on the agenda. What's going to happen here?
GOSLING: Well, for Federal Labor, the port lease has never been off the agenda. It's just that we haven't been in government. And as you know, Katie, from 2015 to today, I've had a consistent line and that is that it was the stupidest thing that could possibly have happened under the CLP and the Federal Coalition, and I won't go back over all that history. But suffice to say we are now in government so we will be able to see and talk to the security agencies about the report they did, whereas we couldn't in the past. And the Coalition Government wasn't transparent about what that review said in the lead-up to the election for their own political reasons. But now in government, we are looking at that and looking at what are some of the options to work with Landbridge, the company that's got the lease to move towards that.
WOOLF: Do you reckon, though, if we do wind up in a situation where it is determined that the lease needs to be taken back by the Northern Territory or the Australian Government, how do you think that that would sort of play into our relationship with China?
GOSLING: That's something that obviously the Prime Minister will assess. I think everyone would have seen, though, there is not only a difference in the trading relationship. The first thing that he did in terms of a multilateral meeting was to go to the Quad meeting with the leaders of India, Japan and United States President Biden. But also there's a maturity, I think, in the relationship. And the Prime Minister has been clear that he hopes and expects indeed that some of the trade sanctions against Australia by China will be lifted. Let's have a restart. And commercial decisions will be made by Landbridge the company, and it will be a matter for us doing what's right for us, but doing it in a respectful way. As I've always said, Katie, it is uncontroversial that the that Australia should have control of our northern strategic port. It's important, it should never have been changed. But we've got an opportunity now to work with our partners, including Landbridge to look at what the future looks like and how we get there.
WOOLF: Well Luke Gosling, Labor's Member for Solomon, it's always good to catch up with you. Thank you very much for your time this morning.
GOSLING: Thank you, Katie.
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