E&OE TRANSCRIPT
RADIO INTERVIEW
MIX 104.9M – 360 WITH KATIE WOOLF
KATIE WOOLF, HOST: Well, we know that the federal budget was handed down earlier in the week – well, yesterday, the night before, and things were looking pretty positive in the sense that there's $2.6 billion to be spent on infrastructure projects across the Northern Territory in coming years. But what's going to be in the Opposition's budget reply? Well, I'm not too sure whether he'll be able to reveal it all this morning, but I'm sure he'll be able to give us a few bits of information. It is Luke Gosling, Labor's Member for Solomon, good morning to you, Luke.
LUKE GOSLING, MEMBER FOR SOLOMON: Morning, Katie, how are you?
WOOLF: Very well. Albo is delivering his budget reply a little bit later this evening. What can the Territory expect?
GOSLING: You know, I think what we've seen from Albo in previous budget reply speeches is an absolute commitment to infrastructure development in the Northern Territory and Darwin and Palmerston, and that's going to be, as he has consistently throughout his time – not only as the Leader of the Opposition but as the Infrastructure Minister as well, back in the days when we were in Federal Government. But it's been
nine years since then and unfortunately whilst there's a lot of hope about government announcements, about infrastructure and that wave of the future, I think what we need to see is infrastructure for the Northern Territory brought forward and put into action so that there are the jobs there for our kids. And I think what's been missing is a commitment to uni places and vocational education and training. So I think you can expect to see an ongoing commitment for that from Albo as well, so that kids are trained up for the jobs that come with the infrastructure as well.
WOOLF: So it sounds like a bit of a bit more of a focus on jobs and training with some of that infrastructure money. I mean, $2.6 billion on different infrastructure projects. If Labor is elected at the at the next election, will they still move forward with that $2.6 billion worth of infrastructure?
GOSLING: The $2.6 billion is an interesting figure, there's a bit of smoke and mirrors involved in that, but we always ask ourselves the question: what's real here and what's just the pre-election front page? And of course, they always get the front page. They get the big amount. But what we've seen with roads funding is it's never actually happened. So they've been in government for nine years, but the roads funding never actually reaches the Territory, it's always just out past what they call the forward estimates, which is four years into the future. So I think money that is delivered onto the ground in reality is always much better than promises out on the never-never. But Federal Labor, we're absolutely committed to developing the North. We support more money into the NAIF, but we need real money. A good example is what happened with the ship lift. In the last election we said “$400 million real money, let's get the ship lift built, let’s get that industry pumping”. And then we saw a NAIF commitment. We're still waiting for the ship lift obviously to come into being. So what we need is actually action on the ground and that's what Albo will be committed to.
WOOLF: I suppose what I mean with the infrastructure spending is yesterday we spoke to Louise McCormack, the Infrastructure Commissioner for the Northern Territory. She said that the planning's been in the works for the large majority of these infrastructure projects for some time. I know that in Parliament yesterday the Northern Territory Government was saying that Scott Morrison had backed the infrastructure plan. So I guess what I'm asking is, is Albo going to back it as well?
GOSLING: No, absolutely. We've made that very clear. Labor’s always going to support more infrastructure investment for the regions and in particular our region, because of how important it is as a as the capital of northern Australia. But also throughout the Territory, not just Darwin and Palmerston. Obviously it's welcome, but we just, after nine years, you can forgive us for being a little bit sceptical about what their real commitment to that might be hitting the ground is. So, yes, of course, with the NT Government who have been working on their infrastructure plans, we support those. We welcome that. The Federal Government supports those. But I guess you've just got to ask yourself what's real, and their track record of delivery is not great. Look at Kakadu as one example, but there's sports facility that were promised in the last election where not $1 has actually gone into those projects in Darwin and Palmerston in my electorate. So a bit sceptical about their ability to deliver whilst welcoming the promise.
WOOLF: Luke, what else can we expect? I know you can't give away all of the budget reply speech for tonight, but what else can we expect? Is it going to be a bit more? Yesterday we spoke to Deb di Natale from NTCOSS. She had wanted to see more in it for those low- to middle-income earners. And you know, even when you talk about things like housing, can we expect more of a focus on things like that in the budget reply?
GOSLING: Yeah, I think you will. We definitely will see that. Affordable housing is obviously essential, the price of housing and rent is difficult for families and you know, rather than a short-term sugar hit of a few hundred dollars, we'd rather see more long-term wage growth, more permanent jobs, rather than low-paid, insecure work so that people can actually afford their rent, can afford petrol, can afford to support their families. So affordable housing will absolutely be a big part of Federal Labor's offering. We'll have a lot more to say, not just tonight but during the campaign as well, which will happen sometime in the near future.
WOOLF: Luke Gosling, always good to catch up. We'll talk to you again soon, no doubt.
GOSLING: Good on you, Katie.
WOOLF: Thank you. That is Luke Gosling there, Labor's Member for Solomon. And yes, the budget reply speech is going to be handed down tonight, so we'll keep an eye on that for you.
ENDS
