E&OE TRANSCRIPT
RADIO INTERVIEW
MIX 104.9M – 360 WITH KATIE WOOLF

TUESDAY, 2 AUGUST 2022

SUBJECTS: Territory Rights; National gas reserve; petrol prices.

KATIE WOOLF, HOST: Yesterday Luke Gosling introduced a private member's bill into Parliament seeking to restore the right of self-determination to people and parliaments of the Northern Territory and the ACT. Now the Member for Solomon, Luke Gosling, joins me on the line right now. Good morning to you, Luke.

LUKE GOSLING, MEMBER FOR SOLOMON: Morning, Katie.

WOOLF: Now, Luke, how has this been received by your counterpart so far?

GOSLING: Oh, I think it's been received pretty well so far. There were a couple of members of the Coalition that spoke out and myself and the other ACT members who are still focused on their personal views around voluntary assisted dying. But what my push has been, backed by the other Labor Territory senators and MPs, is to restore the right of our legislative assemblies to make laws on issues that affect us. What happens after that obviously is a period of consultation and if the Legislative Assemblies decide to legislate for voluntary assisted dying, then they draft up legislation, taking into account the community's feelings and they’ll legislate.

WOOLF: Well, and this is a really important point, I think, Luke, is that everybody's got very differing views when it comes to voluntary assisted dying and palliative care, and that kind of thing. And a lot of it is based on our own experiences with family members. But fundamentally, what we are talking about is that the Northern Territory and the ACT don't actually have the opportunity to make those decisions for themselves.

GOSLING: Yeah, and one thing that Territorians hate is Canberra intervening in our lives. For 25 years we've been second class citizens in that we've been unable – because the Commonwealth has not allowed us – to make own laws on these issues. It's to right a wrong of the past, Katie, and where it goes from here, I think it will pass the House of Representatives. The majority of our colleagues down here see it as an issue of restoring the rights of the Territories. It’ll go into the Senate. There will be some people in the Senate that want their view to trump the views of Territorians. But you know, I'm hopeful of a result there as well.

WOOLF: So if passed, what is this change going to mean for Territorians?

GOSLING: If passed, the private member's bill simply removes the old Andrews bill, or the Andrews ban on the Territories, so that we are able to legislate for the issue of voluntary assisted dying, in particular, if the ACT and the NT decide to do so. And it means for people, I guess in time, that they'll have more choices when they get to that difficult time, end of life. And they are issues that people feel very strongly about on both sides. And I think, Katie, you and I have discussed before, my priority is for a better strengthened and better resourced palliative care. And I'm down here talking to my colleagues about that. And we know that we need to make sure there's protections, very strong protections and safeguards in any future legislation to protect vulnerable people, because anyone would hate to see a situation where people aren't respected and provided a dignified end of life.

WOOLF: Absolutely. And that's exactly what it comes down, that those safeguards do indeed need to be in place. But fundamentally, we are talking about a person's final choice. And, you know, when they get to that stage where they are in palliative care or where they are terminally ill for a long period of time, it can be incredibly difficult. And a lot of those medical decisions are made, obviously, in consultation with you, but I know that from my life experience with the people that I've been close to who have been in that situation, all of them would have made very different choices. And, you know, fundamentally it should be their choice.

GOSLING: Their choice in consultation with their family and friends and medical professionals. But at the end of the day, their choice. And it's wrong that we're being denied the ability to debate this issue for ourselves, as every other state has already done. They've already debated, legislated and decided. So, it’s time for the second class citizen business – and there are still a few dinosaurs down here in Canberra who think that their conscience should trump the conscience of the Territory representatives. But I'm hopeful that we’ll get through, and there's a lot else happening here as well on the agenda.

WOOLF: It certainly seems that way. Luke, before I move on to another topic, how long do you think that this is all going to take?

GOSLING: I'm hoping that everyone who wants to speak in the House of Representatives on this issue does so this week so that we can come to a vote this week. We're back in Canberra in September. We hope that it progresses through that next sitting in the Senate, it may take longer in the Senate. I'm not sure where it's placed in the program when it gets over there. But we've made a real statement here. As Territory MPs and Senators this week, we hope for the support of all Northern Territory federal representatives because they do represent all Territorians, and the restoration of the rights of Territorians is really important and I think our colleagues can see it's an important issue for Territorians, and they'll give us their support.

WOOLF: Now Luke, yesterday the ACCC released a damning report on the country's gas supplies. The Northern Territory, as we know, our Beetaloo Basin, is one of the next sites for gas development. Do you think that we're in a situation here, based on that report yesterday, that we should or could be doing more to expedite things in the Beetaloo?

GOSLING: Yeah, good questions for the NT Government as they are intimately involved in the progression of the exploration and the enabling infrastructure. I see my role down here as making sure there's funding available for infrastructure throughout the Territory, and that includes our resources industry. From talking to Madeleine King, who's the Federal Minister for Resources, she's recently been in Darwin and has met with members of APPEA and the other stakeholders there. I think what she's grappling with at the moment, and some of your listeners would have noticed on radio, is the fact that when the East Coast is running out of gas supply, the exporters are making huge profits by exporting Australian gas overseas and leaving our markets short, which means higher energy prices for Australians. And it means that some businesses are going to the wall if they're dependent on gas. And that gas trigger that some of you may heard about is exactly what we're going to put into place to make sure that the big exporters need to keep enough into the domestic market to keep prices down and to make sure that industry's got enough gas.

And at the moment, we're seeing a prediction of shortfalls in the near future. And I believe Katie, and you and I have talked about this in the past, that a gas reserve policy, as there is a gas reservation policy as there is in WA – is that these gas companies, big multinational companies, big gas trading companies, if they aren’t able to play the game and do the right thing by the Australian people and for Australian business, then we're going to have to take a much bigger stick to them. Maybe they need the certainty of what a gas reservation policy provides, so they'll know they need to provide a certain amount of gas into the domestic market to keep the prices on energy down for Australian families.

Thankfully in the Territory we've got gas that we need, that accounts for around 60% of our energy production. That's good for us. But nationally we've got an issue and obviously the Territory is playing our role in providing gas into our economic system, but we need to do more.

WOOLF: We are going to be catching up with APPES after 11 o’clock this morning and speaking a bit more about that. Does this report, though, also demonstrate the fact that we do still indeed need gas, that we can't go, you know, totally green at this point? We do still need gas?

GOSLING: Absolutely. We still need gas. Gas is a very important part of the energy mix. And in fact, I met with Inpex down here in Canberra yesterday to talk about their hope that they can bring on the further train and that we can work with our partners and neighbours in in Timor Leste, there’s oil and gas reservoirs, unconventional gas that's still able to be sourced. And with all of these things, Katie, obviously if it stacks up financially, if it stacks up commercially, if it stacks up environmentally, then that gas plays a very important role in our future. But companies like Inpex are also looking at the production of green hydrogen into the future. So gas is absolutely vital in our market. And it's going to be for a while longer.

WOOLF: Just on one other topic very quickly, and that is indeed the price of petrol. It's something that we've been speaking about at length on the show, particularly here in the Northern Territory. The Chief Minister confirmed on the show a bit earlier this morning that she is going to be asking the major petrol companies for a “please explain” when it comes to the cost of fuel right now at the bowser for Territorians. But Luke, we know that nationally discussion has started around whether the fuel excise needs to be extended. Do you think it does?

GOSLING: There's no doubt – because I'm lobbying down here in Canberra also for more pressure being placed on them to explain their petrol pricing, given that the excise has been removed for now and we've got that excise finish date at the moment for September. So we're having a conversation down here. For the six months it's going to cost about $3 billion to the budget, which is a significant amount of money that we've inherited from the former government: $1 trillion in debt. But it's hurting peoples’ hip pocket. I think there's two things that are important and that I'm doing down here. One is part of that movement that Nicole Manison is putting pressure on the fuel companies, as we are federally. But also to have a discussion about what support our families are going to need into the future when it comes to the cost of fuel, particularly people who are driving a lot with their work, whether it be a small business or a larger industry or what have you. It's really important that we get that right. But I don't want to build expectations that there'll be a continuance of this discount on fuel into the future. It's an important revenue source.

WOOLF: Yeah. And, look, I think we all get that. But at the moment, you know, right around the nation, we're seeing those petrol prices go down in some of the other states and some of the other locations. Our terminal gate prices, obviously, very similar to what those other locations are. Yet we are substantially more expensive. And I think that this is where we as a Territory need to go, “Well, hang on a second. Why is that the case?” And not only from the Northern Territory Government perspective, but also from that federal perspective, because we know that when you live in regional locations, you’re hit at the hip pocket so much more often.

GOSLING: Yeah, 100 per cent Katie, and it affects almost every family in the Territory, particularly, as you say those that are driving regionally with high prices for diesel as well as unleaded. So, yes, it's something that we're taking up in here. And I’ve got Selena Uibo and Minister Lauren Moss down here at the moment and helping them to make the connections with their respective federal ministers to talk about issues in their portfolio. And I’m keeping in close contact with Nicole Madison. And we do need to lift the pressure and force these fuel companies to explain, the same way I've been doing to Qantas to explain the massive airfares that they're charging Darwinites, or Territorians generally to get around the country for whatever reason. So we just need to keep the pressure on, that’s our job and we'll keep cracking on with that. And I've just got some bad news to finish with you, Katie.

WOOLF: Yeah?

GOSLING: Queensland in the State of Origin touch at Parliament House went down to New South Wales this morning.

WOOLF: Oh mate, it’s because you didn’t have me there to help you out for Queensland.

GOSLING: You've got to come down next time. You would have made the difference today, we were pretty shabby out there on the field.

WOOLF: Well, that is not good to hear at all. Luke Gosling, we'd better leave it there.

ENDS