KATIE WOOLF, HOST: Joining me in the studio right now is Luke Gosling, well, the candidate, I think I've got to say now, Luke, for Solomon. Good morning to you.

LUKE GOSLING, MEMBER FOR SOLOMON: How are you, Katie?

WOOLF: Very well. Now, Luke, I do want to have a chat to you about this funding that's been announced by the Labor Party when it comes to domestic violence. Before we get there, though, we had been discussing the situation where Education or Northern Territory teachers could soon be told not to call students “boys and girls” to avoid offending children who might be questioning their gender. The Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese was asked about this during a press conference this morning. Luke, your thoughts?

GOSLING: I caught what you relayed about what Albo had said and that sounded absolutely sensible to me. Girls and boys would be, as parents would expect, would be playing sport against each other. And as the Education Minister Lauren Moss said, we also need to be making sure that people are feeling as included as possible. But I think our teachers and principals are the ones that can work out how best to do that, where a bit of common sense comes into play. So I do support what Albo is saying, and I don't think we need to be changing things all that much, just being a little bit more aware of what supports different students might need.

WOLF: Now, Luke I know that right now in the Northern Territory when we talk about domestic violence, there are women fleeing violence and unfortunately being turned away from accommodation and some of those support services because we really don't have enough. We know that it's a major issue in the Northern Territory. What exactly is the Federal Labor Party going to do in this space if elected?

GOSLING: We had the Shadow Minister for the Prevention of Violence in Families in town yesterday, Senator Jenny McAllister, and she's going out to visit some communities today. So we had a roundtable, and broadly the feedback from the sector is that we've got to see an end to the Northern Territory being allocated funding on a per capita basis when it's obvious where we've got much bigger problems. So I totally wholeheartedly agree with that. And on top of funding that the Federal Government had already announced, we're just giving some more infrastructure funding and some more workforce funding because we know that it's not acceptable that when women are seeking shelter from a violent partner or a violent family member, that we can't provide that support. So we just provided some funding for some additional shelters. People would know organizations like DAIWS and Dawn House, and we want to be supporting them more to help Territory women.

WOLF: And so do we know how many additional places that would mean for the Northern Territory or, you know, like how many women it could potentially provide support for?

GOSLING: Yeah, we sort of calculate around 300 extra women and maybe kids as well, for those women with young kids, will be able to be supported through this funding. So that's a good thing. No matter where Territorians live I think that's something we can all agree on, is that we need to be providing shelter when mums and when women need it most so that they can then sort of regroup with that support

and get on with life safely. So yeah, I think we can all well recognise the need for that in the Territory and this funding will go towards those supports.

WOLF: Yeah, look, there is no doubt that domestic violence is a real scourge on the Northern Territory and it's incredibly sad to see some of what we do see even just on the Territory streets, let alone behind closed doors. So any funding in this space I do think is going to be a good thing. Luke, before I let you go this morning, I know that there has been a lot of posters, a lot of signs up for political candidates right around the place, right around the Territory, whether it's in Solomon or Lingiari or anywhere else. Are you doing the right thing with yours?

GOSLING: Oh, 100 per cent, Katie.

WOOLF: Are you really?

GOSLING: Absolutely. In fact, we had a lady call us yesterday and say that she thought one of our signs wasn't in the in the right place and I said “no worries” and we rushed down there to have a look, and it was on the neighbour’s fence who had agreed to have Gosling up on her fence.

WOOLF: So she’s not a Labor supporter obviously if she didn't want your sign up next door.

GOSLING: Perhaps not. But I think—

WOOLF: There are some pretty strict rules. And if you do the wrong thing, you do get in trouble.

GOSLING: Yeah. And I had a chat with another landowner this morning and that was just around whether she was comfortable for me to put one of my posters – and not like five or ten in a row either. Like sensible, just a couple, just so that people can see who they're voting for. And, you know, thankfully, we got opportunities to come on your radio station and other radio stations to let people know what we stand for. Hopefully I'll get an opportunity to talk about our wages policy in the future because people are worried about how much money is in their pocket and people probably wouldn't know

that Scott Morrison on the weekend said that he's going to bring back legislation that will allow employers to cut overtime, cut penalty rates. He admitted that on the weekend, but we haven't heard anything about it. So Territorians want to know if they're getting a pay cut with a future Morrison Government.

WOOLF: Well, the option is out there for all of those candidates that are running either in the seat of Lingiari or in the seat of Solomon, if there is an announcement made by the party that you are running for, or if there is an individual announcement being made for the Northern Territory that you think we need to speak about, certainly give us a call, 8941 1049, but we will also have the opportunity to meet all of the candidates. We will get to know a little bit more about why you're running, what you stand for, all that kind of thing. So, Luke Gosling, we always appreciate your time. Thank you very much for speaking with us tonight.

GOSLING: No, thank you, Katie, I appreciate the opportunity.

ENDS