KATIE WOOLF, HOST: Now, joining me 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, there is so much happening around the place, but I do know that the ABC is indeed reporting online, a report by Jano Gibson said that a national security review of the Chinese-owned companies lease of Port Darwin, Landbridge’s lease of Port Darwin, is going to remain a secret after the Defence Department refused a Freedom of Information request for its findings. So obviously we have spoken about this on numerous occasions, you and I have spoken about this on numerous occasions, but in the lead-in to the election it became an issue again, I guess you'd say, as our relationship with China became more strained. And there was a lot of questions being asked on a real national scale as to whether there should be a review into that place. In this instance, Luke, do you think it's fair enough that this documentation or that this review hasn't been made public? Or do you think that it needs to be?

GOSLING: Freedom of information requests may be refused from time to time on national security grounds, and I wouldn't be surprised if that's what's happened in this instance, but it wasn't as if we’d only raised this in the lead-up to the election. We're being consistent since 2015 when the CLP worked with the Federal Coalition government at the time. Scott Morrison was the Treasurer in charge of foreign investment, and it was allowed to go through. The current Prime Minister Albo was the Infrastructure Minister at the time, and myself and he and many others from our side were very clear in our opposition to the leasing of our northern strategic port, and that's been consistent. And what the PM said when he was here just after the election is that we're going to conduct our own review, and he will make that public in due course. But obviously the timing of that is something that government broadly will keep under wraps. It's going to be thorough, though, and it's going to answer the questions that so many Australians have had all this time, i.e. how was this allowed to happen? I think the language that the Prime Minister uses is “what were the circumstances around this leasing of our northern strategic port to a company so closely aligned to the CCP?” And we'll get those answers in this review. And as the Prime Minister said, we'll make that public.

WOOLF: And so there is a review going to happen—

GOSLING: Underway.

WOOLF: It's underway as we speak. So any idea how long that's going to take?

GOSLING: Yeah, that's an issue with the review, we're reviewing the information that's already come to light, the stuff that's public and the stuff that's not. And obviously the NT Government is cooperating in that process because it is, after all, a contract that was established by the NT government of the day. So that will take some time. But yeah, I'm not in a position to say that it will be by, you know, a certain month next year or something like that, but it's going to be thorough and we're working through it.

WOOLF: Alright, and it is going to be made public, so people have got a good understanding as to whether the leasing of our port is okay, whether it's going to cause us any issues down the track.

GOSLING: Yeah, and whether there was any impropriety back in 2015. And people who have been around Darwin for a while know that there probably are some people that are a bit nervous about the outcomes of this review and this investigation into the circumstances at the time. But Australians deserve to know, and more than that, Australians need to know that there's been a proper process by which a decision was made about the ongoing status of that lease over our port.

WOOLF: And Luke, I know again, in the lead-in to the to the federal election, there was discussion from the Coalition as well about further investments being made into the Northern Territory. They weren't saying that they were going to build a new port, but there was going to be further investment. Where is all of that now? Now that Labor is obviously in charge, when you talk about the port and when you talk about it being leased to a Chinese-owned company, in terms of the use by Defence or the concerns by Defence potentially?

GOSLING: Katie, for me and for so many others it's always been purely that the northern strategic port of Darwin should be in Australian hands or those of our strategic partners. And that's a no brainer. Most people, wherever I go in Australia, when I say that I'm the MP from Darwin, people say “mate, what the bloody hell happened with that port?” And it's a good question and it's a question that Australians deserve answers to. Just to go back to that port infrastructure point, I think the Deputy Prime Minister at the time, Barnaby Joyce, actually referred to it as a second port or a replacement port, but they hadn't engaged at all or consulted at all with Defence. It was really curious. But what we have said is that we're committed to $1.5 billion of investment in our port area. What we need to do through this process now is work out what is the best use of those funds to enable further economic growth in Darwin for the good of the nation, but also with our new naval and our allied uses and training in the area, what is the best infrastructure to support not only industry but the Defence Force as well.

WOOLF: And so just going back to our current port, if the review that is undertaken by Labor shows that there are no concerns, that there's nothing to see here, it is okay for it to be leased by Landbridge, you know, is it something that then we all just sort of need to move on from? Or do you think that the reality is that we should actually have that port in Australian hands?

GOSLING: Well, the port never should have been leased, that's one thing. And the Federal Government that I'm proud to be a part of will follow the advice of that review, follow those recommendations and take the appropriate action. We're not sure at this point, obviously, of the review’s full depth, because we haven't been in government for that long. We know that Defence has withheld some information on national security grounds, from the FOIs. But yeah, I'll congratulate Jano Gibson, he's doing a great job in investigating this because he, like many others, were scratching their heads back in 2015 when we lost our northern port for a century, or a year short of a century. Now, that's already been, what, seven years? But we've seen how quickly strategic circumstances can change. That is why it was such a stupid thing to do, and I look forward to being part of a government that rectifies the situation.

WOOLF: Well, and in rectifying the situation, do you reckon that it could potentially harm our relationship further with China?

GOSLING: Well, that’s just something that needs to be managed in a mature way, in a diplomatic way. As I've said a number of times over the past few years, it is uncontroversial to say that such critical infrastructure in the north of Australia, a massive defence hub, should be in Australian hands and not in foreign hands. That is uncontroversial thing to say. and I know, I know for sure that we can't go and buy port facilities in China because they want to keep their port facilities and critical infrastructure in their own hands as most other countries in the world would. And people will often say, “Oh, what about the Port of Melbourne or other ports?” Well, people have their own views on that, but Darwin's different. Darwin's critical, Darwin's our northern port. It's got a significant strategic military role that should be in our hands, and I look forward to seeing the recommendations out of the review in due course. I just can't give you a date about when it’s going to come out.

WOOLF: No that’s alright, we'll keep on to it, Luke, no doubt about that. One thing I want to ask you about really quickly, I know that you've been pushing for there to be another look into our air fares in regional Australia. It's something that we're all pretty concerned about. I mean even last week, you've got a situation where flights are being cancelled to here, there and everywhere, and it takes days to be able to get back on to another flight. We all get that. That's sort of part of living in a location that is a little further away than some of the other capital cities. But how far along is this and are we any closer to seeing, you know, ourselves being treated a bit more fairly, I suppose, when it comes to the airlines, the cost of air fares?

GOSLING: Yeah, I've been speaking to Qantas and Jetstar since we last spoke, Katie, and I’ll share in relation to that Singapore leg as well, which a lot of people are devastated about because that was the affordable way to get to Singapore and then bounce from there to wherever they needed to get to. Keeping in mind a lot of people have the same family members because of COVID for a long, long time. So that's been a bit of a kick in the guts for us. But I'll share that response from Qantas and Jetstar on my Facebook today. For those that are interested, I'm still looking at what we might be able to do with that federal committee, but it's affecting a lot of us. Some colleagues of mine were to fly down to Alice Springs yesterday. The flight was cancelled or, sorry, first it was put back three hours and then it was cancelled, to go on the on the flight today. And you're thinking, “did you always know that it was going to be cancelled?” And then they can't find a hotel, right. So they ended up going at someone's house in Palmerston, and good for those people making a dollar. But a mate of mine was going to fly out from the Gold Coast to see Midnight Oil and the flights were over a grand. So it's affecting us, I think, as it moves into the wet season as well. And I am— I’ve got to put it on the record, Katie, I'm not someone who's rushing for the wet season. That’ll come in due course. Can we enjoy this cool weather for another week or so? But I did feel for the asthmatics this morning. So reach out to Asthma NT because it’s pretty putrid in the air.

WOOLF: Well, hey, Luke, before I let you go, though, so what have Jetstar and Qantas said to you? Not a lot?

GOSLING: It’s a bit of a world salad, but I'll pull it up on my phone now if you've got time.

WOOLF: So I mean, I'm assuming that there's not a lot of movement from them, like they're not really coming to the party and saying, “look, we're prepared to put on additional flights or we're prepared to sort of make those flights any cheaper” because it seems like they are more prepared at this point in time to keep those flights and to keep that sort of frequency higher in our major capital cities, because that's where they're obviously making money. So I can only assume that that's part of it. Now, Luke is just trying to find that response from Jetstar and Qantas. We'll see whether we're able to get it. Otherwise people can—

GOSLING: Yeah. They're just going through the reasons for the Denpasar changes in how often those flights are going due to demand. I think there's a lot of demand of people keen to get over to Bali.

WOOLF: But so they're saying that there's not a high enough demand?

GOSLING: They say they're going to increase services during school holidays. But otherwise I think workforce is hitting them as same way it's hitting so many others. They're apologising to customers for the inconvenience and frustrations of cancelled flights, but also talking about the suspension of the Darwin to Singapore services and referencing the commercial viability of the route. But if it's any guide from the people who've rung me that are really concerned, then there's a lot of demand there. But I think you've hit the nail on the head, Katie, which is why we need to continue to look at ways to apply pressure in Canberra. Because the more profitable routes, they are just raking it in. And we are having workforce shortages. So the question is, you know, NT is obviously in Qantas's name, what responsibility they do, particularly when they got about $2 billion of taxpayers’ money to stay viable during COVID, what responsibility do they have to say, Melbourne-Sydney, Brisbane-Sydney, Melbourne-Brisbane, they're the profitable routes and they're raking it in on those routes. But what responsibility do they have to service the rest of the country?

WOOLF: Absolutely.

GOSLING: And that is absolutely our point and what I need to keep punching down in Canberra.

WOOLF: Well, Luke Gosling, we will leave it there. We'll catch up with you again very soon.

ENDS