KATIE WOOLF, HOST: Jacinta Price, the Senator for the Northern Territory, is planning on introducing a private member's bill to ban alcohol in some of those remote communities again. So we'll talk further about that throughout the morning and we'll certainly be having her on the show tomorrow morning. But there's a lot going on right around the place. And yesterday, a service was actually held to honour the many thousands of Australians who've served as peacekeepers. Now, the service was an occasion in which to pause, remember and honour the service and sacrifice of all Australia's military, police and civilian peacekeepers. Now, joining me on the line to tell us a little bit more about the service is Labor's Luke Gosling, the Member for Solomon. Good morning to you, Luke.

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

WOOLF: Not too bad. Luke, tell us a little bit more about the service that was held yesterday in Palmerston.

GOSLING: The Palmerston RSL did a great job and have done for several years now hosting that service out at the Memorial Park in Palmy, and there are a number of veterans of UN peacekeeping operations, not only those that served with the ADF, but also those that serve with the police as well. And one of them still serving, like Danny Bacon. But there are others, too, that served with either the Navy, or there was a retired policewoman, Skip, who served our country overseas, keeping the peace. And what's really important to remember, I suppose, is that Australia were the first ones back in 1947 to ever have a peacekeeping operation go overseas, and that was to help Indonesia keep the peace. And ever since then, 75 years have gone, and a lot of our people have gone into very dangerous situations and seen horrific things. I think we've just got to remember that as well. Just because it's peacekeeping operations doesn't mean that it's any less dangerous or having an effect for the rest of people's lives. And obviously with the Royal Commission being in town next month in Darwin, Katie, it's just good to remember people who have been in those difficult situations and I think days like we had yesterday help people to remember that.

WOOLF: Absolutely. And you mentioned some great Territorians there. Danny Bacon, you know, he's somebody that quite a few of us know, a great bloke and plenty of other wonderful Territorians. You know there's a lot of history here in the Territory that many of us don't even know about.

GOSLING: Yeah, absolutely, Katie. And Alan Mitchell, who many of your listeners will know, well, he actually went down here to Canberra for the official national ceremony marking 75 years and laid a wreath on behalf of Territory Peace Keepers. So it was great to have Alan do that. But of course there's many others, and some that just couldn't get away for the day. But it's a really important occasion and I congratulate Palmerston RSL for doing that.

WOOLF: Good on them is a really important occasion, as you've just said. And Luke, we know that there's a lot happening around the world right now following the passing of the Queen. And it does mean that federal parliamentary sittings have obviously been held off. What's happening in this space? When is Parliament going to sit again on that federal level?

GOSLING: It’s going to sit next week, but only for the condolence motion. So there'll be a commemorative service Thursday next week and on the Friday everyone will have an opportunity to give a condolence speech in Parliament. And then the following Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, we're sitting as normal. And that’s making up for this week when we should have been here. But I'm down in Parliament at the moment because I'm giving a keynote address to 200 young leaders from around the country this evening with the Deputy Prime Minister. So looking forward to that. We've got five great Territorians down here as part of that program and, it's just so inspiring to see these young leaders and the change that they want to be in their communities.

WOOLF: Good on them. So what are they down there doing exactly?

GOSLING: It’s called a National Leadership Forum. So we've had five nominees from the Territory come down to join about 200 others from all around the country. And it's a four-day program where they get to understand how the government works. They have a number of talks from parliamentarians, including the Deputy Prime Minister later today. Obviously, the Prime Minister's on the way over to London. But it was great at the airport on the way down here to catch up with Miriam-Rose from Daly River, she’s one of those ten Australians that's been selected to go across [to the Queen’s funeral] and represent Australia. Yeah, these young people, they've had the program quite disrupted. Usually there would be a lot more MPs taking part. I’m the co-chair of this National Leadership Forum, and it's really important that we invest in these young leaders because they're the future. And it's a bipartisan effort. So I’ll be joining with opposition members today to talk about and reflect on our experiences of leadership, how our values formed, and in politics now, what we're trying to achieve for our communities and what drives us.

WOOLF: Yeah, good stuff. Speaking of a sort of bipartisan approach, I'm keen to get your take on the fact that Senator Jacinta Price has said that she's going to be drafting a private bill to reinstate long-term alcohol bans in remote Indigenous communities after concerns about an increase in alcohol-related issues in some areas. Luke, still a bit scant on detail with this at this point in time. But is that something that you would support or do you think that we need to stick on the path that we're currently on?

GOSLING: Yeah, I only heard about it this morning, Katie, I read an article about it, and I'll be happy to receive any further detail. But I think we've got to be pretty careful in having the Federal Government impose restrictions. This is a Northern Territory Government process that they've been working through for a while now. So I'd be interested when you speak to Jacinta whether she's spoken with the NT Government about what the current plan is. Because I haven't heard that she’s met with them. But what I would really encourage Jacinta to do is talk to the communities themselves, because they're the ones that have the right to make a decision about grog in their own communities. And communities have still got until I think the end of January to opt in to continuing to have restrictions on grog. And I think this is a complex social challenge and it requires people to talk to each other, not for the Commonwealth to come in, like happened in the Intervention to be jumping the gun, and trying to impose another set of sweeping restrictions on grog. Because I think we've got to approach this in a very careful way and the consultations with communities are continuing. So I'm really keen to hear what Jacinta’s got to say about how that's going to pan out.

WOOLF: Yeah, look, I think we'll all be keen to get a bit further detail, but I think that that was part of the problem or part of the issue that she'd raised, but also that other community groups and various groups have raised – the Police Association and indeed the likes of AMSANT – saying that they hadn't been that adequate community consultation before that happened. So I'll have a discussion with her on a tomorrow and see what we can find out. Just very quickly, though, before I let you go. These fuel prices, it's something that that you and I have both been speaking about quite a bit, the excise is due to end in about 12 days. What do you reckon is going to happen here? Are we just going to continue to see these high prices or are they going to go up even further the day that that ends?

GOSLING: Well, they shouldn't do, Katie, because as we've been discussing at length and as I've written about in the paper, the fuel retailers are making huge profits at the moment. They were very slow when excise was taken off to give that saving to Territorians, and it’s something that's brought up with me quite often. When I'm down here in Canberra, I'm having meetings with my colleagues as well about extra measures we can use to keep downward pressure on the on the retailers and the ACCC has obviously got an role as you and I spoke about before, Katie. So they're going to be looking at what happens with prices very, very carefully. And of course, the Federal Government will do its bit in that process. But it's time that they really started to stop gouging. And we're going to be watching very carefully what happens in the coming weeks, and we'll go from there.

WOOLF: And so are there any additional levers that be pulled at this point in time? You said that you've been speaking to your colleagues. Is there anything more that can be done at this point? I know the Federal Government has said that they're not going to be extending that fuel excise.

GOSLING: Yeah, there are I think there are levers that we can apply pressure on to the fuel retailers. It's not the intention of the Federal Government to mandate what the price of a commodity like fuel should be. But having said that, the ACCC is well aware and well resourced to be taking action if they need to. And of course, others around other jurisdictions will look at what they may be able to do as well, but things that are putting more pressure on – and I think the work that you've been done so far, this issue, Katie, and others, is really important. Because, in fact, I had a conversation on the way down there with a fuel retailer just saying, “what's the story with the high diesel price?” And we're not getting many answers, which are why I've spoken to you about that parliamentary inquiry, Katie, and it'll look at a whole range of things: how our fuel is currently is priced, and into the future as we see some more EVs come into the system, electric vehicles, we want to make sure that fuel is still affordable. Because we know that not everyone's going to get an EV, and people need to be able to fill up their car. That means they need affordable petrol. It's unsustainable for us to continue to have that excise into the future because that funds things like the roads that we all depend on. But like I said, I'll be doing what I can through the processes at the federal level to make sure that there's as much pressure as possible.

WOOLF: Well, Luke, we will catch up with you again very soon. Thank you very much for your time this morning.

GOSLING: Good on you, Katie.

ENDS