DEVELOPING NORTHERN AUSTRALIA VIRTUAL CONFERENCE - 18 August 2021

I’d like to acknowledge the country that I'm coming to you from, of the Ngunnawal people, the traditional owners of Canberra.

 

I also want to acknowledge the Larrakia people, whose country covers my home city of Darwin.

I'm here in Canberra because I want to be in Parliament House on Monday, because as everyone knows, we in the north are underrepresented in Federal Parliament. 

 

So it's really important I'm here in person to continue to see where the Federal Government's agenda is when it comes to the north, and give them positive suggestions and ask them to do better when that's required.

 

You would expect that from me as a politician, but this is not a political speech. 

 

I want to acknowledge the great work right at the outset of our community sector. 

 

Our health professionals are doing a great job to support people in in difficult times. 

 

Even though I'm looking at this lens of national security and a contribution to the defence of Australia, I want to say that developing the north is about developing our human capital and our social infrastructure and social amenity just as much as it is about financial investment.

 

All sorts of investment are needed.

 

At the end of the day, if we can sustainably grow our population in the north, then we'll be able to do even more and participate even more in the national economy. 

 

Some may not realize that the community sector in the NT is about 10,000 employees and puts about $650 million back into the NT economy. 

 

At the moment that's a bigger contribution than the mining industry makes, to give you an idea about where that sector is at. 

 

We all want to see healthier communities with more employment. 

 

And that will, over time, build that human capital that we need to do our part in the north with the Federal Government’s input. 

 

And it's so important that we do more, with our strategic location.

 

That investment just means that we are going to be more connected with our region. 

 

The positive plan that an Albanese federal Labor Government will have for the north will mean that there is that investment in the north.

 

Can I just say plainly that even when promises have been made, the rubber is not hitting the roads. 

 

Of the roads funding that was promised in this year’s federal budget, only one per cent of it will be spent over the next four years.

 

That's too late to develop the north. 

 

Being too late is unfortunately this Government’s MO: too late on the bushfires, too late on aged care, too late setting up dedicated quarantine (other than the incredible Howard Springs Facility in Darwin, we’re yet to see another facility).

 

They’ve been too late on vaccines, causing rolling shutdowns of the economy and costing the North billions.

 

This was largely avoidable, and what we continue to see is that when Sydney sneezes the country catches a cold.

 

However, despite all that, our health professionals and the NT Government have done a fantastic job keeping Territorians safe.

 

What also seen in the last few days is soldiers and members of the Air Force, and the ADF deploying out of Townsville belatedly -- but that's the Government's issue, not the Australian Defence Force’s issue -- to pull out Australian citizens and those who have been security vetted, those Afghan nationals, out of Afghanistan.

 

Those evacuation operations from Australia will invariably come out of northern Queensland and the Northern Territory, so we have a massive part to play, and I’d like to acknowledge our servicepeople doing that crucial work. 

 

I’m now in my second term in federal parliament.

 

I've seen that in the past eight years of this Government, the federal Coalition's contribution to developing the north has been the $5 billion North Australian infrastructure facility.

 

We need the North Australian Infrastructure Facility to work.

 

Of that $5 billion we've had a very small amount of that hit the ground so far. 

 

We know there are important projects in Darwin with the ship lift facility and with the Charles Darwin University city campus, and that's important infrastructure from both a national security perspective, and also building the north. 

 

I'm really excited and I absolutely welcome the appointments of Territorians to the board of the NAIF.

 

Tracey Hayes is the new chair, as well as Steve Margetic as a new board member.

 

There are great things to come with them involved. 

 

I just want to talk about a few things to do with solar agriculture before I get onto the defence stuff and maritime law enforcement, which is where I think we can do a lot more, particularly here in Darwin. 

 

Obviously, Australia and northern Australia in particular have plenty of solar energy.

 

Australia has the highest average solar radiation per square metre of any continent in the world.

The annual solar radiation falling on Australia is approximately 58 million petajoules.

Northern Australia represents almost half of Australia’s land mass, and receives the majority of this abundant resource.

To put this in perspective, Australia’s primary energy consumption from all sources in 2018-19 was  about 6,200 petajoules.

The potential to truly harness the solar resource that falls on Australia is massive.

It is well beyond our domestic demand, and the increasing demands of the region.

Harnessing this solar resource is sustainable and would significantly contribute to national carbon emissions abatement.

Sun Cable’s Australia-ASEAN Power Link enjoys Northern Territory and Commonwealth Government Major Project status and therefore is recognised as a national strategic interest.

In relation to Darwin and Northern Australia, the project will provide 800 megawatts of competitively priced, zero-emissions renewable electricity to the Darwin-Katherine grid, supporting prospective industrial loads.

This will help attract investment across a range of export-oriented industries, including critical minerals, chemical processing, and data centres, to name a few industries of which Darwin is well placed to host.

We know that Suncable and other companies are looking at how we can use that massive solar radiance to our benefit. 

 

That is a national security matter, because it is providing energy to our region, but also to the north, the top end of the Northern Territory, and we can do much more in the future with that. 

 

Cattle, fish and plants -- I’m on the House of Representatives Agriculture Committee.

 

We're currently doing an inquiry into aquaculture, and we all know the NAIF’s done a great job with the Humpty Doo barramundi farm. 

 

But we can do so much more by supporting initiatives like Seafarms’s Top End black tiger prawn enterprise, which is massive in scale.

 

Just Stage 1a will be as big as current national production of large black tiger prawns at about 6000 tonnes per year.

At full scale of 10,000 hectares it would be a maximum of about 180,000 tonnes per year.

But they will only do that if they can achieve economies of scale and reduce production costs and if it can be done sustainably, which will reduce pressure on ocean fisheries.

The seasonal worker program is bringing in workers, in difficult circumstances, for our farmers.

 

The scheme should be expanded - more countries, more works.

We have a critical labour shortage across Australia.

 

And thank god we've got the seasonal worker program, because the Federal Government has been talking about agriculture visa for about three years, but there's still no visa. 

 

So I understand why people are frustrated by that.

 

There are so many uses for our land, not only for agriculture, not only for aquaculture, but also for joint military training, Darwin is obviously a garrison city.

 

We are proud to host significant defence establishments which enhance our national security.

The important value-add that defence in Darwin offers is an opportunity to build and strengthen our international relationships through joint training.

Through hosting international forces for training, our international relationships are enhanced.

Far from offices and conference rooms, these interactions are critical examples of practical diplomacy.

The presence of Marines in Darwin is an important example of this.

It is a gesture of confidence in the ongoing role of Northern Australia in providing a stabilising role in the region. 

The exercises and training opportunities that Northern Australia offers for allied and friendly defence forces is an important and practical element of our bilateral and multilateral relations with the world.

We have enormous and diverse spaces suitable for a range of training opportunities.

Critically, training by international forces in Northern Australia gives our own defence force the opportunity to enhance interoperability with similar forces.

Northern Australia has hosted forces from the United States, Singapore, Japan, South Korea, Canada, New Zealand and the United Kingdom for training and joint exercises.

We need to expand this list to bring other nations into training opportunities with us.

I’d like to see the government prioritise engagement with India, Indonesia, France and other states to achieve this.

Darwin’s geographic proximity in the region presents an opportunity to bring nations together to engage in mutual capacity building and the practical details of diplomacy.

We can bring nations together to develop a joint approach to the challenges which face us.

A particular challenge which confronts us all in this region is maritime law enforcement and security.

Whether the challenge is illegal fishing, drug smuggling, people smuggling or piracy- all nations in our region- stretching from maritime Southeast Asia to the Pacific are affected.

Transnational problems require transnational solutions.

We should establish a Maritime Law Enforcement Centre, and it makes sense to base it in Darwin- not only based on geography but because we host the Armidales and will soon host the Arafruras.

Beyond the training opportunities, the operation of the centre will play a role, much like joint-training opportunities in the military, in fostering greater co-operation at an operational level between the various maritime law enforcement agencies.

This building of trust, and simultaneous dispelling of suspicions would go a long way to improving law enforcement activities on the high seas.

It should be multilateral, and involve ASEAN and the Pacific Islands Forum in establishing the centre.

It’s not a new idea. But the Government needs to act.

With the Port of Darwin and the controversy that has surrounded it from from time to time, it's pretty clear, I think, that we're going to need to have new naval facilities.

 

With the HMAS Coonawarra, we can host multinational naval and Coast Guard-type platforms, but we see that that won't be enough for the future.

 

I think we have an opportunity to do a lot more in the development of naval facilities here in northern Australia. 

 

It saves a lot of sailing time down south from Fleet Base West and Fleet Base East in Sydney. 

 

Fleet Base North needs to become a reality. 

 

And we will all do much better when it comes to positive engagement in our region when we have these elements based in our region.

 

The other thing I want to talk about in terms of our role in national security is energy security. 

The oil and gas industry is pitching that it has the technology, skills and experience and commercial relationships to develop a world-scale blue hydrogen that is a gas-fired hydrogen industry, both domestically and for export. 

 

What's also really exciting is new hydrogen industries, including well-known proponents such as Fortescue Future Industries, are proponents for ambitious plans with green hydrogen and green ammonia. 

 

The world is abuzz with talk about hydrogen as a new source of energy for our homes, for our factories, and for our farms now and into the future.

So there is significant current and emerging demand for hydrogen, preferably green hydrogen, and green ammonia, for key markets around the world.

 

Northern Australia is strategically located with our ports and solar and wind resource potential, and our natural land and water availability, to take advantage of these new exciting green hydrogen industries. 

 

However, as I said, the blue hydrogen industry is also there. 

 

So what I say to all the proponents who want to develop in Northern Australia, who knew? It was a race after all.

 

Not only a race for the vaccines, it was a race to see who is going to make use of North Australia's abundant resources and energies coming online to see who is going to be able to forge forward with that hydrogen industry into the future. 

 

So to conclude, whether it be land, sea, air, or water, there's much that our NT Government and the Governments of Queensland and WA are already doing to make sure that we make the most of our opportunities.

 

What they really need is a Federal Government that's going to really invest.

 

And we will see that in the future with a Federal Labor Government.

 

You would expect me to say that, I'm a politician, but I do believe that the north will do better under Federal Labor, and I look forward to making that a reality. 

 

Thank you.

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ENDS