Warren Snowdon (Lingiari, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for External Territories) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you, Mr Deputy Speaker Coulton—'Mr Coonabarabran'! I just want to share my disappointment that the Deputy Prime Minister is not here. I understand the presence of the two venerable gentlemen at the table—and I would not often call you that, but in the context of the Deputy Prime Minister I am certainly able to. Let me say that the Deputy Prime Minister has been the single person in this country who has been advocating for the development of water resources in northern Australia—principally, dams. Yet my colleague the member for Herbert has raised significant questions, which remain unanswered, around water supplies in the Townsville region, and the minister, forever not here, cannot respond to those questions. So I ask the minister at the table: how can we make the Deputy Prime Minister respond to those questions? I understand that you may not have any knowledge of those questions but he certainly does. So it is with Northern Australia. I note again that you two wonderful gentlemen come from southern climes—one closer to Antarctica than to Northern Australia, probably—but that, nevertheless, we have a legitimate series of questions to be asked here about the development of northern Australia.

My colleague the shadow minister has spoken about NAIF. From the Northern Territory perspective, we regard NAIF as really a Queensland slush fund because, of all the projects under active consideration, 13 per cent were from the Northern Territory and 50 per cent were from Queensland. How many of the four which were referred to by the shadow minister are in the Northern Territory? And what are the prospects for other projects from the Northern Territory being actively considered? When are we likely to see some answers from the NAIF board as to what projects are going forward? These things are important for us. We know that this is a $5 billion facility. We are all in the dark as to how it is being spent. We are all in the dark as to what consideration has been properly given. So I ask the minister: could you provide us with that information?

I also want to refer briefly to the matter of roads. Again, with the greatest respect for the two members at the table—because the outback is a long way from where they live, and Northern Australia is even further—let me say this: in the context of the Northern Australia Roads Program, which is worth $600 million, and, for developing Northern Australia and improving beef cattle chains, the Beef Roads Program, which is worth $100 million, $30 million has been allocated to the Northern Territory. I ask the minister: how many kilometres of roads will that $30 million address, given that, in the Northern Territory, of our 36,000 kilometres of roads, around 70 per cent is unsealed, and that includes the roads which have been earmarked for that $30 million? So I would ask the minister: tell us in detail what the cost effectiveness of that $30 million investment is. Tell us in detail how many kilometres of roads will actually be dealt with, with that $30 million, given the need in the Northern Territory alone, as I say, of the unsealed 70 per cent of our 36,000 kilometres of roads—which, from my brief calculations, is about 26,000 kilometres. So there is a significant length of roads which need to be addressed in the Northern Territory. Many of those roads are beneficial to not only the pastoral industry and the tourism industry but also, most importantly, Aboriginal communities across the Northern Territory. So these are roads for joint use; they are not single purpose roads. I ask the minister: what is planned to make sure that those roads get properly addressed?

Then I go to the question of the $600 million. As I read budget paper No. 3, page 48, $231.5 million is allocated to Queensland. Could you give us the detail of what roads are proposed to be funded under that program? That $231.5 million of course is more than a third. Less than a third goes to the Northern Territory. Could you also identify which roads in the Northern Territory will benefit from the investment under the Northern Australia Roads Program? And could you advise as to what money will be made available for the development of the Tanami Road, the cost of which is understood to be about $750 million?

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