Luke Gosling (Solomon, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

That's why I've got this tie on, to acknowledge that mob up there. As the shadow minister, the member for Ballarat, mentioned earlier, Tuesday night's budget was not a great one for the NT going forward. Once again the Territory were left behind by this government in terms of infrastructure. As she mentioned, over the next four years, over the forward estimates, only one per cent of funding. So 99 per cent of the infrastructure funding in the budget on Tuesday night was four years hence. So that led to a quick calculation of about $4 million dollars for roads funding—new funding. Four million dollars over four years in new roads funding. That's $1 million a year, a kilometre a year, in new roads funding from those opposite for the Northern Territory, which is one-sixth of the Australian land mass and has the ability to feed a big chunk of our near neighbours, has the ability to produce all sorts of energy and has the ability, and indeed the responsibility, to defend our nation. That's not much in roads funding, to say the least.

That 99 per cent of the funding that was in the budget that is four years hence—there could be a couple of elections between now and then, so we're supposed to trust those opposite that, in the very unlikely case that they will still be in government after the next election and the election after that, they will be good for some roads funding for the Northern Territory. It's an utterly shameful figure. Yesterday, when I asked the Deputy Prime Minister to confirm that, because I was still a little bit in disbelief, he just talked about old spending, when we wanted to know about new spending for the next four years. He even started talking about defence spending, which is obviously different from infrastructure spending for roads for the agriculture industry, for the pastoralists out there and for economic development in the Aboriginal communities of the Northern Territory. The Prime Minister did much the same when he came to Darwin a couple of weeks ago and was re-announcing defence spending. I know as well as anyone how important defence spending is. It is important, but there is a lot more to the Northern Territory than the defence of our nation. As important as it is, as focal as it is and as needed as it is, there is a lot more going on, and that needs infrastructure like roads to unlock the potential.

Don't take just my word for it, Louise Bilato, the executive officer of the Northern Territory Road Transport Association said, 'It's the Commonwealth's responsibility to maintain and upgrade the national highway network. Yes, it's very unfortunate that $150 million over seven years commencing in 2024 isn't really an exciting conversation for the road transport industry.' That $150 million would be welcome if it were in the next financial year, but it's not. It's well down the road, in 2024. The time is now for developing the Northern Territory and northern Australia in general, but unfortunately—well, the time was eight years ago, really. It is eight years that those opposite have been charged with the responsibility of running the country, and we're still waiting. There were promises made in the last federal election about Kakadu, and that Kakadu funding is still nowhere to be seen. These are really important economic development opportunities for the north, and they're being left to languish by those opposite. It's not good enough, and we expect better.

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