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

I rise to speak to the Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility Amendment (Miscellaneous Measures) Bill 2023, an important piece of legislation that will deliver more funding for infrastructure projects in northern Australia, a very good thing. Growing northern Australia's economy is a key national interest. We are a food bowl producing 94 per cent of Australia's bananas, 93 per cent of our delicious mangoes and 12.5 million cattle or up to 90 per cent of Australia's live cattle exports. The north carries Australia's mining and energy sectors with major opportunities in renewables, like solar, wind and hydrogen. The north secures our borders and serves to defend Australia and project power into the region during disasters and crises.

The Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility, NAIF, is just one way the federal government facilitates economic and population growth in northern Australia by financing infrastructure projects and helping to catalyse private sector investment, working with project partners in a range of sectors. NAIF is working with partners in the resources, energy, transport, agriculture and aquaculture, education, healthcare and tourism sectors. NAIF's role is to be an impact investor in northern Australia by facilitating its growth, accelerating projects, delivering public benefit, catalysing and crowding in private sector investment, and ensuring strong opportunities for First Nations people across the north.

Enabling legislation for NAIF passed, with Labor's support, in 2016, but honourable members may remember that we were critical in opposition of the very slow and, I would say, glacial progress that NAIF was initially making, in terms of disbursing that $5 billion to get some projects going in the north. Indeed, after four years, as of 2019, only $15 million had been spent by the NAIF on infrastructure projects in northern Australia. Millions more may have been committed but, though approved, these funds weren't being drawn fast enough.

Labor was committed to seeing NAIF delivering at pace for northern Australia in accordance with its mandate and the $5 billion appropriation. When we reached the NAIF statutory deadline in 2021 its mandate was extended to 2026 with Labor's support. In January 2022 the former government announced that NAIF's funding would be increased to keep up with the demand on the facility. I'm very pleased that we have seen a step-up in the NAIF's ability to disburse those funds. We sat at $3.5 billion last year. We've now got a decent, though not yet equal, geographical spread between the NAIF funded or co-funded projects. There was $1.1 billion invested in Western Australia, $1.2 billion in Queensland and $711 million in the Northern Territory, and in the Northern Territory we still have room to grow that.

In its latest annual report, NAIF listed a pipeline of 109 projects with a loan value of $9.3 billion. These projects were mostly in the resources and energy sector. One of them was the NT's Sun Cable project, which seeks to establish a large solar footprint in Central Australia and harvest that solar energy for use in the Territory and overseas. One of the users that's very interested is Singapore, but there's also significant interest from Indonesia. Another project was a $300-million investment in the Darwin ship lift as well as $150 million to upgrade the NT's airports in Darwin, Tennant Creek and Alice Springs. There was also $151.5 million for Charles Darwin University and for the city campus. I look forward to taking part in what they call the 'topping out ceremony' for the eighth floor of that CBD campus of Charles Darwin University.

There's also been consistent funding—in smaller amounts but it's consistent and helpful—of $7.2 million and, again, $24.2 million to expand the Humpty Doo barramundi farm, which is doing a great job and growing sustainably. Altogether the NAIF is forecast to provide $2.4 billion in economic benefits. The benefits are spread far and wide with each project.

Let us consider three of these projects in more depth. I mentioned the Charles Darwin University project. This is creating an education and community precinct in the centre of our CBD. It's being conducted through the Darwin City Deal. As mentioned, $151.5 million has gone towards that overall project. The NAIF loan will support a project worth $250 million, with a total public benefit of just under $600 million over a 30-year period through increased economic activity in the CBD. Construction of that project commenced in October 2020, and it's expected to be complete in time for the 2024 academic year. The project is creating many onsite jobs and hundreds more across the supply chain through to 2024, then the jobs at the university campus itself. The precinct, once built, is expected to deliver state-of-the-art teaching and research facilities, an art gallery and a library. NAIF's loan is in addition to $97 million already committed by the Commonwealth government through the Darwin City Deal initiative.

This project provides ongoing engagement with Larrakia to collaborate on showcasing culture, adopting cultural protocols and exploring work programs. It also led to a review of the CDU reconciliation action plan and related policies and provision of appropriate cultural training for new employees. During construction, a supplier use target of three per cent for First Nations businesses was sought. CDU will also develop a First Nations procurement policy and set achievable targets within this, and it will seek to achieve a First Nations employment target of 8.8 per cent for the construction phase and promote employment and supply chain opportunities for First Nations businesses. As part of this project, CDU will seek to achieve First Nations employment of 80 full-time equivalent positions.

Another important project for my community of Solomon, the capital of the north, that is financed by NAIF is the Darwin ship lift—important for the nation, this infrastructure. The NAIF loan to the Northern Territory government is for the construction of a ship lift and associated marine infrastructure in Darwin Harbour. This project will consolidate Darwin's position as a hub for marine maintenance and servicing in northern Australia. A loan of $300 million from NAIF will go to the Northern Territory Treasury Corporation towards the overall $400 million project cost. The Northern Territory government is committed to contributing to the remaining $100 million towards the project. This ship lift will be situated on Northern Territory government land in the East Arm precinct of Darwin Harbour, and it will be operated by the Paspaley group, with a long and proud history in Darwin.

The ship lift will be 103 metres long and will be able to lift vessels up to 5,000 tonnes in weight, including our border protection vessels. The facility will include four wet berths and 20 hectares of hard stand area for repair and maintenance works. These additional facilities will reinforce our city's marine maintenance and servicing activities and create many spin-off benefits for local businesses, not to mention support to the ADF border command and our allies and regional security partners. A statutory open access and pricing arrangement will ensure common-user access to the facility for all other vessel owners and operators in the region. The ship lift will be capable of servicing large vessels from industries including coastal shipping, offshore petroleum, fishing and pearling and, as mentioned, Defence and Border Force. It will be used to lift vessels out of the water so they can be serviced, repaired or stored, including for the safety of the vessels during cyclone periods.

Darwin Harbour is the only functional deepwater harbour in northern Australia. It is our nation's fleet base north, guarding our northern approaches. Without this facility, large vessels would need to travel around 10 days or more to be serviced elsewhere, and that is a tremendous waste of time, money and fuel and underscores how important this facility is. NAIF's value-add is to provide longer term funding and flexibility around the drawdown and repayment structure of the project. This is a $300 million investment, which is forecast to deliver economic diversification, job creation, new roles for highly skilled workers and new opportunities for NT businesses.

Finally, there is the Northern Territory airports project, which takes in upgrades for the Darwin, Tennant Creek and Alice Springs airports. NAIF's loan will help expand facilities at the airports and support the development of the Territory's export potential, particularly for agricultural products. The project investments will increase the operational capacity of each of those airports, create jobs, drive new export opportunities in Asian markets, boost the Northern Territory's tourism potential and support energy security for businesses and residents in the north. The project will also improve freight, cold storage and an export/import hub at Darwin International Airport. Solar arrays will be installed at all three airports, ensuring that they have energy security, particularly when used with batteries. There is also a proposal for multi-user battery storage for Darwin. The Alice Springs airport runway, taxiways and apron will also be resurfaced, with the installation of new runway lighting.

As well as the infrastructure investments, these projects are local job creators in the construction phase and beyond. The NAIF is forecast to create over 10,000 jobs in northern Australia, with over 3,000 of those in the Northern Territory. Over 730 jobs will be created by the CDU project; over 270 with the Humpty Doo Barramundi farm; 196 jobs will be at the Hudson Creek Power Station and the Batchelor solar farm just outside of Darwin; and 80 jobs will be created in the Arnhem Land Progress Aboriginal Corporation. There will be many more jobs created besides those. These are transformational projects for Darwin and the Northern Territory. Education, aquaculture and defence infrastructure are really important areas of enabling infrastructure for our capital of the north. There are many more valuable projects being supported by the NAIF in Queensland and Western Australia.

The Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility has come a very long way in the years since its inception. Committing $3.5 billion at an average of $1.1 billion a year for 20 projects, contractually closed, is a strong track record. I'm proud of the NAIF's achievements and the role that I played in getting someone from the NAIF permanently based in Darwin. We still have a lot of work to do to deliver on contracts and to draw down on those available funds. This bill is very important in that it increases by $2 billion those available funds in the Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility, which are going to clear the way for NAIF to keep financing hospitals, universities, silicon fertiliser mining projects, salt processing plants, power stations, solar projects, airports and so much more across northern Australia.

The bill extends the NAIF's ability to provide financial assistance to the states and territories for the development of northern Australia's economic infrastructure. That is exactly what we need to be able to contribute more to our nation. With the NAIF working with proponents and the state and territory governments, there is more to come in terms of infrastructure that drives our economy and drives jobs for Territorians. I commend the bill to the House.

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