House debates

Tuesday, 22 November 2016

Constituency Statements

Taxation, Solomon Electorate: MV Rushcutter

5:14 pm

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

I just want to take the opportunity, while the Minister for Trade and Tourism is here, to directly appeal to him to start talking to his colleague Barnaby Joyce and get a sensible competitive rate for the backpacker tax, because Territory tourism businesses are hurting and horticultural businesses are hurting, and it is his responsibility. On the weekend I spent time with mango exporters, and they were saying directly to you and to Barnaby, 'Give us a sensible rate that is going to attract backpackers back.' You are not doing your job, Minister, and it would be good if you pulled your finger out and supported the tourism industry.

But I digress. I wanted to talk about the MV Rushcutter. The MV Rushcutter was used in the Second World War to take our Australian special forces behind enemy lines, and it had a marvellous career in that capacity. It sank in Darwin Harbour almost a month ago now. With a friend, I dove on it and saw that it was in good shape, and that it was going to be good to bring to the surface. I want to thank the Darwin Port and Bhagwan Marine, who helped us to bring that World War II vessel to the surface. We are in position now, thankfully, with the support of the Paspaley Pearl Group, as they have offered some hard-standing space for us to put the boat on to restore it to its former glory.

I would like to thank Paspaley Pearl Group, and I would like to thank the group of volunteers, such as Vicki McLeod and Jeff Dunne, and people like Rex Mitchell and Bro Palmer. Ambrose Palmer is the son of the wartime captain of the MV Rushcutter, which was at that time known as HDML 1321. Currently, the Rushcutter is in the intertidal zone, and with the cyclone season coming up I am making a direct appeal to companies, industry and people of good conscience that have an interest in World War II history, military history, maritime history or special forces history. There is no other ship like this, except perhaps for the Krait, which was part of that famous raid on Singapore Harbour.

The Rushcutter represents an age where we have our veterans leaving us. What we want to do is to restore the Rushcutter and have it on display up at the Darwin Military Museum. I really hope that we have some benefactors out there who can join with us and make sure that the Darwin Military Museum can acknowledge this and so we can salute the service of our men and women who in World War II put everything on the line for the development of our great country.