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

Earlier this week, Treasury secretary John Fraser said young people are 'not willing to have a bit of an adventure' and move to Darwin. I think he was referring to the difficulty of getting staff to certain departments. Mr Fraser's comments were noted by the NT News, who, naturally, put these lines on the front page next to a picture of a crocodile. I want to send a message to the young people of southern Australia: not only are we young and free in the NT, but we are also young and fun. There is heaps of fun to be had in the north, and it is only when people get up there that they get to experience that for themselves. We are a young population. The 2016 census showed the Northern Territory has a median age of 34, which is four years younger than the national median of 38. But I know that Solomon is even younger. Darwin and Palmerston's median age is even younger than the NT median age, at 32, so we are young. There are a lot of young families. Unfortunately, there is a bit of a perception that we are a quiet country town, miles from anywhere else, but in fact we are actually many thousands of kilometres closer to where all the action is in South-East Asia and to our north.

As anyone who has ever lived in Darwin will tell you, it is a great life. There is plenty to do. In fact the defence department has found that it is often difficult to get people to want to deploy to Darwin, but when they survey them, once they have been in Darwin, they actually want to stay, because they realise it is a great lifestyle for their families, and for young people it is heaps of fun. It is actually a more popular destination for those people who have experienced it, so I again welcome any member to get up to Darwin and have a look around. Not only is there a lot of fun to be had in the North, but we also have serious industrial and intellectual talent in the Northern Territory, something we are always talking about. Also, we are having Darwin business leaders come down to Parliament House to talk about our capacity. In September, we will be hosting a 'Taste of the Territory' event in Parliament House, to bring the Territory to Parliament House, so that members can see, smell, hear and taste our great Northern Territory. I look forward to welcoming all members to that event in due course.

Scott Buchholz (Wright, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Solomon for that contribution and the open invitation to go to the Northern Territory. I am sure some members will take that up.