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

The portfolios of Resources and Northern Australia; Regional Development, Territories and Local Government; Veterans' Affairs; Indigenous Affairs; and Urban Infrastructure and Cities are all held by members sitting in the National Party room and are of vital importance to the Northern Territory and to Northern Australia. The Nationals claim to be the champions of regional Australia but have done next to nothing for the Northern Territory. The level of contempt shown by the Nationals to the Territory is matched only perhaps by the former Chief Minister of the Northern Territory, Adam Giles, when he was leading the Country Liberal Party government. It has been almost three years since the $5 billion Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility was announced, and the NT has not seen a single dollar of that. It is 10 months since the Darwin City Deal was announced, but since then we've heard nothing. I should rephrase that: the Turnbull government now has the Darwin City Deal on its website—so that's fantastic, really inspiring stuff! Unfortunately they're talking about more concessional loans like the NAIF, which have seen nothing come into the Northern Territory, so we call on the Nationals to start looking after the Northern Territory as they say they do.