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

) ( ): On 30 August, I'll be hosting a population forum with Charles Darwin University's Northern Institute. The event will kick off at 5 pm and is entitled 'Darwin—is bigger better?' It will feature a presentation from the Northern Institute's demographer, Dr Tom Wilson, and it will have a panel discussion with representatives from the NT government, the business sector, the environment sector and the Indigenous community.

I know that the media based on the east coast is full of stories about overpopulated suburbs and infrastructure struggling to keep up, five-kilometre car trips taking half an hour and how it's almost impossible to get a seat on peak-hour public transport. I understand that those are real problems that people in the larger metro areas experience. But also I need to tell the House that the situation in the Territory could not be any more different. Currently, Australia's population is increasing at 1.6 per cent annually, but the Territory's population may actually decline in the current year. This is bad news for the Top End. The main reason the NT misses out so often and in so many ways is our lack of population. This decline in population is bad news for the Territory.

The NT's share of the national population is diminishing at a significant rate and our share of GST revenue is diminishing and declining accordingly. Every person who leaves the NT means our GST share decreases by about $11,000 per year. With our current low revenue base, this is clearly unsustainable. As we saw last night with the territory rights debate, the Territory's small population numbers and our remoteness mean that we also lack political numbers on the national stage. There are just four of us serving the Northern Territory.

We need careful, sustainable development in the Northern Territory that will bring jobs, GST dollars and—who knows?—perhaps even some cheaper airfares. It will enable Territorians to take advantage of a wider range of goods and services. More people in the Territory will enable us to raise the revenue we need to build schools, hospitals and roads for the future. But, obviously, it helps if you've got the federal government on board as well. So I call on the Prime Minister to start supporting the Northern Territory and start giving us a hand. I welcome people to join our population forum on 30 August.