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

Last week, Darwin had the pleasure of hosting the Japanese Prime Minister, Shinzo Abe. I was lucky to meet the Prime Minister when he came to pay the respects of his nation at our Darwin Cenotaph War Memorial. It was an historic visit, showing how far the relationship has come between Australia and Japan some 75 years after Japanese bombs rained down over our city—77 times our city was bombed. We see through the INPEX Ichthys project, which is Japan's largest-ever overseas investment, that the Japanese have now begun to ship natural gas from Darwin to Japan, and that has really reinforced Australia's position as Japan's main energy supplier.

I'm particularly glad that the Japanese Prime Minister came to Darwin, because the current Australian Prime Minister also came to Darwin. I'm pleased to say that finally, after 577 days, the Darwin City Deal has been signed. Well done to all who worked on this at every level of government. We will honour that deal, should we be lucky enough to form government in the future, and we will improve on it as part of our City Partnerships plan. I call on the government to get the funds to the Northern Territory as soon as possible.