Matt Smith (Leichhardt, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise today to speak on the statement made by the Minister for Northern Australia. My electorate, Leichhardt, is the perfect embodiment of northern Australia, and, while some will point to Townsville as the capital of the far north, they are wrong; it is in fact Cairns. But Cairns is just the gateway to a much broader and spectacular part of the world. If you'll indulge me, Deputy Speaker Aldred, I would like to go on a little bit of a geography tour of a place I know that you know well, as I ran into you randomly one day at one of the local shopping centres as you were enjoying many of the delights that Cairns has to offer.

So we'll start in Cairns. Cairns is a thriving, metropolitan city. It is multicultural. It has many different industries. It is welcoming. It is beautiful. It is home to the reef fleet and the Great Barrier Reef, the gateway to Green Island, Osprey Reef, Lizard Island and Fitzroy Island, where I believe my daughter is right now celebrating schoolies. It is a truly magnificent place. We have over 128 different cultures that are celebrated en masse. Over 10,000 people went to the recent India Day festivals. Diwali was a huge celebration. We are multicultural, we are proud of it and we pull together. We have a shipping industry. Over $250 million is run through our shipping repairs, including working on our naval boats. It is a truly beautiful place. It is also home to the far north's only national sporting team, my beloved Cairns Taipans, who we wish were going better—but we can't have everything.

If you spend a few days in Cairns, you might think, 'What else is on offer?' so you'll start driving north. You'll get to the tourism hotspot, the destination, that is Port Douglas, one of the most beautiful places on the planet. The golf course there, Palmer Sea Reef golf course, has the crocodile on the first hole lurking in the water trap. You just let the ball go if it's too close to the edge. It is one of the places that people put on their bucket list. Port Douglas is amazing. I would encourage everybody to get there as soon as possible.

A little bit further on we've got Mossman, home of the Mossman Gorge Cultural Centre, a world renowned Indigenous cultural area. Mossman is currently transitioning away from sugar cane. They are having discussions about what their future looks like, and, while this is a tough time for them, they are built of really strong stuff. There is a frontier attitude, a pioneering attitude, that is part of the far north that I know will serve them greatly.

If you leave Mossman, you've got to head up a bit further. Now we're at the gateway to Cape York. The gateway itself positions itself as Lakeland, with its bananas—some of the best bananas on the planet!—as far as the eye can see. At Lakeland, you have a choice: continue on straight and head up to Wujal Wujal, Cooktown and Hope Vale or take a left and drift out to Coen, Kowanyama, Pormpuraaw, Weipa, Aurukun and Lockhart River. We'll stay right for the moment.

Once you get to Cooktown, a historical place—it used to be that over 30,000 people lived in Cooktown during the gold rush. It is now down to about 3½ thousand, but they are proud. They have a great tourism industry, a great fishing industry and a fantastic bowls club if you need a cold beer and a good feed at the end of the day. Close to Cooktown is Wujal Wujal, a beautiful, beautiful place nestled in the rainforest—the rainforest people. Wujal Wujal obviously suffered catastrophic effects through Cyclone Jasper. Everyone had to move out, but I am pleased to say they're back. The sports hall has reopened. They're rebuilding their arts centre. That community is as strong as ever. To the other side of Cooktown is Hope Vale, home of Noel Pearson, who has brought so much positive change to Indigenous Australians. It's a town that bats well above its weight. It is strong. It is proud.

Back down to Lakeland, we're going to head out to the western cape now. We'll start at Lockhart River, tucked away—well, it's actually on the eastern cape; you've got to go west first. It's a trick of the road! The PDR is one of those—look, it is a bucket-list experience. The PDR gets you all the way up to Pajinka. Lockhart River is the home of five different clans, fantastic fishing and some of the best art in the cape. It is also where the American fighter pilots were based during World War II, and the rocks in the ocean carry the scars of the 50-millimetre guns that were shot during target practice.

We'll go back down onto the PDR and out to Aurukun, with fantastic art and fantastic people. I've spent many days there, running basketball clinics for kids, bringing up shoes, and spending time with Steve Norman at the PCYC as they show their children how to make good choices and as they build the leaders of tomorrow.

Weipa is a mining town—there's bauxite as far as the eye can see—but it is developing. It is now a town town. There are almost more small businesses now in Weipa than there are miners. It is ready to take that next step. Just south of Weipa is Napranum, which is a beautiful little spot. They want to become the food bowl for Rio Tinto. It's a really great ambition. To the north, in Mapoon, they are getting ready for cultural tourism when the cruise ships start arriving in the western cape next year. Down further south we've got Kowanyama and Pormpuraaw, the place of many waters, with great art and great fishing.

Then, finally, up top we have the NPA. The NPA is home to a truly unique culture, where Aboriginal land was gifted to the Torres Strait Islanders. It is a place where the two cultures mix, merge and create something truly unique and beautiful. As our great industry—there's possibly gas out there. People drive all the way up to Pajinka, staying in Bamaga, and then of course Zenadth Kes, the Torres Strait, home of Eddie Koiki Mabo, and the multiple different islands. It's the only regional council with an international border. Councillor Chelsea sits there and ticks people off as they drift over from PNG for cultural ceremonies and for trade. It is the most northern part of northern Australia.

The thing that all of these places have in common is the limitless potential—the potential of the people, the potential of the minerals, and the potential of the tourism. It is all there at our fingertips, and it is great to hear Minister King speak of the potential and the opportunity that is presented to northern Australia—not just my part of the world, but right the way across. The world is pivoting north. All roads are leading north. We're pivoting our international focus towards the South Pacific. We are tailor made for it. We are in the right place geographically. We have the right things, we have the right space and we have the right people.

I'm proud to be a part of government. I'm proud to have been put here by the people of Leichhardt to try to snatch these opportunities, to become the renewable powerhouse that I know we can be. Some of the best silica in the world is located in Leichhardt. As some might know, silica is essential in the building of solar panels. There is opportunity for manufacturing there. The Indigenous rangers know country backwards. They understand carbon capture and farming and have been doing it for tens of thousands of years. In doing so, they're showing the way for new industries to evolve—carbon capture, blue carbon, all of these storage options—using ancient knowledge. There is a lot of space up there for carbon capture.

On cultural tourism, we have something unique, something nowhere else in the world can talk about: the world's oldest living culture. 60,000 years. The art decorates the rocks. The language is still spoken in many of the small communities. It breathes, and it's real. Sit with the elders. They'll tell you the stories. They'll show you the dances. Last time I was in Mapoon, I ran into a group called Indigital, who are taking the stories and putting them into a Minecraft-style game so that you can live and walk the Dreaming. The kids get to design the characters. It is a great community-building exercise, as the elders sit down with the young ones and tell them the story. It takes ancient knowledge and puts it in a 21st century context. That's what the Far North is: an ancient and wild place ready to take on the 21st century in a way that not many other places are positioned to do.

I want to commend the minister for working with northern Australia, for understanding the challenges that we face, but not turning her back on us. Sometimes, when challenges present themselves, it can become too hard for people. They're not sure what to do or where to go. But through every challenge there is opportunity, and we have so much opportunity. We will carry Australia forward in the renewable transition with our critical minerals. We will show the world who we are through our cultural tourism. We will protect and promote the mighty Daintree, the Great Barrier Reef and the wildness of Cape York. We will celebrate the unique culture of Zenadth Kes, whose elders are actually in this building today meeting with us.

It is my honour to represent northern Australia. It is my honour to defend northern Australia. And I am so proud to be here doing so with a government that believes in the opportunity that my region possesses. Thank you.

Mary Aldred (Monash, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Leichhardt. That was magnificent. I understand that the member for Solomon is on his way. We're going to take a short recess and then I'll resume the chair.

Sitting suspended from 17:15 to 17:17

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

Thank you, Deputy Speaker. I do appreciate that short recess as I was coming from the other chamber.

It's an absolute privilege to be speaking in the Federation Chamber this afternoon about northern Australia, something very close to my heart, obviously, representing the people of Darwin and Palmerston and Territorians in our federal parliament. I was particularly proud of Territorians over the weekend, when Cyclone Fina came through from the east, moving across the Top End and now down to WA. Monday, when we started the clean-up, was the day when there were statements on northern Australia, and I couldn't be here, and I appreciate the opportunity to make some comments now.

Cyclone Fina and the damage and disruption created is indeed a timely reminder of the extra challenges faced by people and communities right across the north of Australia. It's very heartening to hear about the progress being made through the Northern Australia Action Plan's first annual progress report. To see that progress on the ground is important and is part of my job as the special envoy for northern Australia. The work being done is strengthening an already resilient north; people living in the north of Australia are generally resilient. But it's also providing many further opportunities for the development of industries and infrastructure, and I want to go through those in a bit of detail.

The work addressing critical issues such as housing availability in the north and enabling greater First Nations economic self-determination and progress is only made possible through collaboration. So it was good to hear from the minister, the member for Brand, about the decision to extend the life of the NAIF, the Northern Australia Infrastructure Fund. That 10-year extension of the NAIF will mean that it can continue to invest in projects right across the north, well beyond the current investment deadline of 30 June next year. That will reassure communities and stakeholders in the north, many of whom contributed to the review. The short story is that the NAIF has been topped up and is here to stay, and long may it be topped up and long may it stay.

The Albanese Labor government has worked to ensure that the NAIF is supporting projects that deliver tangible benefits to northern Australian communities. So far, $4.32 billion has gone to finance infrastructure development across the north of Australia, including 14 projects in Queensland, 10 in WA and eight so far in the NT. The NAIF was designed to address a lack of private investment that we sometimes see in the north, although more enabling infrastructure is drawing in more private investment. It is understood by people living in the north that things cost more. There are higher risks associated because of our distance from the main population capitals in the south and the remoteness of many of these areas of the north. They have abundant resources and the climate that we quite love, but the vagaries of tropical weather systems, as we saw on the weekend, also make them interesting and exciting places to live and carry some challenges that the NAIF was set up to help with by growing financial ecosystems throughout the north with responsible investment through the NAIF on those long-term development goals.

The north is absolutely central and essential to our nation's future prosperity and, of course, our security. I want to give a shout-out to the reference group for First Nations people across northern Australia. The IRG, the Northern Australia Indigenous Reference Group, is led by the esteemed chair Professor Martin Nakata. I was also delighted to spend some time with IRG member Alinta McGuire in Darwin recently with my colleague the Assistant Minister for Northern Australia, Senator Nita Green. We had a great conversation. I also want to publicly thank past members of the Indigenous reference group, including Darwin fellow and good bloke Jerome Cubillo, Tara Craigie, Peter Jeffries, Gillian Mailman and the former chair Colin Saltmere, for their contribution to the Northern Australia Indigenous Reference Group and support for northern Australia.

I want to just make a quick comment that the financing that's involved with the NAIF is vital, but it's also vital that we're doing all the things that we're doing to get a workforce and to provide pathways for not just First Nations people but non-Indigenous people as well in the Northern Territory, WA and Queensland who have been underemployed and to build our own. That's what a lot of our policies are about in terms of fee-free TAFE and any work that we can do to have a pipeline of northern Australians to do all the work that we need done in the north. They are the workers and the workforce that we can depend on the most, obviously. So that's also important work.

There is important work also done by the offices. So I want to give a shout-out as well to the NAIF office and the Office of Northern Australia. They're providing great support, and long may it continue. Obviously, with the extension of the NAIF, that's assured, but the Office of Northern Australia does great work to support industry and to support communities, including remote First Nations communities, who have a deep and ancient connection to their country but also want to have a future for their children and want to have their kids on a pathway to a sustainable future and a future of dignity.

If there's one thing about the north that all honourable members should know and would know, it's that it's very rich in resources, whether it be sun, wind, gas, iron ore or those important critical minerals. Those critical minerals are really crucial to our nation's future security and our engagement with our neighbours in the Indo-Pacific and the development of northern Australia is for all those reasons and for the fact that we are a united country that wants the best for every Australian, including people living in the north. That is why the north is such a priority for our Albanese Labor government. We are committed to realising the full potential of the region. The potential was often talked about, but the action to turn that potential into opportunity, into futures, is what's really important, because a strong north means a strong Australia.

The action plan, the 2024-29 annual progress report, shows that we are progressing those priorities and activating the northern economy. Part of the NAIF—$500 million—has been earmarked for projects under the government's Critical Minerals Strategy. We are putting substantial resources into the Arafura Nolans rare earths integrated mining and processing facility near Alice Springs. That's what a future made in Australia is all about—not just digging stuff up but then doing the processing. What that means is great jobs. What that means is logistics hubs up through central Australia that are going to support a whole range of industries into the future, making us more resilient. That is important for our sovereignty. The Australian nation has a bright future in part because of northern Australians and what we can bring to the table, and we thank the federal government for that support.

Debate adjourned.

Federation Chamber adjourned at 17 : 28