Debates Day 5 - Wednesday 17 October 2007
Parliamentary Record 17
Debates for 10th Assembly 2005 - 2008; 10th Assembly 2005 - 2008; Parliamentary Record; ParliamentNT
2007-10-17
Made available by the Legislative Assembly of the Northern Territory
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Debates
Legislative Assembly of the Northern Territory
Darwin
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DEBATES Wednesday 17 October 2007 4882 is very different now, but it was difficult to find buyers for LNG. ConocoPhillips was negotiating with its Tokyo Electric Tokyo Gas to see if they wanted to take LNG. Bayu-Undan is not a big field in terms of gas. It is a very rich field but it is not a gas field like many other gas fields around. It is a reasonable size, but not big. The deal that was negotiated by ConocoPhillips was for all that gas to go to LNG. That is the decision they made commercially. There was no contract with the Northern Territory. They were the operators of the field. We have a situation where the member for Katherine has simply misled the public and the Opposition Leader has misled this House. There was no deal. There was no contract. Yes, there were discussions, but there was no deal. We have a contract. We have done the deal and we have gas coming into Darwin, very competitively priced gas. The member for Katherine was not in the parliament at that time, but she should go back to the person who briefed her and say: You have misled me because there was no deal and no contract. There were discussions. Always there are discussions about what can happen with this gas resource, but to say there was a deal, member for Katherine, is very wrong. You are misleading the public, misleading our community. She implied that there was some relationship between the land negotiated with ConocoPhillips at Wickham Point and an arrangement that they provide gas to Channel Island. Show me the bit of paper; show me the contract. You are misleading, member for Katherine. You are definitely misleading. You have to understand the scepticism of some members of this side of the House when the CLP in opposition makes up things about what they did in government, and then the Opposition Leader says to me: You did not do much for your first two years in government. You did not do much for the trade route. We were building the railway line, for heavens sake. How can you have the AustralAsia Trade Route when the fundamental part of it is not built? This, again, is myth perpetration. We were getting gas back on track in those first two years because the previous government had so much bagged Timor Leste that they were not prepared to have discussions with Australia and the Northern Territory because of the bad mouthing of the previous government. That is another myth we have to set aside about what was being done. We were also finishing the port. In those first two years, no activity, she said. We were building the railway, we were finishing the port. There is still more work to be done on the port. We were getting gas back on track and that announcement was made in 2003. We were doing nothing in our first couple of years and, importantly, recovering an economy that was on its knees. I say to the CLP: do not perpetrate myths. Yes, you made in government great contributions to the Territory, but do not perpetrate myths. Tell the truth about what happened. Tell the truth about getting this economy so low that we had no growth. Tell the truth and we will recognise quite happily the work that you did about the railway, but do not pretend you did things you did not do and recognise the damage that you incurred. Madam Speaker, we are building the trade route. We are all proud of that. It is a bipartisan issue and I particularly thank the hard-working public servants in my department who go out there and do this hard work day after day. They are fantastic. Motion agreed to; statement noted. ADJOURNMENT Mr STIRLING (Treasurer): Madam Speaker, I move that the Assembly do now adjourn. Seventeen students from the Yirrkala homelands schools recently obtained their Surf Rescue Certificates, a first for our indigenous communities. The course was delivered by Surf Life Saving Australia with the assistance of volunteers from other surf life saving clubs. The five-day course included learning basic first aid, resuscitation, distress signals, board and tube rescue, recognising different types of surf and rips, and a myriad of surf facts. The instructors were receptive to the English as a second language status of the students and conducted a very hands-on training program. The students completed the course in the allocated time with very good results. As the communities are surrounded by waterways and beaches, the newly gained skills will benefit homelands people. Congratulations to Surf Life Saving Australia for this initiative in expanding their knowledge and training into indigenous communities. The local football season closed on a high note at the end of August with a very close and exciting grand final match between Baywarra and Saints. The second half was tremendous, with both teams fighting hard to control the game using the wind effectively, and there was sensational play through the centre. Congratulations to Baywarra, the winners on the day, in their debut season, the second indigenous team in the history of the competition to take out a flag in their inaugural year. My thanks to Gove AFL President, Des OSullivan, and the committee for a great season of football, recognising the huge amount of voluntary work and time carried out to ensure a successful season.