Debates Day 3 - Thursday 21 October 2010
Parliamentary Record 15
Debates for 11th Assembly 2008 - 2012; ParliamentNT; Parliamentary Record; 11th Assembly 2008 - 2012
2010-10-21
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 - Thursday 21 October 2010 Palmerston central business district between Koullais Street and The Boulevard. Government wants to see the site developed with ground-level commercial properties and a mix of residential, commercial, and tourist accommodation on upper levels. The site will be required to have a basement car park to balance the demand for parking in the CBD and the new development. Work is planned to start on the site in 2011, and I am really excited to see this project moving forward. The government has allocated 53 ha to the establishment of a Defence Support Hub near Robertson Barracks. The project is being managed by the Land Development Corporation and will support development of specialty services for the Defence forces and other industries including mining, oil and gas, and transport. In relation to the port, this government knows the importance of investing in key infrastructure to support the ongoing growth of the Northern Territory. East Arm port is an integral link with the AustralAsia Trade Route chain. More than $3bn worth of cargo is moved through East Arm Wharf annually, supporting 500 industries and thousands of jobs. A range of industries use the port to access markets overseas. From Parliament House, on the beautiful Darwin Harbour, we are privileged to see some of the traffic moving through that port. To highlight a few: we can see the live cattle export vessels taking thousands of head of Territory cattle to Indonesia. I am keen to visit the port when some Barkly beasts are being loaded, highlighting economic benefits and jobs in the electorate of Barkly and the Territory. We see ships carrying valuable minerals to markets across Asia and, of course, the oil and gas industry bringing their vessels in for repairs and maintenance is always an impressive site. While rain today may somewhat impede our view, the LNG tanker at Wickham Point remains an impressive site. To share something with members about the school groups visiting Parliament House - and I welcome school groups - we stand on the verandah and look at Darwin Harbour and I go through my motivational speech of working in the capital city, grabbing opportunities in education, training, and employment, and the gateway to Asia. Recently, a Year 7 student from Tennant Creek High School said: What is that? When I looked up ready to explain one of the many innovative vessels that use our port and our waters, I was quite astounded to see a Collins Class submarine speeding up the harbour. The student asked me: What is that? Have you ever seen one of those before? That initiated another interesting discussion with kids from Tennant Creek about not only the harbour, the growth of the Territory, also our wonderful Defence forces and the part they play in the important strategic defence of northern Australia. To provide industry with certainty about ports, current facilities, and future development plans, the Darwin Port Corporation has recently developed the East Arm Wharf Facilities Master Plan 2030 Land Use Strategy. The master plan incorporates this governments $150m infrastructure program to develop trade opportunities at the wharf over the next 20 years. The $150m project, including a $50m investment from the federal Labor government, is already delivering for East Arm. To highlight some of these works: the $15m reclamation of Pond F, including access roads to the site, in preparation for bulk earthworks; $9.5m eastern reclaim area project to create additional hard stand. This work is being delivered by Sage Contracting, about 70 000 m of fill have been placed at this site; and a $35m project for an overland conveyor to improve bulk loading operations and environmental standards. The Chief Ministers call for expressions of interest to develop a Marine Supply Base in Darwin is another example of this governments support in developing the Territorys trade opportunities. The project would ensure Darwin has world-class marine infrastructure to support oil and gas exploration and developments in the region, further enhancing our position as an oil and gas hub. Pastoral: as a practical example of the benefit of the wharf to the Territory economy, 108 cattle ships were processed through the East Arm Wharf in 2008-09, up from 86 ships in 2007-08. Investment in the wharf will be key to growing our important pastoral industry. For every dollar generated directly by the pastoral industry, an estimated extra $0.82 is generated within the Northern Territory economy, primarily in the regions. That is a powerful statistic, reflecting not only international trade opportunities, also opportunities for jobs and economic growth in the bush. The industry operates on about 50% of the Northern Territory land mass, and is based on 250 properties, held mainly under perpetual leases. The cattle industry creates jobs for between 1600 and 1900 people, mostly living and working in regional and remote locations, and I am proud to say the electorate of Barkly is one of the key cattle growing regions of the Northern Territory. In relation to the Barkly, over 30 years it has been fabulous to see the development of the cattle industry, not only in increasing herd capacity, also in the very innovative and efficient practices of managing those herds with the development of supplement feeding, improving 6516