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Katie Woolf spoke with Labor Member for Solomon Luke Gosling · 360 with Katie Woolf

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Three sixty with Katie Wolf. Join the conversation with Katie Wolf.
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: You are our eyes and ears in the Territory Mixed
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: one oh four point nine.
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  Speaker 2: Joining us live in the studio right now is Labour's
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  Speaker 2: member for Solomon, our representative in Canberra, Luke Goslin.
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  Speaker 1: Good morning to you, Luke.
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  Speaker 3: Morning Katy mate.
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  Speaker 1: You've sprinted in here. You've been out of Blatant Point,
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  Speaker 1: haven't you.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah.
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  Speaker 3: I had a good look around Blaton Point this morning.
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  Speaker 3: It's a massive facility. Some of your listeners will remember.
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  Speaker 3: It's played various roles in its life. But what I'm
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  Speaker 3: really hoping is that it can play a continuing role
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  Speaker 3: as part of the National Quarantine Plan in a similar
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  Speaker 3: way to the way Howard Springs is, but with a
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  Speaker 3: lot more federal support to make sure that whether it
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  Speaker 3: be stranded Australians or UNI students or workers coming in
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  Speaker 3: on the seasonal worker program, that we can quarantine people
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  Speaker 3: safely in dedicated facilities like at Bladon Point, as opposed
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  Speaker 3: to what we've seen with hotel quarantine.
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  Speaker 2: Well, this has been a real issue I've noticed in
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  Speaker 2: the federal media or in the national media. You'd have
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  Speaker 2: to say over recent weeks where we are seeing a
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  Speaker 2: lot of our states leaders, or one in particular, Mark McGowan,
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  Speaker 2: has been pushing out of wa for there to be
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  Speaker 2: more regional centers that do actually house either expats coming home,
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  Speaker 2: so those repatriated Aussies coming back, but also for us
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  Speaker 2: in the territory.
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  Speaker 1: We've been talking about that worker shortage and.
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  Speaker 2: Whether we could actually bring some people over to Australia
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  Speaker 2: and that could be the facility where it could happen.
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  Speaker 2: I guess my only concern is, look, do we have
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  Speaker 2: the staff to be able to man something like this?
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, it's a really good point Caddy, and obviously you
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  Speaker 3: know you can't do it if you haven't got the
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  Speaker 3: staff to run it. Now with the US Marines, they've
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  Speaker 3: got their own health people and they're very obviously disciplined.
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  Speaker 3: No one's going to be jumping the fence or carrying on.
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  Speaker 3: So we are already successfully doing two things. How it's
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  Speaker 3: rings is being run world class facility, but we've also
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  Speaker 3: got these other facilities out of Bladon Point. The good
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  Speaker 3: thing about Bladon Point is it can be really broken
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  Speaker 3: up into different sections, so staff that can come from
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  Speaker 3: locals that are currently unemployed looking for work, but also
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  Speaker 3: people coming up from down south and enjoy the beautiful
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  Speaker 3: dry season. They could actually be accommodated out at the
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  Speaker 3: facility in a separate part of the facility and work
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  Speaker 3: in the other parts of the facilities, and we can
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  Speaker 3: have up to fifteen hundred people there safely being welcome
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  Speaker 3: back to Australia, whether it be for work, study or
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  Speaker 3: just coming home.
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  Speaker 2: Looke.
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  Speaker 1: Where are we at with these discussions.
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  Speaker 2: I know that I did speak to the Prime Minister
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  Speaker 2: last week and he had flagged that, you know, we
• 2:47
  Speaker 2: may see more people or they're certainly looking at filling
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  Speaker 2: some of those positions or working out how we can
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  Speaker 2: fill some of those workforce shortages. It seems like it
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  Speaker 2: could still be a bit of a way away at
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  Speaker 2: this point.
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  Speaker 3: I did listen to his interview with you, Caddie, and
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  Speaker 3: I wish you had a bit more time with him,
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  Speaker 3: but there were so many things to cover and yeah,
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  Speaker 3: and he's pretty good at throwing together a bit of
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  Speaker 3: a word salad type of answer to try and basically say,
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  Speaker 3: oh no, look, we'd rather not spend any money on
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  Speaker 3: national quarantine and reserve our right to blame the States
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  Speaker 3: when there's.
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  Speaker 2: Our break spending half a billion I think here in
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  Speaker 2: the territory.
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  Speaker 3: That's what they said, and we look forward to an
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  Speaker 3: opportunity to test that through the Senate estimates process. But
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  Speaker 3: I think why he was making that point is because
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  Speaker 3: he knows there is a no brainer solution right here
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  Speaker 3: in Darwin in addition to Howard Springs and down south,
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  Speaker 3: they're talking about asking the federal government for like eight
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  Speaker 3: hundred eight hundred million, sorry, to build a dedicated facility
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  Speaker 3: that won't look too much different to blatant point.
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  Speaker 2: So you reckon it's there, like we may as well
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  Speaker 2: actually be utilizing it.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, it's booked out in the next little while.
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  Speaker 3: You've got this big impacts maintenance process going on at
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  Speaker 3: the moment, so there's workers flying in and staying there.
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  Speaker 3: But you've also got the US Marines and what they
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  Speaker 3: think is at August onwards, so we've got a couple
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  Speaker 3: of months to get this ready. From August onwards, you're
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  Speaker 3: going to have a facility there that could safely quarantine
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  Speaker 3: a lot of people, and that will provide lots of
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  Speaker 3: work for local businesses as well as work for unemployed territorians.
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  Speaker 3: And you know, we welcome people to come up from
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  Speaker 3: down South, stay safely here and enjoy the territory.
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  Speaker 2: I actually, I do think it's a good idea. I
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  Speaker 2: think that we have got a situation at the moment
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  Speaker 2: where if we've got facilities where we're able to keep
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  Speaker 2: people safe, and we are able to have those repatriated
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  Speaker 2: Australians coming back, but particularly then as well people able
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  Speaker 2: to come over and fill those worker shortages, then it
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  Speaker 2: would be a good idea. But my biggest concern is
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  Speaker 2: the staffing of it. And I think that we've even
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  Speaker 2: seen out at Howard Springs people are quite concerned about
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  Speaker 2: the ozmat team moving out of there and into Health
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  Speaker 2: taking over. I guess that's the only you know, that's
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  Speaker 2: the only thing that I'm thinking through as we're discussing,
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  Speaker 2: is how do we make sure that it's staffed adequately
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  Speaker 2: so that it does stay as safe as possible.
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  Speaker 3: There's no doubt that we can't do it without the
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  Speaker 3: federal government support. So quarantine being a national federal responsibility,
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  Speaker 3: there is an opportunity there for them to grip it
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  Speaker 3: up and say, yep, we're going to double the amount
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  Speaker 3: of capacity up in the territory. You're going to need
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  Speaker 3: a hand to do that. But it's got hospitals out there,
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  Speaker 3: so it need not be an impost. Even if some
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  Speaker 3: returning Australians as we've seen do have some COVID, there's
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  Speaker 3: ample ability there. And I walk through the hospital this morning.
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  Speaker 3: There's ample ability there with the federal government support to
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  Speaker 3: get a health company to provide services there and to
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  Speaker 3: have returning.
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  Speaker 2: Totally keep them out there. You know, like we won't
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  Speaker 2: have that sort of double handling. I guess like we
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  Speaker 2: maybe seeing other capital cities where people are having to
• 6:04
  Speaker 2: be transported to their different hotels and things like that
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  Speaker 2: from the airport.
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  Speaker 3: Exactly Cardian, that's where it gets out, and we don't
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  Speaker 3: want it to get out. We've got isolated, purpose built
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  Speaker 3: facilities that can do this safely, that are already doing
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  Speaker 3: it safely, and I think it'll be an economic boom
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  Speaker 3: for the territory and you know, really show Australia that
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  Speaker 3: we may depend on the Commonwealth. Mind you, they can
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  Speaker 3: still overrule our laws and we're not happy with that,
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  Speaker 3: but we provide a very important strategic footprint in our nation.
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  Speaker 3: Part of that responsibility for US is to make sure
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  Speaker 3: that whether it be in terms of our defense forces,
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  Speaker 3: our border protection, our national quarantine which will go on
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  Speaker 3: for a couple of years perhaps as we try it
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  Speaker 3: and get everyone vaccinated and do this safely role for
• 7:00
  Speaker 3: us to play. There's no need to build a new
• 7:02
  Speaker 3: facility elsewhere when we can double the capacity here and
• 7:06
  Speaker 3: get stranded Ozzie's home.
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  Speaker 1: I reckon it's a very interesting discussion to have.
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  Speaker 2: I can see our teacht line is already heating up,
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  Speaker 2: so no doubt plenty of people will have differing opinions
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  Speaker 2: on this, Luke.
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  Speaker 1: Before we wrap up, I do want to ask you
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  Speaker 1: it has.
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  Speaker 2: Been reported that there is going to be an investigation
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  Speaker 2: obviously the Department of Defense is going to be looking
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  Speaker 2: into the lease of.
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  Speaker 1: The Port of Darwin.
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  Speaker 2: How I mean at this point in time, what have
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  Speaker 2: you been told and how deep is this investigation going
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  Speaker 2: to go? Yeah?
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  Speaker 3: I hope it's a serious and significant deep dive into
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  Speaker 3: the issue. It's what I called for when we were
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  Speaker 3: all surprised back in twenty fifteen and wrote about it
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  Speaker 3: at the time and said there hadn't been enough due diligence,
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  Speaker 3: There hadn't been a deep enough dive into the strategic
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  Speaker 3: implications of having foreign entity controlling our port for our century.
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  Speaker 3: It was always a very unwise decision back then and
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  Speaker 3: it continues to be less less than what we'd like
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  Speaker 3: to see. And it's not, as I've said with you before, Cady,
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  Speaker 3: it's not controversial. I don't think to say that our
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  Speaker 3: northern strategic port should be controlled by Australia. We decide
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  Speaker 3: who comes in and out of it. It does not
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  Speaker 3: mean that we're not supportive of foreign investment. It's just
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  Speaker 3: when it comes to critical infrastructure in our strategic northern
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  Speaker 3: port that we need to make sure that things are
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  Speaker 3: as they should be and that is in Australian control.
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  Speaker 2: Look, what impact do you think the reversing of that
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  Speaker 2: lease could have on Australia's relationship with China.
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  Speaker 3: Well, it may depending on Lanmbridge, the owner of Lambridge,
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  Speaker 3: and what they want to do. It may be very straightforward,
• 9:00
  Speaker 3: may be an arrangement that is reached diplomatically respectfully, and
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  Speaker 3: that's what I call on the Federal government to do.
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  Speaker 2: Wis reckon It would be though, given some of the
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  Speaker 2: rhetoric that we've seen come out of China recently.
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  Speaker 3: Well, I think what we need is just wise, cool
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  Speaker 3: heads on both sides. The Defense Department should be the
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  Speaker 3: ones that look into this and give some feedback to
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  Speaker 3: the national government. Let's not forget that the Prime Minister
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  Speaker 3: was the Treasurer at the time that the lease occurred. Now,
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  Speaker 3: the Foreign Investment Review Board obviously advises the Treasurer on
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  Speaker 3: foreign investments, but the responsibility for foreign investments is the treasurers.
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  Speaker 3: So the current PM was the Treasurer at the time.
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  Speaker 3: So I'm glad that he is directing Defense to look
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  Speaker 3: into this and we look forward to their findings. This
• 9:52
  Speaker 3: should have been done a long time ago. I really
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  Speaker 3: welcome it, and we will be making sure that there's
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  Speaker 3: not politics played with this, that it's a cool decision
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  Speaker 3: made in our national interests, and that we continue to
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  Speaker 3: deal respectfully with our neighbors in the region.
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  Speaker 2: Labours Member four for Solomon Luke Goslin. Good to catch
• 10:12
  Speaker 2: up with you this morning. Thanks so much for your time.
• 10:14
  Speaker 3: Good on you, Katie.