Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / Katie Woolf spoke with Federal Member for Solomon Luke Gosling

Transcript

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

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: The Member for Solomon Luke Goslin. Good morning to you, Luke.
• 0:03
  Speaker 2: Good morning Katie Luke.
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: I've got a text message from you and I thought
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: let's get him on and Luke firstley, what is your
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: reaction to this morning's announcement or well, to the fact
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: that the Prime Minister's going to be here talking further
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: about this seven hundred and forty seven million dollar Defense up.
• 0:18
  Speaker 2: Great, it's great that the Prime minister's visiting. Darwin. Has
• 0:21
  Speaker 2: been almost two years since he's been here, and as
• 0:24
  Speaker 2: you know, Katie, I've been inviting him periodically over that
• 0:28
  Speaker 2: time to get him up here, knowing that you know,
• 0:31
  Speaker 2: he's all about the announcement. So if he the quicker
• 0:35
  Speaker 2: he gets up here, the quicker he makes the will
• 0:37
  Speaker 2: in this case a re announcement of twenty nineteen tender.
• 0:43
  Speaker 2: The figure is a bit higher by now, just because
• 0:46
  Speaker 2: of the time that's a lapse since then. What Dave
• 0:49
  Speaker 2: Malone and I and others have been trying to get
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: Defense and the federal government to do is to stop
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: pushing the timelines out to the right, as in, pushing
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: the work back. It might be good for their political purposes,
• 1:06
  Speaker 2: but we need this infrastructure up and running a shap
• 1:10
  Speaker 2: and I've had a mobile office this morning in Stuart Park.
• 1:14
  Speaker 2: Talk to a number of tradees, both when I was
• 1:17
  Speaker 2: getting coffees earlier this morning and then on the side
• 1:20
  Speaker 2: of the road, and they're saying, you know, there's a
• 1:22
  Speaker 2: bit of work around, but this work with the training
• 1:26
  Speaker 2: ranges will be very welcome. But it's got to as
• 1:29
  Speaker 2: Dave Malone has been working on on others, it's got
• 1:33
  Speaker 2: to make sure that local companies get to go and
• 1:36
  Speaker 2: it just doesn't go all the big companies from down south.
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: Yeah, you spot on. You know, we've got to make
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: sure that if we're talking here about such a phenomenal
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: amount of money seven hundred and forty seven million dollars,
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: it does need to go to our local contractors. We've
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: got to make sure that territorians benefit from this investment
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: into the territory. You did say then, Luke or at
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: the start of what you were pointing out, that sees
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: just money being re announced. So are you telling me
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: this morning that this is not new funding.
• 2:07
  Speaker 2: Yeah, basically, Katie was they tend to went out in
• 2:11
  Speaker 2: twenty nineteen. I think what they've done is they've included
• 2:16
  Speaker 2: an extra element. So that extra element might be new,
• 2:19
  Speaker 2: but you know it's designed for the front page of
• 2:22
  Speaker 2: the paper, and you know that we'll get some people's
• 2:25
  Speaker 2: attention and they'll think, yep, this is good news, which
• 2:29
  Speaker 2: it is. But what I'm trying to stress is that
• 2:32
  Speaker 2: if we had got the Prime Minister here before the
• 2:34
  Speaker 2: two year mark, maybe some of this work would have
• 2:38
  Speaker 2: already been going and we could have had all our
• 2:42
  Speaker 2: local companies engaged. So I welcome it, but I just
• 2:47
  Speaker 2: would like the Prime Minister to visit more often and
• 2:50
  Speaker 2: to make more announcements, particularly when it comes to our
• 2:54
  Speaker 2: infrastructure up here. And obviously there's still the outstanding issue
• 2:58
  Speaker 2: of control of the Darleen Port that he needs to
• 3:02
  Speaker 2: address whilst he's here in Darwin today.
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: Yeah, no doubt he'll be asked questions about the Darleenport.
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: We are hoping that we're going to be able to
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: get him on the show at some point. I do
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: want to just ask you very quickly, though, Luke. We
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: know that the increased tensions between China and the West,
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: they've certainly been widely reported. Do you think that this
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: announcement puts the Northern Territory at a greater risk.
• 3:26
  Speaker 2: The announcement of this training base.
• 3:29
  Speaker 3: Well the money, yeah, no, that funding is about improving
• 3:36
  Speaker 3: what are pretty sparsely fitted out training ranges.
• 3:41
  Speaker 2: So will allow us to be a place where not
• 3:44
  Speaker 2: only have the trained Defense Force and our US allies,
• 3:47
  Speaker 2: but other partners from around our window specific region can train.
• 3:51
  Speaker 2: And that is a very good thing because we need
• 3:55
  Speaker 2: to be prepared for all contingencies. We know at the
• 3:59
  Speaker 2: moment we've had a range of cyclone related contingencies in
• 4:03
  Speaker 2: the region, but we also need to be prepared to
• 4:08
  Speaker 2: defend our sovereignty and also to take part in any
• 4:13
  Speaker 2: sorts of contingencies in our region that maintain the freedom
• 4:19
  Speaker 2: and open seas. But we all hope that the federal
• 4:22
  Speaker 2: government is engaging in de escalating tensions wherever they can,
• 4:27
  Speaker 2: so we need to be prepared, but we also need
• 4:30
  Speaker 2: sensible heads in the federal government to be de escalating tensions,
• 4:35
  Speaker 2: standing up for our rights, but also making sure that
• 4:38
  Speaker 2: as a nation, we own our critical strategic infrastructure and
• 4:43
  Speaker 2: we're prepared for the future, whatever it may be.
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: Luke Gosling, we are going to have to leave it there.
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: Good to speak with you this morning, Thanks.
• 4:50
  Speaker 2: So much, Thank you.
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: Kady