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

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Joining us on the line. I believe he's in Canberra
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: at the moment. The Member for Sullivan, Luke Goslin, Good
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: morning to you, Luke.
• 0:07
  Speaker 2: Good morning Katie.
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: Now, Luke, I understand Parliament is sitting at the moment,
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  Speaker 1: so there's been quite a bit on the agenda for you, hasn't.
• 0:13
  Speaker 2: There There's been heats on. There's about half of the
• 0:17
  Speaker 2: parliamentarians here. Obviously a lot of Victorian and New South
• 0:21
  Speaker 2: Wales and some Queensland MPs are just appearing by video conference.
• 0:28
  Speaker 2: But it's been a pretty packed agender. I have been
• 0:30
  Speaker 2: able to represent Territorians in a number of ways. We
• 0:34
  Speaker 2: have closed the gap in this parliamentary sitting. So the
• 0:38
  Speaker 2: reports come out that says we're only really meeting about
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: three out of seventeen targets there. But we did have
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  Speaker 2: some great news, a big win for the NT in
• 0:48
  Speaker 2: that the government announced some funding three hundred and seventy
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: million dollars for those survivors of the Stolen Generations in
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  Speaker 2: both the Northern Territory and the Act. So that's something
• 0:59
  Speaker 2: we've been working on for a long time and now
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  Speaker 2: obviously because they survivors are getting quite elderly now, we're
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  Speaker 2: trying to get the government to speed that process up
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  Speaker 2: to give them, you know, I guess that closure that
• 1:14
  Speaker 2: they've been fighting for for so long. Yeah.
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: We did have a really extensive discussion last week with
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  Speaker 1: both Eileen Cummins and all So Mazy from the Stolen
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  Speaker 1: Generations group here in the territory and it was really
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  Speaker 1: very insightful obviously to speak to them and you know
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  Speaker 1: here that they really had not thought, well certainly for Eileen,
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  Speaker 1: that she had not thought that this is going to
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  Speaker 1: happen in her lifetime. So the fact that it had
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  Speaker 1: was a good thing. But like you said, you know,
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  Speaker 1: if they can speed that process up to ensure that
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  Speaker 1: it happened sooner rather than later, that would be even better.
• 1:46
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, absolutely, Caddie and I spoke with Eileen last
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  Speaker 2: night before I spoken in the Parliament and she said, yeah,
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  Speaker 2: you tell them, Luke, you got to tell them that
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  Speaker 2: we're getting old now, like we're between seventy and ninety
• 1:59
  Speaker 2: years old, so let's speed the process. She says, I
• 2:02
  Speaker 2: can give them the list. We've got all the lists.
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: So yeah, it was great to have that outcome. We're
• 2:07
  Speaker 2: still a long way behind in a lot of the targets.
• 2:10
  Speaker 2: But I think it's been some great news during the
• 2:12
  Speaker 2: week with the Aboriginal Justice Agreement that the Northern Territory
• 2:17
  Speaker 2: has entered into and some support from that, not only
• 2:19
  Speaker 2: from the anti government but from the philanthropic sector, and
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  Speaker 2: we all just hope that we can see some gains
• 2:25
  Speaker 2: in that justice area.
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Now, look, I did want to ask you. I
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  Speaker 1: know that there's been a bit of discussion around the
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  Speaker 1: place about refugees here in the territory at the moment
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  Speaker 1: in Darwin. I believe that they're sort of housed at
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  Speaker 1: will out near the airport there somewhere. What's the latest
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: in this space.
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  Speaker 2: We had a breakthrough, Katie, in this week one of
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  Speaker 2: the families have been moved out of that which essentially
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  Speaker 2: a little prison at the back of the airport resort
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  Speaker 2: hotel there. The problem is that these people are genuine
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  Speaker 2: fugees and they've been in detention on Maru for eight
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  Speaker 2: years now, and they are genuine refugees. So what we're
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  Speaker 2: trying to do is just get them released into the
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  Speaker 2: community while they're waiting to be resettled in the US
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  Speaker 2: or Canada. But unfortunately, because we had fifteen in there,
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  Speaker 2: we've been working on it consistently, and I take my
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  Speaker 2: hat off to all those people who've been turning up
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  Speaker 2: to the fence to be in solidarity with those people
• 3:27
  Speaker 2: who are just been in that little facility there for
• 3:32
  Speaker 2: so long. But there's one family left now, Katie, one
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  Speaker 2: family of four. And from the times that I've been
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  Speaker 2: visiting them, it's really obvious the deterioration, and a lot
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  Speaker 2: of people have had to do two weeks quarantine, but
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  Speaker 2: imagine being in that situation for basically eight years. And
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  Speaker 2: certainly they've been at the Darwin Airport for a year
• 3:51
  Speaker 2: and a half. And I know the Darwin Airport want
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  Speaker 2: them gone. They don't want people turning up and protesting
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  Speaker 2: at the airport because of the inhumane treatment of this
• 4:00
  Speaker 2: last family. And there's going to be a big resort
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  Speaker 2: built there and that's all really exciting. So let's just
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  Speaker 2: close down that detention facility, release this family into the
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  Speaker 2: community while they wait for their plane so they can
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  Speaker 2: resettle in the United States.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, look, it definitely needs to be sorted, there's no
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  Speaker 1: doubt about that. Where are they from.
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  Speaker 2: This little last remaining family are from Iran. In fact,
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  Speaker 2: most of the families were from Iran. There was one
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  Speaker 2: family that was from Sri Lanka and they were just
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  Speaker 2: so sick of it. They said, look, send us back
• 4:35
  Speaker 2: to Naharu. It's really sad for Darwin because you know,
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  Speaker 2: we could have these people sort of without that mental
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  Speaker 2: stress of being confined like that for so long in
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  Speaker 2: the community while they waited to be resettled overseas. But
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  Speaker 2: that hasn't happened. One family just said, well, I'd rather
• 4:54
  Speaker 2: be back in Mahru than cooped up here. So we
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  Speaker 2: really continue to say to the men, to Karen Andrews,
• 5:00
  Speaker 2: let's just do the right thing by this last family.
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  Speaker 2: Don't cause them any more mental anguish than we already have.
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  Speaker 1: Well, I know some people listening will be thinking, well,
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: how did they end up here, you know, or how
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: did they end up in this situation. But at the
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  Speaker 1: end of the day, we are talking about genuine refugees.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, we're talking about genuine refugees, Katie, and I mean
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  Speaker 2: it was a matter of where you were when you
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  Speaker 2: sort asylum in Australia. So people that arrived a month before,
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  Speaker 2: these people have been in our community, contributing around community
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  Speaker 2: ever since. People after Kevin Rudd said in twenty thirteen.
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  Speaker 2: Anyone who comes to Australia by boat will never settle here.
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  Speaker 2: These are the people that are still into tention from
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  Speaker 2: that period on. So it's eight years now. They are
• 5:47
  Speaker 2: going to be settled in another country, in either Canada
• 5:50
  Speaker 2: or the United States. But we can afford to just
• 5:54
  Speaker 2: and it's actually cheaper for the federal government just to
• 5:57
  Speaker 2: support them in the community whilst they wait for their overseas.
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: Look, we're running out of time, but very quickly, mate.
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  Speaker 1: I understand that you've got a visitor to the territory tomorrow.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, we have Albo. Anthony Albanezi, the Federal Labor leader,
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  Speaker 2: is coming up to visit Darwin. We're flying back tonight.
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  Speaker 2: He's going to visit how it springs, but also get
• 6:19
  Speaker 2: a brief on Bladen and the role it could continue
• 6:22
  Speaker 2: to play. We're going to head out to some sports
• 6:25
  Speaker 2: and some markets. We're going to head out to the
• 6:27
  Speaker 2: Darwin Military Muster on Saturday at East Point. So it'd
• 6:31
  Speaker 2: be great to have Elbow in town. He's a big
• 6:33
  Speaker 2: supporter of the Northern Territory and there's been a number
• 6:37
  Speaker 2: of things that have happened down here in Canberra in
• 6:39
  Speaker 2: this last two weeks where I'm really confident. In fact,
• 6:42
  Speaker 2: I'm having a conversation in an inquiry that I'm a
• 6:45
  Speaker 2: member of very shortly with Sea Farms about that massive
• 6:48
  Speaker 2: Sea Farms, the massive prawn project. So there's an inquiry
• 6:53
  Speaker 2: into aquaculture and I bought that inquiry up to Darwin
• 6:57
  Speaker 2: a couple of weeks ago. We're talking to Sea Farms
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  Speaker 2: by video link in a short while and we're just
• 7:01
  Speaker 2: keeping territory issues on the agenda down here, Katy. And
• 7:05
  Speaker 2: it's a bit easier when we've got the run of
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  Speaker 2: the place and there's so many that aren't physically here,
• 7:11
  Speaker 2: but we'll just keep flying the flag. And it's got
• 7:13
  Speaker 2: to have elbow in town.
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: If you see him around, well, I think he's going
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: to come into the studio tomorrow morning. Luke Gosling. We
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: will catch up with you again very soon. Thanks so
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: much for your time today.
• 7:23
  Speaker 2: Good on you, Katy. Thank you.
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: That is Labour's member for Solomon there, Luke Gosling.