Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / Shadow Minister for Tourism and Infrastructure Catherine King on whether the Stuart Highway needs to be flood protected to avoid freight crises in the NT

Transcript

Shadow Minister for Tourism and Infrastructure Catherine King on whether the Stuart Highway needs to be flood protected to avoid freight crises in the NT · 360 with Katie Woolf

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: But an issue which has well and truly dominated the
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: headlines over the last few days is that of the
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: lack of food on the supermarket shelves. And we know
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: that South Australian authorities estimate that it's going to take
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: around twelve days in fact for floodwaters to subside on
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: the Stuart Highway and for restoration works to begin. Now
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: the Stuart Highway is closed between Cooper Petie and Port
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: Augusta still as I understand it, with work being done
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: to reopen it. My understanding is that the Stuart Highway
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: obviously will where it connects Adelaide and Darwin and has
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: obviously been closed for about a week, so it's between
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: Port Agusta and Cooper Petie. It cuts the road off
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: from freight to remote parts of South Australia and also
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: us here in the Northern Territory. And as I said,
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: the issue has sort of caused many to start to
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: question if it's time that we need to flood proof
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: the Stuart Highway. Now joining me in the studio right
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: now is the Federal Minister. I think I've got your
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: portfolios right for Tourism and infrastructure.
• 0:57
  Speaker 2: Catherine King, good morning to you.
• 0:59
  Speaker 3: Good to be with you, Katie. Lovely to be back
• 1:01
  Speaker 3: in the territory.
• 1:01
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's great to have you back in the territory.
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: I know that you try to get up here fairly often,
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: but with COVID it's made things a bit more difficult.
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: It has been.
• 1:08
  Speaker 4: I think it's almost probably about ten months I think
• 1:12
  Speaker 4: since you and I last spoken, I was able to
• 1:13
  Speaker 4: get here and I love coming up here, but I've
• 1:16
  Speaker 4: never seen it so wet, I have to say them
• 1:17
  Speaker 4: onsoons well and surely living up to its name at
• 1:20
  Speaker 4: the moment. I've never seen it like this before, and
• 1:22
  Speaker 4: that many years I've been coming up here. But it's
• 1:24
  Speaker 4: good to be here, and I think it's pretty timely
• 1:26
  Speaker 4: given some of the supply chain.
• 1:28
  Speaker 3: Issues you're seeing.
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: Absolutely, I think that it's the perfect timing for you
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: to be here and really to you know, for some
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: of our federal polies, really to see just what we
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: go through at different times. I know that this flooding
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: which is occurring around the nation, it's reak t havoc
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: in so many ways.
• 1:42
  Speaker 2: For us here in the territory.
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: It's been that real concern around lack of food on
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: supermarket shelves. Have you sort of seen a situation like
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: this in a capital city before.
• 1:52
  Speaker 4: Look, no, and I think that I think there's a
• 1:55
  Speaker 4: few things happening here that are worth commenting on. I mean,
• 1:58
  Speaker 4: I think first, sort of more broadly, is we keep
• 2:00
  Speaker 4: getting told that those flood events are sort of one
• 2:02
  Speaker 4: in one hundred year events, and the reality is that
• 2:04
  Speaker 4: they're not. You know, we're seeing them more frequently. And
• 2:07
  Speaker 4: regardless of what you think climate change is happening, it's
• 2:11
  Speaker 4: real and we're seeing it and we're seeing the results
• 2:13
  Speaker 4: of it. So I think the first thing I'd say
• 2:14
  Speaker 4: is having a government that's serious about dealing with that
• 2:17
  Speaker 4: is one of the ways we actually build in resiliency
• 2:19
  Speaker 4: into the system by trying to make sure we actually
• 2:21
  Speaker 4: tackle the.
• 2:22
  Speaker 3: Root calls of some of the problems.
• 2:24
  Speaker 4: The second, I think is this whole issue around disaster mitigation.
• 2:28
  Speaker 4: We keep every time we have a disaster, we build
• 2:31
  Speaker 4: the roads back to exactly the same specs that they
• 2:33
  Speaker 4: were before, and that just seems crazy. Again, if we
• 2:36
  Speaker 4: know we've seen what's happened, and the fact that you've
• 2:38
  Speaker 4: got this one core supply route up to the territory
• 2:42
  Speaker 4: is really problematic, and you're going to have.
• 2:44
  Speaker 3: We have to build resiliency into the system.
• 2:47
  Speaker 4: The government's got a disaster mitigation finn four point seven
• 2:50
  Speaker 4: billion dollars that it's been pretty much sitting on. I
• 2:52
  Speaker 4: think it's spent about seven eight million dollars of it.
• 2:55
  Speaker 4: What are they waiting for? Frankly like, if we need
• 2:58
  Speaker 4: disaster medication, then we should getting on with it and
• 3:01
  Speaker 4: just doing it. So I think that's another thing. So
• 3:03
  Speaker 4: there's meant to be two hundred million dollars a year
• 3:05
  Speaker 4: made available. And again I think we had Murray Watt
• 3:07
  Speaker 4: up here recently, who's our shadow spokesperson from it, So yeah,
• 3:11
  Speaker 4: and exactly. And then the other is investments in our
• 3:14
  Speaker 4: freight routes and actually looking at So there's been this
• 3:17
  Speaker 4: really scattergun approach to infrastructure events, investments spederally and you know,
• 3:21
  Speaker 4: the cynic in me says, you know, like if you
• 3:22
  Speaker 4: live in a National Party seat, the roads might be
• 3:24
  Speaker 4: a bit better than they are in others. But there's
• 3:27
  Speaker 4: just not been this strategic planning about what are we
• 3:30
  Speaker 4: doing about our national freight routes, what are we doing
• 3:32
  Speaker 4: about our supply chains, and really thinking strategically about that.
• 3:35
  Speaker 4: The Stewart's clearly important. The tannami is important. We've announced
• 3:39
  Speaker 4: another policy recently Anthony and I over in Newcastle about
• 3:42
  Speaker 4: strategic fleet capability, like having a maritime fleet available, not
• 3:48
  Speaker 4: leasing that when there's times of emergency. So we rely
• 3:50
  Speaker 4: on our ADF, but we also should be able to
• 3:53
  Speaker 4: have our commercial coastal shipping to be able to actually
• 3:56
  Speaker 4: help with that, so we can call on ships to
• 3:58
  Speaker 4: you know, drop into the port of Darwin or to
• 4:00
  Speaker 4: drop into wa So again actually thinking strategically about where
• 4:04
  Speaker 4: are our supply, where are the risks, and looking into
• 4:08
  Speaker 4: that longer term. So we've made that strategic flood announcement,
• 4:11
  Speaker 4: but we've also you know, we'll also make some announcements
• 4:14
  Speaker 4: in terms of freight roads and things like that and
• 4:16
  Speaker 4: how important they are. We've been I'd already talked to
• 4:18
  Speaker 4: the South Australian Opposition about the Stuart and how important
• 4:21
  Speaker 4: that was. I've done that months ago, and I've certainly
• 4:24
  Speaker 4: been up here talking to some of the MPs up
• 4:27
  Speaker 4: here about the critical freight routes as well.
• 4:28
  Speaker 3: You can't just have one, that's the problem.
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: That's exactly right, and as you've said, you know, you've
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: got to have other options there. And I know that
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: sometimes it takes a once in one hundred year flood
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: or once in a fifty year flood for you to
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: you know, to look a little bit more closely at it.
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: But we know that a federal election is nearing, there's
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: always plenty of promises made. But what exactly would the
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: Labor Party do when it comes to this space and
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: would there be you know, a feasibility study firstly to
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: see how exactly we could fix the Stewart Highway to
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: flood proof it, and would there be an actual tangible investment.
• 5:00
  Speaker 4: Will make some announcements in relation to freight routs, and
• 5:02
  Speaker 4: as I said, I'm not able to do that today,
• 5:05
  Speaker 4: but we've certainly been looking very seriously at it. Good try, Kadie,
• 5:09
  Speaker 4: you really do you know what we do. But what
• 5:12
  Speaker 4: I would say is the approach I take to infrastructure
• 5:15
  Speaker 4: is very different to Barnaby Joyce. Frankly, I've been in
• 5:19
  Speaker 4: public policy and public life for a long period of
• 5:22
  Speaker 4: time and I have a really firm view that infrastructure
• 5:26
  Speaker 4: investment is. You know, you have to have equity in
• 5:28
  Speaker 4: infrastructure investment. It's an enabling factor. It has to be
• 5:31
  Speaker 4: one of the principles on which you're building in and
• 5:34
  Speaker 4: I think that building in strategically improving our freight routs
• 5:39
  Speaker 4: and making sure that people actually can get food is
• 5:42
  Speaker 4: a pretty basic business of government, and so as minister,
• 5:46
  Speaker 4: if that's what I'm lucky enough to be in the
• 5:47
  Speaker 4: next four or five months whenever it is, that will
• 5:50
  Speaker 4: be certainly one of the principles I'll take to the table.
• 5:53
  Speaker 4: I don't know if we need to do too many
• 5:55
  Speaker 4: feasibility studies on the Stewart To be honest, I think
• 5:57
  Speaker 4: we know what needs to be done. I think it's
• 5:59
  Speaker 4: the investment it's needed, and as well, obviously the rail
• 6:01
  Speaker 4: lines caused a problem as well that I don't know
• 6:04
  Speaker 4: how to resolve that. But if I was Minister, I'd
• 6:06
  Speaker 4: be certainly asking some questions about from ARTC and see
• 6:09
  Speaker 4: if you build that in.
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: Have you had much advice, you know, from local authorities
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: both in South Australia and also here in the Northern Territory,
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: but mostly in South Australia where the road is still
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: flooded as to how quickly they are going to be
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: able to get that road back up and moving again.
• 6:23
  Speaker 4: I don't think they've been able to get in there
• 6:25
  Speaker 4: to see just what the damage is yet, so I
• 6:28
  Speaker 4: will certainly take advice, and I know the South Australian position,
• 6:31
  Speaker 4: they've got an election coming up as well. I think
• 6:33
  Speaker 4: they have been talking about the minister that the shadow
• 6:35
  Speaker 4: minister there has been talking about it quite a bit
• 6:37
  Speaker 4: and they've raised the issue with me, you know, as
• 6:39
  Speaker 4: I said months ago, So I think we don't know yet.
• 6:42
  Speaker 4: But again, if you're going to repair it, why would
• 6:45
  Speaker 4: you just repair it as is? If this is you know,
• 6:47
  Speaker 4: this has happened before like this is not, but it
• 6:50
  Speaker 4: seems to be, you know, happening more frequently, and we
• 6:53
  Speaker 4: just can't have this circumstance where you can't get food
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  Speaker 4: like it just seems ridiculous to me that we're in
• 6:58
  Speaker 4: this day and age that or have not been able
• 7:00
  Speaker 4: to get food.
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: Now, one of the other things I'm keen to ask
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: you about in that tourism portfolio, we know that tourism,
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: the tourism industry right around Australia has certainly been doing
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: it incredibly tough.
• 7:11
  Speaker 2: In the Northern territory.
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: They have also been doing it very tough, specifically in
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: Central Australia. I know that Central Australia, prior to Christmas
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: was going through such a difficult time in terms of nobody,
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: you know, nobody visiting basically, and that's certainly not gotten.
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: Easier is the Labor Party planning, you know, if you
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: do get elected at the federal at the federal election,
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: are there plans to do more to try to support
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: the tourism industry here in the Northern Territory and to
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: really try to help them rebound back.
• 7:42
  Speaker 4: Look, absolutely, I think the tourism sector is one of
• 7:44
  Speaker 4: the sectors that's been really abandoned by the Morrison government
• 7:47
  Speaker 4: throughout this but and they are key drivers of economic
• 7:50
  Speaker 4: activity in regional communities right the way across this country.
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  Speaker 4: Why would you not have used COVID as an opportunity
• 7:58
  Speaker 4: to help in tourism, to improve the quality of its infrastructure,
• 8:02
  Speaker 4: to do some builts like they haven't you know, the
• 8:04
  Speaker 4: last two and a half years really very little investment
• 8:07
  Speaker 4: in tourism infrastructure. Will start to see a bit of
• 8:09
  Speaker 4: that obviously with the federal election coming up. But you know,
• 8:12
  Speaker 4: the previous Labor government, we had these t cooal grants
• 8:15
  Speaker 4: that you know, improve the quality of terurim infrastructure. So
• 8:18
  Speaker 4: while they're in downtime, help them, you know, fix fix
• 8:21
  Speaker 4: accommodation facilities, improve the infrastructure so when visitors do come back,
• 8:24
  Speaker 4: you can say, you know, look at all of this
• 8:26
  Speaker 4: new new infrastructure we've got and how terrific is to
• 8:29
  Speaker 4: attract people. We will, you know, again, be making some
• 8:32
  Speaker 4: broader announcements around that. But I see tourism as part
• 8:35
  Speaker 4: of the overall regional development package and it's really about
• 8:38
  Speaker 4: how do you actually grow and develop that economic opportunity
• 8:42
  Speaker 4: in every one of the regions where we've got, you know,
• 8:44
  Speaker 4: where tourism is a key driver. You've been smashed here
• 8:47
  Speaker 4: in the Northern Territory, Far North Queenslands are same. But
• 8:50
  Speaker 4: like even in my hometown of Ballarat Sovereign Hills I
• 8:52
  Speaker 4: made to tourism icon, it's really struggled with the numbers.
• 8:55
  Speaker 4: It's not getting the international tourists back and that's not
• 8:58
  Speaker 4: going to happen for a long time to come. So
• 8:59
  Speaker 4: it's revenue is really much lower than it used to be.
• 9:03
  Speaker 4: So we'll certainly be making some announcements about that support.
• 9:06
  Speaker 4: But I think the biggest thing has been why have
• 9:08
  Speaker 4: we not been investing in the last couple of years
• 9:10
  Speaker 4: in actually helping rebuild the tourism infrastructure. In this country
• 9:14
  Speaker 4: so that when we're open people are ready to go.
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: Have you or are you planning to meet with the
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: tourism sector while you're here in Darwin?
• 9:20
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I'm heading off because we've got Parliament soon and
• 9:23
  Speaker 4: I'm actually not.
• 9:23
  Speaker 3: The Tourism Shadow Don ferroffrom South Australia is not at all,
• 9:29
  Speaker 3: not at all. That's fine.
• 9:30
  Speaker 4: Don has been meeting with the tourism sector right the
• 9:33
  Speaker 4: way through this crisis.
• 9:35
  Speaker 3: But as Regional.
• 9:36
  Speaker 4: Development Shadow Minister, I have certainly had representations from various
• 9:40
  Speaker 4: parts of the tourism sector.
• 9:42
  Speaker 3: The one issue, you know, one of the.
• 9:43
  Speaker 4: Biggest issues here you've got is this Kakado issue, like
• 9:46
  Speaker 4: why is that money not flowing? Why is that not
• 9:49
  Speaker 4: actually going into the territory at the moment in terms
• 9:52
  Speaker 4: of fixing the infrastructure for Kakado, because when tourism come back,
• 9:56
  Speaker 4: they will you want to be ready.
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: Well, then when you talk about regional developlopment and by
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: apologies and we've rittfolio there, but when you talk about
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: regional development, one of the biggest issues we've got in
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: the territory around regional development or one of the things
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: that we are really wanting to do in the territory
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: is build the population. What is Labour's strategy, you know
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: when it comes to regional Australia and really getting people
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: not only in those capital cities we don't want everybody
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: living there, but getting them out to some of our
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: regions and filling some of those jobs that are difficult
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: to fill as well.
• 10:25
  Speaker 3: It's place based solutions. People already know.
• 10:28
  Speaker 4: You know where you live, you know what the economic
• 10:30
  Speaker 4: advantages you've got of those communities. You also know what
• 10:33
  Speaker 4: the infrastructure is that you needed, whether whether it's tourism,
• 10:35
  Speaker 4: whether it's other social and liverability issues. It's really investing
• 10:39
  Speaker 4: in those areas. We made an announcement here just yesterday
• 10:43
  Speaker 4: about seven point five million dollar to Caserina swimming Pool,
• 10:47
  Speaker 4: making sure that again there's equity across communities so the
• 10:50
  Speaker 4: people in the North of Darwin actually have decent recreational facilities.
• 10:53
  Speaker 4: In the same way. Those sort of investments in partnership,
• 10:56
  Speaker 4: particularly with local government, I think are where the key
• 10:59
  Speaker 4: is to restrain a.
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: Bit of pushback from some territorians on that announcement, saying
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: you know, why are we spending money on a pool.
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: It could be invested on other things. You know that
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: are more important at this point in time.
• 11:11
  Speaker 4: Yeah, well, I guess a year ago when I came
• 11:13
  Speaker 4: to the territory that was one of the priorities that
• 11:17
  Speaker 4: the council, the City of dal And have. They've obviously
• 11:19
  Speaker 4: got a number of others. It's one of the announcements
• 11:21
  Speaker 4: will make in the course of the election campaign. That
• 11:26
  Speaker 4: Pool in particular, I think is interesting and that you've
• 11:28
  Speaker 4: had commitments to Palmerston, You've had Perup has already had
• 11:33
  Speaker 4: significant investment in and I think that in our older
• 11:36
  Speaker 4: suburbs in particular that have been around for a long
• 11:38
  Speaker 4: time that Pool's been I think it's fifty years old plus,
• 11:41
  Speaker 4: that you actually should be improving those recreational facilities. I
• 11:45
  Speaker 4: think what I've seen with COVID particularly is people want
• 11:47
  Speaker 4: opportunities to be able to gather outdoors, to recreate outdoors
• 11:52
  Speaker 4: together in a COVID safe way, and those recreational facilities
• 11:55
  Speaker 4: are actually really critical to keeping people socially connected and
• 11:59
  Speaker 4: also making your sub livable and attracting new people into them.
• 12:02
  Speaker 4: So I think you know the North deserves it is
• 12:05
  Speaker 4: just as much as anywhere else. But please be assured
• 12:07
  Speaker 4: that is not the only infrastructure investment that we'll be
• 12:11
  Speaker 4: making here in Darin and here in the Northern Territory.
• 12:14
  Speaker 4: There's lots more that we'll have on offer in the
• 12:16
  Speaker 4: course of the election campaign.
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: Well Catherine King, the Shadow Minister for Infrastructure and Transport
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: and Regional DELIVERYYS, good to catch up with you, Thanks so.
• 12:25
  Speaker 2: Much for your time.
• 12:26
  Speaker 3: Lovely to see you in your beautiful bright yellow today.
• 12:29
  Speaker 2: Thank you very much. Always good to catch up with you.
• 12:32
  Speaker 2: Thanks so much for your time this morning.