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Katie Woolf spoke with Federal Minister for Northern Australia Keith Pitt · 360 with Katie Woolf

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  Speaker 1: You are listening to Mix ONEOW four point nine's three
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  Speaker 1: sixty now. Earlier this morning we learned that Santos has
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  Speaker 1: approved it's four point seven billion dollar Barossa gas project
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  Speaker 1: in the Northern Territory. And joining me in the studio
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  Speaker 1: to talk more about this is the Minister for Northern Australia,
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  Speaker 1: Keith Peet.
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  Speaker 2: Good morning, oh goodbonding to you and good one in
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  Speaker 2: your listeners.
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  Speaker 1: Keith, great to have you in the studio. Firstly, can
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  Speaker 1: you talk us through this announcement.
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  Speaker 3: Well, it's great to be back in the North and
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  Speaker 3: face to face Katie, I've got to tell you, yeah,
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  Speaker 3: but how good is the North? How good is darw
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  Speaker 3: and how good is this announcement? So Santos an Australian
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  Speaker 3: company delivering Australian gas.
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  Speaker 2: For the benefit of all Australians.
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  Speaker 3: This is a significant announcement three point six billion dollars
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  Speaker 3: US around the Barossa. So what this will mean will
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  Speaker 3: mean an extension for life four dar on llen g.
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  Speaker 3: It will mean some six hundred plus construction jobs and
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  Speaker 3: then three hundred and fifty in the long term. That's
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  Speaker 3: great news for the North, but it's also a big
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  Speaker 3: boost in confidence for the resources sector and you've only
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  Speaker 3: to look at the numbers yesterday. So the Office of
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  Speaker 3: the Chief Economist has put out a forecast indicating Australias
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  Speaker 3: resources sector should break all records this year two hundred
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  Speaker 3: ninety six billion dollars in exports.
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  Speaker 1: Now, sort of talk us through because for some people
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  Speaker 1: listening right now, they might be thinking, oh goodness, what
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  Speaker 1: does this really mean for the Northern territory. You know,
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  Speaker 1: we've seen big gas projects like Impex, We know that,
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  Speaker 1: you know that Santos has been operating in the territory
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  Speaker 1: for some time. So what does it mean in terms of,
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  Speaker 1: you know, for the Northern Territory's economy and really kickstarting
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  Speaker 1: things or getting things moving.
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  Speaker 3: Well, this is the biggest project announcement for ten years,
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  Speaker 3: Ikeotha's been the last. What it means is jobs. It
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  Speaker 3: means very strong support for your regional economy and it
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  Speaker 3: means those really well paid technical.
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  Speaker 2: Jobs across the board.
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  Speaker 3: Now, whether that's specialist worlders, fabricators are workers who are
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  Speaker 3: out there. They tell me that there's a ship just
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  Speaker 3: offshore which has come out to start work already. I
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  Speaker 3: spoke to Kevin Gallagher for a long period of time
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  Speaker 3: yesterday and he's keen to get this project going as
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  Speaker 3: soon as possible. He's given commitments at the press conference
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  Speaker 3: today that those jobs are in Darwin and I think
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  Speaker 3: that's very, very positive.
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  Speaker 1: That was going to be my next question. Are we
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  Speaker 1: talking here about Aussie jobs and indeed Darwin or Northern
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  Speaker 1: Territory jobs. By the sounds of it, it is.
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  Speaker 3: Look absolutely, I mean clearly there'll be some prefab and
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  Speaker 3: things that occur in a number of places, but he's
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  Speaker 3: given a commitment to put as many as he can
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  Speaker 3: into Darwin. That's great news for the North. But in
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  Speaker 3: terms of the resources sector, what a magnificent result. Two
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  Speaker 3: hundred and ninety six billion dollars in a COVID year
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  Speaker 3: worldwide pandemic, Australia has done incredibly well.
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  Speaker 1: Now you said six hundred plus jobs, I believe is
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  Speaker 1: that during the construction or is that sort of ongoing?
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  Speaker 3: So that's during the construction piece, we expect three hundred
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  Speaker 3: and fifty ongoing. Once again, it's confidence in industry. It's
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  Speaker 3: part of our government's gas fired recovery and we're out
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  Speaker 3: there pushing hard and on pushing every door I can find.
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  Speaker 2: Katie and the industry's doing great.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, and I think you know, for such a long
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  Speaker 1: time now in the territory, we've been you know, we've
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  Speaker 1: been wanting to diversify the economy. I know that this
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  Speaker 1: is still gas. It's something that we've been looking to
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  Speaker 1: for quite some time and been doing in the territory
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  Speaker 1: well for quite some time. But I do understand that
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  Speaker 1: a decision on Barossa was delayed just over a year ago.
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  Speaker 1: That was after Santos obviously slashed some of that spending,
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  Speaker 1: and it was due to the plunge in oil prices.
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  Speaker 1: So this is big news for US and big news
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  Speaker 1: for Australia I guess as well, isn't ah.
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  Speaker 3: Well, if you remember, there was one period where the
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  Speaker 3: world or the price went negative, there was no storage.
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  Speaker 3: So the fact that we've come through this so strongly, well,
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  Speaker 3: that's thanks to the hard working men and women in
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  Speaker 3: the resources sector.
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  Speaker 2: It is their win.
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  Speaker 1: I know there'll be some people listening who will be saying,
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  Speaker 1: you know, are we wanting to go down the gas route?
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  Speaker 1: Should we be still looking towards renewables. But at the
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  Speaker 1: end of the day, we still need gas, don't.
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  Speaker 2: We Absolutely well, we need stuff that works. It's that easy.
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  Speaker 3: This is a transition fuel, but it's one which is
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  Speaker 3: in demand and demand is continue to increase even through
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  Speaker 3: the pandemic, and Australia has got a lot of resource
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  Speaker 3: and we need to absolutely max is that benefit for
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  Speaker 3: the Australian people.
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  Speaker 1: Now, when you talk about the on flow then I
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  Speaker 1: guess for the Northern Territory and for Darwin. It's not
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  Speaker 1: just about the gas side of things. But we've been
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  Speaker 1: speaking for a long time about things like petrochemical facilities
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  Speaker 1: and a petrochemical hub. Does this sort of take us
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  Speaker 1: a step closer and how do we sort of get
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  Speaker 1: those blocks moving to make that kind of thing happen.
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  Speaker 3: Well, look, I think there's a real opportunity in the
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  Speaker 3: medium term around a refinery and that's just my view,
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  Speaker 3: it's government Policykatia, I got to tell you. But given
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  Speaker 3: that this is potentially fifty million barrels plus, we know
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  Speaker 3: that there's been a significant shortfall in Australian all production
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  Speaker 3: now for a number of years, particularly with the reduction
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  Speaker 3: in the Bass Strait. We've got an announcement of a
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  Speaker 3: closure of refinery in Victoria. We're better than the North
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  Speaker 3: where you're close to the resource. We're trying to bring
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  Speaker 3: the below on as well, which we expect will be
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  Speaker 3: wet gas, so it should we condensate out of there.
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  Speaker 3: It makes sense and certainly I know Kevin said. Kevin
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  Speaker 3: Gallagher from Santos said in the press conference this morning.
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  Speaker 3: You know, if you want cheap MOVI your facilities to
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  Speaker 3: where the gas is. So I think that's pretty wise advice.
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  Speaker 1: And do you think, I mean, realistically, do you think
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  Speaker 1: that this is the beginning of something for the territory
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  Speaker 1: in terms of, you know, maybe seeing those further sort
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  Speaker 1: of onflow industries move here.
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  Speaker 3: Well, it's been our government's focus for some time through
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  Speaker 3: the Northern Australia Agenda. I've got a refresh package which
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  Speaker 3: we're looking to put forward in the next couple of
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  Speaker 3: months and it works. This is the bottom line. I've
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  Speaker 3: got the NAFE with some changes coming through the House
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  Speaker 3: of Representatives and hopefully into the Senate in the next
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  Speaker 3: round of sittings, which will allow the NAFE to be
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  Speaker 3: even more flexible and have a higher risk profile in
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  Speaker 3: terms of what it invests in and also whole equity position,
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  Speaker 3: so all of those things. You know, it's one piece
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  Speaker 3: at a time. We put the jigsaw together, but it's
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  Speaker 3: working right. This is a significant announcement, yeah, and I.
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  Speaker 1: Guess it can't come soon enough for the territory. We
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  Speaker 1: know that we've been doing it tough. I guess all
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  Speaker 1: of Australia has been doing it tough due to COVID,
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  Speaker 1: but here in the territory we've been doing it tough
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  Speaker 1: really for some time. Obviously the Northern Territory government's been
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  Speaker 1: talking about that diversification. All understand that, but it does
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  Speaker 1: seem now like things are finally starting to get moving.
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  Speaker 3: It is that. I've got to tell You've got some
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  Speaker 3: pretty strong representatives up here. Sam McMahon keep beating apart
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  Speaker 3: to my door, particularly around the potential for more connecting
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  Speaker 3: pipelines in this project, refineries and storage, and with all
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  Speaker 3: of those then comes the off takes, whether that's in
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  Speaker 3: plastics manufacturing or otherwise. So the big cornerstone projects is
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  Speaker 3: what drags in those other employers. And I think there's
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  Speaker 3: an absolutely fantastic future for the North.
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  Speaker 1: And you spoke before about the Knafe just briefly, any
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  Speaker 1: sort of updates in that space, any projects in the pipeline,
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  Speaker 1: I think there's always a bit of discussion that there
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  Speaker 1: will be, but anything we can look forward to.
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  Speaker 3: Oh, I'd love to give you an exclusive, but they're
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  Speaker 3: not quite there yet.
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  Speaker 2: So there is.
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  Speaker 3: A number of projects coming through and being assessed and
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  Speaker 3: my hope is that I have to go back to
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  Speaker 3: the Prime Minister and ask for more money.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, well, Keith, we know you are a Queensland man. Obviously.
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  Speaker 1: The COVID lockdown underway three days. I guess for those
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  Speaker 1: Brisbane residents and some in the other areas sort of
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  Speaker 1: surrounding all the way to to Woomba hasn't impacted you though.
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  Speaker 2: Well I did. Look, it's been a year, Katie.
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  Speaker 3: I think we have to get to the point where
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  Speaker 3: we can manage New South Wales has done this the
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  Speaker 3: whole way, no border closes, They've managed those outbreaks. I
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  Speaker 3: think the other states and territories need to get on
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  Speaker 3: board for me personally. Yeah, no, I transited through the
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  Speaker 3: Brisbane airport, but that was all came through your quarantine
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  Speaker 3: clearance process last night, so all good thumbs up.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, but no Chief Minister this morning at your announcement obviously.
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  Speaker 3: Well, I think I believe he sees self isolating, but
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  Speaker 3: he missed a great announcement and he certainly missed the
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  Speaker 3: opportunity to get in and talk to some people in
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  Speaker 3: that local factory doing production. And it was good to see.
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  Speaker 1: Well Keith Pearch, the Minister for Resources, Water and Northern Australia.
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  Speaker 1: Great have you in the studio this morning and really
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  Speaker 1: appreciate your time.
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  Speaker 2: Great with you. Great to be in the north.
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  Speaker 1: Thank you. You are listening to Mix one O four
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  Speaker 1: point nine's three sixty