DEVELOPING NORTH AUSTRALIA CONFERENCE

Thursday, 6 August 2026

Check against delivery

E&OE………

Good morning everyone.

By the second day of a conference on Northern Australia, you do not need another list of our advantages.

You know what they are.

Resources.

Energy.

Agriculture.

Defence.

Tourism.

And a strategic position on the doorstep of Asia.

The question is whether Australia is prepared to turn that potential into production, jobs, stronger communities and national security.

It is wonderful to welcome you here to Alice Springs.

I am pleased to be representing my colleague Senator Susan McDonald, our Shadow Minister for Resources and Northern Australia.

I was born here.

I live here.

And I represent the Northern Territory in the Senate.

So when people talk about developing Northern Australia, I do not think about a line on a map or another government strategy.

I think about people.

Families deciding whether they can build a life here.

Businesses deciding whether to invest.

Pastoralists, miners, tradies, tourism operators and small business owners.

And Aboriginal communities wanting the same things every Australian wants:

Safety.

Opportunity.

A decent job.

And a future for their children.

Last year, speaking at the Bush Summit in Darwin, I said Australia faced two great challenges.

Restoring our national productivity.

And protecting our nation.

Those challenges are now more urgent.

And Northern Australia sits at the intersection of both.

Because national security is not only about defence.

It is energy security.

Fuel security.

Food security.

Economic security.

Secure supply chains.

And an industrial base capable of producing what Australia needs.

Look at the map from here, rather than from Canberra.

Darwin is closer to Jakarta than it is to Sydney.

Our northern approaches face directly into the fastest-growing and increasingly contested region in the world.

Our bases, ports, airfields, roads and communications networks matter to every Australian.

That is why the Coalition has committed to a whole-of-nation National Security Strategy and defence spending of at least three per cent of GDP.

But defence assets do not stand alone.

They need workers.

Workers need homes.

Industry needs affordable and reliable energy.

Projects need roads, water, ports and approvals.

Investors need stable rules.

And communities need the services and infrastructure that allow people to stay.

Northern development cannot be delivered by another announcement.

It cannot be delivered by a glossy strategy.

And it cannot be delivered by a bureaucracy thousands of kilometres away deciding it knows better than the people who live and work here.

Government has a role.

It must get the big things right.

Defence.

Roads.

Ports.

Water.

Telecommunications.

Housing-enabling infrastructure.

Reliable energy.

And a training system that produces the workers we actually need.

But development must ultimately be measured by delivery.

What gets built?

What gets produced?

How many Australians are trained and employed?

How much capability remains in this country?

Sovereign capability is not a slogan.

It is a steelworks producing steel.

A refinery producing fuel.

A mine supplying critical minerals.

A port moving Australian goods.

And skilled Australians maintaining the equipment and infrastructure our nation depends on.

Whyalla is a warning of what happens when a strategic industry is allowed to deteriorate and government substitutes a bailout for a plan.

Another subsidy does not deal with the reasons Australian production has become uncompetitive.

Energy costs.

Tax.

Regulation.

Approvals.

Workforce shortages.

And inadequate infrastructure.

A serious industry policy must address the causes.

The same test applies to the proposed refinery in Karratha.

The Coalition welcomes serious efforts to restore Australian refining capacity.

But a feasibility study is not a fuel-security strategy.

And a government cannot claim to support a new refinery while its own carbon taxes make existing Australian refineries more expensive to operate.

Australia imports most of the fuel that moves our food, freight, mining equipment, emergency services and defence assets around the country.

That is a strategic vulnerability.

The Coalition will scrap net zero and Labor’s carbon taxes.

We will extend fuel-security support.

We will lift national fuel stocks to 60 days.

We will unlock more Australian oil and gas.

And we will accelerate projects of national significance.

We should use the resources we have.

We should drill, develop, refine and produce more here.

That is not nostalgia.

It is national preparedness.

Energy policy is central to the same task.

You cannot secure a nation with an insecure energy system.

You cannot rebuild manufacturing with unreliable power.

And you cannot attract investment while government policy keeps driving up the cost of operating here.

Labor talks about a Future Made in Australia while its policies make Australian industry more expensive and drive production offshore.

Too often, the result is a future made overseas. 

The Coalition will use all of Australia’s energy resources to deliver affordable, abundant and reliable power.

Coal.

Gas.

Oil.

Renewables.

And emerging technologies where they can genuinely compete.

The test should be simple.

Does it keep the lights on?

Does it bring prices down?

Does it allow Australian industry to compete?

Here in the Territory, the Beetaloo is moving towards first gas.

That offers an opportunity for more secure Territory energy, new industry, local jobs and long-term investment.

The same principle applies to critical minerals and rare earths.

Australia should not simply dig up strategic resources and ship every opportunity overseas.

Where it is commercially viable, we should process more here.

We should build local expertise.

Create Australian jobs.

And make sure our allies can depend on supply chains that do not run through countries that may not always share our interests.

Projects such as the Nolans rare earths project and the Northern Marine Complex show what can happen when potential begins moving into production and capability.

Last month, more than 160 investors, business leaders and decision-makers from 12 countries came to Darwin for the Northern Territory Investment Summit.

They came because the world can see the opportunity here.

But capital is mobile.

Investment follows certainty. 

Northern Australia has spent decades building a reputation as a reliable supplier of resources to the world.

That reputation matters at Port Hedland, in Darwin and across every northern supply chain. 

Governments should not design industrial laws that put nationally significant export infrastructure at greater risk of disruption.

When reliability is weakened, contractors, small businesses and regional communities pay the price—and international customers begin looking elsewhere. 

Projects go where costs are manageable, industrial settings are stable, approvals are timely and government is dependable.

Environmental standards matter.

Community consultation matters.

But approvals must lead to decisions.

Not years of process.

Not endless legal uncertainty.

And not a system where the easiest answer is always no.

The country needs governments prepared to dig, drill, approve and build.

That is why the Coalition has committed to making the Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility permanent.

The NAIF provides the patient, long-term capital many northern projects require. 

Northern Australia should not have to return to Canberra every decade and prove it is still worth investing in.

Its strategic importance is increasing, not shrinking.

Our Future Generations Fund is part of the same approach.

The bulk of unexpected resource-revenue windfalls should be used to reduce debt and build productive infrastructure.

And the regions generating that wealth should see a meaningful share returned through roads, water, housing and other foundations for growth.

If northern communities are doing the heavy lifting, they should see the benefits.

But infrastructure alone does not deliver development.

People do.

A project is not shovel-ready when there is no one available to hold the shovel.

This matters deeply to me as Shadow Minister for Skills and Training.

Northern Australia needs tradespeople.

Technicians.

Engineers.

Operators.

Health workers.

And defence specialists.

You cannot build homes without tradies.

Expand a mine without skilled workers.

Maintain defence infrastructure without technicians.

Or build roads, ports and energy projects without people who know how to do the work.

Those skills do not magically appear.

An employer has to take a chance on an apprentice.

A business has to carry the cost while that apprentice learns.

Our training system should reward that effort and be judged by whether it produces real capability in the places that need it.

That must include Aboriginal Australians.

For years, I have argued that the Land Rights Act is outdated and Aboriginal communities should no longer be treated like socialist enclaves.

It is one thing for government to spend $950 million trying to create 6,000 jobs paying $50,000 — at a cost of $158,000 per job. But what happens when the taxpayer dollars run out?

Economic independence requires a different approach: enabling Traditional Owners to create their own development opportunities. That is why, in the last Parliament, I supported calls for breakaway land councils based on language groups.

The Yolngu took that step last week, and I congratulate the Finocchiaro Government for supporting their efforts.

Economic development should mean Aboriginal workers in secure jobs, Aboriginal businesses winning contracts, families building assets and owning homes, and young people moving from school into work.

Real empowerment is employment, enterprise, ownership, education, safety and responsibility.

Housing is also part of national capability.

A company can recruit the right person and still lose them because there is nowhere for their family to live.

That is why migration, housing and infrastructure must be considered together.

The Coalition will link migration levels to the number of homes Australia actually builds.

You cannot bring people into a country faster than you can house them.

But development is not only about major projects.

It is about whether people want to stay.

Whether families feel safe.

Whether children can receive a decent education.

Whether people can access health care and childcare.

Whether a phone works hundreds of kilometres from the nearest town.

And whether a business owner believes there will still be customers and workers here in ten years.

Strong northern communities are not separate from national security.

They are part of it.

Northern Australia has no shortage of potential.

What it has lacked is a national government prepared to make clear choices.

To choose production over managed decline.

Affordable energy over ideology.

Domestic capability over permanent dependence.

Timely decisions over endless process.

And local opportunity over Canberra control.

Northern Australia is not the edge of this country.

It is our front door to the region.

It is a source of our national wealth.

It is central to our defence.

Our energy security.

Our food security.

And our industrial future.

The task now is delivery.

Build the infrastructure.

Develop the resources.

Secure the fuel.

Produce more in Australia.

Train our people.

Build the homes.

Strengthen communities.

And trust the people who live and work here.

Government must secure the foundations and remove the barriers.

Then it should get out of the way of Australians ready to invest, employ and build.

That is how we develop Northern Australia.

That is how we rebuild sovereign capability.

And that is how a strong North helps secure a strong Australia.

Thank you.

[ENDS]