NORTHERN TERRITORY NEWS 
BUSH SUMMIT 
DARWIN CONVENTION CENTRE 

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E&OE……………

 

Ladies and gentlemen, it’s a pleasure to be here.

At the outset, I commend Gina Rinehart and Adam Giles.

The national sweep of Bush Summits wouldn’t be possible without the support of Hancock Prospecting and S. Kidman.

My thanks also to News Corp Australia, NT News, and Sky News for your coverage of issues affecting regional Australians and Territorians.

I also acknowledge all the distinguished speakers – especially Chief Minister, Lia Finocchiaro – who’s doing a sterling job leading the Northern Territory.

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You’d have to be living under a rock not to recognise two significant challenges facing Australia.

One is national productivity.

The other is protecting our nation.

I’ll touch on both issues today – especially with regard to the Northern Territory.

# # #

Eleven days ago, the Treasurer’s Economic Reform Roundtable wrapped up.

It was a talkfest that produced very few solutions to our nation’s economic woes.

With pre-determined outcomes and handpicked attendees, what else did we expect.

The Albanese Government wants obedient head nods – not new ideas.

As with the Jobs and Skills Summit of 2022, the Treasurer’s roundtable used the veneer of consultation to green-light Labor’s agenda.

An agenda of more government and union control across the economy.

Consider, for a moment, what we’ve seen during the more than three years that the Albanese Government has been in power:

We’ve seen record government spending.

Our economy will soon be burdened with a trillion dollars of debt for the first time – a burden our children and grandchildren will have to bear.

We’ve seen an appetite for government intrusion into the lives of Australians.

Federal Labor has enacted some 5,000 new regulations during its time in office.

And we’ve seen interference across the economy.

Interference through a renewables-only energy policy – that’s making your power bills skyrocket and forcing you to live in the way the government wants – not the way you need to.

Interference through environmental and cultural heritage policies – that stop economic ventures from getting off the ground that would benefit communities.

Interference through IR policies – that enable power-hungry union bosses to tell employers how to run their business.

And interference through industry policies – where Labor sidelines known market winners – and instead picks its own winners while propping them up with subsidies.

In so many ways, the heavy hand of Canberra hovers over Australian families, small businesses, and manufacturers.

Alarmingly, Labor is moving Australia away from a free-market economy and towards a state-directed and controlled economy.

Labor has embraced the same statist ideas that have devastated economies and people wherever and whenever they’ve been implemented.

Shadow Finance Minister, James Paterson, made an important point about national productivity:

In the 80s and 90s, productivity was growing about 3 per cent a year.

In the early 2000s, it was growing about 2 per cent a year.

In the 2010s, it was growing about 1 per cent a year.

But the Reserve Bank recently downgraded productivity growth to just 0.7 per cent.

As Senator Paterson says, productivity growth is now at a crisis level.

Labor’s big government, big spending, big taxation, and big interference agenda is a handbrake on productivity.

We need real solutions to re-energise the economy.

We need to do what Ronald Reagan did – and unleash the magic of the marketplace.

So let me posit one suggestion which is crucial.

Crucial for the Territory’s economic development.

Crucial for addressing Indigenous disadvantage.

And crucial for boosting our national productivity and prosperity.

I’ve made this suggestion before:

It’s the long-overdue review of the Aboriginal Land Rights Act.

The Act came into effect in 1976.

Its intent was to give traditional Indigenous owners not only greater ownership of their land – but control over their land too.

To this end, land councils were established to hold lands in trust and preside over the use of those lands through leases, licenses and agreements.

Half a century on, the reality is that Indigenous Australians in the Territory are land rich – but dirt poor.

Today, some 50 per cent of the NT is owned by Indigenous Australians.

But it’s incredibly difficult for them to use this land for economic purposes.

The land councils are not functioning as they were intended.

There’s administrative bottlenecks and excessively long processing times for leases.

And that inhibits private property ownership and the commercialisation of land.

But there also can be a paternalistic mindset.

A mindset where the preservation of culture and tradition on those lands holds back economic development.

David Tollner, a former Member for Solomon, summed-up the situation more than a decade ago.

He said that the Aboriginal Land Rights Act:

“… doesn’t concern itself with how the new land owners are going to make a buck – quite the opposite – it’s about protection of land as a right, the preservation of culture, locking the gates, defending Aboriginal people and their land from the intrusions of outsiders, whether miners, pastoralists, tourists or anyone without a permit – even their own future government.”

As I’ve said before, there’s a racism of low expectations when it comes to Indigenous Australians.

For Indigenous Australians to be masters of their fate and captains of their souls, we must do away with notions of victimhood that are woven into outdated legislation.

It’s beyond time for the Aboriginal Land Rights Act to be reviewed and modernised.

If that can be done, we will have more Indigenous empowerment.

More economic prosperity for the Territory.

And more national productivity – when we need it most.

# # #

Let me turn from Australia’s productivity challenge to the challenge of protecting Australia.

Just as I spoke candidly about the Voice which would have divided our nation, I’ll also speak candidly about the defence of our nation.

Many Australians don’t appreciate a great danger of our age.

And why would they?

All too often, the Albanese Government talks about ‘strategic competition’ or ‘disruption to the global rules-based order’.

But such vague bureaucratic speak stops our nation discussing what we must.

We must have a frank national debate on the danger posed by the Chinese Communist Party’s military aggression in our region and its foreign interference in our country.

It’s confounding that a recent Newspoll found that more Australians are worried about President Trump’s tariffs than the Chinese Communist Party’s military threat.

In other words, they’re more worried about the actions of a long-standing democratic ally than an authoritarian regime.

Since the second decade of this century, the Chinese Communist Party has been defined by key features:

By its military build-up at speed and scale – not for self-defence, but to exert power.

By its willingness to flex its military muscles to intimidate.

And by its disrespect for the sovereignty of other nations.

There’s now a litany of examples of the Chinese Communist Party causing tensions across our region with its military adventurism, coercion and aggression.

Indeed, when its navy tested weapons off our east coast, that wasn’t a benign exercise – but a rehearsal.

And there can be no doubt that the Chinese Communist Party wants to see China become the dominant power in the region.

Were that to transpire, the character of the region would change drastically.

An expectation of subservience to the Chinese Communist Party would erode the sovereignty of nations.

Naturally, we want China to be a successful nation and its people to prosper.

That’s beneficial for them – and the world.

But what must be deterred is the Chinese Communist Party’s desire to dominate our region and to define the destinies of free countries.

In my capacity as a shadow minister in the defence portfolio, I’ll do what the government is not:

And that’s helping to awaken our nation to a great danger of our age – to stir us into action to help preserve peace in the region and to deter aggression.

# # #

In the event of conflict in our region, here’s two things that would happen:

One: global weapons supply chains will be even more stretched.

That makes sovereign weapons production a national imperative – not a choice.

And two: key civilian and military infrastructure could be targeted.

For example, RAAF Bases Darwin and Tindal, HMAS Coonawarra, and Pine Gap south of Alice Springs.

The Chinese Communist Party’s warships circumnavigated our continent.

They can project naval power into the region.

Their missiles can strike Australia.

Once, our country was largely protected by the tyranny of distance.

Now, new weapons have turned safe distance into perilous proximity.

But long-range weapons work both ways.

That’s why this Territory is so critical to the defence of our nation and deterring any adversary.

In modern militaries, there’s still a requirement for major platforms – like submarines, frigates, tanks and aircraft.

But as the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East have revealed, these exquisite platforms are increasingly vulnerable to small, simple and smart weapons that can be produced quickly, cheaply and in bulk.

Precision missiles and munitions, as well as drones, unmanned vehicles and vessels aren’t a fad – they’ve changed the character of warfare.

What we urgently need is a sovereign defence industry that can produce these consumables of conflict at speed and scale.

Small and medium-sized businesses are mission-critical in this regard — including here in the Territory.

And with technology changing the battlefield in unprecedented ways, there’s work being done by small and medium-sized businesses in the broader economy that has potential military applications.

This is especially the case in terms of AI, cyber, drones and counter-drone technologies, autonomous machines for the land and sea, rockets, satellites and more besides.

Noting the geographic importance of the Territory, we also need to harden our bases and critical civilian infrastructure.

But doing all these things requires the Albanese Government to start taking Defence seriously.

First, it needs to increase defence spending to at least 3 per cent of GDP as a matter of urgency.

Second, it needs to put serious money behind our small and medium-sized businesses who can contribute to defence.

And by association, accepting a higher degree of risk.

Yes, some ventures will fail, and others will succeed.

But our nation will be better defended from putting faith in what Australians can do.

And third, the government needs to start being a lifter — and stop being a leaner — when it comes to our Alliance with the United States.

If this Government truly believes in a free, open and stable Indo-Pacific, then it must quickly come to realise which major power stands for those goals – and which major power wants to shatter that goals.

Thank you.