Mr TOLLNER (11:19 AM) — Mr Deputy Speaker, congratulations on your election to the deputy speakership. I acknowledge the presence of my wife, parents and friends in the gallery. It is a tremendous honour to be speaking to the address-in-reply to the Governor-General's speech for the first time in this place as the inaugural member for the new Northern Territory seat of Solomon.

This year is, among other things, the Year of the Outback. For many Australians the outback is a somewhat forbidding place, but I take up the comments of Dr Tim Flannery in this year's Australia Day address, in which he spoke of his perceptions of a primary producing nation learning to live and survive in Australia's unique conditions. He said:

To the Bell family I could add many Territory pioneers: pastoralist families like the Hayes of Central Australia; the Underwoods and Beebes of the north; the Flying Doctor, Clyde Fenton; outback priest and eye specialist, Father Frank Flynn; Nat Buchanan, who opened the stock routes out to the west; and the miner-prospector, Joe Fisher, and many, many more. This year we pay tribute to those Australians who blazed the trails, developed the pastoral industry and opened up this great country.

The man who has provided his name to the seat of Solomon was the Territory's first federal member. He was a pioneer in his own right, and an extraordinarily energetic man who was the Territory's sole founding father of the Australian Federation and a constant advocate of the Territory's cause. Solomon was born in Adelaide, and was just 19 years old when he arrived in Darwin in search of gold in 1873. He started an importing, shipping, mining and insurance agency in early Darwin. He was an instigator of the Northern Territory Reform Association, arguing for radical change to South Australia's early administration of the Territory. Solomon was a delegate to the constitutional conventions at the end of the 19th century and helped to draft the federal Constitution. He was actively involved in local government as a member of the Palmerston District Council from 1874, and was also twice elected to the Territory seat in the South Australian House of Assembly. In 1901 he was elected to the first House of Representatives for the South Australian seat that included the Northern Territory.

The outstanding lesson of Solomon's life is how little some conditions have changed. The concerns of the Territory's first federal member and the first federal member for Solomon are little changed, despite the 100-year interval. Remote administration, self-determination, constitutional, economic and resource development, the railway, Darwin's defence significance are all key issues—then and now.

Former Northern Territory Senator Bob Collins has described the Northern Territory as a rootin', tootin', shootin' sort of place. Others from this place, perhaps overly comfortable in their leafy inner-city suburbs, have said it is a tin-pot place. Even less sympathetic commentators have said that Territorians are parasites on the federal system. In fact, Territorians contribute better than three times the national average to export earnings per capita, despite many years of seeing the Territory treated as a quarry, a paddock and a playground for social reformers intent on righting the wrongs of our colonial history. We do not object to that. Territorians want new mines, live cattle exports and to see wrongs righted. But they also want a full stake in their own future—a sense that when politicians, the judiciary, big business or big bureaucracy are making decisions that will affect them they will get a say in the outcome.

When Territorians voted in the statehood referendum in 1998 it was widely believed that the result would be a resounding yes. In the event many, including myself, who were and still are strongly supportive of statehood for the Territory, voted no. We did so because we did not like the process that led to the vote. We did not like the apparent disregard for community involvement. We did not like the sense that our vote was being taken for granted. But let there be no doubt: Territorians do want full membership of the Federation and they do want their full entitlement to representation in the Commonwealth parliament—in this place and in the other place.

A citizens' committee has been formed in the Territory to again pursue statehood. It has my full support, but, at this time, politicians are not invited to participate. That is an understandable decision after the disappointing debate and result of 1998. There is, of course, an absolutely crucial role for politicians to play in creating the seventh state of the Australian Federation, a role anticipated in section 121 of the Australian Constitution. It says:

As the member for Solomon, I urge members of this House to take up the challenge of section 121 and end the constitutional anomaly which leaves Australia today with one-sixth of the country and a little more than one per cent of its citizens outside the Federation. More than that, I am certain that it is the clear duty of this House to complete the task of the federation of all the states and people of Australia. It is not a Territory issue, it is a national issue, and one that is now more than a century overdue.

There is no doubt that the constitutional status of the Territory has been a disadvantage to its development. Until self-government, the Territory was placed on a care and maintenance basis by Canberra based administrators. What has been described as generous Commonwealth funding in the early years of self-government was no more than an attempt to make up for past neglect and, unlike the financial arrangements that established the Australian Capital Territory's self-government, it was a requirement that Territorians take over the debt bequeathed to the Northern Territory by the Commonwealth. From 1988 onwards the Territory has been treated financially as any other state. It is both unjust and unfair to continue to report the myth of favoured financial treatment of the Territory.

However, it is not the financial specifics that have most disadvantaged the Territory over the years. Rather it has been a perspective, adopted by some federal bureaucrats and even some politicians, that the Territory is not quite a part of Australia in the full sense. Essential and fundamental infrastructure was not built because the Territory was not seen as being within the national framework. It took World War II to build the Stuart Highway into something better than a bush track. It took a private consortium years of negotiation and a Prime Minister with genuine national vision to get a transnational railway under way—an undertaking that was promised by the Commonwealth in 1911. I pay tribute to the member for Bennelong for his national perspective and leadership. There is, however, evidence in Hansard and elsewhere that not every member and senator shares this perspective. It seems that there are still those who believe that Territory projects are less deserving of support than those interstate. I hope I am wrong, and not just for the sake of the Territory because, if that view prevails, it will disadvantage all Australia.

Members will be aware that the Timor Sea has emerged as one of the world's great gas provinces with known reserves that could provide this nation with cheap and clean energy for at least half a century. Indeed, 88 per cent of the nation's gas reserves are located off the coast of the Northern Territory and northern Western Australia. The Timor Sea reserves are sufficient to provide the nation with 400 petajoules of gas energy every year for 50 years—almost 50 per cent of all Australia's current gas consumption and 10 per cent of this nation's total current energy use from all sources.

The Timor Sea gas reserves have been known about for nearly 30 years and yet to date no gas development has occurred. There have been and are difficulties that have slowed development—the fluctuating world market, international negotiations, East Timor independence, corporate rivalry and up-front costs, just to name a few. Already in the Territory we have seen one major customer—Methanex—go interstate, and offshore technology has developed to a point at which it is now preferred by some of the big companies above onshore production of LNG. This will cost the Territory jobs, investment and opportunity for downstream industries.

Let me put that aside and consider the national interest. Gas is a global business and the window of opportunity for the Timor Sea is now. While international agreements are in place—and I acknowledge the work of federal ministers in resolving those difficult issues—there are serious federal issues still outstanding, not the least of these being taxation matters. Bearing in mind the lead times for land negotiation and pipeline construction, plus the continuing uncertainty over regulatory and competition policy, decisions must be taken now to meet deadlines set by future national needs. This is because, within the decade, gas reserves from other sources will be insufficient to meet national demand. I believe the provision of gas-fired energy is a fundamental building block of Australia's future industrial and economic growth.

The known rival sources of gas for the national market are a long pipeline from Papua New Guinea, a reinvigorated Cooper Basin and comparatively small and scattered fields offshore Victoria. The Victorian and Cooper Basin alternatives are at best short-term and comparatively marginal in terms of size, economics and reliability. The Papua New Guinea option carries with it sovereign risk. We could burn more coal to provide for our energy needs, but we live at a time when the Kyoto protocol is argued both at international conferences and across the family dinner table of Australian homes.

I welcome the announcement of the committee to devise a national energy policy but I fear that by the time it has completed its deliberations the window of opportunity for Timor Sea gas will have already closed. On hold at present is a decision on accelerated depreciation following the Ralph review. The review's recommendations on depreciation impact most on capital intensive projects such as long gas pipelines. I have no doubt that the Timor Sea is the nation's best option for future production. If we let this opportunity slip then it will not just be Territorians left without jobs and opportunities, it will be people in Sydney and Melbourne who will want to know why the lights do not come on one evening, why Australians pay such high prices for power and why our international rating on carbon credits is so low.

In the past few weeks economic forecasters Access Economics and BIS Shrapnel have predicted that Northern Territory growth will outstrip national growth by several points. In the first years of the 21st century the Territory will see economic diversification as a result of a billion dollar plus railway project, and anticipated investment in oil and gas projects worth something like 10 times the railway in investment terms. I hope the forecasters are right, but I fear the combination of a do-nothing Labor government in the Territory and a lack of resolution of the issues I have raised will make such predictions overoptimistic.

While time prevents me from expanding too much on any single subject, there are two other matters that I must raise. The loss of air services is both anticompetitive and inconvenient for all Australians, but the effect is much more keenly felt in remote Australia where alternatives are minimal and distances are greater. The loss of Ansett is followed by the end of services to Darwin by Malaysia Airlines and Singapore Airlines as a result of the world downturn in airline travel. Adding to these difficulties, the Territory is now being overlooked by Qantas, which is establishing international services from Townsville direct to Singapore. In the early days of Territory self-government, ministers doorknocked Royal Brunei and Malaysia Airlines and persuaded them to operate new services into Darwin. That sort of proactive government has now gone by the wayside with the election of Labor in the Territory. I only ask that, as far as possible, federal ministers bear in mind the need to fill this void in any future negotiations with the airlines.

The need for continued tertiary education services, particularly through the Northern Territory University, is a priority of mine. The university was established in the 1980s through the vision, determination and funding of the Northern Territory government against the resistance of the federal Labor government and the scepticism of higher education establishments of the day. Today it is the largest provider of higher education, training and further education in the Territory with two major campuses within the electorate of Solomon. It also has colleges in Katherine and Alice Springs focused on the regional industries, primary production and tourism, and strong links with international educational research institutions and organisations, particularly in South-East Asia.

The university cannot hope to meet all of the needs and demands for education and training in the Territory, but it carries a social responsibility as a regional university in an area of comparatively small and considerably scattered population. The university has made a strong and positive contribution to the development of the Territory, not only in economic and intellectual terms but also from a social and cultural perspective. As the most distant and isolated university in Australia its specialist opportunities such as desert knowledge and tropical environment studies, its proximity to South-East Asia and the Pacific, plus its special role in retaining and training as a regional institution, should receive special recognition. I am encouraged by the public comments of the new minister and I know that the minister understands the vital role this university has to play in both regional and national terms.

It is a particular and, in this place, unique privilege to be a member of the Country Liberal Party—a pro-development party that governed wisely in the Northern Territory from the first Legislative Assembly elections in October 1974 until the disappointing election result in August 2001. This long record of CLP government has brought vast improvements to the lifestyle, character and general wellbeing of Territorians. I am not alone in fearing that much of that good work may now be undone by the apparent inactivity and procrastination of Territory Labor since it came to office.

Territorians ask for no more and expect no less than the opportunities and advantages enjoyed by all Australians. The Territory's Aboriginal people, the great land-holders of this region, will be the beneficiaries of future growth as major stakeholders in our future. The potential for development partnerships on Aboriginal land is unlimited, and the social benefit to flow from such investment is also unlimited.

While I have expressed some fears that opportunities may be lost and services are in decline, I am at heart an optimist. I believe the Territory has a great future as a trading and transport hub, as a centre of gas production, as a tourism icon, as a mineral and live cattle exporter and as a centre of excellence in learning and services.

The man who gave the electorate his name, Vaiben Louis Solomon, said much the same thing more than a century ago. He did not live to see his optimism realised. I hope that today's enlightened Commonwealth and the proven determination of Territorians will combine at the beginning of the 21st century to see the promise fulfilled.

For my part, I will do my best to see those irresistible forces combine for the good of the Territory and the good of Australia. I come to this place as a Territorian, as a representative of the constituents of Solomon, and I mean to do my best for them. But, as I have said, the major issues for my constituency have both length and breadth—that is, they have been constant for many years, and they are as one with the national interest.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER (Hon. IR Causley)—Order! Before I call Ms King, I remind honourable members that this is her first speech. I therefore ask that the usual courtesies be extended to her.