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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Well on the weekend, Labor absolutely smashed the Coalition to
win it in a landslide victory. They took seats from
the Liberals and the Greens to win with a majority.
Luke Gosling had a close race with the CLP's Lisa Baylist,
but he is going to hold the seat of Solomon
for a record fourth term. Luke Gosling joins me in

(00:20):
the studio. Good morning and.

Speaker 2 (00:22):
Congratulations, Thanks so much, Katie.

Speaker 1 (00:25):
Mate. How did you feel as those results started to
flow through on Saturday and it was a close It
was a very close race.

Speaker 2 (00:31):
Yeah, I guess, you know, you get a feeling kind
of at pre poll and just out on the doors,
and obviously, you know, with the tragedies that we had
and the focus on crime, there was an obvious like
people were sending a message and it's obviously absolutely well received.

(00:52):
Of never never shirk from it. But I think at
the end of the day, people know that it's a
we've got a system of preferences. Whilst I didn't get
as many first president first preferences as the CLP, I
was always confident that, you know, overall people would say,

(01:13):
you know, Luke's part of Albow's team. Elbow cares about
us and we've put a lot on the table and
you know, let's give him a go in government to deliver.

Speaker 1 (01:23):
There was that swing. I mean, obviously on those primary
votes you were about two thousand votes behind Lisa, but
as you said, you won on preferences. You mentioned just
a moment ago that you you know, that it was
people sending a bit of a message. Do you think
that that message was on crime.

Speaker 2 (01:43):
Yeah. I think like it's easy for an independent to
go all the major parties are bad, they're all bad,
and then not have any policies yourself. And for some
people that's attractive to say, hey, I'm going to send
a message by saying one for the dependent or you know,
the Greens always get around the same ten percent or

(02:04):
I think they've got a little bit more this time.
So I think that's the way that people might send
a message as well. But what's really important is where
their preference goes, and when the preferences float our way
more than the CLP. That that's the way that people
have sent a message. But also been pretty clear that
we want the you know, we want Luke to stay here,

(02:26):
and Marion got a big.

Speaker 1 (02:28):
Resid fantastically well in Lingiaria where.

Speaker 2 (02:32):
She was the most marginal seat in the country before,
So there's been a real shift there. I don't know,
you might want to ask, you know, just in the
price or some others about you know, what's going on
in Lingiari.

Speaker 1 (02:41):
Well, look, we'll talk more about their seats at some point.
Let's talk about Solomon because there's been some you know,
there has been some big commitments made and I think
some of those commitments have been things that people really
do want to see. For Darwin, particularly sixty million dollars
towards a new age care center. When is that we're
going to get cracking on the age care facility.

Speaker 2 (03:04):
Well, immediately in terms of the Northern Territory government, Steve Edgington,
the Responsible Minister, obviously knows we've made this commitment. The
Prime Minister flew into Darwin to make this commitment with me,
so you know, like immediately, the previous anti government, as
you know Cadie, did an EOI process but they couldn't

(03:25):
find a provider that could build and operate. So what
we've had on the table for some time is sixty
funded age care beds. Now we've committed sixty million dollars
of capital towards the construction of a facility. So it's
really in the Anti government's court now to run an

(03:47):
EOI process, select a provider and get on and build it.

Speaker 1 (03:52):
All right, So it comes down to them now making
sure that that happens as quickly as possible.

Speaker 2 (03:57):
Yeah, as it does with As you know, most of
the Commonwealth's role is to provide the resources, but we
don't actually build roads and we don't actually build hospitals,
but we certainly provide the money for that. And then
obviously there's the capacity for the construction. I think you know,

(04:18):
there's a lot of companies that are busy at the moment.
There's more work going on at the raft base, so
that's what we want. We want that big defense spend,
but we want this infrastructure spend. So soon there'll be
a crane over somewhere in Palmerston probably is where the
Anti Government's got land near the Parmesan Hospital there where
the geriatric wing is. But you know that's something that
you might want to ask the Anti Government about.

Speaker 1 (04:39):
I was going to say, we've actually got the Health
Minister on the show on Thursday morning, so I will
put that to him, because I think we all know
that for too long we've had a situation where we've
got elderly those which dimension needs in our hospital, which
really isn't the appropriate place. We want to have them
in an age care facility that is appropriate for them.
So the sooner that can happen absolutely the better, and

(05:02):
it will free up some space as well within Royal
dah And Hospital hopefully.

Speaker 2 (05:05):
Absolutely. Can I just quickly make one quick point, Katie,
is it's not as if in the meantime we haven't
been doing anything in that Federally. We've funded twenty six
dementia rooms down at Pearl in Fanny Bay. I had
a look at them a couple of weeks ago that
you know, a spy guys just doing a great job
down there, and that'll be ready during the dry.

Speaker 1 (05:24):
Okay, so they're set to come online during the dry. Yeah, perfect,
that's good. That is good.

Speaker 2 (05:30):
Yes, it's not the whole solution, but anything come on.

Speaker 1 (05:33):
Yep, hav on a bit earlier. I want to ask you.
It's on the front page of the paper today. We've
covered it extensively. Expectant mums left in Limbo due to
the closure of private maternity services in Darwin. You and
I have spoken about this before. Women obviously concerned about
that lack of information and uncertainty that it's causing them
and their little families. The federal government, i know, stumped

(05:55):
up six million dollars for private maternity services in Hobart.
Is that something that you'd be seeking the same thing
for for Darwin or what do you think is the
solution here for some of these mums that are in
this situation.

Speaker 2 (06:10):
That's a really good one as well. On Thursday to
put to Steve Edgington what we've been doing, and Mark
Butler I've been in his ear about it pretty constantly,
because it's really unfortunate that when it came to the
attention of the NT government last year that this was
going to happen, that people weren't told because they might

(06:31):
have decided not to keep blowing their money on private
health insurance, it wasn't going to provide them what they wanted.
But that aside, what we want now is a solution.
My understanding is that the negotiations between the private health
insurers and the ANT government are going well and that
they will be able to provide a suitable level of

(06:54):
care to expectant mums. We want to obviously get Steve
Egington to confirm that that's the case, but we stand
ready to support. But we haven't received federally, we haven't
received a request from the NT government for support like
was provided down in Tasmania. They reckon they've got it
under control. If I can quickly point out that the

(07:15):
difference between Tasmania and here was that Tasmania was a
not for profit provider, So the federal government we were
and we were asked to help financially and we did.
Whereas up here you've got for profit providers. Yeah, we
haven't been asked for assistance yet, but stand ready to assist.

Speaker 1 (07:32):
Okay, because I know the difficulty here is like you
don't want to be stepping in as a federal government
for all private health care providers. Like I totally get that.
But I think the difference for us in the NT
is we've got so many defense families, Like, we've got
so many of those women, whether they're defense families or not,
that what I worry about is that then they're either
going to have to go into state to have their babies.

(07:53):
That's going to be the choice they make or they're
going to leave. You know that they're not going to
want to stay and that's the last that we want.
We want to keep people here and you want people
to have choices right.

Speaker 2 (08:04):
And essentially that's why we stand ready to assist because
we want those families to stay here. And we know
through the Royal Commission into Defense and Veteran Suicide. And
I don't want to over dramatized things, but it's well
acknowledged and the research shows that when people are living
what they call marriage separated, is that your family stays

(08:25):
down south and the member is up here living separated
from the family, that is not a good outcome. People
families make it work. Often if the kids are in
school down south and they get posted up here, they
do that. We would much rather prefer. And you've seen
it in education that there's good schooling up here now

(08:46):
and up until recently there were good private and public
health services. Now there's not the full suite of or
not as many private health services as.

Speaker 1 (08:56):
We would like.

Speaker 2 (08:57):
We stand ready to help. We're waiting for guidance from
Steve Enjington as a responsible minister. I've been in contact.
By the way Katie have the last couple of days
with the Chief Minister, Lea Finocciaro, just about our joint
mission to deliver for the territory and how committed we
are to doing that. Obviously, I hope I've got some
additional responsibility when we get down to canber in the

(09:19):
next couple of games.

Speaker 1 (09:20):
Well, I want to ask you about that. Are you
putting your hand up to become a minister?

Speaker 2 (09:24):
Just keep it between us, because some of my colleagues
in the state are a bit emboldened by the big
win and just think that they're they're.

Speaker 1 (09:31):
Going to step in line. Yeah, yeah, Well, so what
are you going to do to nudge your way ahead?

Speaker 2 (09:35):
Well, jeez, if you hear about any unfortunate accidents down
in camp and are just joking. But no, I'm very
thankful that I've got the support of the Prime Minister
and that he not only deeply cares about the territory,
but you know, he really is supportive of myself and
MALANDERI and Marion And because I mean, you know, your viewers,

(10:01):
you're sorry, your listeners have seen how often he's been here,
the big commitments he's made, including to returning the port
to Australian hands is that we will continue to see
the Prime Minister up here. The decisions he makes on
the ministry are significant, but there's other factors that come
into play around the caucus, so everyone has a vote

(10:25):
through the caucus as well.

Speaker 1 (10:26):
I mean, you'd be hard pressed though, to find somebody
who has the defense background that you've got, who understands
the importance of Northern Australia, who understands the spend that
we're really going to need in the investment that we're
going to need in defense when you look at the
uncertain world that we're in.

Speaker 2 (10:45):
No so we're the capital of the North.

Speaker 1 (10:48):
So all that I'm assuming you're putting a putting you
know yourself forward in all of those ways. But i mean, like,
are we thinking an assistant role, are we thinking a
full blown minister? What are you?

Speaker 2 (11:02):
Look, it's a difficult it's a difficult balance and I
think I've been quoted in the Anty News is saying, look,
I'm ready to serve on in cabinet tomorrow and that's
what the North deserves. But the reality of how these
decisions are made, and with Melandeer and McCarthy, a territory

(11:22):
and already in cabinet that is something for later, so
realistically an assistant minister. But I think I'm encouraged by
the fact that not only does the Prime Minister see
me as at least an assistant minister, but he's given
me that promotion as a special envoy in recent times.

(11:44):
And what sometimes happens as well, as you know, people
stay with the team and then that we win government
and then they decide in this coming term that they
want to leave, and then that creates other vacancies and
opportunities as well. So it's a bit of a wait
and see.

Speaker 1 (12:01):
Look, I do want to ask you before I let
you go this morning. Obviously you touched on the Darwin port.
We know work's happening on that. There's not a timeline
on that at this point in time, so no doubt
you and I'll speak further about that. But what about
this youth hub.

Speaker 2 (12:13):
Yeah, we want to get the youth hup gone. I
mean apparently Jins and Charles is the person that's Look,
Industry has been very clear and I think maybe wearrn't
even on your program. Yeah, so industry has been clear
in the advantages of having it at the site. That's
been prepared and his shovel ready has had the design
work done with young people.

Speaker 1 (12:35):
Which is in which is at Casarina fire Station, but
around that area is what they want.

Speaker 2 (12:42):
I think the Casina fire Station being ready to go
having the design work done makes sense, and that's certainly
what Casina Square is hoping for, but around that area
also makes a lot of sense. Look, I'm really hoping
there's an announcement soon, and the same with Scott Palmer
Center for homeless or veterans that are risk of homelesses
and first responders. That needs to happen. I've been talking

(13:05):
to the Chief Minister about that in Marra there. But
these are projects where the federal funds are already there
and just waiting for a decision from the NT government.
I understand with an election maybe that I want to
come out and make it Gosling look good because he's delivering.
But I have delivered the cash for these things that
happen that are needed in the community. So let's go.

Speaker 1 (13:27):
So let's make it happen. All right, Lou Gosling, we
better leave it there. We've got combat scarlets. He's going
to be knocking on the door, ready to come up.
Thank you as always for your time. Again, congratulations on
the win.

Speaker 2 (13:38):
Thanks Katie, thank you,
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