A new plan unveiled by the Australian Labor Party (ALP) will scrap the $5 billion Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility (NAIF) in preference for a fund to help build infrastructure projects like gas pipelines across Queensland and the Northern Territory.
The ALP proposes a Northern Australia Development Fund to provide a financing facility and work with infrastructure Australia to identify and support projects of national economic significance – such as gas pipelines – in Australia’s north.
As part of the changes, the ALP has pledged up to $1.5 billion to be set aside to unlock gas supply in Queensland’s Galilee and Bowen basins and connecting the Beetaloo to Darwin and the east coast.
“This project would support Darwin as a manufacturing and gas export powerhouse as well as increasing supply to Queensland and the eastern seaboard to put downward pressure on prices for gas users,” Opposition Leader Bill Shorten said.
Mr Shorten said opening up the Beetaloo alone could provide enough gas to supply the domestic market for up to 400 years.
Other ALP reforms include:
- Allocate $1 billion from the Northern Australia Development Fund to tourism projects in the north.
- Appoint First Nations people to the new board of the Northern Australia Development Fund.
- Publicly release the First Nations job and procurement plans of all funded projects.
- Establish an MOU with Indigenous Business Australia to provide additional financial support to First Nations-led business in the north.
- Establish an MOU with the Clean Energy Finance Corporation (CEFC) and Energy Security Modernisation Fund (ESMF) to avoid end duplication and support cooperation between the funds.
- Labor will also honour existing projects and keep the funding allocation to the existing NAIF of $5 billion.
The NAIF is a Commonwealth Government $5 billion lending facility to finance projects via the governments of the Northern Territory, Queensland and Western Australia. It aims to achieve growth in the economies and populations of those regions and encourage and complement private sector investment in northern Australia, with its primary purpose to accelerate infrastructure development by financing.