NT commissioners Andy Cowan, Jason Schoolmeester reveal how the Territory will reach $40bn

NT Investment Commissioner Andy Cowan says the Territory needs to be “hungrier’ than other jurisdictions to grow the economy to $40bn. Find out why.

“We’re hungrier than other jurisdictions because we need to be hungrier.”

NT government Investment Commissioner Andy Cowan says that is the collective challenge driving the elevated economic growth target for the decade ahead.

The Territory Economic Reconstruction Commission (TERC) report released in late 2020 began the 10-year race – now eight years – to grow the economy to $40bn by 2030.

The government’s latest economic snapshot said it was $26.2bn in September, .6 percent down on the June figure.

To help with the heavy lifting to reach the target, former chief minister Michael Gunner

appointed three new commissioners: Louise McCormick for Infrastructure, Jason

Schoolmeester for Major Projects and Mr Cowan.

Territory Investment Commissioner Andy Cowan.

After a damaging economic downturn in the second half of the decade, the Territory began

to turn with the help of commonwealth Defence spending, first flagged in the 2016

Turnbull-Morrison budget.

The TERC report said without its reforms the budget would hit $35.28m and belled-the-cat for

economic diversification as a government priority.

“The Territory is starting from a narrow economic base focused on primary resources and

raw materials with relatively few locals value adding activities,” the TERC report warned.

Mr Cowan says to reach $40bn we’ll need to change history.

“We don’t have the past five decades of the Pilbara or WA where they’ve got the significant

luxury of large iron ore mines,” he said.

“We have headwinds; staff housing, supply chains, cost of building materials. One of the differences this time is all jurisdictions globally are feeling these headwinds.

“Our challenge is to ensure we’re competitive and we can attract people in the Territory to

support those projects.

“Historically we’ve dug stuff up and exported it so we’re looking at how we can move up the value chain and do more in the Territory to capture greater value.”

Assisting this are three “mega-trends” driving global change that could combine to

advantage the Territory.

Future NT: Major projects driving $40bn economy ambition

First is the Russia-Ukraine war and the pressure that has on global gas supply.

Increased prices could help further investment in Territory gas projects including in the Beetaloo Basin and shore-up expansion plans, such as the third train at the Inpex plant or second train at Darwin LNG.

The second trend would appear at odds with the first but green energy could become a

significant economic player – particularly if Sun Cable’s plan to deliver solar power to

Singapore via a 4000km subsea cable from the NT is successful and we’re able to maximise

our critical minerals advantage, where we have 21 of the world’s 26 required critical

minerals.

Third is China’s rise and instability in the Indo-Pacific and its impact on Defence spending

and strategic policy.

“One of the reasons people love the Territory is our environment, and that’s always at the

forefront in regards to development that we look at in the Territory,” Mr Cowan said.

“We’ve got a strong regulatory system and I think it’s important we maintain that social

license and we do hold people to standards around that.

“It’s been said publicly by a number of environmental groups they understand that to

support the transition to net-zero emissions we support the transition to critical minerals.

“We need to work together to ensure that we do have the right regulatory environment in

place to ensure that it’s done safely, but we’ve got to acknowledge if we do want a low

carbon economy then there’s going to be some compromises along the way that people are

going to have to make.

“Gas is a really important fuel, as is the requirement around critical minerals. It’s important

and we can’t put our head in the sand.”

Jason Schoolmeester, Territory Major Projects Commissioner, and Andy Cowan, Territory Investment Commissioner. Picture: Thomas Morgan

Pleasing for Mr Schoolmeester is expected growth from across the Territory, not solely

from the Top End.

“Our pipeline of investment is across all the regions and they come to Darwin because

Darwin is the export pathway,” he said.

“Critical minerals start in Central Australia, for example, then make their way here.

“Core (lithium mine) is very close to Darwin but the rest of them are a long way away.

“You will see impacts in all our communities. Darwin will definitely grow.

“The Arafura (rare earths project) is 130km from Alice Springs. That’s a natural hub for that mine and TNG so there’s a natural opportunity for Alice Springs to grow, which is why you’ll see work around land release to find those opportunities.

“In terms of the vision for it we’ve got to see a bit more diversification.

“We’re going to have our traditional industries growing and then powering the economy but you’ll also start to see more manufacturing.”

Few prospective projects are as unusual, or generated as much discussion, as Amphibian

Aerospace Industries’ (AAI) plan to manufacturer up to 12 Albatross G-111T seaplanes in Darwin.

“If AAI keeps its timeline we’ll see a growing presence around aviation engineering and

diversification around the kind of jobs available in the Territory,” Mr Schoolmeester said.

“I think the important thing in all of this is that we want to make sure it’s all sustainable and

we’re going to have the highest levels of environmental approval processes but what is

exciting is it’s going to be impacting across the entire Northern Territory.”

Originally published as NT commissioners Andy Cowan, Jason Schoolmeester reveal how the Territory will reach $40bn