Canberra has so far declined to fund Tennant Creek airport upgrades

A major Territory infrastructure project is in limbo after the main political parties failed to commit funding. Read what happened.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has spurned a call to provide funding to upgrade the runway at Tennant Creek airport.

Speaking at Palmerston Urgent Care Clinic on Friday to announce a plan for a new Top End aged care facility, Mr Albanese would not commit Labor to co-funding the proposed $30-35 million upgrade.

Tennant Creek airport owner, Airport Development Group, is seeking a commonwealth co-contribution to extend and strengthen the Tennant Creek airport runway, expand the airport apron, upgrade the terminal and carpark and develop an aviation and accommodation hub.

While Labor and the Coalition don’t agree on much, they do appear to share a bipartisan indifference to supporting infrastructure growth in one of the country’s poorest towns and the nation’s most hardscrabble jurisdiction.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese addresses media in Darwin.

During his term in government, Mr Albanese has committed billions of dollars to the Territory that has not been spent.

This includes $1.9 billion for Middle Arm sustainable development precinct, $1.2 billion for Arafura Rare Earths, $440m for logistics hubs in Katherine and Tennant Creek and $10bn for remote housing.

But despite not a single cent of that money having been spent, Mr Albanese would not commit when pressed on whether Labor would invest in the Tennant Creek airport upgrades.

“We have a program, it’s under consideration like other programs,” he said.

“What we do is we go through a business case and that’s the appropriate way.”

Leaders of the Liberal Party, ALP and Nationals have visited Darwin in the past week, with each of them failing to make a firm committment to assisting with ADG’s Tennant Creek airport upgrade concept plan.

Earlier this week Nationals leader David Littleproud and deputy leader Bridget McKenzie spoke positively about the project, but stopped short of a funding commitment.

Liberals leader Peter Dutton said last week ADG’s request for funding was being considered.

Tennant Creek is in the middle of a mining resurgence, with a number of resource players reopening spent mines on the back of an unprecedented surge in the price of gold which sat at A$5195 at midday Friday.

The first to reach final investment decision is expected to be Tennant Mining’s Nobles Nob project, which has forecast first gold production by June and potentially copper production by the end of the decade.

Prime Minister Albanese speaks with staff at Palmerston Urgent Care clinic.

Tennant Mining managing director Peter Main said the importance of the proposed airport upgrades could not be overstated.

“Our project economics would not have stacked up if we also needed to build, maintain and operate our own airport,” he said.

The largest aircraft that can land at Tennant Creek is the Embraer 120 Brasilia twin-turboprop, with a range of 1750km, which is too short to reach Western Australia and key east coast centres.

In lieu of upgrades, the company is exploring options if airport capacity fails to meet demand of the shift changeovers, including bussing the 500km between Tennant Creek and Alice Springs and charter jets.

“Our preference will always be for larger commercial passenger jets so locals, tourists, local businesses, not-for-profits and public service providers, and other major projects in the Barkly also get to share the benefits from more reliable, affordable, connected flights,” he said.

Other mining companies with projects that could use Tennant Creek airport are Castle Resources’ Rover 1 project, Avenira’s Wonarah project and Emmerson Resources’ Chariot project.

Originally published as Canberra has so far declined to fund Tennant Creek airport upgrades