$200m Darwin City Deal in doubt after Malcolm Turnbull is ousted as Prime Minister

THE Darwin City Deal, which could be worth up to $200 million to the NT, may be dead and buried after Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull was dumped and replaced by Scott Morrison

A new Charles Darwin University CBD development is tipped to be a major part of the Darwin City Deal

IT IS Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull’s signature that sits alongside Chief Minister Michael Gunner’s at the bottom of the Darwin City Deal memorandum of understanding.

The document binds the two leaders into a promise to work together on a deal that could be worth up to $200 million to the Northern Territory.

That agreement, inked in May last year, could be void after Mr Turnbull was dumped as Prime Minister on Friday and replaced by Scott Morrison.

Chief Minister Michael Gunner, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and Indigenous Affairs Minister Nigel Scullion in Tennant Creek last month

The Territory has worked hard to get the ear of the Prime Minister in the past two years.

Mr Turnbull has visited the NT twice in recent months following a lengthy absence.

Also under a cloud are the future of a $446 million proposal to revitalise Jabiru, and a regional deal for Tennant Creek.

Mr Gunner said the Darwin deal had been on the verge of being rubber-stamped but the leadership kerfuffle meant it was unlikely to go ahead on the planned date.

Conversations had also been progressing on the other deals, he said.

“I’ve got no idea where it is now. We’re seeing billion-dollar promises being thrown around by leadership aspirants right now and who knows what’s going to be coming out of Canberra next week?” he said.

Darwin Lord Mayor Kon Vatskalis said Canberra needed to “get its act together” and get the City Deal finalised.

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Deputy Chief Minister Nicole Manison said instability in Canberra was bad for Territorians and all Australians.

“All Australians just want them to get on with the business of governing,” she said.

In a statement, Territory Senator and Turnbull Cabinet member Nigel Scullion said the Coalition was committed to providing “strong effective government for the people of the NT”.

Mr Scullion said “solid progress” had been made on the Darwin and Tennant Creek deals.

A number of NAIF loans would be announced soon, he said.

Opposition Leader Gary Higgins, who was part of the coup-loving Mills/Giles government, said his Canberra colleagues needed to learn from the mistakes of the past.

NORTHERN TERRITORY SIGNS CITY DEAL WITH FEDERAL GOVERNMENT

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TURNBULL TO VISIT TENNANT CREEK AMID NT’S CHILD PROTECTION CRISIS

“Unity is the only way that ever keeps you in government. Disunity is just death,” he said.

“They need to resolve their problems down there and resolve them as quick as they can.

“It’s a shame we’ve got people in Canberra thinking about their jobs rather than the jobs of their constituents. They need to grow up and get everything in order down there.”

Territory politicians lined up to whack the Federal Government on Thursday during a successful motion to protest the move by the Senate to vote down David Leyonhjelm’s Bill to restore the territories’ right to legislate on euthanasia.

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Mr Gunner said it was hypocritical for the Commonwealth to deprive the Territory of the right to govern for itself while Canberra drowned in a “quagmire of chaos”.

“These all-wise benefactors, these all-knowing arbiters of ethics, are destroying themselves with ego, ambition and self-interest,” he said.

“And that place has the temerity to tell the people of the NT we are not worthy?”

Statehood was the only way forward, he said.

The motion was supported by the Opposition.

Mr Higgins said federal politicians were no more “intelligent or wise” than those in the Territory.

Speaker Kezia Purick told the federal government to “butt out”.

“You have never known what is best for us never have never will,” she said.

The remonstrance motion will be presented to the Commonwealth Government next month by Mr Higgins, Ms Purick and Attorney-General Natasha Fyles.

ACT’s Parliament passed a similar remonstrance motion last week.