Meet the people tasked with driving the Territory’s Economic Reconstruction Commission
THE Territory Economic Reconstruction Commission is being asked to map the NT’s way out of economic anaemia. But just who are the people being tasked with this huge undertaking? The NT News investigates
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THE Chief Minister has appointed a nine-member team of respected bureaucrats and business leaders to figure out how to turn the NT into Australia’s fiscally weakest state into its post-coronavirus “comeback capital”.
The Territory Economic Reconstruction Commission has five key responsibilities; create jobs in the near term, attract investment, find ways government can slash red tape, figure out how to “build on the Territory’s competitive advantage” and engage with the Federal Government, investors and trade partners.
The commission, expected to operate for up to six months, will deliver an interim report by late July and a final report in November.
But who exactly are the members of the commission?
ROMILLY MADEW AO
Romilly Madew is the current chief executive of Infrastructure Australia, the peak independent body advising the Federal Government on all things infrastructure.
This is a role she’s held since April 2019. Before this appointment she led the Green Building Council of Australia for 13 years.
Ms Madew was awarded of an Order of Australia in acknowledgment of her contribution to Australia’s sustainable building movement.
Ms Madew, as per her LinkedIn, has sat on a number of boards and advisory groups ranging from the Sydney Olympic Park Authority to 1 Million Women, a “community of women acting on climate change”.
Notably, she’s heavily involved in the Surf Life Saving movement and based on her qualifications in that space is arguably very capable of saving people caught in dicey surf related situations.
The NT News doubts Ms Madew’s surf lifesaving skills have ever been tested against a croc and we would suggest she not attempt that as we require her for this commission. Also the borders are closed.
EYTAN LENKO
Eytan Lenko is a technology entrepreneur, clean-energy transition advocate and current interim chief executive of climate think-tank Beyond Zero Emissions.
In 2019 Beyond Zero Emissions released a report called “The 10 Gigawatt Vision” which focused on how renewable industries could fuel the NT’s flailing economy.
The report, released when Mr Lenko was BZE’s chairman, found if the NT put renewable energy at the “centre of a sustainable growth strategy” it could create more than 8000 new jobs and $2 billion in revenue by 2030.
Writing for national broadsheet The Australian this year, Mr Lenko described the summer bushfire crisis as Australia’s “Pearl Harbor moment” in reference to how the bombing of Pearl Harbor by the Japanese in 1941 marked the moment American citizens “stopped seeing World War II as a distant threat”.
“The devastation of lives, communities, animals and our economy caused by the climate-driven fires have now shown that climate change threatens our security and way of life. Summer in Australia will never be the same again,” he wrote.
Mr Lenko was also the co-founder of an app called “Snap Send Solve” which is arguably the handiest tool on the planet to tell your local council that something is broken and they better bloody get someone on it immediately or else.
DR MARTIN PARKINSON AC
If ever there was a Hall of Fame for public servants, Dr Parkinson would be in it under the heading “Supremo Mandarin”.
Dr Parkinson was the secretary of the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet, and Treasury, under five prime ministers. He retired from that position in 2019 as Australia’s most senior bureaucrat.
In his valedictory speech Dr Parkinson condemned “entrenched disadvantage” in Australia.
“Our history has bequeathed a degree of entrenched disadvantage that should be seen as a disgrace in any country, but particularly one as developed as Australia,” he said.
“Ideally, people should only be at the bottom of the income distribution spectrum temporarily due to life events, not whole families and communities sentenced to it for generations.
“If you want a single thing to blame for the disadvantage we see in Australia, particularly in our remote areas, look no further than an understandable lack of hope. With those kind of odds, anything else would be irrational.”
In an article in The Australian on May 22 this year, Dr Parkinson said deregulation in a post-pandemic world would significantly aid economic growth.
He said by allowing an explosion in red tape in the last 15 to 20 years “we have gummed up the wheels of commerce”.
“There’s a lot of regulatory reform which could be done and most people would not even notice it happened, but business would respond,” he told The Australian.
GAIL KELLY
Gail Kelly is a former Westpac chief executive and what the kids would describe as “goals”.
Ms Kelly became the first female chief executive of a major Australian bank in 2002 when she was headhunted into St George Bank from the Commonwealth Bank.
When Ms Kelly announced her departure from Westpac in 2014, Monash University adjunct associate professor Hannah Piterman called it a “real and symbolic loss for women” in The Conversation.
“Gail Kelly leveraged her position at the top to change the status of women at Westpac. Under her leadership the target of having women hold 40 per cent of senior management roles at Westpac by 2014 was achieved two years ahead of time. Women now hold 45% of senior management roles at the bank,” Prof Piterman wrote.
Maybe after Ms Kelly is done with this sixth month long commission term she could have a look at the NT’s balance sheets and bank accounts and get us out of this gigantic $7bn+ debt hole we’re in.
The NT News jests. We can’t afford Ms Kelly because the NT is broke, like M.C. Hammer broke.
PROFESSOR MICK DODSON AM
Prof Dodson is the NT’s Treaty Commissioner, whose role is to “consult with Aboriginal people across the Northern Territory to inform development of a framework for future treaty negotiations”.
He is a former chief executive of the Northern Land Council.
Prof Dodson was born in Katherine and is of the Yawuru peoples, the traditional owners of land and waters around Broome, Western Australia.
He is also an experienced barrister specialising in Native Title and human rights. Most recently he has been a law professor as the Australian National University and director of its National Centre for indigenous Studies.
Prof Dodson was counsel assisting in the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody in the NT and Western Australia, carried out between 1987 and 1991.
His brother is WA Senator Patrick Dodson, also a legend.
PAUL HENDERSON AO
A household name in the NT, Paul “Hendo” Henderson is a former Labor Chief Minister who served in the top job for close to five years.
He represented the electorate of Wanguri from 1999 to 2013 and remains the only ALP leader to have never served as Opposition Leader.
After leaving politics Mr Henderson set up Bespoke Territory a company that describes itself as “Northern Australia’s pre-eminent corporate counsel with the credentials, credibility and capacity to provide strategic advice to help maximise your commercial success”.
Quick fun fact: As of May 22, 2020, Chief Minister Michael Gunner has to hold on to his job for a year and 17 more days in order to beat Mr Henderson’s 4 year, 276 day reign in the top job.
NT Labor’s first Chief Minister Clare Martin wipes the floor with both of them in terms of years served as chief (6 years, 100 days). Mic drop, boys.
GARY HIGGINS MLA
Another commission member Territorians would be familiar with. Gary Higgins is the retiring CLP MLA for the seat of Daly.
He was first elected to the seat in 2012 and was one of only two CLP members, alongside current Opposition Leader Lia Finocchiaro, to hold on to their seats after the 2016 Labor landslide election.
Mr Higgins moved to the NT in 1986 and worked in the public service, rising to become director of corporate services in the Attorney-General’s office.
In the 14 years between leaving the public service and becoming a politician Mr Higgins bought and developed the Daly River Mango Farm, a mango orchard and tourist park on the Daly River.
He made the tough decision to retire after time with his family over the Christmas period in 2019.
During his retirement announcement Mr Higgins said; “The overwhelming desire to work for the good of the Northern Territory has driven me during my years as a parliamentarian and I’ll miss working for Territorians”.
“I strove to be a good local member, a decent contributor to parliament, and, in government, a thoughtful minister,” he said.
“It will be up to others to judge me on my record, and I only hope that their conclusions will be kind.”
You can read the TERC’s terms of reference here
This story will be updated with the final two commissioners when they are announced.
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