NT invited to US President Joe Biden ‘hand delivered’ by pulling Andrew Liveris’ connections with White House
THE Chief Minister’s official invitation to freshly minted US President Joe Biden to visit the NT was “hand delivered” Michael Gunner has revealed
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THE Chief Minister’s official invitation to freshly minted US President Joe Biden to visit the NT was “hand delivered” Michael Gunner has revealed, as he spruiked Darwin’s key position in Australia’s defence strategy in his annual agenda-setting speech.
The NT News has since confirmed that Mr Gunner leveraged the relationship Darwin-born businessman Andrew Liveris has with the White House to pull connections and ensure the invitation to Mr Biden was hand delivered.
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Mr Liveris, a former Dow Chemical chief and head of the Territory’s Economic Reconstruction Commission, wrote manufacturing policy for Mr Biden’s predecessors Barack Obama and Donald Trump.
The Chief Minister, in his Year Ahead speech delivered on Monday, spruiked the Territory’s key position in Australia’s defence strategy, saying Darwin and the NT could expect to see an “increase in US, Japanese, South Korean, Singaporean and Indonesian planes and ships” in coming months and years.
He made mention of plans by the US to build a “massive” fuel reserve facility in Darwin and said it would be known by the third quarter of the year which company has been tasked with building the project and where it will be located on the city’s harbour.
In his speech Mr Gunner spruiked the Territory’s burgeoning film industry, the return of a number of big ticket events, and the NT’s role in rare earth and mineral mining.
He also signalled impending changes in the Commonwealth’s Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility that will allow smaller projects to receive funding.
Mr Gunner said the NT government was in discussions with the NAIF to become a lending partner through the Territory’s local jobs fund, which could be extended.
This comes off the back of proposed changes to the NAIF which include establishing “on-lending partnerships” with “local financiers”, which include banks and government-run lenders, to make it easier for proponents of smaller projects to grab a slice of the loan pie.
Mr Gunner also announced, as reported by the NT News, a new hybrid power station for Jabiru and the launch of a new online portal to streamline business applications in the NT.
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While the NT should “feel confident” about its “vital” position in the federation, Mr Gunner said the coronavirus health emergency and ensuing economic emergency were still lurking in the background as potential hurdles to recovery.
“So we must do all we can to stop that happening,” he said, before outlining the NT’s COVID-19 vaccine rollout plan.
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