THERE’S one sure sign the dry season has arrived in the Top End, and it has a nothing to do with dragonflies.

There’s another creature that arrives en masse some time after Anzac Day.

And while the presence of federal politicians has always been inversely proportional to the relative humidity, it seems this year in particular, they will be coming in plague proportions.

Locked down in their southern misery for much of the past year, they’re suddenly free.

But with overseas junkets out of the question, Darwin has become their 2021 destination of choice.

Qantas is even putting on direct flights.

Their presence would be less irritating if there was some genuine purpose to their visits.

But in most cases they’re here, not for our interests, but their own.

A chance to get some sun on their back and rack up a few frequent flyer points.

Their trips usually follow a familiar itinerary. A re-announcement of something or other, a beer at a Darwin pub and a visit to the NT News to talk about crocodile stories.

While in town they tend to do a lot of talking, and little listening.

If they did occasionally open their ears we might be spared some of the brain farts that pass as policy when it comes to Canberra’s view of the Northern Territory.

There were a couple of prime examples this week.

Immigration Minister Alex Hawke made the seemingly unilateral decision that Howard Springs could be used exclusively for Australians being repatriated from India.

He forgot to check with the Northern Territory government before this news was splashed all over the front page of The Australian newspaper.

If he had, he might have saved himself the embarrassment of seriously suggesting something that had no chance of ever happening.

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For weeks local media outlets have been reporting on the issues our health system could face if there’s a high number of COVID cases at Howard Springs and they need to be treated in hospital.

Using Darwin exclusively to repatriate Indian arrivals would have seen the special charter flights stopped almost as soon as they’d started again.

The other recent obsession of our federal politicians has been the Port of Darwin.

Keen to look tough in the escalating stoush with China, they’re again suggesting the 99-year lease of the port to Chinese company Landbridge should be undone.

The Defence Department has now been asked to review the lease.

It was made obvious the government was heading in this direction during the Prime Minister’s press conference when in Darwin last week to re-announce funding for the upgrade of four Defence training facilities.

When asked about the port, Scott Morrison’s first reaction was to distance himself from the deal made in 2015.

But, as former NT treasurer Dave Tollner made clear this week, Morrison, as treasurer, was informed of the NT government’s intentions well before the Landbridge deal was done.

If he had concerns, he had ample opportunity to raise them.

But neither Morrison, then prime minister Malcolm Turnbull, or the Defence Department had any issue.

It’s true our relationship with China has soured since 2015, but those arguing to undo the port deal are exaggerating the security implications of leasing a commercial port to a Chinese company.

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The Australian and Northern Territory governments maintain complete control over who comes in and out of our port.

When the Bermuda-flagged Caledonian Sky cruise ship and the Diamantina live export ship sought to dock in Darwin during the coronavirus crisis, they weren’t asking Xi Jinping for permission.

The Darwin Port was leased because it was literally falling into the sea and the NT government could no longer afford to maintain it.

The Henderson and Giles governments tried to tell Canberra this, and begged them to invest in what they now all love to call a “critical piece of infrastructure”.

Perhaps if those federal pollies had paid more attention during their dry season visits, we might never have landed in this situation.

To be fair, not all of our federal representatives are fairweather friends.

When he held the social services portfolio, Trade Minister Dan Tehan made two trips to Tennant Creek following the rape there of a two-year-old girl.

He was clearly moved by the sight of very young, unsupervised children roaming the streets late at night.

Some of his colleagues could do worse than retrace his footsteps.

Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese has been a regular visitor to the Territory — not just to Darwin and often out of season — as was his predecessor Bill Shorten.

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Tony Abbott often travelled to remote communities and spent a week in Arnhem Land as prime minister.

And Barnaby Joyce and Matt Canavan showed a real and genuine interest in the Top End when they held senior portfolios in the Coalition government.

The Territory has been worse off for their removal from the cabinet.

But Territorians should be wary of those federal politicians who arrive here between now and the end of August.

Paul Keating is said to have once remarked that Darwin was best viewed “from 35,000 feet up on the way to Paris”.

Sadly, Paris is off limits this year.