Coalition’s ‘failed’ fund facing $5bn makeover

Bill Shorten will replace the NAIF with a new finance facility to support projects of national economic significance in the north.

Opposition resources spokesman Jason Clare says Labor plans to create a new fund that would support Darwin as a manufacturing and gas export powerhouse. Picture: Shae Beplate.

Bill Shorten would abolish the ­“failed” $5 billion Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility and establish a new fund aimed at unlocking Queensland gas reserves in a bid to bring down gas prices and transform Darwin into a manufacturing and export powerhouse.

If elected, the Opposition Leader would replace the NAIF with a new finance facility that would work with Infrastructure Australia to identify and support projects of national economic significance in Australia’s north.

The new facility would have the same $5bn funding allocation as the NAIF, but would be called the “Northern Australia Development Fund”.

It would quarantine $1.5bn for the construction of pipelines connecting Queensland’s Galilee and Bowen basins with the east coast. Labor would also aim to fin­ance pipelines connecting the Beetaloo basin with Darwin, 600km north, as well as the east coast.

An extra $1bn from the new fund would be allocated to giving a leg-up to tourism projects in Northern Australia.

Opposition resources spokesman Jason Clare said the plan to create a new fund would “support Darwin as a manufacturing and gas export powerhouse as well as increasing supply to Queensland and the eastern seaboard to put downward pressure on prices for gas users”.

“Opening up the Beetaloo alone could provide enough gas to supply the domestic market for up to 400 years,” Mr Clare said. “The NAIF has been an abject failure.”

Mr Shorten has pledged to ­appoint indigenous Australians to the board of the new facility and would require all funded projects to produce plans showing how the economic benefits of the project could be shared with local indigenous communities. These plans will be released publicly.

The fund would sign a memorandum of understanding with ­Indigenous Business Australia, an organisation dedicated to improving the economic self-sufficiency of Aboriginal and Torres Strait ­Islander people. Other agreements would be signed with the Clean ­Energy Fin­ance Corporation and the Energy Security Modernisation Fund to avoid duplication, and improve co-operation.

Labor says the NAIF has failed, saying “not a single cent” had been spent in Queensland and only $15 million has been spent on infrastructure projects in Northern Australia over the past four years.