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Speaker 1: Few announcements happening in the Northern Territory at the moment.

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Speaker 1: From the federal government's perspective, and joining us on the

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Speaker 1: line right now is the Minister for Agriculture and Northern Australia,

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Speaker 1: David little Proud.

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Speaker 2: Good morning to your minister.

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Speaker 3: Oh, good morning. Good to be back with you.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, good to have you on the show.

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Speaker 1: Firstly, I understand that you're going to be testing these

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Speaker 1: five remote controlled robots.

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Speaker 2: Tell me a bit more about these, yeah.

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Speaker 3: Look, by A. Security is one of the biggest issues

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Speaker 3: we have in agriculture at the moment. We're really concerned

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Speaker 3: about some of the threats we've got, whether that be

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Speaker 3: African flying fever or now lumpy skin that's in Indonesia.

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Speaker 3: And what we're trying to do is increase our capacity

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Speaker 3: to be able to do more surveillance and detexas. And

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Speaker 3: to do that, we're not just putting more boots on

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Speaker 3: the ground and more dogs on the ground. We're actually

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Speaker 3: putting robotic dogs and even small robots that are allowing

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Speaker 3: us to get into places and to inspect places on

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Speaker 3: whether that be tractors or bulldozers or even on containers

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Speaker 3: that we haven't been able to do with Starli before.

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Speaker 3: So we're using imaging technology with these robots to get

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Speaker 3: in the cracks and crevices to be able to have

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Speaker 3: a look and to find any pest or or weed

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Speaker 3: that may be on there that had cause us harm.

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Speaker 3: So this is a big investment. We put out a

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Speaker 3: billion dollars of the last two budgets in the bias

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Speaker 3: que but Northern Australia is the front line of biosecurity

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Speaker 3: and so today sixty six million dollars a learning just

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Speaker 3: in more money for up here. What we see Northern

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Speaker 3: Territory in particular has to be the centerpiece of our

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Speaker 3: protection agriculture and the environment for that matter.

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Speaker 1: Yeah right, it sounds like something out of a sci

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Speaker 1: fi film. Minister, they're robotic dogs, but it sounds like

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Speaker 1: they're needed.

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Speaker 2: It is.

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Speaker 3: And look, this is the thing is we're actually shifting

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Speaker 3: towards technology. In fact, we're the first country in the

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Speaker 3: world now that's using three D X ray technology with

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Speaker 3: artificial intelligence. Every path of that goes to Australia post

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Speaker 3: will now be scanned. And in fact we're moving towards

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Speaker 3: digital declaration cards when you come into Australia about watching

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Speaker 3: your bag. We're now starting with New Zealand a trial

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Speaker 3: that will put your bags through a three D X

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Speaker 3: ray scanner as well. And if it doesn't marry up

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Speaker 3: with your decoration cards, my biosecurity officers will be sitting

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Speaker 3: waiting for you at the airport before you even get

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Speaker 3: off with a fine when we've lifted them from just

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Speaker 3: over four hundred dollars to the mast we can which

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Speaker 3: is just over two thy six hundred, and we've canceled these.

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Speaker 3: In fact, last week we canceled a student's visa international

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Speaker 3: student visa who had ten kilos of meat on him

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Speaker 3: and we have sent him home and they are not

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Speaker 3: welcome back to this country for another three years. He

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Speaker 3: can do his study externally because foot and mouth disease

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Speaker 3: would just wipe out the Northern Territory cattle industry. So

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Speaker 3: you know, we're taking this seriously and we've got it.

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Speaker 3: We've got to be tough, but we've got to have

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Speaker 3: the technology to make sure we detect people. Then people

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Speaker 3: can get around this by just simply declaring.

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Speaker 1: So, Minister, where exactly is the trial which is happening

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Speaker 1: in the territory.

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Speaker 2: Where in the territories are happening out out of.

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Speaker 3: The airport here. In fact, we just had the just

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Speaker 3: had the road by trialed and the dog was here

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Speaker 3: last week and it's now being taken to Brisbane to

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Speaker 3: more trials. So each port is different and unique, and

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Speaker 3: that's why the territory has has to be across not

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Speaker 3: just airports but also the seaports. So we're trialing it

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Speaker 3: up here because we believe this is sort of gives

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Speaker 3: it the biggest test across multidiscipline for our biosecurity officers

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Speaker 3: and because this is the front line, this really is

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Speaker 3: now becoming the front line in the territory. So we're

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Speaker 3: trialing these new innovations up here because we see that

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Speaker 3: will be an investment. But we're also putting more men

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Speaker 3: and women on the ground and we're going towards indigenous

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Speaker 3: ranges more. And that's what this sixty million dollars will

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Speaker 3: do is put more boots on the ground, more dogs

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Speaker 3: on the ground. There'll be four dogs live dogs in

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Speaker 3: these ones are that we bought up. But if the

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Speaker 3: robot dogs work out as well, they'll complement and supplement

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Speaker 3: those dogs. We won't get it of our labor doings.

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Speaker 3: I'll get a big role to play.

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Speaker 1: I was going to say, I hope the robot dogs

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Speaker 1: aren't doing our canines out of a job, but it

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Speaker 1: sounds as though they're all certainly required.

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Speaker 3: No, and it's we're to send the robot dogs into

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Speaker 3: areas that we don't want our live dogs, our labradors

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Speaker 3: going to that aren't safe. So it's just protecting them.

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Speaker 3: They're very expensive and but they can get into places

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Speaker 3: that we can't send the labradors in because we're just

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Speaker 3: concerned about their safety.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, right now, it's not the only announcement that you're

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Speaker 1: making while you're in the territory. I know that one

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Speaker 1: point one two five million dollars is going to be

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Speaker 1: invested over three years to support the creation of adoption

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Speaker 1: offices in Northern wa and into Drought Resilience Adoption and

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Speaker 1: Innovation Hub.

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Speaker 2: What is this all about.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, this is a real modernization of our agricultural innovation

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Speaker 3: systems and particularly around drought. And what's happened is is

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Speaker 3: over billion dollars a year of research dollars that paid

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Speaker 3: from farmers through levies and through the Australian taxpayer to

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Speaker 3: give our farmers the tool for research and development and

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Speaker 3: Unfortunately what's happening is Dayton Territory governments used to have

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Speaker 3: extension offices in their Department of Prime Industries that used

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Speaker 3: to go out of the kitchen and explain to farmers

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Speaker 3: what this research and science is and how they could

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Speaker 3: make a dollar out of it. Unfortunately, they've been ripped away.

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Speaker 3: And so what we've done is we've created eight innovation

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Speaker 3: hubs around the country, one here in the Northern Territory.

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Speaker 3: And it's important that we then have not only the

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Speaker 3: science and research being done in those put in those

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Speaker 3: innovation hubs, but when we have someone sitting out at

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Speaker 3: kitchen tables and town halls telling farmers about the opportunities

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Speaker 3: that this science or technology may give them at the

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Speaker 3: farm gate, building their profitability and resilience to further droughts

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Speaker 3: or our per cyclone. So this is the sort of

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Speaker 3: work where we believe if our job is simply to

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Speaker 3: give the farmers the tools, then let them get on

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Speaker 3: with the job of producing the best food and vibe

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Speaker 3: in the world. But when you've got over a billion

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Speaker 3: dollars a year that's going out there, if we get

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Speaker 3: them out of the capital city universities and into universities

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Speaker 3: in regional areas like Darwin. It really shifts the dial

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Speaker 3: on our education system in giving a real signal to

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Speaker 3: young people they can do a course in Darwin in

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Speaker 3: agriculture and then have a career in it. Don't have

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Speaker 3: to go to Melbourne or sit in your Brisbane to

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Speaker 3: do it. They can stay up here and then you

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Speaker 3: can be part of the ecosystem that will give our

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Speaker 3: farmers the tools, and these extension officers will then take

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Speaker 3: those tools out to the farmers and hopefully make them

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Speaker 3: more profitable and continue to produce that food and fiber

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Speaker 3: we enjoy.

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Speaker 1: Now, as I'm sure you are aware of, this week

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Speaker 1: here in Darwen, the Senate's inquiry hearings are taking place

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Speaker 1: into fracking in the Beterloo basin. I know that there

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Speaker 1: have been some pastorless in that hearing who voiced concerns

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Speaker 1: about the fracking of the Beterloo. Is it something that

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Speaker 1: you're keeping.

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Speaker 2: An eye on?

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Speaker 3: I am that I can speak from lived experience being

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Speaker 3: a Queenslander. We actually had this thrust upon us back

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Speaker 3: in around two thousand and seven back in Queensland where

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Speaker 3: we had Coultine gas put on us in the shrap

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Speaker 3: basin overnight. There was no process, approval process put in place.

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Speaker 3: It was simply we were told that you're going to

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Speaker 3: get cultine gas. And so a lot's been learned from that,

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Speaker 3: and I think it's important that state and territory governments

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Speaker 3: ensure that the regulatory framework they put around gas companies

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Speaker 3: gives primary producers the confidence in those approval processes and

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Speaker 3: in the application of the mining of those gases. So

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Speaker 3: we've seen that there was particularly in my hometown, there

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Speaker 3: was a real ansty with this when it first came out,

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Speaker 3: but there is a coexistance that those exist there now,

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Speaker 3: but it's one that needs constant monitoring by state and

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Speaker 3: territory governments around particularly groundwater, and that's something that we

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Speaker 3: want to make sure that the state territory governments are

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Speaker 3: doing properly to give that confidence. And I think you

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Speaker 3: know that's only right the past for us have concerns

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Speaker 3: about this. There's nothing to be shamed in this because

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Speaker 3: this is their livelihood we're playing with. Yeah, but we

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Speaker 3: need to be able to have a process that they

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Speaker 3: can back the science and they can back the regulatory

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Speaker 3: process that supports this and have confidence in it. And

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Speaker 3: that's what State and territory government should be able.

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Speaker 1: To provide and are you confident that we'll be able

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Speaker 1: to do that here in the Northern Territory.

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Speaker 3: Well, I've got to say, being fair on this, I'm

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Speaker 3: got to say the Northern Territory went through a far

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Speaker 3: more extensive approval process than what we did in Queensland,

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Speaker 3: so it has gone through more regulatory and scientific and

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Speaker 3: environmental hoops than what we got in Queensland. So I'm

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Speaker 3: saying that the process that I would say I've seen

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Speaker 3: so far has been far more, farwer than what we

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Speaker 3: experience in Queensland, and that's a positive. But it's important

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Speaker 3: that's continued to be reinforced and science should be the

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Speaker 3: predicator of how we move forward with this and be

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Speaker 3: able to provide that confidence to pastor us and to

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Speaker 3: Indigenous Australians as well well.

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Speaker 1: Minister David little Proud, we always appreciate your time when

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Speaker 1: you're in the territory and made any idea when is

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Speaker 1: this election happening.

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Speaker 3: Well, it has to be done by the twenty first

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Speaker 3: of May, so if you want to have a better

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Speaker 3: I reckonill either be the fourteenth or twenty first of May.

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Speaker 1: Fourteenth or the twenty first of May, and we can

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Speaker 1: Territorians expect there to be a bit in the budget

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Speaker 1: for us next week when it sounded down.

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Speaker 3: There will be. But you got to understand, we spend

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Speaker 3: a lot of your money already in just getting us

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Speaker 3: through this COVID crisis, and we've come out really well.

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Speaker 3: Our economy is better than anyone else in the world.

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Speaker 3: But someone's going to have to repay the bill, and

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Speaker 3: governments don't repay bills unless they put up your taxes,

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Speaker 3: and so we're not going to do that. And we

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Speaker 3: believe that the best way to repay the debt is

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Speaker 3: to grow the pie. And the only way to grow

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Speaker 3: the pie is let you decide how to spend your money,

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Speaker 3: not a government from Canberra. So we'll try and get

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Speaker 3: the balance right. But you know, we've got to reflect

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Speaker 3: we've been through a lot over the last three years,

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Speaker 3: whether it be fires, the drought, cyclizers in COVID. We're

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Speaker 3: still we're still swinging pretty hard as Australians. And you

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Speaker 3: know it's not just governments have done that. Australian people

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Speaker 3: have stood tool and we're in a good space as

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Speaker 3: a country. We've got a lot to do there's a

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Speaker 3: lot of challenges ahead of us, but we're in a

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Speaker 3: good space because we've done the hard yards well.

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Speaker 1: David Little Proud, thank you very much for having a

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Speaker 1: chat with us this morning.

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Speaker 2: No doubt we'll talk to you again soon.

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Speaker 3: Sounds good. Thank