Power ... to the people
Nigel Adlam
NT News
CHIEF Minister Paul Henderson believes the Territory will weather the global financial crisis better than most.
PAUL Henderson believes the Territory's future prosperity will be dictated by a dirty word -- power. The western world has a growing hunger for energy.
The US is seriously worried about not having enough fuel to run the industries on its west coast within a couple of decades.
Securing energy supplies remains a national obsession in Japan; the country has no natural resources of its own - no coal, no uranium, no gas - so it has to go out and buy what it needs.
And China opens a power station every few weeks; if Australia became carbon neutral tomorrow, the saving of greenhouse gases would be wiped out by China's growth within three months. India, Taiwan, Vietnam, Malaysia, Thailand ... they all want more energy to power their economic growth.
And the Territory has just the right ingredients for the job: gas and uranium oxide.
Mr Henderson says these twin assets will see NT through the global financial crisis, not unscathed, but less battered and bruised than most other parts of the world.
"Gas and uranium will be in strong demand for decades to come,'' he says.
"Nuclear power is a solution to global warming. It's a much cleaner fuel than coal-fired power stations.''
Mr Henderson sees NT as the "new world'' - a world of gas and uranium - and other jurisdictions, with their polluting coal industries, as part of the old.
He looks to other commodities as well to sustain the economy.
The price of gold is high and the Newmont mine in the Tanami is doing well. Bauxite and alumina will also pick up when China's economy recovers. And then there's a growing engineering capacity, tourism, and primary industries.
But it is upon Inpex that the Chief Minister looks most fondly.
Clare Martin and her top public servant, Paul Tyrrell, may have "sniffed out'' the opportunity to pinch the $12 billion gas project from WA, but it was Mr Henderson who landed the richest deal in NT history.
"I'm so glad we went after it as hard as we did,'' he says. "Inpex is our biggest insurance to maintain confidence in the economy.''
He accepts a project of that size frightens some people and will create problems.
About 2000 well-paid workers will live at a resort-style village at Howard Springs, providing a boost to local retailers. It is likely the village will be bequeathed to NT Government as seniors' or low-cost accommodation.
There will be a downside - small businesses are likely to struggle to hold their staff when Inpex comes to town. Firms suffered a terrible skills drain during the building of the ConocoPhilips LNG plant on the shores of Darwin Harbour.
Mr Henderson says he is confident the Inpex project will go ahead. "There is no sign that the company has changed its mind.'' And he is almost certainly right.
Those who want to see the project fail - for their own political or environmental reasons - suggest the global financial crisis will kill off the project.
But this is no ordinary capitalist enterprise, driven only by the desire for profit; it is not dependent on short-term stock market crashes. It has an all together much grander imperative - to secure Japan's future energy supplies. In other words, the Darwin gas project is of national importance not just to Australia, but to Japan, the world's third biggest economy.
Mr Henderson says while gas and uranium promise jobs and prosperity for Territorians, the economy should strive to diversify.
The former fitter and turner is a strong supporter of Territory businesses winning a much larger share of engineering work. He says Defence has a major presence in the NT and local firms should be given more of the maintenance and servicing contracts.
Mr Henderson's Government has set up a Defence work hub near Robertson Barracks.
He dreams of the day when the Territory has largely weaned itself off Canberra.
"It's so important to grow the economy so that we're less reliant on Commonwealth funding.''
For the record, the NT economy is forecast to grow 4.5 per cent this year and 2 per cent next.
Nowadays, any financial reckoning without a minus sign in front of it is worth celebrating.
PAUL Henderson believes the Territory's future prosperity will be dictated by a dirty word -- power. The western world has a growing hunger for energy.
The US is seriously worried about not having enough fuel to run the industries on its west coast within a couple of decades.
Securing energy supplies remains a national obsession in Japan; the country has no natural resources of its own - no coal, no uranium, no gas - so it has to go out and buy what it needs.
And China opens a power station every few weeks; if Australia became carbon neutral tomorrow, the saving of greenhouse gases would be wiped out by China's growth within three months. India, Taiwan, Vietnam, Malaysia, Thailand ... they all want more energy to power their economic growth.
And the Territory has just the right ingredients for the job: gas and uranium oxide.
Mr Henderson says these twin assets will see NT through the global financial crisis, not unscathed, but less battered and bruised than most other parts of the world.
"Gas and uranium will be in strong demand for decades to come,'' he says.
"Nuclear power is a solution to global warming. It's a much cleaner fuel than coal-fired power stations.''
Mr Henderson sees NT as the "new world'' - a world of gas and uranium - and other jurisdictions, with their polluting coal industries, as part of the old.
He looks to other commodities as well to sustain the economy.
The price of gold is high and the Newmont mine in the Tanami is doing well. Bauxite and alumina will also pick up when China's economy recovers. And then there's a growing engineering capacity, tourism, and primary industries.
But it is upon Inpex that the Chief Minister looks most fondly.
Clare Martin and her top public servant, Paul Tyrrell, may have "sniffed out'' the opportunity to pinch the $12 billion gas project from WA, but it was Mr Henderson who landed the richest deal in NT history.
"I'm so glad we went after it as hard as we did,'' he says. "Inpex is our biggest insurance to maintain confidence in the economy.''
He accepts a project of that size frightens some people and will create problems.
About 2000 well-paid workers will live at a resort-style village at Howard Springs, providing a boost to local retailers. It is likely the village will be bequeathed to NT Government as seniors' or low-cost accommodation.
There will be a downside - small businesses are likely to struggle to hold their staff when Inpex comes to town. Firms suffered a terrible skills drain during the building of the ConocoPhilips LNG plant on the shores of Darwin Harbour.
Mr Henderson says he is confident the Inpex project will go ahead. "There is no sign that the company has changed its mind.'' And he is almost certainly right.
Those who want to see the project fail - for their own political or environmental reasons - suggest the global financial crisis will kill off the project.
But this is no ordinary capitalist enterprise, driven only by the desire for profit; it is not dependent on short-term stock market crashes. It has an all together much grander imperative - to secure Japan's future energy supplies. In other words, the Darwin gas project is of national importance not just to Australia, but to Japan, the world's third biggest economy.
Mr Henderson says while gas and uranium promise jobs and prosperity for Territorians, the economy should strive to diversify.
The former fitter and turner is a strong supporter of Territory businesses winning a much larger share of engineering work. He says Defence has a major presence in the NT and local firms should be given more of the maintenance and servicing contracts.
Mr Henderson's Government has set up a Defence work hub near Robertson Barracks.
He dreams of the day when the Territory has largely weaned itself off Canberra.
"It's so important to grow the economy so that we're less reliant on Commonwealth funding.''
For the record, the NT economy is forecast to grow 4.5 per cent this year and 2 per cent next.
Nowadays, any financial reckoning without a minus sign in front of it is worth celebrating.