ADAM STEER, HOST: Fracking reports this week have been described as a nail in the coffin and the final puzzle pieces. The long awaited Senate inquiry into fracking in the Beetaloo Basin dropped this week. It was released this week. It recommended an inquiry into Middle Arm Sustainable Development Program. You heard from the Deputy Chief Minister, Nicole Manison, this time yesterday.
MANISON GRAB: This is the part that I thought was absolute garbage of the report, to be brutally honest, Adam.
STEER: It seems there's some confusion between the Northern Territory Government's opinion and that of federal Labor and the Greens. In addition to calling the inquiry the nail in the coffin, the chair of the Senate inquiry, Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young, had this to say.
HANSON-YOUNG GRAB: The significant thing about it is that because it is a report that is backed by both the Greens and the Labor Party and we've worked hard to bring the Labor Government across the line on this and Labor are now starting to say the writing is on the wall for big gas and big pollution expansion in this country.
STEER: It's not the only thing happening at the federal level this week. There's been new dialysis chairs for the bush and of course a Northern Territory senator has been elevated as the new opposition spokesperson for Indigenous affairs. Senator Malarndirri McCarthy last week you announced new dialysis chairs for the bush.
NT SENATOR MCCARTHY: Yes. Good morning, Adam. Good morning to your listeners. It was a wonderful announcement. We took to the election that we wanted to deal with the scourge of kidney disease across the country, but in particular with our First nations communities. So last week we delivered the announcement around six communities across Australia, three in the Northern Territory, two in South Australia and one in Western Australia. And that means delivering four renal chairs to each of those communities and enabling people to go back home for dialysis.
STEER: Why is this such an important issue for you, Senator?
MCCARTHY: Well, it's an important issue because we know that certainly in terms of Indigenous Australians, kidney disease is what hospitalises most first nations Australians more than any other disease. It's something that I've seen with family, with community. Most of the people that I know who come in either in Darwin or in Alice Springs on renal dialysis, and I see the heartache that it causes for those patients and their families.
STEER: Personally, though, have you had an experience of people needing dialysis chairs.
MCCARTHY: Yes, absolutely. I come from Borroloola. I've seen and heard the concerns of renal dialysis patients there who want to go home to country and don't have sufficient capability to do so. So I know that they want to leave hostels where they have to stay for years and years and they want to go home. I certainly know very much about kidney disease. I also suffer from polycystic kidney disease and I know the challenge personally on that level of what it means.
STEER: On other news, it's been a big week in federal politics. Your Northern Territory Senate counterpart, Jacinta Price has been elevated to the frontbench of the Opposition, the Opposition's spokesperson for Indigenous affairs. What do you make of that appointment?
MCCARTHY: Oh look, anyone who is elevated obviously has a greater responsibility and that is really going to be the challenge here for Senator Price is how do you work with people that you've been fiercely opposed to? How do you listen to them and how do you progress the debate in a responsible way that brings our country together? And, you know, clearly that's going to be what we're going to keep an eye on in the days and months ahead.
STEER: Senator Price is a loud and powerful voice. How do you think her elevation to that role will affect the 'yes' and 'no' campaign for a voice to parliament here in the Northern Territory?
MCCARTHY: I think it's really important for your listeners to recognize that it isn't just about Senator Price and it isn't just about me either, as someone who supports the 'Yes' campaign and she supports the 'No' campaign. It's actually about fellow Australians and what they think and what they want to see happen. And this is what certainly is being identified in recent debate. But also as we go forward, what will it mean in uniting our country? And really I say to all Australians who are listening. Get yourself informed. Find out the things that you don't understand and want to know more about. But this is an incredibly historic opportunity for our country as we walk towards the referendum later this year.
STEER: The Central Land Council has come out in the last 24 hours or so in favor of the voice. What about for the Northern Land Council? What are you hearing on the ground?
MCCARTHY: We know as part of the referendum engagement groups, the Northern Land Council, the Central Land Council and other land councils across Australia are very much supportive of the voice and they've given their reasons as to why that is the case. And I'm sure they'll be more than happy to be able to speak with you about that. But, you know, I'm very encouraged by the support of so many Australians across the country knowing that this is the way to go, and I certainly hope that we can have respectful debate in the lead up to it.
STEER: This week. Two major reports have come out about the future of fracking in the Beetaloo Basin, you're a traditional owner of that region. Many traditional owners have said they don't consent to fracking in the region. Where are you sitting here? Because you've got a Northern Territory report which says that this is the final piece of the puzzle for fracking to go ahead in the Beetaloo Basin. And then you've got a Senate report which the chair of the Senate report says this is the final nail in the coffin for the future of Beetaloo. What's going on here?
MCCARTHY: Well, I was very instrumental in establishing that inquiry as well, Adam, in the previous term of government, because one of the good things about our Parliament is that we can examine and can investigate. And that's what this inquiry was always about. Let's remember, if I can remind your listeners, it was about $50 million of funding, grant funding that was pretty much delivered to companies that, in the view of many Australians, did not need to receive that funding. And that was the reason why that review or inquiry began in the previous term of the Parliament. The fact that one of those companies failed time and time again to appear before the inquiry meant that the inquiry then had to go over into the second or the next term of Parliament, which is this, the Albanese Labor Government term of Parliament. And I do believe that when Senator Karen Grogan then took a position on there is as another Labor Senator that this inquiry was important and those questions and recommendations were important and that's why Labor has supported this report.
STEER: Does Federal Labor support the fracking onshore fracking in the Beetaloo Basin?
MCCARTHY: Federal Labor recognizes that there are serious issues here, certainly in regards to the fact that we want to see and deal with the impacts of climate change, that we have to look at how we're going to achieve our goal of the emissions that we've said we want to see reduced. And this report is going to be a report that no doubt the ministry and the respective ministers will will be looking at very closely.
STEER: Yeah, but it sounds like the Federal Labor and the Greens have done a trade around the safeguard mechanism and beetaloo. What's happened there?
MCCARTHY: Well, I wouldn't call it a trade, Adam, but I would say this, that there is a real concern around what's happening to our country, what's happening to the flooding and the fact that we're seeing weather changes in such a dramatic fashion, not just up in the north, but right around Australia. And Labor is taking that very seriously.
STEER: So you'd be happy if the Beetaloo Basin projects did not go ahead?
MCCARTHY: Well, like any project, it has to stack up, and that's what will remain to be seen.