Ms Martin said the biggest "shock" to the Northern Territory last year was not her appointment as Chief Minister but Shell and Woodside's decision not bring gas from the Sunrise field onshore. Instead the two companies would process gas on a floating barge "parked in the middle of the ocean", where tankers will take the LNG to markets in the US and Asia.
Ms Martin pointed out how Woodside last year presented itself as a 'true blue' Australian company that must remain in Australian hands in the national interest in response to Shell's failed takeover bid.
However, "we now have Woodside, the very same company, in boardrooms around Australia arguing that this giant Australian gas resource should not come onshore to Australia in the national interest," Ms Martin said.
"The Territorian Government is not going to sit back and see the Sunrise gas developed and sold offshore without substantial benefit to the Territory and to Australia.
"There would be minimal jobs for Territorians, and no chance of this Australian resource being piped into Australia's energy grid or used for Australian industrial development," she said.
She said it was reverting back to the situation where developers saw Australia just as a mine or a quarry.
Some of the projects Ms Martin outlined that could go-ahead if Sunrise gas came onshore included the $3.6 billion aluminium smelter and power station, Compass Resources and Mt Grace metals projects, a pipeline from Mataranka to Gove to allow expansion of Nabalco's alumina plant as well as the proposed pipeline linking Sunrise gas to the national gas grid at Moomba in South Australia.
Ms Martin also used the occasion to question Shell and Woodside's sums, in particular, claims that bringing gas onshore would cost the companies an extra $2 billion. "We question this figure - last year it was $500 million, then it was $1 billion. Now its supposed $2 billion. We believe that they have not adequately factored into their equation the benefits of feeding the gas into the national grid," she said.
Ms Martin highlighted the obvious differences in the joint venture. "We are also know that one of the Sunrise partners, Phillips Petroleum, is adamant that there is an economic case for an onshore project and they are holding out for it."
The East Timorese would also miss out through a floating Sunrise project. "We believe the Timorese people would be disadvantaged by the floating LNG proposal as opposed to bringing the gas onshore where we can make sure East Timorese get the jobs and training they need."
"I know that many of you did not expect to get an earful on resource development - but it is the key to the Territory's future," Ms Martin concluded.
