"It's been a steep learning curve."

So says Bill Cross, the Country Liberal Party's
new candidate for the Barkly.
He spoke with Paul Cockram and Melanie Henderson

The job so far has been fairly hectic, trying to play catch up with the government and its policies and of course it's still only been around eight weeks. It's a fairly steep learning curve but hopefully I'll have everything down pat by the end of next month.
Do you think the Barkly has suffered because it hasn't had a member in government?
If you ask the Government then we haven't suffered, no - but if you have a look around at what's happening in other electorates there obviously is a problem with having a local member who is not in the ruling party. There is obviously a small problem there.
Tennant Creek has suffered in the past nine or ten years. We need to bring that around and change it so we can get someone back in the ruling party. That would better our chances of things happening in Tennant Creek.
Can you do things for the Barkly before the election? I mean, you must be getting complaints from people, because the area seems to be suffering unduly at the moment in terms of withdrawal of services, regional managers and the like?
We shouldn't have to wait till the election. I'm trying at this stage to turn that around, to stop the erosion of resources in the town.
We've already had a couple of successes. We've already saved two maybe three jobs at this stage. There was a problem with education, that's been solved.
There were another couple of jobs that looked like they would be leaving town, but they've now stayed. We've got an undertaking from Chief Minister Dennis Burke that there will be no more erosion of high-level jobs in the Barkly Region if that can be helped.
That's just one of the things he's come good with and he's already proved that he's willing to take that up. We are currently chasing other services for the town to see what can be done, but that's not a short term thing, it's a long term solution.
This should have been started two to three years ago. It should have been taken up by the local member then and pushed then. With the mine closure coming very shortly now it's all last minute stuff. It needed to be started two to three years ago.
Do you know anything about the Threeways road plan, the scheme to cut Threeways out?
It's been floating for quite some time and I am a supporter of it. The logistics side of it is there's a lot of bridges that need to be built to get across the floodplain area. That problem and the capital costs are just horrendous. It's been looked at a lot of times and it's something we can look at in the future, but in the short term I don't think we are going to see anything there at all.
Do you know anything about the scheme at the sewage ponds?
Not the latest scheme, there's been schemes around in the past through CDEP and through Julalikari etc. A lot of the schemes would do if they got merit and there's a lot of water going to waste out there, about 1.5 to 2.5 litres a second of water going to waste out there. It's just going to evaporation so if that can be utilised it would be better for the town, more employment for the town.
One idea that is doing the rounds at the moment is to use that water, if no one wants it, to get in there with a horticultural project. I was talking to some ministers in Darwin about using it for other uses.
Whether the water is actually suitable for horticulture is yet to be established, they'd have to test it because the salts in it would be fairly savage. I know at this stage there are a couple of ideas being bandied around in Darwin for the use of that water. Until we get something established I really can't say much.
There is a hundred thousand dollars being allocated at the moment that I know is for water exploration of the water tables in Tennant Creek and the Barkly Region to see how much water we have available for horticulture. To make sure there's enough water to do what we want to do around town.
Would you be behind the scheme if someone comes up with an idea on how we could utilise the waste water out there?
If someone comes up with a viable scheme, it's got two benefits. Number one you've got employment straight up and number two, it's another resource in town. If we can build Tennant Creek up as a supply town, so we are actually producing goods that are viable throughout the Territory then it's fine. I'd be right behind it.
(Melanie): What are you planning to do for the youth of Tennant Creek? Would you be able to get the Triple J radio station in town?
I don't know about Triple J, I could find out. It's out at Warrego so it shouldn't be too hard to get in town, obviously it's being transmitted here somewhere. I'll do some inquiries and see if we can find it. Triple J would be good in town but then again you do have to support your local radio stations as well. See you've got the local advertising radio, you've got 8Kin FM and they do all the local advertising. If you put triple J in no one will listen to 8Kin FM. All you've got to do is go to 8Kin FM and get them to play more of the music you like.
(Melanie): If we want something for the youth of Tennant Creek, could we come to you for that?
You could come to me for that, yeah. I could certainly look into things as best I can. I know there's a lot of issues around here with the kids. A lot of things that need to be done. Most of the kids around here just don't have access to things. This really needs addressing.
What's the feeling amongst people you've spoken to about the railway? Is it actually going to happen?
The railway will happen in our lifetime. They've only promised it for about a hundred years.
The thing's really in motion now so the railway is a definite, hopefully within the next couple of years. They are banding around that they will start by the end of this year, Christmas time and actually get some contractors on site. We can only hope that it does come through sooner rather than later.
Is there much consultation between the Australasia Railway Corporation and anybody in Tennant Creek about issues such as where the station is going to be?
At this stage I'm not sure, but most of that probably would have gone through the council as the council is the governing body of the town. I haven't actually seen anything come back from the council at this stage but I'm going to make some inquiries to find out exactly what's happening around the country.
As a local member and as a businessman I'm interested to find out what's going on out there. Our business has already put proposals to the three consortiums for supply of goods and services. I've got a vested interest in both ways.
Was the winning consortium chosen because it showed any willingness to use people like yourselves rather than getting it from the east coast or importing it?
I'm not sure. Obviously I wasn't privy to the selection of the consortium so I really can't comment on that but I think that it would have been taken into account.
It would be good for the town if the people who are doing the railway were to use local services. It would be excellent and that is something we will lobby and push for.
Do you enjoy your new job as candidate for the Barkly?
Yes I do actually. It's different, it's a challenge. It's very exciting - I mean you've got the pluses and the minuses - you've got all sorts of things happening, the attitudes of people changing etc.
It's different I'll tell you that.
Have you noticed any attitudes of people around Tennant Creek that have changed towards you going into politics?
Not a great deal, most of the comments I've had so far have been positive. I think the whole town realises that we have to change and that's the only reason I'm there is for the town. I didn't have to do this, I've got a successful little business that's up and purring along. I didn't need to go into politics but I could see the town was in a bit of a quandary at this stage and obviously I've got a vested interest as well so I decided to throw my hand in.
I'm not in it for myself. I'm in it for the town.