The idea of a merger between South Australia and the Northern Territory to form a new state, Central Australia (Centralia), was raised and this time supported by some former federal and state lawmakers.
According to the Australian News Network, former Northern Territory Attorney General Alfred (John Elferink) recently put forward the concept of "Central Australia", supported by former Deputy Prime Minister and former National Party leader Fischer (Tim Fischer), among others.
Alfred Link recently sent a long letter to the "Northern Territory News" editorial office proposing the establishment of "Central Australia," which has "the same resources as Western Australia" and will make "Australia more stable in the Asia-Pacific region." The news received a lot of support and opposition.
In a separate letter, on Jan. 2, Alfreink wrote: "the new state covers this mainland 1 / 3 land, which runs through Asia, and there are real opportunities that deserve serious consideration, especially in this Asian century."
The former vice-premier and the former leader of the state party have expressed strong support for the idea. He said this would help Australia to take advantage of the opportunity to connect Adelaide to Darwin's cross-marinland rail. In his view, the consolidation of the two states would bring "dynamic economic focus" to the new state.
However, given the crisis in the Northern Territory's economy, the idea is unlikely to attract interest in South Australia, especially in the current liberal state of government.
However, Lambert (Rikki Lambert), (Australian Conservatives) candidate for South Australia's Conservative Party, said the idea was interesting and not unhelpful. He said South Australian Governor Ma Shaoyun (Steven Marshall) should consider the proposal, but only the terms of South Australia. He conceded that the terms were not attractive to South Australia at the moment.
Alice Springs City Councillor Meggie (Eli Melky) called the proposal "stupid" just to "make headlines." "We are in central Australia, which is part of the Northern Territory," he told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Instead of running around and looking for different excuses, we have to get back to the basics. "
As early as 2015, Northern Territory Chief minister Giles (Adam Giles) said that given its economic performance, the Northern Territory should be upgraded from "territory" to "state" or merged with South Australia.
In the same year, McBride (Nigel McBride), president of the South Australian Business Association (Business SA), also suggested that the merger would give local Australian companies "a real gateway to Asia".
