NT Labor pledges to build new Royal Darwin Hospital if it wins 2028 election

NT Labor has committed to building a new Royal Darwin Hospital if it wins the next territory election in 2028.

The Australian Medical Association NT (AMA NT) has welcomed the promise, saying a replacement for Darwin hospital is sorely needed.

Labor has conceded it doesn’t have a firm commitment from the Commonwealth for funding.

The Northern Territory Labor Opposition has promised to build a new Royal Darwin Hospital (RDH) if it wins government in 2028, revealing new details about how and where it could be built.

The current RDH, the NT's biggest and busiest hospital, is deteriorating and in a near perpetual state of crisis, with rolling code yellows, overcrowded wards and stretched staff.

Shadow Health Minister Chansey Paech said Labor was "committed to delivering a new Royal Darwin Hospital here, for everyone".

"We're working with our medical professionals, we're working with architects, we're working with Territorians to understand what a future hospital needs to look like here in Darwin.

"So that when we do come into government we don't have to wait around … we can get to the business of getting a hospital built."

While NT Labor has been alluding to this promise over recent weeks, today marks the first time the party has publicly outlined the extent of its planning.

The pledge also marks the first major election pitch from NT Labor since it lost government in a landslide to the Country Liberal Party (CLP) in 2024.

The promise has been welcomed by the Australian Medical Association NT (AMA NT).

AMA NT vice president Dayna Duncan said the current RDH "is ageing to a point where it can't be patched up anymore".

"We do need a brand new hospital from scratch," she said.

While no exact cost has been cited, health officials have previously floated that a new RDH would likely exceed $1 billion.

Mr Paech said NT Labor was currently looking at two possible locations: the site of the current hospital in Tiwi or on Defence land earmarked for divestment in Berrimah.

"We believe … the Berrimah barracks presents the greatest opportunity to build a new premiere tertiary hospital for the Territory, one that is close to the airport for aerial retrieval services, it's in between Palmerston and Darwin," he said.

Ms Duncan said while a future hospital location was still to be negotiated, "the Berrimah site certainly has benefits".

The current eight-storey RDH opened in 1980 in the wake of Cyclone Tracy from existing plans for Canberra's identical Woden Hospital.

Mr Paech said under Labor, a new construction would likely look very different.

"We're hearing from people that it shouldn't be a multi-storey tower, that it should be something that takes in the tropical climate," Mr Paech said.

CLP government Health Minister Steve Edgington criticised NT Labor's track record on spending in government and questioned why it hadn't made the promise in its last term.

He also said the CLP was "not ruling in or ruling out" building a new RDH, but that his government had embarked on planning for new health infrastructure across the NT.

"We're looking at the needs of the future and that includes the Royal Darwin Hospital," he said.

"We're not here to make political headlines.

"We want to do the responsible thing for Territorians, and that's to do the proper planning … look at the clinical needs right across the territory so that we can plan for the future."

The Commonwealth has never publicly committed to helping fund a future RDH, with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese recently watering down the prospect.

But Mr Paech said he believed they would come onboard.

"We have had a very welcoming reception with our federal colleagues to begin the conversation about the future health care needs of Territorians," he said.

"We are … going to remain committed to this, and we're going to keep talking to the federal government about this important need for a new hospital here in the Top End."

In a statement, an Albanese government spokesperson put the onus on the NT government as the entity "responsible for the planning, funding and delivery of capital" for a new RDH.

The spokesperson said "any decision to provide funding to support progression of a new tertiary hospital would need to be contemplated" in context of current funding arrangements between the NT and the Commonwealth.

When asked if a future NT Labor government would go it alone without federal support, Mr Paech said "the Territory Labor Opposition is going to work through that" possibility.

Independent economist Saul Eslake said building a new hospital would be "incredibly expensive for the territory government especially considering its current financial position".