THE United States will be able to build permanent military facilities on Australian soil and expand to locations across the country under a deal struck between Tony Abbott and Barack Obama. The deal – which initially covers up to 2500 US forces rotating through Darwin but can be expanded – will allow the US to bring warships, planes and troops to Australia. New bases can be set up across the country and the number of troops increased without limit over 25 years under the deal, senior US officials confirmed. A spokeswoman for Tony Abbott said the latest deal was not about increasing Marines in Darwin beyond the agreed 2500 by 2017, or creating bases. Rather, she said, it was about “logistical, cost-sharing and legal arrangements underpinning the rotational presences of US forces in Northern Australia (and) sets out a framework for consultation on how the force posture initiatives will be implemented as it moves forward to full maturity”.

Treasurer Joe Hockey, pressed as to why the NT gets so little infrastructure funding compared to the rest of the country, pointed to plans to "spend quite a bit of money in providing facilities for the American marine base here in the Territory,"