Prime Minister Tony Abbott says he will fulfil an election promise to spend a full week in an indigenous community in East Arnhem Land later this year.
During question time on Wednesday, Opposition Leader Bill Shorten challenged Mr Abbott over an apparent pledge he made to visit and stay in East Arnhem Land in his first week as prime minister.
"Why hasn't the prime minister been to Gove and what's his plan to improve indigenous employment?" Mr Shorten said.
But Mr Abbott said Mr Shorten and others were putting the wrong "construction" on his words.
He says he promised that the first remote community he would stay in would be in East Arnhem Land, not that he would go there in his first week as PM.
"And that's exactly what I'm going to do," Mr Abbott told parliament. "I'm very much looking forward to it."
Mr Shorten said more than 1200 locals are set to lose their jobs when mining giant Rio Tinto closes its Gove refinery.
But Mr Abbott said Rio Tinto has assured him its indigenous refinery workers would be given new jobs in the area.
Mr Abbott said the miner shut down the operation because it was uneconomical to keep it open.
"I can understand why people are unhappy and why people at the Gove refinery are feeling disappointed," he said.
