2016-05-24
Budget 2016-17 – Education
Mr GUNNER to MINISTER for EDUCATION
Minister you have cut 164 classroom teachers from Education in your four years in government. Labor has proposed to inject an additional $31m into schools – $124m over four years. That will provide for more than 180 additional teachers. It will also put back an additional $8m a year into staff supporting teachers handling rising bad behaviour and disability. Your budget today will not replace those 164 teachers and the support staff you have cut. It is focused on capital payments, capital grants and trying to keep up with student growth.
Why will you not reverse your education cuts and put more teachers back into Territory schools?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, I am trying to think what it is that I should be calling him at the moment because he is making all the speeches on education. You have an opposition spokesperson for education and yet lately it has all been from the Opposition Leader.
It is flattery because Labor is really struggling in this space at the moment; it is struggling to come up with something new. It wants to take us back three or four years. It wants to take us backwards in the educational results we are now seeing in the Northern Territory, without any science.
In the last three years this government has unpacked an education system that we inherited from Labor. We applied science through the rigorous reviews we undertook, and we implemented the recommendations. The recommendations back what we are doing at the moment, and we are seeing the results.
There are a couple of things within the Leader of the Opposition’s question that I will address. He spoke about additional teachers; the first question I ask is where will he find them?
If you talk to any university in this country they will tell you teacher numbers are down within the education system, within our universities. Where will he find these teachers? I am talking about quality teachers. Where will he find quality teachers to come to the Northern Territory to fill the void he says we have.
Schools today are resourced exceptionally well; we have a record budget this year for education within the Northern Territory. The cost of each student in the Territory is $23 578, and that is more than is invested in any other jurisdiction in the country. We are investing more per student in the Northern Territory than any other government has in the history of the Northern Territory. Not only that, we are backing it up with target infrastructure. We know there are some infrastructure struggles out there, and that is why we are investing in infrastructure.
Rather than make motherhood statements about education, get back into the classroom and analyse the things we have been doing in the last three years. I plead with the Leader of the Opposition to take a few lessons, get a briefing, get up to date and understand what we have in the modern education system in the Territory.
Election – Choices for Territorians
Mrs FINOCCHIARO to CHIEF MINISTER
As the House knows, Territorians will go to the polling booths to elect a Northern Territory government in August in perhaps the most important election in a decade. Can the Chief Minister outline to the House the choices facing Territorians in the context of the economy and today’s budget, and is he aware of any alternatives?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, I thank the member for Drysdale for her question. Quite clearly there is a choice and an opportunity on 27 August this year. It is a choice about moving forward with development, jobs, building our community and investment in health, education and a diversified economy where there are jobs across a range of industries, or going backwards to the old Labor way of education funding cuts, which those on the other side are already proposing. They are proposing cuts to health, the horticulture industry, the agriculture industry and the gas industry.
When we came to government we had a major job of paying back Labor debt, fixing the deficit and diversifying the economy. That is what we have been doing to date. Today’s budget sets the blueprint for how the Territory will continue to grow.
If the decision is made to go to Labor, we know we will be facing debt and deficit, there will be significant challenges in the private sector and the cattle, horticulture and gas industries will be killed. We know that Labor does not have an economic plan.
The question from the member for Drysdale was about choices in August this year. There will be a choice: do you want to go down the path with hard decisions that produce job security and opportunities for Territorians, a path that builds our communities in the Northern Territory, or the path that goes back to the old ways where we had the Berrimah line and issues in remote communities where people were living in more poverty and misery rather than with the growth opportunities they have now, an environment that was decimated by debt and deficit under the Labor government, which never valued pathways for Territorians.
Never before have we had this opportunity at our doorstep of moving forward. If the Territory decides to go backwards, so be it. It will go backwards under Labor.
The blueprint spelled out in our budget is a blueprint for growth in education, health and our economy to make sure there is job security going ahead. I call on Territorians to read the budget. It is the best budget we have delivered in the last four years. It is an opportunity to secure growth into the future. I commend the Treasurer and our parliamentary team for a fantastic budget to put the Territory on the right path.
Budget 2016-17 – Education
Mr GUNNER to MINISTER for EDUCATION
Despite your promises in the lead-up to this budget, you are spending less on schools today than the last Labor budget in 2012-13. In 2012 Labor allocated $562m of Territory money to schools. Today, four years later, you are proposing to spend $560m of Territory government money, a cut in actual terms and a cut in real terms. Why will you not fix the damage your cuts have caused to Territory schools?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, I implore the Leader of the Opposition to get a briefing. He has no idea when it comes to budgeting for schools. We know that; he was part of a team that had no control over the education system.
I implore you to speak to some of the senior bureaucrats within the Department of Education and ask them if they would prefer to work in the system they have today, a system we have created over the last three years, or what they had three or four years ago? The answer will be that they would much prefer to work in the system they have today.
Not long ago there were 30, 40 maybe even 50 agreements with the then Labor government in Canberra. Those agreements all had processes and reporting mechanisms. You needed a bureaucracy just to do the reporting that had to go on between the Northern Territory government and the federal government. Do you know how many we have today? We have eight agreements with the federal government, focused on outcomes and reporting on outcomes, not reporting on processes. That is just one example of how over-bureaucratic the Labor government was, and its education system.
What have we done with that education system? We have created a system which is getting better results than were ever achieved under Labor. This system puts more children through the NTCET than ever before, and is getting better results than during the 12 years Labor was in government. They still want to criticise a Country Liberals government that has systematically made reforms within education based on the back of very intelligent people who have gone the extra measure in providing recommendations to us through a number of reports. Based on science, we have implemented those recommendations, and guess what? The seeds have been sown, the results are getting better and we have set a platform that will benefit Territorians for decades to come. That is unless we go back to the dark ages of bureaucracy and wasted money in education, just like what happened under Labor. It was getting worse results and we are getting better results.
Today we have a more efficient system than under Labor. The choice is clear. Go back to the way it was where results were not as good, or continue on the path we have taken, which is providing better results, better resources and a larger budget than under a Labor government.
Madam SPEAKER: Minister, your time has expired.
SUPPLEMENTARY QUESTION
Budget 2016-17 – Education
Budget 2016-17 – Education
Mr GUNNER to MINISTER for EDUCATION
The minister is suggesting that when it comes to education it is not about money, but in his submission to the Senate committee on school funding he said that any reduction in funding is likely to have a more significant effect on education service delivery in the Northern Territory, and every additional dollar is critical.
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, let us talk about hypocrisy for a moment and the mantra from that side saying they backed Gonski funding and it has to be needs based. What did they announce recently? It was $300 000 for every school. There was no plan or science behind it and no needs-based idea. There is nothing at all; just throw taxpayers’ money around like confetti rather than the $68.5m we announced recently.
Where did we start? We went to the schools and asked what their needs were, what is on their forward works program and what things we can bring forward today.
That is exactly what we did, and that $68.5m, thankfully, from a Country Liberal government, invested heavily in education, unlike throwing money around like confetti – where is the sense in spending $300 000 on a brand-new school when there are schools that might need $1m. Put some science behind your thinking.
Budget 2016-17 – Treasury
Mr KURRUPUWU to TREASURER
Can the Treasurer outline to the House the context of today’s budget in terms of managing the challenging times, and does he know of any alternative policy and promises.
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, I thank the member for Arafura for his question. It is good to be asked a question on budget day. I was thinking that Senator Gunner, sorry, the Opposition Leader, might direct one this way, but, no, his head is in the clouds in Canberra today. Good on him.
In relation to the question from the member for Arafura, this budget has clearly demonstrated that come August this year there is a clear choice for Territorians in regard to their economic future. This has been my fourth, and will be my last, budget.
It shows that we have Labor’s $5.5bn debt mountain under control. Today the debt of this government sits at just $1.9bn. We are $3.6bn better off than we would have been with the other mob.
When we came to government 98% of all government revenue was part of the debt-to-revenue ratio. We have brought that down to 29%, a remarkable achievement considering we went to the election making the promise we would take the debt-to-revenue ratio down to 60%. We have far exceeded every target we put in place.
This budget has clearly demonstrated that there is a choice in the Northern Territory. You can have a responsible government that is interested in the future of the Northern Territory and creating more sustainable jobs and better standards of living for people, while ensuring we have the best education and health and safest communities in the country.
The alternative course is the team that wants to play politics and personality-based games, and is prepared to smear government and will run out the most decadent spending measures ever imagined. No one on the other side gives a rat’s about the finances of government. We know the Opposition Leader is already busily racking up debt in a proposed future government.
Madam Speaker, Territorians have a clear choice come August. They can opt for a responsible government or one focused on …
Madam SPEAKER: Minister, your time has expired.
Budget 2016-17 – Jobs
Mr GUNNER to TREASURER
Territorians are doing it tough. There are 3600 fewer people in jobs today than there were this time last year. Today your own budget papers show there has been a slow-down in population and a massive slump in Territory taxation revenues, especially in stamp duty. Treasury warns, in Budget Paper No 2, page 6, that, going forward, employment growth is expected to soften. In other words, Territorians are still facing a bleak job future. Does your own budget not show that when it comes to jobs, you have failed Territorians again?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, I thank Senator Gunner – I mean the Opposition Leader – for that question. The Opposition Leader is right; some Territorians are doing it tough. There is no doubt about that. However, there are fewer Territorians doing it tough now than would be the case if there was a Labor government. That is a fact.
Ms Lawrie: Rubbish.
Mr TOLLNER: The Opposition Leader, queen spend-a-lot, decided to chime in. She is the one who gifted us the legacy of $5.5bn – a proud Labor lady now sitting there as Independent Labor, encouraging the rest of them to spend in silly ways, just as she did. How appalling!
Territorians are doing a whole lot better than if there had been a Labor government. We have reduced the cost of living. The price of petrol has come down and we are now on par with the rest of the country. The price of accommodation and rent has come down. We had the worst housing and accommodation crisis in the history of the Territory when Labor was in government.
Labor is committed to destroying entire industries. They have put on record that they are not in support of shale gas in the Northern Territory despite the fact we are one of the best places on the face of the planet to get this industry happening. They do not support the agricultural industries. They are committed to reviewing all water licences and shutting down our agricultural industries. They are committed to driving a knife into our construction industry. There is not a single project in the Northern Territory that Labor wants to consider.
Two weekends ago they said they would stop Bayview. That development has been going on for 20 years; it is two-thirds complete. It has been supported by every government of every political stripe, and now Labor wants to stop it. Where will their destruction end?
What a disgrace you mob are. How dare you say to Territorians that you will destroy jobs and industries, and spend money everywhere, and their lives will be better. That is a fraudulent argument.
Budget 2016-17 –
Alternative Policies or Positions
Alternative Policies or Positions
Mr WESTRA van HOLTHE to TREASURER
My question is a bit of a follow on from the last question asked by the Leader of the Opposition. This government exercised fiscal discipline, restraint and a great deal of responsibility whilst fixing the financial mess we inherited in 2012 after 11 years of hard Labor. Our government has worked hard to get the Territory back on track.
Can you please inform the House of the outcomes of the tough decisions made by the Giles government in this year’s budget? Are you aware of alternative policies or positions?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, I thank the member for Katherine for his question. Without a doubt we have made tough decisions, and every one of them has been opposed by the Labor opposition.
We tackled the reforms in the Power and Water Corporation. When we came to government we knew Power and Water was a financial basket case. We have taken measures to reform that corporation and structurally separate it to make it more accountable and transparent, and to introduce a utilities market. We are seeing the fruits of that.
Ms LAWRIE: A point of order, Madam Speaker! Where is the statement of corporate intent?
Madam SPEAKER: It is not a point of order.
Mr TOLLNER: We have made some hard decisions in relation to the Power and Water Corporation structural separation, decisions that should have been taken 20 years ago when competition reforms were introduced to Australia and every other jurisdiction made them. It never happened under the previous Labor government, but we did the job and have structurally separated the Power and Water Corporation. More reforms will occur, but without a doubt we are finding efficiencies, as demonstrated by reductions in tariffs.
We saved the Territory Insurance Office. By liberating it from government ownership the Territory Insurance Office avoided being consumed by its global competitors. We know the Labor government tried to do the same thing but did not have the ticker to do the job. We copped some criticism for it, but we have stayed the course and the benefits are there for everybody to see.
We leased the Port of Darwin because it was strategically the right thing to do, and because we want the private sector to fund it rather than Territorians forever having to fund port maintenance and upgrades. We want to see the port on the Maritime Silk Road. We want to see Darwin as a trade and transport logistics hub. All these things are important to development and future growth and prosperity for Territorians. It is only through making tough decisions like that you can better fund education, health and all those things.
The alternative is scary because the opposition wants to decimate entire industries and put the Territory on a path to ruin.
Budget 2016-17 – Central Australia
Mrs LAMBLEY to CHIEF MINISTER
In your media release this morning the top two highlights of the budget were described as $50m to expand the Owen Springs Power Station – in February you issued a media release saying you would upgrade the power station to the tune of $75m, so this is a $25m reduction – and $20m for two skywalk adventure tourism experiences. I cannot find anywhere in the budget papers where that $20m is mentioned. Could you clarify those matters for me please?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, the $100m announced earlier on this year to upgrade the Owen Springs Power Station, closing Ron Goodin Power Station, and the Tennant Creek Power Station – there is an amount of $50m coming out of the port proceeds and the other $50m is coming out of Territory Generation. The skywalk money is in the budget and I am happy to show you which page.
Budget 2016-17 –
Home Improvement Scheme
Home Improvement Scheme
Mr CONLAN to MINISTER for BUSINESS
The Country Liberal government has introduced sweeping reforms to procurement processes in favour of local businesses through the Buy Local plan. It has slashed red tape to make it easier to do business in the Territory and worked hard to diversify the economy and stimulate activity across a variety of sectors.
Can you please explain how the new Home Improvement Scheme, announced in Budget 2016-17 by the Treasurer this morning, will ensure that Territory tradies have more work, small businesses have more business and homeowners save money on improvements to their homes and properties.
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, I thank the member for his question. I note that the Leader of the Opposition is laughing at the plan. Flattery is great, and the Leader of the Opposition has simply copied our business plan. What a fantastic plan; that is a resounding endorsement.
I ask anyone in the press listening to pick up our plan and then look at Labor’s plan. They did not even bother changing the paragraphs around; it is exactly the same. I picked it up and thought, ‘Well, that is a resounding endorsement of what we are doing’.
I have asked this House before, who has business experience? Who has actually owned and operated a business? On Labor’s side no one put their hand up; there was silence. Some of them said they have worked in business, but on this side, over half of our people have owned and operated a business. It is different to working for private enterprise; you have to own one.
This Home Improvement Scheme embodies our values in this budget, which are community and prosperity in the Territory. The initiative will see Territory home owners-occupiers receive vouchers up to $2000 to go towards minor home improvements and repairs and maintenance, keeping the work flowing for tradies.
This is a win-win situation for Territorians as it also enables Territory homeowners to start on all the improvements they have been meaning to do around their home for a long time: replace those burnt orange benchtops in the kitchen, the lime green drawers and things like that. The vouchers are deliberately small in value because this is about the bigger picture.
The vouchers are issued with the condition that those works are undertaken by local small businesses and the homeowner contributes at least the same amount to the project. This is about keeping it local. Those on my side will get sick of me talking about our Buy Local campaign, which is about looking after Territorians and their families. I reiterate that this is about employing local Territorians, families and tradies.
The activity is expected to pick up in the longer term, but in the short term the Home Improvement Scheme will keep work flowing to small businesses in the building, construction and home maintenance industries over the next 12 months. Budget 2016-17 is good news for small businesses and tradies.
Territorians have a very clear choice when it comes to the next Territorian election – responsible economic management by the Country Liberals government committed to stimulating activity and generating work and jobs for Territorians and their families.
Madam Speaker, please make no mistake; Territory Labor has no plan, except ours, and no idea, and is committed only to driving away investment, stifling and trying to destroy jobs.
Madam SPEAKER: Minister, your time has expired.
Stimulus Packages
Mr GUNNER to TREASURER
Not only is Treasury predicting a soft jobs outcome over the next 12 months, and you have failed to create enough jobs for Territorians, your government has bungled the Buy Local policy so badly that Territorians are not receiving the benefits of your stimulus announced earlier this year. How can we trust you to deliver jobs for Territorians when you could not do it with your stimulus package?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, I can tell Senator Gunner that you can trust us a hell of a lot more than you can trust the Labor Party.
Madam SPEAKER: Member for Fong Lim, that is not the Opposition Leader’s title.
Mr TOLLNER: Sorry, I was talking about the Opposition Leader. I know he has aspirations in other parts of this country. He was on radio today talking about it. Poor old Nova has realised she is not up for the job and is off to the AFL. Who is jumping in her shoes straightaway?
Madam SPEAKER: Minister, if you could stick to the question and answer please.
Mr TOLLNER: Madam Speaker, the Opposition Leader asked me how he can trust this government on stimulus packages. Let us look at the history of his team on stimulus packages. I mentioned this morning in the budget speech the pink batts fiasco. That was a stimulus package from the Labor mob. What did that result in? A few pink batts put into houses, but houses burnt down and people died. What sort of stimulus package is that?
We know Labor cannot deliver services for Territorians. We do not make the sort of mistakes they make. The Minister for Business just outlined that there are checks and balances in the Home Improvement Scheme. There will be requirements for tradies and small businesses to prove they are Territory based. There will be requirements that home owner-occupiers are proven to be so. There is a range of checks in the system. There are checks to show only 30% of that money is going to materials. The majority of the money, 70%, has to be directed to Territory tradesmen and small businesses.
When it comes to trusting people, the Opposition Leader should duck down. Labor has form in this area. They said they would not introduce a carbon tax, but they did. They have broken promises left, right and centre. When they were in government in the Territory the only thing they managed to achieve was to rack up debt and deficits.
Budget 2016-17 – Cardiothoracic and Neurological Services
Mrs FINOCCHIARO to MINISTER for HEALTH
The Country Liberal government has just announced two major new health services for the Northern Territory. Cardiothoracic and neurosurgical services will now be provided at Royal Darwin Hospital. Can you please tell us more about these services and how they will help strengthen our community?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, I am particularly proud, as the Northern Territory Health minister, to introduce the expansion of these services. Some 600 people travel every year away from the Northern Territory to ports interstate to have complex neurosurgical and cardiothoracic procedures performed. This averages out at a cost of $11 000 per patient. Some patients can travel on the economy seat of an aircraft, but others have to be moved by Careflight, which is an expensive exercise.
At $11 000 per patient, that offers up savings of $6.6m. It is not a great leap in this budget, and, with careful fiscal planning, we have determined that with $8.3m, incorporating that $6.6m, we can expand cardiothoracic services in the Northern Territory. This is a great result.
We are talking about expansion from merely being able to do things like stents to full valve replacements. We will be able to deal with back and nervous issues that normally would see people travelling to other jurisdictions. It is not only good for the patients but for the families of patients who have to travel with them, with all the subsequent inconvenience. This is what good governance brings about.
Labor has announced it wants to shut down the Royal Darwin Hospital over some indeterminate period of time, without giving us a forward plan. Its idea of a future in the Territory is one where it makes stuff up as it goes along. Who will Territorians trust at the next election to deliver ever-improving health services rather than the blind grasping in the dark we see from Labor members opposite?
I heard the Treasurer talk about ticker earlier, and others talk about spine. This government has ticker and a spine. If the Labor opposition ever develops a bit of ticker, we will be able to put in the valve. If the Labor opposition ever develops a spine, we will be able to install the spinal cord.
Alcohol Mandatory Treatment Program
Mr WOOD to MINISTER for POLICE, FIRE and EMERGENCY SERVICES
In the budget announced today, under Strategic Issues, the government says it will reduce alcohol-related harm through the Alcohol Mandatory Treatment program and other strategies. Recently, in response to criticism about the Alcohol Mandatory Treatment program, the CEO of Health was tasked to find the problems with it. For instance, Coroner Kelvin Currie said police failed to comply with obligations under protective custody laws in relation to the program.
Could you say if part of the problem, which is reflected on the streets of Darwin, is that police have a directive not to take intoxicated people into protective custody but instead take them to sobering-up shelters, thus meaning people avoid being assessed by the independent mandatory alcohol tribunal and therefore avoid being sent to a rehabilitation centre?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, part of the question relates to the Minister for Health. I will answer from the police perspective and if you want more information I will flick it to the minister.
The police have the opportunity to provide a range of solutions to people on our streets, whether that is dropping them at home, at sobering-up shelters or to protective custody in the watch house. Police determine that on the spot.
About two months ago I raised concerns about the process of getting people into AMT. I believed the tribunal was a bit slow and there was a lack of take up. Since those comments were made the Health minister has made changes and we now have a higher uptake in AMT, which is causing considerable change in AMT and its successful enrolment, if I can use that term. That is a good outcome.
Another issue you may be referring to is the number of people living rough in the street, or long grassers. It has been a decade-long issue of concern in the NT. At the moment we are seeing challenges relating, in particular, to the Larrakia Nation Aboriginal Corporation, a good corporation which is undergoing change.
It is contracted by the federal government to run the Night Patrol program and contracted by us to run the Return to Country program. It is having challenges facilitating those changes, and we are working with it. If everything works out fine, it will continue to operate those programs and will restart. It is currently not working properly. If we cannot make that work we will find a replacement organisation to deal with issues such as Night Patrol and Return to Country.
Return to Country is not working; it is not operating with the company we engaged to provide it. We will work with Larrakia Nation and try to fix it. If we cannnot we will find somebody else.
One of the other challenges we are seeing in the Territory is the influx of Western Australians moving to the Northern Territory.
A couple of months ago, at the same time as when we were engaging Larrakia Nation, it identified to us that it has seen an increase from 1800 to 2500 Western Australian residents who are now using the service. I have had a chat to people in the women’s shelter in Alice Springs who say that, from a domestic violence point of view, 11.6% of their clients are from Western Australia as opposed to 5.1% from South Australia, which I find quite interesting. The anecdotal evidence coming through Alice Springs and Katherine is the same as what we are seeing with Larrakia Nation, which is that a high proportion of Western Australians are moving to the Territory and living rough.
Back to your original question, the answer is no. We do have a challenge with more people on our streets and partly that has to do with the administration of Larrakia Nation – not knocking them. There are opportunities here.
Budget 2016-17 – Health
Mr CONLAN to MINISTER for HEALTH
Can you please update the House on the government’s plan to develop and improve health infrastructure right across the Territory?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, once again, as the Health minister, I am pleased to report that we, as a Health department, are doing very well, and as a government.
This is the biggest Health budget in the Territory’s history, now exceeding $1.5bn, and that means we continue to improve the services we are bringing to the people of the Northern Territory. That includes the $64m being spent on the Royal Darwin Hospital, such as on the refurbishment of the paediatric wards, upgrades and additions to two negative isolation pressure rooms worth $6.4m, new allied health clinics, refurbishment of outpatient clinics, new eye and pre-admission clinics worth $40m and a front entrance foyer worth about $13.6m.
I have a longer list in front of me but I want to pause briefly to speak about the core clinical systems review. I noted during the Treasurer’s speech today that he talked about the enormous project this is. This will be the largest single ITC undertaking in the Northern Territory’s history. At $186m over the next five years, we are making a commitment to take what is essentially a weak mainframe system with other associated databases attached and turn it into the finest medical health records system in the country. That is something other jurisdictions will look at with jealous eyes.
Core clinical systems throughout the country are developing inherent weaknesses. The truth is the support systems for the clinical systems we have at the moment will be expiring in the not-so-distant future, and, frankly, they are written in the computer equivalent of Sanskrit. To talk to the people who did the original programming, I suspect you would need a Ouija board.
We have decided to bite the bullet and change the core clinical system to not only bring it up to scratch and up to speed, but to make it the finest damn system in the country. It will be effective in bringing about the best possible health outcomes so a person from Docker River who receives treatment there can walk into the Royal Darwin Hospital and have their treatment records immediately available. Imagine being in Galiwinku and able to look at someone’s X-rays taken in Darwin. Those are the things we are aiming for in our core clinic system review, which will mean we will have the benchmark medical record system in this country.
As the Health minister, I am proud of that. It is always frustrating to make an announcement and not be able to stand in front of something, as is predictably the case with software, but the truth is it will be the benchmark and the rest of the country will be jealous.
Palmerston Regional Hospital
Mr GUNNER to CHIEF MINISTER
Speaking about your request to the federal government for an extra $61.7m for the Palmerston hospital, on Mix 104.9 you said:
- We don’t need extra money. We’ve asked for extra money. There’s two different things. One is being self-sufficient and funding it yourself. The other is trying to be tricky and get money off Canberra to help you do it.
You went on to say:
- … we play those games all the time …
The budget today confirms the cost for the Palmerston hospital has blown out by $56m – $20m infrastructure in Budget Paper No 4 and $36m in Budget Paper No 3, page 165.
Will you now admit that playing games and being tricky has cost the Territory taxpayer and means the hospital is way behind schedule?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, this is the crew that built a $1.6bn prison. Wake up to yourselves. This is the crew that got $1.8bn from the federal government to run the worst Indigenous housing program in Australia’s history. You talk to me about getting money from the federal government, look at what you have done in the past. You are a disgrace. We have a waterfront costing us $22m a year in subsidy. What sort of a plan is that? We have a $1.8bn prison that costs us $60m a year before a prisoner or prison officer goes in.
You want to talk about economic management – you need to come over this side and understand how it works. No wonder you are in a fight with Luke Gosling to take the Senate position in Canberra. What a disgraceful and moronic question to come from someone who proposes to be the Treasurer of the Northern Territory.
This is the man who in Sunday’s paper said he wants to be like Paul Keating. He put it in black and white – Paul Keating, the former Prime Minister of the Labor Party, the worst Prime Minister Australia has ever seen, the man who gave us 21% interest rates and the highest unemployment rate ever in Australia, the Labor Prime Minister who said the best way to see the Northern Territory is from 30 000 ft in an aeroplane.
Ms Walker: You cannot build a hospital and you cannot run a government.
Mr GILES: You do not like it, member for Nhulunbuy, so you are interjecting. You asked questions of the Minister for Education. You stand there with your green shirts talking about Gonski, a needs-based funding model. We put all the money towards needs and you try to scatter the same amount to every school and walk away from the Gonski model yourself.
You want to budget $300 000 to every school. Let me do some mathematics for you. There are 188 schools in the Northern Territory and you are promising $54m. We just put, in our budget, $164m. That is $850 000 per school. We are even out-budgeting you.
We have the highest number of enrolments ever, the biggest budget and the best results. You are a disgraceful opposition, and you will never be the Treasurer or Chief Minister.
Mr GUNNER: A point of order, Madam Speaker! He has not explained why Palmerston hospital is over budget, over time and has not been built.
Madam SPEAKER: It is not a point of order.
Mr GILES: Palmerston hospital is on budget and ahead of schedule.
Budget 2016-17 – Infrastructure Program
Mr KURRUPUWU to MINISTER for INFRASTRUCTURE
Could you please advise the House what Territorians can expect in the 2016-17 infrastructure program?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, I thank the member for Arafura for the question. He understands what it is like to have a good, solid infrastructure plan, as they do on the Tiwi Islands.
The Country Liberal government is about jobs and the community as a whole. We want everybody to prosper. Great infrastructure will ensure prosperity for all Territorians. Three major projects we are working on as part of this year’s budget, as well as next year’s, are the Palmerston hospital, which we know is on time and on budget; upgrading school infrastructure with $68.5m as part of the Boosting our Economy package …
Mr WOOD: A point of order, Madam Speaker! The minister is incorrect; it is Palmerston Regional Hospital.
Madam SPEAKER: Thank you, member for Nelson. It is not a point of order.
Mr CHANDLER: Madam Speaker, he is right and I am wrong; it is the Palmerston Regional Hospital. It is major infrastructure – a game changer for Territorians, particularly those living in Palmerston and the rural area. They are very important people in the rural area. We are also completing the Tiger Brennan Drive duplication. These projects are being delivered now and in the future.
It is about jobs, community and prosperity. We have a plan, unlike the other side. We have over $1bn worth of projects awarded across the Territory, and as part of Budget 2016-17 the Northern Territory government will provide a total infrastructure payment of $1.68bn. There are many jobs in that and many prosperous Territorians.
We have strategically invested $300m to establish the Northern Territory Infrastructure Development Fund to attract a further $1.2bn from external investors. That is good economics. The fund will achieve positive economic outcomes for Territorians while producing a commercial rate of return to the funds invested.
Budget 2016-17 includes $1.4bn in capital works, including $78m for minor new works and $216m for repairs and maintenance.
We are continuing to invest in education. The budget includes $21.2m to support the construction of a Catholic primary school in Zuccoli. We already know that the opposition does not like the non-government sector. Many mums and dads send their children to non-government schools and will be very interested to know the approach of this Labor opposition.
An amount of $10m has been allocated to stage one of the Taminmin College master plan for a new two-storey building with eight science classrooms and eight general learning areas, which is wonderful news for Humpty Doo.
Budget 2106-17 invests $400m in housing and related works to provide upgrades to new houses in remote communities – the government employee housing to support service delivery in the bush.
The answer is too long because there is so much good news. This government is focused on the economy and on the people of the Northern Territory and their future, whether they are babies or they are 90.
Housing – Remote
Mr GUNNER to MINISTER for HOUSING referred to MINISTER for INDIGENOUS AFFAIRS
Your government has built just one new house in the bush since July 2014. Despite this appalling record the budget today contains no new Territory money for remote housing, and you are relying 100% on federal government money. This contrasts with Labor’s plans to invest $1.1bn of Territory money in remote housing over the next 10 years.
Why have you failed to stand up for Territorians in the bush? Why have you betrayed the trust of Territorians in the bush by failing to invest Territory money in much-needed housing?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, I thank the member for Fannie Bay for his question. I am sure he will be excited to know what we are doing for housing, especially remote housing. In remote areas we are building houses with three, four and five bedrooms, unlike Labor, which did nothing. They built houses with no rooms and yet they have the nerve to ask us what we are doing for remote housing. How ironic, and he wants to leave us to go to Canberra.
This government has been listening to the people in the remote communities. We have taken all their issues on and we are doing our best to ensure people in the communities have houses that have actual bedrooms.
I will hand this over to the Chief Minister as remote Aboriginal housing comes under the office of Aboriginal affairs.
Mr GILES (Indigenous Affairs): Madam Speaker, it is a good opportunity to talk about Indigenous policy and look at the budget and see how we have put in $1m for the Remote Housing Development Authority – an opportunity to give the houses back to communities. Labor took them away. Remember they said they could not manage local government and housing? They created the shires and took all the houses from community management.
The Leader of the Opposition is trying to be tricky because he knows we have just announced $350m for Aboriginal housing across the Northern Territory to build 256 replacement houses and upgrades of 1300. Importantly, we have looked at the cost structure of what Labor did, and we are saving money. No longer are we building Labor’s million-dollar mansions in the bush. We are building houses for $450 000. Because we can build a house for that amount, we have money left over to build new houses. Lo and behold, 256 houses will replace all legacy houses in the Northern Territory.
We are building 152 new houses because that is the number of serviced lots available in the Northern Territory. If Labor promises more housing money, you have to ask where it will build the houses, because there are no serviced lots in the Northern Territory.
Let us not forget this is an opposition which, in government, had the only ever intervention in the Northern Territory or any other state in Australia’s history. What a proud moment it must have been when the Leader of the Opposition was in government and the intervention occurred. That was because you failed in housing, child protection and health. You failed across the board.
I am happy to take you on in the debate about Indigenous housing any day of the week.
Madam SPEAKER: Chief Minister, your time has expired.
Child Protection – Out-of-Home Care
Mr WESTRA van HOLTHE to MINISTER for CHILDREN and FAMILIES
Child abuse and neglect remain challenging issues, not only for the Department of Children and Families but society as a whole. As a government, we invest heavily in the area of early intervention and prevention, but for some families this will not prevent the end result of children entering the child protection system, quite often until they are 18 years old. For these children, out-of-home care is their reality. Can the minister please outline the vision and investment from this Country Liberal government in out-of-home care?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, I always struggle with this type of question because it highlights that there are children in our community who are being neglected, abused and sexually abused, often by their own families. It is a frustration to me that it continues. It is also a frustration to me that we continue to have to deal with these issues. If there was one department in the whole of government I would like to shut down for want of work, it would be this one. But the truth of it is we have to respond, and we do.
Since becoming the minister for child protection, one of the things I have been very anxious to do with the department is to return it to its core functions of protecting children and supporting the families that struggle with caring for their own children. That is precisely what we have done. When I became the minister for child protection, the department had lost its way because of things like the Board of Inquiry and trying to satisfy all the demands placed on it by recommendations, some of which were inherently self-contradictory when measured against other recommendations.
Returning the department to its core functions has meant we have been able to make the department far more effective in the work it does, and that is precisely what the result has been. Nevertheless, as part of this department’s function there is a much greater propensity to open a file than to close one. I understand why that occurs. We, as a government responding to a demand-driven environment, make sure the department is funded to do its job, which is why in today’s budget the Treasurer announced a further $10m per annum to cover the field so we are able to provide services to these children, particularly those in out-of-home care services.
I was able to convince my colleagues over a year ago to triple the budget for recruiting foster carers. My understanding is that those recruitment drives have been very successful. Those kids who do not end up in foster care homes end up in out-of-home care services. Some of them are very high-needs children. That demand means we, as a government, must respond, and we are proud to be responding effectively. That means $10m more in this budget and projected through the forward estimates. That is the necessary role we have.
We will not stand by and watch the neglected, abused and sexually abused children of this jurisdiction go unattended to. We will protect them in every way we possibly can, from today until the day they turn 18.
Budget 2016-17 – Remote Primary Health Services in Central Australia
Ms WALKER to MINISTER for HEALTH
Today’s Health budget reveals that remote primary health services in Central Australia are proposed to be reduced by $7.5m on this year’s budget estimate, as per page 185, Budget Paper No 4. Which clinics and services will be affected by your slashing of community-based health services of our remote communities?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, it is Budget Paper No 3 ...
Ms Walker: Budget Paper No 3, page 185.
Mr ELFERINK: Part of the problem we have when dealing with the Labor Party is they genuinely struggle to deal with their own budgets.
I was in Titjikala several days ago opening the new health clinic, where we will provide health staff. The week before that I was in Papunya opening the new, vastly-expanded health clinic.
The Chief Minister has just pointed out to me the obvious and thunderously dull error the member opposite has just made. Budget 2015-16, which is the current financial year, shows a $339m income for the Central Australian Health Service. The 2016-17 budget is $377m.
Ms WALKER: A point of order, Madam Speaker! Relevance. The minister is being rather tricky. It is clear on page 185 under Primary Health Care …
Members interjecting.
Ms WALKER: I am happy to walk across to show the highlighted paper.
Madam SPEAKER: No, your point of order?
Ms WALKER: There is clearly a reduction of $7.5m and I am looking for an answer.
Mr ELFERINK: Madam Speaker, I do not know if the member wrote the question or one of the sparks on the fourth floor, but she is chewing on the spine trying to figure out what is in the budget paper. ‘If I bites really hard I might find something.’
We have opened a raft of health clinics in the bush. The member opposite is staggering in her lack of ability to understand how this works, and this is the future Health minister of the Northern Territory, according to her. What did they do when in government? Did they build health clinics? No, they built bureaucracies.
Mr Tollner: They built the prison. That was the most important agenda item.
Mr ELFERINK: I pick up on the interjection – they built bureaucracies but did nothing else. We are building the Palmerston hospital, and all they managed to do was park some trucks in a car park to the tune of $300 000 a year and put a fence around them. That was their contribution to a Palmerston hospital.
Ms WALKER: A point of order, Madam Speaker! Standing Order 110: relevance. My question was very direct. It was not about the Palmerston Regional Hospital; it was about the slashing of $7.5m from primary health services in Central Australia. If he could answer that would be really good.
Mr ELFERINK: I have already read out the numbers. These are the people who paid for a $300 000 car park to pretend they would build a hospital. These are the people who have announced they will shut down the Royal Darwin Hospital. These are the people who claim to be the future of Territory health, yet when they were in Health they built nothing other than bureaucracies. We deliver services, clinics, hospitals and outcomes.
Budget 2016-17 – Small Business
Mrs FINOCCHIARO to MINISTER for BUSINESS
The Country Liberal government recognises small to medium businesses as the backbone of our economy. Can the minister please outline what measures Budget 2016-17 will support to bolster small business in the Northern Territory?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, what a great question for giving me the opportunity to have another go at the people over there, who do not have a business strategy and had to copy ours. It is incorrect when my colleagues say they do not have any plans. I tell my colleagues that they are incorrect because they do have a plan; they have our plan. They sincerely endorse our plan.
As I have asked before in this House, where is the experience in small, medium and large business? I have asked this question before of the members of the opposition and what do you hear? Silence. On this side over half our people have owned, worked in or run small businesses. It is very clear where the support is for small business in the Territory.
A member: Put your hand up if you have been in a union.
Mr STYLES: Yes, put your hand up if you have been in a union. There are a few of us on this side who understand unions as well.
There are over 14 000 small businesses in the Northern Territory and the people who understand how they work sit on this side.
The Leader of the Opposition, on his third attempt, took the leadership from the member for Karama, and he redistributed the shadow portfolios, but what was forgotten? Business. We better have a Department of Business because that is the backbone of the Northern Territory, but he forgot about the backbone of the Northern Territory, which employs 96% of Territorians.
Ninety-six per cent of Territorians are employed by small and medium-sized enterprises. These are the hard-working mums and dads who employ people and pay their salaries to pay their mortgage, keep food on the table, send the kids to school and put shoes on their feet. This is really important and that is why on this side we think about them. We remember them and we ensure they are prime.
The Buy Local campaign is a great scheme that improved on the local development value-add the previous government had. We tried to fix that but it was so broken we could not. So we devised a new plan. Where did that plan come from? We spoke to small- and medium-size enterprises and asked them what they needed. We listened to them. We consulted with over 800 small businesses. Then we designed the plan. We did what we said we would do: consult small businesses in the Northern Territory, because they are its backbone.
We issued the plan and asked, ‘How is this?’ Certain sectors of the community said, ‘You need to tweak this’. So we listened to them and changed things in the construction sector …
Members interjecting.
Mr STYLES: They laugh, but they do not have a plan …
A member: Plagiarism.
Mr STYLES: Plagiarism! They have our business plan. Thanks for endorsing it.
Madam SPEAKER: Minister, your time has expired.
Mr ELFERINK (Leader of Government Business): Madam Speaker, I ask that further questions be placed on the Written Question Paper.
Last updated: 09 Aug 2016