2006-05-03
Police – Opposition Policy
Ms CARNEY to CHIEF MINISTER
I am certain that you would agree that our police are an important part of our community. Sadly, respect for our frontline police officers has fallen and low morale is contributing to high attrition rates. Today, I announced that the CLP when in government would introduce minimum sentences for people who assault our police officers. In your capacity as leader of your team and as the Chief Minister, can you indicate whether you will support this policy in order to give our frontline police officers the support and protection they need and deserve?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, I am pleased that the opposition is asking questions about our police, because this is really a good story and one that we have worked hard on over the last five years. Regarding the misleading facts that have been put forward by the Opposition Leader about low morale in our police force - certainly not. We have halved the attrition rate, and they are the numbers …
Ms Carney: Talking to different coppers than us. Been to Tennant Creek?
Ms MARTIN: The Opposition Leader can bumble all she likes, but that is the fact of the police force in the Territory. We have grown those numbers by - how many now?
Mr Henderson: One hundred and thirty-seven.
Ms MARTIN: One hundred and thirty-seven new police officers, and we will grow that by 200 before ...
Mr Henderson: Up to 200 by the end of this year.
Ms MARTIN: Up to 200 by the end of this year. The good news is that we have more police. O’Sullivan conducted a major review. We have identified the deficits in the resources available and the numbers in our police force - something not done by the previous government. Now we have a police force which, I believe, is in much better shape. I pay tribute to our Police Commissioner, Paul White, for the work that he is doing.
When we look at the issues that were current in 2001, the most prominent crime figure in the Territory was about property crime. We have halved ...
Ms CARNEY: A point of order, Madam Speaker! I ask that you direct the Chief Minister to answer the question. It was very straightforward, requiring a yes or no answer.
Madam SPEAKER: There is no point of order.
Ms MARTIN: Madam Speaker, the question was not straightforward, it had inaccuracies in it.
Ms Carney: Will you support this policy and give our frontline officers the support and protection they need and deserve?
Madam SPEAKER: Order!
Ms MARTIN: It was predicated on things that simply were not right; it needs to be addressed. Territorians listening to this broadcast need to know that we have high morale in our police force. It is very important that we have halved the attrition rate, and have put significantly more resources into our police force - $75m over three years. We have increased police numbers.
It is a good story, and I wish the opposition would recognise it and support our community in saying we have a great police force doing a tough job in many circumstances. I believe it is doing it well with very strong support from government.
Budget 2006-07 - Tourism
Mr KIELY to MINISTER for TOURISM
Tourism received great news in yesterday’s budget. Can the minister elaborate on what the budget means for this key Territory industry?
Mrs Braham: You are supposed to read it and find out for yourself.
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, I thank the member for Sanderson …
Mr Kiely: But I like hearing the story.
Mrs Braham: Do you want a copy?
Madam SPEAKER: Order! Member for Braitling!
Ms MARTIN: Madam Speaker, I would have thought a question on tourism would have been of interest to Alice Springs members. For the information of the members for Braitling and Araluen, tourism is our second biggest industry and employs directly or indirectly 15% of our workforce. It is a very important question, and you should keenly listen to the answer. I am surprised.
Tourism was the big winner in yesterday’s budget - an increase of $10m for marketing on an ongoing basis. We have put that in place over the last three years, and that will continue. What it means is that we have a total marketing budget in tourism of $27.6m. We have $2.8m for tourism infrastructure, $1m going into our convention bureau, and $1m going into attracting new airlines to the Territory.
Those dollars are very strategic; they are very important in growing our Territory economy and the numbers of tourists that come to the Territory. We have seen what additional marketing and that permanent funding increase can do to the numbers coming to the Territory. For example, last year, additional marketing meant that we had an increase of 39% in domestic tourists to the Territory. That means jobs.
In the international market, which we have still to grow and target, there was an increase of 4%, and that is without the effect of Tiger Airways. That permanent increase in funding means that we can grow those numbers right across the Territory and, importantly, we can maintain our competitive edge. There are other states in Australia marketing as well and, unless we keep those dollars up and focused, we will lose our competitive edge.
We will continue marketing the six destinations across the Territory, we will boost our international marketing and, importantly, with this money, we can tackle online. Around 75% of the travellers we are specifically targeting access information about tourism and book products online, and we can do a lot more with the online. There is much we can do and continue to do with those marketing dollars.
The feedback from the industry has been extremely positive, not surprisingly. Sylvia Wolf, from Tourism Top End, who never minces her words, says the $10m increase is a clear indicator of the government’s commitment to the tourism industry. The Tourism and Transport Forum, a national body, in a quite long media release, says that the Northern Territory is leading Australia in tourism investment and other state governments would be wise to follow the NT’s example and invest more in tourism. I say to them: ‘Not yet. Let us get ahead of them first’. We recognise the importance of tourism to our economy and have been pleased to see it pick up over the last two years. We have much more growth to do but it is a very exciting industry with exciting times to come.
Opposition’s Policy on Reading Programs
Ms CARNEY to CHIEF MINISTER
Presumably by now you have taken the time to consider the announcement I made this morning in relation to a lifelong learning program. Considering the important educational outcomes that can be obtained and achieved by our children reading, will you support our policy and our proposal to introduce what we have called the Chief Minister’s reading reward challenge to encourage our schoolchildren to read, and our reading for life program to help create a love for reading from a young age? If not, why not?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, I recognise that encouraging young people to read is very important. It was something that I looked at earlier this year. The MS Readathon is established in our schools and many of our primary students are very involved in that program. In looking at something like that, I did not want to duplicate a very successful non-government organisation and a fundraiser for them. We are working in different ways with primary school literacy and numeracy. I am not knocking the suggestion from the Opposition Leader. It was something I looked at but, having had my children be very involved in MS Readathons and having paid small amounts of money over many years to support them, I believe those organisations are doing a good job. Government can do other things within the literacy and numeracy areas.
I refer to the minister responsible, if you have a few thoughts on that, being the minister for literacy and numeracy right across the Northern Territory.
Mr STIRLING (Employment, Education and Training): Madam Speaker, I thank the Chief Minister, and the Leader of the Opposition for her question. I listened intently to her contribution this morning. It was something I was working through. It was something that we considered at some stage, based on the fact that it is done in other states. Many of our schools do have reading encouragement and incentive programs of their own, albeit not a Territory-wide scheme.
The challenges we have in literacy and getting students to read is greatest in the rural and remote indigenous communities of the Northern Territory, many of which have English as a second, third and fourth language. Books are not on the shelves, in English or otherwise, in probably the majority of those community homes. Ideally, you want the home, the family and the parents to support early attainment of literacy and an encouragement of reading. In the majority of homes across the Northern Territory, that is probably the norm. It is not the norm in our Aboriginal communities. To that extent, we put an over-reliance on the education system to make up for what is not occurring at home.
That is why we, as a government, have pinned so much faith on the Accelerated Literacy Program, which is undergoing evaluation now with regard to sustainability. We have seen quite rapid gains in literacy across one year of chronological age, catching up to one-and-a-half and two years reading across that one year, which suggests we are on the right track. We look forward to a stronger and longer-term evaluation of accelerated literacy. This year, we will again roll out many millions of dollars in our budget, in conjunction with the Commonwealth.
It is not dismissed out of hand. It is something we have considered. As I said, many schools have some versions of their own, and the question remains open.
Budget 2006-07 - Territory Business Growth
Mr BONSON to MINISTER for BUSINESS and ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
Can the minister advise the House how Budget 2006-07 will help Territory business grow into the future?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, I thank the member for Millner for his question. This is one of the priority areas in this budget, and is all about supporting our business community to take advantage of an expanding economy across the Northern Territory. We have a multifaceted approach to try to give our Territory-based businesses the capacity and the opportunity to take advantage of the investment that is occurring right across the Territory.
This approach includes reducing taxes, providing high levels of infrastructure spending, and investing in strategic economic drivers. The Treasurer has said and, as Business minister I support his statements, that Budget 2006-07 delivers further tax cuts for business. Something we should all be proud of as Territorians is that the Territory is now officially the lowest taxing jurisdiction anywhere in Australia for small businesses that employ 100 people or fewer. The vast majority of our businesses fall into that category. This government is providing them with a really competitive edge in a global business environment.
This budget brings to $74m the total tax reduction provided by the Martin government for Territory business. What this means - and I am not an economist but I am learning - is that $74m which would otherwise have flown to Treasury coffers is now available for the consumption side of the economy; extra expenditure in the economy, further supporting small business. We have made commitments of a further $134m in reductions to come over the next few years.
The payroll tax reform is very much supported by the business community. Both at the Chamber of Commerce lunch yesterday and the Property Council breakfast today, everybody was welcoming the payroll tax reforms, taking the threshold to $1.25m this year. This means that 187 predominantly Territory-based businesses which were paying payroll tax under previous CLP governments are no longer paying payroll tax under this Labor government. Those businesses still paying that tax, which are the vast majority of businesses that operate not only in the Territory but across state borders, are seeing a total savings of some $66 000.
Ms Carney: Biggest taxing government the Territory has every seen. You are taxing them more than they have ever been taxed before. You are in denial.
Madam SPEAKER: Order!
Mr HENDERSON: I know the Leader of the Opposition does not like to hear this. She does not like to hear good news. I think the Leader of the Opposition is allergic to good news! She shuns it and puts up a shield around her. She is allergic to good news. I can tell her she needs to go and talk to the business community. Was the Leader of the Opposition at the Chamber of Commerce lunch? I do not think I saw her there. Was she at the Property Council breakfast? I challenge you to go to the TCA breakfast tomorrow morning. Get out and meet some business people and talk to them. They will tell you they support this government’s payroll tax reductions that we have applied over the last few years.
Budget 2006-07 also sees the removal of stamp duty on unquoted marketable securities and on leases and franchises. This is very important. There are more and more people starting a business which is a franchise business. Many businesses are now franchise businesses. No longer will people have to pay stamp duty on those franchises.
As well as taxes, there is a big spend on infrastructure this year of $482m. $100m will be spent on the waterfront and convention centre. We know the opposition did not like the convention centre being at the waterfront, but this going to be a major benefit …
Ms Carney: It was our idea. You have amnesia. Come on, pick up the plans.
Mr HENDERSON: ‘It was our idea’! They wanted to put it next to Woolies in town, Madam Speaker.
It is of major benefit, bringing professional people and businesses to the Territory. We will see further investments in the Territory as a result of the convention centre, as well as a big boost to the tourism industry. The record spending means more work for local businesses and more jobs for Territorians, and we will keep on heading down that path for the rest of this term.
GST Revenue – Benefit to the Northern Territory
Ms CARNEY to CHIEF MINISTER
As part of your anti-GST campaign, on 14 October 1999, you said:
- … GST inherently discriminates against country areas, and the more remote the area, the greater the discrimination.
It appears you have been the victim of $750m-worth of discrimination since the introduction of the GST. Will you now concede that the GST has been a boon for Territorians and, without it, you would not have been able to achieve projects such as the waterfront and increases to the size of the public service?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, it is a fact of life that our grants come under funds from the GST. That was the arrangement which was made. The GST funds have grown over that time. I am happy to tell Territorians that we have used those growth funds very effectively. We have seen services that were struggling a few years ago now delivering effectively to Territorians, in particular, police, health, and education and delivering in tourism marketing. The Opposition Leader said: ‘You opposed the GST, so why are you even accepting this money now’ …
Ms Carney: That is not what I said.
Ms MARTIN: It is implicit in the question. ‘If you oppose the GST’, which we did very strongly, ‘why are you taking money now?’ It is a ridiculous question.
The fact is, that is the way the states get the funds from the GST. We receive a percentage as calculated by the Grants Commission, and we inject that money into services for Territorians. We do that proudly, and if the Opposition Leader says that I should have some kind of campaign to send it back to Peter Costello, she is on her lonesome, Madam Speaker.
Alice Springs Hospital - Increased Funding
Mr NATT to MINISTER for HEALTH
Yesterday, the minister informed the Assembly how the Martin Labor government was meeting the extra demands on Royal Darwin Hospital with increased funding and more beds. Can the minister please advise the Assembly how we are building healthier communities in Central Australia by addressing the increased demand on the Alice Springs Hospital?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, it is a good question and it gives me a chance to move the spotlight from the Royal Darwin Hospital. After two visits to Royal Darwin Hospital yesterday and today, there is absolute delight from the staff at the initiatives we have offered that hospital in response to their No 1 priority that they put to us, particularly the senior clinicians and the critical care nurses, to have permanent solutions in place to the issues of bed block and access to the general hospital capacity.
Moving to Alice Springs, immediate extra funding is going into that hospital, taking the total annual budget up to $97m, which is a $7m increase over the current budgeted amount. That will allow the hospital to immediately deal with the high demand levels going into ED, with the use of such things as overflow beds, to adjust their staffing in response to spikes of demand that come through the front door of the hospital. We are also beginning work immediately to deliver on our promise of the 24 beds to Alice Springs. We are preparing space for 15 beds to go into that hospital as soon as the capital works can be carried out in conjunction with the repair work that is being done on the main hospital buildings in Alice Springs - repair work that has been necessary because of a totally botched process that left us with a building that was not compliant with national standards of safety or functionality for a hospital.
We have worked through that shameful situation. We are now linking the provision of these additional beds to the hospital as soon as possible to get them into the areas being prepared in Ward 4. The planning and design of the upgrade of the Emergency Department will begin immediately to get a full work plan together so that the government can address that need. That work will also have to be linked to the general work going on in the building which ED shares with all the other working wards of the department. Work will begin immediately to get the designs together so that we can then address them as a government.
We are introducing support to other areas of that hospital: rehabilitation services will be improved by the employment of two extra allied health positions; free neonatal hearing tests will be introduced through that hospital for all newborn babies; a Hospital in the Home service will be developed and trialled in Alice Springs for the first time, duplicating the very successful work that we have been doing out of Royal Darwin Hospital, which will be one element used to relieve the pressure on beds in the hospital; and the Discharge Lounge trial which has been very successful will now be a permanent arrangement within the hospital.
We are upgrading the renal facilities at Flynn Drive to the tune of $1m, and we are increasing the palliative care coverage in Central Australia with increased medical hours and part-time bereavement workers in Central Australia.
By the way, for the Leader of the Opposition, we do have medication for allergies. It seems that she is again reacting to bad news with a rather nasty rash.
There is an additional $0.3m for professional staff accommodation in Alice Springs - these are the nurses’ quarters, mainly on campus. That will bring the total project to $0.55m. There is $6.5m additional money to continue the rectification work in the main hospital buildings, which will achieve several new working wards at full compliant level according to the national standards for hospitals.
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Visitors
Visitors
Madam SPEAKER: Honourable members, I draw your attention to the presence in the gallery of the family of the member for Casuarina: the member for Casuarina’s parents who are visiting from Greece - Philip and Christina Vatskalis - and the member’s wife, Mrs Margaret Vatskalis, and, I believe, a translator, Mrs Agapi Zahos. On behalf of all honourable members, I extend to you a very warm welcome.
Members: Hear, hear!
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O’Loughlin College Bus Service
to Rural Area
to Rural Area
Mr WOOD to MINISTER for INFRASTRUCTURE and TRANSPORT
Over the last few months, I have been contacted by a number of rural parents, and have subsequently contacted your office regarding the inadequacy of the bus service from O’Loughlin College to Palmerston and the rural area. School buses are overcrowded and the public bus service, which some students are being asked to use because of the overcrowding, misses the rural connection. In light of the fact a petition, which I have here, is now being circulated by O’Loughlin College, do you not accept that there is a pressing problem? What is your government doing to fix it?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, I thank the member for Nelson for his question. This is an issue, as he has pointed out, that has been raised by a number of people, not least of all the school, the principal, the Catholic Education Office, parents, students, and my colleagues here.
At the beginning of this year, there was an increase in enrolments at O’Loughlin College from the rural area of approximately 40%. There were approximately 160 students in 2005 and, at the beginning of the 2006 school year, it was something like 220, so there were an extra 60 to 65 students. The Public Transport Branch has no notification of that. I suppose it is O’Loughlin College’s good fortune that they have these extra enrolments. However, regarding the school bus system being able to accommodate that, it was not until day 1 of Term 1 that we actually knew the numbers and that there was a problem.
Our school bus system is an extensive network throughout the Top End - Darwin, Palmerston and the rural areas. I appreciate there are some 40 to 50 students finding it hard to get home every afternoon. However, I also have finite resources; it is not as if I can suddenly take a bus from other students to give to those students.
However, I have been working with the school and I do have a solution. I have been able to secure a smaller bus to transport those students from O’Loughlin College to the interchange at Palmerston. I say again, member for Nelson, it is easy to say, ‘fix it’, but I have to work with finite resources. We have worked with the school, the students …
Mr Wood: Take a little of that extra GST.
Dr BURNS: I beg your pardon?
Mr Wood: Take some of that $62m of GST. You could use a little of that.
Madam SPEAKER: Order!
Dr BURNS: You have the luxury of being able to ask these questions - and they are good questions - but I have the responsibility of working within the budget and the resources I have. Each bus costs over $63 000. Resources just do not come out of thin air.
In this case, we were able to accommodate those students. We have accommodated other schools with other issues. That particular area of public transport is running well over budget. I pride myself as a manager in trying to bring things in on budget. That is what we try to do as managers. I am proud to announce that we …
Mrs Braham: To the detriment of students? Come on, what is more important? The budget or students?
Madam SPEAKER: Order!
Dr BURNS: Why are you being so critical? We found the solution.
Madam Speaker, there is a solution to this. It is operating, I am glad to say. I commend the department and the school. We are all working together to find a solution to these issues.
Budget 2006-07 – Projected Income
Ms CARNEY to TREASURER
In the budget year 2002-03, in Budget Paper No 2 on page 76, you projected that the Territory’s income would be $2.46bn. You said that with that amount of money you would be able to bring the budget into surplus. What you actually raked in for this year was $2.97bn. In other words, as you know, you received $500m more than you predicted three years ago, and that was just for one year alone. Yet, you are still going to run a deficit this year. Do you concede that your income is far beyond what you could have dreamed it would be a few years ago, and that your spending has been rescued by income that you never expected to receive?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, I thank the Leader of the Opposition for her question. It is a bit of both sides of the coin, is it not? On the one hand we get bashed up for spending too much. On the other hand, when the minister explains the difficulties of trying to secure an allocation of funding within his budget - because he and his chief executive have to come in within budget - he gets banged up for not using some of the GST for the bus.
The luxury of opposition is always that you can spend, spend and spend. Of course, the register never stops ringing. However, it does not matter because it is all theoretical. We have seen and heard over the years from the opposition that any increases in the GST have been spent three, four and five times over in various forms. One of them, of course, was to abolish payroll tax - just abolish payroll tax. A couple of hundred million out of own source revenue. It does not matter, you just knock it off, you have the GST.
I make no apology for the growth in public sector numbers over the first four years of the life of this government. Every one of those positions was entirely necessary to bring back a credible form of service delivery for Territorians, particularly in the key service delivery agencies: the big ones of Health, which was a basket case, and fraudulently put together budgets to disguise the real …
Ms CARNEY: A point of order, Madam Speaker! Keep him honest. If the Treasurer, as he did many years ago, wants to bring on such an important issue, according to him, he should do so by way of substantive motion.
Mr STIRLING: … fraudulent preparation of the Health budget to disguise the level of funding.
Madam SPEAKER: Minister, I will seek some advice on this.
Ms Carney: You are a shocker.
Mr STIRLING: It was found by the Public Accounts Committee. If that is not good enough for the Legislative Assembly, I will go he.
Madam SPEAKER: Treasurer, if you could rephrase that, please?
Mr STIRLING: Suffice it to say there was a very unsatisfactory finding against the presentation of the Health budget in those years.
Madam Speaker, I do not want to get distracted on that side. The fact is that Health was a basket case. We have had enormous funding increases into Health to where it stands today. Education was along similar lines - strengthening education outcomes for our students. We well know the sorry story of police – absolutely frozen, starved of funding under our predecessors, and Mr O’Sullivan’s recommendations have put us on track.
There is a similar commentary about our contract officers and executive officers in the public service. If you are introducing and rolling out new policies and new programs, you have to have a quite serious level of policy development within those agencies. Much of that work has been done and those programs are being rolled out as I speak. The numbers in the public sector are at historically high levels, no doubt about that. They will come down. I have repeatedly said over the last five to six months that numbers will come down over the mid- to long-term, with those programs well in place and no new initiatives being rolled out as we speak. That is not to say that the Commonwealth will not come along in two months’ time with a number of programs across a range of agencies, all of which will require corresponding expenditure from us and, probably, staff numbers coming on. That is another reason why staff numbers need to come down over time, because there has to be capacity for those eventualities into the future.
If we are spending too much on police, health and education, it is incumbent on the Leader of the Opposition to tell us what positions and services she would cut, and tell Territorians what is not going to occur that is occurring under this government. That is the responsibility you have. You cannot make these allegations that we are spending too much, thereby implying you are going to make drastic cuts yourself, without telling us where those service and personnel cuts will occur.
Alcohol Abuse – Treatment and
Rehabilitation Services
Rehabilitation Services
Mr WARREN to MINISTER for FAMILY and COMMUNITY SERVICES
Everyone is aware of this government’s renewed efforts to tackle the problem of alcohol abuse in our communities. Can you please update the House on the treatment and rehabilitation services this government is providing?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, I thank the member for Goyder for his very important question. As we know, alcohol abuse is a very big problem in the Northern Territory. It rips apart our families and it can have incredibly devastating effects on entire communities.
The Martin Labor government is tackling alcohol abuse right across the board. We have an overarching, coordinated and holistic approach to the problems of antisocial behaviour in the community and, importantly, the provision of our rehabilitation services.
The Minister for Justice is overseeing the new Alcohol Court and antisocial behaviour legislation. The minister for Police has further increased police funding to target the hot spots. Community patrols have been transformed and we have seen the employment of additional ACPOs to provide patrols in Darwin. As we know, the Minister for Racing, Gaming and Licensing oversees the implementation of the Alcohol Framework. The Minister for Local Government is overseeing a Community Harmony strategy and a Town Camps Task Force. As Minister for Family and Community Services, importantly, my agency delivers the rehabilitation programs.
The opposition has certainly been trying to be misleading in the last couple of days, trying to convince people that this government is only spending $1m on alcohol treatment. However, the opposition was caught out on radio when they were forced to admit that the figure is actually more like $20m.
In Budget 2006-07, we are implementing a strong social development program and the Alcohol and Other Drugs Division now has a budget of $20.8m. This is up from just $11.5m under the CLP. With an additional injection of $500 000, in Budget 2006-07 we will provide approximately $10.6m in grants directly to our non-government organisations that deliver these important rehabilitation services.
I thank organisations such as the Salvation Army, CAAPS, FORWAARD, ANSTI, DASA, CAAAPU, BRADAAG and Kalano for the rehabilitation services they provide across the Northern Territory. We are helping to build a healthier Territory and we are working together to provide a safer community for all Territorians.
Enterprise Bargaining Agreements –
Increased Wages
Increased Wages
Ms CARNEY to TREASURER
Yesterday, you told this House you would not have increased wages if you did not know there was going to be revenue to cover them. You signed up to the EBAs just before the election last June. Six months later, according to your quarterly report on financial projections for the second quarter of the financial year, you did not know you were going to have an extra $191m in revenue. Did you agree to those EBAs without having a clue about how you were going to pay for them or, is it the case that you did know the money was in the pipeline - in which case, can we believe the publications that you author?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, I thank the Leader of the Opposition for her question. It is always interesting working through enterprise bargaining agreements and negotiating with each sector of the public sector workforce. Both sides have quite different views on what the end result should be.
Government, on the one hand, wants to moderate wage increases and conditions of service in bottom line effect on budgets. The unions and their members, on the other hand, want to maximise the outcome for all of their members. For the best result, you have to work somewhere in between, generally, for a win-win result. That is the art of industrial negotiation and that is what we endeavour to do.
Government also has to be mindful of the ability of the Northern Territory to continue to recruit and retain, because recruitment costs get ever higher, particularly with skills shortages such as the Australian labour market is experiencing at the moment. There are many skills and jobs right across the public sector that the public sector simply cannot do without. Therefore, there is a competitive element to it in ensuring that you are able to match, as closely as possible, those larger states which have greater capacity than the Northern Territory in order to ensure that we are able to fill the jobs that are on offer, and that we are able to go forward.
In relation to the overall costs - and it keeps coming up and I have said it a couple of times - a big part of the cost was increased superannuation following the actuarial assessment about mid-last year. That assessment is carried out every three years. Some $68m is against that superannuation cost. That is not extra staff; it is a review and a newly-assessed cost to government of superannuation against the former NTGPASS members and the old Commonwealth Superannuation Scheme members. It goes to a whole range of factors which the actuary looks at, including how long people live, whether they take packages, whether they take out one-off lump sum payments, or whether they take out pensions into the future, because they can affect the cost of the scheme.
Every government undergoes those actuarial assessments every three years or so, and every government suffers a shock to its bottom line because, invariably, the actuaries are going to increase the liability against government on those superannuation costs. It is one of the reasons - the major reason, let us not qualify this, the singular major reason - why the former government closed the NTGPASS as it did in 1999. It is the reason why the Commonwealth closed off the Commonwealth Superannuation Scheme when it did. It is the reason why every state and territory government has moved to close off those former superannuation schemes, because it was recognised that the costs were growing.
Have numbers gone up? We have talked about that. Have wages gone up? We have talked about that. It is a bit hard to keep teachers and nurses if you are not going to give them a pay increase, or negotiate a fair outcome of a win-win for the employer and the employee. Do not be misled that it is all in wages. A big slab of that, nearly $70m, is these increased superannuation costs coming out of the actuarial review carried out mid-last year. In two-and-a-half years time, the same thing will occur.
Budget 2006-07 - Education Expenditure
Mr BURKE to MINISTER for EMPLOYMENT, EDUCATION and TRAINING
With a record $630.7m budget, can the minister tell the House what the priority of the government will be in its education expenditure throughout 2006-07?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, I thank the member for Brennan for his question. He has a strong interest in education. I can assure him, the House and all Territorians that the No 1 priority for this government in education is lifting education outcomes for our students.
This Budget 2006-07 provides for a number of literacy and numeracy programs. I spoke briefly before about the Accelerated Literacy Program: $4.4m over this year, jointly funded with the Australian government. It already extends across 27 of our schools in the Northern Territory, 14 of those in rural and remote communities; with 3300 students, 150 classes, training for 220 teachers - and that will expand this year.
We will also fund $300 000 for bilingual education. We continue to support the 2001 election commitment of 100 extra teachers in the system above formula. That comes at a cost of $8.14m: $1.85m spent on providing an above formula 19 student counsellors across our secondary system; $2.1m on providing subject specialist teachers to lift teaching resources for bush and rural schools ...
Mrs Braham: Who are they going to teach? Where are the kids?
Dr Lim interjecting.
Mr STIRLING: A member of a former government who did nothing for education in rural, remote areas and indigenous students, has the hide and hypocrisy to stand here and fling off at all ...
Members interjecting.
Mr STIRLING: … around the edges - never did a thing.
Mrs Braham: Oh, rubbish! Have a look at the attendance records. There were 500-odd kids in Braitling, there are 300 now. What are you doing?
Madam SPEAKER: Order, order!
Mr STIRLING: The government, you remember - and if I were you, I would keep my head down in this, Loraine, because you have a shameful record when it comes to dealing with indigenous education.
A total of $550 000 will be spent on the collaborative trial sites program, bringing - guess what? - something these blokes never dreamed of - secondary education to rural and remote areas. Hello, hello! This is a high school …
Mrs Braham: Have you been to the secondary unit at Papunya lately? There is no one there.
Madam SPEAKER: Member for Braitling! Order!
Mr STIRLING: We are sending black kids to high school. Well! All of these initiatives will lift student outcomes, and they are just a few of the initiatives funded in this record budget.
In addition, of course, the decisions regarding middle years are now being finalised by Cabinet and will be announced in the near future. I can assure this House that achieving better educational outcomes and lifting students results will not only remain our No 1 priority for this year, it will also be the driving decision-maker behind any decisions on middle schools.
I say to the member for Brennan, because he comes from the Palmerston area, the additional $9m-plus is there this year for capacity at Palmerston High School.
Members: Hear, hear!
Mr Mills: Oh, good on you! It has taken four years!
Mr STIRLING: He looks forward, as I do, to seeing this rolled out. It may stop the member for Blain getting up every few sittings and asking where that money is and when is it going to be spent. I will ask the member for Blain to come with me when they start knocking down walls or whatever they are going to do there in building the school. The members for Brennan and Blain and I can all stand there together and watch them go to it.
Transfer of Payroll Positions
Mrs BRAHAM to MINISTER for CORPORATE and INFORMATION SERVICES
The proposed transfer of payroll positions to Darwin from Alice Springs has caused considerable stress and anger amongst employees and their families, and certainly disagreement from the government agencies in Alice Springs. It also seems to fly in the face of the Chief Minister’s statement of building the regions. Will you tell the House if you intend to go ahead with this transfer or not? Yes or no?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, the simple answer to the member for Braitling is that there is a proposal to rationalise the payroll services in Alice Springs. A decision has not been made; it is simply a proposal. The proposal did not just come out of thin air. It has been around for some time. It was canvassed in the staff newsletter. As you have written to me, I have this letter here - it is in the post, member for Braitling.
The proposal outlines a rationalisation of relocating of this processing activity. However, if it were to go ahead, front counter payroll function would be maintained, ensuring ongoing personal relations, and executive and senior management positions would remain in Alice Springs. I will emphasise again, member for Braitling, that it is simply a proposal.
Government, like all organisations in the private non-government sector, is continually looking at our operations to look at making them more efficient. As a government, we take that seriously. We also take our role in the regions seriously. In short, there has been no decision made on this particular proposal.
Community-led Crime Prevention - Government Support
Ms SACILOTTO to MINISTER for JUSTICE and ATTORNEY-GENERAL
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, I thank the member for what is another very important question. I take the opportunity at the outset to pay tribute to the work of the Office of Crime Prevention - led by Cheryl McCoy and Stephen Jackson - on the fantastic work that that office has done since we came to government and established that arrangement.
The OCP has been instrumental in getting a whole network of community-based crime prevention councils going: Darwin Regional Crime Prevention Council: Palmerston Regional Safety Communities Committee: Katherine Region Harmony Group: Barkly Regional Safer Communities Committee: East Arnhem Harmony Mawaya Mala: Anindilyakwa Network Regional Crime Prevention Council at Alyangula: Western Aranda Relekha Committee: Kurduju Regional Crime Prevention Council in the Warlpiri lands: NPY Women’s Council in the south: and the Community Safety Steering Group in Alice Springs.
That is hundreds of people who are now in active partnership with the government developing local proposals and community safety plans to give us advice and guidance on what is likely to work neighbourhood by neighbourhood, region by region. That is of enormous value to us, as a government, when we are trying to work out the best initiatives to take for juvenile diversion, antisocial behaviour, crime prevention through environmental design, and so on.
The budget that we have applied to that process is $0.75m. This year, there is $400 000 for crime prevention grants, which are allocated on a submission-based process to community groups such as the group the member for Port Darwin referred to. Approximately $350 000 additional money will go to the regional and indigenous crime prevention councils, which I have just enumerated, to fund initiatives under their community safety plans.
When you put that alongside $110 000 going into Neighbourhood Watch via the department of Police, we have a very extensive community-based crime prevention network throughout the Territory, which is linking us to the grassroots ideas about how to lower crime and antisocial behaviour levels in our community - $860 000 worth of investment in our partnership with the community.
Education Union Conference –
Vote of No Confidence in Education Minister
Ms CARNEY to CHIEF MINISTER
Are you aware that, at the annual Education Union conference attended by delegates at the weekend from across the Territory, representing some 2000 teachers and educators, they passed a motion declaring a motion of no confidence in the Education minister? Your Education minister has now managed to leave teachers incensed, students appalled, parents angry, and now a union refusing to talk to him. In fact, it is hard to find anyone who is not annoyed with him. Does this declaration by the Education Union that your minister is no longer seen to be a competent person to be in charge of education in the Territory concern you? If not, why not?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, I read the same report in the paper, obviously, as the Opposition Leader did. It was interesting that yesterday was budget day, and the first question that the Treasurer and Employment, Education and Training Minister was asked was from the president of the AEU. So much for resolutions on the weekend! The president asked the first question at budget lock-up. That says it all.
Budget 2006-07 – Benefits for Anglers
Mr KNIGHT to MINISTER for PRIMARY INDUSTRY and FISHERIES
Territorians love to fish. Fishing also supports a range of businesses and jobs, particularly in the regional and remote areas. Can the minister please advise what the budget will deliver for anglers to ensure that fishing remains the lure of the Territory?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, yes, fishing is the lure of the Territory, and it will remain so - this government will make sure that it will stay as such. You are quite right, member for Daly: fishing in the Territory is iconic. We have one of the highest participation rates in Australia. After all, one in four households has a boat in their front yard or their carport. It is also a serious tourist attraction.
In a few weeks, we will be hosting the Barra Classics and the Barra Nationals. Hundreds of people will come from Western Australia, South Australia, New South Wales and Queensland, paying thousands of dollars to participate in these to two iconic competitions. I believe my colleague, the member for Johnston, will compete in the Barra Nationals. I will follow him later and try to compete with him to see who can catch the bigger fish.
There are 138 fishing tour operators who service the tourist industry and they employ hundreds of Territorians. Together with the fishing industry and agriculture, fishing really is the lure of the Territory. This government is supporting the fishing industry. We are providing more than $1m, to be spent over the next three years, to acquire barramundi licences and the cost of net licences; $161 000 for Genetag, the project where samples are taken from fish without catching them, and $90 000 for monitoring the mud crab population to ensure the sustainability of the fisheries. We have also developed a monitoring program for shark fisheries.
We are continuing research into blackfish. There are some serious threats to the blackfish population in and outside Darwin Harbour. We will develop a harbour strategic framework for the Northern Territory major fisheries. We have spent $0.5m on fishing infrastructure. On top of that, we continue to fund the marine rangers because we are committed to protecting our resources from foreign incursions. I will give you a hint. This program is so successful, your colleagues in Canberra have recognised it and there is going to be a significant announcement - as I was advised by Mr Abbott and Mr McGauran - in next Tuesday’s budget.
Middle Schools - Opposition
Mr MILLS to MINISTER for EMPLOYMENT, EDUCATION and TRAINING
In the March sittings this year, you declared middle schools would be established across the board in first term 2007. Your approach has received very strong criticism, some of it even from within your own ranks. Hundreds of protest letters have been received by the opposition from parents across the Northern Territory. In light of opposition from teachers, parents and students, do you remain wedded to your decision to implement middle schools from first term next year, and will you back down and stage the implementation of this restructure?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, I thank the member for Blain for his question. However, he does misquote me when he says that in March I said it would be – I have just missed the word …
Mr Mills: Across the board.
Mr STIRLING: Across the board from day 1 2007. It was never going to be across the board …
Dr Lim: Oh, have you changed your mind now?
Mr STIRLING: Here he goes. The member for Greatorex is as thick as the member for Blain, obviously.
We recognised from the outset that, logistically and infrastructure-wise, it could not be achieved across the board day 1 2007.
Dr Lim: Yes, we know you are now pulling back big time.
Mr STIRLING: There is a glimmer of dawn awakening on the member for Greatorex. Palmerston rings a bell. This guy comes from Palmerston and he ought be more aware than most that there were always infrastructure difficulties in relation to relocation of Year 7 students into Palmerston High School day 1 2007. I was on the front foot from the very moment that that was recognised as an impediment for an across-the-board implementation in 2007 - and said so.
What I might have said in March, was that notwithstanding there will be practical infrastructure difficulties in some areas, we will proceed with the implementation where we can. That is what I said in March, not ‘across the board’. It was known then that Palmerston was not going to be achievable. If there are sticking points anywhere across the system for infrastructure, what does the opposition think we are going to do? Jam students into buildings that do not exist? It is simply not the case. We will make sure that infrastructure is there and professional development people are comfortable and happy with the decisions before these decisions are made. Do not misquote me, member for Blain. I never said ‘across the board’ as late as March.
Northern Territory Advisory Council on Ageing
Mrs BRAHAM to MINISTER for SENIOR TERRITORIANS
The Northern Territory Seniors Advisory Council was established by the Chief Minister in 2004. In that first year it met four times. In 2005, it met only twice, and meetings have been reduced from two days to one day - quite an inconvenience for people who have to travel a long way to Darwin for one day. Last November, it was renamed the Northern Territory Advisory Council on Ageing, and there has been no further word. The last meeting was in August last year. How much have you budgeted for these meetings to go ahead, or is the lack of meetings an indication of what you really think about this advisory council - nothing?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, no, it is not an indication. One of the issues we have looked at, member for Braitling is how to get better efficiencies and outcomes out of the former Seniors Advisory Council. That was one of the areas that the former Seniors Advisory Council had set …
Mrs Braham: Why did you appoint people to it then if you were not going to meet?
Ms SCRYMGOUR: Hold on, you asked me a question, please give me the courtesy of answering.
Mrs Braham: Ten months ago.
Ms SCRYMGOUR: You asked a question and I am trying to answer you, so please give me the courtesy of answering. There have not been any cuts at all. Yes, we have done some reorganisation of that council. It was quite top heavy. We have pulled it down a bit and are looking at better representation, both across the regions and in the rural areas, as well as in our urban areas. A smaller group will meet.
I will get back to you, member for Braitling, as to why they have not met to date. I have recently signed off on the new terms of reference for the smaller group. I will get the dates and let you know about their next meetings.
There have not been any cuts to their funding. They will still meet at those times that the previous council met and, hopefully, we can move forward. I will undertake to get back to you with those dates.
Mr HENDERSON (Leader of Government Business): Madam Speaker, I ask that further questions be placed on the Written Question Paper.
Last updated: 09 Aug 2016