2004-05-19
GST – Impact on Territorians
Mr MILLS to TREASURER
Do you agree with the position of your Chief Minister in that it is her view that:
- Territorians will be hit very hard when GST comes in. How is that going to grow the Territory’s prosperity, underpin the lifestyle of Territorians? No, it won’t.
Given that you will receive $1.29bn extra since 2000-01 from GST, what do you now say of your Chief Minister’s statement?
ANSWER
I thank the Leader of the Opposition for his question, Madam Speaker. There is no doubt, he does not have a rural component to his electorate. He does not have Aboriginal communities flung in remote parts of the Northern Territory, where the cost of living is extremely high to begin with. The cost of living was high pre-2000-01 before the advent of the GST, and it has not been made easier with the addition of the GST on the many goods and services across the Northern Territory.
Yes, there has been an impact, and we have seen that across the housing industry, construction costs - right across a whole range of costs that Territorians and other Australians face. He can say: ‘Yes, it has been good in terms of revenue for the states’. The fact is, for a long time, the states have complained to the Commonwealth that there ought be a growth-type revenue distribution without them all going to the Premiers’ conference to have to argy-argy.
Yes, the GST has provided growth in revenue, but infinitesimal compared with the growth in revenue stacking up with the Commonwealth on all of the range of taxes, excises and revenue that they get back. They are very happy because they can step back and say: ‘Mr Costello says you whinged about a growth tax – well, you have got one’. But it is a tenth the proportion of the growth of revenues accruing to the Commonwealth through all of the range of excises, taxes, duties and income tax that accrues to the Commonwealth government.
Where do we see that reflected most? We see it in the bottom line surplus of federal budget after federal budget. When we get to a modest surplus of about $4m or $5m a year - and one day we will, it will be two or three years away yet - we will say: ‘Yes, this is servicing the Territory well’. At the moment, it is not meeting our needs - witness to the fact that we will be back in deficit again next year.
Budget 2004-05 - Reaction
Mrs AAGAARD to TREASURER
Can you please advise the House of the reaction to Budget 2004?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, I thank the member for Nightcliff for her question. I have to say reaction across the board is pretty positive. Yesterday, at the post-budget briefing lunch with the Chamber of Commerce at MGM, the Acting President, Mr Paul, Executive Officer, Ms Carole Frost and Rosemary Campbell, Executive Member and accountant, variously described the budget thus: ‘Like Christmas time,’ a quote from Mr Paul; ‘I’m blown away,’ a quote from Carole Frost; ‘Fantastic,’ a quote from Rosemary Campbell.
This morning at the Property Council breakfast, that large and looming person and personality, one Mr George Cridland, commended the government in very positive terms. He is especially pleased with my ongoing, absolute opposition to the imposition of a land tax in the Northern Territory. He has more to be concerned with the opposition on that score, because they seem to be hell-bent on introducing a raft of new taxes including, one would suspect, a land tax to pay for this ever-growing list of promises.
The Trades and Labour Council praised the budget. Secretary, Lucio Matarazzo said: ‘It is good. It is a solid and sound budget for Northern Territory workers’. The Territory Construction Association has been very positive. The Australian Hotels Association described it as ‘business friendly’. They said the long-term employment prospects are obviously ‘substantially enhanced by the infrastructure spend’. So the budget has been well received by business in the community.
People recognise the government has delivered less tax, more jobs, and a boost to what is already a great lifestyle. The business community believes that raising the threshold for payroll tax has provided very significant relief to the business community. They also say that it will add enormously to the growing confidence, evident from the Chamber of Commerce’s most recent survey. They say it will stimulate growth.
The only odd reaction, thus far, was from the Leader of the Opposition, who told ABC TV last night that it was the payroll tax rate that was more important than the threshold. Well, he has not been going around the Territory listening to business like my colleague, the minister for Business, the Chief Minister and myself, because that is not what business was telling us over the last 12 months at all. The threshold was put to us as the most significant issue confronting them around payroll tax issues and, clearly, was the one that they preferred to be changed.
The CLP also need to recognise that we did reduce the rate from the very high 6.5% when we came to office in 2001. We did take it down twice in previous budgets, to 6.2%, so there has been a rate reduction. It was time to twig the thresholds, in view of the bracket creep, with smaller businesses getting above the $600 000 threshold and getting into the payroll tax. They are now out of it, and they are mighty pleased.
Budget 2004-05 – Savings to Territory Businesses
Mr MILLS to TREASURER
Is it not true that the abolition of the HIH levy and the payroll tax changes are a package of only $6.7m savings to Territory businesses, the same amount that the Chief Minister is spending on her own ministerial office each year?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, a $6.7m hit to the budget bottom line this year when the payroll tax threshold climbs from $600 000 to $800 000, and $16m next year when it climbs from $800 000 to $1m is not a bad figure. It has a good ring to it, a $1m payroll before you are liable for payroll tax. It is a $6.7m this year and $16m over two years hit to the bottom line.
The Leader of the Opposition also made reference to a $6m promise in his speech this morning, and that we were not actually meeting it. It was $3m in forward estimates, year in, year out. It was a question to us, how we would best use that $3m. In the end, we have more than doubled it, with a $6.7m hit to the bottom line with the changes this year, both with HIH and the payroll tax. Therefore, it is not $3m, as was in the forward estimates. It is $6.7m this year and not $3m next year that would have been in the forward estimates, but $16m.
Budget 2004-05 – Building Healthier Communities
Mr BONSON to MINISTER for HEALTH
Can the minister please advise the House how Budget 2004 will benefit the health of Territorians, and support the Martin government’s Building Healthier Communities five-year framework.
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, I thank the member for Millner for an excellent question. I am proud to be able to deliver a record health budget for Territorians. The budget will build on the progress we have already made towards creating a genuinely sustainable, responsive, and effective health system.
Members interjecting.
Dr TOYNE: The results of the 2003 …
Madam SPEAKER: Order!
A member interjecting.
Dr TOYNE: The results of the 2003 … Would you like to finish?
Madam SPEAKER: Order! I would like to hear the minister’s reply.
Dr TOYNE: The results of 2003-04 represent the first budget in a decade where the Department of Health and Community Services is expected to deliver a budget outcome in line with predictions. This is no small achievement, both in terms of the recent history of the Territory compared with other states around Australia …
Members interjecting.
Madam SPEAKER: Order!
Dr TOYNE: This budget sees an additional $23.7m committed to the system, bringing the total Health and Community Services budget for the Territory to $635.4m in 2004-05. This injection of funds into our health system will see the creation of an additional 71 new nursing positions, 65 of them for our hospital system during the 2004-05 financial year. Our hospitals and other acute care services receive an estimated $18.6m increase in the next financial year, with total funding of $357.9m.
It gives me particular pleasure to advise the House that the Alice Springs Hospital will receive an additional $11m injection of funds over the next four years to develop a fully integrated intensive care unit/high dependency unit. This will be used to employ a specialist intensivist and 36 additional nursing and support staff, including a dietician, a physiotherapist and pathologist. $2.9m is also included in the capital works program for the Alice Springs Hospital to upgrade fire safety and improve the airconditioning system for the comfort of patients, staff and visitors.
Royal Darwin Hospital will receive additional funding of $2.5m, which I announced this morning at the hospital, to complete the commissioning of the critical care services. This will allow three additional beds to be opened in high dependency, three additional beds in coronary care, and 10 short stay beds in the emergency department. Two other major projects will be under way at Royal Darwin Hospital during 2004-05. The first of these is the construction of a 12-bed stand-alone hospice, which is due for completion by the end of next financial year at a cost of $3.6m. The other major item for the Royal Darwin Hospital is $2.5m for the establishment of a birthing centre. This will include two new low-tech birth rooms for women who are assessed as having minimal risk of complications, together with an upgrade of the existing four birth rooms and a complete refurbishment of the entire sixth floor.
Our hospitals in Katherine, Gove and Tennant Creek will also benefit, with funding increased by $1m to $39.7m, improving services in our regional areas. These facts underline the claim that the Leader of the Opposition made this morning that this government is closing hospital beds. I will table a list of hospital beds before we came to power and the current numbers. In summary, when we came to power, 567 hospital in total through the Territory …
Members interjecting.
Dr TOYNE: It is all here, hospital by hospital ...
Mr Dunham: 567?
Dr TOYNE: 567 beds. How many beds are there now? 619 beds.
Budget 2004-05 – Health and Community Services
Ms CARTER to MINISTER for FAMILY and COMMUNITY SERVICES
We have just heard the other Health Minister ramble on, so perhaps you could advise us. Is it not true that your overall Health budget for the period 2003-04 has blown out, without any explanation in the Budget Papers, by more than $50m? Given this, do you stand by your Chief Minister’s view that any CEO who cannot stay within their budget allocation should be replaced?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, I thank the member for her question. Really, some of these questions are misleading. I will get to some of what you are saying. We cannot keep ignoring Family and Community Services but it was ignored for years under the previous government. The Martin government is undoing the damage, helping families getting ahead ...
Members interjecting.
Ms SCRYMGOUR: ... in the community services sector. It is stuff that you do not like to hear about, but you are going to constantly hear about it because we have inherited your legacy of underfunding. It has not been blown out, and stop misleading.
Last week on radio we had Robyne Burridge indicating that the member for Brennan told her that he was too embarrassed to bring up social services issues because he was aware of his government’s woeful record in ...
Members interjecting.
Ms SCRYMGOUR: What do you say? I guess at least it is something that he acknowledges - the appalling legacy ...
Members interjecting.
Madam SPEAKER: Order! There is too much interruption. Minister, to the answer please.
Ms SCRYMGOUR: I guess at least it is something that he acknowledges - the appalling legacy he left Territory families, especially disadvantaged families.
In 2004-05, the total Community Services ...
Members interjecting.
Ms SCRYMGOUR: If you do not want to hear the answer, I will sit down.
Members interjecting.
Madam SPEAKER: Minister, just cease. Opposition members, let the minister answer the question, without interruption.
Mr BURKE: A point of order, Madam Speaker! The interjections are because the minister refuses to answer the question. The question asks: ‘Why have you blown out on your own estimates?’. We do not need the history of Aboriginal chronic health problems in the Northern Territory. Why did the minister blow out on her own estimates?
Madam SPEAKER: We all realise that the minister is not being given much opportunity to give her answer. Now, minister, your answer.
Ms SCRYMGOUR: Madam Speaker, sometimes the truth hurts. I will reiterate, in 2004-05, the total Community Services division of the budget will be over $120m. This compares to 2001-02, the last budget of the previous government, where expenditure was $87m. The money we have put in highlights a 38% increase in funding. This injection of funds will enable the department and the NGOs they support to properly carry out the vital services they provide in helping families and communities …
Mr Baldwin: What about the blow-out? Tell us about that! You have had Treasury in there. You tell them no. Will you replace the CEO?
Ms SCRYMGOUR: Did you have too many jelly beans for lunch?
Madam SPEAKER: Member for Daly! You are on a warning, you have been continually interrupting. Do you hear me?
Mr BALDWIN: Yes, Madam Speaker.
Madam SPEAKER: Well, cease.
Ms SCRYMGOUR: Thank you, Madam Speaker. This injection of funds, $120m that has gone in, in 2004-05, will go towards helping NGOs to carry out the vital services they provide in helping families and communities. We are about supporting NGOs. In 2003-04, we are providing over $10m to support non-government organisations in the alcohol and drug sector, and throughout the community services. With that funding, there has been a massive 103% increase from when we came to government again, so there is $120m extra in the Community Services budget.
Opposition Budget Response – Effect on Economy
Mr BONSON to TREASURER
The Treasurer has heard the Leader of the Opposition’s budget response. If ever implemented, what effect would the Opposition Leader’s comments have on the economic conditions in the Territory?
Mr Burke: Well, you are already following what he suggested last time he spoke. You already picked up a few suggestions. Just keep following the bouncing balls.
Madam SPEAKER: Member for Brennan!
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, I am under the impression they are not going to like this answer, but they are going to get it anyway. I thank the member for Millner for his question.
I listened intently to the Leader of the Opposition this morning. At about the 20 minute mark I was nodding off and I thought: ‘Whoops, concentrate. Stick with it here, he might drop something’. What stuck in my mind was this, at about the 22 minute mark of the Leader of the Opposition’s speech this morning, when I woke up again: ‘The burden of taxation falls on too few members of our society’. Well, that sent a little shudder down the spine. I was awake after that, I can tell you, because I was waiting to hear where this additional burden is going to fall on other Territorians and how they are going to be dragged in the neck.
Here comes the land tax, and probably a whole raft of other taxes so that he can pay for his comments, because he wants more people paying more taxes. Earlier this year, he put out a press release saying that he wanted to review all taxes in the Northern Territory, including land tax!
Mr DUNHAM: A point of order, Madam Speaker! Under Standing Order 109, ministers can only answer questions on matters for which they are responsible. Unless the minister is responsible for the land tax, he should desist from speaking about it.
Members interjecting.
Madam SPEAKER: Member for Drysdale, you know that was not a point of order.
Mr STIRLING: Madam Speaker, as long as I am responsible …
Madam SPEAKER: Treasurer, before you go on, let us settle down. I know you enjoy reacting to the Treasurer’s comments, but we should learn to listen to them in silence.
Mr STIRLING: Madam Speaker, I feel it incumbent upon myself, whilst I am Treasurer and responsible for the fiscal situation in the Northern Territory, to comment on ideas put about revenue, taxation and the rest. The Leader of the Opposition’s positions on payroll tax, stamp duty and the GST all have to be paid for. Now we know, or we have an inkling, of how the Leader of the Opposition plans to do this: by spreading the tax burden amongst more people.
Small business does not pay payroll tax, so they must get some tax put on them. They have to get into the tax net, according to the Opposition Leader. The suburban householder does not pay a great deal of tax either to the Northern Territory, so, clearly, they will have to pay more, according to the Leader of the Opposition.
The land tax agenda stands out like a shining light on the back of his media release earlier this year, where he said: ‘I want to review all the taxes in the Northern Territory, including the land tax’. The fact is, we do not have a land tax; he put it on the agenda. The land tax would cut across all businesses, large and small. It would mean higher taxes, fewer jobs, a reduced lifestyle - the exact opposite of what we are attempting to do with the budget we brought down yesterday. It would cost each and every small business, on average, $5700, and every medium sized business, on average, around $12 000.
You only have to look around the states where these land taxes are in place to see what they are worth. People would flee the Northern Territory, jobs and services would be cut and costs would escalate. The only way small business would cope with that would be to sack people or increase prices.
The land tax alone would not pay for the pledges made by the Opposition Leader, either. He would impose those other state taxes that we have never had in the Northern Territory: fire services levy, emergency services levy, police levy, any levy, just to include a broader and broader range of people into the tax net.
The Chamber of Commerce gave the budget 8.5 out of 10. Not quite what I gave it, but 8.5 is not bad. I would rate the Leader of the Opposition’s performance this morning thus: dramatic arm waving, up there, way up there - 9 to 9.5; best acting - 9 to 9.2; for understanding what he was talking about - about 1; and for credibility, he did not get on the graph.
Budget 2004-05 – Infrastructure Spending
Mr BURKE to TREASURER
Treasurer, is it not true that while you claim a so-called massive infrastructure spend in the 2004-05 budget, the total increase on infrastructure is only $3m, or less than 0.7%? Given that the inflation rate is more than 2% - it is actually 2.2% in your own budget papers - your so-called massive infrastructure spend is definitely a decline in real term spending?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, I thank the member for Brennan for his question. The fact is there are a couple of differences between what this government has done with capital works and what our predecessors did, including when the member for Brennan was Chief Minister of the Northern Territory.
In the first place, we have recognised the importance of the capital works and infrastructure spend right across the Territory for the construction industry, not just for the top end of town, for the smaller guys. The R and M has been pushed up each time because of those smaller jobs that a lot of those smaller contractors rely on. That is why we have had high infrastructure capital works spend over the last three budgets we have introduced.
In relation to the $441m, it stands in stark contrast, not just in terms of the size of the last budget brought forward by the Country Liberal Party under Chief Minister Burke, it was cashed to just 50% of the works on the capital works list. The revote, as we heard from the minister this morning …
Mr Elferink interjecting.
Madam SPEAKER: Member for Macdonnell, order!
Mr Elferink interjecting.
Madam SPEAKER: Member for Macdonnell!
Mr STIRLING: … under the Country Liberal Party, coming from the previous year was higher than the cash available. Therefore, if you wanted to build something desperately somewhere in the Northern Territory, you had to wait one year to clear somewhat of the backlog in the revote - you still would not even have gotten the revote through then - and then, hopefully, get it in.
So you were looking at a two- to three-year cycle before you could have any hope of getting anything through on the capital works list. That is in stark contrast to us: $441m cash is going out there, what industry knows is against the capital works lists that we have - the design work and forward works coming up - 65% cash against that list.
Madam SPEAKER: Before we go on to the member for Nelson, I will remind the member for Macdonnell that interjections can be short and sharp, but not consistent. Moreover, you are not to use Christian names or surnames of members in this House. You have been doing it constantly.
Mr ELFERINK: Yes, Madam Speaker.
Madam SPEAKER: Yes, you do know it.
Budget 2004-05 – Humpty Doo Police Station
Mr WOOD to MINISTER for POLICE, FIRE and EMERGENCY SERVICES
In the 2003-04 Capital Works Program under New Works, it said $1.42m would be spent to construct a new Police, Fire and Emergency facility at Humpty Doo. It is now six weeks from the start of the new financial year and the grass at Humpty Doo is still long; work has not started. When can we expect work to start on the Humpty Doo facility? Why has the cost risen from $1.42m to $2m, as highlighted in the revoted works in Budget Paper No 4?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, I thank the member for his question. The tender for the police station at Humpty Doo is imminent to go out this financial year. The delays in commencing work this year is as a result of a change of mind of the department regarding where to site the police station at Humpty Doo. The current proposal, which will go to tender if not this week within the next couple of weeks, will see the police station actually incorporated into the Humpty Doo Village, as opposed to a stand-alone site outside of that village.
There has been a change during the year in location as a result of an approach to government from the property owner at Humpty Doo, and I believe it will be a much better outcome. It will be a much better outcome for the traders and small business people in the Humpty Doo village to have the police station right there. It will provide better convenience for the residents of Humpty Doo.
Work will commence on the police station at Humpty Doo. The project is cashed up, and we will deliver on our election commitment to build a police and fire station at Humpty Doo, something that the previous government who held those seats for many years never did. It will be done, and I will invite the member for Nelson to the opening and I am sure that he will attend.
Budget 2004-05 – Leanyer Recreation Park
Ms LAWRIE to MINISTER for PARKS and WILDLIFE
The popular Leanyer Recreation Park is providing hours of enjoyment for Territory families. Can you please advise the Assembly whether there is any money in the budget for this coming year to further improve this terrific facility?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, I thank the honourable member for her question.
Members interjecting.
Dr BURNS: The much anticipated skate park within the park was completed in mid-January 2004, and the Leanyer Recreation Park was officially opened by the Chief Minister of the Northern Territory at a ceremony on Australia Day this year.
The final package of landscaping, including skate park, irrigation, grassing and additional tree planting will continue over the coming months. Expenditure on the project to date is $3.99m, and there has been further allocation within the 2004-05 budget - a budget which, I might add, delivers less tax, more jobs, great lifestyle, and additional facilities in the Leanyer Recreation Park. A further $150 000 is being provided in this budget for the construction of additional shade shelters throughout the park, and security lockers.
This park is hugely popular with families. I drive past there and I have been in there. All the little kids are running around with their parents, playing on the equipment, getting in the pool, and people are very happy with the park.
However, there are safety issues related to the park, and Parks and Wildlife have employed lifeguards and rangers to maintain full-time presence during the opening hours which, for the member for Drysdale, is 10 am to 7.30 pm, if you want to avail yourself. There has been collaboration with the Royal Lifesaving Society, NT Police, and youth and community organisations to produce a manual of best practice and operations for the park.
People from Darwin, Palmerston and the rural areas come and enjoy this facility. They love it, we love it. It is in direct contrast to the opposition. Members of the public may well be horrified to learn that the opposition have slammed this particular facility in the past. It is going on again today with the member for Drysdale.
In July 2002, the then Leader of the Opposition, the member for Brennan, made clear the CLP’s view of the park. He said: ‘You do not spend $2m on that Leanyer Park which, in anyone’s estimation, is a waste of money’. Well, member for Brennan, go and tell the little kiddies, their parents, and the community that you think it is a waste of money. I do not think so. It is a bit of a scrooge-like attitude. Maybe they should look at it. Maybe they should take their families down there and have a good old time. It is a state-of-the-art park; we are proud of it. It is a central part of lifestyle and people just love it.
Budget 2004-05 – Growth Predictions
Mr MILLS to TREASURER
Can you tell Territorians why you have consistently produced deceitful and false growth predictions? Here are your estimates over successive budgets, and there is your actual achievement - a very poor result. You then have the audacity to project forward a growth rate of 5.8% for the next Territory budget. Your track record is appalling, and I ask you to give an adequate explanation to Territorians who you have deceived consistently.
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, I thank the Leader of the Opposition for his question. Come in, spinner! You cannot believe it, sometimes, when you get these sorts of questions. He has the thickness of skin to stand up here and talk about deceit in budget papers. We do not want to go back over how the Health budget was disguised in growth so it would make it look like there was an increase ...
Mr Dunham: Because it was $8m out? $8m out - it is now $50m out!
Mr STIRLING: Here is the bloke here. He cannot help himself ...
Mr Dunham interjecting.
Mr STIRLING: The bloke who is responsible is right in here, and he cannot help himself. He is drawn to the edge every time, and steps over it.
I notice the member for Greatorex is being a bit quiet on this one today, because it was his question at the PAC to former Under Treasurer, Mr Ken Clarke, which was: ‘Would a Treasurer normally do that?’ and the response was, ‘Oh no, no, no’. So do not come in here talking about deceit, because you guys have form, you have fingerprints, you have DNA evidence, and previous budgets against you.
I assume that the Leader of the Opposition is talking about gross state product regarding economic activity as a measure. It is one measure, and a fairly unreliable one at that in the Northern Territory, as is state final demand a fairly unreliable measure on its own. The most accurate one is probably consumption. Therefore, if you put the three together it is the only way you can start to get a bit of a feel for where things are going.
When you look at what we are doing in tourism over the next three years, with a massive infrastructure boost on top of the $27.5m that we put into marketing last year - for the next couple of years, and probably years ahead - you have to say there is going to be a growth and increased activity across the tourism sector.
You have to say there is going to be growth in the construction industry, notwithstanding the $441m cash we have out there in infrastructure spend. You have Bechtel, which will be starting to really wind up this Dry Season. It is a three year project and it will peak at 1200. You have Alcan just around the corner, with a feasibility study due later this year. Everything seems to be positive; all the signs are good to go ahead. It is a massive project – 1000 km gas pipeline, a $2.5bn to $3bn project all up. Why would you not have a fairly healthy growth figure around economic activity for the Northern Territory in the forthcoming 12 months?
Madam Speaker, do they think they are Nostradamus or something? What we do is put conservative estimates out there. Treasury are conservative around these sorts of projections, but they are well and truly matched by the likes of Access Economics, let me tell you. If we are trying to pull the wool over someone’s eyes, go and tell Access Economics. What interest would they have in trying to convince everyone that the Northern Territory is going to have a greater growth rate than actual? They are up there with Treasury. Treasury are notoriously conservative around these sorts of estimates but, in the end, that is what they are - estimates.
Gross state product …
Members interjecting.
Mr STIRLING: There is another important point I want to make in this, and that is in relation to the offshore activity. We saw pretty healthy GSP figures under the previous government when Laminaria/Corallina was climbing through the roof and there was not a job available in Darwin. The place was as flat as a penny coin because the size of those offshore projects are such that they can distort and manipulate the projection and figures around gross state product. Therefore, you cannot just take one figure, you have to look at a range of indicators. GSP is useful as a measure. It is not the most accurate, nor is state final demand on its own, nor is consumption. You have to take them all together, and I believe it is a conservative estimate.
Budget 2004-05 – Recreational Fishing Infrastructure
Mr McADAM to MINISTER for PRIMARY INDUSTRY and FISHERIES
Recreational fishing is important to the Territory’s economy: it is critical to our tourism growth, employs many people and enhances our lifestyle. Can the minister please advise on the government’s program for improvements to recreational fishing infrastructure, and how this is being supported in Budget 2004?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, I thank the member for his question. Yes, fishing is a lure for the Territory and attracts many people here, mainly tourists. We are proud of our Territory lifestyle, and this government will do anything to support and promote our lifestyle. That is the reason why we have committed $1.5m for infrastructure for recreational fishing. We have already spent almost $230 000 to upgrade the Buffalo Creek boat ramp. We have provided power, toilets and a safe compound. Recently, I was talking to the Tour Tub operator who told me it is the first time for 10 years that he has been back to Buffalo Creek. He left his car and he found it the way he left it - no damage, nothing. Not only that, the Department of Infrastructure, Planning and Environment are negotiating to provide some concessions for people to look after the secure car park area and provide some services to the anglers, either selling bait or cool drinks.
It is good news because, apart from Buffalo Creek, we are prepared to spend $700 000 on Dinah Beach. The tenders have already been signed. A local company, Ostojic, has won the contract. They will commence work in a couple of weeks to expand the car park, and then continue to work to expand the Dinah Beach boat ramp. This is money that goes to local businesses, creating jobs, as the member for Drysdale asked, to improve the fishing infrastructure.
We are not looking only in Darwin, we are looking outside Darwin. Recently, I visited Borroloola, and I am very pleased to advise the member for Barkly that there will be money allocated for a new boat ramp at Mule Creek, Borroloola. I thank the McArthur River Mining Company which offered to assist with roadworks, and also allowing the anglers to go through their pastoral property. In addition to that, we will be providing money for a boat ramp at Rocky Creek, which is about 67 km from Bing Bong, and used by people from Borroloola.
However, coming back to Darwin, we will be having negotiations with the Palmerston City Council to repair the Palmerston boat ramp. In addition to that - to make the member for Blain’s dream a reality – we will establish a fishing platform at Elizabeth River. It is this Labor government that is going to build this platform, because the CLP refused to even consider it. In 2000, the member for Blain wrote to Mick Palmer, then minister, asking him for money. The CLP minister for Fisheries said:
- I wish to advise that the Ministerial Advisory Committee on Recreational Fishing, at its meeting on 2 October 2000, did not support the Elizabeth River fishing platform proposal. In view of this, it is difficult for me to support the proposal.
I am sorry, member for Blain, but at least now your dream will become a reality and we can go fishing together at the Elizabeth River platform.
Madam Speaker, there is $1.5m for fishing infrastructure; $1.5m to support the tourism industry, because fishing attracts many tourists to the Territory; $1.5m to support local businesses; $1.5m to support our lifestyle. In this budget, we are spending money to keep the Territory moving ahead.
Northern Territory Population
Mr MILLS to TREASURER
Is it not true that your government is presiding over the worst population growth figures since Cyclone Tracy, and that your government promised to release a growth strategy, due over eight months ago? What do you now tell those 63 people per week who are currently leaving the Northern Territory?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, I thank the Leader of the Opposition for his question. We did touch on it briefly yesterday in response to a question from the member for Nelson. I will say the same things again: what do you do about getting people to come to the Territory and stay in the Territory? You create jobs, and you create the environment for business to create jobs, to grow and expand. That is with less taxes, jobs growth through infrastructure spend, and creating the environment where businesses are either just above or just under the threshold. They now have room to move and breathe, and have a $200 000 capacity in their payroll bill in order to take on that two, three, four, or five employees.
That is what we are about in the first place: creating the environment for jobs growth. We are doing that with a huge reduction and less tax in this budget to enable business to grow. We are also focussing quite heavily on the tourism sector, recognising that the more growth we get in the tourism sector, the greater the number of jobs accrue to the Northern Territory, because it is a job-heavy industry, unlike mining which is capital intensive. Visitors into the Territory, growth in tourism, means more jobs. They might be casual, they might be part-time, but they are more jobs. That is why there is a huge emphasis, both in the $27.5m in marketing over three years, and also in the huge infrastructure spend over the next couple of years on tourism infrastructure again, to grow that part of the industry.
That is what we are doing at that level. On the other side of it, what you need is a skilled and educated work force, and we are doing that through strengthening outcomes in education and through the Jobs Plan. For example, we released the Jobs Plan late last year. We said we wanted 40 positions filled at a subsidy of $7700 each for traditional trades areas, those difficult to fill vacancies. They went: 40 snapped up. We said: ‘Okay, we will put out another 20 and make it 60’. They came back, not much later, and said: ‘Minister, we now have 57. We are nearly at the top again’. So we said: ‘Okay, let us hold it at 60. They will soak up the 60’. That is 60 traditional trades’ apprentices who were not there prior to the Jobs Plan release in November that are there now. Therefore, a skilled and educated work force is one part of it.
A stable residential population is another part - all to do with economic growth and economic activity in the Northern Territory, and a population level that is sustainable.
In relation to the population paper, an issues paper was released as the first step in the development of that process for a population policy. It identified areas where action is needed to support the projected population growth. They included: improving indigenous social outcomes; attracting and keeping a skilled work force; improving data collection and incorporating environmental and social concerns; encouraging skilled migration; and investigating why people leave to go interstate and how to reverse that. A population policy will set out each of those issues that affect us all, and in which we will all have a vital interest.
I am advised that the consultation draft policy will be out soon. That will follow fairly widespread public consultation on this matter and public debate on population-related issues. I look forward to the release of that policy.
Budget 2004-05 – Community Safety
Mrs AAGAARD to MINISTER for POLICE, FIRE and EMERGENCY SERVICESCan you please outline how Budget 2004 helps Territory police to create safer communities.
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, I thank the member for Nightcliff for her question, because the budget for Police, Fire and Emergency Services this year is all about safer communities, and a significant amount of additional funding to allow our police force to continue to do the great job they do across the Northern Territory.
Budget 2004 delivers the single largest increase to police in a budget in the Territory’s history. In two years, since this government came to office, the tri-service budget has grown by 21%. It is now $172m. The extra $13m injected into police coffers for personnel under this budget will bring about the largest recruitment round ever …
Mr Elferink interjecting.
Mr HENDERSON: … five squads. You would think the member for Macdonnell would want to hear the good news. As an ex-police officer himself, you would think he would want to hear the good news, and applaud the good news for police in this budget - the single largest increase in the police budget in the Territory’s history, a budget that has grown by 21% in two years. An extra $13m this year will allow five recruit squads, bringing 120 new constables into our police force this year. That is great news, and you would like to see the member for Macdonnell - the shadow police minister, the ex-copper - smiling about this, but no, he is sucking on a lemon; he thinks that this is bad news.
With these extra police officers, we will see more police in our communities, including in his electorate. We were there opening a new police station in Kintore a couple of weeks ago, making that community safer. That is what this government is all about, making communities safer. You would like to think that the member for Macdonnell would be applauding the extra police resources, particularly in his electorate that the CLP neglected for many years.
More police will be on the street, in the shopping centres, in the business districts and throughout our communities in the Northern Territory. In the northern suburbs, we currently have four police officers out on bikes through the community. All members in the northern suburbs have noticed a marked decrease in property crime and antisocial behaviour. Meeting with people from Lend Lease and the traders at Casuarina, 12 months in, they are ecstatic about the improved police presence within Casuarina. The crime rate is down, the shoplifting is down absolutely remarkably, and I pay tribute to Senior Sergeant Murray Taylor and his team at Casuarina at the moment who are doing a fantastic job.
Is it not great that, for the first time, the government has funded a many-faceted police recruitment campaign which focusses on encouraging more Territorians to join our police force. That is what we want: more Territorians. The member for Daly’s own son was in the last squad and it was great to see him coming through. I encourage more Territorians, if you are listening to this and you want an exciting career change, that now is the time to put your hand up, because we are recruiting more police officers than at any other time in the Territory’s history.
There are big differences in the approaches being taken by the two sides of the House. If we go back to the history - and you have to look at history to see the credibility of your political opponents - to 1990-94, where not one police officer was recruited to the Northern Territory, not one. Not one squad, not one police officer, and we are still feeling the pain of that total neglect by the previous government to recruit not one single police officer, compared to the 120 we will be putting through the college this year.
I urge Territorians, if you have ever thought about joining the police force, now is the time. We would like to see more women, more people from our multicultural community and more Aboriginal people in our police force. Now is the time, if you are thinking of making the change and, as the recruit ads say: ‘It’s a new era in Territory policing’, and this budget gives the police the resources to make it happen.
Treasurer’s Management of the Economy
Mr BURKE to TREASURER
In Budget Paper No 2 for the 2003-04 budget titled, Fiscal and Economic Outlook, that is signed by your Under Treasurer, it restated your fiscal objectives in this way:
- These fiscal objectives might be best described as the principal ‘macro’ indicators that allow assessment of the overall financial performance of a government and the extent to which current policies are sustainable and are likely to contribute towards reductions in debt.
Treasurer, this year’s statement by the Under Treasurer dumps these fiscal objectives by stating:
- … the government has departed from its previously announced strategy to provide additional support and stimulus for economic growth, both by increasing spending and by reducing taxes in the 2004-05 Budget.
And further:
- … the decision to boost service provision, particularly in the areas of health, education and community safety, has resulted in significant recurrent expenditure beyond that anticipated in the previous fiscal strategy.
Treasurer, will you now admit that you have been unable to manage the economy; you cannot stick to your own fiscal strategy and your own departmental spending; and you cannot be trusted with Treasury responsibility?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, from the same person and member of parliament who not so long ago was saying, ‘spend, spend, spend’. Now we are not allowed to spend. Here we have the ambiguity and contradiction from members opposite. The current Leader of the Opposition referred this morning to us having walked on Percy Allan. People might remember Professor Percy Allan in the black suit with the very gaunt features - the undertaker look.. He was the one who said: ‘You have to get serious about a deficit reduction strategy’, and we worked to it. Faced with the deceitful deficit that we inherited in August 2001, we set about repairing the debt and the havoc that had been reaped on the Territory’s fiscal situation and budgetary performance over the last years of the CLP.
We will still make a balanced budget in 2004-05 due to the extra $28m out of the GST. We would otherwise have been in deficit, because …
Members interjecting.
Mr STIRLING: They have very short memories, these people opposite. They forget that when we went to Canberra in March of this year and spoke with the federal Treasurer, we lost $47.7m out of 2004-05, 2005-06, 2006-07, 2007-08, all the way through until the Grants Commission reviews its relativities again in five years time. That is going to put a hole ...
Mr Mills: That is not true.
Mr STIRLING: Well, the equivalent to New South Wales, for $48m out of us, was about $250m they would have lost, or even higher. The fact is, O’Sullivan came along and said: ‘No recruitment in 1990 to 1994 has left a hole in police force ranks at the middle and senior level’. It is still catch-up. It is worse than catch-up, because you do not have the experienced people to bring the numbers through. There was deceit about the actual police numbers in the force over those years, so there was a massive fix-up job there.
Is the member for Brennan suggesting we ought not have adopted the recommendations from O’Sullivan? If so, fine, go and tell the people, because we believe O’Sullivan did a quality job in pointing to the deficiencies in the police force, and pointed the way forward in what we needed to do. The spend is $75m over about three years.
We recognised the difficulty that the tourism industry was in, through ...
Mr MILLS: A point of order, Madam Speaker! This answer has no relationship at all to the question that was asked.
Mr Stirling: Yes, it has!
Mr MILLS: Madam Speaker, I move that so much of standing orders be suspended so as to allow me to move the following motion to censure the Chief Minister. In particular, I move that this parliament censure the Chief Minister …
Mr HENDERSON: A point of order, Madam Speaker! I seek a ruling on how on earth the Leader of the Opposition intends to censure the Chief Minister who this parliament, by a motion, has granted a leave of absence for this particular day and tomorrow.
Mr Baldwin: Well, which one of you over there wants to be the Chief Minister?
Members interjecting.
Madam SPEAKER: Wait a moment. Clerk, can I speak to you for a minute?
Members interjecting.
Madam SPEAKER: Let us have some clarification. Leader of the Opposition, you are seeking leave to move suspension of standing orders, is that right?
Mr MILLS: That is correct.
Madam SPEAKER: Okay, then we will put that. Is leave granted?
Leave granted.
Mr HENDERSON (Leader of Government Business): Madam Speaker, we accept the censure motion. I ask that further questions be placed on the Written Question Paper, and for you to cease the rolling of the cameras. We accept the censure motion and I would ask that the censure be directed to the Acting Chief Minister who, by convention, is the Deputy Chief Minister in the Chief Minister’s absence.
[Editor’s Note: Question Time ceased due to moving of Censure Motion]
Last updated: 09 Aug 2016