2005-05-03
Budget 2005-06 - Initiatives for Families
Mr BURKE to TREASURER
In your budget, for Mr and Mrs Malak living in their own home in the northern suburbs with two school-aged children, a dog, a boat and a car, can you inform them what initiatives are in this budget which will reduce their tax burden, lower the cost of living, and lower their power bill? Is it not a fact that, for the average Territory family, there is nothing in this budget for them?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, an extraordinary question from the Leader of the Opposition. The best thing we are doing for Mr and Mrs Smith out in Leanyer, Wulagi, Wanguri, Palmerston or wherever they live is growing the Territory economy. That is the way to get the cost of living down overall; that is the way to get power bills down into the future: growing the population. We have turned that around. After successive years of interstate nett migration loss and a prediction this time last year that we would grow the Territory population by about 0.3%, it has come in at 1.2%.
When I stood here last year, I said that the 0.3% figure was not good enough and we will be working hard to turn it around, and we have quadrupled it. That, in turn, brings more jobs, which in turn brings more population to the Northern Territory, which in turn increases revenue to the Territory from the Commonwealth allocations through GST revenue and gives the government of the day an opportunity to work on a whole range of cost factors. There are no fees, licence charges, taxes, levies or anything of that sort anywhere in this budget.
There is a range of tax cuts on business, which will allow them the freedom to continue to expand and grow, which will mean more jobs, which will mean more people, which will mean greater revenue into the future, and that is the best thing we can do for Mr and Mrs Smith.
Budget 2005-06 - Tax Reform
Mrs AAGAARD to TREASURER
Today, you told the House that the Martin government is the most tax-reforming government in the Northern Territory’s history. Can you please provide evidence to back up that claim?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, I thank the member for Nightcliff for her question. It might rile the member for Drysdale for us to keep running this line as the most tax-reforming government in Australia …
Mr Dunham: Highest taxing government ever!
Mr STIRLING: Perhaps we are the second most reforming because they were the most reforming in the sense that they put them up! They increased them year after year after year! Well, not us! We are the most reforming tax government in Territory history in a positive sense.
Mr DUNHAM: A point of order, Madam Speaker! Can I point out that that is inaccurate now or should I wait for a more appropriate time? Do not tell lies, mate.
Madam SPEAKER: You know you can do that later. Let us not have frivolous points of order.
Mr Dunham: He should not make allegations that are untrue.
Madam SPEAKER: Member for Drysdale, cease!
Mr STIRLING: Madam Speaker, the evidence is overwhelming. Budget 2005 outlines tax cuts worth $40m, coming on the back of tax cuts this government has already made of $40m. In every budget since we took office in 2001, we have cut payroll tax. In two budgets, we cut the rate from 6.5% - probably the highest in Australia which we inherited from the CLP - to 6.2% and, in the two most recent budgets, we will more than double the threshold from $600 000 when we came into government in 2001 - that would have been the lowest threshold in Australia - to $1.25m from 1 July 2006.
That is equal to the best threshold in Australia. A locally-based Territory business with a $1.25m payroll will pay no payroll tax from 1 July 2006 compared with the year 2000 when they would have paid, under the CLP, $42 900. They will pay no tax from 1 July 2006: $42 900 back in the pocket of business to allow them to continue to grow and expand their business without fear they are going to be caught by that payroll tax.
In the year 2000, a business with a $2m wages bill would have paid $92 400 in payroll tax. Talk about the highest taxing government in Australian history - that is where it was in 2000; it was the highest taxing government ever in the Northern Territory. A business with a $2m wages bill would have paid $92 400 in payroll tax. From 1 July 2006, that business will pay $46 500, a tax cut of $45 900 per year back to business to continue to grow, invest in their business, more jobs for Territorians and more skills. It is a substantial saving to business, and it puts NT locally-based businesses at a very competitive advantage with their interstate counterparts.
We have also attacked stamp duty. We have lifted the tax-free threshold on conveyances of first home buyers from $80 000 when we came to office to $125 000 in 2002, and to $200 000 this year. Territorians will pay nothing on the purchase of their first home if it is under $200 000.
We have introduced the $1500 rebate on stamp duty if you are buying your own place of residence. We have laid out a plan to remove the stamp duty from leases, unquoted marketable securities, hiring stamp duties, and the non-real aspects of non-residential conveyances. We have relayed that to the Commonwealth and we had no answer saying they are not going to accept that.
We now have the lowest taxes for all business with up to 100 staff. We have abolished bank account taxes, debits tax and electronic debits transaction duty. I wonder who introduced those taxes into the system? Of course, it was the Country Liberal Party. It has been a substantial effort and one that has been carefully planned to match our commitments to infrastructure spending, and spending on services and skilling Territorians. It stands in stark contrast to the efforts of the previous government.
In their final term of office, the CLP increased the following taxes and charges on Territorians and businesses: they put a superannuation and fringe benefits contribution into payroll; increased domestic power prices by 7.2%, then 9%; increased commercial power prices by 5.7%; increased water costs by 18.2%; increased the hiring duty rate from 1.5% to 1.8%; increased the general insurance duty rate from 8% to 10%. They tried to sneak away with that at the time of the introduction of the GST so they could blame the GST. It had nothing to do with the GST; it was these clowns here seeking to pour ever more money out of the pockets of Territorians to try to fill their black hole that they were creating year in and year out. They included both the purchase of a Crown leasehold convertible to freehold, and the purchase of Crown leasehold to freehold as liable to conveyance stamp duty.
The Leader of the Opposition has no credibility to talk tax when he presided over a government - he had two-and-a-half years as Chief Minister to go to Cabinet every week and say: ‘Enough of this. Enough of this; let us cut taxes’. Did we hear it from the Chief Minister of the day? Two-and-a-half years. No credibility; he is simply unbelievable. He had the opportunity, and his predecessors before him had the opportunity to do it for 26 years, and they did not.
Budget 2005-06 – Effect on Jobs
Mr BURKE to TREASURER
Treasurer, try not to shout; Territorians are trying to listen to this. You have admitted from your answer to my first question that there is nothing directly there for the average Territory family that will reduce their tax burden, lower the cost of living or their power bill, but you have said you are going to strengthen the economy and grow more jobs. Last year, the theme of your budget was ‘more jobs, less taxes, a great lifestyle’. However, according to Budget Paper No 2 at page 95, employment has dropped by 1.37%. That is roughly 1300 jobs. Will you finally admit what we have been saying to you for the past three years, which is that your budgets are having a negative effect on jobs? Will you also admit …
Members interjecting.
Madam SPEAKER: Order!
Mr Dunham: Glad you find it funny!
Madam SPEAKER: Order, member for Drysdale! The Opposition Leader has the floor.
Mr BURKE: This is serious for Territorians trying to find a job and looking for something for them in this budget. Will you also admit that your promise, yet again, of this budget delivering jobs growth cannot be believed?
ANSWER
Goodness me! Nothing for Mr and Mrs Smith in this budget, Madam Speaker? Record health, education and police, creating safer communities in the Northern Territory. That is all helpful to people out there. The child care subsidy, ongoing and increased to $3.7m, all keeping the cost of child care down; fuel subsidy, $3.6m helping to keep the cost of fuel down; a power subsidy of around $40m goes to the Power and Water Corporation …
Mr Dunham interjecting.
Madam SPEAKER: Member for Drysdale, order!
Mr STIRLING: … in any given year; no increases in charges; bank fee taxes are gone. Every time they went to the ATM and withdrew money and copped 10 - that has gone. Nothing at all for these people or support for business!
In relation to jobs and the 1.3%, I have said every day as Minister for Employment, Education and Training, in and around ABS statistics, we treat them with a great deal of caution and we do so for very good reason.
The Leader of the Opposition should have come with me a couple of weeks ago when I went to Wickham Point and the Bechtel site. There are 2000 workers out there. Are they in the figures? Are they bounced into the ABS employment figures? Not on your nellie! And why not? Because if they are knocked on the door by the ABS statistician collecting information and are asked: ‘Where are you from?’ the worker says: ‘I am from Smith Street, Townsville’. That is a statistic which goes down to Queensland despite the fact they could be living and working here for the greater part of two-and-a-half years. And the same thing …
Members interjecting.
Mr STIRLING: ‘Shock, horror!’ they say. Come out with me, get out your office, have a good look around. Come and see my part of the world where they are starting to really mass up the infrastructure. There are probably about 400 now on the G3 alumina plant. How many of them are in the statistics? If you added the 2000 there and the 400 at Gove, that is 2.4% on its own.
The fact is ABS have a particular way of capturing labour market data, and it probably serves to disadvantage the Northern Territory more than anywhere else. We do not have a huge resident work force that is flying interstate, fly in-fly out, recorded to us. In fact, it is the other way; it is the other states providing the work force to us through these major projects and they are recorded thus in the ABS figures.
This goes back a couple of years. I have always been cautious with ABS data. I can recall when ABS figures were coming out in November, December, January and February showing the labour market climbing through the roof, and I said to the Chief Minister: ‘This is not true. We are in a traditional Wet Season downturn of the economy in the Northern Territory when the tourism and hospitality season turns down and casual workers come off stream …
Mr ELFERINK: A point of order, Madam Speaker! The minister is giving a fulsome answer, which I appreciate, but he is taking a great deal of time and he is not saying anything useful.
Madam SPEAKER: Yes, Treasurer.
Mr STIRLING: I will wrap up, Madam Speaker. It is, in fact, part of the answer because what they did by getting it wrong then was create an artificial base in the sense that those jobs and those people were not there; it was simply the way they were taking the samples at the time so that, of course, we had a big downturn through May, June, July, August, traditional Dry Season months when labour market and economic activity tends to pick up and strengthen.
We probably finished with a lower base out of that little exercise than we should have, and hence you get this figure of 1.3%. Come out with me and have a look at the 2000 workers there. Come and visit and say g’day to the 500 workers over in my part of the world, growing to 1600 or 1700 by about this time next year.
Budget 2005-06 – Impact on First Home Buyers
Ms LAWRIE to TREASURER
Could you advise the House of the likely effect of today’s announced cut in stamp duty to first home buyers for families of the Territory?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, I thank the member for Karama for her question. The effect will be to almost cut in half the amount of stamp duty on conveyancing paid by a first home buyer. There are around 1400 first home buyers each year in the Territory. We have the highest proportion of first home buyers of any place in Australia.
We also have, and historically have had, the lowest rate of home ownership in Australia, and it is a big job ahead of us to continue to encourage it. It is good that we have the highest proportion, but that is coming off the lowest base in Australia. Raising the threshold to $200 000 means a first home buyer receiving the maximum benefit could save up to $6800. Any home less than $200 000 will result in no stamp duty being paid by the first home buyer, and that should be welcome news indeed.
In 2002, we lifted the threshold from $80 000 to $125 000 as we promised, and today, with this decision, we have put about $2.7m back into the pockets of those first home buyers. This will allow them to fit out and furnish their homes, perhaps to a higher degree than they may otherwise have done, which is also going to be helpful in terms of retail and the economy overall.
This government has three policy planks in place to assist Territorians into their own homes: the $200 000 threshold on stamp duty; the very successful HomeNorth scheme – and I commend the minister for the work being done by him and his agency; and a $1500 stamp duty rebate for people buying a home to live in. We have made a greater effort than ever before to assist Territorians to achieve their dream of home ownership, and we are going to continue it.
Budget 2005-06 - Primary School Student Numbers
Mr BURKE to TREASURER
In response to your last answer, you might want to look at your own budget papers because you dispute the figures in them that show employment has dropped by 1.3% in 2004-05, and you claim employment is booming. Would you also explain why primary school student numbers have dropped from 20 888 in 2002-03 to your budgeted figure of 19 600, a loss of 1288 primary school students over four years or, roughly, equating to one school closed per year, and how that equates to your booming economy?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, in relation to the 1.3% in the budget papers that we talk about, it is the same qualification we always use …
Members interjecting.
Madam SPEAKER: Order, order!
Mr STIRLING: You are not listening! It is the same qualification we always use when we are talking about monthly ABS figures, and that is: there is a high degree of volatility both in the way they are collected, and because it is a small labour market susceptible to great distortion, depending on where the sample is created.
I will have a look at these figures because they stand in stark contrast to this: we have 1000 more indigenous students enrolled in government schools in the Northern Territory compared with these clowns when they were in office. I will give you good reason for that: the policy they had in place for the 27 years they were in government was to deliberately not take secondary education to indigenous communities.
It was two years ago, to the shame of the Northern Territory, to the shame of successive CLP governments, that we had the first indigenous student to achieve their NTCE Year 12 in their home community, and congratulations to those three students at Kalkarindji. How many secondary programs did the CLP provide to remote indigenous communities? Answer: zero! Zero! Since we came to government, we have not only had NTCE results achieved by indigenous students in their own community two years ago at Kalkarindji, we came back last year with Maningrida, and we will have a range of communities with students achieving their Year 12 NTCE this year.
Inside those figures, whatever the figures are - and I do not trust the Leader of the Opposition when it comes to figures, I trust the budget papers implicitly. I do not trust the Leader of the Opposition for very good reason: he has form.
Mr Baldwin: What? Is it written in them?
Mr STIRLING: And so have you when it comes to budgets. So have you.
Madam SPEAKER: Order!
Mr STIRLING: Madam Speaker, we have enrolled in our schools about 1000 more indigenous students. We are going to continue that process and we are going to continue to have more indigenous kids in secondary education, as is their right as Australian citizens, unlike you blokes!
Dr Lim: Hear, hear!
Madam SPEAKER: Order, thank you! We have had enough time to react. Start settling down. We could perhaps have shorter answers, Treasurer.
Budget 2005-06 - St John Ambulance
Mr WOOD to MINISTER for HEALTH
I believe three reports have been completed for or about St John Ambulance. Have any of these been made public and, if not, why not? Could you please say what these reports recommended, and can you find in the budget anywhere that funding will be boosted for the ambulance service so that cutbacks to the service - for example, providing call-out crews the same as happens with the fire brigade - are not required?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, I thank the member for his question. There have been two reports into the financial affairs of the St John Ambulance Service: one by Walter Turnbull, which is a financial report; and the other is a service report by the New South Wales Ambulance Service. They were reports which we, as a government, facilitated to ensure there was an independent assessment of financial and operational issues within the ambulance service. Both of those reports were mutually agreed to by St John and the government and, for that reason, we are respecting the confidentiality of them because St John is also depending on that confidentiality.
In respect of what the reports showed, the report on the fiscal situation of St John says that it needs more money. My CEO has already put on the table a very substantial offer of money to St John. However, quite rightly, he has linked the provision of that money to settling continuing problems we have with the fiscal management and internal organisation of St John. That would be the same set of criteria we would apply to funding any NGO within the community and we cannot make an exception in the case of St John. The money is on the table, sufficient to cover the requirements identified in the consultancy report.
The Commissioner for Business Affairs is now investigating the fiscal position of St John, as he must do under his statutory obligations. He will come back in the near future with an outcome from that investigation. We will then be able to see a way forward.
Budget 2005-06 - Palmerston High School
Mr BURKE to TREASURER
You have now disputed your budget figures which show that employment has dropped by 1.37%, 1300 jobs. You have also disputed the loss of 1288 primary school students. That means we obviously need more schools, because we are growing our population, according to you. I am pleased to see that today’s budget delivered a note of $10m for a new high school in Palmerston. You have included this capital item in each of your last three budgets, with a promise to build a new high school and, in past budget papers, you have included committal dates for major capital projects, including the Palmerston High School which, as I recall, was supposed to be opened this year and not a sod has been turned to date.
Today’s budget papers have dropped any commitment date for the Palmerston High School. Does that mean, once again, you are not committed to building it, or have you found the students who were in primary school and in need of a new high school have now finished their secondary education and moved on and the rest can keep waiting?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, one of the things we are not going to do is mandate that no school will be bigger than 300 kids.
Members interjecting.
Mr STIRLING: No school will be bigger than 300 kids. This clown over here is so …
Dr Lim: That is a lie! That is a lie!
Madam SPEAKER: Member for Greatorex!
Mr STIRLING: This clown over here, Madam Speaker, says no school should be bigger than 300. Go to Casuarina Senior College and tell the 900 who are no longer welcome where they are going to go. Tell them where you are going to build the three new high schools for the other 900 kids because you are not allowed to have a school with more than 300. Tell them where you are going to get the $25m to build each of the three high schools, and then tell Darwin High School, which also has well in excess of 1000 kids: ‘Sorry, 759 of you kids are no longer welcome, out the door. We are going to build another two new high schools at another $25m each’, and so far we are up to about $125m, I think, and counting, and then when you get that lot …
Mr Dunham: Why would he tell them lies like that, Syd?
Mr HENDERSON: A point of order, Madam Speaker!
Madam SPEAKER: Member for Drysdale, withdraw that!
Mr DUNHAM: No, I was suggesting that my colleague would not tell lies like that, Madam Speaker. I was not making any assumptions that he was telling lies; I was saying my colleague would not go to those schools and perpetrate lies of that type.
Members interjecting.
Madam SPEAKER: I shall check the Hansard and make sure you are telling me the truth.
Mr DUNHAM: Yes, I said he would not tell lies like that. I am sure he would not, and if I caused you offence, I apologise.
Madam SPEAKER: If you have misquoted what you just said, I will not be at all impressed.
Mr DUNHAM: Pardon?
Madam SPEAKER: It was my hearing of you that you were calling the Treasurer for lies, so just make sure you have not. All right, Treasurer, continue.
Mr STIRLING: It becomes more complicated than that, Madam Speaker. When you start telling kids where they can and cannot go to school and you cannot have more than 300 …
Dr Lim: This is the lie.
Mr STIRLING: You have to go to Stuart Park …
Madam SPEAKER: Treasurer, cease a minute. Member for Greatorex, withdraw that, please.
Dr LIM: Madam Speaker, I said this is the lie. I did not call him a liar. I said: ‘This is the lie’.
Madam SPEAKER: I want you to withdraw it. I am not going to accept …
Dr LIM: Withdraw that this is a lie?
Madam SPEAKER: Member for Greatorex!
Dr LIM: I will withdraw it if you instruct me to.
Madam SPEAKER: Thank you. That is all you have to do. Stop throwing these remarks across the floor about people lying.
Mr STIRLING: Go out to Stuart Park: 528 kids there. How do I pick the 228 who are no longer welcome and where are we going to send them? We could send them up the road to Ludmilla. That does not have 300 kids; we can fill that up. When that fills up, we will have to build another school. It just goes on and on. That is nonsense.
In relation to Palmerston secondary, a great deal of discussion and consultation has gone on with the school councils and school community in and around Palmerston and the areas which would feed a new high school. Whilst we had commitment dates and they have slipped, they were probably premature in the sense that we then commissioned the secondary review, which has some way to go in terms of community consultation and discussion as to how that might all work through in the end, and some of those factors may impinge on the final design of Palmerston secondary school.
I will say this: it will be the best designed and best fit school this country has ever seen. I can say that unequivocally because we are going to spend a lot of time absolutely getting this right, and next time we have a committal date against it, it will be the date.
Budget 2005-06 – Incentives for Traineeships and Apprenticeships
Mr BONSON to TREASURER
Budget 2005 has three elements: less tax, local jobs and better skills. My question relates to the third element. The Treasurer is aware that Australia is suffering from a skills and labour shortage. Will the Treasurer advise the House on specific incentives contained in the budget which will increase our trainees and apprenticeships?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, I thank the member for Millner for his question because this is one part of the budget which has gone down exceptionally well with business and industry in the initial feedback because they know that the Territory traditionally has a chronic skills shortage. We are no different now, except that the rest of Australia also has an encroaching skills shortage.
Credit to him, Prime Minister Howard finally woke up to this just before the election last year, so he said to himself and his minders: ‘I know what we need, I know what we need. When I was a kid at school in the 1940s and 1950s, we had technical schools. Brendan, you go out there and tell them we are going to have Australian technical colleges’. That is about as far as it has gone because neither Brendan Nelson nor the minister assisting him, whose name escapes me, have any idea of what these Australian technical colleges look like or how they should work. Neither does industry, which is supposed to lead these technical colleges, and nor do state and territory governments because they have deliberately been kept out of the way.
So while Howard might muse his way through the 1950s despite the fact that we are in 2005 and come up with what he thinks is a solution, he has not worked it out with anyone, nor has he told anyone exactly what he wants to do. We have very clear fixes in relation to our own skills shortage.
The centrepiece in this budget is a commitment to skilling and training; 10 000 Territorians to be trained over the next four years. We will pay a Work Wear Work Gear cash bonus of up to $500 for every new trainee and apprentice to help them get started in their career. We will fund 40 new vocational education and training scholarships per year worth $4000 each, to assist students with course fees and material costs. We will introduce Build Skills NT, a $500 000 initiative to upgrade the skills of existing Territory workers, and we will be looking across those fields of automotive building, construction, hospitality and mining industries. There is $400 000 in Budget 2005 for pre-employment training programs …
Mr Dunham: $400 000! Wow!
Mr STIRLING: … $200 000 to develop a new school-to-work initiative called Work Ready NT.
The member for Drysdale gets himself in hot water every time he scoffs at our Jobs Plan because I have it on record that he was secretly complimentary about the Jobs Plan to others, and that he said: ‘I wish we had done it’. Every time he opens his mouth about the Jobs Plan, I know what you said, brother, and you were highly complimentary. You said: ‘God, I wish we had done it’ so don’t come in here with your ‘wow, wow, wow’ because you actually think it is a good idea. I have that on good authority! I have it on good authority, talking to your mates, how good you think this program is.
There is $4.4m to the VET in Schools program, and we are going to increase funding for VET at Charles Darwin University by $1.5m, taking the total annual base funding for Charles Darwin University to $35.2m. That additional $1.5m going to Charles Darwin University will be directed straight to the trades school.
You can scoff at the $500 here and $200 there, but you have to look at the context of the total package. It is a powerful package for skills training in our work force and will build on the success of Jobs Plan 1. We have lifted the training effort by 25% a year. We have more than 3100 Territorians currently in training, a 35% increase on any time the CLP was in government. Both Jobs Plan 1 and now Jobs Plan 2 will stand in stark contrast to the efforts of members opposite when they were in government.
Budget 2005-06 – Per Capita Taxation
Mr BURKE to TREASURER
Your budget papers show that you are again breaking new ground as the highest taxing Treasurer the Territory has ever seen. Whilst you will claim that the economy is booming, could you please provide an answer in terms of per capita taxation, that is, the average amount you would levy on every man, woman and child? Can you explain how it is that your estimate that $1326 per capita is increasing this year to $1466, and how you can reconcile that in the face of record GST payments, doubling of own-source taxation revenue, and explain to Territory families why you are not providing any substantial cost of living decrease to the average Territory family?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, in relation to the cost of living increases he suggested, as I said before, the real answer is in terms of getting critical mass of population so you have a whole range of goods and services delivered on a much more cost-effective, cost-efficient basis, and we are doing that. We have stemmed the turnaround in population and we are now seeing population growth. That will serve us well into the future both in terms of revenue from the Commonwealth, which will in turn assist us to keep prices down. However, when you do get critical mass of population, a whole lot of things come into being.
I talked about the child care subsidy of $3.7m, in there deliberately to keep the cost of child care down. There are no increases in charges, fees, levies or subsidies anywhere in this budget that would impact on families. The subsidy to keep power prices where they are costs around $40m by way of Community Service Obligation to the Power and Water Corporation. Bank fee taxes have gone. The 10 withdrawal fee at an ATM is gone. Of course, there is a range of support for business, which will allow business to continue to grow.
In relation to the Leader of the Opposition’s figures, our Territory tax collection per capita for 2005-06 is estimated at $1474 compared with …
Mr Dunham: That seems to be up.
Mr STIRLING: ‘That seems very high,’ the member for Drysdale says. Go and live anywhere else in Australia, and the average for the other states is $2031. Is this not fairly low? $1474 for the Territory, the average of all the states is $2031. I know where I would sooner be living. It highlights that in 2005-06, the Territory will collect the second-lowest per capita tax revenue after Tasmania, so there is only Tasmania ahead of us in terms of per capita collection. The all-state average is $2031, and we stand at $1474, so keep telling this story. Get out there and tell this story, and Territorians will know how well off they are under this government.
Budget 2005-06 – Generation of Jobs
Mr KIELY to TREASURER
You highlighted local jobs as a critical element of Budget 2005. Can you advise the House how you intend to achieve this aim?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, I thank the member for Sanderson for his question. There is no doubt local jobs will be generated by another record infrastructure spend this year, which will stand at $476m. If you add up …
Mr Dunham: Are you going to spend it?
Mr STIRLING: Are we going to spend it? Are we going to spend it?
Mr Dunham: You rolled over $130m last year. It is all in the revote.
Mr STIRLING: These blokes used to come out with a capital works program and they did not even have enough cash against it to pay for the revote for the year before! He says it is all revote! You did not even have enough cash in your program to pay for what you did not achieve the year before, let alone the new works! 50% or 51% stands in stark contrast, 65% cash against our capital works program, this year $476m. Last year, at the time of the budget, we committed $441m and we will probably come out of 2004-05 with $479m. We are going forward this year with $476m, and you would expect that there would be some increase with urgent jobs or jobs brought forward throughout 2005-06 which will increase that year.
Let us go back to 2001. Since the Martin government was elected, if you add up the various capital works programs for 2001-02, 2002-03, 2004-05, and 2005-06, $2.23bn cash into infrastructure spending, sustaining thousands of local jobs and thousands of contractors.
We have also taken minor new works up 40%; $20m last year, $28.6m this year. These works are particularly important, not just for government, which has to get a whole range of minor new works, and repairs and maintenance done throughout its assets, but they provide real bread and butter for the smaller contractors who may not be directly involved in the more major projects. For the carpenters, electricians, plumbers and smaller contractors, that is ongoing work for them in a real sense.
We have also boosted repairs and maintenance, and we have committed to escalating that budget to meet growing, so that provides real jobs for smaller businesses. These are the blokes who were sitting down there having coffee for about 12 months before we came to government in 2001. Kon used to go down and have a coffee with them because that is all they were doing; they were not driving cement mixers. Many of these repairs and maintenance contracts are period contracts which guarantee work over two or more years so they give certainty and ongoing work to these contractors. Local jobs will be secured also by the spread of the items across the infrastructure budget because it is a budget that provides work across the Territory.
I am proud of the fact that we cash our infrastructure programs very heavily and we do get things done reasonably quickly. Of course, there is always revote, unavoidably, but it is relatively minor compared with the overall program.
As I have said before, we inherited a capital works budget where the cash to run the budget was less than the cash required to pick up the revote from the previous year. We also inherited a program where the majority of the money was going into two large projects, and those very important smaller subcontractors, who sustain our economy and the construction industry, were simply being starved out. It is unbelievable that the Leader of the Opposition makes comments about infrastructure spending because he had the chance, as a minister in the CLP government, and he had two-and-a-half years as Chief Minister to turn this around, and it spiralled ever downwards under his leadership.
Budget 2005-06 – Business Confidence
Mr BURKE to TREASURER
In last year’s budget, described as ‘more jobs, less tax, great lifestyle’, in Budget Paper No 2 at page 26, you promised your budget would deliver $20.3m worth of initiatives in the economy and the business sector for this financial year just ending. This year’s Budget Paper No 2 at page 2, shows only $2.8m of those initiatives were actually delivered, short-changing business by $17.5m. Why should Territory business have any confidence you will keep to your promises of $7.2m this year to support them?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, it is not whether they should have any confidence or not. When we see the Sensis returns and the Chamber of Commerce surveys, which are reported one way or another through the media, there is growing confidence among business in the short, medium and longer term outlook for their business prospects in the Northern Territory.
They see it in the upturn in consumer spending, the number of new car sales in the Territory outstripping the rest of Australia by a large margin, and in the construction industry and ongoing work in unit investment and development. Of course, all of that spend, one way or another, comes back into the Territory economy.
Territory business confidence levels, far from distrusting or mistrusting, are increasing all the time, as you would expect they would in a growing and expanding economy such as ours. That is what they are going to continue to see because any slack in the Bechtel work force as it comes down off a peak later this year and starts production into next year, is readily picked up by Alcan. There is already an understanding between the two companies as certain categories of the Bechtel work force come off and shift across to Alcan.
That spend is going to continue for a while, and it is going to be boosted by the commencement of the Darwin City Waterfront project and the Darwin convention and entertainment centre, which are going to provide hundreds of jobs over many years for the construction industry. Do not say to me that business is distrusting of or churlish about us, or thinks government is not going to deliver because they think we already have.
Mr ELFERINK: A point of order, Madam Speaker! The Treasurer is straying in terms of relevance. The question was quite straight forward: why did you promise $20m and spend $2m?
Madam SPEAKER: Thank you for that. Treasurer, would you get on to answering the question, briefly, please? Have you concluded your answer, Treasurer?
Mr STIRLING: Yes.
Budget 2005-06 – Business Reaction
Mrs AAGAARD to MINISTER for BUSINESS and INDUSTRY
Budget 2005 is backing Territorians with record tax cuts, strong infrastructure spending, local jobs and better skills. Can you please advise the House how the Martin government’s fourth budget has been received by the Territory business community?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, I thank the member for Nightcliff for her question. Just four hours and 15 minutes after the Treasurer started his budget speech, the initial reaction from the business community has been very positive. Most of us on this side of the House were at the Chamber of Commerce post-budget briefing by the Treasurer and there were very favourable comments.
As business minister, I am very proud of the budget delivered by the Treasurer this morning. It is all about improving the Northern Territory’s competitive position for business, and improving the investment climate and the return for the private sector on their investment. As the Treasurer said, the four budgets we have handed down have continued to cut taxes and we are now, certainly, the most tax-reforming government the Territory has ever seen: $40m worth of tax cuts which makes the Territory the lowest-taxing jurisdiction for businesses with up to 100 staff from 1 July.
That is a huge achievement. The vast majority of Territory-owned enterprises across the Northern Territory have the competitive position of being taxed the least by any of the state governments, and that is improving the competitive position of the Northern Territory from what we inherited.
The continued cuts to payroll tax, the tax threshold rises to $1m, meaning that 79 businesses will no longer pay the tax this year, going up to $1.25m and including another 53 businesses. All up, within 12 months, 132 Territory businesses will no longer pay payroll tax, a tax they were paying under the last CLP government. In all, the number of businesses which will have been exempted since we started reforming the payroll tax regime is 215. The monkey has gone from their back. We are very proud of that achievement and we will continue to ensure we have the most competitive taxing position of all of the states.
The electronic debit transaction duty and debits tax, taxes introduced by the CLP, have been abolished. First home owners will not pay stamp duty on the first $200 000 of their purchase. When we came to government, everything over $80 000 was slugged with stamp duty. Now, the vast majority of first home buyers in the Territory come in at under $200 000, and my understanding is that about 80% will now not pay any stamp duty on their principal place of residence. This is on top of the very generous HomeNorth scheme. I, along with the Treasurer, congratulate the Minister for Housing for a fantastic reform to the housing scheme in the Territory. Every real estate agent and first home buyer I talk to think that the HomeNorth scheme has been absolutely fantastic and it will certainly be bolstered by this $200 000 threshold for stamp duty.
Training initiatives: again, if the members in opposition got out more, they would know that the economy is doing very well, that the skills shortage is huge and Jobs Plan 2 is aiming to get a record 10 000 Territorians into training over the next four years. That is a government with vision. That is a government committed to backing young Territorians and giving them the skills to take advantage of the current economic climate. Record spending on safer communities is also a boost to business.
The Real Estate Institute of the Northern Territory has welcomed the 2005-06 Budget as a sensible budget for continued growth of the Territory economy. They are acknowledging that the economy is growing. The only people in the Territory who do not believe the economy is growing are members opposite. It really does not give them any credibility at all in public debate on issues when they deny what everyone else can see, which is jobs and economic growth.
The Territory Construction Association says that the budget is well balanced and good for the construction industry, and is very supportive of the training initiatives. Other comments from the Chamber of Commerce luncheon today welcomed the reduction in payroll tax and the additional places for trades training, as well as strong support for infrastructure expenditure for the tourism industry.
This budget delivers less tax, local jobs and better skills, and the initial feedback to date from the business community has been very supportive.
Power and Water Corporation – Billing System
Mr WOOD to MINISTER for ESSENTIAL SERVICES
There are outstanding problems with the new billing system at Power and Water. Customers are being sent reminder or final notices to pay bills which they have never received or are given three days’ notice to pay. Other customers are being sent bills that are outrageously higher than usual consumption. Yet the Retail Manager for Power and Water, Jim Bamber, was recently quoted in the Sunday Territorian as saying that the billing system was running smoothly. Could you please detail the billing problems still being experienced by Power and Water customers and how many customers are affected? Further, could you explain what you are doing to help sort out the problems in the billing system and what arrangements are in place to assist affected customers with bill payments?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, I thank the member for Nelson for his question. There are approximately 67 000 customers of Power and Water and about 2000 invoices are issued on a daily basis. With the change to the Gentrack system from the previous system, which was fairly aged and worn out, there had to be a massive transfer of data. Many of the problems experienced came about through that.
The new system also performs a more thorough check of tariffs, meter sizes, rebates and customer type prior to issuing the invoice to a customer, so it is actually a system which is doing more. It has had to rely on the transfer of data, some of which is over 20 years old.
I would be the first to admit there have been a number of problems with the billing system. I can understand the disquiet of consumers when they receive bills, as the member for Nelson has outlined, that are much larger than they are used to, or they feel they have not been issued bills in the period in which they are used to receiving them.
I have spent a lot of time with Power and Water on this issue. I have visited the billing centre, for want of a better word, and the call centre, and I commend Power and Water staff who did a fantastic job with all the queries they received at the height of this matter. I am assured that the number of queries has tailed off considerably. There are still some problems, no doubt, and if the member for Nelson wants to inform me about people who are having problems, I will work as best I can to resolve them.
All through this, I have asked that Power and Water adopt a flexible position: if there have been issues, as the member for Nelson outlined, that people are given a reasonable time to pay with flexible arrangements. I believe that Power and Water have done this to the best of their ability.
In short: yes, there have been problems, I acknowledge that. It has been a mammoth task in changing between the two systems. If any member here or any member of the public has or continues to have problems, I invite them to call my parliamentary office.
Budget 2005-06 – Business Incentives
Mr BURKE to TREASURER
Treasurer, I listened with interest to the comments by the minister for business saying that $40m in tax relief has been delivered and the monkey is finally off the back of business. I wonder if he has read your budget papers at all. For 2005-06, the only reductions to business are $5.1m in total, and for 2006-07 they total $10m. It takes a while before you get to $40m. Business should know and understand that and you should be truthful to them.
I also point out that your figures do not add up. At page 26 of Budget Paper No 2, the column for 2005-06 is incorrect. It does not add up properly. One wonders what you can believe.
However, given the fact you have said it is $7.2m in incentives in 2005-06, of that, $3m is payment to the fuel companies for moving to East Arm, given the high cost of doing business in the Territory and the fact that your own source revenue alone is predicted to increase by $46m in 2005-06, how can you reconcile only $4.3m in business incentives for next year as sufficient to help business?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, this goes to a key difference between the Country Liberal Party opposition and this Labor government, and it is the issue of believability and sustainability into the future. I was asked this question earlier today in terms of deficit funding and whether it is good or bad. The question about deficit funding is the believability and sustainability to get back to a balanced budget in 2008-09.
In relation to the tax cuts, at lunch time, the Chamber of Commerce and the business lock-up were very happy to be told and to understand that if they have a business of fewer than 100 employees in the Northern Territory, they are paying far less tax than anywhere else in Australia. We will continue to make inroads into taxation over the years ahead, but we will do so in a sustainable manner that the budget bottom line can handle, year in, year out, unlike those opposite who did not know the size of the deficits they were running up, and cared less. In fact, they deliberately falsified the true level of deficit.
Mr DUNHAM: A point of order, Madam Speaker! This is a matter which has been looked at by a parliamentary committee. He is verballing the committee and defaming the previous government. I suggest he withdraw.
Madam SPEAKER: There is no point of order. Treasurer, please continue with your answer.
Mr STIRLING: In relation to a question before from the Leader of the Opposition, who was being either a little tricky or not quite understanding what he was saying, that we underspent in economy and business initiatives, they were new initiatives coming into the 2004-05 year. If you look on page 25, you have Economy and Business at $2.8m, Schools at $9.8m, Community Safety at $1.9m and so on, adding up to $23.4m additional expenditure coming into that year.
That $2.8m is in addition to what was put down in Budget 2004-05, and the next page, page 26, actually goes to the breakdown of that $2.8m, which is the Business and Skilled Migration Strategy at $100 000, Northern Territory Racing Industry capital support at $1.1m, increased capacity in Consumer and Business Affairs at $400 000, $900 000 to kick off the NT Build Construction Industry and Long Service Leave, and $300 000 funding towards The Alice television series.
That $2.8m is not an under-expenditure of $17.2m out of $20m, rather than the $20m which was committed, it became, throughout the course of the year, $22.8m.
Budget 2005-06 – Impact on Central Australia and Barkly Regions
Mr McADAM to MINISTER for CENTRAL AUSTRALIA
Can you inform the House of 2005-06 budget initiatives which will have the most impact on the Centre and the Barkly?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, I thank the member for Barkly for his question. It is very important to know that the budget impacts right throughout the Territory. I am very pleased to talk about its positive impacts on Central Australia.
Businesses in the Centre will be equally pleased with the tax breaks, on the payroll tax particularly, which will affect them positively, as it will in the Top End. That is a great testament to the confidence we feel in the business community to make the most of the opportunities we are giving them through these breaks that we are putting in our budgets.
In terms of the construction industry, we want our constructors to be flat out, pedal to the metal, on building stuff for us down there in the next budget period.
Health: there is $2m to go into renal and acute services in Alice Springs, including $1m into Flynn Drive for renal facilities; a $650 000 upgrade to staff accommodation in Alice Springs Hospital; $1.8m to a new health centre at Yuendumu, and I had the pleasure of seeing the cement slab being laid last time I was there; the drags – Al Stainer will be rapt. It is in writing now, Al, with $800 000 to get the drag strip in next to the Finke start-finish line; two gensets for the Tennant Creek Power Station so the member for Barkly has one there; and the Stuart Lodge renovations have $1.7m and will be starting as soon as we can get the contract in place.
Roads throughout Central Australia will get a boost: the Maryvale beef road $800 000; $500 000 for the Sandover Highway; $10m for the Borroloola access project, which will continue on from the work in the last budget, with $4.8m going out this financial year, followed by design work on the McArthur River Bridge; Alpurrurulam has needed an airstrip for years, and to get an all-weather airstrip in there is going to be fantastic for the community, and there is $1.25m for that.
Tourism: we are not only going to continue full blast on the Mereenie Loop, we are also putting $1m into the Western MacDonnells to improve visitor facilities; for Desert Knowledge, we will be building a lot at the precinct. Millions of dollars worth of work is going out in this financial year, and they will be flat out building this for us. I wish the construction industry well in getting the skilled labour and the additional people and equipment they are going to need to bring into Central Australia for the coming 12 months because we want them there and we want this work done.
In terms of safer communities, we will continue to build, as the police minister said, the number of police on the streets. We will be outposting them through the mobile police station. Some $350 000 will go into community safety plans, which have been brought together by the regional crime prevention councils we have now set up throughout the Territory, including Alice Springs and places like the Relekha Committee at Hermannsburg and the Kurduju Committee in Warlpiri lands. All of those organisations now have the money to apply the crime prevention ideas they are coming up with in these community safety plans.
For volatile substance abuse, $0.5m is going into Central Australia to support the rehabilitation centres, both out bush and in town, to handle the petrol sniffers who will be referred to them under our new legislation.
For hospitals, there is $81.2m in our total spend on the Alice Springs Hospital with the announced level of expenditure in this budget. That is a huge increase, some 33% since we came to office. For Tennant Creek Hospital, there is $8.1m. There will be significant increases in the staffing of Alice Springs Hospital with $1.94m for staffing levels in the ICU and the HDU. An additional surgeon is going to have a big impact on elective surgery and other surgical work in the hospital.
In secondary education, all our town secondary schools will have a student counsellor full-time, and the secondary programs out bush will finally get the systematic support from government that they have needed for years, as you would know, Madam Speaker. The trainees and apprentices are going to impact fantastically on the Centre, as it will elsewhere.
The Alice Springs Festival will receive $130 000, and the Barkly Festival, $30 000. We will have BassintheDust again, to which we are all looking forward.
Central Australians are starting to see how good life can be under a Labor government. It is going to be a very interesting election when it finally arrives.
Mr HENDERSON (Leader of Government Business): Madam Speaker, I ask that further questions be placed on the Written Question Paper.
Mr ELFERINK: A point of order, Madam Speaker! We actually did not start until a couple of minutes past the hour of 2.30 pm. It is a very important question that the Leader of the Opposition wants to ask. Their budget papers do not add up, Madam Speaker. They have the figures wrong!
Madam SPEAKER: You know the rules. Good try. Question Time is over.
Last updated: 09 Aug 2016