2002-08-21
Budget 2002-03 – Government Agency Reductions
Mr BURKE to TREASURER
In your recent letter to all public servants, you state that the rewards of change are now becoming apparent. That change in your mini-budget, page 22, included a 2% reduction in government agencies which resulted in a loss of almost 300 jobs. Your mini-budget also included a further reduction of 4% funding to those agencies for 2002-03 which, based on the job losses of 2001-02, will see a further reduction of 600 jobs across the public service. Isn’t the reason you included the 4% further reduction in the mini-budget so that you would not have to show this bad news in the budget you delivered yesterday? Are these the rewards of change?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, we sat here very sadly this morning and listened to a budget response from the Opposition Leader that simply was wrong. What we have again now is the Opposition Leader simply being wrong, and it is disappointing. It is very disappointing, because when we look at what has been the difference - and we have a 600 figure being quoted by the Leader of the Opposition – which is wrong. Absolutely wrong. I think you have forgotten to include PowerWater, Opposition Leader. I think you have forgotten just a little increase of PowerWater and many hundreds of staff.
Now, let us just get this straight. When we restructured the public sector, which happened last November, we said over time there would be reductions in executive management, and that has happened. That has happened, quite appropriately. We said there would be no forced redundancies in our public sector, and that has been kept absolutely. We have had reductions in executive management, and there are no forced redundancies.
If you look over time at the figures in our public sector they flow, they diminish over a Wet season, particularly over December-January, and they will certainly grow quite strongly in the middle of the year during the Dry season. That flow happens quite regularly.
When we can look at the figures and actually compare apples with apples, there has been some reduction, but not of significant numbers. It is very hard to say at this stage what it is. What we have asked the new Public Service Commissioner to do is that apples and apples comparison. There is a lot of discussion about what in fact is a full-time equivalent, and we have seen that the numbers differ when you look at where they come from. We have asked the Public Service Commissioner to look at those so we can, on a monthly basis, check what those full-time equivalents are across the public sector.
This government is proud of the way we look after the public sector. This, from a party, when they were in government, who set about to knock 1500 out of our public sector - outsourced wherever they could. We lost public servants, and never a care in the world about it. Here they are trying to pretend that we have set about to try to get rid of public servants. What a load of rubbish!
Mr Reed interjecting.
Ms MARTIN: Did you listen yesterday? Did you listen to my budget statement yesterday - one that delivers for today and invests for tomorrow, invests for the future? Did you listen? We talked about more nurses, more police officers, more firefighters and we are funding them. Within my own Department of Chief Minister, we have growth with and an Office of Indigenous Policy and an Office of Territory Development, and we are proud of it.
This is a government that is strategically building our public sector, and we are proud of it. But let me say we will be having those numbers and we will be doing apples and apples.
Budget 2002-03 – Community Reaction
Ms LAWRIE to TREASURER
What has been the community’s reaction to yesterday’s budget?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, a very fine question from the member for Karama. I came in here yesterday and said we had just come from a Chamber of Commerce and Industry lunch …
Mr Elferink interjecting.
Madam SPEAKER: Order! Member for Macdonnell, that is out of order.
Ms MARTIN: … where the description of the first Labor budget was ‘responsible and responsive’ - fine words. When you look at what has happened over the last 24 hours, there has been an overwhelmingly positive response to the budget. An overwhelmingly positive response, except from the whingers, the whiners with the lack of vision on the other side of this parliament. Even worse than that, listening to the Leader of the Opposition’s budget speech this morning, it was simply wrong. I cannot work out whether the Leader of the Opposition was either trying to mislead this parliament or was simply lost and confused. I will give you the benefit of the doubt and just think you were lost and confused.
I would like to refer to some of the comments we had over the last 24 hours about the first Labor budget in the Territory. From the Territory Construction Association, yesterday afternoon on ABC radio, the General Manager, Dave Malone:
- We think it is a strong budget. It provides over $400m worth of construction activities throughout the Territory, so it is a major boost for our industry, of course, and a major boost for provision of infrastructure throughout the Northern Territory.
One for us. One for the Territory, I say.
Jane Alley from NTCOSS, an organisation that lobbies on behalf of families, seniors, and the disabled across the non-government sector:
- This is a really positive budget for us. It shows a real commitment by the Northern Territory government to reinvesting in what was a previously neglected area.
Previously neglected.
Carole Frost from the Chamber of Commerce and Industry:
- Well, we are really pleased with what has come down. We are seeing that there is a forecast of a steady 3.7% growth, the continuation of tight fiscal management within the government departments, and a steady debt reduction. We have also seen some cuts to business taxes.
She was particularly referring there to the cut in franchise, a legacy of CLP.
Let us look at a major focus of the budget: education. We have the President of the Australian Education Union in the Territory, Robert Laird saying:
- Well, overall we have had to say that it is a very good start in terms of educational reform by this government.
Another positive.
Sue Shearer from the Real Estate Institute. Basically the budget, as she says:
- It will act as a catalyst for people who have been vacillating about selling their existing home and upgrading. So it will be a stimulus for our industry.
- For the first time in a while we have had a real increase in health spending.
Going to a political scientist looking at the budget, Professor Bob Catley from the NTU, and his overall description:
- This is a growth budget.
Then, when asked about overall debt reduction:
- Well, there is some immediate increase in debt, but it is small, and if the economy grows at 5% per annum after next year, quite manageable.
- The budget also anticipates going into a balance within two years, and there will be some paying off the debt when it goes into balance and then into surplus.. So I do not think that is anything to worry about.
When asked: ‘Is this short on vision?’, which the opposition is trying to claim:
- Oh, I do not think that is entirely fair. The government is spending a lot on infrastructure. We are a frontier economy still, and you have to build the infrastructure to get the private sector going along, and they are ticking along nicely.
Graham Kemp from the Housing Association:
- Indeed, we are very pleased with this budget; very pleased with the proactive stand that the government has taken.
He goes on to talk about a number of things. He was asked: ‘Is capital investment good for bush in remote areas?’, and this was his answer:
- Yeah, very much so, and it is good for us from an employment point of view because we have tended to see a lot of – a drift of trades going down to the southern and eastern states. I think in actual fact we are going to get people back here because we are starting to see a fall-off in the eastern states. We may, in actual fact, start to see people coming back into the Territory.
Across the Territory, in the industry sectors and the unions, there is a really positive response to this budget. And - what a surprise! - the only negative response, the only carping is coming from that side of the House.
Budget 2002-03 - Tourist Commission Funding
Ms CARNEY to MINISTER for TOURISM
My question relates to the announcement of an extra $500 000 to be provided to the Tourist Commission for advertising in overseas markets. Minister, will you confirm that the $500 000 replaces what was cut from the overseas marketing activity last year in order to increase marketing domestically and that, together with the reduction in the exchange rate and purchasing capacity of the Australian dollar in the US, Japan, Europe and the UK, funding has, in fact, decreased in the international marketing budget. How do you explain this was an increase?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, the bottom line with this increase is that we have, in the international marketing budget, a 10% increase on the last budget that the member for Katherine brought down from their side - a 10% increase.
In terms of replacing money that was taken out of the international sector: yes, last year, in response to 11 September and the Ansett collapse, we did, very strategically, take money, particularly out of the American marketing budget, and put into the drive market. The return on that investment, that tactical switch, has been absolutely significant. If the shadow minister for tourism has been travelling up and down the track, she would see that the caravan parks have had a record season this year. When I was in Katherine recently, you could hardly get down the main street for caravans, campervans, interstate number-plated cars up and down the main street. Tennant Creek has had a very strong year as well.
We have managed to maintain an influx of tourists here this year. What we were potentially looking at post 11 September and the Ansett collapse, was an absolute decimation of the tourism industry in the Northern Territory, and we have not had that. That, to a large part, has been thanks to the fortitude of the industry here; the industry operators who got their shoulder to the wheel and went to those east coast shows, and the fact that we switched some of the marketing budget. However, I can say that money that was switched last year has been replaced. The $500 000 is new money on top of the money from the previous budget. It is new money, and I do not know why the shadow minister cannot see that. We are investing and that investment will leverage a $12m return to the industry in the Northern Territory.
Regarding the exchange rate, it is an interesting point, because those exchange rates have been a significant issue going back to 1996-97, when we started to see the decline in value of the Australian dollar. We have put that money back in, it is a 10% increase on the previous CLP budget. It has been widely commended by people in the tourism sector. The only people who are talking it down are those opposite.
Budget 2002-03 - Balance of 2004-05 Budget
Mr KIELY to TREASURER
What is Treasury’s advice on the government’s plan to bring the budget into balance by 2004-05?
Mr Reed: Can’t you read the books?
ANSWER
The comment from across the House is: ‘Can’t you read the books?’ I would have thought a demonstration of the opposition response to the budget this morning was simply that - that you could not read the books. You simply could not read the books. I sat here squirming this morning. We heard one ridiculous statement after another coming from the mouth of the Opposition Leader. Would you like me to go through all the stupid things you said this morning?
Members interjecting.
Ms MARTIN: It would take half an hour to go through all the stupid things that were said; the inaccurate things. Let us start with net worth …
Mr REED: A point of order, Madam Speaker! The Chief Minister and Treasurer well knows that she, in reply closing debate on the Appropriation Bill, will have every opportunity to go through the matters to which she refers in detail, and she does not have to waste time available for us to ask questions.
Madam SPEAKER: It would be nice if we could have short questions and short answers today, and not so many interjections. Chief Minister, would you like to continue your answer to the question.
Ms MARTIN: The question – well, Madam Speaker, you do give a little latitude ...
Madam SPEAKER: I do, I do, but not always.
Ms MARTIN: … and I am still stunned at what we heard this morning. We heard, for example, the Opposition Leader talk about net worth, and try and quote figures, and somehow equate me in what he thought was cute, to be the Joan Kirner of the Northern Territory. He had the wrong page. Again and again through the speech, he had the wrong page. He did not read Budget Paper No 3. This is a budget paper you can be proud of because it has more in it than we have ever seen in it before. It explains variations, it compares apples with apples in one year to the next. You did not read …
Mr Burke: I read the one that was signed by the Under Treasurer. The one we can believe, remember? This is fiscal transparency.
Ms MARTIN: Page after page of the Opposition Leader’s speech this morning was simply wrong. It was simply wrong. I am trying to be charitable. I am trying to say that he was either lost or confused. However, in terms of an incompetent performance, it was really of a very high scale, and it is very disappointing.
Let me talk about the deficit reduction strategy, because it is one that has been ticked off under our new Fiscal Integrity and Transparency Act. This is not the same as we saw before, where the previous Treasurer, the now member for Katherine - he was the member for Katherine then …
Mr Reed: Always the member for Katherine, not now.
Ms MARTIN: Okay, you were the member for Katherine then – sat up in his office up there on the 5th floor and said: ‘How will I write the bottom figure to this budget? We are coming into an election, what would I like it to be? Oh, $12m is a good number this year’. Well, that was exposed, wasn’t it?
Mr Reed: It was $22m this year.
Ms MARTIN: That was exposed. This is not a budget that deals with that, and so the figures that you have in this budget are there under a Fiscal Integrity and Transparency Act, and those figures have been prepared by Treasury. To have a discussion with those who perpetrated such a deceit on the Territory about a budget that had been done with such integrity, is something that galls me. It is a very serious issue.
What we are doing is dealing in a responsible way with the black hole that was left in the budget - the black hole. We had a Treasurer who pretended it was $12m for deficit for the last financial year, and what was it? In very quick time, it was well over $100m, and when we got Percy Allan to do a very close check, it was $126m. Any pretence that we have heard from the Opposition Leader – who has been out over the last 24 hours to the media saying: ‘What rubbish, black hole in the budget’. That black hole was there, it was a deceit to Territorians.
We are moving on from that. We are dealing with your deceit and our budget - this Labor budget for all Territorians no matter where they live in the Territory - will come back into an even balance by the year 2004-05. Look at that: this is the Treasury figures, and it shows very clearly we have identified the carry overs - something that the Public Accounts Committee showed that you tried to do a Harry Potter on and get to disappear. It was simply another deceit perpetrated on Territorians: lose a carry over from the one year and lose it from the next year. Where did you put it, Treasurer, then? Did you put it in your back pocket? Maybe you put it in your back pocket. We did not see it! The Public Accounts Committee and Percy Allan exposed that.
This is a deficit reduction strategy that Territorians can be very proud of, because in 2004-05 – I will table it for everyone, if you like - we will be back in an even balanced situation. We will be back there, we have a strategy. Yet, at the same time, while we carry through with that strategy, we have put effective increases into the key areas for Territorians: education, health and community safety.
It really was a budget yesterday, and a budget for the next year that delivers but invests for our future. I would like to table this. This is an honest deficit reduction strategy. It has had a tick from all those who carefully looked through …
Mr Burke: What page is it in the budget papers? What page is it in the budget papers?
Madam SPEAKER: Order! Leader of the Opposition, once was enough.
Ms MARTIN: If you cannot read the budget papers, we are going to have to help you out. We do not have colour in the budget paper.
This is a proud budget with key areas of funding, and a proud deficit reduction strategy that has been done without me sitting there writing bottom numbers, as we have seen previously. This will serve us well for the future.
Budget 2002-03 – Acquisition of Native Title Rights
Mr WOOD to TREASURER
Over the past 12 months, the government has signalled it is wanting to compulsorily acquire native title rights over some sections of Crown land. Many of the native title claims have yet to be heard but, if they are approved, the Territory government will be liable to pay compensation to the native title claimants for the land that is acquired compulsorily. The Territory budget does not appear to list these possible payouts under contingent liabilities. What is the government doing to ensure it will have the funds to pay this compensation if it is required to?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, I thank the member for Nelson. It is a good question, and it is one of the key differences between this Labor government and the previous CLP government. It is one of the things I am very proud of over the last 12 months, that the issues we saw fought out year after year over land rights issues and native title issues, is no longer happening in the Territory. We are looking at solutions, negotiations, and successful outcomes of those native title issues and results for economic development on Aboriginal land.
To simply say that it is an issue of compensation is not what it is about. This is about a process of negotiation, and perhaps part of it might be that. But we are working through a number of issues. It is one of the reasons that, in the Department of Chief Minister, we have set up the Office of Indigenous Policy, headed up by a man with an enormous reputation in the area of indigenous policy; that is Neil Westbury. It is great to have him on board. The work is being done, but not in public, full of rhetoric, like we saw before, with the damage done before. It is being done quietly and cooperatively. We are looking forward, in the next 12 months, to some real successes in this area. In the next 12 months, we will have a number of real successes, and in the next few months we will have some as well.
We do have a lands acquisition budget, member for Nelson and, at this stage in the budget papers, it is $3.5m, and there are other capacities to deal with those issues as they emerge. We are looking at negotiated settlements, and as many constructive ways that we can do this as possible. We are not doing it the same way we had it done before. We are not having public fights, political rhetoric, or the politics of race.
If we take an example of what the CLP left in legacy, it was what? - between $20m and $30m fighting over Kenbi - and it got nowhere. A disgraceful legacy from the previous government. A disgraceful legacy that was damaging both to Territorians and to the image of the Territory in the rest of Australia. That has changed, and we will see some real evidence of that; and we have already in the past 12 months.
One small example: within the first three to four months, 70 000 km of land opened up for exploration by a brand new government, which was held up by the previous government only for political purposes. There were 900-plus exploration applications not processed, not even moved from the minister’s desk, because of politics. Well, this is a very different government. We are here for all Territorians, and we are going to get results for all Territorians.
Budget 2002-03 -International Tourism Marketing
Mr REED to MINISTER for TOURISM
In light of his advice earlier that he expected a $12m return from the $500 000 additional international marketing activity; the fact that he earlier advised that the $2m Virgin Blue subsidy would not come out of the marketing budget when, in fact, in the budget papers tabled yesterday it is shown that it will; and, further, that the $500 000 that is going to return $12m in visitor increases to the Northern Territory from international destinations, can he explain how he is going to achieve that, when a single, one page black and white advertisement in the London Daily Telegraph costs 43 000 or $120 000? How many jumbo jets full of tourists are you going to get coming to the Northern Territory, given that your $500 000 is going to be spread across the United States, New Zealand, Japan, Europe, the United Kingdom …
Mr STIRLING: A point of order, Madam Speaker. The member for Katherine was one of the individuals on the other side who tied up this House in a debate over five-and-a-half hours yesterday about the length of questions, the length of answers, how long the debate should go. He has taken over two minutes to ask the question. They want to maximise the number of questions in Question Time, so do we, but it is incumbent on them to keep the questions short and to the point.
Mr REED: Madam Speaker, from the equivalent of four full page advertisements in international newspapers, how many jumbo jets does the minister expect to be full with tourists coming to the Northern Territory from a measly $500 000 increase? I seek leave to table the 43 000 full on cost of an advertisement.
Leave granted.
Madam SPEAKER: Minister, before you do start your reply, questions and answers have been lengthy. It is 25 minutes into Question Time and we have had five questions only. I suggest that both sides shorten the questions and the answers.
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, it really is amazing. I cannot remember how long the member for Katherine was tourism minister, but he obviously did not learn very much whilst he was tourism minister. I will go through the statement point by point. The return on investment is calculated on the figures that the NT Tourist Commission has kept for many, many years. He would know that the Tourist Commission has an absolutely extensive research capacity and function within that organisation, that they know down to the last dollar where we should be putting money in our marketing and what that return on investment is. They have those figures, going back very many years, and they use that information to make very strategic decisions about where to place the marketing dollar.
If he was tourism minister for a number of years in this House and does not understand that that is where the Tourist Commission gets their numbers from, well, it is little wonder that he failed to increase the marketing budget over many years to take into account the depreciation of the Australian dollar.
Regarding the return on investment of $12m, that is over the $1m allocation, so it is $6m for this year, $6m for next, on the $500 000. He also shows his complete ignorance as to how the Tourist Commission actually partners with wholesalers and airlines in those international markets to aggregate the amount of money that is put in. So, it is not the Northern Territory Tourist Commission alone that will be taking out full page ads in The Times and Telegraph, or whatever other Tory newspaper he was talking about in the UK. They will be partnering with the international carriers and wholesale distributors in those market places, to value add to the numbers that we are putting in.
The numbers are there, they are substantiated. The officers in the Tourist Commission do a fantastic job in understanding where to put the money, what the return on investment is. He well knows that. I just wish that members opposite would stop talking down the tourism industry. We had a press release from the shadow minister today, saying that the industry was in diabolical trouble. Well, again, I do not know who she is talking to. There are obviously some people who have done it tough this year, but the numbers have held up, the drive market has been really strong. We will be getting those international carriers back. Not a word of support for our investment into 1300 airline seats a week into the Northern Territory - not a word of support.
We have on the record in this House allegations earlier on that Virgin Blue were cancelling flights to Darwin because of problems with numbers. Absolutely false. We have the member for Drysdale on the public record accusing Virgin Blue of having a shoddy fleet. I do not know why members opposite to not support …
Mr DUNHAM: A point of order, Madam Speaker! That is totally untrue and I ask that he withdraw it. Totally untrue and unsubstantiated.
Madam SPEAKER: We had this debate yesterday. As I said, I cannot judge whether it is true or not true. If you think you have been misquoted, you do it by way of personal explanation. Members making those allegations, make sure you are able to verify.
Mr HENDERSON: Madam Speaker, I would refer the member to the Hansard on 27 February as an interjection on an opposition motion, and that is where you pick up the shoddy fleet allegation. So, if you want to go back to Hansard you will find it.
So, $2m for Virgin Blue to bring them to the Northern Territory, $1m in terms of international marketing, $125 000 for an executive position in partnership with Darwin Airport to drive the capacity back, and not one word of support from members opposite. They are a disgrace …
Ms Carney: We suggested it, you fool. We suggested that you get one and you picked up on it.
Madam SPEAKER: Member for Araluen, you withdraw that remark, thank you.
Mr Reed: What, that he’s a fool?
Madam SPEAKER: Withdraw it.
Ms Carney: I will happily withdraw that remark, Madam Speaker.
Mr Reed: It is an insult to fools.
Madam SPEAKER: Member for Katherine, you withdraw that remark. I am getting a bit tired of this unparliamentary language, and you know it. People listening to this broadcast must be more than dismayed at what is going on. Just settle down and try to act in a little more statesmanlike manner rather than the rabble you all are at the moment.
Mr Reed: I withdraw that remark.
Health and Community Services Sector
Dr BURNS to MINISTER for HEALTH and COMMUNITY SERVICES
Minister, can you advise the House what steps have been taken to boost resources provided to the health and community services sector since this government came into office?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, what an excellent question from the member for Johnston. In this budget, there is $527m for Health and Community Services which, I have to say, is excellent news for all Territorians no matter where they live. There has been overwhelming support for the increase in health in this budget from the AMA, the ANF and the Northern Territory Council of Social Services. We have also been getting a steady series of phone calls today from ordinary Territorians, thanking us for this increase.
This represents a 4% increase on last year’s budget, an extra $20m. We undertook to restore the confidence of Territorians in their health and community services, and we are doing just that. We gave an undertaking to employ an additional 75 nurses over the term of this government, and in this budget we have provided $2.36m to employ an additional 20 nurses this financial year. This builds on the 16 positions created last year. We have also allocated $5.68m for increased pay for nurses, and another $730 000 has been allocated for professional development of Health and Community Services staff.
Other highlights for this portfolio include more than $21m in capital works for the Royal Darwin and Alice Springs Hospitals, which I am sure, Madam Speaker, you will be very pleased to hear about. This includes $3m for a new 12-bed hospice at the Royal Darwin Hospital, consultations and planning for which are happening right now. I know the member for Port Darwin will be particularly interested in that; she has a particular interest in palliative care.
There is also a $6m increase in the funding category for non-government organisations, which includes $2.5m for new initiatives. For many NGOs, this is the first real increase they have had in funding for many, many years.
We have also increased the child-care subsidy by $7.50 per week per child, and we have provided $300 000 for the improvement of child-care quality throughout the Territory. Put together, this initiative is worth $910 000.
Let me concentrate for a moment on remote area health. In May, I delivered an indigenous health strategy statement; this budget delivers on that. This budget includes $1.5m for a new health centre for Milikapiti, $820 000 for the upgrading of the Yuendumu Health Centre, and over $900 000 for an 8 chair renal unit at the Tennant Creek Hospital. I know that the member for Barkly is very pleased about that. We have also been employing 25 additional remote area health staff to focus exclusively on child health.
I look forward to informing the House on a full statement on this budget at some stage during these sittings.
Budget 2002-03 - Grants and Subsidies
Mr DUNHAM to MINISTER for HEALTH and COMMUNITY SERVICES
My question is on a similar theme. In last year’s mini-budget, it shows grants and subsidies to be an allocation of $84m, in Budget Paper No 2 at page 108. I am interested that the minister has said that the same groups will now get $64m. I am pleased that Jane Alley and others have applauded this budget, but I would like the minister to explain why there has been a $20m cut from the mini-budget to the current budget for the non-government sector?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, there has been no cut whatsoever to the non-government sector. There has been a significant increase - an increase of $6m. This includes $1.45m of indexation; $2.5m in new dollars, which covers the whole sector; and $1.6m for specific projects carried over from the previous financial year, including capital for child-care facilities.
I just cannot believe that the member opposite would even raise such an issue. When they were in government, they completely ignored the non-government sector. The member for Drysdale refused to go to an election forum looking at funding on this sector. We have consistently consulted with the non-government sector. They have come to us, and said: ‘We are in dire straits because we have not received extra funding for many years’. Here we are, increasing this budget significantly, and all they can do is whinge and whine.
This is an excellent budget in all areas, including the non-government sector. I can assure you the Northern Territory Council of Social Services, and all those organisations which will be receiving this money, are very happy.
Budget 2002-03 – Road Infrastructure
Ms SCRYMGOUR to MINISTER for TRANSPORT and INFRASTRUCTURE
Can the minister tell the House what funding the government has provided for road infrastructure in this year’s budget?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, I thank the member for her question. The truth is that, with our budget delivered yesterday, people in the Territory are going to benefit from the money we are going to spend on roads. The road program for the Territory roads national highways and repair and maintenance is $90m - $50m for roads and $40m for repair and maintenance. Not only that, but we put $5m aside in case of floods. That is because we do not want to try and find money here and there to repair flood damage, but we have the money there so we can immediately draw upon that and repair the damage that was done.
Mr Elferink: Which is $6m less than last year.
Mr VATSKALIS: $5m is put away for floods. What I want to say is that we are not only doing the roads in Darwin and the urban areas, but we are spending money outside Darwin. The Finke River bridge is going to be upgraded, $5.5m; the Hugh River bridge, $2.5m; Central Arnhem Road complete seal to Beswick, $1m; and we are also doing Lajamanu/Tennant Creek via Warrego Road, $0.5m. Of course, here in Darwin, $1.25m for Darwin urban arterials; $1m to upgrade a 7 km section of the Cox Peninsula Road; and also upgrading the Fog Bay Road.
I said to you before, we are not looking only at the roads in Darwin, we are also looking at remote roads like the Lasseter Highway, where the slashing was finished yesterday, as I was advised by my department; the Docker River Road, where the grading was finished a week ago. The local manager of Transport and Works advised me he drove on it at an average speed of 100 km/h, and the Town Clerk, Gary Cartwright, advised me he is very pleased with the condition of the road.
On the Plenty Highway, the bus services have started again, but we are expecting more cattle to come from Queensland because of the drought conditions in Queensland and we are going to keep an eye on it. Of course, the Maryvale Deep Well Road, that was never graded in the past - how many years, member for Macdonnell? I had the pastoralists in the area complaining to me that, because of the way the road was maintained, the surface of the road now is below the surface of the land around it. My department is now looking at what is more cost effective - to repair the road or realign it along the old railway line. We are going to consider all options in order to repair it because, for us, the Territory starts from the islands in the north and finishes down in Erldunda.
Budget 2002-03 – Stimulation of Economy in Katherine
Mr REED to TREASURER
Last month, at a Chamber of Commerce and Industry Cabinet briefing in Katherine, in response to a question from the floor the Chief Minister told business people what the government was going to do to stimulate economic activity in Katherine, and that she could not say what was going to be in the budget, although she would give a little leak that they were going to get a new morgue - which caused a little consternation. In the budget we see, in fact, that the only major capital works item in Katherine is going to be a morgue. Because the people of Katherine are dying to find out, what else is this government going to do to stimulate economic activity in response to her part answer to the question to business people last month? Further, how is it that she has made a blunder in relation to her budget books wherein, in the Budget Overview, she states that the amount is going to be $400 000 for this wonderful morgue yet, in Budget Paper No 4 the amount is $350 000.
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, I was delighted to be in Katherine at the Chamber of Commerce and Industry lunch, to find the members for Katherine, Daly, and Drysdale there.
Members interjecting.
Madam SPEAKER: Order! Opposition members, I would like to hear the reply in silence.
Ms MARTIN: You were very welcome to be there, absolutely very welcome. One of the interesting things that the Katherine business people and community talked to me about when we there - and we Cabinet members were very pleased to be there - was their frustration over the last few years with a government that never talked to them. This is extraordinary. There they have two local members, two members of the CLP who were ministers, and they said: ‘They never listened to us at the business round table’. Those who were there said they have actually been able to sit down with key government ministers and be listened to for the first time.
That was extraordinary. This is no hyperbole here, this was the fact. I was shocked. I had a grudging respect for the members for Katherine and Daly, and thought that they would actually be talking to their local community, but obviously not. I do not think we are finding the members for Katherine and Daly are doing an effective job as local members, because now the people of Katherine feel as though they have been abandoned by their local members.
One thing I say about the Katherine community is, there are so many ideas about how to move Katherine into the future, about the developing industries there, the broader view of economic growth. The ideas are there, and they have been there for a while, but they have fallen on cloth ears in the past – absolute cloth ears. One of the things that the CLP has been so good about effectively doing in the past, is dividing communities. We had a government that never spoke to local government, barely said hello to the indigenous organisations in the town, barely …
Mr REED: A point of order, Madam Speaker! It is in deference to the people of Katherine who are listening and wanting an answer from the Chief Minister, just like they did not get one at the Cabinet luncheon, could she say what she is going to do to stimulate the economic development of Katherine beyond building a morgue, the only capital item in this budget?
Madam SPEAKER: There is no point of order. Chief Minister, continue your reply.
Ms MARTIN: I was proud to say we were replacing the mortuary. The mortuary was on – a dreadful thing to say - its last legs. Katherine had been saying for years that it needed a new mortuary, particularly since the flood. What had the local members done? Simply not responded.
Mr Stirling: He was Treasurer and he did not do it.
Ms MARTIN: And local member.
My words are not rhetoric, they are the truth. You were not listening to the local community, and you were not listening to the budget yesterday. $300 000 for a Katherine transitional care unit at the Rocky Ridge Nursing home.
Mr Reed: Well, why isn’t it in the budget books?
Ms MARTIN: It is in the budget books.
Let me say, this government will be working with the business and community leaders in Katherine, because I believe that those leaders in the community simply want a government which is going to work with them and move Katherine and the region forward. The ideas are there and we, as a Cabinet, will be back. We will be having a major community Cabinet in Katherine next month, and you are invited. We will have a barbecue and we will make sure the members for Katherine and Daly are invited. Let me say that I am delighted with the response from the Katherine business and community organisations, because they told us that finally they have a government which is listening.
Ministerial Office Expenses – Reports to the Public Accounts Committee
Mr WOOD to CHIEF MINISTER
In the lead-up to the Territory election, the present government said in a document headed Good Government - and I would ask leave to table that document …
Leave granted.
Mr WOOD: … that they promised it would furnish regular quarterly statements to the parliament’s Public Accounts Committee on ministerial expenses for each minister and their offices. Can the Chief Minister explain why the PAC has not received any quarterly statements on ministerial expenses in the past 12 months, and when does the government intend to do so?
Members interjecting.
Madam SPEAKER: Order! Chief Minister, do not start until they are quiet.
ANSWER
You are getting very tough on your birthday, Madam Speaker.
The Good Government paper had a considerable number of initiatives in it, and we have been working through those initiatives. We are not about hiding ministerial expenses and, for the first time, we have actually introduced ministerial office budgets into the operation of the ministerial areas, and into the Opposition Leader’s as well. So we have ministerial budgets in place. The figures that we see over those times are certainly a very different one than we saw previously with expenditure under the other government.
I am still to find one of my ministers who can spend $56 000 on personal entertainment in a year, as the member for Karama and Leader of Government Business did. He had a track record. I think it was $52 000 in the last financial year and $56 000 in the year before that.
We are less than half in terms of ministerial expenses. We have very, very modest ministerial and hospitality expenses right across the board. That does not mean we are not out there talking to business, effectively using hospitality - and Protocol is busy. But, boy! It must have taken a lot of expenditure for the previous government to get to the total you reached. Absolutely extraordinary.
Member for Nelson, we will be fulfilling all the commitments we made in Good Government; some of those we have not yet.
Budget 2002-03 – Professional Development for Teachers
Mr BONSON to MINISTER for EMPLOYMENT, EDUCATION and TRAINING
Can you advise the House what has been funded in the 2002-03 budget for professional development for teachers?
ANSWER
I thank the member for Millner for his question. We have stamped our credentials as a government being hell-bent on turning around outcomes right across the board in employment, education and training. We recognise in that, particularly in relation to the schools and getting the outcomes up to more desirable levels, that professional development of our teachers plays a key role. We will be spending a further $300 000 on professional development for teachers over this forthcoming financial year. I am sure that will be welcome news to all teachers. $60 000 will be allocated to support special education and behavioural management professional development across three areas.
There will be special education teachers’ workshops for those newly appointed special education teachers, 20 of whom will have come on in this first year of government. Those workshops will enable these special needs teachers to focus on the very early intervention processes necessary. With regard to team approach in the classroom, there will be workshops to focus assisting classroom teachers how to most effectively interact and deal with their classroom special inclusion assistance, so that they absolutely maximise the interaction and the benefit of having those extra people in the classroom. Behaviour management strategies, again workshop based, will assist classroom teachers to develop those appropriate strategies to reduce and manage those students displaying very difficult classroom and playground behaviour.
Under the broad heading of Education Leadership, there is a new program, Emerging Leaders, which will attract $60 000. That will extend the existing pilot currently being carried out in Arnhem and Darwin to include a cohort from the northern suburbs and Palmerston schools. It is a new leadership program to give teachers the opportunity to develop skills to take on leadership roles right across schools and in school management. Similar to educational leadership, or under the same heading, there is an indigenous capacity building professional development funding of $80 000 used to design and deliver indigenous leadership programs specifically targetting the needs of potential indigenous school leaders.
Under Improved Indigenous Outcomes, Remote Schools Workshop Top End, $50 000 is allocated to hold workshops for whole school teams from remote areas. This proposal builds on a very successful event that was held in Alice Springs a few weeks ago, a remote schools conference. I think there were 200-odd staff from 26 schools. The workshop will focus on a whole school and community approach to implementing the Northern Territory literacy and numeracy strategy and the curriculum framework. Under early childhood, there is $30 000 for professional development to early childhood teachers, a series of workshops to focus on key areas of concern for early childhood teachers and parents.
I guess that is just a snapshot across the board of what we think is necessary in professional development. I would further add that there is a consultative process with the union, all stakeholders, education and community, on what should be in the Teacher Registration Board. I would envisage - and I do not want to predicate the outcome of that consultative process - that the Teacher Registration Board itself would have a fairly key role in determining professional development for teachers. I certainly hope that is the case. I am sure teachers themselves would welcome the opportunity to have a more hands-on role in determining what should be run and where, because they are at the coalface; they know the needs of both themselves and their colleagues. We would expect that process to go on through the latter part of this year. I look forward to an outcome where we can build and develop the Teacher Registration Board which, in itself, will go a long way to improving the professional status of teachers in the community.
Budget 2002-03 - Teacher Numbers
Mr MILLS to MINISTER for EMPLOYMENT, EDUCATION and TRAINING
The budget reveals the number of students in government schools as being 33 320 students, including preschoolers. The budget does not reveal the number of teachers currently working in Territory schools. How many full-time teachers are working in our primary and secondary schools, and how many are relief teachers? How do these figures compare with the 2001-02 figure?
ANSWER
I could supply part of the answers as of last week, Madam Speaker. I understand there are 1992 classroom teachers across the levels of education that the shadow minister for education is referring to. I would have to take on notice the comparative figure as of this day last year. I certainly do not carry that in my back pocket. And if there was another part to the question, I am prepared to …
Mr Mills: Relief teachers, secondary and primary.
Mr STIRLING: Yes, absolutely prepared to pick it up off Hansard and get an answer back to him as soon as someone gets across it and gets an answer to me.
Sanderson Tennis Courts
Mr KIELY to MINISTER for TRANSPORT and INFRASTRUCTURE
Can the minister advise the House if the government will stick by its election promise to upgrade tennis courts in Sanderson?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, I thank the member for his question. I know his interest in this matter very well. He has been lobbying very hard in the past few weeks and months. I am very pleased to announce that we are going to keep that promise of $200 000, not only to resurface the tennis courts but also to provide bubblers for the people who use the courts for either social tennis or competition, and also for the school children who use the tennis courts. I am pretty sure that the people of Sanderson and the member for Sanderson will be very, very pleased that this government is keeping its promises.
Budget 2002-03 - Teacher Numbers
Mr MILLS to MINISTER for EMPLOYMENT, EDUCATION and TRAINING
How many qualified teachers are employed within the Department of Education, but are not currently working or teaching in classrooms?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, I had better start bringing the thesaurus of all facts relating to the Department of Education down with me. It is not an answer I would be expected to know off the top of my head. Of course, there would be teachers in Curriculum Services Branch and in Indigenous Education Unit, scattered right across different areas.
Whilst this question goes to non-teaching, some of them are dual roles. We have specialists based in all the centres across the Territory who go and spend two or three days at a time in schools delivering specialist advice and services to the teaching service. Bearing in mind that the question is perhaps not as cut and dried and as simple as the shadow minister for education suggests it might be, I will certainly get the information and deliver it to the shadow minister as soon as I am able.
Budget 2002-03 - Impact on Central Australia
Mr McADAM to MINISTER for CENTRAL AUSTRALIA
Can the minister summarise how this budget will impact on Central Australia, including Alice Springs and Tennant Creek?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, I thank the member for his question because it is, indeed, a really important area of our budget to look at how it impacts on the various regions around the Territory.
I am proud to say that the first budget from our government delivers very strongly to the regions. We have delivered significant funding throughout the Territory regional areas. We have not fallen into the trap of centralising our effort to Darwin. We want to make sure that every Territorian has full access to the benefits of our better approach to budgeting.
In the areas that we give precedence to - education, training and health, improved community safety, and the stimulation of regional economy - Central Australia and Alice Springs have done very well out of this budget. We can also point proudly to the remote communities, and also to Tennant Creek, as having significant initiatives funded within the budget.
In terms of the impact on the construction industry, a lot of these remote programs, when put together with the programs based in the urban centres of Central Australia, will give ongoing work to our construction industry and ensure that we do not lose capacity out of our region. Some of the Tennant Creek-based projects, such as the new school at Papunya; the Nyingkka Nyunyu Cultural Centre in Tennant Creek; the renal unit in Tennant Creek; the health centre extensions at Yuendumu; the new police station at Kintore; and a range of other construction works.
We have even looked after Macdonnell so that the member over there can sit very comfortably. We have allocated $1.5m to repairs and maintenance in the region’s parks and reserves. In Alice Springs itself: $768 000 to the Alice Springs Hospital; further work on Gillen House in Alice Springs, an over $2m project; $250 000 on upgrades for the Araluen Cultural Centre; the first $800 000 of a $5m commitment to Traeger Park, and we will be continuing that on.
Dr Lim: Where? Where is it?
Dr TOYNE: Go and have a look at the hockey field, member for Greatorex …
Dr Lim: That was two years old.
Dr TOYNE: There is quite a lot of work going on down there at the moment, if you have not noticed. The Lovegrove retardation basin at $880 000 – that is a major initiative towards the mitigation of flooding in the township, and will certainly protect a lot of the houses in that area of town.
In addition to the direct funding from our budget, at the old gaol site we will be seeing health accommodation units put in there very shortly as the arrangements over the land are concluded and planning issues are dealt with. Papunya, Hermannsberg, Docker River are receiving $1.7m boost to their essential services …
Members interjecting.
Dr TOYNE: We are looking after Macdonnell, don’t you worry about that. There is $15m on new works and maintenance in the region’s roads, including my favourite topic - we all have our favourite roads and mine is the Tanami Road. A $1.5m kick-off for that, and we will be following up with another $5m behind that, according to the promises we made in our election.
You can see that we have continued support for tourism, with the Holiday Centre going to Alice Springs, and continued work on the attraction of international tourism to Central Australia, as my colleague, the Tourism Minister pointed out earlier. CATIA and Tennant Creek Regional Tourism Association will be continue to have funding support.
Another of our favourite and high priority projects is Desert Knowledge, and we will be putting $300 000 to Desert Knowledge Australia. We are staging the Desert Knowledge Symposium Outback Expo, and it will not be long before you see some construction work going on in the Desert People’s Centre, the way things are progressing. So Central Australia, Tennant Creek and Alice Springs have done well out of this budget, and we will follow with even more between now and the end of this term of government.
Mr STIRLING (Leader of Government Business): I would ask that further questions be placed on the Question Paper, Madam Speaker.
Last updated: 09 Aug 2016