Mr BALCH - 2000-05-10
Last night’s federal budget released the first instalment of Commonwealth money that the Prime Minister had committed towards the construction of the $1300m Alice Springs to Darwin railway. The Commonwealth budget also contains spending on roads and defence.
My question is, Treasurer, are you generally satisfied with the Commonwealth budget handed down last night?
ANSWER
I thank the honourable member for his question, and for the interest that he is displaying in the wellbeing of the Territory. Mr Speaker, the response to the budget on the radio this morning by government, the Chief Minister and myself, and the Leader of the Opposition, clearly demonstrates why they are over there. The Labor Party is on one side of the House numbering 7, and the government is on the other side of the House numbering 18. The Leader of the Opposition looked through the budget papers and the information that was provided or made available, or what she heard on the radio or saw on the television, and said, what bad news can I get out of this? How can I put all of this down and further denigrate what’s happening in the Northern Territory and get Territorians more concerned about the economy. Then she heard clack, clack, clack on the fax. She got the fax from Kim. ‘Dear Claire, Ask these terrible questions about GST and all sorts of other things. Love, Kim’, and you’ll be fitting in with the federal Labor Party’s policy.
And that is precisely what she did. She was on the radio this morning, quite predicably, all negative, no benefits to the Northern Territory and completely ignoring the fact that regional Australia will benefit in the form of improved health services to people in remote communities. There is a national program, for an extra 100 doctors to regional communities to train. The Territory will be part of that, I am sure. Allied health services to communities to improve access to a whole range of allied health services. That was pretty good news, and I’m sure the people in regional parts of Australia will welcome it.
The continued defence activity here in the north. That was downgraded a bit because the federal government had to allocate $128m-worth of money to 2 submarines - Kim’s submarines. That’s one thing you never hear Kim talk about, Collins class submarines, because he was the one as Defence Minister who bought them and said, ‘We’re going to have this submarine purchased from a country that’s never built a submarine before’. That $128m might have gone elsewhere in the Defence budget but for a former decision by one Kim Beazley. Nonetheless, we will see further extension of Defence facilities in the Northern Territory and that is to be welcomed. The announcement that the illegal immigrants camp of 500 places was a good move. Relocating that from Curtin in WA to the Northern Territory would likely mean that there would be additional Commonwealth employment flow on in terms of Commonwealth employees, and also security people and the business opportunities in feeding 500 people. This is not a short-term problem that we are experiencing as a nation with illegal immigrants coming into the country. It is going to be ongoing and the Territory is going to be more a part of it. There will be business opportunities flow from it, $52m with the 500 bed unit here and the 200 bed unit to be constructed in Brisbane. It is clear that we will be very much part of that expenditure.
1500 extra places for the CDEP program. I thought some of the members opposite might have welcomed that. Its been a program that has assisted many Aboriginal communities and I hope we can see some in the Northern Territory that don’t happen to seek it, to be able to take up the CDEP.
Transport, $40m for the railway on the books, contribution by the Commonwealth. The Leader of the Opposition said this morning: ‘I want the Chief Minister to tell us where the Commonwealth’s funding is going to the railway’. What do you think is going to happen to the money? Do you think we are going to paint the Commonwealth money red, our money blue and the South Australian money green and say: ‘Prime Minister, you bought that dog spike there and this sleeper over here was bought by Mr Olsen, and the culvert over here was constructed by the Northern Territory government’. It won’t happen like that. You’ve got no concept of how things happen in real life. You’re too protected from what’s really going on in the community and in the business sector. The railway will commence construction this year and its going to have enormous benefits right across the Northern Territory. In addition to that we’ll have the National Highways investigation into the Hugh, Finke and Palmer River bridges to determine what’s needed there, and that’s very pertinent in the terms of the flooding that’s occurred recently this year.
I close by saying, in terms of Territory funding, the documents provided last night by the federal government in relation to its budget indicates that we will be $4m better off in terms of Commonwealth funding to the Northern Territory. The overall direction of the budget, with new taxation arrangements for this country, with a strong economy growing at 3.75% and, in addition to that, the low inflation that is predicted - whilst we’re seeing interest rates rise over the last little while, and nobody likes to see interest rates rise, they are nowhere near what business was experiencing and had imposed on them under a Labor government when they were paying 18% and 20% interest on money to try and run their business. That’s the difference between someone who looks to try and find the positives to get some opportunities for Territorians and old droopy drawers over here, the Leader of the Opposition, who tries to find the bad things and get everyone depressed.
My question is, Treasurer, are you generally satisfied with the Commonwealth budget handed down last night?
ANSWER
I thank the honourable member for his question, and for the interest that he is displaying in the wellbeing of the Territory. Mr Speaker, the response to the budget on the radio this morning by government, the Chief Minister and myself, and the Leader of the Opposition, clearly demonstrates why they are over there. The Labor Party is on one side of the House numbering 7, and the government is on the other side of the House numbering 18. The Leader of the Opposition looked through the budget papers and the information that was provided or made available, or what she heard on the radio or saw on the television, and said, what bad news can I get out of this? How can I put all of this down and further denigrate what’s happening in the Northern Territory and get Territorians more concerned about the economy. Then she heard clack, clack, clack on the fax. She got the fax from Kim. ‘Dear Claire, Ask these terrible questions about GST and all sorts of other things. Love, Kim’, and you’ll be fitting in with the federal Labor Party’s policy.
And that is precisely what she did. She was on the radio this morning, quite predicably, all negative, no benefits to the Northern Territory and completely ignoring the fact that regional Australia will benefit in the form of improved health services to people in remote communities. There is a national program, for an extra 100 doctors to regional communities to train. The Territory will be part of that, I am sure. Allied health services to communities to improve access to a whole range of allied health services. That was pretty good news, and I’m sure the people in regional parts of Australia will welcome it.
The continued defence activity here in the north. That was downgraded a bit because the federal government had to allocate $128m-worth of money to 2 submarines - Kim’s submarines. That’s one thing you never hear Kim talk about, Collins class submarines, because he was the one as Defence Minister who bought them and said, ‘We’re going to have this submarine purchased from a country that’s never built a submarine before’. That $128m might have gone elsewhere in the Defence budget but for a former decision by one Kim Beazley. Nonetheless, we will see further extension of Defence facilities in the Northern Territory and that is to be welcomed. The announcement that the illegal immigrants camp of 500 places was a good move. Relocating that from Curtin in WA to the Northern Territory would likely mean that there would be additional Commonwealth employment flow on in terms of Commonwealth employees, and also security people and the business opportunities in feeding 500 people. This is not a short-term problem that we are experiencing as a nation with illegal immigrants coming into the country. It is going to be ongoing and the Territory is going to be more a part of it. There will be business opportunities flow from it, $52m with the 500 bed unit here and the 200 bed unit to be constructed in Brisbane. It is clear that we will be very much part of that expenditure.
1500 extra places for the CDEP program. I thought some of the members opposite might have welcomed that. Its been a program that has assisted many Aboriginal communities and I hope we can see some in the Northern Territory that don’t happen to seek it, to be able to take up the CDEP.
Transport, $40m for the railway on the books, contribution by the Commonwealth. The Leader of the Opposition said this morning: ‘I want the Chief Minister to tell us where the Commonwealth’s funding is going to the railway’. What do you think is going to happen to the money? Do you think we are going to paint the Commonwealth money red, our money blue and the South Australian money green and say: ‘Prime Minister, you bought that dog spike there and this sleeper over here was bought by Mr Olsen, and the culvert over here was constructed by the Northern Territory government’. It won’t happen like that. You’ve got no concept of how things happen in real life. You’re too protected from what’s really going on in the community and in the business sector. The railway will commence construction this year and its going to have enormous benefits right across the Northern Territory. In addition to that we’ll have the National Highways investigation into the Hugh, Finke and Palmer River bridges to determine what’s needed there, and that’s very pertinent in the terms of the flooding that’s occurred recently this year.
I close by saying, in terms of Territory funding, the documents provided last night by the federal government in relation to its budget indicates that we will be $4m better off in terms of Commonwealth funding to the Northern Territory. The overall direction of the budget, with new taxation arrangements for this country, with a strong economy growing at 3.75% and, in addition to that, the low inflation that is predicted - whilst we’re seeing interest rates rise over the last little while, and nobody likes to see interest rates rise, they are nowhere near what business was experiencing and had imposed on them under a Labor government when they were paying 18% and 20% interest on money to try and run their business. That’s the difference between someone who looks to try and find the positives to get some opportunities for Territorians and old droopy drawers over here, the Leader of the Opposition, who tries to find the bad things and get everyone depressed.
Last updated: 09 Aug 2016