Ms MARTIN - 2000-06-13
Mr Speaker, just before I direct this question to the Chief Minister, we have had half an hour of question time and we have had two questions. I mean it really is – if the Chief Minister wants to make ...
A member: Well, we have not been interjecting.
Mr SPEAKER: All right. You have made your point and I tend to agree with you, the answers have been too long, partly it is from interjections, certainly with the earlier question.
Ms MARTIN: In yet another stretching of the truth the Chief Minister claimed in last month’s budget debate that the Territory could afford the 1999-2000 bankcard budget because – and I quote the Chief Minister: ‘The Territory’s interest payments as a proportion of revenue are comparable with the other states’.
The Chief Minister’s own Budget Paper No 3 shows just how untrue this claim is. In fact, under the CLP, interest payments cost us 9.1% of revenue compared to just 6.1% for the states. That is almost 50% higher. If the Territory’s interest bill was truly comparable to the six states, then isn’t it the case we would have almost $60m more each year for spending on schools, hospitals and extra police?
ANSWER
Mr Speaker, if the Leader of the Opposition were serious in asking for an answer to that kind of question, it is very easy to read out those kinds of figures. I never believe the figures that she quotes, or any member of the opposition quotes, in their questions.
I am quite happy to take that question on notice ...
Ms Martin: Were you just reading somebody’s words in the budget reply were you?
Mr BURKE: In the interests of brevity which the Opposition Leader calls for, I will take that question on notice. We have a whole week set aside for the appropriation debate next week, and we can roam as widely as you like on those sorts of issues.
The bottom line for Territorians is that our interest payment situation is such that it is well and truly manageable by this government. We are proud of the budget that we brought down. It is a budget where this Northern Territory government is not only building a railway but also putting out a separate capital works program to make sure that there are jobs, prosperity, development and work going on right throughout the Northern Territory. It will not be a budget that the opposition will, I assume, ever put out, because your idea of a budget is, I can only gather by your comments, and that is that whatever the budget is that is what you stick for. So opportunities like APEC come along of course and that could not be accommodated in a Labor budget.
Some borrowings which we are well and truly forthright to Territorians about, we make no apology for borrowing for the future. We are a young jurisdiction. We have built this Territory from scratch and certainly the Territorians of today should not be expected to carry the burden of that massive infrastructure for the Territorians of tomorrow. That is why responsible borrowing is part of our fiscal strategy.
A member: Well, we have not been interjecting.
Mr SPEAKER: All right. You have made your point and I tend to agree with you, the answers have been too long, partly it is from interjections, certainly with the earlier question.
Ms MARTIN: In yet another stretching of the truth the Chief Minister claimed in last month’s budget debate that the Territory could afford the 1999-2000 bankcard budget because – and I quote the Chief Minister: ‘The Territory’s interest payments as a proportion of revenue are comparable with the other states’.
The Chief Minister’s own Budget Paper No 3 shows just how untrue this claim is. In fact, under the CLP, interest payments cost us 9.1% of revenue compared to just 6.1% for the states. That is almost 50% higher. If the Territory’s interest bill was truly comparable to the six states, then isn’t it the case we would have almost $60m more each year for spending on schools, hospitals and extra police?
ANSWER
Mr Speaker, if the Leader of the Opposition were serious in asking for an answer to that kind of question, it is very easy to read out those kinds of figures. I never believe the figures that she quotes, or any member of the opposition quotes, in their questions.
I am quite happy to take that question on notice ...
Ms Martin: Were you just reading somebody’s words in the budget reply were you?
Mr BURKE: In the interests of brevity which the Opposition Leader calls for, I will take that question on notice. We have a whole week set aside for the appropriation debate next week, and we can roam as widely as you like on those sorts of issues.
The bottom line for Territorians is that our interest payment situation is such that it is well and truly manageable by this government. We are proud of the budget that we brought down. It is a budget where this Northern Territory government is not only building a railway but also putting out a separate capital works program to make sure that there are jobs, prosperity, development and work going on right throughout the Northern Territory. It will not be a budget that the opposition will, I assume, ever put out, because your idea of a budget is, I can only gather by your comments, and that is that whatever the budget is that is what you stick for. So opportunities like APEC come along of course and that could not be accommodated in a Labor budget.
Some borrowings which we are well and truly forthright to Territorians about, we make no apology for borrowing for the future. We are a young jurisdiction. We have built this Territory from scratch and certainly the Territorians of today should not be expected to carry the burden of that massive infrastructure for the Territorians of tomorrow. That is why responsible borrowing is part of our fiscal strategy.
Last updated: 09 Aug 2016