Ms MARTIN - 2000-05-17
In yesterday’s budget speech, the Treasurer claimed that the Territory's economy was the fastest growing in Australia. The truth is that the Bureau of Statistics shows the Territory was the only state or territory economy to decline in 1999.
Members interjecting.
Ms MARTIN: Read your budget papers. I know they have words with more than 3 syllables but just work with it. Further, Budget Paper No. 5 shows both Access Economics and your own Treasury expects growth over the next 4 years to be lower than Western Australia and Queensland.
The facts show that economic growth is not as strong as you have claimed. Is it true that you have simply skipped over the truth revealed in Budget Paper No.5 because you didn’t want the facts to get in the way of a good story, or can’t you read your own papers?
ANSWER
Mr Speaker, it is worthy of note that the only person who is out of sync with everybody in commenting on this budget is the Leader of the Opposition. Industry, the economic analysts, the Police Association, in fact I think it would be fair to say the television news reports last night, and the NT News coverage of the budget this morning presented it in terms that it will accrue benefits to Territorians. The odd one out is the Leader of the Opposition. She does not know the value of this budget and the benefits that will accrue to Territorians.
Did you not watch the reports on the budget last night? Did you not read the newspaper this morning? Have you spoken to anyone about the budget other than the head of the Nurses’ Union or the head of the Teachers’ Union or failed candidates? You would be well served to talk to your failed candidate. He is of obviously more sane mind in finance and economic issues than yourself.
What is wrong? What is it that the Leader of the Opposition does not like about success? We have pegged up the highest economic growth in the nation for some time. Our economic growth, at over 12%, is absolutely phenomenal. Find me another jurisdiction anywhere in the region that has economic growth of over 12% and I will give you a free ice-cream.
From the point of view of the overall performance of the economy, about 6% of that 12% economic growth was attributed to the activities and the production of the Timor Sea oil and gas fields. That is something that we should all be very proud of. It happens to be attributed to the Northern Territory economy.
If you take away that growth, you are left with a 6% economic growth for the Northern Territory, without the attribution of the Timor Sea productivity. 6% economic growth! What is it that the Leader of the Opposition doesn’t like about success? She continually argues that we have the highest unemployment [sic] in the country.
Ms Martin: We have.
Mr REED: We happen to have the lowest. Thank you for confirming it! Thank you for confirming it! It is the ABS that tells us that we have low unemployment, the lowest in the country in fact, and that is something to be proud of. What is it that she doesn’t like about success? Why is it that the Leader of the Opposition continues to win the race in the whingeing stakes? How is it that every time she opens her mouth, she puts Territorians down? How is it that every time she talks about the performance of the Northern Territory economy, she says that it’s bad, that unemployment rates are the highest in the country, when they’re the lowest?
How is it that when she talks about the economy now - this is a new move for her - she says that it is not performing in the way that it is. And it doesn’t stop there. Take for, example, the new advertisements that the Labor Party has just put on television. Those ads are now denigrating the almost 900 Territory police we have on the streets for not doing a good job. You can imagine what the police think when they see cast across the television screen that the Labor Party is telling Territorians that the police performance is not, in their view, adequate. That is the sort of treatment hard-working Territorians have to put up with.
When denigrating the growth in this economy, she is not denigrating this government because this government is not the reason that the economy is doing well. The engine room of the economy is the private sector. It is the business out there who is doing the job. Yes, it is through Asian Relations and Trade, Mines and Energy, Industries and Business, Tourism, Primary Industry and Fisheries, and of course the construction programs that we announced yesterday, and a whole host of other budget initiatives. They facilitate and assist the engine room, the private sector, to make this economy what it is.
For the honourable Leader of the Opposition to be trying to down play their performance will do her no credit because she is again at odds with someone, and that is the private sector, because those views were not conveyed to me this morning when I spoke to over 60 business people. They weren’t conveyed to me yesterday when I addressed over 120 people at a luncheon yesterday to present the Northern Territory budget. They are much more confident and they have a lot more respect for the efforts of Territorians than does the Leader of the Opposition.
Members interjecting.
Ms MARTIN: Read your budget papers. I know they have words with more than 3 syllables but just work with it. Further, Budget Paper No. 5 shows both Access Economics and your own Treasury expects growth over the next 4 years to be lower than Western Australia and Queensland.
The facts show that economic growth is not as strong as you have claimed. Is it true that you have simply skipped over the truth revealed in Budget Paper No.5 because you didn’t want the facts to get in the way of a good story, or can’t you read your own papers?
ANSWER
Mr Speaker, it is worthy of note that the only person who is out of sync with everybody in commenting on this budget is the Leader of the Opposition. Industry, the economic analysts, the Police Association, in fact I think it would be fair to say the television news reports last night, and the NT News coverage of the budget this morning presented it in terms that it will accrue benefits to Territorians. The odd one out is the Leader of the Opposition. She does not know the value of this budget and the benefits that will accrue to Territorians.
Did you not watch the reports on the budget last night? Did you not read the newspaper this morning? Have you spoken to anyone about the budget other than the head of the Nurses’ Union or the head of the Teachers’ Union or failed candidates? You would be well served to talk to your failed candidate. He is of obviously more sane mind in finance and economic issues than yourself.
What is wrong? What is it that the Leader of the Opposition does not like about success? We have pegged up the highest economic growth in the nation for some time. Our economic growth, at over 12%, is absolutely phenomenal. Find me another jurisdiction anywhere in the region that has economic growth of over 12% and I will give you a free ice-cream.
From the point of view of the overall performance of the economy, about 6% of that 12% economic growth was attributed to the activities and the production of the Timor Sea oil and gas fields. That is something that we should all be very proud of. It happens to be attributed to the Northern Territory economy.
If you take away that growth, you are left with a 6% economic growth for the Northern Territory, without the attribution of the Timor Sea productivity. 6% economic growth! What is it that the Leader of the Opposition doesn’t like about success? She continually argues that we have the highest unemployment [sic] in the country.
Ms Martin: We have.
Mr REED: We happen to have the lowest. Thank you for confirming it! Thank you for confirming it! It is the ABS that tells us that we have low unemployment, the lowest in the country in fact, and that is something to be proud of. What is it that she doesn’t like about success? Why is it that the Leader of the Opposition continues to win the race in the whingeing stakes? How is it that every time she opens her mouth, she puts Territorians down? How is it that every time she talks about the performance of the Northern Territory economy, she says that it’s bad, that unemployment rates are the highest in the country, when they’re the lowest?
How is it that when she talks about the economy now - this is a new move for her - she says that it is not performing in the way that it is. And it doesn’t stop there. Take for, example, the new advertisements that the Labor Party has just put on television. Those ads are now denigrating the almost 900 Territory police we have on the streets for not doing a good job. You can imagine what the police think when they see cast across the television screen that the Labor Party is telling Territorians that the police performance is not, in their view, adequate. That is the sort of treatment hard-working Territorians have to put up with.
When denigrating the growth in this economy, she is not denigrating this government because this government is not the reason that the economy is doing well. The engine room of the economy is the private sector. It is the business out there who is doing the job. Yes, it is through Asian Relations and Trade, Mines and Energy, Industries and Business, Tourism, Primary Industry and Fisheries, and of course the construction programs that we announced yesterday, and a whole host of other budget initiatives. They facilitate and assist the engine room, the private sector, to make this economy what it is.
For the honourable Leader of the Opposition to be trying to down play their performance will do her no credit because she is again at odds with someone, and that is the private sector, because those views were not conveyed to me this morning when I spoke to over 60 business people. They weren’t conveyed to me yesterday when I addressed over 120 people at a luncheon yesterday to present the Northern Territory budget. They are much more confident and they have a lot more respect for the efforts of Territorians than does the Leader of the Opposition.
Last updated: 09 Aug 2016