Mr ELFERINK - 2000-10-17
Members will recall in this House that there was a government initiated inquiry into food prices. One of the recommendations from that inquiry was that there be quarterly reporting. Can the Treasurer advise honourable members what the results of the September quarter were?
ANSWER
Yes, Mr Speaker, the quarterly price surveys have been very instructive in terms of providing a comparison between different centres within the Territory and interstate comparisons in the form of Alice Springs with Mount Isa and Darwin with Cairns. Particularly interesting is the September quarter because you will recall that for over a year in the lead up to the introduction of the new tax system, the opposition were telling us that the world was going to come to an end, that we would all go broke and no one would be able to afford their grocery bill and in those terms the opposition has been shown to be, again, very, very wrong.
Their misleading remarks that unnecessarily concerned people, not only here in the Northern Territory, but federally, did just that. They created unnecessary concern across the community. Prices for essential items for the weekly grocery bill are very important matters and it is irresponsible on behalf of any opposition or any politician, for that matter, to create unnecessary concern. That is precisely what the Labor Party here in the Northern Territory did in the lead up to the introduction of the new tax system. They created unnecessary concern and I think it has been demonstrated by the surveys that have been conducted, and we now have the ability to compare them over a period of surveys. The impact that was suggested was going to occur, that is galactic if you like, in terms of what the opposition were falsely predicting, has not occurred.
Now, they won’t have the good grace to apologise to Territorians for falsely claiming what they did because they are not of that ilk. They are not responsible, they just simply like to keep repeating things in the hope that people will eventually believe them.
But the most recent September quarter results show that the gap between Darwin and Cairns has narrowed a little; that is, the Darwin prices are a little more favourable than they formerly were. Alice Springs prices remain slightly lower than Darwin, but slightly higher than the comparable centre of Mount Isa. Katherine prices are marginally higher than Darwin, but significantly there has been an improvement over the situation of a year earlier.
It is interesting to note that they were some of the issues that the Country Liberal Party government in putting in place the survey, the committee to investigate food prices, was directed at. Nhulunbuy, sadly, the prices remain high there and especially in relation to perishable goods. Generally, Nhulunbuy prices were considerably higher than Darwin prices in all groups surveyed, especially in the dairy, meat and seafood and fresh fruit and vegetable groups. That is where there are refrigerated transport requirements and that reflects both the additional freight costs, especially for perishables, and the lack of economies of scales of competition in Nhulunbuy. It is an unfortunate circumstance given that it is a remote community, and my sympathies do lie with the people of Nhulunbuy in that regard.
The grocery price survey, the details of which I will table, do demonstrate that comparing the March, June and Septembers quarters were across the board, pretty well, there was a slight increase in the June quarter, but the September figures now show a step back towards those that prevailed in March.
So, I think that demonstrates that the opposition were appallingly wrong in creating the belief that people were going to face an extraordinary increase in their grocery price bill. It also demonstrated the purpose for which the government established this committee and the work that it did. I compliment those members of the committee who did the hard yards in relation to it. The Leader of the Opposition is not interested in this very important matter. She was happy to muckrake in the lead-up to the new GST system and create unnecessary concern and she is now not happy …
Ms Martin: Tell us about our power bills, our airfares, our phone bills?
Mr Henderson: Tell us about petrol prices?
Mr SPEAKER: Order! Order!
Mr REED: … she is now not happy for the people of the Northern Territory to hear the results of the grocery price survey, the surveys that this government put in place to keep pressure on the food outlets to ensure that we could obtain, notwithstanding our remote location, the best possible outcome in terms of grocery food items for Territory householders. I have pleasure in tabling the outcome of the latest survey.
ANSWER
Yes, Mr Speaker, the quarterly price surveys have been very instructive in terms of providing a comparison between different centres within the Territory and interstate comparisons in the form of Alice Springs with Mount Isa and Darwin with Cairns. Particularly interesting is the September quarter because you will recall that for over a year in the lead up to the introduction of the new tax system, the opposition were telling us that the world was going to come to an end, that we would all go broke and no one would be able to afford their grocery bill and in those terms the opposition has been shown to be, again, very, very wrong.
Their misleading remarks that unnecessarily concerned people, not only here in the Northern Territory, but federally, did just that. They created unnecessary concern across the community. Prices for essential items for the weekly grocery bill are very important matters and it is irresponsible on behalf of any opposition or any politician, for that matter, to create unnecessary concern. That is precisely what the Labor Party here in the Northern Territory did in the lead up to the introduction of the new tax system. They created unnecessary concern and I think it has been demonstrated by the surveys that have been conducted, and we now have the ability to compare them over a period of surveys. The impact that was suggested was going to occur, that is galactic if you like, in terms of what the opposition were falsely predicting, has not occurred.
Now, they won’t have the good grace to apologise to Territorians for falsely claiming what they did because they are not of that ilk. They are not responsible, they just simply like to keep repeating things in the hope that people will eventually believe them.
But the most recent September quarter results show that the gap between Darwin and Cairns has narrowed a little; that is, the Darwin prices are a little more favourable than they formerly were. Alice Springs prices remain slightly lower than Darwin, but slightly higher than the comparable centre of Mount Isa. Katherine prices are marginally higher than Darwin, but significantly there has been an improvement over the situation of a year earlier.
It is interesting to note that they were some of the issues that the Country Liberal Party government in putting in place the survey, the committee to investigate food prices, was directed at. Nhulunbuy, sadly, the prices remain high there and especially in relation to perishable goods. Generally, Nhulunbuy prices were considerably higher than Darwin prices in all groups surveyed, especially in the dairy, meat and seafood and fresh fruit and vegetable groups. That is where there are refrigerated transport requirements and that reflects both the additional freight costs, especially for perishables, and the lack of economies of scales of competition in Nhulunbuy. It is an unfortunate circumstance given that it is a remote community, and my sympathies do lie with the people of Nhulunbuy in that regard.
The grocery price survey, the details of which I will table, do demonstrate that comparing the March, June and Septembers quarters were across the board, pretty well, there was a slight increase in the June quarter, but the September figures now show a step back towards those that prevailed in March.
So, I think that demonstrates that the opposition were appallingly wrong in creating the belief that people were going to face an extraordinary increase in their grocery price bill. It also demonstrated the purpose for which the government established this committee and the work that it did. I compliment those members of the committee who did the hard yards in relation to it. The Leader of the Opposition is not interested in this very important matter. She was happy to muckrake in the lead-up to the new GST system and create unnecessary concern and she is now not happy …
Ms Martin: Tell us about our power bills, our airfares, our phone bills?
Mr Henderson: Tell us about petrol prices?
Mr SPEAKER: Order! Order!
Mr REED: … she is now not happy for the people of the Northern Territory to hear the results of the grocery price survey, the surveys that this government put in place to keep pressure on the food outlets to ensure that we could obtain, notwithstanding our remote location, the best possible outcome in terms of grocery food items for Territory householders. I have pleasure in tabling the outcome of the latest survey.
Last updated: 09 Aug 2016