Mrs HICKEY - 1998-02-18
Yesterday, he went to great lengths to defend his management of the Power and Water Authority. If one believed him, one would think that the Tiwi-Wanguri blackout was a one-off event that was unlikely to occur again. Will the minister confirm that, only 9 days after the Tiwi outage, a similar blackout occurred at Berrimah? This blackout plunged a large number of Darwin and Palmerston families into darkness. Is it a fact that the Berrimah blackout occurred in exactly the same circumstances as the Tiwi blackout, when a ring main blew out because of lack of maintenance?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, this is rather like being hit with a wet towel. In fact, a little bird on their side of politics said to me this morning on the telephone that the opposition would direct all its questions today at me as Minister for Essential Services. They would give me a really hard time. It is the strategy of the Labor Party. It distributes the questions among all its members. If they were any more stupid, they would be watered twice a week. I answered questions yesterday about the power outage. If the opposition intends to waste Question Time by asking me to account for every power outage in the Northern Territory ...
Members interjecting.
Madam SPEAKER: Order!
Mr POOLE: If members opposite wish to ask me about every power outage that we have had in the Northern Territory in the last 5 years, I suggest they are wasting valuable time. The point should be made that I called for a report. I asked for an inquiry into the outage in Wanguri at the beginning of January and I have received the report. I am led to believe that the opposition has copies of a couple of other leaked documents that they intend to use today. That is interesting indeed. However, if they think I will try to run the power and water portfolio by responding to leaked documents, they are very much mistaken.
I made the point yesterday that we have spent over $100m in the last 5 years on maintenance within PAWA. We will continue to spend many millions of dollars on the maintenance of the distribution systems for electricity throughout the Northern Territory. I will not call for specific reports on what happened every time there is a power outage. I will not stand here and waste the time of the House, trying to recount every little incident.
Mr Stirling interjecting.
Mr POOLE: I am not a line engineer.
Mr Stirling: You are the minister!
Madam SPEAKER: Order!
Mr POOLE: I can tell the opposition that the outage that the Leader of the Opposition was referring to occurred as a result of human failure, not because of equipment failure.
Mr Stirling: Blaming the public servants now?
Mr POOLE: No, I am not blaming the public servants. If somebody does not tighten up a nut because of the stresses of their job, I do not blame the operator. These things happen. We try to minimise all those sorts of things. Members opposite are quite happy to denigrate the efforts of PAWA staff.
Members interjecting.
Mr POOLE: Yesterday, in this House, all members spoke about the fantastic job that the Power and Water Authority employees and management did in Katherine.
Mr Bailey: We are talking about government!
Mr POOLE: Members opposite now want to blame me, the management and the staff for a power outage. We will not cop it. It is absolute nonsense.
Madam SPEAKER: Order! I hope this will not be the pattern for this morning. Members of the opposition, if you ask a question, surely you could give the minister a chance to provide an answer.
Members interjecting.
Madam SPEAKER: If you interject continually, I will call you to order continually.
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, this is rather like being hit with a wet towel. In fact, a little bird on their side of politics said to me this morning on the telephone that the opposition would direct all its questions today at me as Minister for Essential Services. They would give me a really hard time. It is the strategy of the Labor Party. It distributes the questions among all its members. If they were any more stupid, they would be watered twice a week. I answered questions yesterday about the power outage. If the opposition intends to waste Question Time by asking me to account for every power outage in the Northern Territory ...
Members interjecting.
Madam SPEAKER: Order!
Mr POOLE: If members opposite wish to ask me about every power outage that we have had in the Northern Territory in the last 5 years, I suggest they are wasting valuable time. The point should be made that I called for a report. I asked for an inquiry into the outage in Wanguri at the beginning of January and I have received the report. I am led to believe that the opposition has copies of a couple of other leaked documents that they intend to use today. That is interesting indeed. However, if they think I will try to run the power and water portfolio by responding to leaked documents, they are very much mistaken.
I made the point yesterday that we have spent over $100m in the last 5 years on maintenance within PAWA. We will continue to spend many millions of dollars on the maintenance of the distribution systems for electricity throughout the Northern Territory. I will not call for specific reports on what happened every time there is a power outage. I will not stand here and waste the time of the House, trying to recount every little incident.
Mr Stirling interjecting.
Mr POOLE: I am not a line engineer.
Mr Stirling: You are the minister!
Madam SPEAKER: Order!
Mr POOLE: I can tell the opposition that the outage that the Leader of the Opposition was referring to occurred as a result of human failure, not because of equipment failure.
Mr Stirling: Blaming the public servants now?
Mr POOLE: No, I am not blaming the public servants. If somebody does not tighten up a nut because of the stresses of their job, I do not blame the operator. These things happen. We try to minimise all those sorts of things. Members opposite are quite happy to denigrate the efforts of PAWA staff.
Members interjecting.
Mr POOLE: Yesterday, in this House, all members spoke about the fantastic job that the Power and Water Authority employees and management did in Katherine.
Mr Bailey: We are talking about government!
Mr POOLE: Members opposite now want to blame me, the management and the staff for a power outage. We will not cop it. It is absolute nonsense.
Madam SPEAKER: Order! I hope this will not be the pattern for this morning. Members of the opposition, if you ask a question, surely you could give the minister a chance to provide an answer.
Members interjecting.
Madam SPEAKER: If you interject continually, I will call you to order continually.
Last updated: 09 Aug 2016