Dr LIM - 1999-06-08
The opposition leader was quoted in the media this morning complaining about the budget appropriation process. Can the Treasurer inform the Assembly of the real problem with allocating the full parliamentary week for budget activity?
Mr Toyne: We don’t have an estimates committee, that’s the problem.
ANSWER
Oh, that’s the problem? Mr Speaker, I pick up the interjection from the member that we don’t have an estimates committee.
The members opposite have a full week - a dedicated week, this week - to ask questions in relation to the budget, the Appropriation Bill, and it is completely dedicated to provide an opportunity for them to ask all of the questions that they want. The shame is that they don’t have the ability to ask questions that are of worth or value to Territorians.
We’ve seen the shallowness of the Leader of the Opposition’s approach to matters in regard to finances. If she was negotiating a contract for someone on behalf of government to construct something, she’d tell them up front how much money she was going to give them, and then later find out that half as much would have been sufficient. That would be the approach of the Leader of the Opposition to financial management and getting someone to do something for a government, if she were the Chief Minister. There are plenty of other examples in the questions that the Leader of the Opposition has asked, and other members have asked of ministers, that demonstrate that they don’t even read the budget books. The opposition leader laughs, and that’s why she doesn’t understand the budgetary process.
She doesn’t understand the economy or finances, because if she did, she wouldn’t ask questions like: ‘Can you explain why the Northern Territory’s credit rating is AA2, equal to the worst of jurisdictions in Australia?’ What she doesn’t understand is that that rating is only 2 rungs from the top. We are only the second rung from the top, as far as the quality of our credit rating is concerned. We’re 18 rungs from the bottom, so we’re not quite in first place yet. We’re in third place, and there is 18 positions behind us.
Always on the negative. She has to gripe about something. I don’t know what it is she doesn’t like about success but she cannot relate to the fact that the Territory’s economy is growing strongly and that we are providing good employment opportunities for Territorians. She cannot accept the fact that we have an excellent credit rating notwithstanding that we didn’t seek it from Moody’s, but that they came and did it anyway.
There’s another wonderful example of questions that the Leader of the Opposition has asked, and that is what the interest rate payments are on loans that the government has. They were published in the form of about a dozen pages last year. She has them in her office, if only she’d open the book and stop trying to chew the covers off them. Open the books and read them because the information that you’ve asked for this year is on future interest payments. They’re documented in the papers that I will table later today through to the Year 2025. How much more information does she want?. Get up to your office and read the book, and learn the sort of question you should be asking rather than how much of this $50 000 was spent by this agency, and getting down into the gutter and trying to find a little bit of grime to throw at the government. Forget the politics in this process.
The Leader of the Opposition should be asking questions about what is the government doing to promote growth? What is it doing to generate more employment in the Northern Territory? For example, wouldn’t you think that the opposition tourist spokesman would ask a question about the Olympic Games next year bringing thousands of people into the country from overseas, and what the government is doing to attract those people to the Northern Territory, to spend some of their time here while they’re in Australia? Do you get a positive question like that? No, no, no. They’re down there worried about a $50 000 promotional leaflet or something that was produced by the commission.
Can I just advise of the deceit of the Leader of the Opposition and members opposite in trying to explain that they’re asking 2400 questions. It is not only deceit, it is, again, the incapacity for them to even know the facts of what they are doing themselves. They don’t even know the facts about what they’re doing themselves. They reckon they’re asking 2400 questions. Now, on the basis of the number of question marks in their questions, and individual answers that are required, there are in fact over 3000. There are over 3000. They can’t even count the total of the number of questions that they’re asking in this appropriation debate.
For the benefit of Territorians, I acknowledge the enormous amount of hard work …
Mr Bailey interjecting.
Mr REED: You wouldn’t appreciate the hard work that’s been done. The member for Wanguri wouldn’t appreciate the hard work that’s been done by public servants in getting information together to answer these questions. Those 3000 plus questions have cost public servants a lot of time, a lot of them have worked over the last couple of weekends to get them together, and its cost the taxpayer over $250 000, for some answers, to provide answers to questions that they asked last year and have just reprinted again this year - all answers that they already have in their offices in the annual reports of the various agencies. They are shallow, hollow and incompetent.
Mr Toyne: We don’t have an estimates committee, that’s the problem.
ANSWER
Oh, that’s the problem? Mr Speaker, I pick up the interjection from the member that we don’t have an estimates committee.
The members opposite have a full week - a dedicated week, this week - to ask questions in relation to the budget, the Appropriation Bill, and it is completely dedicated to provide an opportunity for them to ask all of the questions that they want. The shame is that they don’t have the ability to ask questions that are of worth or value to Territorians.
We’ve seen the shallowness of the Leader of the Opposition’s approach to matters in regard to finances. If she was negotiating a contract for someone on behalf of government to construct something, she’d tell them up front how much money she was going to give them, and then later find out that half as much would have been sufficient. That would be the approach of the Leader of the Opposition to financial management and getting someone to do something for a government, if she were the Chief Minister. There are plenty of other examples in the questions that the Leader of the Opposition has asked, and other members have asked of ministers, that demonstrate that they don’t even read the budget books. The opposition leader laughs, and that’s why she doesn’t understand the budgetary process.
She doesn’t understand the economy or finances, because if she did, she wouldn’t ask questions like: ‘Can you explain why the Northern Territory’s credit rating is AA2, equal to the worst of jurisdictions in Australia?’ What she doesn’t understand is that that rating is only 2 rungs from the top. We are only the second rung from the top, as far as the quality of our credit rating is concerned. We’re 18 rungs from the bottom, so we’re not quite in first place yet. We’re in third place, and there is 18 positions behind us.
Always on the negative. She has to gripe about something. I don’t know what it is she doesn’t like about success but she cannot relate to the fact that the Territory’s economy is growing strongly and that we are providing good employment opportunities for Territorians. She cannot accept the fact that we have an excellent credit rating notwithstanding that we didn’t seek it from Moody’s, but that they came and did it anyway.
There’s another wonderful example of questions that the Leader of the Opposition has asked, and that is what the interest rate payments are on loans that the government has. They were published in the form of about a dozen pages last year. She has them in her office, if only she’d open the book and stop trying to chew the covers off them. Open the books and read them because the information that you’ve asked for this year is on future interest payments. They’re documented in the papers that I will table later today through to the Year 2025. How much more information does she want?. Get up to your office and read the book, and learn the sort of question you should be asking rather than how much of this $50 000 was spent by this agency, and getting down into the gutter and trying to find a little bit of grime to throw at the government. Forget the politics in this process.
The Leader of the Opposition should be asking questions about what is the government doing to promote growth? What is it doing to generate more employment in the Northern Territory? For example, wouldn’t you think that the opposition tourist spokesman would ask a question about the Olympic Games next year bringing thousands of people into the country from overseas, and what the government is doing to attract those people to the Northern Territory, to spend some of their time here while they’re in Australia? Do you get a positive question like that? No, no, no. They’re down there worried about a $50 000 promotional leaflet or something that was produced by the commission.
Can I just advise of the deceit of the Leader of the Opposition and members opposite in trying to explain that they’re asking 2400 questions. It is not only deceit, it is, again, the incapacity for them to even know the facts of what they are doing themselves. They don’t even know the facts about what they’re doing themselves. They reckon they’re asking 2400 questions. Now, on the basis of the number of question marks in their questions, and individual answers that are required, there are in fact over 3000. There are over 3000. They can’t even count the total of the number of questions that they’re asking in this appropriation debate.
For the benefit of Territorians, I acknowledge the enormous amount of hard work …
Mr Bailey interjecting.
Mr REED: You wouldn’t appreciate the hard work that’s been done. The member for Wanguri wouldn’t appreciate the hard work that’s been done by public servants in getting information together to answer these questions. Those 3000 plus questions have cost public servants a lot of time, a lot of them have worked over the last couple of weekends to get them together, and its cost the taxpayer over $250 000, for some answers, to provide answers to questions that they asked last year and have just reprinted again this year - all answers that they already have in their offices in the annual reports of the various agencies. They are shallow, hollow and incompetent.
Last updated: 09 Aug 2016