Ms MARTIN - 2001-05-30
Mr Speaker, let’s try to get a straight answer on this. Yesterday, when your Treasurer delivered the budget, he claimed the net debt would increase by $12m next year, and this is clearly demonstrated on page 1 of the budget summary, the big print. Yet the truth is in the detail in Budget Paper No 3, at page 127 ...
Mr Reed: 1, 2, 3, this is the one you missed. I just answered that question. I just told you the details about that.
Ms MARTIN: We know the Treasurer knows where it is. The uniform presentation of the budget shows a net debt increase of $153m. The purported level of net debt is $1.7bn. This shows your government will increase debt by nearly $400m over two years, up from $1.3bn to $1.7bn.
Chief Minister, how do you explain this deceit and incompetence to Territorians?
ANSWER
Mr Speaker, the explanation is fully explained in the budget papers. The Leader of the Opposition will have the opportunity very shortly to continue her tirade and we, individually as ministers, have the rest of the afternoon and tomorrow to answer all her questions in detail. At the next sittings she can go through a whole session of questions in detail.
Meantime, I rather enjoyed the Treasurer’s last reply. I believe it fully answered her question and I will refer her to him to explain it to her once again.
Mr REED: I would be delighted to further emphasise the point that the UPF is ...
Ms Martin: Every other state does UPF.
Mr SPEAKER: Order!
Ms Martin: So these are the rubbery figures ...
Mr REED: Exactly, and you only discovered it this year, that is how stupid you are. It has been available to you and the only reason you are using it this year is because you can misrepresent it. And you must take into account that the presentation allows for when the funding for the railway was provided and when the outgoings occurred and, from that point of view, you will not get anywhere with this because you are just simply wrong.
Meanwhile, can I say this. We on the government benches are working to ensure that the can-do attitude of the Territory business sector works together with government to achieve results for Territorians. The Leader of the Opposition can whinge about UPFs or other kinds of interpretations she wants to make of the budget documents, but we will be focused on the development outlook. We are looking out five years to see what the needs of infrastructure will be, to get a gas industry going for Territorians, to get the railway that she gave up on constructed, to get jobs for Territorians. Our job strategy is to get projects going so people will get jobs, like they are in Katherine and Tennant Creek, working on sleeper plants. Like they will be in another year’s time, building bridges, like they will be in a few months time driving trucks up from Alice Springs to Tennant Creek and Katherine with 27m lengths of railway line to be welded into 300m long sections so that it can be laid to provide us with an alternative freight system.
They are the things that we are doing to create jobs. They are tangible. They are working while the Labor party sleeps and whinges.
Mr Reed: 1, 2, 3, this is the one you missed. I just answered that question. I just told you the details about that.
Ms MARTIN: We know the Treasurer knows where it is. The uniform presentation of the budget shows a net debt increase of $153m. The purported level of net debt is $1.7bn. This shows your government will increase debt by nearly $400m over two years, up from $1.3bn to $1.7bn.
Chief Minister, how do you explain this deceit and incompetence to Territorians?
ANSWER
Mr Speaker, the explanation is fully explained in the budget papers. The Leader of the Opposition will have the opportunity very shortly to continue her tirade and we, individually as ministers, have the rest of the afternoon and tomorrow to answer all her questions in detail. At the next sittings she can go through a whole session of questions in detail.
Meantime, I rather enjoyed the Treasurer’s last reply. I believe it fully answered her question and I will refer her to him to explain it to her once again.
Mr REED: I would be delighted to further emphasise the point that the UPF is ...
Ms Martin: Every other state does UPF.
Mr SPEAKER: Order!
Ms Martin: So these are the rubbery figures ...
Mr REED: Exactly, and you only discovered it this year, that is how stupid you are. It has been available to you and the only reason you are using it this year is because you can misrepresent it. And you must take into account that the presentation allows for when the funding for the railway was provided and when the outgoings occurred and, from that point of view, you will not get anywhere with this because you are just simply wrong.
Meanwhile, can I say this. We on the government benches are working to ensure that the can-do attitude of the Territory business sector works together with government to achieve results for Territorians. The Leader of the Opposition can whinge about UPFs or other kinds of interpretations she wants to make of the budget documents, but we will be focused on the development outlook. We are looking out five years to see what the needs of infrastructure will be, to get a gas industry going for Territorians, to get the railway that she gave up on constructed, to get jobs for Territorians. Our job strategy is to get projects going so people will get jobs, like they are in Katherine and Tennant Creek, working on sleeper plants. Like they will be in another year’s time, building bridges, like they will be in a few months time driving trucks up from Alice Springs to Tennant Creek and Katherine with 27m lengths of railway line to be welded into 300m long sections so that it can be laid to provide us with an alternative freight system.
They are the things that we are doing to create jobs. They are tangible. They are working while the Labor party sleeps and whinges.
Last updated: 09 Aug 2016