Mr STIRLING - 1999-08-19
Labor has shown a key reason why Territorians pay higher food prices is that Territory food retailers face the highest power charges in Australia.
Members interjecting.
Mr SPEAKER: Order!
Mr STIRLING: They are very rude and obstructive. The best treatment, Mr Speaker, would be to chuck one of them out for an hour.
Will the Chief Minister support Labor’s call to set out a timetable with definite dates to reduce the Country Liberal Party’s power prices as a concrete measure towards cutting Territory food prices?
ANSWER
Mr Speaker, I haven’t heard of any timetable produced by the opposition. I have heard the opposition saying there is no place for competition in the Northern Territory. I’ve heard the opposition say that they would take some fanciful figure of $30m and produce lower electricity prices in the Northern Territory with that money. They suggest that they would somehow get that from PAWA. Anyone with a basic knowledge of economics would know that it would have to come out of consolidated revenue.
As I understand them, the Labor Party’s plans are no different from those of Labor parties throughout Australia in the past. You dip into the coffers, spend what’s in the coffers and reduce revenue. That’s what you’re saying. You reduce revenue through a reduction in PAWA costs, reduce revenue in payroll tax. You hit the coffers to get a short-term gain in terms of benefit to the public, while at the same time, unknown to the public, you’ve run the jurisdiction broke. It happened in Western Australia and South Australia, it happened in Victoria and it happened federally.
If the Labor Party got into power in the Northern Territory, I have no doubt that that would be the simple approach it would take. No responsible government can come forward with a policy of reducing revenue and increasing spending and hope to survive. Yet that is the basic Labor policy.
Members interjecting.
Mr SPEAKER: Order!
Mr STIRLING: They are very rude and obstructive. The best treatment, Mr Speaker, would be to chuck one of them out for an hour.
Will the Chief Minister support Labor’s call to set out a timetable with definite dates to reduce the Country Liberal Party’s power prices as a concrete measure towards cutting Territory food prices?
ANSWER
Mr Speaker, I haven’t heard of any timetable produced by the opposition. I have heard the opposition saying there is no place for competition in the Northern Territory. I’ve heard the opposition say that they would take some fanciful figure of $30m and produce lower electricity prices in the Northern Territory with that money. They suggest that they would somehow get that from PAWA. Anyone with a basic knowledge of economics would know that it would have to come out of consolidated revenue.
As I understand them, the Labor Party’s plans are no different from those of Labor parties throughout Australia in the past. You dip into the coffers, spend what’s in the coffers and reduce revenue. That’s what you’re saying. You reduce revenue through a reduction in PAWA costs, reduce revenue in payroll tax. You hit the coffers to get a short-term gain in terms of benefit to the public, while at the same time, unknown to the public, you’ve run the jurisdiction broke. It happened in Western Australia and South Australia, it happened in Victoria and it happened federally.
If the Labor Party got into power in the Northern Territory, I have no doubt that that would be the simple approach it would take. No responsible government can come forward with a policy of reducing revenue and increasing spending and hope to survive. Yet that is the basic Labor policy.
Last updated: 09 Aug 2016