You have told us that the legacy of 24 years of Country Liberal Party mismanagement in the Northern Territory is public infrastructure that’s unfit to take us into the 21st century. The extent of your mismanagement is so great you now want to walk away from your key responsibilities as a government. You’re clearly not up to the job. Why should the price of your leadership be the loss of Territory assets, loss of Territory jobs, cuts in essential services, and a hefty private insurance premium for Territorians?

Why should we be copping the brunt of your leadership with a privatisation agenda that you didn’t tell us about before the last election?

ANSWER

Madam Speaker, I welcome the question. We heard on the radio this morning that this is the new Labor Party for the new millennium. After the last election they were the magnificent 7. What we’ve seen here this morning is the exposure of a whole raft of Labor lies, including the context and the substance of the question that’s just been asked.

I commenced this Question Time by reminding Territorians of the commitment that the CLP gave for this term - 15 000 new jobs. And I reminded members in this Chamber that 9 700 new jobs have already been created. I look at the infrastructure and I say to the Leader of the Opposition and her colleagues: ‘Open your eyes, look at what is happening around you. Now that we’ve got rid of the debacle of ambit native title, see the growth in this city’ We have cranes on the sky lines. They should go out to the wharf and have a look what’s happening. Have a look at the growth that is occurring. This is growth that any other state or territory would give their right arm for.

What we’ve exposed this morning is a series of Labor lies, and that is what it is. We have tracked through them. We had the Leader of the Opposition claim: ‘PAWA deal done’. She has also claimed that we are going to privatise the fire service. We’ve had them rumour mongering out there about school-based constables.

We’ve heard what they had to say about school nurses. I will say it again: school nurses are not leaving schools, they never were. I hope that Territorians who have listened to Question Time this morning will get the drift that these people, the Labor Party, tell lies. And what was the best of it all? It was Inspector Gadget, he struck again. The member for Nhulunbuy stood up and he said: ‘Leaked document shows more jobs to go’. Inspector Gadget at it again!

He brought the media into the room and he said: ‘I have the document. It shows more jobs to go’. And what was the document, this so-called secret internal memorandum? It was a newsletter that had been sent to 1200 people and was on the Intranet and could be read by 16 000 people. Inspector Gadget strikes again. He has come in here, again, threatening that he’s going to table things in this Parliament. Question Time has been and gone, and not a thing, not a single shred of paper has been tabled. There is nothing to back up 2 weeks of allegations, and that’s my point. I hope that the press corps does its job and goes back to the Labor Party and says: ‘Well, if you reckon that you’re the new Labor Party for the new millenium, if you reckon this is make or break, can you please explain why that would have to be one of the most wimpish performances ever forthcoming from the Labor Party in this Parliament?’ You’re a bunch of losers.

Mr BAILEY: A point of order, Madam Speaker! Clearly, the question was in relation to the privatisation debate, not in relation to a previous question that I thought had already been answered.

Madam SPEAKER: There is no point of order, and I think the question has been answered.