Dr LIM - 1999-04-27
As the Chairman of the Select Committee on Territory Food Prices, I was particularly concerned when I received this leaflet that was distributed throughout the Territory last weekend. I ask the Chief Minister whether he is aware of the opposition leader’s latest attempt to illegitimately raise the community’s expectation of a drop in food prices resulting from the parliamentary committee’s investigation into the subject?
Can the Chief Minister, once again, outline the objectives of the parliamentary inquiry into food prices?
ANSWER
Mr Speaker, I appreciate the member’s question because I used the word earlier that the Labor leader opposite is ‘misleading’ the public, and the Minister for Essential Services has just demonstrated that ‘misleading’ is a kind word we’ll use in this Assembly.
She has certainly shown herself to be an essential services illiterate. If one listened to the transcript of her radio interview this morning, she has proven herself to be an economic illiterate in every sense of the word. Also, a health illiterate, an education illiterate and an unemployment ...
Members interjecting.
Mr SPEAKER: Order! Order!
A member: Couldn’t run a chook raffle.
Mr Coulter: Lost money on a chook raffle.
Mr SPEAKER: Order! The Chief Minister has the floor.
A member interjecting.
Mr SPEAKER: Order! Order!
Mr BURKE: ... illiterate, as she continues to run the line of about 13% unemployment in the Northern Territory when the ABS unemployment figures in the Northern Territory for March were 5.6%, compared to the national unadjusted unemployment rate of 7.8% - and these are ABS figures. The Leader of the Opposition refuses to acknowledge figures that are being presented by independent and respected arbiters in these sorts of situations.
Ms Martin interjecting.
Mr BURKE: The question was in relation to the food prices inquiry, and it is very important that we again put on the record, to correct the misinformation that is being put out by the Labor leader through this brochure, and other brochures that are put out on the streets, exactly what is happening with the food prices inquiry.
On 16 February in this House, I gave the terms of reference for the committee to inquire into food prices, and I said: ‘The committee would report on whether or not the prices of food, groceries and household items across the Territory are substantially different to those in comparable locations elsewhere in Australia, and, if so, identify the reasons for the variations in prices’.
Also, in the debate that ensued in this House during that time I said, and I emphasise: ‘The committee’s task is to find the facts. It is not to recommend interventionist action of government, and not to try to second-guess business operators on how to operate their business’. In response the Labor leader, Clare Martin, got to her feet and said: ‘This issue is a bipartisan one. As the Chief Minister just said, what this inquiry is about is getting the facts and figures.’ Her deputy, also writing in the Nhulunbuy Times, said ...
Mr Stirling: Arafura Times.
Mr BURKE: ...the Arafura Times said: ‘The committee’s job was to inquire and report on whether or not the prices of food, groceries and household items across the Territory are substantially different to those in comparable locations elsewhere in Australia and, if so, identify the reasons for the variation in prices’.
My point is this. There is bipartisan support and agreement with the focus of the inquiry’s deliberations, and that is to ascertain and state to Territorians whether the prices that were paid for grocery items in the Northern Territory were fair and reasonable and, if not, why not. It certainly wasn’t to go out and recommend ways that prices of food or grocery items could be reduced in the Northern Territory.
The opposition leader agreed to that position, and that also was the bipartisan position adopted by other members of her party.
Now we have ...
Ms Martin interjecting.
Mr SPEAKER: Order!
Mr BURKE: ... the glossy brochure ...
Ms Martin: Don’t rock the boat.
Mr SPEAKER: Order!
Mr BURKE: ... and I hope government is not paying for this brochure, and I’m assured of that because appearing in tiny 6-point at the bottom of the last page is the only reference to the ALP, ‘authorised by Mike Smith, ALP, Darwin’. I would have thought if Barry Jones was up here advising on ALP policies, he would be looking for some sort of logo or reference that this is the party, the ALP, in action in the Northern Territory.
It is a glossy brochure. It’s the Clare Martin party. It has 2 photos of Clare Martin, 7 references to Clare Martin, no reference to any of her members, but it talks about working together. The other members of her party might start to realise that they are being led by an economic illiterate here who is very fast on the media grabs and very low on substance.
For example ...
Members interjecting.
Mr SPEAKER: Order!
Mr BURKE: For example, after agreeing to the situation and focus of the inquiry she says in this brochure: ‘Clare Martin wants this inquiry to make a difference to household budgets’, knowing full well that this inquiry doesn’t have the ability to achieve that. Be honest and truthful to Territorians when you go out and tell these sorts of lies.
Members interjecting.
Mr SPEAKER: Order.
Mr BURKE: Secondly, she says a price watch group has been formed to keep an eye on the prices being charged at Territory supermarkets.
Now, anyone can go out and refer to higher prices, compared to other jurisdictions in the Northern Territory, but what she needs to say to Territorians is, compared to what?
When you go out there and do your little basket of food …
Ms Martin interjecting.
Mr BURKE: When she does her basket of food …
Mr Ah Kit: Don’t you want prices to come down?
Mr BURKE: The only whingeing, whining person around here is you.
When she goes out …
Mr Stirling interjecting.
Mr SPEAKER: Order, order!
Mr BURKE: I’ll pick up the comment from the Deputy Leader of the Opposition.
Mr Stirling: You ring Barry Jones. Do you know what Michael Fields is doing?
Mr SPEAKER: Order, order! The member for Nhulunbuy.
Mr BURKE: We are running government here in the Northern Territory. I’m the Chief Minister of a responsible government and I don’t have the time, often, to respond to this sort of rot that’s being run out in the street.
But when you form your price watch group, be honest in terms of the basket of food that you do collect. Because you know, from debate in this House, that to get any reasonable assessment of what the basket of food is, you should be looking at something like the 2000 high-volume items that go through supermarkets in the Northern Territory, and the difficult thing is to pick the point of comparisons. Compared to what? Compared to Townsville, compared to Cairns? Both places sit very close to the Atherton Tablelands which creates factors - in Territory terms of the prices that fresh food would be charged for - and are…
Members interjecting.
Mr BURKE: … jurisdictions that are totally different to the Northern Territory.
Mr Bailey: You can’t bring down ...
Mr SPEAKER: Order!
Mr BURKE: This committee has a very responsible task to do - to do exactly what the terms of reference charge it to do – and that is to establish whether the prices charged in the Northern Territory are fair and reasonable, and to report to Territorians if that is the case, or if that is not the case. It is not charged to lower prices in the Northern Territory, and any leader, Labor or otherwise, that trots out to Territorians some suggestion that they can achieve that, is plain misleading.
Can the Chief Minister, once again, outline the objectives of the parliamentary inquiry into food prices?
ANSWER
Mr Speaker, I appreciate the member’s question because I used the word earlier that the Labor leader opposite is ‘misleading’ the public, and the Minister for Essential Services has just demonstrated that ‘misleading’ is a kind word we’ll use in this Assembly.
She has certainly shown herself to be an essential services illiterate. If one listened to the transcript of her radio interview this morning, she has proven herself to be an economic illiterate in every sense of the word. Also, a health illiterate, an education illiterate and an unemployment ...
Members interjecting.
Mr SPEAKER: Order! Order!
A member: Couldn’t run a chook raffle.
Mr Coulter: Lost money on a chook raffle.
Mr SPEAKER: Order! The Chief Minister has the floor.
A member interjecting.
Mr SPEAKER: Order! Order!
Mr BURKE: ... illiterate, as she continues to run the line of about 13% unemployment in the Northern Territory when the ABS unemployment figures in the Northern Territory for March were 5.6%, compared to the national unadjusted unemployment rate of 7.8% - and these are ABS figures. The Leader of the Opposition refuses to acknowledge figures that are being presented by independent and respected arbiters in these sorts of situations.
Ms Martin interjecting.
Mr BURKE: The question was in relation to the food prices inquiry, and it is very important that we again put on the record, to correct the misinformation that is being put out by the Labor leader through this brochure, and other brochures that are put out on the streets, exactly what is happening with the food prices inquiry.
On 16 February in this House, I gave the terms of reference for the committee to inquire into food prices, and I said: ‘The committee would report on whether or not the prices of food, groceries and household items across the Territory are substantially different to those in comparable locations elsewhere in Australia, and, if so, identify the reasons for the variations in prices’.
Also, in the debate that ensued in this House during that time I said, and I emphasise: ‘The committee’s task is to find the facts. It is not to recommend interventionist action of government, and not to try to second-guess business operators on how to operate their business’. In response the Labor leader, Clare Martin, got to her feet and said: ‘This issue is a bipartisan one. As the Chief Minister just said, what this inquiry is about is getting the facts and figures.’ Her deputy, also writing in the Nhulunbuy Times, said ...
Mr Stirling: Arafura Times.
Mr BURKE: ...the Arafura Times said: ‘The committee’s job was to inquire and report on whether or not the prices of food, groceries and household items across the Territory are substantially different to those in comparable locations elsewhere in Australia and, if so, identify the reasons for the variation in prices’.
My point is this. There is bipartisan support and agreement with the focus of the inquiry’s deliberations, and that is to ascertain and state to Territorians whether the prices that were paid for grocery items in the Northern Territory were fair and reasonable and, if not, why not. It certainly wasn’t to go out and recommend ways that prices of food or grocery items could be reduced in the Northern Territory.
The opposition leader agreed to that position, and that also was the bipartisan position adopted by other members of her party.
Now we have ...
Ms Martin interjecting.
Mr SPEAKER: Order!
Mr BURKE: ... the glossy brochure ...
Ms Martin: Don’t rock the boat.
Mr SPEAKER: Order!
Mr BURKE: ... and I hope government is not paying for this brochure, and I’m assured of that because appearing in tiny 6-point at the bottom of the last page is the only reference to the ALP, ‘authorised by Mike Smith, ALP, Darwin’. I would have thought if Barry Jones was up here advising on ALP policies, he would be looking for some sort of logo or reference that this is the party, the ALP, in action in the Northern Territory.
It is a glossy brochure. It’s the Clare Martin party. It has 2 photos of Clare Martin, 7 references to Clare Martin, no reference to any of her members, but it talks about working together. The other members of her party might start to realise that they are being led by an economic illiterate here who is very fast on the media grabs and very low on substance.
For example ...
Members interjecting.
Mr SPEAKER: Order!
Mr BURKE: For example, after agreeing to the situation and focus of the inquiry she says in this brochure: ‘Clare Martin wants this inquiry to make a difference to household budgets’, knowing full well that this inquiry doesn’t have the ability to achieve that. Be honest and truthful to Territorians when you go out and tell these sorts of lies.
Members interjecting.
Mr SPEAKER: Order.
Mr BURKE: Secondly, she says a price watch group has been formed to keep an eye on the prices being charged at Territory supermarkets.
Now, anyone can go out and refer to higher prices, compared to other jurisdictions in the Northern Territory, but what she needs to say to Territorians is, compared to what?
When you go out there and do your little basket of food …
Ms Martin interjecting.
Mr BURKE: When she does her basket of food …
Mr Ah Kit: Don’t you want prices to come down?
Mr BURKE: The only whingeing, whining person around here is you.
When she goes out …
Mr Stirling interjecting.
Mr SPEAKER: Order, order!
Mr BURKE: I’ll pick up the comment from the Deputy Leader of the Opposition.
Mr Stirling: You ring Barry Jones. Do you know what Michael Fields is doing?
Mr SPEAKER: Order, order! The member for Nhulunbuy.
Mr BURKE: We are running government here in the Northern Territory. I’m the Chief Minister of a responsible government and I don’t have the time, often, to respond to this sort of rot that’s being run out in the street.
But when you form your price watch group, be honest in terms of the basket of food that you do collect. Because you know, from debate in this House, that to get any reasonable assessment of what the basket of food is, you should be looking at something like the 2000 high-volume items that go through supermarkets in the Northern Territory, and the difficult thing is to pick the point of comparisons. Compared to what? Compared to Townsville, compared to Cairns? Both places sit very close to the Atherton Tablelands which creates factors - in Territory terms of the prices that fresh food would be charged for - and are…
Members interjecting.
Mr BURKE: … jurisdictions that are totally different to the Northern Territory.
Mr Bailey: You can’t bring down ...
Mr SPEAKER: Order!
Mr BURKE: This committee has a very responsible task to do - to do exactly what the terms of reference charge it to do – and that is to establish whether the prices charged in the Northern Territory are fair and reasonable, and to report to Territorians if that is the case, or if that is not the case. It is not charged to lower prices in the Northern Territory, and any leader, Labor or otherwise, that trots out to Territorians some suggestion that they can achieve that, is plain misleading.
Last updated: 09 Aug 2016