Ms MARTIN - 2000-06-15
Your government’s enthusiasm to privatise our electricity industry is well known. Just yesterday in this House your Treasurer praised Victoria’s budget bottom line achieved mainly through the fire sale of their electricity assets.
I have here a leaked Cabinet submission which says, and I quote: ‘The issue [that is the issue of privatisation] will be revisited when competition becomes a reality and the outcome of the proposed improvement program becomes clear’. You pretend, Chief Minister, to Territorians that privatisation is off the agenda, but this document proves it is not.
I ask leave to table that document.
Leave granted.
Ms MARTIN: Given that competition is now a reality, will you confirm to Territorians that privatisation of the Power and Water Authority is now back on your agenda?
ANSWER
Mr Speaker, it is not the government’s intention to sell PAWA. We had that opportunity some time ago as the result of a consultant’s report. We decided against that particular approach and have been restructuring PAWA to be competitive in the electricity industry to meet the face of competition, which also this government has introduced into the Northern Territory, and PAWA will be competitive in that regard.
With regards to a leaked document, one would have to see the leaked document, see the date of that document, before one could comment on that document. I would lay odds it is two years old. There you are, any takers? I lay odds it is two years old. There is the answer to that particular allegation.
But I will tell you this. If we were into selling off our assets, if we were like a Victorian government that had to raise $35bn to pay off the debts and get some sort of rationale into the debts that were created by a Labor government in Victoria, we would not have the assets in the Northern Territory to be able to do it. That is the sort of situation that Territorians could face if this rabble on the other side ever got into government and started spending wildly in the way the Leader of the Opposition in the Northern Territory suggests we should do. She continues to talk about how the Northern Territory government should continually spend, spend, spend. I have never heard her raise the issue of revenue and how she would collect any revenue from Territorians in order to fund that spending. We can only assume that she would put the Northern Territory into more and more debt, increased debt which would see…
Mr Stirling interjecting.
Mr SPEAKER: Order!
Mr BURKE: …acted on the analyst’s report of the Northern Territory in such a way that the Labor Party of the Northern Territory, I believe, would have no option but to sell a wonderful public utility such as PAWA – something this government will not do.
I have here a leaked Cabinet submission which says, and I quote: ‘The issue [that is the issue of privatisation] will be revisited when competition becomes a reality and the outcome of the proposed improvement program becomes clear’. You pretend, Chief Minister, to Territorians that privatisation is off the agenda, but this document proves it is not.
I ask leave to table that document.
Leave granted.
Ms MARTIN: Given that competition is now a reality, will you confirm to Territorians that privatisation of the Power and Water Authority is now back on your agenda?
ANSWER
Mr Speaker, it is not the government’s intention to sell PAWA. We had that opportunity some time ago as the result of a consultant’s report. We decided against that particular approach and have been restructuring PAWA to be competitive in the electricity industry to meet the face of competition, which also this government has introduced into the Northern Territory, and PAWA will be competitive in that regard.
With regards to a leaked document, one would have to see the leaked document, see the date of that document, before one could comment on that document. I would lay odds it is two years old. There you are, any takers? I lay odds it is two years old. There is the answer to that particular allegation.
But I will tell you this. If we were into selling off our assets, if we were like a Victorian government that had to raise $35bn to pay off the debts and get some sort of rationale into the debts that were created by a Labor government in Victoria, we would not have the assets in the Northern Territory to be able to do it. That is the sort of situation that Territorians could face if this rabble on the other side ever got into government and started spending wildly in the way the Leader of the Opposition in the Northern Territory suggests we should do. She continues to talk about how the Northern Territory government should continually spend, spend, spend. I have never heard her raise the issue of revenue and how she would collect any revenue from Territorians in order to fund that spending. We can only assume that she would put the Northern Territory into more and more debt, increased debt which would see…
Mr Stirling interjecting.
Mr SPEAKER: Order!
Mr BURKE: …acted on the analyst’s report of the Northern Territory in such a way that the Labor Party of the Northern Territory, I believe, would have no option but to sell a wonderful public utility such as PAWA – something this government will not do.
Last updated: 09 Aug 2016