Mr HATTON - 2001-06-26
Mr Speaker, the opposition continues to carp about the payments the Territory makes to service the interest resulting from public sector borrowings. Is the opposition giving Territorians the full picture, and could the Treasurer please advise if those interest payments are more or less than they were, for example, 10 years ago when the Northern Territory fiscal strategy was put in place?
ANSWER
Mr Speaker, yes indeed, the opposition is being a touch deceitful in their presentation of the debt situation with the Northern Territory and the payment of interest on its loans. The Leader of the Opposition seeks to paint the picture much more dramatically and the position much worse than it actually is, in terms of her idea of it being particularly bad. She does not recognise that it is the capacity ...
Ms Martin: $500 000 a day.
Mr REED: ... to pay, the capacity to repay borrowings that is important, not so much the fact that one has debt, and ...
Ms Martin: And strip dollars out of essential services.
Mr REED: Well, you can keep rabbiting on but let the people listening to this broadcast of Question Time hear the answer. You have had your chance to mislead them so let them hear some truth in this regard.
The fact is that in terms of the budget that I introduced during the course of the last sittings, the external interest payments then announced for 2001-02 are estimated to cost $182m, compared to 1991-92 when they were $223m. Even with the simplistic approach of the Leader of the Opposition she would be able to determine that that is $41m less in interest payments than we were paying 10 years ago.
Ms Martin: $0.5m a day interest is just terrific.
Mr REED: $0.5m a day. I am pleased that she has raised the $0.5m a day because it has taken her all of the time that she has been in parliament to recognise that if she divides the amount of interest payments by 365 she will get a daily figure - a marvellous revelation to her no doubt. What she won’t go on to tell Territorians, because of this government’s good financial management and our refinancing of our debt arrangements, the interest payments ...
Ms Martin: It meant we did not grow in the last financial year.
Mr REED: No, no, no. Let the people listen.
The interest payments next financial year will be $112 000 a day less than the amount being paid 10 years ago. If you take the concept of the Leader of the Opposition that ‘We’ll all be rooned’ said Hanrahan, that the end is nigh, the sun won’t come up tomorrow’ - well the sun was still coming up when we were paying $223m a year interest.
Indeed, in the intervening 10 years between 1991-92 and 2001-02, we have seen those loans and the direction of the CLP government be able to provide new schools; to improve our hospital services; to be able to maintain our road system; to improve sporting facilities; to be able to ensure that Territorians have wonderful opportunities for recreational services, to avail themselves of the sporting facilities that were provided right across the Northern Territory; to be safer in their homes and in the community. From that point of view I think that Territorians certainly recognise ...
Ms Martin: Crime rose 22%.
Mr REED: ... Territorians certainly recognise - even if the Labor Party Leader doesn’t want them to hear it - that we have been able to accrue assets at a faster rate than our debt has increased. I would simply ask her, I would ask her to have a talk ...
Ms Martin interjecting.
Mr SPEAKER: Order, the Leader of the Opposition!
Mr REED: I would ask her to have a talk to Labor’s candidate for Solomon, one Mr Bree, because he has demonstrated a far greater understanding of debt when he told the NT News on 28 April 2001 that: ‘We don’t have any problems with having debts. It’s the ability to finance those debts that’s important’.
Now, if he were elected to federal parliament, that would be the message that he would be conveying as the member for Solomon, that there is not a problem with debt, it is the ability to repay it. So at least, one member of the Labor Party, although not a member of the magnificent seven in this Chamber, recognises that it is the capacity to repay debt rather than spreading the deceitful untruths that the Leader of the Opposition has in her portrayal of the actual Territory debt situation.
ANSWER
Mr Speaker, yes indeed, the opposition is being a touch deceitful in their presentation of the debt situation with the Northern Territory and the payment of interest on its loans. The Leader of the Opposition seeks to paint the picture much more dramatically and the position much worse than it actually is, in terms of her idea of it being particularly bad. She does not recognise that it is the capacity ...
Ms Martin: $500 000 a day.
Mr REED: ... to pay, the capacity to repay borrowings that is important, not so much the fact that one has debt, and ...
Ms Martin: And strip dollars out of essential services.
Mr REED: Well, you can keep rabbiting on but let the people listening to this broadcast of Question Time hear the answer. You have had your chance to mislead them so let them hear some truth in this regard.
The fact is that in terms of the budget that I introduced during the course of the last sittings, the external interest payments then announced for 2001-02 are estimated to cost $182m, compared to 1991-92 when they were $223m. Even with the simplistic approach of the Leader of the Opposition she would be able to determine that that is $41m less in interest payments than we were paying 10 years ago.
Ms Martin: $0.5m a day interest is just terrific.
Mr REED: $0.5m a day. I am pleased that she has raised the $0.5m a day because it has taken her all of the time that she has been in parliament to recognise that if she divides the amount of interest payments by 365 she will get a daily figure - a marvellous revelation to her no doubt. What she won’t go on to tell Territorians, because of this government’s good financial management and our refinancing of our debt arrangements, the interest payments ...
Ms Martin: It meant we did not grow in the last financial year.
Mr REED: No, no, no. Let the people listen.
The interest payments next financial year will be $112 000 a day less than the amount being paid 10 years ago. If you take the concept of the Leader of the Opposition that ‘We’ll all be rooned’ said Hanrahan, that the end is nigh, the sun won’t come up tomorrow’ - well the sun was still coming up when we were paying $223m a year interest.
Indeed, in the intervening 10 years between 1991-92 and 2001-02, we have seen those loans and the direction of the CLP government be able to provide new schools; to improve our hospital services; to be able to maintain our road system; to improve sporting facilities; to be able to ensure that Territorians have wonderful opportunities for recreational services, to avail themselves of the sporting facilities that were provided right across the Northern Territory; to be safer in their homes and in the community. From that point of view I think that Territorians certainly recognise ...
Ms Martin: Crime rose 22%.
Mr REED: ... Territorians certainly recognise - even if the Labor Party Leader doesn’t want them to hear it - that we have been able to accrue assets at a faster rate than our debt has increased. I would simply ask her, I would ask her to have a talk ...
Ms Martin interjecting.
Mr SPEAKER: Order, the Leader of the Opposition!
Mr REED: I would ask her to have a talk to Labor’s candidate for Solomon, one Mr Bree, because he has demonstrated a far greater understanding of debt when he told the NT News on 28 April 2001 that: ‘We don’t have any problems with having debts. It’s the ability to finance those debts that’s important’.
Now, if he were elected to federal parliament, that would be the message that he would be conveying as the member for Solomon, that there is not a problem with debt, it is the ability to repay it. So at least, one member of the Labor Party, although not a member of the magnificent seven in this Chamber, recognises that it is the capacity to repay debt rather than spreading the deceitful untruths that the Leader of the Opposition has in her portrayal of the actual Territory debt situation.
Last updated: 09 Aug 2016