Ms MARTIN - 2000-10-11
The quarterly financial statements for the end of 1999-2000 were finally signed off and released by your Treasurer last week. They provide the outcome review of your first full financial year as Chief Minister. What was the result? An increase in net debt of $91m compared to an initial budget estimate for surplus of $1m. A shameful outcome when the budget blow out has done nothing to elevate the recession the Territory is now suffering due to CLP mismanagement.
Why should Territorians believe anything this Chief Minister says about CLP budgetary management or pre-election promises when you lose control of the bottom line by $92m in just one year?
ANSWER
Mr Speaker, the Leader of the Opposition understandably would not have confidence in the government in the way they manage our economy. Territorians will judge the CLP’s performance when we eventually go to the election. What continues to amaze me is that at every opportunity the Labor Opposition are negative towards the Northern Territory and negative towards Territorians. I believe that will be one of the issues judged very clearly when we go to the election because Territorians are not stupid. They understand that we occupy one sixth of this Australian continent. They understand the challenges that confront this CLP government on a daily basis and they can look around them and see the mass of infrastructure development that has occurred in the Northern Territory since self-government.
They can pick up the paper any day of the week and if they picked up the paper on Saturday they would see 13 pages of ads including an ad for a chief of staff for the Northern Territory News. Those ads included over 200 jobs ranging from unskilled to professional lawyers, engineers, etc and the majority of those vacancies were in the private sector.
Now, no-one denies - and certainly if we are talking about jobs, the Leader of the Opposition has certainly done her bit because she has created one extra job in the Northern Territory by her total abandonment of the member for Arafura. You have done your bit certainly in leadership in creating more jobs in the Northern Territory. But we understand on this side of the House that there are difficulties out there in a number of sectors in the Northern Territory. We understand the hurt that is being felt in sections of the construction industry in particular but that industry knows that major projects such as the Army presence in the North are not simply inventions of government. They take a large amount of time to get going, their economic benefit in terms of jobs is immense but at some stage they have to stop and that is what has happened in terms of the construction industry. That major industry has essentially slowed down significantly and in some areas Territorians know that there is an oversupply and that part of the industry which is feeling an oversupply will be flat for some times and this government does not hide or walk away from that. We feel that particular hurt and we are doing everything we can to ensure that where government can be effective these things can be adjusted as soon possible and the railway project is clear evidence of that.
Also, we should recall that yesterday in this House, when Territorians consider the economic performance of this CLP government, they will consider the fact that we passed a bill establishing the new city of Palmerston - something that went from flat bushland to a city in 17 years. One of the fastest growing cities in Australia and proudly, I was there the day before yesterday when ASI and IBM GSA teamed together with the Northern Territory University to create a computer manufacturing plant in the new city of Palmerston. If you talk to the principals of those organisations, you know why they picked the Northern Territory, you know why they picked Palmerston. Because they can see that this is the place to be and they can see the future, and Territorians can see the future. But the Leader of the Opposition and the mob of drones sitting with her …
Members interjecting.
Mr BURKE: ...they can’t. Well, the drones and the cane toads, my apologies to the member for Arnhem. They are the only ones who cannot see it. If Territorians picked up today’s paper they would see 500 homes for the tank farm site. This sort of private investment does not come out of thin air, it comes from people like IBM GSA; people who will commit to the 500 homes at the tank farm site. These are not people who work off the whims of comments of the Leader of the Opposition. These are people who do hard economic analysis and want a return on their investment. They put their investment in the place that is going to go ahead and going ...
Members interjecting.
Mr STIRLING: A point of order, Mr Speaker! The question was fairly specific in terms of the $91m blow-out since the Chief Minister took over that job. He has not even attempted to answer it.
Mr SPEAKER: I am assuming the Chief Minister has completed the answer. The member for Nightcliff.
Why should Territorians believe anything this Chief Minister says about CLP budgetary management or pre-election promises when you lose control of the bottom line by $92m in just one year?
ANSWER
Mr Speaker, the Leader of the Opposition understandably would not have confidence in the government in the way they manage our economy. Territorians will judge the CLP’s performance when we eventually go to the election. What continues to amaze me is that at every opportunity the Labor Opposition are negative towards the Northern Territory and negative towards Territorians. I believe that will be one of the issues judged very clearly when we go to the election because Territorians are not stupid. They understand that we occupy one sixth of this Australian continent. They understand the challenges that confront this CLP government on a daily basis and they can look around them and see the mass of infrastructure development that has occurred in the Northern Territory since self-government.
They can pick up the paper any day of the week and if they picked up the paper on Saturday they would see 13 pages of ads including an ad for a chief of staff for the Northern Territory News. Those ads included over 200 jobs ranging from unskilled to professional lawyers, engineers, etc and the majority of those vacancies were in the private sector.
Now, no-one denies - and certainly if we are talking about jobs, the Leader of the Opposition has certainly done her bit because she has created one extra job in the Northern Territory by her total abandonment of the member for Arafura. You have done your bit certainly in leadership in creating more jobs in the Northern Territory. But we understand on this side of the House that there are difficulties out there in a number of sectors in the Northern Territory. We understand the hurt that is being felt in sections of the construction industry in particular but that industry knows that major projects such as the Army presence in the North are not simply inventions of government. They take a large amount of time to get going, their economic benefit in terms of jobs is immense but at some stage they have to stop and that is what has happened in terms of the construction industry. That major industry has essentially slowed down significantly and in some areas Territorians know that there is an oversupply and that part of the industry which is feeling an oversupply will be flat for some times and this government does not hide or walk away from that. We feel that particular hurt and we are doing everything we can to ensure that where government can be effective these things can be adjusted as soon possible and the railway project is clear evidence of that.
Also, we should recall that yesterday in this House, when Territorians consider the economic performance of this CLP government, they will consider the fact that we passed a bill establishing the new city of Palmerston - something that went from flat bushland to a city in 17 years. One of the fastest growing cities in Australia and proudly, I was there the day before yesterday when ASI and IBM GSA teamed together with the Northern Territory University to create a computer manufacturing plant in the new city of Palmerston. If you talk to the principals of those organisations, you know why they picked the Northern Territory, you know why they picked Palmerston. Because they can see that this is the place to be and they can see the future, and Territorians can see the future. But the Leader of the Opposition and the mob of drones sitting with her …
Members interjecting.
Mr BURKE: ...they can’t. Well, the drones and the cane toads, my apologies to the member for Arnhem. They are the only ones who cannot see it. If Territorians picked up today’s paper they would see 500 homes for the tank farm site. This sort of private investment does not come out of thin air, it comes from people like IBM GSA; people who will commit to the 500 homes at the tank farm site. These are not people who work off the whims of comments of the Leader of the Opposition. These are people who do hard economic analysis and want a return on their investment. They put their investment in the place that is going to go ahead and going ...
Members interjecting.
Mr STIRLING: A point of order, Mr Speaker! The question was fairly specific in terms of the $91m blow-out since the Chief Minister took over that job. He has not even attempted to answer it.
Mr SPEAKER: I am assuming the Chief Minister has completed the answer. The member for Nightcliff.
Last updated: 09 Aug 2016