Mr McCARTHY - 2013-05-16
Thank you, minister, for the acknowledgment of the Australian Labor government and the money secured by the former Labor Treasurer.
Mr ELFERINK: A point of order, Madam Speaker! Standing Order 112, the question shall not contain ironical expressions or epithets. That question should be ruled out of order.
Madam SPEAKER: No, there is no point of order.
Mr McCARTHY: Minister, you have cut the infrastructure budget and broken your promises on roads to Wadeye, the Daly, and roads in the Tiwis. You have cut the Power and Water infrastructure budget by $20m. Budget Paper No 4, page 1 says:
Why have you not listened to the middle-level contractor and subcontractor who advise government on the importance of maintaining an infrastructure budget in the Territory to make the countercyclical strategy you have adopted work?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, I thank the member for Barkly for his question. The first thing we need to look at is that we have to put up a responsible budget. We have been left with a $5.5bn debt. A responsible government needs to look very carefully at how it does it.
I am pleased the Minister for Health has invested an extra $40m in Health, and I thank my Cabinet colleagues for making that available. I asked the Minister for Health if she would invest more money into hearing clinics. I recommend to the Leader of the Opposition and members opposite that they visit the clinic because the alarm bells have been ringing for a long time …
Mr McCARTHY: A point of order, Madam Speaker! Standing Order 113: relevance. We are talking about a reduction of $64m and why you are not listening to Territory subcontractors and contractors at that middle level, minister.
Madam SPEAKER: Minister, latitude is available, but please continue.
Mr STYLES: Thank you, Madam Speaker. I wonder where you get $64m from.
Mr McCARTHY: A point of order, Madam Speaker! Can I say, …
Madam SPEAKER: What is the standing order number, member for Barkly?
Mr McCARTHY: … to answer the minister’s question …
Madam SPEAKER: No, member for Barkly, what is your standing order number?
Mr McCARTHY: Standing Order 113. To answer the minister’s question …
Madam SPEAKER: There is no point of order.
Mr STYLES: Madam Speaker, alarm bells have been ringing for a long time and the members opposite, when in government, were not listening. Perhaps they would like to look at Economics 101. When you start spending …
Ms LAWRIE: A point of order, Madam Speaker! Standing Order 113: relevance. He is not even remotely answering the question.
Madam SPEAKER: There is no point of order.
Ms LAWRIE: It was specifically to the $64m cut in infrastructure.
Madam SPEAKER: There is no point of order, be seated. The minister has time to answer.
Mr STYLES: I am trying to but the constant interjections make it difficult to give an answer. There are a few ways you can fix the mess we have been handed. You can increase taxes, reduce services, or you can have a combination of the two. The other way is through economic development.
What they do not understand is when you get into debt, at some stage you have to pay it back. There is a thing called pay back, yet we see the former ALP credit card has billions of dollars sitting on it. We chose to go down the economic development path to fix the mess. This strategy will create jobs and economic development for the Territory. You spin off more tax dollars through the increased activity and extra jobs created. That is how to fix the problem we were handed. It is a complete and utter mess …
Ms Lawrie: You have lost 3600 jobs.
Mr STYLES: The interjections from the former Treasurer - she created this problem and now wants to say, ‘It is not our fault’. Yesterday the former minister for Infrastructure, who handed us a huge problem, said, ‘Well, mate, you have to fix it’. We are fixing the mess you left us. Private enterprise will take up the slack because we are into economic development. We are open for business. We will create the economic development to assist these people - the small tradies and small- to medium-sized enterprises - to get going in the Territory. You should have been planning before you lost government. This should have been planned two years ago.
Madam SPEAKER: Minister, your time has expired.
Mr ELFERINK: A point of order, Madam Speaker! Standing Order 112, the question shall not contain ironical expressions or epithets. That question should be ruled out of order.
Madam SPEAKER: No, there is no point of order.
Mr McCARTHY: Minister, you have cut the infrastructure budget and broken your promises on roads to Wadeye, the Daly, and roads in the Tiwis. You have cut the Power and Water infrastructure budget by $20m. Budget Paper No 4, page 1 says:
- … total infrastructure payments are expected to be $64 million less than 2012-13 and will continue to decrease over the forward estimates ...
Why have you not listened to the middle-level contractor and subcontractor who advise government on the importance of maintaining an infrastructure budget in the Territory to make the countercyclical strategy you have adopted work?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, I thank the member for Barkly for his question. The first thing we need to look at is that we have to put up a responsible budget. We have been left with a $5.5bn debt. A responsible government needs to look very carefully at how it does it.
I am pleased the Minister for Health has invested an extra $40m in Health, and I thank my Cabinet colleagues for making that available. I asked the Minister for Health if she would invest more money into hearing clinics. I recommend to the Leader of the Opposition and members opposite that they visit the clinic because the alarm bells have been ringing for a long time …
Mr McCARTHY: A point of order, Madam Speaker! Standing Order 113: relevance. We are talking about a reduction of $64m and why you are not listening to Territory subcontractors and contractors at that middle level, minister.
Madam SPEAKER: Minister, latitude is available, but please continue.
Mr STYLES: Thank you, Madam Speaker. I wonder where you get $64m from.
Mr McCARTHY: A point of order, Madam Speaker! Can I say, …
Madam SPEAKER: What is the standing order number, member for Barkly?
Mr McCARTHY: … to answer the minister’s question …
Madam SPEAKER: No, member for Barkly, what is your standing order number?
Mr McCARTHY: Standing Order 113. To answer the minister’s question …
Madam SPEAKER: There is no point of order.
Mr STYLES: Madam Speaker, alarm bells have been ringing for a long time and the members opposite, when in government, were not listening. Perhaps they would like to look at Economics 101. When you start spending …
Ms LAWRIE: A point of order, Madam Speaker! Standing Order 113: relevance. He is not even remotely answering the question.
Madam SPEAKER: There is no point of order.
Ms LAWRIE: It was specifically to the $64m cut in infrastructure.
Madam SPEAKER: There is no point of order, be seated. The minister has time to answer.
Mr STYLES: I am trying to but the constant interjections make it difficult to give an answer. There are a few ways you can fix the mess we have been handed. You can increase taxes, reduce services, or you can have a combination of the two. The other way is through economic development.
What they do not understand is when you get into debt, at some stage you have to pay it back. There is a thing called pay back, yet we see the former ALP credit card has billions of dollars sitting on it. We chose to go down the economic development path to fix the mess. This strategy will create jobs and economic development for the Territory. You spin off more tax dollars through the increased activity and extra jobs created. That is how to fix the problem we were handed. It is a complete and utter mess …
Ms Lawrie: You have lost 3600 jobs.
Mr STYLES: The interjections from the former Treasurer - she created this problem and now wants to say, ‘It is not our fault’. Yesterday the former minister for Infrastructure, who handed us a huge problem, said, ‘Well, mate, you have to fix it’. We are fixing the mess you left us. Private enterprise will take up the slack because we are into economic development. We are open for business. We will create the economic development to assist these people - the small tradies and small- to medium-sized enterprises - to get going in the Territory. You should have been planning before you lost government. This should have been planned two years ago.
Madam SPEAKER: Minister, your time has expired.
Last updated: 09 Aug 2016