Mr GUNNER - 2016-04-21
Your Buy Local policies are failing and you are destroying jobs in the Territory. Steel fabrication for the Nhulunbuy boarding school, the netball courts in Alice Springs and the BMX bike track went interstate. We have now been advised that you gave a grant to the Darwin Bowls and Social Club, and the steel work on that has gone interstate also.
How many more jobs will you send interstate? Ahead of your crisis meeting with steel fabricators this Friday, will you commit to supporting Labor’s plan, which industry supports? Will you support Labor’s plan to apply the 25% local content weighting beyond the head contractor, and will you require all recipients of capital grants to apply the same rules?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, I sincerely thank the Leader of the Opposition for the opportunity to explain how clueless he is in relation to this industry.
You will not read the Hawke report on fracking or any of our policies and you do not know what you are talking about. Let me tell you what happens with grants. You already know that when we give a grant of 10%, 20% or 30% to an organisation, we cannot dictate to them that they use local businesses, but we are looking at that; we took that on board from industry.
We have a tender process where you buy local. If you have a business here and you say, ‘I want to use Billy Bloggs, Jane and Mary for this’, and I put that into the tender and you win it, those conditions are written into the contract. If you say in your tender document that you will use local people, it is transferred into the contract. If you do not use local people, you breach the contract. It is that simple.
If you are in private enterprise and say …
Mr Gunner: So you are admitting to the loophole?
Mr STYLES: There is no loophole. You have to read what is in there.
You are talking about jobs. This is the man – the member for Fannie Bay – who will export 6300 jobs in the onshore gas industry interstate. This industry will create the work for the steel fabrication industry and you want to shut it down. I quote from your Labor policy:
He will shut the industry down.
Mr GUNNER: A point of order, Madam Speaker! Standing Order 110. If he cannot answer the Buy Local question in three minutes today, how can he front a meeting on Friday to answer …
Madam SPEAKER: It is not a point of order, please sit down.
Mr STYLES: That is a clear indication of how desperate he is. He has made the wrong call and decision. He will send 6300 jobs interstate and he will kill the onshore gas industry. Already the onshore gas is what keeps these people going.
Mr Gunner: You are admitting that your stimulus package has failed.
Mr STYLES: He is so desperate – he continues to interject, trying to put everyone off their game, because he does not have any answers for the false call he has made. Then there is the member for Barkly …
Ms WALKER: A point of order, Madam Speaker! Standing Order 110: relevance. It was a very clear question. I would like to hear why the steel work for construction in my community is going interstate. He was not asked about fracking.
Mr STYLES: You have to pay attention to the situation, member for Nhulunbuy. This is about jobs for the steel construction industry. Looking at onshore gas, these people manufacture all the goods they are making for this. This is where their jobs and contracts come from.
Madam SPEAKER: Minister, your time has expired.
How many more jobs will you send interstate? Ahead of your crisis meeting with steel fabricators this Friday, will you commit to supporting Labor’s plan, which industry supports? Will you support Labor’s plan to apply the 25% local content weighting beyond the head contractor, and will you require all recipients of capital grants to apply the same rules?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, I sincerely thank the Leader of the Opposition for the opportunity to explain how clueless he is in relation to this industry.
You will not read the Hawke report on fracking or any of our policies and you do not know what you are talking about. Let me tell you what happens with grants. You already know that when we give a grant of 10%, 20% or 30% to an organisation, we cannot dictate to them that they use local businesses, but we are looking at that; we took that on board from industry.
We have a tender process where you buy local. If you have a business here and you say, ‘I want to use Billy Bloggs, Jane and Mary for this’, and I put that into the tender and you win it, those conditions are written into the contract. If you say in your tender document that you will use local people, it is transferred into the contract. If you do not use local people, you breach the contract. It is that simple.
If you are in private enterprise and say …
Mr Gunner: So you are admitting to the loophole?
Mr STYLES: There is no loophole. You have to read what is in there.
You are talking about jobs. This is the man – the member for Fannie Bay – who will export 6300 jobs in the onshore gas industry interstate. This industry will create the work for the steel fabrication industry and you want to shut it down. I quote from your Labor policy:
- … Territory Labor will implement a moratorium covering all unconventional gas prospecting, exploration and extraction activities …
He will shut the industry down.
Mr GUNNER: A point of order, Madam Speaker! Standing Order 110. If he cannot answer the Buy Local question in three minutes today, how can he front a meeting on Friday to answer …
Madam SPEAKER: It is not a point of order, please sit down.
Mr STYLES: That is a clear indication of how desperate he is. He has made the wrong call and decision. He will send 6300 jobs interstate and he will kill the onshore gas industry. Already the onshore gas is what keeps these people going.
Mr Gunner: You are admitting that your stimulus package has failed.
Mr STYLES: He is so desperate – he continues to interject, trying to put everyone off their game, because he does not have any answers for the false call he has made. Then there is the member for Barkly …
Ms WALKER: A point of order, Madam Speaker! Standing Order 110: relevance. It was a very clear question. I would like to hear why the steel work for construction in my community is going interstate. He was not asked about fracking.
Mr STYLES: You have to pay attention to the situation, member for Nhulunbuy. This is about jobs for the steel construction industry. Looking at onshore gas, these people manufacture all the goods they are making for this. This is where their jobs and contracts come from.
Madam SPEAKER: Minister, your time has expired.
Last updated: 09 Aug 2016