Ms LAWRIE - 2014-11-27
This has been the worst year for the Territory, under the worst government ever. It will go down in history as the year the CLP government completely lost the trust of Territorians by selling our public assets without a mandate. Your sale of TIO has left Territorians vulnerable with no guarantee of an insurance safety net.
Your port lease, a sale by another name, will result in higher commercial rates for freight that will escalate the cost of living. I seek leave to table a quote from an LNP Queensland member of parliament:
Leave granted.
Your crippling Power and Water tariffs will rise again on 1 January. How do you expect to restore the trust of Territorians when you still refuse to hear that you have no mandate to sell, or sneakily lease, our public assets?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, I thank the member for her question. What an opportunity. Let us look around the room today. I look at my colleague, the Attorney-General, who will talk about the crime stats being the lowest since the 1990s when the CLP was last in government. I look to my right and see the minister for Lands and Planning, who has the largest land release program in the Territory’s history, with 6500 blocks of land and more than $130m from this year’s budget. He is the only Education minister to take Indigenous education head on and try to drive it. The Minister for Infrastructure, behind me, has the biggest infrastructure and roads budget in the Territory’s history. The Minister for Community Services has injected life back into homelands and outstations with $5200 per property. This never happened under Labor.
The Minister for Health and for Alcohol Rehabilitation is going ahead with the Palmerston Regional Hospital and alcohol mandatory treatment. It is the first time anyone has had the guts or the courage to bring in alcohol mandatory treatment and drive reform for people who have chronic alcohol abuse and misuse issues. The Minister for Tourism has the largest increase in tourism numbers in the Territory’s history. I will not go into sport. I look at the member for Katherine, the minister for Primary Industry – the biggest live cattle trade ever through our port. He has re-established and diversified our pastoral industry with two hydrocarbon licences issued this year, one for oil and one for gas, the first in 38 years. Tell me if that is a bad year. I ask you to re-evaluate where you are looking at things.
Ms LAWRIE: A point of order, Madam Speaker! The Chief Minister has talked about everything but the question. How do you expect to restore the trust Territorians had when you have no mandate to sell public assets?
Madam SPEAKER: It is not a point of order.
Mr GILES: Territorians say now they have an agenda and know where they are heading – developing northern Australia. They understand asset sales are part of business. They understand building assets is part of business. That is what we do as a government each and every day. They understand that back in the days when the Fokker Friendship was still flying into the airport and they wanted to expand it for 747s, they had to extend the runway. That is asset reinjection and development.
They know that bigger ships will turn up at our port and we need bigger quay line, port infrastructure and cruise ships, and we need to invest in infrastructure. That is what it is all about.
I hope you give me another question on assets; I am really looking forward to the answer.
Your port lease, a sale by another name, will result in higher commercial rates for freight that will escalate the cost of living. I seek leave to table a quote from an LNP Queensland member of parliament:
- Leases are a ‘dishonest, sneaky way’ to undertake asset sales.
Leave granted.
Your crippling Power and Water tariffs will rise again on 1 January. How do you expect to restore the trust of Territorians when you still refuse to hear that you have no mandate to sell, or sneakily lease, our public assets?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, I thank the member for her question. What an opportunity. Let us look around the room today. I look at my colleague, the Attorney-General, who will talk about the crime stats being the lowest since the 1990s when the CLP was last in government. I look to my right and see the minister for Lands and Planning, who has the largest land release program in the Territory’s history, with 6500 blocks of land and more than $130m from this year’s budget. He is the only Education minister to take Indigenous education head on and try to drive it. The Minister for Infrastructure, behind me, has the biggest infrastructure and roads budget in the Territory’s history. The Minister for Community Services has injected life back into homelands and outstations with $5200 per property. This never happened under Labor.
The Minister for Health and for Alcohol Rehabilitation is going ahead with the Palmerston Regional Hospital and alcohol mandatory treatment. It is the first time anyone has had the guts or the courage to bring in alcohol mandatory treatment and drive reform for people who have chronic alcohol abuse and misuse issues. The Minister for Tourism has the largest increase in tourism numbers in the Territory’s history. I will not go into sport. I look at the member for Katherine, the minister for Primary Industry – the biggest live cattle trade ever through our port. He has re-established and diversified our pastoral industry with two hydrocarbon licences issued this year, one for oil and one for gas, the first in 38 years. Tell me if that is a bad year. I ask you to re-evaluate where you are looking at things.
Ms LAWRIE: A point of order, Madam Speaker! The Chief Minister has talked about everything but the question. How do you expect to restore the trust Territorians had when you have no mandate to sell public assets?
Madam SPEAKER: It is not a point of order.
Mr GILES: Territorians say now they have an agenda and know where they are heading – developing northern Australia. They understand asset sales are part of business. They understand building assets is part of business. That is what we do as a government each and every day. They understand that back in the days when the Fokker Friendship was still flying into the airport and they wanted to expand it for 747s, they had to extend the runway. That is asset reinjection and development.
They know that bigger ships will turn up at our port and we need bigger quay line, port infrastructure and cruise ships, and we need to invest in infrastructure. That is what it is all about.
I hope you give me another question on assets; I am really looking forward to the answer.
Last updated: 09 Aug 2016