Mr HIGGINS - 2012-11-28
Can you tell the House what provisions have been made for the Northern Territory government’s repairs and maintenance needs for the billions of dollars worth of government assets?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, I thank the member for Daly for his very important question. The Northern Territory does own billions of dollars worth of assets, which are vital in supporting Territorians in providing educational opportunities or even health services. The repair and maintenance of these assets also provides jobs for a very large number of people such as plumbers who live in the suburbs and fix toilets in schools, carpenters who specialise in fixing or replacing doors and windows in office blocks, and electricians who work to fix power points in our hospitals and other public amenities. All these tradespeople or small businesses represent the heart and soul of our Territory community and they are reliant upon repairing and maintaining these assets to support themselves and their families, and support the Territory.
Any small business operator or homeowner understands that our assets, whether they are houses, roads, fridges, air conditioners, multistorey buildings or electrical systems, all need to have money spent on them for repairs and maintenance over their lifetime. When those small businesses and families do their budgets, as we all need to, they make provision for the cost of those repairs and maintenance. They realise they must provide for this expenditure.
When businesses are in trouble one of the first areas they sacrifice for the sake of cash flow is repairs and maintenance. This is not rocket science, neither is it innovative. This is a time-honoured method of buying time when you are in financial difficulty. Every government which has collapsed under the mountains of debt has had a history of cutting essential maintenance expenditure, and the same applies to those big corporations which have failed financially.
Sadly, this is a story of the former Labor government - debt soaring, cash flow falling, the moneylenders pouring over our books checking our credit levels. It did not believe in providing money responsibly for essential programs. They were the martyrs of, ‘the cheque is in the mail’.
My government has inherited a legacy of massive non-provision of monies for a range of programs, one of which is adequate repairs and maintenance of government assets. As a result of finding examples of Labor’s waste and mismanagement in every nook and cranny of government it is not possible to address this shortfall immediately.
What my government can and will do is start to increase the R&M budget year-on-year so we maintain government assets to the standard expected by Territorians, as well as support Territory families through creating more jobs. The government will provide an extra $10m in 2012-13, $20m in 2013-14, $30m in 2014-15, and $40 in 2015-16 for this important work. That is a total of $100m.
Madam SPEAKER: Chief Minister, your time has expired.
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, I thank the member for Daly for his very important question. The Northern Territory does own billions of dollars worth of assets, which are vital in supporting Territorians in providing educational opportunities or even health services. The repair and maintenance of these assets also provides jobs for a very large number of people such as plumbers who live in the suburbs and fix toilets in schools, carpenters who specialise in fixing or replacing doors and windows in office blocks, and electricians who work to fix power points in our hospitals and other public amenities. All these tradespeople or small businesses represent the heart and soul of our Territory community and they are reliant upon repairing and maintaining these assets to support themselves and their families, and support the Territory.
Any small business operator or homeowner understands that our assets, whether they are houses, roads, fridges, air conditioners, multistorey buildings or electrical systems, all need to have money spent on them for repairs and maintenance over their lifetime. When those small businesses and families do their budgets, as we all need to, they make provision for the cost of those repairs and maintenance. They realise they must provide for this expenditure.
When businesses are in trouble one of the first areas they sacrifice for the sake of cash flow is repairs and maintenance. This is not rocket science, neither is it innovative. This is a time-honoured method of buying time when you are in financial difficulty. Every government which has collapsed under the mountains of debt has had a history of cutting essential maintenance expenditure, and the same applies to those big corporations which have failed financially.
Sadly, this is a story of the former Labor government - debt soaring, cash flow falling, the moneylenders pouring over our books checking our credit levels. It did not believe in providing money responsibly for essential programs. They were the martyrs of, ‘the cheque is in the mail’.
My government has inherited a legacy of massive non-provision of monies for a range of programs, one of which is adequate repairs and maintenance of government assets. As a result of finding examples of Labor’s waste and mismanagement in every nook and cranny of government it is not possible to address this shortfall immediately.
What my government can and will do is start to increase the R&M budget year-on-year so we maintain government assets to the standard expected by Territorians, as well as support Territory families through creating more jobs. The government will provide an extra $10m in 2012-13, $20m in 2013-14, $30m in 2014-15, and $40 in 2015-16 for this important work. That is a total of $100m.
Madam SPEAKER: Chief Minister, your time has expired.
Last updated: 09 Aug 2016