Ms LAWRIE - 2012-10-30
You have just let Territorians know you are going to massively hike up power, water and sewerage prices in the previous answer. What are your plans in relation to the ongoing reliability and demand generation across the power and water capital system? Under the previous CLP government, you ripped out more funding from Power and Water than was invested in it. Labor inherited a network run down and generation incapable of meeting growth and demand. It implemented the Mervyn Davies’ report and substantially picked up the recommendations of the Reeves report. What capital program are you going to axe from Power and Water while you are massively hiking up power, water and sewerage prices?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, I thank the Leader of the Opposition for her question. I do not recall saying we were going to massively hike up the tariffs for power and water. I leave that to her imagination; obviously, she has a very good one.
Ms LAWRIE: A point of order, Madam Speaker! The Treasurer pointed out they would make it commercially sustainable - that is massive hikes in power, water and sewerage prices.
Madam SPEAKER: Please be seated.
Mrs LAMBLEY: The Leader of the Opposition has just demonstrated her lack of understanding of how you can make a corporation like the Power and Water Corporation commercially sustainable. It is not just about hiking up tariffs. However, that is one significant component the former government failed to make a decision on. Those hard decisions were not for the former government. It preferred to hide under a rock and pretend things were going okay. So long as the spending was happening then it was all good.
What we have been left with as a new government - nine weeks into government - is a Power and Water Corporation that is struggling. We have asked the corporation to identify savings, which includes capital savings, and most of those savings are deferred capital expenditure. We are not in the business of running down Power and Water; we are in the business of making it sustainable - operating in a sustainable way which ensures a reliable electricity supply to the people of the Northern Territory.
What the Leader of the Opposition fails to realise is if you do not make Power and Water sustainable, then the cost flows on to the people of the Northern Territory. The cost comes into being by way of reducing other parts of government business. You cannot have everything, particularly in Power and Water. You cannot continue to charge low tariffs - tariffs well below the national average - and expect Territorians to have all the trimmings of a full government business.
The former government has put the Northern Territory in a very precarious situation and the questioning from the opposition is really about trying to hide, yet again, its mismanagement.
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, I thank the Leader of the Opposition for her question. I do not recall saying we were going to massively hike up the tariffs for power and water. I leave that to her imagination; obviously, she has a very good one.
Ms LAWRIE: A point of order, Madam Speaker! The Treasurer pointed out they would make it commercially sustainable - that is massive hikes in power, water and sewerage prices.
Madam SPEAKER: Please be seated.
Mrs LAMBLEY: The Leader of the Opposition has just demonstrated her lack of understanding of how you can make a corporation like the Power and Water Corporation commercially sustainable. It is not just about hiking up tariffs. However, that is one significant component the former government failed to make a decision on. Those hard decisions were not for the former government. It preferred to hide under a rock and pretend things were going okay. So long as the spending was happening then it was all good.
What we have been left with as a new government - nine weeks into government - is a Power and Water Corporation that is struggling. We have asked the corporation to identify savings, which includes capital savings, and most of those savings are deferred capital expenditure. We are not in the business of running down Power and Water; we are in the business of making it sustainable - operating in a sustainable way which ensures a reliable electricity supply to the people of the Northern Territory.
What the Leader of the Opposition fails to realise is if you do not make Power and Water sustainable, then the cost flows on to the people of the Northern Territory. The cost comes into being by way of reducing other parts of government business. You cannot have everything, particularly in Power and Water. You cannot continue to charge low tariffs - tariffs well below the national average - and expect Territorians to have all the trimmings of a full government business.
The former government has put the Northern Territory in a very precarious situation and the questioning from the opposition is really about trying to hide, yet again, its mismanagement.
Last updated: 09 Aug 2016