Ms LAWRIE - 2012-11-27
During the election campaign your then shadow Treasurer, the member for Port Darwin, with full knowledge of the Power and Water financials, said the government should be replaced because power bills have gone up by 10%. Do you agree with the member for Port Darwin that governments who put up power by 10% should be replaced?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, it is a little hard to take that selective quote as the whole story. There was, ‘Oh yes, he said it therefore answer it’. I will not take that specific response as the only one required because it was said in a context.
The context is we did not go to the marketplace and try to engender some kind of community action with the support of local media, go to the shopping centres with petitions and things like that. What we said was that for over 10 years we had a Labor administration which had the Power and Water Corporation receiving dividends for its operation as a government-owned corporation and pocketing those dividends, not investing them in the operation of the business. You harvested from the corporation and took it for yourselves.
That is where our point of attack was because you were irresponsible; you had no care for the proper running of the utilities of the Northern Territory and a greater care for your short-term political gain in harvesting money from Power and Water Corporation, nobbling it, shielding yourselves from unpopularity in the community by keeping power and water charges low. That was our real anger and concern, and a government acting in such a manner should be ashamed of itself.
Ms LAWRIE: A point of order, Madam Speaker! Relevance. Do you agree with the member for Port Darwin that governments that put up power by 10% should be replaced?
Mr MILLS: I have answered it.
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, it is a little hard to take that selective quote as the whole story. There was, ‘Oh yes, he said it therefore answer it’. I will not take that specific response as the only one required because it was said in a context.
The context is we did not go to the marketplace and try to engender some kind of community action with the support of local media, go to the shopping centres with petitions and things like that. What we said was that for over 10 years we had a Labor administration which had the Power and Water Corporation receiving dividends for its operation as a government-owned corporation and pocketing those dividends, not investing them in the operation of the business. You harvested from the corporation and took it for yourselves.
That is where our point of attack was because you were irresponsible; you had no care for the proper running of the utilities of the Northern Territory and a greater care for your short-term political gain in harvesting money from Power and Water Corporation, nobbling it, shielding yourselves from unpopularity in the community by keeping power and water charges low. That was our real anger and concern, and a government acting in such a manner should be ashamed of itself.
Ms LAWRIE: A point of order, Madam Speaker! Relevance. Do you agree with the member for Port Darwin that governments that put up power by 10% should be replaced?
Mr MILLS: I have answered it.
Last updated: 09 Aug 2016