Mr GUNNER - 2016-02-09
John from Wanguri called into the ABC’s Adam Steer’s program on Wednesday 3 February and said, ‘I had a listen to Mr Giles here this morning and the only thing he got right was that the Territory is a great place to be, a great place to live, but there is no work here, mate. It is dead. It has been dead for a long time. It is going to get deader. Been here 15 years and I have never been out of work for eight weeks before, never been out of work before actually in my life. I have three months to survive and then I am gone.’
John from Wanguri has been in the Territory longer than you have and does not agree with you. When will you start listening to Territorians like John who are doing it tough because of your failed policies?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, I do not know who John from Wanguri is, so I will not cast aspersions on him. Clearly he is not a member of a union because he would be a Labor candidate.
Everybody has individual circumstances, and times can be tough for some who are unemployed and looking for a job.
The best place to find a job in Australia is in the Northern Territory, because we have the lowest unemployment rate. We also have the highest labour force participation rate in the Territory of about 75% – I will use round numbers. That is people who are in a job, looking for a job or in training. The rest of the country is at about 62%. There are more people in our workforce yet still we have the lowest unemployment rate, in the low 4%. If John is one of those people in the low 4%, I feel for him.
Our economic investment …
Ms FYLES: A point of order, Madam Speaker! Standing Order 110: relevance. We have never lost more Territorians through moving down south. When will you accept that your policies are not working?
Madam SPEAKER: That is not a point of order. Please be seated. Chief Minister, you have the call.
Mr GILES: Never has there been a better opportunity to get a job in the Northern Territory. As I said, not everybody is working and not everybody’s circumstances are the best.
When we came to government we had a one-shot-in-the-locker economy. There was INPEX and gas – which the Leader of the Opposition wants to ban – in one big project, which was a great investment in the Northern Territory and something I fully support. But there was nothing else.
We had seen 10 years of tourism and mining going backwards. We saw the live cattle trade ban. There was no investment in agriculture. You could not get a water licence in the Northern Territory because, like cattle, they were also banned, as was land clearing.
You need a firm plan for jobs and that is why we have an economic plan which includes energy, resources, mining, education and tourism. We are making sure there are jobs in the Northern Territory. We set up an additional 900 jobs in a gas pipeline and have created the opportunity for 6000 jobs in the gas industry, and you have trashed them.
The real question is when you were talking about your jobs plan, Leader of the Opposition, was it about getting rid of jobs? That is the only thing happening with your erosion of business confidence ...
Madam SPEAKER: Chief Minister, your time has expired.
John from Wanguri has been in the Territory longer than you have and does not agree with you. When will you start listening to Territorians like John who are doing it tough because of your failed policies?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, I do not know who John from Wanguri is, so I will not cast aspersions on him. Clearly he is not a member of a union because he would be a Labor candidate.
Everybody has individual circumstances, and times can be tough for some who are unemployed and looking for a job.
The best place to find a job in Australia is in the Northern Territory, because we have the lowest unemployment rate. We also have the highest labour force participation rate in the Territory of about 75% – I will use round numbers. That is people who are in a job, looking for a job or in training. The rest of the country is at about 62%. There are more people in our workforce yet still we have the lowest unemployment rate, in the low 4%. If John is one of those people in the low 4%, I feel for him.
Our economic investment …
Ms FYLES: A point of order, Madam Speaker! Standing Order 110: relevance. We have never lost more Territorians through moving down south. When will you accept that your policies are not working?
Madam SPEAKER: That is not a point of order. Please be seated. Chief Minister, you have the call.
Mr GILES: Never has there been a better opportunity to get a job in the Northern Territory. As I said, not everybody is working and not everybody’s circumstances are the best.
When we came to government we had a one-shot-in-the-locker economy. There was INPEX and gas – which the Leader of the Opposition wants to ban – in one big project, which was a great investment in the Northern Territory and something I fully support. But there was nothing else.
We had seen 10 years of tourism and mining going backwards. We saw the live cattle trade ban. There was no investment in agriculture. You could not get a water licence in the Northern Territory because, like cattle, they were also banned, as was land clearing.
You need a firm plan for jobs and that is why we have an economic plan which includes energy, resources, mining, education and tourism. We are making sure there are jobs in the Northern Territory. We set up an additional 900 jobs in a gas pipeline and have created the opportunity for 6000 jobs in the gas industry, and you have trashed them.
The real question is when you were talking about your jobs plan, Leader of the Opposition, was it about getting rid of jobs? That is the only thing happening with your erosion of business confidence ...
Madam SPEAKER: Chief Minister, your time has expired.
Last updated: 09 Aug 2016