Ms LAWRIE - 2014-05-13
Despite promising to reduce the cost of living before the last election, you have betrayed Territorians by hiking up power and water prices, increasing housing costs and slashing jobs across our public service. It is very hard to put food on the table when your livelihood has been stripped away from you.
To add insult to injury, you scrapped the First Home Owner Grant for Territorians entering the market through existing dwellings. You have completely ignored Territorians seeking their principal place of residence. You make a smoke and mirrors announcement about land release, with not one block to be released and, maybe, if you are lucky, you might see something in 2020. You have callously made it much harder for Territory families to make ends meet, put food on the table and enjoy a better standard of living. Are there any election commitments that you will meet?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, it is amazing that I finally get a question from the Opposition Leader, the former Treasurer, about the cost of living, of all things. Goodness, gracious me.
I welcome the question, Opposition Leader, and I encourage you to ask more. The issue about the cost of living is real and it is the toughest nut we have to crack as a government.
This economy is breaking records; every economic indicator shows how the Territory economy is outperforming the rest of the nation. The Giles government makes no apologies for driving economic growth.
One of the problems with economic growth is it is very difficult to contain cost of living pressures. As the economy grows rapidly, there is more demand for services and less supply. It is difficult to maintain downward pressure on the cost of living. We know what the situation is in the Northern Territory, the big driver of cost of living pressure is the housing crisis created by the former government, failure to release land and those sorts of things. As the Chief Minister just outlined, the budget I am outlining today has an enormous amount of money for land release and to aid construction of new houses. It is the most ambitious land release program in the history of the Northern Territory - 6500 housing lots across the Territory.
I was also asked about the First Home Owner Grant. We have changed the grants to focus on new housing from 1 January 2015 we want new houses built and for the focus to be put on new housing construction. The downside with putting it on existing houses …
Ms LAWRIE: A point of order, Madam Speaker! Standing Order 113: relevance. Can you name a single election commitment that you will meet?
Madam SPEAKER: It is not a point of order. The Treasurer is answering the question.
Mr TOLLNER: The problem with making the scheme available for existing houses is that it puts upward pressure on housing prices, which is something we want to avoid. The economist Saul Eslake told a senate committee meeting about affordable housing that housing grants for existing homes served to:
To add insult to injury, you scrapped the First Home Owner Grant for Territorians entering the market through existing dwellings. You have completely ignored Territorians seeking their principal place of residence. You make a smoke and mirrors announcement about land release, with not one block to be released and, maybe, if you are lucky, you might see something in 2020. You have callously made it much harder for Territory families to make ends meet, put food on the table and enjoy a better standard of living. Are there any election commitments that you will meet?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, it is amazing that I finally get a question from the Opposition Leader, the former Treasurer, about the cost of living, of all things. Goodness, gracious me.
I welcome the question, Opposition Leader, and I encourage you to ask more. The issue about the cost of living is real and it is the toughest nut we have to crack as a government.
This economy is breaking records; every economic indicator shows how the Territory economy is outperforming the rest of the nation. The Giles government makes no apologies for driving economic growth.
One of the problems with economic growth is it is very difficult to contain cost of living pressures. As the economy grows rapidly, there is more demand for services and less supply. It is difficult to maintain downward pressure on the cost of living. We know what the situation is in the Northern Territory, the big driver of cost of living pressure is the housing crisis created by the former government, failure to release land and those sorts of things. As the Chief Minister just outlined, the budget I am outlining today has an enormous amount of money for land release and to aid construction of new houses. It is the most ambitious land release program in the history of the Northern Territory - 6500 housing lots across the Territory.
I was also asked about the First Home Owner Grant. We have changed the grants to focus on new housing from 1 January 2015 we want new houses built and for the focus to be put on new housing construction. The downside with putting it on existing houses …
Ms LAWRIE: A point of order, Madam Speaker! Standing Order 113: relevance. Can you name a single election commitment that you will meet?
Madam SPEAKER: It is not a point of order. The Treasurer is answering the question.
Mr TOLLNER: The problem with making the scheme available for existing houses is that it puts upward pressure on housing prices, which is something we want to avoid. The economist Saul Eslake told a senate committee meeting about affordable housing that housing grants for existing homes served to:
… exacerbate the already substantial imbalance between the underlying demand for housing and the supply of it.
Last updated: 09 Aug 2016