Ms ANDERSON - 2014-03-25
The opposition has been busy spreading all sorts of rumours about alleged plans to dam the Elizabeth River. Can you clear this up once and for all; will the Country Liberals dam the Elizabeth River?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, I thank the member for Namatjira for her question. It is very easy, when answering questions like this, to make the political mistake of clearly saying ‘No’ and sitting down. People expect some clarity from this and I will provide a little more detail.
The Elizabeth River will not be dammed by this government. It will not have a weir built, or anything in that regard.
Let us provide a bit of clarity. We established the independent Planning Commission, a statutory authority to come up with ideas and plans for the Northern Territory, for government to consider the way it will move forward with development. There have been a number of plans released already – a Katherine and a Darwin plan. It will soon work on the plan for Port Keats and Alice Springs and it has produced a Borroloola plan. There are a range of plans being undertaken. The one the opposition is leading, with its lies and mistruths, is in regard to …
Madam SPEAKER: Chief Minister, please withdraw those words.
Mr GILES: I withdraw. The Leader of the Opposition is spreading mistruths about the Planning Commission report on the draft greater Darwin plan. In it, no doubt, it says we should be considering - I do not have the exact words - damming the Elizabeth River. I have made it clear we are not damming the Elizabeth River, we are not …
Ms Lawrie: No, you did not.
Mr GILES: I am telling you now, Leader of the Opposition, if you care to listen.
There are no plans. This is why you do not talk, because people do not want to listen. We are not damming it. We have not had any plans for it. We have never looked at damming it and there has never been any proposal to dam it. The only thing is an independent statutory authority, the Planning Commission, which provides us many proposals about a range of things.
I see the member for Johnston holding up the little plan behind him. I was on radio today talking about how there is a very poor level of debate inside this Chamber and in the Northern Territory, about issues which may be sensitive. Someone puts together an idea about damming the Elizabeth River; instead of having a sensible debate about the pros and cons - because there are plenty of people who support it - you run the populous policy approach of trying to scare everybody to a point where you cannot feel free to debate a real issue. We will not debate the issue in this Chamber, because you will not have a proper debate. We will make it clear again: there are no plans to dam or build a weir on the Elizabeth River.
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, I thank the member for Namatjira for her question. It is very easy, when answering questions like this, to make the political mistake of clearly saying ‘No’ and sitting down. People expect some clarity from this and I will provide a little more detail.
The Elizabeth River will not be dammed by this government. It will not have a weir built, or anything in that regard.
Let us provide a bit of clarity. We established the independent Planning Commission, a statutory authority to come up with ideas and plans for the Northern Territory, for government to consider the way it will move forward with development. There have been a number of plans released already – a Katherine and a Darwin plan. It will soon work on the plan for Port Keats and Alice Springs and it has produced a Borroloola plan. There are a range of plans being undertaken. The one the opposition is leading, with its lies and mistruths, is in regard to …
Madam SPEAKER: Chief Minister, please withdraw those words.
Mr GILES: I withdraw. The Leader of the Opposition is spreading mistruths about the Planning Commission report on the draft greater Darwin plan. In it, no doubt, it says we should be considering - I do not have the exact words - damming the Elizabeth River. I have made it clear we are not damming the Elizabeth River, we are not …
Ms Lawrie: No, you did not.
Mr GILES: I am telling you now, Leader of the Opposition, if you care to listen.
There are no plans. This is why you do not talk, because people do not want to listen. We are not damming it. We have not had any plans for it. We have never looked at damming it and there has never been any proposal to dam it. The only thing is an independent statutory authority, the Planning Commission, which provides us many proposals about a range of things.
I see the member for Johnston holding up the little plan behind him. I was on radio today talking about how there is a very poor level of debate inside this Chamber and in the Northern Territory, about issues which may be sensitive. Someone puts together an idea about damming the Elizabeth River; instead of having a sensible debate about the pros and cons - because there are plenty of people who support it - you run the populous policy approach of trying to scare everybody to a point where you cannot feel free to debate a real issue. We will not debate the issue in this Chamber, because you will not have a proper debate. We will make it clear again: there are no plans to dam or build a weir on the Elizabeth River.
Last updated: 09 Aug 2016