Mr VATSKALIS - 2014-02-12
Just days after your Transport minister’s statement in this House, your government sneakily announced the privatisation of the Darwin bus service. Late on a Friday afternoon, before Christmas, your Deputy Chief Minister sneakily announced the closure of the Government Printing Office. You have form in sneaky privatisation moves. How can you sell public assets and guarantee current staff will not lose employment, wages or conditions? How can you tell Territorians they will not end up paying more for transport adding to our ever-escalating cost of living?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, I thank the member for Casuarina for his question. When you do business on a Friday, it is not sneaky. Friday is a business day. What happens over the Christmas period is business as well.
People say, ‘How can you release a report during December or January, because that is Christmas time?’ It is like what happens in Nhulunbuy; 11 weeks ago Rio Tinto made a decision about curtailment and there is trouble for the community. It is an emotional time. There are people who have to make personal choices and so forth, it is really busy, but the line was - from the member for Nhulunbuy yesterday – it is all right to go on holidays. I think she said it is all right to go back home - or something similar - over that break. Business happens every day of the year; it does not matter if it is on a Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday or Friday.
Mr VOWLES: A point of order, Madam Speaker! Pursuant to Standing Order 113: relevance. I am sure the Chief Minister would like to table when he went on holidays.
Madam SPEAKER: Member for Johnston, it is not a point of order. Chief Minister, you have the call.
Mr GILES: There clearly is a brain drain on the other side. I will say it again, I did not take holidays, Kenny.
The Government Printing Office change was an election commitment by the Country Liberals. There is nothing surprising about this. It was changing. In fact, there was a policy approach of what Labor was trying to do on the other side - the same as Labor trying to sell Northern Territory Fleet; it was doing exactly the same thing. There are changes which occur in the way government runs its operations. At the forefront of our mind is the way we look after and protect workers within those organisations.
I will go back to one of my earlier questions about there being a range of things we want to do in government, which I am sure Labor would like to do if it was in government. They include building infrastructure around the Territory. The Independent Labor member for Nelson always talked about building a pool in the rural area, but never delivered it, despite being the kingmaker. It will be our role and we will do it, but the question is how do you find the resources to be able to do that?
I spoke before about how we are at a crossroads. There are four lanes we can take in identifying resources and the way we can spend money. It includes talking about raising taxes, cutting spending, selling assets or borrowing money. Labor’s approach to finding money has always been borrowing money. We have $5.5bn worth of Labor’s debt, because they borrow money. We have to manage responsibly, live within our means, and try to pay back Labor debt, which will take some time to start because we still have to get our budget out of that deficit.
Yesterday the Treasurer reflected upon our budgetary position, which is that we are spending $1.1bn more than what we earn this year and a large part of that is because of the investment into the prison. I would prefer to have seen …
Madam SPEAKER: Chief Minister, your time has expired.
Mr ELFERINK (Leader of Government Business): Madam Speaker, I ask that further questions be placed on the Written Question Paper.
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, I thank the member for Casuarina for his question. When you do business on a Friday, it is not sneaky. Friday is a business day. What happens over the Christmas period is business as well.
People say, ‘How can you release a report during December or January, because that is Christmas time?’ It is like what happens in Nhulunbuy; 11 weeks ago Rio Tinto made a decision about curtailment and there is trouble for the community. It is an emotional time. There are people who have to make personal choices and so forth, it is really busy, but the line was - from the member for Nhulunbuy yesterday – it is all right to go on holidays. I think she said it is all right to go back home - or something similar - over that break. Business happens every day of the year; it does not matter if it is on a Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday or Friday.
Mr VOWLES: A point of order, Madam Speaker! Pursuant to Standing Order 113: relevance. I am sure the Chief Minister would like to table when he went on holidays.
Madam SPEAKER: Member for Johnston, it is not a point of order. Chief Minister, you have the call.
Mr GILES: There clearly is a brain drain on the other side. I will say it again, I did not take holidays, Kenny.
The Government Printing Office change was an election commitment by the Country Liberals. There is nothing surprising about this. It was changing. In fact, there was a policy approach of what Labor was trying to do on the other side - the same as Labor trying to sell Northern Territory Fleet; it was doing exactly the same thing. There are changes which occur in the way government runs its operations. At the forefront of our mind is the way we look after and protect workers within those organisations.
I will go back to one of my earlier questions about there being a range of things we want to do in government, which I am sure Labor would like to do if it was in government. They include building infrastructure around the Territory. The Independent Labor member for Nelson always talked about building a pool in the rural area, but never delivered it, despite being the kingmaker. It will be our role and we will do it, but the question is how do you find the resources to be able to do that?
I spoke before about how we are at a crossroads. There are four lanes we can take in identifying resources and the way we can spend money. It includes talking about raising taxes, cutting spending, selling assets or borrowing money. Labor’s approach to finding money has always been borrowing money. We have $5.5bn worth of Labor’s debt, because they borrow money. We have to manage responsibly, live within our means, and try to pay back Labor debt, which will take some time to start because we still have to get our budget out of that deficit.
Yesterday the Treasurer reflected upon our budgetary position, which is that we are spending $1.1bn more than what we earn this year and a large part of that is because of the investment into the prison. I would prefer to have seen …
Madam SPEAKER: Chief Minister, your time has expired.
Mr ELFERINK (Leader of Government Business): Madam Speaker, I ask that further questions be placed on the Written Question Paper.
Last updated: 09 Aug 2016