Mr WESTRA van HOLTHE - 2016-05-26
Can the Treasurer please outline to the House any reaction to the Giles government’s budget and whether there has been any commentary about the Leader of the Opposition’s budget reply?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, I thank the member for Katherine for the question. It is good to see that someone in the House is still interested in the economy and how the budget is tracking.
As I mentioned in the earlier question from the member for Katherine, there has been some commentary from the Master Builders Association. The Business minister tabled that commentary in the last response he gave. Without a doubt the Master Builders are not enamoured with Labor’s budget response in any way, shape or form.
There has been some commentary on the budget. As I said when I delivered the budget on Tuesday, I have been cautioning for many months now about national and international headwinds of some concerns outside of the Northern Territory that will impact on us.
Through good planning, decisiveness and discipline we have been able to lead the Territory into a much stronger position than would have been the case had we had a Labor government.
Interestingly, in the last day rating agency Moody’s has concurred with the government’s position on the federal government’s receipts. I said the Territory’s budget deterioration largely reflects declining Commonwealth own-source revenues due to slower economic growth. Moody’s went on to caution about overspending in the coming years. Moody’s has kept its credit rating for the Northern Territory the same. This is a position that cannot be ignored by the opposition as the interest rates on our debt will go up with their mad spending habits.
As I pointed out the other day, if we had $5.5bn worth of debt now, as was projected by the previous Labor government – anyone who believes we would have had $5.5bn of debt would be very optimistic because Labor cannot help themselves; they have to spend money all the time. The reality is we would be paying an additional $130m every year in interest repayments on top of the hit we have already taken from federal government revenues and the like.
The choice is very simple come August. You have the option of a responsible, committed government continuing with its plan to diversify the economy and reduce the cost of living, or you have the opportunity to have a government that does not care about the finances of government or the future of the Territory, and which will say and do anything to be re-elected.
Madam SPEAKER: Minister, your time has expired.
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, I thank the member for Katherine for the question. It is good to see that someone in the House is still interested in the economy and how the budget is tracking.
As I mentioned in the earlier question from the member for Katherine, there has been some commentary from the Master Builders Association. The Business minister tabled that commentary in the last response he gave. Without a doubt the Master Builders are not enamoured with Labor’s budget response in any way, shape or form.
There has been some commentary on the budget. As I said when I delivered the budget on Tuesday, I have been cautioning for many months now about national and international headwinds of some concerns outside of the Northern Territory that will impact on us.
Through good planning, decisiveness and discipline we have been able to lead the Territory into a much stronger position than would have been the case had we had a Labor government.
Interestingly, in the last day rating agency Moody’s has concurred with the government’s position on the federal government’s receipts. I said the Territory’s budget deterioration largely reflects declining Commonwealth own-source revenues due to slower economic growth. Moody’s went on to caution about overspending in the coming years. Moody’s has kept its credit rating for the Northern Territory the same. This is a position that cannot be ignored by the opposition as the interest rates on our debt will go up with their mad spending habits.
As I pointed out the other day, if we had $5.5bn worth of debt now, as was projected by the previous Labor government – anyone who believes we would have had $5.5bn of debt would be very optimistic because Labor cannot help themselves; they have to spend money all the time. The reality is we would be paying an additional $130m every year in interest repayments on top of the hit we have already taken from federal government revenues and the like.
The choice is very simple come August. You have the option of a responsible, committed government continuing with its plan to diversify the economy and reduce the cost of living, or you have the opportunity to have a government that does not care about the finances of government or the future of the Territory, and which will say and do anything to be re-elected.
Madam SPEAKER: Minister, your time has expired.
Last updated: 09 Aug 2016