Mr BARRETT - 2014-10-23
I am sorry the students have left because we are about to raise ourselves out of the swill we have been discussing and talk about the Northern Territory again for a nice change.
Can you please outline some of the positive business and consumer news that has recently been released regarding the direction of the Northern Territory economy? In particular, what do recent surveys show about the way the Territory business community is responding to the economic policies of the Country Liberal government?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, I thank the member for Blain, the parliamentary secretary for business, for the opportunity to talk about the Territory and talk the Territory up. It is good to get a question like that. I know the member for Blain had an opportunity to see the most recent CommSec State of the States report, a report that looks at eight key areas and measures the performance of all states. The Northern Territory might be one-seventeenth of Australia’s land mass, 1.3 million square kilometres, but we only have 250 000 people, and we are competing against big jurisdictions such as New South Wales with 4.5 million people and Victoria with around three million people. If you look at the measurements across the eight indexes you see the Territory is leading in five of them. We are leading in retail spending around the nation, construction activity, economic growth and the lowest level of unemployment. It is a fantastic outcome. The largest purchase of major capital equipment – five out of eight leading areas, and we are catching up in others.
One area we are not leading in is housing finance and housing construction. However, we have $130m in the budget to release 6500 blocks across the Northern Territory, across 15 locations, which will start to see more and more housing being rolled out. We are already starting to see downward price pressures on the cost of living in the Northern Territory. Our CPI is now measured at 2.7%; it was 3.9%. It is a fantastic outcome for Territorians to see cost of living pressures coming down.
We are starting to see it in fuel. Raine & Horne reported that we are starting to see it across the housing market. We have more land release, and there will be greater levels of unit and housing construction, not just in the big centres but also in smaller centres across the Territory. It is a great outcome.
Yesterday, we saw an increase in business confidence in the Territory’s small and medium business indexes. For the last quarter business confidence increased 33%. You hear that number in relation to the reduction in crime in the Northern Territory – going down 33% - which is fantastic, but now we see business confidence going up 33% to 50%; compare that to national business confidence figures of 28%. In the Territory they are not just confident about their business, they are confident about their government and getting on with jobs.
I can give you anecdotal evidence, but if you ran a ruler over Alice Springs businesses today, particularly the tourism ones, and told them about the Virgin announcement their confidence would be going up too. Confidence in Alice would be going up while crime is going down like big crocodile jaws. That is what would be happening in Central Australia right now.
Right across the Northern Territory, business confidence is going up, a sure sign the policies of this government are delivering on the outcomes Territorians want. That is why we got a mandate on 25 August 2012 to lead and make decisions for the growth of the economy and the protection of Territorians moving forward.
Can you please outline some of the positive business and consumer news that has recently been released regarding the direction of the Northern Territory economy? In particular, what do recent surveys show about the way the Territory business community is responding to the economic policies of the Country Liberal government?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, I thank the member for Blain, the parliamentary secretary for business, for the opportunity to talk about the Territory and talk the Territory up. It is good to get a question like that. I know the member for Blain had an opportunity to see the most recent CommSec State of the States report, a report that looks at eight key areas and measures the performance of all states. The Northern Territory might be one-seventeenth of Australia’s land mass, 1.3 million square kilometres, but we only have 250 000 people, and we are competing against big jurisdictions such as New South Wales with 4.5 million people and Victoria with around three million people. If you look at the measurements across the eight indexes you see the Territory is leading in five of them. We are leading in retail spending around the nation, construction activity, economic growth and the lowest level of unemployment. It is a fantastic outcome. The largest purchase of major capital equipment – five out of eight leading areas, and we are catching up in others.
One area we are not leading in is housing finance and housing construction. However, we have $130m in the budget to release 6500 blocks across the Northern Territory, across 15 locations, which will start to see more and more housing being rolled out. We are already starting to see downward price pressures on the cost of living in the Northern Territory. Our CPI is now measured at 2.7%; it was 3.9%. It is a fantastic outcome for Territorians to see cost of living pressures coming down.
We are starting to see it in fuel. Raine & Horne reported that we are starting to see it across the housing market. We have more land release, and there will be greater levels of unit and housing construction, not just in the big centres but also in smaller centres across the Territory. It is a great outcome.
Yesterday, we saw an increase in business confidence in the Territory’s small and medium business indexes. For the last quarter business confidence increased 33%. You hear that number in relation to the reduction in crime in the Northern Territory – going down 33% - which is fantastic, but now we see business confidence going up 33% to 50%; compare that to national business confidence figures of 28%. In the Territory they are not just confident about their business, they are confident about their government and getting on with jobs.
I can give you anecdotal evidence, but if you ran a ruler over Alice Springs businesses today, particularly the tourism ones, and told them about the Virgin announcement their confidence would be going up too. Confidence in Alice would be going up while crime is going down like big crocodile jaws. That is what would be happening in Central Australia right now.
Right across the Northern Territory, business confidence is going up, a sure sign the policies of this government are delivering on the outcomes Territorians want. That is why we got a mandate on 25 August 2012 to lead and make decisions for the growth of the economy and the protection of Territorians moving forward.
Last updated: 09 Aug 2016