Ms WALKER - 2012-03-29
Both you and the Minister for Indigenous Development have updated the House on the government’s progress towards building A Working Future. Are you aware of any alternative policies and have you considered them?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, if you dig hard enough and far enough, you can start to find the CLP policies they are keeping hidden from the rest of the Territory. I have here an extract from an internal CLP document. The document is a CLP Task Force report, Issue 11, from October 2011, just a few months ago. The article is titled: ‘Campaigning in the Bush’. This is its bush policy, and I quote from the article:
Wait for this:
Members interjecting.
Madam SPEAKER: Order!
Mr HENDERSON: This is the CLP policy for the bush. They have put David Tollner, the member for Fong Lim, in charge of developing low-cost options for CLP policy for the bush.
Madam Speaker, that must be a total slap in the face for the member for Braitling, who is traipsing around the Northern Territory spreading glittering fairy dust across communities with promises of great things to come. The Leader of the Opposition could not trust the member for Braitling to develop CLP policy for the bush. They have handed it to the member for Fong Lim for some low-cost options.
Let us have a look at how committed the member for Fong Lim is to people who live in the bush in the Northern Territory. This is the man who said:
The Leader of the Opposition has put this man in charge of bush policy for the CLP. I quote again from the member for Fong Lim, Hansard, March 2011:
This is proof positive. You have the member for Braitling out there, sprinkling his fairy dust, making shallow promises, but the reality is, the secret CLP document shows that the CLP is not interested in the bush, it is not interested in Indigenous people. The leopard does not change its spots. This is what the CLP would do; the axe would fall in the bush. We are explaining billions of dollars worth of expenditure, they want low-cost options ...
Madam SPEAKER: Chief Minister, your time has expired.
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, if you dig hard enough and far enough, you can start to find the CLP policies they are keeping hidden from the rest of the Territory. I have here an extract from an internal CLP document. The document is a CLP Task Force report, Issue 11, from October 2011, just a few months ago. The article is titled: ‘Campaigning in the Bush’. This is its bush policy, and I quote from the article:
- Although we are well organised for campaigning in our major centres we haven’t made much progress and have limited experience in campaigning in the bush.
A Task Force sub-committee under the chairmanship of David Tollner has therefore been established to come up ...
Wait for this:
... with some low cost options to improve our electoral chances.
Members interjecting.
Madam SPEAKER: Order!
Mr HENDERSON: This is the CLP policy for the bush. They have put David Tollner, the member for Fong Lim, in charge of developing low-cost options for CLP policy for the bush.
Madam Speaker, that must be a total slap in the face for the member for Braitling, who is traipsing around the Northern Territory spreading glittering fairy dust across communities with promises of great things to come. The Leader of the Opposition could not trust the member for Braitling to develop CLP policy for the bush. They have handed it to the member for Fong Lim for some low-cost options.
Let us have a look at how committed the member for Fong Lim is to people who live in the bush in the Northern Territory. This is the man who said:
- I am all in favour of urban drift; there should be more of it. The fact is that these communities are hellholes.
The Leader of the Opposition has put this man in charge of bush policy for the CLP. I quote again from the member for Fong Lim, Hansard, March 2011:
- I love camping, but if you think I would enjoy living at Port Keats, you have another think coming ...
...
Borroloola is a nice place and there is some good fishing. Tiwi Islands is a good place too with some good fishing. However, most of these communities are ghettos.
...
The only answer is to encourage people to move to where there are the jobs ...
This is proof positive. You have the member for Braitling out there, sprinkling his fairy dust, making shallow promises, but the reality is, the secret CLP document shows that the CLP is not interested in the bush, it is not interested in Indigenous people. The leopard does not change its spots. This is what the CLP would do; the axe would fall in the bush. We are explaining billions of dollars worth of expenditure, they want low-cost options ...
Madam SPEAKER: Chief Minister, your time has expired.
Last updated: 09 Aug 2016