Mr STIRLING - 1997-05-01
Is it not a fact that yesterday's budget failed to provide relief to long-suffering residents of Darwin's older suburbs who need underground powerlines to prevent outages? Why was the Country Liberal Party government able to find the money to place powerlines underground in the Treasurer's own electorate, but is unable to do the same for Darwin?
ANSWER
Mr Speaker, the underground work at Katherine has been ongoing for the last 3 or 4 years. If the honourable member had any interest at all in the subject, he would have been well aware of that. As for Darwin, we have looked in detail at the cost of undergrounding ...
Members interjecting.
Mr MANZIE: Obviously, members opposite do not want to hear the answer. Undergrounding power in the rest of Darwin would be an extremely expensive exercise. We are looking at ways and means of achieving it but, at this stage, it would place a great impost on all power users throughout the Territory and this government does not intend to increase power charges. We have maintained the current power charge levels since 1992, and ours have moved from the highest in the country to almost the fourth-highest. We shall continue to ensure Territorians obtain value for money - unlike the opposition, which is hell-bent on increasing charges.
Page 2114
ANSWER
Mr Speaker, the underground work at Katherine has been ongoing for the last 3 or 4 years. If the honourable member had any interest at all in the subject, he would have been well aware of that. As for Darwin, we have looked in detail at the cost of undergrounding ...
Members interjecting.
Mr MANZIE: Obviously, members opposite do not want to hear the answer. Undergrounding power in the rest of Darwin would be an extremely expensive exercise. We are looking at ways and means of achieving it but, at this stage, it would place a great impost on all power users throughout the Territory and this government does not intend to increase power charges. We have maintained the current power charge levels since 1992, and ours have moved from the highest in the country to almost the fourth-highest. We shall continue to ensure Territorians obtain value for money - unlike the opposition, which is hell-bent on increasing charges.
Page 2114
Last updated: 09 Aug 2016