Ms CARNEY - 2005-10-12
This year, your Treasurer will receive an unexpected bonus of $137m from the GST. In fact, since the GST was established by the federal Coalition in 2000-01, the Northern Territory has received bonuses totalling in the vicinity of $600m. In opposition, you were very concerned, it seemed, about high fuel prices, but since then you have forgotten that it was a CLP Treasurer who provided a subsidy for Territory motorists and not your Treasurer, and at a time when the CLP did not have the massive GST revenue that you do. Will you follow the lead of a CLP Treasurer and your good friend, Peter Beattie in Queensland, and direct your Treasurer to provide a subsidy to lower the price of fuel for Territory motorists?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, the price of fuel concerns us all. As you passed a bowser, it was not all that long ago that you looked at a dollar for a litre of fuel as being very high. Now we have up to $1.32 and $1.35 in Darwin and higher in other parts of the Northern Territory. I would have thought that the Opposition Leader would have first directed this question of who can effectively do something about the cost of fuel to her federal colleagues.
We know that the member for Solomon is fairly useless when he goes to the parliament in Canberra. We know that Senator Nigel Scullion flits about offering advice on where to best position nuclear waste dumps and other things that are of no value to the Northern Territory. When we asked both the member for Solomon and the CLP Senator to be effective with Senator Ian Campbell when it came to crocodile hunting, we saw the effect of their lobbying. You would have thought you would have directed this question to the federal government, because the federal government …
Members interjecting.
Ms Carney: Your money! Your money! Open your wallet, Treasurer, to help Territorians!
Madam SPEAKER: Order! Leader of the Opposition!
Ms MARTIN: Thank you, Madam Speaker. It is all very well to yell and be hysterical, but as you asked a question, I thought it might be relevant to give an answer. Direct this to the federal government because they are currently sitting on a $13.6bn surplus, and about ...
Ms Carney: You are swimming in money. You are swimming in it!
Mr Mills: You get $600m.
Ms MARTIN: We have a budget of just $3bn ...
Mr Mills: This is dishonest.
Madam SPEAKER: Member for Blain!
Ms MARTIN: … and this is sitting …
Mr Mills: It is just dishonest.
Madam SPEAKER: Member for Blain, cease interjecting.
Mr Mills: I cannot sit still and listen to this rubbish.
Madam SPEAKER: Member for Blain!
Ms MARTIN: Madam Speaker, the federal government has a budget surplus of $13.6bn. Most of that is accrued through the excise from fuel. In fact, the figure is $13.2bn. Who has the dollars …
Mr Mills: You have received $600m.
Ms MARTIN: … to be able to do something through their direct action on fuel excise? The federal government! So I call on the members of the CLP - the once proud CLP …
Mr Mills: Oh, come on!
Ms Carney: So you will not show leadership! You want someone else to do it.
Madam SPEAKER: Order!
Mr Mills: Give them the GST back and let the federal government do something.
Madam SPEAKER: Member for Blain!
Ms MARTIN: … to put the pressure on their colleagues and mates in Canberra, the Coalition government, to do something about the cost of fuel ...
Mr Mills: It is appalling! You accept the GST on fuel. You have changed your tune since you have come to office!
Madam SPEAKER: Member for Blain, I have had to speak to you seven times in a row. I am afraid that if you interject any further you will be thrown out of the House.
Mr Mills: Seven? My apologies, I was carried away.
Ms MARTIN: Madam Speaker, that is where the direction should be, on the fuel excise collected by the federal government - $13.2bn. Every time you go to the bowser, that is where you really get hit on that excise on fuel. Direct that question to the federal government.
Mr Wood: Plus GST!
Ms MARTIN: Yes, we received more funds through the grants process and, yes, since the GST has been in place we have received additional funds. However, I am happy to go through in the House where we spent those funds. What we will do is tell the 137 extra police we have throughout the Territory: ‘We cannot afford you anymore, we are going to tell you not to do your job anymore’. We are going to tell the extra teachers we have put in place, the extra nurses we have put in place: ‘We cannot afford you anymore’.
We have very specifically spent those funds on services for Territorians where it counts. If we are going to look at taking the Opposition Leader’s advice, I would like her to offer in that advice where she would like us to cut services. Would she like us to cut health services, education services, the police services, perhaps? Would you like to cut the marketing dollars we are putting in our second biggest industry, tourism? A grasp on reality from the opposition would be a good thing. Let us put the focus on where it should be, which is on the federal government and the enormous excise they collect from every single Australian who takes their car to the service station and fills up with fuel at a very high price.
It is a good question from the opposition; it needs to be better targeted, I feel. That is where I will leave it. However, while I am on my feet, can I just respond to the first question the Opposition Leader asked?
Madam SPEAKER: Yes.
Ms MARTIN: That question was regarding road safety expenditure. Just to check with the Opposition Leader, it was from the police budget you were talking about, wasn’t it?
Ms Carney: It would have been, Yes, your budget papers.
Ms MARTIN: It was? I did not quite understand when you asked the question. If that is right I am answering the right question, so that is fine.
You were talking about police expenditure, and I believe you said it had been reduced between the 2004-05 year and the 2005-06 year. I am pleased to provide further details on this. If you go to the current budget papers at page 153, Budget Paper No 3, the allocation for Road Safety Services carried out by the NT Police for this coming year is $9.2m. If you look at the same page, the estimated expenditure on Road Safety Services in the previous year was $8.7m. We have seen a difference between the two financial years, an increase in $0.5m. We have not cut ...
Ms Carney: No, you have not!
Ms MARTIN: I am giving an explanation here.
Ms CARNEY: A point of order Madam Speaker! No, that is not correct. The Chief Minister does have an obligation to be honest. She needs to refer to the 2004-05 budget and the 2005-06 budget.
Madam SPEAKER: Leader of the Opposition, there is no point of order. If you feel that there has been some kind of misleading of the House you can seek to provide a personal explanation.
Ms MARTIN: Madam Speaker, in terms of dishonesty, I refer the Opposition Leader to the budget papers. They are the figures I have read …
Ms Carney: The way you expressed yourself before was not okay.
Ms MARTIN: … with an increase of $0.5m between the 2004-05 year and the 2005-06 year. That is our budget paper, that is our commitment. We take safety on our roads very seriously. The fact that there are any deaths is unacceptable. We are certainly targeting the causes of accidents as we have been able to identify them.
I will give a breakdown to the House. Of the 43 deaths this year, 10 of those are speed related, 17 are alcohol related and 20 are seatbelt related, and there is one that we have identified as fatigue. I tell Territorians quite honestly, our police are targeting; we are going to stop that level of road fatalities. We had a much better year last year - 35 fatalities, not acceptable. The previous year was at 53, and we are not going to see that kind of level this year. I say, watch it, Territorians, our police are going to focus on those three causes of what is happening with fatalities on our roads.
Mr HENDERSON (Leader of Government Business): Madam Speaker, I ask that further questions be placed on the Written Question Paper.
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, the price of fuel concerns us all. As you passed a bowser, it was not all that long ago that you looked at a dollar for a litre of fuel as being very high. Now we have up to $1.32 and $1.35 in Darwin and higher in other parts of the Northern Territory. I would have thought that the Opposition Leader would have first directed this question of who can effectively do something about the cost of fuel to her federal colleagues.
We know that the member for Solomon is fairly useless when he goes to the parliament in Canberra. We know that Senator Nigel Scullion flits about offering advice on where to best position nuclear waste dumps and other things that are of no value to the Northern Territory. When we asked both the member for Solomon and the CLP Senator to be effective with Senator Ian Campbell when it came to crocodile hunting, we saw the effect of their lobbying. You would have thought you would have directed this question to the federal government, because the federal government …
Members interjecting.
Ms Carney: Your money! Your money! Open your wallet, Treasurer, to help Territorians!
Madam SPEAKER: Order! Leader of the Opposition!
Ms MARTIN: Thank you, Madam Speaker. It is all very well to yell and be hysterical, but as you asked a question, I thought it might be relevant to give an answer. Direct this to the federal government because they are currently sitting on a $13.6bn surplus, and about ...
Ms Carney: You are swimming in money. You are swimming in it!
Mr Mills: You get $600m.
Ms MARTIN: We have a budget of just $3bn ...
Mr Mills: This is dishonest.
Madam SPEAKER: Member for Blain!
Ms MARTIN: … and this is sitting …
Mr Mills: It is just dishonest.
Madam SPEAKER: Member for Blain, cease interjecting.
Mr Mills: I cannot sit still and listen to this rubbish.
Madam SPEAKER: Member for Blain!
Ms MARTIN: Madam Speaker, the federal government has a budget surplus of $13.6bn. Most of that is accrued through the excise from fuel. In fact, the figure is $13.2bn. Who has the dollars …
Mr Mills: You have received $600m.
Ms MARTIN: … to be able to do something through their direct action on fuel excise? The federal government! So I call on the members of the CLP - the once proud CLP …
Mr Mills: Oh, come on!
Ms Carney: So you will not show leadership! You want someone else to do it.
Madam SPEAKER: Order!
Mr Mills: Give them the GST back and let the federal government do something.
Madam SPEAKER: Member for Blain!
Ms MARTIN: … to put the pressure on their colleagues and mates in Canberra, the Coalition government, to do something about the cost of fuel ...
Mr Mills: It is appalling! You accept the GST on fuel. You have changed your tune since you have come to office!
Madam SPEAKER: Member for Blain, I have had to speak to you seven times in a row. I am afraid that if you interject any further you will be thrown out of the House.
Mr Mills: Seven? My apologies, I was carried away.
Ms MARTIN: Madam Speaker, that is where the direction should be, on the fuel excise collected by the federal government - $13.2bn. Every time you go to the bowser, that is where you really get hit on that excise on fuel. Direct that question to the federal government.
Mr Wood: Plus GST!
Ms MARTIN: Yes, we received more funds through the grants process and, yes, since the GST has been in place we have received additional funds. However, I am happy to go through in the House where we spent those funds. What we will do is tell the 137 extra police we have throughout the Territory: ‘We cannot afford you anymore, we are going to tell you not to do your job anymore’. We are going to tell the extra teachers we have put in place, the extra nurses we have put in place: ‘We cannot afford you anymore’.
We have very specifically spent those funds on services for Territorians where it counts. If we are going to look at taking the Opposition Leader’s advice, I would like her to offer in that advice where she would like us to cut services. Would she like us to cut health services, education services, the police services, perhaps? Would you like to cut the marketing dollars we are putting in our second biggest industry, tourism? A grasp on reality from the opposition would be a good thing. Let us put the focus on where it should be, which is on the federal government and the enormous excise they collect from every single Australian who takes their car to the service station and fills up with fuel at a very high price.
It is a good question from the opposition; it needs to be better targeted, I feel. That is where I will leave it. However, while I am on my feet, can I just respond to the first question the Opposition Leader asked?
Madam SPEAKER: Yes.
Ms MARTIN: That question was regarding road safety expenditure. Just to check with the Opposition Leader, it was from the police budget you were talking about, wasn’t it?
Ms Carney: It would have been, Yes, your budget papers.
Ms MARTIN: It was? I did not quite understand when you asked the question. If that is right I am answering the right question, so that is fine.
You were talking about police expenditure, and I believe you said it had been reduced between the 2004-05 year and the 2005-06 year. I am pleased to provide further details on this. If you go to the current budget papers at page 153, Budget Paper No 3, the allocation for Road Safety Services carried out by the NT Police for this coming year is $9.2m. If you look at the same page, the estimated expenditure on Road Safety Services in the previous year was $8.7m. We have seen a difference between the two financial years, an increase in $0.5m. We have not cut ...
Ms Carney: No, you have not!
Ms MARTIN: I am giving an explanation here.
Ms CARNEY: A point of order Madam Speaker! No, that is not correct. The Chief Minister does have an obligation to be honest. She needs to refer to the 2004-05 budget and the 2005-06 budget.
Madam SPEAKER: Leader of the Opposition, there is no point of order. If you feel that there has been some kind of misleading of the House you can seek to provide a personal explanation.
Ms MARTIN: Madam Speaker, in terms of dishonesty, I refer the Opposition Leader to the budget papers. They are the figures I have read …
Ms Carney: The way you expressed yourself before was not okay.
Ms MARTIN: … with an increase of $0.5m between the 2004-05 year and the 2005-06 year. That is our budget paper, that is our commitment. We take safety on our roads very seriously. The fact that there are any deaths is unacceptable. We are certainly targeting the causes of accidents as we have been able to identify them.
I will give a breakdown to the House. Of the 43 deaths this year, 10 of those are speed related, 17 are alcohol related and 20 are seatbelt related, and there is one that we have identified as fatigue. I tell Territorians quite honestly, our police are targeting; we are going to stop that level of road fatalities. We had a much better year last year - 35 fatalities, not acceptable. The previous year was at 53, and we are not going to see that kind of level this year. I say, watch it, Territorians, our police are going to focus on those three causes of what is happening with fatalities on our roads.
Mr HENDERSON (Leader of Government Business): Madam Speaker, I ask that further questions be placed on the Written Question Paper.
Last updated: 09 Aug 2016