Ms SACILOTTO - 2007-06-19
Can you provide the House with an update on recent economic and business activity in the Northern Territory?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, I thank the member for Port Darwin for her question. It was only a few weeks ago that I delivered the Martin government’s sixth budget, so I will not go into detail here, given that the bill itself is still under debate in this House. However, it is clear that, over this period of time, we have carefully established a set of priorities that are, indeed, the right priorities for the future of the Northern Territory.
We continue to invest in that set of priorities in the key economic drivers for the Northern Territory. This quite careful, but very sound, financial management approach that we have brought to the Territory continues to pay off for the many small, medium and large businesses operating within our economy. All of the main indicators of a strongly performing economy are continuing to show a strong growth.
We are also beginning, importantly though, to see some stabilisation which, of course, is a healthy and robust sign of a maturing and expanding Territory economy. Retail turnover, population growth, jobs growth and construction growth have all undergone unprecedented growth in recent years.
For example, if we just take seasonally adjusted retail turnover, it is up 10.2% in the Territory to April 2007 against a 6.2% growth figure nationally. We are broadening our shoulders in an economic sense. The traditional mid-year Dry Season, a very busy time of year, is being expanded out longer in the year. We can see that any time we drive down Mitchell Street early or late in the when the place used to be a ghost town, that is simply not the case these days. Businesses no longer need to fear those very extreme seasonal peaks of very high and very low demand; they are a thing of the past. That is a sign of becoming a much more mature, stable and solid business and economic centre.
It is an essential role of government to play a key interventionist role in between those peaks and troughs that the Territory experienced for many years under our predecessors, to smooth them out and to ensure that we reach economic growth levels that are sustainable over the long haul, not have a great 1999-2000 and then a recession in 2001-2002 as we saw in the past.
Madam Speaker, I look forward to an even stronger economic outlook for all Territorians as we move into financial year 2007-08 and beyond.
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, I thank the member for Port Darwin for her question. It was only a few weeks ago that I delivered the Martin government’s sixth budget, so I will not go into detail here, given that the bill itself is still under debate in this House. However, it is clear that, over this period of time, we have carefully established a set of priorities that are, indeed, the right priorities for the future of the Northern Territory.
We continue to invest in that set of priorities in the key economic drivers for the Northern Territory. This quite careful, but very sound, financial management approach that we have brought to the Territory continues to pay off for the many small, medium and large businesses operating within our economy. All of the main indicators of a strongly performing economy are continuing to show a strong growth.
We are also beginning, importantly though, to see some stabilisation which, of course, is a healthy and robust sign of a maturing and expanding Territory economy. Retail turnover, population growth, jobs growth and construction growth have all undergone unprecedented growth in recent years.
For example, if we just take seasonally adjusted retail turnover, it is up 10.2% in the Territory to April 2007 against a 6.2% growth figure nationally. We are broadening our shoulders in an economic sense. The traditional mid-year Dry Season, a very busy time of year, is being expanded out longer in the year. We can see that any time we drive down Mitchell Street early or late in the when the place used to be a ghost town, that is simply not the case these days. Businesses no longer need to fear those very extreme seasonal peaks of very high and very low demand; they are a thing of the past. That is a sign of becoming a much more mature, stable and solid business and economic centre.
It is an essential role of government to play a key interventionist role in between those peaks and troughs that the Territory experienced for many years under our predecessors, to smooth them out and to ensure that we reach economic growth levels that are sustainable over the long haul, not have a great 1999-2000 and then a recession in 2001-2002 as we saw in the past.
Madam Speaker, I look forward to an even stronger economic outlook for all Territorians as we move into financial year 2007-08 and beyond.
Last updated: 09 Aug 2016