Mr WESTRA van HOLTHE - 2011-05-04
Your government is going to spend $387m more this year than it actually gets. You are running a $387m deficit. You only have the choice of GST income or Territory revenue as discretionary income to eventually pay back the Northern Territory’s debt, which stands at $3.521bn. Are you spending 10% more disposable income than you actually have, and is it not true that your debt liability is 169% of your discretionary expenditure?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, I thank the shadow Treasurer for his question. I am still surprised the Leader has not sacked him, quite frankly, after that Ombudsman’s report debated in the parliament. I cannot believe you are in here. I cannot believe you have not sacked him. However, we will get to the management of the debt position.
What he failed to understand is, we are running very modest deficit positions …
Members interjecting.
Madam SPEAKER: Order! Member for Greatorex!
Ms LAWRIE: We are running very modest deficit positions. It is pretty modest. If you just wanted to be in surplus today, irresponsibly, you could just shave the $387m off the top of your infrastructure budget and still have a pretty good infrastructure budget size. It would be irresponsible to do that. You would be costing jobs at a time when private sector investment has not returned because the credit market is still tight. What you do is keep your expenditure under your revenue stepping through. We have restraint in place, obviously, through the efficiency dividends and the staffing cap, and have saved $81.5m across two financial years through that tightening of the belt. We ensure we are stepping down.
We announced in the budget speech last year - and I have consistently said this to industry - that we will start to step out of the significant high infrastructure spends we are currently in as the private sector investment pick-up occurs. There is a pretty obvious major project on the horizon. The INPEX final investment decision is at the last quarter of this year. We also have the marine supply base which is a major investment. We have the construction of the prison. Anyone who understands construction knows that is going to be an infrastructure boost, and is significant as a public private partnership.
Clearly, as I articulated in my speech last year - I will continue to articulate that to industry groups - we will start to step down in those very high infrastructure spends across the four years. It is a responsible budget and responsive to the needs at this time.
As David de Garis, the economic analyst, pointed out, the deficit is just 2.25% of our GSP and our debt is running at less than 2% of GSP. It is absolutely at manageable levels. You simply do not understand the economic cycle we are in. We ran eight budget surpluses in a row; we shaved $582m off the debt. In the CLP era, your nett debt to revenue ratio was running at 61%. The 2011-12 nett debt to revenue ratio is at 32% - absolutely manageable. We are doing the right spend at the right time in the economic cycle. If you go to the commentators in the industry such as Master Builders and the Chamber of Commerce, and people such as Peter Davies and Daryl Manzie, they are all saying we did the right thing. Deficit is where we should be now …
Madam SPEAKER: Treasurer, your time has expired.
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, I thank the shadow Treasurer for his question. I am still surprised the Leader has not sacked him, quite frankly, after that Ombudsman’s report debated in the parliament. I cannot believe you are in here. I cannot believe you have not sacked him. However, we will get to the management of the debt position.
What he failed to understand is, we are running very modest deficit positions …
Members interjecting.
Madam SPEAKER: Order! Member for Greatorex!
Ms LAWRIE: We are running very modest deficit positions. It is pretty modest. If you just wanted to be in surplus today, irresponsibly, you could just shave the $387m off the top of your infrastructure budget and still have a pretty good infrastructure budget size. It would be irresponsible to do that. You would be costing jobs at a time when private sector investment has not returned because the credit market is still tight. What you do is keep your expenditure under your revenue stepping through. We have restraint in place, obviously, through the efficiency dividends and the staffing cap, and have saved $81.5m across two financial years through that tightening of the belt. We ensure we are stepping down.
We announced in the budget speech last year - and I have consistently said this to industry - that we will start to step out of the significant high infrastructure spends we are currently in as the private sector investment pick-up occurs. There is a pretty obvious major project on the horizon. The INPEX final investment decision is at the last quarter of this year. We also have the marine supply base which is a major investment. We have the construction of the prison. Anyone who understands construction knows that is going to be an infrastructure boost, and is significant as a public private partnership.
Clearly, as I articulated in my speech last year - I will continue to articulate that to industry groups - we will start to step down in those very high infrastructure spends across the four years. It is a responsible budget and responsive to the needs at this time.
As David de Garis, the economic analyst, pointed out, the deficit is just 2.25% of our GSP and our debt is running at less than 2% of GSP. It is absolutely at manageable levels. You simply do not understand the economic cycle we are in. We ran eight budget surpluses in a row; we shaved $582m off the debt. In the CLP era, your nett debt to revenue ratio was running at 61%. The 2011-12 nett debt to revenue ratio is at 32% - absolutely manageable. We are doing the right spend at the right time in the economic cycle. If you go to the commentators in the industry such as Master Builders and the Chamber of Commerce, and people such as Peter Davies and Daryl Manzie, they are all saying we did the right thing. Deficit is where we should be now …
Madam SPEAKER: Treasurer, your time has expired.
Last updated: 09 Aug 2016