Mr BURKE - 2005-05-03
In your budget, for Mr and Mrs Malak living in their own home in the northern suburbs with two school-aged children, a dog, a boat and a car, can you inform them what initiatives are in this budget which will reduce their tax burden, lower the cost of living, and lower their power bill? Is it not a fact that, for the average Territory family, there is nothing in this budget for them?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, an extraordinary question from the Leader of the Opposition. The best thing we are doing for Mr and Mrs Smith out in Leanyer, Wulagi, Wanguri, Palmerston or wherever they live is growing the Territory economy. That is the way to get the cost of living down overall; that is the way to get power bills down into the future: growing the population. We have turned that around. After successive years of interstate nett migration loss and a prediction this time last year that we would grow the Territory population by about 0.3%, it has come in at 1.2%.
When I stood here last year, I said that the 0.3% figure was not good enough and we will be working hard to turn it around, and we have quadrupled it. That, in turn, brings more jobs, which in turn brings more population to the Northern Territory, which in turn increases revenue to the Territory from the Commonwealth allocations through GST revenue and gives the government of the day an opportunity to work on a whole range of cost factors. There are no fees, licence charges, taxes, levies or anything of that sort anywhere in this budget.
There is a range of tax cuts on business, which will allow them the freedom to continue to expand and grow, which will mean more jobs, which will mean more people, which will mean greater revenue into the future, and that is the best thing we can do for Mr and Mrs Smith.
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, an extraordinary question from the Leader of the Opposition. The best thing we are doing for Mr and Mrs Smith out in Leanyer, Wulagi, Wanguri, Palmerston or wherever they live is growing the Territory economy. That is the way to get the cost of living down overall; that is the way to get power bills down into the future: growing the population. We have turned that around. After successive years of interstate nett migration loss and a prediction this time last year that we would grow the Territory population by about 0.3%, it has come in at 1.2%.
When I stood here last year, I said that the 0.3% figure was not good enough and we will be working hard to turn it around, and we have quadrupled it. That, in turn, brings more jobs, which in turn brings more population to the Northern Territory, which in turn increases revenue to the Territory from the Commonwealth allocations through GST revenue and gives the government of the day an opportunity to work on a whole range of cost factors. There are no fees, licence charges, taxes, levies or anything of that sort anywhere in this budget.
There is a range of tax cuts on business, which will allow them the freedom to continue to expand and grow, which will mean more jobs, which will mean more people, which will mean greater revenue into the future, and that is the best thing we can do for Mr and Mrs Smith.
Last updated: 09 Aug 2016