Ms WALKER - 2011-05-04
Can you please advise the House on how Budget 2011-12 will continue to provide job opportunities and job security for Territorians?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, I thank the member for Nhulunbuy. If you want a job, come to the Northern Territory. That is a very clear message after 18 months of the lowest unemployment in the nation. Since we came to government in 2001, 26 000 jobs have been created in the Northern Territory. That is an enormous number of jobs into our workforce. Not only that, as a government, we have delivered the lowest taxes to small to medium businesses to support jobs and business. For a Labor government to deliver the lowest taxes and charges for business in the nation is certainly a badge I wear with pride.
We took a deliberate decision to go into deficit to protect jobs, because there is nothing more important for us, as a Labor government, than to create and protect jobs. I will never apologise for protecting jobs for Territorians.
If you look at the CLP policy that was announced by the Leader of the Opposition in the worst budget reply this House has ever heard, not only do they have a plan to sack at least 800 public servants across the Northern Territory, they have a stated policy position not to go into deficit.
Well, since the advent of the GFC, we have had to go into deficit. Since the advent of the GFC, we have created 12 000 jobs in the Northern Territory, and this budget will support an extra 3000 jobs.
Their plan means, if the Leader of the Opposition was the Chief Minister, there would be 12 000 fewer jobs and fewer small businesses operating in the Northern Territory today. There would be even less revenue flowing through own source revenue to the Territory coffers today to provide for improvements in health and education services. That is their plan: ‘Honey, I shrunk the economy’. That is the plan of the Leader of the Opposition: ‘I am going to shrink this economy to preserve a surplus budget’. Every single responsible financial commentator, every single economist, understands when the credit markets dry up - and developer after developer I talk to says they would love to get these projects out of the ground but the banks just are not loaning money at the moment. If governments do not step in at that point, the only consequence is people lose their jobs.
It is pretty fundamental: if you want to portray yourself as the Chief Minister, you have to have a plan. There is no more important plan for mums and dads through the suburbs throughout the Northern Territory than knowing where the next pay packet is coming from. Under the Leader of the Opposition, there would be 12 000 fewer jobs in the Northern Territory today ...
Madam SPEAKER: Chief Minister, your time has expired.
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, I thank the member for Nhulunbuy. If you want a job, come to the Northern Territory. That is a very clear message after 18 months of the lowest unemployment in the nation. Since we came to government in 2001, 26 000 jobs have been created in the Northern Territory. That is an enormous number of jobs into our workforce. Not only that, as a government, we have delivered the lowest taxes to small to medium businesses to support jobs and business. For a Labor government to deliver the lowest taxes and charges for business in the nation is certainly a badge I wear with pride.
We took a deliberate decision to go into deficit to protect jobs, because there is nothing more important for us, as a Labor government, than to create and protect jobs. I will never apologise for protecting jobs for Territorians.
If you look at the CLP policy that was announced by the Leader of the Opposition in the worst budget reply this House has ever heard, not only do they have a plan to sack at least 800 public servants across the Northern Territory, they have a stated policy position not to go into deficit.
Well, since the advent of the GFC, we have had to go into deficit. Since the advent of the GFC, we have created 12 000 jobs in the Northern Territory, and this budget will support an extra 3000 jobs.
Their plan means, if the Leader of the Opposition was the Chief Minister, there would be 12 000 fewer jobs and fewer small businesses operating in the Northern Territory today. There would be even less revenue flowing through own source revenue to the Territory coffers today to provide for improvements in health and education services. That is their plan: ‘Honey, I shrunk the economy’. That is the plan of the Leader of the Opposition: ‘I am going to shrink this economy to preserve a surplus budget’. Every single responsible financial commentator, every single economist, understands when the credit markets dry up - and developer after developer I talk to says they would love to get these projects out of the ground but the banks just are not loaning money at the moment. If governments do not step in at that point, the only consequence is people lose their jobs.
It is pretty fundamental: if you want to portray yourself as the Chief Minister, you have to have a plan. There is no more important plan for mums and dads through the suburbs throughout the Northern Territory than knowing where the next pay packet is coming from. Under the Leader of the Opposition, there would be 12 000 fewer jobs in the Northern Territory today ...
Madam SPEAKER: Chief Minister, your time has expired.
Last updated: 09 Aug 2016