Mr KIELY - 2007-05-02
Twenty-four hours after delivering Budget 2007-08, can the Treasurer please advise the House of the reaction it has received from the thinking public?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, I thank the member for Sanderson for his question. There are people who do think about this, as opposed to the other side, member for Sanderson, as you were suggesting. I have spoken at a number of functions since delivering the budget yesterday and, before that, I had lock-ups with a number of key groups representing a very broad cross-section of business in the Territory. There were many different community groups: local government, NTCOSS and union leadership. I am pleased to say that all those diverse …
Mr Mills interjecting.
Madam SPEAKER: Order!
Mr STIRLING: All those diverse groups are delighted with Budget 2007-08. I had lunch with the Chamber of Commerce yesterday and breakfast with the Property Council this morning. Yes, people would like to see a little more of this and a little more of that. That is always the way with budgets, nothing different there. They like to see their favourite projects get up or get a bit more funding. That does not always happen. I was surprised at the bubble, the infectious enthusiasm, at the Property Council this morning. I think the member for Blain might even have been there.
Mr Mills: No, I was there.
Mr STIRLING: Tell me that is not true, that it was not a very pleasant atmosphere at that breakfast this morning?
Mr Mills: It was a nice breakfast, yes.
Mr STIRLING: It was a pleasant breakfast with good people - very happy people. They expressed that satisfaction …
Members interjecting.
Madam SPEAKER: Order!
Mr STIRLING: They expressed that satisfaction, both at lunch and at breakfast. The Chamber of Commerce President, Rick Paul, at yesterday’s lunch, said the Chamber of Commerce had a list of issues it wanted to deal with, and that we had dealt with the vast majority of them. In today’s media, he expressed himself as pleased with the budget.
Ryan O’Hanlon from the Real Estate Institute of the Northern Territory told ABC TV last night there has never been a better time for first homebuyers to get into the home market. There has never been a better time.
Members interjecting.
Madam SPEAKER: Order!
Mr STIRLING: The only people who disagree are you mob!
Members interjecting.
Madam SPEAKER: Order! Opposition members!
Mr STIRLING: Do you think I write the lines for these blokes? I do not think so. They are independent thinkers.
The Property Council, for which, as a group of people I have admiration, is also pleased with the budget. The Housing Industry Association was quick out of the blocks to support the budget. These groups have all realised one thing that the opposition has not: this budget is not about today; it is not just about 2007-08. They see it for what it is; it is about putting down the foundations for the successful development of the Territory over the next 10 years.
They also recognise it is about prudent fiscal management and effective economic management. The opposition could not spell those words, let alone understand them because they never practised them in all the years they were in government. This budget will continue to grow the economy. It will continue to create jobs. It will secure and further enhance our lifestyle. It is a budget welcomed by the community and only an opposition whose attitude really would sour the milk of human kindness - that is the best way to express it about them are the ones that can find a fault with it.
The Leader of the Opposition’s reply this morning probably passed without too much thought, similar in vein to the way in which it was written. On any analysis, they show that they could not be trusted with managing the economy. They are proposing to spend $70m on a housing authority that does what the private sector already does very well, thank you very much. That $70m, in the speech from the Leader of the Opposition this morning, would set up that authority and help 100 people. We have spent $4m in stamp duty reductions and we have helped 1200 first homebuyers in the Northern Territory. You spend $70m-plus and help just 100 people out of a potential 1200.
It is clear, with the land release, that that authority would go on releasing land on to the market. You would flood the market and devastate the value of homes that people already have built, purchased, live in and own - that is their life savings, their equity, and their future super, probably in many of those cases in those properties. The CLP would see that undervalued. We propose a balance to ensure that the asset built up by homeowners is protected into the future. It is not a balance that the CLP seem to appreciate.
They have told Territorians they will reduce the price of petrol. To do this, they will subsidise converting cars to LPG. The federal government already puts out a very generous subsidy in order to convert these vehicles and Territorians do not want it, frankly. They are not rocking up there to have their cars converted - very low numbers indeed. That is not what the people want, no matter how much money you throw at it ...
Ms Carney: Perhaps there is something you can do to help them do that, I do not know, maybe offer them a rebate …
Mr STIRLING: You said you would reduce the petrol bill by $20 a week. You have squibbed it. You came up with an option that no one wants. Territorians do not want gas in their cars. Sorry, but it is a fact.
Mrs Miller: Because they could not afford it.
Ms Carney: Must be the way you run your health programs.
Mr STIRLING: You had better get out there and start educating for the next couple of years if you want to build that conversion rate.
Ms Carney: You are just inconsistent.
Members interjecting.
Madam SPEAKER: Order!
Mr STIRLING: You said twenty bucks off your bill! ‘What is the Clare Martin Labor government doing? I will tell you what I will do; I will take twenty bucks a week off your fuel bill’. No, you have not. You have not done a thing. You have added onto an existing Commonwealth program that is not even used.
Mrs Miller: Because it was still going to cost, and it is now not going to cost under our policy.
Mr STIRLING: What we have to look at, in the Leader of the Opposition’s responses this morning, is not only what she said, but what she did not say: no initiatives for community safety; no initiatives for community health services; no initiatives on infrastructure; no initiatives for mining; no initiatives for primary industry; nothing for roads; nothing for bush roads, and the list goes on, Madam Speaker. They are expected to deliver something of a credible alternative; they are not capable of it.
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, I thank the member for Sanderson for his question. There are people who do think about this, as opposed to the other side, member for Sanderson, as you were suggesting. I have spoken at a number of functions since delivering the budget yesterday and, before that, I had lock-ups with a number of key groups representing a very broad cross-section of business in the Territory. There were many different community groups: local government, NTCOSS and union leadership. I am pleased to say that all those diverse …
Mr Mills interjecting.
Madam SPEAKER: Order!
Mr STIRLING: All those diverse groups are delighted with Budget 2007-08. I had lunch with the Chamber of Commerce yesterday and breakfast with the Property Council this morning. Yes, people would like to see a little more of this and a little more of that. That is always the way with budgets, nothing different there. They like to see their favourite projects get up or get a bit more funding. That does not always happen. I was surprised at the bubble, the infectious enthusiasm, at the Property Council this morning. I think the member for Blain might even have been there.
Mr Mills: No, I was there.
Mr STIRLING: Tell me that is not true, that it was not a very pleasant atmosphere at that breakfast this morning?
Mr Mills: It was a nice breakfast, yes.
Mr STIRLING: It was a pleasant breakfast with good people - very happy people. They expressed that satisfaction …
Members interjecting.
Madam SPEAKER: Order!
Mr STIRLING: They expressed that satisfaction, both at lunch and at breakfast. The Chamber of Commerce President, Rick Paul, at yesterday’s lunch, said the Chamber of Commerce had a list of issues it wanted to deal with, and that we had dealt with the vast majority of them. In today’s media, he expressed himself as pleased with the budget.
Ryan O’Hanlon from the Real Estate Institute of the Northern Territory told ABC TV last night there has never been a better time for first homebuyers to get into the home market. There has never been a better time.
Members interjecting.
Madam SPEAKER: Order!
Mr STIRLING: The only people who disagree are you mob!
Members interjecting.
Madam SPEAKER: Order! Opposition members!
Mr STIRLING: Do you think I write the lines for these blokes? I do not think so. They are independent thinkers.
The Property Council, for which, as a group of people I have admiration, is also pleased with the budget. The Housing Industry Association was quick out of the blocks to support the budget. These groups have all realised one thing that the opposition has not: this budget is not about today; it is not just about 2007-08. They see it for what it is; it is about putting down the foundations for the successful development of the Territory over the next 10 years.
They also recognise it is about prudent fiscal management and effective economic management. The opposition could not spell those words, let alone understand them because they never practised them in all the years they were in government. This budget will continue to grow the economy. It will continue to create jobs. It will secure and further enhance our lifestyle. It is a budget welcomed by the community and only an opposition whose attitude really would sour the milk of human kindness - that is the best way to express it about them are the ones that can find a fault with it.
The Leader of the Opposition’s reply this morning probably passed without too much thought, similar in vein to the way in which it was written. On any analysis, they show that they could not be trusted with managing the economy. They are proposing to spend $70m on a housing authority that does what the private sector already does very well, thank you very much. That $70m, in the speech from the Leader of the Opposition this morning, would set up that authority and help 100 people. We have spent $4m in stamp duty reductions and we have helped 1200 first homebuyers in the Northern Territory. You spend $70m-plus and help just 100 people out of a potential 1200.
It is clear, with the land release, that that authority would go on releasing land on to the market. You would flood the market and devastate the value of homes that people already have built, purchased, live in and own - that is their life savings, their equity, and their future super, probably in many of those cases in those properties. The CLP would see that undervalued. We propose a balance to ensure that the asset built up by homeowners is protected into the future. It is not a balance that the CLP seem to appreciate.
They have told Territorians they will reduce the price of petrol. To do this, they will subsidise converting cars to LPG. The federal government already puts out a very generous subsidy in order to convert these vehicles and Territorians do not want it, frankly. They are not rocking up there to have their cars converted - very low numbers indeed. That is not what the people want, no matter how much money you throw at it ...
Ms Carney: Perhaps there is something you can do to help them do that, I do not know, maybe offer them a rebate …
Mr STIRLING: You said you would reduce the petrol bill by $20 a week. You have squibbed it. You came up with an option that no one wants. Territorians do not want gas in their cars. Sorry, but it is a fact.
Mrs Miller: Because they could not afford it.
Ms Carney: Must be the way you run your health programs.
Mr STIRLING: You had better get out there and start educating for the next couple of years if you want to build that conversion rate.
Ms Carney: You are just inconsistent.
Members interjecting.
Madam SPEAKER: Order!
Mr STIRLING: You said twenty bucks off your bill! ‘What is the Clare Martin Labor government doing? I will tell you what I will do; I will take twenty bucks a week off your fuel bill’. No, you have not. You have not done a thing. You have added onto an existing Commonwealth program that is not even used.
Mrs Miller: Because it was still going to cost, and it is now not going to cost under our policy.
Mr STIRLING: What we have to look at, in the Leader of the Opposition’s responses this morning, is not only what she said, but what she did not say: no initiatives for community safety; no initiatives for community health services; no initiatives on infrastructure; no initiatives for mining; no initiatives for primary industry; nothing for roads; nothing for bush roads, and the list goes on, Madam Speaker. They are expected to deliver something of a credible alternative; they are not capable of it.
Last updated: 09 Aug 2016