Mr DUNHAM - 2002-08-20
Given your admission that your budget bottom line has been improved by $131m extra from the Commonwealth, why is it necessary to increase sewerage rates by 7.5%, and a whopping $11 000 extra per annum for large commercial premises?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, service delivery underpins this budget today. To be able to do that in an environmentally responsible way is very important. It is interesting that there is a focus from the opposition about: ‘You have increased some charges’. Last week, there was an increase announced at 2.5% in water and sewerage, because it does not stand well against some of the increases that have come from this previous government. Let me remind some of those members. I take you back to July 1998, when there was a 44.5% increase in water charges in one hit. A 44.5% increase in water charges in July 1998. It was a double whammy actually. It was an increase in water charges and it was imposed on a fixed daily rate. Here we have an opposition, 27 years in government, saying: ‘Look how responsible we were,’ by implication. ‘Do not count budgets’, for example, ‘but look how responsible we were’. Look at this ‘dreadful’ new government in here, in a year, responding in a responsible CPI way to be able to meet the service delivery charges. In July 1998, 44.5%, a king hit on Territorians in one go - an absolute king hit. Put that together with your lack of responsibility - to put it kindly - last year before the election when you would not talk about any kind of responsible CPI-related rises ‘because we were going to an election’, then these questions lack credibility and integrity.
This budget today is about using funds responsibly. I am grateful to the Commonwealth Grants Commission for the $83m that we received in extra relativities, because we can start turning around the neglect we have seen in the Territory. The previous Country Liberal Party government did not govern for all Territorians. As the Deputy Chief Minister and education minister said, you would not know where Minyerri was. You would not know where these schools are around the Territory. We are funding education and health, and we are funding it right around the Territory. We are underpinning that by a proper capital works program with $333m worth of cash, and the delight in our business community is palpable. This is a responsible and responsive budget.
Mr DUNHAM: A point of order, Madam Speaker! My question was specifically about sewerage, and while the Chief Minister is talking on that subject generally, I would prefer she talk specifically about sewerage rates.
Madam SPEAKER: There is no point of ruling, and you know it.
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, service delivery underpins this budget today. To be able to do that in an environmentally responsible way is very important. It is interesting that there is a focus from the opposition about: ‘You have increased some charges’. Last week, there was an increase announced at 2.5% in water and sewerage, because it does not stand well against some of the increases that have come from this previous government. Let me remind some of those members. I take you back to July 1998, when there was a 44.5% increase in water charges in one hit. A 44.5% increase in water charges in July 1998. It was a double whammy actually. It was an increase in water charges and it was imposed on a fixed daily rate. Here we have an opposition, 27 years in government, saying: ‘Look how responsible we were,’ by implication. ‘Do not count budgets’, for example, ‘but look how responsible we were’. Look at this ‘dreadful’ new government in here, in a year, responding in a responsible CPI way to be able to meet the service delivery charges. In July 1998, 44.5%, a king hit on Territorians in one go - an absolute king hit. Put that together with your lack of responsibility - to put it kindly - last year before the election when you would not talk about any kind of responsible CPI-related rises ‘because we were going to an election’, then these questions lack credibility and integrity.
This budget today is about using funds responsibly. I am grateful to the Commonwealth Grants Commission for the $83m that we received in extra relativities, because we can start turning around the neglect we have seen in the Territory. The previous Country Liberal Party government did not govern for all Territorians. As the Deputy Chief Minister and education minister said, you would not know where Minyerri was. You would not know where these schools are around the Territory. We are funding education and health, and we are funding it right around the Territory. We are underpinning that by a proper capital works program with $333m worth of cash, and the delight in our business community is palpable. This is a responsible and responsive budget.
Mr DUNHAM: A point of order, Madam Speaker! My question was specifically about sewerage, and while the Chief Minister is talking on that subject generally, I would prefer she talk specifically about sewerage rates.
Madam SPEAKER: There is no point of ruling, and you know it.
Last updated: 09 Aug 2016