Mr BONSON - 2005-10-11
During the 2005 election, the government and you, in particular, promised to do all you could to provide a stronger economy for the people of the Northern Territory. Can the Chief Minister point to the independent, third party assessment on how the Northern Territory economy is performing?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, a good and very important question from the member for Millner. When you look at our figures for the economy, what you are looking at is statistics. However, importantly, we are getting third party assessment and endorsement of where we are going. That is what I want to refer to today.
We went to the election in June with a growth rate in the Northern Territory that led the nation - and very proud of it - of 7.2% against national figures of something like 2%. We have really been very strategic over four years to look at what we could do as government to stimulate the very flat economy we inherited. We put in place very strong tax cuts for business to give them the opportunity to make further investments to expand their operations; invested strongly in skills development and training, a very important component for a young population like ours; improved our own procurement processes for local businesses, and I am sure we will keep working on that; and also, our capital works program was at record level, again, stimulating our economy. We know we have more to do, but we are very committed to keeping this strong growth going in our economy.
Strong growth, what does it mean? It is all about jobs. The Australian Bureau of Statistics figures show that that growth is strong. It is great to have something like the Housing Industry Association, in their September quarter outlook, which they released yesterday, support the indicators of the economy. For example, at page 10 of their report, where they are talking specifically about housing starts, it says that housing starts shot up in the 2004-05 year by 28%. We only forecast 11% and we got a growth of 28%. Home renovations is something we all love to do. The activity in the Northern Territory soared by 43% in the 2004-05 year, and that represented a $183m-worth of investment in that industry, which was the strongest growth in Australia by a roaring mile. Total investment in housing surged by 22% in 2004-05, a very strong increase, and this is more than double the forecast that HIA had made for a 10% growth. They said 10%, we did 22%, so 2004-05 was an extraordinarily strong year.
I note that in each of the areas they identified, HIA said that there will be some slowing of growth in future years, but with rates like that we would certainly support some lesser growth. We are coming off a very high level. We have seen a real stimulus to get our economy going over the 2004-05 year particularly. HIA described their predicted outcomes as remaining ‘historically very healthy’. They also went further than their actual housing industry. To quote them again, they described the State Final Demand growth in that year as ‘impressive’, the Household Consumption Growth as ‘a stand-out result’, business investment as having ‘jumped’ and the labour market ‘is strong and should support solid jobs growth going forward’.
It is a great endorsement of where our economy is going. Our challenge is to continue that, and that is a challenge in our smaller economy. However, it is great to have the endorsement of independent bodies such as the Housing Industry Association. As government, we recognise we have moved the Territory ahead, and we certainly are delivering on our key election promises in doing that.
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, a good and very important question from the member for Millner. When you look at our figures for the economy, what you are looking at is statistics. However, importantly, we are getting third party assessment and endorsement of where we are going. That is what I want to refer to today.
We went to the election in June with a growth rate in the Northern Territory that led the nation - and very proud of it - of 7.2% against national figures of something like 2%. We have really been very strategic over four years to look at what we could do as government to stimulate the very flat economy we inherited. We put in place very strong tax cuts for business to give them the opportunity to make further investments to expand their operations; invested strongly in skills development and training, a very important component for a young population like ours; improved our own procurement processes for local businesses, and I am sure we will keep working on that; and also, our capital works program was at record level, again, stimulating our economy. We know we have more to do, but we are very committed to keeping this strong growth going in our economy.
Strong growth, what does it mean? It is all about jobs. The Australian Bureau of Statistics figures show that that growth is strong. It is great to have something like the Housing Industry Association, in their September quarter outlook, which they released yesterday, support the indicators of the economy. For example, at page 10 of their report, where they are talking specifically about housing starts, it says that housing starts shot up in the 2004-05 year by 28%. We only forecast 11% and we got a growth of 28%. Home renovations is something we all love to do. The activity in the Northern Territory soared by 43% in the 2004-05 year, and that represented a $183m-worth of investment in that industry, which was the strongest growth in Australia by a roaring mile. Total investment in housing surged by 22% in 2004-05, a very strong increase, and this is more than double the forecast that HIA had made for a 10% growth. They said 10%, we did 22%, so 2004-05 was an extraordinarily strong year.
I note that in each of the areas they identified, HIA said that there will be some slowing of growth in future years, but with rates like that we would certainly support some lesser growth. We are coming off a very high level. We have seen a real stimulus to get our economy going over the 2004-05 year particularly. HIA described their predicted outcomes as remaining ‘historically very healthy’. They also went further than their actual housing industry. To quote them again, they described the State Final Demand growth in that year as ‘impressive’, the Household Consumption Growth as ‘a stand-out result’, business investment as having ‘jumped’ and the labour market ‘is strong and should support solid jobs growth going forward’.
It is a great endorsement of where our economy is going. Our challenge is to continue that, and that is a challenge in our smaller economy. However, it is great to have the endorsement of independent bodies such as the Housing Industry Association. As government, we recognise we have moved the Territory ahead, and we certainly are delivering on our key election promises in doing that.
Last updated: 09 Aug 2016