Mr BURKE - 2001-11-27
I predicate this question by this statement: You have been in government since August. It is now 26 November, and there are period contractors in Darwin who have not received work because the money has not been flowing. I have asked you where is the detail in your mini-budget to show that the additional money will flow and how these period contractors will get some comfort that they will get additional work. Will the minister provide to the House the amount of work done under period contracts for road maintenance in the Darwin, urban and rural area during the period August and November last year, and the same period this year? I refer to bitumen repairs, line marking, road sealing, grading and drainage, road signage maintenance and verge mowing and rubbish removal. Minister, these are just some of the areas where contractors are losing work and the government is failing, not only in its duty of care to the general public, but these people are likely to be out of business by Christmas.
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, I am going to repeat my answer. The reason that period contracts have not been awarded is because the previous government did not leave us enough money. You heard it before: there was no money after November. People were coming to us complaining. The answer was, there was no money. We have had to add $6m additional funding for these people to start working again for the simple reason you took money from one bucket, you put it to another to address some urgent issues like flood repairs on the roads, when it happened, because you did not allocate it enough money.
We found the money, we start flowing the money to the contracts and the work will start happening again. There is no promise there are going to be so many contracts for a year, but we are trying to help these people out because you did not do it.
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, I am going to repeat my answer. The reason that period contracts have not been awarded is because the previous government did not leave us enough money. You heard it before: there was no money after November. People were coming to us complaining. The answer was, there was no money. We have had to add $6m additional funding for these people to start working again for the simple reason you took money from one bucket, you put it to another to address some urgent issues like flood repairs on the roads, when it happened, because you did not allocate it enough money.
We found the money, we start flowing the money to the contracts and the work will start happening again. There is no promise there are going to be so many contracts for a year, but we are trying to help these people out because you did not do it.
Last updated: 09 Aug 2016