Mrs PADGHAM-PURICH - 1997-02-25
Will he work with the Minister for Health Services to ensure that pensioners in the rural area, especially old-timers, receive similar treatment over service charges by the Territory government as do old timers elsewhere in the Northern Territory? I refer to the fact that no concessions are extended to rural old-timers equivalent to sewerage cost concessions available to town residents or water cost concessions available to town residents.
ANSWER
Mr Speaker, these are concessions provided through the Department of Health Services. However, I point out to the member for Nelson that the concessions are allowed on charges
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for people who have services provided to them. Where the government provides a sewerage or water supply service, pensioners are charged for those services at a concessional rate. I do not think anyone would expect people to be paid a fee when they are not paying for the provision of a service.
Mrs Padgham-Purich: We don't get our bore water free.
Mr MANZIE: I think people living in the rural area would probably find it a little strange if someone suggested they should be funded by taxpayers as a concession on a service that they do not receive. People make the choice to live in the rural area. They make that choice because they believe that the environment there will be more satisfactory to them, and on the basis of having more space around them. When they elect to live in the rural area, they are fully aware that the roads may not be as good, that the electricity service may not extend to their location or may take some time to become available, that they are not linked to town water and that they do not have access to a town sewerage system. When such services are provided, of course, those people are eligible under a scheme which is recognised as the most generous pensioner concession scheme in Australia. It is a scheme that the Territory government is extremely proud of and which we will continue to provide to those senior citizens of the Territory who have served us so well in the past.
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ANSWER
Mr Speaker, these are concessions provided through the Department of Health Services. However, I point out to the member for Nelson that the concessions are allowed on charges
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for people who have services provided to them. Where the government provides a sewerage or water supply service, pensioners are charged for those services at a concessional rate. I do not think anyone would expect people to be paid a fee when they are not paying for the provision of a service.
Mrs Padgham-Purich: We don't get our bore water free.
Mr MANZIE: I think people living in the rural area would probably find it a little strange if someone suggested they should be funded by taxpayers as a concession on a service that they do not receive. People make the choice to live in the rural area. They make that choice because they believe that the environment there will be more satisfactory to them, and on the basis of having more space around them. When they elect to live in the rural area, they are fully aware that the roads may not be as good, that the electricity service may not extend to their location or may take some time to become available, that they are not linked to town water and that they do not have access to a town sewerage system. When such services are provided, of course, those people are eligible under a scheme which is recognised as the most generous pensioner concession scheme in Australia. It is a scheme that the Territory government is extremely proud of and which we will continue to provide to those senior citizens of the Territory who have served us so well in the past.
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Last updated: 09 Aug 2016