2013-05-14
Madam Speaker Purick took the Chair at 10 am.
Madam SPEAKER: Honourable members, I have received Message No 6 from Her Honour the Administrator notifying assent to bills passed at the March sittings.
Madam SPEAKER: Honourable members, I have received Message No 7 recommending to the Legislative Assembly a bill for an act authorising the issue and expending of public monies of the Territory in respect of 30 June 2014.
Mr ELFERINK (Leader of Government Business) (by leave): Madam Speaker, I move that intervening business be postponed until after the giving of notices to enable the notice to be given for the budget and to enable the introduction of the budget at 11.05 am.
Motion agreed to.
Mr ELFERINK (Leader of Government Business) (by leave): Madam Speaker, I move that the Routine of Business of the Assembly, Government Business Notices and Orders of the Day be arranged or suspended if a question or debate is before the Chair so as to permit the Treasurer to deliver Budget 2013-14 at 11.05 am.
Motion agreed to.
Ms LAWRIE: A point of order, Madam Speaker! I am sure it was a slip-up, but that was a repeat of the previous motion about the budget this morning, rather than about the budget reply tomorrow morning.
Mr Elferink: No, the first was a motion to change the order of business so we could do notices first. The second dealt with the Routine of Business to have Question Time suspended at 11.05 am so you still get your full hour. They were separate motions, but let us get on with it.
Mrs LAWRIE: There was no mention of the budget reply in those motions; that is all.
Mr ELFERINK: Oh, I see what you are saying; yes, we can do that tomorrow.
LEAVE OF ABSENCE
Member for Katherine
Mr ELFERINK (Leader of Government Business): Madam Speaker, I seek leave of absence for the member for Katherine for today, tomorrow and Thursday, owing to government business, pursuant to Standing Order 25. By way of explanation, the minister is in Southeast Asia trying to sell 25 000 cows from the Northern Territory to Southeast Asian markets ...
A member: Two-hundred-and-fifty-thousand.
Mr ELFERINK: Two-hundred-and-fifty-thousand - ten times the greater reason. I am sure honourable members would be more than happy to support his leave of absence for this important purpose.
Leave granted.
Mr ELFERINK (Leader of Government Business) (by leave): Madam Speaker, the opposition is quite correct. I move that the Routine of Business of the Assembly, Government Business Notices and Orders of the Day be rearranged or suspended if a question or debate is before the Chair so as to permit a response to Budget 2013-14 by the Leader of the Opposition at 11 am tomorrow.
Motion agreed to.
STATEMENT BY SPEAKER
Budget Presentation Filming
Madam SPEAKER: Honourable members, I have given permission for the Northern Territory News and The Australian to take photographs, and Sky News, ABC, and Channel Nine approval to film, with sound, the budget presentation.
Madam SPEAKER: Honourable members, I draw your attention to the presence in the Speaker’s Gallery of Hon Grant Tambling, former member for Fannie Bay, former member for the NT House of Representatives, former Senator in the NT and the Administrator for Norfolk Island from 2003 to 2007. An interesting snippet we found out this morning was that Hon Grant Tambling was the first executive member for finance and introduced the first ever Northern Territory budget.
Members: Hear, hear!
DISTINGUISHED VISITORS
Madam SPEAKER: Honourable members, I also draw your attention to the presence in the East Gallery of the former member for Katherine, Fay Miller, the former member for Araluen, Jodeen Carney, and the Northern Territory Police Commissioner. Welcome to you all.
Members: Hear, hear!
APPROPRIATION (2013-2014) BILL
(Serial 26)
Bill presented and read a first time.
Mr TOLLNER (Treasurer): Madam Speaker, I move that the bill be now read a second time. I table the 2013-14 Appropriation Bill and related papers.
The 2013-14 Budget is a responsible budget that builds a future for all Territorians. It ensures the Territory maximises the benefit from the economic growth we are about to experience, and addresses some of the serious problems left by the former government.
This government inherited a level of debt from the former government that, by the end of 2015-16, would have amounted to $5.5bn, with this level of debt equating to in excess of $1.1m in interest repayments every day. The budget deficit was projected to be $867m in 2012-13. For a small jurisdiction like the Northern Territory, that was simply unsustainable.
As a result of Labor’s fiscal irresponsibility, the Territory’s AA1 credit rating has been placed on a negative outlook by Moody’s rating agency. The situation would have deteriorated substantially if the Country Liberal government had not acted quickly to reduce the debt burden by $1.2bn in the mini-budget. Moody’s would have almost certainly downgraded our credit rating which would have resulted in an increased cost of borrowing, leaving the Territory paying needless additional interest every day. It is obvious to everyone that the former government could not be trusted to be responsible with the Territory’s finances.
While Budget 2013-14 continues to rein in government spending and reduce this staggering level of debt, it also puts Territorians first by maximising our great Territory lifestyle. It addresses areas of need neglected by the former Treasurer such as ensuring Territorians have access to affordable housing, thereby putting downward pressure on the cost of living.
Furthermore, Budget 2013-14 demonstrates that we cherish our freedom and value our lifestyle; that the Giles Country Liberals government is determined to build a diverse, resilient and sustainable economy; that we are serious about restoring the balance between the public and private sector, not by slashing jobs and services, but by removing impediments to private enterprise investment; that we are committed to investing in important infrastructure and developing our regions; and that the safety of our communities remains as a top priority. These are not just words; Territorians will see responsible action.
Our three-hub economy is attracting investment in mineral resources, expanding primary industry and providing the platform for increased tourism visitation. We are creating jobs and making the Territory a more diverse place to live and work. Our government is harnessing these existing opportunities and is constantly pursuing new ones.
Budget 2013-14 also starts the work of making doing business easier by reducing needless government interference. The ultimate aim is to grow small and medium enterprises in the Territory to provide ongoing economic development.
We are a government that is concerned for the future of all Territorians. Developing our regions through the encouragement of commercial enterprise, improved services and infrastructure is vital to the economic development of the whole Territory and the wellbeing of Territorians, not just in our urban centres but in the bush as well. Indigenous advancement is everybody’s business and we intend to encourage our smaller communities to help themselves become economically sustainable.
We want to make the Territory a destination people will want to visit again and again. It is time we show the world we are serious about making the Territory a premium tourist destination that does justice to the abundance of beautiful and unique natural wonders we have in our vast back yard.
Our Real Housing for Growth plan and HomeBuild Access scheme, together with accelerated land release, provide more housing choices for Territorians and increases the supply of new and affordable housing. Budget 2013-14 will assist to ease housing cost pressures, further enhance our lifestyle, and support the attraction and retention of key workers in the Territory.
Our strong law and order measures will make people feel safer and target offenders.
In order to achieve these aims and many others, we have to first get the financial position of the Territory under control. With the Giles government’s focus on putting Territorians first, we have listened to Territorians and decided to stage the necessary increase in utility tariffs in a responsible matter.
The next step in reducing the debt burden is to further tighten our own belts, reduce red tape, and remove impediments to growth. However, this job has been made much harder by the Commonwealth Grants Commission’s 2013 Goods and Services Tax relativity update, which has effectively knocked more than $100m per annum out of the Territory’s coffers from 2013-14. This reduction is akin to taking $6bn from Victoria and New South Wales combined.
In 2013-14 alone, this has meant, in absolute terms, we are expecting to receive $16m less in GST revenue than in 2012-13. As a result, we have taken the sensible step to defer the achievement of a fiscal balance by two years to 2017-18. Not to have done so would have been irresponsible and meant more pain for all Territorians.
While the Territory economy is vibrant, the vast majority of our revenue is reliant on the national economy. In the Territory, around 80% of our revenue at the general government sector is sourced from the Commonwealth, compared to around 50% in other jurisdictions. We are particularly reliant on GST revenue, which is expected to decrease by 0.6% in 2013-14, compared with the 6.3% average annual growth in GST revenue the former government enjoyed during much of its tenure. The reduction in our share of GST does not mean we are moving away from our commitment to responsible financial management, far from it. We remain focused on getting the Territory back on a sustainable financial footing, but not in a way that will compromise the Territory’s economy or raise the cost of living for Territorians.
Despite the fall in our major revenue source, the debt position is still significantly improved from that which we inherited from the former, fiscally irresponsible Labor government. Overall, the nett debt to revenue ratio is estimated to be 80% in 2013-14, compared to 87% estimated in the 2012-13 budget. By the end of the forward estimates period the ratio is projected to be 86%, well below the 98% projected by the former government.
For 2013-14, the overall fiscal deficit is $1.185bn, which incorporates the recognition of the $520m Darwin Correctional Precinct. This is higher than the mini-budget estimate due to the reduction in the GST as well as the timing of expenditure between years that has improved the 2013-14 estimated outcome. In addition, the reductions in the GST have meant that, when compared to the mini-budget, the estimated outcome in the forward years has also deteriorated. Despite this, when compared to Pre-Election Fiscal Outlook estimates in August 2012, the fiscal balance is still improved by over $200m in each of the 2014-15 and 2015-16 years.
The overall fiscal deficit continues to reduce over the forward estimates period in a responsible staged manner with a deficit of $176m estimated in 2016-17. This reducing deficit will be achieved by constraining operation expenditure growth over the forward estimates to 1.8%. This is a direct result of the savings and efficiency measures that have been introduced across government and the significant improvement in the financial position of the Power and Water Corporation. In addition, the savings measures have provided this government with the capacity to fund its election commitments and the legacy items left behind by the former, fiscally irresponsible government. These legacy items, never budgeted for by Labor, total more than $100m ongoing. These items include operational funding for the Alice Springs Hospital Emergency Department, costs associated with police housing and overtime, and demand pressures in child protection and out-of-home care services.
Nett capital expenditure is also projected to decline over the forward estimates period as private sector investment continues to ramp up. Overall, total budget spending, including both operational and capital, for 2013-14 at the general government sector, is $5.7bn. The projected constrained expenditure growth will be supported by the enhanced monitoring of expenditure that the Giles government is implementing. These measures include the establishment of a budget management Cabinet subcommittee to constantly monitor agency expenditure, performance packages for departmental chief executives to reward frugal and efficient management. and a mid-year budget review that will provide options to redirect resources and achieve further efficiencies. The days of Labor waste and profligate spending are behind us. For the sake of future Territorians there must be more efficient and effective service delivery.
I now turn to the Power and Water Corporation. For several decades Australia has been reforming its utilities industries and the focus has been on a much more market-focused and competitively based sector. The promotion of market competition was a primary objective of the reforms that commenced in 1999 under the previous Country Liberals government, under the auspices of National Competition Policy. At the time, the then Power and Water Authority was the dominant electricity supplier in the Territory. The Country Liberals started the reform agenda in the Territory and it was continued for a time by the Martin/Stirling government. They understood the long-term benefits of reform and the danger of not embracing competition in our marketplace. This danger was spectacularly highlighted when NT Power successfully sued the Power and Water Authority for refusing access to its distribution infrastructure prior to 2000.
In 2001, the Government Owned Corporations Act was created and by 2002 the Power and Water Authority was placed on private sector-like government arrangements and rebadged as the Power and Water Corporation. It was the first government-owned corporation in the Territory. However, since then the reform agenda has stalled. Regrettably, the former Labor government did nothing that was effective in promoting or encouraging competition.
The Power and Water Corporation was never allowed to meet its objectives under the act and operate at least as efficiently as any comparable business. It was a bloated, inefficient organisation only sustained through taxpayer subsidies. This was not a fact lost on Moody’s rating agency, which recently commented on the need to improve the financial sustainability of the Power and Water Corporation.
Following the 2012 election, the Country Liberal government took the hard but necessary decision to increase tariffs and put the corporation back on a firmer financial footing. While winding back some of these increases, the Giles government is similarly committed to achieving and maintaining the commercial sustainability of utility services across the Territory and getting the reform agenda back on track.
Ensuring that Power and Water meets its commercial objectives and operates in an efficient manner requires new people and new skills to drive efficiencies within the corporation. Accordingly, an interim board has been charged with the responsibility for implementing initiatives to improve operating efficiency that will contribute to the corporation moving towards commercial sustainability.
Broader reforms to encourage more efficient and reliable electricity supply are also under development and will further benefit Territory consumers. Recently, the Northern Power Group backed our reform agenda by announcing its proposal to establish a 60 MW gas-fired generation facility to supply the Darwin-Katherine system, in competition with the Power and Water Corporation.
Power and Water Corporation’s 2013-14 Statement of Corporate Intent, which will be tabled in these sittings, shows a substantially improved financial position and outlook when compared to the 2012-13 Statement of Corporate Intent. Over the five years from 2012-13 to 2016-17, revenues will increase by $164.7m, operating costs will decrease by $180.1m, borrowings will decrease by $818m, and nett debt will be lower by $681.7m.
The 2013 budget continues this government’s responsible fiscal policy without sacrificing the Territory’s status as a low tax jurisdiction. To this end, two revenue measures are introduced as part of the budget which are focused on protecting the integrity of the Territory’s mineral royalty regime in order to ensure all Territorians receive a fair return on the Territory’s mineral wealth through the collection of mineral royalties.
The first measure is to establish the rules governing the amount a royalty payer can claim as a transfer pricing margin. Transfer pricing generally involves the initial sale of minerals between a miner and a related overseas-based trading entity, after which the minerals are usually on-sold to a third party customer or a related commodities refiner within the group, with a profit margin or transfer pricing factor earnt by the trading entity.
Accounting for transfer pricing is administratively burdensome on the Territory and the miner. New rules will clarify the arrangements and minimise the need for costly valuations from both parties. The claimable transfer pricing margin will be capped at 5.5%, except in circumstances where the royalty payer has a relevant transfer pricing arrangement in place with the Australian Taxation Office.
The second measure limits the deductibility of head office expenses, management fees, and administrative labour costs to those costs incurred by an office located, or for work performed, in the Territory. These measures are expected to increase revenue by about $10.6m per annum. However, these measures are about more than just ensuring the mining industry continues to contribute fairly to the Territory community. They will also reduce red tape and expenses involved in administering the royalty scheme, and may also act as an incentive for large miners to set up offices in the Territory.
Although not a revenue source for government consistent with the provisions of the Motor Vehicles Act, motor accident compensation contributions will rise in line with the consumer price index.
The Territory economy is going from strength to strength. Our economy is forecast to grow by 4.6% in 2012-13 and 5% in 2013-14. This is mainly due to strong growth in construction activity related to the development of a number of major projects across the Territory. First and foremost of these projects is the $34bn Ichthys project being undertaken by INPEX and Total. However, it is by no means the only project having a big impact on the Territory economy.
Development of the $1.4bn Montara oil fields in the Timor Sea has recently been completed. Production is scheduled to commence soon and will significantly boost international exports from the Territory over the coming year. Additionally, construction activity for the Marine Supply Base is continuing, as is expansion activity at Xstrata’s McArthur River Mine near Borroloola and GEMCO’s manganese mine at Groote Eylandt. The completion of expansion activity at these two mines will provide increased employment opportunities for local communities.
Similarly, the Giles government’s grant of major project status for Vista Gold at Mount Todd, the strong support of Sherwin Iron, Western Desert Resources, and Australian Ilmenite, all in the Roper region, along with encouraging Arafura Resources to process their product in the Territory, present these communities with potential long-term job prospects.
The Territory’s labour market is forecast to strengthen over coming years, driven by development of major projects and strong growth in residential construction activity. Growth in the number of new houses and units being built is also expected to support the Territory’s retail industry, especially in the household goods sector, both in increased sales and employment.
The retail sector in the Territory will also be boosted over the next few years by the redevelopment of Casuarina Square, which is expected to include a new full-range Myer department store and 50 additional speciality shops.
There is also a proposal for a new shopping centre in Palmerston to be named The Gateway, which will incorporate a supermarket, discount department store, restaurants, and various speciality stores. This is great news for Territorians both in increased choices and higher levels of competition amongst retailers.
Business activity in the Territory will also be supported by strengthening population growth as increasing numbers of people are drawn to the Territory from around the world to work on the Ichthys project. The Territory’s population is forecast to grow by 2% in 2013 and by 2.5% in 2014-15.
In addition to working with INPEX to ensure the Ichthys project delivers the best outcome for local businesses, the Giles government is working to diversify the economy to ensure the Territory’s future prosperity rests on a broader economic base. We are already on the way to achieving this goal with the opening of the North Australian Centre for Oil and Gas, funded by both the Territory government and INPEX - a cutting-edge facility providing training and education in engineering and other in-demand skills.
The forecast growth in the Darwin CPI in 2013 has been revised downward from the 4.3% reported in the 2012-13 mini-budget to 3% in the 2013-14 budget. This mainly reflects the government’s decision to scale back increases in electricity prices from 30% to 20%, water prices from 40% to 30%, and sewerage prices from 25% to 15%.
Budget 2013-14 focuses on growing a diverse economic base through a three-hub economy that will attract investment in mining, energy, tourism and food production and exports. To demonstrate that the Giles government is serious about diversifying the economy, an economic development advisory panel has been established, consisting of external experts in the areas of macroeconomics, financial investment and industry engagement. Additional funding of $0.4m has been provided for two years for the panel and a new economic development unit to prepare and implement an economic development strategy for the Territory.
Since this government was elected, tourism has already been boosted by the return of Tiger Airways to Alice Springs with an expected return to growth in the number of Japanese visitors coming to the Territory.
Budget 2013-14 includes an $8m boost for tourism, providing a total of $15m to extend the Territory’s international marketing activities in partnership with tourism retailers, airlines and other partners, highlighting experiences in the Territory’s regions. The additional funding includes:
$3m for international trade and consumer campaigns
$3m for international digital advertising
$1m for industry digital marketing to work with industry operators to fully integrate the industry into the digital marketing arena
$1m to increase the reach of Brand NT.
Budget 2013-14 also incorporates:
$8m for whole-of-Territory domestic marketing activity
$1.9m for regional marketing partnerships
$2m in media purchasing to market and promote the Territory as a visitor destination
$1.7m to attract business events to the Territory.
Mining investment is crucial to the economic development of the Territory. Budget 2013-14 includes additional funding of $9.1m to increase the capacity of the Department of Mines and Energy and improve monitoring and regulation of mining activities. This includes a reinvestment back into the sector from the introduction of a 1% mining levy of an estimated $6.45m, including $3m to establish a mining remediation fund and a dedicated mining remediation team.
Budget 2013-14 also includes additional funding of $0.95m to establish a Northern Territory energy advisory council and a directorate of energy to coordinate all government energy functions.
In addition to the expansion of services to the mining industry, the budget includes measures to support and grow local businesses by providing $2.9m over two years through the apprenticeship and traineeship support package for training apprentices and trainees and supporting their employers, and $1m for the Indigenous workforce participation program, a Territory-wide grants program for the development of workforce planning that supports increased Indigenous employment opportunities.
To assist small business to reduce its utilities costs, the Giles government has invested a further $0.49m to strengthen the Territories ecoBiz NT program.
The government continues to support the primary industry sector with ongoing funding of $0.4m to establish an Ord Development Unit to maximise the Territory’s opportunities from the Ord development expansion. Further initiatives to expand the primary industry sector include:
$2.5m for the sustainable management of the Territory’s aquatic resources
$0.28m to provide ongoing cattle inspection services and develop a live export market development strategy to facilitate market access to eastern and southern Australia in response to the changes in destinations of Territory cattle shipments
$0.3m in additional funding over two years for commercial fisheries development, including the barramundi fishery.
Budget 2013-14 invests in building the Territory’s future with $1.184bn for infrastructure. This includes $560m for the capital works program; $295m for the Power and Water Corporation infrastructure program, $257m for repairs and maintenance, and $68m for capital, and repairs and maintenance grants.
The Territory government is committed to providing new and upgraded infrastructure in remote communities to enhance services and stimulate regional development with a $368m injection in total infrastructure. In addition, $30m over three years has been committed for a Regional Roads Maintenance Program that will provide a much needed boost to roads within the Central Desert, MacDonnell, Victoria Daly, Roper Gulf and Barkly shires. This infrastructure spend in the 2013 budget continues to provide for more roads, housing and improved schools and health centres across the Territory. It provides a $40m boost to repairs and maintenance across the Territory in 2013-14, inclusive of the regional road strategy as part of a $100m increase over four years to address the Territory’s maintenance backlog left by the former government.
The 2013-14 repairs and maintenance funding includes:
an additional $10m in 2013-14 as part of $30m regional roads package, bringing the total roads repairs and maintenance funding to $94.9m
$11.4m for Police, Fire and Emergency Services to maintain and upgrade facilities including additional funding for an upgrade of intercom systems at police cells and a review of critical electricity systems at Peter McAulay Centre
$28.8m for the Department of Health and Health and Hospital Services, including additional funding to make over a number of health centres and other facilities, including Royal Darwin Hospital and the Tamarind Centre
$43.2m for the Department of Education and Children’s Services to repair and maintain facilities including major mechanical, plumbing and roofing projects, tree maintenance and the replacement of fixtures to improve energy efficiency.
In addition to these investments, the construction of the $110m Marine Supply Base is significantly under way with operations expected to begin in 2013-14.
A strong and diverse economy and reducing debt are vital if governments are to achieve better outcomes for people they serve. The benefits of good economic management are well known. By taking responsible action now, the benefits will flow to everyone. We know Territorians want safe and secure communities, affordable housing, a good health system, improvements in education, transport and development in the regions, and to enjoy the great Territory lifestyle for which we are famous. The 2013 budget invests in these areas and, over time, there will be more investments and less belt tightening once we have addressed the high and unsustainable level of debt we have been left with. I now turn to these important areas.
All Territorians want to live in safe communities. The 2013 budget provides additional resources to strengthen law and order and improve community safety for Territorians.
The 2013 budget provides funding of $35m per annum from 2013-14 to develop this government’s alcohol policy of mandatory rehabilitation for problem drinkers. This initiative will provide real and effective treatment for those drinkers who have been taken into protective custody at least three times in a two-month period. Under the plan, problem drinkers will be assessed for a placement of up to 12 weeks in rehabilitation centres across the Territory.
It is expected that up to 800 problem drinkers will receive treatment at centres in Katherine, Darwin, Alice Springs and Nhulunbuy. This policy affirms the Giles government’s commitment to help problem drinkers overcome the cycle of drunkenness that costs the Territory $642m every year in police time, hospitalisations and lost productivity.
The 2013 budget also includes $10m for infrastructure associated with the mandatory rehabilitation of problem drinkers. The budget also invests $22.5m to provide an additional 120 frontline police officers across the Territory by June 2016, including 20 in Alice Springs. In addition, the Giles government will improve police and emergency services response times through a boost to the number of staff at the Joint Emergency Services Communication Centre at the Peter McAulay Centre by an additional 20 positions.
The total Police, Fire and Emergency Services budget for 2013-14 is $394m, up $51m from 2012-13, with a capital works program of $32m. This includes $10.9m for the expansion of police facilities in Alice Springs and $9.4m for the Arlparra police station.
Construction work is continuing on the new Darwin Correctional Precinct, with this budget including $5.4m for its commissioning and $2.4m to manage rising prisoner numbers in the existing Darwin and Alice Springs Correctional Centres.
The 2013 budget funds the Giles government’s Sentenced to a Job policy, designed to reduce recidivism. The funding of $3.1m will be made available to enhance prison industries at the Alice Springs Correctional Centre.
In addition to the Territory government’s boost to law and order, there are an extra 94 Territory police funded by the Commonwealth to respond to incidents at the Darwin immigration centre, and $40.3m as part of the Stronger Futures package to support continued improvements in community safety in remote communities, particularly through remote policing, infrastructure and improved drug enforcement.
The Giles government takes seriously its responsibilities. Responsible action is required to make our community safer, and that is what the 2013-14 budget delivers.
In order for Territorians to enjoy the great Territory lifestyle, they must be able to afford to live somewhere. One of the priorities of the Giles government is the delivery of affordable housing for Territorians. The 2013-14 budget includes $0.8m for the new NT Planning Commission. The Planning Commission will plan properly for the Territory’s future growth and progress the timely release of land to increase the supply of affordable housing.
The 2013-14 budget provides home loan products and services to increase a supply of new, affordable housing and provides more home ownership opportunities for Territorians to purchase their own homes, thereby reducing demand pressures on the rental market.
The new HomeBuild Access scheme provides loans for homebuyers across the Territory and includes a low deposit loan, an off-the-plan deposit loan, a subsidised interest rate loan and a fee assistance loan.
The 2013-14 budget includes $27m over four years under the Real Housing for Growth plan to stimulate construction of affordable housing. The Real Housing for Growth Plan provides more housing choices for Territorians and aims to increase housing supply to ease housing cost pressures and support the attraction and retention of key workers.
As part of Real Housing for Growth, the government will partner with private developers to facilitate the construction of 2000 affordable homes over the next four years, and we are on track to meet that target.
Land release is an important aspect of the Giles government growing the Territory’s future, with the 2013-14 budget investing a further $20m for headworks to ensure the fast-tracking of the release of land in Palmerston East.
The total housing infrastructure program for this budget is $270m for delivering improved urban and remote housing, with $52.9m for urban housing, $44.6m for government employee housing and $171.9m for remote public housing.
The 2013-14 budget demonstrates this government’s commitment to the health and wellbeing of Territorians. Good health is the key to enjoying our great Territory lifestyle, which is why the Giles government is taking action in this area.
In addition to the new framework to ensure health and hospital services are delivered effectively to the community, this government has injected funding of more than $40m in 2013-14 to improve and expand health services and meet increased demand pressures within our hospitals.
Health expenditure has historically grown significantly in excess of 7% per annum. The previous fiscally irresponsible Labor government funded these demand and cost pressures on an ad hoc basis. This proved to be a disincentive for line managers in health to manage within their allocated budget.
Rather than continuing this type of window-dressing approach to fiscal management, the Giles government has provided ongoing demand and cost growth factors to the base level of funding for health. This presents a much clearer view of health expenditure and provides greater certainty to the department, enabling better management of the significant resources invested in the health of Territorians.
Furthermore, the 2013-14 budget allocates significant funding to meet the government’s election commitments and provides resources to ensure that critical programs have sufficient funding to continue to meet the needs of all Territorians including:
$6.5m for enhanced cardiac outreach services and cardiac rehabilitation services, and the commencement of low-risk angioplasty services
$7.5m to support the Patient Assistance Travel Scheme
$4.46m for an additional 400 elective surgeries per annum
$3.86m to meet the operational expenses of secure care facilities
$5.51m to meet the operational expenses of the Alice Springs Hospital emergency department.
The Giles government understands the importance of Territory families. The 2013-14 budget provides additional funding to support families with $5m to support out-of-home care and child protection. The 2013-14 budget also includes $25.1m that has been redirected into frontline services for families and children to ensure programs are targeted to meet the needs of vulnerable Territory children and families.
The 2013-14 budget includes significant investment in the Territory’s health infrastructure, not least of which is $5m for the development of a hospital scoping study and master plan for the Greater Darwin region. The funding for the Palmerston Hospital remains as part of the budget, but we want to get this important investment right. Unlike the former fiscally irresponsible Labor administration, which was only interested in cheap headlines in the lead-up to an election campaign, we will be consulting with the community and developing a complete master plan for the greater Darwin region.
In addition, the Giles government continues to invest in the regions including $29.6m for continuing remediation works and upgrade of the Alice Springs Hospital, $13m to upgrade the emergency department at Gove District Hospital, and $16.6m for the construction and upgrade of remote health clinics at Canteen Creek, Numbulwar, Kaltukatjara, and Maningrida.
Education adds to a person’s quality of life and improves their prospects. The 2013-14 budget continues to support improved educational outcomes for all Territory students, regardless of where they live. The government is ensuring that schools have the resources to make sure they can focus on teaching. This includes reforms that start to align teacher and student ratios across all stages of schooling with practices in other jurisdictions and more emphasis on the importance of early years schooling.
The 2013-14 budget includes additional funding of $6.2m to help meet the costs to government and non-government schools arising from utility tariff increases.
The budget helps families with the cost of schooling by doubling the value of school vouchers from $75 per student to $150 per student. These vouchers can be used to assist parents with expenses such as school uniforms, text books, and excursions.
The 2013-14 budget is investing in school infrastructure across the Territory, providing additional classrooms, facilities, and new services to support special needs students. This includes $43.2m for repair and maintenance in schools across the Territory and $11.4m for minor new works.
The 2013-14 budget also increases support to non-government schools in the form of $2.5m in additional funding provided across non-government schools under a new funding model to meet rising costs of increased school enrolments. These investments are responsible and driven by a determination to provide action where our fiscally irresponsible predecessors did not.
Enhancing the road network and connecting the Territory through transport investment is a key commitment of the Giles government. The 2013-14 budget delivers $287m for Territory roads and national highways, including $94.9m for repairs and maintenance. These investments will be of enormous benefit to many Territorians and complement our commitment to investing in our regions. Specific projects include:
$29.6m to continue stream crossing upgrades at Goyder River and Donydji River, and targeted pavement upgrades on the Central Arnhem Highway
$5m to upgrade the Charlotte River Crossing on Fog Bay Road, including construction of a new bridge and associated approaches and drainage works
a $5m grant to the City of Darwin for the duplication of Lee Point Road
$5m for the continuation of the upgrade and seal of targeted sections of the Tanami Road
$16m for the Territory’s $33m contribution towards the duplication of Tiger Brennan Drive from Berrimah to Darwin city.
In addition to the investment in roads, Budget 2013-14 includes improvements to public bus services in Darwin and Alice Springs through:
$1.1m for new services to the suburbs of Lyons, Muirhead, Rosebery, Bellamack, Zuccoli and Kilgariff
$0.2m for an additional special needs student transport bus in Alice Springs
$0.1m for free WiFi in buses and at interchanges
$0.95m to upgrade bus stops in Alice Springs, including lighting and wheelchair compliance slabs and seats
$1m toward the development of a new ticketing system on the Darwin Bus Service.
Other transport initiatives include:
an additional $4.5m over four years for the DriveSafe NT Remote Indigenous driver education and licensing program
$0.25m per annum for four years for driver training courses
$0.15m ongoing for Motorcyclist Education Training and Licensing courses
$1.1m for motor vehicle registries to meet growth in demand
$0.3m ongoing from 2012-13 for marine safety.
The Giles government has continually stated that the Berrimah Line is now gone. We are committed to improving economic opportunities in our smaller communities. This is not about the Labor way of handing out more money for no return, this is about encouraging economic opportunities so communities can grow and be sustainable. We are examining ways to improve local government provision in the regions, but in the interim the 2013 budget includes an additional $5m to increase operational funding to shire councils to $25.6m per annum. This is the first step in assisting shires to achieve financial sustainability. This injection is in addition to the regional roads repairs and maintenance package I announced earlier.
Our government is committed to improving services and facilities in the bush to reduce Indigenous disadvantage and, in partnership with the Commonwealth, the 2013 budget delivers $188.6m under the $3.5bn 10-year Stronger Futures package. The Stronger Futures package includes:
$20.5m for municipal essential services to manage the provision of essential community services to homelands
$42.1m for schooling to support remote education disadvantages and improve Indigenous education outcomes
$40.3m to support continued improvements in community safety in remote communities, particularly through remote policing, infrastructure and improved drug enforcement
$13.6m for child, youth, family and community wellbeing, which aims to improve the safety and wellbeing of children, youth and families by supporting child protection systems, early intervention and targeted support services.
The Giles government is proud of the Territory lifestyle and Budget 2013-14 delivers $221m with boosts to sport and recreational opportunities, arts and culture, protecting our unique Territory environment and encouraging the sustainable use of resources. This enhances the great Territory lifestyle so many Territorians enjoy.
Budget 2013-14 includes increased opportunities and support for anglers across the Territory, including $0.55m for the sustainable management of the recreational fishing sector, and $0.3m to implement a recreational fishing development plan, including fishing surveys and investigating the potential for a new boat ramp at Shady Camp as well as suburban based boat ramps.
Budget 2013-14 will also deliver on our election commitment to buy back commercial fishing licences for Chambers, Finke, Adams and Fog Bays, boosting access for recreational anglers and establishing a working balance between commercial and amateur anglers. We will allow greater access to our parks, rivers and oceans to camp, fish and hunt.
In addition to fulfilling election commitments to upgrade Anzac Oval the Alice Springs go-kart facility, Satellite City and Jingili BMX facilities, and the Alice Springs Golf Club, the 2013 budget provides $5.3m to resurface the track and upgrade concrete barriers at Hidden Valley Motorsports Complex and $0.5m for upgrades to the Alice Springs drag strip to support hosting national and regional motor sporting events.
It is important that Territory kids are active, and to support this, the 2013 budget includes the $4m Sport Voucher Scheme to ensure all Territorians have access to sporting activities, along with $1.7m for grants to peak sporting bodies.
The Giles government delivers major sporting and entertainment events for Territorians that support the Territory economy and positioning as a visitor destination, with $8.22m including the V8 Supercars, Australian Super Bikes, AFL matches, the Finke Desert Race, BASSINTHEGRASS, and the Imparja Cup cricket carnival in Alice Springs.
The 2013-14 budget delivers enhanced arts and cultural experiences including support of $0.8m for the Defence of Darwin experience and new signage for the WWII Strauss Airfield Precinct.
Protecting the environment is an important part of the Territory’s lifestyle. The 2013-14 budget provides additional funding of $0.5m for weed management extension services across regional Northern Territory, to assist pastoralists in controlling weed incursions and infestations and $0.2m for the Keep Australia Beautiful Council for the Northern Territory to support Territory Tidy Towns and annual community forum programs.
These and many other initiatives enhance Territorians’ enjoyment of our great Territory lifestyle.
The 2013-14 budget is a responsible budget. In stark contrast to the mismanagement of government finances by the former Labor Treasurer, we have made responsible decisions. We have taken responsible action.
Budget 2013-14 maintains our commitment to reducing Labor’s massive debt while supporting Territorians and Territory businesses with targeted initiatives.
It promotes our economy and supports diversifying our economic base. It will make our community safer and more secure. It invests in our people in our capital, our towns and in the bush. It provides what is most needed here and now in the Territory - responsible action.
The Territory’s economy is strong and we are laying the foundations for a prosperous future. I commend the 2013-14 budget to the House.
Debate suspended.
The CLERK: Pursuant to Standing Order 100A, I inform honourable members the responses to petitions No 4, 5 and 11 have been received and circulated to members. The text of the responses has been placed on the Legislative Assembly website. A copy of the response will be provided to the member who tabled the petition for distribution to the petitioners.
Continued from earlier this day.
Mr GILES (Chief Minister): Madam Speaker, I am proud to stand here as Chief Minister of the Northern Territory and commend this budget. I commend my colleague, the Treasurer, for the hard work done in very difficult circumstances.
Building the economy and broadening the Territory’s economic base is a key priority for my government. In taking responsible action on behalf of Territorians, we are exercising fiscal prudence balanced with positive stimulation of the economy.
Fiscal prudence is of paramount importance because under the former Labor government there was fiscal irresponsibility where the Territory surged from a debt of $2.7bn at the start of the current financial year towards a massive and unsustainable $5.5bn debt by 2016. That is a debt level as a percentage of the Northern Territory’s total revenue that amounts to almost 100%.
It is imperative that my government gets the Northern Territory back on track, that we concentrate on multilevel economy not just a one trick pony, that we deal with reality and not supposition, and that we harness new opportunities and initiate new projects. To grow and diversify our economy we must invest in infrastructure and keep up with repairs and maintenance.
We must make doing business in the Northern Territory easier. To advance the Territory’s broad based economy, an economic development subcommittee of Cabinet has been appointed and charged with developing the Northern Territory economic development strategy. It will be supported by an expert advisory panel with expertise including macroeconomists leveraging investment and industry engagement.
Immediate priorities will be: identifying options for expansion of port facilities; options around a second heavy-duty rail line; and the establishment of Darwin as a gas hub to include downstream potential. Additional funding of $0.4m for two years has been provided to the Department of the Chief Minister to support the panel and to establish a new economic development unit within DCM.
The importance of major projects to the Territory cannot be underestimated. Facilitating and progressing these major projects for the benefit of Territorians has to be effective. There are now a total of 13 ventures of significant economic importance to the Northern Territory on the go. They sit within my portfolio of Economic Development and include the Casuarina Square expansion, Darwin LNG expansion, excess LNG, the Katherine to Gove pipeline, the Marine Supply Base, Bonaparte LNG, Nolans rare earth, the Ord development, Prelude offshore, Sherwin Iron, Western Desert Resources, Vista Gold’s Mount Todd Mine and Wonarah phosphate.
Let me digress for a minute. I draw attention to the failure of the former Labor government to negotiate a public private partnership – a PPP - in the case of the Marine Supply Base. Their sad legacy means Territory taxpayers will have to underwrite the total cost of the Marine Supply Base rather than contribute towards it, with an allocation of $41.4m within this budget alone. This was not an example of fiscal prudence. Under Labor, projects had to be managed better.
My government is also focused on Asian engagement and trade. Strong links with our neighbours are a key to positioning the Territory in this Asian century. Engagement includes education, business and tourism and, as evidenced during my last visit to Timor-Leste, training opportunities for Timorese public servants, as well as sporting exchanges.
I will focus on some of the key issues facing Territorians. We need affordable housing in the Northern Territory. Land release is gathering momentum with more than 70 sites identified to date. We want a healthy population, and I note this year we have a record budget to address the Territory’s health needs. We must have an education system that adds up to an individual’s quality of life and prospects, an enhanced road network and transport connections must be available, protection of the environment with a particular focus on land and water disturbance monitoring and mitigation of the impacts of development and, of course, there are classic elements of the Territory lifestyle that we all enjoy: the great outdoors; sport and recreation; sustainable management of our fishing resources; and choices for arts and culture.
This budget is not top heavy: focused on the Top End. The Berrimah Line has gone and this government’s platform of policies is for all Territorians. I am keenly aware that the future of the Northern Territory is in the regions, and it is extremely important that initiatives are put in place and continue to be implemented across the entire Northern Territory. It is vital for future prosperity that there is comprehensive investment in our towns and in the bush.
Transport is a key element in maximising economic opportunities and the Territory government is dedicated to developing our regions for all Territorians. As Transport minister, I am particularly proud that the Transport budget reflects this and has been increased by more than 15% over the former Labor government’s allocation. The total infrastructure program allocation of $320m in this budget will see investment in roads and transport assets. There is:
$287m for Territory roads and national highways, which includes projects to be developed under the National Network roads program, with an amount of $55.2m for strengthening and widening, flood immunity and safety improvements
$13m for construction of a grade separated overpass on the Stuart Highway over the rail south of Alice Springs
$6.5m to continue construction of new overtaking opportunities at selected sections of the Stuart Highway between Darwin and Katherine.
The Territory government has also initiated a $30m Regional Roads Maintenance Program for targeted repairs and maintenance of regional roads throughout the Northern Territory, supporting our regions. Budget 2013-14 provides an additional $10m per annum for three years for routine and specific maintenance works for roads within the Central Desert, MacDonnell, Vic/Daly, Roper Gulf and Barkly Shires. There is an amount of:
$29.6m to continue stream crossing upgrades at the Goyder and Donydji River and targeted pavement upgrades on the Central Arnhem Highway
$17m for improvements to the Arnhem Highway
$16m towards the duplication of Tiger Brennan Drive from the city to Berrimah
$9.1m to upgrade, strengthen, and widen urban arterial, rural arterial, and local roads
$5m to upgrade the Charlotte River crossing on Fog Bay Road, which I am sure the member for Daly will be completely impressed with
$5m, as already announced, to the City of Darwin for the duplication of Lee Point Road - an election commitment
$5m for continuation of the upgrade and seal of targeted sections of the Tanami Road
$4.9m to continue sealing Namatjira Drive as part of the Mereenie Loop to complete it
$4m for the Urban Arterial Traffic Management Program
$3.2m for the Roads to Recovery Program on targeted roads
$2.5m to upgrade and seal the existing airstrip at Docker River
$1m for the Black Spot Program for road safety projects at targeted locations, plus many other smaller projects.
We are supporting road and infrastructure development in the Northern Territory.
We are also assisting driver safety with:
$4.5m committed over four years to extend the DriveSafe NT Remote Indigenous driver education and licensing program, a initiative that will help keep people out of gaol, as opposed to the Labor government which kept people in gaol
$250 000 for the DriveSafe NT driver training courses
$150 000 for Motorcyclist Education Training and Licensing courses.
Improving Motor Vehicle Registries will continue with $440 000 to meet growth in frontline service demand, $350 000 to enable the MVR to continue to open on Saturdays, and $320 000 for increased on-road heavy vehicle enforcement.
Budget 2013-14 includes improvements to public bus services, something I am passionate about, with just over $1m to connect recently completed suburbs with the public transport network routes. There is also $1m for a new ticketing and data collection system. The new technology will enable future introduction of a bus tracking mobile application for smartphones so people will know where the buses are while waiting for them.
The emphasis on better public transport continues with $110 000 for ongoing free WiFi in buses and interchanges, and there is $3.3m to upgrade and provide new infrastructure such as bus stops and shelters, all compliant with the Disability and Discrimination Act. There is also $160 000 for an additional special needs bus for student transport, based in Alice Springs.
Moving to this government’s priority of community safety, Territorians want to feel safe wherever they live. They do not want to feel anxious about crime and antisocial behaviour, a legacy of the previous government. There has to be a more sophisticated approach to law and order that targets areas of crime prevalence, manages the issue of repeat offenders and demonstrates a zero tolerance approach towards antisocial behaviour.
As the Minister for Police, Fire and Emergency Services, I am determined to maximise the outcomes across the board to introduce coordinated strategies that embrace the challenges of reform and effective change. This budget provides additional resources to strengthening law and order, including improvements to responses at the joint emergency call centre, new police stations, and the introduction of mandatory rehabilitation for problem drinkers, something the previous Labor government was too scared to address or attack.
In all, the budget will be increased by more than $51.5m in the coming year as we focus on delivering our community safety promises. Initiatives for better policing and improved community safety include:
$22.5m for the recruitment of the additional 120 police, including 20 officers in Alice Springs.
$10.9m to upgrade the Greatorex Building in Alice Springs, which will become the Northern Territory regional headquarters
$654 000 for additional staff to operate the Alice Springs police station on a 24-hour basis
$9.4m to construct a multipurpose police station and accommodation at Alparra under the Stronger Futures National Partnership Agreement
$2.19m for additional call centre support, with $1.5m capital works funding to expand accommodation at the Peter McAulay Centre.
The Northern Territory closed circuit television system proves an efficient and effective detection and investigative tool. This will be expanded to include Katherine, and I know the member for Katherine will be very impressed to see expansion of CCTV into Katherine.
Minor new works will include a volunteer facility in Pirlangimpi, a visiting officers’ quarters in Nguiu, and training room demountables at the Yarrawonga emergency services facility and at Watarrka. In addition, a further $11.53m will be spent on repairs and maintenance throughout the Territory, and $14.15m on police housing and key information technology and communication systems to support effective service delivery.
The Safe Streets Audit has commenced and will continue until October 2013, at a cost of $300 000. This audit will inform future crime prevention strategies.
The Department of the Chief Minister, DCM, plays a pivotal role in working with the Commonwealth government in regard to national reform agendas. With regard to the National Disability Insurance Scheme, or NDIS, the Northern Territory government has reached agreement with the federal government on implementing the full National Disability Insurance Scheme across the Northern Territory. The scheme will start with a trial site in Barkly from July 2014, where important work will be done to develop the scheme so it provides full services and support for remote Territorians who currently enjoy little support.
On 11 May, last Saturday, I signed an agreement with the Prime Minister that will see the transition to the full NDIS scheme commencing in 2016 with completion of the implementation NT-wide by 2020. Having better conditions for Territorians with a disability and their carers was, of course, our central concern and is why we have embraced the NDIS scheme.
Consistent with the government’s commitment to being fiscally responsible, a new marketing and communication structure will commence on 1 July 2013. This structure compromises 73 positions across government, 22 of which sit within a communications and marketing bureau to be established within the Department of the Chief Minister. The bureau will support greater coordination of messages and efficiency for communications and marketing whilst agencies will continue to provide core communication activities either from their own agencies or in a hub-and-spoke agreement model.
The new structure is expected to achieve an estimated saving of around $4m per year. It is reflective of our strategy across the public service, which is respect for our public servants combined with the knowledge that things must be done better. There has to be responsiveness and responsibility, accountability and answerability.
Still with DCM, there is the matter of Foodbank Northern Territory. It is not a major budget item, but, nonetheless, an important element in care for our community. In order to support the continued operation of the food assistance program for the disadvantaged within our community, the Northern Territory government is providing Foodbank Northern Territory with $400 000 in 2013-14 and $160 000 in 2014-15 and 2015-16. Foodbank Northern Territory works with more than 90 registered organisations to distribute in excess of 100 tonnes of food per annum, which equates to more than 150 000 meals. This ongoing government funding will allow the organisation to both consolidate base operations and support continuing activities.
I now turn to the area of Corporate and Information Services. Budget 2013 includes $2.5m to enhance payroll software and create better efficiencies, and a new Northern Territory government vehicle management policy framework has been introduced in order to achieve cost and operational efficiencies. This follows a major review conducted in 2012 that showed a need for change. The fleet will purchase around 750 vehicles per year and the focus will be on low cost, fit-for-purpose vehicles, with vehicles retained for long periods. We are not selling NT Fleet, as the opposition had called for. This will deliver a cost reduction of $7.9m per annum across all government entities.
This is not a government in isolation. Territorians are directly affected, as are all Australians, by what comes out of Canberra. Not only has the community of the Northern Territory been impacted by Labor’s massive and unsustainable debt levels, as a result of federal deliberations the Territory is now $121m worse off. The Commonwealth has penalised the Northern Territory government with cuts from our GST contributions of $121m. That is a shortfall of $121m based on increasing numbers of urban people self-identifying as Indigenous in Victoria and New South Wales, and completely ignoring the fact that the disadvantaged members of the Territory community will be directly impacted. Yet, the Opposition Leader was relying on future GST increases to support her expectation that the Labor government could get the budget back on track. Her words to this House on 27 November 2012 were as follows:
And again on 28 November 2012:
Well, how wrong was she? How could these claims be made by a supposedly knowledgeable former Treasurer three months after we had taken office only to find the cupboard bare?
If the Coalition is successful in the September election, what they will face on a national level is now being faced by us here and now: Labor debt and fiscal failures. This is the way Labor operates. In Canberra there are hurried political strategies leading up to Labor’s budget disarray. Here in the Territory, due to Labor debt, there are limitations and constraints that affect the amount that can be spent on priorities. That is belt tightening that we are facing.
Unlike the previous Labor government, we will not mount program after program with no funding in place for the life of that program. Instead, we will make the hard decisions in tandem with listening to Territorians. We have to be smart about the way we manage our money so we have a sustainable future: a future that is not a matter of closing things down but finding new opportunities and inviting investment into the Northern Territory.
In the latest State of the States report, the Territory was ranked first in four categories, including economic growth. The Territory also recorded the highest annual trend growth of the organisations, up by 27.5% in the December quarter 2012 compared to a year ago. In addition, as I have noted before, we are entering a period where Darwin is really becoming part of Asia and a potential capital of Australia within Asia. Yet, at a time of federal rhetoric about Australia in the Asian century and the importance of Northern Australia, all we see from Labor is the introduction of nonsensical taxes and policies, like the one that devastated our livestock industry, that make no sense for a healthy economy.
In conclusion, I make reference to the recent Grattan Institute report titled Budget Pressures on Australian Governments:
The long-term interests of the Northern Territory are at the forefront of my government’s decision-making. Therefore, fiscal strength and recovery are absolute priorities.
I commend this budget to the House, the first Country Liberals budget, the first responsible budget presented since 29 May 2001, and a positive step forward for the Northern Territory.
Mrs LAMBLEY (Health): Madam Speaker, I support the Northern Territory budget for 2013-14 and I congratulate my colleague, the Treasurer, for his responsible and prudent budget.
This government is one of responsible action which has substantially increased the Health budget to ensure we are able to meet the increasing demand for health services by Territorians. Health is one of the big winners in this budget.
This increase in demand by Territorians is driven by factors such as our ageing population, improved diagnostic technology, high levels of chronic disease and the cost of transporting our patients from rural and remote areas to receive essential care and treatment.
The 2013-14 Health budget is a record budget totalling $1.36bn, the largest for any Northern Territory government department. Despite what the Leader of the Opposition has been telling the media and the people of the Northern Territory today, this budget is in no way a reduction in Health funding. The Leader of the Opposition issued a media release earlier today saying we have reduced funding for hospitals and there has been a dramatic decrease in the amount we are giving to hospitals. That is absolute nonsense. The Leader of the Opposition needs to spend a little more time examining the budget papers before she races out and gives incorrect media releases.
The Northern Territory government’s Health output appropriation for 2013-14 is $152m more than in the May 2012 budget handed down by the former Labor government. That represents an increase of 18.5% over the 2012-13 Health budget and is a significant investment in the health and wellbeing of Territorians. Those numbers show our commitment to improving health outcomes for Territorians, but they also represent a new way of funding Health in the Northern Territory.
Unlike the former Labor government which would starve Health of the resources at the beginning of the financial year only to deficit fund them towards the end of the financial year, the Giles government has boosted Health resources at the beginning of the financial year and given the department a realistic and achievable budget.
Commensurate to this funding increase is a commitment that Health will come in on budget this year and every subsequent year. Our hard-working nurses, doctors, allied health professionals and support staff do an amazing job, and the Giles government has given Health the resources required to ensure they continue to provide these essential services to communities throughout the Territory.
Given the continuing growth pressures Health faces, everyone in the Health space needs to understand this money must be spent as efficiently and effectively as possible with lean back office support and a strong focus on the front line.
I turn to some of the specifics of the Health budget. In 2013-14, the Department of Health will be transformed from a single organisation into three entities comprising the Department of Health, the Top End Health and Hospital Services and the Central Australian Health and Hospital Services. The Department of Health will transition into focusing on governance, policy development, and regulatory functions, while Top End Health and Hospital Services and Central Australian Health and Hospital Services will provide integrated regionally-based healthcare services under the operational management of boards. These fundamental changes will decentralise the delivery of healthcare, and are designed to deliver greater control of healthcare decisions to local communities, improve the flexibility, responsiveness, and innovation capacity of the public health system, and provide more effective and efficient public hospital and health services.
In total, our five public hospitals and associated acute care services will be allocated a record $804.6m in 2013-14. This equates to an additional $48.6m in funding since the November mini-budget announcements. This completely contradicts the claim made earlier by the Leader of the Opposition.
For the Top End Health and Hospital Services, this increased funding includes:
$4.55m in additional funding for enhanced cardiac outreach and rehabilitation services, and the commencement of low-risk angioplasty services – the first time this has occurred in the Territory’s history
$2.88m to provide an additional 258 elective surgery procedures every year
$5.03m to improve patient travel assistance in the Top End
$22.5m to meet costs associated with increased levels of demand for health services.
For the Central Australian Health and Hospital Services, this increased funding includes:
$5.51m for increased ongoing funding for operational expenses of the Alice Springs Hospital Emergency Department
$1.95m for enhanced cardiac outreach and rehabilitation services
$1.585m to provide an additional 142 elective surgery procedures every year
$2.475m to improve patient travel assistance in Central Australia
$5.9m to meet costs associated with increased levels of demand for health services.
Moving from health and hospital services, another important area of service provision is the community treatment and extended care output. This area is responsible for providing alcohol and drug services, mental health services, community and support services for frail aged people, support for senior Territorians, and support services for people with a disability. In this budget we have provided a $47.6m increase in funding since the December mini-budget, which includes:
$35m in new funding to meet the operational costs of running and managing alcohol rehabilitation centres throughout the Northern Territory
$0.5m for the operational costs of 24-hour supported accommodation for clients found guilty under Part 2A of the Northern Territory Criminal Code Act
$0.94m granted to BushMob youth residential rehabilitation service in Alice Springs to help their relocation and service expansion
$7.9m to subsidise eligible pensioners in the Northern Territory to meet the increase in tariffs for utilities.
We are continuing our commitment to major capital works projects across the Northern Territory. In addition to the existing capital and minor new works program, projects amounting to $97.8m will commence in 2013-14, taking the total capital and minor new works program for Health to $172.7m.
Works to be undertaken in 2013-14 include:
$29.6m for continuing remediation works and upgrade at the Alice Springs Hospital
$10m for infrastructure associated with the mandatory rehabilitation of problem drinkers
$13m to upgrade the emergency department at Gove District Hospital
$5m for a hospital scoping study and master plan for the greater Darwin region
$16.6m for the construction and upgrade of remote health clinics at Canteen Creek, Numbulwar, Docker River and Maningrida
$25m to continue the construction and upgrade of the Ntaria, Papunya, Elliott, Ngukurr and Galiwinku Health Clinics.
As the Treasurer previously stated in his budget speech, the funding for Palmerston hospital remains part of the budget. Even today, Labor continued its campaign to spread untruths and fear on the future of the Palmerston hospital. In committing $5m for a hospital scoping study and master plan for the greater Darwin and Palmerston region, we are ensuring we get this important project right the first time.
This is a responsible health budget that increases resources and paves the way for the most significant reform of our health system in a generation. Much to the embarrassment of those opposite who have been spreading fear in the lead-up to today, the Health budget has been significantly increased not cut. The Leader of the Opposition now finds herself in the lonely position of being the only Territorian disappointed at the increased Health spending the Country Liberals have delivered today. I look forward to the sincere apology to those she has sought to scare and anger in the community that she surely must now deliver in her reply tomorrow.
Mr CHANDLER (Education): Madam Speaker, I congratulate the Treasurer on a responsible budget, under very difficult circumstances, that places the Northern Territory on a solid footing for the future. In the Northern Territory, the Country Liberals government did not inherit a wonderful fiscal position as did the Rudd government when Howard lost a few years ago. The financial position Australia was in at that time was sensational. To be able to take over a government in a position like that would have been wonderful because new governments have new approaches - a vision and focus on their own policies - but are strangled because of the position they are left in, as we were on taking government in August last year.
I take this opportunity to highlight some of the key funding areas in my portfolios of Education, Housing, and Lands, Planning and the Environment. Let me begin with Education and start by putting this budget in some perspective. Let us examine the spending patterns of the previous government because we know the then Labor government, now opposition - rightfully so - has a tendency to rewrite history. Let us look at how much they spent on government education during their last term.
In 2009-10, the budget for government education was $586m. In 2010-11, this increased to $636m. In 2011-12, this rose to $683m and, in their final budget for 2012-13, Labor allocated $685m to fund government education. Well this government, a Country Liberals government, a responsible government, will spend a total of $685m on government education. Our budget is equal to their highest spend on government education during their term in government. Quite simply, given that their 2012-13 budget was only in place for a matter of months, we are spending more on government education in the Northern Territory than any previous government. Not only are we spending more, but we are spending it more efficiently and wisely.
We are spending money to assist parents with the cost of education and schooling their children because we acknowledge there are cost of living pressures on families and do not think this should impact on a child’s education.
One of the first initiatives we implemented in the Education portfolio after being elected to government was the doubling of the Back to School payment. Parents are now issued with a Back to School voucher worth $150 every year for each school-aged child. These payments will be worth a total of $6.6m in the 2013-14 budget year, and will assist with purchasing text books, stationery, school excursions, school camps and other similar expenses that can impact on the household budget.
We are also providing assistance to schools to adjust to the rises in utility costs. This government was forced to take responsible action with regard to the price of electricity and water. We could not allow Power and Water to sink further into unsustainable debt because, ultimately, this was costing Territorians dearly. We have taken the necessary measures to curb this difficult problem; however, this has meant some challenges for customers, and schools are no different in that regard.
To lessen the impact of these increasing costs on schools, we have allocated $6.2m in additional funding to offset the rise in school utility costs. This funding will be available to both government and non-government schools.
We are also working with schools to assist them to reduce their energy usage, whether that is more efficient lighting or reduced use of air conditioning when it is not required. This is a joint effort between schools and the government. I hope these measures to reduce energy consumption will produce long-term benefits for the schools.
On taking over as Minister for Education, I said I would be damned if I have any parent having to turn a sausage to pay for utility costs for schools. Schools, with the money they raise through their hard-working parents and community committees, do not deserve to be spending their time to raise funds to be spent on utility costs. Those funds should be put to better uses within their schools. This government increased the budget by $6.2m to cover those additional costs.
I turn now to some of the areas where we have taken a different policy direction to the previous government. These are highlighted in this budget. I am referring to the $1.5m we are spending on the establishment of an English as an additional language unit and the $2m towards the establishment of a literacy and numeracy unit that will work with an expert advisory panel to improve educational outcomes for Territory students.
Too many Territory students are struggling to read and write and too many are not meeting the national benchmarks in literacy and numeracy. It is not my intention to point the finger at anyone or anything in particular, but our efforts have not been good enough and they have not been good enough for years and years.
The establishment of an English as an additional language unit is born out of an acknowledgement that many of the children in our classrooms do not speak English as their first language and do not speak English at home. This is an enormous disadvantage for a student entering the classroom but it is a reality for so many of the children in our schools, especially our very remote schools.
The purpose of this unit will be to assist teachers by providing specialised curriculum and professional development to improve the way we deliver education for children for whom English is not their first language.
The reality is, we need to have the courage to challenge convention. What we have done in the past has got us to this point in time. Quite frankly, it has not been good enough. The only way I can see forward is to take on some of the conventions of the past and change the way we are doing things.
I spoke with minister Garrett last week in Sydney, and he agreed that we have to work harder in this space. It is all well and good to say, ‘Let us close the gap’, but if we do not really have a plan behind how we achieve that, it is all for naught. It is all a waste of time. They are motherhood statements. They are pieces of rhetoric we can talk about as long as we want, yet the people we should be focusing on, those children in our classrooms across the Northern Territory, are not getting what they deserve: a proper education.
It is our desire, as a government, to see an improvement in literacy and numeracy outcomes for all students in the Northern Territory. The $2m we will be spending towards literacy and numeracy and the expert advisory panel is designed to provide a greater focus on these areas of core curriculum. It will look closely at what we teach, how we teach and what classroom resources will improve outcomes for our students in reading and writing.
In addition to these measures, we will be spending:
$150 000 for the continuation of the childcare toy fund
$43.2m for necessary repairs and maintenance - that is a massive increase, but with ageing infrastructure we have to put money into repairs and maintenance
$11.4m for minor new works in 22 schools, including $2m for transportable classrooms across the greater Darwin region and $2m for Woodroffe Primary School to extend the Pandanus centre and provide two new special education classrooms
In all, this is a measured and responsible Education budget and one I am proud of, but is it enough? Will it ever be enough? The problem is sometimes it does not all come down to the amount of money spent on education, it is how we spend it and what we spend it on. We have to learn to do things far more wisely than we have in the past. We can find efficiencies in the way we do things. We can find better ways to deliver a decent education in the Northern Territory.
We know that two-thirds of our students are in the primary school-aged years and two-thirds of our schools are primary schools. I have a focus on early education and know that by building a strong foundation you provide a child with a better opportunity throughout their primary years into middle years and into secondary and beyond.
The reality is, this all has to come down to one reason only: why do we need to provide a decent education? So someone has the opportunity to get a job. We create a strong economy and the jobs and that means we all win. We all win as a community when someone is provided a decent education and a strong economy where jobs are on offer. It provides them with opportunity. Last week, speaking to some elders from Arnhem Land, I asked them what they wanted and needed out of education for their children. Of course, the answers were different. However, the one thing that came through was they wanted their children to have the opportunity to make their own decisions. Whether they were going to choose to live in their homelands for the rest of their lives or were going to move to bigger towns, cities, or any place in the world, they wanted a decent education to provide their children with an opportunity.
It would be lovely to have come into government with buckets full of money and the ability to spend so much more on so many educational initiatives that I know would make a difference in the Northern Territory, but we have a very tight fiscal position. I do not want to leave, as a legacy, a further debt to the children we have attending our primary and secondary schools today. As a responsible government, a Liberal government which knows how to live within its means, we need to get this budget back on track. If we focus on doing that we provide a much better future for those children in our schools who deserve not only to get an education but to inherit an economy that is far better than the economy we have inherited from the previous government.
I will move on to Housing. The 2013-14 budget will also deliver many improvements in public and affordable housing. This government is taking responsible action to reduce the cost of living for Territorians. We know the most significant impact on household budgets is the cost of housing.
This government is taking a multipronged approach to reducing the cost of housing for Territorians, tackling this issue from every possible angle. We are renewing our public housing stock. We have introduced a new First Home Owner Grant scheme that is worth up to $25 000 for newly-constructed homes. We will be constructing 2000 new affordable homes through our Real Housing for Growth package, and we will be releasing new land into the market at a faster rate than ever before. For too long, the tap was so tight it stopped dripping. We have turned the tap on. We have to release land; it is the only way we are going to reduce the cost of living, not only in the greater Darwin area, but across the Northern Territory. Faster land release and making more land available puts a downward pressure on the price of land.
These are all exciting and new initiatives across both the Housing and Lands and Planning portfolios. In the Housing portfolio, perhaps the most exciting initiative is the Real Housing for Growth package. This is a truly innovative new measure which will deliver thousands of new homes for Territorians.
The first round of expressions of interest closed last month, for which 500 dwellings were allocated. I am pleased and excited to say that developers and investors, both large and small, have been enthusiastic in their response to this package, and we are significantly oversubscribed in the first round. We are still finalising our assessment of those proposals, but it looks as if we will be able to roll this out quicker than the ambitious time lines we set for ourselves.
This means a new affordable rental option for thousands of Territorians: teachers, nurses, apprentices, and other workers who are critical to our economy. This government has had the courage and vision to come up with an innovative product to reduce the cost of housing for Territorian workers, and we have allocated $3.8m in this year alone to see it rolled out.
In addition, along with the Commonwealth we are continuing to invest heavily in the improvement of remote Indigenous housing. In the 2013-14 budget, we will be spending $85.7m under the National Partnership Agreement on Remote Indigenous Housing and the National Partnership Agreement on Stronger Futures in the Northern Territory to construct new housing, upgrade existing housing, and provide associated infrastructure in remote Indigenous communities. We will also be spending $26.8m towards repairs and maintenance, and $8.4m to continue minor new works to upgrade existing public housing across the Northern Territory.
Let me digress momentarily to talk about my vision for public housing in the Northern Territory. The majority of our public housing stock is very old and is becoming increasingly expensive to repair. Many homes are simply beyond economic repair; that is, it will cost us more to repair the dwellings than they would retain in value. I would like to think we can move towards a situation where we do not hold any public housing stock that is beyond 15 years old, but are continually turning over old stock and constructing new dwellings.
There has not been significant investment in new public housing stock for many years, and this places us in a challenging position as a new government. We do not have the funds to embark on a substantial new construction program, and that is why we must be judicious about how we manage our existing stock.
I note the criticism that has been levelled against me and this government for selling off public housing by the shadow minister for Housing, the member for Wanguri. I find this criticism a bit rich considering her involvement in the portfolio over recent years. The member for Wanguri cannot claim ignorance of the poor state of public housing left to us by the previous government. Perhaps it would be convenient for her if people were able to forget that she was the senior advisor for the previous government’s Housing minister. She was the Chief of Staff and had an intimate knowledge of, and involvement in, the development of their public housing policies.
Unlike the previous government and the member for Wanguri, this government is committed to renewing our public housing stock. The only responsible way we can achieve this is by selling uneconomical dwellings and reinvesting this in new stock. I know there are at least 250 homes that will cost more than $100 000 to bring back to a habitable position. That is 250 homes that currently do not have anyone living in them. I made the decision to sell 50 of those homes and use that money to rebuild 200 of the homes that were not being used. I argue that whilst our total stock might have dropped by 50, we can now use 200 homes that we could not before. That is 200 families which will be back into homes we could not have afforded under normal circumstances because of the fiscal position we inherited.
While on the topic of erroneous claims made by the member for Wanguri, I address the outlandish claim she made that we have cut spending on public housing by $7m. Like so many claims by the Labor opposition, this has no basis in fact. We are spending $20m more in Budget 2013-14 on Territory housing services than was spent in Budget 2012-13, which the member for Wanguri had a hand in creating. There is $5m more being spent on urban and affordable housing.
I now move on to Lands, Planning and the Environment, probably one of the most exciting areas given you get to work with some of the terrific developers we have in the Northern Territory, people with entrepreneurial qualities I was unaware of before coming into this portfolio.
I take my hat off to the proposals coming our way, many of which were put to the previous government and either laughed off or not given due consideration. The previous government was good at not allowing due process to occur. If anything undermines a government, undermines a process more than anything else, it is to not allow a process to proceed.
I regard the Lands, Planning and the Environment portfolio as one the most important. It does not have the biggest budget, but it has a pivotal role in reducing the cost of living. It is through this relatively small but very efficient department that all new residential and commercial development is facilitated. More land means more housing, more housing means cheaper housing and cheaper housing means cheaper living.
This government is doing all it can to release more land into the market as quickly and efficiently as possible. In Budget 2013-14, an additional $20m has been earmarked to accelerate land availability in Palmerston east, which will significantly increase the supply of land in the greater Darwin region.
Alice Springs has also being crying out for new residential land, so we have allocated an extra $4.4m to continue headworks at Kilgariff so we can turn these blocks off as quickly as possible.
The Planning Commission established last year has begun its important work in providing strategic direction to development in the Northern Territory so, as the Territory grows, we can have confidence this will occur in a measured, smart and responsible way. This work will become increasingly important as we look at innovative ways we can expand and develop. Some of those are exactly what I am looking at the moment, and it is quite amazing what some developers have come up with.
Growing does not always have to mean moving further and further away from our city centres. One of the exciting projects currently being undertaken by the department is an audit of all government owned land throughout the Territory. This work is ongoing but, to date, the review has already uncovered in excess of 80 potential sites for redevelopment, some small but some very large. The advantage of developing these sites over new greenfield sites is they are already serviced by established infrastructure. Road networks, utilities and transport corridors already exist. This means the cost of development is significantly reduced as compared to a greenfield site and means the land can come onto the market much more quickly and cheaply. That is something we really need to get on top of given we have had nearly a decade of very slow land release in the Northern Territory.
As a new government coming in, one of the lessons we need to ensure gets out there is that this government wants to concentrate on letting businesses run their business, instead of being choked by red tape, and let them be free to focus on what they do best.
In conclusion, I hold three very important portfolios. Lands, Planning and the Environment is extremely important and it was imperative the budgets in those areas - we accepted that each of us as ministers had to do what we could to rein in the debt left to us by the previous government. Some very hard decisions had to be made. Some of those decisions none of us wanted to make. I recall sitting in Budget Cabinet extremely depressed, given the circumstances we had inherited. Of course, no one wants to make those hard decisions. No one wants to see the difficult decisions and how they can affect our community. We are not heartless people; we are human, like everyone else. Many of the decisions made also impact on us; they impact on everyone in this room and on all Territorians. There were some hard decisions. What amazes me, though, is that some of these hard decisions would not have needed to be made had we been in a far better fiscal position than we are.
Education is a priority. Releasing enough land onto the markets to ensure some balance in that market and to ensure we can rein in the cost of living in the Northern Territory is so vitally important. Wearing the Housing hat, we have to do so much more in that space. The condition of houses – not only remote houses in the Northern Territory, but also in our urban environments – ranges from new and very good, to extremely poor with nowhere near enough maintenance done over the years and perhaps not even managed that well. This government is courageous enough to make the harsh decisions that are sometimes required to get people to lift their standards and look after a taxpayer-funded property.
In the area of Housing, particularly government housing, we need to do so much more. We can do it, even within the fiscal position we have found ourselves in. How do we do it? By not relying totally on what government can produce, and having courage and faith in private developers, private enterprise and public private partnerships. Government does not need to own everything, particularly in the housing area. It is exciting to be working in that space where, if we get just a few of these things going that we are talking about, we will change the face of Territory Housing into the future. It will be so much better for so many people who rely on public housing today.
I will end on this; public housing should be a step up for people, helping them get from public housing into their own homes. In that regard, you are really making a spot on the Territory. As a government, we should do all we can to keep people in the Northern Territory. The best thing we can do is drive down the cost of living, and I can do that through speeding up land release.
Ms ANDERSON (Children and Families): Madam Speaker, I compliment and congratulate the Treasurer on his budget. The people of the Northern Territory responded to the utter incompetence of the last government by voting them out. They are across the other side, thanks to Territory voters.
Economically, the Northern Territory was headed down a $5.5bn dark hole, thanks to Labor. We inherited a huge responsibility, with our first task being to re-establish the Northern Territory’s financial credibility. A simple solution would be to slash and burn to bring the budget back from the brink. But that sort of action would have ignored the immediate needs of the people of the Northern Territory. It is really pleasing to see the Treasurer, and, in fact, the entire government, has worked to balance short-term needs and begin building long-term sustainability. In this budget we set out to balance the need for more housing, more roads, and better health outcomes and, in addition, enhance the Northern Territory’s financial capability and long-term viability.
We are on the move, going forward confidently into the future, so we take a long-term view with this budget. It is obvious that it is not just a CLP budget or a Labor budget; it is a responsible budget for all Territorians. This is what the people of the Northern Territory were crying out for when they elected us in August last year. They wanted someone who governed for all Territorians. When I say ‘all Territorians’ I do not mean just everyone in the Territory today, I mean those who will participate in the economy of the Northern Territory in the future. To a large extent, it is these people who would have suffered under the previous government’s policies.
Too often Labor budgets mortgage the future. Delia’s former government spent more and more of the next generation’s taxes by borrowing more and more and paying more and more in interest. At some stage we would reach an end gain. There would be no more. Now they are the opposition, sitting carping at those elected to bail out the mess they created. What a shame. To paraphrase the late Maggie Thatcher, ‘Socialism works until you run out of other people’s money’. This budget spells an end to that Labor logic.
Instead of borrowing and spending, this budget invests in Health with $25m to continue the construction and upgrade of the Ntaria, Papunya, Elliott, Ngukurr and Galiwinku health clinics, and $16.6m for the construction and upgrade of remote health clinics at Canteen Creek and Numbulwar. It invests $5.57m to continue delivery of trade training centres in Ngukurr, Groote Eylandt and West Arnhem College. It invests in community safety with $22.5m for the recruitment of an additional 120 police, including 20 officers in Alice Springs, $2.84m for the installation of closed circuit television in Katherine, increased support of the Northern Territory Joint Emergency Services Communications Centre, and increased staff to operate a 24/7 front counter service at the Alice Springs police station.
These and many other initiatives the Treasurer outlined show why I am so proud and consider it an honour to be a part of this government. We are a government with an eye on the Northern Territory’s future, unlike those sitting opposite.
As far as my portfolios are concerned, I am really pleased to be able to say that, despite the difficult position we inherited, we are making real progress to provide Territorians with a positive way forward. We do this by putting into play governance which follows through programs that do what they should. Financially, the most significant responsibility I have is the negotiation of the Stronger Futures agreement with the federal government.
Under the agreement signed with the federal government, the Territory will received $3.49bn in Commonwealth grants. Pay attention, those sitting opposite, to this. An enormous amount of money is invested here and these grants cover nearly all areas of Territory life, for example health, schooling, including non-government schools, remote engagement and coordination, the Alice Springs Transformation Plan and community wellbeing implementation plans. The complex implementation plans that distribute this money go across our government, particularly my portfolios. These plans and the money they represent are essential to the development of our Territory.
While financially not as significant as Stronger Futures, local government reform is still one of the major planks of this government. I know those opposite hope their idea of reform resolved some issues when they created the super shires. What a pity, it got you across the other side. They took away the voices of people - Labor’s usual way of not listening to people - voices of local Territorians, people local government is supposed to look after. You will see this is the theme of what I and this government are trying to do - giving back their voices. We want the population of the Northern Territory to take ownership of their destiny and responsibility for outcomes.
As Minister for Local Government, the now Chief Minister started a review process for local government. He created a working group that included a wide range of interested people. This group came up with several recommendations. We are taking these recommendations to the people for their views. In this budget we have included $6.2m over four years towards consultations, and planning for changes the consultations produce. These consultations will continue until the end of June. By then, we will have a real picture of what people truly want, what the service providers want, and what can be delivered. We are looking to put any proposed change into effect as soon as possible, but definitely by January next year.
While reform is progressing, we still need functioning local government, so it is good to see we are able to add $5m to operational funding for the shires to help with their financial sustainability. We know this is only a stopgap measure while the reform is progressing, but when a government inherits a mess as we did, fixing it all responsibly takes time. The $5m provides assistance to keep services being delivered.
If local government reform is complex, I must admit that the Office of Children and Families is an incredibly complex and difficult portfolio. Having grown up in remote Northern Territory and seen what family breakdowns can do, I am passionate to ensure this area of my responsibility is working. After all, it is a critical line of last resort for so many children’s futures.
The previous government saw the problems, but solutions eluded them. Instead, they created dozens of positions, but it was done so haphazardly that, in the end, they forgot to fund 90 of those positions. How irresponsible! How did this create long-term stability for the organisation and the clients? In short, it did not, and anyone who says otherwise is incompetent. Who knows what their rationale was for creating 90 positions, but not funding them. In any case, we are getting on with fixing this great big mess left by Labor.
In this government, minister Lambley started the reform process. I have continued it, driving responsible reform to produce better results. Of course, while more money would always help, the financial situation we were left with means more money cannot be the only solution. Instead, working better, working smarter and finding efficiencies wherever possible has to be the way forward.
A new CE joined us a few weeks ago and, being a local and having worked in Western Australian children’s policy at the highest level, I am pleased we have already seen real productive change developing. While I have not been able to add to the resources available in this budget, we have been able to move money to better support the frontline services. Also, we have been looking at ways of providing better, cheaper services.
In all, the budget for the Office of Children and Families is almost $170m. With this amount, we are determined to do our best to ensure we are able to provide the necessary assistance to ensure the safety and wellbeing of children and families.
Regional Development is another area of my responsibility where we have been working on getting people’s voices back. Once again, the former government created committees to advise government on regional development, except they left them as organisational orphans with no direct line to the department, their minister, or any of the funders of the development in the regions. With no new money in the budget, we had to do more with what we have. We came to government determined to give people in regional Northern Territory their voices, but we had to find a way to do it using the existing resources.
It is frustrating when I see so much opportunity around this Territory and am approached by people seeking help to build on that opportunity that I have to say, ‘Sorry there is no new money. We have to pay back what the last government spent before we can move forward as fast as we would like.’ I cannot put populism before practical common sense. This budget is about responsible action.
That said, I am truly impressed at the efficiencies we have found in this policy area. Instead of the three levels of government each trying to work out what development is needed and where, we have a solid framework to ensure the development identified by the communities is reported to senior officers in the Northern Territory public service, then to ministers. These regional development committees also have an input into the Commonwealth Regional Development Australia Northern Territory Committee, and I have made sure, for the first time, the Northern Territory government has a voice in the decision process as well.
Obviously, this framework has had no budgetary impact today, but it is a strong sign of how this government functions; we listen and we make sure we take action to drive the economy. This is in direct contrast to the last government, which waited until an opportunity approached, issued a media release then went away and, as so often happens, never thought to check if anything worked.
By using this time of fiscal belt-tightening to lay down the foundations for the future development of the Territory we will ensure the Territory is well-positioned for the rewards and challenges of the future.
Madam Speaker, I commend the Treasurer’s and Country Liberal’s first budget. Thank you.
Mr STYLES (Infrastructure): Madam Speaker, I say a sincere thank you to the people of the Northern Territory who voted for the Country Liberal Party in the last election and gave us the opportunity to present the first Country Liberals budget in over a decade. From what I have heard so far, it is a responsible budget to take the Territory into the future and provide not only a future for us, but for our kids, our grandkids, and those who will follow us.
I congratulate the Treasurer, the member for Fong Lim, on his first budget. I reiterate, having listened to it, I see some fantastic things in it, given we inherited a massive debt which has created problems for not only this government, but governments to follow.
The Country Liberal Party government will be focused on the best interests of all Territorians and will continue to invest in new infrastructure and maintain existing infrastructure to ensure this happens. That goes to the heart of where we can go when deeply in debt and have the issues we have had to face in putting this budget together.
There are four ways government, and in fact anyone, can get themselves out of trouble. increased taxes, reduced services, a combination of those two, or economic development. The Giles government has chosen economic development. However, to have economic development you need good infrastructure. The Treasurer, in budget Cabinet, has allowed for an excellent infrastructure budget and we are determined to continue strengthening the Northern Territory and our communities through regional development and the allocation of infrastructure dollars that Budget 2013-14 provides.
The County Liberals government is also delivering opportunities and infrastructure to enhance sporting and recreation facilities. This has a direct impact not only on the Territory lifestyle but, in particular, on the youth of the Territory where they can do things. We are encouraging not only youth, but their families to do so. We recognise how much Territorians love their outdoor lifestyle and we cater for that. You will find, throughout the budget, allocation for all types of sporting and recreational facilities, boat ramps, upgrading roads to give access to fishing spots and various other venues where people can participate in an outdoor lifestyle.
Of course, health and education are two areas that we believe are vital for us to focus on in Budget 2013-14. This is shown with a new upgraded infrastructure commitment towards much-needed facilities in the areas of health and education. This is a responsible budget and we are taking responsible action to deal with the financial position left by the former government – a $5.5bn debt and a $1.2bn deficit. Since coming to government, we have found in excess of $100m worth of unfunded positions and other unfunded things which did not appear in the budget. This bill will cater for all Territorians despite the debt we were left.
By focusing on regional development, the Country Liberals government has provided new and upgraded infrastructure in remote communities to enhance services and stimulate regional development. The County Liberals’ mantra is jobs, jobs, jobs, and by investing in remote and regional Australia we can create jobs there. I note the Treasurer said there was about $100m-plus for youth training. Much of that can be done in the communities with innovative ways, and we have some innovative ways to create jobs there.
The Minister for Correctional Services has indicated that there are hundreds of jobs for prisoners so when they leave prison they can get out. But we have to have the facilities there in the first place to train them. Thanks to this budget, we will have many dollars to put towards that. We also need to have this infrastructure developed in regional and rural areas so people who are returning to those areas can have a real job.
My colleague, the Minister for Housing, said there are some fantastic housing initiatives in remote areas. I think there is a figure further along in my speech that deals with housing and using local talent to build infrastructure.
Before I go any further I will give a couple of numbers so people listening to this have some idea. The 2013 budget invests in building the Territory’s future with $1.184bn for infrastructure. This includes $560m for the capital works program, $295m for the Power and Water Corporation’s infrastructure program, $257m for repairs and maintenance and $68m for capital and repairs and maintenance grants. Much of that will go into regional, rural and remote Northern Territory so that people who are trained can get there, do things and earn a living.
By focusing on regional development the Country Liberals government has provided new and upgraded infrastructure in remote communities to enhance services and stimulate regional development. That is jobs, jobs, jobs for people in the bush. This also includes $139.6m for remote Indigenous housing capital works and $32.25m for repairs and maintenance grants under the joint Commonwealth and Territory government’s Remote Indigenous Housing Program and Stronger Futures.
We intend to have a much better performing and much more efficient system than the former SIHIP program where some houses were costing $1m each to build. Sadly, that led to fewer bedrooms in remote Australia than there were before they started. We intend to change that by being much more efficient and effective in the way we build homes, the types of homes we build, and by involving local people in building those properties.
This commitment will help close the gap on Indigenous disadvantage across the Territory. As I said, there are options for designing houses that might be better suited and for houses that can be built for a more competitive price. These are the sorts of things this budget will allow us to do. It is essential we improve housing conditions as the flow-on effect will see improvements in Indigenous health, education and employment.
Some of the housing problems we have, such as overcrowding, where there are 20 people in a home - when we can get those people into a number of homes and get realistic figures on the number of people to a bedroom then I am sure those things will follow. It is simply giving these people the opportunity to be able to help themselves to improve their health, education and employment prospects.
There is $44.6m for government employee housing for more nurses, teachers and police in remote communities. It is essential that we improve these conditions. We need to make sure those essential services are well catered for so people will not only want to go into the bush and and enjoy the benefits of working in remote areas but will want to stay because their conditions are at least comfortable and appropriate for their positions in those remote communities.
All of these are essential positions and this budget allocation will bring a big boost towards strengthening our communities and enhancing our much needed services. I note also the money that has being allocated for roads. Without roads - good roads, safe roads - it makes it difficult for people in remote areas to get around, for service people to get out there, and for government and non-government organisations to get to and from the bush areas.
Madam Speaker, $25m has also been committed to continue the construction and upgrade of the Ntaria, Papunya, Elliott, Ngukurr and Galiwinku health clinics. Obviously, to any form of government, health, education and law and order are three top priorities, but it is essential we improve these health clinics and continue the construction of them.
There is $16.6m for the construction and upgrade of remote health clinics at Canteen Creek, Numbulwar and Maningrida, and $7m for the continued construction of child and family centres at Gunbalanya, Maningrida, Ngukurr and Yuendemu. We all know those early childhood facilities are essential to allow kids to grow. They also need to go home to houses that are not overcrowded. It is imperative that we continue to put the sort of money into remote housing and health clinics, schools, police and other services that this budget has catered for.
There is $5.47m to continue delivery of trade training centres in Ngukurr, Groote Eylandt and West Arnhem College. It is essential that we train these young people to give them hope there is a job. When we start looking at the sort of things the Giles government is going to do in relation to remote housing and infrastructure, they need to have those basic skills and these training centres will assist in giving them those skills.
We all know that getting to and from remote and regional communities is important, which is why $2.5m has being allocated for upgrading the Docker River airstrip.
There is also nearly $2m of minor works committed to build new facilities at remote schools such as a new administration building at Angurugu School, a transportable classroom at Milyakburra School and fencing at Gapuwiyak School.
This government will continue to focus on funds and our commitment towards enhancing the Territory lifestyle. Budget 2013 delivers infrastructure to enhance sporting and recreational facilities such as the commitment to resurface the track circuit and upgrade concrete barriers at Hidden Valley Motor Sports Complex.
There is money for boat ramps, and roads will enhance remote tourism. The Tourism minister is yet to speak, but if we achieve these improvements it gives greater access to local communities to get involved in the tourism industry. There are some wonderful remote area tourism industries currently, but we need to encourage more people in regional areas to get involved in local tourism.
By upgrading these facilities we are bringing more people to the Territory. By doing this we are continuing to boost our economy and our reputation around the nation. It is also about boosting economic development, which is one of the best ways to get out of the horrendous debt we have been left.
The Country Liberals government has also committed more than $1m to introduce and upgrade cycling tracks at Casuarina Coastal Reserve and Alice Springs Telegraph Station Historical Reserve, and to upgrade walking tracks at Nitmiluk National Park, Litchfield National Park, Casuarina Coastal Reserve and the George Brown Botanical Gardens.
There is nothing like getting out with the family on the pushbike on the weekend but it has to be on something safe and somewhere where you are not getting punctures every couple of hundred metres. When you have three kids on bikes getting punctures it is not very good because you spend most of your day repairing them. We will try to provide more of these as time goes on, and further infrastructure will encourage families to get out and enjoy the Territory lifestyle. It is so important for all Territorians to live a healthy lifestyle. By continuing to upgrade and introduce these cycle paths we encourage them all to take the opportunity to live a healthier lifestyle.
We have seen nearly $1m in minor new works to continue to boost our lifestyle with upgrades at the Alice Springs drag strip. I went past there when I was in Alice recently; it is very well patronised and I am sure the people of Alice Springs will be grateful to upgrade that strip so they can continue to hold national competitions. We have additional shade shelters at Palmerston Water Park and Larrakia Football Stadium, as well as installing a child safety barrier and shade structures over pools at Howard Springs Nature Park.
We will continue to make our community safe through expanded Police, Fire and Emergency Services and Justice facilities throughout the Territory, and our Budget 2013-14 will see this. We will spend nearly $12m towards repairs and maintenance of Police, Fire and Emergency Services facilities. That is on top of 120 extra police officers. With our habitual drunks policy, we will have safer streets.
We will ensure we continue to support the people and the town of Alice Springs, and we have committed $15m to not only expand police facilities in Alice Springs, but also to increase court capacity. The Country Liberals government has also committed nearly $10m to construct a multipurpose police station and accommodation at Alparra. These are the things remote Australia needs. As we know, law and order, health and education are high on anyone’s agenda.
While we have recently been focusing on Alice Springs, we have also committed a great deal in Budget 2013-14 towards Darwin, with nearly $3m towards expanded accommodation for the Joint Emergency Services Communications Centre at the Peter McAulay Centre, to establish a standalone Youth Justice Court in Darwin, and to refit standard court facilities at the Darwin Supreme Court to enable an additional criminal court.
This bill will continue to keep the whole of the Territory connected through our vital transport investment. Budget 2013-14 provides a massive $287m for Territory roads and national highways, including $95m for repairs and maintenance essential for our tourism industry, our beef and cattle industry, and for all types of people trying to get around the Territory to provide much-needed services to many communities.
We will continue with the National Network roads program, with many key projects to be delivered to benefit our road users. There will be $55.2m for strengthening and widening, flood immunity and safety improvements; $13m will be used to construct a grade separated overpass on the Stuart Highway over the railway south of Alice Springs; and $6.5m to continue construction of new overtaking opportunities at selected sections of the Stuart Highway between Darwin and Katherine.
The Territory government is also investing more than $40m for continued works on the Marine Supply Base, with operations expected to commence in 2013-14, and $29.6m to continue stream crossing upgrades at the Goyder River and targeted pavement upgrades on the Central Arnhem Road. I am sure my colleague, the member for Arnhem, will be very grateful for some of those road improvements in her electorate, as will her people there ...
Ms Walker: So will the people of Nhulunbuy and all those homelands.
Mr STYLES: Absolutely, yes. We have lots of …
Ms Walker: A Labor initiative, funded by Labor.
Mr Giles: We support Labor electorates too, Lynne.
Mr STYLES: We do support Labor electorates. I will take up the interjection. Let us look at Barkly:
$2.5m for the Utopia airstrip upgrade
$5.57m for a remote health clinic at Elliott
$5.3m for a remote health clinic at Canteen Creek
$9.98m for the Tennant Creek Hospital fire safety upgrade
$0.62m for Tomato Island camp ground.
However, I digress. I will go back to some of the positive things about the 2013-14 budget for the Territory. There is $17m for strengthening and widening targeted sections of the Arnhem Highway and safety improvements including overtaking lanes. The Arnhem Highway carries an enormous amount of tourism traffic. It carries people in and out of Jabiru and there are trucking operations along that road. This is much-needed infrastructure to make our roads better and more serviceable. There is also an enormous number of recreational fishers at places like Mary River and Shady Camp who use that road.
There is nearly $10m for an upgrade to strengthen and widen urban arterial, rural arterial and local roads. There is $5m to upgrade the Charlotte River crossing on Fog Bay Road, including construction of a new bridge and associated approaches and drainage works. There is a $5m grant to the City of Darwin for the duplication of Lee Point Road. I am sure the people in Lyons and Muirhead and the enormous number of people living at the caravan park at Lee Point, along with the new motel facilities there with 300 rooms, will appreciate that. I am sure the dual carriageway will be much appreciated by people in the northern suburbs.
There is $5m for the continuation of the upgrade and sealing of targeted sections of the Tanami Road, and nearly $5m to continue sealing Namatjira Drive as part of the Mereenie Loop. There is also $4m for the Urban Arterial Traffic Management program and $3.2m for the Roads to Recovery program on targeted local roads.
Budget 2013-14 provides an additional $10m for targeted repairs and maintenance of regional roads as part of a three-year $30m Regional Roads Maintenance Program for routine and specific maintenance works to roads within the Central Desert, MacDonnell, Victoria Daly, Roper Gulf and Barkly Shires.
The Territory government is committed to building the Territory’s future through continued support of the duplication of Tiger Brennan Drive. I am sure my colleagues and all those people in Palmerston will be very grateful for the improved connection which will get us in and out of our major cities and towns much more easily. Budget 2013-14 has committed $16m of the Territory’s $33m contribution towards the duplication from Berrimah to the city as part of the $103m Territory and Commonwealth governments’ projects.
The Country Liberals government is committed to investing in our future in education facilities, school facilities and health facilities. We know just how important education is to the Territory and its families, especially our youth. Budget 2013-14 will deliver $75m for infrastructure to improve school and other education facilities. This includes nearly $45m for repairs and maintenance. We have also committed more than $7m towards Darwin education facilities to ensure we can offer the best and most appropriate services. These include transportable classrooms in the greater Darwin region, including additional arts and manual arts space at Darwin Middle School, extension of the Pandanus centre at Woodroffe Primary and provision of two new special education programs, upgrades to B Block at Darwin High School, additional flexible learning spaces at Larrakeyah Primary School, fencing the preschool outdoor area and upgrading the toilets at Karama Primary School, and the list goes on.
The budget will continue to improve essential infrastructure for the whole of the Territory. The Territory government is investing $295m. in Budget 2013-14, to upgrade, deliver, and maintain power, water, and sewerage infrastructure. This is also trying to invest in an organisation which was failing to provide for itself. We will still invest in it and we will still assist the Power and Water Corporation, hopefully, to reach a point where it is sustainable and we can get the costs down and sell power at what it is costing us to produce.
Budget 2013-14 also provides $31.7m in capital and repairs and maintenance investment for the Indigenous Essential Services program as part of the $72.2m which provides electricity, water supply, and sewerage services to 73 remote communities.
The Territory government will continue to focus on land development and housing infrastructure to improve the roll-out of land for new homes and industry and to improve urban public housing.
I say thank you very much to the Minister for Housing. I do not know how many times I stood in this House in the four years I was in opposition and condemned the previous ALP government for their lack of land release. It impacted severely on so many people who were just trying to enjoy the lifestyle here and get on with raising their kids. We have ended up with the most unaffordable rents, housing and land in the nation.
I was in a briefing the other day where I was informed that, fortunately, the Minister for Housing has identified in excess of 700 existing blocks of land that are currently zoned and ready to go. Since we got into government we have had people to look at what blocks had services and what infrastructure existed, and we found those blocks. Over the past nearly 12 years of the ALP government, these blocks were there but it failed to perform an audit and pull them to help at least 700 families in the Northern Territory get into a home. Young people who needed an opportunity to buy a home could not because of the lack of land release and the slow pace of the former government.
I remember looking at some graphs late last year which demonstrated that on the previous government’s projections, going back several years, they needed about 2000 homes a year but only built about 1000. Here is one my colleague prepared earlier. It has housing, financing and owner occupation by purpose. We can see the construction of dwellings going up and then going down. That line is heading south. For those who cannot see it, construction of dwellings went up not long after Labor took government in 2001, probably because the former Country Liberals government got it right. It peaked in 2005 and then it started to go down. When I came into this House in 2008, I suggested that the government should hurry up because it was impacting on young people.
Youth was one of my portfolios and young people were suffering badly. Refrigeration mechanics, electricians, people who were making and building the Territory were unable to afford to live here. That is a disgrace.
This government is serious about economic development, getting housing moving, and reducing the cost of living in the Territory. We will achieve that. Sadly, it will take us a while. We would love to have lots of money to throw around, but we have been left with a $5.5bn debt to deal with.
This budget includes $28.6m for continuing headworks at Kilgariff in Alice Springs and to provide new suburbs at Palmerston east, including road infrastructure, power, sewerage, and street lighting. The Territory government is also committing $15m for the second stage of water supply construction for works at Middle Arm Industrial Precinct.
As I said previously, there are four ways you can get out of this trouble and the fourth one is economic development. To have economic development we need infrastructure. We need to build and increase water supply, and the works at Middle Arm will help to continue the investment in infrastructure which will assist us to attract business and industry. That means future jobs for our kids. The Giles government is promoting jobs, jobs, jobs for our young people, and for those who are already established here and continuing in their jobs so that the people who chose to live here years ago and raise their families can still enjoy the Territory lifestyle without having to move south because it is too expensive here.
The Territory government is also committing $10m towards the completion of the subdivision and development at Muramats Road, the development of industrial land in the vicinity of Wishart Road and refurbishing existing public housing complexes across the Territory. My colleague …
Mr CHANDLER: A point of order, Madam Speaker! Pursuant to Standing Order 77, I move an extension of time for the Minister for Infrastructure.
Motion agreed to.
Mr STYLES: I thank the member for Brennan for obtaining that extension for me.
The development of industrial land is essential. We have to attract business and create economic development so we can have jobs and increase the tax base to get out of the debt we are in.
Refurbish existing public housing complexes across the Territory - my colleague, the Minister for Housing, has raised some very interesting points about how we can move on, refurbish and not only cut our costs but provide quality public housing for people in need and those people who do not need a hand out, but a hand up. We can get them started and get them towards home ownership in some of the great schemes we have.
The Territory government understands the importance of investing in our health facilities and this is why budget 2013 will deliver an investment of $173m to improve health facilities across the Territory. In Alice Springs, for instance, a commitment of $29.6m has been made for continuing remediation works and upgrades at the Alice Springs Hospital, while in Darwin we have set aside $16m to continue upgrades at Royal Darwin Hospital to increase the number of beds in the Emergency Department and the Short Stay Unit, and to provide two additional operating theatres.
There is also a future $29m towards the upgrade of the emergency department at Gove District Hospital, which is in our parliamentary colleague’s, the member for Nhulunbuy, home town I believe - so there are things occurring in your electorate - infrastructure associated with the mandatory rehabilitation of problem drinkers, a hospital scoping study and master plan for the greater Darwin region, the construction of car parks at the Royal Darwin Hospital campus, the construction of a new paediatric ensuite at the Gove District Hospital and the refurbishment of old birthing rooms and operating theatres at the Royal Darwin Hospital to provide additional consulting rooms.
The infrastructure spend is about creating employment, and creating infrastructure for the use of Territorians and tourists who come here, hopefully in ever increasing numbers, to enjoy what we have to offer.
I have dealt with a number of issues in what I have already said, but I would like to deal with the issue of seniors. The Pensioner and Carer Concession Scheme sits with the Minister for Health; however, as the minister for Seniors it attracts a lot of interest from me. When the Cabinet budget was put together, many ideas came from across the public services as to how we might become more effective and efficient in our operation. When seniors came up, nothing was taken from them, but the airfares were moderated down to what is now available.
When the previous Country Liberal government introduced the Pensioner and Carer Concession Scheme, airfares were quite expensive; they were nothing like they are today. I was discussing this issue this morning. When I first came to the Territory 32 years ago a return ticket from here to Perth was $1000. In those days $1000 was a lot of money. It was about three months of my salary. Those prices have come down to where, if you organise it correctly, you can get a return airfare to Perth for about $229. There is the opportunity for people to travel there. Again, it is about trying to organise the travel. We have an enormous debt we have to service and, whether we like it or not, we cannot put it away in the corner; we have to deal with it. We have to face the fact that we have a huge millstone around our neck and we have to make cuts.
Time does not permit me to go into detail, but there were a number of unscrupulous operators who were playing the system with airfares. They were able to make enormous profits out of this. The seniors they were booking airfares for were still able to travel. They still got to see their relatives and grandkids; however, there was an ability to rip the system off. That is the only cut.
One of the great things that will happen is our habitual drunks policy. One of the things seniors who come into my office talk about is that they do not feel safe on the streets, getting on a bus, or sitting at a bus stop in town. They are harassed and harangued by people who are drunk. We hope we will be able to help some of those drunks by facilitating our rehabilitation programs. When I talk to seniors and explain this to them, they are very grateful that the Country Liberals government is going to tackle the problem. It is the same with so much of our policy in relation to habitual drunks. People have indicated to me they are very grateful we are going to do something about it, and not just recycle them and put them through a revolving door.
In relation to Multicultural Affairs, we continue to support the multicultural community. It is unique in this country. When one travels around the world - if you are fortunate to travel to a couple of countries - you see the richness of our community. This Giles government will continue to support the multicultural community through grants and other ways the government can support it.
In relation to youth, I am very grateful to the Minister for Housing for the work he has done in reducing the cost of housing. That will give our children an opportunity to be able to get into the housing market. It is about getting into the market; once you get in, it is not so bad. The problem is, we are still suffering from the legacy of the previous government’s land release. We are doing something about it. People do not necessarily want to hear about the problems now; they just want it fixed. Through this budget, we will start to fix that.
With the $100m-plus for training there are great opportunities for our youth. We have to stimulate economic development in the small to medium enterprises in the Territory. Big business employs many people. At the budget lunch, on the back of the menu there was sign from the Chamber of Commerce which said, ‘Small business, too big to ignore’. That was terrific because small and medium businesses in Australia employ 84% of our workforce. It is imperative we look after these people and ensure they get an opportunity, and ensure our youth who are employed by small businesses, and some big businesses, have that opportunity.
Madam Speaker, I am very grateful to the Treasurer, my Cabinet colleagues, and all my parliamentary colleagues on this side for their support for this budget. It is a great budget and I commend this bill to the House.
Ms LEE (Arnhem): Madam Speaker, today I provide the budget reply for the Minister for Mines and Energy, Primary Industry and Fisheries, and Land Resource Management.
The government recognises these are tight fiscal times we live in, not just in the Territory, but across the nation and beyond. This is why the Northern Territory government has taken responsible action and set clear directions for economic growth and development for the Territory in the areas of food, mining, tourism, development, and our resources.
The government has shaped a realistic budget to ensure a productive and rewarding future for all Territorians. To do this we had to make some savings as well as some targeted investments. There has been no way to avoid these savings due to the dire fiscal position this government inherited from the former Labor government. But in the ministerial portfolio areas, which are primarily focused on supporting the development of horticultural and resource-based sectors, there have been modest increases in targeted areas of agency budgets. These targeted budget increases are a combination of new incentives and addressing areas where the former government systematically stripped funding from key programs.
This is a rich and diverse Territory, currently the envy of the rest of the country. We have a responsibility for balancing growth in our core industries to sustain us in the future. The Territory’s major resource-based industries of primary industry, fisheries, and minerals and energy account for around 10% of the total NT workforce and around 8% of all businesses engaged in the Territory’s economy. The resources, or mining, oil and gas industry, is the Territory’s largest industry and is critical to the economic growth of the Northern Territory and the development of our regions, especially in remote locations.
The combination of the Territory’s rich resources and emerging projects provides tremendous potential for the industry to expand, which will increase the prosperity and development of the Northern Territory, particularly in our regional areas. In fact, statistics show the mining industry alone creates around 4000 jobs in our regional and remote areas and this government is well aware that the future of our resource industry relies on healthy exploration activities. It is only by engaging and supporting companies to responsibly explore new grounds that we will continue to grow this industry and spread the economic benefits of mining more widely amongst remote communities in the Territory.
In this regard, the government, through the NT Geological Survey, is providing a state-of-the-art, new geoscience to highlight the resource potential and lower exploration risk, along with the provision of collaborative funding to support greenfields exploration for oil and gas, and minerals. The government is also committed to streamlining regulatory processes and assisting junior explorers to attract international investment.
This budget contains $3.95m under the precompetitive geoscience incentive to stimulate mineral and petroleum exploration and attract exploration investment into the Northern Territory. Of this, $150 000 is the additional ongoing funding.
The budget also contains an additional $1.5m and ongoing funding to the NT Geological Survey to support the exploration through new geoscience programs and improve management and delivery of geoscience and exploration data. As well, $150 000 in additional funding will be used for the International Investment Attraction Program to attract and facilitate investment from key Asian markets in the Territory exploration and mining industries. Unlike the former government, now the opposition, which systematically reduced funding and staffing levels for this department while the rest of the public service grew top heavy, this government is unambiguously supportive of the exploration and mining industry and of the responsible development of new opportunities.
We have a strong commitment to openness and transparency. We will ensure there is a regulatory framework that provides an environment of certainty for the industry to operate. There is additional ongoing funding of $630 000 to enhance the administration of the Mineral Titles Act, $680 000 in additional funding for the environmental regulation of oil and gas activity, and $450 000 in additional funding for environmental regulation of mining activity.
On behalf of the minister, I am delighted to announce that the Northern Territory government will be the first in Northern Territory history to take a meaningful and strategic approach to dealing with legacy mining issues. The coming financial year will see the introduction of a levy on all authorised mining operations in order to fund legacy mining incentives and other improvements to regulatory approvals. Through this levy, additional funding of $2m per annum will establish a mining remediation fund to address legacy mine liabilities - this incentive is ongoing and it is intended to grow the fund over time – and a further $1m to establish a dedicated Mining Remediation Team. A further $3.4m will be funded by the levy to support ongoing works in a range of areas such as water monitoring, assessment and compliance actions that deal with legacy issues.
This government will continue to work to encourage future development in downstream processing, and to ensure that NT businesses have every opportunity to maximise the benefit presented by major projects such as the INPEX LNG project.
In recognition of the growing importance of the downstream gas processing industry for the Territory economy, and to streamline the major project processing as Darwin becomes one of Australia’s largest leading LNG hubs, $950 000 in additional funding will be used to establish an energy directory within the Department of Mines and Energy.
There is no doubt that the high number of major new resource mining and exploration projects that have recently been announced, such as Western Desert Resources’ Roper Bar Iron Ore project, Sherwin Iron’s Roper River Iron Ore Project, the Australian Ilmenite Resources’ mine near Mataranka, and Santos’ $100m drilling and appraisal program in Central Australia, are a clear indication that this expenditure is contributing to the continued growth of the mining and energy hub and, in turn, substantial economic growth across the Territory.
A wide range of Territorians and visitors depend upon or enjoy the healthy state of our fisheries. Many Aboriginal communities have strong customary links with our aquatic environments and rely on fish for food, culture and potential economic development opportunities. Our commercial fisheries and aquaculture industries have a combined value of over $50m and provide valuable supplies of high-quality seafood such as mud crab, tropical snappers, barramundi, shark, and mackerel to restaurants and retail markets across Australia. This government is already delivering on its election commitment to develop a resource sharing framework to enable evidence-based analysis to be applied to resolve access and resource attribution issues and give industry the certainty it needs to invest with confidence.
Budget 2013 provides $680 000 for the extension and support of aquaculture development in the Northern Territory and $500 000 specifically for the development of the fishing industry and food production in regional Indigenous communities.
In recognition of the importance of managing our fisheries now and into the future, $2.5m has been allocated for the sustainable management of the Territory’s aquatic resources and $550 000 for the sustainable management of the Northern Territory recreational fishing sector. As well, $350 000 has been committed to implement a recreational fishing development plan which includes the establishment of a dedicated recreational fishing survey program, a study to investigate the potential for new boat launching facilities, and a boating and fishing awareness program. Additional funding of $300 000 over two years will be used for commercial fishery development including exploring potential new management arrangements for the barramundi fishery.
The important work conducted by the Territory’s Marine Ranger program has being recognised with $680 000 to support the program and provide training and consultation within Indigenous communities, as well as monitoring of fishing activity, sacred site protection and community education. An additional $490 000 will be used to establish a fisheries support network in the East Arnhem region to facilitate the establishment of Indigenous fishing enterprises.
The pastoral industry is a substantial contributor to the NT’s economy. This government strongly supports the Territory’s beef cattle industry and we are implementing several measures to help the industry recover from the federal Labor government’s temporary trade suspension to Indonesia in 2011.
Considerable work has been done to re-engage with Indonesia, our largest overseas live export market. Minister Willem Westra van Holthe is currently in Indonesia on a joint ministerial visit with the Queensland Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry as well as industry. This is the minister’s third visit to Indonesia in nine months and is a much stronger commitment to progress and repairing relationships than the Delia Lawrie government gave. In order to widen the opportunities for the NT pastoralists, the department is working with industry to investigate and develop new live export markets, to increase live export numbers, and to establish a local processing facility to process animals that do not meet live export specifications.
In addition, the department is continuing to work with several Indigenous communities to upgrade and build new abattoirs to supply good-quality meat for local consumption or for sale to commercial outlets or direct to restaurants within the Territory and interstate.
The minister is actively engaging with the established pastoral industry advisory committees to ensure there is a direct line of communication between the minister and the pastoral sector. Budget 2013-14 includes $300 000 in additional ongoing funding for the establishment of a live animal market development unit to implement a live export market development strategy in collaboration with industry, as well as $280 000 to provide ongoing cattle inspection services to facilitate market access to eastern and southern Australia in response to changes in the destination of NT cattle shipments.
One of this government’s election commitments related to a review of export yards to ensure that capacity keeps pace with industry growth. This review is already under way in consultation with the NT Livestock Exporters’ Association.
On another matter, our government will give appropriate consideration to the recent announcement by the Australian government of the Farm Finance program, in consultation with industry, to determine its ability to provide real benefits to industries before determining the level of our commitment to this program.
This government is determined to develop the Territory as a leader in horticulture research. To this end, the minister has instructed the department to establish an annual horticulture research and extension seminar that will involve the industry and key government agencies.
The mango industry in the Northern Territory, valued at around $80m, now provides over 50% of all Australian product. Because of our stable climate condition, this industry is expanding. However, the challenges facing the security of this industry are market access constraints regarding exporting. This budget provides $1.14m, which includes $280 000 of Commonwealth funding, to evaluate alternative market access protocols to allow the exports of mangoes from Australia without post-harvest disinfestation treatment. This will open the opportunity for mango exports direct out of the Darwin port into countries such as China and the Middle East.
Linked to this export strategy is the need to improve mango export access to overseas markets and to undertake incentives to lengthen the mango production period. In addition, there has been favourable progress made to improve interstate market access for mangoes and other plant products. Successful negotiations saw considerable amounts of Top End mangoes sold to Western Australia last year and efforts are now focused on new protocols for access to southern markets.
The Territory’s next largest horticultural industry is melons, valued at $45m. In order to secure the profitability of the watermelon industry the department is working closely with commercial seed companies to resolve problems associated with soil-borne pathogens that have recently caused this industry to suffer significant losses. We are investing $140 000, including $80 000 of Commonwealth funding, in this project. As well, $300 000, including $100 000 of Commonwealth funding, will be used to investigate practices to maximise economic efficiencies of nitrogen use on melons, vegetables, and hay farms, while minimising impacts of greenhouse gases on the environment and storing carbon in soil.
In support of the Ord Development Project, additional funding of $400 000 will be used to facilitate the extension of the Ord irrigation scheme into the Northern Territory. This project has received major project status, which is the first time in the Territory’s history that an agricultural project has received this priority. Again, this demonstrates this government’s commitment to food as a fundamental pillar in our three-hub economic development plan.
The Department of Land Resource Management is a complex agency, and one which is pivotal in the shaping of the future of the Northern Territory. The combination of Water Resources, Rangeland, and Flora and Fauna Divisions, Bushfires NT, and the corporate services group allows us valid participation in the government’s vision to drive the economy and growth of the Territory. The department works in partnership with the landowners to provide support in managing their land. Our linkages with our fellow agencies are instrumental in assisting each other to develop and shape our day-to-day activities and achieve the overall objectives of this government.
We all recognise the wonderful job the dedicated team at Bushfires NT does. This government has ensured it has funding to aid it in its important work across the Territory protecting landscapes, homes and infrastructure from the scourge of wildfire. Bushfires NT is responsible for assisting the Bushfires Council in implementing the Bushfires Act and for promoting fire preparedness and mitigation, primarily through the reinforcement of the message that fire mitigation is a primary responsibility of landowners under the Bushfires Act. Wildfire suppression received an additional $1m ongoing in the 2012-13 mini-budget. This new funding will most certainly aid the team at Bushfires NT to undertake the duties we entrust to them.
Additional funding of $480 000 ongoing will be provided in Budget 2013-14 to the Weed Management Branch. This is another area savaged by Delia Lawrie’s former Labor government. This funding will re-establish four weed management officer positions within the Department of Land Resource Management. This funding will not only augment current weed officer resources, it will enable the department to increase capacity to provide on-ground services to landowners and more effective weed management of high priority weed outbreaks. The increased capacity will most certainly help the regions which were sorely neglected by the former government over the past several years. Two positions will be based in Katherine, bringing weed management staff numbers to four to service the Katherine region, and two positions will be based in Tennant Creek. These four new positions will see a total of 11 staff dedicated as weed management officers across the Territory, providing extension and education services to landholders.
Importantly, this government has committed funding of $0.5m ongoing from 2012-13 to support the Pastoral Land Board and rangeland monitoring program. In the 2012-13 mini-budget, $400 000 ongoing was provided to reinvigorate the rangeland monitoring program, which had been depleted of resources over time by the Delia Lawrie government, and $100 000 was provided to support a renewed and strengthened Pastoral Land Board: a board that had been left in dust by the former Labor government.
Our government has recently announced the formation of a working group to develop options to resolve the issue of determining pastoral lease rents. This is further evidence of support to the pastoral industry by this government. The working group will be comprised of representatives from the NT Cattlemen’s Association, the Pastoral Land Board and government, and will be charged with developing options for determining a robust pastoral lease rent methodology, including a review of the current method of using the Australian Valuation Office.
The options for consideration will need to reflect a methodology that ensures rental charges will not dramatically fluctuate, providing some certainty to landholders yet ensuring government receives an appropriate level of economic return for the use of Crown land for pastoral purposes. The decision to form a working group comes from industry and government concern over the valuation process for that pastoral estate, which is used to determine pastoral rents. The government confirms pastoral lease rents for 2013-14 will remain the same as 2012-13.
Under this government, the Territory is finally moving forward and supporting our pastoralists with the support and recognition of the industry they deserve and I look forward to a continued working partnership.
As I stated earlier in this statement, we have had set a realistic budget which focuses on the priorities for the Northern Territory for the future. Agency chief executives have been asked to construct more innovative and creative ways in which they can deliver the services of their agencies and undertake business for the community. The Department of Land Resource Management is coming up with creative ways to work and bring in revenue for government to help the Territory recover from the terrible situation we have found ourselves in with our sad level of debt and fiscal restraints. One of the innovative ways the team at the Land Resource Management has derived is with a business model for their drilling services.
The Drilling Services Unit maintains two drilling rigs and bore testing capacity which cost in the order of $1.2m per annum to run. The department has identified the capacity to receive income by providing drilling services where the commercial sector is unable to provide a service. This work includes water bore drilling in remote communities for the Power and Water Corporation, investigatory drilling for water assessment and drilling for private enterprise where private sector operators are unable or unwilling to provide a service. The minister has approved continuation of the Drilling Services Unit providing services are charged at commercial rates, including interstate works where the capacity exists.
Mr Deputy Speaker, this is how the minister’s three departments of Mines and Energy, Primary Industry and Fisheries and Land Resource Management will spend their new funding for 2013-14. The minister looks forward to providing this House with a progress report in coming months. Thank you.
Debate adjourned.
Continued from 27 March 2013.
Ms WALKER (Nhulunbuy): The opposition supports this bill recognising the Electronic Conveyancing (National Uniform Legislation) Bill 2013 is about a national law reform agenda set out under federal Labor through COAG in 2008 and signed off by the Territory’s former Attorney-General, Mr Knight, in early 2012.
I thank the Attorney-General’s office for facilitating a briefing for me last week on this bill. The discussion was enlightening, particularly with regard to how the Northern Territory will fit into this national scheme via this enabling legislation. I also thank Di Sinclair from the Parliamentary Library Service, for whom no research job is too big, too small or too hard. I thank her for providing me with bucket loads of research and background papers on this national legislation.
Basically, with this legislation in place we will see significant reform to the practice of conveyancing with the introduction of a National Electronic Conveyancing System which aims to deliver greater efficiencies and greater security as well as reliability and, in so doing, will reduce costs. This is all part of COAG’s National Partnership Agreement to deliver a Seamless National Economy.
Last year New South Wales passed similar legislation, and I understand the Territory has adopted the New South Wales model. In February of this year the Victorian parliament passed their legislation and just last month Queensland passed theirs. In the Queensland parliament there were no fewer than eight LNP members of the government singing the praises of this bill, all saying exactly the same thing. I can only assume it must have been a very quiet day for government business in Queensland.
The undertaking to establish the network across jurisdictions has been enormous. I understand all jurisdictions will participate, with the exception of the ACT due to its smallness. I am still not sure where that will leave our national capital in the medium and long term given it has not opted into this scheme.
I am advised the National Network has been built by a company called National e-Conveyancing Development Limited, or, for brevity’s sake, NECDL, which was formed by the larger states of Victoria, New South Wales, Queensland and Western Australia, with the four major banks also investing. Why would they not as they stand to be a key beneficiary of this reform? I was advised during my briefing, that the Territory, as I suspected given our size, was not required to contribute dollars to the set-up of any CDL. However, I understand there will be costs to the Territory for the implementation of the system when it eventually goes live, which could be years away. I am told those costs could be in the vicinity of $1m, but there is nothing I have seen in today’s budget which indicates money to support this when it is enacted. Maybe in future budgets we will see that money appear.
The undertaking by COAG to implement National Electronic Conveyancing has not been without problems. I guess, with a reform as large as this on a national level, problems along the way have to be worked through. While I understand that matters have been resolved, there was pushback from lawyers and conveyancers - very critical stakeholders in these reforms - due to some concerns relating to three matters. I refer to an article in The Australian on 8 June 2012 where these problems were identified as:
Essentially, I think their beef was a very valid one. It was about lawyers and conveyancers and their insurances being under pressure to accept potential increased liability with this new scheme. That same article in The Australian on June 8 stated that:
I have not seen anything further on that issue so I take it the representative bodies of lawyers and conveyancers are now satisfied. I certainly hope so because those who have access to the e-conveyancing system, those from financial institutions, lawyers and conveyancers who are referred to as subscribers within the legislation - of course, there needs to be stringent and robust systems which protect against misuse and fraud, and the potential exposure to added risks and liabilities for those stakeholders.
I also understand that much work continues across the jurisdictions to develop and agree upon the business rules, and that state project teams meet every six weeks to work on devising the operating manuals, though the NT, due to the costs of travel, is not necessarily at every meeting. Within the Territory, I am advised that the Registrar’s office of Land Titles has a consultation process afoot to keep Territory stakeholders in the loop, which is necessary and a very good thing to be doing.
In jurisdiction-specific matters in complying with the legislation, I understand the Territory has at least one very unique factor in terms of swimming pools and the need for compliance certificates to be part of the national system. I am wondering if this might present a glitch or a hurdle and how it is that the Attorney-General sees a way forward with this. I certainly hope it does not mean a repeal of important legislation introduced by Labor on pool fencing. I am sure it does not, but it does present one of those unique jurisdiction matters which was the sort of thing lawyers and conveyancers were talking about.
New South Wales is expected to be the first cab off the rank to launch the National Electronic Conveyancing System in September, I believe, with Western Australia and Queensland to follow in 2014. I was advised it could be years before the Territory is in a position to join.
I may show my age, but I remember a time when there was no such thing as colour TV, video or DVD players, Internet, mobile phones, credit cards or electronic banking. When I was younger I had to carry a passbook with me for each transaction with the Commonwealth Bank. The growth of the ICT industry has been astronomical in recent years with seamless electronic communication and its tools being very much a part of our everyday lives. It comes as no surprise that electronic conveyancing will become part of our lives. While use of electronic conveyancing under this legislation is not compulsory, I think we will see the financial institutions continue to drive it and make it part of their business platform such that customers and subscribers will all have to follow suit eventually.
While there will be cost savings, I hope those savings are passed on to the buyers and sellers - the ordinary Territorians - and they do not simply sit as part of the bottom line on the books of the finance sector, though I daresay they will gain from it. Ultimately, this bill will transform conveyancing practices and make them more efficient and effective, and more practical while saving both time and money.
The opposition, as I said at the start, supports federal Labor’s national law reform in this area and I commend the bill to the House.
Mr ELFERINK (Attorney-General and Justice): Mr Deputy Speaker, I thank the honourable member for her contribution to the debate. I would have been somewhat surprised if there had been any resistance to this legislation because, of course, this is a continuation of what the former administration signed up to in the intergovernmental agreement. It has taken a while to come before the House because I sent it back to the department, when it came to me very early in the piece after I became the Attorney-General, to make sure the industry was happy with it. I am now satisfied that the industry is happy with it in the Northern Territory.
It does not go live for a while. I pick up on the question about why was it not in the budget. Basically, we do not buy into it until 2015 as an operational system. My understanding as to why the ACT has not bought into it is because it has a fundamentally different system of title. My understanding of a land law in the ACT is you do not get freehold; you essentially buy a perpetual lease, which was the system in the Northern Territory until somewhere around the mid-1970s, or even as late as 1980 perhaps. The system used in the ACT is substantially different to anywhere else in the country.
I note that in places like New South Wales they have old system title, and they have a registration system of that form of title, which is a form of new system title. Then you have other jurisdictions like our own which, of course, have the ultimate registration system which is the Torrens system of title which, from memory, kicked off in about 1858. It is a legacy of being a former administrative area of the state of South Australia, and one of the things South Australia did very well.
The Torrens system of title means there is no old system title around; it is simply a system of title where there is a central register and entry into that register is evidence of title - certainly prima facie evidence of title. That means, of course, what is in the ledger is where the title rests. If there is any error with the system of title there is a trust account built out of a small shaving of a levy from transfers of title which, in case of an error in the system, would lead to a compensable amount being paid by the Northern Territory government which ultimately carries the liability because it runs the register.
This Torrens system of title should, I imagine, when you compare it to the difficulties of old system title in New South Wales, work into an electronic system, or register system, particularly well. The reason the new government has chosen to support the intergovernmental agreement and the former government’s position on this is quite straightforward: it makes sense.
I pick up on the comments of the member for Nhulunbuy who pointed out we live in an electronic age. I remember hearing people say, ‘I will never go to one of those bank machines, those things in the wall; I will go to see a teller’. I remember thinking something similar as a young man. I walked into a bank the other day for the first time in a very long time and was surprised to find that withdrawal forms were no longer scattered around the bank, which shows you how long since I have been in a bank. We get used to these electronic systems.
I believe some of the issues raised in those national articles have been addressed. Clearly, identification of purchases is a particular one. I am less convinced about indemnity issues. I am sure the courts could sort that out if push ever came to shove. The cost of indemnity is what the marketplace will dictate.
The somewhat archaic system we use now where everybody gets to sit in the Land Titles Office and cheques are pushed across the table back and forth between banks, vendors and purchasers - or alternatively their representatives - strikes me as being vaguely quaint. Whilst we will continue, and do continue to use it, I would be surprised quite rightly - picking up on the comments made by the member for Nhulunbuy - if the banks did not encourage the use of electronic conveyancing systems to the point of putting pressure on people.
Sometimes, people have to be helped along in those environments. It is the commercial reality of the world we live in. Whilst it makes your head spin and my head spin, my seven-year-old daughter seems to be comfortable with it. I am sure one day when I want to program some piece of equipment, my 10-year-old daughter - as she will be at the time - will have all the technical knowledge I need to program the equipment and organise my next house conveyance.
Mr Deputy Speaker, I thank the honourable member for her support. As I said, I would have been surprised if this had in any way, been contentious legislation, and I have not been surprised. We will leave it to the industry to get on with it, and to the department to get on with its implementation.
Motion agreed to; bill read a second time.
Mr ELFERINK (Attorney-General and Justice) (by leave): Mr Deputy Speaker, I move that the bill be now read a third time.
Motion agreed to; bill read a third time.
PENALTY UNITS AMENDMENT BILL
(Serial 24)
Continued from 27 March 2013.
Ms WALKER (Nhulunbuy): Mr Deputy Speaker, I will be very brief on this bill; the opposition supports it. It is a bit of legislative housekeeping, pretty straightforward stuff. As outlined, it amends the Penalty Units Act to take account of recent changes to the way in which the Australian Bureau of Statistics publishes consumer price indices. This follows on from amendments introduced in April 2010 by the member for Karama, and enacted on 1 July 2010, to convert penalties into penalty units - that was within Treasury and the Department of Justice - so they could be automatically indexed to CPI in accordance with a formula in the Penalty Units Act. Obviously, it is important. As the Attorney-General said in his second reading speech, the intent is that:
I do not think this is a revenue raising exercise by the Attorney-General any more than he quipped about that when he spoke in the debate in 2010. However, it is important to ensure our legislation is contemporary and that penalty units reflect the current monetary value. If that means fixing a glitch in the legislation around some anomaly with how the ABS publishes consumer prices, that is the path we need to go down.
Madam Speaker, the opposition supports this bill and commends it to the House.
Ms FINOCCHIARO (Drysdale): Madam Speaker, I thank the minister for bringing this bill before the House. This government prides itself on reducing red tape and simplifying legislation so it is practical and useful, and removing legacy items of the former government which did not work.
The Penalty Units Amendment Bill is not an exciting bill by any stretch of the imagination; I have it on good authority that even the Attorney-General’s eyes glaze over on this one. However, I will persevere.
Legislative penalties are found throughout the Northern Territory legislation. Indeed, nearly every act has a penalty unit component, which is a little scary. They cover everything from the Animal Welfare Act to the Weeds Management Act which, for the record, covers noxious vegetation and not plants covered by the Misuse of Drugs Act which, by the way, also has penalty units.
Penalty units, as the name suggests, are a unit of measurement for penalties that flow from offences under the legislation. An example is the Weeds Management Act, section 20, under which it is an offence for a member of a weed advisory committee to disclose information obtained in the course of their duties as a member. The penalty for such a horrid offence is 50 penalty units. The current value of a penalty unit is $141, so a weed advisory committee member who tweets about the gamba grass outbreak on the member for Nelson’s block faces a maximum penalty of $7050.
The point of this bill is how we get to the value of a penalty unit. Since 1999, penalties for offences have been drafted in legislation so the penalty is expressed in penalty units rather than dollars. The policy behind penalty units is to ensure the deterrent value of fines is maintained through indexation and that the real value of fines reflects changes in the value of money. This is a mouthful, but it basically means things like CPI increases. Otherwise, what may have been a large fine in 1999 may no longer be in 2013. The Penalty Units Act requires that the monetary value of a penalty unit be reviewed each financial year.
The review occurs through a formula which is A, being the value of a penalty unit, equals B x C over D. I know those of you still listening are thinking, ‘What is the member for Drysdale talking about?’ That is the formula used to establish a penalty unit and, through that formula, penalties are kept relevant and appropriate as a pecuniary measure. The value of B is $130; that is the base value of one penalty unit. That amount then needs to be multiplied, under the current legislation, by the average of the CPI figures for Darwin for each of the four quarters of the calendar year immediately preceding the financial year for which the review is made…
Mr Elferink: Pay attention guys, you might miss it.
Ms FINOCCHIARO: You might miss it.
…rounded to one decimal place, with 161.5 being the average of the CPI figures for Darwin for each of the four quarters of the calendar year 2008. Therein lies the problem. So, bear with me.
When the former government introduced the Penalty Units Act in 2009, they set the value of D in the formula to establish a penalty unit as 161.5, which was the average of the Darwin CPI for the four quarters for 2008. Today, the average of the Darwin CPI for the four quarters for 2008 is 91.3, because the Australian Bureau of Statistics rebased the CPI in September 2012. If we were to continue to apply the old value of D under the act it would mean the value of a penalty unit would remain at $141 for a number of years and the policy of maintaining penalties which reflect the current value of money would not be maintained. The ABS standards do not recommend prescribing a CPI average locked on to one snapshot in time; instead, legislation should be worded broadly and be able to evolve with time.
That is the purpose of this bill. The value of D will now simply be the average of the CPI figures for Darwin for each of the four quarters in 2008. The proposed amendment ensures the policy behind penalty units is maintained: preserving the deterrent value of fines and reflecting the value of money. I thank the minister for bringing this bill to the House.
Mr ELFERINK (Attorney-General and Justice): Madam Speaker, I am surprised that more members are not getting to their feet in this debate. I could not think it would be clearer. I am set in mind of Stephen Hawking. In his book A Brief History of Time there is a challenge for modern mathematics and cosmology to unify the quantum world with the macro world in some sort of quaint little formula. The member for Drysdale may have stumbled upon Stephen Hawking’s formula to unify, in the grand unified theory, the two worlds: the quantum and the macro. However, I digress.
Whilst this sounds like a very convoluted bill, it is surprisingly straightforward if you concentrate for more than a few minutes on it. Basically, a benchmark that once existed was changed by the Australian Bureau of Statistics and fines we issue in our courts are dependent on that benchmark. If you change the benchmark the fines change. The effective change to the benchmark by the Australian Bureau of Statistics was simply to devalue the amount of money we would charge with fines. Making the amount of money less, as a result of this process, would have meant people would have received smaller fines. Whilst I am sure there are many people who would be delighted to get smaller fines, in truth, we fine people and have fines for a reason: for their deterrent as well as punishment value.
To have not done anything about this would have changed the value of a penalty unit from $144, about where it should be, to an amount of $81, where it should not be. I am grateful to the members opposite. It is essentially a form of housekeeping. The idea of penalty units is that you do not have to change legislation again and again to change monetary units; the idea was to make the system simpler. One could be forgiven for thinking that may not have been an achieved goal as a result of introducing penalty units; however, hopefully, this time we have it sorted out.
I thank honourable members for their support. I am genuinely surprised we did not have a heated debate over this vital issue to our community. It is a matter of great importance, doubtlessly, to Territorians.
Motion agreed to; bill read a second time.
Mr ELFERINK (Attorney-General and Justice) (by leave): Madam Speaker, I move that the bill be now read a third time.
Motion agreed to; bill read a third time.
Continued from 27 March 2013.
Mr STYLES (Infrastructure): Madam Speaker, I rise to speak on the part of this report from the Auditor-General on the Asset Management System.
I am trying to find a way to describe what we inherited with this Asset Management System. There have been a number of reports and reviews, but I would like to refer to the Northern Territory Auditor-General’s report of March 2013.
When we came into government we had to take a very close look at this scheme. What started with an original budget of $14m has blown out to what will probably cost about $70m, and that is a conservative estimate. It began with discussions in 2005 under the previous Labor government. In 2006, business case options were developed to upgrade the then Department of Planning and Infrastructure’s ageing asset management information systems and business processes. The objective was to replace the nine existing legacy systems with what was called a commercial off-the-shelf product. In April 2007, the then Department of Infrastructure and Planning received approval to proceed to a tender process for an off-the-shelf asset management system to replace the nine legacy systems.
I need to explain a little of what this is about so people understand what we are talking about. The first system it was to replace was the Asset Information System, more commonly known as AIS, which, quoting from the report, is a:
The second system this was due to replace is the Electronic Fee Office System, more commonly known as eFOS, which provides the Construction Division of the Department of Infrastructure with:
The Building Asset Management System, more commonly known as BAMS, provides:
The fourth system is the Building Data Collection System, more commonly known as the BDC, which was developed to manage the collection of building assets data.
The sixth program is the Road Information Management System, more commonly known as RIMS, which:
The seventh system is Deighton’s Total Infrastructure Management System, more commonly known as DTIMS:
The next system, the eighth, is the HRDB. This system:
The ninth system is Tracker:
This program was originally to go live in April 2010 with a planned implementation projection cost of $14m. As I said earlier, it has blown out and will cost roughly $70m by the time we are finished trying to fix up the mess it was in when we inherited it. It almost reminds me of the wave pool, which I believe had a budget of $5m and ended up costing $23m.
A number of reviews were conducted over the course of the Asset Information System. The Auditor-General went on to point out some of these reports. Of particular note, the initial review conducted following the blueprint design phase undertaken by Fujitsu, which was the system integrator:
This is just one of a number of issues that occurred along the way:
My information is that Fujitsu had over 92 consultants working on this project from the beginning of it through to when we inherited it from the previous government. There were many delays. The go-live date was moved to April 2011, a year later than was planned. There were further delays due to insufficient resources provided by the agencies for testing and training. There is a whole list of issues and problems that continued to hamper this project. It is notable that as a result of the high consultant turnover with Fujitsu, there were 11 project managers during the three years from the start of the project until Phase 1 go live in 2012.
There should have been some alarm bells going off for the previous government, right through this when they started having not only delays, but price escalations. It appears the previous government just went on and on. It is a bit like the Treasurer’s big red truck theory where you keep tipping money into it or you get a bigger truck. What we have here is just a bigger problem. You kept throwing money at it way past the budget allowance for the project.
It goes on and on. The work required to deal properly with all of these issues saw the go live for September 2011 being further delayed until October 2011, then to November 2011. The eventual go-live date was April 2012, two years after the original planned go-live date. I will quote from the report so it is also included in this. Perhaps those listening can start to appreciate the size of the problem we inherited from the previous Labor government. I will quote from the Key Findings in the Auditor-General’s report in March 2013:
Organisational Change Management
The Auditor-General spoke about project governance. I quote from the same report which says:
At what point, when you start spending more money on a project, are ministers advised? What did Cabinet do when they needed a few more dollars on this? Did somebody ask questions?
Look at project management for instance:
I have, since taking over this portfolio, asked many questions. I have weekly briefings on this matter because of the complexity of it and the mess it is in. We are working to, and I believe we will, come up with a solution to this problem. However, it requires people to look at it carefully and often to track what is going on, and having competent people report to you.
Under Project Management, for instance, the report goes on to say:
I wonder if the minister was aware of where this was going and whether or not this program was in trouble. Two years delay on the go live option is obviously something that should have been ringing large alarm bells. However, it seems this went on right up to the time they lost government.
Vendor Management for instance:
I wonder where this project was going. Perhaps some of these things might have given an indication as to why various parts of it were stalling, why it was bogged down, and why it was starting to cost much more than projected.
Implementation Strategy says:
Again, what questions was the government asking of its departments and the people charged with implementing this new project? There is so much more to quote:
One would expect the minister would have been given a briefing to say, ‘We have a few over-runs here, minister. There are costs. We have to go to Cabinet; we have to get some more money; we are going to be two years late.’ It just goes on and on and on.
Testing of the system:
These are the questions. Who is responsible? Have people done their jobs? These are the things that should have been asked before this system was allowed to go live and experience all the problems I will talk about shortly.
Training, for instance:
This is a fairly complex issue. It was becoming more complex as more IT people looked for an IT solution, as opposed to a broader solution.
It just goes on - page after page after page. It is a very damning report on a system and a problem created by the former Labor government. I would like to make it very clear to this House that we inherited this from the Labor government and we are now charged with having to spend even more money to clean this mess up. We have taken the step to make this a custodial type system where the ministers actively take an interest in fixing the problem.
There are a number of major problems in relation to end of financial year matters, depreciation and GST. I am stunned at the problems that were around just after this system went live in April 2012. By August, there were some very serious problems that, when we took over government, we had to fix.
A team of people have identified 10 high priority issues that have to be fixed. Work on four of those issues has commenced already and will be delivered by 30 June. These are the financial issues small businesses have and the government has. They are matters to do with GST, depreciation, agency transformation, and billing by the construction division. The remaining six high priority projects, are to be delivered by November 2013.
As each project is completed it will be transitioned to the business as usual environment, supported by an AMS help desk and training stakeholder engagement units. We have a team of people working on this; we are not sure exactly how we will fix and remediate some of the major issues within this system. When they transferred from the old systems to the new system it opened up about 10 million transactions that were not closed properly before they went across and jobs have been left outstanding in the system. It may be that we may have to back right out of this system and go back into another system or an integrated system that forms part of the basic operating SAP system.
We have had to budget at least $20m this financial year to try to fix the problem we inherited. I could go on. The document stands as a testament to poor organisation and poor governance of the whole operation that we, unfortunately, have inherited. We have to do something about it. We will fix it. While we have inherited a massive debt from the government, we are now required to find millions of dollars to fix something that was supposed to cost $14 m in the initial estimates.
I ask the House to the note the Auditor-General’s report. I ask them to note that this is a problem we inherited from the former Labor government. It was given to us in a mess; it had cost overruns of somewhere around 300% or 400%. We will fix it but, sadly, it is a legacy that has been left to us that will cost us a lot of money.
Mr McCARTHY (Barkly): Madam Speaker, I thank the Auditor-General, as we always do as the Territory opposition and did as the previous Northern Territory government, because the Auditor-General performs a very important function.
My first learnings about the Auditor-General were with the Public Accounts Committee. As Chair of the Public Accounts Committee I learnt a lot from the Auditor-General about research, assessment and reporting on government functions.
I also acknowledge the CE of the Department of Infrastructure and the asset management project implementation team because it is a big project. It is not a lightweight project; it is an extremely big project that is changing the face of government. I was involved with that project, as the previous Minister for Construction and Infrastructure, on a daily basis.
The minister outlined a lot of information about how challenging that project is. I would like to add to that. The Asset Management System is an end-to-end enterprise system for managing the Territory government road and building assets. The first phase of the new system was implemented across government on 18 April 2012.
The nine systems identified for replacement had been purpose built to support the core function of government asset management and are now deemed to be at the end of their economic life. The new system is an integrated end-to-end solution which automates many of the current processes, provides full financial disclosure on all government built assets and will provide efficiencies and effectiveness in delivering the infrastructure program. Six of the nine systems were replaced by the first phase. The remaining three systems will be replaced in phase two of the project. That is extremely important work.
The Auditor-General has provided very important background information, recommendations and information that governments work with; they get on with the job. Being able to base off very good recommendations enhances the government’s information and the detail around managing big projects into the future.
It is interesting that the minister talks about fixing it. I agree, minister, it is your job to get it right. It is also the job of the people you work with. You work with teams of people and that is the workload you undertake, as I was working through that.
The minister will solve it, as we were solving it. It is a massive project. Minister, do not continue with the harping and the carping. Get on with it! You are a Minister of the Crown. We spent four years listening to your continual carping and now you are a Minister of the Crown and will rise to the occasion.
You quote figures, minister. I will also quote Budget 2013-14. There is $6.495m allocated to it. I am very much looking forward to the progression of that major project. I will be asking questions in estimates about how you fix it. I will be celebrating that with you, minister, on behalf of all Territorians, because this major system will be fixed, will be accountable and will be examinable in the estimates process. I look forward to hearing from you, minister, and having you share further information with Territorians about the implementation of the system.
Mr ELFERINK (Attorney-General and Justice): Madam Speaker, there used to be an expression, the maxim in politics, that when you are in a hole stop digging. There we saw the member for Barkly shovelling away madly. ‘Oh my God, I’m in this hole. Is it deep enough yet? Hell no. Let’s keep going.’
Can you believe what you have just heard? Here is the theory according to the member for Barkly. We are driving the car and we want to upgrade. We have upgraded the car and are whistling down the road when, all of a sudden, we realise the bloody wheels have fallen off, the transmission is pouring out smoke, and we have just ploughed it into the side of a tree, despite the fact we stopped at the service station and bought some pantyhose for the fan belt to keep it going a little longer. Now we are walking away from the wreck; we are looking at the guys who have had to pick up the wreck and we are saying, ‘What are you doing to fix it?’
You have to be kidding! I cannot believe you would try to run a defence of the AMS system in this place. That has to be the most monumental - I was going to use an expression, but I am afraid I cannot use the second part of ‘cluster’ in this fine Chamber. I have only had my nose pressed up to the glass with the AMS system and I can see it has gone from a problem to a catastrophe to an outright calamity as time has passed. There should have been a number of warning signs along the way saying, ‘Ding-ding, ding-ding, we have a problem’, especially when the department kept coming back like some character in a Dickens novel saying, ‘Please, sir, can I have some more?’ On about the third trip, you would start to think this character has an obesity problem because this character is now consuming many times what was originally placed in the bowl. Nevertheless, it kept being shovelled out.
The problem is, as I understand it, this system still is not working properly. It still has problems and we are trying very hard to ameliorate a system which was handed to us in a diabolical situation. It saddens me that the former government spent $30m on a $15m project and, subsequently, we have to spend a whole lot more. We have to spend another $20m to get this thing back on the road. By the time we are finished we will have a $15m system that only cost us $50m. That sounds like the way to organise building a prison.
Madam Speaker, I am astonished that the member opposite went down that path. Yes, it is up to the minister to fix it but, for God’s sake, this is not a case of casting stones in glass houses, this is a case of wheeling your catapult into a crystal palace.
Ms MANISON (Wanguri): Madam Speaker, I further comment on the Auditor-General’s report for March 2013, particularly regarding the National Partnership Agreement on Homelessness. I thank the Auditor-General for his work on the report.
As we can see in the report, the National Partnership Agreement - I will refer to it as the NPA - on Homelessness commenced in 2009 and is scheduled to wrap up in June this year. It was a joint Territory and Australian government program worth almost $55m, with $29.3m contributed by the Territory government and $25.6m from the Australian government.
All jurisdictions and the Commonwealth have conducted audits to look at the effectiveness of funding and delivery of this program. Combined with the housing stimulus investment in the Territory of over $60m and the National Partnership Agreement into Remote Indigenous Housing, change is occurring across the Territory in the field of homelessness and housing. We all agree that homelessness in the Territory remains too high and is still by far the highest in the nation. These efforts alone are not enough and more needs to be done.
The NPA on Homelessness had ambitious targets of reducing homelessness by 7%, Indigenous homelessness by 33%, and rough sleepers by 25%. We know the NT has a high rate of homelessness and most homeless people are Indigenous. Of the 105 000 counted as homeless in Australia, the Territory had 15 479, and 90% of them were Indigenous. This figure is far too high and is the result of decades and decades of housing issues in the bush.
There are 22 components to the National Partnership Agreement on Homelessness. Some of the aspects included A Place to Call Home, which included the building of 32 new dwellings to support people at the risk of homelessness, give them ongoing support, help them become good tenants, and help them secure longer-term housing.
Today in the budget I see the project has not been completed yet and there has been a revote of about $9.4m in the housing infrastructure budget for the delivery of new properties in Bellamack and Zuccoli. We have seen some great projects achieved under the NPA on Homelessness, including the refurbishment of the YMCA at Doctors Gully to make more rooms available. I believe there were approximately an extra 15 two- and three-bedroom units to help accommodate more people at risk of homelessness by providing more affordable accommodation. I believe that was finished two or three years ago.
We have seen more efforts in the area of crisis accommodation under the NPA. We have also seen more work done in the field of medium-term managed accommodation. We have also seen a raft of programs looking at the areas of support for youth, men, people going through rehabilitation, people leaving correctional services and the justice system, and families escaping violence. There has been a lot of help for those people at risk of homelessness because of those factors delivered under the NPA on Homelessness.
We know homelessness is a huge issue and, generally, people who are at risk of being homeless or are homeless tend to be in that position for a range of factors. There is not a one-size-fits-all approach; you have to tackle it from a range of angles.
The NPA was revised in 2010 and 2012. It included changes to benchmark performance and its reporting. It was a new program so reviews were needed as issues occurred from time to time during the implementation.
Reading the report, the Auditor-General found that the Northern Territory had met its obligations under the NPA on Homelessness. The future of the program remains uncertain as we know it is wrapping up in June 2013.
The Auditor-General also found it was not possible to demonstrate in any objective way the effectiveness of the program in reducing homelessness and that the program roll-out time was unrealistic. There were issues in verifying data on homelessness and the exact impact the NPA on Homelessness had and what it achieved in reducing homelessness. However, the report states that:
Of the many programs delivered under the NPA on Homelessness the question is: where does the future lie? Will these efforts continue to this extent into the future? Will the programs which are getting real outcomes continue? We have to see what is going on.
I say a very big well done to the NGO sector which was heavily involved in the delivery of this NPA. It worked hand in hand with the Australian and Territory governments in addressing these issues.
It has been an immense time over the last few years looking at the issues of housing and homelessness across the Territory. I hope those efforts continue. While the NPA on Homelessness was being delivered we saw the $1.7bn investment into the NPA on Remote Indigenous Housing and also the $60m housing stimulus package being delivered into the Territory. There have been huge efforts to tackle homelessness and overcrowding from top to bottom.
With the housing stimulus package we saw over $60m invested to deliver over 200 units of new accommodation targeting homelessness and supported accommodation. That was around 450 to 500 more beds for Territorians doing it tough. There were some fantastic projects delivered, again hand in hand with the non-government sector. For example, Catherine Booth House in Stuart Park was completely rebuilt to include 12 individual bedroom facilities. I believe there is a chapel there and new office facilities for the staff who work very hard with women with some pretty tough situations to deal with in life who are escaping violence and need the protection of housing and a roof over their head.
Percy Court in Alice Springs is for transitional accommodation to help people get the life skills to help them secure a longer term lease. In housing, whether it be public housing or the private market, many people come in from the bush to town and gain some good skills to help them be successful tenants in the long run and to secure longer term housing.
There is Crerar Road in Berrimah, which is also a transitional accommodation facility in Darwin. We also saw more supported accommodation in Darwin and Alice Springs for people who were homeless. For example, at the Salvation Army at Eastside there were an extra eight or 12 rooms added. There were 35 rooms redeveloped at the Bath Street facility in Alice Springs specifically for people who were coming into town seeking medical treatment.
We saw new townhouses at St Vincent de Paul in Coconut Grove for people who needed affordable accommodation while they were going through a journey in their own lives, to help them secure the longer-term accommodation they required to enter the private housing market or, eventually, a public housing dwelling, and help them through that patch where they would otherwise be on the street or in an overcrowded situation. That stimulus package made a lot of housing available to help people who are doing it really tough.
That was coupled with the National Partnership Agreement into Remote Indigenous Housing where we saw a 10-year commitment of $1.7bn across the Territory. I have seen the budget papers today and that amount has increased to about $1.9bn. It is a huge investment in people’s lives and in housing in our remote areas and communities that have been through so much. We have all seen the state some of that housing was in before they did the refurbishments or rebuilds. It is also about building new houses so families live in safe, healthy accommodation and we tackle the issue of overcrowding.
We know that in the first five years of the life of this program the aim is to get 934 new houses on the ground, to rebuild 415 existing houses and refurbish 2500 houses in 73 remote communities and town camps across the Territory. According to the latest reports, containing figures up to January 2013, 780 new homes have been built and 2633 rebuilds and refurbishments have been completed.
That is almost 3500 families across the Territory living in new or improved housing, living in safe housing, and living in houses where they have kitchens, laundries and bathrooms that work. We know it is not perfect; we know there is a long journey still to go to overcome the immense needs in housing across the Territory, but there have been massive steps in the right direction in this space. Another 3500 families in the Territory are now living in safe, habitable accommodation with their families. It is fantastic to go and see some of the new housing estates, particularly those that were built in the bush.
There have been some big steps taken in the area of housing across the Territory. The National Partnership Agreement on Homelessness has been a part of that. It has done a lot of work in helping support people at risk of homelessness or who are homeless and, hopefully, helped many more people break the cycle of homelessness and enter longer-term accommodation.
The Auditor-General found that the Territory had met its obligation under the NPA on Homelessness. Now the challenge is to keep working on this issue to ensure we can reduce those numbers even further. The Auditor-General’s report is a constructive analysis of the delivery of the NPA on Homelessness to help ensure that not just the Territory but all jurisdictions in the Commonwealth make sure they, through future programs, get the best value for their money and the best outcomes for the people because, ultimately, it is about the people at the end of the line.
I thank the Auditor-General for the work done in this area because it is important. Our NGO sector must be commended as well for its ongoing efforts to address homelessness and to work hand in hand with the Territory and Commonwealth governments. I also say well done to the Housing department which did quite a lot of work in this area. The challenge of homelessness now sits with the new government. A lot of work has been done over the last few years but I do not take for granted how big the issue is still. There is a lot more work we all need to do together. Thank you.
Motion agreed to; report noted.
Madam SPEAKER: I table interstate travel reports for the members for Barkly and Stuart, pursuant to clause 4.12 of the Remuneration Tribunal Determination No 1 of 2012.
Ms FINOCCHIARO (Drysdale): Madam Speaker, I table the Subordinate Legislation and Publications Committee report entitled Electronic Tabling of Documents.
Ms FINOCCHIARO (Drysdale): Madam Speaker, I move that the report be printed.
Motion agreed to.
MOTION
Adopt Report – Subordinate Legislation and Publications Committee Report on Electronic Tabling of Documents
Ms FINOCCHIARO (Drysdale): Madam Speaker, I present the Subordinate Legislation and Publications Committee report on electronic tabling of documents. This report recommends that the Assembly embraces the concept of e-Parliament by establishing a web-based tabled papers database and introducing electronic tabling of documents. The committee’s inquiry into the electronic tabling of documents took into account the operations of the Assembly and its committees, requirements to table documents pursuant to statute or standing orders, and the ongoing accessibility of tabled documents by members, the media and the wider community.
In addition to reviewing the Assembly’s current tabling practice and procedures, the committee looked at tabling methods elsewhere in Australia and New Zealand and sought the views of Northern Territory government agencies required to table documents.
The committee found that most parliaments in Australia and New Zealand accept electronic versions of documents for tabling and publish them on the Internet in tabled papers databases. As the Internet is one of the most frequently used methods for people to access information, the committee believes tabled papers, which are public documents, should also be accessible from the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly’s website.
In support of web-based tabled papers databases, in 2009 the Australian National Audit Office noted that ongoing availability and accessibility of tabled documents was a matter of some concern. Whilst government agencies are generally required to publish documents presented to parliament on their websites following tabling, it was found that this did not guarantee availability or accessibility over the long term. For example, not all government agencies, particularly some of the smaller regulatory bodies, have a web presence and, unlike parliaments that are required to retain documents for perpetuity, a lack of consistent policy for archiving agency documents was identified as an issue. Most importantly, it was found that guaranteeing long-term access to documents was particularly difficult when government agencies were restructured.
Apart from improving access to tabled papers by members, the media and the general public, other parliaments have found that electronic tabling of documents decreases the demands on the Table Office. Electronic tabling of documents also significantly reduces costs for those agencies that are required to table reports. The Subordinate Legislation and Publications Committee is currently responsible for monitoring the statutory tabling requirements of 92 government agencies independent offices, statutory authorities and regulatory bodies, a number of which table more than one report per annum.
Based on an average production cost of $5000 to $7000 for annual reports, considerable cost savings, potentially upwards of $50 000 per annum, could be achieved if inquiry and annual reports were provided to the Assembly and other parties electronically, and agencies were actively encouraged to minimise print runs.
However, given the pace of technological change, ongoing accessibility of electronic documents was raised as an issue of concern by a number of parliaments. Consequently, all jurisdictions still require at least one hard copy of all documents for tabling and archival purposes.
Where additional hard copies are required, for example, copies of Auditor-General reports or subordinate legislation for committee members, Queensland and New South Wales now accept photocopies rather than formally printed and bound versions. As in the case in other jurisdictions, to ensure the hard copy requirements of the House continue to be met, it is considered that the Subordinate Legislation and Publications Committee is the most appropriate body to determine, review and publish the number of additional hard copies of documents tabled by the Speaker, ministers and members that are required to be supplied to the Clerk.
Based on the Queensland model of electronic tabling, the committee circulated a draft e-tabling proposal for comment by NT government agencies. A total of 17 agencies provided feedback and, without exception, all agencies supported the proposal.
To facilitate the introduction of electronic tabling, Recommendation 1 proposes that the Department of the Legislative Assembly be directed to prepare a business case detailing the options for, and cost of, establishing, implementing, and maintaining an electronic tabled papers database. Recommendation 2 proposes that the standing orders be amended to provide for the tabling of hard copy and electronic copies of documents and that the draft order be referred to the Standing Orders Committee for consideration and report.
I feel it is important to note that implementing the e-tabling proposal represented in this report will also enhance the Legislative Assembly’s standing in relation to world e-Parliament benchmarks for parliamentary transparency, accountability, and openness. On behalf of the committee, I thank the parliaments of Australia and New Zealand for the information they have provided, and the opportunity to benefit from their experience. I also thank the Northern Territory government agencies that provided comment on the committee’s draft e-tabling proposal.
Mr Deputy Speaker, I move that the report be adopted.
Motion agreed to; report adopted.
ADJOURNMENT
Mr ELFERINK (Leader of Government Business): Mr Deputy Speaker, I move that the Assembly do now adjourn.
On Friday 19 April 2013 I attended the Prison Officer in Training graduation ceremony at the Marrara Indoor Stadium. On Friday 26 April 2013 I attended the Prison Officer in Training graduation ceremony at Alice Springs Correctional Centre. I place on the record my congratulations to Mr Tunny for the fine turnout, particularly of the Alice Springs graduating class. There was a great sense of pride at both of these events. In Darwin 12 Prison Officer in Training recruits graduated in Class 71/13, and in Alice Springs 22 graduated in Class 70/13.
These graduations are an opportunity to formally recognise the achievements of the men and women who have completed the first phase of their 12-month Prison Officer in Training program. On behalf of the Northern Territory government and the Department of Correctional Services, I was proud to attend both of these events to personally congratulate them on their outstanding achievements to date.
All of the prison officers on parade received training from some of the Territory’s most experienced correctional staff. They have learnt many new skills and have had considerable exposure in their new workplace. It is our prison officers who are at the front line of engaging with offenders, and they are faced with a demanding and challenging job, but I believe they have the ability to make a difference within the criminal justice system.
If these graduates successfully complete the next stage of training, they will be awarded a Certificate III in Correctional Practice (Custodial) and be offered permanent positions as prison officers in the Northern Territory. Prison officers come from a range of backgrounds and are able to draw on their life experience in their day-to-day operations.
Of those graduating, one is an Indigenous recruit who was recently signed by Territory Thunder - a female whose dad was serving as a prison officer in the Alice Springs Correctional Centre, marking the first time a father and daughter have served together - and a former US Infantry soldier who completed two tours of Iraq in the 39th Infantry Brigade in 2005 and 2008.
At the Darwin ceremony, four Corrections staff received their 10-year service medals, with one receiving a 20-year service medal. A further four officers received letters of commendation for their actions in reviving a prisoner, and a probation and parole officer received a Certificate IV in Correctional Practice. I say, particularly to those who received their letters of commendation - Patricia Johnson, Emma Hilton, John Coneybeer and Simone McDean - I am enormously proud of what you have done in saving a prisoner’s life.
At the Alice Springs ceremony nine Correctional staff received their 10-year service medals, a further seven received letters of commendation in having revived a prisoner. Once again, I place on the record my thanks to Christopher Doidge, Daniel Symes, Wayne Middleton, Karina Akarana, Marion Glover, Rose Metea and Bev Denise for their extraordinary efforts in saving the life of a prisoner in very similar circumstances as occurred in Darwin. These prison officers showed the exemplary standard prison officers bring to their workplace on a day-to-day basis.
A probation and parole officer also received a Certificate IV in Correctional Practice and the prison drugs detection dog, Cosby, received a five-year service medal …
Ms Anderson: Hear, hear!
Mr ELFERINK: Well, I think it is 35 in dog years, by the way, so we owe the dog two lots of long service leave.
I look forward to following the progress of these graduates and being involved in future prison officer graduation ceremonies.
Cosby, the dog, received the service medal in Darwin. The graduates in course 71/13 were Antony Kovac, Sharon Robertson, Nicole Robertson, Gregory Coates, Joanne McBride, Craig Jones, Daniel Joyce, Luke Young, Jimmy Lolias, Dermot Noone, Joshua Tybell and Asheesh Shawel.
The service medals for 10 years went to Wade Jensen, Colin Stringer, Robert Jennings, Alison Wasley, and Michelle Eller received the 20-year service medal.
In Alice Springs, the graduates from course 70/13 were Peter Baulch, Jessica Brown, Michelle Carr, Christopher Doidge, Ross Dorling, Hilary Gatenby, Peter Hill, Craig James, Lauchlan Lake, Floyd Malcolm, Justin Mayne, Maliiha Nakaora, Lucas-John O’Donoghue, Nathan Pawlak, Luis Perez, Rodney Randall, Michael Ryan, Om Shrestha, Richard Silver, Yvonne Walls, Simon Ward, who was also the Best Team Member and Student of Merit and Darren Whitaker.
Ten year service medals went to SPO Ray Rowe, POFC Martin Betts, Security Systems Manager Darrell Wallace, Security Systems Technical Officer Hy Thi, Team Leader Tennant Creek Community Corrections Yvon Magnery, Program Facilitator and Case Worker Wayne Kirk, SPO Paul Schluter, drug dog Cosby, and Prison Officer Warwick Auld.
I congratulate all the prison officers who have graduated plus those who have provided great service over the years and those who have provided particular service in the areas of their letters of commendation.
I am proud of each and every one of them. Every time I see a fine body of people like our prison officers on parade being proud of what they do, knowing they are involved in a dynamic time of change within the Corrections system, I genuinely feel very grateful for having the opportunity to be their minister.
‘We have much to do in this space’, is what I say to those prison officers, but what we will do in this space will be worthwhile and noble indeed.
Ms PURICK (Goyder): Mr Deputy Speaker, this evening I speak on the recent Northern Territory Firefighter Championship Competition held at Freds Pass Reserve on Sunday 5 May. The day started at about 8.30 am and went through to about 6 pm when we had the presentations.
These competition games are a great way for volunteer fire officers in the greater rural area, particularly the ones associated with the Northern Territory Fire Service, to practice and hone their skills in firefighting, use of equipment, engaging and talking with each other and, of course, building camaraderie between teams. The inaugural games of this firefighting championship were held in 2003 and I believe they only missed one or two games, which could not be organised for various reasons.
It brings together all the volunteer brigade units under the management of the NT Fire Service; however, there was a team from Jabiru and a team from Bathurst Island – the member for Arafura would be interested in that – and an airport Airservices composite team. The Bushfires NT brigades in my electorate, being the Elizabeth Valley and Lambells Lagoon people, are keen to put a team in next year.
This year we had teams from Virginia/Bees Creek, Howard Springs, Koolpinyah, Jabiru, and Humpty Doo which fielded two teams. Koolpinyah had not been able to field a team for a while but has recruited quite a few younger people, shall we say, so was able to put up a team. Batchelor returned with a team, which was good news, and Bathurst Island, which I mentioned, was excellent. The airport Airservices came along as well and put in a team and there was a composite team.
The scenarios they compete in all have interesting names but they are related to the kind of work a volunteer fire officer, if not a day professional fire officer, would be engaged in. They included quick attack, dry hydrant boost, the wet hose section, wet hose and targets, spot fires, hoses breeching and the bucket brigade. Interestingly, the bucket brigade is a scenario which involves scaffolding. It is designed to bring back the old fashioned firefighting skills when all you had was a water supply and buckets to put a fire out via a human chain. About eight of them take the water in the buckets and have to get it to the top of the scaffolding to fill up a 24-gallon drum in the quickest time. That event is very entertaining and is usually done at the end of the day. By the end of that competition, everyone is well and truly saturated by buckets of water being thrown everywhere. It was a great day.
I compliment, commend and congratulate all of the people who participated in the day. I particularly want to reference the competition committee who put together this year’s event, which is no small task that is for sure: Cameron Burrows, Chairperson; Maxine Way, Secretary/Treasurer; Andy Smith, fire services representative; Damien Buckley, Alice Springs representative; Lachlan Way and Steven Gross, Howard Springs representatives, Steve Addison, Jabiru representative; Wayne Stubbs, Katherine representative; Graham Stacey, Koolpinyah representative; and Andrew Hardy, Virginia/Bees Creek representative.
There were also many marshals and judges involved, and many helpers and people who put out the props for scenarios and brought in various vehicles. There were sponsors for the day, who I acknowledge and thank because it is sometimes through sponsors that these events are pulled together: Curby’s Trophies; NT Scaffolds; NT Sea Containers, Kennards Hire, and Fin Bins. Mark Brustolin brought along his old fire truck, which is always a great attraction no matter where it goes. Giggling Geckos had a jumping castle for the children. Top End Shaved Ice was there as was Johnny McKay from 104.1 Territory FM, and the Palmerston Rugby Union Club which put on the dinner at the end of the day. I thank all of those sponsors, and I thank the scorers for the day, Rebecca and Bob Burgess, who are with the Humpty Doo brigade. The people from NT Fire Services, including Steve Rothwell, the Chief, were there most of the day. Dave Ellis, who is the Deputy Chief, Dave Pettit and Andy Smith were there and they work well with all the volunteer people.
The spread of prizes was good; even the Koolpinyah people picked up a prize although they had not been there for a while. For the third time, the Jabiru team took out the overall prize and overall award. Well done to them because they train hard at Jabiru, as do all the teams and all the people. The work the volunteers do and the commitment they give to our community is invaluable. It is never so more noted that in the Dry Season when we have wildfires. Sadly, they have started again; they are very busy already at Noonamah. There have been fires that have been deliberately lit. When you see the extent of damage caused by these fires, it is no wonder people want to lobby the government and others to make the penalties stiffer and harsher if we can catch the culprits who commit this bad deed.
Mr Deputy Speaker, in conclusion, I extend big congratulations to all who participated in the Fire Fighter Championship Competition. It was a great day; I was there for most of the day. I organised a raffle, won by a person from Jabiru, which was for a wheelbarrow with lots of goodies in it. The proceeds of the raffle went to the Burns Unit at the Royal Darwin Hospital. Nearly $350 was raised, which was good. Well done and congratulations to all of them.
Ms ANDERSON (Namatjira): Mr Deputy Speaker, I rise to respond to an allegation made by the member for Barkly in this place on 27 March. He stated:
While I cannot speak for my colleagues, I can assure the member there is no outstanding correspondence in my office or that of my department for him or his constituents. In fact, I can go further and say I am assured that on the date he made that assertion there was no overdue correspondence relating to the member for Barkly or his constituents. So, before the member for Barkly chastises my office and my department again, I would be grateful if he could check his facts.
I thank the Hermannsburg community for a fantastic sports weekend which I attended last weekend. I thank Denise and Nicholas Williams and, of course, the Hermannsburg police, Hermannsburg clinic and local government and FaHCSIA on the community for the fantastic sports weekend. I could not have seen a better sports weekend where there was no alcohol, nobody under the influence of alcohol in or around the football oval or the softball diamonds. It was a fantastic atmosphere. The concert at night was a real family event. The kids were all dancing at the front with Warren H Williams rocking away. That is the kind of sports weekends we need to encourage for our families, communities and children. It is an example we set as adults if we do not have alcohol or people under the influence of alcohol, which encourages children to be good children as they are growing up. As we know, children learn from what they see.
There was plenty of food around the football oval and plenty of drinks. I congratulate Helen Cantawarra who was stuck - I do not think she ever got out and saw the softball or footy match. I take my hat off to you, Helen. She worked in a takeaway at the Top Shop for the whole four days, as did young Mandy. These are the people who are committed to the community’s wellbeing.
Last week two staff in my office had birthdays: Che and Nicholas. I take this opportunity to put on the public record a happy birthday to you both. Thanks for all the help you give me in the office.
I thank the members for Daly and Arnhem because I had a fantastic five days last week going to communities. I went to Daly with the member for Daly and sat down with people and heard all their concerns about local government and the consultation process. I looked at the houses and the beautiful Daly River and thought, ‘What has Labor done in 10 years for this community?’ Absolutely nothing, and this is a community where houses are being looked after.
The former member for Daly never raised the issue in this Chamber to talk about how that community was looking after its houses and not getting any new ones. I congratulate you, member for Daly, for taking the concerns of your constituents and for giving me the opportunity to go to your electorate with you.
I thank the member for Arnhem for the four days we had in her electorate with her constituents, going to Groote, Millingimbi, Ramingining and Gapuwiyak to look at the concerns those people have. At Millingimbi, the biggest fraud ever, SIHIP, removed six-bedroom houses and built three-bedroom houses. In that community alone they are 16 bedrooms down.
You just heard the new member for Wanguri talk about how good the program was. Yes, it was a national partnership agreement, but they did not achieve the bedroom numbers across the Northern Territory. You need to be very careful of what you are praising inside this Chamber because Aboriginal people are talking about it across the Northern Territory - no verandahs, no air conditioners, not enough room. You had five- and six-bedroom houses knocked down in favour of three-bedroom houses. If the five- and six-bedroom houses were already overcrowded, what is the overcrowding like in a three-bedroom house? You have taken the same amount of people out of a six bedroom house and plonked them in a three bedroom house.
Aboriginal people are really concerned about it. You have left a great big hole for this government to come into. We have already started the process of talking to people. We have given them back their voices. We are consulting, unlike you. That is why you find yourself sitting on the other side.
Mr GUNNER (Fannie Bay): Madam Speaker, last month, Bret David Kajetanski passed away suddenly at 37. Bret’s passing was a shock because he was so young. It was unexpected.
Bret came home from work on Monday 15 April to relax and have a night in front of the telly. He was found there at home the following morning, having passed away as the result of a latent heart irregularity, but not a heart attack. Quite simply, Bret’s heart stopped beating.
Many of us gathered recently to say goodbye. Joining family were Bret’s friends from SBA Office National, his school friends, neighbours at Marrara, members of the Darwin Greyhound Racing Club, and others. Tributes were given by his sister Belinda; Brad Fong, Bret’s brother-in-law; Joshua and Jye, Bret’s nephews; Simon Nathaniel, his best friend and workmate at SBA; Helen Smith, his close colleague at SBA; me; and Hal Jenkins, Bret’s close friend from Casuarina Secondary School.
I thank the celebrant, Peter Little; Bret’s parents, Barry and Valerie; his sister, Belinda; and her husband Brad, and their two sons, Joshua and Jye, for allowing me the privilege of reading the words of the eulogy they drafted to share the life and travels of Bret David Kajetanski:
Many of them were there on the day, and some of them travelled from afar to get there. For those who could not make it, Bret’s family thanked them for all the lovely messages they received.
I thank the family for letting me share these words from the eulogy. In my own words, it does not seem right, fair or real we had to say goodbye to Taxi. He was a friend, a good friend to many. He was a ripping good bloke. He was a friend you loved having a beer with and he was also much more than that - much more. He was someone you knew would always be there if you ever needed him, whether it was for something big or something small. Bret was someone who said, ‘Yes, how can I help?’ He did a lot for me. The ledger was squarely in my favour and I owe him tremendously. It is a debt I cannot now pay and need to find a way to pay forward.
Mates who are there when you need them are precious. They are people you build your life around and when you lose them, you lose your footing. After recovering from the shock of the news we have lost Bret, there is a loss of balance. It will take a while to adjust to a world without Taxi. We may have lost him, but we will not forget him. Each of us will have our own way of paying tribute. Personally, I will remember Taxi whenever Carlton runs out to play, or whenever I go to the greyhounds, whenever I walk through the front doors of SBA. He may be gone too soon but he will not be forgotten.
Mr KURRUPUWU (Arafura): Madam Speaker, I have mentioned before it is my dream to be able to listen closely to the needs of the people of Arafura and see Aboriginal people grow strong through education and training, work in proper jobs and businesses, and have strong, healthy, happy lives. Traditional Aboriginal law and culture must become a partner with white man’s law and culture so our people can maintain their respect and dignity.
There has been too much dependency on governments and this has taken away our freedom to make decisions that benefit our people. Minister Anderson has been working quickly to consult widely and to put in place decision-making at the local level in Arafura, which will allow community input into decision-making. The current shire arrangements do the opposite.
Often, local Aboriginal people in Arafura do not benefit from the large amount of money being spent. Our government recognises it is time for government to work directly with local communities that want change and for government to work for a better future for the great people of Arafura.
After the election I had the pleasure of travelling to Maningrida to meet with the Yolngu Nations Assembly to discuss ways to better work with the people of west, central and east Arnhem. In mid-December I travelled in the wonderful electorate of Arafura visiting the communities of Jabiru, Gunbalanya and Maningrida. Here I listened to important community concerns about key issues including administration by the shire, roads, sewerage, and problems being experienced by those living in outstations. A number of concerns were expressed about the need for improvements to Bawinangaresource centre. I also visited Gunbalanya School and met with the principal, staff and students. They were very keen to see me because, apparently, their previous member did not visit to hear their concerns. I look forward to assisting and working closely with Gunbalanya School.
On this trip I had the pleasure of attending the AFL clinic at Jabiru and the Melbourne Demons at Magela Oval. I was very pleased to have a long talk to Luke Tapscott and Jack Viney who are top players of the future in AFL. I told Jack one of the captains of the Melbourne Demons was very keen to talk with me but, unfortunately, he had to remain in Melbourne because he was injured. The Demons have a very close relationship with the Tiwi and Aboriginal people of the Northern Territory.
During my visit to communities within Arafura, I was invited to a very important graduation ceremony in Gunbalanya where the two first ever Year 12 students graduated from the West Arnhem College. Congratulations to Robert Balmana and James Marddy. This was a terrific performance. I strongly believe that education and employment hold the key to the future for Aboriginal people and that a very young Aboriginal person should receive a quality education with real input from local Aboriginal people. Robert and James have shown us the way forward.
The principal of Jabiru Area School has advised me that the school is holding important discussions with the traditional owners and elders of Kakadu National Park. I look forward to discussing how Indigenous education and employment can be progressed here too.
In late January, I visited communities on Tiwi Island to hear and discuss the main concern of members of the Tiwi community. After a number of meetings with government departments and the Minister for Transport, and now Chief Minister, Adam Giles, I am very pleased that we were able to make an announcement on Wednesday 6 March, on Tiwi Island, that the government is seeking tender for a trial ferry service from Darwin to the island. This ferry service is very important for Tiwi people. I am also very keen to improve the roads in the Maningrida region and I have had a number of discussions with relevant ministers in government to progress this. It is important that the Maningrida region has far better road access than it does at present.
During April 2013, the Minister for Health, Mrs Robyn Lambley, visited the Tiwi Islands for discussions with traditional owners and other interested stakeholders on the possibility of establishing rehabilitation facilities for people badly affected by drugs and alcohol. There is strong support for such a facility on Bathurst Island as many are very concerned about the number of Tiwi who travel to Darwin for heavy beer and end up in gaol or sick in the long grass. We wish to see these people being treated for their problems with alcohol and drugs and to have access to learning some skills to assist them to gain worthwhile employment.
During the next few months, I will be travelling through the electorate of Arafura for discussions with individuals and organisations in Minjilang Warruwi, Maningrida, Gunbalanya and Jabiru to listen to their needs and concerns so we may work together to achieve a better life for our people living within Arafura. I encourage those concerned about any issues within their communities to discuss them with me on my forthcoming visit.
Ms WALKER (Nhulunbuy): Madam Speaker, I rise this evening to pay my respects to John Keogh who lost his short and brutal battle with cancer at Gove hospital on 18 April. I offer my very sincere condolences to John’s wife, Gonnie, and his four sons and their families: Kris and Debbie; Peter and Shauna and their kids Jimmy and Roxy; Mark and Emma and youngest son, Sean. I also offer my sincere condolences to John’s mum, Patricia, his brothers, Greg and Dan, and sister, Jenny, all of whom I only recently met during John’s illness. Those condolences extend well beyond John’s beloved family to his vast network of friends and colleagues associated with John’s biggest passions: the union movement - the ETU in particular - the Labor Party, and all things music.
At 58, John’s life ended way too soon. I wish to place on the public record the many things we remember about John.
I first met John and his family in 1990 when I moved to Nhulunbuy and was teaching his eldest son, Kris, at the local high school. With the passing of time, while details are a little vague, it was really my husband who fell into a friendship with John after meeting him in the front bar at the Walkabout Lodge, a popular venue for workers and tradies. While predominantly men, there were women, like me, who used to go along for a drink with our partners on a Friday afternoon.
A couple of years later, we ended up moving into the same street as the Keogh’s, just three doors away from them, when I was expecting our first child, and from there our family ties grew. People are always welcome at the Keogh’s house, including my husband, Lawrence, on a regular basis over the next 20 years or so. My early visits to the Keogh’s were late at night in my nightie to seek respite and cheerful company, which I always found, with a crying newborn baby on my shoulder who was soon nicknamed not Zoe Walker but Zoe Squawker by the Keoghs.
I got to know John even better when I joined the Nhulunbuy Yirrkala branch of the Labor Party, where John had been president for longer than anyone can remember. His passion for the union movement, which saw him take on the role as a savvy and respected senior site delegate representing the ETU, was well matched by his ardent support of the Labor Party and its values.
To do justice to a snapshot of John Keogh’s life, I will share parts of the eulogy delivered by Kris Keogh, who I am sure will forgive me for editing, given time restraints.
John Patrick Keogh was born in Sydney, the eldest of five children growing up in the then working class suburb of Mosman. By age five, his future career as a union delegate was already well on track. One of his earliest negotiated agreements involved selling his school cap to buy lollies. John and Gonnie met at a party when they were 16 and 17 respectively. Gonnie was a quiet, studious Dutch girl who worked in a pet shop on weekends, but they hit it off and together they would go camping up on the central coast, spend whole days at the beach and eat pizza together.
Gonnie was a calming figure in John’s life right from the word go. Within three years they were married and the next year, following a 105 mp/h police chase, John got Gonnie to the hospital just in time to deliver Kris. In December 1977, John got a start at Nabalco, planning to stay, like most of us, for just two years. In 1978, Peter was born.
The big Nabalco strike of 1981 was the making of John as a union official and solidified his resolve to support workers’ rights, something he continued to do for the rest of his life. After three months of striking and no money for food in that 1981 strike, anyone with a boat would fish all day and then head to the Nhulunbuy oval at dusk to distribute the day’s catch amongst the strikers. Eventually, the company caved in and waged workers won pay and conditions in line with the salaried staff. Unity is strength and strength is unity, John would always say.
Dave Mitchell, a long-term Goveite, comrade and colleague of John’s, also spoke at the funeral about John’s leadership. He described him as a true leader. His ideas on leadership were based on three essential qualities: integrity, imagination and courage. His ability to unite people was one of his greatest strengths and this resulted in the formation of the Gove Combined Unions, which has been the most effective and successful strategy for the advancement of workers devised in the last 30 years.
He often found it could be dangerous and uncomfortable to be right on matters in which the established authorities are wrong. Usually what happened though was at first the bosses ignored him, then they ridiculed him, then they fought him and then he won.
It was John’s work within the labour movement that helped secure so much of what we take for granted today: the 38 hour week, the minimum wage, family leave, social security, Medicare and superannuation. These cornerstones of working class security all bear the union label and have John’s fingerprints all over them. Dave Mitchell’s words could not have been truer.
John was also instrumental in helping secure big wins for workers in an EBA which would change the very fabric of Nhulunbuy in more recent news. An equal time roster was established, giving workers four days on, followed by four days off. Hard fought for, it was something he fought fiercely to retain in the last EBA negotiations, protracted that they were, with current owner Rio Tinto. I hope his legacy remains when the next round of EBA negotiations comes around on the Gove site.
Outside of work, John was one of the original HOGs, the Harleys of Gove. John and the HOGs might have looked like a group of tough bikers, but they were all kind-hearted top blokes and all family men. While their original clubhouse may have been a pretty wild place to hang out, they also fundraised and delivered Christmas presents to needy kids on their annual toy runs. John’s ability to combine partying with helping the community is something we all admired.
The HOG shed over the years evolved as a hub for musos under John’s stewardship as a lover of music, especially the blues. Sunday afternoons at the HOG shed is an institution in Nhulunbuy and, with it, John was instrumental in founding the East Arnhem Blues Society. With news of John’s incurable cancer, there were many things he wanted to do before he died. Amongst them, he wanted to return home to Nhulunbuy and be part of a pre-wake which was held at the HOG shed on Sunday 14 April.
Hundreds of people turned out to the biggest party the HOG shed has ever seen. Friends came from far and wide and the start was heralded by a precession of Harleys which met in town and rode through the Gove hospital grounds, engines revving to serenade John on the way to the HOG shed.
Food and drinks flowed and messages of love and support were delivered and, with a roving mike in his hand, John offered a running, and very cheeky, politically incorrect commentary. How many people get to go to their own wake, and how many people get a message from the Prime Minister? With Julia Gillard’s message concluding with the words:
John, who was something of an ideas man, who was always scheming and strategising, also managed to have considerable input into his own funeral, which was held 12 days after he attended his own wake. Hundreds of people attended John’s funeral service. It is a rare thing to walk away from a funeral smiling rather than crying, but that is how it was.
The pice de rsistance was the funeral procession to Nhulunbuy cemetery. Some two dozen Harleys led the way from the Sacred Heart parish, followed by a flatbed truck with muso mates playing blues and rock tunes to serenade John on the stairway to heaven. It was a PC decision not to play ACDC’s Highway to Hell. Secretly, I think John, who was never one for political correctness, would have thought that was hilarious.
Following that procession was not the traditional hearse but, at John’s request, his coffin was strapped down on the back of his son Sean’s ute, and draped proudly with the ETU flag. The fact that the ute had to be jump started at the front of the church and caused a minor delay to the procession was pure John Keogh having the last laugh, and what a laugh he had! We will always remember John Keogh with much love and respect, and, rather than sadness, chuckle at his antics and his irrepressible sense of humour, and salute his contribution to his community and his fellow workers. May he rest in peace.
Mr McCARTHY (Barkly): Madam Speaker, tonight I share about a local member working in opposition. I have some advice for the minister and a request for the minister. The minister I am talking about is the minister for Tourism, Hon Matt Conlan, member for Greatorex.
I encourage the minister to visit the gulf savannah area of the Northern Territory because it presents with so much potential. It is certainly wilderness country. It is exciting country. It is, to a large degree, underexplored in tourism opportunities, and there are many good people there with many good ideas.
One constituent in particular is Kerry Ralph, from Heartbreak Hotel at Cape Crawford. As a local member representing the Territory opposition, I meet with people, discuss issues, and take ideas on board, then I have to translate that to government. I do that by writing to the relevant ministers. Kerry has some fantastic ideas about tourism development. She is in a network at Heartbreak Hotel at Cape Crawford, is on the front line of service delivery, and can offer Hon Matt Conlan some great ideas and initiatives. I put down the information and wrote to the minister and the minister wrote back. It was good letter and it provided Kerry with some good contacts to progress her ideas. The minister also said he intends travelling throughout regional Northern Territory later in the year, which is great. I hope you come to the gulf savannah in the Barkly region and meet with Kerry.
Minister, I had to do bit of tidying up on your behalf, and I hope you find it acceptable. In the letter I received that I had to communicate to the constituent, you referred to Kerry as Mr Ralph, and a number of times you refer to ‘him’. Kerry is a female, a woman, the manager of Heartbreak Hotel. I explained to her it was unfortunate; however, ignore that and use the important contacts the minister provided.
The letter I received from the minister, with the incorrect references to Kerry’s gender, was also stamped electronically. Minister, I am a little concerned that this process might have gone through without your knowledge, without your input, and without the serious homework required of a Minister of the Crown. I have tidied the issue up and encourage you to contact Kerry and continue your research with that portfolio and the possibility of a visit to the Barkly, particularly travelling through the area of the gulf savannah so you can meet with Kerry and tourism operators. I am sure you will enjoy the hospitality of Heartbreak Hotel and you could certainly form ideas around adventure tourism opportunities. There would be some great opportunities for partnerships with Indigenous groups of the area, and it is also exciting cattle country. There would certainly be many opportunities to talk to the pastoral community.
Minister, in good faith and with respect I say it was a bit unfortunate. Having been a minister in the former government I know it is important to read your ministerial briefs, ask questions about them, and do background checks.
In using the electronic signature to expedite the ministerial process, be careful, minister, because if you are not across the detail and not reading and researching then you can miss those valuable opportunities.
I hope you accept this advice in good faith as you are now a Minister of the Crown. It is a fantastic job and you have the opportunity to make a difference in the Territory, particularly in the area of tourism, which you speak about with passion and enthusiasm. It always comes down to the basics which relate to being across the detail and taking an interest in all the material that comes across your desk. I hope, minister, to hear of your travels into that region, and to hear of your contact with a constituent who is very keen to progress and develop some very innovative and interesting ideas around that very special part of the Territory: Cape Crawford and the gulf savannah.
Ms FYLES (Nightcliff): Madam Speaker, I was privileged to attend the 2013 Northern Territory Barnardos Mother of the Year announcement held at the Vibe Hotel at the waterfront.
I take this opportunity to say congratulations to Gypsy Barrett, Belinda Crooks-Burns and Sharen Lake, the three exceptional mothers nominated for this year’s awards.
These national awards are held by Barnardos Australia to honour and celebrate special mothers who inspire, protect, love and nurture their children, often in the most extraordinary circumstances. Each of these incredible women was nominated for their tireless work, courageous efforts and nurturing skills and, of course, going above and beyond the call of duty.
Barnardos has for over 20 years been at the forefront of child welfare service provision. Their approach is to find real and permanent solutions for children and families in need. This is something Barnardos Australia wants for all children, particularly those who are at risk or have been abused. It is one of the largest children’s charities in Australia, caring for children at risk of abuse and neglect. The work of Barnardos focuses on the prevention of abuse, neglect and entry into care.
Children of all backgrounds and cultural heritage are helped through a range of welfare programs including crisis care, family support, counselling and permanent foster care. Every day there are more than a 130 substantiated cases of abuse and neglect across Australia and Barnardos sees thousands of families that need assistance in overcoming these problems. Their aim is to build relationships between children and young people, their families and the community. Each year it hosts the Mother of the Year awards across the nation. Winners from each state and territory become the national finalists and attend awards the Friday before Mother’s Day, in Sydney.
Sharen Lake from Tennant Creek was nominated by her daughter, Kara, for her tireless efforts and dedication to disadvantaged Indigenous children, particularly in her home town of Tennant Creek. She is a mother of four children and for the last 20 years has worked with the young people in her community of Tennant Creek in a youth hostel and also opens her own home to kids at risk. Her daughter spoke on the morning and her speech was inspirational about her mum and what she does in the Barkly region. It was for these reasons she was named the NT Barnardos Mother of the Year for 2013.
Sharen was invited to travel to Sydney where a ceremony was held at a gala luncheon with all the other state and Territory finalists. Although she was not the national winner, she did the Territory proud and her story is truly inspiring. It reminds us of the important things in life and not to take them for granted. With Mother’s Day last Sunday, I wish my mother and all the mothers in our community a happy Mother’s Day.
Moving on to my electorate of Nightcliff, we recently hosted the Seabreeze Festival which was a fantastic event of music, arts and dance held along the Nightcliff foreshore. This year it also incorporated other events across 10 days. It was a wonderful event and I congratulate all involved. The organisers and volunteers put in so much time and effort. It was a wonderful community event and it was fun to come together at the start of the Dry Season, enjoying our unique Territory lifestyle.
It was also pleasing to see so many people attend the May Day march. I have attended many May Day marches over the years, initially with my father. It was lovely this year to push the pram and march with my comrades and my two boys.
Other events I have been attending in my community include the Nightcliff Primary School assembly last Friday where I presented merit awards. We also had the Mother’s Day breakfast at the school which was a fantastic morning with hundreds of people from families within the school.
I also held a family fun day on Saturday morning at the Rapid Creek foreshore and I thank everyone who came along. We had a great time hula-hooping with Fairy Jill and jumping on the castle, not that I did that.
I have also been holding barbecues in the park across my electorate, and am holding another one this Sunday, and have been attending community listening posts along the foreshore. It has been wonderful catching up with residents and hearing their views.
Ms MANISON (Wanguri): Madam Speaker, I adjourn on a few different matters around my electorate. I was recently lucky enough to attend the Dripstone Middle School health expo, which is now an annual event. It is organised by the school nurse, Mary Burnell-Johnson. It was a terrific event; the students saw a range of different stallholders from government and non-government health organisations to learn a few things. There was a competition, so students had to answer questions at each of the different stalls. It was terrific to see so many students learning about good health and it was also great to see the organisations involved.
I was also recently fortunate to be invited to the Leanyer and the Wanguri schools for their special Anzac Day assemblies. The Wanguri Primary School assembly was held on 24 April. It was organised by Nikki Robson, the Defence School Transition Aide, who also does that job at Leanyer school. It was wonderful to see the students listen to an address from an officer of the defence forces and pay their tributes to Anzac Day and speak about their families’ experiences, given that many students at Wanguri and Leanyer schools have parents who are serving members of the Australian Defence Forces.
At the Wanguri Primary School assembly, Military Kids Recognition Medals were awarded to Jack, Noah, Max and Abby Chetcuti, and to Andrew Bradbury. Congratulations to those children; there were some very proud parents there.
At Leanyer school, the assembly was held on 26 April. We saw some wonderful performances by the students to commemorate Anzac Day. Congratulations to the Military Kids Recognition Medals recipients, Emma and Nick Sullivan. It was great to see the children learning firsthand from the students they go to school with and their parents about the defence forces and how they serve the country today. It was wonderful to see them commemorating Anzac Day.
Towards the end of Term 1 I also attended the Henbury School assembly. It was a terrific event where I saw the school choir for the first time. It was wonderful to see them giving some stirring performances of a few numbers. It was also wonderful to see how inclusive that choir is, with children with all different abilities joining together and experiencing the joy of being in a choir. It was a wonderful thing to see.
It was also terrific to see the Country Women’s Association there donating again to the school this year for its bikes program. Thank you CWA, you are a terrific organisation and your continued support of the school is fantastic.
I was a bit disappointed today to see there was no mention of a new school or additional classroom capacity for the Henbury School. It is simply bursting at its seams. Watch this space. The school will keep working. The staff are so dedicated, they will keep giving it their all every day to make sure the children’s needs are attended to the best they can be, but things are getting tough. It is an old school; it is bursting at its seams and demand is not getting any smaller.
I was also fortunate enough to recently attend the 2013 17 and under and 19 and under National Netball Championships which were held in Darwin at the Marrara Indoor Stadium and the Darwin Basketball Stadium. There are a few people I would like to thank. It was great to see Netball NT, Darwin Netball Association and the Alice Springs Netball Association get together to put on a top class national event in Darwin where we saw the best junior up and coming netballers putting on a show. Some terrific netball was played.
I congratulate - a very special mention - two young Territorians who were selected in the 17 and under national squads, which is a huge achievement for Territory girls. It is a really high standard at nationals, but these two players showed they have the potential to make it to the big time. Hopefully we will see them playing further on the national stage as they get older. Well done to Rebecca Winch, who was vice captain of the team. She plays for Hoggies in the Darwin Netball Association competition and has a long and proud history of netballers in her family with both her sisters representing the Territory. It is terrific to see her getting that recognition. She has a huge future ahead of her. Well done to Rebecca.
To Billie Newton, an Alice Springs player who was the captain of the team - a huge achievement. Well done to Sandy Mackintosh, the President of the Darwin Netball Association and Helen Smith, the President of Netball NT, for their hard work to make this happen in Darwin.
I also thank a few other people who volunteered their time during the week to make this competition happen to a very high standard. They are: Julie Kellam, Trevor Smith, Thea Pearce, and Brenda Henderson. I also thank the scoring and timing bench: Elice Crisp, Liz Lycett, Bill Adams, Linda Stanwix, Ella Tilling, Dale Moriarty, and I thank Linda Parnham for umpiring. There are many other people who helped with set-up and clean-up, particularly the parents of the girls who were playing in the completion and many volunteers from local clubs who helped sell tickets on the door.
I also make a special mention of two of the runners, who were on their school holidays but spent pretty much the whole week at netball having a great time. They seemed to be having a good laugh along the way. Well done to Abby Henderson and April Pratt. You did a terrific job as runners. It was a fairly stressful environment many times, particularly around finals, and you girls did a great job. I am sure you learnt a lot about competition and national standards, so top work girls.
I also went to the Rose of Tralee Ball on Saturday night. That was a terrific night. Well done to the NT Irish Association. It was the 27th time the Rose was held, the first time being in 1985.
Congratulations to the winner, Bridgit Haines, who won out of a very quality field of eight entrants. It was nice to see last year’s Rose, Sheila McAndrew, handing over the crown. Bridgit will go to Ireland to compete in the International Rose of Tralee. She is a terrific young woman. Good luck to you Bridgit, I hope you go really well. Congratulations to the committee who organised the ball this year, which included Sheila McAndrews, Teresa McCullagh, Jess Herraman, Gina Downes and Conor Daley. Well done and thank you to the judges for the time they put into the competition. They were: Anne MacNamee, Ray and Bernadette McKirdy, Neil Halligan and Christine O’Donnel.
I also congratulate a constituent of mine for winning an award at last week’s Northern Territory Nursing and Midwifery Excellence Awards. Congratulations to Leanore Torrens for winning the Mental Health Category. She works at Top End Mental Health Services. The biography about the hard work she has done says:
Congratulations to all the winners, Madam Speaker.
Motion agreed to; the Assembly adjourned.
MESSAGES FROM ADMINISTRATOR
Message No 6
Message No 6
Madam SPEAKER: Honourable members, I have received Message No 6 from Her Honour the Administrator notifying assent to bills passed at the March sittings.
Message No 7
Madam SPEAKER: Honourable members, I have received Message No 7 recommending to the Legislative Assembly a bill for an act authorising the issue and expending of public monies of the Territory in respect of 30 June 2014.
MOTION
Reorder of Business
Reorder of Business
Mr ELFERINK (Leader of Government Business) (by leave): Madam Speaker, I move that intervening business be postponed until after the giving of notices to enable the notice to be given for the budget and to enable the introduction of the budget at 11.05 am.
Motion agreed to.
MOTION
Routine of Business – Budget 2013-14
Routine of Business – Budget 2013-14
Mr ELFERINK (Leader of Government Business) (by leave): Madam Speaker, I move that the Routine of Business of the Assembly, Government Business Notices and Orders of the Day be arranged or suspended if a question or debate is before the Chair so as to permit the Treasurer to deliver Budget 2013-14 at 11.05 am.
Motion agreed to.
Ms LAWRIE: A point of order, Madam Speaker! I am sure it was a slip-up, but that was a repeat of the previous motion about the budget this morning, rather than about the budget reply tomorrow morning.
Mr Elferink: No, the first was a motion to change the order of business so we could do notices first. The second dealt with the Routine of Business to have Question Time suspended at 11.05 am so you still get your full hour. They were separate motions, but let us get on with it.
Mrs LAWRIE: There was no mention of the budget reply in those motions; that is all.
Mr ELFERINK: Oh, I see what you are saying; yes, we can do that tomorrow.
LEAVE OF ABSENCE
Member for Katherine
Mr ELFERINK (Leader of Government Business): Madam Speaker, I seek leave of absence for the member for Katherine for today, tomorrow and Thursday, owing to government business, pursuant to Standing Order 25. By way of explanation, the minister is in Southeast Asia trying to sell 25 000 cows from the Northern Territory to Southeast Asian markets ...
A member: Two-hundred-and-fifty-thousand.
Mr ELFERINK: Two-hundred-and-fifty-thousand - ten times the greater reason. I am sure honourable members would be more than happy to support his leave of absence for this important purpose.
Leave granted.
MOTION
Routine of Business – Response to Budget
Routine of Business – Response to Budget
Mr ELFERINK (Leader of Government Business) (by leave): Madam Speaker, the opposition is quite correct. I move that the Routine of Business of the Assembly, Government Business Notices and Orders of the Day be rearranged or suspended if a question or debate is before the Chair so as to permit a response to Budget 2013-14 by the Leader of the Opposition at 11 am tomorrow.
Motion agreed to.
STATEMENT BY SPEAKER
Budget Presentation Filming
Madam SPEAKER: Honourable members, I have given permission for the Northern Territory News and The Australian to take photographs, and Sky News, ABC, and Channel Nine approval to film, with sound, the budget presentation.
DISTINGUISHED VISITOR
Hon Grant Tambling
Hon Grant Tambling
Madam SPEAKER: Honourable members, I draw your attention to the presence in the Speaker’s Gallery of Hon Grant Tambling, former member for Fannie Bay, former member for the NT House of Representatives, former Senator in the NT and the Administrator for Norfolk Island from 2003 to 2007. An interesting snippet we found out this morning was that Hon Grant Tambling was the first executive member for finance and introduced the first ever Northern Territory budget.
Members: Hear, hear!
DISTINGUISHED VISITORS
Madam SPEAKER: Honourable members, I also draw your attention to the presence in the East Gallery of the former member for Katherine, Fay Miller, the former member for Araluen, Jodeen Carney, and the Northern Territory Police Commissioner. Welcome to you all.
Members: Hear, hear!
APPROPRIATION (2013-2014) BILL
(Serial 26)
Bill presented and read a first time.
Mr TOLLNER (Treasurer): Madam Speaker, I move that the bill be now read a second time. I table the 2013-14 Appropriation Bill and related papers.
The 2013-14 Budget is a responsible budget that builds a future for all Territorians. It ensures the Territory maximises the benefit from the economic growth we are about to experience, and addresses some of the serious problems left by the former government.
This government inherited a level of debt from the former government that, by the end of 2015-16, would have amounted to $5.5bn, with this level of debt equating to in excess of $1.1m in interest repayments every day. The budget deficit was projected to be $867m in 2012-13. For a small jurisdiction like the Northern Territory, that was simply unsustainable.
As a result of Labor’s fiscal irresponsibility, the Territory’s AA1 credit rating has been placed on a negative outlook by Moody’s rating agency. The situation would have deteriorated substantially if the Country Liberal government had not acted quickly to reduce the debt burden by $1.2bn in the mini-budget. Moody’s would have almost certainly downgraded our credit rating which would have resulted in an increased cost of borrowing, leaving the Territory paying needless additional interest every day. It is obvious to everyone that the former government could not be trusted to be responsible with the Territory’s finances.
While Budget 2013-14 continues to rein in government spending and reduce this staggering level of debt, it also puts Territorians first by maximising our great Territory lifestyle. It addresses areas of need neglected by the former Treasurer such as ensuring Territorians have access to affordable housing, thereby putting downward pressure on the cost of living.
Furthermore, Budget 2013-14 demonstrates that we cherish our freedom and value our lifestyle; that the Giles Country Liberals government is determined to build a diverse, resilient and sustainable economy; that we are serious about restoring the balance between the public and private sector, not by slashing jobs and services, but by removing impediments to private enterprise investment; that we are committed to investing in important infrastructure and developing our regions; and that the safety of our communities remains as a top priority. These are not just words; Territorians will see responsible action.
Our three-hub economy is attracting investment in mineral resources, expanding primary industry and providing the platform for increased tourism visitation. We are creating jobs and making the Territory a more diverse place to live and work. Our government is harnessing these existing opportunities and is constantly pursuing new ones.
Budget 2013-14 also starts the work of making doing business easier by reducing needless government interference. The ultimate aim is to grow small and medium enterprises in the Territory to provide ongoing economic development.
We are a government that is concerned for the future of all Territorians. Developing our regions through the encouragement of commercial enterprise, improved services and infrastructure is vital to the economic development of the whole Territory and the wellbeing of Territorians, not just in our urban centres but in the bush as well. Indigenous advancement is everybody’s business and we intend to encourage our smaller communities to help themselves become economically sustainable.
We want to make the Territory a destination people will want to visit again and again. It is time we show the world we are serious about making the Territory a premium tourist destination that does justice to the abundance of beautiful and unique natural wonders we have in our vast back yard.
Our Real Housing for Growth plan and HomeBuild Access scheme, together with accelerated land release, provide more housing choices for Territorians and increases the supply of new and affordable housing. Budget 2013-14 will assist to ease housing cost pressures, further enhance our lifestyle, and support the attraction and retention of key workers in the Territory.
Our strong law and order measures will make people feel safer and target offenders.
In order to achieve these aims and many others, we have to first get the financial position of the Territory under control. With the Giles government’s focus on putting Territorians first, we have listened to Territorians and decided to stage the necessary increase in utility tariffs in a responsible matter.
The next step in reducing the debt burden is to further tighten our own belts, reduce red tape, and remove impediments to growth. However, this job has been made much harder by the Commonwealth Grants Commission’s 2013 Goods and Services Tax relativity update, which has effectively knocked more than $100m per annum out of the Territory’s coffers from 2013-14. This reduction is akin to taking $6bn from Victoria and New South Wales combined.
In 2013-14 alone, this has meant, in absolute terms, we are expecting to receive $16m less in GST revenue than in 2012-13. As a result, we have taken the sensible step to defer the achievement of a fiscal balance by two years to 2017-18. Not to have done so would have been irresponsible and meant more pain for all Territorians.
While the Territory economy is vibrant, the vast majority of our revenue is reliant on the national economy. In the Territory, around 80% of our revenue at the general government sector is sourced from the Commonwealth, compared to around 50% in other jurisdictions. We are particularly reliant on GST revenue, which is expected to decrease by 0.6% in 2013-14, compared with the 6.3% average annual growth in GST revenue the former government enjoyed during much of its tenure. The reduction in our share of GST does not mean we are moving away from our commitment to responsible financial management, far from it. We remain focused on getting the Territory back on a sustainable financial footing, but not in a way that will compromise the Territory’s economy or raise the cost of living for Territorians.
Despite the fall in our major revenue source, the debt position is still significantly improved from that which we inherited from the former, fiscally irresponsible Labor government. Overall, the nett debt to revenue ratio is estimated to be 80% in 2013-14, compared to 87% estimated in the 2012-13 budget. By the end of the forward estimates period the ratio is projected to be 86%, well below the 98% projected by the former government.
For 2013-14, the overall fiscal deficit is $1.185bn, which incorporates the recognition of the $520m Darwin Correctional Precinct. This is higher than the mini-budget estimate due to the reduction in the GST as well as the timing of expenditure between years that has improved the 2013-14 estimated outcome. In addition, the reductions in the GST have meant that, when compared to the mini-budget, the estimated outcome in the forward years has also deteriorated. Despite this, when compared to Pre-Election Fiscal Outlook estimates in August 2012, the fiscal balance is still improved by over $200m in each of the 2014-15 and 2015-16 years.
The overall fiscal deficit continues to reduce over the forward estimates period in a responsible staged manner with a deficit of $176m estimated in 2016-17. This reducing deficit will be achieved by constraining operation expenditure growth over the forward estimates to 1.8%. This is a direct result of the savings and efficiency measures that have been introduced across government and the significant improvement in the financial position of the Power and Water Corporation. In addition, the savings measures have provided this government with the capacity to fund its election commitments and the legacy items left behind by the former, fiscally irresponsible government. These legacy items, never budgeted for by Labor, total more than $100m ongoing. These items include operational funding for the Alice Springs Hospital Emergency Department, costs associated with police housing and overtime, and demand pressures in child protection and out-of-home care services.
Nett capital expenditure is also projected to decline over the forward estimates period as private sector investment continues to ramp up. Overall, total budget spending, including both operational and capital, for 2013-14 at the general government sector, is $5.7bn. The projected constrained expenditure growth will be supported by the enhanced monitoring of expenditure that the Giles government is implementing. These measures include the establishment of a budget management Cabinet subcommittee to constantly monitor agency expenditure, performance packages for departmental chief executives to reward frugal and efficient management. and a mid-year budget review that will provide options to redirect resources and achieve further efficiencies. The days of Labor waste and profligate spending are behind us. For the sake of future Territorians there must be more efficient and effective service delivery.
I now turn to the Power and Water Corporation. For several decades Australia has been reforming its utilities industries and the focus has been on a much more market-focused and competitively based sector. The promotion of market competition was a primary objective of the reforms that commenced in 1999 under the previous Country Liberals government, under the auspices of National Competition Policy. At the time, the then Power and Water Authority was the dominant electricity supplier in the Territory. The Country Liberals started the reform agenda in the Territory and it was continued for a time by the Martin/Stirling government. They understood the long-term benefits of reform and the danger of not embracing competition in our marketplace. This danger was spectacularly highlighted when NT Power successfully sued the Power and Water Authority for refusing access to its distribution infrastructure prior to 2000.
In 2001, the Government Owned Corporations Act was created and by 2002 the Power and Water Authority was placed on private sector-like government arrangements and rebadged as the Power and Water Corporation. It was the first government-owned corporation in the Territory. However, since then the reform agenda has stalled. Regrettably, the former Labor government did nothing that was effective in promoting or encouraging competition.
The Power and Water Corporation was never allowed to meet its objectives under the act and operate at least as efficiently as any comparable business. It was a bloated, inefficient organisation only sustained through taxpayer subsidies. This was not a fact lost on Moody’s rating agency, which recently commented on the need to improve the financial sustainability of the Power and Water Corporation.
Following the 2012 election, the Country Liberal government took the hard but necessary decision to increase tariffs and put the corporation back on a firmer financial footing. While winding back some of these increases, the Giles government is similarly committed to achieving and maintaining the commercial sustainability of utility services across the Territory and getting the reform agenda back on track.
Ensuring that Power and Water meets its commercial objectives and operates in an efficient manner requires new people and new skills to drive efficiencies within the corporation. Accordingly, an interim board has been charged with the responsibility for implementing initiatives to improve operating efficiency that will contribute to the corporation moving towards commercial sustainability.
Broader reforms to encourage more efficient and reliable electricity supply are also under development and will further benefit Territory consumers. Recently, the Northern Power Group backed our reform agenda by announcing its proposal to establish a 60 MW gas-fired generation facility to supply the Darwin-Katherine system, in competition with the Power and Water Corporation.
Power and Water Corporation’s 2013-14 Statement of Corporate Intent, which will be tabled in these sittings, shows a substantially improved financial position and outlook when compared to the 2012-13 Statement of Corporate Intent. Over the five years from 2012-13 to 2016-17, revenues will increase by $164.7m, operating costs will decrease by $180.1m, borrowings will decrease by $818m, and nett debt will be lower by $681.7m.
The 2013 budget continues this government’s responsible fiscal policy without sacrificing the Territory’s status as a low tax jurisdiction. To this end, two revenue measures are introduced as part of the budget which are focused on protecting the integrity of the Territory’s mineral royalty regime in order to ensure all Territorians receive a fair return on the Territory’s mineral wealth through the collection of mineral royalties.
The first measure is to establish the rules governing the amount a royalty payer can claim as a transfer pricing margin. Transfer pricing generally involves the initial sale of minerals between a miner and a related overseas-based trading entity, after which the minerals are usually on-sold to a third party customer or a related commodities refiner within the group, with a profit margin or transfer pricing factor earnt by the trading entity.
Accounting for transfer pricing is administratively burdensome on the Territory and the miner. New rules will clarify the arrangements and minimise the need for costly valuations from both parties. The claimable transfer pricing margin will be capped at 5.5%, except in circumstances where the royalty payer has a relevant transfer pricing arrangement in place with the Australian Taxation Office.
The second measure limits the deductibility of head office expenses, management fees, and administrative labour costs to those costs incurred by an office located, or for work performed, in the Territory. These measures are expected to increase revenue by about $10.6m per annum. However, these measures are about more than just ensuring the mining industry continues to contribute fairly to the Territory community. They will also reduce red tape and expenses involved in administering the royalty scheme, and may also act as an incentive for large miners to set up offices in the Territory.
Although not a revenue source for government consistent with the provisions of the Motor Vehicles Act, motor accident compensation contributions will rise in line with the consumer price index.
The Territory economy is going from strength to strength. Our economy is forecast to grow by 4.6% in 2012-13 and 5% in 2013-14. This is mainly due to strong growth in construction activity related to the development of a number of major projects across the Territory. First and foremost of these projects is the $34bn Ichthys project being undertaken by INPEX and Total. However, it is by no means the only project having a big impact on the Territory economy.
Development of the $1.4bn Montara oil fields in the Timor Sea has recently been completed. Production is scheduled to commence soon and will significantly boost international exports from the Territory over the coming year. Additionally, construction activity for the Marine Supply Base is continuing, as is expansion activity at Xstrata’s McArthur River Mine near Borroloola and GEMCO’s manganese mine at Groote Eylandt. The completion of expansion activity at these two mines will provide increased employment opportunities for local communities.
Similarly, the Giles government’s grant of major project status for Vista Gold at Mount Todd, the strong support of Sherwin Iron, Western Desert Resources, and Australian Ilmenite, all in the Roper region, along with encouraging Arafura Resources to process their product in the Territory, present these communities with potential long-term job prospects.
The Territory’s labour market is forecast to strengthen over coming years, driven by development of major projects and strong growth in residential construction activity. Growth in the number of new houses and units being built is also expected to support the Territory’s retail industry, especially in the household goods sector, both in increased sales and employment.
The retail sector in the Territory will also be boosted over the next few years by the redevelopment of Casuarina Square, which is expected to include a new full-range Myer department store and 50 additional speciality shops.
There is also a proposal for a new shopping centre in Palmerston to be named The Gateway, which will incorporate a supermarket, discount department store, restaurants, and various speciality stores. This is great news for Territorians both in increased choices and higher levels of competition amongst retailers.
Business activity in the Territory will also be supported by strengthening population growth as increasing numbers of people are drawn to the Territory from around the world to work on the Ichthys project. The Territory’s population is forecast to grow by 2% in 2013 and by 2.5% in 2014-15.
In addition to working with INPEX to ensure the Ichthys project delivers the best outcome for local businesses, the Giles government is working to diversify the economy to ensure the Territory’s future prosperity rests on a broader economic base. We are already on the way to achieving this goal with the opening of the North Australian Centre for Oil and Gas, funded by both the Territory government and INPEX - a cutting-edge facility providing training and education in engineering and other in-demand skills.
The forecast growth in the Darwin CPI in 2013 has been revised downward from the 4.3% reported in the 2012-13 mini-budget to 3% in the 2013-14 budget. This mainly reflects the government’s decision to scale back increases in electricity prices from 30% to 20%, water prices from 40% to 30%, and sewerage prices from 25% to 15%.
Budget 2013-14 focuses on growing a diverse economic base through a three-hub economy that will attract investment in mining, energy, tourism and food production and exports. To demonstrate that the Giles government is serious about diversifying the economy, an economic development advisory panel has been established, consisting of external experts in the areas of macroeconomics, financial investment and industry engagement. Additional funding of $0.4m has been provided for two years for the panel and a new economic development unit to prepare and implement an economic development strategy for the Territory.
Since this government was elected, tourism has already been boosted by the return of Tiger Airways to Alice Springs with an expected return to growth in the number of Japanese visitors coming to the Territory.
Budget 2013-14 includes an $8m boost for tourism, providing a total of $15m to extend the Territory’s international marketing activities in partnership with tourism retailers, airlines and other partners, highlighting experiences in the Territory’s regions. The additional funding includes:
$3m for international trade and consumer campaigns
$3m for international digital advertising
$1m for industry digital marketing to work with industry operators to fully integrate the industry into the digital marketing arena
$1m to increase the reach of Brand NT.
Budget 2013-14 also incorporates:
$8m for whole-of-Territory domestic marketing activity
$1.9m for regional marketing partnerships
$2m in media purchasing to market and promote the Territory as a visitor destination
$1.7m to attract business events to the Territory.
Mining investment is crucial to the economic development of the Territory. Budget 2013-14 includes additional funding of $9.1m to increase the capacity of the Department of Mines and Energy and improve monitoring and regulation of mining activities. This includes a reinvestment back into the sector from the introduction of a 1% mining levy of an estimated $6.45m, including $3m to establish a mining remediation fund and a dedicated mining remediation team.
Budget 2013-14 also includes additional funding of $0.95m to establish a Northern Territory energy advisory council and a directorate of energy to coordinate all government energy functions.
In addition to the expansion of services to the mining industry, the budget includes measures to support and grow local businesses by providing $2.9m over two years through the apprenticeship and traineeship support package for training apprentices and trainees and supporting their employers, and $1m for the Indigenous workforce participation program, a Territory-wide grants program for the development of workforce planning that supports increased Indigenous employment opportunities.
To assist small business to reduce its utilities costs, the Giles government has invested a further $0.49m to strengthen the Territories ecoBiz NT program.
The government continues to support the primary industry sector with ongoing funding of $0.4m to establish an Ord Development Unit to maximise the Territory’s opportunities from the Ord development expansion. Further initiatives to expand the primary industry sector include:
$2.5m for the sustainable management of the Territory’s aquatic resources
$0.28m to provide ongoing cattle inspection services and develop a live export market development strategy to facilitate market access to eastern and southern Australia in response to the changes in destinations of Territory cattle shipments
$0.3m in additional funding over two years for commercial fisheries development, including the barramundi fishery.
Budget 2013-14 invests in building the Territory’s future with $1.184bn for infrastructure. This includes $560m for the capital works program; $295m for the Power and Water Corporation infrastructure program, $257m for repairs and maintenance, and $68m for capital, and repairs and maintenance grants.
The Territory government is committed to providing new and upgraded infrastructure in remote communities to enhance services and stimulate regional development with a $368m injection in total infrastructure. In addition, $30m over three years has been committed for a Regional Roads Maintenance Program that will provide a much needed boost to roads within the Central Desert, MacDonnell, Victoria Daly, Roper Gulf and Barkly shires. This infrastructure spend in the 2013 budget continues to provide for more roads, housing and improved schools and health centres across the Territory. It provides a $40m boost to repairs and maintenance across the Territory in 2013-14, inclusive of the regional road strategy as part of a $100m increase over four years to address the Territory’s maintenance backlog left by the former government.
The 2013-14 repairs and maintenance funding includes:
an additional $10m in 2013-14 as part of $30m regional roads package, bringing the total roads repairs and maintenance funding to $94.9m
$11.4m for Police, Fire and Emergency Services to maintain and upgrade facilities including additional funding for an upgrade of intercom systems at police cells and a review of critical electricity systems at Peter McAulay Centre
$28.8m for the Department of Health and Health and Hospital Services, including additional funding to make over a number of health centres and other facilities, including Royal Darwin Hospital and the Tamarind Centre
$43.2m for the Department of Education and Children’s Services to repair and maintain facilities including major mechanical, plumbing and roofing projects, tree maintenance and the replacement of fixtures to improve energy efficiency.
In addition to these investments, the construction of the $110m Marine Supply Base is significantly under way with operations expected to begin in 2013-14.
A strong and diverse economy and reducing debt are vital if governments are to achieve better outcomes for people they serve. The benefits of good economic management are well known. By taking responsible action now, the benefits will flow to everyone. We know Territorians want safe and secure communities, affordable housing, a good health system, improvements in education, transport and development in the regions, and to enjoy the great Territory lifestyle for which we are famous. The 2013 budget invests in these areas and, over time, there will be more investments and less belt tightening once we have addressed the high and unsustainable level of debt we have been left with. I now turn to these important areas.
All Territorians want to live in safe communities. The 2013 budget provides additional resources to strengthen law and order and improve community safety for Territorians.
The 2013 budget provides funding of $35m per annum from 2013-14 to develop this government’s alcohol policy of mandatory rehabilitation for problem drinkers. This initiative will provide real and effective treatment for those drinkers who have been taken into protective custody at least three times in a two-month period. Under the plan, problem drinkers will be assessed for a placement of up to 12 weeks in rehabilitation centres across the Territory.
It is expected that up to 800 problem drinkers will receive treatment at centres in Katherine, Darwin, Alice Springs and Nhulunbuy. This policy affirms the Giles government’s commitment to help problem drinkers overcome the cycle of drunkenness that costs the Territory $642m every year in police time, hospitalisations and lost productivity.
The 2013 budget also includes $10m for infrastructure associated with the mandatory rehabilitation of problem drinkers. The budget also invests $22.5m to provide an additional 120 frontline police officers across the Territory by June 2016, including 20 in Alice Springs. In addition, the Giles government will improve police and emergency services response times through a boost to the number of staff at the Joint Emergency Services Communication Centre at the Peter McAulay Centre by an additional 20 positions.
The total Police, Fire and Emergency Services budget for 2013-14 is $394m, up $51m from 2012-13, with a capital works program of $32m. This includes $10.9m for the expansion of police facilities in Alice Springs and $9.4m for the Arlparra police station.
Construction work is continuing on the new Darwin Correctional Precinct, with this budget including $5.4m for its commissioning and $2.4m to manage rising prisoner numbers in the existing Darwin and Alice Springs Correctional Centres.
The 2013 budget funds the Giles government’s Sentenced to a Job policy, designed to reduce recidivism. The funding of $3.1m will be made available to enhance prison industries at the Alice Springs Correctional Centre.
In addition to the Territory government’s boost to law and order, there are an extra 94 Territory police funded by the Commonwealth to respond to incidents at the Darwin immigration centre, and $40.3m as part of the Stronger Futures package to support continued improvements in community safety in remote communities, particularly through remote policing, infrastructure and improved drug enforcement.
The Giles government takes seriously its responsibilities. Responsible action is required to make our community safer, and that is what the 2013-14 budget delivers.
In order for Territorians to enjoy the great Territory lifestyle, they must be able to afford to live somewhere. One of the priorities of the Giles government is the delivery of affordable housing for Territorians. The 2013-14 budget includes $0.8m for the new NT Planning Commission. The Planning Commission will plan properly for the Territory’s future growth and progress the timely release of land to increase the supply of affordable housing.
The 2013-14 budget provides home loan products and services to increase a supply of new, affordable housing and provides more home ownership opportunities for Territorians to purchase their own homes, thereby reducing demand pressures on the rental market.
The new HomeBuild Access scheme provides loans for homebuyers across the Territory and includes a low deposit loan, an off-the-plan deposit loan, a subsidised interest rate loan and a fee assistance loan.
The 2013-14 budget includes $27m over four years under the Real Housing for Growth plan to stimulate construction of affordable housing. The Real Housing for Growth Plan provides more housing choices for Territorians and aims to increase housing supply to ease housing cost pressures and support the attraction and retention of key workers.
As part of Real Housing for Growth, the government will partner with private developers to facilitate the construction of 2000 affordable homes over the next four years, and we are on track to meet that target.
Land release is an important aspect of the Giles government growing the Territory’s future, with the 2013-14 budget investing a further $20m for headworks to ensure the fast-tracking of the release of land in Palmerston East.
The total housing infrastructure program for this budget is $270m for delivering improved urban and remote housing, with $52.9m for urban housing, $44.6m for government employee housing and $171.9m for remote public housing.
The 2013-14 budget demonstrates this government’s commitment to the health and wellbeing of Territorians. Good health is the key to enjoying our great Territory lifestyle, which is why the Giles government is taking action in this area.
In addition to the new framework to ensure health and hospital services are delivered effectively to the community, this government has injected funding of more than $40m in 2013-14 to improve and expand health services and meet increased demand pressures within our hospitals.
Health expenditure has historically grown significantly in excess of 7% per annum. The previous fiscally irresponsible Labor government funded these demand and cost pressures on an ad hoc basis. This proved to be a disincentive for line managers in health to manage within their allocated budget.
Rather than continuing this type of window-dressing approach to fiscal management, the Giles government has provided ongoing demand and cost growth factors to the base level of funding for health. This presents a much clearer view of health expenditure and provides greater certainty to the department, enabling better management of the significant resources invested in the health of Territorians.
Furthermore, the 2013-14 budget allocates significant funding to meet the government’s election commitments and provides resources to ensure that critical programs have sufficient funding to continue to meet the needs of all Territorians including:
$6.5m for enhanced cardiac outreach services and cardiac rehabilitation services, and the commencement of low-risk angioplasty services
$7.5m to support the Patient Assistance Travel Scheme
$4.46m for an additional 400 elective surgeries per annum
$3.86m to meet the operational expenses of secure care facilities
$5.51m to meet the operational expenses of the Alice Springs Hospital emergency department.
The Giles government understands the importance of Territory families. The 2013-14 budget provides additional funding to support families with $5m to support out-of-home care and child protection. The 2013-14 budget also includes $25.1m that has been redirected into frontline services for families and children to ensure programs are targeted to meet the needs of vulnerable Territory children and families.
The 2013-14 budget includes significant investment in the Territory’s health infrastructure, not least of which is $5m for the development of a hospital scoping study and master plan for the Greater Darwin region. The funding for the Palmerston Hospital remains as part of the budget, but we want to get this important investment right. Unlike the former fiscally irresponsible Labor administration, which was only interested in cheap headlines in the lead-up to an election campaign, we will be consulting with the community and developing a complete master plan for the greater Darwin region.
In addition, the Giles government continues to invest in the regions including $29.6m for continuing remediation works and upgrade of the Alice Springs Hospital, $13m to upgrade the emergency department at Gove District Hospital, and $16.6m for the construction and upgrade of remote health clinics at Canteen Creek, Numbulwar, Kaltukatjara, and Maningrida.
Education adds to a person’s quality of life and improves their prospects. The 2013-14 budget continues to support improved educational outcomes for all Territory students, regardless of where they live. The government is ensuring that schools have the resources to make sure they can focus on teaching. This includes reforms that start to align teacher and student ratios across all stages of schooling with practices in other jurisdictions and more emphasis on the importance of early years schooling.
The 2013-14 budget includes additional funding of $6.2m to help meet the costs to government and non-government schools arising from utility tariff increases.
The budget helps families with the cost of schooling by doubling the value of school vouchers from $75 per student to $150 per student. These vouchers can be used to assist parents with expenses such as school uniforms, text books, and excursions.
The 2013-14 budget is investing in school infrastructure across the Territory, providing additional classrooms, facilities, and new services to support special needs students. This includes $43.2m for repair and maintenance in schools across the Territory and $11.4m for minor new works.
The 2013-14 budget also increases support to non-government schools in the form of $2.5m in additional funding provided across non-government schools under a new funding model to meet rising costs of increased school enrolments. These investments are responsible and driven by a determination to provide action where our fiscally irresponsible predecessors did not.
Enhancing the road network and connecting the Territory through transport investment is a key commitment of the Giles government. The 2013-14 budget delivers $287m for Territory roads and national highways, including $94.9m for repairs and maintenance. These investments will be of enormous benefit to many Territorians and complement our commitment to investing in our regions. Specific projects include:
$29.6m to continue stream crossing upgrades at Goyder River and Donydji River, and targeted pavement upgrades on the Central Arnhem Highway
$5m to upgrade the Charlotte River Crossing on Fog Bay Road, including construction of a new bridge and associated approaches and drainage works
a $5m grant to the City of Darwin for the duplication of Lee Point Road
$5m for the continuation of the upgrade and seal of targeted sections of the Tanami Road
$16m for the Territory’s $33m contribution towards the duplication of Tiger Brennan Drive from Berrimah to Darwin city.
In addition to the investment in roads, Budget 2013-14 includes improvements to public bus services in Darwin and Alice Springs through:
$1.1m for new services to the suburbs of Lyons, Muirhead, Rosebery, Bellamack, Zuccoli and Kilgariff
$0.2m for an additional special needs student transport bus in Alice Springs
$0.1m for free WiFi in buses and at interchanges
$0.95m to upgrade bus stops in Alice Springs, including lighting and wheelchair compliance slabs and seats
$1m toward the development of a new ticketing system on the Darwin Bus Service.
Other transport initiatives include:
an additional $4.5m over four years for the DriveSafe NT Remote Indigenous driver education and licensing program
$0.25m per annum for four years for driver training courses
$0.15m ongoing for Motorcyclist Education Training and Licensing courses
$1.1m for motor vehicle registries to meet growth in demand
$0.3m ongoing from 2012-13 for marine safety.
The Giles government has continually stated that the Berrimah Line is now gone. We are committed to improving economic opportunities in our smaller communities. This is not about the Labor way of handing out more money for no return, this is about encouraging economic opportunities so communities can grow and be sustainable. We are examining ways to improve local government provision in the regions, but in the interim the 2013 budget includes an additional $5m to increase operational funding to shire councils to $25.6m per annum. This is the first step in assisting shires to achieve financial sustainability. This injection is in addition to the regional roads repairs and maintenance package I announced earlier.
Our government is committed to improving services and facilities in the bush to reduce Indigenous disadvantage and, in partnership with the Commonwealth, the 2013 budget delivers $188.6m under the $3.5bn 10-year Stronger Futures package. The Stronger Futures package includes:
$20.5m for municipal essential services to manage the provision of essential community services to homelands
$42.1m for schooling to support remote education disadvantages and improve Indigenous education outcomes
$40.3m to support continued improvements in community safety in remote communities, particularly through remote policing, infrastructure and improved drug enforcement
$13.6m for child, youth, family and community wellbeing, which aims to improve the safety and wellbeing of children, youth and families by supporting child protection systems, early intervention and targeted support services.
The Giles government is proud of the Territory lifestyle and Budget 2013-14 delivers $221m with boosts to sport and recreational opportunities, arts and culture, protecting our unique Territory environment and encouraging the sustainable use of resources. This enhances the great Territory lifestyle so many Territorians enjoy.
Budget 2013-14 includes increased opportunities and support for anglers across the Territory, including $0.55m for the sustainable management of the recreational fishing sector, and $0.3m to implement a recreational fishing development plan, including fishing surveys and investigating the potential for a new boat ramp at Shady Camp as well as suburban based boat ramps.
Budget 2013-14 will also deliver on our election commitment to buy back commercial fishing licences for Chambers, Finke, Adams and Fog Bays, boosting access for recreational anglers and establishing a working balance between commercial and amateur anglers. We will allow greater access to our parks, rivers and oceans to camp, fish and hunt.
In addition to fulfilling election commitments to upgrade Anzac Oval the Alice Springs go-kart facility, Satellite City and Jingili BMX facilities, and the Alice Springs Golf Club, the 2013 budget provides $5.3m to resurface the track and upgrade concrete barriers at Hidden Valley Motorsports Complex and $0.5m for upgrades to the Alice Springs drag strip to support hosting national and regional motor sporting events.
It is important that Territory kids are active, and to support this, the 2013 budget includes the $4m Sport Voucher Scheme to ensure all Territorians have access to sporting activities, along with $1.7m for grants to peak sporting bodies.
The Giles government delivers major sporting and entertainment events for Territorians that support the Territory economy and positioning as a visitor destination, with $8.22m including the V8 Supercars, Australian Super Bikes, AFL matches, the Finke Desert Race, BASSINTHEGRASS, and the Imparja Cup cricket carnival in Alice Springs.
The 2013-14 budget delivers enhanced arts and cultural experiences including support of $0.8m for the Defence of Darwin experience and new signage for the WWII Strauss Airfield Precinct.
Protecting the environment is an important part of the Territory’s lifestyle. The 2013-14 budget provides additional funding of $0.5m for weed management extension services across regional Northern Territory, to assist pastoralists in controlling weed incursions and infestations and $0.2m for the Keep Australia Beautiful Council for the Northern Territory to support Territory Tidy Towns and annual community forum programs.
These and many other initiatives enhance Territorians’ enjoyment of our great Territory lifestyle.
The 2013-14 budget is a responsible budget. In stark contrast to the mismanagement of government finances by the former Labor Treasurer, we have made responsible decisions. We have taken responsible action.
Budget 2013-14 maintains our commitment to reducing Labor’s massive debt while supporting Territorians and Territory businesses with targeted initiatives.
It promotes our economy and supports diversifying our economic base. It will make our community safer and more secure. It invests in our people in our capital, our towns and in the bush. It provides what is most needed here and now in the Territory - responsible action.
The Territory’s economy is strong and we are laying the foundations for a prosperous future. I commend the 2013-14 budget to the House.
Debate suspended.
RESPONSES TO PETITIONS
The CLERK: Pursuant to Standing Order 100A, I inform honourable members the responses to petitions No 4, 5 and 11 have been received and circulated to members. The text of the responses has been placed on the Legislative Assembly website. A copy of the response will be provided to the member who tabled the petition for distribution to the petitioners.
- Petition No 4
CSIRO Science Centre Manager Position
Date presented: 28 November 2012
Presented by: Ms Purick
Referred to: Minister for Education
Date response due: 15 May 2013
Date response received: 5 April 2013
Date response presented: 14 May 2013
Response:
- On 28 November 2012, Petition No 4 and Petition No 5 were presented and read in the Legislative Assembly. The petitions concerned the ceasing of funding for the position of Consultant with the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, CSIRO from 31 December 2012. I respond to the petitions, pursuant to Standing Order 100A, as the Minister of Education.
The Consultant position had been funded by the Department of Education and Children’s Services, DECS, at a Senior Teacher Level 2 for over 20 years, through an arrangement with CSIRO that was never formalised. This amounted to funding of approximately $125 000 per annum. Similar arrangements exist in other jurisdictions but at a lesser amount per capita.
A detailed appraisal of government commitments was undertaken in late 2012 to realign DECS resources and, as a result of this process, funding for the CSIRO position ceased. This outcome attracted significant media, public interest and numerous inquiries and complaints in the form of petitions and correspondence from educators, professional associations and parents.
DECS has since negotiated a partnership arrangement with CSIRO from 2013 to provide ‘in-kind’ support for the CSIRO schools program, including travel and communications, to the value of $10 000 annually. This will be reviewed by the department mid-2013.
CSIRO is now receiving $40 000 in funding annually from a private source. Mr Paul Lyons, the former occupant of the CSIRO Consultant position, resigned from DECS in March 2013 and is now employed directly with the CSIRO as the CSIRO Education Centre Manager.
- Petition No 5
CSIRO Science Centre Manager Position
Date presented: 28 November 2012
Presented by: Ms Purick
Referred to: Minister for Education
Date response due: 15 May 2013
Date response received: 5 April 2013
Date response presented: 14 May 2013
Response:
- On 28 November 2012, Petition No 4 and Petition No 5 were presented and read in the Legislative Assembly. The petitions concerned the ceasing of funding for the position of Consultant with the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, CSIRO, from 31 December 2012. I respond to the petitions, pursuant to Standing Order 100A, as the Minister for Education.
The Consultant position had been funded by the Department of Education and Children’s Services, DECS, at a Senior Teacher Level 2 for over 20 years, through an arrangement with CSIRO that was never formalised. This amounted to funding of approximately $125 000 per annum. Similar arrangements exist in other jurisdictions but at a lesser amount per capita.
A detailed appraisal of government commitments was undertaken in late 2012 to realign DECS resources and, as a result of this process, funding for the CSIRO position ceased. This outcome attracted significant media, public interest and numerous inquiries and complaints in the form of petitions and correspondence from educators, professional associations and parents.
DECS has since negotiated a partnership arrangement with CSIRO from 2013 to provide ‘in-kind’ support for the CSIRO schools program, including travel and communications, to the value of $10 000 annually. This will be reviewed by the department mid-2013.
CSIRO is now receiving $40 000 in funding annually from a private source. Mr Paul Lyons, the former occupant of the CSIRO Consultant position, resigned from DECS in March 2013 and is now employed directly with CSIRO as the CSIRO Education Centre Manager.
- Petition No 11
Government Funding for Freds Pass Reserve and the Litchfield Swimming Pool
Date presented: 19 February 2013
Presented by: Mr Wood
Referred to: Minister for Sport and Recreation
Date response due: 22 August 2013
Date response received: 5 April 2013
Date response presented: 14 May 2013
Response:
I refer to your letter, received on 22 February 2013, forwarding the terms of a petition read in the Legislative Assembly on 19 February 2013 (Petition No 11 – cutting all NT government funding for Freds Pass Reserve and the Litchfield swimming pool).
In accordance with Standing Order 100A, following is my response to the petition for presentation to the Assembly.
In 2009-10, the former Northern Territory government’s parliamentary agreement with Mr Gerry Wood MLA, member for Nelson, was allocated to the then Department of Natural Resources, Environment, the Arts and Sport with responsibility for a priority list of infrastructure funding upgrades at Freds Pass Reserve, FPR.
A $2.29m capital grant was to be provided to the Freds Pass Sport and Recreation Management Board, FPSRMB, to be released in stages over three years. The first stage, comprising of $980 000, was released in 2010-11.
With three restructures of the FPSRMB and other issues, there were ongoing delays to project components resulting in the first stage’s projects not completed within the agreed time frame. The 2012-11 funding of $810 000 was subsequently deferred until 2012-13 to be released with the $500 000 third and final stage.
With a number of the 2010-11 projects still not complete in 2012-13, a decision was made to withdraw the final stages of the grant. A balance of approximately $320 000 remains unspent from the stage one payment.
Following consultation with the 22 user groups, the FPSRMB recently submitted a list of projects to be funded from the balance of the grant for consideration. Approval has been given for:
re-roofing and upgrade of the stables
topsoil for the rugby union fields
chain mesh fencing around the soccer facility
an ablution block.
As a saving measure, it was announced in the 2012-13 mini-budget that the rural pool would not proceed.
This government supports an active community and has increased investment this financial year into sport and recreation in the Northern Territory by $5.9m. This includes delivering on two major sports commitments made prior to the election by increasing funding by 50% to peak sport and recreation bodies and introducing the $75 Sport Voucher Scheme to registered school children from government and non-government schools.
This government must be fiscally responsible in the current difficult economic environment and the decision to cut funding to the Freds Pass Reserve and the proposed rural swimming pool was essential if other priority concerns for the community were to be supported.
APPROPRIATION (2013-2014) BILL
(Serial 26)
(Serial 26)
Continued from earlier this day.
Mr GILES (Chief Minister): Madam Speaker, I am proud to stand here as Chief Minister of the Northern Territory and commend this budget. I commend my colleague, the Treasurer, for the hard work done in very difficult circumstances.
Building the economy and broadening the Territory’s economic base is a key priority for my government. In taking responsible action on behalf of Territorians, we are exercising fiscal prudence balanced with positive stimulation of the economy.
Fiscal prudence is of paramount importance because under the former Labor government there was fiscal irresponsibility where the Territory surged from a debt of $2.7bn at the start of the current financial year towards a massive and unsustainable $5.5bn debt by 2016. That is a debt level as a percentage of the Northern Territory’s total revenue that amounts to almost 100%.
It is imperative that my government gets the Northern Territory back on track, that we concentrate on multilevel economy not just a one trick pony, that we deal with reality and not supposition, and that we harness new opportunities and initiate new projects. To grow and diversify our economy we must invest in infrastructure and keep up with repairs and maintenance.
We must make doing business in the Northern Territory easier. To advance the Territory’s broad based economy, an economic development subcommittee of Cabinet has been appointed and charged with developing the Northern Territory economic development strategy. It will be supported by an expert advisory panel with expertise including macroeconomists leveraging investment and industry engagement.
Immediate priorities will be: identifying options for expansion of port facilities; options around a second heavy-duty rail line; and the establishment of Darwin as a gas hub to include downstream potential. Additional funding of $0.4m for two years has been provided to the Department of the Chief Minister to support the panel and to establish a new economic development unit within DCM.
The importance of major projects to the Territory cannot be underestimated. Facilitating and progressing these major projects for the benefit of Territorians has to be effective. There are now a total of 13 ventures of significant economic importance to the Northern Territory on the go. They sit within my portfolio of Economic Development and include the Casuarina Square expansion, Darwin LNG expansion, excess LNG, the Katherine to Gove pipeline, the Marine Supply Base, Bonaparte LNG, Nolans rare earth, the Ord development, Prelude offshore, Sherwin Iron, Western Desert Resources, Vista Gold’s Mount Todd Mine and Wonarah phosphate.
Let me digress for a minute. I draw attention to the failure of the former Labor government to negotiate a public private partnership – a PPP - in the case of the Marine Supply Base. Their sad legacy means Territory taxpayers will have to underwrite the total cost of the Marine Supply Base rather than contribute towards it, with an allocation of $41.4m within this budget alone. This was not an example of fiscal prudence. Under Labor, projects had to be managed better.
My government is also focused on Asian engagement and trade. Strong links with our neighbours are a key to positioning the Territory in this Asian century. Engagement includes education, business and tourism and, as evidenced during my last visit to Timor-Leste, training opportunities for Timorese public servants, as well as sporting exchanges.
I will focus on some of the key issues facing Territorians. We need affordable housing in the Northern Territory. Land release is gathering momentum with more than 70 sites identified to date. We want a healthy population, and I note this year we have a record budget to address the Territory’s health needs. We must have an education system that adds up to an individual’s quality of life and prospects, an enhanced road network and transport connections must be available, protection of the environment with a particular focus on land and water disturbance monitoring and mitigation of the impacts of development and, of course, there are classic elements of the Territory lifestyle that we all enjoy: the great outdoors; sport and recreation; sustainable management of our fishing resources; and choices for arts and culture.
This budget is not top heavy: focused on the Top End. The Berrimah Line has gone and this government’s platform of policies is for all Territorians. I am keenly aware that the future of the Northern Territory is in the regions, and it is extremely important that initiatives are put in place and continue to be implemented across the entire Northern Territory. It is vital for future prosperity that there is comprehensive investment in our towns and in the bush.
Transport is a key element in maximising economic opportunities and the Territory government is dedicated to developing our regions for all Territorians. As Transport minister, I am particularly proud that the Transport budget reflects this and has been increased by more than 15% over the former Labor government’s allocation. The total infrastructure program allocation of $320m in this budget will see investment in roads and transport assets. There is:
$287m for Territory roads and national highways, which includes projects to be developed under the National Network roads program, with an amount of $55.2m for strengthening and widening, flood immunity and safety improvements
$13m for construction of a grade separated overpass on the Stuart Highway over the rail south of Alice Springs
$6.5m to continue construction of new overtaking opportunities at selected sections of the Stuart Highway between Darwin and Katherine.
The Territory government has also initiated a $30m Regional Roads Maintenance Program for targeted repairs and maintenance of regional roads throughout the Northern Territory, supporting our regions. Budget 2013-14 provides an additional $10m per annum for three years for routine and specific maintenance works for roads within the Central Desert, MacDonnell, Vic/Daly, Roper Gulf and Barkly Shires. There is an amount of:
$29.6m to continue stream crossing upgrades at the Goyder and Donydji River and targeted pavement upgrades on the Central Arnhem Highway
$17m for improvements to the Arnhem Highway
$16m towards the duplication of Tiger Brennan Drive from the city to Berrimah
$9.1m to upgrade, strengthen, and widen urban arterial, rural arterial, and local roads
$5m to upgrade the Charlotte River crossing on Fog Bay Road, which I am sure the member for Daly will be completely impressed with
$5m, as already announced, to the City of Darwin for the duplication of Lee Point Road - an election commitment
$5m for continuation of the upgrade and seal of targeted sections of the Tanami Road
$4.9m to continue sealing Namatjira Drive as part of the Mereenie Loop to complete it
$4m for the Urban Arterial Traffic Management Program
$3.2m for the Roads to Recovery Program on targeted roads
$2.5m to upgrade and seal the existing airstrip at Docker River
$1m for the Black Spot Program for road safety projects at targeted locations, plus many other smaller projects.
We are supporting road and infrastructure development in the Northern Territory.
We are also assisting driver safety with:
$4.5m committed over four years to extend the DriveSafe NT Remote Indigenous driver education and licensing program, a initiative that will help keep people out of gaol, as opposed to the Labor government which kept people in gaol
$250 000 for the DriveSafe NT driver training courses
$150 000 for Motorcyclist Education Training and Licensing courses.
Improving Motor Vehicle Registries will continue with $440 000 to meet growth in frontline service demand, $350 000 to enable the MVR to continue to open on Saturdays, and $320 000 for increased on-road heavy vehicle enforcement.
Budget 2013-14 includes improvements to public bus services, something I am passionate about, with just over $1m to connect recently completed suburbs with the public transport network routes. There is also $1m for a new ticketing and data collection system. The new technology will enable future introduction of a bus tracking mobile application for smartphones so people will know where the buses are while waiting for them.
The emphasis on better public transport continues with $110 000 for ongoing free WiFi in buses and interchanges, and there is $3.3m to upgrade and provide new infrastructure such as bus stops and shelters, all compliant with the Disability and Discrimination Act. There is also $160 000 for an additional special needs bus for student transport, based in Alice Springs.
Moving to this government’s priority of community safety, Territorians want to feel safe wherever they live. They do not want to feel anxious about crime and antisocial behaviour, a legacy of the previous government. There has to be a more sophisticated approach to law and order that targets areas of crime prevalence, manages the issue of repeat offenders and demonstrates a zero tolerance approach towards antisocial behaviour.
As the Minister for Police, Fire and Emergency Services, I am determined to maximise the outcomes across the board to introduce coordinated strategies that embrace the challenges of reform and effective change. This budget provides additional resources to strengthening law and order, including improvements to responses at the joint emergency call centre, new police stations, and the introduction of mandatory rehabilitation for problem drinkers, something the previous Labor government was too scared to address or attack.
In all, the budget will be increased by more than $51.5m in the coming year as we focus on delivering our community safety promises. Initiatives for better policing and improved community safety include:
$22.5m for the recruitment of the additional 120 police, including 20 officers in Alice Springs.
$10.9m to upgrade the Greatorex Building in Alice Springs, which will become the Northern Territory regional headquarters
$654 000 for additional staff to operate the Alice Springs police station on a 24-hour basis
$9.4m to construct a multipurpose police station and accommodation at Alparra under the Stronger Futures National Partnership Agreement
$2.19m for additional call centre support, with $1.5m capital works funding to expand accommodation at the Peter McAulay Centre.
The Northern Territory closed circuit television system proves an efficient and effective detection and investigative tool. This will be expanded to include Katherine, and I know the member for Katherine will be very impressed to see expansion of CCTV into Katherine.
Minor new works will include a volunteer facility in Pirlangimpi, a visiting officers’ quarters in Nguiu, and training room demountables at the Yarrawonga emergency services facility and at Watarrka. In addition, a further $11.53m will be spent on repairs and maintenance throughout the Territory, and $14.15m on police housing and key information technology and communication systems to support effective service delivery.
The Safe Streets Audit has commenced and will continue until October 2013, at a cost of $300 000. This audit will inform future crime prevention strategies.
The Department of the Chief Minister, DCM, plays a pivotal role in working with the Commonwealth government in regard to national reform agendas. With regard to the National Disability Insurance Scheme, or NDIS, the Northern Territory government has reached agreement with the federal government on implementing the full National Disability Insurance Scheme across the Northern Territory. The scheme will start with a trial site in Barkly from July 2014, where important work will be done to develop the scheme so it provides full services and support for remote Territorians who currently enjoy little support.
On 11 May, last Saturday, I signed an agreement with the Prime Minister that will see the transition to the full NDIS scheme commencing in 2016 with completion of the implementation NT-wide by 2020. Having better conditions for Territorians with a disability and their carers was, of course, our central concern and is why we have embraced the NDIS scheme.
Consistent with the government’s commitment to being fiscally responsible, a new marketing and communication structure will commence on 1 July 2013. This structure compromises 73 positions across government, 22 of which sit within a communications and marketing bureau to be established within the Department of the Chief Minister. The bureau will support greater coordination of messages and efficiency for communications and marketing whilst agencies will continue to provide core communication activities either from their own agencies or in a hub-and-spoke agreement model.
The new structure is expected to achieve an estimated saving of around $4m per year. It is reflective of our strategy across the public service, which is respect for our public servants combined with the knowledge that things must be done better. There has to be responsiveness and responsibility, accountability and answerability.
Still with DCM, there is the matter of Foodbank Northern Territory. It is not a major budget item, but, nonetheless, an important element in care for our community. In order to support the continued operation of the food assistance program for the disadvantaged within our community, the Northern Territory government is providing Foodbank Northern Territory with $400 000 in 2013-14 and $160 000 in 2014-15 and 2015-16. Foodbank Northern Territory works with more than 90 registered organisations to distribute in excess of 100 tonnes of food per annum, which equates to more than 150 000 meals. This ongoing government funding will allow the organisation to both consolidate base operations and support continuing activities.
I now turn to the area of Corporate and Information Services. Budget 2013 includes $2.5m to enhance payroll software and create better efficiencies, and a new Northern Territory government vehicle management policy framework has been introduced in order to achieve cost and operational efficiencies. This follows a major review conducted in 2012 that showed a need for change. The fleet will purchase around 750 vehicles per year and the focus will be on low cost, fit-for-purpose vehicles, with vehicles retained for long periods. We are not selling NT Fleet, as the opposition had called for. This will deliver a cost reduction of $7.9m per annum across all government entities.
This is not a government in isolation. Territorians are directly affected, as are all Australians, by what comes out of Canberra. Not only has the community of the Northern Territory been impacted by Labor’s massive and unsustainable debt levels, as a result of federal deliberations the Territory is now $121m worse off. The Commonwealth has penalised the Northern Territory government with cuts from our GST contributions of $121m. That is a shortfall of $121m based on increasing numbers of urban people self-identifying as Indigenous in Victoria and New South Wales, and completely ignoring the fact that the disadvantaged members of the Territory community will be directly impacted. Yet, the Opposition Leader was relying on future GST increases to support her expectation that the Labor government could get the budget back on track. Her words to this House on 27 November 2012 were as follows:
- We made it clear in our financial statements that we would use additional GST revenue to pay down the deficit.
And again on 28 November 2012:
- … you will see strengthening growth through the population adjustments in future GST periods.
Well, how wrong was she? How could these claims be made by a supposedly knowledgeable former Treasurer three months after we had taken office only to find the cupboard bare?
If the Coalition is successful in the September election, what they will face on a national level is now being faced by us here and now: Labor debt and fiscal failures. This is the way Labor operates. In Canberra there are hurried political strategies leading up to Labor’s budget disarray. Here in the Territory, due to Labor debt, there are limitations and constraints that affect the amount that can be spent on priorities. That is belt tightening that we are facing.
Unlike the previous Labor government, we will not mount program after program with no funding in place for the life of that program. Instead, we will make the hard decisions in tandem with listening to Territorians. We have to be smart about the way we manage our money so we have a sustainable future: a future that is not a matter of closing things down but finding new opportunities and inviting investment into the Northern Territory.
In the latest State of the States report, the Territory was ranked first in four categories, including economic growth. The Territory also recorded the highest annual trend growth of the organisations, up by 27.5% in the December quarter 2012 compared to a year ago. In addition, as I have noted before, we are entering a period where Darwin is really becoming part of Asia and a potential capital of Australia within Asia. Yet, at a time of federal rhetoric about Australia in the Asian century and the importance of Northern Australia, all we see from Labor is the introduction of nonsensical taxes and policies, like the one that devastated our livestock industry, that make no sense for a healthy economy.
In conclusion, I make reference to the recent Grattan Institute report titled Budget Pressures on Australian Governments:
- Persistent government deficits incur interest payments, and limit future borrowings. As a result they can unfairly shift costs between generations …
The long-term interests of the Northern Territory are at the forefront of my government’s decision-making. Therefore, fiscal strength and recovery are absolute priorities.
I commend this budget to the House, the first Country Liberals budget, the first responsible budget presented since 29 May 2001, and a positive step forward for the Northern Territory.
Mrs LAMBLEY (Health): Madam Speaker, I support the Northern Territory budget for 2013-14 and I congratulate my colleague, the Treasurer, for his responsible and prudent budget.
This government is one of responsible action which has substantially increased the Health budget to ensure we are able to meet the increasing demand for health services by Territorians. Health is one of the big winners in this budget.
This increase in demand by Territorians is driven by factors such as our ageing population, improved diagnostic technology, high levels of chronic disease and the cost of transporting our patients from rural and remote areas to receive essential care and treatment.
The 2013-14 Health budget is a record budget totalling $1.36bn, the largest for any Northern Territory government department. Despite what the Leader of the Opposition has been telling the media and the people of the Northern Territory today, this budget is in no way a reduction in Health funding. The Leader of the Opposition issued a media release earlier today saying we have reduced funding for hospitals and there has been a dramatic decrease in the amount we are giving to hospitals. That is absolute nonsense. The Leader of the Opposition needs to spend a little more time examining the budget papers before she races out and gives incorrect media releases.
The Northern Territory government’s Health output appropriation for 2013-14 is $152m more than in the May 2012 budget handed down by the former Labor government. That represents an increase of 18.5% over the 2012-13 Health budget and is a significant investment in the health and wellbeing of Territorians. Those numbers show our commitment to improving health outcomes for Territorians, but they also represent a new way of funding Health in the Northern Territory.
Unlike the former Labor government which would starve Health of the resources at the beginning of the financial year only to deficit fund them towards the end of the financial year, the Giles government has boosted Health resources at the beginning of the financial year and given the department a realistic and achievable budget.
Commensurate to this funding increase is a commitment that Health will come in on budget this year and every subsequent year. Our hard-working nurses, doctors, allied health professionals and support staff do an amazing job, and the Giles government has given Health the resources required to ensure they continue to provide these essential services to communities throughout the Territory.
Given the continuing growth pressures Health faces, everyone in the Health space needs to understand this money must be spent as efficiently and effectively as possible with lean back office support and a strong focus on the front line.
I turn to some of the specifics of the Health budget. In 2013-14, the Department of Health will be transformed from a single organisation into three entities comprising the Department of Health, the Top End Health and Hospital Services and the Central Australian Health and Hospital Services. The Department of Health will transition into focusing on governance, policy development, and regulatory functions, while Top End Health and Hospital Services and Central Australian Health and Hospital Services will provide integrated regionally-based healthcare services under the operational management of boards. These fundamental changes will decentralise the delivery of healthcare, and are designed to deliver greater control of healthcare decisions to local communities, improve the flexibility, responsiveness, and innovation capacity of the public health system, and provide more effective and efficient public hospital and health services.
In total, our five public hospitals and associated acute care services will be allocated a record $804.6m in 2013-14. This equates to an additional $48.6m in funding since the November mini-budget announcements. This completely contradicts the claim made earlier by the Leader of the Opposition.
For the Top End Health and Hospital Services, this increased funding includes:
$4.55m in additional funding for enhanced cardiac outreach and rehabilitation services, and the commencement of low-risk angioplasty services – the first time this has occurred in the Territory’s history
$2.88m to provide an additional 258 elective surgery procedures every year
$5.03m to improve patient travel assistance in the Top End
$22.5m to meet costs associated with increased levels of demand for health services.
For the Central Australian Health and Hospital Services, this increased funding includes:
$5.51m for increased ongoing funding for operational expenses of the Alice Springs Hospital Emergency Department
$1.95m for enhanced cardiac outreach and rehabilitation services
$1.585m to provide an additional 142 elective surgery procedures every year
$2.475m to improve patient travel assistance in Central Australia
$5.9m to meet costs associated with increased levels of demand for health services.
Moving from health and hospital services, another important area of service provision is the community treatment and extended care output. This area is responsible for providing alcohol and drug services, mental health services, community and support services for frail aged people, support for senior Territorians, and support services for people with a disability. In this budget we have provided a $47.6m increase in funding since the December mini-budget, which includes:
$35m in new funding to meet the operational costs of running and managing alcohol rehabilitation centres throughout the Northern Territory
$0.5m for the operational costs of 24-hour supported accommodation for clients found guilty under Part 2A of the Northern Territory Criminal Code Act
$0.94m granted to BushMob youth residential rehabilitation service in Alice Springs to help their relocation and service expansion
$7.9m to subsidise eligible pensioners in the Northern Territory to meet the increase in tariffs for utilities.
We are continuing our commitment to major capital works projects across the Northern Territory. In addition to the existing capital and minor new works program, projects amounting to $97.8m will commence in 2013-14, taking the total capital and minor new works program for Health to $172.7m.
Works to be undertaken in 2013-14 include:
$29.6m for continuing remediation works and upgrade at the Alice Springs Hospital
$10m for infrastructure associated with the mandatory rehabilitation of problem drinkers
$13m to upgrade the emergency department at Gove District Hospital
$5m for a hospital scoping study and master plan for the greater Darwin region
$16.6m for the construction and upgrade of remote health clinics at Canteen Creek, Numbulwar, Docker River and Maningrida
$25m to continue the construction and upgrade of the Ntaria, Papunya, Elliott, Ngukurr and Galiwinku Health Clinics.
As the Treasurer previously stated in his budget speech, the funding for Palmerston hospital remains part of the budget. Even today, Labor continued its campaign to spread untruths and fear on the future of the Palmerston hospital. In committing $5m for a hospital scoping study and master plan for the greater Darwin and Palmerston region, we are ensuring we get this important project right the first time.
This is a responsible health budget that increases resources and paves the way for the most significant reform of our health system in a generation. Much to the embarrassment of those opposite who have been spreading fear in the lead-up to today, the Health budget has been significantly increased not cut. The Leader of the Opposition now finds herself in the lonely position of being the only Territorian disappointed at the increased Health spending the Country Liberals have delivered today. I look forward to the sincere apology to those she has sought to scare and anger in the community that she surely must now deliver in her reply tomorrow.
Mr CHANDLER (Education): Madam Speaker, I congratulate the Treasurer on a responsible budget, under very difficult circumstances, that places the Northern Territory on a solid footing for the future. In the Northern Territory, the Country Liberals government did not inherit a wonderful fiscal position as did the Rudd government when Howard lost a few years ago. The financial position Australia was in at that time was sensational. To be able to take over a government in a position like that would have been wonderful because new governments have new approaches - a vision and focus on their own policies - but are strangled because of the position they are left in, as we were on taking government in August last year.
I take this opportunity to highlight some of the key funding areas in my portfolios of Education, Housing, and Lands, Planning and the Environment. Let me begin with Education and start by putting this budget in some perspective. Let us examine the spending patterns of the previous government because we know the then Labor government, now opposition - rightfully so - has a tendency to rewrite history. Let us look at how much they spent on government education during their last term.
In 2009-10, the budget for government education was $586m. In 2010-11, this increased to $636m. In 2011-12, this rose to $683m and, in their final budget for 2012-13, Labor allocated $685m to fund government education. Well this government, a Country Liberals government, a responsible government, will spend a total of $685m on government education. Our budget is equal to their highest spend on government education during their term in government. Quite simply, given that their 2012-13 budget was only in place for a matter of months, we are spending more on government education in the Northern Territory than any previous government. Not only are we spending more, but we are spending it more efficiently and wisely.
We are spending money to assist parents with the cost of education and schooling their children because we acknowledge there are cost of living pressures on families and do not think this should impact on a child’s education.
One of the first initiatives we implemented in the Education portfolio after being elected to government was the doubling of the Back to School payment. Parents are now issued with a Back to School voucher worth $150 every year for each school-aged child. These payments will be worth a total of $6.6m in the 2013-14 budget year, and will assist with purchasing text books, stationery, school excursions, school camps and other similar expenses that can impact on the household budget.
We are also providing assistance to schools to adjust to the rises in utility costs. This government was forced to take responsible action with regard to the price of electricity and water. We could not allow Power and Water to sink further into unsustainable debt because, ultimately, this was costing Territorians dearly. We have taken the necessary measures to curb this difficult problem; however, this has meant some challenges for customers, and schools are no different in that regard.
To lessen the impact of these increasing costs on schools, we have allocated $6.2m in additional funding to offset the rise in school utility costs. This funding will be available to both government and non-government schools.
We are also working with schools to assist them to reduce their energy usage, whether that is more efficient lighting or reduced use of air conditioning when it is not required. This is a joint effort between schools and the government. I hope these measures to reduce energy consumption will produce long-term benefits for the schools.
On taking over as Minister for Education, I said I would be damned if I have any parent having to turn a sausage to pay for utility costs for schools. Schools, with the money they raise through their hard-working parents and community committees, do not deserve to be spending their time to raise funds to be spent on utility costs. Those funds should be put to better uses within their schools. This government increased the budget by $6.2m to cover those additional costs.
I turn now to some of the areas where we have taken a different policy direction to the previous government. These are highlighted in this budget. I am referring to the $1.5m we are spending on the establishment of an English as an additional language unit and the $2m towards the establishment of a literacy and numeracy unit that will work with an expert advisory panel to improve educational outcomes for Territory students.
Too many Territory students are struggling to read and write and too many are not meeting the national benchmarks in literacy and numeracy. It is not my intention to point the finger at anyone or anything in particular, but our efforts have not been good enough and they have not been good enough for years and years.
The establishment of an English as an additional language unit is born out of an acknowledgement that many of the children in our classrooms do not speak English as their first language and do not speak English at home. This is an enormous disadvantage for a student entering the classroom but it is a reality for so many of the children in our schools, especially our very remote schools.
The purpose of this unit will be to assist teachers by providing specialised curriculum and professional development to improve the way we deliver education for children for whom English is not their first language.
The reality is, we need to have the courage to challenge convention. What we have done in the past has got us to this point in time. Quite frankly, it has not been good enough. The only way I can see forward is to take on some of the conventions of the past and change the way we are doing things.
I spoke with minister Garrett last week in Sydney, and he agreed that we have to work harder in this space. It is all well and good to say, ‘Let us close the gap’, but if we do not really have a plan behind how we achieve that, it is all for naught. It is all a waste of time. They are motherhood statements. They are pieces of rhetoric we can talk about as long as we want, yet the people we should be focusing on, those children in our classrooms across the Northern Territory, are not getting what they deserve: a proper education.
It is our desire, as a government, to see an improvement in literacy and numeracy outcomes for all students in the Northern Territory. The $2m we will be spending towards literacy and numeracy and the expert advisory panel is designed to provide a greater focus on these areas of core curriculum. It will look closely at what we teach, how we teach and what classroom resources will improve outcomes for our students in reading and writing.
In addition to these measures, we will be spending:
$150 000 for the continuation of the childcare toy fund
$43.2m for necessary repairs and maintenance - that is a massive increase, but with ageing infrastructure we have to put money into repairs and maintenance
$11.4m for minor new works in 22 schools, including $2m for transportable classrooms across the greater Darwin region and $2m for Woodroffe Primary School to extend the Pandanus centre and provide two new special education classrooms
In all, this is a measured and responsible Education budget and one I am proud of, but is it enough? Will it ever be enough? The problem is sometimes it does not all come down to the amount of money spent on education, it is how we spend it and what we spend it on. We have to learn to do things far more wisely than we have in the past. We can find efficiencies in the way we do things. We can find better ways to deliver a decent education in the Northern Territory.
We know that two-thirds of our students are in the primary school-aged years and two-thirds of our schools are primary schools. I have a focus on early education and know that by building a strong foundation you provide a child with a better opportunity throughout their primary years into middle years and into secondary and beyond.
The reality is, this all has to come down to one reason only: why do we need to provide a decent education? So someone has the opportunity to get a job. We create a strong economy and the jobs and that means we all win. We all win as a community when someone is provided a decent education and a strong economy where jobs are on offer. It provides them with opportunity. Last week, speaking to some elders from Arnhem Land, I asked them what they wanted and needed out of education for their children. Of course, the answers were different. However, the one thing that came through was they wanted their children to have the opportunity to make their own decisions. Whether they were going to choose to live in their homelands for the rest of their lives or were going to move to bigger towns, cities, or any place in the world, they wanted a decent education to provide their children with an opportunity.
It would be lovely to have come into government with buckets full of money and the ability to spend so much more on so many educational initiatives that I know would make a difference in the Northern Territory, but we have a very tight fiscal position. I do not want to leave, as a legacy, a further debt to the children we have attending our primary and secondary schools today. As a responsible government, a Liberal government which knows how to live within its means, we need to get this budget back on track. If we focus on doing that we provide a much better future for those children in our schools who deserve not only to get an education but to inherit an economy that is far better than the economy we have inherited from the previous government.
I will move on to Housing. The 2013-14 budget will also deliver many improvements in public and affordable housing. This government is taking responsible action to reduce the cost of living for Territorians. We know the most significant impact on household budgets is the cost of housing.
This government is taking a multipronged approach to reducing the cost of housing for Territorians, tackling this issue from every possible angle. We are renewing our public housing stock. We have introduced a new First Home Owner Grant scheme that is worth up to $25 000 for newly-constructed homes. We will be constructing 2000 new affordable homes through our Real Housing for Growth package, and we will be releasing new land into the market at a faster rate than ever before. For too long, the tap was so tight it stopped dripping. We have turned the tap on. We have to release land; it is the only way we are going to reduce the cost of living, not only in the greater Darwin area, but across the Northern Territory. Faster land release and making more land available puts a downward pressure on the price of land.
These are all exciting and new initiatives across both the Housing and Lands and Planning portfolios. In the Housing portfolio, perhaps the most exciting initiative is the Real Housing for Growth package. This is a truly innovative new measure which will deliver thousands of new homes for Territorians.
The first round of expressions of interest closed last month, for which 500 dwellings were allocated. I am pleased and excited to say that developers and investors, both large and small, have been enthusiastic in their response to this package, and we are significantly oversubscribed in the first round. We are still finalising our assessment of those proposals, but it looks as if we will be able to roll this out quicker than the ambitious time lines we set for ourselves.
This means a new affordable rental option for thousands of Territorians: teachers, nurses, apprentices, and other workers who are critical to our economy. This government has had the courage and vision to come up with an innovative product to reduce the cost of housing for Territorian workers, and we have allocated $3.8m in this year alone to see it rolled out.
In addition, along with the Commonwealth we are continuing to invest heavily in the improvement of remote Indigenous housing. In the 2013-14 budget, we will be spending $85.7m under the National Partnership Agreement on Remote Indigenous Housing and the National Partnership Agreement on Stronger Futures in the Northern Territory to construct new housing, upgrade existing housing, and provide associated infrastructure in remote Indigenous communities. We will also be spending $26.8m towards repairs and maintenance, and $8.4m to continue minor new works to upgrade existing public housing across the Northern Territory.
Let me digress momentarily to talk about my vision for public housing in the Northern Territory. The majority of our public housing stock is very old and is becoming increasingly expensive to repair. Many homes are simply beyond economic repair; that is, it will cost us more to repair the dwellings than they would retain in value. I would like to think we can move towards a situation where we do not hold any public housing stock that is beyond 15 years old, but are continually turning over old stock and constructing new dwellings.
There has not been significant investment in new public housing stock for many years, and this places us in a challenging position as a new government. We do not have the funds to embark on a substantial new construction program, and that is why we must be judicious about how we manage our existing stock.
I note the criticism that has been levelled against me and this government for selling off public housing by the shadow minister for Housing, the member for Wanguri. I find this criticism a bit rich considering her involvement in the portfolio over recent years. The member for Wanguri cannot claim ignorance of the poor state of public housing left to us by the previous government. Perhaps it would be convenient for her if people were able to forget that she was the senior advisor for the previous government’s Housing minister. She was the Chief of Staff and had an intimate knowledge of, and involvement in, the development of their public housing policies.
Unlike the previous government and the member for Wanguri, this government is committed to renewing our public housing stock. The only responsible way we can achieve this is by selling uneconomical dwellings and reinvesting this in new stock. I know there are at least 250 homes that will cost more than $100 000 to bring back to a habitable position. That is 250 homes that currently do not have anyone living in them. I made the decision to sell 50 of those homes and use that money to rebuild 200 of the homes that were not being used. I argue that whilst our total stock might have dropped by 50, we can now use 200 homes that we could not before. That is 200 families which will be back into homes we could not have afforded under normal circumstances because of the fiscal position we inherited.
While on the topic of erroneous claims made by the member for Wanguri, I address the outlandish claim she made that we have cut spending on public housing by $7m. Like so many claims by the Labor opposition, this has no basis in fact. We are spending $20m more in Budget 2013-14 on Territory housing services than was spent in Budget 2012-13, which the member for Wanguri had a hand in creating. There is $5m more being spent on urban and affordable housing.
I now move on to Lands, Planning and the Environment, probably one of the most exciting areas given you get to work with some of the terrific developers we have in the Northern Territory, people with entrepreneurial qualities I was unaware of before coming into this portfolio.
I take my hat off to the proposals coming our way, many of which were put to the previous government and either laughed off or not given due consideration. The previous government was good at not allowing due process to occur. If anything undermines a government, undermines a process more than anything else, it is to not allow a process to proceed.
I regard the Lands, Planning and the Environment portfolio as one the most important. It does not have the biggest budget, but it has a pivotal role in reducing the cost of living. It is through this relatively small but very efficient department that all new residential and commercial development is facilitated. More land means more housing, more housing means cheaper housing and cheaper housing means cheaper living.
This government is doing all it can to release more land into the market as quickly and efficiently as possible. In Budget 2013-14, an additional $20m has been earmarked to accelerate land availability in Palmerston east, which will significantly increase the supply of land in the greater Darwin region.
Alice Springs has also being crying out for new residential land, so we have allocated an extra $4.4m to continue headworks at Kilgariff so we can turn these blocks off as quickly as possible.
The Planning Commission established last year has begun its important work in providing strategic direction to development in the Northern Territory so, as the Territory grows, we can have confidence this will occur in a measured, smart and responsible way. This work will become increasingly important as we look at innovative ways we can expand and develop. Some of those are exactly what I am looking at the moment, and it is quite amazing what some developers have come up with.
Growing does not always have to mean moving further and further away from our city centres. One of the exciting projects currently being undertaken by the department is an audit of all government owned land throughout the Territory. This work is ongoing but, to date, the review has already uncovered in excess of 80 potential sites for redevelopment, some small but some very large. The advantage of developing these sites over new greenfield sites is they are already serviced by established infrastructure. Road networks, utilities and transport corridors already exist. This means the cost of development is significantly reduced as compared to a greenfield site and means the land can come onto the market much more quickly and cheaply. That is something we really need to get on top of given we have had nearly a decade of very slow land release in the Northern Territory.
As a new government coming in, one of the lessons we need to ensure gets out there is that this government wants to concentrate on letting businesses run their business, instead of being choked by red tape, and let them be free to focus on what they do best.
In conclusion, I hold three very important portfolios. Lands, Planning and the Environment is extremely important and it was imperative the budgets in those areas - we accepted that each of us as ministers had to do what we could to rein in the debt left to us by the previous government. Some very hard decisions had to be made. Some of those decisions none of us wanted to make. I recall sitting in Budget Cabinet extremely depressed, given the circumstances we had inherited. Of course, no one wants to make those hard decisions. No one wants to see the difficult decisions and how they can affect our community. We are not heartless people; we are human, like everyone else. Many of the decisions made also impact on us; they impact on everyone in this room and on all Territorians. There were some hard decisions. What amazes me, though, is that some of these hard decisions would not have needed to be made had we been in a far better fiscal position than we are.
Education is a priority. Releasing enough land onto the markets to ensure some balance in that market and to ensure we can rein in the cost of living in the Northern Territory is so vitally important. Wearing the Housing hat, we have to do so much more in that space. The condition of houses – not only remote houses in the Northern Territory, but also in our urban environments – ranges from new and very good, to extremely poor with nowhere near enough maintenance done over the years and perhaps not even managed that well. This government is courageous enough to make the harsh decisions that are sometimes required to get people to lift their standards and look after a taxpayer-funded property.
In the area of Housing, particularly government housing, we need to do so much more. We can do it, even within the fiscal position we have found ourselves in. How do we do it? By not relying totally on what government can produce, and having courage and faith in private developers, private enterprise and public private partnerships. Government does not need to own everything, particularly in the housing area. It is exciting to be working in that space where, if we get just a few of these things going that we are talking about, we will change the face of Territory Housing into the future. It will be so much better for so many people who rely on public housing today.
I will end on this; public housing should be a step up for people, helping them get from public housing into their own homes. In that regard, you are really making a spot on the Territory. As a government, we should do all we can to keep people in the Northern Territory. The best thing we can do is drive down the cost of living, and I can do that through speeding up land release.
Ms ANDERSON (Children and Families): Madam Speaker, I compliment and congratulate the Treasurer on his budget. The people of the Northern Territory responded to the utter incompetence of the last government by voting them out. They are across the other side, thanks to Territory voters.
Economically, the Northern Territory was headed down a $5.5bn dark hole, thanks to Labor. We inherited a huge responsibility, with our first task being to re-establish the Northern Territory’s financial credibility. A simple solution would be to slash and burn to bring the budget back from the brink. But that sort of action would have ignored the immediate needs of the people of the Northern Territory. It is really pleasing to see the Treasurer, and, in fact, the entire government, has worked to balance short-term needs and begin building long-term sustainability. In this budget we set out to balance the need for more housing, more roads, and better health outcomes and, in addition, enhance the Northern Territory’s financial capability and long-term viability.
We are on the move, going forward confidently into the future, so we take a long-term view with this budget. It is obvious that it is not just a CLP budget or a Labor budget; it is a responsible budget for all Territorians. This is what the people of the Northern Territory were crying out for when they elected us in August last year. They wanted someone who governed for all Territorians. When I say ‘all Territorians’ I do not mean just everyone in the Territory today, I mean those who will participate in the economy of the Northern Territory in the future. To a large extent, it is these people who would have suffered under the previous government’s policies.
Too often Labor budgets mortgage the future. Delia’s former government spent more and more of the next generation’s taxes by borrowing more and more and paying more and more in interest. At some stage we would reach an end gain. There would be no more. Now they are the opposition, sitting carping at those elected to bail out the mess they created. What a shame. To paraphrase the late Maggie Thatcher, ‘Socialism works until you run out of other people’s money’. This budget spells an end to that Labor logic.
Instead of borrowing and spending, this budget invests in Health with $25m to continue the construction and upgrade of the Ntaria, Papunya, Elliott, Ngukurr and Galiwinku health clinics, and $16.6m for the construction and upgrade of remote health clinics at Canteen Creek and Numbulwar. It invests $5.57m to continue delivery of trade training centres in Ngukurr, Groote Eylandt and West Arnhem College. It invests in community safety with $22.5m for the recruitment of an additional 120 police, including 20 officers in Alice Springs, $2.84m for the installation of closed circuit television in Katherine, increased support of the Northern Territory Joint Emergency Services Communications Centre, and increased staff to operate a 24/7 front counter service at the Alice Springs police station.
These and many other initiatives the Treasurer outlined show why I am so proud and consider it an honour to be a part of this government. We are a government with an eye on the Northern Territory’s future, unlike those sitting opposite.
As far as my portfolios are concerned, I am really pleased to be able to say that, despite the difficult position we inherited, we are making real progress to provide Territorians with a positive way forward. We do this by putting into play governance which follows through programs that do what they should. Financially, the most significant responsibility I have is the negotiation of the Stronger Futures agreement with the federal government.
Under the agreement signed with the federal government, the Territory will received $3.49bn in Commonwealth grants. Pay attention, those sitting opposite, to this. An enormous amount of money is invested here and these grants cover nearly all areas of Territory life, for example health, schooling, including non-government schools, remote engagement and coordination, the Alice Springs Transformation Plan and community wellbeing implementation plans. The complex implementation plans that distribute this money go across our government, particularly my portfolios. These plans and the money they represent are essential to the development of our Territory.
While financially not as significant as Stronger Futures, local government reform is still one of the major planks of this government. I know those opposite hope their idea of reform resolved some issues when they created the super shires. What a pity, it got you across the other side. They took away the voices of people - Labor’s usual way of not listening to people - voices of local Territorians, people local government is supposed to look after. You will see this is the theme of what I and this government are trying to do - giving back their voices. We want the population of the Northern Territory to take ownership of their destiny and responsibility for outcomes.
As Minister for Local Government, the now Chief Minister started a review process for local government. He created a working group that included a wide range of interested people. This group came up with several recommendations. We are taking these recommendations to the people for their views. In this budget we have included $6.2m over four years towards consultations, and planning for changes the consultations produce. These consultations will continue until the end of June. By then, we will have a real picture of what people truly want, what the service providers want, and what can be delivered. We are looking to put any proposed change into effect as soon as possible, but definitely by January next year.
While reform is progressing, we still need functioning local government, so it is good to see we are able to add $5m to operational funding for the shires to help with their financial sustainability. We know this is only a stopgap measure while the reform is progressing, but when a government inherits a mess as we did, fixing it all responsibly takes time. The $5m provides assistance to keep services being delivered.
If local government reform is complex, I must admit that the Office of Children and Families is an incredibly complex and difficult portfolio. Having grown up in remote Northern Territory and seen what family breakdowns can do, I am passionate to ensure this area of my responsibility is working. After all, it is a critical line of last resort for so many children’s futures.
The previous government saw the problems, but solutions eluded them. Instead, they created dozens of positions, but it was done so haphazardly that, in the end, they forgot to fund 90 of those positions. How irresponsible! How did this create long-term stability for the organisation and the clients? In short, it did not, and anyone who says otherwise is incompetent. Who knows what their rationale was for creating 90 positions, but not funding them. In any case, we are getting on with fixing this great big mess left by Labor.
In this government, minister Lambley started the reform process. I have continued it, driving responsible reform to produce better results. Of course, while more money would always help, the financial situation we were left with means more money cannot be the only solution. Instead, working better, working smarter and finding efficiencies wherever possible has to be the way forward.
A new CE joined us a few weeks ago and, being a local and having worked in Western Australian children’s policy at the highest level, I am pleased we have already seen real productive change developing. While I have not been able to add to the resources available in this budget, we have been able to move money to better support the frontline services. Also, we have been looking at ways of providing better, cheaper services.
In all, the budget for the Office of Children and Families is almost $170m. With this amount, we are determined to do our best to ensure we are able to provide the necessary assistance to ensure the safety and wellbeing of children and families.
Regional Development is another area of my responsibility where we have been working on getting people’s voices back. Once again, the former government created committees to advise government on regional development, except they left them as organisational orphans with no direct line to the department, their minister, or any of the funders of the development in the regions. With no new money in the budget, we had to do more with what we have. We came to government determined to give people in regional Northern Territory their voices, but we had to find a way to do it using the existing resources.
It is frustrating when I see so much opportunity around this Territory and am approached by people seeking help to build on that opportunity that I have to say, ‘Sorry there is no new money. We have to pay back what the last government spent before we can move forward as fast as we would like.’ I cannot put populism before practical common sense. This budget is about responsible action.
That said, I am truly impressed at the efficiencies we have found in this policy area. Instead of the three levels of government each trying to work out what development is needed and where, we have a solid framework to ensure the development identified by the communities is reported to senior officers in the Northern Territory public service, then to ministers. These regional development committees also have an input into the Commonwealth Regional Development Australia Northern Territory Committee, and I have made sure, for the first time, the Northern Territory government has a voice in the decision process as well.
Obviously, this framework has had no budgetary impact today, but it is a strong sign of how this government functions; we listen and we make sure we take action to drive the economy. This is in direct contrast to the last government, which waited until an opportunity approached, issued a media release then went away and, as so often happens, never thought to check if anything worked.
By using this time of fiscal belt-tightening to lay down the foundations for the future development of the Territory we will ensure the Territory is well-positioned for the rewards and challenges of the future.
Madam Speaker, I commend the Treasurer’s and Country Liberal’s first budget. Thank you.
Mr STYLES (Infrastructure): Madam Speaker, I say a sincere thank you to the people of the Northern Territory who voted for the Country Liberal Party in the last election and gave us the opportunity to present the first Country Liberals budget in over a decade. From what I have heard so far, it is a responsible budget to take the Territory into the future and provide not only a future for us, but for our kids, our grandkids, and those who will follow us.
I congratulate the Treasurer, the member for Fong Lim, on his first budget. I reiterate, having listened to it, I see some fantastic things in it, given we inherited a massive debt which has created problems for not only this government, but governments to follow.
The Country Liberal Party government will be focused on the best interests of all Territorians and will continue to invest in new infrastructure and maintain existing infrastructure to ensure this happens. That goes to the heart of where we can go when deeply in debt and have the issues we have had to face in putting this budget together.
There are four ways government, and in fact anyone, can get themselves out of trouble. increased taxes, reduced services, a combination of those two, or economic development. The Giles government has chosen economic development. However, to have economic development you need good infrastructure. The Treasurer, in budget Cabinet, has allowed for an excellent infrastructure budget and we are determined to continue strengthening the Northern Territory and our communities through regional development and the allocation of infrastructure dollars that Budget 2013-14 provides.
The County Liberals government is also delivering opportunities and infrastructure to enhance sporting and recreation facilities. This has a direct impact not only on the Territory lifestyle but, in particular, on the youth of the Territory where they can do things. We are encouraging not only youth, but their families to do so. We recognise how much Territorians love their outdoor lifestyle and we cater for that. You will find, throughout the budget, allocation for all types of sporting and recreational facilities, boat ramps, upgrading roads to give access to fishing spots and various other venues where people can participate in an outdoor lifestyle.
Of course, health and education are two areas that we believe are vital for us to focus on in Budget 2013-14. This is shown with a new upgraded infrastructure commitment towards much-needed facilities in the areas of health and education. This is a responsible budget and we are taking responsible action to deal with the financial position left by the former government – a $5.5bn debt and a $1.2bn deficit. Since coming to government, we have found in excess of $100m worth of unfunded positions and other unfunded things which did not appear in the budget. This bill will cater for all Territorians despite the debt we were left.
By focusing on regional development, the Country Liberals government has provided new and upgraded infrastructure in remote communities to enhance services and stimulate regional development. The County Liberals’ mantra is jobs, jobs, jobs, and by investing in remote and regional Australia we can create jobs there. I note the Treasurer said there was about $100m-plus for youth training. Much of that can be done in the communities with innovative ways, and we have some innovative ways to create jobs there.
The Minister for Correctional Services has indicated that there are hundreds of jobs for prisoners so when they leave prison they can get out. But we have to have the facilities there in the first place to train them. Thanks to this budget, we will have many dollars to put towards that. We also need to have this infrastructure developed in regional and rural areas so people who are returning to those areas can have a real job.
My colleague, the Minister for Housing, said there are some fantastic housing initiatives in remote areas. I think there is a figure further along in my speech that deals with housing and using local talent to build infrastructure.
Before I go any further I will give a couple of numbers so people listening to this have some idea. The 2013 budget invests in building the Territory’s future with $1.184bn for infrastructure. This includes $560m for the capital works program, $295m for the Power and Water Corporation’s infrastructure program, $257m for repairs and maintenance and $68m for capital and repairs and maintenance grants. Much of that will go into regional, rural and remote Northern Territory so that people who are trained can get there, do things and earn a living.
By focusing on regional development the Country Liberals government has provided new and upgraded infrastructure in remote communities to enhance services and stimulate regional development. That is jobs, jobs, jobs for people in the bush. This also includes $139.6m for remote Indigenous housing capital works and $32.25m for repairs and maintenance grants under the joint Commonwealth and Territory government’s Remote Indigenous Housing Program and Stronger Futures.
We intend to have a much better performing and much more efficient system than the former SIHIP program where some houses were costing $1m each to build. Sadly, that led to fewer bedrooms in remote Australia than there were before they started. We intend to change that by being much more efficient and effective in the way we build homes, the types of homes we build, and by involving local people in building those properties.
This commitment will help close the gap on Indigenous disadvantage across the Territory. As I said, there are options for designing houses that might be better suited and for houses that can be built for a more competitive price. These are the sorts of things this budget will allow us to do. It is essential we improve housing conditions as the flow-on effect will see improvements in Indigenous health, education and employment.
Some of the housing problems we have, such as overcrowding, where there are 20 people in a home - when we can get those people into a number of homes and get realistic figures on the number of people to a bedroom then I am sure those things will follow. It is simply giving these people the opportunity to be able to help themselves to improve their health, education and employment prospects.
There is $44.6m for government employee housing for more nurses, teachers and police in remote communities. It is essential that we improve these conditions. We need to make sure those essential services are well catered for so people will not only want to go into the bush and and enjoy the benefits of working in remote areas but will want to stay because their conditions are at least comfortable and appropriate for their positions in those remote communities.
All of these are essential positions and this budget allocation will bring a big boost towards strengthening our communities and enhancing our much needed services. I note also the money that has being allocated for roads. Without roads - good roads, safe roads - it makes it difficult for people in remote areas to get around, for service people to get out there, and for government and non-government organisations to get to and from the bush areas.
Madam Speaker, $25m has also been committed to continue the construction and upgrade of the Ntaria, Papunya, Elliott, Ngukurr and Galiwinku health clinics. Obviously, to any form of government, health, education and law and order are three top priorities, but it is essential we improve these health clinics and continue the construction of them.
There is $16.6m for the construction and upgrade of remote health clinics at Canteen Creek, Numbulwar and Maningrida, and $7m for the continued construction of child and family centres at Gunbalanya, Maningrida, Ngukurr and Yuendemu. We all know those early childhood facilities are essential to allow kids to grow. They also need to go home to houses that are not overcrowded. It is imperative that we continue to put the sort of money into remote housing and health clinics, schools, police and other services that this budget has catered for.
There is $5.47m to continue delivery of trade training centres in Ngukurr, Groote Eylandt and West Arnhem College. It is essential that we train these young people to give them hope there is a job. When we start looking at the sort of things the Giles government is going to do in relation to remote housing and infrastructure, they need to have those basic skills and these training centres will assist in giving them those skills.
We all know that getting to and from remote and regional communities is important, which is why $2.5m has being allocated for upgrading the Docker River airstrip.
There is also nearly $2m of minor works committed to build new facilities at remote schools such as a new administration building at Angurugu School, a transportable classroom at Milyakburra School and fencing at Gapuwiyak School.
This government will continue to focus on funds and our commitment towards enhancing the Territory lifestyle. Budget 2013 delivers infrastructure to enhance sporting and recreational facilities such as the commitment to resurface the track circuit and upgrade concrete barriers at Hidden Valley Motor Sports Complex.
There is money for boat ramps, and roads will enhance remote tourism. The Tourism minister is yet to speak, but if we achieve these improvements it gives greater access to local communities to get involved in the tourism industry. There are some wonderful remote area tourism industries currently, but we need to encourage more people in regional areas to get involved in local tourism.
By upgrading these facilities we are bringing more people to the Territory. By doing this we are continuing to boost our economy and our reputation around the nation. It is also about boosting economic development, which is one of the best ways to get out of the horrendous debt we have been left.
The Country Liberals government has also committed more than $1m to introduce and upgrade cycling tracks at Casuarina Coastal Reserve and Alice Springs Telegraph Station Historical Reserve, and to upgrade walking tracks at Nitmiluk National Park, Litchfield National Park, Casuarina Coastal Reserve and the George Brown Botanical Gardens.
There is nothing like getting out with the family on the pushbike on the weekend but it has to be on something safe and somewhere where you are not getting punctures every couple of hundred metres. When you have three kids on bikes getting punctures it is not very good because you spend most of your day repairing them. We will try to provide more of these as time goes on, and further infrastructure will encourage families to get out and enjoy the Territory lifestyle. It is so important for all Territorians to live a healthy lifestyle. By continuing to upgrade and introduce these cycle paths we encourage them all to take the opportunity to live a healthier lifestyle.
We have seen nearly $1m in minor new works to continue to boost our lifestyle with upgrades at the Alice Springs drag strip. I went past there when I was in Alice recently; it is very well patronised and I am sure the people of Alice Springs will be grateful to upgrade that strip so they can continue to hold national competitions. We have additional shade shelters at Palmerston Water Park and Larrakia Football Stadium, as well as installing a child safety barrier and shade structures over pools at Howard Springs Nature Park.
We will continue to make our community safe through expanded Police, Fire and Emergency Services and Justice facilities throughout the Territory, and our Budget 2013-14 will see this. We will spend nearly $12m towards repairs and maintenance of Police, Fire and Emergency Services facilities. That is on top of 120 extra police officers. With our habitual drunks policy, we will have safer streets.
We will ensure we continue to support the people and the town of Alice Springs, and we have committed $15m to not only expand police facilities in Alice Springs, but also to increase court capacity. The Country Liberals government has also committed nearly $10m to construct a multipurpose police station and accommodation at Alparra. These are the things remote Australia needs. As we know, law and order, health and education are high on anyone’s agenda.
While we have recently been focusing on Alice Springs, we have also committed a great deal in Budget 2013-14 towards Darwin, with nearly $3m towards expanded accommodation for the Joint Emergency Services Communications Centre at the Peter McAulay Centre, to establish a standalone Youth Justice Court in Darwin, and to refit standard court facilities at the Darwin Supreme Court to enable an additional criminal court.
This bill will continue to keep the whole of the Territory connected through our vital transport investment. Budget 2013-14 provides a massive $287m for Territory roads and national highways, including $95m for repairs and maintenance essential for our tourism industry, our beef and cattle industry, and for all types of people trying to get around the Territory to provide much-needed services to many communities.
We will continue with the National Network roads program, with many key projects to be delivered to benefit our road users. There will be $55.2m for strengthening and widening, flood immunity and safety improvements; $13m will be used to construct a grade separated overpass on the Stuart Highway over the railway south of Alice Springs; and $6.5m to continue construction of new overtaking opportunities at selected sections of the Stuart Highway between Darwin and Katherine.
The Territory government is also investing more than $40m for continued works on the Marine Supply Base, with operations expected to commence in 2013-14, and $29.6m to continue stream crossing upgrades at the Goyder River and targeted pavement upgrades on the Central Arnhem Road. I am sure my colleague, the member for Arnhem, will be very grateful for some of those road improvements in her electorate, as will her people there ...
Ms Walker: So will the people of Nhulunbuy and all those homelands.
Mr STYLES: Absolutely, yes. We have lots of …
Ms Walker: A Labor initiative, funded by Labor.
Mr Giles: We support Labor electorates too, Lynne.
Mr STYLES: We do support Labor electorates. I will take up the interjection. Let us look at Barkly:
$2.5m for the Utopia airstrip upgrade
$5.57m for a remote health clinic at Elliott
$5.3m for a remote health clinic at Canteen Creek
$9.98m for the Tennant Creek Hospital fire safety upgrade
$0.62m for Tomato Island camp ground.
However, I digress. I will go back to some of the positive things about the 2013-14 budget for the Territory. There is $17m for strengthening and widening targeted sections of the Arnhem Highway and safety improvements including overtaking lanes. The Arnhem Highway carries an enormous amount of tourism traffic. It carries people in and out of Jabiru and there are trucking operations along that road. This is much-needed infrastructure to make our roads better and more serviceable. There is also an enormous number of recreational fishers at places like Mary River and Shady Camp who use that road.
There is nearly $10m for an upgrade to strengthen and widen urban arterial, rural arterial and local roads. There is $5m to upgrade the Charlotte River crossing on Fog Bay Road, including construction of a new bridge and associated approaches and drainage works. There is a $5m grant to the City of Darwin for the duplication of Lee Point Road. I am sure the people in Lyons and Muirhead and the enormous number of people living at the caravan park at Lee Point, along with the new motel facilities there with 300 rooms, will appreciate that. I am sure the dual carriageway will be much appreciated by people in the northern suburbs.
There is $5m for the continuation of the upgrade and sealing of targeted sections of the Tanami Road, and nearly $5m to continue sealing Namatjira Drive as part of the Mereenie Loop. There is also $4m for the Urban Arterial Traffic Management program and $3.2m for the Roads to Recovery program on targeted local roads.
Budget 2013-14 provides an additional $10m for targeted repairs and maintenance of regional roads as part of a three-year $30m Regional Roads Maintenance Program for routine and specific maintenance works to roads within the Central Desert, MacDonnell, Victoria Daly, Roper Gulf and Barkly Shires.
The Territory government is committed to building the Territory’s future through continued support of the duplication of Tiger Brennan Drive. I am sure my colleagues and all those people in Palmerston will be very grateful for the improved connection which will get us in and out of our major cities and towns much more easily. Budget 2013-14 has committed $16m of the Territory’s $33m contribution towards the duplication from Berrimah to the city as part of the $103m Territory and Commonwealth governments’ projects.
The Country Liberals government is committed to investing in our future in education facilities, school facilities and health facilities. We know just how important education is to the Territory and its families, especially our youth. Budget 2013-14 will deliver $75m for infrastructure to improve school and other education facilities. This includes nearly $45m for repairs and maintenance. We have also committed more than $7m towards Darwin education facilities to ensure we can offer the best and most appropriate services. These include transportable classrooms in the greater Darwin region, including additional arts and manual arts space at Darwin Middle School, extension of the Pandanus centre at Woodroffe Primary and provision of two new special education programs, upgrades to B Block at Darwin High School, additional flexible learning spaces at Larrakeyah Primary School, fencing the preschool outdoor area and upgrading the toilets at Karama Primary School, and the list goes on.
The budget will continue to improve essential infrastructure for the whole of the Territory. The Territory government is investing $295m. in Budget 2013-14, to upgrade, deliver, and maintain power, water, and sewerage infrastructure. This is also trying to invest in an organisation which was failing to provide for itself. We will still invest in it and we will still assist the Power and Water Corporation, hopefully, to reach a point where it is sustainable and we can get the costs down and sell power at what it is costing us to produce.
Budget 2013-14 also provides $31.7m in capital and repairs and maintenance investment for the Indigenous Essential Services program as part of the $72.2m which provides electricity, water supply, and sewerage services to 73 remote communities.
The Territory government will continue to focus on land development and housing infrastructure to improve the roll-out of land for new homes and industry and to improve urban public housing.
I say thank you very much to the Minister for Housing. I do not know how many times I stood in this House in the four years I was in opposition and condemned the previous ALP government for their lack of land release. It impacted severely on so many people who were just trying to enjoy the lifestyle here and get on with raising their kids. We have ended up with the most unaffordable rents, housing and land in the nation.
I was in a briefing the other day where I was informed that, fortunately, the Minister for Housing has identified in excess of 700 existing blocks of land that are currently zoned and ready to go. Since we got into government we have had people to look at what blocks had services and what infrastructure existed, and we found those blocks. Over the past nearly 12 years of the ALP government, these blocks were there but it failed to perform an audit and pull them to help at least 700 families in the Northern Territory get into a home. Young people who needed an opportunity to buy a home could not because of the lack of land release and the slow pace of the former government.
I remember looking at some graphs late last year which demonstrated that on the previous government’s projections, going back several years, they needed about 2000 homes a year but only built about 1000. Here is one my colleague prepared earlier. It has housing, financing and owner occupation by purpose. We can see the construction of dwellings going up and then going down. That line is heading south. For those who cannot see it, construction of dwellings went up not long after Labor took government in 2001, probably because the former Country Liberals government got it right. It peaked in 2005 and then it started to go down. When I came into this House in 2008, I suggested that the government should hurry up because it was impacting on young people.
Youth was one of my portfolios and young people were suffering badly. Refrigeration mechanics, electricians, people who were making and building the Territory were unable to afford to live here. That is a disgrace.
This government is serious about economic development, getting housing moving, and reducing the cost of living in the Territory. We will achieve that. Sadly, it will take us a while. We would love to have lots of money to throw around, but we have been left with a $5.5bn debt to deal with.
This budget includes $28.6m for continuing headworks at Kilgariff in Alice Springs and to provide new suburbs at Palmerston east, including road infrastructure, power, sewerage, and street lighting. The Territory government is also committing $15m for the second stage of water supply construction for works at Middle Arm Industrial Precinct.
As I said previously, there are four ways you can get out of this trouble and the fourth one is economic development. To have economic development we need infrastructure. We need to build and increase water supply, and the works at Middle Arm will help to continue the investment in infrastructure which will assist us to attract business and industry. That means future jobs for our kids. The Giles government is promoting jobs, jobs, jobs for our young people, and for those who are already established here and continuing in their jobs so that the people who chose to live here years ago and raise their families can still enjoy the Territory lifestyle without having to move south because it is too expensive here.
The Territory government is also committing $10m towards the completion of the subdivision and development at Muramats Road, the development of industrial land in the vicinity of Wishart Road and refurbishing existing public housing complexes across the Territory. My colleague …
Mr CHANDLER: A point of order, Madam Speaker! Pursuant to Standing Order 77, I move an extension of time for the Minister for Infrastructure.
Motion agreed to.
Mr STYLES: I thank the member for Brennan for obtaining that extension for me.
The development of industrial land is essential. We have to attract business and create economic development so we can have jobs and increase the tax base to get out of the debt we are in.
Refurbish existing public housing complexes across the Territory - my colleague, the Minister for Housing, has raised some very interesting points about how we can move on, refurbish and not only cut our costs but provide quality public housing for people in need and those people who do not need a hand out, but a hand up. We can get them started and get them towards home ownership in some of the great schemes we have.
The Territory government understands the importance of investing in our health facilities and this is why budget 2013 will deliver an investment of $173m to improve health facilities across the Territory. In Alice Springs, for instance, a commitment of $29.6m has been made for continuing remediation works and upgrades at the Alice Springs Hospital, while in Darwin we have set aside $16m to continue upgrades at Royal Darwin Hospital to increase the number of beds in the Emergency Department and the Short Stay Unit, and to provide two additional operating theatres.
There is also a future $29m towards the upgrade of the emergency department at Gove District Hospital, which is in our parliamentary colleague’s, the member for Nhulunbuy, home town I believe - so there are things occurring in your electorate - infrastructure associated with the mandatory rehabilitation of problem drinkers, a hospital scoping study and master plan for the greater Darwin region, the construction of car parks at the Royal Darwin Hospital campus, the construction of a new paediatric ensuite at the Gove District Hospital and the refurbishment of old birthing rooms and operating theatres at the Royal Darwin Hospital to provide additional consulting rooms.
The infrastructure spend is about creating employment, and creating infrastructure for the use of Territorians and tourists who come here, hopefully in ever increasing numbers, to enjoy what we have to offer.
I have dealt with a number of issues in what I have already said, but I would like to deal with the issue of seniors. The Pensioner and Carer Concession Scheme sits with the Minister for Health; however, as the minister for Seniors it attracts a lot of interest from me. When the Cabinet budget was put together, many ideas came from across the public services as to how we might become more effective and efficient in our operation. When seniors came up, nothing was taken from them, but the airfares were moderated down to what is now available.
When the previous Country Liberal government introduced the Pensioner and Carer Concession Scheme, airfares were quite expensive; they were nothing like they are today. I was discussing this issue this morning. When I first came to the Territory 32 years ago a return ticket from here to Perth was $1000. In those days $1000 was a lot of money. It was about three months of my salary. Those prices have come down to where, if you organise it correctly, you can get a return airfare to Perth for about $229. There is the opportunity for people to travel there. Again, it is about trying to organise the travel. We have an enormous debt we have to service and, whether we like it or not, we cannot put it away in the corner; we have to deal with it. We have to face the fact that we have a huge millstone around our neck and we have to make cuts.
Time does not permit me to go into detail, but there were a number of unscrupulous operators who were playing the system with airfares. They were able to make enormous profits out of this. The seniors they were booking airfares for were still able to travel. They still got to see their relatives and grandkids; however, there was an ability to rip the system off. That is the only cut.
One of the great things that will happen is our habitual drunks policy. One of the things seniors who come into my office talk about is that they do not feel safe on the streets, getting on a bus, or sitting at a bus stop in town. They are harassed and harangued by people who are drunk. We hope we will be able to help some of those drunks by facilitating our rehabilitation programs. When I talk to seniors and explain this to them, they are very grateful that the Country Liberals government is going to tackle the problem. It is the same with so much of our policy in relation to habitual drunks. People have indicated to me they are very grateful we are going to do something about it, and not just recycle them and put them through a revolving door.
In relation to Multicultural Affairs, we continue to support the multicultural community. It is unique in this country. When one travels around the world - if you are fortunate to travel to a couple of countries - you see the richness of our community. This Giles government will continue to support the multicultural community through grants and other ways the government can support it.
In relation to youth, I am very grateful to the Minister for Housing for the work he has done in reducing the cost of housing. That will give our children an opportunity to be able to get into the housing market. It is about getting into the market; once you get in, it is not so bad. The problem is, we are still suffering from the legacy of the previous government’s land release. We are doing something about it. People do not necessarily want to hear about the problems now; they just want it fixed. Through this budget, we will start to fix that.
With the $100m-plus for training there are great opportunities for our youth. We have to stimulate economic development in the small to medium enterprises in the Territory. Big business employs many people. At the budget lunch, on the back of the menu there was sign from the Chamber of Commerce which said, ‘Small business, too big to ignore’. That was terrific because small and medium businesses in Australia employ 84% of our workforce. It is imperative we look after these people and ensure they get an opportunity, and ensure our youth who are employed by small businesses, and some big businesses, have that opportunity.
Madam Speaker, I am very grateful to the Treasurer, my Cabinet colleagues, and all my parliamentary colleagues on this side for their support for this budget. It is a great budget and I commend this bill to the House.
Ms LEE (Arnhem): Madam Speaker, today I provide the budget reply for the Minister for Mines and Energy, Primary Industry and Fisheries, and Land Resource Management.
The government recognises these are tight fiscal times we live in, not just in the Territory, but across the nation and beyond. This is why the Northern Territory government has taken responsible action and set clear directions for economic growth and development for the Territory in the areas of food, mining, tourism, development, and our resources.
The government has shaped a realistic budget to ensure a productive and rewarding future for all Territorians. To do this we had to make some savings as well as some targeted investments. There has been no way to avoid these savings due to the dire fiscal position this government inherited from the former Labor government. But in the ministerial portfolio areas, which are primarily focused on supporting the development of horticultural and resource-based sectors, there have been modest increases in targeted areas of agency budgets. These targeted budget increases are a combination of new incentives and addressing areas where the former government systematically stripped funding from key programs.
This is a rich and diverse Territory, currently the envy of the rest of the country. We have a responsibility for balancing growth in our core industries to sustain us in the future. The Territory’s major resource-based industries of primary industry, fisheries, and minerals and energy account for around 10% of the total NT workforce and around 8% of all businesses engaged in the Territory’s economy. The resources, or mining, oil and gas industry, is the Territory’s largest industry and is critical to the economic growth of the Northern Territory and the development of our regions, especially in remote locations.
The combination of the Territory’s rich resources and emerging projects provides tremendous potential for the industry to expand, which will increase the prosperity and development of the Northern Territory, particularly in our regional areas. In fact, statistics show the mining industry alone creates around 4000 jobs in our regional and remote areas and this government is well aware that the future of our resource industry relies on healthy exploration activities. It is only by engaging and supporting companies to responsibly explore new grounds that we will continue to grow this industry and spread the economic benefits of mining more widely amongst remote communities in the Territory.
In this regard, the government, through the NT Geological Survey, is providing a state-of-the-art, new geoscience to highlight the resource potential and lower exploration risk, along with the provision of collaborative funding to support greenfields exploration for oil and gas, and minerals. The government is also committed to streamlining regulatory processes and assisting junior explorers to attract international investment.
This budget contains $3.95m under the precompetitive geoscience incentive to stimulate mineral and petroleum exploration and attract exploration investment into the Northern Territory. Of this, $150 000 is the additional ongoing funding.
The budget also contains an additional $1.5m and ongoing funding to the NT Geological Survey to support the exploration through new geoscience programs and improve management and delivery of geoscience and exploration data. As well, $150 000 in additional funding will be used for the International Investment Attraction Program to attract and facilitate investment from key Asian markets in the Territory exploration and mining industries. Unlike the former government, now the opposition, which systematically reduced funding and staffing levels for this department while the rest of the public service grew top heavy, this government is unambiguously supportive of the exploration and mining industry and of the responsible development of new opportunities.
We have a strong commitment to openness and transparency. We will ensure there is a regulatory framework that provides an environment of certainty for the industry to operate. There is additional ongoing funding of $630 000 to enhance the administration of the Mineral Titles Act, $680 000 in additional funding for the environmental regulation of oil and gas activity, and $450 000 in additional funding for environmental regulation of mining activity.
On behalf of the minister, I am delighted to announce that the Northern Territory government will be the first in Northern Territory history to take a meaningful and strategic approach to dealing with legacy mining issues. The coming financial year will see the introduction of a levy on all authorised mining operations in order to fund legacy mining incentives and other improvements to regulatory approvals. Through this levy, additional funding of $2m per annum will establish a mining remediation fund to address legacy mine liabilities - this incentive is ongoing and it is intended to grow the fund over time – and a further $1m to establish a dedicated Mining Remediation Team. A further $3.4m will be funded by the levy to support ongoing works in a range of areas such as water monitoring, assessment and compliance actions that deal with legacy issues.
This government will continue to work to encourage future development in downstream processing, and to ensure that NT businesses have every opportunity to maximise the benefit presented by major projects such as the INPEX LNG project.
In recognition of the growing importance of the downstream gas processing industry for the Territory economy, and to streamline the major project processing as Darwin becomes one of Australia’s largest leading LNG hubs, $950 000 in additional funding will be used to establish an energy directory within the Department of Mines and Energy.
There is no doubt that the high number of major new resource mining and exploration projects that have recently been announced, such as Western Desert Resources’ Roper Bar Iron Ore project, Sherwin Iron’s Roper River Iron Ore Project, the Australian Ilmenite Resources’ mine near Mataranka, and Santos’ $100m drilling and appraisal program in Central Australia, are a clear indication that this expenditure is contributing to the continued growth of the mining and energy hub and, in turn, substantial economic growth across the Territory.
A wide range of Territorians and visitors depend upon or enjoy the healthy state of our fisheries. Many Aboriginal communities have strong customary links with our aquatic environments and rely on fish for food, culture and potential economic development opportunities. Our commercial fisheries and aquaculture industries have a combined value of over $50m and provide valuable supplies of high-quality seafood such as mud crab, tropical snappers, barramundi, shark, and mackerel to restaurants and retail markets across Australia. This government is already delivering on its election commitment to develop a resource sharing framework to enable evidence-based analysis to be applied to resolve access and resource attribution issues and give industry the certainty it needs to invest with confidence.
Budget 2013 provides $680 000 for the extension and support of aquaculture development in the Northern Territory and $500 000 specifically for the development of the fishing industry and food production in regional Indigenous communities.
In recognition of the importance of managing our fisheries now and into the future, $2.5m has been allocated for the sustainable management of the Territory’s aquatic resources and $550 000 for the sustainable management of the Northern Territory recreational fishing sector. As well, $350 000 has been committed to implement a recreational fishing development plan which includes the establishment of a dedicated recreational fishing survey program, a study to investigate the potential for new boat launching facilities, and a boating and fishing awareness program. Additional funding of $300 000 over two years will be used for commercial fishery development including exploring potential new management arrangements for the barramundi fishery.
The important work conducted by the Territory’s Marine Ranger program has being recognised with $680 000 to support the program and provide training and consultation within Indigenous communities, as well as monitoring of fishing activity, sacred site protection and community education. An additional $490 000 will be used to establish a fisheries support network in the East Arnhem region to facilitate the establishment of Indigenous fishing enterprises.
The pastoral industry is a substantial contributor to the NT’s economy. This government strongly supports the Territory’s beef cattle industry and we are implementing several measures to help the industry recover from the federal Labor government’s temporary trade suspension to Indonesia in 2011.
Considerable work has been done to re-engage with Indonesia, our largest overseas live export market. Minister Willem Westra van Holthe is currently in Indonesia on a joint ministerial visit with the Queensland Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry as well as industry. This is the minister’s third visit to Indonesia in nine months and is a much stronger commitment to progress and repairing relationships than the Delia Lawrie government gave. In order to widen the opportunities for the NT pastoralists, the department is working with industry to investigate and develop new live export markets, to increase live export numbers, and to establish a local processing facility to process animals that do not meet live export specifications.
In addition, the department is continuing to work with several Indigenous communities to upgrade and build new abattoirs to supply good-quality meat for local consumption or for sale to commercial outlets or direct to restaurants within the Territory and interstate.
The minister is actively engaging with the established pastoral industry advisory committees to ensure there is a direct line of communication between the minister and the pastoral sector. Budget 2013-14 includes $300 000 in additional ongoing funding for the establishment of a live animal market development unit to implement a live export market development strategy in collaboration with industry, as well as $280 000 to provide ongoing cattle inspection services to facilitate market access to eastern and southern Australia in response to changes in the destination of NT cattle shipments.
One of this government’s election commitments related to a review of export yards to ensure that capacity keeps pace with industry growth. This review is already under way in consultation with the NT Livestock Exporters’ Association.
On another matter, our government will give appropriate consideration to the recent announcement by the Australian government of the Farm Finance program, in consultation with industry, to determine its ability to provide real benefits to industries before determining the level of our commitment to this program.
This government is determined to develop the Territory as a leader in horticulture research. To this end, the minister has instructed the department to establish an annual horticulture research and extension seminar that will involve the industry and key government agencies.
The mango industry in the Northern Territory, valued at around $80m, now provides over 50% of all Australian product. Because of our stable climate condition, this industry is expanding. However, the challenges facing the security of this industry are market access constraints regarding exporting. This budget provides $1.14m, which includes $280 000 of Commonwealth funding, to evaluate alternative market access protocols to allow the exports of mangoes from Australia without post-harvest disinfestation treatment. This will open the opportunity for mango exports direct out of the Darwin port into countries such as China and the Middle East.
Linked to this export strategy is the need to improve mango export access to overseas markets and to undertake incentives to lengthen the mango production period. In addition, there has been favourable progress made to improve interstate market access for mangoes and other plant products. Successful negotiations saw considerable amounts of Top End mangoes sold to Western Australia last year and efforts are now focused on new protocols for access to southern markets.
The Territory’s next largest horticultural industry is melons, valued at $45m. In order to secure the profitability of the watermelon industry the department is working closely with commercial seed companies to resolve problems associated with soil-borne pathogens that have recently caused this industry to suffer significant losses. We are investing $140 000, including $80 000 of Commonwealth funding, in this project. As well, $300 000, including $100 000 of Commonwealth funding, will be used to investigate practices to maximise economic efficiencies of nitrogen use on melons, vegetables, and hay farms, while minimising impacts of greenhouse gases on the environment and storing carbon in soil.
In support of the Ord Development Project, additional funding of $400 000 will be used to facilitate the extension of the Ord irrigation scheme into the Northern Territory. This project has received major project status, which is the first time in the Territory’s history that an agricultural project has received this priority. Again, this demonstrates this government’s commitment to food as a fundamental pillar in our three-hub economic development plan.
The Department of Land Resource Management is a complex agency, and one which is pivotal in the shaping of the future of the Northern Territory. The combination of Water Resources, Rangeland, and Flora and Fauna Divisions, Bushfires NT, and the corporate services group allows us valid participation in the government’s vision to drive the economy and growth of the Territory. The department works in partnership with the landowners to provide support in managing their land. Our linkages with our fellow agencies are instrumental in assisting each other to develop and shape our day-to-day activities and achieve the overall objectives of this government.
We all recognise the wonderful job the dedicated team at Bushfires NT does. This government has ensured it has funding to aid it in its important work across the Territory protecting landscapes, homes and infrastructure from the scourge of wildfire. Bushfires NT is responsible for assisting the Bushfires Council in implementing the Bushfires Act and for promoting fire preparedness and mitigation, primarily through the reinforcement of the message that fire mitigation is a primary responsibility of landowners under the Bushfires Act. Wildfire suppression received an additional $1m ongoing in the 2012-13 mini-budget. This new funding will most certainly aid the team at Bushfires NT to undertake the duties we entrust to them.
Additional funding of $480 000 ongoing will be provided in Budget 2013-14 to the Weed Management Branch. This is another area savaged by Delia Lawrie’s former Labor government. This funding will re-establish four weed management officer positions within the Department of Land Resource Management. This funding will not only augment current weed officer resources, it will enable the department to increase capacity to provide on-ground services to landowners and more effective weed management of high priority weed outbreaks. The increased capacity will most certainly help the regions which were sorely neglected by the former government over the past several years. Two positions will be based in Katherine, bringing weed management staff numbers to four to service the Katherine region, and two positions will be based in Tennant Creek. These four new positions will see a total of 11 staff dedicated as weed management officers across the Territory, providing extension and education services to landholders.
Importantly, this government has committed funding of $0.5m ongoing from 2012-13 to support the Pastoral Land Board and rangeland monitoring program. In the 2012-13 mini-budget, $400 000 ongoing was provided to reinvigorate the rangeland monitoring program, which had been depleted of resources over time by the Delia Lawrie government, and $100 000 was provided to support a renewed and strengthened Pastoral Land Board: a board that had been left in dust by the former Labor government.
Our government has recently announced the formation of a working group to develop options to resolve the issue of determining pastoral lease rents. This is further evidence of support to the pastoral industry by this government. The working group will be comprised of representatives from the NT Cattlemen’s Association, the Pastoral Land Board and government, and will be charged with developing options for determining a robust pastoral lease rent methodology, including a review of the current method of using the Australian Valuation Office.
The options for consideration will need to reflect a methodology that ensures rental charges will not dramatically fluctuate, providing some certainty to landholders yet ensuring government receives an appropriate level of economic return for the use of Crown land for pastoral purposes. The decision to form a working group comes from industry and government concern over the valuation process for that pastoral estate, which is used to determine pastoral rents. The government confirms pastoral lease rents for 2013-14 will remain the same as 2012-13.
Under this government, the Territory is finally moving forward and supporting our pastoralists with the support and recognition of the industry they deserve and I look forward to a continued working partnership.
As I stated earlier in this statement, we have had set a realistic budget which focuses on the priorities for the Northern Territory for the future. Agency chief executives have been asked to construct more innovative and creative ways in which they can deliver the services of their agencies and undertake business for the community. The Department of Land Resource Management is coming up with creative ways to work and bring in revenue for government to help the Territory recover from the terrible situation we have found ourselves in with our sad level of debt and fiscal restraints. One of the innovative ways the team at the Land Resource Management has derived is with a business model for their drilling services.
The Drilling Services Unit maintains two drilling rigs and bore testing capacity which cost in the order of $1.2m per annum to run. The department has identified the capacity to receive income by providing drilling services where the commercial sector is unable to provide a service. This work includes water bore drilling in remote communities for the Power and Water Corporation, investigatory drilling for water assessment and drilling for private enterprise where private sector operators are unable or unwilling to provide a service. The minister has approved continuation of the Drilling Services Unit providing services are charged at commercial rates, including interstate works where the capacity exists.
Mr Deputy Speaker, this is how the minister’s three departments of Mines and Energy, Primary Industry and Fisheries and Land Resource Management will spend their new funding for 2013-14. The minister looks forward to providing this House with a progress report in coming months. Thank you.
Debate adjourned.
ELECTRONIC CONVEYANCING (NATIONAL UNIFORM LEGISLATION) BILL
(Serial 21)
(Serial 21)
Continued from 27 March 2013.
Ms WALKER (Nhulunbuy): The opposition supports this bill recognising the Electronic Conveyancing (National Uniform Legislation) Bill 2013 is about a national law reform agenda set out under federal Labor through COAG in 2008 and signed off by the Territory’s former Attorney-General, Mr Knight, in early 2012.
I thank the Attorney-General’s office for facilitating a briefing for me last week on this bill. The discussion was enlightening, particularly with regard to how the Northern Territory will fit into this national scheme via this enabling legislation. I also thank Di Sinclair from the Parliamentary Library Service, for whom no research job is too big, too small or too hard. I thank her for providing me with bucket loads of research and background papers on this national legislation.
Basically, with this legislation in place we will see significant reform to the practice of conveyancing with the introduction of a National Electronic Conveyancing System which aims to deliver greater efficiencies and greater security as well as reliability and, in so doing, will reduce costs. This is all part of COAG’s National Partnership Agreement to deliver a Seamless National Economy.
Last year New South Wales passed similar legislation, and I understand the Territory has adopted the New South Wales model. In February of this year the Victorian parliament passed their legislation and just last month Queensland passed theirs. In the Queensland parliament there were no fewer than eight LNP members of the government singing the praises of this bill, all saying exactly the same thing. I can only assume it must have been a very quiet day for government business in Queensland.
The undertaking to establish the network across jurisdictions has been enormous. I understand all jurisdictions will participate, with the exception of the ACT due to its smallness. I am still not sure where that will leave our national capital in the medium and long term given it has not opted into this scheme.
I am advised the National Network has been built by a company called National e-Conveyancing Development Limited, or, for brevity’s sake, NECDL, which was formed by the larger states of Victoria, New South Wales, Queensland and Western Australia, with the four major banks also investing. Why would they not as they stand to be a key beneficiary of this reform? I was advised during my briefing, that the Territory, as I suspected given our size, was not required to contribute dollars to the set-up of any CDL. However, I understand there will be costs to the Territory for the implementation of the system when it eventually goes live, which could be years away. I am told those costs could be in the vicinity of $1m, but there is nothing I have seen in today’s budget which indicates money to support this when it is enacted. Maybe in future budgets we will see that money appear.
The undertaking by COAG to implement National Electronic Conveyancing has not been without problems. I guess, with a reform as large as this on a national level, problems along the way have to be worked through. While I understand that matters have been resolved, there was pushback from lawyers and conveyancers - very critical stakeholders in these reforms - due to some concerns relating to three matters. I refer to an article in The Australian on 8 June 2012 where these problems were identified as:
- … the practical problems such as verifying the identity of clients, especially overseas clients, the creation of new areas of liability and the imposition of liability in ways that depart from the current Torrens Title System and possible increases in the cost of professional indemnity insurance.
Essentially, I think their beef was a very valid one. It was about lawyers and conveyancers and their insurances being under pressure to accept potential increased liability with this new scheme. That same article in The Australian on June 8 stated that:
- … the Law Council is also concerned that the proposed rules represent the departure from a truly national scheme with a number of jurisdiction specific requirements.
- The feedback provided in relation to the proposed Model Operating Requirements and Model Participation Rules is currently being considered with significant changes being made to these documents to address the concerns that have been raised.
I have not seen anything further on that issue so I take it the representative bodies of lawyers and conveyancers are now satisfied. I certainly hope so because those who have access to the e-conveyancing system, those from financial institutions, lawyers and conveyancers who are referred to as subscribers within the legislation - of course, there needs to be stringent and robust systems which protect against misuse and fraud, and the potential exposure to added risks and liabilities for those stakeholders.
I also understand that much work continues across the jurisdictions to develop and agree upon the business rules, and that state project teams meet every six weeks to work on devising the operating manuals, though the NT, due to the costs of travel, is not necessarily at every meeting. Within the Territory, I am advised that the Registrar’s office of Land Titles has a consultation process afoot to keep Territory stakeholders in the loop, which is necessary and a very good thing to be doing.
In jurisdiction-specific matters in complying with the legislation, I understand the Territory has at least one very unique factor in terms of swimming pools and the need for compliance certificates to be part of the national system. I am wondering if this might present a glitch or a hurdle and how it is that the Attorney-General sees a way forward with this. I certainly hope it does not mean a repeal of important legislation introduced by Labor on pool fencing. I am sure it does not, but it does present one of those unique jurisdiction matters which was the sort of thing lawyers and conveyancers were talking about.
New South Wales is expected to be the first cab off the rank to launch the National Electronic Conveyancing System in September, I believe, with Western Australia and Queensland to follow in 2014. I was advised it could be years before the Territory is in a position to join.
I may show my age, but I remember a time when there was no such thing as colour TV, video or DVD players, Internet, mobile phones, credit cards or electronic banking. When I was younger I had to carry a passbook with me for each transaction with the Commonwealth Bank. The growth of the ICT industry has been astronomical in recent years with seamless electronic communication and its tools being very much a part of our everyday lives. It comes as no surprise that electronic conveyancing will become part of our lives. While use of electronic conveyancing under this legislation is not compulsory, I think we will see the financial institutions continue to drive it and make it part of their business platform such that customers and subscribers will all have to follow suit eventually.
While there will be cost savings, I hope those savings are passed on to the buyers and sellers - the ordinary Territorians - and they do not simply sit as part of the bottom line on the books of the finance sector, though I daresay they will gain from it. Ultimately, this bill will transform conveyancing practices and make them more efficient and effective, and more practical while saving both time and money.
The opposition, as I said at the start, supports federal Labor’s national law reform in this area and I commend the bill to the House.
Mr ELFERINK (Attorney-General and Justice): Mr Deputy Speaker, I thank the honourable member for her contribution to the debate. I would have been somewhat surprised if there had been any resistance to this legislation because, of course, this is a continuation of what the former administration signed up to in the intergovernmental agreement. It has taken a while to come before the House because I sent it back to the department, when it came to me very early in the piece after I became the Attorney-General, to make sure the industry was happy with it. I am now satisfied that the industry is happy with it in the Northern Territory.
It does not go live for a while. I pick up on the question about why was it not in the budget. Basically, we do not buy into it until 2015 as an operational system. My understanding as to why the ACT has not bought into it is because it has a fundamentally different system of title. My understanding of a land law in the ACT is you do not get freehold; you essentially buy a perpetual lease, which was the system in the Northern Territory until somewhere around the mid-1970s, or even as late as 1980 perhaps. The system used in the ACT is substantially different to anywhere else in the country.
I note that in places like New South Wales they have old system title, and they have a registration system of that form of title, which is a form of new system title. Then you have other jurisdictions like our own which, of course, have the ultimate registration system which is the Torrens system of title which, from memory, kicked off in about 1858. It is a legacy of being a former administrative area of the state of South Australia, and one of the things South Australia did very well.
The Torrens system of title means there is no old system title around; it is simply a system of title where there is a central register and entry into that register is evidence of title - certainly prima facie evidence of title. That means, of course, what is in the ledger is where the title rests. If there is any error with the system of title there is a trust account built out of a small shaving of a levy from transfers of title which, in case of an error in the system, would lead to a compensable amount being paid by the Northern Territory government which ultimately carries the liability because it runs the register.
This Torrens system of title should, I imagine, when you compare it to the difficulties of old system title in New South Wales, work into an electronic system, or register system, particularly well. The reason the new government has chosen to support the intergovernmental agreement and the former government’s position on this is quite straightforward: it makes sense.
I pick up on the comments of the member for Nhulunbuy who pointed out we live in an electronic age. I remember hearing people say, ‘I will never go to one of those bank machines, those things in the wall; I will go to see a teller’. I remember thinking something similar as a young man. I walked into a bank the other day for the first time in a very long time and was surprised to find that withdrawal forms were no longer scattered around the bank, which shows you how long since I have been in a bank. We get used to these electronic systems.
I believe some of the issues raised in those national articles have been addressed. Clearly, identification of purchases is a particular one. I am less convinced about indemnity issues. I am sure the courts could sort that out if push ever came to shove. The cost of indemnity is what the marketplace will dictate.
The somewhat archaic system we use now where everybody gets to sit in the Land Titles Office and cheques are pushed across the table back and forth between banks, vendors and purchasers - or alternatively their representatives - strikes me as being vaguely quaint. Whilst we will continue, and do continue to use it, I would be surprised quite rightly - picking up on the comments made by the member for Nhulunbuy - if the banks did not encourage the use of electronic conveyancing systems to the point of putting pressure on people.
Sometimes, people have to be helped along in those environments. It is the commercial reality of the world we live in. Whilst it makes your head spin and my head spin, my seven-year-old daughter seems to be comfortable with it. I am sure one day when I want to program some piece of equipment, my 10-year-old daughter - as she will be at the time - will have all the technical knowledge I need to program the equipment and organise my next house conveyance.
Mr Deputy Speaker, I thank the honourable member for her support. As I said, I would have been surprised if this had in any way, been contentious legislation, and I have not been surprised. We will leave it to the industry to get on with it, and to the department to get on with its implementation.
Motion agreed to; bill read a second time.
Mr ELFERINK (Attorney-General and Justice) (by leave): Mr Deputy Speaker, I move that the bill be now read a third time.
Motion agreed to; bill read a third time.
PENALTY UNITS AMENDMENT BILL
(Serial 24)
Continued from 27 March 2013.
Ms WALKER (Nhulunbuy): Mr Deputy Speaker, I will be very brief on this bill; the opposition supports it. It is a bit of legislative housekeeping, pretty straightforward stuff. As outlined, it amends the Penalty Units Act to take account of recent changes to the way in which the Australian Bureau of Statistics publishes consumer price indices. This follows on from amendments introduced in April 2010 by the member for Karama, and enacted on 1 July 2010, to convert penalties into penalty units - that was within Treasury and the Department of Justice - so they could be automatically indexed to CPI in accordance with a formula in the Penalty Units Act. Obviously, it is important. As the Attorney-General said in his second reading speech, the intent is that:
- … the deterrent value of fines should be maintained by ensuring the real value of maximum fines reflects changes in the value of money.
I do not think this is a revenue raising exercise by the Attorney-General any more than he quipped about that when he spoke in the debate in 2010. However, it is important to ensure our legislation is contemporary and that penalty units reflect the current monetary value. If that means fixing a glitch in the legislation around some anomaly with how the ABS publishes consumer prices, that is the path we need to go down.
Madam Speaker, the opposition supports this bill and commends it to the House.
Ms FINOCCHIARO (Drysdale): Madam Speaker, I thank the minister for bringing this bill before the House. This government prides itself on reducing red tape and simplifying legislation so it is practical and useful, and removing legacy items of the former government which did not work.
The Penalty Units Amendment Bill is not an exciting bill by any stretch of the imagination; I have it on good authority that even the Attorney-General’s eyes glaze over on this one. However, I will persevere.
Legislative penalties are found throughout the Northern Territory legislation. Indeed, nearly every act has a penalty unit component, which is a little scary. They cover everything from the Animal Welfare Act to the Weeds Management Act which, for the record, covers noxious vegetation and not plants covered by the Misuse of Drugs Act which, by the way, also has penalty units.
Penalty units, as the name suggests, are a unit of measurement for penalties that flow from offences under the legislation. An example is the Weeds Management Act, section 20, under which it is an offence for a member of a weed advisory committee to disclose information obtained in the course of their duties as a member. The penalty for such a horrid offence is 50 penalty units. The current value of a penalty unit is $141, so a weed advisory committee member who tweets about the gamba grass outbreak on the member for Nelson’s block faces a maximum penalty of $7050.
The point of this bill is how we get to the value of a penalty unit. Since 1999, penalties for offences have been drafted in legislation so the penalty is expressed in penalty units rather than dollars. The policy behind penalty units is to ensure the deterrent value of fines is maintained through indexation and that the real value of fines reflects changes in the value of money. This is a mouthful, but it basically means things like CPI increases. Otherwise, what may have been a large fine in 1999 may no longer be in 2013. The Penalty Units Act requires that the monetary value of a penalty unit be reviewed each financial year.
The review occurs through a formula which is A, being the value of a penalty unit, equals B x C over D. I know those of you still listening are thinking, ‘What is the member for Drysdale talking about?’ That is the formula used to establish a penalty unit and, through that formula, penalties are kept relevant and appropriate as a pecuniary measure. The value of B is $130; that is the base value of one penalty unit. That amount then needs to be multiplied, under the current legislation, by the average of the CPI figures for Darwin for each of the four quarters of the calendar year immediately preceding the financial year for which the review is made…
Mr Elferink: Pay attention guys, you might miss it.
Ms FINOCCHIARO: You might miss it.
…rounded to one decimal place, with 161.5 being the average of the CPI figures for Darwin for each of the four quarters of the calendar year 2008. Therein lies the problem. So, bear with me.
When the former government introduced the Penalty Units Act in 2009, they set the value of D in the formula to establish a penalty unit as 161.5, which was the average of the Darwin CPI for the four quarters for 2008. Today, the average of the Darwin CPI for the four quarters for 2008 is 91.3, because the Australian Bureau of Statistics rebased the CPI in September 2012. If we were to continue to apply the old value of D under the act it would mean the value of a penalty unit would remain at $141 for a number of years and the policy of maintaining penalties which reflect the current value of money would not be maintained. The ABS standards do not recommend prescribing a CPI average locked on to one snapshot in time; instead, legislation should be worded broadly and be able to evolve with time.
That is the purpose of this bill. The value of D will now simply be the average of the CPI figures for Darwin for each of the four quarters in 2008. The proposed amendment ensures the policy behind penalty units is maintained: preserving the deterrent value of fines and reflecting the value of money. I thank the minister for bringing this bill to the House.
Mr ELFERINK (Attorney-General and Justice): Madam Speaker, I am surprised that more members are not getting to their feet in this debate. I could not think it would be clearer. I am set in mind of Stephen Hawking. In his book A Brief History of Time there is a challenge for modern mathematics and cosmology to unify the quantum world with the macro world in some sort of quaint little formula. The member for Drysdale may have stumbled upon Stephen Hawking’s formula to unify, in the grand unified theory, the two worlds: the quantum and the macro. However, I digress.
Whilst this sounds like a very convoluted bill, it is surprisingly straightforward if you concentrate for more than a few minutes on it. Basically, a benchmark that once existed was changed by the Australian Bureau of Statistics and fines we issue in our courts are dependent on that benchmark. If you change the benchmark the fines change. The effective change to the benchmark by the Australian Bureau of Statistics was simply to devalue the amount of money we would charge with fines. Making the amount of money less, as a result of this process, would have meant people would have received smaller fines. Whilst I am sure there are many people who would be delighted to get smaller fines, in truth, we fine people and have fines for a reason: for their deterrent as well as punishment value.
To have not done anything about this would have changed the value of a penalty unit from $144, about where it should be, to an amount of $81, where it should not be. I am grateful to the members opposite. It is essentially a form of housekeeping. The idea of penalty units is that you do not have to change legislation again and again to change monetary units; the idea was to make the system simpler. One could be forgiven for thinking that may not have been an achieved goal as a result of introducing penalty units; however, hopefully, this time we have it sorted out.
I thank honourable members for their support. I am genuinely surprised we did not have a heated debate over this vital issue to our community. It is a matter of great importance, doubtlessly, to Territorians.
Motion agreed to; bill read a second time.
Mr ELFERINK (Attorney-General and Justice) (by leave): Madam Speaker, I move that the bill be now read a third time.
Motion agreed to; bill read a third time.
MOTION
Note Report – Auditor-General’s March 2013 Report to the Legislative Assembly
Note Report – Auditor-General’s March 2013 Report to the Legislative Assembly
Continued from 27 March 2013.
Mr STYLES (Infrastructure): Madam Speaker, I rise to speak on the part of this report from the Auditor-General on the Asset Management System.
I am trying to find a way to describe what we inherited with this Asset Management System. There have been a number of reports and reviews, but I would like to refer to the Northern Territory Auditor-General’s report of March 2013.
When we came into government we had to take a very close look at this scheme. What started with an original budget of $14m has blown out to what will probably cost about $70m, and that is a conservative estimate. It began with discussions in 2005 under the previous Labor government. In 2006, business case options were developed to upgrade the then Department of Planning and Infrastructure’s ageing asset management information systems and business processes. The objective was to replace the nine existing legacy systems with what was called a commercial off-the-shelf product. In April 2007, the then Department of Infrastructure and Planning received approval to proceed to a tender process for an off-the-shelf asset management system to replace the nine legacy systems.
I need to explain a little of what this is about so people understand what we are talking about. The first system it was to replace was the Asset Information System, more commonly known as AIS, which, quoting from the report, is a:
- … core asset management system implemented in the early 1990s to provide asset management from program and project initiation through to design, construction, maintenance and asset replacement.
The second system this was due to replace is the Electronic Fee Office System, more commonly known as eFOS, which provides the Construction Division of the Department of Infrastructure with:
- … the ability to create and manage Fee Offers to its clients through the eFOS billing, timesheet, management and reporting facilities.
The Building Asset Management System, more commonly known as BAMS, provides:
- … the capability to manage building asset estimates, expenditures, and project information as well as the ability to view images, building plans and metadata for building assets.
The fourth system is the Building Data Collection System, more commonly known as the BDC, which was developed to manage the collection of building assets data.
- Asset data is imported into BDC, forward to contractors to perform updates in the field before loading data into BDC. Updated asset data is subsequently transferred back into the core system.
- … a standalone system developed for the purpose of reporting on asset information imported from core asset management systems.
The sixth program is the Road Information Management System, more commonly known as RIMS, which:
- … provides the ability to maintain information about the location and/or condition of assets such as roads, bridges, culverts, floodways, grids, roadside amenities, airstrips and access roads.
The seventh system is Deighton’s Total Infrastructure Management System, more commonly known as DTIMS:
- The primary function of this system is to store and prepare data for road asset management life cycle costs analysis.
The next system, the eighth, is the HRDB. This system:
- … holds information in regard to remote housing data including remote housing assets, tenancies, employee work force development statistics and remote asset condition assessment surveys.
The ninth system is Tracker:
- … an application used by the Department of Infrastructure to schedule resources and track open tasks.
This program was originally to go live in April 2010 with a planned implementation projection cost of $14m. As I said earlier, it has blown out and will cost roughly $70m by the time we are finished trying to fix up the mess it was in when we inherited it. It almost reminds me of the wave pool, which I believe had a budget of $5m and ended up costing $23m.
A number of reviews were conducted over the course of the Asset Information System. The Auditor-General went on to point out some of these reports. Of particular note, the initial review conducted following the blueprint design phase undertaken by Fujitsu, which was the system integrator:
- … highlighted significant quality issues with the blueprint documentation delivered which led to Fujitsu being requested to carry out a blue print remediation program.
This is just one of a number of issues that occurred along the way:
- The original three months delivery period for the blue prints was extended to 12 months, with the additional time required being attributable to high turnover of Fujitsu’s consultants and inconsistent quality in the documentation prepared.
My information is that Fujitsu had over 92 consultants working on this project from the beginning of it through to when we inherited it from the previous government. There were many delays. The go-live date was moved to April 2011, a year later than was planned. There were further delays due to insufficient resources provided by the agencies for testing and training. There is a whole list of issues and problems that continued to hamper this project. It is notable that as a result of the high consultant turnover with Fujitsu, there were 11 project managers during the three years from the start of the project until Phase 1 go live in 2012.
There should have been some alarm bells going off for the previous government, right through this when they started having not only delays, but price escalations. It appears the previous government just went on and on. It is a bit like the Treasurer’s big red truck theory where you keep tipping money into it or you get a bigger truck. What we have here is just a bigger problem. You kept throwing money at it way past the budget allowance for the project.
It goes on and on. The work required to deal properly with all of these issues saw the go live for September 2011 being further delayed until October 2011, then to November 2011. The eventual go-live date was April 2012, two years after the original planned go-live date. I will quote from the report so it is also included in this. Perhaps those listening can start to appreciate the size of the problem we inherited from the previous Labor government. I will quote from the Key Findings in the Auditor-General’s report in March 2013:
Organisational Change Management
- There was general agreement among those interviewed as part of this review that organisational change management and the level of engagement by user agencies was insufficient for the size and complexity of the AMS project. Limited ownership by the various agencies that are users of the new system led to the shifting of responsibility for achieving business outcomes onto the project team. While the lack of engagement of agencies was reported at several stages in the project, the issue was not raised with the steering committee early enough in the life of the project.
The Auditor-General spoke about project governance. I quote from the same report which says:
While the overall project governance structure used might have been expected for a project of this size and complexity, the effectiveness of the governance was affected by a lack of clear recognition and reporting of key risks and issues confronting the project and their potential effects. The inadequate documentation and presentation of the risks and effects, when coupled with issues of the continuity of steering committee membership, reduced the effectiveness of governance. There was also insufficient action taken on the independent quality assurance advice received through various project reviews.
At what point, when you start spending more money on a project, are ministers advised? What did Cabinet do when they needed a few more dollars on this? Did somebody ask questions?
Look at project management for instance:
The level of project management experience possessed by the project team in areas such as planning, organising and controlling what is a large and complex IT project was limited.
I have, since taking over this portfolio, asked many questions. I have weekly briefings on this matter because of the complexity of it and the mess it is in. We are working to, and I believe we will, come up with a solution to this problem. However, it requires people to look at it carefully and often to track what is going on, and having competent people report to you.
Under Project Management, for instance, the report goes on to say:
This was compounded by an inadequate number of staff who were allocated to the project by client agencies …
I wonder if the minister was aware of where this was going and whether or not this program was in trouble. Two years delay on the go live option is obviously something that should have been ringing large alarm bells. However, it seems this went on right up to the time they lost government.
Vendor Management for instance:
The relationship and the level of trust between the NTG and the Systems Integrator with respect to this project appeared strained during the project …
I wonder where this project was going. Perhaps some of these things might have given an indication as to why various parts of it were stalling, why it was bogged down, and why it was starting to cost much more than projected.
Implementation Strategy says:
- There was no evidence that the project team had considered how the implementation of the system was to be approached and as a consequence that important issue was not placed before the steering committee.
Again, what questions was the government asking of its departments and the people charged with implementing this new project? There is so much more to quote:
Transfer of Data from Legacy Systems to AMS
Ownership of asset data was not clear at the start of the project nor was there clarity about who the key data sponsors were.
One would expect the minister would have been given a briefing to say, ‘We have a few over-runs here, minister. There are costs. We have to go to Cabinet; we have to get some more money; we are going to be two years late.’ It just goes on and on and on.
Testing of the system:
- The documentation for testing and recording of results and sign offs was difficult to trace.
These are the questions. Who is responsible? Have people done their jobs? These are the things that should have been asked before this system was allowed to go live and experience all the problems I will talk about shortly.
Training, for instance:
- The initial strategies for training focused on a train the trainer approach, where agency staff representatives were to be trained in the use of AMS and then deliver that training with their respective agencies.
This is a fairly complex issue. It was becoming more complex as more IT people looked for an IT solution, as opposed to a broader solution.
It just goes on - page after page after page. It is a very damning report on a system and a problem created by the former Labor government. I would like to make it very clear to this House that we inherited this from the Labor government and we are now charged with having to spend even more money to clean this mess up. We have taken the step to make this a custodial type system where the ministers actively take an interest in fixing the problem.
There are a number of major problems in relation to end of financial year matters, depreciation and GST. I am stunned at the problems that were around just after this system went live in April 2012. By August, there were some very serious problems that, when we took over government, we had to fix.
A team of people have identified 10 high priority issues that have to be fixed. Work on four of those issues has commenced already and will be delivered by 30 June. These are the financial issues small businesses have and the government has. They are matters to do with GST, depreciation, agency transformation, and billing by the construction division. The remaining six high priority projects, are to be delivered by November 2013.
As each project is completed it will be transitioned to the business as usual environment, supported by an AMS help desk and training stakeholder engagement units. We have a team of people working on this; we are not sure exactly how we will fix and remediate some of the major issues within this system. When they transferred from the old systems to the new system it opened up about 10 million transactions that were not closed properly before they went across and jobs have been left outstanding in the system. It may be that we may have to back right out of this system and go back into another system or an integrated system that forms part of the basic operating SAP system.
We have had to budget at least $20m this financial year to try to fix the problem we inherited. I could go on. The document stands as a testament to poor organisation and poor governance of the whole operation that we, unfortunately, have inherited. We have to do something about it. We will fix it. While we have inherited a massive debt from the government, we are now required to find millions of dollars to fix something that was supposed to cost $14 m in the initial estimates.
I ask the House to the note the Auditor-General’s report. I ask them to note that this is a problem we inherited from the former Labor government. It was given to us in a mess; it had cost overruns of somewhere around 300% or 400%. We will fix it but, sadly, it is a legacy that has been left to us that will cost us a lot of money.
Mr McCARTHY (Barkly): Madam Speaker, I thank the Auditor-General, as we always do as the Territory opposition and did as the previous Northern Territory government, because the Auditor-General performs a very important function.
My first learnings about the Auditor-General were with the Public Accounts Committee. As Chair of the Public Accounts Committee I learnt a lot from the Auditor-General about research, assessment and reporting on government functions.
I also acknowledge the CE of the Department of Infrastructure and the asset management project implementation team because it is a big project. It is not a lightweight project; it is an extremely big project that is changing the face of government. I was involved with that project, as the previous Minister for Construction and Infrastructure, on a daily basis.
The minister outlined a lot of information about how challenging that project is. I would like to add to that. The Asset Management System is an end-to-end enterprise system for managing the Territory government road and building assets. The first phase of the new system was implemented across government on 18 April 2012.
The nine systems identified for replacement had been purpose built to support the core function of government asset management and are now deemed to be at the end of their economic life. The new system is an integrated end-to-end solution which automates many of the current processes, provides full financial disclosure on all government built assets and will provide efficiencies and effectiveness in delivering the infrastructure program. Six of the nine systems were replaced by the first phase. The remaining three systems will be replaced in phase two of the project. That is extremely important work.
The Auditor-General has provided very important background information, recommendations and information that governments work with; they get on with the job. Being able to base off very good recommendations enhances the government’s information and the detail around managing big projects into the future.
It is interesting that the minister talks about fixing it. I agree, minister, it is your job to get it right. It is also the job of the people you work with. You work with teams of people and that is the workload you undertake, as I was working through that.
The minister will solve it, as we were solving it. It is a massive project. Minister, do not continue with the harping and the carping. Get on with it! You are a Minister of the Crown. We spent four years listening to your continual carping and now you are a Minister of the Crown and will rise to the occasion.
You quote figures, minister. I will also quote Budget 2013-14. There is $6.495m allocated to it. I am very much looking forward to the progression of that major project. I will be asking questions in estimates about how you fix it. I will be celebrating that with you, minister, on behalf of all Territorians, because this major system will be fixed, will be accountable and will be examinable in the estimates process. I look forward to hearing from you, minister, and having you share further information with Territorians about the implementation of the system.
Mr ELFERINK (Attorney-General and Justice): Madam Speaker, there used to be an expression, the maxim in politics, that when you are in a hole stop digging. There we saw the member for Barkly shovelling away madly. ‘Oh my God, I’m in this hole. Is it deep enough yet? Hell no. Let’s keep going.’
Can you believe what you have just heard? Here is the theory according to the member for Barkly. We are driving the car and we want to upgrade. We have upgraded the car and are whistling down the road when, all of a sudden, we realise the bloody wheels have fallen off, the transmission is pouring out smoke, and we have just ploughed it into the side of a tree, despite the fact we stopped at the service station and bought some pantyhose for the fan belt to keep it going a little longer. Now we are walking away from the wreck; we are looking at the guys who have had to pick up the wreck and we are saying, ‘What are you doing to fix it?’
You have to be kidding! I cannot believe you would try to run a defence of the AMS system in this place. That has to be the most monumental - I was going to use an expression, but I am afraid I cannot use the second part of ‘cluster’ in this fine Chamber. I have only had my nose pressed up to the glass with the AMS system and I can see it has gone from a problem to a catastrophe to an outright calamity as time has passed. There should have been a number of warning signs along the way saying, ‘Ding-ding, ding-ding, we have a problem’, especially when the department kept coming back like some character in a Dickens novel saying, ‘Please, sir, can I have some more?’ On about the third trip, you would start to think this character has an obesity problem because this character is now consuming many times what was originally placed in the bowl. Nevertheless, it kept being shovelled out.
The problem is, as I understand it, this system still is not working properly. It still has problems and we are trying very hard to ameliorate a system which was handed to us in a diabolical situation. It saddens me that the former government spent $30m on a $15m project and, subsequently, we have to spend a whole lot more. We have to spend another $20m to get this thing back on the road. By the time we are finished we will have a $15m system that only cost us $50m. That sounds like the way to organise building a prison.
Madam Speaker, I am astonished that the member opposite went down that path. Yes, it is up to the minister to fix it but, for God’s sake, this is not a case of casting stones in glass houses, this is a case of wheeling your catapult into a crystal palace.
Ms MANISON (Wanguri): Madam Speaker, I further comment on the Auditor-General’s report for March 2013, particularly regarding the National Partnership Agreement on Homelessness. I thank the Auditor-General for his work on the report.
As we can see in the report, the National Partnership Agreement - I will refer to it as the NPA - on Homelessness commenced in 2009 and is scheduled to wrap up in June this year. It was a joint Territory and Australian government program worth almost $55m, with $29.3m contributed by the Territory government and $25.6m from the Australian government.
All jurisdictions and the Commonwealth have conducted audits to look at the effectiveness of funding and delivery of this program. Combined with the housing stimulus investment in the Territory of over $60m and the National Partnership Agreement into Remote Indigenous Housing, change is occurring across the Territory in the field of homelessness and housing. We all agree that homelessness in the Territory remains too high and is still by far the highest in the nation. These efforts alone are not enough and more needs to be done.
The NPA on Homelessness had ambitious targets of reducing homelessness by 7%, Indigenous homelessness by 33%, and rough sleepers by 25%. We know the NT has a high rate of homelessness and most homeless people are Indigenous. Of the 105 000 counted as homeless in Australia, the Territory had 15 479, and 90% of them were Indigenous. This figure is far too high and is the result of decades and decades of housing issues in the bush.
There are 22 components to the National Partnership Agreement on Homelessness. Some of the aspects included A Place to Call Home, which included the building of 32 new dwellings to support people at the risk of homelessness, give them ongoing support, help them become good tenants, and help them secure longer-term housing.
Today in the budget I see the project has not been completed yet and there has been a revote of about $9.4m in the housing infrastructure budget for the delivery of new properties in Bellamack and Zuccoli. We have seen some great projects achieved under the NPA on Homelessness, including the refurbishment of the YMCA at Doctors Gully to make more rooms available. I believe there were approximately an extra 15 two- and three-bedroom units to help accommodate more people at risk of homelessness by providing more affordable accommodation. I believe that was finished two or three years ago.
We have seen more efforts in the area of crisis accommodation under the NPA. We have also seen more work done in the field of medium-term managed accommodation. We have also seen a raft of programs looking at the areas of support for youth, men, people going through rehabilitation, people leaving correctional services and the justice system, and families escaping violence. There has been a lot of help for those people at risk of homelessness because of those factors delivered under the NPA on Homelessness.
We know homelessness is a huge issue and, generally, people who are at risk of being homeless or are homeless tend to be in that position for a range of factors. There is not a one-size-fits-all approach; you have to tackle it from a range of angles.
The NPA was revised in 2010 and 2012. It included changes to benchmark performance and its reporting. It was a new program so reviews were needed as issues occurred from time to time during the implementation.
Reading the report, the Auditor-General found that the Northern Territory had met its obligations under the NPA on Homelessness. The future of the program remains uncertain as we know it is wrapping up in June 2013.
The Auditor-General also found it was not possible to demonstrate in any objective way the effectiveness of the program in reducing homelessness and that the program roll-out time was unrealistic. There were issues in verifying data on homelessness and the exact impact the NPA on Homelessness had and what it achieved in reducing homelessness. However, the report states that:
- There is evidence that suggests that the program has had a positive effect on homelessness, but the substantiality of any gains made is uncertain given that the program may cease on 30 June 2013. Any extension is subject to the Commonwealth and the Northern Territory agreeing to terms for an extension of funding.
Of the many programs delivered under the NPA on Homelessness the question is: where does the future lie? Will these efforts continue to this extent into the future? Will the programs which are getting real outcomes continue? We have to see what is going on.
I say a very big well done to the NGO sector which was heavily involved in the delivery of this NPA. It worked hand in hand with the Australian and Territory governments in addressing these issues.
It has been an immense time over the last few years looking at the issues of housing and homelessness across the Territory. I hope those efforts continue. While the NPA on Homelessness was being delivered we saw the $1.7bn investment into the NPA on Remote Indigenous Housing and also the $60m housing stimulus package being delivered into the Territory. There have been huge efforts to tackle homelessness and overcrowding from top to bottom.
With the housing stimulus package we saw over $60m invested to deliver over 200 units of new accommodation targeting homelessness and supported accommodation. That was around 450 to 500 more beds for Territorians doing it tough. There were some fantastic projects delivered, again hand in hand with the non-government sector. For example, Catherine Booth House in Stuart Park was completely rebuilt to include 12 individual bedroom facilities. I believe there is a chapel there and new office facilities for the staff who work very hard with women with some pretty tough situations to deal with in life who are escaping violence and need the protection of housing and a roof over their head.
Percy Court in Alice Springs is for transitional accommodation to help people get the life skills to help them secure a longer term lease. In housing, whether it be public housing or the private market, many people come in from the bush to town and gain some good skills to help them be successful tenants in the long run and to secure longer term housing.
There is Crerar Road in Berrimah, which is also a transitional accommodation facility in Darwin. We also saw more supported accommodation in Darwin and Alice Springs for people who were homeless. For example, at the Salvation Army at Eastside there were an extra eight or 12 rooms added. There were 35 rooms redeveloped at the Bath Street facility in Alice Springs specifically for people who were coming into town seeking medical treatment.
We saw new townhouses at St Vincent de Paul in Coconut Grove for people who needed affordable accommodation while they were going through a journey in their own lives, to help them secure the longer-term accommodation they required to enter the private housing market or, eventually, a public housing dwelling, and help them through that patch where they would otherwise be on the street or in an overcrowded situation. That stimulus package made a lot of housing available to help people who are doing it really tough.
That was coupled with the National Partnership Agreement into Remote Indigenous Housing where we saw a 10-year commitment of $1.7bn across the Territory. I have seen the budget papers today and that amount has increased to about $1.9bn. It is a huge investment in people’s lives and in housing in our remote areas and communities that have been through so much. We have all seen the state some of that housing was in before they did the refurbishments or rebuilds. It is also about building new houses so families live in safe, healthy accommodation and we tackle the issue of overcrowding.
We know that in the first five years of the life of this program the aim is to get 934 new houses on the ground, to rebuild 415 existing houses and refurbish 2500 houses in 73 remote communities and town camps across the Territory. According to the latest reports, containing figures up to January 2013, 780 new homes have been built and 2633 rebuilds and refurbishments have been completed.
That is almost 3500 families across the Territory living in new or improved housing, living in safe housing, and living in houses where they have kitchens, laundries and bathrooms that work. We know it is not perfect; we know there is a long journey still to go to overcome the immense needs in housing across the Territory, but there have been massive steps in the right direction in this space. Another 3500 families in the Territory are now living in safe, habitable accommodation with their families. It is fantastic to go and see some of the new housing estates, particularly those that were built in the bush.
There have been some big steps taken in the area of housing across the Territory. The National Partnership Agreement on Homelessness has been a part of that. It has done a lot of work in helping support people at risk of homelessness or who are homeless and, hopefully, helped many more people break the cycle of homelessness and enter longer-term accommodation.
The Auditor-General found that the Territory had met its obligation under the NPA on Homelessness. Now the challenge is to keep working on this issue to ensure we can reduce those numbers even further. The Auditor-General’s report is a constructive analysis of the delivery of the NPA on Homelessness to help ensure that not just the Territory but all jurisdictions in the Commonwealth make sure they, through future programs, get the best value for their money and the best outcomes for the people because, ultimately, it is about the people at the end of the line.
I thank the Auditor-General for the work done in this area because it is important. Our NGO sector must be commended as well for its ongoing efforts to address homelessness and to work hand in hand with the Territory and Commonwealth governments. I also say well done to the Housing department which did quite a lot of work in this area. The challenge of homelessness now sits with the new government. A lot of work has been done over the last few years but I do not take for granted how big the issue is still. There is a lot more work we all need to do together. Thank you.
Motion agreed to; report noted.
TABLED PAPERS
Interstate Travel Reports – Members for Barkly and Stuart
Interstate Travel Reports – Members for Barkly and Stuart
Madam SPEAKER: I table interstate travel reports for the members for Barkly and Stuart, pursuant to clause 4.12 of the Remuneration Tribunal Determination No 1 of 2012.
TABLED PAPER
Subordinate Legislation and Publications Committee Report on Electronic Tabling of Documents
Subordinate Legislation and Publications Committee Report on Electronic Tabling of Documents
Ms FINOCCHIARO (Drysdale): Madam Speaker, I table the Subordinate Legislation and Publications Committee report entitled Electronic Tabling of Documents.
MOTION
Print Report – Subordinate Legislation and Publications Committee Report on Electronic Tabling of Documents
Print Report – Subordinate Legislation and Publications Committee Report on Electronic Tabling of Documents
Ms FINOCCHIARO (Drysdale): Madam Speaker, I move that the report be printed.
Motion agreed to.
MOTION
Adopt Report – Subordinate Legislation and Publications Committee Report on Electronic Tabling of Documents
Ms FINOCCHIARO (Drysdale): Madam Speaker, I present the Subordinate Legislation and Publications Committee report on electronic tabling of documents. This report recommends that the Assembly embraces the concept of e-Parliament by establishing a web-based tabled papers database and introducing electronic tabling of documents. The committee’s inquiry into the electronic tabling of documents took into account the operations of the Assembly and its committees, requirements to table documents pursuant to statute or standing orders, and the ongoing accessibility of tabled documents by members, the media and the wider community.
In addition to reviewing the Assembly’s current tabling practice and procedures, the committee looked at tabling methods elsewhere in Australia and New Zealand and sought the views of Northern Territory government agencies required to table documents.
The committee found that most parliaments in Australia and New Zealand accept electronic versions of documents for tabling and publish them on the Internet in tabled papers databases. As the Internet is one of the most frequently used methods for people to access information, the committee believes tabled papers, which are public documents, should also be accessible from the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly’s website.
In support of web-based tabled papers databases, in 2009 the Australian National Audit Office noted that ongoing availability and accessibility of tabled documents was a matter of some concern. Whilst government agencies are generally required to publish documents presented to parliament on their websites following tabling, it was found that this did not guarantee availability or accessibility over the long term. For example, not all government agencies, particularly some of the smaller regulatory bodies, have a web presence and, unlike parliaments that are required to retain documents for perpetuity, a lack of consistent policy for archiving agency documents was identified as an issue. Most importantly, it was found that guaranteeing long-term access to documents was particularly difficult when government agencies were restructured.
Apart from improving access to tabled papers by members, the media and the general public, other parliaments have found that electronic tabling of documents decreases the demands on the Table Office. Electronic tabling of documents also significantly reduces costs for those agencies that are required to table reports. The Subordinate Legislation and Publications Committee is currently responsible for monitoring the statutory tabling requirements of 92 government agencies independent offices, statutory authorities and regulatory bodies, a number of which table more than one report per annum.
Based on an average production cost of $5000 to $7000 for annual reports, considerable cost savings, potentially upwards of $50 000 per annum, could be achieved if inquiry and annual reports were provided to the Assembly and other parties electronically, and agencies were actively encouraged to minimise print runs.
However, given the pace of technological change, ongoing accessibility of electronic documents was raised as an issue of concern by a number of parliaments. Consequently, all jurisdictions still require at least one hard copy of all documents for tabling and archival purposes.
Where additional hard copies are required, for example, copies of Auditor-General reports or subordinate legislation for committee members, Queensland and New South Wales now accept photocopies rather than formally printed and bound versions. As in the case in other jurisdictions, to ensure the hard copy requirements of the House continue to be met, it is considered that the Subordinate Legislation and Publications Committee is the most appropriate body to determine, review and publish the number of additional hard copies of documents tabled by the Speaker, ministers and members that are required to be supplied to the Clerk.
Based on the Queensland model of electronic tabling, the committee circulated a draft e-tabling proposal for comment by NT government agencies. A total of 17 agencies provided feedback and, without exception, all agencies supported the proposal.
To facilitate the introduction of electronic tabling, Recommendation 1 proposes that the Department of the Legislative Assembly be directed to prepare a business case detailing the options for, and cost of, establishing, implementing, and maintaining an electronic tabled papers database. Recommendation 2 proposes that the standing orders be amended to provide for the tabling of hard copy and electronic copies of documents and that the draft order be referred to the Standing Orders Committee for consideration and report.
I feel it is important to note that implementing the e-tabling proposal represented in this report will also enhance the Legislative Assembly’s standing in relation to world e-Parliament benchmarks for parliamentary transparency, accountability, and openness. On behalf of the committee, I thank the parliaments of Australia and New Zealand for the information they have provided, and the opportunity to benefit from their experience. I also thank the Northern Territory government agencies that provided comment on the committee’s draft e-tabling proposal.
Mr Deputy Speaker, I move that the report be adopted.
Motion agreed to; report adopted.
ADJOURNMENT
Mr ELFERINK (Leader of Government Business): Mr Deputy Speaker, I move that the Assembly do now adjourn.
On Friday 19 April 2013 I attended the Prison Officer in Training graduation ceremony at the Marrara Indoor Stadium. On Friday 26 April 2013 I attended the Prison Officer in Training graduation ceremony at Alice Springs Correctional Centre. I place on the record my congratulations to Mr Tunny for the fine turnout, particularly of the Alice Springs graduating class. There was a great sense of pride at both of these events. In Darwin 12 Prison Officer in Training recruits graduated in Class 71/13, and in Alice Springs 22 graduated in Class 70/13.
These graduations are an opportunity to formally recognise the achievements of the men and women who have completed the first phase of their 12-month Prison Officer in Training program. On behalf of the Northern Territory government and the Department of Correctional Services, I was proud to attend both of these events to personally congratulate them on their outstanding achievements to date.
All of the prison officers on parade received training from some of the Territory’s most experienced correctional staff. They have learnt many new skills and have had considerable exposure in their new workplace. It is our prison officers who are at the front line of engaging with offenders, and they are faced with a demanding and challenging job, but I believe they have the ability to make a difference within the criminal justice system.
If these graduates successfully complete the next stage of training, they will be awarded a Certificate III in Correctional Practice (Custodial) and be offered permanent positions as prison officers in the Northern Territory. Prison officers come from a range of backgrounds and are able to draw on their life experience in their day-to-day operations.
Of those graduating, one is an Indigenous recruit who was recently signed by Territory Thunder - a female whose dad was serving as a prison officer in the Alice Springs Correctional Centre, marking the first time a father and daughter have served together - and a former US Infantry soldier who completed two tours of Iraq in the 39th Infantry Brigade in 2005 and 2008.
At the Darwin ceremony, four Corrections staff received their 10-year service medals, with one receiving a 20-year service medal. A further four officers received letters of commendation for their actions in reviving a prisoner, and a probation and parole officer received a Certificate IV in Correctional Practice. I say, particularly to those who received their letters of commendation - Patricia Johnson, Emma Hilton, John Coneybeer and Simone McDean - I am enormously proud of what you have done in saving a prisoner’s life.
At the Alice Springs ceremony nine Correctional staff received their 10-year service medals, a further seven received letters of commendation in having revived a prisoner. Once again, I place on the record my thanks to Christopher Doidge, Daniel Symes, Wayne Middleton, Karina Akarana, Marion Glover, Rose Metea and Bev Denise for their extraordinary efforts in saving the life of a prisoner in very similar circumstances as occurred in Darwin. These prison officers showed the exemplary standard prison officers bring to their workplace on a day-to-day basis.
A probation and parole officer also received a Certificate IV in Correctional Practice and the prison drugs detection dog, Cosby, received a five-year service medal …
Ms Anderson: Hear, hear!
Mr ELFERINK: Well, I think it is 35 in dog years, by the way, so we owe the dog two lots of long service leave.
I look forward to following the progress of these graduates and being involved in future prison officer graduation ceremonies.
Cosby, the dog, received the service medal in Darwin. The graduates in course 71/13 were Antony Kovac, Sharon Robertson, Nicole Robertson, Gregory Coates, Joanne McBride, Craig Jones, Daniel Joyce, Luke Young, Jimmy Lolias, Dermot Noone, Joshua Tybell and Asheesh Shawel.
The service medals for 10 years went to Wade Jensen, Colin Stringer, Robert Jennings, Alison Wasley, and Michelle Eller received the 20-year service medal.
In Alice Springs, the graduates from course 70/13 were Peter Baulch, Jessica Brown, Michelle Carr, Christopher Doidge, Ross Dorling, Hilary Gatenby, Peter Hill, Craig James, Lauchlan Lake, Floyd Malcolm, Justin Mayne, Maliiha Nakaora, Lucas-John O’Donoghue, Nathan Pawlak, Luis Perez, Rodney Randall, Michael Ryan, Om Shrestha, Richard Silver, Yvonne Walls, Simon Ward, who was also the Best Team Member and Student of Merit and Darren Whitaker.
Ten year service medals went to SPO Ray Rowe, POFC Martin Betts, Security Systems Manager Darrell Wallace, Security Systems Technical Officer Hy Thi, Team Leader Tennant Creek Community Corrections Yvon Magnery, Program Facilitator and Case Worker Wayne Kirk, SPO Paul Schluter, drug dog Cosby, and Prison Officer Warwick Auld.
I congratulate all the prison officers who have graduated plus those who have provided great service over the years and those who have provided particular service in the areas of their letters of commendation.
I am proud of each and every one of them. Every time I see a fine body of people like our prison officers on parade being proud of what they do, knowing they are involved in a dynamic time of change within the Corrections system, I genuinely feel very grateful for having the opportunity to be their minister.
‘We have much to do in this space’, is what I say to those prison officers, but what we will do in this space will be worthwhile and noble indeed.
Ms PURICK (Goyder): Mr Deputy Speaker, this evening I speak on the recent Northern Territory Firefighter Championship Competition held at Freds Pass Reserve on Sunday 5 May. The day started at about 8.30 am and went through to about 6 pm when we had the presentations.
These competition games are a great way for volunteer fire officers in the greater rural area, particularly the ones associated with the Northern Territory Fire Service, to practice and hone their skills in firefighting, use of equipment, engaging and talking with each other and, of course, building camaraderie between teams. The inaugural games of this firefighting championship were held in 2003 and I believe they only missed one or two games, which could not be organised for various reasons.
It brings together all the volunteer brigade units under the management of the NT Fire Service; however, there was a team from Jabiru and a team from Bathurst Island – the member for Arafura would be interested in that – and an airport Airservices composite team. The Bushfires NT brigades in my electorate, being the Elizabeth Valley and Lambells Lagoon people, are keen to put a team in next year.
This year we had teams from Virginia/Bees Creek, Howard Springs, Koolpinyah, Jabiru, and Humpty Doo which fielded two teams. Koolpinyah had not been able to field a team for a while but has recruited quite a few younger people, shall we say, so was able to put up a team. Batchelor returned with a team, which was good news, and Bathurst Island, which I mentioned, was excellent. The airport Airservices came along as well and put in a team and there was a composite team.
The scenarios they compete in all have interesting names but they are related to the kind of work a volunteer fire officer, if not a day professional fire officer, would be engaged in. They included quick attack, dry hydrant boost, the wet hose section, wet hose and targets, spot fires, hoses breeching and the bucket brigade. Interestingly, the bucket brigade is a scenario which involves scaffolding. It is designed to bring back the old fashioned firefighting skills when all you had was a water supply and buckets to put a fire out via a human chain. About eight of them take the water in the buckets and have to get it to the top of the scaffolding to fill up a 24-gallon drum in the quickest time. That event is very entertaining and is usually done at the end of the day. By the end of that competition, everyone is well and truly saturated by buckets of water being thrown everywhere. It was a great day.
I compliment, commend and congratulate all of the people who participated in the day. I particularly want to reference the competition committee who put together this year’s event, which is no small task that is for sure: Cameron Burrows, Chairperson; Maxine Way, Secretary/Treasurer; Andy Smith, fire services representative; Damien Buckley, Alice Springs representative; Lachlan Way and Steven Gross, Howard Springs representatives, Steve Addison, Jabiru representative; Wayne Stubbs, Katherine representative; Graham Stacey, Koolpinyah representative; and Andrew Hardy, Virginia/Bees Creek representative.
There were also many marshals and judges involved, and many helpers and people who put out the props for scenarios and brought in various vehicles. There were sponsors for the day, who I acknowledge and thank because it is sometimes through sponsors that these events are pulled together: Curby’s Trophies; NT Scaffolds; NT Sea Containers, Kennards Hire, and Fin Bins. Mark Brustolin brought along his old fire truck, which is always a great attraction no matter where it goes. Giggling Geckos had a jumping castle for the children. Top End Shaved Ice was there as was Johnny McKay from 104.1 Territory FM, and the Palmerston Rugby Union Club which put on the dinner at the end of the day. I thank all of those sponsors, and I thank the scorers for the day, Rebecca and Bob Burgess, who are with the Humpty Doo brigade. The people from NT Fire Services, including Steve Rothwell, the Chief, were there most of the day. Dave Ellis, who is the Deputy Chief, Dave Pettit and Andy Smith were there and they work well with all the volunteer people.
The spread of prizes was good; even the Koolpinyah people picked up a prize although they had not been there for a while. For the third time, the Jabiru team took out the overall prize and overall award. Well done to them because they train hard at Jabiru, as do all the teams and all the people. The work the volunteers do and the commitment they give to our community is invaluable. It is never so more noted that in the Dry Season when we have wildfires. Sadly, they have started again; they are very busy already at Noonamah. There have been fires that have been deliberately lit. When you see the extent of damage caused by these fires, it is no wonder people want to lobby the government and others to make the penalties stiffer and harsher if we can catch the culprits who commit this bad deed.
Mr Deputy Speaker, in conclusion, I extend big congratulations to all who participated in the Fire Fighter Championship Competition. It was a great day; I was there for most of the day. I organised a raffle, won by a person from Jabiru, which was for a wheelbarrow with lots of goodies in it. The proceeds of the raffle went to the Burns Unit at the Royal Darwin Hospital. Nearly $350 was raised, which was good. Well done and congratulations to all of them.
Ms ANDERSON (Namatjira): Mr Deputy Speaker, I rise to respond to an allegation made by the member for Barkly in this place on 27 March. He stated:
- I have ministerial correspondence lodged with ministers in the areas of Power and Water; Lands, Planning and the Environment; Transport, Tourism, Regional Development, Corrections and Infrastructure all awaiting responses on issues raised by Barkly constituents.
While I cannot speak for my colleagues, I can assure the member there is no outstanding correspondence in my office or that of my department for him or his constituents. In fact, I can go further and say I am assured that on the date he made that assertion there was no overdue correspondence relating to the member for Barkly or his constituents. So, before the member for Barkly chastises my office and my department again, I would be grateful if he could check his facts.
I thank the Hermannsburg community for a fantastic sports weekend which I attended last weekend. I thank Denise and Nicholas Williams and, of course, the Hermannsburg police, Hermannsburg clinic and local government and FaHCSIA on the community for the fantastic sports weekend. I could not have seen a better sports weekend where there was no alcohol, nobody under the influence of alcohol in or around the football oval or the softball diamonds. It was a fantastic atmosphere. The concert at night was a real family event. The kids were all dancing at the front with Warren H Williams rocking away. That is the kind of sports weekends we need to encourage for our families, communities and children. It is an example we set as adults if we do not have alcohol or people under the influence of alcohol, which encourages children to be good children as they are growing up. As we know, children learn from what they see.
There was plenty of food around the football oval and plenty of drinks. I congratulate Helen Cantawarra who was stuck - I do not think she ever got out and saw the softball or footy match. I take my hat off to you, Helen. She worked in a takeaway at the Top Shop for the whole four days, as did young Mandy. These are the people who are committed to the community’s wellbeing.
Last week two staff in my office had birthdays: Che and Nicholas. I take this opportunity to put on the public record a happy birthday to you both. Thanks for all the help you give me in the office.
I thank the members for Daly and Arnhem because I had a fantastic five days last week going to communities. I went to Daly with the member for Daly and sat down with people and heard all their concerns about local government and the consultation process. I looked at the houses and the beautiful Daly River and thought, ‘What has Labor done in 10 years for this community?’ Absolutely nothing, and this is a community where houses are being looked after.
The former member for Daly never raised the issue in this Chamber to talk about how that community was looking after its houses and not getting any new ones. I congratulate you, member for Daly, for taking the concerns of your constituents and for giving me the opportunity to go to your electorate with you.
I thank the member for Arnhem for the four days we had in her electorate with her constituents, going to Groote, Millingimbi, Ramingining and Gapuwiyak to look at the concerns those people have. At Millingimbi, the biggest fraud ever, SIHIP, removed six-bedroom houses and built three-bedroom houses. In that community alone they are 16 bedrooms down.
You just heard the new member for Wanguri talk about how good the program was. Yes, it was a national partnership agreement, but they did not achieve the bedroom numbers across the Northern Territory. You need to be very careful of what you are praising inside this Chamber because Aboriginal people are talking about it across the Northern Territory - no verandahs, no air conditioners, not enough room. You had five- and six-bedroom houses knocked down in favour of three-bedroom houses. If the five- and six-bedroom houses were already overcrowded, what is the overcrowding like in a three-bedroom house? You have taken the same amount of people out of a six bedroom house and plonked them in a three bedroom house.
Aboriginal people are really concerned about it. You have left a great big hole for this government to come into. We have already started the process of talking to people. We have given them back their voices. We are consulting, unlike you. That is why you find yourself sitting on the other side.
Mr GUNNER (Fannie Bay): Madam Speaker, last month, Bret David Kajetanski passed away suddenly at 37. Bret’s passing was a shock because he was so young. It was unexpected.
Bret came home from work on Monday 15 April to relax and have a night in front of the telly. He was found there at home the following morning, having passed away as the result of a latent heart irregularity, but not a heart attack. Quite simply, Bret’s heart stopped beating.
Many of us gathered recently to say goodbye. Joining family were Bret’s friends from SBA Office National, his school friends, neighbours at Marrara, members of the Darwin Greyhound Racing Club, and others. Tributes were given by his sister Belinda; Brad Fong, Bret’s brother-in-law; Joshua and Jye, Bret’s nephews; Simon Nathaniel, his best friend and workmate at SBA; Helen Smith, his close colleague at SBA; me; and Hal Jenkins, Bret’s close friend from Casuarina Secondary School.
I thank the celebrant, Peter Little; Bret’s parents, Barry and Valerie; his sister, Belinda; and her husband Brad, and their two sons, Joshua and Jye, for allowing me the privilege of reading the words of the eulogy they drafted to share the life and travels of Bret David Kajetanski:
- Everyone always said Bret had a big heart and poetically, tragically, that is how he died - from having a big heart. He did not suffer. He had an enlarged heart and he passed away the way he would have wanted to, with a smoke in the ashtray, a drink in his cup, watching his beloved huge TV.
Bret was born on 15 July 1975 at Lilydale Bush Nursing Hospital in Melbourne. Overdue by two weeks, even as a baby Bret was always in his own time. Bret was a happy, content baby boy who loved playing with his toys. He was always smiling and being looked after by his big sister. Belinda always insisted that she put his dummy in his mouth; that was her job for her little brother.
At the tender age of two-and-a-half years he was off on his travels with his family. Bret’s dad, Barry, worked in Customs, which took them around Australia. They travelled to Cairns for six months were he developed the taste for beer at a young age, helping his Uncle Peter polish off a stubby of beer. That was a big no-no in his mum’s eyes, but all Bret had to do was turn around with his cheeky grin and all was forgiven.
After that it was six months in Brisbane, then back to Melbourne for nine months before setting off to Port Hedland in Western Australia. There, at kindergarten, he managed to fracture his elbow. Imagine his surprise waking up the next morning with his arm in a cast signed by all the Customs boat crew who had tiptoed into his bedroom that night and written on it while he slept.
Three years later he travelled back to Melbourne where at Manchester Primary there were two trips for stitches; Bret was a typical boy. While living in Melbourne he started his football playing days for Croydon Football Club, whose colours happened to be the same as his beloved Carlton. Bret spent many a weekend travelling to all parts of Melbourne playing his footy in both sunny and freezing temperatures. As we all know, that is typical of Melbourne’s weather. There were many times when alcohol rub kept the cold at bay.
Soon he was on his way back to Port Hedland in Western Australia where he stayed for three years attending his first high school, South Hedland High. It was there he began playing baseball and developed his love of fishing. In those days, there were only two TV channels, the good old ABC and GWN. Therefore, Bret was never home; he was always out and about with his friends or Belinda’s, as they were so close in age they tended to end up with many of the same friends, much to Bret’s dismay. ‘It is embarrassing’, Bret used to say, ‘I always have to hang around with my sister’.
After WA he was off to Darwin. Darwin became home for Bret. He went to Casuarina Secondary School and made many lifelong friends.
Many of them were there on the day, and some of them travelled from afar to get there. For those who could not make it, Bret’s family thanked them for all the lovely messages they received.
- He was always loyal to his mates, and proved that one day by standing up to a bully who picked on one of them. The result was a trip to hospital for an X-ray of a suspected broken nose; it was broken. While Belinda was happy he stood up for his mates, she was royally pissed off because she had just booked them in for a photo shoot as a surprise gift for their parents. As you can guess, that had to wait for a while.
While in Darwin, he continued to play baseball. Yes, it resulted, once again, in another X-ray; this time on his hip from sliding into base. Thankfully, there were no broken bones.
His first job was working at Kmart as a casual on Friday nights and the weekends. This was while he was at high school. He loved working there as he could socialise with so many people. There were many weekends were a bleary-eyed Bret would be on the floor of Kmart helping customers after a good night out on the town. No matter how tired or hung over, he was always there with a smile.
After Kmart, SBA became his second home. Working there for around 17 years, he formed many close friendships with many people. They become his second family and on the day many of them shared about the time they spent with Bret.
Bret had a love of dogs from an early age. It was this love and free tickets to the greyhounds one night that started his involvement with the Winnellie greyhounds. Over the past years he has been a committee member, Treasurer, and owner of many dogs - up to five at any given time. All his dogs had varying degrees of success, but is heart always belonged to his first dog, Soda Stream, fondly known as Mandy, who, when retired, took up residence with Bret. Over the years Bret had many nicknames given to him by different groups of friends. Some of the more memorable ones were Bretski, Catchataxi, Catchacab, Brettles, Taxi, Loafa - as in Loafa Bread - and probably many more that only his friends knew of.
All his family and friends know Bret was a lovable larrikin whose loyalty was second to none. He was known as a gentle giant with a big kind heart who loved a drink and spending time with his mates and family. However, for those of us who really knew him, oh how he hated to be nagged! He could not be told twice to do anything, and God forbid if you tried to. Bret was doing it in his own time and his own way.
As everyone knows, Carlton was his team; they were his colours and he stuck with them win or lose, even when Mick Malthouse came on as head coach! In his 37 years, Brett had been there and done that. In his travels he left a trail of friends and family who will always remember him with love and respect and in his own words, ‘Go the Blues’.
I thank the family for letting me share these words from the eulogy. In my own words, it does not seem right, fair or real we had to say goodbye to Taxi. He was a friend, a good friend to many. He was a ripping good bloke. He was a friend you loved having a beer with and he was also much more than that - much more. He was someone you knew would always be there if you ever needed him, whether it was for something big or something small. Bret was someone who said, ‘Yes, how can I help?’ He did a lot for me. The ledger was squarely in my favour and I owe him tremendously. It is a debt I cannot now pay and need to find a way to pay forward.
Mates who are there when you need them are precious. They are people you build your life around and when you lose them, you lose your footing. After recovering from the shock of the news we have lost Bret, there is a loss of balance. It will take a while to adjust to a world without Taxi. We may have lost him, but we will not forget him. Each of us will have our own way of paying tribute. Personally, I will remember Taxi whenever Carlton runs out to play, or whenever I go to the greyhounds, whenever I walk through the front doors of SBA. He may be gone too soon but he will not be forgotten.
Mr KURRUPUWU (Arafura): Madam Speaker, I have mentioned before it is my dream to be able to listen closely to the needs of the people of Arafura and see Aboriginal people grow strong through education and training, work in proper jobs and businesses, and have strong, healthy, happy lives. Traditional Aboriginal law and culture must become a partner with white man’s law and culture so our people can maintain their respect and dignity.
There has been too much dependency on governments and this has taken away our freedom to make decisions that benefit our people. Minister Anderson has been working quickly to consult widely and to put in place decision-making at the local level in Arafura, which will allow community input into decision-making. The current shire arrangements do the opposite.
Often, local Aboriginal people in Arafura do not benefit from the large amount of money being spent. Our government recognises it is time for government to work directly with local communities that want change and for government to work for a better future for the great people of Arafura.
After the election I had the pleasure of travelling to Maningrida to meet with the Yolngu Nations Assembly to discuss ways to better work with the people of west, central and east Arnhem. In mid-December I travelled in the wonderful electorate of Arafura visiting the communities of Jabiru, Gunbalanya and Maningrida. Here I listened to important community concerns about key issues including administration by the shire, roads, sewerage, and problems being experienced by those living in outstations. A number of concerns were expressed about the need for improvements to Bawinangaresource centre. I also visited Gunbalanya School and met with the principal, staff and students. They were very keen to see me because, apparently, their previous member did not visit to hear their concerns. I look forward to assisting and working closely with Gunbalanya School.
On this trip I had the pleasure of attending the AFL clinic at Jabiru and the Melbourne Demons at Magela Oval. I was very pleased to have a long talk to Luke Tapscott and Jack Viney who are top players of the future in AFL. I told Jack one of the captains of the Melbourne Demons was very keen to talk with me but, unfortunately, he had to remain in Melbourne because he was injured. The Demons have a very close relationship with the Tiwi and Aboriginal people of the Northern Territory.
During my visit to communities within Arafura, I was invited to a very important graduation ceremony in Gunbalanya where the two first ever Year 12 students graduated from the West Arnhem College. Congratulations to Robert Balmana and James Marddy. This was a terrific performance. I strongly believe that education and employment hold the key to the future for Aboriginal people and that a very young Aboriginal person should receive a quality education with real input from local Aboriginal people. Robert and James have shown us the way forward.
The principal of Jabiru Area School has advised me that the school is holding important discussions with the traditional owners and elders of Kakadu National Park. I look forward to discussing how Indigenous education and employment can be progressed here too.
In late January, I visited communities on Tiwi Island to hear and discuss the main concern of members of the Tiwi community. After a number of meetings with government departments and the Minister for Transport, and now Chief Minister, Adam Giles, I am very pleased that we were able to make an announcement on Wednesday 6 March, on Tiwi Island, that the government is seeking tender for a trial ferry service from Darwin to the island. This ferry service is very important for Tiwi people. I am also very keen to improve the roads in the Maningrida region and I have had a number of discussions with relevant ministers in government to progress this. It is important that the Maningrida region has far better road access than it does at present.
During April 2013, the Minister for Health, Mrs Robyn Lambley, visited the Tiwi Islands for discussions with traditional owners and other interested stakeholders on the possibility of establishing rehabilitation facilities for people badly affected by drugs and alcohol. There is strong support for such a facility on Bathurst Island as many are very concerned about the number of Tiwi who travel to Darwin for heavy beer and end up in gaol or sick in the long grass. We wish to see these people being treated for their problems with alcohol and drugs and to have access to learning some skills to assist them to gain worthwhile employment.
During the next few months, I will be travelling through the electorate of Arafura for discussions with individuals and organisations in Minjilang Warruwi, Maningrida, Gunbalanya and Jabiru to listen to their needs and concerns so we may work together to achieve a better life for our people living within Arafura. I encourage those concerned about any issues within their communities to discuss them with me on my forthcoming visit.
Ms WALKER (Nhulunbuy): Madam Speaker, I rise this evening to pay my respects to John Keogh who lost his short and brutal battle with cancer at Gove hospital on 18 April. I offer my very sincere condolences to John’s wife, Gonnie, and his four sons and their families: Kris and Debbie; Peter and Shauna and their kids Jimmy and Roxy; Mark and Emma and youngest son, Sean. I also offer my sincere condolences to John’s mum, Patricia, his brothers, Greg and Dan, and sister, Jenny, all of whom I only recently met during John’s illness. Those condolences extend well beyond John’s beloved family to his vast network of friends and colleagues associated with John’s biggest passions: the union movement - the ETU in particular - the Labor Party, and all things music.
At 58, John’s life ended way too soon. I wish to place on the public record the many things we remember about John.
I first met John and his family in 1990 when I moved to Nhulunbuy and was teaching his eldest son, Kris, at the local high school. With the passing of time, while details are a little vague, it was really my husband who fell into a friendship with John after meeting him in the front bar at the Walkabout Lodge, a popular venue for workers and tradies. While predominantly men, there were women, like me, who used to go along for a drink with our partners on a Friday afternoon.
A couple of years later, we ended up moving into the same street as the Keogh’s, just three doors away from them, when I was expecting our first child, and from there our family ties grew. People are always welcome at the Keogh’s house, including my husband, Lawrence, on a regular basis over the next 20 years or so. My early visits to the Keogh’s were late at night in my nightie to seek respite and cheerful company, which I always found, with a crying newborn baby on my shoulder who was soon nicknamed not Zoe Walker but Zoe Squawker by the Keoghs.
I got to know John even better when I joined the Nhulunbuy Yirrkala branch of the Labor Party, where John had been president for longer than anyone can remember. His passion for the union movement, which saw him take on the role as a savvy and respected senior site delegate representing the ETU, was well matched by his ardent support of the Labor Party and its values.
To do justice to a snapshot of John Keogh’s life, I will share parts of the eulogy delivered by Kris Keogh, who I am sure will forgive me for editing, given time restraints.
John Patrick Keogh was born in Sydney, the eldest of five children growing up in the then working class suburb of Mosman. By age five, his future career as a union delegate was already well on track. One of his earliest negotiated agreements involved selling his school cap to buy lollies. John and Gonnie met at a party when they were 16 and 17 respectively. Gonnie was a quiet, studious Dutch girl who worked in a pet shop on weekends, but they hit it off and together they would go camping up on the central coast, spend whole days at the beach and eat pizza together.
Gonnie was a calming figure in John’s life right from the word go. Within three years they were married and the next year, following a 105 mp/h police chase, John got Gonnie to the hospital just in time to deliver Kris. In December 1977, John got a start at Nabalco, planning to stay, like most of us, for just two years. In 1978, Peter was born.
The big Nabalco strike of 1981 was the making of John as a union official and solidified his resolve to support workers’ rights, something he continued to do for the rest of his life. After three months of striking and no money for food in that 1981 strike, anyone with a boat would fish all day and then head to the Nhulunbuy oval at dusk to distribute the day’s catch amongst the strikers. Eventually, the company caved in and waged workers won pay and conditions in line with the salaried staff. Unity is strength and strength is unity, John would always say.
Dave Mitchell, a long-term Goveite, comrade and colleague of John’s, also spoke at the funeral about John’s leadership. He described him as a true leader. His ideas on leadership were based on three essential qualities: integrity, imagination and courage. His ability to unite people was one of his greatest strengths and this resulted in the formation of the Gove Combined Unions, which has been the most effective and successful strategy for the advancement of workers devised in the last 30 years.
He often found it could be dangerous and uncomfortable to be right on matters in which the established authorities are wrong. Usually what happened though was at first the bosses ignored him, then they ridiculed him, then they fought him and then he won.
It was John’s work within the labour movement that helped secure so much of what we take for granted today: the 38 hour week, the minimum wage, family leave, social security, Medicare and superannuation. These cornerstones of working class security all bear the union label and have John’s fingerprints all over them. Dave Mitchell’s words could not have been truer.
John was also instrumental in helping secure big wins for workers in an EBA which would change the very fabric of Nhulunbuy in more recent news. An equal time roster was established, giving workers four days on, followed by four days off. Hard fought for, it was something he fought fiercely to retain in the last EBA negotiations, protracted that they were, with current owner Rio Tinto. I hope his legacy remains when the next round of EBA negotiations comes around on the Gove site.
Outside of work, John was one of the original HOGs, the Harleys of Gove. John and the HOGs might have looked like a group of tough bikers, but they were all kind-hearted top blokes and all family men. While their original clubhouse may have been a pretty wild place to hang out, they also fundraised and delivered Christmas presents to needy kids on their annual toy runs. John’s ability to combine partying with helping the community is something we all admired.
The HOG shed over the years evolved as a hub for musos under John’s stewardship as a lover of music, especially the blues. Sunday afternoons at the HOG shed is an institution in Nhulunbuy and, with it, John was instrumental in founding the East Arnhem Blues Society. With news of John’s incurable cancer, there were many things he wanted to do before he died. Amongst them, he wanted to return home to Nhulunbuy and be part of a pre-wake which was held at the HOG shed on Sunday 14 April.
Hundreds of people turned out to the biggest party the HOG shed has ever seen. Friends came from far and wide and the start was heralded by a precession of Harleys which met in town and rode through the Gove hospital grounds, engines revving to serenade John on the way to the HOG shed.
Food and drinks flowed and messages of love and support were delivered and, with a roving mike in his hand, John offered a running, and very cheeky, politically incorrect commentary. How many people get to go to their own wake, and how many people get a message from the Prime Minister? With Julia Gillard’s message concluding with the words:
- John, all of us who love the Territory have been enriched by your life, and on behalf of all of them, I acknowledge you as a comrade, a leader, and a true believer.
John, who was something of an ideas man, who was always scheming and strategising, also managed to have considerable input into his own funeral, which was held 12 days after he attended his own wake. Hundreds of people attended John’s funeral service. It is a rare thing to walk away from a funeral smiling rather than crying, but that is how it was.
The pice de rsistance was the funeral procession to Nhulunbuy cemetery. Some two dozen Harleys led the way from the Sacred Heart parish, followed by a flatbed truck with muso mates playing blues and rock tunes to serenade John on the stairway to heaven. It was a PC decision not to play ACDC’s Highway to Hell. Secretly, I think John, who was never one for political correctness, would have thought that was hilarious.
Following that procession was not the traditional hearse but, at John’s request, his coffin was strapped down on the back of his son Sean’s ute, and draped proudly with the ETU flag. The fact that the ute had to be jump started at the front of the church and caused a minor delay to the procession was pure John Keogh having the last laugh, and what a laugh he had! We will always remember John Keogh with much love and respect, and, rather than sadness, chuckle at his antics and his irrepressible sense of humour, and salute his contribution to his community and his fellow workers. May he rest in peace.
Mr McCARTHY (Barkly): Madam Speaker, tonight I share about a local member working in opposition. I have some advice for the minister and a request for the minister. The minister I am talking about is the minister for Tourism, Hon Matt Conlan, member for Greatorex.
I encourage the minister to visit the gulf savannah area of the Northern Territory because it presents with so much potential. It is certainly wilderness country. It is exciting country. It is, to a large degree, underexplored in tourism opportunities, and there are many good people there with many good ideas.
One constituent in particular is Kerry Ralph, from Heartbreak Hotel at Cape Crawford. As a local member representing the Territory opposition, I meet with people, discuss issues, and take ideas on board, then I have to translate that to government. I do that by writing to the relevant ministers. Kerry has some fantastic ideas about tourism development. She is in a network at Heartbreak Hotel at Cape Crawford, is on the front line of service delivery, and can offer Hon Matt Conlan some great ideas and initiatives. I put down the information and wrote to the minister and the minister wrote back. It was good letter and it provided Kerry with some good contacts to progress her ideas. The minister also said he intends travelling throughout regional Northern Territory later in the year, which is great. I hope you come to the gulf savannah in the Barkly region and meet with Kerry.
Minister, I had to do bit of tidying up on your behalf, and I hope you find it acceptable. In the letter I received that I had to communicate to the constituent, you referred to Kerry as Mr Ralph, and a number of times you refer to ‘him’. Kerry is a female, a woman, the manager of Heartbreak Hotel. I explained to her it was unfortunate; however, ignore that and use the important contacts the minister provided.
The letter I received from the minister, with the incorrect references to Kerry’s gender, was also stamped electronically. Minister, I am a little concerned that this process might have gone through without your knowledge, without your input, and without the serious homework required of a Minister of the Crown. I have tidied the issue up and encourage you to contact Kerry and continue your research with that portfolio and the possibility of a visit to the Barkly, particularly travelling through the area of the gulf savannah so you can meet with Kerry and tourism operators. I am sure you will enjoy the hospitality of Heartbreak Hotel and you could certainly form ideas around adventure tourism opportunities. There would be some great opportunities for partnerships with Indigenous groups of the area, and it is also exciting cattle country. There would certainly be many opportunities to talk to the pastoral community.
Minister, in good faith and with respect I say it was a bit unfortunate. Having been a minister in the former government I know it is important to read your ministerial briefs, ask questions about them, and do background checks.
In using the electronic signature to expedite the ministerial process, be careful, minister, because if you are not across the detail and not reading and researching then you can miss those valuable opportunities.
I hope you accept this advice in good faith as you are now a Minister of the Crown. It is a fantastic job and you have the opportunity to make a difference in the Territory, particularly in the area of tourism, which you speak about with passion and enthusiasm. It always comes down to the basics which relate to being across the detail and taking an interest in all the material that comes across your desk. I hope, minister, to hear of your travels into that region, and to hear of your contact with a constituent who is very keen to progress and develop some very innovative and interesting ideas around that very special part of the Territory: Cape Crawford and the gulf savannah.
Ms FYLES (Nightcliff): Madam Speaker, I was privileged to attend the 2013 Northern Territory Barnardos Mother of the Year announcement held at the Vibe Hotel at the waterfront.
I take this opportunity to say congratulations to Gypsy Barrett, Belinda Crooks-Burns and Sharen Lake, the three exceptional mothers nominated for this year’s awards.
These national awards are held by Barnardos Australia to honour and celebrate special mothers who inspire, protect, love and nurture their children, often in the most extraordinary circumstances. Each of these incredible women was nominated for their tireless work, courageous efforts and nurturing skills and, of course, going above and beyond the call of duty.
Barnardos has for over 20 years been at the forefront of child welfare service provision. Their approach is to find real and permanent solutions for children and families in need. This is something Barnardos Australia wants for all children, particularly those who are at risk or have been abused. It is one of the largest children’s charities in Australia, caring for children at risk of abuse and neglect. The work of Barnardos focuses on the prevention of abuse, neglect and entry into care.
Children of all backgrounds and cultural heritage are helped through a range of welfare programs including crisis care, family support, counselling and permanent foster care. Every day there are more than a 130 substantiated cases of abuse and neglect across Australia and Barnardos sees thousands of families that need assistance in overcoming these problems. Their aim is to build relationships between children and young people, their families and the community. Each year it hosts the Mother of the Year awards across the nation. Winners from each state and territory become the national finalists and attend awards the Friday before Mother’s Day, in Sydney.
Sharen Lake from Tennant Creek was nominated by her daughter, Kara, for her tireless efforts and dedication to disadvantaged Indigenous children, particularly in her home town of Tennant Creek. She is a mother of four children and for the last 20 years has worked with the young people in her community of Tennant Creek in a youth hostel and also opens her own home to kids at risk. Her daughter spoke on the morning and her speech was inspirational about her mum and what she does in the Barkly region. It was for these reasons she was named the NT Barnardos Mother of the Year for 2013.
Sharen was invited to travel to Sydney where a ceremony was held at a gala luncheon with all the other state and Territory finalists. Although she was not the national winner, she did the Territory proud and her story is truly inspiring. It reminds us of the important things in life and not to take them for granted. With Mother’s Day last Sunday, I wish my mother and all the mothers in our community a happy Mother’s Day.
Moving on to my electorate of Nightcliff, we recently hosted the Seabreeze Festival which was a fantastic event of music, arts and dance held along the Nightcliff foreshore. This year it also incorporated other events across 10 days. It was a wonderful event and I congratulate all involved. The organisers and volunteers put in so much time and effort. It was a wonderful community event and it was fun to come together at the start of the Dry Season, enjoying our unique Territory lifestyle.
It was also pleasing to see so many people attend the May Day march. I have attended many May Day marches over the years, initially with my father. It was lovely this year to push the pram and march with my comrades and my two boys.
Other events I have been attending in my community include the Nightcliff Primary School assembly last Friday where I presented merit awards. We also had the Mother’s Day breakfast at the school which was a fantastic morning with hundreds of people from families within the school.
I also held a family fun day on Saturday morning at the Rapid Creek foreshore and I thank everyone who came along. We had a great time hula-hooping with Fairy Jill and jumping on the castle, not that I did that.
I have also been holding barbecues in the park across my electorate, and am holding another one this Sunday, and have been attending community listening posts along the foreshore. It has been wonderful catching up with residents and hearing their views.
Ms MANISON (Wanguri): Madam Speaker, I adjourn on a few different matters around my electorate. I was recently lucky enough to attend the Dripstone Middle School health expo, which is now an annual event. It is organised by the school nurse, Mary Burnell-Johnson. It was a terrific event; the students saw a range of different stallholders from government and non-government health organisations to learn a few things. There was a competition, so students had to answer questions at each of the different stalls. It was terrific to see so many students learning about good health and it was also great to see the organisations involved.
I was also recently fortunate to be invited to the Leanyer and the Wanguri schools for their special Anzac Day assemblies. The Wanguri Primary School assembly was held on 24 April. It was organised by Nikki Robson, the Defence School Transition Aide, who also does that job at Leanyer school. It was wonderful to see the students listen to an address from an officer of the defence forces and pay their tributes to Anzac Day and speak about their families’ experiences, given that many students at Wanguri and Leanyer schools have parents who are serving members of the Australian Defence Forces.
At the Wanguri Primary School assembly, Military Kids Recognition Medals were awarded to Jack, Noah, Max and Abby Chetcuti, and to Andrew Bradbury. Congratulations to those children; there were some very proud parents there.
At Leanyer school, the assembly was held on 26 April. We saw some wonderful performances by the students to commemorate Anzac Day. Congratulations to the Military Kids Recognition Medals recipients, Emma and Nick Sullivan. It was great to see the children learning firsthand from the students they go to school with and their parents about the defence forces and how they serve the country today. It was wonderful to see them commemorating Anzac Day.
Towards the end of Term 1 I also attended the Henbury School assembly. It was a terrific event where I saw the school choir for the first time. It was wonderful to see them giving some stirring performances of a few numbers. It was also wonderful to see how inclusive that choir is, with children with all different abilities joining together and experiencing the joy of being in a choir. It was a wonderful thing to see.
It was also terrific to see the Country Women’s Association there donating again to the school this year for its bikes program. Thank you CWA, you are a terrific organisation and your continued support of the school is fantastic.
I was a bit disappointed today to see there was no mention of a new school or additional classroom capacity for the Henbury School. It is simply bursting at its seams. Watch this space. The school will keep working. The staff are so dedicated, they will keep giving it their all every day to make sure the children’s needs are attended to the best they can be, but things are getting tough. It is an old school; it is bursting at its seams and demand is not getting any smaller.
I was also fortunate enough to recently attend the 2013 17 and under and 19 and under National Netball Championships which were held in Darwin at the Marrara Indoor Stadium and the Darwin Basketball Stadium. There are a few people I would like to thank. It was great to see Netball NT, Darwin Netball Association and the Alice Springs Netball Association get together to put on a top class national event in Darwin where we saw the best junior up and coming netballers putting on a show. Some terrific netball was played.
I congratulate - a very special mention - two young Territorians who were selected in the 17 and under national squads, which is a huge achievement for Territory girls. It is a really high standard at nationals, but these two players showed they have the potential to make it to the big time. Hopefully we will see them playing further on the national stage as they get older. Well done to Rebecca Winch, who was vice captain of the team. She plays for Hoggies in the Darwin Netball Association competition and has a long and proud history of netballers in her family with both her sisters representing the Territory. It is terrific to see her getting that recognition. She has a huge future ahead of her. Well done to Rebecca.
To Billie Newton, an Alice Springs player who was the captain of the team - a huge achievement. Well done to Sandy Mackintosh, the President of the Darwin Netball Association and Helen Smith, the President of Netball NT, for their hard work to make this happen in Darwin.
I also thank a few other people who volunteered their time during the week to make this competition happen to a very high standard. They are: Julie Kellam, Trevor Smith, Thea Pearce, and Brenda Henderson. I also thank the scoring and timing bench: Elice Crisp, Liz Lycett, Bill Adams, Linda Stanwix, Ella Tilling, Dale Moriarty, and I thank Linda Parnham for umpiring. There are many other people who helped with set-up and clean-up, particularly the parents of the girls who were playing in the completion and many volunteers from local clubs who helped sell tickets on the door.
I also make a special mention of two of the runners, who were on their school holidays but spent pretty much the whole week at netball having a great time. They seemed to be having a good laugh along the way. Well done to Abby Henderson and April Pratt. You did a terrific job as runners. It was a fairly stressful environment many times, particularly around finals, and you girls did a great job. I am sure you learnt a lot about competition and national standards, so top work girls.
I also went to the Rose of Tralee Ball on Saturday night. That was a terrific night. Well done to the NT Irish Association. It was the 27th time the Rose was held, the first time being in 1985.
Congratulations to the winner, Bridgit Haines, who won out of a very quality field of eight entrants. It was nice to see last year’s Rose, Sheila McAndrew, handing over the crown. Bridgit will go to Ireland to compete in the International Rose of Tralee. She is a terrific young woman. Good luck to you Bridgit, I hope you go really well. Congratulations to the committee who organised the ball this year, which included Sheila McAndrews, Teresa McCullagh, Jess Herraman, Gina Downes and Conor Daley. Well done and thank you to the judges for the time they put into the competition. They were: Anne MacNamee, Ray and Bernadette McKirdy, Neil Halligan and Christine O’Donnel.
I also congratulate a constituent of mine for winning an award at last week’s Northern Territory Nursing and Midwifery Excellence Awards. Congratulations to Leanore Torrens for winning the Mental Health Category. She works at Top End Mental Health Services. The biography about the hard work she has done says:
- Leanore has had an interesting career in mental health nursing. She began her career as an enrolled nurse. She then gained specialist enrolled nursing qualifications in mental health while working in an acute mental health inpatient unit. During this time she also obtained her registration as a general nurse and, subsequently, a Graduate Diploma in Mental Health Nursing.
- Leanore moved to the Northern Territory over 15 years ago and, throughout her time, has worked consistently in the Top End Mental Health Services Inpatient Unit. Lea delivers outstanding care to clients and is a strong advocate for mental health nursing and mental health nurses. Her care and standards are client centred and focused on recovery. In this area she is an exemplary model to her peers. She is a strong supporter of self-initiated projects such as Cinical Supervision, Peer Support, and Early Aggression Minimisation Response. She is a committed and passionate nurse who is active in the college and in various organisational committees. She also demonstrates strong, professional and active leadership in mental health nursing.
Congratulations to all the winners, Madam Speaker.
Motion agreed to; the Assembly adjourned.
Last updated: 04 Aug 2016