2006-05-04
Madam Speaker Aagaard took the Chair at 10 am.
Ms CARNEY (Araluen): Madam Speaker, I present a petition from 1219 petitioners praying that the Alice Springs preferred approach to middle schools remain. The petition bears the Clerk’s certificate that it conforms with the requirements of standing orders. Madam Speaker, I move that the petition be read.
Motion agreed to; petition read:
Mr MILLS (Blain): Madam Speaker, I present a petition from 94 petitioners praying that the bus service supporting O’Loughlin Catholic College be improved. The petition bears the Clerk’s certificate that it conforms with the requirements of standing orders. Madam Speaker, I move that the petition be read.
Motion agreed to; petition read:
Palmerston Community Care Centre – Retainment of Baby Services
Dr LIM (Greatorex): Madam Speaker, I present a petition from 609 petitioners obtained over three days praying that the services of the Palmerston drop-in baby clinic be retained with adequate staffing four days a week. The petition bears the Clerk’s certificate that it conforms with the requirements of standing orders. Madam Speaker, I move that the petition be read.
Motion agreed to; petition read:
Dr LIM (Greatorex): Madam Speaker, I present a petition from 257 petitioners praying that the salary section of DCIS in Alice Springs be retained. The petition bears the Clerk’s certificate that it conforms with the requirements of standing orders. Madam Speaker, I move that the petition be read.
Motion agreed to; petition read:
Dr LIM (Greatorex): Madam Speaker, I present a petition from 2496 petitioners - that is almost 10% of Alice Springs - praying that a decision to hand over the 11 Central Australian national parks be rescinded. The petition bears the Clerk’s certificate that it conforms with the requirements of standing orders. Madam Speaker, I move that the petition be read.
Motion agreed to; petition read:
Ms McCARTHY (Arnhem): Madam Speaker, I present a petition, on behalf of the member for Daly, from 127 petitioners praying that the roads in the Daly electorate be upgraded. The petition bears the Clerk’s certificate that it conforms with the requirements of standing orders. Madam Speaker, I move that the petition be read.
Motion agreed to; petition read:
Dr TOYNE (Health): Madam Speaker, I have spoken many times in the Legislative Assembly and in the community of the central importance this government places on making improvements in child and maternal health. Improvements here will pay off in years to come with a healthier Territory community which is less dependent upon hospital and other medical care. I report today on our progress during the past year in giving kids a good start in life.
A critical part of this campaign is to ensure that Territory women have access to appropriate and well-supported birthing services. This is what our November 2004 maternal health package has been delivering.
During 2005, four midwives were employed for the new outreach program to provide support and training for remote area staff and to contribute a shared antenatal care. These midwives have now completed an audit and needs assessment for health centre staff, and are working with the community to ensure pregnant women receive the best care possible. In addition, from September 2004 to December 2005, the Urban Community Midwifery Program based in Darwin successfully managed over 125 births for women with low obstetric and medical risk factors. The home birth service commenced in Alice Springs in December 2004, and the Darwin service commenced in August 2005. By the end of the last year there had been eight births in Alice Springs and eight births in Darwin.
In Budget 2005-06, we announced a $200 000 per year commitment to grow our own midwifery workforce. This program has now successfully allowed 14 nurses who are undergraduate midwives, to be paid while they completed their studies, resulting in an expanded number of trained midwives across our health system.
Of course, ensuring safe and appropriate birthing is literally only the start of making sure Territory children grow up healthy. This government has made significant investments to ensure that children are protected and nurtured. The Growth Assessment and Action program is a key part of monitoring and, where necessary, intervening to ensure children under five years old are healthy and well nourished. At the conclusion of 2005, the GAA program had been implemented in 78 remote communities, and work is continuing to support the program, including reviewing and updating the guidelines and further development for action planning training.
Work is also under way on a comprehensive under fives child health promotion and surveillance schedule. For children old enough to go to school, a Healthy School Aged Kids program is being implementing in 40 remote communities. Health services staff are working with staff from the Department of Education’s Health Promotion Schools NT to update the Healthy School Aged Kids manual and resources for health staff and teachers. It is planned to relaunch the updated program in Semester 2 of 2006.
The Maternal Child and Youth team supported both programs in collaboration with Remote Health and Workforce Support. The OCPE has also approved that flexible employment of community child health workers that includes employment on a part-time or full-time basis in the Aboriginal Health Worker and administrative streams, and provides opportunities for training and career progression. This will increase the capacity to employ and support the community-based child health workforce.
Good nutrition is, obviously, a key factor in good health. The School Breakfast program continued to provide nutritious breakfasts and nutrition education for children in seven remote schools. The NT-wide Fruit and Vegetable Promotion campaign was launched in April 2005, with a ‘Go for Two and Five’ and ‘the vegie man’ widely promoted across the Territory.
During last year’s election, we promised a new program, a free neonatal hearing test for every Territory baby. We are now delivering on that promise. During the last year, a reference group has developed a delivery model and guidelines for the program, and I am pleased to announce that Budget 2006-07 contains $230 000 recurrent funding to begin the program next financial year.
Lastly, under the School Dental Clinic upgrade program, two clinics were completed and reopened in 2005. Another eight will be completed in the coming year.
Child immunisation levels are significantly improving, with the new rotovirus immunisations adding an important new intervention in child health.
Madam Speaker, often in health, the focus in public and media attention is on our hospitals. Nevertheless, I can think of no greater contribution to the health of Territorians than working on child and maternal health services. I extend my warm appreciation to the staff of the Department of Health and Community Services involved in developing, managing and delivering these services and assure them of this government’s continuing support for their work.
Dr LIM (Greatorex): Madam Speaker, I welcome the report. Provision of services for mothers and babies is, obviously, a very important thing for all Territorians. However, while the minister crows about how much he is putting into maternal and child health, barely a few minutes ago this morning, I presented a petition outlining that some 25 000 people living in Palmerston are being deprived of the services of a baby health clinic. This is a government who says: ‘Oh, look at us, we have done so much’. On the other hand, they have reduced baby health clinics in Palmerston down to one day a week.
There are many parents who work, who cannot just take a day off to take a baby to the clinic. That is why it was designed to be open four days a week so that people can go there whenever they find the time to do so. This is why the CLP government ensured that people in Palmerston and the surrounding area got services, rather than having to travel into either Casuarina or Nightcliff.
Minister, in just three days over 700 people signed the petition. It has to tell you that people are unhappy with the way you are running the department, and taking services away where they are essential. While nobody denies the fact that child welfare and what you are doing is a good thing, why are you depriving the people of Palmerston and the surrounding areas of services that they so desperately need? Well and good to say: ‘Look at me, look at me, I am doing fantastically’. But the real services are not being delivered. The government members in Palmerston - the members for Brennan and Drysdale, even the member for Goyder – have been very silent about it, not a word. This is where they should be pulled up and asked: ‘What are you doing to represent your constituents who deserve to have better services than this minister is delivering?’
Mrs BRAHAM (Braitling): Madam Speaker, anything the minister can do to provide good services for mothers, babies and families is a good thing. I urge him to continue to go down that path to provide the services that are so badly needed.
One of the areas of concern that has been raised with me is the Nightcliff child health unit. Madam Speaker, I am sure you would agree with me. It is a small problem, minister, and you could fix it for the staff there. At the moment, that child health centre, as you know, is not fenced. On a regular basis, staff are required to pick up rubbish left behind by itinerants camping there. They have repeatedly asked for a fence. I do not think it would cost very much - $5000 or $10 000 - and you would have happy staff, and people saying: ‘Thank you very much for looking after us’. At the moment, it is the health, hygiene and safety of those staff who are expected to do that. I know they have asked and, so far, it has fallen on deaf ears.
I just put in a plug for the Nightcliff child health centre. It does a great job. It has good staff and many clients. It is one of those simple things that government can address to make the environment better for the staff there. I ask you to look at that.
Dr TOYNE (Health): Madam Speaker, first of all to the member for misinformation over there, the actual changes to the Palmerston clinic are that, in response to very strong bookings that were made under our appointments-based service there, we have now taken the service to Tuesdays drop-in, and the other three days of the week by appointment. The level of appointments made by mothers is retaining a very strong service through the four days. Let us get the facts straight here. I can say to the member that I was not in any way crowing about our child-maternal health. We have a lot of work to do - your words, not mine. I gave you a factual report and I would have expected that it was taken in that light.
To the member for Braitling, I will look into that. I was out at that facility and I know exactly the problem you are talking about. Maybe we can find some way through the community work parties, or some contracted arrangement. It is not too much to ask for the staff not to have to clean up their own grounds.
Mr HENDERSON (Business and Economic Development): Madam Speaker, I update the House on the progress of the government’s initiative that is building the Territory’s future by backing local business to grow - Local Industry Participation Plans or LIPPs. The government’s Building Northern Territory Industry Participation Strategy was introduced in 2003 to ensure competitive Territory businesses had the opportunity to participate in the future growth of our economy and build the Territory’s skills base. The strategy requires all Northern Territory government-assisted private sector projects that have an expected value in excess of $5m, and all Northern Territory government tendered projects and public private partnerships that have an expected value in excess of $5m, to submit a Local Industry Participation Plan outlining their commitment to using local business and local employees.
The Territory economy has gone ahead in leaps and bounds since 2003 with a number of major projects coming on line and driving economic growth. Officers from the Department of Business, Economic and Regional Development have assisted a range of projects on the development of their LIPPs, and worked closely with the Northern Territory Industry Capability Network to maximise the opportunity for local business. Local Industry Participation Plans for 22 projects have been endorsed, monitored and evaluated since 2003. As Business minister, I am pleased to say that government’s requirements for these plans have delivered real benefits for Territory business.
I highlight a few examples. The Bechtel Wickham Point LNG plant has forever changed the face of Territory industry and has had a major impact in building the Territory’s capabilities and skills base. More than 430 Territory businesses had secured a total of more than 8900 purchasing activities over the life of the project. Territory companies have been awarded 25 major subcontracts at the plant, and there will be future opportunities for local businesses as the project moves from construction to operation and ongoing maintenance and support.
Stage 1 of the construction of the low security prison facility at Berrimah has delivered significant opportunity for local business with Darwin contractor, Gratis Pty Ltd, engaging 17 local contractors and 12 Territory businesses for almost 100% or $7.87m worth of total construction work.
The Alcan G3 expansion project is now 70% complete and 19 months into its 27-month schedule. This is another major project, the industry participation plan of which is delivering significant benefit to local business. There are 1400 people currently employed on the site, with Territory companies already having secured more than $110m in work including $2m of work going to indigenous businesses in Nhulunbuy. As with the Wickham Point LNG plant, there will be ongoing opportunities for Territory business in the operation, ongoing maintenance and support of the site.
This work will continue as major projects continue to come on line. Indeed, ENI, the new owners of the Blacktip gas resource, have indicated their intentions to utilise much of the LIPP that Woodside had previously submitted to the Territory government for this project. About 100 business people attended an industry briefing held by ENI in conjunction with DBERD, the NTICN and the Chamber of Commerce on 6 April. ENI presented an overview of the project and encouraged local business and industry to register with the NTICN and become involved in the development of their project. DBERD is continuing to work closely with ENI and the NTICN to identify opportunities for local business on this project, and government expects to receive the official lodgement of ENI’s LIPP for review and endorsement in the near future.
The government is building the Territory’s future by backing Territory business and, through the requirement for Local Industry Participation Plans, will continue to work to see local companies benefit from the Territory’s strong economic growth.
Mr MILLS (Blain): Madam Speaker, I take this opportunity before I commence to say what a wonderful result it was for the AFL with the Dockers being awarded full points over St Kilda. Sweet justice.
The CLP would support such a plan; to engage the local industry is critical in every respect. I wonder if these plans are being developed, what incentives and recognitions are given as a result of drawing up this plan? Is it a plan that is given nodding assent, or is there some real incentive attached to local recruitment? I would like to know a little more about that. In taking on apprentices and procuring locally, what benefits are there directly and what direct incentive is there for industry to go down this path and draw up such plans? There is, perhaps, a difference, but it appears that both sides of the House are moving together on these points or endeavouring to occupy the same space.
We all recognise that we really want to gee up local participation and strengthen the domestic economy - it centres on energy, competitive price for energy, and also on aggressive payroll tax reform. The CLP has maintained a position on the need to be far more aggressive with payroll tax. That will unlock the real potential of industry to recruit locally and to strengthen investment in the Territory, and we would like to see that go much further. We have always held that position and we will maintain it.
Further than that, with rising fuel prices and interest rates, it is time to look quite seriously at stamp duty reform.
Mr HENDERSON (Business and Economic Development): Madam Speaker, it is a sad day for football that the game has been taken away from the umpires, and handed to the faceless men inside the AFL.
However, moving on to the other comments from the member for Blain, the incentives available to business really is that they win the contract. If they put a bid to government that has a very strong Local Industry Participation Plan that focuses on sourcing and supplies from the Territory, with a commitment to training and using subcontractors wherever possible, that gets evaluated as part of the tender process. Therefore, winning the contract is really the incentive for companies.
Regarding payroll tax reform, this government is very proud of the measures we have put in place and, in fact, there are 187 Territory businesses today not paying payroll tax that were paying payroll tax in 2001.
Ms SCRYMGOUR (Arts and Museums): Madam Speaker, much of the earlier part of this week has been concerned with the recovery of a number of our communities after the Katherine floods and Cyclone Monica. I am happy to report on the activities of a commercial operation at one of those communities, Maningrida, which is really blowing up a storm in the international art world, as well as earning export dollars for the Territory economy.
Maningrida Arts and Culture is the second oldest Aboriginal and craft centre in the Top End. It services over 350 artists in the region. The work of these artists is held in public and private collections all over the world. In March, Mr Garry Kennedy, Senior Trade Commissioner for the Australian Trade Commission, launched the first Aboriginal art exhibition in the Middle East which featured 35 master works from Maningrida. It was held at the La Fontaine Centre of Contemporary Arts in Bahrain. The Territory government, through the Department of Chief Minister’s Trade Support Scheme, funded 50% of the cost for representatives from Maningrida to travel to Bahrain and hold the exhibition. It was a substantial success. The King and Queen of Bahrain requested a private previewing of the exhibition and purchased five works, and most of the show sold to other collectors from all over the Middle East.
Accompanying the exhibition entitled Identity and Country was Maningrida artist Samuel Namunjdja, who created a work that was auctioned to support the Barakat Trust. This support was a wonderful gesture of world cultural exchange, as the Barakat Trust is dedicated to raising funds for the study and research of the material and visual cultures of Islamic society. This assistance is granted to enable scholars to continue to add to the body of Islamic scholarship while enhancing the possibilities of cross-cultural understanding and tolerance. It is hoped, as a result of Maningrida’s first involvement in the Middle East, Middle Eastern buyers will accompany European art collectors on the third inbound buyers/collectors mission to the Northern Territory this year.
Maningrida Arts and Culture is also involved in the work of the world-famous bark painter John Mawurndjul. He is making a major contribution to the public art that is being incorporated in the Quai Branly Museum nearing completion near the banks of the River Seine in Paris, just a stone’s throw from the Eiffel Tower. Along with other contemporary Aboriginal artists from around Australia including Gulumbu Yunupingu from Buku-Larrngay Arts at Yirrkala, Mawurndjul is making a permanent artistic contribution to the building of what is destined to be the world’s most important museum of Africa, Asian, Oceania and Americas. Mawurndjul’s work comprises a ceiling mural as well as a 5 metre lorrkon or hollow log. Gulumbu’s work is a ceiling and wall mural. Anyone who saw the moving interview with Gulumbu on Stateline a couple of months ago will know what a wonderful person she is, and will share in my huge admiration for her work.
Of course, Mawurndjul must be regarded as one of the most important Australian artists alive today. In September last year, there was a major retrospective of his work across some 30 years at the Tinguely Museum in Basel in Switzerland - the first such international recognition for an Aboriginal artist. To give you some idea of the high esteem his work enjoys on the international scene is that, at the same time in Basel - known as the city of museums - there were also retrospectives of the work of the 20th century Belgian surrealist, Ren Magritte, and Dutch-American abstract expressionist, Willem de Kooning. Not bad company for a bloke born in the middle of Arnhem Land!
Both are great Territory artists who will, amongst other things, create a permanent reminder of the importance of Aboriginal art to the rest of the world.
It is anticipated that commercial exhibitions of contemporary art from aboriginal artists from the Territory will coincide with the opening of the Quai Branly Museum in June.
This year’s Budget 2006-07 sees a continuation of the Territory government’s indigenous art strategy at $1.1m. The export of indigenous art, especially from art centres such as Maningrida Arts and Culture, is seen as a key component of developing such an important part of the Territory’s economy.
Mr MILLS (Blain): Madam Speaker, yes, it is a very important part of the Territory economy, but more so, it is very important to provide a genuine path of meaningful aspirations for the indigenous community. To have that recognition globally is just wonderful. It requires, therefore, a response to ensure that we respond to the issues of counterfeit and the art authentication programs that have been talked about, highlighted in The Weekend Australian about a month or so ago.
I am aware that the minister has had a briefing - at least one and probably more. The opposition gets briefings, but I am sure that they target the ministers more than the opposition on matters like this. I would like a report on how matters related to art authentication are going. There are some quite innovative projects which have been proposed, some of them from the Territory. Rather than wait for the federal government to respond and then for us to come in behind, there is an opportunity for the Territory to provide leadership here. If we recognise that this is the place where art is produced, we can provide that quality leadership. We do not have to wait for people.
The other thing is that I was in Indonesia only last week. I went through an arts warehouse, which was jam packed with craft from all over the archipelago. There was a section of artefacts painted in dot design, clearly copied from nowhere else other than from designs from Central Australia. I did not have my camera with me, nor did I buy any, but there is a reminder that we really have to attend to this issue to provide that security of product, which will only further strengthen the value of indigenous art.
Mrs BRAHAM (Braitling): Madam Speaker, anything we can do to promote the art industry for Aboriginal people is a great thing. The recognition they are getting worldwide is quite thrilling, in fact. I cannot wait to see the exhibition by the Hermannsburg artists that is coming up. It is the traditional Namatjira-style art, which I really like. I know they have some exciting new young artists in this exhibition and I believe that style of art is something we can promote because it has been recognised for many years as being great art.
We also have the problem of the carpetbaggers in the Centre, in particular, artists booking up cars and then having to work their way out of that debt, or artists being somehow or other not given the value for the art. As the member for Blain said, we have to stop this part of the industry that is doing the wrong thing by the Aboriginal artists. I am not quite sure how you do that, but you need to get a message out to those Aboriginal artists: ‘Do not be conned. Do not allow yourself to be abused and misused in that way’. It is certainly happening. There are certain premises in Alice Springs we would be able to take you to, to show you where it is happening on a regular basis. It is part of the art industry that we are closing our eyes to at the moment. We really need to take a strong look at it and see if we can stop it happening.
Ms SCRYMGOUR (Arts and Museums): Madam Speaker, I thank the members for Blain and Braitling for their response. It is a major issue. Regarding leadership, the Chief Minister, the member for Macdonnell and I have already met with the peak organisations representing many of these art centres and artists - both Desart and ANKAAA - to look at how we can take the lead in addressing this vital issue. It is a critical issue and we should address it urgently and immediately. We are doing that, although we cannot push. We do need to get the support of the federal government because there are some implications. The federal government could come in partnership and show some leadership in terms of the Trade Practices Act and other things.
In Central Australia, the Central Land Council, with Desart, is showing some great leadership in trying to deal with those carpetbaggers, along with the ATO and other places. There is dialogue happening and leadership within government. We are very concerned, and are working closely with those peak organisations and art centres to deal with what is a vital issue for this industry.
Madam SPEAKER: Minister, your time has expired.
Ms LAWRIE (Family and Community Services): Madam Speaker, childcare is an issue right around Australia and the Territory is no exception. The Commonwealth government is responsible for the provision of affordable and accessible childcare. There has been a great deal of debate recently in relation to the problems the current system has, which includes criticism from within their own federal government ranks.
Howard government MP, Jackie Kelly, has led the charge owning up that the system is a ‘shambles’. In the Territory, we do what we can to alleviate the problem. The Martin government is the only jurisdiction at state or territory level to provide a childcare subsidy. Budget 2006-07 will commit more than $3m to directly subsidise the cost of childcare for Territory families.
The Howard government needs to listen to families that simply cannot get their children into childcare. There are thousands of Territory families who are in this predicament; it can be devastating. There are many of young families in the Territory who do not have much family support, living away from their extended families and, with no childcare available, it becomes a major burden financially and socially.
The Howard government has flagged the centrepiece of its upcoming budget next week will be to double the number of childcare places across Australia. It sounds promising, but there is no guarantee that this will help Territory families. We are especially concerned because the government has recently cut funding to centres in the Territory, including our family day care.
We are calling on Peter Costello to ensure that Northern Territory families get their fair share of the 50 000 places they are talking about creating. We desperately need them here because waiting lists are far too high right across the Territory. It is a problem in Darwin and Palmerston. It is not always possible to ascertain exactly how long waiting lists are, but it is estimated that currently more than 600 families in Palmerston are trying to find a childcare place and simply cannot. There are long waiting lists in Nhulunbuy where, despite repeated requests from both Alcan and the Northern Territory government, the Commonwealth refuses to listen.
Every time I go to Katherine, I hear from people about the lack of childcare places that are provided. It is not just a problem for families. Business ultimately suffers when potential employees are unable to find care for their children. Staggeringly, despite this problem, the Howard government has announced that it is going to cut funding to the Katherine East Child Care Centre by more than $100 000 a year. ‘That is no problem’, says the Howard government, ‘just put your fees up’. In Alice Springs, the waiting list is estimated to be around 340. The family day care centres in Alice Springs are also facing these federal government funding cuts.
The rural area has long waiting lists. The members for Daly and Goyder have been very active in their communities, listening to people in places like Berry Springs about their concerns about having no places available for kids. In Humpty Doo, the Commonwealth is also slashing their funding and the member for Goyder will tell you that families in Humpty Doo think very little about that. They are pleading with the Howard government to reverse their decision. Again, the only response from the Howard government has been: ‘Put your fees up’. We say to Peter Costello: ‘If you are going to double childcare places around Australia, you need to ensure that you double them here in the Territory’. We also call on the federal government to reverse its ludicrous decision of slashing funding to childcare centres and family day care across the Territory.
The federal government uses the excuse that childcare is up to private providers. Childcare is not a business; it is an essential community service. A business model simply does not work in the provision of childcare, especially in a place like the Territory where it is needed in regional and remote centres where businesses do not want to establish private childcare centres.
It is very simple. We are calling on the federal government to dedicate some of these 50 000 places they are saying they will create to areas of need. This need exists in regional and remote Territory, as well as our urban centres in the Territory. Sadly, the Northern Territory often misses out when it comes to childcare. Thousands of families across the Territory cannot find a place for their children and they just cannot afford to miss out any longer. Our families cannot afford a greater financial burden and impost from the Howard government in the answer of ‘put your fees up’.
Dr LIM (Greatorex): Madam Speaker, I strongly support the minister’s sentiments about the need for childcare across the Territory. It was that recognition that made the Country Liberal Party government fund the program, or to assist with the funding of childcare across the Territory. I am very glad to see that this government has recognised the value of that program and has continued to put money into childcare, making the Northern Territory the only jurisdiction across the country that assists families financially in regard to childcare.
Recently, you might recall that family day care services, in fact, criticised the minister for failing to assist them. She stands here today saying: ‘Yes, we fund childcare’. Family day care is also a form of childcare and they have every right to expect some assistance from this government. It is obvious from the minister’s comments that her lobbying of the Howard government has failed. I do not know why. She has been unable to get her statistics or her arguments across convincingly to the Howard government that, in the Northern Territory where we have many nuclear families without support of grandparents, aunts or other extended family, we do require the services of childcare. Whether they are private childcare services or government sponsored childcare services, we need more.
My wife worked as the director of the Alice Springs Child Care Centre for many years in the 1980s, so I understand the need for childcare services.
The first thing the minister needs to do is expand her funding to assist family day care, and continue to lobby the Howard government to ensure that the Territory gets more because of the many nuclear families that we have. If the minister needs my help, please ask.
Reports noted.
Bill presented and read a first time.
Mr STIRLING (Treasurer): Madam Speaker, I move that the bill be now read a second time.
The bill seeks to put in place a package of revenue measures announced as part of 2005-06 and 2006-07 budgets by proposing amendments to the Taxation (Administration) Act, the Stamp Duty Act, Pay-roll Tax Act, First Home Owner Grant Act and Mineral Royalty Act.
The key proposals involve increasing the payroll tax exemption threshold from $1m to $1.25m from 1 July 2006, abolishing stamp duty on unquoted marketable securities from 1 July 2006, and abolishing stamp duty on rent paid for the grant and renewal of leases and franchises from 1 July 2006. I will now address the changes proposed in the bill in more detail.
As part of the 2005-06 budget, this government announced an increase in the payroll tax exemption threshold from $1m to $1.25m. The bill honours this commitment. From 1 July 2006, the payroll tax exemption threshold will increase to $1.25m, the equal highest threshold in Australia. The estimated savings for taxpayers of this threshold increase is approximately $3.6m for the 2006-07 financial year.
As part of the Territory’s commitment to national tax reform, we propose to abolish the application of stamp duty on the transfer of shares and units of corporations and trusts, and securities that are not quoted on a recognised stock exchange. This change will take effect from 1 July 2006 and is expected to save taxpayers about $600 000 in 2006-07. However, as has occurred in other states that have abolished this duty, the land rich stamp duty provisions will continue to apply to certain transactions involving marketable securities.
Also as a part of tax reform, the proposed amendments abolish stamp duty on rent paid for the grant and renewal of leases and franchises, with effect from 1 July 2006. This abolition is expected to save taxpayers $1.4m in 2006-07. Notably, while stamp duty will be abolished on rent, it will continue to be payable at conveyance rates for certain lease and franchise transactions. These transactions include the conveyance of a lease or franchise and the grant of a lease where a premium or only nominal consideration is paid. The continued imposition of duty of conveyance rates for certain lease transactions is in line with the approach adopted by other states in their tax reform.
The bill also deals with three important transitional matters in relation to abolishing lease duty. Firstly, it is proposed that no stamp duty refund will be made available on the portion of any lease or franchise that extends beyond 1 July 2006, irrespective of when the lease or franchise was entered into. This treatment recognises the administrative cost and complexity for both taxpayers and the government of making these refunds, and is consistent with other states that have already abolished lease duty. Accordingly, the changes proposed by the bill do not allow for such refund claims.
Second, it is proposed that measures will be put in place to protect the revenue base by preventing the refund of duty on the cancellation of leases executed prior to 1 July 2006, where the lessee or an associate of the lessee continues to remain in control of a substantial part of the leased premises after the lease is cancelled. These measures are needed to prevent the use of contrived arrangements to obtain a refund of stamp duty.
Last, from 1 July 2006, lessees will no longer be required to resubmit their lease for reassessment of stamp duty where the rent actually paid under the lease differs from that on which stamp duty has been paid. However, if a lessee has overpaid stamp duty in respect of a lease such as the estimated rent on which stamp duty has been assessed is greater than the rent actually paid, the lessee will still be able to seek a refund of the stamp duty overpaid.
Greater detail of these changes and of all of the changes proposed in the bill is set out in the explanatory statement accompanying the bill.
I turn now to the other measures contained in the bill which, unless otherwise indicated, are all proposed to commence from 1 July 2006.
The First Home Owner Grant, Stamp Duty First Home Owner Concession and Stamp Duty Principal Place of Residence Rebate together provide significant assistance to Territorians wanting to buy their own home. However, two technical shortcomings of the legislation supporting these schemes have been identified, and it is proposed to rectify these. The first of these shortcomings enables some home buyers to obtain both the Stamp Duty First Homeowner Concession and Stamp Duty Principal Place of Residence Rebate at different times for the same home. This is not how the legislation is intended to operate, so the bill proposes to close this deficiency by amending the Stamp Duty Act with effect from the date the changes were announced, being 2 May 2006. The second shortcoming makes it technically possible for a person who already has a part-interest in a home to qualify for the First Home Owner Grant on the purchase of the remaining interest in their home. Again, this is an unintended outcome, and the bill proposes to close this loophole by amending the First Home Owner Grant Act with effect from 2 May 2006.
As you may be aware, the First Home Owner Grant Scheme and the Stamp Duty First Home Owner Concession have very similar eligibility criteria and are administered in tandem by the Commissioner of Taxation. In order to improve the consistency of the administration of these schemes, the bill proposes three changes to these schemes in order to more closely align their administration and provide even more consistent outcomes. The bill proposes to extend the First Home Owner Grant objection and appeal period from 30 days after an applicant is notified of the commissioner’s decision to 60 days after the decision is made. Further, it proposes to allow First Home Owner Grant applicants to appeal to the Taxation and Royalty Appeals Tribunal rather than to the local court. The effect of these changes is to align the objection and appeal rights of the First Home Owner Grant with those of the Stamp Duty First Home Owner Concession, and will allow an appeal in relation to both of these schemes to be heard at the same time.
Second, the bill proposes to amend the First Home Owner Grant Act to clarify that a person is not excused from providing self-incriminating information under the First Home Owner Grant Act. The bill also proposes that such information can only be used for prosecutions and appeals under that act and the Taxation Administration Act, and not under any other act. This treatment is consistent with the rules that apply to applicants for the Stamp Duty First Home Owner Concession, and the Stamp Duty Principal Place of Residence Rebate.
Third, the bill proposes to allow the Commissioner of Taxation to communicate information gathered under the First Home Owner Grant Act to certain Australian government agencies. This provides for better administration of the First Home Owner Grant and is consistent with the commissioner’s existing ability to communicate with interstate administrators of corresponding first home owner grant legislation and to communicate information obtained under the Territory’s taxation legislation.
The bill also proposes four other changes to the Territory’s First Home Owner Grant Scheme and Stamp Duty Home Ownership Concessions. The first of these proposes to extend the period in which an ineligible First Home Owner Grant recipient is required to repay the grant from 14 days from receiving a payment notice to 30 days after a payment notice is issued. There is no corresponding change to the stamp duty concessions.
The second proposed change will preserve a person’s entitlement to the First Home Owner Grant and the Stamp Duty First Home Owner Concession if they have been ruled ineligible for this assistance only because they were under 18 years of age. Accordingly, it is proposed that both the grant and the concession will be available on the purchase of the subsequent home, so long as they meet all of the other eligibility criteria.
The third change proposed by the bill is to make the commencement date of an eligible transaction, such as a contract to buy a home, the time at which a first home owner grant applicant’s eligibility is tested. A similar change is proposed for the Stamp Duty First Home Owner Concession, where eligibility is to be tested at the date on which the instrument effecting the conveyance is executed. The bill proposes that there will be an exception to this rule for the criteria that requires an applicant to be an Australian citizen or permanent resident and, in this case, an applicant’s citizenship or residency status is to be assessed at the date of application, which may be made up to 12 months after an eligible transaction is completed.
Fourth, the bill proposes to align the Commissioner of Taxation’s discretion to extend the period in which an applicant for the First Home Owner Grant, the Stamp Duty First Home Owner Concession or the Stamp Duty Principal Place of Residence Rebate must commence occupancy of their home with the commissioner’s discretion to reduce the period for which an applicant must reside in the home. This is a technical change that specifies that the discretion to extend the occupancy period will only be available where special reasons for doing so exist.
Again, greater detail of these changes is set out in the explanatory statement which accompanies the bill.
In addition to the increase in the payroll tax exemption threshold, the bill also proposes to amend the Pay-roll Tax Act to ensure that indirect payments made to company directors and other members of the governing body of a company are subject to payroll tax. This change will make the treatment of such payments the same as that for indirect payments made to an employee.
The bill also proposes a number of changes to the Territory’s land rich stamp duty provisions. As some members may be aware, the land rich stamp duty provisions were first introduced into legislation in 1988. The provisions were introduced to deal with techniques that had developed at the time to avoid payment of conveyance duty on acquisitions of interest in real estate. Instead of transferring land title from owner to owner, the land was acquired by a corporation or trust set up primarily to hold the land, and the shares in the corporation or units in the trust were transferred. The owners of the corporation or unit holders in the trust achieved the same ability to control the use of the land as they would have if they had purchased the land directly. However, by transferring interests in land indirectly through the transfer of shares or trust units, duty was reduced from up to 5.4% to only 0.6%.
Changing business practices have resulted in the increased use of indirect holdings in land becoming a recognised method of investment in real estate rather than direct holdings. In addition, many large investors have become more sophisticated and deals more complex such that, across Australia, the land rich provisions are unable to apply to an increasing number of cases, leading to inequitable outcomes for similar transactions. In recent years, direct ownership of large commercial properties by only one entity has become less common. The values of the deals are large and investors are more aware of the need to diversify their risk. In this environment, unit trusts have emerged interstate as the preferred investment vehicle for indirect investment in such real estate. They enable a number of investors to pool their resources and share the benefits of high value properties without attracting stamp duty.
Unit trusts are also more flexible than corporations, as there is no fixed number of units, so unit investors can be more easily accommodated. In response to these concerns and to pressure from the Commonwealth Grants Commission, New South Wales and Victoria have amended their stamp duty land rich provisions to bring their treatment of unit trusts more into line with that already applying in Queensland, Western Australia and South Australia. In addition, in December 2005, the Australian Capital Territory released a discussion paper proposing a number of changes to that territory’s land rich stamp duty provisions to bring them broadly into line with the changes recently introduced in both New South Wales and Victoria.
On consideration of these actual and proposed changes, as well as of the provisions operating in other states, this government proposes six changes to the Northern Territory’s land rich stamp duty provisions. These changes are proposed to more closely align the Territory’s land rich stamp duty provisions with those that apply in New South Wales and Victoria. All of these changes are contained in the bill and I will now outline them.
First, the bill proposes that the provisions apply to acquisitions of interest in unit trusts of 20% or greater. This is a change from the current rules which only apply where interests of 50% or greater are acquired.
Second, the bill proposes to extend the range of unit trusts to which the land rich stamp duty provisions will apply. These changes redefine what is considered to be a private unit trust that falls within the provisions. The proposed changes are very similar to those introduced in Victoria and New South Wales. However, unlike the changes introduced in those states, it is not intended to introduce the concept of a wholesale unit trust scheme as these trusts do not appear to have significant interests in the Territory. A wholesale unit trust scheme is a trust used by certain types of large institutional investors and governments. In the event that such trusts do start to invest heavily in the Territory at some time in the future, then it may be appropriate to review their stamp duty treatment at that time.
Third, the bill proposes to change the way that a corporation or a trust’s holdings in other entities are dealt with. The land rich stamp duty provisions currently allow a land holding to be traced through subsidiaries. The manner in which these provisions operate has been exploited both in the Territory and elsewhere to avoid stamp duty. Accordingly, the bill proposes to tighten the tracing rules by allowing tracing through other entities down to a 20% interest. Further, the bill proposes that, unlike the current provisions, where a corporation or unit trust will be treated as owning the whole of the land of the subsidiary, under the new rules the corporation or unit trust will be treated as being entitled to only that proportion of a subsidiary’s property that they would receive on the winding-up of the subsidiary. This outcome is fairer than presently occurs as it more accurately reflects a corporation’s or trust’s interest in the land of other entities.
Fourth, the bill proposes a change to the land rich stamp duty provisions to prevent the avoidance of duty by listing a corporation or unit trust on a recognised financial market such as the Australian Stock Exchange. This change is similar to that undertaken by a number of other states.
Fifth, the bill proposes to align the time in which a land rich stamp duty statement is required to be lodged and any stamp duty paid with existing 60 day period that applies for other stamp duty conveyance documents. At present, a land rich stamp duty statement needs to be lodged within three months of the relevant acquisition, and duty does not need to be paid until 30 days after the assessment is issued. As a consequence of recent changes to the land rich stamp duty provisions that have made their operation clearer and more transparent, the generous three-month and 30-day periods are no longer considered necessary.
Last, the bill proposes to clarify the scope and the extension of the stamp duty land rich provisions so that it more consistently applies in circumstances where a direct conveyance of land would be exempt from duty under a law of the Territory, or where the conveyance would have been between parties to a marriage, the conveyance would have been exempt under the Australian government’s Family Law Act.
As would be expected, the bill proposes appropriate transitional provisions in relation to land rich stamp duty provisions in order to ensure that there are no unintended outcomes under the proposed changes.
I now turn to seven minor changes proposed for the Territory stamp duty legislation. I will endeavour to cover them briefly.
First, the bill proposes to introduce an exemption from stamp duty on a motor vehicle certificate of registration that has been completed solely to correct an error on the issue or transfer of another vehicle certificate or registration.
Second, the bill proposes to remove doubt on how part interests in property are to be valued for stamp duty purposes. The bill proposes to endorse the current practice by providing that the unencumbered value of the whole property will be determined and then apportioned according to the interest that is being conveyed.
Third, the bill proposes to clarify that a surrender of dutiable property, and similar transactions that have the effect of the surrender, are considered to be a conveyance for stamp duty purposes. This amendment is necessary following the 2004 decision of the Supreme Court of Queensland. Prior to that decision, it was considered that the definition of conveyance in the stamp duty legislation included a surrender.
Fourth, the bill proposes to abolish the use of adhesive duty stamps. These stamps have historically been used to satisfy some stamp duty liabilities, but are now less relevant as they can only be used in very limited circumstances. The usage of similar stamps has already ceased in New South Wales, Western Australia, Queensland and the Australian Capital Territory. It is also proposed to provide a refund to the taxpayer who has unused duty stamps, as long as they apply for a refund before 1 July 2007.
Fifth, the bill addresses a technical deficiency in the current legislation that may not permit stamp duty to be recovered on the sub-sale of conveyance of property once duty has been refunded or remitted on a transaction that does not proceed, even though the property is subsequently sold. Under this proposal it will be possible to reinstate an assessment irrespective of when the refund or remission of stamp duty occurred.
Sixth, the bill proposes to make it clear that tax and stamp duty assessments and decisions are not susceptible to court challenges where the relevant legislation already provides an objection and appeal process. This amendment has been made in response to recent court action undertaken through the Supreme Court of Queensland that was initiated at the same time as the objection being lodged under the stamp duty law for the same matter.
Last, the bill proposes to remove a prohibition under the stamp duty legislation against recovering penalties that have been imposed on a person by the Commissioner of Taxation, where a person is also prosecuted under that legislation. It is proposed that this change will apply to any prosecutions commenced from 1 July 2006, irrespective of when an offence is committed. This treatment recognises that an offence may have been committed prior to 1 July 2006, but was not identified until after that date or that prosecution action was not commenced until after that date.
Further, as a consequence of this, the offence provision relating to evasion and providing false and misleading information are to be amended so that the court will no longer be able to impose a penalty amount that is based on the amount of tax or duty evaded or attempted to be evaded. However, the court will still be able to impose directives of penalty generally applied for this type of offence. This change is made in recognition that such penalty should be imposed by the commissioner and that it would be unfair for both the commissioner and the court to impose the penalty in relation to the same subject matter.
I turn now to the final measure proposed by the bill which relates to the Mineral Royalty Act. The bill proposes changes to that act to allow for the alignment of the statutory position of the secretary under the Mineral Royalty Act with that of the Commissioner of Taxation such that the commissioner will also become the mineral royalty secretary.
Madam Speaker, I commend the bill to honourable members.
Debate adjourned.
Bill presented and read a first time.
Dr TOYNE (Justice and Attorney-General): Madam Speaker, I move that the bill be now read a second time.
The purpose of this bill is to remove provisions from the Supreme Court (Judges Pensions) Act which disentitle a judge’s surviving partner from receiving a pension on either remarriage or entering into a de facto relationship. The bill also makes similar amendments to the Administrators Pensions Act as the pension scheme under that act is structured similarly.
The pension scheme under Supreme Court (Judges Pensions) Act is a defined benefit scheme which provides that, after 10 years of service, a judge is entitled to a lifetime pension equal to 60% of their base salary. When a judge dies, the surviving partner, including a de facto spouse, is entitled to a reversionary pension equal to just over 60% of the judge’s pension. Currently, the act provides that if a surviving partner of a deceased judge later remarries or enters into a de facto relationship, he or she will lose their pension entitlement.
These provisions, related to the payment of a pension to a judge’s surviving partner, maintain an unacceptably old-fashion, sexually-discriminatory view of matrimonial relationships and the role of judges’ pensions. The provisions of the act, as originally drafted, clearly envisage that judges would only be male - for example, references throughout the legislation were made to widows of judges and not to widowers – and, until an amendment was made in 1998 to remove gender-specific language, the act repeatedly referred to judges as ‘he’. The idea that a pension otherwise payable to a widow would cease upon her remarriage is founded on the position that she would then become dependant upon some other male person for her income and no longer be in need of a pension.
The reforms made by the Law Reform (Gender, Sexuality and De Facto Relationships) Act 2003 equalised the rights and responsibilities of persons in de facto relationships with those of persons legally married. This was important, overdue legislation but, in relation to the Supreme Court (Judges Pensions) Act, it had the unfortunate effect of disentitling a surviving partner if they entered into a de facto relationship, including a same-sex relationship. Prior to the amendments, their entitlements would only have been affected if they had remarried. This amendment equalised the position in relation to both married and de facto persons, but did not address the old-fashioned and potentially discriminatory notion that a surviving spouse who entered into a new relationship automatically became dependent on their new partner.
A surviving partner’s entitlement under their deceased partner’s superannuation arrangements generally does not cease when the surviving partner later enters into a new relationship. The new relationship does not impact on the beneficiaries’ or partners’ entitlements. The current provisions of the act in relation to disentitlement of surviving partners is inconsistent with the way in which judge’s pensions have been treated as superannuation for other purposes. For example, judge’s pensions have been treated in the same manner as other superannuation entitlements in relation to the Commonwealth superannuation contributions surcharge tax.
In 2003, the act was also amended so that the provisions of the Commonwealth Family Law Act 1975 can be applied to split the interest in the pension between a judge and his and her spouse upon a property settlement on divorce or separation. The spouse then has a superannuation interest which they hold in their own name. The most comparable superannuation scheme to a pension under the act is the Commonwealth Superannuation Scheme which many long-term Northern Territory public servants are still eligible to receive. Although it is not a judicial scheme, it still operates in much the same manner with retired public servants being entitled to an ongoing pension that is dependant on their salary and time served. Unlike the Judges Pension Scheme as it currently stands, the reversionary benefit in the CSS does not cease if the deceased public servant’s partner enters into a new relationship. The current situation is also out of step with the position in most other Australian jurisdictions, where surviving spouses’ entitlements are not affected by the domestic situation.
The bill addresses all of these inconsistencies and brings the Judges Pension Scheme into line with the rest of Australia. Specifically, the bill omits section 5(2) and section 6(2) of the Supreme Court (Judges Pensions) Act which currently provide for the pension to cease if a surviving partner of a deceased judge who is in receipt of the pension enters into a further relationship. Clause 6 of the bill inserts a new section 18 which provides that the amendments made by this bill apply to all past, present and future judges. One of the effects of this transitional provision is that, if any surviving partners of a deceased judge who are currently receiving a pension subsequently enter into a new relationship, they will still be entitled to receive their pension even though the judge died prior to these amendments commencing. However, the new section 18(2) also makes it clear that the amendments will not entitle the surviving partner to any back pay of their pension. This will apply to surviving partners of deceased judges who are currently not receiving their pensioner entitlements because they have entered into a new relationship. These surviving partners will not be able to receive back pay for the pension they stopped receiving after they entered into the new relationship, but before these amendments commenced. However, as already mentioned, they will be entitled to begin receiving the pension as at the date these amendments commenced.
As I also noted earlier, the bill makes similar amendments to the Administrators Pensions Act. The scheme under this act was recently closed to future administrators, although it still applies to past administrators and the current administrator. Accordingly, the new section 11 of the Administrators Pensions Act will provide that amendments in this bill will also only apply to past administrators and the current administrator and their partners and families. As with judge’s pensions, the amendments make it clear that they do not create an entitlement to back pay of any pension.
This bill, while only directly affecting a small number of public and judicial officials, nevertheless demonstrates the Territory government’s commitment to removing sexually discriminatory legislation and replacing it with laws that treat men and women equally.
Madam Speaker, I commend the bill to honourable members and table a copy of the explanatory statement.
Debate adjourned.
Bill presented and read a first time.
Dr TOYNE (Justice and Attorney-General): Madam Speaker, I move that the bill be now read a second time.
The purpose of this bill, which will commence on 1 July 2006, is to create certainty in the Information Act when the two sunset clauses of the act cease to operate. It also demonstrates the government’s strong commitment to accountability and transparency. Currently, section 9 of the act provides that if there is an inconsistency between the Information Act and another act, the Information Act does not apply. This bill provides that the Information Act will prevail to the extent to which it is inconsistent with another law of the Territory, whether that law is made before or after 1 July 2006. The bill also extends the protection provided in section 48 of the act to those secrecy provisions which are listed in schedule 1 of the act.
All agencies have had the opportunity to examine the legislation for which they have responsibility, and have considered those provisions which were inconsistent with the Information Act and those which made it an offence to release information. Most of the inconsistencies were created by secrecy provisions. This bill does not make any changes to those secrecy provisions. Those provisions are designed to prevent individual public servants from unofficially disclosing information. Those offences remain unchanged.
A panel, comprising the Information Commissioner, a senior policy lawyer from the Department of the Chief Minister, and one from the Department of Justice considered each of the secrecy provisions identified by agencies as being inconsistent with section 9, or meriting continued protection under section 48 of the act. The panel concluded that, in the majority of cases, the existing exemption provisions were adequate to protect the information covered by the secrecy provisions. It is, therefore, concluded that no additional protection was needed.
Exemptions frequently cited were that the information may be refused if its disclosure would be an unreasonable interference with a person’s privacy, if it would prejudice the maintenance of law and order, or if it revealed a confidential source. There were, however, a number of provisions which the panel concluded should have additional protection over and above that provided by the current exemption provisions of the act. Those provisions will have continued protection under section 48 of the act. They are listed in Schedule 1 and include, for example, releasing information about the identity of partners to an adoption, which might identify how an identified voter had voted, or which might identify a person protected under the Witness Protection Scheme.
The bill also provides that information is exempt under section 44 of the act if it is obtained or created in the course of an investigation, audit or inquiry taken by the Ombudsman, the Health and Community Services Complaints Commissioner, the Auditor-General, a board or commissioner appointed under the Inquiries Act, or a commissioner within the meaning of the Local Government Act. This clause recognises the special nature of the work being undertaken by these accountability bodies, which already provide a considerable amount of information to the community and are accountable through direct parliamentary scrutiny. The panel considered that commissioners should also be provided with additional protection as a consequence of their judicial and quasi-judicial functions, although their decision-making functions are, arguably, already excluded from the act.
While examining the secrecy provisions in the Territory legislation, it also came to light that naturally occurring features such as the location of meteorites were not adequately protected from disclosure. Meteorites are extremely rare and are of great scientific value. As a result of their rarity, they have considerable commercial value and there is a well-established global trade in them. A major fall might result in thousands of fragments scattered over a large geographic area. It is essential that these fragments are adequately protected until scientists are able to properly record and conduct appropriate tests on them. Section 4(1) of the Meteorites Act which is currently relied on to protect this type of information is not a secrecy provision within the terms of section 48 of the act. It is not, therefore, possible to list that section of the Meteorites Act in Schedule 1. Instead, this bill inserts an amendment into section 54 of the act to protect a place of scientific, cultural or historic significance.
Madam Speaker, I commend the bill to honourable members and table a copy of the explanatory statement.
Debate adjourned.
Continued from 3 May 2006.
Mr VATSKALIS (Mines and Energy): Madam Speaker, I heard earlier this week the Treasurer outlining his 2006-07 budget. He said that this budget is a budget for jobs, growing the economic base of the Northern Territory, and a stronger and better Territory. It is true that, in the past five years, we have budget after budget to create jobs and to make the Territory bigger and stronger.
I remember with horror the last CLP budget before we first won government in 2001. I recall I was then the Minister for Transport and Works, and the budget for period contracts that was left by the CLP was $6m. That money was spent by October 2001 and I had $150 000 left for the rest of the year. Nobody could do anything because there was no money to be paid. We had to pull money from other areas to put in $10m in order for period contracts to be maintained; for the potholes in the Stuart Highway to be filled and for the grass on the verges of the roads to be mowed.
I was listening this morning to the member for Blain saying that we have to attract more people to the Territory to create jobs, and that we need cheaper energy. I ask the member for Blain why he was not screaming about cheaper energy when the CLP was in power. At that time, the CLP was trying to block NT Power, Paul Everingham’s company, from having access to their network. We finished with a court case that is going to cost us another CLP miracle; it is going to cost the taxpayers $13m compensation to Paul Everingham, ex-CLP Chief Minister, NT Power. That is another miracle on top of the Mt Todd miracle. However, I will not continue criticising the CLP. People in the Territory know very well the CLP record and voted accordingly in 2001 and again in 2005.
Following the 2005 election, the Department of Primary Industry, Fisheries and Mines became a new entity. The separation of Primary Industry, Fisheries and Mines from the former Department of Business, Industry and Resource Development recognises the importance to the Territory of our primary industries, fisheries and mines. In fact, the combined value of our rural and fishing sectors exceeds $0.5bn a year, accounting for nearly 3% of the gross state product. Add to this the impressive figure of the mining sector - grossing $2.3bn or 20% of the GSP annually - it is clear that my portfolio is well placed to deliver jobs, growth and a stronger and better Territory.
There is a worldwide commodities boom under way, with China leading demand for minerals of all descriptions. Benefits are flowing to the Territory, not just because of international demand, but due to the aggressive and strategic manner in which we have been targeting and marketing the Territory to exploration and mining companies.
Building the Territory’s Resources Base is a key initiative designed to encourage greater exploration expenditure in the Territory. Budget 2006-07 includes a further investment of $3.8m as part of our overall investment of $15.2m over four years. It is an integral part of the successful policy approach adopted by the Martin government over the last five years to invest in strategic economic drivers.
Under this program, the road show campaign called the Top End Secret has been developed and, since March 2005, promoted exploration in the Territory, Australia and overseas to over 15 000 decision-makers and investors. With the assistance of industry supporters and strategic partners, the Top End Secret team has achieved an increased take up rate of geoscience data of 250% since the last half of 2005, an 85% increase in new mineral exploration licence applications from 2004 to 2005, and a doubling of granted exploration licences to almost 800 in the last five years - the highest level since 1994.
Top End Secret has achieved much more, with the real measure of success being the fact that mineral exploration expenditure in the Territory is up 38% from 2004. It currently stands at $68.6m per year. I am pleased to confirm that, on the basis of this success, Top End Secret Mark 2 will be launched at the Association of Mining Exploration Companies’ National Congress in Perth in early June.
Our success extends to dealing with the disaster of Mt Todd, which we inherited from the previous government. We have spent $4m on remedial work at Mt Todd in 2005-06 and will spend a further $1m in 2006-07. This commitment has ensured that, despite this wetter than usual Wet Season, the off-site environmental impacts have been well managed and the good health of the surrounding river system has been maintained.
We have, moreover, achieved an excellent result for the Territory with Vista Gold purchasing the Mt Todd mineral tenements. Vista Gold has entered an agreement with government to manage and explore the site for five years, at which point it will produce a technical and economic feasibility study of Mt Todd’s mineral potential. The cost to the government for the ongoing environmental management at Mt Todd this financial year was $374 000. Under the agreement with Vista Gold, we will continue to manage this site until the end of 2006 with Vista Gold reimbursing up to $375 000. Vista Gold will, thereafter, take over both the management and financial responsibility for the site. Should Vista eventually achieve approval to recommence mining, it will assume full responsibility for all the rehabilitation on Mt Todd. No matter which way you look at it, this is an excellent outcome for the Territory, both financially and in regional development.
All of this good news is no accident; it comes as a result of some planning. The Territory has vast tracts of under-explored land and, as I mentioned earlier, supporting and growing exploration business is one of our main aims.
Underpinning the Top End Secret and all our other efforts is our world-class Northern Territory Geological Survey. $6.9m is available in Budget 2006-07 to provide high-quality geological information to industry to promote and enhance mineral and petroleum exploration. The Geological Survey is committing $400 000 to a helicopter-supported gravity survey over 14 000 km in the Jervois region north-east of Alice Springs. This survey is designed to assist explorers in their search for new lead-zinc and nickel deposits. Over $105 000 has been committed for the development of a three-dimensional geological model of the McArthur Basin and $650 000 is going towards drilling two stratigraphic holes to a depth of 1.85 km in the Amadeus Basin to provide new insights into petroleum systems in that region. Major prospectivity enhancement studies are under way in western Pine Creek and the eastern Arunta regions at a cost of over $200 000 to provide better information into the prospectivity of these areas
All of these efforts to attract new exploration and to provide world-class information to assist decision-makers are backed by streamlined and a more efficient Titles Division which is setting records processing licences and awarding titles. As of April 2006, 747 exploration licences were granted in the Northern Territory - a marked increase over the 436 licences granted in 2002. Minerals and Energy is attracting more activity in the Territory and assisting companies to achieve licences in record numbers.
However, the story does not finish there. The Compliance Division of the department is ensuring that the industry is a safer and more environmentally friendly place to work. $3.8m will be available for compliance with legislation in the mining, energy and exploration industries and the implementation for best practice mining, safety and environmental management. Major initiatives include further oversight of the development of the G3 expansion in Gove, the construction and commencement of the Bootu Creek operation, and the recommissioning of the Tom’s Gully Mine.
It is anticipated that there will be around 45 major facility operational site audits completed, ensuring that the companies comply with the terms and conditions of the Mining Management Act and, thus, that sites are safer for workers. The Compliance Division will also, within its budget allocation, regulate the development of the Letheridge Bay and Andranangoo mineral sands operations, the development of Frances Creek iron ore project, Brock’s Creek recommissioning, Union Reef’s process plant recommissioning, the Peko tailings project start-up, Compass’s Batchelor oxide project development, and the completion of the Alcan G3 expansion project.
In July 2005, we also established the position of chief investigator to look into complaints and incidents across all sectors dealt with by my department. In the past, mining investigators were located within the Minerals and Energy Division. Now, however, the position of chief investigator sits outside the divisions and covers primary industries and fisheries as well as minerals and energy. This independence, and the fact that he reports directly to the chief executive, ensures an independent, transparent investigating system.
The chief inspector is working to establish greater cross-agency involvement and is forging alliances with offices such as the Ombudsman NT WorkSafe, the Health department, and the Minerals Council to ensure prompt, efficient investigations. This new system ensures the accountability and transparency of investigations, and a greater degree of industry confidence and participation. All these factors demonstrate that the Minerals and Energy Division of the Department of Primary Industry, Fisheries and Mines is a major contributor to the prosperity of the Territory, and that it is doing so within budget.
The Fisheries Division is recognised as one of the leading aquatic resources management and research agencies in Australia. I am proud to say that approximately $1.4m has been allocated to ensure the continuation of our world-class activities in this areas. One of the key issues to address in the coming years is the buy-back of inshore netting licences across the Territory, with more than $1m allocated over the next three years.
We plan to remove coastal net fishing from selected high impact areas across the Territory, starting with Darwin Harbour and Shoal Bay. This initiative will reduce competition between the commercial sector, recreational fishers, and fishing tour operators. This outcome will contribute towards increasing the profile of the Territory recreational fishing industry.
Budget 2006-07 will also allow the continuation and enhancement of the world-first Genetag project, with $161 000 allocated into the innovative program. $96 000 has been earmarked for the monitoring of the Northern Territory mud crab fishery to assess any changes arising from the implementation of the new mud crab fishery management plan. Funding has also been allocated for the development of a monitoring protocol for the Northern Territory’s valuable shark fishery. In addition, Fisheries will also develop a strategic framework to monitor the harvest across all of the Territory’s major fisheries.
The future of the Darwin Aquaculture Centre has been assured, allowing the highly-respected research facility to continue its groundbreaking work in developing aquaculture techniques for the commercial farming of barramundi, prawns, trepang, mud crabs and sponges. The Darwin Aquaculture Centre’s barramundi fingerling breeding program is one of the Territory’s success stories, and further funding will allow important research to be undertaken into common diseases like Nodavirus, a virus that can affect farm fish across the globe.
This budget will ensure that the Territory retains its place at the top of the recreational fishing ladder, with $0.5m committed to improving recreational fishing infrastructure. When talking about recreational fishing in the Territory, the iconic barramundi immediately leaps to mind. To ensure the barramundi retains its well-deserved status as both a highly-valued recreational and commercial species, we will continue to work on developing a five-year strategic plan and 10-year vision for the barramundi fishery, to provide greater certainty to all stakeholders.
In this budget, the highly successful programs already under way, such as the piloting of aquaculture ventures in the communities of Maningrida and Kulaluk, will continue to be supported, as will the innovative Indigenous Marine and Sea Ranger program.
There are 14 Indigenous Marine and Sea Ranger groups operating in the Territory. All but two of these, the Tiwi rangers and Anindilyakwa sea rangers, operate under the auspices of the Northern Land Council’s Caring for Country program, with DPIFM sponsoring six of these groups. Ongoing support for these groups is vital, especially as there is an increased risk posed to our fishery resources and biosecurity through increasing incursions of foreign fishing vessels. Overall sightings increased by 35% to more than 13 000, and very few are apprehended. This is why this parliament called on the Prime Minister to convene a national forum to develop a cooperative approach, fund an expansion of the marine ranger program, and commit to stemming the influx of foreign fishing vessels.
Indigenous marine rangers can provide us with early warning information and, because they know their section of coastline better than anyone, they are in the best position to spearhead our campaign against illegal fishing. My views on their potential role in this fight are well known, and I promise that as well as continuing funding, I will continue to push for greater cooperation from most stakeholders and governments involved.
One of the keys to ensuring the Territory’s valuable aquatic resources continue to be managed and developed in a sustainable manner is to provide a sound legislative basis upon which management decisions can be made. Early this year, we commenced a review of the Fisheries Act, which represents cornerstone legislation underpinning our current management practices. In this budget, we will continue to progress the review and, where possible, seek to balance the often competing needs of user groups, while ensuring the sustainability of our valuable aquatic resources. It is anticipated that the new Fisheries Bill will be ready for consideration by government in mid-2007.
The success of the Top End Secret campaign has shown that a concerted, targeted campaign can bring huge benefits if professionally and consistently implemented. Buoyed by this success, I will seek to examine opportunities for the Territory’s unique food produce. We have produce that is the envy of the world and, in the coming year, a concerted campaign will bring Territory foods to the attention of the nation and the world. As well as barramundi, this will involve Territory beef, tropical fruits and other produce.
Budget 2006-07 supports our primary industry with a $36.8m budget. $1m is allocated to expand indigenous pastoral and horticultural enterprises on indigenous-owned lands, including employment. $2m is allocated to fund research, extension, and development programs across our horticulture industry.
Grower accreditation and certification assurance, management and eradication of plant pests and diseases, and providing accredited laboratory services is supported through a $1.9m allocation.
The Territory’s pastoral industry, like the mining industry, is performing well. I reported to parliament yesterday on the outcome of one of the most comprehensive surveys of the Northern Territory pastoral industry. This report shows an industry which has the potential to increase production by almost 30% over the next three years, and 54% by 2014.
A National Livestock Identification System, or NLIS, which traces cattle from the gate to the plate, is to be implemented by July 2007. The partnership between the Territory and Australian governments will see the implementation of NLIS in the Northern Territory over the next three years, with $150 000 spent in 2005-06, $320 000 in 2006-07 and $320 000 in 2007-08.
Still on the pastoral industry, 212 000 head of cattle were exported through the Port of Darwin in 2005. Despite the wettest ending to the Wet Season disrupting mustering and delivery of cattle to export facilities, exports of Territory cattle are up by more than 2000 head at the end of March 2006, to 54 000 head.
It was pleasing to note increased live cattle exports to Sarawak and Sabah and the new Indonesian buffalo protocol has seen the commencement of feeder buffalo to that country. However, we must be wary of having too many eggs in one basket, so senior officers from my department, representatives from the NT Cattlemen’s Association, the Northern Territory Exporters Association and Meat and Livestock Australia are constantly working with our northern neighbours to strengthen existing trading partnerships and to identify new ones. My department continues to provide technical information and assistance to cattle development projects in Sabah, the Philippines and Malaysia that will enable those countries to develop a viable pastoral industry of their own and increase their intake of live cattle from the Northern Territory. I will be travelling throughout the region in the near future, meeting government and industry representatives and identifying programs that will enhance our export trade.
Another success is the Indigenous Pastoral Program, or IPP. This program takes a multi-agency approach to address the needs of industry for more viable pastoral land and labour, and the needs of indigenous people for sustainable economic and social developments that can use their often under-utilised land resources. In its first three years, the IPP achieved remarkable success developing country with an estimated carrying capacity of 25 000 head of cattle. It is also looking to develop and open up land to carry a further 20 000 head of cattle in 2006. The IPP created 18 seasonal stock camp positions and 20 short-term fencing positions, all of which were filled by Aboriginal people at various locations. It established an indigenous training scheme, initially placing 10 young men from the Barkly region. So positive was the feedback from this program that a new memorandum of understanding will now extend the program by another five years.
The pastoral industry is doing well, and one of the reasons for that is our attention to biosecurity. The Territory has a long history of preventing, eradicating or controlling exotic pests and diseases that not only impact on primary production, but also the environment and the community. To further enhance the protection of the Territory, my department will be the lead agency in the preparation and implementation of a biosecurity strategy for the Northern Territory. This strategy will assist government agencies and other stakeholders to exclude, eradicate and effectively manage risks caused by pests, diseases and weeds to the economy, environment and human health.
Biosecurity is one of the important watch-words for the future. One of the strongest selling points for Territory produce is, as I mentioned earlier, our image as a clean green producer of premium quality products.
Any chemical residues which exceed the maximum levels would impact negatively on that image. I draw your attention to the export of wheat to India which was recently stopped for several days when the Indian laboratory detected residues of pesticides above the recommended level. My department, in conjunction with the NT Horticultural Association, has an extensive sampling and testing program at the producer level. A multilingual brochure setting out the 2006-07 program will be launched shortly.
With the increased attention on biosecurity, we have also created a new section within the department, Diagnostic Services, which will bring together the agricultural chemistry, entomology, plant pathology, seeds, veterinary, water chemistry, and water microbiology laboratories under one roof. This allows the more effective use of resources and greater collaboration between the various laboratories. This new arrangement in Diagnostic Services will allow for more efficient use of resources with greater collaboration between laboratories, and will assist in containing costs for the provision of important biosecurity testing and services to industry.
I now turn to the Office of Multicultural Affairs. This government remains firmly committed to supporting our multicultural community in the Northern Territory. Budget 2006-07 reflects this commitment. Our multicultural community in the Territory is our social capital, and if we use it wisely we can access markets that, until now, have been closed and are not easily opened.
Through my Multicultural Affairs portfolio, the Northern Territory government will support projects which promote cultural and linguistic diversity in the Territory through grants under the Multicultural Affairs Sponsorship Program. $740 000 is allocated for this program, including Cultural and Linguistic Awards totalling up to $150 000 for individuals and ethnic community groups to undertake research, further study or specialised training in languages, or other cultural activities relating to their ethnic origin. Ethnic origin refers to the origin of any person in the Territory including people who come from Ireland, Scotland or England who probably, until now, are people not considered as having an ethnic origin.
The budget also includes operational assistance to migrant and ethnic community organisations including the Multicultural Council of the Northern Territory and the Multicultural Community Services of Central Australia. A further $400 000 will be allocated to the Multicultural Communities Facility Development Program this financial year, with an additional $100 000 in 2007-08.
Budget 2006-07 supports interpreter and translation services to help government agencies to communicate and deliver their services to Territorians from diverse backgrounds. It also recognises the benefits of cross-cultural awareness training and assistance to overseas trained professionals, para-professionals, technical, trade and other skilled workers in obtaining recognition of their qualification and skills.
This government continues to support the Charles See Kee Awards to recognise and celebrate people, organisations and initiatives which have made an outstanding contribution towards advancing multiculturalism and counteracting racism in the Territory.
I was very pleased to note that there was $1.5m in total allocation in this budget for the development of the blocks in Batten Road. More blocks will be available for non-English speaking background and other community groups that want to build their own home.
I also recognise the considerable commitment, dedication and professionalism of staff within the Departments of Primary Industry and Fisheries and Mines and Energy, and the Office of Multicultural Affairs. Achieving the outcomes highlighted today is only possible because of the considerable support of our highly-valued public service.
I point out that my department is a department with a regional presence which it will maintain throughout the Territory. It is a department that has the potential to provide job opportunities for Territorians including hundreds of indigenous Territorians. We have seen that with the developing aquaculture operations in Maningrida and Kulaluk. We will expand further expand, for example, with the abattoir in Oenpelli. By providing technical support and education we can find a facility that can provide fresh meat to Aboriginal communities in Arnhem Land, and East Arnhem to improve their condition. We can train indigenous people to work in mines - not in underground mines, but above ground mines. Also, not only in the mining sector as such but in rehabilitation and reconnaissance. A big department has the potential. I give you a commitment that next year we will develop a plan of how to involve and incorporate more indigenous men and women in primary industry, fisheries, horticulture, agriculture, and in the mining industry.
Madam Speaker, Budget 2006-07 delivers jobs, growth and a stronger Territory. The Territory will enjoy an outstanding return from the investment in the primary industry, fisheries, mines and multicultural affairs sectors. We have enormous social capital, a young population in and outside towns, and the responsibility to make sure that these people have access to jobs and the luxuries that people in other states have. My department and I will make this possible in the next year with the assistance of the Treasurer and the budget presented in parliament this week.
Ms SCRYMGOUR (Natural Resources, Environment and Heritage): Madam Speaker, it is with great pleasure that I speak about the first budget for the Department of Natural Resources, Environment and the Arts.
As honourable members will recall, the Department of Natural Resources, Environment and the Arts was created in July 2005. The new department was made by merging the Conservation and Natural Resources group which included the Parks and Wildlife Service and the Office of Environment and Heritage from the former Department of Infrastructure, Planning and the Environment, and the Arts and Museums Division from the former Department of Community Development, Sports and Cultural Affairs.
The government created this department in recognition of the unique value of the Territory’s natural and cultural heritage. These are values that will play an increasingly central role in the economic development of the Northern Territory and preserving our unique and wonderful lifestyle. The department’s job is to ensure that these natural and cultural assets of the Territory are protected and that Territorians are given an opportunity to understand their place in history and the natural environment. This government believes that this will promote our unique identity and create a base on which Territorians will be able to use natural and cultural resources as a source of inspiration, creativity and innovation for personal and economic growth.
As outlined in Budget Paper No 3, the department is responsible for conserving, enhancing and ensuring best possible access to and enjoyment of the Territory’s natural and cultural assets. These assets include our native wildlife and their habitats; renewable natural resources including water and natural landscapes, many of which form the basis of our parks and reserves system; and our creative communities, buildings and places important in our history; as well as the permanent scientific and cultural collections.
Within the department, there are seven new output groups which are parks and reserves, biological parks, natural resources, environment protection, heritage and conservation, scientific and cultural collections, and arts and screen industry support. I will now go through these in turn.
A total of $33m will be spent on parks and reserves. This will fund management of parks and reserves to protect biological diversity and create commercial, educational and recreation opportunities for visitors and the Territory community, providing a core for regional development and economic growth. Our parks and reserves are our most treasured and iconic natural assets. Their rugged physical beauty, mystique and history attract visitors from across the globe to the Northern Territory. This is an increase of almost $0.5m over the last financial year’s budget. This increase in funding for parks and reserves will ensure our rangers in the Parks and Wildlife Service can continue to care for and manage the 90 parks and reserves that make up the parks estate so that they can be enjoyed by locals and tourists alike, confident that the conservation values of our greatest natural assets are being maintained.
This budget will also see $3m spent on the continued implementation of a program I believe has already delivered benefits for park management and local indigenous landowners and will have significant long-term and flow-on benefits – the Parks Joint Management program. The joint management program currently involves 27 parks building on the success of existing joint management parks such as Nitmiluk, and will allow the Parks and Wildlife Service to manage the parks estate in partnership with traditional Aboriginal owners to protect biological diversity and serve visitors and community needs for education and enjoyment.
Participation in joint management, including the development of joint plans of management for each of the 27 parks in the program, will enhance the capacity of regional communities, through training and employment, to realise the potential of parks as a catalyst for regional economic development. The benefits of joint management have recently been publicised by the recent success of the first group of indigenous trainee rangers to come through the Territory’s new joint parks management arrangements, all of whom have started work in Central Australia. Indigenous rangers Donald Turner and Kalem Ronberg are each completing a Certificate II in Conservation and Land Management through the Batchelor Institute, while Jeremy Dawson, who is based in Tennant Creek, is studying a Certificate III in Conservation and Land Management. Without joint management programs in place, it is likely none of these three men would have had these opportunities.
Additionally, $90 000 in ongoing funding has been provided for off-park indigenous rangers in the Ntaria community at Hermannsburg in Central Australia. This is a new initiative in this budget. This initial money will allow for a program coordinator and operational costs for a ranger group that has been involved in progressing the joint management initiative with the Parks and Wildlife Service.
Funding in this 2006-07 budget will also ensure Parks and Wildlife Service continues to deliver its core park management function such as weeds, fire, feral animal and visitor programs. A further $10.108m has been allocated to fund the Territory’s biological parks, which include the Desert Park in Alice Springs, the Territory Wildlife Park and the George Brown Botanical Gardens in Darwin. The industry term ‘biological parks’ refers to parks which create displays of native plants and animals that replicate natural habitats and botanical gardens. In addition to commercial, educational and recreational benefits, these parks provide visitors and Territorians alike with opportunities to experience and learn about the Territory’s natural flora and fauna. The community service obligations funding of $7.8m in this budget provided by the department to the two wildlife parks - the Territory Wildlife Park and the Alice Springs Desert Park - will enable these two key facilities to operate as high standard premier tourist attractions. Both parks are constantly developing and improving their visitor experiences and are looking at creating new experiences targeted towards domestic and international visitors over the next 12 months. Both parks are also working towards implementing educational programs to attract and encourage schools, both local and from interstate, to attend the parks as part of their curricula activities to learn about native flora and fauna.
Darwin’s George Brown Botanic Gardens will also benefit from the 2006-07 budget with two significant new visitor experiences to be created. The Geranium Street entrance to the gardens will undergo a facelift, making it more attractive and enticing to visitors and locals alike. It is planned to also house information that locals can access regarding home gardening in the Top End. Additionally, the children’s garden will also receive attention, with plans afoot to develop plant mazes, sandy beaches for children to play in, and other educational and interactive features.
A further $45.7m has been provided to fund Natural Resources. This significant area is responsible for assessing, managing and conserving the natural resources of the Northern Territory. The funding will enable sustainable use of the renewable natural resource of the Northern Territory, including water and native plants and animals.
This budget sees the commencement of the Living Rivers initiative, with an allocation of $3.5m over four years for the Daly River Adaptive Management program. More importantly, this funding will leverage significant Commonwealth funding already announced under the National Water Initiative. Funding is also provided in this budget for the Alice Springs and Tennant Creek water initiative, initially $50 000 in 2006-07 and increasing to $100 000 in outer years.
For the first time, flood forecasting, a critical function and service provided by the department, has received separate recognition as a specific output. As demonstrated during the recent flooding in the Roper, Katherine, Daly and Victoria Rivers systems, an important role of the department is to predict the threats caused by heavy rainfall and provide flood forecasting services to Police and Emergency Services. These forecasts are done in conjunction with the Bureau of Meteorology, and are dependent on the rainfall and river height recording stations located within the catchments, the transmission of captured data which enables forecasting by professional flood hydrologists of river heights at specified locations within each river system.
The Land and Water Division of the department will continue its role in assessing the water, land, soil and natural vegetation resources of the Northern Territory, and providing this information to community and industry stakeholders to facilitate sustainable and safe development.
This budget also includes $583 000 for the expansion of the Cabomba weed eradication program. Cabomba poses a major threat to the Darwin River waterway and surrounding tributaries. This government has recognised the importance of its eradication with the provision of this additional funding in 2006-07. The funding will go towards a sustained eradication program likely to involve heavy spraying of this underwater weed to ensure it does not spread to nearby rivers, such as the Blackmore, or to Manton and Darwin River Dams. This eradication program will include: continued application of herbicides to infected water bodies; provision of alternative water supplies to landholders currently drawing water from the infected areas; ongoing monitoring of water quality; and biodiversity impact. An extensive consultation process will commence immediately and major eradication works will commence in July.
This budget continues funding for the department to coordinate strategic fire mitigation, prevention and wildfire suppression across the Northern Territory. These efforts are in support of the activities of the Bushfires Council and regional committees, and the dedicated work of the members of our 21 Volunteer Bushfire Brigades. The activities of most landholders are targeted at protecting the values of their land from which they derive economic and social values. However, reductions in widespread bushfires also have benefit for biodiversity and in the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions.
An integral element of community engagement in natural resource management is the activities of the Landcare group and other organisations which are involved in managing our landscape. The department supports these groups by providing technical advice, assistance with ongoing programs, and administration and grant applications.
The new Environment Protection Agency program receives $4.486m, ensuring that effective advice is made available to government, industry and the community in relation to environmental protection issues ...
Mr Wood: Not the program in here.
Ms SCRYMGOUR: I can hear a cat calling, Madam Speaker, when I am trying to read.
Madam SPEAKER: Order!
Mr Wood: You should always kill cats, Madam Speaker, they are feral.
Madam SPEAKER: Order, member for Nelson!
Ms SCRYMGOUR: I am talking about feral animal control.
Mr Warren: Better watch out, member for Nelson.
Madam SPEAKER: Order, member for Goyder!
Ms SCRYMGOUR: The budget for 2006-07 sets the stage for the establishment of the Territory’s first ever Environment Protection Agency. At present, the creation of the EPA is in Stage 1 of a two-stage process, with the creation of a preferred EPA model well under way.
The Environment Protection Agency reflects the amalgamation of the environment protection, greenhouse and water monitoring functions into the new corporate entity. This broadens the scope and capacity of the unit and recognises the strong links between the Environment Protection Agency and aquatic health, including water monitoring in Darwin Harbour.
In this budget, $566 000 will be made available to the public, schools and community groups through the EnvironmeNT Grants Program, the largest environment grant program on offer by any Territory government. This grants program, introduced by the Martin government in 2004, has already provided almost $1m in funding to the community. The commitment of $566 000 towards the environment grants in 2006-07 will continue government’s assistance of the operation of non-government environment groups, and for community-based projects aimed at improving sustainability of local businesses and other community activities.
Additionally, this budget includes $120 000 for the establishment of a Rapid Creek environment hub for community groups, delivering on an election commitment. The environment hub, the first of its kind in the Territory, will see environment groups co-located in a one-stop environment shop in Darwin’s northern suburbs.
The government has also doubled funding for the Cool Communities program to $100 000, as the first stage of increased funding for this initiative. This will allow Cool Community groups in Darwin and Alice Springs to expand their work with householders, which is aimed at increasing sustainability and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. This initiative is on the back of a continued implementation of the Northern Territory Strategy for Greenhouse Action, which was launched earlier this year.
Heritage and Conservation, which enables the effective conservation of the Northern Territory’s heritage assets, will receive $2.48m. This will ensure the appropriate conservation and protection of the Territory’s unique heritage assets. From Budget 2006-07, the government will continue to work to improve heritage protection and conservation throughout the Northern Territory. This work includes continued funding of $1m for the Northern Territory Heritage 2010 package for repairs and maintenance of government-owned heritage properties throughout the Territory.
Ongoing annual heritage grants of $365 000 will assist private owners of heritage properties to conserve and promote these important assets, as well as providing $114 000 annually to the National Trust. We are working with the Commonwealth government to include Territory heritage sites such as the World War II sites and the Gurindji Wave Hill walk-off site on the National Heritage Register. The introduction of new heritage legislation aimed at modernising and strengthening heritage protection in the Northern Territory is a priority of this government.
A total of $13m has been allocated to provide funding in support of the scientific and cultural collections. This preserves and enables access to the Territory’s historic buildings and permanent museum and art gallery collections held by the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, the Museum of Central Australia, the Strehlow Research Centre, and the herbarium located at Palmerston. The combination of the Territory’s scientific and cultural collections under one output group recognises the important links between these areas. This budget provides funding for the Museum and Art galleries of the Northern Territory to ensure their public programs continue to maintain a high standard and provide opportunities to be informed, inspired and entertained.
Arts and screen industry support will receive $13m to provide support for the performing and visual arts, cinema and film industry for the benefit of local communities and visitors. This will create commercial, educational and recreational opportunities in arts, film and tourism. Provision of ongoing funding of $300 000 in capital grants annually for the Public Art strategy launched earlier this year is a key feature of this budget. This program will provide opportunities for partnerships and artists and community groups, local government and private developers.
The Territory’s unique arts and culture sector has grown and developed extensively over the past financial year. Budget 2006-07 continues the Martin government’s backing of the arts community including $4.8m for arts sponsorship for arts development across the Territory; a $250 000 grant for the film, new media and television industry; and $1.1m for the indigenous art strategy.
An increase of $50 000 to $250 000 for the Northern Territory Screen Grants Program is also incorporated in this budget. This program, managed by the Northern Territory Film Office, provides additional support to the screen industry enabling the industry to obtain funding to create documentaries, develop pilots and complete filming projects that otherwise may not have come to fruition.
Some of the examples of successful applicants who are using the money to capture our cultural history on film are Andrish Saint-Clair and Mike Sweet. They have received funding to create a documentary looking at the relationships between the Macassans and Yolngu. Darwin-based writers and directors, Danielle MacLean and Steven McGregor, are also receiving funding to develop a documentary about children and missionaries fleeing Croker Island during World War II.
Budget 2006-07 provides opportunities to showcase the cream of Territory arts at regional festivals, as well as in larger centres of Darwin and Alice Springs, through ongoing festival funding. More than $900 000 is allocated for remote and regional festivals and major festivals. The Walking With Spirits Festival at Beswick has been a recent recipient of this funding, receiving $45 000 over three years.
$1.5m has been set aside for major capital works. Nitmiluk National Park near Katherine will benefit from the upgrade of the crossover between the first and second gorges at a cost of $1m. Due to the increased visitation from The Ghan passengers, improvements in Nitmiluk National Park will include works to cater for the safety and comfort of older park visitors. Such works will include construction of a ramp and stairs to the art centre, safety rails, raising walking tracks and installing steps and bridges and improving Wet Season boat access.
The Mary River wetlands saltwater intrusion management program will receive funding to the tune of $0.5m. This will allow for the continued development of infrastructure which is designed to prevent further intrusion of seawater into the freshwater ecosystems of the Mary River. This program has rehabilitated thousands of hectares of wetland. It is also recognised as the Northern Territory government’s contribution to the Australian government’s National Water Initiative and attracts a matching investment of $0.5m from the Australian government.
The 2006-07 budget’s major capital grants program provides $300 000 in funding to the department for the implementation of the Northern Territory’s first ever public arts strategy. This project will create partnerships between artists and community groups, local government and private developers. The funding will allow Territory artists to create public art in our expanding cities and towns which all Territorians and visitors can experience and enjoy.
In summary, the 2006-07 budget provides the Department of Natural Resources, Environment and the Arts the opportunity to protect and conserve our natural cultural assets. The creation of this Department of Natural Resources, Environment and the Arts recognises for the first time the important link between our natural environment, our cultural history, and our artistic and creative development. These links are epitomised by the way artists have responded to the unique landscape of the Territory. The current exhibition of Territory landscapes of national and international significance, The Sound of the Sky at the Museum and Art Gallery at Bullock Point, demonstrates this link.
Of the total $122m of the department’s budgeted expenditure, output appropriation provides $96m, with around $15m being raised independently by this department. This reflects the department’s capacity to leverage funding for grant programs from other sources, primarily in the natural resources and scientific and cultural collections output groups - a capacity that has been strengthened by bringing these functions together in a new agency.
As well as NRETA, I also have the portfolio responsibility of Women’s Policy, Senior Territorians and Young Territorians. I will make brief mention of the budget in relation to these areas of the Department of the Chief Minister for which the output group is Community Engagement. I am pleased that this budget includes output funding of $1.03m to continue the advancement of women in our community. This includes continuation of the highly-successful women’s forums held in conjunction with Community Cabinet, where government gets the chance to hear firsthand about the issues that concern women in all communities across the Territory. It also includes funding for the Chief Minister’s Study Awards for Women and, more importantly, continues to support education campaigns for the elimination of violence against women. The $805 000 funding for seniors advancements supports all the activities of Seniors Month in August, which includes a grants program. Government also continues its commitment to the Seniors Card which supports NT businesses and is a valuable service for senior Territorians and seniors visiting from interstate.
Last, but more importantly, youth advancement. The total funding of $899 000 supports a number of programs including sponsorship of the STS Leeuwin II which gives 80 young Territorians the opportunity to undertake a voyage and experience the adventure and thrill of sailing the open seas whilst developing leadership and team skills. This funding also supports the Round Table of Young Territorians which allows our youth to have input into government policies and decision-making. The government also funds the Northern Territory’s National Youth Week, the single largest event in Australia’s youth calendar, which celebrates our diverse youth culture by holding over 100 events across the Territory.
Madam Speaker, I am pleased to support the Treasurer’s 2006-07 budget.
Debate suspended.
Mr HENDERSON (Leader of Government Business): Madam Speaker, I move that leave of absence for the remainder of this day be granted to the member for Daly who is attending a funeral in his electorate.
Motion agreed to.
Continued from earlier this day.
Mr McADAM (Local Government): Madam Speaker, this budget certainly builds the Territory’s future. It is a budget of opportunity which offers Territorians the chance to take advantage of opportunities never so apparent in our history before. It is a budget of job creation and for continued growth of our economic base. It is a budget delivered within the sound and sustainable physical parameters, always a priority for this Treasurer. The Martin government has made huge strides in advancing the wellbeing of Territorians across the board over the last five years and, while recognising the considerable challenges we face, has positioned the Territory to take maximum advantage of the opportunities for the future. I am immensely proud to be part of a government that is prepared to put in the hard work required to advance the interest of all Territorians wherever they live and whatever their social and economic circumstances.
The budget process is inherently hard. It involves hard decisions, and a sense of where the real priorities lie. I wish to thank my colleagues, particularly the Treasurer, for the collegiate process that has allowed this document to be presented to us. It is, in my view, a very fair, forward-thinking and visionary document. It positions the Territory for the future.
In relation to my own portfolio responsibilities, the budget provides a firm basis to consolidate substantial progress made over the last five years. It provides for a total expenditure of some $285m across the portfolio - and I include in that the sport and recreation responsibilities of my colleague, the Minister for Sport and Recreation.
More importantly, the budget reflects the progress to date of a number of substantial policy initiatives in the areas of remote community development and housing which will lay the groundwork for substantial improvements in coordination and service delivery between the Northern Territory government and the Australian government. While the figures in the budget papers relating to these initiatives are considerable, the real significance lies in the underlying changes they represent and the way in which these changes position both governments, particularly the Territory, to ensure services are delivered effectively and efficiently for all Territorians.
The budget paper identifies 18 strategic issues facing my department and Territory Housing in 2006-07. Each and every one of these issues will be the subject of sustained policy focus, and encompass appropriate resource allocation both within the agency and, importantly, in service delivery to the community over the coming financial year. I take the opportunity today to briefly outline the progress made to date and the major initiatives envisaged for the future across the key functional responsibilities of my portfolio.
The 2006-07 Territory budget will provide the platform to allow my agency to successfully address the challenges we face and take advantage of the opportunities to build on the progress we have already made in recent years. I will begin with the Community Harmony program. There is little doubt that antisocial behaviour will continue to challenge the Territory community for a considerable time into the future. We will continue to fund the Community Harmony program to address wellbeing, social behaviour issues and crisis accommodation in major centres across the Territory.
Since the establishment of the Community Harmony strategy in 2003, this portfolio has spent around $5m on programs, creating pathways for itinerants. Additionally, there has been significant investment in infrastructure provision and there is significant mainstream funding for alcohol-related services within the Department of Health and Community Services. My department will continue to focus on the program management of intervention and prevention strategies, and providing ongoing input into the policy direction of the strategy. The budget allocates over $2m in 2006-07 to provide intervention and prevention strategies that lead to pathways out of some of our unacceptable lifestyles. These include opportunities and pathways for those who are leading personally destructive lifestyles in major urban centres to return to their home communities. The Information Referral Office established in Darwin and Katherine is a crucial component of the Community Harmony strategy. The Information Referral Office administers a number of core services to homeless and itinerant clients.
The primary service is the Return to Home program, a user pays service whereby people must pay the debt before accessing the service again. Return to Home clients are permitted four trips per year and the Information Referral Office deducts payments for the cost of travel from the person’s Centrelink or CDP payments. In Darwin, the Larrakia Nation Aboriginal Corporation administers Return to Home service and, since October last year, has facilitated and processed 871 trips to locations, obviously, mainly in the Northern Territory. The main locations are such places as Port Keats, Bathurst, Maningrida, Galiwinku, Milingimbi, even Alice Springs and other places such as Goulburn Island and Milikapiti.
The Darwin Information Referral Office also refers clients to crisis accommodation services. The current Community Harmony crisis accommodation provider is the Aboriginal Development Foundation at Knuckey Lagoon and Darwin Christian Outreach Centre at Crerar Road, Berrimah. Knuckey Lagoon has a capacity for 70 people per night, while the Darwin Christian Outreach Centre has an 18 bed capacity. Clients wanting to stay for longer periods are referred to the Information Referral Office, which will refer them on to the Larrakia Intervention and Transport Service for ongoing accommodation case management. As well as a transport service, Larrakia also provides an intensive intervention service and a mobile information and referral service. Special events, such as major concerts or sporting fixtures, also receive dedicated attention. Where appropriate, the Larrakia Intervention and Transport Services refers Community Harmony clients – families only - to the Council for Aboriginal and Alcohol Program Services to access treatment programs such as assessments, withdrawal treatment, plus reintegration.
The Community Housing strategy has developed over the last five years into a comprehensive whole-of-government strategy which works hand-in-glove with key community groups and non-government agencies to address one of the most difficult issues facing the Territory community. The government continues to focus on improving the mix and focus of services provided under the strategy. While the challenges are substantial, so too has been the progress achieved.
There is a program operating in Cairns which is very similar to our Community Harmony strategy or intervention-type program in Darwin. It remains a challenge for government, NGOs and other agencies in the Northern Territory to look beyond our own borders and, perhaps, come up with options which might more accurately reflect some of the issues and problems we face as a community. To that effect, I hope to go to Cairns next week - and I will be inviting other people as well - purely as an exercise in asking how far we have come, what we can learn and, if necessary, put in place, in consultation with all stakeholders and community groups, strategies that might give some better outcomes.
I now refer to governance. The 2006-07 budget includes an appropriation in excess of $52m for local governance and community development across the Northern Territory. These funds support the 63 local governing bodies across the Territory to provide local government services and programs. I remind members that 55 of these local governing bodies are indigenous and range in size from about 150 people to nearly 3000 in one community.
As my predecessor pointed out to this Assembly, while the Territory’s municipal councils are effective and play a strong role in local community affairs, sadly, some community councils are much more precarious. Many are assessed as being at high risk of organisational failure and, at any time, a small number are dysfunctional and potentially insolvent.
Policy framework for the last few years is set out in the Stronger Regions Stronger Futures policy, which focuses on strengthening and expanding the capacity of local governance, especially in towns in our remote regions. The aim has been to provide legitimate representation, effective governance, improved service delivery and sustainable development across the whole Territory.
The last year has seen the bedding down of a number of new regional authorities. Extensive work has been undertaken by councils across the Territory to develop business cases to assess the benefits of further amalgamations and the establishment of regional authorities. There have also been a number of instances where councils were faced with financial difficulties, emanating in no measure from the smaller scale and appropriate incorporation arrangements for many local governing bodies.
I have formed the view that it is time to reassess the Stronger Regions Stronger Futures policy framework and ensure that all Territorians have access to effective local government services. I will shortly be announcing the terms of reference and membership of a review of the Local Government Act, and expect to see the development of a more focused policy framework for local government over the course of the coming financial year. I am also working closely with the Australian government in the implementation of a schedule to the overarching agreement on indigenous affairs signed between the Prime Minister and the Chief Minister just over a year ago. The schedule deals with the implementation of a Stronger Region Stronger Futures strategy and provides for the employment of development coordinators to be located in regional locations to better support local initiatives and, of course, local community government councils.
Seven development coordinators have recently been appointed at East Arnhem, Central Australia, Thamarrurr, Borroloola - my understanding is that Borroloola’s is not yet appointed but is expected to be - Victoria River, Nyirranggulung and the Tiwi Islands regions to assist in government’s capacity development and facilitating the regional local government initiatives. The development coordinators work with all levels of government, peak indigenous and business organisations to ensure that support and funding is targeted to community driven governance and development projects, and that government activities at all levels are better coordinated.
The quality of life in remote communities rests in no small measure on the effectiveness of local government and the services that local government councils provide. This coming financial year will be a watershed year, as we need to review legislative framework and fine-tune the policy framework for local government in the Northern Territory. Clearly, we hope to continue to do this in conjunction with the Australian government, and will look favourably on the use of regional partnership agreements which are increasingly favoured by the Australian government for addressing remote communities’ needs.
I recently participated in a ceremony to sign the intergovernmental agreement establishing principles guiding intergovernmental relations on local government matters. The agreement was signed by the Australian government, the states and territories, and the Australian Local Government Association. The agreement provides a series of guiding principles which apply to taking on new or revised functions by local government, and give added financial security to local government in terms of the ongoing relations between the two levels of government. In this context, I thank the Local Government Association of the Northern Territory for its constructive and positive engagement on this and other issues in the Northern Territory over the past year. I look forward to a similar level of engagement over the coming year.
I thank those individual community government councils which work in very tiring, stressful circumstances on occasion. Many of them are under-resourced. Nonetheless, they continue to try as hard as they can. They continue to look after members of their community, and it is important that we acknowledge what they do. We would all be aware that, over a period of time, indigenous community government councils out bush and, indeed, some of those based around the larger regional centres, have come in for a fair hammering. I do not mind admitting that, in certain circumstances and cases, they probably deserved it. However, we should also acknowledge that there is a vast majority of very dedicated indigenous people who have taken the time to serve their community and to interact between both levels of government. Accordingly, I say a big thank you and pay tribute to all of those people who take on a task which, quite frankly would not be the expectation if they lived in Tennant Creek, Darwin, Alice Springs or Katherine. I thank them for their outstanding efforts.
I should also refer to the Water Safety Awareness program. This budget provides $2.5m for water safety and animal welfare. A key component of the Water Safety Unit’s functions relates to the administration of the Swimming Pool Safety Act. Since the act came into force in January 2003, the unit has undertaken over 9000 pool inspections across all major centres in the Territory. There have been over 4000 grants processed with a value in excess of $5.7m. In June 2002, the Chief Minister introduced the five-point water safety plan to help curb the Northern Territory’s high rate of drowning. Included in the five-point water safety plan was a Water Safety Awareness program for children aged from six months to five years of age. The program entitles parents of children aged six months to five years of age to five water safety sessions including one resuscitation session and four practical water awareness sessions. Over 2900 children have completed all elements of the program. Since its introduction, the Water Safety Awareness program has received many accolades, including being national best practise by the Australian Water and Safety Council. This, together with the pool fencing legislation and increased water safety education, has led to the Northern Territory recording no deaths by drowning of a child less than five years old within the past three years.
I am pleased to report that a further $155 000 will be committed in 2006-07 to continue the Water Safety Awareness program for children aged six months to five years across the Territory. Further, the program’s structure will be modified slightly from July this year to ensure the attendance of parents or carers to the emergency care session of the program. This session informs parents and carers of their role following an accident. By ensuring that all parents - even those currently holding a resuscitation certificate - are involved, it is hoped that in the event of a water-related accident of a child or, indeed an adult, their lives may be saved.
I thank Natasha Fyles for her outstanding effort heading that particular program. I know she has been very active in lobbying for extra support. There is an important component which Natasha and her council undertakes and which serves as a way forward when, on occasions, the dollars get a bit tight as they do from time to time. I know Natasha has been very active in talking to the private sector trying to secure extra dollars to supplement their program. I understand that Airnorth has been able to provide airfares for those people who wish to visit, in particular, the indigenous communities in the Top End. I thank Natasha Fyles for her inspirational leadership, and Airnorth and all of those other companies which have chosen to sponsor, or donate dollars, or their time. It is a very worthy program.
Madam Speaker, I now turn to something dear to you: library services. I know that we have met on numerous occasions regarding some of the issues. You would be aware that the Northern Territory Library is responsible for a centralised public library model which facilitates resources sharing, minimisation of duplication, coordination of collection and professional development, maintenance of industry standards, and equitable access to resources for public libraries across the Territory. Total appropriation for 2006-07 is budgeted at $11.9m. The Public Library Agreement 2005-08, provides operational funding to municipal and community councils, including two corporation-run library services - in Alyangula managed by GEMCO, and Yulara managed by Ayers Rock Resort. Grant funding of $3.2m will continue to be provided in 2006-07 for public library services administered by local government across the Territory. In addition to the operational funding, the Territory government meets the property rental cost for Katherine, Karama, Nightcliff and Jabiru public libraries, and operates both the Taminmin and Nhulunbuy community libraries which are both joint use libraries located in the local high schools.
Through the centralised model, NT Library manages the public library network technical services, cataloguing, and data warehouse and data analysis to ensure national standards are met. Local government councils, through their public libraries, are responsible for the day-to-day delivery of library services in their respective communities. I acknowledge all those people who put in a wonderful effort in the NT libraries. I know that they, too, are looking at some other innovative ways of trying to attract investment from the public sector. You would be aware that the NT libraries and government have spoken to the Darwin City Council and we are looking at ways forward in how we can provide better library services, not only to those communities in the regional centres, but those communities out bush.
Most people would be aware of the knowledge learning centres which exist in some communities. They are something that this government can be very proud of because, as you have the opportunity to travel around some of the communities, you have occasion to visit those places. Almost without exception, they are very well used. You see many young and old people using the facilities. In some cases, I know they are looking at ways and means, through the Internet - I am not an expert - to be able to record their history. It is new technology and something which is very applicable and appropriate for those communities out bush. It is something which we, as a government, should continue to support because the opportunities out there are limitless in what we can do with libraries.
I now go to the Aboriginal Interpreter Service. The Aboriginal Interpreter Service provides a crucial service to thousands of indigenous Territorians who do not speak English as their first language. The budget allocates $1.6m to fund the employment of some 180 registered interpreters who provide interpreting in 104 languages and dialects across the Territory. The interpreter service is a crucial contributor to improve outcomes in the health and justice sectors for indigenous Territorians. I made a statement about this in the House earlier, and the important role they perform in the community was readily acknowledged and accepted by both sides of this House. I thank all of those people who choose to do this, because it is a critical interaction and linkage between indigenous and non-indigenous service providers. We have mentioned health and the courts, but there are a whole host of other things that occur. Sometimes, we underestimate the role they play. To the Interpreter Service Unit in my department, I thank you for your outstanding contribution.
The other issue I wanted to speak about is indigenous housing. You will be aware my department is responsible for the provision of funding, administrative support and policy advice for the Indigenous Housing program. The construction is managed by the Department of Planning and Infrastructure. Following the abolition of ATSIC by the Australian government, it became necessary to restructure the composition of the Indigenous Housing Authority of the NT, known as IHANT, a non-statutory body which included ATSIC regional council chairs from throughout the Territory. Following extensive negotiations with the Australian government, both governments signed a bilateral Indigenous Housing Infrastructure Agreement in December 2005. Under the agreement, the IHANT Board was restructured and the Northern Territory will deliver a fully-integrated indigenous housing program for the 2006-07 year, also assuming responsibility for the delivery of a $22m NAHS Indigenous Housing program in addition to the NT delivered program.
The significance of this program merger should not be underestimated. For the first time ever, communities will not have to deal with the requirements of two separate funding agencies in relation to indigenous housing, and coordination issues will be automatically addressed. Moreover, the scale of the new program, combined with the decision to manage all construction within DPI, will lead to more cost-effective procurement and construction, better integrated planning and, ultimately, provide the basis for more sustainable local building teams to emerge.
Taken together, these changes amount to the most substantial reform of indigenous housing delivery in the Northern Territory over the past two decades. The new IHANT Board, which is the key advisory mechanism for both governments relating to indigenous housing, met for the first time in my home town of Tennant Creek in February this year. Michael Berto is the chair, and Pat Brahim is the deputy chair. The board includes Tony Jack, Ursula Raymond and William Tilmouth, thus ensuring representation from all parts of the Territory.
The total budget allocation in 2006-07 for indigenous housing is $64m, of which $41.7m is for major indigenous housing capital grants. Funds are also allocated to the management, repairs and maintenance of indigenous community housing dwellings and a number of living skills programs. Yesterday, I was very pleased to announce the increase of the repairs and maintenance component from $1700 to $2500.
At its first meeting, the IHANT Board recommended, amongst other things, that the government consider giving greater priority to upgrades and maintenance of existing community housing assets. Given the high levels of overcrowding and the huge shortage of housing in remote communities, it is imperative that we make the most effective use of the existing housing asset base in those communities, and I refer to that increase of $1700 to $2500.
I am concerned at the increasing cost of construction of housing in remote communities. I have asked my department, in conjunction with the IHANT Board, to convene a workshop within the next few months with key industry stakeholders to examine a wide range of issues associated with the design, procurement and construction of remote housing. I have also engaged in discussions with the Australian government over these issues. I give them credit as it is fair to say they are also very concerned about these issues. The member for Nelson asked about indigenous housing. I invite the member for Nelson to that workshop. Come along, have a listen and, if you have constructive things to say, I am sure they will be taken on board. That also applies to the member for Greatorex.
Mr BONSON: Madam Speaker, I move that the minister be granted an extension of time pursuant to Standing Order 77.
Motion agreed to.
Mr McADAM: I outlined recently in a major speech to this Assembly the outstanding housing shortfall facing indigenous Territorians, and the steps that we have been taking over the past few years to encourage the Australian government to allocate increased resources to these issues. It is gratifying to note that the new federal Minister for Family, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs, Mr Mal Brough, is aware of the huge issues we are facing. He visited the Territory a few months ago, and was here again this week. We have had intensive discussions with him over a range of issues, many of which involved indigenous housing. We look forward to a very cooperative approach between ourselves and the Commonwealth government in addressing these matters.
Publicly-funded housing has continued to be an integral component of the Territory social and economic fabric since World War II. Territory Housing is one of the Territory’s major government business divisions. Its core business is to provide access to safe, secure and affordable housing to Territorians who meet the eligibility criteria as set by this government. The range of housing options supported by Territory Housing includes public housing stock of nearly 6000 dwellings, community housing, private rental housing, through bond assistance, government employee housing, and home ownership.
Under this government, substantial work has been undertaken to ensure that Territory Housing operates on quasi-commercial lines and to clarify the contributions of each of its business lines to its financial performance. This work has seen its financial performance improve considerably against budget over each of the last four financial years. Importantly, this has been achieved without reducing services or impacting on the delivery of the government’s important housing objectives. This trend is expected to continue for 2005-06 and 2006-07.
The 2006-07 budget provides for a $29.9m contribution to the GBD for my department comprising a $14.2m transfer appropriation resourced from the Commonwealth/State Housing Agreement and a $15.7m community service obligation payment for the purchase of housing and related services. As well, Territory Housing raised its own revenue through the charging of rebated rents totalling some $41m, and $13.7m in interest received on loans provided through the successful HomeNorth Extra schemes. Total revenues are budgeted at $87.7m.
Expenses continue to be budgeted at $100m in the coming financial year, on par with this current year. It is no secret that expenditure on public housing in the Northern Territory is comparatively high compared to the national average. Our high costs are partially attributed to poor economies of scale in small jurisdictions and the high demands on budget to deliver services across a larger geographic area, but also the reality of providing services to indigenous people with high needs. With one-third of Territory Housing clients being indigenous, it is estimated that approximately 45% of 2006-07 mainstream public expenditure will be applied to the continuing support of indigenous tenants to access and remain in public housing, and the provision of services to indigenous communities through government employee housing.
Antisocial behaviour continues to be a major challenge for the Territory community. Territory Housing will increase its focus on tackling antisocial behaviour. It is estimated that in excess of $4m will be spent on reducing antisocial behaviour and supporting successful tenancies in and around public housing. Security patrols have increased and will continue to target hot spots. Acceptable behaviour agreements will be introduced in line with government’s antisocial behaviour policy imperatives. Funding will be provided to support organisations to support indigenous clients and provide them with life skills to maintain their tenancies. Indigenous client liaison officers work closely with indigenous clients to maintain their tenancies.
The Territory’s building industry will receive valuable support from Territory Housing’s infrastructure and repairs and maintenance programs for public housing and government employee housing. Over $44m worth of work will directly boost the sector through the Territory’s Housing infrastructure program.
Budget highlights for the coming financial year in Territory Housing include the following initiatives: approximately $22.5m is allocated to repairs and maintenance and minor new works for general public housing and government employee housing; a further $2m is dedicated to the continuation of renovation projects to address amenity of public housing stock to meet housing provision standards and improve neighbourhood appeal; $7m is directed to new construction, to replace and upgrade government employee housing across the Territory; and $2m will be used to redevelop older style public housing unit complexes in Darwin and Tennant Creek - the redevelopment will focus on improving amenity levels and addressing security and antisocial behaviour issues.
In addition, it is expected that approximately $2.5m will be spent constructing homes under HomeNorth Extra. The government has significantly increased its support for home ownership in the Northern Territory with an additional $80m allocated to HomeNorth Extra loans schemes. Demands for loans over the revised scheme have exceeded expectations with more than 940 Territory households benefiting from the revamped scheme since July 2004 and a total of $140m in loans funded and approved in principle. Across all regions, 32% of new loans were provided to Palmerston residents, 23% to Alice Springs, 24% to the northern suburbs of Darwin, 9% to Darwin, 6% to Katherine, 4% to rural areas, and 2% to Tennant Creek residents.
Approximately 82% of funded loans were provided to first home buyers including $5.3m in new unit and housing construction. This is an extraordinary result, with 47% of people taking up the HomeNorth Extra loans being single females and 32% single males. Further, of the loans funded to date, 25% of clients are less than 25 years old and 38% less than 35 years old, demonstrating our success in targeting younger Territorians to make long-term commitments to the place where they have grown up.
Today’s budget lays down another milestone in the Martin government’s effort to develop the Territory for the benefit of all Territorians. The funds allocated in the budget represent a tangible step forward in their own right but, importantly, they are based on sound policy frameworks, a commitment to work with the Australian government and local governments across the Territory, and a commitment to engage with Territorians at all levels. These are steps in the right direction.
Budget 2006-07 in my agency has a dual focus. First, it is focused on needs and challenges in Community Harmony, housing and governance. It allocates available resources, wherever possible, to meet community needs. Second, an equally important focus is on the opportunities available to leverage benefit by working with other levels of government; to revise and improve current policy to ensure better service delivery and better meet the aspirations of the Territory community - be they in relation to the Labor government’s water safety or public housing; and to lay the foundation for a safer and secure future for Territorians. That is a true measure of success of public policy. I am confident that today’s budget does this.
The last issue is the protection of sacred sites; clearly, a very important function of my department. Their primary function is to protect sacred sites and provide information on the location and protection measures for sites to developers and landowners. The variation in the Aboriginal Areas Protection Authority applications can be attributed to a one-off increase in 2005-06 to progress the repatriation of indigenous human skeletal remains and work to enhance the authority’s records. I note that the authority is receiving an increased number of complicated authority certificate applications. The research of some of these is made more difficult by the loss of information on sacred sites due to the passing of senior Aboriginal custodians and the resultant need to undertake more extensive consultation and research. I thank all the people in that department who work so hard.
In conclusion, Madam Speaker, I thank everyone associated with the development of this budget, particularly officers of my department who have worked so hard. It is not an easy task. I recognise and acknowledge the hard work that they put in to reach this budget. I thank Treasury, Jennifer Prince, and those people who contributed so much. It is perhaps summed up by saying: what a ‘Stirling’ effort by all!
Mr KIELY (Sanderson): Madam Speaker, I thank the Treasurer and the Martin government on behalf of the electorate of Sanderson for developing a budget that is good for families, seniors, young Territorians, job seekers, and those in employment and business.
Budget 2006-07 delivers jobs, growth and, overall, a stronger Territory. Budget 2006-07 focuses on the Martin government’s priorities for supporting business, improving educational outcomes, building a healthier Territory, providing a safer community for all Territorians, and enhancing our great Territory lifestyle. In short, this budget makes the Territory a better place to live for Territorians across the board. This budget, as with the previous Martin government’s budgets, is building a better future for the Territory. We are further reducing taxes, providing high levels of infrastructure spending, investing in strategic economic drivers, and implementing a strong social development program. The Martin government has delivered a fantastic budget for the Territory and it has done so while staying within sound and sustainable fiscal parameters.
The Martin government is building the future of the Territory through investment and infrastructure; spending on infrastructure such as roads, housing, and power. The Darwin waterfront and convention centre ensures that the Territory stays ahead of the game. $482m has been allocated to be spent on capital works, minor new works and repairs and maintenance in Budget 2006-07, with an additional $100m being spent on the Darwin waterfront and convention centre. This spending on infrastructure will provide around 5200 jobs directly, with thousands more in flow-on effect in retail and associated industries.
Within this infrastructure spending, $134.9m will be spent on Territory roads and national highways. They are almost too numerous to mention, but one area that springs to the fore is the $700 000 allocated to the Black Spot program to improve safety on Territory roads, with the aim of reducing the road toll. $6.1m has been allocated for local Roads to Recovery funding, meaning better, safer and more reliable roads for the use of all Territorians. The mums and dads in Sanderson will be pleased to hear this and can be confident that the road will be safer for them and their families. $4.5m is allocated for the Litchfield loop road, providing better access for locals and tourists alike to one of the Top End’s most popular attractions. More than $35m is being spent on various highways, providing locals, tourists and industry better access to all parts of the Territory.
Nearly $16m has been allocated in Budget 2006-07 for housing, with $4m for new or replacement government housing and $6.7m for minor new works for housing. The provision of this funding means that affordable housing will continue to be available for Territorians who need it, and that this housing will be of a high standard.
In Budget 2006-07, the Power and Water Corporation will invest $87.1m in capital works and $39.8m in repairs and maintenance. This investment will improve the reliability of the electricity supply and is a step towards the aim of increasing capacity. This allocation is $25m for new power generation capacity in Darwin. There is also funding for continuing the undergrounding power lines project so that more Territorians can enjoy the benefits of underground power, like my constituents in Sanderson.
It has been a while since the CLP last had the chance to introduce a budget, and you can see that from the alternative budget they tried to put forward the other day. I really wonder how they would have managed to fit in the $1.3bn for the power line proposal they took to the electorate last year. What a farce that was and it really went to the heart of their credibility as good budgeting people. They might have had to scrap the Darwin convention centre, and we know what they said about that.
The waterfront development is a project that will receive $100m in the 2006-07 financial year; provide jobs in the Territory for 15 years, and inject $1.1bn into the Territory economy. This project is a great initiative of the Martin government, and will broaden our tourism market and provide a great new resource for local residents. The strong infrastructure budget in 2006-07 is an investment in the Territory’s future, and will provide jobs in the short term with long-lasting flow-on effects for local businesses and the Territory economy as a whole.
This budget is also building on the Territory’s future by supporting business. With Budget 2006-07, the Martin government continues to support Territory business with tax cuts, strategic investment and targeted support for businesses. With this budget, the Martin government’s tax cuts since 2001 will come to $74m and, during this term of office, a further $134m will be cut. Territory businesses will feel the immediate benefits of these tax cuts, with the threshold for payroll tax again being lifted. From 1 July 2006, the threshold will be lifted to $1.25m, more than double the $600 000 threshold in 2001. The increase this year will mean that 58 more small Territory businesses will not be paying payroll tax this year. That is 58 Territory businesses benefiting directly from the government’s tax cuts, joining the more than 120 businesses to have already dropped below the payroll tax threshold since 2001.
Another way the Martin government is supporting business is through providing training for Territorians and building the skills base. This year, the Territory government will spend $84m supporting training and employment programs. This includes $37m for Charles Darwin University, helping young Territorians remain in the Territory while getting their education, expanding their skills base across the Territory. A further $500 000 has been allocated for Build Skills NT, a program aimed at helping existing workers upgrade their skills.
Budget 2006-07 provides $160 000 for supporting scholarships and vocational training and, in the 2006-07 year, more than 2500 trainees and apprentices will commence training. This is, indeed, welcome news to the families of Sanderson whose children are reaching workforce age. It allows young people to stay in the Territory and, along with the pathways mentorship programs, helps with the sometimes difficult transition from school to work.
The government is giving small business a break with tax cuts and ensuring that the Territory has skilled workers to drive these businesses by supporting education, training and employment programs. Through these initiatives, Budget 2006-07 is building a better future for business in the Territory.
A further step in building a stronger future for the Territory is improving education outcomes. Improving student results is, and always has been, an important priority of the Martin government. This result for student outcomes in improved literacy and numeracy is shown in Budget 2006-07 with a record $630.7m for the Employment, Education and Training budget. This figure is up 33% on 2001. The government’s Building Better Schools initiative is funded this year to the tune of $12.45m, including $155 000 for the pathways mentorship program, helping young Territorians to make the transition from school to work. $67.5m has been allocated in Budget 2006-07 for the education infrastructure program, including $20m for repairs and maintenance across all schools and, with the final decision on middle schools yet to be made, $10m has been set aside for any school building works needed.
Budget 2006-07 is continuing its policy of strong support for teachers in our schools and is providing $8.14m for ongoing support for employing 100 extra teachers above formula.
The Martin government provided a $50 payment for school uniforms, school materials and other school essentials to parents for every student returning to school at the start of 2006. This will be paid again at the start of 2007 school year, and almost $2m has been set aside in Budget 2006-07 for this payment to be made.
This is a good, solid budget for education. It is a budget which will ensure that children in the Territory will get a good start, with a good education and the opportunities in later life that this affords them. I am proud to be a member of a government that is providing these opportunities. I am certain that with these initiatives we are building a better future for the Territory.
A healthier Territory means a better future for the Territory. Budget 2006-07 sees Health and Community Services receive $788.6m - a record budget. This is an increase of 64% since the Martin government was elected in 2001. This spending on health is a boost for all Territorians.
Budget 2006-07 is providing a strong future for Territory hospitals. Budget 2006-07 allocates the Royal Darwin Hospital $196m. This figure is up 75% since 2001. The Alice Springs Hospital will receive $97m, up 79% since 2001; $10m will go to Tennant Creek Hospital, up 57% since 2001; $23m for Katherine Hospital, up 66% since 2001; and $71m for Gove District Hospital, up 54% since 2001.
We have all heard the opposition knock the health system time and time again. However, it is pretty clear from these figures that they did not give it much importance when they were in power. Budget 2006-07 sees a significant investment in the health of Territorians. I am proud of this budget which provides good support for the community and for families, more money for hospitals, and more money for families when they get sick. I am sure this is a comfort to the people of Sanderson, knowing that they have a government which is actually putting money into the health system.
In the 2005 election, we promised to extend pensioner concessions to people who receive the Commonwealth Carer’s Allowance with a carer’s card. Budget 2006-07 delivers on this promise, with $1.05m being provided. $3.6m is being provided to subsidise childcare, making it more affordable for families. $500 000 is being provided for playground equipment for community-based childcare centres, and $450 000 is being allocated to help people with age-related and disability issues to return home. This spending on health and community services is great news for families in Sanderson, and across the Territory.
As I mentioned before, we constantly hear the opposition rattling on about health, but they were never prepared to give it the resources needed. This is a record budget - $788.6m. This is an increase of 64% since 2001 - an increase of 64% on what the opposition was prepared to spend on the health and wellbeing of Territorians. They love to talk about it; but we are getting in there and taking the initiative, allocating the funding and making the changes.
Another area about which we hear a lot from the opposition is community safety. This is an area of which I am very proud. Since 2001, the Martin government has been building a safer community for Territorians. We have been improving police numbers and resources, implementing crime prevention programs, and tackling antisocial behaviour. This is another area of the budget with record spending.
Budget 2006-07 delivers $212m for Police, Fire and Emergency Services; an increase of 55% since 2001. Seventeen thousand additional patrol hours will result from increases in the budget this year. The strength of the police force will increase to 1130 by the end of the year, and 34 extra police will be in place. Since beginning its upgrading program, the Martin government will have put an additional 200 police on the beat at the end of this financial year.
The Martin government has also provided improved living and working conditions for police, and has established dedicated Traffic Branches in Darwin and Alice Springs. This strengthened and better-resourced police force is complemented in Budget 2006-07 with support for community groups, with $400 000 in crime prevention grants and $110 000 for Neighbourhood Watch. That is good news for Neighbourhood Watch in Sanderson, which is probably the most active in all of the Territory. They are meeting tonight in the Sanderson office. If you want to see a really proactive Neighbourhood Watch, I suggest you get there.
In this budget, there is a strong emphasis on tackling antisocial behaviour. This includes: $1.76m for juvenile diversionary program grant funding; $1.069m for the Office of Alcohol Policy and Coordination to implement whole-of-government policies relating to alcohol abuse, including $275 000 to implement local area alcohol management plans; $630 000 for community patrol services in Darwin; $560 000 providing new treatment places for people who are subject to an alcohol intervention order or a prohibition order from an alcohol court; and $200 000 to establish the alcohol court.
Budget 2006-07 delivers for Territorians on the issue of community safety. I am happy to say it delivers my constituents in Sanderson with more than $134m allocated to support the Darwin region to allow Territorians to enjoy our great Territory lifestyle. This fantastic budget is further investing in the future of all Territorians by building on and enhancing our great lifestyle. Budget 2006-07 invests in the future of sport, fishing, the arts, culture, and entertainment. It protects our lifestyle for today and into the future.
I like my fishing and, although perhaps not as passionate as the member for Karama, I agree that it is the lure of the Territory. Budget 2006-07 is supporting the future of fishing in the Territory, funding for resource protection and research. The government is spending over $1m over three years to buy back fishing licences; $161 000 for the continuation of the world-leading Genetag project; $0.96m will be spent on monitoring the mud crab fishery as part of the mud crab fishery management plan; we are developing a strategic harvest framework for the Territory’s major fisheries; and $500 000 will be available for more fishing infrastructure.
Territorians and visitors alike will benefit from the government’s support for parks across the Territory. Budget 2006-07 is supporting 145 rangers and 37 support staff with $27.4m, and providing $5.9m for the Territory Wildlife Park.
Budget 2006-07 continues the Territory government’s push to bring world-class major events to the Territory. In 2006-07, the government will support international cricket at Marrara from July 2006; high-quality AFL matches including an August 2006 fixture between the Western Bulldogs and Port Adelaide, as well as an Aboriginal All Stars match early in 2007; a national basketball league match in 2007; around $2.3m for the Arafura Games in May 2007; and $1.05m for V8 Supercars from June 2006.
Quite a number of these events are in the Sanderson electorate at Marrara. While I would like to lay claim for the Marrara Sporting Complex, it is a true Territory asset. It is a credit to this Sports minister, and Sports ministers before her. It is also a credit to the minister for Infrastructure. In fact, it is a credit to the whole government. I give credit to the previous government for their foresight for putting in place the infrastructure. However, the difference with this government is that we are building it up. We cannot forget the $5m, I believe it was, we had to put into the Marrara Stadium to get that up to scratch. We have put a lot of money into Marrara since we have been in government, but it is bringing back a dividend. It is not wasted money; it is targeted, well-focused and is bringing in a dividend to the people of the Territory. It is also something from which we derive a great benefit in our lifestyle choices. I commend the government for their focus on bringing major events to the Territory.
This government has developed a budget that ensures Territorians will continue to enjoy a unique lifestyle into the future. I thank the Treasurer - arguably the best Treasurer the Territory has ever had …
Mr Wood: We can argue about it.
Mr KIELY: We can argue about it, member for Nelson. I will pick up that interjection. We should never forget that when this government came into power, we had a Public Accounts Committee inquiry into some pretty terrible and horrible practices perpetrated by the previous government in order to falsify the true account of the Territory’s fiscal state. The member for Nelson was part of that PAC; he knows what went on. He knows the story exactly; he knows the black hole was a reality. He knows the fudging of the figures that the last government did. Yes, I say that our Treasurer is honest, straight, reliable and, arguably, the best we have seen here. There is no credit to be had by the CLP for the previous ways that they tackled their budgets.
While I am on that subject, I listened to the Leader of the Opposition’s alternative budget and what they would do. It had more holes in it than an old pair of pantyhose. I wonder where they were pulling that from. I listened to that budget and saw shades of 2001. Is this an alternative government which is looking to the future, or one that, through their own fault, has no depth, so they reached into 2001 and grabbed out an old budget? I will have to check the Parliamentary Record. I might do a Google search on a previous CLP Treasurer’s budget speech. I would not be surprised to see quite a number of those things in there. We know the hacks who were working on it. If that is the alternative they have to offer, they are going to be a long time in opposition.
I again thank the Treasurer - arguably the best Treasurer the Territory has ever had - and the Martin government for delivering this great budget. Budget 2006-07 builds the Territory’s future. It delivers growth, jobs and a stronger Territory. This budget spends on infrastructure across the Territory with projects in all regions, which again, is another quite demonstrative change from the previous governments we have had. The benefits of this will be seen by everyone, from individuals to small contractors to large companies. This budget is supporting business with tax cuts and training programs for workers.
The Martin government is determined to lift student outcomes and improve literacy and numeracy, and Budget 2006-07 with record spending for the Employment, Education and Training budget, sets out to achieve this.
Record spending on health is building a better future for Territorians and, in combination with record spending on community safety, will ensure that Territorians can enjoy the Territory lifestyle now and into the future.
Budget 2006-07 grows the economic base of the Territory and provides thousands of jobs for Territorians. It makes great strides to deliver on the Martin government’s second term agenda, and achieves all of that within sound fiscal parameters.
Madam Speaker, I commend the budget to the House.
Mr WOOD (Nelson): Madam Speaker, in the short time I have to analyse the budget I cannot go through everything that has been presented to us. That occasion will come up in the Estimates Committee where we can analyse some of the statements made by various ministers. I will make some general comments and a number of specific comments related specifically to my electorate.
At the start – and I have said it before - the day they put this book in spiral form I will be very pleased. If you have ever had to open up this book and then try to open up last year’s budget book, you need some more elbows, or bricks. It is not exactly a user-friendly book to analyse. I hope one day we can get it in a format that is easier to use. Also, it is pity we do not have the 2005-06 original estimates in a column next to the 2005-06 estimates in this budget so that we can see the variation without having to go back through last year’s budget. I do not think that having an extra column in this book would really be a problem.
Commenting on a few of the regional highlights, I welcome the government building new classrooms at the Humpty Doo Primary School for high support special needs students. Anyone who has a child with those special needs would very much appreciate the government putting in those facilities. I believe those facilities are also due to go into the Bees Creek Primary School this year as well. I thank the government for the provision of those services.
I notice one of my favourite subjects, which is $200 000 - or $2000, I am not sure - for bus shelters in the rural area. That is an interesting one because we have the bus shelters nearly down to the rural area, and then we ran into a stumbling block between the local council and the government over who would take responsibility for them, especially in the case of public liability. I gather, even though we have six bus shelters to Freds Pass Reserve, we could not actually get them in place around the rural area. The council wrote to the government asking that they take responsibility for them. I am presuming that the government has put that budget item in to facilitate the erection of these bus shelters. I hope when the government does put in these bus shelters, it talks to the local council or school councils to make sure they are put in the best position.
Recently, it was said to me that if you go down the Stuart Highway to the rural area, you see all the bus shelters on the left hand side as you go out of town, yet the place you need them is on the right hand side, because people have to wait for a bus and, if it is raining or the sun is beating down, that is where you are more likely to need a bus shelter. I appreciate the government putting some money in for that particular request.
There is also $1500 to provide access to the Palmerston Indigenous Village. I noticed in the Regional Highlights it is referred to as the 15 Mile camp. I believe ‘camp’ is a word we should not be using any more. You might want to call it the 15 Mile because you might not like the idea of the Palmerston Indigenous Village. However, the Palmerston Indigenous Village is its name and that is what it should be called.
There is also $150 000 to landscape the Stuart Highway at Coolalinga. I asked this question in the last sittings of parliament and a number of times previously: when are we going to see the landscape plan for Coolalinga? I am pleased there is $150 000 in the budget for it. However, what I am not too pleased about is whether the local business community, and the community in general, has seen the landscape plan. One of the keys to this was that the community would have some say in what the plan would look like. Coolalinga is the gateway, I suppose, for tourists before they get into Palmerston and Darwin. We are sadly lacking beautification of that strip of the highway. There was an original thought of putting poincianas at both ends of Coolalinga, and I believe that was howled down pretty well straightaway – not because we do not like poincianas, but we did not think they were suitable for the entrance to Coolalinga. From then on, we have not heard anything until it was mentioned in the budget.
I also note there has been a plan released for the landscaping of all major arterial roads to Darwin and Darwin rural as far as Howard Springs, along the Arnhem Highway to the Humpty Doo District Centre, and down as far as Noonamah and to Cox Peninsula Road. The strange thing is, that plan was done in June 2005. I asked a number of questions about what was happening with that plan. It arrived on my desk the day before Anzac Day and I was asked to comment by the end of the week. It is a big plan. It is a little disappointing that, if the government is going to put effort into producing things like landscape plans, then it must allow the public to have a reasonable amount of time to consider those plans.
There is $740 000 for public library services. I know that covers Palmerston and the rural area. I am always pleased to see that there is money for the Taminmin High School Community Library. It is a very important library, not just for rural people, but also for people who rely on library books through the mail. It is a country borrowing centre for library books throughout the Northern Territory. There are not only books, of course, but CDs, games and all those things modern libraries have today.
There is $30 000 for cane toad protection for birds of prey at the Territory Wildlife Park. That is a good initiative. I have said before that I believe it is a pity that the government has not spent more money on cane toad protection in the form of fencing off areas of the Northern Territory so that cane toads cannot get into those areas. Unfortunately, that has fallen on deaf ears. Even the infamous Cobourg Peninsula fence seems to have died altogether.
I notice there is $500 000 weed management for Cabomba. Looking through the previous budget, there was about $300 000 provided over three years. My understanding is that the control has not been as successful as it was first thought. A friend of mine in Howard Springs was the person who discovered Cabomba weed, which has now been recorded for the first time in Australia as having been spread via the sea. Formerly, they thought it was spread by vegetative means. It has now been reported that it has been able to spread by sea, which means it is a major risk to waterways in the Northern Territory. I am pleased that we are spending a lot of money on this particular program. There has been talk that shade may be the way to kill it, because it does not like to live in shaded areas. Up to now, we have been using herbicides. It is something about which we cannot just wait around - and I do not believe the government is doing that. We just cannot leave this particular issue, because it evokes memories of Mimosa, where we had it for a short period of time and nothing much was done. Even though some people said it was a danger, it was not done and you know how much it costs now to get rid of that particular weed. We certainly do not want that to happen with Cabomba.
I noticed another item, and the minister for Lands might have mentioned it. There was $3.7m for the reallocation of fuel tanks. I know many of us were concerned about how big the tank at Wickham Point would be in relation to the landscape of Darwin Harbour. I have been approached by people who are more concerned by the fuel tanks at East Arm Port, which stand out like a sore thumb. The minister knows my view on the lack of public input in the planning on East Arm, but I would have thought that there could have been some concept of landscaping in front of those tanks. You are not going to get a tree as big as those tanks, but there are trees that would have at least broken the ugly sight of a number of tanks that stand out from the wharf at the waterfront like a sore thumb.
We are turning our harbour into an industrial outlook rather than a natural outlook which it used to be just a few years ago. It is sad that we have not taken into account how our harbour looks for those people who will live around it. Some people might love fuel tanks, they are just fuel tanks - thank you, minister; the minister is nodding his head, he loves fuel tanks. We need fuel tanks, but it does not mean it has be something we see night and day - and you certainly see them at night.
I notice there is $271 000 for the Tulagi Road traffic changes. I have written to the minister and said that I believe this is a waste of money. This money should have gone towards an overpass on Tiger Brennan Drive. I do not see anything in the budget for Tiger Brennan Drive. Many rural and Palmerston people wonder when they are going to get some relief from the traffic jams that occur around the 11 Mile, the Holtze area. The way around that is to take traffic away from that area via Tiger Brennan Drive, which has been mentioned in parliament before, and use an overpass at the corner of Stuart Highway and Roystonea Avenue. There is nothing in the here; the closest we have is that we are going to have changes to the traffic lights at Tulagi Road.
There is $570 000 for the Channel Point boat ramp. I was approached by a person who either uses that area or lives there and is concerned that the government has changed the point at which the boat ramp is going to access the sea. Can the minister give us some idea whether there have been changes to the design? I do not know whether some people had concerns that it was too close to private land and it should have been further away, but the minister may be able to clarify that point at a later stage.
I notice there is $2m for urban enhancement. The government has had a program for some years of working with councils to beautify various shopping centres in Darwin and Palmerston. I have asked before why such money should not be used by Litchfield Shire Council, if they so applied, for the little urban niches in the rural area such as Howard Springs, Humpty Doo, Coolalinga which has a landscape plan coming now, Berry Springs and Virginia. Those areas could do with a little lift.
I asked a question earlier about water meters. The minister has said that the idea of having water meters in the Darwin rural area has been scrapped for the time being and that money has gone to the Daly River water resources program. I am a little concerned. The member for Goyder presumed that I was being a little tricky in the question and that I was presuming the government was going to charge people for water. That was the least thing on my mind. I was relating to a press release from Malcolm Turnbull which mentioned this very issue.
I wanted clarification of what it was about because, at the public meeting last year where this was discussed, there were about 100 people who volunteered to have meters on their bores. They knew it was not about charging for water; it was taking part in a program to find out how much water is being used in the rural area. This would assist in better planning for subdivisions, for production bores, and for the environment. We do not have that information and the only way to get it was to ask for volunteers to allow a meter to be put on their bore to get some idea of the water usage in the rural area.
I note also there is $700 000 for a consultancy for an environmental impact statement for Glyde Point. This is an area that needs much more discussion. I know that the people from the Environment Centre are totally opposed to it. I am not particularly supportive of that blanket opposition. We need a place for heavy industrial development. The real question is: how is that development going to occur? If you look at the maps the planning people have put out, there is a large area of mangroves that they intend to fill. I have problems with that in the sense that, why can’t we develop an industrial area without having to remove large areas of mangroves? After all, we want access to the water and that will be via the port. I do not know why we have to have access on top of the water via the mangroves.
There needs to be a bit more discussion about the Glyde Point industrial estate. At the present time, I do not think there has been enough discussion on this issue. When I see that there will be $700 000 for consultancy for an EIS, I will be keeping my ears and eyes open to see if the government is moving on this area. It needs quite a bit of public consultation, not only about the mangroves, but also the rainforest. If you talk to people who look at the wildlife in the rural area, they will tell you there are certain species of bird that rely on going from one pocket of rainforest to another. Also, by having that movement of animals and birds in the rainforest, you maintain the variation within the species within those rainforests. That helps to extend the life of those pockets of rainforest. There are some important issues there. I hope the government ensures the public is fully aware of what is happening.
One of the things I thought was outstanding by its absence in discussion - although it was brought up today during Question Time - was fuel costs. I fuelled my car yesterday at 142.9 per litre. Someone told me that fuel at Rabbit Flat is about $2.20 per litre. I know the government might say it is not them, they do not have control. As the cost of fuel must be extraordinarily high for the remote areas, where it must be really hard for an Aboriginal family living at Yuendumu or Papunya, I suggest this government look at a transport subsidy. It used to occur federally, many years ago, where the federal government had a philosophy that you could get fuel at the one price wherever you went throughout Australia. May I suggest that the government looks at helping those communities which are going to be hardest hit - the ones out bush - with some sort of transport subsidy try to at least alleviate some of the costs of fuel in those areas.
Is there anything mentioned in the budget regarding fuel costs? By the end of the budget year, if fuel is around $2 a litre in Darwin, where is that extra cost? Has it been allowed for? A few years ago, we might have said you were talking through your hat if you said fuel was to be $2 per litre? It has been discussed in the media. We are already up to a $1.43 per litre and we know that the price of fuel is increasing all the time. I would have thought, in the context of a budget discussion, the issue of fuel would be raised. We have a relatively large fleet of cars that the government runs. All of us here drive one of those vehicles and we are all using up fuel, and that is going to cost the taxpayer money. So are all the vehicles the government uses. That was something that seemed to be missing from this whole debate.
Girraween Road intersection which has been raised a number of times in this House, is still not on the budget. There has been some work in that area, with surveyors pegging out the intersection. This is the intersection of Girraween Road and the Stuart Highway. The idea is to join that part of the Girraween Road up to Henning Road, which is on the other side of the Stuart Highway where Woolworths is. It has been a promise of the government for some years, but it is very slow coming.
I know it is only a minor work, but I have asked quite a few times for the government to look at a slip lane at the Howard Springs tip. I have been told it is happening but, again, there is nothing in the budget. It may be in minor works, and I hope the minister can clarify that.
The member for Goyder claimed bicycle paths in Palmerston on the old north Australian railway line is one of his election promises. It has not turned up in this year’s budget, so we have three years to go, hopefully. Otherwise we will all get out there with a pick and shovel and we will do it ourselves and turn it into a bush trail. I must admit - and I will say again - things like the bicycle path along the old railway line should be, where possible, avenues for CDEP or employment programs. We have people out there. The 15 Mile community or the Palmerston Indigenous Village is right next door. They could have opportunities to learn welding and painting of bridges. Even if we turned it into an adventure trail - maybe not with bitumen, at least with gravel or cracker dust - we could at least start on one of those projects.
Some people have said the budget is dull and boring; I say it is a ‘steady as it goes’-type budget. I wonder whether we are being creative enough. Darwin city is growing at a fairly rapid rate as you can see by all the high-rise units around the town - for better or worse. The rural area and Palmerston is growing, yet there do not seem to be initiatives for some form of public transport. When you add the cost of fuel, which is going up and up, and look at the number of people now being jammed into the small peninsula of Darwin, why are we not looking into the future and being a bit creative? Why could we not have a light rail system? Why could we not have light rail similar to the new German trams that are used in Melbourne - a service that went from Palmerston to Darwin pretty quickly, or from Casuarina to Darwin, or that could even go as far as Humpty Doo and Noonamah? Why are we not looking now at spending the money on infrastructure that will be used in the future?
It is going to get harder and harder for people in the rural area to be able to get to work, and many public servants live in the rural area. Why have we not looked at the process of having rail stations where you have adequate car parking for people to leave their cars when they come to town - and promote it? We rely on buses all the time, but I do not think that is the answer. People want fast transport straight into town, a reliable place to leave their vehicle, and cheap transport. With the cost of fuel, this is the time we should be looking at alternative transport for our city. Again, we do not seem to be able to use it. We have the corridors to enable these things to happen, but we just do not seem to want to look that far into the future or take a bit deep breath and try it.
I was listening to Tony Delroy’s program on the ABC last night, which was on early - I am not sure why. It was about town planning. It was about the spread of cities and whether it is good to spread the cities out or have high-rise buildings in the main part of the city. A gentleman from Melbourne rang up talking about public transport. He did not believe that any new railway lines had been put into Melbourne since 1920. Somewhere back in 1920, people had the vision that they needed public transport and, even though those public transport systems are old and probably could be extended, they serve the capital cities well.
The Treasurer said much about taxation. I do not deny that the payroll tax threshold has been changed and stamp duty has been taken off people with franchises and all that sort of thing. However, what is really helping the family in taxation? Very little. What hurts the family when it comes to taxation in the Northern Territory? Double dipping. If you insure your house, your car, or your boat, you pay double taxation. You pay the GST and stamp duty on that as well. We get $63m extra GST revenue, and we say: ‘No, it is going to be used for this and this, and we cannot take the stamp duty off insurance because that was not part of the agreement’. I would have thought that you could take the initiative and say: ‘We are getting extra money’.
The reason for the GST was to reduce home-grown taxes and, yet, the very taxes that hurt people the most - stamp duty on insurance - we are not touching. Do not ask me why – maybe we just want to hang on to that money. That is where we should be reducing taxation. You can take it off some of these other things. I do not think taking stamp duty off people with franchises is going to affect the majority of people in the community. However, most people have two cars and a house, and many people have a boat on which they pay insurance; and many people have household insurance. They are paying double taxation on all of that. It is time the government took the lead and took off stamp duty altogether. It gets the extra money, and the reason it is getting GST is to reduce that kind of taxation. However, because it is not written down in some agreement, it does not happen.
I have spoken about the oncology and radiotherapy unit. Somebody in the Labor Party promised to build it on its own. It still has not happened. Now the government wants federal government help. I say build it, and still get federal government help to keep it running because it will cost money to run. It will be a unit for the whole of the region, not just the Northern Territory. We could build it and then have the Commonwealth help us with the running of it for the region.
Another area of note which I have spoken on before is indigenous literacy. I am disappointed that the true figures are removed from the budget by just putting all indigenous students into the one basket. Originally, you had indigenous students in remote areas and in non-remote areas. Two years ago, the figure for literacy of indigenous students in Year 3 in remote areas was about 9%. If you look at these figures today, for indigenous students the national reading benchmark, Year 3, is 39%. That is terrible. There is no doubt about it. However, you do not see the true figures of what it is in remote communities.
Indigenous students achieving national numeracy benchmarks for Year 7 is 24%. What is the figure for remote areas? I gather it is far worse. It is a pity that those figures are not there. The minister will talk of the great improvement we are having in education but, when you come to see the figures, they are not here. It is a pity that those figures have been taken out. One of the biggest scandals in our part of the world is the low rates of reading, writing and numeracy, especially with indigenous students. It is not only with indigenous students, it is low in other parts of the Territory as well.
Another area which the government has also been a little mean in funding is the Ombudsman. I remember the previous Ombudsman complaining about the lack of resources and money. I note in the 2004-05 Ombudsman’s report - I presume Ms Carolyn Richards had only just started work but obviously, had a hand in writing it - she said:
She went on about similar things; that there simply has not been enough money to do the work that the Ombudsman needs to do, yet there has been hardly an increase at all in the budget. It might be about $16 000. That is surely insufficient to run the Ombudsman’s office, especially in light of how much the workload has increased over the last few years.
While I believe horticulture and agriculture are very important parts of our economy in the Northern Territory, I do not believe those areas get anywhere near as much attention as they should. I find it very disappointing, for instance, that in horticulture we are getting rid of extension officers. That is a crying shame. We do little research work of our own anymore; it has to be industry funded. Years ago, in the vegetable section of horticulture, we would be trying out many varieties of vegetables from overseas to see whether they were heat tolerant. Most people in the private sector cannot do that. In the Northern Territory, where we have the opportunity to find niche markets because we can grow things out of season, we are doing very little research work as we used to.
We are not looking far enough into the future. We are relying on private industry and on our existing industry. By not doing enough independent trial work, we are not making the opportunities available for people to find other opportunities to develop horticulture in the Northern Territory.
I notice there is also $1.68m in the Department of Justice’s budget because of the increased prisoner numbers. Unfortunately, I do not see any changes - any work camps, any other alternative ways of dealing with prisoners. They are either in gaol in Darwin or in Alice Springs. We really have to start to look at alternatives …
Mr BONSON: Mr Deputy Speaker, I move that the member be granted an extension of time pursuant to Standing Order 77.
Motion agreed to.
Mr WOOD: Thank you, member for Millner. I will be as quick as I can.
In regard to the EPA - I know the member for Arafura has been waiting for this - I notice the EPA program according to the budget is $4.4m. I believe you actually said $3.5m in your speech; I may be wrong there.
Ms Scrymgour: $4.4m.
Mr WOOD: $4.4m. There was about $3.5m last year. There are several reasons why I am confused. The minister said we have set up an interim EPA Board which is to look at how we will have an EPA. We have not done that yet, except through the Environment and Sustainable Development Committee …
Ms Scrymgour: It is in two stages.
Mr WOOD: Hang on. You have not done it, so you cannot call anything an EPA until you have done it ...
Ms Scrymgour: It is an EPA program.
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER: Through the Chair, please, members.
Ms Scrymgour: Oh, sorry!
Mr WOOD: You were going to set up this EPA Board. We have this interim EPA Board which is going to look at what kind of EPA it will be. However, the minister said today it is already going to take in water issues and the department and all these sorts of things. That is going to be that the department is going to be the EPA. However, you have already told us what the EPA is going to be. You told us today in your statement. That is why I sat here and listened carefully. On the other hand, you said the interim board is going to go out to the public and ask them what kind of EPA they are going to have. If that is not a contradiction, I do not know what is. I must ask while I have the chance: how can the EPA program be anything? A program is something you get when you come through the front door of the picture theatre or the theatre; it is not a body. An authority is a body …
Ms Scrymgour: Now you are misinterpreting things.
Mr WOOD: I am confused because the EPA, when it looked at McArthur River, wrote ‘EPA’. When you asked McArthur River to look at a preliminary environment report, you said: ‘Please write to the EPA program’. What do we have? We have a mishmash. It is confusing …
Ms Scrymgour: You have had a full briefing and you are still confused.
Mr WOOD: I am telling you what it looks like from the public point of view - it looks confusing.
Ms Lawrie: No, from your point of view, Gerry.
Mr WOOD: No, I can read as well as anyone else.
Another issue is parks. When you look through the parks section in the budget, it gives you numbers for people going to Alice Springs Wildlife Park or the Berry Springs Wildlife Park; that is fine. What this does not give is how many people are visiting our normal parks. I have mentioned this before, using figures that were given in the EIS: parks visitor numbers were dropping. I have to ask why visitor numbers have not been put in this book. If they were put in for the wildlife park and for the Alice Springs park, why have all parks not been put in here? We can then compare whether visitors are going to our parks. The figures I had from the …
Ms Lawrie: Annual report.
Mr WOOD: Yes, but we are not dealing with the annual report; it does not come out for another two months. Do not give me the annual report bit ...
Ms Scrymgour: The Parks and Wildlife …
Mr WOOD: No, it should be in here. You have the visitor figures for the other parks of your area. You should have it for the other parks.
Ms Scrymgour: I will have them for you in estimates.
Mr WOOD: That is right, but they should be in the budget so that we can compare whether people are visiting our parks. Thank you.
I also note that, under Park Management program for 2004-05, it is stated there is 90% satisfaction about our park management program for 2004-05. If you open up 2006-07 and the park management program satisfaction is now 65%. I ask: why has park management program satisfaction dropped off by at least 25%? That does not sound too good. I do not know whether people are not happy with what is going on. I mention that and, perhaps, the minister can raise that at another time.
It would have been nice to hear about subsidies for rainwater tanks. That is an issue, especially for the Centre. That is a good one; $50 for water saving devices. I can see people just waltzing into Mitre 10 and Bunnings at 100 mph. We need a subsidy for something that people would find more useful; that is, rainwater tanks.
Ms Scrymgour: The study is nearly complete.
Mr WOOD: I am giving a considered opinion.
The Minister for Housing was talking about indigenous housing earlier and he has invited me to a workshop in July. However, I am concerned when I see figures like $60m for 77 houses and 15 upgrades. If I do the maths and divide that total of 92 houses into $60m, I come up with $650 000. There might be other reasons for that, but I have said before that is a terribly expensive house to build out in the bush. No wonder we do not have enough houses for indigenous people. I know the minister said that they are tackling that and are bringing up Michael Wooldridge to talk about that at a workshop. However, it is one of the most urgent and pressing needs to sort out how we can produce cheaper, but adequate, housing for indigenous people.
The Minister for Essential Services talked about undergrounding electricity in Nightcliff. Great idea! I do not have any problem with it. However, when I wrote a letter to the minister - I am not sure which minister it was at that stage - asking why we could not start to underground or remove some of the spaghetti water lines in the rural area, which are a real pain in the neck because they are too shallow and they leak, I received a straight, flat ‘no’. We do not have to put the power lines in Nightcliff under the ground; you still have electricity. However, they look ugly and they get blown over in a cyclone. The people are not paying a caveat for that; that is just the government being nice to the people of Nightcliff and putting the power lines underground. I believe it is a good program.
When people in the rural area ask if you would replace their water mains which are now causing problems, and could you spend, say, $100 000 a year on a program to remove them, the government says no. You have to ask why. Are there more votes in the northern suburbs, and not so much in the rural area? In the long run, those spaghetti lines are going to be major trouble because they are leaking and causing problems with the council grading its roads and doing the drains.
My last comment on electricity is that I know the minister spoke about improving the services in Darwin and Palmerston with a new substation. I have a list of all the outages in the Howard Park area, and it is quite a list since the beginning of the year. One, two …
Mr Henderson: Bats.
Mr WOOD: Bats? Whatever, thank you. This is the list that was sent to me. People in that area are saying that there is not sufficient infrastructure being put into that area to shorten the time for the repair people to come out and find out where the fault is. I ask the minister if he could please look at the houses at Melaleuca and Callistemon Roads in the rural area. Some of the outages are short, but some of them are quite long and can be up to about five hours. When I start getting phone calls at 8.30 in the office, when I think I can hide there to do some work …
Mr Henderson: Send it over to me, Gerry, and I will have a look.
Mr WOOD: Thank you, minister, I will do that.
In summing up, I know there are plenty of other areas we could talk about and we will do so in the Estimates Committee. I sometimes feel that the government has to bite the bullet and be a little creative. Public transport in the form of a fast train - light train, light rail, whatever you want to call it - from Palmerston, Casuarina, and the rural area is something we have to start looking at. If we can alleviate the higher fuel costs, increased amount of traffic coming into Darwin, and more traffic on our roads that is good. It is also better for the environment when there is less fuel being burnt up. I do not know why we cannot at least have a go and show some other cities how it is done. We are only a small city at the moment. We should be able to put that infrastructure in now so, when we are a big city, that infrastructure is already in place.
Ms LAWRIE (Family and Community Services): Mr Deputy Speaker, I support the Treasurer and the great budget of 2006-07. This is the fifth budget of the Martin government, but my first budget as a minister.
Budget 2006-07 builds the Territory’s future. It is about helping families get ahead. As Minister for Family and Community Services, I am delighted that this budget continues with our program of building a healthier Territory. In past budgets, the Martin government has invested significantly in Health and Community Services, particularly in the areas of mental health and child protection services, in order to overcome some of the historical neglect in these areas.
The increases to the Family and Community Services budget this year mean that since coming to government we have doubled the overall budget. We are now spending twice as much on helping families as the previous CLP government did. What this means is that an additional $87m is being spent each year on vital services to help families and help some of our more vulnerable members of the community live fulfilling lives.
This budget continues the government’s vision for the Territory. It incorporates a range of measures designed to further boost the government’s investment in helping community services. However, it is also designed to consolidate the significant investment already made. We must ensure that our suite of health and community services is working effectively to enhance the health and wellbeing of Territorians, and also in a cost-efficient manner.
For example, in the Family and Community Services portfolio, child protection notifications have increased dramatically since 2001-02. It is clear that only the tip of the iceberg of child abuse and neglect had previously been identified and responded to. We made a significant investment over five years to enhance the Territory’s child protection services. This investment continues in this budget of 2006-07. The increases this year mean that we have more than quadrupled the CLP child protection budget yet, sadly, the number of notifications, investigations, and substantiated cases of child abuse and neglect, along with the number of children in care, continues to rise each year and are expected to continue to do so for some time to come. It is clear that these increases have resulted from greater surveillance, community awareness and a willingness to respond to child abuse and child neglect.
We recognise and continue to support the important role key Aboriginal community leaders have taken in speaking out against child abuse and neglect in their community. We have invested in initiatives that will strengthen families and their communities. Further, we will ensure that all health and community services, particularly the key services at the heart of a well-functioning community services system, are working for the best interest of our vulnerable children, their families and our community. However, while we continue to work and invest in crisis services that can protect children, the best evidence we have indicates that it is by preventing harm before it occurs we can best ensure that the number of vulnerable children and families is reduced.
For that reason, the government has supported the national agenda for early childhood, a framework for investment in health and welfare promotion in the early years of a child’s life - that period of life where investment can have the most impact. Recognising that there are multiple cases of hardship and vulnerability, I and my department commit to working with my ministerial colleagues across government to promote prevention initiatives and to address the underlying community issues that impact on children and family health and their wellbeing. This is how we can ensure that we get the best value from the investments the government is making. The new commitments I will discuss today.
There is an additional $1.7m in funding which will be used to expand the capacity of the specialist care and foster care programs which cater for the increasing numbers of children and young people coming into care in the Territory, and to enhance FACS capacity to meet the complex, therapeutic needs of children and young people who have suffered severe abuse and neglect. The government recognises the importance of preventing harm before it occurs but, in cases where abuse or neglect is identified, they need to work with families to reduce the risk of harm, and the need to take children into care is incredibly important. For that reason, we have provided funding that will enable FACS to consolidate the expanded child protection and intensive family preservation services already established in the first two years of the Caring for our Children reforms undertaken by the Martin government, and to partner with the Australian government to implement innovative new indigenous family support and family intervention programs designed to prevent children from coming into care.
Thankfully, most children grow up in healthy, happy families, free from harm and violence. This government values and supports all Territory parents and children, but recognises the particular importance of the early years of life to a child’s health and wellbeing and, therefore, the need to support the families of young children. The government will enhance the funding and support for early childhood and childcare services in this coming financial year with the provision of one-off grants to not-for-profit children services to purchase new playground equipment. An initiative of $500 000 has been allocated, and the grants will be allocated through two funding rounds in May and September 2006.
The Northern Territory Child Care Subsidy will also continue to be provided to assist with costs of childcare for families. In 2006-07, subsidy payments are expected to total $3.6m. This subsidy directly reduces the cost of childcare for Territory families. The Northern Territory is the only state or territory jurisdiction that provides this subsidy. As we know, childcare waiting lists remain high in the Territory, particularly in our regional centres such as Katherine, Tennant Creek, Alice Springs and Nhulunbuy. The Commonwealth government has responsibility for the provision of affordable and accessible childcare. They have flagged that they are looking to double the childcare places in their budget next week. We call on them to ensure that they double the number of places available right across the Northern Territory.
The Supported Accommodation Assistance Program, known as SAAP, provides the core accommodation support, outreach and case management services for people who are either homeless or at risk of homelessness. Many of the Territory’s SAAP clients are women and children escaping family violence. In January of this year, the Northern Territory government signed the fifth SAAP funding agreement with the Australian government. In this coming financial year, the total SAAP funding of the Northern Territory will be $8.9m, of which $430 000 will be targeted towards innovative service expansion which will include the development of family violence programs and activities in remote areas, enhancing services for children who are homeless and presenting at SAAP services with their parents and families. As part of this new five-year agreement, Cabinet approved an additional $5.4m of Territory funding for SAAP services. It should also be recognised that the Territory had previously committed approximately 40% of the total SAAP program funds. However, under this new agreement, the Territory will match the Australian government annual funding contributions from year three of the agreement.
We have not forgotten the need to invest further in the aged care and disability sectors. The Home and Community Care program, known as HACC, reaches right across the Territory through urban, rural and many remote communities. It provides essential funding that lets communities look after their old people and their younger people who are affected by disability. In 2006-07, approximately $500 000 will be available for growth in HACC-funded services. Priorities will include the establishment of new services in larger remote communities; purchase of essential equipment; and support for transitional support services and areas experiencing increased service demand due to a demographic change.
This government recognises that our investment in the disability sector must be strategic and one that provides the most positive impact possible. In 2006-07, we will complete a major review of the disability service system. This review, being conducted by KPMG, will make recommendations on the fundamental underpinnings of the service system, including how people access services, how services are funded and how the Territory can improve the quality of services in our jurisdiction. There will be a specific section of the review that examines whole-of-government strategies in this area. This demonstrates our whole-of-government commitment to people with a disability.
We have also incorporated measures to make the lives of Territory pensioners that little bit better. The Pensioner Concession Scheme currently provides concessions to 14 939 Territorians on a range of government concessions including motor vehicles, power, water and rates, while about 9000 senior members are also eligible for concessions on interstate travel.
From 1 July 2006, concessions other than travel will be extended to Territorians receiving the Commonwealth Carer’s Allowance through the implementation of a carer’s card. Representing an investment of more than $1m, the carer’s card is the first of its kind in the country, with up to 1600 Territorians benefiting from this change.
The Commonwealth has responsibility for the provision of aged care places in Australia. Only this week, they announced an additional 28 500 aged care places in Australia over the next three years. Unfortunately, only 140 of them are in the Territory, about 0.5% of the available places.
Over the past three years, the government has made a significant investment in combating the impact of drugs and alcohol on our community. In the 2006-07 financial year, the Alcohol and Other Drugs program will consolidate its efforts to support the volatile substance abuse legislation, including supporting communities to apply its provisions by spending $700 000 to expand community-based residential rehabilitation services in Darwin and Alice Springs.
Alcohol misuse is a huge problem in the Territory. It rips apart families and can have a devastating effect on entire communities. This government is tackling alcohol misuse across the board. We have an overarching coordinated and holistic approach to the problem of antisocial behaviour in the community, and the necessary provision of rehabilitation services.
The minister for Justice is overseeing the new alcohol courts and antisocial behaviour legislation. The minister for Police has further increased police funding to target hot spots. Community patrols have been transformed, and have seen the employment of an additional 10 Aboriginal Community Police Officers and two additional patrol vehicles. The Minister for Racing, Gaming and Licensing oversees the implementation of the Alcohol Framework, and the Minister for Local Government oversees the important Community Harmony strategy and the Town Camps Task Force. As Minister for Family and Community Services, I oversee the treatment programs. Our commitment to tackling this problem is clear. Our commitment to reducing the incidence of public drunkenness and related antisocial behaviour and its impact on our community is steadfast.
The Alcohol and Other Drugs division within my department now has a budget of $20.8m, up from $11.5m under the CLP. This year, we will provide $10.6m in grants directly to non-government organisations to provide alcohol and other drug treatment services. Some of these organisations include Amity, Centrecare, CAAPS, FORWAARD, and the Salvation Army here in Darwin; Tangentyere, DASA, CAAAPU and Holyoake in Central Australia; Kalano, Mission Australia and EAS Counselling in Katherine; Anyinginyi, BRADAAG and Julalikari in Tennant Creek; and the many others throughout the Territory. We thank them for the work they do to support the government in our efforts to combat alcohol and drug abuse.
The Alcohol and Other Drugs program will also support the establishment of new services in Nhulunbuy, and implement treatment options to support the alcohol court underpinning the antisocial behaviour legislation.
The government has allocated $560 000 to my agency to provide treatment places for people referred through the NT alcohol court. This initiative and the new treatment places funding will be available from 1 July, and will commence in conjunction with the establishment of the alcohol court by the Department of Justice.
In 2006-07, the Mental Health program will focus on consolidating and continuing the extensive reform of the mental health system that has been under way for the last three years to tackle the historic underfunding of mental health services. These reforms have been made possible by the very significant increases in funding this government has made since we came to office. Our mental health budget is now more than $32m, up from $13m when we came to government - $32m, up from just $13m.
There has been an increase in specialist services to special needs groups in particular, including children and adolescents, people who live in rural and remote areas, and people who are incarcerated. New sub-acute services are being implemented to provide consumers with a more intensive level of support in the community when they are unwell, and we have expanded after-hours services, while non-government support services to consumers and carers have also been increased.
In this coming financial year, there will be a further $520 000 allocated from the national trauma funding to increase the capacity to deal with mental health issues arising from trauma events - should they arise. A further $1m has been set aside for 2007-08 and 2008-09.
Mental health is currently being addressed by all governments across Australia through COAG. The Prime Minister recently announced a five-year package for mental health, and we are currently examining the Australian government’s proposal. The federal government has not provided details but there are some promising signs, such as more funding for suicide prevention, and to address mental health in our indigenous communities. We have some concerns about some of the proposals. It is suggested that appointments with psychologists be funded through Medicare.
Unfortunately, in the Territory, we tend to miss out when health initiatives are funded through Medicare. Under the Medicare safety net, for example, the electorate of Lingiari which covers almost the whole of the Territory received the least amount of funding of any electorate in Australia last year. Solomon was also right down near the bottom of the list. Lingiari received only 2% of the funding that went to Tony Abbott, the Minister for Health and Ageing’s electorate of Warringah. Therefore, you will understand why we are concerned. There is a very real chance that psychologists will be attracted away from the public health system into the private sector. It is already difficult to attract psychologists to the Territory, and this could make it even harder.
In summation, this budget continues our program of investing in Family and Community Services. Budget 2006-07 continues our implementation of strong social development programs. The opposition pleads with us to cut our health spending and to cut public servants, but our public servants working on the frontline in areas like child protection, mental health and substance abuse are worth every cent, and we will continue to invest in them.
I now turn to my portfolio of Sport and Recreation. Budget 2006-07 provides for some very exciting initiatives and events to help enhance our great lifestyle.
Sport and recreation includes creating opportunities for Territorians to participate in sport and recreational activities. We do this by providing financial assistance to sporting organisations ranging from grassroots to peak bodies; developing, managing and maintaining key sporting facilities; and managing and facilitating major sporting events. We also provide coaching and sport enhancement support services to talented Territory athletes through the fantastic Northern Territory Institute of Sport.
Sport and recreation plays a key role in developing community wellbeing and identity. Participation in sport and recreation activities contributes to an individual’s health and self-development, and provides social and economic benefits to the community. The Northern Territory government is keen to work with the sports in the broader community to optimise these benefits through relevant programs and services, the most efficient and effective use of resources, and the promotion of our sports and recreation. We are committed to developing a framework for sport and recreation which will outline directions for planning over the next five years.
The Sessional Committee on Sport and Youth has been established to inquire and report on the delivery of sporting programs for the Territory’s youth, and the outcomes of the inquiry will feed in to my agency’s framework development process.
In the budget papers, the strategic issues for 2006-07 relating to sport and recreation include the identification of appropriate strategies to expand sporting activities in our remote communities to contribute to the achievement of positive social and healthy lifestyle outcomes, and delivering major sporting events, while recognising and addressing the inherent risks of running such events. The policy focus for Sport and Recreation in 2006-07 will include these strategic issues.
The budget papers show a downward trend between the estimated expenditure for 2005-06 compared with the budget for 2006-07, a variation of $14.2m. This does not reflect a lessening of the commitment to sport and recreation. In fact, it is quite the opposite. The discrepancy is due, in large part, to significant capital works allocations being brought forward into the 2005-06 budget to ensure that these projects proceed in a timely manner. Further, the budget reflects the substantial policy initiatives relating to sport infrastructure, and an essential component of both grassroots participation and major sporting events which the Territory government has been developing over the last five years.
The extra high level of appropriation recorded for 2005-06 reflects the Territory government’s commitment to ensuring that appropriate sporting facilities are available. The government has continued its investment in sporting infrastructure across the Territory to support participation at all levels, as well as events. For example, at the beginning of the financial year, $5m was committed for Stage 1 of the Palmerston Recreation Centre, with Stage 2 due to come on line in 2006-07. We have taken the decision to bring forward the commitment of funding for Stage 2 and have increased the output appropriation for one-off capital grant for this year by $3.69m, giving a total commitment of $8.69m for Palmerston. Construction has commenced and is expected to be completed by November of this year, with slight delays due to rain.
A total of $800 000 was also allocated in the 2005-06 budget for the construction of a new drag strip in Alice Springs, something I have been delighted to work with CADRA on; it is their passion.
Other projects planned for 2006-07 for which early provision has now been made in 2005-06 financial year include: $300 000 for the construction of the Parap skate park; $800 000 for the Tracy Village Sports and Social Club for the installation of lights to enable night softball and baseball; and $500 000 for upgrade of Purkiss Reserve in Tennant Creek.
The final stage of the Alice Springs Traeger Park development is almost complete, and we look forward to the new grandstand at Traeger Park main oval in Alice Springs being available for use at the end of this month.
The Palmerston Magpie supporters will shortly reap the benefits of the newly constructed home ground facilities as a result of a Territory government capital grant of $2m to the Charles Darwin University. In addition to this, tenders for the $5.8m Darwin football stadium construction at Marrara have closed, and completion is scheduled in time for the 2007 football - that is soccer - season.
The budget papers show that in 2006-07, $500 000 has been allocated for the Hidden Valley Motor Sports Complex to continue the important program of works at Hidden Valley to ensure that all structures meet with the relevant compliance. This brings the total allocation for such works at Hidden Valley over four years to $3m. $500 000 was allocated through the 2003-04 minor new works program to complete urgent occupational health and safety works required to obtain relevant occupancy permits. Works required for structures considered necessary for the V8 Supercar series in May 2004 were identified and completed on time for that, and subsequent events were able to be staged without concern. A further $1m was expended on remedial works in the 2004-05 financial year, and a further $1m has been allocated and is being spent in the current financial year. In addition, $900 000 was allocated this year for nine additional pit garages on the raceway, the ‘black top’. Construction of the pit garages is nearing completion and they will be fully available for this year’s V8 Supercar championships.
We have not forgotten our remote communities. $35 000 will be provided in 2006-07 for an upgrade to the oval at Bulman, to grade and improve the oval surface. A further $840 000 is available for repairs and maintenance of sports infrastructure across the Territory, including provision for routine servicing, and planned and unforeseen works. Once again, this reflects responsiveness to the needs of the community which can also be seen in government support for major sporting events.
There were some unanticipated sporting events occurring in 2005-06 which led to an increase in expenditure. Opportunities that presented themselves that we snapped up included an NRL Rugby game in Alice Springs, and the Crusty Demons in Darwin and Alice Springs. These events were funded by the government.
In 2006-07, it will bring both the Alice Springs Masters Games in October of this year, and the wonderful Arafura Games in May of next year. $2.35m has been allocated to stage the Arafura Games in 2006-07 financial year. The new look and feel of the Arafura Games has been launched with a focus on the quality, rather than the quantity, of sporting competition. The sports for Arafura 2007 are athletics, badminton, basketball, boxing, cycling, football, golf, hockey, judo, lifesaving, lawn bowls, netball, pistol shooting, sailing, Sepak Takraw, squash, swimming, table tennis, ten pin bowling, triathlon, volleyball and weightlifting.
$550 000 has been allocated to stage the 11th Alice Springs Masters Games. Planning for the games is well on track, with early registrations at about 600. Accommodation in Alice Springs is indicating almost full bookings during the games period. We are looking forward to another successful games. Both the Masters Games and the Arafura Games contribute significantly to the local economy, as well as providing exciting competition for all participants. The Masters Games has earned a reputation of being Australia’s friendliest masters competition, and the Arafura Games is our leading international sporting competition for emerging champions of the Asia Pacific region. Known as the Friendly Games, the Arafura Games provide a pathway through which friendship, goodwill, and cultural understanding between competing nations can strengthen and flourish.
To this end, we must add to the growing number of other sporting events this government continues to support and attract. Building on the success of previous NBL games, $75 000 per annum for the next three years has been committed towards the staging of national basketball in Darwin featuring our very own Perth Wildcats.
Our strong support for AFL continues. In February this year, North Adelaide took on the NT representative side, and the National Australia Bank Cup between the Western Bulldogs and Melbourne was played in Darwin. This was followed by the NAB Challenge Match at Traeger Park in Alice Springs on 10 March between Carlton and West Coast before a packed capacity crowd. It was very exciting. Two matches remain with the current AFL agreement, which will see the Western Bulldogs versus Port Adelaide on 12 August this year, and an Aboriginal All Stars game in early 2007.
We have established an AFL task force with representatives of the AFL and AFLNT, and negotiations for matches beyond 2007 are well under way. We are very keen to see an increase from one to two AFL matches in the Territory, and are working hard on behalf of Territorians to secure this second Bulldogs match in addition to our two NAB pre-season games. The recent announcement by AFLNT and TIO of a major sponsorship - $1m over 10 years - in return for naming rights of the government-owned stadium, is an exciting example of a partnership between a community-based sporting organisation, the corporate sector and government, and is to be commended.
July of this year will bring the return of international cricket to Darwin, with an international A Series involving Australia A, Pakistan A, India A and New Zealand A, with a mix of test matches, one-day games and 20/20 games.
Turning to Rugby League, for the first time in 10 years, Central Australia had the opportunity to witness NRL action at Anzac Oval as the Newcastle Knights played the Penrith Panthers in the NRL trial match. It occurred due to Territory government sponsorship, and there were additional benefits negotiated for the community, including coaching clinics, and visits targeting schools, hospitals and communities.
In February this year, Alice Springs once again hosted the important Imparja Cup, Australia’s leading indigenous cricket carnival. I was pleased to announce at the time that the Territory government, in partnership with Alice Springs Town Council and Cricket Australia, will develop a third turf wicket at Larapinta Oval in Alice Springs. With the existing Traeger Park and Albrecht grounds, the additional Larapinta wicket provides Alice Springs with appropriate venues for top class cricket events, including the Imparja Cup.
Since 2004, the Northern Territory government has provided funding for a Commonwealth Bank Netball Trophy Match to be held each year in Darwin at the Marrara Indoor Stadium. This is a huge benefit to women’s sport in the Territory by providing exposure to high quality teams …
Mr BONSON: Mr Deputy Speaker, I move that the minister be granted an extension of time pursuant to Standing Order 77 to conclude her comments.
Motion agreed to.
Ms LAWRIE: Thank you, member for Millner, for your courtesy, and members for their courtesy.
The benefit to women’s sport by having the Commonwealth Bank netball is enormous. Netball is a hugely supported sport right across Australia, particularly so in the Northern Territory. The 2006 game will be between the AIS Canberra Darters and the Perth Oriels on 26 May at Marrara Indoor Stadium. Tickets are on sale for this game on Friday, 26 May. Commonwealth Games silver medallist, Jessica Chin, is expected to play for the Perth Oriels, as are many of Australia’s future stars playing for the young Darters squad.
The staging of events brings inherent risks for government, and government is always actively looking at ways in which it can more effectively and efficiently deliver events for Territorians. $6m will be available in the 2006-07 financial year in the form of Sport and Recreation grants to peak and local governing bodies, as well as grassroots organisations, to increase their capacity to provide regular activity. This funding also assists with the development of their sport, establishment of best practice management, and increased opportunity to participate in a wide range of sports and physical activities.
In partnership with other agencies, $50 000 is being provided to the National Aboriginal Sports Commission to deliver the Athletes as Role Models program for the third year running. ARM is a role modelling program delivered to indigenous communities in remote areas.
Each year, the Territory government responds to requests for special initiatives. One example is the AFLNT’s Kickstart program. This program is aimed at young children in communities to promote healthy lifestyle messages through active participation in skills, clinics, school attendance programs and visits by AFL players to remote communities. I am pleased to announce that I am providing $100 000 this financial year for Kickstart.
The importance of good governance within the Sport and Recreation sector cannot be over-emphasised so we continue with the very popular and important Sportsbiz program with funding in the 2006-07 financial year. There are 400 incorporated sport and recreation associations in the Territory. Sports assisted through Sportsbiz last year include: golf, baseball, basketball, hockey, gymnastics, touch football, Rugby Union, lawn bowls, netball, cricket, AFL, Waratahs Sports Club, St Mary’s Football Sports Club, and Nightcliff Sports Club. In particular, golf, baseball and basketball have been assisted in an ongoing and intensive manner by Sportsbiz. This will continue through 2006. Other sports identified for assistance are swimming, shooting, judo, women’s AFL and bowls.
The NT Institute of Sport is also a key partner in the Sport and Recreation sector through the identification, development and support of the Territory’s talented and elite athletes. Its primary role is to provide high-quality services and support to these aspiring athletes and their coaches that optimises opportunity to achieve at the highest level in sport. With additional funding in 2005-06, a new NTIS sport framework was introduced to improve services and athlete’s support programs. This additional funding continues in 2006-07 and allows the NTIS to provide quality support to athletes.
The Territory’s representation at the recent Commonwealth Games in Melbourne reflects on the importance of the Institute of Sport and the role it plays in the development of our young athletes. The Institute of Sport has recently signed a new agreement with the Australian Olympic Committee where the institute will continue to be officially recognised as an Olympic training centre. Several sports have already indicated their intention to prepare and train athletes at the institute in the lead-up to the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
In conclusion, Mr Deputy Speaker, I am delighted that my first budget as minister has great news for both of my portfolios. Budget 2006-07 continues our implementation of strong social development towards building a healthier community and, importantly, it further enhances our great sporting Territory lifestyle. I commend the Territory’s budget to the House.
Mr BONSON (Millner): Mr Deputy Speaker, it is an honour and a privilege to be an elected representative of the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly. It makes you quite humble.
On occasions like this, where we deliver a budget and outline a plan for the next 12 months that this government sees as being the framework for creating a better future for youth, seniors, the workforce and all Territorians, we often reflect on why we entered politics. One of the reasons I entered politics was to try to contribute to making the Territory a better place. A saying comes to mind that we do not live in an economy in the Northern Territory but as a society. As a society, we have to determine where to best spend the limited resources provided to us, in the best way to maximise the returns.
I agree with the Treasurer that Budget 2006-07 builds on the government’s priorities of supporting and growing business, including educational outcomes, building a healthier Territory, providing a safer community for Territorians, and enhancing our great lifestyle. As I read through the documents presented with the budget papers, it was interesting to have a look at the sheer numbers that have been put into key areas that we, as a Labor government, believe are important. They include Health being up by 64%, police 55%, Education 33%, and the Royal Darwin Hospital receiving an extra $196m, up $75m since we were elected to power. These decisions have to be made around the Cabinet table. As a backbencher, I often feel like I am a member of a team. Maybe I am not playing a key position such as centre half forward or full forward, but in the back pocket. I am there to deliver the material to the people who are going to kick the goals - the ministers elected by caucus to represent us in the wider community. The record budget spending on health, education and police over the last few years has been approved by the general public, and was shown in last year’s election with the re-election of the Australian Labor Party.
The Treasurer talked about the government’s commitment to the key priority areas of health, education and police, and its continued work with record budgets in 2006-07. For example: $789m for Health and Community Services; $631m for Employment, Education and Training; and $212m for Police, Fire and Emergency Services. These are outstanding numbers. We believe that we need to create local jobs and better skills. The minister, through his portfolios, has identified this as an area that will continue our economic growth into the future.
The member for Johnston, a good friend of mine, called his portfolio ‘a power house’. We are talking $482m in infrastructure spending just for the 2006-07 year – a capital works program of $268m with estimated expenditure of $167m; capital grants spending of $33m; Power and Water Corporation capital expenditure of $83m; and repairs and maintenance totalling $172m, including Power and Water Corporation.
Members already know, but often the public does not realise, that the amount of money the NT government puts into the economy is one of the driving forces of the Territory economy in creating jobs and providing opportunities to all our citizens to create a better life.
If we examine the major works programs and look at roads and other transport infrastructure of $74.47m, it is a very important program not only to the seats in urban areas, but bush electorates. Transporting produce from the land helps with our economy and safe roads provide other needs through connecting communities together. Schools receive $33.81m, housing $21.6m, and the Darwin waterfront development this year will get $15.54m - that is one of our key projects into the future. The Desert Knowledge Precinct in Alice Springs receives $14.16m. Some members opposite might argue that we are not spending enough money in Alice Springs, but the member for Stuart, the Minister for Central Australia, has tried his hardest to increase representations in Alice Springs and he has been successful.
Hospitals in Darwin, Alice Springs and Tennant Creek are to get major works programs of $12.94m; health centres, $8.97m; and lifestyle and environment, $11.49m. One of the main reasons we live in the Territory is our lifestyle, and this government has consistently shown a willingness to invest in continuing our beautiful lifestyle and encouraging the protection and management of our environment. This is reflected in this budget.
The Darwin Port and Business Park will receive $5.89m, Police, Fire and Emergency Services $4.99m, and land and development $2.98m.
When we look at growing the economy, the minister has done a fantastic job lowering taxes making us competitive with other states and territories. This has allowed business to grow in the last four years. Through this growth, we have seen the creation of jobs and wealth for all Territorians. This has been spread across the board. This government encourages increased growth and wealth for all its citizens. I hope to be a part of a government that continues this attitude towards creating a better business environment for a long time into the future.
We will see in Budget 2006-07 the implementation of the latest tranche of tax cuts designed to directly benefit Territory business. Since 2001, these cuts have delivered a total savings of $74m, which has gone back into the economy - whether it is in housing, jobs, buying milk, bread, or cars. This has helped spread the wealth throughout the whole of the Territory. The Territory is now the lowest taxing jurisdiction in Australia in relation to recurrent taxes for small business – a fantastic achievement for such a small jurisdiction. People may not know that we rely heavily on grants from the Commonwealth; therefore, you would expect that this government would try to revenue raise. Instead, we have introduced tax cuts allowing businesses to reinvest into their own business and, therefore, grow and prosper.
The payroll tax-free threshold will rise from $1m to $1.25m from 1 July 2006, releasing another 58 businesses from the payroll tax net. This brings the total to 187 businesses relieved of the payroll tax burden since 2001 – a fantastic effort. More than 1300 businesses will benefit from the increased payroll tax threshold, with locally-based Territory businesses that continue to pay payroll tax expected to save, on average, an additional $13 500 in payroll tax a year.
As the member for Millner, with a low to high density business area in Coconut Grove, and one developing in the airport area, I know the importance of creating an atmosphere for people to consider reinvesting in their own business, opening up a business, or employing somebody. Tax is one of the big issues, of course, that people speak to you about regarding small business. These tax cuts will help these businesses employ more people, allowing that money to be spent in the economy.
The government is also committed to reducing the payroll tax rate from 6.2% to 5.9%, at an estimated value of $6.2m, during its current term. On 1 July 2006, stamp duty payable on rent paid for the grant and renewal of leases and franchises, and on unquoted marketable securities, will be abolished. This will save Territorians, including Territory businesses, about $2m each year. Stamp duty on hiring arrangements, worth $5.3m a year, is also set to cease from 1 July 2007. The government’s commitment to tax reform also extends to abolishing stamp duty on the non-land component of business conveyances, worth about $6.8m a year. This is potential revenue for the NT government to spend on different things, but we are saying to business: ‘You keep this money, choose what your priorities are, and where to spend it’.
Members, in particular in the Palmerston area, would agree that residential construction has gone through the roof, and the member for Port Darwin would agree. There is no doubt that this construction boom across the Territory has helped create jobs and, therefore, increased people’s opportunities to gain wealth. For example, over the past two years, the value of residential construction work increased by 37% and residential building approvals has grown by 36%. The minister considered that these strong figures have translated to jobs and business opportunities for the construction industry, supplies and related support services across the Territory. Some of the anecdotal evidence that I am hearing in Darwin is that many people have come to the Territory, loved the lifestyle, but due to the slow economy in past years, were not necessarily receiving the equivalent wages as they would in Melbourne, Sydney, Perth, or Brisbane. They might stay for one or two years, like the lifestyle but if they wanted to make money as a bricklayer, carpenter, etcetera, they would return south and so we lost that population. What we are seeing now is a change in attitude where prices are being seen as competitive.
The member for Barkly talked about the first home loan grant, and the former member for Arnhem can take much credit for that. I remember having long discussions with him about the benefit of people buying their own homes, particularly those who have lived in houses owned by Territory Housing for many years. He was first to up the ante, I suppose, on HomeNorth. In June or July, we are heading towards a figure of 1000 people who have taken up this option. That is fantastic. We brought in the First Home Owner Grant Scheme of $7000, and the Stamp Duty First Home Owner Concession is up to $8015. Principal Place of Residence Stamp Duty Rebate is up to $2500 on other home purchases. The HomeNorth Scheme enables low and middle income earners to purchase a home and is estimated at $18m in 2006-07, which is fantastic.
The budget for indigenous and government employee housing construction and upgrade across the Territory is approximately $86m in 2006-07. As we know, one of the major issues for all Territorians is the lack of proper housing for many indigenous Territorians in remote areas. Though this program will not satisfy all those needs, it goes a long way to satisfying them. Members on both sides of this House should continue their lobbying to make Canberra understand that this is not an issue of Territory versus state, or Commonwealth government versus NT government. It is an issue of Australian citizens who happen to be of indigenous background living in conditions you would often see in third world countries. As a nation, we should come together to say this is not good enough for Australian citizens. I look forward to future governments, both Commonwealth and Territory, addressing this need with greater urgency.
The forecast for economic growth is to remain strong. It is 5.8% in 2006-07. A full year of LNG production at the Bayu-Undan gas and condensate, increased alumina production from the Alcan G3 refinery, and a full-year production at the new Bootu Creek Mine near Tenant Creek will be the major contributions to growth.
The forecast for employment is interesting. Employment is forecast to increase by 2.3% in 2006-07, supported by construction work on the Darwin waterfront development, continuing high levels of residential construction, and the continuing rebound in international visitor numbers. It is expected to be offset by a drop in fly-in/fly-out employment associated with the Alcan G3 refinery expansion and construction of the LNG plant.
Strong population growth over the past year was estimated at 1.7% in 2005-06, and forecast to keep growing by 1.5% in 2006-07, buoyed by a positive economic outlook and employment opportunities. One of the issues with population, as we have heard the Treasurer talk about many times in relation to the ABS figures, is that many of the people travelling from south to the Territory are often young and upwardly mobile. You come across them within your electorate and realise that many of them are not interested, unfortunately, in signing up to be enrolled as voters. It is not a high priority for these young individuals so it makes it harder for these numbers to be recognised and accounted for. However, anyone who owns any property or who is in the rental market will understand that you could put an ad in the paper on a Wednesday or Saturday and, by midday the next day, you will have 10 or 12 inquiries. There are people out there looking for accommodation in Darwin who are working. This is one of the issues that we have historically faced in the Northern Territory - the recognition by the ABS of these numbers of people, not only in Darwin, but the indigenous numbers which affect the incomes that we look at.
I am proud that this government will spend $300m over the next four years training and supporting Territorians to develop better skills and gain access to local jobs. Of this, $60m is committed to vocational education and training. The issue there is creating jobs.
My observation has been that people who work have a higher standard of living than those who do not. Many times, it is due to lack of opportunity for training or education which leads to jobs. I was lucky that my parents instilled in me a work ethic. When I left school there was not a decision to be made about whether I worked; it was just expected. This $300m into this area over the next four years creates for Territorians - black, white, green or purple - the ability to get proper jobs for proper wages and, therefore, buy houses and cars, and to invest and stay in the Northern Territory, which is very important.
I welcome the $8m being spent on Batchelor Institute for Indigenous Tertiary Education. As many members would know from their observations and experiences with indigenous people, there is a lack of a high standard of education. There are a number of different reasons. It is not a blame issue; it is just a reality of the lack of opportunity combined with many past historical influences which have led to this outcome. This government has recognised that this investment in indigenous education will lead to the opportunity to access jobs, and those jobs will mean that Aboriginal people - whether they are in remote, rural or urban situations - will not rely on the Territory or Commonwealth government to assist them.
The Treasurer, being a bush member and Education minister, has consistently shown that this is one of his highest priorities. His work in getting access to secondary education for indigenous people in remote areas should be commended. One of his legacies, once he decides to retire from politics, will be his achievement to change the focus of education delivery from purely urban areas throughout the Northern Territory to remote areas.
I welcome the $1.5m increase to funding for Charles Darwin University to improve facilities and the level and quality of training in traditional trade qualifications. It is obvious throughout the whole of Australia that trades are lacking tradesmen. Twenty years ago, everyone was encouraged to get an education and become a doctor, a scientist or a lawyer. We are now seeing that the biggest growth for job opportunities is in the trades. The money that you are paid, or the opportunity to go into small business, means that it is very profitable if you become an electrician, carpenter, a bricklayer, or a concreter.
I welcome the $6.5m that will be provided under Skills and Knowledge as an operational grant to Charles Darwin University for tertiary programs. As people may be aware, I graduated from the old Northern Territory University - now Charles Darwin University - with a law degree. As a local, I had to travel to the university in Western Australia do two years of study there as there was no opportunity to do so here. Being a student interstate is very hard; you have no money and you are often very hungry. The opportunity to come back to Darwin to finish my degree allowed me and many other Territorians the opportunity to complete tertiary education. I encourage this government to continue to support Charles Darwin University.
I welcome the 2600 apprenticeships and trainees who commenced work in 2005; there is a similar number expected to commence in 2006. This program is on track to deliver 10 000 new Territory apprentice and trainee commencements over the next four years. It is a bold initiative but, if we are able to achieve this, both sides of this House and the Territory public will applaud this government and the minister who is capable of delivering this better education outcome.
This Education minister has a passion for education and for dealing with difficult decisions. We are going through the middle schools process right now. I am a supporter of the middle schools principles, and of my schools: Millner and Ludmilla schools, the preschool and Nemarluk Special Needs School. Sometimes, as government, you have to make decisions for the benefit of all Territorians. I am sure Cabinet will oversee in the next few years the implementation of the middle school project and we will see great outcomes for all our Territory children. I look forward to this government working towards getting the results we need to be competitive throughout Australia.
The infrastructure part of the education budget is $67.5m; repairs and maintenance, $20m; continuing work, $19.1m; the Desert People’s Centre, $8.6m; middle schools, $10m; and Wadeye Secondary School, $4.5m. The member for Daly said there are 1000 school-age kids in Wadeye. Are they going to school and do they have the facilities to go to school? It is a national shame. I do not necessarily blame this NT government or the present Commonwealth government for that. However, if you go anywhere in the world, or anywhere in Australia, and 1000 school-age kids do not have access to resources or the opportunity to get an education, it would be a national shame and an educational disaster. There is $2.5m for Wugularr School at Beswick, and $0.8m for Humpty Doo Primary School, and minor works at Taminmin High School. I look forward to supporting the minister in encouraging him to continue the good work that he has started.
Members may know that my wife is a teacher in a non-government area. Though I try to encourage her to come over to the good side, she continues to work in non-government schools because she enjoys it. This government has put in $93.662m for non-government schools including an additional $0.23m introduced during 2005-06 for recurrent funding for additional education and costs associated with curriculum, special students services and information technology. There has been a resource agreement with the Catholic Education Office and we will provide $7.8m from 2006-07 to improve the quality of education outcomes for five remote Territory schools managed by them on behalf of the Territory government at Wadeye, Daly River, Tiwi Islands in the Top End, and Santa Teresa in Central Australia.
This budget covers many different areas and one of those is safer communities. As people may know, law and order in politics is one of the major factors any politician has to deal with. Along with the importance of health, education and the economy, people should have an opportunity to live safely and comfortably in their surroundings, which is of major importance for their lifestyle.
This government, through the O’Sullivan Report, has done a fantastic job of investing in the police force. The Police minister has been at the forefront of that and has done a magnificent job of selling to the community that it is all right to become a police officer and ACPOs. There are many indigenous men and women I know of around my age who became ACPOs in the last few years. It is a great job which provides job security, great conditions, housing and a good income. I have been told that when these men and women walk through Casuarina Shopping Centre, for instance, they know nearly every child, every youth in the shopping centre, their parents, and their relations, as many of them are related. They are dealing with many issues of antisocial behaviour. In conjunction with the police force, they have come together and the relationship is starting to grow stronger and the knowledge and information sent to the police has been enhanced. Therefore, we are getting better outcomes.
I would like to see in future years’ budgets an increase in funding for the juvenile diversion program. I know much of that money has come from the Commonwealth in the mandatory sentencing era. However, prevention and the cure are factors in allocating budgets. It has been shown all around the world in criminology and in health that, for every dollar that you put into prevention, you get a greater return in cure. I welcome the juvenile diversionary program grant funding of $1.76m in 2006-07, and ongoing for community youth development units, support services and case management for non-government organisations. I suggest to all members that we should be investing in this area with greater resources because we will get a greater outcome.
We will create a safer community and get better job opportunities and education outcomes for these young Territorians who, for a variety of different reasons often associated with their upbringing which they, as children, do not have any say over, have become involved with the court system. Like many others who sit in this House, I believe ‘you do the crime, you do the time’. However, we also need to provide opportunities for young people who have not taken up the life of crime but, unfortunately, have come into contact with the law, to stop coming into contact with the law. That can only be done through education and job opportunities.
We have also heard from the member for Johnston regarding boosting security on Darwin buses and the public transport network. All around the world people are encouraged to take public transport but, if people do not feel safe on that transport, then they will not use it. This is a fantastic initiative.
I welcome the funding of $3.8m to legal aid in 2006 to provide legal assistance in matters arising under Territory law, which is a fantastic initiative. The extra $120 000 going into the victims support unit over 2006-07 …
Mr HENDERSON: Mr Deputy Speaker, I move that the member be granted an extension of time pursuant to Standing Order 77.
Motion agreed to.
Mr BONSON: I thank the Police minister and Mr Deputy Speaker. I promise to quickly finish my remarks.
I welcome the $1.68m provided for costs associated with increased prisoner numbers, including health care and education of prisoners. The Attorney-General has often said that we need resources in this area for the police, the prisoners, and people dealing with the prisoners. This is an area we are going to have to deal with in the future. I commend this Cabinet for putting extra funds into this area.
For Fire and Emergency services, the construction of the $4m Marrara fire station is a fantastic opportunity for the Territory Fire Service to be able to successfully carry out their duties at a higher level. I congratulate the minister for providing the $500 000 in 2006-07 for industrial relations and human resource issues. It was an ongoing issue for many years for the firies. I know they are much happier, at this stage, with what has been happening in their work environment.
The Minister for Health has done a fantastic job in lobbying his Cabinet members to give him extra money in the Health budget. You could pour the whole of the $3bn of the Territory budget into health and you would probably only scratch the surface. To see the increase of 64% is a badge of honour in his ability to lobby Cabinet to put money into this area. It also shows the human side of Cabinet to say that we need to help Territorians, no matter whether they are in remote, rural or urban areas.
The member for Karama, the new Sports minister, has big shoes to fill. The former member for Arnhem did a great job of putting sport back on the front and back pages in the Territory community. As a sports-mad community, we welcome the monies going into cricket, football, golf championships, and the V8s. I cannot run through all those now. People reading this Parliamentary Record can read the minister for Sport’s speech about all the great work that we are doing in this area.
In housing, for improving living in the Territory, is an investment of $85.7m in 2006, $41.7m of which is in indigenous housing, $8.2m in public housing - as we know, many indigenous people are in public housing - and $13.4m in government employee housing. Unlike the CLP though, we will not be making any forced redundancies; we actually offer services to our public service. Minor works and repairs receives $22.4m.
I could go on and on, however, I am aware that there are other members who wish to speak. It is an honour and a privilege to be representing the people of Millner. There is no doubt in my mind that people in Millner are working, getting capital growth on their houses, have a more optimistic viewpoint on what their future in the Territory is, and are investing in that future through themselves and their children and their families. It makes me humble that I have this opportunity to represent those individuals who live in Coconut Grove, Ludmilla, the RAAF Base and Millner. I would have liked to have talked a bit longer of the Defence Force but, no doubt, I will get another opportunity.
Not only do we live in an economy, but we also live in a society, and we need to bear that in mind when we look at our priorities. Health, police, education, and business are our priorities. I look forward to every Territorian sharing that wealth in the future.
Ms McCARTHY (Arnhem): Mr Deputy Speaker, it is with great pleasure that I support the Treasurer’s 2006-07 Budget. Indeed, to stand here as a member of this parliament to be able to do so is an honour.
Budget 2006-07 builds the Territory’s future. It is a future that certainly does not exclude the Northern Territory’s remote regions. Our government said before the election last year that one of the major commitments we were going to make was to our remote regions. For my communities in Arnhem, this budget builds on the previous Martin Labor government’s budgets where the focus has been strongly on infrastructure and development. Yes, it may be a dull and boring budget, or one that is steady and safe, but the Martin government is building a firm foundation for the future generations of Territorians right across the Northern Territory.
We are working on our regions. Some may argue it is not happening quickly enough, but I would like to point out the many achievements and plans for the people of Arnhem.
Earlier in this sittings, I spoke of the flooding troubles in March and April for the people in the Wugularr/Barunga region and Jilkminggan. The Wugularr community is situated alongside the Waterhouse River, which is known for rising to extreme levels during the Wet Season. It is a fact that has been more prominent since the 1998 Katherine River flood. By the time the town of Katherine was flooded in April, Wugularr had been inundated three times. The school had to be closed as a safety precaution, and remained closed for nearly a month as the Waterhouse River rose.
Today, the students and teachers of Wugularr can celebrate, with $2.5m handed down by the Treasurer in this budget to build a new school on higher ground for the Wugularr community. It means more than 100 students, with the potential of an increased number of 150 or more, will have a sound future development ahead of them with the new school building. The boost in education funding at Wugularr enhances the other projects already completed in the Arnhem electorate.
This month, the Minyerri Secondary School celebrates its first birthday. Yes, Mr Deputy Speaker, a high school is at Minyerri. It is a community 600 km south-east of Darwin and the closest high school to it is Katherine. Children at Minyerri can now stay on with their families and attend a secondary school.
Another new primary school was commenced this year in the Arnhem electorate. The Martin Labor government injected $1m into the school at Manyallaluk. The school is much needed to support the growing population of Manyallaluk and will allow children to be educated in their own communities.
In five years, the Martin Labor government will have built two new school buildings and a new secondary school for the people of Arnhem electorate. With $1m allocated to Minyerri and $1m for Manyallaluk plus the $2.5m for Wugularr, it is a promising beginning in the field of education for our young people and families.
I would like to comment on what the minister for the Environment said in her budget response regarding flood forecasting. This has become a critical function of her department, and has received separate recognition as a specific budget output. As demonstrated during the recent flooding in the Roper, Katherine, Daly and Victoria River systems, an important role of the department is to predict the threat caused by heavy rainfall, and provide flood forecasting services to Police and Emergency Services.
For the Wugularr region, questions need to be asked and investigations undertaken as to what is going on with the river level in the Katherine region and, in particular, around Beswick. If you ask the old people at Wugularr and Barunga they will tell you that it is only since the 1998 floods that the river has flooded as much as it has and continues to rise. I am encouraged by what the minister for the Environment said about the flood forecasting. I am quite passionate about following that up on behalf of the people of Arnhem.
This budget provides $4.7m for Police, Fire and Emergency Services which includes two police stations, two police posts, one fire station and three volunteer groups all in east Arnhem Land. Later this month, the Police minister will officially open the new police post at Numbulwar. A sergeant and an Aboriginal Community Police Officer will be stationed in Numbulwar with rotations from Alyangula Police headquarters from the beginning of the operations there. No doubt, there will eventually be a permanent position in the community.
The police post has been desperately needed in this eastern most part of Arnhem Land where criminal activity has largely been able to continue unmonitored on the occasions when police were not in the community. There are stories that go something like this: whenever there have been individuals or groups dealing in criminal activity, the activity ceases when they hear a plane arriving in Numbulwar, as a lookout person goes to check if it is the police plane arriving. If it is not the police plane arriving, no doubt the activities continue. That era of Numbulwar days is well and truly over with a permanent police presence in the community.
Just across the waters from Numbulwar at Groote Eylandt, the addition of a permanent school-based police constable for the five schools in the region - Umbakumba, Alyangula, Angurugu, Bickerton and Numbulwar - is another solid commitment by the Martin Labor government. This role of the school-based police constable is one that many of our urban schools have been aware of for many years, and is an example of effective policing where children and teenagers are aware of the roles of police officers, and police officers can also build better relationships with the general community by getting to know children and families. We all know how important it is to build a good relationship between police and families in communities.
The day-to-day role of our police officers at Groote Eylandt, and now Numbulwar, will be greatly enhanced with Budget 2006-07 providing $160 000 for the purchase of a coastal police vessel for the east Arnhem Land region. I have travelled on the current police vessel based at Alyangula to a Blue Light Disco at Bickerton about an hour’s boat ride from Alyangula. I know firsthand how much area the police have to cover to monitor the surrounding islands or hot spots.
Under the Labor Martin government, there are now 10 regional and indigenous crime prevention councils working hard across the NT to build safer communities in their regions. These include the Darwin Regional Crime Prevention Council, the Palmerston and Katherine areas, and also Anindilyakwa Crime Prevention Council in my electorate of Arnhem. They work in partnership with government, and the groups are developing and implementing localised crime prevention and community safe initiatives to target issues including juvenile diversion, antisocial behaviour and crime prevention through environmental design.
Budget 2006-07 will invest more than $750 000 in community crime prevention grants, $400 000 for crime prevention grants allocated by the Office of Crime Prevention, and $350 000 for regional and indigenous crime prevention councils to implement community safety plans. This is an area I watch very closely because I am acutely aware that the Northern Territory has the highest incarceration rate of indigenous people in the country. It is imperative that our government gets it right with these programs. There are far too many Aboriginal inmates in our prisons and, as my constituency is largely indigenous, I am acutely aware of the urgency in improving the health, education and general wellbeing of Aboriginal families. Approximately $60 000 a year goes to care for a prisoner in our prisons. We know what that money could do for the communities where many of these prisoners come from in preventative measures. These are concerns I carry deeply as I look at the pace in which the Aboriginal population is growing in our remote regions.
In health, the Northern Territory Labor government will contribute $220 000 towards the upgrade of the Umbakumba Health Centre on Groote Eylandt. We know of the unrest in Umbakumba with the health clinic late last year. This government is committed to ensuring the safety of staff and patients in the clinic by injecting funding into security upgrades. The scope of the work includes new separate entry and shade structure; external waiting area; internal separation of waiting areas and clinical areas through installation of two new internal doors to existing corridor waiting areas; enclosing the existing ambulance carport with mesh to provide a secure entry for staff; the duress and phone system is being extended and upgraded; maintenance to all doors and locks to ensure ease of operation particularly in a duress situation; existing external doors are to replaced with new security doors; and minor repairs and maintenance and repainting parts of the interior and exterior of the clinic.
In Ramingining, the Northern Territory government has committed $160 000 to supplement the Commonwealth government’s more than $1m to upgrade the Ramingining Health Centre. The project was originally an Office of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health project to construct two outstation centres and a duplex. At the community’s request, this was changed to an upgrade of the existing health centre with the duplex still planned. The OATSIH funding is vested with Ramingining Homelands Resource Centre Aboriginal Corporation. The proposed new rooms are for an emergency room, pharmacy, dental and renal areas, a disabled WC en suite, and new internal and external female and children’s waiting areas. Generally, the project includes a security and communications upgrade to current standards.
This major upgrade to the Ramingining Health Centre is substantial and welcomed by the community. I have met with nursing staff at Ramingining a number of times. The clinic is very small and not culturally appropriate regarding men’s and women’s business. This upgrade seeks to address that. Staff at the clinic are to be commended for the work that they do.
This budget injects more funds into the two regional hospitals; that is, $17m for the Gove District Hospital which is up nearly 54% since Labor came to government in 2001, and $23m for the Katherine Hospital which is up 66% since 2001. I commend the Health Minister for his incredible work in supporting our regions in trying to do what he can for our health centres out bush. We are desperately in need of greater support because we know for that the life expectancy of Aboriginal people is far less than non-indigenous people. Aboriginal babies are dying at a greater rate than non-Aboriginal babies. I and my colleagues in the Labor Party know how important it is to address health issues in communities’ right across the Northern Territory.
There is a very strong commitment by this government towards health, and the budget figures reflect this commitment. The Child Ear Health Program is just one example of this commitment; $230 000 will ensure children across the Territory receive ear health testing.
Mental health is a serious concern for people right across the Territory and, in particular, in our remote regions. So, too, is supporting families and keeping families strong, with supporting initiatives such as the carer’s card; $8.2m for pensioner’s cards or concessions; and $3.6m for subsidising childcare by making childcare more affordable. I say to the people of Arnhem, with these injections of funding into pensioner concessions and subsidising childcare, they are issues that our government is looking at very closely.
Yes, communities need more support. We are supporting our Aboriginal Health Workers and looking at their housing needs. Also, there are demands for permanent doctors and more access to dentists. These are issues I am determined to keep in front of my colleagues, as I am sure our fellow bush members are also doing, so that our government continues on its path to address the poor health of Aboriginal people - to look closer at preventative practices by building better houses, roads and schools, and to give people in the bush the basic needs they deserve.
The Martin Labor government is dedicated to improving the life of all people in the Northern Territory. Showing our government’s infrastructure commitment on this, in five years of government, Labor has delivered on sealing the three airstrips in Arnhem which were in desperate need of resourcing. The people of Ramingining, Minyerri and Bulman no longer need to feel isolated in the Wet Season when all the roads are cut. Such commitment shows: the Labor government has injected funds of $1.25m for Ramingining, $0.5m for Bulman, and $0.6m for Minyerri. The government will continue to do so because we know that isolation in the Wet Season is a major factor in many of our remote regions, and flying in and out is the only way people can get the health care and food.
While roadworks continue on the Central Arnhem Road in northern Arnhem Land, Milingimbi will receive $610 000 to upgrade the sewer, rising main and pump station. Ngukurr will receive $410 000 to investigate and drill new bores in the community. This adds to the $500 000 already promised towards Ngukurr’s sports objectives and upgrade of the oval. I again say to the people of Arnhem that roads are a huge issue. The issue of bridges and more bridges is one that I am questioned on constantly, and rightly so. Places like Bulman and Ngukurr are cut off in the Wet Season simply because the roads are not sealed and there are no bridges that rise high enough above the water levels to get people in and out. It is something that I would like to look at in the long term with the minister for roads and his department.
There is $4m set aside to build new government employee housing or replacement government housing in remote communities. Already, the Martin Labor government has built 20 to 22 new government employee houses at Alyangula which will be officially opened later this month. I commend the minister for his efforts in ensuring that those buildings were made available for the people of Groote Eylandt.
I digress a little here to look at the housing construction training program mentioned by the minister for Infrastructure. This provides a means for increasing the capacity of local work crews to contract for works related to the government’s capital works, and general repairs and maintenance programs. Increasing the volume of government works that is contracted to capable, local construction crews is a key priority for the Department of Planning and Infrastructure. I inform the minister that it is certainly happening in Arnhem. Recent examples are $2.4m at Wadeye, and the general repairs and maintenance and school extensions at Groote Eylandt, Bickerton Island, Numbulwar and Gunbalanya.
I have outlined the education, police and health aspects of Budget 2006-07, and what it means for the people of Arnhem. I add here something that is a little closer to home for me. With 16 years background in broadcasting, television, films and documentaries, I commend the minister for the Arts for her increase of $50 000 to $250 000 for the Northern Territory Screen Grants Program, which is incorporated in this budget. The program is managed by the NT Film Office and provides additional support to the screen industry, enabling the industry to obtain funding to create documentaries, develop pilots, and complete filming projects that otherwise may not have come to fruition.
In February, I attended the official opening of the Ramingining film, Ten Canoes and felt proud to be a part of this amazing film, knowing the people who worked on it over a tremendous amount of time, and knowing that the Northern Territory has the capability to be the location for fantastic films that have a Territory flavour. I would like to see the Northern Territory film industry become a major highlight like Fox Studios in Sydney and we all know how New Zealand has become the place for beautiful films like Lord of the Rings, Narnia and where it first began with Once Were Warriors. I would support the Arts minister in any ideas and visions for the future of the Northern Territory film industry.
Mr Deputy Speaker, I am pleased to support the Treasurer’s 2006-07 budget.
Mr BURKE (Brennan): Mr Deputy Speaker, I reply to the budget handed down by the Treasurer on Tuesday. I congratulate the Treasurer, the Under Treasurer, Jennifer Prince, and the rest of the Department of Treasury on the budget that has been put together for the year July 2006 to June 2007. I congratulate the staff of the Treasurer’s office - they survived. I am sure there were times they thought they would not.
This is the first time I have had the chance to speak in the Assembly on a budget. It is a daunting prospect. There is much in the budget for Territorians to admire.
This budget provides $788.6m to Health and Community Services. This is an increase in funding of almost 65% since 2001 - a massive achievement. This is a statistic of which this government is understandably proud.
Funding for Royal Darwin Hospital is up 75% from the level it was at in 2001. It received $196m in this budget. RDH performs a role, not just for our community, but for the region. We all know the reputation that the RDH established nationwide during the aftermath of the Bali bombings. On Wednesday, 3 May, the Health Minister announced that the Royal Darwin Hospital will receive nearly $8m in recurrent funding to set up a Rapid Admission and Planning Unit. This is part of the $14.1m announced in the budget by the Treasurer to meet the increasing demand on Territory hospitals.
I took the opportunity to attend the minister’s press conference announcing the initiative. I learnt from senior RDH staff there that the RAPU is a mixed clinical and surgical facility. This type of unit is used in the United Kingdom and America. Its role is to ensure quick assessment of patients’ clinical and/or surgical needs. It ensures initial treatment planning is performed, and that the person is moved as quickly as possible to a ward if they are assessed as requiring admission. I understand from my discussions with staff, that the RAPU was their primary request of government. I learnt that there was little point simply expanding the bed capacity at the hospital without a RAPU, as it could not be guaranteed that those beds were being best utilised. This is a cutting-edge initiative. Only a handful of hospitals in Australia have this type of combined medical/surgical unit. Presentations to the Emergency Department at the hospital have increased approximately 10%, and this unit will alleviate pressure on staff and resources.
Alice Springs Hospital is also a big winner, with an increase in funding in the order of 79% since the Australian Labor Party came to government in 2001. $97m is a significant investment into our second-largest hospital in the Territory. There are significant dollar figures associated with the other Territory hospitals: $10m for Tennant Creek Hospital, up 57% from 2001; $23m for Katherine Hospital, up 66% from 2001 levels; and an increase of 54% in funding to Gove District Hospital since 2001.
Heath and Community Services funding is, obviously, not limited to hospitals. This government committed to extending the pensioner concession scheme to Commonwealth card holders, and this government budget delivers on that promise: $8.2m is provided for pensioner concessions. This budget has also included an additional $230 000 for a Child Ear Health program. This program helps ensure children across the Territory receive ear testing.
Babies and young children are simply unable to tell us in words they are having difficulties, or to describe those difficulties. It is a fair generalisation to say that we all appreciate how difficult it can be, as a parent or carer of babies and young children, to pick up signs of health problems. There are a variety of books now that parents in major centres can avail themselves of to help educate themselves about various stages of development in babies and children, and how to spot problems. However, many parents in the Territory live in regions where those resources are not available. Even with those resources, it is still difficult. The early years of life are ones of great learning. Watching a baby or child learning is a fascinating experience. Much of that learning is based on what they hear around them. I applaud the extra funding this government has provided to the Child Ear Health program.
The Minister for Family and Community Services this morning gave a report on childcare. Childcare is an important issue for me. I can empathise with parents across the Territory who are struggling on a number of fronts. Rather than talk about this in a vacuum, I would like to put it into context. Families in the Territory are extremely hard-working. Parents may be employees, independent contractors, or run their own family business. Many are looking, with some trepidation, at yesterday’s announcement of a rate rise of 0.25% by the Reserve Bank of Australia. Repayments on the mortgage are going to take up an even bigger chunk of the family budget.
I recently attended a rally of cleaning staff in Darwin. It was part of the LHMU’s international day of action, as part of its ‘Clean Start – A Fair Deal for Cleaners’ campaign. It is a campaign to raise awareness of the low-waged, largely immigrant female workforce across Australia and New Zealand employed in the cleaning industry. It is part of an even wider global campaign by various union movements around the world. Many people engaged as cleaners have to work two jobs simply to try to survive. Despite this, many are still living below the poverty line. So widespread is support for cleaners that the industrial campaign received support from Alan Jones on his talk show. I do not need to point out to members of the Assembly that Alan is not renowned for his union-friendly views.
There was a special Mass held in Houston by Catholic Archbishop Joseph A Fiorenza who was reported by the New York Times as having told janitors that: ‘God is unhappy that they earn so little’. It shows the alliances which are being formed by church and union movements.
Cleaners are not alone in their financial struggles, however. It is not just those with the least who are finding it difficult. Middle income earners are also now finding themselves struggling to make ends meet. We live in a time where it is no longer a lifestyle choice whether both parents work; it is a survival choice. There is, in fact, no choice. This community structure means that childcare is an essential government service. Australians need sufficient places provided to meet their needs. The federal government has shown itself morally moribund on this issue. It is not enough to leave the industry to private enterprise; the industry needs a mix of community, not-for-profit childcare providers, as well as those run on a commercial basis.
The Howard government has been very clever at passing its responsibilities on to the state, territory and local government levels It has not, however, passed on to these levels of government the ability to collect the revenue to take on this responsibility that the Australian government has been happy to orphan.
The federal Liberal government trumpets its surpluses it holds to election years to be used for party political purposes in an effort to maximise its chances at election. We hear there may be tax cuts in the soon-to-be-handed-down federal budget. Will that help the families of Katherine find childcare places for their children while the parents work themselves to the bone? Will there be an answer in Costello’s latest budget that will help the 600-odd families in Palmerston unable to find places for their children?
The Northern Territory can stand proud as the only jurisdiction to provide a subsidy for childcare. This budget has $3.6m set aside for this purpose. I have no doubt that this money will be warmly received by Territory families lucky enough to have obtained a place for their child or children. I note from the Minister for Family and Community Services that the federal government is touting an additional 50 000 childcare places across Australia. I am aware that the Department of Defence will be doubling the number of childcare centres it has across the country. Places at these centres are available only to the children of Defence families. I trust that these places are not part of the 50 000 the federal government is trumpeting.
I point out also that the Defence centres, whilst owned by Defence, are run by a private childcare company, the largest in the world. Therefore, the federal government cannot be taken as saying it is providing 50 000 new additional places in not-for-profit community centres but, more likely, we will again see an example of the federal government looking after its big business mates.
I will continue to be an advocate for this government finding as much as it can to assist in the area of childcare. This government recognises that there is a role for community based childcare centres. Not only is there the $3.6m for subsidising childcare, but there is also $500 000 for playground equipment for the community childcare centres.
This budget has also found $500 000 for a new Central Australian mental health crisis assessment service. There is another allocation of $500 000 additional funding for community-based residential care services with 24-hour support for those suffering mental illness, and their carers. I have previously spoken on mental health issues. In many ways, mental illnesses are unseen. The provision of further funding for services supporting this area is commendable. I express my admiration for people who are carers of others who suffer chronic or permanent illness or disability.
I draw members’ attention to the $160 000 allocated to provide a new rural standard access road from the Howard Springs Road to the 15 Mile camp along the permanent alignment. Members may not be aware that this is the community that is also referred to as the Palmerston Indigenous Village. Not that long ago, I was asked by the leaders of the community, as their local member, to investigate an issue regarding buses. The bus that took their primary school-aged children to school came down the dirt road to collect them. However, the bus that collected the high school-aged students stopped at the dirt road’s intersection with Howard Springs Road. This left the young people to walk almost 1 km down an unlit road with 6’ spear grass and scrub either side. This was not an issue in the afternoons so much, but the young people did not feel safe first thing in the morning and, as a consequence, stopped attending school.
I approached the Minister for Infrastructure and Transport about this, and his office organised the department to negotiate with the bus contractor. The contractor agreed to pick up the students, but had grave concerns about the state of the road. I have travelled that road quite a bit since my election and can understand the concerns of the contractor. $160 000 is such a small amount in the overall budget, but represents much more than just a dollar figure for the community itself and the bus contractor who runs a business and provides an essential service to the community.
The works will incorporate an appropriate intersection and a school bus turnaround area at the community. The improved intersection will make it safer for the buses and other traffic to slow down and turn into the road. The dirt road is such that I suspect many people drive past it without knowing it is even there and certainly do not expect anyone to suddenly slow down and turn into it. This is $160 000 that is extremely well spent. I thank the minister for Planning and Infrastructure for his support for this initiative in Cabinet budget decisions. I can only hope that we are able to complete the work as soon as possible.
Budget 2006-07 delivers a record $630.7m for Employment, Education and Training. This is an increase of 33% since 2001. The Building Better Schools initiative provides an additional $42m over four years for secondary education; $12.45m of this total is provided in this budget. Some of this money is used to provide 19 additional school counsellors who will be placed throughout the Territory in schools at a cost of $1.8m. A total of $2.1m will go toward provision of subject specialist teachers for remote schools.
A joint Territory/federal fund of $4.39m is provided for the National Accelerated Literacy Program. This year, the project will extend to 27 schools, including Palmerston High School. I am very excited about the accelerated literacy program because I have heard of the brilliant results achieved at Gray Primary School. The students find it empowering to make such strides, and I know the teachers are also great supporters of the program. Palmerston High School is preparing for implementation of the program there. I look forward to hearing about the successes the program will, undoubtedly, have at Palmerston High School.
I commend the government for finding in this budget $2.5m to rebuild the Wugularr School on higher ground. As the Treasurer said, sometimes things happen and government has to react quickly. What is clear in this budget is that government maintains its commitment to provide the best education possible in remote areas. We know the deplorable record of previous governments. Yet again, this Labor government has shown that it is not prepared to ignore those in bush communities and their education needs.
Palmerston High School is an extremely important asset. It is the only government high school in Palmerston. I note that $20m has been set aside for repairs and maintenance across all schools. There is also $10m available in 2006 for middle schools infrastructure. My understanding is that approximately $8m remains of the initial $10m set aside for Palmerston, and this will be used for building the new wing at Palmerston High School. I understand that this figure is not part of the $20m and $10m figure for infrastructure that I previously mentioned. Further, I understand government is not limiting the amount to be spent at Palmerston High School to simply the roughly $8m that it had already allocated. There are additional works required in classrooms that are part of the existing structure at Palmerston High School, and monies in addition to the amount for the new wing will need to be allocated to address the further infrastructure needs of the school.
Madam Speaker, I commend the Treasurer and the government on this budget. It delivers in fundamental areas of Health, Community Services, Child Care and Education. It may not be exciting, but it is fundamental.
Debate adjourned.
Mr HENDERSON (Leader of Government Business): Madam Speaker, I move that the Assembly at its rising adjourn until Tuesday, 13 June 2006 at 10 am or such other time and/or date as may be set by Madam Speaker, pursuant to sessional order.
Motion agreed to.
Ms MARTIN (Chief Minister): Madam Speaker, I move that the Assembly do now adjourn.
I first want to deal with an issue that emerged in the House this week. It is one that makes us all reflect on the way we act as members of parliament. We are charged with a great responsibility as members of this parliament. It is very sad when members come in here, as in one instance this week, and act incompetently and in breach of standing orders. This is what the member for Greatorex did on Tuesday night.
As members of parliament, many people visit us and make many different allegations. That is a fact of life. Part of the task of a member of parliament is to check whether what is being said to you has at least some element of truth. That is very important. In my position - I have had almost 11 years in parliament - many people said things that simply were not true. Every time someone presents you with a letter or a list of what they say are truths, and you come in here and make allegations under parliamentary privilege about those people, you are acting incompetently.
It is very important that if you do receive a copy of a letter where allegations are being made, that you, in the first instance I would say, ring the person and at least do some checking of what they are saying. However, the member for Greatorex, when he tabled a letter that made allegations about me on Tuesday night, did none of that. In fact, the facts of what he presented were wrong. The facts were, quite simply, wrong. I do not want to talk about the details of the case that he presented; it is a difficult issue which is being dealt with, quite appropriately, by Territory Housing. However, it reflects on the member for Greatorex that he did not check. He simply received a letter, and came in alleging what it said.
It is important for members in this parliament to maintain the standing of this parliament, and to do some basic checking - particularly someone who has been here as long as the member for Greatorex - to make sure that what is being alleged to them has some level of fact. It disappoints me. We have a responsibility to check. We have a responsibility to make sure that there is some semblance of truth in what we put forward. There was very little fact in what the member for Greatorex presented in the adjournment debate on Tuesday night - very little fact at all. He was attempting to slur my reputation and criticise my behaviour as a local member, and he was simply wrong.
Madam Speaker, I believe it reflects very severely on the member for Greatorex that he would take that course of action, and it saddens me that someone in this parliament would do that.
I am very happy to account for my actions. On this particular occasion, I believe I acted very appropriately and did not, in any way, undermine what was being done by Territory Housing. I have issues with some of the ways that we manage tenants in public housing, and I have certainly talked to the minister and Territory Housing about that over the last 12 months. On this occasion, I support what they are doing with a very a difficult situation. To have the member for Greatorex claim that, somehow, I was acting – as he alleged by third party - corruptly, was very inappropriate and incompetent on his behalf. It is a sad week that a member of parliament should do that.
On a much more cheery note, I would like to pay tribute to our young Territory netballers, especially those who were chosen to represent the Territory in the national Under 17s and Under 19s titles which were held last week in Sydney at the Penrith Sports Stadium. These competitions are tough. Teams are drawn from states the size of New South Wales and Victoria. With something like 7.5 million people in New South Wales and many million in Victoria and in the other states, and our population of only 204 000, it is very tough for our young players. They have a level of competition here, but we are not able to meet the competition levels which are regularly played in New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, South Australia, and Western Australia.
When you are developing young netballers, it is the regular competition you give them to lift their standards which is critical. So much so, that the ACT Under 17s team was travelling most of the year to New South Wales to play in the Sydney competition once a week. They went there in the afternoon to play in the evening competition and then have to get back to the ACT by 2 am. That is the drive you need to be able to compete on a national level.
Our teams, through our Institute of Sport, spent hours in training in the run-up to that national competition. They worked extraordinarily hard and were extraordinarily committed. I pay tribute to the Institute of Sport for the way that they nurtured the players in both the Under 17s and Under 19s netball teams.
Our teams played their heart out in the competition; however, winning was hard to come by. Both teams got close a number of times, but only once in the week in all the games they played did they win. That was the Under 19s in their last match against Tasmania. Well done, girls, in the Under 19s. The Under 17s came close but did not quite make it. However, they did the Territory proud.
I watched the teams play over four days, and you could see the improvement in the way they performed on the court, and also the attitude they took to the games. When you have lost one game after the next and your hopes are a bit wobbly, the way they regrouped and kept tackling each game was impressive. In the Under 17s, we are talking about players as young as 15-, 16- and 17-year-olds playing. The Under 19 team had a couple of injuries and had to find a couple of players to fill in. They all performed very well.
There were a number of parents who travelled down, and their support was really critical. I pay enormous tribute to the coaching and support staff who went with both teams, and also to the players.
I want to talk a little about the support teams because they did a gigantic job. For the Under 17s, the coach, Stacey West, is not only the coach but a player of national standing. She is the institute’s coach, and she is also the mother of the team. As she said to me, it is really tough in these games when you are dealing with teenagers; they need to be supported through what they are doing. After each game, they had to go through the warm-down process and strategies and also - always tough for Territory girls - through the ice baths. They have to stand up to their waist for about 15 minutes in buckets of ice. It is very good for their muscles, but Territory girls shake! That was part of the process after every game.
Stacey was awesome. She is a wonderful coach and a terrific woman, and she nurtured those Under 17s. The assistant coach was Kate Worden, who did a great job. The manager was Lorna McLaughlin and she was like a mother hen. She organised everybody, drove cars, and managed meals. Primary care was physio, Amy Terry. She bandaged people, worked on muscles, and oversaw the ice baths. It was both a love and hate relationship that the girls had with her. To Stacey, Kate, Lorna and Amy, an enormous thanks from the Territory. The Under 19’s coach was David Yeaman, assistant coach Joanna Fitzgerald, manager Sue Brinkhoff, and primary care was Catherine Hayden. Also a sterling job done by the Under 19 support teams.
I pay tribute to those players who put their hearts and souls and every bit of energy into playing for the Territory. The Under 19 captain was Sarah Williams and Claire Hayward was vice captain. The team was Marissa Chaplin, Tarli Gillam, Emma Kay, Sarrita King, Eliza McGregor, Emma Mitchener, Jamie Patterson, Keisha Oakley, Sally Jones, and Samantha Martin who had an injury. I do not think Samantha played any matches. The Under 17s were: Kelsey Weckert, Jess Moller, Carlie Martin, Georgia Leach, Jacinta Kay, Sharon Jennings, Rosemary Jennings - both from Katherine - Alyce Casilli, Kim Bruyn, Eulaly Allen, Tegan Pannell and, with much pride, the captain was my daughter, Chloe Alderman. They were terrific; they did us proud. I was a very proud mother; we were very proud parents, and her brother was there. Although Under 17s did not win, they played their hearts out, and that really is a tribute.
We are improving in netball. Our players are now up there. The institute has made an enormous difference to their capacity, and the difference between our players and the big states is now not so different. Given time, we will grow our population and Territory netballers and other teams will be up there winning and doing a lot better in national competitions. We have very fine young sportswomen in the Territory and our netballers did us proud in Sydney.
I now pay tribute to a Territorian who died recently. As many people would be aware, Angelo Madalozzo, one of the Territory’s true characters, passed away after a short illness. Angelo was a big part of Darwin’s business community and his legacy can be seen in many places across the Territory.
Angelo was born in the northern Italian Alps and headed to Australia in 1950 at the age of 23. Two years later, he arrived in Darwin to start a new life. However, things were not easy at first. With few places to stay and close to being broke, it was the generosity of the Ah Toy family at their grocery store in Knuckey Street that kept him going while he searched for work. I am told Angelo never forgot their kindness and support.
Angelo’s reputation grew quickly and, by the mid-1950s, he was one of the leading figures - if not the leading figure - in construction in the Top End, and his credits are numerous. In 1965, he won a contract in excess of $1m - one of the biggest ever awarded to a private contractor - to extend and remodel the Darwin Hospital and Myilly Point. Other examples of his work include the old Post Office which is now Darwin Central, the Katherine Hospital wards, old Darwin Supreme Courts, Housing Commission flats in Mitchell Street, Stage 1 of the Darwin High School, the old Telegraph Exchange, the old fire station, the Don Hotel and the ABC building. That is an impressive body of work.
In 1969, together with Kurt and Joanna Scheiter, he bought land and some old buildings at Mandorah. By 1972, Angelo had built the Mandorah Hotel which he ran with his family. Angelo will be missed by this community by many people, and I would like to pass on my sympathy to Lisetta, their three children, and the rest of his family and friends. I seek leave to incorporate into the public record the eulogy that was delivered at Angelo’s funeral.
Leave granted.
The sand sculpture competition was very popular. As you can imagine, there was no shortage of entrants in the thong throwing contest and the eating competition, where participants had to consume a cold meat pie, a warm sarsaparilla and chocolate Freddo Frogs. I do not know what the indigestion level was later.
At midday, there was the citizenship ceremony and around 40 new Australians received their citizenship and certificates. The Family Fun Day also has an important purpose; it is about making Territory families aware of the services and networks in the community to support them. There was plenty of information available from the stalls on the day.
I congratulate Anglicare for organising such a terrific event. They are a magnificent organisation which continues to make a positive contribution to our community and our great Territory lifestyle. Many thanks to their chairperson, Bishop Philip Freier, their acting CEO, Iain Summers, and to their dedicated team of staff and volunteers. I particularly single out Julie Hoare, who is Anglicare’s Community Relations Officer; Afzala Awan the coordinator of the Family Fun Day; and Sandy Graham, head of Anglicare’s Community Development Division. A special thanks to the event supporters including TIO, Neighbourhood Watch, Volunteering Australia, Lone Fathers’ Association, Red Cross, NT Fire and Emergency Services, Power and Water Corporation, St John Ambulance, the Guides Association, Calico Connections, Dave and Linda Collins from Paparazzi Caf, Peter Walkington from the Airport Resort, Monica Napper from Monica Napper Photography, Betta Electrical, Cosmos Foods and Cadbury Schweppes, Independent Grocers, Top End Sounds, Spotlight Territory Party Hire and Coromal Caravans.
Dr LIM (Greatorex): Madam Speaker, for a speech that has been expunged, many people have chosen to comment upon it. I find it very curious. Obviously, it is a Clayton’s expunging when others choose to speak about something that is no longer on the Parliamentary Record.
Tonight I have another matter to raise which has been quite troublesome for some months. Before I start, I would like to quote some paragraphs from a speech made by a particular member:
Later, in August 2004, this same member said:
Referring to the Country Liberal Party government:
Further, the member said:
Referring to the former member for Drysdale, Mr Steve Dunham:
KARU has been trying to talk to this particular member, the Minister for Family and Community Services, and has been faced with a brick wall. This Minister for Family and Community Services has unilaterally removed funding from KARU so that it now is unable to operate. I wrote to the minister on 12 April seeking a briefing and response to some questions I had about KARU. I finally received a response from her a few days ago offering me a briefing. Obviously, during budget week, it is most inappropriate and difficult to try to find time to do this. Hopefully, by next week, the minister’s office will be able to accord me some time to do the briefing without the problem of the budget hanging over our head.
Over the last six to nine months - probably even more than nine months – KARU has been working very assiduously to get itself back on track and trying to take care of the children who are under their charge to ensure that any Aboriginal children who are fostered are fostered under the principles of what is currently called Aboriginal Child Placement Principle. This is where an Aboriginal child is fostered by family members, or extended family members and, failing that, by another Aboriginal family within the same clan or community and, if not, other families and then, failing that, using non-Aboriginal families as the last resort.
Under new management and new governance, KARU actually has its act together - it really has. Sure, there were many times, in many years past, when KARU had not performed as well. Several reviews were done. In fact, one review was done under the direction of the Department of Health and Community Services. That review made many pertinent comments which were not followed by the department or the minister. The upshot of that was that funding was removed from KARU and now they are struggling.
Under the Community Welfare Act, Part IX, Aboriginal Child Welfare, section 69, Aboriginal child in need of care, it states:
The questions I put to the minister were: what was the level of funding to KARU? How was it arrived at? What were the negotiated outcomes from KARU for the funding that it has received each year from the Northern Territory government, and whether the outcomes were achieved by KARU for the funding that they received? Then I asked: ‘You have now withdrawn the funding; what was the rationale for the termination of the service agreement with KARU?’ I have some letters here which do not explain why, except that the department has quoted clause 19.4 which allows the department to withdraw unilaterally. That does not give KARU any sense of fair play; there is no natural justice in it.
I further asked the minister: how many children were referred by FACS each year to KARU for placement? How are these children referred to KARU in the first instance so that KARU can follow them up? What process has been put in place by FACS now to replace the services that were being provided by KARU?
I am interested to hear the minister tell me what the status of the Aboriginal Child Placement Principle is in relation to the operation of FACS with Aboriginal children in the Northern Territory, and what compliance FACS observes with the Aboriginal Child Placement Principle. I am still waiting for those answers and I hope the briefing will provide me with that.
A letter was written by the Secretariat of National Aboriginal Islander Child Care, SNAICC, to the Chief Minister as far back as 2 April 2006. It is now five weeks-plus, and they have yet to receive a response from the Chief Minister. SNAICC makes some very valid points. They wrote to the Chief Minister saying:
SNAICC recognised that there were challenges involved in providing care for vulnerable children at risk, and with any form of alternative care which meets the cultural and developmental needs. However, what SNAICC also said was that it believed that the Department of Health and Community Services has not acted appropriately in deciding to withdraw funding from KARU. It arrived at that decision after considering several independent reviews that were done on the agency. One of the reviews considered by SNAICC was prepared by Actualize, which was commissioned by the department in 2005, with KARU’s involvement and support, to prepare a report.
I quote from the letter from SNAICC:
It further goes to say that:
What it says is that KARU has been under-funded by the government to provide services for Aboriginal children in foster care. Having under-funded KARU, it now says KARU is not performing and, because they are not performing: ‘We are going to close you down’. You cannot set up an agency to fail. If you are going to do that, do not do it at all. If you are going to do it, resource it adequately.
In this letter from SNAICC, it says further:
That is an indictment on the minister who gets up here and says: ‘Bleeding heart me, I feel so sorry for these people and I will do all I can and I have done all I can and I have been successful’. Well, she has not been successful.
In SNAICC’s letter it says:
There you are - you are setting up an agency to fail. That is not the way to ensure that Aboriginal children get proper foster care under the Aboriginal Child Placement Principle.
Is the minister breaking the law? I am sure she will come back and say: ‘No, no way in the world am I breaking the law’.
What KARU needs through all its reviews and reassessments is about $160 000 per annum of funding for it to conduct its work. I am sure this government, with a $3bn budget, would be able to find $160 000 to provide to KARU so that they can get back to doing the job that they have been chartered to do, and ensure that indigenous children are fostered under these principles. Without government funding, it cannot work and it could be a problem.
Mr STIRLING (Nhulunbuy): Madam Speaker, I seek leave at the outset to table and speak to two petitions which, beyond my control, were unable to be tabled this morning.
Madam SPEAKER: Are you seeking leave?
Mr STIRLING: I am seeking leave to table two petitions.
Madam SPEAKER: I will just ask advice.
Leave granted.
Mr STIRLING: The first petition was handed to me some time ago outside parliament at a meeting of parents and students representing Ludmilla School. The head of the petition reads:
I was happy to meet with the Ludmilla Primary School Council and representatives of the community shortly before that meeting outside parliament on one particular evening. I pay tribute to the professionalism in the way that meeting was conducted and the presentation of information by the school council chairperson. It was quite a thorough presentation in being able to draw on some facts and statistics from the Australian Bureau of Statistics about likely population growth into the future, and some demographic forecasts.
However, I was also taken that evening by the short but very meaningful contribution, in my view, from four mothers of students at Ludmilla - indigenous mothers from Bagot - each of them working, and every one of those mothers had been students at Ludmilla Primary School. I thank Ludmilla Primary School for the efforts that they have made in defence of their school in this whole question of structural change around middle schools. I thank them for the petition.
I table that along with a petition that was handed to me at ANZAC Hill High School when I was in Alice Springs a few weeks ago meeting with and visiting both ANZAC Hill High School and Alice Springs High School.
During my visit to ANZAC Hill High School, I met with representatives of the student council. There was a delightful young man by the name of Sonny Day - small in stature with a huge smile and an engaging young man who was very articulate. He spoke to me during this meeting with students about how he felt and how he thought his colleagues felt about ANZAC Hill High School. It was his task at the meeting to present me with this petition. I gave him an undertaking that I would, on his behalf, present this petition to parliament and I do so now. I was very taken with young Sonny Day. It is students of his ilk who have so much potential and whose best interests we must safeguard and preserve going forward. It is young students like Sonny Day who are in the forefront of my mind when we get around to the final decision-making on what model we will accept under the middle school structure and processes.
Mr VATSKALIS (Casuarina): Madam Acting Deputy Speaker, I join the hundreds of thousands of Territorians and citizens of Darwin to express my relief that Darwin missed being hit by Cyclone Monica recently, despite all the frightening scenarios and predictions in models we have seen on the Internet, especially from the Bureau of Meteorology.
However, the whole event was a timely warning for us. We have become very complacent and have left plenty of things lying around our yards during the cyclone season. Very quickly, we had to empty our yards and safely store items like basketball rings, pots, and all the junk we leave lying around the garden. It was a good exercise.
My parents are visiting from Greece, and were very impressed by how quickly and disciplined the people were in responding to the warnings on the radio. Their comment was that if something like that happened in Greece, there would be panic in the streets and people running around in circles making a lot of noise but doing nothing else. Here, people were disciplined and followed the instructions of the Bureau of Meteorology and the Emergency Services.
The people who were allocated to man the shelters turned up in time and in full force to make sure that the shelters were open and ready to accept people who wanted to be sheltered during the cyclone because they were unsure about the integrity of their house or the potential of their house to withstand a Category 5 cyclone.
In my electorate of Casuarina, Dripstone High School is the cyclone shelter. When it was announced that it would be opened, people who were supposed to be there to man it were there. My sincere thanks to Andrew and Cheryl Fyles; Andrew was there in time and organised everything very well.
Also congratulations to Morris and Debbie Bastian and Herb and Anne. Congratulations to Lyn Elphinstone, the Principal of Dripstone High School, and Kay Brohier, the Administration Manager, and their staff. I am aware of the disruptions and inconvenience that Cyclone Monica caused the school and the teachers. I also understand the next day when the shelter was closed and the school re-opened, there were some problems. Teachers had to teach in classrooms which, a few hours previously, were shelters. They overcame the difficulties and everything went really well. Once again, I congratulate them.
We have to always be alarmed and alert about the possibility of a cyclone hitting Darwin. We have had a few near misses from Cyclone Thelma and Cyclone Ingrid. This time, Cyclone Monica came too close for comfort. We do not know what is going to happen in the future, and we have to always be ready. It was very surprising on Sunday before Cyclone Monica, I visited my Greek compatriots to celebrate the Greek Easter at Fannie Bay in wonderful, beautiful Dry Season weather. A few days later, there was rain and warnings about the cyclone. This is an indication of how quickly things can change, especially in the Wet Season.
Back to my electorate and Dripstone High School. The students and the staff from Dripstone High School have just returned from another highly successful excursion to Japan. The touring party travelled from 1 April to 16 April 2006. The trip was a continuation of the cultural exchange between Dripstone High School and the Kibi Cho Junior High School in the Wakayama Prefecture that began some nine years ago. This is Dripstone’s third trip to Japan. In January this year, the township of Kibi Cho joined two other towns to form the new township of Aridagawa Cho. During the first week of the program, students and staff toured Mt Fuji, Tokyo City, Mt Norikura, Takayama, Kyoto and Nara. A highlight for many was the visit to famous Mt Fuji, the symbol of Japan.
However, this was surpassed by visiting Mt Norikura, which enabled many of the students to get their first experience, glimpse and touch of snow. Kids growing up in the tropic zone do not see snow very often. I well recall the reaction of my son when we went to Greece and woke in the morning and it had snowed. He first saw the snow covering the cars, and he scooped it up and said in his surprise: ‘Hey, it is cold’. Living in the tropics you really do not know what snow is all about.
The second week the students spent in Aridagawa Cho, where all participants experienced the Japanese lifestyle and culture by being billeted with families from Kibi Cho Junior High School and attending classes at the many junior high schools in the Aridagawa area.
Once again, I have been requested by residents in Nakara and Wagaman to lobby for the closure of two laneways in the area. These laneways are sites of antisocial behaviour and other events. I was pleased to assist residents by lobbying the Darwin City Council on their behalf, and to advise that the request of the residents of Wagaman has been satisfied as council has agreed to sell the laneways to the two adjoining properties.
Following the closure of the Casuarina laneway near the bus terminal, the residents have told me they now have peaceful nights; there is no antisocial behaviour and the laneway is not used as an escape route by juveniles at night. I thank Casuarina Shopping Square which provides security to people to lock the laneway at night and re-open it in the morning. It was a great initiative and helped to reduce antisocial behaviour and problems in the nearby area.
Again, I will call on Darwin City Council to have an evaluation of the laneways in Darwin city, and the ones they are not using any more which have become focal points for antisocial behaviour, to be either closed and sold to adjoining residents, or they find a measure to reduce antisocial behaviour, either by installing special security lights, or find another way. I am always here to help. Along with my colleagues, the members for Johnston and Sanderson, we are all prepared to help out to reduce antisocial problems in our areas.
The Tiwi Landcare Group is an extremely hard-working group of volunteers within our community who conduct regular working bees along the Casuarina Beach and Tiwi Creek sites. They work tirelessly to preserve and beautify the areas within our environment so the whole community can enjoy it. The group has been working in partnership with Northern Territory Parks and Wildlife over the past five years to eradicate heavily infested areas of exotic grasses and weeds, and the revegetation of those areas along the Casuarina Coastal Reserve. Their hard work over the years has resulted in the successful revegetation of two degraded areas within the Casuarina Coastal Reserve, and has also been extremely helpful in enhancing our famous Casuarina Beach.
I was proud to be asked to provide a letter of support for their application for an Envirofund Grant, and I strongly supported the application. This will enable them to further revegetate and beautify other areas around the Casuarina Coastal Reserve, and to purchase plant stock, additional equipment for slashing weeds and associated safety equipment, plus water quality equipment. A big thank you to Tiwi Landcare Group. I hope other Landcare groups follow their example. A trip to Casuarina will show you how a small group of people can do many things.
Another initiative I have established is regular meetings between the police and people in my electorate, and also the shopping centres. Casuarina shopping centre management staff met in my office with the Officer-in-Charge of the Casuarina Police Station, Tim Moseley, and discussed issues which affect the Casuarina Shopping Square. I was very pleased to hear from Tim that he will continue the patrols within the Casuarina Shopping Square. However, this time it will be uniformed police officers because, sometimes, people feel comfortable when they see a uniformed police officer patrolling the area. You might have 100 police officers in civvies and, if people do not see a police officer, they feel somewhat apprehensive. With the initiative Tim Moseley introduced with the police officers, things have been very good. Tim also pointed out some issues to Casuarina Shopping Square management and some resolutions will be adopted. In some cases, the management group expressed surprise they had not thought about it earlier and thanked the police for their advice.
The meetings will continue on a regular basis, not only with the shopping centre management, but also with people in the area. In talking to the police, we found that the police can provide feedback to the community and, sometimes, the community provides valuable information to police. Such feedback can result in resolutions to some of the problems.
I want to talk about the two significant events in Darwin: the Islamic Youth Forum and the Islamic Open Day. The Islamic Youth Forum was initiated by the Islamic community. They wanted to get young people from the community together to find out how they feel at this time when Muslims around the world and in Australia are being targeted and characterised as terrorists, and how other people perceive the Muslims in our society. I was pleased to see that about 50 young men and women from 12 years onwards attended the youth forum. They expressed concerns about the way the media portrayed Muslim youth in Australia with - one exception: the Northern Territory media has not followed the media in other states and has never published a defamatory or inflammatory story about Muslims.
I was very impressed with the young women of Muslim faith; they were very assertive and quite vocal about what they saw as their rights and their position in the society and within the Islamic community. Some of them choose to wear the hijab and go to school, and were prepared to talk openly about their experiences.
It was a fantastic initiative by the Islamic Society of the Northern Territory. I congratulate them. Hopefully, it will be followed up and we will have other similar events in the future.
The other event I attended on 22 April was the Islamic Open Day and the 35th anniversary of the Islamic Society of the Northern Territory. I was very impressed with the large number of people of many faiths and ethnic or cultural backgrounds who attended that event, following the invitation extended by the president of the association, Dr Waqar Ahmad. The Islamic Society initiative to have an open day provided an opportunity for people to find out about Islam; the preaching of Islam; how Islam, Christianity and Judaism are interrelated; and the opinion of the Islamic people about terrorism and the people who are using Islam as an excuse to conduct terrorist acts.
There were many displays. People were invited to attend the evening prayers and Bishop Philip Freier, the Anglican Bishop was there, along with representatives of Sikhs, Buddhists and Hindus; fellow parliamentarians: the Speaker, the Chief Minister, my fellow ministers, the members for Wanguri and Karama, and Len Kiely MLA; and many representatives of ethnic communities in Darwin. It was a great afternoon and the dinner that followed was also attended by many of the people who took part in the evening prayers.
Let us not forget, Islam is the world’s second largest religion. In the Territory, our Islamic Society numbers about 1000 people. These people come from many different countries: Pakistan, India, Indonesia, and Malaysia. Most of these people are professionals who work in the public service, the university, or have their own business. All of them have come here because they want to make a better life for themselves and their families.
I have said before, Darwin offers unique opportunities in that we do not have ghettos. Our neighbourhoods are mixed neighbourhoods. My next door neighbour is English, further up the road are Sri Lankan people and a couple of Greeks. Nobody identifies people by their nationality or ethnic background. We celebrate each others nationalities, customs and cultural backgrounds.
With the Muslim community, we do not see what you see in other states. I could not care less if my neighbour wears a hijab or a turban, or he has a beard, as long as they are a real good Territorians, peaceful neighbours, and we can work together to bring up our families in a peaceful society.
I grew up in a mono-cultural society. However, in the small town where my grandparents used to live there was a big Armenian population, a Turkish population and a Jewish population. I knew a lot about the Armenians because Armenians are Eastern Orthodox and we celebrated the same celebrations and had the same Mass. I did not know anything at all about the Jews, Turks or Muslims. Because we did not know anything about them, we did not feel very comfortable and did not really trust them.
What the Islamic Society did in opening their doors to tell people about Islam, and that the basis of their religion is very close to the Christian religions or Judaism, was very important. Knowledge is power and when you have knowledge you are not afraid of the unknown.
Congratulations to the Islamic community on their initiative. Our government will continue to support the Islamic community. We gave them a grant of $200 000 to upgrade their hall and to provide some new facilities - absolutely necessary for the Islamic people. This government will stand by our fellow Muslim Territorians because the Territory is a place where many nationalities can come together, make their home, and contribute to the economic and cultural development of the Territory.
When some of my Greek compatriots first came here, they became very good friends with the indigenous Territorians in Darwin. In some cases, they refused to comply with the then legislation. When they played soccer the best goalie they ever had was, as they called him, a blackfella from Bagot. When they won the match, they used to have a barbecue and a few beers. At that time, you were not allowed to give beer to Aboriginal people. So, even though it was the middle of the Wet Season they would go inside, close their windows so the police would not see them, and celebrate together. They had to sweat a lot at the time because there were no airconditioners. They saw people as they were, and did not see colour, faith or background.
Ms LAWRIE (Karama): Mr Acting Deputy Speaker, I congratulate some of the students in my electorate who have been excelling in literacy at their schools. As the member for Karama, it is a privilege to present literacy awards at my local primary schools.
I congratulate recent award recipients in literacy. At Malak Primary School: Jaimee Boorer, James Novak, May Phuangprasert and Chloe Turbill. Congratulations to those students who are excelling in literacy.
At Manunda Terrace Primary School, the recent recipients of the citizenship awards were Kirralee Bin Omar and Aaliyah Bailey.
At Karama Primary School, the winners of the recent Endeavour Awards were Nicolas Baber, Shea-lee Francis, Andrew Thai and Noelisha Young.
All these fine young students, who have been working diligently at school and were recognised and nominated by their teachers and endorsed by the principal, were recipients of the member for Karama awards. It is a pleasure, as a local member, to visit the school communities to encourage young students in making the most of their opportunity in education. It is an inspiration to see these kids putting so much effort into their school work and also being good citizens at their schools. They are to be congratulated. I know it gives them a great deal of pleasure.
I was stopped at the shopping centre recently by one of the award recipients and she said: ‘I was so happy to get the award’. I give out a gift voucher from Casuarina Shopping Square as part of the award, and she let me know that she was not spending her gift voucher. It meant so much to her that she is hanging on to it. It was one of those really touching moments. As local member, you realise you can acknowledge the effort put in by the young people. Congratulations to all those award recipients.
I want to talk about a local activity which is well supported by the Karama and Malak communities. Karama and Malak Neighbourhood Watch is a very effective local neighbourhood watch group. We meet each month and alternate our meetings between Malak and Karama. At the first meeting of the year at Malak Primary School, we met the new police Officer-in-Charge of Casuarina, Tim Moseley. We said we wanted to see an increased police presence in the local area.
I was very impressed with the Officer-in-Charge of Casuarina police. He responded appropriately to our request by setting up a local operation in Karama and Malak. This included a police van presence at the Karama Shopping Centre, which provided the opportunity for residents to talk to local police, have their queries answered and, importantly, have the opportunity to join the local Neighbourhood Watch. I have had reports back from police that that was a very good operation, with some new members coming to Neighbourhood Watch, and it generated much interest from the local community in talking to the police. In addition to the police van, there were extra police patrols through the streets in Karama and Malak and a police presence around the shopping centre.
It was great to see the Aboriginal Community Police Officers walking through the shopping centre having a chat to people. It gave people a real sense of community in Karama and Malak to see the police respond so positively to our request for an increased police presence. It is good to see action rather than just rhetoric. I received a flyer in my letterbox from the Leader of the Opposition calling for an increased police presence after this operation. I thought ‘They are out of touch with what is happening in the community’, because it was a phenomenal police presence over those couple of months.
The Officer-in-Charge of Casuarina is committed to continuing to be proactive in policing in the area. I was having a chat at the local shopping centre in Karama with a very senior officer of police who was talking to me about the approach they are taking with mounted patrols. There is an effort to increase the number of patrols because, of course, they are a very visible police presence in our community.
I also thank Youth Beat who participated in this operation and who work collaboratively with local police patrols. The youth workers from Youth Beat were also a part of this operation and pulled their Youth Beat band to the area of Karama and Malak quite regularly during this operation to interact with the youth. We have many kids in the area who choose to wander the streets at night. Some of them may not be exhibiting criminal behaviour but, it is unsettling and unnerving to the local residents to see kids on the streets at night when most people would agree they should be at home in bed having a good night sleep ready for school the next day.
Youth Beat plays a vital role in our community talking to the kids, finding out why they are on the street, and what support they need in their life to take a better path in their life. I congratulate Mission Australia for the Youth Beat program and encourage them to continue to work with our youth to try to work through many of the issues which get the kids down. Often, the kids come from very disruptive backgrounds and, sometimes, they prefer to hang out with their friends than deal with the home front. I encourage Youth Beat in the work that they are doing.
On another positive aspect, Ramon Munnich, a young man from Malak Primary School, went to Singapore to attend the international baseball tournament. I was happy to help sponsor Ramon’s trip. I have had reports that he had a fantastic time and it was an incredible learning experience in his baseball career. I congratulate Ramon on his successful trip to Singapore.
A big event coming up in Malak is the celebration of the Malak Primary School’s 25th birthday. They are having a huge day this month on Friday, 19 May. The school has been preparing for the celebration all year. They have a very hard-working team of school council parents, the staff, and their very able bodied principal, Russell Legg. The first half hour will be the formal part of the day with speeches, and then it will be on to the fun. There are a whole range of activities planned for the day: raffles, photo displays, food stalls, story telling, and a band which will give people the opportunity to dance. Casuarina Kiwanis have donated their time and bain-maries for the day.
Invitations have been sent out far and wide to attract past students back to the school to celebrate the 25th birthday. These invitations have been created by children at the school. Congratulations to the current students at the school for wholeheartedly getting involved in the planning for the birthday celebrations.
The school is also producing a calendar which has been an enormous production. I acknowledge the work of Trish Espinoza in putting that calendar together for the school.
There have been many donations from local businesses to support the school’s celebrations. It is often difficult to single out one business in particular, but I was struck by the sheer generosity that I have witnessed on many occasions now by the business, Pearl Galleria, in the mall. They really do support the local community with donations of pearls for fundraising efforts. Hearty congratulations and thanks to Pearl Galleria for supporting the Malak Primary School’s 25th birthday celebrations.
I am looking forward to getting out to the school in the next week or so to present the April and May student awards and participating in their birthday celebrations.
Another success story is at Manunda Terrace Primary School. A group of students from the school attended the inaugural Darwin Zone Interschool Chess Championship which was held at Casuarina Senior College in Term 1. This group of budding young chess players performed extremely well. They went on to win the competition, and will represent Darwin at the national championships in Melbourne to be held in Term 4. The winning team members were Liam Stuart, Kieran Gillespie, Michael Ferrer, Abi Gaby and Michael Bennett. A hearty congratulations to those chess players.
The chess program is ongoing at Manunda Terrace Primary under the guidance of chess coach, Mark Hodgson. I thank Mark for the effort he is putting in with the students in finetuning their chess skills. He is organising a whole school competition in Term 3 to select the elite team that will go on to represent the school and, indeed, Darwin, in Melbourne at the National Chess Championships. The school is busy in fundraising mode to assist those families whose students are selected to represent the school in Melbourne. The food and accommodation there will be supplied by Chess Kids Australia.
As a local member, you are forever asking Darwin City Council to do what is the day-to-day work of council. I want to take time out to thank the parks staff. They have worked tirelessly through the Wet Season to keep our local parks looking beautiful. Even on rainy days, I have seen the parks staff mowing those parks. It really has made a difference to the electorate to see the effort made by Darwin City Council workers to keep the beautification aspects of Malak and Karama looking terrific.
In keeping with that, I want to thank the owners of the local shopping centres, both the Yap family at Malak and the La Pira family at Karama. They have also made great efforts in their maintenance program to ensure that both those shopping centres continue to look well kept. It really makes life in the suburbs pleasant when our surrounds are beautiful. It is a bit of a chore, as we all know, getting out there and constantly mowing through the Wet, but it makes a world of difference when our suburb is looking as good as it can in the glorious growth of the Wet Season. The community has benefited.
As I said at the last sittings, we have a doctor. I want to thank Gervin; he has done a great job. I am getting positive feedback about the service he is providing as a GP in the local community. In a rare thing, he is a bulk billing GP. People have been impressed by his absolute attention to detail in their medical care. I extend a hearty thanks to a hard-working local GP, who is at the coalface caring for the health of our community. It is making an enormous difference.
I also congratulate our local childcare centres, the community-based centres at Karama and Malak. They do a terrific job at those childcare centres; they pay attention and care to the kids. They struggle on very low budgets because they are community-based. They do not hike their fees up, so it is affordable childcare in what is, largely, a lower socioeconomic area. They do a terrific job at these community-based childcare centres. I encourage them to apply for the playground equipment funds that the government has announced in the 2006-07 budget. That equipment makes the world of difference to childcare centres. Playground equipment, as we know, gets a lot of hard wear and tear from kids at the childcare centres. It only has a life of a couple of years before you have to turn it over and buy new equipment. This fund will provide the opportunity for those hard-working community-based centres to upgrade the equipment that the kids need for their motor skills.
It is a happy community. Like anywhere across Darwin and, indeed, across Australia, we have our crime. I have been keeping a careful eye on the crime statistics at Neighbourhood Watch meetings and, by and large, they are fairly steady. We get blitzed every now and again, when the spike tends to come up coinciding with school holidays. This is why it was good to have that police operation occurring during the Easter school holiday period. That was a proactive response from police to a request from the local Neighbourhood Watch.
I congratulate someone who does not live in the electorate but, I have to say, is a regular attendee at the Karama electorate office, working extremely hard for her community, and that is Adina Poole. Adina is a tireless worker for the people of Knuckey’s Lagoon, which is adjacent to Karama. She is always working hard to save the environment there. She puts submissions into government for art grants, sports grants, and cultural grants. She loves that community of Knuckey’s Lagoon and is the backbone of what is becoming quite a thriving community on the doorstep of Karama and Malak. Adina, congratulations for all your hard work; you do a fantastic job.
I am looking forward to celebrating the Cancer Council’s Biggest Morning Tea coming up. We are having a big morning tea at Karama Tavern. I extend an open invitation to anyone to come along and enjoy the morning tea. It will raise some very worthy funds for the Cancer Council which does a great job in our community - often run on the sheer hard toil of their volunteers. The Cancer Council has a great band of volunteers. Congratulations to the Cancer Council. I am happy to support your fundraising efforts in the Biggest Morning Tea. We look forward to another good crowd at the Karama Tavern to put some more money into the coffers of the Cancer Council.
Mr BURKE (Brennan): Madam Acting Deputy Speaker, what a pleasure to see you in the Chair tonight.
I would like to start off with some sad tidings for myself. I have lost my electorate officer, Joanne Verrier. She left at Easter to get married to her fianc and will be returning next week as Joanne Flesfadar. I am looking forward to her return and seeing lots of fantastic pictures from the honeymoon – for the life of me, I cannot remember where they went. I know it had to be somewhere with lots of waves because Daniel is a great surfer. I hope they had a wonderful time. I have seen some sneak preview pictures of the wedding already. Joanne, as all brides do, looked absolutely stunning.
I also thank Kathleen McQuinn for filling in while Joanne has been away. Without her, the office would be a complete and utter mess. I record my thanks to Kathleen for all the effort she has put in at the office, most of the time I have not been there. It was great to have someone in the office looking after the inquiries of people who come into my office. We get a great many inquiries at the Brennan electorate office, as well as many people reading the information we put up in our window about what is going on in and around Palmerston, and other items which we think people would be interested in.
On 20 April, I mentioned that the LHMU had an International Cleaners Day of Action. The action day in Darwin was held at the Roma Bar, a site of many Darwin ‘revolutions’. It is always full of people and is a landmark coffee shop with its own unique place in Territory political and union activism history. The day was well attended. Congratulations to Irene, Shivaun, Geoff, Peter and Di, all of whom put in a great effort. I know that I am forgetting Chenoa in that list. She will no doubt hit me when I see her for not being able to instantly add her name to that list. They put in a lot of effort. As I said, it was well attended by those who were able to get some time off work. The media covered the story and they got some great play for the plight of cleaners. Cleaners are one of the many unsung working groups that go around, often at night when no one else is around, and put back together and tidy up the messes that we have left during the day in our workplaces.
I pay tribute to Ali and Rachael at the NT Working Women’s Centre. They do a fantastic job, particularly for migrant women or women for whom English is a second language - or even third or fourth language. The people they represent are often those who are in low income-type jobs. They are able, free of charge, to provide support services to those women. The centre is at present fully funded by the Commonwealth, and the Commonwealth is looking at re-jigging some of their responsibilities to take away what has been an advocacy role, to make them purely an information service - which will be a great shame. The working women’s centre has been a fantastic advocate for working women in the Northern Territory and they have managed to do a great deal with not very much by way of resources.
On 23 April, I had the great pleasure of attending the opening of the Palmerston Library. It is a fantastic building and you can really see the Palmerston City Centre taking shape. Once the Palmerston Recreation Centre is finished – and I heard the minister say today that it was on track for November this year - it will be another fantastic facility to stand next to the Palmerston Library and be part of that community area which borders Goyder Park.
The opening was a happy occasion. It was compered by Mr Charlie King - and what an excellent job he did. I congratulate the Mayor of Palmerston, Mrs Annette Burke, who gave a great opening speech. I pay tribute to some of the fantastic librarians Palmerston has been lucky enough to have. As part of the opening ceremony, we had belly dancers, other cultural dancers from the islands, and also a group of young people put on a puppet show of their own. I know most of the girls who are in that group attend Palmerston High School. It was obvious they were having a lot of fun; it was very informal and very enjoyable. Congratulations to them for the show they put on.
Also in April, if it were not for a rather big wind, we would have been able to fully celebrate Anzac Day. Unfortunately, that was not to be the case. The usually well-attended Anzac Day dawn service in Palmerston did not go ahead. It was a very wise choice by the RSL to cancel the services. It is always best to be safe rather than take a chance - not taking anything away from those servicemen and women and others who did decide to turn up to Cenotaphs in Darwin and Palmerston to pay their respects on the day.
I was lucky enough to go to Bakewell Primary School for their whole of school assembly on 21 April, which was an Anzac Day assembly. Bakewell Primary School has only a few whole of school assemblies each term, and this was the one closest to Anzac Day. I really do enjoy going to Bakewell Primary School; it is always a pleasure. There are always plenty of parents at the school assemblies. There is a lot of support for the school from the parent body. I pay my respects to those parents who may not get to every assembly because of their own work commitments, but there are many parents who try to get there as often as they can.
The Northern Territory Press Club quiz night was another event I attended, which was held at Kitty O’Shea’s in the city. I had the chance to catch up with Hilary Timms who has been part of the journalist scene in the Top End for many years. I first met Hilary at the Fannie Bay Equestrian Club where my mother and sister had horses. I was roped in on occasions to clean out stalls and that sort of thing. I did not get the exciting job of actually riding.
A member interjecting.
Mr BURKE: A rose by any other name.
It was great to see Hilary, and it was a great night. We did not do that well on our table but we had a great deal of fun making up the answers we had no idea about.
I make a point of awarding a pizza to a class at Gray Primary School for the most consistent wearing of uniform by a class. This time, the pizzas went to Year 1/2 Blume. It was a fantastic effort; somewhere around 99% of the class had worn school uniforms for the previous five weeks. That is great to see. Gray is another fantastic school. The parents provide a great deal of support to the school. Cindy McGarry, the principal, is currently in Korea on an exchange learning about Korean culture and teaching there. I am sure she is having a wonderful time and will come back with a great many hardly believable stories to impress us all with.
The Palmerston Youth Festival was recently held, and that was an excellent community event. The community feeling in Palmerston does not surprise me anymore. It is just a fantastic place for everyone getting together and putting community events in place for the enjoyment of the whole community. It is good to see so many community groups being available for an event like that, so that the youth of Palmerston can see and experience all of the things around them and can participate if they choose to.
Talking of community events, tomorrow night - as I have already mentioned once these sittings - will be the Palmerston night markets. I am sure there will be a great many Palmerston residents who attend those and enjoy the atmosphere. The member for Drysdale and I will be there tomorrow night, and we look forward to seeing as many people of the Palmerston community as we can ...
Mr Warren: I will be there.
Mr BURKE: The member for Goyder will be there as well; that is fantastic news.
I was lucky enough to be asked to participate in the divisional inspection of the St John Ambulance. They have fantastic young people involved in their program. They were telling me that they have no problem whatsoever in attracting and keeping young people involved. There were some great awards presented that night. I take my hat off to those young people who unselfishly devote their time to providing volunteer services. It is a great commitment by them as young people.
I would like to mention the childbirth education classes that have recently started at the Palmerston Library. They are held in the community room at the front. Kima, who runs the courses, is a wealth of knowledge. I went there for the first class, a little late admittedly. There were a number of families there learning about early childhood and looking after babies.
I would quickly like to mention the Palmerston Rugby Union Club again. The Killer Bees, as I see they are referred to in Croc Tales, continued on their thunderous ways with a 38-10 victory against the Dragons, a fantastic result. Palmerston sits at the head of the B Grade table. Unfortunately, that position is reversed in the A Grade table; however I am sure the A Grade team will catch up with the Killer Bees.
Mr WARREN (Goyder): Madam Acting Deputy Speaker, six weeks ago, I wrote to the Commonwealth Department of Family and Community Services supporting the not-for-profit community-based Humpty Doo Community Child Care Centre in their plea to retain their Disadvantaged Area Subsidy funding. This existing federal government funding is essential to the Humpty Doo Community Child Care Centre so that it is not forced to close its doors, all because the federal government has shifted the funding goalposts. This centre is the only not-for-profit long day care centre in the Humpty Doo area and is used by many families.
What really annoys me is the way the federal government has again shown little regard for childcare centres in rural and regional Australia in their attempt to shift costs onto already struggling parents. As part of this process, the federal government engaged an accounting firm to look into the financial viability of the Humpty Doo Community Child Care Centre as part of the centre being transferred from Disadvantaged Area Subsidy funding to what is called Sustainability Assistance. Even by the federal government’s own admission, the reason that the consultants were engaged was because, under the new model, the centre is going to have a very significant reduction in federal funding.
The consultants were purportedly engaged to come up with suggestions as to how the centre can operate more effectively with less funding. What did the consultant’s report come up with? You guessed it: put up fees. They did the same and came up with the same recommendations in Katherine East, Nhulunbuy and many other childcare centres throughout regional Australia. Consultants’ money for jam!
What did the consultants actually look at? I will tell you. They only looked at the financial management of the centre; that was their brief. They did not look at the socioeconomic and demographics of the rural area. They did not look at the combined total income of affected families, or home ownership, or single parents, or the extra travel expense travelling long distances to work. They did not bother even to look at the quality of service at an affordable price.
The Humpty Doo Community Child Care Centre also knew that increasing fees was an option to offset funding cuts and rising costs, particularly wages. That is not rocket science. Over the past 18 months, the federal government funding has already been halved, and now the Disadvantaged Area Subsidy is to be removed. To compensate, the centre is being given some transitional funding for the next two years, starting 1 July 2006, to wean them off the Disadvantaged Area Subsidy. Big deal! The centre has already been forced to implement two fee increases to compensate for previous federal government funding cuts, and now they are being asked to hit their clients with substantially more fee increases.
It seems that everyone except the federal government and their accounting consultants understand that, by increasing fees, parents may not be able to afford to put their children in childcare, and we all know the consequences of that.
The management of the Humpty Doo Community Child Care Centre has provided me with information regarding the financial viability of the centre. That information outlines the steps they have already taken to improve profitability. They have advised me of other options they are considering. As I said before, there is a point at which families will leave the workforce if childcare fees become too high. The Commonwealth’s Remote Area Subsidy is, therefore, vital to the continuation of this service at Humpty Doo.
There are very few centres offering childcare in my extensive rural electorate. This centre provides an invaluable need to the many rural families who commute long distances daily to work. The loss of this centre will have substantial economic impact on the cost base of these families and may drive some people out of the Northern Territory workforce - not to mention the rural parents who are trying to get into the workplace, stay in the workplace, and survive as families. It is a matter which I am sure is not lost on the Minister for Business and Economic Development as he tries to encourage development and promote a healthy workforce in the Territory. We need affordable childcare in the rural area and, yet, the federal government seems hell-bent on promoting private sector childcare at the expense of not-for-profit community-based self-help organisations. They seem quite prepared to tear the heart out of regional Australia’s community childcare centres.
Currently, childcare fees are rising at five times the rate of CPI and, yet, the federal government seems oblivious to this trend. The only rightful beneficiaries are private childcare centres which mercilessly put up fees.
I refer members to the NT Minister for Family and Community Services’ report on childcare in the House today. She said that the Commonwealth government is responsible for the provision of affordable and accessible childcare in Australia. There has been a great deal of debate recently in relation to how they do this, which has included criticism from within their own ranks. Howard government MP, Jackie Kelly, has led the charge, claiming that the system is in a shambles and receives considerable support, not only from the community but from other Howard backbenchers. It certainly is a shambles.
In the Northern Territory, we do what we can to alleviate the problem. The Martin government is the only jurisdiction in Australia that provides a childcare subsidy.
In conclusion, I will leave the final word to the federal CLP Senator, Nigel Scullion. When asked on radio 8DDD FM recently:
he replied:
Ms ANDERSON (Macdonnell): Madam Acting Deputy Speaker, tomorrow morning at 5 am, two teams of riders comprising officers from Alice Springs Correctional Services and the Alice Springs Fire Station will commence a bicycle race from Alice Springs to Yulara. Riding in relay, it is expected to take 13 hours to ride to the Rock. The race is called Ride a Mile for a Smile. It is a biannual event commenced by officers from Alice Springs Correctional Services in 2004. The purpose of the race is to raise money for Camp Quality Northern Territory.
Camp Quality NT is a non-profit organisation committed to bringing hope and happiness to every child living with cancer, their families and communities, through ongoing quality recreational, educational and financial support programs. It is a very worthy cause in anyone’s language.
I congratulate all officers from Alice Springs Correctional Services and the Fire Service for their dedication and commitment to make this fundraising event a success. The sheer hard work that has gone into organisation of this event has been phenomenal. I praise Geoff and Maureen Anson and their kids for their tireless work; their effort has been outstanding. Not only have they organised the actual race, they have been busy holding fundraising events in Alice Springs.
Last Saturday night, I had the great pleasure of attending the charity auction held at the Gillen Club. The night was very successful, with an auction being conducted with the great good humour and professionalism of Paul Hassett. A good sum was raised for Camp Quality NT. This would not have been possible without the strong support of the businesses in Alice Springs which donated items and also turned up to bid.
I also commend the staff of the Alice Springs Correctional Services who turned up in large numbers to support the auction, and everyone else who has supported this event. I wish all the riders the best of luck for tomorrow and may the best team win.
Ultimately, the real winner from this event will be Camp Quality NT. I encourage all members of this House to dig deep and donate to this very worthwhile cause.
I am going to talk about my visit to the community of Docker River, which is located 670 km south-west from Alice Springs by road through Yulara. It takes seven hours to drive there. The picturesque community is nestled between the Petermann, Deane and Blood Ranges, just 7 km from the Western Australian border. The site that is now Kaltukatjara was originally named Docker River by Ernest Giles during his expedition of 1872. Pastors Duguid and Strehlow surveyed the area in the 1930s with a view to establishing a settlement for the people in the area. It was decided not to proceed with this at the time and the Lutheran missionaries told the Pitjantjatjara people of the Kaltukatjara area to go to Areyonga, then an outstation of Hermannsburg Mission, where they would be supplied with food and clothing.
Although many Aboriginals moved into Areyonga, others stayed in the Petermanns. In the 1960s, a permanent settlement was established there. By the proclamation of the Aboriginal Land Rights (Northern Territory) Act 1976, Anangu in the region gained freehold title to these traditional lands and an area of 44 970 km. Approximately 380 people live at Kaltukatjara and, despite the chronic shortage of housing, the community is in good shape because the community and their agencies are working well together.
I commend the leadership of Kaltukatjara Council, in particular the chairperson, Sidney James; the Deputy Chair, Lyall Kenny, and the CEO, Leon Chapman. The stability that the community is currently experiencing is, in large part, due to the hard work of these men. One of the clearest indicators that the community is in good shape was the lack of petrol sniffers I saw there. Although I know this community has problems with substance abuse in youth, community members told me that the leadership at the council and the youth program has been effective in addressing some of the substance misuse, and there are only a couple of sniffers at the community now.
Kaltukatjara Community believed that any measures they take will only be temporary unless they are supported by a regular police presence. The community is looking forward to the building of the permanent police post, so that their efforts to improve the community will be made durable by the regular presence of police. Reinforcing the good work of the council is the commitment of the school principal, Edwyn Graham, and teacher, Gloria-Mae, in educating the students at Docker River School. They have been at Docker River for three years and they are very highly respected by the community. They are ably assisted at the school by two Aboriginal Education Workers, Veronica and Kennedy. I enjoyed a great day in the classroom with the kids and was impressed with attendance rates. It is great to see all the kids going to school every day. This is a testament to the hard work and commitment of everyone at the school.
Community people spoke very highly of Edwyn and Gloria-Mae, and the length of their tenure at Docker River School is one of the main reasons. Many remote schools suffer because of the large turnaround in teaching staff. I was pleased to hear them talk of staying there to build on their good work and ensure an entire generation of Kaltukatjara kids are educated.
Another positive at Docker River is the store. The store and the take-away are well run, employ local indigenous people, and provide a good range of healthy food to residents. I have been to the store at Docker River when it was at its lowest ebb. Improvements that have been made since this time have been outstanding. The charts from the Strong Women, Strong Babies project that is run from the Kaltukatjara clinic is displayed on the store notice board - a visual reminder of the improvements that Docker River community is achieving in child nutrition.
The Pension House is also in good condition and I enjoyed visiting the old people there. I really enjoyed taking the old ladies out bush to collect wood, bush tucker and do some ceremonial dancing. I thank Margaret, Nyinku, Lizzie and all other women of Kaltukatjara for making me so welcome.
Despite the good efforts being made by the community, there are still areas that need to be addressed. The community does need support and a lack of adequate housing is one of its greatest needs. Too many people remain cramped up in two-bedroom houses. At one two-bedroom house I visited, eight adults were living there. One of the women who lived in this house cares for a severely disabled little girl. They have a mattress on the veranda where they sleep and she utilises ablution facilities at the Pension House to care for her daughter. This young mother works at the Docker River clinic when her daughter is residing at St Mary’s in Alice Springs. However, she takes time off from work to devote to her daughter’s care whenever her daughter is home in Docker River. Without doubt, this little girl is being well cared for, but the conditions under which this mother is expected to care for her child is devastating.
All parents of severely disabled children understand the difficulties of caring for disabled children, but imagine the difficulties when your home is a mattress. That this little girl is well cared for is a testament to the strength of her mother but, surely, we can do better to support and assist this family.
Another big concern is the removal of the Remote Area Exemptions for welfare payments from Docker River that is due to commence on 1 July. No officials from the Commonwealth government have visited the community and explained what will happen or what is expected from residents. Community leaders were quite clear that people want to work. They pointed out to me that community members already work in the school, store, clinic, Pension House and council office. However, there are no other jobs available. The community is very keen to develop enterprises in order to create more employment opportunities, but they do not want some rock painting exercise that will leave them with the equivalent of the dole.
Some of the enterprises that leaders of Docker River have discussed with me were establishing an abattoir to process camel meat and skins. The number of camels around Docker River is staggering, and the community has found them to be quite good eating. The women would also like to utilise the skin to create leather products for sale to tourists. I am following up these ideas with the minister for Business, because I believe this type of enterprise could produce a number of jobs and increase the level of income coming into the community.
Mr Acting Deputy Speaker, as I mentioned at the outset, Docker River is nestled between the Petermann, Deane and Blood Ranges. It is an outstanding, beautiful region studded with sites of historical interest such as Lasseter’s Cave, and has real potential to attract tourists. Further investment in developing the tourism industry will also help to create real job opportunities for the people of Docker River. However, these enterprise ideas will not be ready by 1 July, when the Remote Area Exemption is removed. I share the community’s concern about the terrible impact this policy may have. There is a very real possibility that this policy will undo all the good work that the community has been doing and throw them back into the despair they have been working so hard to rid themselves of. I hope not, but it is a situation we need to monitor closely. I thank the community of Docker River for their warm welcome and let them know that I will do everything in my power to support their endeavours.
Mr WOOD (Nelson): Mr Acting Deputy Speaker, I would like to cover a couple of topics, one of which is the Litchfield Gift. The Litchfield Gift is a professional running race that has been held at Freds Pass Show for about 20 years. Unfortunately, this year, NT Athletics decided the sponsorship that normally goes to that particular event will go to the City to Surf event in Darwin. For a while, that looked like the end of the event. There were certainly a few of us quite disturbed that we would lose something that is part of the Freds Pass Show. It is one of those events that makes the Freds Pass Show unique, like the wood chopping, Noel’s Ark, the polocrosse and all those rural events we have.
I sent a media release to the NT News which did a story on the loss of the gift. At 7.45 am, when the paper came out, the good Treasurer, Hon Syd Stirling, said: ‘I will give you $1000’. I said: ‘I will match you’. From then on, we have had a number of sponsors. Chris Coulter of CBC Earthmoving; Geoff and Kerry Akers who run a mining and earthmoving business, Wilson Hire; and Top End Hire have all offered considerable amounts of money so that we now have in the vicinity of $6000 in prize money. That includes, of course, ribbons and trophies that have to go with it, and some of the advertising. Therefore, we are up and running and the Litchfield Gift will be run on 21 May at the Freds Pass Show. We now have $2000 first prize for the gift, which makes it quite a valuable race.
There will also be The Mile, which is a handicapped race as well. That has, I think, a first prize of $250. There is the Masters which, if I can get through the heats, hopefully, I may have a run for. That has a first prize of $250. We have the Under 15s, which also has first prize of $250, and the Under 10s which has a first prize of $150. There are first, second and third prizes for all those events. The juniors also get ribbons from first through to the sixth place. I believe every person who gets to the finals receives a small amount of money as well, which helps pay for the entry fee.
If anyone is interested in running in those races, they can get an entry form from the member for Goyder’s office, the member for Blain’s office, my own office at Nelson, and NT Athletics which has come back on board, thankfully. I appreciate that because they are going to supply some of the judges and the photo finish equipment because, as you might imagine when you are offering a large amount of money for a very short race of 110 m, you want to make sure that the person who wins is the person who wins. Photo finish equipment certainly makes that a lot of easier than just using the eye. It is up and running. We are very pleased with this operating.
I thank the Treasurer for getting the bidding going. I know that next year we will probably organise a small committee, using Rural Athletics, which is doing the main organising for this particular event. Rural Athletics is a very successful sporting body in the rural area. Next year, we will try to make sure that from now on the Litchfield Gift is not threatened by lack of sponsorship. Everyone will be pleased to see it operating again.
On another issue, as you know, on Anzac Day, many events were washed out or postponed. The Anzac Day cricket match, which would have been the 16th Anzac Day cricket match held at the Strauss cricket ground on the Cox Peninsula Road just around the corner from the Stuart Highway, was postponed because of the rain. We held it last Sunday and, although parts of the ground were very similar to a football field and people fielding in the covers could have been rightly told they were fielding in the back pocket, the game continued. It was a great day. It is between the Litchfield President’s XI - which is a disguise word for the Southern District Cricket team - and the Army. In this case, the Army battalion - I can never remember what 1CSSB stands for, but I can tell you their job in the Army is to keep the Army running. They are the people who supply the petrol, the food, do the mechanical work, all the work that basically keeps the Army on the move. They were captained by Corporal Matthew Bleeze, and the Litchfield President’s XI was captained by Geoff Akers.
There was a good crowd. If you have been to one of these matches, people come and go; it is not expected that everyone has to stay all day. You can just drop in and have a beer and a steak sandwich from the Rotary Club of Litchfield/Palmerston, which provides those facilities every year. You can sit under the shade of a tree and enjoy a bit of silly cricket, to some extent, because it is a bit like a 20:20 game. In this case it was a 30:30 game. The kids like it too because, in the middle of the day, we also have a small kids’ cricket match.
This year, we had a major sponsor, Gusher, which is a company run by Janice and Mick Malady. They are a home maintenance company. They put in over $2000-worth of sponsorship this year. In fact, they had signs placed on the field where, if the batsman hit the signs, they got $100, as long as they gave half of that money to Legacy. Well, no matter how hard they tried, only one person hit the sign. It either means we need more signs or bigger signs, or we need them right up close to the batsman if we really want to make it work. Thankfully, Gusher said they will still give the money to Legacy. That was very good as well. People were bribed to stay in so, if they went out, people put money in the bucket and, when everybody was out, you could go back in again, have another go. Therefore, there was extra money put in as well.
I need to thank a few people: Gusher, in particular, for the money it provided and for its corporate stand; Southern Districts Cricket Club for providing all the equipment and organising the toilets, the mats, the bats, the balls and that sort of thing; Coates Hire for providing the toilets; Finn Bins for providing the rubbish bins; the Litchfield Shire Council for covering the day as regards insurance; Mary Walshe for helping commentate for the day; the Northern Territory government for permitting us to play the game on that particular stretch of Crown land; the Army; the Litchfield/Palmerston Rotary Club especially; and the Thompson family on Bradley Road who, every year, cut the grass there. They look after the place and make sure there are no hoons wrecking it.
We did have some hoons this year. They found out where those hoons came from, visited them, and kindly asked them not to do donuts on what is really a heritage site. Hopefully, next year, we do not have that problem. Maybe I will write to the government and ask them whether we can get a fence across the front. It would not have to be something too substantial, but enough to stop people who should not be there from driving in.
The day also commemorates Captain L Strauss, a member of the United States Army Air Force. He was killed over Fannie Bay about one month after the bombing of Darwin. Strauss Airstrip was named after him, although he did not take off from there. His last flight was from a dirt strip at Adelaide River. His squadron moved to what was called the 27 Mile Airstrip at the time. They named it Strauss Airstrip. When you go to the Anzac Day cricket match, you will see two flags - our Australian flag and the American flag. We have a memorial to Captain Strauss which was unveiled a couple of years ago by his family.
On that particular note, this year, I am hoping to go to Ohio where his family lives on a farm in a small country town called Marysville. I also hope to visit the site where he is buried in Wadesville, Indiana, a tiny town where his family lived during the war.
It was a top day. The Dry Season had arrived. I must admit that it looked quite peculiar to see people fielding and landing in the mud and sliding all over the place and, yet, it was a beautiful Dry Season day.
I should give you the score so that at least there is a record of the scores: the Litchfield President’s XI batted first and, after 30 overs, they hit 9 for 170 - they were a bit slow off the mark this year. The Army overtook that quite easily with three overs to spare, hitting 171. I am not sure how many people they had out but, in the end, they certainly did that with ease. Corporal Matthew Bleeze took the trophy home. The trophy is a large polished shell from a tank, mounted on timber, which has a record of how the Strauss cricket ground was founded in recent times. It also mentions the original person who built it, Private Vic Borowicki, who lives in Bendigo, Victoria. He was here last year to toss the coin and help start the game. He and a couple of mates built that cricket pitch in 1942, I gather, after they got into a little trouble. That was one of the jobs they had to do.
This cricket pitch has an enormous amount of history. You might think it is just a strip of concrete, but it is more than that. The reason the Army also likes joining in is that we are celebrating Anzac Day at a place where 60-odd years ago, people similar to these people playing cricket today would have played cricket as well. Many of those earlier cricketers were killed. People need to look at the history of the Northern Territory during the war, and look at the numbers of not only Australians, but also Americans and British who died. Anyone who has looked at the history of Long Airfield, and Fenton Airstrip towards the Douglas Daly, and at the records of the number of Americans flying Liberator Bombers who never returned, would be amazed. There were over 700 airmen who did not return from that one airstrip, and there were many other airstrips - and the same for Australians, of course.
That is one reason why the heritage we have in the Northern Territory needs preserving. It is unique that we had soldiers and airmen fighting the Japanese from the very shores we stand on today. Many of them did not return; they were killed either overseas or on the shores of Darwin. Even though it is one day a year, it is symbolic of the important heritage we have in the Northern Territory.
I ask the government to put some heritage classification over that site and other similar sites. At the moment, Strauss Airstrip is a heritage place. However, the rest of the area around Strauss is not even though there is an area where the railway line came in where they unloaded the bombs which is still there; there is an historical information sign which the government erected several years ago; there are areas where the airmen lived; and there is the cricket pitch. Unfortunately, most of that land is zoned ‘tourist commercial’. Under the new zoning plan the government is trying to introduce, there is a new zone called ‘H, heritage’. Perhaps that is the way to go; that we find these sites whether it is Hughes, Livingston, McDonald, or Fenton airstrips, and get them zoned heritage even if they cannot become a heritage precinct. At least we know why those sites are important.
Even though we had a great day playing cricket – and, hopefully, the cricket will continue for years to come - I would hate to see the site threatened as the development of the new township of Weddell approaches. If you see maps of Weddell, you will see that, in the area around the airstrip and the cricket pitch there is meant to be a very large corridor for roads and electricity. To some extent, that threatens that area. I hope the government, before it gets too heavily involved in Weddell, sorts out some of the heritage issues.
I congratulate the Army. I am sure the Litchfield President’s XI will be back next year to try to win back the trophy. Everyone enjoyed it. It is a great day with no formalities. You can go down, sit under a tree and watch a good game of cricket, and feel as though you have had a good day’s entertainment. My thanks to all the people who supported the day and I hope to see them back again next year.
Ms SACILOTTO (Port Darwin): Mr Deputy Speaker, this evening I inform the House and my colleagues of the latest news from the Port Darwin electorate. Since the last parliamentary sittings, much has been happening in Cullen Bay, Stuart Park, Tipperary Waters, Larrakeyah, and Darwin city.
I am pleased to see all these areas bustling with tourists from the many cruise ships which are now stopping in Darwin. I have had an opportunity to talk to some of these people and they are excited about visiting the Top End with its many and varied attractions. I also congratulate the staff of the magazine D Life. It is my opinion this informative magazine is showcasing what the city has to offer.
I was especially pleased to see in one edition an article entitled ‘Rediscover your city – 50 things to do in Darwin city’. There were some very interesting suggestions, all promoting Darwin city. As the saying goes, Darwin does it for me. Keep up the good work Jane, Clare, Janine and the mall traders.
The good work of this team saw a fantastic roll-up for the Easter mall treasure hunt. All expectations were exceeded, with around 1000 children and their families participating in the hunt. I assisted on the day handing out maps and treasure bags. My son, Luca, participated and it was hard work for parents as well as the children. I thought the mums and dads deserved a prize, and I was proud to donate the first issue of a new product; the Darwin City Voucher for $50. One mum was very happy with the win of the $50 voucher. Mums, dads, grandparents and carers made the day a special one for the children.
It is wonderful to see that business confidence is alive and bustling in Darwin city. On 27 April, I attended the opening of the new luxurious Elements day spa in the Vic complex. This was not my first visit, as I had already had the pleasure of a massage and facial at Elements the week before. The owners of the new venture are Lillian and Elena Gomatos, a very dynamic mother and daughter team. I congratulate Lillian and Elena on the fabulous opening entitled Martinis and Manicures.
I understand that Pawleen Etter played a major role in organising the event, which was attended by 160 guests. Some of those guests included successful Darwin city traders such as Toshi Manolis of Sushi Bar; Peter and Moya Buckley, owners of Frangipanni Travel; Anna and Tony Priore of Angus and Robertson in the Galleria; Lucy and John Dont of Pzazz; Marilyn Jones from Lotus Life Concepts; Jasmine and Helene Kailis from Gallery 8; Christa Johns from Crystal Wave Swimwear; Caroline and Terry from Golden Wattle Florist; Fiona from Vanilla Hair Studio; and Nick Mousellis and Karl Secondis of Ray White.
Best wishes to Lillian and Elena in the future success of Elements. I am sure I will become a regular customer.
I must make a special mention of important birthdays of some senior Territorians in the Port Darwin electorate which have occurred since the last parliamentary sittings. I take this opportunity to acknowledge these milestone birthdays: Mr Robin Taylor of Coronation Drive turned 77 mid-March; Mrs Eileen McQuinn was 80 on 4 March; and Mr John Ross celebrated his 90th birthday on 3 March. There is a very significant feature which all of them have in common. All three have resided in Stuart Park for more than 50 years. In fact, Mrs McQuinn has lived in Stuart Park for all of her 80 years, except for a short period during the war when she was evacuated on the Zealandia to Brisbane with her mother and four sisters.
Another important birthday in the Larrakeyah area was that of Jack Haritos. Jack celebrated his 78th birthday in early March. Jack and his wife, Helene, are very active community members and provided me with strong support and invaluable help and advice on election day. Jack is very active in the Larrakeyah community, and lovingly tends a community garden area on Larrakeyah Terrace. This open space has great views of Darwin Harbour and is visited by locals and tourists. If Jack is around, he is always ready for a chat and to pass on some history of old Darwin. All four constituents are remarkable Territorians who have contributed in the growth of Darwin.
Another birthday worth mentioning is that of a Darwin city institution, the Roma Bar, which celebrated its 1st birthday in their new premises. The proprietors, Patty Ring and Paul Costigan, invited dedicated friends and coffee lovers to share their day. Many patrons from all sections of the community who love good coffee and interesting conversation dropped in throughout the day. Good wishes to the Roma Bar.
As we all know, Harmony Day is a very special day in the yearly calendar, and is always celebrated by the local primary schools in a variety of ways. All were very successful again this year. Larrakeyah Primary was very fortunate when the Indonesian Consulate organised a performance of traditional dancing and martial arts for their school. On completion of the exhibition, samples of Indonesian deserts for the students and gado gado for the teachers was served. The day raised $195 for the Baguia Orphanage. Well done, Larrakeyah Primary School.
More news from Larrakeyah is that the new school captains for 2006 are Charlotte Cooper and Teddy Horn. Congratulations to you both; I am sure you will set a fine example to all. Also, Friday football is going well. The Larrakeyah team captain is Alexandros Tsirbas, vice captain is Kieran Nichols, and deputy vice captain is William Herrington. Go, Larrakeyah! Congratulations to Jo Winn and Michael Caldwell and all of the parents, staff and students of Larrakeyah Primary School - a great school community.
St Mary’s Primary School marked Harmony Day with a small ceremony for all students and staff, which recognised that living in harmony is designed to encourage community harmony, and build relationships that support equality, fairness, friendship and respect between people in our culturally diverse society. It is essential to look after one another.
Congratulations to students Amy McGregor, and Tierneigh and Kelseah Parnell on their selection in the St Mary’s netball squad. Go girls!
More sporting congratulations to Tala and Ayrton Innes who competed in the Alice Springs swimming carnival. Tala won six gold medals and was the champion 10-year-old girl, and also won the Mayor’s trophy. Ayrton won four gold medals and was the champion of the eight-year-old boys.
The St Mary’s School Board invited me to attend their last meeting. This was a very informative meeting and I hope to attend many more as the year progresses. Thank you to Tony O’Brien and the board for their kind invitation.
Stuart Park Primary School celebrated Harmony Day with an assembly which was attended by the Chief Minister, who presented the prizes for the Harmony Day poetry competition. Two hundred and fifty poems were entered and the prize winners were Matthew Button, Maggie Coggan Gartlan, Christian Simpson, Morgan Herligy, Aaron Smith, Annie Piper, Clair Darben, Madison Williams, Luke Shreurs, Zahra Croughton-Heaton, Jessica Bowling, Luke Dorwood, Aleesha Lo, and Aaran Baker.
The Indigenous Rock Band Death Adder from St John’s College gave a lunchtime performance, and the students and staff showed enthusiastic appreciation for the music. The younger students from the early childhood centre celebrated by making friendship banners, paper flowers and dot paintings to give to friends and family.
The school captains for Stuart Park were chosen from 22 candidates, and the successful students are Bradley Button, Sally Harding, Bernadette O’Sullivan and Sani Raqiyawa. This year will see Stuart Park celebrate their 40th anniversary and, as an ex-student, I will be very interested in the proposed activities for the anniversary. My best wishes to the principal, Bernie Bree and his staff on their 40th year. What a diverse range of celebrations and activities for Harmony Day. You are all to be congratulated.
Also this year, I was invited to the Stuart Park Primary School to acknowledge and remember Anzac Day. I attended this function with my mother, Sandra, who had come from Adelaide specifically because this Anzac Day was to be very special for our family. My mother had brought my late great-uncle’s war service medals, including the Military Medal for bravery on the battlefield with her, so she and my son, Luca, could participate in the Darwin Anzac Day march. Unfortunately, as we all know, Cyclone Monica disrupted the scheduled events and we were all very disappointed. Perhaps next year.
I thank my colleague, the Minister for Family and Community Services, the member for Karama, for inviting me to represent her at a special AGM for the Girl Guides. This was an enjoyable evening, and a very important one for Guides, as they were appointing a new State Commissioner, Mrs Jeanette Anictomatis, and farewelling Ms Lynette Goody, who had held the position for five years.
The Open Garden Scheme season is upon us and was launched by His Honour the Administrator, Mr Ted Egan, and Ms Nerys Evans, at a function at Government House. This is a superb way of raising funds for nominated charities. I am proud to advise the electorate of Port Darwin will have two entries this year in the townhouse section. I will be very interested to see these entries as I might get some ideas for my own small garden.
International Women’s Day was another enjoyable function, which I attended with my son, Luca, and my electorate officer, Sandra. At one point, he was the only male in the room of females, but this changed as the night proceeded. We were welcomed by the president, Ms Jenny Medwell OAM. Ms Sue Bradley was the guest speaker. She is the co-chair of the NT Statehood Steering Committee and gave an interesting overview of statehood for the Territory. Other entertainment for the night included the Sunameke Dancers and a song from Ms Mandy Garling.
I remind my colleagues that this weekend is the inaugural yacht race titled Simply the Breast. The race will be held from Dinah Beach Cruising Yacht Club. Breast cancer needs all the funds and support it can get so, when I was approached by the organising committee of Michelle Hanton, Penny La Sette, Mike Butcher and the Dinah Beach Cruising Yacht Club, I welcomed the opportunity. We hope to raise mega dollars, have loads of fun and continue to promote the community’s awareness of this disease. These dedicated yachties are the organisers of this race, which will held on 7 May starting from Dinah Beach Cruising Yacht Club. The entry fee is $100, which will guarantee you and your crew much fun on the day.
I also thank my parliamentary colleagues for their support when they attended the launch of this event at Hog’s Breath on Tuesday, 4 April. A big thank you to Damien and his crew at Hoggies. They did a brilliant job on the night, keeping the food and drinks circulating.
Last, but not least, a special mention of the Darwin Senior Citizens Association. They are holding a Big Morning Tea in support of cancer research on 10 May at 10 am at Spillett House. There are sure to be some morning tea delights, as my mum, Sandra, will be cooking. All are welcome.
Motion agreed to; the Assembly adjourned.
PETITIONS
Middle Schools Approach –
Alice Springs Model
Middle Schools Approach –
Alice Springs Model
Ms CARNEY (Araluen): Madam Speaker, I present a petition from 1219 petitioners praying that the Alice Springs preferred approach to middle schools remain. The petition bears the Clerk’s certificate that it conforms with the requirements of standing orders. Madam Speaker, I move that the petition be read.
Motion agreed to; petition read:
- To the honourable the Speaker and members of the Legislative Assembly of the Northern Territory, we the undersigned respectfully showeth that the Alice Springs community is united in their belief that ANZAC Hill High School is already successfully implementing a middle school approach to education. Your petitioners therefore humbly pray that the Alice preferred model of ANZAC 7-10, ASHS 7-12 and Centralian 11-12 remain the middle school approach to education in Alice Springs. And your petitioners, as in duty bound, will ever pray.
Improvement of O’Loughlin Catholic
College Bus Service
College Bus Service
Mr MILLS (Blain): Madam Speaker, I present a petition from 94 petitioners praying that the bus service supporting O’Loughlin Catholic College be improved. The petition bears the Clerk’s certificate that it conforms with the requirements of standing orders. Madam Speaker, I move that the petition be read.
Motion agreed to; petition read:
- To the Speaker and members of the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly, we the undersigned citizens do respectfully request that an additional bus be provided to transport Palmerston and Rural students to and from O’Loughlin Catholic College. The current situation is unacceptable; the existing service lacks the capacity to transport students, a problem that has existed since 2005 and is now worse with about 30 students stranded each morning and afternoon. This ongoing situation exposes students to unnecessary risk and is of grave concern to parents and teachers. The bus service supporting the O’Loughlin Catholic College must be improved. And your petitioners as in duty bound will ever pray.
Palmerston Community Care Centre – Retainment of Baby Services
Dr LIM (Greatorex): Madam Speaker, I present a petition from 609 petitioners obtained over three days praying that the services of the Palmerston drop-in baby clinic be retained with adequate staffing four days a week. The petition bears the Clerk’s certificate that it conforms with the requirements of standing orders. Madam Speaker, I move that the petition be read.
Motion agreed to; petition read:
- We the undersigned, respectfully showeth our concerns for the severe reduction of baby clinic services at the Palmerston Community Care Centre, with the nearest Care Centre at Casuarina or Nightcliff already struggling to cope with their client numbers without any additional clients from Palmerston. Your petitioners do humbly observe that the reduction of services to one day at the centre prevents the provision of adequate baby clinic services for the residents of Palmerston and surrounding communities. We need the baby clinic to remain available for our residents. Your petitioners humbly pray the Legislative Assembly of the Northern Territory take the necessary steps to make the Northern Territory government retain the services of the Palmerston drop-in baby clinic with adequate staffing between 0830 and 1230 and between 1330 and 1530 on four days of the week, except public holidays.
Keep Public Service Jobs in
Alice Springs
Alice Springs
Dr LIM (Greatorex): Madam Speaker, I present a petition from 257 petitioners praying that the salary section of DCIS in Alice Springs be retained. The petition bears the Clerk’s certificate that it conforms with the requirements of standing orders. Madam Speaker, I move that the petition be read.
Motion agreed to; petition read:
- We the undersigned respectively showeth that we do not approve of the plan that the Northern Territory government has to transfer the Alice Springs salaries section of the Department of Corporate and Information Services to Darwin. Your petitioners do humbly observe that the government plans will affect about 30 people who are currently employed in the salaries section and these jobs will be lost from Alice Springs thus affecting the whole community. Your petitioners do humbly pray that the Legislative Assembly of the Northern Territory take the necessary steps to make the Northern Territory government retain the salary section of DCIS in Alice Springs.
Save Our Parks Estate
Dr LIM (Greatorex): Madam Speaker, I present a petition from 2496 petitioners - that is almost 10% of Alice Springs - praying that a decision to hand over the 11 Central Australian national parks be rescinded. The petition bears the Clerk’s certificate that it conforms with the requirements of standing orders. Madam Speaker, I move that the petition be read.
Motion agreed to; petition read:
- We the undersigned respectively showeth our great sense of betrayal by the Northern Territory government in its plans to hand over 11 Central Australian national parks to a select group of people. Your petitioners do humbly observe that the government plans to hand over Arltunga, Chamber’s Pillar, Corroboree Rock, Devil’s Marbles, Finke Gorge, Ewaninga Rock, Gregory’s Tree, N’Dhala Gorge, Trephina Gorge, Emily and Jessie Gaps and the Western MacDonnells including Simpson’s Gap, Ellery Creek, Ormiston Gorge, Serpentine Gorge, Glen Helen Gorge, Redbank Gorge and the Alice Valley extension. Your petitioners do further observe that the handover is akin to asking New South Wales residents to hand over Bondi Beach or South Australian residents to hand over Glenelg Beach, no questions asked. Your petitioners do humbly pray that the Legislative Assembly of the Northern Territory take the necessary steps to make the Northern Territory government to immediately rescind its decision to hand over the parks estate to sectional interests and to retain ownership of the parks for all Territorians.
Daly Electorate Roads Upgrade –
Election Promise
Election Promise
Ms McCARTHY (Arnhem): Madam Speaker, I present a petition, on behalf of the member for Daly, from 127 petitioners praying that the roads in the Daly electorate be upgraded. The petition bears the Clerk’s certificate that it conforms with the requirements of standing orders. Madam Speaker, I move that the petition be read.
Motion agreed to; petition read:
- To the honourable Speaker and members of the Legislative Assembly of the Northern Territory, we the undersigned respectively showeth that the Chief Minister, Hon Clare Martin, did announce an election promise in 2005 for a commitment of $2m to upgrade roads in the Daly electorate. Your petitioners therefore humbly pray that you urge the Chief Minister, Hon Clare Martin, and the Minister for Infrastructure and Transport, Hon Dr Chris Burns, to prioritise to the 2006-07 financial year to raise the Tommy’s Creek causeway and the Nauiyu community access road so that local residents can excess or evacuate their community by road and that local businesses can continue to operate during the Wet Season. And your petitioners, as in duty bound, will every pray.
MINISTERIAL REPORTS
Child and Maternal Health
Child and Maternal Health
Dr TOYNE (Health): Madam Speaker, I have spoken many times in the Legislative Assembly and in the community of the central importance this government places on making improvements in child and maternal health. Improvements here will pay off in years to come with a healthier Territory community which is less dependent upon hospital and other medical care. I report today on our progress during the past year in giving kids a good start in life.
A critical part of this campaign is to ensure that Territory women have access to appropriate and well-supported birthing services. This is what our November 2004 maternal health package has been delivering.
During 2005, four midwives were employed for the new outreach program to provide support and training for remote area staff and to contribute a shared antenatal care. These midwives have now completed an audit and needs assessment for health centre staff, and are working with the community to ensure pregnant women receive the best care possible. In addition, from September 2004 to December 2005, the Urban Community Midwifery Program based in Darwin successfully managed over 125 births for women with low obstetric and medical risk factors. The home birth service commenced in Alice Springs in December 2004, and the Darwin service commenced in August 2005. By the end of the last year there had been eight births in Alice Springs and eight births in Darwin.
In Budget 2005-06, we announced a $200 000 per year commitment to grow our own midwifery workforce. This program has now successfully allowed 14 nurses who are undergraduate midwives, to be paid while they completed their studies, resulting in an expanded number of trained midwives across our health system.
Of course, ensuring safe and appropriate birthing is literally only the start of making sure Territory children grow up healthy. This government has made significant investments to ensure that children are protected and nurtured. The Growth Assessment and Action program is a key part of monitoring and, where necessary, intervening to ensure children under five years old are healthy and well nourished. At the conclusion of 2005, the GAA program had been implemented in 78 remote communities, and work is continuing to support the program, including reviewing and updating the guidelines and further development for action planning training.
Work is also under way on a comprehensive under fives child health promotion and surveillance schedule. For children old enough to go to school, a Healthy School Aged Kids program is being implementing in 40 remote communities. Health services staff are working with staff from the Department of Education’s Health Promotion Schools NT to update the Healthy School Aged Kids manual and resources for health staff and teachers. It is planned to relaunch the updated program in Semester 2 of 2006.
The Maternal Child and Youth team supported both programs in collaboration with Remote Health and Workforce Support. The OCPE has also approved that flexible employment of community child health workers that includes employment on a part-time or full-time basis in the Aboriginal Health Worker and administrative streams, and provides opportunities for training and career progression. This will increase the capacity to employ and support the community-based child health workforce.
Good nutrition is, obviously, a key factor in good health. The School Breakfast program continued to provide nutritious breakfasts and nutrition education for children in seven remote schools. The NT-wide Fruit and Vegetable Promotion campaign was launched in April 2005, with a ‘Go for Two and Five’ and ‘the vegie man’ widely promoted across the Territory.
During last year’s election, we promised a new program, a free neonatal hearing test for every Territory baby. We are now delivering on that promise. During the last year, a reference group has developed a delivery model and guidelines for the program, and I am pleased to announce that Budget 2006-07 contains $230 000 recurrent funding to begin the program next financial year.
Lastly, under the School Dental Clinic upgrade program, two clinics were completed and reopened in 2005. Another eight will be completed in the coming year.
Child immunisation levels are significantly improving, with the new rotovirus immunisations adding an important new intervention in child health.
Madam Speaker, often in health, the focus in public and media attention is on our hospitals. Nevertheless, I can think of no greater contribution to the health of Territorians than working on child and maternal health services. I extend my warm appreciation to the staff of the Department of Health and Community Services involved in developing, managing and delivering these services and assure them of this government’s continuing support for their work.
Dr LIM (Greatorex): Madam Speaker, I welcome the report. Provision of services for mothers and babies is, obviously, a very important thing for all Territorians. However, while the minister crows about how much he is putting into maternal and child health, barely a few minutes ago this morning, I presented a petition outlining that some 25 000 people living in Palmerston are being deprived of the services of a baby health clinic. This is a government who says: ‘Oh, look at us, we have done so much’. On the other hand, they have reduced baby health clinics in Palmerston down to one day a week.
There are many parents who work, who cannot just take a day off to take a baby to the clinic. That is why it was designed to be open four days a week so that people can go there whenever they find the time to do so. This is why the CLP government ensured that people in Palmerston and the surrounding area got services, rather than having to travel into either Casuarina or Nightcliff.
Minister, in just three days over 700 people signed the petition. It has to tell you that people are unhappy with the way you are running the department, and taking services away where they are essential. While nobody denies the fact that child welfare and what you are doing is a good thing, why are you depriving the people of Palmerston and the surrounding areas of services that they so desperately need? Well and good to say: ‘Look at me, look at me, I am doing fantastically’. But the real services are not being delivered. The government members in Palmerston - the members for Brennan and Drysdale, even the member for Goyder – have been very silent about it, not a word. This is where they should be pulled up and asked: ‘What are you doing to represent your constituents who deserve to have better services than this minister is delivering?’
Mrs BRAHAM (Braitling): Madam Speaker, anything the minister can do to provide good services for mothers, babies and families is a good thing. I urge him to continue to go down that path to provide the services that are so badly needed.
One of the areas of concern that has been raised with me is the Nightcliff child health unit. Madam Speaker, I am sure you would agree with me. It is a small problem, minister, and you could fix it for the staff there. At the moment, that child health centre, as you know, is not fenced. On a regular basis, staff are required to pick up rubbish left behind by itinerants camping there. They have repeatedly asked for a fence. I do not think it would cost very much - $5000 or $10 000 - and you would have happy staff, and people saying: ‘Thank you very much for looking after us’. At the moment, it is the health, hygiene and safety of those staff who are expected to do that. I know they have asked and, so far, it has fallen on deaf ears.
I just put in a plug for the Nightcliff child health centre. It does a great job. It has good staff and many clients. It is one of those simple things that government can address to make the environment better for the staff there. I ask you to look at that.
Dr TOYNE (Health): Madam Speaker, first of all to the member for misinformation over there, the actual changes to the Palmerston clinic are that, in response to very strong bookings that were made under our appointments-based service there, we have now taken the service to Tuesdays drop-in, and the other three days of the week by appointment. The level of appointments made by mothers is retaining a very strong service through the four days. Let us get the facts straight here. I can say to the member that I was not in any way crowing about our child-maternal health. We have a lot of work to do - your words, not mine. I gave you a factual report and I would have expected that it was taken in that light.
To the member for Braitling, I will look into that. I was out at that facility and I know exactly the problem you are talking about. Maybe we can find some way through the community work parties, or some contracted arrangement. It is not too much to ask for the staff not to have to clean up their own grounds.
Backing Local Business
Mr HENDERSON (Business and Economic Development): Madam Speaker, I update the House on the progress of the government’s initiative that is building the Territory’s future by backing local business to grow - Local Industry Participation Plans or LIPPs. The government’s Building Northern Territory Industry Participation Strategy was introduced in 2003 to ensure competitive Territory businesses had the opportunity to participate in the future growth of our economy and build the Territory’s skills base. The strategy requires all Northern Territory government-assisted private sector projects that have an expected value in excess of $5m, and all Northern Territory government tendered projects and public private partnerships that have an expected value in excess of $5m, to submit a Local Industry Participation Plan outlining their commitment to using local business and local employees.
The Territory economy has gone ahead in leaps and bounds since 2003 with a number of major projects coming on line and driving economic growth. Officers from the Department of Business, Economic and Regional Development have assisted a range of projects on the development of their LIPPs, and worked closely with the Northern Territory Industry Capability Network to maximise the opportunity for local business. Local Industry Participation Plans for 22 projects have been endorsed, monitored and evaluated since 2003. As Business minister, I am pleased to say that government’s requirements for these plans have delivered real benefits for Territory business.
I highlight a few examples. The Bechtel Wickham Point LNG plant has forever changed the face of Territory industry and has had a major impact in building the Territory’s capabilities and skills base. More than 430 Territory businesses had secured a total of more than 8900 purchasing activities over the life of the project. Territory companies have been awarded 25 major subcontracts at the plant, and there will be future opportunities for local businesses as the project moves from construction to operation and ongoing maintenance and support.
Stage 1 of the construction of the low security prison facility at Berrimah has delivered significant opportunity for local business with Darwin contractor, Gratis Pty Ltd, engaging 17 local contractors and 12 Territory businesses for almost 100% or $7.87m worth of total construction work.
The Alcan G3 expansion project is now 70% complete and 19 months into its 27-month schedule. This is another major project, the industry participation plan of which is delivering significant benefit to local business. There are 1400 people currently employed on the site, with Territory companies already having secured more than $110m in work including $2m of work going to indigenous businesses in Nhulunbuy. As with the Wickham Point LNG plant, there will be ongoing opportunities for Territory business in the operation, ongoing maintenance and support of the site.
This work will continue as major projects continue to come on line. Indeed, ENI, the new owners of the Blacktip gas resource, have indicated their intentions to utilise much of the LIPP that Woodside had previously submitted to the Territory government for this project. About 100 business people attended an industry briefing held by ENI in conjunction with DBERD, the NTICN and the Chamber of Commerce on 6 April. ENI presented an overview of the project and encouraged local business and industry to register with the NTICN and become involved in the development of their project. DBERD is continuing to work closely with ENI and the NTICN to identify opportunities for local business on this project, and government expects to receive the official lodgement of ENI’s LIPP for review and endorsement in the near future.
The government is building the Territory’s future by backing Territory business and, through the requirement for Local Industry Participation Plans, will continue to work to see local companies benefit from the Territory’s strong economic growth.
Mr MILLS (Blain): Madam Speaker, I take this opportunity before I commence to say what a wonderful result it was for the AFL with the Dockers being awarded full points over St Kilda. Sweet justice.
The CLP would support such a plan; to engage the local industry is critical in every respect. I wonder if these plans are being developed, what incentives and recognitions are given as a result of drawing up this plan? Is it a plan that is given nodding assent, or is there some real incentive attached to local recruitment? I would like to know a little more about that. In taking on apprentices and procuring locally, what benefits are there directly and what direct incentive is there for industry to go down this path and draw up such plans? There is, perhaps, a difference, but it appears that both sides of the House are moving together on these points or endeavouring to occupy the same space.
We all recognise that we really want to gee up local participation and strengthen the domestic economy - it centres on energy, competitive price for energy, and also on aggressive payroll tax reform. The CLP has maintained a position on the need to be far more aggressive with payroll tax. That will unlock the real potential of industry to recruit locally and to strengthen investment in the Territory, and we would like to see that go much further. We have always held that position and we will maintain it.
Further than that, with rising fuel prices and interest rates, it is time to look quite seriously at stamp duty reform.
Mr HENDERSON (Business and Economic Development): Madam Speaker, it is a sad day for football that the game has been taken away from the umpires, and handed to the faceless men inside the AFL.
However, moving on to the other comments from the member for Blain, the incentives available to business really is that they win the contract. If they put a bid to government that has a very strong Local Industry Participation Plan that focuses on sourcing and supplies from the Territory, with a commitment to training and using subcontractors wherever possible, that gets evaluated as part of the tender process. Therefore, winning the contract is really the incentive for companies.
Regarding payroll tax reform, this government is very proud of the measures we have put in place and, in fact, there are 187 Territory businesses today not paying payroll tax that were paying payroll tax in 2001.
Indigenous Art and the Export Industry
Ms SCRYMGOUR (Arts and Museums): Madam Speaker, much of the earlier part of this week has been concerned with the recovery of a number of our communities after the Katherine floods and Cyclone Monica. I am happy to report on the activities of a commercial operation at one of those communities, Maningrida, which is really blowing up a storm in the international art world, as well as earning export dollars for the Territory economy.
Maningrida Arts and Culture is the second oldest Aboriginal and craft centre in the Top End. It services over 350 artists in the region. The work of these artists is held in public and private collections all over the world. In March, Mr Garry Kennedy, Senior Trade Commissioner for the Australian Trade Commission, launched the first Aboriginal art exhibition in the Middle East which featured 35 master works from Maningrida. It was held at the La Fontaine Centre of Contemporary Arts in Bahrain. The Territory government, through the Department of Chief Minister’s Trade Support Scheme, funded 50% of the cost for representatives from Maningrida to travel to Bahrain and hold the exhibition. It was a substantial success. The King and Queen of Bahrain requested a private previewing of the exhibition and purchased five works, and most of the show sold to other collectors from all over the Middle East.
Accompanying the exhibition entitled Identity and Country was Maningrida artist Samuel Namunjdja, who created a work that was auctioned to support the Barakat Trust. This support was a wonderful gesture of world cultural exchange, as the Barakat Trust is dedicated to raising funds for the study and research of the material and visual cultures of Islamic society. This assistance is granted to enable scholars to continue to add to the body of Islamic scholarship while enhancing the possibilities of cross-cultural understanding and tolerance. It is hoped, as a result of Maningrida’s first involvement in the Middle East, Middle Eastern buyers will accompany European art collectors on the third inbound buyers/collectors mission to the Northern Territory this year.
Maningrida Arts and Culture is also involved in the work of the world-famous bark painter John Mawurndjul. He is making a major contribution to the public art that is being incorporated in the Quai Branly Museum nearing completion near the banks of the River Seine in Paris, just a stone’s throw from the Eiffel Tower. Along with other contemporary Aboriginal artists from around Australia including Gulumbu Yunupingu from Buku-Larrngay Arts at Yirrkala, Mawurndjul is making a permanent artistic contribution to the building of what is destined to be the world’s most important museum of Africa, Asian, Oceania and Americas. Mawurndjul’s work comprises a ceiling mural as well as a 5 metre lorrkon or hollow log. Gulumbu’s work is a ceiling and wall mural. Anyone who saw the moving interview with Gulumbu on Stateline a couple of months ago will know what a wonderful person she is, and will share in my huge admiration for her work.
Of course, Mawurndjul must be regarded as one of the most important Australian artists alive today. In September last year, there was a major retrospective of his work across some 30 years at the Tinguely Museum in Basel in Switzerland - the first such international recognition for an Aboriginal artist. To give you some idea of the high esteem his work enjoys on the international scene is that, at the same time in Basel - known as the city of museums - there were also retrospectives of the work of the 20th century Belgian surrealist, Ren Magritte, and Dutch-American abstract expressionist, Willem de Kooning. Not bad company for a bloke born in the middle of Arnhem Land!
Both are great Territory artists who will, amongst other things, create a permanent reminder of the importance of Aboriginal art to the rest of the world.
It is anticipated that commercial exhibitions of contemporary art from aboriginal artists from the Territory will coincide with the opening of the Quai Branly Museum in June.
This year’s Budget 2006-07 sees a continuation of the Territory government’s indigenous art strategy at $1.1m. The export of indigenous art, especially from art centres such as Maningrida Arts and Culture, is seen as a key component of developing such an important part of the Territory’s economy.
Mr MILLS (Blain): Madam Speaker, yes, it is a very important part of the Territory economy, but more so, it is very important to provide a genuine path of meaningful aspirations for the indigenous community. To have that recognition globally is just wonderful. It requires, therefore, a response to ensure that we respond to the issues of counterfeit and the art authentication programs that have been talked about, highlighted in The Weekend Australian about a month or so ago.
I am aware that the minister has had a briefing - at least one and probably more. The opposition gets briefings, but I am sure that they target the ministers more than the opposition on matters like this. I would like a report on how matters related to art authentication are going. There are some quite innovative projects which have been proposed, some of them from the Territory. Rather than wait for the federal government to respond and then for us to come in behind, there is an opportunity for the Territory to provide leadership here. If we recognise that this is the place where art is produced, we can provide that quality leadership. We do not have to wait for people.
The other thing is that I was in Indonesia only last week. I went through an arts warehouse, which was jam packed with craft from all over the archipelago. There was a section of artefacts painted in dot design, clearly copied from nowhere else other than from designs from Central Australia. I did not have my camera with me, nor did I buy any, but there is a reminder that we really have to attend to this issue to provide that security of product, which will only further strengthen the value of indigenous art.
Mrs BRAHAM (Braitling): Madam Speaker, anything we can do to promote the art industry for Aboriginal people is a great thing. The recognition they are getting worldwide is quite thrilling, in fact. I cannot wait to see the exhibition by the Hermannsburg artists that is coming up. It is the traditional Namatjira-style art, which I really like. I know they have some exciting new young artists in this exhibition and I believe that style of art is something we can promote because it has been recognised for many years as being great art.
We also have the problem of the carpetbaggers in the Centre, in particular, artists booking up cars and then having to work their way out of that debt, or artists being somehow or other not given the value for the art. As the member for Blain said, we have to stop this part of the industry that is doing the wrong thing by the Aboriginal artists. I am not quite sure how you do that, but you need to get a message out to those Aboriginal artists: ‘Do not be conned. Do not allow yourself to be abused and misused in that way’. It is certainly happening. There are certain premises in Alice Springs we would be able to take you to, to show you where it is happening on a regular basis. It is part of the art industry that we are closing our eyes to at the moment. We really need to take a strong look at it and see if we can stop it happening.
Ms SCRYMGOUR (Arts and Museums): Madam Speaker, I thank the members for Blain and Braitling for their response. It is a major issue. Regarding leadership, the Chief Minister, the member for Macdonnell and I have already met with the peak organisations representing many of these art centres and artists - both Desart and ANKAAA - to look at how we can take the lead in addressing this vital issue. It is a critical issue and we should address it urgently and immediately. We are doing that, although we cannot push. We do need to get the support of the federal government because there are some implications. The federal government could come in partnership and show some leadership in terms of the Trade Practices Act and other things.
In Central Australia, the Central Land Council, with Desart, is showing some great leadership in trying to deal with those carpetbaggers, along with the ATO and other places. There is dialogue happening and leadership within government. We are very concerned, and are working closely with those peak organisations and art centres to deal with what is a vital issue for this industry.
Madam SPEAKER: Minister, your time has expired.
Childcare Services
Ms LAWRIE (Family and Community Services): Madam Speaker, childcare is an issue right around Australia and the Territory is no exception. The Commonwealth government is responsible for the provision of affordable and accessible childcare. There has been a great deal of debate recently in relation to the problems the current system has, which includes criticism from within their own federal government ranks.
Howard government MP, Jackie Kelly, has led the charge owning up that the system is a ‘shambles’. In the Territory, we do what we can to alleviate the problem. The Martin government is the only jurisdiction at state or territory level to provide a childcare subsidy. Budget 2006-07 will commit more than $3m to directly subsidise the cost of childcare for Territory families.
The Howard government needs to listen to families that simply cannot get their children into childcare. There are thousands of Territory families who are in this predicament; it can be devastating. There are many of young families in the Territory who do not have much family support, living away from their extended families and, with no childcare available, it becomes a major burden financially and socially.
The Howard government has flagged the centrepiece of its upcoming budget next week will be to double the number of childcare places across Australia. It sounds promising, but there is no guarantee that this will help Territory families. We are especially concerned because the government has recently cut funding to centres in the Territory, including our family day care.
We are calling on Peter Costello to ensure that Northern Territory families get their fair share of the 50 000 places they are talking about creating. We desperately need them here because waiting lists are far too high right across the Territory. It is a problem in Darwin and Palmerston. It is not always possible to ascertain exactly how long waiting lists are, but it is estimated that currently more than 600 families in Palmerston are trying to find a childcare place and simply cannot. There are long waiting lists in Nhulunbuy where, despite repeated requests from both Alcan and the Northern Territory government, the Commonwealth refuses to listen.
Every time I go to Katherine, I hear from people about the lack of childcare places that are provided. It is not just a problem for families. Business ultimately suffers when potential employees are unable to find care for their children. Staggeringly, despite this problem, the Howard government has announced that it is going to cut funding to the Katherine East Child Care Centre by more than $100 000 a year. ‘That is no problem’, says the Howard government, ‘just put your fees up’. In Alice Springs, the waiting list is estimated to be around 340. The family day care centres in Alice Springs are also facing these federal government funding cuts.
The rural area has long waiting lists. The members for Daly and Goyder have been very active in their communities, listening to people in places like Berry Springs about their concerns about having no places available for kids. In Humpty Doo, the Commonwealth is also slashing their funding and the member for Goyder will tell you that families in Humpty Doo think very little about that. They are pleading with the Howard government to reverse their decision. Again, the only response from the Howard government has been: ‘Put your fees up’. We say to Peter Costello: ‘If you are going to double childcare places around Australia, you need to ensure that you double them here in the Territory’. We also call on the federal government to reverse its ludicrous decision of slashing funding to childcare centres and family day care across the Territory.
The federal government uses the excuse that childcare is up to private providers. Childcare is not a business; it is an essential community service. A business model simply does not work in the provision of childcare, especially in a place like the Territory where it is needed in regional and remote centres where businesses do not want to establish private childcare centres.
It is very simple. We are calling on the federal government to dedicate some of these 50 000 places they are saying they will create to areas of need. This need exists in regional and remote Territory, as well as our urban centres in the Territory. Sadly, the Northern Territory often misses out when it comes to childcare. Thousands of families across the Territory cannot find a place for their children and they just cannot afford to miss out any longer. Our families cannot afford a greater financial burden and impost from the Howard government in the answer of ‘put your fees up’.
Dr LIM (Greatorex): Madam Speaker, I strongly support the minister’s sentiments about the need for childcare across the Territory. It was that recognition that made the Country Liberal Party government fund the program, or to assist with the funding of childcare across the Territory. I am very glad to see that this government has recognised the value of that program and has continued to put money into childcare, making the Northern Territory the only jurisdiction across the country that assists families financially in regard to childcare.
Recently, you might recall that family day care services, in fact, criticised the minister for failing to assist them. She stands here today saying: ‘Yes, we fund childcare’. Family day care is also a form of childcare and they have every right to expect some assistance from this government. It is obvious from the minister’s comments that her lobbying of the Howard government has failed. I do not know why. She has been unable to get her statistics or her arguments across convincingly to the Howard government that, in the Northern Territory where we have many nuclear families without support of grandparents, aunts or other extended family, we do require the services of childcare. Whether they are private childcare services or government sponsored childcare services, we need more.
My wife worked as the director of the Alice Springs Child Care Centre for many years in the 1980s, so I understand the need for childcare services.
The first thing the minister needs to do is expand her funding to assist family day care, and continue to lobby the Howard government to ensure that the Territory gets more because of the many nuclear families that we have. If the minister needs my help, please ask.
Reports noted.
TREASURY LEGISLATION AND CONSEQUENTIAL AMENDMENT BILL
(Serial 52)
(Serial 52)
Bill presented and read a first time.
Mr STIRLING (Treasurer): Madam Speaker, I move that the bill be now read a second time.
The bill seeks to put in place a package of revenue measures announced as part of 2005-06 and 2006-07 budgets by proposing amendments to the Taxation (Administration) Act, the Stamp Duty Act, Pay-roll Tax Act, First Home Owner Grant Act and Mineral Royalty Act.
The key proposals involve increasing the payroll tax exemption threshold from $1m to $1.25m from 1 July 2006, abolishing stamp duty on unquoted marketable securities from 1 July 2006, and abolishing stamp duty on rent paid for the grant and renewal of leases and franchises from 1 July 2006. I will now address the changes proposed in the bill in more detail.
As part of the 2005-06 budget, this government announced an increase in the payroll tax exemption threshold from $1m to $1.25m. The bill honours this commitment. From 1 July 2006, the payroll tax exemption threshold will increase to $1.25m, the equal highest threshold in Australia. The estimated savings for taxpayers of this threshold increase is approximately $3.6m for the 2006-07 financial year.
As part of the Territory’s commitment to national tax reform, we propose to abolish the application of stamp duty on the transfer of shares and units of corporations and trusts, and securities that are not quoted on a recognised stock exchange. This change will take effect from 1 July 2006 and is expected to save taxpayers about $600 000 in 2006-07. However, as has occurred in other states that have abolished this duty, the land rich stamp duty provisions will continue to apply to certain transactions involving marketable securities.
Also as a part of tax reform, the proposed amendments abolish stamp duty on rent paid for the grant and renewal of leases and franchises, with effect from 1 July 2006. This abolition is expected to save taxpayers $1.4m in 2006-07. Notably, while stamp duty will be abolished on rent, it will continue to be payable at conveyance rates for certain lease and franchise transactions. These transactions include the conveyance of a lease or franchise and the grant of a lease where a premium or only nominal consideration is paid. The continued imposition of duty of conveyance rates for certain lease transactions is in line with the approach adopted by other states in their tax reform.
The bill also deals with three important transitional matters in relation to abolishing lease duty. Firstly, it is proposed that no stamp duty refund will be made available on the portion of any lease or franchise that extends beyond 1 July 2006, irrespective of when the lease or franchise was entered into. This treatment recognises the administrative cost and complexity for both taxpayers and the government of making these refunds, and is consistent with other states that have already abolished lease duty. Accordingly, the changes proposed by the bill do not allow for such refund claims.
Second, it is proposed that measures will be put in place to protect the revenue base by preventing the refund of duty on the cancellation of leases executed prior to 1 July 2006, where the lessee or an associate of the lessee continues to remain in control of a substantial part of the leased premises after the lease is cancelled. These measures are needed to prevent the use of contrived arrangements to obtain a refund of stamp duty.
Last, from 1 July 2006, lessees will no longer be required to resubmit their lease for reassessment of stamp duty where the rent actually paid under the lease differs from that on which stamp duty has been paid. However, if a lessee has overpaid stamp duty in respect of a lease such as the estimated rent on which stamp duty has been assessed is greater than the rent actually paid, the lessee will still be able to seek a refund of the stamp duty overpaid.
Greater detail of these changes and of all of the changes proposed in the bill is set out in the explanatory statement accompanying the bill.
I turn now to the other measures contained in the bill which, unless otherwise indicated, are all proposed to commence from 1 July 2006.
The First Home Owner Grant, Stamp Duty First Home Owner Concession and Stamp Duty Principal Place of Residence Rebate together provide significant assistance to Territorians wanting to buy their own home. However, two technical shortcomings of the legislation supporting these schemes have been identified, and it is proposed to rectify these. The first of these shortcomings enables some home buyers to obtain both the Stamp Duty First Homeowner Concession and Stamp Duty Principal Place of Residence Rebate at different times for the same home. This is not how the legislation is intended to operate, so the bill proposes to close this deficiency by amending the Stamp Duty Act with effect from the date the changes were announced, being 2 May 2006. The second shortcoming makes it technically possible for a person who already has a part-interest in a home to qualify for the First Home Owner Grant on the purchase of the remaining interest in their home. Again, this is an unintended outcome, and the bill proposes to close this loophole by amending the First Home Owner Grant Act with effect from 2 May 2006.
As you may be aware, the First Home Owner Grant Scheme and the Stamp Duty First Home Owner Concession have very similar eligibility criteria and are administered in tandem by the Commissioner of Taxation. In order to improve the consistency of the administration of these schemes, the bill proposes three changes to these schemes in order to more closely align their administration and provide even more consistent outcomes. The bill proposes to extend the First Home Owner Grant objection and appeal period from 30 days after an applicant is notified of the commissioner’s decision to 60 days after the decision is made. Further, it proposes to allow First Home Owner Grant applicants to appeal to the Taxation and Royalty Appeals Tribunal rather than to the local court. The effect of these changes is to align the objection and appeal rights of the First Home Owner Grant with those of the Stamp Duty First Home Owner Concession, and will allow an appeal in relation to both of these schemes to be heard at the same time.
Second, the bill proposes to amend the First Home Owner Grant Act to clarify that a person is not excused from providing self-incriminating information under the First Home Owner Grant Act. The bill also proposes that such information can only be used for prosecutions and appeals under that act and the Taxation Administration Act, and not under any other act. This treatment is consistent with the rules that apply to applicants for the Stamp Duty First Home Owner Concession, and the Stamp Duty Principal Place of Residence Rebate.
Third, the bill proposes to allow the Commissioner of Taxation to communicate information gathered under the First Home Owner Grant Act to certain Australian government agencies. This provides for better administration of the First Home Owner Grant and is consistent with the commissioner’s existing ability to communicate with interstate administrators of corresponding first home owner grant legislation and to communicate information obtained under the Territory’s taxation legislation.
The bill also proposes four other changes to the Territory’s First Home Owner Grant Scheme and Stamp Duty Home Ownership Concessions. The first of these proposes to extend the period in which an ineligible First Home Owner Grant recipient is required to repay the grant from 14 days from receiving a payment notice to 30 days after a payment notice is issued. There is no corresponding change to the stamp duty concessions.
The second proposed change will preserve a person’s entitlement to the First Home Owner Grant and the Stamp Duty First Home Owner Concession if they have been ruled ineligible for this assistance only because they were under 18 years of age. Accordingly, it is proposed that both the grant and the concession will be available on the purchase of the subsequent home, so long as they meet all of the other eligibility criteria.
The third change proposed by the bill is to make the commencement date of an eligible transaction, such as a contract to buy a home, the time at which a first home owner grant applicant’s eligibility is tested. A similar change is proposed for the Stamp Duty First Home Owner Concession, where eligibility is to be tested at the date on which the instrument effecting the conveyance is executed. The bill proposes that there will be an exception to this rule for the criteria that requires an applicant to be an Australian citizen or permanent resident and, in this case, an applicant’s citizenship or residency status is to be assessed at the date of application, which may be made up to 12 months after an eligible transaction is completed.
Fourth, the bill proposes to align the Commissioner of Taxation’s discretion to extend the period in which an applicant for the First Home Owner Grant, the Stamp Duty First Home Owner Concession or the Stamp Duty Principal Place of Residence Rebate must commence occupancy of their home with the commissioner’s discretion to reduce the period for which an applicant must reside in the home. This is a technical change that specifies that the discretion to extend the occupancy period will only be available where special reasons for doing so exist.
Again, greater detail of these changes is set out in the explanatory statement which accompanies the bill.
In addition to the increase in the payroll tax exemption threshold, the bill also proposes to amend the Pay-roll Tax Act to ensure that indirect payments made to company directors and other members of the governing body of a company are subject to payroll tax. This change will make the treatment of such payments the same as that for indirect payments made to an employee.
The bill also proposes a number of changes to the Territory’s land rich stamp duty provisions. As some members may be aware, the land rich stamp duty provisions were first introduced into legislation in 1988. The provisions were introduced to deal with techniques that had developed at the time to avoid payment of conveyance duty on acquisitions of interest in real estate. Instead of transferring land title from owner to owner, the land was acquired by a corporation or trust set up primarily to hold the land, and the shares in the corporation or units in the trust were transferred. The owners of the corporation or unit holders in the trust achieved the same ability to control the use of the land as they would have if they had purchased the land directly. However, by transferring interests in land indirectly through the transfer of shares or trust units, duty was reduced from up to 5.4% to only 0.6%.
Changing business practices have resulted in the increased use of indirect holdings in land becoming a recognised method of investment in real estate rather than direct holdings. In addition, many large investors have become more sophisticated and deals more complex such that, across Australia, the land rich provisions are unable to apply to an increasing number of cases, leading to inequitable outcomes for similar transactions. In recent years, direct ownership of large commercial properties by only one entity has become less common. The values of the deals are large and investors are more aware of the need to diversify their risk. In this environment, unit trusts have emerged interstate as the preferred investment vehicle for indirect investment in such real estate. They enable a number of investors to pool their resources and share the benefits of high value properties without attracting stamp duty.
Unit trusts are also more flexible than corporations, as there is no fixed number of units, so unit investors can be more easily accommodated. In response to these concerns and to pressure from the Commonwealth Grants Commission, New South Wales and Victoria have amended their stamp duty land rich provisions to bring their treatment of unit trusts more into line with that already applying in Queensland, Western Australia and South Australia. In addition, in December 2005, the Australian Capital Territory released a discussion paper proposing a number of changes to that territory’s land rich stamp duty provisions to bring them broadly into line with the changes recently introduced in both New South Wales and Victoria.
On consideration of these actual and proposed changes, as well as of the provisions operating in other states, this government proposes six changes to the Northern Territory’s land rich stamp duty provisions. These changes are proposed to more closely align the Territory’s land rich stamp duty provisions with those that apply in New South Wales and Victoria. All of these changes are contained in the bill and I will now outline them.
First, the bill proposes that the provisions apply to acquisitions of interest in unit trusts of 20% or greater. This is a change from the current rules which only apply where interests of 50% or greater are acquired.
Second, the bill proposes to extend the range of unit trusts to which the land rich stamp duty provisions will apply. These changes redefine what is considered to be a private unit trust that falls within the provisions. The proposed changes are very similar to those introduced in Victoria and New South Wales. However, unlike the changes introduced in those states, it is not intended to introduce the concept of a wholesale unit trust scheme as these trusts do not appear to have significant interests in the Territory. A wholesale unit trust scheme is a trust used by certain types of large institutional investors and governments. In the event that such trusts do start to invest heavily in the Territory at some time in the future, then it may be appropriate to review their stamp duty treatment at that time.
Third, the bill proposes to change the way that a corporation or a trust’s holdings in other entities are dealt with. The land rich stamp duty provisions currently allow a land holding to be traced through subsidiaries. The manner in which these provisions operate has been exploited both in the Territory and elsewhere to avoid stamp duty. Accordingly, the bill proposes to tighten the tracing rules by allowing tracing through other entities down to a 20% interest. Further, the bill proposes that, unlike the current provisions, where a corporation or unit trust will be treated as owning the whole of the land of the subsidiary, under the new rules the corporation or unit trust will be treated as being entitled to only that proportion of a subsidiary’s property that they would receive on the winding-up of the subsidiary. This outcome is fairer than presently occurs as it more accurately reflects a corporation’s or trust’s interest in the land of other entities.
Fourth, the bill proposes a change to the land rich stamp duty provisions to prevent the avoidance of duty by listing a corporation or unit trust on a recognised financial market such as the Australian Stock Exchange. This change is similar to that undertaken by a number of other states.
Fifth, the bill proposes to align the time in which a land rich stamp duty statement is required to be lodged and any stamp duty paid with existing 60 day period that applies for other stamp duty conveyance documents. At present, a land rich stamp duty statement needs to be lodged within three months of the relevant acquisition, and duty does not need to be paid until 30 days after the assessment is issued. As a consequence of recent changes to the land rich stamp duty provisions that have made their operation clearer and more transparent, the generous three-month and 30-day periods are no longer considered necessary.
Last, the bill proposes to clarify the scope and the extension of the stamp duty land rich provisions so that it more consistently applies in circumstances where a direct conveyance of land would be exempt from duty under a law of the Territory, or where the conveyance would have been between parties to a marriage, the conveyance would have been exempt under the Australian government’s Family Law Act.
As would be expected, the bill proposes appropriate transitional provisions in relation to land rich stamp duty provisions in order to ensure that there are no unintended outcomes under the proposed changes.
I now turn to seven minor changes proposed for the Territory stamp duty legislation. I will endeavour to cover them briefly.
First, the bill proposes to introduce an exemption from stamp duty on a motor vehicle certificate of registration that has been completed solely to correct an error on the issue or transfer of another vehicle certificate or registration.
Second, the bill proposes to remove doubt on how part interests in property are to be valued for stamp duty purposes. The bill proposes to endorse the current practice by providing that the unencumbered value of the whole property will be determined and then apportioned according to the interest that is being conveyed.
Third, the bill proposes to clarify that a surrender of dutiable property, and similar transactions that have the effect of the surrender, are considered to be a conveyance for stamp duty purposes. This amendment is necessary following the 2004 decision of the Supreme Court of Queensland. Prior to that decision, it was considered that the definition of conveyance in the stamp duty legislation included a surrender.
Fourth, the bill proposes to abolish the use of adhesive duty stamps. These stamps have historically been used to satisfy some stamp duty liabilities, but are now less relevant as they can only be used in very limited circumstances. The usage of similar stamps has already ceased in New South Wales, Western Australia, Queensland and the Australian Capital Territory. It is also proposed to provide a refund to the taxpayer who has unused duty stamps, as long as they apply for a refund before 1 July 2007.
Fifth, the bill addresses a technical deficiency in the current legislation that may not permit stamp duty to be recovered on the sub-sale of conveyance of property once duty has been refunded or remitted on a transaction that does not proceed, even though the property is subsequently sold. Under this proposal it will be possible to reinstate an assessment irrespective of when the refund or remission of stamp duty occurred.
Sixth, the bill proposes to make it clear that tax and stamp duty assessments and decisions are not susceptible to court challenges where the relevant legislation already provides an objection and appeal process. This amendment has been made in response to recent court action undertaken through the Supreme Court of Queensland that was initiated at the same time as the objection being lodged under the stamp duty law for the same matter.
Last, the bill proposes to remove a prohibition under the stamp duty legislation against recovering penalties that have been imposed on a person by the Commissioner of Taxation, where a person is also prosecuted under that legislation. It is proposed that this change will apply to any prosecutions commenced from 1 July 2006, irrespective of when an offence is committed. This treatment recognises that an offence may have been committed prior to 1 July 2006, but was not identified until after that date or that prosecution action was not commenced until after that date.
Further, as a consequence of this, the offence provision relating to evasion and providing false and misleading information are to be amended so that the court will no longer be able to impose a penalty amount that is based on the amount of tax or duty evaded or attempted to be evaded. However, the court will still be able to impose directives of penalty generally applied for this type of offence. This change is made in recognition that such penalty should be imposed by the commissioner and that it would be unfair for both the commissioner and the court to impose the penalty in relation to the same subject matter.
I turn now to the final measure proposed by the bill which relates to the Mineral Royalty Act. The bill proposes changes to that act to allow for the alignment of the statutory position of the secretary under the Mineral Royalty Act with that of the Commissioner of Taxation such that the commissioner will also become the mineral royalty secretary.
Madam Speaker, I commend the bill to honourable members.
Debate adjourned.
JUDGES AND ADMINISTRATORS PENSIONS LEGISLATION AMENDMENT BILL
(Serial 51)
(Serial 51)
Bill presented and read a first time.
Dr TOYNE (Justice and Attorney-General): Madam Speaker, I move that the bill be now read a second time.
The purpose of this bill is to remove provisions from the Supreme Court (Judges Pensions) Act which disentitle a judge’s surviving partner from receiving a pension on either remarriage or entering into a de facto relationship. The bill also makes similar amendments to the Administrators Pensions Act as the pension scheme under that act is structured similarly.
The pension scheme under Supreme Court (Judges Pensions) Act is a defined benefit scheme which provides that, after 10 years of service, a judge is entitled to a lifetime pension equal to 60% of their base salary. When a judge dies, the surviving partner, including a de facto spouse, is entitled to a reversionary pension equal to just over 60% of the judge’s pension. Currently, the act provides that if a surviving partner of a deceased judge later remarries or enters into a de facto relationship, he or she will lose their pension entitlement.
These provisions, related to the payment of a pension to a judge’s surviving partner, maintain an unacceptably old-fashion, sexually-discriminatory view of matrimonial relationships and the role of judges’ pensions. The provisions of the act, as originally drafted, clearly envisage that judges would only be male - for example, references throughout the legislation were made to widows of judges and not to widowers – and, until an amendment was made in 1998 to remove gender-specific language, the act repeatedly referred to judges as ‘he’. The idea that a pension otherwise payable to a widow would cease upon her remarriage is founded on the position that she would then become dependant upon some other male person for her income and no longer be in need of a pension.
The reforms made by the Law Reform (Gender, Sexuality and De Facto Relationships) Act 2003 equalised the rights and responsibilities of persons in de facto relationships with those of persons legally married. This was important, overdue legislation but, in relation to the Supreme Court (Judges Pensions) Act, it had the unfortunate effect of disentitling a surviving partner if they entered into a de facto relationship, including a same-sex relationship. Prior to the amendments, their entitlements would only have been affected if they had remarried. This amendment equalised the position in relation to both married and de facto persons, but did not address the old-fashioned and potentially discriminatory notion that a surviving spouse who entered into a new relationship automatically became dependent on their new partner.
A surviving partner’s entitlement under their deceased partner’s superannuation arrangements generally does not cease when the surviving partner later enters into a new relationship. The new relationship does not impact on the beneficiaries’ or partners’ entitlements. The current provisions of the act in relation to disentitlement of surviving partners is inconsistent with the way in which judge’s pensions have been treated as superannuation for other purposes. For example, judge’s pensions have been treated in the same manner as other superannuation entitlements in relation to the Commonwealth superannuation contributions surcharge tax.
In 2003, the act was also amended so that the provisions of the Commonwealth Family Law Act 1975 can be applied to split the interest in the pension between a judge and his and her spouse upon a property settlement on divorce or separation. The spouse then has a superannuation interest which they hold in their own name. The most comparable superannuation scheme to a pension under the act is the Commonwealth Superannuation Scheme which many long-term Northern Territory public servants are still eligible to receive. Although it is not a judicial scheme, it still operates in much the same manner with retired public servants being entitled to an ongoing pension that is dependant on their salary and time served. Unlike the Judges Pension Scheme as it currently stands, the reversionary benefit in the CSS does not cease if the deceased public servant’s partner enters into a new relationship. The current situation is also out of step with the position in most other Australian jurisdictions, where surviving spouses’ entitlements are not affected by the domestic situation.
The bill addresses all of these inconsistencies and brings the Judges Pension Scheme into line with the rest of Australia. Specifically, the bill omits section 5(2) and section 6(2) of the Supreme Court (Judges Pensions) Act which currently provide for the pension to cease if a surviving partner of a deceased judge who is in receipt of the pension enters into a further relationship. Clause 6 of the bill inserts a new section 18 which provides that the amendments made by this bill apply to all past, present and future judges. One of the effects of this transitional provision is that, if any surviving partners of a deceased judge who are currently receiving a pension subsequently enter into a new relationship, they will still be entitled to receive their pension even though the judge died prior to these amendments commencing. However, the new section 18(2) also makes it clear that the amendments will not entitle the surviving partner to any back pay of their pension. This will apply to surviving partners of deceased judges who are currently not receiving their pensioner entitlements because they have entered into a new relationship. These surviving partners will not be able to receive back pay for the pension they stopped receiving after they entered into the new relationship, but before these amendments commenced. However, as already mentioned, they will be entitled to begin receiving the pension as at the date these amendments commenced.
As I also noted earlier, the bill makes similar amendments to the Administrators Pensions Act. The scheme under this act was recently closed to future administrators, although it still applies to past administrators and the current administrator. Accordingly, the new section 11 of the Administrators Pensions Act will provide that amendments in this bill will also only apply to past administrators and the current administrator and their partners and families. As with judge’s pensions, the amendments make it clear that they do not create an entitlement to back pay of any pension.
This bill, while only directly affecting a small number of public and judicial officials, nevertheless demonstrates the Territory government’s commitment to removing sexually discriminatory legislation and replacing it with laws that treat men and women equally.
Madam Speaker, I commend the bill to honourable members and table a copy of the explanatory statement.
Debate adjourned.
INFORMATION AMENDMENT BILL
(Serial 53)
(Serial 53)
Bill presented and read a first time.
Dr TOYNE (Justice and Attorney-General): Madam Speaker, I move that the bill be now read a second time.
The purpose of this bill, which will commence on 1 July 2006, is to create certainty in the Information Act when the two sunset clauses of the act cease to operate. It also demonstrates the government’s strong commitment to accountability and transparency. Currently, section 9 of the act provides that if there is an inconsistency between the Information Act and another act, the Information Act does not apply. This bill provides that the Information Act will prevail to the extent to which it is inconsistent with another law of the Territory, whether that law is made before or after 1 July 2006. The bill also extends the protection provided in section 48 of the act to those secrecy provisions which are listed in schedule 1 of the act.
All agencies have had the opportunity to examine the legislation for which they have responsibility, and have considered those provisions which were inconsistent with the Information Act and those which made it an offence to release information. Most of the inconsistencies were created by secrecy provisions. This bill does not make any changes to those secrecy provisions. Those provisions are designed to prevent individual public servants from unofficially disclosing information. Those offences remain unchanged.
A panel, comprising the Information Commissioner, a senior policy lawyer from the Department of the Chief Minister, and one from the Department of Justice considered each of the secrecy provisions identified by agencies as being inconsistent with section 9, or meriting continued protection under section 48 of the act. The panel concluded that, in the majority of cases, the existing exemption provisions were adequate to protect the information covered by the secrecy provisions. It is, therefore, concluded that no additional protection was needed.
Exemptions frequently cited were that the information may be refused if its disclosure would be an unreasonable interference with a person’s privacy, if it would prejudice the maintenance of law and order, or if it revealed a confidential source. There were, however, a number of provisions which the panel concluded should have additional protection over and above that provided by the current exemption provisions of the act. Those provisions will have continued protection under section 48 of the act. They are listed in Schedule 1 and include, for example, releasing information about the identity of partners to an adoption, which might identify how an identified voter had voted, or which might identify a person protected under the Witness Protection Scheme.
The bill also provides that information is exempt under section 44 of the act if it is obtained or created in the course of an investigation, audit or inquiry taken by the Ombudsman, the Health and Community Services Complaints Commissioner, the Auditor-General, a board or commissioner appointed under the Inquiries Act, or a commissioner within the meaning of the Local Government Act. This clause recognises the special nature of the work being undertaken by these accountability bodies, which already provide a considerable amount of information to the community and are accountable through direct parliamentary scrutiny. The panel considered that commissioners should also be provided with additional protection as a consequence of their judicial and quasi-judicial functions, although their decision-making functions are, arguably, already excluded from the act.
While examining the secrecy provisions in the Territory legislation, it also came to light that naturally occurring features such as the location of meteorites were not adequately protected from disclosure. Meteorites are extremely rare and are of great scientific value. As a result of their rarity, they have considerable commercial value and there is a well-established global trade in them. A major fall might result in thousands of fragments scattered over a large geographic area. It is essential that these fragments are adequately protected until scientists are able to properly record and conduct appropriate tests on them. Section 4(1) of the Meteorites Act which is currently relied on to protect this type of information is not a secrecy provision within the terms of section 48 of the act. It is not, therefore, possible to list that section of the Meteorites Act in Schedule 1. Instead, this bill inserts an amendment into section 54 of the act to protect a place of scientific, cultural or historic significance.
Madam Speaker, I commend the bill to honourable members and table a copy of the explanatory statement.
Debate adjourned.
APPROPRIATION BILL 2006-07
(Serial 50)
(Serial 50)
Continued from 3 May 2006.
Mr VATSKALIS (Mines and Energy): Madam Speaker, I heard earlier this week the Treasurer outlining his 2006-07 budget. He said that this budget is a budget for jobs, growing the economic base of the Northern Territory, and a stronger and better Territory. It is true that, in the past five years, we have budget after budget to create jobs and to make the Territory bigger and stronger.
I remember with horror the last CLP budget before we first won government in 2001. I recall I was then the Minister for Transport and Works, and the budget for period contracts that was left by the CLP was $6m. That money was spent by October 2001 and I had $150 000 left for the rest of the year. Nobody could do anything because there was no money to be paid. We had to pull money from other areas to put in $10m in order for period contracts to be maintained; for the potholes in the Stuart Highway to be filled and for the grass on the verges of the roads to be mowed.
I was listening this morning to the member for Blain saying that we have to attract more people to the Territory to create jobs, and that we need cheaper energy. I ask the member for Blain why he was not screaming about cheaper energy when the CLP was in power. At that time, the CLP was trying to block NT Power, Paul Everingham’s company, from having access to their network. We finished with a court case that is going to cost us another CLP miracle; it is going to cost the taxpayers $13m compensation to Paul Everingham, ex-CLP Chief Minister, NT Power. That is another miracle on top of the Mt Todd miracle. However, I will not continue criticising the CLP. People in the Territory know very well the CLP record and voted accordingly in 2001 and again in 2005.
Following the 2005 election, the Department of Primary Industry, Fisheries and Mines became a new entity. The separation of Primary Industry, Fisheries and Mines from the former Department of Business, Industry and Resource Development recognises the importance to the Territory of our primary industries, fisheries and mines. In fact, the combined value of our rural and fishing sectors exceeds $0.5bn a year, accounting for nearly 3% of the gross state product. Add to this the impressive figure of the mining sector - grossing $2.3bn or 20% of the GSP annually - it is clear that my portfolio is well placed to deliver jobs, growth and a stronger and better Territory.
There is a worldwide commodities boom under way, with China leading demand for minerals of all descriptions. Benefits are flowing to the Territory, not just because of international demand, but due to the aggressive and strategic manner in which we have been targeting and marketing the Territory to exploration and mining companies.
Building the Territory’s Resources Base is a key initiative designed to encourage greater exploration expenditure in the Territory. Budget 2006-07 includes a further investment of $3.8m as part of our overall investment of $15.2m over four years. It is an integral part of the successful policy approach adopted by the Martin government over the last five years to invest in strategic economic drivers.
Under this program, the road show campaign called the Top End Secret has been developed and, since March 2005, promoted exploration in the Territory, Australia and overseas to over 15 000 decision-makers and investors. With the assistance of industry supporters and strategic partners, the Top End Secret team has achieved an increased take up rate of geoscience data of 250% since the last half of 2005, an 85% increase in new mineral exploration licence applications from 2004 to 2005, and a doubling of granted exploration licences to almost 800 in the last five years - the highest level since 1994.
Top End Secret has achieved much more, with the real measure of success being the fact that mineral exploration expenditure in the Territory is up 38% from 2004. It currently stands at $68.6m per year. I am pleased to confirm that, on the basis of this success, Top End Secret Mark 2 will be launched at the Association of Mining Exploration Companies’ National Congress in Perth in early June.
Our success extends to dealing with the disaster of Mt Todd, which we inherited from the previous government. We have spent $4m on remedial work at Mt Todd in 2005-06 and will spend a further $1m in 2006-07. This commitment has ensured that, despite this wetter than usual Wet Season, the off-site environmental impacts have been well managed and the good health of the surrounding river system has been maintained.
We have, moreover, achieved an excellent result for the Territory with Vista Gold purchasing the Mt Todd mineral tenements. Vista Gold has entered an agreement with government to manage and explore the site for five years, at which point it will produce a technical and economic feasibility study of Mt Todd’s mineral potential. The cost to the government for the ongoing environmental management at Mt Todd this financial year was $374 000. Under the agreement with Vista Gold, we will continue to manage this site until the end of 2006 with Vista Gold reimbursing up to $375 000. Vista Gold will, thereafter, take over both the management and financial responsibility for the site. Should Vista eventually achieve approval to recommence mining, it will assume full responsibility for all the rehabilitation on Mt Todd. No matter which way you look at it, this is an excellent outcome for the Territory, both financially and in regional development.
All of this good news is no accident; it comes as a result of some planning. The Territory has vast tracts of under-explored land and, as I mentioned earlier, supporting and growing exploration business is one of our main aims.
Underpinning the Top End Secret and all our other efforts is our world-class Northern Territory Geological Survey. $6.9m is available in Budget 2006-07 to provide high-quality geological information to industry to promote and enhance mineral and petroleum exploration. The Geological Survey is committing $400 000 to a helicopter-supported gravity survey over 14 000 km in the Jervois region north-east of Alice Springs. This survey is designed to assist explorers in their search for new lead-zinc and nickel deposits. Over $105 000 has been committed for the development of a three-dimensional geological model of the McArthur Basin and $650 000 is going towards drilling two stratigraphic holes to a depth of 1.85 km in the Amadeus Basin to provide new insights into petroleum systems in that region. Major prospectivity enhancement studies are under way in western Pine Creek and the eastern Arunta regions at a cost of over $200 000 to provide better information into the prospectivity of these areas
All of these efforts to attract new exploration and to provide world-class information to assist decision-makers are backed by streamlined and a more efficient Titles Division which is setting records processing licences and awarding titles. As of April 2006, 747 exploration licences were granted in the Northern Territory - a marked increase over the 436 licences granted in 2002. Minerals and Energy is attracting more activity in the Territory and assisting companies to achieve licences in record numbers.
However, the story does not finish there. The Compliance Division of the department is ensuring that the industry is a safer and more environmentally friendly place to work. $3.8m will be available for compliance with legislation in the mining, energy and exploration industries and the implementation for best practice mining, safety and environmental management. Major initiatives include further oversight of the development of the G3 expansion in Gove, the construction and commencement of the Bootu Creek operation, and the recommissioning of the Tom’s Gully Mine.
It is anticipated that there will be around 45 major facility operational site audits completed, ensuring that the companies comply with the terms and conditions of the Mining Management Act and, thus, that sites are safer for workers. The Compliance Division will also, within its budget allocation, regulate the development of the Letheridge Bay and Andranangoo mineral sands operations, the development of Frances Creek iron ore project, Brock’s Creek recommissioning, Union Reef’s process plant recommissioning, the Peko tailings project start-up, Compass’s Batchelor oxide project development, and the completion of the Alcan G3 expansion project.
In July 2005, we also established the position of chief investigator to look into complaints and incidents across all sectors dealt with by my department. In the past, mining investigators were located within the Minerals and Energy Division. Now, however, the position of chief investigator sits outside the divisions and covers primary industries and fisheries as well as minerals and energy. This independence, and the fact that he reports directly to the chief executive, ensures an independent, transparent investigating system.
The chief inspector is working to establish greater cross-agency involvement and is forging alliances with offices such as the Ombudsman NT WorkSafe, the Health department, and the Minerals Council to ensure prompt, efficient investigations. This new system ensures the accountability and transparency of investigations, and a greater degree of industry confidence and participation. All these factors demonstrate that the Minerals and Energy Division of the Department of Primary Industry, Fisheries and Mines is a major contributor to the prosperity of the Territory, and that it is doing so within budget.
The Fisheries Division is recognised as one of the leading aquatic resources management and research agencies in Australia. I am proud to say that approximately $1.4m has been allocated to ensure the continuation of our world-class activities in this areas. One of the key issues to address in the coming years is the buy-back of inshore netting licences across the Territory, with more than $1m allocated over the next three years.
We plan to remove coastal net fishing from selected high impact areas across the Territory, starting with Darwin Harbour and Shoal Bay. This initiative will reduce competition between the commercial sector, recreational fishers, and fishing tour operators. This outcome will contribute towards increasing the profile of the Territory recreational fishing industry.
Budget 2006-07 will also allow the continuation and enhancement of the world-first Genetag project, with $161 000 allocated into the innovative program. $96 000 has been earmarked for the monitoring of the Northern Territory mud crab fishery to assess any changes arising from the implementation of the new mud crab fishery management plan. Funding has also been allocated for the development of a monitoring protocol for the Northern Territory’s valuable shark fishery. In addition, Fisheries will also develop a strategic framework to monitor the harvest across all of the Territory’s major fisheries.
The future of the Darwin Aquaculture Centre has been assured, allowing the highly-respected research facility to continue its groundbreaking work in developing aquaculture techniques for the commercial farming of barramundi, prawns, trepang, mud crabs and sponges. The Darwin Aquaculture Centre’s barramundi fingerling breeding program is one of the Territory’s success stories, and further funding will allow important research to be undertaken into common diseases like Nodavirus, a virus that can affect farm fish across the globe.
This budget will ensure that the Territory retains its place at the top of the recreational fishing ladder, with $0.5m committed to improving recreational fishing infrastructure. When talking about recreational fishing in the Territory, the iconic barramundi immediately leaps to mind. To ensure the barramundi retains its well-deserved status as both a highly-valued recreational and commercial species, we will continue to work on developing a five-year strategic plan and 10-year vision for the barramundi fishery, to provide greater certainty to all stakeholders.
In this budget, the highly successful programs already under way, such as the piloting of aquaculture ventures in the communities of Maningrida and Kulaluk, will continue to be supported, as will the innovative Indigenous Marine and Sea Ranger program.
There are 14 Indigenous Marine and Sea Ranger groups operating in the Territory. All but two of these, the Tiwi rangers and Anindilyakwa sea rangers, operate under the auspices of the Northern Land Council’s Caring for Country program, with DPIFM sponsoring six of these groups. Ongoing support for these groups is vital, especially as there is an increased risk posed to our fishery resources and biosecurity through increasing incursions of foreign fishing vessels. Overall sightings increased by 35% to more than 13 000, and very few are apprehended. This is why this parliament called on the Prime Minister to convene a national forum to develop a cooperative approach, fund an expansion of the marine ranger program, and commit to stemming the influx of foreign fishing vessels.
Indigenous marine rangers can provide us with early warning information and, because they know their section of coastline better than anyone, they are in the best position to spearhead our campaign against illegal fishing. My views on their potential role in this fight are well known, and I promise that as well as continuing funding, I will continue to push for greater cooperation from most stakeholders and governments involved.
One of the keys to ensuring the Territory’s valuable aquatic resources continue to be managed and developed in a sustainable manner is to provide a sound legislative basis upon which management decisions can be made. Early this year, we commenced a review of the Fisheries Act, which represents cornerstone legislation underpinning our current management practices. In this budget, we will continue to progress the review and, where possible, seek to balance the often competing needs of user groups, while ensuring the sustainability of our valuable aquatic resources. It is anticipated that the new Fisheries Bill will be ready for consideration by government in mid-2007.
The success of the Top End Secret campaign has shown that a concerted, targeted campaign can bring huge benefits if professionally and consistently implemented. Buoyed by this success, I will seek to examine opportunities for the Territory’s unique food produce. We have produce that is the envy of the world and, in the coming year, a concerted campaign will bring Territory foods to the attention of the nation and the world. As well as barramundi, this will involve Territory beef, tropical fruits and other produce.
Budget 2006-07 supports our primary industry with a $36.8m budget. $1m is allocated to expand indigenous pastoral and horticultural enterprises on indigenous-owned lands, including employment. $2m is allocated to fund research, extension, and development programs across our horticulture industry.
Grower accreditation and certification assurance, management and eradication of plant pests and diseases, and providing accredited laboratory services is supported through a $1.9m allocation.
The Territory’s pastoral industry, like the mining industry, is performing well. I reported to parliament yesterday on the outcome of one of the most comprehensive surveys of the Northern Territory pastoral industry. This report shows an industry which has the potential to increase production by almost 30% over the next three years, and 54% by 2014.
A National Livestock Identification System, or NLIS, which traces cattle from the gate to the plate, is to be implemented by July 2007. The partnership between the Territory and Australian governments will see the implementation of NLIS in the Northern Territory over the next three years, with $150 000 spent in 2005-06, $320 000 in 2006-07 and $320 000 in 2007-08.
Still on the pastoral industry, 212 000 head of cattle were exported through the Port of Darwin in 2005. Despite the wettest ending to the Wet Season disrupting mustering and delivery of cattle to export facilities, exports of Territory cattle are up by more than 2000 head at the end of March 2006, to 54 000 head.
It was pleasing to note increased live cattle exports to Sarawak and Sabah and the new Indonesian buffalo protocol has seen the commencement of feeder buffalo to that country. However, we must be wary of having too many eggs in one basket, so senior officers from my department, representatives from the NT Cattlemen’s Association, the Northern Territory Exporters Association and Meat and Livestock Australia are constantly working with our northern neighbours to strengthen existing trading partnerships and to identify new ones. My department continues to provide technical information and assistance to cattle development projects in Sabah, the Philippines and Malaysia that will enable those countries to develop a viable pastoral industry of their own and increase their intake of live cattle from the Northern Territory. I will be travelling throughout the region in the near future, meeting government and industry representatives and identifying programs that will enhance our export trade.
Another success is the Indigenous Pastoral Program, or IPP. This program takes a multi-agency approach to address the needs of industry for more viable pastoral land and labour, and the needs of indigenous people for sustainable economic and social developments that can use their often under-utilised land resources. In its first three years, the IPP achieved remarkable success developing country with an estimated carrying capacity of 25 000 head of cattle. It is also looking to develop and open up land to carry a further 20 000 head of cattle in 2006. The IPP created 18 seasonal stock camp positions and 20 short-term fencing positions, all of which were filled by Aboriginal people at various locations. It established an indigenous training scheme, initially placing 10 young men from the Barkly region. So positive was the feedback from this program that a new memorandum of understanding will now extend the program by another five years.
The pastoral industry is doing well, and one of the reasons for that is our attention to biosecurity. The Territory has a long history of preventing, eradicating or controlling exotic pests and diseases that not only impact on primary production, but also the environment and the community. To further enhance the protection of the Territory, my department will be the lead agency in the preparation and implementation of a biosecurity strategy for the Northern Territory. This strategy will assist government agencies and other stakeholders to exclude, eradicate and effectively manage risks caused by pests, diseases and weeds to the economy, environment and human health.
Biosecurity is one of the important watch-words for the future. One of the strongest selling points for Territory produce is, as I mentioned earlier, our image as a clean green producer of premium quality products.
Any chemical residues which exceed the maximum levels would impact negatively on that image. I draw your attention to the export of wheat to India which was recently stopped for several days when the Indian laboratory detected residues of pesticides above the recommended level. My department, in conjunction with the NT Horticultural Association, has an extensive sampling and testing program at the producer level. A multilingual brochure setting out the 2006-07 program will be launched shortly.
With the increased attention on biosecurity, we have also created a new section within the department, Diagnostic Services, which will bring together the agricultural chemistry, entomology, plant pathology, seeds, veterinary, water chemistry, and water microbiology laboratories under one roof. This allows the more effective use of resources and greater collaboration between the various laboratories. This new arrangement in Diagnostic Services will allow for more efficient use of resources with greater collaboration between laboratories, and will assist in containing costs for the provision of important biosecurity testing and services to industry.
I now turn to the Office of Multicultural Affairs. This government remains firmly committed to supporting our multicultural community in the Northern Territory. Budget 2006-07 reflects this commitment. Our multicultural community in the Territory is our social capital, and if we use it wisely we can access markets that, until now, have been closed and are not easily opened.
Through my Multicultural Affairs portfolio, the Northern Territory government will support projects which promote cultural and linguistic diversity in the Territory through grants under the Multicultural Affairs Sponsorship Program. $740 000 is allocated for this program, including Cultural and Linguistic Awards totalling up to $150 000 for individuals and ethnic community groups to undertake research, further study or specialised training in languages, or other cultural activities relating to their ethnic origin. Ethnic origin refers to the origin of any person in the Territory including people who come from Ireland, Scotland or England who probably, until now, are people not considered as having an ethnic origin.
The budget also includes operational assistance to migrant and ethnic community organisations including the Multicultural Council of the Northern Territory and the Multicultural Community Services of Central Australia. A further $400 000 will be allocated to the Multicultural Communities Facility Development Program this financial year, with an additional $100 000 in 2007-08.
Budget 2006-07 supports interpreter and translation services to help government agencies to communicate and deliver their services to Territorians from diverse backgrounds. It also recognises the benefits of cross-cultural awareness training and assistance to overseas trained professionals, para-professionals, technical, trade and other skilled workers in obtaining recognition of their qualification and skills.
This government continues to support the Charles See Kee Awards to recognise and celebrate people, organisations and initiatives which have made an outstanding contribution towards advancing multiculturalism and counteracting racism in the Territory.
I was very pleased to note that there was $1.5m in total allocation in this budget for the development of the blocks in Batten Road. More blocks will be available for non-English speaking background and other community groups that want to build their own home.
I also recognise the considerable commitment, dedication and professionalism of staff within the Departments of Primary Industry and Fisheries and Mines and Energy, and the Office of Multicultural Affairs. Achieving the outcomes highlighted today is only possible because of the considerable support of our highly-valued public service.
I point out that my department is a department with a regional presence which it will maintain throughout the Territory. It is a department that has the potential to provide job opportunities for Territorians including hundreds of indigenous Territorians. We have seen that with the developing aquaculture operations in Maningrida and Kulaluk. We will expand further expand, for example, with the abattoir in Oenpelli. By providing technical support and education we can find a facility that can provide fresh meat to Aboriginal communities in Arnhem Land, and East Arnhem to improve their condition. We can train indigenous people to work in mines - not in underground mines, but above ground mines. Also, not only in the mining sector as such but in rehabilitation and reconnaissance. A big department has the potential. I give you a commitment that next year we will develop a plan of how to involve and incorporate more indigenous men and women in primary industry, fisheries, horticulture, agriculture, and in the mining industry.
Madam Speaker, Budget 2006-07 delivers jobs, growth and a stronger Territory. The Territory will enjoy an outstanding return from the investment in the primary industry, fisheries, mines and multicultural affairs sectors. We have enormous social capital, a young population in and outside towns, and the responsibility to make sure that these people have access to jobs and the luxuries that people in other states have. My department and I will make this possible in the next year with the assistance of the Treasurer and the budget presented in parliament this week.
Ms SCRYMGOUR (Natural Resources, Environment and Heritage): Madam Speaker, it is with great pleasure that I speak about the first budget for the Department of Natural Resources, Environment and the Arts.
As honourable members will recall, the Department of Natural Resources, Environment and the Arts was created in July 2005. The new department was made by merging the Conservation and Natural Resources group which included the Parks and Wildlife Service and the Office of Environment and Heritage from the former Department of Infrastructure, Planning and the Environment, and the Arts and Museums Division from the former Department of Community Development, Sports and Cultural Affairs.
The government created this department in recognition of the unique value of the Territory’s natural and cultural heritage. These are values that will play an increasingly central role in the economic development of the Northern Territory and preserving our unique and wonderful lifestyle. The department’s job is to ensure that these natural and cultural assets of the Territory are protected and that Territorians are given an opportunity to understand their place in history and the natural environment. This government believes that this will promote our unique identity and create a base on which Territorians will be able to use natural and cultural resources as a source of inspiration, creativity and innovation for personal and economic growth.
As outlined in Budget Paper No 3, the department is responsible for conserving, enhancing and ensuring best possible access to and enjoyment of the Territory’s natural and cultural assets. These assets include our native wildlife and their habitats; renewable natural resources including water and natural landscapes, many of which form the basis of our parks and reserves system; and our creative communities, buildings and places important in our history; as well as the permanent scientific and cultural collections.
Within the department, there are seven new output groups which are parks and reserves, biological parks, natural resources, environment protection, heritage and conservation, scientific and cultural collections, and arts and screen industry support. I will now go through these in turn.
A total of $33m will be spent on parks and reserves. This will fund management of parks and reserves to protect biological diversity and create commercial, educational and recreation opportunities for visitors and the Territory community, providing a core for regional development and economic growth. Our parks and reserves are our most treasured and iconic natural assets. Their rugged physical beauty, mystique and history attract visitors from across the globe to the Northern Territory. This is an increase of almost $0.5m over the last financial year’s budget. This increase in funding for parks and reserves will ensure our rangers in the Parks and Wildlife Service can continue to care for and manage the 90 parks and reserves that make up the parks estate so that they can be enjoyed by locals and tourists alike, confident that the conservation values of our greatest natural assets are being maintained.
This budget will also see $3m spent on the continued implementation of a program I believe has already delivered benefits for park management and local indigenous landowners and will have significant long-term and flow-on benefits – the Parks Joint Management program. The joint management program currently involves 27 parks building on the success of existing joint management parks such as Nitmiluk, and will allow the Parks and Wildlife Service to manage the parks estate in partnership with traditional Aboriginal owners to protect biological diversity and serve visitors and community needs for education and enjoyment.
Participation in joint management, including the development of joint plans of management for each of the 27 parks in the program, will enhance the capacity of regional communities, through training and employment, to realise the potential of parks as a catalyst for regional economic development. The benefits of joint management have recently been publicised by the recent success of the first group of indigenous trainee rangers to come through the Territory’s new joint parks management arrangements, all of whom have started work in Central Australia. Indigenous rangers Donald Turner and Kalem Ronberg are each completing a Certificate II in Conservation and Land Management through the Batchelor Institute, while Jeremy Dawson, who is based in Tennant Creek, is studying a Certificate III in Conservation and Land Management. Without joint management programs in place, it is likely none of these three men would have had these opportunities.
Additionally, $90 000 in ongoing funding has been provided for off-park indigenous rangers in the Ntaria community at Hermannsburg in Central Australia. This is a new initiative in this budget. This initial money will allow for a program coordinator and operational costs for a ranger group that has been involved in progressing the joint management initiative with the Parks and Wildlife Service.
Funding in this 2006-07 budget will also ensure Parks and Wildlife Service continues to deliver its core park management function such as weeds, fire, feral animal and visitor programs. A further $10.108m has been allocated to fund the Territory’s biological parks, which include the Desert Park in Alice Springs, the Territory Wildlife Park and the George Brown Botanical Gardens in Darwin. The industry term ‘biological parks’ refers to parks which create displays of native plants and animals that replicate natural habitats and botanical gardens. In addition to commercial, educational and recreational benefits, these parks provide visitors and Territorians alike with opportunities to experience and learn about the Territory’s natural flora and fauna. The community service obligations funding of $7.8m in this budget provided by the department to the two wildlife parks - the Territory Wildlife Park and the Alice Springs Desert Park - will enable these two key facilities to operate as high standard premier tourist attractions. Both parks are constantly developing and improving their visitor experiences and are looking at creating new experiences targeted towards domestic and international visitors over the next 12 months. Both parks are also working towards implementing educational programs to attract and encourage schools, both local and from interstate, to attend the parks as part of their curricula activities to learn about native flora and fauna.
Darwin’s George Brown Botanic Gardens will also benefit from the 2006-07 budget with two significant new visitor experiences to be created. The Geranium Street entrance to the gardens will undergo a facelift, making it more attractive and enticing to visitors and locals alike. It is planned to also house information that locals can access regarding home gardening in the Top End. Additionally, the children’s garden will also receive attention, with plans afoot to develop plant mazes, sandy beaches for children to play in, and other educational and interactive features.
A further $45.7m has been provided to fund Natural Resources. This significant area is responsible for assessing, managing and conserving the natural resources of the Northern Territory. The funding will enable sustainable use of the renewable natural resource of the Northern Territory, including water and native plants and animals.
This budget sees the commencement of the Living Rivers initiative, with an allocation of $3.5m over four years for the Daly River Adaptive Management program. More importantly, this funding will leverage significant Commonwealth funding already announced under the National Water Initiative. Funding is also provided in this budget for the Alice Springs and Tennant Creek water initiative, initially $50 000 in 2006-07 and increasing to $100 000 in outer years.
For the first time, flood forecasting, a critical function and service provided by the department, has received separate recognition as a specific output. As demonstrated during the recent flooding in the Roper, Katherine, Daly and Victoria Rivers systems, an important role of the department is to predict the threats caused by heavy rainfall and provide flood forecasting services to Police and Emergency Services. These forecasts are done in conjunction with the Bureau of Meteorology, and are dependent on the rainfall and river height recording stations located within the catchments, the transmission of captured data which enables forecasting by professional flood hydrologists of river heights at specified locations within each river system.
The Land and Water Division of the department will continue its role in assessing the water, land, soil and natural vegetation resources of the Northern Territory, and providing this information to community and industry stakeholders to facilitate sustainable and safe development.
This budget also includes $583 000 for the expansion of the Cabomba weed eradication program. Cabomba poses a major threat to the Darwin River waterway and surrounding tributaries. This government has recognised the importance of its eradication with the provision of this additional funding in 2006-07. The funding will go towards a sustained eradication program likely to involve heavy spraying of this underwater weed to ensure it does not spread to nearby rivers, such as the Blackmore, or to Manton and Darwin River Dams. This eradication program will include: continued application of herbicides to infected water bodies; provision of alternative water supplies to landholders currently drawing water from the infected areas; ongoing monitoring of water quality; and biodiversity impact. An extensive consultation process will commence immediately and major eradication works will commence in July.
This budget continues funding for the department to coordinate strategic fire mitigation, prevention and wildfire suppression across the Northern Territory. These efforts are in support of the activities of the Bushfires Council and regional committees, and the dedicated work of the members of our 21 Volunteer Bushfire Brigades. The activities of most landholders are targeted at protecting the values of their land from which they derive economic and social values. However, reductions in widespread bushfires also have benefit for biodiversity and in the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions.
An integral element of community engagement in natural resource management is the activities of the Landcare group and other organisations which are involved in managing our landscape. The department supports these groups by providing technical advice, assistance with ongoing programs, and administration and grant applications.
The new Environment Protection Agency program receives $4.486m, ensuring that effective advice is made available to government, industry and the community in relation to environmental protection issues ...
Mr Wood: Not the program in here.
Ms SCRYMGOUR: I can hear a cat calling, Madam Speaker, when I am trying to read.
Madam SPEAKER: Order!
Mr Wood: You should always kill cats, Madam Speaker, they are feral.
Madam SPEAKER: Order, member for Nelson!
Ms SCRYMGOUR: I am talking about feral animal control.
Mr Warren: Better watch out, member for Nelson.
Madam SPEAKER: Order, member for Goyder!
Ms SCRYMGOUR: The budget for 2006-07 sets the stage for the establishment of the Territory’s first ever Environment Protection Agency. At present, the creation of the EPA is in Stage 1 of a two-stage process, with the creation of a preferred EPA model well under way.
The Environment Protection Agency reflects the amalgamation of the environment protection, greenhouse and water monitoring functions into the new corporate entity. This broadens the scope and capacity of the unit and recognises the strong links between the Environment Protection Agency and aquatic health, including water monitoring in Darwin Harbour.
In this budget, $566 000 will be made available to the public, schools and community groups through the EnvironmeNT Grants Program, the largest environment grant program on offer by any Territory government. This grants program, introduced by the Martin government in 2004, has already provided almost $1m in funding to the community. The commitment of $566 000 towards the environment grants in 2006-07 will continue government’s assistance of the operation of non-government environment groups, and for community-based projects aimed at improving sustainability of local businesses and other community activities.
Additionally, this budget includes $120 000 for the establishment of a Rapid Creek environment hub for community groups, delivering on an election commitment. The environment hub, the first of its kind in the Territory, will see environment groups co-located in a one-stop environment shop in Darwin’s northern suburbs.
The government has also doubled funding for the Cool Communities program to $100 000, as the first stage of increased funding for this initiative. This will allow Cool Community groups in Darwin and Alice Springs to expand their work with householders, which is aimed at increasing sustainability and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. This initiative is on the back of a continued implementation of the Northern Territory Strategy for Greenhouse Action, which was launched earlier this year.
Heritage and Conservation, which enables the effective conservation of the Northern Territory’s heritage assets, will receive $2.48m. This will ensure the appropriate conservation and protection of the Territory’s unique heritage assets. From Budget 2006-07, the government will continue to work to improve heritage protection and conservation throughout the Northern Territory. This work includes continued funding of $1m for the Northern Territory Heritage 2010 package for repairs and maintenance of government-owned heritage properties throughout the Territory.
Ongoing annual heritage grants of $365 000 will assist private owners of heritage properties to conserve and promote these important assets, as well as providing $114 000 annually to the National Trust. We are working with the Commonwealth government to include Territory heritage sites such as the World War II sites and the Gurindji Wave Hill walk-off site on the National Heritage Register. The introduction of new heritage legislation aimed at modernising and strengthening heritage protection in the Northern Territory is a priority of this government.
A total of $13m has been allocated to provide funding in support of the scientific and cultural collections. This preserves and enables access to the Territory’s historic buildings and permanent museum and art gallery collections held by the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, the Museum of Central Australia, the Strehlow Research Centre, and the herbarium located at Palmerston. The combination of the Territory’s scientific and cultural collections under one output group recognises the important links between these areas. This budget provides funding for the Museum and Art galleries of the Northern Territory to ensure their public programs continue to maintain a high standard and provide opportunities to be informed, inspired and entertained.
Arts and screen industry support will receive $13m to provide support for the performing and visual arts, cinema and film industry for the benefit of local communities and visitors. This will create commercial, educational and recreational opportunities in arts, film and tourism. Provision of ongoing funding of $300 000 in capital grants annually for the Public Art strategy launched earlier this year is a key feature of this budget. This program will provide opportunities for partnerships and artists and community groups, local government and private developers.
The Territory’s unique arts and culture sector has grown and developed extensively over the past financial year. Budget 2006-07 continues the Martin government’s backing of the arts community including $4.8m for arts sponsorship for arts development across the Territory; a $250 000 grant for the film, new media and television industry; and $1.1m for the indigenous art strategy.
An increase of $50 000 to $250 000 for the Northern Territory Screen Grants Program is also incorporated in this budget. This program, managed by the Northern Territory Film Office, provides additional support to the screen industry enabling the industry to obtain funding to create documentaries, develop pilots and complete filming projects that otherwise may not have come to fruition.
Some of the examples of successful applicants who are using the money to capture our cultural history on film are Andrish Saint-Clair and Mike Sweet. They have received funding to create a documentary looking at the relationships between the Macassans and Yolngu. Darwin-based writers and directors, Danielle MacLean and Steven McGregor, are also receiving funding to develop a documentary about children and missionaries fleeing Croker Island during World War II.
Budget 2006-07 provides opportunities to showcase the cream of Territory arts at regional festivals, as well as in larger centres of Darwin and Alice Springs, through ongoing festival funding. More than $900 000 is allocated for remote and regional festivals and major festivals. The Walking With Spirits Festival at Beswick has been a recent recipient of this funding, receiving $45 000 over three years.
$1.5m has been set aside for major capital works. Nitmiluk National Park near Katherine will benefit from the upgrade of the crossover between the first and second gorges at a cost of $1m. Due to the increased visitation from The Ghan passengers, improvements in Nitmiluk National Park will include works to cater for the safety and comfort of older park visitors. Such works will include construction of a ramp and stairs to the art centre, safety rails, raising walking tracks and installing steps and bridges and improving Wet Season boat access.
The Mary River wetlands saltwater intrusion management program will receive funding to the tune of $0.5m. This will allow for the continued development of infrastructure which is designed to prevent further intrusion of seawater into the freshwater ecosystems of the Mary River. This program has rehabilitated thousands of hectares of wetland. It is also recognised as the Northern Territory government’s contribution to the Australian government’s National Water Initiative and attracts a matching investment of $0.5m from the Australian government.
The 2006-07 budget’s major capital grants program provides $300 000 in funding to the department for the implementation of the Northern Territory’s first ever public arts strategy. This project will create partnerships between artists and community groups, local government and private developers. The funding will allow Territory artists to create public art in our expanding cities and towns which all Territorians and visitors can experience and enjoy.
In summary, the 2006-07 budget provides the Department of Natural Resources, Environment and the Arts the opportunity to protect and conserve our natural cultural assets. The creation of this Department of Natural Resources, Environment and the Arts recognises for the first time the important link between our natural environment, our cultural history, and our artistic and creative development. These links are epitomised by the way artists have responded to the unique landscape of the Territory. The current exhibition of Territory landscapes of national and international significance, The Sound of the Sky at the Museum and Art Gallery at Bullock Point, demonstrates this link.
Of the total $122m of the department’s budgeted expenditure, output appropriation provides $96m, with around $15m being raised independently by this department. This reflects the department’s capacity to leverage funding for grant programs from other sources, primarily in the natural resources and scientific and cultural collections output groups - a capacity that has been strengthened by bringing these functions together in a new agency.
As well as NRETA, I also have the portfolio responsibility of Women’s Policy, Senior Territorians and Young Territorians. I will make brief mention of the budget in relation to these areas of the Department of the Chief Minister for which the output group is Community Engagement. I am pleased that this budget includes output funding of $1.03m to continue the advancement of women in our community. This includes continuation of the highly-successful women’s forums held in conjunction with Community Cabinet, where government gets the chance to hear firsthand about the issues that concern women in all communities across the Territory. It also includes funding for the Chief Minister’s Study Awards for Women and, more importantly, continues to support education campaigns for the elimination of violence against women. The $805 000 funding for seniors advancements supports all the activities of Seniors Month in August, which includes a grants program. Government also continues its commitment to the Seniors Card which supports NT businesses and is a valuable service for senior Territorians and seniors visiting from interstate.
Last, but more importantly, youth advancement. The total funding of $899 000 supports a number of programs including sponsorship of the STS Leeuwin II which gives 80 young Territorians the opportunity to undertake a voyage and experience the adventure and thrill of sailing the open seas whilst developing leadership and team skills. This funding also supports the Round Table of Young Territorians which allows our youth to have input into government policies and decision-making. The government also funds the Northern Territory’s National Youth Week, the single largest event in Australia’s youth calendar, which celebrates our diverse youth culture by holding over 100 events across the Territory.
Madam Speaker, I am pleased to support the Treasurer’s 2006-07 budget.
Debate suspended.
LEAVE OF ABSENCE
Member for Daly
Member for Daly
Mr HENDERSON (Leader of Government Business): Madam Speaker, I move that leave of absence for the remainder of this day be granted to the member for Daly who is attending a funeral in his electorate.
Motion agreed to.
APPROPRIATION BILL 2006-07
(Serial 50)
(Serial 50)
Continued from earlier this day.
Mr McADAM (Local Government): Madam Speaker, this budget certainly builds the Territory’s future. It is a budget of opportunity which offers Territorians the chance to take advantage of opportunities never so apparent in our history before. It is a budget of job creation and for continued growth of our economic base. It is a budget delivered within the sound and sustainable physical parameters, always a priority for this Treasurer. The Martin government has made huge strides in advancing the wellbeing of Territorians across the board over the last five years and, while recognising the considerable challenges we face, has positioned the Territory to take maximum advantage of the opportunities for the future. I am immensely proud to be part of a government that is prepared to put in the hard work required to advance the interest of all Territorians wherever they live and whatever their social and economic circumstances.
The budget process is inherently hard. It involves hard decisions, and a sense of where the real priorities lie. I wish to thank my colleagues, particularly the Treasurer, for the collegiate process that has allowed this document to be presented to us. It is, in my view, a very fair, forward-thinking and visionary document. It positions the Territory for the future.
In relation to my own portfolio responsibilities, the budget provides a firm basis to consolidate substantial progress made over the last five years. It provides for a total expenditure of some $285m across the portfolio - and I include in that the sport and recreation responsibilities of my colleague, the Minister for Sport and Recreation.
More importantly, the budget reflects the progress to date of a number of substantial policy initiatives in the areas of remote community development and housing which will lay the groundwork for substantial improvements in coordination and service delivery between the Northern Territory government and the Australian government. While the figures in the budget papers relating to these initiatives are considerable, the real significance lies in the underlying changes they represent and the way in which these changes position both governments, particularly the Territory, to ensure services are delivered effectively and efficiently for all Territorians.
The budget paper identifies 18 strategic issues facing my department and Territory Housing in 2006-07. Each and every one of these issues will be the subject of sustained policy focus, and encompass appropriate resource allocation both within the agency and, importantly, in service delivery to the community over the coming financial year. I take the opportunity today to briefly outline the progress made to date and the major initiatives envisaged for the future across the key functional responsibilities of my portfolio.
The 2006-07 Territory budget will provide the platform to allow my agency to successfully address the challenges we face and take advantage of the opportunities to build on the progress we have already made in recent years. I will begin with the Community Harmony program. There is little doubt that antisocial behaviour will continue to challenge the Territory community for a considerable time into the future. We will continue to fund the Community Harmony program to address wellbeing, social behaviour issues and crisis accommodation in major centres across the Territory.
Since the establishment of the Community Harmony strategy in 2003, this portfolio has spent around $5m on programs, creating pathways for itinerants. Additionally, there has been significant investment in infrastructure provision and there is significant mainstream funding for alcohol-related services within the Department of Health and Community Services. My department will continue to focus on the program management of intervention and prevention strategies, and providing ongoing input into the policy direction of the strategy. The budget allocates over $2m in 2006-07 to provide intervention and prevention strategies that lead to pathways out of some of our unacceptable lifestyles. These include opportunities and pathways for those who are leading personally destructive lifestyles in major urban centres to return to their home communities. The Information Referral Office established in Darwin and Katherine is a crucial component of the Community Harmony strategy. The Information Referral Office administers a number of core services to homeless and itinerant clients.
The primary service is the Return to Home program, a user pays service whereby people must pay the debt before accessing the service again. Return to Home clients are permitted four trips per year and the Information Referral Office deducts payments for the cost of travel from the person’s Centrelink or CDP payments. In Darwin, the Larrakia Nation Aboriginal Corporation administers Return to Home service and, since October last year, has facilitated and processed 871 trips to locations, obviously, mainly in the Northern Territory. The main locations are such places as Port Keats, Bathurst, Maningrida, Galiwinku, Milingimbi, even Alice Springs and other places such as Goulburn Island and Milikapiti.
The Darwin Information Referral Office also refers clients to crisis accommodation services. The current Community Harmony crisis accommodation provider is the Aboriginal Development Foundation at Knuckey Lagoon and Darwin Christian Outreach Centre at Crerar Road, Berrimah. Knuckey Lagoon has a capacity for 70 people per night, while the Darwin Christian Outreach Centre has an 18 bed capacity. Clients wanting to stay for longer periods are referred to the Information Referral Office, which will refer them on to the Larrakia Intervention and Transport Service for ongoing accommodation case management. As well as a transport service, Larrakia also provides an intensive intervention service and a mobile information and referral service. Special events, such as major concerts or sporting fixtures, also receive dedicated attention. Where appropriate, the Larrakia Intervention and Transport Services refers Community Harmony clients – families only - to the Council for Aboriginal and Alcohol Program Services to access treatment programs such as assessments, withdrawal treatment, plus reintegration.
The Community Housing strategy has developed over the last five years into a comprehensive whole-of-government strategy which works hand-in-glove with key community groups and non-government agencies to address one of the most difficult issues facing the Territory community. The government continues to focus on improving the mix and focus of services provided under the strategy. While the challenges are substantial, so too has been the progress achieved.
There is a program operating in Cairns which is very similar to our Community Harmony strategy or intervention-type program in Darwin. It remains a challenge for government, NGOs and other agencies in the Northern Territory to look beyond our own borders and, perhaps, come up with options which might more accurately reflect some of the issues and problems we face as a community. To that effect, I hope to go to Cairns next week - and I will be inviting other people as well - purely as an exercise in asking how far we have come, what we can learn and, if necessary, put in place, in consultation with all stakeholders and community groups, strategies that might give some better outcomes.
I now refer to governance. The 2006-07 budget includes an appropriation in excess of $52m for local governance and community development across the Northern Territory. These funds support the 63 local governing bodies across the Territory to provide local government services and programs. I remind members that 55 of these local governing bodies are indigenous and range in size from about 150 people to nearly 3000 in one community.
As my predecessor pointed out to this Assembly, while the Territory’s municipal councils are effective and play a strong role in local community affairs, sadly, some community councils are much more precarious. Many are assessed as being at high risk of organisational failure and, at any time, a small number are dysfunctional and potentially insolvent.
Policy framework for the last few years is set out in the Stronger Regions Stronger Futures policy, which focuses on strengthening and expanding the capacity of local governance, especially in towns in our remote regions. The aim has been to provide legitimate representation, effective governance, improved service delivery and sustainable development across the whole Territory.
The last year has seen the bedding down of a number of new regional authorities. Extensive work has been undertaken by councils across the Territory to develop business cases to assess the benefits of further amalgamations and the establishment of regional authorities. There have also been a number of instances where councils were faced with financial difficulties, emanating in no measure from the smaller scale and appropriate incorporation arrangements for many local governing bodies.
I have formed the view that it is time to reassess the Stronger Regions Stronger Futures policy framework and ensure that all Territorians have access to effective local government services. I will shortly be announcing the terms of reference and membership of a review of the Local Government Act, and expect to see the development of a more focused policy framework for local government over the course of the coming financial year. I am also working closely with the Australian government in the implementation of a schedule to the overarching agreement on indigenous affairs signed between the Prime Minister and the Chief Minister just over a year ago. The schedule deals with the implementation of a Stronger Region Stronger Futures strategy and provides for the employment of development coordinators to be located in regional locations to better support local initiatives and, of course, local community government councils.
Seven development coordinators have recently been appointed at East Arnhem, Central Australia, Thamarrurr, Borroloola - my understanding is that Borroloola’s is not yet appointed but is expected to be - Victoria River, Nyirranggulung and the Tiwi Islands regions to assist in government’s capacity development and facilitating the regional local government initiatives. The development coordinators work with all levels of government, peak indigenous and business organisations to ensure that support and funding is targeted to community driven governance and development projects, and that government activities at all levels are better coordinated.
The quality of life in remote communities rests in no small measure on the effectiveness of local government and the services that local government councils provide. This coming financial year will be a watershed year, as we need to review legislative framework and fine-tune the policy framework for local government in the Northern Territory. Clearly, we hope to continue to do this in conjunction with the Australian government, and will look favourably on the use of regional partnership agreements which are increasingly favoured by the Australian government for addressing remote communities’ needs.
I recently participated in a ceremony to sign the intergovernmental agreement establishing principles guiding intergovernmental relations on local government matters. The agreement was signed by the Australian government, the states and territories, and the Australian Local Government Association. The agreement provides a series of guiding principles which apply to taking on new or revised functions by local government, and give added financial security to local government in terms of the ongoing relations between the two levels of government. In this context, I thank the Local Government Association of the Northern Territory for its constructive and positive engagement on this and other issues in the Northern Territory over the past year. I look forward to a similar level of engagement over the coming year.
I thank those individual community government councils which work in very tiring, stressful circumstances on occasion. Many of them are under-resourced. Nonetheless, they continue to try as hard as they can. They continue to look after members of their community, and it is important that we acknowledge what they do. We would all be aware that, over a period of time, indigenous community government councils out bush and, indeed, some of those based around the larger regional centres, have come in for a fair hammering. I do not mind admitting that, in certain circumstances and cases, they probably deserved it. However, we should also acknowledge that there is a vast majority of very dedicated indigenous people who have taken the time to serve their community and to interact between both levels of government. Accordingly, I say a big thank you and pay tribute to all of those people who take on a task which, quite frankly would not be the expectation if they lived in Tennant Creek, Darwin, Alice Springs or Katherine. I thank them for their outstanding efforts.
I should also refer to the Water Safety Awareness program. This budget provides $2.5m for water safety and animal welfare. A key component of the Water Safety Unit’s functions relates to the administration of the Swimming Pool Safety Act. Since the act came into force in January 2003, the unit has undertaken over 9000 pool inspections across all major centres in the Territory. There have been over 4000 grants processed with a value in excess of $5.7m. In June 2002, the Chief Minister introduced the five-point water safety plan to help curb the Northern Territory’s high rate of drowning. Included in the five-point water safety plan was a Water Safety Awareness program for children aged from six months to five years of age. The program entitles parents of children aged six months to five years of age to five water safety sessions including one resuscitation session and four practical water awareness sessions. Over 2900 children have completed all elements of the program. Since its introduction, the Water Safety Awareness program has received many accolades, including being national best practise by the Australian Water and Safety Council. This, together with the pool fencing legislation and increased water safety education, has led to the Northern Territory recording no deaths by drowning of a child less than five years old within the past three years.
I am pleased to report that a further $155 000 will be committed in 2006-07 to continue the Water Safety Awareness program for children aged six months to five years across the Territory. Further, the program’s structure will be modified slightly from July this year to ensure the attendance of parents or carers to the emergency care session of the program. This session informs parents and carers of their role following an accident. By ensuring that all parents - even those currently holding a resuscitation certificate - are involved, it is hoped that in the event of a water-related accident of a child or, indeed an adult, their lives may be saved.
I thank Natasha Fyles for her outstanding effort heading that particular program. I know she has been very active in lobbying for extra support. There is an important component which Natasha and her council undertakes and which serves as a way forward when, on occasions, the dollars get a bit tight as they do from time to time. I know Natasha has been very active in talking to the private sector trying to secure extra dollars to supplement their program. I understand that Airnorth has been able to provide airfares for those people who wish to visit, in particular, the indigenous communities in the Top End. I thank Natasha Fyles for her inspirational leadership, and Airnorth and all of those other companies which have chosen to sponsor, or donate dollars, or their time. It is a very worthy program.
Madam Speaker, I now turn to something dear to you: library services. I know that we have met on numerous occasions regarding some of the issues. You would be aware that the Northern Territory Library is responsible for a centralised public library model which facilitates resources sharing, minimisation of duplication, coordination of collection and professional development, maintenance of industry standards, and equitable access to resources for public libraries across the Territory. Total appropriation for 2006-07 is budgeted at $11.9m. The Public Library Agreement 2005-08, provides operational funding to municipal and community councils, including two corporation-run library services - in Alyangula managed by GEMCO, and Yulara managed by Ayers Rock Resort. Grant funding of $3.2m will continue to be provided in 2006-07 for public library services administered by local government across the Territory. In addition to the operational funding, the Territory government meets the property rental cost for Katherine, Karama, Nightcliff and Jabiru public libraries, and operates both the Taminmin and Nhulunbuy community libraries which are both joint use libraries located in the local high schools.
Through the centralised model, NT Library manages the public library network technical services, cataloguing, and data warehouse and data analysis to ensure national standards are met. Local government councils, through their public libraries, are responsible for the day-to-day delivery of library services in their respective communities. I acknowledge all those people who put in a wonderful effort in the NT libraries. I know that they, too, are looking at some other innovative ways of trying to attract investment from the public sector. You would be aware that the NT libraries and government have spoken to the Darwin City Council and we are looking at ways forward in how we can provide better library services, not only to those communities in the regional centres, but those communities out bush.
Most people would be aware of the knowledge learning centres which exist in some communities. They are something that this government can be very proud of because, as you have the opportunity to travel around some of the communities, you have occasion to visit those places. Almost without exception, they are very well used. You see many young and old people using the facilities. In some cases, I know they are looking at ways and means, through the Internet - I am not an expert - to be able to record their history. It is new technology and something which is very applicable and appropriate for those communities out bush. It is something which we, as a government, should continue to support because the opportunities out there are limitless in what we can do with libraries.
I now go to the Aboriginal Interpreter Service. The Aboriginal Interpreter Service provides a crucial service to thousands of indigenous Territorians who do not speak English as their first language. The budget allocates $1.6m to fund the employment of some 180 registered interpreters who provide interpreting in 104 languages and dialects across the Territory. The interpreter service is a crucial contributor to improve outcomes in the health and justice sectors for indigenous Territorians. I made a statement about this in the House earlier, and the important role they perform in the community was readily acknowledged and accepted by both sides of this House. I thank all of those people who choose to do this, because it is a critical interaction and linkage between indigenous and non-indigenous service providers. We have mentioned health and the courts, but there are a whole host of other things that occur. Sometimes, we underestimate the role they play. To the Interpreter Service Unit in my department, I thank you for your outstanding contribution.
The other issue I wanted to speak about is indigenous housing. You will be aware my department is responsible for the provision of funding, administrative support and policy advice for the Indigenous Housing program. The construction is managed by the Department of Planning and Infrastructure. Following the abolition of ATSIC by the Australian government, it became necessary to restructure the composition of the Indigenous Housing Authority of the NT, known as IHANT, a non-statutory body which included ATSIC regional council chairs from throughout the Territory. Following extensive negotiations with the Australian government, both governments signed a bilateral Indigenous Housing Infrastructure Agreement in December 2005. Under the agreement, the IHANT Board was restructured and the Northern Territory will deliver a fully-integrated indigenous housing program for the 2006-07 year, also assuming responsibility for the delivery of a $22m NAHS Indigenous Housing program in addition to the NT delivered program.
The significance of this program merger should not be underestimated. For the first time ever, communities will not have to deal with the requirements of two separate funding agencies in relation to indigenous housing, and coordination issues will be automatically addressed. Moreover, the scale of the new program, combined with the decision to manage all construction within DPI, will lead to more cost-effective procurement and construction, better integrated planning and, ultimately, provide the basis for more sustainable local building teams to emerge.
Taken together, these changes amount to the most substantial reform of indigenous housing delivery in the Northern Territory over the past two decades. The new IHANT Board, which is the key advisory mechanism for both governments relating to indigenous housing, met for the first time in my home town of Tennant Creek in February this year. Michael Berto is the chair, and Pat Brahim is the deputy chair. The board includes Tony Jack, Ursula Raymond and William Tilmouth, thus ensuring representation from all parts of the Territory.
The total budget allocation in 2006-07 for indigenous housing is $64m, of which $41.7m is for major indigenous housing capital grants. Funds are also allocated to the management, repairs and maintenance of indigenous community housing dwellings and a number of living skills programs. Yesterday, I was very pleased to announce the increase of the repairs and maintenance component from $1700 to $2500.
At its first meeting, the IHANT Board recommended, amongst other things, that the government consider giving greater priority to upgrades and maintenance of existing community housing assets. Given the high levels of overcrowding and the huge shortage of housing in remote communities, it is imperative that we make the most effective use of the existing housing asset base in those communities, and I refer to that increase of $1700 to $2500.
I am concerned at the increasing cost of construction of housing in remote communities. I have asked my department, in conjunction with the IHANT Board, to convene a workshop within the next few months with key industry stakeholders to examine a wide range of issues associated with the design, procurement and construction of remote housing. I have also engaged in discussions with the Australian government over these issues. I give them credit as it is fair to say they are also very concerned about these issues. The member for Nelson asked about indigenous housing. I invite the member for Nelson to that workshop. Come along, have a listen and, if you have constructive things to say, I am sure they will be taken on board. That also applies to the member for Greatorex.
Mr BONSON: Madam Speaker, I move that the minister be granted an extension of time pursuant to Standing Order 77.
Motion agreed to.
Mr McADAM: I outlined recently in a major speech to this Assembly the outstanding housing shortfall facing indigenous Territorians, and the steps that we have been taking over the past few years to encourage the Australian government to allocate increased resources to these issues. It is gratifying to note that the new federal Minister for Family, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs, Mr Mal Brough, is aware of the huge issues we are facing. He visited the Territory a few months ago, and was here again this week. We have had intensive discussions with him over a range of issues, many of which involved indigenous housing. We look forward to a very cooperative approach between ourselves and the Commonwealth government in addressing these matters.
Publicly-funded housing has continued to be an integral component of the Territory social and economic fabric since World War II. Territory Housing is one of the Territory’s major government business divisions. Its core business is to provide access to safe, secure and affordable housing to Territorians who meet the eligibility criteria as set by this government. The range of housing options supported by Territory Housing includes public housing stock of nearly 6000 dwellings, community housing, private rental housing, through bond assistance, government employee housing, and home ownership.
Under this government, substantial work has been undertaken to ensure that Territory Housing operates on quasi-commercial lines and to clarify the contributions of each of its business lines to its financial performance. This work has seen its financial performance improve considerably against budget over each of the last four financial years. Importantly, this has been achieved without reducing services or impacting on the delivery of the government’s important housing objectives. This trend is expected to continue for 2005-06 and 2006-07.
The 2006-07 budget provides for a $29.9m contribution to the GBD for my department comprising a $14.2m transfer appropriation resourced from the Commonwealth/State Housing Agreement and a $15.7m community service obligation payment for the purchase of housing and related services. As well, Territory Housing raised its own revenue through the charging of rebated rents totalling some $41m, and $13.7m in interest received on loans provided through the successful HomeNorth Extra schemes. Total revenues are budgeted at $87.7m.
Expenses continue to be budgeted at $100m in the coming financial year, on par with this current year. It is no secret that expenditure on public housing in the Northern Territory is comparatively high compared to the national average. Our high costs are partially attributed to poor economies of scale in small jurisdictions and the high demands on budget to deliver services across a larger geographic area, but also the reality of providing services to indigenous people with high needs. With one-third of Territory Housing clients being indigenous, it is estimated that approximately 45% of 2006-07 mainstream public expenditure will be applied to the continuing support of indigenous tenants to access and remain in public housing, and the provision of services to indigenous communities through government employee housing.
Antisocial behaviour continues to be a major challenge for the Territory community. Territory Housing will increase its focus on tackling antisocial behaviour. It is estimated that in excess of $4m will be spent on reducing antisocial behaviour and supporting successful tenancies in and around public housing. Security patrols have increased and will continue to target hot spots. Acceptable behaviour agreements will be introduced in line with government’s antisocial behaviour policy imperatives. Funding will be provided to support organisations to support indigenous clients and provide them with life skills to maintain their tenancies. Indigenous client liaison officers work closely with indigenous clients to maintain their tenancies.
The Territory’s building industry will receive valuable support from Territory Housing’s infrastructure and repairs and maintenance programs for public housing and government employee housing. Over $44m worth of work will directly boost the sector through the Territory’s Housing infrastructure program.
Budget highlights for the coming financial year in Territory Housing include the following initiatives: approximately $22.5m is allocated to repairs and maintenance and minor new works for general public housing and government employee housing; a further $2m is dedicated to the continuation of renovation projects to address amenity of public housing stock to meet housing provision standards and improve neighbourhood appeal; $7m is directed to new construction, to replace and upgrade government employee housing across the Territory; and $2m will be used to redevelop older style public housing unit complexes in Darwin and Tennant Creek - the redevelopment will focus on improving amenity levels and addressing security and antisocial behaviour issues.
In addition, it is expected that approximately $2.5m will be spent constructing homes under HomeNorth Extra. The government has significantly increased its support for home ownership in the Northern Territory with an additional $80m allocated to HomeNorth Extra loans schemes. Demands for loans over the revised scheme have exceeded expectations with more than 940 Territory households benefiting from the revamped scheme since July 2004 and a total of $140m in loans funded and approved in principle. Across all regions, 32% of new loans were provided to Palmerston residents, 23% to Alice Springs, 24% to the northern suburbs of Darwin, 9% to Darwin, 6% to Katherine, 4% to rural areas, and 2% to Tennant Creek residents.
Approximately 82% of funded loans were provided to first home buyers including $5.3m in new unit and housing construction. This is an extraordinary result, with 47% of people taking up the HomeNorth Extra loans being single females and 32% single males. Further, of the loans funded to date, 25% of clients are less than 25 years old and 38% less than 35 years old, demonstrating our success in targeting younger Territorians to make long-term commitments to the place where they have grown up.
Today’s budget lays down another milestone in the Martin government’s effort to develop the Territory for the benefit of all Territorians. The funds allocated in the budget represent a tangible step forward in their own right but, importantly, they are based on sound policy frameworks, a commitment to work with the Australian government and local governments across the Territory, and a commitment to engage with Territorians at all levels. These are steps in the right direction.
Budget 2006-07 in my agency has a dual focus. First, it is focused on needs and challenges in Community Harmony, housing and governance. It allocates available resources, wherever possible, to meet community needs. Second, an equally important focus is on the opportunities available to leverage benefit by working with other levels of government; to revise and improve current policy to ensure better service delivery and better meet the aspirations of the Territory community - be they in relation to the Labor government’s water safety or public housing; and to lay the foundation for a safer and secure future for Territorians. That is a true measure of success of public policy. I am confident that today’s budget does this.
The last issue is the protection of sacred sites; clearly, a very important function of my department. Their primary function is to protect sacred sites and provide information on the location and protection measures for sites to developers and landowners. The variation in the Aboriginal Areas Protection Authority applications can be attributed to a one-off increase in 2005-06 to progress the repatriation of indigenous human skeletal remains and work to enhance the authority’s records. I note that the authority is receiving an increased number of complicated authority certificate applications. The research of some of these is made more difficult by the loss of information on sacred sites due to the passing of senior Aboriginal custodians and the resultant need to undertake more extensive consultation and research. I thank all the people in that department who work so hard.
In conclusion, Madam Speaker, I thank everyone associated with the development of this budget, particularly officers of my department who have worked so hard. It is not an easy task. I recognise and acknowledge the hard work that they put in to reach this budget. I thank Treasury, Jennifer Prince, and those people who contributed so much. It is perhaps summed up by saying: what a ‘Stirling’ effort by all!
Mr KIELY (Sanderson): Madam Speaker, I thank the Treasurer and the Martin government on behalf of the electorate of Sanderson for developing a budget that is good for families, seniors, young Territorians, job seekers, and those in employment and business.
Budget 2006-07 delivers jobs, growth and, overall, a stronger Territory. Budget 2006-07 focuses on the Martin government’s priorities for supporting business, improving educational outcomes, building a healthier Territory, providing a safer community for all Territorians, and enhancing our great Territory lifestyle. In short, this budget makes the Territory a better place to live for Territorians across the board. This budget, as with the previous Martin government’s budgets, is building a better future for the Territory. We are further reducing taxes, providing high levels of infrastructure spending, investing in strategic economic drivers, and implementing a strong social development program. The Martin government has delivered a fantastic budget for the Territory and it has done so while staying within sound and sustainable fiscal parameters.
The Martin government is building the future of the Territory through investment and infrastructure; spending on infrastructure such as roads, housing, and power. The Darwin waterfront and convention centre ensures that the Territory stays ahead of the game. $482m has been allocated to be spent on capital works, minor new works and repairs and maintenance in Budget 2006-07, with an additional $100m being spent on the Darwin waterfront and convention centre. This spending on infrastructure will provide around 5200 jobs directly, with thousands more in flow-on effect in retail and associated industries.
Within this infrastructure spending, $134.9m will be spent on Territory roads and national highways. They are almost too numerous to mention, but one area that springs to the fore is the $700 000 allocated to the Black Spot program to improve safety on Territory roads, with the aim of reducing the road toll. $6.1m has been allocated for local Roads to Recovery funding, meaning better, safer and more reliable roads for the use of all Territorians. The mums and dads in Sanderson will be pleased to hear this and can be confident that the road will be safer for them and their families. $4.5m is allocated for the Litchfield loop road, providing better access for locals and tourists alike to one of the Top End’s most popular attractions. More than $35m is being spent on various highways, providing locals, tourists and industry better access to all parts of the Territory.
Nearly $16m has been allocated in Budget 2006-07 for housing, with $4m for new or replacement government housing and $6.7m for minor new works for housing. The provision of this funding means that affordable housing will continue to be available for Territorians who need it, and that this housing will be of a high standard.
In Budget 2006-07, the Power and Water Corporation will invest $87.1m in capital works and $39.8m in repairs and maintenance. This investment will improve the reliability of the electricity supply and is a step towards the aim of increasing capacity. This allocation is $25m for new power generation capacity in Darwin. There is also funding for continuing the undergrounding power lines project so that more Territorians can enjoy the benefits of underground power, like my constituents in Sanderson.
It has been a while since the CLP last had the chance to introduce a budget, and you can see that from the alternative budget they tried to put forward the other day. I really wonder how they would have managed to fit in the $1.3bn for the power line proposal they took to the electorate last year. What a farce that was and it really went to the heart of their credibility as good budgeting people. They might have had to scrap the Darwin convention centre, and we know what they said about that.
The waterfront development is a project that will receive $100m in the 2006-07 financial year; provide jobs in the Territory for 15 years, and inject $1.1bn into the Territory economy. This project is a great initiative of the Martin government, and will broaden our tourism market and provide a great new resource for local residents. The strong infrastructure budget in 2006-07 is an investment in the Territory’s future, and will provide jobs in the short term with long-lasting flow-on effects for local businesses and the Territory economy as a whole.
This budget is also building on the Territory’s future by supporting business. With Budget 2006-07, the Martin government continues to support Territory business with tax cuts, strategic investment and targeted support for businesses. With this budget, the Martin government’s tax cuts since 2001 will come to $74m and, during this term of office, a further $134m will be cut. Territory businesses will feel the immediate benefits of these tax cuts, with the threshold for payroll tax again being lifted. From 1 July 2006, the threshold will be lifted to $1.25m, more than double the $600 000 threshold in 2001. The increase this year will mean that 58 more small Territory businesses will not be paying payroll tax this year. That is 58 Territory businesses benefiting directly from the government’s tax cuts, joining the more than 120 businesses to have already dropped below the payroll tax threshold since 2001.
Another way the Martin government is supporting business is through providing training for Territorians and building the skills base. This year, the Territory government will spend $84m supporting training and employment programs. This includes $37m for Charles Darwin University, helping young Territorians remain in the Territory while getting their education, expanding their skills base across the Territory. A further $500 000 has been allocated for Build Skills NT, a program aimed at helping existing workers upgrade their skills.
Budget 2006-07 provides $160 000 for supporting scholarships and vocational training and, in the 2006-07 year, more than 2500 trainees and apprentices will commence training. This is, indeed, welcome news to the families of Sanderson whose children are reaching workforce age. It allows young people to stay in the Territory and, along with the pathways mentorship programs, helps with the sometimes difficult transition from school to work.
The government is giving small business a break with tax cuts and ensuring that the Territory has skilled workers to drive these businesses by supporting education, training and employment programs. Through these initiatives, Budget 2006-07 is building a better future for business in the Territory.
A further step in building a stronger future for the Territory is improving education outcomes. Improving student results is, and always has been, an important priority of the Martin government. This result for student outcomes in improved literacy and numeracy is shown in Budget 2006-07 with a record $630.7m for the Employment, Education and Training budget. This figure is up 33% on 2001. The government’s Building Better Schools initiative is funded this year to the tune of $12.45m, including $155 000 for the pathways mentorship program, helping young Territorians to make the transition from school to work. $67.5m has been allocated in Budget 2006-07 for the education infrastructure program, including $20m for repairs and maintenance across all schools and, with the final decision on middle schools yet to be made, $10m has been set aside for any school building works needed.
Budget 2006-07 is continuing its policy of strong support for teachers in our schools and is providing $8.14m for ongoing support for employing 100 extra teachers above formula.
The Martin government provided a $50 payment for school uniforms, school materials and other school essentials to parents for every student returning to school at the start of 2006. This will be paid again at the start of 2007 school year, and almost $2m has been set aside in Budget 2006-07 for this payment to be made.
This is a good, solid budget for education. It is a budget which will ensure that children in the Territory will get a good start, with a good education and the opportunities in later life that this affords them. I am proud to be a member of a government that is providing these opportunities. I am certain that with these initiatives we are building a better future for the Territory.
A healthier Territory means a better future for the Territory. Budget 2006-07 sees Health and Community Services receive $788.6m - a record budget. This is an increase of 64% since the Martin government was elected in 2001. This spending on health is a boost for all Territorians.
Budget 2006-07 is providing a strong future for Territory hospitals. Budget 2006-07 allocates the Royal Darwin Hospital $196m. This figure is up 75% since 2001. The Alice Springs Hospital will receive $97m, up 79% since 2001; $10m will go to Tennant Creek Hospital, up 57% since 2001; $23m for Katherine Hospital, up 66% since 2001; and $71m for Gove District Hospital, up 54% since 2001.
We have all heard the opposition knock the health system time and time again. However, it is pretty clear from these figures that they did not give it much importance when they were in power. Budget 2006-07 sees a significant investment in the health of Territorians. I am proud of this budget which provides good support for the community and for families, more money for hospitals, and more money for families when they get sick. I am sure this is a comfort to the people of Sanderson, knowing that they have a government which is actually putting money into the health system.
In the 2005 election, we promised to extend pensioner concessions to people who receive the Commonwealth Carer’s Allowance with a carer’s card. Budget 2006-07 delivers on this promise, with $1.05m being provided. $3.6m is being provided to subsidise childcare, making it more affordable for families. $500 000 is being provided for playground equipment for community-based childcare centres, and $450 000 is being allocated to help people with age-related and disability issues to return home. This spending on health and community services is great news for families in Sanderson, and across the Territory.
As I mentioned before, we constantly hear the opposition rattling on about health, but they were never prepared to give it the resources needed. This is a record budget - $788.6m. This is an increase of 64% since 2001 - an increase of 64% on what the opposition was prepared to spend on the health and wellbeing of Territorians. They love to talk about it; but we are getting in there and taking the initiative, allocating the funding and making the changes.
Another area about which we hear a lot from the opposition is community safety. This is an area of which I am very proud. Since 2001, the Martin government has been building a safer community for Territorians. We have been improving police numbers and resources, implementing crime prevention programs, and tackling antisocial behaviour. This is another area of the budget with record spending.
Budget 2006-07 delivers $212m for Police, Fire and Emergency Services; an increase of 55% since 2001. Seventeen thousand additional patrol hours will result from increases in the budget this year. The strength of the police force will increase to 1130 by the end of the year, and 34 extra police will be in place. Since beginning its upgrading program, the Martin government will have put an additional 200 police on the beat at the end of this financial year.
The Martin government has also provided improved living and working conditions for police, and has established dedicated Traffic Branches in Darwin and Alice Springs. This strengthened and better-resourced police force is complemented in Budget 2006-07 with support for community groups, with $400 000 in crime prevention grants and $110 000 for Neighbourhood Watch. That is good news for Neighbourhood Watch in Sanderson, which is probably the most active in all of the Territory. They are meeting tonight in the Sanderson office. If you want to see a really proactive Neighbourhood Watch, I suggest you get there.
In this budget, there is a strong emphasis on tackling antisocial behaviour. This includes: $1.76m for juvenile diversionary program grant funding; $1.069m for the Office of Alcohol Policy and Coordination to implement whole-of-government policies relating to alcohol abuse, including $275 000 to implement local area alcohol management plans; $630 000 for community patrol services in Darwin; $560 000 providing new treatment places for people who are subject to an alcohol intervention order or a prohibition order from an alcohol court; and $200 000 to establish the alcohol court.
Budget 2006-07 delivers for Territorians on the issue of community safety. I am happy to say it delivers my constituents in Sanderson with more than $134m allocated to support the Darwin region to allow Territorians to enjoy our great Territory lifestyle. This fantastic budget is further investing in the future of all Territorians by building on and enhancing our great lifestyle. Budget 2006-07 invests in the future of sport, fishing, the arts, culture, and entertainment. It protects our lifestyle for today and into the future.
I like my fishing and, although perhaps not as passionate as the member for Karama, I agree that it is the lure of the Territory. Budget 2006-07 is supporting the future of fishing in the Territory, funding for resource protection and research. The government is spending over $1m over three years to buy back fishing licences; $161 000 for the continuation of the world-leading Genetag project; $0.96m will be spent on monitoring the mud crab fishery as part of the mud crab fishery management plan; we are developing a strategic harvest framework for the Territory’s major fisheries; and $500 000 will be available for more fishing infrastructure.
Territorians and visitors alike will benefit from the government’s support for parks across the Territory. Budget 2006-07 is supporting 145 rangers and 37 support staff with $27.4m, and providing $5.9m for the Territory Wildlife Park.
Budget 2006-07 continues the Territory government’s push to bring world-class major events to the Territory. In 2006-07, the government will support international cricket at Marrara from July 2006; high-quality AFL matches including an August 2006 fixture between the Western Bulldogs and Port Adelaide, as well as an Aboriginal All Stars match early in 2007; a national basketball league match in 2007; around $2.3m for the Arafura Games in May 2007; and $1.05m for V8 Supercars from June 2006.
Quite a number of these events are in the Sanderson electorate at Marrara. While I would like to lay claim for the Marrara Sporting Complex, it is a true Territory asset. It is a credit to this Sports minister, and Sports ministers before her. It is also a credit to the minister for Infrastructure. In fact, it is a credit to the whole government. I give credit to the previous government for their foresight for putting in place the infrastructure. However, the difference with this government is that we are building it up. We cannot forget the $5m, I believe it was, we had to put into the Marrara Stadium to get that up to scratch. We have put a lot of money into Marrara since we have been in government, but it is bringing back a dividend. It is not wasted money; it is targeted, well-focused and is bringing in a dividend to the people of the Territory. It is also something from which we derive a great benefit in our lifestyle choices. I commend the government for their focus on bringing major events to the Territory.
This government has developed a budget that ensures Territorians will continue to enjoy a unique lifestyle into the future. I thank the Treasurer - arguably the best Treasurer the Territory has ever had …
Mr Wood: We can argue about it.
Mr KIELY: We can argue about it, member for Nelson. I will pick up that interjection. We should never forget that when this government came into power, we had a Public Accounts Committee inquiry into some pretty terrible and horrible practices perpetrated by the previous government in order to falsify the true account of the Territory’s fiscal state. The member for Nelson was part of that PAC; he knows what went on. He knows the story exactly; he knows the black hole was a reality. He knows the fudging of the figures that the last government did. Yes, I say that our Treasurer is honest, straight, reliable and, arguably, the best we have seen here. There is no credit to be had by the CLP for the previous ways that they tackled their budgets.
While I am on that subject, I listened to the Leader of the Opposition’s alternative budget and what they would do. It had more holes in it than an old pair of pantyhose. I wonder where they were pulling that from. I listened to that budget and saw shades of 2001. Is this an alternative government which is looking to the future, or one that, through their own fault, has no depth, so they reached into 2001 and grabbed out an old budget? I will have to check the Parliamentary Record. I might do a Google search on a previous CLP Treasurer’s budget speech. I would not be surprised to see quite a number of those things in there. We know the hacks who were working on it. If that is the alternative they have to offer, they are going to be a long time in opposition.
I again thank the Treasurer - arguably the best Treasurer the Territory has ever had - and the Martin government for delivering this great budget. Budget 2006-07 builds the Territory’s future. It delivers growth, jobs and a stronger Territory. This budget spends on infrastructure across the Territory with projects in all regions, which again, is another quite demonstrative change from the previous governments we have had. The benefits of this will be seen by everyone, from individuals to small contractors to large companies. This budget is supporting business with tax cuts and training programs for workers.
The Martin government is determined to lift student outcomes and improve literacy and numeracy, and Budget 2006-07 with record spending for the Employment, Education and Training budget, sets out to achieve this.
Record spending on health is building a better future for Territorians and, in combination with record spending on community safety, will ensure that Territorians can enjoy the Territory lifestyle now and into the future.
Budget 2006-07 grows the economic base of the Territory and provides thousands of jobs for Territorians. It makes great strides to deliver on the Martin government’s second term agenda, and achieves all of that within sound fiscal parameters.
Madam Speaker, I commend the budget to the House.
Mr WOOD (Nelson): Madam Speaker, in the short time I have to analyse the budget I cannot go through everything that has been presented to us. That occasion will come up in the Estimates Committee where we can analyse some of the statements made by various ministers. I will make some general comments and a number of specific comments related specifically to my electorate.
At the start – and I have said it before - the day they put this book in spiral form I will be very pleased. If you have ever had to open up this book and then try to open up last year’s budget book, you need some more elbows, or bricks. It is not exactly a user-friendly book to analyse. I hope one day we can get it in a format that is easier to use. Also, it is pity we do not have the 2005-06 original estimates in a column next to the 2005-06 estimates in this budget so that we can see the variation without having to go back through last year’s budget. I do not think that having an extra column in this book would really be a problem.
Commenting on a few of the regional highlights, I welcome the government building new classrooms at the Humpty Doo Primary School for high support special needs students. Anyone who has a child with those special needs would very much appreciate the government putting in those facilities. I believe those facilities are also due to go into the Bees Creek Primary School this year as well. I thank the government for the provision of those services.
I notice one of my favourite subjects, which is $200 000 - or $2000, I am not sure - for bus shelters in the rural area. That is an interesting one because we have the bus shelters nearly down to the rural area, and then we ran into a stumbling block between the local council and the government over who would take responsibility for them, especially in the case of public liability. I gather, even though we have six bus shelters to Freds Pass Reserve, we could not actually get them in place around the rural area. The council wrote to the government asking that they take responsibility for them. I am presuming that the government has put that budget item in to facilitate the erection of these bus shelters. I hope when the government does put in these bus shelters, it talks to the local council or school councils to make sure they are put in the best position.
Recently, it was said to me that if you go down the Stuart Highway to the rural area, you see all the bus shelters on the left hand side as you go out of town, yet the place you need them is on the right hand side, because people have to wait for a bus and, if it is raining or the sun is beating down, that is where you are more likely to need a bus shelter. I appreciate the government putting some money in for that particular request.
There is also $1500 to provide access to the Palmerston Indigenous Village. I noticed in the Regional Highlights it is referred to as the 15 Mile camp. I believe ‘camp’ is a word we should not be using any more. You might want to call it the 15 Mile because you might not like the idea of the Palmerston Indigenous Village. However, the Palmerston Indigenous Village is its name and that is what it should be called.
There is also $150 000 to landscape the Stuart Highway at Coolalinga. I asked this question in the last sittings of parliament and a number of times previously: when are we going to see the landscape plan for Coolalinga? I am pleased there is $150 000 in the budget for it. However, what I am not too pleased about is whether the local business community, and the community in general, has seen the landscape plan. One of the keys to this was that the community would have some say in what the plan would look like. Coolalinga is the gateway, I suppose, for tourists before they get into Palmerston and Darwin. We are sadly lacking beautification of that strip of the highway. There was an original thought of putting poincianas at both ends of Coolalinga, and I believe that was howled down pretty well straightaway – not because we do not like poincianas, but we did not think they were suitable for the entrance to Coolalinga. From then on, we have not heard anything until it was mentioned in the budget.
I also note there has been a plan released for the landscaping of all major arterial roads to Darwin and Darwin rural as far as Howard Springs, along the Arnhem Highway to the Humpty Doo District Centre, and down as far as Noonamah and to Cox Peninsula Road. The strange thing is, that plan was done in June 2005. I asked a number of questions about what was happening with that plan. It arrived on my desk the day before Anzac Day and I was asked to comment by the end of the week. It is a big plan. It is a little disappointing that, if the government is going to put effort into producing things like landscape plans, then it must allow the public to have a reasonable amount of time to consider those plans.
There is $740 000 for public library services. I know that covers Palmerston and the rural area. I am always pleased to see that there is money for the Taminmin High School Community Library. It is a very important library, not just for rural people, but also for people who rely on library books through the mail. It is a country borrowing centre for library books throughout the Northern Territory. There are not only books, of course, but CDs, games and all those things modern libraries have today.
There is $30 000 for cane toad protection for birds of prey at the Territory Wildlife Park. That is a good initiative. I have said before that I believe it is a pity that the government has not spent more money on cane toad protection in the form of fencing off areas of the Northern Territory so that cane toads cannot get into those areas. Unfortunately, that has fallen on deaf ears. Even the infamous Cobourg Peninsula fence seems to have died altogether.
I notice there is $500 000 weed management for Cabomba. Looking through the previous budget, there was about $300 000 provided over three years. My understanding is that the control has not been as successful as it was first thought. A friend of mine in Howard Springs was the person who discovered Cabomba weed, which has now been recorded for the first time in Australia as having been spread via the sea. Formerly, they thought it was spread by vegetative means. It has now been reported that it has been able to spread by sea, which means it is a major risk to waterways in the Northern Territory. I am pleased that we are spending a lot of money on this particular program. There has been talk that shade may be the way to kill it, because it does not like to live in shaded areas. Up to now, we have been using herbicides. It is something about which we cannot just wait around - and I do not believe the government is doing that. We just cannot leave this particular issue, because it evokes memories of Mimosa, where we had it for a short period of time and nothing much was done. Even though some people said it was a danger, it was not done and you know how much it costs now to get rid of that particular weed. We certainly do not want that to happen with Cabomba.
I noticed another item, and the minister for Lands might have mentioned it. There was $3.7m for the reallocation of fuel tanks. I know many of us were concerned about how big the tank at Wickham Point would be in relation to the landscape of Darwin Harbour. I have been approached by people who are more concerned by the fuel tanks at East Arm Port, which stand out like a sore thumb. The minister knows my view on the lack of public input in the planning on East Arm, but I would have thought that there could have been some concept of landscaping in front of those tanks. You are not going to get a tree as big as those tanks, but there are trees that would have at least broken the ugly sight of a number of tanks that stand out from the wharf at the waterfront like a sore thumb.
We are turning our harbour into an industrial outlook rather than a natural outlook which it used to be just a few years ago. It is sad that we have not taken into account how our harbour looks for those people who will live around it. Some people might love fuel tanks, they are just fuel tanks - thank you, minister; the minister is nodding his head, he loves fuel tanks. We need fuel tanks, but it does not mean it has be something we see night and day - and you certainly see them at night.
I notice there is $271 000 for the Tulagi Road traffic changes. I have written to the minister and said that I believe this is a waste of money. This money should have gone towards an overpass on Tiger Brennan Drive. I do not see anything in the budget for Tiger Brennan Drive. Many rural and Palmerston people wonder when they are going to get some relief from the traffic jams that occur around the 11 Mile, the Holtze area. The way around that is to take traffic away from that area via Tiger Brennan Drive, which has been mentioned in parliament before, and use an overpass at the corner of Stuart Highway and Roystonea Avenue. There is nothing in the here; the closest we have is that we are going to have changes to the traffic lights at Tulagi Road.
There is $570 000 for the Channel Point boat ramp. I was approached by a person who either uses that area or lives there and is concerned that the government has changed the point at which the boat ramp is going to access the sea. Can the minister give us some idea whether there have been changes to the design? I do not know whether some people had concerns that it was too close to private land and it should have been further away, but the minister may be able to clarify that point at a later stage.
I notice there is $2m for urban enhancement. The government has had a program for some years of working with councils to beautify various shopping centres in Darwin and Palmerston. I have asked before why such money should not be used by Litchfield Shire Council, if they so applied, for the little urban niches in the rural area such as Howard Springs, Humpty Doo, Coolalinga which has a landscape plan coming now, Berry Springs and Virginia. Those areas could do with a little lift.
I asked a question earlier about water meters. The minister has said that the idea of having water meters in the Darwin rural area has been scrapped for the time being and that money has gone to the Daly River water resources program. I am a little concerned. The member for Goyder presumed that I was being a little tricky in the question and that I was presuming the government was going to charge people for water. That was the least thing on my mind. I was relating to a press release from Malcolm Turnbull which mentioned this very issue.
I wanted clarification of what it was about because, at the public meeting last year where this was discussed, there were about 100 people who volunteered to have meters on their bores. They knew it was not about charging for water; it was taking part in a program to find out how much water is being used in the rural area. This would assist in better planning for subdivisions, for production bores, and for the environment. We do not have that information and the only way to get it was to ask for volunteers to allow a meter to be put on their bore to get some idea of the water usage in the rural area.
I note also there is $700 000 for a consultancy for an environmental impact statement for Glyde Point. This is an area that needs much more discussion. I know that the people from the Environment Centre are totally opposed to it. I am not particularly supportive of that blanket opposition. We need a place for heavy industrial development. The real question is: how is that development going to occur? If you look at the maps the planning people have put out, there is a large area of mangroves that they intend to fill. I have problems with that in the sense that, why can’t we develop an industrial area without having to remove large areas of mangroves? After all, we want access to the water and that will be via the port. I do not know why we have to have access on top of the water via the mangroves.
There needs to be a bit more discussion about the Glyde Point industrial estate. At the present time, I do not think there has been enough discussion on this issue. When I see that there will be $700 000 for consultancy for an EIS, I will be keeping my ears and eyes open to see if the government is moving on this area. It needs quite a bit of public consultation, not only about the mangroves, but also the rainforest. If you talk to people who look at the wildlife in the rural area, they will tell you there are certain species of bird that rely on going from one pocket of rainforest to another. Also, by having that movement of animals and birds in the rainforest, you maintain the variation within the species within those rainforests. That helps to extend the life of those pockets of rainforest. There are some important issues there. I hope the government ensures the public is fully aware of what is happening.
One of the things I thought was outstanding by its absence in discussion - although it was brought up today during Question Time - was fuel costs. I fuelled my car yesterday at 142.9 per litre. Someone told me that fuel at Rabbit Flat is about $2.20 per litre. I know the government might say it is not them, they do not have control. As the cost of fuel must be extraordinarily high for the remote areas, where it must be really hard for an Aboriginal family living at Yuendumu or Papunya, I suggest this government look at a transport subsidy. It used to occur federally, many years ago, where the federal government had a philosophy that you could get fuel at the one price wherever you went throughout Australia. May I suggest that the government looks at helping those communities which are going to be hardest hit - the ones out bush - with some sort of transport subsidy try to at least alleviate some of the costs of fuel in those areas.
Is there anything mentioned in the budget regarding fuel costs? By the end of the budget year, if fuel is around $2 a litre in Darwin, where is that extra cost? Has it been allowed for? A few years ago, we might have said you were talking through your hat if you said fuel was to be $2 per litre? It has been discussed in the media. We are already up to a $1.43 per litre and we know that the price of fuel is increasing all the time. I would have thought, in the context of a budget discussion, the issue of fuel would be raised. We have a relatively large fleet of cars that the government runs. All of us here drive one of those vehicles and we are all using up fuel, and that is going to cost the taxpayer money. So are all the vehicles the government uses. That was something that seemed to be missing from this whole debate.
Girraween Road intersection which has been raised a number of times in this House, is still not on the budget. There has been some work in that area, with surveyors pegging out the intersection. This is the intersection of Girraween Road and the Stuart Highway. The idea is to join that part of the Girraween Road up to Henning Road, which is on the other side of the Stuart Highway where Woolworths is. It has been a promise of the government for some years, but it is very slow coming.
I know it is only a minor work, but I have asked quite a few times for the government to look at a slip lane at the Howard Springs tip. I have been told it is happening but, again, there is nothing in the budget. It may be in minor works, and I hope the minister can clarify that.
The member for Goyder claimed bicycle paths in Palmerston on the old north Australian railway line is one of his election promises. It has not turned up in this year’s budget, so we have three years to go, hopefully. Otherwise we will all get out there with a pick and shovel and we will do it ourselves and turn it into a bush trail. I must admit - and I will say again - things like the bicycle path along the old railway line should be, where possible, avenues for CDEP or employment programs. We have people out there. The 15 Mile community or the Palmerston Indigenous Village is right next door. They could have opportunities to learn welding and painting of bridges. Even if we turned it into an adventure trail - maybe not with bitumen, at least with gravel or cracker dust - we could at least start on one of those projects.
Some people have said the budget is dull and boring; I say it is a ‘steady as it goes’-type budget. I wonder whether we are being creative enough. Darwin city is growing at a fairly rapid rate as you can see by all the high-rise units around the town - for better or worse. The rural area and Palmerston is growing, yet there do not seem to be initiatives for some form of public transport. When you add the cost of fuel, which is going up and up, and look at the number of people now being jammed into the small peninsula of Darwin, why are we not looking into the future and being a bit creative? Why could we not have a light rail system? Why could we not have light rail similar to the new German trams that are used in Melbourne - a service that went from Palmerston to Darwin pretty quickly, or from Casuarina to Darwin, or that could even go as far as Humpty Doo and Noonamah? Why are we not looking now at spending the money on infrastructure that will be used in the future?
It is going to get harder and harder for people in the rural area to be able to get to work, and many public servants live in the rural area. Why have we not looked at the process of having rail stations where you have adequate car parking for people to leave their cars when they come to town - and promote it? We rely on buses all the time, but I do not think that is the answer. People want fast transport straight into town, a reliable place to leave their vehicle, and cheap transport. With the cost of fuel, this is the time we should be looking at alternative transport for our city. Again, we do not seem to be able to use it. We have the corridors to enable these things to happen, but we just do not seem to want to look that far into the future or take a bit deep breath and try it.
I was listening to Tony Delroy’s program on the ABC last night, which was on early - I am not sure why. It was about town planning. It was about the spread of cities and whether it is good to spread the cities out or have high-rise buildings in the main part of the city. A gentleman from Melbourne rang up talking about public transport. He did not believe that any new railway lines had been put into Melbourne since 1920. Somewhere back in 1920, people had the vision that they needed public transport and, even though those public transport systems are old and probably could be extended, they serve the capital cities well.
The Treasurer said much about taxation. I do not deny that the payroll tax threshold has been changed and stamp duty has been taken off people with franchises and all that sort of thing. However, what is really helping the family in taxation? Very little. What hurts the family when it comes to taxation in the Northern Territory? Double dipping. If you insure your house, your car, or your boat, you pay double taxation. You pay the GST and stamp duty on that as well. We get $63m extra GST revenue, and we say: ‘No, it is going to be used for this and this, and we cannot take the stamp duty off insurance because that was not part of the agreement’. I would have thought that you could take the initiative and say: ‘We are getting extra money’.
The reason for the GST was to reduce home-grown taxes and, yet, the very taxes that hurt people the most - stamp duty on insurance - we are not touching. Do not ask me why – maybe we just want to hang on to that money. That is where we should be reducing taxation. You can take it off some of these other things. I do not think taking stamp duty off people with franchises is going to affect the majority of people in the community. However, most people have two cars and a house, and many people have a boat on which they pay insurance; and many people have household insurance. They are paying double taxation on all of that. It is time the government took the lead and took off stamp duty altogether. It gets the extra money, and the reason it is getting GST is to reduce that kind of taxation. However, because it is not written down in some agreement, it does not happen.
I have spoken about the oncology and radiotherapy unit. Somebody in the Labor Party promised to build it on its own. It still has not happened. Now the government wants federal government help. I say build it, and still get federal government help to keep it running because it will cost money to run. It will be a unit for the whole of the region, not just the Northern Territory. We could build it and then have the Commonwealth help us with the running of it for the region.
Another area of note which I have spoken on before is indigenous literacy. I am disappointed that the true figures are removed from the budget by just putting all indigenous students into the one basket. Originally, you had indigenous students in remote areas and in non-remote areas. Two years ago, the figure for literacy of indigenous students in Year 3 in remote areas was about 9%. If you look at these figures today, for indigenous students the national reading benchmark, Year 3, is 39%. That is terrible. There is no doubt about it. However, you do not see the true figures of what it is in remote communities.
Indigenous students achieving national numeracy benchmarks for Year 7 is 24%. What is the figure for remote areas? I gather it is far worse. It is a pity that those figures are not there. The minister will talk of the great improvement we are having in education but, when you come to see the figures, they are not here. It is a pity that those figures have been taken out. One of the biggest scandals in our part of the world is the low rates of reading, writing and numeracy, especially with indigenous students. It is not only with indigenous students, it is low in other parts of the Territory as well.
Another area which the government has also been a little mean in funding is the Ombudsman. I remember the previous Ombudsman complaining about the lack of resources and money. I note in the 2004-05 Ombudsman’s report - I presume Ms Carolyn Richards had only just started work but obviously, had a hand in writing it - she said:
- … the workload of managing inquiries has reached saturation point. Any further increase in approaches is likely to stretch resources available for this purpose and impact on the ability to resolve complaints in a timely manner;
She went on about similar things; that there simply has not been enough money to do the work that the Ombudsman needs to do, yet there has been hardly an increase at all in the budget. It might be about $16 000. That is surely insufficient to run the Ombudsman’s office, especially in light of how much the workload has increased over the last few years.
While I believe horticulture and agriculture are very important parts of our economy in the Northern Territory, I do not believe those areas get anywhere near as much attention as they should. I find it very disappointing, for instance, that in horticulture we are getting rid of extension officers. That is a crying shame. We do little research work of our own anymore; it has to be industry funded. Years ago, in the vegetable section of horticulture, we would be trying out many varieties of vegetables from overseas to see whether they were heat tolerant. Most people in the private sector cannot do that. In the Northern Territory, where we have the opportunity to find niche markets because we can grow things out of season, we are doing very little research work as we used to.
We are not looking far enough into the future. We are relying on private industry and on our existing industry. By not doing enough independent trial work, we are not making the opportunities available for people to find other opportunities to develop horticulture in the Northern Territory.
I notice there is also $1.68m in the Department of Justice’s budget because of the increased prisoner numbers. Unfortunately, I do not see any changes - any work camps, any other alternative ways of dealing with prisoners. They are either in gaol in Darwin or in Alice Springs. We really have to start to look at alternatives …
Mr BONSON: Mr Deputy Speaker, I move that the member be granted an extension of time pursuant to Standing Order 77.
Motion agreed to.
Mr WOOD: Thank you, member for Millner. I will be as quick as I can.
In regard to the EPA - I know the member for Arafura has been waiting for this - I notice the EPA program according to the budget is $4.4m. I believe you actually said $3.5m in your speech; I may be wrong there.
Ms Scrymgour: $4.4m.
Mr WOOD: $4.4m. There was about $3.5m last year. There are several reasons why I am confused. The minister said we have set up an interim EPA Board which is to look at how we will have an EPA. We have not done that yet, except through the Environment and Sustainable Development Committee …
Ms Scrymgour: It is in two stages.
Mr WOOD: Hang on. You have not done it, so you cannot call anything an EPA until you have done it ...
Ms Scrymgour: It is an EPA program.
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER: Through the Chair, please, members.
Ms Scrymgour: Oh, sorry!
Mr WOOD: You were going to set up this EPA Board. We have this interim EPA Board which is going to look at what kind of EPA it will be. However, the minister said today it is already going to take in water issues and the department and all these sorts of things. That is going to be that the department is going to be the EPA. However, you have already told us what the EPA is going to be. You told us today in your statement. That is why I sat here and listened carefully. On the other hand, you said the interim board is going to go out to the public and ask them what kind of EPA they are going to have. If that is not a contradiction, I do not know what is. I must ask while I have the chance: how can the EPA program be anything? A program is something you get when you come through the front door of the picture theatre or the theatre; it is not a body. An authority is a body …
Ms Scrymgour: Now you are misinterpreting things.
Mr WOOD: I am confused because the EPA, when it looked at McArthur River, wrote ‘EPA’. When you asked McArthur River to look at a preliminary environment report, you said: ‘Please write to the EPA program’. What do we have? We have a mishmash. It is confusing …
Ms Scrymgour: You have had a full briefing and you are still confused.
Mr WOOD: I am telling you what it looks like from the public point of view - it looks confusing.
Ms Lawrie: No, from your point of view, Gerry.
Mr WOOD: No, I can read as well as anyone else.
Another issue is parks. When you look through the parks section in the budget, it gives you numbers for people going to Alice Springs Wildlife Park or the Berry Springs Wildlife Park; that is fine. What this does not give is how many people are visiting our normal parks. I have mentioned this before, using figures that were given in the EIS: parks visitor numbers were dropping. I have to ask why visitor numbers have not been put in this book. If they were put in for the wildlife park and for the Alice Springs park, why have all parks not been put in here? We can then compare whether visitors are going to our parks. The figures I had from the …
Ms Lawrie: Annual report.
Mr WOOD: Yes, but we are not dealing with the annual report; it does not come out for another two months. Do not give me the annual report bit ...
Ms Scrymgour: The Parks and Wildlife …
Mr WOOD: No, it should be in here. You have the visitor figures for the other parks of your area. You should have it for the other parks.
Ms Scrymgour: I will have them for you in estimates.
Mr WOOD: That is right, but they should be in the budget so that we can compare whether people are visiting our parks. Thank you.
I also note that, under Park Management program for 2004-05, it is stated there is 90% satisfaction about our park management program for 2004-05. If you open up 2006-07 and the park management program satisfaction is now 65%. I ask: why has park management program satisfaction dropped off by at least 25%? That does not sound too good. I do not know whether people are not happy with what is going on. I mention that and, perhaps, the minister can raise that at another time.
It would have been nice to hear about subsidies for rainwater tanks. That is an issue, especially for the Centre. That is a good one; $50 for water saving devices. I can see people just waltzing into Mitre 10 and Bunnings at 100 mph. We need a subsidy for something that people would find more useful; that is, rainwater tanks.
Ms Scrymgour: The study is nearly complete.
Mr WOOD: I am giving a considered opinion.
The Minister for Housing was talking about indigenous housing earlier and he has invited me to a workshop in July. However, I am concerned when I see figures like $60m for 77 houses and 15 upgrades. If I do the maths and divide that total of 92 houses into $60m, I come up with $650 000. There might be other reasons for that, but I have said before that is a terribly expensive house to build out in the bush. No wonder we do not have enough houses for indigenous people. I know the minister said that they are tackling that and are bringing up Michael Wooldridge to talk about that at a workshop. However, it is one of the most urgent and pressing needs to sort out how we can produce cheaper, but adequate, housing for indigenous people.
The Minister for Essential Services talked about undergrounding electricity in Nightcliff. Great idea! I do not have any problem with it. However, when I wrote a letter to the minister - I am not sure which minister it was at that stage - asking why we could not start to underground or remove some of the spaghetti water lines in the rural area, which are a real pain in the neck because they are too shallow and they leak, I received a straight, flat ‘no’. We do not have to put the power lines in Nightcliff under the ground; you still have electricity. However, they look ugly and they get blown over in a cyclone. The people are not paying a caveat for that; that is just the government being nice to the people of Nightcliff and putting the power lines underground. I believe it is a good program.
When people in the rural area ask if you would replace their water mains which are now causing problems, and could you spend, say, $100 000 a year on a program to remove them, the government says no. You have to ask why. Are there more votes in the northern suburbs, and not so much in the rural area? In the long run, those spaghetti lines are going to be major trouble because they are leaking and causing problems with the council grading its roads and doing the drains.
My last comment on electricity is that I know the minister spoke about improving the services in Darwin and Palmerston with a new substation. I have a list of all the outages in the Howard Park area, and it is quite a list since the beginning of the year. One, two …
Mr Henderson: Bats.
Mr WOOD: Bats? Whatever, thank you. This is the list that was sent to me. People in that area are saying that there is not sufficient infrastructure being put into that area to shorten the time for the repair people to come out and find out where the fault is. I ask the minister if he could please look at the houses at Melaleuca and Callistemon Roads in the rural area. Some of the outages are short, but some of them are quite long and can be up to about five hours. When I start getting phone calls at 8.30 in the office, when I think I can hide there to do some work …
Mr Henderson: Send it over to me, Gerry, and I will have a look.
Mr WOOD: Thank you, minister, I will do that.
In summing up, I know there are plenty of other areas we could talk about and we will do so in the Estimates Committee. I sometimes feel that the government has to bite the bullet and be a little creative. Public transport in the form of a fast train - light train, light rail, whatever you want to call it - from Palmerston, Casuarina, and the rural area is something we have to start looking at. If we can alleviate the higher fuel costs, increased amount of traffic coming into Darwin, and more traffic on our roads that is good. It is also better for the environment when there is less fuel being burnt up. I do not know why we cannot at least have a go and show some other cities how it is done. We are only a small city at the moment. We should be able to put that infrastructure in now so, when we are a big city, that infrastructure is already in place.
Ms LAWRIE (Family and Community Services): Mr Deputy Speaker, I support the Treasurer and the great budget of 2006-07. This is the fifth budget of the Martin government, but my first budget as a minister.
Budget 2006-07 builds the Territory’s future. It is about helping families get ahead. As Minister for Family and Community Services, I am delighted that this budget continues with our program of building a healthier Territory. In past budgets, the Martin government has invested significantly in Health and Community Services, particularly in the areas of mental health and child protection services, in order to overcome some of the historical neglect in these areas.
The increases to the Family and Community Services budget this year mean that since coming to government we have doubled the overall budget. We are now spending twice as much on helping families as the previous CLP government did. What this means is that an additional $87m is being spent each year on vital services to help families and help some of our more vulnerable members of the community live fulfilling lives.
This budget continues the government’s vision for the Territory. It incorporates a range of measures designed to further boost the government’s investment in helping community services. However, it is also designed to consolidate the significant investment already made. We must ensure that our suite of health and community services is working effectively to enhance the health and wellbeing of Territorians, and also in a cost-efficient manner.
For example, in the Family and Community Services portfolio, child protection notifications have increased dramatically since 2001-02. It is clear that only the tip of the iceberg of child abuse and neglect had previously been identified and responded to. We made a significant investment over five years to enhance the Territory’s child protection services. This investment continues in this budget of 2006-07. The increases this year mean that we have more than quadrupled the CLP child protection budget yet, sadly, the number of notifications, investigations, and substantiated cases of child abuse and neglect, along with the number of children in care, continues to rise each year and are expected to continue to do so for some time to come. It is clear that these increases have resulted from greater surveillance, community awareness and a willingness to respond to child abuse and child neglect.
We recognise and continue to support the important role key Aboriginal community leaders have taken in speaking out against child abuse and neglect in their community. We have invested in initiatives that will strengthen families and their communities. Further, we will ensure that all health and community services, particularly the key services at the heart of a well-functioning community services system, are working for the best interest of our vulnerable children, their families and our community. However, while we continue to work and invest in crisis services that can protect children, the best evidence we have indicates that it is by preventing harm before it occurs we can best ensure that the number of vulnerable children and families is reduced.
For that reason, the government has supported the national agenda for early childhood, a framework for investment in health and welfare promotion in the early years of a child’s life - that period of life where investment can have the most impact. Recognising that there are multiple cases of hardship and vulnerability, I and my department commit to working with my ministerial colleagues across government to promote prevention initiatives and to address the underlying community issues that impact on children and family health and their wellbeing. This is how we can ensure that we get the best value from the investments the government is making. The new commitments I will discuss today.
There is an additional $1.7m in funding which will be used to expand the capacity of the specialist care and foster care programs which cater for the increasing numbers of children and young people coming into care in the Territory, and to enhance FACS capacity to meet the complex, therapeutic needs of children and young people who have suffered severe abuse and neglect. The government recognises the importance of preventing harm before it occurs but, in cases where abuse or neglect is identified, they need to work with families to reduce the risk of harm, and the need to take children into care is incredibly important. For that reason, we have provided funding that will enable FACS to consolidate the expanded child protection and intensive family preservation services already established in the first two years of the Caring for our Children reforms undertaken by the Martin government, and to partner with the Australian government to implement innovative new indigenous family support and family intervention programs designed to prevent children from coming into care.
Thankfully, most children grow up in healthy, happy families, free from harm and violence. This government values and supports all Territory parents and children, but recognises the particular importance of the early years of life to a child’s health and wellbeing and, therefore, the need to support the families of young children. The government will enhance the funding and support for early childhood and childcare services in this coming financial year with the provision of one-off grants to not-for-profit children services to purchase new playground equipment. An initiative of $500 000 has been allocated, and the grants will be allocated through two funding rounds in May and September 2006.
The Northern Territory Child Care Subsidy will also continue to be provided to assist with costs of childcare for families. In 2006-07, subsidy payments are expected to total $3.6m. This subsidy directly reduces the cost of childcare for Territory families. The Northern Territory is the only state or territory jurisdiction that provides this subsidy. As we know, childcare waiting lists remain high in the Territory, particularly in our regional centres such as Katherine, Tennant Creek, Alice Springs and Nhulunbuy. The Commonwealth government has responsibility for the provision of affordable and accessible childcare. They have flagged that they are looking to double the childcare places in their budget next week. We call on them to ensure that they double the number of places available right across the Northern Territory.
The Supported Accommodation Assistance Program, known as SAAP, provides the core accommodation support, outreach and case management services for people who are either homeless or at risk of homelessness. Many of the Territory’s SAAP clients are women and children escaping family violence. In January of this year, the Northern Territory government signed the fifth SAAP funding agreement with the Australian government. In this coming financial year, the total SAAP funding of the Northern Territory will be $8.9m, of which $430 000 will be targeted towards innovative service expansion which will include the development of family violence programs and activities in remote areas, enhancing services for children who are homeless and presenting at SAAP services with their parents and families. As part of this new five-year agreement, Cabinet approved an additional $5.4m of Territory funding for SAAP services. It should also be recognised that the Territory had previously committed approximately 40% of the total SAAP program funds. However, under this new agreement, the Territory will match the Australian government annual funding contributions from year three of the agreement.
We have not forgotten the need to invest further in the aged care and disability sectors. The Home and Community Care program, known as HACC, reaches right across the Territory through urban, rural and many remote communities. It provides essential funding that lets communities look after their old people and their younger people who are affected by disability. In 2006-07, approximately $500 000 will be available for growth in HACC-funded services. Priorities will include the establishment of new services in larger remote communities; purchase of essential equipment; and support for transitional support services and areas experiencing increased service demand due to a demographic change.
This government recognises that our investment in the disability sector must be strategic and one that provides the most positive impact possible. In 2006-07, we will complete a major review of the disability service system. This review, being conducted by KPMG, will make recommendations on the fundamental underpinnings of the service system, including how people access services, how services are funded and how the Territory can improve the quality of services in our jurisdiction. There will be a specific section of the review that examines whole-of-government strategies in this area. This demonstrates our whole-of-government commitment to people with a disability.
We have also incorporated measures to make the lives of Territory pensioners that little bit better. The Pensioner Concession Scheme currently provides concessions to 14 939 Territorians on a range of government concessions including motor vehicles, power, water and rates, while about 9000 senior members are also eligible for concessions on interstate travel.
From 1 July 2006, concessions other than travel will be extended to Territorians receiving the Commonwealth Carer’s Allowance through the implementation of a carer’s card. Representing an investment of more than $1m, the carer’s card is the first of its kind in the country, with up to 1600 Territorians benefiting from this change.
The Commonwealth has responsibility for the provision of aged care places in Australia. Only this week, they announced an additional 28 500 aged care places in Australia over the next three years. Unfortunately, only 140 of them are in the Territory, about 0.5% of the available places.
Over the past three years, the government has made a significant investment in combating the impact of drugs and alcohol on our community. In the 2006-07 financial year, the Alcohol and Other Drugs program will consolidate its efforts to support the volatile substance abuse legislation, including supporting communities to apply its provisions by spending $700 000 to expand community-based residential rehabilitation services in Darwin and Alice Springs.
Alcohol misuse is a huge problem in the Territory. It rips apart families and can have a devastating effect on entire communities. This government is tackling alcohol misuse across the board. We have an overarching coordinated and holistic approach to the problem of antisocial behaviour in the community, and the necessary provision of rehabilitation services.
The minister for Justice is overseeing the new alcohol courts and antisocial behaviour legislation. The minister for Police has further increased police funding to target hot spots. Community patrols have been transformed, and have seen the employment of an additional 10 Aboriginal Community Police Officers and two additional patrol vehicles. The Minister for Racing, Gaming and Licensing oversees the implementation of the Alcohol Framework, and the Minister for Local Government oversees the important Community Harmony strategy and the Town Camps Task Force. As Minister for Family and Community Services, I oversee the treatment programs. Our commitment to tackling this problem is clear. Our commitment to reducing the incidence of public drunkenness and related antisocial behaviour and its impact on our community is steadfast.
The Alcohol and Other Drugs division within my department now has a budget of $20.8m, up from $11.5m under the CLP. This year, we will provide $10.6m in grants directly to non-government organisations to provide alcohol and other drug treatment services. Some of these organisations include Amity, Centrecare, CAAPS, FORWAARD, and the Salvation Army here in Darwin; Tangentyere, DASA, CAAAPU and Holyoake in Central Australia; Kalano, Mission Australia and EAS Counselling in Katherine; Anyinginyi, BRADAAG and Julalikari in Tennant Creek; and the many others throughout the Territory. We thank them for the work they do to support the government in our efforts to combat alcohol and drug abuse.
The Alcohol and Other Drugs program will also support the establishment of new services in Nhulunbuy, and implement treatment options to support the alcohol court underpinning the antisocial behaviour legislation.
The government has allocated $560 000 to my agency to provide treatment places for people referred through the NT alcohol court. This initiative and the new treatment places funding will be available from 1 July, and will commence in conjunction with the establishment of the alcohol court by the Department of Justice.
In 2006-07, the Mental Health program will focus on consolidating and continuing the extensive reform of the mental health system that has been under way for the last three years to tackle the historic underfunding of mental health services. These reforms have been made possible by the very significant increases in funding this government has made since we came to office. Our mental health budget is now more than $32m, up from $13m when we came to government - $32m, up from just $13m.
There has been an increase in specialist services to special needs groups in particular, including children and adolescents, people who live in rural and remote areas, and people who are incarcerated. New sub-acute services are being implemented to provide consumers with a more intensive level of support in the community when they are unwell, and we have expanded after-hours services, while non-government support services to consumers and carers have also been increased.
In this coming financial year, there will be a further $520 000 allocated from the national trauma funding to increase the capacity to deal with mental health issues arising from trauma events - should they arise. A further $1m has been set aside for 2007-08 and 2008-09.
Mental health is currently being addressed by all governments across Australia through COAG. The Prime Minister recently announced a five-year package for mental health, and we are currently examining the Australian government’s proposal. The federal government has not provided details but there are some promising signs, such as more funding for suicide prevention, and to address mental health in our indigenous communities. We have some concerns about some of the proposals. It is suggested that appointments with psychologists be funded through Medicare.
Unfortunately, in the Territory, we tend to miss out when health initiatives are funded through Medicare. Under the Medicare safety net, for example, the electorate of Lingiari which covers almost the whole of the Territory received the least amount of funding of any electorate in Australia last year. Solomon was also right down near the bottom of the list. Lingiari received only 2% of the funding that went to Tony Abbott, the Minister for Health and Ageing’s electorate of Warringah. Therefore, you will understand why we are concerned. There is a very real chance that psychologists will be attracted away from the public health system into the private sector. It is already difficult to attract psychologists to the Territory, and this could make it even harder.
In summation, this budget continues our program of investing in Family and Community Services. Budget 2006-07 continues our implementation of strong social development programs. The opposition pleads with us to cut our health spending and to cut public servants, but our public servants working on the frontline in areas like child protection, mental health and substance abuse are worth every cent, and we will continue to invest in them.
I now turn to my portfolio of Sport and Recreation. Budget 2006-07 provides for some very exciting initiatives and events to help enhance our great lifestyle.
Sport and recreation includes creating opportunities for Territorians to participate in sport and recreational activities. We do this by providing financial assistance to sporting organisations ranging from grassroots to peak bodies; developing, managing and maintaining key sporting facilities; and managing and facilitating major sporting events. We also provide coaching and sport enhancement support services to talented Territory athletes through the fantastic Northern Territory Institute of Sport.
Sport and recreation plays a key role in developing community wellbeing and identity. Participation in sport and recreation activities contributes to an individual’s health and self-development, and provides social and economic benefits to the community. The Northern Territory government is keen to work with the sports in the broader community to optimise these benefits through relevant programs and services, the most efficient and effective use of resources, and the promotion of our sports and recreation. We are committed to developing a framework for sport and recreation which will outline directions for planning over the next five years.
The Sessional Committee on Sport and Youth has been established to inquire and report on the delivery of sporting programs for the Territory’s youth, and the outcomes of the inquiry will feed in to my agency’s framework development process.
In the budget papers, the strategic issues for 2006-07 relating to sport and recreation include the identification of appropriate strategies to expand sporting activities in our remote communities to contribute to the achievement of positive social and healthy lifestyle outcomes, and delivering major sporting events, while recognising and addressing the inherent risks of running such events. The policy focus for Sport and Recreation in 2006-07 will include these strategic issues.
The budget papers show a downward trend between the estimated expenditure for 2005-06 compared with the budget for 2006-07, a variation of $14.2m. This does not reflect a lessening of the commitment to sport and recreation. In fact, it is quite the opposite. The discrepancy is due, in large part, to significant capital works allocations being brought forward into the 2005-06 budget to ensure that these projects proceed in a timely manner. Further, the budget reflects the substantial policy initiatives relating to sport infrastructure, and an essential component of both grassroots participation and major sporting events which the Territory government has been developing over the last five years.
The extra high level of appropriation recorded for 2005-06 reflects the Territory government’s commitment to ensuring that appropriate sporting facilities are available. The government has continued its investment in sporting infrastructure across the Territory to support participation at all levels, as well as events. For example, at the beginning of the financial year, $5m was committed for Stage 1 of the Palmerston Recreation Centre, with Stage 2 due to come on line in 2006-07. We have taken the decision to bring forward the commitment of funding for Stage 2 and have increased the output appropriation for one-off capital grant for this year by $3.69m, giving a total commitment of $8.69m for Palmerston. Construction has commenced and is expected to be completed by November of this year, with slight delays due to rain.
A total of $800 000 was also allocated in the 2005-06 budget for the construction of a new drag strip in Alice Springs, something I have been delighted to work with CADRA on; it is their passion.
Other projects planned for 2006-07 for which early provision has now been made in 2005-06 financial year include: $300 000 for the construction of the Parap skate park; $800 000 for the Tracy Village Sports and Social Club for the installation of lights to enable night softball and baseball; and $500 000 for upgrade of Purkiss Reserve in Tennant Creek.
The final stage of the Alice Springs Traeger Park development is almost complete, and we look forward to the new grandstand at Traeger Park main oval in Alice Springs being available for use at the end of this month.
The Palmerston Magpie supporters will shortly reap the benefits of the newly constructed home ground facilities as a result of a Territory government capital grant of $2m to the Charles Darwin University. In addition to this, tenders for the $5.8m Darwin football stadium construction at Marrara have closed, and completion is scheduled in time for the 2007 football - that is soccer - season.
The budget papers show that in 2006-07, $500 000 has been allocated for the Hidden Valley Motor Sports Complex to continue the important program of works at Hidden Valley to ensure that all structures meet with the relevant compliance. This brings the total allocation for such works at Hidden Valley over four years to $3m. $500 000 was allocated through the 2003-04 minor new works program to complete urgent occupational health and safety works required to obtain relevant occupancy permits. Works required for structures considered necessary for the V8 Supercar series in May 2004 were identified and completed on time for that, and subsequent events were able to be staged without concern. A further $1m was expended on remedial works in the 2004-05 financial year, and a further $1m has been allocated and is being spent in the current financial year. In addition, $900 000 was allocated this year for nine additional pit garages on the raceway, the ‘black top’. Construction of the pit garages is nearing completion and they will be fully available for this year’s V8 Supercar championships.
We have not forgotten our remote communities. $35 000 will be provided in 2006-07 for an upgrade to the oval at Bulman, to grade and improve the oval surface. A further $840 000 is available for repairs and maintenance of sports infrastructure across the Territory, including provision for routine servicing, and planned and unforeseen works. Once again, this reflects responsiveness to the needs of the community which can also be seen in government support for major sporting events.
There were some unanticipated sporting events occurring in 2005-06 which led to an increase in expenditure. Opportunities that presented themselves that we snapped up included an NRL Rugby game in Alice Springs, and the Crusty Demons in Darwin and Alice Springs. These events were funded by the government.
In 2006-07, it will bring both the Alice Springs Masters Games in October of this year, and the wonderful Arafura Games in May of next year. $2.35m has been allocated to stage the Arafura Games in 2006-07 financial year. The new look and feel of the Arafura Games has been launched with a focus on the quality, rather than the quantity, of sporting competition. The sports for Arafura 2007 are athletics, badminton, basketball, boxing, cycling, football, golf, hockey, judo, lifesaving, lawn bowls, netball, pistol shooting, sailing, Sepak Takraw, squash, swimming, table tennis, ten pin bowling, triathlon, volleyball and weightlifting.
$550 000 has been allocated to stage the 11th Alice Springs Masters Games. Planning for the games is well on track, with early registrations at about 600. Accommodation in Alice Springs is indicating almost full bookings during the games period. We are looking forward to another successful games. Both the Masters Games and the Arafura Games contribute significantly to the local economy, as well as providing exciting competition for all participants. The Masters Games has earned a reputation of being Australia’s friendliest masters competition, and the Arafura Games is our leading international sporting competition for emerging champions of the Asia Pacific region. Known as the Friendly Games, the Arafura Games provide a pathway through which friendship, goodwill, and cultural understanding between competing nations can strengthen and flourish.
To this end, we must add to the growing number of other sporting events this government continues to support and attract. Building on the success of previous NBL games, $75 000 per annum for the next three years has been committed towards the staging of national basketball in Darwin featuring our very own Perth Wildcats.
Our strong support for AFL continues. In February this year, North Adelaide took on the NT representative side, and the National Australia Bank Cup between the Western Bulldogs and Melbourne was played in Darwin. This was followed by the NAB Challenge Match at Traeger Park in Alice Springs on 10 March between Carlton and West Coast before a packed capacity crowd. It was very exciting. Two matches remain with the current AFL agreement, which will see the Western Bulldogs versus Port Adelaide on 12 August this year, and an Aboriginal All Stars game in early 2007.
We have established an AFL task force with representatives of the AFL and AFLNT, and negotiations for matches beyond 2007 are well under way. We are very keen to see an increase from one to two AFL matches in the Territory, and are working hard on behalf of Territorians to secure this second Bulldogs match in addition to our two NAB pre-season games. The recent announcement by AFLNT and TIO of a major sponsorship - $1m over 10 years - in return for naming rights of the government-owned stadium, is an exciting example of a partnership between a community-based sporting organisation, the corporate sector and government, and is to be commended.
July of this year will bring the return of international cricket to Darwin, with an international A Series involving Australia A, Pakistan A, India A and New Zealand A, with a mix of test matches, one-day games and 20/20 games.
Turning to Rugby League, for the first time in 10 years, Central Australia had the opportunity to witness NRL action at Anzac Oval as the Newcastle Knights played the Penrith Panthers in the NRL trial match. It occurred due to Territory government sponsorship, and there were additional benefits negotiated for the community, including coaching clinics, and visits targeting schools, hospitals and communities.
In February this year, Alice Springs once again hosted the important Imparja Cup, Australia’s leading indigenous cricket carnival. I was pleased to announce at the time that the Territory government, in partnership with Alice Springs Town Council and Cricket Australia, will develop a third turf wicket at Larapinta Oval in Alice Springs. With the existing Traeger Park and Albrecht grounds, the additional Larapinta wicket provides Alice Springs with appropriate venues for top class cricket events, including the Imparja Cup.
Since 2004, the Northern Territory government has provided funding for a Commonwealth Bank Netball Trophy Match to be held each year in Darwin at the Marrara Indoor Stadium. This is a huge benefit to women’s sport in the Territory by providing exposure to high quality teams …
Mr BONSON: Mr Deputy Speaker, I move that the minister be granted an extension of time pursuant to Standing Order 77 to conclude her comments.
Motion agreed to.
Ms LAWRIE: Thank you, member for Millner, for your courtesy, and members for their courtesy.
The benefit to women’s sport by having the Commonwealth Bank netball is enormous. Netball is a hugely supported sport right across Australia, particularly so in the Northern Territory. The 2006 game will be between the AIS Canberra Darters and the Perth Oriels on 26 May at Marrara Indoor Stadium. Tickets are on sale for this game on Friday, 26 May. Commonwealth Games silver medallist, Jessica Chin, is expected to play for the Perth Oriels, as are many of Australia’s future stars playing for the young Darters squad.
The staging of events brings inherent risks for government, and government is always actively looking at ways in which it can more effectively and efficiently deliver events for Territorians. $6m will be available in the 2006-07 financial year in the form of Sport and Recreation grants to peak and local governing bodies, as well as grassroots organisations, to increase their capacity to provide regular activity. This funding also assists with the development of their sport, establishment of best practice management, and increased opportunity to participate in a wide range of sports and physical activities.
In partnership with other agencies, $50 000 is being provided to the National Aboriginal Sports Commission to deliver the Athletes as Role Models program for the third year running. ARM is a role modelling program delivered to indigenous communities in remote areas.
Each year, the Territory government responds to requests for special initiatives. One example is the AFLNT’s Kickstart program. This program is aimed at young children in communities to promote healthy lifestyle messages through active participation in skills, clinics, school attendance programs and visits by AFL players to remote communities. I am pleased to announce that I am providing $100 000 this financial year for Kickstart.
The importance of good governance within the Sport and Recreation sector cannot be over-emphasised so we continue with the very popular and important Sportsbiz program with funding in the 2006-07 financial year. There are 400 incorporated sport and recreation associations in the Territory. Sports assisted through Sportsbiz last year include: golf, baseball, basketball, hockey, gymnastics, touch football, Rugby Union, lawn bowls, netball, cricket, AFL, Waratahs Sports Club, St Mary’s Football Sports Club, and Nightcliff Sports Club. In particular, golf, baseball and basketball have been assisted in an ongoing and intensive manner by Sportsbiz. This will continue through 2006. Other sports identified for assistance are swimming, shooting, judo, women’s AFL and bowls.
The NT Institute of Sport is also a key partner in the Sport and Recreation sector through the identification, development and support of the Territory’s talented and elite athletes. Its primary role is to provide high-quality services and support to these aspiring athletes and their coaches that optimises opportunity to achieve at the highest level in sport. With additional funding in 2005-06, a new NTIS sport framework was introduced to improve services and athlete’s support programs. This additional funding continues in 2006-07 and allows the NTIS to provide quality support to athletes.
The Territory’s representation at the recent Commonwealth Games in Melbourne reflects on the importance of the Institute of Sport and the role it plays in the development of our young athletes. The Institute of Sport has recently signed a new agreement with the Australian Olympic Committee where the institute will continue to be officially recognised as an Olympic training centre. Several sports have already indicated their intention to prepare and train athletes at the institute in the lead-up to the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
In conclusion, Mr Deputy Speaker, I am delighted that my first budget as minister has great news for both of my portfolios. Budget 2006-07 continues our implementation of strong social development towards building a healthier community and, importantly, it further enhances our great sporting Territory lifestyle. I commend the Territory’s budget to the House.
Mr BONSON (Millner): Mr Deputy Speaker, it is an honour and a privilege to be an elected representative of the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly. It makes you quite humble.
On occasions like this, where we deliver a budget and outline a plan for the next 12 months that this government sees as being the framework for creating a better future for youth, seniors, the workforce and all Territorians, we often reflect on why we entered politics. One of the reasons I entered politics was to try to contribute to making the Territory a better place. A saying comes to mind that we do not live in an economy in the Northern Territory but as a society. As a society, we have to determine where to best spend the limited resources provided to us, in the best way to maximise the returns.
I agree with the Treasurer that Budget 2006-07 builds on the government’s priorities of supporting and growing business, including educational outcomes, building a healthier Territory, providing a safer community for Territorians, and enhancing our great lifestyle. As I read through the documents presented with the budget papers, it was interesting to have a look at the sheer numbers that have been put into key areas that we, as a Labor government, believe are important. They include Health being up by 64%, police 55%, Education 33%, and the Royal Darwin Hospital receiving an extra $196m, up $75m since we were elected to power. These decisions have to be made around the Cabinet table. As a backbencher, I often feel like I am a member of a team. Maybe I am not playing a key position such as centre half forward or full forward, but in the back pocket. I am there to deliver the material to the people who are going to kick the goals - the ministers elected by caucus to represent us in the wider community. The record budget spending on health, education and police over the last few years has been approved by the general public, and was shown in last year’s election with the re-election of the Australian Labor Party.
The Treasurer talked about the government’s commitment to the key priority areas of health, education and police, and its continued work with record budgets in 2006-07. For example: $789m for Health and Community Services; $631m for Employment, Education and Training; and $212m for Police, Fire and Emergency Services. These are outstanding numbers. We believe that we need to create local jobs and better skills. The minister, through his portfolios, has identified this as an area that will continue our economic growth into the future.
The member for Johnston, a good friend of mine, called his portfolio ‘a power house’. We are talking $482m in infrastructure spending just for the 2006-07 year – a capital works program of $268m with estimated expenditure of $167m; capital grants spending of $33m; Power and Water Corporation capital expenditure of $83m; and repairs and maintenance totalling $172m, including Power and Water Corporation.
Members already know, but often the public does not realise, that the amount of money the NT government puts into the economy is one of the driving forces of the Territory economy in creating jobs and providing opportunities to all our citizens to create a better life.
If we examine the major works programs and look at roads and other transport infrastructure of $74.47m, it is a very important program not only to the seats in urban areas, but bush electorates. Transporting produce from the land helps with our economy and safe roads provide other needs through connecting communities together. Schools receive $33.81m, housing $21.6m, and the Darwin waterfront development this year will get $15.54m - that is one of our key projects into the future. The Desert Knowledge Precinct in Alice Springs receives $14.16m. Some members opposite might argue that we are not spending enough money in Alice Springs, but the member for Stuart, the Minister for Central Australia, has tried his hardest to increase representations in Alice Springs and he has been successful.
Hospitals in Darwin, Alice Springs and Tennant Creek are to get major works programs of $12.94m; health centres, $8.97m; and lifestyle and environment, $11.49m. One of the main reasons we live in the Territory is our lifestyle, and this government has consistently shown a willingness to invest in continuing our beautiful lifestyle and encouraging the protection and management of our environment. This is reflected in this budget.
The Darwin Port and Business Park will receive $5.89m, Police, Fire and Emergency Services $4.99m, and land and development $2.98m.
When we look at growing the economy, the minister has done a fantastic job lowering taxes making us competitive with other states and territories. This has allowed business to grow in the last four years. Through this growth, we have seen the creation of jobs and wealth for all Territorians. This has been spread across the board. This government encourages increased growth and wealth for all its citizens. I hope to be a part of a government that continues this attitude towards creating a better business environment for a long time into the future.
We will see in Budget 2006-07 the implementation of the latest tranche of tax cuts designed to directly benefit Territory business. Since 2001, these cuts have delivered a total savings of $74m, which has gone back into the economy - whether it is in housing, jobs, buying milk, bread, or cars. This has helped spread the wealth throughout the whole of the Territory. The Territory is now the lowest taxing jurisdiction in Australia in relation to recurrent taxes for small business – a fantastic achievement for such a small jurisdiction. People may not know that we rely heavily on grants from the Commonwealth; therefore, you would expect that this government would try to revenue raise. Instead, we have introduced tax cuts allowing businesses to reinvest into their own business and, therefore, grow and prosper.
The payroll tax-free threshold will rise from $1m to $1.25m from 1 July 2006, releasing another 58 businesses from the payroll tax net. This brings the total to 187 businesses relieved of the payroll tax burden since 2001 – a fantastic effort. More than 1300 businesses will benefit from the increased payroll tax threshold, with locally-based Territory businesses that continue to pay payroll tax expected to save, on average, an additional $13 500 in payroll tax a year.
As the member for Millner, with a low to high density business area in Coconut Grove, and one developing in the airport area, I know the importance of creating an atmosphere for people to consider reinvesting in their own business, opening up a business, or employing somebody. Tax is one of the big issues, of course, that people speak to you about regarding small business. These tax cuts will help these businesses employ more people, allowing that money to be spent in the economy.
The government is also committed to reducing the payroll tax rate from 6.2% to 5.9%, at an estimated value of $6.2m, during its current term. On 1 July 2006, stamp duty payable on rent paid for the grant and renewal of leases and franchises, and on unquoted marketable securities, will be abolished. This will save Territorians, including Territory businesses, about $2m each year. Stamp duty on hiring arrangements, worth $5.3m a year, is also set to cease from 1 July 2007. The government’s commitment to tax reform also extends to abolishing stamp duty on the non-land component of business conveyances, worth about $6.8m a year. This is potential revenue for the NT government to spend on different things, but we are saying to business: ‘You keep this money, choose what your priorities are, and where to spend it’.
Members, in particular in the Palmerston area, would agree that residential construction has gone through the roof, and the member for Port Darwin would agree. There is no doubt that this construction boom across the Territory has helped create jobs and, therefore, increased people’s opportunities to gain wealth. For example, over the past two years, the value of residential construction work increased by 37% and residential building approvals has grown by 36%. The minister considered that these strong figures have translated to jobs and business opportunities for the construction industry, supplies and related support services across the Territory. Some of the anecdotal evidence that I am hearing in Darwin is that many people have come to the Territory, loved the lifestyle, but due to the slow economy in past years, were not necessarily receiving the equivalent wages as they would in Melbourne, Sydney, Perth, or Brisbane. They might stay for one or two years, like the lifestyle but if they wanted to make money as a bricklayer, carpenter, etcetera, they would return south and so we lost that population. What we are seeing now is a change in attitude where prices are being seen as competitive.
The member for Barkly talked about the first home loan grant, and the former member for Arnhem can take much credit for that. I remember having long discussions with him about the benefit of people buying their own homes, particularly those who have lived in houses owned by Territory Housing for many years. He was first to up the ante, I suppose, on HomeNorth. In June or July, we are heading towards a figure of 1000 people who have taken up this option. That is fantastic. We brought in the First Home Owner Grant Scheme of $7000, and the Stamp Duty First Home Owner Concession is up to $8015. Principal Place of Residence Stamp Duty Rebate is up to $2500 on other home purchases. The HomeNorth Scheme enables low and middle income earners to purchase a home and is estimated at $18m in 2006-07, which is fantastic.
The budget for indigenous and government employee housing construction and upgrade across the Territory is approximately $86m in 2006-07. As we know, one of the major issues for all Territorians is the lack of proper housing for many indigenous Territorians in remote areas. Though this program will not satisfy all those needs, it goes a long way to satisfying them. Members on both sides of this House should continue their lobbying to make Canberra understand that this is not an issue of Territory versus state, or Commonwealth government versus NT government. It is an issue of Australian citizens who happen to be of indigenous background living in conditions you would often see in third world countries. As a nation, we should come together to say this is not good enough for Australian citizens. I look forward to future governments, both Commonwealth and Territory, addressing this need with greater urgency.
The forecast for economic growth is to remain strong. It is 5.8% in 2006-07. A full year of LNG production at the Bayu-Undan gas and condensate, increased alumina production from the Alcan G3 refinery, and a full-year production at the new Bootu Creek Mine near Tenant Creek will be the major contributions to growth.
The forecast for employment is interesting. Employment is forecast to increase by 2.3% in 2006-07, supported by construction work on the Darwin waterfront development, continuing high levels of residential construction, and the continuing rebound in international visitor numbers. It is expected to be offset by a drop in fly-in/fly-out employment associated with the Alcan G3 refinery expansion and construction of the LNG plant.
Strong population growth over the past year was estimated at 1.7% in 2005-06, and forecast to keep growing by 1.5% in 2006-07, buoyed by a positive economic outlook and employment opportunities. One of the issues with population, as we have heard the Treasurer talk about many times in relation to the ABS figures, is that many of the people travelling from south to the Territory are often young and upwardly mobile. You come across them within your electorate and realise that many of them are not interested, unfortunately, in signing up to be enrolled as voters. It is not a high priority for these young individuals so it makes it harder for these numbers to be recognised and accounted for. However, anyone who owns any property or who is in the rental market will understand that you could put an ad in the paper on a Wednesday or Saturday and, by midday the next day, you will have 10 or 12 inquiries. There are people out there looking for accommodation in Darwin who are working. This is one of the issues that we have historically faced in the Northern Territory - the recognition by the ABS of these numbers of people, not only in Darwin, but the indigenous numbers which affect the incomes that we look at.
I am proud that this government will spend $300m over the next four years training and supporting Territorians to develop better skills and gain access to local jobs. Of this, $60m is committed to vocational education and training. The issue there is creating jobs.
My observation has been that people who work have a higher standard of living than those who do not. Many times, it is due to lack of opportunity for training or education which leads to jobs. I was lucky that my parents instilled in me a work ethic. When I left school there was not a decision to be made about whether I worked; it was just expected. This $300m into this area over the next four years creates for Territorians - black, white, green or purple - the ability to get proper jobs for proper wages and, therefore, buy houses and cars, and to invest and stay in the Northern Territory, which is very important.
I welcome the $8m being spent on Batchelor Institute for Indigenous Tertiary Education. As many members would know from their observations and experiences with indigenous people, there is a lack of a high standard of education. There are a number of different reasons. It is not a blame issue; it is just a reality of the lack of opportunity combined with many past historical influences which have led to this outcome. This government has recognised that this investment in indigenous education will lead to the opportunity to access jobs, and those jobs will mean that Aboriginal people - whether they are in remote, rural or urban situations - will not rely on the Territory or Commonwealth government to assist them.
The Treasurer, being a bush member and Education minister, has consistently shown that this is one of his highest priorities. His work in getting access to secondary education for indigenous people in remote areas should be commended. One of his legacies, once he decides to retire from politics, will be his achievement to change the focus of education delivery from purely urban areas throughout the Northern Territory to remote areas.
I welcome the $1.5m increase to funding for Charles Darwin University to improve facilities and the level and quality of training in traditional trade qualifications. It is obvious throughout the whole of Australia that trades are lacking tradesmen. Twenty years ago, everyone was encouraged to get an education and become a doctor, a scientist or a lawyer. We are now seeing that the biggest growth for job opportunities is in the trades. The money that you are paid, or the opportunity to go into small business, means that it is very profitable if you become an electrician, carpenter, a bricklayer, or a concreter.
I welcome the $6.5m that will be provided under Skills and Knowledge as an operational grant to Charles Darwin University for tertiary programs. As people may be aware, I graduated from the old Northern Territory University - now Charles Darwin University - with a law degree. As a local, I had to travel to the university in Western Australia do two years of study there as there was no opportunity to do so here. Being a student interstate is very hard; you have no money and you are often very hungry. The opportunity to come back to Darwin to finish my degree allowed me and many other Territorians the opportunity to complete tertiary education. I encourage this government to continue to support Charles Darwin University.
I welcome the 2600 apprenticeships and trainees who commenced work in 2005; there is a similar number expected to commence in 2006. This program is on track to deliver 10 000 new Territory apprentice and trainee commencements over the next four years. It is a bold initiative but, if we are able to achieve this, both sides of this House and the Territory public will applaud this government and the minister who is capable of delivering this better education outcome.
This Education minister has a passion for education and for dealing with difficult decisions. We are going through the middle schools process right now. I am a supporter of the middle schools principles, and of my schools: Millner and Ludmilla schools, the preschool and Nemarluk Special Needs School. Sometimes, as government, you have to make decisions for the benefit of all Territorians. I am sure Cabinet will oversee in the next few years the implementation of the middle school project and we will see great outcomes for all our Territory children. I look forward to this government working towards getting the results we need to be competitive throughout Australia.
The infrastructure part of the education budget is $67.5m; repairs and maintenance, $20m; continuing work, $19.1m; the Desert People’s Centre, $8.6m; middle schools, $10m; and Wadeye Secondary School, $4.5m. The member for Daly said there are 1000 school-age kids in Wadeye. Are they going to school and do they have the facilities to go to school? It is a national shame. I do not necessarily blame this NT government or the present Commonwealth government for that. However, if you go anywhere in the world, or anywhere in Australia, and 1000 school-age kids do not have access to resources or the opportunity to get an education, it would be a national shame and an educational disaster. There is $2.5m for Wugularr School at Beswick, and $0.8m for Humpty Doo Primary School, and minor works at Taminmin High School. I look forward to supporting the minister in encouraging him to continue the good work that he has started.
Members may know that my wife is a teacher in a non-government area. Though I try to encourage her to come over to the good side, she continues to work in non-government schools because she enjoys it. This government has put in $93.662m for non-government schools including an additional $0.23m introduced during 2005-06 for recurrent funding for additional education and costs associated with curriculum, special students services and information technology. There has been a resource agreement with the Catholic Education Office and we will provide $7.8m from 2006-07 to improve the quality of education outcomes for five remote Territory schools managed by them on behalf of the Territory government at Wadeye, Daly River, Tiwi Islands in the Top End, and Santa Teresa in Central Australia.
This budget covers many different areas and one of those is safer communities. As people may know, law and order in politics is one of the major factors any politician has to deal with. Along with the importance of health, education and the economy, people should have an opportunity to live safely and comfortably in their surroundings, which is of major importance for their lifestyle.
This government, through the O’Sullivan Report, has done a fantastic job of investing in the police force. The Police minister has been at the forefront of that and has done a magnificent job of selling to the community that it is all right to become a police officer and ACPOs. There are many indigenous men and women I know of around my age who became ACPOs in the last few years. It is a great job which provides job security, great conditions, housing and a good income. I have been told that when these men and women walk through Casuarina Shopping Centre, for instance, they know nearly every child, every youth in the shopping centre, their parents, and their relations, as many of them are related. They are dealing with many issues of antisocial behaviour. In conjunction with the police force, they have come together and the relationship is starting to grow stronger and the knowledge and information sent to the police has been enhanced. Therefore, we are getting better outcomes.
I would like to see in future years’ budgets an increase in funding for the juvenile diversion program. I know much of that money has come from the Commonwealth in the mandatory sentencing era. However, prevention and the cure are factors in allocating budgets. It has been shown all around the world in criminology and in health that, for every dollar that you put into prevention, you get a greater return in cure. I welcome the juvenile diversionary program grant funding of $1.76m in 2006-07, and ongoing for community youth development units, support services and case management for non-government organisations. I suggest to all members that we should be investing in this area with greater resources because we will get a greater outcome.
We will create a safer community and get better job opportunities and education outcomes for these young Territorians who, for a variety of different reasons often associated with their upbringing which they, as children, do not have any say over, have become involved with the court system. Like many others who sit in this House, I believe ‘you do the crime, you do the time’. However, we also need to provide opportunities for young people who have not taken up the life of crime but, unfortunately, have come into contact with the law, to stop coming into contact with the law. That can only be done through education and job opportunities.
We have also heard from the member for Johnston regarding boosting security on Darwin buses and the public transport network. All around the world people are encouraged to take public transport but, if people do not feel safe on that transport, then they will not use it. This is a fantastic initiative.
I welcome the funding of $3.8m to legal aid in 2006 to provide legal assistance in matters arising under Territory law, which is a fantastic initiative. The extra $120 000 going into the victims support unit over 2006-07 …
Mr HENDERSON: Mr Deputy Speaker, I move that the member be granted an extension of time pursuant to Standing Order 77.
Motion agreed to.
Mr BONSON: I thank the Police minister and Mr Deputy Speaker. I promise to quickly finish my remarks.
I welcome the $1.68m provided for costs associated with increased prisoner numbers, including health care and education of prisoners. The Attorney-General has often said that we need resources in this area for the police, the prisoners, and people dealing with the prisoners. This is an area we are going to have to deal with in the future. I commend this Cabinet for putting extra funds into this area.
For Fire and Emergency services, the construction of the $4m Marrara fire station is a fantastic opportunity for the Territory Fire Service to be able to successfully carry out their duties at a higher level. I congratulate the minister for providing the $500 000 in 2006-07 for industrial relations and human resource issues. It was an ongoing issue for many years for the firies. I know they are much happier, at this stage, with what has been happening in their work environment.
The Minister for Health has done a fantastic job in lobbying his Cabinet members to give him extra money in the Health budget. You could pour the whole of the $3bn of the Territory budget into health and you would probably only scratch the surface. To see the increase of 64% is a badge of honour in his ability to lobby Cabinet to put money into this area. It also shows the human side of Cabinet to say that we need to help Territorians, no matter whether they are in remote, rural or urban areas.
The member for Karama, the new Sports minister, has big shoes to fill. The former member for Arnhem did a great job of putting sport back on the front and back pages in the Territory community. As a sports-mad community, we welcome the monies going into cricket, football, golf championships, and the V8s. I cannot run through all those now. People reading this Parliamentary Record can read the minister for Sport’s speech about all the great work that we are doing in this area.
In housing, for improving living in the Territory, is an investment of $85.7m in 2006, $41.7m of which is in indigenous housing, $8.2m in public housing - as we know, many indigenous people are in public housing - and $13.4m in government employee housing. Unlike the CLP though, we will not be making any forced redundancies; we actually offer services to our public service. Minor works and repairs receives $22.4m.
I could go on and on, however, I am aware that there are other members who wish to speak. It is an honour and a privilege to be representing the people of Millner. There is no doubt in my mind that people in Millner are working, getting capital growth on their houses, have a more optimistic viewpoint on what their future in the Territory is, and are investing in that future through themselves and their children and their families. It makes me humble that I have this opportunity to represent those individuals who live in Coconut Grove, Ludmilla, the RAAF Base and Millner. I would have liked to have talked a bit longer of the Defence Force but, no doubt, I will get another opportunity.
Not only do we live in an economy, but we also live in a society, and we need to bear that in mind when we look at our priorities. Health, police, education, and business are our priorities. I look forward to every Territorian sharing that wealth in the future.
Ms McCARTHY (Arnhem): Mr Deputy Speaker, it is with great pleasure that I support the Treasurer’s 2006-07 Budget. Indeed, to stand here as a member of this parliament to be able to do so is an honour.
Budget 2006-07 builds the Territory’s future. It is a future that certainly does not exclude the Northern Territory’s remote regions. Our government said before the election last year that one of the major commitments we were going to make was to our remote regions. For my communities in Arnhem, this budget builds on the previous Martin Labor government’s budgets where the focus has been strongly on infrastructure and development. Yes, it may be a dull and boring budget, or one that is steady and safe, but the Martin government is building a firm foundation for the future generations of Territorians right across the Northern Territory.
We are working on our regions. Some may argue it is not happening quickly enough, but I would like to point out the many achievements and plans for the people of Arnhem.
Earlier in this sittings, I spoke of the flooding troubles in March and April for the people in the Wugularr/Barunga region and Jilkminggan. The Wugularr community is situated alongside the Waterhouse River, which is known for rising to extreme levels during the Wet Season. It is a fact that has been more prominent since the 1998 Katherine River flood. By the time the town of Katherine was flooded in April, Wugularr had been inundated three times. The school had to be closed as a safety precaution, and remained closed for nearly a month as the Waterhouse River rose.
Today, the students and teachers of Wugularr can celebrate, with $2.5m handed down by the Treasurer in this budget to build a new school on higher ground for the Wugularr community. It means more than 100 students, with the potential of an increased number of 150 or more, will have a sound future development ahead of them with the new school building. The boost in education funding at Wugularr enhances the other projects already completed in the Arnhem electorate.
This month, the Minyerri Secondary School celebrates its first birthday. Yes, Mr Deputy Speaker, a high school is at Minyerri. It is a community 600 km south-east of Darwin and the closest high school to it is Katherine. Children at Minyerri can now stay on with their families and attend a secondary school.
Another new primary school was commenced this year in the Arnhem electorate. The Martin Labor government injected $1m into the school at Manyallaluk. The school is much needed to support the growing population of Manyallaluk and will allow children to be educated in their own communities.
In five years, the Martin Labor government will have built two new school buildings and a new secondary school for the people of Arnhem electorate. With $1m allocated to Minyerri and $1m for Manyallaluk plus the $2.5m for Wugularr, it is a promising beginning in the field of education for our young people and families.
I would like to comment on what the minister for the Environment said in her budget response regarding flood forecasting. This has become a critical function of her department, and has received separate recognition as a specific budget output. As demonstrated during the recent flooding in the Roper, Katherine, Daly and Victoria River systems, an important role of the department is to predict the threat caused by heavy rainfall, and provide flood forecasting services to Police and Emergency Services.
For the Wugularr region, questions need to be asked and investigations undertaken as to what is going on with the river level in the Katherine region and, in particular, around Beswick. If you ask the old people at Wugularr and Barunga they will tell you that it is only since the 1998 floods that the river has flooded as much as it has and continues to rise. I am encouraged by what the minister for the Environment said about the flood forecasting. I am quite passionate about following that up on behalf of the people of Arnhem.
This budget provides $4.7m for Police, Fire and Emergency Services which includes two police stations, two police posts, one fire station and three volunteer groups all in east Arnhem Land. Later this month, the Police minister will officially open the new police post at Numbulwar. A sergeant and an Aboriginal Community Police Officer will be stationed in Numbulwar with rotations from Alyangula Police headquarters from the beginning of the operations there. No doubt, there will eventually be a permanent position in the community.
The police post has been desperately needed in this eastern most part of Arnhem Land where criminal activity has largely been able to continue unmonitored on the occasions when police were not in the community. There are stories that go something like this: whenever there have been individuals or groups dealing in criminal activity, the activity ceases when they hear a plane arriving in Numbulwar, as a lookout person goes to check if it is the police plane arriving. If it is not the police plane arriving, no doubt the activities continue. That era of Numbulwar days is well and truly over with a permanent police presence in the community.
Just across the waters from Numbulwar at Groote Eylandt, the addition of a permanent school-based police constable for the five schools in the region - Umbakumba, Alyangula, Angurugu, Bickerton and Numbulwar - is another solid commitment by the Martin Labor government. This role of the school-based police constable is one that many of our urban schools have been aware of for many years, and is an example of effective policing where children and teenagers are aware of the roles of police officers, and police officers can also build better relationships with the general community by getting to know children and families. We all know how important it is to build a good relationship between police and families in communities.
The day-to-day role of our police officers at Groote Eylandt, and now Numbulwar, will be greatly enhanced with Budget 2006-07 providing $160 000 for the purchase of a coastal police vessel for the east Arnhem Land region. I have travelled on the current police vessel based at Alyangula to a Blue Light Disco at Bickerton about an hour’s boat ride from Alyangula. I know firsthand how much area the police have to cover to monitor the surrounding islands or hot spots.
Under the Labor Martin government, there are now 10 regional and indigenous crime prevention councils working hard across the NT to build safer communities in their regions. These include the Darwin Regional Crime Prevention Council, the Palmerston and Katherine areas, and also Anindilyakwa Crime Prevention Council in my electorate of Arnhem. They work in partnership with government, and the groups are developing and implementing localised crime prevention and community safe initiatives to target issues including juvenile diversion, antisocial behaviour and crime prevention through environmental design.
Budget 2006-07 will invest more than $750 000 in community crime prevention grants, $400 000 for crime prevention grants allocated by the Office of Crime Prevention, and $350 000 for regional and indigenous crime prevention councils to implement community safety plans. This is an area I watch very closely because I am acutely aware that the Northern Territory has the highest incarceration rate of indigenous people in the country. It is imperative that our government gets it right with these programs. There are far too many Aboriginal inmates in our prisons and, as my constituency is largely indigenous, I am acutely aware of the urgency in improving the health, education and general wellbeing of Aboriginal families. Approximately $60 000 a year goes to care for a prisoner in our prisons. We know what that money could do for the communities where many of these prisoners come from in preventative measures. These are concerns I carry deeply as I look at the pace in which the Aboriginal population is growing in our remote regions.
In health, the Northern Territory Labor government will contribute $220 000 towards the upgrade of the Umbakumba Health Centre on Groote Eylandt. We know of the unrest in Umbakumba with the health clinic late last year. This government is committed to ensuring the safety of staff and patients in the clinic by injecting funding into security upgrades. The scope of the work includes new separate entry and shade structure; external waiting area; internal separation of waiting areas and clinical areas through installation of two new internal doors to existing corridor waiting areas; enclosing the existing ambulance carport with mesh to provide a secure entry for staff; the duress and phone system is being extended and upgraded; maintenance to all doors and locks to ensure ease of operation particularly in a duress situation; existing external doors are to replaced with new security doors; and minor repairs and maintenance and repainting parts of the interior and exterior of the clinic.
In Ramingining, the Northern Territory government has committed $160 000 to supplement the Commonwealth government’s more than $1m to upgrade the Ramingining Health Centre. The project was originally an Office of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health project to construct two outstation centres and a duplex. At the community’s request, this was changed to an upgrade of the existing health centre with the duplex still planned. The OATSIH funding is vested with Ramingining Homelands Resource Centre Aboriginal Corporation. The proposed new rooms are for an emergency room, pharmacy, dental and renal areas, a disabled WC en suite, and new internal and external female and children’s waiting areas. Generally, the project includes a security and communications upgrade to current standards.
This major upgrade to the Ramingining Health Centre is substantial and welcomed by the community. I have met with nursing staff at Ramingining a number of times. The clinic is very small and not culturally appropriate regarding men’s and women’s business. This upgrade seeks to address that. Staff at the clinic are to be commended for the work that they do.
This budget injects more funds into the two regional hospitals; that is, $17m for the Gove District Hospital which is up nearly 54% since Labor came to government in 2001, and $23m for the Katherine Hospital which is up 66% since 2001. I commend the Health Minister for his incredible work in supporting our regions in trying to do what he can for our health centres out bush. We are desperately in need of greater support because we know for that the life expectancy of Aboriginal people is far less than non-indigenous people. Aboriginal babies are dying at a greater rate than non-Aboriginal babies. I and my colleagues in the Labor Party know how important it is to address health issues in communities’ right across the Northern Territory.
There is a very strong commitment by this government towards health, and the budget figures reflect this commitment. The Child Ear Health Program is just one example of this commitment; $230 000 will ensure children across the Territory receive ear health testing.
Mental health is a serious concern for people right across the Territory and, in particular, in our remote regions. So, too, is supporting families and keeping families strong, with supporting initiatives such as the carer’s card; $8.2m for pensioner’s cards or concessions; and $3.6m for subsidising childcare by making childcare more affordable. I say to the people of Arnhem, with these injections of funding into pensioner concessions and subsidising childcare, they are issues that our government is looking at very closely.
Yes, communities need more support. We are supporting our Aboriginal Health Workers and looking at their housing needs. Also, there are demands for permanent doctors and more access to dentists. These are issues I am determined to keep in front of my colleagues, as I am sure our fellow bush members are also doing, so that our government continues on its path to address the poor health of Aboriginal people - to look closer at preventative practices by building better houses, roads and schools, and to give people in the bush the basic needs they deserve.
The Martin Labor government is dedicated to improving the life of all people in the Northern Territory. Showing our government’s infrastructure commitment on this, in five years of government, Labor has delivered on sealing the three airstrips in Arnhem which were in desperate need of resourcing. The people of Ramingining, Minyerri and Bulman no longer need to feel isolated in the Wet Season when all the roads are cut. Such commitment shows: the Labor government has injected funds of $1.25m for Ramingining, $0.5m for Bulman, and $0.6m for Minyerri. The government will continue to do so because we know that isolation in the Wet Season is a major factor in many of our remote regions, and flying in and out is the only way people can get the health care and food.
While roadworks continue on the Central Arnhem Road in northern Arnhem Land, Milingimbi will receive $610 000 to upgrade the sewer, rising main and pump station. Ngukurr will receive $410 000 to investigate and drill new bores in the community. This adds to the $500 000 already promised towards Ngukurr’s sports objectives and upgrade of the oval. I again say to the people of Arnhem that roads are a huge issue. The issue of bridges and more bridges is one that I am questioned on constantly, and rightly so. Places like Bulman and Ngukurr are cut off in the Wet Season simply because the roads are not sealed and there are no bridges that rise high enough above the water levels to get people in and out. It is something that I would like to look at in the long term with the minister for roads and his department.
There is $4m set aside to build new government employee housing or replacement government housing in remote communities. Already, the Martin Labor government has built 20 to 22 new government employee houses at Alyangula which will be officially opened later this month. I commend the minister for his efforts in ensuring that those buildings were made available for the people of Groote Eylandt.
I digress a little here to look at the housing construction training program mentioned by the minister for Infrastructure. This provides a means for increasing the capacity of local work crews to contract for works related to the government’s capital works, and general repairs and maintenance programs. Increasing the volume of government works that is contracted to capable, local construction crews is a key priority for the Department of Planning and Infrastructure. I inform the minister that it is certainly happening in Arnhem. Recent examples are $2.4m at Wadeye, and the general repairs and maintenance and school extensions at Groote Eylandt, Bickerton Island, Numbulwar and Gunbalanya.
I have outlined the education, police and health aspects of Budget 2006-07, and what it means for the people of Arnhem. I add here something that is a little closer to home for me. With 16 years background in broadcasting, television, films and documentaries, I commend the minister for the Arts for her increase of $50 000 to $250 000 for the Northern Territory Screen Grants Program, which is incorporated in this budget. The program is managed by the NT Film Office and provides additional support to the screen industry, enabling the industry to obtain funding to create documentaries, develop pilots, and complete filming projects that otherwise may not have come to fruition.
In February, I attended the official opening of the Ramingining film, Ten Canoes and felt proud to be a part of this amazing film, knowing the people who worked on it over a tremendous amount of time, and knowing that the Northern Territory has the capability to be the location for fantastic films that have a Territory flavour. I would like to see the Northern Territory film industry become a major highlight like Fox Studios in Sydney and we all know how New Zealand has become the place for beautiful films like Lord of the Rings, Narnia and where it first began with Once Were Warriors. I would support the Arts minister in any ideas and visions for the future of the Northern Territory film industry.
Mr Deputy Speaker, I am pleased to support the Treasurer’s 2006-07 budget.
Mr BURKE (Brennan): Mr Deputy Speaker, I reply to the budget handed down by the Treasurer on Tuesday. I congratulate the Treasurer, the Under Treasurer, Jennifer Prince, and the rest of the Department of Treasury on the budget that has been put together for the year July 2006 to June 2007. I congratulate the staff of the Treasurer’s office - they survived. I am sure there were times they thought they would not.
This is the first time I have had the chance to speak in the Assembly on a budget. It is a daunting prospect. There is much in the budget for Territorians to admire.
This budget provides $788.6m to Health and Community Services. This is an increase in funding of almost 65% since 2001 - a massive achievement. This is a statistic of which this government is understandably proud.
Funding for Royal Darwin Hospital is up 75% from the level it was at in 2001. It received $196m in this budget. RDH performs a role, not just for our community, but for the region. We all know the reputation that the RDH established nationwide during the aftermath of the Bali bombings. On Wednesday, 3 May, the Health Minister announced that the Royal Darwin Hospital will receive nearly $8m in recurrent funding to set up a Rapid Admission and Planning Unit. This is part of the $14.1m announced in the budget by the Treasurer to meet the increasing demand on Territory hospitals.
I took the opportunity to attend the minister’s press conference announcing the initiative. I learnt from senior RDH staff there that the RAPU is a mixed clinical and surgical facility. This type of unit is used in the United Kingdom and America. Its role is to ensure quick assessment of patients’ clinical and/or surgical needs. It ensures initial treatment planning is performed, and that the person is moved as quickly as possible to a ward if they are assessed as requiring admission. I understand from my discussions with staff, that the RAPU was their primary request of government. I learnt that there was little point simply expanding the bed capacity at the hospital without a RAPU, as it could not be guaranteed that those beds were being best utilised. This is a cutting-edge initiative. Only a handful of hospitals in Australia have this type of combined medical/surgical unit. Presentations to the Emergency Department at the hospital have increased approximately 10%, and this unit will alleviate pressure on staff and resources.
Alice Springs Hospital is also a big winner, with an increase in funding in the order of 79% since the Australian Labor Party came to government in 2001. $97m is a significant investment into our second-largest hospital in the Territory. There are significant dollar figures associated with the other Territory hospitals: $10m for Tennant Creek Hospital, up 57% from 2001; $23m for Katherine Hospital, up 66% from 2001 levels; and an increase of 54% in funding to Gove District Hospital since 2001.
Heath and Community Services funding is, obviously, not limited to hospitals. This government committed to extending the pensioner concession scheme to Commonwealth card holders, and this government budget delivers on that promise: $8.2m is provided for pensioner concessions. This budget has also included an additional $230 000 for a Child Ear Health program. This program helps ensure children across the Territory receive ear testing.
Babies and young children are simply unable to tell us in words they are having difficulties, or to describe those difficulties. It is a fair generalisation to say that we all appreciate how difficult it can be, as a parent or carer of babies and young children, to pick up signs of health problems. There are a variety of books now that parents in major centres can avail themselves of to help educate themselves about various stages of development in babies and children, and how to spot problems. However, many parents in the Territory live in regions where those resources are not available. Even with those resources, it is still difficult. The early years of life are ones of great learning. Watching a baby or child learning is a fascinating experience. Much of that learning is based on what they hear around them. I applaud the extra funding this government has provided to the Child Ear Health program.
The Minister for Family and Community Services this morning gave a report on childcare. Childcare is an important issue for me. I can empathise with parents across the Territory who are struggling on a number of fronts. Rather than talk about this in a vacuum, I would like to put it into context. Families in the Territory are extremely hard-working. Parents may be employees, independent contractors, or run their own family business. Many are looking, with some trepidation, at yesterday’s announcement of a rate rise of 0.25% by the Reserve Bank of Australia. Repayments on the mortgage are going to take up an even bigger chunk of the family budget.
I recently attended a rally of cleaning staff in Darwin. It was part of the LHMU’s international day of action, as part of its ‘Clean Start – A Fair Deal for Cleaners’ campaign. It is a campaign to raise awareness of the low-waged, largely immigrant female workforce across Australia and New Zealand employed in the cleaning industry. It is part of an even wider global campaign by various union movements around the world. Many people engaged as cleaners have to work two jobs simply to try to survive. Despite this, many are still living below the poverty line. So widespread is support for cleaners that the industrial campaign received support from Alan Jones on his talk show. I do not need to point out to members of the Assembly that Alan is not renowned for his union-friendly views.
There was a special Mass held in Houston by Catholic Archbishop Joseph A Fiorenza who was reported by the New York Times as having told janitors that: ‘God is unhappy that they earn so little’. It shows the alliances which are being formed by church and union movements.
Cleaners are not alone in their financial struggles, however. It is not just those with the least who are finding it difficult. Middle income earners are also now finding themselves struggling to make ends meet. We live in a time where it is no longer a lifestyle choice whether both parents work; it is a survival choice. There is, in fact, no choice. This community structure means that childcare is an essential government service. Australians need sufficient places provided to meet their needs. The federal government has shown itself morally moribund on this issue. It is not enough to leave the industry to private enterprise; the industry needs a mix of community, not-for-profit childcare providers, as well as those run on a commercial basis.
The Howard government has been very clever at passing its responsibilities on to the state, territory and local government levels It has not, however, passed on to these levels of government the ability to collect the revenue to take on this responsibility that the Australian government has been happy to orphan.
The federal Liberal government trumpets its surpluses it holds to election years to be used for party political purposes in an effort to maximise its chances at election. We hear there may be tax cuts in the soon-to-be-handed-down federal budget. Will that help the families of Katherine find childcare places for their children while the parents work themselves to the bone? Will there be an answer in Costello’s latest budget that will help the 600-odd families in Palmerston unable to find places for their children?
The Northern Territory can stand proud as the only jurisdiction to provide a subsidy for childcare. This budget has $3.6m set aside for this purpose. I have no doubt that this money will be warmly received by Territory families lucky enough to have obtained a place for their child or children. I note from the Minister for Family and Community Services that the federal government is touting an additional 50 000 childcare places across Australia. I am aware that the Department of Defence will be doubling the number of childcare centres it has across the country. Places at these centres are available only to the children of Defence families. I trust that these places are not part of the 50 000 the federal government is trumpeting.
I point out also that the Defence centres, whilst owned by Defence, are run by a private childcare company, the largest in the world. Therefore, the federal government cannot be taken as saying it is providing 50 000 new additional places in not-for-profit community centres but, more likely, we will again see an example of the federal government looking after its big business mates.
I will continue to be an advocate for this government finding as much as it can to assist in the area of childcare. This government recognises that there is a role for community based childcare centres. Not only is there the $3.6m for subsidising childcare, but there is also $500 000 for playground equipment for the community childcare centres.
This budget has also found $500 000 for a new Central Australian mental health crisis assessment service. There is another allocation of $500 000 additional funding for community-based residential care services with 24-hour support for those suffering mental illness, and their carers. I have previously spoken on mental health issues. In many ways, mental illnesses are unseen. The provision of further funding for services supporting this area is commendable. I express my admiration for people who are carers of others who suffer chronic or permanent illness or disability.
I draw members’ attention to the $160 000 allocated to provide a new rural standard access road from the Howard Springs Road to the 15 Mile camp along the permanent alignment. Members may not be aware that this is the community that is also referred to as the Palmerston Indigenous Village. Not that long ago, I was asked by the leaders of the community, as their local member, to investigate an issue regarding buses. The bus that took their primary school-aged children to school came down the dirt road to collect them. However, the bus that collected the high school-aged students stopped at the dirt road’s intersection with Howard Springs Road. This left the young people to walk almost 1 km down an unlit road with 6’ spear grass and scrub either side. This was not an issue in the afternoons so much, but the young people did not feel safe first thing in the morning and, as a consequence, stopped attending school.
I approached the Minister for Infrastructure and Transport about this, and his office organised the department to negotiate with the bus contractor. The contractor agreed to pick up the students, but had grave concerns about the state of the road. I have travelled that road quite a bit since my election and can understand the concerns of the contractor. $160 000 is such a small amount in the overall budget, but represents much more than just a dollar figure for the community itself and the bus contractor who runs a business and provides an essential service to the community.
The works will incorporate an appropriate intersection and a school bus turnaround area at the community. The improved intersection will make it safer for the buses and other traffic to slow down and turn into the road. The dirt road is such that I suspect many people drive past it without knowing it is even there and certainly do not expect anyone to suddenly slow down and turn into it. This is $160 000 that is extremely well spent. I thank the minister for Planning and Infrastructure for his support for this initiative in Cabinet budget decisions. I can only hope that we are able to complete the work as soon as possible.
Budget 2006-07 delivers a record $630.7m for Employment, Education and Training. This is an increase of 33% since 2001. The Building Better Schools initiative provides an additional $42m over four years for secondary education; $12.45m of this total is provided in this budget. Some of this money is used to provide 19 additional school counsellors who will be placed throughout the Territory in schools at a cost of $1.8m. A total of $2.1m will go toward provision of subject specialist teachers for remote schools.
A joint Territory/federal fund of $4.39m is provided for the National Accelerated Literacy Program. This year, the project will extend to 27 schools, including Palmerston High School. I am very excited about the accelerated literacy program because I have heard of the brilliant results achieved at Gray Primary School. The students find it empowering to make such strides, and I know the teachers are also great supporters of the program. Palmerston High School is preparing for implementation of the program there. I look forward to hearing about the successes the program will, undoubtedly, have at Palmerston High School.
I commend the government for finding in this budget $2.5m to rebuild the Wugularr School on higher ground. As the Treasurer said, sometimes things happen and government has to react quickly. What is clear in this budget is that government maintains its commitment to provide the best education possible in remote areas. We know the deplorable record of previous governments. Yet again, this Labor government has shown that it is not prepared to ignore those in bush communities and their education needs.
Palmerston High School is an extremely important asset. It is the only government high school in Palmerston. I note that $20m has been set aside for repairs and maintenance across all schools. There is also $10m available in 2006 for middle schools infrastructure. My understanding is that approximately $8m remains of the initial $10m set aside for Palmerston, and this will be used for building the new wing at Palmerston High School. I understand that this figure is not part of the $20m and $10m figure for infrastructure that I previously mentioned. Further, I understand government is not limiting the amount to be spent at Palmerston High School to simply the roughly $8m that it had already allocated. There are additional works required in classrooms that are part of the existing structure at Palmerston High School, and monies in addition to the amount for the new wing will need to be allocated to address the further infrastructure needs of the school.
Madam Speaker, I commend the Treasurer and the government on this budget. It delivers in fundamental areas of Health, Community Services, Child Care and Education. It may not be exciting, but it is fundamental.
Debate adjourned.
SPECIAL ADJOURNMENT
Mr HENDERSON (Leader of Government Business): Madam Speaker, I move that the Assembly at its rising adjourn until Tuesday, 13 June 2006 at 10 am or such other time and/or date as may be set by Madam Speaker, pursuant to sessional order.
Motion agreed to.
ADJOURNMENT
Ms MARTIN (Chief Minister): Madam Speaker, I move that the Assembly do now adjourn.
I first want to deal with an issue that emerged in the House this week. It is one that makes us all reflect on the way we act as members of parliament. We are charged with a great responsibility as members of this parliament. It is very sad when members come in here, as in one instance this week, and act incompetently and in breach of standing orders. This is what the member for Greatorex did on Tuesday night.
As members of parliament, many people visit us and make many different allegations. That is a fact of life. Part of the task of a member of parliament is to check whether what is being said to you has at least some element of truth. That is very important. In my position - I have had almost 11 years in parliament - many people said things that simply were not true. Every time someone presents you with a letter or a list of what they say are truths, and you come in here and make allegations under parliamentary privilege about those people, you are acting incompetently.
It is very important that if you do receive a copy of a letter where allegations are being made, that you, in the first instance I would say, ring the person and at least do some checking of what they are saying. However, the member for Greatorex, when he tabled a letter that made allegations about me on Tuesday night, did none of that. In fact, the facts of what he presented were wrong. The facts were, quite simply, wrong. I do not want to talk about the details of the case that he presented; it is a difficult issue which is being dealt with, quite appropriately, by Territory Housing. However, it reflects on the member for Greatorex that he did not check. He simply received a letter, and came in alleging what it said.
It is important for members in this parliament to maintain the standing of this parliament, and to do some basic checking - particularly someone who has been here as long as the member for Greatorex - to make sure that what is being alleged to them has some level of fact. It disappoints me. We have a responsibility to check. We have a responsibility to make sure that there is some semblance of truth in what we put forward. There was very little fact in what the member for Greatorex presented in the adjournment debate on Tuesday night - very little fact at all. He was attempting to slur my reputation and criticise my behaviour as a local member, and he was simply wrong.
Madam Speaker, I believe it reflects very severely on the member for Greatorex that he would take that course of action, and it saddens me that someone in this parliament would do that.
I am very happy to account for my actions. On this particular occasion, I believe I acted very appropriately and did not, in any way, undermine what was being done by Territory Housing. I have issues with some of the ways that we manage tenants in public housing, and I have certainly talked to the minister and Territory Housing about that over the last 12 months. On this occasion, I support what they are doing with a very a difficult situation. To have the member for Greatorex claim that, somehow, I was acting – as he alleged by third party - corruptly, was very inappropriate and incompetent on his behalf. It is a sad week that a member of parliament should do that.
On a much more cheery note, I would like to pay tribute to our young Territory netballers, especially those who were chosen to represent the Territory in the national Under 17s and Under 19s titles which were held last week in Sydney at the Penrith Sports Stadium. These competitions are tough. Teams are drawn from states the size of New South Wales and Victoria. With something like 7.5 million people in New South Wales and many million in Victoria and in the other states, and our population of only 204 000, it is very tough for our young players. They have a level of competition here, but we are not able to meet the competition levels which are regularly played in New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, South Australia, and Western Australia.
When you are developing young netballers, it is the regular competition you give them to lift their standards which is critical. So much so, that the ACT Under 17s team was travelling most of the year to New South Wales to play in the Sydney competition once a week. They went there in the afternoon to play in the evening competition and then have to get back to the ACT by 2 am. That is the drive you need to be able to compete on a national level.
Our teams, through our Institute of Sport, spent hours in training in the run-up to that national competition. They worked extraordinarily hard and were extraordinarily committed. I pay tribute to the Institute of Sport for the way that they nurtured the players in both the Under 17s and Under 19s netball teams.
Our teams played their heart out in the competition; however, winning was hard to come by. Both teams got close a number of times, but only once in the week in all the games they played did they win. That was the Under 19s in their last match against Tasmania. Well done, girls, in the Under 19s. The Under 17s came close but did not quite make it. However, they did the Territory proud.
I watched the teams play over four days, and you could see the improvement in the way they performed on the court, and also the attitude they took to the games. When you have lost one game after the next and your hopes are a bit wobbly, the way they regrouped and kept tackling each game was impressive. In the Under 17s, we are talking about players as young as 15-, 16- and 17-year-olds playing. The Under 19 team had a couple of injuries and had to find a couple of players to fill in. They all performed very well.
There were a number of parents who travelled down, and their support was really critical. I pay enormous tribute to the coaching and support staff who went with both teams, and also to the players.
I want to talk a little about the support teams because they did a gigantic job. For the Under 17s, the coach, Stacey West, is not only the coach but a player of national standing. She is the institute’s coach, and she is also the mother of the team. As she said to me, it is really tough in these games when you are dealing with teenagers; they need to be supported through what they are doing. After each game, they had to go through the warm-down process and strategies and also - always tough for Territory girls - through the ice baths. They have to stand up to their waist for about 15 minutes in buckets of ice. It is very good for their muscles, but Territory girls shake! That was part of the process after every game.
Stacey was awesome. She is a wonderful coach and a terrific woman, and she nurtured those Under 17s. The assistant coach was Kate Worden, who did a great job. The manager was Lorna McLaughlin and she was like a mother hen. She organised everybody, drove cars, and managed meals. Primary care was physio, Amy Terry. She bandaged people, worked on muscles, and oversaw the ice baths. It was both a love and hate relationship that the girls had with her. To Stacey, Kate, Lorna and Amy, an enormous thanks from the Territory. The Under 19’s coach was David Yeaman, assistant coach Joanna Fitzgerald, manager Sue Brinkhoff, and primary care was Catherine Hayden. Also a sterling job done by the Under 19 support teams.
I pay tribute to those players who put their hearts and souls and every bit of energy into playing for the Territory. The Under 19 captain was Sarah Williams and Claire Hayward was vice captain. The team was Marissa Chaplin, Tarli Gillam, Emma Kay, Sarrita King, Eliza McGregor, Emma Mitchener, Jamie Patterson, Keisha Oakley, Sally Jones, and Samantha Martin who had an injury. I do not think Samantha played any matches. The Under 17s were: Kelsey Weckert, Jess Moller, Carlie Martin, Georgia Leach, Jacinta Kay, Sharon Jennings, Rosemary Jennings - both from Katherine - Alyce Casilli, Kim Bruyn, Eulaly Allen, Tegan Pannell and, with much pride, the captain was my daughter, Chloe Alderman. They were terrific; they did us proud. I was a very proud mother; we were very proud parents, and her brother was there. Although Under 17s did not win, they played their hearts out, and that really is a tribute.
We are improving in netball. Our players are now up there. The institute has made an enormous difference to their capacity, and the difference between our players and the big states is now not so different. Given time, we will grow our population and Territory netballers and other teams will be up there winning and doing a lot better in national competitions. We have very fine young sportswomen in the Territory and our netballers did us proud in Sydney.
I now pay tribute to a Territorian who died recently. As many people would be aware, Angelo Madalozzo, one of the Territory’s true characters, passed away after a short illness. Angelo was a big part of Darwin’s business community and his legacy can be seen in many places across the Territory.
Angelo was born in the northern Italian Alps and headed to Australia in 1950 at the age of 23. Two years later, he arrived in Darwin to start a new life. However, things were not easy at first. With few places to stay and close to being broke, it was the generosity of the Ah Toy family at their grocery store in Knuckey Street that kept him going while he searched for work. I am told Angelo never forgot their kindness and support.
Angelo’s reputation grew quickly and, by the mid-1950s, he was one of the leading figures - if not the leading figure - in construction in the Top End, and his credits are numerous. In 1965, he won a contract in excess of $1m - one of the biggest ever awarded to a private contractor - to extend and remodel the Darwin Hospital and Myilly Point. Other examples of his work include the old Post Office which is now Darwin Central, the Katherine Hospital wards, old Darwin Supreme Courts, Housing Commission flats in Mitchell Street, Stage 1 of the Darwin High School, the old Telegraph Exchange, the old fire station, the Don Hotel and the ABC building. That is an impressive body of work.
In 1969, together with Kurt and Joanna Scheiter, he bought land and some old buildings at Mandorah. By 1972, Angelo had built the Mandorah Hotel which he ran with his family. Angelo will be missed by this community by many people, and I would like to pass on my sympathy to Lisetta, their three children, and the rest of his family and friends. I seek leave to incorporate into the public record the eulogy that was delivered at Angelo’s funeral.
Leave granted.
Angelo Maddalozzo
A Life
A Life
- Friends, Ladies and Gentlemen
The Madalozzo family has asked that today you join them not so much to mourn but to celebrate and acknowledge an extraordinary life, that of Angelo Maddalozzo.
A husband to Lisetta, father to three children, Mavi, Diana and Denis, he was a brother to Albina, Anotonietta and Clelia, a grandfather to Adriana, Nadine and Erika, a friend to many in the Darwin business community and many of you here today.
Angelo was born in the northern Italian Alps in a town called Arsie` in the province of Belluno in the Dolomites.
His father, Giovanni Maddalozzo and his mother Maria De Nale were farmers and life was tough. Angelo quickly learnt to be independent and resilient. He had to be! Yes, life was tough but there were good times too, especially in the summer months with his cousins and grandparents high in the Italian Alps tending the herd. it was exciting and they were living a real boy’s adventure.
This independence he learnt as a young boy remained with him in his business life and right to the end. I have never met anybody as fiercely independent as Angelo.
It was 10 May 1950. Angelo was 23 years of age and with a cardboard suitcase, he boarded the Ugolino Vivaldi and headed to Australia – the land of opportunity. He landed in Adelaide with the equivalent of a few pennies in his pockets. Met by his uncle, he went straight to work hardly knowing a word of English. That didn’t matter to Angelo, he was keen to work and establish his new life in Australia.
Whatever job came along he was the first to put his hand up. He was a very good stonemason and secured work in Broken Hill as a bricklayer and tiler. His reputation grew and he secured a contract at Mt Isa Mines.
It was during this time in Mt Isa that he met his first partner, Moretti, a builder. Together they bought an old Dodge truck, for they had heard there was plenty of work in a place called Darwin, somewhere up in the far north. It was 1952, they were young, fit and prepared to go anywhere for the work. So, with a fistful of hope, a pinch of bravado and a few prayers they headed for Darwin in the old Dodge, with a wheelbarrow and a couple of swags in search of opportunity and adventure.
When they arrived in Darwin, it was clear to them that very little had been rebuilt after the bombing of Darwin. They could see the future. There was also very little accommodation available, they found a water tank at the bottom of where Parliament House now sits and made it their home, but they were almost penniless. In fact, a story is often told – the partners could not even afford a bottle of Coca-Cola between them in those days which cost around two shillings, or some may remember it as two bob.
It was the generosity of the Ah Toy family at their grocery store in Knuckey Street who provided credit to the two young Italians – that kept them going wile in search of work. Angelo believed this was an incredible gesture and he was always very grateful to the Ah Toy family for their trust and support during those early years.
In 1952, Angelo and Moretti secured their first job at the 2 Mile, which is now Parap Grove, to build a couple of houses but they had a problem. The famous Dodge truck was crushed in a train accident near the Ben Hammond workshop in Stuart Park – what to do? Remember, this was their first job! To complete this job, they carted the building materials in a wheelbarrow and on their shoulders from a workshop in Fannie Bay to the 2 Mile site. The job was a success. The work continued and the reputation grew.
In 1954, he called for his wife-to-be, Lisetta Smaniotto, to come to Australia. At the time, there were only a handful of Italian women in Darwin. Lisetta arrived on 28 December. Imagine this: it was the buildup, the beginning of the Wet Season, nobody had airconditioning. But guess what? Angelo had provided a new house with fans – just as well!
They were married on 15 January 1955 by Bishop O’Louglin in the old St Mary’s, which in those days was a small wood and iron building, next door to where we are gathered today.
In the 20-year period from 1954 to Cyclone Tracy in 1974, Angelo was Mr Construction in Darwin – without question. The NT News of Thursday, 1 July 1965 reported in big bold headlines ‘Local Builder wins 1m hospital job’. Angelo was awarded by the then Commonwealth minister for Works, John Gorton, a 1 160 898 contract to extend and remodel the Darwin Hospital at Myilly Point. Remember, it was 1965. It was also reported as one of the biggest contracts in the Territory and the first of this size to a private contractor.
During this same period, he and his good friend and foreman, Alfonso Ceron, were responsible for the construction of many buildings in Darwin and the NT such as: the old Post Office (now Darwin Central); the Katherine Hospital wards; the old Darwin Supreme Court; the nurses quarters at Myilly Point; Housing Commission flats on Mitchell Street; Stage 1 of Darwin High School; the repair to the old Legislative Assembly building; the old Telephone Exchange; Nightcliff Primary School; the old fire station; the Don Hotel; and the ABC building to name just a few. There were many others including his own – Moonta, Tamar and Beagle Houses.
He was just 37 years of age. The opportunities and dreams he had as a 23-year-old landing in Australia with no English were being realised. He emerged as the biggest building to operate in the Northern Territory at that time.
Once he was asked: ‘How did he juggle so many projects at one time?’ In typical Angelo style he responded – ‘We didn’t sleep’. In fact, at times this was very true. Angelo would travel to Adelaide River overnight to collect fine river sand for the next day’s concreting. This was the work ethic of the day.
Later, he joined a company called Interconstruction with Joe Vogliotti and Peter La Pira Snr. They completed many civil projects including the road to Borroloola, and owned quarries and cement trucks.
In 1969, Angelo together with Kurt and Joanna Scheiter bought land and some crude buildings on what is now known as the Mandorah Hotel. By 1972, he had completed the construction of the current hotel and ran it with his family including his brothers-in-law, Frank Smaniotto and Fiore Taverna and their wives, Gianna and Lora.
It was also during this time that his friendship with Benny Taverna began, a strong relationship; that lasted until Benny retired as Angelo’s trusty work colleague, in the year 2000.
These, ladies and gentlemen, were the heady days of construction in Darwin. Boom times in the Top End when the Aspa and Penthouse Nightclubs were the places to relax, to sing and dance, and Angelo loved to sing and dance; when the Datsun 180B four-door sedan was a flash car; when Peppi’s was the classy restaurant in town; the Mandorah Hotel was Darwin’s luxury seaside resort; a trip to Rapid Creek was normal for a picnic; and a trip to Howard Springs – well, that was a special occasion.
Angelo provided employment to many Europeans who came to Darwin in search of work and a new start. More so, he provided opportunity for many to enter business.
Politically correct he was not. He had old-fashioned values and spoke his mind - and boy, did he speak his mind! With Angelo there was no mistaking, you knew where you stood at all times!
Angelo was a visionary beyond his years and some even say a maverick for this time. He helped shape the city of Darwin and leaves an enormous legacy which is still very evident today.
Around his home and his family, Angelo was a great mimic and storyteller with a sense of humour second to none. He had nicknames for everyone – Caruso, Mussolini, Pancho, Mulo, Orso, Mandarin. If he did not know you, there was a good chance he would call you Hombre, Amigo or Mister straight from a John Wayne movie – his favourite. And even if he did, he would still call you Hombre, Amigo or Mister.
He had enormous respect for those older than himself. He loved their life stories and the knowledge they held but he really loved the company of the young – they kept him sharp.
He loved a lot of things about life, particularly the company of people from all walks and colour. He loved to tell a story because he had a story for every occasion. He loved heavy machinery, the bigger the better. Angelo loved a robust debate on any subject. If someone was getting the better of him he would say: ‘Hold on, hold on, Mister’, and from that point you knew you couldn’t win. He wouldn’t stop to take a breath. But let me say they were truly enjoyable times around the dining table.
But above all, he loved and treasured his family – they were central to his life.
Angelo passed away peacefully last Saturday from a short illness – he was at home with his family.
He was fond of Darwin, his adopted city of 55 years, but his heart was always in the Dolomites to which he will return.
The family thanks you for taking the time today to attend this service acknowledging Angelo’s contribution to life. A special thank you also to those who visited during his time in hospital, particularly in Adelaide. And to Moreno Mattiazzo who kept things in order during Denis and Angelo’s absence.
In closing, I would like to share a little anecdote that we all witnessed recently while Angelo was in hospital.
A doctor was doing his rounds and asked Angelo how he was feeling. In his usual style, Angelo responded: ‘Very good. Last night I had a conversation with St Peter and he told me there is no room for me up there or any work for me to do’.
Well, last Saturday, St Peter realised he needed Angelo’s help, because he called - apparently to repair the road and gates to heaven. St Peter’s not silly, he knows Angelo had a good mate in Darwin who can make a new gate.
That’s Angelo - he loved to make a good deal.
Today, let us celebrate a great life – a fulfilled one.
The life of Angelo Maddalozzo.
The sand sculpture competition was very popular. As you can imagine, there was no shortage of entrants in the thong throwing contest and the eating competition, where participants had to consume a cold meat pie, a warm sarsaparilla and chocolate Freddo Frogs. I do not know what the indigestion level was later.
At midday, there was the citizenship ceremony and around 40 new Australians received their citizenship and certificates. The Family Fun Day also has an important purpose; it is about making Territory families aware of the services and networks in the community to support them. There was plenty of information available from the stalls on the day.
I congratulate Anglicare for organising such a terrific event. They are a magnificent organisation which continues to make a positive contribution to our community and our great Territory lifestyle. Many thanks to their chairperson, Bishop Philip Freier, their acting CEO, Iain Summers, and to their dedicated team of staff and volunteers. I particularly single out Julie Hoare, who is Anglicare’s Community Relations Officer; Afzala Awan the coordinator of the Family Fun Day; and Sandy Graham, head of Anglicare’s Community Development Division. A special thanks to the event supporters including TIO, Neighbourhood Watch, Volunteering Australia, Lone Fathers’ Association, Red Cross, NT Fire and Emergency Services, Power and Water Corporation, St John Ambulance, the Guides Association, Calico Connections, Dave and Linda Collins from Paparazzi Caf, Peter Walkington from the Airport Resort, Monica Napper from Monica Napper Photography, Betta Electrical, Cosmos Foods and Cadbury Schweppes, Independent Grocers, Top End Sounds, Spotlight Territory Party Hire and Coromal Caravans.
Dr LIM (Greatorex): Madam Speaker, for a speech that has been expunged, many people have chosen to comment upon it. I find it very curious. Obviously, it is a Clayton’s expunging when others choose to speak about something that is no longer on the Parliamentary Record.
Tonight I have another matter to raise which has been quite troublesome for some months. Before I start, I would like to quote some paragraphs from a speech made by a particular member:
- … I pledge to work hard to meet your needs and overcome the crises that you confront daily. When we all have shelter, when we all have adequate health care, when we all enjoy an education that equips us to succeed in life, my work will be bearing fruit. When we will accept our differences without fear or suspicion, when we all care about those most vulnerable in society, I will know that my work is easing. When our children have grown and taken freedom, love and security for granted, I know that my work is nearly done. When we know who we truly are, where we have been and where we must go, I will take time to rest.
Later, in August 2004, this same member said:
- For too long, our community, through the failure of leadership from previous governments …
Referring to the Country Liberal Party government:
- … has let down children in need.
Further, the member said:
- I promised myself that I would not turn my back on a single Territory child in need that I come across. It is a promise I have managed to keep.
- In his ignorance, the dinosaur from Drysdale …
Referring to the former member for Drysdale, Mr Steve Dunham:
- … calls for us to actively recruit indigenous foster carers. We have been doing that for a couple of years now in collaboration with indigenous foster care organisations throughout the Territory. I am full aware of the work and assistance we have given to KARU in the Top End to do just that.
KARU has been trying to talk to this particular member, the Minister for Family and Community Services, and has been faced with a brick wall. This Minister for Family and Community Services has unilaterally removed funding from KARU so that it now is unable to operate. I wrote to the minister on 12 April seeking a briefing and response to some questions I had about KARU. I finally received a response from her a few days ago offering me a briefing. Obviously, during budget week, it is most inappropriate and difficult to try to find time to do this. Hopefully, by next week, the minister’s office will be able to accord me some time to do the briefing without the problem of the budget hanging over our head.
Over the last six to nine months - probably even more than nine months – KARU has been working very assiduously to get itself back on track and trying to take care of the children who are under their charge to ensure that any Aboriginal children who are fostered are fostered under the principles of what is currently called Aboriginal Child Placement Principle. This is where an Aboriginal child is fostered by family members, or extended family members and, failing that, by another Aboriginal family within the same clan or community and, if not, other families and then, failing that, using non-Aboriginal families as the last resort.
Under new management and new governance, KARU actually has its act together - it really has. Sure, there were many times, in many years past, when KARU had not performed as well. Several reviews were done. In fact, one review was done under the direction of the Department of Health and Community Services. That review made many pertinent comments which were not followed by the department or the minister. The upshot of that was that funding was removed from KARU and now they are struggling.
Under the Community Welfare Act, Part IX, Aboriginal Child Welfare, section 69, Aboriginal child in need of care, it states:
- Where a child in need of care is an Aboriginal, the minister shall ensure that –
(a) every effort is made to arrange appropriate custody within the child's extended family;
(b) where such custody cannot be arranged to the minister's satisfaction, every effort is made to arrange appropriate custody of the child by Aboriginal people who have the correct relationship with the child in accordance with Aboriginal customary law; and
(c) where the custody referred to in paragraph (a) or (b) cannot be arranged without endangering the welfare of the child – after consultation with –
- (i) the child's parents and other persons with responsibility for the welfare of the child in accordance with Aboriginal customary law; and
- (ii) such Aboriginal welfare organisations as are appropriate in the case of the particular child, a placement that is consistent with the best interests and the welfare of the child shall be arranged taking into consideration –
- (iii) preference for custody of the child by Aboriginal persons who are suitable in the opinion of the minister;
- (iv) placement of the child in geographical proximity to the family or other relatives of the child who have an interest in, and responsibility for, the welfare of the child; and
- (v) undertakings by the persons having the custody of the child to encourage and facilitate the maintenance of contact between the child and his or her own kin and with his or her own culture.
The questions I put to the minister were: what was the level of funding to KARU? How was it arrived at? What were the negotiated outcomes from KARU for the funding that it has received each year from the Northern Territory government, and whether the outcomes were achieved by KARU for the funding that they received? Then I asked: ‘You have now withdrawn the funding; what was the rationale for the termination of the service agreement with KARU?’ I have some letters here which do not explain why, except that the department has quoted clause 19.4 which allows the department to withdraw unilaterally. That does not give KARU any sense of fair play; there is no natural justice in it.
I further asked the minister: how many children were referred by FACS each year to KARU for placement? How are these children referred to KARU in the first instance so that KARU can follow them up? What process has been put in place by FACS now to replace the services that were being provided by KARU?
I am interested to hear the minister tell me what the status of the Aboriginal Child Placement Principle is in relation to the operation of FACS with Aboriginal children in the Northern Territory, and what compliance FACS observes with the Aboriginal Child Placement Principle. I am still waiting for those answers and I hope the briefing will provide me with that.
A letter was written by the Secretariat of National Aboriginal Islander Child Care, SNAICC, to the Chief Minister as far back as 2 April 2006. It is now five weeks-plus, and they have yet to receive a response from the Chief Minister. SNAICC makes some very valid points. They wrote to the Chief Minister saying:
- SNAICC, the Secretariat of National Aboriginal Islander Child Care, writes in relation to the discontinuation of funding for an alternative care program within the KARU Aboriginal Child Care Agency.
SNAICC recognised that there were challenges involved in providing care for vulnerable children at risk, and with any form of alternative care which meets the cultural and developmental needs. However, what SNAICC also said was that it believed that the Department of Health and Community Services has not acted appropriately in deciding to withdraw funding from KARU. It arrived at that decision after considering several independent reviews that were done on the agency. One of the reviews considered by SNAICC was prepared by Actualize, which was commissioned by the department in 2005, with KARU’s involvement and support, to prepare a report.
I quote from the letter from SNAICC:
- SNAICC believes that the department has made a decision to withdraw funding based on the assumptions about the ongoing viability of KARU’s governance and having itself failed to implement the recommendations of the report prepared by Actualize Consulting.
It further goes to say that:
- SNAICC notes that the overall recommendation of that review was that ‘within current resource levels, KARU lacks the capacity to meet the service standards’.
What it says is that KARU has been under-funded by the government to provide services for Aboriginal children in foster care. Having under-funded KARU, it now says KARU is not performing and, because they are not performing: ‘We are going to close you down’. You cannot set up an agency to fail. If you are going to do that, do not do it at all. If you are going to do it, resource it adequately.
In this letter from SNAICC, it says further:
- The review also noted serious systemic flaws in areas of direct departmental responsibility including the failure to finalise Out of Home Care standards, inadequate carer training and failures in the department’s case planning.
That is an indictment on the minister who gets up here and says: ‘Bleeding heart me, I feel so sorry for these people and I will do all I can and I have done all I can and I have been successful’. Well, she has not been successful.
In SNAICC’s letter it says:
- The review states: ‘If funding to KARU continues, the consultants strongly recommend that: 1.. Funding levels to KARU are revised’. The review made it clear that service standards could not be met within the current level of funding provided for the program.
- Despite this advice, the department provided no additional funding for the program but established a monitoring committee to oversee service standards.
There you are - you are setting up an agency to fail. That is not the way to ensure that Aboriginal children get proper foster care under the Aboriginal Child Placement Principle.
Is the minister breaking the law? I am sure she will come back and say: ‘No, no way in the world am I breaking the law’.
What KARU needs through all its reviews and reassessments is about $160 000 per annum of funding for it to conduct its work. I am sure this government, with a $3bn budget, would be able to find $160 000 to provide to KARU so that they can get back to doing the job that they have been chartered to do, and ensure that indigenous children are fostered under these principles. Without government funding, it cannot work and it could be a problem.
Mr STIRLING (Nhulunbuy): Madam Speaker, I seek leave at the outset to table and speak to two petitions which, beyond my control, were unable to be tabled this morning.
Madam SPEAKER: Are you seeking leave?
Mr STIRLING: I am seeking leave to table two petitions.
Madam SPEAKER: I will just ask advice.
Leave granted.
Mr STIRLING: The first petition was handed to me some time ago outside parliament at a meeting of parents and students representing Ludmilla School. The head of the petition reads:
- We the parents and community of Ludmilla school urge the Northern Territory government to dismiss the Ludmilla model as outlined in the Building Better Schools package and that Ludmilla school continues to offer a primary program from preschool to Year 6 to its local community.
I was happy to meet with the Ludmilla Primary School Council and representatives of the community shortly before that meeting outside parliament on one particular evening. I pay tribute to the professionalism in the way that meeting was conducted and the presentation of information by the school council chairperson. It was quite a thorough presentation in being able to draw on some facts and statistics from the Australian Bureau of Statistics about likely population growth into the future, and some demographic forecasts.
However, I was also taken that evening by the short but very meaningful contribution, in my view, from four mothers of students at Ludmilla - indigenous mothers from Bagot - each of them working, and every one of those mothers had been students at Ludmilla Primary School. I thank Ludmilla Primary School for the efforts that they have made in defence of their school in this whole question of structural change around middle schools. I thank them for the petition.
I table that along with a petition that was handed to me at ANZAC Hill High School when I was in Alice Springs a few weeks ago meeting with and visiting both ANZAC Hill High School and Alice Springs High School.
During my visit to ANZAC Hill High School, I met with representatives of the student council. There was a delightful young man by the name of Sonny Day - small in stature with a huge smile and an engaging young man who was very articulate. He spoke to me during this meeting with students about how he felt and how he thought his colleagues felt about ANZAC Hill High School. It was his task at the meeting to present me with this petition. I gave him an undertaking that I would, on his behalf, present this petition to parliament and I do so now. I was very taken with young Sonny Day. It is students of his ilk who have so much potential and whose best interests we must safeguard and preserve going forward. It is young students like Sonny Day who are in the forefront of my mind when we get around to the final decision-making on what model we will accept under the middle school structure and processes.
Mr VATSKALIS (Casuarina): Madam Acting Deputy Speaker, I join the hundreds of thousands of Territorians and citizens of Darwin to express my relief that Darwin missed being hit by Cyclone Monica recently, despite all the frightening scenarios and predictions in models we have seen on the Internet, especially from the Bureau of Meteorology.
However, the whole event was a timely warning for us. We have become very complacent and have left plenty of things lying around our yards during the cyclone season. Very quickly, we had to empty our yards and safely store items like basketball rings, pots, and all the junk we leave lying around the garden. It was a good exercise.
My parents are visiting from Greece, and were very impressed by how quickly and disciplined the people were in responding to the warnings on the radio. Their comment was that if something like that happened in Greece, there would be panic in the streets and people running around in circles making a lot of noise but doing nothing else. Here, people were disciplined and followed the instructions of the Bureau of Meteorology and the Emergency Services.
The people who were allocated to man the shelters turned up in time and in full force to make sure that the shelters were open and ready to accept people who wanted to be sheltered during the cyclone because they were unsure about the integrity of their house or the potential of their house to withstand a Category 5 cyclone.
In my electorate of Casuarina, Dripstone High School is the cyclone shelter. When it was announced that it would be opened, people who were supposed to be there to man it were there. My sincere thanks to Andrew and Cheryl Fyles; Andrew was there in time and organised everything very well.
Also congratulations to Morris and Debbie Bastian and Herb and Anne. Congratulations to Lyn Elphinstone, the Principal of Dripstone High School, and Kay Brohier, the Administration Manager, and their staff. I am aware of the disruptions and inconvenience that Cyclone Monica caused the school and the teachers. I also understand the next day when the shelter was closed and the school re-opened, there were some problems. Teachers had to teach in classrooms which, a few hours previously, were shelters. They overcame the difficulties and everything went really well. Once again, I congratulate them.
We have to always be alarmed and alert about the possibility of a cyclone hitting Darwin. We have had a few near misses from Cyclone Thelma and Cyclone Ingrid. This time, Cyclone Monica came too close for comfort. We do not know what is going to happen in the future, and we have to always be ready. It was very surprising on Sunday before Cyclone Monica, I visited my Greek compatriots to celebrate the Greek Easter at Fannie Bay in wonderful, beautiful Dry Season weather. A few days later, there was rain and warnings about the cyclone. This is an indication of how quickly things can change, especially in the Wet Season.
Back to my electorate and Dripstone High School. The students and the staff from Dripstone High School have just returned from another highly successful excursion to Japan. The touring party travelled from 1 April to 16 April 2006. The trip was a continuation of the cultural exchange between Dripstone High School and the Kibi Cho Junior High School in the Wakayama Prefecture that began some nine years ago. This is Dripstone’s third trip to Japan. In January this year, the township of Kibi Cho joined two other towns to form the new township of Aridagawa Cho. During the first week of the program, students and staff toured Mt Fuji, Tokyo City, Mt Norikura, Takayama, Kyoto and Nara. A highlight for many was the visit to famous Mt Fuji, the symbol of Japan.
However, this was surpassed by visiting Mt Norikura, which enabled many of the students to get their first experience, glimpse and touch of snow. Kids growing up in the tropic zone do not see snow very often. I well recall the reaction of my son when we went to Greece and woke in the morning and it had snowed. He first saw the snow covering the cars, and he scooped it up and said in his surprise: ‘Hey, it is cold’. Living in the tropics you really do not know what snow is all about.
The second week the students spent in Aridagawa Cho, where all participants experienced the Japanese lifestyle and culture by being billeted with families from Kibi Cho Junior High School and attending classes at the many junior high schools in the Aridagawa area.
Once again, I have been requested by residents in Nakara and Wagaman to lobby for the closure of two laneways in the area. These laneways are sites of antisocial behaviour and other events. I was pleased to assist residents by lobbying the Darwin City Council on their behalf, and to advise that the request of the residents of Wagaman has been satisfied as council has agreed to sell the laneways to the two adjoining properties.
Following the closure of the Casuarina laneway near the bus terminal, the residents have told me they now have peaceful nights; there is no antisocial behaviour and the laneway is not used as an escape route by juveniles at night. I thank Casuarina Shopping Square which provides security to people to lock the laneway at night and re-open it in the morning. It was a great initiative and helped to reduce antisocial behaviour and problems in the nearby area.
Again, I will call on Darwin City Council to have an evaluation of the laneways in Darwin city, and the ones they are not using any more which have become focal points for antisocial behaviour, to be either closed and sold to adjoining residents, or they find a measure to reduce antisocial behaviour, either by installing special security lights, or find another way. I am always here to help. Along with my colleagues, the members for Johnston and Sanderson, we are all prepared to help out to reduce antisocial problems in our areas.
The Tiwi Landcare Group is an extremely hard-working group of volunteers within our community who conduct regular working bees along the Casuarina Beach and Tiwi Creek sites. They work tirelessly to preserve and beautify the areas within our environment so the whole community can enjoy it. The group has been working in partnership with Northern Territory Parks and Wildlife over the past five years to eradicate heavily infested areas of exotic grasses and weeds, and the revegetation of those areas along the Casuarina Coastal Reserve. Their hard work over the years has resulted in the successful revegetation of two degraded areas within the Casuarina Coastal Reserve, and has also been extremely helpful in enhancing our famous Casuarina Beach.
I was proud to be asked to provide a letter of support for their application for an Envirofund Grant, and I strongly supported the application. This will enable them to further revegetate and beautify other areas around the Casuarina Coastal Reserve, and to purchase plant stock, additional equipment for slashing weeds and associated safety equipment, plus water quality equipment. A big thank you to Tiwi Landcare Group. I hope other Landcare groups follow their example. A trip to Casuarina will show you how a small group of people can do many things.
Another initiative I have established is regular meetings between the police and people in my electorate, and also the shopping centres. Casuarina shopping centre management staff met in my office with the Officer-in-Charge of the Casuarina Police Station, Tim Moseley, and discussed issues which affect the Casuarina Shopping Square. I was very pleased to hear from Tim that he will continue the patrols within the Casuarina Shopping Square. However, this time it will be uniformed police officers because, sometimes, people feel comfortable when they see a uniformed police officer patrolling the area. You might have 100 police officers in civvies and, if people do not see a police officer, they feel somewhat apprehensive. With the initiative Tim Moseley introduced with the police officers, things have been very good. Tim also pointed out some issues to Casuarina Shopping Square management and some resolutions will be adopted. In some cases, the management group expressed surprise they had not thought about it earlier and thanked the police for their advice.
The meetings will continue on a regular basis, not only with the shopping centre management, but also with people in the area. In talking to the police, we found that the police can provide feedback to the community and, sometimes, the community provides valuable information to police. Such feedback can result in resolutions to some of the problems.
I want to talk about the two significant events in Darwin: the Islamic Youth Forum and the Islamic Open Day. The Islamic Youth Forum was initiated by the Islamic community. They wanted to get young people from the community together to find out how they feel at this time when Muslims around the world and in Australia are being targeted and characterised as terrorists, and how other people perceive the Muslims in our society. I was pleased to see that about 50 young men and women from 12 years onwards attended the youth forum. They expressed concerns about the way the media portrayed Muslim youth in Australia with - one exception: the Northern Territory media has not followed the media in other states and has never published a defamatory or inflammatory story about Muslims.
I was very impressed with the young women of Muslim faith; they were very assertive and quite vocal about what they saw as their rights and their position in the society and within the Islamic community. Some of them choose to wear the hijab and go to school, and were prepared to talk openly about their experiences.
It was a fantastic initiative by the Islamic Society of the Northern Territory. I congratulate them. Hopefully, it will be followed up and we will have other similar events in the future.
The other event I attended on 22 April was the Islamic Open Day and the 35th anniversary of the Islamic Society of the Northern Territory. I was very impressed with the large number of people of many faiths and ethnic or cultural backgrounds who attended that event, following the invitation extended by the president of the association, Dr Waqar Ahmad. The Islamic Society initiative to have an open day provided an opportunity for people to find out about Islam; the preaching of Islam; how Islam, Christianity and Judaism are interrelated; and the opinion of the Islamic people about terrorism and the people who are using Islam as an excuse to conduct terrorist acts.
There were many displays. People were invited to attend the evening prayers and Bishop Philip Freier, the Anglican Bishop was there, along with representatives of Sikhs, Buddhists and Hindus; fellow parliamentarians: the Speaker, the Chief Minister, my fellow ministers, the members for Wanguri and Karama, and Len Kiely MLA; and many representatives of ethnic communities in Darwin. It was a great afternoon and the dinner that followed was also attended by many of the people who took part in the evening prayers.
Let us not forget, Islam is the world’s second largest religion. In the Territory, our Islamic Society numbers about 1000 people. These people come from many different countries: Pakistan, India, Indonesia, and Malaysia. Most of these people are professionals who work in the public service, the university, or have their own business. All of them have come here because they want to make a better life for themselves and their families.
I have said before, Darwin offers unique opportunities in that we do not have ghettos. Our neighbourhoods are mixed neighbourhoods. My next door neighbour is English, further up the road are Sri Lankan people and a couple of Greeks. Nobody identifies people by their nationality or ethnic background. We celebrate each others nationalities, customs and cultural backgrounds.
With the Muslim community, we do not see what you see in other states. I could not care less if my neighbour wears a hijab or a turban, or he has a beard, as long as they are a real good Territorians, peaceful neighbours, and we can work together to bring up our families in a peaceful society.
I grew up in a mono-cultural society. However, in the small town where my grandparents used to live there was a big Armenian population, a Turkish population and a Jewish population. I knew a lot about the Armenians because Armenians are Eastern Orthodox and we celebrated the same celebrations and had the same Mass. I did not know anything at all about the Jews, Turks or Muslims. Because we did not know anything about them, we did not feel very comfortable and did not really trust them.
What the Islamic Society did in opening their doors to tell people about Islam, and that the basis of their religion is very close to the Christian religions or Judaism, was very important. Knowledge is power and when you have knowledge you are not afraid of the unknown.
Congratulations to the Islamic community on their initiative. Our government will continue to support the Islamic community. We gave them a grant of $200 000 to upgrade their hall and to provide some new facilities - absolutely necessary for the Islamic people. This government will stand by our fellow Muslim Territorians because the Territory is a place where many nationalities can come together, make their home, and contribute to the economic and cultural development of the Territory.
When some of my Greek compatriots first came here, they became very good friends with the indigenous Territorians in Darwin. In some cases, they refused to comply with the then legislation. When they played soccer the best goalie they ever had was, as they called him, a blackfella from Bagot. When they won the match, they used to have a barbecue and a few beers. At that time, you were not allowed to give beer to Aboriginal people. So, even though it was the middle of the Wet Season they would go inside, close their windows so the police would not see them, and celebrate together. They had to sweat a lot at the time because there were no airconditioners. They saw people as they were, and did not see colour, faith or background.
Ms LAWRIE (Karama): Mr Acting Deputy Speaker, I congratulate some of the students in my electorate who have been excelling in literacy at their schools. As the member for Karama, it is a privilege to present literacy awards at my local primary schools.
I congratulate recent award recipients in literacy. At Malak Primary School: Jaimee Boorer, James Novak, May Phuangprasert and Chloe Turbill. Congratulations to those students who are excelling in literacy.
At Manunda Terrace Primary School, the recent recipients of the citizenship awards were Kirralee Bin Omar and Aaliyah Bailey.
At Karama Primary School, the winners of the recent Endeavour Awards were Nicolas Baber, Shea-lee Francis, Andrew Thai and Noelisha Young.
All these fine young students, who have been working diligently at school and were recognised and nominated by their teachers and endorsed by the principal, were recipients of the member for Karama awards. It is a pleasure, as a local member, to visit the school communities to encourage young students in making the most of their opportunity in education. It is an inspiration to see these kids putting so much effort into their school work and also being good citizens at their schools. They are to be congratulated. I know it gives them a great deal of pleasure.
I was stopped at the shopping centre recently by one of the award recipients and she said: ‘I was so happy to get the award’. I give out a gift voucher from Casuarina Shopping Square as part of the award, and she let me know that she was not spending her gift voucher. It meant so much to her that she is hanging on to it. It was one of those really touching moments. As local member, you realise you can acknowledge the effort put in by the young people. Congratulations to all those award recipients.
I want to talk about a local activity which is well supported by the Karama and Malak communities. Karama and Malak Neighbourhood Watch is a very effective local neighbourhood watch group. We meet each month and alternate our meetings between Malak and Karama. At the first meeting of the year at Malak Primary School, we met the new police Officer-in-Charge of Casuarina, Tim Moseley. We said we wanted to see an increased police presence in the local area.
I was very impressed with the Officer-in-Charge of Casuarina police. He responded appropriately to our request by setting up a local operation in Karama and Malak. This included a police van presence at the Karama Shopping Centre, which provided the opportunity for residents to talk to local police, have their queries answered and, importantly, have the opportunity to join the local Neighbourhood Watch. I have had reports back from police that that was a very good operation, with some new members coming to Neighbourhood Watch, and it generated much interest from the local community in talking to the police. In addition to the police van, there were extra police patrols through the streets in Karama and Malak and a police presence around the shopping centre.
It was great to see the Aboriginal Community Police Officers walking through the shopping centre having a chat to people. It gave people a real sense of community in Karama and Malak to see the police respond so positively to our request for an increased police presence. It is good to see action rather than just rhetoric. I received a flyer in my letterbox from the Leader of the Opposition calling for an increased police presence after this operation. I thought ‘They are out of touch with what is happening in the community’, because it was a phenomenal police presence over those couple of months.
The Officer-in-Charge of Casuarina is committed to continuing to be proactive in policing in the area. I was having a chat at the local shopping centre in Karama with a very senior officer of police who was talking to me about the approach they are taking with mounted patrols. There is an effort to increase the number of patrols because, of course, they are a very visible police presence in our community.
I also thank Youth Beat who participated in this operation and who work collaboratively with local police patrols. The youth workers from Youth Beat were also a part of this operation and pulled their Youth Beat band to the area of Karama and Malak quite regularly during this operation to interact with the youth. We have many kids in the area who choose to wander the streets at night. Some of them may not be exhibiting criminal behaviour but, it is unsettling and unnerving to the local residents to see kids on the streets at night when most people would agree they should be at home in bed having a good night sleep ready for school the next day.
Youth Beat plays a vital role in our community talking to the kids, finding out why they are on the street, and what support they need in their life to take a better path in their life. I congratulate Mission Australia for the Youth Beat program and encourage them to continue to work with our youth to try to work through many of the issues which get the kids down. Often, the kids come from very disruptive backgrounds and, sometimes, they prefer to hang out with their friends than deal with the home front. I encourage Youth Beat in the work that they are doing.
On another positive aspect, Ramon Munnich, a young man from Malak Primary School, went to Singapore to attend the international baseball tournament. I was happy to help sponsor Ramon’s trip. I have had reports that he had a fantastic time and it was an incredible learning experience in his baseball career. I congratulate Ramon on his successful trip to Singapore.
A big event coming up in Malak is the celebration of the Malak Primary School’s 25th birthday. They are having a huge day this month on Friday, 19 May. The school has been preparing for the celebration all year. They have a very hard-working team of school council parents, the staff, and their very able bodied principal, Russell Legg. The first half hour will be the formal part of the day with speeches, and then it will be on to the fun. There are a whole range of activities planned for the day: raffles, photo displays, food stalls, story telling, and a band which will give people the opportunity to dance. Casuarina Kiwanis have donated their time and bain-maries for the day.
Invitations have been sent out far and wide to attract past students back to the school to celebrate the 25th birthday. These invitations have been created by children at the school. Congratulations to the current students at the school for wholeheartedly getting involved in the planning for the birthday celebrations.
The school is also producing a calendar which has been an enormous production. I acknowledge the work of Trish Espinoza in putting that calendar together for the school.
There have been many donations from local businesses to support the school’s celebrations. It is often difficult to single out one business in particular, but I was struck by the sheer generosity that I have witnessed on many occasions now by the business, Pearl Galleria, in the mall. They really do support the local community with donations of pearls for fundraising efforts. Hearty congratulations and thanks to Pearl Galleria for supporting the Malak Primary School’s 25th birthday celebrations.
I am looking forward to getting out to the school in the next week or so to present the April and May student awards and participating in their birthday celebrations.
Another success story is at Manunda Terrace Primary School. A group of students from the school attended the inaugural Darwin Zone Interschool Chess Championship which was held at Casuarina Senior College in Term 1. This group of budding young chess players performed extremely well. They went on to win the competition, and will represent Darwin at the national championships in Melbourne to be held in Term 4. The winning team members were Liam Stuart, Kieran Gillespie, Michael Ferrer, Abi Gaby and Michael Bennett. A hearty congratulations to those chess players.
The chess program is ongoing at Manunda Terrace Primary under the guidance of chess coach, Mark Hodgson. I thank Mark for the effort he is putting in with the students in finetuning their chess skills. He is organising a whole school competition in Term 3 to select the elite team that will go on to represent the school and, indeed, Darwin, in Melbourne at the National Chess Championships. The school is busy in fundraising mode to assist those families whose students are selected to represent the school in Melbourne. The food and accommodation there will be supplied by Chess Kids Australia.
As a local member, you are forever asking Darwin City Council to do what is the day-to-day work of council. I want to take time out to thank the parks staff. They have worked tirelessly through the Wet Season to keep our local parks looking beautiful. Even on rainy days, I have seen the parks staff mowing those parks. It really has made a difference to the electorate to see the effort made by Darwin City Council workers to keep the beautification aspects of Malak and Karama looking terrific.
In keeping with that, I want to thank the owners of the local shopping centres, both the Yap family at Malak and the La Pira family at Karama. They have also made great efforts in their maintenance program to ensure that both those shopping centres continue to look well kept. It really makes life in the suburbs pleasant when our surrounds are beautiful. It is a bit of a chore, as we all know, getting out there and constantly mowing through the Wet, but it makes a world of difference when our suburb is looking as good as it can in the glorious growth of the Wet Season. The community has benefited.
As I said at the last sittings, we have a doctor. I want to thank Gervin; he has done a great job. I am getting positive feedback about the service he is providing as a GP in the local community. In a rare thing, he is a bulk billing GP. People have been impressed by his absolute attention to detail in their medical care. I extend a hearty thanks to a hard-working local GP, who is at the coalface caring for the health of our community. It is making an enormous difference.
I also congratulate our local childcare centres, the community-based centres at Karama and Malak. They do a terrific job at those childcare centres; they pay attention and care to the kids. They struggle on very low budgets because they are community-based. They do not hike their fees up, so it is affordable childcare in what is, largely, a lower socioeconomic area. They do a terrific job at these community-based childcare centres. I encourage them to apply for the playground equipment funds that the government has announced in the 2006-07 budget. That equipment makes the world of difference to childcare centres. Playground equipment, as we know, gets a lot of hard wear and tear from kids at the childcare centres. It only has a life of a couple of years before you have to turn it over and buy new equipment. This fund will provide the opportunity for those hard-working community-based centres to upgrade the equipment that the kids need for their motor skills.
It is a happy community. Like anywhere across Darwin and, indeed, across Australia, we have our crime. I have been keeping a careful eye on the crime statistics at Neighbourhood Watch meetings and, by and large, they are fairly steady. We get blitzed every now and again, when the spike tends to come up coinciding with school holidays. This is why it was good to have that police operation occurring during the Easter school holiday period. That was a proactive response from police to a request from the local Neighbourhood Watch.
I congratulate someone who does not live in the electorate but, I have to say, is a regular attendee at the Karama electorate office, working extremely hard for her community, and that is Adina Poole. Adina is a tireless worker for the people of Knuckey’s Lagoon, which is adjacent to Karama. She is always working hard to save the environment there. She puts submissions into government for art grants, sports grants, and cultural grants. She loves that community of Knuckey’s Lagoon and is the backbone of what is becoming quite a thriving community on the doorstep of Karama and Malak. Adina, congratulations for all your hard work; you do a fantastic job.
I am looking forward to celebrating the Cancer Council’s Biggest Morning Tea coming up. We are having a big morning tea at Karama Tavern. I extend an open invitation to anyone to come along and enjoy the morning tea. It will raise some very worthy funds for the Cancer Council which does a great job in our community - often run on the sheer hard toil of their volunteers. The Cancer Council has a great band of volunteers. Congratulations to the Cancer Council. I am happy to support your fundraising efforts in the Biggest Morning Tea. We look forward to another good crowd at the Karama Tavern to put some more money into the coffers of the Cancer Council.
Mr BURKE (Brennan): Madam Acting Deputy Speaker, what a pleasure to see you in the Chair tonight.
I would like to start off with some sad tidings for myself. I have lost my electorate officer, Joanne Verrier. She left at Easter to get married to her fianc and will be returning next week as Joanne Flesfadar. I am looking forward to her return and seeing lots of fantastic pictures from the honeymoon – for the life of me, I cannot remember where they went. I know it had to be somewhere with lots of waves because Daniel is a great surfer. I hope they had a wonderful time. I have seen some sneak preview pictures of the wedding already. Joanne, as all brides do, looked absolutely stunning.
I also thank Kathleen McQuinn for filling in while Joanne has been away. Without her, the office would be a complete and utter mess. I record my thanks to Kathleen for all the effort she has put in at the office, most of the time I have not been there. It was great to have someone in the office looking after the inquiries of people who come into my office. We get a great many inquiries at the Brennan electorate office, as well as many people reading the information we put up in our window about what is going on in and around Palmerston, and other items which we think people would be interested in.
On 20 April, I mentioned that the LHMU had an International Cleaners Day of Action. The action day in Darwin was held at the Roma Bar, a site of many Darwin ‘revolutions’. It is always full of people and is a landmark coffee shop with its own unique place in Territory political and union activism history. The day was well attended. Congratulations to Irene, Shivaun, Geoff, Peter and Di, all of whom put in a great effort. I know that I am forgetting Chenoa in that list. She will no doubt hit me when I see her for not being able to instantly add her name to that list. They put in a lot of effort. As I said, it was well attended by those who were able to get some time off work. The media covered the story and they got some great play for the plight of cleaners. Cleaners are one of the many unsung working groups that go around, often at night when no one else is around, and put back together and tidy up the messes that we have left during the day in our workplaces.
I pay tribute to Ali and Rachael at the NT Working Women’s Centre. They do a fantastic job, particularly for migrant women or women for whom English is a second language - or even third or fourth language. The people they represent are often those who are in low income-type jobs. They are able, free of charge, to provide support services to those women. The centre is at present fully funded by the Commonwealth, and the Commonwealth is looking at re-jigging some of their responsibilities to take away what has been an advocacy role, to make them purely an information service - which will be a great shame. The working women’s centre has been a fantastic advocate for working women in the Northern Territory and they have managed to do a great deal with not very much by way of resources.
On 23 April, I had the great pleasure of attending the opening of the Palmerston Library. It is a fantastic building and you can really see the Palmerston City Centre taking shape. Once the Palmerston Recreation Centre is finished – and I heard the minister say today that it was on track for November this year - it will be another fantastic facility to stand next to the Palmerston Library and be part of that community area which borders Goyder Park.
The opening was a happy occasion. It was compered by Mr Charlie King - and what an excellent job he did. I congratulate the Mayor of Palmerston, Mrs Annette Burke, who gave a great opening speech. I pay tribute to some of the fantastic librarians Palmerston has been lucky enough to have. As part of the opening ceremony, we had belly dancers, other cultural dancers from the islands, and also a group of young people put on a puppet show of their own. I know most of the girls who are in that group attend Palmerston High School. It was obvious they were having a lot of fun; it was very informal and very enjoyable. Congratulations to them for the show they put on.
Also in April, if it were not for a rather big wind, we would have been able to fully celebrate Anzac Day. Unfortunately, that was not to be the case. The usually well-attended Anzac Day dawn service in Palmerston did not go ahead. It was a very wise choice by the RSL to cancel the services. It is always best to be safe rather than take a chance - not taking anything away from those servicemen and women and others who did decide to turn up to Cenotaphs in Darwin and Palmerston to pay their respects on the day.
I was lucky enough to go to Bakewell Primary School for their whole of school assembly on 21 April, which was an Anzac Day assembly. Bakewell Primary School has only a few whole of school assemblies each term, and this was the one closest to Anzac Day. I really do enjoy going to Bakewell Primary School; it is always a pleasure. There are always plenty of parents at the school assemblies. There is a lot of support for the school from the parent body. I pay my respects to those parents who may not get to every assembly because of their own work commitments, but there are many parents who try to get there as often as they can.
The Northern Territory Press Club quiz night was another event I attended, which was held at Kitty O’Shea’s in the city. I had the chance to catch up with Hilary Timms who has been part of the journalist scene in the Top End for many years. I first met Hilary at the Fannie Bay Equestrian Club where my mother and sister had horses. I was roped in on occasions to clean out stalls and that sort of thing. I did not get the exciting job of actually riding.
A member interjecting.
Mr BURKE: A rose by any other name.
It was great to see Hilary, and it was a great night. We did not do that well on our table but we had a great deal of fun making up the answers we had no idea about.
I make a point of awarding a pizza to a class at Gray Primary School for the most consistent wearing of uniform by a class. This time, the pizzas went to Year 1/2 Blume. It was a fantastic effort; somewhere around 99% of the class had worn school uniforms for the previous five weeks. That is great to see. Gray is another fantastic school. The parents provide a great deal of support to the school. Cindy McGarry, the principal, is currently in Korea on an exchange learning about Korean culture and teaching there. I am sure she is having a wonderful time and will come back with a great many hardly believable stories to impress us all with.
The Palmerston Youth Festival was recently held, and that was an excellent community event. The community feeling in Palmerston does not surprise me anymore. It is just a fantastic place for everyone getting together and putting community events in place for the enjoyment of the whole community. It is good to see so many community groups being available for an event like that, so that the youth of Palmerston can see and experience all of the things around them and can participate if they choose to.
Talking of community events, tomorrow night - as I have already mentioned once these sittings - will be the Palmerston night markets. I am sure there will be a great many Palmerston residents who attend those and enjoy the atmosphere. The member for Drysdale and I will be there tomorrow night, and we look forward to seeing as many people of the Palmerston community as we can ...
Mr Warren: I will be there.
Mr BURKE: The member for Goyder will be there as well; that is fantastic news.
I was lucky enough to be asked to participate in the divisional inspection of the St John Ambulance. They have fantastic young people involved in their program. They were telling me that they have no problem whatsoever in attracting and keeping young people involved. There were some great awards presented that night. I take my hat off to those young people who unselfishly devote their time to providing volunteer services. It is a great commitment by them as young people.
I would like to mention the childbirth education classes that have recently started at the Palmerston Library. They are held in the community room at the front. Kima, who runs the courses, is a wealth of knowledge. I went there for the first class, a little late admittedly. There were a number of families there learning about early childhood and looking after babies.
I would quickly like to mention the Palmerston Rugby Union Club again. The Killer Bees, as I see they are referred to in Croc Tales, continued on their thunderous ways with a 38-10 victory against the Dragons, a fantastic result. Palmerston sits at the head of the B Grade table. Unfortunately, that position is reversed in the A Grade table; however I am sure the A Grade team will catch up with the Killer Bees.
Mr WARREN (Goyder): Madam Acting Deputy Speaker, six weeks ago, I wrote to the Commonwealth Department of Family and Community Services supporting the not-for-profit community-based Humpty Doo Community Child Care Centre in their plea to retain their Disadvantaged Area Subsidy funding. This existing federal government funding is essential to the Humpty Doo Community Child Care Centre so that it is not forced to close its doors, all because the federal government has shifted the funding goalposts. This centre is the only not-for-profit long day care centre in the Humpty Doo area and is used by many families.
What really annoys me is the way the federal government has again shown little regard for childcare centres in rural and regional Australia in their attempt to shift costs onto already struggling parents. As part of this process, the federal government engaged an accounting firm to look into the financial viability of the Humpty Doo Community Child Care Centre as part of the centre being transferred from Disadvantaged Area Subsidy funding to what is called Sustainability Assistance. Even by the federal government’s own admission, the reason that the consultants were engaged was because, under the new model, the centre is going to have a very significant reduction in federal funding.
The consultants were purportedly engaged to come up with suggestions as to how the centre can operate more effectively with less funding. What did the consultant’s report come up with? You guessed it: put up fees. They did the same and came up with the same recommendations in Katherine East, Nhulunbuy and many other childcare centres throughout regional Australia. Consultants’ money for jam!
What did the consultants actually look at? I will tell you. They only looked at the financial management of the centre; that was their brief. They did not look at the socioeconomic and demographics of the rural area. They did not look at the combined total income of affected families, or home ownership, or single parents, or the extra travel expense travelling long distances to work. They did not bother even to look at the quality of service at an affordable price.
The Humpty Doo Community Child Care Centre also knew that increasing fees was an option to offset funding cuts and rising costs, particularly wages. That is not rocket science. Over the past 18 months, the federal government funding has already been halved, and now the Disadvantaged Area Subsidy is to be removed. To compensate, the centre is being given some transitional funding for the next two years, starting 1 July 2006, to wean them off the Disadvantaged Area Subsidy. Big deal! The centre has already been forced to implement two fee increases to compensate for previous federal government funding cuts, and now they are being asked to hit their clients with substantially more fee increases.
It seems that everyone except the federal government and their accounting consultants understand that, by increasing fees, parents may not be able to afford to put their children in childcare, and we all know the consequences of that.
The management of the Humpty Doo Community Child Care Centre has provided me with information regarding the financial viability of the centre. That information outlines the steps they have already taken to improve profitability. They have advised me of other options they are considering. As I said before, there is a point at which families will leave the workforce if childcare fees become too high. The Commonwealth’s Remote Area Subsidy is, therefore, vital to the continuation of this service at Humpty Doo.
There are very few centres offering childcare in my extensive rural electorate. This centre provides an invaluable need to the many rural families who commute long distances daily to work. The loss of this centre will have substantial economic impact on the cost base of these families and may drive some people out of the Northern Territory workforce - not to mention the rural parents who are trying to get into the workplace, stay in the workplace, and survive as families. It is a matter which I am sure is not lost on the Minister for Business and Economic Development as he tries to encourage development and promote a healthy workforce in the Territory. We need affordable childcare in the rural area and, yet, the federal government seems hell-bent on promoting private sector childcare at the expense of not-for-profit community-based self-help organisations. They seem quite prepared to tear the heart out of regional Australia’s community childcare centres.
Currently, childcare fees are rising at five times the rate of CPI and, yet, the federal government seems oblivious to this trend. The only rightful beneficiaries are private childcare centres which mercilessly put up fees.
I refer members to the NT Minister for Family and Community Services’ report on childcare in the House today. She said that the Commonwealth government is responsible for the provision of affordable and accessible childcare in Australia. There has been a great deal of debate recently in relation to how they do this, which has included criticism from within their own ranks. Howard government MP, Jackie Kelly, has led the charge, claiming that the system is in a shambles and receives considerable support, not only from the community but from other Howard backbenchers. It certainly is a shambles.
In the Northern Territory, we do what we can to alleviate the problem. The Martin government is the only jurisdiction in Australia that provides a childcare subsidy.
In conclusion, I will leave the final word to the federal CLP Senator, Nigel Scullion. When asked on radio 8DDD FM recently:
- It is sounding very much though, Senator Scullion, like the government would prefer that private childcare takes the place of community childcare?
he replied:
- Well, that’s been the case for a long time.
Ms ANDERSON (Macdonnell): Madam Acting Deputy Speaker, tomorrow morning at 5 am, two teams of riders comprising officers from Alice Springs Correctional Services and the Alice Springs Fire Station will commence a bicycle race from Alice Springs to Yulara. Riding in relay, it is expected to take 13 hours to ride to the Rock. The race is called Ride a Mile for a Smile. It is a biannual event commenced by officers from Alice Springs Correctional Services in 2004. The purpose of the race is to raise money for Camp Quality Northern Territory.
Camp Quality NT is a non-profit organisation committed to bringing hope and happiness to every child living with cancer, their families and communities, through ongoing quality recreational, educational and financial support programs. It is a very worthy cause in anyone’s language.
I congratulate all officers from Alice Springs Correctional Services and the Fire Service for their dedication and commitment to make this fundraising event a success. The sheer hard work that has gone into organisation of this event has been phenomenal. I praise Geoff and Maureen Anson and their kids for their tireless work; their effort has been outstanding. Not only have they organised the actual race, they have been busy holding fundraising events in Alice Springs.
Last Saturday night, I had the great pleasure of attending the charity auction held at the Gillen Club. The night was very successful, with an auction being conducted with the great good humour and professionalism of Paul Hassett. A good sum was raised for Camp Quality NT. This would not have been possible without the strong support of the businesses in Alice Springs which donated items and also turned up to bid.
I also commend the staff of the Alice Springs Correctional Services who turned up in large numbers to support the auction, and everyone else who has supported this event. I wish all the riders the best of luck for tomorrow and may the best team win.
Ultimately, the real winner from this event will be Camp Quality NT. I encourage all members of this House to dig deep and donate to this very worthwhile cause.
I am going to talk about my visit to the community of Docker River, which is located 670 km south-west from Alice Springs by road through Yulara. It takes seven hours to drive there. The picturesque community is nestled between the Petermann, Deane and Blood Ranges, just 7 km from the Western Australian border. The site that is now Kaltukatjara was originally named Docker River by Ernest Giles during his expedition of 1872. Pastors Duguid and Strehlow surveyed the area in the 1930s with a view to establishing a settlement for the people in the area. It was decided not to proceed with this at the time and the Lutheran missionaries told the Pitjantjatjara people of the Kaltukatjara area to go to Areyonga, then an outstation of Hermannsburg Mission, where they would be supplied with food and clothing.
Although many Aboriginals moved into Areyonga, others stayed in the Petermanns. In the 1960s, a permanent settlement was established there. By the proclamation of the Aboriginal Land Rights (Northern Territory) Act 1976, Anangu in the region gained freehold title to these traditional lands and an area of 44 970 km. Approximately 380 people live at Kaltukatjara and, despite the chronic shortage of housing, the community is in good shape because the community and their agencies are working well together.
I commend the leadership of Kaltukatjara Council, in particular the chairperson, Sidney James; the Deputy Chair, Lyall Kenny, and the CEO, Leon Chapman. The stability that the community is currently experiencing is, in large part, due to the hard work of these men. One of the clearest indicators that the community is in good shape was the lack of petrol sniffers I saw there. Although I know this community has problems with substance abuse in youth, community members told me that the leadership at the council and the youth program has been effective in addressing some of the substance misuse, and there are only a couple of sniffers at the community now.
Kaltukatjara Community believed that any measures they take will only be temporary unless they are supported by a regular police presence. The community is looking forward to the building of the permanent police post, so that their efforts to improve the community will be made durable by the regular presence of police. Reinforcing the good work of the council is the commitment of the school principal, Edwyn Graham, and teacher, Gloria-Mae, in educating the students at Docker River School. They have been at Docker River for three years and they are very highly respected by the community. They are ably assisted at the school by two Aboriginal Education Workers, Veronica and Kennedy. I enjoyed a great day in the classroom with the kids and was impressed with attendance rates. It is great to see all the kids going to school every day. This is a testament to the hard work and commitment of everyone at the school.
Community people spoke very highly of Edwyn and Gloria-Mae, and the length of their tenure at Docker River School is one of the main reasons. Many remote schools suffer because of the large turnaround in teaching staff. I was pleased to hear them talk of staying there to build on their good work and ensure an entire generation of Kaltukatjara kids are educated.
Another positive at Docker River is the store. The store and the take-away are well run, employ local indigenous people, and provide a good range of healthy food to residents. I have been to the store at Docker River when it was at its lowest ebb. Improvements that have been made since this time have been outstanding. The charts from the Strong Women, Strong Babies project that is run from the Kaltukatjara clinic is displayed on the store notice board - a visual reminder of the improvements that Docker River community is achieving in child nutrition.
The Pension House is also in good condition and I enjoyed visiting the old people there. I really enjoyed taking the old ladies out bush to collect wood, bush tucker and do some ceremonial dancing. I thank Margaret, Nyinku, Lizzie and all other women of Kaltukatjara for making me so welcome.
Despite the good efforts being made by the community, there are still areas that need to be addressed. The community does need support and a lack of adequate housing is one of its greatest needs. Too many people remain cramped up in two-bedroom houses. At one two-bedroom house I visited, eight adults were living there. One of the women who lived in this house cares for a severely disabled little girl. They have a mattress on the veranda where they sleep and she utilises ablution facilities at the Pension House to care for her daughter. This young mother works at the Docker River clinic when her daughter is residing at St Mary’s in Alice Springs. However, she takes time off from work to devote to her daughter’s care whenever her daughter is home in Docker River. Without doubt, this little girl is being well cared for, but the conditions under which this mother is expected to care for her child is devastating.
All parents of severely disabled children understand the difficulties of caring for disabled children, but imagine the difficulties when your home is a mattress. That this little girl is well cared for is a testament to the strength of her mother but, surely, we can do better to support and assist this family.
Another big concern is the removal of the Remote Area Exemptions for welfare payments from Docker River that is due to commence on 1 July. No officials from the Commonwealth government have visited the community and explained what will happen or what is expected from residents. Community leaders were quite clear that people want to work. They pointed out to me that community members already work in the school, store, clinic, Pension House and council office. However, there are no other jobs available. The community is very keen to develop enterprises in order to create more employment opportunities, but they do not want some rock painting exercise that will leave them with the equivalent of the dole.
Some of the enterprises that leaders of Docker River have discussed with me were establishing an abattoir to process camel meat and skins. The number of camels around Docker River is staggering, and the community has found them to be quite good eating. The women would also like to utilise the skin to create leather products for sale to tourists. I am following up these ideas with the minister for Business, because I believe this type of enterprise could produce a number of jobs and increase the level of income coming into the community.
Mr Acting Deputy Speaker, as I mentioned at the outset, Docker River is nestled between the Petermann, Deane and Blood Ranges. It is an outstanding, beautiful region studded with sites of historical interest such as Lasseter’s Cave, and has real potential to attract tourists. Further investment in developing the tourism industry will also help to create real job opportunities for the people of Docker River. However, these enterprise ideas will not be ready by 1 July, when the Remote Area Exemption is removed. I share the community’s concern about the terrible impact this policy may have. There is a very real possibility that this policy will undo all the good work that the community has been doing and throw them back into the despair they have been working so hard to rid themselves of. I hope not, but it is a situation we need to monitor closely. I thank the community of Docker River for their warm welcome and let them know that I will do everything in my power to support their endeavours.
Mr WOOD (Nelson): Mr Acting Deputy Speaker, I would like to cover a couple of topics, one of which is the Litchfield Gift. The Litchfield Gift is a professional running race that has been held at Freds Pass Show for about 20 years. Unfortunately, this year, NT Athletics decided the sponsorship that normally goes to that particular event will go to the City to Surf event in Darwin. For a while, that looked like the end of the event. There were certainly a few of us quite disturbed that we would lose something that is part of the Freds Pass Show. It is one of those events that makes the Freds Pass Show unique, like the wood chopping, Noel’s Ark, the polocrosse and all those rural events we have.
I sent a media release to the NT News which did a story on the loss of the gift. At 7.45 am, when the paper came out, the good Treasurer, Hon Syd Stirling, said: ‘I will give you $1000’. I said: ‘I will match you’. From then on, we have had a number of sponsors. Chris Coulter of CBC Earthmoving; Geoff and Kerry Akers who run a mining and earthmoving business, Wilson Hire; and Top End Hire have all offered considerable amounts of money so that we now have in the vicinity of $6000 in prize money. That includes, of course, ribbons and trophies that have to go with it, and some of the advertising. Therefore, we are up and running and the Litchfield Gift will be run on 21 May at the Freds Pass Show. We now have $2000 first prize for the gift, which makes it quite a valuable race.
There will also be The Mile, which is a handicapped race as well. That has, I think, a first prize of $250. There is the Masters which, if I can get through the heats, hopefully, I may have a run for. That has a first prize of $250. We have the Under 15s, which also has first prize of $250, and the Under 10s which has a first prize of $150. There are first, second and third prizes for all those events. The juniors also get ribbons from first through to the sixth place. I believe every person who gets to the finals receives a small amount of money as well, which helps pay for the entry fee.
If anyone is interested in running in those races, they can get an entry form from the member for Goyder’s office, the member for Blain’s office, my own office at Nelson, and NT Athletics which has come back on board, thankfully. I appreciate that because they are going to supply some of the judges and the photo finish equipment because, as you might imagine when you are offering a large amount of money for a very short race of 110 m, you want to make sure that the person who wins is the person who wins. Photo finish equipment certainly makes that a lot of easier than just using the eye. It is up and running. We are very pleased with this operating.
I thank the Treasurer for getting the bidding going. I know that next year we will probably organise a small committee, using Rural Athletics, which is doing the main organising for this particular event. Rural Athletics is a very successful sporting body in the rural area. Next year, we will try to make sure that from now on the Litchfield Gift is not threatened by lack of sponsorship. Everyone will be pleased to see it operating again.
On another issue, as you know, on Anzac Day, many events were washed out or postponed. The Anzac Day cricket match, which would have been the 16th Anzac Day cricket match held at the Strauss cricket ground on the Cox Peninsula Road just around the corner from the Stuart Highway, was postponed because of the rain. We held it last Sunday and, although parts of the ground were very similar to a football field and people fielding in the covers could have been rightly told they were fielding in the back pocket, the game continued. It was a great day. It is between the Litchfield President’s XI - which is a disguise word for the Southern District Cricket team - and the Army. In this case, the Army battalion - I can never remember what 1CSSB stands for, but I can tell you their job in the Army is to keep the Army running. They are the people who supply the petrol, the food, do the mechanical work, all the work that basically keeps the Army on the move. They were captained by Corporal Matthew Bleeze, and the Litchfield President’s XI was captained by Geoff Akers.
There was a good crowd. If you have been to one of these matches, people come and go; it is not expected that everyone has to stay all day. You can just drop in and have a beer and a steak sandwich from the Rotary Club of Litchfield/Palmerston, which provides those facilities every year. You can sit under the shade of a tree and enjoy a bit of silly cricket, to some extent, because it is a bit like a 20:20 game. In this case it was a 30:30 game. The kids like it too because, in the middle of the day, we also have a small kids’ cricket match.
This year, we had a major sponsor, Gusher, which is a company run by Janice and Mick Malady. They are a home maintenance company. They put in over $2000-worth of sponsorship this year. In fact, they had signs placed on the field where, if the batsman hit the signs, they got $100, as long as they gave half of that money to Legacy. Well, no matter how hard they tried, only one person hit the sign. It either means we need more signs or bigger signs, or we need them right up close to the batsman if we really want to make it work. Thankfully, Gusher said they will still give the money to Legacy. That was very good as well. People were bribed to stay in so, if they went out, people put money in the bucket and, when everybody was out, you could go back in again, have another go. Therefore, there was extra money put in as well.
I need to thank a few people: Gusher, in particular, for the money it provided and for its corporate stand; Southern Districts Cricket Club for providing all the equipment and organising the toilets, the mats, the bats, the balls and that sort of thing; Coates Hire for providing the toilets; Finn Bins for providing the rubbish bins; the Litchfield Shire Council for covering the day as regards insurance; Mary Walshe for helping commentate for the day; the Northern Territory government for permitting us to play the game on that particular stretch of Crown land; the Army; the Litchfield/Palmerston Rotary Club especially; and the Thompson family on Bradley Road who, every year, cut the grass there. They look after the place and make sure there are no hoons wrecking it.
We did have some hoons this year. They found out where those hoons came from, visited them, and kindly asked them not to do donuts on what is really a heritage site. Hopefully, next year, we do not have that problem. Maybe I will write to the government and ask them whether we can get a fence across the front. It would not have to be something too substantial, but enough to stop people who should not be there from driving in.
The day also commemorates Captain L Strauss, a member of the United States Army Air Force. He was killed over Fannie Bay about one month after the bombing of Darwin. Strauss Airstrip was named after him, although he did not take off from there. His last flight was from a dirt strip at Adelaide River. His squadron moved to what was called the 27 Mile Airstrip at the time. They named it Strauss Airstrip. When you go to the Anzac Day cricket match, you will see two flags - our Australian flag and the American flag. We have a memorial to Captain Strauss which was unveiled a couple of years ago by his family.
On that particular note, this year, I am hoping to go to Ohio where his family lives on a farm in a small country town called Marysville. I also hope to visit the site where he is buried in Wadesville, Indiana, a tiny town where his family lived during the war.
It was a top day. The Dry Season had arrived. I must admit that it looked quite peculiar to see people fielding and landing in the mud and sliding all over the place and, yet, it was a beautiful Dry Season day.
I should give you the score so that at least there is a record of the scores: the Litchfield President’s XI batted first and, after 30 overs, they hit 9 for 170 - they were a bit slow off the mark this year. The Army overtook that quite easily with three overs to spare, hitting 171. I am not sure how many people they had out but, in the end, they certainly did that with ease. Corporal Matthew Bleeze took the trophy home. The trophy is a large polished shell from a tank, mounted on timber, which has a record of how the Strauss cricket ground was founded in recent times. It also mentions the original person who built it, Private Vic Borowicki, who lives in Bendigo, Victoria. He was here last year to toss the coin and help start the game. He and a couple of mates built that cricket pitch in 1942, I gather, after they got into a little trouble. That was one of the jobs they had to do.
This cricket pitch has an enormous amount of history. You might think it is just a strip of concrete, but it is more than that. The reason the Army also likes joining in is that we are celebrating Anzac Day at a place where 60-odd years ago, people similar to these people playing cricket today would have played cricket as well. Many of those earlier cricketers were killed. People need to look at the history of the Northern Territory during the war, and look at the numbers of not only Australians, but also Americans and British who died. Anyone who has looked at the history of Long Airfield, and Fenton Airstrip towards the Douglas Daly, and at the records of the number of Americans flying Liberator Bombers who never returned, would be amazed. There were over 700 airmen who did not return from that one airstrip, and there were many other airstrips - and the same for Australians, of course.
That is one reason why the heritage we have in the Northern Territory needs preserving. It is unique that we had soldiers and airmen fighting the Japanese from the very shores we stand on today. Many of them did not return; they were killed either overseas or on the shores of Darwin. Even though it is one day a year, it is symbolic of the important heritage we have in the Northern Territory.
I ask the government to put some heritage classification over that site and other similar sites. At the moment, Strauss Airstrip is a heritage place. However, the rest of the area around Strauss is not even though there is an area where the railway line came in where they unloaded the bombs which is still there; there is an historical information sign which the government erected several years ago; there are areas where the airmen lived; and there is the cricket pitch. Unfortunately, most of that land is zoned ‘tourist commercial’. Under the new zoning plan the government is trying to introduce, there is a new zone called ‘H, heritage’. Perhaps that is the way to go; that we find these sites whether it is Hughes, Livingston, McDonald, or Fenton airstrips, and get them zoned heritage even if they cannot become a heritage precinct. At least we know why those sites are important.
Even though we had a great day playing cricket – and, hopefully, the cricket will continue for years to come - I would hate to see the site threatened as the development of the new township of Weddell approaches. If you see maps of Weddell, you will see that, in the area around the airstrip and the cricket pitch there is meant to be a very large corridor for roads and electricity. To some extent, that threatens that area. I hope the government, before it gets too heavily involved in Weddell, sorts out some of the heritage issues.
I congratulate the Army. I am sure the Litchfield President’s XI will be back next year to try to win back the trophy. Everyone enjoyed it. It is a great day with no formalities. You can go down, sit under a tree and watch a good game of cricket, and feel as though you have had a good day’s entertainment. My thanks to all the people who supported the day and I hope to see them back again next year.
Ms SACILOTTO (Port Darwin): Mr Deputy Speaker, this evening I inform the House and my colleagues of the latest news from the Port Darwin electorate. Since the last parliamentary sittings, much has been happening in Cullen Bay, Stuart Park, Tipperary Waters, Larrakeyah, and Darwin city.
I am pleased to see all these areas bustling with tourists from the many cruise ships which are now stopping in Darwin. I have had an opportunity to talk to some of these people and they are excited about visiting the Top End with its many and varied attractions. I also congratulate the staff of the magazine D Life. It is my opinion this informative magazine is showcasing what the city has to offer.
I was especially pleased to see in one edition an article entitled ‘Rediscover your city – 50 things to do in Darwin city’. There were some very interesting suggestions, all promoting Darwin city. As the saying goes, Darwin does it for me. Keep up the good work Jane, Clare, Janine and the mall traders.
The good work of this team saw a fantastic roll-up for the Easter mall treasure hunt. All expectations were exceeded, with around 1000 children and their families participating in the hunt. I assisted on the day handing out maps and treasure bags. My son, Luca, participated and it was hard work for parents as well as the children. I thought the mums and dads deserved a prize, and I was proud to donate the first issue of a new product; the Darwin City Voucher for $50. One mum was very happy with the win of the $50 voucher. Mums, dads, grandparents and carers made the day a special one for the children.
It is wonderful to see that business confidence is alive and bustling in Darwin city. On 27 April, I attended the opening of the new luxurious Elements day spa in the Vic complex. This was not my first visit, as I had already had the pleasure of a massage and facial at Elements the week before. The owners of the new venture are Lillian and Elena Gomatos, a very dynamic mother and daughter team. I congratulate Lillian and Elena on the fabulous opening entitled Martinis and Manicures.
I understand that Pawleen Etter played a major role in organising the event, which was attended by 160 guests. Some of those guests included successful Darwin city traders such as Toshi Manolis of Sushi Bar; Peter and Moya Buckley, owners of Frangipanni Travel; Anna and Tony Priore of Angus and Robertson in the Galleria; Lucy and John Dont of Pzazz; Marilyn Jones from Lotus Life Concepts; Jasmine and Helene Kailis from Gallery 8; Christa Johns from Crystal Wave Swimwear; Caroline and Terry from Golden Wattle Florist; Fiona from Vanilla Hair Studio; and Nick Mousellis and Karl Secondis of Ray White.
Best wishes to Lillian and Elena in the future success of Elements. I am sure I will become a regular customer.
I must make a special mention of important birthdays of some senior Territorians in the Port Darwin electorate which have occurred since the last parliamentary sittings. I take this opportunity to acknowledge these milestone birthdays: Mr Robin Taylor of Coronation Drive turned 77 mid-March; Mrs Eileen McQuinn was 80 on 4 March; and Mr John Ross celebrated his 90th birthday on 3 March. There is a very significant feature which all of them have in common. All three have resided in Stuart Park for more than 50 years. In fact, Mrs McQuinn has lived in Stuart Park for all of her 80 years, except for a short period during the war when she was evacuated on the Zealandia to Brisbane with her mother and four sisters.
Another important birthday in the Larrakeyah area was that of Jack Haritos. Jack celebrated his 78th birthday in early March. Jack and his wife, Helene, are very active community members and provided me with strong support and invaluable help and advice on election day. Jack is very active in the Larrakeyah community, and lovingly tends a community garden area on Larrakeyah Terrace. This open space has great views of Darwin Harbour and is visited by locals and tourists. If Jack is around, he is always ready for a chat and to pass on some history of old Darwin. All four constituents are remarkable Territorians who have contributed in the growth of Darwin.
Another birthday worth mentioning is that of a Darwin city institution, the Roma Bar, which celebrated its 1st birthday in their new premises. The proprietors, Patty Ring and Paul Costigan, invited dedicated friends and coffee lovers to share their day. Many patrons from all sections of the community who love good coffee and interesting conversation dropped in throughout the day. Good wishes to the Roma Bar.
As we all know, Harmony Day is a very special day in the yearly calendar, and is always celebrated by the local primary schools in a variety of ways. All were very successful again this year. Larrakeyah Primary was very fortunate when the Indonesian Consulate organised a performance of traditional dancing and martial arts for their school. On completion of the exhibition, samples of Indonesian deserts for the students and gado gado for the teachers was served. The day raised $195 for the Baguia Orphanage. Well done, Larrakeyah Primary School.
More news from Larrakeyah is that the new school captains for 2006 are Charlotte Cooper and Teddy Horn. Congratulations to you both; I am sure you will set a fine example to all. Also, Friday football is going well. The Larrakeyah team captain is Alexandros Tsirbas, vice captain is Kieran Nichols, and deputy vice captain is William Herrington. Go, Larrakeyah! Congratulations to Jo Winn and Michael Caldwell and all of the parents, staff and students of Larrakeyah Primary School - a great school community.
St Mary’s Primary School marked Harmony Day with a small ceremony for all students and staff, which recognised that living in harmony is designed to encourage community harmony, and build relationships that support equality, fairness, friendship and respect between people in our culturally diverse society. It is essential to look after one another.
Congratulations to students Amy McGregor, and Tierneigh and Kelseah Parnell on their selection in the St Mary’s netball squad. Go girls!
More sporting congratulations to Tala and Ayrton Innes who competed in the Alice Springs swimming carnival. Tala won six gold medals and was the champion 10-year-old girl, and also won the Mayor’s trophy. Ayrton won four gold medals and was the champion of the eight-year-old boys.
The St Mary’s School Board invited me to attend their last meeting. This was a very informative meeting and I hope to attend many more as the year progresses. Thank you to Tony O’Brien and the board for their kind invitation.
Stuart Park Primary School celebrated Harmony Day with an assembly which was attended by the Chief Minister, who presented the prizes for the Harmony Day poetry competition. Two hundred and fifty poems were entered and the prize winners were Matthew Button, Maggie Coggan Gartlan, Christian Simpson, Morgan Herligy, Aaron Smith, Annie Piper, Clair Darben, Madison Williams, Luke Shreurs, Zahra Croughton-Heaton, Jessica Bowling, Luke Dorwood, Aleesha Lo, and Aaran Baker.
The Indigenous Rock Band Death Adder from St John’s College gave a lunchtime performance, and the students and staff showed enthusiastic appreciation for the music. The younger students from the early childhood centre celebrated by making friendship banners, paper flowers and dot paintings to give to friends and family.
The school captains for Stuart Park were chosen from 22 candidates, and the successful students are Bradley Button, Sally Harding, Bernadette O’Sullivan and Sani Raqiyawa. This year will see Stuart Park celebrate their 40th anniversary and, as an ex-student, I will be very interested in the proposed activities for the anniversary. My best wishes to the principal, Bernie Bree and his staff on their 40th year. What a diverse range of celebrations and activities for Harmony Day. You are all to be congratulated.
Also this year, I was invited to the Stuart Park Primary School to acknowledge and remember Anzac Day. I attended this function with my mother, Sandra, who had come from Adelaide specifically because this Anzac Day was to be very special for our family. My mother had brought my late great-uncle’s war service medals, including the Military Medal for bravery on the battlefield with her, so she and my son, Luca, could participate in the Darwin Anzac Day march. Unfortunately, as we all know, Cyclone Monica disrupted the scheduled events and we were all very disappointed. Perhaps next year.
I thank my colleague, the Minister for Family and Community Services, the member for Karama, for inviting me to represent her at a special AGM for the Girl Guides. This was an enjoyable evening, and a very important one for Guides, as they were appointing a new State Commissioner, Mrs Jeanette Anictomatis, and farewelling Ms Lynette Goody, who had held the position for five years.
The Open Garden Scheme season is upon us and was launched by His Honour the Administrator, Mr Ted Egan, and Ms Nerys Evans, at a function at Government House. This is a superb way of raising funds for nominated charities. I am proud to advise the electorate of Port Darwin will have two entries this year in the townhouse section. I will be very interested to see these entries as I might get some ideas for my own small garden.
International Women’s Day was another enjoyable function, which I attended with my son, Luca, and my electorate officer, Sandra. At one point, he was the only male in the room of females, but this changed as the night proceeded. We were welcomed by the president, Ms Jenny Medwell OAM. Ms Sue Bradley was the guest speaker. She is the co-chair of the NT Statehood Steering Committee and gave an interesting overview of statehood for the Territory. Other entertainment for the night included the Sunameke Dancers and a song from Ms Mandy Garling.
I remind my colleagues that this weekend is the inaugural yacht race titled Simply the Breast. The race will be held from Dinah Beach Cruising Yacht Club. Breast cancer needs all the funds and support it can get so, when I was approached by the organising committee of Michelle Hanton, Penny La Sette, Mike Butcher and the Dinah Beach Cruising Yacht Club, I welcomed the opportunity. We hope to raise mega dollars, have loads of fun and continue to promote the community’s awareness of this disease. These dedicated yachties are the organisers of this race, which will held on 7 May starting from Dinah Beach Cruising Yacht Club. The entry fee is $100, which will guarantee you and your crew much fun on the day.
I also thank my parliamentary colleagues for their support when they attended the launch of this event at Hog’s Breath on Tuesday, 4 April. A big thank you to Damien and his crew at Hoggies. They did a brilliant job on the night, keeping the food and drinks circulating.
Last, but not least, a special mention of the Darwin Senior Citizens Association. They are holding a Big Morning Tea in support of cancer research on 10 May at 10 am at Spillett House. There are sure to be some morning tea delights, as my mum, Sandra, will be cooking. All are welcome.
Motion agreed to; the Assembly adjourned.
Last updated: 04 Aug 2016