2007-02-22
Madam Speaker Aagaard took the Chair at 10 am.
Ms MARTIN (Chief Minister): Madam Speaker, I update the House on the derailment of The Ghan, the result of a collision with a road train at a level crossing at Ban Ban Springs on 12 December last year. The Ban Ban Springs derailment was a most unfortunate event, and one that could have had very tragic consequences. Thankfully, as we know, no one lost their life in the accident. Indeed, I am pleased to report that English tourist, Jan Scott, has made a full recovery from her injuries, and has recently fulfilled another life-long dream by travelling on the Indian Pacific from Perth to Sydney.
Repairs are well under way, and we have been told that 10 carriages will be out of action for up to eight months. This will reduce capacity by around 400 passengers each week; that is, 200 passengers each way.
The Australian Transport Safety Bureau immediately announced they would be investigating the incident. Their preliminary report outlines the facts surrounding the accident. Their investigation is ongoing, and it is not for us to go into specifics of the incident until we receive ATSB’s final report and recommendations later in the year.
While the final report is some way off and, given there was also an incident involving a freight train in October last year, we have moved decisively to ensure level crossing safety in the Territory is up to scratch. On 27 December 2006, I announced a number of measures to address level crossing safety in the Territory. These include education, sanctions, enforcement and assessment of the industry awareness.
In the area of education, nearly $100 000, or 26% of the total spent on road safety media in the last three years, has been spent on level crossing safety awareness. These campaigns have focused on the themes, ‘Always expect a train at a level crossing’, and ‘Stop, look, listen, think when approaching a level crossing’. Since the crashes, an additional $35 000 has been allocated for television, radio and print advertisements.
We have also looked closely at sanctions. A serious train accident has the potential to cost many lives. The current minimum penalty of $80 does not reflect the serious consequences of a collision. We will shortly increase infringement penalties for failing to comply with traffic signals at level crossings, and demerit point penalties may also apply to take into account the serious consequences of level crossing crashes.
Police have increased both their overt and covert enforcement at level crossings. Other enforcement campaigns have included marked police vehicles parked prominently at crossings, and education awareness and prevention in the various regions, including liaison with road users frequently using level crossings such as mining and pastoral companies and haulage contractors. Covert enforcement sees police vehicles parked less conspicuously, but within view of the crossings, monitoring traffic flows. It is also used as a strategy to promote behaviour change, and has been used at a large number of crossings, with offenders being issued traffic infringement notices for offences.
I also announced that the Department of Planning and Infrastructure will undertake an assessment of all level crossings in the Territory, including changes in any usage since the railway commenced operations. The assessment team is made up of relevant DPI employees and representatives from FreightLink, the AustralAsia Rail Corporation and the Australian Trucking Association of the Northern Territory. The assessment process will include application of the nationally-agreed model for risk assessment at level crossings. This model considered a large number of variables, including up to 12 different site distances, the speed of the train, and the number of vehicles using level crossings. These variables are used to assign a risk score to the level crossing. This score is then used in the consideration of whether the control of the level crossing requires modification; for example, by upgrading the level crossing control from passive to active, by reducing train speed, or by increasing visibility.
We are also looking at raising industry awareness about level crossing safety. The Department of Planning and Infrastructure’s Chief Executive Officer recently sent letters to all 165 holders of pastoral leases, and 205 mining operators in the Northern Territory. In light of the two recent level crossing crashes, the letter advised them of the requirements of the protocol for the use of occupational crossings; requests that they discuss level crossing safety with any of their employees or contractors undertaking work which may involve use of level crossings, provide a contact number to allow them to advise train control of any activities which include increased use of level crossings, and request they provide details of level crossing use to the department for inclusion in the current assessment of level crossings.
Madam Speaker, we will continue to work to ensure the safety of our level crossings in the Territory and we will work with all stakeholders including the trucking industry, FreightLink and GSR. I certainly look forward to reading the ATSB’s final report.
Ms CARNEY (Opposition Leader): Madam Speaker, I thank Chief Minister for giving the House and, in turn, Territorians an update about this accident. There are a number of issues that arise from your statement. Like you, I also look forward to reading the ATSB report. It will clearly be instructive as to what needs to happen from now on. I know that we have both made public comments about what we think should happen. I have made comments about increasing safety at rail crossings; in particular, one in my electorate, the Ilparpa Road crossing. I hope that the assessment team will consider that. Certainly, constituents have a great deal of concerns about it and I have raised it with government in the past. I urge you to look at that.
In addition, and this saves me writing the relevant minister a letter …
Ms Martin: No, it does not. Write the letter.
Ms CARNEY: It does. If you are doing your jobs properly, this will. So, bad luck, Chief Minister. I was made aware several days ago about a concern about the safety of the railway line near the Tropic of Capricorn in Alice Springs. If the minister would like to contact me I can give her more details. It was brought to me by a station owner who is concerned for obvious reasons.
In addition, both the Chief Minister and the minister would be aware of the information bulletin from the Australian Trucking Association NT. It lists a number of crossings that the Trucking Association is concerned about. Also, on the basis that you have that, I do not need to list those crossings. Given the rains in Central Australia fairly recently, I gather that there is some concern about any movement or any difficulties that have been caused to the railway line. I will be grateful if the Chief Minister would respond by confirming that safety checks have been done of the railway line …
Madam SPEAKER: Leader of the Opposition, your time has expired.
Mr WOOD (Nelson): Madam Speaker, I welcome the minister’s statement on the rail crossing incident and the processes the government is looking at to make sure these sort of things at least, if they do happen again, are reduced to as few times as possible.
One thing this accident does highlight, because this is the second major accident that caused delays in freight or passengers on the main line, was the vulnerability of the Northern Territory with the transport of both goods and passengers by road and rail. Not only did we have this accident at Ban Ban Springs and the one near the Elizabeth River Bridge, we have also had the cyanide spill.
Unfortunately, we have not debated that issue adequately enough in this parliament. There has been a question about it. There needs to be a debate, not only about the transport of hazardous goods but what could have been done, as someone mentioned in the paper the other day, about putting a diversion road in. There may have been some geographical reasons why that could not happen, but for our road to be cut for that long, does not seem right – not in a place as big as the Northern Territory. If there were floods there, I could understand. If there were cliff faces that you could not put a road over, I could understand. It seems strange that we could not have put a temporary by-pass around that site to allow traffic to get through.
We are dependent on goods and services coming by road and rail. We are dependent on the passengers coming by bus or by train. We need to make sure that these accidents happen as few times as possible but, if they do, we need a series of mechanisms which will allow us to get around the problem and not have to wait for them to be fixed.
Ms MARTIN (Chief Minister): Madam Speaker, on the cyanide incident, I have announced a review of what happened there and whether the standards are adequate. I know that we meet national standards, but are they adequate? Like you, member for Nelson, I was very concerned about the length of time the Stuart Highway was closed to traffic, and I believe we have to do better.
On the issue of crossings, our crossings meet the national standards. The Australian Transport Safety Bureau is looking at crossing standards right across the country. We currently meet their standards. They are looking at whether the national standard is appropriate. We are also looking at usage of our crossings and whether, because we have met the national standard, that meets our needs.
There are layers of things happening, but we have to make sure that our railway line is safe and that crossings are appropriate. We have to also ensure - and I have spoken to the Trucking Association - that when a sign says ‘stop’, you stop. There is no way around that. When a sign says ‘stop’, a truck, or a vehicle of any kind, stops.
Dr BURNS (Health): Madam Speaker, this government is committed to making a difference to the health and wellbeing of all Territorians. To this end, we have increased health funding by 64% since 2001. I want to report today on a number of recent independent reviews reporting on health spending in the Northern Territory.
They show that this government is leading the nation in a number of areas in health spending. Part of the reason for this is, of course, the greater health needs of many Territorians, in particular the challenges of health service delivery in remote locations and the need to address the burden of ill health borne by Aboriginal people. I am proud to report that this government is rising to meet these challenges. For example, Northern Territory spending per capita on public health is the highest in Australia.
The recently released National Public Health Expenditure Report by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare showed that the Northern Territory spent more than any other state or territory on public health in 2004-05. The report shows that in 2004-05, the Territory spent $312 per person on public health, over four times the national average of $71 per person. Some 84% of Northern Territory expenditure was directed towards four main public health activities: disease control, immunisation, prevention of hazardous and harmful drug use, and environmental health.
Public health programs, with focus on prevention and grassroots care, hold the key to long-term improvements in the health of the population as a whole. In the meantime, people need access to high-quality and well-funded acute care services. The recently released Commonwealth Report on Government Services from the Steering Committee on the Government Service Provision shows an increase in real hospital funding in the Northern Territory. The steering committee report shows real recurrent per capita spending on hospitals rose from $1120 per person in 2001 to $1360 per person 2004-05. This is an increase of 21% in real terms since this government came to office.
The Report on Government Services also shows where this extra money is being spent in our hospital system. In 2004-05, we employed more doctors than any other jurisdiction. Territory hospitals employ approximately 1.3 full-time equivalent doctors per 1000 people compared with the national average of 1.1 per 1000. What is more, the report shows that this figure increased dramatically since this government came to office. This government is proud to have increased our paid establishment of doctors by over 100 since 2001.
The report also shows that the Territory has the highest number of public hospital nurses in Australia on a per capita basis. Here in the Territory, we employ 5.1 nurses per 1000 people in our public hospitals compared with the national average of 4.6 nurses per 1000 people. Again, figures in the report show a dramatic increase in the numbers of employed nurses since 2001. In fact, we have raised number of full-time equivalent nurses in our entire system by 270 since 2001. This is a direct result of this government’s commitment to our public hospitals and to our health system as a whole.
This effort is clearly documented, not just by this government, but by independent national reports, including those from the Commonwealth government. We have worked hard to employ extra doctors and nurses because, as a government, we recognise we have not only to provide the funding for better health services, but we must also ensure we have the staff to deliver these services. This government is committed to providing better health services for all Territorians and, to do this, we have increased health funding to build healthier communities.
Dr LIM (Greatorex): Madam Speaker, I have always applauded the government for increasing its health budget, and it is fantastic to see $80m-odd being spent in health. The tragedy is: what are we seeing for the money? Of course, we have to spend more money on health. We have an increase in population that the government wants to boast about, and you have received a lot of revenue through GST. Of course, you have to spend more money on health, because you have the money and you have growing populations and increase in demand.
Why, in spite of all this money that has been spent, is the waiting time at Emergency Departments increasing by so much that some patients have waited for three days, or even more, before they can find a bed in a hospital? Why are elective lists for surgery growing so much that some patients have to wait more than a year for any surgery?
The tragedies of patient outcomes are not there. Patient services are poorly delivered, because this government cannot seem to stay focused. For the Chief Minister and the minister to say the nurses are misleading Territorians by saying that they are working long hours ...
Mr Henderson: Did not say that.
Dr LIM: The Labor government members say nobody said that. I read an article, a little line from the ABC of 21 February:
Mr Henderson: Wrong.
Ms Carney interjecting.
Dr LIM: That is really what is offending the nurses. That is why they are looking at taking industrial action; because this government would not take their complaints seriously. The AMA has already invited the Chief Minister, I have heard, but she would not go, would she, to look at the hospital ...
Madam SPEAKER: Member for Greatorex, your time has expired.
Dr BURNS (Health): Madam Speaker, this government has been consistent in its praise and appreciation of our nurses and our doctors working in our public health system. I reiterate that here. I know that every member of the government feels the same way. We honour them. For the shadow to get up here and try to verbal this government, saying nurses are working unsafe hours, is completely erroneous.
I will repeat what I have said: if someone has evidence of someone working those unsafe hours, bring it to me, I will have it investigated.
Ms MARTIN (Chief Minister): Madam Speaker, I would like to update the House on the progress we are making in sealing the Red Centre Way. Just last week, as part of our significant roads project, works began on upgrading Namatjira Drive. This is part of our commitment to seal around 250 km of gravel road and widen 27 km of narrow seal. Our aim is to encourage the development of a truly world-class driving experience, one that takes in the region’s spectacular natural and cultural environment.
The Red Centre Way gives tourists the options of driving to Alice Springs via the West MacDonnells or, alternatively, via Hermannsburg and Wallace Rockhole rather than the normal route along the Stuart Highway. We want to ensure that these wonderful places are accessible and, in Central Australia, that means sealing the roads. Our aim is to capture all that traffic that goes to Uluru and offer an alternative scenic loop to the Rock, opening up these communities as well as many magnificent scenic locations.
I was delighted that this spectacular part of Australia was named as our first National Landscape in December. It will see the Red Centre Way elevated nationally and internationally as an iconic tourism destination and will bring about a major marketing boost to Central Australia. The sealing of the Red Centre Way will make our roads safer but, importantly - and this is a very important part - will also generate economic development opportunities in the region and, in particular, for those communities along the way.
The work on Namatjira Drive is being undertaken by Territory company, the Ostojic Group. The $13.3m contract to upgrade the 48 km stretch to seal to two lane standard is expected to take up to 65 weeks to complete, and is one of the largest single road tenders issued in Central Australia. It will result in local jobs for Territorians, including training and employment opportunities for those from the nearby Hermannsburg community. This project will see Namatjira Drive sealed from the end of the existing seal at Glen Helen Resort to the southern boundary of the West MacDonnell National Park. It will link the tourist sites of Redbank Gorge, Tylers Pass and the beautiful West MacDonnell Ranges.
A number of sections of the Red Centre Way have already been upgraded. These include 27 km of Larapinta Drive between Namatjira Drive and Hermannsburg which has been widened and sealed at a cost of $4.14m and was completed last April. The sealing of the 14 km stretch of Larapinta Drive from Kings Canyon Lodge towards Alice Springs was also completed last year at a cost of nearly $4m. A $3.75m contract awarded to Larapinta Constructions, which is a joint venture between Ntaria council and DAC Enterprises to excavate, crush and stockpile pavement materials is almost complete.
This project alone has seen 11 Territorians from Hermannsburg complete several certificate levels as apart of a Certificate III course in Civil Construction. It is a great example of the training and employment initiatives we building into Territory government contracts.
Madam Speaker, the Territory’s road network certainly poses many budgeting challenges, particularly when you consider that only 23% of it is sealed. It is for this reason we are spending over $130m on roads in just this year. It is yet another example of government investing in major infrastructure to create jobs and opportunities for Territorians now and into the future. I look forward to watching the Red Centre Way develop, and the many economic opportunities this iconic project will deliver to those communities in the future.
Mrs MILLER (Katherine): Madam Speaker, I thank the Chief Minister for her report this morning. There is no doubt that Central Australia has some absolutely wonderful landscapes to look at and some beautiful iconic sites to encourage tourists to come to the Red Centre. Parts of the road in the particular area that the Chief Minister talked about have certainly caused a lot of headaches for many tourists and caused much damage to vehicles over the years. It is pleasing to see that, finally, it will be completed.
Could the Chief Minister confirm with me that the Red Centre Way will not be completely sealed until 2011? I believe that is when the sealing will be completed. It is certainly welcomed by tourists and locals alike. It has offered many job and training opportunities for the companies that have been successful in tendering for the work, and it is certainly supported by the CLP.
Mrs BRAHAM (Braitling): Madam Speaker, yes, it is good news from the Chief Minister. We need to congratulate Ntaria council on their efforts to ensure employment opportunities have been given to their people. They have done a great job so far and we hope they continue to be involved in the sealing of this massive road.
Chief Minister, could you update me on the stalemate that has been occurring regarding the access to the gravel pit near Ipolera? I believe that the Aboriginal Areas Protection Authority has given clearances. The traditional owner, Herman Malbunka, has stated very clearly in his letter to you that he has given a permit for access to that gravel road, but the hold-up seems to be with the Central Land Council which says they want to issue permits and clearances on Aboriginal land, and that AAPA should issue them on non-Aboriginal land. It is a stalemate that could have consequences for the opportunities for the Ntaria group of workers who have done so well to date. I am hoping that you can get a resolution. The CLC is supposed to be there for the people, and I hope they realise that is their role and they should sit down and talk it through. If the traditional owners want it and have given their permission for this to happen, then what is wrong with it going ahead?
I also ask: have you gone to the federal government for monies to seal this road? Surely, with all the money the federal government has available for roads at the moment, we could ask them to put some money into finish sealing it sooner?
Ms MARTIN (Chief Minister): Madam Speaker, we always like more money. If we could persuade them that that was one of the AusLink roads, we would do well. However, no, at this stage, there is no federal money for the Red Centre Way. However, we are committed to sealing it.
This current section of road will take 65 weeks to seal. One of the things we have realised since making the announcement that we could, potentially, seal that road in three years, was the capacity of Territory businesses to be available to do that. Such is the work happening in the Territory now that is has been a much more challenging task than we initially thought to find the right way in quantum to issue those contracts for the road. I believe we are getting it right now. The $13.3m contract to the Ostojic Group is certainly an example of that.
Regarding the issue of clearances and the role of AAPA, I believe everyone in this House strongly supports the role of AAPA in having those certificates. We have proposed that the Central Land Council do the anthropological work and that then is handed to AAPA. It is the right way to go; it is how we have done other projects. That is what we are pursuing.
Mr HENDERSON (Tourism): Madam Speaker, I report to the House of the continued growth and development of new and exciting indigenous tourism experiences across the Territory. As members will be aware, the demand by international and domestic visitors to the Northern Territory for a cultural experience is ever growing. Visitors are looking for a range of experiences from buying a piece of art, short walks and talks, to full immersion out on country with traditional landowners.
As I reported in September, Tourism NT is working with a number of communities and individuals to develop strong, sustainable, new business enterprises through a program called Stepping Stones. Since I last spoke, Tourism NT has been working closely with a number of communities in the east Arnhem Land region, and on Groote Eylandt, planning new and innovative tourism experiences.
On Groote Eylandt, Tourism NT delivered the Stepping Stones workshop which explored and documented a variety of potential tourism products associated with the new $18m Dugong Beach Resort that is currently under construction. Ten possible tours in all were created, with the intent of having two to three fully operational before the resort opens in October this year.
Tourism NT is working with Charles Darwin University and my department of DEET to deliver a number of tourism and hospitality training programs to residents on Groote Eylandt. This will ensure they will have the necessary skills and experience to work in the resort as receptionists, housekeepers, gardeners, and also tour guides on the developing new experiences. It is the developer’s aim to have 80% indigenous employment in the resort, and they are working closely with Tourism NT and DEET and the land council to make this reality.
Another developing tourism experience is happening at Yilpara, Blue Mud Bay. The Stepping Stones process was delivered to this community in December last year to help them further develop and plan towards their dream of the Yilpara Two Way Learning Centre. The Two Way Learning Centre will truly be a multipurpose, dual use training facility for both the local Yolngu community, as well as for visiting educational institutions and art sector enthusiasts, both of which are niche markets Tourism NT will target when developing indigenous experiences. The learning centre will be used to attract university and educational groups who have an interest in indigenous art and Yolngu culture to north-east Arnhem Land to further their studies.
Tourism NT also delivered a Stepping Stones workshop last year to Yolngu ladies at Bawaka Cultural Experiences near Nhulunbuy, which leads to the development of the Dillybag Women’s Program. This developing product is aimed at attracting women’s groups who wish to spend time with the indigenous ladies and learn about the culture. The first two-day trial tour of six paying guests was held in November, with feedback from the tour group being very positive. Tourism NT plans to coordinate several more trial tours early in the Dry Season and support the ladies to become fully operational later this year.
Today, whilst I focused on the work happening in the Arnhem Land region, I can tell you that the same good work, where a number of new tourism enterprises are taking shape and opening their doors to visitors, is happening in Central Australia, such as Black Tank run by the Lynch family, Oak Valley Homeland run by the Rossignol family, and Conrad Ratara, who runs the Palm Paddock Camp Ground for adventure tours running out of Palm Valley. Further to this, are tourism interests that are taking shape in the Katherine region which include opportunities in the Gregory National Park and the greater Daly region. Every opportunity looked at includes the potential employment of sustainable income opportunities for the traditional owners of this area.
On the demand side, next week with the support of Tourism NT, two of our indigenous businesses are heading to Europe as part of the Australian Indigenous Road Show to showcase their products to the key European markets. Murdudjurl, Kakadu and Nitmiluk Tours Katherine will spend 15 days travelling through Europe meeting with wholesalers, media and the public showcasing the unique experiences we have in the Territory.
Another great promotion that is currently under way in the USA is the showcasing of the NT and the unique indigenous experiences by Michael Dawu, famous for his role in the award winning movie Ten Canoes, and Mr Jimmy Djamanba who provided cultural advice to the producers and writers of the film. Both are travelling around the US with Tourism NT performing at trade and media events, and talking with key industry representatives about the NT.
This is only some of the work under way supporting indigenous Territorians to develop business opportunities and gain employment from this very important industry in the Territory. I look forward to reporting to the House in the future on further progress we are making in indigenous tourism development and highlighting some of the new and innovative businesses that are opening their doors.
Madam Speaker, it is an exciting time. I know members on our side of the House have indigenous people looking to develop tourism products. The word is out there, it is spreading like wildfire and we are finding it pretty hard to keep up, but we are getting some good runs on the board. I thank all the people in Tourism NT who are doing such a fantastic job in developing this unlimited potential for the Northern Territory.
Mrs MILLER (Katherine): Madam Speaker, I thank the minister for his report this morning. There is no doubt that indigenous tourism plays a significant role in encouraging tourism to the Northern Territory, especially international visitors. When they come to the Territory, they look for an indigenous and cultural experience.
It is significant that Tourism NT is running training programs to help indigenous people develop their business. It is very important that these businesses are developed professionally, have business plans, and know how to operate a business accurately and professionally so that they can deliver a quality product without any hiccups - or very few hiccups.
Dugong Resort is going to be a brilliant example of where indigenous cooperation and employment has given an opportunity to many people who would not have otherwise been involved in tourism. It is wonderful that Tourism NT is involved.
We are really only at the beginning of indigenous tourism in the Northern Territory. We have only just tapped at the edges of it. In the past, it has not been developed professionally enough and I believe that we are going in the right direction.
I know the businesses travelling to Europe will do a good job and I wish them well on their trip. They will certainly spread the best words that they can about the Northern Territory, because the people attending their presentations throughout Europe are professional. I look forward to future reports and I assume that in the not-too-distant future there will be a statement on indigenous tourism in the Northern Territory.
Madam SPEAKER: The time for ministerial reports has expired.
Reports noted pursuant to standing orders.
Bill presented and read a first time.
Mr STIRLING (Justice and Attorney-General): Madam Speaker, I move that the bill be now read a second time.
The purpose of the bill is to amend Northern Territory acts and subordinate legislation to reflect changes in terminology concerning lawyers that have occurred following the enactment in November 2006 of the Legal Profession Act 2006. I will briefly remind honourable members the importance of that legislation.
Apart from being the largest single act ever introduced and passed in the Territory parliament, it also fulfilled the Territory’s role in achieving uniform regulation of the legal profession across Australia. As I noted when introducing the act, it will make it easier for legal practitioners to practice across state and territory borders and reduce regulatory overlap. This will serve the interest of lawyers, their clients and regulatory bodies.
The act is based on model provisions, which provide for a uniform standard for qualifications and training, uniform rules dealing with trust accounts and fidelity funds, standardised definitions of misconduct, and clear requirements when disclosing costs to clients. I was proud to introduce that legislation on behalf of government, and I look forward to it commencement in the near future.
Most of the contents of this bill deal with the arguably mundane but, nevertheless essential, updating of cross-references - for example, replacing references to the repealed Legal Practitioners Act with references to the Legal Profession Act.
Additionally, the opportunity has been taken to rationalise the various meanings of ‘legal practitioner’, ‘solicitor’ and ‘lawyer’ as contained in the statutes. The term ‘lawyer’ is now to be used where the relevant provision is dealing with a person who has the appropriate legal qualifications and who has been admitted in Australia as a lawyer by a state or territory Supreme Court. The term is generally used for acts that provide for the appointments of legally qualified persons to tribunals or judicial positions.
The term ‘legal practitioner’ is used for cases where the relevant act or subordinate legislation is dealing with persons who are practising law, in which case they are required to hold a practicing certificate issued by the Law Society Northern Territory or by some other state or territory regulatory body.
It is a relatively straightforward bill to ensure all relevant Territory legislation accords with the Legal Profession Act 2006. It is not designed to make any significant change to the law, other than to take account of the new act.
However, I draw members’ attention to new section 22 of the Supreme Court Act. On the suggestion of the judges, this section has been amended so that Rules of Court can determine which matters involving the legal profession must be heard by the full court and which matters can be heard by a single judge.
Madam Speaker, I commend the bill to honourable members and I table a copy of the explanatory statement.
Debate adjourned.
Bill presented and read a first time.
Ms LAWRIE (Family and Community Services): Madam Speaker, I move that the bill be now read a second time.
I am pleased to bring before the Legislative Assembly the Mental Health and Related Services Amendment Bill. A formal review of the Mental Health and Related Services Act has been one component of a series of reforms to the quality and safety of the mental health service system in the Northern Territory in recent years.
The first step of the reform agenda has been to progressively increase the mental health budget from $18.8m in 2002-03 to $32.012m in 2006-07 to provide the additional resources necessary to drive the program reform. We have spoken at length over the last few years about mental health service system reform in general. Today, I want to focus on legislative reform.
The mental health service system depends on an effective and functional legislative framework to ensure that society can fulfil its obligation to care for individuals with mental illness and, where necessary, protect others from the effects of the disturbed behaviour attributable to a mental illness in a reasonable and sensitive manner. There is an expectation in the community, and an obligation on the part of government that, where a person is unable to make an informed decision about their own mental health and welfare and they are vulnerable or pose a risk to others, intervention can occur to provide assessment, treatment and care. At times, it will be necessary to do this without the person’s consent.
Through mental health legislation, the community vests in the state the authority to deprive individuals of their liberty and treat them against their will. Mental health legislation also serves to regulate the use of this power. This is achieved through: rigorously specifying the circumstances under which a person may be detained and receive treatment against their will; ensuring that where a person is involuntarily detained and treated, it is for the shortest time possible; providing appropriate checks and balances to preserve the person’s rights and dignity; and, controlling certain forms of treatment.
People involved with the criminal justice system who are affected by mental illness also have a right to access an equivalent level of assessment and treatment service as other members of the community. One function of mental health legislation is to ensure this right is upheld.
Mental health legislation must change over time and needs to reflect contemporary attitudes, technologies and approaches to acceptance and treatment of mental illness. It must be expressed in a way that provides maximum flexibility to enable individuals with responsibilities and powers under the act to carry out their roles effectively.
The Mental Health and Related Services Act 1998 commenced operation on 1 February 2000. The development of the act was an eight-year process involving extensive consultation with a wide range of stakeholders. Over the past six years, there have been changes to the way in which services are administered and delivered, and a substantial improvement in available technologies, both of which require some consideration in the context of legislation.
The Mental Health and Related Services Act 1998 is sound legislation which has functioned reasonably well since its commencement in 2000. Some of its strengths include: effective protection of general and aspirational human rights; clearly expressed criteria; strong external review and appeal processes; specified procedural safeguards; and substantial accountability and standards monitoring provisions.
The purpose of introducing the Mental Health and Related Services Amendment Bill 2007 is not to bring about fundamental change to the underlaying principles enshrined in this legislation, nor to tamper with the original policy intent. The intention is to address unanticipated problems with the day-to-day application of the legislation.
A review of the act commenced in 2003 with the release of a comprehensive issues paper containing 98 items for discussion. A total of 28 written submissions were received. This process also raised a number of additional issues requiring further consultation and consideration. In October last year, Cabinet sought to release the draft bill for public comment, and this also resulted in further refinements to the bill introduced here today.
I take this opportunity to thank publicly all of the individuals and organisations who participated in this process, and who have taken the time to formally submit a response to the review, or participate in subsequent consultation. Your input has been of immense value in developing this bill. I am confident that the comprehensive consultation process has ensured government has been able to address key concerns, and your efforts will result in legislation which retains its strength whilst also responding to contemporary approaches to the delivery of mental health care in the context of the Territory’s unique environment.
The purpose of this bill is to amend the Mental Health and Related Services Act by:
Many of the amendments proposed are either technical adjustments which seek to clarify procedures and terminology, or are cosmetic amendments which seek to align the language, style, sequencing and structure of the act with current Territory legislation guidelines and contemporary drafting approaches.
I now highlight for members some of the key reforms of this bill in more detail. Notification and review of provisions throughout the act have been amended to better reflect their application and to improve compliance with the legislative requirements. For example, the existing provisions for the notification of carers is confusing and has not been well understood or applied since the act’s commencement. Carers have expressed frustration regarding the provisions and the absence of any avenue to apply for a review to be conducted in circumstances where they have requested information and it has been withheld.
The proposed amendments seek to:
The time lines for review by the tribunal throughout the legislation currently vary. The existing statutory requirements for a tribunal review within seven days of admission, combined with a limited hearing schedule of the tribunal which sits once per week in Darwin and Alice Springs has, at times, resulted in consumers being required to appear before the tribunal very shortly after admission while still acutely ill and perhaps heavily sedated. Scheduling a tribunal hearing so early in a person’s admission can be extremely stressful for the person and can interfere with the development of the therapeutic relationship between patients and clinical staff. To overcome these problems, the bill proposes to extend the current ‘within seven day’ review period with a period of ‘within 14 days’. This change will require adjustment to a number of the provisions to ensure consistency. Importantly, the right of any individual or representative to request a review by the tribunal sooner than the 14-day period has been retained, and the tribunal will continue to sit on a weekly basis ensuring any individual wishing to make an early application for review can do so.
Practitioners have also experienced a number of difficulties with the existing 12-hour time limit allowed under section 34(3)(d) to detain a person at an approved treatment facility. It is often not possible to adequately access a person within that time, particularly if they are intoxicated or heavily sedated. The proposed amendment extends the current time frame from 12 hours to 24 hours. This should provide sufficient time to address clinical considerations without significantly eroding individual rights and civil liberties.
Where a person is admitted voluntarily pursuant to section 25 of the act, it currently requires two authorised psychiatric practitioners to conduct separate examinations within a 24-hour period. This mirrors the requirements for any voluntary admission. Whilst this level of response is necessary where a person is subject to an involuntary admission and, as a result deprived of his or her liberty, it is not necessary for someone who has been admitted voluntarily. An amendment is, therefore, proposed to extend this time frame to 72 hours where a person is consenting to voluntary admission and treatment.
The application of this legislation in regional centres and remote areas has been one of the more challenging aspects for mental health services since commencement of the act. While many of the provisions operate as intended in Darwin and Alice Springs, the application outside these centres has been less effective due, in part, to limited access to specialist clinical staff. Access to authorised psychiatric practitioners and designated mental health practitioners is required to ensure many of the provisions can operate as intended. For example, authorised psychiatric practitioners provide expert review and assessment for involuntary admission and involuntary treatment in the community and are critical to the functioning of the act. Similarly, designated mental health practitioners have powers to recommend psychiatric assessment and to assume case management responsibility where an individual is subject to a Community Management Order. Unfortunately, there are no resident authorised psychiatric practitioners outside Darwin, Katherine and Alice Springs, and very few designated mental health practitioners.
To address this contextual reality, the process of appointment for these practitioners will be strengthened in some areas. The package of amendments proposed will introduced a more flexible and practical approach to ensure that individuals receiving mental health services outside the two major centres can be treated as close to home as possible. Specific amendments proposed include:
Amendments are proposed to the current definition of ‘seclusion’ in the act to include a more contemporary definition in line with recent legislative provisions introduced in other jurisdictions, and to ensure capability with national mental health safety initiatives. Review times have also been amended and a reference to approved procedures inserted, which will detail the clinical and review requirements to be observed when placing any individual in seclusion.
Clarifying amendments have been added to cover circumstances where seclusion or restraint might be considered as an option to prevent a person from absconding from an approved treatment facility and to make clear that, where the senior nurse on duty authorises seclusion or restraint, this decision must be reviewed as soon as practical by an authorised psychiatric practitioner and, if necessary, redetermined.
Regarding improved administration and application of Community Management Orders, involuntary community-based treatment options ideally allow community-based treatment to be applied expediently, to be effectively monitored, enforced and reviewed and, where necessary, quickly suspended or revoked in favour of involuntary hospitalisation where clinically indicated. The package of amendments contained in this bill is designed to increase the viability and use of Community Management Orders in remote areas. The amendments will introduce a more flexible and practical approach and ensure individuals receiving mental health services outside the two major centres can be treated as close to home as possible.
Amendments include:
Amendments are also proposed to improve the process and circumstances where it has been necessary to suspend a Community Management Order and admit a person to an approved treatment facility. This includes removing the current requirement for a Community Management Order to be revoked where a person remains in hospital for more than seven days. The capacity to reactivate the Community Management Order on discharge from hospital, irrespective of the duration of the admission, has been introduced unless there is a need to vary the order.
Regarding clarification of police powers, police have a limited but important role under the provisions of the act. That role is facilitative and secondary to the role of Mental Health Services. However, when assistance is required, it is vital that police powers be very clear and give the appropriate guidance and legislative authority to act. Inconsistent references throughout the legislation to police powers have led to circumstances in which the police have not, at times, had sufficient powers to act as intended. For example, the power of entry provisions were not sufficiently clear in some parts of the act, and the terms ‘use of reasonable force’ and ‘take reasonable measures’ were used interchangeably, causing some confusion.
A number of clarifying amendments are proposed to ensure police powers are explicit and consistent throughout the legislation, and provide appropriate authority for police to carry out their role, pursuant to the provisions of the act. Police powers have also been summarised and moved forward from section 163 to a new section 32A in order to provide greater clarity, and to express these powers where they are predominantly required at entry to the Mental Health Service, or where an individual has left an approved treatment facility without medical approval and police assistance is required to return them to the facility.
A new provision providing for notification of police in the event of a person missing from an approved treatment facility, or is the subject of a Community Management Order and has gone missing, is proposed in order to respond to the recommendations made by the Palmer inquiry into the circumstances of the immigration detention of Cornelia Rau.
The draft bill includes a comprehensive restructure of Part 10, Powers of the Court, which is primarily concerned with individuals who require involuntary assessment, admission and treatment, except where bail is granted for purposes of seeking treatment voluntarily. Part 10 is set out in three divisions dealing with assessment and admission of a person; dismissal of charge following a certificate from the Chief Health Officer; and voluntary treatment.
Division 1 applies to a person charged with an offence before the court when in the opinion of the court may require treatment or care under this act. The division allows a court to request advice as to the availability of a venue and a mental health practitioner to make an assessment of the treatment needs of the person. Once advice is received, the court can grant an adjournment and order the assessment to be carried out. A report of this assessment will then be presented to the court, outlining whether the person fulfills the criteria for involuntary admission, the grounds for, and duration of such an admission, and any recommendations in relation to conveyance and security of the person and provision for copies of any orders made by the court to be provided to the person in charge of an approved treatment facility by the Registrar of the local court as soon as practical after the order is made, and before the person is conveyed to the facility or, in circumstances where an existing order is cancelled, varied or extended.
Following receipt of the assessment report, the court can, if satisfied that the person fulfills the criteria for involuntary admission, adjourn proceedings and order detention of the person in an approved treatment facility for examination and assessment, and diagnosis and treatment. Any such order made by the court may contain conditions set if a determination is made that a person no longer requires to be admitted as an involuntary patient because they no longer fulfil the criteria. The court will be informed on the next occasion. Other provisions in this division allow for the release or return to lawful custody of the person, and for the issuance of an arrest warrant where necessary.
Division 2 deals exclusively with the dismissal of a charge under the act. The draft bill indicates this provision applies only where the court exercising summary jurisdiction has sought a certificate from the Chief Health Officer stating whether the accused was suffering a mental illness or disturbance at the time of carrying out the conduct constituting the alleged offence, and whether such mental illness or disturbance is likely to have materially contributed to the conduct. Where a certificate is issued, the court must dismiss the charge if satisfied that the person was suffering from a mental illness or disturbance at the time of the offence and, as a consequence, did not know the nature and quality of the conduct, or that the conduct was wrong, or was not able to control his or her actions. A reference has also been inserted indicating the Chief Health Officer’s certificate must be in the approved form which will be designed to contain additional information outlined in the revised provisions.
The dismissal of charge amendments in the bill more clearly articulate the provisions and ensure they are relevant to the court’s requirements. The provision outlining the advice upon which the Chief Health Officer issues a certificate has also been amended to allow the Chief Health Officer greater flexibility in seeking the necessary advice.
Division 3 allows for the provision of bail where a person wishes to seek treatment voluntarily under the act. Division 3 also seeks to provide a new mechanism to divert individuals with mental illness or disturbance into voluntary treatment, where possible and appropriate. The essential components of this mechanism are:
A number of other requirements have also been made to Part 10 in order to reduce confusion, enhance the application of its provisions, and improve alignment with other parts of the legislation. The proposed changes include:
Amendments to Part 11, Admission of Prisoners, are proposed to more clearly outline the assessment and admissions processes where a prisoner requiring mental health care is concerned, ensuring alignment with other provisions in the act, and to clarify administrative processes. Proposed amendments seek to more clearly articulate the request for assessment process and the assessment arrangements; better align Part 11 with Parts 5 and 6 of the act to ensure consistency and equivalence; clarify the trigger for transfer to an approved treatment facility - that is, clinical assessment and recommendation by an authorised psychiatric practitioner or designated mental health practitioner; and provide powers to retrieve a prisoner who absconds whilst admitted to an approved treatment facility.
A range of amendments to the provisions in Part 15 of the act are proposed in order to strengthen the process, and streamline and improve the functioning of community visitors. Proposed amendments include:
The new provision, clause 85, new section 135A, provides a mechanism to regulate the behaviour of tribunal attendees where they threaten, intimidate or insult the tribunal or a member of the tribunal in relation to the performance of the functions or the exercise of the powers of the tribunal by the tribunal or the member, or interrupt, obstruct or hinder proceedings or create a disturbance in or near a place the tribunal is sitting. The provision also includes a maximum penalty of $2500 or imprisonment for six months.
Regarding interstate orders, requirements to the corresponding law definition in section 151 have been made to indicate a ‘corresponding law’ means a law prescribed by regulation. Section 152 has also been omitted. The proposed amendment removes the current requirement for the minister to be satisfied that the law of another jurisdiction is ‘substantially in the same or similar terms’ of this act before declaring it a corresponding law. This provision in its current form has restricted the capacity of the NT to declare corresponding laws, which is a prerequisite to enter such agreements.
Amendments to these provisions will make Financial Protection Orders more feasible and increase the level of transparency and accountability in the way they are applied. Specific amendments include:
Madam Speaker, I commend the bill to honourable members and I table the explanatory statement.
Debate adjourned.
Continued from 12 October 2006.
Mr BONSON (Millner): Madam Speaker, I support Building the Territory’s Future: An Economic Progress Report.
I have listened to the Leader of the Opposition in the last two days and, unfortunately, have been very disappointed by her contributions. I will point to the facts. I hope she stays around to listen because she is well known for coming in to parliament, speaking her mind, letting out her guts on very negative issues and slipping away into a hole. Many members on this side of the House are very disappointed with how the Leader of the Opposition conducts herself. We saw it last night in negative tirades yesterday during adjournment and in Question Time.
The reality is that there are a number of very positive things happening throughout the Northern Territory, about which this government is proud, and every member of this House should be promoting for the benefit of all Territorians. We have a Labor government that continues to sing a very positive message about the economy. I will go through independent indicators that show that our economy is flying, is doing well, that people are benefiting from the economy.
The Chief Minister has shown the Leader of the Opposition the way to conduct herself. In a position of leadership, you have a position of influence. The Chief Minister has constantly talked up the Territory lifestyle, the Territory economy, the pulses of this government. What we have seen over the last three or four years is a harvest of all that positive energy. I am proud to say that all the members in House on the government benches are very positive when they are talking to the general community.
I spoke to the member for Barkly over the last few days about his theory, I suppose - and I have to agree; it has made me stand up and contribute on this statement. It is about the negativity coming from the Leader of the Opposition. The reality is that she is surrounding herself with negative versions of what is actually happening in the Northern Territory. What we have seen - and I will quote from the Housing Industry Association and independent sources - is the fact that the economy is going very well. This economy is being assisted by the local Northern Territory Labor government. I thought about what the member for Barkly said about the negativity coming from the Leader of the Opposition, and I agree. Throughout my life, when I have been surrounded by negativity, I often behaved in a negative way. An example of that was what we saw yesterday in Question Time.
The Minister for Employment, Education and Training talked about one of the most significant achievements of this government, and probably one of the most significant achievements of any government in Australia at the moment; the ambitious plan to create 10 000 new apprentices and trainees, and the number of people we have actually assisted in getting new apprenticeships and traineeships. If you go back to yesterday, Wednesday, 21 February 2007, in Question Time, the Minister for Employment, Education and Training was telling this House, the listeners throughout the Northern Territory, and the media, about this positive outcome for Territorians driven by this government. If you read the interplay between the Leader of the Opposition and the minister, the Leader of the Opposition did not want to hear good news. I believe it was best summed up by the minister when he said: ‘… never let good news fool a good conspiracy theory, Leader of the Opposition, or ignorance …’ I believe that sums up where the Leader of the Opposition is. We saw her behaviour in her so-called cross-examination of the Health Minister …
Ms Carney: You are an idiot! You know that, don’t you?
Mr BONSON: … and the Police minister, and we saw the report in the …
Mr KIELY: A point of order, Madam Speaker! I ask that the Leader of the Opposition withdraw that reference of ‘idiot’. It is against Standing Order 62
Madam SPEAKER: I ask you to withdraw.
Ms CARNEY: I withdraw the reference to ‘idiot’, Madam Speaker.
Madam SPEAKER: Thank you, Leader of the Opposition.
Mr BONSON: There is an example of the Leader of the Opposition’s behaviour - that is it, summarised in that one little moment.
Ms Carney: How is that memo? Have you got any more for this year, Matty? Are you going to be humiliated by the Chief Minister again, are you?
Madam SPEAKER: Order!
Ms Carney: You must be embarrassed by that. It was well written, I didn’t think you had it in you.
Madam SPEAKER: Order!
Mr BONSON: The Leader of the Opposition bites, Madam Speaker, and she bites; a negative, vitriolic individual. We saw that response played throughout the households of the Northern Territory last night on both ABC and Channel 9. What we saw was a clown - an absolute clown.
Here we have 5243 young people of the Northern Territory - young people who are going to be the future of the Northern Territory. They are going to create our lifestyle, and our new families. It is a positive story, and all the Leader of the Opposition wanted to do was interject and make an absolute fool of herself. This negativity is burning up inside her. I am pleased the member for Greatorex has not sunk to those levels. I believe that, in the general community, he is starting to make an impression. I would be very worried if I was the member for Araluen …
Ms Carney: Yes, and they are all expecting to hear from you in a couple of months, Matt.
Mr BONSON: The reality is, I do not believe the member for Araluen can last, and that is the bottom line. She does not have the gumption or the staying power.
Madam Speaker, the other issue I would like to talk about is the Leader of the Opposition’s constant attack on the performance of this government. If she would go to the independent report from the Housing Association, to page 10 of that report which is called State Growth Meter 23 January 2007, she would find it is an independent report saying the Northern Territory Top End economy is still smoking. It is independent, Madam Speaker. Unfortunately, the Leader of the Opposition does not like good news.
I also spoke to the member for Stuart and we discussed her performance and the way she carries on and …
Ms CARNEY: A point of order, Madam Speaker! I know there is a lot of latitude and, if the member wants to spend the next 15 minutes having a go, I suppose he can. However, I ask the question: what does it have to do with the very statement that he is meant to be debating? I know that is a two-syllable word - you can look it up.
Madam SPEAKER: Member for Millner, relevance is actually an issue here. If you could speak as closely as possible to the statement.
Mr BONSON: I will, Madam Speaker. The Leader of the Opposition creates a negative version of what is actually happening in the Territory economy. For what benefit? For one benefit only: her own benefit of hoping one day to be Chief Minister. Well, she has two chances …
Ms Carney: Just like your mate, Mr Henderson?
Mr BONSON: She has two chances: Buckley’s and none. Anyway, talking to the member for Stuart, he said that it is like the CLP is trying to create a ‘poor bugger me’ CLP. You know what? It is true. They are going out there and saying: ‘Poor bugger me this, poor bugger me that, poor bugger me whatever’. The reality is the Leader of the Opposition, when the tables are turned, fidgets and squirms in her chair and does not like it.
We talk about our economy for a couple of reasons; it is for the benefit for all Territorians. The Chief Minister best summed it up in one of her answers in parliament. She talked about the 6.2% economic growth, 5% employment growth and the 1.7% population growth. It is duty of every member in this House to promote those fantastic outcomes led by this government, as was the outcomes in apprenticeships and traineeships.
What we have is the Canberra Liberal Party led by the Leader of the Opposition, the member for Araluen, constantly talking down Alice Springs, Darwin, the police, public servants - constantly talking down everything. Madam Speaker …
Ms Carney: Remember that time you talked down the Chief Minister in that memo? What do you reckon about that?
Madam SPEAKER: Order!
Ms Carney: Gee, you talked her down did you not? And then you leaked it.
Madam SPEAKER: Order!
Mr BONSON: Madam Speaker, thank you. The Chief Minister or any member of this government could go outside and say the sky was blue, and the Leader of the Opposition would say it was grey.
In her answer to the question on economy, the Chief Minister spoke about us being a small economy and one which can receive significant blows from small changes in the national and the international economy. That is true, it can. However, what it also can do is when the leadership group - or so-called leadership group - of the Northern Territory, whether they are in opposition or the …
Ms Carney: Misunderstanding and even hate towards the Chief Minister, wrote the member for Millner, Madam Speaker.
Madam SPEAKER: Order!
Mr BONSON: Madam Speaker, I would like to continue on speaking, but …
Ms Carney: Hate towards the Chief Minister. From one of her own. Goodness me!
Madam SPEAKER: Order! Leader of the Opposition!
Mr BONSON: Madam Speaker, that negativity pervades the thinking of the Leader of the Opposition.
However, what is the positive talk? The Chief Minister best summed it up talking about it securing our future. I quote:
Do we ever hear the Leader of the Opposition support us, or say we are doing a good job? All we heard was her transgressions yesterday in Question Time - negative carping. It seems …
Ms Carney: It seems the opinion of supporters as well as non-supporters that the five indigenous members are not speaking out on these issues.
Madam SPEAKER: Order! Leader of the Opposition.
Dr BURNS: A point of order, Madam Speaker! Standing Order 51, Madam Speaker:
There have been constant interjections from the member for Araluen. Madam Speaker, I want to hear the member for Millner.
Madam SPEAKER: Order! Leader of the Opposition, there have been a number of interjections.
Ms Carney: Yes, there have, Madam Speaker.
Madam SPEAKER: I ask you cease interjecting, thank you.
Ms Carney: Yes, Madam Speaker.
Mr BONSON: Thank you, Madam Speaker. What we have here today with her performance again with interjections is the fact that she cannot take it on the chin. She has no guts, she has no gumption. What she will do is run away to her little cubbyhole down south surrounded by her negative group of individuals, and come back next sittings and behave in the exactly same way. What we want to hear is positive alternatives from the Leader of the Opposition. I believe in democracy, and it would be great to see the member for Greatorex given that opportunity ...
Ms Carney interjecting.
Mrs Miller interjecting.
Mr BONSON: I continue with the Chief Minister’s answer:
Where is the Leader of the Opposition’s positive talk about that? We hear nothing; it is deafening.
Mr KIELY: A point of order, Madam Speaker! I am being distracted constantly by the Leader of the Opposition and the member for Katherine and their discussions here. I can hear their mumblings over here and I am having extreme difficulty in hearing the great contribution from the member for Millner. I draw your attention to Standing Order 51 and ask that you talk to the Leader of the Opposition about this incessant and persistent annoying behaviour.
Madam SPEAKER: The Leader of the Opposition is not interjecting at this stage. I ask the member for Millner to continue. It is a very provocative speech, member for Millner. You could be somewhat more relevant in your comments.
Mr KIELY: Speaking to the point of order, Madam Speaker, I draw your attention to Standing Order 51 which says:
Madam SPEAKER: Thank you, member for Sanderson. Member for Araluen and member for Katherine, if could you perhaps speak a little more quietly in your personal conversation.
Mr BONSON: Thanks, Madam Speaker. I think the member for Johnston summed it up: a little touchy today; she has a very soft underbelly.
I continue with the answer:
Where is the Leader of the Opposition supporting us, as a group of individuals, representing change leadership for every individual in the Northern Territory …
Ms Carney: The five indigenous members …
Mr BONSON: … and we have no support …
Ms Carney: … in your little group?
Madam SPEAKER: Order! Leader of the Opposition.
Mr BONSON: … whatsoever from the carping, whining …
Mr WARREN: A point of order, Madam Speaker! I have difficulty hearing what the member for Millner is saying. I have hearing aids. I ask you to remind the Leader of Opposition of Standing Order 51. I am having real difficulty, as a person who wears hearing aids, in hearing what the member for Millner is saying.
Madam SPEAKER: Opposition members, I ask you to cease interjecting.
Mr BONSON: Thank you. Members of this House are showing a bit of class and politeness, something the Leader of the Opposition does not understand.
What we have also seen is the Treasurer, the member for Nhulunbuy, Mr Syd Stirling, do a fantastic job over a number of years in directing the economy. We all know the history - and the Leader of the Opposition does not like talking about history of what we took over in 2001; what the state of the economy was, what the black hole was - she was part of that too. She went through it, she does not like listening to it - yada, yada, yada. However, what we have seen is the Treasurer turn things around with a coordinated approach by the government - a leadership role driving the positive message of what we can do as a group and as a community.
I go back to one of the answers he gave in parliament. He said that Territory retail turnover grew by 9.3% in 2006 compared to 5.8% in the rest of Australia. Obviously, people in the Northern Territory have a positive outlook in where we are going. It was outperformed only by the Western Australian economy and has doubled our colleagues in South Australia. December 2005 compared to December 2006 showed a 12.5% trend turnover, an enormous outcome given the highs of 2005. He continued in his answer:
All positive news; people believing that the Territory is going ahead.
Believe it or not, member for Araluen, people in Alice Springs believe this as well. All you have to do is talk to the members for Stuart and Macdonnell. They have lived there all their lives, haven’t they, member for Araluen? They have lived there all their lives, and they know more people than you do in Alice Springs. Do you know what? They do not come back with the negative messages that you promote. It is important to break down - are you packing up to go, Leader of the Opposition?
Madam SPEAKER: Order!
Mr BONSON: It is important to break down these spending patterns to see what Territorians are spending their money on. I would like to finish what the Treasurer had to say in his answer; that recreation spending alone increased by 40%, up past $7m in value. If everything is so negative, as the Leader of the Opposition would like us to think, why would people be spending money on recreation? It is because they have a positive outlook on where the Territory is going. Food spending was up by 21.8% and household goods by 12%, another independent indication that the Territory economy is moving ahead and the people in the Territory are taking a positive outlook. That is long-term Territorians, people who have a belief in the future of the Territory.
The Treasurer, a member of this House for 16 or 17 years, said that what these figures show is a confident set of consumers, confident about the future and spending on leisure and pleasure goods as well as improving their household environment.
Yet, we have members of the opposition interjecting that places like Alice Springs – great cities, great towns – are the murder capital of Australia. What type of talk is that?
The Treasurer also said that it shows a group of people happy with their future and confident in their success continuing. I agree with the Treasurer. We all know that independent indicators support this statement. It is time for every member to stand up in this House, including the members of the opposition and the Independents …
Ms Carney: Right, Matt, get your little group together.
Mr BONSON: Let us check the Leader of the Opposition. Let us put her back in her place regarding the negativity that she is causing. What she does not understand, and refuses to understand, is that this will not help her win an election. You have to be a viable alternative. You have to give the people of the Territory a choice. The choice they have is a group of individuals promoting the positive lifestyle, economy, family values of the Territory, versus the Leader of the Opposition, who continues to embarrass herself in Question Time, in adjournments and in every contribution she makes. I am very disappointed with her. She showed so much potential but, unfortunately, that potential has gone out the window.
Ms Carney: You are so funny, but it is no surprise because you really are so congenitally stupid, really.
Mr BONSON: Madam Speaker, I look forward to her contribution in the adjournment and, no doubt, she will turn it into a personal attack, even though I have tried to be really unbiased.
Madam SPEAKER: Leader of the Opposition, I ask you to withdraw that last comment, please.
Ms CARNEY: I withdraw ‘congenitally stupid’ in relation to the member for Millner, Madam Speaker.
Madam SPEAKER: Just withdraw and sit down, thank you.
Mr Bonson: Thank you for withdrawing.
Madam SPEAKER: Order!
Mr NATT (Primary Industry and Fisheries): Madam Speaker, I support the Treasurer’s statement. The Treasurer spoke of the government’s key economic commitment to deliver a strong and growing economy, with benefits for Territorians now and in the future. I am pleased to report that all areas of my Primary Industry, Fisheries and Mines portfolios are contributing to that commitment in a very positive manner. Minister Stirling spoke of the mining industry benefiting …
Ms CARNEY: A point of order, Madam Speaker! The member well knows, or should, that he cannot refer to a minister by his surname.
Madam SPEAKER: Minister, if you could refer to the minister by their title or by their electorate, please.
Mr NATT: The Treasurer spoke of the mining industry benefiting from a number of government decisions. In fact, mining, oil and gas are the Territory’s biggest and most economically valuable sector, producing in excess of $3bn annually, employing over 4000 people largely in regional areas, and accounting for 20% of the gross state product. These figures exclude the substantial impact of value added alumina and LNG processing.
Thanks to this government’s sound economic policies, a range of mining and petroleum developments and expansions are under way or planned, which will make the resources sector an even greater contribution to the Territory economy.
The Northern Territory government is committed to the long-term development of the mining sector for the benefit of all shareholders, with comprehensive exploration attractions and the mining facilitation programs in place to support further industry development. Nowhere is this more evident than the Territory’s Building the Territory’s Resource Base, or BTRB, an initiative which is funded to the value of $15.2m over four years, proportionately more than any other jurisdiction in Australia.
Since my trip to China last year, promoting the benefits of the BTRB, there have been significant increases in the number of Chinese-based minerals and exploration companies showing their interest in the Northern Territory. Before our delegation’s whirlwind visit, the majority of Chinese companies did not know the Territory existed. Recently, on 8 and 9 February, again as a direct result of the contacts made during my visit, a delegation from the influential China Chamber of Commerce of Metals, Minerals and Chemicals Importers and Exporters visited Darwin for discussions, and also inspected the GEMCO mine at Groote Eylandt. The economic potential opened up by these visits is virtually limitless and, again, all this has been due to the government’s policy of investment and exploration attraction.
While future prospects look excellent, remember that there are five world-scale mines already in the Northern Territory:
Better geoscience and new mining methods have made it viable for companies to rework old claims, as is evidenced by these figures. In 2005-06, 390 000 ounces of gold were mined in the Northern Territory, with a value of $271m. That is approximately 14% of the value of all mining in the Northern Territory.
Canadian listed company, GBS Gold, consolidated gold tenements in the Pine Creek region and has announced a global resource of 3.5 million ounces. The company will spend $10m on exploration in the region this year, and has already opened two mines, one Rising Tide and the other Brocks Creek. The company is so sure about the prospectivity of this region that it also plans to open Fountain Head, Cosmo Deeps, Princess Louise, Chinese Howley and Maud Creek as well. The tenements are centred around the Union Reef mill, near Pine Creek, where the first gold pour from the region took place on 26 September last year. The extent of the GBS activities around Pine Creek is certainly unprecedented. The company will spend $34m exploring over the next five years. This means jobs, wealth to the economy, and a welcome return to the good times of Pine Creek region.
Add to GBS’s venture that of Renison Consolidated Mines, which has recommenced mining at Toms Gully. Renison made its first gold pour on 23 August 2006. You can see that, in the old days, it would have been called a gold rush. Why? Because it is just these operators that are putting the Territory back on the radar screen of the world’s gold sector.
In the Tanami Desert, Newmont Australia, which runs one of Australia’s largest gold mines at Callie, is exploring deep underground extensions to the ore body. This has already led to the discovery of increased resources to the tune of 4.3 million ounces of gold.
Regional exploration in the Tanami has been revitalised by a recent seismic survey, which was partly funded by my department as a fine example of private and public sector cooperation. This survey has already generated many new exploration targets. Other groups exploring in the Tanami such as Tanami Gold and Ord River Resources, can now take advantage of the new data to apply new exploration models. This is the very essence of modern exploration.
Meanwhile, exploration for gold in the Tennant Creek region has been revitalised by Adelaide Resources and Westgold Resources. These companies are following new exploration models and are hopeful of positive results. Once again, the Northern Territory geological survey is there and, based on the strike rate of their information to date, I am sure we will soon be hearing more about the Tennant Creek region.
There are also totally new greenfield areas under exploration as well. In the Western Arrernte region at the Tekapo prospect site on Aboriginal land near Lake Mackay, Tanami Gold recently announced a significant gold discovery. It follows work from geophysical and mapping programs undertaken by the NTGS, which highlighted the prospectivity of this virtually unexplored region. Evaluation and exploration in this remote region is continuing, but it is a greenfields area, high in interest.
In addition to the boom in gold, several other new prospects have come online; namely, the Bootu Creek manganese north of Tennant Creek which has now exported its first shipment to China; the Peko tailings treatment project at Tennant Creek, which extracts magnetite, gold, copper and cobalt; and test work by North Australia Diamonds at its Merlin Diamond Mine. Several more major developments will start construction this year and be operational within the next 12 to 19 months, including the Compass browns polymetallic project near Batchelor, the Matilda minerals sands project on Melville Island, and Territory Irons project at Frances Creek near Pine Creek.
Other major and medium scale projects are in the works including Arafura Resources, Giants rare earths and phosphate project at Nolan’s Bore, and Olympia Resources garnet sands project in Harts Range. These resource developments are being supported by rapidly expanding infrastructure that the Treasurer has already spoken about, so it is little wonder that the Territory’s economy is predicting to grow at close to 5% over the next five years – Australia’s highest growth forecast.
It is not only in the resources sector that the Territory is benefiting. In primary industry, there is also significant economic development. The pastoral industry of the Territory supports 1.8 million cattle - about 6.4% of the Australian herd. This sector of the Territory’s economy is worth in excess of $250m, or 1.5% of the total GSP. It operates on 216 properties and directly employs over 1600 people. Our cattle producers turn off 500 000 head a year from some 620 000 km2 of first-class grazing country. That means that 55% of the land mass of the Territory is given over to pastoral industry. The result is that more than 40% of Australia’s South-East Asian cattle exports come from the Territory. Last year saw 216 000 head of cattle go through the port of Darwin.
However, there is more in the primary industries than cattle, and the horticultural section has been described as a boom industry going from an annual worth in the 1980s of approximately $300 000 to more than $90m today. On top of the horticultural heap are mangoes, followed by table grapes, Asian vegetables and cut flowers and the nursery products.
The mango industry is the largest horticultural industry in the Northern Territory, generating over $40m in product sales a year. This is an impressive figure, but the industry contributes to the Territory’s overall economic performance in ways other than in product sales. The mango industry already supports hundreds of positions as owner/operators or as full-time employees, and up to 4000 seasonal workers. For each additional $1m of product in the mango industry, 3.7 jobs are created within the industry and 1.3 jobs outside of it. This makes it a vital contributor to the Territory’s economy and one that will continue to play a big part in ensuring future prosperity.
The Territory’s principle field crops – cereals, hay and pasture seed – reap $12.5m a year for our local economy, while 53 000 tonnes of hay produced annually contribute over $10m to our economy.
Lastly but by no means least, is the Northern Territory’s fishing industry. The annual Territory wild harvest fisheries catch generates approximately $33m in annual revenue. Last year, shark, mud crab and barramundi were the most valuable wild harvest fisheries.
Aquaculture in the Territory is worth $30m a year and is forecast to exceed $120m by 2010. To date, the most lucrative aquaculture sectors are barramundi and pearling. It has been established that over 40 000 non-indigenous Territory residents fish each year and that two out of every three visitors also go fishing. That equates to over $34.7m into the economy annually due to the recreational fishing, with approximately 30% being visitor provided. The flow-on effects into the Territory’s tourism industry are also significant. This was addressed earlier by the Treasurer in his statement.
Madam Speaker, as the Treasurer rightly pointed out the government made a commitment to the people of the Territory to deliver a strong, growing economy for the benefit of Territorians now and in the future. I believe that from the developments and industry projects figures and projections I have outlined, it is easy to see that the Territory is delivering on that commitment. I commended the statement to the House.
Mr WOOD (Nelson): Madam Speaker, I would like to speak on the Territory economy. We have heard a lot about lifestyle - probably too much about lifestyle this week …
Mr Henderson: You can never have enough lifestyle. There is more to life than work.
Mr WOOD: Yes, many of us probably do want more of it. However, sometimes in this we can get lost in the euphoria of a lifestyle and lose touch with reality. Of course the economy is doing well. I am not going to get up here and say that it is not doing well. We have gas, tourism, construction, the railway, mining, and retail although, in some areas, especially Darwin, that is a bit dubious. You just have to go around the mall and look at the number of shops that are empty and have not been re-let. In some other areas, we are doing very well - horticulture and agriculture as the member for Drysdale mentioned. The economy is doing well, and there is no doubt about it that many people in the Northern Territory are benefiting from that.
However, it is not right for the government to say ‘everything is rosy’, and people can say, ‘Oh, this is terrific’. We are forgetting that we are developing an underclass. That underclass of people is the people who are trying to buy a home. We are glossing over the fact that house affordability is a major issue. It is a major issue for Aboriginal people. We have mentioned the shortage of houses in the Northern Territory. Is that a lifestyle we are cheering? I hope not. What about the affordability in other areas of the Territory? The minister said in his statement:
Then the minister went on further in his statement and said:
I rest my case.
This government is putting forward that that is wonderful because the minister said how wonderful it is for a solid return on the investment made by property owners. I do not say the property owners should not get a reasonable return for the property, but let us get this into perspective. The Australian Property Monitors looked at the price of housing and came out with these figures: from December quarter 2004 to December quarter 2005, adjusted house prices in Darwin went up 20.9%. Do not tell me that is not a pretty good return for your investment. In the next quarter, it went up, and again I quote: ‘17.1%’. A 38% increase in housing prices! I do not believe that is a fair thing when it comes to …
Mr Stirling: What do you do? Do you control it? Do you cap it?
Mr WOOD: No. You are putting all your – you are creating …
Mr Stirling: You have a centralist economy; you say how much it can go up.
Mr WOOD: No, I am not saying people should not get a fair return. What we are getting is extremely high returns that are causing young people not to be able to afford a home - and your government is avoiding it. You have given us glowing reports of the economy. In my case, it is coming close to home. My daughter has come home with her three children because of high rentals. I do not believe she is the only one.
Look at the cost of land. Pull out some advertising information from the website. Here we go. ‘Land, land and more land’. This is it, Farrar from $160 000 in Farrar. About three years ago, it was about $70 000. Who is doing this? A new suburb on the CBD’s door step - 756 m2, $172 000. What is left to build a house? If you go with HomeNorth you have a $70 000 house. I spoke to a builder the other day. If you are allowed to build a budget home in Palmerston - and you are not because the covenants restrict it, which is another area the government should look at, a budget home - that is a two- or three-bedroom house, with toilet and shower down the hallway, not en suites, just a lounge and a kitchen, basic house: $160 000.
Even if you could build one of those, you just hit $330 000. The price of land has just got out of hand, and do not forget your government sold that land to the developers. You had the power in the first place. In Rosebery, it is $255 000 for an 803 m2 parcel of land, which you can put a duplex on. In Rosebery: 684 m2 blocks, $175 000. This is just a joke. How can you stand there and say the economy is terrific and, on the other hand, say there are some issues? Who said in the government that there are not some issues?
Minister, I believe you praise the economy and praise house prices going up, and you keep saying it is terrific. I do not mind if you say that, but what are we really doing to help the young people? It is in your hands. The HomeNorth scheme, while it is good, does not fix the problem because the price of housing is so high that the HomeNorth scheme will not fit. Even it did fit, what you are saying is that we do not mind people going into debt for the rest of their life. That is what you are saying. We should be able to give our young people the opportunity to buy a house and some land at a reasonable price so it does not mean that most of their income has to be turned into paying for their houses.
The cost of houses is another issue we need to look at. Graham Kemp, Housing Industry Association NT Branch Manager, said the average Darwin house is now $414 000 and units are $276 000. The price of houses is just getting out of hand if you want to build a new house. How much of that is due to covenants that are unrealistic for young people starting to build their house? How much has that to do with regulations? Is house construction over-regulated? I do not know, but I will give you an example of why the government should review the regulatory building processes to houses.
I asked a building certifier the other day if I could replace a sliding window in my house with a louvred window. You would not think that would be too hard; you ring the glass man and ask him to put louvres in. I have to go and get an engineer to draw a plan for my window. Then, I have to have that checked by the certifier, put in by the glass manufacturer, then checked by the certifier.
One knows that when you build a house in Darwin there is a specification for building houses, so, if you want to put in a window, there would be a specification that says if you have a hole in your wall this big, you will require this size window frame with this thickness glass. That is what the requirement is. Why do you need an engineer? The glass person says they will put one in according to the specification. The building inspector comes along and says you have put one in according to that specification, end of story. We have a third tier of cost in there, which is an engineer. Some of you may say that is how the world goes today.
The government should be seeing whether its own regulations are putting extra costs on the building and construction of houses, because I believe that is an important area. We want to ensure our houses stand up in cyclones, for sure, but if we have specifications that say this is how you build the house, why do you need to have an engineer at every turn in the construction process?
I am told that, if you want to build a $160 000 budget home in Palmerston, you could not. Why? Because the covenants will not allow you. The house has to have a lovely, non-energy efficient coloured roof, like red and blue. We talk about energy efficiency in this parliament, and we allow, basically, those people to have the freedom to do what they like. However, I am sure that they have the freedom. I believe the covenant says you have to have a coloured roof, and you have to mix and match to make the suburb look nice. However, in reality, red, blue and dark green are not the right colours for a roof in the tropics. It should be trying to reflect the heat, not absorb it.
Then there is probably the style of the house, whether it has an en suite, etcetera. Again, there is an opportunity for government to look at allowing budget homes to be built. Of course, they have to be built up to a nice standard, but there is room for allowing cheaper homes to be built.
The government has to stop drip-feeding land. As a builder said to me today, there will be land, say 900 blocks, possibly available in Palmerston. The government will build 100, 100, 100, and 100. Why not put the 900 out? Why not? What is wrong with seeing a few ‘For sale’ signs on a vacant block for a couple of years? That used to be the norm once. Now, the government has control; it is controlling the market. It does that because it owns the land.
Minister, I believe you also need to look at unit prices. Again, you just have to go to the figures I quoted from the Australian Property Monitors. In two years, unit prices in Darwin, from the December quarter 2004 to December quarter 2005, went up 24%. I hope someone’s wages went up that much, because I do not see many people with wages going up that high. From December 2005 to December 2006, unit prices went up another 24%. In two years, unit prices have nearly doubled in Darwin. I do not mind people having a return, but tell me how many people got their wages doubled to pay for the rent that is required to cover these, or to buy one of these or just to be in a house?
These are the issues that I would like government to address. I have heard two ministers say: ‘Oh, if we will release more land we will upset the market’. Just for starters, the people that you are talking about cannot buy the land. They are the ones renting. They are the ones living in my house. A lot of other people are having the same - not so much a problem; I do not mind my grandchildren in my house. That is what is happening. I heard on the radio recently where the Grandparents Association are asking the federal government if they can get some carer’s allowance, because many young people are now staying with their parents because they cannot afford to buy a house. I believe it is coming home to the Northern Territory.
The issue about the availability of land can be simply looked at. The government releases land for first home owners. It can do that with either a private development that has come from the government auctioning off its own land, where it leaves a certain number of blocks out of that sale. It asks the developer to provide the infrastructure and works out a deal to provide land for that developer. So people do not think these people are going to get a cheap block, you then put a covenant on the block. Someone has to build a house within two or three years, and you cannot sell the block. You cannot just buy an investment for making money; you have to hang onto the block for at least 10 years. If you do want to sell it due to circumstances beyond your control, you may have to sell it straight back to the government at a set price.
You are not trying to upset the existing market, you are trying to allow Territorians to own a piece of property so they can raise their family - not a tiny, midget little block, a reasonably sized block. You have the land to do it. You have land in Palmerston and in the city of Weddell. You keep saying Weddell is years off, but the way we are going at the moment, I believe we should be seriously looking at opening up Weddell.
We have plenty of land in the rural area; we could be opening up one hectare blocks. What is holding up development of that style of living in the rural area is that we are not getting the headworks that allow infrastructure to move into those areas. One hectare blocks require town water. When was the last time you saw any infrastructure, any headworks, put in by the government, by Power and Water? A long time ago - probably Humpty Doo is about the last time there was anything was done to extend water into the rural area. The government has a role there to actually extend some of the infrastructure, notwithstanding the developer will have to put infrastructure in as well. However, headworks is the role of the government, not the developers.
Another sign of the times and another area we should be looking at is public housing. I know some people think public housing causes lots of problems, but there is a real need for public housing. There will always be a need for public housing. Yet, the government is selling off some of its public housing, and we have a decreasing housing stock. The problem is that, when it is difficult for people to find a block of land or to buy a unit or a house already existing on a block of land, people are going to look to the government for housing. That is exactly why we have public housing. Yet, if you look at Darwin and Casuarina waiting times, it is 27 months for a one-bedroom, non-pensioner unit. For a pensioner unit it is 23 months. For a two-bedroom unit, you have to wait 26 months. For a three-bedroom unit - 30 months. You are getting on to two-and-a-half years before a house is available for a family that might require a three-bedroom house. If you want a one-bedroom, non-pensioner unit in Alice Springs, you have to wait 38 months – over three years. In Nhulunbuy, you have to wait 50 months – four years.
I believe the government has a responsibility. If it says: ‘Great economy, let the market go. We are not that concerned about the cost of land and housing’, then it needs to provide alternatives. If needs to provide alternatives by opening up more land for first home owners, and providing more public housing so that people can find a place. It needs to provide land for permanent caravan parks. That is going to be an option that many people are going to have to have, simply because they cannot find a place to live.
One area that we are forgetting in all of this is the social effects of having to pay large amounts of one’s income towards the cost of buying a house. This research paper came out in February 2006, called Housing Affordability in Australia. It is by Judith Yates and Michelle Gabriel for the Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute. It talked about housing stress. What it is referring to is the stress caused by the requirements of many people to pay between 30% and 50% of their income towards their house. The biggest group that is stressed is the family, followed by the sole parent. By far, 63% of people who are under stress because of mortgage repayments are families. We are not taking into account half of that.
We are talking in glowing terms about our economy; how it is creating jobs, etcetera. However, how many people trying to pay for the mortgage are working long hours - both parents? What effect is that having on young children? The society that praises high housing costs, high mortgages, and high repayments – because that is what you are saying when you believe that these increases are great – you are saying: ‘We do not mind people having to work long hours, and we do not mind our children not having mum and dad around as much as possible’. We know that in this society in general people work much longer hours. It is always strange to me, having studied economics way back in the late 1960s and told when the invention of the computer was coming in we would have more relaxation time. I believe that the total opposite has occurred, and people now work much longer hours.
What effect is that going to have on our young children? What effect is it going to have on our society? We have talked many times here about law and order, youth and gangs. Yet, what is the underlying cause for a lot of that? It is the breakdown of families. What is the reason for a breakdown of families? Is it the stress? Is it the grog abuse that is sometimes caused by the stress? Is it families that sometimes might not be able to budget their money either? It is stress. That is one area we should be having great concerns about it. It should be mentioned when we are talking about lifestyle.
Finally, in the last minute I will talk about Aboriginal housing. We cannot stand here and say what a wonderful lifestyle Territorians have if we know many of our people are not adequately housed. I know the member for Barkly is doing his best to change that. It is important to recognise that, and I congratulate that member for that. However, you must not lose touch with reality. The reality is - and it is in my electorate as well, believe it or not - that the standard of housing is extremely poor. There is much overcrowding and that is caused by many things as well. If we are to say: ‘Yippee, what a great Territory lifestyle’, and we do not make mention of these other issues, then we are just kidding ourselves and we are fooling the public. We should not be doing that as parliamentarians.
Debate suspended.
Madam SPEAKER: Honourable members, I draw your attention to the presence in the gallery of visitors to the Parliament House as part of the public education tour program. On behalf of all honourable members, I extend to you a very warm welcome.
Members: Hear, hear!
Madam SPEAKER: Honourable members, I draw your attention to the presence in the gallery of the federal member for Solomon, Mr Dave Tollner. On behalf of honourable members, I extend to you a very warm welcome.
Members: Hear, hear!
Continued from earlier this day.
Mr STIRLING (Treasurer): Madam Speaker, I thank members who took the time to contribute to this debate. Before I go to the comments I have gathered together from the last time we spoke to this motion, I want to pick up on the speakers immediately prior to lunch. That was the minister for Mines and his rundown of recent mining activity, particularly in relation to mines that have reopened old works, and new mines opening, or about to open. The list was impressive, right across the Northern Territory, particularly, I suppose, regarding gold.
It stands in stark contrast to the warnings from the CLP opposition around three years ago when we made some changes around the taxation treatment of exploration exemption certificates. I well recall the warnings that mining would cease in the Northern Territory, exploration would immediately be abandoned, and that would be the end of new mines. Well, what a different picture we had from the minister for Mines today in relation to old works being reopened, new mines being opened, and the strength of the mining sector in general in the Northern Territory. It stands in stark contrast to the comments made, particularly by the former member for Drysdale, I recall, in his criticisms around the removal of the exploration exemption certificates.
I want to go that question of first home ownership that the member for Nelson was railing against immediately prior to lunch. He really castigated the government for bringing about a growth economy. I find that astonishing in itself, because the increase of housing prices that we have seen of recent times reflects just that - the economic growth of the Northern Territory and the growth of the population. The member for Nelson must think that is bad thing. What would his view be if house prices stabilised for three or four years? Maybe he might not think that is bad thing. What if they were to slump dramatically by 30% in the space of six months? Would that be a good thing? I believe he would think that would be a bad thing. He is going to have a crack at you whatever happens in the housing market: either it is going too strong, or it is not going strongly enough.
We hear a lot about first home buyers; it was on the radio this morning. I have done a few media interviews with a couple of commentators. It was particularly around this first home ownership, and how difficult it is for them to get into the market. Well, we today remain the second most affordable jurisdiction for home ownership in the whole of Australia.
Mr Wood: Least affordable.
Mr STIRLING: The second most affordable jurisdiction in the whole of Australia …
Mr Wood: No. That is not …
Mr STIRLING: … just narrowly shaded by the ACT. Within the home owner mix, we have the highest percentage of first home owners in the home buying mix of anyone in Australia - the most number of first home buyers in the Northern Territory, compared to anyone else. First home buyers already realise a saving of more than $8000, because they do not have to pay any stamp duty on the first $225 000 of the purchase price of the house.
Mr Wood: The market runs the show, not the government.
Mr STIRLING: Well, the member for Nelson needs to tell me exactly when there was a time when it was easy for first home buyers to enter the market.
Mr Wood: Many years ago in the Territory.
Mr STIRLING: It has never been easy for that first home buyer to purchase that first home, I do not care what the market does.
Mr Wood: It has. You set aside some land, northern suburbs and first suburbs of Palmerston.
Mr STIRLING: It has never been the easy thing. It is not called the great Australian dream for nothing. The great Australian dream – to own your own home. It has always been a struggle. Many times, first home buyers buy a unit. They get equity in the unit, pay a bit of it off and the place grows in value, and they move into a house, and up they go through the market. Eventually, when their kids leave home, they start to downsize again. It is a natural progression through the market that has occurred throughout Australian history. There is nothing new about that.
The other criticism is about land availability. It is available now and will continue to become available with further releases. The other criticism raised by the member for Nelson was this thrown-around figure of 5% CPI. Well, CPI in the Northern Territory touched 5% in the December quarter last year, recorded in that December quarter - 5% against a year-to-year of 4.4%. Of course, it does not suit the member for Nelson or the CLP opposition - of which he is most often more closely a part - to refer to the truth of the CPI movement over 2006, which is 4.4% not 5%. Over 2% of that 5% recorded in the December quarter was directly related to housing and fed into that CPI figure.
The most recent REINT figures - and I have spoke about this last week - show a 3.9% decrease in the median price of a Darwin home. That suggests that we are already starting to see a moderation and a stabilisation of prices …
Mr Wood: On a very high base.
Mr STIRLING: … which will feed directly into the next quarterly CPI, and the one behind that. I reiterate - and the member for Nelson does not want to hear this - we are the second most affordable jurisdiction in Australia for housing …
Mr Wood: Not true – 40th least affordable in the world.
Mr STIRLING: For housing, the second most affordable jurisdiction. Go to Victoria, Melbourne, Sydney, and try to get into the market compared to here – the second most affordable jurisdiction in Australia. It has been the most affordable for many years, and we will become the most affordable again in the next six to nine months or so. We have the highest number of first home buyers in the purchasing mix of any state or territory.
Economic growth is set to be 6.2% again this financial year, employment is growing at around over 5%, over the last year we have created around 6000 jobs, and over 2000 of those were apprentices and trainees. Unemployment is 2%, population growth is 1.7%. As I said in my remarks about housing, that is the sign of an economy growing in a strong and sustainable way.
I note with a little concern that, on what was a major statement, the only comment from the opposition was made by the member for Blain. His contribution consisted of an attempt to say that the state of economy did not have anything to do with this government and, then, a joke about the disclaimer on the bottom of a DPI publication. I did not think it was either useful or notable in its content. However, I thank my colleagues for the positive comments and contributions, each demonstrating the commitment of various parts of government to continuing this strong economic growth created over the last five years.
I said in October we inherited an economic basket case from the Country Liberal Party. We have turned that around. It has taken hard work and a lot of effort, but the results are there to be seen. The principles underlying our actions remain to provide a high level of cash for capital works and infrastructure, to focus funds on economic drivers to produce future growth, to make sensible and strategic reductions to taxation on business in the community, and to maintain the strong fiscal discipline commented on favourably, I might add, by the Auditor-General in his report. I thank him for that comment.
Over the last five budgets, that strategy has formed a core of our decision-making and our economic action. It has seen $2.7bn in cash for infrastructure, investment in the economic drivers of tourism and roads, a reduction of taxes by $74m with $134m more to come over this term, and this government delivered four budget surpluses as part of the careful fiscal management plans.
However, the Territory economy remains a difficult one, because it is small, and a cough somewhere around us can mean a very heavy cold for us. For example, the threat of SARS alone saw a massive impact on our tourism, including the cancellation of the Arafura Games in 2003. Any downturn in the national economy could see a considerable tightening of our financial position. Any decision by the Commonwealth Grants Commission to tighten our relativities, even by a very small margin, would have the same effect. We are an economy subject to significant change by the actions of others, and that is why we have to manage effectively this current period of strong growth, because we have to use this opportunity to broaden our economic base. That means diversifying our industries. We can see that happening with greenfield developments, businesses in the Darwin Business Park and so on. We have to ensure that our skills base is broad. As the Chief Minister said recently, the government is using the opportunity afforded by 2% unemployment to move more and more people into the workforce through effective training.
We are using the opportunity afforded by national economic growth, as well as our local growth, to retire debt where we can and to reduce the overall debt position. It is critical that the government reduce those extremely high debt levels that we inherited. The key indicator is debt and employee liabilities compared to revenue. We currently sit at around 113%. We want this to be ultimately reduced to below 100%. It will take some time but we have managed to reduce it from the high of 142% in 1998, so we are headed in the right direction.
What is constantly pushing against that is the revision upwards of superannuation liabilities. They are increased as a result of people living longer; that is a good thing. We accommodate this upward revision by tightening our expenditure and preparing for this long-term support. It is discipline today which will reduce the problem accommodating costs such as those later on. Governments do not govern just for the now - at least this government does not - we govern for the future. Careful management of the economy is about creating a better, stronger future for our children and beyond. It is about delivering now on lifestyle but, more importantly, equally importantly, it is protecting, supporting and enhancing that lifestyle into the future. It is about being responsible, saying yes to what is necessary and no to what cannot be afforded. It is a job we have undertaken reasonably well for five-and-a-bit years.
We have done it well for as broad a group of Territorians as we can, and we have done it without favouring just a few. Certainly, the Silver Circle is a term that has not been used in the duration of this government but, quite liberally and meaningfully used in the last years of the Country Liberal Party. We have tried to ensure those left behind before are brought along with the modern Territory. I know the Country Liberal Party will never acknowledge those achievements, or in any way recognise those efforts. I look at the results of the economy each day. I am satisfied that we have achieved much through hard work and good fiscal management. Madam Speaker, there is always more to do and we are getting on with that job.
Motion agreed to; statement noted.
Continued from 29 November 2006.
Mr KNIGHT (Daly): Madam Speaker, I provide some brief comments in relation to the Sessional Committee on Environment and Sustainable Development of which I am a member. This committee was set up at the start of the parliament in August 2005, and I was delighted to be a part of it. It has taken on quite a challenging area of problems within the Territory, and ones that are quite relevant to my electorate. It is probably prudent to comment on the terms of reference of the committee that are specifically looking at invasive species and management programs.
The committee was referred to some specific areas:
It is a fairly broad terms of reference but it is very significant. It is very significant for me, as a member for a bush rural seat where weeds are, quite frankly, almost everywhere if you know what they look like. Invasive species, obviously, refers to both plant, animal and aquatic species.
One of the biggest problems is gamba grass in my electorate around the rural area and out towards the area around Adelaide River.
Ngurr burr is one significant weed that has plagued the Victoria River District up as far as Kalkarindji, I think, now. It is an horrendous weed which restricts both animal and human access to the river banks.
The cane toad is something that, being from Katherine, we have had experience with for several years. Obviously, their move into Darwin has brought it to the attention of people living in Darwin and the rural area.
As I detailed in the terms of reference, the committee was to engage with the scientific community and going to the public for their views. The committee was very well supported in this role by the staff of Legislative Assembly. It is prudent to note the extreme amount of work that they provided. They provided research papers on international structures, federal structures, and Northern Territory structures to do with invasive species and produced a representative chart of the links between the international, Australian and Northern Territory structures to see where they linked up and where they did not. That was a huge body of work. They also looked at a gap analysis for weeds incursion management in the Northern Territory, Northern Territory Vertebrate Pest Management Strategy and the vertebrate pest animals of the Northern Territory. It was a huge body of work they did, and the support they provide to the committee is certainly worth noting and is unparalleled.
One of the first things that was evident was that we had to get out and talk to people. This happened over the last part of last year by way of a whole number of public consultations and in-house meetings at Parliament House. The committee travelled to Jabiru, Katherine, and the rural area at Humpty Doo covering the Litchfield area, we have had some round tables here in Darwin and some public hearings. The round tables involve the professional, scientific community. It was a broad range that we got together with.
At the Jabiru public hearing, we had representatives from the Department of Environment and Heritage, staff from Kakadu National Park and also other professional staff from the Office of the Supervising Scientist. They were fantastic presentations, primarily presentations from Buck Salou and Anne Ferguson on mimosa. I know from my experience that mimosa is a certainly an horrendous weed. You cannot leave it alone; you have to keep attacking it. The work they are doing is great. It is Commonwealth money and a lot of money goes into Kakadu. It would be nice to see that sort of money across the rest of Territory to tackle mimosa throughout the Top End. Salvinia and a number of other aquatic weeds were discussed. There was a bit of discussion about cane toads coming in and the impact they had on goannas and smaller frogs in Kakadu. That produced a great deal of information for the committee.
We had a consultative session at Taminmin High School, covering the Litchfield area. There were some great presentations from market farmers out there, and from the Top End Native Plant Society. That sector had particular interests. Whereas one group of people would see a particular plant as a weed, others saw it differently. The control of those weeds was something they certainly saw differently, so it was good to have the views of those groups.
The next public hearing we had was a round table in Parliament House, and that included a diverse range of professionals from the Charles Darwin University, the Department of Natural Resources, Environment and Arts, and Primary Industry. We had many professional staff from NRETA, especially from the Weeds Branch. We had senior scientists and principal scientists from Wildlife Management. The National Weeds Management Facilitator, John Thorp, came all the way from Tasmania to tell us what he knew. We also had the director of the Invasive Animals CRC. That was a long day. There was quite a lot of information presented, and I believe members were given a great deal of information that provided a greater perspective on the problem, not only in the Northern Territory, but across borders and across Australia, of the significance of invasive species.
The public hearing we conducted in Darwin brought together both professional and private interests. We had the Chairman of the Parks and Wildlife Advisory Committee, and the Top End Chairperson of the NT Cattlemen’s Association. The presentation by Tony Searle was fantastic. He certainly brought a great deal of personal experience with his efforts out at Coastal Plains tackling mimosa. We had the local aquarium plant and fish aquaculturists who came along, also Scoot from the Pet Industry Association of Australia, who gave us quite a bit of information. He is a pet store owner, and it was his perspective from that retail side of things to do with, primarily, aquatic invasive species. I believe that, from discussions of those issues he highlighted, we can, hopefully, put them into some recommendations in the final report.
Kezia Purick is the CEO of the NT Minerals Council. They gave a perspective, not only particularly for the mining industry, but the extractive industry as well - operators working gravel pits. For anybody who has been around a gravel pit, you can find most of the hyptis and mission grass and whole range of weeds that tend to perpetuate those areas of extractive industries.
We had staff from GHD, an engineering environmental company, a PhD candidate from the Shine Laboratory from the University of Sydney, and a senior research fellow from the School of Environmental Research at the Charles Darwin University.
One other person from my electorate, John Lewis, who works for Compass Resources as a geologist, has a keen interest in gamba grass. The people of the Batchelor and Adelaide River area have got together and formed a Gamba Action Group, and they did it quite constructively. They have a whole range of interests on that committee, including agriculturalists, pastoralists, environmentalists, and councils, to try to curb the problem of gamba grass in that area. AFANT was represented by their chief executive. We had the NLC represented by Ian Brown, talking about the land and sea ranger program, and Justine Yanner also talked about the same thing.
Greening Australia was represented by their CEO. I just mentioned the Gamba Action Group and Jaemie Page is the key driving force behind that group. He works for Greening Australia as the coordinator of Humid Tropics. Jaemie is a fantastic person. The committee members gained a good insight into what he thinks needs to be done with gamba grass. I tend to support Jaemie’s view on those things. Obviously, the committee will make its deliberations. Jaemie, as I said, does a great deal of work with gamba grass in the Coomalie area.
We also had representatives from the World Wide Fund for Nature, including the program leader for biodiversity policy. The last person who came was Graeme Sawyer from FrogWatch. In that one hearing, which stretched over a very long day, we had a huge range of people providing information to the committee, and also providing a great deal of written material.
It is probably worthwhile noting - and I know it will be a bit long - what sort of and the extent of information that is coming to the committee for consideration for their final report. I believe, to date, the committee has received over 40 written submissions from various private and professional people.
I will run through the submissions so people can see what sort of coverage we have been getting to make our deliberations and final report: Sean Meaney is a private individual from Darwin; the Katherine Town Council; Mr Duncan Dean from Palmerston, who is quite well known; Nhulunbuy Corporation Ltd; Jabiru Town Council; Mr Mick Denigan, from Mick’s Whips and Leather Goods in the Fly Creek area of the rural area; Parks and Wildlife Advisory Council; Mr Greg Chapman, who is fairly well known in the rural area for his work with the Greens Party and various other environmental groups; the Nursery Garden Industry Northern Territory; Greening Australia NT; the Gamba Action Group Northern Territory; Indigenous Land Corporation; the Department of Primary Industry, Fisheries and Mines; Mr Rod Cramer from Alice Springs; Ms Jacinda Brown from Batchelor; Mr George Watts from Batchelor; CSIRO Entomology Area through its deputy chief, Dr Mark Lonsdale; the Darwin Regional Weeds Advisory Committee; the Local Government Association of the Northern Territory; the Australian and New Guinea Fishers Association Incorporated; the Pet Industry Association of Australia with quite a lengthy submission; Professor Helen Garnett through the Charles Darwin University; the Department of Business, Economic and Regional Development; the NT Fisheries Council; Power and Water; World Wide Fund for Nature; Northern Land Council Caring for Country Unit; Environment Centre NT; the School of Environmental Research at CDU; Pets Village through its proprietor, Martin Woodrow; the Arafura Timor Research Unit; the Centralian Land Management Association; Senator Ian Campbell; the Girraween Lagoon Landcare Group; Top End Native Plant Association; Northern Territory Minerals Council; the Pastoral Land Board; the Katherine Regional Weed Advisory Committee; the Victoria River District Conservation Association Incorporated; the Sporting Shooters Association of Australia Incorporated; the Amateur Fishing Association of the Northern Territory; and the Department of Natural Resources, Environment and the Arts.
You can see that the committee has been working hard. It has been getting the views of people out there, both private and public. It has travelled across the Northern Territory having meetings up and down the track to get information to make its final deliberation.
Invasive species are very significant in the Northern Territory. We have a huge land mass and a relatively small population and small budget. Weed incursions tend to be quite significant because they tend to get away from us because we cannot tackle them. We certainly need to look at them in a different light. They have a huge impact environmentally; we know that. The social and economic impacts are even greater because we are now seeing land prices, particularly pastoral properties not only in the rural area but all the way down the track, which have tripled in value over the last few years. Pastoralists are certainly keener to clean up areas of weeds because it means they have more productive areas from which to draw an income.
Councils are looking at this problem because if they leave an area unchecked it becomes a greater problem. I thought we had some sort of cost benefit analysis, and I believe that figure was something like if you spend $1 today it means you do not have to spend $38 in the future. That is certainly the lessons that we have learned with so many things. People talk about a few little shrubs of mimosa out on the Oenpelli floodplains in the 1960s or 1970s. It has been heavily worked on over the last few years, but that whole floodplain was full of impenetrable mimosa, 10 to 15 feet high, in a very short time. Getting in early, spending the money, and doing the job now is certainly the way to go.
Madam Speaker, I thank my fellow members of the committee. We have a lot of work to do to produce the final report. I am sure the public of the Northern Territory will benefit from the work we have done thus far.
Mr BONSON (Millner): Madam Speaker, I contribute to the interim report of the Sessional Committee on Environment and Sustainable Development. The focus is invasive species and management programs. No doubt, the opposition members will contribute shortly, but it is appropriate for me to thank a number of people for the hard work they do behind the scenes – Terry Hanley and Maria Viegas. They work tirelessly behind the scenes organising meetings, taking correspondence, sending out letters, advising community groups and individuals across the Northern Territory on what the environment committee is doing and what our goals are, and where a public hearing could be held.
I listened intently to the member for Daly’s contribution. As a first time member of this House, he has taken up a role in committee and has shown a great aptitude for many of the rural and remote area issues, particularly in the cattle industry. He has an interest in weeds and other issues that affect all Territorians right across the board. I also recognise the qualifications of the current Chair. People may not be aware, but every member in this House brings something different or unique to the table. On the committee we have the member for Daly who has a background in rural and remote areas; I am a solicitor; the Opposition Whip, Dr Lim, with medical experience and a degree behind him; and our Chairperson, who has a number of degrees. Arguably, only the member for Johnston could match his qualifications. The Chair’s qualifications include a Bachelor of Applied Science in Geology, Master of Geoscience in Geotechnical Engineering and a Master of Science in Mineral Economics. That tells me that the Environment Committee, a very important committee, is in safe and experienced hands. We all come to this parliament with our life and our work experience.
From talking to the member for Goyder, I understand that he has 30 years of experience in remote and rural areas, not only of the Northern Territory but Australia and the world, working with many different groups from many different cultural backgrounds. He brings a scientific approach. I have conversations with him and he talks about the committee taking a self-educative approach to collecting the evidence. The one thing that my law degree taught me was how to teach myself. When he talked about a self-educative approach to collecting evidence, I fully understood what he is talking about because it is about educating ourselves from the evidence provided to us about what is important to the environment, the sessional committee, the people of the Territory, and to the future of the Territory and how this House, through the report and, hopefully, acting on the recommendations, can improve people’s lifestyles. Improving people’s lifestyles is a very important thing.
If you look at the history of the environment committee, a former member, the member for Karama, is now a minister. It has definitely been a launching pad for people in gaining experience and a profile to an elevation in this House and to Cabinet. If you have a look at the member for Goyder with his academic qualifications, work experience and his approach and fever, I suppose the only criticism you might level at him is that maybe he is trying a little too hard. Match him up against the Leader of the Opposition, any member of the opposition, any member of Cabinet, and he has the work experience, scientific background and knowledge in a purely academic field. The issue, of course, is gaining the experience to go on and do bigger and better things, and this is what chairing such a committee allows you to do.
I note the member for Daly’s contribution about the public hearings in Tennant Creek, Alice Springs, Jabiru, Katherine, Litchfield and, most recently, Darwin. I attended all of those except, unfortunately, the Tennant Creek public hearing. I enjoyed travelling all over the Northern Territory and collecting evidence that was important. What appears to be emerging, of course, is the balancing act of the number of evasive species that have come to the shores of Australia - vertebrate, weed or plant and other introduced species such as feral animals. The balancing act is prioritising where you will target most effectively the resources of the Northern Territory government, the Commonwealth government and the NGOs that are interested in these areas.
The reality is, the more and more evidence we gather, what we are finding is that there are literally hundreds to thousands of invasive species throughout the whole of Australia that are having an effect on our natural environment. We know of one famous one, which is the cane toad. I was proud to be a part of that inquiry. We covered many different things, which have helped the people of urban and rural Darwin areas to deal with cane toads.
The reality is to come up with schemes, mechanisms and processes which, for want of a better way to describe it, deliver the biggest bang for our buck. The membership of the committee is very interested in doing that, which includes the opposition and Independents, particularly the member for Greatorex and the Independent member for Nelson, who have a keen interest in the environment - both of them as former members from the last parliamentary process, and in their previous lives and in their general interest for the Territory. I reflect positively on their contribution, and I enjoy working with them.
This committee will continue to hear evidence for a period of time, Hopefully, we will come together and organise ourselves in a way that we can come up with a joint report, that reports mechanisms that are beneficial to the Northern Territory, and that we can say jointly that we agree on. Again, it is about prioritising what we focus on to achieve the biggest bang for our buck. I know that the Chair, with his work experience and academic qualifications, has been working tirelessly to ensure that all the groups necessary, not only throughout the Northern Territory but Australia, have had the opportunity to produce evidence. I am sure the member for Katherine will also reflect on that in her contribution.
Madam Speaker, without further ado, I believe the work from the environment committee on invasive species and management programs has been very positive so far. I am looking forward to coming out with some real results, and to those results being picked up by the Environment minister, the member for Arafura, reflecting the fact that the people of the Northern Territory are keen on the environment, and are interested in what is best for the future of Territorians, their families and their lifestyles.
Ms SCRYMGOUR (Natural Resources, Environment and Heritage): Madam Speaker, I welcome the progress report of the sessional committee inquiry into invasive species and management programs in the Northern Territory. I am pleased to report that officers in my Department of NRETA have enthusiastically cooperated with this inquiry, as the issue is one of profound significance to the future of our biodiversity, to our broader landscapes and environments of the Northern Territory, and our sustainable production from both the land and water. I look forward to the findings of this inquiry and I encourage the committee members to be innovative and forward looking as they grapple with the many complex aspects of this issue and develop recommendations for consideration by this House.
I would like to highlight three areas that deserve some attention by the committee. We need an appropriate legislative base to deal effectively with invasives; administrative processes that allow rapid decision-making in response if needed; and broad community understanding and support to allow us to take action. The invasive issue is one that is growing in importance. While government can provide resources and direction, this is a problem that government alone cannot solve. Broad community and industry sector understanding, support and cooperation are required.
The member for Goyder has raised issues such as the possible catastrophic release of aquarium fish into our ecosystem. Such an example highlights the cooperation required between government agencies, such as NRETA and DPIFM, the role of the pet industry, and the need for community education regarding the risk of dumping unwanted fish into waterways. The need for cooperation and education is the same, whether you are talking about aquarium fish, horticultural plants, new crops or pastures, and birds in the aviary trade, etcetera.
The recent cabomba outbreak and subsequent eradication program in the Darwin River highlights the impact that invasive outbreaks can have, and extensive work that needs to be done to stamp out these pests. Unintentional or accidental releases are a minority of our problem invasive species. However, this does not diminish our need for vigilance and the implementation of effective control, detection and rapid responses.
The member raised the black striped mussel outbreak at Cullen Bay and the success of a rapid response, which has saved millions of dollars in various marine-based industries, and eliminated what would have been an environmental catastrophe for our inshore marine environment. I encourage the committee to look at the recommendations to strengthen our early detection and rapid response capabilities for new accidental invasive outbreaks.
Deliberate introductions are, by far, the majority of our problem of invasives, and it is clear that we need better mechanisms to identify and prevent deliberate introduction of species within the potential to later become serious problems.
The member also brought to our attention the development of weed risk assessment models which will allow us to assess the weedy potential of plants and prevent unwise introductions. These models also provide the ability to assess and prioritise the allocation of scarce resources to control or even, hopefully, eradicate weeds. I am pleased to report that a similar prioritisation scheme is being developed for the terrestrial vertebrate pests.
The House will be aware of the support I have provided to control the spread of cane toads. Cane toads are, perhaps, a relatively easy species to engender community’s support and action to effect some control. These animals are conspicuous and in your face even in the suburbs and, let us face it, simply look horrible. It is easy for people to dislike their presence and to understand the destruction of our native wildlife when you have an invasive that is toxic and directly responsible for the poisoning and death of both native and pet animals.
Many invasive species are far more insidious than the cane toad, and it is more difficult for the community to observe and understand the impact. Some of the plants even look pretty and it is hard to understand that they are threatening our environment. There is no doubt that some of our introduced pasture grasses are now recognised as having the potential to wreak serious and long-term landscape scale changes which will impact our wildlife to a greater extent than cane toads. Tiny invasives such as various tramp ants, the crazy ant or the big headed ant, are not immediately obvious to the public, yet they also have the enormous potential to be highly destructive to our wildlife. Getting community understanding and action on things as uncharismatic as grasses and ants will take considerable educational effort.
I am able to inform the House that, even prior to the release of the recommendations of the sessional committee, officers in NRETA were already developing a vertebrate pest animal strategy. This will be accompanied by some legislative changes to the Territory Parks and Wildlife Conservation Act to revise sections of the act relating to feral animals and prohibited entrance which will provide clarity and improve efficiency in the management of introduced vertebrate pests.
Madam Speaker, the sessional committee appears to be doing a great job and I thank the chair and all members for their efforts so far, and look forward to receiving their final report.
Mr WARREN (Goyder): Madam Speaker, I commend the comments of my fellow committee members to all honourable members and thank them for their valuable contribution to this progress statement on the inquiry into invasive species and management programs in the NT which I delivered in the last sittings for 2006.
I also thank all members of the committee for working in the spirit of bipartisanship and cooperation because that is particularly important. If we had not had that spirit, that energy that came from that, then we would not really be in the strong position we are right now. Despite our political difference, I know we are united in our aim to arrive at a set of recommendations that can only strengthen and enhance the Northern Territory’s current capacity to control invasive species and prevent any future incursions.
With that in mind, first, I will briefly pick up on some of the points raised by my colleagues. Unfortunately, only my colleagues on this side of the House added to debate. I understand it has been very difficult for the opposition to deal with all the things in parliament in the last couple of weeks but it would have been nice of them. I do know their spirit is there and we will take that on board.
I first show respect to the minister for Environment for her kind and important words she said about the committee. I know that she is not involved in the committee but she certainly is aware of the terms of reference and the process that we have gone through to getting to the stage where we are right now. I take on board the aspect of broad community involvement; that really is important. Without the community, without their engagement, with all the best interest that governments like us can muster, you really cannot go forward unless you have the engagement and the involvement of the community. This is more a whole-of-community approach to how we tackle invasive species. That is absolutely an imperative and you cannot avoid that.
The great thing is that we have such diversity and such a healthy state with our community groups such as our Landcare groups. In fact, I was at a Landcare meeting just the other day; the Darwin River Landcare Group held their meeting at Litchfield and that was great. It is good to see they are vibrant, they are active, they are up and running. As a committee we have taken note of these local groups because the community engagement is important.
The minister also discussed many of the environmental impacts that have come to her attention through her department. That is what we have really focused on: those case studies, many of them from the minister’s department, and how to deal with this issue of invasive species. It is through those situations that we learn. That is a very important part in our terms of reference; to look at how we handled things in the past here in the Northern Territory regarding invasive species. Her enlightening addition to today’s report was great news. Of course, we will be looking to strengthen the department’s ability to go forward as a government department. The results of our inquiry will certainly be most helpful, I am sure, to the department in giving them more clarity. It is good to have someone who has taken an outside look at things and how things are going. I am sure, because of that, the minister and her department will go from strength to strength on the basis on some of the comments that will come out of our report. Hopefully, they will all be taken on board.
The member for Daly discussed the processes of this committee from his perspective and it was quite enlightening. Sometimes, as a Chairman, you become so engrossed in your side of things that you forget how other people perceive things. I was really pleased to hear that passion come through. He has taken the view that it is important to his local community. He has talked about how he has taken that up with the local community to discuss things like the gamba grass. He talked about the Gamba Action Group from his electorate of which he is very proud.
It is really important that all members here can engage in community, but also get something outside the sphere of the committee itself and take that beyond the terms of reference of the committee. The member for Daly put his own element of passion into it and that came through very clearly in his supporting report. He spoke about the ngurr burr and salvinia as examples, and quite a number of others. Those are the kinds of things that we have been trying to grapple with as a committee; to come to grips to how we deal with them in the future. His input then and throughout the whole process of the committee has been invaluable.
I concur that during the visitations to the regional areas we were ably supported by regional groups when making their submissions. There are some really insightful and knowledgeable people out there who are going about their business. The minister should be very proud of some of her departmental people in the field and from other departments and Landcare groups which are doing a great job.
The member for Daly discussed that we have problems that are well beyond what we can fight alone. As a group, we have all understood that. What is critical is that although we have a border, we are not in isolation. We are at the forefront, because of our coastline, of potential invasions. The nearest land masses are to our north, so it is important that we understand that we are not alone in this area of fighting invasive species and that we really do need to engage other jurisdictions on these issues.
He also spoke about the problems that landowners and other stakeholders face in combating invasives, particularly weeds. It is a very important aspect of his community and, therefore, it is most important that he has the chance to talk about those issues. I was quite impressed with the level of engagement that he had, so I thank the member for Daly for his contribution.
I move on to the member for Millner. It is interesting when different people put their perspective on a committee, different things come through - things that you do not normally expect to come to the fore. He spoke about how being on this committee during this reference has opened his mind a lot. He has suddenly seen the good work that departmental and other people are doing in the field of fighting invasives. He has also studied the technical stuff, and he has picked up on it. It really showed through during his presentation that it is not just about the experts. It is also about the people at the grassroots level getting in engaged and involved in this whole process.
I was blushing a little when he spoke about my personal passion for this important topic and about my degrees. Okay, that might give me a chance to have a scientific insight into what is going on when they talk about some of the technical aspects, but the presentations were not pitched at people like me; they were pitched at everyone. I must give credit to the high level of passion and insight of all members on the committee in heading towards the outcomes that we are expecting from this process.
We have a really difficult topic to tackle, and, believe me, looking at invasive species is almost mind blowing. I will talk a little more about the extent of that later in my report. To hear the member for Millner talking in quite technical and insightful terms was enlightening. I am proud of the way the whole committee has engaged in the process, and I thank those people who have contributed.
The importance of this inquiry is quite obvious. Invasive species are considered a very serious threat to our biodiversity, now possibly more than ever, even surpassing land clearing to be our No 1 environmental threat. We have had massive land clearing around Australia in the past. I can remember the days of the Brigalow Schemes in Queensland, which was just like a scorched earth policy to clear square kilometres of land using two V8 dozers, a ball and a massive chain. Whilst, at the time, I thought that was quite impressive, I grew up in a generation when we believed that was the way to go, we all know the implications of it, particularly in the southern part of Australia. We have taken away a lot of the potential for the environment. When you disturb it, you end up with salt incursions and things like that.
To now imagine that invasive species are potentially our No 1 environmental threat starts to give you some concept of the size of the problem, and it is not one that we can take very lightly. To give you some idea of the scale of the problem, you need to appreciate that, added to the environmental impacts, are the economic impacts. It is estimated that the cost in production losses and costs associated with implementing control measures for weeds alone is to be a $4.1bn burden on the Australian economy each and every single year. Added to this is the economic impact of pest vertebrate animals, which cost Australia an estimated $720m per year - a massive $720m. If that is not bad enough, plant diseases and invertebrate pests cost around an additional $2bn per year to our Australian economy.
I must point out that these figures are based on existing invasive species only. If we add to these figures the considerable impact of costs associated with future outbreaks of invasive species, as well as the social impact costs which, in themselves, are difficult to quantify in monetary terms, as you no doubt are aware, given all that, the overall likely costs are likely to be absolutely staggering. No wonder it is No 1, or approaching No 1, if not already there.
Above all this, we come to the problem: how do we accurately measure the real cost of our unique Australian environment? Impacts such as the reduction in our biodiversity, our potential species extinction, soil degradation, habit reduction/destruction, and impacts on water and waterways, to name just a few. You only have to come close to home to think about species extinction – the cane toad. When we start talking about the cane toad, and the threat to the northern quoll and numerous frog species, the full impact of it starts to bear home. These are things that you cannot really put a monetary value on, but they are part of our unique Australian environment. I get quite emotional when I talk about it.
I hope this gives you some idea of the enormous economic, social and environmental costs to our great country and our beautiful Territory. If we do not act appropriately to control the scourge of these invasive species, then we certainly will be missing a lot of that.
To a large extent, the history of invasive species in Australia is a story of mankind or, more appropriately, ‘man unkind’, in being responsible for both the deliberate and accidental introductions of invasive species outside their natural range. Their spread is then assisted by the natural elements, as well as by human and other animal activity. If that is not enough, we then have to deal with the tenacity of those invasive species to survive and flourish.
Again, I can only hark back to species like the cane toad and gamba grass. I do not know why, but every time we get one of these invasives, they really are tenacious. They just hang in there. The weeds take over and swamp everything, as do these invasive animals. It is then you start to appreciate how delicate our environment is. Even though it is an arid environment in many respects, and it seems tough and harsh, it is not really; it is very fragile. I do not know why, but these pests come from parts of the world where they can just basically be in harmony and in balance in their own environments but, once you bring them here, they just seem to have that capacity to swamp everything else. Now, sadly, for many of these invasive species, eradication is now almost impossible as well.
In the meantime, scientists, researchers, land and sea managers and concerned individuals continue to work tirelessly in this field. These dedicated people are out there on the frontline - and it really is a frontline - testing new potential control measures and using all their efforts to prevent further spread of these invasives. They are out there seeking to better understand individual species, and then target the vulnerable characteristics of these invasives. There is some good news. It is through these dedicated people who are doing this hard work that we are getting to have some control of it.
However, it is such an enormous problem. It is, therefore, incumbent upon us as parliamentarians, as leaders in our community, to do what we can to assist the work of those concerned and dedicated people actively engaged in the control and prevention efforts on the ground. That really goes to the heart of what this committee is about; coming out with some ideas, some solutions because, ultimately, as the minister pointed out, it needs that community engagement. We really have to support these people on the ground out there trying to do the best they can. They have science behind them, they have the know how, it just needs some more practical advice and then we can offer assistance appropriate to their needs; not just what we think they need. That is why we have engaged them in the whole listening process.
As I reported in my progress statement to the House, the committee has concluded the consultation phase of its inquiry, and is now in report writing mode. I must pay tribute to the Secretariat, because they really are working hard on this and gathering all the information together: the research papers prepared by the Secretariat; the 40-plus written submissions received; the oral evidence provided to the committee during the public hearings held in Tennant Creek, Alice Springs, Jabiru, Katherine, Litchfield, and Darwin; and the information advice provided through the briefings, including the invasive species round tables. They are currently being incorporated into a final report. That is a massive amount of information to report.
It is going to take some time, but the time and effort that we put into this is going to be worth it. We have put the effort into getting this far, and making sure that we could cover every avenue of consultation - public, scientific, the whole government. We have really worked hard, and we have a volume of massive information. That is where we are right at the moment, but it needs some time. That is what we are going to give the Secretariat. Of course, we will all be contributing to that as well, so we will produce a really productive report.
The level of community interest and concern for invasive species management is extremely high, as demonstrated by the number of individual organisations, both from here and interstate, who freely and generously have given their time to assist the committee with this inquiry. I know a couple of people …
Mr KNIGHT: Madam Speaker, I move that the member be granted an extension of time in order to conclude his remarks, pursuant to Standing Order 77.
Motion agreed to.
Mr WARREN: Thank you, member for Daly. As I said, we are really proud and pleased that all the people who have made submissions have given freely and generously of their time in assisting with the inquiry. The degree of community interest and concern is shared by all members of the Environment and Sustainable Development Committee who are very keen to report their findings and recommendations to this House. I am sure that everyone here will look forward to that.
Madam Speaker, my committee looks forward to reporting the findings and recommendations from this very important inquiry in great detail to the House, once the final report has been completed to the satisfaction of the committee – and I stress that.
I would like to add that I am very proud of all my fellow committee members. Each and every one of them has personally contributed significantly to our common cause. That has really been a great bonus; to have people who have a passion on board the committee. It is a pity that, as I said, their time is so important they have not had a chance to come down here and add to this debate. However, I thank you all dearly. On that note, I commend this report to the House.
Motion agreed to; statement noted.
PROGRESS REPORT ON SELECT COMMITTEE ON SUBSTANCE ABUSE IN THE COMMUNITY
Ms ANDERSON (Macdonnell)(by leave): Madam Speaker, as Chair of the Select Committee on Substance Abuse in the Community, I report on progress made by the committee. I remind members of the committee’s terms of reference which empowered us to look at all aspects of substance abuse, legal or illegal, including community concerns, trends in youth, social and economic effects, services available, and general practice involved in substance abuse.
Over the last 18 months, the committee’s central focus has been problems of substance abuse in remote indigenous communities; in particular, abuse of alcohol, petrol and cannabis. In considering this, the committee has heard powerful testimony about harm. Substance abuse has many negative impacts on communities. It reduces security for people and property including the community’s own communal property. It results in severe financial stress on community members, and represents the diversion from productive spending even away from the adequate nutrition of children. It erodes families. We know about the violence, accidents and other tragedies, but another kind of tragedy occurs when parents do not give their children the care they deserve. Communities face huge challenges in trying to prevent substance abuse. The movement of people in and out of communities is one of the many things that, at times, make it difficult to prevent young people from being influenced by substance abuse.
There is also good news, where attempts to make things better are proving effective and where healthy patterns in communities, already in place, are working to protect them against more widespread substance abuse. The positive stories we have heard from witnesses show the way to things that can be done in remote communities. Sharing these stories more widely can be one of the things we can do to give communities options and hope.
Over the last 12 months, the committee has visited 10 communities in Central Australia and the Top End, and has been briefed by a number of government agencies, and has talked to representatives of many other organisations. From this, the committee has been able to gain some understanding of this important problem; to understand the realities on the ground in this unique Territory environment. The committee’s purpose in visiting Central Australia and the Top End has been to see the range of substance abuse problems in the Territory.
Our main focus in Central Australia has been to consider the differences between communities on the east and the west of the Plenty Highway. Communities on the west of the highway have significantly greater problems with substance abuse than those to the east. Comparing them leads to two important questions: (1) what things in communities protect against widespread substance abuse or make them vulnerable; and (2) can these be cultivated in other communities currently suffering high rates of substance abuse? Getting answers to these questions is central in our efforts to work toward a better future.
The committee heard that where there has been a consistent culture of work, as there is in the eastern Plenty, due to its ties with the pastoral industry, social norms are sufficiently strong to prevent widespread outbreaks of substance abuse. These communities are also more unified in a cultural sense — one people, living on their traditional lands. On the western side of the highway, where communities were originally established as missions, and people from diverse cultural and family groups were brought together, away from their homelands, communities have been less able to exercise control over these destructive behaviours.
It can be said that these factors all hinge on the integrity of social fabric, by which I mean the web of proper healthy connections between members of the community, which allow the energy of the community to be channelled in a productive way. The state of the social fabric in communities is critical to their capacity to control their own destiny on substance abuse, including their ability to discourage or forbid community members from following that path. The committee recognised this early in our investigation. It continued to be an important consideration in our visits to the Top End communities, and has grown into a key focus for all our inquiries.
The committee’s dialogue with Top End communities gave us a chance to compare regional differences in the pattern of substance abuse with those of Central Australia. From this, it becomes possible to see what is specific to the Centre, what applies to other places, and what is true across the Territory. Also importantly, it gave the committee the opportunity to observe a number of alcohol plans, either in place now or being put in place in the Top End. These tools of the stronger of the communities seen in Central Australia are part of good news on substance abuse and they show the way for constructive efforts in the future.
By visiting all of these communities and talking with people, the committee has come to understand many things about the problems they face. It is clear that while rates of use for particular drugs may vary between communities, the use of three substances - alcohol, petrol and cannabis - is common across them. There are many stories which suggest high rates of abuse for these substances, but reliable statistical information continues to be scarce. The information we do have shows that we should, indeed, be concerned. Northern Territory alcohol indicators and the National Household Survey on Drug Use both show the level of use of alcohol and cannabis in the Territory is dramatically higher than any other jurisdiction in Australia. I will make, on behalf of the committee, some more detailed remarks about each of these substances.
For alcohol, the committee’s preliminary findings suggest that alcohol continues to be a significant source of harm within remote communities in the Territory. These harms are complex and produce a number of flow-on effects, including high rates of violent and accidental harms and incarceration. It also seems that children of parents who drink heavily are more prone to substance abuse themselves and, in this sense, alcohol can be seen as the key drug.
On a more positive note, recent legislation on alcohol is providing the framework for change in communities, particularly to do with alcohol plans. A number of communities are taking up opportunities offered by this legislation, and this is starting to bear fruit. The Groote Eylandt Alcohol Plan is one outstanding example of how this can come to pass and what sort of benefits can emerge. This is provoking interest in other communities who wish to have similar levels of control over alcohol use within their own boundaries. Other communities making significant progress towards alcohol plans are Nhulunbuy and Katherine.
For petrol, limiting abuse continues to be a challenge, but there are again reasons for cautious optimism. The committee’s preliminary findings suggest that the wider roll-out of Opal fuel has had a positive effect. It has also found that when Opal is introduced to a community, this creates a window of opportunity to rehabilitate users before they migrate to another substance of choice. Things work better when supply reduction is matched with efforts to reduce demand, and to treat users so there is a lasting improvement.
Violate substance legislation, where community members and police have been given more powers to control petrol abuse, has a positive influence. However, both communities and police are experiencing difficulties in providing enough manpower to fill these new roles, especially in view of changes to CDEP which has, in the past, provided a financial basis for employment in this kind of community development.
Again, as for alcohol, there are sobering truths on petrol, but these can now be seen now within a more hopeful context. It appears that Opal, while important, is just one part of the solution. It represents an important opportunity which requires further action before it can amount to a significant reduction to harm in the long term. That said, the committee views with concern reports that some Alice Springs petrol retailers are again selling standard unleaded petrol. Comprehensive Opal roll-out, with no sniffable petrol available, is essential if we are to do all that we can to protect our young people from sniffing petrol.
As for other drugs, the committee’s inquiries into the use of cannabis have generated both negative and positive insights. The bad news is that cannabis appears to be the drug of choice in many communities, and that many communities have seen a significant increase in cannabis use over the last two to three decades. Research identifies links between cannabis, mental health problems and suicide, and these may become even more of an affliction in remote communities if we do not take steps.
The good news on cannabis is that police use of sniffer dogs to check aircraft and other routes into remote communities has been successful in reducing supply. Indeed, there is substantial community support for police to use sniffer dogs in this way. Just as for petrol, when cannabis supply is interrupted, a window of opportunity opens to help habitual users, showing again just how important it is to coordinate efforts on supply and demand.
The committee views the entrenchment of cannabis in remote communities with concern. Its findings so far suggest that the rate of cannabis use is certain to be an important factor in their future wellbeing or otherwise. This needs our close attention if we are to avoid serious wide-scale problems in the future.
In addition to this focus on specific key substances, the committee’s investigations have also revealed systematic problems that hamper efforts to improve the overall situation. At first, these might seem to be unrelated to the central issue of drug abuse, but closer attention suggests otherwise. The committee has heard that people in communities perceive a lack of consistency in programs delivered by government agencies. Community members told the committee that there are repeated instances where programs have their funding stopped after successful pilot projects. To get to this stage takes a great deal of effort by communities, and to then have the program closed down is discouraging. It also seems that communities wishing to apply for program funds face a complex environment, with many potential granting bodies, each with different requirements. The involvement of both Commonwealth and Territory agencies adds a further layer of complexity.
A second difficulty arises with housing. Common problems are: a dramatic shortage of housing, resulting in very high numbers of people living in existing dwellings; high cost in creating new housing; and high rates of wear and tear on existing housing stock through overcrowding. This is an important area, as the committee has heard. High densities in dwelling makes a significant contribution to the stress, domestic violence and poor health outcomes suffered in communities. High densities create conditions in which people are more vulnerable to substance abuse, and they make the negative efforts of substance abuse much worse.
The housing situation needs to be addressed urgently. A number of communities want to conduct repair and maintenance using their own labour resources, so that they provide local employment and training at the same time as improving housing stock. There have been limited attempts at this, but communities report administrative and resource constraints that discourage the practice.
An important associated issue centres on how indigenous people are co-located in remote communities. More resilient communities tend to operate under one culture, where a single body of customary law applies across the whole community and where, consequently, payback and other inter-group dynamics are less of a problem. In more diverse communities, which are often former missions, these tensions can reach breaking point. In some cases, even sport, normally considered a positive outlet, can become just too divisive due to tensions between groups. To be able to live under one culture is probably the most important factor for a community’s resilience, and is often essential to their ability to organise and bring social norms to bear on questions of substance abuse.
These diverse cultural groups are not living on their own country, but that of another people. It creates tension between traditional owners and other groups, and sacrifices the positive efforts of living on the country. The committee has seen that one constructive response to this has been for some family groups to establish their bases at outstations where they live, removed from the tensions of urban living, and where they can exert an appropriate level of control over their own affairs. These are significant findings in the light of negative comments recently made about outstations. Contrary to these sentiments, it appears from the committee’s investigations that living on outstations can be a positive way to reduce inter-group tensions and to let community members gain some independence from potentially harmful influences.
All of these things are relevant in the everyday context in which substance abuse can flourish in communities. Similarly, the committee has found that substance abuse has a close relationship with issues of community governance. Where community governance is weak, there is a greater likelihood that substance misuse will become widespread. Conversely, where substance misuse is pervasive, it becomes increasingly difficult for communities to mount effective structures for community governance. Under these conditions, it is more difficult for governing bodies to be effective and to access the resources they need to perform effectively. It becomes more difficult to attract community members to participate in community groups and governing bodies. Importantly, where this is the case, social norms that communities must draw on in order to encourage more constructive behaviour become difficult to engage, so that there is less of that informal community control of behaviours that is so important in reducing harm from substance abuse.
This is made all the more important in view of another trend emerging from the committee’s investigations; that is, when communities are able to originate and own them, the initiatives are most likely to work and be sustained over time. This is particularly true for outstation rehabilitation programs, and for early successes we have seen of the community alcohol plans.
As for issues of governance, there is a close relationship between substance abuse, education and employment. Community members are more vulnerable to substance abuse where there are lower levels of educational achievement and employment opportunities. Conversely, substance use reduces the effectiveness of efforts to educate community members, and so reduces in effort their opportunities for employment. The importance of employment emerged as a strong common thread throughout the committee’s investigations. We can speak of this in two areas: in government provided employment in the form of the Community Development Employment Project (CDEP) programs, and in mainstream employment. The committee noted the importance of CDEP in remote communities and its central role in their ability to provide services. In fact, CDEP appears to be the main resource in providing services that are commonly supplied in other places by municipal councils. CDEP is also a mainstay for other types of services such as Night Patrols and alcohol rehabilitation programs.
CDEP does serve as a dual function in providing employment to community members, and community development functions to the community as a whole. However, coupled with the sense of importance community members gave to CDEP’s role in remote communities, was a level of uncertainty about the scheme’s future; whether it would continue and in what form. The current best guess on the efforts of recent changes to CDEP arise from its transfer to the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations. Under these arrangements, CDEP’s dual purposes until now, to provide employment while contributing to community development, will change the focus on employment alone, with an emphasis on moving CDEP participants into mainstream employment.
Mainstream employment is, for many communities if not all, a vexed question. It is not often widely available. In some Top End communities, there are mining operations which provide the local community with a source of mainstream employment. This has the potential to exert a profound influence on substance abuse in the sense that companies, where they are willing, are able to discourage alcohol and drug use in their workforce thus, providing an incentive to stay sober. As a result of talking with these communities, and particularly in view of the strong contrast between communities where mainstream employment is available and where it is not, the committee has developed an interest in exploring avenues to generate economic growth and create employment opportunities in communities.
In this part of my speech, I have considered a range of factors that make communities vulnerable to substance abuse or protecting. To employment we can add the importance of communities being able to provide recreation within their community. This is often targeted at youth, but age ranges for these programs may extend up to young adults and beyond. Indeed, there may be benefits when the programs do engage other age groups. It appears that, in general, an absence of constructive recreational activities can be a significant spur to risk-taking behaviour and experimentation with substances. Where communities are able to sustain an ongoing program, it is less likely community members and youth will gravitate to substance abuse. However, through recreation programs there is potential for young people who are already abusing substances to be brought into the program, and so become more socialised since, by virtue of their substance abuse, they are often excluded from the wider social world in communities. This can be an important way to leave the door open for them being included again in their community.
The committee heard that recreational programs can be useful incentives or bargaining tools for youth with substance problems. These programs have often been part of a carrot-and-stick approach where inclusion in recreation activities is a privilege associated with abstinence, and removal to an outstation facility an effective penalty that works because the person is removed from recreation activities they value and enjoy. These are important extensions to the range of tools which can be used to express and reinforce social norms to remote communities: a range of tools which, due to isolation, can be much narrower than we find in bigger towns.
In conclusion, the committee’s investigation into substance abuse in remote communities shows that there are causes, both for concern and for hope. The committee has heard descriptions of communities where core daily activities were badly affected by behaviours associated with substance abuse. However, it has also heard of communities less often reported, where this kind of behaviour is held in check by pattern of strong social norms and good community governance, and where normal constructive effort by community members is made more possible because of that. Importantly, there are also communities that have moved from less favourable situations to better ones, and these may provide, along with instances of successful grassroots rehabilitation programs, templates for a way ahead for communities suffering widespread substance abuse.
Today, we have discussed three main substances - alcohol, petrol and cannabis - and the linkages between the abuse of these substances and other issues faced in remote communities. While there are substantial challenges ahead, constructive steps have been taken in a legislative sense to deal with alcohol and petrol. This is particularly important because of alcohol’s high prevalence and apparent role in creating conditions for the abuse of other substances, particularly petrol by younger community members. The next step may be to address problems with other drugs, where there may be emergent problems in communities. In particular, it is pressing that we consider cannabis more directly, as it is clear that its use has become established as an habitual practice. There are clear signs that it is producing really important problems in remote communities that are likely to persist.
The committee has noted during the course of investigations over the last 12 months that its interests, and those of the Sessional Committee on Sport and Youth, have often run in parallel. They both have interests in indigenous remote communities. The two committees also have a number of members in common. Keeping in mind the pivotal role of recreation programs and protecting communities against substance abuse and the range of issues in common, we propose that the two committees work together more closely in future. This will allow both committees to adopt an holistic picture of the challenges facing remote communities in the Territory, and to make more realistic recommendations about improving their situation.
To end this speech, I would like to say that through its hearings the committee has become aware of something really important that does not attract much media coverage; that is, the presence of dedicated people within communities who persevere in their efforts to create better outcomes. Many of these come from the community while others have come from outside to take up roles within it. The committee wishes to acknowledge on the public record their goodwill, effort and endurance, and to recognise them both as a major resource and a cause for hope as we look to the future.
I thank my fellow committee members, the members for Blain, Braitling, Daly, Katherine and Port Darwin, for their work on the committee which has been done in a spirit that has been constructive and bipartisan. I look forward to continuing to work with them as this committee continues its important work.
Mr Deputy Speaker, I move that the Assembly take note of the report.
Mrs BRAHAM (Braitling): Mr Deputy Speaker, I thank the chair for her report. It was very comprehensive and very sound. The committee has heard many stories - some good, some bad. Substance abuse would have to be one of the biggest problems facing our communities today. We should acknowledge and commend those, as the chair said, who are tackling the problem themselves. We most definitely should try as best we can to assist them, and to reward those good communities.
Feedback from communities indicates that in those communities where there is cohesion and good leadership there is little substance abuse. These communities have activities to involve their people and give them a feeling of worth and self-esteem. They are also prepared to challenge those members of their community who step out of line, and express clearly their expectations of behaviour. They are also the communities where education is valued, employment is sought, and the health of the young and the aged is important. This is a will that needs to be captured, and assistance given to programs that are succeeding. We should help these communities to be even better.
Too often, we heard of the frustration of programs being commenced, as the chair said, and then a large amount of time and effort spent on seeking government recurrent funding. The message we received was that government should evaluate programs and offer funding for a longer period to give security and stability to programs. If the program continues to thrive, let us renew its funding without the added burden of the difficult application that is required.
The question of housing was raised continually. Good maintenance and administration is often lacking and expertise in this area needs to be addressed. I am not sure how you can convince some communities that responsibility belongs not just to government, but also to them. The dependency factor is well and truly entrenched in the minds of many people. We would like to see people skilled to do the jobs themselves, rather than continually expecting people from outside to come on to the communities to do it.
We heard of problems of communities that were established without recognition of the cultural differences of the people. The result has seen lots of fighting and breakdown of community harmony. Perhaps it is time to separate these family groups, giving independence and recognition back to their people. I very much support the outstation movement; there are some outstations that are an absolute credit and demonstrate why people prefer to get away from the larger communities. If we leave these people together, I can see the escalation of confrontation, as has occurred recently in Alice Springs, and even last night. Unhappy, uneducated, uninvolved, unemployed people become angry, disinterested, vulnerable people.
I find it difficult to listen to people who obviously have expectations of our committee when we visit but, in fact, when we do visit, we cannot offer them anything except a little hope. If we are to continue to work and meet with people from communities and service organisations, as a committee we need to have a specific task. I do not think we need to talk or consult forever. There has to be an end point in our negotiations and what we are doing, otherwise people may lose faith in our committee system and ask if there is any point in them contributing.
The volatile substance abuse prevention law that has been introduced has done wonders so far. In Alice Springs, there is little petrol sniffing, and I am particularly pleased to see the federal government is going to roll out Opal in Alice Springs and even in towns north of Alice. It is extremely good to see that they are building residences and rehab centres at Amata in the Pit Lands. I suppose many people are aware of the number of people from the Pit Lands who come to Alice Springs. It is important that they do not come to Alice Springs to get sniffable petrol and, as we would hope for our people, stay in their communities and lead a very useful life.
I thank committee members for their ongoing interest in and commitment to this important subject of substance abuse. It can be disheartening and frustrating. I join with them in hoping that we can come up with some recommendations for positive action. I look forward to the report we are going to deliver in the future. I thank, also, the many dedicated people in the communities who are endeavouring to make life better for their people and who are doing it, often, in the most difficult circumstances. If anything, this committee finds their work valuable, and it is often an eye opener.
Mr Deputy Speaker, with those few words, I say to the chair her report was a good summary of what the committee has done. I look forward to working even longer with the committee. I hope we can find some recommendations that have substance so we can attack this problem.
Mrs MILLER (Katherine): Mr Deputy Speaker, today I contribute to the report the chair has delivered. It is a very comprehensive report, and she has covered many areas. I want to add some other aspects to it.
I have chosen to be on this committee since I was first elected to this parliament in 2003 with the hope of being able to make some difference in some way to the way that the Northern Territory goes about dealing with substance abuse. With every community throughout the Northern Territory affected by substance abuse, specifically with alcohol abuse in my own electorate and different issues within Central Australia with petrol sniffing being more prevalent there and marijuana everywhere, it is obvious that is the reason why I was very interested to be a member of this committee. It has been a very interesting journey so far.
Substantial research has been carried out by Brian Lloyd, and I thank him for that because, without that comprehensive research to support what we do, it would make our job with recommendations so much more challenging and difficult. I thank him very much for that. Of course, I could not forget to thank Pat Hancock, who has always been a very strong supporter and strong member of this committee and is a really great help to us as well.
During this past year, the committee has visited several communities across the Northern Territory to listen to concerns about the residents who live there. Unfortunately, I was unable to attend those trips out to those communities in Central Australia. I was a little inconvenienced in the Royal Adelaide Hospital at the time. However, I have certainly read the reports. When I did come home, I was fortunate to be well enough to visit Groote Eylandt, Nhulunbuy and Wadeye. Visiting those communities did have an impact on me, that is for sure, and I know it certainly did on other committee members.
I was pleasantly surprised to see the programs that they have put in place on Groote Eylandt. It was really good to see the strength of community people on Groote Eylandt, especially the women - the wives, mothers and grandmothers - who had had enough and were just desperate to do something for their children and their grandchildren. I came away from Groote Eylandt feeling reassured that there were people who really did know how to take control. It was an uplifting experience to go there.
Nhulunbuy was the next stop, which was also very interesting. Issues were a little different, because it is a different community and a different way of life. I know that Groote Eylandt is isolated because it is surrounded by the ocean, so it may be a little easier to have more control there. By the same token, I was very impressed with what Nhulunbuy is attempting to do in their community.
As you know, addressing these issues in any community takes a long time. It meets with a fair bit of resistance and, sometimes, the programs do not work. Hopefully, with the strength of the communities that we have visited which are already doing something, and with the recommendations that come from this committee, we can sincerely make a difference.
The other end of the scale was the heart-wrenching experience and presentation by the women - again the women - at Wadeye. Their despair, when they were describing the conditions that they were experiencing and living in daily, had a very profound effect on everybody who was at that committee hearing. You could not be unmoved when listening to the desperation that was in those women’s voices. I know that it gave me a resolve even more so, having been there, that we have an obligation to do what we can to give meaning to the lives of those people out there who are so affected by substance abuse..
It is a mixture at Wadeye, as you know. However, it was not only substance abuse at Wadeye - I am particularly relating to that - because it was a combination of things like housing, education, cultural differences and even sport. There were some challenges with sport. In other words, substance abuse and all of those other issues combined were having a profound effect on the daily lives of those people. That, as I said, hardened my resolve, and I know the resolve of other committee members that we could, hopefully, make some recommendations that will make some difference to these people.
There is much that can be done working in consultation and in parallel across committees. Many of the issues we discussed on the Sessional Committee on Sport and Youth work quite well in parallel with the substance abuse committee. Not in every case, though. It was interesting to note that some of the things that we thought may work very well at a community like Wadeye were not suggested as being a good idea. There were cultural differences that would not allow good outcomes from some of the sports that would be suggested for there. That is something that we need to look at.
There is genuine bipartisan support from all government members, CLP members and Independent members who are on this committee, ensuring that there is a lot of time and hard work being committed by all members of the committee, in particular the research staff and the staff in the Legislative Assembly office who look after us so well.
I look forward to my further involvement on the substance abuse committee. It is becoming obvious as time goes by that there are new drugs coming onto the scene, more available, which are gaining popularity because they are new, I guess. Of course, these new drugs are causing death and heartbreak, just like other substance abuse in our communities across the Northern Territory, and even further. We are focusing on the Northern Territory. It is going to be an ongoing challenge for governments well into the future, unfortunately. It just seems as if we get a handle on and an understanding of one, and something even more sinister comes on the scene.
I take my responsibilities on this committee seriously, as I know all other members do. I feel as though we have just touched the tip of the iceberg, really. I do not like using that word ‘ice’, but we are just at the edge. I know we have a long way to go, but I do think that the support that we have had when we have been to communities has made it very important.
One thing that has worked very well across those committees of sport and youth and substance abuse is the fact that there are some people in the community who are working really diligently to encourage and channel young people in remote communities into sport and education programs that gives them leadership and some self-esteem.
I have talked several times about Fred Murphy and what he does with his AFL football, but that is so important because I have seen the results of what Fred does with that. He has instilled a pride in those communities that he works in. He has a passion about it because he can see that there is a future for these young people. I congratulate Fred for what he does. There are, obviously, many more people like Fred out there that I am not aware of. As we come across and learn of the presence of people like him through the committee process, we need to ensure we encourage those people and support them to continue the good work that they do in the communities.
Mr Deputy Speaker, I look forward to our future on the substance abuse committee and I certainly look forward to the reports. There is a report being tabled also in Alice Springs at the next sittings. I know that we will be able to give a much more comprehensive response to it. I support the chair’s tabling of her report.
Ms SACILOTTO (Port Darwin): Mr Deputy Speaker, I am the Deputy Chair of the Select Committee on Substance Abuse in the Community. It has been an interesting time over the last 18 months to be a part of that committee. It has been quite an eye opener and, sometimes, it has not been good things that we have seen. However, there has been fantastic commitment from different community people and other support mechanisms.
I acknowledge the work of all the committee members, especially our chair, the member for Macdonnell, who knows only too well the harm and devastating effects of alcohol abuse, particularly in small and remote communities where the problems of youth and members of those communities can be in everybody’s faces and as a part of everyday life – day and night, 24 hours a day.
We have done quite a bit of travel with this committee and it has really helped us to open our eyes, and for me to open my ears as well, and hear the people who have these problems firsthand – from the horse’s mouth, so to speak. Some of the stories we have heard have been quite amazing.
As the member for Katherine said, the people from Groote Eylandt were fantastic; there were inspiring stories. The women there have banded together, not out of choice but out of necessity and desperation, to become the custodians of their communities in relation to looking after everyone – the children, the adults, the grandfathers, and the grandmothers. They have really pulled together and become the strength of the community. They are a group of women we can be proud of. We know that there are some good people out there doing so much. Many of those people are not recognised on a day-to-day basis, but the struggle is there every day – 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. People are struggling with alcohol, drugs, and other substances of abuse. You can see why people are worn down over a period of time, because it is 24 hours a day. There are the associated issues – violence and productivity that causes a great number of problems in economies in smaller communities.
We travelled to another couple of communities. I missed a couple, unfortunately, due to other commitments. However, there are some other communities that are on their way to creating positive steps with alcohol management plans. We travelled to Nhulunbuy and Yirrkala and the people and the council we met with, were very positive in their thought process. The process was only just starting but they were certainly on the right track, although, we as a committee and they recognised there was some way to go.
We all work on this committee in a bipartisan manner and it is probably the strongest committee that I am on. I am on five committees in this parliament and enjoy each one for its own merits, but this committee is such a strong committee. Everyone works to the end and everyone is moved by the stories and concerns and is pulling together for the outcomes. We talk amongst ourselves. We watch these people as they give evidence, and we take that back into our deliberations in the future on our recommendations and report.
From a personal point of view, this is the most important parliamentary committee. It is a futuristic committee. It is going to affect every person in the Territory in the future. We have some of our youngest populations out in remote communities and those people are growing up with the effects of alcohol and other drugs being abused around them. Those children are going to have difficulties if we cannot assist in some way by making recommendations and then government implementing them to help make those children’s lives in the future a better prospect. We must ensure that those children do not turn into abusers of substances themselves.
Health, education, housing, psychological wellbeing, support, love and nurture are all things that every person needs. Whether you are a current user or abuser of substance and alcohol, or a young child, without the nurture and love and support of the community and people around you, your prospects are not very good.
As the Chair of Sessional Committee on Sport and Youth, we cross over in some many ways, as the member for Katherine said. One of our terms of reference is to identify any links between sport and antisocial behaviour. Although we have not concluded our findings by any means, I suspect that there are strong links. Sport is such an important part, particularly of our remote communities. It is really the glue that binds them together. There is so much work that could be done with sport in combating substance abuse and alcoholism.
Sport instils pride and team spirit, which does not just extend to the team; it extends to the whole community. As you can see by some the sports weekends to which so many people travel - the mums and dads, grandmas and grandpas, aunties and uncles are all there in good spirits and wanting to have a great weekend. If we could capture that spirit and that whole community atmosphere, we would be much closer to combating abuse of these substances.
I thank my fellow committee members: the member for Braitling and the member for Katherine who, despite being in a lot of pain and after a lot of trauma, got on a small, bumpy plane and went out to Groote Eylandt, Wadeye and Gove. It demonstrates the commitment from the member for Katherine. She would be in pain and discomfort, yet still wanted to hop on a plane, go to a remote community and hear stories that reduced many of us to the point of tears. As well as being in a personal state of disarray, I commend the member of Katherine for that commitment to our committee.
It is interesting to see people outside of parliament because in here, we are so formal. The member for Blain is a softy, to say the least. You can see the teacher in him in the way that he looks at the children who are coming around to see us as we are getting off planes and into cars. You can see that he is very committed to children, and to improving the lives of the people we have met. Some of his comments have been that he wants to make a difference; there is no point in talking about it, we need to make a difference. The commitment of this committee is such that we will make a difference. Our recommendations will be from the heart and practical, and they will be well received.
The member for Daly is from a remote electorate and has a lot of passion for people in his electorate and the day-to-day struggles they have with substance abuse.
I thank secretariat staff - Pat Hancock, Brian Lloyd, Kim Cowcher and Kellie Trout, who has only just joined us - for their commitment. Brian does a lot of research and some of his stuff is absolutely brilliant. I do not think we could function as a committee without Brian’s and Pat’s commitment. It is a personal commitment. You can see that they are both very interested; it is not just a job, they are very interested in it, and they want to make a difference. It is not just a job and not just a time filler; it is a very important committee. Even the girls who record the Hansard on it are all saddened by some of the things that we see.
This is a committee that I want to continue to be a part of, along with my colleague, the member for Macdonnell. She shows me a lot from a personal perspective, from the friendship that we have built. She tells me a lot of things that, as an urban member sitting in the middle of town, I would never hear about or see. I might watch it on the 7.30 Report or something like that, but I have actually seen people firsthand and seen the impact that substance abuse and drugs has on families - on little babies, on mums, dads and grandmas. I thank the member for Macdonnell for opening my eyes and showing me that we live such a blessed life.
In closing, I commend the interim report to the House and look forward to our findings in our report. Sadly, this is a committee that will never have an end. We will never combat 100% substance abuse in every form. As the members for Katherine and Braitling said, there are new drugs and substances all the time. What we need to do is combat that underlying, emotional and physical trapping into this abuse. We need to ensure that all of our kids and all who are coming through are all loved and nurtured, and will, hopefully, have the strength to resist substance abuse and alcohol in the future. I commend the interim report to the House.
Mr KNIGHT (Daly): Mr Acting Deputy Speaker, I support both the chairperson’s interim report to the House, and also the comments of other members, especially following the member for Port Darwin.
For me, it is that underlying issue. I remember the former member for Stuart having a conversation with a person within his electorate about how they were using alcohol - or I believe it was something more significant than that, drugs or petrol sniffing. He was trying to encourage that person to stop using it. The person said: ‘Why? What have I got to live for?’ That is the desperation, the absolute hopelessness that is out there. It really is those underlying environmental and social problems which lead to substance abuse. Substance abuse is just a symptom of a disease which is plaguing sections of the Northern Territory population.
Although I totally support this committee and will have input into this ultimate report, perhaps we need to look at a committee for poverty. All these problems that we talk about come from poverty; they come from people having those factors which perpetuate all these things we talk about – poor education, living conditions, no employment, substance abuse, domestic violence, child abuse and all those things. If we can get to the root of poverty we can lift people’s lives. They have that choice. They can stand there and say: ‘I do not need to take that. I have a life and I do not have to resort to taking whatever I can to numb myself for the day’ - whether it be petrol, alcohol, drugs or whatever.
This committee has a huge role in doing this. The member for Port Darwin highlighted that this has been going on for a while and will continue to go on. I would hazard a guess that, if we went back through the Parliamentary Record, we would have been talking about various forms of substance abuse over the life of this parliament, and probably before. I know the qualities of the members of this committee, and I believe they want to draw a line in the sand; they want to take some larger steps in saying ‘no, that is enough’. We have to come up with some measures and initiatives which start to turn the tide, turn the ship around. At the moment it is going in the wrong direction. We were fighting off alcohol, and now we will be fighting off a whole range of illicit drugs that are coming on to the market.
The trips that we undertook were extremely enlightening, and curious, I guess. We visited the communities on the east and west of the Stuart Highway just north of Alice Springs. Whereas, on the eastern side, communities such as Harts Range said no to all forms of illicit substances, on the western side, it was different. Why was that? It was the same mob, but something in them said no; something stayed in them to educate their children and to keep their communities clean. It is X factor; that factor where people have decided that they do not want those things and realise the problems that come about. If we could somehow capture that and get it into our communities, it would be part of the answer.
Other members talked about Wadeye. Wadeye is a very difficult community because of its size. Problems which occur in other communities are magnified because of its sheer size so, when trouble starts, it goes off. Because of its isolation there is bingeing going on. There are drug dealers going in and supplying marijuana through the community. There is heavy drinking happening there periodically, and that leads to a whole range of behaviour. The police know that something is happening in the community because there is a whole heap of trouble. We think there is trouble out there but, for the groups there, there should be more trouble with the conditions that those people live in. It is the natural result if you have that many people living together, and 90% of the population have a very low education level and are living in very poor conditions.
It is a credit to those people that those conditions are not worst. There are very strong people out there. I know the women out there. For a while the health centre was under siege. The greatest game in town was stealing the ambulance; they often went down the Port Keats road until they ran out of fuel or crashed into something. One of the other problems was that the nursing staff had been pulled out of the community as it was too dangerous for them to go near the clinic, or getting from their cars into the clinic. The women actually asked the council to set up a shed, and they camped there overnight to protect the nurses, and look after the ambulance. That goes to show the quality of people there who are prepared to have a go. However, they need support and cannot do it in small groups. It cannot just be the women.
We heard about this at Nhulunbuy where the women in some way shamed the men into doing their bit, and the men came on board. You had groups stopping the entry of alcohol and tipping it out, and turning cars around so the alcohol did not come into their community. What we saw on Groote was a watershed. Every member who went on that trip was astounded, and I thank the member for Arnhem for accompanying us, showing us around, and introducing us to people. It showed an initiative which had a massive impact on the community and that, if you take out the grog or reduce it, and get people to change their drinking behaviour, that it affects the clinic, the workload of the police, has an effect on employment, and a massive ripple effect throughout the community. If that could be duplicated across the Territory, it would have those similar effects.
The member for Katherine and I were quite inspired by it all. We charged off to Katherine thinking we had the answer. We pulled together meetings and did a whole range of things. However, you have people who knock and want to put their head in the sand. In one breath they were saying: ‘Oh, you cannot do that. That is unfair’. In another breath they said: ‘Oh, things are stuffed in this town, there is drinking and fighting and violence and all this’. It is very frustrating. I guess the member for Katherine and I were quite lucky to go on that trip to observe what was happening on Groote. I would like to take everybody along to see what is happening there. I do not think that that is a cure-all on Groote Eylandt. They are going to be faced with situations; drinkers are cunning people and they find ways. However, it is certainly something that had a massive impact.
The most significant thing I can remember from that trip was talking to some of the FACS staff. We know that the police attend to much of the crime that happens in remote areas. If there is grog available, most of their work will entail being 80% to 90% alcohol-related. What the FACS staff said - and you can imagine this is not someone copping a punch in the head or smashing a window – was that 75% of their child abuse cases were alcohol-related. If any other drug did that, if any other factor did that, we would do something fairly significant overnight. It is 75%. Three-quarters of abused children are being abused by people who are drunk. That is disgusting. If those people were sober, would they do the same thing? Maybe they would, but I hazard a guess that they perhaps would not. That is three-quarters of abused children who would not be abused; who would not be scarred for life and could lead a normal, productive life. We could start to turn these communities around.
That was a turning point for me. I alluded to it in the beginning of my supporting speech; that this committee has a choice to make to do its bit, to make a difference, to draw a line in the sand, to say: ‘That is enough’. We, as members of parliament, elected to make a difference, on a committee that is formed to make a difference, are to report back to the parliament about ways things can change in those communities, the way that those communities can be better places than when we came into parliament. When we leave in three years, six years, 10 years or whatever, we have been members of this committee which made a difference to not just this parliament, but to those lives out there. That will be a significant thing for me personally. I am sure it will be significant for the other committee members. Therefore, it is a challenge. I know members want to do something and we will report back in April. I look forward to sitting down with other members and going through those recommendations about really making a difference about substance abuse.
I will finish on that comment that substances that are misused and abused are a symptom of an underlying problem. If we cure that underlying problem, we will fix everything that flows from it. Communities and societies which have respect for themselves about who they are, have something to live for. Their children are safe and protected, women are safe and protected, and they have something to live for, whether it is a job or just being a mother or a father, or a custodian of country. We have to get that pride back into people. We have to get the conditions, both urban and in the bush, to change. That will have a significant impact. Thank you, Madam Chair. It has been a delight to be on the committee. I look forward to our final report in April.
Ms ANDERSON (Macdonnell): Mr Acting Deputy Speaker, in wrapping up comments that have been made this evening by my fellow committee members, first, I want to take this opportunity to thank you all. I know that the things you spoke about here come from your heart and that you are all very committed to making a difference out there, making the lives of children the same as our children enjoy. I also thank you all for your commitment to the committee.
As the member for Port Darwin said, we are more like a family on this committee. I really enjoyed the trip we had to Groote with the member for Arnhem, when we had to drive around all hours of the night looking for accommodation - the members for Port Darwin and Arnhem and me. It was really good to see you there, member for Katherine. As the member for Port Darwin said, there is commitment to a difference in remote Aboriginal community children’s lives in your hearts and in your minds that I can see. It is really good to see that positiveness in our committee members.
I will not go into separating the comments that committee members made because we have the common thread of hope for kids out there, not just in remote Aboriginal communities, but in towns like Darwin, Alice Springs, Katherine and Tennant Creek.
The member for Daly raised whether we can take that numbness out of these children’s minds or out of their bodies. These children live in poverty; it does not matter whether they are Aboriginal or non-Aboriginal. Can we give them hope for the future? The members for Katherine and Braitling raised this as well, and I know it from experience.
I am very vigilant, as the chair of this committee, to hear the cries of the people who give evidence to this committee, but turn around and do nothing. As the chair and as a member of this government, and with the help of my colleagues, the members for Daly and Port Darwin, I hope that this government takes the recommendations of this committee very seriously.
As the members for Port Darwin and Braitling said, we will not get rid of the drugs or substance misuse in the Northern Territory, but we can make that bit of difference by paying attention to the cries of people. Aboriginal people in remote Aboriginal communities have seen committees. They have given evidence, but they have not seen those people go back implementing any of the recommendations. If we, this committee, can do that, then we have done justice to the people who gave evidence. That is really important.
As chair of this committee, I am strongly of the view that we need to work closely with the Sessional Committee on Sport and Youth because the two are linked. Much of the substance misuse is due to boredom, but it is also due to people not understanding where other people are coming from. I know that my community has been written about for many years, regarding substance misuse with petrol sniffing. I am not ashamed to stand here and talk openly about my community. However, no one ever once asked those children why they sniff petrol. If you spoke to those children individually, most of them are orphans. Either one or both parents died before those children reached the age of five. There was no counselling, and I know for a fact that these children are outcasts of their own society, and that is why they go into substance misuse. With the compassion that this committee has, I believe we can really make a difference with good recommendations to this government.
I thank Pat Hancock, Brian Lloyd, Kim Cowcher and Kellie Trout. Without people like Pat and Brian, we cannot operate. They do all the hard work of researching the information, getting people to brief us, give us evidence-based information to bring to this House, book our accommodation, and make sure that we are comfortable. I thank Pat and Brian for such a dedicated, wonderful commitment that you have to our committee.
Mr Deputy Speaker, in closing, I say to everybody in this House, and especially to my committee members: let us give that hope and vision to those children out there.
Motion agreed to; paper noted.
Mr HENDERSON (Employment, Education and Training): Mr Deputy Speaker, I am pleased this evening to make my first major ministerial statement to the Assembly as Minister for Employment, Education and Training since I took on responsibility for the portfolio. This statement will outline the current priority action areas and signpost the priorities of my forthcoming years, hopefully, in this portfolio. I am extremely pleased to be given the opportunity to take on the challenges of leading the Department of Employment, Education and Training in the Martin Labor government.
Our government has high expectations across the board, but none more so than in the area of education and training. Labor believes in education and is passionate about getting it right. I am personally delighted to be able to play a role in the years to come. Put simply, I believe a quality education system is the foundation for a prosperous Territory and is the key to unlocking opportunities for individuals. There are huge challenges facing education in the Northern Territory. These range from the high churn of students at some schools due to the large numbers of ADF families in the Northern Territory, through to those posed by such a significant proportion of our students living in remote locations in communities where English is not the first language. This government knows that education is the key to the future prosperity of the Northern Territory.
We have already achieved much in improving access to education and the outcomes being achieved. This extends from the early years, where we now have a consistency around the age of entry to school, to placing Year 10 students in the senior years, which is in keeping with national trends and evidence which shows these measures increase retention and learning outcomes.
When our MAP results data is disaggregated into areas like Darwin, Palmerston, Katherine and Alice Springs, they compare favourably with the national average. We also know that many students attend Northern Territory schools and achieve tertiary entrance scores that enable them to study in the best universities in Australia. However, we have a long way to go for many others, especially young indigenous students living in remote communities. MAP results there have shown slight improvement over the past few years. It is true that they have come off a very low base, but they remain unacceptably low and we must continue our drive for quantum improvement.
We are now full steam ahead in undertaking significant structural reform by introducing a comprehensive middle years approach which will provide greater focus on varying needs of secondary students in our system. The whole intent of these reforms is to lift our secondary outcomes from the poorest in the country to amongst the best in Australia. Whilst it will take some years to measure the success, the community can be assured that this is a concerted and determined effort on the part of the government and the Education department.
I place on the record my congratulations to the championing of this reform agenda by my predecessor in this portfolio, the Deputy Chief Minister. His drive and resolve to effect positive change is unmatched by any previous Education minister in the Northern Territory.
Employment, Education and Training is always at the forefront of a Labor government, so I was fortunate to come into the portfolio with some understanding of the key issues. I have begun my time in this portfolio by listening. I have travelled extensively across the Territory and have visited over 30 schools of all shapes and sizes and localities across the Territory. I have listened to principals, teachers, students, parents and employers. I have had very informative dialogue and listened carefully to senior DEET staff, representatives of the AEU, ANSTEL, COGSO, ICPA, non-government schools, the Northern Territory Board of Studies, a host of individual parents, teachers and students and, very importantly, my parliamentary colleagues who have provided me with great insight and advice.
I am coming to grips with the complexities of the national education agenda and have met with the federal minister. Though, in an election year it will be important to separate politics from genuine intent to see improvements. I have been overwhelmed by the enthusiasm of my colleagues in government who have been very quick to meet with me and put forth their visions and plans for education in their local schools.
After much listening and receiving many representations, I have reached the only conclusion that can be reasonably reached: the education system in the Northern Territory requires urgent and continuous improvement. It is true that we have examples of excellent practice all across the Territory and an education workforce of which I am very proud. The principals and teachers I have met are an inspiring and dedicated group of professionals. The Martin government has made huge advances in education across the Territory in five years. We have modernised and transformed our education system to become one which is inclusive and accessible to Territorians no matter where they live. We are now in pursuit of excellence that will see outcomes for all Territorians that are equal to the rest of Australia.
Our ITC services are equal to the best in Australia. Students across the Territory have access to first-class computer technology and networks. Interactive distance learning studios deliver lessons to distance education students who have access to the latest computers. LATIS computers in schools have recently been updated and every teacher in the Territory is equipped with a laptop computer.
As a result of our age of entry trials we will, in 2008, provide access to a full year of Transition for our youngest Territorians.
We are on target to deliver the $16m nationally recognised Accelerated Literacy program to 100 schools and 10 000 students by the end of 2008. Already, the Accelerated Literacy program is showing student improvement rates of 1.74 reading levels per year. Fifty schools are already in the program, with another 11 in the final stages of preparation.
We have worked closely with the AEU to develop the Safe Schools NT Framework which will, for the first time, spell out acceptable codes of behaviour for schools.
We have taken the first steps in building a leading edge distance education service that employs the most modern technology available through interactive distance learning studios in Alice Springs, Katherine and Darwin. We have boosted support for the regions by appointing regional directors, pools of specialist teachers, and regional learning agents to promote and deliver distance learning opportunities.
In recognition of changing demographics in places like Alice Springs, we have invested in such innovative programs as the Clontarf Football Academy, which will help up to 150 young indigenous men in Central Australia achieve a solid foundation in education, and assist them in making positive choices in their lives.
We have invested heavily in infrastructure, both in urban and remote communities, by upgrading many of our suburban schools and building new secondary schools in five remote communities, as well as new schools at such remote places as Manyallaluk and Emu Point.
For most students, we can be confident that they will receive an education equal to the best Australia has to offer but, for many, the educational levels they will reach are well below what is acceptable in a contemporary Northern Territory. Every day, we must improve the outcomes of attendance, literacy and numeracy. Like my predecessor, I am absolutely certain we must have a sense of urgency about what we do. I believe it is incumbent on us all, including me as minister, to accept this as a huge challenge. It is a challenge that brings with it the reality that we cannot afford to have a ‘business as usual’ approach. Status quo is not acceptable; improvement is essential. To achieve this we must collectively do better.
Today, I would like to talk about the things that government can do, and also signpost the types of challenges I believe must be presented to communities, parents and students. Governments can and must do a lot but, unless all these parties come onboard and rise to the challenge, there is little prospect for complete success.
Structural and system reforms: government has set in train a series of structural reforms and initiatives which are vital to getting better outcomes in our schools. The move to the middle years approach is in train. The Building Better Schools range of initiatives is now heading the ground. So too, is the largest single injection of funds into school infrastructure in the Territory’s history. The middle years reforms are all about ensuring better outcomes through students having an educational focus that is appropriate to their needs and what we expect of them.
The Northern Territory Curriculum Framework is a quality curriculum and is both robust and defensible. This was the key finding of the independent, external evaluation by Mr Bruce Wilson, Chief Executive of Curriculum Corporation, Australia’s only national curriculum organisation. It was the first systemic curriculum for compulsory years of schooling to explicitly include pathways to employability and lifelong learning skills. It was the first, and is still the only, curriculum to include the nationally agreed literacy and numeracy standards so that teachers know exactly how their students’ learning compares with these standards.
Our Northern Territory Certificate of Education, which is linked to South Australia’s certificate, has recently undergone an exhaustive review with strong recommendations for reform. Northern Territory input to the final product will be complete by the end of Term 1. The reforms will see a much more rigorous senior years meeting the needs of a more diverse group of young people - as well as compulsory English and maths, a wider range of choices for students and agreed performance standards that students will need to achieve to gain the certificate. It will operate on a new points-based system that gives students credit for learning through school subjects, VET, community service, and work experience. Student performance in national Year 9 literacy and numeracy assessment will be used to inform individual learning plans through the senior years including training, employment, or higher education options.
The Building Better Schools package includes a host of initiatives to lift the outcomes at our schools. These range from exciting new professional development initiatives for educators through to new systems to keep better tracks of students. One of the most welcome initiatives has been the placement of 20 new school counsellor positions in to the system. Helping schools to work constructively with behavioural issues is great news for many educators, parents and students. Importantly, it also means more focus will be given to achieving stronger results. I look forward to launching the Safe Schools NT Framework in the not-too-distant future.
A new and exciting era is dawning for our high schools across the Territory. To help make these improvements happen, we are making significant and strategic investment in the infrastructure of our schools. Across the Territory school buildings are being improved and shaped to meet the educational and reform challenges we are determined to address.
In Palmerston, $11.13m is being spent on the new facility at the existing Palmerston High School site. I want Palmerston High to become a school that the Palmerston community is rightly proud of and choose to send their children to. The expansion and quality of new infrastructure and increase in student numbers will provide Palmerston with the critical mass of students that will enable it to broaden its subject offerings and compete on equal terms with Darwin High and Casuarina Senior College.
$19.9m has been allocated to the construction of the new Darwin Middle School which is in keeping with the increase in student numbers that will attend the new middle school.
Significant capital upgrades are happening at Casuarina Senior College where $3.4m is being spent on a range of improvements including a new sports pavilion. Upgrades of $4.5m are also happening at Taminmin High. At Katherine High, close to $1m has been allocated. At Nhulunbuy $1.35m has been allocated. At Centralian Senior Secondary College, $1.4m has been used to achieve an excellent upgrade which I inspected just a couple of weeks ago.
A positive aspect of these works has been the collaboration between school communities and DEET in working closely together to meet the educational needs of students. We have a huge challenge in driving such a busy program. The level of cooperation across governments and the private sector to achieve the time frames set has been remarkable. Continuing this work will remain a key challenge for this year in particular.
Literacy: all contemporary thinking acknowledges the importance of engaging children at a very early age with reading. As parents, it is vitally important to read with your child and foster a love of reading. As a society ever moving into the information age, reading a book should be a pastime that is not lost. The government has recognised the importance of engaging children from an early age by extending the age of entry trials for 57 schools. By the start of the school year in 2009, all government schools will have adopted a consistent age of entry policy. This means all children will have access to a full year of Transition prior to going into their first formal year of schooling in Year 1. This initiative puts us at the forefront of early childhood education nationally.
The Chief Minister’s Literacy Awards were launched in 2006 with awards provided for every classroom across the Territory. This was about reinforcing the importance of literacy amongst young people. Literacy is the foundation building block on which a child’s education is built. As a community, we cannot afford to allow students in our system to leave school without acceptable levels of literacy. However, it is true that in many remote communities in the Northern Territory English is not spoken as a first language and, in some cases, is hardly used outside the classroom. We cannot accept this as a reason for non-achievement. Rather, it serves as a constant reminder that we need to concentrate on constant improvement in literacy outcomes. It is imperative that we remain focused on this most important element of education. If we need to redouble our efforts in literacy, then we should. In fact, we cannot afford not to.
Links with the Territory workforce and economy: it is vital that our secondary education system reflects the demands of today, and the new and vibrant Territory economy. Sound financial management by government, combined with unprecedented levels of private investment, have seen the Territory economy expand and the demand for skills expand with it.
Combined with the national skills shortage and the very low level of unemployment in many industry sectors, there is a screaming demand for students to have trade and technical skills, or the skills to acquire training. Achieving improvements to NTCE results and a good TER score to access university is vital, but it must be done in tandem with improving our performance in technical skills. We have to ensure our senior high schools give our students the skills and qualifications to fully participate in an expanding economy. Our home-grown students must provide the bulk of the solution to the skills shortage.
These forces are what are motivating the government in the energy and resources that have been put into training in recent years through Jobs Plan 1 and 2. It is why the government has placed career advisors back in the high schools, and it is why we have extended and expanded VET in schools to access school-based apprenticeships. Working with DEET we can now go a step further and develop some exciting new initiatives which will deliver even stronger links between what we are doing in training, and the needs of the economy and students.
Attendance and literacy and numeracy in the bush: of the 151 recommendations in the Learning Lessons Report, the Martin government has moved to implement them all. Eighty-two have been completed and implemented, 51 are being implemented with ongoing actions, and the remaining 17 have been superseded by new policy or legislation. The final one has now commenced through the Remote Learning Partnerships project.
Much has been achieved by the government placing education for indigenous young people as a high priority; however, there remains a very long way to go. This government is up-front about the sheer enormity of the challenge facing improving education in the bush, but we have made a good start by demonstrating to young students in remote communities that it is possible to complete 12 years of school and gain an NTCE. The successes started small, but they are growing. As incredible as it sounds, prior to 2003 not one student had completed their NTCE in their home community. In fact, the governments of the day had a policy prohibiting it. In 2006, 30 students from five communities achieved their NTCE.
Now that students living in remote communities can, through the experience of their brothers and sisters, see a pathway to Year 12, it is time to turn our attention to the issue of school attendance; for nothing can be surer: if a child does not go to school on a regular basis with high levels of attendance, then they are bound to fail. Issues of which programs we provide, or which curricula we provide, are irrelevant if a child does not go to school. The main focus of the government’s approach in 2007 is the exercise of community engagement.
I recently launched the Remote Learning Partnerships Initiative and, as we speak, DEET personnel are visiting communities and introducing the concept of Remote Learning Partnerships. DEET will work closely with communities by listening, sharing ideas, identifying roles and responsibilities so that, together, we can create system-wide changes to the education and training outcomes of young indigenous people in local communities throughout the Northern Territory.
Accountability for performance and success: the structural changes and investments in facilities, teachers and students we have embarked upon are designed to ensure that education, training and employment outcomes will demonstrably improve. To help link the general aspirations of government and DEET with what is actually happening on the ground, we will put a far greater priority on system support and school accountability. When it becomes clear that these are not happening, we will put remedial action in place. I want to see a culture of continuous improvement across DEET and from within our schools. I want to see a focus on improved education outcomes in each and every school, and strongly believe that schools must, with system support, formally plan how and what they will do to achieve this. Formal planning to achieve outcomes and stronger accountability for achievements is not about wanting to focus on problems and where things go wrong; it is about recognising achievements and being better at identifying problems and taking stronger corrective action.
As part of this government’s commitment to improving results, I asked DEET to develop an accountability and performance improvement framework to monitor the standard and quality of education services we provide. This framework is now in an advanced stage of development and, when implemented, will apply across the whole of the DEET. The framework is designed to achieve three goals. Firstly, the framework will focus the attention of all DEET staff on their role in improving student outcomes. Results achieved by schools in six key result areas will be measured, analysed and performance improvement plans will be developed and implemented so that outcomes continue to improve. These six areas are: teaching and learning; student wellbeing and engagement; student pathways and transitions; organisational health and learning; community engagement; and financial health.
Secondly, the framework will enable schools to concentrate on the business of teaching students and achieving high performance standards, because it will clear away some unnecessary administrative clutter and simplify school planning.
Thirdly, the framework will recognise that the achievement of student results is not the responsibility of schools alone. Performance improvement is a shared responsibility between the school and the department, and between the school and their students and parents. The framework will define the standards that we expect of schools and encourage schools to be improving continuously. Help will be available for schools to improve their services and the framework will outline this assistance.
I will formally announce the DEET accountability and performance improvement framework at the principals’ conference in April. Schools will have the opportunity to volunteer to trial the framework over the remainder of this year, with full implementation occurring from the start of 2008. Acceptable outcomes and attendance, numeracy and literacy will not fall from the sky. We must refrain from distractions which will water down the intensity on these goals. We do not expect schools to do this alone. System support for improved outcomes is also essential.
To this end, we have reinstated senior leadership positions in the regions to support schools in achieving approved outcomes. The positions of regional superintendents were removed in 1999 by the then CLP government. Schools have been left to fend for themselves since. An enormous burden was placed on the three general managers who were expected to oversee the operation of over 150 schools. This government has now created three new regional director positions for the Barkly, Katherine and Arnhem regions that will support the work of the general managers. The school accountability process will include regional directors and general managers. Improved educational outcomes in all schools in all regions will be one of shared responsibility that includes school principals, regional directors and general managers.
Parents: this government is committed to ensuring, wherever possible, that every child in our system achieves to the best of their ability. We expect schools to encourage and develop abilities in all students. However, this responsibility is not the total domain of the school and the system. Parents, students and our schools all share in the responsibility for lifting attendance and performance at school. There are also challenges for parents that we must present.
We must in, the first place, set expectations that parents send their children to school. We must encourage parents to be involved in the journey of their child’s education. We must have expectations that students will behave and engage at school, and we must expect that, when students leave the formal education system, they have achieved to the best of their ability. We must ensure that students have adequate literacy and numeracy skills to enable them to participate in the economy and broader society.
As a first measure, I will be strongly supporting schools in making contact with parents when there are unexplained absences of their students, with a view to developing an individualised plan to address the problem.
Communities: the attendance level of students at many Territory schools is not acceptable. I reiterate my very basic proposition that, if a student is not attending school in the first place, there is no hope of that child learning how to read or write. There is no question that schools and the education system as a whole must continue to put more emphasis on getting students to attend. However, the reality of it all is clear: without the support of the parents and the community, the effort will largely be a waste of time. Leaders in communities have to part of getting their kids to school. This responsibility not only falls to parents but extends to community councils, resource centres, sport and recreation officers and shopkeepers. If the community at large does not demonstrate that it cares, it is reasonably predictable that the kids will not either. There are some members of the community who are inspired and do want to increase school attendance. I want to give these champions every help and assistance.
As I mentioned earlier, Phase 1 of the community engagement process has already begun. The process will see teams within DEET and independent brokers visit 15 large remote communities with the aim of reaching agreements on what we can do as a system to deliver education services in a better way. At the same time, we will be asking communities to meet their obligations of getting kids to school and supporting them throughout the course of their education. Front and centre, I have instructed DEET that attendance is the absolute key. Communities that are fair dinkum about improving attendance rates will get the extra support that they are reasonably seeking. I am all ears for innovative strategies that will get kids into schools, and I will support them while they are there. If these community engagement discussions bring forth practical proposals, like adjusting the way a school operates in order to increase the attendance rate, then I will be very keen to give it a go. I am calling on the communities involved in these discussions to give it their best shot.
On a broader level, I am looking forward to putting in place an advisory panel to advise me and DEET, which will be known as the Northern Territory Indigenous Education Advisory Council. I will be asking the council to focus on three key themes for improvement: attendance, literacy and numeracy, and pathways to work and further study. The policy framework has been set and, in this statement, I have outlined some of the additional work that is being done to set the next round of initiatives. Unquestionably, the importance and the urgency are high. We all face huge challenges - government, ministers, educators, communities, parents and students. We do not have a minute to waste. This said, it is an exciting time in education in the Territory. I look forward to providing regular statements to the House on the plans outlined today as they are delivered.
Mr Deputy Speaker, I move that the Assembly take note of the statement.
Ms LAWRIE (Family and Community Services): Mr Deputy Speaker, I commend the minister for Education on his statement. It is a statement that notes that better educational outcomes are not just about what happens in the school, but also that preschool years are crucial. It is in this regard that I want to talk in my role as Minister for Family and Community Services; about the interface between my area of Children’s Services with the nought to five responsibilities that that carries and, importantly, the education system. Without a doubt, if you pay attention to early learning, our nought to fives, then, obviously, the educational benefits flow through. There is a significant interface and cooperative working relationship between the Department of Employment, Education and Training and my agency of Family and Community Services.
The early experiences of the babies and the young children set the scene for their future learning and development. In recent years, new knowledge about early brain development has demonstrated conclusively that what happens in the first three years of a baby’s life sets the scene for their entire life. We are now much more aware of how vulnerable a baby’s brain is to the environment in which it is rapidly developing. This means we have to work right across government, in our Family and Community Services, in Health, in Housing, and in our planning decisions to create the best possible environment for our children’s growth, their development and, obviously, their learning.
The agency of Family and Community Services has been working closely with the Department of Employment, Education and Training in identifying an integration of care and education services – what we refer to as the Top End Early Learning Centre; that is, the childcare centre at the hospital at which a DEET preschool teacher is located. We have a very clear project there of collaboration between DEET locating a preschool teacher into one of our childcare centres, the Top End Early Learning Centre.
There are also a number of childcare centres that are we now seeing being co-located with schools. This is an evolving model of the continuum of learning through early childhood and it is a very exciting advancement within the Territory.
Family and Community Services is also working with DEET on a range of school-based family support activities. This flows from work that my agency did which looked at how to best create an holistic model to support early learning. A key recommendation flowing from that was that there is, obviously, potential within our school communities to expand the learning experience through to the early years and attract programs for the mums and the bubs, so that the mothers get used to the school environment and have confidence and collectively get that habit of attending school with their children.
We have targeted three key areas of disadvantage to trial these family centres for family support activities. The first trial occurred at Moulden Park in Palmerston, an area of significant disadvantage. The trial started under the leadership of my predecessor, minister Scrymgour, and was extended to Karama Primary School, another area of social disadvantage, and to Maningrida community. The early information coming out of those family hubs and those family support programs based within the schools is incredibly promising. We have had improved attendances, for example, of the children of parents who are attending those programs. We are able to run parenting programs through those family centres. For example, at both Moulden Park and Karama Primary School we have engaged another organisation, the Smith Family, in extending its Communities for Children work to work with those families of significant social disadvantage.
It is a very exciting, innovative approach to more appropriately using the fantastic facilities that we have at our schools and, as I said, drawing in those disadvantaged young families, targeting in many instances our young mums who probably dropped out of school at the very early age of 15 or 16, and are wary of the school environment as a consequence of that. In being able to encourage them back into a supportive setting within a school environment it encourages them to continue their own learning, improves their parenting skills, and sets the scene for them to be able to, with confidence, enrol their children into preschool and take advantage of the education system.
The Department of Family and Community Services is also working with the Department of Employment, Education and Training on the Strong Beginnings curriculum project, which is a project for our three- to five-year-olds. That is a critical age group. It is a rapidly developing area of study and learning curriculum. The Strong Beginnings curriculum project was sparked out of the government’s decision to trial early age of entry into preschool to enable - through choice but certainly not mandatory - parents to enter their three-and-a-half-year-olds into our preschool system. I remember when the trial first commenced a few years ago Karama Primary School was one of the preschool sites of the trial. There were some very clear challenges presented by having such young children entering into a structured learning environment such as a preschool.
In studies that I undertook in Queensland, and talking to early learning curriculum experts in Queensland, they showed me the international studies which identified that early learning only works if it is in an informal unstructured delivery. If you overly structure and formalise early learning it ultimately, in fact, has a negative effect on the children’s learning. There was a real need out of the early trials to identify that early curriculum for our three- to five-year-olds.
I congratulate Ken Davies in the Department of Employment, Education and Training who has done a significant body of work in creating the Strong Beginnings curriculum, and also Helen Crawford in the Department of Family and Community Services, who has been a fantastic source of knowledge and support in the information in developing the Strong Beginnings curriculum. I thank both agencies for the significant work they have done.
There is more work to be done on Strong Beginnings. We can never afford, as a government, to take our eye off the ball of early learning and the challenges of early learning, of getting it right, of ensuring that we have a range of choices available within the system. Whilst one three-and-a-half-year-old might suit a preschool environment another three-and-a-half-year-old maybe far too young, in their maturity, to cope. It is critically important that Family and Community Services and the Department of Employment, Education and Training are able to share their knowledge, experience, and expertise to be able to get a range of choices across the early learning spectrum to cater to the variety of needs of our children and families.
For example, we have the three-year-old kindies which crop up with our childcare centres. They are a very good early learning environment for our three-year-olds. Many childcare centres are providing competent preschool programs. I congratulate those providers who have taken on the initiative of interesting preschool programs within the childcare environment. It is an important learning environment for our early childhood children.
If we get supportive, comfortable environments right for the early years, as I said, international studies show children benefit from that learning experience and go on to achieve significant outcomes through their primary and senior learning experience. However, if the environment is overly structured and does not have the thought and flexibility that a young developing child needs, it could, in fact, have the opposite consequence.
This is why, as a government and as ministers, we are committed to continuing to understand the early learning environments and curriculum, which is why I am very supportive of the work done by the Department of Employment, Education and Training in creating the Strong Beginnings curricula for those three- to five-years-old. We have had a significant debate in the Territory about middle schools and the importance of getting the middle years of schooling right for higher education outcomes. However, I have no doubt that if you do not get your three- to five-year-old early learning right, if it is not supportive or resourced then you have missed the boat if you are just dealing with the middle schools age group.
There is a significant commitment from the Martin Labor government to continue to provide a clear focus and direction on our early learning curriculum through the Strong Beginnings. A great deal of research and development has gone into it. I reiterate my congratulations to both Education and FACS for that collaborative work.
We have strong protocols in place between those agencies in relation to child protection, and we are currently working together to improve educational outcomes for children placed in care. This is an emerging body of work. We have been signing off protocols and memorandums of understanding which provide for an appropriate level of attention for children who are in the care of the minister; that is, our out-of-home care and welfare children who, through necessity, have been removed from their families. They are without the normal breadth of support which you would expect to see.
It is incredibly important in that regard that we get a systemic system and approach to ensure those children are well supported through their education. Interestingly, organisations such as CREATE do a fantastic job in advocating for children in the out of home care system. CREATE is staffed in the Territory, for example, by people who have come through foster care themselves and know firsthand the experience of foster care kids.
Sadly and tragically, national statistics - and the Territory is within that national trend - show us there are significant dropout rates for foster children within the education system; that is, they are the children most likely to fail when it comes to education. It is with the knowledge of this that all jurisdictions are starting to pay greater attention to what support we necessarily need to put in place to give the children in our foster care system - what we refer to as out-of-home care - to ensure they are not failures; that they are, indeed, the success stories. We provide support for them within the education system, ensure the education system information is flowing from Family and Community Services, and understand the specific needs of those children. Necessarily so, tragically at times, those children move through several foster placements. Consequently, you have those issues of either children moving around through the education system going from school to school, or whether you can provide supports in place to ensure that they can be anchored within the school community.
These are the day-to-day issues that officers of Family and Community Services and the Department of Employment, Education and Training have in tapping into a systemic approach. I thank them for taking up that task of ensuring that we introduce contemporary practice within our education system to fully support our foster care children, because they are the ones most significantly disadvantaged through life circumstances. It is through no actions of their own; it is life circumstances. It is a responsibility of the government; nonetheless, a responsibility I will shoulder and pursue to provide adequate and significant support to those children to ensure that they can take advantage of the education opportunities that exist here in the Northern Territory with our very fine public school system, and give them every chance in life at success.
Again, I say to both the officers Education and of Family and Community Services who have been working on the out-of-home care project to improve educational outcomes for those children, thank you for your pursuit of the protocols as a result of my ministerial request. It is an emerging body of work and I am looking forward to watching very closely what our educational trend outcomes show for that cohort of very deserving and worthy students.
In relation to the minister’s statement, he also referred to the new school at Emu Point. Just to show how there is a significant interface between my agency of Family and Community Services and the department of Education, we are able to use our initiative of the playground funding package that I announced today to provide $7105 for the JET crche at Emu Point. We do not have artificial barriers existing between Education and FACS. I have seen a vast amount of work done across those two agencies, to be able to accept that the continuum of learning from the noughts through five is so important and so critical, that we actually work in a collaborative sense across agencies to resource and equip them to the appropriate level, and in every way that we can.
There is a very clear link between the care and the development opportunities that we give to our babies and our very young children, and their capacity to benefit from future educational opportunities. Today, I was at Stuart Park Childcare Centre. It is always very important to get out to those centres and see just how innovative they have become, and challenging the learning programs. They are stimulating, learning programs for our little nought to fours in those centres. There is so much that our children are now starting to benefit from, from the research that has been done about how critical those early years of learning are. That nought to three is the time when we have every requirement to get it right for our babies and our little children. We manage to do that within a supportive system that we are well resourcing. Then, obviously, the opportunity for the education benefits is significant.
I congratulate the minister for Education for his statement. In my electorate of Karama, I see extremely fine public schools: Karama Primary School, Malak Primary School, Manunda Terrace Primary School, as well as Sanderson High School. They are examples of just how robust and good our education system can be, as well as flexible and innovative. We have had the innovative programs at Manunda Terrace Primary to provide an opportunity for a leg-up for some of our disadvantaged boys. We have a fantastic accelerated literacy program occurring now at Karama Primary School in conjunction with the Charles Darwin University. Malak Primary School has trialled a range of innovative recess and lunchtime programs. It is starting to become a magnificent school. Over the last few years, it has just bounded from strength to strength, all through significant support from the department of Education.
Congratulations to the minister. I know he has enormous passion to ensure quality education for the children right across the Northern Territory. From my perspective as the Minister for Family and Community Services, I am committed to continuing to work with the minister and his agency to ensure that we get the early years of education right; that we create an environment for our children that will hold them in very fine stead for improved learning once they reach preschool and enter into primary school and high school. I commend the statement.
Dr BURNS (Health): Mr Deputy Speaker, I support the minister’s statement on education. As the minister has said, this Labor government believes a quality education system is the key to unlocking opportunities for young Territorians. As a government, we are committed to getting it right.
Casuarina Senior College, which is in my electorate, had the distinct honour of having 10 of the top 22 students in the Northern Territory’s Certificate of Education (NTCE) results last year. The 10 students from Casuarina who performed so well were: Aarany Sivakaanthan, Karina Brabham, Amelia Samuels, Varun Nair, Robyn Lambert, Heather Langham, Elise Manhire, Alicia Bahler, Deanne Thorpe and Lisa Visentin. All of these students received a TER score of over 90. Well done! In all, 253 students graduated with their NTCE from Casuarina Senior College in 2006, and I congratulate each and every one.
While on Casuarina Senior College, it is pleasing to see that Casuarina, along with Alice Springs High School, had the most significant increase in indigenous students completing their NTCE from 2005-06. Amber Munkara-Sweet from Casuarina Senior College received the most outstanding Stage II Northern Territory Certificate of Education Indigenous Student of 2006. As far as I am concerned, the increasing number of indigenous students completing their NTCE is one of the truly encouraging signs of education in the Territory. Some of these students will make the transition from secondary education to tertiary education, and we all appreciate the significance of that choice as the next step after high school. It was very pleasing to me, as someone who lived in Maningrida over a number of years and also had a long association with that community, to see students from the high school there graduating with their Year 12 results. That bodes well for Maningrida and for the Territory as a whole, given that there are a number of sites now across the Territory where Aboriginal students are performing, graduating and obtaining their NTCE.
This is something that did not happen before under the previous CLP government. They just ignored education in the bush. I pay tribute to the member for Nhulunbuy who, as Education minister, really pushed this issue, got it front and centre, and got things moving. We now see the results. However, it is only the beginning; there is much more to be done on this issue, particularly in our regional areas.
I was speaking in relation to students entering their tertiary studies, and I would like to speak about the Territory’s Charles Darwin University which is meeting the challenge of providing learning pathways in an environment that allows students to reach their full potential. The university offers students a multitude of courses, including business studies, construction and engineering, conservation and, also in the science, health and nursing areas which, of course, align to my own studies and are so important to the Northern Territory.
As Health Minister, I am delighted that the Territory’s university is doing such a great job in helping to train home-grown nurses for our hospitals. The School of Health Sciences at Charles Darwin University in the faculty of Education, Health and Science comprises nursing, psychology, social work, welfare studies and community studies. The faculty currently has 763 students enrolled in their Bachelor of Nursing course. The census date is still a couple of weeks away, and they expect to be catering for more than 800 students, and that is fantastic. Approximately one-quarter of these are from across the Territory, and the remainder are from all over Australia. It is an attractive course for people living in rural and remote areas, not only in the Territory but Australia-wide, and there are units that can be taken externally.
Another innovative approach is the extensive use of the Internet for students. CDU has extensive links with hospitals all over Australia and students can take clinical placements in a variety of locations. CDU also conducts clinical teaching blocks which allow students to meet each other at least once a year and be part of CDU.
One of the reasons for the interest in the Bachelor of Nursing at Charles Darwin University is that the course has electives in relation to remote and indigenous nursing. The enrolled nursing program has 71 students currently enrolled and they are still processing another 50 applications. The enrolled nursing program and Aboriginal health worker program is a pathway to the Bachelor of Nursing. With the students’ engagement with the Northern Territory through studying at CDU, interstate students are encouraged to consider a career in nursing in the Northern Territory.
I use a personal anecdote. My daughter, who completed Year 12 at Darwin High School and has had really all of her education within the Northern Territory in Darwin, did a year’s cadetship with the Justice Department. The Minister for Corporate and Information Services talked earlier today about the graduate program. She was thrilled to do that one year within the Justice Department and now she is going to be studying law at Charles Darwin University. I am proud of my daughter progressing along that pathway, but I am equally pleased that she is undertaking her studies locally at Charles Darwin University. I have always been a great supporter of Charles Darwin University, given the fact that it is a university with a comparatively limited catchment compared to other universities in southern states. It offers a great range of courses. It is a pivotal institution to the advancement and development of the Northern Territory. It is very important for the Northern Territory to develop. I know this government is a supporter of Charles Darwin University and we have very close links with it.
Yes, Charles Darwin University does have issues in relation to its size and catchment but I have every confidence that, in 10 or 20 years as the population in the Northern Territory grows and as Charles Darwin University develops, it will be a premier institution in South-East Asia and Australia. It is well on its way to becoming that even as I speak.
As we know, the Northern Territory faces unique health and community services challenges. It is also a place of great professional opportunity. Some of Australia’s foremost clinicians, public health practitioners, researchers and academics are based in the Territory and have national and international links and reputation. This government aims to encourage and build on their leadership so more of our staff can improve their knowledge and skills.
I would particularly like to note the important education outcomes delivered by the Menzies School of Health Research. Menzies is a national and internationally recognised research organisation that aims to improve the health of people in tropical and Central Australia. I have acknowledged previously that the member for Greatorex was on the Board of the Menzies School of Health Research for quite a number of years and has made a significant contribution to the development of the Menzies School of Health Research. We acknowledge that the Menzies School of Health Research was set up under the previous CLP government and it has been a real success story. This government is continuing those close links with and support for the Menzies School of Health Research.
It does have an important education role delivering course work in public health research training and short courses. The course work in public health is accredited by the Charles Darwin University and provides multidisciplinary public health education focusing on indigenous remote and tropical public health. As I said, Menzies enjoys an international reputation and, as such, attracts high-quality public health practitioners from interstate and overseas. However, most of the students are from the Territory and many of them are employees of the Department of Health and Community Services.
Menzies is also a significant player in providing postgraduate research training for health professionals and the wider Northern Territory community. Postgraduate research students are supervised by senior Menzies staff or external supervisors when appropriate. Student research projects are particularly concerned with Aboriginal health issues, but span the whole range from molecular biology to population health and health policy.
Since 1978, Menzies postgraduate students have gone to many other universities, including Charles Darwin University, Flinders University of South Australia, and the Universities of New South Wales, Melbourne and Adelaide.
Menzies also runs a dynamic and self-sustaining short course program. This focuses on skills development for the indigenous public health workforce, especially service providers, researchers and research students. The program is based on the needs of the community and service providers, but often attracts interstate participants, including students enrolled in postgraduate programs elsewhere. The short courses play an important role in Menzies’ own staff recruitment, retention and professional development.
Topics that have been offered as short courses to date include Aboriginal health economics, social determinants of indigenous health, community development, context and politics of indigenous health, applied biostatistics, clinical trial and workshops in presentation skills, and analysis and protocols for systemic reviews.
Menzies is a significant provider of health education of the highest quality in the Territory. In addition, each year Northern Territory Clinical School students graduate from Flinders University as medical practitioners as part of a partnership between this government and the university. The Northern Territory Clinical School is based at Royal Darwin Hospital and Alice Springs Hospital, with outreach to general practices and rural and remote communities throughout the Northern Territory. Flinders University students complete the first two years of the course in Adelaide, then Northern Territory students transfer to Royal Darwin Hospital for year three of the course to study key clinical disciplines.
Since the Northern Territory’s Clinical School opened in 1998, this initiative has had significant impact on the education of medical students in the Northern Territory. The students have gained invaluable knowledge of the health challenges of relevance to the Territory through this pathway and, importantly, many of these students have elected to return to the Northern Territory on graduation.
I am pleased to be able to report that the Department of Health and Community Services also provides significant pathways for the training and education of its staff. For example, the department is able to provide financial assistance and study leave for a range of external courses for staff from across all work areas. This includes clinical, administrative and executive streams, as well as for professional, physical and technical streams, and Aboriginal Health Workers. There are specific programs for staff, such as the Discovery: Women as Leaders, and the Kigaruk Indigenous Men’s Leadership program. This department has important partnerships with 35 universities in Australia, including the Flinders and James Cook Universities, as well as international partnerships, such as the one with the Florence Nightingale School of Nursing at Kings College and the University of Sheffield in the United Kingdom. These partnerships link with clinical placements for undergraduate students in the nursing, allied health and medical fields.
The department also has a number of programs designed to help us expand the pool of nurses available to our health system. For example, there is the re-entry program, which develops competencies for nurses seeking to get back into the clinical workforce after taking time off or being away. There is also the overseas nursing program, which supports nurses who have trained overseas to become familiar with Australian nursing practices. There is also a range of internal clinical courses for staff, such as about giving vaccines, a course designed for nurses and Aboriginal Health Workers.
Another important initiative in building our workforce is the support that the Department of Health and Community Services provides to indigenous students through the National Indigenous Cadetships Program, where they undertake study and gain experience in employment through temporary contracts with the department. Ensuring our health staff are skilled and educated is a key objective for this government.
I have spoken in my response to the minister’s statement about Casuarina Senior College, part of my electorate, being an important part of the Northern Territory secondary education system. I am convinced the middle school changes, despite some early misgivings by some staff at Casuarina Senior College, are being implemented very smoothly. I regularly attend college council meetings; I have heard some of those concerns. However, I am also convinced that the senior staff and the majority of staff at Casuarina Senior College are supporting this initiative. They are knuckling down and making those students feel at home at Casuarina Senior College. I believe it will deliver quality outcomes to our secondary students.
I have not mentioned the primary schools in my electorate. They are great schools. Alawa, which is really in the member for Nightcliff’s electorate, borders my electorate. It is certainly a great school. There are also Jingili, Wagaman and Moil. Each school is different and they provide different flavours of education at each one, but all of a high quality with high-quality staff, with parents who are really interested in their children’s education. Parents, may I add, are very appreciative of government’s efforts in increased funding for students to attend school, through our subsidy at the beginning of the year, and the way that this government has upgraded computer equipment and supported primary education. I commend all the professional educators and the work that they do within those schools.
In the latter part of my speech, I outlined various aspects of tertiary education. I am not sure it is something that other speakers have touched on, but I feel it is a very important part of developing the Northern Territory. I have mentioned Charles Darwin University and the sterling job that is going on there, how it is developing. It is moving forward in the education of health professionals, particularly nurses. I also omitted to mention pharmacists; there is a pharmacy course starting there. It is moving along, developing courses and feeding health professionals into the Northern Territory workforce, and that is fantastic.
I have mentioned the Menzies School of Health Research, a premier institution. They certainly attract a lot of grant money, but they are also doing a lot of work in postgraduate education for health professionals, particularly those within the Northern Territory Public Service - a great job done by Menzies and internationally recognised.
I have also mentioned the Flinders Medical School and some of the arrangements there. That is also having a positive effect, because it is drawing local graduates who come back, and also graduates from elsewhere who come to the Northern Territory, do some placements, and then want to stay in the Northern Territory.
I commend the minister’s statement to the House. I suppose I have enlarged on it a little, but that is fair enough. I believe the House needs to be apprised of developments in tertiary education. All members from both sides would agree with me; this is a very important sector for the development of the Northern Territory.
Madam Speaker, in conclusion, I support the minister’s statement, as this government is serious about providing educational opportunities in a broad range of fields, and to assist students to become the best of the best in their education endeavours.
Debate adjourned.
Mr HENDERSON (Leader of Government Business): Madam Speaker, I move that the Assembly at its rising adjourn until Tuesday, 17 April 2007 at 9.30 am at the Alice Springs Convention Centre, or such other time and/or date as may be advised by the Speaker, pursuant to sessional order.
Motion agreed to.
Mr HENDERSON (Leader of Government Business): Madam Speaker, I move that the Assembly do now adjourn.
Mr VATSKALIS (Casuarina): Madam Speaker, Gong Xi Fa Cai. Congratulations and happy New Year to all Chinese descent Territorians. This is the Year of the Pig and I am looking forward to the celebration and the official blessing of my electorate office in Casuarina this Saturday. I believe they are blessing the member for Wanguri’s office. There are going to be firecrackers - hopefully, they are going to be put the right way up this time – and, of course, the Chinese lion.
I congratulate the Tracy Village Social and Sports Club on the completion of the new lights on their sporting field. In the past two years, the club has done a fantastic job and invested more than $2m in their sporting facilities. My sincere thanks to the Northern Territory government for generously providing funding of $800 000 to the Tracy Village Social and Sports Club for this much-needed facility. I was very proud, on 14 December, to assist President Garry Ross switch on the new floodlights for the first time. The official lighting of the new lights will be at a later date and the member for Wanguri and I will be there.
The availability of the new lights has helped the Northern Territory Softball Association to secure the national Under 23 softball championship this year from 10 to 14 April. There are approximately 240 softballers who will come to Darwin from all over Australia. NT Softball relocated to Tracy Village from the Gardens because they aim to program some night games and increase participation in the sport.
Tracy Village Social and Sports Club has always been very active in the local community. They keep on investing in sport and social facilities for Territorians in the northern suburbs. With the exciting new Lyons development right next door, now in full swing, it will definitely be getting bigger and better. If you have not visited it yet, you do not know what you are missing. I am very proud to be involved with the club and I look forward to continue working closely with President Garry Ross and the committee.
I was extremely happy to have been invited by Dave Brabham and the crew to spend an afternoon with the Active After-school Communities program at Nakara Primary School recently. What a fantastic program. Well done, to all involved. The program provides primary school-aged kids with access to free structured physical activity programs in the after-school time slot. The focus of the program is to get non-active kids into physical activities. It can also be the pathway for them into local community organisation or clubs. Partnerships with local community groups are essential for the success of the program, with groups like the athletics, netball and AFL all getting involved in the Territory. There are more than 60 sports and out-of-school hours care services in the Territory running this program, with this number expected to rise to 73 by mid-year. Over 140 adults have also undertaken coaching training for the program. I congratulate the person who thought of it, and the people who participate and teach young Territorians to become active again.
Another outstanding Northern Territory government initiative is the Northern Territory Youth Business Award. This initiative provides our youth with opportunities to learn about the business world. Students develop a small business as part of the Northern Territory Certificate of Education studies. They receive a loan from the school to set up their business and are required to pay back the loan from the profits gained from the business venture. It is great to see so many young entrepreneurs in our education system developing their skills early. Congratulations to Jake Clements of Nakara and his Casuarina Senior College team of Cameron Francis, Josh Miles and Carmen Chau for winning first prize for their design-based business, The First Shipment. I was able to congratulate Jake and his parents, Gary and Shirley, personally at my Christmas party last year. Well done, Jake.
Also, congratulations to the second prize winners, the Dripstone High School team of Erin Clark, Leah Dernahan, Wilasinee Moulding, Sunita Murphy, Amber-Lou Santer and Heather McEwan for their business, Eskimo Cones.
The Business Plan Award went to Dripstone High School’s Nathan Edwards and Keiran Munns for their business, NK Bowls.
I am happy to advise it was also the first time a remote school participated in the Youth Business Award and won. Congratulations to students from Maningrida CEC for winning the Innovation Award.
This year, my visit to Dripstone High School’s first assembly was extra special. I was very excited to attend, not only as the local member, but also as a dad to welcome my young son, Michael, who commenced Year 8. I was also very happy to help Principal, Lyn Elphinstone, promote compulsory school uniforms this year, by presenting the school’s new Good on You Awards. Ten lucky students won tickets for the recent AFL All Stars games that I happily donated.
One of the highlights of Dripstone High this week has been John Joseph, ‘The Brain Man’, working with the Year 8 students on how the brain works and learning styles.
Dripstone High School’s parent/teacher evening is on Wednesday, 28 February, at 5.30 pm followed by Values Forum and meet the teacher evening at 6 pm.
Last month, Nakara School Principal, Barry Griffin, gave us all a good scare when he suffered a heart attack. I am very happy and relieved to advise that Barry is now back home after travelling to Adelaide for a quadruple bypass, and he is very well after spending time in the hospital. He looks trimmer, slimmer and more terrific than ever. I look forward to catching up with Barry at school next Friday at afternoon tea.
Alawa is another school in my area, and the Principal of the Alawa Primary School, Sharon Reeves, is excited about the school’s excellent start to 2007. Early last week, my colleague, the member for Wanguri, the minister for Education, and I went to Alawa and launched a new portal service that went live in Alawa and another nine schools in Darwin. With this portal, parents will be able not only to check kids’ attendance, but also check their progress and if they have any homework. It is most important. This program will bring classrooms to home, and they will be constant care for children 24-hours a day if the parents so wish. There is no escape from homework. I know that teachers and the parents are happy; I do not know if the students are happy about that.
I welcome to the Casuarina community our new Superintendent for the Casuarina Division, Joanne Foley and also a big welcome back to our Officer-in-Charge of Casuarina Police Station, Tim Moseley. I look forward working with them together this year to make Casuarina electorate safer and happy place to live.
There were some concerns with antisocial behaviour, youth gangs and other issues recently. The police have targeted the areas. They provided the mobile police station, foot patrols and quelled the problem very quickly. I am happy to work with the police very closely. After all, politicians wander around the streets doorknocking. They get some information sometimes which they quite happily pass to the police. In this community, our selfless community leaders and the police work together because there is not much point in complaining unless we stand up to be counted.
I thank the Greek Community for a wonderful New Year’s eve party at the Kalymnian Brotherhood Hall. The food was glorious and the entertainment was fabulous. It was marvellous to see the dance floor packed and everybody enjoying themselves to wonderful music of local bouzouki players and, of course, a lot of singers. The good thing about this event, together with the other events I have attended like the Hakka, the Chinese Timorese Association, is they are community-based events and I am always made to feel welcome. It was an exciting event and we are now, after the celebration of the New Year and Christmas, back at work and have just finished the two weeks at parliament, which was very exciting.
Talking about parliament, I would like to make some comments about the interesting adjournment made by the member for Greatorex yesterday. The member for Greatorex appeared to be very angry with me because he claimed that I misrepresented him in a recent letter I sent out to the community. According to the member for Greatorex, he said that I issued a media release claiming that the CLP member for Greatorex wanted to double the price of power in Alice Springs. He also complained to me because, in my media release, I said that the member for Greatorex wants people in Alice Springs to live in water tanks. He also made claims that the CLP put a lot of infrastructure in Alice Springs. I will take each part separately.
On 11 January 2007, the member for Greatorex issued a media release. He took the opportunity to comment on NT Treasury providing funds to Power and Water to recover some costs spent on fixing their billing system. He said:
If I am not mistaken a private enterprise, even if it is owned by government - let us say Qantas - has to operate and recover costs in some cases to make a profit. Power and Water would gladly like to operate and recover costs and make profits. The problem we have then is that, because we have such expensive power generation costs, Power and Water has to charge a significant amount of money to recover the costs and make profit.
The only reason that your bill is at the level it is, is because the government heavily subsidies Power and Water in order to keep the electricity price down. If Power and Water did not receive any subsidy from the government, I would like to warn Territorians to be prepared to have a significantly increased power bill in the next few years. I am telling you that Power and Water will continue to receive a subsidy from the government because our government wants to keep the price of electricity down.
If the CLP believes that Power and Water should operate as a private company, that it has to limit its resources, I would like to warn Territorians that the CLP has in mind to double our power bills. The thing that worries me is that the CLP says …
Mrs Miller: I am not sure what part of it you did not understand, minister.
Mr VATSKALIS: Oh, do not say that. I can give you a copy of the member for Greatorex’s media release that says it has to operate as a private corporation.
The problem, of course, is if I was to operate as a power corporation is there something else like that? Do they want to prove to the commercial sector that Power and Water is a profit-making enterprise so, ultimately, the CLP wants to privatise Power and Water? There are some answers that he has to give.
He also said that I claimed in my media release that the member for Greatorex said that the people in Alice Springs should live in water tanks. He said in his adjournment yesterday:
However, when I went to the interview he gave on the Matt Conlan’s program on 29 January, the member for Greatorex said nothing about development - no suggestion about developer came to him. The member for Greatorex said:
Are you serious? I got a phone call the other day and a gentleman asked why the member for Greatorex wanted people to live in water tanks. I wondered the same. First of all, there was no mention about a developer approaching the member for Greatorex, and second, the member for Greatorex suggests people could be living in water tanks. Therefore, he cannot blame me that I misrepresented him; he did a good job himself.
The third, and the most critical, is the whole issue regarding the noise of the Titan and Taurus generators installed in the Ron Goodin Power Station. The Ron Goodin Power Station has been established and providing power to Alice Springs for more than 30 years. In the 1980s, the CLP government decided to open a new subdivision. They opened a new subdivision that is 300 m away from a power station. No one in his right mind anywhere in Australia would have done so. If they had done their job properly, done environmental and noise assessments, they would have realised that there was the potential for noise pollution from the power station.
Surprise, surprise! When Alice Springs got bigger and Power and Water had to establish more power generating facilities, they put them in the power station and the noise became a problem. I said that if there was a noise problem and the studies that Power and Water have undertaken shows that the noise is unacceptable, the offending generators will be going somewhere else.
Of course, you can ask why you do not move them to Brewer Estate. We are unable to put them in the Brewer Estate because, despite the claims by the member for Greatorex that the CLP developed Brewer Estate, the CLP government did not develop it. The only thing they did was zone the area for noxious industries, and the power generation facilities there were developed by private enterprise. The capacity of Brewer Estate is only eight megawatt compared to 30 to 53 megawatts at Ron Goodin Power Station. The member for Greatorex cannot tell Territorians that the CLP government developed the Brewer Estate. It is a private development.
On top that, the CLP government signed a colonial agreement with the operators of Brewer Estate. I say ‘colonial’ because in every other state, power and water instrumentalities provide the basic service and electricity, the base load, and they buy electricity as they need it from private producers. In the case of Brewer Estate’s private producer, Power and Water has agreed to buy the base load, thus ensuring that the private operator has a constant and continuous source of income. Power and Water has to provide the power when there is a peak in demand in Alice Springs. Of course, there is increasing demand in Alice Springs because many people have moved from evaporative airconditioners to the split system units which are power hungry.
The member for Greatorex cannot claim that we have misrepresented him. The only thing we did was tell people exactly what he said in his media release on 11 January 2007, demanding that Power and Water should operate as a private company - meaning make a profit and recover costs which, in turn, means doubling your power bill.
He also suggested living in water tanks and, on top of that, he said that Ron Goodin Power Station can move tomorrow. It is not expensive; it is only $50m maximum all up. Move it away. To move the Ron Goodin Power Station would require up to $75m. The relocation of the Ron Goodin Power Station to the Brewer Estate would require a significant upgrade of the facilities in Brewer Estate, for the simple reason that the power line the CLP put in is only a 22 kVa power line, which has very low capacity. In order to move the Titan and Taurus generators into that area, we need to significantly upgrade the power line because it cannot take the load that these engines would produce.
It is very cute to claim he is interested in Alice Springs and its problems. Today, he went on air on Matt Conlan’s program, and there was not one mention about the power problems in Alice Springs or noise. Before we came into parliament, he went on the radio and said: ‘I am going to grill the Minister for Essential Services about the power in Alice Springs’. He did not ask a question about Alice Springs because he knows very well that if he asked a question, he would get the answer he deserves. I am prepared to read in parliament a media release he issued, and parts of his interviews, which would show Territorians, and especially Alice Springs people, what is true about the CLP, and what the CLP has in mind to do.
Yes, there was a power interruption in Alice Springs on Friday. I was in Alice Springs. At 1515, the power station went into blackout. Within 16 minutes, the power was restored to the hospital. Within one hour, 50% of the consumers in Alice Springs had power back, and within an hour-and-a-half, 80% of the consumers had power back. Power and Water is still trying to find out what went wrong. It was very unnatural for the whole power station to black out. When I have the information, I will provide it to this House.
Dr LIM (Greatorex): Madam Speaker, I am glad that the minister has finally been provoked enough to at least explain to us what his intentions were for power and water, particularly the noise from the Ron Goodin Power Station.
I have lived in Alice Springs some 26 years now, and I remember the Golf Course Estate being developed from bushland. I also remember that the Ron Goodin Power Station was there long before the subdivision was developed, and many home allotments near the power station were sold at much greatly reduced prices compared to the other allotments further away. Homes were built - grand homes, some on hills, some on the other side of the ridge to the power station. Those people who built the homes built them knowing that the noise was there and that was something they would have to live with.
Guess what? When some of them sold their homes to second and third subsequent buyers, the prices that they received for the homes were indicative of the surrounding ambient noise that they had to live with. Everybody knew that - not a problem. In fact, until the Taurus and the Titan were installed at the Ron Goodin Power Station, the noise level was acceptable and there was no other interference in the neighbourhood. People lived with it – quite happily. They were able to come outside, enjoy their back yards and their swimming pool while the power station was running.
However, it was not until the Titan and the Taurus turbines were installed that something happened to the configuration of the Ron Goodin Power Station. From that time onwards, not only was the noise from the exhaust stack quite distressing and stressful for the people who were exposed to the noise, especially those living close to the power station, the dynamics that were altered by the installation produced a vibration - a very low rumble that transmitted through the ground. I assume that is what it is, because that is what people described to me: as if there were a rumbling that went right through and penetrated their homes, into their very bedrooms and beds, so that when they are trying to sleep at night, they sensed and heard this low rumble that interfered with their sleep. That was a continuous noise that prevented any restful sleep. Imagine putting up with this every day and every night for the last 18 months. It is no wonder people complain - and complain very loudly - because it was very stressful.
I suppose if I can use a cultural context, it is like the Chinese water torture. It is not a significant impact per drop of water but, in a prolonged, constant and persistent sense, it eventually becomes a terrible impact on one’s person. Well, the same thing occurred with this noise at the power station. The chimney stack from the Titan was throwing out so much noise that you could hear it around quite a large area in Alice Springs, particularly if the wind was blowing in your direction. I live in Dalby Court, a fair way from the power station. Many afternoons, I will come out to mow the lawn, and I will hear this roar in the background. My first reaction to that is: ‘Oh, there is a jet about to take off from the airport’. Then, when the noise continues for several minutes, suddenly you realise it cannot be because the jet would have taken off by now; it has to be the power station.
On many occasions, I would get on my bicycle and ride through the suburbs where I know that the power station noise has a huge impact. I get up to the front porches of houses that are affected, right up to the streets that are affected, and right up to very front gate of the Ron Goodin Power Station to listen for myself how loud the noise had been. Some days, the noise was really unbearable. You would not sit in your back yard having a barbecue with your friends, having a relaxing evening, with that noise surrounding you in all directions. You just could not do it. That is why the complaints then started to mount.
People have tried to sell their houses along two particular roads in Alice Springs in the Golf Course Estate very close to the power station, and they are unable to get the prices that they used to be able to get. People then said to us: ‘Is the government going to compensate us for the loss of value for our properties? We cannot sell them’. There is an elderly lady who hoped she was going to be able to retire on the money she received from the sale of her home. She is not able to achieve the value of the home that she once had. There is a problem.
The minister has been to these properties and listened for himself, and had said, quite clearly, that he found the noise quite distressing and that he was not prepared to put up with that noise. Yet, he expects people to not only live with that for the last 18 months, but for an unknown period into the future. When the problem is identified, the decision has been made that it is to be shifted, then I say to government: get on with it. Get on with this straight away so that people can move ahead with their lives.
Some people in Alice Springs suggested maybe the government should buy all those homes; it would be cheaper than trying to shift the power station. That is probably correct. That can happen if the government wants to do that and, perhaps, convert those homes for first home buyers at a discount rate, if people want to live in the surroundings with the noise.
The reality is Brewer Estate is the right location for the new generators. If the government were to immediately remove the two new turbines at the same time that it proposes to install the next unit in Alice Springs, and make the decision now that they will all be installed at Brewer Estate, then people will try to come to terms with it and live with the noise for the foreseeable future.
I know that money has been put aside in the budget to have another generating unit in Alice Springs. When speaking to the former CEO, Kim Wood, he told me that that unit is likely to go in some time this year. I say to the minister and to the government: demonstrate your goodwill to Alice Springs and to the people living under the impact of this noise. Make the commitment: ‘Yes, we can move it to Brewer Estate and we will now commence works on the grid to bring the power back from Brewer Estate into town’. Show the commitment, spend the money, upgrade the grid and people will have faith that this government and this minister have listened to them and are prepared to implement changes to ensure that their lives will be returned back to normal.
The minister has to understand - he obviously does not – that, until the Titan and Taurus were installed, the noise impact was never complained about. I have been the member for Greatorex for well nigh 13 years and, until the Taurus and Titan were installed, nobody complained to me about the noise.
There is a problem and the minister can say all he likes. I still think the minister needs to be honest with what he puts out in his media release. The Country Liberal Party has never ever said that we will remove the community service obligation payment that is made by the Northern Territory government to Power and Water to retain our electricity uniform tariff policy. It was a policy introduced by the CLP and we had it for years and years and years. I am glad to see that the Labor Party saw the wisdom in that and continued with the policy. Albeit that in the last 18 months or so they have raised power costs by a further 2.4%, but they retained that uniform tariff, and that is a good thing.
If the CLP win government, we will continue that policy. Territorians can rest assured that that will be the case for as long as I am standing here; not for today, but when in parliament. I am sure it will keep on going even when I retire; whatever time I retire, that will happen. The CLP would retain the uniform tariff equalisation policy. For the minister and the Treasurer to say the CLP was going to remove the subsidy is absolutely wrong. It is, in my opinion, bad principle. It is untruthful to say things that would never be the intention of anybody.
What the minister said I said about the water tanks is not true. The minister can read what was said in the media transcript. However, I tell you now in this place where you do not lie, that it was an approach by a developer who suggested that it would be quite quaint to develop those water tanks that are currently at the Ron Goodin Power Station into homes. I agree with him; it would be quite quaint to do that now. Somebody has to pay for it and, if there is a buyer or several buyers prepared to pay for those two water tanks, well, so be it. Those water tanks are pretty big. You might be able to convert them into two or three homes. I do not know. A developer and an architect might want to have a look at that and go from there. It could be something unusual that could be a showcase for Alice Springs. Who knows? I leave it to architects and people with better design minds to develop such a future.
Power and Water fell over last Friday. I said yesterday, my first reaction was: ‘Good God, the minister is Alice Springs as he sits with us now and they have already commenced the shifting of the turbines to Brewer Estate, and that is why the power is flickering away’. While he might say that 80% of homes in Alice Springs had regained power within one-and-a-half hours, computers in the CBD, where business is conducted, fell over for quite a protracted period of time. Traffic lights went out for a protracted period of time. Many of these businesses do not have a UPS or standby generators. When people living further out from the CBD suffered power failure for four or five hours, when their food started to go off in the fridges on a day which was around 45C in the shade, that is a problem in a town like Alice Springs.
A modern town like Alice Springs, capital city of Central Australia, services hundreds of kilometres around that little town. It is a town that deserves to have uninterrupted power. In this modern day and age, there is no way that you can say that we cannot have uninterrupted power every day of the week. Power and Water and the minister said: ‘We do not know what caused it. No idea at all. We are still investigating’. It is now Thursday today. Friday was when the power failure occurred last week, and you still do not know. Answer: you blame a computer glitch and you cannot even find a glitch in the computer. That is the problem; you are blaming something without any rationale. Perhaps it is again a government that is complacent and thinking everything is easy: ‘We have 19 members, who cares? Let everything sail along. Who cares what happens to Alice Springs? It did not vote for us. It can put up with all the difficulties that it has currently. We have 19 members; most of them north of Katherine, and we will look after them all and the rest of the Territory can go he’.
That is the problem. This government is not a government for all Territorians, and we in Central Australia - the Leader of the Opposition and me - are messengers from Central Australia asking you to take heed that Alice Springs is suffering. You need to provide resources to ensure that the town recaptures its former glory.
Mr WARREN (Goyder): Madam Acting Deputy Speaker, last month, the 2007 World Hottest Rugby Union Sevens was held in Darwin, as usual. I have a strong association with the Papua New Guinea community here in my capacity as their patron. I will read a letter that was written by Cybele Druma, President of the PNG Women’s Rugby Union Incorporated, which tells the story of their struggle to get to this competition. You must bear in mind that this is the first women’s Rugby Union team from Papua New Guinea to play internationally. By the way, they are called the Raggianas, which is the name of a very beautiful Bird of Paradise. Here is Cybele’s story:
God Bless,
Cybele Druma
PRESIDENT
PNG Womens Rugby Union Inc.
Just for the record, on Saturday, 20 January, the NT Invitation side beat the PNG Raggianas 22 to 7. Later that day, South Australia defeated the PNG Raggianas 21 to 12. On Sunday, the PNG Raggianas defeated the NT Packers 40 to 5, which was the highest score of the series in the women’s games. In the Jabiru semi-finals, South Australia 15 defeated the PNG Raggianas 12. It was a great effort. I thought that story was worth putting on the Parliamentary Record because it really is inspiring in that respect.
I was pleased and honoured to represent Hon Clare Martin, when presenting the Inaugural Chief Minister’s Literacy Awards last December at the final public school assemblies in my electorate. The awards went to those primary school students who have shown considerable improvement and success in literacy. There are four categories: Personal Best in Reading, Writing or Oral Language; Most Imaginative Writing or Performance with a Text; Most Outstanding Communicator at a School or in the Community; and Most Improved in Reading, Writing or Oral Language. The awards are part of the Northern Territory government’s Focus on Literacy program, which is about getting schools, parents and students to work together to improve literacy. I would like to now put on the Parliamentary Record the names of those awardees for the record.
At Bees Creek, they were: Shakiah Brown, Jamie Middlebrook, Saskia Kirchoff-Gibson, Thayne Bassett, Nathan Allsop, Brendon Young, Tasmin Meyers, Tayla Barrett, Joanne Casey, Camden Parker, Gracen Meyers, Samuel Tolomei, Joel Bisset, Ashlee Scarff, and J B Wommatakimmi-Chapman.
At Girraween, the awardees were: William Bambach, Skye Hapke, Jai Weetra, Aaron Fidock, Connor Keen, Olivia Nash, Hayley Statham, Emma Tidswell, Alexandra Nash, Daniel Tidswell, Natasha Scott, and Willis Trnka.
At Humpty Doo, the award winners were: Tiarna Hansen, Kyle Withnall, Chloe Olajos, Jason Clark, Darren Ea, Mitchell Phayer, Liam Pollard, Rhya Frost, Ned McGrellis, Mitchell Skinner, Tia Leach, Tayla England, Hayden Wallace, Sheridan Keane, William Bampton, Hua Cao, Klara Hussie, Maria Skewes, and Matt Young
At Belyuen, the award winners were: Tilish Bianamu, Cameron Bianamu, and Denise Moreen.
At Berry Springs, the recipients were: Jade Forwood, Bailey Seidel, Jessie Bartolo, Cody Pokorny, Ilona Rowe, Stevie Pocock, Alisha Gardner, Louise Gergis, Jessica Britain, Ellen Penley, and Emily Gibson.
Last, but not least, at Middle Point the award winners were Darren Manderson and Johnny Nguyen.
I congratulate all the winners of this inaugural award. They can honestly say they were the first, which is great. I look forward to also reading the names of the next year’s Chief Minister’s Literacy Award winners.
Mr WOOD (Nelson): Madam Acting Deputy Speaker, I want to put on record what happened on Australia Day this year in the Litchfield Shire.
It was a well attended day. The Litchfield Lions Club and the Litchfield Rotary Club both helped set up the hall and provided a free breakfast. Mary Walshe, President of Litchfield Shire Council, welcomed around 150 people and invited them to join in singing the National Anthem, during which the national flag was raised by the Humpty Doo scouts. The anthem was sung by Jacquie Izod, and those who have heard her sing know that she has a beautiful voice.
The Australia Day address was given by Rick Conlon, a long-time resident of the shire, who spoke of his arrival in Darwin and how the community had played a big part in his life. As usual, we always have a thanksgiving service, and this year it was conducted by Pastor Stuart McMillan of the Living Water Uniting Church, Humpty Doo.
We also had a citizenship ceremony where five people became Australian citizens. They had come to Australia from all parts of the world: Malaysia, England, Greece, Vietnam, and the Solomon Islands. Each citizen received a certificate, a book about Australia, a local government citizen medallion and, as has been tradition since Litchfield Shire started, a native plant to remind them of the day.
We also had the Student Citizen Awards where five students chose to receive their awards on Australia Day rather than at their school assembly, although they do receive some recognition of that at the school. Kevin Gillan from the Department of Employment, Education and Training presented the awards. One student, Darren Smith, had an interesting historic connection with the shire. His ninth great-grandfather, William Westall, who lived between 1781 and 1850, was an artist who travelled with Flinders on the Investigator expedition. He was the first professional artist to draw the landscape of Australia. Westall Road in Howard Springs is named after him, as well as several other places throughout Australia.
Ted Warren, the member for Goyder, presented the Community Event of the Year Award to the Freds Pass Management Board Incorporated for the inaugural sing along and oral history morning, which both of us attended. Seniors were invited to participate in recording oral histories, and these were conducted by students from the schools in Darwin and will become part of the Litchfield connection. That was followed by a great lunch served by the students, followed by the sing along. It was a surprise to me when they asked me to lead the singing without having told me that I was going to do so. We survived.
We then had the presentation of the Young Sportsperson and Senior Sportsperson awards. Mike Bowman, who is the councillor for the East Ward in the Litchfield Shire presented these awards. The Junior Award went to Tom Wickham. Tom is involved with Southern Districts Football Club and played for Humpty Doo Primary and Taminmin senior school. Tom is certainly well known throughout the rural area, and in these particular circles as he has been involved in Youth Parliament and other issues. I will mention that later because he received a second award.
Senior Sportsperson was Garnie Thompson, an inaugural member of the Humpty Doo Golf Club, who was very active in the Litchfield Bowls Club and winner of many championships. In fact, he was involved in the Masters Games in Alice Springs where he won a bronze medal. I think he was the first person from Litchfield Bowls Club to win any medal in those championships. Unfortunately, Garnie passed away. Last night, I spoke about Garnie in a eulogy I presented.
Our Young Citizen of the Year was Tom Wickham. I have known Tom’s family for a very long time. Tom is an outstanding leader in the community. He is a great role model. He has been in the United Nations Youth Association. As I said before, he was involved in the Youth Parliament where he debated rural youth issues.
The Achievement Award went to Darcy Preston for his involvement in archery, and to John Rogers for his continued work with many groups in the community. John Rogers has spent many volunteer hours at the Humpty Doo Village Green. He was one of the reasons that that village green now is such a successful facility in the shire.
The Citizen of the Year was Robert Osborne, known as ‘Ossie’. He received this award from the president, Mary Walshe, for his work with ANSTI over the last four years. As I said the other day in Question Time, ANSTI has closed down, which is unfortunate. There were reasons for that which I will not go into tonight. Ossie worked there for a very long time. ANSTI looked after people who had alcohol or drug dependency. He worked in Darwin from ANSTI, doing the coffee run early in the morning to itinerants and long-grassers. He is a bloke no one would know about simply because he is that type of fellow. I am glad an award has gone to this type of person because he has put such a big effort into helping people who are less fortunate than us, but has not gone around telling the world about it. He has gone ahead and done his job helping these people to try to put their lives back on a steady keel.
When that finished, we had plenty of entertainment. Dianne Addington and Anna Rusman sang, accompanied by Steve Rusman. If you have been to many events, you will see Waldo Bailey pop up. He is occasionally down at the Mindil Market selling his barramundi goods. He recited two poems about Australia and announced that he was going overseas to entertain our troops. I will interested in all the yarns he will bring back from Iraq. Stephen Blake, our famous marathon runner and City to Surf winner did a fire-lighting demonstration. Nothing burnt down, but he did produce a fire. The children were kept entertained by the Koolpinyah Fire Brigade. Fireman Lou in his fire engine Little Squirt went round and round the polocrosse field at Freds Pass. Unfortunately, it broke down. It required one tiny screw, which we could not get on Australia Day. Next year, Little Squirt will probably be running for a bit longer.
It was a great day all around, including the usual Australia Day cake the Australia Day Committee provides. There were lamingtons and damper with golden syrup. There were quite a few other events in the shire. The golf club hosted an Australia Day five-person Ambrose, the Wandering Archers held an event, and Litchfield Bowls Club organised a True Blue Aussie bowls day.
I thank Christine Nathaniel for her efforts. She has taken over this year as the coordinator of the Australia Day Litchfield region, and she did a great job organising the events. I also thank the Litchfield Shire Council because they support the Australia Day celebrations and they did an excellent job as well.
I have a little more on Australia Day. That afternoon, in my part of the world at Howard Reserve, we had an Australia Day fun family day. It is a day we promote as a day people can come along and not spend one dollar. It is a free day. Shorelines, the crane people, provided all the meat free. Howard Springs Volunteer Fire Brigade provided the soft drinks and cooked all the meat. We are sponsored by All Earth, Saddleworld, Reidy’s, Howard Springs Tavern, Howard Springs Supermarket, Top End Fishing Supplies, and we have helpers like Greg and Cheryl Allen, Bernadette Hubbard, Diane Tilmouth and Tom Fitzgerald.
We have a number of games that people can play at no cost, but they do have some good prizes. We play boules - would you believe? - and there is a $200 first prize. We play cricket and there are many prizes for the kids who have the best catch, the best bowling average for the day, or the best batting average for the day. We also played a game called cornhole which is originally a German game and it is played in a few back yards in Ohio. That is where I saw it. It is just a matter of throwing a bag of corn in a hole, which you might think is simple, but it is a great game for people just to have a bit of fun. We have the hot Coke and cold pie eating competition with some good prizes for that. It is just a great day.
We do not worry about whether they are Australian games. We try to have games where many people can participate. They can play all day and they can go home feeling that they have had a good time. It is something that will get bigger. We might have to put a bit more organisation into it now, because all the meat was eaten and all the soft drinks disappeared. The number of people who turned up this year was quite large. There were more people than we expected but we did not mind that. We were able to finish the day around 5.30 pm and everybody went home happy and tired and had a great time. Hopefully, next year we will do the same thing.
Just quickly, there are just a couple of little things I had here that I might mention. I was just going to say there was a great night tonight, for instance. We had the Rural Women’s Award here tonight and I congratulate Tracy Leo. Tracy Leo is a fantastic person who works for the Northern Territory Horticultural Association, and you really could not get a better person to have won that. My condolences to the other nominees: Donna Mahony, who lives in the Dundee area, is a fighter for the area to get more power and better roads; Moira O’Brien from Mataranka, whose mother I have known for a long time through her work in Landcare and Waterwatch in the Mary River area, and her family moved to Mataranka; Tina McFarlane, another strong rural person whom I have known also through local government. I believe she was the president of the Mataranka Council for some years. There were four very fine women who participated in those awards and, as is the usual saying, only one person could win. It went to a person who really has strong connections with the land, who has been promoting horticulture in the rural area and the Northern Territory for a long time; that is, Tracy Leo. I congratulate Tracy on her award.
I do not know whether there has been a change in policy, but I hope the government will extend invitations and let us know what is going on. I only knew about tonight by accident. There were also the awards for the fire brigade people. I only found that out when someone told me it was on. In fact, I only got to the very end of it and by that time, most of them had gone. I am not sure if the student awards have occurred yet. The minister mentioned some awards, but I hope they have not been on. I try to get to the student awards every year and I normally receive an invitation. I hope there has not been a change in policy.
I believe when those things are on, politics should go out the door. I would like to see and recognise all those people there tonight who won awards. It was only by sheer chance that I had a notification, and that just happened because there was a piece of paper stuck to one of the statements that said it was on. That is the only reason I knew it was on tonight. To have missed that opportunity to say hello to some of my friends, would have been disappointing.
A member: It was in the paper.
Mr WOOD: Yes, but I did not see it. When you are in parliament, sometimes you have plenty of other things on your mind and you are trying to organise your life. I hope there has not been a change in policy. I ask the government to invite members of parliament, regardless of their party affiliations, or if they are Independents, to let us know what is going on.
Finally, this is probably the last time we speak before Alice Springs. Many things will be happening between now and then, especially in regard to local government. I was speaking to a person tonight who is a long-term resident of the Litchfield Shire. She reflected what many people will reflect; that they have concerns about the new shire proposal, which is going to be much bigger than what we have now. I know the government is saying that this is a going to be a big task, and it is going to bring improvements to many communities. I understand that and I do not have a problem with the philosophy of what the minister is saying. However, this is going to cost ratepayers a lot of money. As the minister hinted today, if there is not enough money for roads, then people might have to pay a fee, which is words for, ‘they will have to pay an increase in their rates’.
People need to know exactly what it is going to cost, what other consequences there will be, even from a democratic and administration point of view. I do hope that more information will come out to residents in the Litchfield Shire so we know where we are going, and we just do not go blindly along based on philosophy.
Mr BURKE (Brennan): Madam Acting Deputy Speaker, tonight I acknowledge a lady who, I learnt early today had, sadly, passed away, Mrs Ann McNeill, a great community person within the Palmerston community, involved in many Palmerston community events, including the regular weekly bingo at the Cazalys club. She was also integral to getting a whole bunch of seniors together to assist Sally Bevis with the distribution of the Seniors Card mail-out.
Ann was a fantastic lady, with a wonderful Scottish brogue. She was always so full of life, so it was a bit of a shock for me when I learned of her passing. My thoughts go to her husband and her many friends in the Palmerston community. She was also involved in the Busy Bee Club at the Gray Community Hall, which ran from 9.30 am through to 1.30 pm each week; a very active lady despite her 77 years.
I take this opportunity to read into the Parliamentary Record a message from Mrs Lyrella Trainer, the Marketing Manager at Cazalys, who gave me something on behalf of the Cazalys Palmerston Club. She wrote:
And she certainly will.
On a joyful note, it was with great pleasure that I accepted an invitation from Roger Smith to open the Palmerston office of the Loan Market. Roger and his wife, Dot, work in the business and they also employ Rachael Pratt, who has been a resident of Palmerston for about 15 years and, prior to joining the Loan Market, had worked with BankSA. Foti Manolakos also joins the team as personal lending manager. In fact, I understand his family used to own Yots and the Argentine Grill at Cullen Bay - some real local talent there. The opening was attended by quite a large gathering of people from across the real estate business, and it was good to catch up with some people I recognised.
The Loan Market is part of the electronic Mortgage Channels Australia and is the fourth largest aggregator in the nation. They have support from a team in Sydney, as well as Adelaide and other parts of the country, with access to over 38 lenders and more than 500 loan products. With the amount of building work that is going on in Palmerston, I am sure they will not suffer for want of business in the Palmerston area. As I said on the night, it is a great vote of confidence for the growth and business potential in Palmerston, and we are very glad to have them as a local business in Palmerston. I wish them every success and look forward to seeing more of them in Palmerston and hearing of their triumphs as they will, no doubt, come.
Another function I attended, which was a very special day, was the installation service of new teachers at the Good Shepherd Lutheran School. I had not attended one of these services before, so it was a first for me. It was a really lovely service. Pastor Lester Reinbott led the service and was magnificent in his role. Julian Denholm, the principal, has done a great deal with the school since he came from down south. I know that the member for Drysdale has already spoken about some of those things in one of his adjournment speeches earlier. He beat me to the line, so to speak.
It was not just teachers who were installed and celebrated but other staff - admin staff, tutors and cleaners - as well. I will acknowledge these people: Mrs Lyn Pacella, Ms Kimberley Barker, Miss Kara Hetsky, Mrs Tracey Hughes, Ms Kate Riley, Mrs Maria Denholm, Ms Fiona Lockwood, Mrs Eleanor Simpson, Ms Kirstin Klein, Ms Deanna Jinsky, Ms Melena Hendry, Ms Jodie Fotso, Mrs Sonya Norris, and Mrs Suzanne Otto. Welcome to all. Not everyone is new to the Territory, but some are new to the Territory and to Palmerston. I met a new constituent who is one of the teachers. Welcome to all of them. I know that they will thoroughly enjoy their time at Good Shepherd. It is a wonderful school, as I have to say the schools in my area and surrounding areas are. Welcome to all those new teachers to the Good Shepherd Lutheran School.
Still on schools, I pay my respects as well to Kath Neely and the staff at the Scared Heart Primary School in Palmerston. They do excellent work at their school. I enjoy going to their school and I will be trying to get there in the next few weeks for one of their assemblies.
Honourable members may recall a young lady who used to work in this building at Speaker’s Corner. She was one of the staff, an apprentice chef at the time. She is continuing with her apprenticeship, and I say well done, Lauren Jacobsen, for that. I have previously mentioned Lauren in relation to an award she received last year in one of the competitions that was run. She has won another award: the Australian Culinary Federation Northern Territory Chapter Encouragement Award for an apprentice in the Certificate III in Hospitality Commercial Cookery. Well done, Lauren; keep up the excellent work. I am sure, as you did when you were working here, that you take your enthusiasm wherever you go. Well done, and it was great to meet your mum on the occasion as well. I know she was very proud.
I thank Ms Morag McGrath, the Head of the School of Tourism and Hospitality at CDU for the invitation to attend. They have a number of excellent events at the school. I went to the Designer Evening which involved people and students from all of the schools. The apprentice hairdressers, the design students, the beauty therapists all got together and put on a fashion parade. It was really something else to see how they put in a lot of effort into expressing their arts, and their high degree of skill. I can certainly attest to that. Well done to Morag and the staff. I know that they will continue putting these events on in the future and I will always attend when I can.
I would like to recognise and thank Commodore Campbell Darby for his invitation to the Headquarters Northern Command end-of-year reception. That was another wonderful evening and another first. I have not been to one of those receptions before. It was a chance to meet a number of the officers and also people from the business community here in Darwin.
One of the other Christmas events I attended was the Palmerston carpet bowls group’s Christmas luncheon at the Palmerston Tavern. I thank Beau Robertson for his invitation. It is always a pleasure to support the carpet bowlers; another great lively social group and very competitive as well.
I congratulate Steve Blair and Natalie Sonenko on the opening of their business Territory Marine, a huge establishment for all things marine opened in Yarrawonga at the industrial/business precinct near Palmerston. It is a massive investment. Well done to both of them. It was a great opening night and very well organised. I cannot speak highly enough of it and again thank them for thinking to invite me along.
One final word of thanks; this time to Cath, a lady who does a great deal of catering in the Palmerston area. She catered for the Christmas drinks that I, the member for Drysdale, and Senator Crossin put on last year. Cath, thank you very much for all of your efforts. It was a splendid effort on your behalf. I wanted to place on the record my thanks to her.
Finally, I congratulate the Darwin City Council on the ceremony for the 65th Anniversary of the Bombing of Darwin, another well-organised event. It is important that the people of Darwin do remember our history and just how close we really came to having an invasion through the northern parts of Australia, and how serious the Japanese intent was. Also, people forget or are not really aware of the extent of the bombing that occurred in Darwin. It was great to see - I think it was quoted as a couple of thousand - people attending the service. It is something that we should continue to do and remember. Lest we forget.
Ms SACILOTTO (Port Darwin): Mr Deputy Speaker, tonight I inform the House of some of the interesting activities around the Port Darwin electorate. First, I would like to wish all of my colleagues Gong Xi Fa Cai, and hope that they and their families have a prosperous and healthy and safe 2007.
The Port Darwin electorate Christmas party at the end of last year was well attended by many people in my constituency: constituents, colleagues and local business people. It was a great night and I was supported by the members for Drysdale, Sanderson and Brennan. I appreciated their coming along and interacting with my constituents. It is always good to have a cross-section of different areas represented.
One person who came along to my Christmas party was Mr Cyril Young. He volunteered his time, which was fantastic, to do a bit of a demonstration for us. He had a business in New South Wales called The Jolly Pig. One of his areas of expertise is ham carving, and he gave quite an intriguing demonstration of ham carving. The audience was captivated by what took place. It was good fun. Cyril is a great entertainer. He had everyone on the edge of their seats and laughing while providing quite interesting information and bit of background as to where he has learnt his skills.
On 17 February, Cyril turned 80 years old. I was fortunate enough to be invited by Cyril and Pauline, his wife, to attend his birthday party which was held at the Passenger Terminal at the wharf. It was a fantastic night and it was well attended; the place was packed. Cyril not only had many close friends and many business people there, but, more importantly, his children and grandchildren, which was really lovely to see. The grandchildren were behind the bar doing a fabulous job. One of Cyril’s granddaughters put together a slide show of photographs from Cyril and Pauline’s life. Cyril and Pauline are going to celebrate their diamond anniversary next year, so you can imagine it was a full slide show and there were some fantastic moments captured on film. It really made me reflect on the experiences and memories that can be accumulated over an 80-year period. Happy birthday, Cyril, and thank you, Pauline, who did a great job of organising the party. Cyril and Pauline are active residents of Stuart Park. Cyril is the convenor of National Seniors and he is very active on the Stuart Park Residents Association, so he is a very valuable member of the community.
My electorate office was very well utilised in 2006 by community groups, and there were quite a few regular groups. One such group is the Darwin City Action Group. I thank their Chairman, Mr Robert Parker, and members and community representatives for their devotion to making the Darwin CBD an attractive and safe environment for all Darwinians.
Attendees at the meeting on 4 December were Merci Betts, Cliff Campbell, Emanuel Cruz, Brian Hilder, Tony Maroulis, Ken Mildred, Judy Miller, Nick Panis and me. This group of people are very appreciative that the Chief Minister took time out of her busy schedule to meet with them and introduce the document, Creating Darwin’s Future. This document was well received by the members of that committee. I have been on quite a few of the information stalls around for public consultation, and they are well received. Although it is only a snapshot of what could be, members of the public are coming up with some fantastic ideas. It has been a fantastic document which stimulates conversation and debate. That is the best part of it; to get that conversation and debate going and come up with a plan that encompasses the whole community’s view as much as you can in a big community.
David Swift, one of my constituents, is also a member of the Darwin City Action Group. David does a great job of taking the minutes of the Darwin City Action Group, and he has a strong commitment to his community. His day is completely full of volunteering. He volunteers his time to the U3A Group, the Northern Territory Museum and Art Gallery and, of course, the Darwin City Action Group. David is originally from the United Kingdom, and he has been here since September 2004. He has worked in many different jobs around the world. He is a very clever man and well experienced. He is a self-funded retiree, exactly the sort of people we really want to encourage to come to Darwin to our great lifestyle.
Although David came as a self-funded retiree, he really wants to become a citizen, and he is having trouble at the moment. He is on a temporary Sub-class Retirement Visa 410. However, he ultimately wants to become an Australian citizen - he wants to be an Aussie. He has brought his investments with him. He has invested in our Territory, and he is very committed to the community. Unfortunately, the Commonwealth government seems to be dragging their heels and making life a little difficult for this man applying for citizenship. I urge all honourable members to look out for people like David in the community, and to lobby and put pressure on the federal government to allow these people - these people that we want - into our community. They are coming here because they want to come here. They have made this their future in life, and they want to retire to somewhere fantastic. It is good that people are actually coming to Darwin to do that.
I would like to thank a few people. I was invited to Larrakeyah Primary School’s final assembly at the end of last year and it was a great afternoon. There were many people there, many parents. It was a big event. I thank the Principal, Mr Graham Chadwick, and some of his staff, Deputy Principal, Michael Caldwell; teachers, Trudy Proctor, Ann Morgan, Alison Walsh, Lorraine Watts, Kate Middleton, Melanie Hancock, Annette Graham, Amanda Taylor, Clare Horn, Shelly Ferguson, Leah Wilson, Kerry Evers, Carol Ayers, Joanne Bryan, and Robyn Appleby, the manageress of the canteen, and Alison Mills. They are all such hard workers it is a joy to be on the school committee. They are always thinking of fundraising activities and improvements to the school. Much of that involves their own personal time and their personal commitment on weekends and after hours to come up with these ideas and implement them. I congratulate them on being so proactive and proud of their school and their work.
The staff in the office are great. They are really good to deal with and they are always friendly and happy and organised. Wendy Alps is a real gem who takes the minutes at our school council meetings and is always organised, and always remembers everything I forget. Kathy Cantrell, Terry Schaefer, Doug Gorman, Felicity Manifred and Bronwyn Elford do a fantastic job. It is a well-oiled machine there, and it is an absolute credit to them.
I was also invited to attend the Stuart Park Primary School’s last assembly for 2006. I always get a thrill going there because I went to that primary school. I always think of myself in the assembly area, when sitting on the chair, that I could probably sit on the floor and cross my legs and sit to attention under the ever-watchful eye of Mr Bree. It was a fantastic end-of-school assembly and the children entertained us with many songs, dances and plays. It was a very good day.
At the beginning of this year, I was fortunate to attend Larrakeyah Primary School with the minister for Education on the first day of school. It was a real thrill. It was abuzz with excited and worried children, and excited and worried parents. It was really nice to be there. The parents we spoke to were very happy about the $50 Back to School voucher, as I was myself when my boy went back to school. As a small token, I got into the kitchen and baked a cake and got some coffee together and took that down for morning tea to all of my schools - Stuart Park, Larrakeyah and St Mary’s. The response was that it was delicious and much appreciated. Hopefully, I had some small part in easing into the first day of school.
Defence Larrakeyah is just down the road from my electorate office, and I always enjoy being involved in Defence activities. There is a large Defence contingent in Port Darwin. I was fortunate enough to be invited to the decommissioning of HMAS Dubbo. This is the 13th decommissioning of 15. It has been in commission since 1984. On its last night as a ship in the fleet, it was awarded the prestigious Kelly Shield for being the most efficient patrol boat. The commanding officer, Lieutenant Commander Mitchell Edwards, and crew, will sadly miss this vessel, although they will now be appointed to different areas.
Recently, at the HMAS Maitland at Larrakeyah, I was invited to witness the first swearing-in of two new officers. One was a constituent of mine, a brilliant young lady, Alison Woodger. She was accompanied by her mum and her brother to the swearing-in. We had a tour of the vessel. It was fantastic to see a Darwin girl ready to go off to ADFA and serve her country. She is a brilliant girl, so I am sure she will be a fantastic asset to the Defence Force.
On a sadder note, at the end of last year, we lost two lovely constituents. One of those was Mary Ehn. Mary was nominated for Senior Territorian. I nominated Mary for her work with people with disabilities, her teaching of driving, and commitment to the community. Mary was a finalist. Unfortunately, on this occasion, she did not win the award. About a week later, Mary passed away. It has been a great loss to the community. I am very sad to know that Mary is no longer with us.
The other loss in the community of Port Darwin was Michael Kelly. He was one of my constituents living in Smith Street. Michael was first introduced to me over the phone with a couple of issues that I helped with and we became quite good friends. He would pop down on his gopher to visit us at the Port Darwin electorate office. The last time we saw Michael he zoomed down on his gopher to the electorate office and brought us a tin of bikkies and a Christmas card. Just two days later, Michael passed away in his home and that is a very big loss to the community. He was very cheerful and, every time I spoke to him, I learned something else. He had a great history and was a good story teller. It is an absolute loss to the community and to us as well. We will miss Michael’s visits and cups of coffee.
They were great people in the community and we are going to miss them.
Motion agreed to; the Assembly adjourned.
MINISTERIAL REPORTS
The Ghan Derailment
The Ghan Derailment
Ms MARTIN (Chief Minister): Madam Speaker, I update the House on the derailment of The Ghan, the result of a collision with a road train at a level crossing at Ban Ban Springs on 12 December last year. The Ban Ban Springs derailment was a most unfortunate event, and one that could have had very tragic consequences. Thankfully, as we know, no one lost their life in the accident. Indeed, I am pleased to report that English tourist, Jan Scott, has made a full recovery from her injuries, and has recently fulfilled another life-long dream by travelling on the Indian Pacific from Perth to Sydney.
Repairs are well under way, and we have been told that 10 carriages will be out of action for up to eight months. This will reduce capacity by around 400 passengers each week; that is, 200 passengers each way.
The Australian Transport Safety Bureau immediately announced they would be investigating the incident. Their preliminary report outlines the facts surrounding the accident. Their investigation is ongoing, and it is not for us to go into specifics of the incident until we receive ATSB’s final report and recommendations later in the year.
While the final report is some way off and, given there was also an incident involving a freight train in October last year, we have moved decisively to ensure level crossing safety in the Territory is up to scratch. On 27 December 2006, I announced a number of measures to address level crossing safety in the Territory. These include education, sanctions, enforcement and assessment of the industry awareness.
In the area of education, nearly $100 000, or 26% of the total spent on road safety media in the last three years, has been spent on level crossing safety awareness. These campaigns have focused on the themes, ‘Always expect a train at a level crossing’, and ‘Stop, look, listen, think when approaching a level crossing’. Since the crashes, an additional $35 000 has been allocated for television, radio and print advertisements.
We have also looked closely at sanctions. A serious train accident has the potential to cost many lives. The current minimum penalty of $80 does not reflect the serious consequences of a collision. We will shortly increase infringement penalties for failing to comply with traffic signals at level crossings, and demerit point penalties may also apply to take into account the serious consequences of level crossing crashes.
Police have increased both their overt and covert enforcement at level crossings. Other enforcement campaigns have included marked police vehicles parked prominently at crossings, and education awareness and prevention in the various regions, including liaison with road users frequently using level crossings such as mining and pastoral companies and haulage contractors. Covert enforcement sees police vehicles parked less conspicuously, but within view of the crossings, monitoring traffic flows. It is also used as a strategy to promote behaviour change, and has been used at a large number of crossings, with offenders being issued traffic infringement notices for offences.
I also announced that the Department of Planning and Infrastructure will undertake an assessment of all level crossings in the Territory, including changes in any usage since the railway commenced operations. The assessment team is made up of relevant DPI employees and representatives from FreightLink, the AustralAsia Rail Corporation and the Australian Trucking Association of the Northern Territory. The assessment process will include application of the nationally-agreed model for risk assessment at level crossings. This model considered a large number of variables, including up to 12 different site distances, the speed of the train, and the number of vehicles using level crossings. These variables are used to assign a risk score to the level crossing. This score is then used in the consideration of whether the control of the level crossing requires modification; for example, by upgrading the level crossing control from passive to active, by reducing train speed, or by increasing visibility.
We are also looking at raising industry awareness about level crossing safety. The Department of Planning and Infrastructure’s Chief Executive Officer recently sent letters to all 165 holders of pastoral leases, and 205 mining operators in the Northern Territory. In light of the two recent level crossing crashes, the letter advised them of the requirements of the protocol for the use of occupational crossings; requests that they discuss level crossing safety with any of their employees or contractors undertaking work which may involve use of level crossings, provide a contact number to allow them to advise train control of any activities which include increased use of level crossings, and request they provide details of level crossing use to the department for inclusion in the current assessment of level crossings.
Madam Speaker, we will continue to work to ensure the safety of our level crossings in the Territory and we will work with all stakeholders including the trucking industry, FreightLink and GSR. I certainly look forward to reading the ATSB’s final report.
Ms CARNEY (Opposition Leader): Madam Speaker, I thank Chief Minister for giving the House and, in turn, Territorians an update about this accident. There are a number of issues that arise from your statement. Like you, I also look forward to reading the ATSB report. It will clearly be instructive as to what needs to happen from now on. I know that we have both made public comments about what we think should happen. I have made comments about increasing safety at rail crossings; in particular, one in my electorate, the Ilparpa Road crossing. I hope that the assessment team will consider that. Certainly, constituents have a great deal of concerns about it and I have raised it with government in the past. I urge you to look at that.
In addition, and this saves me writing the relevant minister a letter …
Ms Martin: No, it does not. Write the letter.
Ms CARNEY: It does. If you are doing your jobs properly, this will. So, bad luck, Chief Minister. I was made aware several days ago about a concern about the safety of the railway line near the Tropic of Capricorn in Alice Springs. If the minister would like to contact me I can give her more details. It was brought to me by a station owner who is concerned for obvious reasons.
In addition, both the Chief Minister and the minister would be aware of the information bulletin from the Australian Trucking Association NT. It lists a number of crossings that the Trucking Association is concerned about. Also, on the basis that you have that, I do not need to list those crossings. Given the rains in Central Australia fairly recently, I gather that there is some concern about any movement or any difficulties that have been caused to the railway line. I will be grateful if the Chief Minister would respond by confirming that safety checks have been done of the railway line …
Madam SPEAKER: Leader of the Opposition, your time has expired.
Mr WOOD (Nelson): Madam Speaker, I welcome the minister’s statement on the rail crossing incident and the processes the government is looking at to make sure these sort of things at least, if they do happen again, are reduced to as few times as possible.
One thing this accident does highlight, because this is the second major accident that caused delays in freight or passengers on the main line, was the vulnerability of the Northern Territory with the transport of both goods and passengers by road and rail. Not only did we have this accident at Ban Ban Springs and the one near the Elizabeth River Bridge, we have also had the cyanide spill.
Unfortunately, we have not debated that issue adequately enough in this parliament. There has been a question about it. There needs to be a debate, not only about the transport of hazardous goods but what could have been done, as someone mentioned in the paper the other day, about putting a diversion road in. There may have been some geographical reasons why that could not happen, but for our road to be cut for that long, does not seem right – not in a place as big as the Northern Territory. If there were floods there, I could understand. If there were cliff faces that you could not put a road over, I could understand. It seems strange that we could not have put a temporary by-pass around that site to allow traffic to get through.
We are dependent on goods and services coming by road and rail. We are dependent on the passengers coming by bus or by train. We need to make sure that these accidents happen as few times as possible but, if they do, we need a series of mechanisms which will allow us to get around the problem and not have to wait for them to be fixed.
Ms MARTIN (Chief Minister): Madam Speaker, on the cyanide incident, I have announced a review of what happened there and whether the standards are adequate. I know that we meet national standards, but are they adequate? Like you, member for Nelson, I was very concerned about the length of time the Stuart Highway was closed to traffic, and I believe we have to do better.
On the issue of crossings, our crossings meet the national standards. The Australian Transport Safety Bureau is looking at crossing standards right across the country. We currently meet their standards. They are looking at whether the national standard is appropriate. We are also looking at usage of our crossings and whether, because we have met the national standard, that meets our needs.
There are layers of things happening, but we have to make sure that our railway line is safe and that crossings are appropriate. We have to also ensure - and I have spoken to the Trucking Association - that when a sign says ‘stop’, you stop. There is no way around that. When a sign says ‘stop’, a truck, or a vehicle of any kind, stops.
Health Spending – Independent Reviews
Dr BURNS (Health): Madam Speaker, this government is committed to making a difference to the health and wellbeing of all Territorians. To this end, we have increased health funding by 64% since 2001. I want to report today on a number of recent independent reviews reporting on health spending in the Northern Territory.
They show that this government is leading the nation in a number of areas in health spending. Part of the reason for this is, of course, the greater health needs of many Territorians, in particular the challenges of health service delivery in remote locations and the need to address the burden of ill health borne by Aboriginal people. I am proud to report that this government is rising to meet these challenges. For example, Northern Territory spending per capita on public health is the highest in Australia.
The recently released National Public Health Expenditure Report by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare showed that the Northern Territory spent more than any other state or territory on public health in 2004-05. The report shows that in 2004-05, the Territory spent $312 per person on public health, over four times the national average of $71 per person. Some 84% of Northern Territory expenditure was directed towards four main public health activities: disease control, immunisation, prevention of hazardous and harmful drug use, and environmental health.
Public health programs, with focus on prevention and grassroots care, hold the key to long-term improvements in the health of the population as a whole. In the meantime, people need access to high-quality and well-funded acute care services. The recently released Commonwealth Report on Government Services from the Steering Committee on the Government Service Provision shows an increase in real hospital funding in the Northern Territory. The steering committee report shows real recurrent per capita spending on hospitals rose from $1120 per person in 2001 to $1360 per person 2004-05. This is an increase of 21% in real terms since this government came to office.
The Report on Government Services also shows where this extra money is being spent in our hospital system. In 2004-05, we employed more doctors than any other jurisdiction. Territory hospitals employ approximately 1.3 full-time equivalent doctors per 1000 people compared with the national average of 1.1 per 1000. What is more, the report shows that this figure increased dramatically since this government came to office. This government is proud to have increased our paid establishment of doctors by over 100 since 2001.
The report also shows that the Territory has the highest number of public hospital nurses in Australia on a per capita basis. Here in the Territory, we employ 5.1 nurses per 1000 people in our public hospitals compared with the national average of 4.6 nurses per 1000 people. Again, figures in the report show a dramatic increase in the numbers of employed nurses since 2001. In fact, we have raised number of full-time equivalent nurses in our entire system by 270 since 2001. This is a direct result of this government’s commitment to our public hospitals and to our health system as a whole.
This effort is clearly documented, not just by this government, but by independent national reports, including those from the Commonwealth government. We have worked hard to employ extra doctors and nurses because, as a government, we recognise we have not only to provide the funding for better health services, but we must also ensure we have the staff to deliver these services. This government is committed to providing better health services for all Territorians and, to do this, we have increased health funding to build healthier communities.
Dr LIM (Greatorex): Madam Speaker, I have always applauded the government for increasing its health budget, and it is fantastic to see $80m-odd being spent in health. The tragedy is: what are we seeing for the money? Of course, we have to spend more money on health. We have an increase in population that the government wants to boast about, and you have received a lot of revenue through GST. Of course, you have to spend more money on health, because you have the money and you have growing populations and increase in demand.
Why, in spite of all this money that has been spent, is the waiting time at Emergency Departments increasing by so much that some patients have waited for three days, or even more, before they can find a bed in a hospital? Why are elective lists for surgery growing so much that some patients have to wait more than a year for any surgery?
The tragedies of patient outcomes are not there. Patient services are poorly delivered, because this government cannot seem to stay focused. For the Chief Minister and the minister to say the nurses are misleading Territorians by saying that they are working long hours ...
Mr Henderson: Did not say that.
Dr LIM: The Labor government members say nobody said that. I read an article, a little line from the ABC of 21 February:
- Northern Territory Chief Minister, Clare Martin has backed a claim that Territory nurses are exaggerating their overtime figures because we are negotiating a new pay deal.
Mr Henderson: Wrong.
Ms Carney interjecting.
Dr LIM: That is really what is offending the nurses. That is why they are looking at taking industrial action; because this government would not take their complaints seriously. The AMA has already invited the Chief Minister, I have heard, but she would not go, would she, to look at the hospital ...
Madam SPEAKER: Member for Greatorex, your time has expired.
Dr BURNS (Health): Madam Speaker, this government has been consistent in its praise and appreciation of our nurses and our doctors working in our public health system. I reiterate that here. I know that every member of the government feels the same way. We honour them. For the shadow to get up here and try to verbal this government, saying nurses are working unsafe hours, is completely erroneous.
I will repeat what I have said: if someone has evidence of someone working those unsafe hours, bring it to me, I will have it investigated.
Red Centre Way – Progress on Sealing
Ms MARTIN (Chief Minister): Madam Speaker, I would like to update the House on the progress we are making in sealing the Red Centre Way. Just last week, as part of our significant roads project, works began on upgrading Namatjira Drive. This is part of our commitment to seal around 250 km of gravel road and widen 27 km of narrow seal. Our aim is to encourage the development of a truly world-class driving experience, one that takes in the region’s spectacular natural and cultural environment.
The Red Centre Way gives tourists the options of driving to Alice Springs via the West MacDonnells or, alternatively, via Hermannsburg and Wallace Rockhole rather than the normal route along the Stuart Highway. We want to ensure that these wonderful places are accessible and, in Central Australia, that means sealing the roads. Our aim is to capture all that traffic that goes to Uluru and offer an alternative scenic loop to the Rock, opening up these communities as well as many magnificent scenic locations.
I was delighted that this spectacular part of Australia was named as our first National Landscape in December. It will see the Red Centre Way elevated nationally and internationally as an iconic tourism destination and will bring about a major marketing boost to Central Australia. The sealing of the Red Centre Way will make our roads safer but, importantly - and this is a very important part - will also generate economic development opportunities in the region and, in particular, for those communities along the way.
The work on Namatjira Drive is being undertaken by Territory company, the Ostojic Group. The $13.3m contract to upgrade the 48 km stretch to seal to two lane standard is expected to take up to 65 weeks to complete, and is one of the largest single road tenders issued in Central Australia. It will result in local jobs for Territorians, including training and employment opportunities for those from the nearby Hermannsburg community. This project will see Namatjira Drive sealed from the end of the existing seal at Glen Helen Resort to the southern boundary of the West MacDonnell National Park. It will link the tourist sites of Redbank Gorge, Tylers Pass and the beautiful West MacDonnell Ranges.
A number of sections of the Red Centre Way have already been upgraded. These include 27 km of Larapinta Drive between Namatjira Drive and Hermannsburg which has been widened and sealed at a cost of $4.14m and was completed last April. The sealing of the 14 km stretch of Larapinta Drive from Kings Canyon Lodge towards Alice Springs was also completed last year at a cost of nearly $4m. A $3.75m contract awarded to Larapinta Constructions, which is a joint venture between Ntaria council and DAC Enterprises to excavate, crush and stockpile pavement materials is almost complete.
This project alone has seen 11 Territorians from Hermannsburg complete several certificate levels as apart of a Certificate III course in Civil Construction. It is a great example of the training and employment initiatives we building into Territory government contracts.
Madam Speaker, the Territory’s road network certainly poses many budgeting challenges, particularly when you consider that only 23% of it is sealed. It is for this reason we are spending over $130m on roads in just this year. It is yet another example of government investing in major infrastructure to create jobs and opportunities for Territorians now and into the future. I look forward to watching the Red Centre Way develop, and the many economic opportunities this iconic project will deliver to those communities in the future.
Mrs MILLER (Katherine): Madam Speaker, I thank the Chief Minister for her report this morning. There is no doubt that Central Australia has some absolutely wonderful landscapes to look at and some beautiful iconic sites to encourage tourists to come to the Red Centre. Parts of the road in the particular area that the Chief Minister talked about have certainly caused a lot of headaches for many tourists and caused much damage to vehicles over the years. It is pleasing to see that, finally, it will be completed.
Could the Chief Minister confirm with me that the Red Centre Way will not be completely sealed until 2011? I believe that is when the sealing will be completed. It is certainly welcomed by tourists and locals alike. It has offered many job and training opportunities for the companies that have been successful in tendering for the work, and it is certainly supported by the CLP.
Mrs BRAHAM (Braitling): Madam Speaker, yes, it is good news from the Chief Minister. We need to congratulate Ntaria council on their efforts to ensure employment opportunities have been given to their people. They have done a great job so far and we hope they continue to be involved in the sealing of this massive road.
Chief Minister, could you update me on the stalemate that has been occurring regarding the access to the gravel pit near Ipolera? I believe that the Aboriginal Areas Protection Authority has given clearances. The traditional owner, Herman Malbunka, has stated very clearly in his letter to you that he has given a permit for access to that gravel road, but the hold-up seems to be with the Central Land Council which says they want to issue permits and clearances on Aboriginal land, and that AAPA should issue them on non-Aboriginal land. It is a stalemate that could have consequences for the opportunities for the Ntaria group of workers who have done so well to date. I am hoping that you can get a resolution. The CLC is supposed to be there for the people, and I hope they realise that is their role and they should sit down and talk it through. If the traditional owners want it and have given their permission for this to happen, then what is wrong with it going ahead?
I also ask: have you gone to the federal government for monies to seal this road? Surely, with all the money the federal government has available for roads at the moment, we could ask them to put some money into finish sealing it sooner?
Ms MARTIN (Chief Minister): Madam Speaker, we always like more money. If we could persuade them that that was one of the AusLink roads, we would do well. However, no, at this stage, there is no federal money for the Red Centre Way. However, we are committed to sealing it.
This current section of road will take 65 weeks to seal. One of the things we have realised since making the announcement that we could, potentially, seal that road in three years, was the capacity of Territory businesses to be available to do that. Such is the work happening in the Territory now that is has been a much more challenging task than we initially thought to find the right way in quantum to issue those contracts for the road. I believe we are getting it right now. The $13.3m contract to the Ostojic Group is certainly an example of that.
Regarding the issue of clearances and the role of AAPA, I believe everyone in this House strongly supports the role of AAPA in having those certificates. We have proposed that the Central Land Council do the anthropological work and that then is handed to AAPA. It is the right way to go; it is how we have done other projects. That is what we are pursuing.
Indigenous Tourism Experiences
Mr HENDERSON (Tourism): Madam Speaker, I report to the House of the continued growth and development of new and exciting indigenous tourism experiences across the Territory. As members will be aware, the demand by international and domestic visitors to the Northern Territory for a cultural experience is ever growing. Visitors are looking for a range of experiences from buying a piece of art, short walks and talks, to full immersion out on country with traditional landowners.
As I reported in September, Tourism NT is working with a number of communities and individuals to develop strong, sustainable, new business enterprises through a program called Stepping Stones. Since I last spoke, Tourism NT has been working closely with a number of communities in the east Arnhem Land region, and on Groote Eylandt, planning new and innovative tourism experiences.
On Groote Eylandt, Tourism NT delivered the Stepping Stones workshop which explored and documented a variety of potential tourism products associated with the new $18m Dugong Beach Resort that is currently under construction. Ten possible tours in all were created, with the intent of having two to three fully operational before the resort opens in October this year.
Tourism NT is working with Charles Darwin University and my department of DEET to deliver a number of tourism and hospitality training programs to residents on Groote Eylandt. This will ensure they will have the necessary skills and experience to work in the resort as receptionists, housekeepers, gardeners, and also tour guides on the developing new experiences. It is the developer’s aim to have 80% indigenous employment in the resort, and they are working closely with Tourism NT and DEET and the land council to make this reality.
Another developing tourism experience is happening at Yilpara, Blue Mud Bay. The Stepping Stones process was delivered to this community in December last year to help them further develop and plan towards their dream of the Yilpara Two Way Learning Centre. The Two Way Learning Centre will truly be a multipurpose, dual use training facility for both the local Yolngu community, as well as for visiting educational institutions and art sector enthusiasts, both of which are niche markets Tourism NT will target when developing indigenous experiences. The learning centre will be used to attract university and educational groups who have an interest in indigenous art and Yolngu culture to north-east Arnhem Land to further their studies.
Tourism NT also delivered a Stepping Stones workshop last year to Yolngu ladies at Bawaka Cultural Experiences near Nhulunbuy, which leads to the development of the Dillybag Women’s Program. This developing product is aimed at attracting women’s groups who wish to spend time with the indigenous ladies and learn about the culture. The first two-day trial tour of six paying guests was held in November, with feedback from the tour group being very positive. Tourism NT plans to coordinate several more trial tours early in the Dry Season and support the ladies to become fully operational later this year.
Today, whilst I focused on the work happening in the Arnhem Land region, I can tell you that the same good work, where a number of new tourism enterprises are taking shape and opening their doors to visitors, is happening in Central Australia, such as Black Tank run by the Lynch family, Oak Valley Homeland run by the Rossignol family, and Conrad Ratara, who runs the Palm Paddock Camp Ground for adventure tours running out of Palm Valley. Further to this, are tourism interests that are taking shape in the Katherine region which include opportunities in the Gregory National Park and the greater Daly region. Every opportunity looked at includes the potential employment of sustainable income opportunities for the traditional owners of this area.
On the demand side, next week with the support of Tourism NT, two of our indigenous businesses are heading to Europe as part of the Australian Indigenous Road Show to showcase their products to the key European markets. Murdudjurl, Kakadu and Nitmiluk Tours Katherine will spend 15 days travelling through Europe meeting with wholesalers, media and the public showcasing the unique experiences we have in the Territory.
Another great promotion that is currently under way in the USA is the showcasing of the NT and the unique indigenous experiences by Michael Dawu, famous for his role in the award winning movie Ten Canoes, and Mr Jimmy Djamanba who provided cultural advice to the producers and writers of the film. Both are travelling around the US with Tourism NT performing at trade and media events, and talking with key industry representatives about the NT.
This is only some of the work under way supporting indigenous Territorians to develop business opportunities and gain employment from this very important industry in the Territory. I look forward to reporting to the House in the future on further progress we are making in indigenous tourism development and highlighting some of the new and innovative businesses that are opening their doors.
Madam Speaker, it is an exciting time. I know members on our side of the House have indigenous people looking to develop tourism products. The word is out there, it is spreading like wildfire and we are finding it pretty hard to keep up, but we are getting some good runs on the board. I thank all the people in Tourism NT who are doing such a fantastic job in developing this unlimited potential for the Northern Territory.
Mrs MILLER (Katherine): Madam Speaker, I thank the minister for his report this morning. There is no doubt that indigenous tourism plays a significant role in encouraging tourism to the Northern Territory, especially international visitors. When they come to the Territory, they look for an indigenous and cultural experience.
It is significant that Tourism NT is running training programs to help indigenous people develop their business. It is very important that these businesses are developed professionally, have business plans, and know how to operate a business accurately and professionally so that they can deliver a quality product without any hiccups - or very few hiccups.
Dugong Resort is going to be a brilliant example of where indigenous cooperation and employment has given an opportunity to many people who would not have otherwise been involved in tourism. It is wonderful that Tourism NT is involved.
We are really only at the beginning of indigenous tourism in the Northern Territory. We have only just tapped at the edges of it. In the past, it has not been developed professionally enough and I believe that we are going in the right direction.
I know the businesses travelling to Europe will do a good job and I wish them well on their trip. They will certainly spread the best words that they can about the Northern Territory, because the people attending their presentations throughout Europe are professional. I look forward to future reports and I assume that in the not-too-distant future there will be a statement on indigenous tourism in the Northern Territory.
Madam SPEAKER: The time for ministerial reports has expired.
Reports noted pursuant to standing orders.
LEGAL PROFESSION (CONSEQUENTIAL AMENDMENTS) BILL
(Serial 89)
(Serial 89)
Bill presented and read a first time.
Mr STIRLING (Justice and Attorney-General): Madam Speaker, I move that the bill be now read a second time.
The purpose of the bill is to amend Northern Territory acts and subordinate legislation to reflect changes in terminology concerning lawyers that have occurred following the enactment in November 2006 of the Legal Profession Act 2006. I will briefly remind honourable members the importance of that legislation.
Apart from being the largest single act ever introduced and passed in the Territory parliament, it also fulfilled the Territory’s role in achieving uniform regulation of the legal profession across Australia. As I noted when introducing the act, it will make it easier for legal practitioners to practice across state and territory borders and reduce regulatory overlap. This will serve the interest of lawyers, their clients and regulatory bodies.
The act is based on model provisions, which provide for a uniform standard for qualifications and training, uniform rules dealing with trust accounts and fidelity funds, standardised definitions of misconduct, and clear requirements when disclosing costs to clients. I was proud to introduce that legislation on behalf of government, and I look forward to it commencement in the near future.
Most of the contents of this bill deal with the arguably mundane but, nevertheless essential, updating of cross-references - for example, replacing references to the repealed Legal Practitioners Act with references to the Legal Profession Act.
Additionally, the opportunity has been taken to rationalise the various meanings of ‘legal practitioner’, ‘solicitor’ and ‘lawyer’ as contained in the statutes. The term ‘lawyer’ is now to be used where the relevant provision is dealing with a person who has the appropriate legal qualifications and who has been admitted in Australia as a lawyer by a state or territory Supreme Court. The term is generally used for acts that provide for the appointments of legally qualified persons to tribunals or judicial positions.
The term ‘legal practitioner’ is used for cases where the relevant act or subordinate legislation is dealing with persons who are practising law, in which case they are required to hold a practicing certificate issued by the Law Society Northern Territory or by some other state or territory regulatory body.
It is a relatively straightforward bill to ensure all relevant Territory legislation accords with the Legal Profession Act 2006. It is not designed to make any significant change to the law, other than to take account of the new act.
However, I draw members’ attention to new section 22 of the Supreme Court Act. On the suggestion of the judges, this section has been amended so that Rules of Court can determine which matters involving the legal profession must be heard by the full court and which matters can be heard by a single judge.
Madam Speaker, I commend the bill to honourable members and I table a copy of the explanatory statement.
Debate adjourned.
MENTAL HEALTH AND RELATED SERVICES AMENDMENT BILL
(Serial 90)
(Serial 90)
Bill presented and read a first time.
Ms LAWRIE (Family and Community Services): Madam Speaker, I move that the bill be now read a second time.
I am pleased to bring before the Legislative Assembly the Mental Health and Related Services Amendment Bill. A formal review of the Mental Health and Related Services Act has been one component of a series of reforms to the quality and safety of the mental health service system in the Northern Territory in recent years.
The first step of the reform agenda has been to progressively increase the mental health budget from $18.8m in 2002-03 to $32.012m in 2006-07 to provide the additional resources necessary to drive the program reform. We have spoken at length over the last few years about mental health service system reform in general. Today, I want to focus on legislative reform.
The mental health service system depends on an effective and functional legislative framework to ensure that society can fulfil its obligation to care for individuals with mental illness and, where necessary, protect others from the effects of the disturbed behaviour attributable to a mental illness in a reasonable and sensitive manner. There is an expectation in the community, and an obligation on the part of government that, where a person is unable to make an informed decision about their own mental health and welfare and they are vulnerable or pose a risk to others, intervention can occur to provide assessment, treatment and care. At times, it will be necessary to do this without the person’s consent.
Through mental health legislation, the community vests in the state the authority to deprive individuals of their liberty and treat them against their will. Mental health legislation also serves to regulate the use of this power. This is achieved through: rigorously specifying the circumstances under which a person may be detained and receive treatment against their will; ensuring that where a person is involuntarily detained and treated, it is for the shortest time possible; providing appropriate checks and balances to preserve the person’s rights and dignity; and, controlling certain forms of treatment.
People involved with the criminal justice system who are affected by mental illness also have a right to access an equivalent level of assessment and treatment service as other members of the community. One function of mental health legislation is to ensure this right is upheld.
Mental health legislation must change over time and needs to reflect contemporary attitudes, technologies and approaches to acceptance and treatment of mental illness. It must be expressed in a way that provides maximum flexibility to enable individuals with responsibilities and powers under the act to carry out their roles effectively.
The Mental Health and Related Services Act 1998 commenced operation on 1 February 2000. The development of the act was an eight-year process involving extensive consultation with a wide range of stakeholders. Over the past six years, there have been changes to the way in which services are administered and delivered, and a substantial improvement in available technologies, both of which require some consideration in the context of legislation.
The Mental Health and Related Services Act 1998 is sound legislation which has functioned reasonably well since its commencement in 2000. Some of its strengths include: effective protection of general and aspirational human rights; clearly expressed criteria; strong external review and appeal processes; specified procedural safeguards; and substantial accountability and standards monitoring provisions.
The purpose of introducing the Mental Health and Related Services Amendment Bill 2007 is not to bring about fundamental change to the underlaying principles enshrined in this legislation, nor to tamper with the original policy intent. The intention is to address unanticipated problems with the day-to-day application of the legislation.
A review of the act commenced in 2003 with the release of a comprehensive issues paper containing 98 items for discussion. A total of 28 written submissions were received. This process also raised a number of additional issues requiring further consultation and consideration. In October last year, Cabinet sought to release the draft bill for public comment, and this also resulted in further refinements to the bill introduced here today.
I take this opportunity to thank publicly all of the individuals and organisations who participated in this process, and who have taken the time to formally submit a response to the review, or participate in subsequent consultation. Your input has been of immense value in developing this bill. I am confident that the comprehensive consultation process has ensured government has been able to address key concerns, and your efforts will result in legislation which retains its strength whilst also responding to contemporary approaches to the delivery of mental health care in the context of the Territory’s unique environment.
The purpose of this bill is to amend the Mental Health and Related Services Act by:
- re-clarifying and recognising the important role of guardians and carers through provisions which address notification of the carer’s access to information, and providing a right of appeal for carers and representatives where information is withheld;
- improving the application of the act in regional centres and remote areas of the Territory;
- clarifying police powers to ensure consistency throughout the act;
- refining Part 10, Powers of the Court, to reduce confusion, improve application of the current provisions, introduce the concepts of outpatient assessment and voluntary treatment plans, and improve alignment with other parts of the legislation;
- amending time lines for the review throughout the legislation to ensure consistency and alignment with clinical and operational reality; improving the administration and application of Community Management Orders;
- improving the application of existing provisions relating to the Mental Health Review Tribunal;
- improving the function of the community visitor provisions;
- refining the general administration of the act and clarifying the extent of authority held by particular statutory functions;
- improving corresponding law provisions to enable cross-border agreements and arrangements with other jurisdictions for the planned and unplanned transfer of individuals subject to mental health legislation across jurisdictional borders;
- clarifying processes for the admission of prisoners to approved treatment facilities, ensuring alignment with other provisions in the act and refining administrative processes; and
- improving the administration of financial protection orders.
Many of the amendments proposed are either technical adjustments which seek to clarify procedures and terminology, or are cosmetic amendments which seek to align the language, style, sequencing and structure of the act with current Territory legislation guidelines and contemporary drafting approaches.
I now highlight for members some of the key reforms of this bill in more detail. Notification and review of provisions throughout the act have been amended to better reflect their application and to improve compliance with the legislative requirements. For example, the existing provisions for the notification of carers is confusing and has not been well understood or applied since the act’s commencement. Carers have expressed frustration regarding the provisions and the absence of any avenue to apply for a review to be conducted in circumstances where they have requested information and it has been withheld.
The proposed amendments seek to:
- simplify the language regarding the various notification arrangements contained throughout the act;
- introduce a requirement to make a record of a notification and any decision not to notify a person’s primary carer where an authorised psychiatric practitioner considers withholding a notification to be in the person’s best interest;
- maintain provision for a report to be made to the tribunal which can be reviewed under section 125; and
- introduce the right for a carer or a person’s representative to apply for a review where a notification has not been given and information has been withheld.
The time lines for review by the tribunal throughout the legislation currently vary. The existing statutory requirements for a tribunal review within seven days of admission, combined with a limited hearing schedule of the tribunal which sits once per week in Darwin and Alice Springs has, at times, resulted in consumers being required to appear before the tribunal very shortly after admission while still acutely ill and perhaps heavily sedated. Scheduling a tribunal hearing so early in a person’s admission can be extremely stressful for the person and can interfere with the development of the therapeutic relationship between patients and clinical staff. To overcome these problems, the bill proposes to extend the current ‘within seven day’ review period with a period of ‘within 14 days’. This change will require adjustment to a number of the provisions to ensure consistency. Importantly, the right of any individual or representative to request a review by the tribunal sooner than the 14-day period has been retained, and the tribunal will continue to sit on a weekly basis ensuring any individual wishing to make an early application for review can do so.
Practitioners have also experienced a number of difficulties with the existing 12-hour time limit allowed under section 34(3)(d) to detain a person at an approved treatment facility. It is often not possible to adequately access a person within that time, particularly if they are intoxicated or heavily sedated. The proposed amendment extends the current time frame from 12 hours to 24 hours. This should provide sufficient time to address clinical considerations without significantly eroding individual rights and civil liberties.
Where a person is admitted voluntarily pursuant to section 25 of the act, it currently requires two authorised psychiatric practitioners to conduct separate examinations within a 24-hour period. This mirrors the requirements for any voluntary admission. Whilst this level of response is necessary where a person is subject to an involuntary admission and, as a result deprived of his or her liberty, it is not necessary for someone who has been admitted voluntarily. An amendment is, therefore, proposed to extend this time frame to 72 hours where a person is consenting to voluntary admission and treatment.
The application of this legislation in regional centres and remote areas has been one of the more challenging aspects for mental health services since commencement of the act. While many of the provisions operate as intended in Darwin and Alice Springs, the application outside these centres has been less effective due, in part, to limited access to specialist clinical staff. Access to authorised psychiatric practitioners and designated mental health practitioners is required to ensure many of the provisions can operate as intended. For example, authorised psychiatric practitioners provide expert review and assessment for involuntary admission and involuntary treatment in the community and are critical to the functioning of the act. Similarly, designated mental health practitioners have powers to recommend psychiatric assessment and to assume case management responsibility where an individual is subject to a Community Management Order. Unfortunately, there are no resident authorised psychiatric practitioners outside Darwin, Katherine and Alice Springs, and very few designated mental health practitioners.
To address this contextual reality, the process of appointment for these practitioners will be strengthened in some areas. The package of amendments proposed will introduced a more flexible and practical approach to ensure that individuals receiving mental health services outside the two major centres can be treated as close to home as possible. Specific amendments proposed include:
- a discretionary provision for the CEO to appoint a medical practitioner employed by an approved treatment facility or agency who is not a psychiatrist or a psychiatric registrar, and who has appropriate experience and knowledge, as an authorised psychiatric practitioner;
- provision to appoint an employee of the Department of Health and Community Services who is not employed by Mental Health Services – that is, community health staff in remote communities - to be a designated mental health practitioner where they meet the criteria and agreed to be appointed;
- provision to appoint a medical practitioner not employed by the agency - that is, a general practitioner - to be a psychiatric case manager. This change will potentially facilitate greater involvement by the primary health care sector, which now plays a much greater role in mental health care, with the introduction of the new MBS items;
- provision requiring authorised psychiatric practitioners to complete an approved training and orientation course to ensure the quality of service is maintained;
- a comprehensive approved procedure regarding the appointment, training and orientation of authorised psychiatric practitioners will also apply. In light of the amendments outlined above, the appointment process will feature a two-tiered approach which will ensure alignment between the relative qualifications, skills and experience of an individual authorised psychiatric practitioner, and the responsibilities and powers they will be authorised to exercise under the provisions of the act; and
- correction of an oversight in the original drafting of provisions will allow assessment and examination to be conducted by an authorised psychiatric practitioner using technology such as video and teleconferencing facilitates.
Amendments are proposed to the current definition of ‘seclusion’ in the act to include a more contemporary definition in line with recent legislative provisions introduced in other jurisdictions, and to ensure capability with national mental health safety initiatives. Review times have also been amended and a reference to approved procedures inserted, which will detail the clinical and review requirements to be observed when placing any individual in seclusion.
Clarifying amendments have been added to cover circumstances where seclusion or restraint might be considered as an option to prevent a person from absconding from an approved treatment facility and to make clear that, where the senior nurse on duty authorises seclusion or restraint, this decision must be reviewed as soon as practical by an authorised psychiatric practitioner and, if necessary, redetermined.
Regarding improved administration and application of Community Management Orders, involuntary community-based treatment options ideally allow community-based treatment to be applied expediently, to be effectively monitored, enforced and reviewed and, where necessary, quickly suspended or revoked in favour of involuntary hospitalisation where clinically indicated. The package of amendments contained in this bill is designed to increase the viability and use of Community Management Orders in remote areas. The amendments will introduce a more flexible and practical approach and ensure individuals receiving mental health services outside the two major centres can be treated as close to home as possible.
Amendments include:
- a change to the current requirement for an authorised psychiatric practitioner to examine a person on a Community Management Order not less than every six weeks. The frequency of authorised psychiatric practitioner examinations will instead be specified in the terms of a person’s Community Management Order, and will be required prior to the review or expiry date of the Community Management Order;
- an oversight in the original drafting of these provisions has been rectified by introducing provision for an authorised psychiatric practitioner assessment and examination to be conducted using technology such as interactive videoconferencing or, where this is unavailable, via telephone;
- changes to the appointment of psychiatric case manager provisions to limit appointments in this role to designated mental health practioners or medical practitioners;
- the CEO will have the discretion to appoint other health staff with relevant experience employed by the Department of Health and Community Services to be designated mental health practitioners. This will provide some flexibility to appoint other Department of Health and Community Services staff as psychiatric case managers to monitor a Community Management Order applied to a remote areas resident where it is not practical to appoint a mental health services employee. Medical practitioners who are willing to undertake a psychiatric case manager role will also be potentially available to monitor Community Management Orders;
- psychiatric case managers will monitor the progress of a person’s treatment, care and rehabilitation while subject to a Community Management Order, and provide regular progress reports to the authorised psychiatric practitioner at least once every six weeks. This change will allow a more flexible approach to developing community management plans, and should make Community Management Orders more feasible in remote areas. These amendments will ensure that people on Community Management Orders continue to be closely and appropriately monitored, and any change in a person’s condition is identified and communicated to the authorised psychiatric practitioner;
- the tribunal will retain responsibility for ensuring that any Community Management Order plan proposed by Mental Health Services is capable of being implemented, and that the frequency of examination and arrangements for review are appropriate to the person’s needs;
- a new provision providing for a warrant for the apprehension of a person under the act to be issued by facsimile and e-mail to improve application of warrants in rural and remote areas; and
- a more practical approach to the suspension of a Community Management Order is proposed with the introduction of the concept of ‘reasonable steps’ for assessment and notification. This will include:
- allowing assessment by telephone or videoconferencing where it is not practical to conduct a face-to-face assessment; and
- provision for a Community Management Order to be suspended on the basis of information provided to the authorised psychiatric practitioner by a person’s psychiatric case manager where it has not been possible for an authorised psychiatric practitioner to assess the person, either in person or via videoconferencing or telephone contact.
Amendments are also proposed to improve the process and circumstances where it has been necessary to suspend a Community Management Order and admit a person to an approved treatment facility. This includes removing the current requirement for a Community Management Order to be revoked where a person remains in hospital for more than seven days. The capacity to reactivate the Community Management Order on discharge from hospital, irrespective of the duration of the admission, has been introduced unless there is a need to vary the order.
Regarding clarification of police powers, police have a limited but important role under the provisions of the act. That role is facilitative and secondary to the role of Mental Health Services. However, when assistance is required, it is vital that police powers be very clear and give the appropriate guidance and legislative authority to act. Inconsistent references throughout the legislation to police powers have led to circumstances in which the police have not, at times, had sufficient powers to act as intended. For example, the power of entry provisions were not sufficiently clear in some parts of the act, and the terms ‘use of reasonable force’ and ‘take reasonable measures’ were used interchangeably, causing some confusion.
A number of clarifying amendments are proposed to ensure police powers are explicit and consistent throughout the legislation, and provide appropriate authority for police to carry out their role, pursuant to the provisions of the act. Police powers have also been summarised and moved forward from section 163 to a new section 32A in order to provide greater clarity, and to express these powers where they are predominantly required at entry to the Mental Health Service, or where an individual has left an approved treatment facility without medical approval and police assistance is required to return them to the facility.
A new provision providing for notification of police in the event of a person missing from an approved treatment facility, or is the subject of a Community Management Order and has gone missing, is proposed in order to respond to the recommendations made by the Palmer inquiry into the circumstances of the immigration detention of Cornelia Rau.
The draft bill includes a comprehensive restructure of Part 10, Powers of the Court, which is primarily concerned with individuals who require involuntary assessment, admission and treatment, except where bail is granted for purposes of seeking treatment voluntarily. Part 10 is set out in three divisions dealing with assessment and admission of a person; dismissal of charge following a certificate from the Chief Health Officer; and voluntary treatment.
Division 1 applies to a person charged with an offence before the court when in the opinion of the court may require treatment or care under this act. The division allows a court to request advice as to the availability of a venue and a mental health practitioner to make an assessment of the treatment needs of the person. Once advice is received, the court can grant an adjournment and order the assessment to be carried out. A report of this assessment will then be presented to the court, outlining whether the person fulfills the criteria for involuntary admission, the grounds for, and duration of such an admission, and any recommendations in relation to conveyance and security of the person and provision for copies of any orders made by the court to be provided to the person in charge of an approved treatment facility by the Registrar of the local court as soon as practical after the order is made, and before the person is conveyed to the facility or, in circumstances where an existing order is cancelled, varied or extended.
Following receipt of the assessment report, the court can, if satisfied that the person fulfills the criteria for involuntary admission, adjourn proceedings and order detention of the person in an approved treatment facility for examination and assessment, and diagnosis and treatment. Any such order made by the court may contain conditions set if a determination is made that a person no longer requires to be admitted as an involuntary patient because they no longer fulfil the criteria. The court will be informed on the next occasion. Other provisions in this division allow for the release or return to lawful custody of the person, and for the issuance of an arrest warrant where necessary.
Division 2 deals exclusively with the dismissal of a charge under the act. The draft bill indicates this provision applies only where the court exercising summary jurisdiction has sought a certificate from the Chief Health Officer stating whether the accused was suffering a mental illness or disturbance at the time of carrying out the conduct constituting the alleged offence, and whether such mental illness or disturbance is likely to have materially contributed to the conduct. Where a certificate is issued, the court must dismiss the charge if satisfied that the person was suffering from a mental illness or disturbance at the time of the offence and, as a consequence, did not know the nature and quality of the conduct, or that the conduct was wrong, or was not able to control his or her actions. A reference has also been inserted indicating the Chief Health Officer’s certificate must be in the approved form which will be designed to contain additional information outlined in the revised provisions.
The dismissal of charge amendments in the bill more clearly articulate the provisions and ensure they are relevant to the court’s requirements. The provision outlining the advice upon which the Chief Health Officer issues a certificate has also been amended to allow the Chief Health Officer greater flexibility in seeking the necessary advice.
Division 3 allows for the provision of bail where a person wishes to seek treatment voluntarily under the act. Division 3 also seeks to provide a new mechanism to divert individuals with mental illness or disturbance into voluntary treatment, where possible and appropriate. The essential components of this mechanism are:
- the court is exercising summary jurisdiction;
- the person has pleaded guilty or has been found guilty of an offence;
- the court is of the opinion the person suffers from a mental illness or mental disturbance that is likely to have contributed to the conduct constituting the offence;
- the court is satisfied the person recognises that he or she suffers from the mental illness or disturbance, and has made, or is willing to make, a conscientious effort to address the problems associated with this condition;
- the prosecution and the person consent to this offence being dealt with under this division;
- an assessment of the voluntary treatment plan has been submitted to the court indicating it is appropriate to treat the person under such a plan and, if so, the nature and duration of the treatment plan;
- the person has been granted bail in accordance with the provisions of the Bail Act and has entered an agreement to participate in the treatment plan; and
- a person must not be treated under a voluntary treatment plan if, by doing so, the person would pose a serious risk to himself or herself or someone else.
A number of other requirements have also been made to Part 10 in order to reduce confusion, enhance the application of its provisions, and improve alignment with other parts of the legislation. The proposed changes include:
- a new section which outlines the intended application of the Part 10 provisions relating to assessment and admission of a person;
- section 74 has been restructured to more clearly define the pre-assessment advice, assessment and admission phases of the process, introduce the concept of ‘outpatient’ assessment, and to provide greater clarity for both the court and the Department of Health and Community Services around assessment and admission arrangements;
- alignment of the criteria for involuntary admission and treatment with the rest of the act, and reinforcement of the application of the rights, responsibilities and processes set out in other parts of the act;
- clarification that the provisions of Part 10 primarily apply to individuals requiring involuntary assessment, admission and treatment and, in an order for a person to undertake voluntary treatment under this part, the court must grant the person bail to do so; and
- refinements to ensure that in circumstances where a person does not meet the criteria for involuntary admission to an approved treatment facility but, nevertheless, requires other treatment under the provisions of the act, this treatment can be recommended to the court.
Amendments to Part 11, Admission of Prisoners, are proposed to more clearly outline the assessment and admissions processes where a prisoner requiring mental health care is concerned, ensuring alignment with other provisions in the act, and to clarify administrative processes. Proposed amendments seek to more clearly articulate the request for assessment process and the assessment arrangements; better align Part 11 with Parts 5 and 6 of the act to ensure consistency and equivalence; clarify the trigger for transfer to an approved treatment facility - that is, clinical assessment and recommendation by an authorised psychiatric practitioner or designated mental health practitioner; and provide powers to retrieve a prisoner who absconds whilst admitted to an approved treatment facility.
A range of amendments to the provisions in Part 15 of the act are proposed in order to strengthen the process, and streamline and improve the functioning of community visitors. Proposed amendments include:
- making community visitor and community visitor panel members statutory appointments for fixed terms;
- allowing the principal community visitor in specific circumstances to appoint community visitors or community visitor panel members on an interim basis pending formal ministerial appointment;
- providing for resignation and removal from office in appropriate circumstances;
- limiting the requirement for the appointment of community visitor panels to approved treatment facilities only;
- removing the current requirement that panels be appointed for all approved treatment agencies and replacing it with a discretionary power for the principal community visitor to establish and deploy a special community visitors panel to investigate and report on the overall operation of an approved treatment agency where required;
- community visitors will retain oversight of approved treatment agencies and are equipped with powers similar to a panel, thus ensuring approved treatment agencies will continue to be the subject to regular external scrutiny where a formal panel visit is not undertaken; and
- modifying the requirement that a community visitor visits a person within 48 hours of request, the requirement to contact a person within this time frame. This will allow contact to be made by phone, e-mail, letter, or in person, and give community visitors the flexibility to respond in a way appropriate for the seriousness and urgency of the request without incurring unnecessary costs. This is particularly relevant for requests for assistance from non-urgent, non-serious matters outside of urban areas.
- making it clear that a magistrate, judicial registrar appointed under section 9(1) of the Local Court Act or a lawyer with at least five years experience as a legal practitioner can be appointed as legal members of the tribunal;
- allowing the tribunal to issue its own practice directions;
- allowing the tribunal to sit with two rather than three members in exceptional circumstances;
- providing for the review of long-term voluntary patients under guardianship who have been in an approved treatment facility for longer than six months;
- giving the tribunal jurisdiction to review and hear appeals in respect of Financial Protection Orders;
- inserting a clarifying clause to indicate the tribunal may review an order or decision on its own initiative at any time;
- correcting errors in the articulation of review and appeal rights;
- confirming a person’s right to refuse legal representation;
- allowing hearings to proceed in the absence of a person in special circumstances; and
- aligning terminology with contemporary mental health legislation by replacing references to ‘appeals’, which creates the impression of an adversarial process, with the term ‘application for review’ which is more in line with the less intimidating and informal tribunal process.
The new provision, clause 85, new section 135A, provides a mechanism to regulate the behaviour of tribunal attendees where they threaten, intimidate or insult the tribunal or a member of the tribunal in relation to the performance of the functions or the exercise of the powers of the tribunal by the tribunal or the member, or interrupt, obstruct or hinder proceedings or create a disturbance in or near a place the tribunal is sitting. The provision also includes a maximum penalty of $2500 or imprisonment for six months.
Regarding interstate orders, requirements to the corresponding law definition in section 151 have been made to indicate a ‘corresponding law’ means a law prescribed by regulation. Section 152 has also been omitted. The proposed amendment removes the current requirement for the minister to be satisfied that the law of another jurisdiction is ‘substantially in the same or similar terms’ of this act before declaring it a corresponding law. This provision in its current form has restricted the capacity of the NT to declare corresponding laws, which is a prerequisite to enter such agreements.
Amendments to these provisions will make Financial Protection Orders more feasible and increase the level of transparency and accountability in the way they are applied. Specific amendments include:
- removal of the requirement for the CEO to authorise a Financial Protection Order and vesting this authority with the person in charge of the approved treatment agency who is removed from the clinical decision-making process and has overall management responsibility for the service;
- a new provision allowing for the person in charge to revoke an order at any time should it no longer be required;
- notification provisions to ensure a range of parties, including the person, person’s adult guardian, a legal practitioner, the person’s primary carer, the tribunal, and the principal community visitor are informed when such an order is applied;
- providing, where appropriate, for an order to be extended for one period of 14 days. This is in line with the intention that such orders should only be made whilst a person is involuntarily detained in an approved treatment facility and applied for only a brief period; and
- remove current references to the Adult Guardianship Act and indicate ongoing arrangements for the financial protection of an individual are to be instigated in accordance with approved procedures which will outline the options available and the process of referral to the adult guardian or other appropriate body.
Madam Speaker, I commend the bill to honourable members and I table the explanatory statement.
Debate adjourned.
MOTION
Note Statement - Building the Territory’s Future: An Economic Progress Report
Note Statement - Building the Territory’s Future: An Economic Progress Report
Continued from 12 October 2006.
Mr BONSON (Millner): Madam Speaker, I support Building the Territory’s Future: An Economic Progress Report.
I have listened to the Leader of the Opposition in the last two days and, unfortunately, have been very disappointed by her contributions. I will point to the facts. I hope she stays around to listen because she is well known for coming in to parliament, speaking her mind, letting out her guts on very negative issues and slipping away into a hole. Many members on this side of the House are very disappointed with how the Leader of the Opposition conducts herself. We saw it last night in negative tirades yesterday during adjournment and in Question Time.
The reality is that there are a number of very positive things happening throughout the Northern Territory, about which this government is proud, and every member of this House should be promoting for the benefit of all Territorians. We have a Labor government that continues to sing a very positive message about the economy. I will go through independent indicators that show that our economy is flying, is doing well, that people are benefiting from the economy.
The Chief Minister has shown the Leader of the Opposition the way to conduct herself. In a position of leadership, you have a position of influence. The Chief Minister has constantly talked up the Territory lifestyle, the Territory economy, the pulses of this government. What we have seen over the last three or four years is a harvest of all that positive energy. I am proud to say that all the members in House on the government benches are very positive when they are talking to the general community.
I spoke to the member for Barkly over the last few days about his theory, I suppose - and I have to agree; it has made me stand up and contribute on this statement. It is about the negativity coming from the Leader of the Opposition. The reality is that she is surrounding herself with negative versions of what is actually happening in the Northern Territory. What we have seen - and I will quote from the Housing Industry Association and independent sources - is the fact that the economy is going very well. This economy is being assisted by the local Northern Territory Labor government. I thought about what the member for Barkly said about the negativity coming from the Leader of the Opposition, and I agree. Throughout my life, when I have been surrounded by negativity, I often behaved in a negative way. An example of that was what we saw yesterday in Question Time.
The Minister for Employment, Education and Training talked about one of the most significant achievements of this government, and probably one of the most significant achievements of any government in Australia at the moment; the ambitious plan to create 10 000 new apprentices and trainees, and the number of people we have actually assisted in getting new apprenticeships and traineeships. If you go back to yesterday, Wednesday, 21 February 2007, in Question Time, the Minister for Employment, Education and Training was telling this House, the listeners throughout the Northern Territory, and the media, about this positive outcome for Territorians driven by this government. If you read the interplay between the Leader of the Opposition and the minister, the Leader of the Opposition did not want to hear good news. I believe it was best summed up by the minister when he said: ‘… never let good news fool a good conspiracy theory, Leader of the Opposition, or ignorance …’ I believe that sums up where the Leader of the Opposition is. We saw her behaviour in her so-called cross-examination of the Health Minister …
Ms Carney: You are an idiot! You know that, don’t you?
Mr BONSON: … and the Police minister, and we saw the report in the …
Mr KIELY: A point of order, Madam Speaker! I ask that the Leader of the Opposition withdraw that reference of ‘idiot’. It is against Standing Order 62
Madam SPEAKER: I ask you to withdraw.
Ms CARNEY: I withdraw the reference to ‘idiot’, Madam Speaker.
Madam SPEAKER: Thank you, Leader of the Opposition.
Mr BONSON: There is an example of the Leader of the Opposition’s behaviour - that is it, summarised in that one little moment.
Ms Carney: How is that memo? Have you got any more for this year, Matty? Are you going to be humiliated by the Chief Minister again, are you?
Madam SPEAKER: Order!
Ms Carney: You must be embarrassed by that. It was well written, I didn’t think you had it in you.
Madam SPEAKER: Order!
Mr BONSON: The Leader of the Opposition bites, Madam Speaker, and she bites; a negative, vitriolic individual. We saw that response played throughout the households of the Northern Territory last night on both ABC and Channel 9. What we saw was a clown - an absolute clown.
Here we have 5243 young people of the Northern Territory - young people who are going to be the future of the Northern Territory. They are going to create our lifestyle, and our new families. It is a positive story, and all the Leader of the Opposition wanted to do was interject and make an absolute fool of herself. This negativity is burning up inside her. I am pleased the member for Greatorex has not sunk to those levels. I believe that, in the general community, he is starting to make an impression. I would be very worried if I was the member for Araluen …
Ms Carney: Yes, and they are all expecting to hear from you in a couple of months, Matt.
Mr BONSON: The reality is, I do not believe the member for Araluen can last, and that is the bottom line. She does not have the gumption or the staying power.
Madam Speaker, the other issue I would like to talk about is the Leader of the Opposition’s constant attack on the performance of this government. If she would go to the independent report from the Housing Association, to page 10 of that report which is called State Growth Meter 23 January 2007, she would find it is an independent report saying the Northern Territory Top End economy is still smoking. It is independent, Madam Speaker. Unfortunately, the Leader of the Opposition does not like good news.
I also spoke to the member for Stuart and we discussed her performance and the way she carries on and …
Ms CARNEY: A point of order, Madam Speaker! I know there is a lot of latitude and, if the member wants to spend the next 15 minutes having a go, I suppose he can. However, I ask the question: what does it have to do with the very statement that he is meant to be debating? I know that is a two-syllable word - you can look it up.
Madam SPEAKER: Member for Millner, relevance is actually an issue here. If you could speak as closely as possible to the statement.
Mr BONSON: I will, Madam Speaker. The Leader of the Opposition creates a negative version of what is actually happening in the Territory economy. For what benefit? For one benefit only: her own benefit of hoping one day to be Chief Minister. Well, she has two chances …
Ms Carney: Just like your mate, Mr Henderson?
Mr BONSON: She has two chances: Buckley’s and none. Anyway, talking to the member for Stuart, he said that it is like the CLP is trying to create a ‘poor bugger me’ CLP. You know what? It is true. They are going out there and saying: ‘Poor bugger me this, poor bugger me that, poor bugger me whatever’. The reality is the Leader of the Opposition, when the tables are turned, fidgets and squirms in her chair and does not like it.
We talk about our economy for a couple of reasons; it is for the benefit for all Territorians. The Chief Minister best summed it up in one of her answers in parliament. She talked about the 6.2% economic growth, 5% employment growth and the 1.7% population growth. It is duty of every member in this House to promote those fantastic outcomes led by this government, as was the outcomes in apprenticeships and traineeships.
What we have is the Canberra Liberal Party led by the Leader of the Opposition, the member for Araluen, constantly talking down Alice Springs, Darwin, the police, public servants - constantly talking down everything. Madam Speaker …
Ms Carney: Remember that time you talked down the Chief Minister in that memo? What do you reckon about that?
Madam SPEAKER: Order!
Ms Carney: Gee, you talked her down did you not? And then you leaked it.
Madam SPEAKER: Order!
Mr BONSON: Madam Speaker, thank you. The Chief Minister or any member of this government could go outside and say the sky was blue, and the Leader of the Opposition would say it was grey.
In her answer to the question on economy, the Chief Minister spoke about us being a small economy and one which can receive significant blows from small changes in the national and the international economy. That is true, it can. However, what it also can do is when the leadership group - or so-called leadership group - of the Northern Territory, whether they are in opposition or the …
Ms Carney: Misunderstanding and even hate towards the Chief Minister, wrote the member for Millner, Madam Speaker.
Madam SPEAKER: Order!
Mr BONSON: Madam Speaker, I would like to continue on speaking, but …
Ms Carney: Hate towards the Chief Minister. From one of her own. Goodness me!
Madam SPEAKER: Order! Leader of the Opposition!
Mr BONSON: Madam Speaker, that negativity pervades the thinking of the Leader of the Opposition.
However, what is the positive talk? The Chief Minister best summed it up talking about it securing our future. I quote:
- That increase is a direct result of our commitment to a Jobs Plan that provides training incentives to employers and employees. ‘
Do we ever hear the Leader of the Opposition support us, or say we are doing a good job? All we heard was her transgressions yesterday in Question Time - negative carping. It seems …
Ms Carney: It seems the opinion of supporters as well as non-supporters that the five indigenous members are not speaking out on these issues.
Madam SPEAKER: Order! Leader of the Opposition.
Dr BURNS: A point of order, Madam Speaker! Standing Order 51, Madam Speaker:
- No Member may converse aloud or make any noise or disturbance which in the opinion of the Speaker is designed to interrupt or has the effect of interrupting a Member speaking.
There have been constant interjections from the member for Araluen. Madam Speaker, I want to hear the member for Millner.
Madam SPEAKER: Order! Leader of the Opposition, there have been a number of interjections.
Ms Carney: Yes, there have, Madam Speaker.
Madam SPEAKER: I ask you cease interjecting, thank you.
Ms Carney: Yes, Madam Speaker.
Mr BONSON: Thank you, Madam Speaker. What we have here today with her performance again with interjections is the fact that she cannot take it on the chin. She has no guts, she has no gumption. What she will do is run away to her little cubbyhole down south surrounded by her negative group of individuals, and come back next sittings and behave in the exactly same way. What we want to hear is positive alternatives from the Leader of the Opposition. I believe in democracy, and it would be great to see the member for Greatorex given that opportunity ...
Ms Carney interjecting.
Mrs Miller interjecting.
Mr BONSON: I continue with the Chief Minister’s answer:
- With 2% unemployment … we have the opportunity to extend jobs right across the Territory.
Where is the Leader of the Opposition’s positive talk about that? We hear nothing; it is deafening.
Mr KIELY: A point of order, Madam Speaker! I am being distracted constantly by the Leader of the Opposition and the member for Katherine and their discussions here. I can hear their mumblings over here and I am having extreme difficulty in hearing the great contribution from the member for Millner. I draw your attention to Standing Order 51 and ask that you talk to the Leader of the Opposition about this incessant and persistent annoying behaviour.
Madam SPEAKER: The Leader of the Opposition is not interjecting at this stage. I ask the member for Millner to continue. It is a very provocative speech, member for Millner. You could be somewhat more relevant in your comments.
Mr KIELY: Speaking to the point of order, Madam Speaker, I draw your attention to Standing Order 51 which says:
- No Member may converse aloud or make any noise or disturbance which in the opinion of the Speaker is designed to interrupt or has the effect …
Madam SPEAKER: Thank you, member for Sanderson. Member for Araluen and member for Katherine, if could you perhaps speak a little more quietly in your personal conversation.
Mr BONSON: Thanks, Madam Speaker. I think the member for Johnston summed it up: a little touchy today; she has a very soft underbelly.
I continue with the answer:
- That is why the government is exploring every avenue in skills training through increased education, VET and other programs into our remote communities, our regional townships and in Darwin and Palmerston as well. That is why we are placing such an emphasis on indigenous education and training because, for the first time in a generation, we have the opportunity afforded by a strong economy to bring jobs to every Territorian.
Where is the Leader of the Opposition supporting us, as a group of individuals, representing change leadership for every individual in the Northern Territory …
Ms Carney: The five indigenous members …
Mr BONSON: … and we have no support …
Ms Carney: … in your little group?
Madam SPEAKER: Order! Leader of the Opposition.
Mr BONSON: … whatsoever from the carping, whining …
Mr WARREN: A point of order, Madam Speaker! I have difficulty hearing what the member for Millner is saying. I have hearing aids. I ask you to remind the Leader of Opposition of Standing Order 51. I am having real difficulty, as a person who wears hearing aids, in hearing what the member for Millner is saying.
Madam SPEAKER: Opposition members, I ask you to cease interjecting.
Mr BONSON: Thank you. Members of this House are showing a bit of class and politeness, something the Leader of the Opposition does not understand.
What we have also seen is the Treasurer, the member for Nhulunbuy, Mr Syd Stirling, do a fantastic job over a number of years in directing the economy. We all know the history - and the Leader of the Opposition does not like talking about history of what we took over in 2001; what the state of the economy was, what the black hole was - she was part of that too. She went through it, she does not like listening to it - yada, yada, yada. However, what we have seen is the Treasurer turn things around with a coordinated approach by the government - a leadership role driving the positive message of what we can do as a group and as a community.
I go back to one of the answers he gave in parliament. He said that Territory retail turnover grew by 9.3% in 2006 compared to 5.8% in the rest of Australia. Obviously, people in the Northern Territory have a positive outlook in where we are going. It was outperformed only by the Western Australian economy and has doubled our colleagues in South Australia. December 2005 compared to December 2006 showed a 12.5% trend turnover, an enormous outcome given the highs of 2005. He continued in his answer:
- In training volume and value terms, the Territory cracked the $2bn mark in 2006 with $2.14bn spent, a 6.2% annual increase.
All positive news; people believing that the Territory is going ahead.
Believe it or not, member for Araluen, people in Alice Springs believe this as well. All you have to do is talk to the members for Stuart and Macdonnell. They have lived there all their lives, haven’t they, member for Araluen? They have lived there all their lives, and they know more people than you do in Alice Springs. Do you know what? They do not come back with the negative messages that you promote. It is important to break down - are you packing up to go, Leader of the Opposition?
Madam SPEAKER: Order!
Mr BONSON: It is important to break down these spending patterns to see what Territorians are spending their money on. I would like to finish what the Treasurer had to say in his answer; that recreation spending alone increased by 40%, up past $7m in value. If everything is so negative, as the Leader of the Opposition would like us to think, why would people be spending money on recreation? It is because they have a positive outlook on where the Territory is going. Food spending was up by 21.8% and household goods by 12%, another independent indication that the Territory economy is moving ahead and the people in the Territory are taking a positive outlook. That is long-term Territorians, people who have a belief in the future of the Territory.
The Treasurer, a member of this House for 16 or 17 years, said that what these figures show is a confident set of consumers, confident about the future and spending on leisure and pleasure goods as well as improving their household environment.
Yet, we have members of the opposition interjecting that places like Alice Springs – great cities, great towns – are the murder capital of Australia. What type of talk is that?
The Treasurer also said that it shows a group of people happy with their future and confident in their success continuing. I agree with the Treasurer. We all know that independent indicators support this statement. It is time for every member to stand up in this House, including the members of the opposition and the Independents …
Ms Carney: Right, Matt, get your little group together.
Mr BONSON: Let us check the Leader of the Opposition. Let us put her back in her place regarding the negativity that she is causing. What she does not understand, and refuses to understand, is that this will not help her win an election. You have to be a viable alternative. You have to give the people of the Territory a choice. The choice they have is a group of individuals promoting the positive lifestyle, economy, family values of the Territory, versus the Leader of the Opposition, who continues to embarrass herself in Question Time, in adjournments and in every contribution she makes. I am very disappointed with her. She showed so much potential but, unfortunately, that potential has gone out the window.
Ms Carney: You are so funny, but it is no surprise because you really are so congenitally stupid, really.
Mr BONSON: Madam Speaker, I look forward to her contribution in the adjournment and, no doubt, she will turn it into a personal attack, even though I have tried to be really unbiased.
Madam SPEAKER: Leader of the Opposition, I ask you to withdraw that last comment, please.
Ms CARNEY: I withdraw ‘congenitally stupid’ in relation to the member for Millner, Madam Speaker.
Madam SPEAKER: Just withdraw and sit down, thank you.
Mr Bonson: Thank you for withdrawing.
Madam SPEAKER: Order!
Mr NATT (Primary Industry and Fisheries): Madam Speaker, I support the Treasurer’s statement. The Treasurer spoke of the government’s key economic commitment to deliver a strong and growing economy, with benefits for Territorians now and in the future. I am pleased to report that all areas of my Primary Industry, Fisheries and Mines portfolios are contributing to that commitment in a very positive manner. Minister Stirling spoke of the mining industry benefiting …
Ms CARNEY: A point of order, Madam Speaker! The member well knows, or should, that he cannot refer to a minister by his surname.
Madam SPEAKER: Minister, if you could refer to the minister by their title or by their electorate, please.
Mr NATT: The Treasurer spoke of the mining industry benefiting from a number of government decisions. In fact, mining, oil and gas are the Territory’s biggest and most economically valuable sector, producing in excess of $3bn annually, employing over 4000 people largely in regional areas, and accounting for 20% of the gross state product. These figures exclude the substantial impact of value added alumina and LNG processing.
Thanks to this government’s sound economic policies, a range of mining and petroleum developments and expansions are under way or planned, which will make the resources sector an even greater contribution to the Territory economy.
The Northern Territory government is committed to the long-term development of the mining sector for the benefit of all shareholders, with comprehensive exploration attractions and the mining facilitation programs in place to support further industry development. Nowhere is this more evident than the Territory’s Building the Territory’s Resource Base, or BTRB, an initiative which is funded to the value of $15.2m over four years, proportionately more than any other jurisdiction in Australia.
Since my trip to China last year, promoting the benefits of the BTRB, there have been significant increases in the number of Chinese-based minerals and exploration companies showing their interest in the Northern Territory. Before our delegation’s whirlwind visit, the majority of Chinese companies did not know the Territory existed. Recently, on 8 and 9 February, again as a direct result of the contacts made during my visit, a delegation from the influential China Chamber of Commerce of Metals, Minerals and Chemicals Importers and Exporters visited Darwin for discussions, and also inspected the GEMCO mine at Groote Eylandt. The economic potential opened up by these visits is virtually limitless and, again, all this has been due to the government’s policy of investment and exploration attraction.
While future prospects look excellent, remember that there are five world-scale mines already in the Northern Territory:
- the Callie mine, Newmont’s 400 000 ounce per annum gold mine in the Tanami, which has scope for future upside development;
- Xstrata’s McArthur River mine, one of the world’s largest zinc, lead and silver ore bodies;
- BHP Billiton’s GEMCO mine, one of the world’s largest manganese producers, if not the largest;
- Alcan Gove bauxite alumina operation, currently undergoing a major expansion in alumina production from 2 billion tonnes to 3.8 billion tonnes per annum; and
- Energy Resources of Australia’s Ranger mine, the world’s second-largest uranium mine, which provides about 12% of the world’s current uranium requirements.
Better geoscience and new mining methods have made it viable for companies to rework old claims, as is evidenced by these figures. In 2005-06, 390 000 ounces of gold were mined in the Northern Territory, with a value of $271m. That is approximately 14% of the value of all mining in the Northern Territory.
Canadian listed company, GBS Gold, consolidated gold tenements in the Pine Creek region and has announced a global resource of 3.5 million ounces. The company will spend $10m on exploration in the region this year, and has already opened two mines, one Rising Tide and the other Brocks Creek. The company is so sure about the prospectivity of this region that it also plans to open Fountain Head, Cosmo Deeps, Princess Louise, Chinese Howley and Maud Creek as well. The tenements are centred around the Union Reef mill, near Pine Creek, where the first gold pour from the region took place on 26 September last year. The extent of the GBS activities around Pine Creek is certainly unprecedented. The company will spend $34m exploring over the next five years. This means jobs, wealth to the economy, and a welcome return to the good times of Pine Creek region.
Add to GBS’s venture that of Renison Consolidated Mines, which has recommenced mining at Toms Gully. Renison made its first gold pour on 23 August 2006. You can see that, in the old days, it would have been called a gold rush. Why? Because it is just these operators that are putting the Territory back on the radar screen of the world’s gold sector.
In the Tanami Desert, Newmont Australia, which runs one of Australia’s largest gold mines at Callie, is exploring deep underground extensions to the ore body. This has already led to the discovery of increased resources to the tune of 4.3 million ounces of gold.
Regional exploration in the Tanami has been revitalised by a recent seismic survey, which was partly funded by my department as a fine example of private and public sector cooperation. This survey has already generated many new exploration targets. Other groups exploring in the Tanami such as Tanami Gold and Ord River Resources, can now take advantage of the new data to apply new exploration models. This is the very essence of modern exploration.
Meanwhile, exploration for gold in the Tennant Creek region has been revitalised by Adelaide Resources and Westgold Resources. These companies are following new exploration models and are hopeful of positive results. Once again, the Northern Territory geological survey is there and, based on the strike rate of their information to date, I am sure we will soon be hearing more about the Tennant Creek region.
There are also totally new greenfield areas under exploration as well. In the Western Arrernte region at the Tekapo prospect site on Aboriginal land near Lake Mackay, Tanami Gold recently announced a significant gold discovery. It follows work from geophysical and mapping programs undertaken by the NTGS, which highlighted the prospectivity of this virtually unexplored region. Evaluation and exploration in this remote region is continuing, but it is a greenfields area, high in interest.
In addition to the boom in gold, several other new prospects have come online; namely, the Bootu Creek manganese north of Tennant Creek which has now exported its first shipment to China; the Peko tailings treatment project at Tennant Creek, which extracts magnetite, gold, copper and cobalt; and test work by North Australia Diamonds at its Merlin Diamond Mine. Several more major developments will start construction this year and be operational within the next 12 to 19 months, including the Compass browns polymetallic project near Batchelor, the Matilda minerals sands project on Melville Island, and Territory Irons project at Frances Creek near Pine Creek.
Other major and medium scale projects are in the works including Arafura Resources, Giants rare earths and phosphate project at Nolan’s Bore, and Olympia Resources garnet sands project in Harts Range. These resource developments are being supported by rapidly expanding infrastructure that the Treasurer has already spoken about, so it is little wonder that the Territory’s economy is predicting to grow at close to 5% over the next five years – Australia’s highest growth forecast.
It is not only in the resources sector that the Territory is benefiting. In primary industry, there is also significant economic development. The pastoral industry of the Territory supports 1.8 million cattle - about 6.4% of the Australian herd. This sector of the Territory’s economy is worth in excess of $250m, or 1.5% of the total GSP. It operates on 216 properties and directly employs over 1600 people. Our cattle producers turn off 500 000 head a year from some 620 000 km2 of first-class grazing country. That means that 55% of the land mass of the Territory is given over to pastoral industry. The result is that more than 40% of Australia’s South-East Asian cattle exports come from the Territory. Last year saw 216 000 head of cattle go through the port of Darwin.
However, there is more in the primary industries than cattle, and the horticultural section has been described as a boom industry going from an annual worth in the 1980s of approximately $300 000 to more than $90m today. On top of the horticultural heap are mangoes, followed by table grapes, Asian vegetables and cut flowers and the nursery products.
The mango industry is the largest horticultural industry in the Northern Territory, generating over $40m in product sales a year. This is an impressive figure, but the industry contributes to the Territory’s overall economic performance in ways other than in product sales. The mango industry already supports hundreds of positions as owner/operators or as full-time employees, and up to 4000 seasonal workers. For each additional $1m of product in the mango industry, 3.7 jobs are created within the industry and 1.3 jobs outside of it. This makes it a vital contributor to the Territory’s economy and one that will continue to play a big part in ensuring future prosperity.
The Territory’s principle field crops – cereals, hay and pasture seed – reap $12.5m a year for our local economy, while 53 000 tonnes of hay produced annually contribute over $10m to our economy.
Lastly but by no means least, is the Northern Territory’s fishing industry. The annual Territory wild harvest fisheries catch generates approximately $33m in annual revenue. Last year, shark, mud crab and barramundi were the most valuable wild harvest fisheries.
Aquaculture in the Territory is worth $30m a year and is forecast to exceed $120m by 2010. To date, the most lucrative aquaculture sectors are barramundi and pearling. It has been established that over 40 000 non-indigenous Territory residents fish each year and that two out of every three visitors also go fishing. That equates to over $34.7m into the economy annually due to the recreational fishing, with approximately 30% being visitor provided. The flow-on effects into the Territory’s tourism industry are also significant. This was addressed earlier by the Treasurer in his statement.
Madam Speaker, as the Treasurer rightly pointed out the government made a commitment to the people of the Territory to deliver a strong, growing economy for the benefit of Territorians now and in the future. I believe that from the developments and industry projects figures and projections I have outlined, it is easy to see that the Territory is delivering on that commitment. I commended the statement to the House.
Mr WOOD (Nelson): Madam Speaker, I would like to speak on the Territory economy. We have heard a lot about lifestyle - probably too much about lifestyle this week …
Mr Henderson: You can never have enough lifestyle. There is more to life than work.
Mr WOOD: Yes, many of us probably do want more of it. However, sometimes in this we can get lost in the euphoria of a lifestyle and lose touch with reality. Of course the economy is doing well. I am not going to get up here and say that it is not doing well. We have gas, tourism, construction, the railway, mining, and retail although, in some areas, especially Darwin, that is a bit dubious. You just have to go around the mall and look at the number of shops that are empty and have not been re-let. In some other areas, we are doing very well - horticulture and agriculture as the member for Drysdale mentioned. The economy is doing well, and there is no doubt about it that many people in the Northern Territory are benefiting from that.
However, it is not right for the government to say ‘everything is rosy’, and people can say, ‘Oh, this is terrific’. We are forgetting that we are developing an underclass. That underclass of people is the people who are trying to buy a home. We are glossing over the fact that house affordability is a major issue. It is a major issue for Aboriginal people. We have mentioned the shortage of houses in the Northern Territory. Is that a lifestyle we are cheering? I hope not. What about the affordability in other areas of the Territory? The minister said in his statement:
The Housing Industry Association, in their regular economic reviews, are positive to glowing about the economy and its immediate future. On any assessment of the economic data available, these descriptions are hard to dispute.
Then the minister went on further in his statement and said:
- The real estate property market is in a period of historic growth. Average retail prices for houses and units have increased. In the 12 months to June 2006, house prices have increased: Darwin 22%, Palmerston 23.8%, and Alice Springs 8%. Unit prices have increased: Darwin 33%, Palmerston 37.8%, and Alice Springs 13.5%. Those figures provide a very solid return on the investment made by property owners.
The Territory rental market has reached historical lows in vacancy levels and has seen the generation of building activity to provide more houses and units. As at June 2006, rental vacancies for Darwin were houses 1.8%, units 1.7%; in Palmerston, houses were 2.5%, and units, 0.8%. You would not want to be looking for a unit in Palmerston at the moment; it would suggest that there is not a lot of choice. In Alice Springs, vacancy rates were houses 4.3% and units 2.5%.
I rest my case.
This government is putting forward that that is wonderful because the minister said how wonderful it is for a solid return on the investment made by property owners. I do not say the property owners should not get a reasonable return for the property, but let us get this into perspective. The Australian Property Monitors looked at the price of housing and came out with these figures: from December quarter 2004 to December quarter 2005, adjusted house prices in Darwin went up 20.9%. Do not tell me that is not a pretty good return for your investment. In the next quarter, it went up, and again I quote: ‘17.1%’. A 38% increase in housing prices! I do not believe that is a fair thing when it comes to …
Mr Stirling: What do you do? Do you control it? Do you cap it?
Mr WOOD: No. You are putting all your – you are creating …
Mr Stirling: You have a centralist economy; you say how much it can go up.
Mr WOOD: No, I am not saying people should not get a fair return. What we are getting is extremely high returns that are causing young people not to be able to afford a home - and your government is avoiding it. You have given us glowing reports of the economy. In my case, it is coming close to home. My daughter has come home with her three children because of high rentals. I do not believe she is the only one.
Look at the cost of land. Pull out some advertising information from the website. Here we go. ‘Land, land and more land’. This is it, Farrar from $160 000 in Farrar. About three years ago, it was about $70 000. Who is doing this? A new suburb on the CBD’s door step - 756 m2, $172 000. What is left to build a house? If you go with HomeNorth you have a $70 000 house. I spoke to a builder the other day. If you are allowed to build a budget home in Palmerston - and you are not because the covenants restrict it, which is another area the government should look at, a budget home - that is a two- or three-bedroom house, with toilet and shower down the hallway, not en suites, just a lounge and a kitchen, basic house: $160 000.
Even if you could build one of those, you just hit $330 000. The price of land has just got out of hand, and do not forget your government sold that land to the developers. You had the power in the first place. In Rosebery, it is $255 000 for an 803 m2 parcel of land, which you can put a duplex on. In Rosebery: 684 m2 blocks, $175 000. This is just a joke. How can you stand there and say the economy is terrific and, on the other hand, say there are some issues? Who said in the government that there are not some issues?
Minister, I believe you praise the economy and praise house prices going up, and you keep saying it is terrific. I do not mind if you say that, but what are we really doing to help the young people? It is in your hands. The HomeNorth scheme, while it is good, does not fix the problem because the price of housing is so high that the HomeNorth scheme will not fit. Even it did fit, what you are saying is that we do not mind people going into debt for the rest of their life. That is what you are saying. We should be able to give our young people the opportunity to buy a house and some land at a reasonable price so it does not mean that most of their income has to be turned into paying for their houses.
The cost of houses is another issue we need to look at. Graham Kemp, Housing Industry Association NT Branch Manager, said the average Darwin house is now $414 000 and units are $276 000. The price of houses is just getting out of hand if you want to build a new house. How much of that is due to covenants that are unrealistic for young people starting to build their house? How much has that to do with regulations? Is house construction over-regulated? I do not know, but I will give you an example of why the government should review the regulatory building processes to houses.
I asked a building certifier the other day if I could replace a sliding window in my house with a louvred window. You would not think that would be too hard; you ring the glass man and ask him to put louvres in. I have to go and get an engineer to draw a plan for my window. Then, I have to have that checked by the certifier, put in by the glass manufacturer, then checked by the certifier.
One knows that when you build a house in Darwin there is a specification for building houses, so, if you want to put in a window, there would be a specification that says if you have a hole in your wall this big, you will require this size window frame with this thickness glass. That is what the requirement is. Why do you need an engineer? The glass person says they will put one in according to the specification. The building inspector comes along and says you have put one in according to that specification, end of story. We have a third tier of cost in there, which is an engineer. Some of you may say that is how the world goes today.
The government should be seeing whether its own regulations are putting extra costs on the building and construction of houses, because I believe that is an important area. We want to ensure our houses stand up in cyclones, for sure, but if we have specifications that say this is how you build the house, why do you need to have an engineer at every turn in the construction process?
I am told that, if you want to build a $160 000 budget home in Palmerston, you could not. Why? Because the covenants will not allow you. The house has to have a lovely, non-energy efficient coloured roof, like red and blue. We talk about energy efficiency in this parliament, and we allow, basically, those people to have the freedom to do what they like. However, I am sure that they have the freedom. I believe the covenant says you have to have a coloured roof, and you have to mix and match to make the suburb look nice. However, in reality, red, blue and dark green are not the right colours for a roof in the tropics. It should be trying to reflect the heat, not absorb it.
Then there is probably the style of the house, whether it has an en suite, etcetera. Again, there is an opportunity for government to look at allowing budget homes to be built. Of course, they have to be built up to a nice standard, but there is room for allowing cheaper homes to be built.
The government has to stop drip-feeding land. As a builder said to me today, there will be land, say 900 blocks, possibly available in Palmerston. The government will build 100, 100, 100, and 100. Why not put the 900 out? Why not? What is wrong with seeing a few ‘For sale’ signs on a vacant block for a couple of years? That used to be the norm once. Now, the government has control; it is controlling the market. It does that because it owns the land.
Minister, I believe you also need to look at unit prices. Again, you just have to go to the figures I quoted from the Australian Property Monitors. In two years, unit prices in Darwin, from the December quarter 2004 to December quarter 2005, went up 24%. I hope someone’s wages went up that much, because I do not see many people with wages going up that high. From December 2005 to December 2006, unit prices went up another 24%. In two years, unit prices have nearly doubled in Darwin. I do not mind people having a return, but tell me how many people got their wages doubled to pay for the rent that is required to cover these, or to buy one of these or just to be in a house?
These are the issues that I would like government to address. I have heard two ministers say: ‘Oh, if we will release more land we will upset the market’. Just for starters, the people that you are talking about cannot buy the land. They are the ones renting. They are the ones living in my house. A lot of other people are having the same - not so much a problem; I do not mind my grandchildren in my house. That is what is happening. I heard on the radio recently where the Grandparents Association are asking the federal government if they can get some carer’s allowance, because many young people are now staying with their parents because they cannot afford to buy a house. I believe it is coming home to the Northern Territory.
The issue about the availability of land can be simply looked at. The government releases land for first home owners. It can do that with either a private development that has come from the government auctioning off its own land, where it leaves a certain number of blocks out of that sale. It asks the developer to provide the infrastructure and works out a deal to provide land for that developer. So people do not think these people are going to get a cheap block, you then put a covenant on the block. Someone has to build a house within two or three years, and you cannot sell the block. You cannot just buy an investment for making money; you have to hang onto the block for at least 10 years. If you do want to sell it due to circumstances beyond your control, you may have to sell it straight back to the government at a set price.
You are not trying to upset the existing market, you are trying to allow Territorians to own a piece of property so they can raise their family - not a tiny, midget little block, a reasonably sized block. You have the land to do it. You have land in Palmerston and in the city of Weddell. You keep saying Weddell is years off, but the way we are going at the moment, I believe we should be seriously looking at opening up Weddell.
We have plenty of land in the rural area; we could be opening up one hectare blocks. What is holding up development of that style of living in the rural area is that we are not getting the headworks that allow infrastructure to move into those areas. One hectare blocks require town water. When was the last time you saw any infrastructure, any headworks, put in by the government, by Power and Water? A long time ago - probably Humpty Doo is about the last time there was anything was done to extend water into the rural area. The government has a role there to actually extend some of the infrastructure, notwithstanding the developer will have to put infrastructure in as well. However, headworks is the role of the government, not the developers.
Another sign of the times and another area we should be looking at is public housing. I know some people think public housing causes lots of problems, but there is a real need for public housing. There will always be a need for public housing. Yet, the government is selling off some of its public housing, and we have a decreasing housing stock. The problem is that, when it is difficult for people to find a block of land or to buy a unit or a house already existing on a block of land, people are going to look to the government for housing. That is exactly why we have public housing. Yet, if you look at Darwin and Casuarina waiting times, it is 27 months for a one-bedroom, non-pensioner unit. For a pensioner unit it is 23 months. For a two-bedroom unit, you have to wait 26 months. For a three-bedroom unit - 30 months. You are getting on to two-and-a-half years before a house is available for a family that might require a three-bedroom house. If you want a one-bedroom, non-pensioner unit in Alice Springs, you have to wait 38 months – over three years. In Nhulunbuy, you have to wait 50 months – four years.
I believe the government has a responsibility. If it says: ‘Great economy, let the market go. We are not that concerned about the cost of land and housing’, then it needs to provide alternatives. If needs to provide alternatives by opening up more land for first home owners, and providing more public housing so that people can find a place. It needs to provide land for permanent caravan parks. That is going to be an option that many people are going to have to have, simply because they cannot find a place to live.
One area that we are forgetting in all of this is the social effects of having to pay large amounts of one’s income towards the cost of buying a house. This research paper came out in February 2006, called Housing Affordability in Australia. It is by Judith Yates and Michelle Gabriel for the Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute. It talked about housing stress. What it is referring to is the stress caused by the requirements of many people to pay between 30% and 50% of their income towards their house. The biggest group that is stressed is the family, followed by the sole parent. By far, 63% of people who are under stress because of mortgage repayments are families. We are not taking into account half of that.
We are talking in glowing terms about our economy; how it is creating jobs, etcetera. However, how many people trying to pay for the mortgage are working long hours - both parents? What effect is that having on young children? The society that praises high housing costs, high mortgages, and high repayments – because that is what you are saying when you believe that these increases are great – you are saying: ‘We do not mind people having to work long hours, and we do not mind our children not having mum and dad around as much as possible’. We know that in this society in general people work much longer hours. It is always strange to me, having studied economics way back in the late 1960s and told when the invention of the computer was coming in we would have more relaxation time. I believe that the total opposite has occurred, and people now work much longer hours.
What effect is that going to have on our young children? What effect is it going to have on our society? We have talked many times here about law and order, youth and gangs. Yet, what is the underlying cause for a lot of that? It is the breakdown of families. What is the reason for a breakdown of families? Is it the stress? Is it the grog abuse that is sometimes caused by the stress? Is it families that sometimes might not be able to budget their money either? It is stress. That is one area we should be having great concerns about it. It should be mentioned when we are talking about lifestyle.
Finally, in the last minute I will talk about Aboriginal housing. We cannot stand here and say what a wonderful lifestyle Territorians have if we know many of our people are not adequately housed. I know the member for Barkly is doing his best to change that. It is important to recognise that, and I congratulate that member for that. However, you must not lose touch with reality. The reality is - and it is in my electorate as well, believe it or not - that the standard of housing is extremely poor. There is much overcrowding and that is caused by many things as well. If we are to say: ‘Yippee, what a great Territory lifestyle’, and we do not make mention of these other issues, then we are just kidding ourselves and we are fooling the public. We should not be doing that as parliamentarians.
Debate suspended.
VISITORS
Madam SPEAKER: Honourable members, I draw your attention to the presence in the gallery of visitors to the Parliament House as part of the public education tour program. On behalf of all honourable members, I extend to you a very warm welcome.
Members: Hear, hear!
DISTINGUISHED VISITOR
Mr David Tollner MP
Mr David Tollner MP
Madam SPEAKER: Honourable members, I draw your attention to the presence in the gallery of the federal member for Solomon, Mr Dave Tollner. On behalf of honourable members, I extend to you a very warm welcome.
Members: Hear, hear!
MOTION
Note Statement - Building the Territory’s Future: An Economic Progress Report
Note Statement - Building the Territory’s Future: An Economic Progress Report
Continued from earlier this day.
Mr STIRLING (Treasurer): Madam Speaker, I thank members who took the time to contribute to this debate. Before I go to the comments I have gathered together from the last time we spoke to this motion, I want to pick up on the speakers immediately prior to lunch. That was the minister for Mines and his rundown of recent mining activity, particularly in relation to mines that have reopened old works, and new mines opening, or about to open. The list was impressive, right across the Northern Territory, particularly, I suppose, regarding gold.
It stands in stark contrast to the warnings from the CLP opposition around three years ago when we made some changes around the taxation treatment of exploration exemption certificates. I well recall the warnings that mining would cease in the Northern Territory, exploration would immediately be abandoned, and that would be the end of new mines. Well, what a different picture we had from the minister for Mines today in relation to old works being reopened, new mines being opened, and the strength of the mining sector in general in the Northern Territory. It stands in stark contrast to the comments made, particularly by the former member for Drysdale, I recall, in his criticisms around the removal of the exploration exemption certificates.
I want to go that question of first home ownership that the member for Nelson was railing against immediately prior to lunch. He really castigated the government for bringing about a growth economy. I find that astonishing in itself, because the increase of housing prices that we have seen of recent times reflects just that - the economic growth of the Northern Territory and the growth of the population. The member for Nelson must think that is bad thing. What would his view be if house prices stabilised for three or four years? Maybe he might not think that is bad thing. What if they were to slump dramatically by 30% in the space of six months? Would that be a good thing? I believe he would think that would be a bad thing. He is going to have a crack at you whatever happens in the housing market: either it is going too strong, or it is not going strongly enough.
We hear a lot about first home buyers; it was on the radio this morning. I have done a few media interviews with a couple of commentators. It was particularly around this first home ownership, and how difficult it is for them to get into the market. Well, we today remain the second most affordable jurisdiction for home ownership in the whole of Australia.
Mr Wood: Least affordable.
Mr STIRLING: The second most affordable jurisdiction in the whole of Australia …
Mr Wood: No. That is not …
Mr STIRLING: … just narrowly shaded by the ACT. Within the home owner mix, we have the highest percentage of first home owners in the home buying mix of anyone in Australia - the most number of first home buyers in the Northern Territory, compared to anyone else. First home buyers already realise a saving of more than $8000, because they do not have to pay any stamp duty on the first $225 000 of the purchase price of the house.
Mr Wood: The market runs the show, not the government.
Mr STIRLING: Well, the member for Nelson needs to tell me exactly when there was a time when it was easy for first home buyers to enter the market.
Mr Wood: Many years ago in the Territory.
Mr STIRLING: It has never been easy for that first home buyer to purchase that first home, I do not care what the market does.
Mr Wood: It has. You set aside some land, northern suburbs and first suburbs of Palmerston.
Mr STIRLING: It has never been the easy thing. It is not called the great Australian dream for nothing. The great Australian dream – to own your own home. It has always been a struggle. Many times, first home buyers buy a unit. They get equity in the unit, pay a bit of it off and the place grows in value, and they move into a house, and up they go through the market. Eventually, when their kids leave home, they start to downsize again. It is a natural progression through the market that has occurred throughout Australian history. There is nothing new about that.
The other criticism is about land availability. It is available now and will continue to become available with further releases. The other criticism raised by the member for Nelson was this thrown-around figure of 5% CPI. Well, CPI in the Northern Territory touched 5% in the December quarter last year, recorded in that December quarter - 5% against a year-to-year of 4.4%. Of course, it does not suit the member for Nelson or the CLP opposition - of which he is most often more closely a part - to refer to the truth of the CPI movement over 2006, which is 4.4% not 5%. Over 2% of that 5% recorded in the December quarter was directly related to housing and fed into that CPI figure.
The most recent REINT figures - and I have spoke about this last week - show a 3.9% decrease in the median price of a Darwin home. That suggests that we are already starting to see a moderation and a stabilisation of prices …
Mr Wood: On a very high base.
Mr STIRLING: … which will feed directly into the next quarterly CPI, and the one behind that. I reiterate - and the member for Nelson does not want to hear this - we are the second most affordable jurisdiction in Australia for housing …
Mr Wood: Not true – 40th least affordable in the world.
Mr STIRLING: For housing, the second most affordable jurisdiction. Go to Victoria, Melbourne, Sydney, and try to get into the market compared to here – the second most affordable jurisdiction in Australia. It has been the most affordable for many years, and we will become the most affordable again in the next six to nine months or so. We have the highest number of first home buyers in the purchasing mix of any state or territory.
Economic growth is set to be 6.2% again this financial year, employment is growing at around over 5%, over the last year we have created around 6000 jobs, and over 2000 of those were apprentices and trainees. Unemployment is 2%, population growth is 1.7%. As I said in my remarks about housing, that is the sign of an economy growing in a strong and sustainable way.
I note with a little concern that, on what was a major statement, the only comment from the opposition was made by the member for Blain. His contribution consisted of an attempt to say that the state of economy did not have anything to do with this government and, then, a joke about the disclaimer on the bottom of a DPI publication. I did not think it was either useful or notable in its content. However, I thank my colleagues for the positive comments and contributions, each demonstrating the commitment of various parts of government to continuing this strong economic growth created over the last five years.
I said in October we inherited an economic basket case from the Country Liberal Party. We have turned that around. It has taken hard work and a lot of effort, but the results are there to be seen. The principles underlying our actions remain to provide a high level of cash for capital works and infrastructure, to focus funds on economic drivers to produce future growth, to make sensible and strategic reductions to taxation on business in the community, and to maintain the strong fiscal discipline commented on favourably, I might add, by the Auditor-General in his report. I thank him for that comment.
Over the last five budgets, that strategy has formed a core of our decision-making and our economic action. It has seen $2.7bn in cash for infrastructure, investment in the economic drivers of tourism and roads, a reduction of taxes by $74m with $134m more to come over this term, and this government delivered four budget surpluses as part of the careful fiscal management plans.
However, the Territory economy remains a difficult one, because it is small, and a cough somewhere around us can mean a very heavy cold for us. For example, the threat of SARS alone saw a massive impact on our tourism, including the cancellation of the Arafura Games in 2003. Any downturn in the national economy could see a considerable tightening of our financial position. Any decision by the Commonwealth Grants Commission to tighten our relativities, even by a very small margin, would have the same effect. We are an economy subject to significant change by the actions of others, and that is why we have to manage effectively this current period of strong growth, because we have to use this opportunity to broaden our economic base. That means diversifying our industries. We can see that happening with greenfield developments, businesses in the Darwin Business Park and so on. We have to ensure that our skills base is broad. As the Chief Minister said recently, the government is using the opportunity afforded by 2% unemployment to move more and more people into the workforce through effective training.
We are using the opportunity afforded by national economic growth, as well as our local growth, to retire debt where we can and to reduce the overall debt position. It is critical that the government reduce those extremely high debt levels that we inherited. The key indicator is debt and employee liabilities compared to revenue. We currently sit at around 113%. We want this to be ultimately reduced to below 100%. It will take some time but we have managed to reduce it from the high of 142% in 1998, so we are headed in the right direction.
What is constantly pushing against that is the revision upwards of superannuation liabilities. They are increased as a result of people living longer; that is a good thing. We accommodate this upward revision by tightening our expenditure and preparing for this long-term support. It is discipline today which will reduce the problem accommodating costs such as those later on. Governments do not govern just for the now - at least this government does not - we govern for the future. Careful management of the economy is about creating a better, stronger future for our children and beyond. It is about delivering now on lifestyle but, more importantly, equally importantly, it is protecting, supporting and enhancing that lifestyle into the future. It is about being responsible, saying yes to what is necessary and no to what cannot be afforded. It is a job we have undertaken reasonably well for five-and-a-bit years.
We have done it well for as broad a group of Territorians as we can, and we have done it without favouring just a few. Certainly, the Silver Circle is a term that has not been used in the duration of this government but, quite liberally and meaningfully used in the last years of the Country Liberal Party. We have tried to ensure those left behind before are brought along with the modern Territory. I know the Country Liberal Party will never acknowledge those achievements, or in any way recognise those efforts. I look at the results of the economy each day. I am satisfied that we have achieved much through hard work and good fiscal management. Madam Speaker, there is always more to do and we are getting on with that job.
Motion agreed to; statement noted.
MOTION
Note Statement - Invasive Species and Management Program in the Northern Territory, Interim Report -
Sessional Committee on the Environment and Sustainable Development
Note Statement - Invasive Species and Management Program in the Northern Territory, Interim Report -
Sessional Committee on the Environment and Sustainable Development
Continued from 29 November 2006.
Mr KNIGHT (Daly): Madam Speaker, I provide some brief comments in relation to the Sessional Committee on Environment and Sustainable Development of which I am a member. This committee was set up at the start of the parliament in August 2005, and I was delighted to be a part of it. It has taken on quite a challenging area of problems within the Territory, and ones that are quite relevant to my electorate. It is probably prudent to comment on the terms of reference of the committee that are specifically looking at invasive species and management programs.
The committee was referred to some specific areas:
- (1) The Northern Territory's capacity to prevent new incursions of invasive species, and to implement effective eradication and management programs for such species already present; and
(2) that the committee in its inquiry will:
- (a) begin its investigations by engaging the scientific community to conduct a scientific summit on invasive species;
- (b) use case studies to inform the analysis, and will draw its case studies from a range of invasive species;
- (c) while investigating the value of control programs, focus on community-based manage-ment programs for weeds and feral animal control; and
(d) as a result of its investigations and analysis, will recommend relevant strategies and protocols for government in dealing with future incursions and current problem species.
It is a fairly broad terms of reference but it is very significant. It is very significant for me, as a member for a bush rural seat where weeds are, quite frankly, almost everywhere if you know what they look like. Invasive species, obviously, refers to both plant, animal and aquatic species.
One of the biggest problems is gamba grass in my electorate around the rural area and out towards the area around Adelaide River.
Ngurr burr is one significant weed that has plagued the Victoria River District up as far as Kalkarindji, I think, now. It is an horrendous weed which restricts both animal and human access to the river banks.
The cane toad is something that, being from Katherine, we have had experience with for several years. Obviously, their move into Darwin has brought it to the attention of people living in Darwin and the rural area.
As I detailed in the terms of reference, the committee was to engage with the scientific community and going to the public for their views. The committee was very well supported in this role by the staff of Legislative Assembly. It is prudent to note the extreme amount of work that they provided. They provided research papers on international structures, federal structures, and Northern Territory structures to do with invasive species and produced a representative chart of the links between the international, Australian and Northern Territory structures to see where they linked up and where they did not. That was a huge body of work. They also looked at a gap analysis for weeds incursion management in the Northern Territory, Northern Territory Vertebrate Pest Management Strategy and the vertebrate pest animals of the Northern Territory. It was a huge body of work they did, and the support they provide to the committee is certainly worth noting and is unparalleled.
One of the first things that was evident was that we had to get out and talk to people. This happened over the last part of last year by way of a whole number of public consultations and in-house meetings at Parliament House. The committee travelled to Jabiru, Katherine, and the rural area at Humpty Doo covering the Litchfield area, we have had some round tables here in Darwin and some public hearings. The round tables involve the professional, scientific community. It was a broad range that we got together with.
At the Jabiru public hearing, we had representatives from the Department of Environment and Heritage, staff from Kakadu National Park and also other professional staff from the Office of the Supervising Scientist. They were fantastic presentations, primarily presentations from Buck Salou and Anne Ferguson on mimosa. I know from my experience that mimosa is a certainly an horrendous weed. You cannot leave it alone; you have to keep attacking it. The work they are doing is great. It is Commonwealth money and a lot of money goes into Kakadu. It would be nice to see that sort of money across the rest of Territory to tackle mimosa throughout the Top End. Salvinia and a number of other aquatic weeds were discussed. There was a bit of discussion about cane toads coming in and the impact they had on goannas and smaller frogs in Kakadu. That produced a great deal of information for the committee.
We had a consultative session at Taminmin High School, covering the Litchfield area. There were some great presentations from market farmers out there, and from the Top End Native Plant Society. That sector had particular interests. Whereas one group of people would see a particular plant as a weed, others saw it differently. The control of those weeds was something they certainly saw differently, so it was good to have the views of those groups.
The next public hearing we had was a round table in Parliament House, and that included a diverse range of professionals from the Charles Darwin University, the Department of Natural Resources, Environment and Arts, and Primary Industry. We had many professional staff from NRETA, especially from the Weeds Branch. We had senior scientists and principal scientists from Wildlife Management. The National Weeds Management Facilitator, John Thorp, came all the way from Tasmania to tell us what he knew. We also had the director of the Invasive Animals CRC. That was a long day. There was quite a lot of information presented, and I believe members were given a great deal of information that provided a greater perspective on the problem, not only in the Northern Territory, but across borders and across Australia, of the significance of invasive species.
The public hearing we conducted in Darwin brought together both professional and private interests. We had the Chairman of the Parks and Wildlife Advisory Committee, and the Top End Chairperson of the NT Cattlemen’s Association. The presentation by Tony Searle was fantastic. He certainly brought a great deal of personal experience with his efforts out at Coastal Plains tackling mimosa. We had the local aquarium plant and fish aquaculturists who came along, also Scoot from the Pet Industry Association of Australia, who gave us quite a bit of information. He is a pet store owner, and it was his perspective from that retail side of things to do with, primarily, aquatic invasive species. I believe that, from discussions of those issues he highlighted, we can, hopefully, put them into some recommendations in the final report.
Kezia Purick is the CEO of the NT Minerals Council. They gave a perspective, not only particularly for the mining industry, but the extractive industry as well - operators working gravel pits. For anybody who has been around a gravel pit, you can find most of the hyptis and mission grass and whole range of weeds that tend to perpetuate those areas of extractive industries.
We had staff from GHD, an engineering environmental company, a PhD candidate from the Shine Laboratory from the University of Sydney, and a senior research fellow from the School of Environmental Research at the Charles Darwin University.
One other person from my electorate, John Lewis, who works for Compass Resources as a geologist, has a keen interest in gamba grass. The people of the Batchelor and Adelaide River area have got together and formed a Gamba Action Group, and they did it quite constructively. They have a whole range of interests on that committee, including agriculturalists, pastoralists, environmentalists, and councils, to try to curb the problem of gamba grass in that area. AFANT was represented by their chief executive. We had the NLC represented by Ian Brown, talking about the land and sea ranger program, and Justine Yanner also talked about the same thing.
Greening Australia was represented by their CEO. I just mentioned the Gamba Action Group and Jaemie Page is the key driving force behind that group. He works for Greening Australia as the coordinator of Humid Tropics. Jaemie is a fantastic person. The committee members gained a good insight into what he thinks needs to be done with gamba grass. I tend to support Jaemie’s view on those things. Obviously, the committee will make its deliberations. Jaemie, as I said, does a great deal of work with gamba grass in the Coomalie area.
We also had representatives from the World Wide Fund for Nature, including the program leader for biodiversity policy. The last person who came was Graeme Sawyer from FrogWatch. In that one hearing, which stretched over a very long day, we had a huge range of people providing information to the committee, and also providing a great deal of written material.
It is probably worthwhile noting - and I know it will be a bit long - what sort of and the extent of information that is coming to the committee for consideration for their final report. I believe, to date, the committee has received over 40 written submissions from various private and professional people.
I will run through the submissions so people can see what sort of coverage we have been getting to make our deliberations and final report: Sean Meaney is a private individual from Darwin; the Katherine Town Council; Mr Duncan Dean from Palmerston, who is quite well known; Nhulunbuy Corporation Ltd; Jabiru Town Council; Mr Mick Denigan, from Mick’s Whips and Leather Goods in the Fly Creek area of the rural area; Parks and Wildlife Advisory Council; Mr Greg Chapman, who is fairly well known in the rural area for his work with the Greens Party and various other environmental groups; the Nursery Garden Industry Northern Territory; Greening Australia NT; the Gamba Action Group Northern Territory; Indigenous Land Corporation; the Department of Primary Industry, Fisheries and Mines; Mr Rod Cramer from Alice Springs; Ms Jacinda Brown from Batchelor; Mr George Watts from Batchelor; CSIRO Entomology Area through its deputy chief, Dr Mark Lonsdale; the Darwin Regional Weeds Advisory Committee; the Local Government Association of the Northern Territory; the Australian and New Guinea Fishers Association Incorporated; the Pet Industry Association of Australia with quite a lengthy submission; Professor Helen Garnett through the Charles Darwin University; the Department of Business, Economic and Regional Development; the NT Fisheries Council; Power and Water; World Wide Fund for Nature; Northern Land Council Caring for Country Unit; Environment Centre NT; the School of Environmental Research at CDU; Pets Village through its proprietor, Martin Woodrow; the Arafura Timor Research Unit; the Centralian Land Management Association; Senator Ian Campbell; the Girraween Lagoon Landcare Group; Top End Native Plant Association; Northern Territory Minerals Council; the Pastoral Land Board; the Katherine Regional Weed Advisory Committee; the Victoria River District Conservation Association Incorporated; the Sporting Shooters Association of Australia Incorporated; the Amateur Fishing Association of the Northern Territory; and the Department of Natural Resources, Environment and the Arts.
You can see that the committee has been working hard. It has been getting the views of people out there, both private and public. It has travelled across the Northern Territory having meetings up and down the track to get information to make its final deliberation.
Invasive species are very significant in the Northern Territory. We have a huge land mass and a relatively small population and small budget. Weed incursions tend to be quite significant because they tend to get away from us because we cannot tackle them. We certainly need to look at them in a different light. They have a huge impact environmentally; we know that. The social and economic impacts are even greater because we are now seeing land prices, particularly pastoral properties not only in the rural area but all the way down the track, which have tripled in value over the last few years. Pastoralists are certainly keener to clean up areas of weeds because it means they have more productive areas from which to draw an income.
Councils are looking at this problem because if they leave an area unchecked it becomes a greater problem. I thought we had some sort of cost benefit analysis, and I believe that figure was something like if you spend $1 today it means you do not have to spend $38 in the future. That is certainly the lessons that we have learned with so many things. People talk about a few little shrubs of mimosa out on the Oenpelli floodplains in the 1960s or 1970s. It has been heavily worked on over the last few years, but that whole floodplain was full of impenetrable mimosa, 10 to 15 feet high, in a very short time. Getting in early, spending the money, and doing the job now is certainly the way to go.
Madam Speaker, I thank my fellow members of the committee. We have a lot of work to do to produce the final report. I am sure the public of the Northern Territory will benefit from the work we have done thus far.
Mr BONSON (Millner): Madam Speaker, I contribute to the interim report of the Sessional Committee on Environment and Sustainable Development. The focus is invasive species and management programs. No doubt, the opposition members will contribute shortly, but it is appropriate for me to thank a number of people for the hard work they do behind the scenes – Terry Hanley and Maria Viegas. They work tirelessly behind the scenes organising meetings, taking correspondence, sending out letters, advising community groups and individuals across the Northern Territory on what the environment committee is doing and what our goals are, and where a public hearing could be held.
I listened intently to the member for Daly’s contribution. As a first time member of this House, he has taken up a role in committee and has shown a great aptitude for many of the rural and remote area issues, particularly in the cattle industry. He has an interest in weeds and other issues that affect all Territorians right across the board. I also recognise the qualifications of the current Chair. People may not be aware, but every member in this House brings something different or unique to the table. On the committee we have the member for Daly who has a background in rural and remote areas; I am a solicitor; the Opposition Whip, Dr Lim, with medical experience and a degree behind him; and our Chairperson, who has a number of degrees. Arguably, only the member for Johnston could match his qualifications. The Chair’s qualifications include a Bachelor of Applied Science in Geology, Master of Geoscience in Geotechnical Engineering and a Master of Science in Mineral Economics. That tells me that the Environment Committee, a very important committee, is in safe and experienced hands. We all come to this parliament with our life and our work experience.
From talking to the member for Goyder, I understand that he has 30 years of experience in remote and rural areas, not only of the Northern Territory but Australia and the world, working with many different groups from many different cultural backgrounds. He brings a scientific approach. I have conversations with him and he talks about the committee taking a self-educative approach to collecting the evidence. The one thing that my law degree taught me was how to teach myself. When he talked about a self-educative approach to collecting evidence, I fully understood what he is talking about because it is about educating ourselves from the evidence provided to us about what is important to the environment, the sessional committee, the people of the Territory, and to the future of the Territory and how this House, through the report and, hopefully, acting on the recommendations, can improve people’s lifestyles. Improving people’s lifestyles is a very important thing.
If you look at the history of the environment committee, a former member, the member for Karama, is now a minister. It has definitely been a launching pad for people in gaining experience and a profile to an elevation in this House and to Cabinet. If you have a look at the member for Goyder with his academic qualifications, work experience and his approach and fever, I suppose the only criticism you might level at him is that maybe he is trying a little too hard. Match him up against the Leader of the Opposition, any member of the opposition, any member of Cabinet, and he has the work experience, scientific background and knowledge in a purely academic field. The issue, of course, is gaining the experience to go on and do bigger and better things, and this is what chairing such a committee allows you to do.
I note the member for Daly’s contribution about the public hearings in Tennant Creek, Alice Springs, Jabiru, Katherine, Litchfield and, most recently, Darwin. I attended all of those except, unfortunately, the Tennant Creek public hearing. I enjoyed travelling all over the Northern Territory and collecting evidence that was important. What appears to be emerging, of course, is the balancing act of the number of evasive species that have come to the shores of Australia - vertebrate, weed or plant and other introduced species such as feral animals. The balancing act is prioritising where you will target most effectively the resources of the Northern Territory government, the Commonwealth government and the NGOs that are interested in these areas.
The reality is, the more and more evidence we gather, what we are finding is that there are literally hundreds to thousands of invasive species throughout the whole of Australia that are having an effect on our natural environment. We know of one famous one, which is the cane toad. I was proud to be a part of that inquiry. We covered many different things, which have helped the people of urban and rural Darwin areas to deal with cane toads.
The reality is to come up with schemes, mechanisms and processes which, for want of a better way to describe it, deliver the biggest bang for our buck. The membership of the committee is very interested in doing that, which includes the opposition and Independents, particularly the member for Greatorex and the Independent member for Nelson, who have a keen interest in the environment - both of them as former members from the last parliamentary process, and in their previous lives and in their general interest for the Territory. I reflect positively on their contribution, and I enjoy working with them.
This committee will continue to hear evidence for a period of time, Hopefully, we will come together and organise ourselves in a way that we can come up with a joint report, that reports mechanisms that are beneficial to the Northern Territory, and that we can say jointly that we agree on. Again, it is about prioritising what we focus on to achieve the biggest bang for our buck. I know that the Chair, with his work experience and academic qualifications, has been working tirelessly to ensure that all the groups necessary, not only throughout the Northern Territory but Australia, have had the opportunity to produce evidence. I am sure the member for Katherine will also reflect on that in her contribution.
Madam Speaker, without further ado, I believe the work from the environment committee on invasive species and management programs has been very positive so far. I am looking forward to coming out with some real results, and to those results being picked up by the Environment minister, the member for Arafura, reflecting the fact that the people of the Northern Territory are keen on the environment, and are interested in what is best for the future of Territorians, their families and their lifestyles.
Ms SCRYMGOUR (Natural Resources, Environment and Heritage): Madam Speaker, I welcome the progress report of the sessional committee inquiry into invasive species and management programs in the Northern Territory. I am pleased to report that officers in my Department of NRETA have enthusiastically cooperated with this inquiry, as the issue is one of profound significance to the future of our biodiversity, to our broader landscapes and environments of the Northern Territory, and our sustainable production from both the land and water. I look forward to the findings of this inquiry and I encourage the committee members to be innovative and forward looking as they grapple with the many complex aspects of this issue and develop recommendations for consideration by this House.
I would like to highlight three areas that deserve some attention by the committee. We need an appropriate legislative base to deal effectively with invasives; administrative processes that allow rapid decision-making in response if needed; and broad community understanding and support to allow us to take action. The invasive issue is one that is growing in importance. While government can provide resources and direction, this is a problem that government alone cannot solve. Broad community and industry sector understanding, support and cooperation are required.
The member for Goyder has raised issues such as the possible catastrophic release of aquarium fish into our ecosystem. Such an example highlights the cooperation required between government agencies, such as NRETA and DPIFM, the role of the pet industry, and the need for community education regarding the risk of dumping unwanted fish into waterways. The need for cooperation and education is the same, whether you are talking about aquarium fish, horticultural plants, new crops or pastures, and birds in the aviary trade, etcetera.
The recent cabomba outbreak and subsequent eradication program in the Darwin River highlights the impact that invasive outbreaks can have, and extensive work that needs to be done to stamp out these pests. Unintentional or accidental releases are a minority of our problem invasive species. However, this does not diminish our need for vigilance and the implementation of effective control, detection and rapid responses.
The member raised the black striped mussel outbreak at Cullen Bay and the success of a rapid response, which has saved millions of dollars in various marine-based industries, and eliminated what would have been an environmental catastrophe for our inshore marine environment. I encourage the committee to look at the recommendations to strengthen our early detection and rapid response capabilities for new accidental invasive outbreaks.
Deliberate introductions are, by far, the majority of our problem of invasives, and it is clear that we need better mechanisms to identify and prevent deliberate introduction of species within the potential to later become serious problems.
The member also brought to our attention the development of weed risk assessment models which will allow us to assess the weedy potential of plants and prevent unwise introductions. These models also provide the ability to assess and prioritise the allocation of scarce resources to control or even, hopefully, eradicate weeds. I am pleased to report that a similar prioritisation scheme is being developed for the terrestrial vertebrate pests.
The House will be aware of the support I have provided to control the spread of cane toads. Cane toads are, perhaps, a relatively easy species to engender community’s support and action to effect some control. These animals are conspicuous and in your face even in the suburbs and, let us face it, simply look horrible. It is easy for people to dislike their presence and to understand the destruction of our native wildlife when you have an invasive that is toxic and directly responsible for the poisoning and death of both native and pet animals.
Many invasive species are far more insidious than the cane toad, and it is more difficult for the community to observe and understand the impact. Some of the plants even look pretty and it is hard to understand that they are threatening our environment. There is no doubt that some of our introduced pasture grasses are now recognised as having the potential to wreak serious and long-term landscape scale changes which will impact our wildlife to a greater extent than cane toads. Tiny invasives such as various tramp ants, the crazy ant or the big headed ant, are not immediately obvious to the public, yet they also have the enormous potential to be highly destructive to our wildlife. Getting community understanding and action on things as uncharismatic as grasses and ants will take considerable educational effort.
I am able to inform the House that, even prior to the release of the recommendations of the sessional committee, officers in NRETA were already developing a vertebrate pest animal strategy. This will be accompanied by some legislative changes to the Territory Parks and Wildlife Conservation Act to revise sections of the act relating to feral animals and prohibited entrance which will provide clarity and improve efficiency in the management of introduced vertebrate pests.
Madam Speaker, the sessional committee appears to be doing a great job and I thank the chair and all members for their efforts so far, and look forward to receiving their final report.
Mr WARREN (Goyder): Madam Speaker, I commend the comments of my fellow committee members to all honourable members and thank them for their valuable contribution to this progress statement on the inquiry into invasive species and management programs in the NT which I delivered in the last sittings for 2006.
I also thank all members of the committee for working in the spirit of bipartisanship and cooperation because that is particularly important. If we had not had that spirit, that energy that came from that, then we would not really be in the strong position we are right now. Despite our political difference, I know we are united in our aim to arrive at a set of recommendations that can only strengthen and enhance the Northern Territory’s current capacity to control invasive species and prevent any future incursions.
With that in mind, first, I will briefly pick up on some of the points raised by my colleagues. Unfortunately, only my colleagues on this side of the House added to debate. I understand it has been very difficult for the opposition to deal with all the things in parliament in the last couple of weeks but it would have been nice of them. I do know their spirit is there and we will take that on board.
I first show respect to the minister for Environment for her kind and important words she said about the committee. I know that she is not involved in the committee but she certainly is aware of the terms of reference and the process that we have gone through to getting to the stage where we are right now. I take on board the aspect of broad community involvement; that really is important. Without the community, without their engagement, with all the best interest that governments like us can muster, you really cannot go forward unless you have the engagement and the involvement of the community. This is more a whole-of-community approach to how we tackle invasive species. That is absolutely an imperative and you cannot avoid that.
The great thing is that we have such diversity and such a healthy state with our community groups such as our Landcare groups. In fact, I was at a Landcare meeting just the other day; the Darwin River Landcare Group held their meeting at Litchfield and that was great. It is good to see they are vibrant, they are active, they are up and running. As a committee we have taken note of these local groups because the community engagement is important.
The minister also discussed many of the environmental impacts that have come to her attention through her department. That is what we have really focused on: those case studies, many of them from the minister’s department, and how to deal with this issue of invasive species. It is through those situations that we learn. That is a very important part in our terms of reference; to look at how we handled things in the past here in the Northern Territory regarding invasive species. Her enlightening addition to today’s report was great news. Of course, we will be looking to strengthen the department’s ability to go forward as a government department. The results of our inquiry will certainly be most helpful, I am sure, to the department in giving them more clarity. It is good to have someone who has taken an outside look at things and how things are going. I am sure, because of that, the minister and her department will go from strength to strength on the basis on some of the comments that will come out of our report. Hopefully, they will all be taken on board.
The member for Daly discussed the processes of this committee from his perspective and it was quite enlightening. Sometimes, as a Chairman, you become so engrossed in your side of things that you forget how other people perceive things. I was really pleased to hear that passion come through. He has taken the view that it is important to his local community. He has talked about how he has taken that up with the local community to discuss things like the gamba grass. He talked about the Gamba Action Group from his electorate of which he is very proud.
It is really important that all members here can engage in community, but also get something outside the sphere of the committee itself and take that beyond the terms of reference of the committee. The member for Daly put his own element of passion into it and that came through very clearly in his supporting report. He spoke about the ngurr burr and salvinia as examples, and quite a number of others. Those are the kinds of things that we have been trying to grapple with as a committee; to come to grips to how we deal with them in the future. His input then and throughout the whole process of the committee has been invaluable.
I concur that during the visitations to the regional areas we were ably supported by regional groups when making their submissions. There are some really insightful and knowledgeable people out there who are going about their business. The minister should be very proud of some of her departmental people in the field and from other departments and Landcare groups which are doing a great job.
The member for Daly discussed that we have problems that are well beyond what we can fight alone. As a group, we have all understood that. What is critical is that although we have a border, we are not in isolation. We are at the forefront, because of our coastline, of potential invasions. The nearest land masses are to our north, so it is important that we understand that we are not alone in this area of fighting invasive species and that we really do need to engage other jurisdictions on these issues.
He also spoke about the problems that landowners and other stakeholders face in combating invasives, particularly weeds. It is a very important aspect of his community and, therefore, it is most important that he has the chance to talk about those issues. I was quite impressed with the level of engagement that he had, so I thank the member for Daly for his contribution.
I move on to the member for Millner. It is interesting when different people put their perspective on a committee, different things come through - things that you do not normally expect to come to the fore. He spoke about how being on this committee during this reference has opened his mind a lot. He has suddenly seen the good work that departmental and other people are doing in the field of fighting invasives. He has also studied the technical stuff, and he has picked up on it. It really showed through during his presentation that it is not just about the experts. It is also about the people at the grassroots level getting in engaged and involved in this whole process.
I was blushing a little when he spoke about my personal passion for this important topic and about my degrees. Okay, that might give me a chance to have a scientific insight into what is going on when they talk about some of the technical aspects, but the presentations were not pitched at people like me; they were pitched at everyone. I must give credit to the high level of passion and insight of all members on the committee in heading towards the outcomes that we are expecting from this process.
We have a really difficult topic to tackle, and, believe me, looking at invasive species is almost mind blowing. I will talk a little more about the extent of that later in my report. To hear the member for Millner talking in quite technical and insightful terms was enlightening. I am proud of the way the whole committee has engaged in the process, and I thank those people who have contributed.
The importance of this inquiry is quite obvious. Invasive species are considered a very serious threat to our biodiversity, now possibly more than ever, even surpassing land clearing to be our No 1 environmental threat. We have had massive land clearing around Australia in the past. I can remember the days of the Brigalow Schemes in Queensland, which was just like a scorched earth policy to clear square kilometres of land using two V8 dozers, a ball and a massive chain. Whilst, at the time, I thought that was quite impressive, I grew up in a generation when we believed that was the way to go, we all know the implications of it, particularly in the southern part of Australia. We have taken away a lot of the potential for the environment. When you disturb it, you end up with salt incursions and things like that.
To now imagine that invasive species are potentially our No 1 environmental threat starts to give you some concept of the size of the problem, and it is not one that we can take very lightly. To give you some idea of the scale of the problem, you need to appreciate that, added to the environmental impacts, are the economic impacts. It is estimated that the cost in production losses and costs associated with implementing control measures for weeds alone is to be a $4.1bn burden on the Australian economy each and every single year. Added to this is the economic impact of pest vertebrate animals, which cost Australia an estimated $720m per year - a massive $720m. If that is not bad enough, plant diseases and invertebrate pests cost around an additional $2bn per year to our Australian economy.
I must point out that these figures are based on existing invasive species only. If we add to these figures the considerable impact of costs associated with future outbreaks of invasive species, as well as the social impact costs which, in themselves, are difficult to quantify in monetary terms, as you no doubt are aware, given all that, the overall likely costs are likely to be absolutely staggering. No wonder it is No 1, or approaching No 1, if not already there.
Above all this, we come to the problem: how do we accurately measure the real cost of our unique Australian environment? Impacts such as the reduction in our biodiversity, our potential species extinction, soil degradation, habit reduction/destruction, and impacts on water and waterways, to name just a few. You only have to come close to home to think about species extinction – the cane toad. When we start talking about the cane toad, and the threat to the northern quoll and numerous frog species, the full impact of it starts to bear home. These are things that you cannot really put a monetary value on, but they are part of our unique Australian environment. I get quite emotional when I talk about it.
I hope this gives you some idea of the enormous economic, social and environmental costs to our great country and our beautiful Territory. If we do not act appropriately to control the scourge of these invasive species, then we certainly will be missing a lot of that.
To a large extent, the history of invasive species in Australia is a story of mankind or, more appropriately, ‘man unkind’, in being responsible for both the deliberate and accidental introductions of invasive species outside their natural range. Their spread is then assisted by the natural elements, as well as by human and other animal activity. If that is not enough, we then have to deal with the tenacity of those invasive species to survive and flourish.
Again, I can only hark back to species like the cane toad and gamba grass. I do not know why, but every time we get one of these invasives, they really are tenacious. They just hang in there. The weeds take over and swamp everything, as do these invasive animals. It is then you start to appreciate how delicate our environment is. Even though it is an arid environment in many respects, and it seems tough and harsh, it is not really; it is very fragile. I do not know why, but these pests come from parts of the world where they can just basically be in harmony and in balance in their own environments but, once you bring them here, they just seem to have that capacity to swamp everything else. Now, sadly, for many of these invasive species, eradication is now almost impossible as well.
In the meantime, scientists, researchers, land and sea managers and concerned individuals continue to work tirelessly in this field. These dedicated people are out there on the frontline - and it really is a frontline - testing new potential control measures and using all their efforts to prevent further spread of these invasives. They are out there seeking to better understand individual species, and then target the vulnerable characteristics of these invasives. There is some good news. It is through these dedicated people who are doing this hard work that we are getting to have some control of it.
However, it is such an enormous problem. It is, therefore, incumbent upon us as parliamentarians, as leaders in our community, to do what we can to assist the work of those concerned and dedicated people actively engaged in the control and prevention efforts on the ground. That really goes to the heart of what this committee is about; coming out with some ideas, some solutions because, ultimately, as the minister pointed out, it needs that community engagement. We really have to support these people on the ground out there trying to do the best they can. They have science behind them, they have the know how, it just needs some more practical advice and then we can offer assistance appropriate to their needs; not just what we think they need. That is why we have engaged them in the whole listening process.
As I reported in my progress statement to the House, the committee has concluded the consultation phase of its inquiry, and is now in report writing mode. I must pay tribute to the Secretariat, because they really are working hard on this and gathering all the information together: the research papers prepared by the Secretariat; the 40-plus written submissions received; the oral evidence provided to the committee during the public hearings held in Tennant Creek, Alice Springs, Jabiru, Katherine, Litchfield, and Darwin; and the information advice provided through the briefings, including the invasive species round tables. They are currently being incorporated into a final report. That is a massive amount of information to report.
It is going to take some time, but the time and effort that we put into this is going to be worth it. We have put the effort into getting this far, and making sure that we could cover every avenue of consultation - public, scientific, the whole government. We have really worked hard, and we have a volume of massive information. That is where we are right at the moment, but it needs some time. That is what we are going to give the Secretariat. Of course, we will all be contributing to that as well, so we will produce a really productive report.
The level of community interest and concern for invasive species management is extremely high, as demonstrated by the number of individual organisations, both from here and interstate, who freely and generously have given their time to assist the committee with this inquiry. I know a couple of people …
Mr KNIGHT: Madam Speaker, I move that the member be granted an extension of time in order to conclude his remarks, pursuant to Standing Order 77.
Motion agreed to.
Mr WARREN: Thank you, member for Daly. As I said, we are really proud and pleased that all the people who have made submissions have given freely and generously of their time in assisting with the inquiry. The degree of community interest and concern is shared by all members of the Environment and Sustainable Development Committee who are very keen to report their findings and recommendations to this House. I am sure that everyone here will look forward to that.
Madam Speaker, my committee looks forward to reporting the findings and recommendations from this very important inquiry in great detail to the House, once the final report has been completed to the satisfaction of the committee – and I stress that.
I would like to add that I am very proud of all my fellow committee members. Each and every one of them has personally contributed significantly to our common cause. That has really been a great bonus; to have people who have a passion on board the committee. It is a pity that, as I said, their time is so important they have not had a chance to come down here and add to this debate. However, I thank you all dearly. On that note, I commend this report to the House.
Motion agreed to; statement noted.
PROGRESS REPORT ON SELECT COMMITTEE ON SUBSTANCE ABUSE IN THE COMMUNITY
Ms ANDERSON (Macdonnell)(by leave): Madam Speaker, as Chair of the Select Committee on Substance Abuse in the Community, I report on progress made by the committee. I remind members of the committee’s terms of reference which empowered us to look at all aspects of substance abuse, legal or illegal, including community concerns, trends in youth, social and economic effects, services available, and general practice involved in substance abuse.
Over the last 18 months, the committee’s central focus has been problems of substance abuse in remote indigenous communities; in particular, abuse of alcohol, petrol and cannabis. In considering this, the committee has heard powerful testimony about harm. Substance abuse has many negative impacts on communities. It reduces security for people and property including the community’s own communal property. It results in severe financial stress on community members, and represents the diversion from productive spending even away from the adequate nutrition of children. It erodes families. We know about the violence, accidents and other tragedies, but another kind of tragedy occurs when parents do not give their children the care they deserve. Communities face huge challenges in trying to prevent substance abuse. The movement of people in and out of communities is one of the many things that, at times, make it difficult to prevent young people from being influenced by substance abuse.
There is also good news, where attempts to make things better are proving effective and where healthy patterns in communities, already in place, are working to protect them against more widespread substance abuse. The positive stories we have heard from witnesses show the way to things that can be done in remote communities. Sharing these stories more widely can be one of the things we can do to give communities options and hope.
Over the last 12 months, the committee has visited 10 communities in Central Australia and the Top End, and has been briefed by a number of government agencies, and has talked to representatives of many other organisations. From this, the committee has been able to gain some understanding of this important problem; to understand the realities on the ground in this unique Territory environment. The committee’s purpose in visiting Central Australia and the Top End has been to see the range of substance abuse problems in the Territory.
Our main focus in Central Australia has been to consider the differences between communities on the east and the west of the Plenty Highway. Communities on the west of the highway have significantly greater problems with substance abuse than those to the east. Comparing them leads to two important questions: (1) what things in communities protect against widespread substance abuse or make them vulnerable; and (2) can these be cultivated in other communities currently suffering high rates of substance abuse? Getting answers to these questions is central in our efforts to work toward a better future.
The committee heard that where there has been a consistent culture of work, as there is in the eastern Plenty, due to its ties with the pastoral industry, social norms are sufficiently strong to prevent widespread outbreaks of substance abuse. These communities are also more unified in a cultural sense — one people, living on their traditional lands. On the western side of the highway, where communities were originally established as missions, and people from diverse cultural and family groups were brought together, away from their homelands, communities have been less able to exercise control over these destructive behaviours.
It can be said that these factors all hinge on the integrity of social fabric, by which I mean the web of proper healthy connections between members of the community, which allow the energy of the community to be channelled in a productive way. The state of the social fabric in communities is critical to their capacity to control their own destiny on substance abuse, including their ability to discourage or forbid community members from following that path. The committee recognised this early in our investigation. It continued to be an important consideration in our visits to the Top End communities, and has grown into a key focus for all our inquiries.
The committee’s dialogue with Top End communities gave us a chance to compare regional differences in the pattern of substance abuse with those of Central Australia. From this, it becomes possible to see what is specific to the Centre, what applies to other places, and what is true across the Territory. Also importantly, it gave the committee the opportunity to observe a number of alcohol plans, either in place now or being put in place in the Top End. These tools of the stronger of the communities seen in Central Australia are part of good news on substance abuse and they show the way for constructive efforts in the future.
By visiting all of these communities and talking with people, the committee has come to understand many things about the problems they face. It is clear that while rates of use for particular drugs may vary between communities, the use of three substances - alcohol, petrol and cannabis - is common across them. There are many stories which suggest high rates of abuse for these substances, but reliable statistical information continues to be scarce. The information we do have shows that we should, indeed, be concerned. Northern Territory alcohol indicators and the National Household Survey on Drug Use both show the level of use of alcohol and cannabis in the Territory is dramatically higher than any other jurisdiction in Australia. I will make, on behalf of the committee, some more detailed remarks about each of these substances.
For alcohol, the committee’s preliminary findings suggest that alcohol continues to be a significant source of harm within remote communities in the Territory. These harms are complex and produce a number of flow-on effects, including high rates of violent and accidental harms and incarceration. It also seems that children of parents who drink heavily are more prone to substance abuse themselves and, in this sense, alcohol can be seen as the key drug.
On a more positive note, recent legislation on alcohol is providing the framework for change in communities, particularly to do with alcohol plans. A number of communities are taking up opportunities offered by this legislation, and this is starting to bear fruit. The Groote Eylandt Alcohol Plan is one outstanding example of how this can come to pass and what sort of benefits can emerge. This is provoking interest in other communities who wish to have similar levels of control over alcohol use within their own boundaries. Other communities making significant progress towards alcohol plans are Nhulunbuy and Katherine.
For petrol, limiting abuse continues to be a challenge, but there are again reasons for cautious optimism. The committee’s preliminary findings suggest that the wider roll-out of Opal fuel has had a positive effect. It has also found that when Opal is introduced to a community, this creates a window of opportunity to rehabilitate users before they migrate to another substance of choice. Things work better when supply reduction is matched with efforts to reduce demand, and to treat users so there is a lasting improvement.
Violate substance legislation, where community members and police have been given more powers to control petrol abuse, has a positive influence. However, both communities and police are experiencing difficulties in providing enough manpower to fill these new roles, especially in view of changes to CDEP which has, in the past, provided a financial basis for employment in this kind of community development.
Again, as for alcohol, there are sobering truths on petrol, but these can now be seen now within a more hopeful context. It appears that Opal, while important, is just one part of the solution. It represents an important opportunity which requires further action before it can amount to a significant reduction to harm in the long term. That said, the committee views with concern reports that some Alice Springs petrol retailers are again selling standard unleaded petrol. Comprehensive Opal roll-out, with no sniffable petrol available, is essential if we are to do all that we can to protect our young people from sniffing petrol.
As for other drugs, the committee’s inquiries into the use of cannabis have generated both negative and positive insights. The bad news is that cannabis appears to be the drug of choice in many communities, and that many communities have seen a significant increase in cannabis use over the last two to three decades. Research identifies links between cannabis, mental health problems and suicide, and these may become even more of an affliction in remote communities if we do not take steps.
The good news on cannabis is that police use of sniffer dogs to check aircraft and other routes into remote communities has been successful in reducing supply. Indeed, there is substantial community support for police to use sniffer dogs in this way. Just as for petrol, when cannabis supply is interrupted, a window of opportunity opens to help habitual users, showing again just how important it is to coordinate efforts on supply and demand.
The committee views the entrenchment of cannabis in remote communities with concern. Its findings so far suggest that the rate of cannabis use is certain to be an important factor in their future wellbeing or otherwise. This needs our close attention if we are to avoid serious wide-scale problems in the future.
In addition to this focus on specific key substances, the committee’s investigations have also revealed systematic problems that hamper efforts to improve the overall situation. At first, these might seem to be unrelated to the central issue of drug abuse, but closer attention suggests otherwise. The committee has heard that people in communities perceive a lack of consistency in programs delivered by government agencies. Community members told the committee that there are repeated instances where programs have their funding stopped after successful pilot projects. To get to this stage takes a great deal of effort by communities, and to then have the program closed down is discouraging. It also seems that communities wishing to apply for program funds face a complex environment, with many potential granting bodies, each with different requirements. The involvement of both Commonwealth and Territory agencies adds a further layer of complexity.
A second difficulty arises with housing. Common problems are: a dramatic shortage of housing, resulting in very high numbers of people living in existing dwellings; high cost in creating new housing; and high rates of wear and tear on existing housing stock through overcrowding. This is an important area, as the committee has heard. High densities in dwelling makes a significant contribution to the stress, domestic violence and poor health outcomes suffered in communities. High densities create conditions in which people are more vulnerable to substance abuse, and they make the negative efforts of substance abuse much worse.
The housing situation needs to be addressed urgently. A number of communities want to conduct repair and maintenance using their own labour resources, so that they provide local employment and training at the same time as improving housing stock. There have been limited attempts at this, but communities report administrative and resource constraints that discourage the practice.
An important associated issue centres on how indigenous people are co-located in remote communities. More resilient communities tend to operate under one culture, where a single body of customary law applies across the whole community and where, consequently, payback and other inter-group dynamics are less of a problem. In more diverse communities, which are often former missions, these tensions can reach breaking point. In some cases, even sport, normally considered a positive outlet, can become just too divisive due to tensions between groups. To be able to live under one culture is probably the most important factor for a community’s resilience, and is often essential to their ability to organise and bring social norms to bear on questions of substance abuse.
These diverse cultural groups are not living on their own country, but that of another people. It creates tension between traditional owners and other groups, and sacrifices the positive efforts of living on the country. The committee has seen that one constructive response to this has been for some family groups to establish their bases at outstations where they live, removed from the tensions of urban living, and where they can exert an appropriate level of control over their own affairs. These are significant findings in the light of negative comments recently made about outstations. Contrary to these sentiments, it appears from the committee’s investigations that living on outstations can be a positive way to reduce inter-group tensions and to let community members gain some independence from potentially harmful influences.
All of these things are relevant in the everyday context in which substance abuse can flourish in communities. Similarly, the committee has found that substance abuse has a close relationship with issues of community governance. Where community governance is weak, there is a greater likelihood that substance misuse will become widespread. Conversely, where substance misuse is pervasive, it becomes increasingly difficult for communities to mount effective structures for community governance. Under these conditions, it is more difficult for governing bodies to be effective and to access the resources they need to perform effectively. It becomes more difficult to attract community members to participate in community groups and governing bodies. Importantly, where this is the case, social norms that communities must draw on in order to encourage more constructive behaviour become difficult to engage, so that there is less of that informal community control of behaviours that is so important in reducing harm from substance abuse.
This is made all the more important in view of another trend emerging from the committee’s investigations; that is, when communities are able to originate and own them, the initiatives are most likely to work and be sustained over time. This is particularly true for outstation rehabilitation programs, and for early successes we have seen of the community alcohol plans.
As for issues of governance, there is a close relationship between substance abuse, education and employment. Community members are more vulnerable to substance abuse where there are lower levels of educational achievement and employment opportunities. Conversely, substance use reduces the effectiveness of efforts to educate community members, and so reduces in effort their opportunities for employment. The importance of employment emerged as a strong common thread throughout the committee’s investigations. We can speak of this in two areas: in government provided employment in the form of the Community Development Employment Project (CDEP) programs, and in mainstream employment. The committee noted the importance of CDEP in remote communities and its central role in their ability to provide services. In fact, CDEP appears to be the main resource in providing services that are commonly supplied in other places by municipal councils. CDEP is also a mainstay for other types of services such as Night Patrols and alcohol rehabilitation programs.
CDEP does serve as a dual function in providing employment to community members, and community development functions to the community as a whole. However, coupled with the sense of importance community members gave to CDEP’s role in remote communities, was a level of uncertainty about the scheme’s future; whether it would continue and in what form. The current best guess on the efforts of recent changes to CDEP arise from its transfer to the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations. Under these arrangements, CDEP’s dual purposes until now, to provide employment while contributing to community development, will change the focus on employment alone, with an emphasis on moving CDEP participants into mainstream employment.
Mainstream employment is, for many communities if not all, a vexed question. It is not often widely available. In some Top End communities, there are mining operations which provide the local community with a source of mainstream employment. This has the potential to exert a profound influence on substance abuse in the sense that companies, where they are willing, are able to discourage alcohol and drug use in their workforce thus, providing an incentive to stay sober. As a result of talking with these communities, and particularly in view of the strong contrast between communities where mainstream employment is available and where it is not, the committee has developed an interest in exploring avenues to generate economic growth and create employment opportunities in communities.
In this part of my speech, I have considered a range of factors that make communities vulnerable to substance abuse or protecting. To employment we can add the importance of communities being able to provide recreation within their community. This is often targeted at youth, but age ranges for these programs may extend up to young adults and beyond. Indeed, there may be benefits when the programs do engage other age groups. It appears that, in general, an absence of constructive recreational activities can be a significant spur to risk-taking behaviour and experimentation with substances. Where communities are able to sustain an ongoing program, it is less likely community members and youth will gravitate to substance abuse. However, through recreation programs there is potential for young people who are already abusing substances to be brought into the program, and so become more socialised since, by virtue of their substance abuse, they are often excluded from the wider social world in communities. This can be an important way to leave the door open for them being included again in their community.
The committee heard that recreational programs can be useful incentives or bargaining tools for youth with substance problems. These programs have often been part of a carrot-and-stick approach where inclusion in recreation activities is a privilege associated with abstinence, and removal to an outstation facility an effective penalty that works because the person is removed from recreation activities they value and enjoy. These are important extensions to the range of tools which can be used to express and reinforce social norms to remote communities: a range of tools which, due to isolation, can be much narrower than we find in bigger towns.
In conclusion, the committee’s investigation into substance abuse in remote communities shows that there are causes, both for concern and for hope. The committee has heard descriptions of communities where core daily activities were badly affected by behaviours associated with substance abuse. However, it has also heard of communities less often reported, where this kind of behaviour is held in check by pattern of strong social norms and good community governance, and where normal constructive effort by community members is made more possible because of that. Importantly, there are also communities that have moved from less favourable situations to better ones, and these may provide, along with instances of successful grassroots rehabilitation programs, templates for a way ahead for communities suffering widespread substance abuse.
Today, we have discussed three main substances - alcohol, petrol and cannabis - and the linkages between the abuse of these substances and other issues faced in remote communities. While there are substantial challenges ahead, constructive steps have been taken in a legislative sense to deal with alcohol and petrol. This is particularly important because of alcohol’s high prevalence and apparent role in creating conditions for the abuse of other substances, particularly petrol by younger community members. The next step may be to address problems with other drugs, where there may be emergent problems in communities. In particular, it is pressing that we consider cannabis more directly, as it is clear that its use has become established as an habitual practice. There are clear signs that it is producing really important problems in remote communities that are likely to persist.
The committee has noted during the course of investigations over the last 12 months that its interests, and those of the Sessional Committee on Sport and Youth, have often run in parallel. They both have interests in indigenous remote communities. The two committees also have a number of members in common. Keeping in mind the pivotal role of recreation programs and protecting communities against substance abuse and the range of issues in common, we propose that the two committees work together more closely in future. This will allow both committees to adopt an holistic picture of the challenges facing remote communities in the Territory, and to make more realistic recommendations about improving their situation.
To end this speech, I would like to say that through its hearings the committee has become aware of something really important that does not attract much media coverage; that is, the presence of dedicated people within communities who persevere in their efforts to create better outcomes. Many of these come from the community while others have come from outside to take up roles within it. The committee wishes to acknowledge on the public record their goodwill, effort and endurance, and to recognise them both as a major resource and a cause for hope as we look to the future.
I thank my fellow committee members, the members for Blain, Braitling, Daly, Katherine and Port Darwin, for their work on the committee which has been done in a spirit that has been constructive and bipartisan. I look forward to continuing to work with them as this committee continues its important work.
Mr Deputy Speaker, I move that the Assembly take note of the report.
Mrs BRAHAM (Braitling): Mr Deputy Speaker, I thank the chair for her report. It was very comprehensive and very sound. The committee has heard many stories - some good, some bad. Substance abuse would have to be one of the biggest problems facing our communities today. We should acknowledge and commend those, as the chair said, who are tackling the problem themselves. We most definitely should try as best we can to assist them, and to reward those good communities.
Feedback from communities indicates that in those communities where there is cohesion and good leadership there is little substance abuse. These communities have activities to involve their people and give them a feeling of worth and self-esteem. They are also prepared to challenge those members of their community who step out of line, and express clearly their expectations of behaviour. They are also the communities where education is valued, employment is sought, and the health of the young and the aged is important. This is a will that needs to be captured, and assistance given to programs that are succeeding. We should help these communities to be even better.
Too often, we heard of the frustration of programs being commenced, as the chair said, and then a large amount of time and effort spent on seeking government recurrent funding. The message we received was that government should evaluate programs and offer funding for a longer period to give security and stability to programs. If the program continues to thrive, let us renew its funding without the added burden of the difficult application that is required.
The question of housing was raised continually. Good maintenance and administration is often lacking and expertise in this area needs to be addressed. I am not sure how you can convince some communities that responsibility belongs not just to government, but also to them. The dependency factor is well and truly entrenched in the minds of many people. We would like to see people skilled to do the jobs themselves, rather than continually expecting people from outside to come on to the communities to do it.
We heard of problems of communities that were established without recognition of the cultural differences of the people. The result has seen lots of fighting and breakdown of community harmony. Perhaps it is time to separate these family groups, giving independence and recognition back to their people. I very much support the outstation movement; there are some outstations that are an absolute credit and demonstrate why people prefer to get away from the larger communities. If we leave these people together, I can see the escalation of confrontation, as has occurred recently in Alice Springs, and even last night. Unhappy, uneducated, uninvolved, unemployed people become angry, disinterested, vulnerable people.
I find it difficult to listen to people who obviously have expectations of our committee when we visit but, in fact, when we do visit, we cannot offer them anything except a little hope. If we are to continue to work and meet with people from communities and service organisations, as a committee we need to have a specific task. I do not think we need to talk or consult forever. There has to be an end point in our negotiations and what we are doing, otherwise people may lose faith in our committee system and ask if there is any point in them contributing.
The volatile substance abuse prevention law that has been introduced has done wonders so far. In Alice Springs, there is little petrol sniffing, and I am particularly pleased to see the federal government is going to roll out Opal in Alice Springs and even in towns north of Alice. It is extremely good to see that they are building residences and rehab centres at Amata in the Pit Lands. I suppose many people are aware of the number of people from the Pit Lands who come to Alice Springs. It is important that they do not come to Alice Springs to get sniffable petrol and, as we would hope for our people, stay in their communities and lead a very useful life.
I thank committee members for their ongoing interest in and commitment to this important subject of substance abuse. It can be disheartening and frustrating. I join with them in hoping that we can come up with some recommendations for positive action. I look forward to the report we are going to deliver in the future. I thank, also, the many dedicated people in the communities who are endeavouring to make life better for their people and who are doing it, often, in the most difficult circumstances. If anything, this committee finds their work valuable, and it is often an eye opener.
Mr Deputy Speaker, with those few words, I say to the chair her report was a good summary of what the committee has done. I look forward to working even longer with the committee. I hope we can find some recommendations that have substance so we can attack this problem.
Mrs MILLER (Katherine): Mr Deputy Speaker, today I contribute to the report the chair has delivered. It is a very comprehensive report, and she has covered many areas. I want to add some other aspects to it.
I have chosen to be on this committee since I was first elected to this parliament in 2003 with the hope of being able to make some difference in some way to the way that the Northern Territory goes about dealing with substance abuse. With every community throughout the Northern Territory affected by substance abuse, specifically with alcohol abuse in my own electorate and different issues within Central Australia with petrol sniffing being more prevalent there and marijuana everywhere, it is obvious that is the reason why I was very interested to be a member of this committee. It has been a very interesting journey so far.
Substantial research has been carried out by Brian Lloyd, and I thank him for that because, without that comprehensive research to support what we do, it would make our job with recommendations so much more challenging and difficult. I thank him very much for that. Of course, I could not forget to thank Pat Hancock, who has always been a very strong supporter and strong member of this committee and is a really great help to us as well.
During this past year, the committee has visited several communities across the Northern Territory to listen to concerns about the residents who live there. Unfortunately, I was unable to attend those trips out to those communities in Central Australia. I was a little inconvenienced in the Royal Adelaide Hospital at the time. However, I have certainly read the reports. When I did come home, I was fortunate to be well enough to visit Groote Eylandt, Nhulunbuy and Wadeye. Visiting those communities did have an impact on me, that is for sure, and I know it certainly did on other committee members.
I was pleasantly surprised to see the programs that they have put in place on Groote Eylandt. It was really good to see the strength of community people on Groote Eylandt, especially the women - the wives, mothers and grandmothers - who had had enough and were just desperate to do something for their children and their grandchildren. I came away from Groote Eylandt feeling reassured that there were people who really did know how to take control. It was an uplifting experience to go there.
Nhulunbuy was the next stop, which was also very interesting. Issues were a little different, because it is a different community and a different way of life. I know that Groote Eylandt is isolated because it is surrounded by the ocean, so it may be a little easier to have more control there. By the same token, I was very impressed with what Nhulunbuy is attempting to do in their community.
As you know, addressing these issues in any community takes a long time. It meets with a fair bit of resistance and, sometimes, the programs do not work. Hopefully, with the strength of the communities that we have visited which are already doing something, and with the recommendations that come from this committee, we can sincerely make a difference.
The other end of the scale was the heart-wrenching experience and presentation by the women - again the women - at Wadeye. Their despair, when they were describing the conditions that they were experiencing and living in daily, had a very profound effect on everybody who was at that committee hearing. You could not be unmoved when listening to the desperation that was in those women’s voices. I know that it gave me a resolve even more so, having been there, that we have an obligation to do what we can to give meaning to the lives of those people out there who are so affected by substance abuse..
It is a mixture at Wadeye, as you know. However, it was not only substance abuse at Wadeye - I am particularly relating to that - because it was a combination of things like housing, education, cultural differences and even sport. There were some challenges with sport. In other words, substance abuse and all of those other issues combined were having a profound effect on the daily lives of those people. That, as I said, hardened my resolve, and I know the resolve of other committee members that we could, hopefully, make some recommendations that will make some difference to these people.
There is much that can be done working in consultation and in parallel across committees. Many of the issues we discussed on the Sessional Committee on Sport and Youth work quite well in parallel with the substance abuse committee. Not in every case, though. It was interesting to note that some of the things that we thought may work very well at a community like Wadeye were not suggested as being a good idea. There were cultural differences that would not allow good outcomes from some of the sports that would be suggested for there. That is something that we need to look at.
There is genuine bipartisan support from all government members, CLP members and Independent members who are on this committee, ensuring that there is a lot of time and hard work being committed by all members of the committee, in particular the research staff and the staff in the Legislative Assembly office who look after us so well.
I look forward to my further involvement on the substance abuse committee. It is becoming obvious as time goes by that there are new drugs coming onto the scene, more available, which are gaining popularity because they are new, I guess. Of course, these new drugs are causing death and heartbreak, just like other substance abuse in our communities across the Northern Territory, and even further. We are focusing on the Northern Territory. It is going to be an ongoing challenge for governments well into the future, unfortunately. It just seems as if we get a handle on and an understanding of one, and something even more sinister comes on the scene.
I take my responsibilities on this committee seriously, as I know all other members do. I feel as though we have just touched the tip of the iceberg, really. I do not like using that word ‘ice’, but we are just at the edge. I know we have a long way to go, but I do think that the support that we have had when we have been to communities has made it very important.
One thing that has worked very well across those committees of sport and youth and substance abuse is the fact that there are some people in the community who are working really diligently to encourage and channel young people in remote communities into sport and education programs that gives them leadership and some self-esteem.
I have talked several times about Fred Murphy and what he does with his AFL football, but that is so important because I have seen the results of what Fred does with that. He has instilled a pride in those communities that he works in. He has a passion about it because he can see that there is a future for these young people. I congratulate Fred for what he does. There are, obviously, many more people like Fred out there that I am not aware of. As we come across and learn of the presence of people like him through the committee process, we need to ensure we encourage those people and support them to continue the good work that they do in the communities.
Mr Deputy Speaker, I look forward to our future on the substance abuse committee and I certainly look forward to the reports. There is a report being tabled also in Alice Springs at the next sittings. I know that we will be able to give a much more comprehensive response to it. I support the chair’s tabling of her report.
Ms SACILOTTO (Port Darwin): Mr Deputy Speaker, I am the Deputy Chair of the Select Committee on Substance Abuse in the Community. It has been an interesting time over the last 18 months to be a part of that committee. It has been quite an eye opener and, sometimes, it has not been good things that we have seen. However, there has been fantastic commitment from different community people and other support mechanisms.
I acknowledge the work of all the committee members, especially our chair, the member for Macdonnell, who knows only too well the harm and devastating effects of alcohol abuse, particularly in small and remote communities where the problems of youth and members of those communities can be in everybody’s faces and as a part of everyday life – day and night, 24 hours a day.
We have done quite a bit of travel with this committee and it has really helped us to open our eyes, and for me to open my ears as well, and hear the people who have these problems firsthand – from the horse’s mouth, so to speak. Some of the stories we have heard have been quite amazing.
As the member for Katherine said, the people from Groote Eylandt were fantastic; there were inspiring stories. The women there have banded together, not out of choice but out of necessity and desperation, to become the custodians of their communities in relation to looking after everyone – the children, the adults, the grandfathers, and the grandmothers. They have really pulled together and become the strength of the community. They are a group of women we can be proud of. We know that there are some good people out there doing so much. Many of those people are not recognised on a day-to-day basis, but the struggle is there every day – 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. People are struggling with alcohol, drugs, and other substances of abuse. You can see why people are worn down over a period of time, because it is 24 hours a day. There are the associated issues – violence and productivity that causes a great number of problems in economies in smaller communities.
We travelled to another couple of communities. I missed a couple, unfortunately, due to other commitments. However, there are some other communities that are on their way to creating positive steps with alcohol management plans. We travelled to Nhulunbuy and Yirrkala and the people and the council we met with, were very positive in their thought process. The process was only just starting but they were certainly on the right track, although, we as a committee and they recognised there was some way to go.
We all work on this committee in a bipartisan manner and it is probably the strongest committee that I am on. I am on five committees in this parliament and enjoy each one for its own merits, but this committee is such a strong committee. Everyone works to the end and everyone is moved by the stories and concerns and is pulling together for the outcomes. We talk amongst ourselves. We watch these people as they give evidence, and we take that back into our deliberations in the future on our recommendations and report.
From a personal point of view, this is the most important parliamentary committee. It is a futuristic committee. It is going to affect every person in the Territory in the future. We have some of our youngest populations out in remote communities and those people are growing up with the effects of alcohol and other drugs being abused around them. Those children are going to have difficulties if we cannot assist in some way by making recommendations and then government implementing them to help make those children’s lives in the future a better prospect. We must ensure that those children do not turn into abusers of substances themselves.
Health, education, housing, psychological wellbeing, support, love and nurture are all things that every person needs. Whether you are a current user or abuser of substance and alcohol, or a young child, without the nurture and love and support of the community and people around you, your prospects are not very good.
As the Chair of Sessional Committee on Sport and Youth, we cross over in some many ways, as the member for Katherine said. One of our terms of reference is to identify any links between sport and antisocial behaviour. Although we have not concluded our findings by any means, I suspect that there are strong links. Sport is such an important part, particularly of our remote communities. It is really the glue that binds them together. There is so much work that could be done with sport in combating substance abuse and alcoholism.
Sport instils pride and team spirit, which does not just extend to the team; it extends to the whole community. As you can see by some the sports weekends to which so many people travel - the mums and dads, grandmas and grandpas, aunties and uncles are all there in good spirits and wanting to have a great weekend. If we could capture that spirit and that whole community atmosphere, we would be much closer to combating abuse of these substances.
I thank my fellow committee members: the member for Braitling and the member for Katherine who, despite being in a lot of pain and after a lot of trauma, got on a small, bumpy plane and went out to Groote Eylandt, Wadeye and Gove. It demonstrates the commitment from the member for Katherine. She would be in pain and discomfort, yet still wanted to hop on a plane, go to a remote community and hear stories that reduced many of us to the point of tears. As well as being in a personal state of disarray, I commend the member of Katherine for that commitment to our committee.
It is interesting to see people outside of parliament because in here, we are so formal. The member for Blain is a softy, to say the least. You can see the teacher in him in the way that he looks at the children who are coming around to see us as we are getting off planes and into cars. You can see that he is very committed to children, and to improving the lives of the people we have met. Some of his comments have been that he wants to make a difference; there is no point in talking about it, we need to make a difference. The commitment of this committee is such that we will make a difference. Our recommendations will be from the heart and practical, and they will be well received.
The member for Daly is from a remote electorate and has a lot of passion for people in his electorate and the day-to-day struggles they have with substance abuse.
I thank secretariat staff - Pat Hancock, Brian Lloyd, Kim Cowcher and Kellie Trout, who has only just joined us - for their commitment. Brian does a lot of research and some of his stuff is absolutely brilliant. I do not think we could function as a committee without Brian’s and Pat’s commitment. It is a personal commitment. You can see that they are both very interested; it is not just a job, they are very interested in it, and they want to make a difference. It is not just a job and not just a time filler; it is a very important committee. Even the girls who record the Hansard on it are all saddened by some of the things that we see.
This is a committee that I want to continue to be a part of, along with my colleague, the member for Macdonnell. She shows me a lot from a personal perspective, from the friendship that we have built. She tells me a lot of things that, as an urban member sitting in the middle of town, I would never hear about or see. I might watch it on the 7.30 Report or something like that, but I have actually seen people firsthand and seen the impact that substance abuse and drugs has on families - on little babies, on mums, dads and grandmas. I thank the member for Macdonnell for opening my eyes and showing me that we live such a blessed life.
In closing, I commend the interim report to the House and look forward to our findings in our report. Sadly, this is a committee that will never have an end. We will never combat 100% substance abuse in every form. As the members for Katherine and Braitling said, there are new drugs and substances all the time. What we need to do is combat that underlying, emotional and physical trapping into this abuse. We need to ensure that all of our kids and all who are coming through are all loved and nurtured, and will, hopefully, have the strength to resist substance abuse and alcohol in the future. I commend the interim report to the House.
Mr KNIGHT (Daly): Mr Acting Deputy Speaker, I support both the chairperson’s interim report to the House, and also the comments of other members, especially following the member for Port Darwin.
For me, it is that underlying issue. I remember the former member for Stuart having a conversation with a person within his electorate about how they were using alcohol - or I believe it was something more significant than that, drugs or petrol sniffing. He was trying to encourage that person to stop using it. The person said: ‘Why? What have I got to live for?’ That is the desperation, the absolute hopelessness that is out there. It really is those underlying environmental and social problems which lead to substance abuse. Substance abuse is just a symptom of a disease which is plaguing sections of the Northern Territory population.
Although I totally support this committee and will have input into this ultimate report, perhaps we need to look at a committee for poverty. All these problems that we talk about come from poverty; they come from people having those factors which perpetuate all these things we talk about – poor education, living conditions, no employment, substance abuse, domestic violence, child abuse and all those things. If we can get to the root of poverty we can lift people’s lives. They have that choice. They can stand there and say: ‘I do not need to take that. I have a life and I do not have to resort to taking whatever I can to numb myself for the day’ - whether it be petrol, alcohol, drugs or whatever.
This committee has a huge role in doing this. The member for Port Darwin highlighted that this has been going on for a while and will continue to go on. I would hazard a guess that, if we went back through the Parliamentary Record, we would have been talking about various forms of substance abuse over the life of this parliament, and probably before. I know the qualities of the members of this committee, and I believe they want to draw a line in the sand; they want to take some larger steps in saying ‘no, that is enough’. We have to come up with some measures and initiatives which start to turn the tide, turn the ship around. At the moment it is going in the wrong direction. We were fighting off alcohol, and now we will be fighting off a whole range of illicit drugs that are coming on to the market.
The trips that we undertook were extremely enlightening, and curious, I guess. We visited the communities on the east and west of the Stuart Highway just north of Alice Springs. Whereas, on the eastern side, communities such as Harts Range said no to all forms of illicit substances, on the western side, it was different. Why was that? It was the same mob, but something in them said no; something stayed in them to educate their children and to keep their communities clean. It is X factor; that factor where people have decided that they do not want those things and realise the problems that come about. If we could somehow capture that and get it into our communities, it would be part of the answer.
Other members talked about Wadeye. Wadeye is a very difficult community because of its size. Problems which occur in other communities are magnified because of its sheer size so, when trouble starts, it goes off. Because of its isolation there is bingeing going on. There are drug dealers going in and supplying marijuana through the community. There is heavy drinking happening there periodically, and that leads to a whole range of behaviour. The police know that something is happening in the community because there is a whole heap of trouble. We think there is trouble out there but, for the groups there, there should be more trouble with the conditions that those people live in. It is the natural result if you have that many people living together, and 90% of the population have a very low education level and are living in very poor conditions.
It is a credit to those people that those conditions are not worst. There are very strong people out there. I know the women out there. For a while the health centre was under siege. The greatest game in town was stealing the ambulance; they often went down the Port Keats road until they ran out of fuel or crashed into something. One of the other problems was that the nursing staff had been pulled out of the community as it was too dangerous for them to go near the clinic, or getting from their cars into the clinic. The women actually asked the council to set up a shed, and they camped there overnight to protect the nurses, and look after the ambulance. That goes to show the quality of people there who are prepared to have a go. However, they need support and cannot do it in small groups. It cannot just be the women.
We heard about this at Nhulunbuy where the women in some way shamed the men into doing their bit, and the men came on board. You had groups stopping the entry of alcohol and tipping it out, and turning cars around so the alcohol did not come into their community. What we saw on Groote was a watershed. Every member who went on that trip was astounded, and I thank the member for Arnhem for accompanying us, showing us around, and introducing us to people. It showed an initiative which had a massive impact on the community and that, if you take out the grog or reduce it, and get people to change their drinking behaviour, that it affects the clinic, the workload of the police, has an effect on employment, and a massive ripple effect throughout the community. If that could be duplicated across the Territory, it would have those similar effects.
The member for Katherine and I were quite inspired by it all. We charged off to Katherine thinking we had the answer. We pulled together meetings and did a whole range of things. However, you have people who knock and want to put their head in the sand. In one breath they were saying: ‘Oh, you cannot do that. That is unfair’. In another breath they said: ‘Oh, things are stuffed in this town, there is drinking and fighting and violence and all this’. It is very frustrating. I guess the member for Katherine and I were quite lucky to go on that trip to observe what was happening on Groote. I would like to take everybody along to see what is happening there. I do not think that that is a cure-all on Groote Eylandt. They are going to be faced with situations; drinkers are cunning people and they find ways. However, it is certainly something that had a massive impact.
The most significant thing I can remember from that trip was talking to some of the FACS staff. We know that the police attend to much of the crime that happens in remote areas. If there is grog available, most of their work will entail being 80% to 90% alcohol-related. What the FACS staff said - and you can imagine this is not someone copping a punch in the head or smashing a window – was that 75% of their child abuse cases were alcohol-related. If any other drug did that, if any other factor did that, we would do something fairly significant overnight. It is 75%. Three-quarters of abused children are being abused by people who are drunk. That is disgusting. If those people were sober, would they do the same thing? Maybe they would, but I hazard a guess that they perhaps would not. That is three-quarters of abused children who would not be abused; who would not be scarred for life and could lead a normal, productive life. We could start to turn these communities around.
That was a turning point for me. I alluded to it in the beginning of my supporting speech; that this committee has a choice to make to do its bit, to make a difference, to draw a line in the sand, to say: ‘That is enough’. We, as members of parliament, elected to make a difference, on a committee that is formed to make a difference, are to report back to the parliament about ways things can change in those communities, the way that those communities can be better places than when we came into parliament. When we leave in three years, six years, 10 years or whatever, we have been members of this committee which made a difference to not just this parliament, but to those lives out there. That will be a significant thing for me personally. I am sure it will be significant for the other committee members. Therefore, it is a challenge. I know members want to do something and we will report back in April. I look forward to sitting down with other members and going through those recommendations about really making a difference about substance abuse.
I will finish on that comment that substances that are misused and abused are a symptom of an underlying problem. If we cure that underlying problem, we will fix everything that flows from it. Communities and societies which have respect for themselves about who they are, have something to live for. Their children are safe and protected, women are safe and protected, and they have something to live for, whether it is a job or just being a mother or a father, or a custodian of country. We have to get that pride back into people. We have to get the conditions, both urban and in the bush, to change. That will have a significant impact. Thank you, Madam Chair. It has been a delight to be on the committee. I look forward to our final report in April.
Ms ANDERSON (Macdonnell): Mr Acting Deputy Speaker, in wrapping up comments that have been made this evening by my fellow committee members, first, I want to take this opportunity to thank you all. I know that the things you spoke about here come from your heart and that you are all very committed to making a difference out there, making the lives of children the same as our children enjoy. I also thank you all for your commitment to the committee.
As the member for Port Darwin said, we are more like a family on this committee. I really enjoyed the trip we had to Groote with the member for Arnhem, when we had to drive around all hours of the night looking for accommodation - the members for Port Darwin and Arnhem and me. It was really good to see you there, member for Katherine. As the member for Port Darwin said, there is commitment to a difference in remote Aboriginal community children’s lives in your hearts and in your minds that I can see. It is really good to see that positiveness in our committee members.
I will not go into separating the comments that committee members made because we have the common thread of hope for kids out there, not just in remote Aboriginal communities, but in towns like Darwin, Alice Springs, Katherine and Tennant Creek.
The member for Daly raised whether we can take that numbness out of these children’s minds or out of their bodies. These children live in poverty; it does not matter whether they are Aboriginal or non-Aboriginal. Can we give them hope for the future? The members for Katherine and Braitling raised this as well, and I know it from experience.
I am very vigilant, as the chair of this committee, to hear the cries of the people who give evidence to this committee, but turn around and do nothing. As the chair and as a member of this government, and with the help of my colleagues, the members for Daly and Port Darwin, I hope that this government takes the recommendations of this committee very seriously.
As the members for Port Darwin and Braitling said, we will not get rid of the drugs or substance misuse in the Northern Territory, but we can make that bit of difference by paying attention to the cries of people. Aboriginal people in remote Aboriginal communities have seen committees. They have given evidence, but they have not seen those people go back implementing any of the recommendations. If we, this committee, can do that, then we have done justice to the people who gave evidence. That is really important.
As chair of this committee, I am strongly of the view that we need to work closely with the Sessional Committee on Sport and Youth because the two are linked. Much of the substance misuse is due to boredom, but it is also due to people not understanding where other people are coming from. I know that my community has been written about for many years, regarding substance misuse with petrol sniffing. I am not ashamed to stand here and talk openly about my community. However, no one ever once asked those children why they sniff petrol. If you spoke to those children individually, most of them are orphans. Either one or both parents died before those children reached the age of five. There was no counselling, and I know for a fact that these children are outcasts of their own society, and that is why they go into substance misuse. With the compassion that this committee has, I believe we can really make a difference with good recommendations to this government.
I thank Pat Hancock, Brian Lloyd, Kim Cowcher and Kellie Trout. Without people like Pat and Brian, we cannot operate. They do all the hard work of researching the information, getting people to brief us, give us evidence-based information to bring to this House, book our accommodation, and make sure that we are comfortable. I thank Pat and Brian for such a dedicated, wonderful commitment that you have to our committee.
Mr Deputy Speaker, in closing, I say to everybody in this House, and especially to my committee members: let us give that hope and vision to those children out there.
Motion agreed to; paper noted.
MINISTERIAL STATEMENT
Achieving Better Educational Outcomes
Achieving Better Educational Outcomes
Mr HENDERSON (Employment, Education and Training): Mr Deputy Speaker, I am pleased this evening to make my first major ministerial statement to the Assembly as Minister for Employment, Education and Training since I took on responsibility for the portfolio. This statement will outline the current priority action areas and signpost the priorities of my forthcoming years, hopefully, in this portfolio. I am extremely pleased to be given the opportunity to take on the challenges of leading the Department of Employment, Education and Training in the Martin Labor government.
Our government has high expectations across the board, but none more so than in the area of education and training. Labor believes in education and is passionate about getting it right. I am personally delighted to be able to play a role in the years to come. Put simply, I believe a quality education system is the foundation for a prosperous Territory and is the key to unlocking opportunities for individuals. There are huge challenges facing education in the Northern Territory. These range from the high churn of students at some schools due to the large numbers of ADF families in the Northern Territory, through to those posed by such a significant proportion of our students living in remote locations in communities where English is not the first language. This government knows that education is the key to the future prosperity of the Northern Territory.
We have already achieved much in improving access to education and the outcomes being achieved. This extends from the early years, where we now have a consistency around the age of entry to school, to placing Year 10 students in the senior years, which is in keeping with national trends and evidence which shows these measures increase retention and learning outcomes.
When our MAP results data is disaggregated into areas like Darwin, Palmerston, Katherine and Alice Springs, they compare favourably with the national average. We also know that many students attend Northern Territory schools and achieve tertiary entrance scores that enable them to study in the best universities in Australia. However, we have a long way to go for many others, especially young indigenous students living in remote communities. MAP results there have shown slight improvement over the past few years. It is true that they have come off a very low base, but they remain unacceptably low and we must continue our drive for quantum improvement.
We are now full steam ahead in undertaking significant structural reform by introducing a comprehensive middle years approach which will provide greater focus on varying needs of secondary students in our system. The whole intent of these reforms is to lift our secondary outcomes from the poorest in the country to amongst the best in Australia. Whilst it will take some years to measure the success, the community can be assured that this is a concerted and determined effort on the part of the government and the Education department.
I place on the record my congratulations to the championing of this reform agenda by my predecessor in this portfolio, the Deputy Chief Minister. His drive and resolve to effect positive change is unmatched by any previous Education minister in the Northern Territory.
Employment, Education and Training is always at the forefront of a Labor government, so I was fortunate to come into the portfolio with some understanding of the key issues. I have begun my time in this portfolio by listening. I have travelled extensively across the Territory and have visited over 30 schools of all shapes and sizes and localities across the Territory. I have listened to principals, teachers, students, parents and employers. I have had very informative dialogue and listened carefully to senior DEET staff, representatives of the AEU, ANSTEL, COGSO, ICPA, non-government schools, the Northern Territory Board of Studies, a host of individual parents, teachers and students and, very importantly, my parliamentary colleagues who have provided me with great insight and advice.
I am coming to grips with the complexities of the national education agenda and have met with the federal minister. Though, in an election year it will be important to separate politics from genuine intent to see improvements. I have been overwhelmed by the enthusiasm of my colleagues in government who have been very quick to meet with me and put forth their visions and plans for education in their local schools.
After much listening and receiving many representations, I have reached the only conclusion that can be reasonably reached: the education system in the Northern Territory requires urgent and continuous improvement. It is true that we have examples of excellent practice all across the Territory and an education workforce of which I am very proud. The principals and teachers I have met are an inspiring and dedicated group of professionals. The Martin government has made huge advances in education across the Territory in five years. We have modernised and transformed our education system to become one which is inclusive and accessible to Territorians no matter where they live. We are now in pursuit of excellence that will see outcomes for all Territorians that are equal to the rest of Australia.
Our ITC services are equal to the best in Australia. Students across the Territory have access to first-class computer technology and networks. Interactive distance learning studios deliver lessons to distance education students who have access to the latest computers. LATIS computers in schools have recently been updated and every teacher in the Territory is equipped with a laptop computer.
As a result of our age of entry trials we will, in 2008, provide access to a full year of Transition for our youngest Territorians.
We are on target to deliver the $16m nationally recognised Accelerated Literacy program to 100 schools and 10 000 students by the end of 2008. Already, the Accelerated Literacy program is showing student improvement rates of 1.74 reading levels per year. Fifty schools are already in the program, with another 11 in the final stages of preparation.
We have worked closely with the AEU to develop the Safe Schools NT Framework which will, for the first time, spell out acceptable codes of behaviour for schools.
We have taken the first steps in building a leading edge distance education service that employs the most modern technology available through interactive distance learning studios in Alice Springs, Katherine and Darwin. We have boosted support for the regions by appointing regional directors, pools of specialist teachers, and regional learning agents to promote and deliver distance learning opportunities.
In recognition of changing demographics in places like Alice Springs, we have invested in such innovative programs as the Clontarf Football Academy, which will help up to 150 young indigenous men in Central Australia achieve a solid foundation in education, and assist them in making positive choices in their lives.
We have invested heavily in infrastructure, both in urban and remote communities, by upgrading many of our suburban schools and building new secondary schools in five remote communities, as well as new schools at such remote places as Manyallaluk and Emu Point.
For most students, we can be confident that they will receive an education equal to the best Australia has to offer but, for many, the educational levels they will reach are well below what is acceptable in a contemporary Northern Territory. Every day, we must improve the outcomes of attendance, literacy and numeracy. Like my predecessor, I am absolutely certain we must have a sense of urgency about what we do. I believe it is incumbent on us all, including me as minister, to accept this as a huge challenge. It is a challenge that brings with it the reality that we cannot afford to have a ‘business as usual’ approach. Status quo is not acceptable; improvement is essential. To achieve this we must collectively do better.
Today, I would like to talk about the things that government can do, and also signpost the types of challenges I believe must be presented to communities, parents and students. Governments can and must do a lot but, unless all these parties come onboard and rise to the challenge, there is little prospect for complete success.
Structural and system reforms: government has set in train a series of structural reforms and initiatives which are vital to getting better outcomes in our schools. The move to the middle years approach is in train. The Building Better Schools range of initiatives is now heading the ground. So too, is the largest single injection of funds into school infrastructure in the Territory’s history. The middle years reforms are all about ensuring better outcomes through students having an educational focus that is appropriate to their needs and what we expect of them.
The Northern Territory Curriculum Framework is a quality curriculum and is both robust and defensible. This was the key finding of the independent, external evaluation by Mr Bruce Wilson, Chief Executive of Curriculum Corporation, Australia’s only national curriculum organisation. It was the first systemic curriculum for compulsory years of schooling to explicitly include pathways to employability and lifelong learning skills. It was the first, and is still the only, curriculum to include the nationally agreed literacy and numeracy standards so that teachers know exactly how their students’ learning compares with these standards.
Our Northern Territory Certificate of Education, which is linked to South Australia’s certificate, has recently undergone an exhaustive review with strong recommendations for reform. Northern Territory input to the final product will be complete by the end of Term 1. The reforms will see a much more rigorous senior years meeting the needs of a more diverse group of young people - as well as compulsory English and maths, a wider range of choices for students and agreed performance standards that students will need to achieve to gain the certificate. It will operate on a new points-based system that gives students credit for learning through school subjects, VET, community service, and work experience. Student performance in national Year 9 literacy and numeracy assessment will be used to inform individual learning plans through the senior years including training, employment, or higher education options.
The Building Better Schools package includes a host of initiatives to lift the outcomes at our schools. These range from exciting new professional development initiatives for educators through to new systems to keep better tracks of students. One of the most welcome initiatives has been the placement of 20 new school counsellor positions in to the system. Helping schools to work constructively with behavioural issues is great news for many educators, parents and students. Importantly, it also means more focus will be given to achieving stronger results. I look forward to launching the Safe Schools NT Framework in the not-too-distant future.
A new and exciting era is dawning for our high schools across the Territory. To help make these improvements happen, we are making significant and strategic investment in the infrastructure of our schools. Across the Territory school buildings are being improved and shaped to meet the educational and reform challenges we are determined to address.
In Palmerston, $11.13m is being spent on the new facility at the existing Palmerston High School site. I want Palmerston High to become a school that the Palmerston community is rightly proud of and choose to send their children to. The expansion and quality of new infrastructure and increase in student numbers will provide Palmerston with the critical mass of students that will enable it to broaden its subject offerings and compete on equal terms with Darwin High and Casuarina Senior College.
$19.9m has been allocated to the construction of the new Darwin Middle School which is in keeping with the increase in student numbers that will attend the new middle school.
Significant capital upgrades are happening at Casuarina Senior College where $3.4m is being spent on a range of improvements including a new sports pavilion. Upgrades of $4.5m are also happening at Taminmin High. At Katherine High, close to $1m has been allocated. At Nhulunbuy $1.35m has been allocated. At Centralian Senior Secondary College, $1.4m has been used to achieve an excellent upgrade which I inspected just a couple of weeks ago.
A positive aspect of these works has been the collaboration between school communities and DEET in working closely together to meet the educational needs of students. We have a huge challenge in driving such a busy program. The level of cooperation across governments and the private sector to achieve the time frames set has been remarkable. Continuing this work will remain a key challenge for this year in particular.
Literacy: all contemporary thinking acknowledges the importance of engaging children at a very early age with reading. As parents, it is vitally important to read with your child and foster a love of reading. As a society ever moving into the information age, reading a book should be a pastime that is not lost. The government has recognised the importance of engaging children from an early age by extending the age of entry trials for 57 schools. By the start of the school year in 2009, all government schools will have adopted a consistent age of entry policy. This means all children will have access to a full year of Transition prior to going into their first formal year of schooling in Year 1. This initiative puts us at the forefront of early childhood education nationally.
The Chief Minister’s Literacy Awards were launched in 2006 with awards provided for every classroom across the Territory. This was about reinforcing the importance of literacy amongst young people. Literacy is the foundation building block on which a child’s education is built. As a community, we cannot afford to allow students in our system to leave school without acceptable levels of literacy. However, it is true that in many remote communities in the Northern Territory English is not spoken as a first language and, in some cases, is hardly used outside the classroom. We cannot accept this as a reason for non-achievement. Rather, it serves as a constant reminder that we need to concentrate on constant improvement in literacy outcomes. It is imperative that we remain focused on this most important element of education. If we need to redouble our efforts in literacy, then we should. In fact, we cannot afford not to.
Links with the Territory workforce and economy: it is vital that our secondary education system reflects the demands of today, and the new and vibrant Territory economy. Sound financial management by government, combined with unprecedented levels of private investment, have seen the Territory economy expand and the demand for skills expand with it.
Combined with the national skills shortage and the very low level of unemployment in many industry sectors, there is a screaming demand for students to have trade and technical skills, or the skills to acquire training. Achieving improvements to NTCE results and a good TER score to access university is vital, but it must be done in tandem with improving our performance in technical skills. We have to ensure our senior high schools give our students the skills and qualifications to fully participate in an expanding economy. Our home-grown students must provide the bulk of the solution to the skills shortage.
These forces are what are motivating the government in the energy and resources that have been put into training in recent years through Jobs Plan 1 and 2. It is why the government has placed career advisors back in the high schools, and it is why we have extended and expanded VET in schools to access school-based apprenticeships. Working with DEET we can now go a step further and develop some exciting new initiatives which will deliver even stronger links between what we are doing in training, and the needs of the economy and students.
Attendance and literacy and numeracy in the bush: of the 151 recommendations in the Learning Lessons Report, the Martin government has moved to implement them all. Eighty-two have been completed and implemented, 51 are being implemented with ongoing actions, and the remaining 17 have been superseded by new policy or legislation. The final one has now commenced through the Remote Learning Partnerships project.
Much has been achieved by the government placing education for indigenous young people as a high priority; however, there remains a very long way to go. This government is up-front about the sheer enormity of the challenge facing improving education in the bush, but we have made a good start by demonstrating to young students in remote communities that it is possible to complete 12 years of school and gain an NTCE. The successes started small, but they are growing. As incredible as it sounds, prior to 2003 not one student had completed their NTCE in their home community. In fact, the governments of the day had a policy prohibiting it. In 2006, 30 students from five communities achieved their NTCE.
Now that students living in remote communities can, through the experience of their brothers and sisters, see a pathway to Year 12, it is time to turn our attention to the issue of school attendance; for nothing can be surer: if a child does not go to school on a regular basis with high levels of attendance, then they are bound to fail. Issues of which programs we provide, or which curricula we provide, are irrelevant if a child does not go to school. The main focus of the government’s approach in 2007 is the exercise of community engagement.
I recently launched the Remote Learning Partnerships Initiative and, as we speak, DEET personnel are visiting communities and introducing the concept of Remote Learning Partnerships. DEET will work closely with communities by listening, sharing ideas, identifying roles and responsibilities so that, together, we can create system-wide changes to the education and training outcomes of young indigenous people in local communities throughout the Northern Territory.
Accountability for performance and success: the structural changes and investments in facilities, teachers and students we have embarked upon are designed to ensure that education, training and employment outcomes will demonstrably improve. To help link the general aspirations of government and DEET with what is actually happening on the ground, we will put a far greater priority on system support and school accountability. When it becomes clear that these are not happening, we will put remedial action in place. I want to see a culture of continuous improvement across DEET and from within our schools. I want to see a focus on improved education outcomes in each and every school, and strongly believe that schools must, with system support, formally plan how and what they will do to achieve this. Formal planning to achieve outcomes and stronger accountability for achievements is not about wanting to focus on problems and where things go wrong; it is about recognising achievements and being better at identifying problems and taking stronger corrective action.
As part of this government’s commitment to improving results, I asked DEET to develop an accountability and performance improvement framework to monitor the standard and quality of education services we provide. This framework is now in an advanced stage of development and, when implemented, will apply across the whole of the DEET. The framework is designed to achieve three goals. Firstly, the framework will focus the attention of all DEET staff on their role in improving student outcomes. Results achieved by schools in six key result areas will be measured, analysed and performance improvement plans will be developed and implemented so that outcomes continue to improve. These six areas are: teaching and learning; student wellbeing and engagement; student pathways and transitions; organisational health and learning; community engagement; and financial health.
Secondly, the framework will enable schools to concentrate on the business of teaching students and achieving high performance standards, because it will clear away some unnecessary administrative clutter and simplify school planning.
Thirdly, the framework will recognise that the achievement of student results is not the responsibility of schools alone. Performance improvement is a shared responsibility between the school and the department, and between the school and their students and parents. The framework will define the standards that we expect of schools and encourage schools to be improving continuously. Help will be available for schools to improve their services and the framework will outline this assistance.
I will formally announce the DEET accountability and performance improvement framework at the principals’ conference in April. Schools will have the opportunity to volunteer to trial the framework over the remainder of this year, with full implementation occurring from the start of 2008. Acceptable outcomes and attendance, numeracy and literacy will not fall from the sky. We must refrain from distractions which will water down the intensity on these goals. We do not expect schools to do this alone. System support for improved outcomes is also essential.
To this end, we have reinstated senior leadership positions in the regions to support schools in achieving approved outcomes. The positions of regional superintendents were removed in 1999 by the then CLP government. Schools have been left to fend for themselves since. An enormous burden was placed on the three general managers who were expected to oversee the operation of over 150 schools. This government has now created three new regional director positions for the Barkly, Katherine and Arnhem regions that will support the work of the general managers. The school accountability process will include regional directors and general managers. Improved educational outcomes in all schools in all regions will be one of shared responsibility that includes school principals, regional directors and general managers.
Parents: this government is committed to ensuring, wherever possible, that every child in our system achieves to the best of their ability. We expect schools to encourage and develop abilities in all students. However, this responsibility is not the total domain of the school and the system. Parents, students and our schools all share in the responsibility for lifting attendance and performance at school. There are also challenges for parents that we must present.
We must in, the first place, set expectations that parents send their children to school. We must encourage parents to be involved in the journey of their child’s education. We must have expectations that students will behave and engage at school, and we must expect that, when students leave the formal education system, they have achieved to the best of their ability. We must ensure that students have adequate literacy and numeracy skills to enable them to participate in the economy and broader society.
As a first measure, I will be strongly supporting schools in making contact with parents when there are unexplained absences of their students, with a view to developing an individualised plan to address the problem.
Communities: the attendance level of students at many Territory schools is not acceptable. I reiterate my very basic proposition that, if a student is not attending school in the first place, there is no hope of that child learning how to read or write. There is no question that schools and the education system as a whole must continue to put more emphasis on getting students to attend. However, the reality of it all is clear: without the support of the parents and the community, the effort will largely be a waste of time. Leaders in communities have to part of getting their kids to school. This responsibility not only falls to parents but extends to community councils, resource centres, sport and recreation officers and shopkeepers. If the community at large does not demonstrate that it cares, it is reasonably predictable that the kids will not either. There are some members of the community who are inspired and do want to increase school attendance. I want to give these champions every help and assistance.
As I mentioned earlier, Phase 1 of the community engagement process has already begun. The process will see teams within DEET and independent brokers visit 15 large remote communities with the aim of reaching agreements on what we can do as a system to deliver education services in a better way. At the same time, we will be asking communities to meet their obligations of getting kids to school and supporting them throughout the course of their education. Front and centre, I have instructed DEET that attendance is the absolute key. Communities that are fair dinkum about improving attendance rates will get the extra support that they are reasonably seeking. I am all ears for innovative strategies that will get kids into schools, and I will support them while they are there. If these community engagement discussions bring forth practical proposals, like adjusting the way a school operates in order to increase the attendance rate, then I will be very keen to give it a go. I am calling on the communities involved in these discussions to give it their best shot.
On a broader level, I am looking forward to putting in place an advisory panel to advise me and DEET, which will be known as the Northern Territory Indigenous Education Advisory Council. I will be asking the council to focus on three key themes for improvement: attendance, literacy and numeracy, and pathways to work and further study. The policy framework has been set and, in this statement, I have outlined some of the additional work that is being done to set the next round of initiatives. Unquestionably, the importance and the urgency are high. We all face huge challenges - government, ministers, educators, communities, parents and students. We do not have a minute to waste. This said, it is an exciting time in education in the Territory. I look forward to providing regular statements to the House on the plans outlined today as they are delivered.
Mr Deputy Speaker, I move that the Assembly take note of the statement.
Ms LAWRIE (Family and Community Services): Mr Deputy Speaker, I commend the minister for Education on his statement. It is a statement that notes that better educational outcomes are not just about what happens in the school, but also that preschool years are crucial. It is in this regard that I want to talk in my role as Minister for Family and Community Services; about the interface between my area of Children’s Services with the nought to five responsibilities that that carries and, importantly, the education system. Without a doubt, if you pay attention to early learning, our nought to fives, then, obviously, the educational benefits flow through. There is a significant interface and cooperative working relationship between the Department of Employment, Education and Training and my agency of Family and Community Services.
The early experiences of the babies and the young children set the scene for their future learning and development. In recent years, new knowledge about early brain development has demonstrated conclusively that what happens in the first three years of a baby’s life sets the scene for their entire life. We are now much more aware of how vulnerable a baby’s brain is to the environment in which it is rapidly developing. This means we have to work right across government, in our Family and Community Services, in Health, in Housing, and in our planning decisions to create the best possible environment for our children’s growth, their development and, obviously, their learning.
The agency of Family and Community Services has been working closely with the Department of Employment, Education and Training in identifying an integration of care and education services – what we refer to as the Top End Early Learning Centre; that is, the childcare centre at the hospital at which a DEET preschool teacher is located. We have a very clear project there of collaboration between DEET locating a preschool teacher into one of our childcare centres, the Top End Early Learning Centre.
There are also a number of childcare centres that are we now seeing being co-located with schools. This is an evolving model of the continuum of learning through early childhood and it is a very exciting advancement within the Territory.
Family and Community Services is also working with DEET on a range of school-based family support activities. This flows from work that my agency did which looked at how to best create an holistic model to support early learning. A key recommendation flowing from that was that there is, obviously, potential within our school communities to expand the learning experience through to the early years and attract programs for the mums and the bubs, so that the mothers get used to the school environment and have confidence and collectively get that habit of attending school with their children.
We have targeted three key areas of disadvantage to trial these family centres for family support activities. The first trial occurred at Moulden Park in Palmerston, an area of significant disadvantage. The trial started under the leadership of my predecessor, minister Scrymgour, and was extended to Karama Primary School, another area of social disadvantage, and to Maningrida community. The early information coming out of those family hubs and those family support programs based within the schools is incredibly promising. We have had improved attendances, for example, of the children of parents who are attending those programs. We are able to run parenting programs through those family centres. For example, at both Moulden Park and Karama Primary School we have engaged another organisation, the Smith Family, in extending its Communities for Children work to work with those families of significant social disadvantage.
It is a very exciting, innovative approach to more appropriately using the fantastic facilities that we have at our schools and, as I said, drawing in those disadvantaged young families, targeting in many instances our young mums who probably dropped out of school at the very early age of 15 or 16, and are wary of the school environment as a consequence of that. In being able to encourage them back into a supportive setting within a school environment it encourages them to continue their own learning, improves their parenting skills, and sets the scene for them to be able to, with confidence, enrol their children into preschool and take advantage of the education system.
The Department of Family and Community Services is also working with the Department of Employment, Education and Training on the Strong Beginnings curriculum project, which is a project for our three- to five-year-olds. That is a critical age group. It is a rapidly developing area of study and learning curriculum. The Strong Beginnings curriculum project was sparked out of the government’s decision to trial early age of entry into preschool to enable - through choice but certainly not mandatory - parents to enter their three-and-a-half-year-olds into our preschool system. I remember when the trial first commenced a few years ago Karama Primary School was one of the preschool sites of the trial. There were some very clear challenges presented by having such young children entering into a structured learning environment such as a preschool.
In studies that I undertook in Queensland, and talking to early learning curriculum experts in Queensland, they showed me the international studies which identified that early learning only works if it is in an informal unstructured delivery. If you overly structure and formalise early learning it ultimately, in fact, has a negative effect on the children’s learning. There was a real need out of the early trials to identify that early curriculum for our three- to five-year-olds.
I congratulate Ken Davies in the Department of Employment, Education and Training who has done a significant body of work in creating the Strong Beginnings curriculum, and also Helen Crawford in the Department of Family and Community Services, who has been a fantastic source of knowledge and support in the information in developing the Strong Beginnings curriculum. I thank both agencies for the significant work they have done.
There is more work to be done on Strong Beginnings. We can never afford, as a government, to take our eye off the ball of early learning and the challenges of early learning, of getting it right, of ensuring that we have a range of choices available within the system. Whilst one three-and-a-half-year-old might suit a preschool environment another three-and-a-half-year-old maybe far too young, in their maturity, to cope. It is critically important that Family and Community Services and the Department of Employment, Education and Training are able to share their knowledge, experience, and expertise to be able to get a range of choices across the early learning spectrum to cater to the variety of needs of our children and families.
For example, we have the three-year-old kindies which crop up with our childcare centres. They are a very good early learning environment for our three-year-olds. Many childcare centres are providing competent preschool programs. I congratulate those providers who have taken on the initiative of interesting preschool programs within the childcare environment. It is an important learning environment for our early childhood children.
If we get supportive, comfortable environments right for the early years, as I said, international studies show children benefit from that learning experience and go on to achieve significant outcomes through their primary and senior learning experience. However, if the environment is overly structured and does not have the thought and flexibility that a young developing child needs, it could, in fact, have the opposite consequence.
This is why, as a government and as ministers, we are committed to continuing to understand the early learning environments and curriculum, which is why I am very supportive of the work done by the Department of Employment, Education and Training in creating the Strong Beginnings curricula for those three- to five-years-old. We have had a significant debate in the Territory about middle schools and the importance of getting the middle years of schooling right for higher education outcomes. However, I have no doubt that if you do not get your three- to five-year-old early learning right, if it is not supportive or resourced then you have missed the boat if you are just dealing with the middle schools age group.
There is a significant commitment from the Martin Labor government to continue to provide a clear focus and direction on our early learning curriculum through the Strong Beginnings. A great deal of research and development has gone into it. I reiterate my congratulations to both Education and FACS for that collaborative work.
We have strong protocols in place between those agencies in relation to child protection, and we are currently working together to improve educational outcomes for children placed in care. This is an emerging body of work. We have been signing off protocols and memorandums of understanding which provide for an appropriate level of attention for children who are in the care of the minister; that is, our out-of-home care and welfare children who, through necessity, have been removed from their families. They are without the normal breadth of support which you would expect to see.
It is incredibly important in that regard that we get a systemic system and approach to ensure those children are well supported through their education. Interestingly, organisations such as CREATE do a fantastic job in advocating for children in the out of home care system. CREATE is staffed in the Territory, for example, by people who have come through foster care themselves and know firsthand the experience of foster care kids.
Sadly and tragically, national statistics - and the Territory is within that national trend - show us there are significant dropout rates for foster children within the education system; that is, they are the children most likely to fail when it comes to education. It is with the knowledge of this that all jurisdictions are starting to pay greater attention to what support we necessarily need to put in place to give the children in our foster care system - what we refer to as out-of-home care - to ensure they are not failures; that they are, indeed, the success stories. We provide support for them within the education system, ensure the education system information is flowing from Family and Community Services, and understand the specific needs of those children. Necessarily so, tragically at times, those children move through several foster placements. Consequently, you have those issues of either children moving around through the education system going from school to school, or whether you can provide supports in place to ensure that they can be anchored within the school community.
These are the day-to-day issues that officers of Family and Community Services and the Department of Employment, Education and Training have in tapping into a systemic approach. I thank them for taking up that task of ensuring that we introduce contemporary practice within our education system to fully support our foster care children, because they are the ones most significantly disadvantaged through life circumstances. It is through no actions of their own; it is life circumstances. It is a responsibility of the government; nonetheless, a responsibility I will shoulder and pursue to provide adequate and significant support to those children to ensure that they can take advantage of the education opportunities that exist here in the Northern Territory with our very fine public school system, and give them every chance in life at success.
Again, I say to both the officers Education and of Family and Community Services who have been working on the out-of-home care project to improve educational outcomes for those children, thank you for your pursuit of the protocols as a result of my ministerial request. It is an emerging body of work and I am looking forward to watching very closely what our educational trend outcomes show for that cohort of very deserving and worthy students.
In relation to the minister’s statement, he also referred to the new school at Emu Point. Just to show how there is a significant interface between my agency of Family and Community Services and the department of Education, we are able to use our initiative of the playground funding package that I announced today to provide $7105 for the JET crche at Emu Point. We do not have artificial barriers existing between Education and FACS. I have seen a vast amount of work done across those two agencies, to be able to accept that the continuum of learning from the noughts through five is so important and so critical, that we actually work in a collaborative sense across agencies to resource and equip them to the appropriate level, and in every way that we can.
There is a very clear link between the care and the development opportunities that we give to our babies and our very young children, and their capacity to benefit from future educational opportunities. Today, I was at Stuart Park Childcare Centre. It is always very important to get out to those centres and see just how innovative they have become, and challenging the learning programs. They are stimulating, learning programs for our little nought to fours in those centres. There is so much that our children are now starting to benefit from, from the research that has been done about how critical those early years of learning are. That nought to three is the time when we have every requirement to get it right for our babies and our little children. We manage to do that within a supportive system that we are well resourcing. Then, obviously, the opportunity for the education benefits is significant.
I congratulate the minister for Education for his statement. In my electorate of Karama, I see extremely fine public schools: Karama Primary School, Malak Primary School, Manunda Terrace Primary School, as well as Sanderson High School. They are examples of just how robust and good our education system can be, as well as flexible and innovative. We have had the innovative programs at Manunda Terrace Primary to provide an opportunity for a leg-up for some of our disadvantaged boys. We have a fantastic accelerated literacy program occurring now at Karama Primary School in conjunction with the Charles Darwin University. Malak Primary School has trialled a range of innovative recess and lunchtime programs. It is starting to become a magnificent school. Over the last few years, it has just bounded from strength to strength, all through significant support from the department of Education.
Congratulations to the minister. I know he has enormous passion to ensure quality education for the children right across the Northern Territory. From my perspective as the Minister for Family and Community Services, I am committed to continuing to work with the minister and his agency to ensure that we get the early years of education right; that we create an environment for our children that will hold them in very fine stead for improved learning once they reach preschool and enter into primary school and high school. I commend the statement.
Dr BURNS (Health): Mr Deputy Speaker, I support the minister’s statement on education. As the minister has said, this Labor government believes a quality education system is the key to unlocking opportunities for young Territorians. As a government, we are committed to getting it right.
Casuarina Senior College, which is in my electorate, had the distinct honour of having 10 of the top 22 students in the Northern Territory’s Certificate of Education (NTCE) results last year. The 10 students from Casuarina who performed so well were: Aarany Sivakaanthan, Karina Brabham, Amelia Samuels, Varun Nair, Robyn Lambert, Heather Langham, Elise Manhire, Alicia Bahler, Deanne Thorpe and Lisa Visentin. All of these students received a TER score of over 90. Well done! In all, 253 students graduated with their NTCE from Casuarina Senior College in 2006, and I congratulate each and every one.
While on Casuarina Senior College, it is pleasing to see that Casuarina, along with Alice Springs High School, had the most significant increase in indigenous students completing their NTCE from 2005-06. Amber Munkara-Sweet from Casuarina Senior College received the most outstanding Stage II Northern Territory Certificate of Education Indigenous Student of 2006. As far as I am concerned, the increasing number of indigenous students completing their NTCE is one of the truly encouraging signs of education in the Territory. Some of these students will make the transition from secondary education to tertiary education, and we all appreciate the significance of that choice as the next step after high school. It was very pleasing to me, as someone who lived in Maningrida over a number of years and also had a long association with that community, to see students from the high school there graduating with their Year 12 results. That bodes well for Maningrida and for the Territory as a whole, given that there are a number of sites now across the Territory where Aboriginal students are performing, graduating and obtaining their NTCE.
This is something that did not happen before under the previous CLP government. They just ignored education in the bush. I pay tribute to the member for Nhulunbuy who, as Education minister, really pushed this issue, got it front and centre, and got things moving. We now see the results. However, it is only the beginning; there is much more to be done on this issue, particularly in our regional areas.
I was speaking in relation to students entering their tertiary studies, and I would like to speak about the Territory’s Charles Darwin University which is meeting the challenge of providing learning pathways in an environment that allows students to reach their full potential. The university offers students a multitude of courses, including business studies, construction and engineering, conservation and, also in the science, health and nursing areas which, of course, align to my own studies and are so important to the Northern Territory.
As Health Minister, I am delighted that the Territory’s university is doing such a great job in helping to train home-grown nurses for our hospitals. The School of Health Sciences at Charles Darwin University in the faculty of Education, Health and Science comprises nursing, psychology, social work, welfare studies and community studies. The faculty currently has 763 students enrolled in their Bachelor of Nursing course. The census date is still a couple of weeks away, and they expect to be catering for more than 800 students, and that is fantastic. Approximately one-quarter of these are from across the Territory, and the remainder are from all over Australia. It is an attractive course for people living in rural and remote areas, not only in the Territory but Australia-wide, and there are units that can be taken externally.
Another innovative approach is the extensive use of the Internet for students. CDU has extensive links with hospitals all over Australia and students can take clinical placements in a variety of locations. CDU also conducts clinical teaching blocks which allow students to meet each other at least once a year and be part of CDU.
One of the reasons for the interest in the Bachelor of Nursing at Charles Darwin University is that the course has electives in relation to remote and indigenous nursing. The enrolled nursing program has 71 students currently enrolled and they are still processing another 50 applications. The enrolled nursing program and Aboriginal health worker program is a pathway to the Bachelor of Nursing. With the students’ engagement with the Northern Territory through studying at CDU, interstate students are encouraged to consider a career in nursing in the Northern Territory.
I use a personal anecdote. My daughter, who completed Year 12 at Darwin High School and has had really all of her education within the Northern Territory in Darwin, did a year’s cadetship with the Justice Department. The Minister for Corporate and Information Services talked earlier today about the graduate program. She was thrilled to do that one year within the Justice Department and now she is going to be studying law at Charles Darwin University. I am proud of my daughter progressing along that pathway, but I am equally pleased that she is undertaking her studies locally at Charles Darwin University. I have always been a great supporter of Charles Darwin University, given the fact that it is a university with a comparatively limited catchment compared to other universities in southern states. It offers a great range of courses. It is a pivotal institution to the advancement and development of the Northern Territory. It is very important for the Northern Territory to develop. I know this government is a supporter of Charles Darwin University and we have very close links with it.
Yes, Charles Darwin University does have issues in relation to its size and catchment but I have every confidence that, in 10 or 20 years as the population in the Northern Territory grows and as Charles Darwin University develops, it will be a premier institution in South-East Asia and Australia. It is well on its way to becoming that even as I speak.
As we know, the Northern Territory faces unique health and community services challenges. It is also a place of great professional opportunity. Some of Australia’s foremost clinicians, public health practitioners, researchers and academics are based in the Territory and have national and international links and reputation. This government aims to encourage and build on their leadership so more of our staff can improve their knowledge and skills.
I would particularly like to note the important education outcomes delivered by the Menzies School of Health Research. Menzies is a national and internationally recognised research organisation that aims to improve the health of people in tropical and Central Australia. I have acknowledged previously that the member for Greatorex was on the Board of the Menzies School of Health Research for quite a number of years and has made a significant contribution to the development of the Menzies School of Health Research. We acknowledge that the Menzies School of Health Research was set up under the previous CLP government and it has been a real success story. This government is continuing those close links with and support for the Menzies School of Health Research.
It does have an important education role delivering course work in public health research training and short courses. The course work in public health is accredited by the Charles Darwin University and provides multidisciplinary public health education focusing on indigenous remote and tropical public health. As I said, Menzies enjoys an international reputation and, as such, attracts high-quality public health practitioners from interstate and overseas. However, most of the students are from the Territory and many of them are employees of the Department of Health and Community Services.
Menzies is also a significant player in providing postgraduate research training for health professionals and the wider Northern Territory community. Postgraduate research students are supervised by senior Menzies staff or external supervisors when appropriate. Student research projects are particularly concerned with Aboriginal health issues, but span the whole range from molecular biology to population health and health policy.
Since 1978, Menzies postgraduate students have gone to many other universities, including Charles Darwin University, Flinders University of South Australia, and the Universities of New South Wales, Melbourne and Adelaide.
Menzies also runs a dynamic and self-sustaining short course program. This focuses on skills development for the indigenous public health workforce, especially service providers, researchers and research students. The program is based on the needs of the community and service providers, but often attracts interstate participants, including students enrolled in postgraduate programs elsewhere. The short courses play an important role in Menzies’ own staff recruitment, retention and professional development.
Topics that have been offered as short courses to date include Aboriginal health economics, social determinants of indigenous health, community development, context and politics of indigenous health, applied biostatistics, clinical trial and workshops in presentation skills, and analysis and protocols for systemic reviews.
Menzies is a significant provider of health education of the highest quality in the Territory. In addition, each year Northern Territory Clinical School students graduate from Flinders University as medical practitioners as part of a partnership between this government and the university. The Northern Territory Clinical School is based at Royal Darwin Hospital and Alice Springs Hospital, with outreach to general practices and rural and remote communities throughout the Northern Territory. Flinders University students complete the first two years of the course in Adelaide, then Northern Territory students transfer to Royal Darwin Hospital for year three of the course to study key clinical disciplines.
Since the Northern Territory’s Clinical School opened in 1998, this initiative has had significant impact on the education of medical students in the Northern Territory. The students have gained invaluable knowledge of the health challenges of relevance to the Territory through this pathway and, importantly, many of these students have elected to return to the Northern Territory on graduation.
I am pleased to be able to report that the Department of Health and Community Services also provides significant pathways for the training and education of its staff. For example, the department is able to provide financial assistance and study leave for a range of external courses for staff from across all work areas. This includes clinical, administrative and executive streams, as well as for professional, physical and technical streams, and Aboriginal Health Workers. There are specific programs for staff, such as the Discovery: Women as Leaders, and the Kigaruk Indigenous Men’s Leadership program. This department has important partnerships with 35 universities in Australia, including the Flinders and James Cook Universities, as well as international partnerships, such as the one with the Florence Nightingale School of Nursing at Kings College and the University of Sheffield in the United Kingdom. These partnerships link with clinical placements for undergraduate students in the nursing, allied health and medical fields.
The department also has a number of programs designed to help us expand the pool of nurses available to our health system. For example, there is the re-entry program, which develops competencies for nurses seeking to get back into the clinical workforce after taking time off or being away. There is also the overseas nursing program, which supports nurses who have trained overseas to become familiar with Australian nursing practices. There is also a range of internal clinical courses for staff, such as about giving vaccines, a course designed for nurses and Aboriginal Health Workers.
Another important initiative in building our workforce is the support that the Department of Health and Community Services provides to indigenous students through the National Indigenous Cadetships Program, where they undertake study and gain experience in employment through temporary contracts with the department. Ensuring our health staff are skilled and educated is a key objective for this government.
I have spoken in my response to the minister’s statement about Casuarina Senior College, part of my electorate, being an important part of the Northern Territory secondary education system. I am convinced the middle school changes, despite some early misgivings by some staff at Casuarina Senior College, are being implemented very smoothly. I regularly attend college council meetings; I have heard some of those concerns. However, I am also convinced that the senior staff and the majority of staff at Casuarina Senior College are supporting this initiative. They are knuckling down and making those students feel at home at Casuarina Senior College. I believe it will deliver quality outcomes to our secondary students.
I have not mentioned the primary schools in my electorate. They are great schools. Alawa, which is really in the member for Nightcliff’s electorate, borders my electorate. It is certainly a great school. There are also Jingili, Wagaman and Moil. Each school is different and they provide different flavours of education at each one, but all of a high quality with high-quality staff, with parents who are really interested in their children’s education. Parents, may I add, are very appreciative of government’s efforts in increased funding for students to attend school, through our subsidy at the beginning of the year, and the way that this government has upgraded computer equipment and supported primary education. I commend all the professional educators and the work that they do within those schools.
In the latter part of my speech, I outlined various aspects of tertiary education. I am not sure it is something that other speakers have touched on, but I feel it is a very important part of developing the Northern Territory. I have mentioned Charles Darwin University and the sterling job that is going on there, how it is developing. It is moving forward in the education of health professionals, particularly nurses. I also omitted to mention pharmacists; there is a pharmacy course starting there. It is moving along, developing courses and feeding health professionals into the Northern Territory workforce, and that is fantastic.
I have mentioned the Menzies School of Health Research, a premier institution. They certainly attract a lot of grant money, but they are also doing a lot of work in postgraduate education for health professionals, particularly those within the Northern Territory Public Service - a great job done by Menzies and internationally recognised.
I have also mentioned the Flinders Medical School and some of the arrangements there. That is also having a positive effect, because it is drawing local graduates who come back, and also graduates from elsewhere who come to the Northern Territory, do some placements, and then want to stay in the Northern Territory.
I commend the minister’s statement to the House. I suppose I have enlarged on it a little, but that is fair enough. I believe the House needs to be apprised of developments in tertiary education. All members from both sides would agree with me; this is a very important sector for the development of the Northern Territory.
Madam Speaker, in conclusion, I support the minister’s statement, as this government is serious about providing educational opportunities in a broad range of fields, and to assist students to become the best of the best in their education endeavours.
Debate adjourned.
SPECIAL ADJOURNMENT
Mr HENDERSON (Leader of Government Business): Madam Speaker, I move that the Assembly at its rising adjourn until Tuesday, 17 April 2007 at 9.30 am at the Alice Springs Convention Centre, or such other time and/or date as may be advised by the Speaker, pursuant to sessional order.
Motion agreed to.
ADJOURNMENT
Mr HENDERSON (Leader of Government Business): Madam Speaker, I move that the Assembly do now adjourn.
Mr VATSKALIS (Casuarina): Madam Speaker, Gong Xi Fa Cai. Congratulations and happy New Year to all Chinese descent Territorians. This is the Year of the Pig and I am looking forward to the celebration and the official blessing of my electorate office in Casuarina this Saturday. I believe they are blessing the member for Wanguri’s office. There are going to be firecrackers - hopefully, they are going to be put the right way up this time – and, of course, the Chinese lion.
I congratulate the Tracy Village Social and Sports Club on the completion of the new lights on their sporting field. In the past two years, the club has done a fantastic job and invested more than $2m in their sporting facilities. My sincere thanks to the Northern Territory government for generously providing funding of $800 000 to the Tracy Village Social and Sports Club for this much-needed facility. I was very proud, on 14 December, to assist President Garry Ross switch on the new floodlights for the first time. The official lighting of the new lights will be at a later date and the member for Wanguri and I will be there.
The availability of the new lights has helped the Northern Territory Softball Association to secure the national Under 23 softball championship this year from 10 to 14 April. There are approximately 240 softballers who will come to Darwin from all over Australia. NT Softball relocated to Tracy Village from the Gardens because they aim to program some night games and increase participation in the sport.
Tracy Village Social and Sports Club has always been very active in the local community. They keep on investing in sport and social facilities for Territorians in the northern suburbs. With the exciting new Lyons development right next door, now in full swing, it will definitely be getting bigger and better. If you have not visited it yet, you do not know what you are missing. I am very proud to be involved with the club and I look forward to continue working closely with President Garry Ross and the committee.
I was extremely happy to have been invited by Dave Brabham and the crew to spend an afternoon with the Active After-school Communities program at Nakara Primary School recently. What a fantastic program. Well done, to all involved. The program provides primary school-aged kids with access to free structured physical activity programs in the after-school time slot. The focus of the program is to get non-active kids into physical activities. It can also be the pathway for them into local community organisation or clubs. Partnerships with local community groups are essential for the success of the program, with groups like the athletics, netball and AFL all getting involved in the Territory. There are more than 60 sports and out-of-school hours care services in the Territory running this program, with this number expected to rise to 73 by mid-year. Over 140 adults have also undertaken coaching training for the program. I congratulate the person who thought of it, and the people who participate and teach young Territorians to become active again.
Another outstanding Northern Territory government initiative is the Northern Territory Youth Business Award. This initiative provides our youth with opportunities to learn about the business world. Students develop a small business as part of the Northern Territory Certificate of Education studies. They receive a loan from the school to set up their business and are required to pay back the loan from the profits gained from the business venture. It is great to see so many young entrepreneurs in our education system developing their skills early. Congratulations to Jake Clements of Nakara and his Casuarina Senior College team of Cameron Francis, Josh Miles and Carmen Chau for winning first prize for their design-based business, The First Shipment. I was able to congratulate Jake and his parents, Gary and Shirley, personally at my Christmas party last year. Well done, Jake.
Also, congratulations to the second prize winners, the Dripstone High School team of Erin Clark, Leah Dernahan, Wilasinee Moulding, Sunita Murphy, Amber-Lou Santer and Heather McEwan for their business, Eskimo Cones.
The Business Plan Award went to Dripstone High School’s Nathan Edwards and Keiran Munns for their business, NK Bowls.
I am happy to advise it was also the first time a remote school participated in the Youth Business Award and won. Congratulations to students from Maningrida CEC for winning the Innovation Award.
This year, my visit to Dripstone High School’s first assembly was extra special. I was very excited to attend, not only as the local member, but also as a dad to welcome my young son, Michael, who commenced Year 8. I was also very happy to help Principal, Lyn Elphinstone, promote compulsory school uniforms this year, by presenting the school’s new Good on You Awards. Ten lucky students won tickets for the recent AFL All Stars games that I happily donated.
One of the highlights of Dripstone High this week has been John Joseph, ‘The Brain Man’, working with the Year 8 students on how the brain works and learning styles.
Dripstone High School’s parent/teacher evening is on Wednesday, 28 February, at 5.30 pm followed by Values Forum and meet the teacher evening at 6 pm.
Last month, Nakara School Principal, Barry Griffin, gave us all a good scare when he suffered a heart attack. I am very happy and relieved to advise that Barry is now back home after travelling to Adelaide for a quadruple bypass, and he is very well after spending time in the hospital. He looks trimmer, slimmer and more terrific than ever. I look forward to catching up with Barry at school next Friday at afternoon tea.
Alawa is another school in my area, and the Principal of the Alawa Primary School, Sharon Reeves, is excited about the school’s excellent start to 2007. Early last week, my colleague, the member for Wanguri, the minister for Education, and I went to Alawa and launched a new portal service that went live in Alawa and another nine schools in Darwin. With this portal, parents will be able not only to check kids’ attendance, but also check their progress and if they have any homework. It is most important. This program will bring classrooms to home, and they will be constant care for children 24-hours a day if the parents so wish. There is no escape from homework. I know that teachers and the parents are happy; I do not know if the students are happy about that.
I welcome to the Casuarina community our new Superintendent for the Casuarina Division, Joanne Foley and also a big welcome back to our Officer-in-Charge of Casuarina Police Station, Tim Moseley. I look forward working with them together this year to make Casuarina electorate safer and happy place to live.
There were some concerns with antisocial behaviour, youth gangs and other issues recently. The police have targeted the areas. They provided the mobile police station, foot patrols and quelled the problem very quickly. I am happy to work with the police very closely. After all, politicians wander around the streets doorknocking. They get some information sometimes which they quite happily pass to the police. In this community, our selfless community leaders and the police work together because there is not much point in complaining unless we stand up to be counted.
I thank the Greek Community for a wonderful New Year’s eve party at the Kalymnian Brotherhood Hall. The food was glorious and the entertainment was fabulous. It was marvellous to see the dance floor packed and everybody enjoying themselves to wonderful music of local bouzouki players and, of course, a lot of singers. The good thing about this event, together with the other events I have attended like the Hakka, the Chinese Timorese Association, is they are community-based events and I am always made to feel welcome. It was an exciting event and we are now, after the celebration of the New Year and Christmas, back at work and have just finished the two weeks at parliament, which was very exciting.
Talking about parliament, I would like to make some comments about the interesting adjournment made by the member for Greatorex yesterday. The member for Greatorex appeared to be very angry with me because he claimed that I misrepresented him in a recent letter I sent out to the community. According to the member for Greatorex, he said that I issued a media release claiming that the CLP member for Greatorex wanted to double the price of power in Alice Springs. He also complained to me because, in my media release, I said that the member for Greatorex wants people in Alice Springs to live in water tanks. He also made claims that the CLP put a lot of infrastructure in Alice Springs. I will take each part separately.
On 11 January 2007, the member for Greatorex issued a media release. He took the opportunity to comment on NT Treasury providing funds to Power and Water to recover some costs spent on fixing their billing system. He said:
- PAWA is essentially a private company, although government owned. It is a corporation by every measure so it needs to operate in that fashion. That means that it has to live by its own resources.
If I am not mistaken a private enterprise, even if it is owned by government - let us say Qantas - has to operate and recover costs in some cases to make a profit. Power and Water would gladly like to operate and recover costs and make profits. The problem we have then is that, because we have such expensive power generation costs, Power and Water has to charge a significant amount of money to recover the costs and make profit.
The only reason that your bill is at the level it is, is because the government heavily subsidies Power and Water in order to keep the electricity price down. If Power and Water did not receive any subsidy from the government, I would like to warn Territorians to be prepared to have a significantly increased power bill in the next few years. I am telling you that Power and Water will continue to receive a subsidy from the government because our government wants to keep the price of electricity down.
If the CLP believes that Power and Water should operate as a private company, that it has to limit its resources, I would like to warn Territorians that the CLP has in mind to double our power bills. The thing that worries me is that the CLP says …
Mrs Miller: I am not sure what part of it you did not understand, minister.
Mr VATSKALIS: Oh, do not say that. I can give you a copy of the member for Greatorex’s media release that says it has to operate as a private corporation.
The problem, of course, is if I was to operate as a power corporation is there something else like that? Do they want to prove to the commercial sector that Power and Water is a profit-making enterprise so, ultimately, the CLP wants to privatise Power and Water? There are some answers that he has to give.
He also said that I claimed in my media release that the member for Greatorex said that the people in Alice Springs should live in water tanks. He said in his adjournment yesterday:
- In a radio interview I told a story about a developer who came to me and said if the Ron Goodin station land would turn into a private residential division for development ...
However, when I went to the interview he gave on the Matt Conlan’s program on 29 January, the member for Greatorex said nothing about development - no suggestion about developer came to him. The member for Greatorex said:
- Well I believe that once, you know, the power generation is completely installed at Brewer Estate, the land at Ron Goodin station could be sold for a development as another small suburb. And tell you what, everyone I’ve spoken to has said: ‘Look, I’d love to buy a block up there’. Fantastic views, even the water tanks … could be converted into a home. What a fantastic idea! You know, you could cut a couple of holes in the tanks and make them into windows ...
Are you serious? I got a phone call the other day and a gentleman asked why the member for Greatorex wanted people to live in water tanks. I wondered the same. First of all, there was no mention about a developer approaching the member for Greatorex, and second, the member for Greatorex suggests people could be living in water tanks. Therefore, he cannot blame me that I misrepresented him; he did a good job himself.
The third, and the most critical, is the whole issue regarding the noise of the Titan and Taurus generators installed in the Ron Goodin Power Station. The Ron Goodin Power Station has been established and providing power to Alice Springs for more than 30 years. In the 1980s, the CLP government decided to open a new subdivision. They opened a new subdivision that is 300 m away from a power station. No one in his right mind anywhere in Australia would have done so. If they had done their job properly, done environmental and noise assessments, they would have realised that there was the potential for noise pollution from the power station.
Surprise, surprise! When Alice Springs got bigger and Power and Water had to establish more power generating facilities, they put them in the power station and the noise became a problem. I said that if there was a noise problem and the studies that Power and Water have undertaken shows that the noise is unacceptable, the offending generators will be going somewhere else.
Of course, you can ask why you do not move them to Brewer Estate. We are unable to put them in the Brewer Estate because, despite the claims by the member for Greatorex that the CLP developed Brewer Estate, the CLP government did not develop it. The only thing they did was zone the area for noxious industries, and the power generation facilities there were developed by private enterprise. The capacity of Brewer Estate is only eight megawatt compared to 30 to 53 megawatts at Ron Goodin Power Station. The member for Greatorex cannot tell Territorians that the CLP government developed the Brewer Estate. It is a private development.
On top that, the CLP government signed a colonial agreement with the operators of Brewer Estate. I say ‘colonial’ because in every other state, power and water instrumentalities provide the basic service and electricity, the base load, and they buy electricity as they need it from private producers. In the case of Brewer Estate’s private producer, Power and Water has agreed to buy the base load, thus ensuring that the private operator has a constant and continuous source of income. Power and Water has to provide the power when there is a peak in demand in Alice Springs. Of course, there is increasing demand in Alice Springs because many people have moved from evaporative airconditioners to the split system units which are power hungry.
The member for Greatorex cannot claim that we have misrepresented him. The only thing we did was tell people exactly what he said in his media release on 11 January 2007, demanding that Power and Water should operate as a private company - meaning make a profit and recover costs which, in turn, means doubling your power bill.
He also suggested living in water tanks and, on top of that, he said that Ron Goodin Power Station can move tomorrow. It is not expensive; it is only $50m maximum all up. Move it away. To move the Ron Goodin Power Station would require up to $75m. The relocation of the Ron Goodin Power Station to the Brewer Estate would require a significant upgrade of the facilities in Brewer Estate, for the simple reason that the power line the CLP put in is only a 22 kVa power line, which has very low capacity. In order to move the Titan and Taurus generators into that area, we need to significantly upgrade the power line because it cannot take the load that these engines would produce.
It is very cute to claim he is interested in Alice Springs and its problems. Today, he went on air on Matt Conlan’s program, and there was not one mention about the power problems in Alice Springs or noise. Before we came into parliament, he went on the radio and said: ‘I am going to grill the Minister for Essential Services about the power in Alice Springs’. He did not ask a question about Alice Springs because he knows very well that if he asked a question, he would get the answer he deserves. I am prepared to read in parliament a media release he issued, and parts of his interviews, which would show Territorians, and especially Alice Springs people, what is true about the CLP, and what the CLP has in mind to do.
Yes, there was a power interruption in Alice Springs on Friday. I was in Alice Springs. At 1515, the power station went into blackout. Within 16 minutes, the power was restored to the hospital. Within one hour, 50% of the consumers in Alice Springs had power back, and within an hour-and-a-half, 80% of the consumers had power back. Power and Water is still trying to find out what went wrong. It was very unnatural for the whole power station to black out. When I have the information, I will provide it to this House.
Dr LIM (Greatorex): Madam Speaker, I am glad that the minister has finally been provoked enough to at least explain to us what his intentions were for power and water, particularly the noise from the Ron Goodin Power Station.
I have lived in Alice Springs some 26 years now, and I remember the Golf Course Estate being developed from bushland. I also remember that the Ron Goodin Power Station was there long before the subdivision was developed, and many home allotments near the power station were sold at much greatly reduced prices compared to the other allotments further away. Homes were built - grand homes, some on hills, some on the other side of the ridge to the power station. Those people who built the homes built them knowing that the noise was there and that was something they would have to live with.
Guess what? When some of them sold their homes to second and third subsequent buyers, the prices that they received for the homes were indicative of the surrounding ambient noise that they had to live with. Everybody knew that - not a problem. In fact, until the Taurus and the Titan were installed at the Ron Goodin Power Station, the noise level was acceptable and there was no other interference in the neighbourhood. People lived with it – quite happily. They were able to come outside, enjoy their back yards and their swimming pool while the power station was running.
However, it was not until the Titan and the Taurus turbines were installed that something happened to the configuration of the Ron Goodin Power Station. From that time onwards, not only was the noise from the exhaust stack quite distressing and stressful for the people who were exposed to the noise, especially those living close to the power station, the dynamics that were altered by the installation produced a vibration - a very low rumble that transmitted through the ground. I assume that is what it is, because that is what people described to me: as if there were a rumbling that went right through and penetrated their homes, into their very bedrooms and beds, so that when they are trying to sleep at night, they sensed and heard this low rumble that interfered with their sleep. That was a continuous noise that prevented any restful sleep. Imagine putting up with this every day and every night for the last 18 months. It is no wonder people complain - and complain very loudly - because it was very stressful.
I suppose if I can use a cultural context, it is like the Chinese water torture. It is not a significant impact per drop of water but, in a prolonged, constant and persistent sense, it eventually becomes a terrible impact on one’s person. Well, the same thing occurred with this noise at the power station. The chimney stack from the Titan was throwing out so much noise that you could hear it around quite a large area in Alice Springs, particularly if the wind was blowing in your direction. I live in Dalby Court, a fair way from the power station. Many afternoons, I will come out to mow the lawn, and I will hear this roar in the background. My first reaction to that is: ‘Oh, there is a jet about to take off from the airport’. Then, when the noise continues for several minutes, suddenly you realise it cannot be because the jet would have taken off by now; it has to be the power station.
On many occasions, I would get on my bicycle and ride through the suburbs where I know that the power station noise has a huge impact. I get up to the front porches of houses that are affected, right up to the streets that are affected, and right up to very front gate of the Ron Goodin Power Station to listen for myself how loud the noise had been. Some days, the noise was really unbearable. You would not sit in your back yard having a barbecue with your friends, having a relaxing evening, with that noise surrounding you in all directions. You just could not do it. That is why the complaints then started to mount.
People have tried to sell their houses along two particular roads in Alice Springs in the Golf Course Estate very close to the power station, and they are unable to get the prices that they used to be able to get. People then said to us: ‘Is the government going to compensate us for the loss of value for our properties? We cannot sell them’. There is an elderly lady who hoped she was going to be able to retire on the money she received from the sale of her home. She is not able to achieve the value of the home that she once had. There is a problem.
The minister has been to these properties and listened for himself, and had said, quite clearly, that he found the noise quite distressing and that he was not prepared to put up with that noise. Yet, he expects people to not only live with that for the last 18 months, but for an unknown period into the future. When the problem is identified, the decision has been made that it is to be shifted, then I say to government: get on with it. Get on with this straight away so that people can move ahead with their lives.
Some people in Alice Springs suggested maybe the government should buy all those homes; it would be cheaper than trying to shift the power station. That is probably correct. That can happen if the government wants to do that and, perhaps, convert those homes for first home buyers at a discount rate, if people want to live in the surroundings with the noise.
The reality is Brewer Estate is the right location for the new generators. If the government were to immediately remove the two new turbines at the same time that it proposes to install the next unit in Alice Springs, and make the decision now that they will all be installed at Brewer Estate, then people will try to come to terms with it and live with the noise for the foreseeable future.
I know that money has been put aside in the budget to have another generating unit in Alice Springs. When speaking to the former CEO, Kim Wood, he told me that that unit is likely to go in some time this year. I say to the minister and to the government: demonstrate your goodwill to Alice Springs and to the people living under the impact of this noise. Make the commitment: ‘Yes, we can move it to Brewer Estate and we will now commence works on the grid to bring the power back from Brewer Estate into town’. Show the commitment, spend the money, upgrade the grid and people will have faith that this government and this minister have listened to them and are prepared to implement changes to ensure that their lives will be returned back to normal.
The minister has to understand - he obviously does not – that, until the Titan and Taurus were installed, the noise impact was never complained about. I have been the member for Greatorex for well nigh 13 years and, until the Taurus and Titan were installed, nobody complained to me about the noise.
There is a problem and the minister can say all he likes. I still think the minister needs to be honest with what he puts out in his media release. The Country Liberal Party has never ever said that we will remove the community service obligation payment that is made by the Northern Territory government to Power and Water to retain our electricity uniform tariff policy. It was a policy introduced by the CLP and we had it for years and years and years. I am glad to see that the Labor Party saw the wisdom in that and continued with the policy. Albeit that in the last 18 months or so they have raised power costs by a further 2.4%, but they retained that uniform tariff, and that is a good thing.
If the CLP win government, we will continue that policy. Territorians can rest assured that that will be the case for as long as I am standing here; not for today, but when in parliament. I am sure it will keep on going even when I retire; whatever time I retire, that will happen. The CLP would retain the uniform tariff equalisation policy. For the minister and the Treasurer to say the CLP was going to remove the subsidy is absolutely wrong. It is, in my opinion, bad principle. It is untruthful to say things that would never be the intention of anybody.
What the minister said I said about the water tanks is not true. The minister can read what was said in the media transcript. However, I tell you now in this place where you do not lie, that it was an approach by a developer who suggested that it would be quite quaint to develop those water tanks that are currently at the Ron Goodin Power Station into homes. I agree with him; it would be quite quaint to do that now. Somebody has to pay for it and, if there is a buyer or several buyers prepared to pay for those two water tanks, well, so be it. Those water tanks are pretty big. You might be able to convert them into two or three homes. I do not know. A developer and an architect might want to have a look at that and go from there. It could be something unusual that could be a showcase for Alice Springs. Who knows? I leave it to architects and people with better design minds to develop such a future.
Power and Water fell over last Friday. I said yesterday, my first reaction was: ‘Good God, the minister is Alice Springs as he sits with us now and they have already commenced the shifting of the turbines to Brewer Estate, and that is why the power is flickering away’. While he might say that 80% of homes in Alice Springs had regained power within one-and-a-half hours, computers in the CBD, where business is conducted, fell over for quite a protracted period of time. Traffic lights went out for a protracted period of time. Many of these businesses do not have a UPS or standby generators. When people living further out from the CBD suffered power failure for four or five hours, when their food started to go off in the fridges on a day which was around 45C in the shade, that is a problem in a town like Alice Springs.
A modern town like Alice Springs, capital city of Central Australia, services hundreds of kilometres around that little town. It is a town that deserves to have uninterrupted power. In this modern day and age, there is no way that you can say that we cannot have uninterrupted power every day of the week. Power and Water and the minister said: ‘We do not know what caused it. No idea at all. We are still investigating’. It is now Thursday today. Friday was when the power failure occurred last week, and you still do not know. Answer: you blame a computer glitch and you cannot even find a glitch in the computer. That is the problem; you are blaming something without any rationale. Perhaps it is again a government that is complacent and thinking everything is easy: ‘We have 19 members, who cares? Let everything sail along. Who cares what happens to Alice Springs? It did not vote for us. It can put up with all the difficulties that it has currently. We have 19 members; most of them north of Katherine, and we will look after them all and the rest of the Territory can go he’.
That is the problem. This government is not a government for all Territorians, and we in Central Australia - the Leader of the Opposition and me - are messengers from Central Australia asking you to take heed that Alice Springs is suffering. You need to provide resources to ensure that the town recaptures its former glory.
Mr WARREN (Goyder): Madam Acting Deputy Speaker, last month, the 2007 World Hottest Rugby Union Sevens was held in Darwin, as usual. I have a strong association with the Papua New Guinea community here in my capacity as their patron. I will read a letter that was written by Cybele Druma, President of the PNG Women’s Rugby Union Incorporated, which tells the story of their struggle to get to this competition. You must bear in mind that this is the first women’s Rugby Union team from Papua New Guinea to play internationally. By the way, they are called the Raggianas, which is the name of a very beautiful Bird of Paradise. Here is Cybele’s story:
- Dear All,
What a phenomenal experience it was - our debut into international competition - the PNG Raggianas’ ‘baptism of fire’.
And we were extremely fortunate to share this piece of history with the PNG community in Darwin and, equally, Mr Tim Heath and his superb management team behind the Darwin Sevens, and NTRU, and our very generous sponsors in Darwin; Mr Michael Scott, GM of the Travelodge Mirambeena Resort Darwin. And a huge thanks to Wendy Seymour who has been integral in our enjoyable stay in Darwin and our safe passage back to Port Moresby.
For those who have been with us when we took our first step on this unforgettable journey, we witnessed a miracle that I hope the girls never forget. We went into the camp only five days before our planned departure because we had no money. Thanks to the good people of Curtain Brothers, we were able to camp in their training facility at Burns Peak. It was an open floor space, with toilets and a sink. The women brought their mats and bedding and kitchen supplies. Daulako Bulivakarua, a Fijian, who was our contact at Curtain Bros built a makeshift shower for us outside under the stars. P&B Cheung sponsored some staple food supplies for us, which we happily devoured after every two-hour training session, both in the mornings and afternoons.
By Wednesday, it was very clear that we were still short of K35 000. Friday was the last possible day to fly out to attend the games. Women had already been praying to the Lord for his assistance. That Wednesday, I requested my office to contact Tim to advise him that we needed help with the accommodation and food in Darwin. He called me back in 30 minutes and advised that our accommodation was arranged and not to worry about the food. At the time of the call, I was in the bus, with the rest of the team. When I told them the news, they were ecstatic. The bus was parked in front of Skyland Travel whom we were negotiating with on the best possible prices to Darwin. I then picked up the phone and called Sallyanne Wari of the Women’s Rugby Union Executive, and advised her of the new developments in Darwin and asked her to contact her network.
On Tuesday afternoon, training was very quiet. The men had mixed emotions, as they knew our situation and yet the women continued to train as if everything was okay. The day before, the women did not train, because I had now given them the clear picture their proposals for the funding were not being considered favourably and the reality might be that we forgo this event. When the men saw the women not training, they asked their coach, Sailosi, what was going on and he explained. Their hearts sank for the girls, as they knew the effort and commitment made by the women as we had trained together from Day 1. I believe that it was at this point that they had fully accepted and welcomed the concept of women’s rugby.
That night, they joined the women’s camp for us to farewell them, which we did by sharing our food with them, and the ladies performed a dance for them, the famous Tolai Two-Step, which they again performed in Darwin, much to the delight of the Darwinites. Then they said their goodbyes to us and all the time, they continued to ask the Coach of our situation. Sailosi told them to have faith, that we would make it, and he told me that he would see us in Darwin.
As we drove to the training place the next day, it was quiet, and didn’t feel the same. The guys had left for Darwin. Notwithstanding, we all still trained - I could tell though that the women were slightly restless. After training was over, I requested Malara to transport the women back to the camp while I took two of the team members to pick up the National U19 Junior Mens Team who also were preparing to travel to Australia the next morning. On the way back to camp, I detoured to Sallyanne’s home to enquire how her ‘funds search’ had gone. She advised that we were good to go. With all the excitement, I told the other two who had accompanied me not to tell the women - that I would announce it to them.
That night we ate, had our evening devotion and went to bed – most searching for any expression on my face for any new developments. The next morning, I was awoken very early by one of the players who asked if she should pack up her things ready - as everything depended on us getting news that day. I told her yes - to pack up, and get ready for devotion. Before we said our final prayer, I told the women the good news. There was so much excitement and relief in the air. As you can imagine, most of our team had never travelled outside of PNG before.
The rest is history. Oh and coming to Darwin and staying in a 3star hotel - compared to our camp - was the icing on the cake!
I take this opportunity to thank the Lord - God of the Universe, for being the God of possibilities and our destiny.
Thanks to our die hard supporters at the National AIDS Council Secretariat and the NCDC, the PNGRFU and all corporate sponsors in PNG.
Thank you everyone for sharing and living the dream with us. I hope that we can count on your support again at the World’s Hottest Sevens in Darwin – 2008!
God Bless,
Cybele Druma
PRESIDENT
PNG Womens Rugby Union Inc.
Just for the record, on Saturday, 20 January, the NT Invitation side beat the PNG Raggianas 22 to 7. Later that day, South Australia defeated the PNG Raggianas 21 to 12. On Sunday, the PNG Raggianas defeated the NT Packers 40 to 5, which was the highest score of the series in the women’s games. In the Jabiru semi-finals, South Australia 15 defeated the PNG Raggianas 12. It was a great effort. I thought that story was worth putting on the Parliamentary Record because it really is inspiring in that respect.
I was pleased and honoured to represent Hon Clare Martin, when presenting the Inaugural Chief Minister’s Literacy Awards last December at the final public school assemblies in my electorate. The awards went to those primary school students who have shown considerable improvement and success in literacy. There are four categories: Personal Best in Reading, Writing or Oral Language; Most Imaginative Writing or Performance with a Text; Most Outstanding Communicator at a School or in the Community; and Most Improved in Reading, Writing or Oral Language. The awards are part of the Northern Territory government’s Focus on Literacy program, which is about getting schools, parents and students to work together to improve literacy. I would like to now put on the Parliamentary Record the names of those awardees for the record.
At Bees Creek, they were: Shakiah Brown, Jamie Middlebrook, Saskia Kirchoff-Gibson, Thayne Bassett, Nathan Allsop, Brendon Young, Tasmin Meyers, Tayla Barrett, Joanne Casey, Camden Parker, Gracen Meyers, Samuel Tolomei, Joel Bisset, Ashlee Scarff, and J B Wommatakimmi-Chapman.
At Girraween, the awardees were: William Bambach, Skye Hapke, Jai Weetra, Aaron Fidock, Connor Keen, Olivia Nash, Hayley Statham, Emma Tidswell, Alexandra Nash, Daniel Tidswell, Natasha Scott, and Willis Trnka.
At Humpty Doo, the award winners were: Tiarna Hansen, Kyle Withnall, Chloe Olajos, Jason Clark, Darren Ea, Mitchell Phayer, Liam Pollard, Rhya Frost, Ned McGrellis, Mitchell Skinner, Tia Leach, Tayla England, Hayden Wallace, Sheridan Keane, William Bampton, Hua Cao, Klara Hussie, Maria Skewes, and Matt Young
At Belyuen, the award winners were: Tilish Bianamu, Cameron Bianamu, and Denise Moreen.
At Berry Springs, the recipients were: Jade Forwood, Bailey Seidel, Jessie Bartolo, Cody Pokorny, Ilona Rowe, Stevie Pocock, Alisha Gardner, Louise Gergis, Jessica Britain, Ellen Penley, and Emily Gibson.
Last, but not least, at Middle Point the award winners were Darren Manderson and Johnny Nguyen.
I congratulate all the winners of this inaugural award. They can honestly say they were the first, which is great. I look forward to also reading the names of the next year’s Chief Minister’s Literacy Award winners.
Mr WOOD (Nelson): Madam Acting Deputy Speaker, I want to put on record what happened on Australia Day this year in the Litchfield Shire.
It was a well attended day. The Litchfield Lions Club and the Litchfield Rotary Club both helped set up the hall and provided a free breakfast. Mary Walshe, President of Litchfield Shire Council, welcomed around 150 people and invited them to join in singing the National Anthem, during which the national flag was raised by the Humpty Doo scouts. The anthem was sung by Jacquie Izod, and those who have heard her sing know that she has a beautiful voice.
The Australia Day address was given by Rick Conlon, a long-time resident of the shire, who spoke of his arrival in Darwin and how the community had played a big part in his life. As usual, we always have a thanksgiving service, and this year it was conducted by Pastor Stuart McMillan of the Living Water Uniting Church, Humpty Doo.
We also had a citizenship ceremony where five people became Australian citizens. They had come to Australia from all parts of the world: Malaysia, England, Greece, Vietnam, and the Solomon Islands. Each citizen received a certificate, a book about Australia, a local government citizen medallion and, as has been tradition since Litchfield Shire started, a native plant to remind them of the day.
We also had the Student Citizen Awards where five students chose to receive their awards on Australia Day rather than at their school assembly, although they do receive some recognition of that at the school. Kevin Gillan from the Department of Employment, Education and Training presented the awards. One student, Darren Smith, had an interesting historic connection with the shire. His ninth great-grandfather, William Westall, who lived between 1781 and 1850, was an artist who travelled with Flinders on the Investigator expedition. He was the first professional artist to draw the landscape of Australia. Westall Road in Howard Springs is named after him, as well as several other places throughout Australia.
Ted Warren, the member for Goyder, presented the Community Event of the Year Award to the Freds Pass Management Board Incorporated for the inaugural sing along and oral history morning, which both of us attended. Seniors were invited to participate in recording oral histories, and these were conducted by students from the schools in Darwin and will become part of the Litchfield connection. That was followed by a great lunch served by the students, followed by the sing along. It was a surprise to me when they asked me to lead the singing without having told me that I was going to do so. We survived.
We then had the presentation of the Young Sportsperson and Senior Sportsperson awards. Mike Bowman, who is the councillor for the East Ward in the Litchfield Shire presented these awards. The Junior Award went to Tom Wickham. Tom is involved with Southern Districts Football Club and played for Humpty Doo Primary and Taminmin senior school. Tom is certainly well known throughout the rural area, and in these particular circles as he has been involved in Youth Parliament and other issues. I will mention that later because he received a second award.
Senior Sportsperson was Garnie Thompson, an inaugural member of the Humpty Doo Golf Club, who was very active in the Litchfield Bowls Club and winner of many championships. In fact, he was involved in the Masters Games in Alice Springs where he won a bronze medal. I think he was the first person from Litchfield Bowls Club to win any medal in those championships. Unfortunately, Garnie passed away. Last night, I spoke about Garnie in a eulogy I presented.
Our Young Citizen of the Year was Tom Wickham. I have known Tom’s family for a very long time. Tom is an outstanding leader in the community. He is a great role model. He has been in the United Nations Youth Association. As I said before, he was involved in the Youth Parliament where he debated rural youth issues.
The Achievement Award went to Darcy Preston for his involvement in archery, and to John Rogers for his continued work with many groups in the community. John Rogers has spent many volunteer hours at the Humpty Doo Village Green. He was one of the reasons that that village green now is such a successful facility in the shire.
The Citizen of the Year was Robert Osborne, known as ‘Ossie’. He received this award from the president, Mary Walshe, for his work with ANSTI over the last four years. As I said the other day in Question Time, ANSTI has closed down, which is unfortunate. There were reasons for that which I will not go into tonight. Ossie worked there for a very long time. ANSTI looked after people who had alcohol or drug dependency. He worked in Darwin from ANSTI, doing the coffee run early in the morning to itinerants and long-grassers. He is a bloke no one would know about simply because he is that type of fellow. I am glad an award has gone to this type of person because he has put such a big effort into helping people who are less fortunate than us, but has not gone around telling the world about it. He has gone ahead and done his job helping these people to try to put their lives back on a steady keel.
When that finished, we had plenty of entertainment. Dianne Addington and Anna Rusman sang, accompanied by Steve Rusman. If you have been to many events, you will see Waldo Bailey pop up. He is occasionally down at the Mindil Market selling his barramundi goods. He recited two poems about Australia and announced that he was going overseas to entertain our troops. I will interested in all the yarns he will bring back from Iraq. Stephen Blake, our famous marathon runner and City to Surf winner did a fire-lighting demonstration. Nothing burnt down, but he did produce a fire. The children were kept entertained by the Koolpinyah Fire Brigade. Fireman Lou in his fire engine Little Squirt went round and round the polocrosse field at Freds Pass. Unfortunately, it broke down. It required one tiny screw, which we could not get on Australia Day. Next year, Little Squirt will probably be running for a bit longer.
It was a great day all around, including the usual Australia Day cake the Australia Day Committee provides. There were lamingtons and damper with golden syrup. There were quite a few other events in the shire. The golf club hosted an Australia Day five-person Ambrose, the Wandering Archers held an event, and Litchfield Bowls Club organised a True Blue Aussie bowls day.
I thank Christine Nathaniel for her efforts. She has taken over this year as the coordinator of the Australia Day Litchfield region, and she did a great job organising the events. I also thank the Litchfield Shire Council because they support the Australia Day celebrations and they did an excellent job as well.
I have a little more on Australia Day. That afternoon, in my part of the world at Howard Reserve, we had an Australia Day fun family day. It is a day we promote as a day people can come along and not spend one dollar. It is a free day. Shorelines, the crane people, provided all the meat free. Howard Springs Volunteer Fire Brigade provided the soft drinks and cooked all the meat. We are sponsored by All Earth, Saddleworld, Reidy’s, Howard Springs Tavern, Howard Springs Supermarket, Top End Fishing Supplies, and we have helpers like Greg and Cheryl Allen, Bernadette Hubbard, Diane Tilmouth and Tom Fitzgerald.
We have a number of games that people can play at no cost, but they do have some good prizes. We play boules - would you believe? - and there is a $200 first prize. We play cricket and there are many prizes for the kids who have the best catch, the best bowling average for the day, or the best batting average for the day. We also played a game called cornhole which is originally a German game and it is played in a few back yards in Ohio. That is where I saw it. It is just a matter of throwing a bag of corn in a hole, which you might think is simple, but it is a great game for people just to have a bit of fun. We have the hot Coke and cold pie eating competition with some good prizes for that. It is just a great day.
We do not worry about whether they are Australian games. We try to have games where many people can participate. They can play all day and they can go home feeling that they have had a good time. It is something that will get bigger. We might have to put a bit more organisation into it now, because all the meat was eaten and all the soft drinks disappeared. The number of people who turned up this year was quite large. There were more people than we expected but we did not mind that. We were able to finish the day around 5.30 pm and everybody went home happy and tired and had a great time. Hopefully, next year we will do the same thing.
Just quickly, there are just a couple of little things I had here that I might mention. I was just going to say there was a great night tonight, for instance. We had the Rural Women’s Award here tonight and I congratulate Tracy Leo. Tracy Leo is a fantastic person who works for the Northern Territory Horticultural Association, and you really could not get a better person to have won that. My condolences to the other nominees: Donna Mahony, who lives in the Dundee area, is a fighter for the area to get more power and better roads; Moira O’Brien from Mataranka, whose mother I have known for a long time through her work in Landcare and Waterwatch in the Mary River area, and her family moved to Mataranka; Tina McFarlane, another strong rural person whom I have known also through local government. I believe she was the president of the Mataranka Council for some years. There were four very fine women who participated in those awards and, as is the usual saying, only one person could win. It went to a person who really has strong connections with the land, who has been promoting horticulture in the rural area and the Northern Territory for a long time; that is, Tracy Leo. I congratulate Tracy on her award.
I do not know whether there has been a change in policy, but I hope the government will extend invitations and let us know what is going on. I only knew about tonight by accident. There were also the awards for the fire brigade people. I only found that out when someone told me it was on. In fact, I only got to the very end of it and by that time, most of them had gone. I am not sure if the student awards have occurred yet. The minister mentioned some awards, but I hope they have not been on. I try to get to the student awards every year and I normally receive an invitation. I hope there has not been a change in policy.
I believe when those things are on, politics should go out the door. I would like to see and recognise all those people there tonight who won awards. It was only by sheer chance that I had a notification, and that just happened because there was a piece of paper stuck to one of the statements that said it was on. That is the only reason I knew it was on tonight. To have missed that opportunity to say hello to some of my friends, would have been disappointing.
A member: It was in the paper.
Mr WOOD: Yes, but I did not see it. When you are in parliament, sometimes you have plenty of other things on your mind and you are trying to organise your life. I hope there has not been a change in policy. I ask the government to invite members of parliament, regardless of their party affiliations, or if they are Independents, to let us know what is going on.
Finally, this is probably the last time we speak before Alice Springs. Many things will be happening between now and then, especially in regard to local government. I was speaking to a person tonight who is a long-term resident of the Litchfield Shire. She reflected what many people will reflect; that they have concerns about the new shire proposal, which is going to be much bigger than what we have now. I know the government is saying that this is a going to be a big task, and it is going to bring improvements to many communities. I understand that and I do not have a problem with the philosophy of what the minister is saying. However, this is going to cost ratepayers a lot of money. As the minister hinted today, if there is not enough money for roads, then people might have to pay a fee, which is words for, ‘they will have to pay an increase in their rates’.
People need to know exactly what it is going to cost, what other consequences there will be, even from a democratic and administration point of view. I do hope that more information will come out to residents in the Litchfield Shire so we know where we are going, and we just do not go blindly along based on philosophy.
Mr BURKE (Brennan): Madam Acting Deputy Speaker, tonight I acknowledge a lady who, I learnt early today had, sadly, passed away, Mrs Ann McNeill, a great community person within the Palmerston community, involved in many Palmerston community events, including the regular weekly bingo at the Cazalys club. She was also integral to getting a whole bunch of seniors together to assist Sally Bevis with the distribution of the Seniors Card mail-out.
Ann was a fantastic lady, with a wonderful Scottish brogue. She was always so full of life, so it was a bit of a shock for me when I learned of her passing. My thoughts go to her husband and her many friends in the Palmerston community. She was also involved in the Busy Bee Club at the Gray Community Hall, which ran from 9.30 am through to 1.30 pm each week; a very active lady despite her 77 years.
I take this opportunity to read into the Parliamentary Record a message from Mrs Lyrella Trainer, the Marketing Manager at Cazalys, who gave me something on behalf of the Cazalys Palmerston Club. She wrote:
Seniors are a very important part of the community at Cazalys, and Ann McNeill was central to keeping that spirit alive. Whether it was through organising and calling bingo every Thursday, encouraging seniors to monthly morning teas, or using the function room to carve up dozens of cooked chooks for the annual seniors harbour cruise, Ann was always there up to her elbows.
Mostly, Ann will be missed by staff and members alike for her loud Scottish laughter, heard regularly throughout the gaming lounge and her zest for everything senior. She was, without doubt, the youngest senior at Cazalys and will be sadly, deeply missed.
And she certainly will.
On a joyful note, it was with great pleasure that I accepted an invitation from Roger Smith to open the Palmerston office of the Loan Market. Roger and his wife, Dot, work in the business and they also employ Rachael Pratt, who has been a resident of Palmerston for about 15 years and, prior to joining the Loan Market, had worked with BankSA. Foti Manolakos also joins the team as personal lending manager. In fact, I understand his family used to own Yots and the Argentine Grill at Cullen Bay - some real local talent there. The opening was attended by quite a large gathering of people from across the real estate business, and it was good to catch up with some people I recognised.
The Loan Market is part of the electronic Mortgage Channels Australia and is the fourth largest aggregator in the nation. They have support from a team in Sydney, as well as Adelaide and other parts of the country, with access to over 38 lenders and more than 500 loan products. With the amount of building work that is going on in Palmerston, I am sure they will not suffer for want of business in the Palmerston area. As I said on the night, it is a great vote of confidence for the growth and business potential in Palmerston, and we are very glad to have them as a local business in Palmerston. I wish them every success and look forward to seeing more of them in Palmerston and hearing of their triumphs as they will, no doubt, come.
Another function I attended, which was a very special day, was the installation service of new teachers at the Good Shepherd Lutheran School. I had not attended one of these services before, so it was a first for me. It was a really lovely service. Pastor Lester Reinbott led the service and was magnificent in his role. Julian Denholm, the principal, has done a great deal with the school since he came from down south. I know that the member for Drysdale has already spoken about some of those things in one of his adjournment speeches earlier. He beat me to the line, so to speak.
It was not just teachers who were installed and celebrated but other staff - admin staff, tutors and cleaners - as well. I will acknowledge these people: Mrs Lyn Pacella, Ms Kimberley Barker, Miss Kara Hetsky, Mrs Tracey Hughes, Ms Kate Riley, Mrs Maria Denholm, Ms Fiona Lockwood, Mrs Eleanor Simpson, Ms Kirstin Klein, Ms Deanna Jinsky, Ms Melena Hendry, Ms Jodie Fotso, Mrs Sonya Norris, and Mrs Suzanne Otto. Welcome to all. Not everyone is new to the Territory, but some are new to the Territory and to Palmerston. I met a new constituent who is one of the teachers. Welcome to all of them. I know that they will thoroughly enjoy their time at Good Shepherd. It is a wonderful school, as I have to say the schools in my area and surrounding areas are. Welcome to all those new teachers to the Good Shepherd Lutheran School.
Still on schools, I pay my respects as well to Kath Neely and the staff at the Scared Heart Primary School in Palmerston. They do excellent work at their school. I enjoy going to their school and I will be trying to get there in the next few weeks for one of their assemblies.
Honourable members may recall a young lady who used to work in this building at Speaker’s Corner. She was one of the staff, an apprentice chef at the time. She is continuing with her apprenticeship, and I say well done, Lauren Jacobsen, for that. I have previously mentioned Lauren in relation to an award she received last year in one of the competitions that was run. She has won another award: the Australian Culinary Federation Northern Territory Chapter Encouragement Award for an apprentice in the Certificate III in Hospitality Commercial Cookery. Well done, Lauren; keep up the excellent work. I am sure, as you did when you were working here, that you take your enthusiasm wherever you go. Well done, and it was great to meet your mum on the occasion as well. I know she was very proud.
I thank Ms Morag McGrath, the Head of the School of Tourism and Hospitality at CDU for the invitation to attend. They have a number of excellent events at the school. I went to the Designer Evening which involved people and students from all of the schools. The apprentice hairdressers, the design students, the beauty therapists all got together and put on a fashion parade. It was really something else to see how they put in a lot of effort into expressing their arts, and their high degree of skill. I can certainly attest to that. Well done to Morag and the staff. I know that they will continue putting these events on in the future and I will always attend when I can.
I would like to recognise and thank Commodore Campbell Darby for his invitation to the Headquarters Northern Command end-of-year reception. That was another wonderful evening and another first. I have not been to one of those receptions before. It was a chance to meet a number of the officers and also people from the business community here in Darwin.
One of the other Christmas events I attended was the Palmerston carpet bowls group’s Christmas luncheon at the Palmerston Tavern. I thank Beau Robertson for his invitation. It is always a pleasure to support the carpet bowlers; another great lively social group and very competitive as well.
I congratulate Steve Blair and Natalie Sonenko on the opening of their business Territory Marine, a huge establishment for all things marine opened in Yarrawonga at the industrial/business precinct near Palmerston. It is a massive investment. Well done to both of them. It was a great opening night and very well organised. I cannot speak highly enough of it and again thank them for thinking to invite me along.
One final word of thanks; this time to Cath, a lady who does a great deal of catering in the Palmerston area. She catered for the Christmas drinks that I, the member for Drysdale, and Senator Crossin put on last year. Cath, thank you very much for all of your efforts. It was a splendid effort on your behalf. I wanted to place on the record my thanks to her.
Finally, I congratulate the Darwin City Council on the ceremony for the 65th Anniversary of the Bombing of Darwin, another well-organised event. It is important that the people of Darwin do remember our history and just how close we really came to having an invasion through the northern parts of Australia, and how serious the Japanese intent was. Also, people forget or are not really aware of the extent of the bombing that occurred in Darwin. It was great to see - I think it was quoted as a couple of thousand - people attending the service. It is something that we should continue to do and remember. Lest we forget.
Ms SACILOTTO (Port Darwin): Mr Deputy Speaker, tonight I inform the House of some of the interesting activities around the Port Darwin electorate. First, I would like to wish all of my colleagues Gong Xi Fa Cai, and hope that they and their families have a prosperous and healthy and safe 2007.
The Port Darwin electorate Christmas party at the end of last year was well attended by many people in my constituency: constituents, colleagues and local business people. It was a great night and I was supported by the members for Drysdale, Sanderson and Brennan. I appreciated their coming along and interacting with my constituents. It is always good to have a cross-section of different areas represented.
One person who came along to my Christmas party was Mr Cyril Young. He volunteered his time, which was fantastic, to do a bit of a demonstration for us. He had a business in New South Wales called The Jolly Pig. One of his areas of expertise is ham carving, and he gave quite an intriguing demonstration of ham carving. The audience was captivated by what took place. It was good fun. Cyril is a great entertainer. He had everyone on the edge of their seats and laughing while providing quite interesting information and bit of background as to where he has learnt his skills.
On 17 February, Cyril turned 80 years old. I was fortunate enough to be invited by Cyril and Pauline, his wife, to attend his birthday party which was held at the Passenger Terminal at the wharf. It was a fantastic night and it was well attended; the place was packed. Cyril not only had many close friends and many business people there, but, more importantly, his children and grandchildren, which was really lovely to see. The grandchildren were behind the bar doing a fabulous job. One of Cyril’s granddaughters put together a slide show of photographs from Cyril and Pauline’s life. Cyril and Pauline are going to celebrate their diamond anniversary next year, so you can imagine it was a full slide show and there were some fantastic moments captured on film. It really made me reflect on the experiences and memories that can be accumulated over an 80-year period. Happy birthday, Cyril, and thank you, Pauline, who did a great job of organising the party. Cyril and Pauline are active residents of Stuart Park. Cyril is the convenor of National Seniors and he is very active on the Stuart Park Residents Association, so he is a very valuable member of the community.
My electorate office was very well utilised in 2006 by community groups, and there were quite a few regular groups. One such group is the Darwin City Action Group. I thank their Chairman, Mr Robert Parker, and members and community representatives for their devotion to making the Darwin CBD an attractive and safe environment for all Darwinians.
Attendees at the meeting on 4 December were Merci Betts, Cliff Campbell, Emanuel Cruz, Brian Hilder, Tony Maroulis, Ken Mildred, Judy Miller, Nick Panis and me. This group of people are very appreciative that the Chief Minister took time out of her busy schedule to meet with them and introduce the document, Creating Darwin’s Future. This document was well received by the members of that committee. I have been on quite a few of the information stalls around for public consultation, and they are well received. Although it is only a snapshot of what could be, members of the public are coming up with some fantastic ideas. It has been a fantastic document which stimulates conversation and debate. That is the best part of it; to get that conversation and debate going and come up with a plan that encompasses the whole community’s view as much as you can in a big community.
David Swift, one of my constituents, is also a member of the Darwin City Action Group. David does a great job of taking the minutes of the Darwin City Action Group, and he has a strong commitment to his community. His day is completely full of volunteering. He volunteers his time to the U3A Group, the Northern Territory Museum and Art Gallery and, of course, the Darwin City Action Group. David is originally from the United Kingdom, and he has been here since September 2004. He has worked in many different jobs around the world. He is a very clever man and well experienced. He is a self-funded retiree, exactly the sort of people we really want to encourage to come to Darwin to our great lifestyle.
Although David came as a self-funded retiree, he really wants to become a citizen, and he is having trouble at the moment. He is on a temporary Sub-class Retirement Visa 410. However, he ultimately wants to become an Australian citizen - he wants to be an Aussie. He has brought his investments with him. He has invested in our Territory, and he is very committed to the community. Unfortunately, the Commonwealth government seems to be dragging their heels and making life a little difficult for this man applying for citizenship. I urge all honourable members to look out for people like David in the community, and to lobby and put pressure on the federal government to allow these people - these people that we want - into our community. They are coming here because they want to come here. They have made this their future in life, and they want to retire to somewhere fantastic. It is good that people are actually coming to Darwin to do that.
I would like to thank a few people. I was invited to Larrakeyah Primary School’s final assembly at the end of last year and it was a great afternoon. There were many people there, many parents. It was a big event. I thank the Principal, Mr Graham Chadwick, and some of his staff, Deputy Principal, Michael Caldwell; teachers, Trudy Proctor, Ann Morgan, Alison Walsh, Lorraine Watts, Kate Middleton, Melanie Hancock, Annette Graham, Amanda Taylor, Clare Horn, Shelly Ferguson, Leah Wilson, Kerry Evers, Carol Ayers, Joanne Bryan, and Robyn Appleby, the manageress of the canteen, and Alison Mills. They are all such hard workers it is a joy to be on the school committee. They are always thinking of fundraising activities and improvements to the school. Much of that involves their own personal time and their personal commitment on weekends and after hours to come up with these ideas and implement them. I congratulate them on being so proactive and proud of their school and their work.
The staff in the office are great. They are really good to deal with and they are always friendly and happy and organised. Wendy Alps is a real gem who takes the minutes at our school council meetings and is always organised, and always remembers everything I forget. Kathy Cantrell, Terry Schaefer, Doug Gorman, Felicity Manifred and Bronwyn Elford do a fantastic job. It is a well-oiled machine there, and it is an absolute credit to them.
I was also invited to attend the Stuart Park Primary School’s last assembly for 2006. I always get a thrill going there because I went to that primary school. I always think of myself in the assembly area, when sitting on the chair, that I could probably sit on the floor and cross my legs and sit to attention under the ever-watchful eye of Mr Bree. It was a fantastic end-of-school assembly and the children entertained us with many songs, dances and plays. It was a very good day.
At the beginning of this year, I was fortunate to attend Larrakeyah Primary School with the minister for Education on the first day of school. It was a real thrill. It was abuzz with excited and worried children, and excited and worried parents. It was really nice to be there. The parents we spoke to were very happy about the $50 Back to School voucher, as I was myself when my boy went back to school. As a small token, I got into the kitchen and baked a cake and got some coffee together and took that down for morning tea to all of my schools - Stuart Park, Larrakeyah and St Mary’s. The response was that it was delicious and much appreciated. Hopefully, I had some small part in easing into the first day of school.
Defence Larrakeyah is just down the road from my electorate office, and I always enjoy being involved in Defence activities. There is a large Defence contingent in Port Darwin. I was fortunate enough to be invited to the decommissioning of HMAS Dubbo. This is the 13th decommissioning of 15. It has been in commission since 1984. On its last night as a ship in the fleet, it was awarded the prestigious Kelly Shield for being the most efficient patrol boat. The commanding officer, Lieutenant Commander Mitchell Edwards, and crew, will sadly miss this vessel, although they will now be appointed to different areas.
Recently, at the HMAS Maitland at Larrakeyah, I was invited to witness the first swearing-in of two new officers. One was a constituent of mine, a brilliant young lady, Alison Woodger. She was accompanied by her mum and her brother to the swearing-in. We had a tour of the vessel. It was fantastic to see a Darwin girl ready to go off to ADFA and serve her country. She is a brilliant girl, so I am sure she will be a fantastic asset to the Defence Force.
On a sadder note, at the end of last year, we lost two lovely constituents. One of those was Mary Ehn. Mary was nominated for Senior Territorian. I nominated Mary for her work with people with disabilities, her teaching of driving, and commitment to the community. Mary was a finalist. Unfortunately, on this occasion, she did not win the award. About a week later, Mary passed away. It has been a great loss to the community. I am very sad to know that Mary is no longer with us.
The other loss in the community of Port Darwin was Michael Kelly. He was one of my constituents living in Smith Street. Michael was first introduced to me over the phone with a couple of issues that I helped with and we became quite good friends. He would pop down on his gopher to visit us at the Port Darwin electorate office. The last time we saw Michael he zoomed down on his gopher to the electorate office and brought us a tin of bikkies and a Christmas card. Just two days later, Michael passed away in his home and that is a very big loss to the community. He was very cheerful and, every time I spoke to him, I learned something else. He had a great history and was a good story teller. It is an absolute loss to the community and to us as well. We will miss Michael’s visits and cups of coffee.
They were great people in the community and we are going to miss them.
Motion agreed to; the Assembly adjourned.
Last updated: 04 Aug 2016