2004-06-15
Madam Speaker Braham took the Chair at 10 am.
MESSAGE FROM ADMINISTRATOR
Madam SPEAKER: Honourable members, I have received from His Honour the Administrator Message No 22 notifying assent to bills passed in the May 2004 sittings.
Ms MARTIN (Chief Minister): Madam Speaker, in April, I led a joint government-industry investment and trade mission to Hong Kong and mainland China, which included the cities of Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen and Beijing. The 10-day mission, which ran from 10 to 21 April, was consistent with the government’s intention to grow international trade and tourism for the Territory.
The trip built on my previous mission to Hong Kong, Singapore and Malaysia in March last year, and was designed to promote the opportunities and benefits of the AustralAsia Trade Route and the development of new shipping links with north Asia; promote Territory tourism opportunities, including new aviation links with north Asia; promote general investment and economic development opportunities occurring in the Northern Territory; strengthen government links between the Territory and Hong Kong-mainland China; and lend support to Territory business seeking to develop opportunities with the north Asia region, including trade initiatives being pursued by our International Business Council.
During the mission, I was accompanied by Bruce Fadelli, President of the NT Chamber of Commerce; John Parkes, General Manager, International Marketing, FreightLink; Paul Tyrell, Chief Executive, Department of the Chief Minister; and Maree Tetlow, Chief Executive Officer of the Tourist Commission. Other members of the delegation included senior officials from my ministerial office, the Office of Territory Development, and the Darwin Port Corporation. Media representatives from the NT News and Channel 9 also travelled with the delegation.
I am pleased to report that solid progress was made on the objectives of the trip. Highlights included delivery of keynote presentations on the AustralAsia Trade Route, tourism and other investment opportunities in the Territory to high profile industry functions held in Hong Kong, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen and Beijing, and more than 200 leading Chinese business people attended these functions. The AustralAsia Trade Route was further promoted through a live interview I did with CNBC’s Asian Wall Street Journal program in Hong Kong. I am advised that this prime time program is broadcast to over 188 million households across the world.
One of the highlights was the opportunity of developing a north Asia shipping service, and was discussed with the heads of shipping lines, including the Hong Kong-based Swire Group, and mainland China’s two largest shipping lines, the China Ocean Shipping Company, COSCO, and China Shipping.
Further promotion of the Territory as a holiday destination for the growing Chinese tourism market was delivered through targeted media interviews with Chinese Travel Satellite TV and the Chinese Tourism Daily in Beijing. The opportunity to establish new tourism and aviation links with the Territory was pursued directly through face-to-face meetings with the heads of leading airlines and tourism wholesalers. These included Cathay Pacific, China Southern Airlines and Spring International.
While in China, I met with Andrew Liveris, the CEO of Dow Chemicals, to talk about the future development opportunities associated with the oil and gas developments in the Timor Sea. I also had discussions with senior political figures in the region, including the Vice-Mayor of Shanghai, the Deputy Chief Executive of Hong Kong, the Vice-Chairman of the China National Tourism Administration, and the Chinese Minister for Communications, who also holds the Transport portfolio.
I took the opportunity to lend support to the Territory’s International Business Council, which was at the same time hosting a Territory industry delegation to Guangzhou Commodity Fair, one of the largest commodity fairs in the world. As part of this government’s general support for Territory businesses, I was delighted to be present at the signing of business agreements between individual Territory businesses and their Chinese clients. This included an agreement with an on-line educational training company, the International College of Advanced Education, based in Darwin.
While in Shanghai, I also visited the newly-built Formula 1 track, to promote tourism links between Darwin and Shanghai based on the potential take-up of a V8 Supercar event in Shanghai next year. I also visited the Shanghai Ocean Aquarium, where I saw an example of where quality granite, quarried and imported from the Territory, was being used as an architectural feature in this premier Chinese facility. The visit to the aquarium also highlighted to me the growing Chinese interest in nature-based tourism and the future opportunities this presents for the Territory. Interestingly, the aquarium’s Australian exhibition was dominated by Territory-based features including a tropical waterhole setting that included pandanus palms, barramundi, archer fish and, of course, crocodiles.
Follow-up actions are now being pursued. These include the development of a tourism marketing plan to capture new, lucrative Chinese tourism opportunities for the Territory; the pursuit of increased shipping services between Darwin and north Asia; and joint feasibility studies with Asian airlines to establish new aviation links. The Adidas-Salomon group have agreed to work collaboratively with us on the development of trial shipments of their products from Asia to markets in Adelaide and Melbourne via Darwin over the next 12 months. Adidas also wants to look at the feasibility of undertaking some value added activity for this new trade in the Darwin Business Park.
Follow-up discussions have also been held with Yan Yin Chen, Director of Ostermann Developments, which currently imports 300 containers per annum of granite rock from Mt Bundy to China. Mr Chen is now seeking to grow this trade up to 4000 containers per year, which will certainly be a boost for the new trade route and the development of new shipping services.
In summary, Madam Speaker, the joint government and industry mission met its objectives and has provided a continuing and sound basis for growing new trade and tourism links with north Asia.
Mr MILLS (Opposition Leader): Madam Speaker, the opposition welcomes the report, the involvement and engagement with the region because that is the very distinct opportunity Territorians have that must be exploited: our location not so far from Asia.
To that end, we welcome the recent incursion into the region. It is good to hear about the range of meetings and an indication of things to come. However, it is very important that we have greater detail on the actual outcomes that we would be able to measure so we can ensure that we take clear strategic advantage of our location.
Members opposite would be mindful of the Chief Minister’s publication on Good Governance issued to prior to entering government in which it was asserted that for any overseas trip, the itinerary would be fully circulated to those with an interest and any costs associated with that trip would be made very clear to Territorians. To my knowledge, there has been no such publication of the itinerary, nor has there been any revelation as to the cost of the trip in detail.
Further to that, we note that in previous times, knowing that trips such as this are to advance the best interests of Territorians and foundations that are laid are foundations we can build on into the future, such trips receive bipartisan support.
It is notable that an invitation was not extended to the Deputy Leader of the Opposition who does speak the language and could assist in opening doors to promote the Northern Territory as a place where you can seriously do business, because …
Madam SPEAKER: Your time has expired, Leader of the Opposition. No response, Chief Minister?
Ms MARTIN: No response, Madam Speaker.
Dr TOYNE (Health): Madam Speaker, I wish to update the House regarding recent publicity around the Alice Springs Hospital Intensive Care Unit.
We have put in place measures to begin turning around the long years of neglect under the previous government. This year’s budget committed $11m over the next four years to the Alice Springs Hospital to expand the integrated Intensive Care High Dependency Unit and employ an extra 37 health professionals including an intensivist, nurses and other essential staff.
This funding will provide new beds over two years to make a total of four Intensive Care Unit and four High Dependency Unit beds in Alice Springs, reducing the need to transfer critically ill patients.
Dr Lim interjecting.
Madam SPEAKER: Order! Member for Greatorex, some of us would like to hear this.
Dr TOYNE: The unit will reach a critical mass, significantly increasing the ability to recruit highly skilled nursing and medical staff.
These are our responses to the situation. We are not just shrugging our shoulders and turning away saying: ‘Oh, that is for management to sort out’, like the member for Drysdale did when he was the Health Minister.
Members interjecting.
Dr TOYNE: Let me go through the claims that were made during last week.
Members interjecting.
Dr TOYNE: Madam Speaker, they have been eating their raw meat over the weekend; I can see that.
Let me go through the claims that were made during last week and provide the House with the facts. The claim that I should step in and appoint the Head of Emergency: the member for Port Darwin was on record saying that. I would be breaking the law, section 22 of the Public Sector Employment and Management Act, which specifically precludes a minister from appointing a public servant to a position. In fact, that is the job of the executive officers in our department. You may see illegal and corrupt conduct as being okay for a minister, I do not, and I don’t think you’d be fit to hold the office that I currently hold.
There were claims that there were no attempts made to recruit specialised staff and the hospital was ordered to delay recruitment. Again, it was the member for Port Darwin. Nothing could be further from the truth. As soon as the budget was handed down, the department started to advertise for these fully funded positions at Alice Springs.
There was a claim the intensive care unit has always worked until this government came along. That was a beauty from the member for Greatorex. The reality is that the CLP ignored reports recommending that an intensivist be hired. Six months ago, the Martin government identified the need and tried to meet it in a climate of worldwide shortage of intensivists. Royal Darwin Hospital specialists and locums have been used in the meantime for the first time to provide intensivist cover for Alice Springs Hospital.
Worst of all, Madam Speaker, were the despicable claims that two deaths had occurred against a background of inadequate planning and limited medical backup, as reported in the Centralian Advocate on the 11th. The reality is the Principal Medical Advisor, Dr Tarun Weeramanthri, after examining the patient records in detail and interviewing the attending physicians, found that both patients reported with complicated medical conditions and received a high level of skilled specialist care. They were not preventable deaths.
I do not expect the members opposite to congratulate us on our efforts, but I invite them to reflect on the effects their words have. They continually describe the health system as being ‘in crisis’ and have no shame at all in using the cases of individuals who have passed away to score political points. They are running down the reputation of the Alice Springs Hospital and the medical staff who work there. They cause distress to members of the community who use the hospital, and made it difficult to recruit and retain the staff that we need.
Mr Dunham interjecting.
Dr TOYNE: I have no doubt that Alice Springs Hospital is providing a fine service to the Alice Springs community. During the course of the Finke Desert Race, as we always have with 400 competitors racing through the bush, there have been injuries, including one young fellow with a double fracture to his femur after he hit a tree. I drove the partner of that competitor to the hospital. She was asking me whether the hospital would provide sufficient care for her partner who had been injured in the race. I find it absolutely despicable that that sort of anxiety has been caused. That young man is under the best of care and is doing very well, thank you, Madam Speaker, in the Alice Springs Hospital.
Madam SPEAKER: Before we go on, I remind the member for Drysdale not to use surnames or Christian names in interjections.
Ms CARTER (Port Darwin): Madam Speaker, as members would be aware, the minister has the joy of five minutes to make his accusations, and I only have two minutes to respond.
Needless to say, the government is well aware we will move a censure motion today on this matter during which I will speak more fully on all of the issues that the minister has raised.
However, minister, I put it to you that you are failing in your responsibility as Minister for Health and Minister for Central Australia, and we will be asking what you and your CEO, Robert Griew, are doing about these matters. We do not raise the issues at Alice Springs Hospital; people come to us complaining about Alice Springs Hospital.
Members interjecting.
Ms CARTER: We are constantly being lobbied by people as to what is going on there, and any cursory observation of what has been going on at Alice Springs Hospital over the last couple of years, particularly through the media, will tell you that this is a problem that has been escalating and escalating and escalating.
You stand there, going on about intensivists. We have not raised the issue of intensivists, sir. We raised the issue of anaesthetists. You are unable to provide basic anaesthetic services at Alice Springs Hospital in a way that is consistent. That is the issue, and you have split hairs on the word ‘intensivist’.
You are going to have major problems with the provision of surgery. You already have major problems with the provision of an intensive care service there. You are a sham in the way you twist this information to the public. I despise the way that you are carrying on with this and we will deal with this more fully in a censure this afternoon.
Mr HENDERSON (Leader of Government Business): Madam Speaker, I move that so much of standing orders be suspended as would prevent the Leader of the Opposition moving a censure motion, which he foreshadowed in the media yesterday and today, relating to health administration, in particular the Alice Springs Hospital, forthwith.
Mr BALDWIN (Daly): Speaking to the motion, Madam Speaker. This is typical of the Leader of Government Business. He is the one who stands on protocol, so-called, in this Chamber. When we decide to bring on a censure, we will. To foreshadow a censure, Madam Speaker, is our prerogative, not theirs, and we will bring it on when we are ready.
Members interjecting.
Mr STIRLING (Deputy Chief Minister): Madam Speaker, a censure motion is the most important motion that can be brought in this Chamber.
Given that there has been such strong indication yesterday and again this morning from the Shadow Health Minister that there will be a censure motion, it is incumbent on the opposition to take the opportunity so that the business of the House can proceed as normal after the deliberation of a censure motion, which carries priority in this Chamber. If they are not prepared to stand and deliver their censure motion now, Madam Speaker, one wonders how much substance there is to it.
Dr LIM (Greatorex): Speaking to the motion, Madam Speaker, they are so terrified of Territorians hearing the questions leading up to the censure motion at Question Time, and that is why they want to do it now.
If you are serious, let Territorians hear those questions out loud over the radio and then you will have the censure. You guys have done such a great disservice in Alice Springs, you sit there and smirk. That is right. It is on record that you smirk, member for Stuart.
Members interjecting.
Madam SPEAKER: Order!
Dr LIM: Madam Speaker, this is a time when the opposition will decide its own agenda, not the government. We will do it following Question Time.
Ms MARTIN (Chief Minister): Madam Speaker, this is extraordinary. The opposition has flagged that they want to move a censure, as the Deputy Leader said, over a most serious issue with allegations they are making. We have been discussing it. The shadow minister for Health said: ‘and when we move our censure’. Are you taking a censure motion seriously or not?
Mr Baldwin interjecting.
Ms MARTIN: A censure is the most serious motion you can move in this parliament.
Members interjecting.
Ms MARTIN: It is the most serious action you can take in this parliament.
Mr Baldwin interjecting.
Ms MARTIN: You flagged it yesterday. This is just hot air, your rhetoric about this, and there is no substance to what you are saying. Then we have the member for Greatorex saying this parliament is virtually a worthless forum unless the media is here and unless it is being broadcast.
Mr Dunham: He did not say that.
Ms MARTIN: That is what he said. He said you are not taking it seriously, because you won’t allow the …
Mr HENDERSON: A point of order, Madam Speaker! The member for Drysdale accused the Chief Minister of telling lies, and I ask him to withdraw.
Madam SPEAKER: Withdraw it, member for Drysdale.
Mr DUNHAM: I withdraw, Madam Speaker, and I hope my colleague has the opportunity to answer by way of personal explanation the allegation that was falsely made about him.
Ms MARTIN: What I said was very clearly what the member for Greatorex had said. He said you want to do it now. This is parliament. You have flagged that you want to move a censure, and you should be taking the first opportunity to do that. You have a list of allegations. We have had the shadow minister say: ‘This is outrageous’ and point at the minister. You should take the first opportunity, and this is the opportunity we are giving you, so either out up now or shut up.
Mr MILLS (Opposition Leader): Madam Speaker, it is government that sets the program and the condolence motion that was placed on the Notice Paper this morning received a high priority from opposition. If it is the will of government, obviously able to be exerted by virtue of numbers …
Ms Martin interjecting.
Mr MILLS: … to bring this issue …
Members interjecting.
Madam SPEAKER: Order!
Mr MILLS: … to a head, then that is their prerogative. However, we have now politics being played by government when the issue of the condolence motion is one of genuine interest and one that we want to take according to the routine of business that has been established by the Leader of Government Business, who is such a stickler for protocol.
However, if it is the will of government to bring this issue to the fore now, that is their call.
Motion agreed to.
Ms CARTER (Port Darwin): Madam Speaker, I move that the Assembly censures the Minister for Health and the Minister for Central Australia for:
Madam SPEAKER: Member for Port Darwin, a copy of the motion, please.
Ms CARTER: The situation, Madam Speaker, is, as you are aware, we have been thrust into an early censure by the government. The motion in a written format is coming.
Madam SPEAKER: Good, thank you.
Ms CARTER: In December, we saw the sacking of the then Minister for Health and Community Services, replaced by the Minister for Health and the Minister for Family and Community Services in two positions. The previous minister was sacked because the Chief Minister felt that she was inadequate in being able to convey to Territorians all the good news stories about health and that, in fact, that she was a poor communicator.
I put it to you, Madam Speaker, and other members of this House that the current Minister for Health is struggling beyond compare to be able to put to Territorians the good news stories about health, particularly with regards to Alice Springs Hospital. I suspect he is not coping with his work load, he is having trouble with his CEO and, quite frankly, the Chief Minister needs to think seriously about relieving him of at least one of his portfolios because he is not coping.
We have a critical care crisis at Alice Springs that has been demonstrated in a multitude of ways. It has been going from bad to worse ever since Labor won government. We only need to follow what has been going on in the press in the last six to seven months, for example.
I turn members’ attention to a letter that was written by Dr Stephen Lightfoot from New South Wales. Dr Lightfoot tried to get a job as an anaesthetist at Alice Springs Hospital late last year. He had no luck, and the reason that he eventually turned his back on Alice Springs Hospital was because of the problems he faced in dealing with the bureaucracy of recruitment. He needed a contract for his wife signed. She is also a doctor and was also prepared to work at Alice Springs Hospital, but there was a fair amount of stuffing around that went on with management of this application for a job.
Frankly, I would be making a bee-line, if I were the CEO of the Department of Health or the minister, to ensure that when specialist physicians like anaesthetists apply to work in the Northern Territory, everything is done to facilitate their happy arrival and lengthy stay. I quote from Dr Lightfoot’s letter:
The next one appeared in the paper on 19 November 2003, the headline was: ‘Trip south only surgery option’. This goes directly to my point that the issue is not specifically the recruitment and retention of an intensivist. It goes specifically to the issue that Alice Springs Hospital is having serious trouble recruiting and retaining anaesthetists, a far more essential service in a hospital. Here we had Aboriginal women having to go interstate for cataract surgery, very basic surgery that should be able to be done in most Territory hospitals, specifically Alice Springs Hospital. These women had to go interstate to have cataract surgery and the reason was that there was no anaesthetist able to assist.
The next article, on 11 January this year, was headed ‘Drought of anaesthetists’ from the Sunday Territorian and - hello! - drought of anaesthetists at Alice Springs Hospital. The next article appeared on 13 January. From the NT News, the headline is ‘Fill in docs air dash to hospital’. This is a story about doctors having to come in from other places in Australia to start filling the gaps at Alice Springs Hospital.
The next one is from 27 January. This is where the numbers start to be crunched and the situation is that locums coming from interstate are being paid in the vicinity of $2000 per day. That is a package of recruitment, airfares, wages, all the things that are lumped in together in pays for people when they come to work in the hospital.
The sorry situation, I am reliably informed, is that over the last year, a number of anaesthetists have attempted to obtain work at Alice Springs Hospital. One of the reasons they have not been too fussed to go there has been the rate of pay. For some strange reason, Alice Springs Hospital refuses to pay the same rate of pay to doctors who are anaesthetists as they would be paid if they worked at Royal Darwin Hospital.
I understand that the going rate for an anaesthetist is in the vicinity of $220 000 per year. You would think that if someone was being paid $220 000 per year to work at Royal Darwin Hospital, they should be paid $220 000 at least to work at a place like Alice Springs Hospital. Surely, you would expect a similar wage to be paid. But, for some reason, Alice Springs Hospital management and the CEO of the department - and he is where the buck stops and, eventually, of course, with the minister - the decision has been made that we will not pay the going rate for anaesthetists. It has been interesting to see that after that sort of article appearing in January of this year - and I will sign this censure, Madam Speaker, if someone would like to collect it …
Madam SPEAKER: Thank you.
Ms CARTER: We have been calling for the government pay the going rate for anaesthetists for quite some time, and it has been refused for quite some time, but it was interesting to note that on 4 June, only a couple of weeks ago, the minister finally said on radio: ‘We have increased the aim here to make our rates and conditions of employment as competitive as possible, including paying market rates for the highly specialised areas like intensivists’.
Finally, the minister and his department have agreed to pay the going rate, but back on 27 January, the newspaper headline was ‘$120 000 for eight weeks’ work’. That is more than 50% of wages for a year for an anaesthetist as they would be paid, for example, at Royal Darwin Hospital. In January, Alice Springs Hospital was in such desperate straits that they were going to have to pay, and they still do pay, $120 000 for eight weeks’ work. Given the serious problems with the health department’s budget, surely someone with the most basic skills in recruitment would realise that you are going to have to pay the going rate to get anaesthetists to work at Alice Springs Hospital.
At the very least, you might have to pay a bit more perhaps, or you might have to give them something like a house or a car on top of what you would pay for them in other places if you have a shortage of anaesthetists and you need particularly to get them there, but to be paying $120 000 equivalent for eight weeks’ work is an absolute shame. It is a demonstration of the government’s inability to manage health services and it is obviously an indication that this minister is not across his portfolio.
It is an absolute joke. The fellow is also the Minister for Central Australia. You would think that he would have plenty of friends who are doctors and nurses and other health professionals ...
Ms Carney: Oh, no! He doesn’t have any friends.
Ms CARTER: Thank you, member for Araluen. You would think that he would have contacts, then, within the hospital who should have been feeding to him the problems that are occurring there, the problems with management at the hospital. What is his CEO, Mr Robert Griew, doing that lands the minister in the sort of hot water that he is in at the moment?
We have this problem with the amount of wages now having to be paid for specialist locums. I am advised that a couple of weeks ago, the government was still trawling around the agencies in Australia desperately trying to find somebody to come and fill in. Locums are not a guaranteed source of staff and it is a concern that such a heavy reliance is being place on them, apart from the fact that they are also such an expensive resource.
On 2 March this year, the AMA started to become very vocal in the media and this was because of their growing frustration. I understand that initially, the new minister had quite a good relationship with the AMA and there was a constructive work ethic, but as time went on, things became worse and the AMA started to become more vocal in the media.
The situation in March was that doctors were now being flagged as working 100 hours per week to deliver services at Alice Springs Hospital. The AMA’s concern specifically was that last year, there were 27 resident medical officers, and these are the junior doctors working in a hospital. The AMA felt that 27 wasn’t enough. This year, in March, there were only 19 working at Alice Springs Hospital.
The end result was that these junior medical officers were having to work one day on and one day off being on call. So it was not inconceivable for these people to have to work 18 to 20 hours a day, one day on and one day off, and the end result, according to this article in the Centralian Advocate on 2 March, was that people were working 100 hours a week.
I cannot think of any job or any profession where working constantly 100 hours a week is remotely acceptable from a human point of view, let alone a work safety, a patient care or patient responsibility point of view. Quite frankly, I wouldn’t want to see anyone who has worked 80 hours this week if I come in to see them as a patient. There are huge problems with health in the Alice Springs area, as there are across the Northern Territory. We know from research that when people are working and they are tired, that literally their work performance is as though they had been affected by alcohol because they cannot think straight at a certain point in time because they become so tired.
By March, what is the minister doing to overcome this problem at Alice Springs Hospital? The answer, patently, by now, June, is nothing. We now have the AMA complaining about the low number of resident medical officers.
At Alice Springs Hospital at the time, there was quite a bit of disagreement about how many doctors actually were working at the hospital. The AMA counted. They got 77. The minister, through his counting, got 96. Who was right? Who was wrong? In the end the minister said to the AMA: ‘Where did you get your numbers? They are ridiculous’, and the AMA advised the minister: ‘We got them from your department, sir, and here is the spreadsheet that shows the 77 doctors working at Alice Springs Hospital’. ‘Oh’, said the minister, and went back, probably to his poor, beleaguered CEO, Mr Robert Griew, and: ‘Oops! Yes, we were wrong.’ Here we go. So there were not 96 doctors, as the minister thought, working out of Alice Springs Hospital, and the end result is that the doctors who are working there, whether they are residents, registrars or specialists, are all working flat out.
The CLP opposition applauds the staff of Alice Springs Hospital. We know how hard they are working, how dedicated they are, and how upset they have been, and that has driven them to the media, and your accusations I will deal with shortly with regards to the media. It is the staff who have driven this, and I know from having worked in the system how extraordinary it is for staff to actually go to the media with their concerns. It basically demonstrates absolute desperation that they are going to the media.
On 7 May, here we have the President of the Australian Medical Association in the Northern Territory headlined in the paper from the Centralian Advocate: ‘Doctors say hospital money not enough’. This is the minister’s constant cry at the moment: ‘We are giving $11m to Alice Springs Hospital over the next four years and aren’t we wonderful?’ End of story. ‘We are going to buy you this, that and the other. Isn’t that marvellous?’ The doctors, nurses and the other hardworking staff want to be relieved of their troubles right now. They do not want to hear what is going to happen in the next couple of years; they want to know what is going to happen now.
David Meadows, President of the AMA, said more funding will not solve the problems caused by poor management of the hospital. He went on to say:
On 3 June this year, there was an article in the NT News about how critically-ill patients in Alice Springs Hospital cannot be flown to Darwin for treatment because of the shortage of anaesthetists. This is where we start to become quite specific about the intensive care unit, but I have been demonstrating in the last 15 minutes that this problem has been brewing for quite some time.
Mr Mills: It is the minister who is responsible!
Ms CARTER: It is the minister who is responsible for this. Now we start to hone in on the intensive care unit. On 4 June this year, we have a ‘Hospital crisis’, headline in the Centralian Advocate: ‘Hospital crisis: Intensive care closes’. But the minister said: ‘It is open’ …
Mr Mills: What? The Minister for Central Australia said that?
Ms CARTER: That is right, the Minister for Central Australia said: ‘It is open’, according to the paper, and the ‘Hospital crisis: Intensive care closes’ is what is being alleged by a staff member. A staff member from Alice Springs Hospital went to the Centralian Advocate to say that certain comments that had been made by the minister were not true.
Mr Mills: Untrue!
Ms CARTER: The intensive care unit at Alice Springs Hospital had been closed.
Mr Mills: Untrue!
Madam SPEAKER: Leader of the Opposition! Order!
Mr Kiely: Denis would never carry on like that.
Ms CARTER: Here we have …
Mr Mills: You grub!
Madam SPEAKER: Leader of the Opposition, withdraw that. Withdraw that remark!
Mr MILLS: I withdraw, Madam Speaker.
Ms CARTER: Madam Speaker, here we have, on 4 June, a staff member going to the paper with regards to the closure of the Alice Springs intensive care unit. It was not the opposition going to the paper and stirring it up within the community of Alice Springs, it was a staff member going to the Centralian Advocate and raising it …
Mr Mills: That is because he will not accept responsibility.
Ms CARTER: It was a staff member who raised this issue in Alice Springs, expressing his or her concern about what was happening there. The problem is, of course, on 4 June, which is only a couple of weeks ago, the minister was contradicting what the staff member was saying by saying: ‘No, no, that is fine. The place is open’. That is very poor form.
Ms Carney interjecting
Ms CARTER: That is right. The member for Araluen is correct. We had the backflip. Here we go on 8 June: ‘Toyne backflips: ICU was closed’. Minister, when you respond to this censure motion, it would be greatly appreciated if you could explain to Territorians why you said on one day that the unit was not closed and then, four days later, you changed your mind and said: ‘Oh no, I was wrong; it was open’. The question has to be …
Mr Dunham: Did he apologise? Did he say sorry? Is there an apology in that article?
Ms CARTER: Member for Drysdale, no, there is no apology here.
Mr Dunham: No apology?
Ms CARTER: No apology. What the opposition would love to know is: when you said one day that is was not closed, why did you say that? Was that because your CEO, Mr Robert Griew, misinformed you, or did you deliberately intend to misinform Territorians? Where does the buck stop …
Mr Stirling: Pick on the public servants! Attack the public servants.
Mr Dunham: Well, maybe it was a lie, Syd. We do not know. It could have been a lie.
Mr HENDERSON: A point of order, Madam Speaker! It may be while this is a censure motion to accuse my colleague of lying and, of course, we will refute that allegation, but to allege a senior public servant is lying is totally inappropriate, and I call on the member to withdraw.
Mr DUNHAM: No. We are saying Toynie is a liar.
Madam SPEAKER: Member for Drysdale, you will withdraw that remark. You know the rules of debate.
Mr DUNHAM: I do need clarification, Madam Speaker. The censure is actually for the minister lying to Territorians …
Madam SPEAKER: Yes.
Mr DUNHAM: I would have thought that in the rule of debate, given that is the purpose of the motion moved by the government, that we move a motion saying that we told lies, I thought we could discuss the fact that he was a liar.
Members interjecting.
Madam SPEAKER: The inference you made was that the CEO of the department was lying.
Mr DUNHAM: No, it was not. It was …
Members interjecting.
Mr DUNHAM: I am sure the Hansard record will bear this out. There were two options put to the minister …
Madam SPEAKER: Then you make a statement that you were not accusing the CEO of lying. Is that what are saying? State it clearly for me.
Mr DUNHAM: You asked me to answer the mistaken, erroneous allegation by the Leader of Government Business. I will do that. The Leader of Government Business is wrong.
Madam SPEAKER: Please clarify that you did not.
Mr DUNHAM: If I said anything about Robert Griew lying, I will withdraw it, but I did not, Madam Speaker.
Madam SPEAKER: Okay. Let us get that clear on the record.
Mr DUNHAM: It will be on the record, yes.
Ms CARTER: Madam Speaker, my point to the minister was: I did not use the word ‘lying’, I asked was he misinformed, or did he deliberately misinform Territorians? Who was doing what? It was one or the other: either the CEO, who is the person responsible for the department and communication information to the minister, deliberately misinformed the minister on this matter, and I can assure you he …
Mr STIRLING: A point of order, Madam Speaker! It is exactly the same inference or declaration that the member for Drysdale was just picked up on.
Madam SPEAKER: Yes, please don’t infer…
Mr STIRLING: There is an ugly habit creeping into the opposition of sledging and accusing senior public servants and CEOs throughout the Northern Territory Public Service of lying. Say what you like about the Minister for Health …
Members interjecting.
Mr STIRLING: … say what you like about the Minister for Health, he is in here and he can defend himself. The Commissioner for Police cannot defend himself, the CEO of Health cannot defend himself. Call Dr Toyne what you will, but leave any allegations of lying by the CEO out of it.
Madam SPEAKER: Member for Port Darwin, that is fair comment.
Ms CARTER: Madam Speaker, then I call on the minister to advise the House why on one day he said the intensive care unit was not closed and four days later he said: ‘No, I made a mistake, it was closed’ and he did not say sorry. Let us hear from the minister shortly as to what was going on.
On 11 June, we had the unfortunate headline in the Centralian Advocate of ‘Hospital deaths: calls for inquest’. I am not going to waste my time talking about the opposition and what we said. Basically, I said there should be no hesitation in conducting a coronial inquiry. That was it. That was all I said when I was asked by the paper what I thought. For you to go around the place saying that we are playing with fire for bagging hospital staff is absolutely ridiculous, and you know it. I know why you are doing it; trying to spin this story as though we have had a hand in this. It has been the staff members that have gone from the hospital to the Centralian Advocate and raised their concerns that has put you in the you-know-what that you are in at the moment.
Given that the staff at Alice Springs Hospital have been communicating with the media about their disquiet, given that the President of the AMA has been communicating with the media and telling us about his concerns about the hospital, given that someone from Alice Springs Hospital was obviously aware of those two deaths and went to the press, surely your immediate reaction should have been: whatever needs to be looked at should be looked at, if the Coroner wants to have a look at it, no problems at all. What did you do? Absolutely nothing, tried to avoid speaking to the press and tried to avoid the whole situation altogether.
There has been a damning deterioration over the last 12 months or so with regards to Alice Springs Hospital. You have implemented a critical care system at Alice Springs Hospital that is expensive, unsustainable and essentially is a band aid approach to providing a proper service. You have made promises in the budget - you are going to open more beds, put in more staff - but you cannot keep the beds that you have already have. You cannot keep the positions you have already have, and you have already paid for, filled. How on earth are you going to do more when you cannot keep the current status going?
It is appalling. I understand that one doctor at Royal Darwin Hospital at the moment, who is an anaesthetist, is saying he does not want to go down to Alice Springs Hospital to work, the reason being that he will have minimal backup, and you know that is true, and he will be working so many hours, constantly. His comment was: ‘The only way I will be able to have a day off is to leave town’. You are creating a situation at Alice Springs Hospital that is going to make it more and more difficult for you to recruit and retain staff.
Do not go blaming the opposition. Our role is to scrutinise what you are doing. We are doing our job, sir. This is our role, Madam Speaker, to scrutinise what is going on. People come to me to tell me what is going wrong. They should be going to you, telling you what is going wrong, but they are not because it is pointless so they come to us. They go to the press. It is outrageous that Health Department staff are going to the press, and they cannot talk to you. You are the Minister for Central Australia. You should know these people personally. You should know exactly what is going on. The AMA should not need to do the desperate things that they are having to do and say at the moment to try to get you to do something about what is going on.
I definitely heard from someone who is very credible within the system that the direction to them when you promised the $11m was to go slow; not to recruit until October. Everyone knows that when you put advertisements in the paper in October, you will be lucky to get an intensivist or an anaesthetist on board by February because people do not want to go to Alice Springs at Christmas time.
You will be lucky to get them before February, and this constantly happens with the Martin Labor government. They make promises in the budget – Hello! Where is the hospice? - and we don’t see a thing year after year after year. You get the great media release, you have the glossies and the public thinks its going to happen. It is a sad and sorry situation when it is not happening. It has all caught up with you, minister. The end result is that we have an intensive care and a critical care service at Alice Springs Hospital that is in crisis. It is a shame that this has happened.
What is going to happen to maternity services in the next few weeks, minister, when you have 10 midwives leaving the hospital? This is a classic example of a hospital in major difficulties. Ten midwives! They are easy to pluck out of the air. I don’t think so. They are about to leave.
You have major problems at Alice Springs Hospital. You have an emergency physician in the hospital who is very skilled and now has to apply for her own job. She, I understand, has had a number of job offers from interstate because they need emergency physicians and they have said: ‘Oh, hello! Here’s a doctor whose contract has not been renewed. She has to apply for a job’. Another shameful situation.
Minister, I call on you to resign. You just have not done your job properly. Step aside. You are not coping.
Members interjecting.
Madam SPEAKER: Shadow minister, your time has expired.
Dr TOYNE (Health): Madam Speaker, I can say straight up that it would take a much more substantial censure motion to make me even think about going anywhere other than to continue the work that I am doing. I will be staying put and I will be working to build services up in Alice Springs Hospital for the first time in its history. You are making all these …
Members interjecting.
Ms LAWRIE: A point of order, Madam Speaker. The minister has only just started speaking and already we cannot hear him because of the interjections. They are unruly.
Madam SPEAKER: Minister, you have the floor.
Dr TOYNE: Thank you, Madam Speaker. Let us outline some of the issues that have been raised today. We are talking about the standing of the Alice Springs Hospital in the community, which is my main concern. I am standing here not only as the Minister of Health but also as the Minister for Central Australia, and I can report to you, Madam Speaker, that there is a lot of anger down in Alice Springs in the business community and the health community at the unsubstantiated allegations that have been thrown around in the media. We cannot …
Ms Carney interjecting.
Dr TOYNE: The opposition has to realise that if you are going to make allegations on the public record the way that has been happening in the last week and a half, you had better be able to substantiate them because what you are doing is a direct attack on public confidence in our health system, the confidence in Alice Springs Hospital. I can tell you that many people are very angry about the allegations that have been flung around. Many of them are in the business community. Many of them are in the health community. I have met with many people in the last week and that theme has come through very strongly.
We have had much made of recruitment of new staff in to Alice Springs and, somehow, this is an manifestation of the Martin government. I will deal with that in more detail later in my contribution. They are going to find it very hard to substantiate the allegations they have been making. I reiterate, as I have many times in this debate, that $11m over four years is a considerable commitment to the Alice Springs Hospital, an historic commitment of 37 positions on top of a substantial increase in staffing of the emergency department since we came to government.
The fact is that whatever is right and wrong with the current situation, it is light years ahead of the situation that we inherited from the previous government. We have increased the staff and we are continuing ...
Ms Carney interjecting.
Dr TOYNE: The member for Araluen will be very pleased to know that if she ever gets crook, she will have much better coverage than you would have provided for me had I become crook when you were in government.
In respect of staff recruitment referred to in the member for Port Darwin’s speech, we have to say up front in this censure motion that Alice Springs, as a regional hospital, in fact, even Royal Darwin Hospital, has to compete in a very competitive market with short supplies of all of the critical positions to which we are trying to recruit. I cannot do anything about that, nor can any other living person, other than to make sure that we are out there with an aggressive campaign to get the people that we need and offering conditions, pay and the environment and support that we are going to need to get them here.
The most serious allegation I will deal with in this response is the allegation that there were preventable deaths in Alice Springs. I assure this House that not only were they not preventable deaths in the case of those two unfortunate people, but that the campaign of spreading fear and anxiety around those deaths is absolutely despicable. If you are going to put that sort of allegation on the public record, you need to be able to substantiate it.
Members interjecting:
Dr TOYNE: An unnamed source goes into the Centralian Advocate claiming someone had a preventable death and that was enough for you, was it? That was enough for you? Did you consider at all the interests of the families of those unfortunate people? Did you consider what they are going through at the moment when they are in mourning already, and you want to spread across the public airwaves that these deaths could have been preventable and their loved ones may still be alive? Well, that is not my sort of politics. I will never go there.
Members interjecting.
Ms LAWRIE: A point of order, Mr Deputy Speaker! The level of interjection by the opposition makes it impossible to hear the minister.
Ms CARTER: Speaking to the point of order, the minister is pointing at me and speaking directly to me.
Members interjecting.
Ms MARTIN: A point of order, Mr Deputy Speaker! That is exactly what the member did when she was on her feet in the censure motion.
Members interjecting.
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order, order!
Members interjecting.
Dr TOYNE: Mr Deputy Speaker, let me restate the …
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER: Minister, I will rule on this point of order. The objection is that interjections are making it hard to hear, but I do not believe there is a point of order.
Dr TOYNE: Thank you, Mr Deputy Speaker. To continue, I want to put on record in detail the initiatives we are taking on Alice Springs Hospital: $11m over four years to develop an integrated intensive …
Members interjecting.
Dr TOYNE: You had better listen because this is pertinent to some of the allegations you have been throwing around. There is $11m over four years to develop an integrated intensive care, high dependency unit. Now, pay attention. There is $2m this year and $3m annually for the next three years. It will allow the employment of an extra 37 health professionals, including an intensivist and nurses. They have not been in that hospital. Until six months ago, there was no such thing as an intensivist in Alice Springs Hospital as a permanent position.
Members interjecting.
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order!
Dr Lim interjecting.
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER: Member for Greatorex, order!
Dr TOYNE: Here is the group, here they are, saying how dare we not have an intensivist not there for 24 hours. They did not have one at all! They did not have one for 26 years. They had no position there whatsoever. It was okay for us to go along without an intensive care unit as far as they were concerned.
Members interjecting.
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order, order! Please allow the minister to continue.
Dr TOYNE: Mr Deputy Speaker, this will result in an increase of five new funded beds over two years to make a total of four intensive care unit beds and four high dependency beds. That will markedly reduce the need to transfer seriously ill patients to other hospitals. We can keep them in their community where their families are.
With regard to the pay and conditions of doctors and other health professionals, the Northern Territory Medical Officers Certified Agreement 2003-2006 was presented to the Australian Industrial Relations Commission for certification. Negotiations by OCPE, the department and the Commonwealth branch of the ASMOF provided a very good outcome for our doctors and nurses. We now have very competitive rates of pay and conditions to attract these professionals into the Northern Territory. The heart of the agreement is a significant salary increase. It provides an 11% pay rise for medical officers over three years. It will help the Northern Territory maintain its status as a competitive employer in a very difficult national and international market place.
With regard to nurses, budget 2004-05 includes an extra $4.6m for nurses’ salaries, and takes total expenditure for nurses’ salaries to $116.8m. It follows, again, a pay rise of 11% over three years. As of May 2004, we have created 48 out of our promised 75 jobs for nurses new to our hospitals, and the budget has provided an additional 65 nursing positions, including the 37 in Alice Springs. This is already well beyond our election promise to create those 75 new hospital-based nurses.
In addition, the budget commits $1.4m to employ an extra six nurses in our bush clinics. For the opposition to be squirreling around saying: ‘All the nurses are unhappy, we do not have enough of them. What are you doing to recruit them?’. The first thing we are doing is putting the money on the deck to say that we have the salaries and we can actually give them decent conditions. The second thing we are doing is giving them an 11% pay rise, along with the doctors, so that we can provide competitive rates to get them here.
Our record to date in the Alice Springs Hospital speaks for itself.
Mr Dunham: Hear, hear! Your record speaks for itself! It speaks for itself.
Dr TOYNE: Okay, let us compare it to yours, mate. Let us compare it to yours. Mid-2001, when you handed over the reins to us very reluctantly, there were 75 doctors at Alice Springs Hospital. On 10 June 2004, there were 84 doctors at the hospital - a 12% increase. Under our government, there have also been increases in ICU-HD staff, from 24.5 nursing staff at the ICU-HDU to 28.5 nursing positions on 10 June 2004.
Dr Lim interjecting.
Dr TOYNE: I think I can hear a bug whistling.
Dr Lim interjecting.
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order, order!
Dr TOYNE: We are heading towards another recruitment to take it to 29.5 positions, which is an increase of 20%.
We have talked a lot about the intensivist position. We created that position, and we created it to put it into the Alice Springs Hospital ICU-High Dependence Unit as a permanent position to provide clinical leadership to that area of critical care alongside two other critical care positions in the Emergency Department and in Anaesthesia to have a senior clinical team that can lead the critical care areas in Alice Springs Hospital. For the first time ever, we are getting a solid foundation under critical care in Alice Springs Hospital with sufficient staff throughout the critical care area to fully cater for all the patients that we can deal with at a regional level.
There will still be patients whom we will have to take elsewhere; patients who require ventilation, for example, will still go to the big major hospitals either in Adelaide or in Darwin. That is a reality of life in a regional centre. You cannot have a regional hospital duplicating the services of a major hospital in a capital city.
I just want read a comment by Jeff Byrne, the General Manager of Alice Springs Hospital. You would reckon he would know a thing or two about what is going on in there:
That was Jeff Byrne on 9 June on ABC Radio. In all the hysteria that is being whipped up by the opposition and the media, it is good to hear the voice of sanity.
Margaret Waite, Chairman of the Alice Springs Hospital Board in the NT News of 12 June, said:
Mr Deputy Speaker, probably the low point in the public debate that surrounded the ...
Mr Dunham interjecting
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order!
Dr TOYNE: ... Alice Springs Hospital was the NT News headline ‘Doctors deliver death warning’ referring to the supposed staff shortages at Alice Springs ICU and then whipping in was the member for Port Darwin: ‘I do not think I have ever seen a headline just like that’ on 8 TOP-FM, Monday, 7 June 2004. Let me enlighten you.
The Centralian Advocate ‘NT hospitals facing crisis, warns AMA’. This was a previous headline:
Guess who was in government when those headlines hit the Centralian Advocate! This is not new, Mr Deputy Speaker. There are always these allegations flying around about our hospital.
Let’s have a look at some headlines. Here is 14 July 1995: ‘NT hospitals facing crisis’, the one I just quoted from. What did your minister at the time do? He ‘blasts the AMA on hospital claim’, so he is not buying into it either. Mr Finch said:
Members interjecting.
Dr TOYNE: ...
It sounds like when the boot was on the other foot, your minister did not want to have a bar of it either.
Members interjecting.
Dr TOYNE: Moving right along with the previous government: ‘Staff shortage hits the hospital’. I wonder whose photo that is! It looks something like the member for Drysdale.
What did the member for Drysdale do when he was the Minister for Health faced with this dire crisis in the Alice Springs Hospital? Did he whip in like we have and have a look at the reports and what the reports were saying? Did he get $11m out of his Cabinet to put 37 positions in to alleviate the situation? Did he even take any responsibility? Did he ever take responsibility for the situation? Here is what he had to say:
So he is out of there. He does not want to have a bar of it.
We have that on 22 December 2000. It did not get better. 20 February 2001:
‘Elective surgery in Alice still on hold’:
You can see that the claims from the other side that this all suddenly appeared when the Martin government came to power and that we have done nothing about it …
Members interjecting.
Dr TOYNE: Mr Deputy Speaker, the word ‘hypocrite’ springs to mind on this. We have had this mob here for 26 years. They turned their back, ignored the things that were being said about staffing shortages in Alice Springs Hospital. We did not. We did not ignore what we were being told. We have already put significant new positions into that hospital, particularly in the critical care area. We are now moving to build a complete ICU-High Dependence Unit and that will, for the first time, provide a level of care above the standard that you would find in regional hospitals elsewhere in Australia, and rightly so. Alice Springs Hospital happens to be 1500 kilometres away from the nearest major hospital. We have to be able to look after people a bit more than your average regional hospital in Australia.
I will take to heart the fact that there is a fair bit of hypocrisy in this. I am not taking to heart the fact you think that I am not doing the job, as the member for Greatorex was trying to say the other day: ‘These problems didn’t ever happen in the hospital before Labor got in’. What about all these, Drip? What about all these?
Dealing with the recruitment to positions in Alice Springs Hospital and the employment packages that we are using to try to attract the professionals we need into those new positions, here is the member for Port Darwin on the public record:
I can tell you that medical officers in both hospitals work under the same Enterprise Bargaining Agreement that was resolved between our government and the AMA. Where a position has proven difficult to fill, a market allowance may be offered by either hospital and I can confirm to this House that sufficient market rates have been put against these positions to attract the professionals that we are after.
I will tell you one thing we are not going to do: the example that was given by the member for Port Darwin of not making the anaesthetist the offer that they were after. I will tell you what the situation was: we offered them $250 000 per year to go to Alice Springs and work as anaesthetists. They turned around and said: ‘No, give us $440 000 a year.’ We would go broke doing that sort of stuff. That is simply not on.
Members interjecting.
Dr TOYNE: Mr Deputy Speaker, senior medical offers may be offered executive contracts, which are monitored by the Commissioner for Public Employment, and solely relate to the circumstances surrounding filling the vacancy. We are not going to play Rafferty’s Rules on this. We are going to offer fair rates, premium rates if we have to, but we are not going to be offering $200 000 on the top to get a specialist into Alice Springs compared with their peers working in the Darwin Royal Hospital. That is just not on.
It has been alleged a number of times that Alice Springs Hospital management have been told not to recruit to the ICU-High Dependence positions until October. This was the member for Greatorex out there having a swing on 11 May 2004, supported ably by the member for Port Darwin on 7 June 2004. I can put on record in this House that management has not been told to delay recruitment. I have been assured of that at all levels of the recruitment structure.
Alice Springs Hospital has already employed an additional four ICU trained nurses on 24, 25 and 27 May and 3 June 2004. We are fast-tracking the process of recruitment for more nurses, both through notifying our usual nursing work force agencies as well as in a national campaign that has been ramped up. We have put a special position down into the Alice Springs Hospital to oversee the detailed work that is going to be needed to get those extra people into that hospital. National advertising commenced on 5 June for the three senior medical positions, the head of anaesthesia, the head of the emergency department and the head of ICU, intensive care. We are out there working aggressively. We have an offer that certainly matches Darwin and, in some cases, we will offer premiums above that if we need to get people there that way.
Let us deal with this ugly incident with allegations of preventable deaths in Alice Springs Hospital. I did take some action on that. When those allegations were made, I asked our Chief Medical Office, Dr Tarun Weeramanthri, to immediately review the case files, to go down to Alice Springs and interview the attending physicians associated with those two cases.
What did our Chief Medical Officer find? He found that there was no evidence that a preventable death had occurred; the treatment given to those two unfortunate patients was appropriate and adequate for the situation they were in. He also found that they were seriously and multiply-ill people. That sort of patient, tragically, is always present in the hospital system. Hospitals cannot save everyone. What our Chief Medical Officer found was that in both cases, the treatment that the patient received leading up to their death had no contributing effect to the death of those patients.
We await the Coroner’s assessment of this as well. It is important to see an independent assessment so that the public, not you mob, can be absolutely assured by an independent statutory officer that there was nothing untoward about it. I have taken the action of asking for counselling to be provided to the families of those two patients because I do not know what effect all this public conjecture has had on them. When you are mourning a loved one, the last thing you want to be hearing is that they could have been saved but for the hospital not being up to scratch. We will make sure that those families have suffered no undue detriment because of the publicity.
I will say again: there are very specific and due processes that should follow anyone who has concerns about a death in a hospital. There are very stringent provisions for a doctor before they sign a death certificate. Their career is on the line. If there are any doubts in their mind whatsoever about the standard of treatment or the cause of death, that should go to the Coroner. If they sign the death certificate and say it is not going to be passed to the Coroner, they are putting their career on the line. They can be deregistered. They are also guilty of a criminal offence if they take that action.
I am absolutely assured by the most senior doctor we have in our public health system that no such irregularities occurred with these deaths and I hope that will be the end of the matter. We will look at what the Coroner has to say. Even at this stage, I have a high degree of confidence that nothing untoward happened.
Finally, moving to the real reason for a lot of this blow-up, which is actually an industrial issue. It became more and more clear from both what was being said around the issue by medical representative groups and from what I was being apprised directly by staff and management. I will read out the resolutions of a meeting of doctors held on 8 June. The letter is dated 8 June and I believe the meeting was the day before. The letter I am quoting, and I will table it, is from the Australian Salaried Medical Officers Federation. This letter was sent to me to apprise me of the resolutions that came out of this meeting. Until this meeting was held, there was much talk about public safety, about do we have enough staff there, and there isn’t an intensivist, or there is. What am I presented with when the doctors meet to discuss their concerns about the hospital?
One of those three positions we just advertised:
And this comes to the nub of it:
Of course, in chime, the opposition is saying ‘What a great idea, yes. The minister should jump in there, give Elizabeth the job and not worry about the due process. Do not worry about the Public Sector Employment and Management Act, section 22. Do not worry that you are breaking the law. Do not worry that it would be considered corrupt to take that action’.
This is an industrial action. It is an action to confirm someone in a position within the public service. I am not going there. That is not the way I am going to carry out my duties as a minister.
Obviously, this is about the Alice Springs Hospital, the perceptions of the community, and what damage it is doing to the perception of the hospital and the staff who work there.
By the time the last headline came out: ‘Patient dies as unit closed’, I have to admit I felt quite sick in the stomach. I do not know whether you realise what affect a headline like that is having on people in Alice Springs who have recently been bereaved. Are you implying or insinuating that if there had been different treatment, they would still be alive? You have put doubts into people’s minds and you tainted the dedication of staff at Alice Springs Hospital. That is what upset me most of all: to think that you are using patients as your political football. You may say the staff members went to the newspapers, but we know the member for Greatorex’s political affiliations with staff, and we also know his past professional association …
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER: There is no point of order.
Dr LIM: Why does she say this? The censure is against the minister, not me.
Dr LIM: My political affiliations with staff …
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER: Member for Greatorex!
Members interjecting.
Dr LIM: … that is a lot of rubbish!
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order! Order!
Dr LIM: Speaking to the point of order!
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order! Yes, and I am going to reply to the point of order …
Dr LIM: I believe the member for Braitling has no right to refer to me having political affiliations with staff at the Alice Springs Hospital.
Members interjecting.
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER: There is no point of order.
Dr LIM: What a lot of rubbish that is!
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER: There is no point of order. You know the process. There is no point of order. Member for Braitling.
Dr Lim interjecting.
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order!
Dr Lim: David Meadows would love that
Mrs BRAHAM: Well, you would love it, too, because we remember what went on.
Mr Deputy Speaker, I felt quite sickened by it and I even investigated a little bit more what was going on and the opposition, even then …
Mr Baldwin interjecting.
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order! Order!
Members interjecting.
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order, please! Allow the member for Braitling to continue.
Mrs BRAHAM: It is not unusual for the opposition to want to have a go at me. I can understand that.
I am an Alice Springs member. There are three other Alice Springs members in this House and I am waiting for them to say something positive about their community, about their town. I remember clearly at the Alice Springs sittings …
Mr Baldwin interjecting.
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order!
Mrs BRAHAM: … when you orchestrated a protest about the town …
Mr Baldwin interjecting.
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER: Member for Braitling! Member for Braitling!
Mrs BRAHAM: I stood up and said: ‘I love this town’.
Members interjecting.
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order!
Mrs BRAHAM: I noticed that not one Alice Springs member was willing to say the same thing.
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order, member for Braitling! Order! Please, through the Chair. Could you speak through the Chair, please?
Mrs BRAHAM: Yes, Mr Deputy Speaker. That protest was orchestrated, but because I was willing to stand up and say: ‘I love this town’ because I have been there for 42 years, whereas the Johnny-come-latelies have no feeling for the town …
Members interjecting.
Mrs BRAHAM: What did the opposition do …
Mr Baldwin interjecting.
Mrs BRAHAM: … with their mate, Erwin
Mr Baldwin interjecting.
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER: Member for Daly!
Mr Baldwin interjecting.
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER: Member for Daly!
Mrs BRAHAM: Mr Deputy Speaker, the opposition with the cooperation of Erwin Chlanda, of course, took that photo of me holding the plaque saying I love this town …
Mr Dunham interjecting.
Mrs BRAHAM: … and in fact they circulated to all of Braitling.
Mr BALDWIN: A point of order, Mr Deputy Speaker! If the member for Braitling wants to make allegations about the opposition, you know and she knows that she has to do it via a substantive motion, like a censure motion.
Mr HENDERSON: Speaking to the point of order, Mr Deputy Speaker, the member well knows that if any member of this House believes in any way that they have been defamed by another member, they can respond …
Mr Baldwin: You are a liar!
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order!
Mr Baldwin: You are an absolute liar!
Mr HENDERSON: … and clear the record.
Mr STIRLING: A point of order, Mr Deputy Speaker!
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER: Member for Daly, please withdraw that.
Mr BALDWIN: I was picking up on his point that we could make any sort of accusations.
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER: Member for Daly, withdraw it! Member for Daly, withdraw it!
Mr BALDWIN: No, I will not withdraw it, sorry.
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER: Member for Daly, you must leave the Chamber, please.
Mr BALDWIN: I am happy to.
Mrs BRAHAM: Mr Deputy Speaker …
Mr DUNHAM: There is a point of order, Mr Deputy Speaker, that has not been ruled upon. In the unfair and untrue allegations made by the Leader of Government Business, he claimed that he had the remedy of this person speaking at some other time if they felt defamed. Now, he should withdraw his allegation. Likewise, the current speaker should withdraw the allegation that the member for Greatorex manipulated the press to take a photo of her. This is …
Members interjecting.
Mr DUNHAM: Yes, you did.
Members interjecting.
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order! I will make a ruling. I believe the member for Braitling was referring to the party in general and I do not think, therefore, there is a point of order.
Mrs BRAHAM: Mr Deputy Speaker, may I say it is not an allegation, it is fact, but I do thank the opposition for circulating that flier in my electorate. I wonder if they considered how many votes they gained for me?
Dr Lim interjecting.
Mrs BRAHAM: Member for Greatorex, do you mind? You can have your say later.
Mrs BRAHAM: I just raised that, Mr Deputy Speaker …
Dr Lim interjecting.
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order, member for Greatorex!
Dr Lim interjecting.
Mrs BRAHAM: I cannot believe that members from Alice Springs would continue to run this line of putting down their town. I really cannot recall when they have ever said anything in support of Alice Springs. They continually denigrate what is going on. They never come out and say this is a great town, we love it, there are good things happening, business is going well, the health department is good. They never say anything because they are always knocking the town.
I tell you what: if they thought that they were going to win votes by using this as a political debate, sorry, you have lost them. I need to tell you that a number of your long-term supporters came in to see me, rang my office, and said: ‘This is not on. This is not on. Enough is enough. These headlines are damaging our town’. I think you are going to find that you will have quite a backlash ...
Dr Lim interjecting
Mrs BRAHAM: You know who I am referring to, I am sure, because they have probably also contacted you and said: ‘What on earth are you doing? Leave our town alone. Stop putting down our hospital. Stop tainting its reputation’. Stop suggesting that patients have died because of lack of care because that is just not true. The staff at the Alice Springs Hospital are dedicated. To suggest there has been no anaesthetist is crazy. To suggest that just because the ICU is closed, patients will die is so wrong. You are trying to manipulate our hospital for your own political gain.
Let me remind you: I turned up with a broken wrist. Who do you think put me to sleep while they fixed it? It was not a locum from Queensland or someone flown in Darwin; it was someone there on staff and I spent time talking to them. You are suggesting that this is a crisis that has been going on for a long time, but it is not.
Dr Lim interjecting.
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order!
Mrs BRAHAM: Mr Deputy Speaker, we have to get some sense in to this debate. The opposition has to realise the damage they are doing. If you want to bag the Minister for Health, okay, fine; that is your job. Do it, but for goodness sake don’t do it at the expense of our staff, our doctors, the 700 people ...
Mr Mills: That is not the issue.
Mrs BRAHAM: Yes, it is! It is! Patient dies! Yes, it is.
Members interjecting.
Mrs BRAHAM: The Leader of the Opposition does not realise. Did you actually vet these media releases? Did you see them before they went? Surely, you would not, as a politician, see that you were gaining any votes by the tone of those media releases. Surely, you would not believe that this is the way you make a political statement. Surely, you have been around long enough to know that if you want to censure the government, do that, but do not censure the hospital.
Members: Hear, hear!
Mrs BRAHAM: You do not censure the staff.
Mr DUNHAM: A point of order, Mr Deputy Speaker. There is no mention of a censure of the hospital.
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER: There is no point of order.
Mrs BRAHAM: I am well aware that the CLP opposition probably do not like me saying these things, but there have been seeds of doubt planted within our community, and I do not believe that they appreciate what they have done.
We know it is difficult to recruit staff to Alice Springs Hospital. That is not new. It is also difficult to recruit them to Tennant Creek, Katherine, Darwin and Melbourne.
I went to a regional hospital in Victoria because of the pins I had in my arm. They have difficulty retaining staff. They have difficulty in recruitment because it is an Australia-wide and worldwide thing.
Mr Mills: Was their ICU open?
Mrs BRAHAM: Might I say – well, in fact, I had the operation to remove my pins in the waiting room. That is where they did it. That was a town of about 100 000 people. We have a town of 26 000 people and we have one of the best hospitals that you would see. I mean that. My kids were born there.
I have had a personal association with that hospital, and you know it. I have full faith and confidence in that hospital. To suggest that the staff down there do not do a good job ...
Mr Mills: That is not the issue.
Mrs BRAHAM: That is the issue! That is what you are implying.
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order! I remind the member for Braitling to address the Chair, please.
Mrs BRAHAM: Sorry, Mr Deputy Speaker. I am getting a bit carried away because that is where the Leader of the Opposition has missed the point. He has missed the point of the damage he is doing to the credibility of our hospital. He has missed the point that by taking this tack, he has angered Alice Springs staff. He may have a small core of people who are whingers and who are unhappy, but he has forgotten there are nearly 700 staff at that hospital. Do you really think the whole 700 are upset? Let me tell you quite frankly: no. I have spoken to them over the last week, just the same as perhaps the opposition has done.
I do not know what satisfaction they got out of the headlines, but can I say that the families of the two people who recently died were not consulted before the opposition went public on that. I find it appalling that you would use that tack. There is enough grief, when someone dies, to handle without you adding to their grief by implying that ‘patient dies as unit closes’, ‘Hospital deaths, call for inquest’, and ‘Staff fears as crisis deepens’. Do you have no sensitivity to the families concerned? Do you understand how they are feeling?
Mr Dunham interjecting.
Mrs BRAHAM: Member for Drysdale, you know this is a sad time for those people, and to put those things in the paper as headlines, in my opinion, is just too sad.
The questioning of the credibility of the two doctors who were responsible for signing those death certificates - I wonder how they must be feeling, how much confidence they now have in the opposition to be able to speak for people and put forward their point of view, because I know they are …
Ms Carney: You have fallen for it hook, line and sinker. You have.
Mrs BRAHAM: No, member for Araluen, even some of your constituents have come to me …
Ms Carney: It is not what we have said, member for Braitling.
Mrs BRAHAM: And why don’t you stand up …
Ms Carney: Oh, I plan to! I plan on standing up …
Members interjecting.
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order, order!
Mrs BRAHAM: I will certainly be listening carefully to what you have to say because you may not understand the backlash that is occurring. You may have a few people come to you saying: ‘Good on you, go for it’, but do you understand exactly the backlash that is occurring at Alice Springs because of these comments? Go and ask some of the people who have recently had treatment at the Alice Springs Hospital.
Mr Deputy Speaker, we have always sent patients south when they have been critical. For instance …
Dr Lim interjecting.
Mrs BRAHAM: No, you cannot. I am not going to justify this except to say, you could not have full services for everything at a small regional hospital. That would be crazy.
Members interjecting.
Dr Lim interjecting.
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order, order! Member for Greatorex, order, please!
Mrs BRAHAM: Member for Greatorex, you disappoint me, too. You have the professional background to know exactly what is going on at the hospital. You also know the support that you should be giving them, as you have in the past, and that you have suddenly made staff and doctors lose credibility in the eyes of the community is what worries me.
That is the point I wish to make: whenever we take a censure debate on, we should make sure we realise the consequences and the ramifications of our statements. To deny that Alice Springs Hospital is being used as a political football is nonsense. If the opposition believe that, then the staff certainly do not. I believe it is the opposition that should be censured, not the minister for Health.
Dr LIM (Greatorex): Mr Deputy Speaker, before I speak to the censure motion itself, I need to say, first of all, that it is an unprecedented move by a government of the Northern Territory to set aside business of the day, standing orders, to bring the censure motion on. It is something that has never been done in 28 years in government.
This government makes a big play about how the opposition prosecutes a case properly before you bring on a censure motion. Allow me to read you some words.
A member: Who said that?
Dr LIM: Who said that? Well, none other than the Deputy Chief Minister. Guess when he said that: on 5 March 2002. This government, without hearing how we would prosecute a case, said: ‘Censure us. We are guilty’. That is why they bring it on. They have already admitted guilt themselves. That is why they wanted to hear how we are going to do it. That is what they have done.
Members interjecting.
Dr LIM: In 25 years of parliamentary history, this has never been done. It has always been following Question Time. A condolence motion, the most serious motion in an Assembly and takes the highest precedence in any business of parliament, was deferred by this government.
Mr Stirling: By your censure.
Dr LIM: We moved there was going to be a motion …
Mr Dunham: Your censure. You moved it! You moved it; it is your motion!
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order! Order!
Members interjecting.
Mr KIELY: A point of order, Mr Deputy Speaker. I ask that the member for Greatorex address the censure motion. So far, all we have heard about is process. We are here to go through one of the most important motions in the House, and I suggest that he starts addressing it.
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER: There is no point of order.
Dr LIM: This was a great Territorian about whom we will move a Condolence Motion. He passed away, and this government today has shown the greatest disrespect for a great Territorian. I wonder why. Perhaps it was because he was a life member of the CLP. Is that why you show disrespect? That is a pretty pathetic move by this government.
Let me just get to the censure itself, as the member for Sanderson so much wants. This minister says: ‘It is something that was beaten up by the CLP’. How long have we been telling the government that there are serious problems at the Alice Springs Hospital? We have been saying that for years - not just recent weeks, for years. Remember this? ‘Elective surgery cancelled at Alice Springs’. ‘Is that right?’, I asked the reporter. Let me quote:
Etcetera. I quote again:
Then, further on, and I quote again:
Further on, she says:
This was on 4 April 2003, minister Aagaard. On 4 April 2003, and we have been warning this government that there are critical issues about the anaesthetic department for years. We kept saying it, but nobody listened. The minister, the absent minister, does not listen, and that is your problem …
Dr BURNS: A point of order, Mr Deputy Speaker!
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER: Yes, there is a point of order.
Dr LIM: He is the target of the censure and is not there to listen to it.
Dr BURNS: A point of order, Mr Deputy Speaker. The member for Greatorex well knows the protocol in referring to a member’s presence or absence in the House, and I ask that he withdraw it.
Members interjecting.
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order! Member for Greatorex, withdraw that reference.
Dr LIM: All right, Mr Deputy Speaker, in deference to you, I shall withdraw that.
The reporter asked again of the minister:
Says the …
Mr DUNHAM: A point of order, Mr Deputy Speaker. Given the contribution by the Speaker, it cannot be ruled as fair and impartial for her to return to the Chair. I ask that the Deputy Speaker maintain his position in the Chair until this debate is completed.
Mrs BRAHAM: All right. I am happy for that to happen.
Dr LIM: Good point. Anyway, I will repeat the quotes again from the report. The reporter said:
And further, she asks the same question again:
The minister said:
Let me just go to some of the things the minister said: that they are building up the services of the Alice Springs Hospital for the very first time. We left them with a hospital with a full anaesthetic department, and it is they who have lost it all.
Dr Frediani, a specialist anaesthetist, was appointed by this government to be the Head of the Anaesthetic Department at Alice Springs Hospital. He has been working effectively. He has been able to attract doctors to work at the Alice Springs Hospital, prepared to live there. You heard the member for Port Darwin talk about Dr Lightfoot who was prepared to come there, but hospital management is unable to work through with them, to give them a proper contract. Dr Frediani has been in the media. On 14 May this year, he gave an interview to Mr Gavin King, the reporter. These are his words. I will read from the newspaper:
This is the Head of the Anaesthetic Department saying that publicly. He said it because he has tried over and over to improve the department, but management, through this government, through this minister, could not make sure that the department does not fall apart.
Dr Toyne: Knock, knock, knock, knock.
Dr LIM: That is not knocking. I pick up the interjection from the member for Stuart. This is the messenger trying to get the appropriate message to the minister, but he just does not listen. The reality is that the member for Stuart is a dead man walking. He stumbles along like a zombie. Look at him! He looks absolutely tired. If I were him, go on and get out with your retirement. That is what you want to do. Go and retire.
Ms LAWRIE: A point of order, Mr Deputy Speaker! It is against standing orders to make a personal attack on a member. That is quite obnoxious.
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER: I do not believe it is. It is an observation rather than a personal attack. There is no point of order.
Ms Lawrie: You are disgusting.
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order, order! Member for Karama, I made a ruling, thank you.
Dr LIM: When the AMA, in all its professionalism …
Ms Scrymgour: Stand up when you talk.
Mr Kiely: He is standing up.
Dr LIM: … tells the government that there are issues, this government does not bother to listen.
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order! Member for Sanderson, withdraw that. It was unnecessary.
Ms Lawrie: Oh, that is okay.
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER: Yes, but that was done in a cynical tone. Please withdraw it.
Mr KIELY: I withdraw.
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER: Thank you.
Members interjecting.
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order! Let this debate run its course.
Dr LIM: When the member for Braitling alludes to the professional association that I have with the current President of the AMA, Dr David Meadows, she tried to insinuate that there was collusion between me and Dr Meadows. That is scurrilous, absolutely scurrilous.
Dr David Meadows happened to be my professional partner for some five years. Our association broke up back in 1986. Dr Meadows and I might have very common clinical standards, but politically, I tell you, we are probably miles apart. Do not blame the AMA for upholding a professional standard. That is below the belt, and Dr Meadows would certainly not want to hear about that.
This minister has failed to manage the department. Remember what he said when he first got into the ministry: ‘I suppose this is the first time I have had a health problem’. Well, does not he have a health problem!
What I found most distressing, living in Alice Springs as one of its local residents and having a personal and professional relationship with the hospital, is when this sort of headline appears in the papers: ‘Hospital crisis: intensive care closes’ and a sub-headline says the minister says it is open. If that is not an outright lie, I do not know what else you can call it.
That was a quote from the newspaper.
As soon as that article appeared in the paper, the phone calls that I received from the hospital were countless. ‘That is untrue. This minister has lied,’ they told me. ‘They have transferred all the intensive care patients out of there. There is nobody on [inaudible] intensive care’. They have high dependence patients – yes, you can have a heart attack and you need somebody to look after you 24 hours a day, but not in intensive care.
The fact that hospital staff reacted so vehemently against the minister’s statement says it all. It is not about the CLP knocking the hospital; it is about the staff in the hospital being very concerned that their standards are being eroded because of the lack of support from this government. The people of Alice Springs are concerned that care will not be provided if they go there.
It is not because the CLP has caused such an uproar; it is the government’s failure to manage the hospital properly. They have a $50m blow out in last year’s budget, and still they cannot manage the hospital. Where have you gone wrong? I quote from the paper again:
Further:
This was dated 4 June 2004. The minister then blamed the competitive market in Australia, which is why he cannot recruit anyone. We just heard him speak about Dr Liz Mowatt and the petition that he received from the hospital saying let’s keep Dr Liz Mowatt. In normal circumstances, a doctor would apply to the hospital for a peer review. That is, being assessed by medical peers and if they are considered satisfactory, management will ultimately renew their contract. But, no, this government will cloud the waters: let’s advertise all the positions! We will advertise for an emergency specialist, an anaesthetist specialist and an intensive care specialist. For nearly 27 years of the Alice Springs Hospital, the department has always been maintained more than adequately by anaesthetists. Some have special training in the intensive care, others have special training in paediatric care, but they are all anaesthetists. A specialist intensive care anaesthetist is, in the first instance, an anaesthetist.
If we do not even have an anaesthetist, how are you going to find an intensive care specialist? That is where they have it back to front. Let us get the hospital staffed adequately with anaesthetists first. First! Then we go the next step of getting a specialist anaesthetist who has done training in intensive care. That is what you should be doing. Let us get Dr Mowatt back in place. Let us get Dr Frediani back in place. He is your Head of the Anaesthetic Department. What have you done about it? He is sitting in Canberra working, waiting for you to sort out your management problems. Dr Frediani is on your books as an employee. Don’t shake your head, member for Stuart. Dr Frediani is on your books as an employee of the hospital as the head of your department and you are ignoring him. You are ignoring him. Bring him back, for goodness sake. He is married to a doctor who is more than willing to work at Alice Springs Hospital. They own a home in Alice Springs, for goodness sake. But here you are, not prepared to bring him back. Why?
Then you have headlines like this: ‘Doctors deliver death warning’ in the Northern Territory News of 7 June this year.
Mr Ah Kit: I would not go there if I were you.
Dr LIM: I beg your pardon?
Mr Ah Kit: I would not go there if I were you, talking about death in Alice Springs Hospital.
Dr LIM: I would not go there? You have a problem with that, have you?
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order! Order! Through the Chair!
Dr LIM: You have a problem with that, have you?
Mr Ah Kit: Yes.
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order!
Dr LIM: About doctors delivering death warnings?
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER: Through the Chair, member for Greatorex.
Dr LIM: Do you have a problem with that?
Mr Ah Kit: You have priors.
Dr LIM: I have priors! Say that outside, member for Arnhem. Say that outside or are you so cowardly that you cannot say it outside?
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order! Member for Greatorex, through the Chair, please!
Dr LIM: Mr Deputy Speaker, the member for Arnhem, member for Nhulunbuy, member for Wanguri and the member for Millner have all said it here in this coward’s castle. I challenge them all to say it outside, but they will not, will they? They are terrified of what the legal process will do to them.
Members interjecting.
Dr LIM: If there is one hypocritical …
Members interjecting.
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order, order! I cannot hear the member for Greatorex.
Members interjecting.
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order! Interjections from both sides make it hard to hear the member for Greatorex.
Dr LIM: Thank you, Mr Deputy Speaker. These are the sort of warnings that have been provided to the government endlessly, yet they continue to ignore it. This minister, the dead man walking, has continued to ignore it. It is about time he left, retired, as he said he would retire, and let us get somebody younger over there. There are a lot of young people over there who are just busting their gut to be a minister. Let them get on with the job of managing the Health department a lot better.
Ms Martin: Three minutes.
Dr LIM: Three minutes? That’s good. When the minister then says, three days later - he did not apologise for it; he just said: ‘Oh, ICU was closed’. This is the Minister for Central Australia. If he does not know what is happening in Alice Springs, then he should not be the Minister for Central Australia. Maybe the member for Barkly could do a better job than that. This is a person who lives in Alice Springs who does not know what is happening in his own backyard, and that concerns me. If he is also the Health minister, that makes it all the worse.
When it came to those two patients unfortunately suffering quite significant injuries that, as the minister said, their deaths were probably not preventable, and I do not have any problems with that; it happens. However, he had to be pushed by the media and by the AMA before he would even go to the next stage of instigating a review. I am pleased to see that the Coroner is considering it as well because, that way, it takes it away from the doctors, from the government, and you have an objective study done. I hope and trust the Coroner will determine that there was nothing untoward about the whole process.
If you think about it, though, you do have an intensive care unit there. You have an emergency department. They treated the patient. The normal process would be, as quickly as possible, you get this person from emergency straight to intensive care so that they can have the best of care. That was not available. That is the problem. That was not made available because this government failed to ensure that the hospital had a fully functioning anaesthetic department. Thank God the head of the unit from Royal Darwin Hospital was in Alice Springs for the past week, otherwise there would have been more trouble than ever before. However, there was a 24 hour gap when there was no specialist anaesthetist in Alice Springs, and this government has yet to explain that gap.
Mr STIRLING (Treasurer): Mr Deputy Speaker, I say at the outset how much I appreciated the contribution from the member for Braitling. It should be no surprise to anyone the respect that she holds in the town of Alice Springs and Central Australia generally because of the forthright nature and the courage with which she stands up for her community and says it as it is. I, for one, appreciate that, and I know how highly she is respected and supported as the member for Braitling in Alice Springs. There is a little lesson in there, Mr Deputy Speaker, for some members opposite. If they ever aspire to hold the respect and support that the member for Braitling has in her time in this parliament, they could take a page out of her book.
She knows that the hospitals in the Northern Territory, including that at Alice Springs, and the staff that work within them, provide our communities with a high level of commitment and service when it comes to health matters, and she and I applaud the dedicated work of all of our staff working in the five hospitals across the Territory. That work, of course, has the widespread support of the community. I need go back no further than the past two weeks, observing at close hand the care for a recently deceased friend in Gove Hospital, to see the lengths they go to look after those in their care.
Just before I go to the detail of the motion itself, it does border on the unbelievable that the CLP thinks it can march in here and censure this government on health issues at all. This is the party, of course, that held power for over 26 years, and left the health service in an awful mess. Problems mounted, doubled and redoubled over the years that they were in office.
To give an example, they held two major reviews during the 1990s, and most of us would remember the infamous Cresap review. That goes back to 1992. They interviewed everyone from the head of the department down to the gardener and janitor at every hospital throughout the Territory. The Parker review was in 1999. Upwards of $1m was spent on each of those reviews. Implementation did not occur. What did occur was extremely patchy in relation to the recommendations that were made: a couple, or a handful, were implemented in full; some implemented in part; and many, of course, were totally ignored. Of those that were implemented from those earlier reviews, much of that work was undone by the time they lost government in 2001. They cannot claim not to have knowledge of some of the serious deficiencies in the health service that they were looking after during their stewardship in government. The reviews that they commissioned told them about the deficiencies in the health service, but they sat on their hands.
Some of those problems, of course, reflect national and international problems in health care. I accept and acknowledge that. It is not easy, and hospitals across the country have difficulty with staffing. There are issues in health that are, certainly in some areas of indigenous health, almost intractable and which their government and this one has extreme difficulties with. However, it is clear to me that in the last few years of their time in government, they did take their eye off the ball and resolvable issues became worse. It is no coincidence that that coincided with the tenure of the member for Drysdale as minister for Health, a man whose ministerial career could be defined by those infamous words: ‘For presentation purposes only’. We well know what that meant …
Mr Dunham: Now you are defaming public servants!
Mr STIRLING: It is breathtaking that a political party that opening falsified the outcomes of their budget …
Mr DUNHAM: A point of order, Mr Deputy Speaker! That was not the finding of the PAC. The words ‘for presentation purposes’, as you well know, came from a public servant who you are now saying we should not be defaming. Third, you are straying well and truly away from the censure motion, which is on you, not us.
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER: Ruling on the point of order, my understanding was that was not the conclusion. I ask the minister to rephrase or withdraw that statement.
Mr STIRLING: Mr Deputy Speaker, all of us in this Chamber saw documents that, at the very least, suggested the government was trying to make it look like they were providing an increase in budget …
Members: Withdraw!
Mr STIRLING: … when, in fact, they were not.
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER: Deputy Chief Minister, withdraw that. I believe you said ‘the party’. They were the words you used. I ask you to withdraw it.
Mr STIRLING: If I said ‘the party’, I withdraw that, Mr Deputy Speaker. The fact is we all saw it and we all saw the documentation and the report from the PAC.
It is clear from this censure motion today that the opposition has not learnt anything, and have not picked up on the fact that things are now done differently, and properly, under this government compared with the time they were in. We are an open and transparent government, and we adhere to the correct processes for the appointment of individuals to positions. The position is not a direct appointment position. It is exactly what the shadow minister for Health and the opposition as a whole want the minister to do. I see it sometimes in correspondence from the member for Greatorex, who says: ‘You must intervene in this matter’. One wonders how he saw the role, and he was a minister in the former government, in terms of hands-off. There are things that ministers can do and there are very clearly many things that ministers cannot do. The line is very blurred in the member for Greatorex’s mind in terms of what is proper action for a minister to take and what is most properly a departmental process. We will follow proper process and we will do things properly.
Mr Deputy Speaker, members of this House know that government recently undertook the Bansemer Review of the Health Department. That review revealed practices of employment which were worrying and almost out of control at times. I will quote from the Bansemer Review:
Mr Deputy Speaker, the Public Sector Employment and Management Act prevents a minister from interfering in the employment of particular staff. Section 22(2) states:
employment, including the remuneration of a particular person.
As recently as 10 minutes ago we had the member for Greatorex challenging the Minister for Health, saying, ‘Why don’t you put that bloke back on? Why don’t you bring him back?’ Well, if that is the way you did it, fine. If you did that in open defiance of the Public Sector Employment and Management Act, good luck to you. We have legislation in place, your legislation; your former Chief Minister, Shane Stone, passed that legislation. It is legislation that we supported when it was passed in the early 1990s and it is legislation we support today. We do more than support it; we follow it. We follow it. We respect the rules in place there and they are in place for very good reason: to prevent political interference in what is properly departmental management processes.
Mr Deputy Speaker, the department has advertised three positions to allow a transparent process of selection based on merit, amazingly enough, for the new critical care model in Alice Springs Hospital, and it is part of our commitment to get the best people for the jobs in our hospitals. The position of Head of Emergency Medicine has been advertised along with Head of Anaesthetics and Head of Intensive Care. One of the three heads will be appointed Director of Critical Care Services. We are committed to getting the best people for these important jobs in our hospital system and that means advertising those jobs on the national stage and employing people on - guess what! On merit after a proper selection process.
Through our commitment of $11m for the Alice Springs Hospital ICU-HDU, we will be able to expand these areas and consequently provide the professional environment to attract high quality staff. That raises the other issue that is all a bit intriguing. In budget 2004-05, the health won a substantial increase in funding and much of that increase was spent on hospitals. In fact, health gets a $23.7m increase of which $18.6m is for hospitals and a significant portion of that increase went specifically on the Alice Springs Hospital. The government in fact is streets ahead of the opposition on this front. Since coming to power, we have increased health spending in excess of $100m. Both the previous health minister and this one recognised the issues at Alice Springs Hospital, and they have been systematically addressed. In the 2004-05 budget, there are substantial further increases in funds and that provides evidence of that work.
The censure before us today is a little ironic. In May, the Leader of the Opposition described the Territory as being ‘in ruins’. The member for Katherine described her own town as ‘a war zone’. Now the shadow Health Minister and the members for Araluen and Greatorex describe Alice Springs in derogatory terms and talk that town down in stark contrast to the support and love that the member for Braitling has for the town of Alice Springs and Central Australia generally.
It is, of course, the old Henny Penny. We had a lot of this from the member for Blain before he became the Leader of the Opposition, a lot of this Henny-Penny-the-sky-is-falling-in approach to politics. It seems that it is going to continue. Talk everything down, spread gloom and doom, and sow the seeds of doubt. That is the role, apparently, of opposition. We will not indulge that talking down. We believe in getting on with the job. We have increased funding, we are filling the positions and we are ensuring that the health of the people of Alice Springs is secured.
Mr Deputy Speaker, I move that the question be put.
Members interjecting.
Mr DUNHAM: A point of order, Mr Deputy Speaker!
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER: No, there is no point of order! When the question is put …
Mr DUNHAM: I was invited to speak on several occasions, Mr Deputy Speaker.
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER: No, member for Drysdale. You know that the rules on the question being put mean that there is no debate.
Mr DUNHAM: Oh, gutless!
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER: There is no debate.
Ms CARNEY: A point of order, Mr Deputy Speaker!
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER: No, there is no point of order, I am sorry, member for Araluen.
Ms Carney: Well, the member for Braitling spoke.
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order!
Ms Carney: As a representative from Alice Springs, …
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order!
Ms Carney: …the hospital is in my electorate. I should be heard, Mr Deputy Speaker.
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order! Standing orders, member for Araluen!
Ms Carney: They are gagging us! They are gutless!
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER: Member for Araluen! You are warned.
Ms Carney: We are obviously onto something here and they do not want to hear it. Shame!
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER: Member for Araluen, there is no debate. The question is that the question be now put.
Ms MARTIN: Mr Deputy Speaker, a point of order about the use of the word ‘gutless’ to you by the member for Drysdale.
Members interjecting.
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order! Member for Drysdale, I did not hear that remark. If you made the remark, would you withdraw it, please?
Mr DUNHAM: It is entirely correct that I used the word ‘gutless’ directed at the member for Nhulunbuy, and I withdraw that.
Members interjecting.
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order! Order, please! The question is that the question be now put.
Motion agreed to.
Members interjecting.
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order! The ayes have it. The motion is that the Assembly censure the Minister for Health and the Minister for Central Australia. That is the question.
Motion negatived.
Mr MILLS (Opposition Leader): Madam Speaker, I move that leave of absence be granted to the member for Brennan on medical grounds.
Leave granted.
MOTION
Proposed Censure of Minister for Health
Mr DUNHAM (Drysdale): Madam Speaker, I move that this Assembly censure the Minister for Health and the Minister for Central Australia for his abject failure as a health minister and his inability to convince Territorians that health services in Alice Springs are functioning well.
Mr HENDERSON (Leader of Government Business): Madam Speaker, the government will accept this censure motion for debate under Standing Order 95. It is the most serious motion before the parliament. I ask you to order the cease of the broadcast, and that further questions be placed on the Written Question Paper.
Madam SPEAKER: We will cease Question Time. We are moving into a censure motion. Perhaps the member for Drysdale …
Mr Stirling: Are you going to keep doing it until you get it right?
Mr Dunham: Well, I think it is appropriate …
Madam SPEAKER: Member for Drysdale, I am speaking, thank you. Would you resume your seat and give the camera people the opportunity to move their gear out?
Mr DUNHAM: I am pleased to be able to speak to the …
Madam SPEAKER: Member for Drysdale, I will give you the call in a minute. Just hang on a minute.
Members interjecting.
Mr DUNHAM (Drysdale): Madam Speaker, I am pleased to be able to speak to this motion, because this morning we had a very unusual set of circumstances. During that set of circumstances, my name came up several times regarding my time as Minister for Health. I had hoped that was an invitation for me to have a bit of a yak in this debate. However, it turned out that, having heard from three speakers who supported the government’s position, and only two who supported the position of the people of Alice Springs – we need to know more and we need some answers – debate was abruptly gagged.
So I am pleased to be able to speak to this. If we revisit this morning quickly, we have a minister who is trying to do a little medical operation of his own; that is, to quickly lance the boil and get the patient back out of the ward. What we have here was a minister who provided a mini-statement, and members will know that is 10 minutes his side, and two minutes our side, and the government moved to a censure motion on itself. We had the strange situation where the opposition actually voted against the government censuring itself. We then had the Leader of Government Business calling a division on a vote he won, and we had a situation in which several questions were put to the minister and he failed to answer any of them.
We had the sorry spectacle again this afternoon in Question Time with several questions being put to the minister, which he is unable to answer or does not want to; one or the other. One of the answers is in the Parliamentary Record about the midwives, and we have yet to see the facts of that.
It is important that these matters are put on the public record. It is not good enough for the government to say: ‘You are knocking Alice Springs. You are knocking public servants. This is a matter that is out of bounds and cannot be discussed’. This is a matter for the business of this House, and it is a sad indictment on the government that it cannot produce enough by way of public statement and public comment that is in the realm for people to participate in and that has enough veracity that it will satisfy members of the opposition. It certainly does not satisfy the citizens of Alice Springs.
I was in Alice Springs when this paper hit the street, the Centralian Advocate of Friday, 4 June, with the banner headline ‘Hospital crisis: intensive care closes’; sub-headline ‘Minister says: “It’s open”’. There have been speakers in the censure motion this morning, including the member for Braitling, who claimed that there is great offence taken at any comment by the opposition relating to problems in the hospital. I can tell you that there is a lot of umbrage at the current minister. I heard from many Alice Springs people while I was down there about this problem with their hospital.
There are certain things we can agree on. We can agree that there is a problem at Alice Springs Hospital. We can agree that the government has tried valiantly to put some money into fixing problems, but these are not necessarily money problems. We can agree that there is a role for the bureaucracy, the department and the public service, and a role for ministers and politicians. However, it is a little hypocritical for the government to be talking about ‘We are really worried that people’s names will be used and the deceased’s relatives will be worried’. If people did a short excursion back into the Parliamentary Record, they will see how the now Leader of Government Business used to operate. He used people’s names quite frequently; a cystic fibrosis sufferer, for instance, he called on me to send south; eminent doctors talking about the medical approach, its sufficiency and its appropriateness; we had numerous occasions where he talked about pregnant women being unable to deliver at Royal Darwin Hospital and having to be sent south because of the Y2K scare, for one. All of these things turned out to be nonsense.
Do not come in here and tell us about oppositions that use scare tactics in a wrongful way to worry people about a precious monopoly essential service. We know it happens, because you did it. This opposition is in the position of saying these are the issues. We have not talked about clients of the hospital, we have talked about process. While the minister might quite conveniently hide behind the fact that there are several millions of dollars out there - $2m, I believe, this year, and several over four years – the fact is …
Dr Toyne: Eleven.
Mr DUNHAM: Eleven! Let us call it $11m over four years. First you are being presumptuous enough to say that you are in government for two terms and with matters such as this, you should be very careful of making that assumption. The second thing is that some of these things are not fixed with money. These are not fixed with money because you cannot say: ‘We are going to build an oncology unit and there is the money in the budget for it’. Do you know why? Because you cannot get oncologists and you cannot get the critical mass to keep them skilled and you cannot keep the staff to keep all the machinery going. So when you make promises like that and say we have the cash, we have the wherewithal and we will do it, you will find, as with oncology, you are going to have to say: ‘Look there has been a bit of a muck up; actually, we cannot do that’, and that is what is happening here. You are too focussed on bean counters saying: ‘We have a problem: here’s the cash.’ Some of the problems at the Alice Springs Hospital are not merely fixed by cash. They are fixed by people concerned, people involving themselves and analysing the problems, people admitting there is a problem, for god’s sake, and people commencing on solution trails.
We have a minister who (a) does not want to involve himself in the process; (b) does not even admit there is a problem; and (c) if there are any solutions, it is the community does not agree with you, it is a CLP doing shroud waving, the cash is in the budget, the cheque is in the mail, I will still love you in the morning. Quite frankly, people do not believe you. People do not believe that you or, alternatively, your alter ego, the department, are able to fix this because you are not admitting the fundamental problem. There is a problem. So let’s get past some of this noise you have been making this morning and start to do a bit of definition.
You answered some questions this morning. Minister, was this a lie in the paper? No, because there are three categories of intensive care and there is a high dependency unit, and blah, blah, blah and we went from one to two so I was told by the boss it was okay. The second part of the question was: why did you, in the next paper, say you were wrong? In the next paper, why did you fess up and say: ‘Look I was actually right there and I said I was right and the next paper when I said I was wrong, I was still right there’. You are all over the place, mate. People cannot understand the words coming out of your mouth and in any event, they do not believe them.
Let’s get down to what is the problem, don’t play cutesy with: ‘Oh you are talking about an intensivist and I was talking about anaesthetists and anyway you had the same problem and 26 years of neglect’ and all that sort of palaver. I do not like criticising matters relating to any of our hospitals here in the Northern Territory. I hate it because for the vast preponderance of our population, they have no choice but to attend those hospitals. For most of our population, if you live in Tennant Creek, Alice Springs, Katherine, Nhulunbuy, Darwin, if you have a calamity, in all likelihood you will go through the front doors of one of those hospitals, and you want to have confidence in it. You want to be assured that the people treating you are competent, skilled and resourced.
So do not try to run this debate that we are trying to walk away from it. We are running the debate on your competence. You could not divulge this afternoon in Question Time how the lies to the paper were perpetrated. The question about incubation in Accident and Emergency you could not understand and told us that you would get back to us. The 10 midwives you believe is not a problem because it is not a problem today. The question was: there is a shift coming up and the next shift may not have as many midwives in it; in fact it could be 10. It is all very well for you to stand here and rattle off everyone who ever won a prize in the Finke Desert race, but this is important to people. I am not saying the Finke Desert Race is not, but it pales in to insignificance if you are a pregnant woman in Alice Springs and you want to know if there is enough midwifery service. I suggest that all that time standing in the dust and handing over trophies and all that, good! I am glad you had a good weekend.
Next weekend, go and have a look at the hospital. Have a talk to some people. I have great admiration for Tarun Weeramanthri. I have great admiration for some of his predecessors who went down there. One of them was a fellow named Dr Alan Walker. Dr Alan Walker has been here for decades and is a household name in this place. He told, in a briefing to three of my colleagues from Alice Springs, that the intensive care unit was ‘dangerous’.
That was parleyed to the minister, so do not think that we are saying: ‘Look, this is a problem that has just occurred and we going to take some sort of political advantage out of this.’ You had Don Parker go down there when we tried to tell you some of the problems and he came back to the minister and said: ‘Here is the plan.’ We had the previous Minister for Health telling us that there was a plan and it was all going to be fixed. We now have plans that move into the next several years. Well, we want it fixed now. It is no good to say to us not-so-clever people on this side: ‘We are advertising in these hard-to-recruit categories. You have to go around the world to find these people. And yes, there are two in Alice Springs and, yes, they are competent and, yes, they are doing the job, but gosh, we cannot go plugging them in. That would be silly; that would be a criminal offence’. It might be for you, but the question still remains, wouldn’t you think, that if it is hard to recruit someone with specialist medical skills from around the world, and you have one living in Alice next door to the hospital, wouldn’t some bright spark say: ‘I have an idea. Why don’t we put that person in that job?’
Okay, maybe that is tricky. Maybe that is a bureaurecratic conundrum for the people who put the ads out, I do not know, but I would not have thought it was a problem. I would have thought it was a solution. I thought what was being offered to you was: ‘Here is a way through this that might be helpful.’ For you to make gratuitous comments about the merit principle, and you have to make sure the right person fits the job is quite defamatory towards those people, I suggest to you. I suggest that by saying: ‘Oh, we have to make sure that they are up to speed’, if I were Elizabeth Mowatt, I would have smoke coming out of my ears when I read some of the things you were saying. You have to address this.
The other problem is about staff going to the media. I was a health minister and I know it happened; it will always happen. The point is these people are trained in confidentiality. They are powerfully trained in the necessity to ensure that things that are divulged are only divulged to people who need to know. It is a very rare circumstance for people to divulge histories, medical circumstances and processes in the hospital that are matters of policy to the media. It is very rare for them to do it. The fact that they are doing it should send a signal to you.
You are the government that promised whistle-blower legislation. Your Chief Minister said: ‘We want to make sure these people can stand up, divulge all this stuff for the benefit of the community and their workplace and suffer no hardship’. People are a bit worried about this because there is a convention of payback with this government. There is a convention of vindictiveness, vitriol and vengeance and they will work to pay back.
There are some brave people who have put their hands up and divulged this. It is not within their ethic to do so. It is absolutely abhorrent that you would go to the bottom of this whole episode and say this is industrial action because the ASMOF, the Australian Salaried Medical Officers’ Federation, told you that they were concerned that Dr Mowatt was being ill-considered for the job for which she was admirably qualified. For you just to dismiss this as industrial action is pretty damned stupid, I would have thought.
Get away from that and get back to the main issues. Forget calling us Henny Penny. Forget the fact that these headlines have occurred and there is some kind of collusion between us and a very pliant media, which is nonsense. The media are hearing exactly the same things we are, and so is Erwin Chlanda. It would be pretty foolhardy for a minister to make the assumption that we in opposition are able to muster confused nurses, a foolish media and various other people in an attempt to denigrate the hospital for no other reason than to garner votes. That is a stupid notion.
That was pretty much the proposition that you have put to us. This is not a good issue to trivialise. This is an issue that you have got to put right up the top. I want you to look at it as a Health Minister who is trying to fix the system; and you will find – surprise, surprise! - that so is everyone else. There are lots of people who have worked in health. My colleague, the shadow, is a former nurse who worked in the acute system. The deputy leader is a former doctor who has worked in the very place you have talked about. We have people on the other side who have worked in various medical institutions. This is something on which we should be strongly in agreement.
First, admit you have a problem, then start fixing it. For you to run issues like: ‘Don’t name people because it causes them great offence’, have a look at what you did a mere three or four years ago in the run up to the election. ‘Do not run industrial campaigns up against the election’. Gosh! That looks remarkably similar to what happened before. Do not pretend, just because you put money in your budget, ‘Oh, and by the way, do not spend it often’, that you have fixed a problem.
Do not run issues of: ‘How dare Dunham speak to this because he was the one who had a budget for presentation purposes’. The quote ‘presentation purposes’ comes from a gentleman named Mr Clarke, who was the Under Treasurer at the time, and for you to stand here and say you can never denigrate public servants, or attack them, it has never been seen in this House, that attack that keeps being posed in this House is a direct attack on the former Under Treasurer because they were his words, and it was a matter that the Parliamentary Record will show, through the PAC report, that there was no finding of fraud, of misappropriation, various other things that were said by the Chief Minister when she censured us prematurely.
In fact, the oft-read memo from which the Leader of Government Business quotes Mr Bartholomew, in answer in Hansard and in the transcript, shows that he was the only person of that view. The entire public service had a different view from Paul Bartholomew, and yet we keep having it trotted out as a problem. You also had a situation with the Chief Executive Officer, Mr Paul Bartholomew, presented an annual report within two weeks of that report, which was much fuller, made none of those comments, and gave the minister a total clearance on the finances of the Department of Health and Community Services. So blaming the CLP is not going to work.
The other thing I thought was pretty quaint was the way that you stood up, patted yourself on the back and said you were the first one to do anything about it. Well, I hope in the debate we hear from the previous Health Minister because if you are the first to walk in over the last couple of months to fix this, one wonders what has been happening over the last couple of years, and one wonders why you are so dismissive of the efforts of your predecessor who, whatever people might have said about her at the time, seems to have been making a great effort compared to yourself. I would be a little bit careful about clamouring with self-congratulations too early, my friend.
I feel I must mention the contribution in the previous debate of the Speaker. I do not think …
Madam SPEAKER: Excuse me, member for Drysdale, you mean the member for Braitling. Do not confuse it.
Mr DUNHAM: Member for Braitling.
Madam SPEAKER: Thank you.
Mr DUNHAM: I do not think there is a Westminster system that has a Speaker - rarely do they participate in debates, but a censure motion is quite rare. Not only is it quite rare, I suggest maybe on one hand you could count it. I also suggest that the intemperate language that was used is something that the member for Braitling may regret, given that she has to wear two hats. Saying: ‘How dare you criticise! How dare you talk about Alice Springs Hospital! It is all a political plot’, well, it ain’t.
What you have to do is start adhering to process. You have to start to divulge things to us. For instance, you say there is no problem with midwives because I am telling you. There are no problems with the coronial because I am telling you. How do we know? Because I have had an independent person within my department looking at it.
It is not good enough, minister. You have to be able to provide for this parliament undisputable, evidentiary, powerful, independent advice that says everything is okay, and in the absence of that, there will be continuing anecdotal advice to the contrary. Your statistical devices are going to have to get better, you are going to have to get away from the emotional blaming rhetoric that has continued with this sort of debate, particularly blaming issues of several decades ago.
Let us focus on the problems at this hospital. The censure motion calls on you to provide fulsome advice. Now, you have had a couple of shots at this. You had a shot in a mini-statement this morning that you knew would go pretty much undebated. You had a censure motion that you brought on in a valiant attempt to catch us unawares, which it did not. You then tried to gag it because you knew that there was a series of members who were happy to speak, including all of the local Alice Springs members, all of whom were invited to speak, I might add. In the absence of anything other than Estimates questions coming up, it is imperative that you lay on the public record exactly what is going on in this hospital. This is not the only one.
One of the problems that you have down there is that you have focussed so much on the acute system that you have eroded the community system. You have eroded preventative and private health initiatives and public health initiatives.
Dr Toyne: Oh, I see.
Mr DUNHAM: Well, you have. Your private health initiatives are about nil, your public health budget’s been cut, and preventative health is some little accessory that is tucked somewhere in the department. You have focussed entirely on this end of the spectrum, and you are doing it at your peril because you are working on a treatmental rather than a preventative paradigm. I have told you that before.
This is a problem of your creation. This problem is entirely your problem. We need to stand up, lay your hand on your heart and tell us that you are doing something to fix it. Do not I stand up and say: ‘I told you all before, it is all a CLP plot, no one agrees with you, you are going to lose votes by this strategy’. Tell us what is happening at the hospital, tell us how many anaesthetists there are. On behalf of my colleague, the shadow minister for Health, I did some press at Christmas time about anaesthetists. This is not a new issue; this is several months old.
You mount the body of evidence, okay? It is really important that you do so because, as we have heard from my colleague, the member for Greatorex, in the previous censure motion, there had previously been this vague understanding that first you had to mount a case for running a censure motion. We saw the bizarre circumstance this morning where, in the absence of any such case, the government moved that a censure motion should occur. I have never seen anything like it. It is a pleading of guilt, if I can borrow a phrase from my legal colleagues. Basically, you come into this parliament on the first occasion, fallen on your sword and said: ‘We are guilty; mount a censure motion against us. Hit me, hit me. Then, when it is all over we can all go home and forget about it because it is all finished’.
That did not work and, instead of lancing the boil, you have a carbuncle. You have a serious problem. You have not said sorry, by the way. All of this intensive care stuff you say is concerning the community, tell them the straight story. If you are wrong, say sorry to them, and people will understand that. Your answer this morning of: ‘There are several categories and we were shifting from one to another’, and ‘I was right, the leader was right, and the paper was wrong’, nobody believes that, mate. Here is your chance before Estimates when you are going to have to answer this in great detail. We want to know what is happening in Alice Springs Hospital. We want to know why it is in such schtuck. Do not pretend it had anything to do with your predecessor, the member for Nightcliff, or even myself.
Yes, it is good to see community spokesmen coming out and defending the hospital. I am sure you will find they did that when you and your party mounted unsubstantiated attacks on the hospital as well. However, let us focus on the problem here, and make the assumption that we are trying to help you. We have great confidence in Tarun Weeramanthri; we have great confidence in the coroner. We are not saying anything about that. What we are saying is: do not make assumptions that, because you have had a look and you think it is tickety-boo, you can stand up in parliament and say: ‘Do not worry, I have had a look. I am a clever man and you are not, so it is all fixed’.
The allegations of political affiliation with staff must also be challenged. All of us know staff in these hospitals. Every one of us has friends or family working in them. That is a good thing for the minister; I would hope that he has affiliations with staff. The word ‘political’ has a negative connotation, but I hope you have lots of contacts who will come and tell you: ‘Toynie, there is a problem. That thing you said in the paper is a problem. I saw you on TV. It is actually not like that. Those people in head office and those people in Darwin …’, listen to all that. The connection with staff is not a bad thing; it is a great thing. They may only have part of the picture, I agree, but for God’s sake, do not stop listening to them. Do not make some assumption that it is a political trick because a lot of these people’s politics often is to make things better where they live. If it makes the health system better, that is the entire start and finish of their politics. Do not assume it is any sort of tribal thing that we exercise in this place.
I will probably leave it there, Madam Speaker. However, I will say that, if you do want to go back into the past at any time, I am happy to have that debate. If you want to argue where you are going in the future, please strip it of all this rhetoric about money: 75 new nurses, here is the cash. We all know that you can put the cash out there and, if the positions are not filled, the cash goes back to Treasury. What we want to see is what you are doing with the money, not the fact that you have the cash, not the fact that it is in the bank. Your managerial capacity with cash is entirely suspicious in any event, given that the Mid-Year Report on the budget to the end year report shows a difference of $50m. While you have some very quaint and plausible explanations for that, I suggest that running a debate how money is fixing up the system is not going to do you any good.
Run a debate about what you are actually doing there and try to give some surety to those people who use that hospital as the only monopoly essential service that is available to them and let’s have a little bit of a cooler temperament. Instead of using the ‘Henny Penny’ political ‘You-are-all-a-pack-of-liars’ argument, you have another chance for a re-run because you mucked up the censure, you mucked up the mini statement and you mucked up Question Time. If you jump to your feet now and you give us the answers to some of those questions, perhaps it will put things right.
Mr Ah Kit: You could not even use your full 20.
Dr TOYNE (Health): Madam Speaker, the member for Arnhem got it in one. I have been sitting here patiently waiting for something new that we need to deal with that was not dealt with in the first censure, and as sanctimonious lectures go, it is right up there with the best that I have ever had the misfortune to hear. This is the man who, on 22 September 2000, when he was faced with a far more severe situation than he is claiming exists now ‘Staff shortage hits hospital’:
The ANF then had a big meeting at the hospital and passed the following resolutions:
What did the great crusader do about that, Madam Speaker? What did the great crusader do about this dire situation in the year 2000?
So on the one hand, he is extolling that I go in there and get hands on and start finding these staff and pushing them through there, but when it happened in his day, oh, no! It is a matter for management; nothing to do me. I am just the minister for visits for the hospitals.
This is the man who prevailed over a hospital that had vastly fewer staff than the hospital has right now, who had two reports that I am aware of, 1999 and I think early 2001 was the second one, or late 2000 - I could get the date for you - on critical care in the Alice Springs Hospital pointing out inadequate levels of staffing. What did this great paragon of virtue who wants to give me a lecture today, what did he do about it? He did zip! Nothing. We ended up inheriting an emergency department that needed to be built up in staff; we ended up inheriting half of an ICU staffing allocation. All of those issues have been taken on board and have been dealt with.
You can say: ‘It is easy enough to put money there but you have to get the people’. You did not even put the money there. There were no budget decisions in your time to fix the problems that you have suddenly discovered as so urgent for the Alice Springs Hospital.
I can tell you that not only do we have the money in place here, but we also have fiscal and management practices in the department that will allow government decisions to have enough traction in the actual operations of the health system as a whole, and this hospital in particular, to effect the government initiative without the slippage that was going on, without the distortions that were being introduced by decisions that were being made willy-nilly throughout the health system at the time prior to Bansemer and were very clearly identified in the Bansemer Report. The Bansemer Report dealt with the era of the health department that you oversaw. So do not you talk to me about …
Mr Dunham: Read it again!
Dr TOYNE: … how to run a bloody health department.
Madam SPEAKER: Member for Drysdale, you have had your turn.
Dr TOYNE: I will set my own directions on that.
Mr Dunham: He is directing his comments to me, Madam Speaker.
Madam SPEAKER: Minister for Health, speak to me.
Dr TOYNE: Madam Speaker, yes, sorry. I have just turned to you, Madam Speaker. There are issues that have been raised, and the only new one I have picked up since the censure this morning is the midwives at Alice Springs Hospital. I repeat: there are 28.2 positions full-time equivalent. They are 0.5 down at the moment. The positions are secure until August, all current positions.
Where are the allegations coming from? Management at the hospital is unaware of 10 midwives going to leave. What we are looking at here is yet another of these furphies that the member for Port Darwin and others have been scattering around. What does that add up to? What it adds up to is a direct attack on the public standing of that hospital, public confidence in the hospital by the Alice Springs community and we are seeing more of this talking down process that they are quite happy to go along with.
Okay, you keep going, and we will see what the impact is down there in the community. I know what the impact was when I talked to the many people I met at the Finke Desert Race and elsewhere around the place. You are going to pay a big price if you want to keep going on this sort of line unless you get you facts straight and come in here with some real case to answer rather than some half-baked allegations that you have picked up from someone and you are quite happy to run with for opportunistic reasons.
Mr Dunham: Five minutes! There you go.
Dr TOYNE: That is it, and that is all it deserved.
Ms CARTER (Port Darwin): Goodness me! Sorry, Madam Speaker, I had no idea the minister would be all finished in five minutes on this important topic.
It saddens me to stand and speak on these matters, as we have watched the slow and steady decline of services at Alice Springs Hospital over the last seven or eight months, however it is our duty, as members of parliament, to report on these issues. We refuse to wear the emperor’s new clothes, unlike others in this Chamber. It is disappointing to hear from others in this Chamber, and I cast my net widely with that statement, who insist on wearing the emperor’s new clothes and insist on trying to tell Territorians, and Centralians in particular, that all is well at their hospital when, in fact, we have staff going to the media, the CLP, to anyone who will listen and telling us all that things are not well at Alice Springs Hospital …
Ms Carney: You have to do something about that.
Ms CARTER: …and that things need to be done - correct, member for Araluen.
We have a new Minister for Health, and we have a new Minister for Community Services. The previous minister was sacked. We all expected things to improve. They have not improved. They have, arguably, become worse. One has to ask what on earth is going on. One of the constant facts, though, across the board, is that we do still have the same senior management within the Department of Health and Community Services, so perhaps the ministers need to be looking into that area.
I reflect back on a couple of months ago when the Minister for Health and I had a little tte--tte on the radio about one of our hospitals. His comment was that he is sick of the member for Port Darwin going on and on about Royal Darwin Hospital and Alice Springs Hospital because apparently, according to him, there are other places in the Northern Territory that have problems with their health services.
Of course I am aware of that, but it is my duty to go on and on about health services, particularly in our major hospitals when there are problems because when you have problems in hospitals, they are significant. They impact dramatically on the health care being provided to people, particularly people with acute problems.
It is my belief that this minister is tired. It is my knowledge that he did want to quit and the end of this term, but he was told by the Chief Minister he was not allowed to quit. So after he let that little one slip out to the media, he immediately had to retract it. Now he desperately has to pretend to Territorians that this is all he really wants to do: be the Minister for Health.
To my mind, he is taking his eye of the ball. He is letting Territorians, and people with health problems in particular, down, but also, sadly, he is letting down health staff. The CLP opposition applauds the efforts of staff at Alice Springs Hospital for all that they have been doing over the months to try to keep the service going as best they can. In particular, we have seen deterioration in the provision of anaesthetic services.
The minister loves to split hairs here. I notice from his media release that he issued today he is going on and on again about intensivists, and that we are bagging the situation that he cannot recruit an intensivist. We are not going on about that at all. I have never gone on about that. I go on specifically about anaesthetists. Anaesthetists provide the basic service. If they have had experience in intensive care, if they have special training in intensive care, then they can become intensivists, but their basic skill is anaesthetics, which is the ability to sedate a patient, to put them on a ventilator, and to keep them in that condition while things are being done for them as their health improves. That is the skill of an anaesthetist. They are required in the operating theatres, and they are required in intensive care units for ventilation of patients in particular. That is what I have been going on about for months and months. I have been talking about anaesthetists, a basic hospital service, which is, sadly, lacking at Alice Springs Hospital. You know it has been lacking, and I know it has been lacking.
When you won the election you inherited a hospital at Alice Springs with six anaesthetists on the staff. Now they are down to one or two, which is a significant drop in staffing, the end result being that these people are overworked and under stress, so it is going to be hard for you to even keep those ones.
What has been going on there, as I mentioned this morning in the censure, I went through in considerable detail, has been very well chronicled in the press. You, and others, say that it is the CLP beating up this situation and that we should be ashamed of ourselves for talking negatively about Alice Springs Hospital. Conversely, I say: shame on you, and shame on others who say that. To my mind, you are trying to wear the emperor’s new clothes, pretending that everything is fine. It is not fine. It is not us who are going constantly to the press about these matters. There has been a steady reporting of issues by the press over the last 12 months in particular.
One of the issues that really stunned me when I heard, late last year, of the problems that were occurring at Alice Springs Hospitals with regard to recruiting and retaining anaesthetists, was a letter in the Centralian Advocate from Dr Lightfoot. You could feel the frustration in his letter. Here was he, and his wife, both medical officers, he is an anaesthetist prepared to work for two years at Alice Springs Hospital, to make that commitment – here is a doctor prepared to do that, to bring another doctor with him, and he got mucked around by the department, mucked around by management and, for some strange reason, which I notice the minister in two efforts today has not managed to touch on, still we do not know what on earth went wrong with the recruitment of Dr Lightfoot. In the end, he was so frustrated that he wrote a letter to the Centralian Advocate.
I can tell you that no doctor, no health professional would do a thing like that lightly because they know full well that it puts a black mark possibly against their name for future recruitment in other areas; it tags them as a stirrer, as a naughty person; and I am quite sure that this man would have really anguished over whether or not he would put his name to a letter such as that. But, good on him, he did it, and he flagged to all Territorians by doing that some of the problems that have been occurring at Alice Springs Hospital.
A short time after that, the AMA brought to our attention the fact that now things are so desperate at Alice Springs Hospital for an anaesthetist – I am not mentioning the word ‘intensivist’ here –that we are having to send patients who normally would have very basic surgery, which is what cataract surgery is, interstate to have their operations. We all know full well that for people who have eyes sight problems like cataracts, who come perhaps from remote communities, and it is my view that these women probably did, the stress that would have been caused to them, instead of having the operation done in a hospital with which they are familiar, they have been bundled interstate because Alice Springs Hospital could not provide an anaesthetist for what is, essentially, comparatively, a reasonably simple and basic operation. That was early this year.
What has caused the problem? As I said earlier, it was a refusal by Alice Springs Hospital to pay the going rate for anaesthetists. The minister again has not touched on this topic, except to say now, in the last week or so on the radio, that we are going - future tense - to pay the going rate for anaesthetists. This problem has been compounded by management not paying the going rate.
I wonder why it is that management cannot pay the going rate at Alice Springs Hospital for anaesthetists. You only have to look at this year’s health budget to see the reason. This year’s health budget has blown out by at least $30m. Some would argue by $50m. Let us just say it has blown out by $30m.
Ms Carney: Only $30m!
Ms CARTER: Only $30m, which they did not know about in February, because in February the prediction was only $6m. Then, about 10 to 12 weeks later, suddenly it is $30m. This will be the pressure that has been going on for the management. I do feel sorry for them at Alice Springs Hospital for the pressure that has been on them not to spend money. The end result has been: ‘Come and work at Alice Springs Hospital, we have fascinating cases here. The Territory has some major problems in the area of health and you will see some very interesting cases’. The word ‘challenges’ is constantly used in adverts for staff to come and work in the Northern Territory: ‘Come and enjoy the challenges of working in the Northern Territory’.
If you are an anaesthetist, the last thing you are really looking for is challenges. You would like to work at a hospital, I will guarantee you, where there is a good chance that you will have some sound back-up. That is what you want if you are an anaesthetist. You do not want to be appearing in the Coroner’s court or some other legal situation because you did not have the right back-up. If I were an anaesthetist looking at the word ‘challenges’ in ads, I would be twitching and checking up on the situation.
Anyway, the end result has been the $2000 per day anaesthetic contracts going out to locums. The minister constantly refers to the fact: ‘Oh no, do not you worry about that. We have locums coming in’. Well, a locum here and a locum there. I do not think that is very comforting to people, to think that we do not have permanent staff in the unit.
I cannot understand why these positions, such as the emergency physician in Alice Springs Hospital, and a set number of anaesthetics, are not permanent positions. It is difficult to recruit to these. We all can see that there is a shortage of these specialist positions in Australia; we all concede that. You need to recruit people and to make them feel confident so that they do not have to be worrying about where they are going to get their next job in 18 months time because all you could do was give them a two-year contract. Given that we now have this growing problem with locating specialist skills, let us think a little bit more – I do not even think it is creative; it is just sensible. Let us be sensible and make some of these core positions permanent. Staff around the country, when their contracts have six months left to run, start to sniff around for where they may go. Further, if you are only coming in for two years, why on earth would you buy a house? Why would you make permanent roots into a community if there is a chance you might get the flick in two years time? Minister, I put it to you that you and your department should be looking seriously at increasing the number of permanent positions within the ranks of specialist staff so that we can encourage these people to stay.
During the year, it has also been very concerning to read stories from the AMA – not the CLP, but the AMA – a group I gather are reasonably respected within the community. They certainly used to be respected by the then Labor opposition whenever they wanted to run a story about the then CLP government. Now we have the AMA raising concerns about the workload for junior doctors at the hospital. We have the AMA raising concerns about the employment of Dr Liz Mowatt, the Emergency Physician at Alice Springs Hospital. We constantly hear from the AMA about the lack of anaesthetists at Alice Springs Hospital. But no, the AMA is bagged as being politically organised. That is a shameful slur from the minister to say on radio that he wants to hear a more balanced view and not just a comment from a group who have themselves ‘politically organised’. Of course, they are organised. The AMA is an organisation whose job it is to protect and look after the interests of doctors, their members, and good on them for doing it. Shame on you for slurring them for having a go. It was interesting that a number of the things the AMA raised, he did have a great deal of trouble refuting.
With regard to the closing of the ICU, I think we all made our point there. One minute it is open, the next minute it is closed. It raised serious concerns today when the minister explained to the House during Question Time that, no, there are now different categories of ICU. There are advanced categories and not so advanced categories. Services that used to be provided obviously are not going to be provided any more and, dare I say it, the reason for that is we do not have enough anaesthetists - I did not say intensivists – working at Alice Springs Hospital so we can no longer provide the standard of care, the full range of care for ventilated patients care. We are going to have to send those people either interstate or to Darwin when we need to, which is not something that hospital staff will be looking forward to because it is not an easy transfer to make when you are having to ventilate someone and send them thousands of kilometres to find a proper bed.
The minister also made comment today about this changing status of intensive care at Alice Springs, but the staff also appear confused. The staff do not know what sort of intensive care unit they have. Obviously the minister needs to do a little bit of education in his hospital to let the staff know what the differences are between one sort of intensive care unit and another. The staff are obviously running to the newspaper, which is his beef – how dare they? –and say to the newspaper the intensive care unit has been shut. Naughty staff! They obviously got it wrong. We still have an intensive care unit, but it does not have any patients in it because they are all down in the emergency department when they are on a ventilator. So yes, it is open, but only for very basic low level cases, apparently, which I would argue is not an intensive care unit; it is in fact a high dependence unit. It is not an intensive care unit. You should fess up and admit that that is what has happened, or at least undertake staff development so that you can erase their confusion as to what sort of intensive care unit they now have operating in their hospital.
It has been of great concern to the opposition to see staff members from the hospital going to the press. I have been chided by Madam Speaker in the media. I have been chided by the Minister for Health in the media on this issue. Both are accusing the CLP of deliberately stirring up the issues in Alice Springs Hospital when in fact apparently what we should do is shut up and keep quiet. Everyone seems to forget that we are employed to do this. It is our job to hold a government accountable.
Members interjecting.
Ms CARTER: This is our job. We are doing our job. Here is a headline from the Centralian Advocate of Friday, 11 June 2004: ‘Hospital deaths: call for inquest’. Now, we did not do that, and it says quite clearly: ‘staff fears as crisis deepens’. We did not call for that at all. Sure, I was phoned by the reporter and asked do you think they should have been referred to the Coroner. Oh, my God, I said yes. What an appalling thing for me to say! Then in my media release on the same issue, I said that it may well be that these patients would have died anyway. That is what I said. That was it …
Ms Carney interjecting
Ms CARTER: … said these patients may have well have died anyway, however, because staff have gone to the media, the minister should do something about it and facilitate a coronial, at least getting the Coroner to have a look at the issues. That is all I said. If staff are so concerned that they have gone to the media, this is a serious situation indeed.
Ms Carney: It speaks volumes. Two local members in Alice Springs think it does not mean much.
Ms CARTER: Yes, and that is a shame, member for Araluen. It flags to me that something is seriously wrong. That is all it does, and that is how the CLP has responded. It has flagged to us that something is wrong and things should be looked at. We are not the ones running to the media; we respond when issues have been raised, but we have not been running to the media.
In respect of the midwifery ward, which is another issue that has arisen over the last few days, it is a fact, and a minister needs to do his homework quickly, that the end of the roster that is currently running - and rosters run for four weeks - 10 of the midwives at Alice Springs Hospital are leaving. Probably the reason they are leaving is that they are contract midwives and they need to go and get a job somewhere. They need to have work.
Because they have been in limbo - will I or won’t I have a job? - they are leaving. It is another indication of this minister not being able to deliver and ensure good health services at Alice Springs. It is another indication of this minister failing to keep his eye on the ball with regards to health services in Alice Springs. Once again, Madam Speaker, the CLP opposition calls on this minister to do his job and if he cannot do it, step side.
Mr HENDERSON (Leader of Government Business): Madam Speaker, I will be relatively brief, given that this debate has been going round and round the parliament for most of the day.
I would like to start by placing on the record absolutely categorically that the Chief Minister, the Cabinet, the Caucus on this side of the House have absolute 100% total confidence in our Health minister and the great job that he is doing working with Cabinet and government colleagues to rebuild our health system.
There is no doubt, as with any health system, that there are pressures, issues and problems with recruiting specialist staff, particularly in remote and regional parts of Australia. These issues have been around for many years, and they are not something, as someone said earlier today, that came to fruition in the Northern Territory in August 2001 when the government changed.
There is enough corporate knowledge and history about Alice Springs Hospital on the other side of the House to be fully aware of the issues and challenges of recruiting staff. The difference is that, unlike the previous government that never fundamentally addressed those issues by financing the hospital with a budget to recruit those staff, since we came to government, we have allocated over $100m additional to the health budget and this has, to a large extent, gone to recruiting additional staff across our health system, particularly the hospital system.
In the budget this year, at the high dependence unit at Alice Springs Hospital, 37 extra staff have been funded with an additional $11m of funds over the next few years. This minister and this government are addressing the fundamental structural problems facing our hospitals, but we do not deny that there are problems with recruiting specialist staff to Central Australia, to Darwin, the Northern Territory and Australia as a whole.
On the issue of why we gave the opposition the opportunity this morning, notwithstanding the feigned outrage of members opposite about what an outrageous abuse of parliamentary practice and privilege, to bring on the censure motion that had been foreshadowed, we as a government take allegations about the quality of care being provided at Alice Springs Hospital with the utmost seriousness.
When you have the Leader of the Opposition in the media yesterday, a media release issued today, in the media again this morning saying that we are, as a matter of priority, going to bring a censure motion on the Health Minister, as we always say, Madam Speaker, and when the opposition was in government, they always said a censure motion is the most serious item of business that you can bring before the House. The censure motion essentially seeks to move that this House has no confidence in the minister against whom the motion is moved to administer his or her portfolio.
We were not going to leave that issue hanging over the head of the parliament when it had been foreshadowed by the Leader of the Opposition that he wanted to debate it. There is no other issue that is more important for this Assembly to debate, given the fact that the Leader of the Opposition had flagged it. My motion to suspend standing orders after the ministerial report by my colleague, the Health Minister, explaining what was happening, provided the opportunity to bring on the motion to censure.
Why the Leader of the Opposition and members opposite should be so outraged that we would present them with an opportunity to bring this motion on is absolutely astounding. We had three members opposite arguing, no, we should not do it now, we should do it after lunch, and the Leader of the Opposition trying desperately to rein in some sort of discipline into those opposite, finally pulled rank and managed to get the motion up. That was the reason I moved the motion to suspend standing orders and bring it on. It was hanging over the head of this parliament, that a minister in government had a cloud over his ability to administer the department, and the immediate opportunity after he had delivered his ministerial report to bring that debate on to clear the air, and for the Assembly to judge the question that was before it.
Mr Mills: That is patent nonsense. It was just a stunt.
Mr HENDERSON: It was so - the Leader of the Opposition says it was a stunt. This is where he is coming from. This issue was so important that they have been running for a couple of weeks now, so important, could the Leader of the Opposition and members opposite even divide on their own censure motion? No. You could not even divide and put your names on the Parliamentary Record to support your own censure motion. I think it would be almost unprecedented. It would be almost unprecedented that your own censure motion, you cannot even muster the wherewithal to actually put it on the line and have your names recorded in the Parliamentary Record on your own motion of no confidence in the Health minister, an absolute Keystone Cops performance …
Mr Baldwin: It was your motion, you idiot!
Mr HENDERSON: … by the Leader of the Opposition. It is good to see the member for Daly still here because he is a man with a great work rate, Madam Speaker, a man with a great work rate. This is a shadow minister of the Crown who, in six months, has issued three media releases. In six months, not one question in the parliament, and trapezes in here trying to explain what has been going on in the House. He would not know what day it was, the member for Daly. You just would not know, you do not put in, you are lazy, and it is no wonder you are off and you have voted with your feet.
The motion that we put was that so much that standing orders be suspended as would prevent the Leader of the Opposition moving a censure motion, giving you the opportunity to put your censure motion, which you did, and it was ultimately voted down on the voices. You could not even be bothered to divide on your own censure motion, which must be a first for this parliament.
This is a government that is acknowledging the problems, putting the funding in place that should go a long way to resolving some of those issues in terms of recruiting extra staff to Alice Springs, and the attack on the public standing of the hospital does members on the other side no credit whatsoever. The attack on the quality of the care that is provided by the great staff of that hospital absolutely does them no credit.
Cabinet was down in Alice Springs last week. As business minister, I get out talk to business people in Alice Springs all the time. Comments from business people in Alice Springs were that they were absolutely appalled at the ongoing and sustained attack on the quality of care that Alice Springs Hospital provides. There is one very specific example. I am not going to name the business …
Members interjecting.
Madam SPEAKER: Order!
Mr HENDERSON: Madam Speaker, you would the business that I am talking about, the person was absolutely appalled, outraged and ropable that he virtually had two new recruits for the business lined up, staff to come in from interstate. We all know how hard it is to recruit from interstate to positions not only in Alice Springs but across the Northern Territory. Because of the media reports that were running on the supposed absence of quality of care at Alice Springs Hospital, the business lost these two staff and the opportunity for them to come to Alice Springs because they had an asthmatic child, and they were concerned that the child would not receive quality of care.
This is the type of dangerous repercussions there are from the stuff you are running. That business operator, who is well respected and regarded in Alice Springs, is absolutely outraged at the unwarranted and sustained attacks on the quality of care at the hospital.
There is no doubt that there are pressures. There always have been and there probably always will be as long as Australia has a shortage of specialist staff. However, the commitment from government is there: 37 additional staff funded for the high dependency unit and an additional $11m in the budget. The ongoing attacks on senior administration and management in Territory Health Services is unprecedented. As my colleague, the Treasurer, said this morning, attacks against the CEO and management staff is unprecedented, and woe betide if they ever …
Members interjecting.
Mr HENDERSON: … the 14 000 public servants will be shaking in their boots because the call from members opposite is that my colleague, the Health Minister, should trapeze in, pick his mates, put people into jobs in the public service, bypass the Public Sector Employment and Management Act …
Members interjecting.
Mr HENDERSON: … direct ministerial appointment into the public service. That may have been the way that you guys did it, but we abide by process, the legislation, and the merit principle as opposed to the mates principle that bedevilled the previous government. We have total confidence in the Health Minister and the job that he is doing.
Madam Speaker, I move that the question be put.
Motion agreed to.
Madam SPEAKER: The question now is that the motion of censure be agreed to.
Motion negatived.
Mr HENDERSON (Leader of Government Business): Madam Speaker, I move that -
STATEMENT BY SPEAKER
Death of Mr Djerrkura OAM
Madam SPEAKER: Honourable members, it is with deep regret that I advise you of the death on 26 May 2004 of Mr Djerrkura OAM, an elder of the Wanguri clan in East Arnhem Land and a former ATSIC Chairman. On completion of the motion, I ask honourable members to observe one minute’s silence as a mark of respect. I call upon the Chief Minister.
Ms MARTIN (Chief Minister)(by leave): Madam Speaker, I move that this Assembly express its deep regret at the death of Mr Djerrkura OAM, an elder of the Wanguri clan in East Arnhem Land and a former ATSIC Chairman, and place on record its appreciation of his contribution to the advancement of Aboriginal people and to the Northern Territory, and tenders its profound sympathy to his family.
In moving this motion of condolence for Mr Djerrkura, late of Yirrkala, we express deep regret at the passing of one of the Territory’s most respected advocates of indigenous economic development. Over recent decades, Territorians have played an important role in national affairs, proportionately well beyond our population size. The late Mr Djerrkura was one of those players on the national scene, as well as giving great service to the people of the Territory.
Mr Djerrkura was born in 1949 at Yirrkala into the Wanguri clan and, after leaving school, received further education in Brisbane and Adelaide. Since the 1980s, his work has reached the highest offices in the nation. He was the first Aboriginal Area Officer in the old Department of Aboriginal Affairs and received an OAM in 1984 for his work. He became Deputy Chairman of the Aboriginal Development Commission and an inaugural Director of Aboriginal Hostels. He was General Manager of Yirrkala Business Enterprises for a decade from 1986, and Chairman of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commercial Development Corporation from 1990 to 1996. In that year, he became Chairman of ATSIC, a position in which he served with distinction for three years. During that period, he had to transverse controversial changes including the Howard government’s amendments to Native Title legislation.
In the early 1990s, Mr Djerrkura was appointed to the board of the Henry Walker Group, an unprecedented honour for an indigenous person to a major resource company. While chairing ATSIC, Mr Djerrkura was a member of the Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation and was an enthusiastic supporter of the council’s objectives. He was also, during this time, a director on the board of the Indigenous Land Corporation. He served as a member of the board of the National Australia Day Council, a director on the board of Ausflag and on the board of Land Enterprise Australia.
Mr Djerrkura also served the people of the Northern Territory. Notably, this has included his role as the Chairman of the Batchelor Institute of Indigenous Tertiary Education Council and as a member of the Northern Territory Territorian Awards Committee. Most recently, he was Chairman of the Arnhem Regional Development Board. This recent appointment was recognition of the leading role he has played over many years in Aboriginal economic development. Indeed, it could be argued that this issue was one that dominated his working career. He saw economic development for indigenous Territorians as the path way out of poverty and welfare dependence and associated social ills that go with it.
We mark today in this Assembly the loss of a man whose influence spread far beyond the Wanguri clan estates of north-east Arnhem Land and the community of Yirrkala. He will always be remembered as a great Territorian. He was a proud yet gentle man, and all who worked with him will remember him for his infectious laugh and his capacity to work along side people from many different social, political and cultural backgrounds.
He saw with extraordinary clarity that the way forward for his people was to roll back the tide of dispossession and actively work towards indigenous Territorians leading safe, productive and happy lives. We all know that this was no small ambition and remains a huge task for the future; a future we should all work towards in honour and memory of Mr Djerrkura and so many like him who have worked towards this goal.
Madam Speaker, on behalf of the people of the Northern Territory and behalf of the Northern Territory government, I extend our condolences to Mr Djerrkura’s family, to his children Damien, Fiona and Nathan, and, of course, to Jenny, to members of the Wanguri clan and indeed to all people of north-east Arnhem Land.
Mr MILLS (Opposition Leader): Madam Speaker, I support the condolence motion for this senior Aboriginal leader from the Wanguri clan, Mr Djerrkura.
It is with sadness that I must make the additional comment with regards to the actions that have visited this Chamber with an offence to the memory of a fallen leader taken in his prime. Common decency would direct our attentions as parliamentarians to pay respect to the condolence motion, but instead we have a government that chooses to pull a clever stunt with the intention of outsmarting the opposition.
Government has been caught in their own trap. This government has been shown for what it is: driven by self-interest and will gladly walk with hypocrisy and arrogance on their way to score a political point at any cost. Events this morning saw this condolence motion re-scheduled so that government, in its cleverness, could pull some kind of stunt. I find that deeply regretful.
Mr Ah Kit: You are doing exactly what you are arguing against. Cut out the politics. Get on with it.
Madam SPEAKER: Order!
Mr MILLS: I can say that I did not share a special friendship with Mr Djerrkura, though I had met him on a couple of occasions. I distinctly remember the conversations that we had. In my position now as Leader of the Opposition, I was looking forward to further discussions with Mr Djerrkura and to advance issues of concern to myself and the party I represent.
It is incumbent upon me to express the shared feeling of great loss from this side of the House for a man who represented so many Territorians and Australians, a man who was sadly taken before his time. It is not often in this House that we move a condolence motion for those who have not served as MLAs, but it is fitting that this tribute be recorded in Hansard for future Territorians to understand the impact that Mr Djerrkura had on the Territory, his home and his people.
Born into the Wanguri clan in East Arnhem Land, Mr Djerrkura was an imposing figure, with many people who knew him describing his overwhelming presence when in his company.
His first major public recognition occurred when he was awarded the medal in the General Division of the Order of Australia, OAM, in 1984 for service to the Aboriginal community at the age of just 34. At the time of his passing, the father of three held a number of high profile positions, including Director of the Board of the Indigenous Land Corporation, Chairman of the Batchelor Institute of Indigenous Tertiary Education Council, member of the Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation, and board member of the national Australia Day Council.
He was also formerly General Manager of Yirrkala Business Enterprises, Chairman of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commercial Development Corporation and a Director of the Henry Walker Group. Indeed, his business skills and progressive approach to economic development were recognised at all levels of both the private and public sectors. From the council meeting rooms in Yirrkala to the board rooms of Sydney and Melbourne, Mr Djerrkura was one of the talented men of our time who succeeded in keeping a foot in both camps.
As long-time friend Bob Collins remarked last week, his knowledge of both the Aboriginal and Balanda ways and the methods he used for achieving outcomes were well known and respected both at community level and at the highest forums of business and politics in the country.
This is evident from the many tributes that flowed, since we learnt of his passing two weeks ago, from a wide range of business and political quarters not least of which was the Prime Minister, Mr John Howard. His passing was reported in the New York Times, such was the impact that he made upon our generation.
I was privileged to attend a farewell ceremony at Yirrkala on Sunday, which was attended by representatives of the federal parliament, including Minister Vanstone. There was a range of representation from both sides of politics, from the federal and Territory parliaments, and those who have known him for many years. They all came together at Yirrkala to farewell this man.
What emerged as a stand-out characteristic at that service was his approach, an approach that was typified by patience, trust - and there were a number of references to whether trust was betrayed, but nonetheless, trust endured, won out and got him much farther in dealing with issues than would have been achieved had a different approach been applied. His calmness and capacity to calm difficult negotiations also emerged.
I came away from the service with a greater understanding of the challenges faced by men such as Mr Djerrkura. With his passing, we are faced with the same challenge: to continue his work. In effect, the baton now must be passed, the work must be continued. The idea of reconciliation, as I understood it from the memorial service, is not so much an issue of ideology, politics or power; it is a matter of the heart and an attitude of mind, and it was typified by his manner and approach. There were many speakers who referred to that, and I learnt so much about how he dealt with matters to progress the issue of reconciliation.
Despite his great presence, as a diplomat, his leadership was not uncontroversial. Last year, he resigned from his position as Chairman of an Arnhem Land regional council and, more recently, only 10 days before his passing, he penned an article in the Canberra Times that challenged the government regarding the dismantling of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission, even though he recognised that the organisation had failings.
Regardless of how political viewpoints may differ, I am sure most members of this House would agree that ATSIC was a different organisation when Mr Djerrkura was at the helm, and I am sure that his years as chairman between 1996 and 1999 will be remembered as that organisation’s strongest. There is also no doubt that contributing to his success as chair of ATSIC was his enormous gift as an engaging diplomat and true representative of his people.
Our collective regret should be that he did not make it into this place because there can be no doubt that Mr Djerrkura, with all due respect to the current member, would have not only admirably represented the people of Arnhem but, in addition, shone brightly as a stand-out leader amongst us. His desire to represent his people was not snuffed out by the lost opportunity to warm a seat here. Indeed, in some ways, Mr Djerrkura probably found the road a lot harder at a national and international level as a representative of indigenous Australians as a whole, rather than only Yolngu people. The voyage on which he embarked was strengthened by his attraction to the conservative side of politics, which has been more simply described by others as Mr Djerrkura devoting his life to being a bridge builder.
This approach to politics saw him become a Life Member of the Country Liberal Party, a membership that, although sometimes was made tough owing to external pressures, was unquestionably cherished by him. The fact that he left us at the age of 54, in similar circumstances to two former members of this House who were fellow Aboriginal leaders and statesmen, has, in the space of just over a decade, robbed us of three of the greatest examples of traditional Aboriginal men bridging the great divide and making a difference.
As Leader of the Opposition, it strengthens my resolve to continue to contribute to whatever future policies can be implemented to address the lower than average life expectancy rates amongst Aboriginal men in particular. This is just one of the many reasons why members on this side of the House mourn today, because although we currently have traditional Aboriginal people on the other side of this Chamber, we have lost an opportunity with Mr Djerrkura’s passing to bring balance in political views.
As the leader of the Country Liberal Party in the Northern Territory, I will continue to ensure that we are a party that wholeheartedly embraces any traditional Aboriginal person wanting to join the conservative side of politics because I know that is what Mr Djerrkura would have wanted.
In many ways, Mr Djerrkura allowed himself to be an open example for reconciliation, as a guide or insight for mainstream Australians into the way traditional Aboriginal people view their culture. I think at times in the Territory we possibly take that view for granted, and I am sure we could all share experiences where our relatives and friends in southern states struggle to understand particular issues because they have never really come into contact with traditional Aboriginal people or their culture.
Madam Speaker, Mr Djerrkura attempted on more than a few occasions to break down this barrier from his own side, to allow mainstream Australia to experience traditional culture, even when it broke through his own traditional boundaries. This included inviting the Prime Minister to Yirrkala in 1998 during his time as ATSIC Chairman, a period when he felt that the responsibility sat squarely on his broad shoulders to give the Prime Minister a first-hand personal insight into Aboriginal culture.
It extended even further when he allowed public access into his private life by inviting film crews and two federal ministers to view a traditional ceremony involving his son. The negative reaction to the events that occurred at the ceremony shocked Mr Djerrkura because, whether or not you agreed with the nature of the ceremony, he obviously felt the importance of involving non-Aboriginal people in his culture outweighed his family’s privacy.
At the time, it was reported, sadly, that the attempt he made at trying to bring greater understanding in some ways served only to highlight the lack of it. Members would understand why he took it personally, saying that he was very annoyed, disgusted and a bit disappointed by the lack of sensitivity that was applied. He went on to say:
These stories illustrate that not only did this man possess a burning desire to teach and allow non-Aboriginal people access to previously misunderstood cultural practices, but the enormous passion and dignity with which he carried himself. Many Aboriginal leaders in this country, including many great Territorians, have travelled this path before, opening the door for non-Aboriginal people to have a peek at traditional culture in an attempt to understand it. Mr Djerrkura took it one step further; invited us over the threshold and asked us to join him at his table.
In closing, Madam Speaker, Mr Djerrkura will be remembered for many things but, above all, for his contribution to the betterment of Aboriginal Australians. He was a man at the forefront of creating job opportunities for young Aboriginal Territorians, and I admired and respected his great depth and passion. No matter what political stance he had taken at various times, Mr Djerrkura’s views were always considered, challenging and, most importantly, full of hope. As a staunch Republican, Mr Djerrkura’s final words, in his last article only weeks ago, truly reflected his approach:
Said Mr Djerrkura:
He said:
Madam Speaker, I, too, share the dream of this senior Aboriginal leader from the Wanguri clan, Mr Djerrkura. The Country Liberal Party mourns his passing and extends its deepest sympathies to his family at this time. The opposition supports the motion.
Mr STIRLING (Treasurer): Madam Speaker, Mr Djerrkura was a special person. He was a big man, intensely proud and carried his leadership with a great deal of dignity. He was one of a handful of traditional indigenous Australians to be able to walk the board rooms of corporate Australia with the same confidence and competence that he could lead an intricate traditional Yolngu ceremony, and he was an extremely important ceremonial leader in north-east Arnhem Land. Significantly, the leaders I put into that category have all come from north-east Arnhem Land.
He had three driving passions. The first was indigenous affairs generally, indigenous economic development, and indigenous governance particularly. He rose to the top as Chairman of ATSIC, a position he filled with distinction. Territorians and Australians alike took great pride in the fact that here was a traditional indigenous man filling the most important advocacy role for his people in the whole of the country. We could take comfort that here was a man who understood, from first-hand experience, the disadvantages of indigenous Territorians in remote communities in health, housing, education and employment.
His second lifelong passion was indigenous health and he led Miwatj Health, based in Nhulunbuy, with that same sense of purpose of doing the absolute best for he could for his people as he had done with ATSIC.
His other abiding interest was education and training and he served as Chairman of the Batchelor Institute of Indigenous Tertiary Education for many years.
I knew him as friend and as an indigenous leader for 25 years, but it was a friendship that, at one point, was damaged irrevocably for a significant period. Over the past two years, we were brought together again through the same central themes that drove most of his life. His work with health, with Batchelor and education, and his interest in regional governance were three of the areas that gave us common ground. Just a few months ago, we sat together for seven hours at the memorial service for Mr Munungguritj, a service in which he performed the role of Master of Ceremonies. I sat to his immediate right and we shared much throughout those seven hours on that day. Jenny and I began to travel, at his invitation, to his much beloved homeland of Buymarr, but always on condition, Madam Speaker, that we dropped excess fish back to him at his house at Yirrkala, which we were pleased to do.
He had a special relationship with his daughter, Fiona, and she spent more and more time with him over the past few months. It was appropriate that Fiona and her daughter, his grandchild, Shikera, were with him for much of his last day in Gove Hospital. In fact, Fiona left the room in the hospital for just 15 minutes to return to find that he had passed away peacefully. He was a man who doted on his children and grandchildren, who should have had years to look forward to with grand kids on the knee. That will not happen, as it will not happen for many of his countrymen. The issue of life expectancy for indigenous Australians has to remain among the highest priorities for all governments.
Sunday’s memorial service was a wonderful and emotional occasion; it was full of stories of his life. Many federal and Northern Territory members were in attendance, along with hundreds of Yolngu and Balanda from far and wide.
My thoughts are with Damien, Fiona, Nathan and his grandchildren as they go through this sad time. Jenny has been an absolute wonderful support to her children, as has Wali Wunugungmurra, Galarrwuy and Greg Smith. Greg Smith was a very close friend of Mr Djerrkura and he was MC for the service, a difficult and challenging job for a very close friend, but one he carried out with great distinction.
There is no doubt that this man’s strength and dignity has carried forward into his children and it will help them throughout this time, as it did on Sunday. The traditional ceremony continues throughout this week, with burial next Sunday. The legacy he has left us lies in the central themes of his life: regional indigenous governance, indigenous health and education. His life inspires me to continue to do whatever I can as a member of parliament to continue his work.
There is just one note of discord in this whole sad matter, Madam Speaker, and that is the situation with the media. I understand that news travels very fast. In fact, in the hours immediately following his passing, Jenny and I took dozens and dozens of phone calls from all over Australia seeking confirmation that his passing was indeed fact. There were perhaps 80 or 100 people outside the hospital for those immediate hours following Mr Djerrkura’s passing. One old man, Wirilma from Yirrkala, asked me to ensure that the media did not break this news before many extended family members - and they extend over hundreds of kilometres of north-east Arnhem Land - were informed.
It was an impossible ask because our phones, as I said, were ringing with people from Queensland to Canberra to all parts of the country, and it was, surely only going to be a matter of time, which indeed it was, before ABC announced it. However, it is something that sticks in the throats of the Yolngu people, that the media take ownership of an issue and break this news despite the fact that many family members would not have known at that time. I do not blame ABC. He was a public figure, a very important man. They had heard the news and they would see that as the national broadcaster, or indeed any broadcaster, that they had a responsibility to announce it.
I ask the media, though, in circumstances such as these that they apply a little bit of common sense, a little bit of politeness and just hold off at least for a few hours because many family members will hold that bitterness about hearing it on the news or other people hearing it on the news and coming to tell them before they had heard from family members.
It was something I lived through with the passing of the former member for Arnhem. I well recall the great distress and upset when many people heard that on radio before family had the chance to get the news around. I do not want to finish on that note. As I said, I don’t blame ABC. They would have a view that if they didn’t run the story, another outlet would. No doubt that is true, but I do make an appeal to all media in situations such as these to show some manners and hold off at least for some time until word is able to get to family in the traditional manner.
I share the views of the Leader of the Opposition. His work does inspire me to do whatever I can in all of those areas that were important to him. The legacy is there to follow. He leaves an enormous hole in indigenous leadership and, most importantly, for the Yolngu at the local level in north-east Arnhem Land, an absolutely gaping hole in the case of attention to detail and ceremonial leadership, something for which he was very famous.
Dr LIM (Greatorex): Madam Speaker, I would like to add a few words to this condolence motion for Mr Djerrkura. I will not repeat what has been said by the Leader of the Opposition about the things that Mr Djerrkura achieved in his short life.
That he was a conscientious and forceful representative, there can be no doubt. He was such a person for his people, whether he was talking about issues within his own community or native title, especially during his term as Chair of ATSIC.
A man like Mr Djerrkura obviously was able to walk in two worlds: the world of Aboriginal culture and the mainstream world with which he dealt so effectively. He fought for real outcomes for Aboriginal people, and I understand he managed the walk the tightrope of political and cultural divide in which he was immersed every day of his life.
My connection with Mr Djerrkura was in his role as Chairman of Batchelor College, which then became Batchelor Institute of Tertiary Education. Every time I attended one of the graduation ceremonies or any other times that Batchelor Institute hosted a function or event, Mr Djerrkura was there. He pushed so very hard for real educational outcomes for Aboriginal people, something that had to be witnessed. Obviously, from his own background, being educated at a missionary school at Yirrkala, then going to Brisbane Christian College had an impact on his own development and his personal beliefs as to how Aboriginal people in the Territory can make a real life for themselves. Education is the one big step that Aboriginal people can strive for to achieve their rightful place in a society in which we should all be sharing equally.
With a man like Mr Djerrkura as a role model, there is a way of encouraging indigenous people in the Territory to follow in his footsteps. A man of his stature is obviously one who is very difficult to replace. A man with great cultural significance in his own community will be very difficult to find, but let us hope that one day, the community of Yirrkala will find somebody who will walk in the footsteps of this very respected man in the Territory’s community.
My personal relationship with Mr Djerrkura was not very deep. We were two – I suppose we can call him a politician – politicians who knew each other in passing and had a mutual interest in education for Aboriginal people. That is where our relationship really stopped.
I extend my deepest condolences to his family, to his three children, Damian, Fiona and Nathan, and to the community in general, but especially to the people of Yirrkala who will surely now feel greatly impacted by his passing.
Mr AH KIT (Community Development): Madam Speaker, I support this motion of condolence for Mr Djerrkura, late of Yirrkala. It was a deep shock to learn of the death of this great Territorian. There is no doubt that his passing is a great loss to us all.
Mr Djerrkura was born at Yirrkala in 1949, the only boy of a family of nine children, and a member of the Wanguri clan of north-east Arnhem Land. His death at the age of 54 was a great loss to his family, his clansmen and the people of north-east Arnhem Land. He was an important leader in that region but, as many others have noted, his influence extended far beyond the areas of his homelands. As has also been noted, Mr Djerrkura had very strong convictions about the importance of economic development for the advancement of indigenous people throughout the nation, but his was not a one-dimensional approach.
For him, education for his people was at the heart of his strategic thinking about the future, and in this, he followed in the footsteps of the Yolngu leaders who were involved with the creation of the 1963 Bark Petition. These Yolngu leaders, having failed to prevent the bauxite miners coming on to their traditional lands, adopted a deliberate strategy of selecting their youngest and brightest and sending them away for an education. The reason for this was clear: future generations should be conversant with the ways and knowledge of Balanda people, as well as with their traditional knowledge systems.
Mr Djerrkura, along with his cousin, Galarrwuy Yunupingu, Braywar Munungurr and Richard Banambi, were sent to Bible College in Brisbane. After his return, Mr Djerrkura was sent south again, this time to be an inaugural student at the South Australian Institute of Technology’s Aboriginal Task Force. He graduated with a Certificate in Community Development. He also graduated with a lifelong passion for learning and a commitment to educational opportunities to be extended to all.
There have been many times, over a glass or two of red, that Mr Djerrkura would sit around with us and encourage argument, debate and discussions about the future. Education was always at the core of his ideas about that future. For many years until his death, Mr Djerrkura was the Chairperson of the Council of the Batchelor Institute of Indigenous Education. In many ways, I believe that, of all the honours bestowed upon him and roles he undertook, it was this job that he enjoyed the most. To see him at Batchelor graduations was to see him at his happiest. It was almost as if he had personally taught each graduate, and each and every person who succeeded at Batchelor was a source of pride to him. I know for sure that his passing will be felt intensely by the staff and students of Batchelor.
For myself, I was born only a year after him, and there are ways in which I have followed in his footsteps over the years. Our paths have crossed on many occasions. I attended the same task force behind Mr Djerrkura, and graduated with similar qualifications. I had a number of dealings with him when I worked at the Northern Land Council and he was managing Yirrkala Business Enterprises. Again, his focus in this period was on the training opportunities YBE offered to the Yolngu people as he built it up from a pretty moribund organisation to a $4m-a-year enterprise employing more than 60 people.
In the early 1990s, he was an instrumental figure in the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commercial Development Corporation, and that body’s relationship with the Jawoyn Association. In the first instance, that was in providing loans to the Jawoyn to buy a share in Nitmiluk Tours, which was established in partnership with Werner Sarney from Travel North. At the same time, we lobbied hard with the ATSIC Commercial Development Corporation to provide support for the Mirrkworlk Joint Venture, which was established at Mt Todd following a successful mining agreement the Jawoyn people had negotiated with Pegasus Mining Company. The Mirrkworlk Joint Venture had a role to play in mining and carting ore to the crushers.
In negotiations with the Jawoyn, Mr Djerrkura was quite blunt in relating to the Jawoyn that he would only be really in favour of supporting one business enterprise. As it was, he saw that both of them were important enterprises, and the Jawoyn were successful in having them both supported. In fact, 12 months later, with the Nitmiluk Tours joint venture, the Jawoyn had found a way to go to the banks and proposed to the ATSIC Commercial Development Corporation that the Jawoyn buy out their share. Whilst Mr Djerrkura saw what the Jawoyn wanted to do and had advice from his senior advisors that it was not the support that should be provided to the Jawoyn, he nevertheless approved of the Jawoyn going it alone and buying out ATSIC Commercial Development Corporation’s part of the business deal.
As Chairperson also of ATSIC between 1996 and 1999, Mr Djerrkura maintained a warm relationship with the Jawoyn people, helping them to launch their five-year plan in 1997, and always had an open door when Jawoyn people visited Canberra during those days. I am sure that Robert Lee and the Jawoyn people would also want to add their condolences as part of this motion.
As the Chief Minister mentioned earlier, it was a privilege and an honour to appoint Mr Djerrkura to the East Arnhem Regional Development Board, an appointment that was widely welcomed at the time. It is sad that his time has been too short to contribute his wisdom and experience to that body. He came as head of a delegation, and gave a presentation about regional governance, and I certainly hope to continue to work with East Arnhem leaders to development a partnership so that we can move that region forward similar to Nyirranggulung-Mardrulk-Ngadberre in Katherine East, with Thamarrurr in the Port Keats area, and as we have done with the Tiwi Islands Local Government Council.
I attended the ceremony at Wukidi Ceremonial Shelter at Yirrkala on Sunday, along with the Chief Minister, Deputy Chief Minister, Leader of the Opposition and many politicians from down south. I must reiterate what the member for Nhulunbuy said about MC-ing of the occasion. It went for almost three hours and Greg Smith, who was very close to Mr Djerrkura, did a wonderful job in being able to carry those three hours and present a very moving memorial service.
We heard some great stories from speakers such as Reverend Wally Fawell, and Reverend Bernie Clark talk about the very young days when they spotted the talent in Mr Djerrkura. They spoke about the training that they provided to him because training went, obviously, two ways; many of the missionaries in those days were learning about the Yolngu Matha.
One of the reverends spoke about his training to become a MAF airlines attendant, to do the bookings and the ticketing, and how proud he was to walk around in the MAF uniform back when he was quite young. There was a messages read out by Baraywa Mununggurr. The Chief Minister spoke, as did Senator Vanstone, Lionel Quartermaine, and myself.
However, I thought the words that Rosalie Kunoth-Monks, who is the Deputy Chair of Batchelor, were just wonderful. She described him as an Aboriginal leader who made her feel very proud of who she was. She referred to the way he walked tall and dignified, and I thought she was able to encompass all the lovely platitudes made about him during the memorial service.
Veronica Arbon, the Director, spoke in glowing terms. Klaus Helms from Alcan, Graeme Maymuru from Miwatj Health and Ann-Marie Quinn were close in regards to his most recent job, the CEO of the Miwatj Health Service. It was a wonderful service.
I pick up on the Leader of the Opposition when he quoted Mr Djerrkura’s vision about reconciliation, to walk hand in hand, side by side. Many people understood his vision and heard it often, but it is something we need to take note of, and I would like to think that many people came away from that service understanding that there was an overall message, a theme that regardless of what political leanings Mr Djerrkura had, at the end of the day he was concerned about his people’s rights, he was concerned about economic development and especially indigenous economic development, and if you were not trained and geared to handle that type of development, then you needed education and training. He was a great leader.
I extend condolences to Jenny and Damien, Fiona and Nathan and all his wonderful grandchildren. We have definitely lost an important man and a great Territorian, and I just hope people go away and think about the wonderful times that they had with him, that infectious smile, that wry grin and that sort of hearty chuckle, and understand what he was on about with his vision so that we can work towards that because if we do, we will one day, hopefully, have reconciliation happening on equal terms, which will allow us to achieve that vision. The light at the end of the tunnel is going to make us a much better country.
Mr ELFERINK (Macdonnell): Madam Speaker, it is important that I rise to speak to this motion. I have had, over the past few years, quite a bit to do with Mr Djerrkura on a personal level because I have sought his advice on numerous issues.
One of the things I understood was central to the way he viewed the world was that he once referred to the ‘virtue of work’ when I was speaking to him. He saw it as a virtue not only that it was a source of income, but it was a source of dignity and pride, and that any person who had meaningful work was not only paid but was elevated by the process; empowered and lifted beyond where they originally were.
Mr Djerrkura understood that particularly well. That was where his belief and enterprise came from; he knew full well as a result of his education, as well as the fact that he was a very clever man, that Aboriginal people would be elevated out of their current circumstances not by a government policy, not by some sort of arrangement that was going to be brought about by some bureaucracy, but by individuals on the ground at that level, and that people who engaged in work were people who were going to elevate themselves not only financially, but morally, spiritually and emotionally because work touches on all of those areas. It is our raison d’etre. It is the reason that we should get out of bed in the morning and it is certainly something that Mr Djerrkura understood.
While I was listening to honourable members, I was trying very hard to remember a line – and I think I almost remember it now – from a speech by Martin Luther King. I am not drawing a comparison between Mr King and Mr Djerrkura; Mr Djerrkura stands in his own right. He doesn’t need to be compared with anyone. However, when Mr King went to the mountain top and came down, he made a speech and said that he looked forward to the day when his children in Alabama could sit at the dinning table with white people and no one would notice. Those aren’t the exact words, but the sentiment is there.
I grew up in Darwin and for those of us in this Chamber who grew up in Darwin and went through the school system, and I believe it would be true anywhere else in the Territory, the colour barrier was non-existent. It certainly was for me. In fact, I was blithely unaware that there was a colour barrier until I was educated in such matters, and that was well after I reached high school.
Perhaps we change over time and perhaps our minds work in different ways over time, but I remember any number of individuals who were my mates as kids, and I was absolutely unaware that there was any difference at all between us. Perhaps that was what Mr King was talking about and perhaps it was what Mr Djerrkura was looking for: not a denial of his own culture; the fact is that all of this can quite happily co-exist to the point where we simply don’t notice those differences because they are just not that important.
I have heard several members from both sides of the House use the expressions ‘his people’ or ‘our people’ during the motion. I think to myself: ‘Gee whiz, I wish we could take the next step’. Really, the next step is to say something like this – and I do this to honour Mr Djerrkura: ‘I am one of these people. I grew up in the Territory. I have a spiritual bond to the land that we stand on, this House stands on. I have an emotional bond to this place. I love this place’.
To see the passing of somebody like Mr Djerrkura and still hear talk about ‘his people’ and ‘our people’ and those sorts of things, I hope that I am a product of his vision because I am one of his people and I feel a deep sense of loss because I, as a Territorian, have lost a friend and a relative in one sense of the word.
I feel a deep sense of loss. I hope that his legacy to me and to every one else, every other Territorian, is that we can continue quite happily choosing, if you like, to be ignorant of the differences and celebrating those things that make the Territory great today and will make the Territory great into the future.
Mr BONSON (Millner): Madam Speaker, Mr Djerrkura OAM was a friend of my family, in particular, my mother, Rosanne Brennan and her husband, Steve Brennan. Through their relationship, Mr Djerrkura became a friend and role model to me.
Mr Djerrkura was a man of exceptional skills who had the ability to mix with people of all backgrounds, be it business or on a personal level. He was very proud of his traditional background, and made sure that his children were educated in their culture and language. He had the extraordinary ability to step from one culture to another with minimal fuss and in such a way as to make people feel comfortable at all times.
Many people would say that Mr Djerrkura erred on the side of conservatism in relation to the fight for Aboriginal justice and social equality, but nothing could be further from the truth. He believed passionately in the fight for the social, economic and political rights of Aboriginal people, and always made his beliefs known in a quietly spoken and dignified manner without compromising the central thrust of his beliefs and position.
He recognised and enthusiastically supported the importance of education and the need for educational facilities that were sensitive to and supportive of the cultural needs of Aboriginal people. He further acknowledged that for Aboriginal people to perform and be accepted as equal partners in mainstream society, they needed to establish good work practices. He recognised that one of the ways this could be achieved was to encourage Aboriginal people to job share. In pursuit of this outcome, he successfully introduced and implemented such a scheme with the Yirrkala Business Enterprises, YBE, in Nhulunbuy.
Mr Djerrkura was indeed a leader in his own right, and this is recognised by his vast achievements in business, education and health. Some of the positions, and these are by no means exhaustive, were: CEO of Yirrkala Business Enterprises; Chairperson of Northern Aboriginal Investment Corporation; board member of Bilioara Propriety Limited, formerly a 50% joint venturer in Mirambeena Joint Venture, which owned Mirambeena Tourist Resort; Chairperson of Commercial Development Corporation, the commercial arm of ATSIC; Chairperson of Batchelor Institute of Indigenous Tertiary Education; Chairperson of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission; Regional Chair of Miwatj Regional Council; Chairperson of Miwatj Health Board; and CEO of Miwatj Health.
He was a man of strong beliefs and principles, and was never lacking in courage when it was required, as evidenced by his criticism of the federal government when he felt it was needed. He further displayed exceptional courage when he resigned from the position of Regional Chairperson of Miwatj Regional Council, effectively placing himself on the unemployment list, in protest at the federal government’s transfer of funding away from ATSIC.
He was a softly-spoken man with a quiet but imposing dignity. I believe all parliamentarians and Territorians mourn his loss. To Mr Djerrkura’s family, I hope that the recognition he receives today will provide comfort and, in future, create greater family pride in his great achievements We will all miss him dearly.
Mr McADAM (Barkly): Madam Speaker, I, too, would like to pay tribute to Mr Djerrkura. I recall very clearly my first meeting with Mr Djerrkura: it was in Adelaide in 1973. Both of us were students at the inaugural Aboriginal Task Force, along with a host of other indigenous people. At that time, I was struck by Mr Djerrkura’s very quiet, unassuming and dignified manner, and I detected an underlying strength, a determination to succeed and to make a difference.
I had the privilege of getting to know Mr Djerrkura better because we were both boarding at Parkin-Wesley College. Quite often, we would socialise and, occasionally, work together completing our assignments. As indicated earlier, it became clear that Mr Djerrkura was a very determined and studious person. Obviously, on more occasions than not, I would go off and undertake social activities while Mr Djerrkura would remain and complete all his scholastic tasks.
It is important to understand that the Aboriginal Task Force was a pilot program in those days, and it was only meant to last two years. We, as students, were tasked by people like Dr Ross Harris and Lowitja O’Donoghue to develop options in terms of how the Task Force could extend beyond that period. There is absolutely no doubt that Mr Djerrkura’s contribution was significant and played an important role in the Task Force’s development, to the extent that today it probably is Australia’s premier indigenous education institution, particularly for mature-aged indigenous people. Mr Djerrkura’s dedication and commitment to the indigenous cause will remain a source of inspiration and strength to many indigenous and non-indigenous people alike.
As a former ATSIC Chairperson, he remained steadfast against One Nation’s cheap push to marginalise indigenous people, Asian people and good Australians. His sensible approach remained constant and diffused many of the simplistic fundamentalist positions put at that time.
Already, we have heard members talk about his contribution to our society. I would like to refer to his involvement in economic development. There is no doubt that he was a pioneer in respect to indigenous economic development, and I refer, obviously, to his involvement with Yirrkala Business Enterprises, along with his position of Director of ATSIC CDC, and, of course, his involvement with the Henry Walker Group. The member for Arnhem referred to his chairmanship of Batchelor Institute, and it is indicative that he chose to go down this path in respect of making opportunities available for people, both indigenous and non-indigenous, in employment and training. I am not surprised, given his contribution way back in 1973–74.
Mr Djerrkura was a visionary. As I said before, he was dedicated and, most importantly, was committed to enhancing the lives of all Australians. I suppose, my dear brother, if you are out there today, you would probably say to me: ‘I did my best, but I ran out of time’. Well, I say to you that you have not because your contribution, your commitment, will remain an inspiration to us all. I would say that you have taught us well.
In conclusion, Madam Speaker, I extend, on behalf of Barb Shaw, my partner, and, of course, the many people in the Barkly, my condolences to Mr Djerrkura’s children, his family and his friends. We want you all to know that our love and thoughts will remain with you as, indeed, will the memory of Mr Djerrkura.
Madam SPEAKER: I thank honourable members for their sincere contributions to this motion. As a mark of respect, I ask members to remain seated and to observe one minute’s silence.
Members observed one minute’s silence.
Madam SPEAKER: I thank honourable members. I remind honourable members that I will send a bound tribute of this motion to Mr Djerrkura’s family on behalf of all members of the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly with our sincere sympathy.
Continued from 20 May 2004.
Ms MARTIN (Chief Minister): Madam Speaker, it is with much pride that I rise to contribute to this appropriation debate.
Budget 2004-05 delivers tax cuts, more jobs and adds to our great Territory lifestyle. It also delivers the biggest ever infrastructure spend in Territory history, $441m, providing a real stimulus for our economy to create jobs and to keep the Territory moving ahead. This budget also delivers record spending in all the key areas of health, education and police; a record budget to deliver more nurses, teachers and police and better services for Territorians.
Boosting services to Territorians was a key pledge of my government as part of our commitment to build a better Territory for all Territorians. As Chief Minister, I am pleased that this, my government’s third full budget, builds on our achievements and delivers a responsible yet targeted budget, one that has again delivered on our core responsibility of health, education and police and delivering jobs for Territorians.
The $441m infrastructure investment package, which is expected to sustain up to 4000 jobs alone, centres on three key targets: tourism, roads and strategic development projects.
As tourism minister, I am very pleased that a key part of the record infrastructure spending includes a $60m package targeted at tourism infrastructure, roads, facilities in our parks, including key tourism roads. Tourism is a key industry in the Territory. It is our second biggest employer, accounting for about 15% of our work force directly and indirectly. This budget recognises the contribution of this sector to our economy with a record boost to improving facilities and access to our fabulous tourism assets.
The Treasurer has outlined funding allocations for sealing the Mereenie Loop and Litchfield roads. Over 400 000 interstate and international visitors took drive holidays in the Territory last year, up substantially on the previous year, and we believe this is a real growth market. In fact, the international drive market is our fastest growing tourism segment and has grown at a rate of 7.2% a year over the past five years.
The drive market holds great promise for future tourism opportunities and the strategic investment in sealing the Mereenie Loop and Litchfield roads will help lever private sector investment in tourism infrastructure; investments like new accommodation, new tourism product and new commercial activities along both of those roads. Also a key to that, particularly the Mereenie Loop area, are opportunities for the Aboriginal communities along that road.
2004-05 will also see $2.5m spent on a Darwin cruise ship facility. Together with the investment in the Darwin city waterfront, these initiatives will put Darwin on the map, enhancing it as a tourism destination and broadening its role beyond Australia’s northern trading gateway.
In October 2003, my government announced that an additional $27.5m in funding will be provided to the Tourist Commission over the next three years. This funding will be used to best position in the Territory as a tourism destination within Australia, but also to further tap into the overseas market.
On my recent trade mission to China, it is clear that there are markets waiting to be reached. Last year, just 122 tourists came to the Territory from mainland China and we can improve on that. The Territory offers a unique destination for tourists that is exotic, beautiful and safe. We are poised to take advantage of our uniqueness of environment, people and lifestyle.
Accordingly, on top of the $7.5m spent in 2003-04, which included $6m for marketing and $1.5m for tourism development, in the 2004-05 year, a further $7.5m for marketing will be spent and $2.5m for tourism development will be spent. This will be maintained in 2005-06 when a further $7.5m for marketing and another $2.5m for tourism development will be allocated.
My government values tourism as a viable, renewable resource that offers employment opportunities for remote communities, as well as for those in our city and urban centres. The additional $7.5m allocated for marketing this year will include: $1.5m as part of a branding campaign and additional television advertising; $2.25m for destination branding and marketing activities for Uluru, Alice Springs, Kakadu and Darwin; marketing collateral for emerging and developing destinations; public relations activities; support for regional events; industry communication and support strategies; and trade training and familiarisations.
One million dollars will be spent on building block marketing. This means development of evolving television advertisements and niche marketing approaches, including a branding positioning study and brand creative framework, new footage, niche and special interest brochures, a Northern Territory Drive Strategy for Katherine and the Barkly, collateral on indigenous and nature-based product in the international market, familiarisations and marketing campaigns featuring the Territory’s indigenous and nature-based appeal in those international market places.
One million dollars will be spent on cooperative marketing campaigns with airlines. We have increasingly seen the arrival of new airlines and services to the Territory. My government has put a large amount of work into this area. During 2003-04, funding was allocated to establish new aviation services and charter flights with international airlines. Improving international aviation access continues as a priority, and work in this area will be progressed in 2004-05.
Half a million dollars will be spent on cooperative advertising support for Territory-based and national partners, that is for jointly funded advertising opportunities between the Tourist Commission and industry operators. Another $0.5m will be allocated to specific international marketing initiatives, including sponsorship of the ATEC 2005 Symposium in Alice Springs and international web site development. $0.25m will be used to undertake strategic research for advertising tracking, backpacker market research, Destination Australia market alliance research and German market research as examples. Another $0.5m will be spent on business tourism incorporating a familiarisation strategy for domestic buyers, conference support program, the Northern Territory Ambassador Referral Group, upgrade of the web site, purchase of a customised web-based data base and venue survey research.
We are privileged to live in this comparatively pristine environment with extraordinary beauty and striking landscapes. It is important that people who live in those remote locations can have opportunities to participate in the economic benefits brought through tourism. Accordingly, in 2004-05, $2.5m of new money is allocated for tourism development in the areas of indigenous culture and nature-based development. This will include $1.4m that has been set aside for destination development funding for work on mature, developing and emerging Territory holiday destinations that cover indigenous, nature-based and heritage aspects. $300 000 will be used for Tourism Development Fund and Trade Support Scheme grants offered to industry operators.
Mr DUNHAM: A point of order, Mr Deputy Speaker. I draw your attention to the state of the House.
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER: Ring the bells. There is a quorum present. Chief Minister.
Ms MARTIN: As I was saying, $300 000 will be spent developing a tourism development research partnership with Charles Darwin University, $200 000 has been allocated to continue the Tourism Leadership Study Program for key indigenous tourism ventures, which commenced in 2003-04, and $300 000 will be spent on administration of these programs.
This is alongside the ongoing budget allocations that include $17.3m for domestic and international marketing activities, and $4.7m for tourism development, including funding for visitor information services in the Top End, Katherine, Barkly and Central Australia. Tourism is a very important industry in the Territory and my government is demonstrating the strength of its support for the industry through targeted strategic spending that will maximise benefits for all the community.
Alongside delivering tax cuts and more jobs, great lifestyle is the third key element of Budget 2004. The Territory does have a unique and special lifestyle. This budget builds on those things that make the Territory such a great place to live.
As minister for Arts and Museums, I am pleased to say that my government has continued its strong support for the arts and cultural life of the Territory. Funding for festivals has been boosted by $350 000 this year to widen the festival program. Festivals to receive funding include the Festival of Darwin, Desert Song in Alice Springs, the International Guitar Festival and the Garma Festival. The increase of funding will also allow increased indigenous performances through these major and regional festivals. This will benefit not only Territorians by enabling them to see first class talent at home, but also attract visitors from elsewhere looking for an opportunity to visit and enjoy some of the cultural attractions of our creative and diverse community.
The second year of the Indigenous Arts Strategy will build on the programs commenced in 2003-04, particularly in assisting arts centres develop greater employment and training outcomes. Under the Indigenous Arts Strategy and the establishment of a Film, Television and New Media Office, increased project support funding through the arts sponsorship program will support additional indigenous and film projects. These initiatives will benefit the Territory and encourage industry consultation and potential partnerships.
The government’s minor new works program will provide an additional $350 000 towards upgrading facilities at our premier cultural institutions, the Alice Springs Cultural Precinct and Bullocky Point site of Museums and Art Galleries of the Northern Territory, and include improvements to the arts sector accommodation at Frog Hollow.
The Alice Springs Cultural Precinct will use the allocation to improve security at the precinct and upgrade the distribution board at the Strehlow Research Centre. Further upgrades will be completed to the roof on the craft council building located in the precinct. The major project of the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory’s Bullocky Point site will include further upgrades to external lighting and installation of closed circuit television cameras in the public and staff car parks. This will provide additional security not only for the people who visit, but the unique collections of art, science and culture that are housed there.
The arts celebrate our creativity, unique culture, and are an important part of tourism in our region. But Territorians are also people who enjoy sport and the lifestyle that comes from our climate and landscape. As Chief Minister, I am proud of our lifestyle and pleased to say that this year will bring some exciting events enjoyed by all Territorians. The recent V8 Supercars were again a hit, with government continuing to provide $820 000 in support, along with free transport to the circuit. This drawcard event not only provided a weekend of top class entertainment for thousands of Territorians who come from far and wide, but also an event that brings hundreds of visitors to the Territory, and a significant injection into our hospitality and tourism sectors.
$300 000 has been allocated this year to the continuous success of last year’s inaugural contemporary music concert BassInTheGrass. The concerts, held in Darwin and Alice Springs, provide young Territorians and the young at heart with a top class gig comparable to large music concerts interstate.
This year’s Finke Desert Race started and finished on the new start-finish line, and all involved enjoyed new and improved facilities, thanks to an injection of $600 000 earlier this year. That event draws an average of 12 000 spectators each year.
Mr Deputy Speaker, as Chief Minister and Minister for Women’s Affairs, I outline some initiatives in the budget targeted at Territory women. My government has allocated $2.5m within Health’s capital works program for the development of a new birthing centre at Royal Darwin Hospital to enable creation of two low-tech birthing rooms with deep water baths for pain relief, and refurbishment of the existing maternity unit at the hospital, an important initiative that will improve services and support for Territory families.
The Chief Minister’s Study Award for Women will continue in 2004-05, with $20 000 allocated to this important initiative. It will provide a Territory woman $14 000 to undertake a tertiary study program and $6000 for a Territory woman to undertake a vocational study program.
Community Cabinet Women’s Forums have been an initiative of my government that commenced during the current financial year, with further forums planned in 2004-05. This progressive initiative, in association with Community Cabinets, has and will continue to give Territory women the opportunity to meet directly with ministers and raise any issues of concern they have. I was delighted in Alice Springs only last Thursday to have nearly 100 women join me for the forum in Alice Springs.
This government is committed to building to safer communities. Part of that commitment includes targeting programs to address violence in our community. The $1.5m Strong Families, Strong Communities, Strong Futures project under the Domestic Violence and Aboriginal Family Violence Strategies, and funded across government, will be expanded this year into two communities in Central Australia. This brings the total number of participating communities to eight.
This government is pleased to be the first government to ever seriously address itinerancy and antisocial behaviour. We are doing it in a targeted way with a whole-of-government effort and innovative yet practical solutions and strategies. While we are having real success, it is a complex and long-term problem with more to do. This work will continue, and Budget 2004-05 delivers $2.7m on the Community Harmony Strategy and other activities designed to address antisocial behaviour. This amount is in addition to expenditure on capital items of $1.56m for Community Harmony projects, including refurbishment of existing facilities. The Community Harmony project has been particularly successful in addressing itinerant issues, with community leaders and representatives across the Territory working together with government to return 850 people to their homes and country.
My department also has a role in assisting with implementing the call to recruit record rates of police officers, a recommendation of the O’Sullivan Review of Territory police, and a key element of my government’s subsequent $75m Building Our Police Force Plan.
$500 000 has been allocated to my department to deliver the marketing aspects of this campaign. Security and anti-terrorism strategies will continue to be developed through the 2004-05 year by the Territory government in conjunction with Defence and other governments around the country. The Territory’s security is a serious issue treated as a high priority.
It was an election commitment to establish an independent Electoral Commission, and I am proud to say that this is now a reality. My government has created a new commission with additional resources of $265 000 this year to ensure that the electoral system is fair, independent and capable of delivering the best service possible for Territory electors.
Alongside delivering on election commitments, we are a government that continues to listen to the needs of the community. I have allocated $3.9m within the Community Engagement Division of my department to further womens, youth, multicultural and seniors advancement within our communities. We continue to support the various community sectors and organisations within the Territory through $3.5m in grant funding, including $500 000 for three years from 2004-05 to improve ethnic community facilities under the new Multicultural Community Facility Development Program.
Community Cabinets will continue throughout 2004-05 to ensure the government remains in touch with all Territorians, and communities continue to have input into government’s direction. With the addition of the consultative women’s forums, we are making sure that everyone, no matter where they live, can gain direct access to ministers and the working of government.
Nearly one-third of Territorians are indigenous, the majority of whom live outside the main urban centres. There are special needs created by remoteness and geographic distance. The Office of Indigenous Policy has now been firmly established within the department, and has been energetic in facilitating across government coordination on indigenous strategic issues and policies.
My government is committed to enhancing development of the Northern Territory’s parks system, and greater Aboriginal involvement through recognition of Aboriginal cultural values and joint management arrangements, where appropriate, leading to the enhancement of cultural experience in parks and economic development in remote communities. The Chief Minister’s Task Force in Priority Partnerships has been established to provide a focus on the Indigenous Communities Coordination Pilot at Wadeye, and to develop other innovative approaches to coordination of serviced delivery in remote areas of our Territory.
Mr Deputy Speaker, we all know that the Territory is a great place to work. My government will remain focussed on ensuring the best employment opportunities remain possible for Territorians through sustainable economic development and tourism and investment attraction.
Major projects under development by the government will be a key factor in ensuring employment opportunities are available for Territorians. We look forward to some innovative and important projects in the future like, for example, the Darwin city waterfront and convention centre. This year represents the most exciting time for this project as we select the preferred bidder and negotiate the business arrangements. Darwin city waterfront will transform the old industrial port into a world-class development offering the Darwin convention centre as well as tourist, community and residential facilities. $6m in 2004-05 and $100m overall has been allocated to this important project.
But the Territory is moving ahead on a number of economic fronts like the Alcan expansion and the Trans-Territory Pipeline. We are moving rapidly towards a board decision on the expansion of the Gove Alumina Refinery, the Blacktip gas project and the Trans-Territory Pipeline, which connects the two. All up, they represent a potential investment of $2.5bn in extending the economic base of the Territory. While these projects must stand on their commercial and environmental merits, we remain confident that construction will start on all elements through this year, which will see more than 1700 people employed during the expansion phase of the alumina refinery alone.
The innovative Desert Knowledge Precinct in Central Australia will see Alice Springs become a world-class centre for desert expertise. Construction of the Desert Peoples Centre will commence in 2004-05, $15.8m, with a target completion date of mid-2005-06. The shared library, with a commitment of $1.6m, will be commenced and completed in the same timeframe. Design and documentation of the Living Desert, the cultural centre, of $4.4m, and the Desert Knowledge Business Centre at $2.9m, is expected to be completed.
Desert Knowledge Australia was established as a corporation during 2003-04, and $350 000 has been initially set aside to ensure that it is resourced to deliver the precinct and many of its initiatives. Additionally, government continues to provide $150 000 in grants and $1.5m in kind support during the 2004-05 year to the Desert Knowledge Cooperative Research Centre, which, combining resources and knowledge from 28 partners including government, education institutions and other bodies, will also be based at the precinct when complete.
In a similar light, we remain committed to the concept of tropical knowledge and particularly to our partnership with Queensland and Western Australia through the framework agreement signed earlier this year in Darwin. Research capacity in the Territory is yet another firm commitment of our government with $1m in grant funding over the next three years set aside for the Charles Darwin University for such purposes. The Territory is a great place to invest as we move to consolidate the initiatives outlined in my government’s Economic Development Strategy.
Gas on-shore is something that we certainly look forward to. The government continues to work with all the joint venturers and the Australian and East Timorese governments to promote the exploration and exploitation of Timor Sea gas and oil. Production has commenced on the Bayu-Undan project. I travelled to Dili and then out to the platforms in May to take part in the celebrations planned for this historic event.
This tremendous project, at $5.5bn, will be the largest private sector investment ever made in the Territory. Employment on the project will rise to more than 1000 next year, with $230m in contracts already written with Territory companies. In the next month or so, work will commence in Darwin Harbour on laying the 500 km pipeline from Wickham Point to the Bayu-Undan field. This is truly an exciting time for the Territory.
Development of the Blacktip field is linked to the expansion of the Alcan Alumina Refinery in Gove. Considerable work is currently underway by Woodside and Eni to be in a position to sign a gas sales agreement later this year. At Woodside’s 50th birthday event held recently in Darwin, I was pleased to hear Charles B Goode, the Chairman of Woodside, talk about using this project as a hub to consolidate the other fields in the Bonaparte Gulf. Sunrise Projects joint venture partners are working cooperatively to market Sunrise gas in many markets including Japan, Korea and the US and, while it is early days, we remain confident that progress can be made through this year to get to a point where a range of decisions can be made. There are also a range of other fields in this energy rich province, the Timor Sea, and my government continues to keep abreast of all possible developments and opportunities.
It is a key role for government that the Northern Territory stakes out its position in the national and international market place for new investment, and my government will continue to present and profile the Territory as offering an outstanding range of investment opportunities. My department has been allocated $1.5m to continue its commitment to position the Northern Territory as a prime place to live, work and invest.
The Northern Territory will witness a major expansion of economic activities in the coming years on the back of a wide range of new investments in oil and gas, resources and defence platforms. These investments will offer the opportunity to develop new supply and service support networks - in effect, new supply chains of businesses operating outside the front gate of these major projects and investments. The government will also continue its drive to promote the AustralAsia Trade Route as a new investment opportunity for transport, logistics and import-export value adding firms, as well as promoting new transport hubs anticipated to develop in Katherine, Tennant Creek and Alice Springs.
My recent investment mission to China, where we had the opportunity to speak with senior shipping, tourism and airline representatives, is a case in point. Their positive response serves to reinforce the great position of the Territory. There is no doubt that the Territory must continue to stake out its place in the national and international investment markets. My missions last year to Sydney, Brisbane, Melbourne and Adelaide amply demonstrate that the Territory is a competitive player in this market, but that we also need to continue the momentum generated during those events.
In 2004-05, this government will undertake a range of activities designed to ensure that investors see the Territory as a must-consider destination when contemplating future investments, including sponsorship of key national investment events, national speaking engagements, dedicated investment missions and creation of Northern Territory-based events. One of the best ways to encourage investment in the Territory is to get business people to travel here. When they do, they are in variably surprised by the opportunities and become true friends of the Territory. We will continue to build events that create the opportunity for that to happen, ranging from the V8s to the cricket to our first match of AFL in August.
I firmly believe that the Territory’s opportunities have been further enhanced by the AustralAsia Trade Route. The successful completion of the Alice to Darwin railway and the commencement of rail operations in January this year is, without the shadow of a doubt, one of the true economic milestones for the Territory. Our challenge now is one of assisting FreightLink to build their international freight volumes to maximise the benefits of this great project to our economy.
Already, my government has facilitated the new services offered by Swire Shipping between Singapore and Darwin, and this year we hope to extend those services into other regions to truly offer a land bridge into the region.
The rebound in economic growth in our region coupled with the new railway has created a new impetus for developing mining operations along the route. To ensure that infrastructure is in place to meet any need, my government has committed to provide new bulk materials handling facilities at the East Arm Port during 2004-05 at a cost of $7m. Our rail must win new freight opportunities, and the most tangible example of that has been the recent trial shipments of metal from South Australia. My government will continue to work with Australia’s importers and exporters to conduct those shipments as a means of providing the real benefits of the AustralAsia Railway and our multi-modal facilities at East Arm. There is also considerable work underway in Katherine, Tennant Creek and Alice Springs to build these centres into regional transport hubs that lever off the new opportunities the rail presents.
Darwin Business Park offers a once-in-a-generation opportunity to site business alongside brand new infrastructure. As the House is aware, already Toll has committed $18m towards facilities in the park and negotiations continue for further investment.
The Territory is the best place I know to live and work. We enjoy a great lifestyle and a climate to match. My government is focussed on working with the community to assist in the development of profitable, thriving, energetic communities that celebrate the diversity and uniqueness of our lifestyle and environment. This budget is both responsive and strategic and will move the Territory ahead.
Mr Deputy Speaker, I commend the Treasurer on delivering another resourceful and responsible budget.
Ms CARNEY (Araluen): Mr Deputy Speaker, I make comments and observations in my capacity as shadow Attorney-General and, time permitting, shadow minister for Women’s Policy.
I was pretty disappointed with the Justice Minister and Attorney-General’s reply given on Thursday, 20 May, in relation to this budget. I took the liberty of comparing his reply this year with his reply last year. His reply this year took a page and a third. Last year, it was twice that amount. It could be said that it demonstrates that the Attorney-General is having some difficulty juggling two very significant portfolios, those of Health and Justice, and it requires a pretty extraordinary effort by any politician to juggle those two portfolios, but I do not think he is juggling them well, certainly having regard to the two censure motions moved in this House earlier today by the opposition.
One might say, comparing his two budget replies this year and last year, that he has arguably lost interest in Justice or, in the alternative, and I hope this is the case, that he simply ran out of time. I remember him giving his speech and I thought it was a bit ho-hum, frankly.
In addition, I thought the budget generally was a bit ho-hum in relation to Justice. I suppose, like any opposition spokesperson, I was sitting here listening and waiting with bated breath, thinking that something exciting might happen in the area of Justice, but alas – and I know economics can be dry even for those among us who are fascinated by numbers - it was very ho-hum.
There are many comments I can make in relation to the budget generally, but it is appropriate, given the shadow portfolios I hold, that I concentrate on Justice and Women’s Policy. I should say, for the sake of the record, and no doubt the minister will hear about this at length next week, but it is appropriate, and I say this very sincerely, that last week or the week before, I prepared about 70 or 80 written questions …
Dr Toyne: Seventy-one, yes.
Ms CARNEY: Seventy-one, and I provided them to the minister. I hope he accepts the questions and my letter covering those questions in the spirit in which they were intended. That is ...
Dr Toyne: Yes, we are preparing all the answers, so do not worry; it is being sorted.
Ms CARNEY: Thank you, great. I look forward to the answers being tabled. I am sure the minister will agree that my questions were pretty reasonable, nothing out of the ordinary. They are just information that the opposition, on behalf of Territorians, should have, and I certainly thank him for his indication today in relation to those answers. Of course, that will require hard work on my part to go through them all, but I welcome the opportunity to do so.
In relation to this year’s budget, there were a couple of matters that stood out. The first and most glaring one from even a cursory glance was this: in 2003-04, the budget for the Department of Justice was $104.9m. It is estimated that by 30 June, the department will expend $113.3m. That appears in Budget Paper No 3 at page 113. That is a blow-out of nearly $8.5m. What is astonishing is that there is no explanation as to where the money went, what it was spent on or why. To make matters worse, in my view, the Mid-Year Financial Report published in February stated that $106m would be spent. So it is a blow-out of over $7m since February, and that is only a few months. $7m is a significant blow-out. Neither of those blow-outs, of course, compare with the massive blow-out in the Health Department, but the minister should naturally be worried that he presides over departments where the blow-out of budgets seems to be the norm as opposed to the exception.
Any government worth its salt wants to adopt financial responsibility, but for two of these very large departments – Justice and Health – to blow their budget is something of which all Territorians should be very conscious. We, on behalf of those Territorians, will be asking questions at the Estimates Committee hearing, and we look forward to fulsome answers.
There are some other matters I should place on the record. In particular, there is a transfer of $2.9m from the Solicitor for the Northern Territory to Legal Policy. I suggest that $2.9m allocated to the Solicitor for the Northern Territory has been the case for some years. In a briefing with the Under Treasurer last week, I asked what that $2.9m was. It is a grant payment. It is a legal aid payment; in other words, the Territory’s contribution to the Northern Territory Legal Aid Commission. It is entirely appropriate, in my view, that those monies be held or notionally allocated to the Solicitor for the Northern Territory. What is disturbing is that in this budget, it is proposed that the $2.9m be transferred to Legal Policy. The definition of Legal Policy or the statement detailing what it is about within the Department of Justice on page 117 of Budget Paper No 3, is and I quote:
It could be said that with the transfer of that money to Legal Policy, the money is being transferred to help the minister do his job. I would like to know who’s idea it was to transfer it from Solicitor for the NT to Legal Policy; why it was transferred; and is it the case that that amount of money simply amounts to an injection of funds directly to assist the Attorney-General to do his job?
When I read in government documents – it does not matter which government; governments across the board are notorious for it – that a division of a department provides ministerial report, I read staffers, minders and the minister will be able to arguably access this money or do things with it that might not have been contemplated by the Solicitor for the NT. I look forward to receiving some information in relation to that $2.9m transfer.
I was interested in a fairly scant reference, from memory, to the Crimes (Victims Assistance) Scheme. I know the minister is aware of it, and I know that there have been phone calls with solicitors, certainly in Alice Springs and his department in relatively recent times, about the further review of the scheme announced about 18 months ago. Practitioners would like to know what is happening with those so-called reforms. We understand that it has gone cold. Perhaps the minister might advise the parliament in due course. However, when you go around issuing media releases saying you are going to do this and that, common courtesy suggests that at some point, Territorians will hear whether the stuff included in a media release translates to an outcome. I look forward to asking the Attorney-General about the CVA review at Estimates.
Furthermore, it is suggested in Budget Paper No 3 that under the government’s first reform of the Crimes (Victims Assistance) Scheme there have been savings. The question we ask is: how many fewer victims have made claims given that so many private practitioners advise me that they are no longer doing that sort of work? This is exactly the sort of thing that we cautioned the Attorney-General about when the reforms were introduced. We said that there may well be access to justice issues there, and I believe there are. Subject to some more information coming to me this week, I may have some more to say on this later in the week. It appears to be the case that fewer victims are accessing the crimes compensation scheme. That is not a good outcome. It does not matter whether government saves a few dollars here and there but, given that violence in the Territory is a problem for many Territorians, and all of us indirectly, then it is a crying shame that so many victims are no longer pursuing their claims for compensation.
Before getting off CVA matters, the Attorney-General was on the record, when we had the debate in relation to the first reform of the Crimes (Victims Assistance) Act, saying that judicial registrars would deal with applications and they would, therefore, alleviate magistrates from that work. There is not a judicial registrar appointed in Alice Springs. We asked that question during the debate and we got something of an indication, and I do not put it any higher than that, from the Attorney-General to the effect that there would be a judicial registrar in Alice Springs. There is not. One of the government’s aims in effecting this reform was that fewer magistrates would be dealing with applications. Clearly, that is not the case in relation to Alice Springs.
It is noteworthy that the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions’ budget has also blown out to the tune of a little over $1m. We would like to know what the reasons for that were. Some would say, I suppose, that it is all as a result of the Murdoch committal. I suspect that is not the case. Members will recall that last year, information was obtained showing an increase in the workload of the DPP to the tune of 113%. We said then and we say now that that is a direct result of the high level of crime in the Northern Territory. Government, on the other hand, said: ‘No, no, no, that is nonsense. They are just doing their job better, and so far as the Victim Support Unit…’ as was it was called then ‘…was concerned, they were just advertising themselves better and that is why they had more clients’.
I would like to know whether the DPP’s workload has increased in 2003-04. I suspect it has and, again, I look forward to asking the Attorney-General some more details about that at Estimates. I note that in real terms, the only thing the DPP got from this budget was $92 000 for a new prosecutor. I would have thought that the given the importance of the ODPP, $92 000 in what government calls a high spending budget, noting its departure from its previous fiscal strategy now that it has decided to put its collective hands in its pockets to start spending some money, the DPP only got $92 000.
That is a paltry sum, particularly given the fact that the Murdoch case, for instance, is likely consume significantly more resources. I do not know whether the Director asked for more funds. In my judgement, perhaps not the judgement of others, it would be inappropriate for me to ask him and I have not. However, I would like to know whether additional funds were sought by the Director and, if so, why was he turned down?
Members with an interest in these matters, and I suspect there are relatively few of the 25 of us, perhaps moreso on the other side of the Chamber than this one, but those members with an interest would have noticed in Budget Paper No 3 relating to the Department of Justice that there were a few references to conviction rates. I know that politicians traditionally play with that term and governments reckon that they always get conviction rates because of various reforms they have undertaken. What I would like to do, and I am sure that the Attorney-General will have noticed it from the questions that I have submitted to him a week or so ago, is I would like to scratch below the surface on that. I do not want to just deal with conviction rates. Members will know that, for reasons that often escape me, I have an interest in this area. I want to know particular conviction rates in relation to sexual assaults.
The minister may or may not recall, and I have a copy of the letter here, that on 12 March this year, I wrote to him and asked the following questions: what percentage of reported unlawful sexual assault cases against adult women resulted in convictions for the calendar years 2001, 2002 and 2003? I also asked: of the convictions recorded, what percentage was as a result of pleas of guilty and how many were as a result of guilty verdicts at trial for those calendar years? I asked: what percentage of reported indecent assault cases against women resulted in convictions for calendar years 2001, 2002 and 2003? Of the convictions recorded, what percentage was as a result of pleas of guilty and how many were as a result of guilty verdicts at trial? I also asked: in the calendar years 2001, 2002 and 2003, how many unlawful sexual intercourse cases were reduced to a lesser charge such as indecent assault? I also asked: this year, how many convicted persons have been sentenced to the rising of the court?
I will come back to the last question shortly, but the reasons I asked, in my letter of 12 March, for those conviction rates is that all of us know, or should know, that the conviction rates for sexual assaults against women and, for that matter, child abuse cases, are notoriously low. I made that point, I thought, very clear when we had what historically will be called the gay law reform debate. I did express concerns then about the relatively low conviction rates for those offences and no one in government has come back to me to say: ‘Look, you don’t know what you’re talking about’. I would not expect that they would because I know how low the conviction rates are. My partner works at the DPP in Victim Support. I have hung out at the Alice Springs Court for 13 or so years before coming to this job. I acted for these victims and I know not only how notoriously difficult it is to get a conviction, but how appalling our conviction rates are.
Members may well be asking: ‘Why is she talking about this in the context of the budget?’ I do so for a couple of reasons. I have not received an answer to my letter of 12 March. Now, I reckon even the most dyed in the wool Labor supporter would say: ‘Letter of 12 March. Wouldn’t you think she would get a reply to that letter?’ I have not.
I do know, in fairness, that this information cannot be obtained by pressing a button on a computer, but 12 March is three months ago. That is not good enough. It perhaps indicates that the Attorney-General is having trouble juggling a couple of portfolios. That is one argument to be advanced. The other is that maybe he does not want to tell me in writing how appalling conviction rates are for sexual assaults against women and children in the Northern Territory.
I have extracted each of these questions and I have put them in the Written Question form to the minister because, under the banner of conviction rates in the Northern Territory, or it is called Convictions After Trial or Hearing, I do want to scratch the surface. I need to know in writing from the Attorney-General, the Territory’s first law officer, what the figures are.
Once we have some truth about those figures - and I suspect they have always been terrible; this is not a political debate in the context of serious matters like this. I suspect they are pretty terrible. I know they are terrible all around the country and I know what other jurisdictions are doing. Some of them have adopted some fairly exciting initiatives to try to get to the cause of this problem. I suggest that this Minister for Justice, who would certainly regard himself, I would have thought, as a fairly reforming Minister for Justice - I agree, and he knows that I have agreed with some his reforms, but if he wants his place in history before he retires at the next election, he has a contribution to make by dealing with these appalling conviction rates. I hope that I get some straight answers in relation to those matters at Estimates. If not, I will continue to pursue this matter until I am blue in the face.
Members may recall that in November 2003, the minister announced that he would investigate implementing a number of initiatives to reduce the stress and trauma of vulnerable victims giving evidence. What has happened? Nothing has happened except for a media release. Again, in other jurisdictions, things are happening. There is a national push to come up with some positive outcomes in this area, but I do not know what has happened since November 2003. I cannot tell from the minister’s budget reply on Thursday 20 May. I can’t get anything from this minister or this government that says it is open, accountable and transparent.
That is disappointing. I hope to pursue that issue at Estimates although, as I said when we were having the debate about Estimates, I would not expect to be able to have an hour’s worth of questioning with the minister, which is a joke, given that the Independents will ask questions and probably a couple of backbenchers. Really, if I can manage an hour worth of questions, I reckon I will be doing well. I welcome his previous indication that he will at least provide me with the answers to my written questions.
In any event, some other observations: I note that there is no specific allocation for drug courts in the budget. I do not know why that is. Again, by media release, and in fact prior to the last election, the government made much of the drug problem, as it says, in the Northern Territory. It has come up with the drugs court. I do not know for certain, but I have heard that the court, such as it is, is not well resourced, but it is interesting that there is no specific reference that I could find to drug courts.
I look forward to hearing how many people have been convicted under the much-trumpeted home invasion laws. I think the answer to a question asked in Estimates in the previous year was that there were no convictions. This year, there may have only been five. I do not know whether you would call that an outstanding return for home invasion laws that were publicised by government with so much fanfare. I look forward to asking about that in any event.
I now turn to Correctional Services. Someone said to me the other day: ‘You and Toynie must get on pretty well. You don’t seem to scrap too much’. I think we do get along reasonably well, but we have specific differences, and we both do our job as diligently as we can. Sometimes we get into a scrap. Well, there is a scrap when it comes to Correctional Services. Some of the matters that I have raised in written questions, and it is appropriate that I touch on them now, stem from the Review into Adult Correctional Services that was concluded only a couple of months ago.
Members will recall that the minister said in the media that all prison officers were very happy with the review’s recommendations but, in fact, that was not the case because they rang me. Some of them came to my office. I had a meeting with about six one day, and three later that week. They came to me and said that they were not happy. I would like to know why it is that the Minister for Justice was going around saying everyone is happy when he knew that was not the case and, indeed, I know, and he should know that I know, that representatives of his department spent about six weeks with prison officers, negotiating with them as to certain terms and conditions.
The prison officers got what they thought was a win in the circumstances, but they remain far from happy. There was an allegation that the minister or one of his representatives threatened, in a meeting, to take away $28m of funding arising from the review if the prison officers did not agree to follow the government line. I think that is offensive for any minister of the Crown or his representatives to put to people employed in the public service, so I hope to ask the minister about that in due course.
I would also like to know – and members will recall that I have raised it on one prior occasion, I think it was in answer to a ministerial report - was a Certificate of Exemption provided to the authors of the Corrections report? The minister, conveniently, in his reply in that ministerial statement did not provide an answer. We will continue to push. There seems to be a bit of a theme with this government that Certificates of Exemption are being handed around left, right and centre. All you need do is ask and some would say, although I couldn’t possibly say, that as long as you have Labor contacts somewhere in Australia, knock on the door and you, too, will get a certificate of exemption. Well, it is a fair dinkum question and we wouldn’t mind a fair dinkum answer to it.
I have also asked some questions in relation to the Crime Prevention Councils. I hope the minister can assure me that the performance of the regional crime prevention councils are monitored, that there are some sort of performance measures, so that the outcomes or otherwise of the regional crime prevention councils can be assessed. It is not good enough just to have them; they need to produce results. I know the minister talks about them from time to time, but he would not be surprised to hear us ask for some results.
I have skated through some of the issues that I will pursue at Estimates. They are not over-the-top issues. It is appropriate that I ask them and any independent observer would say that they are not unreasonable questions. It is appropriate for opposition to raise those questions, and I look forward to the answers.
In relation to Women’s Policy, this comes close to being, in my view - although I know not the view of too many others – a bit of a disaster for this Labor government. I do not think it takes women’s issues very seriously and that is evidenced by the Chief Minister in her actions and comments. Perhaps I will tell members privately about a conversation I had with the Chief Minister on a plane last week from Darwin to Alice Springs. We all tend to observe a bit of a cone of silence when we are just chewing the fat generally. However, perhaps I will tell women members of the Labor Party about that conversation over the course of the next two weeks because I have told members of Labor Women about the conversation I had with the Chief Minister. It was pretty disturbing, given a comment she made in relation to domestic violence.
However, the Domestic Violence Strategy was an ongoing theme from the last government to this one. This government, in 2002, published a new Domestic Violence Strategy. It picked up on some old ideas and came up with some new ideas, and a glossy brochure was prepared. That Domestic Violence Strategy said that it had a priority action, 2002-03, and that was the extension of public housing options for victims, survivors and their children as well as the extension of a number of safe houses and safe room facilities throughout the Northern Territory. I would like to know, because I have not heard what the extension of that public housing for victims has been, and whether there has been an extension of the number of safe houses. If Labor Party members want to say: ‘Look, we have done this, that, and the other’, that is great. I welcome such measures. However, it is not good enough to just put this stuff in glossy documents and leave it at that. I stand to be corrected on this matter; and I hope I am. I hope government will tell me what they have done.
Interestingly, the Domestic Violence Strategy, which was released in December 2002, stated that the Northern Territory government is committed to:
I am sure there is a performance measure around somewhere, but you would have to say that has failed. The quarterly crime statistics certainly show, on any objective analysis, an increase in physical and sexual assaults, which, of course, include domestic violence. We remember the plea made by the Attorney-General some months ago when he begged people to stop committing crime. He said - I think it was in relation to the high level of violence in Katherine - that a lot of it was domestic violence related. Someone had better have a bloody good look at the Domestic Violence Strategy because it is not paying dividends.
I note that, in 2003-04 Budget Paper No 3 at page 32, it was estimated that $1.49m would be the cost of managing and delivering programs and activities for women’s advancement. In this year’s budget paper at page 40, it is estimated that the cost is $1.22m. There is money gone, it has been reduced. Why is that? Is it because the Chief Minister does not care? I think so. Others will disagree. So be it.
In any event, in the 30 seconds or so I have left, I reckon from a Justice and Women’s Policy perspective, the budget is very ho-hum, particularly Women’s Policy. I thank the Attorney-General for his very kind indication in relation to my written questions, and I look forward to what little time I may have to question him during the Estimates Committee hearing.
Debate adjourned.
MINISTERIAL STATEMENT
Northern Territory Food Industry
Mr VATSKALIS (Primary Industry and Fisheries): Mr Deputy Speaker, today I wish to inform the House of a range of exciting developments and opportunities within the Northern Territory’s food industry and how this government will continue to provide an environment in which the private sector is encouraged to invest in adding value to Territory produce.
The food industry can become such a commonplace part of our life that its importance can be easily overlooked and its place in our lives and economy relegated to the lower end of the scale. Yet in reality, nothing could be further from the truth for our food industry.
At first glance, it would be easy to say the food industry of the Northern Territory goes from the paddock to the plate for a few primary products such as beef, seafood and fruit. Yet, it is also deeply infused throughout the economy including tourism, hospitality, education, retailing, health, manufacturing, logistics and even biotechnology. A good food product must commence with good ingredients, so I will take a few moments to provide an overview of the current state of our primary production food sector before moving on to discuss the role of food in tourism, marketing, logistics and the like.
Production of seafood in the Northern Territory has in the most part come from wild capture fisheries, whether that be the iconic barramundi, mud crabs, offshore fish or prawns, but this situation is certainly changing. The fish farming sector has experienced phenomenal growth over recent times and we as a government continue to provide an investment environment that encourages its ongoing development in moving the Territory ahead. Many would have seen the recent article in the Northern Territory News heralding the successful trial grow-out of mud crabs to commercially saleable size. These ‘cultured’ mud crabs have been dispatched to test their market acceptance, and initial feedback has been positive.
Another success story is barramundi. Sales of farmed barramundi have doubled over the last year, with around 15 tonnes being sold each week and two tonnes of that is going to the United States. It was Northern Territory barramundi that was served at the Danish royal wedding in Copenhagen, not traditional Atlantic salmon from Europe or, for that matter, Tasmanian salmon. As an aside, when the Danish Ambassador visited the Territory recently, he raised with DBIRD staff the issue of other food and products that may be suitable for trade. Food opens many doors.
The culture of trepang and sponges is to be undertaken as a trial in the Northern Territory and it includes some exciting biotechnology opportunities. Also of some interest is that trepang, or sea cucumber, was Australia’s first export food industry and was based throughout the Top End. The expansion of this industry will provide opportunities throughout regional areas.
Northern Territory aquaculture production of prawns has increased substantially over recent times despite the difficult times being presently experienced due to an oversupply internationally. One of the quiet achievers is the Northern Territory spirulena, a blue-green algae that has wide appeal to the health food and dietary supplement market. The grow-out and processing of this algae is world class. It is a benchmark against which others are compared.
The Northern Territory’s wild fisheries continue to provide the backbone of the seafood industry and are arguably some of the best managed in the world today. This perhaps is best illustrated by the Commonwealth government affording the highest level of accreditation of Northern Territory wild fisheries through a public consultation process under the stringent Environmentally Sustainable Development criteria. This leads to jobs in the catching, processing, transport, food preparation and tourism industries in Darwin and throughout the Territory. The total value of production for wild fisheries at first point of sale is in the order of $30m per annum, with the Northern Prawn Fishery contributing an additional $130m. Aquaculture contributes $35m and is on the increase.
The horticulture industry is valued at around $86m at the first point of sale, and food crops at around $11m per annum. The Territory enjoys competitive advantages owing to its capacity to supply markets with a range of early season and out-of-season horticultural produce including table grapes, mangoes, dates, melons, tropical exotic fruits and Asian vegetables, peanuts and herbs. In dollar terms, around 90% of Territory fruit and vegetable production is marketed interstate; 2% only is exported; and 5% is consumed locally.
In addition to better known fruit and vegetables, other niche horticultural crops have been identified. Some unique examples include bamboo shoots for the food market, and they are being sold at the Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide markets. Indeed, the thriving Asian vegetable segment is a key part of our food industry, one that serves to increase our reputation in southern markets for unique and quality foods.
The collective effort of growers in 2002 alone saw 2000 tonnes of Asian vegetables trucked or air-freighted to Sydney, Melbourne and other major markets across Australia.
Central Australia has also identified a range of unique opportunities. Out-of-season table grapes from Ti Tree are eagerly sought throughout southern Australia and they attract a premium. Similarly, hydroponic production of vegetables in Alice Springs, including lettuce, is leading to new market penetration.
Commercial growers of the newer exotic fruits, especially jackfruit and dragon fruit, are establishing further areas for production of these crops in recognition of their potential. In fact, Northern Territory dragon fruit was the subject of a promotion by Woolworths earlier in the year, again highlighting the place in the Australian retail food market for unique fruits that can be produced in the Territory.
The livestock industry is of course the oldest and best known of our primary production food industries and is valued at around $200m. The outlook for Territory beef remains steady for the medium term at least. Currently, there is strong competition for cattle, and live exporters in particular have been constrained by the volume available – the long Wet has hampered mustering and transport, and an improved outlook for the Queensland cattle industry has seen interstate buyers entering the NT market to restock.
As for other livestock, buffalo and camel meat are becoming increasingly popular items on the menu at a number of our top restaurants for locals and tourists alike, and for consumption at home. Both camel and tender buff buffalo have been selected as focus proteins for market promotion in the coming year.
On a recent trip to the United States as a Guest Chef, Jimmy Shu of the Hanuman Restaurant took camel meat with him to gauge the reaction of United States diners. The response of those who tasted the product was, according to Jimmy, quite outstanding. It is an example of where we can establish a competitive advantage through the provision of unique and exotic produce.
The Industry Development Division within DBIRD has targeted the development and facilitation of commercial opportunities through the sustainable use of native wildlife and wild foods as a key objective in 2004-05. The Industry Development Division has worked closely with several indigenous enterprises that are keen to commercialise the harvesting of magpie geese, freshwater long-neck turtles, crocodiles, mud-mussels and other native wildlife species. Likewise, local food industry players, including local and interstate restaurants and chef groups are looking for unique new taste cuisine from native wildlife and wild food products found in the Northern Territory to give a competitive advantage to their business.
Initiatives that the department has developed to assist private enterprise in realising those unique opportunities include:
identifying the diverse range of commercial activities involving native wild foods and
wildlife such as harvesting wild product, farming and food processing. This will
commence in July 2004;
commercial opportunities through the sustainable use of wildlife;
undertaking commercial activities with native wildlife and foods with local, national
and international contacts in the food industries, which includes ongoing activities
with local business.
A working group was convened in March 2004 comprising representatives from the Key Centre for Tropical Wildlife Management at CDU, the Department of Infrastructure, Planning and Environment Wildlife Conservation Division; the Office of Territory Development; and DBIRD’s Industry Development Division and Central Australian Region. This group examined the background and progress of commercial activity in native wildlife and wild foods as well as looking at favoured options and future pathways to best facilitate new opportunities.
Supporting the growth of a wild food segment would contribute directly to indigenous economic development, the health of communities and further strengthen the position of our unique cuisine.
Of course, to maximise the worth of our food industry, there must be a focus on processing and value adding rather than just harvesting and catching, and attaining economies of scale is a critical issue. A study of multi-species abattoirs was undertaken by government and the Cattlemen’s Association in 2003-04 and it concluded that a greenfields abattoir for camel and buffalo requires a guaranteed cattle throughput.
Similarly, the owners of the Katherine Abattoir have confirmed the need for a guaranteed throughput to commence operations. Discussions with pastoralists are continuing, but the high price for live cattle over recent times will make this difficult to achieve.
With over 1 000 000 mango trees planted, there will be considerable value adding opportunities for mangoes, including mangoes that do not conform to fresh fruit specifications are in good supply for possible expanded dried fruit or juice production. A medium-scale mango drying enterprise is currently under construction in Katherine. The treatment of mangoes to extend shelf-life, or to gain access to high value markets, provides important value-adding options. The Vapour Heat Treatment plant at Berry Springs ensures mangoes are able to satisfy Japanese import requirements. Only premium mangoes from the top 3% of the quality range are selected for export to Japan. It should be noted that entry into the Japanese market is not possible without extensive research and relationship development. Mangoes surplus to fresh fruit markets might be packed as fresh mango cheeks, and treated to extend shelf life by high pressure processing or cryovac technology. It is envisaged that opportunities for further value-adding in the food and beverage sector will be explored as part of the government’s Manufacturing Strategy.
The food industry is not just about producing or growing or manufacturing. A wise old saying notes that there is no money to be made in producing, growing, catching or making anything; there has never been and there never will be. The money is made when the product is sold. It is critical for the food sector to have appropriate infrastructure and logistics that will ensure the timely delivery of product at a reasonable cost to the marketeer at the right time.
This government continues to work with industry to build skills and networks with the ultimate aim of delivering a quality, safe product to the customer within agreed timeframes. We have established a Food Group to assist in this regard in partnership with industry members. Specific initiatives undertaken to assist the Northern Territory food industry include:
Air freight capacity is a critical issue and there continues to be an emphasis on developing capacity with both the domestic and international airlines to ensure that Territory food and produce can reach the market at the most appropriate times. This is of critical importance to our premium fresh food and flower industries. Delivering live mud crabs, highly perishable flowers, fresh on-ice seafood and Asian vegetables, among others, relies on adequate air freight.
The airlines have been encouraged to increase services and to improve ground handling capabilities to maximise uplift. A coordinated group involving industry, the Northern Territory Air Freight Working Group, regularly meets to facilitate communication and collaboration across the industry. At the same time, surface transport remains important. A study has been completed examining the capacity of the transport industry to move product south in light of the growth in primary industry production levels and the commissioning of the rail link. A key issue is the capacity of road transporters to move produce at peak periods of production, such as mangoes during October and November.
The railway is increasingly being considered for the movement of perishable produce. Demonstration trials with this season’s crop of melons being railed to southern markets will test the timing, transhipment, and out-turn quality of the produce once it reaches the market place. Also, with increasing volumes of production, sea freight is becoming a real alternative for some products. Working with the local shipping sector, trial shipments of Territory melons and mangoes to Singapore and Hong Kong as well as European markets are being investigated. The specialist export technology for this trial is to be undertaken in partnership with WA growers. This work will demonstrate to industry how the use of the technology can open up supply routes that will ensure our produce is both competitive in the market and of the highest quality.
We must also be aware of changing consumer attitudes; the market place is changing and consumers are increasingly seeking a guarantee on food safety and quality. For the Northern Territory food sector to maintain existing markets as well as being a viable competitor in new markets, it is essential that food safety management systems be adopted. To capitalise on opportunities, all links in the value chain must be working in partnership. Worldwide, there exist a number of food safety and quality management systems with which food businesses must comply in order to get their product into particular markets.
While there are many systems and standards to comply with, one basic evaluation method for food safety is through the implementation of a hazard analysis critical control point system otherwise known as HACCP. Based on the application of scientific principles to food processing and production, HACCP is an internationally recognised preventative approach to manage food safety hazards. Businesses where HACCP to central to an active food safety management program can provide vendors, the public, and government sector bodies with a degree of certainty that food safety is being taken seriously and is well managed.
To ensure local food businesses are well placed with skills and knowledge required to deliver safe quality produce to customers each and every time, my department has a role in the food supply chain by coordinating the provision of skills development and training opportunities in the area of food safety and quality assurance. The three most prominent organisations providing food safety and quality assurance training in the Northern Territory are the local Territory branch of Seafood and Maritime Industries Training, which runs regular HACCP courses for anyone in the seafood industry; SAI Global Assurance Services with a local office in Darwin, which is running courses in Darwin at least twice a year on HACCP, EurepGap and Charles Darwin University, which is charged with running Freshcare On-Farm Food Safety Programs.
Freshcare is a code of practice for growers that is based on generic HACCP principles. While Freshcare does not match the full and extensive requirements of HACCP, it has provided Northern Territory growers with the opportunity to implement basic food safety management practices with full HACCP accreditation as an option for the future. It is estimated that there are currently 200 Territory growers who have completed training and are now Freshcare certified.
Our food industry has other indirect benefits for our broader community, such as our tourism industry. Our style of cuisine and food clearly differentiates the Territory from other states. It is an important attraction for an increasing number of tourists who regard food as an important part of the experience. In a recent report by the Bureau of Tourism Research entitled The Great Australian Bite: Travel Patterns of Culinary Visitors, the travel and spend patterns of culinary visitors were examined. The report suggested that up to 47% of domestic tourists can be classified as culinary tourists, and spend over 30% more than other tourists. Even 30% of day trippers qualify as culinary tourists and their spending accounts for 42% of all day trip spending. The report further found that more than half of all tourism spend, both domestic and international, is by culinary tourists.
It is fair to say that the travelling and dining public have become incredible well educated, and the dining experience is seen by many as much a part of tourism as a train trip, a visit to the Wildlife Park or going to Katherine Gorge. Present developments within the Northern Territory food industry are clearly contributing to the attraction of food tourists.
The NT Food Group was established in late 2001 and has grown substantially since that time. There are now approximately 100 members ranging from chefs, restaurateurs, growers, fisherman, producers, manufactures, distributors, tourism operators, government and industry associations. The group was established in recognition of the opportunities for unique Territory food products in high-end domestic and international markets, and to serve as a coordinated networking and information sharing forum for the local food industry.
In Alice Springs, a Central Australia Food Group was formed by local chefs and tourism operators, and is strongly supported by this government. The Central Australian Food Group, however, has a slightly different focus in that it aims to grow a food tourism industry in Central Australia, as well as being a networking and information sharing forum. The first event held by the Central Australian Food Group was New Tastes Gourmet Lunch which stunned and wowed those who attended. The menu included gourmet delights such as bush tomato roesti with munthari chutney; Paspaley pearl meat napped with a saffron and Noilly Prat sauce on a bed of wild rice; camel eye fillet salt bush wraps with Borroloola mud crab and desert lime crme brulee with almond wattle seed tuille.
Food writer Kate McGhie from the Melbourne Herald Sun attended and enthusiastically declared she had never tasted such foods anywhere in Australia. This testament by one of Australia’s leading food writers adds weight to the key messages of our Food Identifier that the Northern Territory is the ‘new taste’ in Australian cuisine. In fact, what is happening here in the Territory with our food industry perhaps goes some way to answering the vexing question of exactly what constitutes authentic Australian cuisine.
Rather than building on a dominant tradition, our style demonstrates a fusion and synergy driven by the local influences, which are not found elsewhere to the same degree. More recently, chefs from the Food Group held cooking demonstrations at the Central Australian Expo using Territory ingredients. Dishes prepared for sampling included Barramundi Moulie, Thai Camel Salad with yam bean and tamarind, char-grilled kangaroo dusted in wattle seed and native peppers served on a sweet potato cake and dressed with a bush tomato salsa and rosemary jus.
The current edition of Outback magazine features the Expo event. It has a write-up on the chefs and food. The Central Australian Food Group is currently planning a range of events that promise to be equally exciting and of an equivalent high standard. The group wants to increase its membership and raise its profile in the Alice Springs community.
The Northern Territory government is also sponsor of the Taste Down Under competition, which is a series of events in the United States directly aimed at promoting and marketing Northern Territory products and the Territory as a tourism destination. Thus far, the prime focus has been on seafood and the inaugural Taste Down Under contest was held in February 2003 in Miami, Florida. The event was conceived by expat food trader and professional marketer David Doepel of Abel Gower Enterprises as a promotional vehicle to access the high-end USA market for Northern Territory farmed barramundi and it featured Adelaide River farmed barramundi.
A focal event of the 2003 competition was a student recipe and cooking contest run in conjunction with the Johnson and Wales University, the largest trainer in culinary arts in the United States and one of the largest in the world in this field. Exposing future international chefs to Territory produce through the largest training centre in the world is investing in our future. The first prize for the 2003 winning trainee chef was a trip – where else? - to the Northern Territory. The contest and associated prize has sparked enormous interest within the Johnson and Wales University across its five campuses all over the USA. Premium farmed barra is now readily associated with the Northern Territory in a number of high-end US outlets, and amongst the staff and student body of Johnson and Wales.
Our involvement to date has demonstrated a clear nett economic benefit to the Northern Territory by finding new and innovative ways to promote the Territory, and identifying ways of growing the sales of barramundi as well as reef fish and prawns, and that supports the ongoing economic development of the Northern Territory food industry. Other products showcased via the Taste Down Under competition this year included Aboriginal art and fashion as well as mango marinade from Central Australia.
Although the exchange rate has contributed to considerable price pressure, sales of products in the United States remain firm. Sales of barramundi from the Marine Harvest operation on Bathurst Island support indigenous economic development as does the sale of native herbs, flavouring agents and indigenous art and textiles.
Stemming from our involvement with Taste Down Under 2003, two eminent Northern Territory chefs – Athol Wark of the Alice Springs Convention Centre and Jimmy Shu of the Hanuman Restaurant – were invited to the United States earlier this year to take part in a number of United States-based celebrity events. These invitations represent a growing acknowledgment in the United States of the skill of Territory chefs and the emerging ‘NT – New Taste’ genre of cuisine influenced by our indigenous wild foods and the strong multicultural food traditions found within the Northern Territory. This level of interpersonal contact and networking is an essential element in ensuring the Northern Territory hospitality sector remains abreast with the most up-to-date trends from overseas. In addition, Abel Gower Enterprises is working with a number of chefs in the US and Australia to create value-added food products featuring Northern Territory food products.
In March of this year, the New Tastes of Australia - Australia’s Northern Territory food identifier was released to clearly identify Northern Territory food products in domestic and international markets. The identifier will ensure that promotion and marketing of NT foods has a central theme. This brand will become the tool that identifies and binds together a myriad of products and food items from the Territory. Developing an identifier for NT food products has been long overdue and is an integral part of increasing commercial opportunities for the NT food industry.
The theme, New Tastes of Australia - Australia’s Northern Territory, follows on from the continuing need for recognition of the high quality of the food produced in the Northern Territory and has already being used to promote NT government sponsorship of the Taste Down Under 2004 competition in the USA.
Another example of promoting our local products is the Darwin Seafood Festival. The inaugural Darwin Seafood Festival, being organised and run by the industry, is to be held on 26 June 2004 at Fort Hill Wharf. The festival aims to showcase Northern Territory and Australian seafood by bringing together the fishing industry, chefs, buyers, media, tourists and locals. The theme of the event is to marry individual fisheries with local restaurants and chefs.
Celebrity chefs Ian Parmenter and Andrew Fielke will be conducting cooking displays to educate attendees on how to prepare and cook seafood. Mr Parmenter is well known from ABC television’s Consuming Passions, and was recently introduced to one of the driving forces behind the seafood festival, Mr Ziko Ilic, through the NT Food Group and, as a result, he will be attending the festival. Mr Fielke is also a well known chef who was the founder of the Red Ochre Restaurant and pioneered native Australian cuisine.
Importantly, the promotion of the NT food industry fits well with national strategies. The National Food Industry Strategy Limited, NFIS, is a company funded by the Commonwealth government to develop the food industry in Australia. The NT government is working closely with NFIS on several projects and my department’s Industry Development Division as the central liaison point for NFIS activities in the Northern Territory. Joint projects include:
Value Chain Awareness workshops and identifying suitable projects for funding
under the NFIS Food Chain Program;
hosting a trade alliance meeting and industry tour in Darwin later this month;
suitable products for the five-star hotel market in Dubai and to conduct a workshop
on potential market opportunities for the Northern Territory food industry. This will
also take place later this month;
Territory; and
There are many benefits for government and the NT food industry in collaborating closely with NFIS on their programs. We are looking to work more closely with NFIS in the future in order to optimise the synergies between both groups and to lever opportunities that the Northern Territory has not previously addressed.
Mr Acting Deputy Speaker, the unique and unusual foods of the Territory combined with the culinary skills and tradition that come from the diverse multicultural society in which we live give the Territory food industry the opportunity to be something quite special.
When you combine these core aspects with the extra bonus provided by indigenous wild foods, you have the ingredients for a cuisine and food culture like no other in Australia. Whether it is the wild desert foods from Central Australia or the tropical and exotic foods from the Top End, the food industry here is something truly special and continues to move the Territory ahead.
Mr Acting Deputy Speaker, I move that the Assembly take note of the statement.
Mr BALDWIN (Daly): Mr Acting Deputy Speaker, I congratulate the minister and thank him for this statement. It is a very good statement, and I say that sincerely. I congratulate him on its originality, unlike the former minister who sought to plagiarise an old statement from a previous CLP government minister and bring it into this House as if it were something new.
This statement is well constructed and provides a very good synopsis of what the agricultural industry in particular is all about and how that translates into the food industry, and how the synergies are working together.
It is great that the minister made the statement at this time to show that agriculture has a very special place in the Northern Territory and has had since early white settlement for that reason. The last paragraph sums it up and that is, to paraphrase, that the Territory has a unique and diverse multicultural population as well as unique and diverse geography that allow some unusual and unique foods to be produced in the Northern Territory from desert climates through to our tropical environs. Obviously, stacked in amongst that are all sorts of animals and species, plant and marine life that add o our unique ability to produce very attractive foods, whether it is feral animals such as the buffalo or, indeed, our local iconic fish like the barramundi.
I believe, personally, that the Northern Territory, along with the top half of Western Australia and the top half of Queensland, sit in a very important location, geographically, in the world for future food production. Most people will agree that the temperate climates of the developed world have almost reached their capacity in producing food for hungry mouths around the world. They will go on doing that, of course; I am not saying they are going to cease, but they are either at capacity or, in some cases, overstretched owing to lack of natural resources such as water, and we see that happening down south as we speak, with restrictions on water use for irrigated farming and so on. All the clearing issues that have occurred over the last 200 years of settlement in Australia have also contributed to the situation. It is going to be incumbent on the tropical and sub-tropical regions of at least the developed world to lift their production, become more efficient in production of food and fresh water use.
It is going to become a real and important issue for the Northern Territory in the future. That is why on issues such as those facing the Daly River Reference Group, we need to get those decisions right. Members of that committee have a very difficult set of recommendations to debate in order for government and governments of the future to get the balance right with the use of natural resources pitted against the extra demand that is going to face places like the Territory and other tropical, sub-tropical and arid regions of the developed world to produce food in ever-increasing abundance, and do it efficiently and in an environmentally friendly manner.
This is a very important statement, a synopsis of what is happening in all of the sectors of agriculture in the Northern Territory, to aquaculture, and moving through to the value adding of those products and all the things that have been done to promote those products not only locally and nationally, but internationally as well.
The first area the minister touched on is seafood. We do enjoy, as he pointed out, a very strong set of fisheries in the Northern Territory that have been well managed over the last five decades at least, I guess, whether it is from the Commonwealth or previous government, to give us a fishery that is a very sustainable one at this time. Obviously, we must work on making sure that continues.
There is a need, as we move from a predominantly wild port capture of marine products to harvesting aquacultural products such as mud crabs or barramundi in fish farms and prawn farms. It is the fastest growing sector within the marine food industries at this time. There will be a great call on government to provide assistance in the form of infrastructure to those farms, whether they be private enterprise or indigenous enterprises in conjunction with private enterprise, joint ventures and so on. There will be a call on government to provide some support in roads, power and other types of real cash-type infrastructure to ensure that growing sector can expand in the Northern Territory, and we do position ourselves well with leading-edge technology to ensure that the Territory is well placed.
There are some exotic things happening in those fisheries. The minister mentioned trepang, which goes back hundreds of years as an export commodity. It is available to be farmed. When I say ‘farmed’, I mean in a way that is sustainable. I know there are some people currently looking sustainable trepang farming on Aboriginal land and they have been talking to government, looking for some assistance. There has not been very much forthcoming.
That is what I am talking about: when people want to go out and take the risk and are looking for a bit of government support, then government has to be willing - if they are following philosophies in the statement today - to provide assistance to those investors who want to come up with sustainable enterprises. They just need some assistance to make sure that they are viable, particularly when they are talking about joint ventures with indigenous communities and organisations.
Likewise with barramundi, which features in the statement. We have to take opportunities where we find them to ensure that fishery remains sustainable. I was very disappointed, as I have already said in this House, that the government has not taken the opportunity as yet to purchase the five commercial barramundi licences that were offered in the expressions of interest that went along with the closure of Adelaide River. They may still be available, you may still be talking to them, but it is not that often, and has not been the case in the past, that when you call for expressions of interest for the purchase of barramundi licences that five commercial fisher people put up their hand and said they are willing to negotiate on the sale back to government of their licences, thereby removing the commercial effort from that fishery and, obviously, making it much more sustainable.
We have just heard the Chief Minister give her budget reply talking about all sorts of sums of money for various programs that government is initiating or continuing. For the measly sum of less than $3m in one fell swoop, the government could have taken a total of five licences out of the fishery, thereby improving the state of that fishery for the future. I know the answer will be that we are talking to them and all the rest of it, but these opportunities do not always come up. It is rare that the commercial sector agrees with the recreational sector in the way they have in respect of the purchase of these barramundi licenses. Everyone has been saying to government: ‘Buy them’, and to this point they have ignored that advice.
The horticultural industry is very important. It grows all sorts of product right across the Territory, whether you talk Top End exotic fruits, normal cucurbits or your mango production, it is a very important industry to the Territory. There are areas that can expand; the Ti Tree area for table grapes has had a mention and there is certainly room for expansion there. Pine Hill was a purchase in that area for expansion. It might be interesting for the minister to give us an update on what is happening with Pine Hill as far as releasing other blocks. Has there been much demand? Have they been promoting that area, particularly now that the water capacity in the area has been identified and, as far as production of table grapes and other produce in and around Ti Tree is concerned, proven to be quite extensive.
We hear so much in relation to other crops, but the livestock industry is very stable, valued at around $200m, as the minister said, and looks quite stable into the future depending on a number of things. Included in those, obviously, is exchange rates and the demand from our overseas market. In a way, we are reasonably vulnerable because we rely so heavily on the export market, notwithstanding it has served us extremely well in the past. I hope it continues to serve us well into the future, but we need to look at other ways of strengthening the industry with other outlets. The minister mentioned in the statement the need for abattoirs to have a guaranteed throughput to make them viable. That has always been the case, obviously not competing on price terms when it comes to competition against the export market.
There should be something done to broaden the livestock market, particularly in the case of multi-species abattoirs, something that government has been working on. It has commissioned a report and that has been concluded and it has been said that it requires this throughput of cattle to make it viable. The minister mentioned that the Katherine Abattoir owners have confirmed that they need guaranteed throughput to commence operations as well. It seems to me that the issue here is market identification. Where can the government assist in finding the markets that will compete on the same price as export cattle so that they can have at least some throughput guaranteed into a market that will then allow the viability of the multi-species abattoirs, which may fit well with Katherine Abattoir combining the two.
Government has said that they will look at putting up some money for a multi-species abattoir. Maybe you can look at the Katherine Abattoir, combining that with multi-species. You bring your camels up to there, which is not a big deal in terms of freighting them in. Similarly with buffalo down from the Top End or out to the west of Katherine, it is not a big deal to bring them in to Katherine. Maybe then, with some market identification, we could launch into perhaps new Halal export markets and create the viability for a combined multi-species abattoir set up in conjunction with the Katherine Abattoir to make sure that gets off the ground.
As we all know, value adding to livestock products is all about taking them off the hoof and putting them into packets and boxes and marketing them as a finished product rather than sending them live. Whilst the live market, as I said, has been a good and stable one, and hopefully it will be into the future, I don’t think we should just rest on the fact that it will forever be that way. We should be expanding our market research, looking for new markets and particularly in how to value add in the buffalo and camel meat area.
On the buffalo side of things, I would like to take the opportunity to ensure members are aware of a photographic exhibition by David Hancock called Buffalo: Taming of an Icon from 17 to 23 June at the Cruise Ship Terminal at Stokes Hill Wharf. There is an opening on 17 June at 5.30 pm for anyone interested to go. It is certainly of interest to me, having been in that industry at one time. I congratulate David Hancock for putting that together.
Wild foods is a very exciting area where there is a lot of room for expansion, whether it be in marine products or bird life, as mentioned here with magpie geese, but crocodiles and all of the native wildlife species that are growing. There are some exciting things happening in that area as far as identifying the elements in some of the native wildlife species for medicinal use. That has a lot of potential.
It is good to see that government has been working with key stakeholders, Charles Darwin University and others, to ensure that work is ongoing. Once again, as I said before, when there are private operators who would like to engage in joint ventures in this area, particularly with indigenous enterprises, government should seize on those to assist in any way possible because the benefits of those ventures are so wide not only for Aboriginal people but for Territorians and for our market as a whole.
The Food Group that the minister has spoken of is great, as is the NT Air Freight Working Group. Last year, as has been the case for a couple of years, Wet Season air freight capacity out of Darwin has been a major issue. I take for granted that the NT Air Freight Working Group has this high on its agenda. It is not a big issue during the Dry Season when the capacity of airlines is increased because of increased numbers into and out of Darwin by air, but when things quieten down in the Wet Season and the size and number of planes into and out of Darwin is reduced, air freight capacity becomes a real issue for very timely products, such as mud crab and even cut flowers to some extent. That is an area that needs a lot of work to ensure that our product is available to markets on a continuous basis because that is the key thing. Anyone who has produced in the Territory, or anywhere in fact, will know that continuous supply as well as quality are the big issues. If you can guarantee continuous supply, then you will secure markets a lot easier than if you have an ad hoc supply chain that is not going to guarantee to get your product to the market.
The initiatives with sea freight and the mango growers and so forth working on shipping mangoes to European markets – I have been well briefed on that – there are some Katherine growers in conjunction with Western Australian growers who are doing are great things there in terms of pilot shipments. They are doing another one this year whereby they are following their containers over into those larger European markets. They have been doing a lot of work on exposing Europeans to the mango product, showing them what it is, how you eat it and so forth, and there is a very high acceptance rate once people understand it as a tropical fruit.
The new work being done on allowing that product to be treated for the longer shipping times is very exciting. It is great technology and a great industry initiative. I wish them all the best. If it is successful this year, it opens the doors for some major inroads into those European markets that have never before been accessible to the Northern Territory unless by way of air freight, which, obviously, is very expensive and usually not a viable option. That is an exciting area, and I believe there is great room, in the not too distant future, for the Territory to package up its goods so that they can be taken into those large European markets, be it camel or buffalo, exotic fruits or marine products, even cut flowers, and, by all means, branded under the NT symbol. It is great to see the NT food identifier program going. There is a great opening for the Northern Territory, with its diverse range of products, particularly in those winter markets in Europe, to get in there in a large, coordinated way, that will put the NT well on the map as a quality producer of exotic and unique products.
It is good to see that the department is assisting in the food safety and food quality areas. That, obviously, is very important. Marketing, food quality, transportation are all aspects that are very important to ensure that products are not only grown well, as we know we can do in the Northern Territory, but for the whole market chain to be developed and be consistent with quality control in place.
The same applies to all marketing mentioned in the statement by the minister today: Taste Down Under 2004, the food identifier, what is happening in conjunction with the National Food Industry Strategy Limited, and all the initiatives mentioned including the Darwin Seafood Festival.
Our agricultural participants are a great lot of people. They certainly are very innovative and very stubborn in their determination to ensure that not only do they grow good product, but they grow the right product for markets. They are always looking outside the square for new markets and we have done that many times in the past. The consistency that comes together in this statement is great to see. There is a very exciting future for our primary industries and fisheries and, as I said at the outset, I congratulate the minister and his department for such a concise statement.
Mr HENDERSON (Business and Industry): Mr Acting Deputy Speaker, I also congratulate the Minister for Primary Industry and Fisheries for his statement on growing the Northern Territory food industry. As Minister for Business and Industry, I am aware of Territorians in the food and beverage industry who are out there creating their own businesses and developing their products and markets.
In my supporting statement, I will talk about the Northern Territory food sector from the manufacturing and value-adding perspective. The add-on benefits of the food industry, from production to processing to sale and exporting, bring benefits to the economy through the various transactions. It all begins in the manufacturing stage at the beginning of production.
I will start by giving the House the latest available statistics from 2000-01 for the Northern Territory manufacturing sector that show the food and beverage sector generated $33.5m value-add to the Northern Territory economy in that financial year. I am sure that that number has probably increased. It equates to the sector contributing more than 10% of the Northern Territory manufacturing total.
One of the benefits I draw to members’ attention is the number of jobs in the food manufacturing sector in the Northern Territory. Statistics also show that the sector employs about 400 people. That is a significant number for our population and, seasonally, I would expect that figure to rise.
The Minister for Primary Industry and Fisheries, spoke about the wonderful list of products produced in the Territory, but I would like to highlight the food subsections that fit into the manufacturing sector. We have a small beverage manufacturing sub-sector that produces mainly soft drinks, juices and wine. It includes our famous mango wine, and I am happy to say that mango wine production is increasing. Our Northern Territory mango wines are now stocked at a chain of liquor stores and are exported. I was pleased to be invited by Paul Williams and the team to Winnellie when they were reopening their winery after a fire last year. I proudly took some bottles of mango wine to Singapore as gifts recently, and presented a couple of bottles to the Singapore trade minister. I have not heard back from him what he thought of the wine, but it is a pretty good product, and I am sure when I catch up with him on my next trip to Singapore, I will find out how that wine was received.
At the moment, fruit juice production from locally-grown product is minimal, but the potential of using local mangoes, citrus and melons is being explored by existing beverage bottlers who currently produce our locally bottled water.
Dairy product processing, including milk and ice-cream, is another sector of the industry that has a lot of potential. Our locally produced ice-cream is the best, and constituents of mine who have become pretty good friends over the last few years, Frank and Helen Lo Castro, make the best ice cream on sale in the Northern Territory, probably the best in Australia. They are prime example of a Territory small business, a family-owned business, that has been around for many years. The member for Millner was telling me stories about when he was growing up as a kid, buying pizzas at Rapid Creek from Frank and Helen. They were the best pizzas in the Territory and now they make the best ice-cream in the Territory.
As the new business minister in the Northern Territory, one of the first letters I received when we were elected to government was a very powerful letter from Helen Lo Castro, really laying out the enormous challenges that they have as a family-run small manufacturing food business in the Northern Territory. There are huge hurdles they have to jump to get their products on to supermarket shelves. They have ongoing trials and tribulations to maintain access to the market place via the major supermarket chains. It was a letter that really tugged at the heart strings in terms of how small, family-based companies like the Lo Castros keep going year after year when the hurdles that they see being put in front of them get higher and higher.
Essentially, what came out of that letter was, through the department, a real consolidation and understanding of some of the issues and hurdles for producers and manufacturers in the Northern Territory trying to access Coles and Woolies shelves. In March last year, the department pulled together a major forum at which our food producers and manufacturers met with the major buyers from Woolies. Many issues were explored and some of the barriers have been overcome. Essentially, the challenge for the Lo Castros and other producers in the Northern Territory to get access to the market place in the Northern Territory – I don’t know what the numbers are – but the vast majority of our household grocery purchases in the Territory would go through those major supermarket chains. I would have thought it would be 80% to 90% of all the food that is consumed at home goes through those supermarket chains. Unless you have your product on the shelves in the supermarket, it is very hard to grow your business in the Northern Territory.
One of the key issues facing those people is as those supermarket businesses grow, as their purchasing becomes more centralised, getting to people who make those decisions in Sydney, or wherever they may be, is becoming increasingly difficult. What it means is that for small producers around Australia, access to those shelves is becoming harder and harder. They have a point. In the meetings that I have had with senior executives from Woolies and Coles, we have had a very good hearing. Products are still on the shelves, but the perception is that it is becoming harder and harder.
Without getting too political tonight, one of the challenges for the federal government is reform of the Trade Practices Act, which is supposed to be the main legislative teeth on market power, of abuse of market power and acquisitions of companies to establish market dominance. There is a Senate Committee at the moment that will report on reform of the Trade Practices Act. Mark Latham and federal Labor have issued a reform agenda, which I support. At the stage we are with Competition Policy, Australia needs to adopt that reform agenda.
One of the commitments is strengthening section 46 of the Trade Practices Act to deal with abuse of market power, which deals with dominance in the market place. The intended change is to ‘substantial market power’ rather than ‘market dominance’, which will give small business better effective protection from the abuse of market power by big business. Also, federal Labor is saying that they will introduce ‘cease and desist’ administrative orders that give a remedy to small business and consumers from the abuse of market power.
At the moment, there is clear evidence that the time taken by the ACCC to take actions for market abuse is too long. For many small businesses, by the time they have their case heard, they are going out of business backwards. Consumers are suffering because of the time taken for the ACCC to hear the case and make a ruling.
By having the capacity to issue interim administrative orders that call on the company to cease and desist from anti-competitive conduct whilst an inquiry takes place – obviously, there would have to be a level of proof provided for a cease and desist order - will mean that the ACCC has better teeth to force a business to stop practices to the detriment of small business.
The third one that is pretty important is a proposal to amend section 50 of the Trade Practices Act to combat creeping and cumulative acquisitions. What we see currently is about 80% of all supermarkets in Australia dominated by the big two, and a move for a creeping acquisitions where the acquisition or one supermarket in itself is neither here nor there, but when 40 or 50 are cumulatively acquired over a period of time, there is an emerging duopoly in the market place, and that is to the detriment of small business. The ACCC having the power to act where it believes creeping acquisitions threaten competition is something that is long overdue. Strengthening section 50 of the Trade Practices Act to allow the ACCC to treat a series of cumulative acquisitions as a single event will be beneficial to small businesses and small producers.
I have talked to a number of companies, not only the Lo Castro’s, but a number of small businesses that have real problems getting their food onto supermarket shelves. They believe that the ACCC is a bit of a toothless tiger and it is really hard to have their voices heard.
So, to the Lo Castro’s, I, as your local member, am in there batting for you. It is a great product and I congratulate them as well for the new packaging. They are in the running for a national design award for new packaging. If you look in the petrol retail chains around Darwin at the moment, they have brand new fridges that stock the Lo Castro product. They are doing everything they can to broaden their reach in the market place, but they still need to be on those major supermarket shelves.
Freshly baked products are made by medium size bakeries in Darwin and Alice Springs and by local franchised bakers to meet local demand. We have meat processing in our seasonal abattoir operations. The Territory’s fruit and vegetable markets are growing and they have proven themselves as suppliers of premium and quality goods. Northern Territory growers have created niche markets for high quality fruit and vegetables that are pre-consigned to buyers, which means the produce undergoes minimal processing and arrives as quickly as possible to the buyers. To a small degree, some dried fruit is produced as well as delicious pickles and jams created for the specialty market. These are just some of the Territory’s produce that contribute to more than 10% of our manufacturing sector.
It is the Martin government’s support for this sector that led to the creation of the Northern Territory Manufacturing Industry Strategy released early this year. The strategy is this government’s five-year plan to develop the Territory’s manufacturing industry and create more opportunities for small business. The manufacturing strategy was developed in partnership with industry and the wider community. It outlines the next major steps we will take to capitalize on new manufacturing opportunities and build on what has already being achieved. For the food industry, this is particularly exciting because there are so many opportunities still to be explored and there is so much scope to develop the industry.
The strategy, called Making it in the Territory, incorporates a four-point plan. The four parts of the strategy are: growing manufacturing opportunities and markets; developing manufacturing skills; creating strategic partnerships; and promoting and supporting best practice. These four themes were identified as necessary to maximise the growth of the manufacturing sector and to harness new opportunities in the Territory. Within each of these themes are specific strategy actions for government and industry to work together to achieve. The government has also set itself a deadline for the manufacturing industry development objectives: 2009.
First, the government will work to increase the value of manufacturing production in the Territory. We will be working to stimulate growth in the value of our manufacturing sector turnover by 40%. For the food sector, this will entail identifying new opportunities, including research and development through Desert Knowledge and Tropical Knowledge initiatives. We will complete an export action plan and maximise linkages to our international trade strategy and the Territory exporter’s network, amongst other things.
Second, we will encourage the creation of jobs and the development of manufacturing skills. We set the target to expand employment in this sector by 25%. For the food industry, this could mean access to training and business skills development, with the government building on our current programs.
Third, the government will assist the expansion of exports of manufactured products. We will boost the value by 40% of manufacturing industry international exports from the Northern Territory.
All of these things will impact upon the food and beverage manufacturing industry and lead to growth and development.
The third objective, increasing exports, is something that I, as minister for Business and Industry, and minister for Asian Relations and Trade am passionate about. The Northern Territory has some very exciting exports, and potential exports in the food industry, and this government is fully committed to growing this sector of international trade.
I am pleased to inform the House that the food export sector is one with enormous potential. There is so much going on in this sector that I would like to highlight some of the more exciting developments that I see as having great potential for the food industry in the Territory.
At present, we have a number of food-related export activities that include NT Fish Supplies and its parent company, McKay Reef Fish. Both companies are export accredited, and six months ago, purchased the former Winnellie premises of AusExport. NT Fish is acting as a consolidator and exporter of various fish species, including barramundi. They are presently exporting 1 to 2 tonnes of fish per week, which goes predominantly to Miami where it is being served in five-star restaurants and hotels. It also exports small volumes of reef fish and banana prawns. The fact that Territory barramundi was recently sent to Denmark where it was served at the official dinner to celebrate the Royal Wedding is testament to the high quality of this Territory product. The Danish market is currently being explored for future opportunities building on this success, and I would like to think we can expect future sales to this country.
Marine Harvest exports sea cage barramundi through Brisbane to Europe and the United States, and send out up to five tonnes per week. The Port Hurd sea cage farm plans to have a capacity of 1500 tonnes by the end of 2004, with additional plans to expand to 2500 tonnes by the end of 2005. Currently, 15% of production is exported, but this will increase with the expansion that is planned.
Humpty Doo Barra, to Julie and others there, is a great business that has been developed over the last few years. Their product goes to the USA. They have also taken part in some DBRID business growth programs, which have helped their business enormously, so they advise.
Another exciting development is the investors operating as Suntay Aquaculture. These Filipino investors plan to export prawns to the Japanese market within the next two years from their Bynoe Harbour facility. Newfish Australia operate a fleet of Darwin-based prawn trawlers, which fish the Gulf of Carpentaria and export product to Spain and Japan. Tenarra Abattoirs at Batchelor export chilled and frozen beef to Indonesia. Studies are also underway to look at the potential for the export of other species including camel, goat and buffalo.
A very exciting development is the consortium of Katherine-based mango growers who are involved in trial shipments of mangoes to Europe and the United Kingdom using atmosphere controlled sea containers. The consortium will be taking two 40-foot atmosphere controlled containers of Kensington Pride mangoes to the United Kingdom where they will work with some of London’s leading outlets to mount a highly targetted six-week marketing campaign. In addition to this, the Territory already exports mangoes to Hong Kong and Singapore. Recently, a leading mango grower accompanied a mission to Hong Kong and southern China, where they secured further orders for the export of mangoes this coming season to Hong Kong. Opak, another of the Territory’s leading mango farmers, is also associated with the Australian Fresh Mango Consortium, which has exported to Asia, the Middle East and Europe. Another of the horticultural exports from the Territory is rambutans, which are being exported to Japan.
Whilst being at the front end of the food chain, it is also important to note that one of the largest exports from the Territory is live cattle, which are exported to Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei and the Middle East from the port of Darwin.
Other exciting opportunities are now presenting themselves. As this House sits, a group of Territory growers and exporters are in Kuala Lumpur with senior staff of my Department of Business, Industry and Resource Development. They are there to speak with Malaysian Airlines about opportunities for the export of produce to both Malaysia, and through to Europe, using Malaysia Airline connections.
I advise the member for Daly that the Airfreight Working Group, which DBIRD convene through my department, is doing great coming to grips with the volumes and issues facing the primary sectors in terms of getting their product into the market place. Studies have been conducted and a very good business case is being put to the airlines. I am absolutely convinced that we can prove to the airlines that if we work together and book our freight in a consistent and organised way, we can justify increasing our volumes and possibly even have a dedicated freight service out of Darwin to Brisbane or Sydney. A lot of work is being done with the sector in that area and if we can pull it off, it is going to lead to greater investment and better returns for business.
In addition to this, the National Food Industry Group, which is fully supported by the government and of which the Northern Territory is an active member, is bringing a group of leading chefs from Dubai to Darwin later this month. These chefs are keen to learn more about the types of food and products available in the Territory, and the aim from this visit is to secure high-end contracts in the Middle-East and Europe. Without the support of the government, this visit by the Dubai-based delegation would not have been possible.
I hope I have demonstrated the wide range of food produce in the Northern Territory, and the range of countries across the globe that are getting access to our produce. I would also like the House to note the support this government has put behind the sector through the Trade Support Scheme. The Trade Support Scheme has, in its first year, injected over $300 000 into the export community, and over 32% in TSS funding has gone to 11 applicants from the food sector, ranging across a broad cross-section of industry. This figure will continue to grow as the TSS becomes more widely utilised by the export community, and I will continue to encourage producers to utilise the scheme.
In closing, I would like to congratulate the minister but, most importantly, congratulate Murray Hird, who is in the gallery tonight, and his team at DBIRD, and the NT Food Group for doing a great job. Murray, to you and team, well done.
Mr WOOD (Nelson): Mr Acting Deputy Speaker, I, too, welcome the minister’s statement. Having listened to the minister for DBIRD, we probably could have had a bigger statement because his on its own was nearly a statement and expanded on a lot of other things on which the minister did not expand in his statement.
I have a few comments to make. Some are not good, some good are, but they need to be made. Minister, in your statement you spoke of farmed barramundi as a success story, and mentioned that 15 tonnes of it was being harvested each week with two tonnes going to the United States. Whilst that is good news and creates valuable employment opportunities such as those on Bathurst Island, the government needs to speak more clearly about the future of our wild catch or professional industry.
I sit in parliament listening to a lot of tit-for-tat debate about closing rivers and buying up barra licences to win the hearts of the recreational fishing industry and all the while, everyone seems to forget that a lot of people rely on the fish and chip shop for their fish. They do not own a Quintrex 9051 Super X with the obligatory stickers and the 40 hp engine, the fuel supply to match, the fish finder, the GPS, the in-built seven-day esky, the boat trailer, and the big vehicle to pull it. These people rely on the fish and chip shop to supply them with barramundi or threadfin salmon.
Does the government believe that the only barramundi we mere non-boaties should eat is the highly priced farm barramundi or imported fresh fish from Asia? It is time for the government to set its policy clear on the future of our professional fishing industry and put some thought into the average fish and chip consumer instead of looking for headline grabbing supposedly vote-winning fish policies. I would like to hear a response from the minister on this, so that when I meet customers, locals and tourists, who frequent fish and chip shops in the rural area, I can tell them the fish we are getting is Northern Territory barramundi at a reasonable price and not imported fish. You may ask what that has to do with the food industry; the supply of local produce to local shops is a very important part of the food industry.
I notice the minister did not mention the shark fin industry, which is very lucrative in the Territory. There has been some discussion in the newspapers recently over the requirements under the conditions of licence to have on board a vessel percentage ratios of shark product. Whilst it is, no doubt, great to see the seafood industry expanding, I hope that the minister has not omitted any mention of the industry because there is some disquiet in the community over whether the requirements of the conditions of a licence are being fulfilled.
Horticulture is one of the backbones of the food industry in the Northern Territory. It is funny how about 20 years ago, one could not get people to look at Asian vegetables, but today they are a big export earner for the Territory. Years ago at Daly River, I used to grow snake bean. Minister, I call it snake bean; I notice that you called it snake vine. I eat bean, I do not eat vine, so I am not sure where that terminology has come from in recent times. Perhaps it is a little bit like billy goat plums that turned into Kakadu plums. I prefer billy goat plums and snake beans. Anyway, I used to grow snake beans at Daly River, and except for local use on the community, it would hardly sell at all in Darwin. Now you go to some flash restaurant in Darwin and it is served up as flash cuisine. Flash cuisine for me would be French beans in the Northern Territory, but it is amazing how things have changed over the years.
One area that the minister has brushed over is the decline in non-Asian vegetables in the Northern Territory, especially in the Top End where here was once a thriving tomato, capsicum, lettuce and rock melon industry, although there are some people now growing rock melons. That seems to have fallen by the wayside. Whilst there may be a number of reasons for that, it is not helped by the lack of effort that government now puts into vegetable research compared with what they once did.
There is much talk about our fruit and vegetable industry. Most of that is now comprised of the fruit industry or Asian vegetables, but traditional vegetables have disappeared. Some of us might remember the trials that used to be shown off on the Coastal Plains Research Station using Taiwanese varieties of cabbage and cauliflower, but all that seems to have been taken over by big fruit crops and flowers, which is disappointing - not that I have anything against mangoes and cut flowers. We seem to have lost all our knowledge about new varieties of vegetables. The government should direct some of its effort into vegetable crops to attract interest from new growers who may wish to invest in this industry.
No one can doubt the importance of our horticultural industry such as the mango industry, but, once again, more emphasis needs to be placed on other crops such as rambutans, which is the one tree crop the Territory has successfully been able to export to Japan. I am probably arguing from the base of not wanting to put all our eggs in one basket; we need to have various options for export, and one of those crops which has been successfully exported from the Territory is rambutans. There needs to be some more work done on that crop.
I would like to have heard a little more detail on the future of the banana industry, although, minister, you did mention it in Question Time today, which has been severely hampered by the introduction of Panama disease. Bananas were a strong part of our food industry development, with large plantings in the late 1990s, and much of that in the Litchfield Shire. Now, much of it has gone. I would like to hear a detailed update of where we are with these new banana varieties. Bananas are potentially one of the great industries for the Northern Territory, but the industry is basically now on its knees. The only way it keeps going is by moving to new blocks of land where the Panama disease has not been established.
Minister, you mentioned peanuts under horticulture. Peanut is a broad acre crop and, as such, is regarded as an agricultural crop. I am a bit cynical because there is no mention of agricultural food crops in your statement. Whatever happened to sesame, corn and sorghum or the rice crops at Tortilla? It seems that the Territory has disappeared off the production map when it comes to our agricultural potential. One wonders whether the cotton phobia that has paralysed the government’s agricultural thinking has spread to other crops and we are too scared to have a sustainable go any more.
When I was growing vegetables on Bathurst Island, we would travel to the Douglas Daly and look at a few of the crops that were being grown. Of course, the Douglas Daly was opened up for some of those crops, especially sorghum and maize. I do not know where that has all gone. It all seems to have been replaced by hay. We have gone backwards in that respect; our agricultural food crops seem to have gone missing.
Wild foods are an area of enormous possibility, which you so rightly emphasised. The emphasis in your statement is on commercial opportunities for the sustainable use of native wildlife and wild foods so that export industries might develop to create more opportunities on Aboriginal communities. A lot more emphasis could be centred on the cultivation of these species, including varietal trials to increase the quantity of native foods eaten on communities. To have a mixture of native and introduced varieties growing in communities would probably be the right mix. Dessert then might be a little fresh banana and water melon infused - that is one of those fancy recipe terms - with a touch of billy goat plum juice.
In my last year at Bathurst Island, I looked at possible large-scale production of some of the native plants, but time ran out because it was one of those areas about which there was not a huge amount of knowledge. For instance, if you wanted to grow the billy goat plum tree, it is a variable species and so to grow a plant like that, you would have to look at a selection of the best varieties in the bush and then find a method of grafting the best variety to a root stock.
There is a lot of work we could do on some of those native plants. Even things like yams, which grow pretty easily and many Aboriginal people dig them up, could be developed as a more commercial crop similar to how you would grow watermelons or sweet potato.
Sadly, an area of concern is the lack of fresh food in our Aboriginal communities. In my travels with the Substance Abuse Committee, I saw no community gardens in operation. The food industry is also about local production and sale of food crops, and in this area, the Territory has gone backwards. Everything is now imported, which results in higher prices, smaller consumption of good fresh food and more unemployed. The reasons for the death of community gardens are complex and not easily fixed, but it is something that needs addressing by the government. Being a major concern in many of our communities, the availability of fresh foods, especially locally grown foods, should be our priority.
One industry that did not get a mention at all is the poultry industry. I looked long and hard, but I could not find anything about poultry. That is easy enough to understand: except for a few chooks at Lowans - and they may be more there for feeding the crocodiles than supplying eggs - our poultry industry is dead.
The Minister for DBIRD touched on this in his remarks: cheap imports have killed the industry and along with that, the jobs associated with it. It amazes me that the federal government can through piles of money to bail out or allow growers to opt out of the sugar cane industry, and here in the Territory, our government can put another $27m into the tourist industry, but nothing is done to put Territory fresh eggs on our tables. We only had a small poultry industry. Perhaps all that was needed were subsidies to freight feed to the Northern Territory so that at least we could compete with the price of feed down south. It would have been a small ask, considering the amount of money we do throw into helping other groups and, as I said, $27m into the tourism industry is a fair bit of money. I am not sure why did not help some of our poultry industry people.
Who is to go next? The pork industry? Speaking of pork, I am not sure whether the minister’s speech writers were carried away with the cow, the buffalo, and the camel when they referred to livestock, but in the Litchfield Shire, there is a small but important pig and goat industry. I include that so my pre-predecessor, the past, by two, member for Nelson will be happy to know that I recognised the goat industry. I know many a Greek person is fond of some of her goats, especially around Easter. It is a small industry, and you might say it does not play a big part, but it is part of our food industry, as is the pig industry. We have an abattoir near Robertson Barracks. It is a small but successful abattoir. It serves the local pig industry and also people who want to take some of their local livestock there for killing can go there as well. If anyone was to go into Woolworths or Coles, could they say that the pork they were eating was Territory pork? That is one of the things missing; we do not promote our food as well as we should.
Transport: the minister mentioned rail, air and even sea, but one of the most important requirements is good internal road networks. What is the government doing to make sure our road networks can carry cattle or horticultural product to market in lieu of a bone-shattering road? Good sealed roads mean not only does produce get to the market in better condition, but also, vehicles require less maintenance and last a lot longer than if the roads are badly maintained. As I have said before, if we are to develop the Territory, whether for primary industry or tourism, good roads are a priority.
I should mention that, in the Litchfield Shire, the previous government did go dollar-for-dollar with the Litchfield Shire Council in helping build a sealed road to the Acacia Hills area, which was producing reasonably large quantities of fruit, especially mangoes, and vegetables, namely tomatoes and sprouts. It was quite a big industry in that area. There was an example where, since that road has been sealed, there have been a lot more mangoes put into that area because they know they can get their produce from the Acacia Hills area and take it to market without it being bruised or covered in dust. More emphasis needs to be placed on developing our internal road system, and I know the minister was talking about air, rail and sea freight, we have forgotten that getting the produce from the farm to either the shops or the freight terminals requires good roads.
Finally, minister, could you say what your department is doing to open up opportunities for growers of local produce into big supermarket chains? Once again, I heard the minister for DBIRD talk about some of the changes that the federal government is proposing to reduce the power of our big supermarkets over little people. It is exactly that power that needs to be curtailed. It is that power that killed off our poultry industry. The big companies, by their size and buying power, are able to put eggs on shelves in Darwin at a price that no grower, even the bigger poultry farms, can compete with. They simply could not pay for the cost of feed, cooling their chickens and the lower production rates you get in a hotter climate, with our big supermarkets. Not only did they put eggs on the shelves, they would fill up three-quarters of the shelf space with their own generic brands. I would support moves by the federal government, no matter which government is in power, to put some controls over the power that these big companies have so that the small people can get into the market.
The minister for DBIRD said that they are so big that everything is done from Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide. The problem is that if you are a grower of tomatoes in Humpty Doo, you can only supply for a certain time of the year. It used to be the theory that if you delivered your tomatoes to Coles or Woolies, they sent them down to Adelaide and back. That was the theory with the mango industry. Once upon a time there was no problem, but now that the big companies have become so big, everything has to be centralised and developed according to FreshCare, the Code of Practice for growers. Whilst it is important, no doubt, it puts an enormous cost on the small growers.
FreshCare costs an enormous amount of money for growers to reach the standard. Sometimes, you would have to ask why. I do not know how many people have ever been poisoned from eating watermelons, but now you cannot just have watermelons, you have to have a shed that has been scrubbed down, you have to demonstrate that you use this and this chemical, and there is a whole range of things that you have to do. Whilst for some crops I would say that is fair enough, but for other crops, you would have to really ask: what are we talking about?
Yes, minister, we have a wonderful food industry. You have touched on many really exciting matters, proposals and phases of the industry.
A couple of weeks ago, I went to the gift shop over here and I could buy red apple jam made by a little group in Berry Springs. I thought that was just a great initiative. It is something very Territorian. Not too many people can buy red apple jam. It is the bush apple, a native apple. Someone has thought there is a niche in the market, and gone for it. The one way we will make our Territory product well known throughout the rest of Australia is to get into those niche markets so that people know that we are producing something special. That is an important side of the industry. The other side of the industry is that we have to do far more work on making sure a lot of the produce in our big supermarkets is NT produce that is not being replaced by cheaper imports from down south.
Mr BONSON (Millner): Mr Acting Deputy Speaker, like the minister, I have a great appreciation of food, particularly food produced in the Northern Territory or that is unique to the Northern Territory. The minister highlighted the amazing diversity of horticulture and food products grown in the Territory. I can attest to the amazing variety in the Northern Territory, as I often see and taste the diverse variety of fruit and vegetables at the Rapid Creek Sunday markets. Sunday markets are the oldest continuous market of their kind in the Northern Territory. We heard the minister for business talk about the Lo Castros and their involvement at Rapid Creek Shopping Centre and at the markets for over 25 or 30 years.
Everyone attests to the fact that our cuisine, the fruit and the vegetables in Darwin, represents a fantastic industry. There is no doubt that members on both sides of the House are supporting these important industries.
Produce such as mangoes, dates, melons, exotic fruit, Asian vegetables and herbs can all be found in our unique markets throughout the Northern Territory. The minister also has knowledge of these products including butternut pumpkin, sesame, star apples, snake beans, okra, bitter melons, jackfruit and dragon fruit. To those, I can add lemongrass, pawpaw, limes, bananas and tomatoes - the list goes on. I congratulate the growers who contribute 2000 tonnes of Asian vegetables trucked out of Darwin to Sydney and Melbourne and other major southern markets. My family and I often use Asian ingredients in our unique Darwin-style cooking, which has been heavily influenced by Asian cooking over the last century.
I note that the minister estimates that produce of $30m per annum from wild fisheries that include mud crabs, fish and, in particular, barramundi and fresh prawns. These were a primary source of fresh foods that many Territorians over the last 100 years used, as we did not have supermarkets and refrigeration. Many families - white, black, green or purple, indigenous to this country or migrants - have used the natural resources of the Northern Territory to provide food for their families.
I was watching a fishing documentary and they asked Rex Hunt what he likes about fishing and he said he gets to travel around the world. ‘What’s the best fish that you like to catch?’ Believe it or not, he said the barramundi from the north of Australia. He said it is a unique fish in the world and it is fantastic that this is natural and exists in the Northern Territory environment.
I enjoy catching and cooking these unique Territory icons from the wild. I do not get to go fishing as much as I would like, but Freshwater at Rapid Creek was the first place I ever caught a barramundi. I have continued to fish for barramundi all my life. Catching fresh prawns in the harbour or in Shoal Bay dragging a net has been common practice for my family over many generations. Believe it or not, though, mud crab is one of the few sea foods that I do not like, but everyone else in my family loves it. I enjoy catching the beautiful mud crab. I look forward to the industry continuing to produce these magnificent creatures for consumption not only within the Northern Territory but throughout Australia and overseas.
I believe the future of the Northern Territory aquaculture industry will have a huge effect on not only the Northern Territory economy, but also the sustainable economic development for Australia and the world. I believe responsible aquaculture will ensure the survival of our wild natural resources for all human beings around the world for future generations.
As we know, another important produce sector, arguably the oldest introduced industry in the Northern Territory is the livestock industry, which has played an important historic role in relationships between Europeans and Aboriginal Territorians. It has had particular implications for employment. This industry was, in many respects, the foundation of our traditional earnings in the Northern Territory. I congratulate the minister for the work he has done to assist the livestock industry grow and prosper, and in particular his work in improving export assistance by developing additional markets in Indonesia, Brunei and East Timor.
The horticulture, seafood and livestock industries have been and will continue to be vital to the economic and social future of the Northern Territory. It was great to read about industry development in the annual report of Business, Industry and Resource Development, which has targeted the development and facilitation of commercial opportunities through sustainable use of native wildlife and wild foods as a key objective for 2004-05.
As someone who has often gathered wild food from the bush in the Territory, I congratulate the minister and DBIRD for their attempts in creating indigenous economic opportunities by commercial harvesting of food that many Territorians enjoy on a daily, weekly or monthly basis. They include Territory icons such as magpie geese, long neck turtles, crocodiles, mud crabs and other native wildlife species.
The minister’s statement outlines many Northern Territory food products that the government is nurturing for the benefit of all Territorians. I will not re-state items highlighted by the minister. However, I will encourage all Territorians to read the minister’s statement on the manufacturing and value-added perspectives, which includes the latest ABS statistics from 2000-01 and the employment of 400 Territorians in these industries.
The NT Food and Beverage sub-sector includes beverage manufacturing – mainly soft drink, juices and wines; dairy products – processing of milk and ice-cream; bakery products; meat processing, fruit and vegetable processing, dried fruit, pickles, jams and salads etcetera.
I also appreciate the minister’s interest in creating greater opportunities for air, road, rail, and sea freight. Transport and logistics is a challenge for the future and no doubt will play and important role in the development and economic viability of the Northern Territory
I encourage all members to get behind the food industry. We have seen both sides of parliament contribute in a positive manner tonight, and I am sure the minister appreciates this. This minister has outlined the good work both government and producers are continuing to carry out. However, without the support of all Territorians, this hard working sector will find it more difficult to proceed. With the support of the government and all Territorians, the sector will continue to grow and prosper. I congratulate the minister for his hard work and commend the statement to this honourable House.
Mrs BRAHAM (Braitling): Mr Deputy Speaker, I am grateful to the minister for presenting this statement because it gives me an opportunity to celebrate some of the good things that are happening in Central Australia.
I refer, of course, to the Central Australian Food Group. This group is flourishing at the moment. It is doing such good work, people are falling over backwards to become members. We have chefs, producers and now tourism people involved because there is a huge potential to market Central Australia through our food.
The minister probably mentioned the fact this article was in the June-July edition of Outback magazine. I suggest people read it because it deals with chefs involved in the Alice Springs Food Group. What people don’t know is that the food group was featured twice in the Qantas in-flight magazine. You cannot buy that sort of publicity. That goes everywhere. So they have been a real winner. The feedback from journalists is quite amazing. The publicity is making a real impact on this group. They are so enthusiastic and they cooperate so well. They join together to make this work because they can see the potential. It is interesting to see chefs from different establishments working so cooperatively to promote the foods of the Centre.
Once upon a time, you could not buy fresh seafood in Central Australia. It was frozen, it came from interstate, you never knew how old it was, but the variety now is extraordinary. You can get filleted fish, fresh, frozen, whole fish, farmed fish, wild fish. There is such variety available, it is tremendous. What is coming through is the fact that we have in Central Australia foods that can really make a difference, foods that have a distinctive flavour and condiments that can make foods so uniquely attractive.
For instance, we all know of the success of the grape industry in Ti Tree and how that was pioneered in such a way that it is now huge. We all know about Jimmy Crayford’s mango wine and how that has taken off and how he has promoted that. I usually buy Lions Christmas Cakes to give to some of my oldies, but instead, I went out to the date farm last Christmas and bought some chocolate dates just for something different. There a variety of food available, and this group is experimenting with them.
It is interesting that Jimmy Shu from the Hanuman has now decided to change his menu and he is experimenting using some of the different foods of the Centre such as camel meat. You have probably heard of Mo McCosker who is our hydroponic man down there. Jimmy will often go out to Mo’s farm and walk around and take a bit of this and a bit of that and go back to his restaurant and try something different. That is what it is all about. Jimmy has the restaurant up here, but you will find the menu quite different if you go to the one in Alice Springs. He is very enthusiastic, and he has been to America promoting our product as well.
You all know of Beat Keller and his Swiss Indian restaurant. If you did not, you did after the Billy Connolly show because he got such tremendous publicity just through that small comment by Billy about Beat’s restaurant. He is such an enthusiastic person, and his restaurant is always so alive. These are different establishments, but these fellows work together. You have heard of Athol Wark, who was at the Alice Springs Convention Centre, and I thank the government for assisting him to go to the United States to promote our foods. He did a tremendous job. As well as that, we have Sven Hugg who is at Voyages restaurant.
So you have all these different chefs, who are talented, who take the distinctive flavours of Central Australian product and are coming up with a menu that is unbelievably wonderful. This is what they are saying: by doing this, the tourism people know that they will be bringing people to the Centre to experience the tastes of the Centre, and that is a thrust in tourism that we have not really made before, but there is a real market there.
I would like to talk about Mo McCosker or Murray, but no-one knows him as Murray. He is the guy who started growing hydroponic lettuce in Alice Springs in 1993. The business grew and became successful. Now he has gone into herbs as well, and when you go into the supermarket and pick them up, they still have the roots on them. He has around nine varieties of lettuce, a range of herbs like rosemary, coriander, parsley, thyme, you name it. He also supplies Coles Supermarkets in the Northern Territory. I guess, in a way, this is why I am saying to government you could probably help because as yet he has not captured the Woolworths market. Interestingly, Woolworths want all the food sent to Adelaide and then probably back again. Coles have been great to Mo. Some of the independent supermarkets around the Territory have also been supportive: you walk into them and you will see his products.
He also supplies a lot of the private wholesalers in Darwin and Alice Springs and I am sure you would have seen his produce. He is continually refining his product. Apparently it takes just nine weeks from the seed to the picking – nine weeks – so his turnover is quite fast. In the winter, they start at about 11 o’clock in the morning,, when the frost is over, to pick, and in the summer, they start at 4am so, depending on the weather and how it is going, is when he starts his picking teams.
If you ask his wife if he has expanded, she will say, ‘Yes, right up to the house’, because he has a five-acre property and has built these growing tables and I think all he has is a driveway and a house, he has so many tables with all the hydroponic equipment on them. He believes that there is potential for other vine crops if he had the room, such as cucumbers and tomatoes. Demand exceeds what he is able to supply. Mo is a very strong supporter of the food group because it is a way that producers can showcase their products. He is one of the Centre’s success stories that we should be celebrating. From a tiny beginning in hydroponics, he is now a great producer. I commend him for what he has done. I think it is great stuff.
Peter Seidel is president of this food group. As we all know, Peter has the Camel Farm, and has come a long way exporting camels back to the Middle-East. The minister mentioned an abattoir. At the moment, Peter has to send his camels to the abattoir at Strathalbyn in Adelaide because there is no abattoir in the Territory to cater for them. There is an abattoir in Tennant Creek, which is owned, I believe, by the Sultan of Brunei, who really does not intend to use it. I believe there is some interest from another party, and I suggest to the minister that he support and encourage this business person to start the abattoir at Tennant Creek again. That would be a good central location. If it could be used to slaughter camel, cattle, buffalo and horses, that would be great.
We are all well aware that we cannot have an abattoir that slaughters the pork and camels if we want to capture that overseas market. If the minister could investigate this and we could get that going, I know the camel industry would move a lot faster than it is. As livestock should not be the only way we send camels overseas. Members have mentioned value-adding, and we should seriously address it. That is a business proposition that I am quite sure Tennant Creek also would really like the minister to start working on.
The Central Australian Food Group had great success not just at the Expo, but other places around town. The Speaker’s dinner on Thursday night will be catered with the theme Taste of the Territory. I hope members come along to that night, because it is a special menu so that members can enjoy it. The lady who is catering for that is Karen Sheldon. You may remember that Karen used to run the Dolly Pot Inn in Tennant Creek. If you ever went to Tennant Creek, you always went to the Dolly Pot. She has been in the restaurant and catering industry for 30 years. She says that in 1970, she was passing through the Territory on holiday - sounds familiar, doesn’t it? - and she heard there was a cook’s job going at Barrow Creek. Becoming a chef was her greatest ambition, and it so happened that a chef’s qualification was not needed at Barrow Creek. She got the job as cook, taught herself and, over the next 30 years, gradually moved up the track and currently is in Darwin cooking, as she says, at the top of the world. She is fully supportive of the food strategy group that the minister has spoken about. Karen Sheldon is a success story and is one of our top chefs. Her approach to cooking and presentation utlising local products so we all to enjoy the taste of the Territory is really great.
I congratulate the Department of Primary Industry and Fisheries and DBIRD as officers in those departments have given the Central Australian Food Group tremendous support. They have been there to assist them with marketing, organising trips and introducing people. I am sorry I missed out on that visiting chef - I cannot remember his name, but whoever came up recently - because I would really love to have tasted some of his products.
The more we can promote this type of thing as unique to the Territory but, more importantly, unique to Central Australia, then we have a market they we have never tapped into before. Minister, please continue to give the Central Australian Food Group all the support you can. They certainly are enthusiastic. They enjoy what they are doing and they are giving back to the Territory in a tangible way.
Mrs MILLER (Katherine): Mr Acting Deputy Speaker, I welcome the report. My comments will be related to tourism.
One of the areas of tourism that is always very appealing when you travel, of course, is food. Wherever you go, the main topic of the day is what you are going to have for a meal at night. Of course, it was not terribly long ago that people would visit the Territory and pretty much eat fast food, fast food, fast food. The Territory has come of age in the last 10 to 12 years with the products that we have. They are local products, which is what makes it so special. We have a very classy lot of people who come to the Territory now. They are looking for healthy food and a unique experience. They do not want to come up here and try food that they have in their own state or country. Part of their tourism adventure to the Territory is food.
I encourage the new adventures we are having with the Central Australian Food Group and new tastes. I am glad it is being promoted as a tourist venture. The minister said that 47% of domestic tourists are classified as culinary tourists and that is exactly right; it might be a little higher than that because they do spend a lot of their tourist dollars on food.
I am very excited to see that the Territory is matching what the travelling people are looking for in something unique. Our barramundi has been unique for years, as are mud crabs, which are whoppers and are a meal in themselves. My first taste of mud crab was at what is now called the Hanuman - I cannot remember what it was called before, but it was the biggest mud crab I had ever seen in my life. I took a fair while to eat the thing and it was absolutely beautiful. Tiger prawns, crocodile, all of those things that I tried for the first time in the Territory gave me a good insight into what we had here.
Exotic fruits: you have to only watch tourists go to the Parap markets, the Nightcliff and Rapid Creek markets and see them spending some time looking around all of the exotic fruits and wondering what on earth they are and they are quite happy to buy them, too, to try them. That produce at the markets is quite an attraction. We have a fabulous date farm in Alice Springs. Every time I go to Alice, I make sure I go visit them and bring home plenty of samples. Our native wildlife and our wild food products are unique. Most of those I seem to associate, again, with Central Australia, probably because Red Ochre does a great job in Alice Springs and it is one restaurant that I always tend to visit when I am there because the tastes are just that little bit different and special.
Food is definitely an important experience for our tourists when they arrive in the Territory. I am sure that when they leave here, they go away with great memories, especially of things that they have not tried before. Mangoes are extremely popular and I am very pleased to see mango industry representatives from around Katherine have been getting themselves organised and investing in exporting internationally. They have put in a lot of effort over a period of time and are now able to export high quality mangoes to Europe. They have not just exported them. They do not call them mangoes, by the way; I think they call them Kensingtons so that they sound a bit better. They have gone to the supermarkets and encouraged people to sample them. They have gone out on a limb to do that and it is going to work very well for them.
I am very pleased to say that the Northern Territory matches, in my opinion, any other state or territory with our unique foods and I know that tourists who come here will go away having had a pleasant culinary experience and would be very happy to talk about the Territory in a positive and enthusiastic light.
It is fair when you the minister said that the travelling and the dining public have become incredibly well educated. I am pleased to say that the Territory has become well educated in dining as well. It would be very nice to see this sort of dining incorporated on The Ghan when it gets to Alice Springs to have a bit of a unique dining experience through the rest of the Territory. I am sure when we are speaking to them, and I will be speaking to them shortly because there are some other very negative things happening with The Ghan, it would be nice if something positive that was unique to the Territory was introduced to the dining car. Maybe we could suggest that as one way they could lift their profile a little in the Northern Territory.
All in all, it is an excellent report. I was a bit like the member for Nelson; I could not find anything about chickens. I did not worry because chickens were probably the first we considered in our food menus up here, apart from fish, so it is nice to see all of these other areas being addressed. I am very pleased to say that tourists are going to go away from the Territory having had a nice experience and tasted some unique and special food.
Mr VATSKALIS (Primary Industry and Fisheries): Mr Acting Deputy Speaker, I thank members for their contributions. I wished to report because I am very excited about the abilities and possibilities of food production of the Northern Territory.
We live in a unique environment and we produce some unique foodstuffs in the Territory, not only meat produce like buffalo, camel and even some of our run-of-the-mill cattle that are a bit different from down south, but also mangoes, rambutans and the Asian vegetables that are produced here because our climate is very similar to South-East Asia, to our close neighbours.
Also what is exciting is the wild foods, the ones that nowhere else in the world can produce and are uniquely Territorian. When I first came to Australia, a trend had begun to utilise wild Australian produce in the cuisine. Bush tomatoes were probably unknown to me before. Of course, since then they are used commonly in our dishes, as are some of the bush peppers, bush myrtle and the billy goat plum, as was mentioned by the member for Nelson. The billy goat plum now is called the Kakadu plum and is one of the richest producers of vitamin C.
Two types the Kakadu plums are going to be exported to the United States of America for a evaluation by a large multicultural company that has a major slice of the food market next week, and there is an experimental farm in Kakadu, a company and individuals have selected some of the more productive trees of Kakadu plum and have virtually domesticated them for cultivation for the international market.
It is my belief that in the next few years, we are going to see the same happening with a number of other wild products - not only vegetables and fruits, but also produce like magpie geese. There have already been inquiries about taking chicks from the wild and domesticate and breed them. Similarly with bush turkey, which is supposed to be one of the tastiest native Australian birds. They were near extinction a few years back because everyone was hunting them, but thank God now they are a protected species and we can see them returning to the bush again.
When you put a dollar value on those animals, and produce that will be maintained, propagated, utilised, they are going to provide business opportunities to all Territorians, especially indigenous Territorians who they live away from main centres, but they have access to the waterways, creeks and rivers. We have reached the stage now where we sell some of the best produce in Australia, but we have to make sure that what we sell is of the highest quantity, quality and standard. That is why we introduced the Northern Territory food identifier. All quality produce of the highest standard that can be exported can have the NT symbol on them so we make sure that when people buy something with the Territory symbol on it, they know they are buying something that will be of consistent quality and quantity.
I have said many times before in industry forums that you do not see in the supermarket Joe Bloggs’ oranges from America; you see California oranges. You know when you buy California oranges, you buy produce of the highest quality and standard because you cannot use the name ‘California oranges’ on your produce unless the produce complies with the standards set by the company or by the parent export organization. I would like to say the same apply to our mangoes, rambutans and Asian vegetables. Sometimes, a bad batch of mangoes coming from the Territory can ruin the whole Territory mango industry because people are not going to be confident again to buy mangoes that are produced in the Territory because they had a bad experience with previous produce.
I can understand the concerns of the member for Nelson, but today we are not here to talk about shark fin and the effect on the sharks by cowboys in the industry. We are here to talk about Territory foods and development of a unique Territory cuisine, but I share his concern. At the same time, I remind him that the Territory works very closely with the federal government and with organisations like Greenpeace and the World Wildlife Fund to establish a program of how to harvest sharks for their fin without putting the fishery in danger. Twenty years ago, they were harvesting about 7000 tonnes of shark in the Territory; that has gone down to 800 tonnes, so there has been a significant reduction.
As for buy-back of Territory barramundi licences, this government does not intend to wipe out the barramundi fishery. What we want to do is buy some of the licences back to reduce the effect on the barramundi stock and at the same time, close some rivers to give more access to recreational fishermen. At the moment, we have about 25 barramundi licences. I think we can reduce this number of licences available there without affecting the industry because we are reducing the effect on the barramundi fishery rather than closing down the fishery, and there will still be barramundi available to the market. However, I would like to point out that some of the barramundi you buy now from the aquaculture businesses is the same quality and price as the barramundi you buy from fishermen at the wharf. The problem is that most of our barramundi finishes up in southern markets like Sydney and not much finishes here in the Territory.
My department continues to conduct research on mangoes, rambutans and bananas. We want to find a stock that will be resistant to Panama disease because it really hit our banana industry hard, and we want to see it back in a healthy state. My department will continue to do research on aquaculture and animal production. One of my pet projects is to see more camel meat and buffalo meat not on Top End restaurant tables, but in the supermarket and in every Australian home.
We have to start thinking aggressively about how we are going to sell that product, especially camel and buffalo. I recall a few years back when we had an oversupply of lamb. The lamb organisation produced recipes, beautiful little cards, which were displayed on top of the freezer where you go to buy your lamb, and they described how to prepare the meal, the time that it would take, the nutritional information and how good lamb was for you. We could do the same with the buffalo and camel and other produce in the Territory. We will be talking to the industries to work in partnership.
The horticultural industry is a significant industry in the Northern Territory, and contributes $86m per year. We have a variety of produce. We have a variety not only of mangoes, rambutans and bananas; we should remember that we have flowers, one of the most important exports from the Territory both interstate and overseas. As an example, when I was in Western Australia, nobody in the 1980s and 1990s in Europe knew about kangaroo paw until they were produced massively in Western Australia. They are promoted, and if you want to have something exotic in Europe now, what are you going to buy? You are going to buy kangaroo paws air freighted out of Perth where they are produced locally. We can do the same here.
At this stage, the Territory is poised to develop its horticultural-agricultural industries. With animals and fisheries, we are in a unique position. We have the best produce and a tradition of thousands of years from our indigenous Territorians, and a tradition of hundreds of years from hundreds of countries of all the other non-English speaking background migrants who have come to the Territory. Recently I went to a Chung Wah dinner and the entres were ‘plated’ in tomatoes. Nowhere else in Australia would you find something like that in a Chinese banquet.
That shows you that we learn from each other, and we can incorporate these tastes to our own table, our own cooking, and we have something uniquely Territorian. We are now producing barramundi in aquaculture and fish farms. We are producing mud crabs for the first time, again in fish farms, and we are producing some of the unique and exotic fruits and Asian vegetables. Very often, we incorporate it to produce something that is uniquely Territorian that nobody else in Australia can produce. Again, travelling down south many times, you go to some of the Chinese restaurants called Food Halls and you order a Chinese dinner. Instead of getting bok choy, you get lettuce because they cannot produce bok choy in Canberra in the middle of winter. We can do it and we can supply it.
Overall, I am very enthusiastic about our horticultural, agricultural, animal and fishery industries in the Territory. We have unique products; products that, if managed and promoted well, we will provide unique opportunities for Territorians, especially young Territorians, from the farm to the shop and to the where you actually cook it. We now have extreme interest from international chefs to try our produce, including Ian Parmenter, who I recall very well from Consuming Passions. This is the second time he has come to Darwin and he is going to be here cooking with Territory ingredients. Hopefully, he will cook some of my favourite dishes, which includes camel meat because I have to admit of all the meats I have tried in the Territory and in Australian, camel meat is my favourite.
I have here a copy of a story done by Kevin Boyle with photos from John Henshall in Outback magazine, which describes some of the delights of Central Australia, not only the scenic delights, but the culinary delights. These are the kind of tourists we see in the Territory. I table that article.
I thank all members for their comments, and I count on your support to promote the Territory horticultural, agriculture, fisheries and animal industries. After all, it is our future; it is the future of our children.
Motion agreed to; statement noted.
Mr HENDERSON (Leader of Government Business): Mr Acting Deputy Speaker, I move that the Assembly do now adjourn.
Ms LAWRIE (Karama): Mr Acting Deputy Speaker, this evening I make a personal contribution to adjournment debate. It is not the normal course for me; I steer clear of any personal comment during adjournment and focus on my electorate. However, it is appropriate that I use adjournment debate to outline a few changes that are occurring in regard to my work at the moment.
Members would be aware that I am expecting my third child. That child is due to arrive, all going to plan, between the October and November sittings of the Assembly.
Mr Henderson: Congratulations!
Ms LAWRIE: Thank you for that. P3 is its current nickname. I have had the good fortune to have very good health so far during this pregnancy. It is my third pregnancy and maybe that has made my body stronger. Health-wise I am very good and the baby’s health is very good. I am under the excellent care of the midwives clinic at Royal Darwin Hospital and I acknowledge the work that they do. I was there just last week and I am going back there in a couple of week’s time. They are a terrific team. I have had my two other children through the midwives clinic at Royal Darwin Hospital and it is just fantastic to be back there.
I take this opportunity to say to the House that my husband and I and our daughters are absolutely thrilled and delighted with the coming addition to our family. However, we ask members to respect our privacy. It is a personal situation that we are going through rather than anything to do with my professional life. I was offended by comments made during Question Time today by the member for Araluen, and hope she contains such outbursts in the future because it is highly offensive to have one’s personal circumstances bandied around within the Chamber.
I make this adjournment statement tonight to put on the record that it is my intention to work up to confinement if I can, if all is going well with my health and the baby’s health, and to take some short weeks off. Obviously, immediately after the birth, I will have to take some time off. I will be returning to my electorate duties. I have a very supportive electorate. I have to say that constituents have been overwhelming in their support of my pregnancy. At this stage, it is my intention to take a short period of maternity leave in the down-time of the December-January period and I will obviously be back at work in February when, as members know, things start to pick up again.
I thank people for their good wishes and support to date. I acknowledge the tremendous support that I have received from my husband, my daughters and my family here in Darwin. I have the wonderful joys of a new baby ahead of me. Certainly, this one is very active already and I am enjoying my pregnancy. I feel very honoured to be given the opportunity to have another child. I have plenty of friends who have tried to have children and have suffered the sadness of not having that opportunity, so it is an absolute blessing when you are going to become a mother. I do not take that lightly. This child will receive every bit of love that I can give it. I already feel overwhelming love for the child, and I know my husband and daughters share that love, too.
This is the only statement in the Chamber that I intend to make on the subject other than, hopefully, a very happy announcement of the birth.
Mr VATSKALIS (Casuarina): Mr Acting Deputy Speaker, I would like to speak today about a very good friend of mine who received a Medal of the Order of Australia, Superintendent Michael Van Heythuysen. I had never worked with the superintendent very closely until the Dili emergency when we both worked at the Kalymnian Hall looking after the establishment of the refugee camp and the Timorese refugees. When I listened to the news last night and heard that Superintendent Van Heythuysen received the Medal of the Order of Australia, I was ecstatic, absolutely ecstatic. I rang him and congratulated him because he is a person who deserves this medal. With Michael, I worked very closely, as I said, in the Kalymnian Hall during the Dili emergency. Michael was there nearly every moment of the whole day. He was always available, he was always on call, he was extremely friendly to the refugees. I recall very well that he became the godfather of one of the small refugees who was born in Australia during that time, and, of course, what was the child’s name? Miguel!
My congratulations to Superintendent Michael Van Heythuysen. He has done a lot for the Timorese community but on top of that, he has done a lot for the ethnic community. He worked very closely with the ethnic communities on the Police Ethic Advisory Group, where the police established an advisory group to advise on multicultural issues and how the police were going to address these issues. This group incorporated members of the ethnic communities. There are Chinese, Greeks, Hungarians, Thais and Filipinos. We meet regularly every month, and during that period we exchanged information or Michael would ask our advice on certain issues.
One of the first things we all said is that the Northern Territory Police, in a jurisdiction that has a large number of people from other countries and languages other than English, has few police officers who are of non-English speaking background, which is something that now, I am pleased to say, has changed. There is a significant number of second generation of ethnic-descent people who have joined the police force in droves. The police force has become a truly Territorian police force.
My congratulations to Michael Van Heythuysen. As I said before, if there is someone who deserves this medal, it is Michael. Well done, Michael, and congratulations. You are a bright example to all people in the police force and all Territorians.
Talking about the ethnic communities, how could I not mention the Greek Glenti? The past Saturday and Sunday, of course, the heart of Darwin was beating to a Greek rhythm. Everything was Greek: the music, the food, the wine, the beer. I was extremely impressed by the number of people who came to the Esplanade from 4 o’clock in the afternoon on Saturday until very late at night or early in the morning on Monday. I have been advised that people at the stalls did not finish work until midnight on Saturday night. Some of them had to stop cooking because they were too tired and, of course, they started work again at 10 o’clock the next morning.
It is a significant event for Darwin because one of the communities hosts the festival, promotes its culture, gives the opportunity to other people to recognise elements of the culture and at the same time contributes to the cultural development of the Territory. It is not only the food and the music, but also the cultural exhibitions and especially the cultural hall that has information about Greek migrants since they arrived in the Territory with a video that runs all the time. I was very surprised when a couple of times the video did not run and people were coming around and asking us how to start it because they found it very interesting.
I am very pleased that my community staged this wonderful Greek Glenti and I am pleased to say that I attended both Saturday and Sunday. On this occasion, I did not work at the bar; I worked at the stall collecting money for the Kalymnian nursing home and selling juices, fruits and ice-cream. The response of people was very impressive.
Congratulations to all the organisers. I am looking forward to a bigger and better Glenti next year. They tell me that two days is as much as they can do because it is getting too much. It is not only turning up and cooking; it is setting it up, cleaning, and the next day do the same again, and afterwards, packing up and going home and trying to have a rest. Congratulations once again to all Greek-descendant Territorians. They have contributed significantly to the economic and cultural development of the Territory and will continue to do so.
I also congratulate the Filipino community in the Northern Territory for celebrating the 106th anniversary of Philippines Independence day on Saturday. There was, once again, a fantastic show at the Filipino Club at Marrara. I was very pleased to have been invited and to take part in the presentations. This time, the theme was the revolution and the independence of the Philippines, passing through the different states of history, the Hispanisation of the Philippines, how the Philippines, Polynesian and Chinese group acquired this Hispanic culture and religion, but how, 106 years ago, people in the Philippines demanded their freedom and democracy.
Then it was the Portuguese National Day, so we attended Portuguese celebrations at the Portuguese-Timorese Club. Of the Portuguese people in the Territory, many came via East Timor; not many came directly from Portugal. It is a small, vibrant and dynamic community, and what do they like? They very much like soccer. One thing they asked of the Office of Ethnic Affairs was a contribution to acquire a satellite dish and equipment so they can receive programs from Portugal: videos, which they can tape and use for teaching kids in Portuguese language at school, and, of course with the European Cup at the moment, to watch soccer.
I was very pleased to provide them with $2000, but I told them that probably the first game they were going to watch was Greece beating Portugal. Of course, they all laughed at me because Portugal was such a wonderful team. It was very interesting the next morning when I opened the newspaper and found out that the Greek team had beaten Portugal 2-1. I do not think it was a very happy occasion for the Portuguese, but the Greeks were all thrilled.
It is incredible that in a small town like Darwin, we celebrate, within two days, national days for other nationalities. What is important is that people who come to Australia and become a citizen, Australia is home, but they still have their traditions and customs, which they pass to their children and grandchildren. In some cases, Australian people have Greek, Filipino or Portuguese baby sitters and have found, to their surprise, that the kids start acquiring different tastes or even respond to questions or calls in a different language.
That is uniquely Territorians, uniquely Darwinian, and we should be very proud that we live in a society that can not just tolerate, but accept other cultures and incorporate elements of these cultures into our own unique Territorian culture. We have a unique lifestyle and I quote my colleague, the member for Greatorex: nowhere else in an Australian parliament would there be a Minister for Ethnic Affairs of Greek descent and a Deputy Leader of the Opposition of Chinese descent. That is to our credit.
Mrs MILLER (Katherine): Mr Acting Deputy Speaker, at the last sittings during adjournment, I made mention of the success of Katherine Music Muster, and I said I was going to supply a list to Hansard of those people that needed to be thanked for the success of that event. I failed to seek leave of the Assembly to supply a list to Hansard for incorporation. I seek leave now, Mr Acting Deputy Speaker.
Leave granted.
Mrs MILLER: Thank you. I will not read them out; I will hand that list to Hansard.
The Red Cross Canoe Marathon was held in Katherine last Sunday morning. It set off from under the high level bridge at the very brisk, crisp hour of 6.45am. There were over 33 canoes and kayaks, and over 70 entrants, with a bus load coming from Mt Isa, very enthusiastic. They have been coming for several years. One gentleman was from Perth, and he has come up for several years, and the rest of them were from Katherine, Darwin and throughout the Territory.
It was fabulous to watch these guys and women, including a group of cadets from Darwin, who went through the weir like it was going out of fashion – scared the heck out of us all. We were watching from the low level bridge and, by gee, they were pretty game. I watched, in the comfort of nice woolly clothing and good foot covering, several of them dunk under, of course, as they came over the low level bridge, and I did not watch the rest of it because I was committed to other functions.
That evening, I had the pleasure of presenting awards, along with the new Mayor of Katherine, Anne Shepherd, and the Officer Commanding RAAF Base Tindal, Group Captain Corrie Metz, at Springvale Homestead where we had a dinner to celebrate the success of the day and to socialise with the people who had travelled a long way. There were a lot of people recognised that night, and rewarded for their efforts for that day, including quite a few volunteers. When I have a full report, I will include it in my next adjournment.
To top off the evening, they say you should be challenged in what you do during life, and I have always said that the older you get, the more challenges you should face and you should take on more. I have just been given one because I won a kayak in a raffle, and I have never kayaked in my life. I have been dared to be at the start of next year’s Canoe Marathon in Katherine, so I have to put it on record that I am going to have to start practising because I have never done this before.
I really look forward to it, except I have had assurances from Brian Hill that he will make sure all the crocs are cleaned out of the river and that he will be my guide, so, bless his heart, I am off for a new challenge. You are never too old. I will give a full report of the Katherine Red Cross Canoe Marathon, which was very successful, again. It is the first year that we have ever had a one-day event. It is usually over two days, but I am sure that it is going to attract even more next year, because this was a record number of entrants.
Mrs BRAHAM (Braitling): Mr Acting Deputy Speaker, I rise tonight to congratulate the Central Australian Community Toy Library on their 25th year of service to young children in Alice Springs. I was pleased to see a number of members present at their celebration, including the members for Greatorex, Macdonnell and Katherine to see what a great little establishment it is.
From very modest beginnings, this little toy library has grown and offers a tremendous services. It was established in 1979 when a group of mums saw the need to establish a community-based toy lending service. The initial library was an annexe to a child care centre. It has become part of the families of Alice Springs. It caters for children under five. There are currently 250 members of the Central Australian Community Toy Library who come quite a diverse range across our community. There are families, obviously with children under five, there are schools, there are learning centres that borrow, family day carers, Aboriginal families, non-English speaking families, some families with low incomes and some families who have children with special needs. The good part about this toy library is that membership fees reflect the individual circumstances of its members so much so that some people may not be required to pay a fee at all.
Their programs have expanded enormously, and I congratulate Kay Clapin, who is doing a tremendous job as the Director of the Toy Library. Since she has taken over, it has really become alive. They have a three year old kindy program, and my little granddaughter attended that program last year. It was great for her because the only child she had to pay with at home was her little one-year-old sister who she used to give a bit of a hard time. However, when she went to the play group, she learnt to socialise, to share, and to talk to other children her own age. It was such a tremendous experience for her.
They also have an additional needs play group and a mobile play group, which visits town camps. I have to say that if they had a little more funding they could deliver that service five days a week rather than three. You can hire baby capsules. When you have young children, it is a very expensive item to buy, a little capsule for a car. If you can hire it, it certainly assists the family. As well as that, of course, they offer a lot of information and resources for parents and their toy lending library caters for that nought to six-years-old. You should see the toys; they are just so many of them, toys perhaps that you could not afford to buy; toys you would not think to buy. They can all be borrowed by families. They keep them in a really clean, pristine condition.
The facilities of the indoor-outdoor play area and toy library are great. It is bright and colourful and I know the members who are here who saw it would say: ‘The colours in that playroom – wow!’ There was a purple wall, and a blue wall painted by community service prisoners. Those guys do such a great job. If I can give a plug for them while I am on my feet, and ask the Correctional Services minister to give them some additional funding because there could be two teams in Alice Springs working around the place, doing all these wonderful community things if they had the additional resources. They went in and painted the toy library in such bright, vivid colours. It is a wonderful place to go. I believe they really enjoyed painting it because they never thought anyone would want a wall bright blue or purple.
The library has been a great success, and they were hosting their party in recognition of all the work that has gone on and the people who originally started it. What was interesting was meeting some of the people who had been involved in the toy library for many years. I met a lady by the name of Frankie Bongers. I am sure members from Alice Springs will know Frankie. She has been in Alice Springs for 47 years. She came to Alice Springs, she told me, on April Fools day 1957 as a trained nurse in general and midwifery. At the old hospital at that stage there were 22 trained nurses and assistants and the population of the town was only about 3000. There was a general ward with men at one end and women and children at the other, and a native ward and midwifery. The midwifery ward still stands; it is one of the old houses near the Royal Flying Doctor Service.
She said they had a couple of serviced iron lungs on the verandah left over from the outbreak of polio that infected some of the locals. There was an old wooden boiler to keep stoked during night shift. The matron was Joan Hardacre who did all she could: catering and ordering of the food supplies. Every Saturday morning she would be at the back of the hospital undoing boxes of perishables with a pick head. It was pretty primitive in those days, compared with the hospital we have now. Interestingly, she also told me that Max used to deliver the perishables to the hospital. Max, of course, ended up being her husband. So that has rather a nice little touch to it.
Four years after that, in 1961, she decided she should move on. Fortunately, Alice was in her system and, within two years, she did go back, knocking on the matron’s door. She was Sister-in-Charge of the general ward in the new hospital, which is not the new hospital as we know now, but where the old eye clinic is within the hospital grounds. People from Alice Springs will know where I mean. They still had men up one end and women down the other end with the kitchen in the middle, and there was a catering officer as well. She said:
Of course, she remained in Alice Springs. She has two children, Liz and Jennifer. Liz is a geologist working for Western Mining and Jennifer has two children. The reason I mentioned Frankie Bongers is because she is a volunteer at the toy library. When she had her children she left nursing. She then started in 1974 as a teacher assistant at the Traeger Park Primary School. At the end of the school year in 1990, due to declining numbers and teachers, she was transferred to another primary school and ended up at the Rona Glynn Pre-School until she retired in 1998.
She spent a lot of her working life with young children and it is interesting that in her retirement, she continues to have that association with young children. She volunteered as a general helper for the three year old kindy at the toy library and does it every Tuesday. It keeps her in touch with that parent group and the little children for whom she obviously has a lot of love or she would not be back looking after children at that age. It is an interesting story line that she went from being a nurse, matron of the hospital when it was small, getting married, having children, becoming a teacher’s aide and, once she retired, maintaining that contact with young children to become a volunteer at the toy library.
She made a comment about when Traeger Park closed. Some of us will remember when the Traeger Park Primary School – and it was a controversial issue – closed. Frankie said she remembers that the then Chief Minister Shane Stone gave it to the Roman Catholics, which was a most unpopular move, especially when he stopped the then staff from distributing government assets to other public schools in town. She called it a fiasco that should never have happened. She said she is yet to find out how a politician can legally give government property to a religious order. That was a thorn in her flesh, and I said I would mention it because obviously it still irks her. I guess she would also say that Traeger Park School has been used to good advantage by the Catholic order and caters for young children as well.
Frankie Bongers does not just help at the toy library; she also helps at the Desert Park. She is part of that little group. I am not sure whether they call themselves The Garden Gnomes, but they pick seeds and work in the herbarium, and she has been doing that for a long time.
I have tied Frankie in with the toy library because she illustrates what a great organisation the library is and how involved people in the community have become. It is a place that, from little beginnings, big things have grown. It is an organisation that provides a huge opportunity for parents and families to have access to toys that they may never have been able to buy themselves. It provides a service that can be expanded through the town camps and, through their mobile group, out to some of the communities. There is huge potential for a toy library in the Centre and I hope will a little bit of extra funding – and perhaps the minister could see his way clear to give them some extra funding - they can expand the service and truly become the Central Australian Toy Library catering for all young children under the age of six.
Dr LIM (Greatorex): Mr Acting Deputy Speaker, I rise tonight to speak about a true blue Territorian who passed away in Alice Springs just recently. In the Centralian Advocate of 4 June 2004, this was written:
It goes on to tell a story that Peter Kittle, his son, remembered about when a friend rang Peter to say: ‘Back in the 1930s, your father saved our son’s life in Tennant Creek when the child took convulsions. Your dad revived him and took him to hospital’. That was the calibre of the man Central Australia has lost.
This eulogy was delivered by Maurie Jones at Len Kittle’s funeral service two weeks ago in Alice Springs.
I recall, in 1993, I was privileged to nominate Len and Phyllis Kittle as Honorary Life Members of the CLP for all the work he had done with the party, being one of the founding fathers, and a constant and considerate advisor for the party at the many meetings he used to attend.
I met Len when I first moved to Alice Springs in 1981 and, at that stage, he was very active in the community. I used to meet him at Rotary meetings and, through one of the meetings, I was talked into taking up a spot on the Alice Springs Town Council, and it was through his nomination that I was elected to the Alice Springs Town Council. Through the eight years that I was on the Council, Len continued to provide me with good advice on local government from his own experience and history on the Town Council.
A story was relayed in the local newspaper, as told by Peter himself. When he went to visit his father on a couple of occasions during his last days after his stroke, Len recognised him and said: ‘Here you are again’. He said Peter better make sure that at his funeral, he be driven away in a Holden. His words were: ‘There is no bloody way I am going to be taken in a Ford’. At the funeral service, Len Kittle was driven away in the back of his FJ Holden utility.
The church service was very moving. Some 300 people attended the Anglican Church in Bath Street. At the end of the service, the most fitting song I thought that could have been sung about this true blue Territorian, a man who lived all his life in Central Australia, contributing so significantly to just about everyone’s life, was by John Williamson and was Hey, True Blue. It moved many men to tears.
Mr ELFERINK (Macdonnell): Mr Acting Deputy Speaker, just to follow on from what the member for Greatorex said, I extend my condolences to the family of Len Kittle, a long-standing party member, a true blue Territorian and a pragmatist to the very end.
The member for Greatorex related the story about the fact that he did not want to go to his resting place in a Ford. Alice Springs’ hearse happens to be a Ford, so they put him in the back of the ute and took him down to his final resting place in a Holden. That is more than fair enough because the Kittle name is synonymous with Holden in Central Australia.
He was a pragmatist to the end because, as I understand it, Peter was in two minds about competing in the Finke Desert Race this year and Len apparently assured him that that was still going to be one of the prerequisites of his passing: not that much changes. Peter consequently competed in the Finke Desert Race as much as a tribute his old man and I believe that he did fairly well.
Dr Lim: He came third.
Mr ELFERINK: He came third. Not too disgraceful at all.
I must apologise to members. I was late because of that race. Honourable members know that I am given to moments of lunacy and, for some strange reason, I allowed the member for Goyder to convince me that it would be an awfully good idea that I participate in this race despite the fact that until three days ago, I had never ridden a trail bike.
Nevertheless, I did collar myself a trail bike. I thank Gerry Maley, Peter’s brother, very much for lending me his XR400. I did have one track practice session about two weeks ago on the local moto-cross track, on which I did six laps and fell off six times. Things were not looking particularly good. Friday was Prologue Day, 8.4 km. I gingerly rode around it and got myself a prologue time. Naturally, I was at the back of the field. As only you would be allowed in the Northern Territory, you engage in an event that is becoming, as the Minister for Central Australia quite rightly pointed out, an international event but there is still a bit of room for us rank amateur locals.
Mr Acting Deputy Speaker, the fact that a car or any vehicle made it to Finke and back in four hours on that road only stands to prove that these people are demonically possessed because it took me eight hours and it was probably eight of the hardest hours of my life. The Finke track, I am told, is the roughest in living memory. I am glad because I feel like I have been dealt with by the roughest track in living memory and I am desperately hoping and wishing that my mediocrity will catch up with my ego so that I am not be sucked into such adventures.
However, that has yet to happen so I found myself playing on the Finke Desert Race and I have to say, now that I have done it and I made it down and back, which is more than Peter Brock was able to manage, I feel a certain amount of satisfaction.
Something else that the Minister for Central Australia quite rightly said is that with out the volunteers and the people that put all of this stuff together, this magnificent race simply would not happen. It is all good for me to lob on the day and get my starting time and roar down to Finke and turn the bike around the next morning and roar back, but the fact is that people sit there and check people off, ensure the safety of the track and the people. They drive there own cards along this godawful track to do the sweeps after the buggies go and the bikes go and there are people who have to do all the timing and that sort of thing. It must be an absolute nightmare to organise. I know that when the CLP was in government, they threw a lot of weight behind it. I am grateful to see that the ALP in government continues to support this race. I believe that there is a full-time position attached to it, but it remains an enormous logistical exercise. Of course, it all comes to one weekend per year when it reaches this crescendo of activity.
Those volunteers are vital to the future of the desert race. I thank each and every one of them for making my Finke Desert Race possible. I would also like to thank Clive Baxter from Darwin who was kind enough to organise fuel and spanners in the form of Adam, Mike and Chris who did a great job pulling my bike apart when we got to Finke, patching it up, cobbling it all back together and riding back the next day. These guys are volunteers and do it for the love of the sport. It is wonderful to be able to be involved in such an event.
For the information, and with the indulgence, of honourable members, I would like to lay on the Table the official team poster of Team CLP. It says ‘Go Team CLP, Maley and Elferink, Finke Desert Racers, Veni, Vedi, Vici,’which, of course, was the cry of Julius Caesar when he returned to Rome after conquering Gaul: I came, I saw, I conquered.
Leave granted.
Mr KIELY (Sanderson): Mr Deputy Speaker, I rise tonight to talk about a marvellous community effort in my electorate of Sanderson, more specifically in Anula where the school council worked hard over a long time to organise a school fete.
Anula Primary School has not had a fete for quite some time. I think it has been somewhere near a decade since they have had a fete. Members may be aware that the Anula School Council has had its ups and downs over the last few years, however, through all their trials and tribulations, the school council has managed to pull together and work well as a team to keep the school and the school community going on a pretty even keel.
At times, is a pretty hard slog. It was last year, I believe, that one of the parents thought it would be great to have a school fete as a means of bringing the community into the school and making the school accessible to the wider community. That parent is a woman by the name of Megan Kelly. Megan took this idea, with a couple of other parents, to the school council, which supported it, but it was Megan’s idea and she had the running of it. From the idea, she got quite a number of the committee onside and a number of parents who are not on the school committee and, over months of hard toil and a lot of hard slog, Megan pulled it all together. Full points to her.
She went to a lot of businesses and garnered support. She even went over to Correctional Services to see whether they could assist. I will ask the Minister for Justice to pass on Megan’s thanks, my thanks and the school’s thanks to Damian Clarke from Darwin Prison who, with the support of his Superintendent, arranged for a group of prisoners to make wooden toys for selling and raffling at the fete. These were wonderful toys. What a great effort by Megan.
Megan enlisted the help of others, particularly Liz Loymeyer, another parent, who got right behind and helped. She was a powerhouse as well. She got a whole range of things together. I worked with Liz in helping to get the presence of the Armed Forces over there in the shape of an Armoured Personnel Recovery Vehicle. I spoke with the Minister for Defence Support and, with Jenny Tiernan, who works in his office and has children at the school, we contacted Defence and they came to the party. The APRV was a great hit with the kids at the school. There were a couple of soldiers in uniform, so that was wonderful.
Another powerhouse who was great support to Megan through all this was Chris Bageley. Chris is a parent who made an exhibit that ran off a solenoid, which, when hit with a ball, would send out a jet of water, which was great entertainment for the kids. Apart from that, Chris worked very actively as part of the team to get the whole fete off the ground and working to be such a success.
As a little aside, I was on annual holidays in Bali with my family and Chris Bageley and his family were there and, for that matter, so was Jenny Tiernan and her family. We got talking about all the little bracelets and necklaces you could get, but the upshot was that Chris gave me the great idea of going out and purchasing some for the fete. I went out and bargained hard and I brought back I-don’t-know-how-many pieces of Bali necklaces, bracelets and stoneware and donated them to the school so that they could include them in their lucky dips or sell them and hopefully get three- or fourfold on the investment I made. Hopefully, the school made a couple of hundred dollars out of that. I will be pretty pleased if that is the case.
There were other parents in the school community who put in a lot of work and a lot of support for Megan. The ones who really stand out are Jo Glennon, Carol Hughes, Margaret Bowmont, Julie Milton, Marcia Harold. They all really worked hard, but that is not to say that these were the only parents because it was very much a collaborative and collective effort by the whole school council. Peter Maher, Sue Hyde, Anne-Marie Tully, Dorothy Iji, both of whom worked tirelessly on the drinks wagon from Coke Cola with Ruth Quinn. Ruth has put a lot of work in to the school. She is past chair of the council and has been with the council for quite some time. She has shown her commitment to the school and that is wonderful. She is a much valued member of the team. Julie Milton face painted on the day and she worked really hard.
Tracey Parker is the current chair of the school council. She supported Megan not through thick and thin, because there was never any thin, but there was a lot of work to be done and Tracey was there helping Megan as best she could. Dick Williams is another hard working member of the school council who gave his support. I do not know how he does it. He has a pretty hectic professional schedule himself, but he gives of his time to the school. He has a couple of kids at the school, which is great. There was Lorraine Evans and Elizabeth Andrade who is also a school teacher.
What was good about the fete is that as you got around during the day, there were a lot of teachers who came over and participated in the fete with the parents and with the community, and it was a wonderful thing. There was Marie Mappas, who is an old member of the school council. She is no longer on the school council, but she was there manning stalls. Normally you see these things fall to the school council, but I will say that there were a lot of parents working the stalls. Cheryl Fromm, a neighbour of mine, was out there working hard in the second-hand clothing stall.
My wife, Marie Kirkwood, volunteered to bag up a couple of hundred lucky dips, and she was there selling those. I got roped into selling raffle tickets. I went not as the MLA; I am part of that school community and that is how I see myself at these of events. I wanted to enjoy it with my children but, as you know, if you are a parent standing idly around, the school council will grab you and throw you into the fore. I sold raffle tickets and had a great time on the day. There were a couple of other dads who got in and helped: Steve Glennon and Darren Kelly who do a heap of work for that school. They are a couple of unsung heroes. They are not on the school committee, their wives are, but they support them all the way.
There was Kate Coffee and Kim Bond from the preschool. Kate is a marvellous fundraiser. She went to Lenard’s chicken and bought some sausages and all this sort of stuff and Lenard’s chucked some extra stuff in. I would love to have Kate Coffee on my next campaign team to help me raise funds. She is an enormous shaker and mover. Unfortunately, I think she will be busy doing other things, but any time she wants to fund raise for me, I would love to have her. Whoever does end up with her will be very fortunate.
There was great support from community. There were traders at the Anula shops who got behind it. Hingston got involved, and he is the proprietor of a little Chinese takeaway that has been open for about 18 months now. He has a very popular shop; he is just going gang busters and that is good to see, a nice new business in the Anula shops, starting up on his own and going successfully. I have helped out Hingston and his wife in the early days when she was coming out to Australia. Alice at the Anula shops, of course, got behind it as well. The sense of community was really fantastic. There were Smiths Chips. The list is endless.
The intensive English unit at the school, which has pupils from other countries where, of course, English is not the first language and some have refugee backgrounds, was well supported by parents who cooked up all their national dishes. They were selling a treat. That was wonderful.
The fete also needed the support of the principals and deputy principals. The two deputy principals and the principal, Maree Garrigan, got right behind this. They were there on the day helping to move it along. It was the parents’ idea, so they stood back and let the parents have the run of it. Megan was the ringmaster of this affair and she ran it very smoothly. I could see that Maree and all the other staff were quite impressed. The principal and deputy principals were involved, as was the caretaker, Barry, and Ann-Marie from the front counter of the school. That was the success of this fete.
They had a bit of a post-event review and they identified some areas they feel they can do better next year. For example, maybe they can head up to the basketball courts because, I am pleased to say, under this government, we have managed to get shade over the basketball courts. I think it has just gone to tender now. We had to work hard. I worked hard with the principal to get that shade construction across the line, and I am happy to say that we have. In the years to come, that will be a great and that’s where we can have the fete.
Another good thing about the school is I worked hard with the school council and we managed to get funding for fans in the assembly area. With fans there, it was quite a comfortable environment.
I am pleased to say that the fete made the school somewhere in the vicinity of just short of $6000. That means with this one fete, with dollar-for-dollar funding, it means they have $12 000 they can access. That is great because the schools in Sanderson, Anula being one of them, are not what you would call rich schools. They are not poor schools either, but they can do with more funding. Like a lot of schools in Darwin, they have to scratch around looking for a dollar and try to get the best outcomes for their children. This fundraising and getting this dollar for dollar does mean a lot. They have a breakfast program for disadvantaged children, but they need to get water in there, they need hot water and cold water so some of this funding will go towards that.
I am pleased to say that the school, because of the predicament that schools of its ilk are in, the $500 000-odd that the government has made available in this year’s budget for schools to access to purchase things like software, books and furniture will be a great bonus to the Anula School.
I am very pleased with the way the fete went. Once again, I acknowledge the work that Megan Kelly put into organising this. I spoke to her this morning, and she was at pains to say: ‘This is not all down to me by any means. I do not want to take the credit for anything’. Let me say, though, that without her and the teamwork that she inspired, I do not think we would have got the results. Congratulations to all members of the school community, particularly those on the school council, but to all those other parents who gave up their time, particularly to Megan and to the principal and her staff, it was a job well done. I look forward to next year’s fete. My kids are still going to be there.
I have been a member of that school community for about six years now. We have probably four years left at that primary school, so I look forward to an association with it. I regard it as the role of the local MLA to get in and support my schools. Anula knows they have my support and always will have. I believe that the school has progressed under this government. For 10 or 12 years it was sitting there under the CLP and not much was spent on its maintenance. We are looking at the school. We are doing heaps over at Anula and Alawa, maintaining them, and I will do my best to make sure that Anula School and the suburbs of Sanderson get their fair share. I will be working hard next budget to make sure that occurs.
Dr BURNS (Johnston): Mr Acting Deputy Speaker, this week has been quite a sad time. We have heard eulogies in this parliament today for two prominent Territorians, Mr Djerrkura and Mr Kittle, who contributed so much to the Territory. They came from very different backgrounds, but each in their own way luminous and important people in the history of the Territory.
Likewise, on the world stage, we have heard eulogies for former President Ronald Reagan, someone who was so well known on the world stage, so important in world events in the 1980s and the recognition he has been given all over the world for his role in a number of important matters that the world faced during that time are really worth remembering.
However, tonight I would like to eulogise someone who made a very significant contribution on the world stage, and that is in the area of music and even beyond music and, of course, I am talking about Ray Charles.
Ray Charles was born on 23 September 1930 in Albany, Georgia of a very poor family, and I will talk a little bit about that. He died on 10 June 2004 in Los Angeles, California.
Ray Charles has been termed a musical genius and he was that. His musical legacy will live on in vibrant and brilliant fashion. The story of Ray Charles is also about struggle, adversity, triumph and nurture of talent because Ray Charles was not born blind. He turned blind at the age of seven years. He was nurtured initially by his mother. They were very poor people, and she helped him through the initial stages of his blindness when he was seven years of age and, to some degree, comforted into that.
There were also people who taught him at a special school for the deaf and blind in Florida, St Augustine’s School, and other people along the way. I am reading from his biography in which he talks about his early years and a wonderful man named Wiley Pitman:
As Ray Charles said, he could have easily said ‘Hey kid, don’t you see I’m practising? Get away and don’t bother me’. I suppose in this life, nurturing and supporting people, giving time to people is something that we can do and Ray Charles really highlighted this man at a very young age who began to teach him how to play the piano.
In a similar way, it was an older friend of mine, actually a friend of my sister, who introduced me to the music of Ray Charles. His name is Kerry Dowsett. We studied together at university. He is a few years older than me. Kerry has been a great fan of Ray Charles for many years and he told me the joke about when the monarch of Spain sent Christopher Columbus off to find America. It is a joke originally told by a black comedian, and the instruction to Christopher Columbus was go and find Ray Charles, not go and find America; go and find Ray Charles.
There is more than humour in that because Ray Charles, really at one level, drew all the musical roots of America together – blues and jazz, gospel and country music - and projected that to the world. He gave back to the world. He was so popular in Europe, in Australia, all over the world because of his great genius.
Ray Charles said of himself, ‘I was born with music inside me. That’s the only explanation I know of’. Here is someone with incredible talent, who was blind from glaucoma at the age of seven, went to a special school for the deaf and blind, then lost his mother and brother at a very early age, and that had a very profound effect on him. He was 15 when his mother died. He said:
He was counselled by an elderly lady who knew he and his family very well. She was able to counsel him through his grief. He talked about this lady whose name was Ma Beck. He said:
So here we have two people in this great musician’s life, one of them encouraged him in his music, the other encouraged and comforted him through grief. It was that grief, as Ray Charles acknowledged, that really was the source of a lot of his great music. Certainly, there is a lot of great Ray Charles music.
Ray Charles struggled initially as a musician. He travelled in various parts of the United States and ended up in Seattle. At one stage, he was almost starving. He said in his biography:
Here was someone with talent who was struggling, but knew the gift that he had in his music and, basically, he wanted to deliver that.
Ray Charles was someone who experienced the effects of segregation in the Deep South of America. He became a great supporter of Martin Luther King. There is quite a funny quote about that time. It says that despite his deep commitment to Martin Luther King and the cause of black Americans, Ray Charles came to the logical conclusion that there was no place for him physically in the front lines. He was supporting Martin Luther King financially. He said:
He knew the realities of the struggle that black people were involved in at that time, but he also knew that he could not be in the front lines because of his disability. However, he was certainly supporting that struggle financially.
By the 1950s, Ray Charles had really started to pump out a lot of very successful music. I will mention a few here, and I am sure people listening to this will know all of these songs: I’ve Got a Woman; 1955; Hallelujah; I Love Her So; What Did I Say? - a great song, a very racy song, but with very strong gospel roots and I can certainly remember that song; Georgia on My Mind, which became the signature tune of the state of Georgia in the United States and Ray Charles performed that within the legislature so it was a very famous song also; Hit the Road Jack, one that I suppose has a lot of humour in it; Unchain My Heart, a song that has been taken up by so many other artists; I Can’t Stop Loving You, a great love song by Ray Charles; You Are My Sunshine; Take These Chains From my Heart; Busted; Crying Time; and finally Let’s Go Get Stoned, which was a recording, incidentally, that occurred around the time that Ray Charles was convicted of, I think, possession of heroin. He had a struggle with drug addiction, one I understand he overcame.
He was someone who struggled through his life. He has been the musical idol of so many contemporary artists. We know Joe Cocker, Van Morrison, Steve Winwood and Willie Nelson have all recorded songs by Ray Charles and they certainly admired his music.
On the jazz scene, I remember listening to Milt Jackson, who used to play the xylophone in duo with Ray Charles. There are so many things that Ray Charles has achieved on the musical front. He has given pleasure to so many people, and he has certainly given a lot of pleasure to me.
I will finish with a comment from a biographer of Ray Charles, which says:
Such is the unique quality of Ray Charles, it is only right, although we are a long way from Ray Charles in America, his music would really have touched nearly each and every one of us in this place. I pay homage to the genius of Ray Charles.
Motion agreed to; the Assembly adjourned.
MESSAGE FROM ADMINISTRATOR
Madam SPEAKER: Honourable members, I have received from His Honour the Administrator Message No 22 notifying assent to bills passed in the May 2004 sittings.
MINISTERIAL REPORTS
AustralAsia Trade Route –
Mission to Hong Kong and China
AustralAsia Trade Route –
Mission to Hong Kong and China
Ms MARTIN (Chief Minister): Madam Speaker, in April, I led a joint government-industry investment and trade mission to Hong Kong and mainland China, which included the cities of Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen and Beijing. The 10-day mission, which ran from 10 to 21 April, was consistent with the government’s intention to grow international trade and tourism for the Territory.
The trip built on my previous mission to Hong Kong, Singapore and Malaysia in March last year, and was designed to promote the opportunities and benefits of the AustralAsia Trade Route and the development of new shipping links with north Asia; promote Territory tourism opportunities, including new aviation links with north Asia; promote general investment and economic development opportunities occurring in the Northern Territory; strengthen government links between the Territory and Hong Kong-mainland China; and lend support to Territory business seeking to develop opportunities with the north Asia region, including trade initiatives being pursued by our International Business Council.
During the mission, I was accompanied by Bruce Fadelli, President of the NT Chamber of Commerce; John Parkes, General Manager, International Marketing, FreightLink; Paul Tyrell, Chief Executive, Department of the Chief Minister; and Maree Tetlow, Chief Executive Officer of the Tourist Commission. Other members of the delegation included senior officials from my ministerial office, the Office of Territory Development, and the Darwin Port Corporation. Media representatives from the NT News and Channel 9 also travelled with the delegation.
I am pleased to report that solid progress was made on the objectives of the trip. Highlights included delivery of keynote presentations on the AustralAsia Trade Route, tourism and other investment opportunities in the Territory to high profile industry functions held in Hong Kong, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen and Beijing, and more than 200 leading Chinese business people attended these functions. The AustralAsia Trade Route was further promoted through a live interview I did with CNBC’s Asian Wall Street Journal program in Hong Kong. I am advised that this prime time program is broadcast to over 188 million households across the world.
One of the highlights was the opportunity of developing a north Asia shipping service, and was discussed with the heads of shipping lines, including the Hong Kong-based Swire Group, and mainland China’s two largest shipping lines, the China Ocean Shipping Company, COSCO, and China Shipping.
Further promotion of the Territory as a holiday destination for the growing Chinese tourism market was delivered through targeted media interviews with Chinese Travel Satellite TV and the Chinese Tourism Daily in Beijing. The opportunity to establish new tourism and aviation links with the Territory was pursued directly through face-to-face meetings with the heads of leading airlines and tourism wholesalers. These included Cathay Pacific, China Southern Airlines and Spring International.
While in China, I met with Andrew Liveris, the CEO of Dow Chemicals, to talk about the future development opportunities associated with the oil and gas developments in the Timor Sea. I also had discussions with senior political figures in the region, including the Vice-Mayor of Shanghai, the Deputy Chief Executive of Hong Kong, the Vice-Chairman of the China National Tourism Administration, and the Chinese Minister for Communications, who also holds the Transport portfolio.
I took the opportunity to lend support to the Territory’s International Business Council, which was at the same time hosting a Territory industry delegation to Guangzhou Commodity Fair, one of the largest commodity fairs in the world. As part of this government’s general support for Territory businesses, I was delighted to be present at the signing of business agreements between individual Territory businesses and their Chinese clients. This included an agreement with an on-line educational training company, the International College of Advanced Education, based in Darwin.
While in Shanghai, I also visited the newly-built Formula 1 track, to promote tourism links between Darwin and Shanghai based on the potential take-up of a V8 Supercar event in Shanghai next year. I also visited the Shanghai Ocean Aquarium, where I saw an example of where quality granite, quarried and imported from the Territory, was being used as an architectural feature in this premier Chinese facility. The visit to the aquarium also highlighted to me the growing Chinese interest in nature-based tourism and the future opportunities this presents for the Territory. Interestingly, the aquarium’s Australian exhibition was dominated by Territory-based features including a tropical waterhole setting that included pandanus palms, barramundi, archer fish and, of course, crocodiles.
Follow-up actions are now being pursued. These include the development of a tourism marketing plan to capture new, lucrative Chinese tourism opportunities for the Territory; the pursuit of increased shipping services between Darwin and north Asia; and joint feasibility studies with Asian airlines to establish new aviation links. The Adidas-Salomon group have agreed to work collaboratively with us on the development of trial shipments of their products from Asia to markets in Adelaide and Melbourne via Darwin over the next 12 months. Adidas also wants to look at the feasibility of undertaking some value added activity for this new trade in the Darwin Business Park.
Follow-up discussions have also been held with Yan Yin Chen, Director of Ostermann Developments, which currently imports 300 containers per annum of granite rock from Mt Bundy to China. Mr Chen is now seeking to grow this trade up to 4000 containers per year, which will certainly be a boost for the new trade route and the development of new shipping services.
In summary, Madam Speaker, the joint government and industry mission met its objectives and has provided a continuing and sound basis for growing new trade and tourism links with north Asia.
Mr MILLS (Opposition Leader): Madam Speaker, the opposition welcomes the report, the involvement and engagement with the region because that is the very distinct opportunity Territorians have that must be exploited: our location not so far from Asia.
To that end, we welcome the recent incursion into the region. It is good to hear about the range of meetings and an indication of things to come. However, it is very important that we have greater detail on the actual outcomes that we would be able to measure so we can ensure that we take clear strategic advantage of our location.
Members opposite would be mindful of the Chief Minister’s publication on Good Governance issued to prior to entering government in which it was asserted that for any overseas trip, the itinerary would be fully circulated to those with an interest and any costs associated with that trip would be made very clear to Territorians. To my knowledge, there has been no such publication of the itinerary, nor has there been any revelation as to the cost of the trip in detail.
Further to that, we note that in previous times, knowing that trips such as this are to advance the best interests of Territorians and foundations that are laid are foundations we can build on into the future, such trips receive bipartisan support.
It is notable that an invitation was not extended to the Deputy Leader of the Opposition who does speak the language and could assist in opening doors to promote the Northern Territory as a place where you can seriously do business, because …
Madam SPEAKER: Your time has expired, Leader of the Opposition. No response, Chief Minister?
Ms MARTIN: No response, Madam Speaker.
Alice Springs Hospital – Intensive Care Unit
Dr TOYNE (Health): Madam Speaker, I wish to update the House regarding recent publicity around the Alice Springs Hospital Intensive Care Unit.
We have put in place measures to begin turning around the long years of neglect under the previous government. This year’s budget committed $11m over the next four years to the Alice Springs Hospital to expand the integrated Intensive Care High Dependency Unit and employ an extra 37 health professionals including an intensivist, nurses and other essential staff.
This funding will provide new beds over two years to make a total of four Intensive Care Unit and four High Dependency Unit beds in Alice Springs, reducing the need to transfer critically ill patients.
Dr Lim interjecting.
Madam SPEAKER: Order! Member for Greatorex, some of us would like to hear this.
Dr TOYNE: The unit will reach a critical mass, significantly increasing the ability to recruit highly skilled nursing and medical staff.
These are our responses to the situation. We are not just shrugging our shoulders and turning away saying: ‘Oh, that is for management to sort out’, like the member for Drysdale did when he was the Health Minister.
Members interjecting.
Dr TOYNE: Let me go through the claims that were made during last week.
Members interjecting.
Dr TOYNE: Madam Speaker, they have been eating their raw meat over the weekend; I can see that.
Let me go through the claims that were made during last week and provide the House with the facts. The claim that I should step in and appoint the Head of Emergency: the member for Port Darwin was on record saying that. I would be breaking the law, section 22 of the Public Sector Employment and Management Act, which specifically precludes a minister from appointing a public servant to a position. In fact, that is the job of the executive officers in our department. You may see illegal and corrupt conduct as being okay for a minister, I do not, and I don’t think you’d be fit to hold the office that I currently hold.
There were claims that there were no attempts made to recruit specialised staff and the hospital was ordered to delay recruitment. Again, it was the member for Port Darwin. Nothing could be further from the truth. As soon as the budget was handed down, the department started to advertise for these fully funded positions at Alice Springs.
There was a claim the intensive care unit has always worked until this government came along. That was a beauty from the member for Greatorex. The reality is that the CLP ignored reports recommending that an intensivist be hired. Six months ago, the Martin government identified the need and tried to meet it in a climate of worldwide shortage of intensivists. Royal Darwin Hospital specialists and locums have been used in the meantime for the first time to provide intensivist cover for Alice Springs Hospital.
Worst of all, Madam Speaker, were the despicable claims that two deaths had occurred against a background of inadequate planning and limited medical backup, as reported in the Centralian Advocate on the 11th. The reality is the Principal Medical Advisor, Dr Tarun Weeramanthri, after examining the patient records in detail and interviewing the attending physicians, found that both patients reported with complicated medical conditions and received a high level of skilled specialist care. They were not preventable deaths.
I do not expect the members opposite to congratulate us on our efforts, but I invite them to reflect on the effects their words have. They continually describe the health system as being ‘in crisis’ and have no shame at all in using the cases of individuals who have passed away to score political points. They are running down the reputation of the Alice Springs Hospital and the medical staff who work there. They cause distress to members of the community who use the hospital, and made it difficult to recruit and retain the staff that we need.
Mr Dunham interjecting.
Dr TOYNE: I have no doubt that Alice Springs Hospital is providing a fine service to the Alice Springs community. During the course of the Finke Desert Race, as we always have with 400 competitors racing through the bush, there have been injuries, including one young fellow with a double fracture to his femur after he hit a tree. I drove the partner of that competitor to the hospital. She was asking me whether the hospital would provide sufficient care for her partner who had been injured in the race. I find it absolutely despicable that that sort of anxiety has been caused. That young man is under the best of care and is doing very well, thank you, Madam Speaker, in the Alice Springs Hospital.
Madam SPEAKER: Before we go on, I remind the member for Drysdale not to use surnames or Christian names in interjections.
Ms CARTER (Port Darwin): Madam Speaker, as members would be aware, the minister has the joy of five minutes to make his accusations, and I only have two minutes to respond.
Needless to say, the government is well aware we will move a censure motion today on this matter during which I will speak more fully on all of the issues that the minister has raised.
However, minister, I put it to you that you are failing in your responsibility as Minister for Health and Minister for Central Australia, and we will be asking what you and your CEO, Robert Griew, are doing about these matters. We do not raise the issues at Alice Springs Hospital; people come to us complaining about Alice Springs Hospital.
Members interjecting.
Ms CARTER: We are constantly being lobbied by people as to what is going on there, and any cursory observation of what has been going on at Alice Springs Hospital over the last couple of years, particularly through the media, will tell you that this is a problem that has been escalating and escalating and escalating.
You stand there, going on about intensivists. We have not raised the issue of intensivists, sir. We raised the issue of anaesthetists. You are unable to provide basic anaesthetic services at Alice Springs Hospital in a way that is consistent. That is the issue, and you have split hairs on the word ‘intensivist’.
You are going to have major problems with the provision of surgery. You already have major problems with the provision of an intensive care service there. You are a sham in the way you twist this information to the public. I despise the way that you are carrying on with this and we will deal with this more fully in a censure this afternoon.
SUSPENSION OF STANDING ORDERS
Move Motion of Censure
Move Motion of Censure
Mr HENDERSON (Leader of Government Business): Madam Speaker, I move that so much of standing orders be suspended as would prevent the Leader of the Opposition moving a censure motion, which he foreshadowed in the media yesterday and today, relating to health administration, in particular the Alice Springs Hospital, forthwith.
Mr BALDWIN (Daly): Speaking to the motion, Madam Speaker. This is typical of the Leader of Government Business. He is the one who stands on protocol, so-called, in this Chamber. When we decide to bring on a censure, we will. To foreshadow a censure, Madam Speaker, is our prerogative, not theirs, and we will bring it on when we are ready.
Members interjecting.
Mr STIRLING (Deputy Chief Minister): Madam Speaker, a censure motion is the most important motion that can be brought in this Chamber.
Given that there has been such strong indication yesterday and again this morning from the Shadow Health Minister that there will be a censure motion, it is incumbent on the opposition to take the opportunity so that the business of the House can proceed as normal after the deliberation of a censure motion, which carries priority in this Chamber. If they are not prepared to stand and deliver their censure motion now, Madam Speaker, one wonders how much substance there is to it.
Dr LIM (Greatorex): Speaking to the motion, Madam Speaker, they are so terrified of Territorians hearing the questions leading up to the censure motion at Question Time, and that is why they want to do it now.
If you are serious, let Territorians hear those questions out loud over the radio and then you will have the censure. You guys have done such a great disservice in Alice Springs, you sit there and smirk. That is right. It is on record that you smirk, member for Stuart.
Members interjecting.
Madam SPEAKER: Order!
Dr LIM: Madam Speaker, this is a time when the opposition will decide its own agenda, not the government. We will do it following Question Time.
Ms MARTIN (Chief Minister): Madam Speaker, this is extraordinary. The opposition has flagged that they want to move a censure, as the Deputy Leader said, over a most serious issue with allegations they are making. We have been discussing it. The shadow minister for Health said: ‘and when we move our censure’. Are you taking a censure motion seriously or not?
Mr Baldwin interjecting.
Ms MARTIN: A censure is the most serious motion you can move in this parliament.
Members interjecting.
Ms MARTIN: It is the most serious action you can take in this parliament.
Mr Baldwin interjecting.
Ms MARTIN: You flagged it yesterday. This is just hot air, your rhetoric about this, and there is no substance to what you are saying. Then we have the member for Greatorex saying this parliament is virtually a worthless forum unless the media is here and unless it is being broadcast.
Mr Dunham: He did not say that.
Ms MARTIN: That is what he said. He said you are not taking it seriously, because you won’t allow the …
Mr HENDERSON: A point of order, Madam Speaker! The member for Drysdale accused the Chief Minister of telling lies, and I ask him to withdraw.
Madam SPEAKER: Withdraw it, member for Drysdale.
Mr DUNHAM: I withdraw, Madam Speaker, and I hope my colleague has the opportunity to answer by way of personal explanation the allegation that was falsely made about him.
Ms MARTIN: What I said was very clearly what the member for Greatorex had said. He said you want to do it now. This is parliament. You have flagged that you want to move a censure, and you should be taking the first opportunity to do that. You have a list of allegations. We have had the shadow minister say: ‘This is outrageous’ and point at the minister. You should take the first opportunity, and this is the opportunity we are giving you, so either out up now or shut up.
Mr MILLS (Opposition Leader): Madam Speaker, it is government that sets the program and the condolence motion that was placed on the Notice Paper this morning received a high priority from opposition. If it is the will of government, obviously able to be exerted by virtue of numbers …
Ms Martin interjecting.
Mr MILLS: … to bring this issue …
Members interjecting.
Madam SPEAKER: Order!
Mr MILLS: … to a head, then that is their prerogative. However, we have now politics being played by government when the issue of the condolence motion is one of genuine interest and one that we want to take according to the routine of business that has been established by the Leader of Government Business, who is such a stickler for protocol.
However, if it is the will of government to bring this issue to the fore now, that is their call.
Motion agreed to.
MOTION
Proposed Censure of Minister for Health and Minister for Central Australia
Proposed Censure of Minister for Health and Minister for Central Australia
Ms CARTER (Port Darwin): Madam Speaker, I move that the Assembly censures the Minister for Health and the Minister for Central Australia for:
- (a) lying to Territorians when claiming the intensive care unit at the Alice Springs Hospital was never closed;
(b) overseeing the mismanagement of Alice Springs Hospital, which has resulted in low morale, staff resignations,
closure of the intensive care unit, poor recruitment and retention of staff, budget mismanagement; and
(c) failure to allay the concerns of Territorians about two deaths at Alice Springs Hospital by promptly referring
them to the Coroner, until pushed to do so by the AMA and the CLP opposition.
Madam SPEAKER: Member for Port Darwin, a copy of the motion, please.
Ms CARTER: The situation, Madam Speaker, is, as you are aware, we have been thrust into an early censure by the government. The motion in a written format is coming.
Madam SPEAKER: Good, thank you.
Ms CARTER: In December, we saw the sacking of the then Minister for Health and Community Services, replaced by the Minister for Health and the Minister for Family and Community Services in two positions. The previous minister was sacked because the Chief Minister felt that she was inadequate in being able to convey to Territorians all the good news stories about health and that, in fact, that she was a poor communicator.
I put it to you, Madam Speaker, and other members of this House that the current Minister for Health is struggling beyond compare to be able to put to Territorians the good news stories about health, particularly with regards to Alice Springs Hospital. I suspect he is not coping with his work load, he is having trouble with his CEO and, quite frankly, the Chief Minister needs to think seriously about relieving him of at least one of his portfolios because he is not coping.
We have a critical care crisis at Alice Springs that has been demonstrated in a multitude of ways. It has been going from bad to worse ever since Labor won government. We only need to follow what has been going on in the press in the last six to seven months, for example.
I turn members’ attention to a letter that was written by Dr Stephen Lightfoot from New South Wales. Dr Lightfoot tried to get a job as an anaesthetist at Alice Springs Hospital late last year. He had no luck, and the reason that he eventually turned his back on Alice Springs Hospital was because of the problems he faced in dealing with the bureaucracy of recruitment. He needed a contract for his wife signed. She is also a doctor and was also prepared to work at Alice Springs Hospital, but there was a fair amount of stuffing around that went on with management of this application for a job.
Frankly, I would be making a bee-line, if I were the CEO of the Department of Health or the minister, to ensure that when specialist physicians like anaesthetists apply to work in the Northern Territory, everything is done to facilitate their happy arrival and lengthy stay. I quote from Dr Lightfoot’s letter:
Finally, after days of unreturned phone calls and further verbal 99.9% guarantees that Darwin would sign the
papers, we were informed that Darwin wouldn’t sign the papers for my partner’s locum Emergency Department
position.
The next one appeared in the paper on 19 November 2003, the headline was: ‘Trip south only surgery option’. This goes directly to my point that the issue is not specifically the recruitment and retention of an intensivist. It goes specifically to the issue that Alice Springs Hospital is having serious trouble recruiting and retaining anaesthetists, a far more essential service in a hospital. Here we had Aboriginal women having to go interstate for cataract surgery, very basic surgery that should be able to be done in most Territory hospitals, specifically Alice Springs Hospital. These women had to go interstate to have cataract surgery and the reason was that there was no anaesthetist able to assist.
The next article, on 11 January this year, was headed ‘Drought of anaesthetists’ from the Sunday Territorian and - hello! - drought of anaesthetists at Alice Springs Hospital. The next article appeared on 13 January. From the NT News, the headline is ‘Fill in docs air dash to hospital’. This is a story about doctors having to come in from other places in Australia to start filling the gaps at Alice Springs Hospital.
The next one is from 27 January. This is where the numbers start to be crunched and the situation is that locums coming from interstate are being paid in the vicinity of $2000 per day. That is a package of recruitment, airfares, wages, all the things that are lumped in together in pays for people when they come to work in the hospital.
The sorry situation, I am reliably informed, is that over the last year, a number of anaesthetists have attempted to obtain work at Alice Springs Hospital. One of the reasons they have not been too fussed to go there has been the rate of pay. For some strange reason, Alice Springs Hospital refuses to pay the same rate of pay to doctors who are anaesthetists as they would be paid if they worked at Royal Darwin Hospital.
I understand that the going rate for an anaesthetist is in the vicinity of $220 000 per year. You would think that if someone was being paid $220 000 per year to work at Royal Darwin Hospital, they should be paid $220 000 at least to work at a place like Alice Springs Hospital. Surely, you would expect a similar wage to be paid. But, for some reason, Alice Springs Hospital management and the CEO of the department - and he is where the buck stops and, eventually, of course, with the minister - the decision has been made that we will not pay the going rate for anaesthetists. It has been interesting to see that after that sort of article appearing in January of this year - and I will sign this censure, Madam Speaker, if someone would like to collect it …
Madam SPEAKER: Thank you.
Ms CARTER: We have been calling for the government pay the going rate for anaesthetists for quite some time, and it has been refused for quite some time, but it was interesting to note that on 4 June, only a couple of weeks ago, the minister finally said on radio: ‘We have increased the aim here to make our rates and conditions of employment as competitive as possible, including paying market rates for the highly specialised areas like intensivists’.
Finally, the minister and his department have agreed to pay the going rate, but back on 27 January, the newspaper headline was ‘$120 000 for eight weeks’ work’. That is more than 50% of wages for a year for an anaesthetist as they would be paid, for example, at Royal Darwin Hospital. In January, Alice Springs Hospital was in such desperate straits that they were going to have to pay, and they still do pay, $120 000 for eight weeks’ work. Given the serious problems with the health department’s budget, surely someone with the most basic skills in recruitment would realise that you are going to have to pay the going rate to get anaesthetists to work at Alice Springs Hospital.
At the very least, you might have to pay a bit more perhaps, or you might have to give them something like a house or a car on top of what you would pay for them in other places if you have a shortage of anaesthetists and you need particularly to get them there, but to be paying $120 000 equivalent for eight weeks’ work is an absolute shame. It is a demonstration of the government’s inability to manage health services and it is obviously an indication that this minister is not across his portfolio.
It is an absolute joke. The fellow is also the Minister for Central Australia. You would think that he would have plenty of friends who are doctors and nurses and other health professionals ...
Ms Carney: Oh, no! He doesn’t have any friends.
Ms CARTER: Thank you, member for Araluen. You would think that he would have contacts, then, within the hospital who should have been feeding to him the problems that are occurring there, the problems with management at the hospital. What is his CEO, Mr Robert Griew, doing that lands the minister in the sort of hot water that he is in at the moment?
We have this problem with the amount of wages now having to be paid for specialist locums. I am advised that a couple of weeks ago, the government was still trawling around the agencies in Australia desperately trying to find somebody to come and fill in. Locums are not a guaranteed source of staff and it is a concern that such a heavy reliance is being place on them, apart from the fact that they are also such an expensive resource.
On 2 March this year, the AMA started to become very vocal in the media and this was because of their growing frustration. I understand that initially, the new minister had quite a good relationship with the AMA and there was a constructive work ethic, but as time went on, things became worse and the AMA started to become more vocal in the media.
The situation in March was that doctors were now being flagged as working 100 hours per week to deliver services at Alice Springs Hospital. The AMA’s concern specifically was that last year, there were 27 resident medical officers, and these are the junior doctors working in a hospital. The AMA felt that 27 wasn’t enough. This year, in March, there were only 19 working at Alice Springs Hospital.
The end result was that these junior medical officers were having to work one day on and one day off being on call. So it was not inconceivable for these people to have to work 18 to 20 hours a day, one day on and one day off, and the end result, according to this article in the Centralian Advocate on 2 March, was that people were working 100 hours a week.
I cannot think of any job or any profession where working constantly 100 hours a week is remotely acceptable from a human point of view, let alone a work safety, a patient care or patient responsibility point of view. Quite frankly, I wouldn’t want to see anyone who has worked 80 hours this week if I come in to see them as a patient. There are huge problems with health in the Alice Springs area, as there are across the Northern Territory. We know from research that when people are working and they are tired, that literally their work performance is as though they had been affected by alcohol because they cannot think straight at a certain point in time because they become so tired.
By March, what is the minister doing to overcome this problem at Alice Springs Hospital? The answer, patently, by now, June, is nothing. We now have the AMA complaining about the low number of resident medical officers.
At Alice Springs Hospital at the time, there was quite a bit of disagreement about how many doctors actually were working at the hospital. The AMA counted. They got 77. The minister, through his counting, got 96. Who was right? Who was wrong? In the end the minister said to the AMA: ‘Where did you get your numbers? They are ridiculous’, and the AMA advised the minister: ‘We got them from your department, sir, and here is the spreadsheet that shows the 77 doctors working at Alice Springs Hospital’. ‘Oh’, said the minister, and went back, probably to his poor, beleaguered CEO, Mr Robert Griew, and: ‘Oops! Yes, we were wrong.’ Here we go. So there were not 96 doctors, as the minister thought, working out of Alice Springs Hospital, and the end result is that the doctors who are working there, whether they are residents, registrars or specialists, are all working flat out.
The CLP opposition applauds the staff of Alice Springs Hospital. We know how hard they are working, how dedicated they are, and how upset they have been, and that has driven them to the media, and your accusations I will deal with shortly with regards to the media. It is the staff who have driven this, and I know from having worked in the system how extraordinary it is for staff to actually go to the media with their concerns. It basically demonstrates absolute desperation that they are going to the media.
On 7 May, here we have the President of the Australian Medical Association in the Northern Territory headlined in the paper from the Centralian Advocate: ‘Doctors say hospital money not enough’. This is the minister’s constant cry at the moment: ‘We are giving $11m to Alice Springs Hospital over the next four years and aren’t we wonderful?’ End of story. ‘We are going to buy you this, that and the other. Isn’t that marvellous?’ The doctors, nurses and the other hardworking staff want to be relieved of their troubles right now. They do not want to hear what is going to happen in the next couple of years; they want to know what is going to happen now.
David Meadows, President of the AMA, said more funding will not solve the problems caused by poor management of the hospital. He went on to say:
- The issues of recruitment and retention of staff remain, the lack of commitment to safe work practice continues
to expose both patients and staff to unnecessary risk.
- Ms Carney: And the buck stops with you.
On 3 June this year, there was an article in the NT News about how critically-ill patients in Alice Springs Hospital cannot be flown to Darwin for treatment because of the shortage of anaesthetists. This is where we start to become quite specific about the intensive care unit, but I have been demonstrating in the last 15 minutes that this problem has been brewing for quite some time.
Mr Mills: It is the minister who is responsible!
Ms CARTER: It is the minister who is responsible for this. Now we start to hone in on the intensive care unit. On 4 June this year, we have a ‘Hospital crisis’, headline in the Centralian Advocate: ‘Hospital crisis: Intensive care closes’. But the minister said: ‘It is open’ …
Mr Mills: What? The Minister for Central Australia said that?
Ms CARTER: That is right, the Minister for Central Australia said: ‘It is open’, according to the paper, and the ‘Hospital crisis: Intensive care closes’ is what is being alleged by a staff member. A staff member from Alice Springs Hospital went to the Centralian Advocate to say that certain comments that had been made by the minister were not true.
Mr Mills: Untrue!
Ms CARTER: The intensive care unit at Alice Springs Hospital had been closed.
Mr Mills: Untrue!
Madam SPEAKER: Leader of the Opposition! Order!
Mr Kiely: Denis would never carry on like that.
Ms CARTER: Here we have …
Mr Mills: You grub!
Madam SPEAKER: Leader of the Opposition, withdraw that. Withdraw that remark!
Mr MILLS: I withdraw, Madam Speaker.
Ms CARTER: Madam Speaker, here we have, on 4 June, a staff member going to the paper with regards to the closure of the Alice Springs intensive care unit. It was not the opposition going to the paper and stirring it up within the community of Alice Springs, it was a staff member going to the Centralian Advocate and raising it …
Mr Mills: That is because he will not accept responsibility.
Ms CARTER: It was a staff member who raised this issue in Alice Springs, expressing his or her concern about what was happening there. The problem is, of course, on 4 June, which is only a couple of weeks ago, the minister was contradicting what the staff member was saying by saying: ‘No, no, that is fine. The place is open’. That is very poor form.
Ms Carney interjecting
Ms CARTER: That is right. The member for Araluen is correct. We had the backflip. Here we go on 8 June: ‘Toyne backflips: ICU was closed’. Minister, when you respond to this censure motion, it would be greatly appreciated if you could explain to Territorians why you said on one day that the unit was not closed and then, four days later, you changed your mind and said: ‘Oh no, I was wrong; it was open’. The question has to be …
Mr Dunham: Did he apologise? Did he say sorry? Is there an apology in that article?
Ms CARTER: Member for Drysdale, no, there is no apology here.
Mr Dunham: No apology?
Ms CARTER: No apology. What the opposition would love to know is: when you said one day that is was not closed, why did you say that? Was that because your CEO, Mr Robert Griew, misinformed you, or did you deliberately intend to misinform Territorians? Where does the buck stop …
Mr Stirling: Pick on the public servants! Attack the public servants.
Mr Dunham: Well, maybe it was a lie, Syd. We do not know. It could have been a lie.
Mr HENDERSON: A point of order, Madam Speaker! It may be while this is a censure motion to accuse my colleague of lying and, of course, we will refute that allegation, but to allege a senior public servant is lying is totally inappropriate, and I call on the member to withdraw.
Mr DUNHAM: No. We are saying Toynie is a liar.
Madam SPEAKER: Member for Drysdale, you will withdraw that remark. You know the rules of debate.
Mr DUNHAM: I do need clarification, Madam Speaker. The censure is actually for the minister lying to Territorians …
Madam SPEAKER: Yes.
Mr DUNHAM: I would have thought that in the rule of debate, given that is the purpose of the motion moved by the government, that we move a motion saying that we told lies, I thought we could discuss the fact that he was a liar.
Members interjecting.
Madam SPEAKER: The inference you made was that the CEO of the department was lying.
Mr DUNHAM: No, it was not. It was …
Members interjecting.
Mr DUNHAM: I am sure the Hansard record will bear this out. There were two options put to the minister …
Madam SPEAKER: Then you make a statement that you were not accusing the CEO of lying. Is that what are saying? State it clearly for me.
Mr DUNHAM: You asked me to answer the mistaken, erroneous allegation by the Leader of Government Business. I will do that. The Leader of Government Business is wrong.
Madam SPEAKER: Please clarify that you did not.
Mr DUNHAM: If I said anything about Robert Griew lying, I will withdraw it, but I did not, Madam Speaker.
Madam SPEAKER: Okay. Let us get that clear on the record.
Mr DUNHAM: It will be on the record, yes.
Ms CARTER: Madam Speaker, my point to the minister was: I did not use the word ‘lying’, I asked was he misinformed, or did he deliberately misinform Territorians? Who was doing what? It was one or the other: either the CEO, who is the person responsible for the department and communication information to the minister, deliberately misinformed the minister on this matter, and I can assure you he …
Mr STIRLING: A point of order, Madam Speaker! It is exactly the same inference or declaration that the member for Drysdale was just picked up on.
Madam SPEAKER: Yes, please don’t infer…
Mr STIRLING: There is an ugly habit creeping into the opposition of sledging and accusing senior public servants and CEOs throughout the Northern Territory Public Service of lying. Say what you like about the Minister for Health …
Members interjecting.
Mr STIRLING: … say what you like about the Minister for Health, he is in here and he can defend himself. The Commissioner for Police cannot defend himself, the CEO of Health cannot defend himself. Call Dr Toyne what you will, but leave any allegations of lying by the CEO out of it.
Madam SPEAKER: Member for Port Darwin, that is fair comment.
Ms CARTER: Madam Speaker, then I call on the minister to advise the House why on one day he said the intensive care unit was not closed and four days later he said: ‘No, I made a mistake, it was closed’ and he did not say sorry. Let us hear from the minister shortly as to what was going on.
On 11 June, we had the unfortunate headline in the Centralian Advocate of ‘Hospital deaths: calls for inquest’. I am not going to waste my time talking about the opposition and what we said. Basically, I said there should be no hesitation in conducting a coronial inquiry. That was it. That was all I said when I was asked by the paper what I thought. For you to go around the place saying that we are playing with fire for bagging hospital staff is absolutely ridiculous, and you know it. I know why you are doing it; trying to spin this story as though we have had a hand in this. It has been the staff members that have gone from the hospital to the Centralian Advocate and raised their concerns that has put you in the you-know-what that you are in at the moment.
Given that the staff at Alice Springs Hospital have been communicating with the media about their disquiet, given that the President of the AMA has been communicating with the media and telling us about his concerns about the hospital, given that someone from Alice Springs Hospital was obviously aware of those two deaths and went to the press, surely your immediate reaction should have been: whatever needs to be looked at should be looked at, if the Coroner wants to have a look at it, no problems at all. What did you do? Absolutely nothing, tried to avoid speaking to the press and tried to avoid the whole situation altogether.
There has been a damning deterioration over the last 12 months or so with regards to Alice Springs Hospital. You have implemented a critical care system at Alice Springs Hospital that is expensive, unsustainable and essentially is a band aid approach to providing a proper service. You have made promises in the budget - you are going to open more beds, put in more staff - but you cannot keep the beds that you have already have. You cannot keep the positions you have already have, and you have already paid for, filled. How on earth are you going to do more when you cannot keep the current status going?
It is appalling. I understand that one doctor at Royal Darwin Hospital at the moment, who is an anaesthetist, is saying he does not want to go down to Alice Springs Hospital to work, the reason being that he will have minimal backup, and you know that is true, and he will be working so many hours, constantly. His comment was: ‘The only way I will be able to have a day off is to leave town’. You are creating a situation at Alice Springs Hospital that is going to make it more and more difficult for you to recruit and retain staff.
Do not go blaming the opposition. Our role is to scrutinise what you are doing. We are doing our job, sir. This is our role, Madam Speaker, to scrutinise what is going on. People come to me to tell me what is going wrong. They should be going to you, telling you what is going wrong, but they are not because it is pointless so they come to us. They go to the press. It is outrageous that Health Department staff are going to the press, and they cannot talk to you. You are the Minister for Central Australia. You should know these people personally. You should know exactly what is going on. The AMA should not need to do the desperate things that they are having to do and say at the moment to try to get you to do something about what is going on.
I definitely heard from someone who is very credible within the system that the direction to them when you promised the $11m was to go slow; not to recruit until October. Everyone knows that when you put advertisements in the paper in October, you will be lucky to get an intensivist or an anaesthetist on board by February because people do not want to go to Alice Springs at Christmas time.
You will be lucky to get them before February, and this constantly happens with the Martin Labor government. They make promises in the budget – Hello! Where is the hospice? - and we don’t see a thing year after year after year. You get the great media release, you have the glossies and the public thinks its going to happen. It is a sad and sorry situation when it is not happening. It has all caught up with you, minister. The end result is that we have an intensive care and a critical care service at Alice Springs Hospital that is in crisis. It is a shame that this has happened.
What is going to happen to maternity services in the next few weeks, minister, when you have 10 midwives leaving the hospital? This is a classic example of a hospital in major difficulties. Ten midwives! They are easy to pluck out of the air. I don’t think so. They are about to leave.
You have major problems at Alice Springs Hospital. You have an emergency physician in the hospital who is very skilled and now has to apply for her own job. She, I understand, has had a number of job offers from interstate because they need emergency physicians and they have said: ‘Oh, hello! Here’s a doctor whose contract has not been renewed. She has to apply for a job’. Another shameful situation.
Minister, I call on you to resign. You just have not done your job properly. Step aside. You are not coping.
Members interjecting.
Madam SPEAKER: Shadow minister, your time has expired.
Dr TOYNE (Health): Madam Speaker, I can say straight up that it would take a much more substantial censure motion to make me even think about going anywhere other than to continue the work that I am doing. I will be staying put and I will be working to build services up in Alice Springs Hospital for the first time in its history. You are making all these …
Members interjecting.
Ms LAWRIE: A point of order, Madam Speaker. The minister has only just started speaking and already we cannot hear him because of the interjections. They are unruly.
Madam SPEAKER: Minister, you have the floor.
Dr TOYNE: Thank you, Madam Speaker. Let us outline some of the issues that have been raised today. We are talking about the standing of the Alice Springs Hospital in the community, which is my main concern. I am standing here not only as the Minister of Health but also as the Minister for Central Australia, and I can report to you, Madam Speaker, that there is a lot of anger down in Alice Springs in the business community and the health community at the unsubstantiated allegations that have been thrown around in the media. We cannot …
Ms Carney interjecting.
Dr TOYNE: The opposition has to realise that if you are going to make allegations on the public record the way that has been happening in the last week and a half, you had better be able to substantiate them because what you are doing is a direct attack on public confidence in our health system, the confidence in Alice Springs Hospital. I can tell you that many people are very angry about the allegations that have been flung around. Many of them are in the business community. Many of them are in the health community. I have met with many people in the last week and that theme has come through very strongly.
We have had much made of recruitment of new staff in to Alice Springs and, somehow, this is an manifestation of the Martin government. I will deal with that in more detail later in my contribution. They are going to find it very hard to substantiate the allegations they have been making. I reiterate, as I have many times in this debate, that $11m over four years is a considerable commitment to the Alice Springs Hospital, an historic commitment of 37 positions on top of a substantial increase in staffing of the emergency department since we came to government.
The fact is that whatever is right and wrong with the current situation, it is light years ahead of the situation that we inherited from the previous government. We have increased the staff and we are continuing ...
Ms Carney interjecting.
Dr TOYNE: The member for Araluen will be very pleased to know that if she ever gets crook, she will have much better coverage than you would have provided for me had I become crook when you were in government.
In respect of staff recruitment referred to in the member for Port Darwin’s speech, we have to say up front in this censure motion that Alice Springs, as a regional hospital, in fact, even Royal Darwin Hospital, has to compete in a very competitive market with short supplies of all of the critical positions to which we are trying to recruit. I cannot do anything about that, nor can any other living person, other than to make sure that we are out there with an aggressive campaign to get the people that we need and offering conditions, pay and the environment and support that we are going to need to get them here.
The most serious allegation I will deal with in this response is the allegation that there were preventable deaths in Alice Springs. I assure this House that not only were they not preventable deaths in the case of those two unfortunate people, but that the campaign of spreading fear and anxiety around those deaths is absolutely despicable. If you are going to put that sort of allegation on the public record, you need to be able to substantiate it.
Members interjecting:
Dr TOYNE: An unnamed source goes into the Centralian Advocate claiming someone had a preventable death and that was enough for you, was it? That was enough for you? Did you consider at all the interests of the families of those unfortunate people? Did you consider what they are going through at the moment when they are in mourning already, and you want to spread across the public airwaves that these deaths could have been preventable and their loved ones may still be alive? Well, that is not my sort of politics. I will never go there.
Members interjecting.
Ms LAWRIE: A point of order, Mr Deputy Speaker! The level of interjection by the opposition makes it impossible to hear the minister.
Ms CARTER: Speaking to the point of order, the minister is pointing at me and speaking directly to me.
Members interjecting.
Ms MARTIN: A point of order, Mr Deputy Speaker! That is exactly what the member did when she was on her feet in the censure motion.
Members interjecting.
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order, order!
Members interjecting.
Dr TOYNE: Mr Deputy Speaker, let me restate the …
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER: Minister, I will rule on this point of order. The objection is that interjections are making it hard to hear, but I do not believe there is a point of order.
Dr TOYNE: Thank you, Mr Deputy Speaker. To continue, I want to put on record in detail the initiatives we are taking on Alice Springs Hospital: $11m over four years to develop an integrated intensive …
Members interjecting.
Dr TOYNE: You had better listen because this is pertinent to some of the allegations you have been throwing around. There is $11m over four years to develop an integrated intensive care, high dependency unit. Now, pay attention. There is $2m this year and $3m annually for the next three years. It will allow the employment of an extra 37 health professionals, including an intensivist and nurses. They have not been in that hospital. Until six months ago, there was no such thing as an intensivist in Alice Springs Hospital as a permanent position.
Members interjecting.
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order!
Dr Lim interjecting.
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER: Member for Greatorex, order!
Dr TOYNE: Here is the group, here they are, saying how dare we not have an intensivist not there for 24 hours. They did not have one at all! They did not have one for 26 years. They had no position there whatsoever. It was okay for us to go along without an intensive care unit as far as they were concerned.
Members interjecting.
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order, order! Please allow the minister to continue.
Dr TOYNE: Mr Deputy Speaker, this will result in an increase of five new funded beds over two years to make a total of four intensive care unit beds and four high dependency beds. That will markedly reduce the need to transfer seriously ill patients to other hospitals. We can keep them in their community where their families are.
With regard to the pay and conditions of doctors and other health professionals, the Northern Territory Medical Officers Certified Agreement 2003-2006 was presented to the Australian Industrial Relations Commission for certification. Negotiations by OCPE, the department and the Commonwealth branch of the ASMOF provided a very good outcome for our doctors and nurses. We now have very competitive rates of pay and conditions to attract these professionals into the Northern Territory. The heart of the agreement is a significant salary increase. It provides an 11% pay rise for medical officers over three years. It will help the Northern Territory maintain its status as a competitive employer in a very difficult national and international market place.
With regard to nurses, budget 2004-05 includes an extra $4.6m for nurses’ salaries, and takes total expenditure for nurses’ salaries to $116.8m. It follows, again, a pay rise of 11% over three years. As of May 2004, we have created 48 out of our promised 75 jobs for nurses new to our hospitals, and the budget has provided an additional 65 nursing positions, including the 37 in Alice Springs. This is already well beyond our election promise to create those 75 new hospital-based nurses.
In addition, the budget commits $1.4m to employ an extra six nurses in our bush clinics. For the opposition to be squirreling around saying: ‘All the nurses are unhappy, we do not have enough of them. What are you doing to recruit them?’. The first thing we are doing is putting the money on the deck to say that we have the salaries and we can actually give them decent conditions. The second thing we are doing is giving them an 11% pay rise, along with the doctors, so that we can provide competitive rates to get them here.
Our record to date in the Alice Springs Hospital speaks for itself.
Mr Dunham: Hear, hear! Your record speaks for itself! It speaks for itself.
Dr TOYNE: Okay, let us compare it to yours, mate. Let us compare it to yours. Mid-2001, when you handed over the reins to us very reluctantly, there were 75 doctors at Alice Springs Hospital. On 10 June 2004, there were 84 doctors at the hospital - a 12% increase. Under our government, there have also been increases in ICU-HD staff, from 24.5 nursing staff at the ICU-HDU to 28.5 nursing positions on 10 June 2004.
Dr Lim interjecting.
Dr TOYNE: I think I can hear a bug whistling.
Dr Lim interjecting.
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order, order!
Dr TOYNE: We are heading towards another recruitment to take it to 29.5 positions, which is an increase of 20%.
We have talked a lot about the intensivist position. We created that position, and we created it to put it into the Alice Springs Hospital ICU-High Dependence Unit as a permanent position to provide clinical leadership to that area of critical care alongside two other critical care positions in the Emergency Department and in Anaesthesia to have a senior clinical team that can lead the critical care areas in Alice Springs Hospital. For the first time ever, we are getting a solid foundation under critical care in Alice Springs Hospital with sufficient staff throughout the critical care area to fully cater for all the patients that we can deal with at a regional level.
There will still be patients whom we will have to take elsewhere; patients who require ventilation, for example, will still go to the big major hospitals either in Adelaide or in Darwin. That is a reality of life in a regional centre. You cannot have a regional hospital duplicating the services of a major hospital in a capital city.
I just want read a comment by Jeff Byrne, the General Manager of Alice Springs Hospital. You would reckon he would know a thing or two about what is going on in there:
- You have to remember, we have never had an intensivist employed in this hospital; we had locums from time to
time, but we have not even had locums up to the last six months, so what has happened in the last six months
is that we have lifted up the care a notch.
We are now looking at employing an Australian-trained intensivist. Alice Springs is fortunate that we have
moved up this notch, and it is a pity that it has been misconstrued in some way.
That was Jeff Byrne on 9 June on ABC Radio. In all the hysteria that is being whipped up by the opposition and the media, it is good to hear the voice of sanity.
Margaret Waite, Chairman of the Alice Springs Hospital Board in the NT News of 12 June, said:
- Once again, Alice Springs Hospital risks becoming a political football as an election approaches. I would like
to reassure Centralians who may have been alarmed by recent news items about the hospital’s capacity to
provide good quality acute medical services, my advice is that the intensive care unit continues to provide
intensive care to acutely ill patients and has done so throughout the recent media suggestions that it was closed.
Recent suggestions in the media that the Alice Springs Hospital management has not been energetically seeking
specialist staff are false. I witness, daily, management striving to recruit suitable specialists and other staff to
our hospital. The problems they face are also challenging hospital managements all around Australia at present.
Mr Deputy Speaker, probably the low point in the public debate that surrounded the ...
Mr Dunham interjecting
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order!
Dr TOYNE: ... Alice Springs Hospital was the NT News headline ‘Doctors deliver death warning’ referring to the supposed staff shortages at Alice Springs ICU and then whipping in was the member for Port Darwin: ‘I do not think I have ever seen a headline just like that’ on 8 TOP-FM, Monday, 7 June 2004. Let me enlighten you.
The Centralian Advocate ‘NT hospitals facing crisis, warns AMA’. This was a previous headline:
- Territory hospitals are almost at crisis point, the AMA has warned. The association’s industrial relations director,
Eric Jansen said doctors often work 30 or 40 hours straight because of staff shortages and were suffering from
burnout.
NT hospitals are at a crisis point. ‘The area is a disaster waiting to happen,’ Mr Jansen said.
Mr Jansen claimed that the NT did not offer competitive rates compared with the outback areas of Queensland
and Western Australia.
Guess who was in government when those headlines hit the Centralian Advocate! This is not new, Mr Deputy Speaker. There are always these allegations flying around about our hospital.
Let’s have a look at some headlines. Here is 14 July 1995: ‘NT hospitals facing crisis’, the one I just quoted from. What did your minister at the time do? He ‘blasts the AMA on hospital claim’, so he is not buying into it either. Mr Finch said:
- Alice Springs Hospital is far from being the worst and he was most offended by the tag.
- He said the attack on Alice Springs and other Territory hospitals was simply a ploy ...
Members interjecting.
Dr TOYNE: ...
- … by the Australian Medical Association.
‘For the AMA to suggest that our hospitals are in crisis is irresponsibly alarmist.’
It sounds like when the boot was on the other foot, your minister did not want to have a bar of it either.
Members interjecting.
Dr TOYNE: Moving right along with the previous government: ‘Staff shortage hits the hospital’. I wonder whose photo that is! It looks something like the member for Drysdale.
- Alice Springs Hospital is suffering from a staff shortage and desperately trying to refill vacancies,
management said yesterday.
The shortage, being felt on a worldwide scale, has caused a cut in hospital services with areas such
as elective surgery being temporarily closed
What did the member for Drysdale do when he was the Minister for Health faced with this dire crisis in the Alice Springs Hospital? Did he whip in like we have and have a look at the reports and what the reports were saying? Did he get $11m out of his Cabinet to put 37 positions in to alleviate the situation? Did he even take any responsibility? Did he ever take responsibility for the situation? Here is what he had to say:
- NT health minister Stephen Dunham said the issue was one of hospital management to deal with. He
would visit the hospital.
‘This is a staffing matter and an issue for management’.
So he is out of there. He does not want to have a bar of it.
We have that on 22 December 2000. It did not get better. 20 February 2001:
‘Elective surgery in Alice still on hold’:
- Alice Springs Hospital continues to turn away elective surgery patients. ...
You can see that the claims from the other side that this all suddenly appeared when the Martin government came to power and that we have done nothing about it …
Members interjecting.
Dr TOYNE: Mr Deputy Speaker, the word ‘hypocrite’ springs to mind on this. We have had this mob here for 26 years. They turned their back, ignored the things that were being said about staffing shortages in Alice Springs Hospital. We did not. We did not ignore what we were being told. We have already put significant new positions into that hospital, particularly in the critical care area. We are now moving to build a complete ICU-High Dependence Unit and that will, for the first time, provide a level of care above the standard that you would find in regional hospitals elsewhere in Australia, and rightly so. Alice Springs Hospital happens to be 1500 kilometres away from the nearest major hospital. We have to be able to look after people a bit more than your average regional hospital in Australia.
I will take to heart the fact that there is a fair bit of hypocrisy in this. I am not taking to heart the fact you think that I am not doing the job, as the member for Greatorex was trying to say the other day: ‘These problems didn’t ever happen in the hospital before Labor got in’. What about all these, Drip? What about all these?
Dealing with the recruitment to positions in Alice Springs Hospital and the employment packages that we are using to try to attract the professionals we need into those new positions, here is the member for Port Darwin on the public record:
- Well, I think minister Toyne and his Health Department has refused to face the real obvious, and that is the
first thing you have to do to is offer the same sort of employment package in Alice Springs as you would, say,
in Darwin.
I can tell you that medical officers in both hospitals work under the same Enterprise Bargaining Agreement that was resolved between our government and the AMA. Where a position has proven difficult to fill, a market allowance may be offered by either hospital and I can confirm to this House that sufficient market rates have been put against these positions to attract the professionals that we are after.
I will tell you one thing we are not going to do: the example that was given by the member for Port Darwin of not making the anaesthetist the offer that they were after. I will tell you what the situation was: we offered them $250 000 per year to go to Alice Springs and work as anaesthetists. They turned around and said: ‘No, give us $440 000 a year.’ We would go broke doing that sort of stuff. That is simply not on.
Members interjecting.
Dr TOYNE: Mr Deputy Speaker, senior medical offers may be offered executive contracts, which are monitored by the Commissioner for Public Employment, and solely relate to the circumstances surrounding filling the vacancy. We are not going to play Rafferty’s Rules on this. We are going to offer fair rates, premium rates if we have to, but we are not going to be offering $200 000 on the top to get a specialist into Alice Springs compared with their peers working in the Darwin Royal Hospital. That is just not on.
It has been alleged a number of times that Alice Springs Hospital management have been told not to recruit to the ICU-High Dependence positions until October. This was the member for Greatorex out there having a swing on 11 May 2004, supported ably by the member for Port Darwin on 7 June 2004. I can put on record in this House that management has not been told to delay recruitment. I have been assured of that at all levels of the recruitment structure.
Alice Springs Hospital has already employed an additional four ICU trained nurses on 24, 25 and 27 May and 3 June 2004. We are fast-tracking the process of recruitment for more nurses, both through notifying our usual nursing work force agencies as well as in a national campaign that has been ramped up. We have put a special position down into the Alice Springs Hospital to oversee the detailed work that is going to be needed to get those extra people into that hospital. National advertising commenced on 5 June for the three senior medical positions, the head of anaesthesia, the head of the emergency department and the head of ICU, intensive care. We are out there working aggressively. We have an offer that certainly matches Darwin and, in some cases, we will offer premiums above that if we need to get people there that way.
Let us deal with this ugly incident with allegations of preventable deaths in Alice Springs Hospital. I did take some action on that. When those allegations were made, I asked our Chief Medical Office, Dr Tarun Weeramanthri, to immediately review the case files, to go down to Alice Springs and interview the attending physicians associated with those two cases.
What did our Chief Medical Officer find? He found that there was no evidence that a preventable death had occurred; the treatment given to those two unfortunate patients was appropriate and adequate for the situation they were in. He also found that they were seriously and multiply-ill people. That sort of patient, tragically, is always present in the hospital system. Hospitals cannot save everyone. What our Chief Medical Officer found was that in both cases, the treatment that the patient received leading up to their death had no contributing effect to the death of those patients.
We await the Coroner’s assessment of this as well. It is important to see an independent assessment so that the public, not you mob, can be absolutely assured by an independent statutory officer that there was nothing untoward about it. I have taken the action of asking for counselling to be provided to the families of those two patients because I do not know what effect all this public conjecture has had on them. When you are mourning a loved one, the last thing you want to be hearing is that they could have been saved but for the hospital not being up to scratch. We will make sure that those families have suffered no undue detriment because of the publicity.
I will say again: there are very specific and due processes that should follow anyone who has concerns about a death in a hospital. There are very stringent provisions for a doctor before they sign a death certificate. Their career is on the line. If there are any doubts in their mind whatsoever about the standard of treatment or the cause of death, that should go to the Coroner. If they sign the death certificate and say it is not going to be passed to the Coroner, they are putting their career on the line. They can be deregistered. They are also guilty of a criminal offence if they take that action.
I am absolutely assured by the most senior doctor we have in our public health system that no such irregularities occurred with these deaths and I hope that will be the end of the matter. We will look at what the Coroner has to say. Even at this stage, I have a high degree of confidence that nothing untoward happened.
Finally, moving to the real reason for a lot of this blow-up, which is actually an industrial issue. It became more and more clear from both what was being said around the issue by medical representative groups and from what I was being apprised directly by staff and management. I will read out the resolutions of a meeting of doctors held on 8 June. The letter is dated 8 June and I believe the meeting was the day before. The letter I am quoting, and I will table it, is from the Australian Salaried Medical Officers Federation. This letter was sent to me to apprise me of the resolutions that came out of this meeting. Until this meeting was held, there was much talk about public safety, about do we have enough staff there, and there isn’t an intensivist, or there is. What am I presented with when the doctors meet to discuss their concerns about the hospital?
1. That the medical officers of Alice Springs Hospital and the senior Critical Care clinicians in Darwin
support Dr Elizabeth Mowatt as the Head of Emergency Department.
One of those three positions we just advertised:
- 2. That the decision to advertise the position of Head of Emergency Department of Alice Springs Hospital
when the incumbent head, Dr Elizabeth Mowatt has done and is continuing to perform at a level of excellence
and has expressed her desire to continue in the position is an example of the continuing disregard senior
management have for the recommendations of senior medical staff of ASH, senior critical care clinicians in
Darwin and the AMA/ASMOF.
3. That the medical officers …
And this comes to the nub of it:
- … the medical officers of ASH and the senior critical care clinicians in Darwin call on the Minister for
Health to directly intervene and appoint Dr Elizabeth Mowatt Head of the Emergency Department of ASH.
Of course, in chime, the opposition is saying ‘What a great idea, yes. The minister should jump in there, give Elizabeth the job and not worry about the due process. Do not worry about the Public Sector Employment and Management Act, section 22. Do not worry that you are breaking the law. Do not worry that it would be considered corrupt to take that action’.
This is an industrial action. It is an action to confirm someone in a position within the public service. I am not going there. That is not the way I am going to carry out my duties as a minister.
Obviously, this is about the Alice Springs Hospital, the perceptions of the community, and what damage it is doing to the perception of the hospital and the staff who work there.
By the time the last headline came out: ‘Patient dies as unit closed’, I have to admit I felt quite sick in the stomach. I do not know whether you realise what affect a headline like that is having on people in Alice Springs who have recently been bereaved. Are you implying or insinuating that if there had been different treatment, they would still be alive? You have put doubts into people’s minds and you tainted the dedication of staff at Alice Springs Hospital. That is what upset me most of all: to think that you are using patients as your political football. You may say the staff members went to the newspapers, but we know the member for Greatorex’s political affiliations with staff, and we also know his past professional association …
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER: There is no point of order.
Dr LIM: Why does she say this? The censure is against the minister, not me.
Dr LIM: My political affiliations with staff …
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER: Member for Greatorex!
Members interjecting.
Dr LIM: … that is a lot of rubbish!
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order! Order!
Dr LIM: Speaking to the point of order!
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order! Yes, and I am going to reply to the point of order …
Dr LIM: I believe the member for Braitling has no right to refer to me having political affiliations with staff at the Alice Springs Hospital.
Members interjecting.
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER: There is no point of order.
Dr LIM: What a lot of rubbish that is!
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER: There is no point of order. You know the process. There is no point of order. Member for Braitling.
Dr Lim interjecting.
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order!
Dr Lim: David Meadows would love that
Mrs BRAHAM: Well, you would love it, too, because we remember what went on.
Mr Deputy Speaker, I felt quite sickened by it and I even investigated a little bit more what was going on and the opposition, even then …
Mr Baldwin interjecting.
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order! Order!
Members interjecting.
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order, please! Allow the member for Braitling to continue.
Mrs BRAHAM: It is not unusual for the opposition to want to have a go at me. I can understand that.
I am an Alice Springs member. There are three other Alice Springs members in this House and I am waiting for them to say something positive about their community, about their town. I remember clearly at the Alice Springs sittings …
Mr Baldwin interjecting.
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order!
Mrs BRAHAM: … when you orchestrated a protest about the town …
Mr Baldwin interjecting.
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER: Member for Braitling! Member for Braitling!
Mrs BRAHAM: I stood up and said: ‘I love this town’.
Members interjecting.
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order!
Mrs BRAHAM: I noticed that not one Alice Springs member was willing to say the same thing.
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order, member for Braitling! Order! Please, through the Chair. Could you speak through the Chair, please?
Mrs BRAHAM: Yes, Mr Deputy Speaker. That protest was orchestrated, but because I was willing to stand up and say: ‘I love this town’ because I have been there for 42 years, whereas the Johnny-come-latelies have no feeling for the town …
Members interjecting.
Mrs BRAHAM: What did the opposition do …
Mr Baldwin interjecting.
Mrs BRAHAM: … with their mate, Erwin
Mr Baldwin interjecting.
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER: Member for Daly!
Mr Baldwin interjecting.
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER: Member for Daly!
Mrs BRAHAM: Mr Deputy Speaker, the opposition with the cooperation of Erwin Chlanda, of course, took that photo of me holding the plaque saying I love this town …
Mr Dunham interjecting.
Mrs BRAHAM: … and in fact they circulated to all of Braitling.
Mr BALDWIN: A point of order, Mr Deputy Speaker! If the member for Braitling wants to make allegations about the opposition, you know and she knows that she has to do it via a substantive motion, like a censure motion.
Mr HENDERSON: Speaking to the point of order, Mr Deputy Speaker, the member well knows that if any member of this House believes in any way that they have been defamed by another member, they can respond …
Mr Baldwin: You are a liar!
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order!
Mr Baldwin: You are an absolute liar!
Mr HENDERSON: … and clear the record.
Mr STIRLING: A point of order, Mr Deputy Speaker!
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER: Member for Daly, please withdraw that.
Mr BALDWIN: I was picking up on his point that we could make any sort of accusations.
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER: Member for Daly, withdraw it! Member for Daly, withdraw it!
Mr BALDWIN: No, I will not withdraw it, sorry.
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER: Member for Daly, you must leave the Chamber, please.
Mr BALDWIN: I am happy to.
Mrs BRAHAM: Mr Deputy Speaker …
Mr DUNHAM: There is a point of order, Mr Deputy Speaker, that has not been ruled upon. In the unfair and untrue allegations made by the Leader of Government Business, he claimed that he had the remedy of this person speaking at some other time if they felt defamed. Now, he should withdraw his allegation. Likewise, the current speaker should withdraw the allegation that the member for Greatorex manipulated the press to take a photo of her. This is …
Members interjecting.
Mr DUNHAM: Yes, you did.
Members interjecting.
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order! I will make a ruling. I believe the member for Braitling was referring to the party in general and I do not think, therefore, there is a point of order.
Mrs BRAHAM: Mr Deputy Speaker, may I say it is not an allegation, it is fact, but I do thank the opposition for circulating that flier in my electorate. I wonder if they considered how many votes they gained for me?
Dr Lim interjecting.
Mrs BRAHAM: Member for Greatorex, do you mind? You can have your say later.
Mrs BRAHAM: I just raised that, Mr Deputy Speaker …
Dr Lim interjecting.
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order, member for Greatorex!
Dr Lim interjecting.
Mrs BRAHAM: I cannot believe that members from Alice Springs would continue to run this line of putting down their town. I really cannot recall when they have ever said anything in support of Alice Springs. They continually denigrate what is going on. They never come out and say this is a great town, we love it, there are good things happening, business is going well, the health department is good. They never say anything because they are always knocking the town.
I tell you what: if they thought that they were going to win votes by using this as a political debate, sorry, you have lost them. I need to tell you that a number of your long-term supporters came in to see me, rang my office, and said: ‘This is not on. This is not on. Enough is enough. These headlines are damaging our town’. I think you are going to find that you will have quite a backlash ...
Dr Lim interjecting
Mrs BRAHAM: You know who I am referring to, I am sure, because they have probably also contacted you and said: ‘What on earth are you doing? Leave our town alone. Stop putting down our hospital. Stop tainting its reputation’. Stop suggesting that patients have died because of lack of care because that is just not true. The staff at the Alice Springs Hospital are dedicated. To suggest there has been no anaesthetist is crazy. To suggest that just because the ICU is closed, patients will die is so wrong. You are trying to manipulate our hospital for your own political gain.
Let me remind you: I turned up with a broken wrist. Who do you think put me to sleep while they fixed it? It was not a locum from Queensland or someone flown in Darwin; it was someone there on staff and I spent time talking to them. You are suggesting that this is a crisis that has been going on for a long time, but it is not.
Dr Lim interjecting.
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order!
Mrs BRAHAM: Mr Deputy Speaker, we have to get some sense in to this debate. The opposition has to realise the damage they are doing. If you want to bag the Minister for Health, okay, fine; that is your job. Do it, but for goodness sake don’t do it at the expense of our staff, our doctors, the 700 people ...
Mr Mills: That is not the issue.
Mrs BRAHAM: Yes, it is! It is! Patient dies! Yes, it is.
Members interjecting.
Mrs BRAHAM: The Leader of the Opposition does not realise. Did you actually vet these media releases? Did you see them before they went? Surely, you would not, as a politician, see that you were gaining any votes by the tone of those media releases. Surely, you would not believe that this is the way you make a political statement. Surely, you have been around long enough to know that if you want to censure the government, do that, but do not censure the hospital.
Members: Hear, hear!
Mrs BRAHAM: You do not censure the staff.
Mr DUNHAM: A point of order, Mr Deputy Speaker. There is no mention of a censure of the hospital.
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER: There is no point of order.
Mrs BRAHAM: I am well aware that the CLP opposition probably do not like me saying these things, but there have been seeds of doubt planted within our community, and I do not believe that they appreciate what they have done.
We know it is difficult to recruit staff to Alice Springs Hospital. That is not new. It is also difficult to recruit them to Tennant Creek, Katherine, Darwin and Melbourne.
I went to a regional hospital in Victoria because of the pins I had in my arm. They have difficulty retaining staff. They have difficulty in recruitment because it is an Australia-wide and worldwide thing.
Mr Mills: Was their ICU open?
Mrs BRAHAM: Might I say – well, in fact, I had the operation to remove my pins in the waiting room. That is where they did it. That was a town of about 100 000 people. We have a town of 26 000 people and we have one of the best hospitals that you would see. I mean that. My kids were born there.
I have had a personal association with that hospital, and you know it. I have full faith and confidence in that hospital. To suggest that the staff down there do not do a good job ...
Mr Mills: That is not the issue.
Mrs BRAHAM: That is the issue! That is what you are implying.
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order! I remind the member for Braitling to address the Chair, please.
Mrs BRAHAM: Sorry, Mr Deputy Speaker. I am getting a bit carried away because that is where the Leader of the Opposition has missed the point. He has missed the point of the damage he is doing to the credibility of our hospital. He has missed the point that by taking this tack, he has angered Alice Springs staff. He may have a small core of people who are whingers and who are unhappy, but he has forgotten there are nearly 700 staff at that hospital. Do you really think the whole 700 are upset? Let me tell you quite frankly: no. I have spoken to them over the last week, just the same as perhaps the opposition has done.
I do not know what satisfaction they got out of the headlines, but can I say that the families of the two people who recently died were not consulted before the opposition went public on that. I find it appalling that you would use that tack. There is enough grief, when someone dies, to handle without you adding to their grief by implying that ‘patient dies as unit closes’, ‘Hospital deaths, call for inquest’, and ‘Staff fears as crisis deepens’. Do you have no sensitivity to the families concerned? Do you understand how they are feeling?
Mr Dunham interjecting.
Mrs BRAHAM: Member for Drysdale, you know this is a sad time for those people, and to put those things in the paper as headlines, in my opinion, is just too sad.
The questioning of the credibility of the two doctors who were responsible for signing those death certificates - I wonder how they must be feeling, how much confidence they now have in the opposition to be able to speak for people and put forward their point of view, because I know they are …
Ms Carney: You have fallen for it hook, line and sinker. You have.
Mrs BRAHAM: No, member for Araluen, even some of your constituents have come to me …
Ms Carney: It is not what we have said, member for Braitling.
Mrs BRAHAM: And why don’t you stand up …
Ms Carney: Oh, I plan to! I plan on standing up …
Members interjecting.
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order, order!
Mrs BRAHAM: I will certainly be listening carefully to what you have to say because you may not understand the backlash that is occurring. You may have a few people come to you saying: ‘Good on you, go for it’, but do you understand exactly the backlash that is occurring at Alice Springs because of these comments? Go and ask some of the people who have recently had treatment at the Alice Springs Hospital.
Mr Deputy Speaker, we have always sent patients south when they have been critical. For instance …
Dr Lim interjecting.
Mrs BRAHAM: No, you cannot. I am not going to justify this except to say, you could not have full services for everything at a small regional hospital. That would be crazy.
Members interjecting.
Dr Lim interjecting.
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order, order! Member for Greatorex, order, please!
Mrs BRAHAM: Member for Greatorex, you disappoint me, too. You have the professional background to know exactly what is going on at the hospital. You also know the support that you should be giving them, as you have in the past, and that you have suddenly made staff and doctors lose credibility in the eyes of the community is what worries me.
That is the point I wish to make: whenever we take a censure debate on, we should make sure we realise the consequences and the ramifications of our statements. To deny that Alice Springs Hospital is being used as a political football is nonsense. If the opposition believe that, then the staff certainly do not. I believe it is the opposition that should be censured, not the minister for Health.
Dr LIM (Greatorex): Mr Deputy Speaker, before I speak to the censure motion itself, I need to say, first of all, that it is an unprecedented move by a government of the Northern Territory to set aside business of the day, standing orders, to bring the censure motion on. It is something that has never been done in 28 years in government.
This government makes a big play about how the opposition prosecutes a case properly before you bring on a censure motion. Allow me to read you some words.
- A censure motion is about the most serious motion that you can bring to the floor of this House. It is a
substantive motion, and, as such, it requires substantial evidence and information within it to prosecute
your case. We will entertain the censure if it is brought forward with substantial evidence and information
across the case, but we are not going to waste the time of this Assembly by way of dealing with insubstantial
information in a substantive motion.
A member: Who said that?
Dr LIM: Who said that? Well, none other than the Deputy Chief Minister. Guess when he said that: on 5 March 2002. This government, without hearing how we would prosecute a case, said: ‘Censure us. We are guilty’. That is why they bring it on. They have already admitted guilt themselves. That is why they wanted to hear how we are going to do it. That is what they have done.
Members interjecting.
Dr LIM: In 25 years of parliamentary history, this has never been done. It has always been following Question Time. A condolence motion, the most serious motion in an Assembly and takes the highest precedence in any business of parliament, was deferred by this government.
Mr Stirling: By your censure.
Dr LIM: We moved there was going to be a motion …
Mr Dunham: Your censure. You moved it! You moved it; it is your motion!
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order! Order!
Members interjecting.
Mr KIELY: A point of order, Mr Deputy Speaker. I ask that the member for Greatorex address the censure motion. So far, all we have heard about is process. We are here to go through one of the most important motions in the House, and I suggest that he starts addressing it.
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER: There is no point of order.
Dr LIM: This was a great Territorian about whom we will move a Condolence Motion. He passed away, and this government today has shown the greatest disrespect for a great Territorian. I wonder why. Perhaps it was because he was a life member of the CLP. Is that why you show disrespect? That is a pretty pathetic move by this government.
Let me just get to the censure itself, as the member for Sanderson so much wants. This minister says: ‘It is something that was beaten up by the CLP’. How long have we been telling the government that there are serious problems at the Alice Springs Hospital? We have been saying that for years - not just recent weeks, for years. Remember this? ‘Elective surgery cancelled at Alice Springs’. ‘Is that right?’, I asked the reporter. Let me quote:
- What actually happened is that we normally have six anaesthetists at the Alice Springs Hospital, and currently
we have three. Obviously you cannot have surgery unless there are enough anaesthetists at the hospital and,
very unfortunately, in a difficult situation …
Etcetera. I quote again:
- I have been advised that we will have the anaesthetists in place in three weeks.
Then, further on, and I quote again:
- I am not very happy about this situation.
Further on, she says:
- So in three weeks we will see this whole situation alleviated.
This was on 4 April 2003, minister Aagaard. On 4 April 2003, and we have been warning this government that there are critical issues about the anaesthetic department for years. We kept saying it, but nobody listened. The minister, the absent minister, does not listen, and that is your problem …
Dr BURNS: A point of order, Mr Deputy Speaker!
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER: Yes, there is a point of order.
Dr LIM: He is the target of the censure and is not there to listen to it.
Dr BURNS: A point of order, Mr Deputy Speaker. The member for Greatorex well knows the protocol in referring to a member’s presence or absence in the House, and I ask that he withdraw it.
Members interjecting.
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order! Member for Greatorex, withdraw that reference.
Dr LIM: All right, Mr Deputy Speaker, in deference to you, I shall withdraw that.
The reporter asked again of the minister:
- So in three weeks time there will be a full complement? So you are confident that at least there will be
a couple more anaesthetists on the roster in three weeks time and they will be here in Alice Springs?
Says the …
Mr DUNHAM: A point of order, Mr Deputy Speaker. Given the contribution by the Speaker, it cannot be ruled as fair and impartial for her to return to the Chair. I ask that the Deputy Speaker maintain his position in the Chair until this debate is completed.
Mrs BRAHAM: All right. I am happy for that to happen.
Dr LIM: Good point. Anyway, I will repeat the quotes again from the report. The reporter said:
- So in three weeks time there will be a full complement?
And further, she asks the same question again:
- So you are confident that there will be at least a couple of more anaesthetists on the roster in three weeks
time? They will be here in Alice Springs?
The minister said:
- Absolutely.
Let me just go to some of the things the minister said: that they are building up the services of the Alice Springs Hospital for the very first time. We left them with a hospital with a full anaesthetic department, and it is they who have lost it all.
Dr Frediani, a specialist anaesthetist, was appointed by this government to be the Head of the Anaesthetic Department at Alice Springs Hospital. He has been working effectively. He has been able to attract doctors to work at the Alice Springs Hospital, prepared to live there. You heard the member for Port Darwin talk about Dr Lightfoot who was prepared to come there, but hospital management is unable to work through with them, to give them a proper contract. Dr Frediani has been in the media. On 14 May this year, he gave an interview to Mr Gavin King, the reporter. These are his words. I will read from the newspaper:
- Dr Frediani said he had anticipated a disaster for 2003 and it happened.
‘We had to stop the pain clinic; we had to stop doing the pain procedures; we had to stop helping the
renal unit with technical procedures and in the end, we stopped doing the elective list’.
This is the Head of the Anaesthetic Department saying that publicly. He said it because he has tried over and over to improve the department, but management, through this government, through this minister, could not make sure that the department does not fall apart.
Dr Toyne: Knock, knock, knock, knock.
Dr LIM: That is not knocking. I pick up the interjection from the member for Stuart. This is the messenger trying to get the appropriate message to the minister, but he just does not listen. The reality is that the member for Stuart is a dead man walking. He stumbles along like a zombie. Look at him! He looks absolutely tired. If I were him, go on and get out with your retirement. That is what you want to do. Go and retire.
Ms LAWRIE: A point of order, Mr Deputy Speaker! It is against standing orders to make a personal attack on a member. That is quite obnoxious.
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER: I do not believe it is. It is an observation rather than a personal attack. There is no point of order.
Ms Lawrie: You are disgusting.
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order, order! Member for Karama, I made a ruling, thank you.
Dr LIM: When the AMA, in all its professionalism …
Ms Scrymgour: Stand up when you talk.
Mr Kiely: He is standing up.
Dr LIM: … tells the government that there are issues, this government does not bother to listen.
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order! Member for Sanderson, withdraw that. It was unnecessary.
Ms Lawrie: Oh, that is okay.
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER: Yes, but that was done in a cynical tone. Please withdraw it.
Mr KIELY: I withdraw.
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER: Thank you.
Members interjecting.
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order! Let this debate run its course.
Dr LIM: When the member for Braitling alludes to the professional association that I have with the current President of the AMA, Dr David Meadows, she tried to insinuate that there was collusion between me and Dr Meadows. That is scurrilous, absolutely scurrilous.
Dr David Meadows happened to be my professional partner for some five years. Our association broke up back in 1986. Dr Meadows and I might have very common clinical standards, but politically, I tell you, we are probably miles apart. Do not blame the AMA for upholding a professional standard. That is below the belt, and Dr Meadows would certainly not want to hear about that.
This minister has failed to manage the department. Remember what he said when he first got into the ministry: ‘I suppose this is the first time I have had a health problem’. Well, does not he have a health problem!
What I found most distressing, living in Alice Springs as one of its local residents and having a personal and professional relationship with the hospital, is when this sort of headline appears in the papers: ‘Hospital crisis: intensive care closes’ and a sub-headline says the minister says it is open. If that is not an outright lie, I do not know what else you can call it.
- A hospital insider said last night closed from last Monday, it will remain shut for a further two weeks.
That was a quote from the newspaper.
- But health minister Peter Toyne last night ‘categorically denied’ the claim.
Dr Toyne said: ‘The ICU remains open. There are patients in ICU and emergency patients can be
assured they will be serviced as they always have been.’
As soon as that article appeared in the paper, the phone calls that I received from the hospital were countless. ‘That is untrue. This minister has lied,’ they told me. ‘They have transferred all the intensive care patients out of there. There is nobody on [inaudible] intensive care’. They have high dependence patients – yes, you can have a heart attack and you need somebody to look after you 24 hours a day, but not in intensive care.
The fact that hospital staff reacted so vehemently against the minister’s statement says it all. It is not about the CLP knocking the hospital; it is about the staff in the hospital being very concerned that their standards are being eroded because of the lack of support from this government. The people of Alice Springs are concerned that care will not be provided if they go there.
It is not because the CLP has caused such an uproar; it is the government’s failure to manage the hospital properly. They have a $50m blow out in last year’s budget, and still they cannot manage the hospital. Where have you gone wrong? I quote from the paper again:
- The source said hospital staff were now extremely nervous of what they described as ‘a dangerous situation’.
Further:
- Two registrar anaesthetists go on maternity leave in four weeks.
This was dated 4 June 2004. The minister then blamed the competitive market in Australia, which is why he cannot recruit anyone. We just heard him speak about Dr Liz Mowatt and the petition that he received from the hospital saying let’s keep Dr Liz Mowatt. In normal circumstances, a doctor would apply to the hospital for a peer review. That is, being assessed by medical peers and if they are considered satisfactory, management will ultimately renew their contract. But, no, this government will cloud the waters: let’s advertise all the positions! We will advertise for an emergency specialist, an anaesthetist specialist and an intensive care specialist. For nearly 27 years of the Alice Springs Hospital, the department has always been maintained more than adequately by anaesthetists. Some have special training in the intensive care, others have special training in paediatric care, but they are all anaesthetists. A specialist intensive care anaesthetist is, in the first instance, an anaesthetist.
If we do not even have an anaesthetist, how are you going to find an intensive care specialist? That is where they have it back to front. Let us get the hospital staffed adequately with anaesthetists first. First! Then we go the next step of getting a specialist anaesthetist who has done training in intensive care. That is what you should be doing. Let us get Dr Mowatt back in place. Let us get Dr Frediani back in place. He is your Head of the Anaesthetic Department. What have you done about it? He is sitting in Canberra working, waiting for you to sort out your management problems. Dr Frediani is on your books as an employee. Don’t shake your head, member for Stuart. Dr Frediani is on your books as an employee of the hospital as the head of your department and you are ignoring him. You are ignoring him. Bring him back, for goodness sake. He is married to a doctor who is more than willing to work at Alice Springs Hospital. They own a home in Alice Springs, for goodness sake. But here you are, not prepared to bring him back. Why?
Then you have headlines like this: ‘Doctors deliver death warning’ in the Northern Territory News of 7 June this year.
Mr Ah Kit: I would not go there if I were you.
Dr LIM: I beg your pardon?
Mr Ah Kit: I would not go there if I were you, talking about death in Alice Springs Hospital.
Dr LIM: I would not go there? You have a problem with that, have you?
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order! Order! Through the Chair!
Dr LIM: You have a problem with that, have you?
Mr Ah Kit: Yes.
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order!
Dr LIM: About doctors delivering death warnings?
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER: Through the Chair, member for Greatorex.
Dr LIM: Do you have a problem with that?
Mr Ah Kit: You have priors.
Dr LIM: I have priors! Say that outside, member for Arnhem. Say that outside or are you so cowardly that you cannot say it outside?
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order! Member for Greatorex, through the Chair, please!
Dr LIM: Mr Deputy Speaker, the member for Arnhem, member for Nhulunbuy, member for Wanguri and the member for Millner have all said it here in this coward’s castle. I challenge them all to say it outside, but they will not, will they? They are terrified of what the legal process will do to them.
Members interjecting.
Dr LIM: If there is one hypocritical …
Members interjecting.
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order, order! I cannot hear the member for Greatorex.
Members interjecting.
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order! Interjections from both sides make it hard to hear the member for Greatorex.
Dr LIM: Thank you, Mr Deputy Speaker. These are the sort of warnings that have been provided to the government endlessly, yet they continue to ignore it. This minister, the dead man walking, has continued to ignore it. It is about time he left, retired, as he said he would retire, and let us get somebody younger over there. There are a lot of young people over there who are just busting their gut to be a minister. Let them get on with the job of managing the Health department a lot better.
Ms Martin: Three minutes.
Dr LIM: Three minutes? That’s good. When the minister then says, three days later - he did not apologise for it; he just said: ‘Oh, ICU was closed’. This is the Minister for Central Australia. If he does not know what is happening in Alice Springs, then he should not be the Minister for Central Australia. Maybe the member for Barkly could do a better job than that. This is a person who lives in Alice Springs who does not know what is happening in his own backyard, and that concerns me. If he is also the Health minister, that makes it all the worse.
When it came to those two patients unfortunately suffering quite significant injuries that, as the minister said, their deaths were probably not preventable, and I do not have any problems with that; it happens. However, he had to be pushed by the media and by the AMA before he would even go to the next stage of instigating a review. I am pleased to see that the Coroner is considering it as well because, that way, it takes it away from the doctors, from the government, and you have an objective study done. I hope and trust the Coroner will determine that there was nothing untoward about the whole process.
If you think about it, though, you do have an intensive care unit there. You have an emergency department. They treated the patient. The normal process would be, as quickly as possible, you get this person from emergency straight to intensive care so that they can have the best of care. That was not available. That is the problem. That was not made available because this government failed to ensure that the hospital had a fully functioning anaesthetic department. Thank God the head of the unit from Royal Darwin Hospital was in Alice Springs for the past week, otherwise there would have been more trouble than ever before. However, there was a 24 hour gap when there was no specialist anaesthetist in Alice Springs, and this government has yet to explain that gap.
Mr STIRLING (Treasurer): Mr Deputy Speaker, I say at the outset how much I appreciated the contribution from the member for Braitling. It should be no surprise to anyone the respect that she holds in the town of Alice Springs and Central Australia generally because of the forthright nature and the courage with which she stands up for her community and says it as it is. I, for one, appreciate that, and I know how highly she is respected and supported as the member for Braitling in Alice Springs. There is a little lesson in there, Mr Deputy Speaker, for some members opposite. If they ever aspire to hold the respect and support that the member for Braitling has in her time in this parliament, they could take a page out of her book.
She knows that the hospitals in the Northern Territory, including that at Alice Springs, and the staff that work within them, provide our communities with a high level of commitment and service when it comes to health matters, and she and I applaud the dedicated work of all of our staff working in the five hospitals across the Territory. That work, of course, has the widespread support of the community. I need go back no further than the past two weeks, observing at close hand the care for a recently deceased friend in Gove Hospital, to see the lengths they go to look after those in their care.
Just before I go to the detail of the motion itself, it does border on the unbelievable that the CLP thinks it can march in here and censure this government on health issues at all. This is the party, of course, that held power for over 26 years, and left the health service in an awful mess. Problems mounted, doubled and redoubled over the years that they were in office.
To give an example, they held two major reviews during the 1990s, and most of us would remember the infamous Cresap review. That goes back to 1992. They interviewed everyone from the head of the department down to the gardener and janitor at every hospital throughout the Territory. The Parker review was in 1999. Upwards of $1m was spent on each of those reviews. Implementation did not occur. What did occur was extremely patchy in relation to the recommendations that were made: a couple, or a handful, were implemented in full; some implemented in part; and many, of course, were totally ignored. Of those that were implemented from those earlier reviews, much of that work was undone by the time they lost government in 2001. They cannot claim not to have knowledge of some of the serious deficiencies in the health service that they were looking after during their stewardship in government. The reviews that they commissioned told them about the deficiencies in the health service, but they sat on their hands.
Some of those problems, of course, reflect national and international problems in health care. I accept and acknowledge that. It is not easy, and hospitals across the country have difficulty with staffing. There are issues in health that are, certainly in some areas of indigenous health, almost intractable and which their government and this one has extreme difficulties with. However, it is clear to me that in the last few years of their time in government, they did take their eye off the ball and resolvable issues became worse. It is no coincidence that that coincided with the tenure of the member for Drysdale as minister for Health, a man whose ministerial career could be defined by those infamous words: ‘For presentation purposes only’. We well know what that meant …
Mr Dunham: Now you are defaming public servants!
Mr STIRLING: It is breathtaking that a political party that opening falsified the outcomes of their budget …
Mr DUNHAM: A point of order, Mr Deputy Speaker! That was not the finding of the PAC. The words ‘for presentation purposes’, as you well know, came from a public servant who you are now saying we should not be defaming. Third, you are straying well and truly away from the censure motion, which is on you, not us.
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER: Ruling on the point of order, my understanding was that was not the conclusion. I ask the minister to rephrase or withdraw that statement.
Mr STIRLING: Mr Deputy Speaker, all of us in this Chamber saw documents that, at the very least, suggested the government was trying to make it look like they were providing an increase in budget …
Members: Withdraw!
Mr STIRLING: … when, in fact, they were not.
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER: Deputy Chief Minister, withdraw that. I believe you said ‘the party’. They were the words you used. I ask you to withdraw it.
Mr STIRLING: If I said ‘the party’, I withdraw that, Mr Deputy Speaker. The fact is we all saw it and we all saw the documentation and the report from the PAC.
It is clear from this censure motion today that the opposition has not learnt anything, and have not picked up on the fact that things are now done differently, and properly, under this government compared with the time they were in. We are an open and transparent government, and we adhere to the correct processes for the appointment of individuals to positions. The position is not a direct appointment position. It is exactly what the shadow minister for Health and the opposition as a whole want the minister to do. I see it sometimes in correspondence from the member for Greatorex, who says: ‘You must intervene in this matter’. One wonders how he saw the role, and he was a minister in the former government, in terms of hands-off. There are things that ministers can do and there are very clearly many things that ministers cannot do. The line is very blurred in the member for Greatorex’s mind in terms of what is proper action for a minister to take and what is most properly a departmental process. We will follow proper process and we will do things properly.
Mr Deputy Speaker, members of this House know that government recently undertook the Bansemer Review of the Health Department. That review revealed practices of employment which were worrying and almost out of control at times. I will quote from the Bansemer Review:
- Proper compliance with business planning, resource allocation, performance management and budget processes
are, in the review’s opinion, key to the ongoing success of the department. These processes and approaches are
not currently adhered to, nor is the relationship between those processes strong enough. They lack the focus and
suffer from too many priorities. The processes should be integrated better and applied more rigorously. The
department should embark upon an ongoing and rigorously applied business planning process coordinated by
the Executive Services Branch.
Mr Deputy Speaker, the Public Sector Employment and Management Act prevents a minister from interfering in the employment of particular staff. Section 22(2) states:
- The minister shall not give to a Chief Executive Officer a direction –
employment, including the remuneration of a particular person.
As recently as 10 minutes ago we had the member for Greatorex challenging the Minister for Health, saying, ‘Why don’t you put that bloke back on? Why don’t you bring him back?’ Well, if that is the way you did it, fine. If you did that in open defiance of the Public Sector Employment and Management Act, good luck to you. We have legislation in place, your legislation; your former Chief Minister, Shane Stone, passed that legislation. It is legislation that we supported when it was passed in the early 1990s and it is legislation we support today. We do more than support it; we follow it. We follow it. We respect the rules in place there and they are in place for very good reason: to prevent political interference in what is properly departmental management processes.
Mr Deputy Speaker, the department has advertised three positions to allow a transparent process of selection based on merit, amazingly enough, for the new critical care model in Alice Springs Hospital, and it is part of our commitment to get the best people for the jobs in our hospitals. The position of Head of Emergency Medicine has been advertised along with Head of Anaesthetics and Head of Intensive Care. One of the three heads will be appointed Director of Critical Care Services. We are committed to getting the best people for these important jobs in our hospital system and that means advertising those jobs on the national stage and employing people on - guess what! On merit after a proper selection process.
Through our commitment of $11m for the Alice Springs Hospital ICU-HDU, we will be able to expand these areas and consequently provide the professional environment to attract high quality staff. That raises the other issue that is all a bit intriguing. In budget 2004-05, the health won a substantial increase in funding and much of that increase was spent on hospitals. In fact, health gets a $23.7m increase of which $18.6m is for hospitals and a significant portion of that increase went specifically on the Alice Springs Hospital. The government in fact is streets ahead of the opposition on this front. Since coming to power, we have increased health spending in excess of $100m. Both the previous health minister and this one recognised the issues at Alice Springs Hospital, and they have been systematically addressed. In the 2004-05 budget, there are substantial further increases in funds and that provides evidence of that work.
The censure before us today is a little ironic. In May, the Leader of the Opposition described the Territory as being ‘in ruins’. The member for Katherine described her own town as ‘a war zone’. Now the shadow Health Minister and the members for Araluen and Greatorex describe Alice Springs in derogatory terms and talk that town down in stark contrast to the support and love that the member for Braitling has for the town of Alice Springs and Central Australia generally.
It is, of course, the old Henny Penny. We had a lot of this from the member for Blain before he became the Leader of the Opposition, a lot of this Henny-Penny-the-sky-is-falling-in approach to politics. It seems that it is going to continue. Talk everything down, spread gloom and doom, and sow the seeds of doubt. That is the role, apparently, of opposition. We will not indulge that talking down. We believe in getting on with the job. We have increased funding, we are filling the positions and we are ensuring that the health of the people of Alice Springs is secured.
Mr Deputy Speaker, I move that the question be put.
Members interjecting.
Mr DUNHAM: A point of order, Mr Deputy Speaker!
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER: No, there is no point of order! When the question is put …
Mr DUNHAM: I was invited to speak on several occasions, Mr Deputy Speaker.
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER: No, member for Drysdale. You know that the rules on the question being put mean that there is no debate.
Mr DUNHAM: Oh, gutless!
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER: There is no debate.
Ms CARNEY: A point of order, Mr Deputy Speaker!
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER: No, there is no point of order, I am sorry, member for Araluen.
Ms Carney: Well, the member for Braitling spoke.
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order!
Ms Carney: As a representative from Alice Springs, …
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order!
Ms Carney: …the hospital is in my electorate. I should be heard, Mr Deputy Speaker.
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order! Standing orders, member for Araluen!
Ms Carney: They are gagging us! They are gutless!
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER: Member for Araluen! You are warned.
Ms Carney: We are obviously onto something here and they do not want to hear it. Shame!
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER: Member for Araluen, there is no debate. The question is that the question be now put.
Ms MARTIN: Mr Deputy Speaker, a point of order about the use of the word ‘gutless’ to you by the member for Drysdale.
Members interjecting.
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order! Member for Drysdale, I did not hear that remark. If you made the remark, would you withdraw it, please?
Mr DUNHAM: It is entirely correct that I used the word ‘gutless’ directed at the member for Nhulunbuy, and I withdraw that.
Members interjecting.
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order! Order, please! The question is that the question be now put.
Motion agreed to.
Members interjecting.
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order! The ayes have it. The motion is that the Assembly censure the Minister for Health and the Minister for Central Australia. That is the question.
Motion negatived.
LEAVE OF ABSENCE
Member for Brennan
Member for Brennan
Mr MILLS (Opposition Leader): Madam Speaker, I move that leave of absence be granted to the member for Brennan on medical grounds.
Leave granted.
MOTION
Proposed Censure of Minister for Health
Mr DUNHAM (Drysdale): Madam Speaker, I move that this Assembly censure the Minister for Health and the Minister for Central Australia for his abject failure as a health minister and his inability to convince Territorians that health services in Alice Springs are functioning well.
Mr HENDERSON (Leader of Government Business): Madam Speaker, the government will accept this censure motion for debate under Standing Order 95. It is the most serious motion before the parliament. I ask you to order the cease of the broadcast, and that further questions be placed on the Written Question Paper.
Madam SPEAKER: We will cease Question Time. We are moving into a censure motion. Perhaps the member for Drysdale …
Mr Stirling: Are you going to keep doing it until you get it right?
Mr Dunham: Well, I think it is appropriate …
Madam SPEAKER: Member for Drysdale, I am speaking, thank you. Would you resume your seat and give the camera people the opportunity to move their gear out?
Mr DUNHAM: I am pleased to be able to speak to the …
Madam SPEAKER: Member for Drysdale, I will give you the call in a minute. Just hang on a minute.
Members interjecting.
Mr DUNHAM (Drysdale): Madam Speaker, I am pleased to be able to speak to this motion, because this morning we had a very unusual set of circumstances. During that set of circumstances, my name came up several times regarding my time as Minister for Health. I had hoped that was an invitation for me to have a bit of a yak in this debate. However, it turned out that, having heard from three speakers who supported the government’s position, and only two who supported the position of the people of Alice Springs – we need to know more and we need some answers – debate was abruptly gagged.
So I am pleased to be able to speak to this. If we revisit this morning quickly, we have a minister who is trying to do a little medical operation of his own; that is, to quickly lance the boil and get the patient back out of the ward. What we have here was a minister who provided a mini-statement, and members will know that is 10 minutes his side, and two minutes our side, and the government moved to a censure motion on itself. We had the strange situation where the opposition actually voted against the government censuring itself. We then had the Leader of Government Business calling a division on a vote he won, and we had a situation in which several questions were put to the minister and he failed to answer any of them.
We had the sorry spectacle again this afternoon in Question Time with several questions being put to the minister, which he is unable to answer or does not want to; one or the other. One of the answers is in the Parliamentary Record about the midwives, and we have yet to see the facts of that.
It is important that these matters are put on the public record. It is not good enough for the government to say: ‘You are knocking Alice Springs. You are knocking public servants. This is a matter that is out of bounds and cannot be discussed’. This is a matter for the business of this House, and it is a sad indictment on the government that it cannot produce enough by way of public statement and public comment that is in the realm for people to participate in and that has enough veracity that it will satisfy members of the opposition. It certainly does not satisfy the citizens of Alice Springs.
I was in Alice Springs when this paper hit the street, the Centralian Advocate of Friday, 4 June, with the banner headline ‘Hospital crisis: intensive care closes’; sub-headline ‘Minister says: “It’s open”’. There have been speakers in the censure motion this morning, including the member for Braitling, who claimed that there is great offence taken at any comment by the opposition relating to problems in the hospital. I can tell you that there is a lot of umbrage at the current minister. I heard from many Alice Springs people while I was down there about this problem with their hospital.
There are certain things we can agree on. We can agree that there is a problem at Alice Springs Hospital. We can agree that the government has tried valiantly to put some money into fixing problems, but these are not necessarily money problems. We can agree that there is a role for the bureaucracy, the department and the public service, and a role for ministers and politicians. However, it is a little hypocritical for the government to be talking about ‘We are really worried that people’s names will be used and the deceased’s relatives will be worried’. If people did a short excursion back into the Parliamentary Record, they will see how the now Leader of Government Business used to operate. He used people’s names quite frequently; a cystic fibrosis sufferer, for instance, he called on me to send south; eminent doctors talking about the medical approach, its sufficiency and its appropriateness; we had numerous occasions where he talked about pregnant women being unable to deliver at Royal Darwin Hospital and having to be sent south because of the Y2K scare, for one. All of these things turned out to be nonsense.
Do not come in here and tell us about oppositions that use scare tactics in a wrongful way to worry people about a precious monopoly essential service. We know it happens, because you did it. This opposition is in the position of saying these are the issues. We have not talked about clients of the hospital, we have talked about process. While the minister might quite conveniently hide behind the fact that there are several millions of dollars out there - $2m, I believe, this year, and several over four years – the fact is …
Dr Toyne: Eleven.
Mr DUNHAM: Eleven! Let us call it $11m over four years. First you are being presumptuous enough to say that you are in government for two terms and with matters such as this, you should be very careful of making that assumption. The second thing is that some of these things are not fixed with money. These are not fixed with money because you cannot say: ‘We are going to build an oncology unit and there is the money in the budget for it’. Do you know why? Because you cannot get oncologists and you cannot get the critical mass to keep them skilled and you cannot keep the staff to keep all the machinery going. So when you make promises like that and say we have the cash, we have the wherewithal and we will do it, you will find, as with oncology, you are going to have to say: ‘Look there has been a bit of a muck up; actually, we cannot do that’, and that is what is happening here. You are too focussed on bean counters saying: ‘We have a problem: here’s the cash.’ Some of the problems at the Alice Springs Hospital are not merely fixed by cash. They are fixed by people concerned, people involving themselves and analysing the problems, people admitting there is a problem, for god’s sake, and people commencing on solution trails.
We have a minister who (a) does not want to involve himself in the process; (b) does not even admit there is a problem; and (c) if there are any solutions, it is the community does not agree with you, it is a CLP doing shroud waving, the cash is in the budget, the cheque is in the mail, I will still love you in the morning. Quite frankly, people do not believe you. People do not believe that you or, alternatively, your alter ego, the department, are able to fix this because you are not admitting the fundamental problem. There is a problem. So let’s get past some of this noise you have been making this morning and start to do a bit of definition.
You answered some questions this morning. Minister, was this a lie in the paper? No, because there are three categories of intensive care and there is a high dependency unit, and blah, blah, blah and we went from one to two so I was told by the boss it was okay. The second part of the question was: why did you, in the next paper, say you were wrong? In the next paper, why did you fess up and say: ‘Look I was actually right there and I said I was right and the next paper when I said I was wrong, I was still right there’. You are all over the place, mate. People cannot understand the words coming out of your mouth and in any event, they do not believe them.
Let’s get down to what is the problem, don’t play cutesy with: ‘Oh you are talking about an intensivist and I was talking about anaesthetists and anyway you had the same problem and 26 years of neglect’ and all that sort of palaver. I do not like criticising matters relating to any of our hospitals here in the Northern Territory. I hate it because for the vast preponderance of our population, they have no choice but to attend those hospitals. For most of our population, if you live in Tennant Creek, Alice Springs, Katherine, Nhulunbuy, Darwin, if you have a calamity, in all likelihood you will go through the front doors of one of those hospitals, and you want to have confidence in it. You want to be assured that the people treating you are competent, skilled and resourced.
So do not try to run this debate that we are trying to walk away from it. We are running the debate on your competence. You could not divulge this afternoon in Question Time how the lies to the paper were perpetrated. The question about incubation in Accident and Emergency you could not understand and told us that you would get back to us. The 10 midwives you believe is not a problem because it is not a problem today. The question was: there is a shift coming up and the next shift may not have as many midwives in it; in fact it could be 10. It is all very well for you to stand here and rattle off everyone who ever won a prize in the Finke Desert race, but this is important to people. I am not saying the Finke Desert Race is not, but it pales in to insignificance if you are a pregnant woman in Alice Springs and you want to know if there is enough midwifery service. I suggest that all that time standing in the dust and handing over trophies and all that, good! I am glad you had a good weekend.
Next weekend, go and have a look at the hospital. Have a talk to some people. I have great admiration for Tarun Weeramanthri. I have great admiration for some of his predecessors who went down there. One of them was a fellow named Dr Alan Walker. Dr Alan Walker has been here for decades and is a household name in this place. He told, in a briefing to three of my colleagues from Alice Springs, that the intensive care unit was ‘dangerous’.
That was parleyed to the minister, so do not think that we are saying: ‘Look, this is a problem that has just occurred and we going to take some sort of political advantage out of this.’ You had Don Parker go down there when we tried to tell you some of the problems and he came back to the minister and said: ‘Here is the plan.’ We had the previous Minister for Health telling us that there was a plan and it was all going to be fixed. We now have plans that move into the next several years. Well, we want it fixed now. It is no good to say to us not-so-clever people on this side: ‘We are advertising in these hard-to-recruit categories. You have to go around the world to find these people. And yes, there are two in Alice Springs and, yes, they are competent and, yes, they are doing the job, but gosh, we cannot go plugging them in. That would be silly; that would be a criminal offence’. It might be for you, but the question still remains, wouldn’t you think, that if it is hard to recruit someone with specialist medical skills from around the world, and you have one living in Alice next door to the hospital, wouldn’t some bright spark say: ‘I have an idea. Why don’t we put that person in that job?’
Okay, maybe that is tricky. Maybe that is a bureaurecratic conundrum for the people who put the ads out, I do not know, but I would not have thought it was a problem. I would have thought it was a solution. I thought what was being offered to you was: ‘Here is a way through this that might be helpful.’ For you to make gratuitous comments about the merit principle, and you have to make sure the right person fits the job is quite defamatory towards those people, I suggest to you. I suggest that by saying: ‘Oh, we have to make sure that they are up to speed’, if I were Elizabeth Mowatt, I would have smoke coming out of my ears when I read some of the things you were saying. You have to address this.
The other problem is about staff going to the media. I was a health minister and I know it happened; it will always happen. The point is these people are trained in confidentiality. They are powerfully trained in the necessity to ensure that things that are divulged are only divulged to people who need to know. It is a very rare circumstance for people to divulge histories, medical circumstances and processes in the hospital that are matters of policy to the media. It is very rare for them to do it. The fact that they are doing it should send a signal to you.
You are the government that promised whistle-blower legislation. Your Chief Minister said: ‘We want to make sure these people can stand up, divulge all this stuff for the benefit of the community and their workplace and suffer no hardship’. People are a bit worried about this because there is a convention of payback with this government. There is a convention of vindictiveness, vitriol and vengeance and they will work to pay back.
There are some brave people who have put their hands up and divulged this. It is not within their ethic to do so. It is absolutely abhorrent that you would go to the bottom of this whole episode and say this is industrial action because the ASMOF, the Australian Salaried Medical Officers’ Federation, told you that they were concerned that Dr Mowatt was being ill-considered for the job for which she was admirably qualified. For you just to dismiss this as industrial action is pretty damned stupid, I would have thought.
Get away from that and get back to the main issues. Forget calling us Henny Penny. Forget the fact that these headlines have occurred and there is some kind of collusion between us and a very pliant media, which is nonsense. The media are hearing exactly the same things we are, and so is Erwin Chlanda. It would be pretty foolhardy for a minister to make the assumption that we in opposition are able to muster confused nurses, a foolish media and various other people in an attempt to denigrate the hospital for no other reason than to garner votes. That is a stupid notion.
That was pretty much the proposition that you have put to us. This is not a good issue to trivialise. This is an issue that you have got to put right up the top. I want you to look at it as a Health Minister who is trying to fix the system; and you will find – surprise, surprise! - that so is everyone else. There are lots of people who have worked in health. My colleague, the shadow, is a former nurse who worked in the acute system. The deputy leader is a former doctor who has worked in the very place you have talked about. We have people on the other side who have worked in various medical institutions. This is something on which we should be strongly in agreement.
First, admit you have a problem, then start fixing it. For you to run issues like: ‘Don’t name people because it causes them great offence’, have a look at what you did a mere three or four years ago in the run up to the election. ‘Do not run industrial campaigns up against the election’. Gosh! That looks remarkably similar to what happened before. Do not pretend, just because you put money in your budget, ‘Oh, and by the way, do not spend it often’, that you have fixed a problem.
Do not run issues of: ‘How dare Dunham speak to this because he was the one who had a budget for presentation purposes’. The quote ‘presentation purposes’ comes from a gentleman named Mr Clarke, who was the Under Treasurer at the time, and for you to stand here and say you can never denigrate public servants, or attack them, it has never been seen in this House, that attack that keeps being posed in this House is a direct attack on the former Under Treasurer because they were his words, and it was a matter that the Parliamentary Record will show, through the PAC report, that there was no finding of fraud, of misappropriation, various other things that were said by the Chief Minister when she censured us prematurely.
In fact, the oft-read memo from which the Leader of Government Business quotes Mr Bartholomew, in answer in Hansard and in the transcript, shows that he was the only person of that view. The entire public service had a different view from Paul Bartholomew, and yet we keep having it trotted out as a problem. You also had a situation with the Chief Executive Officer, Mr Paul Bartholomew, presented an annual report within two weeks of that report, which was much fuller, made none of those comments, and gave the minister a total clearance on the finances of the Department of Health and Community Services. So blaming the CLP is not going to work.
The other thing I thought was pretty quaint was the way that you stood up, patted yourself on the back and said you were the first one to do anything about it. Well, I hope in the debate we hear from the previous Health Minister because if you are the first to walk in over the last couple of months to fix this, one wonders what has been happening over the last couple of years, and one wonders why you are so dismissive of the efforts of your predecessor who, whatever people might have said about her at the time, seems to have been making a great effort compared to yourself. I would be a little bit careful about clamouring with self-congratulations too early, my friend.
I feel I must mention the contribution in the previous debate of the Speaker. I do not think …
Madam SPEAKER: Excuse me, member for Drysdale, you mean the member for Braitling. Do not confuse it.
Mr DUNHAM: Member for Braitling.
Madam SPEAKER: Thank you.
Mr DUNHAM: I do not think there is a Westminster system that has a Speaker - rarely do they participate in debates, but a censure motion is quite rare. Not only is it quite rare, I suggest maybe on one hand you could count it. I also suggest that the intemperate language that was used is something that the member for Braitling may regret, given that she has to wear two hats. Saying: ‘How dare you criticise! How dare you talk about Alice Springs Hospital! It is all a political plot’, well, it ain’t.
What you have to do is start adhering to process. You have to start to divulge things to us. For instance, you say there is no problem with midwives because I am telling you. There are no problems with the coronial because I am telling you. How do we know? Because I have had an independent person within my department looking at it.
It is not good enough, minister. You have to be able to provide for this parliament undisputable, evidentiary, powerful, independent advice that says everything is okay, and in the absence of that, there will be continuing anecdotal advice to the contrary. Your statistical devices are going to have to get better, you are going to have to get away from the emotional blaming rhetoric that has continued with this sort of debate, particularly blaming issues of several decades ago.
Let us focus on the problems at this hospital. The censure motion calls on you to provide fulsome advice. Now, you have had a couple of shots at this. You had a shot in a mini-statement this morning that you knew would go pretty much undebated. You had a censure motion that you brought on in a valiant attempt to catch us unawares, which it did not. You then tried to gag it because you knew that there was a series of members who were happy to speak, including all of the local Alice Springs members, all of whom were invited to speak, I might add. In the absence of anything other than Estimates questions coming up, it is imperative that you lay on the public record exactly what is going on in this hospital. This is not the only one.
One of the problems that you have down there is that you have focussed so much on the acute system that you have eroded the community system. You have eroded preventative and private health initiatives and public health initiatives.
Dr Toyne: Oh, I see.
Mr DUNHAM: Well, you have. Your private health initiatives are about nil, your public health budget’s been cut, and preventative health is some little accessory that is tucked somewhere in the department. You have focussed entirely on this end of the spectrum, and you are doing it at your peril because you are working on a treatmental rather than a preventative paradigm. I have told you that before.
This is a problem of your creation. This problem is entirely your problem. We need to stand up, lay your hand on your heart and tell us that you are doing something to fix it. Do not I stand up and say: ‘I told you all before, it is all a CLP plot, no one agrees with you, you are going to lose votes by this strategy’. Tell us what is happening at the hospital, tell us how many anaesthetists there are. On behalf of my colleague, the shadow minister for Health, I did some press at Christmas time about anaesthetists. This is not a new issue; this is several months old.
You mount the body of evidence, okay? It is really important that you do so because, as we have heard from my colleague, the member for Greatorex, in the previous censure motion, there had previously been this vague understanding that first you had to mount a case for running a censure motion. We saw the bizarre circumstance this morning where, in the absence of any such case, the government moved that a censure motion should occur. I have never seen anything like it. It is a pleading of guilt, if I can borrow a phrase from my legal colleagues. Basically, you come into this parliament on the first occasion, fallen on your sword and said: ‘We are guilty; mount a censure motion against us. Hit me, hit me. Then, when it is all over we can all go home and forget about it because it is all finished’.
That did not work and, instead of lancing the boil, you have a carbuncle. You have a serious problem. You have not said sorry, by the way. All of this intensive care stuff you say is concerning the community, tell them the straight story. If you are wrong, say sorry to them, and people will understand that. Your answer this morning of: ‘There are several categories and we were shifting from one to another’, and ‘I was right, the leader was right, and the paper was wrong’, nobody believes that, mate. Here is your chance before Estimates when you are going to have to answer this in great detail. We want to know what is happening in Alice Springs Hospital. We want to know why it is in such schtuck. Do not pretend it had anything to do with your predecessor, the member for Nightcliff, or even myself.
Yes, it is good to see community spokesmen coming out and defending the hospital. I am sure you will find they did that when you and your party mounted unsubstantiated attacks on the hospital as well. However, let us focus on the problem here, and make the assumption that we are trying to help you. We have great confidence in Tarun Weeramanthri; we have great confidence in the coroner. We are not saying anything about that. What we are saying is: do not make assumptions that, because you have had a look and you think it is tickety-boo, you can stand up in parliament and say: ‘Do not worry, I have had a look. I am a clever man and you are not, so it is all fixed’.
The allegations of political affiliation with staff must also be challenged. All of us know staff in these hospitals. Every one of us has friends or family working in them. That is a good thing for the minister; I would hope that he has affiliations with staff. The word ‘political’ has a negative connotation, but I hope you have lots of contacts who will come and tell you: ‘Toynie, there is a problem. That thing you said in the paper is a problem. I saw you on TV. It is actually not like that. Those people in head office and those people in Darwin …’, listen to all that. The connection with staff is not a bad thing; it is a great thing. They may only have part of the picture, I agree, but for God’s sake, do not stop listening to them. Do not make some assumption that it is a political trick because a lot of these people’s politics often is to make things better where they live. If it makes the health system better, that is the entire start and finish of their politics. Do not assume it is any sort of tribal thing that we exercise in this place.
I will probably leave it there, Madam Speaker. However, I will say that, if you do want to go back into the past at any time, I am happy to have that debate. If you want to argue where you are going in the future, please strip it of all this rhetoric about money: 75 new nurses, here is the cash. We all know that you can put the cash out there and, if the positions are not filled, the cash goes back to Treasury. What we want to see is what you are doing with the money, not the fact that you have the cash, not the fact that it is in the bank. Your managerial capacity with cash is entirely suspicious in any event, given that the Mid-Year Report on the budget to the end year report shows a difference of $50m. While you have some very quaint and plausible explanations for that, I suggest that running a debate how money is fixing up the system is not going to do you any good.
Run a debate about what you are actually doing there and try to give some surety to those people who use that hospital as the only monopoly essential service that is available to them and let’s have a little bit of a cooler temperament. Instead of using the ‘Henny Penny’ political ‘You-are-all-a-pack-of-liars’ argument, you have another chance for a re-run because you mucked up the censure, you mucked up the mini statement and you mucked up Question Time. If you jump to your feet now and you give us the answers to some of those questions, perhaps it will put things right.
Mr Ah Kit: You could not even use your full 20.
Dr TOYNE (Health): Madam Speaker, the member for Arnhem got it in one. I have been sitting here patiently waiting for something new that we need to deal with that was not dealt with in the first censure, and as sanctimonious lectures go, it is right up there with the best that I have ever had the misfortune to hear. This is the man who, on 22 September 2000, when he was faced with a far more severe situation than he is claiming exists now ‘Staff shortage hits hospital’:
- Alice Springs hospital is suffering from a staff shortage. It is desperately trying to refill vacancies,
management said yesterday.
The shortage, being felt on a worldwide scale, has caused a cut in hospital services with areas such
as elective surgery being temporarily closed.
Hospital management said the shortage has been caused by a recent unexpected spate of resignations
from nursing staff.
The ANF then had a big meeting at the hospital and passed the following resolutions:
- all elective surgery is cancelled from September 20;
- the high dependency unit would be closed and patients transferred to wards;
patient overflow beds and cots would be removed from the wards immediately;
work bans relating to non-nursing duties would take effect immediately.
What did the great crusader do about that, Madam Speaker? What did the great crusader do about this dire situation in the year 2000?
- NT health minister Stephen Dunham said the issue was one for hospital management to deal with.
He would visit the hospital.
He said: ‘This is a staffing matter and an issue for management.’
So on the one hand, he is extolling that I go in there and get hands on and start finding these staff and pushing them through there, but when it happened in his day, oh, no! It is a matter for management; nothing to do me. I am just the minister for visits for the hospitals.
This is the man who prevailed over a hospital that had vastly fewer staff than the hospital has right now, who had two reports that I am aware of, 1999 and I think early 2001 was the second one, or late 2000 - I could get the date for you - on critical care in the Alice Springs Hospital pointing out inadequate levels of staffing. What did this great paragon of virtue who wants to give me a lecture today, what did he do about it? He did zip! Nothing. We ended up inheriting an emergency department that needed to be built up in staff; we ended up inheriting half of an ICU staffing allocation. All of those issues have been taken on board and have been dealt with.
You can say: ‘It is easy enough to put money there but you have to get the people’. You did not even put the money there. There were no budget decisions in your time to fix the problems that you have suddenly discovered as so urgent for the Alice Springs Hospital.
I can tell you that not only do we have the money in place here, but we also have fiscal and management practices in the department that will allow government decisions to have enough traction in the actual operations of the health system as a whole, and this hospital in particular, to effect the government initiative without the slippage that was going on, without the distortions that were being introduced by decisions that were being made willy-nilly throughout the health system at the time prior to Bansemer and were very clearly identified in the Bansemer Report. The Bansemer Report dealt with the era of the health department that you oversaw. So do not you talk to me about …
Mr Dunham: Read it again!
Dr TOYNE: … how to run a bloody health department.
Madam SPEAKER: Member for Drysdale, you have had your turn.
Dr TOYNE: I will set my own directions on that.
Mr Dunham: He is directing his comments to me, Madam Speaker.
Madam SPEAKER: Minister for Health, speak to me.
Dr TOYNE: Madam Speaker, yes, sorry. I have just turned to you, Madam Speaker. There are issues that have been raised, and the only new one I have picked up since the censure this morning is the midwives at Alice Springs Hospital. I repeat: there are 28.2 positions full-time equivalent. They are 0.5 down at the moment. The positions are secure until August, all current positions.
Where are the allegations coming from? Management at the hospital is unaware of 10 midwives going to leave. What we are looking at here is yet another of these furphies that the member for Port Darwin and others have been scattering around. What does that add up to? What it adds up to is a direct attack on the public standing of that hospital, public confidence in the hospital by the Alice Springs community and we are seeing more of this talking down process that they are quite happy to go along with.
Okay, you keep going, and we will see what the impact is down there in the community. I know what the impact was when I talked to the many people I met at the Finke Desert Race and elsewhere around the place. You are going to pay a big price if you want to keep going on this sort of line unless you get you facts straight and come in here with some real case to answer rather than some half-baked allegations that you have picked up from someone and you are quite happy to run with for opportunistic reasons.
Mr Dunham: Five minutes! There you go.
Dr TOYNE: That is it, and that is all it deserved.
Ms CARTER (Port Darwin): Goodness me! Sorry, Madam Speaker, I had no idea the minister would be all finished in five minutes on this important topic.
It saddens me to stand and speak on these matters, as we have watched the slow and steady decline of services at Alice Springs Hospital over the last seven or eight months, however it is our duty, as members of parliament, to report on these issues. We refuse to wear the emperor’s new clothes, unlike others in this Chamber. It is disappointing to hear from others in this Chamber, and I cast my net widely with that statement, who insist on wearing the emperor’s new clothes and insist on trying to tell Territorians, and Centralians in particular, that all is well at their hospital when, in fact, we have staff going to the media, the CLP, to anyone who will listen and telling us all that things are not well at Alice Springs Hospital …
Ms Carney: You have to do something about that.
Ms CARTER: …and that things need to be done - correct, member for Araluen.
We have a new Minister for Health, and we have a new Minister for Community Services. The previous minister was sacked. We all expected things to improve. They have not improved. They have, arguably, become worse. One has to ask what on earth is going on. One of the constant facts, though, across the board, is that we do still have the same senior management within the Department of Health and Community Services, so perhaps the ministers need to be looking into that area.
I reflect back on a couple of months ago when the Minister for Health and I had a little tte--tte on the radio about one of our hospitals. His comment was that he is sick of the member for Port Darwin going on and on about Royal Darwin Hospital and Alice Springs Hospital because apparently, according to him, there are other places in the Northern Territory that have problems with their health services.
Of course I am aware of that, but it is my duty to go on and on about health services, particularly in our major hospitals when there are problems because when you have problems in hospitals, they are significant. They impact dramatically on the health care being provided to people, particularly people with acute problems.
It is my belief that this minister is tired. It is my knowledge that he did want to quit and the end of this term, but he was told by the Chief Minister he was not allowed to quit. So after he let that little one slip out to the media, he immediately had to retract it. Now he desperately has to pretend to Territorians that this is all he really wants to do: be the Minister for Health.
To my mind, he is taking his eye of the ball. He is letting Territorians, and people with health problems in particular, down, but also, sadly, he is letting down health staff. The CLP opposition applauds the efforts of staff at Alice Springs Hospital for all that they have been doing over the months to try to keep the service going as best they can. In particular, we have seen deterioration in the provision of anaesthetic services.
The minister loves to split hairs here. I notice from his media release that he issued today he is going on and on again about intensivists, and that we are bagging the situation that he cannot recruit an intensivist. We are not going on about that at all. I have never gone on about that. I go on specifically about anaesthetists. Anaesthetists provide the basic service. If they have had experience in intensive care, if they have special training in intensive care, then they can become intensivists, but their basic skill is anaesthetics, which is the ability to sedate a patient, to put them on a ventilator, and to keep them in that condition while things are being done for them as their health improves. That is the skill of an anaesthetist. They are required in the operating theatres, and they are required in intensive care units for ventilation of patients in particular. That is what I have been going on about for months and months. I have been talking about anaesthetists, a basic hospital service, which is, sadly, lacking at Alice Springs Hospital. You know it has been lacking, and I know it has been lacking.
When you won the election you inherited a hospital at Alice Springs with six anaesthetists on the staff. Now they are down to one or two, which is a significant drop in staffing, the end result being that these people are overworked and under stress, so it is going to be hard for you to even keep those ones.
What has been going on there, as I mentioned this morning in the censure, I went through in considerable detail, has been very well chronicled in the press. You, and others, say that it is the CLP beating up this situation and that we should be ashamed of ourselves for talking negatively about Alice Springs Hospital. Conversely, I say: shame on you, and shame on others who say that. To my mind, you are trying to wear the emperor’s new clothes, pretending that everything is fine. It is not fine. It is not us who are going constantly to the press about these matters. There has been a steady reporting of issues by the press over the last 12 months in particular.
One of the issues that really stunned me when I heard, late last year, of the problems that were occurring at Alice Springs Hospitals with regard to recruiting and retaining anaesthetists, was a letter in the Centralian Advocate from Dr Lightfoot. You could feel the frustration in his letter. Here was he, and his wife, both medical officers, he is an anaesthetist prepared to work for two years at Alice Springs Hospital, to make that commitment – here is a doctor prepared to do that, to bring another doctor with him, and he got mucked around by the department, mucked around by management and, for some strange reason, which I notice the minister in two efforts today has not managed to touch on, still we do not know what on earth went wrong with the recruitment of Dr Lightfoot. In the end, he was so frustrated that he wrote a letter to the Centralian Advocate.
I can tell you that no doctor, no health professional would do a thing like that lightly because they know full well that it puts a black mark possibly against their name for future recruitment in other areas; it tags them as a stirrer, as a naughty person; and I am quite sure that this man would have really anguished over whether or not he would put his name to a letter such as that. But, good on him, he did it, and he flagged to all Territorians by doing that some of the problems that have been occurring at Alice Springs Hospital.
A short time after that, the AMA brought to our attention the fact that now things are so desperate at Alice Springs Hospital for an anaesthetist – I am not mentioning the word ‘intensivist’ here –that we are having to send patients who normally would have very basic surgery, which is what cataract surgery is, interstate to have their operations. We all know full well that for people who have eyes sight problems like cataracts, who come perhaps from remote communities, and it is my view that these women probably did, the stress that would have been caused to them, instead of having the operation done in a hospital with which they are familiar, they have been bundled interstate because Alice Springs Hospital could not provide an anaesthetist for what is, essentially, comparatively, a reasonably simple and basic operation. That was early this year.
What has caused the problem? As I said earlier, it was a refusal by Alice Springs Hospital to pay the going rate for anaesthetists. The minister again has not touched on this topic, except to say now, in the last week or so on the radio, that we are going - future tense - to pay the going rate for anaesthetists. This problem has been compounded by management not paying the going rate.
I wonder why it is that management cannot pay the going rate at Alice Springs Hospital for anaesthetists. You only have to look at this year’s health budget to see the reason. This year’s health budget has blown out by at least $30m. Some would argue by $50m. Let us just say it has blown out by $30m.
Ms Carney: Only $30m!
Ms CARTER: Only $30m, which they did not know about in February, because in February the prediction was only $6m. Then, about 10 to 12 weeks later, suddenly it is $30m. This will be the pressure that has been going on for the management. I do feel sorry for them at Alice Springs Hospital for the pressure that has been on them not to spend money. The end result has been: ‘Come and work at Alice Springs Hospital, we have fascinating cases here. The Territory has some major problems in the area of health and you will see some very interesting cases’. The word ‘challenges’ is constantly used in adverts for staff to come and work in the Northern Territory: ‘Come and enjoy the challenges of working in the Northern Territory’.
If you are an anaesthetist, the last thing you are really looking for is challenges. You would like to work at a hospital, I will guarantee you, where there is a good chance that you will have some sound back-up. That is what you want if you are an anaesthetist. You do not want to be appearing in the Coroner’s court or some other legal situation because you did not have the right back-up. If I were an anaesthetist looking at the word ‘challenges’ in ads, I would be twitching and checking up on the situation.
Anyway, the end result has been the $2000 per day anaesthetic contracts going out to locums. The minister constantly refers to the fact: ‘Oh no, do not you worry about that. We have locums coming in’. Well, a locum here and a locum there. I do not think that is very comforting to people, to think that we do not have permanent staff in the unit.
I cannot understand why these positions, such as the emergency physician in Alice Springs Hospital, and a set number of anaesthetics, are not permanent positions. It is difficult to recruit to these. We all can see that there is a shortage of these specialist positions in Australia; we all concede that. You need to recruit people and to make them feel confident so that they do not have to be worrying about where they are going to get their next job in 18 months time because all you could do was give them a two-year contract. Given that we now have this growing problem with locating specialist skills, let us think a little bit more – I do not even think it is creative; it is just sensible. Let us be sensible and make some of these core positions permanent. Staff around the country, when their contracts have six months left to run, start to sniff around for where they may go. Further, if you are only coming in for two years, why on earth would you buy a house? Why would you make permanent roots into a community if there is a chance you might get the flick in two years time? Minister, I put it to you that you and your department should be looking seriously at increasing the number of permanent positions within the ranks of specialist staff so that we can encourage these people to stay.
During the year, it has also been very concerning to read stories from the AMA – not the CLP, but the AMA – a group I gather are reasonably respected within the community. They certainly used to be respected by the then Labor opposition whenever they wanted to run a story about the then CLP government. Now we have the AMA raising concerns about the workload for junior doctors at the hospital. We have the AMA raising concerns about the employment of Dr Liz Mowatt, the Emergency Physician at Alice Springs Hospital. We constantly hear from the AMA about the lack of anaesthetists at Alice Springs Hospital. But no, the AMA is bagged as being politically organised. That is a shameful slur from the minister to say on radio that he wants to hear a more balanced view and not just a comment from a group who have themselves ‘politically organised’. Of course, they are organised. The AMA is an organisation whose job it is to protect and look after the interests of doctors, their members, and good on them for doing it. Shame on you for slurring them for having a go. It was interesting that a number of the things the AMA raised, he did have a great deal of trouble refuting.
With regard to the closing of the ICU, I think we all made our point there. One minute it is open, the next minute it is closed. It raised serious concerns today when the minister explained to the House during Question Time that, no, there are now different categories of ICU. There are advanced categories and not so advanced categories. Services that used to be provided obviously are not going to be provided any more and, dare I say it, the reason for that is we do not have enough anaesthetists - I did not say intensivists – working at Alice Springs Hospital so we can no longer provide the standard of care, the full range of care for ventilated patients care. We are going to have to send those people either interstate or to Darwin when we need to, which is not something that hospital staff will be looking forward to because it is not an easy transfer to make when you are having to ventilate someone and send them thousands of kilometres to find a proper bed.
The minister also made comment today about this changing status of intensive care at Alice Springs, but the staff also appear confused. The staff do not know what sort of intensive care unit they have. Obviously the minister needs to do a little bit of education in his hospital to let the staff know what the differences are between one sort of intensive care unit and another. The staff are obviously running to the newspaper, which is his beef – how dare they? –and say to the newspaper the intensive care unit has been shut. Naughty staff! They obviously got it wrong. We still have an intensive care unit, but it does not have any patients in it because they are all down in the emergency department when they are on a ventilator. So yes, it is open, but only for very basic low level cases, apparently, which I would argue is not an intensive care unit; it is in fact a high dependence unit. It is not an intensive care unit. You should fess up and admit that that is what has happened, or at least undertake staff development so that you can erase their confusion as to what sort of intensive care unit they now have operating in their hospital.
It has been of great concern to the opposition to see staff members from the hospital going to the press. I have been chided by Madam Speaker in the media. I have been chided by the Minister for Health in the media on this issue. Both are accusing the CLP of deliberately stirring up the issues in Alice Springs Hospital when in fact apparently what we should do is shut up and keep quiet. Everyone seems to forget that we are employed to do this. It is our job to hold a government accountable.
Members interjecting.
Ms CARTER: This is our job. We are doing our job. Here is a headline from the Centralian Advocate of Friday, 11 June 2004: ‘Hospital deaths: call for inquest’. Now, we did not do that, and it says quite clearly: ‘staff fears as crisis deepens’. We did not call for that at all. Sure, I was phoned by the reporter and asked do you think they should have been referred to the Coroner. Oh, my God, I said yes. What an appalling thing for me to say! Then in my media release on the same issue, I said that it may well be that these patients would have died anyway. That is what I said. That was it …
Ms Carney interjecting
Ms CARTER: … said these patients may have well have died anyway, however, because staff have gone to the media, the minister should do something about it and facilitate a coronial, at least getting the Coroner to have a look at the issues. That is all I said. If staff are so concerned that they have gone to the media, this is a serious situation indeed.
Ms Carney: It speaks volumes. Two local members in Alice Springs think it does not mean much.
Ms CARTER: Yes, and that is a shame, member for Araluen. It flags to me that something is seriously wrong. That is all it does, and that is how the CLP has responded. It has flagged to us that something is wrong and things should be looked at. We are not the ones running to the media; we respond when issues have been raised, but we have not been running to the media.
In respect of the midwifery ward, which is another issue that has arisen over the last few days, it is a fact, and a minister needs to do his homework quickly, that the end of the roster that is currently running - and rosters run for four weeks - 10 of the midwives at Alice Springs Hospital are leaving. Probably the reason they are leaving is that they are contract midwives and they need to go and get a job somewhere. They need to have work.
Because they have been in limbo - will I or won’t I have a job? - they are leaving. It is another indication of this minister not being able to deliver and ensure good health services at Alice Springs. It is another indication of this minister failing to keep his eye on the ball with regards to health services in Alice Springs. Once again, Madam Speaker, the CLP opposition calls on this minister to do his job and if he cannot do it, step side.
Mr HENDERSON (Leader of Government Business): Madam Speaker, I will be relatively brief, given that this debate has been going round and round the parliament for most of the day.
I would like to start by placing on the record absolutely categorically that the Chief Minister, the Cabinet, the Caucus on this side of the House have absolute 100% total confidence in our Health minister and the great job that he is doing working with Cabinet and government colleagues to rebuild our health system.
There is no doubt, as with any health system, that there are pressures, issues and problems with recruiting specialist staff, particularly in remote and regional parts of Australia. These issues have been around for many years, and they are not something, as someone said earlier today, that came to fruition in the Northern Territory in August 2001 when the government changed.
There is enough corporate knowledge and history about Alice Springs Hospital on the other side of the House to be fully aware of the issues and challenges of recruiting staff. The difference is that, unlike the previous government that never fundamentally addressed those issues by financing the hospital with a budget to recruit those staff, since we came to government, we have allocated over $100m additional to the health budget and this has, to a large extent, gone to recruiting additional staff across our health system, particularly the hospital system.
In the budget this year, at the high dependence unit at Alice Springs Hospital, 37 extra staff have been funded with an additional $11m of funds over the next few years. This minister and this government are addressing the fundamental structural problems facing our hospitals, but we do not deny that there are problems with recruiting specialist staff to Central Australia, to Darwin, the Northern Territory and Australia as a whole.
On the issue of why we gave the opposition the opportunity this morning, notwithstanding the feigned outrage of members opposite about what an outrageous abuse of parliamentary practice and privilege, to bring on the censure motion that had been foreshadowed, we as a government take allegations about the quality of care being provided at Alice Springs Hospital with the utmost seriousness.
When you have the Leader of the Opposition in the media yesterday, a media release issued today, in the media again this morning saying that we are, as a matter of priority, going to bring a censure motion on the Health Minister, as we always say, Madam Speaker, and when the opposition was in government, they always said a censure motion is the most serious item of business that you can bring before the House. The censure motion essentially seeks to move that this House has no confidence in the minister against whom the motion is moved to administer his or her portfolio.
We were not going to leave that issue hanging over the head of the parliament when it had been foreshadowed by the Leader of the Opposition that he wanted to debate it. There is no other issue that is more important for this Assembly to debate, given the fact that the Leader of the Opposition had flagged it. My motion to suspend standing orders after the ministerial report by my colleague, the Health Minister, explaining what was happening, provided the opportunity to bring on the motion to censure.
Why the Leader of the Opposition and members opposite should be so outraged that we would present them with an opportunity to bring this motion on is absolutely astounding. We had three members opposite arguing, no, we should not do it now, we should do it after lunch, and the Leader of the Opposition trying desperately to rein in some sort of discipline into those opposite, finally pulled rank and managed to get the motion up. That was the reason I moved the motion to suspend standing orders and bring it on. It was hanging over the head of this parliament, that a minister in government had a cloud over his ability to administer the department, and the immediate opportunity after he had delivered his ministerial report to bring that debate on to clear the air, and for the Assembly to judge the question that was before it.
Mr Mills: That is patent nonsense. It was just a stunt.
Mr HENDERSON: It was so - the Leader of the Opposition says it was a stunt. This is where he is coming from. This issue was so important that they have been running for a couple of weeks now, so important, could the Leader of the Opposition and members opposite even divide on their own censure motion? No. You could not even divide and put your names on the Parliamentary Record to support your own censure motion. I think it would be almost unprecedented. It would be almost unprecedented that your own censure motion, you cannot even muster the wherewithal to actually put it on the line and have your names recorded in the Parliamentary Record on your own motion of no confidence in the Health minister, an absolute Keystone Cops performance …
Mr Baldwin: It was your motion, you idiot!
Mr HENDERSON: … by the Leader of the Opposition. It is good to see the member for Daly still here because he is a man with a great work rate, Madam Speaker, a man with a great work rate. This is a shadow minister of the Crown who, in six months, has issued three media releases. In six months, not one question in the parliament, and trapezes in here trying to explain what has been going on in the House. He would not know what day it was, the member for Daly. You just would not know, you do not put in, you are lazy, and it is no wonder you are off and you have voted with your feet.
The motion that we put was that so much that standing orders be suspended as would prevent the Leader of the Opposition moving a censure motion, giving you the opportunity to put your censure motion, which you did, and it was ultimately voted down on the voices. You could not even be bothered to divide on your own censure motion, which must be a first for this parliament.
This is a government that is acknowledging the problems, putting the funding in place that should go a long way to resolving some of those issues in terms of recruiting extra staff to Alice Springs, and the attack on the public standing of the hospital does members on the other side no credit whatsoever. The attack on the quality of the care that is provided by the great staff of that hospital absolutely does them no credit.
Cabinet was down in Alice Springs last week. As business minister, I get out talk to business people in Alice Springs all the time. Comments from business people in Alice Springs were that they were absolutely appalled at the ongoing and sustained attack on the quality of care that Alice Springs Hospital provides. There is one very specific example. I am not going to name the business …
Members interjecting.
Madam SPEAKER: Order!
Mr HENDERSON: Madam Speaker, you would the business that I am talking about, the person was absolutely appalled, outraged and ropable that he virtually had two new recruits for the business lined up, staff to come in from interstate. We all know how hard it is to recruit from interstate to positions not only in Alice Springs but across the Northern Territory. Because of the media reports that were running on the supposed absence of quality of care at Alice Springs Hospital, the business lost these two staff and the opportunity for them to come to Alice Springs because they had an asthmatic child, and they were concerned that the child would not receive quality of care.
This is the type of dangerous repercussions there are from the stuff you are running. That business operator, who is well respected and regarded in Alice Springs, is absolutely outraged at the unwarranted and sustained attacks on the quality of care at the hospital.
There is no doubt that there are pressures. There always have been and there probably always will be as long as Australia has a shortage of specialist staff. However, the commitment from government is there: 37 additional staff funded for the high dependency unit and an additional $11m in the budget. The ongoing attacks on senior administration and management in Territory Health Services is unprecedented. As my colleague, the Treasurer, said this morning, attacks against the CEO and management staff is unprecedented, and woe betide if they ever …
Members interjecting.
Mr HENDERSON: … the 14 000 public servants will be shaking in their boots because the call from members opposite is that my colleague, the Health Minister, should trapeze in, pick his mates, put people into jobs in the public service, bypass the Public Sector Employment and Management Act …
Members interjecting.
Mr HENDERSON: … direct ministerial appointment into the public service. That may have been the way that you guys did it, but we abide by process, the legislation, and the merit principle as opposed to the mates principle that bedevilled the previous government. We have total confidence in the Health Minister and the job that he is doing.
Madam Speaker, I move that the question be put.
Motion agreed to.
Madam SPEAKER: The question now is that the motion of censure be agreed to.
Motion negatived.
ROUTINE OF BUSINESS
Noting of Ministerial Reports
Noting of Ministerial Reports
Mr HENDERSON (Leader of Government Business): Madam Speaker, I move that -
- (a) the routine of business, ministerial reports, suspended earlier this day be noted pursuant
to Sessional Order; and
(b) that this Assembly proceed to address a motion of condolence for Mr Djerrkura,
OAM forthwith.
STATEMENT BY SPEAKER
Death of Mr Djerrkura OAM
Madam SPEAKER: Honourable members, it is with deep regret that I advise you of the death on 26 May 2004 of Mr Djerrkura OAM, an elder of the Wanguri clan in East Arnhem Land and a former ATSIC Chairman. On completion of the motion, I ask honourable members to observe one minute’s silence as a mark of respect. I call upon the Chief Minister.
CONDOLENCE MOTION
Mr Djerrkura OAM
Mr Djerrkura OAM
Ms MARTIN (Chief Minister)(by leave): Madam Speaker, I move that this Assembly express its deep regret at the death of Mr Djerrkura OAM, an elder of the Wanguri clan in East Arnhem Land and a former ATSIC Chairman, and place on record its appreciation of his contribution to the advancement of Aboriginal people and to the Northern Territory, and tenders its profound sympathy to his family.
In moving this motion of condolence for Mr Djerrkura, late of Yirrkala, we express deep regret at the passing of one of the Territory’s most respected advocates of indigenous economic development. Over recent decades, Territorians have played an important role in national affairs, proportionately well beyond our population size. The late Mr Djerrkura was one of those players on the national scene, as well as giving great service to the people of the Territory.
Mr Djerrkura was born in 1949 at Yirrkala into the Wanguri clan and, after leaving school, received further education in Brisbane and Adelaide. Since the 1980s, his work has reached the highest offices in the nation. He was the first Aboriginal Area Officer in the old Department of Aboriginal Affairs and received an OAM in 1984 for his work. He became Deputy Chairman of the Aboriginal Development Commission and an inaugural Director of Aboriginal Hostels. He was General Manager of Yirrkala Business Enterprises for a decade from 1986, and Chairman of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commercial Development Corporation from 1990 to 1996. In that year, he became Chairman of ATSIC, a position in which he served with distinction for three years. During that period, he had to transverse controversial changes including the Howard government’s amendments to Native Title legislation.
In the early 1990s, Mr Djerrkura was appointed to the board of the Henry Walker Group, an unprecedented honour for an indigenous person to a major resource company. While chairing ATSIC, Mr Djerrkura was a member of the Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation and was an enthusiastic supporter of the council’s objectives. He was also, during this time, a director on the board of the Indigenous Land Corporation. He served as a member of the board of the National Australia Day Council, a director on the board of Ausflag and on the board of Land Enterprise Australia.
Mr Djerrkura also served the people of the Northern Territory. Notably, this has included his role as the Chairman of the Batchelor Institute of Indigenous Tertiary Education Council and as a member of the Northern Territory Territorian Awards Committee. Most recently, he was Chairman of the Arnhem Regional Development Board. This recent appointment was recognition of the leading role he has played over many years in Aboriginal economic development. Indeed, it could be argued that this issue was one that dominated his working career. He saw economic development for indigenous Territorians as the path way out of poverty and welfare dependence and associated social ills that go with it.
We mark today in this Assembly the loss of a man whose influence spread far beyond the Wanguri clan estates of north-east Arnhem Land and the community of Yirrkala. He will always be remembered as a great Territorian. He was a proud yet gentle man, and all who worked with him will remember him for his infectious laugh and his capacity to work along side people from many different social, political and cultural backgrounds.
He saw with extraordinary clarity that the way forward for his people was to roll back the tide of dispossession and actively work towards indigenous Territorians leading safe, productive and happy lives. We all know that this was no small ambition and remains a huge task for the future; a future we should all work towards in honour and memory of Mr Djerrkura and so many like him who have worked towards this goal.
Madam Speaker, on behalf of the people of the Northern Territory and behalf of the Northern Territory government, I extend our condolences to Mr Djerrkura’s family, to his children Damien, Fiona and Nathan, and, of course, to Jenny, to members of the Wanguri clan and indeed to all people of north-east Arnhem Land.
Mr MILLS (Opposition Leader): Madam Speaker, I support the condolence motion for this senior Aboriginal leader from the Wanguri clan, Mr Djerrkura.
It is with sadness that I must make the additional comment with regards to the actions that have visited this Chamber with an offence to the memory of a fallen leader taken in his prime. Common decency would direct our attentions as parliamentarians to pay respect to the condolence motion, but instead we have a government that chooses to pull a clever stunt with the intention of outsmarting the opposition.
Government has been caught in their own trap. This government has been shown for what it is: driven by self-interest and will gladly walk with hypocrisy and arrogance on their way to score a political point at any cost. Events this morning saw this condolence motion re-scheduled so that government, in its cleverness, could pull some kind of stunt. I find that deeply regretful.
Mr Ah Kit: You are doing exactly what you are arguing against. Cut out the politics. Get on with it.
Madam SPEAKER: Order!
Mr MILLS: I can say that I did not share a special friendship with Mr Djerrkura, though I had met him on a couple of occasions. I distinctly remember the conversations that we had. In my position now as Leader of the Opposition, I was looking forward to further discussions with Mr Djerrkura and to advance issues of concern to myself and the party I represent.
It is incumbent upon me to express the shared feeling of great loss from this side of the House for a man who represented so many Territorians and Australians, a man who was sadly taken before his time. It is not often in this House that we move a condolence motion for those who have not served as MLAs, but it is fitting that this tribute be recorded in Hansard for future Territorians to understand the impact that Mr Djerrkura had on the Territory, his home and his people.
Born into the Wanguri clan in East Arnhem Land, Mr Djerrkura was an imposing figure, with many people who knew him describing his overwhelming presence when in his company.
His first major public recognition occurred when he was awarded the medal in the General Division of the Order of Australia, OAM, in 1984 for service to the Aboriginal community at the age of just 34. At the time of his passing, the father of three held a number of high profile positions, including Director of the Board of the Indigenous Land Corporation, Chairman of the Batchelor Institute of Indigenous Tertiary Education Council, member of the Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation, and board member of the national Australia Day Council.
He was also formerly General Manager of Yirrkala Business Enterprises, Chairman of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commercial Development Corporation and a Director of the Henry Walker Group. Indeed, his business skills and progressive approach to economic development were recognised at all levels of both the private and public sectors. From the council meeting rooms in Yirrkala to the board rooms of Sydney and Melbourne, Mr Djerrkura was one of the talented men of our time who succeeded in keeping a foot in both camps.
As long-time friend Bob Collins remarked last week, his knowledge of both the Aboriginal and Balanda ways and the methods he used for achieving outcomes were well known and respected both at community level and at the highest forums of business and politics in the country.
This is evident from the many tributes that flowed, since we learnt of his passing two weeks ago, from a wide range of business and political quarters not least of which was the Prime Minister, Mr John Howard. His passing was reported in the New York Times, such was the impact that he made upon our generation.
I was privileged to attend a farewell ceremony at Yirrkala on Sunday, which was attended by representatives of the federal parliament, including Minister Vanstone. There was a range of representation from both sides of politics, from the federal and Territory parliaments, and those who have known him for many years. They all came together at Yirrkala to farewell this man.
What emerged as a stand-out characteristic at that service was his approach, an approach that was typified by patience, trust - and there were a number of references to whether trust was betrayed, but nonetheless, trust endured, won out and got him much farther in dealing with issues than would have been achieved had a different approach been applied. His calmness and capacity to calm difficult negotiations also emerged.
I came away from the service with a greater understanding of the challenges faced by men such as Mr Djerrkura. With his passing, we are faced with the same challenge: to continue his work. In effect, the baton now must be passed, the work must be continued. The idea of reconciliation, as I understood it from the memorial service, is not so much an issue of ideology, politics or power; it is a matter of the heart and an attitude of mind, and it was typified by his manner and approach. There were many speakers who referred to that, and I learnt so much about how he dealt with matters to progress the issue of reconciliation.
Despite his great presence, as a diplomat, his leadership was not uncontroversial. Last year, he resigned from his position as Chairman of an Arnhem Land regional council and, more recently, only 10 days before his passing, he penned an article in the Canberra Times that challenged the government regarding the dismantling of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission, even though he recognised that the organisation had failings.
Regardless of how political viewpoints may differ, I am sure most members of this House would agree that ATSIC was a different organisation when Mr Djerrkura was at the helm, and I am sure that his years as chairman between 1996 and 1999 will be remembered as that organisation’s strongest. There is also no doubt that contributing to his success as chair of ATSIC was his enormous gift as an engaging diplomat and true representative of his people.
Our collective regret should be that he did not make it into this place because there can be no doubt that Mr Djerrkura, with all due respect to the current member, would have not only admirably represented the people of Arnhem but, in addition, shone brightly as a stand-out leader amongst us. His desire to represent his people was not snuffed out by the lost opportunity to warm a seat here. Indeed, in some ways, Mr Djerrkura probably found the road a lot harder at a national and international level as a representative of indigenous Australians as a whole, rather than only Yolngu people. The voyage on which he embarked was strengthened by his attraction to the conservative side of politics, which has been more simply described by others as Mr Djerrkura devoting his life to being a bridge builder.
This approach to politics saw him become a Life Member of the Country Liberal Party, a membership that, although sometimes was made tough owing to external pressures, was unquestionably cherished by him. The fact that he left us at the age of 54, in similar circumstances to two former members of this House who were fellow Aboriginal leaders and statesmen, has, in the space of just over a decade, robbed us of three of the greatest examples of traditional Aboriginal men bridging the great divide and making a difference.
As Leader of the Opposition, it strengthens my resolve to continue to contribute to whatever future policies can be implemented to address the lower than average life expectancy rates amongst Aboriginal men in particular. This is just one of the many reasons why members on this side of the House mourn today, because although we currently have traditional Aboriginal people on the other side of this Chamber, we have lost an opportunity with Mr Djerrkura’s passing to bring balance in political views.
As the leader of the Country Liberal Party in the Northern Territory, I will continue to ensure that we are a party that wholeheartedly embraces any traditional Aboriginal person wanting to join the conservative side of politics because I know that is what Mr Djerrkura would have wanted.
In many ways, Mr Djerrkura allowed himself to be an open example for reconciliation, as a guide or insight for mainstream Australians into the way traditional Aboriginal people view their culture. I think at times in the Territory we possibly take that view for granted, and I am sure we could all share experiences where our relatives and friends in southern states struggle to understand particular issues because they have never really come into contact with traditional Aboriginal people or their culture.
Madam Speaker, Mr Djerrkura attempted on more than a few occasions to break down this barrier from his own side, to allow mainstream Australia to experience traditional culture, even when it broke through his own traditional boundaries. This included inviting the Prime Minister to Yirrkala in 1998 during his time as ATSIC Chairman, a period when he felt that the responsibility sat squarely on his broad shoulders to give the Prime Minister a first-hand personal insight into Aboriginal culture.
It extended even further when he allowed public access into his private life by inviting film crews and two federal ministers to view a traditional ceremony involving his son. The negative reaction to the events that occurred at the ceremony shocked Mr Djerrkura because, whether or not you agreed with the nature of the ceremony, he obviously felt the importance of involving non-Aboriginal people in his culture outweighed his family’s privacy.
At the time, it was reported, sadly, that the attempt he made at trying to bring greater understanding in some ways served only to highlight the lack of it. Members would understand why he took it personally, saying that he was very annoyed, disgusted and a bit disappointed by the lack of sensitivity that was applied. He went on to say:
- I thought I was doing the right thing by exposing my culture for a better understanding of the issues.
For other people to criticise my culture now is another form of trying to take away my culture. I will
think twice now about inviting people to that sort of ceremony in the future.
These stories illustrate that not only did this man possess a burning desire to teach and allow non-Aboriginal people access to previously misunderstood cultural practices, but the enormous passion and dignity with which he carried himself. Many Aboriginal leaders in this country, including many great Territorians, have travelled this path before, opening the door for non-Aboriginal people to have a peek at traditional culture in an attempt to understand it. Mr Djerrkura took it one step further; invited us over the threshold and asked us to join him at his table.
In closing, Madam Speaker, Mr Djerrkura will be remembered for many things but, above all, for his contribution to the betterment of Aboriginal Australians. He was a man at the forefront of creating job opportunities for young Aboriginal Territorians, and I admired and respected his great depth and passion. No matter what political stance he had taken at various times, Mr Djerrkura’s views were always considered, challenging and, most importantly, full of hope. As a staunch Republican, Mr Djerrkura’s final words, in his last article only weeks ago, truly reflected his approach:
- If we want to break away from the colonial past and begin anew, then we have to walk together, hand in hand
and side by side, as a truly reconciled nation. A republic that does not make the first concrete gesture towards
reconciliation is a republic that walks in the footsteps of the Crown. Is this the impoverished vision of a republic
we want? My answer …
Said Mr Djerrkura:
- … is no. Our vision must be more substantial.
He said:
- My dream is of Australia as a reconciled republic.
Madam Speaker, I, too, share the dream of this senior Aboriginal leader from the Wanguri clan, Mr Djerrkura. The Country Liberal Party mourns his passing and extends its deepest sympathies to his family at this time. The opposition supports the motion.
Mr STIRLING (Treasurer): Madam Speaker, Mr Djerrkura was a special person. He was a big man, intensely proud and carried his leadership with a great deal of dignity. He was one of a handful of traditional indigenous Australians to be able to walk the board rooms of corporate Australia with the same confidence and competence that he could lead an intricate traditional Yolngu ceremony, and he was an extremely important ceremonial leader in north-east Arnhem Land. Significantly, the leaders I put into that category have all come from north-east Arnhem Land.
He had three driving passions. The first was indigenous affairs generally, indigenous economic development, and indigenous governance particularly. He rose to the top as Chairman of ATSIC, a position he filled with distinction. Territorians and Australians alike took great pride in the fact that here was a traditional indigenous man filling the most important advocacy role for his people in the whole of the country. We could take comfort that here was a man who understood, from first-hand experience, the disadvantages of indigenous Territorians in remote communities in health, housing, education and employment.
His second lifelong passion was indigenous health and he led Miwatj Health, based in Nhulunbuy, with that same sense of purpose of doing the absolute best for he could for his people as he had done with ATSIC.
His other abiding interest was education and training and he served as Chairman of the Batchelor Institute of Indigenous Tertiary Education for many years.
I knew him as friend and as an indigenous leader for 25 years, but it was a friendship that, at one point, was damaged irrevocably for a significant period. Over the past two years, we were brought together again through the same central themes that drove most of his life. His work with health, with Batchelor and education, and his interest in regional governance were three of the areas that gave us common ground. Just a few months ago, we sat together for seven hours at the memorial service for Mr Munungguritj, a service in which he performed the role of Master of Ceremonies. I sat to his immediate right and we shared much throughout those seven hours on that day. Jenny and I began to travel, at his invitation, to his much beloved homeland of Buymarr, but always on condition, Madam Speaker, that we dropped excess fish back to him at his house at Yirrkala, which we were pleased to do.
He had a special relationship with his daughter, Fiona, and she spent more and more time with him over the past few months. It was appropriate that Fiona and her daughter, his grandchild, Shikera, were with him for much of his last day in Gove Hospital. In fact, Fiona left the room in the hospital for just 15 minutes to return to find that he had passed away peacefully. He was a man who doted on his children and grandchildren, who should have had years to look forward to with grand kids on the knee. That will not happen, as it will not happen for many of his countrymen. The issue of life expectancy for indigenous Australians has to remain among the highest priorities for all governments.
Sunday’s memorial service was a wonderful and emotional occasion; it was full of stories of his life. Many federal and Northern Territory members were in attendance, along with hundreds of Yolngu and Balanda from far and wide.
My thoughts are with Damien, Fiona, Nathan and his grandchildren as they go through this sad time. Jenny has been an absolute wonderful support to her children, as has Wali Wunugungmurra, Galarrwuy and Greg Smith. Greg Smith was a very close friend of Mr Djerrkura and he was MC for the service, a difficult and challenging job for a very close friend, but one he carried out with great distinction.
There is no doubt that this man’s strength and dignity has carried forward into his children and it will help them throughout this time, as it did on Sunday. The traditional ceremony continues throughout this week, with burial next Sunday. The legacy he has left us lies in the central themes of his life: regional indigenous governance, indigenous health and education. His life inspires me to continue to do whatever I can as a member of parliament to continue his work.
There is just one note of discord in this whole sad matter, Madam Speaker, and that is the situation with the media. I understand that news travels very fast. In fact, in the hours immediately following his passing, Jenny and I took dozens and dozens of phone calls from all over Australia seeking confirmation that his passing was indeed fact. There were perhaps 80 or 100 people outside the hospital for those immediate hours following Mr Djerrkura’s passing. One old man, Wirilma from Yirrkala, asked me to ensure that the media did not break this news before many extended family members - and they extend over hundreds of kilometres of north-east Arnhem Land - were informed.
It was an impossible ask because our phones, as I said, were ringing with people from Queensland to Canberra to all parts of the country, and it was, surely only going to be a matter of time, which indeed it was, before ABC announced it. However, it is something that sticks in the throats of the Yolngu people, that the media take ownership of an issue and break this news despite the fact that many family members would not have known at that time. I do not blame ABC. He was a public figure, a very important man. They had heard the news and they would see that as the national broadcaster, or indeed any broadcaster, that they had a responsibility to announce it.
I ask the media, though, in circumstances such as these that they apply a little bit of common sense, a little bit of politeness and just hold off at least for a few hours because many family members will hold that bitterness about hearing it on the news or other people hearing it on the news and coming to tell them before they had heard from family members.
It was something I lived through with the passing of the former member for Arnhem. I well recall the great distress and upset when many people heard that on radio before family had the chance to get the news around. I do not want to finish on that note. As I said, I don’t blame ABC. They would have a view that if they didn’t run the story, another outlet would. No doubt that is true, but I do make an appeal to all media in situations such as these to show some manners and hold off at least for some time until word is able to get to family in the traditional manner.
I share the views of the Leader of the Opposition. His work does inspire me to do whatever I can in all of those areas that were important to him. The legacy is there to follow. He leaves an enormous hole in indigenous leadership and, most importantly, for the Yolngu at the local level in north-east Arnhem Land, an absolutely gaping hole in the case of attention to detail and ceremonial leadership, something for which he was very famous.
Dr LIM (Greatorex): Madam Speaker, I would like to add a few words to this condolence motion for Mr Djerrkura. I will not repeat what has been said by the Leader of the Opposition about the things that Mr Djerrkura achieved in his short life.
That he was a conscientious and forceful representative, there can be no doubt. He was such a person for his people, whether he was talking about issues within his own community or native title, especially during his term as Chair of ATSIC.
A man like Mr Djerrkura obviously was able to walk in two worlds: the world of Aboriginal culture and the mainstream world with which he dealt so effectively. He fought for real outcomes for Aboriginal people, and I understand he managed the walk the tightrope of political and cultural divide in which he was immersed every day of his life.
My connection with Mr Djerrkura was in his role as Chairman of Batchelor College, which then became Batchelor Institute of Tertiary Education. Every time I attended one of the graduation ceremonies or any other times that Batchelor Institute hosted a function or event, Mr Djerrkura was there. He pushed so very hard for real educational outcomes for Aboriginal people, something that had to be witnessed. Obviously, from his own background, being educated at a missionary school at Yirrkala, then going to Brisbane Christian College had an impact on his own development and his personal beliefs as to how Aboriginal people in the Territory can make a real life for themselves. Education is the one big step that Aboriginal people can strive for to achieve their rightful place in a society in which we should all be sharing equally.
With a man like Mr Djerrkura as a role model, there is a way of encouraging indigenous people in the Territory to follow in his footsteps. A man of his stature is obviously one who is very difficult to replace. A man with great cultural significance in his own community will be very difficult to find, but let us hope that one day, the community of Yirrkala will find somebody who will walk in the footsteps of this very respected man in the Territory’s community.
My personal relationship with Mr Djerrkura was not very deep. We were two – I suppose we can call him a politician – politicians who knew each other in passing and had a mutual interest in education for Aboriginal people. That is where our relationship really stopped.
I extend my deepest condolences to his family, to his three children, Damian, Fiona and Nathan, and to the community in general, but especially to the people of Yirrkala who will surely now feel greatly impacted by his passing.
Mr AH KIT (Community Development): Madam Speaker, I support this motion of condolence for Mr Djerrkura, late of Yirrkala. It was a deep shock to learn of the death of this great Territorian. There is no doubt that his passing is a great loss to us all.
Mr Djerrkura was born at Yirrkala in 1949, the only boy of a family of nine children, and a member of the Wanguri clan of north-east Arnhem Land. His death at the age of 54 was a great loss to his family, his clansmen and the people of north-east Arnhem Land. He was an important leader in that region but, as many others have noted, his influence extended far beyond the areas of his homelands. As has also been noted, Mr Djerrkura had very strong convictions about the importance of economic development for the advancement of indigenous people throughout the nation, but his was not a one-dimensional approach.
For him, education for his people was at the heart of his strategic thinking about the future, and in this, he followed in the footsteps of the Yolngu leaders who were involved with the creation of the 1963 Bark Petition. These Yolngu leaders, having failed to prevent the bauxite miners coming on to their traditional lands, adopted a deliberate strategy of selecting their youngest and brightest and sending them away for an education. The reason for this was clear: future generations should be conversant with the ways and knowledge of Balanda people, as well as with their traditional knowledge systems.
Mr Djerrkura, along with his cousin, Galarrwuy Yunupingu, Braywar Munungurr and Richard Banambi, were sent to Bible College in Brisbane. After his return, Mr Djerrkura was sent south again, this time to be an inaugural student at the South Australian Institute of Technology’s Aboriginal Task Force. He graduated with a Certificate in Community Development. He also graduated with a lifelong passion for learning and a commitment to educational opportunities to be extended to all.
There have been many times, over a glass or two of red, that Mr Djerrkura would sit around with us and encourage argument, debate and discussions about the future. Education was always at the core of his ideas about that future. For many years until his death, Mr Djerrkura was the Chairperson of the Council of the Batchelor Institute of Indigenous Education. In many ways, I believe that, of all the honours bestowed upon him and roles he undertook, it was this job that he enjoyed the most. To see him at Batchelor graduations was to see him at his happiest. It was almost as if he had personally taught each graduate, and each and every person who succeeded at Batchelor was a source of pride to him. I know for sure that his passing will be felt intensely by the staff and students of Batchelor.
For myself, I was born only a year after him, and there are ways in which I have followed in his footsteps over the years. Our paths have crossed on many occasions. I attended the same task force behind Mr Djerrkura, and graduated with similar qualifications. I had a number of dealings with him when I worked at the Northern Land Council and he was managing Yirrkala Business Enterprises. Again, his focus in this period was on the training opportunities YBE offered to the Yolngu people as he built it up from a pretty moribund organisation to a $4m-a-year enterprise employing more than 60 people.
In the early 1990s, he was an instrumental figure in the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commercial Development Corporation, and that body’s relationship with the Jawoyn Association. In the first instance, that was in providing loans to the Jawoyn to buy a share in Nitmiluk Tours, which was established in partnership with Werner Sarney from Travel North. At the same time, we lobbied hard with the ATSIC Commercial Development Corporation to provide support for the Mirrkworlk Joint Venture, which was established at Mt Todd following a successful mining agreement the Jawoyn people had negotiated with Pegasus Mining Company. The Mirrkworlk Joint Venture had a role to play in mining and carting ore to the crushers.
In negotiations with the Jawoyn, Mr Djerrkura was quite blunt in relating to the Jawoyn that he would only be really in favour of supporting one business enterprise. As it was, he saw that both of them were important enterprises, and the Jawoyn were successful in having them both supported. In fact, 12 months later, with the Nitmiluk Tours joint venture, the Jawoyn had found a way to go to the banks and proposed to the ATSIC Commercial Development Corporation that the Jawoyn buy out their share. Whilst Mr Djerrkura saw what the Jawoyn wanted to do and had advice from his senior advisors that it was not the support that should be provided to the Jawoyn, he nevertheless approved of the Jawoyn going it alone and buying out ATSIC Commercial Development Corporation’s part of the business deal.
As Chairperson also of ATSIC between 1996 and 1999, Mr Djerrkura maintained a warm relationship with the Jawoyn people, helping them to launch their five-year plan in 1997, and always had an open door when Jawoyn people visited Canberra during those days. I am sure that Robert Lee and the Jawoyn people would also want to add their condolences as part of this motion.
As the Chief Minister mentioned earlier, it was a privilege and an honour to appoint Mr Djerrkura to the East Arnhem Regional Development Board, an appointment that was widely welcomed at the time. It is sad that his time has been too short to contribute his wisdom and experience to that body. He came as head of a delegation, and gave a presentation about regional governance, and I certainly hope to continue to work with East Arnhem leaders to development a partnership so that we can move that region forward similar to Nyirranggulung-Mardrulk-Ngadberre in Katherine East, with Thamarrurr in the Port Keats area, and as we have done with the Tiwi Islands Local Government Council.
I attended the ceremony at Wukidi Ceremonial Shelter at Yirrkala on Sunday, along with the Chief Minister, Deputy Chief Minister, Leader of the Opposition and many politicians from down south. I must reiterate what the member for Nhulunbuy said about MC-ing of the occasion. It went for almost three hours and Greg Smith, who was very close to Mr Djerrkura, did a wonderful job in being able to carry those three hours and present a very moving memorial service.
We heard some great stories from speakers such as Reverend Wally Fawell, and Reverend Bernie Clark talk about the very young days when they spotted the talent in Mr Djerrkura. They spoke about the training that they provided to him because training went, obviously, two ways; many of the missionaries in those days were learning about the Yolngu Matha.
One of the reverends spoke about his training to become a MAF airlines attendant, to do the bookings and the ticketing, and how proud he was to walk around in the MAF uniform back when he was quite young. There was a messages read out by Baraywa Mununggurr. The Chief Minister spoke, as did Senator Vanstone, Lionel Quartermaine, and myself.
However, I thought the words that Rosalie Kunoth-Monks, who is the Deputy Chair of Batchelor, were just wonderful. She described him as an Aboriginal leader who made her feel very proud of who she was. She referred to the way he walked tall and dignified, and I thought she was able to encompass all the lovely platitudes made about him during the memorial service.
Veronica Arbon, the Director, spoke in glowing terms. Klaus Helms from Alcan, Graeme Maymuru from Miwatj Health and Ann-Marie Quinn were close in regards to his most recent job, the CEO of the Miwatj Health Service. It was a wonderful service.
I pick up on the Leader of the Opposition when he quoted Mr Djerrkura’s vision about reconciliation, to walk hand in hand, side by side. Many people understood his vision and heard it often, but it is something we need to take note of, and I would like to think that many people came away from that service understanding that there was an overall message, a theme that regardless of what political leanings Mr Djerrkura had, at the end of the day he was concerned about his people’s rights, he was concerned about economic development and especially indigenous economic development, and if you were not trained and geared to handle that type of development, then you needed education and training. He was a great leader.
I extend condolences to Jenny and Damien, Fiona and Nathan and all his wonderful grandchildren. We have definitely lost an important man and a great Territorian, and I just hope people go away and think about the wonderful times that they had with him, that infectious smile, that wry grin and that sort of hearty chuckle, and understand what he was on about with his vision so that we can work towards that because if we do, we will one day, hopefully, have reconciliation happening on equal terms, which will allow us to achieve that vision. The light at the end of the tunnel is going to make us a much better country.
Mr ELFERINK (Macdonnell): Madam Speaker, it is important that I rise to speak to this motion. I have had, over the past few years, quite a bit to do with Mr Djerrkura on a personal level because I have sought his advice on numerous issues.
One of the things I understood was central to the way he viewed the world was that he once referred to the ‘virtue of work’ when I was speaking to him. He saw it as a virtue not only that it was a source of income, but it was a source of dignity and pride, and that any person who had meaningful work was not only paid but was elevated by the process; empowered and lifted beyond where they originally were.
Mr Djerrkura understood that particularly well. That was where his belief and enterprise came from; he knew full well as a result of his education, as well as the fact that he was a very clever man, that Aboriginal people would be elevated out of their current circumstances not by a government policy, not by some sort of arrangement that was going to be brought about by some bureaucracy, but by individuals on the ground at that level, and that people who engaged in work were people who were going to elevate themselves not only financially, but morally, spiritually and emotionally because work touches on all of those areas. It is our raison d’etre. It is the reason that we should get out of bed in the morning and it is certainly something that Mr Djerrkura understood.
While I was listening to honourable members, I was trying very hard to remember a line – and I think I almost remember it now – from a speech by Martin Luther King. I am not drawing a comparison between Mr King and Mr Djerrkura; Mr Djerrkura stands in his own right. He doesn’t need to be compared with anyone. However, when Mr King went to the mountain top and came down, he made a speech and said that he looked forward to the day when his children in Alabama could sit at the dinning table with white people and no one would notice. Those aren’t the exact words, but the sentiment is there.
I grew up in Darwin and for those of us in this Chamber who grew up in Darwin and went through the school system, and I believe it would be true anywhere else in the Territory, the colour barrier was non-existent. It certainly was for me. In fact, I was blithely unaware that there was a colour barrier until I was educated in such matters, and that was well after I reached high school.
Perhaps we change over time and perhaps our minds work in different ways over time, but I remember any number of individuals who were my mates as kids, and I was absolutely unaware that there was any difference at all between us. Perhaps that was what Mr King was talking about and perhaps it was what Mr Djerrkura was looking for: not a denial of his own culture; the fact is that all of this can quite happily co-exist to the point where we simply don’t notice those differences because they are just not that important.
I have heard several members from both sides of the House use the expressions ‘his people’ or ‘our people’ during the motion. I think to myself: ‘Gee whiz, I wish we could take the next step’. Really, the next step is to say something like this – and I do this to honour Mr Djerrkura: ‘I am one of these people. I grew up in the Territory. I have a spiritual bond to the land that we stand on, this House stands on. I have an emotional bond to this place. I love this place’.
To see the passing of somebody like Mr Djerrkura and still hear talk about ‘his people’ and ‘our people’ and those sorts of things, I hope that I am a product of his vision because I am one of his people and I feel a deep sense of loss because I, as a Territorian, have lost a friend and a relative in one sense of the word.
I feel a deep sense of loss. I hope that his legacy to me and to every one else, every other Territorian, is that we can continue quite happily choosing, if you like, to be ignorant of the differences and celebrating those things that make the Territory great today and will make the Territory great into the future.
Mr BONSON (Millner): Madam Speaker, Mr Djerrkura OAM was a friend of my family, in particular, my mother, Rosanne Brennan and her husband, Steve Brennan. Through their relationship, Mr Djerrkura became a friend and role model to me.
Mr Djerrkura was a man of exceptional skills who had the ability to mix with people of all backgrounds, be it business or on a personal level. He was very proud of his traditional background, and made sure that his children were educated in their culture and language. He had the extraordinary ability to step from one culture to another with minimal fuss and in such a way as to make people feel comfortable at all times.
Many people would say that Mr Djerrkura erred on the side of conservatism in relation to the fight for Aboriginal justice and social equality, but nothing could be further from the truth. He believed passionately in the fight for the social, economic and political rights of Aboriginal people, and always made his beliefs known in a quietly spoken and dignified manner without compromising the central thrust of his beliefs and position.
He recognised and enthusiastically supported the importance of education and the need for educational facilities that were sensitive to and supportive of the cultural needs of Aboriginal people. He further acknowledged that for Aboriginal people to perform and be accepted as equal partners in mainstream society, they needed to establish good work practices. He recognised that one of the ways this could be achieved was to encourage Aboriginal people to job share. In pursuit of this outcome, he successfully introduced and implemented such a scheme with the Yirrkala Business Enterprises, YBE, in Nhulunbuy.
Mr Djerrkura was indeed a leader in his own right, and this is recognised by his vast achievements in business, education and health. Some of the positions, and these are by no means exhaustive, were: CEO of Yirrkala Business Enterprises; Chairperson of Northern Aboriginal Investment Corporation; board member of Bilioara Propriety Limited, formerly a 50% joint venturer in Mirambeena Joint Venture, which owned Mirambeena Tourist Resort; Chairperson of Commercial Development Corporation, the commercial arm of ATSIC; Chairperson of Batchelor Institute of Indigenous Tertiary Education; Chairperson of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission; Regional Chair of Miwatj Regional Council; Chairperson of Miwatj Health Board; and CEO of Miwatj Health.
He was a man of strong beliefs and principles, and was never lacking in courage when it was required, as evidenced by his criticism of the federal government when he felt it was needed. He further displayed exceptional courage when he resigned from the position of Regional Chairperson of Miwatj Regional Council, effectively placing himself on the unemployment list, in protest at the federal government’s transfer of funding away from ATSIC.
He was a softly-spoken man with a quiet but imposing dignity. I believe all parliamentarians and Territorians mourn his loss. To Mr Djerrkura’s family, I hope that the recognition he receives today will provide comfort and, in future, create greater family pride in his great achievements We will all miss him dearly.
Mr McADAM (Barkly): Madam Speaker, I, too, would like to pay tribute to Mr Djerrkura. I recall very clearly my first meeting with Mr Djerrkura: it was in Adelaide in 1973. Both of us were students at the inaugural Aboriginal Task Force, along with a host of other indigenous people. At that time, I was struck by Mr Djerrkura’s very quiet, unassuming and dignified manner, and I detected an underlying strength, a determination to succeed and to make a difference.
I had the privilege of getting to know Mr Djerrkura better because we were both boarding at Parkin-Wesley College. Quite often, we would socialise and, occasionally, work together completing our assignments. As indicated earlier, it became clear that Mr Djerrkura was a very determined and studious person. Obviously, on more occasions than not, I would go off and undertake social activities while Mr Djerrkura would remain and complete all his scholastic tasks.
It is important to understand that the Aboriginal Task Force was a pilot program in those days, and it was only meant to last two years. We, as students, were tasked by people like Dr Ross Harris and Lowitja O’Donoghue to develop options in terms of how the Task Force could extend beyond that period. There is absolutely no doubt that Mr Djerrkura’s contribution was significant and played an important role in the Task Force’s development, to the extent that today it probably is Australia’s premier indigenous education institution, particularly for mature-aged indigenous people. Mr Djerrkura’s dedication and commitment to the indigenous cause will remain a source of inspiration and strength to many indigenous and non-indigenous people alike.
As a former ATSIC Chairperson, he remained steadfast against One Nation’s cheap push to marginalise indigenous people, Asian people and good Australians. His sensible approach remained constant and diffused many of the simplistic fundamentalist positions put at that time.
Already, we have heard members talk about his contribution to our society. I would like to refer to his involvement in economic development. There is no doubt that he was a pioneer in respect to indigenous economic development, and I refer, obviously, to his involvement with Yirrkala Business Enterprises, along with his position of Director of ATSIC CDC, and, of course, his involvement with the Henry Walker Group. The member for Arnhem referred to his chairmanship of Batchelor Institute, and it is indicative that he chose to go down this path in respect of making opportunities available for people, both indigenous and non-indigenous, in employment and training. I am not surprised, given his contribution way back in 1973–74.
Mr Djerrkura was a visionary. As I said before, he was dedicated and, most importantly, was committed to enhancing the lives of all Australians. I suppose, my dear brother, if you are out there today, you would probably say to me: ‘I did my best, but I ran out of time’. Well, I say to you that you have not because your contribution, your commitment, will remain an inspiration to us all. I would say that you have taught us well.
In conclusion, Madam Speaker, I extend, on behalf of Barb Shaw, my partner, and, of course, the many people in the Barkly, my condolences to Mr Djerrkura’s children, his family and his friends. We want you all to know that our love and thoughts will remain with you as, indeed, will the memory of Mr Djerrkura.
Madam SPEAKER: I thank honourable members for their sincere contributions to this motion. As a mark of respect, I ask members to remain seated and to observe one minute’s silence.
Members observed one minute’s silence.
Madam SPEAKER: I thank honourable members. I remind honourable members that I will send a bound tribute of this motion to Mr Djerrkura’s family on behalf of all members of the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly with our sincere sympathy.
APPROPRIATION BILL 2004-05
(Serial 234)
(Serial 234)
Continued from 20 May 2004.
Ms MARTIN (Chief Minister): Madam Speaker, it is with much pride that I rise to contribute to this appropriation debate.
Budget 2004-05 delivers tax cuts, more jobs and adds to our great Territory lifestyle. It also delivers the biggest ever infrastructure spend in Territory history, $441m, providing a real stimulus for our economy to create jobs and to keep the Territory moving ahead. This budget also delivers record spending in all the key areas of health, education and police; a record budget to deliver more nurses, teachers and police and better services for Territorians.
Boosting services to Territorians was a key pledge of my government as part of our commitment to build a better Territory for all Territorians. As Chief Minister, I am pleased that this, my government’s third full budget, builds on our achievements and delivers a responsible yet targeted budget, one that has again delivered on our core responsibility of health, education and police and delivering jobs for Territorians.
The $441m infrastructure investment package, which is expected to sustain up to 4000 jobs alone, centres on three key targets: tourism, roads and strategic development projects.
As tourism minister, I am very pleased that a key part of the record infrastructure spending includes a $60m package targeted at tourism infrastructure, roads, facilities in our parks, including key tourism roads. Tourism is a key industry in the Territory. It is our second biggest employer, accounting for about 15% of our work force directly and indirectly. This budget recognises the contribution of this sector to our economy with a record boost to improving facilities and access to our fabulous tourism assets.
The Treasurer has outlined funding allocations for sealing the Mereenie Loop and Litchfield roads. Over 400 000 interstate and international visitors took drive holidays in the Territory last year, up substantially on the previous year, and we believe this is a real growth market. In fact, the international drive market is our fastest growing tourism segment and has grown at a rate of 7.2% a year over the past five years.
The drive market holds great promise for future tourism opportunities and the strategic investment in sealing the Mereenie Loop and Litchfield roads will help lever private sector investment in tourism infrastructure; investments like new accommodation, new tourism product and new commercial activities along both of those roads. Also a key to that, particularly the Mereenie Loop area, are opportunities for the Aboriginal communities along that road.
2004-05 will also see $2.5m spent on a Darwin cruise ship facility. Together with the investment in the Darwin city waterfront, these initiatives will put Darwin on the map, enhancing it as a tourism destination and broadening its role beyond Australia’s northern trading gateway.
In October 2003, my government announced that an additional $27.5m in funding will be provided to the Tourist Commission over the next three years. This funding will be used to best position in the Territory as a tourism destination within Australia, but also to further tap into the overseas market.
On my recent trade mission to China, it is clear that there are markets waiting to be reached. Last year, just 122 tourists came to the Territory from mainland China and we can improve on that. The Territory offers a unique destination for tourists that is exotic, beautiful and safe. We are poised to take advantage of our uniqueness of environment, people and lifestyle.
Accordingly, on top of the $7.5m spent in 2003-04, which included $6m for marketing and $1.5m for tourism development, in the 2004-05 year, a further $7.5m for marketing will be spent and $2.5m for tourism development will be spent. This will be maintained in 2005-06 when a further $7.5m for marketing and another $2.5m for tourism development will be allocated.
My government values tourism as a viable, renewable resource that offers employment opportunities for remote communities, as well as for those in our city and urban centres. The additional $7.5m allocated for marketing this year will include: $1.5m as part of a branding campaign and additional television advertising; $2.25m for destination branding and marketing activities for Uluru, Alice Springs, Kakadu and Darwin; marketing collateral for emerging and developing destinations; public relations activities; support for regional events; industry communication and support strategies; and trade training and familiarisations.
One million dollars will be spent on building block marketing. This means development of evolving television advertisements and niche marketing approaches, including a branding positioning study and brand creative framework, new footage, niche and special interest brochures, a Northern Territory Drive Strategy for Katherine and the Barkly, collateral on indigenous and nature-based product in the international market, familiarisations and marketing campaigns featuring the Territory’s indigenous and nature-based appeal in those international market places.
One million dollars will be spent on cooperative marketing campaigns with airlines. We have increasingly seen the arrival of new airlines and services to the Territory. My government has put a large amount of work into this area. During 2003-04, funding was allocated to establish new aviation services and charter flights with international airlines. Improving international aviation access continues as a priority, and work in this area will be progressed in 2004-05.
Half a million dollars will be spent on cooperative advertising support for Territory-based and national partners, that is for jointly funded advertising opportunities between the Tourist Commission and industry operators. Another $0.5m will be allocated to specific international marketing initiatives, including sponsorship of the ATEC 2005 Symposium in Alice Springs and international web site development. $0.25m will be used to undertake strategic research for advertising tracking, backpacker market research, Destination Australia market alliance research and German market research as examples. Another $0.5m will be spent on business tourism incorporating a familiarisation strategy for domestic buyers, conference support program, the Northern Territory Ambassador Referral Group, upgrade of the web site, purchase of a customised web-based data base and venue survey research.
We are privileged to live in this comparatively pristine environment with extraordinary beauty and striking landscapes. It is important that people who live in those remote locations can have opportunities to participate in the economic benefits brought through tourism. Accordingly, in 2004-05, $2.5m of new money is allocated for tourism development in the areas of indigenous culture and nature-based development. This will include $1.4m that has been set aside for destination development funding for work on mature, developing and emerging Territory holiday destinations that cover indigenous, nature-based and heritage aspects. $300 000 will be used for Tourism Development Fund and Trade Support Scheme grants offered to industry operators.
Mr DUNHAM: A point of order, Mr Deputy Speaker. I draw your attention to the state of the House.
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER: Ring the bells. There is a quorum present. Chief Minister.
Ms MARTIN: As I was saying, $300 000 will be spent developing a tourism development research partnership with Charles Darwin University, $200 000 has been allocated to continue the Tourism Leadership Study Program for key indigenous tourism ventures, which commenced in 2003-04, and $300 000 will be spent on administration of these programs.
This is alongside the ongoing budget allocations that include $17.3m for domestic and international marketing activities, and $4.7m for tourism development, including funding for visitor information services in the Top End, Katherine, Barkly and Central Australia. Tourism is a very important industry in the Territory and my government is demonstrating the strength of its support for the industry through targeted strategic spending that will maximise benefits for all the community.
Alongside delivering tax cuts and more jobs, great lifestyle is the third key element of Budget 2004. The Territory does have a unique and special lifestyle. This budget builds on those things that make the Territory such a great place to live.
As minister for Arts and Museums, I am pleased to say that my government has continued its strong support for the arts and cultural life of the Territory. Funding for festivals has been boosted by $350 000 this year to widen the festival program. Festivals to receive funding include the Festival of Darwin, Desert Song in Alice Springs, the International Guitar Festival and the Garma Festival. The increase of funding will also allow increased indigenous performances through these major and regional festivals. This will benefit not only Territorians by enabling them to see first class talent at home, but also attract visitors from elsewhere looking for an opportunity to visit and enjoy some of the cultural attractions of our creative and diverse community.
The second year of the Indigenous Arts Strategy will build on the programs commenced in 2003-04, particularly in assisting arts centres develop greater employment and training outcomes. Under the Indigenous Arts Strategy and the establishment of a Film, Television and New Media Office, increased project support funding through the arts sponsorship program will support additional indigenous and film projects. These initiatives will benefit the Territory and encourage industry consultation and potential partnerships.
The government’s minor new works program will provide an additional $350 000 towards upgrading facilities at our premier cultural institutions, the Alice Springs Cultural Precinct and Bullocky Point site of Museums and Art Galleries of the Northern Territory, and include improvements to the arts sector accommodation at Frog Hollow.
The Alice Springs Cultural Precinct will use the allocation to improve security at the precinct and upgrade the distribution board at the Strehlow Research Centre. Further upgrades will be completed to the roof on the craft council building located in the precinct. The major project of the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory’s Bullocky Point site will include further upgrades to external lighting and installation of closed circuit television cameras in the public and staff car parks. This will provide additional security not only for the people who visit, but the unique collections of art, science and culture that are housed there.
The arts celebrate our creativity, unique culture, and are an important part of tourism in our region. But Territorians are also people who enjoy sport and the lifestyle that comes from our climate and landscape. As Chief Minister, I am proud of our lifestyle and pleased to say that this year will bring some exciting events enjoyed by all Territorians. The recent V8 Supercars were again a hit, with government continuing to provide $820 000 in support, along with free transport to the circuit. This drawcard event not only provided a weekend of top class entertainment for thousands of Territorians who come from far and wide, but also an event that brings hundreds of visitors to the Territory, and a significant injection into our hospitality and tourism sectors.
$300 000 has been allocated this year to the continuous success of last year’s inaugural contemporary music concert BassInTheGrass. The concerts, held in Darwin and Alice Springs, provide young Territorians and the young at heart with a top class gig comparable to large music concerts interstate.
This year’s Finke Desert Race started and finished on the new start-finish line, and all involved enjoyed new and improved facilities, thanks to an injection of $600 000 earlier this year. That event draws an average of 12 000 spectators each year.
Mr Deputy Speaker, as Chief Minister and Minister for Women’s Affairs, I outline some initiatives in the budget targeted at Territory women. My government has allocated $2.5m within Health’s capital works program for the development of a new birthing centre at Royal Darwin Hospital to enable creation of two low-tech birthing rooms with deep water baths for pain relief, and refurbishment of the existing maternity unit at the hospital, an important initiative that will improve services and support for Territory families.
The Chief Minister’s Study Award for Women will continue in 2004-05, with $20 000 allocated to this important initiative. It will provide a Territory woman $14 000 to undertake a tertiary study program and $6000 for a Territory woman to undertake a vocational study program.
Community Cabinet Women’s Forums have been an initiative of my government that commenced during the current financial year, with further forums planned in 2004-05. This progressive initiative, in association with Community Cabinets, has and will continue to give Territory women the opportunity to meet directly with ministers and raise any issues of concern they have. I was delighted in Alice Springs only last Thursday to have nearly 100 women join me for the forum in Alice Springs.
This government is committed to building to safer communities. Part of that commitment includes targeting programs to address violence in our community. The $1.5m Strong Families, Strong Communities, Strong Futures project under the Domestic Violence and Aboriginal Family Violence Strategies, and funded across government, will be expanded this year into two communities in Central Australia. This brings the total number of participating communities to eight.
This government is pleased to be the first government to ever seriously address itinerancy and antisocial behaviour. We are doing it in a targeted way with a whole-of-government effort and innovative yet practical solutions and strategies. While we are having real success, it is a complex and long-term problem with more to do. This work will continue, and Budget 2004-05 delivers $2.7m on the Community Harmony Strategy and other activities designed to address antisocial behaviour. This amount is in addition to expenditure on capital items of $1.56m for Community Harmony projects, including refurbishment of existing facilities. The Community Harmony project has been particularly successful in addressing itinerant issues, with community leaders and representatives across the Territory working together with government to return 850 people to their homes and country.
My department also has a role in assisting with implementing the call to recruit record rates of police officers, a recommendation of the O’Sullivan Review of Territory police, and a key element of my government’s subsequent $75m Building Our Police Force Plan.
$500 000 has been allocated to my department to deliver the marketing aspects of this campaign. Security and anti-terrorism strategies will continue to be developed through the 2004-05 year by the Territory government in conjunction with Defence and other governments around the country. The Territory’s security is a serious issue treated as a high priority.
It was an election commitment to establish an independent Electoral Commission, and I am proud to say that this is now a reality. My government has created a new commission with additional resources of $265 000 this year to ensure that the electoral system is fair, independent and capable of delivering the best service possible for Territory electors.
Alongside delivering on election commitments, we are a government that continues to listen to the needs of the community. I have allocated $3.9m within the Community Engagement Division of my department to further womens, youth, multicultural and seniors advancement within our communities. We continue to support the various community sectors and organisations within the Territory through $3.5m in grant funding, including $500 000 for three years from 2004-05 to improve ethnic community facilities under the new Multicultural Community Facility Development Program.
Community Cabinets will continue throughout 2004-05 to ensure the government remains in touch with all Territorians, and communities continue to have input into government’s direction. With the addition of the consultative women’s forums, we are making sure that everyone, no matter where they live, can gain direct access to ministers and the working of government.
Nearly one-third of Territorians are indigenous, the majority of whom live outside the main urban centres. There are special needs created by remoteness and geographic distance. The Office of Indigenous Policy has now been firmly established within the department, and has been energetic in facilitating across government coordination on indigenous strategic issues and policies.
My government is committed to enhancing development of the Northern Territory’s parks system, and greater Aboriginal involvement through recognition of Aboriginal cultural values and joint management arrangements, where appropriate, leading to the enhancement of cultural experience in parks and economic development in remote communities. The Chief Minister’s Task Force in Priority Partnerships has been established to provide a focus on the Indigenous Communities Coordination Pilot at Wadeye, and to develop other innovative approaches to coordination of serviced delivery in remote areas of our Territory.
Mr Deputy Speaker, we all know that the Territory is a great place to work. My government will remain focussed on ensuring the best employment opportunities remain possible for Territorians through sustainable economic development and tourism and investment attraction.
Major projects under development by the government will be a key factor in ensuring employment opportunities are available for Territorians. We look forward to some innovative and important projects in the future like, for example, the Darwin city waterfront and convention centre. This year represents the most exciting time for this project as we select the preferred bidder and negotiate the business arrangements. Darwin city waterfront will transform the old industrial port into a world-class development offering the Darwin convention centre as well as tourist, community and residential facilities. $6m in 2004-05 and $100m overall has been allocated to this important project.
But the Territory is moving ahead on a number of economic fronts like the Alcan expansion and the Trans-Territory Pipeline. We are moving rapidly towards a board decision on the expansion of the Gove Alumina Refinery, the Blacktip gas project and the Trans-Territory Pipeline, which connects the two. All up, they represent a potential investment of $2.5bn in extending the economic base of the Territory. While these projects must stand on their commercial and environmental merits, we remain confident that construction will start on all elements through this year, which will see more than 1700 people employed during the expansion phase of the alumina refinery alone.
The innovative Desert Knowledge Precinct in Central Australia will see Alice Springs become a world-class centre for desert expertise. Construction of the Desert Peoples Centre will commence in 2004-05, $15.8m, with a target completion date of mid-2005-06. The shared library, with a commitment of $1.6m, will be commenced and completed in the same timeframe. Design and documentation of the Living Desert, the cultural centre, of $4.4m, and the Desert Knowledge Business Centre at $2.9m, is expected to be completed.
Desert Knowledge Australia was established as a corporation during 2003-04, and $350 000 has been initially set aside to ensure that it is resourced to deliver the precinct and many of its initiatives. Additionally, government continues to provide $150 000 in grants and $1.5m in kind support during the 2004-05 year to the Desert Knowledge Cooperative Research Centre, which, combining resources and knowledge from 28 partners including government, education institutions and other bodies, will also be based at the precinct when complete.
In a similar light, we remain committed to the concept of tropical knowledge and particularly to our partnership with Queensland and Western Australia through the framework agreement signed earlier this year in Darwin. Research capacity in the Territory is yet another firm commitment of our government with $1m in grant funding over the next three years set aside for the Charles Darwin University for such purposes. The Territory is a great place to invest as we move to consolidate the initiatives outlined in my government’s Economic Development Strategy.
Gas on-shore is something that we certainly look forward to. The government continues to work with all the joint venturers and the Australian and East Timorese governments to promote the exploration and exploitation of Timor Sea gas and oil. Production has commenced on the Bayu-Undan project. I travelled to Dili and then out to the platforms in May to take part in the celebrations planned for this historic event.
This tremendous project, at $5.5bn, will be the largest private sector investment ever made in the Territory. Employment on the project will rise to more than 1000 next year, with $230m in contracts already written with Territory companies. In the next month or so, work will commence in Darwin Harbour on laying the 500 km pipeline from Wickham Point to the Bayu-Undan field. This is truly an exciting time for the Territory.
Development of the Blacktip field is linked to the expansion of the Alcan Alumina Refinery in Gove. Considerable work is currently underway by Woodside and Eni to be in a position to sign a gas sales agreement later this year. At Woodside’s 50th birthday event held recently in Darwin, I was pleased to hear Charles B Goode, the Chairman of Woodside, talk about using this project as a hub to consolidate the other fields in the Bonaparte Gulf. Sunrise Projects joint venture partners are working cooperatively to market Sunrise gas in many markets including Japan, Korea and the US and, while it is early days, we remain confident that progress can be made through this year to get to a point where a range of decisions can be made. There are also a range of other fields in this energy rich province, the Timor Sea, and my government continues to keep abreast of all possible developments and opportunities.
It is a key role for government that the Northern Territory stakes out its position in the national and international market place for new investment, and my government will continue to present and profile the Territory as offering an outstanding range of investment opportunities. My department has been allocated $1.5m to continue its commitment to position the Northern Territory as a prime place to live, work and invest.
The Northern Territory will witness a major expansion of economic activities in the coming years on the back of a wide range of new investments in oil and gas, resources and defence platforms. These investments will offer the opportunity to develop new supply and service support networks - in effect, new supply chains of businesses operating outside the front gate of these major projects and investments. The government will also continue its drive to promote the AustralAsia Trade Route as a new investment opportunity for transport, logistics and import-export value adding firms, as well as promoting new transport hubs anticipated to develop in Katherine, Tennant Creek and Alice Springs.
My recent investment mission to China, where we had the opportunity to speak with senior shipping, tourism and airline representatives, is a case in point. Their positive response serves to reinforce the great position of the Territory. There is no doubt that the Territory must continue to stake out its place in the national and international investment markets. My missions last year to Sydney, Brisbane, Melbourne and Adelaide amply demonstrate that the Territory is a competitive player in this market, but that we also need to continue the momentum generated during those events.
In 2004-05, this government will undertake a range of activities designed to ensure that investors see the Territory as a must-consider destination when contemplating future investments, including sponsorship of key national investment events, national speaking engagements, dedicated investment missions and creation of Northern Territory-based events. One of the best ways to encourage investment in the Territory is to get business people to travel here. When they do, they are in variably surprised by the opportunities and become true friends of the Territory. We will continue to build events that create the opportunity for that to happen, ranging from the V8s to the cricket to our first match of AFL in August.
I firmly believe that the Territory’s opportunities have been further enhanced by the AustralAsia Trade Route. The successful completion of the Alice to Darwin railway and the commencement of rail operations in January this year is, without the shadow of a doubt, one of the true economic milestones for the Territory. Our challenge now is one of assisting FreightLink to build their international freight volumes to maximise the benefits of this great project to our economy.
Already, my government has facilitated the new services offered by Swire Shipping between Singapore and Darwin, and this year we hope to extend those services into other regions to truly offer a land bridge into the region.
The rebound in economic growth in our region coupled with the new railway has created a new impetus for developing mining operations along the route. To ensure that infrastructure is in place to meet any need, my government has committed to provide new bulk materials handling facilities at the East Arm Port during 2004-05 at a cost of $7m. Our rail must win new freight opportunities, and the most tangible example of that has been the recent trial shipments of metal from South Australia. My government will continue to work with Australia’s importers and exporters to conduct those shipments as a means of providing the real benefits of the AustralAsia Railway and our multi-modal facilities at East Arm. There is also considerable work underway in Katherine, Tennant Creek and Alice Springs to build these centres into regional transport hubs that lever off the new opportunities the rail presents.
Darwin Business Park offers a once-in-a-generation opportunity to site business alongside brand new infrastructure. As the House is aware, already Toll has committed $18m towards facilities in the park and negotiations continue for further investment.
The Territory is the best place I know to live and work. We enjoy a great lifestyle and a climate to match. My government is focussed on working with the community to assist in the development of profitable, thriving, energetic communities that celebrate the diversity and uniqueness of our lifestyle and environment. This budget is both responsive and strategic and will move the Territory ahead.
Mr Deputy Speaker, I commend the Treasurer on delivering another resourceful and responsible budget.
Ms CARNEY (Araluen): Mr Deputy Speaker, I make comments and observations in my capacity as shadow Attorney-General and, time permitting, shadow minister for Women’s Policy.
I was pretty disappointed with the Justice Minister and Attorney-General’s reply given on Thursday, 20 May, in relation to this budget. I took the liberty of comparing his reply this year with his reply last year. His reply this year took a page and a third. Last year, it was twice that amount. It could be said that it demonstrates that the Attorney-General is having some difficulty juggling two very significant portfolios, those of Health and Justice, and it requires a pretty extraordinary effort by any politician to juggle those two portfolios, but I do not think he is juggling them well, certainly having regard to the two censure motions moved in this House earlier today by the opposition.
One might say, comparing his two budget replies this year and last year, that he has arguably lost interest in Justice or, in the alternative, and I hope this is the case, that he simply ran out of time. I remember him giving his speech and I thought it was a bit ho-hum, frankly.
In addition, I thought the budget generally was a bit ho-hum in relation to Justice. I suppose, like any opposition spokesperson, I was sitting here listening and waiting with bated breath, thinking that something exciting might happen in the area of Justice, but alas – and I know economics can be dry even for those among us who are fascinated by numbers - it was very ho-hum.
There are many comments I can make in relation to the budget generally, but it is appropriate, given the shadow portfolios I hold, that I concentrate on Justice and Women’s Policy. I should say, for the sake of the record, and no doubt the minister will hear about this at length next week, but it is appropriate, and I say this very sincerely, that last week or the week before, I prepared about 70 or 80 written questions …
Dr Toyne: Seventy-one, yes.
Ms CARNEY: Seventy-one, and I provided them to the minister. I hope he accepts the questions and my letter covering those questions in the spirit in which they were intended. That is ...
Dr Toyne: Yes, we are preparing all the answers, so do not worry; it is being sorted.
Ms CARNEY: Thank you, great. I look forward to the answers being tabled. I am sure the minister will agree that my questions were pretty reasonable, nothing out of the ordinary. They are just information that the opposition, on behalf of Territorians, should have, and I certainly thank him for his indication today in relation to those answers. Of course, that will require hard work on my part to go through them all, but I welcome the opportunity to do so.
In relation to this year’s budget, there were a couple of matters that stood out. The first and most glaring one from even a cursory glance was this: in 2003-04, the budget for the Department of Justice was $104.9m. It is estimated that by 30 June, the department will expend $113.3m. That appears in Budget Paper No 3 at page 113. That is a blow-out of nearly $8.5m. What is astonishing is that there is no explanation as to where the money went, what it was spent on or why. To make matters worse, in my view, the Mid-Year Financial Report published in February stated that $106m would be spent. So it is a blow-out of over $7m since February, and that is only a few months. $7m is a significant blow-out. Neither of those blow-outs, of course, compare with the massive blow-out in the Health Department, but the minister should naturally be worried that he presides over departments where the blow-out of budgets seems to be the norm as opposed to the exception.
Any government worth its salt wants to adopt financial responsibility, but for two of these very large departments – Justice and Health – to blow their budget is something of which all Territorians should be very conscious. We, on behalf of those Territorians, will be asking questions at the Estimates Committee hearing, and we look forward to fulsome answers.
There are some other matters I should place on the record. In particular, there is a transfer of $2.9m from the Solicitor for the Northern Territory to Legal Policy. I suggest that $2.9m allocated to the Solicitor for the Northern Territory has been the case for some years. In a briefing with the Under Treasurer last week, I asked what that $2.9m was. It is a grant payment. It is a legal aid payment; in other words, the Territory’s contribution to the Northern Territory Legal Aid Commission. It is entirely appropriate, in my view, that those monies be held or notionally allocated to the Solicitor for the Northern Territory. What is disturbing is that in this budget, it is proposed that the $2.9m be transferred to Legal Policy. The definition of Legal Policy or the statement detailing what it is about within the Department of Justice on page 117 of Budget Paper No 3, is and I quote:
- … develops, reviews and implements legislative change, advises the Attorney-General and government on law and justice measures, and provides ministerial report.
It could be said that with the transfer of that money to Legal Policy, the money is being transferred to help the minister do his job. I would like to know who’s idea it was to transfer it from Solicitor for the NT to Legal Policy; why it was transferred; and is it the case that that amount of money simply amounts to an injection of funds directly to assist the Attorney-General to do his job?
When I read in government documents – it does not matter which government; governments across the board are notorious for it – that a division of a department provides ministerial report, I read staffers, minders and the minister will be able to arguably access this money or do things with it that might not have been contemplated by the Solicitor for the NT. I look forward to receiving some information in relation to that $2.9m transfer.
I was interested in a fairly scant reference, from memory, to the Crimes (Victims Assistance) Scheme. I know the minister is aware of it, and I know that there have been phone calls with solicitors, certainly in Alice Springs and his department in relatively recent times, about the further review of the scheme announced about 18 months ago. Practitioners would like to know what is happening with those so-called reforms. We understand that it has gone cold. Perhaps the minister might advise the parliament in due course. However, when you go around issuing media releases saying you are going to do this and that, common courtesy suggests that at some point, Territorians will hear whether the stuff included in a media release translates to an outcome. I look forward to asking the Attorney-General about the CVA review at Estimates.
Furthermore, it is suggested in Budget Paper No 3 that under the government’s first reform of the Crimes (Victims Assistance) Scheme there have been savings. The question we ask is: how many fewer victims have made claims given that so many private practitioners advise me that they are no longer doing that sort of work? This is exactly the sort of thing that we cautioned the Attorney-General about when the reforms were introduced. We said that there may well be access to justice issues there, and I believe there are. Subject to some more information coming to me this week, I may have some more to say on this later in the week. It appears to be the case that fewer victims are accessing the crimes compensation scheme. That is not a good outcome. It does not matter whether government saves a few dollars here and there but, given that violence in the Territory is a problem for many Territorians, and all of us indirectly, then it is a crying shame that so many victims are no longer pursuing their claims for compensation.
Before getting off CVA matters, the Attorney-General was on the record, when we had the debate in relation to the first reform of the Crimes (Victims Assistance) Act, saying that judicial registrars would deal with applications and they would, therefore, alleviate magistrates from that work. There is not a judicial registrar appointed in Alice Springs. We asked that question during the debate and we got something of an indication, and I do not put it any higher than that, from the Attorney-General to the effect that there would be a judicial registrar in Alice Springs. There is not. One of the government’s aims in effecting this reform was that fewer magistrates would be dealing with applications. Clearly, that is not the case in relation to Alice Springs.
It is noteworthy that the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions’ budget has also blown out to the tune of a little over $1m. We would like to know what the reasons for that were. Some would say, I suppose, that it is all as a result of the Murdoch committal. I suspect that is not the case. Members will recall that last year, information was obtained showing an increase in the workload of the DPP to the tune of 113%. We said then and we say now that that is a direct result of the high level of crime in the Northern Territory. Government, on the other hand, said: ‘No, no, no, that is nonsense. They are just doing their job better, and so far as the Victim Support Unit…’ as was it was called then ‘…was concerned, they were just advertising themselves better and that is why they had more clients’.
I would like to know whether the DPP’s workload has increased in 2003-04. I suspect it has and, again, I look forward to asking the Attorney-General some more details about that at Estimates. I note that in real terms, the only thing the DPP got from this budget was $92 000 for a new prosecutor. I would have thought that the given the importance of the ODPP, $92 000 in what government calls a high spending budget, noting its departure from its previous fiscal strategy now that it has decided to put its collective hands in its pockets to start spending some money, the DPP only got $92 000.
That is a paltry sum, particularly given the fact that the Murdoch case, for instance, is likely consume significantly more resources. I do not know whether the Director asked for more funds. In my judgement, perhaps not the judgement of others, it would be inappropriate for me to ask him and I have not. However, I would like to know whether additional funds were sought by the Director and, if so, why was he turned down?
Members with an interest in these matters, and I suspect there are relatively few of the 25 of us, perhaps moreso on the other side of the Chamber than this one, but those members with an interest would have noticed in Budget Paper No 3 relating to the Department of Justice that there were a few references to conviction rates. I know that politicians traditionally play with that term and governments reckon that they always get conviction rates because of various reforms they have undertaken. What I would like to do, and I am sure that the Attorney-General will have noticed it from the questions that I have submitted to him a week or so ago, is I would like to scratch below the surface on that. I do not want to just deal with conviction rates. Members will know that, for reasons that often escape me, I have an interest in this area. I want to know particular conviction rates in relation to sexual assaults.
The minister may or may not recall, and I have a copy of the letter here, that on 12 March this year, I wrote to him and asked the following questions: what percentage of reported unlawful sexual assault cases against adult women resulted in convictions for the calendar years 2001, 2002 and 2003? I also asked: of the convictions recorded, what percentage was as a result of pleas of guilty and how many were as a result of guilty verdicts at trial for those calendar years? I asked: what percentage of reported indecent assault cases against women resulted in convictions for calendar years 2001, 2002 and 2003? Of the convictions recorded, what percentage was as a result of pleas of guilty and how many were as a result of guilty verdicts at trial? I also asked: in the calendar years 2001, 2002 and 2003, how many unlawful sexual intercourse cases were reduced to a lesser charge such as indecent assault? I also asked: this year, how many convicted persons have been sentenced to the rising of the court?
I will come back to the last question shortly, but the reasons I asked, in my letter of 12 March, for those conviction rates is that all of us know, or should know, that the conviction rates for sexual assaults against women and, for that matter, child abuse cases, are notoriously low. I made that point, I thought, very clear when we had what historically will be called the gay law reform debate. I did express concerns then about the relatively low conviction rates for those offences and no one in government has come back to me to say: ‘Look, you don’t know what you’re talking about’. I would not expect that they would because I know how low the conviction rates are. My partner works at the DPP in Victim Support. I have hung out at the Alice Springs Court for 13 or so years before coming to this job. I acted for these victims and I know not only how notoriously difficult it is to get a conviction, but how appalling our conviction rates are.
Members may well be asking: ‘Why is she talking about this in the context of the budget?’ I do so for a couple of reasons. I have not received an answer to my letter of 12 March. Now, I reckon even the most dyed in the wool Labor supporter would say: ‘Letter of 12 March. Wouldn’t you think she would get a reply to that letter?’ I have not.
I do know, in fairness, that this information cannot be obtained by pressing a button on a computer, but 12 March is three months ago. That is not good enough. It perhaps indicates that the Attorney-General is having trouble juggling a couple of portfolios. That is one argument to be advanced. The other is that maybe he does not want to tell me in writing how appalling conviction rates are for sexual assaults against women and children in the Northern Territory.
I have extracted each of these questions and I have put them in the Written Question form to the minister because, under the banner of conviction rates in the Northern Territory, or it is called Convictions After Trial or Hearing, I do want to scratch the surface. I need to know in writing from the Attorney-General, the Territory’s first law officer, what the figures are.
Once we have some truth about those figures - and I suspect they have always been terrible; this is not a political debate in the context of serious matters like this. I suspect they are pretty terrible. I know they are terrible all around the country and I know what other jurisdictions are doing. Some of them have adopted some fairly exciting initiatives to try to get to the cause of this problem. I suggest that this Minister for Justice, who would certainly regard himself, I would have thought, as a fairly reforming Minister for Justice - I agree, and he knows that I have agreed with some his reforms, but if he wants his place in history before he retires at the next election, he has a contribution to make by dealing with these appalling conviction rates. I hope that I get some straight answers in relation to those matters at Estimates. If not, I will continue to pursue this matter until I am blue in the face.
Members may recall that in November 2003, the minister announced that he would investigate implementing a number of initiatives to reduce the stress and trauma of vulnerable victims giving evidence. What has happened? Nothing has happened except for a media release. Again, in other jurisdictions, things are happening. There is a national push to come up with some positive outcomes in this area, but I do not know what has happened since November 2003. I cannot tell from the minister’s budget reply on Thursday 20 May. I can’t get anything from this minister or this government that says it is open, accountable and transparent.
That is disappointing. I hope to pursue that issue at Estimates although, as I said when we were having the debate about Estimates, I would not expect to be able to have an hour’s worth of questioning with the minister, which is a joke, given that the Independents will ask questions and probably a couple of backbenchers. Really, if I can manage an hour worth of questions, I reckon I will be doing well. I welcome his previous indication that he will at least provide me with the answers to my written questions.
In any event, some other observations: I note that there is no specific allocation for drug courts in the budget. I do not know why that is. Again, by media release, and in fact prior to the last election, the government made much of the drug problem, as it says, in the Northern Territory. It has come up with the drugs court. I do not know for certain, but I have heard that the court, such as it is, is not well resourced, but it is interesting that there is no specific reference that I could find to drug courts.
I look forward to hearing how many people have been convicted under the much-trumpeted home invasion laws. I think the answer to a question asked in Estimates in the previous year was that there were no convictions. This year, there may have only been five. I do not know whether you would call that an outstanding return for home invasion laws that were publicised by government with so much fanfare. I look forward to asking about that in any event.
I now turn to Correctional Services. Someone said to me the other day: ‘You and Toynie must get on pretty well. You don’t seem to scrap too much’. I think we do get along reasonably well, but we have specific differences, and we both do our job as diligently as we can. Sometimes we get into a scrap. Well, there is a scrap when it comes to Correctional Services. Some of the matters that I have raised in written questions, and it is appropriate that I touch on them now, stem from the Review into Adult Correctional Services that was concluded only a couple of months ago.
Members will recall that the minister said in the media that all prison officers were very happy with the review’s recommendations but, in fact, that was not the case because they rang me. Some of them came to my office. I had a meeting with about six one day, and three later that week. They came to me and said that they were not happy. I would like to know why it is that the Minister for Justice was going around saying everyone is happy when he knew that was not the case and, indeed, I know, and he should know that I know, that representatives of his department spent about six weeks with prison officers, negotiating with them as to certain terms and conditions.
The prison officers got what they thought was a win in the circumstances, but they remain far from happy. There was an allegation that the minister or one of his representatives threatened, in a meeting, to take away $28m of funding arising from the review if the prison officers did not agree to follow the government line. I think that is offensive for any minister of the Crown or his representatives to put to people employed in the public service, so I hope to ask the minister about that in due course.
I would also like to know – and members will recall that I have raised it on one prior occasion, I think it was in answer to a ministerial report - was a Certificate of Exemption provided to the authors of the Corrections report? The minister, conveniently, in his reply in that ministerial statement did not provide an answer. We will continue to push. There seems to be a bit of a theme with this government that Certificates of Exemption are being handed around left, right and centre. All you need do is ask and some would say, although I couldn’t possibly say, that as long as you have Labor contacts somewhere in Australia, knock on the door and you, too, will get a certificate of exemption. Well, it is a fair dinkum question and we wouldn’t mind a fair dinkum answer to it.
I have also asked some questions in relation to the Crime Prevention Councils. I hope the minister can assure me that the performance of the regional crime prevention councils are monitored, that there are some sort of performance measures, so that the outcomes or otherwise of the regional crime prevention councils can be assessed. It is not good enough just to have them; they need to produce results. I know the minister talks about them from time to time, but he would not be surprised to hear us ask for some results.
I have skated through some of the issues that I will pursue at Estimates. They are not over-the-top issues. It is appropriate that I ask them and any independent observer would say that they are not unreasonable questions. It is appropriate for opposition to raise those questions, and I look forward to the answers.
In relation to Women’s Policy, this comes close to being, in my view - although I know not the view of too many others – a bit of a disaster for this Labor government. I do not think it takes women’s issues very seriously and that is evidenced by the Chief Minister in her actions and comments. Perhaps I will tell members privately about a conversation I had with the Chief Minister on a plane last week from Darwin to Alice Springs. We all tend to observe a bit of a cone of silence when we are just chewing the fat generally. However, perhaps I will tell women members of the Labor Party about that conversation over the course of the next two weeks because I have told members of Labor Women about the conversation I had with the Chief Minister. It was pretty disturbing, given a comment she made in relation to domestic violence.
However, the Domestic Violence Strategy was an ongoing theme from the last government to this one. This government, in 2002, published a new Domestic Violence Strategy. It picked up on some old ideas and came up with some new ideas, and a glossy brochure was prepared. That Domestic Violence Strategy said that it had a priority action, 2002-03, and that was the extension of public housing options for victims, survivors and their children as well as the extension of a number of safe houses and safe room facilities throughout the Northern Territory. I would like to know, because I have not heard what the extension of that public housing for victims has been, and whether there has been an extension of the number of safe houses. If Labor Party members want to say: ‘Look, we have done this, that, and the other’, that is great. I welcome such measures. However, it is not good enough to just put this stuff in glossy documents and leave it at that. I stand to be corrected on this matter; and I hope I am. I hope government will tell me what they have done.
Interestingly, the Domestic Violence Strategy, which was released in December 2002, stated that the Northern Territory government is committed to:
- ... stimulating new and innovative responses so that Northern Territorians can live in safety, free
from violent and abusive behaviours.
I am sure there is a performance measure around somewhere, but you would have to say that has failed. The quarterly crime statistics certainly show, on any objective analysis, an increase in physical and sexual assaults, which, of course, include domestic violence. We remember the plea made by the Attorney-General some months ago when he begged people to stop committing crime. He said - I think it was in relation to the high level of violence in Katherine - that a lot of it was domestic violence related. Someone had better have a bloody good look at the Domestic Violence Strategy because it is not paying dividends.
I note that, in 2003-04 Budget Paper No 3 at page 32, it was estimated that $1.49m would be the cost of managing and delivering programs and activities for women’s advancement. In this year’s budget paper at page 40, it is estimated that the cost is $1.22m. There is money gone, it has been reduced. Why is that? Is it because the Chief Minister does not care? I think so. Others will disagree. So be it.
In any event, in the 30 seconds or so I have left, I reckon from a Justice and Women’s Policy perspective, the budget is very ho-hum, particularly Women’s Policy. I thank the Attorney-General for his very kind indication in relation to my written questions, and I look forward to what little time I may have to question him during the Estimates Committee hearing.
Debate adjourned.
MINISTERIAL STATEMENT
Northern Territory Food Industry
Mr VATSKALIS (Primary Industry and Fisheries): Mr Deputy Speaker, today I wish to inform the House of a range of exciting developments and opportunities within the Northern Territory’s food industry and how this government will continue to provide an environment in which the private sector is encouraged to invest in adding value to Territory produce.
The food industry can become such a commonplace part of our life that its importance can be easily overlooked and its place in our lives and economy relegated to the lower end of the scale. Yet in reality, nothing could be further from the truth for our food industry.
At first glance, it would be easy to say the food industry of the Northern Territory goes from the paddock to the plate for a few primary products such as beef, seafood and fruit. Yet, it is also deeply infused throughout the economy including tourism, hospitality, education, retailing, health, manufacturing, logistics and even biotechnology. A good food product must commence with good ingredients, so I will take a few moments to provide an overview of the current state of our primary production food sector before moving on to discuss the role of food in tourism, marketing, logistics and the like.
Production of seafood in the Northern Territory has in the most part come from wild capture fisheries, whether that be the iconic barramundi, mud crabs, offshore fish or prawns, but this situation is certainly changing. The fish farming sector has experienced phenomenal growth over recent times and we as a government continue to provide an investment environment that encourages its ongoing development in moving the Territory ahead. Many would have seen the recent article in the Northern Territory News heralding the successful trial grow-out of mud crabs to commercially saleable size. These ‘cultured’ mud crabs have been dispatched to test their market acceptance, and initial feedback has been positive.
Another success story is barramundi. Sales of farmed barramundi have doubled over the last year, with around 15 tonnes being sold each week and two tonnes of that is going to the United States. It was Northern Territory barramundi that was served at the Danish royal wedding in Copenhagen, not traditional Atlantic salmon from Europe or, for that matter, Tasmanian salmon. As an aside, when the Danish Ambassador visited the Territory recently, he raised with DBIRD staff the issue of other food and products that may be suitable for trade. Food opens many doors.
The culture of trepang and sponges is to be undertaken as a trial in the Northern Territory and it includes some exciting biotechnology opportunities. Also of some interest is that trepang, or sea cucumber, was Australia’s first export food industry and was based throughout the Top End. The expansion of this industry will provide opportunities throughout regional areas.
Northern Territory aquaculture production of prawns has increased substantially over recent times despite the difficult times being presently experienced due to an oversupply internationally. One of the quiet achievers is the Northern Territory spirulena, a blue-green algae that has wide appeal to the health food and dietary supplement market. The grow-out and processing of this algae is world class. It is a benchmark against which others are compared.
The Northern Territory’s wild fisheries continue to provide the backbone of the seafood industry and are arguably some of the best managed in the world today. This perhaps is best illustrated by the Commonwealth government affording the highest level of accreditation of Northern Territory wild fisheries through a public consultation process under the stringent Environmentally Sustainable Development criteria. This leads to jobs in the catching, processing, transport, food preparation and tourism industries in Darwin and throughout the Territory. The total value of production for wild fisheries at first point of sale is in the order of $30m per annum, with the Northern Prawn Fishery contributing an additional $130m. Aquaculture contributes $35m and is on the increase.
The horticulture industry is valued at around $86m at the first point of sale, and food crops at around $11m per annum. The Territory enjoys competitive advantages owing to its capacity to supply markets with a range of early season and out-of-season horticultural produce including table grapes, mangoes, dates, melons, tropical exotic fruits and Asian vegetables, peanuts and herbs. In dollar terms, around 90% of Territory fruit and vegetable production is marketed interstate; 2% only is exported; and 5% is consumed locally.
In addition to better known fruit and vegetables, other niche horticultural crops have been identified. Some unique examples include bamboo shoots for the food market, and they are being sold at the Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide markets. Indeed, the thriving Asian vegetable segment is a key part of our food industry, one that serves to increase our reputation in southern markets for unique and quality foods.
The collective effort of growers in 2002 alone saw 2000 tonnes of Asian vegetables trucked or air-freighted to Sydney, Melbourne and other major markets across Australia.
Central Australia has also identified a range of unique opportunities. Out-of-season table grapes from Ti Tree are eagerly sought throughout southern Australia and they attract a premium. Similarly, hydroponic production of vegetables in Alice Springs, including lettuce, is leading to new market penetration.
Commercial growers of the newer exotic fruits, especially jackfruit and dragon fruit, are establishing further areas for production of these crops in recognition of their potential. In fact, Northern Territory dragon fruit was the subject of a promotion by Woolworths earlier in the year, again highlighting the place in the Australian retail food market for unique fruits that can be produced in the Territory.
The livestock industry is of course the oldest and best known of our primary production food industries and is valued at around $200m. The outlook for Territory beef remains steady for the medium term at least. Currently, there is strong competition for cattle, and live exporters in particular have been constrained by the volume available – the long Wet has hampered mustering and transport, and an improved outlook for the Queensland cattle industry has seen interstate buyers entering the NT market to restock.
As for other livestock, buffalo and camel meat are becoming increasingly popular items on the menu at a number of our top restaurants for locals and tourists alike, and for consumption at home. Both camel and tender buff buffalo have been selected as focus proteins for market promotion in the coming year.
On a recent trip to the United States as a Guest Chef, Jimmy Shu of the Hanuman Restaurant took camel meat with him to gauge the reaction of United States diners. The response of those who tasted the product was, according to Jimmy, quite outstanding. It is an example of where we can establish a competitive advantage through the provision of unique and exotic produce.
The Industry Development Division within DBIRD has targeted the development and facilitation of commercial opportunities through the sustainable use of native wildlife and wild foods as a key objective in 2004-05. The Industry Development Division has worked closely with several indigenous enterprises that are keen to commercialise the harvesting of magpie geese, freshwater long-neck turtles, crocodiles, mud-mussels and other native wildlife species. Likewise, local food industry players, including local and interstate restaurants and chef groups are looking for unique new taste cuisine from native wildlife and wild food products found in the Northern Territory to give a competitive advantage to their business.
Initiatives that the department has developed to assist private enterprise in realising those unique opportunities include:
identifying the diverse range of commercial activities involving native wild foods and
wildlife such as harvesting wild product, farming and food processing. This will
commence in July 2004;
commercial opportunities through the sustainable use of wildlife;
undertaking commercial activities with native wildlife and foods with local, national
and international contacts in the food industries, which includes ongoing activities
with local business.
A working group was convened in March 2004 comprising representatives from the Key Centre for Tropical Wildlife Management at CDU, the Department of Infrastructure, Planning and Environment Wildlife Conservation Division; the Office of Territory Development; and DBIRD’s Industry Development Division and Central Australian Region. This group examined the background and progress of commercial activity in native wildlife and wild foods as well as looking at favoured options and future pathways to best facilitate new opportunities.
Supporting the growth of a wild food segment would contribute directly to indigenous economic development, the health of communities and further strengthen the position of our unique cuisine.
Of course, to maximise the worth of our food industry, there must be a focus on processing and value adding rather than just harvesting and catching, and attaining economies of scale is a critical issue. A study of multi-species abattoirs was undertaken by government and the Cattlemen’s Association in 2003-04 and it concluded that a greenfields abattoir for camel and buffalo requires a guaranteed cattle throughput.
Similarly, the owners of the Katherine Abattoir have confirmed the need for a guaranteed throughput to commence operations. Discussions with pastoralists are continuing, but the high price for live cattle over recent times will make this difficult to achieve.
With over 1 000 000 mango trees planted, there will be considerable value adding opportunities for mangoes, including mangoes that do not conform to fresh fruit specifications are in good supply for possible expanded dried fruit or juice production. A medium-scale mango drying enterprise is currently under construction in Katherine. The treatment of mangoes to extend shelf-life, or to gain access to high value markets, provides important value-adding options. The Vapour Heat Treatment plant at Berry Springs ensures mangoes are able to satisfy Japanese import requirements. Only premium mangoes from the top 3% of the quality range are selected for export to Japan. It should be noted that entry into the Japanese market is not possible without extensive research and relationship development. Mangoes surplus to fresh fruit markets might be packed as fresh mango cheeks, and treated to extend shelf life by high pressure processing or cryovac technology. It is envisaged that opportunities for further value-adding in the food and beverage sector will be explored as part of the government’s Manufacturing Strategy.
The food industry is not just about producing or growing or manufacturing. A wise old saying notes that there is no money to be made in producing, growing, catching or making anything; there has never been and there never will be. The money is made when the product is sold. It is critical for the food sector to have appropriate infrastructure and logistics that will ensure the timely delivery of product at a reasonable cost to the marketeer at the right time.
This government continues to work with industry to build skills and networks with the ultimate aim of delivering a quality, safe product to the customer within agreed timeframes. We have established a Food Group to assist in this regard in partnership with industry members. Specific initiatives undertaken to assist the Northern Territory food industry include:
- ∙ supply chain networks development where growers, marketeers, freight forwarders and buyers
are working together to improve information flow, inventory control and handling practices,
ensuring best quality to the consumer;
∙ encouraging the consolidation of produce prior to shipment by logistics specialists;
∙ developing relationships with both Coles and Woolworths supermarket buyers to increase the
capacity and ability of growers to supply produce direct to Northern Territory stores and,
ultimately, through to their national chains. This will also provide growers with specific crop
requirement details so that they are growing crops tailored to the market requirement.
Air freight capacity is a critical issue and there continues to be an emphasis on developing capacity with both the domestic and international airlines to ensure that Territory food and produce can reach the market at the most appropriate times. This is of critical importance to our premium fresh food and flower industries. Delivering live mud crabs, highly perishable flowers, fresh on-ice seafood and Asian vegetables, among others, relies on adequate air freight.
The airlines have been encouraged to increase services and to improve ground handling capabilities to maximise uplift. A coordinated group involving industry, the Northern Territory Air Freight Working Group, regularly meets to facilitate communication and collaboration across the industry. At the same time, surface transport remains important. A study has been completed examining the capacity of the transport industry to move product south in light of the growth in primary industry production levels and the commissioning of the rail link. A key issue is the capacity of road transporters to move produce at peak periods of production, such as mangoes during October and November.
The railway is increasingly being considered for the movement of perishable produce. Demonstration trials with this season’s crop of melons being railed to southern markets will test the timing, transhipment, and out-turn quality of the produce once it reaches the market place. Also, with increasing volumes of production, sea freight is becoming a real alternative for some products. Working with the local shipping sector, trial shipments of Territory melons and mangoes to Singapore and Hong Kong as well as European markets are being investigated. The specialist export technology for this trial is to be undertaken in partnership with WA growers. This work will demonstrate to industry how the use of the technology can open up supply routes that will ensure our produce is both competitive in the market and of the highest quality.
We must also be aware of changing consumer attitudes; the market place is changing and consumers are increasingly seeking a guarantee on food safety and quality. For the Northern Territory food sector to maintain existing markets as well as being a viable competitor in new markets, it is essential that food safety management systems be adopted. To capitalise on opportunities, all links in the value chain must be working in partnership. Worldwide, there exist a number of food safety and quality management systems with which food businesses must comply in order to get their product into particular markets.
While there are many systems and standards to comply with, one basic evaluation method for food safety is through the implementation of a hazard analysis critical control point system otherwise known as HACCP. Based on the application of scientific principles to food processing and production, HACCP is an internationally recognised preventative approach to manage food safety hazards. Businesses where HACCP to central to an active food safety management program can provide vendors, the public, and government sector bodies with a degree of certainty that food safety is being taken seriously and is well managed.
To ensure local food businesses are well placed with skills and knowledge required to deliver safe quality produce to customers each and every time, my department has a role in the food supply chain by coordinating the provision of skills development and training opportunities in the area of food safety and quality assurance. The three most prominent organisations providing food safety and quality assurance training in the Northern Territory are the local Territory branch of Seafood and Maritime Industries Training, which runs regular HACCP courses for anyone in the seafood industry; SAI Global Assurance Services with a local office in Darwin, which is running courses in Darwin at least twice a year on HACCP, EurepGap and Charles Darwin University, which is charged with running Freshcare On-Farm Food Safety Programs.
Freshcare is a code of practice for growers that is based on generic HACCP principles. While Freshcare does not match the full and extensive requirements of HACCP, it has provided Northern Territory growers with the opportunity to implement basic food safety management practices with full HACCP accreditation as an option for the future. It is estimated that there are currently 200 Territory growers who have completed training and are now Freshcare certified.
Our food industry has other indirect benefits for our broader community, such as our tourism industry. Our style of cuisine and food clearly differentiates the Territory from other states. It is an important attraction for an increasing number of tourists who regard food as an important part of the experience. In a recent report by the Bureau of Tourism Research entitled The Great Australian Bite: Travel Patterns of Culinary Visitors, the travel and spend patterns of culinary visitors were examined. The report suggested that up to 47% of domestic tourists can be classified as culinary tourists, and spend over 30% more than other tourists. Even 30% of day trippers qualify as culinary tourists and their spending accounts for 42% of all day trip spending. The report further found that more than half of all tourism spend, both domestic and international, is by culinary tourists.
It is fair to say that the travelling and dining public have become incredible well educated, and the dining experience is seen by many as much a part of tourism as a train trip, a visit to the Wildlife Park or going to Katherine Gorge. Present developments within the Northern Territory food industry are clearly contributing to the attraction of food tourists.
The NT Food Group was established in late 2001 and has grown substantially since that time. There are now approximately 100 members ranging from chefs, restaurateurs, growers, fisherman, producers, manufactures, distributors, tourism operators, government and industry associations. The group was established in recognition of the opportunities for unique Territory food products in high-end domestic and international markets, and to serve as a coordinated networking and information sharing forum for the local food industry.
In Alice Springs, a Central Australia Food Group was formed by local chefs and tourism operators, and is strongly supported by this government. The Central Australian Food Group, however, has a slightly different focus in that it aims to grow a food tourism industry in Central Australia, as well as being a networking and information sharing forum. The first event held by the Central Australian Food Group was New Tastes Gourmet Lunch which stunned and wowed those who attended. The menu included gourmet delights such as bush tomato roesti with munthari chutney; Paspaley pearl meat napped with a saffron and Noilly Prat sauce on a bed of wild rice; camel eye fillet salt bush wraps with Borroloola mud crab and desert lime crme brulee with almond wattle seed tuille.
Food writer Kate McGhie from the Melbourne Herald Sun attended and enthusiastically declared she had never tasted such foods anywhere in Australia. This testament by one of Australia’s leading food writers adds weight to the key messages of our Food Identifier that the Northern Territory is the ‘new taste’ in Australian cuisine. In fact, what is happening here in the Territory with our food industry perhaps goes some way to answering the vexing question of exactly what constitutes authentic Australian cuisine.
Rather than building on a dominant tradition, our style demonstrates a fusion and synergy driven by the local influences, which are not found elsewhere to the same degree. More recently, chefs from the Food Group held cooking demonstrations at the Central Australian Expo using Territory ingredients. Dishes prepared for sampling included Barramundi Moulie, Thai Camel Salad with yam bean and tamarind, char-grilled kangaroo dusted in wattle seed and native peppers served on a sweet potato cake and dressed with a bush tomato salsa and rosemary jus.
The current edition of Outback magazine features the Expo event. It has a write-up on the chefs and food. The Central Australian Food Group is currently planning a range of events that promise to be equally exciting and of an equivalent high standard. The group wants to increase its membership and raise its profile in the Alice Springs community.
The Northern Territory government is also sponsor of the Taste Down Under competition, which is a series of events in the United States directly aimed at promoting and marketing Northern Territory products and the Territory as a tourism destination. Thus far, the prime focus has been on seafood and the inaugural Taste Down Under contest was held in February 2003 in Miami, Florida. The event was conceived by expat food trader and professional marketer David Doepel of Abel Gower Enterprises as a promotional vehicle to access the high-end USA market for Northern Territory farmed barramundi and it featured Adelaide River farmed barramundi.
A focal event of the 2003 competition was a student recipe and cooking contest run in conjunction with the Johnson and Wales University, the largest trainer in culinary arts in the United States and one of the largest in the world in this field. Exposing future international chefs to Territory produce through the largest training centre in the world is investing in our future. The first prize for the 2003 winning trainee chef was a trip – where else? - to the Northern Territory. The contest and associated prize has sparked enormous interest within the Johnson and Wales University across its five campuses all over the USA. Premium farmed barra is now readily associated with the Northern Territory in a number of high-end US outlets, and amongst the staff and student body of Johnson and Wales.
Our involvement to date has demonstrated a clear nett economic benefit to the Northern Territory by finding new and innovative ways to promote the Territory, and identifying ways of growing the sales of barramundi as well as reef fish and prawns, and that supports the ongoing economic development of the Northern Territory food industry. Other products showcased via the Taste Down Under competition this year included Aboriginal art and fashion as well as mango marinade from Central Australia.
Although the exchange rate has contributed to considerable price pressure, sales of products in the United States remain firm. Sales of barramundi from the Marine Harvest operation on Bathurst Island support indigenous economic development as does the sale of native herbs, flavouring agents and indigenous art and textiles.
Stemming from our involvement with Taste Down Under 2003, two eminent Northern Territory chefs – Athol Wark of the Alice Springs Convention Centre and Jimmy Shu of the Hanuman Restaurant – were invited to the United States earlier this year to take part in a number of United States-based celebrity events. These invitations represent a growing acknowledgment in the United States of the skill of Territory chefs and the emerging ‘NT – New Taste’ genre of cuisine influenced by our indigenous wild foods and the strong multicultural food traditions found within the Northern Territory. This level of interpersonal contact and networking is an essential element in ensuring the Northern Territory hospitality sector remains abreast with the most up-to-date trends from overseas. In addition, Abel Gower Enterprises is working with a number of chefs in the US and Australia to create value-added food products featuring Northern Territory food products.
In March of this year, the New Tastes of Australia - Australia’s Northern Territory food identifier was released to clearly identify Northern Territory food products in domestic and international markets. The identifier will ensure that promotion and marketing of NT foods has a central theme. This brand will become the tool that identifies and binds together a myriad of products and food items from the Territory. Developing an identifier for NT food products has been long overdue and is an integral part of increasing commercial opportunities for the NT food industry.
The theme, New Tastes of Australia - Australia’s Northern Territory, follows on from the continuing need for recognition of the high quality of the food produced in the Northern Territory and has already being used to promote NT government sponsorship of the Taste Down Under 2004 competition in the USA.
Another example of promoting our local products is the Darwin Seafood Festival. The inaugural Darwin Seafood Festival, being organised and run by the industry, is to be held on 26 June 2004 at Fort Hill Wharf. The festival aims to showcase Northern Territory and Australian seafood by bringing together the fishing industry, chefs, buyers, media, tourists and locals. The theme of the event is to marry individual fisheries with local restaurants and chefs.
Celebrity chefs Ian Parmenter and Andrew Fielke will be conducting cooking displays to educate attendees on how to prepare and cook seafood. Mr Parmenter is well known from ABC television’s Consuming Passions, and was recently introduced to one of the driving forces behind the seafood festival, Mr Ziko Ilic, through the NT Food Group and, as a result, he will be attending the festival. Mr Fielke is also a well known chef who was the founder of the Red Ochre Restaurant and pioneered native Australian cuisine.
Importantly, the promotion of the NT food industry fits well with national strategies. The National Food Industry Strategy Limited, NFIS, is a company funded by the Commonwealth government to develop the food industry in Australia. The NT government is working closely with NFIS on several projects and my department’s Industry Development Division as the central liaison point for NFIS activities in the Northern Territory. Joint projects include:
Value Chain Awareness workshops and identifying suitable projects for funding
under the NFIS Food Chain Program;
hosting a trade alliance meeting and industry tour in Darwin later this month;
suitable products for the five-star hotel market in Dubai and to conduct a workshop
on potential market opportunities for the Northern Territory food industry. This will
also take place later this month;
Territory; and
There are many benefits for government and the NT food industry in collaborating closely with NFIS on their programs. We are looking to work more closely with NFIS in the future in order to optimise the synergies between both groups and to lever opportunities that the Northern Territory has not previously addressed.
Mr Acting Deputy Speaker, the unique and unusual foods of the Territory combined with the culinary skills and tradition that come from the diverse multicultural society in which we live give the Territory food industry the opportunity to be something quite special.
When you combine these core aspects with the extra bonus provided by indigenous wild foods, you have the ingredients for a cuisine and food culture like no other in Australia. Whether it is the wild desert foods from Central Australia or the tropical and exotic foods from the Top End, the food industry here is something truly special and continues to move the Territory ahead.
Mr Acting Deputy Speaker, I move that the Assembly take note of the statement.
Mr BALDWIN (Daly): Mr Acting Deputy Speaker, I congratulate the minister and thank him for this statement. It is a very good statement, and I say that sincerely. I congratulate him on its originality, unlike the former minister who sought to plagiarise an old statement from a previous CLP government minister and bring it into this House as if it were something new.
This statement is well constructed and provides a very good synopsis of what the agricultural industry in particular is all about and how that translates into the food industry, and how the synergies are working together.
It is great that the minister made the statement at this time to show that agriculture has a very special place in the Northern Territory and has had since early white settlement for that reason. The last paragraph sums it up and that is, to paraphrase, that the Territory has a unique and diverse multicultural population as well as unique and diverse geography that allow some unusual and unique foods to be produced in the Northern Territory from desert climates through to our tropical environs. Obviously, stacked in amongst that are all sorts of animals and species, plant and marine life that add o our unique ability to produce very attractive foods, whether it is feral animals such as the buffalo or, indeed, our local iconic fish like the barramundi.
I believe, personally, that the Northern Territory, along with the top half of Western Australia and the top half of Queensland, sit in a very important location, geographically, in the world for future food production. Most people will agree that the temperate climates of the developed world have almost reached their capacity in producing food for hungry mouths around the world. They will go on doing that, of course; I am not saying they are going to cease, but they are either at capacity or, in some cases, overstretched owing to lack of natural resources such as water, and we see that happening down south as we speak, with restrictions on water use for irrigated farming and so on. All the clearing issues that have occurred over the last 200 years of settlement in Australia have also contributed to the situation. It is going to be incumbent on the tropical and sub-tropical regions of at least the developed world to lift their production, become more efficient in production of food and fresh water use.
It is going to become a real and important issue for the Northern Territory in the future. That is why on issues such as those facing the Daly River Reference Group, we need to get those decisions right. Members of that committee have a very difficult set of recommendations to debate in order for government and governments of the future to get the balance right with the use of natural resources pitted against the extra demand that is going to face places like the Territory and other tropical, sub-tropical and arid regions of the developed world to produce food in ever-increasing abundance, and do it efficiently and in an environmentally friendly manner.
This is a very important statement, a synopsis of what is happening in all of the sectors of agriculture in the Northern Territory, to aquaculture, and moving through to the value adding of those products and all the things that have been done to promote those products not only locally and nationally, but internationally as well.
The first area the minister touched on is seafood. We do enjoy, as he pointed out, a very strong set of fisheries in the Northern Territory that have been well managed over the last five decades at least, I guess, whether it is from the Commonwealth or previous government, to give us a fishery that is a very sustainable one at this time. Obviously, we must work on making sure that continues.
There is a need, as we move from a predominantly wild port capture of marine products to harvesting aquacultural products such as mud crabs or barramundi in fish farms and prawn farms. It is the fastest growing sector within the marine food industries at this time. There will be a great call on government to provide assistance in the form of infrastructure to those farms, whether they be private enterprise or indigenous enterprises in conjunction with private enterprise, joint ventures and so on. There will be a call on government to provide some support in roads, power and other types of real cash-type infrastructure to ensure that growing sector can expand in the Northern Territory, and we do position ourselves well with leading-edge technology to ensure that the Territory is well placed.
There are some exotic things happening in those fisheries. The minister mentioned trepang, which goes back hundreds of years as an export commodity. It is available to be farmed. When I say ‘farmed’, I mean in a way that is sustainable. I know there are some people currently looking sustainable trepang farming on Aboriginal land and they have been talking to government, looking for some assistance. There has not been very much forthcoming.
That is what I am talking about: when people want to go out and take the risk and are looking for a bit of government support, then government has to be willing - if they are following philosophies in the statement today - to provide assistance to those investors who want to come up with sustainable enterprises. They just need some assistance to make sure that they are viable, particularly when they are talking about joint ventures with indigenous communities and organisations.
Likewise with barramundi, which features in the statement. We have to take opportunities where we find them to ensure that fishery remains sustainable. I was very disappointed, as I have already said in this House, that the government has not taken the opportunity as yet to purchase the five commercial barramundi licences that were offered in the expressions of interest that went along with the closure of Adelaide River. They may still be available, you may still be talking to them, but it is not that often, and has not been the case in the past, that when you call for expressions of interest for the purchase of barramundi licences that five commercial fisher people put up their hand and said they are willing to negotiate on the sale back to government of their licences, thereby removing the commercial effort from that fishery and, obviously, making it much more sustainable.
We have just heard the Chief Minister give her budget reply talking about all sorts of sums of money for various programs that government is initiating or continuing. For the measly sum of less than $3m in one fell swoop, the government could have taken a total of five licences out of the fishery, thereby improving the state of that fishery for the future. I know the answer will be that we are talking to them and all the rest of it, but these opportunities do not always come up. It is rare that the commercial sector agrees with the recreational sector in the way they have in respect of the purchase of these barramundi licenses. Everyone has been saying to government: ‘Buy them’, and to this point they have ignored that advice.
The horticultural industry is very important. It grows all sorts of product right across the Territory, whether you talk Top End exotic fruits, normal cucurbits or your mango production, it is a very important industry to the Territory. There are areas that can expand; the Ti Tree area for table grapes has had a mention and there is certainly room for expansion there. Pine Hill was a purchase in that area for expansion. It might be interesting for the minister to give us an update on what is happening with Pine Hill as far as releasing other blocks. Has there been much demand? Have they been promoting that area, particularly now that the water capacity in the area has been identified and, as far as production of table grapes and other produce in and around Ti Tree is concerned, proven to be quite extensive.
We hear so much in relation to other crops, but the livestock industry is very stable, valued at around $200m, as the minister said, and looks quite stable into the future depending on a number of things. Included in those, obviously, is exchange rates and the demand from our overseas market. In a way, we are reasonably vulnerable because we rely so heavily on the export market, notwithstanding it has served us extremely well in the past. I hope it continues to serve us well into the future, but we need to look at other ways of strengthening the industry with other outlets. The minister mentioned in the statement the need for abattoirs to have a guaranteed throughput to make them viable. That has always been the case, obviously not competing on price terms when it comes to competition against the export market.
There should be something done to broaden the livestock market, particularly in the case of multi-species abattoirs, something that government has been working on. It has commissioned a report and that has been concluded and it has been said that it requires this throughput of cattle to make it viable. The minister mentioned that the Katherine Abattoir owners have confirmed that they need guaranteed throughput to commence operations as well. It seems to me that the issue here is market identification. Where can the government assist in finding the markets that will compete on the same price as export cattle so that they can have at least some throughput guaranteed into a market that will then allow the viability of the multi-species abattoirs, which may fit well with Katherine Abattoir combining the two.
Government has said that they will look at putting up some money for a multi-species abattoir. Maybe you can look at the Katherine Abattoir, combining that with multi-species. You bring your camels up to there, which is not a big deal in terms of freighting them in. Similarly with buffalo down from the Top End or out to the west of Katherine, it is not a big deal to bring them in to Katherine. Maybe then, with some market identification, we could launch into perhaps new Halal export markets and create the viability for a combined multi-species abattoir set up in conjunction with the Katherine Abattoir to make sure that gets off the ground.
As we all know, value adding to livestock products is all about taking them off the hoof and putting them into packets and boxes and marketing them as a finished product rather than sending them live. Whilst the live market, as I said, has been a good and stable one, and hopefully it will be into the future, I don’t think we should just rest on the fact that it will forever be that way. We should be expanding our market research, looking for new markets and particularly in how to value add in the buffalo and camel meat area.
On the buffalo side of things, I would like to take the opportunity to ensure members are aware of a photographic exhibition by David Hancock called Buffalo: Taming of an Icon from 17 to 23 June at the Cruise Ship Terminal at Stokes Hill Wharf. There is an opening on 17 June at 5.30 pm for anyone interested to go. It is certainly of interest to me, having been in that industry at one time. I congratulate David Hancock for putting that together.
Wild foods is a very exciting area where there is a lot of room for expansion, whether it be in marine products or bird life, as mentioned here with magpie geese, but crocodiles and all of the native wildlife species that are growing. There are some exciting things happening in that area as far as identifying the elements in some of the native wildlife species for medicinal use. That has a lot of potential.
It is good to see that government has been working with key stakeholders, Charles Darwin University and others, to ensure that work is ongoing. Once again, as I said before, when there are private operators who would like to engage in joint ventures in this area, particularly with indigenous enterprises, government should seize on those to assist in any way possible because the benefits of those ventures are so wide not only for Aboriginal people but for Territorians and for our market as a whole.
The Food Group that the minister has spoken of is great, as is the NT Air Freight Working Group. Last year, as has been the case for a couple of years, Wet Season air freight capacity out of Darwin has been a major issue. I take for granted that the NT Air Freight Working Group has this high on its agenda. It is not a big issue during the Dry Season when the capacity of airlines is increased because of increased numbers into and out of Darwin by air, but when things quieten down in the Wet Season and the size and number of planes into and out of Darwin is reduced, air freight capacity becomes a real issue for very timely products, such as mud crab and even cut flowers to some extent. That is an area that needs a lot of work to ensure that our product is available to markets on a continuous basis because that is the key thing. Anyone who has produced in the Territory, or anywhere in fact, will know that continuous supply as well as quality are the big issues. If you can guarantee continuous supply, then you will secure markets a lot easier than if you have an ad hoc supply chain that is not going to guarantee to get your product to the market.
The initiatives with sea freight and the mango growers and so forth working on shipping mangoes to European markets – I have been well briefed on that – there are some Katherine growers in conjunction with Western Australian growers who are doing are great things there in terms of pilot shipments. They are doing another one this year whereby they are following their containers over into those larger European markets. They have been doing a lot of work on exposing Europeans to the mango product, showing them what it is, how you eat it and so forth, and there is a very high acceptance rate once people understand it as a tropical fruit.
The new work being done on allowing that product to be treated for the longer shipping times is very exciting. It is great technology and a great industry initiative. I wish them all the best. If it is successful this year, it opens the doors for some major inroads into those European markets that have never before been accessible to the Northern Territory unless by way of air freight, which, obviously, is very expensive and usually not a viable option. That is an exciting area, and I believe there is great room, in the not too distant future, for the Territory to package up its goods so that they can be taken into those large European markets, be it camel or buffalo, exotic fruits or marine products, even cut flowers, and, by all means, branded under the NT symbol. It is great to see the NT food identifier program going. There is a great opening for the Northern Territory, with its diverse range of products, particularly in those winter markets in Europe, to get in there in a large, coordinated way, that will put the NT well on the map as a quality producer of exotic and unique products.
It is good to see that the department is assisting in the food safety and food quality areas. That, obviously, is very important. Marketing, food quality, transportation are all aspects that are very important to ensure that products are not only grown well, as we know we can do in the Northern Territory, but for the whole market chain to be developed and be consistent with quality control in place.
The same applies to all marketing mentioned in the statement by the minister today: Taste Down Under 2004, the food identifier, what is happening in conjunction with the National Food Industry Strategy Limited, and all the initiatives mentioned including the Darwin Seafood Festival.
Our agricultural participants are a great lot of people. They certainly are very innovative and very stubborn in their determination to ensure that not only do they grow good product, but they grow the right product for markets. They are always looking outside the square for new markets and we have done that many times in the past. The consistency that comes together in this statement is great to see. There is a very exciting future for our primary industries and fisheries and, as I said at the outset, I congratulate the minister and his department for such a concise statement.
Mr HENDERSON (Business and Industry): Mr Acting Deputy Speaker, I also congratulate the Minister for Primary Industry and Fisheries for his statement on growing the Northern Territory food industry. As Minister for Business and Industry, I am aware of Territorians in the food and beverage industry who are out there creating their own businesses and developing their products and markets.
In my supporting statement, I will talk about the Northern Territory food sector from the manufacturing and value-adding perspective. The add-on benefits of the food industry, from production to processing to sale and exporting, bring benefits to the economy through the various transactions. It all begins in the manufacturing stage at the beginning of production.
I will start by giving the House the latest available statistics from 2000-01 for the Northern Territory manufacturing sector that show the food and beverage sector generated $33.5m value-add to the Northern Territory economy in that financial year. I am sure that that number has probably increased. It equates to the sector contributing more than 10% of the Northern Territory manufacturing total.
One of the benefits I draw to members’ attention is the number of jobs in the food manufacturing sector in the Northern Territory. Statistics also show that the sector employs about 400 people. That is a significant number for our population and, seasonally, I would expect that figure to rise.
The Minister for Primary Industry and Fisheries, spoke about the wonderful list of products produced in the Territory, but I would like to highlight the food subsections that fit into the manufacturing sector. We have a small beverage manufacturing sub-sector that produces mainly soft drinks, juices and wine. It includes our famous mango wine, and I am happy to say that mango wine production is increasing. Our Northern Territory mango wines are now stocked at a chain of liquor stores and are exported. I was pleased to be invited by Paul Williams and the team to Winnellie when they were reopening their winery after a fire last year. I proudly took some bottles of mango wine to Singapore as gifts recently, and presented a couple of bottles to the Singapore trade minister. I have not heard back from him what he thought of the wine, but it is a pretty good product, and I am sure when I catch up with him on my next trip to Singapore, I will find out how that wine was received.
At the moment, fruit juice production from locally-grown product is minimal, but the potential of using local mangoes, citrus and melons is being explored by existing beverage bottlers who currently produce our locally bottled water.
Dairy product processing, including milk and ice-cream, is another sector of the industry that has a lot of potential. Our locally produced ice-cream is the best, and constituents of mine who have become pretty good friends over the last few years, Frank and Helen Lo Castro, make the best ice cream on sale in the Northern Territory, probably the best in Australia. They are prime example of a Territory small business, a family-owned business, that has been around for many years. The member for Millner was telling me stories about when he was growing up as a kid, buying pizzas at Rapid Creek from Frank and Helen. They were the best pizzas in the Territory and now they make the best ice-cream in the Territory.
As the new business minister in the Northern Territory, one of the first letters I received when we were elected to government was a very powerful letter from Helen Lo Castro, really laying out the enormous challenges that they have as a family-run small manufacturing food business in the Northern Territory. There are huge hurdles they have to jump to get their products on to supermarket shelves. They have ongoing trials and tribulations to maintain access to the market place via the major supermarket chains. It was a letter that really tugged at the heart strings in terms of how small, family-based companies like the Lo Castros keep going year after year when the hurdles that they see being put in front of them get higher and higher.
Essentially, what came out of that letter was, through the department, a real consolidation and understanding of some of the issues and hurdles for producers and manufacturers in the Northern Territory trying to access Coles and Woolies shelves. In March last year, the department pulled together a major forum at which our food producers and manufacturers met with the major buyers from Woolies. Many issues were explored and some of the barriers have been overcome. Essentially, the challenge for the Lo Castros and other producers in the Northern Territory to get access to the market place in the Northern Territory – I don’t know what the numbers are – but the vast majority of our household grocery purchases in the Territory would go through those major supermarket chains. I would have thought it would be 80% to 90% of all the food that is consumed at home goes through those supermarket chains. Unless you have your product on the shelves in the supermarket, it is very hard to grow your business in the Northern Territory.
One of the key issues facing those people is as those supermarket businesses grow, as their purchasing becomes more centralised, getting to people who make those decisions in Sydney, or wherever they may be, is becoming increasingly difficult. What it means is that for small producers around Australia, access to those shelves is becoming harder and harder. They have a point. In the meetings that I have had with senior executives from Woolies and Coles, we have had a very good hearing. Products are still on the shelves, but the perception is that it is becoming harder and harder.
Without getting too political tonight, one of the challenges for the federal government is reform of the Trade Practices Act, which is supposed to be the main legislative teeth on market power, of abuse of market power and acquisitions of companies to establish market dominance. There is a Senate Committee at the moment that will report on reform of the Trade Practices Act. Mark Latham and federal Labor have issued a reform agenda, which I support. At the stage we are with Competition Policy, Australia needs to adopt that reform agenda.
One of the commitments is strengthening section 46 of the Trade Practices Act to deal with abuse of market power, which deals with dominance in the market place. The intended change is to ‘substantial market power’ rather than ‘market dominance’, which will give small business better effective protection from the abuse of market power by big business. Also, federal Labor is saying that they will introduce ‘cease and desist’ administrative orders that give a remedy to small business and consumers from the abuse of market power.
At the moment, there is clear evidence that the time taken by the ACCC to take actions for market abuse is too long. For many small businesses, by the time they have their case heard, they are going out of business backwards. Consumers are suffering because of the time taken for the ACCC to hear the case and make a ruling.
By having the capacity to issue interim administrative orders that call on the company to cease and desist from anti-competitive conduct whilst an inquiry takes place – obviously, there would have to be a level of proof provided for a cease and desist order - will mean that the ACCC has better teeth to force a business to stop practices to the detriment of small business.
The third one that is pretty important is a proposal to amend section 50 of the Trade Practices Act to combat creeping and cumulative acquisitions. What we see currently is about 80% of all supermarkets in Australia dominated by the big two, and a move for a creeping acquisitions where the acquisition or one supermarket in itself is neither here nor there, but when 40 or 50 are cumulatively acquired over a period of time, there is an emerging duopoly in the market place, and that is to the detriment of small business. The ACCC having the power to act where it believes creeping acquisitions threaten competition is something that is long overdue. Strengthening section 50 of the Trade Practices Act to allow the ACCC to treat a series of cumulative acquisitions as a single event will be beneficial to small businesses and small producers.
I have talked to a number of companies, not only the Lo Castro’s, but a number of small businesses that have real problems getting their food onto supermarket shelves. They believe that the ACCC is a bit of a toothless tiger and it is really hard to have their voices heard.
So, to the Lo Castro’s, I, as your local member, am in there batting for you. It is a great product and I congratulate them as well for the new packaging. They are in the running for a national design award for new packaging. If you look in the petrol retail chains around Darwin at the moment, they have brand new fridges that stock the Lo Castro product. They are doing everything they can to broaden their reach in the market place, but they still need to be on those major supermarket shelves.
Freshly baked products are made by medium size bakeries in Darwin and Alice Springs and by local franchised bakers to meet local demand. We have meat processing in our seasonal abattoir operations. The Territory’s fruit and vegetable markets are growing and they have proven themselves as suppliers of premium and quality goods. Northern Territory growers have created niche markets for high quality fruit and vegetables that are pre-consigned to buyers, which means the produce undergoes minimal processing and arrives as quickly as possible to the buyers. To a small degree, some dried fruit is produced as well as delicious pickles and jams created for the specialty market. These are just some of the Territory’s produce that contribute to more than 10% of our manufacturing sector.
It is the Martin government’s support for this sector that led to the creation of the Northern Territory Manufacturing Industry Strategy released early this year. The strategy is this government’s five-year plan to develop the Territory’s manufacturing industry and create more opportunities for small business. The manufacturing strategy was developed in partnership with industry and the wider community. It outlines the next major steps we will take to capitalize on new manufacturing opportunities and build on what has already being achieved. For the food industry, this is particularly exciting because there are so many opportunities still to be explored and there is so much scope to develop the industry.
The strategy, called Making it in the Territory, incorporates a four-point plan. The four parts of the strategy are: growing manufacturing opportunities and markets; developing manufacturing skills; creating strategic partnerships; and promoting and supporting best practice. These four themes were identified as necessary to maximise the growth of the manufacturing sector and to harness new opportunities in the Territory. Within each of these themes are specific strategy actions for government and industry to work together to achieve. The government has also set itself a deadline for the manufacturing industry development objectives: 2009.
First, the government will work to increase the value of manufacturing production in the Territory. We will be working to stimulate growth in the value of our manufacturing sector turnover by 40%. For the food sector, this will entail identifying new opportunities, including research and development through Desert Knowledge and Tropical Knowledge initiatives. We will complete an export action plan and maximise linkages to our international trade strategy and the Territory exporter’s network, amongst other things.
Second, we will encourage the creation of jobs and the development of manufacturing skills. We set the target to expand employment in this sector by 25%. For the food industry, this could mean access to training and business skills development, with the government building on our current programs.
Third, the government will assist the expansion of exports of manufactured products. We will boost the value by 40% of manufacturing industry international exports from the Northern Territory.
All of these things will impact upon the food and beverage manufacturing industry and lead to growth and development.
The third objective, increasing exports, is something that I, as minister for Business and Industry, and minister for Asian Relations and Trade am passionate about. The Northern Territory has some very exciting exports, and potential exports in the food industry, and this government is fully committed to growing this sector of international trade.
I am pleased to inform the House that the food export sector is one with enormous potential. There is so much going on in this sector that I would like to highlight some of the more exciting developments that I see as having great potential for the food industry in the Territory.
At present, we have a number of food-related export activities that include NT Fish Supplies and its parent company, McKay Reef Fish. Both companies are export accredited, and six months ago, purchased the former Winnellie premises of AusExport. NT Fish is acting as a consolidator and exporter of various fish species, including barramundi. They are presently exporting 1 to 2 tonnes of fish per week, which goes predominantly to Miami where it is being served in five-star restaurants and hotels. It also exports small volumes of reef fish and banana prawns. The fact that Territory barramundi was recently sent to Denmark where it was served at the official dinner to celebrate the Royal Wedding is testament to the high quality of this Territory product. The Danish market is currently being explored for future opportunities building on this success, and I would like to think we can expect future sales to this country.
Marine Harvest exports sea cage barramundi through Brisbane to Europe and the United States, and send out up to five tonnes per week. The Port Hurd sea cage farm plans to have a capacity of 1500 tonnes by the end of 2004, with additional plans to expand to 2500 tonnes by the end of 2005. Currently, 15% of production is exported, but this will increase with the expansion that is planned.
Humpty Doo Barra, to Julie and others there, is a great business that has been developed over the last few years. Their product goes to the USA. They have also taken part in some DBRID business growth programs, which have helped their business enormously, so they advise.
Another exciting development is the investors operating as Suntay Aquaculture. These Filipino investors plan to export prawns to the Japanese market within the next two years from their Bynoe Harbour facility. Newfish Australia operate a fleet of Darwin-based prawn trawlers, which fish the Gulf of Carpentaria and export product to Spain and Japan. Tenarra Abattoirs at Batchelor export chilled and frozen beef to Indonesia. Studies are also underway to look at the potential for the export of other species including camel, goat and buffalo.
A very exciting development is the consortium of Katherine-based mango growers who are involved in trial shipments of mangoes to Europe and the United Kingdom using atmosphere controlled sea containers. The consortium will be taking two 40-foot atmosphere controlled containers of Kensington Pride mangoes to the United Kingdom where they will work with some of London’s leading outlets to mount a highly targetted six-week marketing campaign. In addition to this, the Territory already exports mangoes to Hong Kong and Singapore. Recently, a leading mango grower accompanied a mission to Hong Kong and southern China, where they secured further orders for the export of mangoes this coming season to Hong Kong. Opak, another of the Territory’s leading mango farmers, is also associated with the Australian Fresh Mango Consortium, which has exported to Asia, the Middle East and Europe. Another of the horticultural exports from the Territory is rambutans, which are being exported to Japan.
Whilst being at the front end of the food chain, it is also important to note that one of the largest exports from the Territory is live cattle, which are exported to Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei and the Middle East from the port of Darwin.
Other exciting opportunities are now presenting themselves. As this House sits, a group of Territory growers and exporters are in Kuala Lumpur with senior staff of my Department of Business, Industry and Resource Development. They are there to speak with Malaysian Airlines about opportunities for the export of produce to both Malaysia, and through to Europe, using Malaysia Airline connections.
I advise the member for Daly that the Airfreight Working Group, which DBIRD convene through my department, is doing great coming to grips with the volumes and issues facing the primary sectors in terms of getting their product into the market place. Studies have been conducted and a very good business case is being put to the airlines. I am absolutely convinced that we can prove to the airlines that if we work together and book our freight in a consistent and organised way, we can justify increasing our volumes and possibly even have a dedicated freight service out of Darwin to Brisbane or Sydney. A lot of work is being done with the sector in that area and if we can pull it off, it is going to lead to greater investment and better returns for business.
In addition to this, the National Food Industry Group, which is fully supported by the government and of which the Northern Territory is an active member, is bringing a group of leading chefs from Dubai to Darwin later this month. These chefs are keen to learn more about the types of food and products available in the Territory, and the aim from this visit is to secure high-end contracts in the Middle-East and Europe. Without the support of the government, this visit by the Dubai-based delegation would not have been possible.
I hope I have demonstrated the wide range of food produce in the Northern Territory, and the range of countries across the globe that are getting access to our produce. I would also like the House to note the support this government has put behind the sector through the Trade Support Scheme. The Trade Support Scheme has, in its first year, injected over $300 000 into the export community, and over 32% in TSS funding has gone to 11 applicants from the food sector, ranging across a broad cross-section of industry. This figure will continue to grow as the TSS becomes more widely utilised by the export community, and I will continue to encourage producers to utilise the scheme.
In closing, I would like to congratulate the minister but, most importantly, congratulate Murray Hird, who is in the gallery tonight, and his team at DBIRD, and the NT Food Group for doing a great job. Murray, to you and team, well done.
Mr WOOD (Nelson): Mr Acting Deputy Speaker, I, too, welcome the minister’s statement. Having listened to the minister for DBIRD, we probably could have had a bigger statement because his on its own was nearly a statement and expanded on a lot of other things on which the minister did not expand in his statement.
I have a few comments to make. Some are not good, some good are, but they need to be made. Minister, in your statement you spoke of farmed barramundi as a success story, and mentioned that 15 tonnes of it was being harvested each week with two tonnes going to the United States. Whilst that is good news and creates valuable employment opportunities such as those on Bathurst Island, the government needs to speak more clearly about the future of our wild catch or professional industry.
I sit in parliament listening to a lot of tit-for-tat debate about closing rivers and buying up barra licences to win the hearts of the recreational fishing industry and all the while, everyone seems to forget that a lot of people rely on the fish and chip shop for their fish. They do not own a Quintrex 9051 Super X with the obligatory stickers and the 40 hp engine, the fuel supply to match, the fish finder, the GPS, the in-built seven-day esky, the boat trailer, and the big vehicle to pull it. These people rely on the fish and chip shop to supply them with barramundi or threadfin salmon.
Does the government believe that the only barramundi we mere non-boaties should eat is the highly priced farm barramundi or imported fresh fish from Asia? It is time for the government to set its policy clear on the future of our professional fishing industry and put some thought into the average fish and chip consumer instead of looking for headline grabbing supposedly vote-winning fish policies. I would like to hear a response from the minister on this, so that when I meet customers, locals and tourists, who frequent fish and chip shops in the rural area, I can tell them the fish we are getting is Northern Territory barramundi at a reasonable price and not imported fish. You may ask what that has to do with the food industry; the supply of local produce to local shops is a very important part of the food industry.
I notice the minister did not mention the shark fin industry, which is very lucrative in the Territory. There has been some discussion in the newspapers recently over the requirements under the conditions of licence to have on board a vessel percentage ratios of shark product. Whilst it is, no doubt, great to see the seafood industry expanding, I hope that the minister has not omitted any mention of the industry because there is some disquiet in the community over whether the requirements of the conditions of a licence are being fulfilled.
Horticulture is one of the backbones of the food industry in the Northern Territory. It is funny how about 20 years ago, one could not get people to look at Asian vegetables, but today they are a big export earner for the Territory. Years ago at Daly River, I used to grow snake bean. Minister, I call it snake bean; I notice that you called it snake vine. I eat bean, I do not eat vine, so I am not sure where that terminology has come from in recent times. Perhaps it is a little bit like billy goat plums that turned into Kakadu plums. I prefer billy goat plums and snake beans. Anyway, I used to grow snake beans at Daly River, and except for local use on the community, it would hardly sell at all in Darwin. Now you go to some flash restaurant in Darwin and it is served up as flash cuisine. Flash cuisine for me would be French beans in the Northern Territory, but it is amazing how things have changed over the years.
One area that the minister has brushed over is the decline in non-Asian vegetables in the Northern Territory, especially in the Top End where here was once a thriving tomato, capsicum, lettuce and rock melon industry, although there are some people now growing rock melons. That seems to have fallen by the wayside. Whilst there may be a number of reasons for that, it is not helped by the lack of effort that government now puts into vegetable research compared with what they once did.
There is much talk about our fruit and vegetable industry. Most of that is now comprised of the fruit industry or Asian vegetables, but traditional vegetables have disappeared. Some of us might remember the trials that used to be shown off on the Coastal Plains Research Station using Taiwanese varieties of cabbage and cauliflower, but all that seems to have been taken over by big fruit crops and flowers, which is disappointing - not that I have anything against mangoes and cut flowers. We seem to have lost all our knowledge about new varieties of vegetables. The government should direct some of its effort into vegetable crops to attract interest from new growers who may wish to invest in this industry.
No one can doubt the importance of our horticultural industry such as the mango industry, but, once again, more emphasis needs to be placed on other crops such as rambutans, which is the one tree crop the Territory has successfully been able to export to Japan. I am probably arguing from the base of not wanting to put all our eggs in one basket; we need to have various options for export, and one of those crops which has been successfully exported from the Territory is rambutans. There needs to be some more work done on that crop.
I would like to have heard a little more detail on the future of the banana industry, although, minister, you did mention it in Question Time today, which has been severely hampered by the introduction of Panama disease. Bananas were a strong part of our food industry development, with large plantings in the late 1990s, and much of that in the Litchfield Shire. Now, much of it has gone. I would like to hear a detailed update of where we are with these new banana varieties. Bananas are potentially one of the great industries for the Northern Territory, but the industry is basically now on its knees. The only way it keeps going is by moving to new blocks of land where the Panama disease has not been established.
Minister, you mentioned peanuts under horticulture. Peanut is a broad acre crop and, as such, is regarded as an agricultural crop. I am a bit cynical because there is no mention of agricultural food crops in your statement. Whatever happened to sesame, corn and sorghum or the rice crops at Tortilla? It seems that the Territory has disappeared off the production map when it comes to our agricultural potential. One wonders whether the cotton phobia that has paralysed the government’s agricultural thinking has spread to other crops and we are too scared to have a sustainable go any more.
When I was growing vegetables on Bathurst Island, we would travel to the Douglas Daly and look at a few of the crops that were being grown. Of course, the Douglas Daly was opened up for some of those crops, especially sorghum and maize. I do not know where that has all gone. It all seems to have been replaced by hay. We have gone backwards in that respect; our agricultural food crops seem to have gone missing.
Wild foods are an area of enormous possibility, which you so rightly emphasised. The emphasis in your statement is on commercial opportunities for the sustainable use of native wildlife and wild foods so that export industries might develop to create more opportunities on Aboriginal communities. A lot more emphasis could be centred on the cultivation of these species, including varietal trials to increase the quantity of native foods eaten on communities. To have a mixture of native and introduced varieties growing in communities would probably be the right mix. Dessert then might be a little fresh banana and water melon infused - that is one of those fancy recipe terms - with a touch of billy goat plum juice.
In my last year at Bathurst Island, I looked at possible large-scale production of some of the native plants, but time ran out because it was one of those areas about which there was not a huge amount of knowledge. For instance, if you wanted to grow the billy goat plum tree, it is a variable species and so to grow a plant like that, you would have to look at a selection of the best varieties in the bush and then find a method of grafting the best variety to a root stock.
There is a lot of work we could do on some of those native plants. Even things like yams, which grow pretty easily and many Aboriginal people dig them up, could be developed as a more commercial crop similar to how you would grow watermelons or sweet potato.
Sadly, an area of concern is the lack of fresh food in our Aboriginal communities. In my travels with the Substance Abuse Committee, I saw no community gardens in operation. The food industry is also about local production and sale of food crops, and in this area, the Territory has gone backwards. Everything is now imported, which results in higher prices, smaller consumption of good fresh food and more unemployed. The reasons for the death of community gardens are complex and not easily fixed, but it is something that needs addressing by the government. Being a major concern in many of our communities, the availability of fresh foods, especially locally grown foods, should be our priority.
One industry that did not get a mention at all is the poultry industry. I looked long and hard, but I could not find anything about poultry. That is easy enough to understand: except for a few chooks at Lowans - and they may be more there for feeding the crocodiles than supplying eggs - our poultry industry is dead.
The Minister for DBIRD touched on this in his remarks: cheap imports have killed the industry and along with that, the jobs associated with it. It amazes me that the federal government can through piles of money to bail out or allow growers to opt out of the sugar cane industry, and here in the Territory, our government can put another $27m into the tourist industry, but nothing is done to put Territory fresh eggs on our tables. We only had a small poultry industry. Perhaps all that was needed were subsidies to freight feed to the Northern Territory so that at least we could compete with the price of feed down south. It would have been a small ask, considering the amount of money we do throw into helping other groups and, as I said, $27m into the tourism industry is a fair bit of money. I am not sure why did not help some of our poultry industry people.
Who is to go next? The pork industry? Speaking of pork, I am not sure whether the minister’s speech writers were carried away with the cow, the buffalo, and the camel when they referred to livestock, but in the Litchfield Shire, there is a small but important pig and goat industry. I include that so my pre-predecessor, the past, by two, member for Nelson will be happy to know that I recognised the goat industry. I know many a Greek person is fond of some of her goats, especially around Easter. It is a small industry, and you might say it does not play a big part, but it is part of our food industry, as is the pig industry. We have an abattoir near Robertson Barracks. It is a small but successful abattoir. It serves the local pig industry and also people who want to take some of their local livestock there for killing can go there as well. If anyone was to go into Woolworths or Coles, could they say that the pork they were eating was Territory pork? That is one of the things missing; we do not promote our food as well as we should.
Transport: the minister mentioned rail, air and even sea, but one of the most important requirements is good internal road networks. What is the government doing to make sure our road networks can carry cattle or horticultural product to market in lieu of a bone-shattering road? Good sealed roads mean not only does produce get to the market in better condition, but also, vehicles require less maintenance and last a lot longer than if the roads are badly maintained. As I have said before, if we are to develop the Territory, whether for primary industry or tourism, good roads are a priority.
I should mention that, in the Litchfield Shire, the previous government did go dollar-for-dollar with the Litchfield Shire Council in helping build a sealed road to the Acacia Hills area, which was producing reasonably large quantities of fruit, especially mangoes, and vegetables, namely tomatoes and sprouts. It was quite a big industry in that area. There was an example where, since that road has been sealed, there have been a lot more mangoes put into that area because they know they can get their produce from the Acacia Hills area and take it to market without it being bruised or covered in dust. More emphasis needs to be placed on developing our internal road system, and I know the minister was talking about air, rail and sea freight, we have forgotten that getting the produce from the farm to either the shops or the freight terminals requires good roads.
Finally, minister, could you say what your department is doing to open up opportunities for growers of local produce into big supermarket chains? Once again, I heard the minister for DBIRD talk about some of the changes that the federal government is proposing to reduce the power of our big supermarkets over little people. It is exactly that power that needs to be curtailed. It is that power that killed off our poultry industry. The big companies, by their size and buying power, are able to put eggs on shelves in Darwin at a price that no grower, even the bigger poultry farms, can compete with. They simply could not pay for the cost of feed, cooling their chickens and the lower production rates you get in a hotter climate, with our big supermarkets. Not only did they put eggs on the shelves, they would fill up three-quarters of the shelf space with their own generic brands. I would support moves by the federal government, no matter which government is in power, to put some controls over the power that these big companies have so that the small people can get into the market.
The minister for DBIRD said that they are so big that everything is done from Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide. The problem is that if you are a grower of tomatoes in Humpty Doo, you can only supply for a certain time of the year. It used to be the theory that if you delivered your tomatoes to Coles or Woolies, they sent them down to Adelaide and back. That was the theory with the mango industry. Once upon a time there was no problem, but now that the big companies have become so big, everything has to be centralised and developed according to FreshCare, the Code of Practice for growers. Whilst it is important, no doubt, it puts an enormous cost on the small growers.
FreshCare costs an enormous amount of money for growers to reach the standard. Sometimes, you would have to ask why. I do not know how many people have ever been poisoned from eating watermelons, but now you cannot just have watermelons, you have to have a shed that has been scrubbed down, you have to demonstrate that you use this and this chemical, and there is a whole range of things that you have to do. Whilst for some crops I would say that is fair enough, but for other crops, you would have to really ask: what are we talking about?
Yes, minister, we have a wonderful food industry. You have touched on many really exciting matters, proposals and phases of the industry.
A couple of weeks ago, I went to the gift shop over here and I could buy red apple jam made by a little group in Berry Springs. I thought that was just a great initiative. It is something very Territorian. Not too many people can buy red apple jam. It is the bush apple, a native apple. Someone has thought there is a niche in the market, and gone for it. The one way we will make our Territory product well known throughout the rest of Australia is to get into those niche markets so that people know that we are producing something special. That is an important side of the industry. The other side of the industry is that we have to do far more work on making sure a lot of the produce in our big supermarkets is NT produce that is not being replaced by cheaper imports from down south.
Mr BONSON (Millner): Mr Acting Deputy Speaker, like the minister, I have a great appreciation of food, particularly food produced in the Northern Territory or that is unique to the Northern Territory. The minister highlighted the amazing diversity of horticulture and food products grown in the Territory. I can attest to the amazing variety in the Northern Territory, as I often see and taste the diverse variety of fruit and vegetables at the Rapid Creek Sunday markets. Sunday markets are the oldest continuous market of their kind in the Northern Territory. We heard the minister for business talk about the Lo Castros and their involvement at Rapid Creek Shopping Centre and at the markets for over 25 or 30 years.
Everyone attests to the fact that our cuisine, the fruit and the vegetables in Darwin, represents a fantastic industry. There is no doubt that members on both sides of the House are supporting these important industries.
Produce such as mangoes, dates, melons, exotic fruit, Asian vegetables and herbs can all be found in our unique markets throughout the Northern Territory. The minister also has knowledge of these products including butternut pumpkin, sesame, star apples, snake beans, okra, bitter melons, jackfruit and dragon fruit. To those, I can add lemongrass, pawpaw, limes, bananas and tomatoes - the list goes on. I congratulate the growers who contribute 2000 tonnes of Asian vegetables trucked out of Darwin to Sydney and Melbourne and other major southern markets. My family and I often use Asian ingredients in our unique Darwin-style cooking, which has been heavily influenced by Asian cooking over the last century.
I note that the minister estimates that produce of $30m per annum from wild fisheries that include mud crabs, fish and, in particular, barramundi and fresh prawns. These were a primary source of fresh foods that many Territorians over the last 100 years used, as we did not have supermarkets and refrigeration. Many families - white, black, green or purple, indigenous to this country or migrants - have used the natural resources of the Northern Territory to provide food for their families.
I was watching a fishing documentary and they asked Rex Hunt what he likes about fishing and he said he gets to travel around the world. ‘What’s the best fish that you like to catch?’ Believe it or not, he said the barramundi from the north of Australia. He said it is a unique fish in the world and it is fantastic that this is natural and exists in the Northern Territory environment.
I enjoy catching and cooking these unique Territory icons from the wild. I do not get to go fishing as much as I would like, but Freshwater at Rapid Creek was the first place I ever caught a barramundi. I have continued to fish for barramundi all my life. Catching fresh prawns in the harbour or in Shoal Bay dragging a net has been common practice for my family over many generations. Believe it or not, though, mud crab is one of the few sea foods that I do not like, but everyone else in my family loves it. I enjoy catching the beautiful mud crab. I look forward to the industry continuing to produce these magnificent creatures for consumption not only within the Northern Territory but throughout Australia and overseas.
I believe the future of the Northern Territory aquaculture industry will have a huge effect on not only the Northern Territory economy, but also the sustainable economic development for Australia and the world. I believe responsible aquaculture will ensure the survival of our wild natural resources for all human beings around the world for future generations.
As we know, another important produce sector, arguably the oldest introduced industry in the Northern Territory is the livestock industry, which has played an important historic role in relationships between Europeans and Aboriginal Territorians. It has had particular implications for employment. This industry was, in many respects, the foundation of our traditional earnings in the Northern Territory. I congratulate the minister for the work he has done to assist the livestock industry grow and prosper, and in particular his work in improving export assistance by developing additional markets in Indonesia, Brunei and East Timor.
The horticulture, seafood and livestock industries have been and will continue to be vital to the economic and social future of the Northern Territory. It was great to read about industry development in the annual report of Business, Industry and Resource Development, which has targeted the development and facilitation of commercial opportunities through sustainable use of native wildlife and wild foods as a key objective for 2004-05.
As someone who has often gathered wild food from the bush in the Territory, I congratulate the minister and DBIRD for their attempts in creating indigenous economic opportunities by commercial harvesting of food that many Territorians enjoy on a daily, weekly or monthly basis. They include Territory icons such as magpie geese, long neck turtles, crocodiles, mud crabs and other native wildlife species.
The minister’s statement outlines many Northern Territory food products that the government is nurturing for the benefit of all Territorians. I will not re-state items highlighted by the minister. However, I will encourage all Territorians to read the minister’s statement on the manufacturing and value-added perspectives, which includes the latest ABS statistics from 2000-01 and the employment of 400 Territorians in these industries.
The NT Food and Beverage sub-sector includes beverage manufacturing – mainly soft drink, juices and wines; dairy products – processing of milk and ice-cream; bakery products; meat processing, fruit and vegetable processing, dried fruit, pickles, jams and salads etcetera.
I also appreciate the minister’s interest in creating greater opportunities for air, road, rail, and sea freight. Transport and logistics is a challenge for the future and no doubt will play and important role in the development and economic viability of the Northern Territory
I encourage all members to get behind the food industry. We have seen both sides of parliament contribute in a positive manner tonight, and I am sure the minister appreciates this. This minister has outlined the good work both government and producers are continuing to carry out. However, without the support of all Territorians, this hard working sector will find it more difficult to proceed. With the support of the government and all Territorians, the sector will continue to grow and prosper. I congratulate the minister for his hard work and commend the statement to this honourable House.
Mrs BRAHAM (Braitling): Mr Deputy Speaker, I am grateful to the minister for presenting this statement because it gives me an opportunity to celebrate some of the good things that are happening in Central Australia.
I refer, of course, to the Central Australian Food Group. This group is flourishing at the moment. It is doing such good work, people are falling over backwards to become members. We have chefs, producers and now tourism people involved because there is a huge potential to market Central Australia through our food.
The minister probably mentioned the fact this article was in the June-July edition of Outback magazine. I suggest people read it because it deals with chefs involved in the Alice Springs Food Group. What people don’t know is that the food group was featured twice in the Qantas in-flight magazine. You cannot buy that sort of publicity. That goes everywhere. So they have been a real winner. The feedback from journalists is quite amazing. The publicity is making a real impact on this group. They are so enthusiastic and they cooperate so well. They join together to make this work because they can see the potential. It is interesting to see chefs from different establishments working so cooperatively to promote the foods of the Centre.
Once upon a time, you could not buy fresh seafood in Central Australia. It was frozen, it came from interstate, you never knew how old it was, but the variety now is extraordinary. You can get filleted fish, fresh, frozen, whole fish, farmed fish, wild fish. There is such variety available, it is tremendous. What is coming through is the fact that we have in Central Australia foods that can really make a difference, foods that have a distinctive flavour and condiments that can make foods so uniquely attractive.
For instance, we all know of the success of the grape industry in Ti Tree and how that was pioneered in such a way that it is now huge. We all know about Jimmy Crayford’s mango wine and how that has taken off and how he has promoted that. I usually buy Lions Christmas Cakes to give to some of my oldies, but instead, I went out to the date farm last Christmas and bought some chocolate dates just for something different. There a variety of food available, and this group is experimenting with them.
It is interesting that Jimmy Shu from the Hanuman has now decided to change his menu and he is experimenting using some of the different foods of the Centre such as camel meat. You have probably heard of Mo McCosker who is our hydroponic man down there. Jimmy will often go out to Mo’s farm and walk around and take a bit of this and a bit of that and go back to his restaurant and try something different. That is what it is all about. Jimmy has the restaurant up here, but you will find the menu quite different if you go to the one in Alice Springs. He is very enthusiastic, and he has been to America promoting our product as well.
You all know of Beat Keller and his Swiss Indian restaurant. If you did not, you did after the Billy Connolly show because he got such tremendous publicity just through that small comment by Billy about Beat’s restaurant. He is such an enthusiastic person, and his restaurant is always so alive. These are different establishments, but these fellows work together. You have heard of Athol Wark, who was at the Alice Springs Convention Centre, and I thank the government for assisting him to go to the United States to promote our foods. He did a tremendous job. As well as that, we have Sven Hugg who is at Voyages restaurant.
So you have all these different chefs, who are talented, who take the distinctive flavours of Central Australian product and are coming up with a menu that is unbelievably wonderful. This is what they are saying: by doing this, the tourism people know that they will be bringing people to the Centre to experience the tastes of the Centre, and that is a thrust in tourism that we have not really made before, but there is a real market there.
I would like to talk about Mo McCosker or Murray, but no-one knows him as Murray. He is the guy who started growing hydroponic lettuce in Alice Springs in 1993. The business grew and became successful. Now he has gone into herbs as well, and when you go into the supermarket and pick them up, they still have the roots on them. He has around nine varieties of lettuce, a range of herbs like rosemary, coriander, parsley, thyme, you name it. He also supplies Coles Supermarkets in the Northern Territory. I guess, in a way, this is why I am saying to government you could probably help because as yet he has not captured the Woolworths market. Interestingly, Woolworths want all the food sent to Adelaide and then probably back again. Coles have been great to Mo. Some of the independent supermarkets around the Territory have also been supportive: you walk into them and you will see his products.
He also supplies a lot of the private wholesalers in Darwin and Alice Springs and I am sure you would have seen his produce. He is continually refining his product. Apparently it takes just nine weeks from the seed to the picking – nine weeks – so his turnover is quite fast. In the winter, they start at about 11 o’clock in the morning,, when the frost is over, to pick, and in the summer, they start at 4am so, depending on the weather and how it is going, is when he starts his picking teams.
If you ask his wife if he has expanded, she will say, ‘Yes, right up to the house’, because he has a five-acre property and has built these growing tables and I think all he has is a driveway and a house, he has so many tables with all the hydroponic equipment on them. He believes that there is potential for other vine crops if he had the room, such as cucumbers and tomatoes. Demand exceeds what he is able to supply. Mo is a very strong supporter of the food group because it is a way that producers can showcase their products. He is one of the Centre’s success stories that we should be celebrating. From a tiny beginning in hydroponics, he is now a great producer. I commend him for what he has done. I think it is great stuff.
Peter Seidel is president of this food group. As we all know, Peter has the Camel Farm, and has come a long way exporting camels back to the Middle-East. The minister mentioned an abattoir. At the moment, Peter has to send his camels to the abattoir at Strathalbyn in Adelaide because there is no abattoir in the Territory to cater for them. There is an abattoir in Tennant Creek, which is owned, I believe, by the Sultan of Brunei, who really does not intend to use it. I believe there is some interest from another party, and I suggest to the minister that he support and encourage this business person to start the abattoir at Tennant Creek again. That would be a good central location. If it could be used to slaughter camel, cattle, buffalo and horses, that would be great.
We are all well aware that we cannot have an abattoir that slaughters the pork and camels if we want to capture that overseas market. If the minister could investigate this and we could get that going, I know the camel industry would move a lot faster than it is. As livestock should not be the only way we send camels overseas. Members have mentioned value-adding, and we should seriously address it. That is a business proposition that I am quite sure Tennant Creek also would really like the minister to start working on.
The Central Australian Food Group had great success not just at the Expo, but other places around town. The Speaker’s dinner on Thursday night will be catered with the theme Taste of the Territory. I hope members come along to that night, because it is a special menu so that members can enjoy it. The lady who is catering for that is Karen Sheldon. You may remember that Karen used to run the Dolly Pot Inn in Tennant Creek. If you ever went to Tennant Creek, you always went to the Dolly Pot. She has been in the restaurant and catering industry for 30 years. She says that in 1970, she was passing through the Territory on holiday - sounds familiar, doesn’t it? - and she heard there was a cook’s job going at Barrow Creek. Becoming a chef was her greatest ambition, and it so happened that a chef’s qualification was not needed at Barrow Creek. She got the job as cook, taught herself and, over the next 30 years, gradually moved up the track and currently is in Darwin cooking, as she says, at the top of the world. She is fully supportive of the food strategy group that the minister has spoken about. Karen Sheldon is a success story and is one of our top chefs. Her approach to cooking and presentation utlising local products so we all to enjoy the taste of the Territory is really great.
I congratulate the Department of Primary Industry and Fisheries and DBIRD as officers in those departments have given the Central Australian Food Group tremendous support. They have been there to assist them with marketing, organising trips and introducing people. I am sorry I missed out on that visiting chef - I cannot remember his name, but whoever came up recently - because I would really love to have tasted some of his products.
The more we can promote this type of thing as unique to the Territory but, more importantly, unique to Central Australia, then we have a market they we have never tapped into before. Minister, please continue to give the Central Australian Food Group all the support you can. They certainly are enthusiastic. They enjoy what they are doing and they are giving back to the Territory in a tangible way.
Mrs MILLER (Katherine): Mr Acting Deputy Speaker, I welcome the report. My comments will be related to tourism.
One of the areas of tourism that is always very appealing when you travel, of course, is food. Wherever you go, the main topic of the day is what you are going to have for a meal at night. Of course, it was not terribly long ago that people would visit the Territory and pretty much eat fast food, fast food, fast food. The Territory has come of age in the last 10 to 12 years with the products that we have. They are local products, which is what makes it so special. We have a very classy lot of people who come to the Territory now. They are looking for healthy food and a unique experience. They do not want to come up here and try food that they have in their own state or country. Part of their tourism adventure to the Territory is food.
I encourage the new adventures we are having with the Central Australian Food Group and new tastes. I am glad it is being promoted as a tourist venture. The minister said that 47% of domestic tourists are classified as culinary tourists and that is exactly right; it might be a little higher than that because they do spend a lot of their tourist dollars on food.
I am very excited to see that the Territory is matching what the travelling people are looking for in something unique. Our barramundi has been unique for years, as are mud crabs, which are whoppers and are a meal in themselves. My first taste of mud crab was at what is now called the Hanuman - I cannot remember what it was called before, but it was the biggest mud crab I had ever seen in my life. I took a fair while to eat the thing and it was absolutely beautiful. Tiger prawns, crocodile, all of those things that I tried for the first time in the Territory gave me a good insight into what we had here.
Exotic fruits: you have to only watch tourists go to the Parap markets, the Nightcliff and Rapid Creek markets and see them spending some time looking around all of the exotic fruits and wondering what on earth they are and they are quite happy to buy them, too, to try them. That produce at the markets is quite an attraction. We have a fabulous date farm in Alice Springs. Every time I go to Alice, I make sure I go visit them and bring home plenty of samples. Our native wildlife and our wild food products are unique. Most of those I seem to associate, again, with Central Australia, probably because Red Ochre does a great job in Alice Springs and it is one restaurant that I always tend to visit when I am there because the tastes are just that little bit different and special.
Food is definitely an important experience for our tourists when they arrive in the Territory. I am sure that when they leave here, they go away with great memories, especially of things that they have not tried before. Mangoes are extremely popular and I am very pleased to see mango industry representatives from around Katherine have been getting themselves organised and investing in exporting internationally. They have put in a lot of effort over a period of time and are now able to export high quality mangoes to Europe. They have not just exported them. They do not call them mangoes, by the way; I think they call them Kensingtons so that they sound a bit better. They have gone to the supermarkets and encouraged people to sample them. They have gone out on a limb to do that and it is going to work very well for them.
I am very pleased to say that the Northern Territory matches, in my opinion, any other state or territory with our unique foods and I know that tourists who come here will go away having had a pleasant culinary experience and would be very happy to talk about the Territory in a positive and enthusiastic light.
It is fair when you the minister said that the travelling and the dining public have become incredibly well educated. I am pleased to say that the Territory has become well educated in dining as well. It would be very nice to see this sort of dining incorporated on The Ghan when it gets to Alice Springs to have a bit of a unique dining experience through the rest of the Territory. I am sure when we are speaking to them, and I will be speaking to them shortly because there are some other very negative things happening with The Ghan, it would be nice if something positive that was unique to the Territory was introduced to the dining car. Maybe we could suggest that as one way they could lift their profile a little in the Northern Territory.
All in all, it is an excellent report. I was a bit like the member for Nelson; I could not find anything about chickens. I did not worry because chickens were probably the first we considered in our food menus up here, apart from fish, so it is nice to see all of these other areas being addressed. I am very pleased to say that tourists are going to go away from the Territory having had a nice experience and tasted some unique and special food.
Mr VATSKALIS (Primary Industry and Fisheries): Mr Acting Deputy Speaker, I thank members for their contributions. I wished to report because I am very excited about the abilities and possibilities of food production of the Northern Territory.
We live in a unique environment and we produce some unique foodstuffs in the Territory, not only meat produce like buffalo, camel and even some of our run-of-the-mill cattle that are a bit different from down south, but also mangoes, rambutans and the Asian vegetables that are produced here because our climate is very similar to South-East Asia, to our close neighbours.
Also what is exciting is the wild foods, the ones that nowhere else in the world can produce and are uniquely Territorian. When I first came to Australia, a trend had begun to utilise wild Australian produce in the cuisine. Bush tomatoes were probably unknown to me before. Of course, since then they are used commonly in our dishes, as are some of the bush peppers, bush myrtle and the billy goat plum, as was mentioned by the member for Nelson. The billy goat plum now is called the Kakadu plum and is one of the richest producers of vitamin C.
Two types the Kakadu plums are going to be exported to the United States of America for a evaluation by a large multicultural company that has a major slice of the food market next week, and there is an experimental farm in Kakadu, a company and individuals have selected some of the more productive trees of Kakadu plum and have virtually domesticated them for cultivation for the international market.
It is my belief that in the next few years, we are going to see the same happening with a number of other wild products - not only vegetables and fruits, but also produce like magpie geese. There have already been inquiries about taking chicks from the wild and domesticate and breed them. Similarly with bush turkey, which is supposed to be one of the tastiest native Australian birds. They were near extinction a few years back because everyone was hunting them, but thank God now they are a protected species and we can see them returning to the bush again.
When you put a dollar value on those animals, and produce that will be maintained, propagated, utilised, they are going to provide business opportunities to all Territorians, especially indigenous Territorians who they live away from main centres, but they have access to the waterways, creeks and rivers. We have reached the stage now where we sell some of the best produce in Australia, but we have to make sure that what we sell is of the highest quantity, quality and standard. That is why we introduced the Northern Territory food identifier. All quality produce of the highest standard that can be exported can have the NT symbol on them so we make sure that when people buy something with the Territory symbol on it, they know they are buying something that will be of consistent quality and quantity.
I have said many times before in industry forums that you do not see in the supermarket Joe Bloggs’ oranges from America; you see California oranges. You know when you buy California oranges, you buy produce of the highest quality and standard because you cannot use the name ‘California oranges’ on your produce unless the produce complies with the standards set by the company or by the parent export organization. I would like to say the same apply to our mangoes, rambutans and Asian vegetables. Sometimes, a bad batch of mangoes coming from the Territory can ruin the whole Territory mango industry because people are not going to be confident again to buy mangoes that are produced in the Territory because they had a bad experience with previous produce.
I can understand the concerns of the member for Nelson, but today we are not here to talk about shark fin and the effect on the sharks by cowboys in the industry. We are here to talk about Territory foods and development of a unique Territory cuisine, but I share his concern. At the same time, I remind him that the Territory works very closely with the federal government and with organisations like Greenpeace and the World Wildlife Fund to establish a program of how to harvest sharks for their fin without putting the fishery in danger. Twenty years ago, they were harvesting about 7000 tonnes of shark in the Territory; that has gone down to 800 tonnes, so there has been a significant reduction.
As for buy-back of Territory barramundi licences, this government does not intend to wipe out the barramundi fishery. What we want to do is buy some of the licences back to reduce the effect on the barramundi stock and at the same time, close some rivers to give more access to recreational fishermen. At the moment, we have about 25 barramundi licences. I think we can reduce this number of licences available there without affecting the industry because we are reducing the effect on the barramundi fishery rather than closing down the fishery, and there will still be barramundi available to the market. However, I would like to point out that some of the barramundi you buy now from the aquaculture businesses is the same quality and price as the barramundi you buy from fishermen at the wharf. The problem is that most of our barramundi finishes up in southern markets like Sydney and not much finishes here in the Territory.
My department continues to conduct research on mangoes, rambutans and bananas. We want to find a stock that will be resistant to Panama disease because it really hit our banana industry hard, and we want to see it back in a healthy state. My department will continue to do research on aquaculture and animal production. One of my pet projects is to see more camel meat and buffalo meat not on Top End restaurant tables, but in the supermarket and in every Australian home.
We have to start thinking aggressively about how we are going to sell that product, especially camel and buffalo. I recall a few years back when we had an oversupply of lamb. The lamb organisation produced recipes, beautiful little cards, which were displayed on top of the freezer where you go to buy your lamb, and they described how to prepare the meal, the time that it would take, the nutritional information and how good lamb was for you. We could do the same with the buffalo and camel and other produce in the Territory. We will be talking to the industries to work in partnership.
The horticultural industry is a significant industry in the Northern Territory, and contributes $86m per year. We have a variety of produce. We have a variety not only of mangoes, rambutans and bananas; we should remember that we have flowers, one of the most important exports from the Territory both interstate and overseas. As an example, when I was in Western Australia, nobody in the 1980s and 1990s in Europe knew about kangaroo paw until they were produced massively in Western Australia. They are promoted, and if you want to have something exotic in Europe now, what are you going to buy? You are going to buy kangaroo paws air freighted out of Perth where they are produced locally. We can do the same here.
At this stage, the Territory is poised to develop its horticultural-agricultural industries. With animals and fisheries, we are in a unique position. We have the best produce and a tradition of thousands of years from our indigenous Territorians, and a tradition of hundreds of years from hundreds of countries of all the other non-English speaking background migrants who have come to the Territory. Recently I went to a Chung Wah dinner and the entres were ‘plated’ in tomatoes. Nowhere else in Australia would you find something like that in a Chinese banquet.
That shows you that we learn from each other, and we can incorporate these tastes to our own table, our own cooking, and we have something uniquely Territorian. We are now producing barramundi in aquaculture and fish farms. We are producing mud crabs for the first time, again in fish farms, and we are producing some of the unique and exotic fruits and Asian vegetables. Very often, we incorporate it to produce something that is uniquely Territorian that nobody else in Australia can produce. Again, travelling down south many times, you go to some of the Chinese restaurants called Food Halls and you order a Chinese dinner. Instead of getting bok choy, you get lettuce because they cannot produce bok choy in Canberra in the middle of winter. We can do it and we can supply it.
Overall, I am very enthusiastic about our horticultural, agricultural, animal and fishery industries in the Territory. We have unique products; products that, if managed and promoted well, we will provide unique opportunities for Territorians, especially young Territorians, from the farm to the shop and to the where you actually cook it. We now have extreme interest from international chefs to try our produce, including Ian Parmenter, who I recall very well from Consuming Passions. This is the second time he has come to Darwin and he is going to be here cooking with Territory ingredients. Hopefully, he will cook some of my favourite dishes, which includes camel meat because I have to admit of all the meats I have tried in the Territory and in Australian, camel meat is my favourite.
I have here a copy of a story done by Kevin Boyle with photos from John Henshall in Outback magazine, which describes some of the delights of Central Australia, not only the scenic delights, but the culinary delights. These are the kind of tourists we see in the Territory. I table that article.
I thank all members for their comments, and I count on your support to promote the Territory horticultural, agriculture, fisheries and animal industries. After all, it is our future; it is the future of our children.
Motion agreed to; statement noted.
ADJOURNMENT
Mr HENDERSON (Leader of Government Business): Mr Acting Deputy Speaker, I move that the Assembly do now adjourn.
Ms LAWRIE (Karama): Mr Acting Deputy Speaker, this evening I make a personal contribution to adjournment debate. It is not the normal course for me; I steer clear of any personal comment during adjournment and focus on my electorate. However, it is appropriate that I use adjournment debate to outline a few changes that are occurring in regard to my work at the moment.
Members would be aware that I am expecting my third child. That child is due to arrive, all going to plan, between the October and November sittings of the Assembly.
Mr Henderson: Congratulations!
Ms LAWRIE: Thank you for that. P3 is its current nickname. I have had the good fortune to have very good health so far during this pregnancy. It is my third pregnancy and maybe that has made my body stronger. Health-wise I am very good and the baby’s health is very good. I am under the excellent care of the midwives clinic at Royal Darwin Hospital and I acknowledge the work that they do. I was there just last week and I am going back there in a couple of week’s time. They are a terrific team. I have had my two other children through the midwives clinic at Royal Darwin Hospital and it is just fantastic to be back there.
I take this opportunity to say to the House that my husband and I and our daughters are absolutely thrilled and delighted with the coming addition to our family. However, we ask members to respect our privacy. It is a personal situation that we are going through rather than anything to do with my professional life. I was offended by comments made during Question Time today by the member for Araluen, and hope she contains such outbursts in the future because it is highly offensive to have one’s personal circumstances bandied around within the Chamber.
I make this adjournment statement tonight to put on the record that it is my intention to work up to confinement if I can, if all is going well with my health and the baby’s health, and to take some short weeks off. Obviously, immediately after the birth, I will have to take some time off. I will be returning to my electorate duties. I have a very supportive electorate. I have to say that constituents have been overwhelming in their support of my pregnancy. At this stage, it is my intention to take a short period of maternity leave in the down-time of the December-January period and I will obviously be back at work in February when, as members know, things start to pick up again.
I thank people for their good wishes and support to date. I acknowledge the tremendous support that I have received from my husband, my daughters and my family here in Darwin. I have the wonderful joys of a new baby ahead of me. Certainly, this one is very active already and I am enjoying my pregnancy. I feel very honoured to be given the opportunity to have another child. I have plenty of friends who have tried to have children and have suffered the sadness of not having that opportunity, so it is an absolute blessing when you are going to become a mother. I do not take that lightly. This child will receive every bit of love that I can give it. I already feel overwhelming love for the child, and I know my husband and daughters share that love, too.
This is the only statement in the Chamber that I intend to make on the subject other than, hopefully, a very happy announcement of the birth.
Mr VATSKALIS (Casuarina): Mr Acting Deputy Speaker, I would like to speak today about a very good friend of mine who received a Medal of the Order of Australia, Superintendent Michael Van Heythuysen. I had never worked with the superintendent very closely until the Dili emergency when we both worked at the Kalymnian Hall looking after the establishment of the refugee camp and the Timorese refugees. When I listened to the news last night and heard that Superintendent Van Heythuysen received the Medal of the Order of Australia, I was ecstatic, absolutely ecstatic. I rang him and congratulated him because he is a person who deserves this medal. With Michael, I worked very closely, as I said, in the Kalymnian Hall during the Dili emergency. Michael was there nearly every moment of the whole day. He was always available, he was always on call, he was extremely friendly to the refugees. I recall very well that he became the godfather of one of the small refugees who was born in Australia during that time, and, of course, what was the child’s name? Miguel!
My congratulations to Superintendent Michael Van Heythuysen. He has done a lot for the Timorese community but on top of that, he has done a lot for the ethnic community. He worked very closely with the ethnic communities on the Police Ethic Advisory Group, where the police established an advisory group to advise on multicultural issues and how the police were going to address these issues. This group incorporated members of the ethnic communities. There are Chinese, Greeks, Hungarians, Thais and Filipinos. We meet regularly every month, and during that period we exchanged information or Michael would ask our advice on certain issues.
One of the first things we all said is that the Northern Territory Police, in a jurisdiction that has a large number of people from other countries and languages other than English, has few police officers who are of non-English speaking background, which is something that now, I am pleased to say, has changed. There is a significant number of second generation of ethnic-descent people who have joined the police force in droves. The police force has become a truly Territorian police force.
My congratulations to Michael Van Heythuysen. As I said before, if there is someone who deserves this medal, it is Michael. Well done, Michael, and congratulations. You are a bright example to all people in the police force and all Territorians.
Talking about the ethnic communities, how could I not mention the Greek Glenti? The past Saturday and Sunday, of course, the heart of Darwin was beating to a Greek rhythm. Everything was Greek: the music, the food, the wine, the beer. I was extremely impressed by the number of people who came to the Esplanade from 4 o’clock in the afternoon on Saturday until very late at night or early in the morning on Monday. I have been advised that people at the stalls did not finish work until midnight on Saturday night. Some of them had to stop cooking because they were too tired and, of course, they started work again at 10 o’clock the next morning.
It is a significant event for Darwin because one of the communities hosts the festival, promotes its culture, gives the opportunity to other people to recognise elements of the culture and at the same time contributes to the cultural development of the Territory. It is not only the food and the music, but also the cultural exhibitions and especially the cultural hall that has information about Greek migrants since they arrived in the Territory with a video that runs all the time. I was very surprised when a couple of times the video did not run and people were coming around and asking us how to start it because they found it very interesting.
I am very pleased that my community staged this wonderful Greek Glenti and I am pleased to say that I attended both Saturday and Sunday. On this occasion, I did not work at the bar; I worked at the stall collecting money for the Kalymnian nursing home and selling juices, fruits and ice-cream. The response of people was very impressive.
Congratulations to all the organisers. I am looking forward to a bigger and better Glenti next year. They tell me that two days is as much as they can do because it is getting too much. It is not only turning up and cooking; it is setting it up, cleaning, and the next day do the same again, and afterwards, packing up and going home and trying to have a rest. Congratulations once again to all Greek-descendant Territorians. They have contributed significantly to the economic and cultural development of the Territory and will continue to do so.
I also congratulate the Filipino community in the Northern Territory for celebrating the 106th anniversary of Philippines Independence day on Saturday. There was, once again, a fantastic show at the Filipino Club at Marrara. I was very pleased to have been invited and to take part in the presentations. This time, the theme was the revolution and the independence of the Philippines, passing through the different states of history, the Hispanisation of the Philippines, how the Philippines, Polynesian and Chinese group acquired this Hispanic culture and religion, but how, 106 years ago, people in the Philippines demanded their freedom and democracy.
Then it was the Portuguese National Day, so we attended Portuguese celebrations at the Portuguese-Timorese Club. Of the Portuguese people in the Territory, many came via East Timor; not many came directly from Portugal. It is a small, vibrant and dynamic community, and what do they like? They very much like soccer. One thing they asked of the Office of Ethnic Affairs was a contribution to acquire a satellite dish and equipment so they can receive programs from Portugal: videos, which they can tape and use for teaching kids in Portuguese language at school, and, of course with the European Cup at the moment, to watch soccer.
I was very pleased to provide them with $2000, but I told them that probably the first game they were going to watch was Greece beating Portugal. Of course, they all laughed at me because Portugal was such a wonderful team. It was very interesting the next morning when I opened the newspaper and found out that the Greek team had beaten Portugal 2-1. I do not think it was a very happy occasion for the Portuguese, but the Greeks were all thrilled.
It is incredible that in a small town like Darwin, we celebrate, within two days, national days for other nationalities. What is important is that people who come to Australia and become a citizen, Australia is home, but they still have their traditions and customs, which they pass to their children and grandchildren. In some cases, Australian people have Greek, Filipino or Portuguese baby sitters and have found, to their surprise, that the kids start acquiring different tastes or even respond to questions or calls in a different language.
That is uniquely Territorians, uniquely Darwinian, and we should be very proud that we live in a society that can not just tolerate, but accept other cultures and incorporate elements of these cultures into our own unique Territorian culture. We have a unique lifestyle and I quote my colleague, the member for Greatorex: nowhere else in an Australian parliament would there be a Minister for Ethnic Affairs of Greek descent and a Deputy Leader of the Opposition of Chinese descent. That is to our credit.
Mrs MILLER (Katherine): Mr Acting Deputy Speaker, at the last sittings during adjournment, I made mention of the success of Katherine Music Muster, and I said I was going to supply a list to Hansard of those people that needed to be thanked for the success of that event. I failed to seek leave of the Assembly to supply a list to Hansard for incorporation. I seek leave now, Mr Acting Deputy Speaker.
Leave granted.
Mrs MILLER: Thank you. I will not read them out; I will hand that list to Hansard.
- Gold sponsors: Katherine Town Council, St Andrews Apartments, Northern Territory government,
and Your Territory grant.
Silver sponsors: Downes Graderways, Carlton and United Brewery, Fleetwood Transportables,
IBW Crane Hire, Travelnorth/Nitmiluk, Atlas Copco, Knotts Crossing Resort and NT government
Community Benefit grant.
Bronze sponsors: GE-El Electrics, Canning Industries Pty Ltd, Norplumb, Parker Signs, Crossways
Hotel Motel, Katherine Hotel Motel, Katherine Country Club Inc, Braycol Applieances, Elders
Insurance Ltd, Home Timber and Harware Katherine, Jalyn Ford, Jawoyn Association, Katherine
Crash Repairs, Northern Machinery Sales, Katherine Pharmacy, Katherine West Health Board,
Katherine Sport and Recreation Club Inc, Livestock Nutrition Technology, Nighthawk Couriers Pty Ltd,
Red Gum Tourist Park, Trans Territory Foods, Sountracs, Visions Hair Design, Webpage NT,
Allied Pickfords, Ausco, Katherine Historical Society, Katherine Petroleum Services (Mobil Depot).
Minor sponsors: Astral Contracting, BC Machinery, Furniture Discounts, Bridgestone Tyre Centre,
Central Motors, Chamber of Commerce, Co Co’s Backpackers, Hohn’s Sheet Metal, Hourglass Jewellers,
Jones Meat Mart, Jones Truck Hiab Hire, Katherine Kroc’s Golden Oldies Inc, Katherine Auto Body,
Katherine Books, Katherine East Auto, Katherine Fruit and Vegetable Market, Katherine Tilt Tray,
LJ Hooker, Limmen River Fishing Camp, Mick and Josie Pierce, Money Spider Conveyancing,
NT Technology, On-site Refrigeration and Air-conditioning, Pine Creek Digger’s Rest Motel, Power Projects,
H & R Motors, Red Cross, Rocky Ridge Aged Care, Sandy Taylor, Semrite Constructions, Seymour’s Panel and
Paint, Shady Lane Caravan Park, Shirley Smith, Tim Baldwin MLA, Town and Country Butchery, Trash and
Treasure Market, Victoria Lodge, Baderbuilt, Katherine Research Station, Lorraine Harris, Katherine River
Lodge, Top End Rural Supplies, Beagle Motor Inn, Pandion Haulage Pty Ltd, Wastemaster.
Supporters: ABC Radio, Radio Larrakia, Imparja Television, Channel 7, Simon Says Television, Katherine
Region Tourist Association, Katherine Times, Darwin and Palmerston Sun, Katherine Police, Toe Sucking
Cowgirls, Katherine Community Radio, NT Rural College.
The Red Cross Canoe Marathon was held in Katherine last Sunday morning. It set off from under the high level bridge at the very brisk, crisp hour of 6.45am. There were over 33 canoes and kayaks, and over 70 entrants, with a bus load coming from Mt Isa, very enthusiastic. They have been coming for several years. One gentleman was from Perth, and he has come up for several years, and the rest of them were from Katherine, Darwin and throughout the Territory.
It was fabulous to watch these guys and women, including a group of cadets from Darwin, who went through the weir like it was going out of fashion – scared the heck out of us all. We were watching from the low level bridge and, by gee, they were pretty game. I watched, in the comfort of nice woolly clothing and good foot covering, several of them dunk under, of course, as they came over the low level bridge, and I did not watch the rest of it because I was committed to other functions.
That evening, I had the pleasure of presenting awards, along with the new Mayor of Katherine, Anne Shepherd, and the Officer Commanding RAAF Base Tindal, Group Captain Corrie Metz, at Springvale Homestead where we had a dinner to celebrate the success of the day and to socialise with the people who had travelled a long way. There were a lot of people recognised that night, and rewarded for their efforts for that day, including quite a few volunteers. When I have a full report, I will include it in my next adjournment.
To top off the evening, they say you should be challenged in what you do during life, and I have always said that the older you get, the more challenges you should face and you should take on more. I have just been given one because I won a kayak in a raffle, and I have never kayaked in my life. I have been dared to be at the start of next year’s Canoe Marathon in Katherine, so I have to put it on record that I am going to have to start practising because I have never done this before.
I really look forward to it, except I have had assurances from Brian Hill that he will make sure all the crocs are cleaned out of the river and that he will be my guide, so, bless his heart, I am off for a new challenge. You are never too old. I will give a full report of the Katherine Red Cross Canoe Marathon, which was very successful, again. It is the first year that we have ever had a one-day event. It is usually over two days, but I am sure that it is going to attract even more next year, because this was a record number of entrants.
Mrs BRAHAM (Braitling): Mr Acting Deputy Speaker, I rise tonight to congratulate the Central Australian Community Toy Library on their 25th year of service to young children in Alice Springs. I was pleased to see a number of members present at their celebration, including the members for Greatorex, Macdonnell and Katherine to see what a great little establishment it is.
From very modest beginnings, this little toy library has grown and offers a tremendous services. It was established in 1979 when a group of mums saw the need to establish a community-based toy lending service. The initial library was an annexe to a child care centre. It has become part of the families of Alice Springs. It caters for children under five. There are currently 250 members of the Central Australian Community Toy Library who come quite a diverse range across our community. There are families, obviously with children under five, there are schools, there are learning centres that borrow, family day carers, Aboriginal families, non-English speaking families, some families with low incomes and some families who have children with special needs. The good part about this toy library is that membership fees reflect the individual circumstances of its members so much so that some people may not be required to pay a fee at all.
Their programs have expanded enormously, and I congratulate Kay Clapin, who is doing a tremendous job as the Director of the Toy Library. Since she has taken over, it has really become alive. They have a three year old kindy program, and my little granddaughter attended that program last year. It was great for her because the only child she had to pay with at home was her little one-year-old sister who she used to give a bit of a hard time. However, when she went to the play group, she learnt to socialise, to share, and to talk to other children her own age. It was such a tremendous experience for her.
They also have an additional needs play group and a mobile play group, which visits town camps. I have to say that if they had a little more funding they could deliver that service five days a week rather than three. You can hire baby capsules. When you have young children, it is a very expensive item to buy, a little capsule for a car. If you can hire it, it certainly assists the family. As well as that, of course, they offer a lot of information and resources for parents and their toy lending library caters for that nought to six-years-old. You should see the toys; they are just so many of them, toys perhaps that you could not afford to buy; toys you would not think to buy. They can all be borrowed by families. They keep them in a really clean, pristine condition.
The facilities of the indoor-outdoor play area and toy library are great. It is bright and colourful and I know the members who are here who saw it would say: ‘The colours in that playroom – wow!’ There was a purple wall, and a blue wall painted by community service prisoners. Those guys do such a great job. If I can give a plug for them while I am on my feet, and ask the Correctional Services minister to give them some additional funding because there could be two teams in Alice Springs working around the place, doing all these wonderful community things if they had the additional resources. They went in and painted the toy library in such bright, vivid colours. It is a wonderful place to go. I believe they really enjoyed painting it because they never thought anyone would want a wall bright blue or purple.
The library has been a great success, and they were hosting their party in recognition of all the work that has gone on and the people who originally started it. What was interesting was meeting some of the people who had been involved in the toy library for many years. I met a lady by the name of Frankie Bongers. I am sure members from Alice Springs will know Frankie. She has been in Alice Springs for 47 years. She came to Alice Springs, she told me, on April Fools day 1957 as a trained nurse in general and midwifery. At the old hospital at that stage there were 22 trained nurses and assistants and the population of the town was only about 3000. There was a general ward with men at one end and women and children at the other, and a native ward and midwifery. The midwifery ward still stands; it is one of the old houses near the Royal Flying Doctor Service.
She said they had a couple of serviced iron lungs on the verandah left over from the outbreak of polio that infected some of the locals. There was an old wooden boiler to keep stoked during night shift. The matron was Joan Hardacre who did all she could: catering and ordering of the food supplies. Every Saturday morning she would be at the back of the hospital undoing boxes of perishables with a pick head. It was pretty primitive in those days, compared with the hospital we have now. Interestingly, she also told me that Max used to deliver the perishables to the hospital. Max, of course, ended up being her husband. So that has rather a nice little touch to it.
Four years after that, in 1961, she decided she should move on. Fortunately, Alice was in her system and, within two years, she did go back, knocking on the matron’s door. She was Sister-in-Charge of the general ward in the new hospital, which is not the new hospital as we know now, but where the old eye clinic is within the hospital grounds. People from Alice Springs will know where I mean. They still had men up one end and women down the other end with the kitchen in the middle, and there was a catering officer as well. She said:
- Ms Brennan took me on as night supervisor and, over the next four-plus years, I worked in that position as assistant
matron and matron and I resigned in March 1967 as matron, a position I held for a couple of years. I remember I was
doing rosters for 60 or more staff. There was a very persistent male involved in this change of jobs. He won my heart
and Max and I were married in May.
Of course, she remained in Alice Springs. She has two children, Liz and Jennifer. Liz is a geologist working for Western Mining and Jennifer has two children. The reason I mentioned Frankie Bongers is because she is a volunteer at the toy library. When she had her children she left nursing. She then started in 1974 as a teacher assistant at the Traeger Park Primary School. At the end of the school year in 1990, due to declining numbers and teachers, she was transferred to another primary school and ended up at the Rona Glynn Pre-School until she retired in 1998.
She spent a lot of her working life with young children and it is interesting that in her retirement, she continues to have that association with young children. She volunteered as a general helper for the three year old kindy at the toy library and does it every Tuesday. It keeps her in touch with that parent group and the little children for whom she obviously has a lot of love or she would not be back looking after children at that age. It is an interesting story line that she went from being a nurse, matron of the hospital when it was small, getting married, having children, becoming a teacher’s aide and, once she retired, maintaining that contact with young children to become a volunteer at the toy library.
She made a comment about when Traeger Park closed. Some of us will remember when the Traeger Park Primary School – and it was a controversial issue – closed. Frankie said she remembers that the then Chief Minister Shane Stone gave it to the Roman Catholics, which was a most unpopular move, especially when he stopped the then staff from distributing government assets to other public schools in town. She called it a fiasco that should never have happened. She said she is yet to find out how a politician can legally give government property to a religious order. That was a thorn in her flesh, and I said I would mention it because obviously it still irks her. I guess she would also say that Traeger Park School has been used to good advantage by the Catholic order and caters for young children as well.
Frankie Bongers does not just help at the toy library; she also helps at the Desert Park. She is part of that little group. I am not sure whether they call themselves The Garden Gnomes, but they pick seeds and work in the herbarium, and she has been doing that for a long time.
I have tied Frankie in with the toy library because she illustrates what a great organisation the library is and how involved people in the community have become. It is a place that, from little beginnings, big things have grown. It is an organisation that provides a huge opportunity for parents and families to have access to toys that they may never have been able to buy themselves. It provides a service that can be expanded through the town camps and, through their mobile group, out to some of the communities. There is huge potential for a toy library in the Centre and I hope will a little bit of extra funding – and perhaps the minister could see his way clear to give them some extra funding - they can expand the service and truly become the Central Australian Toy Library catering for all young children under the age of six.
Dr LIM (Greatorex): Mr Acting Deputy Speaker, I rise tonight to speak about a true blue Territorian who passed away in Alice Springs just recently. In the Centralian Advocate of 4 June 2004, this was written:
- Leonard James Kittle was more than a successful Alice Springs businessman. Renowned for his community works,
he was also a lifesaver.
It goes on to tell a story that Peter Kittle, his son, remembered about when a friend rang Peter to say: ‘Back in the 1930s, your father saved our son’s life in Tennant Creek when the child took convulsions. Your dad revived him and took him to hospital’. That was the calibre of the man Central Australia has lost.
This eulogy was delivered by Maurie Jones at Len Kittle’s funeral service two weeks ago in Alice Springs.
- Leonard James Kittle, OAM, CM was born in Ayr, Queensland on 6 October 1917, the eldest of three sons to
George and Annie Kittle.
Len completed his schooling in Queensland and at the age of 16 took on truck driving, a regular run out from
Cloncurry. Len would drive eight hours from the Dobbyn Rail Head to Mt Oxide, shovel three tonnes of copper
ore on the truck and then drive back. He said if you could stay awake, you complete the whole job in 18 hours.
In June 1936 at the age of 19, he drove himself to Tennant Creek in a Chevrolet utility on rutted stock routes,
as the roads were non-existent.
This same year, he joined his father and brothers, Geoff and Fred, in the family transport business carting water
from a bore at the Telegraph Station seven miles north of Tennant Creek, carting wood, which was used by the
locals in their cooking stoves before the introduction of electricity, and unloading full 44s of fuel by hand.
Len married Phyllis Lennon in Tennant Creek on 2 November 1939 and together, they went on to have six
children: Heather, Gwen, Sylvia, Robert, Shirley and Peter.
In September 1942, Len joined the Air Force and served until late 1945. Upon finishing his service with the
Air Force, Len made an appointment with the General Motors Manager at Birkenhead in Adelaide and applied
to take up the franchise in Tennant Creek.
- Len went to see the manager in his Air Force uniform as this was the best set of clothes he had.
Len would go on to become the longest serving Dealer Principal of Holden dealership in the world. Being the
representative for Chevrolet, Buick Pontiac, Vauxhall and Bedford in Tennant Creek, they were sometimes lucky
to be supplied with one vehicle a month due to the short supply so Kittle Bros expanded their business to include
long haul cartage, and carting fuel would become one of the company’s regular features.
In 1951 Len was made Justice of the Peace, a position he would hold for over 50 years. Between the years of 1954
to 1956 he was a member of the Tennant Creek District Association, later to become the local town council. Len was
initiated into Free Masonry in 1960.
On 1 August 1958, Len open Kittle Bros in Alice Springs on the corner of Todd Street and Wills Terrace. This would
move to the corner of Wills and Railway Terraces in 1963. One of the reasons Len said he moved the family from
Tennant Creek to Alice Springs was so his daughters wouldn’t marry Irish Catholic miners!
Len had four terms with the Alice Springs Town Management Board between the years 1962 and 1970, and this was
the forerunner to local government. During this time he was also a member of the Hospital Advisory Committee and
Patron of the Alice Springs Baseball Association.
Between 1970 and 1973, Len served as an Alderman of the Alice Springs Town Council and at this time he also
managed to serve on the management board of the Alice Springs Youth Centre and became trustee for Blatherskite
Park in 1974.
Len served on various other committees and boards including Alice Springs Commercial Broadcasters, the owners
of 8HA and Sun-FM, Territory Insurance Office, NT Apprenticeship Board, Alice Springs Chamber of Commerce,
Alice Springs Gun Club, Alice Springs Beef Steak and Burgundy and the Keep Alice Springs Beautiful Association.
- From 1968 to 1970 Len served as the Chairman of the Alice Springs Country Party branch and in 1974 was a
foundation member of the Country Liberal Party. He was also Vice-President of the Territory-wide CLP during
this year.
I recall, in 1993, I was privileged to nominate Len and Phyllis Kittle as Honorary Life Members of the CLP for all the work he had done with the party, being one of the founding fathers, and a constant and considerate advisor for the party at the many meetings he used to attend.
I met Len when I first moved to Alice Springs in 1981 and, at that stage, he was very active in the community. I used to meet him at Rotary meetings and, through one of the meetings, I was talked into taking up a spot on the Alice Springs Town Council, and it was through his nomination that I was elected to the Alice Springs Town Council. Through the eight years that I was on the Council, Len continued to provide me with good advice on local government from his own experience and history on the Town Council.
- Rotary was another service club fortunate enough to have Len as a member. He was a Charter member and would
later serve as President. One of his special qualities within Rotary was the Melbourne Cup sweep tickets. These he
would sell religiously each year. Sitting out the front of the National Bank in the Todd Mall, he would regularly out-sell
all other members who would quite often have customers say: ‘No, I can’t buy my sweep tickets from you; I always buy
them from Mr Kittle’.
When Len turned 80, the family wanted to arrange a birthday party. This idea was soon squashed, as Len did not want a
fuss and, besides, it would clash with the Rotary Henley-on-Todd and he had to be there to hand out certificates. The
family decided it was easier to abide by his wishes, and purchased a reclining chair for him instead.
During his time serving the community with Rotary, Len was awarded the Paul Harris Fellowship Medal, the highest
award presented within Rotary, with only a few given world-wide every year.
Len enjoyed many a night at Rotary, and on one particular night he won three raffles in a row at a Rotary meeting
held at Elkira Court Motel. One of the prizes was a bottle of wine. When he was leaving the meeting at the end of the
night, he fell down the steps while carrying the bottle. It did not break, so Len, not one to push his luck, gave the bottle
to his good friend George Brown and said: ‘Hold this until we get home’.
On another occasion at Rotary, he shared one of his philosophies with his friends: ‘There is not a lot of certainty in this
life, but one thing I am certain of: I am not going to die young’. We figured that he had too much to do!
Len enjoyed nothing better than to spend time with his family. Christmas was a very special time, and after the
day’s celebrations, the family would move out on to the balcony at Cavenagh Crescent, and Len would produce some
of his questionable ‘finest’ ports and liqueurs. One particular evening, he produced a real specialty. It was a black
bottle in the shape of a person with the words ‘From the Inka’s’ inscribed on the side. After tasting this one, it was
decided that it was not a liqueur at all, but possibly dead Inka pee. The sly grin on his face and the glint in Len’s eyes
said it all. It was decided after that night that maybe the children should bring their own port and liqueur for
future Christmas evenings on the balcony.
During the 1970s and 1980s, Len and Phyl could often be seen out at Arunga Park Speedway watching Robert and
Peter racing their saloon cars. Len is the reason Arunga Park was able to race at night. He guaranteed all the
initial funding for speedway lights, and was a man of his word. If he said he would do something, it was a certainty.
Len was awarded the Order of Australia Medal in 1982 for his service to the community, and received the title of
Centralian of the Year in 1992. He also received the Centenary Medal in recent years for his volunteer work.
Len and Phyl celebrated their 64th wedding anniversary last year on 2 November. At their 50th wedding
anniversary celebrations a few years ago, Len had great pleasure in telling the assembled family and friends
that when he and Phyl became engaged all those years ago in Tennant Creek, he did not have money to buy an
engagement ring so had to sell the spare tyres from his beloved truck to enable him to afford the ring.
He was a great believer in where there is a will, there is a way.
As transport has always been such a big part of Len’s life, another proud moment was when he was recently inducted
into the Road Transport Hall of Fame.
Len was loyal to General Motors until the end.
A story was relayed in the local newspaper, as told by Peter himself. When he went to visit his father on a couple of occasions during his last days after his stroke, Len recognised him and said: ‘Here you are again’. He said Peter better make sure that at his funeral, he be driven away in a Holden. His words were: ‘There is no bloody way I am going to be taken in a Ford’. At the funeral service, Len Kittle was driven away in the back of his FJ Holden utility.
The church service was very moving. Some 300 people attended the Anglican Church in Bath Street. At the end of the service, the most fitting song I thought that could have been sung about this true blue Territorian, a man who lived all his life in Central Australia, contributing so significantly to just about everyone’s life, was by John Williamson and was Hey, True Blue. It moved many men to tears.
Mr ELFERINK (Macdonnell): Mr Acting Deputy Speaker, just to follow on from what the member for Greatorex said, I extend my condolences to the family of Len Kittle, a long-standing party member, a true blue Territorian and a pragmatist to the very end.
The member for Greatorex related the story about the fact that he did not want to go to his resting place in a Ford. Alice Springs’ hearse happens to be a Ford, so they put him in the back of the ute and took him down to his final resting place in a Holden. That is more than fair enough because the Kittle name is synonymous with Holden in Central Australia.
He was a pragmatist to the end because, as I understand it, Peter was in two minds about competing in the Finke Desert Race this year and Len apparently assured him that that was still going to be one of the prerequisites of his passing: not that much changes. Peter consequently competed in the Finke Desert Race as much as a tribute his old man and I believe that he did fairly well.
Dr Lim: He came third.
Mr ELFERINK: He came third. Not too disgraceful at all.
I must apologise to members. I was late because of that race. Honourable members know that I am given to moments of lunacy and, for some strange reason, I allowed the member for Goyder to convince me that it would be an awfully good idea that I participate in this race despite the fact that until three days ago, I had never ridden a trail bike.
Nevertheless, I did collar myself a trail bike. I thank Gerry Maley, Peter’s brother, very much for lending me his XR400. I did have one track practice session about two weeks ago on the local moto-cross track, on which I did six laps and fell off six times. Things were not looking particularly good. Friday was Prologue Day, 8.4 km. I gingerly rode around it and got myself a prologue time. Naturally, I was at the back of the field. As only you would be allowed in the Northern Territory, you engage in an event that is becoming, as the Minister for Central Australia quite rightly pointed out, an international event but there is still a bit of room for us rank amateur locals.
Mr Acting Deputy Speaker, the fact that a car or any vehicle made it to Finke and back in four hours on that road only stands to prove that these people are demonically possessed because it took me eight hours and it was probably eight of the hardest hours of my life. The Finke track, I am told, is the roughest in living memory. I am glad because I feel like I have been dealt with by the roughest track in living memory and I am desperately hoping and wishing that my mediocrity will catch up with my ego so that I am not be sucked into such adventures.
However, that has yet to happen so I found myself playing on the Finke Desert Race and I have to say, now that I have done it and I made it down and back, which is more than Peter Brock was able to manage, I feel a certain amount of satisfaction.
Something else that the Minister for Central Australia quite rightly said is that with out the volunteers and the people that put all of this stuff together, this magnificent race simply would not happen. It is all good for me to lob on the day and get my starting time and roar down to Finke and turn the bike around the next morning and roar back, but the fact is that people sit there and check people off, ensure the safety of the track and the people. They drive there own cards along this godawful track to do the sweeps after the buggies go and the bikes go and there are people who have to do all the timing and that sort of thing. It must be an absolute nightmare to organise. I know that when the CLP was in government, they threw a lot of weight behind it. I am grateful to see that the ALP in government continues to support this race. I believe that there is a full-time position attached to it, but it remains an enormous logistical exercise. Of course, it all comes to one weekend per year when it reaches this crescendo of activity.
Those volunteers are vital to the future of the desert race. I thank each and every one of them for making my Finke Desert Race possible. I would also like to thank Clive Baxter from Darwin who was kind enough to organise fuel and spanners in the form of Adam, Mike and Chris who did a great job pulling my bike apart when we got to Finke, patching it up, cobbling it all back together and riding back the next day. These guys are volunteers and do it for the love of the sport. It is wonderful to be able to be involved in such an event.
For the information, and with the indulgence, of honourable members, I would like to lay on the Table the official team poster of Team CLP. It says ‘Go Team CLP, Maley and Elferink, Finke Desert Racers, Veni, Vedi, Vici,’which, of course, was the cry of Julius Caesar when he returned to Rome after conquering Gaul: I came, I saw, I conquered.
Leave granted.
Mr KIELY (Sanderson): Mr Deputy Speaker, I rise tonight to talk about a marvellous community effort in my electorate of Sanderson, more specifically in Anula where the school council worked hard over a long time to organise a school fete.
Anula Primary School has not had a fete for quite some time. I think it has been somewhere near a decade since they have had a fete. Members may be aware that the Anula School Council has had its ups and downs over the last few years, however, through all their trials and tribulations, the school council has managed to pull together and work well as a team to keep the school and the school community going on a pretty even keel.
At times, is a pretty hard slog. It was last year, I believe, that one of the parents thought it would be great to have a school fete as a means of bringing the community into the school and making the school accessible to the wider community. That parent is a woman by the name of Megan Kelly. Megan took this idea, with a couple of other parents, to the school council, which supported it, but it was Megan’s idea and she had the running of it. From the idea, she got quite a number of the committee onside and a number of parents who are not on the school committee and, over months of hard toil and a lot of hard slog, Megan pulled it all together. Full points to her.
She went to a lot of businesses and garnered support. She even went over to Correctional Services to see whether they could assist. I will ask the Minister for Justice to pass on Megan’s thanks, my thanks and the school’s thanks to Damian Clarke from Darwin Prison who, with the support of his Superintendent, arranged for a group of prisoners to make wooden toys for selling and raffling at the fete. These were wonderful toys. What a great effort by Megan.
Megan enlisted the help of others, particularly Liz Loymeyer, another parent, who got right behind and helped. She was a powerhouse as well. She got a whole range of things together. I worked with Liz in helping to get the presence of the Armed Forces over there in the shape of an Armoured Personnel Recovery Vehicle. I spoke with the Minister for Defence Support and, with Jenny Tiernan, who works in his office and has children at the school, we contacted Defence and they came to the party. The APRV was a great hit with the kids at the school. There were a couple of soldiers in uniform, so that was wonderful.
Another powerhouse who was great support to Megan through all this was Chris Bageley. Chris is a parent who made an exhibit that ran off a solenoid, which, when hit with a ball, would send out a jet of water, which was great entertainment for the kids. Apart from that, Chris worked very actively as part of the team to get the whole fete off the ground and working to be such a success.
As a little aside, I was on annual holidays in Bali with my family and Chris Bageley and his family were there and, for that matter, so was Jenny Tiernan and her family. We got talking about all the little bracelets and necklaces you could get, but the upshot was that Chris gave me the great idea of going out and purchasing some for the fete. I went out and bargained hard and I brought back I-don’t-know-how-many pieces of Bali necklaces, bracelets and stoneware and donated them to the school so that they could include them in their lucky dips or sell them and hopefully get three- or fourfold on the investment I made. Hopefully, the school made a couple of hundred dollars out of that. I will be pretty pleased if that is the case.
There were other parents in the school community who put in a lot of work and a lot of support for Megan. The ones who really stand out are Jo Glennon, Carol Hughes, Margaret Bowmont, Julie Milton, Marcia Harold. They all really worked hard, but that is not to say that these were the only parents because it was very much a collaborative and collective effort by the whole school council. Peter Maher, Sue Hyde, Anne-Marie Tully, Dorothy Iji, both of whom worked tirelessly on the drinks wagon from Coke Cola with Ruth Quinn. Ruth has put a lot of work in to the school. She is past chair of the council and has been with the council for quite some time. She has shown her commitment to the school and that is wonderful. She is a much valued member of the team. Julie Milton face painted on the day and she worked really hard.
Tracey Parker is the current chair of the school council. She supported Megan not through thick and thin, because there was never any thin, but there was a lot of work to be done and Tracey was there helping Megan as best she could. Dick Williams is another hard working member of the school council who gave his support. I do not know how he does it. He has a pretty hectic professional schedule himself, but he gives of his time to the school. He has a couple of kids at the school, which is great. There was Lorraine Evans and Elizabeth Andrade who is also a school teacher.
What was good about the fete is that as you got around during the day, there were a lot of teachers who came over and participated in the fete with the parents and with the community, and it was a wonderful thing. There was Marie Mappas, who is an old member of the school council. She is no longer on the school council, but she was there manning stalls. Normally you see these things fall to the school council, but I will say that there were a lot of parents working the stalls. Cheryl Fromm, a neighbour of mine, was out there working hard in the second-hand clothing stall.
My wife, Marie Kirkwood, volunteered to bag up a couple of hundred lucky dips, and she was there selling those. I got roped into selling raffle tickets. I went not as the MLA; I am part of that school community and that is how I see myself at these of events. I wanted to enjoy it with my children but, as you know, if you are a parent standing idly around, the school council will grab you and throw you into the fore. I sold raffle tickets and had a great time on the day. There were a couple of other dads who got in and helped: Steve Glennon and Darren Kelly who do a heap of work for that school. They are a couple of unsung heroes. They are not on the school committee, their wives are, but they support them all the way.
There was Kate Coffee and Kim Bond from the preschool. Kate is a marvellous fundraiser. She went to Lenard’s chicken and bought some sausages and all this sort of stuff and Lenard’s chucked some extra stuff in. I would love to have Kate Coffee on my next campaign team to help me raise funds. She is an enormous shaker and mover. Unfortunately, I think she will be busy doing other things, but any time she wants to fund raise for me, I would love to have her. Whoever does end up with her will be very fortunate.
There was great support from community. There were traders at the Anula shops who got behind it. Hingston got involved, and he is the proprietor of a little Chinese takeaway that has been open for about 18 months now. He has a very popular shop; he is just going gang busters and that is good to see, a nice new business in the Anula shops, starting up on his own and going successfully. I have helped out Hingston and his wife in the early days when she was coming out to Australia. Alice at the Anula shops, of course, got behind it as well. The sense of community was really fantastic. There were Smiths Chips. The list is endless.
The intensive English unit at the school, which has pupils from other countries where, of course, English is not the first language and some have refugee backgrounds, was well supported by parents who cooked up all their national dishes. They were selling a treat. That was wonderful.
The fete also needed the support of the principals and deputy principals. The two deputy principals and the principal, Maree Garrigan, got right behind this. They were there on the day helping to move it along. It was the parents’ idea, so they stood back and let the parents have the run of it. Megan was the ringmaster of this affair and she ran it very smoothly. I could see that Maree and all the other staff were quite impressed. The principal and deputy principals were involved, as was the caretaker, Barry, and Ann-Marie from the front counter of the school. That was the success of this fete.
They had a bit of a post-event review and they identified some areas they feel they can do better next year. For example, maybe they can head up to the basketball courts because, I am pleased to say, under this government, we have managed to get shade over the basketball courts. I think it has just gone to tender now. We had to work hard. I worked hard with the principal to get that shade construction across the line, and I am happy to say that we have. In the years to come, that will be a great and that’s where we can have the fete.
Another good thing about the school is I worked hard with the school council and we managed to get funding for fans in the assembly area. With fans there, it was quite a comfortable environment.
I am pleased to say that the fete made the school somewhere in the vicinity of just short of $6000. That means with this one fete, with dollar-for-dollar funding, it means they have $12 000 they can access. That is great because the schools in Sanderson, Anula being one of them, are not what you would call rich schools. They are not poor schools either, but they can do with more funding. Like a lot of schools in Darwin, they have to scratch around looking for a dollar and try to get the best outcomes for their children. This fundraising and getting this dollar for dollar does mean a lot. They have a breakfast program for disadvantaged children, but they need to get water in there, they need hot water and cold water so some of this funding will go towards that.
I am pleased to say that the school, because of the predicament that schools of its ilk are in, the $500 000-odd that the government has made available in this year’s budget for schools to access to purchase things like software, books and furniture will be a great bonus to the Anula School.
I am very pleased with the way the fete went. Once again, I acknowledge the work that Megan Kelly put into organising this. I spoke to her this morning, and she was at pains to say: ‘This is not all down to me by any means. I do not want to take the credit for anything’. Let me say, though, that without her and the teamwork that she inspired, I do not think we would have got the results. Congratulations to all members of the school community, particularly those on the school council, but to all those other parents who gave up their time, particularly to Megan and to the principal and her staff, it was a job well done. I look forward to next year’s fete. My kids are still going to be there.
I have been a member of that school community for about six years now. We have probably four years left at that primary school, so I look forward to an association with it. I regard it as the role of the local MLA to get in and support my schools. Anula knows they have my support and always will have. I believe that the school has progressed under this government. For 10 or 12 years it was sitting there under the CLP and not much was spent on its maintenance. We are looking at the school. We are doing heaps over at Anula and Alawa, maintaining them, and I will do my best to make sure that Anula School and the suburbs of Sanderson get their fair share. I will be working hard next budget to make sure that occurs.
Dr BURNS (Johnston): Mr Acting Deputy Speaker, this week has been quite a sad time. We have heard eulogies in this parliament today for two prominent Territorians, Mr Djerrkura and Mr Kittle, who contributed so much to the Territory. They came from very different backgrounds, but each in their own way luminous and important people in the history of the Territory.
Likewise, on the world stage, we have heard eulogies for former President Ronald Reagan, someone who was so well known on the world stage, so important in world events in the 1980s and the recognition he has been given all over the world for his role in a number of important matters that the world faced during that time are really worth remembering.
However, tonight I would like to eulogise someone who made a very significant contribution on the world stage, and that is in the area of music and even beyond music and, of course, I am talking about Ray Charles.
Ray Charles was born on 23 September 1930 in Albany, Georgia of a very poor family, and I will talk a little bit about that. He died on 10 June 2004 in Los Angeles, California.
Ray Charles has been termed a musical genius and he was that. His musical legacy will live on in vibrant and brilliant fashion. The story of Ray Charles is also about struggle, adversity, triumph and nurture of talent because Ray Charles was not born blind. He turned blind at the age of seven years. He was nurtured initially by his mother. They were very poor people, and she helped him through the initial stages of his blindness when he was seven years of age and, to some degree, comforted into that.
There were also people who taught him at a special school for the deaf and blind in Florida, St Augustine’s School, and other people along the way. I am reading from his biography in which he talks about his early years and a wonderful man named Wiley Pitman:
- … who was one of the first people to encourage me. As a youngster I would jump up on the chair next to him and
start banging on the piano keys while he was trying to practice. He would say, ‘Oh, no son, you don’t play like that.
You don’t hit the keys with all your fingers at one time. I’m going to show you how to play a little melody with one finger.
As Ray Charles said, he could have easily said ‘Hey kid, don’t you see I’m practising? Get away and don’t bother me’. I suppose in this life, nurturing and supporting people, giving time to people is something that we can do and Ray Charles really highlighted this man at a very young age who began to teach him how to play the piano.
In a similar way, it was an older friend of mine, actually a friend of my sister, who introduced me to the music of Ray Charles. His name is Kerry Dowsett. We studied together at university. He is a few years older than me. Kerry has been a great fan of Ray Charles for many years and he told me the joke about when the monarch of Spain sent Christopher Columbus off to find America. It is a joke originally told by a black comedian, and the instruction to Christopher Columbus was go and find Ray Charles, not go and find America; go and find Ray Charles.
There is more than humour in that because Ray Charles, really at one level, drew all the musical roots of America together – blues and jazz, gospel and country music - and projected that to the world. He gave back to the world. He was so popular in Europe, in Australia, all over the world because of his great genius.
Ray Charles said of himself, ‘I was born with music inside me. That’s the only explanation I know of’. Here is someone with incredible talent, who was blind from glaucoma at the age of seven, went to a special school for the deaf and blind, then lost his mother and brother at a very early age, and that had a very profound effect on him. He was 15 when his mother died. He said:
- The big problem was I couldn’t cry. I couldn’t get the sorrow out of my system and that made things worse.
He was counselled by an elderly lady who knew he and his family very well. She was able to counsel him through his grief. He talked about this lady whose name was Ma Beck. He said:
- That episode with Ma Beck shook me out of my depression. It really started me on my way. After that, I told myself that I
must do what my mum would have expected me to do and so the two greatest tragedies in my life, losing my brother and
then my mum, were, strangely enough, extraordinarily positive for me. What I’ve accomplished since then really grows
out of my coming to terms with those events.
So here we have two people in this great musician’s life, one of them encouraged him in his music, the other encouraged and comforted him through grief. It was that grief, as Ray Charles acknowledged, that really was the source of a lot of his great music. Certainly, there is a lot of great Ray Charles music.
Ray Charles struggled initially as a musician. He travelled in various parts of the United States and ended up in Seattle. At one stage, he was almost starving. He said in his biography:
- Although I wasn’t making any money, I didn’t completely starve to death. I had lots of days when I ate sardines and
dried beans and bread to survive.
Here was someone with talent who was struggling, but knew the gift that he had in his music and, basically, he wanted to deliver that.
Ray Charles was someone who experienced the effects of segregation in the Deep South of America. He became a great supporter of Martin Luther King. There is quite a funny quote about that time. It says that despite his deep commitment to Martin Luther King and the cause of black Americans, Ray Charles came to the logical conclusion that there was no place for him physically in the front lines. He was supporting Martin Luther King financially. He said:
- Firstly, I wouldn’t have known when to duck when they started throwing broken bottles at my head, and I told
Martin that personally.
He knew the realities of the struggle that black people were involved in at that time, but he also knew that he could not be in the front lines because of his disability. However, he was certainly supporting that struggle financially.
By the 1950s, Ray Charles had really started to pump out a lot of very successful music. I will mention a few here, and I am sure people listening to this will know all of these songs: I’ve Got a Woman; 1955; Hallelujah; I Love Her So; What Did I Say? - a great song, a very racy song, but with very strong gospel roots and I can certainly remember that song; Georgia on My Mind, which became the signature tune of the state of Georgia in the United States and Ray Charles performed that within the legislature so it was a very famous song also; Hit the Road Jack, one that I suppose has a lot of humour in it; Unchain My Heart, a song that has been taken up by so many other artists; I Can’t Stop Loving You, a great love song by Ray Charles; You Are My Sunshine; Take These Chains From my Heart; Busted; Crying Time; and finally Let’s Go Get Stoned, which was a recording, incidentally, that occurred around the time that Ray Charles was convicted of, I think, possession of heroin. He had a struggle with drug addiction, one I understand he overcame.
He was someone who struggled through his life. He has been the musical idol of so many contemporary artists. We know Joe Cocker, Van Morrison, Steve Winwood and Willie Nelson have all recorded songs by Ray Charles and they certainly admired his music.
On the jazz scene, I remember listening to Milt Jackson, who used to play the xylophone in duo with Ray Charles. There are so many things that Ray Charles has achieved on the musical front. He has given pleasure to so many people, and he has certainly given a lot of pleasure to me.
I will finish with a comment from a biographer of Ray Charles, which says:
- His niche is difficult to define. The best blues singer around, of course, but don’t stop there. He is also an
unparalleled singer of jazz, of gospel, of country and western. He has drawn from each of these musical streams
and made a river on which he alone can navigate.
Such is the unique quality of Ray Charles, it is only right, although we are a long way from Ray Charles in America, his music would really have touched nearly each and every one of us in this place. I pay homage to the genius of Ray Charles.
Motion agreed to; the Assembly adjourned.
Last updated: 04 Aug 2016