2003-10-07
Madam Speaker Braham took the Chair at 10am.
Madam SPEAKER: Honourable members, I wish to advise that I have given approval for ABC television and Channel 9 to film with sound and NT News to take photographs during the swearing in of the new member for Katherine.
Madam SPEAKER: Honourable members, I draw your attention to the presence in the Speaker’s Gallery of Mr Mike Reed, the former member for Katherine; and the family and friends of Mrs Fay Miller. On behalf of all honourable members, I extend you a warm welcome.
Members: Hear, hear.
Madam SPEAKER: I advise honourable members that, on 12 September 2003, I received the resignation of the former member for Katherine, Mr Michael Anthony Reed, submitted to me by letter pursuant to section 18 of the Northern Territory (Self-Government) Act 1978. I table the letter. I call on the Clerk.
The CLERK: Honourable members, I lay on the table the return to the writ issued by his Honour the Administrator, Mr John Anictomatis AO, on 7 October 2003 for the election of a member for the electoral division of Katherine on 4 October 2003, and certifying the election of Mrs Christina Fay Miller.
Christina Fay Miller made and subscribed the oaths required by law.
Madam SPEAKER: Honourable members, I have received Message No 17 from His Honour the Administrator notifying assent to the bills passed in the August 2003 sittings.
Mr BURKE (Opposition Leader)(by leave): Madam Speaker, following the resignation from the Legislative Assembly of the former member for Katherine, Mike Reed, the CLP Parliamentary Wing has elected the member for Greatorex as Deputy Opposition Leader. The member for Daly remains opposition whip and manager of opposition business.
The allocation of portfolios is:
member for Brennan, Denis Burke - Leader of the Opposition; Treasurer; Territory Development;
AustralAsia Railways; and Racing and Gaming and Licensing.
member for Greatorex, Richard Lim - Deputy Leader of the Opposition; Chairman, Policy Development
Committee; Transport and Infrastructure; Corporate and Information Services; Communications; Ethnic Affairs;
and Central Australia.
member for Daly, Tim Baldwin: Leader of Opposition Business and Whip; Primary Industry and Fisheries;
Environment and Heritage; and Parks and Wildlife.
The other shadow cabinet members in alphabetical order are:
Jodeen Carney, member for Araluen - Attorney-General and Justice; Tourism; and Women’s Policy;
Sue Carter, member for Port Darwin - Health and Community Services; Senior Territorians; and Arts and Museums;
Stephen Dunham, member for Drysdale – Business, Industry and Resource Development; Defence Support;
and Essential Services;
John Elferink, member for Macdonnell - Police, Fire and Emergency Services; Local Government;
Business Affairs; Community Development; and Regional Development;
Peter Maley, member for Goyder - Lands and Planning; and Housing;
Terry Mills, member for Blain - Employment, Education and Training; Asian Relations and Trade;
Sport and Recreation; and Youth.
I indicate, Madam Speaker, that I expect to call on the new member for Katherine to take her place in the shadow ministry in the next few months.
Madam SPEAKER: Honourable members, I should make a statement about the state of my hand. I want to make it clear to you that I did not fall out of bed in Samoa when we had an earth tremor. I did not do it at Bad Billy’s Bar, where I was not a patron. I did it in a moment of foolishness rushing out of the door to see a boat race. I assure you I am not sick; I am injured. So I will not be shaking hands with you for a while.
Ms Martin: What did you do to it? Break it?
Madam SPEAKER: My wrist? I put my hand out to save myself from falling and crunched my wrist. That is to allay the fears of the media who might be thinking I am retiring or something because of ill-health.
Ms MARTIN (Chief Minister): Madam Speaker, my sympathies about your hand. I hope it is not too long in repairing.
Ms MARTIN (Chief Minister): Madam Speaker, it is my great pleasure to inform the Assembly that songwriter, author, film maker and Australian bush icon, Ted Egan AM, is to be the next Administrator of the Northern Territory.
Members: Hear hear!
Ms MARTIN The former federal Minister for Regional Services, Territories and Local Government, Wilson Tuckey, and I jointly announced the appointment last Wednesday. I am delighted that Ted Egan agreed to accept the nomination, and I am sure that all Territorians and Assembly members join me in welcoming this appointment.
Ted Egan is a man of great depth and will be willing and able to engage with all members of the Territory’s diverse communities. He is truly a people’s person. Ted Egan is also a great and committed Territorian and, I am sure, will make a wonderful Administrator. He will be ably assisted in the task by his partner, Nerys Evans.
After arriving in the Territory in 1949, Ted has lived here for most of his life. He has had a long and varied career as a teacher, community activist, author, patrol officer, bush poet, balladeer, sportsman and public servant. He also has a distinguished record of service to our community in many other areas. He was awarded the Order of Australia in 1991 for his services to Aboriginal people. This work included promoting the earliest forms of the Homelands Movement in 1960 as he worked in parts of the Territory such as Borroloola, Yuendumu, Maningrida and Groote Eylandt. As a patrol officer, Ted was also involved in the original Wave Hill Station strike in 1967, along with other noted Territorians such as Ted Evans, Jack Doolan, Brian Manning and, of course, Vincent Lingiari.
In 2002, Ted Egan was awarded an honorary doctorate by the Northern Territory University for his ongoing contribution to Australia’s literary heritage. Ted gained his first university degree by correspondence while working in the bush in the 1960s and later received a Master of Arts for his book on The Life and Trial of Dhakiyarr. Ted was also present earlier this year at the special Wukidi ceremony in Darwin’s Supreme Court which recognised the tragic events that surrounded Dhakiyarr’s trial and conviction.
Ted Egan is also the 2003 Territorian of the Year. As an entertainer, Ted has contributed enormously to Australia’s rich and diverse heritage through his song and his verse. He is an enormously community spirited man. Federal territories minister, Wilson Tuckey, also congratulated Ted Egan on his appointment and said that he was sure Ted would be an excellent Administrator.
The new Administrator’s appointment is from 31 October this year. He will be sworn in by Governer-General, Major-General Michael Jeffrey in November. The Deputy of the Administrator, Pat Miller, will act in the position until Ted Egan is sworn in. Ted replaces retiring Administrator, John Anictomatis, who completes his three-year term of office at the end of this month, 30 October.
Madam Speaker, I place on record my appreciation of the work of John Anictomatis and his wife, Jeanette, over that three year period. They have carried out their public duties in an exemplary way, I believe, Madam Speaker, and with distinction, and will take with them the very best wishes of the people of the Northern Territory.
Members: Hear, hear!
Ms MARTIN Ted Egan will become the Territory’s Administrator with the warm congratulations of the Assembly, and I am sure the vast majority of Territorians. Madam Speaker, I commend Ted Egan’s appointment to members of the House and to all Territorians.
Mr BURKE (Opposition Leader): Madam Speaker, I indicate from the opposition’s perspective our full endorsement of the government’s decision in appointing Ted Egan as our new Administrator. I believe it is an excellent decision warmly welcomed by Territorians. It brings to the office of Administrator another person who shows the true character of the Northern Territory. As the Chief Minister has indicated, this is a man who has not only devoted the greater part of his life to the Northern Territory in terms of songs, poetry and story telling, and he epitomises and personally guards the character of the Northern Territory.
Once again, I endorse the government’s decision. The opposition looks forward to working fully and cooperatively with our Administrator and wishes Ted Egan and his wife and family all the very best in their role in the challenging position of Administrator of the Northern Territory.
I reserve my comments with regards to Mr Anictomatis for a later day, when I take the opportunity to speak fully on his service to the Northern Territory as Administrator.
Mr STIRLING (Employment, Education and Training): Madam Speaker, we, as the government, take the safety of Territory workers seriously. This morning I want to update the House on ongoing reform and activity that we are undertaking to improve work place safety, with particular reference to staff and staffing arrangements.
The launch of the new NT WorkSafe in June this year was the culmination at that time of a series of major reforms. Without going through each of them, I highlight the 15 amendments to the Work Health Act without cutting benefits in any way, with a focus on improving the return to work; the stage two reforms implementing elements of the Lord Report focussing on the medical intervention issues; and the development of a strategic and business plan for NT WorkSafe; as well, an historic commitment by the territory, state and federal governments to a national Occupational Health and Safety Strategy, including targets fixed in there; and we are currently undertaking further reforms through the stage three review of the occupational health and safety provisions of the Work Health Act.
Progress has already been made on a number of fronts, including: prevention programs in the areas of gas, fireworks and construction industries; re-establishment of the Work Health Advisory Council; a fireworks safety strategy developed after consultation with industry and input from the public; establishment of a working group, which is to recommend the introduction of a Construction Safety induction card; delivery of safety management awareness training for employers and employees throughout regional centres, Darwin and targeted remote areas; and improved occupational licensing application and processing arrangements between the Territory Business Centre and NT WorkSafe.
Madam Speaker, it is in the area of staffing that we have made a major change in focus from our predecessors. When we came to power, the Work Health Authority had a staff of around 30; several vacancies were evident throughout the organisation. The number had been eroded from previous high levels of staff in the late 1980s, up around 50-55. Since coming to office, we have built the number back to 37, 15 staff positions, six new and the filling of nine vacancies were advertised a few weeks ago and achieved because of the commitment by the government to an additional $500 000 for staffing in the 2003-04 budget. Of the 37 positions, Darwin has 31, two in Katherine and four in Alice Springs. The Deputy Opposition Leader’s comments calling for WorkSafe staff to be placed in Alice Springs was a bit of a surprise recently. He really ought to visit that office and meet those four staffers there. An existing Darwin-based WorkSafe officer position was transferred, along with the Road Transport program, from Darwin to Alice Springs.
A new organisational chart and the redesign and introduction of new positions has been approved and implemented, and regular relationship building now occurs between the unit, unions and business. I am appreciative of the efforts of staff in WorkSafe and DEET who have invested a lot of time in building those critical relationships. More regular cross-agency meetings with police, fire and rescue service, DBIRD, Mines and Energy Division, the Territory Business Centre and Infrastructure, Planning and Environment Transport unit also occurs so that the relationship within government is being strengthened and enhanced as well. These reforms will bring results for our workplace and our workers who can look forward to working in safer workplaces than before.
Mr MILLS (Blain): Madam Speaker, with the implementation of stage 3, I would request a briefing, minister, on that particular phase and how we are set to see that unfold. The cyanide spill has had repercussions right through the industry sector, whose concern is primarily that the agency that we are speaking to, in this instance, is solely serving to protect workers rather than to play an active policing role on industry and to be restrictive. Sure, the spirit of this legislation and this agency is to ensure that we do make gains and make it easier for industry. I also note, with the workload that is currently on WorkSafe in these restructures, that the paper last week indicated significant job advertisements which, to me, indicates very seriously the lack of staffing we do have in WorkSafe at this current time. I do note the comments that you have made but, in effect, we do have a significant shortfall in manned positions within WorkSafe at this current point in time.
Mr STIRLING (Employment, Education and Training): Madam Speaker, I believe the cyanide episode did reveal deficiencies which government is working on. However, I put this on the record: it occurred on the 8th in wet weather, in a remote and isolated part of the Territory where there were no witnesses. It was the 11th before the Central Land Council and the police were notified of it. Three days, continuing wet weather, and it was the 13th before WorkSafe was involved. So, five days had elapsed before it was brought to Work Health for investigation. There were difficulties, of course, with the site, with the continued wet weather, not helped with contamination of the evidence that was collected at the time. But with the best will in the world, the best resourcing in the world, when you have a remote, isolated part of the Territory, no witnesses, the wet weather, the best investigation in the world is going to have difficulty coming up with evidence that was going to stand up in court on this matter.
Suffice to say, processes have been improved and refined, as with resourcing and training in these matters. I still maintain, the best investigation in the world was going to be very difficult, given the situation around this spill. Suffice to say, that company no longer works in that part of the Territory.
Dr TOYNE (Justice and Attorney-General): Madam Speaker, in recent years the Northern Territory’s Correctional Services have experienced changes in both the increased number of prisoners being accommodated and in the changed custodial practice and procedures. Some operational practices have not kept pace with the changing demands. Detailed discussions have been recently held between myself, the CEO of the Department of Justice, senior Corrections staff, the Northern Territory Prison Officers Association, the Senior Prison Officers Association, and the Liquor and Hospitality (Miscellaneous Workers) Union.
Those discussions have identified the need for an independent review, focussing on current and future adult custodial needs in the Northern Territory. Increasing prison numbers and the staffing resource and other issues that brings means that broad consideration of Corrections is necessary to ensure that it is following the best staffing and custodial practice.
These discussions also highlighted the need for immediate interim measures to be put in place until the review is complete. Those interim measures include overtime and staffing level arrangements. They have been developed in close consultation with the union and two prison officers’ associations, and address some of the immediate needs of the staff at the prison. They have reduced lockdown significantly and halted the unrest that was starting to become evident amongst some of the prisoners.
Draft terms of reference for the review have also been agreed on with the staff associations and the union. Under those terms of reference, the prisons, the management regimes and capacity to meet current and future prisoner needs will be considered. The review will look at best practice standards in adult custodial practice in containment, offender rehabilitation and reintegration, reparation, offender care, and advice to sentencing authorities. The department has identified several suitable people who could undertake the review and is in the process of following procurement rules. The review will be a wide one and all relevant stakeholders will be given the opportunity to provide input. I anticipate that a report on the outcomes of the review will be made available to me in early 2004.
Madam Speaker, this review into custodial services in the Northern Territory is an opportunity to develop a Corrections service which is specifically designed to cater for the needs of the Territory, which will target offenders in prison to help reduce re-offending, and which operates to best practice standards.
I welcome and encourage the input of the Corrections staff, prisoners and the wider community into this important review.
Ms CARNEY (Araluen): Madam Speaker, I thank the minister for that statement. No doubt the minister considers a review timely but I am advised by prison officers that in fact a review was meant to commence in March and it was stalled for reasons they do not know. What the minister did not refer to was what he intends to do about the chronically low staffing numbers until March next year which is, as I understand it, when the first recruitment course finishes.
There is a requirement – in fact, a great, urgent need – for government to act now. Whilst, on the one hand, we welcome a review, on the other, we note that it is beyond time that the review is commissioned and, in any event, that there are certain things that need to be urgently addressed.
It is the case, on the information that I have, that, for instance, prisoners are being locked in their cells for significantly longer periods than is otherwise the case and that has been happening since February this year. It is fascinating to note that this government has not, apparently, done anything about this; this government that was so critical of the CLP for daring to gaol anyone. This government is now in a position where there are more indigenous people in these gaols and not enough staff to look after them. Eighty-two percent is the latest figures on indigenous imprisonment, and this government, this minister, seem completely unconcerned about that. I would like to see the minister showing some sort of compassion, not only for the prisoners in gaol, about whom he cared a great deal prior to the election, and, in particular, the prison officers who are really working very hard in pretty dreadful conditions.
Mr WOOD (Nelson): Madam Speaker, I also welcome the review. I think it is long overdue. I have spoken in this House several times about my concerns about the closure of Wildman River. It is open at the present time, I believe, because of overcrowding in Don Dale. The government has given me a briefing on the possible expansion of Don Dale. I am just wondering whether the government would hold off on that expansion until the review occurs? It would be a bit silly to put something in place if you are now going to have a review. I would like to hear what the minister has to say about whether the review would cover any expansion of juvenile facilities.
Dr TOYNE (Justice and Attorney-General): Madam Speaker, I thank the members for most of their comments. I can give a quick answer to that. We have to proceed with putting extra capacity into Don Dale and indeed into the main prison at Berrimah. We are not going to hold off on progressing that because there is a clear need for them.
The member for Araluen has shown in the past that she does not have a good ear for detail. In the statement I have just made I referred to the interim measures that we have put in place and they have included reforms on the number of escorts that are going on, the actual rostering system, the overtime; things are now fully balanced so that we can conduct this review and learn from the results. In terms of the situation at the prison, you are probably about a month out of date. I suggest that maybe you should come and get a briefing and we will tell you what we have done.
Caring for Children Reform Agenda
Mrs AAGAARD (Health and Community Services): Madam Speaker, today I rise to report on this government’s response to community concerns about the care and protection of children.
Caring for our children, keeping them safe and healthy, and making sure they have the best possible start in life is one of the greatest challenges we face as families, community members, and as a government. The Northern Territory government views its role in child and family policy as primarily that of supporting parents, as they can better care for their children. Strong families and communities offer the best possibility for ensuring that children grow up happy, healthy and capable members of society.
Today, I am announcing the government’s Caring for our Children reform agenda. This reform agenda initially comprises two important initiatives - a review of the Community Welfare Act, the development of new legislation for children and families; and a consultative review of child protection systems and practice. These are two separate but complementary initiatives. The combined outcomes will be a strong framework of law, enhanced professional practice and efficient, effective systems with improved inter-agency and community partnerships. These outcomes will provide the foundation for the future care and development and protection of our children and the support of families and communities in the Northern Territory.
New legislation for children and families will replace the existing Community Welfare Act 1983 which has as its purpose ‘to provide for the protection and care of children and the promotion of family welfare and for other purposes’. The outcome of this review process will be legislation aimed at protecting children from abuse and neglect; ensuring effective mechanisms to care for children when they cannot live safely with their family; promoting prevention, early intervention and family support services; to maximise the capacity of families to care for their children; ensuring the quality of care and development services for children, including child care; and incorporating appropriate cultural arrangements to reflect indigenous and ethnic communities.
Whilst the current Community Welfare Act has provided a legislative framework for the care and protection of children in the Northern Territory for over two decades, it is timely that we develop legislation that is responsive to the needs of our current society and flexible enough to adapt to changes in the years ahead.
The legislative reform process has already commenced with consultation across the Territory over the past several months. Over the next six months I anticipate the introduction of an initial amendment of the existing act and the preparation of a draft bill that will be made available for broad community comment.
On 27 August this year, I announced that a review of child protection services would occur in order to strengthen the child protection system. The role of the state in regards to the lives of children and families has changed over time. This role has been in response to, and informed by, the political, ideological, social, economic values and beliefs at the time. All families require a range of services depending on their needs. Families can choose to access these services depending on their specific needs.
In the Northern Territory, a mix of government and non-government agencies provide these services. Sometimes the state must intervene in relation to specific children and families rather than wait for families to seek assistance from them. This usually occurs when the family is unable or unwilling to care for the child or where their care is harmful to the child. It is at these times that the state, on behalf of the community, intervenes.
In order to intervene appropriately, effectively, legally, and skilfully, we need to ensure that our child protection system is the best that it can possibly be. Over time, this reform will yield a range of benefits such as better outcomes for children and families; improve access to relevant services; more effective and efficient service delivery systems and structures; greater accountability to the community and, in particular, to families, children and young people; cohesive and collaborative inter-agency partnerships; and working relationships that reflect a whole-of-government approach.
The review process and its outcomes will ensure that the cultural values of indigenous and ethnic communities are reflected in all aspects of the child protection system, and that particular challenges posed by the geographic remoteness and isolation that some children, families and communities experience are taken into account.
Madam Speaker, I am pleased to report on the progress that has already been made in the review of the Territory’s child protection system. Consultations have commenced and leading experts in the field have been invited to work with us. A reference group is being formed with membership from the community, which will provide advice to both this initiative and the legislative review.
This review is considering the child protection system in its broadest form. Our child protection system is not just a government system, but one that also includes not-for-profit agencies, the corporate sector and the community. We are fooling ourselves if we think that protection of the Territory’s children is only the responsibility of one section of one government department. It is everyone’s responsibility to work towards building a better child protection system.
In conclusion, let me reaffirm this government’s commitment to the care, development and protection of children, and the support of Territory families and communities in care for their children.
Ms CARTER (Port Darwin): Madam Speaker, I welcome the minister’s report this morning, particularly with regard to the review of the Community Welfare Act. I am quite sure the opposition looks forward to having input as time goes by.
However, with regard to your comments with the review of child protection, I have to ask several questions. First, why is the review being done internally, given the serious nature of this issue and the significant community interest in the issue? Why must it be done internally, which begs the question: once it is completed, will the report be made public? Will we be able to see what the report has to say about this important issue in our community? Who will head the review? When will it be finished? These are the questions that I would like you to answer.
Also, if it going to take some time – and I suspect something like this will take some time – what about now? What his happening now? How long are cases having to wait before somebody makes some sort of intervention? What is the waiting list? How substantial is it? How long do people have to wait once your unit receives a complaint?
I understand, for example, that there can be quite significant waits. Certainly, from reports I have received, there are concerns from the community with regards to how staff have responded to concerns, which indicates significant stress within the unit from the limited staff who are in there now. I encourage you to do all you can to deal with the current crisis, rather than waiting for the review, to help staff who are in that unit dealing with a very, very difficult situation.
Mrs AAGAARD (Health and Community Services): Madam Speaker, when I became the minister in 2001, I learnt that in the area of child protection the Northern Territory had the lowest per capita funding of any jurisdiction in Australia for child protection. A very lamentable state. At that point, this government put in $2.4m to improve this area.
Today, I have been outlining what we are doing to improve this area. Once again, we were left with a dreadful system. Our children have not been protected adequately over a very long period of time. Just this morning I asked some officers in my department to have a look at Hansard to see what kind of comments have been made by the CLP over many years about child protection. Over the last decade, we failed to find one reference to child protection or neglect. Not one comment made by the CLP in the past decade. Maybe, the actual result was not correct there. There is no interest in child protection from that side. This is mere political bunkum.
Reports noted pursuant to Sessional Order.
Continued from 21 August 2003.
Ms CARNEY (Araluen): Madam Speaker, I will be fairly brief. It is the case that my colleague, the member for Drysdale, will also be talking on this bill. I can say from the outset that the previous government did consult extensively on this issue and, as was said in the second reading speech by the Attorney-General, the report of the working party was tabled in parliament in 2001. My advice is that a bill was to be presented in the following sittings but, for fairly obvious reasons, that was not done.
Congratulations to government. The way I see this is that I am not really fussed who introduces it. Some changes did need to be made. I, and the opposition, are supportive of the bill. It is not surprising that we would be supportive because, whether the other side like it or not, the previous government and this government were all heading in the same direction to achieve …
Mr Henderson: You did nothing from 1997 to 2001. You did nothing.
Ms CARNEY: As if you would know, member for Wanguri.
Mr Henderson: I do know. Talk to the member for Greatorex. He sat on his hands for three years.
Ms CARNEY: They were heading in the same direction. The consultation that the CLP did over a period of years was much longer than the so-called consultation that your side did, member for Wanguri.
Mr Henderson: You voted down our bill in the House. You voted against it.
Ms CARNEY: However, it was not my intention to get involved in the petty politics that we associate so much with the member for Wanguri. I was attempting to be sincere and conciliatory, but obviously, the member for Wanguri has taken his nasty pill today and he is hot to trot. If you want to put the boxing gloves on, put them on, but my view is life is probably too short, given this sort of legislation. With the consent of the member for Wanguri, I will get back to it.
Further to the consultation undertaken by the previous government, there has been widespread consultation with industry groups. We have spoken to many of those groups. We understand that although not everyone is happy, most of the relevant organisations are, with the exception of the prickly issue of ratchet clauses. The Law Society has considered it; it has no major objections, although I understand that there is still some concern about the fact that the bill does not apply to all retail shops - that is contained in clause 6 of the bill, and some leases contained in clause 7 of the bill.
I note that there are to be educational programs; that was highlighted by the Attorney-General in his second reading speech of 21 August. Those educational programs, as I understand it, will be run from now on until the bill is gazetted. I ask the Attorney-General to indicate in his reply whether money or other resources have been set aside for that educational program. I also ask if he would be good enough to detail the type of education campaign that is considered. I also note, from the second reading speech, that the Department of Justice was to have completed a National Competition Policy review of the bill by the time of its passage, and I ask the Attorney-General to update us on that. We would also be grateful if he would indicate whether that review met the objectives that most of us are inclined to think the bill will, that is, that the benefits of the proposals contained therein justify the costs on the community of this bill. I look forward to that response. I suspect that the review was favourable, but I would be grateful to receive the Attorney-General’s comment on it.
No doubt, with legislation of this nature, there are likely to be some early teething problems. I will diarise the matter and perhaps, in 12 months, write to the Attorney-General and ask him to either report to me or, alternatively, to the House to provide us with an overview.
As I said at the outset, the previous government and this government do share a commitment to ensuring that landlords and tenants enter into tenancy arrangements that are fair to all parties; that is important. In conclusion, I indicate that there are no objections to any specific clauses, and that includes the amendments, most of which I received this morning.
Ms MARTIN (Chief Minister): Madam Speaker, a very brief contribution from the shadow minister.
Ms Carney: Well, why fill in time just for the sake of it, Clare?
Ms MARTIN: I am interested that she has more to say now that she is sitting down than she had when she stood up, which is a curious thing.
Ms Carney: Oh, very witty, very witty!
Ms MARTIN: This is a very important bill for the Territory.
Ms Carney: Absolutely! Some of us can be succinct!
Ms MARTIN: It is interesting, as I said, more to say while she is sitting down than when she was on her feet. That is the member for Araluen: all talk, not much action.
It is interesting to hear the member for Araluen - just briefly to respond to what she said in her very brief response to this important bill on behalf of the opposition - trying to create the impression that the opposition had been strongly supporting, be it business tenancies, fair dealings in any form, if you want to talk about commercial tenancies or retail tenancies. It is certainly good to have the member for Daly in the House while we are talking about this, because he is the one who could not manage …
Mr BALDWIN: Point of order, Madam Speaker!
Ms MARTIN: … to actually bring a bill to the House in all of that time that he was minister responsible …
Madam SPEAKER: Order, Chief Minister.
Mr BALDWIN: The member for Fannie Bay cannot reflect on whether I am in the House, or out of the House. She knows better!
Ms MARTIN: I was reflecting it was good to have him here.
Madam SPEAKER: There is no point of order. The reference was not done in a way that would be demeaning to you. In fact, the minister was referring to your presence here.
Ms MARTIN: I am sorry for the member for Daly if I did imply that he was not in the House previously. I was not meaning to do that; I was just saying it was good to have him here for this debate, because we could not get the support from him when he was the minister responsible for Business for an important piece of legislation to support our retailers. I am very interested to hear his response to this bill and if, as we are hearing from the shadow minister, the member for Araluen, that really all along - well disguised - that the CLP has been supportive of retail tenancies and something in the wind was holding them back in supporting it.
We had, year after year - the best part of a decade - minister after minister in this House talking about the importance of retail tenancy, but never being able to produce a bill; always finding some problem. The former member for Nightcliff, when he was minister for Business had a parliamentary investigation and he said: ‘Yes, we support this’. Did it ever turn into a bill? No! We also had the member for Greatorex given the special task by the then Chief Minister, the member for Port Darwin, saying: ‘He has a special task and he is going to go away and find out how to introduce retail tenancy or business tenancies’. Nothing happened!
Then we got to March 2000, when I, as Opposition Leader, responding to the pressures on retail tenants in the Territory, introduced a bill into this House. Do you know what? Despite all the rhetoric, despite the words of years and years, I could not get support from the then government - could not get any level of support from the then government. The member for Daly, when he was the minister, would not support the bill and again said ‘We will look at it in the fullness of time’.
So, it has been disgraceful, despite what the member for Araluen might say in 2003. There is a very long history of about 10 to 13 years to do with retail tenancies. Never did the CLP actually produce a bill, recognise the importance of this legislation supporting our small retailers, and actually giving them an underpinning to be able to flourish and support economic development in the Territory. Never did they introduce it!
Therefore, this is a very important day as we look to pass the Business Tenancies (Fair Dealings) Bill in this House. The Martin Labor government came to office two years ago with a firm commitment to introduce retail tenancy legislation to address the issues that have been raised over the previous decade, but never acted on by the then government.
As I mentioned, the bill that I introduced into the House in 2000 was debated. There was a reasonable debate, but it was defeated along party lines. At that time I informed the Assembly that all jurisdictions, every part of Australia, had retail tenancy in place. The only place that did not was the Territory, and we had a minister who popped off to a ministerial council a couple of years before that and signed up on the line at ministerial council and said, ‘Yes, we will be part of retail tenancies.’ There was a very strong move towards national legislation so that if you had a major landlord working in Sydney or Perth or Darwin the same legislation would apply. It made sense. So, we had a minister going to the ministerial council and saying to other ministers, ‘Yes, we will do it’, and not doing anything. That was 1998.
The CLP has failed, failed, failed in this area and has failed to act whilst in government in the best interests of the Territory, in the best interest of retailers. We are happy for people to have changes of heart, to get some spine and some backbone. So, if we are now hearing the opposition actually support this bill, we welcome people when they see the light, when they actually look at what the needs of Territory retailers are and recognise that legislation is a foundation for growth. It is a foundation for growth. This legislation brings the Territory’s legislation framework into line with other jurisdictions.
It is not about imposing a burdensome, regulatory regime on business but rather establishing the parameters of sound business conduct in an open and transparent way with disputes able to be resolved in ways that contain costs for both parties. And it is very important to contain those costs. Currently, retailers only option is to go to court; it is expensive, it is time consuming. Now we will have a much more effective way to deal with those disputes when they do occur. Hopefully, this legislation will spell out more clearly what the arrangement, or what the contract, is between the landlord and the tenant. As such, it is likely to promote further investment by property developers and retailers in the Territory and so boosting employment and the level of economic activity generally.
The retail sector in the Territory is one the largest employment sectors that we have. The vast majority of retailers employ less than 10 employees and therefore are small businesses, micro ones. This government is all about encouraging small business, particularly in Business Month in the Territory, and certainly recognises the commitment of our Business minister to October Business Month. He was in Katherine last night launching October Business Month. There was a great roll up - 90 people – which certainly demonstrated the strong support for the Labor government we saw in Katherine on the weekend.
The government is all about encouraging small business in the Territory and giving them the very best opportunity to make a success of their business. This bill provides a framework that outlines the accepted rules of conduct of lessees and lessors, protecting them from unfair practices, and at the same time enhancing the job security of thousands of Territorians. The bill is designed to cover leased retail premises both in shopping centres and main street or strip shopping precincts. However, it does exclude large retail premises over 1000 m and publicly listed corporations such as your average Woollies and Coles supermarkets or cinema complexes.
The bill includes a speedy, low cost procedure for resolving disputes - as I indicated before, critical to this and very important. In the first instance, parties to a dispute are required to refer the matter to the Commissioner of Business Tenancies. Generally, mediation or conciliation will follow and through that process the parties will attempt to resolve the matter between themselves. Interstate experience suggests that this model will be effective in resolving disputes and therefore avoid the need for formal court proceedings. No court action can be taken without the commissioner writing a certificate stating that conciliation has failed or that the commissioner is of the view that conciliation would not resolve the dispute.
The Attorney-General informs me that his department has consulted widely on this bill and has received submissions from many Territorians on the proposal. I am pleased to say that feedback has been very positive. Territorians want to see a positive, regulatory regime covering this aspect of their business. The Department of Justice held consultation sessions in every major Territory centre earlier this year and valuable comment was forthcoming from many individual retailers through that process.
The Chamber of Commerce has commended government on this legislation and has participated actively in its development in its own right and as an affiliate of the Australian Retailers Association. The Property Council and the Shopping Centre Council has also been actively involved in consultation on this legislation. Whilst referring to the Australian Retailers Association, before I introduced the previous legislation in 2000, I spoke in Sydney to the Australian Retailers Association, and they had very strong concerns about Territory retailers. The fact that we were the only part of Australia not covered by retail tenancy legislation was of significant concern to them. They had spoken to the previous government a number of times and were despairing of ever having any result coming through legislation from the then government despite the rhetoric, despite the claims of ‘Yes, we are doing something about it’. You had a significant organisation like the Australian Retailers Association despairing of the CLP government ever doing anything.
Madam Speaker, this legislation fulfils an important commitment of this government, and I am confident it will be of assistance to many small businesses in the Territory. I commend the Department of Justice for the work it has done, and I commend this bill to the House.
Mr DUNHAM (Drysdale): That was a brief contribution from the Chief Minister. It is a bit surprising, really, given that she has such a chequered history in this matter. Very, very brief. It is good to see that she is in the parliament to listen to what we have to say.
Madam SPEAKER: Member for Drysdale, I am beginning to get annoyed at some of the offensive remarks coming from your way. That was a little bit smart. I suggest you get on with your comments without …
Mr DUNHAM: Madam Speaker, I did not know it was a point of order to point out they were here.
Madam SPEAKER: Member for Drysdale, you know what I am talking about. Just get on with your speech.
Mr DUNHAM: Okay. Right-o. The Chief Minister would have us believe that when Leader of the Opposition, she brought a wonderful piece of legislation to this parliament in the year 2000. It was so good that she was disappointed that it did not get up. You have to wonder why this act, being passed today, is so different if that was so good.
You would have to wonder, if you had legislation sitting on the shelf and you had this as one of your first priorities, why it has taken you a couple of years. Why didn’t you just wind out, with your numbers, the legislation you introduced through a Private Member’s Bill, and drop it into parliament as soon as you were elected? Why did you not do that? Because it was flawed, because it was not appropriate for Northern Territory usage and because it was a stunt, on your behalf, of plagiarising New South Wales legislation, dropping it in here and saying: ‘I care, I am concerned. You don’t because you are voting against that’.
If it was so good, why has it taken you two years? Because it was flawed. You chose instead to choose what? The legislation we had prepared. Now, this must tell you something. When you said excuses were used as to why the bill was not produced, it was a pretty good excuse: the parliament was prorogued, if I recall. There was an election. While we would have liked to have gone through with the bill, there was a thing called an election, and the conventions of our Westminster system mean that all of that froze. So let’s talk about that threshold time when the election was called, when we were ready to go ahead with legislation which is now before us. You had two options: either the member for Fannie Bay’s bill pinched from New South Wales, which she reckoned was pretty good at the time; or option two, the hard, good work that had been done by the CLP.
It has taken you two years to drop this. It has taken you two years to bring it in, so do not give us all these platitudes about how urgent it is, how it is a fundamental part of your platform and all that stuff. That is nonsense. You have been sitting on your hands with this.
Let us go to October Business Month, business is going to love this and all the rest of it. Yes, business have signed off on this, and that is a great thing. But when you say this will mean there will be further investment in the Northern Territory, further jobs and further population, we would like you to put your hand on your heart, cross your fingers and promise that. Since you have come into power, everything that you have done to improve business has not resulted in additional jobs and has not resulted in additional population. So if you are so clever about this new strand of business confidence that will come from this, let’s see that turn around, let’s see the change. We have not seen it because there is a lack of confidence in this government. Despite Access Economics continuing to promise that things will get better in the future, those promises are being toned down, report by report, and they are now down some percentage points on their original bullish optimism.
Let us have a look at what you are doing for small business. Let us have a look at why your Treasurer took 12% more in own source taxation last year than he thought he was going to, and let us have a look at his reason for doing that. He said: ‘We have done that because there are some businesses out there doing well’. Well, okay Treasurer, 12%. I assume most of them are on line ball, that means there has to be a couple doing swimmingly well, because you have been reaping taxes out of them. You tried your little trick of pinching their motor car tax with your vehicle registration, and that was seen through pretty quick and, thankfully, you adopted the opposition’s position which we have been pleading with you about, of getting rid of that stupid tax.
I would ask you also minister, that you …
Ms Martin: Is he talking about the bill? What is he going on about?
Mr DUNHAM: You talked about October business month – to pick up the interjection. The interjection about what has it got to do with business was something that you introduced. You believed that this bill was so good that it would improve job prospects and population, and I am telling you …
Ms Martin: You are such an attractive person, really.
Mr DUNHAM: I am a very attractive person, thank you, and I am glad you are attracted to me. It is not reciprocated, I have to tell you.
The other thing I have to tell you, minister, is that you as a government tenant play a big role in this town. As a government tenant, you should look at some of these behaviours that you are talking about. I know some landlords that have had great difficulty negotiating with you as a tenant, and using leverage and influence and other things to bully people. That is okay, you are trying to get the best position for government. However, if you are going to stand by some of the things that you talk about in this bill such as good will between parties and all the rest of it, and an equal basis for negotiation, you should be careful with some of the things you do to landlords, particularly small landlords in this place, where sometimes your tenancies are quite a large part of their property.
I would caution you to not to see this as the big, good, old Labor government sticking up for the small consumer, because sometimes you are actually a big consumer and sometimes, at the negotiating table, you bring a lot more weight to bear than the landlord might, particularly if it is a small landlord whose focus is mainly here.
We will get the history straight. There was a discussion paper. It did start in about 2000 and was ready to go to parliament mid-2001. In the year before, the Leader of the Opposition brought through a pinched piece of legislation from New South Wales. We now have a situation where pretty much it has gone through, but tardily. We have the government putting its hand on its heart and pretending to encourage business and small business, which is patently not the case in various pieces of legislation that have been brought before us in the last two years. I caution the government to be careful in matters relating to tenancy where it uses standover tactics as a tenant against captive landlords in some cases, who have no choice but to bow to government’s wishes.
Mr WOOD (Nelson): Madam Speaker, my contribution will definitely be brief, because I believe it is actually good legislation. It will be welcomed by many small business people who rent their premises.
Small business is the backbone of our economy, and I have said that before time and time again, and it is important that government supports them in their efforts. Sadly, one area which has caused problems to small business is renting. This bill sets out a fair process for both parties. There are provisions that set out the rights and duties of each party before they enter into a lease arrangement. One such duty is a disclosure statement which must be handed to the landlord and the tenant before entering into a lease.
For a number of years, a friend of mine operated a barber shop in Nightcliff. She had problems with some of the wiring, which needed replacing or repairing. Now you would have thought that was the job of the landlord. In this case, it was not. She had to pay for the upgrade of the wiring to continue her business. If this legislation had been in operation then, she clearly would have known her rights, and would not have had to pay for upgrades to the premises which she definitely did not have to incur, but she had not much option. If she did not repair the wiring, she could not have continued her business.
The disclosure statement is perhaps one which could be included in dealings with the sale of land. I recently spoke in parliament about the problem of gazumping, which I believe is an unethical part of the real estate industry. Disclosure statements as part of a sale contract could perhaps eliminate gazumping. Although I have had a briefing from the minister, which I appreciate, I would like to know if tenants are protected if they do not wish to sign up for a five-year term. I noticed, minister, in the second reading speech you said:
I ask the minister to explain what rights a tenant has if they do not want to sign up for five years.
I believe the changes will reduce the chances of small business people being caught up by costs which they had not foreseen, especially with matters such as relocation or disturbance of the premises. It must be very hard for a small business to think they are operating quite well when the landlord comes along and says: ‘Well, we are going to paint the shops this week, you will have to move out’, or ‘We will shove you over in another shop which has does not have the same location’. Of course, that can affect a small business. Many small businesses operate on low profits and any change can certainly affect the profitability of their business. I see that, again, as a good piece of legislation.
Lastly, if the government is now going to say that we have this legislation they should make sure the people in small business know about it. I hope they advertise the fact and perhaps write to small businesses advising of the changes, and making sure, of course, landlords know that these are the changes. It is not much good having this legislation passed if people do not know about it. I imagine that some advertising material in plain English should go out to explain to people their rights. It would be welcomed by many people. I mentioned the case of a lady operating in Nightcliff, and I know of other cases where people have found it hard, for instance, to get a landlord to put something in writing to tell them what the rent would be for the next five years. I certainly think that it would be a great benefit.
Madam Speaker, as I said, my contribution would be brief because the legislation is certainly worthy of support and it would be welcomed by most people in small business.
Mr HENDERSON (Business, Industry and Resource Development): Madam Speaker, I am very pleased, as minister for Business in the Martin government, to give my wholehearted support to this legislation which is long overdue in the Northern Territory. It is certainly interesting to hear the comments from members on the other side of the House. Their recollection of history is vastly different from the facts of this particular debate that has been running in the Northern Territory, as the Chief Minister stated, for nearly 10 years now.
We are the only state in Australia where our retail operators have had no protection in legislation. When we ask the question: ‘Why do we need this legislation?’, the retail sector is the largest employer in the Northern Territory with over 15 000 Territorians working in the retail industry. No other business sector operates outside of any sector-specific legislative framework. The previous government allowed this to occur for many, many years; certainly back to 1993.
All of us, as members of this House - possibly some of our bush members may not have - but certainly members who represent predominantly urban electorates would have constituents who either run retail businesses or work in retail businesses. I am sure that all of us have received representation over time from particular retail operators about the problems they have in managing their relationship with their landlord, as a result of the lack of any specific sectoral legislation.
This is not an issue that was just raised by the Chamber of Commerce and Industry or the Retail Association of Australia; this particular issue would have been bought to each of us as MLAs by our constituents in the same way that the previous speaker mentioned in regards to a constituent running a business in Nightcliff. Therefore, you have to ask the question: why did the previous government take so long to do nothing essentially, in spite of all the words on the record? That is an interesting hypothetical question that I am sure we all have hypothetical answers to.
If we actually look at some of the history of this debate in the Northern Territory, certainly, in my support for the then Leader of the Opposition’s bill in March 2000, I went away and did a bit of homework and a bit of research. I would commend to the member for Araluen that when she gets up and speaks in this House, to actually get the facts straight in the debate, rather than just carry on with information that has no basis in fact.
Let us go back to the previous government, and the ministerial council, which signed up to introducing retail tenancy legislation in the Northern Territory. If I go through the Hansard record, on 13 October 1998, my colleague, the then member for Barkly, asked the following question, and I quote:
That is 1997.
We could not review retail tenancy legislation because we were the only state that did not have any.
That was back in December 1997. The then Chief Minister, Shane Stone, answered that he had passed the issue on to the then parliamentary secretary, now the Deputy Leader of the Opposition – and congratulations to the member for Greatorex for his promotion – and concluded – and this is the then Chief Minister, Shane Stone:
… I am quite sure that in the fullness of time he will be able to provide members with further information.
Madam Speaker, the then Chief Minister was correct. It certainly was the fullness of time, and the fullness of time came and went and we heard nothing from the member for Greatorex. In an interjection during the debate on the Retail Tenancies Bill, Dr Lim interjected:
That was residential.
He did not even know, Madam Speaker, what particular legislation he had been asked to look into. He thought he had been asked to look into residential tenancy legislation, not retail. No wonder he did not do anything. He has now been promoted to his level of competence and is now Deputy Leader of the Opposition. Congratulations! It was actually retail tenancy legislation that you were given carriage of, member for Greatorex, and not a word was spoken from you from that day onwards of what you had been actually doing in trying to progress this issue.
We then had the then small business minister stating in February 2000, prior to the then Leader of the Opposition’s bill in March:
We will be consulting with stakeholders, liaising very closely with tenants and landlords, and I hope to produce a discussion paper by the end of this first quarter.
That was February 2000. The end of the first quarter you would say is March 2000. We did not get anything; no discussion paper and, going back to 1998, a commitment from the then government to actually introduce retail tenancy legislation.
Madam Speaker, to come into this House and say, ‘We were working on it’ and ‘We were really going to do it’, and for the member for Drysdale to state that what this government has done is picked up legislation that the previous government had waiting on the back blocks when parliament was prorogued is wrong. I challenge the member for Drysdale to come in here and prove that Parliamentary Counsel had actually drafted legislation. My advice is that they had not.
The member for Drysdale has to be very careful about potentially misleading the Chamber. It is a very, very serious thing to do, to come into this House and tell blatant untruths. He may have been mistaken regarding legislation that they may have had on the back blocks, but my advice is, that there was no legislation drafted by Parliamentary Counsel in relation to retail tenancy legislation. The challenge for the opposition - we are going to debate this bill for quite some time – is to bring in advice to the contrary.
Mr DUNHAM: A point of order, Madam Speaker! I believe that that challenge does not exist here unless it is done by way of substantive motion, and that any inference that there has been lying must be withdrawn forthwith.
Madam SPEAKER: Member for Drysdale, you know the rules. You have been told on a number of occasions if you think you have been misquoted, then you can do it by personal explanation. That is it!
Mr DUNHAM: Thank you, Madam Speaker.
Madam SPEAKER: Resume your seat. I am getting tired of your continual points of order that you know …
Mr DUNHAM: I did not think he could say ‘liar’.
Madam SPEAKER: I beg your pardon?
Mr Henderson: I did not say that.
Mr Dunham: Yes, you did.
Madam SPEAKER: I beg your pardon?
Mr KIELY: A point of order, Madam Speaker!
Mr DUNHAM: I do not think he was able to say ‘liar’, Madam Speaker.
Madam SPEAKER: I do not think the minister did say ‘liar’. He did not, as far as I know. If you follow the debate, you will know what is going on.
Mr BURKE: A point of order, Madam Speaker. The debate was being followed, and the minister was accusing the member for Drysdale of misleading this House. Now, the objection by the member …
Mr Henderson: No, I did not say that.
Mr BURKE: Yes, you did. If you want to qualify that by using the word ‘potentially’, you said ‘potentially misleading this House’. Now, the point of order is this: it is clearly stated in standing orders. If the minister wants to make that statement, he must do so by substantive motion.
Madam SPEAKER: And I have said to the member for Drysdale on a number of occasions if he thinks he is being misquoted then he can deal with it by way of personal explanation. He can do it that way. That is my ruling, Leader of the Opposition.
Mr BURKE: With respect, Madam Speaker, there are standing orders in this House and the standing orders are clear …
Madam SPEAKER: It was not …
Mr BURKE: I am asking you to rule on the comments that the minister has made.
Madam SPEAKER: The minister did not categorically say the member had misled this House. That is it. Minister, continue your speech.
Mr HENDERSON: Thank you, Madam Speaker. I have obviously struck a bit of a raw nerve here, but I am following on from comments from the member for Drysdale. Now, the member for Drysdale …
Mr Burke: Stop lying!
Mr KIELY: A point of order, Madam Speaker!
Madam SPEAKER: Leader of the Opposition, you know you cannot do that. You are all being very provocative. Withdraw the comment you made.
Mr BURKE: Madam Speaker, I withdraw.
Mr HENDERSON: This is a House of debate, and we do pick up on comments that are made by previous speakers. There is no doubt that the member for Drysdale made a statement in this parliament that this government had picked up legislation that the previous government had drafted, that was ready to go when parliament was prorogued. I am pointing out that my advice is that Parliamentary Counsel – and as Leader of Government Business, I can access this advice – had not drafted legislation for retail tenancy legislation.
Mr Burke: So what? Move on.
Mr HENDERSON: I am pointing that out in debate. Members of this House can draw their own conclusions as to the debate. To continue to misrepresent the history serves members opposite – really, they should just be saying: ‘Good job, government. Tick. It is well overdue and maybe we were a bit tardy in not introducing such legislation’.
They have not had a briefing on it, it is very complex legislation. There has been significant debate, and I congratulate everyone who has been part of framing this legislation: the Chamber of Commerce, the Property Council, some of the major property owners, like Lend Lease, in the Northern Territory have had substantive input. I think everyone agrees that we have worked through to a position, even though there were sensitivities from property owners and landlords, where we have legislation that is win-win. That is what happens when a government is fair dinkum about doing something, does not participate in the Asian acronym of NATO - no action; talking only - and actually gets out there and delivers legislation that is going to benefit many thousands of business operators in the Northern Territory.
To swan in here and attempt to rewrite history and say we were just about to do it is patently false. Other speakers can challenge the opposition’s point of view and prove that they had legislation ready to go. I am pointing out the fact that my advice is that there was no legislation ready to go at all.
Picking up the member for Nelson’s comments about getting out and telling small business about this new legislation and the rights and responsibilities that they now have as a result, I can say that my department has been working very closely with Department of Justice. A significant information program is going out to all retailers across the Northern Territory. We have a significant calendar of activity - writing to every retailer, information, training kits, workshops. We will be running workshops throughout the Northern Territory as well as advertising and taking public notices. So, member for Nelson, my department will be taking a very active role in promoting the fact that this legislation is out there.
Again, further evidence of nothing happening in the Northern Territory - back in 1997, the House of Representative’s Standing Committee on Industry, Science and Technology report titled Finding a Balance Towards Fair Trading in Australia, produced major recommendations that were considered by that ministerial council where the previous government signed up to reviewing non-existent retail tenancy legislation. The then member for Greatorex, as Parliamentary Secretary, was given the job to review that, and nothing happened until way past that when a discussion paper was put out. However, you would have to say that the intent was certainly not there by the previous government, on any evidence that had preceded that, to do anything about that.
In speaking to the legislation, there are six main areas where retailers and people in small business will see significant improvements in the rights that they have under legislation. Currently, we are the only state in Australia that allows ratchet clauses to be included in contracts. At the moment, landlords can legally enforce ratchet clauses that prevent rents from falling. That is patently unfair in a market economy when rents are determined by market activity and people sign contracts at a point in time when the economy is at a particular place. These ratchet clauses did prevent rents from falling, in line with market rates. Banning these ratchet clauses will mean that rents should reflect market value by rising and falling in line with the economy, making it fair for business.
There was some concern raised by landlords that, by introducing legislation to ban ratchet clauses, this would somehow be a barrier to investment in new retail premises or new initiatives. Our advice, talking to the banks, which loan and finance these types of investments around Australia, is that the fact that ratchet clauses were allowed in the Northern Territory played absolutely no part in their determination of whether they would finance a particular proposal. We do not believe that the introduction of this will detract from investment. It has not anywhere else in Australia, and there is no reason why it should not happen here. Certainly, this will be one of the main things that tenants are going to be very pleased to see in the legislation.
Five year leases will be introduced to improve security of tenure and bring the Territory in line with other jurisdictions. Dispute resolution - retailers and landlords will be able to avoid court actions to settle tenancy issues by using the Commissioner for Business Tenancies to mediate their disputes. This is a very important issue. Again, all of us, as local members, would know of constituents who have had problems in this particular area. It is very costly for a small retail operator, a family business probably employing two or three people, to actually finance legal action against landlords who have far greater capacity to represent themselves in court, and actually having a mandatory system in the first instance will assist the levelling out of the playing field there.
Mandatory disclosure statements, detailing costs and expenses for tenants, detailing rent calculation and reviews, and detailing outgoings to be paid by the tenant - again, these are just things that should be in any standard contract so that tenants actually know what they are up for. We are introducing an impartial Commissioner of Business Tenancies to mediate disputes, another commitment from our government to small business in the Northern Territory, and also the capacity for compensation if landlords disturb or disrupt a premise that may affect trading, like renovations. The affected business may be able to claim compensation. So, as a tenant in a shopping strip or a major retail centre, if the landlord determines to do something right outside your premises that affects trade, you have no control of that, it affects the cash coming through the till, to your detriment, you can seek compensation.
Madam Speaker, this legislation is long overdue in the Northern Territory. It seeks to even up the playing field, to give the same rights to retailers in the Northern Territory that employ 15 000 Territorians, the same rights that they have had in the rest of Australia going back 10 years. Any attempt by the opposition to portray that they were fair dinkum in introducing that legislation – well, the facts speak for themselves. They had about eight years to do it and did absolutely nothing.
I am very proud as Business minister to support this legislation today. I commend this legislation to all members of the House.
Mr KIELY (Sanderson): Madam Speaker, I make my contribution on behalf of the small to medium retail business operators of Sanderson who trade from rented premises. This hard-working group of individuals were long disappointed by the actions of the CLP, which failed to guarantee fairness in the tenant/landlord business relationship so vital to this sector of our economy, and they now greatly anticipate the security that we, the Martin Labor government, will deliver when the Business Tenancies (Fair Dealings) Act 2003 comes into force in the near future.
As this Assembly has previously been informed, the retail sector in the Northern Territory is the largest single sector in terms of employment, this will provide a framework that outlines the accepted rules of conduct of tenants and landlords, afford protection from unfair practices and, at the same time, enhance the job security of 15 000 Territorians. This bill will cover leased retail premises both in shopping centres and a main street or strip shopping precincts.
This legislation will bring the Territory’s legislative framework into line with other jurisdictions. For too long, our retail tenancies have not had a similar level of protection afforded them as do their peers in other jurisdictions. Victorian retail tenants have had protection since 1998. In New South Wales, small retail businesses have had this type of legislation since 1994. South Australia moved to protect and support their retail business operators in 1995; Queensland in 1994; Western Australia in 1985; Tasmania in 1998; and the ACT stood up for its retail operators in 2001. It was only the CLP government, with scant regard for such an important sector of our community and the people who work in it, which refused to implement such legislation. While all those other business people in Australia received recognition and support from their governments, our own retail operators trading from rented premises, who so much wanted and needed this legislative protection offered by such a law, were ignored by a series of seemingly either incompetent or lazy CLP ministers.
Can I substantiate this observation? You bet I can! The Minister for Justice and Attorney-General gave a very good overview of the genesis of this bill and this process of development over the last decade. For those members present who may not readily recall the minister’s second reading speech, I recap that, even though those before me have done it – and I was thinking about dropping this out of my contribution, but it seems to me that, with the rewrite of history that is going on from the opposition, it is even more important that we get it on the record; that we get it straight.
As I have just mentioned, the Tenancy Working Group was established by the CLP government in the early 1990s to review tenancy law in the Northern Territory. The group was chaired by the CLP member for Jingili and comprised representatives from the business, government and consumer sectors of the community. This group made a number of recommendations to the reform of the law relating to commercial tenancies. However, no action was taken to implement these recommendations.
In 1997, the Commonwealth government produced a report titled Finding a Balance towards Fair Trading in Australia. This report set out a number of principles to provide minimum standards to retail tenancy laws. I must give credit where credit is due; the Reid Report identified issues and outcomes that were consistent with those raised by the Northern Territory Tenancy Working Party in 1993. As a ringing endorsement of this report, Commonwealth, state and territory ministers with responsibility for retail tenancies met in December 1997 and endorsed the objectives of establishing consistent legislative or regulatory retail tenancy standards.
I cannot find any reason why, if nothing had been done as a result of the NT 1993 report, what change of circumstance prompted the CLP government to sign up to the Commonwealth’s Reid Report. Of course, it is obvious that all jurisdictions, except for our own, followed through on their commitment to small to medium retail tenancies by introducing legislation to provide a fair trading environment. This is a truly shameful performance, and one I believe the CLP can never live down.
It is not as though they were not given a chance by Labor opposition of the day to get on with business. The member for Barkly, in October 1998, asked the following question. The minister for Business stated this question, but I would like to get it on record as well because it is quite salient to debate - and let us not have the CLP worm out of history. Let’s get on the record just what they were like. How they did support small business in the Territory. How they forced many to the wall through their inept handling of introducing this sort of legislation.
This is from Maggie Hickey:
The then Chief Minister Shane Stone answered that he had passed the issue on to Parliamentary Secretary, Dr Lim, and concluded:
… I am quite sure that in the fullness of time he will be able to provide members with further information.
That was in 1998 and they had three more years in government to come up with retail tenancy legislation, and did they? Of course not. The member who would be king has a proven track record of neglect and hopelessness when it comes to looking after small and medium business. I would not trust him with organising a kid’s birthday party let alone have any belief that he could possibly understand the principles of fairness. It seems that even in the heady days of Shane Stone, the CLP string pullers were setting up the member for Greatorex. Some things never change.
Madam Speaker, it is worthwhile spending some time on the worthy efforts of the Labor Opposition Leader of the day, the member for Fannie Bay, when she stood up for small and medium retail business operators in March 2000:
Recognising the CLP government’s total failure or lack of will and interest to support local business, the member for Fannie Bay introduced into this House the Retail Tenancies Bill.
Mr Dunham: Oh, so there was a bill. Hendo was wrong. Hendo said there was no bill.
Mr KIELY: Madam Speaker, the Leader of the Opposition …
Mr KIELY: No.
Madam SPEAKER: I thought you must have, you sat down.
Dr LIM: He still does not understand the rules.
Mr KIELY: Sorry, Madam Speaker. If they wish to have the floor well they can have the floor. I do not mind.
Mr Burke: Sit down then.
Mr KIELY: Why don’t you resign?
Madam SPEAKER: Order!
Mr KIELY: Madam Speaker, the Leader of the Opposition made no bones that this bill was modelled on similar legislation operating in New South Wales.
Dr LIM: A point of order, Madam Speaker. We talked about the word ‘lie’ in this Chamber and here is this member getting up on his feet and saying ‘One of you are lying’.
Mr HENDERSON: Speaking to the point of order, Madam Speaker, he actually said ‘Why don’t you resign’.
Members interjecting.
Madam SPEAKER: Could we just get on with the debate on the bill?
Mr KIELY: Madam Speaker, I am not the one doing anything here except trying to contribute.
The member for Fannie Bay and the rest of the parliamentary Labor Party had serious concerns that there was not the recognition from the CLP government that an appropriate legislative framework to guide business behaviour had to implemented, even though two years earlier they put up their hands and signed up to being part of the uniform national tenancy legislation.
And what was the CLP Minister for Business and Industries response to this effort of the Labor Opposition Leader to aid our own Territory retail business operators? It was - and this is from the lips of the member for Daly, ‘the government will not support legislation of this nature, ever’. And the main reason: it was based on New South Wales legislation. Well, we did sign up for a national framework of similar legislation and he committed. He said, ‘Well, I guess they are not in government anymore; they are opposition so they can support, they can backflip’. Never mind that the CLP had earlier signed up to a Commonwealth agreement to have similar consistent legislation across jurisdictions. Perhaps while the member for Greatorex was only lazy in his ability to follow his leader’s instructions and introduce retail tenancy legislation during 1998, it appears it may even have been a combination of both of the traits identified earlier, that is laziness and incompetence, that beset the last CLP Minister for Industries and Business, the member for Daly.
But never let it be said that CLP in government did not give the semblance of being busy. What did they do? They once more created a working party which included representatives from the Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the Real Estate Institute of the Northern Territory, Darwin Business Association, the Business Council of Australia, Property Council, Lend Lease, NT Retailers Guild, the legal profession and the Office of the Commissioner for Consumer Affairs. I tell you, they are nothing if not time wasters. Once again, the working party handed down another report and to my observations the findings are not too dissimilar to all those reports that went before. This is really not a surprise given the issue had been done to death over nearly a decade of CLP stalling.
So it was that we once again heard from the CLP minister who, following the tabling of the report in June 2001, advised the Assembly that the report would form the basis of a bill to be prepared and introduced into the Assembly. What hollow rhetoric. What chance, members, and people listening to this debate and those who read Hansard, what chance of that happening, given the CLP’s record on this issue? It is just as well for our hard working small to medium retailers that they voted for change of government for, while the CLP would not act on this important issue, the Martin government will. The small business sector can rely on us. We came to government with commitment to more jobs, and that is what this legislation will do. It will provide surety and confidence amongst small retail tenants, assisting in maintaining and building further growth in this very important business sector.
The government is moving fast to ensure small to medium business operators are aware of the protection and support this legislation will provide. The government has already released an information sheet outlining the aim of the legislation, which is, of course, to address the imbalance in bargaining strength between landlords and tenants, and to regulate lease agreements. The new laws also provide dispute resolution mechanisms designed to contain costs for both parties.
The legislation is very clear in its presentation and clearly states the six areas in which these laws will make it fair business for all. These areas include: the banning of ratchet clauses; introduction of mandatory disclosure statements; introduction of five-year leases; creation of a Business Tenancies Commissioner to mediate disputes; a mediation framework to save in costs; and fair compensation to disruption to business caused by the landlord. These areas have already been comprehensively addressed by the minister in his second reading speech, and so I will not stretch my contribution to this debate for the sake of a few extra lines in Hansard.
I am proud to be part of a government that gets things done, which drafts and implements good law. I am absolutely confident that the retail traders who not only live in Sanderson, but those whose shops are located in Sanderson, will be very much pleased with this legislation. I am also pleased to announce to those people of Sanderson who are in the retail trade or associated with it in any way and may be affected by this law, that I will organising public meetings in my electorate office to ensure that they have a full understanding of the benefits of the law. That is what the member for Nelson was saying that he wished to happen. Well, it is going to happen over in our way. Here is the challenge to the opposition: I urge the MLAs opposite not to be small minded, and to think of the bigger picture and to make their electorate offices available so that the electorates they serve will not be disadvantaged. Let us get the politics out of this. This is good law for small business. Let’s see you guys start holding some public forums over your way because this is important legislation that will help the small businessman. So get the politics out; get the public meetings happening.
Finally, a decade after the first report, irrespective of the spoiling efforts of the CLP and in total disregard for our retail tenants, the Northern Territory will have a fair business environment for small to medium businesses that operate from tenanted premises. On behalf of the business operators of Sanderson, I thank the Attorney-General, and Minister for Business, Industry and Resource Development, and their ministerial and departmental staff for the work that they have done in getting this legislation into the Assembly. I also recognise the Chief Minister’s historic role in supporting small business in the Territory and end with her words:
Madam Speaker, I commend the bill to the Assembly.
Mr BURKE (Opposition Leader): Madam Speaker, I will not be long. There are many times one sits in this House and wonders about the standard of debate, but if anyone can call what has happened in the last hour a debate, they have me beat. Second, I wonder if any of us would have the energy to go back and check the Hansard record. The member for Sanderson has the gall to say ‘people listening to this debate’. I reckon that anyone who read the Hansard transcript of this would be absolutely appalled. This is supposed to be the parliament of the Northern Territory debating what is going to benefit people in the future. There has been well over an hour lost on mud slinging as to what the CLP did not do to get this legislation forward, and aren’t we so wonderful.
We stood up in this debate at the start and said we support the legislation. If you want to spend the whole of the time on this debate on the legislation talking about how bad the CLP is, good on you. It is a waste of time, though. People out there are more interested in the detail of the legislation, how it is going to benefit them, what about those who have shop leases in place now, whether those shop leases are still current, whether or not this legislation now makes void leases? In what circumstances does it make them void, would it be a cost to the shop lessees and retailers themselves. Who is caught, who is not caught by it? It is just disgraceful that a bunch of adults could come in here and spend so much time on wasteful, so-called argument.
I would like to praise the Chief Minister for her efforts in bringing through retail legislation. Anyone with half a brain knows it was a cut and paste of New South Wales legislation. It was fine that she bought it in. Good, wonderful! She was so concerned for small business, but it was a cut and paste of New South Wales legislation. It was not appropriate for the Northern Territory. That is why you have not done the same thing! If it was so appropriate, you would have brought forward the legislation yourself in the form that the Chief Minister, at the time as Leader of the Opposition, put it in, and the member for Sanderson reckons she should have done that! You should have done that! So rather than say that we have been wasting time, the member for Sanderson said …
Mr KIELY: A point of order, Madam Speaker! I did not say that.
Madam SPEAKER: There is no point of order.
Mr BURKE: You said: ‘So, why not?’ Why didn’t we? ‘We live in Australia,’ the member for Sanderson said. ‘We are all part of Australia. What is wrong with New South Wales legislation?’ Well, if there is nothing wrong with the legislation that the Chief Minister brought in, by your own admission, you have wasted two years mucking around. Even that, I would say, is typical of the comments that would come from the member for Sanderson. I will not dwell on it because it is irrelevant. Who cares? What is important is that we do recognise that, prior to the CLP changing government, there had been a discussion paper brought forward. We had made undertakings that, based on that discussion paper, we would bring forward legislation.
The reality was, I do not believe there was a sittings of parliament available between the time the discussion paper was tabled in the Assembly and the change of government. So do not say in the second reading speech that the CLP brought forward this discussion paper but never enacted the legislation. The truth is, in the second reading speech, there was no opportunity to enact the legislation. So if you want to talk about honesty in parliament and looking for the Hansard records, that is the simple fact of it.
If we want to end with the comments of the Chief Minister: ‘This is a government that is all about jobs. Let us get out there and look after Territorians and jobs in the Northern Territory’. Well, when the member for Sanderson stands up and wants to quote that, go and talk to a few Territorians. You might want to walk out and talk to Mr Grant Keetley, whose family has been in business in the Northern Territory for the last 70 years, and is now out of business under the Labor government. On the radio yesterday, he was pretty square of when he reckons the reasons were why he is out of business. Because the government has done nothing, in his opinion, to support the tourism industry in any real sense in the Northern Territory.
The member for Sanderson wants to crow about how great this government is, pick up the latest Northern Territory labour market review for August 2003. It is instructive, if you want to say how much you are supporting the retailers, how much you are supporting jobs in the Northern Territory, how much you are supporting small business, read your own statistics that come out from your own Treasury:
They are people. They are the ones who work in the retail shops. They are the ones who, whilst they will be impressed by your legislation, are really interested in what you are doing to keep them in a job. They do not need you crowing for an hour about how bad and how slack the CLP was in bringing forward this legislation. They want to know whether they will have a job tomorrow. The member for Sanderson and others would be advised to check your own employment trends. And when you say how well you are looking after people …
Members interjecting.
Mr BURKE: Unemployment trends - slight improvement here. It says:
They are Treasury figures. That is not CLP garbage, that is Treasury figures. That is the fact of it. And the only reason unemployment has trended down is because the participation rate is down - less jobs, less people, less unemployed. Compare that with the population decrease, and you have a real picture of what is happening in the Northern Territory.
Women are suffering - particularly women in full-time employment - the greatest decrease.
I simply say that to reinforce the CLP’s position. On our understanding, this legislation, based on the discussion paper that we brought forward, has received wide consultation and is generally supported. In our consultation, we do not believe that there are major problems with this legislation and, therefore, as the shadow Attorney-General said at the outset, we support the legislation being passed.
It is disappointing if the government wants to spend all of this debate talking about whether or not the CLP should have done this 10 years ago, five years ago, three years ago, 18 months ago or not. That is just as fruitless as us saying whether or not this government should have done it two years ago. The reality is the eventual legislation will fix an existing anomaly and the consultation, as we understand it, has been full and adequate. That is why we support the legislation.
However, I would underscore the simple fact that I believe that Territorians would be generally disappointed with this debate on this legislation because, once again, the Labor government has the numbers, has the power in this Chamber, to do whatever it wants. At the very least, could we have something that looks forward, that does give us something to get excited about, that gives us some indication that this government has any idea of how it will fix the major problems that are existing in the Northern Territory at the current time?
You only have to pick up your own Treasury figures, any month – they come out every month – and look at the fact that those numbers are people, and those people are out of a job, and this economy is not getting better. This economy is getting worse. It is one thing to say: ‘We are going to fix it, just wait for the light over the horizon’, but it has not come, and it has not come in the last two years. The only things that have come have been the initiatives of the CLP when they were in government. That is fine if you take the credit for those; I do not mind. What I want to know and the people out there - those retail lessees, those people who are working those shops, who walk up and down the mall - want to know it is: where is the sense of confidence that you have that will keep them and their families in a job and in the Territory in the very near future? If you can tell them that, maybe they will stop leaving.
Ms LAWRIE (Karama): Madam Speaker, conscious of the time, I will be as brief as possible. I wholeheartedly support today’s important passage of the Business Tenancies (Fair Dealings) Bill 2003. At the outset, I congratulate our Minister for Justice and Attorney-General, the member for Stuart, who has worked with gusto to lead a fair and reasonable process of public and retail industry consultation throughout the entirety of the Northern Territory. This stakeholder consultation has ensured wide-ranging input into the final details of this critical legislation - law that is about, as we have heard, a decade overdue. Law, indeed that, as we have heard, exists in every other jurisdiction to protect and inform a critical industry: our hard-working small businesses in retail.
The retail sector in the Territory is the largest single sector in terms of employment. This Business Tenancies (Fair Dealing) Bill will provide the basis to encourage growth in the sector. It enshrines accepted rules of conduct of tenants and landlords, protecting all business operators from unfair practices. The practical implication of these provisions is to enhance the job security of some 15 000 Territorians. The legislation is designed to cover leased retail premises both in shopping centres, main streets and strip shopping precincts.
The government produced a discussion paper on its then proposed draft Retail Tenancies Bill which provided key industry stakeholders an opportunity for submissions into that discussion, and those submissions closed earlier this year. In addition, business forums were held throughout the Territory in major urban centres. During this consultation period, I engaged local traders in Karama in discussions regarding the proposed legislation. I can report there was overwhelming support for all the key elements of this legislation. Namely: support for the creation of a Business Tenancies Commissioner; the coverage extent of retail premises; the prohibition of key money; removal of unfair ratchet clauses in leases; the requirement of disposal statements that detail critical standard contract provisions; provision of access to relocation and disturbance that recognises that certain actions by a landlord in managing a building can have a significant adverse effect on tenants’ business; provisions in regard to rent, particularly rent reviews; provisions in regard to renewal and extension of leases, with the key provision being that the landlord is to give the tenant an indication at least six months before the end of the lease whether or not a further lease or an extension to the lease will be granted; and, critically, a dispute resolution procedure for retail tenants and their landlords.
The small business retailers I spoke to were pleased to see specific provision in relation to shopping centres. These provisions ensure that a landlord in a shopping centre is not to disclose turnover information relating to an individual tenant’s business without the consent of the tenant, other than in certain defined circumstances. The landlord is to be accountable to the tenant for funds received for such expenses as the cost of gathering statistical information on the shopping centre and marketing and promotion. I can say my experience of being on a committee with the retailers and landlords, our crime prevention committee at Karama, has shown me that statistical information and marketing and promotion is critical to the success of our small business people. They do not have the funds to cover these expenses themselves and, in the past, they have been entirely at the mercy and the whim of the landlord. This will now change. Provisions also protect small businesses in regards to ensuring trading hours cannot be changed without the consent of the majority of tenants.
I have discussed this legislation with the landlord of Karama Shopping Centre, who is also the landlord of Palmerston Shopping Centre, a hardworking Territorian who understands the principles of fair trading. I can report that there is no radical objection to the proposed legislation. Rather, I witnessed a willingness to participate in a fair stakeholder consultation process. I received reports from the landlord and tenants, that the bill, on the whole, was fair and reasonable and, importantly, for the critical retail sector, indeed, it is workable. I congratulate the Property Council, the Chamber of Commerce, retailers and landlords, the hardworking staff of DBIRD and Justice for this excellent outcome.
This bill will underpin fair trading for our small businesses in Territory retail. As the Chief Minister indicated in debate earlier, it is a bill that supports growth in the Territory economy. It is a bill that we have heard was shamefully left to rot on the shelf of CLP inaction for close on a decade, with lip service paid through endless working parties that all recommended its implementation, but there was no outcome.
The Martin Labor government is one that is keen to work with business to encourage small business growth. Small business is critical to our economy. For small business to prosper in the Territory context they needed to have some certainly about the playing field they were on. We all know that in any economy there is never a level playing field but, certainly, as legislators, we can provide frameworks that give businesses some certainty into the environment in which they enter and the environment in which they continue to exist. I congratulate the large landlord that many of us in the northern suburbs certainly rely on, in terms of our shopping, Lend Lease, for the role they have played in this discussion and debate. I was certainly very heartened to hear that Lend Lease have shown support for this legislation.
It never ceases to amaze me, that the view in the past in the Territory has been, ‘We are so different, we are so unique, that we cannot operate in legislative frameworks that operate in other jurisdictions in the Australia’. It has patently been proven time and time again to be ridiculous and, in fact, in the instance of business tenancies, I believe it has retarded growth. We have heard the Chief Minister say that retailers in Sydney thought twice about setting up retail operations in Territory because this legislation did not exist. Now, in a real and practical sense, that means that people were going without the opportunity for those critical retail jobs.
Retail jobs provide an opportunity for our young to start in the work place. They provide an opportunity for part-time workers, often women in the work force, who need shorter hours to enable them to deal with their family obligations. They provide an opportunity for many people who do not have access to tertiary education, particularly in an environment where tertiary education has been priced out of many people’s opportunity by the federal government, with an opportunity to go into what becomes a career. As a Territorian, born and raised, I have seen many people enter retail part-time, putting themselves through school and use the opportunities that retail has given them to become managers of businesses.
I have had the opportunity to see many people flourish and grow in that small business environment and take on the real, and at times the heavy and onerous, task of their own small business gained through their employee experience in the retail sector. I encourage Territorians to take advantage of the $30 000 commitment to information surrounding the introduction of this legislation. The government is committing $30 000 on providing advice on the rights and responsibilities surrounding retailers arising from this legislation.
It will finally provide Territorians in the retail sector with the certainty they need to consider growth in retail and that growth directly provides jobs for Territorians. It directly provides jobs for people who do not want to head south. We have heard in debate today the carry on about the Territory’s population. We can all argue about what pressures are driving people to move. I say that there are many pressures applied by the federal government. We recognise the …
Mr Dunham: The federal government! It is you guys.
Ms LAWRIE: Well, particularly in the retail sector. If you talk to anyone in the retail sector about the GST, they will have some very harsh words to say about the performance of the federal government in that respect. So it is absolutely applicable in a debate about retail.
I commend the Minister for Justice who has shown very fair and reasonable carriage of this legislation that will underpin a fair playing field for our critical retail sector. I look forward to seeing a maturity in the relationship between retail small business and their landlords. I believe that the landlords in the Territory, through their participation in this consultative process, have shown a willingness for that maturity.
In relation to some concerns raised by the Leader of the Opposition, this legislation will have no impact on existing leases. No, they will not be magically declared null and void. Anyone who understands a skerrick of contract law would understand that cannot occur. There is no retrospectivity. This legislation, after its passage, will apply to new leases. If the opposition was so concerned, I would suggest that a simple request for a briefing would have allayed any fears or confusion that they may have had in their minds. The opportunity to be briefed on legislation is always available. Many of us in government who understand that legislation such as this does have an impact on our constituents - retail is the largest employer sector - take up the opportunity for a briefing.
In terms of the Leader of the Opposition’s attempt to disparage debate on this legislation, I point out that it is critically important legislation. Members are going to avail themselves of the opportunity to debate this legislation. We are here to represent our constituents. I wholeheartedly support this legislation because it protects the rights of many of my constituents. Retail is one of the largest employment sectors for my constituents in Karama. This debate has not been a waste of parliament’s time. There has been a need to identify why we are the last jurisdiction. It is relevant to say that there have been working parties in the past, it is relevant to say that recommendations have occurred in the past, and it is relevant to say that there has been no implementation because it puts in context that it is long overdue. We support the introduction and passage of this legislation.
I commend the bill to all members, and urge their support for this legislation. I understand and welcome the opposition’s support for this legislation. I welcome the member for Nelson’s support for this legislation. I look forward to speaking further with all the business people in the retail sector about their rights and responsibilities enshrined in this legislation.
Debate suspended.
Madam SPEAKER: Honourable members, I draw your attention to the presence in the Speaker’s Gallery of Mr Ian Tuxworth, former Chief Minister and member for Barkly, Mr Enzo Floriani OAM, former member for Flynn, and Mrs Bernie Floriani. On behalf of all members, I extend to you a warm welcome.
Members: Hear, hear!
Continued from earlier this day.
Mr ELFERINK (Macdonnell): Madam Speaker, I begin by extending my thanks to the Attorney-General. I know that he was on his feet prior to the luncheon adjournment and he was about to wrap up. However, there were a couple of things that came out of the debate that I spent lunch time exploring, and I would like to put to the Attorney-General a couple of the issues that arose out of the debate which was held prior to the luncheon adjournment.
My reference is particularly to comments by the Leader of the Opposition and the member for Karama, especially in relation to the survivability of contracts when legislation is passed that may have an effect on existing contracts or lease arrangements. During my investigation into that issue, there were a couple of other little issues that have come up, and they are issues that I would like to ask the Attorney-General about prior to proceeding with the matter through the committee stages.
The nexus that is created in the act strikes me as being problematic, particularly clauses 7 and 9 of the bill. It relates to the operation of existing leases after this bill has been passed and assented to in legislation. Clause 7 of the bill is titled: ‘Leases to which act does not apply’, and under subsection 1(c), it states fairly clearly – and one would think that it was a very clear statement – ‘leases entered into before the commencement of this section’. So basically, an existing lease continues to operate before the commencement of this piece of legislation, with the exception of Part 13 of the bill.
Where I become concerned is that clause 9 of the bill states quite clearly that the act overrides retail shop leases. Now, a court certainly will not turn its attention to a section heading because, under the Interpretation Act, one does not look at section headings. However, it does state quite clearly in three subsections that the act will operate despite provisions of a retail shop lease. This causes me a little bit of confusion, because I am not entirely sure what the act is now trying to say. On one hand, it says that a lease will continue to operate, on the other hand, it says a lease will be affected by the operation of this act.
I have done a little bit of homework over lunch, and I stress of course that I am not a lawyer by any stretch of the imagination, but there are some interesting things that arise out of this. It is for a court to decide whether or not there is an ambiguity in legislation. If they turn their attention to what was said in the second reading speech or, for that matter, to cast a much wider net and a much rarer net to discuss the matter – or to look into the debates for guidance as to what the intent of the parliament actually is. As a person who has to give their support or otherwise to this bill, I would like to know what the intent of this parliament actually is so that we might assist the courts later on down the track.
The question is, that if clause 9 does operate to affect leases, then it becomes an issue of some seriousness in terms of how existing leases will continue to work for the people who are signed up to those particular types of contracts. If there are terms inside those leases which breach this legislation, then I am concerned that they will have the effect of creating an illegality after the contracts have been lawfully entered into. That is an effect of a frustrating event on a contract. I shall be quoting repeatedly from Carter and Harland’s Contract Law in Australia in relation to this particular issue. Basically, a frustration occurs, and I quote:
This is not what I promised to do. The frustrating event in this instance is a subsequent piece of legislation to a lawful contract, and Carter and Harland, in the fourth edition of their book, talk about a concern with a supervening illegality. They quote a case which is actually the revocation of a lawfully granted permit for a plaintiff in that particular matter to do a particular thing. However, the last paragraph on page 769 states - sorry, not the last paragraph, the last line in the first paragraph:
Which means that the way of interpreting a subsequent illegality is that it will have the effect of frustrating a lease arrangement between the lessor and lessee of the shop or business premises in question.
Therefore, with all due respect to the member for Karama, it would appear that a contract which is lawfully entered into will not survive this piece of legislation if clause 9 of the legislation is to be read as having that effect. That is the way that I read clause 9 and I seek clarification from the Attorney-General that it does actually have the effect of rendering those contracts or those provisions void.
If it is possible for a court to do so, of course, they will sever …
Ms Lawrie: And if you are wrong, you will apologise to me, I am sure.
Mr ELFERINK: Of course, if the contract can have a section severed from it, the court will sever those sections from it, as long as the main body of the contract can survive it. However, the nature of this piece of legislation, if it has the effect of killing off contracts, may bring a very negative effect to the business arrangements which exist in every rented business property in Darwin - especially something like Part 13 of the act which comes into operation whether or not it is affected by clause 7 of the bill before us now.
What that means, basically, is that there are certain requirements under Part 13 - I draw members’ attention to clause 124 which creates an offence to enter premises without a court order, effectively - that may have an effect on the contents of contracts. The reason I mention severability is that, where you have a severable term, a court will sever a term; however, not to change the flavour of the contract, which means that a court will not rewrite a contract to suit the parties to that contract. If a term of access is an essential part of a contract, a leasing arrangement, and this section has the effect of rendering that term invalid or illegal - to use the phrase from Carter and Harland – and the court cannot sever that section away, then I am concerned that it will have an overriding effect on the contract itself. I seek advice from the Attorney-General that the effect of these sections will not be to render contracts which currently have been lawfully entered into, as contracts that will be rendered void under this bit of legislation.
The other thing that I seek from the Attorney-General is some clarification of the use of the word ‘void’ in clause 9. I contrast that to the word ‘voidable’ which is clearly a different thing in terms of its intent in lease arrangements. I quote subclause (2) of clause 9:
This is an instance where you have a term of a contract or a warranty which does not comply with a section of this act, and a court is then told by clause 9 of this piece of legislation that the lease arrangements are effectively void; that it does not exist.
The reason I am asking this particular question of the Attorney-General is that the terms ‘void’ and ‘voidable’ have different connotations at law. If a contract is void it means that it is void ab initio; at the time of its creation it never existed in the first place. If a contract is voidable, or a term is voidable, that is something that where a plaintiff bringing in action can then have the term found to be voidable at which point the plaintiff then has the option to say this contract or term no longer exists and the operation of the contract finishes at that point where that option is exercised by the plaintiff in the action. And it is important because it has a flow on effect to damages.
If a contract is voidable then there is very little in the way of restitutional damages flowing out of it. However, if a contract is void – which means it did not exist – then there will be a tendency to pay damages generally and damages are basically created to compensate the plaintiff rather than as a punishment for the defendant. So, if a person is in a situation where they have a contract declared void there will be a tendency to return them to the point where they were at before the contract was entered in and money changed hands.
I am concerned that if we have the word ‘void’ put in there that we truly understand that that is the intent of this parliament to create a situation where contracts did not effectively exist at the outset rather than contracts which cease to operate when they are declared to be voidable. I look forward to those points of clarification from the Attorney-General to assist the courts in future. And perhaps during the committee stages, if it needs some clarification, I am sure that we can nut something out in terms of amendments.
Madam SPEAKER: I would like to make comment, member for Macdonnell, that it was refreshing to hear someone make a second reading speech and speak about the bill.
Dr TOYNE (Justice and Attorney-General): Madam Speaker, I cannot help but agree. I do not mind taking on board points of concern on the actual legislation, that is what the debate is here for.
I suppose when I reviewed – as I always do before introducing legislation into the House – this bill in detail yesterday with Robert Chamberlain from the department, whom I would like to pay tribute to for the work he has done on this bill, I was just struck that, out of the 70 or 80 pieces of legislation I brought into the House in the last couple of years, you can really see the people that it is providing some protection to, and that makes a very worthwhile feeling coming in here to put this law into the Northern Territory’s body of law.
I will deal with the various speakers of the debate but before I pick up the points I thank the opposition for their support for this legislation and to the independent member, the member for Nelson, for his support and to my colleagues for their supportive comments on the legislation.
There is no doubt that out in the community, with the people who are particularly affected by this legislation – and there are many thousands of them – that there is support for the approaches that have been taken this legislation. It has quite rightly gone out for extensive consultation and that is the reason that the structure and the provisions within the bill are very broadly acceptable out in the community.
I will deal with the member for Araluen’s concerns in her contribution. The education program, I think you have already heard, will be met with a $30 000 allocation from DBIRD. It will consist both of pamphleted material that will be given out widely to retailers but also seminars and visits to the shopping or retail locations throughout the Territory. We have allowed some time for that to happen in that the bill does not commence until 1 July next year. So we have six months to go out and make absolutely sure everyone knows what the provisions are of this new legislation. It also allows retailers a bit of a run up when they are looking at renewing current leases so they can position themselves against the incoming provisions. It gives them plenty of warning and it also gives landlords plenty of warning. We have tried to ease this in on that timeframe without taking too long on it, but certainly to give people a run in to the commencement of the legislation.
The NCP review is near completion. It will be released in the near future. I cannot give you a date at the moment, but we are close to having that out. What I can assure the House is that this legislation is broadly consistent with similar acts in other jurisdictions, many of which have now done their NCP process and have found that their acts are broadly compliant with the NCP principles. So we would not expect to see, on the basis of that, that we would be widely out of kilter. There may be some fine tuning that might be needed if that turns up in the review once completed.
Ms Carney: Will you release that review publicly?
Dr TOYNE: I certainly undertake to give you at least a brief on the main recommendations once they are available.
On coverage of retailers, there was a comment that you would like to have seen a broader coverage. The position we have taken with this, and it is in common with the approach taken pretty widely around the other jurisdictions, is that you do not want to over-regulate. What we want to do is provide a protective structure in situations where the retailer has an unfair position in terms of power and resources in establishing a lease and then protecting the rights under the lease. We have gone to the part of the retail market where there are small retail outlets operating in very large centres run by large corporations. That is the target group of this legislation.
There are many retailers that have actually the power of a corporation - Woolworths and people like that. They can look after themselves. They have all the resources in the world to do that. There are many situations where the landlord’s interest and those of the retailer can coincide if it has simply been a franchising off, or a subbing off, of a business owned by the landlord themselves. So, it is not always that the retailer’s and landlord’s interest might be divergent. The approach we have taken is to find a balance point where we are protecting the most vulnerable group within the retail sector. That is also, by far, the largest group. We are talking about 15 000 retailers that have protection under this act; there is a much smaller number that would be outside the scope of the act.
To the member for Nelson, yes, you can take out a lease for less than five years. When we discussed the actual timeframe that the legislation would be shaped around, we were trying to look for a position that gave stability to the arrangement so that there was a long-term relationship that could be established through the lease. If a retailer wants to go less than five years, they can waive their rights to the five year period, which the legislation offers them, and take up a shorter timeframe. They may have reasons for doing that, but we certainly want to ensure that a retailer who took that option understood that it is a less secure position to be in, and that if you are establishing a retail business in a new location, you may need more than five years to realise the projected targets of a business plan and stabilise your business. We felt that five years was generally going to serve the interests of retailers across the Territory. However, as I said, as long as they know what they are doing, a retailer could ask for that to be waived, and then go into a shorter term lease.
The Leader of the Opposition talked a lot about the things that I, quite frankly, could not understand having any relationship to this bill, but he did mention transition arrangements. I will clarify to members that under the transition arrangements, the existing leases - the pre-commencement leases - up to the end of June next year will run their time. Whatever time period they are set up for, they will run through to that under the agreed lease conditions. Beyond 1 July next year, the provisions of the act then come into play and leases have to comply with those provisions. We will be letting retailers know immediately this bill passes parliament that this will be coming in on 1 July, and what rights and responsibilities they will have, and what rights and responsibilities the landlords will have. That is obviously the purpose of the education campaign. Certainly, there is no retrospectivity in this bill. 1 July is when the new provisions will come in, and they will then control anything that exists in leases that are set up after that date.
I will deal with the member for Macdonnell’s issues. The first one was that you pointed out an apparent contradiction between clause 7(1)(c) and clause 9 within the bill. Clause 7, as you said, states that this bill, once it is an act, will not cover leases that are entered into before the commencement of the act so, in other words, if you sign into a lease even up to 30 June next year, it is not covered. The lease that is created out of that is not covered by the provisions of this act. After that date all leases come under the provision. I think that is the answer to your question between those two sections of the act. Clauses 7 and 8 are dealing with agreements that will lie outside the scope of the act and therefore, in the case of Clause 7(1)(c), basically excludes all leases that were agreed to before the act commenced.
Clause 9, on the other hand, is dealing with leases that have been created after the act has been commenced. For a lease of that kind, quite rightly, it says that any lease created after the act commenced must comply with the provisions. If you have further issues with that, we will deal with those in committee, but that is the general answer that I have been provided with. Your issue with clause 9, the contracting out. With clause 9 it is a ‘no contracting out’ clause. If the act applies to your lease, ‘cannot contract out of its provision’, so you cannot contract the lease off and then escape the provisions of the act. The act follows the lease across, and no matter who ultimately holds the lease, like a person moving into a leased arrangement, they are equally bound by the provisions of the act.
Clause 9 - your point about void versus voidable. The intention is to make the provision void, as if it never existed, if it is contrary to the act, for example, the ratchet clause. If that was put into a lease, it would become void because it contravenes the very clear provisions within the act against.
Part 13 is direct provisions of the Commercial Tenancies Act as it currently exists. Some provisions you put in one act for convenience. Part 13 applies to the existing leases. Clause 124 is in Part 13. No change from the existing provision in the Commercial Tenancies Act. That may help you with that. It did not help me but what I suggest we do is if you want to pick those points up as we go through committee, we can then have a bit of a tick-tack on it and see if we can work it out.
Mr Elferink: It is probably the best way.
Dr TOYNE: Again, I thank the opposition and the member for Nelson for their support, and the support of my colleagues, and we will move on.
In committee:
Clauses 1 to 28, by leave, taken together:
Mr ELFERINK: Mr Chairman, I just want to discuss some of those issues that were raised, because the issues that I raised were particularly clauses 7 and 9. I pick up on what the minister had to say in relation to the beginning point of the operation of clause 9. The reason I raised those questions in the second reading debate, particularly to hear the minister say that, because the starting point is not actually outlined in clause 9, as of the commencement of this act or some quote to that point.
What I am trying to do is get you on the record to say, if a court is stuck with this problem of interpretation, that the court can then come back to the debates in parliament and say: ‘No, the intention of the parliament was to proceed from that point’. That was the point I was making in clause 9. I accept the minister’s comments in relation to that. That is basically my issue in relation to that.
For the advice of Mr Chairman, I have some issues to raise out of Part 13 of the act when we get that far.
Dr TOYNE: Thirteen? So we are in ...
Mr ELFERINK: Part 13, not clause 13.
Clauses 1 to 28 agreed to.
Clause 29:
Dr TOYNE: Mr Chairman, I move amendment 55.1.
Clause 29(1) of the bill sets out various matters related to the assessment of current market rent. This amendment to subclause (1)(a)(ii) makes it clear that market rent is to be assessed taking into account a willing landlord and a willing tenant in an arm’s length transaction. The additional words reflect the intention of the provision and will assist in its application. I put on the record that these amendments have been put in as a result of further consultations with the Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
Amendment agreed to.
Dr TOYNE: Mr Chairman, I move amendment 55.2.
This amendment to clause 29(1)(e) makes it clear that a landlord is to provide a valuer with all relevant information regarding leases in the same building, or retail shopping centre, to enable an assessment of the market rent to occur. The additional word reflects the intention of the provision and will assist in its application.
Amendment agreed to.
Clause 29, as amended, agreed to.
Clauses 30 to 101, by leave, taken together and agreed to.
Clause 102:
Dr TOYNE: Mr Chairman, I move amendment 55.3.
This amendment to clause 102 omits the reference on clause 102(1)(d) to the hearing commissioner granting a party to proceedings under Part 11, Relief against forfeiture. This rectifies an inconsistency as clause 83(2)(b) states clearly that a dispute in relation to the repossession of premises is not a dispute that can be dealt with by the Hearing Commissioner. Such matters are dealt with by the court under Part 13.
Amendment agreed to.
Clause 102, as amended, agreed to.
Mr CHAIRMAN: Is it the wish of the committee that the remainder of the bill be taken as a whole?
Mr ELFERINK: Mr Chairman, this is an extension of clause 7, effectively, and I refer particularly to Part 13 as a whole. I draw the minister’s attention to clause 7 in the existing bill, Leases to which Act does not apply:
and then it goes on to discuss that.
Part 13 basically puts down a set of rules which deal with this general conscionability of the operation of existing contracts and seeks to impose itself on those existing contracts, irrespective of the operation of clause 9. Basically, it says that Part 13 of the legislation will interfere with that contract in spite of the fact that it is one of the ones which are exempt on various grounds. One of those grounds, for argument’s sake, is clause 124, No entry without order, which basically means that even if your contract says now that one of the central terms of my contract, as the landlord, with the tenant, is that I can inspect the premises at any time, Part 13 has the effect, in conjunction with the operation of clause 7, that I actually I must go, I presume, and get a court order. I read clause 124:
And it actually creates a penalty for doing so.
What I am concerned about is, that where you get a lease arrangement and there is an agreement between the parties, for example, the situation like clause 124 will operate in such a way as to be an essential term of the contract. I seek some sort of advice from the Attorney-General as to if it is an essential term of the contract and as a consequence of that cannot be severed by a court away from the contract without rendering the contract unworkable, is there any plans or any succour that the Attorney-General can give to those parties to those forms of contracts, as a result of the operation of Part 13, or is it just, ‘Tough’ and ‘Go to court and sort it out for yourselves’?
Dr TOYNE: I am advised, member for Macdonnell, that Part 13 replicates the existing Commercial Tenancies Act. It was simply transported into this new bill because it was a perfectly adequate provision. Clause 124 only applies for the purpose of recovering possessions and as such those provisions are totally unchanged from the existing laws that apply in the Territory right now.
Mr ELFERINK: Mr Chairman, I just used that one as an example but there are other provisions and, in spite of the fact that it is operating in legislation already in the Northern Territory up until this point, it still has the effect of not providing any succour. I am wondering if there is any comfort that the minister can give to the members of this Chamber and for anybody who has signed up for these forms of contracts, that this intrusion will not interfere with the operation of contracts in the Northern Territory? In other words, answer the question.
Dr TOYNE: I can offer the succour of commonsense: people have lived with these provisions for many years now in the Northern Territory without any observable problems. I am not aware of anyone from the retail sector bringing concerns about these types of provisions to us, despite the very wide consultation. It was made very clear that we were going to transport these provisions from the Commercial Tenancies Act into the new legislation. That was put out front at the public consultations, along with the other provisions in the bill. No one seemed to have a problem with it.
Mr ELFERINK: Mr Chairman, I am only seeking these issues as points of clarification. I appreciate that the minister has consulted widely on these issues, and that is good. I have no major problem with it. These things are never an issue until such time as an issue turns on them. What I am trying to do in this instance is gain from the minister a sense of where he is going with this bill so that when and if an issue arises that nobody has discovered at this point, the courts and the contracting parties have the ability to turn their attention to the minister’s words and discover the intent of the bill.
This may not be an issue now, it may not be an issue next week, but if this bill remains unamended for the next hundred years, it could be an issue in the year 2056 at which point I think we have to get these things right as a matter of responsibility to the future. That is basically where I am coming from.
Dr TOYNE: Mr Chairman, if I was going to go through some 70 pages of this bill and say: ‘Are there any unforeseen things that might impact on the interests of retailers or landlords out there that were not foreseen in the way the act was drafted?’, Part 13 would be the last place I would go to for the very simple reason that these provisions have been out in the community for many years. If there has been a major problem with the way these provisions have been interpreted when applied to the community, I am sure we would have heard about it. I wonder why you are going to these provisions. They are settled not only in long standing legislation, but they have also been settled in their application out into the community for many years.
Mr ELFERINK: Mr Chairman, one of the reasons that we go through legislation in this House is so that we can have the opportunity of reviewing new legislation. This is effectively new legislation, despite the fact that these provisions may have operated in the Northern Territory in the past. This is a new bill, and one of the complexities of introducing legislation as a general proposition is that you are trying to cast a net into the future, and you are hoping that that net is going to be able to catch every situation.
One of the greatest problems and frustrations, I believe, for the courts is that when we cast a net of legislation into the future, there is always some sort of situation that crops up in the future that the courts or we have not anticipated. I do not think that I should be afraid of asking some questions about the net that we are throwing into the future in this instance. If the minister is not concerned about trying to preempt every situation, we should be on the grounds that when you throw this net into the future, we have to try to make this legislation work, otherwise do not bring the legislation into the House and let the courts deal with it.
Now, if the minister wants to bring legislation into the House, of course it is going to be scrutinised. That is all I am doing. I hope that as a process of this scrutiny, at some point in the future when an issue surrounding this sort of matter does come up, the courts will at least have the Attorney-General’s words so that they can deal with the issue more effectively.
Dr TOYNE: Mr Chairman, in regard to the first point about reviewing the act, clause 144, Review of the Act:
I do not have any problem with you asking questions, and I think you would have to admit I have been answering very reasonably. If you are nervous about this I will come and hold your hand. No, I won’t!.
Mr ELFERINK: I thank the member for his counsel. I am not trying to be difficult or awkward in any way. I am just trying to get the job right.
Remainder of the bill agreed to.
Bill, as amended, agreed to.
Bill reported; report adopted.
Dr TOYNE (Justice and Attorney-General): Madam Speaker, I move that the bill be now read a third time.
Motion agreed to; bill read a third time.
Madam SPEAKER: Honourable members, I lay on the table the October 2003 Report of the Auditor-General. An information session for members on this report will be conducted by the Auditor-General in the Ormiston Room at 1 pm on Thursday, 9 October 2003. I encourage all members to attend.
Ms MARTIN (Chief Minister): Madam Speaker, I move that the report be printed.
Motion agreed to.
Ms MARTIN (Chief Minister): Madam Speaker, I move that the Assembly take note of the report, and that I have leave to continue my remarks at a later date.
Debate adjourned.
Dr BURNS (Primary Industry and Fisheries): Madam Speaker, I rise to present a statement on the rapidly expanding Northern Territory horticulture industry. Horticulture in the Territory has been growing at a rapid rate, doubling every five years for the past 20 years. All indications are that this trend will continue over the next five to 10 years.
In the early 1980s, the horticulture industry was worth less than $0.5m in estimated Gross Value of Production, or GVP. This increased to $85.2m in 2002, slightly down from $92.2m GVP in 2001, due mainly to rain-damage to table grape production at Ti Tree. During this 20 year period, the industry diversified with significant production across a range of products. However, a few products continue to dominate the industry, including: mangoes with a current estimated GVP of $36.3m per annum; table grapes, valued at $9.9m, reduced from $20.1m in 2001 due to rain damage; bananas, estimated GVP $7.1m; melons, estimated GVP $5.6m; other fruits valued at $4.2m; vegetables, with a production value of $12.1m; and nursery and cut flower industry with an estimated production value of $10m.
The 2002 mango season was one of the highest value of production from the Northern Territory, at approximately 1.8 million trays of mangoes and a gross value of $36.3m. This year, 2003, major flowering was later than it has been for many seasons, and is also less intense than observed last year. However, other production areas around Australia are experiencing similar flowering patterns. There was limited early fruit available in September, and this is expected to increase slightly early this month. This is expected to keep early prices high. There will be a temptation for some growers to send immature fruit to market and this could impact adversely on prices later in the season.
Due to constant warm temperatures throughout the dry season, the mango harvest is expected to be spread across September, October and November, and not compressed as in the 2002 harvest season. Due to the temperature patterns in Katherine, this year’s Katherine crop will be harvested at the same time as Darwin, following an almost identical pattern. This has implications for logistics and marketing. Overall indications are that this year’s crop volumes may be lower than last year. However, most new trees have flowered better than older trees and this may have an impact on the overall performance of the industry.
The mango sector has the potential to become one of the major contributors to the overall economy of the Northern Territory. Current estimates of the number of mango trees planted in the Territory have been increasing steadily in the past 10 years, from around 200 000 trees in 1992 to nearly one million trees in 2002. It was estimated that production of 1.8 million trays last year – as I mentioned, 2002 – came from only 300 000 trees and that, ultimately, expected production could be between five and 10 million trays in the next five to 10 years. This would be worth somewhere between $100m to $150m in estimated GVP. This would need considerable effort from the mango growers and associated industry sectors to develop strategies to expand markets. Current estimates are that the domestic Australian market may absorb two million trays of mangoes, beyond which there could be some downward pressure on prices.
The Northern Territory Mango Industry Association, in collaboration with the Department of Business, Industry and Resource Development, is developing strategies to address long-term issues for the industry. These include providing national leadership in developing a code of practice for mangoes from production through packing, transport, wholesale and retail sectors. This code will be implemented this year as a trial in southern markets. The development of the code was facilitated by the Ombudsman for Retail Trade Industry, and supported by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission and a large number of horticulture industry sectors. Horticulture Australia Limited, the national industry research and development funding body, has shown interest in assisting the mango industry develop the code and is extending it to other horticulture industry sectors. For this year, the NTMIA has established interim measures including identification of endorsed wholesalers in several markets to assist Territory mango growers with marketing their product.
The second most important strategy is to address the harvest labour issue. The NTMIA is working with a private agency responsible for the harvest office in the Northern Territory, and has conducted seminars to provide information to assist growers to plan for their 2003 harvest program.
One of the most critical elements of this planning is the development of the ‘crop forecasting model’ by my department, based on very successful grower participation across the Darwin and Katherine regions. This model is based on ‘heat sums’ and the results are published in the newspapers and are also available on the department’s web site. The information is made available to all participants in the supply chain including growers, packers, labour contractors, transport industry, wholesalers and retailers, in order that they can be better prepared for the coming season.
The department has simplified access to its web site. This now includes price information and other issues to better inform growers. I recommend that all growers visit this site and provide comments to further improve its effectiveness.
There are several initiatives under consideration at present which would assist the development of overseas markets for Northern Territory mangoes. These include innovative technologies for non-chemical dis-infestation for fruit fly, improving maturity standards to guarantee eating quality, and transport logistics, just to name a few. These new initiatives will assist industry develop new markets, while retaining an expanding existing market.
There is a need to develop new products and varieties in order to establish new markets. The National Mango Breeding Program with the involvement of CSIRO, Queensland DPI, Western Australian Department of Agriculture and our department, is at an advanced stage of identifying some exciting new varieties. They have selected a national mango grower group as their commercialisation partner, and are about to test these new varieties. This will provide further opportunities for new market development, as well as improve productivity to keep the industry competitive.
The mango industry has grown from being a niche market industry to a stage of developing export markets. This development will provide opportunity for other sectors of the Northern Territory horticulture industry to piggyback on the logistics and market reputation that mangoes have developed over a number of years. The infrastructure developed such as cold storage, packaging, freight, etcetera, will be available to other sectors outside the mango season between September to early December. Crops such as citrus could fit into January to March/April and melons could fit in the period between June to October. This will improve profitability of packing, freight and other logistics.
Asian vegetables is a newer sector of the Northern Territory horticulture industry. Nearly 10 years ago there was very little production of Asian vegetables in the Territory. The industry has grown to nearly $10m in the estimated value of production with around 60 growers involved in production. Almost all growers are from non-English speaking backgrounds, predominantly Vietnamese. This sector required special programs to overcome language problems and the department has assisted the Northern Territory Horticultural Association to obtain funding from Rural Industry and Research Development Corporation and Horticulture Australia Limited to appoint a communication officer for the Asian vegetable industry. This has led to a more coordinated approach to the development of the sector with specialist extension material and technical workshops. This is one of the sectors with potential to develop future export market opportunities.
The most significant impediment to further development of the banana sector in the Northern Territory was the occurrence of Panama disease in 1997 and its subsequent spread. A high security banana quarantine screening facility has been established at the Coastal Plains Horticulture Research Farm. The project at this site is a good example of industry commitment with operational funding provided by the Territory and Queensland banana industries with matching funding from Horticulture Australia Limited, the national funding body. This is unique in any developed country and provides highly trained staff and the latest technology to test germplasm from various breeding programs around the world. To date, a number of local and international lines have been screened and some positive results are emerging. However, identification of resistance in ‘Cavendish’ type varieties is some time away and my department is collaborating with the Queensland DPI to introduce a number of new varieties including a promising line from Taiwan. Banana is one of the highest labour requirement crops. When suitable resistance and/or tolerant varieties are identified, further development of this industry will recommence.
The table grape industry in the Ti Tree and Pine Hill area in Central Australia is a sector which shows considerable promise for further growth. There is an estimated sustainable yield of 14 000 megalitres of ground water identified in this region which may be used for the development of table grape and other horticultural enterprises. Presently, there are some 450 hectares planted to table grapes with production from only 350 hectares last year, that is 2002, being valued at $9.9m. This is less than half of the previous year’s production mainly due to rain damage. It is expected that the coming season’s production will be significant with values higher than the $20m that was experienced in the 2001 season.
Three block of 100 hectares each have been identified on Pine Hill Station. These are in the final stages of negotiation with the traditional land owners for clearance of native title. Preliminary indications are that some 200 hectares of table grapes, or similar high value crops, can be grown on the recently acquired land in the Woodgreen area. Both the Woodgreen and Ti Tree/Pine Hill areas provide unique opportunities for regional development in terms of the expected work force and the need to develop commercial infrastructure, roads, power reticulation, package and cold storage facilities as well as consolidation of transport and other infrastructure.
Once the Ti Tree/Pine Hill and Woodgreen areas develop further they may provide an effective model for development of a number of other isolated areas in central Australia which have suitable ground water and climatic conditions. Identified areas such as Singleton/Murray Downs, Utopia, Ali Curung, Aputula, Rocky Hill and Orange Creek are some of those areas.
The Katherine region has a number of advantages for the production of quality vegetables and a number of fruit crops. The dry climate in Katherine produces mangoes with less disease and good fruit quality. This is recognised in the markets and attracts premium prices. In recent times, substantial horticultural development in the Venn area has put that locality on the map. Some 2000 hectares of land suitable for horticultural production was released over a short period of time in the Venn area and has been planted with mangoes, citrus and vegetable crops. This is currently the second largest horticultural development in the Northern Territory.
Other development opportunities are being considered at present in the Katherine region for further expansion of the horticulture industry. There are opportunities to consider freight consolidation facilities to capture product from Kununurra for both road and future rail transport to both southern and export markets.
To date, development of horticulture on Aboriginal land has been slow, however this is now changing with recognition of diminishing water resources in southern Australia and identification of new markets.
The department has assisted the Central Land Council in conducting two workshops, in Alice Springs and Tennant Creek, to document all available resource information on soil, ground water, power and roads. We assisted the CLC to develop strategies for the development of horticulture on Aboriginal land. Some five priority areas were identified covering Ti Tree and Finke in the Alice Springs region and Ali Curung, Waramungu and Gilbert Swamp for the Tennant Creek area. In addition, the proposed citrus development on Utopia was also endorsed as a top priority. Horticultural development at Utopia has the potential to further add value to regional development at the Ti Tree/Pine Hill and Woodgreen areas.
The preliminary estimate of ground water availability on Aboriginal land in Central Australia makes it possible to develop several thousands of hectares of land for horticulture. This will not only create income and job opportunities, but will also have an effect on the supply of fresh produce to remote communities with accompanying health benefits. The establishment of Centrefarm by the Central Land Council and the willingness of traditional land owners makes the development of horticulture on Aboriginal land more possible than ever before.
Horticulture development has contributed significantly to the economic activity of the Northern Territory. Besides the gross value of the industry, close to $100m, employment opportunities in the industry are high, estimated at nearly 1600 jobs. Horticulture is the most labour intensive primary industry sector, with high employment levels both directly and through support industries. A large number of these jobs are based in rural areas. Current production is coming from a very small area, estimated at between 4000 and 5000 hectares of land. Currently there is a total of 8000 hectares of land planted with various horticultural crops, with significant areas of new mango trees, citrus trees and some smaller plantings of tropical fruit trees yet to come to production in the next few years.
When all these young trees come to optimum production in the next five years, the value of the industry is expected to double to approximately $200m, with significant increases in regional employment. The mango sector, at a production capacity of five to 10 million trays, is expected to employ between 5000 to 10 000 workers for at least three to four months a year, and a full-time work force of 1000 workers. Similar trends are expected for melons in Darwin, Douglas-Daly, Katherine and the Mataranka area. Citrus is expected to come to optimum production in the next two to three years in Katherine, further increasing employment demands in the region.
Table Grapes in Central Australia currently employs nearly 30 full-time workers and around 300 seasonal workers. This will increase significantly in future, with the expected area planted to crops nearly doubling in the next five years.
There are significant opportunities for Aboriginal employment in remote areas, and there is a need to develop programs to train and retain Aboriginal people associated with commercial horticultural developments. This will provide future benefits to remote communities with their own market gardens and supply of produce with associated health benefits.
The current trend of doubling production value every five years is expected to continue in the future, provided that new markets and new products are developed in time. The main advantage of Territory production is that it comes out of season, or counter seasonal, at a time when there is very little produced elsewhere in the world. This gives us clear market advantages. We are also close to Asian markets, where nearly 75% of mangoes are produced and consumed. With the maturing of new trees, the volume of mangoes may exceed 10 million trays within the next five to 10 years. The value of this sector could reach $150m to $200m with appropriate market development. Similar increases are expected in the table grape industry and a number of other horticulture industry sectors if current trends are sustained. Other industries such as citrus, bananas, nursery and cut flowers, Asian vegetables, dates, cashews and tropical exotic fruits all contribute on a smaller scale. Currently, Northern Territory horticulture industries produce some 30 000 tonnes per annum of perishable products, and it is anticipated that, in five to 10 years’ time, production may be between 200 000 to 300 000 tonnes.
Continued development of the horticulture industry in the Northern Territory requires continuing support from various government agencies. All Territory horticultural developments are underpinned by very effective research and development programs conducted by DBIRD. Wherever possible, DBIRD collaborates with organisations such as Queensland DPI, Agriculture WA, CSIRO, universities, various funding bodies and commercial organisations.
Of particular interest is the ‘TropHort’ agreement between CSIRO, Charles Darwin University and my department in March 2002. The Northern Territory Horticulture Association will formally become party to this agreement in the very near future. This collaboration will facilitate research, development, extension and training to assist industry development in the Northern Territory. In conjunction with Queensland DPI, RIRDC and Cadbury Schweppes, DBIRD is also looking at identification and development of new crops for the Territory such as cocoa. By combining the resources of various Australian and, in some cases, international organisations, my department is able to keep up with new technology development and assist the Northern Territory industry to be competitive. There are exciting opportunities in the horticulture industry.
Mr Acting Deputy Speaker, I move that the Assembly take note of the statement.
Mr BALDWIN (Daly): Mr Acting Deputy Speaker, when this statement was delivered I thought, beauty, this is a very good opportunity to update Territorians on what is happening in a very important industry in the Northern Territory, and that is obviously what this statement is about, horticulture. I have to say that I was looking forward to a lot of good news. I was looking forward to the minister addressing some of the things that need to be done in the industry, things that are crying out to be done. I was also looking forward to the minister elaborating on, for instance, the promise by the Labor government to build a $2m packing shed for the horticultural industry. It is all here in their documentation - Labor’s financial statement. But alas, none of that was in there, not even the promise, the $2m promise, which seems to have been broken now. In fact, there was very little that was new in there that we could send out to the horticultural industry which, I am sure, would appreciate the latest updates so they can network and find all the latest information.
The one bit of new information I did find in your ministerial statement was to do with the updating of the web site. I thought, well, that is new, I will go and have a look at that. And, minister, you talked about the easy access to get to the data that is contained for growers on that web site. For instance, if you wanted to have a look at the Northern Territory mango prices for the 2003 season - the current season - the trend lines are there. I should highlight for you, in case you have not looked, the trend lines per tray. You have the Darwin highs and lows that I can establish, but you do not have anything for Katherine on any of those prices. But, as for easy access, this is how you get there: www.nt.gov.au/dbird/dpif/horticulture/2003_mango_season_informationshtml#heat%20sums. Not very good access, minister. I would not crow about it unless you have another way that you can get in there.
I am not going to go through all of the things that are in your statement and elaborate on them for a very simple reason: all of this has been said before in this House. Your statement, in fact, has been read before in this House, and you have a serious problem that you need to look into. You pride yourself as an academic researcher. Well, I tell you, you have not had a look at this properly, and somebody is doing your research without you checking it. Let us have a look at how we start.
I thought that was a good start, perhaps I will have a look at the way some other statements start. So I went to a fairly recent statement:
Good start; they start the same. Next paragraph goes:
Same statement that I thought I would go and do some research on:
This is your statement, minister:
Okay, so I do not lose you:
You wrote:
A slight difference because you have updated the figures.
Let us turn to any page - what page would you like to turn to? Any page in your statement - you name one and I will try and find you the exact same words from Mr Mick Palmer. What year? Let us have a look: 30 November 2000! A statement by minister Palmer, ministerial statement, Horticulture Production, three years ago. You pick any page and I will show you how it corresponds almost exactly, paragraph by paragraph, with Mick Palmer’s statement. You are a sham, minister! You should be ashamed of yourself! Now, which one do you want to pick? Have a look at your statement. Come on, let’s go.
Ms Lawrie: You have the floor. Keep going, you are entertaining.
Mr BALDWIN: Well, you pick a page.
Ms Lawrie: You are entertaining. You don’t have …
Mr BALDWIN: Any page you like.
Mr ACTING DEPUTY SPEAKER: I remind members to make their comments through the Chair, please.
Mr BALDWIN: Mr Acting Deputy Speaker, perhaps you would like to pick a page? This is a very serious matter.
Mr ACTING DEPUTY SPEAKER: I believe the Speaker is impartial in debate.
Mr BALDWIN: This is a very serious matter. This is a very serious matter, that a minister can come into this House – what were the words you finished with? Let us just give you an example.
Mr Burke: Written and authorised by Mick Palmer.
Mr BALDWIN: No, he actually did not have that bit.
Let us go to this one; this is page 17. I can go to any page:
In conjunction with Queensland DPI, RIRDC and Cadbury Schweppes, my department is also looking at identification and development of new crops in the Territory such as cocoa.
Keep in mind that I have only just got this, so it is quite hard to track, but you can track it yourself.
In conjunction with those agencies, DPIF is also looking at identification and development of new crops for the NT such as cocoa. The cocoa project has been developed in conjunction with Cadbury Schweppes …
Your next paragraph after that, just by way of example, your paragraph:
By combining the resources of various Australian, and in some cases, international organisations my department is able to keep up with the new technology development and assist …
And so on. Go to Mick Palmer’s statement:
And so on and so on. In fact, word for word.
I would be seriously looking at who writes your speech. If it is the department I feel sorry for them, because they must be under a lot of stress. But if it is one of your officers, then he should get the boot, or she. I do not care who it is that works in your office. This is downright, straight out plagiarism. There is no getting away from it. Word for word for the whole almost 17 pages.
Mr Dunham: Self-attributed.
Mr BALDWIN: Self-attributed to you. It was just coincidental that I went to what I thought would be about the last statement that Mick Palmer did on horticulture. What if we go looking elsewhere? Let us have a look at all the other ministerial speeches that have been delivered in this House. Are we going to find the same thing? Are you running a sham over that side? This is just disgraceful, absolutely disgraceful.
What about the Attorney-General, with his speeches, his ministerial statements? I hope you are not doing this. This would put you in a very difficult situation, if you did the same. Perhaps we should go looking. Perhaps we should get the library services and put them into …
Dr Toyne: Mine are far too good for your mob.
Mr BALDWIN: I am happy to hear that you are not doing it, because the colleague sitting next to you is doing it. He is running an untruthful, deceitful line in this House, trying to come in here to tell us how great things are.
Ms Lawrie interjecting.
Mr BALDWIN: You think this is all hype, member for Karama, picking up on your interjection?
Ms Lawrie interjecting.
Mr ACTING DEPUTY SPEAKER: Members! Members, through the Chair, please.
Mr BALDWIN: Mr Acting Deputy Speaker, by her interjection, the member for Karama says this is okay. This is not okay. This is just absolute nonsense that you think you can get away with this.
You talk about the things that you are doing, that you think are so great, with table grapes, bananas …
Mr WOOD: Point of order, Mr Acting Deputy Speaker. Can I ask the member for Daly, would you be able to table that document, please?
Mr BALDWIN: Can I read from it first?
Mr WOOD: You can read from it, but when you have finished …
Mr BALDWIN: Absolutely.
Let us have a look at where you talk about the great things that you are doing with the Central Land Council. If I can find it here. At page 12, your statement; let us start from there. Minister, this is what you say:
To date, development of horticulture on Aboriginal land has been slow. However, this is now changing with recognition of diminishing water resources in southern Australia and identification of new markets.
We go to minister Palmer:
To date, development of horticulture on Aboriginal land has been slow. However, recent demand for horticultural technology has been on the increase.
So, slightly different. However, the next part, where you say ‘my department assisted the Central Land Council and conducted two workshops’ – I have lost that bit. The point is - and it is all through here - unfortunately, I was trying to track it because I sat down with this and as you were reading yours, I was trying to track it but I have not noted it with something I can follow.
But I can assure you, all members and all staff of this parliament, that the statement delivered in this House today, October sittings 2003, ministerial statement, Horticulture Production in the Northern Territory, is, in a lot of cases, exactly the same and not too dissimilar to the ministerial statement, Horticulture Production, delivered by minister Palmer, on 30 November 2000, three years ago.
You have not even given us the decency to have updated and relevant information. You have added nothing new. You have not talked about the things that are of concern today and you have certainly misled, I would suggest, people who are listening, the members of this House, by the fact that you have purported that this is yours. Well, it ain’t yours. Everybody who reads these two statements in conjunction will see that. You are shameful. Somewhere, you are not keeping tabs on what is going on. You are in remote control. Some out there – and I hope they are listening because I know that Jamie Gallacher is screaming around there, and Fred McCue, if you are listening, you have a real problem. Fred and Jamie will know exactly what plagiarism means. It is fundamental to their background and the professions they come from. Now, they are running around on the 5th floor; I reckon that if we listen out quietly, we will hear some screams. We will hear some screams any moment because they are going to get them by the throat. Whoever is doing this, Jamie and Fred are going to get them by the throat.
Ms LAWRIE: A point of order, Mr Acting Deputy Speaker! The member for Daly is not referring at all to the ministerial statement. He is talking about fantasy, realms of fantasy about ministerial staffers. It would be interesting if he could be able to debate horticulture in the Territory.
Mr BALDWIN: Speaking to the point of order, Mr Acting Deputy Speaker, I am speaking about this statement. I am showing how fraudulent it is.
Mr ACTING DEPUTY SPEAKER: Member for Daly, I would ask you to could keep more focussed on the statement and pay less regard to the staff on the 5th floor.
Mr BALDWIN: Mr Acting Deputy Speaker, with all due respect to what you are saying here, I have every right to refer to public servants, staff and whomever I like. I will refer now to the Chief Minister. The Chief Minister has a real problem. The Chief Minister is directly responsible for the staff of ministers. Now, I bet she wants to have a talk to the minister for primary industries to find out where this has come from. I bet her Chief of Staff, Jamie Gallacher, will want to find out where this has come from. I hope, for the sake of old friendship, that he has not had anything to do with it. Somebody - and we need to see this; remember, clear and transparent government - we need to see who gets burnt for this, because it is terrible. It is shameful!
The member for Wanguri laughs because he thinks it is funny.
Mr Henderson: No, I was not.
Mr BALDWIN: This is not funny! For any media that gets hold of this, they will know how serious this is. For any academic who has been to university, you know how serious this is. When you purport this to be your work in your name …
Ms LAWRIE: A point of order! The member for Daly well knows under standing orders that members speak to the Chair.
Mr BALDWIN: I am happy to do that, Mr Acting Deputy Speaker. You would know. You would know, Mr Acting Deputy Speaker …
Mr ACTING DEPUTY SPEAKER: Member for Daly, I would ask you not to bring the Chair into this, please.
Mr BALDWIN: The member for Karama would know full well. Any academic, like the member for Jingili, the minister for primary industries, who has been to university. He would know that this is very serious. And he will, I am sure, find a very good excuse to blame somebody for doing this. But, at the end of the day, the bottom line is, he has taken his eye off the ball. If he is a decent sort of a chap, and I suppose that he is, he will stand up and take the full blame for this. Full blame for this, because it is in his name, and he knows, from his academic background, that there are serious implications in this.
This is disgusting, this is absolute arrant rot, that you bring this in here and expect us to swallow it. I mean, we have delivered these time after time after time. Now we are going to have to get suspicious and have a look at every statement that has been delivered in this House. And when we find out, because this Labor government is supposed to be a transparent government, who is responsible for this, we will then know who else he has written for, and that will be worth following up, I am sure.
Whilst there should have been good news in this statement for horticulturalists and for farmers, the only good news in here is going to be fodder for the media, because that is all it is worth. And it is a shame that there is not one shred of originality in this statement, because the horticultural industry is looking for support. It is looking for an announcement of when the Labor government is going to fulfil its promise of the $2m horticultural packing shed. A broken promise is it, or can we get the details?
Ms Lawrie: It is only mid-term.
Mr BALDWIN: Oh, it is only mid-term, the member for Karama says. Meanwhile, one more season passes for the mango growers and the horticulturalists and the promises that were delivered two years ago do not mean anything. They want to hear some details. Where is it going to go? Let us hear you say it is going to go in Katherine. Let us hear that there is going to be half the money going into Katherine. We have three packing sheds in Katherine now for mangoes. Why not get together with them and contribute some of your $2m? Let us get some details. These are people spending their own money, creating jobs, and what do we hear from the government – nothing, silence. It is absolutely atrocious that the only bit of information they are probably waiting for in terms of some infrastructure development, nowhere to be seen in this statement.
And that is probably because it is following, word for word, from a three year old statement that obviously did not have that in there because it was not a commitment of the CLP government at that time. But almost everything else in that statement is similar.
I would say that I have said enough in terms of the way this thing has been presented, and I know, because having been there, that you have a mess going on, on the 5th floor, a real mess. I am looking forward to your answer on this. I am sure a lot of people up there are, and certainly a lot of people out there are going to want to know why you would deliver such a disguised piece of nonsense into this House. You just do not take this seriously enough, or you are not checking. You should be ashamed. And if you did not know about it, then probably my bet that we had not so long ago will come true and you will not be where you are.
Dr TOYNE (Justice and Attorney-General): Mr Acting Deputy Speaker, that is a very interesting contribution from the member for Daly. I just hope he has been taking his pills.
Let us get back to horticulture. Firstly, I commend the minister for bringing forward a statement on this very important area of the Territory economy. I am always delighted to see the House devote some time to updating members and sharing information about this very important industry.
I will concentrate my comments, initially, on the Central Australian region for obvious reasons. When you talk about Central Australian horticulture you are largely talking about table grape production. First of all, I acknowledge the good work done by the NT Table Grape Producers Association based in Alice Springs. Bob Millington, the Executive Officer and Trevor Sowman, the President, have met with government on many occasions, both when I held the portfolio and with the present minister for primary industry. They have always shown themselves to be both very open to discussing their issues with government, and always prepared to do their own work to solve the problem alongside what they ask government to do. We do not mind that sort of relationship. What you see with horticulturalists is that they are having a red hot go in their own industry and they are always ready to work on their part to get across some of the problems that might crop up as we develop these industry sectors.
The table grape industry in Central Australia is a fledgling industry. There is certainly a long way to go to consolidate it to the level that would be available under the current estimates of the aquifers that exist around the Central Australian region. However, having said that, we are looking at a multimillion dollar industry which has made huge progress in its early history. That was reflected in the minister’s statement.
The impact of the rains last year, as reported, was very disappointing. However, having flown over and driven past the grape farms in recent times, they are certainly heading for a very good crop, provided the weather does hold for them this year. To strike rain at the very time when it was going to damage the crop was pretty unlucky last year. I hope that is not the normal pattern that they are facing.
At the moment, we have the most land that is under table grape production at one time that we have ever had - in the range of 25 hectares more than 2002, and a total of about 400 hectares. The expansion of this industry in Central Australia is starting to take up several forms. There are clearly aquifers, as reported by the minister, that have already been plotted out, like the ones at Woodgreen, up at Ali Curung, Willowra, Utopia - and very good water in the case of some of those. The Utopia aquifers are based on the Sandover River, about 40 km2, and very pure water. It is sand filtered by the time you are getting into the catchment area of the aquifer. There are fantastic prospects there for developing further land under grape production.
The fruit fly problem in Alice Springs goes hand-in-hand with the attempts to consolidate this industry. You simply cannot have an extensive horticultural industry ringing a town that has an endemic population of fruit fly; it does not work. We have had fruit fly in Alice Springs for many, many years. I can remember going to Mick Palmer when he was the minister for primary industries under the previous government and urging him to do something about the fruit fly population in Alice Springs, particularly after we had an outbreak of fruit fly in the Ti Tree grape farms; one that was literally threatening the whole industry. They managed, through the department, to contain that outbreak. It was traced to a vehicle that had gone up from Alice Springs to visit the farms and - surprise, surprise! - it took some fruit with fruit fly eggs in it. That is the way that the fly reached the farms.
With the eradication program, Bob Millington, Trevor Sowman and others from the NT Grape Producers Association have been very strong in supporting the government to take the action to eradicate fruit flies. Being fruit fly free would be a significant marketing advantage for the Centre, particularly in places like Tasmania where we are trying to get those early season fruit down to markets to get the good early season prices, and in places where clearly they are not going to get a crop for many months after they ripen in central Australia. The public launch of the pilot program supported by this government took place in Alice Springs on 11 August 2003 with a considerable amount of public interest.
Geoff Miers, our home grown - if I can coin the phrase - garden show host, has been very public in his support for the pilot. The pilot is actually based on the release of 29 million sterile flies which have been released into the area east of the Todd River and including a buffer area to reduce the influx of wild flies from the western part of the township, over an eight week period from early August to late September. The idea of releasing sterile flies is obvious; it cuts down the access of fertile males to the breeding females so you slow down and enormously curtail the breeding outcomes for the flies when they are breeding on the town crops such as citrus and grape plants in Alice Springs. His role in it is helping to spread the awareness of this campaign around the town. It is very important for the general public to play their part in helping to eradicate these pests. Simple things such as putting fallen citrus fruit into plastic bags, tying them off and leaving them in the sun; that kills off all the fruit flies that might be contaminating that fruit. That, again, is reducing the breeding cycle and the population of the flies in Alice Springs. This is one area where the whole town can join in and help to get into these little buggers and get them out of Alice Springs and out of the horticultural areas so that we can get that advantage in terms of the further development of the industry.
Further monitoring of data and analysis of results is continuing in order to assess the likely success of the eradication program. At this stage it is looking very encouraging. I can certainly say that for the very little time that I spend at home, my orange tree is dropping fruit at this time of the year and it is probably the first time I have seen a reduction in the incidence of fruit fly around my area. Let’s hope we can keep the pressure on the population and get rid of them from Alice Springs; or at least get them down to a very low level and hold them there so that they are not going to spread to the remaining areas.
The Ti Tree area, which is about 200 km north of Alice Springs for those members who are not familiar with the area, is the initial place in which horticulture developed. It started there with the Dahlenburgs probably in the 1970s I would say, or maybe the 1980s, but certainly they had been there for many years pioneering the growing of horticultural crops in that zone. We are now moving on to other areas, other plantings, which are going to add to the diversity of the industry.
Rocky Hill, just to the east of Alice Springs, has been planted out with 26 hectares of table grapes. We are looking at that with great interest. This is a development by Jimmy Hayes and Mick Gould of Undoolya Station. They will picking their first crop in November this year but they have actually brought the crop into a frost zone. Members will probably be aware that Alice Springs does get very severe frosts when we get a heavy winter. Some of those frosts can tail off into the time when the plants have actually budded and gone into their productive part of the year. So, they are taking a punt on that new area and, I think, so far so good. It looks really good for their first year of production. If we can get that second area going it is giving greater diversity to the way in which that industry is operating in the area.
Another very exciting aspect to the table grapes is the plan to use treated effluent from the sewerage farms to grow grapes. PowerWater has allocated $6.2m to establish the head works to bring that treated effluent to an area near the Arid Zone Research Institute. That will provide not only a good water supply, but a fertilised water supply, if I can be very delicate about this. It is basically food and water. If you are a grape vine, you would welcome this effluent because it has most of what you need to prosper in life. I would not drink the stuff, mind you! It is better on the grapes, being sucked up through those roots and turned into a plant.
About 1500 megalitres of this treated water will be available, enough to irrigate well over 100 hectares of horticultural plants. The detailed design of the water reuse pipeline has already commenced, and following a call for expressions of interest, negotiations with the main commercial player are continuing. There will be room for smaller growers as well, such as fodder crop growers and, hopefully, we might even see hydroponic tomato production coming off that effluent as well. So, there are quite a few options for the further development of the horticultural area using that water. We expect that agencies, through the project management team, will have water on site at the end of next year. We expect to see crops being planted in 2005.
That is a fantastic project. When you think of Alice Springs sitting in the middle of an arid zone, the sewerage ponds have always been a point of contention in that you had water being treated through the sewerage pond system and then flowing out into what became a swamp area planted out with reeds to purify the water. That became a major problem with breeding mosquitos, and it is really an eyesore in that form. This takes the water straight out of the final treatment ponds, through a pipe system and onto a horticultural block. That is a much better solution to the run-off problem that we have had there for many years.
I will spend my remaining time looking at the Centrefarm production that is being aimed at in Utopia. I have been to Utopia, it is in my electorate, and they have now drilled four, very good, production bores opposite the Soapy Bore community on the Sandover Highway, one at each corner of the intended planting area, which is one kilometre by one kilometre. They are really in a position, now that they have established the Centrefarm as a legal entity, to start drawing in a venture partner to plant out that area. They have the water, they have the legal structure; now they need their partner. They are certainly talking to a number of groups. I expect that the combination of a good, proven market, a good, proven growing area and a good water supply should get them a partner fairly soon. We have had a number of big developers coming through the area to talk about possibilities apart from grapes, like olives, like citrus for the overseas market particularly because of the time that our fruit comes on.
We can look forward to the next few years. Despite the fairly negative approach taken by the member for Daly, the horticultural industry is very much on track, on its game and is keen to continue the quite spectacular development it has had to date.
I will close by talking about one of my other favourites, which is the mango industry. Having just come back from Singapore, we heard comments a number of times from the Singapore business community with which we were meeting, about the high quality of Australian fruit and the expectation that Australian fruit would come in to the South-East Asian market in increasing amounts. We have an enormous potential up there. There has been much work done, not only by our government, but by the previous government, scoping out the possibilities for export. There has been much technical work done on getting mangoes into containers and holding back the ripening of the fruit until it can get to markets like Singapore and Hong Kong.
We now have to continue that work, and it is becoming increasingly crucial that we get that work done and get those markets opened up. Really, with the number of trees in the ground coming into maturity, and the sheer volume of fruit that is now being produced, the logistics and the marketing of the crop is getting more and more critical. I know the Mango Growers Association are very aware of that. It was very encouraging to see, at the South-East Asian end of the system, that there is a huge amount of awareness and interest in seeing Australian fruit go there. We have to do the hard work. I think that the recent debate about whether we are getting up to South-East Asia enough, and certainly we are, but the work has to continue. It has to continue with our business minister, the primary industry minister, and me and the Chief Minister. I am sure we will be going regularly into that region to continue this work.
I believe that once we solve the logistics with the technical solutions we already have in place, we can grow that market fairly quickly now, and we are going to have to grow that market very quickly to place our crop. We have basically supplied for our time of the year up to the limits of the domestic markets. We have to go overseas, we all know that, and we have to do that as quickly and efficiently as we possibly can.
I will put in a quick word about peanuts around the Katherine area. Peanut is a fantastic crop and it has an absolutely assured market with the PCA, the Peanut Company of Australia. The last two years has seen significant work done in proving out the growing conditions around Katherine. I see that as almost an ideal crop. You have a guaranteed market in the peanut mills in Queensland. It is a good, clean crop to grow. You cannot actually spray too much on peanuts because they grow on the ground, and the soil types are ideal for the production over there. I look forward to seeing an incremental growth of peanuts around the Katherine area. They are already going to market in Queensland. They do not even have to find a buyer. They are ready made and let us see that grow a bit rapidly as well.
Mr DUNHAM (Drysdale): Mr Acting Deputy Speaker, I too had indicated earlier when this statement was circulated that I would be seeking to speak to it, because it is a matter of some interest to me, and to many members on this side, and certainly carrying the business portfolio, this is a critical industry for the Northern Territory. However, this speech has been contaminated. This speech has been contaminated to the extent that it has been authored by somebody who has plagiarised someone else’s work. It is said that the greatest form of flattery …
Dr BURNS: A point of order, Mr Acting Deputy Speaker! That is a very serious charge. The member for Drysdale should be very careful. He should be comparing the two speeches and be very careful with his allegations. I am pointing to Standing Order no 62; be very careful.
Mr DUNHAM: I shall. I shall be very careful, Mr Acting Deputy Speaker. I am glad we now have your attention.
Dr BURNS: I ask you, Mr Acting Deputy Speaker, to caution the member for Drysdale, and let us hope that he has read the two speeches and he can point to direct plagiarism here.
Mr DUNHAM: Mr Acting Deputy Speaker, I shall be very careful and I would assume that you would have done likewise.
Mr ACTING DEPUTY SPEAKER: Member for Drysdale! You pay attention to me. I am the Speaker. I remind you that Standing Order 62 says:
So, member for Drysdale, I ask you - you have the book there in front of you – to pay attention to No 62 and please get on with the debate.
Mr DUNHAM: I have it in front of me and I am quite happy to stay within the confines of standing orders. Standing orders require things like people who make statements that are attributed to use quote marks. One would have hoped that this minister would have known that, being a researcher and publisher of some note, and who has proudly proclaimed his qualifications in this parliament, as somebody who has the rigour of great research.
There are a few things that we could say about this comment and this supposed statement – and I am sure my ex-colleague, Mr Mick Palmer, would be having quite a belly laugh about this tonight because, essentially what we have here is the Labor Party totally devoid of ideas. Not only do they not know what they are doing in horticulture, but they have had to pinch ideas from three years before. If you go through some of the statement, it is interesting that my colleague, the member for Daly, has been able to show where the similarities are. I looked for some of the differences, and that is really interesting. Let us look, for instance, at mangoes. Mangoes in the previous statement were at $36m; they are now at $36.3m three years later. I would not say that was a great accolade, minister.
Table grapes, which in minister Palmer’s statement were at $14.5m, are now lauded by this minister as being $9.9m, a fall of $5m. Bananas were at $13m and are down to $7m. So, here you are coming in here, pinching a statement, and using numbers that do not reflect well on you in any event. Why would you do something so foolish if you had any notion of how these markets have been travelling? Other fruits valued by Mick Palmer at $4.5m three years ago are now $4.2m. So, there has been another decline there. Thankfully, vegetables and nursery and cut flower industry are both up. It is evident that it has absolutely nothing to do with this government.
It is interesting also when the minister started talking about ‘his’ department. We know that this is not a department; we know that this is animal and plant industry production services. It now sits as some little branch within the department and nobody knows where it is. In fact, even accessing the web site is difficult, as my colleague, the member for Daly, pointed out.
Therefore, if we have a look at where the minister stumbled through his speech and had a go at some corrections – and we could go to page 17 of his speech – he has peppered it all the way through with ‘his department’. Two things: first it ain’t his! DBIRD is a matter for his colleague and himself, so it is his shared department. Second is, it does not have departmental status anymore. Therefore, one would think that if you were going to go and use ‘my department is advised’, blah, blah – as said by Mr Palmer – you would say: ‘Whoops, it is not a department anymore and neither is it mine’. What he has done is have a bit of a crash at changing things and, on page 17 in the first paragraph, ‘my department’ was changed to ‘DBIRD’. Second paragraph, ‘my department’ was changed to ‘DBIRD’. Third paragraph, ‘my department’ was left as it was. Further on, in conjunction with Queensland, ‘my department’ changed to ‘DBIRD’. Last paragraph, ‘my department’ is unchanged.
So, he is not even a good editor. It is one thing to pinch somebody else’s work. It is quite another thing to have a go at editing it and be so sloppy as to not do it consistently; to try to cover up the fact that you have subsumed what was once a flagship department into some little branch. I think that, in doing so, you should have been possibly a little more rigorous with your editing.
If you look at some of the other things that attend on this statement; for instance, I would have thought a good talking point - and I quote here now from documents that are now available to the opposition through FOI - would be why there is a budget variation of minus $9.998m in animal and plant industry production services. I would have thought that the minister could have told us why it is down $2m. That would be a good thing to talk about. So here is the government saying: ‘Let us run what Mick said; we will do a quick cut and paste and, wherever he says ‘department’ because we have subsumed into this little baby branchy thing, we will try to change that’. But they have not said why it has gone into decline in those major industries, nor have they said why they have cut it.
It is interesting also, when one looks at this package and storage facility, to quote from the Estimates Committee briefing. The minister could not tell us about unless we actually paid to get this information from him:
Even in his own brief he will tell you that it is a year late. It is on the design list; it is not even on capital works. So, there are some very critical things for this minister to start talking to us about. We think it is probably a good thing in a funny sort of way that they are continuing along the lines that was set by the good work of Mick Palmer. We think that is probably a good thing. To use that as an absolute blueprint in an industry that is facing challenges and changes from year to year it pretty stupid. It is pretty foolhardy. Particularly when some of those changes are changes you are making like cutting the budget. So, that is some dumb work and I think that you have to stand at the end and not only talk about this statement and what it contains, and we know it pretty well because it has been around for three years, but you have to talk about why you have chosen to come to this parliament with something circa three years ago and present it as your own work, when you know that that is not the case.
I would talk also about the business about going to Singapore. We have the minister for information services going up there saying, ‘They know all about our mangoes’. Minister, where are your trips? Where have you been promoting our mangoes and our table grapes? Where have you been promoting the stuff? We saw a little stunt in here with tabling table grapes during the budget session in some sort of a little aside to try to steal the thunder of the opposition rejoinder to the Estimates and apart from that there is very, very little.
The good work that was done by Mick Palmer is something that this parliament should recognise. So good was it, that it is used as an absolute blue print for this government. It is so good that three years later, it is adhered to word for word and point for point. The only changes are cuts that this mob have made, the relegation to a lower status of what was once a flagship department, a minister who either has not done the research, given his high level of credentials in this area and has been sold a pup, or a minister who has deliberately brought a statement to this parliament that so readily replicates something that was brought here before but he has to explain to this House what it is all about.
As with all statements, we do not get much time to have a look at it, so it was quite amazing that my colleague was able to stumble on this as quickly as he did. However, it requires the minister to describe how that could have possibly happened and it will not be left here. This will be a matter of great curiosity to the media. People who watch MediaWatch will know that stories pinched from elsewhere are run with a yellow highlighter through on national television. I do not think I have seen the like of this. I certainly have heard ministers give portions of speeches that have been given before. It is all their own work. They are able to do that. There is nothing wrong with that. It might be a bit lazy and it might be something that we are travelling over old ground.
But, for this government to go back three years to use as an absolute blue print to the word, statements made by my former colleague, Mr Palmer, beggars belief. It is beggars belief that they have that level of laziness, that level of sloth amongst those who are responsible for the stuff. We have heard how they are going to be open and accountable, how they are going to be energetic, how they are going to be running a tight pace of business. All that is a myth and it has been proved to be a myth. It has been exploded by my colleague, the member for Daly. He has been able to see that not only can they not walk the walk, the cannot talk the talk. The only way they can talk the talk is to regurgitate words that were readily available in parliamentary debates right back in November 2002.
This is a dog-eared old book now and that is how their policies are too. They are a shame to this House. This minister has to convince this parliament that he has the confidence to be able to continue in this area. This minister has to at least bring to this debate some justification why he would have done such a foolish thing, and this minister has to convince this House that the new, wonderful path that has been embarked on by this government differs, and is better for that difference, from that which was walked hitherto.
Mr WOOD (Nelson): Mr Acting Deputy Speaker, after listening to other speakers, I feel like I am going to give a response to the CLP’s policy on horticultural production in the Northern Territory. That disappoints me because I was hoping to stand here today to contribute to something in which I have a background. It is extremely disappointing to see this statement as it is.
I realise that the minister has to take the blame, but you would have to wonder, when the Chief Minister’s staff is up to about 270 people, surely there would be someone on that staff who could write a new horticultural statement. Horticulture is a dynamic industry. It is moving and changing all the time. I could write a different statement on horticulture every year in the Northern Territory because it is always changing. It is a pity to see something that has been regurgitated. It certainly has facts in it which are accurate, but those facts, in many cases, have just being substituted in the right place. They have used someone else’s statement and made it up to date in some cases.
Minister, I am very disappointed. I remember standing in this parliament during the parliamentary accounts committee saying that I believed certain ministers changed the budget, and I probably would have lived with that budget if there had been some small explanations at the bottom of the budget saying why they did it. I now have a document which makes no note that this ministerial statement has come from someone else, substantially. I am not saying the facts are wrong. I am just saying that I went through with the biro, ticked off paragraph after paragraph after paragraph which matched this particular statement.
It is disturbing. I would expect any government, when they produce a document for this parliament, to do it in a professional manner. We have just seen the Auditor-General’s report. You would expect whatever you are reading there to be exactly what you should be reading, that it has come from this Auditor-General, not some other Auditor-General. I really am deflated. I was looking forward to a productive discussion on horticulture because it is, for me, a vital industry for the Northern Territory.
It is not just a vital industry; it is an industry that needs care. It needs to be developed carefully. There are many issues and problems with horticulture. Anyone who has followed the history of horticulture would remember the days when the rockmelon industry was booming, especially around Santavan Station just south of Noonamah, and then it crashed. I think it crashed in Katherine at the same time. Some of those were insect problems, some were poor management problems, like people putting fruit into the market too early and giving the Territory a bad name. They are slowly coming back now and it has taken a long time for that to happen.
We all know the destruction of the Northern Territory banana industry by the importation of something which carried Panama disease. Bananas were a great crop with so much potential for the Northern Territory. Anyone who had been to Lambells Lagoon and seen the millions that were poured into the new banana developments would say: ‘What a crying shame to see all that collapse’. There have been farms out at Middle Point. I have been going there since the late 1970s, early 1980s. They are now all going out of business. Why? Because of one disease that came in.
I would have liked to have seen in this discussion some of the down sides as well as the good sides. I am not here to knock horticulture, but I would have thought that a statement today about horticulture would look at a lot more issues than what is in here. Disease is a major issue for the Northern Territory horticultural industry. Look at white fly and cucumbers. It wiped them out. Look at the coconut leaf beetle. It did a lot of damage to coconut trees. There is a mango flower caterpillar which causes massive problems in the mango industry unless sprayed. We had citrus canker. People will remember when there was a quarantine at Lambells Lagoon, someone brought in some citrus. We have snake bean wilt, which we never had before, I used to grow snake beans and could not get rid of them. Today, because the Asian vegetable industry is such a booming section of the horticulture industry, this is a major disease.
The Minister for Central Australia said we had fruit fly in the Northern Territory. People remember getting stopped just near Manton Dam and having all their fruit and vegetables removed. There was nothing worse than when I used to go down to my block of land at Adelaide River to slash the fire breaks and I would take my cut lunch with me. Well, you did not have a cut lunch anymore, especially if you had tomatoes or any fruit in it. It was all taken away unless you ate it on the spot. So, we had problems with horticultural diseases. I think government has to put a lot more effort into making sure that these diseases do not come in. And I am not saying they are, but I think it would have been an important area to develop in this statement. If you get disease, you do not have a horticultural industry.
Another area that has great potential is organic horticulture. There are quite a number of people growing organic fruit and vegetables. If you go to the Coolalinga Markets, which is my markets, they do very well. They sell as much local produce as they can produce, which is at times limited because of the seasons, and other times they import a lot of organic fruit and vegetables. But there are issues there on how you maintain land for organic horticulture. I know the new Litchfield area plan has looked at having land set aside for organic horticulture, but how do you maintain that land? How do stop someone using a pesticide or herbicide and ruining the standards that are needed to apply for you to sell your fruit and vegetables as definite organic produce? There are those issues with organic horticulture, but I do not see it get a mention here and it is something that we certainly need to look at.
Spraying controls is another issue in my electorate and, I would say, also the member for Goyder’s electorate. There is quite a lot of horticulture because, presently, horticulture is permitted on RL1, which is five acres or two hectares blocks, and also RL2, which is eight hectares or 20 acre blocks. However, there are certainly times when people get annoyed with a particular vegetable grower or mango grower sprays his neighbour out of existence, and that upsets people. There are plenty of good growers, but there are some people who do not always do the right thing. So there is an issue that can limit horticulture. Anyone who has been looking at the Litchfield area plan will see that the proposal is to now have horticulture as a consent use in some parts of Litchfield Shire.
Another area, of course, is water. I notice in here that the current trend of doubling the production value every five years is expected to continue. Well, you will only double production if you have enough water. We have to be very careful that we do not go down the path of all these great statements, unless we have water and good soil to do it with. They are grand statements, they sound good, but we have to make sure we have water.
I notice in these statements, and it is a peculiar statement but it slightly varies from Mr Palmer’s statement, and that is the section on Ti Tree. Mick Palmer’s statement says the following:
Now, I was of the understanding, and correct me if I am wrong, but that water is not sustainable because it does not get recharged, it is in a desert area, where there is no rainfall. When I pick up the minister’s statement, it says on page 9:
The minister may be correct, but that was not written in the previous statement and maybe since this statement was written, there have been more bores drilled and there is more understanding of the bore field, but I think that certainly would require an explanation. Much as I believe Ti Tree has a lot of potential, we also should be looking at it realistically and asking what its potential is for fifty years or a hundred years. Unless you can fill that aquifer up again with water, then that is the limitation for that area.
One area that perhaps gets missed out occasionally is, with the big growth in Asian vegetables, there has been a dropping-off in, you might say, non-Asian vegetables such as tomatoes, capsicums, cabbages, and lettuces. Whilst some of that still occurs in Katherine, it certainly has reduced in the Darwin region from what it used to be. Whether that is because of diseases - there are a couple of other diseases like Darwin leaf curl which has been a real problem with tomato growers and, of course, Fusarium wilt which has continued to make life very difficult for our tomato growers unless they use grafted varieties. That is an area I would have liked the minister to expand on to say what the future of those sort of crops is. They were big for a while in the Northern Territory. Adelaide River was probably the vegetable growing area of the Northern Territory for a long time. There was a man called Mr Di Cesare who passed away about a year ago. He used to grow large amounts of tomatoes and watermelons in Adelaide River. Adelaide River, of course, was famous for growing vegetables during the war.
Another issue that perhaps the government may not be aware of, but I have been told by the member for Daly and by other people from Katherine, is that the cane toads are having an effect on the horticultural production. What they are finding is that where people are laying the black plastic down for vegetables, in which they cut a hole and put in the seedling, it is a great place for a cane toad. He finds that a perfect place to sit there and enjoy the heat and the moisture with a drip irrigation system running underneath, and he eats the seedlings. So, believe it or not, cane toads are having an effect on horticultural production. What they are going to be able to do about them, I do not know. Certainly, if you put down a couple of thousand plants and find that only 500 come up, it is going to make life very hard if you are a vegetable grower.
Another area that could be looked at is planning controls on horticulture. I know that the government is looking at some of those things. Certainly, there has been some debate, especially in some parts of the Litchfield Shire, about the expansion of the horticultural production zone, or protection zone. Whilst I believe that is important, we have to be careful we do not stand on other people’s rights who have land zoned something else. There is tendency to believe that if your land is zoned HP, then you are really pushing to have any other form of living there. You can have other forms of occupation, but it sends out the message that if you are going to live in that area, well, look out, you are probably going to have to put up with horticultural production next door to you. The government needs to be very careful when it rezones private land, especially, into something else like horticulture.
There is some mention of education in the statement. My background is horticultural science. Although I have not looked at what horticultural diplomas are available at the present time, when I last had a look I felt that most of our education system was aimed at putting people on the land with enough knowledge so that they could go into the industry; which is fine. You certainly need education that goes down that way. However, it is time we advanced our horticultural education to a higher standard for people who want to look at the science of horticulture. If you are able to develop horticulture techniques, have people working in developing new varieties - in other words the science of horticulture - we need to take one step up. Our university certainly should be looking at having a degree in horticultural science. Associate diplomas are very good - I am not knocking those at all - but you need to take that extra step if we are to advance horticulture in the Northern Territory.
Horticulture is a difficult industry in a tropical climate like ours, It is very hot at certain times of the year - like at the present time – and it is very hard to grow vegetables, except perhaps Asian vegetables which seem to be able to manage to survive in this heat. Anyone who has tried to grow tomatoes, capsicums or even watermelons or other melons in the extreme heats of October/November finds it very difficult. You also have high intensive rainfall which can not only belt the living daylights out of a plant, it can also cause erosion and loss of nutrients. There are extremes in our northern climate. Luckily, in some of the parts of the southern climates, like Alice Springs, you have times of the year when you can grow all those crops.
Another issue that needs looking at, minister, is marketing. It seems to me, from reading the latest horticulture journal, that certainly there is move to try to help the marketing interstate The minister for DBIRD last year was looking at issues regarding wholesaling of mangoes in the market. I do not know if that has all been sorted out yet, but there were some fairly disgruntled people who found that their fruit would get down to interstate markets and not be handled in the right way, or the price could fairly variable. Some people have said that some of the practices of big supermarkets especially down south are certainly questionable in the way they can basically set the price for purchasing mangoes.
There are also issues for local growers. I have heard it said many times that if you want to sell something to Coles or Woolies today, not only do you have to fill out all this quality assurance paper work, you have to show how clean your shed is and what you sprayed with and all this sort of stuff. A lot of times the fruit goes south before it comes back to the north. There is certainly scope to try to make it easier for local growers to supply the bigger chains. A lot of people do not; a lot of people now go to the smaller supermarkets where they know they do not have to put up with all this extra paper work which is a cost to the grower. That is an issue that I would have liked to have seen in the statement; whether the government is working towards trying to make it easier for the growers to sell their produce.
They are all important issues. They are issues that if I was writing a ministerial statement on horticulture that I would have included. There is certainly plenty of good stuff in there. The sad thing is it does not come entirely from the minister. Much of it comes from a three year old ministerial statement. Having looked at it and compared it, I would find that I could not endorse the statement because it is not the minister’s statement. And that is just a simple matter of fact. It is not because I am biased against the minister or something. If the minister’s statement had said in the beginning it was using a substantial amount of information from a previous statement and it was added to it with some new figures, I would have said, ‘Okay, that’s fine’. But that has not happened. It has left me a little deflated and disappointed that the government would bring out a statement on such an important industry in the Northern Territory, one that many growers will read because it will end up in a horticultural magazine. And now, to have someone else’s name put on that would leave many growers very disillusioned as to whether the government is really serious about this industry. If it was serious it would have written a serious article.
I am afraid, Mr Acting Deputy Speaker, I cannot endorse this statement.
Mr ELFERINK (Macdonnell): Mr Acting Deputy Speaker, I also rise to speak on the contents of this statement. I say at the outset that I find the decision by the minister to engage in this particular behaviour reprehensible beyond words. I cannot imagine a more intellectually derelict thing ever happening in this parliament as this piece of larceny that we see before us. It is not just small bits; it is large bit of this statement. I have taken the time - I know that the member for Daly was pushed when he was thinking on his feet. I quote the minister now:
Madam Speaker, I rise today to present a statement on the rapidly expanding Northern Territory horticultural industry. Horticulture in the Territory has been growing at a rapid rate, doubling every five years for the past 20 years. All indications are that this trend will continue over the next five to 10 years.
I now quote from minister Palmer three years ago:
Mr Speaker, I rise today to present a statement on the expanding Northern Territory horticultural industry. Horticulture in the Territory has been growing at a rapid rate, doubling every five years for the past 20 years. All indications are that this trend will continue in the next five to 10 years.
I now turn to another area in this statement. I quote now the minister before the House today:
I now quote from minister Palmer, three years ago:
I now go onto another area, and quote from the minister today:
I quote from minister Palmer from three years ago:
He then goes on to say:
This is just straight off cut and paste lifting, so much so that the minister has forgotten to note that he does not have a department any more. To refer to a department in his statement indicates already that there is plain old cutting and pasting operating here. I am not going to be anywhere near as gracious as the other members and suggest that this speech was written for the minister. The minister comes in here and applies his name to this. He says: ‘I.’ ‘I move that the statement be noted. I bring this statement to the House’. The use of that particular perpendicular pronoun means that he takes ownership of it.
Territorians did not vote for a speech writer. Territorians did not vote for somebody upstairs on the 5th floor who sits at a desk in a public service or advisory capacity. When somebody comes into this Chamber and says something, by osmosis or directly, they take it on as their own. There is no way to back away from this and when this occurs, there is no excuse.
I recall about 12 months ago in academia at Monash University, a fellow, whose name escapes me, was caught plagiarising - and that is what exactly what this is - he was caught plagiarising. As a consequence, he had to resign because it was a total disgrace. His choice to engage in that particular intellectual black art cost him his job. The minister should be seriously considering his position at this time. I can tell you that if he is not pushed by the Chief Minister or if he chooses not to throw himself on his sword over this reprehensible piece of larceny, this government is going to be very sadly tainted. Believe you me, Mr Acting Deputy Speaker, more work will be done because if this is being repeated, then the declarations of honesty that this government hung its hat on while it was still in opposition are going to be meaningless …
Mr Ah Kit: And your contribution to horticulture?
This has to be the poorest piece of governance in the history of the Northern Territory. We had a candidate one or two elections ago who was caught doing this and he did not even get a look in as far as the voters were concerned. This guy has taken on an oath of office, and he has chosen to be a representative, a minister of the Crown, he represents the Queen. In the process of doing what he has done here today, he has engaged in disgracing his oath.
I am just mystified by what I have seen here today, and I think the minister has no choice but to step back from his position. If he does not choose to, then I think that the Chief Minister has no choice, because if the Chief Minister fails to act on this deception, then …
Members interjecting.
Mr ELFERINK: Mr Deputy Speaker, if the Chief Minister fails to act then they are also taking on responsibility for what has occurred here today. They may want to interject all they like but it does not get away from the guilt, and woe betide this government if any member opposite has engaged in exactly the same behaviour.
Ms CARNEY (Araluen): Mr Acting Deputy Speaker, my contribution will be slightly different from that of my colleagues, but can I say from the outset, and I have not seen Mick Palmer’s contribution, but if this statement today is similar, or copies much of the former minister’s statement, then clearly that is something that should not and does not impress me.
I enjoyed the contribution of the member for Nelson. He raised many good points. However, I also need to say that he will, no doubt, feel a bit deflated after some of the comments that I will make. I note from the statement, and because I do not have Mick Palmer’s statement I am unable to ascertain which part of the statement tabled today is this minister’s or a former minister’s, but I note expressions like: development of horticulture on Aboriginal land; dealing with the Central Land Council; having workshops in Alice Springs; how horticultural development has contributed significantly to economic activity in the Northern Territory; how important it is to employment opportunities and the industry generally; and how, this is at page 15:
I could not agree with that statement more strongly. What was interesting, though, was that the minister did not refer to the fact that the horticultural section in the Alice Springs correctional facility has been closed.
I noted with interest how the Attorney-General spoke about mangoes, bananas, peanuts, grapes, and just about everything else, a man who is known for talking with some passion, I believe, about Aboriginal employment, Aboriginal development. Yet a man who is the Attorney-General in his own department, has apparently sanctioned the closure of the horticultural section inside the Alice Springs gaol. I have this information from prison officers. I sought confirmation this morning. I have that confirmation, it was e-mailed to me. I have no reason to doubt the advice I have been given that the horticultural section in the Alice Springs gaol has been closed.
In a statement about horticulture, the minister did not even refer to it. In a contribution from the Attorney-General, he talked about all and sundry, but he did not even refer to it. Now, for those members who have not seen the horticultural section of the Alice Springs gaol, I, unlike this minister, will quote from previous Hansard reports, because it is the most succinct way of describing the facility and, unlike this minister, I will attribute the comments to relevant members. In a speech made by the member for Greatorex on 15 August 2000, he says:
I know that in Alice Springs Centralian College provides the prisoners with many accredited courses, in particular horticulture.
He goes on to say:
It is important that our prisoners are given some sort of skill so that when they are released from gaol they are able to plug back into society and be gainfully employed.
Further, and the minister will note that I am attributing these parts of other Hansard. This is from 28 November 2000 and the member for Braitling had a bit to say. She said:
The member for Braitling went on to comment on the garden plots at the horticultural centre. She commented that the prisoners were very proud of what they achieved and I will quote this bit:
I asked this morning for the annual report for the Department of Justice, and I obtained the annual report for 2001-02. There was no mention in there of the horticultural program. I suppose, on one analysis, there was a slight change of format so, in the overall scheme of things, perhaps that is not surprising, but disappointing anyway. We then went back to look at the annual report from the Department of Correctional Services 2000-01, and it refers to Certificate I and Certificate II in Horticulture.
Over and above my comments so far, I went out to the gaol when I had the shadow portfolio of Correctional Services before Correctional Services merged with the Department of Justice. I was shown around the Alice Springs prison, and the horticultural section was one of the best parts in the whole complex; it was fantastic. It was very clear that the prisoners learnt a lot and enjoyed it. It was one of the best kept gardens in Central Australia, in my view. So, this great facility has, without any publication of it by this government, closed. It is extraordinary - isn’t it - that in a statement on horticulture, the minister does not give an explanation as to why it was not closed and, indeed, the Attorney-General does not say why it was closed.
I look forward to the minister getting back to me on this in due course - either one of them - but I was told that the costs were between $60 000 to $80 000 for watering and for the officer to supervise, and that the department wanted to reduce costs. Well, I do not think that you can put a cost on - and I am parroting the language often used …
Dr Toyne: You are wrong, it is still out there. You have dug yourself another hole.
Ms CARNEY: … by members opposite - you cannot put a cost of indigenous employment or indigenous training. These are very valuable skills that are learnt by prisoners in the prison system. When we also consider that in June 2003, there is an indigenous prisoner rate of 82%, compared with 62% in June 2001, it necessarily follows that this is good for Aboriginal people.
I will repeat comments I made early on that this information came to me very recently. I sought confirmation from those on the ground in Alice Springs, and my advice is that the horticultural section has been closed. If either minister wants to assure me that that is not the case, I will be delighted, and I will report that to the particular person who has given me this information and seek his views.
In any event, that was the main point I wanted to make, and of course my comments are somewhat different from those of my colleagues, but it is fair to say that this is not a good day for the minister.
Mr McADAM (Barkly): Mr Acting Deputy Speaker, I rise to speak in relation to the ministerial statement on horticulture in the Northern Territory. Specifically, I will essentially refer to production or events that are occurring in my electorate, and, in particular Ali Curung which is approximately 170 km south of Tennant Creek. Members would be aware that as far back as the 1960s, Ali Curung was a very productive area in the production of vegetables and other products which were supplied to the Tennant Creek community, to the Tennant Creek shops and also to shops in Alice Springs.
It was appropriate that the previous member for Barkly and the previous Chief Minister was in the House here today. I had the opportunity to speak to him regarding the vegetable garden that was at Ali Curung at that time. I did not actually see it but certainly, the member for Barkly at the time, Mr Ian Tuxworth, did. He commented very highly in respect to its capacity to add to the community and also to the region.
It is now my belief that Ali Curung is ideally situated once again to become a major horticultural production area. Before I get accused of lifting stuff from previous speeches, I want to make it very clear that this was in part, part of a speech which I gave in this House previously. I said that Ali Curung is accessed by an all weather road. The Alice Springs to Darwin railway, or Darwin to Adelaide railway, is now complete and will provide a link in respect to the distribution of goods either to the south or to the north. Ali Curung, as most people know, is provided with power from Tennant Creek. It very obviously will benefit from a $9m power supply upgrade as recently announced by the minister in this House not too long back. The water supply in the area is huge in volume and it is suitable; I have been advised it is a renewable resource. The soils in the region are also very suitable in terms of growing products.
I have been very actively encouraging my colleague, the minister for primary industry, to look at further research including market research, which may lead to the establishment of a horticultural industry at Ali Curung. I am pleased to say that the minister has actively been involved in this process and has been very supportive. The minister is aware that clearly, in the long term, a strong horticultural industry will grow the local region and provide jobs, and more importantly, provide income for people who live in the Barkly.
Two weeks ago today, I was at Ali Curung as part of the swearing-in ceremony. I must say that the community was very energised and very keen in respect of perhaps the development of a new horticultural industry. It is important to understand that Ali Curung is a community that has been very active in terms of its law and order strategy and I am pleased that they are now looking at economic development opportunities or outcomes which are going to benefit their place.
The important thing about the Ali Curung project is that - it is probably not appropriate for me to say too much at this point because they are coming to Darwin either tomorrow or the day after, and I know that they are talking to people involved in the private sector in respect of production at their community. I know that they are talking about mangoes. I know that there is maybe some potential, some capacity. I am no expert in this field but my understanding is that mangoes probably ripen a little later than in the Darwin area and clearly they are looking at being able to supply the market down south after the Darwin season is complete. The important thing in this exercise is that Ali Curung, as I understand it, will be putting up a substantial amount of their own money. As I mentioned, they are looking at some sort of joint arrangement with the private sector, with perhaps the private sector managing it, and the community will receive a percentage return in respect of profits. They would also be gainfully employed. Again, it is early days, but my understanding is that approximately 20 jobs could be created on a continual basis, and possibly 200 to 250 jobs during the season.
I also take this opportunity to comment briefly on some other small communities in my region that are also expressing interest in horticultural production. I refer to David Curtis who has a small block approximately four or five kilometres west of Wauchope. I visited there about two months ago and spoke to Jenny Purdie, the regional manager in the Tennant Creek office, about David’s aspirations for horticultural production. A team has gone down to do a preliminary assessment. Obviously, there is a long way to go, but it is indicative of small communities in places like the Barkly and, indeed, other parts in the Northern Territory wanting to get into horticultural production. It is also indicative of people like Jenny Purdie who are very active in the provision of support.
There is another small community, Mungkarta, about 75 km south of Tennant Creek and a few kilometres west of the Stuart Highway. That community has also expressed interest in growing citrus and mangoes. I do not have the expertise to know whether those crops will be suitable, but the point is that the communities are very keen. They want to do something. I know that the minister’s department and people like Jenny Purdie will do all that they can to assist these people.
About seven or eight kilometres to the north of Tennant Creek, there is a small community known as Witten, which is occupied by the Crafter family and the Ah Kit family. They are seeking advice in relation to small-scale production of vegetables. I am not too sure what they are, but I did want to mention them because it is indicative of the potential capacity in respect of horticulture in the Barkly. More importantly, there is a willingness on the part of indigenous people to make a go of it.
It is also worth noting that there are a number of artesian basins in the Tennant Creek region. I do not know them all, but there are the Wiso Basin, the Georgina and a few others. Information that I have received before, and have mentioned it in this House, indicates that it has an untapped ground water potential to irrigate some 25 000 hectares of land at around about 10 megalitres per hectare per year. I have also seen calculations in documentation that indicate that this water could be sustainable for at least 100 years without impacting on the existing ground water, and would not exceed 80% of the aquifer stage. Clearly, it would have to be properly managed, but that is the type of information now being produced about the potential for the Barkly to become involved in this industry.
I was General Manager of Julalikari Council from 1995 to 1997, and it was always something that the organisation wanted to have a look at in terms of growing a product that would be sustainable and would provide employment opportunities. I must say that at that time, the CLP administration never showed an ounce of interest. There was an absolute lack of interest; total neglect. In fact, when we approached them in regard to information, such as the water capacity, it was always said that there was no water, so forget it. It was disappointing and I think it certainly held back the aspirations of people and a potential industry.
I know that other producers have begun to approach government, and local authorities in the Barkly region, regarding the possibility of their expansion into our region. I extend an offer of support to any of those producers who wish to get involved, and very clearly would support their efforts. I also encourage other producers to contact Jenny Purdie, the regional manager in the Barkly region of the horticultural division of the Department of Business, Industry and Resource Development. Jenny has always been very helpful. She is a very integral driver in regards to the Barkly Blueprint, of which the horticultural industry is an integral and important component. As I say, feel free to contact Jenny Purdie.
I will also talk about some other land in Tennant Creek which I believe has the capacity to become a horticultural production area. There is a small block to the south of town - which is the block that I referred to previously when discussing a pilot horticultural project with the CLP with very little result - which now has potential to become a pilot project. I know the department is looking at it. I hope that possibly, in the not too distant future, it can act as a pilot project for horticultural production.
The other area which has immense potential is the Gilbert Swamp area, which is about 60 odd kilometres, maybe less, south of Tennant Creek. Much baseline data has been completed regarding water and soil quality, and all the other criteria which lends itself to be able to be sold to the private sector. When I say sold to the private sector, I am referring to the capacity in terms of an expression of interest, because I think sometimes it is not always governments who can deliver in terms of economic development. It is in circumstances like this that we should be encouraging the private sector, providing them with the relevant information and data, and then, of course, letting them make their judgement of whether or not it is viable to continue. I encourage the minister to give consideration to that type of approach and, hopefully, there could well be a very viable industry in that region.
In conclusion, despite what the opposition says in respect of the minister’s statement, I know the minister to be person of integrity and honesty, who has the interests of the Territory at heart, and I know that the minister will continue to operate in the same vein.
Mr Maley: We are not saying that.
Mr McADAM: Well, listen, member for Goyder. You are not exactly the right person to get up in this House and cast stones.
Mr Maley: I am not having a go at him personally, I am saying he got busted for copying the statement.
Mr McADAM: Well, it does not matter. The point I am trying to make is this, that you are hardly free of any flaws in respect to your operations.
Mr Dunham: Ooh! Personal!
Mr McADAM: It is not a matter of being personal. All that I said was ‘He is not free of any flaws’. That is not personal.
Mr BONSON (Millner): Madam Speaker, I reply to the minister’s statement on horticulture in the Territory. We have heard today about a range of horticultural projects and plans, all of which have the potential to earn income and create jobs for the Territory. However, the work does not stop there. Another important element of the work that this government is doing in support of horticulture is in protecting our industry from potential damaging pests and diseases that could impact negatively on horticulture ventures.
Pilot projects to test the feasibility of suppressing and possibly eradicating Queensland fruit fly populations in Alice Springs under local conditions, by releasing sterile males, without the prior use of chemicals, commenced in late July 2003. The suppression program is testing our ability to use, to our advantage, the relatively harsh central Australian winter conditions, when fruit fly numbers are already low. The expectation is that the existing fruit fly population in Alice Springs will be suppressed or greatly reduced when the sterile males breed with the wild female flies, and results to date have been positive.
Prior to commencement, lure traps were placed uniformly to monitor the populations of wild and sterile flies after release. Some traps had been in place for more than three years. The intended outcomes of the pilot program are testing the techniques of receiving sterile pupae; rearing the pupae to adults and releasing them; monitoring the dispersion and longevity of sterile flies in Central Australia; engendering industry and local residents’ support for a proposed eradication program in Alice Springs and Tennant Creek; producing data indicating the likely success or failure of the program; and providing a basis to assess an eradication program against Queensland fruit fly in Central Australia.
The public launch of the pilot program took place in Alice Springs on 11 August 2003, with considerable media and public interest. A total of 29 million sterile flies were released in an area to the east of the Todd River, including a buffer area to reduce the influx of wild flies from the western part of the township. Over the eight week period from early August to late September, premier results indicate that many of the technical details related to the receipt, rearing and release of sterile flies have been clarified and tested; trap placements and efficiency have been satisfactory; and numbers of captured of wild and sterile flies fluctuated in response to local weather conditions, which will provide a very warm winter conducive to fly survival, breeding and dispersal.
There were widespread interest in the program by residents in the treated area and by the local media. There has been considerable national and international interest in the concept of using sterile flies at the end of the winter for the eradication of isolated urban fly populations from interstate primary industry government departments and overseas agencies. Further monitoring of data analysis of results is continuing in order to assess the likely success of a major eradication program.
I now turn to another disease eradication program designed to protect another horticultural activity - the eradication of grapevine leaf rust through Darwin and Palmerston. Teams have completed surveys of 67 978 households in Darwin and Palmerston. Surveying has now been completed with only follow-ups remaining. Six hundred and seven grapevines have been located to date, 287 grapevines have been removed, with 266 of these being positive to grapevine leaf rust, and the remainder being volunteered for removal.
The Grape and Wine Research Development Corporation has provided indicative advice that the phase 2 application for $100 000 is approved. The out-of-session primary industry standing committee paper has been approved for ongoing funding and cost-sharing arrangements between the states and the Commonwealth for the 2003-04.
The DBIRD officers involved in both of these worthy programs deserve our thanks and support for their ongoing work. They are at our front line in our battle against damaging horticultural pests and disease, and I know all members will join me in thanking them for their efforts. Madam Speaker, I support the horticultural ministerial statement.
Mr BURKE (Opposition Leader): Madam Speaker, I will make a couple of comments in closing with regards to this ministerial statement. I do not want to dwell on what has happened today, just to simply emphasise the seriousness with which the opposition views what has been presented in the Chamber today. We have a clear case of plagiarism, not only from a minister of the government but from a person who comes from a background of academia. I imagine a person who bears such credentials after his name, who proudly proclaim those credentials, who might even be, would undoubtedly be a person - he definitely would have marked students’ papers and I would imagine, I do not have the reference on me, but I am sure that there is a reference in the code of conduct at the Northern Territory University dealing with the aspect of plagiarism. I imagine it would have something to do with the word dismissal for someone who is caught guilty of plagiarism.
I know that certainly from a military background that when I taught at the Navy Staff College that a person who presented a paper at the Navy Staff College which contained quotes in that paper that were not attributed to the original author, generally had their bags packed and were gone within two hours. That was simply the code of conduct that existed at that particular establishment.
I guess the first thing the minister can do in his reply is address the central issue and that is that ministerial statements are important. We have heard allegations in this House on many occasions about the opposition not taking the business of parliament seriously enough. The Leader of Government Business is quick to go on air, on radio, or whatever, if he does not believe the numbers that the opposition has in parliament are sufficient and making allegations about not taking this parliament seriously. But, probably, one of the most important issues that comes before the parliament are ministerial statements. The opposition does not have a large amount of time to research those statements. We work on the fact that they come from basis of professionalism and, dare I say, integrity. And that is that the people who present those statements are firstly presenting them in their current capacity as the minister in charge of that department and they are reporting on events which are truly theirs or if not, are reporting in that ministerial statement in a way that is factual and people can easily say they are either talking about the past or they are talking about the present.
In this ministerial statement presented today, it is appalling in the way not only that it has been presented but in the way it purports to show what is happening in the minister’s office is current and is attributed to the work of his office and him as the minister. I will give you one example, and it sticks out glaringly because one would have thought the Labor government, when it deals with the land councils and Aboriginal issues, would have made some progress and would be able to give some indication of initiatives that have occurred in their time in government and reporting on those particular issues. If you look at the minister’s statement, it says:
and it goes on. If you look at the ministerial statement delivered by minister Palmer in November 2000, almost three years ago, it says:
Just one example, but an example of dishonesty and plagiarism that knows no bounds. I am sure the minister will be making some sort of excuse either if he does not have the courage to do it in this Chamber, or the courage to take the blame himself, to blame someone else for what has happened. The reality is that we deal with the issues that come before this Chamber. We expect the government to present issues with a sense of integrity. If the opposition is to treat the business of parliament seriously, we expect the government to properly use the time, resources, money and effort that have been put into making this parliament operate. What we have seen today is an example of appalling laziness and professional dishonesty.
One never likes to personally attack colleagues in this Chamber. I do not personally like it. However, the member for Johnston has established, over the last two years, a track record of being very quick to criticise, to throw interjections personally. You started off in really fine form, when you were the Chairman of the PAC, against Mike Reed. Whilst I do not have your comments verbatim, they were often of this vein: Reed did nothing illegal; I am not saying that, but it was immoral. Now, Dr Burns, with a scientific background, with a background of so-called integrity and professionalism, what goes around comes around. When you come into this House and start throwing allegations about other members of this House …
Mr AH KIT: A point of order, Madam Speaker. The Leader of the Opposition knows that standing orders requires him to address his remarks through the Chair.
Mr BURKE: Madam Speaker, I will do that. I make this point, and I will not labour it: what goes around comes around. Dr Burns has set himself up beautifully today …
Mrs AAGAARD: A point of order, Madam Speaker. The Leader of the Opposition would be aware that we are not supposed to use members’ names; we are supposed to use the names of electorates.
Madam SPEAKER: Yes, refer to the member or the minister.
Mr BURKE: The member for Johnston, who carries many credentials, one in front of his name as a doctor, and others referring to his academic qualifications, far more than many other people in our community and far more than me, but others of us would not stoop to this sort of stuff. Whether it is his efforts personally or by someone else, the buck stops with the minister. This is a statement delivered by the minister. It is the minister’s statement, and the minister takes ownership of it from go to woe. Minister, this is not your statement. This is a statement delivered by minister Palmer in November 2000. You have not updated it one bit except for a couple of changes in terms of production of different fruits and vegetables.
Madam Speaker, with those few words, I say that if the opposition is to take the business of this House seriously, the least we expect is some sense of integrity and honesty from the government ministers involved.
Mr MALEY (Goyder): Madam Speaker, I feel compelled to put a few comments on the record. The area this statement attempts to address is crucial to my electorate. Horticultural production will eventually become, if not a cornerstone of the Northern Territory, a huge income earner. The amount of resources, effort and enterprise that goes into developing all of the horticultural production activity across the Territory, particularly in the rural area, is enormous and growing. We are only just beginning to tap these huge markets.
It is an important portfolio. One you would think the Martin Labor government would take seriously, and one that the Northern Territory people, at the last election, trusted that this new government would take seriously and give some priority.
A ministerial statement is an opportunity for the government to present a snapshot of the portfolio area being addressed. This should be a snapshot of horticultural production in the Territory. With the enormous resources the government has, and the minister, at the top of that department, it is an opportunity for the minister to articulate what is happening in the area, to put it into Hansard, and for members of the community to then access it, and they rely upon some of the things that are said here. People who are looking at getting into the industry, who are researching it, will look at what the minister says, because it is a reasonable assumption to make, that the type of things that the minister says would be up-to-date, accurate, well-researched, and something that you could reasonably rely upon. Well, it is, quite frankly, embarrassing. It is embarrassing that this important area has been treated with such contempt.
Members interjecting.
Mr MALEY: There are a few little interjections coming across the Chamber. It is pretty hard to have a reasonable interjection when, let us face it, the fact is, you have a minister of the Crown, who has taken a statement from another minister some three years ago, a bit of a jig here and a jig there, stood up in this House and said, ‘This is my work. I am going to read this out. This is a snapshot of horticultural production in the Northern Territory. This is where we stand. I am a good minister, I work hard, I am on top of my portfolio, this is what is happening’. It is completely unacceptable to merely parrot someone else’s statement without attributing or giving credit where credit is due. There are, admittedly, some minor changes, but overwhelmingly, the statement is identical. It just reeks of double standards. It is a classic ‘do what I say but do not do what I do’.
The minister should be apologising to the Northern Territory people. The minister should be apologising to all those involved in horticultural production in the Northern Territory. He should be apologising that, for whatever reason, and I look forward to seeing what sort of a response he has, but whatever the reason, the minister has decided not to take this portfolio seriously. He has not got across the subject matter, because this is, effectively, three years old, with a couple of minor changes. There is nothing of any real substance which a person reading would think, wow, this is up to date, this is an accurate snapshot. We have the situation where there is a cross section of the community, or the Northern Territory people, who have put their trust in this government, and once again that trust has been betrayed, and this is an example. If they are not copying their champagne-swilling, socialist brothers from Canberra, it seems they are regurgitating old CLP ministerial statements. We have not seen any initiative. We have not seen anything which would instil confidence in this sector.
We know there is going to be, it seems, a fairly average mango season, so it is a time for a bit of leadership, a time for a bit of lateral thinking, and it is just disappointing. It is disappointing that this particular minister, whom I do have a fair bit of regard for, would actually do this. It really boils down to an abuse of the trust which Territory people placed in the Martin Labor government and probably, more specifically, the abuse of the trust which the people who are in, and work in, private enterprise in the horticultural industry have placed in this minister. It is disappointing. This demonstrates that the Martin Labor government is a sham. I just hope that the minister has the courage and the fortitude to stand up and apologise for what he has done, and do it sincerely.
I have not seen many other government ministers jumping to his defence - surprise, surprise. Let us just see whether he has the courage to say that he has done the wrong thing here, and be sincere and frank about it.
Dr BURNS (Primary Industry and Fisheries): Madam Speaker …
Dr Lim: Mea culpa, he says, mea culpa.
Dr BURNS: I do not know what you have to be sorry about, but maybe you can tell us later.
Madam Speaker, there have been some very serious allegations raised here today. The primary allegation is that the statement given by Mick Palmer some three years ago is basically word for word, in entirety, in toto, of what is being delivered here today. I will detail the major differences between the statement that Mick Palmer gave in the year 2000, I think it was, and the one that I have delivered here today. In the hysteria here and the over the top attempt to somehow label me as a plagiarist, there has been quite an element of truth missing from the other side. I suggest that they follow what I say here very closely and listen to what I have said; we have had very serious allegations.
I will not deny that there are portions of my statement here that are very similar - and some of them identical - to the statement delivered by Mr Palmer a couple of years ago. That is not surprising. Basically, the same person who did supply material to Mick Palmer in 2000, supplied material for my statement here today. I have incorporated that into my statement. Therefore, there is no plagiarism here, in that the original author within the department is the same person who wrote Mick Palmer’s statement and wrote mine. This contention and allegation of plagiarism is completely misplaced.
I really challenge those - there are probably two-and-a-half on the other side, or three-and-a-half on the other side who were ministers in the previous government - to give an iron-clad guarantee that every paragraph and every sentence that they gave in ministerial statements were not the same, or identical, or similar, to statements made by previous ministers. There were reshuffles within the previous government. I do not think you could give that iron-clad guarantee. In fact, I am sure you cannot. I completely refute the allegation of plagiarism.
You have to remember that we are looking at a continuum; we are looking at history. The horticulture industry suddenly just did not hatch in the last two years. There has been a continuum, and there been many fine people …
Members interjecting.
Dr BURNS: Madam Speaker, I will continue. It is a continuum; there is history to this. There is history within the department. There are long-serving officers who have been integrally involved in the development of horticulture in the Territory, and we should be proud of those officers. I am certainly proud of those officers, and I trusted the advice that they gave to me.
Mr Baldwin: They expect more from their minister!
Dr BURNS: Will you have the common decency, member for Daly, to let …
Mr Baldwin: Shameful, shameful! Not while you are standing and talking.
Dr BURNS: Madam Speaker, I would like the courtesy of being able to speak without continual interjections from the member Daly, who had his chance to contribute. I ask that there should be some decorum in terms of my reply.
Mr Baldwin: You know the seriousness of your actions.
Madam SPEAKER: Order, order! Minister, you have the floor.
Dr BURNS: Madam Speaker, there is a continuum; there is a history. What I presented here today in my report, yes, contained elements of a report about the current state of the horticulture industry. What Mick Palmer would not have reported on in 2002 - unless he was some Nostradamus - was the state of flowering of mango trees in 2003 and the outlook for the harvest. All of that is implicit; all of that is in there. Yes, the products that I have named and their GVP, yes, they are probably in the same order, but the actual totals are different.
I would have thought members from the other side would have been interested in the outlook for the table grape industry in terms of how much was going to be produced this year, particularly after the poor year last year with the rain spoiling the crop. Instead of taking that on board as a report of the state of horticulture, the outlook for our products, they seize on it and allege some form of plagiarism. I completely rebut that; there are significant differences.
There are significant differences between what minister Palmer laid on the Table a few years ago and what I am talking about here. I have already mentioned predictions about crops, particularly the mango crop. The TropHort initiative is not mentioned in minister Palmer’s statement because it is something that has happened and been signed-off since I have been minister for primary industries. I was very proud to be at the signing of that agreement; an agreement between the department, an agreement between the university and an agreement with CSIRO. A very significant agreement that binds up research, it binds up disseminating the knowledge through extension, it binds up a whole issue to do with marketing. It is a very important step forward for the horticulture industry and the horticulture industry association is a partner within that TropHort initiative.
I will keep on detailing the changes within minister Palmer’s speech and the statement that I gave today, and I will repeat it again. Yes, there are similarities. Yes, there are parts that are the same, but I will point to the fact that the advice is coming from the same office that it came to minister Palmer has come to me, but there are significant differences.
I mentioned the marketing initiative within my ministerial statement and the code of practice. Once again, that was something that I was asked to open. That is a very important initiative from mango growers and it is actually leading the way in agricultural production, production of fruit and vegetables, and marketing of fruit and vegetables. It acknowledges the fact, and the ACCC has commented on this, that there are some dodgy practices going on within marketing of produce that is sent from the Territory to southern states, and there is manipulation of the markets. So, this code of practice and its development, that is something that has occurred under this government. So, take that on board. There is another significant difference that you did not even want to address. A very significant difference that will hopefully get more fairness and equity within the market and better return to our Northern Territory mango growers. I am very pleased to be part of that.
In the statement that I delivered today, I talked about some initiatives regarding, particularly, the mango crops and coordinating labour and logistics - very important. That is another significant difference. Since I came into this portfolio probably nearly a year ago now, I have taken a very active interest in the horticulture industry and have visited and spoken with growers and producers on quite a number of levels. I visited Ti Tree and had discussions with the Table Grape Growers Association and I found out their problems. Their problems in terms of logistics, in terms of power reticulation, in terms of a whole of range of issues, in terms of their representation within the horticulture industry. I have been very engaged with the table grape growers.
I have also been briefed in relation to the research effort at the Coastal Plains Research Centre, and some very important projects to do with tropical fruit, tropical flowers, and the cocoa project. So, there is some great thing that I talked about the cocoa project which has been an ongoing project that is involved the department, the Queensland Department of Primary Industries and Cadbury Schweppes. That is an ongoing project and a very good project.
I did not can what the previous government did in my statement. I would see this government …
Members interjecting.
Dr BURNS: No, no. I would see this government as building on that and I will talk about exactly …
Members interjecting.
Dr BURNS: I will talk about the initiatives of this government as well. In the statement, there were no adverse words about the previous government.
But I will now, on one particular issue. Yes, Mick Palmer in his statement did mention the CLC and the development of horticulture on Aboriginal lands, but nowhere in his statement did he mention employment and training of Aboriginal people. Nowhere in his statement. They did not really exist in terms of employees, in terms of people who needed training and development. No, no, it was all about, ‘Let’s open up that land. Let’s pour the water on it and let’s see what we can get out of it’. That was the attitude of the previous government. This government has a different attitude towards Aboriginal people. We work in collaboration, in partnership with them. We recognise their rights. We recognise their potential and we will work with them to develop the horticulture industry within the Northern Territory.
Members interjecting.
Dr BURNS: If you want to look for a difference, that is a major difference in what I said here today and what Mick Palmer said in 2000.
Members interjecting.
Madam SPEAKER: Order! Minister, just cease for a moment. That is enough.
A member interjecting.
Madam SPEAKER: Order, thank you! Minister.
Dr BURNS: Madam Speaker, the banana industry is a significant industry, and they have taken a big hit over Panama disease. I was pleased to go there and find out about their research for new varieties that are resistant to Panama disease. That is an exciting project. Yes, it did start some time ago, but government maintains its contribution to that. I maintain my support for that. I have offered to meet with the executive body of the banana growers because I recognise them as a very important group. I recognise the potential of banana growing within the Northern Territory, the importance of the research they are doing and the very fact that industry is contributing heavily to that research.
I have taken an active interest in cut flowers. I have met growers and found out about their problems. I have endeavoured to address some of those issues.
Coming back to mangoes, I was very pleased to be part of an opening ceremony down at Perkins Shipping last year for special containers to transport mangoes to Singapore; a step forward in controlled conditions for exports.
There is plenty happening. As a minister, I am engaged and am very interested in what is happening within the horticulture industry. I will move on to individuals’ contributions soon, but we are engaged and interested. We are investing in horticulture. I have spoken a number of times in this place about the $6.2m that PowerWater will spend on re-use of effluent in Alice Springs. That is significant for the development of horticulture, as is what the member for Millner was talking about, the eradication of the fruit fly and the trials that are going on. I met with the growers in Ti Tree, and they raised it with me as a major issue that had to be overcome for the development of the horticultural industry in Central Australia. I went back to the department and basically pushed that project. Now it is happening. The eradication of fruit fly is a very important development for Central Australia to further the development of horticulture in that region. I will take some credit for that. I took it on board and I have been able to deliver for those growers in Central Australia.
I turn to issues that individual members raised. The member for Araluen raised the issue of horticulture programs in Alice Springs gaol. I am informed that she is incorrect in claiming that the horticulture programs at Alice Springs prison have been closed. The extensive horticulture area for low security prisoners is still functioning at the cottages, along with the chook farm, the farm area outside the prison walls is also functioning. The small garden plots in the medium security area have been closed because they were mainly worked on by Asian people smugglers and their numbers have dropped dramatically in recent times. The member for Araluen raised that issue and I place that on the record.
Ms Carney: Yes, thank you.
Dr BURNS: The member for Nelson raised some very important issues. He talked about the challenges of exotic diseases and, given the nature of horticulture and agriculture in the Territory, that is an ongoing battle. I have every confidence in the department, in the research and extension work they are doing, in endeavouring to address those disease issues as best they can. It is a given that as farming becomes more intensive - you mentioned snake beans as an example – the difficulties become quite heavy.
He also mentioned the issue of sustainability of water and water use. That is a very important issue. Certainly, this government has talked about development being sustainable, and water is part of that. We are going to have to have a good look at water sustainability issues all over the Territory if we are not to fall into the same trap that southern states have fallen into with their major river systems. We need to do that, and we need to look, particularly in desert areas, at it being a finite resource and we have to use it very judiciously.
The member for Daly raised a number of issues. In particular, he talked about the election promise of $2m for horticulture infrastructure. I am very aware of that election promise, and I would like to discharge that election promise. To lay it on the record, we have had extensive consultations with the horticulture industry. To be quite frank, there have been quite different opinions within the horticulture industry about how that $2m should be spent. I can assure the House that currently there are a number of proposals resting with Treasury and primary industries and there is some work going on there. It is a difficult one, but I intend, as Minister for Primary Industry and Fisheries, to work through that particular issue.
Mr Dunham: Is that a yes or a no?
Dr BURNS: We will discharge our election promise as best we can.
Mr Dunham: Discharge a promise, like discharging a jury?
Dr BURNS: The thing is, we need agreement. We are a government that believes in consultation with people. The member for Daly raised a very good issue in that there is existing infrastructure in the Katherine area, and it is how best to integrate any further infrastructure on what exists. Also, with the railway coming through, and trying to attract produce and other things from Kununurra and the Ord River Scheme. So, yes, I am addressing it, member for Drysdale.
In conclusion, Madam Speaker, first of all, I believe that I have rebutted the arguments about plagiarism, about being dishonest, about not holding parliament in esteem. Of course I hold parliament in esteem. The statement I gave today outlined the outlook for the industry, it outlined some of the history, and that is a very necessary thing to do, and it foreshadowed the future.
If we are talking about the future, I have already talked about the $6.2m re-use of effluent from the Ilparpa Swamp, and the fruit fly. I will come back to our economic development strategy. The previous government really did not have an overarching framework for the development of major industries within the Territory, but we did it. We did it with consultation - extensive consultation - with the community and the industry sectors. We also put time lines to it, and put some detail into it: prepare and implement strategic plans, basically for the horticulture industry; establishing best practice; using public and private partnership models; so it is there. We have also released the Katherine Regional Development Strategy, which also includes some detailed statements about horticulture in that region.
Madam Speaker, I commend this statement to the House.
Motion agreed to; statement noted.
Mr AH KIT (Sport and Recreation): Madam Speaker, I move that the Assembly do now adjourn.
I rise tonight to farewell a true Territorian sporting legend in Terry Lew-Fatt, who passed away on 28 August 2003. Terry was born in 1937, the eldest of Monica and Walter Lew-Fatt’s 10 children, and spent most of his life in Darwin. He later married Betty in 1965, and they had two wonderful children, Mark and Vanessa.
There is so much that can be said about Terry Lew-Fatt and his contribution, to not only the work force in the Northern Territory but, especially, the mark he left with his sporting prowess. That was not just in regard to Terry himself. The whole of the Lew-Fatt family were very skilled athletes; they played basketball, Aussie Rules - especially the boys - and Rugby League. I can remember as a young person at Stuart Park and growing up in Parap camp that Gympie Lew-Fatt - Clifford as he is known by his proper Christian name - excelled in boxing, Aussie Rules, Rugby League, and soccer - whatever he took to he did well. Most of the Lew-Fatt family did that; it was a trade mark of their upbringing. Terry was the eldest, as I said, and he was excellent.
I attended the service at the Uniting Church in Darwin, and there was some lovely contributions in the reflections that the family had organised. They were given by Camille Lew-Fatt; Terry’s aunty, Joan Butts from South Australia; Brian Dixon, another champion basketballer and footballer who came from Tennant Creek; Keith Kemp - Keith and Vic Ludwig both with OAM attached to their names and both worthy of that; and John Bonson provided some really good reflections about Terry and his attributes and the way he conducted himself in the sporting arena.
Sport in general is richer for knowing Terry. He excelled, as I said, at basketball, Aussie Rules, and later in life he was so uncanny that he took up bowls and won a couple of championships at the Nightcliff Bowls Club. Terry had a real bag of tricks when playing basketball. He styled his game around the Harlem Globetrotters. He always drew a crowd. I actually saw Terry when he played matches. He was very good in that he was able to represent the Territory on numerous occasions. At the recent Heads of Delegation meeting I met with Joao Carrascalao who was representing East Timor. We had a conversation about Terry’s passing and Joao remembered the way Terry excited the crowds when he played basketball for the Northern Territory against East Timor in the 1960s. The locals were in absolute awe of his fancy dribbling skills, his accurate passing with speed, and his shooting skills.
As a footballer, Terry will always be a local legend, especially at the St Mary’s Football Club. He won two Nichols Medals in 1958 and 1959, and was a seven time premiership player. Again, his superior skills around the ground were a real treat for the fans, and he approached his role as captain/coach with real pride.
In all his sporting pursuits, Terry should be best remembered for his sense of fair play. As far back as I can remember, firstly spotting Terry Lew-Fatt as a young person of five, six, seven years of age, ever remember Terry having a bad word about anybody, such was the gentleman that he was - a true gentleman; nature’s gentleman. His numerous individual and team awards were only possible through his great leadership and direction, not to mention his superior skills which allowed him to take his team that extra step when they needed to. Terry is a representative of the Darwin of old where sport was our entertainment and spectators flocked to various venues around Darwin on a weekly basis, not only to see great games but to catch up with family and friends on a social basis.
Terry had a wonderful love of life and his family were a special part of this love of life. Terry, in later years, gave up his work as a carpenter. Actually, he used to work with some of the Bonson family and other friends and they helped each other build their houses around the Nightcliff area. They did their apprenticeships through, I think it was called AW4 back in the carpentry and timber and joinery area, at the old 2 Mile Transport and Works workshop. Later on, Terry became an employee of the Northern Land Council. I used to catch up with him and have some really good yarns about the Darwin of old and where we are heading today.
As I have said, Terry was nature’s true gentleman. He was an excellent sportsman and an excellent contributor to the Northern Territory and its way of life. To all of his family, without mentioning them individually, and to Vanessa and Mark, I trust they will take comfort that the memory of their father is etched in Darwin history. May he rest in peace.
Members: Hear, hear.
Mr AH KIT: Mr Deputy Speaker, while I am here there are a couple of issues I just wanted to raise when people opposite talk about credibility and integrity. I have before me a copy of the Macdonnell Messenger. I had that sent up to me from Central Australia and it is very, very cunningly put together. It is a credit, I suppose, to the way it has been organised.
Members interjecting.
Mr AH KIT: You can have copies of it if you wish. It has been crafted to get across these messages. We talk about credibility, we talk about integrity, we see these accusations levelled at our colleague. He put them back in their box because they were belting up another public servant. You have priors for that, and you want to cut it out.
Members interjecting.
Mr AH KIT: Those public servants have families and those public servants vote, so you remember that, and remember, you did not go too well on the weekend.
Now, the Macdonnell Messenger. He says here:
He goes on. It is all under this guise of ‘I am a part of government, so I am delivering.
These works in your community are part of government’s responsibility to you. This work would be worth well over $1m. This money is being spent so you can have better health and lives.
Well, he does not stand up here and defend these same people that he is sending this out to! What is he saying here? He wants to send copies of his Hansard, talking about Aboriginal people, the biggest real estate owners, about the Jihad, about how these people do not use their land properly. He cannot have it both ways. He needs to understand that. What he has to understand is that he sends this out and that these people are not silly!
I will go back and pull out some of those transcripts of Hansard and we will revisit those. We will send those off too. People need to understand that this is a person who stands in here, on the one hand he has a shot at the indigenous people in his electorate and elsewhere across the board, and then on the other, he sends a newsletter out, the Macdonnell Messenger, under a guise of him doing lots of things for those voters of his.
So do not come bouncing in here and talk about integrity and about people should be resigning and the Chief Minister should be sacking ministers.
I can also tell the member for Drysdale that in respect to his comment about playing the race card, you have priors for playing the race card. You have priors, especially – not the faction that has been separated off, the one that votes against Denis, that area there on the left.
The minister made a statement. Employment and training was not seriously addressed, if at all. That is a fact. Read it in minister Palmer’s horticultural statement at the time. You ought to be careful when you make those sorts of statements, as I said to the member for Drysdale, because you do have priors. You have priors in regards to the Arafura by-election. What did you have? Don’t vote for the non-ceremonial person.
Mr Dunham: No, not true.
Mr AH KIT: Yes, you did. You went out there and said, ‘Don’t vote for the non-ceremonial person; vote for the ceremony man, our candidate, Bernard Tipiloura’. That is what you said.
Mr Dunham: Yes. What’s wrong with that?
Mr AH KIT: And then you followed that up - what’s wrong with that? There you go! He is admitting to it. You do have priors. Then you went out to Arnhem in the by-election and said: ‘Don’t vote for the yellow fella’.
Mr Dunham: No, no, no, no! Not mine.
Mr AH KIT: Ah! Well, Phillip Mitchell, the member for Millner at that time, your colleague, was out there telling them: ‘Don’t vote for the yellow fella’. Be careful. We are working hard to bring the Territory together. We want you to come with us, not fight us, not play the race card. You do have priors, and we need to get away from that.
Mr Deputy Speaker, I thought I would take issue with them, just to put them back in their boxes.
Mrs AAGAARD (Nightcliff): Mr Deputy Speaker, I rise this evening to highlight the exceptional achievements and service that were celebrated during the Back to Darwin Surgical Weekend on 29 August this year.
It was my pleasure to host a reception for this weekend, and to attend a special dinner held at the Botanic Gardens, which was organised by Ms Robyn Cahill. I congratulate Robyn on an excellent evening. The weekend acknowledged the tremendous work of over 100 surgical trainees who have served Royal Darwin Hospital and the Northern Territory over the past 30 years.
It has always been a challenge to maintain a complete and high quality surgical service in an isolated city with a small population. Over many years, Darwin and the Territory have been well served by a number of surgeons of remarkable skill and broad competency. For example, Alan Bromwich served as Chief Surgeon in the Territory between 1958 and 1981. His brief included supervision of surgery throughout the Territory. He was assisted by Arun Mahajani who began in Darwin in 1972 and continued through until 1992.
John Hargreaves spent all 40 years of his professional life in the Territory and became an internationally recognised reconstructive and hand surgeon until his retirement in the late 1990s. Masoud Mahmoud has made another significant contribution in recent years. As the principal eye surgeon, he has directly contributed to the treatment and prevention of eye disease throughout the Territory for 25 years.
Surgeons such as these have devoted their lives to the service of the people of the Northern Territory and served as mentors and role models for others who followed. In the late 1960s, Alan Bromich established a regular rotation of surgical trainees from the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital in Sydney, most of whom were subsequently mentored by Jonathon Wardill. This arrangement continues to this day, and has been augmented by similar rotation schemes from Adelaide and North Queensland. This group of surgical trainees, along with others appointed locally in Darwin, has gained much by their training experience in Darwin. They have also contributed enormously in terms of their hard work, enthusiasm, skill and knowledge to both their patients and their mentors. Many of these former trainees were present during the Back to Darwin Surgical Weekend and have gone on to distinguish themselves in many areas of surgical endeavour. We thank them for their contribution.
The weekend included a special tribute to Jonathan Wardill. I would like to spend some time discussing his history in the Northern Territory. Jon Wardill arrived in the Territory in 1976. He was born and educated in Melbourne, graduating in medicine, along with Helen, his wife, from Melbourne University in 1979. After several years of junior rotations in Melbourne, they travelled to southern England where Jon trained as a surgeon and Helen as an anaesthetist from 1972 to 1976. Jon was admitted as a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of England in 1974 and, subsequently, a Fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons in 1977. After finishing their time in England and, I believe, short of funds, they accepted an offer to work at the Darwin Hospital as a way of paying their fares back to Australia. They knew nothing of Darwin and expected only to stay a short while. Twenty seven years later they show no sign of leaving.
Jon was appointed initially as a senior registrar to Alan Bromwich and later took over as senior surgical specialist. In the early 1980s, he was directed by the Health Department to establish a private practice, but Jon’s ongoing commitment and service to the public hospital, surgical training and the people of the Top End has been exceptional. He has taught and inspired over 50 surgical trainees who have come under his mentorship in that time. Jon continues to serve the Royal Darwin Hospital as a specialist hand surgeon, and continues to serve Territorians in a busy general surgical practice.
In doing this, of course, we recognise that excellence in surgery is not a one person affair. Jon’s wife Helen, as well as her contribution as an anaesthetist, was an essential part of the team that allowed Jon to contribute so much. It is acknowledged that none of the tremendous work of these surgeons would be possible without the countless number of dedicated, high quality nursing staff, resident doctors, and administrative staff.
I am grateful for having had the opportunity to share in the celebrations of the Back to Darwin Surgical Weekend. The success of our surgical history will ensure that Darwin and the Territory will be well served for many years to come. I offer my congratulations to the organisers once again, particularly to the many doctors who travelled to Darwin for the weekend.
I also rise tonight to share with the House the pleasure I had in visiting the community health centres at Barunga and Wugularr, which is Beswick, on 25 September 2003. These communities are approximately 80 km and 110 km respectively south-east of Katherine and are two of the communities which are to be serviced by the Sunrise Health Service. I thank the health staff and Sunrise Health Service personnel for their gracious hospitality during my visit. I would also like to highlight the excellent work being carried out in the Barunga community in regards to reducing the rates of childhood anaemia and other preventable childhood diseases.
Mr Deputy Speaker, the conference Learning Lessons - Approaching Indigenous Health Through Education in Darwin, November 2000, highlighted the importance of establishing links between education and health to achieve positive health outcomes. The December 2002 Chronicle magazine, a magazine produced by the Department of Health and Community Services, reported on the success achieved in the Barunga community through the development of strong links between health and education. It was good to be able to meet the Barunga health staff and some of the staff from the Barunga school during my visit, to hear first-hand that the program is continuing and the positive results reported in the Chronicle in December 2002 are being maintained in 2003.
In the past, the Barunga health staff would conduct school screening and then follow-up abnormalities identified as per the treatment protocols and guidelines. Health improvements were achieved, but not at the level the health staff had anticipated. The Barunga health staff found that working in a more community-oriented manner, they have been able to achieve greater health gains in the status of child health in the community. Discussions between the Aboriginal health workers, nurses, doctors, teachers, and the local store manager, and consultation with the parents and carers, resulted in a collaborative approach to child health initiatives, leading to significant health improvements being achieved.
Children from pre-school through to primary school are screened twice a year, checking, amongst other things, their haemoglobin, weight, hair, skin and eyes. Children with low haemoglobins or other identified medical conditions are treated according to protocols, with their parents’ consent, and reviewed on a regular basis to ensure their health is improving. Children with low haemoglobin are offered deworming treatment. Children are then offered oral iron supplements, with daily orange juice to assist in the absorption of the iron into the blood stream. Health staff attended school every morning for approximately 15 minutes to follow up and treat children with identified medical conditions. This regular and ongoing contact also leads to new conditions being detected early and treated appropriately, thereby avoiding future complications from untreated conditions.
The teachers at the Barunga school have been instrumental in developing a nutrition program at the school, focussing on teaching the children healthy food choices and the importance of strong blood. Subsidised healthy lunches are available from the store. Local mothers prepare breakfast, morning tea and lunch for the younger children. Health staff and teachers reported that children are making healthier choices with orange juice and yogurt sales increasing from the local store. Health staff have documented significant increases in the children’s haemoglobin levels and reduction in other preventable illnesses. Teachers have reported significant improvement in the children’s behaviour, concentration levels, and MAP testing results. I congratulate those involved in achieving these gains in child health levels, and look forward to being informed of ongoing developments.
I also wish to tell the House that the Territory is gaining a reputation across Australia for providing leadership in palliative care for indigenous people. This was highlighted at the Palliative Care Inter-governmental Forum meeting, and the National Palliative Care Conference, both held in mid-September in Adelaide. Staff from the Top End and Central Australian Resource and Advisory Palliative Care Teams are being accessed for their expert knowledge and skills in providing appropriate palliative care for indigenous people. Beverly Derschow, an Aboriginal Health Worker with the Top End Palliative Care Team, has been seconded for six months over the next two years for the National Health and Medical Research Council project in the development of a model for indigenous palliative care in rural and remote Australia. Charles Darwin University and Queensland University are coordinating this project. Simon Murphy, one of our clinical nurse consultants, is also part of the coordinating group for this project.
‘A time to reflect’ was the theme for the palliative care conference held in Adelaide, and Territory palliative care staff presented papers on indigenous and remote palliative care, which were very well received. Topics included Indigenous Palliative Care in the Top End, which included telling a palliative care indigenous client story. This was written by Bev Derschow and Simon Murphy. Why Worry About Aboriginal Palliative Care was written by Dr Ofra Fried, a palliative care medical officer with Central Australia, who has also published articles on indigenous palliative care. The Reality and Logistics of Remote Palliative Care: A Case Mix was by Fred Miegel, a nurse consultant in Central Australia, and An Indigenous View on Death, Dying and Spirituality was presented through stories and didgeridoo playing by James Baban, Aboriginal policy officer. These staff have gained exceptional knowledge in culturally appropriate palliative care for indigenous people; skills which are recognised nationally and of which the Territory can be proud. These expertise has now gone offshore with two staff from the Top End team - Noeline Coutts, the manager, and Sandra Sumantra, social worker - invited to attend a palliative care congress in Bali.
Bali does not have formal palliative care services, but the need has been identified and these representatives will provide practical advice and support for their Balinese colleagues in establishing much needed palliative care services. Dr Maria Witjoksono, wife of the Northern Territory Vice-Consul for Indonesia, is part of their team and she is currently up-skilling in palliative care medicine in Australia. This expertise and cultural awareness has been an integral component for the hospice planning, whereby specific indigenous input was sought. I commend the work to honourable members.
Ms CARNEY (Araluen): Mr Deputy Speaker, tonight I talk about an event that I was involved in Alice Springs on 19 September. I am pleased that the Health minister is here because I am sure she will be very interested in this. She will not be interested in this bit in particular, but I have been learning golf for the better part of the year; a great game but one of the most time consuming, so I do not get to play it as often as I would like.
However, four other women and I, who are also golf players but at quite different levels, decided that we would organise a women’s golf day in Alice Springs. In order to make it interesting for women, we arranged a number of activities and sponsorships. We also thought it important to raise money for a good cause. So, with the assistance of the Cancer Council, we ran a golf day called Play Golf for Breast Cancer. The proceeds of monies raised - which at this stage is in the vicinity of $2500 - will go to breast cancer research. Over and above getting women together to network and have a fun day, we thought it appropriate to raise what we could for breast cancer research.
I had the job of welcoming women on the day, and I commented in my opening speech, that I was aware that out of the close to 100 women who participated on that day, that some of the participants had either been directly or indirectly affected by breast cancer. For those who were not, then it was likely that they would be either directly or indirectly at some point over the next 15 years.
I believe because we pitched the day specifically for breast cancer research, that partly explained why we had a such an overwhelming response from Alice Springs’ women. We also had an overwhelming response from a number of sponsors. I will seek to table the list rather than read them out, but it was an incredible response from businesses, some of whom ordinarily provide sponsorship to these sorts of days. There were new people on the list and not all, though many, of these businesses were in fact run by women. We were able to provide an array of prizes at the end of the day, and also provide the 100 women with a bag of goodies, I suppose, which included vouchers, sponsorship, arrangements, cosmetics; you name it, it was in the bag.
This day was made possible by an organising group of five. They were Dee Davies, Renee Manuel, Karen Jones, Deb Pepper and myself. The response was so overwhelming that a company from Sydney contacted us and they wanted to provide a prize. For reasons I will not go into, it was held up at the last minute and a freight company from interstate agreed to urgently freight this prize up to us at no cost, such was the appeal and the draw of breast cancer research.
It is important to note also that in addition to raising funds for very important and valuable research we also had lots of support from local men in Alice Springs. I especially thank representatives form the NT Fire and Rescue Service who gave up their rostered days off, I might say, to be what we call the ‘cart tarts’ for the day. They drove around and provided the women with an array of alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks. I thank those gentlemen. I also thank Mildy Raveane from Crowne Plaza and Steve Rattray, who provided not only entertainment but something I had not heard of prior to this golf day, which is a jelly vodka shot; they provided the jelly vodka shot on the 17th, and we made up close to a hundred, and all of them had gone by the end of the day.
It is also noteworthy that one of our sponsors was a company called Moving Pictures. One of the owners of that company is Ms April Goodman, whom I saw today when I attended the Telstra Business Women’s Awards. April, I am very pleased to say, won the Young Telstra Business Woman of the Year NT. She runs the photographic studio with her husband, Matt, whom I might say, have been extraordinarily generous, not just to me, but to many people in Alice Springs over many years. Their business is clearly successful. April is an outstanding businesswoman in her own right, but their generosity, not just in terms of their business, but the generosity of spirit is something that is very much appreciated, not only by me, but by many others in the community.
I would like to read the extract from the Telstra Women’s Awards program, that was provided to us today. It reads as follows:
April Goodman owns ‘Moving Pictures’, a photographic business complete with a fully equipped digital lab. April has more than 12 years experience as a photographer, and has coordinated photographic events such as the 2002 World Masters Games in Melbourne, the Finke Desert Race and the Alice Springs Masters Games. In addition to sporting events, April photographs tourism and commercial projects, fashion events, weddings and individual portraits.
I am sure all members will join with me in congratulating April on her outstanding achievement as Telstra Young Business Woman of the Year NT. I might say that in relation to the golf day that we ran, not only did April and her husband, Matt, donate many photographs, but we also insisted that they take photographs and try to sell them to women who participated. They very kindly split the difference and donated to Breast Cancer Research half of the value of all of the photographs sold.
The response to Play Golf for Breast Cancer Day was so overwhelming that we have had offers of a perpetual trophy, offers of more sponsorship next year and although we did not initially anticipate that we would have an event next year, the response was such that it is very difficult not to. Some women said after the day, or at the conclusion of the day, that it was the best golf day they had ever attended, it was the best organised, it was the most enjoyable. Some women said that we should organise it monthly; others wanted it twice a year. The committee of five agreed that we would definitely organise it next year. I would like to thank very sincerely again Karen Jones, Deb Pepper, Renee Manuel and Dee Davies.
In conclusion, a week or so after this event, I received an invitation from the local paper to participate in an advertising feature for Breast Cancer Awareness Week. I was placed in what I felt was a very difficult decision for my conscience, and that was I needed to decide whether I would be political or whether I would not be political in the advertisement I placed. I elected not to be political and talked about the success of the golf day and how important it was for all women to undertake regular breast checks.
I resisted in that advertisement the temptation of saying that under this government, breast cancer screening in Alice Springs has reduced significantly. There is a coordinator and a radiographer who are shipped in from interstate. The service only very vaguely resembles what it used to be. We will continue to draw this issue to the attention of women in Alice Springs in appropriate forums. We also, at every opportunity, will plead with the Health minister and the Chief Minister, who is Minister for Women’s Policy, to lift their game and to provide the women of Alice Springs a service which has greater access, which is open all of the time. A service, I might say, that all women deserve and have every right to expect.
On that disappointing note toward the end, I once again thank all of those involved in the Play Golf for Breast Cancer Day. I am sure members will join with me in congratulating April Goodman as the Young Telstra Business Woman of the Year NT.
Mr VATSKALIS (Casuarina): Mr Deputy Speaker, I would like to speak about some events that took place in my electorate.
I was very pleased and proud on 1 October to open the extension of the Dripstone Childcare Centre in Ellengowan Drive. This is a community run organisation that offers an excellent service to the young families in Casuarina and other suburbs of Darwin. I have known the people who run the Dripstone Childcare Centre, and was familiar with the situation with the Childcare Centre, for a long time from my previous life when I worked at the Health department. It is true, I was watching with great anxiety the need for the Childcare Centre to be upgraded but, unfortunately, there were no funds available.
When I visited the Childcare Centre and I realised that there were funds needed urgently, but when they could not secure a development loan from the Commonwealth or any other funding organisation, I offered them a demountable that we had arranged to acquire to resolve a previous problem in Casuarina, a demountable that was purpose built to accommodate up to 50 children. I was very happy when they had a look at the demountable and accepted it. The demountable was installed on site and is now operational. It is fully air conditioned with suitable facilities for children under two years old, a specially constructed bathroom, a specially constructed kitchen, an area for the young children to sleep, and areas to play. I was very proud to open it on 1 October in the presence of many parents and certainly many children.
I have formed a special relationship with some of the schools in my electorate - Nakara, Alawa and Dripstone. Certainly Nakara, which is the biggest primary school. I recently attended the assembly at Nakara Primary School. I have to say that I attend the assembly every month at each of the schools. At these assemblies I present the Kon Vatskalis, member for Casuarina awards to children who have made special achievements in the month before. This award consists of a certificate and a $25 voucher from a local bookshop for the children to buy some books to further their literary careers and to be able to spend some time reading, rather than watching television. It was timely because it was before the holidays, so I had two children who had worked very hard to receive this award and were able to buy some books. I think the parents were more happy because they would be kept quiet for at least a week reading their books.
I witnessed the presentation of certificates to students who received their awards for the Australian School Maths Competition: 82% of the Nakara students who sat achieved either a credit or a distinction. They were ranked against 462 000 students from 3300 schools world-wide. These certificates will go to: Daniel Johns for special achievement. Distinctions were received by Daniel Johns, Emma Kay, Sean Bourke, James Carson, Jeremy Liew, Dylan Taft, Corey Albian, Carly Bassett, Jochi Maker, and Thomas Treacy. Credits were received by Andrew Forrest, Max King, Tara Alexander, Aaron Vanderaa, Irini Vazanellis, Chris Lay, Sarah Chatterton, Kate Harbison, Rachel McLean, Taylor Noonan, Alan Chan, Simon Baker Jones, Victoria Treacy, Rhyanna Bryan, Kate Newman, Eric Blanch and Emily Bryan.
We always congratulate the children, because they are children’s awards, but I think congratulations belong to the teachers who teach these children at Nakara school, and also to the parents. The reality is, unless the parents look after their children and push their children to achieve and study, we will not have these kinds of results. Big congratulations to all the teachers, the students, and the parents at Nakara Primary School. I am very proud to be associated with Nakara Primary School.
I would also like to mention several high achievers from Dripstone High School who participated in the Australian National Chemistry Quiz. Amber-Lou Santer received a High Distinction; Stephanie Davies and Kira Gibney received a Distinction; and Shaun Echhoff a Credit. Also from Dripstone High, congratulations to Sandy Suy who received a Distinction in the Australasian Schools Computer Skills Competition. Credits went to William Page and Dene Hillman.
In the last few days, I have been doorknocking my electorate in order to keep in touch with the people, and some of them are quite alarmed to see their local member, it must be election time. I assured them that elections are in the next two years and that I am just trying to keep in touch with them. Another way to maintain contact with my electorate is the organisation of community barbecues that give the public the opportunity to come to the community barbecue, or sausage sizzle as you call it, at the local park, and discuss with the local member some of the issues in the electorate. I have to admit that quite a few people come with some issues that somehow do not come to our electorate office or they do not bring it to our attention. In the more informal environment of the park they can talk openly about these issues. I am very happy to be able to assist them and, in most cases, to resolve some of these issues.
Also, in my electorate office, I receive a number of people from my electorate. Elyse Lynch from the Chief Minister’s Youth Round Table asked me to assist her with a project. Usually children or young adults from schools come and ask a number of questions about different aspects in order to prepare an essay or an assignment to present either at the school or at some other function that takes place. I wish them all the best and good luck.
Finally, I would like to speak about Mary Salter. Mary Salter, one of my constituents in Tiwi, has been the president of the Deafness Association for many years. At the recent AGM, Mary decided to retire at the early age of almost 84 years old. Mary has been a wonderful advocate for people with hearing impairments for many years. Being deaf herself, she has provided a great example to others. I thank Mary for her dedicated community work and wish her well in her retirement, which I somehow think is not going to be long, because I am pretty sure she will find something else to be involved in, the same way she was involved in the Deafness Association. I am pretty sure I am going to see her again around Casuarina Plaza talking to people in the Health Department, or even coming to my electorate office and utilising either my computer or our photocopier. Good luck, Mary, and I cannot wait to see you again.
Mrs BRAHAM (Braitling): Mr Deputy Speaker, as members are aware, I travelled to Apia in Samoa for the 15th CPA Australasian and Pacific Region Seminar with the member for Sanderson. The aims of these seminars are to exchange ideas and information on matters of general and common interest between the regions, with particular reference to parliamentary practice and procedures of the Westminster system. It is also important to maintain liaison between the Australian region and the Pacific branches. The seminar was held in the Parliament House in Apia and it is quite a different building to what we are standing in here tonight. It is built on a circle with rather outstanding views of the tropical mountains of Samoa; something that we certainly do not get much of a view of here.
The Speaker of the Samoan parliament is Hon Toleafoa Faafisi. He was first elected to parliament in 1991, re-elected in 1996, and in 2001. He was elected Speaker in his second and third term. He has a number of responsibilities as well as being the Speaker, including the Chairman of the Standing Orders Committee, the House Committee and the Parliamentary Associations and Unions Committee. I was very pleased to able to chair some of the sessions that were held in Samoa.
We had a very wide range of representation from around the Pacific and Australia at the seminar. There were representatives from Tonga, Cook Islands, Niue, Fiji, New Zealand, Samoa, the Australian states and territories, as well as the Commonwealth. Mr Bob Speller, the Chairman of the CPA Executive Committee from Canada, also attended. As you can image, all being parliamentarians, there was indeed lively debate on a number of issues including papers on the Samoan parliament. This is the value of going to these seminars; we do learn so much about what happens in other parliaments and other places.
The Samoan parliament is made up of 49 members, three of whom are women. Members have to have a title or ‘matai’ before they can stand for parliament. This does, in fact, limit the number of women who can contest an election as the title is usually given to a male member of the family. A small group of the women who attended met with two of the women parliamentarians who were seeking guidance and advice. It became quite clear to us that their system of government is dominated by people with a matai title. This, of course, was traditionally held by men, so the women were questioning us on how we could, perhaps, suggest they overcome this. We were very sympathetic to them, as the two women we did meet were very knowledgeable and had a lot to offer.
However, at the end of the session it was suggested to us by one of the women in Samoa that perhaps we were interfering in an area that was not of our concern. I say this because, quite often, we feel as though we can go into somewhere new and try to influence change that we believe should happen but, in fact, we are perhaps not sensitive enough to what is already there; the culture that was there. As they said, it was a structure that has been there for many years in Samoa, and any change will take a long time. Although I can sympathise with not being able to stand for parliament, not having that opportunity and for very few women to be in parliament themselves, it is obviously something that Samoan people themselves will have to decide whether they can broaden that ability to be able to represent the villages in the parliament.
Many of the papers that were delivered were very topical; not just to us, but to the islands. We had a very honest and open session from the member from the Cook Islands. He described the difficulties they are facing at the moment, both politically and economically, that have threatened the stability of their government. The Cook Islands has had four different governments in the last four years, and the last one nearly bankrupted the country. They are facing a great task to try to get back some economic stability. Its economy is dominated by tourism, but there are significant in-roads in black pearl farming, offshore finance and longline fishing. Might I add, the last topic, longline fishing, enabled Northern Territory Senator, Nigel Scullion, to wax lyrical on one of his favourite topics.
Interestingly, because of the difficulties they have had in financial matters Cook Islands no longer has its own currency. It uses the New Zealand currency as does the small island of Niue. Both countries and many of the islands are suffering from declining populations as the loss of their labour to New Zealand and Australia and other parts of the world impacts on what really is a very struggling human resource base. Statistics show that over the past 15 years, the Cook Islands’ population has decreased by 9000 to approximately 12 000 people left. When we talk about declining populations, we are certainly not in the same league as these small islands.
The member from Niue talked about the difficulties this small Pacific Island is having with only 1700 people left on the island. It is really becoming too small to be viable as a country in its own right. About 24 000 of its people have moved to New Zealand and about 16 000 have moved to Australia. At a reception that we held in Alice Springs, I invited a number of the Pacific Island people who now live in Alice Springs to meet with the representatives from the different islands. The member from Niue met his aunty. You can imagine how excited he was about this and very happy to see her after so long. However, his statement to her was quite simply, ‘Come home, we need you’. He explained that he is the last of his family there to look after the land and all the family members. When I asked her why she did not return to her family island, she quite said, quite simply, ‘Lifestyle’ and that is what they are looking for when they go to other countries. So we may be distressed at what we see as a small decrease in the Territory population but we just do not have any idea of how it can effect the small nations such as these islands.
It is very easy to see the vulnerability of these particular small nations. Samoa, although a very happy, very close community with family groups being very dominant, will find it difficult to maintain its economic viability because of its small population, its lack of resources and its undeveloped infrastructure. The Samoan people are extremely artistic, very musical, and we were fortunate to be there for their festival. Tourism has increased since the Bali bombing so they have had a positive spin-off from that particular incident. While we were there, there was a cruise ship in the harbour. It has some very fine resorts and hotels and accommodation to cater for tourists but really needs to do a lot more to capitalise on that tourist market. I am quite sure their visit to Alice Springs gave them an insight on how we cater for our tourists.
I must make comment on the hotel we stayed in, it is the Aggie Gray Hotel and has been established since the war. It has the philosophy of, ‘if there is a job for a local, then give it to them’. They must have had over 300 staff and sometimes there seemed to be more staff than guests. The staff were always well groomed, very happy and certainly very polite. Interestingly, there are no unemployment benefits in Samoa and the only people who receive a benefit are the elderly. So work is quite valued as the family must support its members. I have to admit, it made me wonder about the abuse that sometimes happens in Australia with the benefits that are given out and the expectations people in Australia often have of a government handout. Wages in Samoa are very low but the way it was put to us is that what they did receive was certainly a livable wage and they were able to support their families in this context.
We were also fortunate to have a briefing by the Australian High Commissioner in Samoa. Australia contributes quite a large amount of money to the small islands and now I have to say that knowing how much they rely upon this assistance, I would certainly support continuing to do so as long as the money is targeted to specific projects. In Samoa, the money that Australia gives goes mainly to education and health.
The second half of the seminar was held in Alice Springs. I was extremely pleased at the success of this segment. There were two site visits: one to the School of the Air where the provision of distance education was presented by the Principal Steve Bobos; and one to the Desert Park where introduction to the park and a session on Desert Knowledge was presented. They were both very well received.
I thank all of the presenters, including the ex-minister Barry Coulter for his session on the railway, and the member for Sanderson on his presentation on statehood. I believe that a list of the papers have been circulated to members and I encourage all members to take advantage of the information they provide.
It was very good to have Bob Speller, the Chairman of the CPA Executive Committee and a member from Ottawa, there so he could see the difficulties experienced by small jurisdictions. It is unfortunate that I have been unable to attend executive meetings of the CPA as the Australian regional representative, but a by-elections, sittings and a wrist problem have made it impossible this time around.
I wish to place on record my thanks to the Clerk for his involvement as Secretary, to Graham Gadd, Jane Gunner, Samantha Mannette and Jan Sporn for their assistance in ensuring the smooth running and organisation of the Alice Springs session.
I urge all members to continue to participate in CPA activities. It is unfortunate that cheap shots are often made at members who do participate, and that the media does pick up and continue to run that line. However, this seminar has proven that the Northern Territory has much to offer, and that we can benefit from interaction with other parliaments. We should continue to support the CPA and the valuable work it does in promoting democracy to the benefit of those Commonwealth countries.
Mr KIELY (Sanderson): Mr Deputy Speaker, it is with great delight that I stand before you tonight to speak about my participation as a delegate from this parliament to the 15th CPA Australian and Pacific Regional Seminar. As we have heard from the Speaker, who was also one of the hosting officers of the seminar, it was a great place to be.
Madam Speaker would have indicated the size and location of the island, so I will not go into that. When we arrived we were greeted by the Prime Minister of Samoa, and he said some pretty interesting things. I have a copy of his speech, and I wish to read some of his comments in respect of the timeliness of the seminar. He said:
He went on to say that this particular conference was quite timely given the involvement of Australia and other Pacific nations in the Solomon Islands. He said:
It was through the meeting of such a group that I learned more about the Samoan people, who are great travellers and participants in the global democracy movement. It was through meeting a contingent of Samoan police who were fulfilling their duty as part of a peace keeping force in Timor that I came to know of the Samoan community’s presence in Darwin. Quite a number of them live in my electorate and I am pleased to count them amongst my friends.
Having met the Timor contingent, which would come down here on rest and recreation, when the opportunity to travel as a delegate to the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association’s 15th Australian and Pacific Regional Seminar came up that I accepted it. I thought it would be a wonderful way to get over there and look at the country from which valuable members of our community have come; that it would help inform me better of the issues they confront in their day to day lives in our community.
It was certainly a very interesting time. It was a real eye-opener, and it was good to see not only the role of Australia and all the states that were represented, but our relationship with the Pacific nations. It is a relationship that, whilst reported on in the popular press, I did not fully appreciate or understand. And our relationship stunned me a little bit at times, because it was a bit neo-colonialist in some ways and you were looked at, Australia and New Zealand, as people with greater influence than perhaps should be exerted in the Pacific regions. It was quite interesting, talking to members from the Cook Islands and Fiji, from Niue, I did not even know Niue existed to tell you the truth, and to talk to these people about how they saw Australia and New Zealand’s role in the Pacific.
Also amongst the participants there was Nigel Scullion, the Senator for the Northern Territory. Of course, we had a good contingent from the Northern Territory there in the form of the Speaker, who was co-hosting, and the Clerk, who was there to assist. They were there because the Northern Territory was also co-host. This seminar was a week in Samoa and a week in Alice Springs. It was quite interesting to see the issues that we find beset our communities in Alice Springs are somewhat similar to those issues that we find in the Pacific islands. These are issues of logistics, of remoteness, and providing services to the community over vast distances. These are the things that we have in the Territory, and particularly the Pacific island nations were astounded at the time it took to fly from the island of Samoa to New Zealand, or from New Zealand to Australia, and it took that time again to fly from Sydney into Alice Springs. Instead of flying over the ocean, which they are used to, they flew over country, over desert and mountains, and they were pretty stunned by it all. For many of them, it was the first time they had flown that far into the interior of Australia. They are great travellers, make no mistake about that, but they had never travelled into the interior of Australia.
Whilst I could talk about Samoa and the countryside and the people, it was of more interest to me to see the reaction of our Pacific island countrymen, and how they perceived the Australian interior. There was one memorable moment, where the Speaker of the Samoan parliament, who was in Alice Springs, went to the Desert Park. There was a display on in the theatrette about the beginnings of the Alice Springs area of the country. It went through the whole presentation of the rock formations and the Dreaming. At the end of it all, as the screen lowered to reveal from the screen to where they were actually looking at the West MacDonnell Ranges, was a moving thing for the Speaker. He actually had tears in his eyes, they were tears of joy, but they were genuine. This man was actually moved because his comments were that, you have managed to keep your Dreaming, your thoughts. He saw this as a collective thing of the Australian people; he did not see it as an Aboriginal thing or a European thing. He saw it as the country around there. He said, you have managed to keep that, whereas, we with the influences that have changed our island, and the changes brought on by Christianity and everything, he sort of felt this slight emptiness within him. He was moved, and many people who saw him react in this way, and who spoke to him afterwards, were also deeply moved by it.
There were many interesting people on this seminar. It was a parliamentary association seminar and there were members from all walks of political life. There was a member from One Nation from Western Australia, there were CLP members, there were Liberal, there were Labor, there were Greens, the National Party from New Zealand, and Greens from New Zealand, and Greens from the ACT. We were not there with political axes to grind, and we were not there with political point scoring to make. We were there to inform, to share ideas, and to get different perspectives of the world, and it was very successful.
One of the presentations I found really interesting was that from Hon Samisoni Speight Tikoinasau. Sami - as we were all getting around calling each other by our first names - is an MP in the Fijian Parliament and, of course, as you might have guessed by the name Speight, is related to Mr George Speight. He delivered a paper on Multi-party Cabinet. He was putting up a case by saying that we have this multi-party Cabinet which is being implemented into about four nations in different parts of crisis – that was South Africa, Ireland, Fiji and, I think perhaps - it was not Zimbabwe; the fourth one escapes me. It is the system whereby the majority - you may well pull 55% or, say. 45% of the vote. The minor parties might account for another 10%, and then another party might pick up the other 40%-odd - 45%. Under their multi-party Cabinet, any party that acquires any more than 10% actually gets a member in Cabinet. According to their constitution, they cannot form a minority government - they cannot form a government with the minor parties and, therefore, have a majority. He was saying that no one else accepts this; no other Westminster democracy. If you can form a government, then you form a government and you rule. If it has to be with a minor party in a coalition, then so be it. You cobble that together. His point was saying that this is very hard on the political parties of Fiji.
I have never even thought about that, or run into that before. I just throw that in, because this is something that I learned: that it was truly a professional and personal development seminar for me. There was other areas – and the papers are all listed, so I will not go into them here. But let me say that, from the viewpoint of being away with so many people of different political persuasions, both on foreign soil and within our own jurisdictions, was excellent and I learned much from them. I learned about tolerance. Let me say that I learned a lot from Senator Scullion. His focus is the Territory and I had great talks with him. It is the first time I actually sat down and had a social discussion with Senator Scullion. I was very happy about that.
From broadening that side of my perspective on life was good; from listening to the issues that surrounds the Pacific nations. They have some huge environmental issues facing them; huge population drifts, and they are pretty crook on New Zealand and Australia because they have larger populations centres over here than they have back in their own nation states. It is making it hard pretty hard to operate because it is not only a brain drain but a brawn drain. They are finding it difficult to get by and they are trying to get their people back.
Samoa is a beautiful country. I would certainly go back there as a tourist. It has some unique issues. It is not countryside that I am used to; it is very, very hilly. The people are very friendly. The culture, whilst it is Christian, is a little different to ours. But I must also talk about their health system because, while we were there, there is no doubt you have seen that Madam Speaker turned turtle, as we say in the islands. Madam Speaker came out of the parliament; missed a small step and – no, I would like to say here and now, I want to dispel two stories that are going around. It did not happen straight after the kava ceremony, but she did drink a full cup. It did not happen after the kava ceremony, so there is no alcohol or other drug involved. And no, Senator Scullion did not tip her out in the thought that this would cause a by-election in Braitling. These two stories I want to put to bed straight away.
However, Madam Speaker did fall over the steps; trip over. When I met her a few minutes afterwards, she asked me to take a photograph for her of these big fifty-persons boats that were racing by, which attracted everyone’s attention; a significant event. I said: ‘Why can’t you take it, Loraine?’ She said: ‘I have fallen over’. I had a look. At first I noticed a graze on her finger but then I noticed her wrist and it was expanding before my eyes. I said ‘Look, Loraine, I think you have really done some serious damage here’. Let me say that for those members who were thinking that on her 65th birthday, the Speaker should consider retirement because she is getting on, well, I do not think so. She was as strong as an ox and the way she handled the injury was fantastic, and I was just amazed the way she did it all. She just really stuck in there. We got a car, and the Speaker and the Assistant Speaker took her to hospital. I went with her as well because I did not know what we were getting into as far as would there be any language difficulties or whether I would have to bring back a message about what was going on, because we did not know how serious a break it was and there was a thought that it might have been a couple of main bones in her arm.
In the hospital, thanks to the good offices of the Speaker, whom might I say is a practising GP and had a lot of contacts there, Madam Speaker was able to get x-rayed, have that looked at, and they made the decision on the spot. They gave her the option of having it reset there; then they had another look and said that because of the swelling they could not do anything for three days so they would immobilise it. Of course, that three days would see us back in Australia. Through all this, Madam Speaker was quite - the pain threshold of this woman was pretty incredible. She did not grimace, did not grouch about it at all, went through it all, got all bandaged up in a cast, although she did complain that it was a little bit warm, at one stage, from memory, because there was some sort of chemical reaction going on with the plaster. For three days there, Madam Speaker had to battle alone.
Madam SPEAKER: Thank you for your moral support.
Mr KIELY: And yes, she was injured, not ill. We arrived in Alice Springs, and because it was a serious injury, it had to be manipulated back into place and then to see her with that frame on her arm. Full thanks to the doctors in Alice Springs. They did a wonderful job. I commend them for their work.
Finally, I would recommend to all members to go to a CPA if the chance avails itself. They are worthwhile. The criticisms from the press are highly unwarranted. I would urge all members to go.
Ms LAWRIE (Karama): Mr Deputy Speaker, I am heartened to hear the good words from Madam Speaker and the member for Sanderson about their CPA travels.
I rise tonight to acknowledge a far more local situation. On 31 August, I hosted a Karama Neighbourhood Watch sausage sizzle and picnic day at Karama School. Karama Neighbourhood Watch has been newly reinvigorated only a few short months ago in response to community concerns about crime issues that were hitting the NT News. It whipped up a bit of local fear and frenzy. Residents thought that they would be pro-active about it and reinvigorate the Neighbourhood Watch. I have to say that was a terrific response and a very mature response by residents.
At that stage, there was some unwarranted hysteria in the media. The first thing we decided to do, I suggested to the Karama Neighbourhood Watch team of which I am a part, that perhaps we might want to introduce ourselves to the neighbourhood and have a bit of a get together, a get to know you day. This turned into our sausage sizzle and picnic day.
I have to say that it became somewhat bigger than Ben Hur. My electorate officer, Nicole Lewis, and I coordinated a little core team of workers to organise the day. I acknowledge Meg Angus, Ted Dunstan, Ken Hockey and Ian Richardson. We met weekly in my electorate office to discuss ideas and plans for the day. It formed up that we would run a sausage sizzle and picnic day from 2 pm until 4 pm on a Sunday afternoon at the local school. I contacted all the schools in the electorate and invited them to have a group of youth perform to showcase how great our local schools are. I acknowledge that we had terrific entertainment. We had a group of kids called the Sing Song Signers, a large part of them from Holy Family School. We had the very well loved and highly regarded Manunda Terrace Rope Ragers do their fantastic skipping demonstration. The Karama School had their ATSI and modern dances as well as their Karama School Choir. Marrara Christian College had a fantastic band that rounded off the day’s entertainment.
Every fifteen minutes there was an activity. On the half hour we had school group entertainment on the Karama school stage and everyone gathered into the assembly area to watch it. In hindsight, I made the task a bit harder for myself because I decided on every other fifteen minutes that there would be a game, an activity of some sort that I would run, and these games ended up being tug-of-war and sack racing. I have to say I underestimated the enthusiasm of the local population for these games. There were significant numbers of tug-of-war competitions and significant repeats of sack racing because the kids just went into the sack racing with gusto. We had about 40 sacks, and all the kids would line up have a go. I managed to get some prizes donated from local organisations: Crocodylus Park had family passes, the minister for Police provided CMax Cinema passes, I donated quite a few book vouchers as prizes and the kids joined in the games with gusto. Knowing that there were prizes, I am sure, caused quite a lot of frenzy about the fun and entertainment.
We had a graffiti wall. Mitre 10 donated the mesh and the star pickets, and we had paints donated. I donated a jumping castle for the little ones to be on, the under 10s. Support from the local businesses was overwhelming. I take my hat off to Coles Karama. They donated over 300 kg of sausages, around 50 loaves of bread, all the sauce we needed, and all the onions we needed. Brumbys joined in with another 50 loaves of bread. So we were able to give away the food which, in a lower socioeconomic like area like Karama, was a very welcome thing. I reckon every kid lined up and had about three goes at the sausages each because by 3 pm we had run out of food and were going out to Coles to get more. That is how popular the sausage sizzle was. Panda Takeaway donated $100 which enabled me to cover the expense of quite a few incidentals, such as ice. We went through something like 52 bags of ice. I had hundreds of drinks donated by Parmalat, and the Karama Shopping Centre covered half the expense of the drinks. We went through hundreds of drinks.
The army participated. They were incredibly popular with their ASLAV. They had about 300 local kids looked through that ASLAV on the day, putting their little helmets on and climbing up and clambering through. Speaking to the officers at the end of the day, they said that they write reports to their superiors when they attend such events, and their report would say that they would wholeheartedly support it in the future. They were absolutely thrilled with the response of the community to the officers and to the equipment they had on display.
The police were champions. The Neighbourhood Watch team, Senior Sergeant Rod Strong and other members such as Senior Sergeant Dean Maloney and the officer in charge of Casuarina, Steve Heyworth at that stage, put in a big effort to help us set up and to run the day in a very positive fashion. It was very heartening for me to see an average of six or so police through those hours mingling with the local community, mingling with some of the kids who indeed are the ratbags on the streets causing trouble. To be able to break the barriers down like that and to see people to start to see each other was very heartening and very much a bonding period, I believe, for members of our community.
Emergency Services participated and had a lovely display. Victims of Crime Assistance League, VOCAL, were there as well to show just what sort of support they can give to victims of crime.
A bit of a highlight of the day was a spur of the moment celebrity tug-of-war. I sprung it on our police minister when he turned up to encourage participants, so the police minister with the police took on the Emergency Services and army guys. There were reports of about 400 people cheering on this celebrity tug-of-war. I have to say that the police, with our minister, acquitted themselves incredibly well. Within the first few moments, you would have been forgiven for believing it was all over, red rover and that Emergency Services and army had it won. They started with a great deal of strength, but before our very eyes, we saw the police really dig in. I can report that the minister was not the anchor as some people indicated he might be. Indeed, he was one of the taller, leaner athletes of the team and they dug in, they started to work as a team and pull as a team and ended up winning the tug of war competition to the enormous cheers of the crowd.
I want to thank the helpers on the day, the people who showed up, members of our Neighbourhood Watch team. We had Helene and Joe Clarke; Joe has numerous back complaints and health complaints, but he sat there and he cooked hundreds of sausages. Helene and Joe, I really take my hat off to you, thank you so much for your hard work. To Andy Collier who also, along with Lisa Greenslade, cooked the sausages and helped out on the BBQ, thank you. I put Julie Fawcett through a form of torture by having her in charge of the jumping castle, and I have promised Julie she will not be in charge of the jumping castle next year. She certainly had no idea just how forthright up to 10 year olds are these days. Greg Wills came along and helped out with the jumping castle, and Sharon Stubbs spent all day in the Parmalat drinks van. Again, I acknowledge the work that Parmalat did in supporting this event. They gave us the drinks van for free, and they gave us 50% of our drinks on the day for free and, as I said, Karama Shopping Centre really kicked in with a large donation to cover the rest of the drinks expenses.
So, what started as an idea of just a bit of a get together where we had no idea how many people would show up, we thought we might be optimistic and cater for 200, some people said they thought there were 600 there. I am settling on the more conservative figure of 500, but I know that it certainly was a massive event for Karama. We have never seen anything like it in the past. Everyone said to me that we should do this more often and I said, ‘Not likely’, as I had started setting up at 9 am, and by that stage I was somewhat exhausted. What I did indicate was that certainly I believe the Neighbourhood Watch team should look at doing it annually. I believe it is an event that can grow. Local businesses were very good in their support. I know the army is keen to get back and support us. For everyone who participated that day, it had a very good feeling about it, everyone was happy, everyone was mingling. We had our indigenous constituents creating a didgeridoo and basket weaving. It was a very good reflection on the harmony that we do have in that suburb.
In another positive vein, I want to congratulate Melanie Jans, who has been the youth outreach worker for the northern suburbs for the Darwin City Council. Melanie came from Western Australia to take up the position. It was a six month position and I know she is finishing up, but I want to acknowledge the hard work that Melanie has done, particularly in the area of Malak, to work with the youth and to give them a focus. She started up a boys youth group and a girls youth group and has been taking those youths on activities and keeping them out of trouble. Melanie, as a bit of a wrap to her six month experience, organised a Malak youth festival that took place on 1 October at Holtzerland Park, opposite Malak Shopping Centre, and I had the pleasure of officially closing that event.
We had participation by the youth beat, Danila Dilba, Anula Family Karate, a band, rock climbing, face painting and, again, NT sports, such as rugby and football and netball, were all there supporting the kids and doing activities with them. It was a very positive festival. Quite a few hundred kids were there; mums and dads were there. It was a really lovely day during the Wednesday of the school holiday week for the families and particularly the youth of the Malak area.
I am sorry to see Melanie go. I was, I guess, somewhat cynical about the process that Darwin City Council embarked upon having a six month position for a youth worker. I felt that they had not really integrated that position into other existing youth services. I raised queries at the outset about where the worker would be placed, how they would integrate into other youth services, and I suggested that a sole worker, working through the northern suburbs, was given too hard a task to fulfil. I have to say that Melanie exceeded all my expectations in her sheer dedication and hard work. She did end up going out and sitting physically with the YWCA team of youth workers at Malak, which was a suggestion I had made at the outset to Darwin City Council, one that at the outset was not taken up. I know Melanie was disappointed it took some months to get her there, working in amongst the other youth workers.
However, what she has shown is that it can be done; that cooperation between tiers of government can work. I encourage Darwin City Council to look at a continuation of Youth Outreach; to look at it in a coordinated fashion to deal with the gaps rather than overlaying on top of existing youth services. There are gaps there that we have recognised and that youth workers are aware of. I look forward to the YWCA’s YRAP program getting up and running, because much of this recreational work that Melanie Jans pursued needs to continue if we are to keep our youth out of serious at-risk behaviour.
I acknowledge that the community that I represent has its issues just as any suburban community does with crime and families going through somewhat incredibly difficult life and social circumstances which at times are distressing. We witnessed just this week the very tragic death in a Malak home of a young father. These are the things that daily I am confronted with in a lower socioeconomic area where families are just torn apart through the pressure of life. I want to say that what we are showing out in that community is that when the community works together; we can make a meaningful difference to each other’s lives, and we bring in a great deal of strength, harmony and support that people need to get through what is often a very difficult existence.
I encourage the Karama Neighbourhood Watch people, and the people who have worked with Melanie Jans to continue the hard work, and I commit to the full support of my electorate office.
Mr BONSON (Millner): Mr Deputy Speaker, tonight I speak about the late, great Terry Lew-Fatt, who was born on 20 February 1937 and, unfortunately, passed away on 28 August 2003.
Terry Lew-Fatt was not only a great man, but he was a great family man, great father, grandfather, a great Territorian and, very importantly, a great Darwinite in the true sense. One of the founding families, the Lew-Fatt family of Darwin, is obviously a fantastic contributor to the lifestyle that we lead now with the beliefs that Darwinites have about the way you should live your life.
I will be drawing on a couple of sources to try to encapsulate Terry Lew-Fatt’s life. I also recognise minister Jack Ah Kit’s contribution, as he has known the Lew-Fatt family all of his life. I am honoured, actually, to be giving an adjournment on this great Territorian. One source, in particular, that I would like to talk from is a book called Under the Mango Tree: Oral Histories with Indigenous People from the Top End, collected by Peg Havnen. Basically, it is a book with local indigenous Territorians telling their life experiences, what was important to them, or what was important to their lives as Darwinites and Territorians. On page 67 of the book, Under the Mango Tree, the story is headed: ‘A Sporting Life with Terry Lew-Fatt’:
The other source I would like to speak from was the funeral service, and in the introduction it has:
Terry goes on to talk about his dedication to the sport:
Mr Deputy Speaker, my father was a fireman, and I remember the old days in Daly Street sitting up on the roof of the fire station watching games for free, and it used to get a packed house up there. He continued:
When we won that grand final, just like football, the crowd ran onto the court to congratulate the players. When you look at the photos from that grand final, you can’t see the concrete on the court for the people.
He had an outstanding record as a basketballer. He first made a representative state team at 16 years. He represented his state 10 times, and went on to say:
He talked about his life in football and his experiences there. As we all know, Ted Egan will be the Territory’s new Administrator. Ted Egan was one of the founding members of the St Mary’s Football Club, and Terry was one of its founding players. He said:
He went on to talk about the skills of Aboriginal athletes that he saw. He talked about Michael Long:
Looking at his record:
He talked about Michael Ahmat and what a great player he was, and how he played in Mexico and Tokyo.
He talked about his brothers. Benny was a very good basketball player. He mentioned that Benny and John Bonson made the Australian team and played in New Zealand, and Brian Dixon was another good Territory player.
These are some of those who spoke at Terry Lew-Fatt’s funeral: Camille Lew-Fatt, Aunty Joan Butts from South Australia, Brian Dixon, Keith Kemp, Vic Ludwig and John Bonson. They spoke about what a fine man he was and his ability to always remain calm and cool in all circumstances. To reflect on what Keith Kemp and family had to say:
Mr Deputy Speaker, I would like to table a group of documents that I put together that best summarise Terry’s life. My condolences go to Mark and Vanessa. My thanks to Benny Lew-Fatt for assisting in this adjournment. It is fair to say that not often in life do you meet a truly great gentleman. I had the opportunity to work with Terry Lew-Fatt at the Northern Land Council, and I remember him taking me home for lunch, and he was sixty-something years old, and he was shooting the basketball. I was catching and fetching and passing it back to him. Until the day he died, he was active in sports and often attended many sporting games, and liked to watch his family and friends play their sports and achieve what they could. Terry Lew-Fatt was a true gentlemen who will be sorely missed.
Motion agreed to; the Assembly adjourned.
MEDIA ARRANGEMENTS
Madam SPEAKER: Honourable members, I wish to advise that I have given approval for ABC television and Channel 9 to film with sound and NT News to take photographs during the swearing in of the new member for Katherine.
DISTINGUISHED VISITORS
Madam SPEAKER: Honourable members, I draw your attention to the presence in the Speaker’s Gallery of Mr Mike Reed, the former member for Katherine; and the family and friends of Mrs Fay Miller. On behalf of all honourable members, I extend you a warm welcome.
Members: Hear, hear.
RESIGNATION OF
FORMER MEMBER FOR KATHERINE
FORMER MEMBER FOR KATHERINE
Madam SPEAKER: I advise honourable members that, on 12 September 2003, I received the resignation of the former member for Katherine, Mr Michael Anthony Reed, submitted to me by letter pursuant to section 18 of the Northern Territory (Self-Government) Act 1978. I table the letter. I call on the Clerk.
RETURN TO WRIT – KATHERINE DIVISION
The CLERK: Honourable members, I lay on the table the return to the writ issued by his Honour the Administrator, Mr John Anictomatis AO, on 7 October 2003 for the election of a member for the electoral division of Katherine on 4 October 2003, and certifying the election of Mrs Christina Fay Miller.
Christina Fay Miller made and subscribed the oaths required by law.
MESSAGE FROM ADMINISTRATOR
Madam SPEAKER: Honourable members, I have received Message No 17 from His Honour the Administrator notifying assent to the bills passed in the August 2003 sittings.
OPPOSITION ADMINISTRATIVE ARRANGEMENTS
Mr BURKE (Opposition Leader)(by leave): Madam Speaker, following the resignation from the Legislative Assembly of the former member for Katherine, Mike Reed, the CLP Parliamentary Wing has elected the member for Greatorex as Deputy Opposition Leader. The member for Daly remains opposition whip and manager of opposition business.
The allocation of portfolios is:
member for Brennan, Denis Burke - Leader of the Opposition; Treasurer; Territory Development;
AustralAsia Railways; and Racing and Gaming and Licensing.
member for Greatorex, Richard Lim - Deputy Leader of the Opposition; Chairman, Policy Development
Committee; Transport and Infrastructure; Corporate and Information Services; Communications; Ethnic Affairs;
and Central Australia.
member for Daly, Tim Baldwin: Leader of Opposition Business and Whip; Primary Industry and Fisheries;
Environment and Heritage; and Parks and Wildlife.
The other shadow cabinet members in alphabetical order are:
Jodeen Carney, member for Araluen - Attorney-General and Justice; Tourism; and Women’s Policy;
Sue Carter, member for Port Darwin - Health and Community Services; Senior Territorians; and Arts and Museums;
Stephen Dunham, member for Drysdale – Business, Industry and Resource Development; Defence Support;
and Essential Services;
John Elferink, member for Macdonnell - Police, Fire and Emergency Services; Local Government;
Business Affairs; Community Development; and Regional Development;
Peter Maley, member for Goyder - Lands and Planning; and Housing;
Terry Mills, member for Blain - Employment, Education and Training; Asian Relations and Trade;
Sport and Recreation; and Youth.
I indicate, Madam Speaker, that I expect to call on the new member for Katherine to take her place in the shadow ministry in the next few months.
STATEMENT BY SPEAKER
Injury to Wrist
Injury to Wrist
Madam SPEAKER: Honourable members, I should make a statement about the state of my hand. I want to make it clear to you that I did not fall out of bed in Samoa when we had an earth tremor. I did not do it at Bad Billy’s Bar, where I was not a patron. I did it in a moment of foolishness rushing out of the door to see a boat race. I assure you I am not sick; I am injured. So I will not be shaking hands with you for a while.
Ms Martin: What did you do to it? Break it?
Madam SPEAKER: My wrist? I put my hand out to save myself from falling and crunched my wrist. That is to allay the fears of the media who might be thinking I am retiring or something because of ill-health.
Ms MARTIN (Chief Minister): Madam Speaker, my sympathies about your hand. I hope it is not too long in repairing.
MINISTERIAL REPORTS
Announcement of Appointment of Next Administrator Ted Egan AM
Announcement of Appointment of Next Administrator Ted Egan AM
Ms MARTIN (Chief Minister): Madam Speaker, it is my great pleasure to inform the Assembly that songwriter, author, film maker and Australian bush icon, Ted Egan AM, is to be the next Administrator of the Northern Territory.
Members: Hear hear!
Ms MARTIN The former federal Minister for Regional Services, Territories and Local Government, Wilson Tuckey, and I jointly announced the appointment last Wednesday. I am delighted that Ted Egan agreed to accept the nomination, and I am sure that all Territorians and Assembly members join me in welcoming this appointment.
Ted Egan is a man of great depth and will be willing and able to engage with all members of the Territory’s diverse communities. He is truly a people’s person. Ted Egan is also a great and committed Territorian and, I am sure, will make a wonderful Administrator. He will be ably assisted in the task by his partner, Nerys Evans.
After arriving in the Territory in 1949, Ted has lived here for most of his life. He has had a long and varied career as a teacher, community activist, author, patrol officer, bush poet, balladeer, sportsman and public servant. He also has a distinguished record of service to our community in many other areas. He was awarded the Order of Australia in 1991 for his services to Aboriginal people. This work included promoting the earliest forms of the Homelands Movement in 1960 as he worked in parts of the Territory such as Borroloola, Yuendumu, Maningrida and Groote Eylandt. As a patrol officer, Ted was also involved in the original Wave Hill Station strike in 1967, along with other noted Territorians such as Ted Evans, Jack Doolan, Brian Manning and, of course, Vincent Lingiari.
In 2002, Ted Egan was awarded an honorary doctorate by the Northern Territory University for his ongoing contribution to Australia’s literary heritage. Ted gained his first university degree by correspondence while working in the bush in the 1960s and later received a Master of Arts for his book on The Life and Trial of Dhakiyarr. Ted was also present earlier this year at the special Wukidi ceremony in Darwin’s Supreme Court which recognised the tragic events that surrounded Dhakiyarr’s trial and conviction.
Ted Egan is also the 2003 Territorian of the Year. As an entertainer, Ted has contributed enormously to Australia’s rich and diverse heritage through his song and his verse. He is an enormously community spirited man. Federal territories minister, Wilson Tuckey, also congratulated Ted Egan on his appointment and said that he was sure Ted would be an excellent Administrator.
The new Administrator’s appointment is from 31 October this year. He will be sworn in by Governer-General, Major-General Michael Jeffrey in November. The Deputy of the Administrator, Pat Miller, will act in the position until Ted Egan is sworn in. Ted replaces retiring Administrator, John Anictomatis, who completes his three-year term of office at the end of this month, 30 October.
Madam Speaker, I place on record my appreciation of the work of John Anictomatis and his wife, Jeanette, over that three year period. They have carried out their public duties in an exemplary way, I believe, Madam Speaker, and with distinction, and will take with them the very best wishes of the people of the Northern Territory.
Members: Hear, hear!
Ms MARTIN Ted Egan will become the Territory’s Administrator with the warm congratulations of the Assembly, and I am sure the vast majority of Territorians. Madam Speaker, I commend Ted Egan’s appointment to members of the House and to all Territorians.
Mr BURKE (Opposition Leader): Madam Speaker, I indicate from the opposition’s perspective our full endorsement of the government’s decision in appointing Ted Egan as our new Administrator. I believe it is an excellent decision warmly welcomed by Territorians. It brings to the office of Administrator another person who shows the true character of the Northern Territory. As the Chief Minister has indicated, this is a man who has not only devoted the greater part of his life to the Northern Territory in terms of songs, poetry and story telling, and he epitomises and personally guards the character of the Northern Territory.
Once again, I endorse the government’s decision. The opposition looks forward to working fully and cooperatively with our Administrator and wishes Ted Egan and his wife and family all the very best in their role in the challenging position of Administrator of the Northern Territory.
I reserve my comments with regards to Mr Anictomatis for a later day, when I take the opportunity to speak fully on his service to the Northern Territory as Administrator.
Work Health Reform
Mr STIRLING (Employment, Education and Training): Madam Speaker, we, as the government, take the safety of Territory workers seriously. This morning I want to update the House on ongoing reform and activity that we are undertaking to improve work place safety, with particular reference to staff and staffing arrangements.
The launch of the new NT WorkSafe in June this year was the culmination at that time of a series of major reforms. Without going through each of them, I highlight the 15 amendments to the Work Health Act without cutting benefits in any way, with a focus on improving the return to work; the stage two reforms implementing elements of the Lord Report focussing on the medical intervention issues; and the development of a strategic and business plan for NT WorkSafe; as well, an historic commitment by the territory, state and federal governments to a national Occupational Health and Safety Strategy, including targets fixed in there; and we are currently undertaking further reforms through the stage three review of the occupational health and safety provisions of the Work Health Act.
Progress has already been made on a number of fronts, including: prevention programs in the areas of gas, fireworks and construction industries; re-establishment of the Work Health Advisory Council; a fireworks safety strategy developed after consultation with industry and input from the public; establishment of a working group, which is to recommend the introduction of a Construction Safety induction card; delivery of safety management awareness training for employers and employees throughout regional centres, Darwin and targeted remote areas; and improved occupational licensing application and processing arrangements between the Territory Business Centre and NT WorkSafe.
Madam Speaker, it is in the area of staffing that we have made a major change in focus from our predecessors. When we came to power, the Work Health Authority had a staff of around 30; several vacancies were evident throughout the organisation. The number had been eroded from previous high levels of staff in the late 1980s, up around 50-55. Since coming to office, we have built the number back to 37, 15 staff positions, six new and the filling of nine vacancies were advertised a few weeks ago and achieved because of the commitment by the government to an additional $500 000 for staffing in the 2003-04 budget. Of the 37 positions, Darwin has 31, two in Katherine and four in Alice Springs. The Deputy Opposition Leader’s comments calling for WorkSafe staff to be placed in Alice Springs was a bit of a surprise recently. He really ought to visit that office and meet those four staffers there. An existing Darwin-based WorkSafe officer position was transferred, along with the Road Transport program, from Darwin to Alice Springs.
A new organisational chart and the redesign and introduction of new positions has been approved and implemented, and regular relationship building now occurs between the unit, unions and business. I am appreciative of the efforts of staff in WorkSafe and DEET who have invested a lot of time in building those critical relationships. More regular cross-agency meetings with police, fire and rescue service, DBIRD, Mines and Energy Division, the Territory Business Centre and Infrastructure, Planning and Environment Transport unit also occurs so that the relationship within government is being strengthened and enhanced as well. These reforms will bring results for our workplace and our workers who can look forward to working in safer workplaces than before.
Mr MILLS (Blain): Madam Speaker, with the implementation of stage 3, I would request a briefing, minister, on that particular phase and how we are set to see that unfold. The cyanide spill has had repercussions right through the industry sector, whose concern is primarily that the agency that we are speaking to, in this instance, is solely serving to protect workers rather than to play an active policing role on industry and to be restrictive. Sure, the spirit of this legislation and this agency is to ensure that we do make gains and make it easier for industry. I also note, with the workload that is currently on WorkSafe in these restructures, that the paper last week indicated significant job advertisements which, to me, indicates very seriously the lack of staffing we do have in WorkSafe at this current time. I do note the comments that you have made but, in effect, we do have a significant shortfall in manned positions within WorkSafe at this current point in time.
Mr STIRLING (Employment, Education and Training): Madam Speaker, I believe the cyanide episode did reveal deficiencies which government is working on. However, I put this on the record: it occurred on the 8th in wet weather, in a remote and isolated part of the Territory where there were no witnesses. It was the 11th before the Central Land Council and the police were notified of it. Three days, continuing wet weather, and it was the 13th before WorkSafe was involved. So, five days had elapsed before it was brought to Work Health for investigation. There were difficulties, of course, with the site, with the continued wet weather, not helped with contamination of the evidence that was collected at the time. But with the best will in the world, the best resourcing in the world, when you have a remote, isolated part of the Territory, no witnesses, the wet weather, the best investigation in the world is going to have difficulty coming up with evidence that was going to stand up in court on this matter.
Suffice to say, processes have been improved and refined, as with resourcing and training in these matters. I still maintain, the best investigation in the world was going to be very difficult, given the situation around this spill. Suffice to say, that company no longer works in that part of the Territory.
Independent Review of Custodial Services
Dr TOYNE (Justice and Attorney-General): Madam Speaker, in recent years the Northern Territory’s Correctional Services have experienced changes in both the increased number of prisoners being accommodated and in the changed custodial practice and procedures. Some operational practices have not kept pace with the changing demands. Detailed discussions have been recently held between myself, the CEO of the Department of Justice, senior Corrections staff, the Northern Territory Prison Officers Association, the Senior Prison Officers Association, and the Liquor and Hospitality (Miscellaneous Workers) Union.
Those discussions have identified the need for an independent review, focussing on current and future adult custodial needs in the Northern Territory. Increasing prison numbers and the staffing resource and other issues that brings means that broad consideration of Corrections is necessary to ensure that it is following the best staffing and custodial practice.
These discussions also highlighted the need for immediate interim measures to be put in place until the review is complete. Those interim measures include overtime and staffing level arrangements. They have been developed in close consultation with the union and two prison officers’ associations, and address some of the immediate needs of the staff at the prison. They have reduced lockdown significantly and halted the unrest that was starting to become evident amongst some of the prisoners.
Draft terms of reference for the review have also been agreed on with the staff associations and the union. Under those terms of reference, the prisons, the management regimes and capacity to meet current and future prisoner needs will be considered. The review will look at best practice standards in adult custodial practice in containment, offender rehabilitation and reintegration, reparation, offender care, and advice to sentencing authorities. The department has identified several suitable people who could undertake the review and is in the process of following procurement rules. The review will be a wide one and all relevant stakeholders will be given the opportunity to provide input. I anticipate that a report on the outcomes of the review will be made available to me in early 2004.
Madam Speaker, this review into custodial services in the Northern Territory is an opportunity to develop a Corrections service which is specifically designed to cater for the needs of the Territory, which will target offenders in prison to help reduce re-offending, and which operates to best practice standards.
I welcome and encourage the input of the Corrections staff, prisoners and the wider community into this important review.
Ms CARNEY (Araluen): Madam Speaker, I thank the minister for that statement. No doubt the minister considers a review timely but I am advised by prison officers that in fact a review was meant to commence in March and it was stalled for reasons they do not know. What the minister did not refer to was what he intends to do about the chronically low staffing numbers until March next year which is, as I understand it, when the first recruitment course finishes.
There is a requirement – in fact, a great, urgent need – for government to act now. Whilst, on the one hand, we welcome a review, on the other, we note that it is beyond time that the review is commissioned and, in any event, that there are certain things that need to be urgently addressed.
It is the case, on the information that I have, that, for instance, prisoners are being locked in their cells for significantly longer periods than is otherwise the case and that has been happening since February this year. It is fascinating to note that this government has not, apparently, done anything about this; this government that was so critical of the CLP for daring to gaol anyone. This government is now in a position where there are more indigenous people in these gaols and not enough staff to look after them. Eighty-two percent is the latest figures on indigenous imprisonment, and this government, this minister, seem completely unconcerned about that. I would like to see the minister showing some sort of compassion, not only for the prisoners in gaol, about whom he cared a great deal prior to the election, and, in particular, the prison officers who are really working very hard in pretty dreadful conditions.
Mr WOOD (Nelson): Madam Speaker, I also welcome the review. I think it is long overdue. I have spoken in this House several times about my concerns about the closure of Wildman River. It is open at the present time, I believe, because of overcrowding in Don Dale. The government has given me a briefing on the possible expansion of Don Dale. I am just wondering whether the government would hold off on that expansion until the review occurs? It would be a bit silly to put something in place if you are now going to have a review. I would like to hear what the minister has to say about whether the review would cover any expansion of juvenile facilities.
Dr TOYNE (Justice and Attorney-General): Madam Speaker, I thank the members for most of their comments. I can give a quick answer to that. We have to proceed with putting extra capacity into Don Dale and indeed into the main prison at Berrimah. We are not going to hold off on progressing that because there is a clear need for them.
The member for Araluen has shown in the past that she does not have a good ear for detail. In the statement I have just made I referred to the interim measures that we have put in place and they have included reforms on the number of escorts that are going on, the actual rostering system, the overtime; things are now fully balanced so that we can conduct this review and learn from the results. In terms of the situation at the prison, you are probably about a month out of date. I suggest that maybe you should come and get a briefing and we will tell you what we have done.
Caring for Children Reform Agenda
Mrs AAGAARD (Health and Community Services): Madam Speaker, today I rise to report on this government’s response to community concerns about the care and protection of children.
Caring for our children, keeping them safe and healthy, and making sure they have the best possible start in life is one of the greatest challenges we face as families, community members, and as a government. The Northern Territory government views its role in child and family policy as primarily that of supporting parents, as they can better care for their children. Strong families and communities offer the best possibility for ensuring that children grow up happy, healthy and capable members of society.
Today, I am announcing the government’s Caring for our Children reform agenda. This reform agenda initially comprises two important initiatives - a review of the Community Welfare Act, the development of new legislation for children and families; and a consultative review of child protection systems and practice. These are two separate but complementary initiatives. The combined outcomes will be a strong framework of law, enhanced professional practice and efficient, effective systems with improved inter-agency and community partnerships. These outcomes will provide the foundation for the future care and development and protection of our children and the support of families and communities in the Northern Territory.
New legislation for children and families will replace the existing Community Welfare Act 1983 which has as its purpose ‘to provide for the protection and care of children and the promotion of family welfare and for other purposes’. The outcome of this review process will be legislation aimed at protecting children from abuse and neglect; ensuring effective mechanisms to care for children when they cannot live safely with their family; promoting prevention, early intervention and family support services; to maximise the capacity of families to care for their children; ensuring the quality of care and development services for children, including child care; and incorporating appropriate cultural arrangements to reflect indigenous and ethnic communities.
Whilst the current Community Welfare Act has provided a legislative framework for the care and protection of children in the Northern Territory for over two decades, it is timely that we develop legislation that is responsive to the needs of our current society and flexible enough to adapt to changes in the years ahead.
The legislative reform process has already commenced with consultation across the Territory over the past several months. Over the next six months I anticipate the introduction of an initial amendment of the existing act and the preparation of a draft bill that will be made available for broad community comment.
On 27 August this year, I announced that a review of child protection services would occur in order to strengthen the child protection system. The role of the state in regards to the lives of children and families has changed over time. This role has been in response to, and informed by, the political, ideological, social, economic values and beliefs at the time. All families require a range of services depending on their needs. Families can choose to access these services depending on their specific needs.
In the Northern Territory, a mix of government and non-government agencies provide these services. Sometimes the state must intervene in relation to specific children and families rather than wait for families to seek assistance from them. This usually occurs when the family is unable or unwilling to care for the child or where their care is harmful to the child. It is at these times that the state, on behalf of the community, intervenes.
In order to intervene appropriately, effectively, legally, and skilfully, we need to ensure that our child protection system is the best that it can possibly be. Over time, this reform will yield a range of benefits such as better outcomes for children and families; improve access to relevant services; more effective and efficient service delivery systems and structures; greater accountability to the community and, in particular, to families, children and young people; cohesive and collaborative inter-agency partnerships; and working relationships that reflect a whole-of-government approach.
The review process and its outcomes will ensure that the cultural values of indigenous and ethnic communities are reflected in all aspects of the child protection system, and that particular challenges posed by the geographic remoteness and isolation that some children, families and communities experience are taken into account.
Madam Speaker, I am pleased to report on the progress that has already been made in the review of the Territory’s child protection system. Consultations have commenced and leading experts in the field have been invited to work with us. A reference group is being formed with membership from the community, which will provide advice to both this initiative and the legislative review.
This review is considering the child protection system in its broadest form. Our child protection system is not just a government system, but one that also includes not-for-profit agencies, the corporate sector and the community. We are fooling ourselves if we think that protection of the Territory’s children is only the responsibility of one section of one government department. It is everyone’s responsibility to work towards building a better child protection system.
In conclusion, let me reaffirm this government’s commitment to the care, development and protection of children, and the support of Territory families and communities in care for their children.
Ms CARTER (Port Darwin): Madam Speaker, I welcome the minister’s report this morning, particularly with regard to the review of the Community Welfare Act. I am quite sure the opposition looks forward to having input as time goes by.
However, with regard to your comments with the review of child protection, I have to ask several questions. First, why is the review being done internally, given the serious nature of this issue and the significant community interest in the issue? Why must it be done internally, which begs the question: once it is completed, will the report be made public? Will we be able to see what the report has to say about this important issue in our community? Who will head the review? When will it be finished? These are the questions that I would like you to answer.
Also, if it going to take some time – and I suspect something like this will take some time – what about now? What his happening now? How long are cases having to wait before somebody makes some sort of intervention? What is the waiting list? How substantial is it? How long do people have to wait once your unit receives a complaint?
I understand, for example, that there can be quite significant waits. Certainly, from reports I have received, there are concerns from the community with regards to how staff have responded to concerns, which indicates significant stress within the unit from the limited staff who are in there now. I encourage you to do all you can to deal with the current crisis, rather than waiting for the review, to help staff who are in that unit dealing with a very, very difficult situation.
Mrs AAGAARD (Health and Community Services): Madam Speaker, when I became the minister in 2001, I learnt that in the area of child protection the Northern Territory had the lowest per capita funding of any jurisdiction in Australia for child protection. A very lamentable state. At that point, this government put in $2.4m to improve this area.
Today, I have been outlining what we are doing to improve this area. Once again, we were left with a dreadful system. Our children have not been protected adequately over a very long period of time. Just this morning I asked some officers in my department to have a look at Hansard to see what kind of comments have been made by the CLP over many years about child protection. Over the last decade, we failed to find one reference to child protection or neglect. Not one comment made by the CLP in the past decade. Maybe, the actual result was not correct there. There is no interest in child protection from that side. This is mere political bunkum.
Reports noted pursuant to Sessional Order.
BUSINESS TENANCIES (FAIR DEALINGS) BILL
(Serial 175)
(Serial 175)
Continued from 21 August 2003.
Ms CARNEY (Araluen): Madam Speaker, I will be fairly brief. It is the case that my colleague, the member for Drysdale, will also be talking on this bill. I can say from the outset that the previous government did consult extensively on this issue and, as was said in the second reading speech by the Attorney-General, the report of the working party was tabled in parliament in 2001. My advice is that a bill was to be presented in the following sittings but, for fairly obvious reasons, that was not done.
Congratulations to government. The way I see this is that I am not really fussed who introduces it. Some changes did need to be made. I, and the opposition, are supportive of the bill. It is not surprising that we would be supportive because, whether the other side like it or not, the previous government and this government were all heading in the same direction to achieve …
Mr Henderson: You did nothing from 1997 to 2001. You did nothing.
Ms CARNEY: As if you would know, member for Wanguri.
Mr Henderson: I do know. Talk to the member for Greatorex. He sat on his hands for three years.
Ms CARNEY: They were heading in the same direction. The consultation that the CLP did over a period of years was much longer than the so-called consultation that your side did, member for Wanguri.
Mr Henderson: You voted down our bill in the House. You voted against it.
Ms CARNEY: However, it was not my intention to get involved in the petty politics that we associate so much with the member for Wanguri. I was attempting to be sincere and conciliatory, but obviously, the member for Wanguri has taken his nasty pill today and he is hot to trot. If you want to put the boxing gloves on, put them on, but my view is life is probably too short, given this sort of legislation. With the consent of the member for Wanguri, I will get back to it.
Further to the consultation undertaken by the previous government, there has been widespread consultation with industry groups. We have spoken to many of those groups. We understand that although not everyone is happy, most of the relevant organisations are, with the exception of the prickly issue of ratchet clauses. The Law Society has considered it; it has no major objections, although I understand that there is still some concern about the fact that the bill does not apply to all retail shops - that is contained in clause 6 of the bill, and some leases contained in clause 7 of the bill.
I note that there are to be educational programs; that was highlighted by the Attorney-General in his second reading speech of 21 August. Those educational programs, as I understand it, will be run from now on until the bill is gazetted. I ask the Attorney-General to indicate in his reply whether money or other resources have been set aside for that educational program. I also ask if he would be good enough to detail the type of education campaign that is considered. I also note, from the second reading speech, that the Department of Justice was to have completed a National Competition Policy review of the bill by the time of its passage, and I ask the Attorney-General to update us on that. We would also be grateful if he would indicate whether that review met the objectives that most of us are inclined to think the bill will, that is, that the benefits of the proposals contained therein justify the costs on the community of this bill. I look forward to that response. I suspect that the review was favourable, but I would be grateful to receive the Attorney-General’s comment on it.
No doubt, with legislation of this nature, there are likely to be some early teething problems. I will diarise the matter and perhaps, in 12 months, write to the Attorney-General and ask him to either report to me or, alternatively, to the House to provide us with an overview.
As I said at the outset, the previous government and this government do share a commitment to ensuring that landlords and tenants enter into tenancy arrangements that are fair to all parties; that is important. In conclusion, I indicate that there are no objections to any specific clauses, and that includes the amendments, most of which I received this morning.
Ms MARTIN (Chief Minister): Madam Speaker, a very brief contribution from the shadow minister.
Ms Carney: Well, why fill in time just for the sake of it, Clare?
Ms MARTIN: I am interested that she has more to say now that she is sitting down than she had when she stood up, which is a curious thing.
Ms Carney: Oh, very witty, very witty!
Ms MARTIN: This is a very important bill for the Territory.
Ms Carney: Absolutely! Some of us can be succinct!
Ms MARTIN: It is interesting, as I said, more to say while she is sitting down than when she was on her feet. That is the member for Araluen: all talk, not much action.
It is interesting to hear the member for Araluen - just briefly to respond to what she said in her very brief response to this important bill on behalf of the opposition - trying to create the impression that the opposition had been strongly supporting, be it business tenancies, fair dealings in any form, if you want to talk about commercial tenancies or retail tenancies. It is certainly good to have the member for Daly in the House while we are talking about this, because he is the one who could not manage …
Mr BALDWIN: Point of order, Madam Speaker!
Ms MARTIN: … to actually bring a bill to the House in all of that time that he was minister responsible …
Madam SPEAKER: Order, Chief Minister.
Mr BALDWIN: The member for Fannie Bay cannot reflect on whether I am in the House, or out of the House. She knows better!
Ms MARTIN: I was reflecting it was good to have him here.
Madam SPEAKER: There is no point of order. The reference was not done in a way that would be demeaning to you. In fact, the minister was referring to your presence here.
Ms MARTIN: I am sorry for the member for Daly if I did imply that he was not in the House previously. I was not meaning to do that; I was just saying it was good to have him here for this debate, because we could not get the support from him when he was the minister responsible for Business for an important piece of legislation to support our retailers. I am very interested to hear his response to this bill and if, as we are hearing from the shadow minister, the member for Araluen, that really all along - well disguised - that the CLP has been supportive of retail tenancies and something in the wind was holding them back in supporting it.
We had, year after year - the best part of a decade - minister after minister in this House talking about the importance of retail tenancy, but never being able to produce a bill; always finding some problem. The former member for Nightcliff, when he was minister for Business had a parliamentary investigation and he said: ‘Yes, we support this’. Did it ever turn into a bill? No! We also had the member for Greatorex given the special task by the then Chief Minister, the member for Port Darwin, saying: ‘He has a special task and he is going to go away and find out how to introduce retail tenancy or business tenancies’. Nothing happened!
Then we got to March 2000, when I, as Opposition Leader, responding to the pressures on retail tenants in the Territory, introduced a bill into this House. Do you know what? Despite all the rhetoric, despite the words of years and years, I could not get support from the then government - could not get any level of support from the then government. The member for Daly, when he was the minister, would not support the bill and again said ‘We will look at it in the fullness of time’.
So, it has been disgraceful, despite what the member for Araluen might say in 2003. There is a very long history of about 10 to 13 years to do with retail tenancies. Never did the CLP actually produce a bill, recognise the importance of this legislation supporting our small retailers, and actually giving them an underpinning to be able to flourish and support economic development in the Territory. Never did they introduce it!
Therefore, this is a very important day as we look to pass the Business Tenancies (Fair Dealings) Bill in this House. The Martin Labor government came to office two years ago with a firm commitment to introduce retail tenancy legislation to address the issues that have been raised over the previous decade, but never acted on by the then government.
As I mentioned, the bill that I introduced into the House in 2000 was debated. There was a reasonable debate, but it was defeated along party lines. At that time I informed the Assembly that all jurisdictions, every part of Australia, had retail tenancy in place. The only place that did not was the Territory, and we had a minister who popped off to a ministerial council a couple of years before that and signed up on the line at ministerial council and said, ‘Yes, we will be part of retail tenancies.’ There was a very strong move towards national legislation so that if you had a major landlord working in Sydney or Perth or Darwin the same legislation would apply. It made sense. So, we had a minister going to the ministerial council and saying to other ministers, ‘Yes, we will do it’, and not doing anything. That was 1998.
The CLP has failed, failed, failed in this area and has failed to act whilst in government in the best interests of the Territory, in the best interest of retailers. We are happy for people to have changes of heart, to get some spine and some backbone. So, if we are now hearing the opposition actually support this bill, we welcome people when they see the light, when they actually look at what the needs of Territory retailers are and recognise that legislation is a foundation for growth. It is a foundation for growth. This legislation brings the Territory’s legislation framework into line with other jurisdictions.
It is not about imposing a burdensome, regulatory regime on business but rather establishing the parameters of sound business conduct in an open and transparent way with disputes able to be resolved in ways that contain costs for both parties. And it is very important to contain those costs. Currently, retailers only option is to go to court; it is expensive, it is time consuming. Now we will have a much more effective way to deal with those disputes when they do occur. Hopefully, this legislation will spell out more clearly what the arrangement, or what the contract, is between the landlord and the tenant. As such, it is likely to promote further investment by property developers and retailers in the Territory and so boosting employment and the level of economic activity generally.
The retail sector in the Territory is one the largest employment sectors that we have. The vast majority of retailers employ less than 10 employees and therefore are small businesses, micro ones. This government is all about encouraging small business, particularly in Business Month in the Territory, and certainly recognises the commitment of our Business minister to October Business Month. He was in Katherine last night launching October Business Month. There was a great roll up - 90 people – which certainly demonstrated the strong support for the Labor government we saw in Katherine on the weekend.
The government is all about encouraging small business in the Territory and giving them the very best opportunity to make a success of their business. This bill provides a framework that outlines the accepted rules of conduct of lessees and lessors, protecting them from unfair practices, and at the same time enhancing the job security of thousands of Territorians. The bill is designed to cover leased retail premises both in shopping centres and main street or strip shopping precincts. However, it does exclude large retail premises over 1000 m and publicly listed corporations such as your average Woollies and Coles supermarkets or cinema complexes.
The bill includes a speedy, low cost procedure for resolving disputes - as I indicated before, critical to this and very important. In the first instance, parties to a dispute are required to refer the matter to the Commissioner of Business Tenancies. Generally, mediation or conciliation will follow and through that process the parties will attempt to resolve the matter between themselves. Interstate experience suggests that this model will be effective in resolving disputes and therefore avoid the need for formal court proceedings. No court action can be taken without the commissioner writing a certificate stating that conciliation has failed or that the commissioner is of the view that conciliation would not resolve the dispute.
The Attorney-General informs me that his department has consulted widely on this bill and has received submissions from many Territorians on the proposal. I am pleased to say that feedback has been very positive. Territorians want to see a positive, regulatory regime covering this aspect of their business. The Department of Justice held consultation sessions in every major Territory centre earlier this year and valuable comment was forthcoming from many individual retailers through that process.
The Chamber of Commerce has commended government on this legislation and has participated actively in its development in its own right and as an affiliate of the Australian Retailers Association. The Property Council and the Shopping Centre Council has also been actively involved in consultation on this legislation. Whilst referring to the Australian Retailers Association, before I introduced the previous legislation in 2000, I spoke in Sydney to the Australian Retailers Association, and they had very strong concerns about Territory retailers. The fact that we were the only part of Australia not covered by retail tenancy legislation was of significant concern to them. They had spoken to the previous government a number of times and were despairing of ever having any result coming through legislation from the then government despite the rhetoric, despite the claims of ‘Yes, we are doing something about it’. You had a significant organisation like the Australian Retailers Association despairing of the CLP government ever doing anything.
Madam Speaker, this legislation fulfils an important commitment of this government, and I am confident it will be of assistance to many small businesses in the Territory. I commend the Department of Justice for the work it has done, and I commend this bill to the House.
Mr DUNHAM (Drysdale): That was a brief contribution from the Chief Minister. It is a bit surprising, really, given that she has such a chequered history in this matter. Very, very brief. It is good to see that she is in the parliament to listen to what we have to say.
Madam SPEAKER: Member for Drysdale, I am beginning to get annoyed at some of the offensive remarks coming from your way. That was a little bit smart. I suggest you get on with your comments without …
Mr DUNHAM: Madam Speaker, I did not know it was a point of order to point out they were here.
Madam SPEAKER: Member for Drysdale, you know what I am talking about. Just get on with your speech.
Mr DUNHAM: Okay. Right-o. The Chief Minister would have us believe that when Leader of the Opposition, she brought a wonderful piece of legislation to this parliament in the year 2000. It was so good that she was disappointed that it did not get up. You have to wonder why this act, being passed today, is so different if that was so good.
You would have to wonder, if you had legislation sitting on the shelf and you had this as one of your first priorities, why it has taken you a couple of years. Why didn’t you just wind out, with your numbers, the legislation you introduced through a Private Member’s Bill, and drop it into parliament as soon as you were elected? Why did you not do that? Because it was flawed, because it was not appropriate for Northern Territory usage and because it was a stunt, on your behalf, of plagiarising New South Wales legislation, dropping it in here and saying: ‘I care, I am concerned. You don’t because you are voting against that’.
If it was so good, why has it taken you two years? Because it was flawed. You chose instead to choose what? The legislation we had prepared. Now, this must tell you something. When you said excuses were used as to why the bill was not produced, it was a pretty good excuse: the parliament was prorogued, if I recall. There was an election. While we would have liked to have gone through with the bill, there was a thing called an election, and the conventions of our Westminster system mean that all of that froze. So let’s talk about that threshold time when the election was called, when we were ready to go ahead with legislation which is now before us. You had two options: either the member for Fannie Bay’s bill pinched from New South Wales, which she reckoned was pretty good at the time; or option two, the hard, good work that had been done by the CLP.
It has taken you two years to drop this. It has taken you two years to bring it in, so do not give us all these platitudes about how urgent it is, how it is a fundamental part of your platform and all that stuff. That is nonsense. You have been sitting on your hands with this.
Let us go to October Business Month, business is going to love this and all the rest of it. Yes, business have signed off on this, and that is a great thing. But when you say this will mean there will be further investment in the Northern Territory, further jobs and further population, we would like you to put your hand on your heart, cross your fingers and promise that. Since you have come into power, everything that you have done to improve business has not resulted in additional jobs and has not resulted in additional population. So if you are so clever about this new strand of business confidence that will come from this, let’s see that turn around, let’s see the change. We have not seen it because there is a lack of confidence in this government. Despite Access Economics continuing to promise that things will get better in the future, those promises are being toned down, report by report, and they are now down some percentage points on their original bullish optimism.
Let us have a look at what you are doing for small business. Let us have a look at why your Treasurer took 12% more in own source taxation last year than he thought he was going to, and let us have a look at his reason for doing that. He said: ‘We have done that because there are some businesses out there doing well’. Well, okay Treasurer, 12%. I assume most of them are on line ball, that means there has to be a couple doing swimmingly well, because you have been reaping taxes out of them. You tried your little trick of pinching their motor car tax with your vehicle registration, and that was seen through pretty quick and, thankfully, you adopted the opposition’s position which we have been pleading with you about, of getting rid of that stupid tax.
I would ask you also minister, that you …
Ms Martin: Is he talking about the bill? What is he going on about?
Mr DUNHAM: You talked about October business month – to pick up the interjection. The interjection about what has it got to do with business was something that you introduced. You believed that this bill was so good that it would improve job prospects and population, and I am telling you …
Ms Martin: You are such an attractive person, really.
Mr DUNHAM: I am a very attractive person, thank you, and I am glad you are attracted to me. It is not reciprocated, I have to tell you.
The other thing I have to tell you, minister, is that you as a government tenant play a big role in this town. As a government tenant, you should look at some of these behaviours that you are talking about. I know some landlords that have had great difficulty negotiating with you as a tenant, and using leverage and influence and other things to bully people. That is okay, you are trying to get the best position for government. However, if you are going to stand by some of the things that you talk about in this bill such as good will between parties and all the rest of it, and an equal basis for negotiation, you should be careful with some of the things you do to landlords, particularly small landlords in this place, where sometimes your tenancies are quite a large part of their property.
I would caution you to not to see this as the big, good, old Labor government sticking up for the small consumer, because sometimes you are actually a big consumer and sometimes, at the negotiating table, you bring a lot more weight to bear than the landlord might, particularly if it is a small landlord whose focus is mainly here.
We will get the history straight. There was a discussion paper. It did start in about 2000 and was ready to go to parliament mid-2001. In the year before, the Leader of the Opposition brought through a pinched piece of legislation from New South Wales. We now have a situation where pretty much it has gone through, but tardily. We have the government putting its hand on its heart and pretending to encourage business and small business, which is patently not the case in various pieces of legislation that have been brought before us in the last two years. I caution the government to be careful in matters relating to tenancy where it uses standover tactics as a tenant against captive landlords in some cases, who have no choice but to bow to government’s wishes.
Mr WOOD (Nelson): Madam Speaker, my contribution will definitely be brief, because I believe it is actually good legislation. It will be welcomed by many small business people who rent their premises.
Small business is the backbone of our economy, and I have said that before time and time again, and it is important that government supports them in their efforts. Sadly, one area which has caused problems to small business is renting. This bill sets out a fair process for both parties. There are provisions that set out the rights and duties of each party before they enter into a lease arrangement. One such duty is a disclosure statement which must be handed to the landlord and the tenant before entering into a lease.
For a number of years, a friend of mine operated a barber shop in Nightcliff. She had problems with some of the wiring, which needed replacing or repairing. Now you would have thought that was the job of the landlord. In this case, it was not. She had to pay for the upgrade of the wiring to continue her business. If this legislation had been in operation then, she clearly would have known her rights, and would not have had to pay for upgrades to the premises which she definitely did not have to incur, but she had not much option. If she did not repair the wiring, she could not have continued her business.
The disclosure statement is perhaps one which could be included in dealings with the sale of land. I recently spoke in parliament about the problem of gazumping, which I believe is an unethical part of the real estate industry. Disclosure statements as part of a sale contract could perhaps eliminate gazumping. Although I have had a briefing from the minister, which I appreciate, I would like to know if tenants are protected if they do not wish to sign up for a five-year term. I noticed, minister, in the second reading speech you said:
- … this provision does not apply where a tenant seeks a shorter term and has obtained legal advice about the implications of waiving their right to a five year term.
I ask the minister to explain what rights a tenant has if they do not want to sign up for five years.
I believe the changes will reduce the chances of small business people being caught up by costs which they had not foreseen, especially with matters such as relocation or disturbance of the premises. It must be very hard for a small business to think they are operating quite well when the landlord comes along and says: ‘Well, we are going to paint the shops this week, you will have to move out’, or ‘We will shove you over in another shop which has does not have the same location’. Of course, that can affect a small business. Many small businesses operate on low profits and any change can certainly affect the profitability of their business. I see that, again, as a good piece of legislation.
Lastly, if the government is now going to say that we have this legislation they should make sure the people in small business know about it. I hope they advertise the fact and perhaps write to small businesses advising of the changes, and making sure, of course, landlords know that these are the changes. It is not much good having this legislation passed if people do not know about it. I imagine that some advertising material in plain English should go out to explain to people their rights. It would be welcomed by many people. I mentioned the case of a lady operating in Nightcliff, and I know of other cases where people have found it hard, for instance, to get a landlord to put something in writing to tell them what the rent would be for the next five years. I certainly think that it would be a great benefit.
Madam Speaker, as I said, my contribution would be brief because the legislation is certainly worthy of support and it would be welcomed by most people in small business.
Mr HENDERSON (Business, Industry and Resource Development): Madam Speaker, I am very pleased, as minister for Business in the Martin government, to give my wholehearted support to this legislation which is long overdue in the Northern Territory. It is certainly interesting to hear the comments from members on the other side of the House. Their recollection of history is vastly different from the facts of this particular debate that has been running in the Northern Territory, as the Chief Minister stated, for nearly 10 years now.
We are the only state in Australia where our retail operators have had no protection in legislation. When we ask the question: ‘Why do we need this legislation?’, the retail sector is the largest employer in the Northern Territory with over 15 000 Territorians working in the retail industry. No other business sector operates outside of any sector-specific legislative framework. The previous government allowed this to occur for many, many years; certainly back to 1993.
All of us, as members of this House - possibly some of our bush members may not have - but certainly members who represent predominantly urban electorates would have constituents who either run retail businesses or work in retail businesses. I am sure that all of us have received representation over time from particular retail operators about the problems they have in managing their relationship with their landlord, as a result of the lack of any specific sectoral legislation.
This is not an issue that was just raised by the Chamber of Commerce and Industry or the Retail Association of Australia; this particular issue would have been bought to each of us as MLAs by our constituents in the same way that the previous speaker mentioned in regards to a constituent running a business in Nightcliff. Therefore, you have to ask the question: why did the previous government take so long to do nothing essentially, in spite of all the words on the record? That is an interesting hypothetical question that I am sure we all have hypothetical answers to.
If we actually look at some of the history of this debate in the Northern Territory, certainly, in my support for the then Leader of the Opposition’s bill in March 2000, I went away and did a bit of homework and a bit of research. I would commend to the member for Araluen that when she gets up and speaks in this House, to actually get the facts straight in the debate, rather than just carry on with information that has no basis in fact.
Let us go back to the previous government, and the ministerial council, which signed up to introducing retail tenancy legislation in the Northern Territory. If I go through the Hansard record, on 13 October 1998, my colleague, the then member for Barkly, asked the following question, and I quote:
- In December last year …
That is 1997.
- … the Country Liberal Party government signed a national agreement undertaking to review retail tenancy legislation.
We could not review retail tenancy legislation because we were the only state that did not have any.
- The Chamber of Commerce have indicated that they would like to be part of the review process in the Northern Territory where many retailers are vitally interested in this issue. The difficulty for the Chamber, and retailers, is that the Northern Territory is the only jurisdiction in Australia without any retail tenancies legislation at all. How will the minister meet the review obligations agreed to by all state and territories Small Business Ministers when the Northern Territory has absolutely nothing to review?
That was back in December 1997. The then Chief Minister, Shane Stone, answered that he had passed the issue on to the then parliamentary secretary, now the Deputy Leader of the Opposition – and congratulations to the member for Greatorex for his promotion – and concluded – and this is the then Chief Minister, Shane Stone:
… I am quite sure that in the fullness of time he will be able to provide members with further information.
Madam Speaker, the then Chief Minister was correct. It certainly was the fullness of time, and the fullness of time came and went and we heard nothing from the member for Greatorex. In an interjection during the debate on the Retail Tenancies Bill, Dr Lim interjected:
That was residential.
He did not even know, Madam Speaker, what particular legislation he had been asked to look into. He thought he had been asked to look into residential tenancy legislation, not retail. No wonder he did not do anything. He has now been promoted to his level of competence and is now Deputy Leader of the Opposition. Congratulations! It was actually retail tenancy legislation that you were given carriage of, member for Greatorex, and not a word was spoken from you from that day onwards of what you had been actually doing in trying to progress this issue.
We then had the then small business minister stating in February 2000, prior to the then Leader of the Opposition’s bill in March:
We will be consulting with stakeholders, liaising very closely with tenants and landlords, and I hope to produce a discussion paper by the end of this first quarter.
That was February 2000. The end of the first quarter you would say is March 2000. We did not get anything; no discussion paper and, going back to 1998, a commitment from the then government to actually introduce retail tenancy legislation.
Madam Speaker, to come into this House and say, ‘We were working on it’ and ‘We were really going to do it’, and for the member for Drysdale to state that what this government has done is picked up legislation that the previous government had waiting on the back blocks when parliament was prorogued is wrong. I challenge the member for Drysdale to come in here and prove that Parliamentary Counsel had actually drafted legislation. My advice is that they had not.
The member for Drysdale has to be very careful about potentially misleading the Chamber. It is a very, very serious thing to do, to come into this House and tell blatant untruths. He may have been mistaken regarding legislation that they may have had on the back blocks, but my advice is, that there was no legislation drafted by Parliamentary Counsel in relation to retail tenancy legislation. The challenge for the opposition - we are going to debate this bill for quite some time – is to bring in advice to the contrary.
Mr DUNHAM: A point of order, Madam Speaker! I believe that that challenge does not exist here unless it is done by way of substantive motion, and that any inference that there has been lying must be withdrawn forthwith.
Madam SPEAKER: Member for Drysdale, you know the rules. You have been told on a number of occasions if you think you have been misquoted, then you can do it by personal explanation. That is it!
Mr DUNHAM: Thank you, Madam Speaker.
Madam SPEAKER: Resume your seat. I am getting tired of your continual points of order that you know …
Mr DUNHAM: I did not think he could say ‘liar’.
Madam SPEAKER: I beg your pardon?
Mr Henderson: I did not say that.
Mr Dunham: Yes, you did.
Madam SPEAKER: I beg your pardon?
Mr KIELY: A point of order, Madam Speaker!
Mr DUNHAM: I do not think he was able to say ‘liar’, Madam Speaker.
Madam SPEAKER: I do not think the minister did say ‘liar’. He did not, as far as I know. If you follow the debate, you will know what is going on.
Mr BURKE: A point of order, Madam Speaker. The debate was being followed, and the minister was accusing the member for Drysdale of misleading this House. Now, the objection by the member …
Mr Henderson: No, I did not say that.
Mr BURKE: Yes, you did. If you want to qualify that by using the word ‘potentially’, you said ‘potentially misleading this House’. Now, the point of order is this: it is clearly stated in standing orders. If the minister wants to make that statement, he must do so by substantive motion.
Madam SPEAKER: And I have said to the member for Drysdale on a number of occasions if he thinks he is being misquoted then he can deal with it by way of personal explanation. He can do it that way. That is my ruling, Leader of the Opposition.
Mr BURKE: With respect, Madam Speaker, there are standing orders in this House and the standing orders are clear …
Madam SPEAKER: It was not …
Mr BURKE: I am asking you to rule on the comments that the minister has made.
Madam SPEAKER: The minister did not categorically say the member had misled this House. That is it. Minister, continue your speech.
Mr HENDERSON: Thank you, Madam Speaker. I have obviously struck a bit of a raw nerve here, but I am following on from comments from the member for Drysdale. Now, the member for Drysdale …
Mr Burke: Stop lying!
Mr KIELY: A point of order, Madam Speaker!
Madam SPEAKER: Leader of the Opposition, you know you cannot do that. You are all being very provocative. Withdraw the comment you made.
Mr BURKE: Madam Speaker, I withdraw.
Mr HENDERSON: This is a House of debate, and we do pick up on comments that are made by previous speakers. There is no doubt that the member for Drysdale made a statement in this parliament that this government had picked up legislation that the previous government had drafted, that was ready to go when parliament was prorogued. I am pointing out that my advice is that Parliamentary Counsel – and as Leader of Government Business, I can access this advice – had not drafted legislation for retail tenancy legislation.
Mr Burke: So what? Move on.
Mr HENDERSON: I am pointing that out in debate. Members of this House can draw their own conclusions as to the debate. To continue to misrepresent the history serves members opposite – really, they should just be saying: ‘Good job, government. Tick. It is well overdue and maybe we were a bit tardy in not introducing such legislation’.
They have not had a briefing on it, it is very complex legislation. There has been significant debate, and I congratulate everyone who has been part of framing this legislation: the Chamber of Commerce, the Property Council, some of the major property owners, like Lend Lease, in the Northern Territory have had substantive input. I think everyone agrees that we have worked through to a position, even though there were sensitivities from property owners and landlords, where we have legislation that is win-win. That is what happens when a government is fair dinkum about doing something, does not participate in the Asian acronym of NATO - no action; talking only - and actually gets out there and delivers legislation that is going to benefit many thousands of business operators in the Northern Territory.
To swan in here and attempt to rewrite history and say we were just about to do it is patently false. Other speakers can challenge the opposition’s point of view and prove that they had legislation ready to go. I am pointing out the fact that my advice is that there was no legislation ready to go at all.
Picking up the member for Nelson’s comments about getting out and telling small business about this new legislation and the rights and responsibilities that they now have as a result, I can say that my department has been working very closely with Department of Justice. A significant information program is going out to all retailers across the Northern Territory. We have a significant calendar of activity - writing to every retailer, information, training kits, workshops. We will be running workshops throughout the Northern Territory as well as advertising and taking public notices. So, member for Nelson, my department will be taking a very active role in promoting the fact that this legislation is out there.
Again, further evidence of nothing happening in the Northern Territory - back in 1997, the House of Representative’s Standing Committee on Industry, Science and Technology report titled Finding a Balance Towards Fair Trading in Australia, produced major recommendations that were considered by that ministerial council where the previous government signed up to reviewing non-existent retail tenancy legislation. The then member for Greatorex, as Parliamentary Secretary, was given the job to review that, and nothing happened until way past that when a discussion paper was put out. However, you would have to say that the intent was certainly not there by the previous government, on any evidence that had preceded that, to do anything about that.
In speaking to the legislation, there are six main areas where retailers and people in small business will see significant improvements in the rights that they have under legislation. Currently, we are the only state in Australia that allows ratchet clauses to be included in contracts. At the moment, landlords can legally enforce ratchet clauses that prevent rents from falling. That is patently unfair in a market economy when rents are determined by market activity and people sign contracts at a point in time when the economy is at a particular place. These ratchet clauses did prevent rents from falling, in line with market rates. Banning these ratchet clauses will mean that rents should reflect market value by rising and falling in line with the economy, making it fair for business.
There was some concern raised by landlords that, by introducing legislation to ban ratchet clauses, this would somehow be a barrier to investment in new retail premises or new initiatives. Our advice, talking to the banks, which loan and finance these types of investments around Australia, is that the fact that ratchet clauses were allowed in the Northern Territory played absolutely no part in their determination of whether they would finance a particular proposal. We do not believe that the introduction of this will detract from investment. It has not anywhere else in Australia, and there is no reason why it should not happen here. Certainly, this will be one of the main things that tenants are going to be very pleased to see in the legislation.
Five year leases will be introduced to improve security of tenure and bring the Territory in line with other jurisdictions. Dispute resolution - retailers and landlords will be able to avoid court actions to settle tenancy issues by using the Commissioner for Business Tenancies to mediate their disputes. This is a very important issue. Again, all of us, as local members, would know of constituents who have had problems in this particular area. It is very costly for a small retail operator, a family business probably employing two or three people, to actually finance legal action against landlords who have far greater capacity to represent themselves in court, and actually having a mandatory system in the first instance will assist the levelling out of the playing field there.
Mandatory disclosure statements, detailing costs and expenses for tenants, detailing rent calculation and reviews, and detailing outgoings to be paid by the tenant - again, these are just things that should be in any standard contract so that tenants actually know what they are up for. We are introducing an impartial Commissioner of Business Tenancies to mediate disputes, another commitment from our government to small business in the Northern Territory, and also the capacity for compensation if landlords disturb or disrupt a premise that may affect trading, like renovations. The affected business may be able to claim compensation. So, as a tenant in a shopping strip or a major retail centre, if the landlord determines to do something right outside your premises that affects trade, you have no control of that, it affects the cash coming through the till, to your detriment, you can seek compensation.
Madam Speaker, this legislation is long overdue in the Northern Territory. It seeks to even up the playing field, to give the same rights to retailers in the Northern Territory that employ 15 000 Territorians, the same rights that they have had in the rest of Australia going back 10 years. Any attempt by the opposition to portray that they were fair dinkum in introducing that legislation – well, the facts speak for themselves. They had about eight years to do it and did absolutely nothing.
I am very proud as Business minister to support this legislation today. I commend this legislation to all members of the House.
Mr KIELY (Sanderson): Madam Speaker, I make my contribution on behalf of the small to medium retail business operators of Sanderson who trade from rented premises. This hard-working group of individuals were long disappointed by the actions of the CLP, which failed to guarantee fairness in the tenant/landlord business relationship so vital to this sector of our economy, and they now greatly anticipate the security that we, the Martin Labor government, will deliver when the Business Tenancies (Fair Dealings) Act 2003 comes into force in the near future.
As this Assembly has previously been informed, the retail sector in the Northern Territory is the largest single sector in terms of employment, this will provide a framework that outlines the accepted rules of conduct of tenants and landlords, afford protection from unfair practices and, at the same time, enhance the job security of 15 000 Territorians. This bill will cover leased retail premises both in shopping centres and a main street or strip shopping precincts.
This legislation will bring the Territory’s legislative framework into line with other jurisdictions. For too long, our retail tenancies have not had a similar level of protection afforded them as do their peers in other jurisdictions. Victorian retail tenants have had protection since 1998. In New South Wales, small retail businesses have had this type of legislation since 1994. South Australia moved to protect and support their retail business operators in 1995; Queensland in 1994; Western Australia in 1985; Tasmania in 1998; and the ACT stood up for its retail operators in 2001. It was only the CLP government, with scant regard for such an important sector of our community and the people who work in it, which refused to implement such legislation. While all those other business people in Australia received recognition and support from their governments, our own retail operators trading from rented premises, who so much wanted and needed this legislative protection offered by such a law, were ignored by a series of seemingly either incompetent or lazy CLP ministers.
Can I substantiate this observation? You bet I can! The Minister for Justice and Attorney-General gave a very good overview of the genesis of this bill and this process of development over the last decade. For those members present who may not readily recall the minister’s second reading speech, I recap that, even though those before me have done it – and I was thinking about dropping this out of my contribution, but it seems to me that, with the rewrite of history that is going on from the opposition, it is even more important that we get it on the record; that we get it straight.
As I have just mentioned, the Tenancy Working Group was established by the CLP government in the early 1990s to review tenancy law in the Northern Territory. The group was chaired by the CLP member for Jingili and comprised representatives from the business, government and consumer sectors of the community. This group made a number of recommendations to the reform of the law relating to commercial tenancies. However, no action was taken to implement these recommendations.
In 1997, the Commonwealth government produced a report titled Finding a Balance towards Fair Trading in Australia. This report set out a number of principles to provide minimum standards to retail tenancy laws. I must give credit where credit is due; the Reid Report identified issues and outcomes that were consistent with those raised by the Northern Territory Tenancy Working Party in 1993. As a ringing endorsement of this report, Commonwealth, state and territory ministers with responsibility for retail tenancies met in December 1997 and endorsed the objectives of establishing consistent legislative or regulatory retail tenancy standards.
I cannot find any reason why, if nothing had been done as a result of the NT 1993 report, what change of circumstance prompted the CLP government to sign up to the Commonwealth’s Reid Report. Of course, it is obvious that all jurisdictions, except for our own, followed through on their commitment to small to medium retail tenancies by introducing legislation to provide a fair trading environment. This is a truly shameful performance, and one I believe the CLP can never live down.
It is not as though they were not given a chance by Labor opposition of the day to get on with business. The member for Barkly, in October 1998, asked the following question. The minister for Business stated this question, but I would like to get it on record as well because it is quite salient to debate - and let us not have the CLP worm out of history. Let’s get on the record just what they were like. How they did support small business in the Territory. How they forced many to the wall through their inept handling of introducing this sort of legislation.
- In December last year [that is 1997] the Country Liberal Party government signed a national agreement undertaking to review retail tenancy legislation.
This is from Maggie Hickey:
- The Chamber of Commerce have indicated that they would like to be part of the review process in the Northern Territory where many retailers are vitally interested in this issue. The difficulty for the Chamber, and retailers, is that the Northern Territory is the only jurisdiction in Australia without any retail tenancies legislation at all. How will the minister meet the review obligations agreed to by all state and territories Small Business Ministers when the Northern Territory has absolutely nothing to review?
The then Chief Minister Shane Stone answered that he had passed the issue on to Parliamentary Secretary, Dr Lim, and concluded:
… I am quite sure that in the fullness of time he will be able to provide members with further information.
That was in 1998 and they had three more years in government to come up with retail tenancy legislation, and did they? Of course not. The member who would be king has a proven track record of neglect and hopelessness when it comes to looking after small and medium business. I would not trust him with organising a kid’s birthday party let alone have any belief that he could possibly understand the principles of fairness. It seems that even in the heady days of Shane Stone, the CLP string pullers were setting up the member for Greatorex. Some things never change.
Madam Speaker, it is worthwhile spending some time on the worthy efforts of the Labor Opposition Leader of the day, the member for Fannie Bay, when she stood up for small and medium retail business operators in March 2000:
- For many years, as we have seen, concerns have been expressed throughout Australia and the Territory about market problems that affect trading viability or contribute to the failure of small to medium sized business tenancies, with the main problem area being that of retail shops.
Recognising the CLP government’s total failure or lack of will and interest to support local business, the member for Fannie Bay introduced into this House the Retail Tenancies Bill.
Mr Dunham: Oh, so there was a bill. Hendo was wrong. Hendo said there was no bill.
Mr KIELY: Madam Speaker, the Leader of the Opposition …
- Members interjecting.
Mr KIELY: No.
Madam SPEAKER: I thought you must have, you sat down.
Dr LIM: He still does not understand the rules.
Mr KIELY: Sorry, Madam Speaker. If they wish to have the floor well they can have the floor. I do not mind.
- Members interjecting.
Mr Burke: Sit down then.
Mr KIELY: Why don’t you resign?
Madam SPEAKER: Order!
Mr KIELY: Madam Speaker, the Leader of the Opposition made no bones that this bill was modelled on similar legislation operating in New South Wales.
Dr LIM: A point of order, Madam Speaker. We talked about the word ‘lie’ in this Chamber and here is this member getting up on his feet and saying ‘One of you are lying’.
Mr HENDERSON: Speaking to the point of order, Madam Speaker, he actually said ‘Why don’t you resign’.
Members interjecting.
Madam SPEAKER: Could we just get on with the debate on the bill?
Mr KIELY: Madam Speaker, I am not the one doing anything here except trying to contribute.
The member for Fannie Bay and the rest of the parliamentary Labor Party had serious concerns that there was not the recognition from the CLP government that an appropriate legislative framework to guide business behaviour had to implemented, even though two years earlier they put up their hands and signed up to being part of the uniform national tenancy legislation.
And what was the CLP Minister for Business and Industries response to this effort of the Labor Opposition Leader to aid our own Territory retail business operators? It was - and this is from the lips of the member for Daly, ‘the government will not support legislation of this nature, ever’. And the main reason: it was based on New South Wales legislation. Well, we did sign up for a national framework of similar legislation and he committed. He said, ‘Well, I guess they are not in government anymore; they are opposition so they can support, they can backflip’. Never mind that the CLP had earlier signed up to a Commonwealth agreement to have similar consistent legislation across jurisdictions. Perhaps while the member for Greatorex was only lazy in his ability to follow his leader’s instructions and introduce retail tenancy legislation during 1998, it appears it may even have been a combination of both of the traits identified earlier, that is laziness and incompetence, that beset the last CLP Minister for Industries and Business, the member for Daly.
But never let it be said that CLP in government did not give the semblance of being busy. What did they do? They once more created a working party which included representatives from the Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the Real Estate Institute of the Northern Territory, Darwin Business Association, the Business Council of Australia, Property Council, Lend Lease, NT Retailers Guild, the legal profession and the Office of the Commissioner for Consumer Affairs. I tell you, they are nothing if not time wasters. Once again, the working party handed down another report and to my observations the findings are not too dissimilar to all those reports that went before. This is really not a surprise given the issue had been done to death over nearly a decade of CLP stalling.
So it was that we once again heard from the CLP minister who, following the tabling of the report in June 2001, advised the Assembly that the report would form the basis of a bill to be prepared and introduced into the Assembly. What hollow rhetoric. What chance, members, and people listening to this debate and those who read Hansard, what chance of that happening, given the CLP’s record on this issue? It is just as well for our hard working small to medium retailers that they voted for change of government for, while the CLP would not act on this important issue, the Martin government will. The small business sector can rely on us. We came to government with commitment to more jobs, and that is what this legislation will do. It will provide surety and confidence amongst small retail tenants, assisting in maintaining and building further growth in this very important business sector.
The government is moving fast to ensure small to medium business operators are aware of the protection and support this legislation will provide. The government has already released an information sheet outlining the aim of the legislation, which is, of course, to address the imbalance in bargaining strength between landlords and tenants, and to regulate lease agreements. The new laws also provide dispute resolution mechanisms designed to contain costs for both parties.
The legislation is very clear in its presentation and clearly states the six areas in which these laws will make it fair business for all. These areas include: the banning of ratchet clauses; introduction of mandatory disclosure statements; introduction of five-year leases; creation of a Business Tenancies Commissioner to mediate disputes; a mediation framework to save in costs; and fair compensation to disruption to business caused by the landlord. These areas have already been comprehensively addressed by the minister in his second reading speech, and so I will not stretch my contribution to this debate for the sake of a few extra lines in Hansard.
I am proud to be part of a government that gets things done, which drafts and implements good law. I am absolutely confident that the retail traders who not only live in Sanderson, but those whose shops are located in Sanderson, will be very much pleased with this legislation. I am also pleased to announce to those people of Sanderson who are in the retail trade or associated with it in any way and may be affected by this law, that I will organising public meetings in my electorate office to ensure that they have a full understanding of the benefits of the law. That is what the member for Nelson was saying that he wished to happen. Well, it is going to happen over in our way. Here is the challenge to the opposition: I urge the MLAs opposite not to be small minded, and to think of the bigger picture and to make their electorate offices available so that the electorates they serve will not be disadvantaged. Let us get the politics out of this. This is good law for small business. Let’s see you guys start holding some public forums over your way because this is important legislation that will help the small businessman. So get the politics out; get the public meetings happening.
Finally, a decade after the first report, irrespective of the spoiling efforts of the CLP and in total disregard for our retail tenants, the Northern Territory will have a fair business environment for small to medium businesses that operate from tenanted premises. On behalf of the business operators of Sanderson, I thank the Attorney-General, and Minister for Business, Industry and Resource Development, and their ministerial and departmental staff for the work that they have done in getting this legislation into the Assembly. I also recognise the Chief Minister’s historic role in supporting small business in the Territory and end with her words:
- I am in here fighting for ordinary Territorians who are trying to make a buck, who are trying to bring a service to the Territory …
Madam Speaker, I commend the bill to the Assembly.
Mr BURKE (Opposition Leader): Madam Speaker, I will not be long. There are many times one sits in this House and wonders about the standard of debate, but if anyone can call what has happened in the last hour a debate, they have me beat. Second, I wonder if any of us would have the energy to go back and check the Hansard record. The member for Sanderson has the gall to say ‘people listening to this debate’. I reckon that anyone who read the Hansard transcript of this would be absolutely appalled. This is supposed to be the parliament of the Northern Territory debating what is going to benefit people in the future. There has been well over an hour lost on mud slinging as to what the CLP did not do to get this legislation forward, and aren’t we so wonderful.
We stood up in this debate at the start and said we support the legislation. If you want to spend the whole of the time on this debate on the legislation talking about how bad the CLP is, good on you. It is a waste of time, though. People out there are more interested in the detail of the legislation, how it is going to benefit them, what about those who have shop leases in place now, whether those shop leases are still current, whether or not this legislation now makes void leases? In what circumstances does it make them void, would it be a cost to the shop lessees and retailers themselves. Who is caught, who is not caught by it? It is just disgraceful that a bunch of adults could come in here and spend so much time on wasteful, so-called argument.
I would like to praise the Chief Minister for her efforts in bringing through retail legislation. Anyone with half a brain knows it was a cut and paste of New South Wales legislation. It was fine that she bought it in. Good, wonderful! She was so concerned for small business, but it was a cut and paste of New South Wales legislation. It was not appropriate for the Northern Territory. That is why you have not done the same thing! If it was so appropriate, you would have brought forward the legislation yourself in the form that the Chief Minister, at the time as Leader of the Opposition, put it in, and the member for Sanderson reckons she should have done that! You should have done that! So rather than say that we have been wasting time, the member for Sanderson said …
Mr KIELY: A point of order, Madam Speaker! I did not say that.
Madam SPEAKER: There is no point of order.
Mr BURKE: You said: ‘So, why not?’ Why didn’t we? ‘We live in Australia,’ the member for Sanderson said. ‘We are all part of Australia. What is wrong with New South Wales legislation?’ Well, if there is nothing wrong with the legislation that the Chief Minister brought in, by your own admission, you have wasted two years mucking around. Even that, I would say, is typical of the comments that would come from the member for Sanderson. I will not dwell on it because it is irrelevant. Who cares? What is important is that we do recognise that, prior to the CLP changing government, there had been a discussion paper brought forward. We had made undertakings that, based on that discussion paper, we would bring forward legislation.
The reality was, I do not believe there was a sittings of parliament available between the time the discussion paper was tabled in the Assembly and the change of government. So do not say in the second reading speech that the CLP brought forward this discussion paper but never enacted the legislation. The truth is, in the second reading speech, there was no opportunity to enact the legislation. So if you want to talk about honesty in parliament and looking for the Hansard records, that is the simple fact of it.
If we want to end with the comments of the Chief Minister: ‘This is a government that is all about jobs. Let us get out there and look after Territorians and jobs in the Northern Territory’. Well, when the member for Sanderson stands up and wants to quote that, go and talk to a few Territorians. You might want to walk out and talk to Mr Grant Keetley, whose family has been in business in the Northern Territory for the last 70 years, and is now out of business under the Labor government. On the radio yesterday, he was pretty square of when he reckons the reasons were why he is out of business. Because the government has done nothing, in his opinion, to support the tourism industry in any real sense in the Northern Territory.
The member for Sanderson wants to crow about how great this government is, pick up the latest Northern Territory labour market review for August 2003. It is instructive, if you want to say how much you are supporting the retailers, how much you are supporting jobs in the Northern Territory, how much you are supporting small business, read your own statistics that come out from your own Treasury:
- Employment trends for August 2003 - there are currently 93 500 people employed in the Northern Territory. August figures show the seventh consecutive decline in employment continuing a downward trend, evidenced since January 2003, when it was 99 100. In comparison to last year, NT employment has declined by 5.7%.
They are people. They are the ones who work in the retail shops. They are the ones who, whilst they will be impressed by your legislation, are really interested in what you are doing to keep them in a job. They do not need you crowing for an hour about how bad and how slack the CLP was in bringing forward this legislation. They want to know whether they will have a job tomorrow. The member for Sanderson and others would be advised to check your own employment trends. And when you say how well you are looking after people …
Members interjecting.
Mr BURKE: Unemployment trends - slight improvement here. It says:
- In August 2003, the number of unemployed persons decreased by 6.54%, or 400 persons. However, in the past year, unemployment in the Northern Territory has increased 18.4%.
They are Treasury figures. That is not CLP garbage, that is Treasury figures. That is the fact of it. And the only reason unemployment has trended down is because the participation rate is down - less jobs, less people, less unemployed. Compare that with the population decrease, and you have a real picture of what is happening in the Northern Territory.
- Full-time employment in the Northern Territory declined by 0.3% to 72 200 persons in August 2003. In comparison to August 2002 figures, full-time employment has also declined by 2700 persons or 3.6%. Again, the decline in female full-time employment impacted the most on the total decrease.
Women are suffering - particularly women in full-time employment - the greatest decrease.
I simply say that to reinforce the CLP’s position. On our understanding, this legislation, based on the discussion paper that we brought forward, has received wide consultation and is generally supported. In our consultation, we do not believe that there are major problems with this legislation and, therefore, as the shadow Attorney-General said at the outset, we support the legislation being passed.
It is disappointing if the government wants to spend all of this debate talking about whether or not the CLP should have done this 10 years ago, five years ago, three years ago, 18 months ago or not. That is just as fruitless as us saying whether or not this government should have done it two years ago. The reality is the eventual legislation will fix an existing anomaly and the consultation, as we understand it, has been full and adequate. That is why we support the legislation.
However, I would underscore the simple fact that I believe that Territorians would be generally disappointed with this debate on this legislation because, once again, the Labor government has the numbers, has the power in this Chamber, to do whatever it wants. At the very least, could we have something that looks forward, that does give us something to get excited about, that gives us some indication that this government has any idea of how it will fix the major problems that are existing in the Northern Territory at the current time?
You only have to pick up your own Treasury figures, any month – they come out every month – and look at the fact that those numbers are people, and those people are out of a job, and this economy is not getting better. This economy is getting worse. It is one thing to say: ‘We are going to fix it, just wait for the light over the horizon’, but it has not come, and it has not come in the last two years. The only things that have come have been the initiatives of the CLP when they were in government. That is fine if you take the credit for those; I do not mind. What I want to know and the people out there - those retail lessees, those people who are working those shops, who walk up and down the mall - want to know it is: where is the sense of confidence that you have that will keep them and their families in a job and in the Territory in the very near future? If you can tell them that, maybe they will stop leaving.
Ms LAWRIE (Karama): Madam Speaker, conscious of the time, I will be as brief as possible. I wholeheartedly support today’s important passage of the Business Tenancies (Fair Dealings) Bill 2003. At the outset, I congratulate our Minister for Justice and Attorney-General, the member for Stuart, who has worked with gusto to lead a fair and reasonable process of public and retail industry consultation throughout the entirety of the Northern Territory. This stakeholder consultation has ensured wide-ranging input into the final details of this critical legislation - law that is about, as we have heard, a decade overdue. Law, indeed that, as we have heard, exists in every other jurisdiction to protect and inform a critical industry: our hard-working small businesses in retail.
The retail sector in the Territory is the largest single sector in terms of employment. This Business Tenancies (Fair Dealing) Bill will provide the basis to encourage growth in the sector. It enshrines accepted rules of conduct of tenants and landlords, protecting all business operators from unfair practices. The practical implication of these provisions is to enhance the job security of some 15 000 Territorians. The legislation is designed to cover leased retail premises both in shopping centres, main streets and strip shopping precincts.
The government produced a discussion paper on its then proposed draft Retail Tenancies Bill which provided key industry stakeholders an opportunity for submissions into that discussion, and those submissions closed earlier this year. In addition, business forums were held throughout the Territory in major urban centres. During this consultation period, I engaged local traders in Karama in discussions regarding the proposed legislation. I can report there was overwhelming support for all the key elements of this legislation. Namely: support for the creation of a Business Tenancies Commissioner; the coverage extent of retail premises; the prohibition of key money; removal of unfair ratchet clauses in leases; the requirement of disposal statements that detail critical standard contract provisions; provision of access to relocation and disturbance that recognises that certain actions by a landlord in managing a building can have a significant adverse effect on tenants’ business; provisions in regard to rent, particularly rent reviews; provisions in regard to renewal and extension of leases, with the key provision being that the landlord is to give the tenant an indication at least six months before the end of the lease whether or not a further lease or an extension to the lease will be granted; and, critically, a dispute resolution procedure for retail tenants and their landlords.
The small business retailers I spoke to were pleased to see specific provision in relation to shopping centres. These provisions ensure that a landlord in a shopping centre is not to disclose turnover information relating to an individual tenant’s business without the consent of the tenant, other than in certain defined circumstances. The landlord is to be accountable to the tenant for funds received for such expenses as the cost of gathering statistical information on the shopping centre and marketing and promotion. I can say my experience of being on a committee with the retailers and landlords, our crime prevention committee at Karama, has shown me that statistical information and marketing and promotion is critical to the success of our small business people. They do not have the funds to cover these expenses themselves and, in the past, they have been entirely at the mercy and the whim of the landlord. This will now change. Provisions also protect small businesses in regards to ensuring trading hours cannot be changed without the consent of the majority of tenants.
I have discussed this legislation with the landlord of Karama Shopping Centre, who is also the landlord of Palmerston Shopping Centre, a hardworking Territorian who understands the principles of fair trading. I can report that there is no radical objection to the proposed legislation. Rather, I witnessed a willingness to participate in a fair stakeholder consultation process. I received reports from the landlord and tenants, that the bill, on the whole, was fair and reasonable and, importantly, for the critical retail sector, indeed, it is workable. I congratulate the Property Council, the Chamber of Commerce, retailers and landlords, the hardworking staff of DBIRD and Justice for this excellent outcome.
This bill will underpin fair trading for our small businesses in Territory retail. As the Chief Minister indicated in debate earlier, it is a bill that supports growth in the Territory economy. It is a bill that we have heard was shamefully left to rot on the shelf of CLP inaction for close on a decade, with lip service paid through endless working parties that all recommended its implementation, but there was no outcome.
The Martin Labor government is one that is keen to work with business to encourage small business growth. Small business is critical to our economy. For small business to prosper in the Territory context they needed to have some certainly about the playing field they were on. We all know that in any economy there is never a level playing field but, certainly, as legislators, we can provide frameworks that give businesses some certainty into the environment in which they enter and the environment in which they continue to exist. I congratulate the large landlord that many of us in the northern suburbs certainly rely on, in terms of our shopping, Lend Lease, for the role they have played in this discussion and debate. I was certainly very heartened to hear that Lend Lease have shown support for this legislation.
It never ceases to amaze me, that the view in the past in the Territory has been, ‘We are so different, we are so unique, that we cannot operate in legislative frameworks that operate in other jurisdictions in the Australia’. It has patently been proven time and time again to be ridiculous and, in fact, in the instance of business tenancies, I believe it has retarded growth. We have heard the Chief Minister say that retailers in Sydney thought twice about setting up retail operations in Territory because this legislation did not exist. Now, in a real and practical sense, that means that people were going without the opportunity for those critical retail jobs.
Retail jobs provide an opportunity for our young to start in the work place. They provide an opportunity for part-time workers, often women in the work force, who need shorter hours to enable them to deal with their family obligations. They provide an opportunity for many people who do not have access to tertiary education, particularly in an environment where tertiary education has been priced out of many people’s opportunity by the federal government, with an opportunity to go into what becomes a career. As a Territorian, born and raised, I have seen many people enter retail part-time, putting themselves through school and use the opportunities that retail has given them to become managers of businesses.
I have had the opportunity to see many people flourish and grow in that small business environment and take on the real, and at times the heavy and onerous, task of their own small business gained through their employee experience in the retail sector. I encourage Territorians to take advantage of the $30 000 commitment to information surrounding the introduction of this legislation. The government is committing $30 000 on providing advice on the rights and responsibilities surrounding retailers arising from this legislation.
It will finally provide Territorians in the retail sector with the certainty they need to consider growth in retail and that growth directly provides jobs for Territorians. It directly provides jobs for people who do not want to head south. We have heard in debate today the carry on about the Territory’s population. We can all argue about what pressures are driving people to move. I say that there are many pressures applied by the federal government. We recognise the …
Mr Dunham: The federal government! It is you guys.
Ms LAWRIE: Well, particularly in the retail sector. If you talk to anyone in the retail sector about the GST, they will have some very harsh words to say about the performance of the federal government in that respect. So it is absolutely applicable in a debate about retail.
I commend the Minister for Justice who has shown very fair and reasonable carriage of this legislation that will underpin a fair playing field for our critical retail sector. I look forward to seeing a maturity in the relationship between retail small business and their landlords. I believe that the landlords in the Territory, through their participation in this consultative process, have shown a willingness for that maturity.
In relation to some concerns raised by the Leader of the Opposition, this legislation will have no impact on existing leases. No, they will not be magically declared null and void. Anyone who understands a skerrick of contract law would understand that cannot occur. There is no retrospectivity. This legislation, after its passage, will apply to new leases. If the opposition was so concerned, I would suggest that a simple request for a briefing would have allayed any fears or confusion that they may have had in their minds. The opportunity to be briefed on legislation is always available. Many of us in government who understand that legislation such as this does have an impact on our constituents - retail is the largest employer sector - take up the opportunity for a briefing.
In terms of the Leader of the Opposition’s attempt to disparage debate on this legislation, I point out that it is critically important legislation. Members are going to avail themselves of the opportunity to debate this legislation. We are here to represent our constituents. I wholeheartedly support this legislation because it protects the rights of many of my constituents. Retail is one of the largest employment sectors for my constituents in Karama. This debate has not been a waste of parliament’s time. There has been a need to identify why we are the last jurisdiction. It is relevant to say that there have been working parties in the past, it is relevant to say that recommendations have occurred in the past, and it is relevant to say that there has been no implementation because it puts in context that it is long overdue. We support the introduction and passage of this legislation.
I commend the bill to all members, and urge their support for this legislation. I understand and welcome the opposition’s support for this legislation. I welcome the member for Nelson’s support for this legislation. I look forward to speaking further with all the business people in the retail sector about their rights and responsibilities enshrined in this legislation.
Debate suspended.
DISTINGUISHED VISITORS
Madam SPEAKER: Honourable members, I draw your attention to the presence in the Speaker’s Gallery of Mr Ian Tuxworth, former Chief Minister and member for Barkly, Mr Enzo Floriani OAM, former member for Flynn, and Mrs Bernie Floriani. On behalf of all members, I extend to you a warm welcome.
Members: Hear, hear!
BUSINESS TENANCIES (FAIR DEALINGS) BILL
(Serial 175)
(Serial 175)
Continued from earlier this day.
Mr ELFERINK (Macdonnell): Madam Speaker, I begin by extending my thanks to the Attorney-General. I know that he was on his feet prior to the luncheon adjournment and he was about to wrap up. However, there were a couple of things that came out of the debate that I spent lunch time exploring, and I would like to put to the Attorney-General a couple of the issues that arose out of the debate which was held prior to the luncheon adjournment.
My reference is particularly to comments by the Leader of the Opposition and the member for Karama, especially in relation to the survivability of contracts when legislation is passed that may have an effect on existing contracts or lease arrangements. During my investigation into that issue, there were a couple of other little issues that have come up, and they are issues that I would like to ask the Attorney-General about prior to proceeding with the matter through the committee stages.
The nexus that is created in the act strikes me as being problematic, particularly clauses 7 and 9 of the bill. It relates to the operation of existing leases after this bill has been passed and assented to in legislation. Clause 7 of the bill is titled: ‘Leases to which act does not apply’, and under subsection 1(c), it states fairly clearly – and one would think that it was a very clear statement – ‘leases entered into before the commencement of this section’. So basically, an existing lease continues to operate before the commencement of this piece of legislation, with the exception of Part 13 of the bill.
Where I become concerned is that clause 9 of the bill states quite clearly that the act overrides retail shop leases. Now, a court certainly will not turn its attention to a section heading because, under the Interpretation Act, one does not look at section headings. However, it does state quite clearly in three subsections that the act will operate despite provisions of a retail shop lease. This causes me a little bit of confusion, because I am not entirely sure what the act is now trying to say. On one hand, it says that a lease will continue to operate, on the other hand, it says a lease will be affected by the operation of this act.
I have done a little bit of homework over lunch, and I stress of course that I am not a lawyer by any stretch of the imagination, but there are some interesting things that arise out of this. It is for a court to decide whether or not there is an ambiguity in legislation. If they turn their attention to what was said in the second reading speech or, for that matter, to cast a much wider net and a much rarer net to discuss the matter – or to look into the debates for guidance as to what the intent of the parliament actually is. As a person who has to give their support or otherwise to this bill, I would like to know what the intent of this parliament actually is so that we might assist the courts later on down the track.
The question is, that if clause 9 does operate to affect leases, then it becomes an issue of some seriousness in terms of how existing leases will continue to work for the people who are signed up to those particular types of contracts. If there are terms inside those leases which breach this legislation, then I am concerned that they will have the effect of creating an illegality after the contracts have been lawfully entered into. That is an effect of a frustrating event on a contract. I shall be quoting repeatedly from Carter and Harland’s Contract Law in Australia in relation to this particular issue. Basically, a frustration occurs, and I quote:
- … whenever the law recognises that, without the fault of either party, a contractual obligation has become incapable of being performed because the circumstances in which performance is called for would render the thing radically different from the thing which is undertaken by the contract.
This is not what I promised to do. The frustrating event in this instance is a subsequent piece of legislation to a lawful contract, and Carter and Harland, in the fourth edition of their book, talk about a concern with a supervening illegality. They quote a case which is actually the revocation of a lawfully granted permit for a plaintiff in that particular matter to do a particular thing. However, the last paragraph on page 769 states - sorry, not the last paragraph, the last line in the first paragraph:
- It is better to view that a contract was frustrated by a subsequent illegality rather than a construction defect.
Which means that the way of interpreting a subsequent illegality is that it will have the effect of frustrating a lease arrangement between the lessor and lessee of the shop or business premises in question.
Therefore, with all due respect to the member for Karama, it would appear that a contract which is lawfully entered into will not survive this piece of legislation if clause 9 of the legislation is to be read as having that effect. That is the way that I read clause 9 and I seek clarification from the Attorney-General that it does actually have the effect of rendering those contracts or those provisions void.
If it is possible for a court to do so, of course, they will sever …
Ms Lawrie: And if you are wrong, you will apologise to me, I am sure.
Mr ELFERINK: Of course, if the contract can have a section severed from it, the court will sever those sections from it, as long as the main body of the contract can survive it. However, the nature of this piece of legislation, if it has the effect of killing off contracts, may bring a very negative effect to the business arrangements which exist in every rented business property in Darwin - especially something like Part 13 of the act which comes into operation whether or not it is affected by clause 7 of the bill before us now.
What that means, basically, is that there are certain requirements under Part 13 - I draw members’ attention to clause 124 which creates an offence to enter premises without a court order, effectively - that may have an effect on the contents of contracts. The reason I mention severability is that, where you have a severable term, a court will sever a term; however, not to change the flavour of the contract, which means that a court will not rewrite a contract to suit the parties to that contract. If a term of access is an essential part of a contract, a leasing arrangement, and this section has the effect of rendering that term invalid or illegal - to use the phrase from Carter and Harland – and the court cannot sever that section away, then I am concerned that it will have an overriding effect on the contract itself. I seek advice from the Attorney-General that the effect of these sections will not be to render contracts which currently have been lawfully entered into, as contracts that will be rendered void under this bit of legislation.
The other thing that I seek from the Attorney-General is some clarification of the use of the word ‘void’ in clause 9. I contrast that to the word ‘voidable’ which is clearly a different thing in terms of its intent in lease arrangements. I quote subclause (2) of clause 9:
- A provision of the retail shop lease is void to the extent that the provision is inconsistent with the provision of the act.
This is an instance where you have a term of a contract or a warranty which does not comply with a section of this act, and a court is then told by clause 9 of this piece of legislation that the lease arrangements are effectively void; that it does not exist.
The reason I am asking this particular question of the Attorney-General is that the terms ‘void’ and ‘voidable’ have different connotations at law. If a contract is void it means that it is void ab initio; at the time of its creation it never existed in the first place. If a contract is voidable, or a term is voidable, that is something that where a plaintiff bringing in action can then have the term found to be voidable at which point the plaintiff then has the option to say this contract or term no longer exists and the operation of the contract finishes at that point where that option is exercised by the plaintiff in the action. And it is important because it has a flow on effect to damages.
If a contract is voidable then there is very little in the way of restitutional damages flowing out of it. However, if a contract is void – which means it did not exist – then there will be a tendency to pay damages generally and damages are basically created to compensate the plaintiff rather than as a punishment for the defendant. So, if a person is in a situation where they have a contract declared void there will be a tendency to return them to the point where they were at before the contract was entered in and money changed hands.
I am concerned that if we have the word ‘void’ put in there that we truly understand that that is the intent of this parliament to create a situation where contracts did not effectively exist at the outset rather than contracts which cease to operate when they are declared to be voidable. I look forward to those points of clarification from the Attorney-General to assist the courts in future. And perhaps during the committee stages, if it needs some clarification, I am sure that we can nut something out in terms of amendments.
Madam SPEAKER: I would like to make comment, member for Macdonnell, that it was refreshing to hear someone make a second reading speech and speak about the bill.
Dr TOYNE (Justice and Attorney-General): Madam Speaker, I cannot help but agree. I do not mind taking on board points of concern on the actual legislation, that is what the debate is here for.
I suppose when I reviewed – as I always do before introducing legislation into the House – this bill in detail yesterday with Robert Chamberlain from the department, whom I would like to pay tribute to for the work he has done on this bill, I was just struck that, out of the 70 or 80 pieces of legislation I brought into the House in the last couple of years, you can really see the people that it is providing some protection to, and that makes a very worthwhile feeling coming in here to put this law into the Northern Territory’s body of law.
I will deal with the various speakers of the debate but before I pick up the points I thank the opposition for their support for this legislation and to the independent member, the member for Nelson, for his support and to my colleagues for their supportive comments on the legislation.
There is no doubt that out in the community, with the people who are particularly affected by this legislation – and there are many thousands of them – that there is support for the approaches that have been taken this legislation. It has quite rightly gone out for extensive consultation and that is the reason that the structure and the provisions within the bill are very broadly acceptable out in the community.
I will deal with the member for Araluen’s concerns in her contribution. The education program, I think you have already heard, will be met with a $30 000 allocation from DBIRD. It will consist both of pamphleted material that will be given out widely to retailers but also seminars and visits to the shopping or retail locations throughout the Territory. We have allowed some time for that to happen in that the bill does not commence until 1 July next year. So we have six months to go out and make absolutely sure everyone knows what the provisions are of this new legislation. It also allows retailers a bit of a run up when they are looking at renewing current leases so they can position themselves against the incoming provisions. It gives them plenty of warning and it also gives landlords plenty of warning. We have tried to ease this in on that timeframe without taking too long on it, but certainly to give people a run in to the commencement of the legislation.
The NCP review is near completion. It will be released in the near future. I cannot give you a date at the moment, but we are close to having that out. What I can assure the House is that this legislation is broadly consistent with similar acts in other jurisdictions, many of which have now done their NCP process and have found that their acts are broadly compliant with the NCP principles. So we would not expect to see, on the basis of that, that we would be widely out of kilter. There may be some fine tuning that might be needed if that turns up in the review once completed.
Ms Carney: Will you release that review publicly?
Dr TOYNE: I certainly undertake to give you at least a brief on the main recommendations once they are available.
On coverage of retailers, there was a comment that you would like to have seen a broader coverage. The position we have taken with this, and it is in common with the approach taken pretty widely around the other jurisdictions, is that you do not want to over-regulate. What we want to do is provide a protective structure in situations where the retailer has an unfair position in terms of power and resources in establishing a lease and then protecting the rights under the lease. We have gone to the part of the retail market where there are small retail outlets operating in very large centres run by large corporations. That is the target group of this legislation.
There are many retailers that have actually the power of a corporation - Woolworths and people like that. They can look after themselves. They have all the resources in the world to do that. There are many situations where the landlord’s interest and those of the retailer can coincide if it has simply been a franchising off, or a subbing off, of a business owned by the landlord themselves. So, it is not always that the retailer’s and landlord’s interest might be divergent. The approach we have taken is to find a balance point where we are protecting the most vulnerable group within the retail sector. That is also, by far, the largest group. We are talking about 15 000 retailers that have protection under this act; there is a much smaller number that would be outside the scope of the act.
To the member for Nelson, yes, you can take out a lease for less than five years. When we discussed the actual timeframe that the legislation would be shaped around, we were trying to look for a position that gave stability to the arrangement so that there was a long-term relationship that could be established through the lease. If a retailer wants to go less than five years, they can waive their rights to the five year period, which the legislation offers them, and take up a shorter timeframe. They may have reasons for doing that, but we certainly want to ensure that a retailer who took that option understood that it is a less secure position to be in, and that if you are establishing a retail business in a new location, you may need more than five years to realise the projected targets of a business plan and stabilise your business. We felt that five years was generally going to serve the interests of retailers across the Territory. However, as I said, as long as they know what they are doing, a retailer could ask for that to be waived, and then go into a shorter term lease.
The Leader of the Opposition talked a lot about the things that I, quite frankly, could not understand having any relationship to this bill, but he did mention transition arrangements. I will clarify to members that under the transition arrangements, the existing leases - the pre-commencement leases - up to the end of June next year will run their time. Whatever time period they are set up for, they will run through to that under the agreed lease conditions. Beyond 1 July next year, the provisions of the act then come into play and leases have to comply with those provisions. We will be letting retailers know immediately this bill passes parliament that this will be coming in on 1 July, and what rights and responsibilities they will have, and what rights and responsibilities the landlords will have. That is obviously the purpose of the education campaign. Certainly, there is no retrospectivity in this bill. 1 July is when the new provisions will come in, and they will then control anything that exists in leases that are set up after that date.
I will deal with the member for Macdonnell’s issues. The first one was that you pointed out an apparent contradiction between clause 7(1)(c) and clause 9 within the bill. Clause 7, as you said, states that this bill, once it is an act, will not cover leases that are entered into before the commencement of the act so, in other words, if you sign into a lease even up to 30 June next year, it is not covered. The lease that is created out of that is not covered by the provisions of this act. After that date all leases come under the provision. I think that is the answer to your question between those two sections of the act. Clauses 7 and 8 are dealing with agreements that will lie outside the scope of the act and therefore, in the case of Clause 7(1)(c), basically excludes all leases that were agreed to before the act commenced.
Clause 9, on the other hand, is dealing with leases that have been created after the act has been commenced. For a lease of that kind, quite rightly, it says that any lease created after the act commenced must comply with the provisions. If you have further issues with that, we will deal with those in committee, but that is the general answer that I have been provided with. Your issue with clause 9, the contracting out. With clause 9 it is a ‘no contracting out’ clause. If the act applies to your lease, ‘cannot contract out of its provision’, so you cannot contract the lease off and then escape the provisions of the act. The act follows the lease across, and no matter who ultimately holds the lease, like a person moving into a leased arrangement, they are equally bound by the provisions of the act.
Clause 9 - your point about void versus voidable. The intention is to make the provision void, as if it never existed, if it is contrary to the act, for example, the ratchet clause. If that was put into a lease, it would become void because it contravenes the very clear provisions within the act against.
Part 13 is direct provisions of the Commercial Tenancies Act as it currently exists. Some provisions you put in one act for convenience. Part 13 applies to the existing leases. Clause 124 is in Part 13. No change from the existing provision in the Commercial Tenancies Act. That may help you with that. It did not help me but what I suggest we do is if you want to pick those points up as we go through committee, we can then have a bit of a tick-tack on it and see if we can work it out.
Mr Elferink: It is probably the best way.
Dr TOYNE: Again, I thank the opposition and the member for Nelson for their support, and the support of my colleagues, and we will move on.
- Motion agreed to; bill read a second time.
In committee:
Clauses 1 to 28, by leave, taken together:
Mr ELFERINK: Mr Chairman, I just want to discuss some of those issues that were raised, because the issues that I raised were particularly clauses 7 and 9. I pick up on what the minister had to say in relation to the beginning point of the operation of clause 9. The reason I raised those questions in the second reading debate, particularly to hear the minister say that, because the starting point is not actually outlined in clause 9, as of the commencement of this act or some quote to that point.
What I am trying to do is get you on the record to say, if a court is stuck with this problem of interpretation, that the court can then come back to the debates in parliament and say: ‘No, the intention of the parliament was to proceed from that point’. That was the point I was making in clause 9. I accept the minister’s comments in relation to that. That is basically my issue in relation to that.
For the advice of Mr Chairman, I have some issues to raise out of Part 13 of the act when we get that far.
Dr TOYNE: Thirteen? So we are in ...
Mr ELFERINK: Part 13, not clause 13.
Clauses 1 to 28 agreed to.
Clause 29:
Dr TOYNE: Mr Chairman, I move amendment 55.1.
Clause 29(1) of the bill sets out various matters related to the assessment of current market rent. This amendment to subclause (1)(a)(ii) makes it clear that market rent is to be assessed taking into account a willing landlord and a willing tenant in an arm’s length transaction. The additional words reflect the intention of the provision and will assist in its application. I put on the record that these amendments have been put in as a result of further consultations with the Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
Amendment agreed to.
Dr TOYNE: Mr Chairman, I move amendment 55.2.
This amendment to clause 29(1)(e) makes it clear that a landlord is to provide a valuer with all relevant information regarding leases in the same building, or retail shopping centre, to enable an assessment of the market rent to occur. The additional word reflects the intention of the provision and will assist in its application.
Amendment agreed to.
Clause 29, as amended, agreed to.
Clauses 30 to 101, by leave, taken together and agreed to.
Clause 102:
Dr TOYNE: Mr Chairman, I move amendment 55.3.
This amendment to clause 102 omits the reference on clause 102(1)(d) to the hearing commissioner granting a party to proceedings under Part 11, Relief against forfeiture. This rectifies an inconsistency as clause 83(2)(b) states clearly that a dispute in relation to the repossession of premises is not a dispute that can be dealt with by the Hearing Commissioner. Such matters are dealt with by the court under Part 13.
Amendment agreed to.
Clause 102, as amended, agreed to.
Mr CHAIRMAN: Is it the wish of the committee that the remainder of the bill be taken as a whole?
Mr ELFERINK: Mr Chairman, this is an extension of clause 7, effectively, and I refer particularly to Part 13 as a whole. I draw the minister’s attention to clause 7 in the existing bill, Leases to which Act does not apply:
- (1) This act (other than Part 13) does not apply to any of the following retail shop leases:…
and then it goes on to discuss that.
Part 13 basically puts down a set of rules which deal with this general conscionability of the operation of existing contracts and seeks to impose itself on those existing contracts, irrespective of the operation of clause 9. Basically, it says that Part 13 of the legislation will interfere with that contract in spite of the fact that it is one of the ones which are exempt on various grounds. One of those grounds, for argument’s sake, is clause 124, No entry without order, which basically means that even if your contract says now that one of the central terms of my contract, as the landlord, with the tenant, is that I can inspect the premises at any time, Part 13 has the effect, in conjunction with the operation of clause 7, that I actually I must go, I presume, and get a court order. I read clause 124:
- A person must not, except in accordance with an order of a court, enter business premises of which a person has possession as a tenant under a business lease, or as a former tenant holding over after termination of a business lease, for the purpose of recovering possession of the premises, whether entry is effected peaceably or otherwise.
And it actually creates a penalty for doing so.
What I am concerned about is, that where you get a lease arrangement and there is an agreement between the parties, for example, the situation like clause 124 will operate in such a way as to be an essential term of the contract. I seek some sort of advice from the Attorney-General as to if it is an essential term of the contract and as a consequence of that cannot be severed by a court away from the contract without rendering the contract unworkable, is there any plans or any succour that the Attorney-General can give to those parties to those forms of contracts, as a result of the operation of Part 13, or is it just, ‘Tough’ and ‘Go to court and sort it out for yourselves’?
Dr TOYNE: I am advised, member for Macdonnell, that Part 13 replicates the existing Commercial Tenancies Act. It was simply transported into this new bill because it was a perfectly adequate provision. Clause 124 only applies for the purpose of recovering possessions and as such those provisions are totally unchanged from the existing laws that apply in the Territory right now.
Mr ELFERINK: Mr Chairman, I just used that one as an example but there are other provisions and, in spite of the fact that it is operating in legislation already in the Northern Territory up until this point, it still has the effect of not providing any succour. I am wondering if there is any comfort that the minister can give to the members of this Chamber and for anybody who has signed up for these forms of contracts, that this intrusion will not interfere with the operation of contracts in the Northern Territory? In other words, answer the question.
Dr TOYNE: I can offer the succour of commonsense: people have lived with these provisions for many years now in the Northern Territory without any observable problems. I am not aware of anyone from the retail sector bringing concerns about these types of provisions to us, despite the very wide consultation. It was made very clear that we were going to transport these provisions from the Commercial Tenancies Act into the new legislation. That was put out front at the public consultations, along with the other provisions in the bill. No one seemed to have a problem with it.
Mr ELFERINK: Mr Chairman, I am only seeking these issues as points of clarification. I appreciate that the minister has consulted widely on these issues, and that is good. I have no major problem with it. These things are never an issue until such time as an issue turns on them. What I am trying to do in this instance is gain from the minister a sense of where he is going with this bill so that when and if an issue arises that nobody has discovered at this point, the courts and the contracting parties have the ability to turn their attention to the minister’s words and discover the intent of the bill.
This may not be an issue now, it may not be an issue next week, but if this bill remains unamended for the next hundred years, it could be an issue in the year 2056 at which point I think we have to get these things right as a matter of responsibility to the future. That is basically where I am coming from.
Dr TOYNE: Mr Chairman, if I was going to go through some 70 pages of this bill and say: ‘Are there any unforeseen things that might impact on the interests of retailers or landlords out there that were not foreseen in the way the act was drafted?’, Part 13 would be the last place I would go to for the very simple reason that these provisions have been out in the community for many years. If there has been a major problem with the way these provisions have been interpreted when applied to the community, I am sure we would have heard about it. I wonder why you are going to these provisions. They are settled not only in long standing legislation, but they have also been settled in their application out into the community for many years.
Mr ELFERINK: Mr Chairman, one of the reasons that we go through legislation in this House is so that we can have the opportunity of reviewing new legislation. This is effectively new legislation, despite the fact that these provisions may have operated in the Northern Territory in the past. This is a new bill, and one of the complexities of introducing legislation as a general proposition is that you are trying to cast a net into the future, and you are hoping that that net is going to be able to catch every situation.
One of the greatest problems and frustrations, I believe, for the courts is that when we cast a net of legislation into the future, there is always some sort of situation that crops up in the future that the courts or we have not anticipated. I do not think that I should be afraid of asking some questions about the net that we are throwing into the future in this instance. If the minister is not concerned about trying to preempt every situation, we should be on the grounds that when you throw this net into the future, we have to try to make this legislation work, otherwise do not bring the legislation into the House and let the courts deal with it.
Now, if the minister wants to bring legislation into the House, of course it is going to be scrutinised. That is all I am doing. I hope that as a process of this scrutiny, at some point in the future when an issue surrounding this sort of matter does come up, the courts will at least have the Attorney-General’s words so that they can deal with the issue more effectively.
Dr TOYNE: Mr Chairman, in regard to the first point about reviewing the act, clause 144, Review of the Act:
- (1) The minister must review this act to determine whether the policy objectives of the act remain valid and
whether the terms of the act remain appropriate for securing those objectives.
- (2) The review is to be undertaken as soon as possible after 7 years after the date of assent to this act.
(3) A report on the outcome of the review is to be tabled in the Assembly within 12 months after the end of the
period of 7 years.
I do not have any problem with you asking questions, and I think you would have to admit I have been answering very reasonably. If you are nervous about this I will come and hold your hand. No, I won’t!.
Mr ELFERINK: I thank the member for his counsel. I am not trying to be difficult or awkward in any way. I am just trying to get the job right.
Remainder of the bill agreed to.
Bill, as amended, agreed to.
Bill reported; report adopted.
Dr TOYNE (Justice and Attorney-General): Madam Speaker, I move that the bill be now read a third time.
Motion agreed to; bill read a third time.
TABLED PAPER
Auditor-General’s Report to the Legislative Assembly – October 2003
Auditor-General’s Report to the Legislative Assembly – October 2003
Madam SPEAKER: Honourable members, I lay on the table the October 2003 Report of the Auditor-General. An information session for members on this report will be conducted by the Auditor-General in the Ormiston Room at 1 pm on Thursday, 9 October 2003. I encourage all members to attend.
MOTION
Print paper - Auditor-General’s Report to the Legislative Assembly – October 2003
Print paper - Auditor-General’s Report to the Legislative Assembly – October 2003
Ms MARTIN (Chief Minister): Madam Speaker, I move that the report be printed.
Motion agreed to.
MOTION
Note paper - Auditor-General’s Report to the Legislative Assembly – October 2003
Note paper - Auditor-General’s Report to the Legislative Assembly – October 2003
Ms MARTIN (Chief Minister): Madam Speaker, I move that the Assembly take note of the report, and that I have leave to continue my remarks at a later date.
Debate adjourned.
MINISTERIAL STATEMENT
Horticulture Industry
Horticulture Industry
Dr BURNS (Primary Industry and Fisheries): Madam Speaker, I rise to present a statement on the rapidly expanding Northern Territory horticulture industry. Horticulture in the Territory has been growing at a rapid rate, doubling every five years for the past 20 years. All indications are that this trend will continue over the next five to 10 years.
In the early 1980s, the horticulture industry was worth less than $0.5m in estimated Gross Value of Production, or GVP. This increased to $85.2m in 2002, slightly down from $92.2m GVP in 2001, due mainly to rain-damage to table grape production at Ti Tree. During this 20 year period, the industry diversified with significant production across a range of products. However, a few products continue to dominate the industry, including: mangoes with a current estimated GVP of $36.3m per annum; table grapes, valued at $9.9m, reduced from $20.1m in 2001 due to rain damage; bananas, estimated GVP $7.1m; melons, estimated GVP $5.6m; other fruits valued at $4.2m; vegetables, with a production value of $12.1m; and nursery and cut flower industry with an estimated production value of $10m.
The 2002 mango season was one of the highest value of production from the Northern Territory, at approximately 1.8 million trays of mangoes and a gross value of $36.3m. This year, 2003, major flowering was later than it has been for many seasons, and is also less intense than observed last year. However, other production areas around Australia are experiencing similar flowering patterns. There was limited early fruit available in September, and this is expected to increase slightly early this month. This is expected to keep early prices high. There will be a temptation for some growers to send immature fruit to market and this could impact adversely on prices later in the season.
Due to constant warm temperatures throughout the dry season, the mango harvest is expected to be spread across September, October and November, and not compressed as in the 2002 harvest season. Due to the temperature patterns in Katherine, this year’s Katherine crop will be harvested at the same time as Darwin, following an almost identical pattern. This has implications for logistics and marketing. Overall indications are that this year’s crop volumes may be lower than last year. However, most new trees have flowered better than older trees and this may have an impact on the overall performance of the industry.
The mango sector has the potential to become one of the major contributors to the overall economy of the Northern Territory. Current estimates of the number of mango trees planted in the Territory have been increasing steadily in the past 10 years, from around 200 000 trees in 1992 to nearly one million trees in 2002. It was estimated that production of 1.8 million trays last year – as I mentioned, 2002 – came from only 300 000 trees and that, ultimately, expected production could be between five and 10 million trays in the next five to 10 years. This would be worth somewhere between $100m to $150m in estimated GVP. This would need considerable effort from the mango growers and associated industry sectors to develop strategies to expand markets. Current estimates are that the domestic Australian market may absorb two million trays of mangoes, beyond which there could be some downward pressure on prices.
The Northern Territory Mango Industry Association, in collaboration with the Department of Business, Industry and Resource Development, is developing strategies to address long-term issues for the industry. These include providing national leadership in developing a code of practice for mangoes from production through packing, transport, wholesale and retail sectors. This code will be implemented this year as a trial in southern markets. The development of the code was facilitated by the Ombudsman for Retail Trade Industry, and supported by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission and a large number of horticulture industry sectors. Horticulture Australia Limited, the national industry research and development funding body, has shown interest in assisting the mango industry develop the code and is extending it to other horticulture industry sectors. For this year, the NTMIA has established interim measures including identification of endorsed wholesalers in several markets to assist Territory mango growers with marketing their product.
The second most important strategy is to address the harvest labour issue. The NTMIA is working with a private agency responsible for the harvest office in the Northern Territory, and has conducted seminars to provide information to assist growers to plan for their 2003 harvest program.
One of the most critical elements of this planning is the development of the ‘crop forecasting model’ by my department, based on very successful grower participation across the Darwin and Katherine regions. This model is based on ‘heat sums’ and the results are published in the newspapers and are also available on the department’s web site. The information is made available to all participants in the supply chain including growers, packers, labour contractors, transport industry, wholesalers and retailers, in order that they can be better prepared for the coming season.
The department has simplified access to its web site. This now includes price information and other issues to better inform growers. I recommend that all growers visit this site and provide comments to further improve its effectiveness.
There are several initiatives under consideration at present which would assist the development of overseas markets for Northern Territory mangoes. These include innovative technologies for non-chemical dis-infestation for fruit fly, improving maturity standards to guarantee eating quality, and transport logistics, just to name a few. These new initiatives will assist industry develop new markets, while retaining an expanding existing market.
There is a need to develop new products and varieties in order to establish new markets. The National Mango Breeding Program with the involvement of CSIRO, Queensland DPI, Western Australian Department of Agriculture and our department, is at an advanced stage of identifying some exciting new varieties. They have selected a national mango grower group as their commercialisation partner, and are about to test these new varieties. This will provide further opportunities for new market development, as well as improve productivity to keep the industry competitive.
The mango industry has grown from being a niche market industry to a stage of developing export markets. This development will provide opportunity for other sectors of the Northern Territory horticulture industry to piggyback on the logistics and market reputation that mangoes have developed over a number of years. The infrastructure developed such as cold storage, packaging, freight, etcetera, will be available to other sectors outside the mango season between September to early December. Crops such as citrus could fit into January to March/April and melons could fit in the period between June to October. This will improve profitability of packing, freight and other logistics.
Asian vegetables is a newer sector of the Northern Territory horticulture industry. Nearly 10 years ago there was very little production of Asian vegetables in the Territory. The industry has grown to nearly $10m in the estimated value of production with around 60 growers involved in production. Almost all growers are from non-English speaking backgrounds, predominantly Vietnamese. This sector required special programs to overcome language problems and the department has assisted the Northern Territory Horticultural Association to obtain funding from Rural Industry and Research Development Corporation and Horticulture Australia Limited to appoint a communication officer for the Asian vegetable industry. This has led to a more coordinated approach to the development of the sector with specialist extension material and technical workshops. This is one of the sectors with potential to develop future export market opportunities.
The most significant impediment to further development of the banana sector in the Northern Territory was the occurrence of Panama disease in 1997 and its subsequent spread. A high security banana quarantine screening facility has been established at the Coastal Plains Horticulture Research Farm. The project at this site is a good example of industry commitment with operational funding provided by the Territory and Queensland banana industries with matching funding from Horticulture Australia Limited, the national funding body. This is unique in any developed country and provides highly trained staff and the latest technology to test germplasm from various breeding programs around the world. To date, a number of local and international lines have been screened and some positive results are emerging. However, identification of resistance in ‘Cavendish’ type varieties is some time away and my department is collaborating with the Queensland DPI to introduce a number of new varieties including a promising line from Taiwan. Banana is one of the highest labour requirement crops. When suitable resistance and/or tolerant varieties are identified, further development of this industry will recommence.
The table grape industry in the Ti Tree and Pine Hill area in Central Australia is a sector which shows considerable promise for further growth. There is an estimated sustainable yield of 14 000 megalitres of ground water identified in this region which may be used for the development of table grape and other horticultural enterprises. Presently, there are some 450 hectares planted to table grapes with production from only 350 hectares last year, that is 2002, being valued at $9.9m. This is less than half of the previous year’s production mainly due to rain damage. It is expected that the coming season’s production will be significant with values higher than the $20m that was experienced in the 2001 season.
Three block of 100 hectares each have been identified on Pine Hill Station. These are in the final stages of negotiation with the traditional land owners for clearance of native title. Preliminary indications are that some 200 hectares of table grapes, or similar high value crops, can be grown on the recently acquired land in the Woodgreen area. Both the Woodgreen and Ti Tree/Pine Hill areas provide unique opportunities for regional development in terms of the expected work force and the need to develop commercial infrastructure, roads, power reticulation, package and cold storage facilities as well as consolidation of transport and other infrastructure.
Once the Ti Tree/Pine Hill and Woodgreen areas develop further they may provide an effective model for development of a number of other isolated areas in central Australia which have suitable ground water and climatic conditions. Identified areas such as Singleton/Murray Downs, Utopia, Ali Curung, Aputula, Rocky Hill and Orange Creek are some of those areas.
The Katherine region has a number of advantages for the production of quality vegetables and a number of fruit crops. The dry climate in Katherine produces mangoes with less disease and good fruit quality. This is recognised in the markets and attracts premium prices. In recent times, substantial horticultural development in the Venn area has put that locality on the map. Some 2000 hectares of land suitable for horticultural production was released over a short period of time in the Venn area and has been planted with mangoes, citrus and vegetable crops. This is currently the second largest horticultural development in the Northern Territory.
Other development opportunities are being considered at present in the Katherine region for further expansion of the horticulture industry. There are opportunities to consider freight consolidation facilities to capture product from Kununurra for both road and future rail transport to both southern and export markets.
To date, development of horticulture on Aboriginal land has been slow, however this is now changing with recognition of diminishing water resources in southern Australia and identification of new markets.
The department has assisted the Central Land Council in conducting two workshops, in Alice Springs and Tennant Creek, to document all available resource information on soil, ground water, power and roads. We assisted the CLC to develop strategies for the development of horticulture on Aboriginal land. Some five priority areas were identified covering Ti Tree and Finke in the Alice Springs region and Ali Curung, Waramungu and Gilbert Swamp for the Tennant Creek area. In addition, the proposed citrus development on Utopia was also endorsed as a top priority. Horticultural development at Utopia has the potential to further add value to regional development at the Ti Tree/Pine Hill and Woodgreen areas.
The preliminary estimate of ground water availability on Aboriginal land in Central Australia makes it possible to develop several thousands of hectares of land for horticulture. This will not only create income and job opportunities, but will also have an effect on the supply of fresh produce to remote communities with accompanying health benefits. The establishment of Centrefarm by the Central Land Council and the willingness of traditional land owners makes the development of horticulture on Aboriginal land more possible than ever before.
Horticulture development has contributed significantly to the economic activity of the Northern Territory. Besides the gross value of the industry, close to $100m, employment opportunities in the industry are high, estimated at nearly 1600 jobs. Horticulture is the most labour intensive primary industry sector, with high employment levels both directly and through support industries. A large number of these jobs are based in rural areas. Current production is coming from a very small area, estimated at between 4000 and 5000 hectares of land. Currently there is a total of 8000 hectares of land planted with various horticultural crops, with significant areas of new mango trees, citrus trees and some smaller plantings of tropical fruit trees yet to come to production in the next few years.
When all these young trees come to optimum production in the next five years, the value of the industry is expected to double to approximately $200m, with significant increases in regional employment. The mango sector, at a production capacity of five to 10 million trays, is expected to employ between 5000 to 10 000 workers for at least three to four months a year, and a full-time work force of 1000 workers. Similar trends are expected for melons in Darwin, Douglas-Daly, Katherine and the Mataranka area. Citrus is expected to come to optimum production in the next two to three years in Katherine, further increasing employment demands in the region.
Table Grapes in Central Australia currently employs nearly 30 full-time workers and around 300 seasonal workers. This will increase significantly in future, with the expected area planted to crops nearly doubling in the next five years.
There are significant opportunities for Aboriginal employment in remote areas, and there is a need to develop programs to train and retain Aboriginal people associated with commercial horticultural developments. This will provide future benefits to remote communities with their own market gardens and supply of produce with associated health benefits.
The current trend of doubling production value every five years is expected to continue in the future, provided that new markets and new products are developed in time. The main advantage of Territory production is that it comes out of season, or counter seasonal, at a time when there is very little produced elsewhere in the world. This gives us clear market advantages. We are also close to Asian markets, where nearly 75% of mangoes are produced and consumed. With the maturing of new trees, the volume of mangoes may exceed 10 million trays within the next five to 10 years. The value of this sector could reach $150m to $200m with appropriate market development. Similar increases are expected in the table grape industry and a number of other horticulture industry sectors if current trends are sustained. Other industries such as citrus, bananas, nursery and cut flowers, Asian vegetables, dates, cashews and tropical exotic fruits all contribute on a smaller scale. Currently, Northern Territory horticulture industries produce some 30 000 tonnes per annum of perishable products, and it is anticipated that, in five to 10 years’ time, production may be between 200 000 to 300 000 tonnes.
Continued development of the horticulture industry in the Northern Territory requires continuing support from various government agencies. All Territory horticultural developments are underpinned by very effective research and development programs conducted by DBIRD. Wherever possible, DBIRD collaborates with organisations such as Queensland DPI, Agriculture WA, CSIRO, universities, various funding bodies and commercial organisations.
Of particular interest is the ‘TropHort’ agreement between CSIRO, Charles Darwin University and my department in March 2002. The Northern Territory Horticulture Association will formally become party to this agreement in the very near future. This collaboration will facilitate research, development, extension and training to assist industry development in the Northern Territory. In conjunction with Queensland DPI, RIRDC and Cadbury Schweppes, DBIRD is also looking at identification and development of new crops for the Territory such as cocoa. By combining the resources of various Australian and, in some cases, international organisations, my department is able to keep up with new technology development and assist the Northern Territory industry to be competitive. There are exciting opportunities in the horticulture industry.
Mr Acting Deputy Speaker, I move that the Assembly take note of the statement.
Mr BALDWIN (Daly): Mr Acting Deputy Speaker, when this statement was delivered I thought, beauty, this is a very good opportunity to update Territorians on what is happening in a very important industry in the Northern Territory, and that is obviously what this statement is about, horticulture. I have to say that I was looking forward to a lot of good news. I was looking forward to the minister addressing some of the things that need to be done in the industry, things that are crying out to be done. I was also looking forward to the minister elaborating on, for instance, the promise by the Labor government to build a $2m packing shed for the horticultural industry. It is all here in their documentation - Labor’s financial statement. But alas, none of that was in there, not even the promise, the $2m promise, which seems to have been broken now. In fact, there was very little that was new in there that we could send out to the horticultural industry which, I am sure, would appreciate the latest updates so they can network and find all the latest information.
The one bit of new information I did find in your ministerial statement was to do with the updating of the web site. I thought, well, that is new, I will go and have a look at that. And, minister, you talked about the easy access to get to the data that is contained for growers on that web site. For instance, if you wanted to have a look at the Northern Territory mango prices for the 2003 season - the current season - the trend lines are there. I should highlight for you, in case you have not looked, the trend lines per tray. You have the Darwin highs and lows that I can establish, but you do not have anything for Katherine on any of those prices. But, as for easy access, this is how you get there: www.nt.gov.au/dbird/dpif/horticulture/2003_mango_season_informationshtml#heat%20sums. Not very good access, minister. I would not crow about it unless you have another way that you can get in there.
I am not going to go through all of the things that are in your statement and elaborate on them for a very simple reason: all of this has been said before in this House. Your statement, in fact, has been read before in this House, and you have a serious problem that you need to look into. You pride yourself as an academic researcher. Well, I tell you, you have not had a look at this properly, and somebody is doing your research without you checking it. Let us have a look at how we start.
- Madam Speaker, I rise today to present a statement on the rapidly expanding Northern Territory horticultural industry …
I thought that was a good start, perhaps I will have a look at the way some other statements start. So I went to a fairly recent statement:
- Mr Speaker, I rise today to present a statement on the expanding Northern Territory horticultural industry …
Good start; they start the same. Next paragraph goes:
- Horticulture in the Territory has been growing at a rapid rate doubling every five years for the past 20 years. All indications are that this trend will continue over the next five to 10 years …
Same statement that I thought I would go and do some research on:
- Horticulture in the Territory has been growing at a rapid rate doubling every five years for the past 20 years. All indications are that this trend will continue in the next five to 10 years.
- In the early 1980s …
This is your statement, minister:
- … the horticulture industry was worth less than $0.5m in estimated gross value of production.
Okay, so I do not lose you:
- In the early 1980s, the industry was worth less than $0.5m; its value has increased to $84m in 1999 ..
You wrote:
- … this has increased to $85.2m in 2002.
A slight difference because you have updated the figures.
Let us turn to any page - what page would you like to turn to? Any page in your statement - you name one and I will try and find you the exact same words from Mr Mick Palmer. What year? Let us have a look: 30 November 2000! A statement by minister Palmer, ministerial statement, Horticulture Production, three years ago. You pick any page and I will show you how it corresponds almost exactly, paragraph by paragraph, with Mick Palmer’s statement. You are a sham, minister! You should be ashamed of yourself! Now, which one do you want to pick? Have a look at your statement. Come on, let’s go.
Ms Lawrie: You have the floor. Keep going, you are entertaining.
Mr BALDWIN: Well, you pick a page.
Ms Lawrie: You are entertaining. You don’t have …
Mr BALDWIN: Any page you like.
Mr ACTING DEPUTY SPEAKER: I remind members to make their comments through the Chair, please.
Mr BALDWIN: Mr Acting Deputy Speaker, perhaps you would like to pick a page? This is a very serious matter.
Mr ACTING DEPUTY SPEAKER: I believe the Speaker is impartial in debate.
Mr BALDWIN: This is a very serious matter. This is a very serious matter, that a minister can come into this House – what were the words you finished with? Let us just give you an example.
Mr Burke: Written and authorised by Mick Palmer.
Mr BALDWIN: No, he actually did not have that bit.
Let us go to this one; this is page 17. I can go to any page:
In conjunction with Queensland DPI, RIRDC and Cadbury Schweppes, my department is also looking at identification and development of new crops in the Territory such as cocoa.
Keep in mind that I have only just got this, so it is quite hard to track, but you can track it yourself.
In conjunction with those agencies, DPIF is also looking at identification and development of new crops for the NT such as cocoa. The cocoa project has been developed in conjunction with Cadbury Schweppes …
Your next paragraph after that, just by way of example, your paragraph:
By combining the resources of various Australian, and in some cases, international organisations my department is able to keep up with the new technology development and assist …
And so on. Go to Mick Palmer’s statement:
- By combining the resources of various Australian and, in some cases, international organisations, my department is able to keep up with new technology development and assist …
And so on and so on. In fact, word for word.
I would be seriously looking at who writes your speech. If it is the department I feel sorry for them, because they must be under a lot of stress. But if it is one of your officers, then he should get the boot, or she. I do not care who it is that works in your office. This is downright, straight out plagiarism. There is no getting away from it. Word for word for the whole almost 17 pages.
Mr Dunham: Self-attributed.
Mr BALDWIN: Self-attributed to you. It was just coincidental that I went to what I thought would be about the last statement that Mick Palmer did on horticulture. What if we go looking elsewhere? Let us have a look at all the other ministerial speeches that have been delivered in this House. Are we going to find the same thing? Are you running a sham over that side? This is just disgraceful, absolutely disgraceful.
What about the Attorney-General, with his speeches, his ministerial statements? I hope you are not doing this. This would put you in a very difficult situation, if you did the same. Perhaps we should go looking. Perhaps we should get the library services and put them into …
Dr Toyne: Mine are far too good for your mob.
Mr BALDWIN: I am happy to hear that you are not doing it, because the colleague sitting next to you is doing it. He is running an untruthful, deceitful line in this House, trying to come in here to tell us how great things are.
Ms Lawrie interjecting.
Mr BALDWIN: You think this is all hype, member for Karama, picking up on your interjection?
Ms Lawrie interjecting.
Mr ACTING DEPUTY SPEAKER: Members! Members, through the Chair, please.
Mr BALDWIN: Mr Acting Deputy Speaker, by her interjection, the member for Karama says this is okay. This is not okay. This is just absolute nonsense that you think you can get away with this.
You talk about the things that you are doing, that you think are so great, with table grapes, bananas …
Mr WOOD: Point of order, Mr Acting Deputy Speaker. Can I ask the member for Daly, would you be able to table that document, please?
Mr BALDWIN: Can I read from it first?
Mr WOOD: You can read from it, but when you have finished …
Mr BALDWIN: Absolutely.
Let us have a look at where you talk about the great things that you are doing with the Central Land Council. If I can find it here. At page 12, your statement; let us start from there. Minister, this is what you say:
To date, development of horticulture on Aboriginal land has been slow. However, this is now changing with recognition of diminishing water resources in southern Australia and identification of new markets.
We go to minister Palmer:
To date, development of horticulture on Aboriginal land has been slow. However, recent demand for horticultural technology has been on the increase.
So, slightly different. However, the next part, where you say ‘my department assisted the Central Land Council and conducted two workshops’ – I have lost that bit. The point is - and it is all through here - unfortunately, I was trying to track it because I sat down with this and as you were reading yours, I was trying to track it but I have not noted it with something I can follow.
But I can assure you, all members and all staff of this parliament, that the statement delivered in this House today, October sittings 2003, ministerial statement, Horticulture Production in the Northern Territory, is, in a lot of cases, exactly the same and not too dissimilar to the ministerial statement, Horticulture Production, delivered by minister Palmer, on 30 November 2000, three years ago.
You have not even given us the decency to have updated and relevant information. You have added nothing new. You have not talked about the things that are of concern today and you have certainly misled, I would suggest, people who are listening, the members of this House, by the fact that you have purported that this is yours. Well, it ain’t yours. Everybody who reads these two statements in conjunction will see that. You are shameful. Somewhere, you are not keeping tabs on what is going on. You are in remote control. Some out there – and I hope they are listening because I know that Jamie Gallacher is screaming around there, and Fred McCue, if you are listening, you have a real problem. Fred and Jamie will know exactly what plagiarism means. It is fundamental to their background and the professions they come from. Now, they are running around on the 5th floor; I reckon that if we listen out quietly, we will hear some screams. We will hear some screams any moment because they are going to get them by the throat. Whoever is doing this, Jamie and Fred are going to get them by the throat.
Ms LAWRIE: A point of order, Mr Acting Deputy Speaker! The member for Daly is not referring at all to the ministerial statement. He is talking about fantasy, realms of fantasy about ministerial staffers. It would be interesting if he could be able to debate horticulture in the Territory.
Mr BALDWIN: Speaking to the point of order, Mr Acting Deputy Speaker, I am speaking about this statement. I am showing how fraudulent it is.
Mr ACTING DEPUTY SPEAKER: Member for Daly, I would ask you to could keep more focussed on the statement and pay less regard to the staff on the 5th floor.
Mr BALDWIN: Mr Acting Deputy Speaker, with all due respect to what you are saying here, I have every right to refer to public servants, staff and whomever I like. I will refer now to the Chief Minister. The Chief Minister has a real problem. The Chief Minister is directly responsible for the staff of ministers. Now, I bet she wants to have a talk to the minister for primary industries to find out where this has come from. I bet her Chief of Staff, Jamie Gallacher, will want to find out where this has come from. I hope, for the sake of old friendship, that he has not had anything to do with it. Somebody - and we need to see this; remember, clear and transparent government - we need to see who gets burnt for this, because it is terrible. It is shameful!
The member for Wanguri laughs because he thinks it is funny.
Mr Henderson: No, I was not.
Mr BALDWIN: This is not funny! For any media that gets hold of this, they will know how serious this is. For any academic who has been to university, you know how serious this is. When you purport this to be your work in your name …
Ms LAWRIE: A point of order! The member for Daly well knows under standing orders that members speak to the Chair.
Mr BALDWIN: I am happy to do that, Mr Acting Deputy Speaker. You would know. You would know, Mr Acting Deputy Speaker …
Mr ACTING DEPUTY SPEAKER: Member for Daly, I would ask you not to bring the Chair into this, please.
Mr BALDWIN: The member for Karama would know full well. Any academic, like the member for Jingili, the minister for primary industries, who has been to university. He would know that this is very serious. And he will, I am sure, find a very good excuse to blame somebody for doing this. But, at the end of the day, the bottom line is, he has taken his eye off the ball. If he is a decent sort of a chap, and I suppose that he is, he will stand up and take the full blame for this. Full blame for this, because it is in his name, and he knows, from his academic background, that there are serious implications in this.
This is disgusting, this is absolute arrant rot, that you bring this in here and expect us to swallow it. I mean, we have delivered these time after time after time. Now we are going to have to get suspicious and have a look at every statement that has been delivered in this House. And when we find out, because this Labor government is supposed to be a transparent government, who is responsible for this, we will then know who else he has written for, and that will be worth following up, I am sure.
Whilst there should have been good news in this statement for horticulturalists and for farmers, the only good news in here is going to be fodder for the media, because that is all it is worth. And it is a shame that there is not one shred of originality in this statement, because the horticultural industry is looking for support. It is looking for an announcement of when the Labor government is going to fulfil its promise of the $2m horticultural packing shed. A broken promise is it, or can we get the details?
Ms Lawrie: It is only mid-term.
Mr BALDWIN: Oh, it is only mid-term, the member for Karama says. Meanwhile, one more season passes for the mango growers and the horticulturalists and the promises that were delivered two years ago do not mean anything. They want to hear some details. Where is it going to go? Let us hear you say it is going to go in Katherine. Let us hear that there is going to be half the money going into Katherine. We have three packing sheds in Katherine now for mangoes. Why not get together with them and contribute some of your $2m? Let us get some details. These are people spending their own money, creating jobs, and what do we hear from the government – nothing, silence. It is absolutely atrocious that the only bit of information they are probably waiting for in terms of some infrastructure development, nowhere to be seen in this statement.
And that is probably because it is following, word for word, from a three year old statement that obviously did not have that in there because it was not a commitment of the CLP government at that time. But almost everything else in that statement is similar.
I would say that I have said enough in terms of the way this thing has been presented, and I know, because having been there, that you have a mess going on, on the 5th floor, a real mess. I am looking forward to your answer on this. I am sure a lot of people up there are, and certainly a lot of people out there are going to want to know why you would deliver such a disguised piece of nonsense into this House. You just do not take this seriously enough, or you are not checking. You should be ashamed. And if you did not know about it, then probably my bet that we had not so long ago will come true and you will not be where you are.
Dr TOYNE (Justice and Attorney-General): Mr Acting Deputy Speaker, that is a very interesting contribution from the member for Daly. I just hope he has been taking his pills.
Let us get back to horticulture. Firstly, I commend the minister for bringing forward a statement on this very important area of the Territory economy. I am always delighted to see the House devote some time to updating members and sharing information about this very important industry.
I will concentrate my comments, initially, on the Central Australian region for obvious reasons. When you talk about Central Australian horticulture you are largely talking about table grape production. First of all, I acknowledge the good work done by the NT Table Grape Producers Association based in Alice Springs. Bob Millington, the Executive Officer and Trevor Sowman, the President, have met with government on many occasions, both when I held the portfolio and with the present minister for primary industry. They have always shown themselves to be both very open to discussing their issues with government, and always prepared to do their own work to solve the problem alongside what they ask government to do. We do not mind that sort of relationship. What you see with horticulturalists is that they are having a red hot go in their own industry and they are always ready to work on their part to get across some of the problems that might crop up as we develop these industry sectors.
The table grape industry in Central Australia is a fledgling industry. There is certainly a long way to go to consolidate it to the level that would be available under the current estimates of the aquifers that exist around the Central Australian region. However, having said that, we are looking at a multimillion dollar industry which has made huge progress in its early history. That was reflected in the minister’s statement.
The impact of the rains last year, as reported, was very disappointing. However, having flown over and driven past the grape farms in recent times, they are certainly heading for a very good crop, provided the weather does hold for them this year. To strike rain at the very time when it was going to damage the crop was pretty unlucky last year. I hope that is not the normal pattern that they are facing.
At the moment, we have the most land that is under table grape production at one time that we have ever had - in the range of 25 hectares more than 2002, and a total of about 400 hectares. The expansion of this industry in Central Australia is starting to take up several forms. There are clearly aquifers, as reported by the minister, that have already been plotted out, like the ones at Woodgreen, up at Ali Curung, Willowra, Utopia - and very good water in the case of some of those. The Utopia aquifers are based on the Sandover River, about 40 km2, and very pure water. It is sand filtered by the time you are getting into the catchment area of the aquifer. There are fantastic prospects there for developing further land under grape production.
The fruit fly problem in Alice Springs goes hand-in-hand with the attempts to consolidate this industry. You simply cannot have an extensive horticultural industry ringing a town that has an endemic population of fruit fly; it does not work. We have had fruit fly in Alice Springs for many, many years. I can remember going to Mick Palmer when he was the minister for primary industries under the previous government and urging him to do something about the fruit fly population in Alice Springs, particularly after we had an outbreak of fruit fly in the Ti Tree grape farms; one that was literally threatening the whole industry. They managed, through the department, to contain that outbreak. It was traced to a vehicle that had gone up from Alice Springs to visit the farms and - surprise, surprise! - it took some fruit with fruit fly eggs in it. That is the way that the fly reached the farms.
With the eradication program, Bob Millington, Trevor Sowman and others from the NT Grape Producers Association have been very strong in supporting the government to take the action to eradicate fruit flies. Being fruit fly free would be a significant marketing advantage for the Centre, particularly in places like Tasmania where we are trying to get those early season fruit down to markets to get the good early season prices, and in places where clearly they are not going to get a crop for many months after they ripen in central Australia. The public launch of the pilot program supported by this government took place in Alice Springs on 11 August 2003 with a considerable amount of public interest.
Geoff Miers, our home grown - if I can coin the phrase - garden show host, has been very public in his support for the pilot. The pilot is actually based on the release of 29 million sterile flies which have been released into the area east of the Todd River and including a buffer area to reduce the influx of wild flies from the western part of the township, over an eight week period from early August to late September. The idea of releasing sterile flies is obvious; it cuts down the access of fertile males to the breeding females so you slow down and enormously curtail the breeding outcomes for the flies when they are breeding on the town crops such as citrus and grape plants in Alice Springs. His role in it is helping to spread the awareness of this campaign around the town. It is very important for the general public to play their part in helping to eradicate these pests. Simple things such as putting fallen citrus fruit into plastic bags, tying them off and leaving them in the sun; that kills off all the fruit flies that might be contaminating that fruit. That, again, is reducing the breeding cycle and the population of the flies in Alice Springs. This is one area where the whole town can join in and help to get into these little buggers and get them out of Alice Springs and out of the horticultural areas so that we can get that advantage in terms of the further development of the industry.
Further monitoring of data and analysis of results is continuing in order to assess the likely success of the eradication program. At this stage it is looking very encouraging. I can certainly say that for the very little time that I spend at home, my orange tree is dropping fruit at this time of the year and it is probably the first time I have seen a reduction in the incidence of fruit fly around my area. Let’s hope we can keep the pressure on the population and get rid of them from Alice Springs; or at least get them down to a very low level and hold them there so that they are not going to spread to the remaining areas.
The Ti Tree area, which is about 200 km north of Alice Springs for those members who are not familiar with the area, is the initial place in which horticulture developed. It started there with the Dahlenburgs probably in the 1970s I would say, or maybe the 1980s, but certainly they had been there for many years pioneering the growing of horticultural crops in that zone. We are now moving on to other areas, other plantings, which are going to add to the diversity of the industry.
Rocky Hill, just to the east of Alice Springs, has been planted out with 26 hectares of table grapes. We are looking at that with great interest. This is a development by Jimmy Hayes and Mick Gould of Undoolya Station. They will picking their first crop in November this year but they have actually brought the crop into a frost zone. Members will probably be aware that Alice Springs does get very severe frosts when we get a heavy winter. Some of those frosts can tail off into the time when the plants have actually budded and gone into their productive part of the year. So, they are taking a punt on that new area and, I think, so far so good. It looks really good for their first year of production. If we can get that second area going it is giving greater diversity to the way in which that industry is operating in the area.
Another very exciting aspect to the table grapes is the plan to use treated effluent from the sewerage farms to grow grapes. PowerWater has allocated $6.2m to establish the head works to bring that treated effluent to an area near the Arid Zone Research Institute. That will provide not only a good water supply, but a fertilised water supply, if I can be very delicate about this. It is basically food and water. If you are a grape vine, you would welcome this effluent because it has most of what you need to prosper in life. I would not drink the stuff, mind you! It is better on the grapes, being sucked up through those roots and turned into a plant.
About 1500 megalitres of this treated water will be available, enough to irrigate well over 100 hectares of horticultural plants. The detailed design of the water reuse pipeline has already commenced, and following a call for expressions of interest, negotiations with the main commercial player are continuing. There will be room for smaller growers as well, such as fodder crop growers and, hopefully, we might even see hydroponic tomato production coming off that effluent as well. So, there are quite a few options for the further development of the horticultural area using that water. We expect that agencies, through the project management team, will have water on site at the end of next year. We expect to see crops being planted in 2005.
That is a fantastic project. When you think of Alice Springs sitting in the middle of an arid zone, the sewerage ponds have always been a point of contention in that you had water being treated through the sewerage pond system and then flowing out into what became a swamp area planted out with reeds to purify the water. That became a major problem with breeding mosquitos, and it is really an eyesore in that form. This takes the water straight out of the final treatment ponds, through a pipe system and onto a horticultural block. That is a much better solution to the run-off problem that we have had there for many years.
I will spend my remaining time looking at the Centrefarm production that is being aimed at in Utopia. I have been to Utopia, it is in my electorate, and they have now drilled four, very good, production bores opposite the Soapy Bore community on the Sandover Highway, one at each corner of the intended planting area, which is one kilometre by one kilometre. They are really in a position, now that they have established the Centrefarm as a legal entity, to start drawing in a venture partner to plant out that area. They have the water, they have the legal structure; now they need their partner. They are certainly talking to a number of groups. I expect that the combination of a good, proven market, a good, proven growing area and a good water supply should get them a partner fairly soon. We have had a number of big developers coming through the area to talk about possibilities apart from grapes, like olives, like citrus for the overseas market particularly because of the time that our fruit comes on.
We can look forward to the next few years. Despite the fairly negative approach taken by the member for Daly, the horticultural industry is very much on track, on its game and is keen to continue the quite spectacular development it has had to date.
I will close by talking about one of my other favourites, which is the mango industry. Having just come back from Singapore, we heard comments a number of times from the Singapore business community with which we were meeting, about the high quality of Australian fruit and the expectation that Australian fruit would come in to the South-East Asian market in increasing amounts. We have an enormous potential up there. There has been much work done, not only by our government, but by the previous government, scoping out the possibilities for export. There has been much technical work done on getting mangoes into containers and holding back the ripening of the fruit until it can get to markets like Singapore and Hong Kong.
We now have to continue that work, and it is becoming increasingly crucial that we get that work done and get those markets opened up. Really, with the number of trees in the ground coming into maturity, and the sheer volume of fruit that is now being produced, the logistics and the marketing of the crop is getting more and more critical. I know the Mango Growers Association are very aware of that. It was very encouraging to see, at the South-East Asian end of the system, that there is a huge amount of awareness and interest in seeing Australian fruit go there. We have to do the hard work. I think that the recent debate about whether we are getting up to South-East Asia enough, and certainly we are, but the work has to continue. It has to continue with our business minister, the primary industry minister, and me and the Chief Minister. I am sure we will be going regularly into that region to continue this work.
I believe that once we solve the logistics with the technical solutions we already have in place, we can grow that market fairly quickly now, and we are going to have to grow that market very quickly to place our crop. We have basically supplied for our time of the year up to the limits of the domestic markets. We have to go overseas, we all know that, and we have to do that as quickly and efficiently as we possibly can.
I will put in a quick word about peanuts around the Katherine area. Peanut is a fantastic crop and it has an absolutely assured market with the PCA, the Peanut Company of Australia. The last two years has seen significant work done in proving out the growing conditions around Katherine. I see that as almost an ideal crop. You have a guaranteed market in the peanut mills in Queensland. It is a good, clean crop to grow. You cannot actually spray too much on peanuts because they grow on the ground, and the soil types are ideal for the production over there. I look forward to seeing an incremental growth of peanuts around the Katherine area. They are already going to market in Queensland. They do not even have to find a buyer. They are ready made and let us see that grow a bit rapidly as well.
Mr DUNHAM (Drysdale): Mr Acting Deputy Speaker, I too had indicated earlier when this statement was circulated that I would be seeking to speak to it, because it is a matter of some interest to me, and to many members on this side, and certainly carrying the business portfolio, this is a critical industry for the Northern Territory. However, this speech has been contaminated. This speech has been contaminated to the extent that it has been authored by somebody who has plagiarised someone else’s work. It is said that the greatest form of flattery …
Dr BURNS: A point of order, Mr Acting Deputy Speaker! That is a very serious charge. The member for Drysdale should be very careful. He should be comparing the two speeches and be very careful with his allegations. I am pointing to Standing Order no 62; be very careful.
Mr DUNHAM: I shall. I shall be very careful, Mr Acting Deputy Speaker. I am glad we now have your attention.
Dr BURNS: I ask you, Mr Acting Deputy Speaker, to caution the member for Drysdale, and let us hope that he has read the two speeches and he can point to direct plagiarism here.
Mr DUNHAM: Mr Acting Deputy Speaker, I shall be very careful and I would assume that you would have done likewise.
Mr ACTING DEPUTY SPEAKER: Member for Drysdale! You pay attention to me. I am the Speaker. I remind you that Standing Order 62 says:
- … all personal reflections on members shall be deemed to be highly disorderly.
So, member for Drysdale, I ask you - you have the book there in front of you – to pay attention to No 62 and please get on with the debate.
Mr DUNHAM: I have it in front of me and I am quite happy to stay within the confines of standing orders. Standing orders require things like people who make statements that are attributed to use quote marks. One would have hoped that this minister would have known that, being a researcher and publisher of some note, and who has proudly proclaimed his qualifications in this parliament, as somebody who has the rigour of great research.
There are a few things that we could say about this comment and this supposed statement – and I am sure my ex-colleague, Mr Mick Palmer, would be having quite a belly laugh about this tonight because, essentially what we have here is the Labor Party totally devoid of ideas. Not only do they not know what they are doing in horticulture, but they have had to pinch ideas from three years before. If you go through some of the statement, it is interesting that my colleague, the member for Daly, has been able to show where the similarities are. I looked for some of the differences, and that is really interesting. Let us look, for instance, at mangoes. Mangoes in the previous statement were at $36m; they are now at $36.3m three years later. I would not say that was a great accolade, minister.
Table grapes, which in minister Palmer’s statement were at $14.5m, are now lauded by this minister as being $9.9m, a fall of $5m. Bananas were at $13m and are down to $7m. So, here you are coming in here, pinching a statement, and using numbers that do not reflect well on you in any event. Why would you do something so foolish if you had any notion of how these markets have been travelling? Other fruits valued by Mick Palmer at $4.5m three years ago are now $4.2m. So, there has been another decline there. Thankfully, vegetables and nursery and cut flower industry are both up. It is evident that it has absolutely nothing to do with this government.
It is interesting also when the minister started talking about ‘his’ department. We know that this is not a department; we know that this is animal and plant industry production services. It now sits as some little branch within the department and nobody knows where it is. In fact, even accessing the web site is difficult, as my colleague, the member for Daly, pointed out.
Therefore, if we have a look at where the minister stumbled through his speech and had a go at some corrections – and we could go to page 17 of his speech – he has peppered it all the way through with ‘his department’. Two things: first it ain’t his! DBIRD is a matter for his colleague and himself, so it is his shared department. Second is, it does not have departmental status anymore. Therefore, one would think that if you were going to go and use ‘my department is advised’, blah, blah – as said by Mr Palmer – you would say: ‘Whoops, it is not a department anymore and neither is it mine’. What he has done is have a bit of a crash at changing things and, on page 17 in the first paragraph, ‘my department’ was changed to ‘DBIRD’. Second paragraph, ‘my department’ was changed to ‘DBIRD’. Third paragraph, ‘my department’ was left as it was. Further on, in conjunction with Queensland, ‘my department’ changed to ‘DBIRD’. Last paragraph, ‘my department’ is unchanged.
So, he is not even a good editor. It is one thing to pinch somebody else’s work. It is quite another thing to have a go at editing it and be so sloppy as to not do it consistently; to try to cover up the fact that you have subsumed what was once a flagship department into some little branch. I think that, in doing so, you should have been possibly a little more rigorous with your editing.
If you look at some of the other things that attend on this statement; for instance, I would have thought a good talking point - and I quote here now from documents that are now available to the opposition through FOI - would be why there is a budget variation of minus $9.998m in animal and plant industry production services. I would have thought that the minister could have told us why it is down $2m. That would be a good thing to talk about. So here is the government saying: ‘Let us run what Mick said; we will do a quick cut and paste and, wherever he says ‘department’ because we have subsumed into this little baby branchy thing, we will try to change that’. But they have not said why it has gone into decline in those major industries, nor have they said why they have cut it.
It is interesting also, when one looks at this package and storage facility, to quote from the Estimates Committee briefing. The minister could not tell us about unless we actually paid to get this information from him:
- A major election commitment of the current government was to increase the capacity of packing and cold storage facilities in the Northern Territory horticultural industry. The promised assistance was to be $1m in 2002-03 and $1m in 2003-04 budgets. This item was included in the capital works design as 2003-04.
Even in his own brief he will tell you that it is a year late. It is on the design list; it is not even on capital works. So, there are some very critical things for this minister to start talking to us about. We think it is probably a good thing in a funny sort of way that they are continuing along the lines that was set by the good work of Mick Palmer. We think that is probably a good thing. To use that as an absolute blueprint in an industry that is facing challenges and changes from year to year it pretty stupid. It is pretty foolhardy. Particularly when some of those changes are changes you are making like cutting the budget. So, that is some dumb work and I think that you have to stand at the end and not only talk about this statement and what it contains, and we know it pretty well because it has been around for three years, but you have to talk about why you have chosen to come to this parliament with something circa three years ago and present it as your own work, when you know that that is not the case.
I would talk also about the business about going to Singapore. We have the minister for information services going up there saying, ‘They know all about our mangoes’. Minister, where are your trips? Where have you been promoting our mangoes and our table grapes? Where have you been promoting the stuff? We saw a little stunt in here with tabling table grapes during the budget session in some sort of a little aside to try to steal the thunder of the opposition rejoinder to the Estimates and apart from that there is very, very little.
The good work that was done by Mick Palmer is something that this parliament should recognise. So good was it, that it is used as an absolute blue print for this government. It is so good that three years later, it is adhered to word for word and point for point. The only changes are cuts that this mob have made, the relegation to a lower status of what was once a flagship department, a minister who either has not done the research, given his high level of credentials in this area and has been sold a pup, or a minister who has deliberately brought a statement to this parliament that so readily replicates something that was brought here before but he has to explain to this House what it is all about.
As with all statements, we do not get much time to have a look at it, so it was quite amazing that my colleague was able to stumble on this as quickly as he did. However, it requires the minister to describe how that could have possibly happened and it will not be left here. This will be a matter of great curiosity to the media. People who watch MediaWatch will know that stories pinched from elsewhere are run with a yellow highlighter through on national television. I do not think I have seen the like of this. I certainly have heard ministers give portions of speeches that have been given before. It is all their own work. They are able to do that. There is nothing wrong with that. It might be a bit lazy and it might be something that we are travelling over old ground.
But, for this government to go back three years to use as an absolute blue print to the word, statements made by my former colleague, Mr Palmer, beggars belief. It is beggars belief that they have that level of laziness, that level of sloth amongst those who are responsible for the stuff. We have heard how they are going to be open and accountable, how they are going to be energetic, how they are going to be running a tight pace of business. All that is a myth and it has been proved to be a myth. It has been exploded by my colleague, the member for Daly. He has been able to see that not only can they not walk the walk, the cannot talk the talk. The only way they can talk the talk is to regurgitate words that were readily available in parliamentary debates right back in November 2002.
This is a dog-eared old book now and that is how their policies are too. They are a shame to this House. This minister has to convince this parliament that he has the confidence to be able to continue in this area. This minister has to at least bring to this debate some justification why he would have done such a foolish thing, and this minister has to convince this House that the new, wonderful path that has been embarked on by this government differs, and is better for that difference, from that which was walked hitherto.
Mr WOOD (Nelson): Mr Acting Deputy Speaker, after listening to other speakers, I feel like I am going to give a response to the CLP’s policy on horticultural production in the Northern Territory. That disappoints me because I was hoping to stand here today to contribute to something in which I have a background. It is extremely disappointing to see this statement as it is.
I realise that the minister has to take the blame, but you would have to wonder, when the Chief Minister’s staff is up to about 270 people, surely there would be someone on that staff who could write a new horticultural statement. Horticulture is a dynamic industry. It is moving and changing all the time. I could write a different statement on horticulture every year in the Northern Territory because it is always changing. It is a pity to see something that has been regurgitated. It certainly has facts in it which are accurate, but those facts, in many cases, have just being substituted in the right place. They have used someone else’s statement and made it up to date in some cases.
Minister, I am very disappointed. I remember standing in this parliament during the parliamentary accounts committee saying that I believed certain ministers changed the budget, and I probably would have lived with that budget if there had been some small explanations at the bottom of the budget saying why they did it. I now have a document which makes no note that this ministerial statement has come from someone else, substantially. I am not saying the facts are wrong. I am just saying that I went through with the biro, ticked off paragraph after paragraph after paragraph which matched this particular statement.
It is disturbing. I would expect any government, when they produce a document for this parliament, to do it in a professional manner. We have just seen the Auditor-General’s report. You would expect whatever you are reading there to be exactly what you should be reading, that it has come from this Auditor-General, not some other Auditor-General. I really am deflated. I was looking forward to a productive discussion on horticulture because it is, for me, a vital industry for the Northern Territory.
It is not just a vital industry; it is an industry that needs care. It needs to be developed carefully. There are many issues and problems with horticulture. Anyone who has followed the history of horticulture would remember the days when the rockmelon industry was booming, especially around Santavan Station just south of Noonamah, and then it crashed. I think it crashed in Katherine at the same time. Some of those were insect problems, some were poor management problems, like people putting fruit into the market too early and giving the Territory a bad name. They are slowly coming back now and it has taken a long time for that to happen.
We all know the destruction of the Northern Territory banana industry by the importation of something which carried Panama disease. Bananas were a great crop with so much potential for the Northern Territory. Anyone who had been to Lambells Lagoon and seen the millions that were poured into the new banana developments would say: ‘What a crying shame to see all that collapse’. There have been farms out at Middle Point. I have been going there since the late 1970s, early 1980s. They are now all going out of business. Why? Because of one disease that came in.
I would have liked to have seen in this discussion some of the down sides as well as the good sides. I am not here to knock horticulture, but I would have thought that a statement today about horticulture would look at a lot more issues than what is in here. Disease is a major issue for the Northern Territory horticultural industry. Look at white fly and cucumbers. It wiped them out. Look at the coconut leaf beetle. It did a lot of damage to coconut trees. There is a mango flower caterpillar which causes massive problems in the mango industry unless sprayed. We had citrus canker. People will remember when there was a quarantine at Lambells Lagoon, someone brought in some citrus. We have snake bean wilt, which we never had before, I used to grow snake beans and could not get rid of them. Today, because the Asian vegetable industry is such a booming section of the horticulture industry, this is a major disease.
The Minister for Central Australia said we had fruit fly in the Northern Territory. People remember getting stopped just near Manton Dam and having all their fruit and vegetables removed. There was nothing worse than when I used to go down to my block of land at Adelaide River to slash the fire breaks and I would take my cut lunch with me. Well, you did not have a cut lunch anymore, especially if you had tomatoes or any fruit in it. It was all taken away unless you ate it on the spot. So, we had problems with horticultural diseases. I think government has to put a lot more effort into making sure that these diseases do not come in. And I am not saying they are, but I think it would have been an important area to develop in this statement. If you get disease, you do not have a horticultural industry.
Another area that has great potential is organic horticulture. There are quite a number of people growing organic fruit and vegetables. If you go to the Coolalinga Markets, which is my markets, they do very well. They sell as much local produce as they can produce, which is at times limited because of the seasons, and other times they import a lot of organic fruit and vegetables. But there are issues there on how you maintain land for organic horticulture. I know the new Litchfield area plan has looked at having land set aside for organic horticulture, but how do you maintain that land? How do stop someone using a pesticide or herbicide and ruining the standards that are needed to apply for you to sell your fruit and vegetables as definite organic produce? There are those issues with organic horticulture, but I do not see it get a mention here and it is something that we certainly need to look at.
Spraying controls is another issue in my electorate and, I would say, also the member for Goyder’s electorate. There is quite a lot of horticulture because, presently, horticulture is permitted on RL1, which is five acres or two hectares blocks, and also RL2, which is eight hectares or 20 acre blocks. However, there are certainly times when people get annoyed with a particular vegetable grower or mango grower sprays his neighbour out of existence, and that upsets people. There are plenty of good growers, but there are some people who do not always do the right thing. So there is an issue that can limit horticulture. Anyone who has been looking at the Litchfield area plan will see that the proposal is to now have horticulture as a consent use in some parts of Litchfield Shire.
Another area, of course, is water. I notice in here that the current trend of doubling the production value every five years is expected to continue. Well, you will only double production if you have enough water. We have to be very careful that we do not go down the path of all these great statements, unless we have water and good soil to do it with. They are grand statements, they sound good, but we have to make sure we have water.
I notice in these statements, and it is a peculiar statement but it slightly varies from Mr Palmer’s statement, and that is the section on Ti Tree. Mick Palmer’s statement says the following:
- There are some 14 000 megalitres of groundwater identified in this region …
Now, I was of the understanding, and correct me if I am wrong, but that water is not sustainable because it does not get recharged, it is in a desert area, where there is no rainfall. When I pick up the minister’s statement, it says on page 9:
- There is an estimated sustainable yield of 14 000 megalitres of ground water …
The minister may be correct, but that was not written in the previous statement and maybe since this statement was written, there have been more bores drilled and there is more understanding of the bore field, but I think that certainly would require an explanation. Much as I believe Ti Tree has a lot of potential, we also should be looking at it realistically and asking what its potential is for fifty years or a hundred years. Unless you can fill that aquifer up again with water, then that is the limitation for that area.
One area that perhaps gets missed out occasionally is, with the big growth in Asian vegetables, there has been a dropping-off in, you might say, non-Asian vegetables such as tomatoes, capsicums, cabbages, and lettuces. Whilst some of that still occurs in Katherine, it certainly has reduced in the Darwin region from what it used to be. Whether that is because of diseases - there are a couple of other diseases like Darwin leaf curl which has been a real problem with tomato growers and, of course, Fusarium wilt which has continued to make life very difficult for our tomato growers unless they use grafted varieties. That is an area I would have liked the minister to expand on to say what the future of those sort of crops is. They were big for a while in the Northern Territory. Adelaide River was probably the vegetable growing area of the Northern Territory for a long time. There was a man called Mr Di Cesare who passed away about a year ago. He used to grow large amounts of tomatoes and watermelons in Adelaide River. Adelaide River, of course, was famous for growing vegetables during the war.
Another issue that perhaps the government may not be aware of, but I have been told by the member for Daly and by other people from Katherine, is that the cane toads are having an effect on the horticultural production. What they are finding is that where people are laying the black plastic down for vegetables, in which they cut a hole and put in the seedling, it is a great place for a cane toad. He finds that a perfect place to sit there and enjoy the heat and the moisture with a drip irrigation system running underneath, and he eats the seedlings. So, believe it or not, cane toads are having an effect on horticultural production. What they are going to be able to do about them, I do not know. Certainly, if you put down a couple of thousand plants and find that only 500 come up, it is going to make life very hard if you are a vegetable grower.
Another area that could be looked at is planning controls on horticulture. I know that the government is looking at some of those things. Certainly, there has been some debate, especially in some parts of the Litchfield Shire, about the expansion of the horticultural production zone, or protection zone. Whilst I believe that is important, we have to be careful we do not stand on other people’s rights who have land zoned something else. There is tendency to believe that if your land is zoned HP, then you are really pushing to have any other form of living there. You can have other forms of occupation, but it sends out the message that if you are going to live in that area, well, look out, you are probably going to have to put up with horticultural production next door to you. The government needs to be very careful when it rezones private land, especially, into something else like horticulture.
There is some mention of education in the statement. My background is horticultural science. Although I have not looked at what horticultural diplomas are available at the present time, when I last had a look I felt that most of our education system was aimed at putting people on the land with enough knowledge so that they could go into the industry; which is fine. You certainly need education that goes down that way. However, it is time we advanced our horticultural education to a higher standard for people who want to look at the science of horticulture. If you are able to develop horticulture techniques, have people working in developing new varieties - in other words the science of horticulture - we need to take one step up. Our university certainly should be looking at having a degree in horticultural science. Associate diplomas are very good - I am not knocking those at all - but you need to take that extra step if we are to advance horticulture in the Northern Territory.
Horticulture is a difficult industry in a tropical climate like ours, It is very hot at certain times of the year - like at the present time – and it is very hard to grow vegetables, except perhaps Asian vegetables which seem to be able to manage to survive in this heat. Anyone who has tried to grow tomatoes, capsicums or even watermelons or other melons in the extreme heats of October/November finds it very difficult. You also have high intensive rainfall which can not only belt the living daylights out of a plant, it can also cause erosion and loss of nutrients. There are extremes in our northern climate. Luckily, in some of the parts of the southern climates, like Alice Springs, you have times of the year when you can grow all those crops.
Another issue that needs looking at, minister, is marketing. It seems to me, from reading the latest horticulture journal, that certainly there is move to try to help the marketing interstate The minister for DBIRD last year was looking at issues regarding wholesaling of mangoes in the market. I do not know if that has all been sorted out yet, but there were some fairly disgruntled people who found that their fruit would get down to interstate markets and not be handled in the right way, or the price could fairly variable. Some people have said that some of the practices of big supermarkets especially down south are certainly questionable in the way they can basically set the price for purchasing mangoes.
There are also issues for local growers. I have heard it said many times that if you want to sell something to Coles or Woolies today, not only do you have to fill out all this quality assurance paper work, you have to show how clean your shed is and what you sprayed with and all this sort of stuff. A lot of times the fruit goes south before it comes back to the north. There is certainly scope to try to make it easier for local growers to supply the bigger chains. A lot of people do not; a lot of people now go to the smaller supermarkets where they know they do not have to put up with all this extra paper work which is a cost to the grower. That is an issue that I would have liked to have seen in the statement; whether the government is working towards trying to make it easier for the growers to sell their produce.
They are all important issues. They are issues that if I was writing a ministerial statement on horticulture that I would have included. There is certainly plenty of good stuff in there. The sad thing is it does not come entirely from the minister. Much of it comes from a three year old ministerial statement. Having looked at it and compared it, I would find that I could not endorse the statement because it is not the minister’s statement. And that is just a simple matter of fact. It is not because I am biased against the minister or something. If the minister’s statement had said in the beginning it was using a substantial amount of information from a previous statement and it was added to it with some new figures, I would have said, ‘Okay, that’s fine’. But that has not happened. It has left me a little deflated and disappointed that the government would bring out a statement on such an important industry in the Northern Territory, one that many growers will read because it will end up in a horticultural magazine. And now, to have someone else’s name put on that would leave many growers very disillusioned as to whether the government is really serious about this industry. If it was serious it would have written a serious article.
I am afraid, Mr Acting Deputy Speaker, I cannot endorse this statement.
Mr ELFERINK (Macdonnell): Mr Acting Deputy Speaker, I also rise to speak on the contents of this statement. I say at the outset that I find the decision by the minister to engage in this particular behaviour reprehensible beyond words. I cannot imagine a more intellectually derelict thing ever happening in this parliament as this piece of larceny that we see before us. It is not just small bits; it is large bit of this statement. I have taken the time - I know that the member for Daly was pushed when he was thinking on his feet. I quote the minister now:
Madam Speaker, I rise today to present a statement on the rapidly expanding Northern Territory horticultural industry. Horticulture in the Territory has been growing at a rapid rate, doubling every five years for the past 20 years. All indications are that this trend will continue over the next five to 10 years.
I now quote from minister Palmer three years ago:
Mr Speaker, I rise today to present a statement on the expanding Northern Territory horticultural industry. Horticulture in the Territory has been growing at a rapid rate, doubling every five years for the past 20 years. All indications are that this trend will continue in the next five to 10 years.
I now turn to another area in this statement. I quote now the minister before the House today:
- With the maturing of new trees, the volume of mangoes may exceed 10 million trays within the next five to 10 years. The value of this sector could reach $150m to $200m with appropriate market development. Similar increases are expected in the table grape industry and a number of other horticulture industry sectors if current trends are sustained. Other industries such as citrus, bananas, nursery and cut flowers, Asian vegetables, dates, cashews, tropical exotic fruits all contribute on a small scale. Currently, Northern Territory horticulture industries produce some 30 000 tonnes per annum of perishable produce, and it is anticipated that in the next five to 10 years’ time, production may be between 200 000 and 300 000 tonnes.
I now quote from minister Palmer, three years ago:
- With maturing of new trees, the volume of mangoes may exceed 10 million trays within the next five to 10 years. The value of this industry could rival larger sectors of primary industry and may achieve a value of $150m to $200m with appropriate market development. Significant increases are expected in the table grape industry and a number of other horticultural industry sectors if current trends are sustained. Other industries such as citrus, bananas, nursery and cut flowers, Asian vegetables … cashews and tropical exotic fruits all contribute on a smaller scale at present. Currently, Northern Territory horticultural industries produce some 30 000 tonnes of perishable products per annum. It is anticipated that in five to 10 years production may be between 200 000 and 300 000 tonnes.
I now go onto another area, and quote from the minister today:
- In conjunction with Queensland DPI, RIRDC and Cadbury Schweppes, my department is also looking at identification and development of new crops in the Territory such as cocoa. By combining the resources of various Australian and … some … international organisations, my department is able to keep up with new technology development and assist …
I quote from minister Palmer from three years ago:
- In conjunction with these agencies, DPIF is also looking at identification and development of new crops for the NT, such as cocoa.
He then goes on to say:
- By combining the resources of various Australian and, in some cases, international organisations, my department is able to keep up with … technology development and assist the NT … to be competitive.
This is just straight off cut and paste lifting, so much so that the minister has forgotten to note that he does not have a department any more. To refer to a department in his statement indicates already that there is plain old cutting and pasting operating here. I am not going to be anywhere near as gracious as the other members and suggest that this speech was written for the minister. The minister comes in here and applies his name to this. He says: ‘I.’ ‘I move that the statement be noted. I bring this statement to the House’. The use of that particular perpendicular pronoun means that he takes ownership of it.
Territorians did not vote for a speech writer. Territorians did not vote for somebody upstairs on the 5th floor who sits at a desk in a public service or advisory capacity. When somebody comes into this Chamber and says something, by osmosis or directly, they take it on as their own. There is no way to back away from this and when this occurs, there is no excuse.
I recall about 12 months ago in academia at Monash University, a fellow, whose name escapes me, was caught plagiarising - and that is what exactly what this is - he was caught plagiarising. As a consequence, he had to resign because it was a total disgrace. His choice to engage in that particular intellectual black art cost him his job. The minister should be seriously considering his position at this time. I can tell you that if he is not pushed by the Chief Minister or if he chooses not to throw himself on his sword over this reprehensible piece of larceny, this government is going to be very sadly tainted. Believe you me, Mr Acting Deputy Speaker, more work will be done because if this is being repeated, then the declarations of honesty that this government hung its hat on while it was still in opposition are going to be meaningless …
Mr Ah Kit: And your contribution to horticulture?
This has to be the poorest piece of governance in the history of the Northern Territory. We had a candidate one or two elections ago who was caught doing this and he did not even get a look in as far as the voters were concerned. This guy has taken on an oath of office, and he has chosen to be a representative, a minister of the Crown, he represents the Queen. In the process of doing what he has done here today, he has engaged in disgracing his oath.
I am just mystified by what I have seen here today, and I think the minister has no choice but to step back from his position. If he does not choose to, then I think that the Chief Minister has no choice, because if the Chief Minister fails to act on this deception, then …
Members interjecting.
Mr ELFERINK: Mr Deputy Speaker, if the Chief Minister fails to act then they are also taking on responsibility for what has occurred here today. They may want to interject all they like but it does not get away from the guilt, and woe betide this government if any member opposite has engaged in exactly the same behaviour.
Ms CARNEY (Araluen): Mr Acting Deputy Speaker, my contribution will be slightly different from that of my colleagues, but can I say from the outset, and I have not seen Mick Palmer’s contribution, but if this statement today is similar, or copies much of the former minister’s statement, then clearly that is something that should not and does not impress me.
I enjoyed the contribution of the member for Nelson. He raised many good points. However, I also need to say that he will, no doubt, feel a bit deflated after some of the comments that I will make. I note from the statement, and because I do not have Mick Palmer’s statement I am unable to ascertain which part of the statement tabled today is this minister’s or a former minister’s, but I note expressions like: development of horticulture on Aboriginal land; dealing with the Central Land Council; having workshops in Alice Springs; how horticultural development has contributed significantly to economic activity in the Northern Territory; how important it is to employment opportunities and the industry generally; and how, this is at page 15:
- There are significant opportunities for Aboriginal employment in remote areas and there is a need to develop programs to train and retain Aboriginal people associated with commercial horticultural developments.
I could not agree with that statement more strongly. What was interesting, though, was that the minister did not refer to the fact that the horticultural section in the Alice Springs correctional facility has been closed.
I noted with interest how the Attorney-General spoke about mangoes, bananas, peanuts, grapes, and just about everything else, a man who is known for talking with some passion, I believe, about Aboriginal employment, Aboriginal development. Yet a man who is the Attorney-General in his own department, has apparently sanctioned the closure of the horticultural section inside the Alice Springs gaol. I have this information from prison officers. I sought confirmation this morning. I have that confirmation, it was e-mailed to me. I have no reason to doubt the advice I have been given that the horticultural section in the Alice Springs gaol has been closed.
In a statement about horticulture, the minister did not even refer to it. In a contribution from the Attorney-General, he talked about all and sundry, but he did not even refer to it. Now, for those members who have not seen the horticultural section of the Alice Springs gaol, I, unlike this minister, will quote from previous Hansard reports, because it is the most succinct way of describing the facility and, unlike this minister, I will attribute the comments to relevant members. In a speech made by the member for Greatorex on 15 August 2000, he says:
I know that in Alice Springs Centralian College provides the prisoners with many accredited courses, in particular horticulture.
He goes on to say:
It is important that our prisoners are given some sort of skill so that when they are released from gaol they are able to plug back into society and be gainfully employed.
Further, and the minister will note that I am attributing these parts of other Hansard. This is from 28 November 2000 and the member for Braitling had a bit to say. She said:
- Centralian College, in partnership with the Department of Correctional Services, delivers the horticultural program each weekday morning to students employed in the horticultural section at the Alice Springs Correctional Centre. The course includes such competencies as tractor operation, planting, maintaining and harvesting crops, use and handling of chemicals, and plant propagation. To complete Certificate 1, students undertake 120 hours of training. Certificate 2 entails a further 345 hours of training, so you can see it is a fully-accredited course.
The member for Braitling went on to comment on the garden plots at the horticultural centre. She commented that the prisoners were very proud of what they achieved and I will quote this bit:
- Talking to some of the prisoners, there was one gentleman from Yuendumu who said he was proud of what he had achieved and hopes when he goes back to his community that he will be able to get a market garden going. He will be able then, because he has his certificates, to train other people to carry on this work. There are enormous benefits for us if we can give these people, while they are in Correctional Services care, the opportunity to complete training and then have something they can take back to their communities.
I asked this morning for the annual report for the Department of Justice, and I obtained the annual report for 2001-02. There was no mention in there of the horticultural program. I suppose, on one analysis, there was a slight change of format so, in the overall scheme of things, perhaps that is not surprising, but disappointing anyway. We then went back to look at the annual report from the Department of Correctional Services 2000-01, and it refers to Certificate I and Certificate II in Horticulture.
Over and above my comments so far, I went out to the gaol when I had the shadow portfolio of Correctional Services before Correctional Services merged with the Department of Justice. I was shown around the Alice Springs prison, and the horticultural section was one of the best parts in the whole complex; it was fantastic. It was very clear that the prisoners learnt a lot and enjoyed it. It was one of the best kept gardens in Central Australia, in my view. So, this great facility has, without any publication of it by this government, closed. It is extraordinary - isn’t it - that in a statement on horticulture, the minister does not give an explanation as to why it was not closed and, indeed, the Attorney-General does not say why it was closed.
I look forward to the minister getting back to me on this in due course - either one of them - but I was told that the costs were between $60 000 to $80 000 for watering and for the officer to supervise, and that the department wanted to reduce costs. Well, I do not think that you can put a cost on - and I am parroting the language often used …
Dr Toyne: You are wrong, it is still out there. You have dug yourself another hole.
Ms CARNEY: … by members opposite - you cannot put a cost of indigenous employment or indigenous training. These are very valuable skills that are learnt by prisoners in the prison system. When we also consider that in June 2003, there is an indigenous prisoner rate of 82%, compared with 62% in June 2001, it necessarily follows that this is good for Aboriginal people.
I will repeat comments I made early on that this information came to me very recently. I sought confirmation from those on the ground in Alice Springs, and my advice is that the horticultural section has been closed. If either minister wants to assure me that that is not the case, I will be delighted, and I will report that to the particular person who has given me this information and seek his views.
In any event, that was the main point I wanted to make, and of course my comments are somewhat different from those of my colleagues, but it is fair to say that this is not a good day for the minister.
Mr McADAM (Barkly): Mr Acting Deputy Speaker, I rise to speak in relation to the ministerial statement on horticulture in the Northern Territory. Specifically, I will essentially refer to production or events that are occurring in my electorate, and, in particular Ali Curung which is approximately 170 km south of Tennant Creek. Members would be aware that as far back as the 1960s, Ali Curung was a very productive area in the production of vegetables and other products which were supplied to the Tennant Creek community, to the Tennant Creek shops and also to shops in Alice Springs.
It was appropriate that the previous member for Barkly and the previous Chief Minister was in the House here today. I had the opportunity to speak to him regarding the vegetable garden that was at Ali Curung at that time. I did not actually see it but certainly, the member for Barkly at the time, Mr Ian Tuxworth, did. He commented very highly in respect to its capacity to add to the community and also to the region.
It is now my belief that Ali Curung is ideally situated once again to become a major horticultural production area. Before I get accused of lifting stuff from previous speeches, I want to make it very clear that this was in part, part of a speech which I gave in this House previously. I said that Ali Curung is accessed by an all weather road. The Alice Springs to Darwin railway, or Darwin to Adelaide railway, is now complete and will provide a link in respect to the distribution of goods either to the south or to the north. Ali Curung, as most people know, is provided with power from Tennant Creek. It very obviously will benefit from a $9m power supply upgrade as recently announced by the minister in this House not too long back. The water supply in the area is huge in volume and it is suitable; I have been advised it is a renewable resource. The soils in the region are also very suitable in terms of growing products.
I have been very actively encouraging my colleague, the minister for primary industry, to look at further research including market research, which may lead to the establishment of a horticultural industry at Ali Curung. I am pleased to say that the minister has actively been involved in this process and has been very supportive. The minister is aware that clearly, in the long term, a strong horticultural industry will grow the local region and provide jobs, and more importantly, provide income for people who live in the Barkly.
Two weeks ago today, I was at Ali Curung as part of the swearing-in ceremony. I must say that the community was very energised and very keen in respect of perhaps the development of a new horticultural industry. It is important to understand that Ali Curung is a community that has been very active in terms of its law and order strategy and I am pleased that they are now looking at economic development opportunities or outcomes which are going to benefit their place.
The important thing about the Ali Curung project is that - it is probably not appropriate for me to say too much at this point because they are coming to Darwin either tomorrow or the day after, and I know that they are talking to people involved in the private sector in respect of production at their community. I know that they are talking about mangoes. I know that there is maybe some potential, some capacity. I am no expert in this field but my understanding is that mangoes probably ripen a little later than in the Darwin area and clearly they are looking at being able to supply the market down south after the Darwin season is complete. The important thing in this exercise is that Ali Curung, as I understand it, will be putting up a substantial amount of their own money. As I mentioned, they are looking at some sort of joint arrangement with the private sector, with perhaps the private sector managing it, and the community will receive a percentage return in respect of profits. They would also be gainfully employed. Again, it is early days, but my understanding is that approximately 20 jobs could be created on a continual basis, and possibly 200 to 250 jobs during the season.
I also take this opportunity to comment briefly on some other small communities in my region that are also expressing interest in horticultural production. I refer to David Curtis who has a small block approximately four or five kilometres west of Wauchope. I visited there about two months ago and spoke to Jenny Purdie, the regional manager in the Tennant Creek office, about David’s aspirations for horticultural production. A team has gone down to do a preliminary assessment. Obviously, there is a long way to go, but it is indicative of small communities in places like the Barkly and, indeed, other parts in the Northern Territory wanting to get into horticultural production. It is also indicative of people like Jenny Purdie who are very active in the provision of support.
There is another small community, Mungkarta, about 75 km south of Tennant Creek and a few kilometres west of the Stuart Highway. That community has also expressed interest in growing citrus and mangoes. I do not have the expertise to know whether those crops will be suitable, but the point is that the communities are very keen. They want to do something. I know that the minister’s department and people like Jenny Purdie will do all that they can to assist these people.
About seven or eight kilometres to the north of Tennant Creek, there is a small community known as Witten, which is occupied by the Crafter family and the Ah Kit family. They are seeking advice in relation to small-scale production of vegetables. I am not too sure what they are, but I did want to mention them because it is indicative of the potential capacity in respect of horticulture in the Barkly. More importantly, there is a willingness on the part of indigenous people to make a go of it.
It is also worth noting that there are a number of artesian basins in the Tennant Creek region. I do not know them all, but there are the Wiso Basin, the Georgina and a few others. Information that I have received before, and have mentioned it in this House, indicates that it has an untapped ground water potential to irrigate some 25 000 hectares of land at around about 10 megalitres per hectare per year. I have also seen calculations in documentation that indicate that this water could be sustainable for at least 100 years without impacting on the existing ground water, and would not exceed 80% of the aquifer stage. Clearly, it would have to be properly managed, but that is the type of information now being produced about the potential for the Barkly to become involved in this industry.
I was General Manager of Julalikari Council from 1995 to 1997, and it was always something that the organisation wanted to have a look at in terms of growing a product that would be sustainable and would provide employment opportunities. I must say that at that time, the CLP administration never showed an ounce of interest. There was an absolute lack of interest; total neglect. In fact, when we approached them in regard to information, such as the water capacity, it was always said that there was no water, so forget it. It was disappointing and I think it certainly held back the aspirations of people and a potential industry.
I know that other producers have begun to approach government, and local authorities in the Barkly region, regarding the possibility of their expansion into our region. I extend an offer of support to any of those producers who wish to get involved, and very clearly would support their efforts. I also encourage other producers to contact Jenny Purdie, the regional manager in the Barkly region of the horticultural division of the Department of Business, Industry and Resource Development. Jenny has always been very helpful. She is a very integral driver in regards to the Barkly Blueprint, of which the horticultural industry is an integral and important component. As I say, feel free to contact Jenny Purdie.
I will also talk about some other land in Tennant Creek which I believe has the capacity to become a horticultural production area. There is a small block to the south of town - which is the block that I referred to previously when discussing a pilot horticultural project with the CLP with very little result - which now has potential to become a pilot project. I know the department is looking at it. I hope that possibly, in the not too distant future, it can act as a pilot project for horticultural production.
The other area which has immense potential is the Gilbert Swamp area, which is about 60 odd kilometres, maybe less, south of Tennant Creek. Much baseline data has been completed regarding water and soil quality, and all the other criteria which lends itself to be able to be sold to the private sector. When I say sold to the private sector, I am referring to the capacity in terms of an expression of interest, because I think sometimes it is not always governments who can deliver in terms of economic development. It is in circumstances like this that we should be encouraging the private sector, providing them with the relevant information and data, and then, of course, letting them make their judgement of whether or not it is viable to continue. I encourage the minister to give consideration to that type of approach and, hopefully, there could well be a very viable industry in that region.
In conclusion, despite what the opposition says in respect of the minister’s statement, I know the minister to be person of integrity and honesty, who has the interests of the Territory at heart, and I know that the minister will continue to operate in the same vein.
Mr Maley: We are not saying that.
Mr McADAM: Well, listen, member for Goyder. You are not exactly the right person to get up in this House and cast stones.
Mr Maley: I am not having a go at him personally, I am saying he got busted for copying the statement.
Mr McADAM: Well, it does not matter. The point I am trying to make is this, that you are hardly free of any flaws in respect to your operations.
Mr Dunham: Ooh! Personal!
Mr McADAM: It is not a matter of being personal. All that I said was ‘He is not free of any flaws’. That is not personal.
Mr BONSON (Millner): Madam Speaker, I reply to the minister’s statement on horticulture in the Territory. We have heard today about a range of horticultural projects and plans, all of which have the potential to earn income and create jobs for the Territory. However, the work does not stop there. Another important element of the work that this government is doing in support of horticulture is in protecting our industry from potential damaging pests and diseases that could impact negatively on horticulture ventures.
Pilot projects to test the feasibility of suppressing and possibly eradicating Queensland fruit fly populations in Alice Springs under local conditions, by releasing sterile males, without the prior use of chemicals, commenced in late July 2003. The suppression program is testing our ability to use, to our advantage, the relatively harsh central Australian winter conditions, when fruit fly numbers are already low. The expectation is that the existing fruit fly population in Alice Springs will be suppressed or greatly reduced when the sterile males breed with the wild female flies, and results to date have been positive.
Prior to commencement, lure traps were placed uniformly to monitor the populations of wild and sterile flies after release. Some traps had been in place for more than three years. The intended outcomes of the pilot program are testing the techniques of receiving sterile pupae; rearing the pupae to adults and releasing them; monitoring the dispersion and longevity of sterile flies in Central Australia; engendering industry and local residents’ support for a proposed eradication program in Alice Springs and Tennant Creek; producing data indicating the likely success or failure of the program; and providing a basis to assess an eradication program against Queensland fruit fly in Central Australia.
The public launch of the pilot program took place in Alice Springs on 11 August 2003, with considerable media and public interest. A total of 29 million sterile flies were released in an area to the east of the Todd River, including a buffer area to reduce the influx of wild flies from the western part of the township. Over the eight week period from early August to late September, premier results indicate that many of the technical details related to the receipt, rearing and release of sterile flies have been clarified and tested; trap placements and efficiency have been satisfactory; and numbers of captured of wild and sterile flies fluctuated in response to local weather conditions, which will provide a very warm winter conducive to fly survival, breeding and dispersal.
There were widespread interest in the program by residents in the treated area and by the local media. There has been considerable national and international interest in the concept of using sterile flies at the end of the winter for the eradication of isolated urban fly populations from interstate primary industry government departments and overseas agencies. Further monitoring of data analysis of results is continuing in order to assess the likely success of a major eradication program.
I now turn to another disease eradication program designed to protect another horticultural activity - the eradication of grapevine leaf rust through Darwin and Palmerston. Teams have completed surveys of 67 978 households in Darwin and Palmerston. Surveying has now been completed with only follow-ups remaining. Six hundred and seven grapevines have been located to date, 287 grapevines have been removed, with 266 of these being positive to grapevine leaf rust, and the remainder being volunteered for removal.
The Grape and Wine Research Development Corporation has provided indicative advice that the phase 2 application for $100 000 is approved. The out-of-session primary industry standing committee paper has been approved for ongoing funding and cost-sharing arrangements between the states and the Commonwealth for the 2003-04.
The DBIRD officers involved in both of these worthy programs deserve our thanks and support for their ongoing work. They are at our front line in our battle against damaging horticultural pests and disease, and I know all members will join me in thanking them for their efforts. Madam Speaker, I support the horticultural ministerial statement.
Mr BURKE (Opposition Leader): Madam Speaker, I will make a couple of comments in closing with regards to this ministerial statement. I do not want to dwell on what has happened today, just to simply emphasise the seriousness with which the opposition views what has been presented in the Chamber today. We have a clear case of plagiarism, not only from a minister of the government but from a person who comes from a background of academia. I imagine a person who bears such credentials after his name, who proudly proclaim those credentials, who might even be, would undoubtedly be a person - he definitely would have marked students’ papers and I would imagine, I do not have the reference on me, but I am sure that there is a reference in the code of conduct at the Northern Territory University dealing with the aspect of plagiarism. I imagine it would have something to do with the word dismissal for someone who is caught guilty of plagiarism.
I know that certainly from a military background that when I taught at the Navy Staff College that a person who presented a paper at the Navy Staff College which contained quotes in that paper that were not attributed to the original author, generally had their bags packed and were gone within two hours. That was simply the code of conduct that existed at that particular establishment.
I guess the first thing the minister can do in his reply is address the central issue and that is that ministerial statements are important. We have heard allegations in this House on many occasions about the opposition not taking the business of parliament seriously enough. The Leader of Government Business is quick to go on air, on radio, or whatever, if he does not believe the numbers that the opposition has in parliament are sufficient and making allegations about not taking this parliament seriously. But, probably, one of the most important issues that comes before the parliament are ministerial statements. The opposition does not have a large amount of time to research those statements. We work on the fact that they come from basis of professionalism and, dare I say, integrity. And that is that the people who present those statements are firstly presenting them in their current capacity as the minister in charge of that department and they are reporting on events which are truly theirs or if not, are reporting in that ministerial statement in a way that is factual and people can easily say they are either talking about the past or they are talking about the present.
In this ministerial statement presented today, it is appalling in the way not only that it has been presented but in the way it purports to show what is happening in the minister’s office is current and is attributed to the work of his office and him as the minister. I will give you one example, and it sticks out glaringly because one would have thought the Labor government, when it deals with the land councils and Aboriginal issues, would have made some progress and would be able to give some indication of initiatives that have occurred in their time in government and reporting on those particular issues. If you look at the minister’s statement, it says:
- To date, development of horticulture on Aboriginal land has been slow, however this is now changing with recognition of diminishing water resources in southern Australia and identification of new markets. [My] department … assisted the Central Land Council in conducting two workshops, in Alice Springs and Tennant Creek, to document all available resource information on soil, groundwater, power and roads.
and it goes on. If you look at the ministerial statement delivered by minister Palmer in November 2000, almost three years ago, it says:
- To date, development of horticulture on Aboriginal land has been slow. However, recent demand for horticultural technology has been on the increase. My department assisted the Central Land Council in conducting two workshops, in Alice Springs and Tennant Creek, to document all available resource information on soil, groundwater, power and roads.
Just one example, but an example of dishonesty and plagiarism that knows no bounds. I am sure the minister will be making some sort of excuse either if he does not have the courage to do it in this Chamber, or the courage to take the blame himself, to blame someone else for what has happened. The reality is that we deal with the issues that come before this Chamber. We expect the government to present issues with a sense of integrity. If the opposition is to treat the business of parliament seriously, we expect the government to properly use the time, resources, money and effort that have been put into making this parliament operate. What we have seen today is an example of appalling laziness and professional dishonesty.
One never likes to personally attack colleagues in this Chamber. I do not personally like it. However, the member for Johnston has established, over the last two years, a track record of being very quick to criticise, to throw interjections personally. You started off in really fine form, when you were the Chairman of the PAC, against Mike Reed. Whilst I do not have your comments verbatim, they were often of this vein: Reed did nothing illegal; I am not saying that, but it was immoral. Now, Dr Burns, with a scientific background, with a background of so-called integrity and professionalism, what goes around comes around. When you come into this House and start throwing allegations about other members of this House …
Mr AH KIT: A point of order, Madam Speaker. The Leader of the Opposition knows that standing orders requires him to address his remarks through the Chair.
Mr BURKE: Madam Speaker, I will do that. I make this point, and I will not labour it: what goes around comes around. Dr Burns has set himself up beautifully today …
Mrs AAGAARD: A point of order, Madam Speaker. The Leader of the Opposition would be aware that we are not supposed to use members’ names; we are supposed to use the names of electorates.
Madam SPEAKER: Yes, refer to the member or the minister.
Mr BURKE: The member for Johnston, who carries many credentials, one in front of his name as a doctor, and others referring to his academic qualifications, far more than many other people in our community and far more than me, but others of us would not stoop to this sort of stuff. Whether it is his efforts personally or by someone else, the buck stops with the minister. This is a statement delivered by the minister. It is the minister’s statement, and the minister takes ownership of it from go to woe. Minister, this is not your statement. This is a statement delivered by minister Palmer in November 2000. You have not updated it one bit except for a couple of changes in terms of production of different fruits and vegetables.
Madam Speaker, with those few words, I say that if the opposition is to take the business of this House seriously, the least we expect is some sense of integrity and honesty from the government ministers involved.
Mr MALEY (Goyder): Madam Speaker, I feel compelled to put a few comments on the record. The area this statement attempts to address is crucial to my electorate. Horticultural production will eventually become, if not a cornerstone of the Northern Territory, a huge income earner. The amount of resources, effort and enterprise that goes into developing all of the horticultural production activity across the Territory, particularly in the rural area, is enormous and growing. We are only just beginning to tap these huge markets.
It is an important portfolio. One you would think the Martin Labor government would take seriously, and one that the Northern Territory people, at the last election, trusted that this new government would take seriously and give some priority.
A ministerial statement is an opportunity for the government to present a snapshot of the portfolio area being addressed. This should be a snapshot of horticultural production in the Territory. With the enormous resources the government has, and the minister, at the top of that department, it is an opportunity for the minister to articulate what is happening in the area, to put it into Hansard, and for members of the community to then access it, and they rely upon some of the things that are said here. People who are looking at getting into the industry, who are researching it, will look at what the minister says, because it is a reasonable assumption to make, that the type of things that the minister says would be up-to-date, accurate, well-researched, and something that you could reasonably rely upon. Well, it is, quite frankly, embarrassing. It is embarrassing that this important area has been treated with such contempt.
Members interjecting.
Mr MALEY: There are a few little interjections coming across the Chamber. It is pretty hard to have a reasonable interjection when, let us face it, the fact is, you have a minister of the Crown, who has taken a statement from another minister some three years ago, a bit of a jig here and a jig there, stood up in this House and said, ‘This is my work. I am going to read this out. This is a snapshot of horticultural production in the Northern Territory. This is where we stand. I am a good minister, I work hard, I am on top of my portfolio, this is what is happening’. It is completely unacceptable to merely parrot someone else’s statement without attributing or giving credit where credit is due. There are, admittedly, some minor changes, but overwhelmingly, the statement is identical. It just reeks of double standards. It is a classic ‘do what I say but do not do what I do’.
The minister should be apologising to the Northern Territory people. The minister should be apologising to all those involved in horticultural production in the Northern Territory. He should be apologising that, for whatever reason, and I look forward to seeing what sort of a response he has, but whatever the reason, the minister has decided not to take this portfolio seriously. He has not got across the subject matter, because this is, effectively, three years old, with a couple of minor changes. There is nothing of any real substance which a person reading would think, wow, this is up to date, this is an accurate snapshot. We have the situation where there is a cross section of the community, or the Northern Territory people, who have put their trust in this government, and once again that trust has been betrayed, and this is an example. If they are not copying their champagne-swilling, socialist brothers from Canberra, it seems they are regurgitating old CLP ministerial statements. We have not seen any initiative. We have not seen anything which would instil confidence in this sector.
We know there is going to be, it seems, a fairly average mango season, so it is a time for a bit of leadership, a time for a bit of lateral thinking, and it is just disappointing. It is disappointing that this particular minister, whom I do have a fair bit of regard for, would actually do this. It really boils down to an abuse of the trust which Territory people placed in the Martin Labor government and probably, more specifically, the abuse of the trust which the people who are in, and work in, private enterprise in the horticultural industry have placed in this minister. It is disappointing. This demonstrates that the Martin Labor government is a sham. I just hope that the minister has the courage and the fortitude to stand up and apologise for what he has done, and do it sincerely.
I have not seen many other government ministers jumping to his defence - surprise, surprise. Let us just see whether he has the courage to say that he has done the wrong thing here, and be sincere and frank about it.
Dr BURNS (Primary Industry and Fisheries): Madam Speaker …
Dr Lim: Mea culpa, he says, mea culpa.
Dr BURNS: I do not know what you have to be sorry about, but maybe you can tell us later.
Madam Speaker, there have been some very serious allegations raised here today. The primary allegation is that the statement given by Mick Palmer some three years ago is basically word for word, in entirety, in toto, of what is being delivered here today. I will detail the major differences between the statement that Mick Palmer gave in the year 2000, I think it was, and the one that I have delivered here today. In the hysteria here and the over the top attempt to somehow label me as a plagiarist, there has been quite an element of truth missing from the other side. I suggest that they follow what I say here very closely and listen to what I have said; we have had very serious allegations.
I will not deny that there are portions of my statement here that are very similar - and some of them identical - to the statement delivered by Mr Palmer a couple of years ago. That is not surprising. Basically, the same person who did supply material to Mick Palmer in 2000, supplied material for my statement here today. I have incorporated that into my statement. Therefore, there is no plagiarism here, in that the original author within the department is the same person who wrote Mick Palmer’s statement and wrote mine. This contention and allegation of plagiarism is completely misplaced.
I really challenge those - there are probably two-and-a-half on the other side, or three-and-a-half on the other side who were ministers in the previous government - to give an iron-clad guarantee that every paragraph and every sentence that they gave in ministerial statements were not the same, or identical, or similar, to statements made by previous ministers. There were reshuffles within the previous government. I do not think you could give that iron-clad guarantee. In fact, I am sure you cannot. I completely refute the allegation of plagiarism.
You have to remember that we are looking at a continuum; we are looking at history. The horticulture industry suddenly just did not hatch in the last two years. There has been a continuum, and there been many fine people …
Members interjecting.
Dr BURNS: Madam Speaker, I will continue. It is a continuum; there is history to this. There is history within the department. There are long-serving officers who have been integrally involved in the development of horticulture in the Territory, and we should be proud of those officers. I am certainly proud of those officers, and I trusted the advice that they gave to me.
Mr Baldwin: They expect more from their minister!
Dr BURNS: Will you have the common decency, member for Daly, to let …
Mr Baldwin: Shameful, shameful! Not while you are standing and talking.
Dr BURNS: Madam Speaker, I would like the courtesy of being able to speak without continual interjections from the member Daly, who had his chance to contribute. I ask that there should be some decorum in terms of my reply.
Mr Baldwin: You know the seriousness of your actions.
Madam SPEAKER: Order, order! Minister, you have the floor.
Dr BURNS: Madam Speaker, there is a continuum; there is a history. What I presented here today in my report, yes, contained elements of a report about the current state of the horticulture industry. What Mick Palmer would not have reported on in 2002 - unless he was some Nostradamus - was the state of flowering of mango trees in 2003 and the outlook for the harvest. All of that is implicit; all of that is in there. Yes, the products that I have named and their GVP, yes, they are probably in the same order, but the actual totals are different.
I would have thought members from the other side would have been interested in the outlook for the table grape industry in terms of how much was going to be produced this year, particularly after the poor year last year with the rain spoiling the crop. Instead of taking that on board as a report of the state of horticulture, the outlook for our products, they seize on it and allege some form of plagiarism. I completely rebut that; there are significant differences.
There are significant differences between what minister Palmer laid on the Table a few years ago and what I am talking about here. I have already mentioned predictions about crops, particularly the mango crop. The TropHort initiative is not mentioned in minister Palmer’s statement because it is something that has happened and been signed-off since I have been minister for primary industries. I was very proud to be at the signing of that agreement; an agreement between the department, an agreement between the university and an agreement with CSIRO. A very significant agreement that binds up research, it binds up disseminating the knowledge through extension, it binds up a whole issue to do with marketing. It is a very important step forward for the horticulture industry and the horticulture industry association is a partner within that TropHort initiative.
I will keep on detailing the changes within minister Palmer’s speech and the statement that I gave today, and I will repeat it again. Yes, there are similarities. Yes, there are parts that are the same, but I will point to the fact that the advice is coming from the same office that it came to minister Palmer has come to me, but there are significant differences.
I mentioned the marketing initiative within my ministerial statement and the code of practice. Once again, that was something that I was asked to open. That is a very important initiative from mango growers and it is actually leading the way in agricultural production, production of fruit and vegetables, and marketing of fruit and vegetables. It acknowledges the fact, and the ACCC has commented on this, that there are some dodgy practices going on within marketing of produce that is sent from the Territory to southern states, and there is manipulation of the markets. So, this code of practice and its development, that is something that has occurred under this government. So, take that on board. There is another significant difference that you did not even want to address. A very significant difference that will hopefully get more fairness and equity within the market and better return to our Northern Territory mango growers. I am very pleased to be part of that.
In the statement that I delivered today, I talked about some initiatives regarding, particularly, the mango crops and coordinating labour and logistics - very important. That is another significant difference. Since I came into this portfolio probably nearly a year ago now, I have taken a very active interest in the horticulture industry and have visited and spoken with growers and producers on quite a number of levels. I visited Ti Tree and had discussions with the Table Grape Growers Association and I found out their problems. Their problems in terms of logistics, in terms of power reticulation, in terms of a whole of range of issues, in terms of their representation within the horticulture industry. I have been very engaged with the table grape growers.
I have also been briefed in relation to the research effort at the Coastal Plains Research Centre, and some very important projects to do with tropical fruit, tropical flowers, and the cocoa project. So, there is some great thing that I talked about the cocoa project which has been an ongoing project that is involved the department, the Queensland Department of Primary Industries and Cadbury Schweppes. That is an ongoing project and a very good project.
I did not can what the previous government did in my statement. I would see this government …
Members interjecting.
Dr BURNS: No, no. I would see this government as building on that and I will talk about exactly …
Members interjecting.
Dr BURNS: I will talk about the initiatives of this government as well. In the statement, there were no adverse words about the previous government.
But I will now, on one particular issue. Yes, Mick Palmer in his statement did mention the CLC and the development of horticulture on Aboriginal lands, but nowhere in his statement did he mention employment and training of Aboriginal people. Nowhere in his statement. They did not really exist in terms of employees, in terms of people who needed training and development. No, no, it was all about, ‘Let’s open up that land. Let’s pour the water on it and let’s see what we can get out of it’. That was the attitude of the previous government. This government has a different attitude towards Aboriginal people. We work in collaboration, in partnership with them. We recognise their rights. We recognise their potential and we will work with them to develop the horticulture industry within the Northern Territory.
Members interjecting.
Dr BURNS: If you want to look for a difference, that is a major difference in what I said here today and what Mick Palmer said in 2000.
Members interjecting.
Madam SPEAKER: Order! Minister, just cease for a moment. That is enough.
A member interjecting.
Madam SPEAKER: Order, thank you! Minister.
Dr BURNS: Madam Speaker, the banana industry is a significant industry, and they have taken a big hit over Panama disease. I was pleased to go there and find out about their research for new varieties that are resistant to Panama disease. That is an exciting project. Yes, it did start some time ago, but government maintains its contribution to that. I maintain my support for that. I have offered to meet with the executive body of the banana growers because I recognise them as a very important group. I recognise the potential of banana growing within the Northern Territory, the importance of the research they are doing and the very fact that industry is contributing heavily to that research.
I have taken an active interest in cut flowers. I have met growers and found out about their problems. I have endeavoured to address some of those issues.
Coming back to mangoes, I was very pleased to be part of an opening ceremony down at Perkins Shipping last year for special containers to transport mangoes to Singapore; a step forward in controlled conditions for exports.
There is plenty happening. As a minister, I am engaged and am very interested in what is happening within the horticulture industry. I will move on to individuals’ contributions soon, but we are engaged and interested. We are investing in horticulture. I have spoken a number of times in this place about the $6.2m that PowerWater will spend on re-use of effluent in Alice Springs. That is significant for the development of horticulture, as is what the member for Millner was talking about, the eradication of the fruit fly and the trials that are going on. I met with the growers in Ti Tree, and they raised it with me as a major issue that had to be overcome for the development of the horticultural industry in Central Australia. I went back to the department and basically pushed that project. Now it is happening. The eradication of fruit fly is a very important development for Central Australia to further the development of horticulture in that region. I will take some credit for that. I took it on board and I have been able to deliver for those growers in Central Australia.
I turn to issues that individual members raised. The member for Araluen raised the issue of horticulture programs in Alice Springs gaol. I am informed that she is incorrect in claiming that the horticulture programs at Alice Springs prison have been closed. The extensive horticulture area for low security prisoners is still functioning at the cottages, along with the chook farm, the farm area outside the prison walls is also functioning. The small garden plots in the medium security area have been closed because they were mainly worked on by Asian people smugglers and their numbers have dropped dramatically in recent times. The member for Araluen raised that issue and I place that on the record.
Ms Carney: Yes, thank you.
Dr BURNS: The member for Nelson raised some very important issues. He talked about the challenges of exotic diseases and, given the nature of horticulture and agriculture in the Territory, that is an ongoing battle. I have every confidence in the department, in the research and extension work they are doing, in endeavouring to address those disease issues as best they can. It is a given that as farming becomes more intensive - you mentioned snake beans as an example – the difficulties become quite heavy.
He also mentioned the issue of sustainability of water and water use. That is a very important issue. Certainly, this government has talked about development being sustainable, and water is part of that. We are going to have to have a good look at water sustainability issues all over the Territory if we are not to fall into the same trap that southern states have fallen into with their major river systems. We need to do that, and we need to look, particularly in desert areas, at it being a finite resource and we have to use it very judiciously.
The member for Daly raised a number of issues. In particular, he talked about the election promise of $2m for horticulture infrastructure. I am very aware of that election promise, and I would like to discharge that election promise. To lay it on the record, we have had extensive consultations with the horticulture industry. To be quite frank, there have been quite different opinions within the horticulture industry about how that $2m should be spent. I can assure the House that currently there are a number of proposals resting with Treasury and primary industries and there is some work going on there. It is a difficult one, but I intend, as Minister for Primary Industry and Fisheries, to work through that particular issue.
Mr Dunham: Is that a yes or a no?
Dr BURNS: We will discharge our election promise as best we can.
Mr Dunham: Discharge a promise, like discharging a jury?
Dr BURNS: The thing is, we need agreement. We are a government that believes in consultation with people. The member for Daly raised a very good issue in that there is existing infrastructure in the Katherine area, and it is how best to integrate any further infrastructure on what exists. Also, with the railway coming through, and trying to attract produce and other things from Kununurra and the Ord River Scheme. So, yes, I am addressing it, member for Drysdale.
In conclusion, Madam Speaker, first of all, I believe that I have rebutted the arguments about plagiarism, about being dishonest, about not holding parliament in esteem. Of course I hold parliament in esteem. The statement I gave today outlined the outlook for the industry, it outlined some of the history, and that is a very necessary thing to do, and it foreshadowed the future.
If we are talking about the future, I have already talked about the $6.2m re-use of effluent from the Ilparpa Swamp, and the fruit fly. I will come back to our economic development strategy. The previous government really did not have an overarching framework for the development of major industries within the Territory, but we did it. We did it with consultation - extensive consultation - with the community and the industry sectors. We also put time lines to it, and put some detail into it: prepare and implement strategic plans, basically for the horticulture industry; establishing best practice; using public and private partnership models; so it is there. We have also released the Katherine Regional Development Strategy, which also includes some detailed statements about horticulture in that region.
Madam Speaker, I commend this statement to the House.
Motion agreed to; statement noted.
ADJOURNMENT
Mr AH KIT (Sport and Recreation): Madam Speaker, I move that the Assembly do now adjourn.
I rise tonight to farewell a true Territorian sporting legend in Terry Lew-Fatt, who passed away on 28 August 2003. Terry was born in 1937, the eldest of Monica and Walter Lew-Fatt’s 10 children, and spent most of his life in Darwin. He later married Betty in 1965, and they had two wonderful children, Mark and Vanessa.
There is so much that can be said about Terry Lew-Fatt and his contribution, to not only the work force in the Northern Territory but, especially, the mark he left with his sporting prowess. That was not just in regard to Terry himself. The whole of the Lew-Fatt family were very skilled athletes; they played basketball, Aussie Rules - especially the boys - and Rugby League. I can remember as a young person at Stuart Park and growing up in Parap camp that Gympie Lew-Fatt - Clifford as he is known by his proper Christian name - excelled in boxing, Aussie Rules, Rugby League, and soccer - whatever he took to he did well. Most of the Lew-Fatt family did that; it was a trade mark of their upbringing. Terry was the eldest, as I said, and he was excellent.
I attended the service at the Uniting Church in Darwin, and there was some lovely contributions in the reflections that the family had organised. They were given by Camille Lew-Fatt; Terry’s aunty, Joan Butts from South Australia; Brian Dixon, another champion basketballer and footballer who came from Tennant Creek; Keith Kemp - Keith and Vic Ludwig both with OAM attached to their names and both worthy of that; and John Bonson provided some really good reflections about Terry and his attributes and the way he conducted himself in the sporting arena.
Sport in general is richer for knowing Terry. He excelled, as I said, at basketball, Aussie Rules, and later in life he was so uncanny that he took up bowls and won a couple of championships at the Nightcliff Bowls Club. Terry had a real bag of tricks when playing basketball. He styled his game around the Harlem Globetrotters. He always drew a crowd. I actually saw Terry when he played matches. He was very good in that he was able to represent the Territory on numerous occasions. At the recent Heads of Delegation meeting I met with Joao Carrascalao who was representing East Timor. We had a conversation about Terry’s passing and Joao remembered the way Terry excited the crowds when he played basketball for the Northern Territory against East Timor in the 1960s. The locals were in absolute awe of his fancy dribbling skills, his accurate passing with speed, and his shooting skills.
As a footballer, Terry will always be a local legend, especially at the St Mary’s Football Club. He won two Nichols Medals in 1958 and 1959, and was a seven time premiership player. Again, his superior skills around the ground were a real treat for the fans, and he approached his role as captain/coach with real pride.
In all his sporting pursuits, Terry should be best remembered for his sense of fair play. As far back as I can remember, firstly spotting Terry Lew-Fatt as a young person of five, six, seven years of age, ever remember Terry having a bad word about anybody, such was the gentleman that he was - a true gentleman; nature’s gentleman. His numerous individual and team awards were only possible through his great leadership and direction, not to mention his superior skills which allowed him to take his team that extra step when they needed to. Terry is a representative of the Darwin of old where sport was our entertainment and spectators flocked to various venues around Darwin on a weekly basis, not only to see great games but to catch up with family and friends on a social basis.
Terry had a wonderful love of life and his family were a special part of this love of life. Terry, in later years, gave up his work as a carpenter. Actually, he used to work with some of the Bonson family and other friends and they helped each other build their houses around the Nightcliff area. They did their apprenticeships through, I think it was called AW4 back in the carpentry and timber and joinery area, at the old 2 Mile Transport and Works workshop. Later on, Terry became an employee of the Northern Land Council. I used to catch up with him and have some really good yarns about the Darwin of old and where we are heading today.
As I have said, Terry was nature’s true gentleman. He was an excellent sportsman and an excellent contributor to the Northern Territory and its way of life. To all of his family, without mentioning them individually, and to Vanessa and Mark, I trust they will take comfort that the memory of their father is etched in Darwin history. May he rest in peace.
Members: Hear, hear.
Mr AH KIT: Mr Deputy Speaker, while I am here there are a couple of issues I just wanted to raise when people opposite talk about credibility and integrity. I have before me a copy of the Macdonnell Messenger. I had that sent up to me from Central Australia and it is very, very cunningly put together. It is a credit, I suppose, to the way it has been organised.
Members interjecting.
Mr AH KIT: You can have copies of it if you wish. It has been crafted to get across these messages. We talk about credibility, we talk about integrity, we see these accusations levelled at our colleague. He put them back in their box because they were belting up another public servant. You have priors for that, and you want to cut it out.
Members interjecting.
Mr AH KIT: Those public servants have families and those public servants vote, so you remember that, and remember, you did not go too well on the weekend.
Now, the Macdonnell Messenger. He says here:
- It is important that you know what is happening in your community. These are some of the things that will be coming your way soon. The government has called for tenders or advised the public that this work is coming: Haasts Bluff, Areyonga, Hermannsburg, Wallace Rockhole, Kintore, bitumen seal and airstrip, put in electrical pumping system for bores, new bore, upgrade sewerage, new crossing at Finke River …
He goes on. It is all under this guise of ‘I am a part of government, so I am delivering.
These works in your community are part of government’s responsibility to you. This work would be worth well over $1m. This money is being spent so you can have better health and lives.
Well, he does not stand up here and defend these same people that he is sending this out to! What is he saying here? He wants to send copies of his Hansard, talking about Aboriginal people, the biggest real estate owners, about the Jihad, about how these people do not use their land properly. He cannot have it both ways. He needs to understand that. What he has to understand is that he sends this out and that these people are not silly!
I will go back and pull out some of those transcripts of Hansard and we will revisit those. We will send those off too. People need to understand that this is a person who stands in here, on the one hand he has a shot at the indigenous people in his electorate and elsewhere across the board, and then on the other, he sends a newsletter out, the Macdonnell Messenger, under a guise of him doing lots of things for those voters of his.
So do not come bouncing in here and talk about integrity and about people should be resigning and the Chief Minister should be sacking ministers.
I can also tell the member for Drysdale that in respect to his comment about playing the race card, you have priors for playing the race card. You have priors, especially – not the faction that has been separated off, the one that votes against Denis, that area there on the left.
The minister made a statement. Employment and training was not seriously addressed, if at all. That is a fact. Read it in minister Palmer’s horticultural statement at the time. You ought to be careful when you make those sorts of statements, as I said to the member for Drysdale, because you do have priors. You have priors in regards to the Arafura by-election. What did you have? Don’t vote for the non-ceremonial person.
Mr Dunham: No, not true.
Mr AH KIT: Yes, you did. You went out there and said, ‘Don’t vote for the non-ceremonial person; vote for the ceremony man, our candidate, Bernard Tipiloura’. That is what you said.
Mr Dunham: Yes. What’s wrong with that?
Mr AH KIT: And then you followed that up - what’s wrong with that? There you go! He is admitting to it. You do have priors. Then you went out to Arnhem in the by-election and said: ‘Don’t vote for the yellow fella’.
Mr Dunham: No, no, no, no! Not mine.
Mr AH KIT: Ah! Well, Phillip Mitchell, the member for Millner at that time, your colleague, was out there telling them: ‘Don’t vote for the yellow fella’. Be careful. We are working hard to bring the Territory together. We want you to come with us, not fight us, not play the race card. You do have priors, and we need to get away from that.
Mr Deputy Speaker, I thought I would take issue with them, just to put them back in their boxes.
Mrs AAGAARD (Nightcliff): Mr Deputy Speaker, I rise this evening to highlight the exceptional achievements and service that were celebrated during the Back to Darwin Surgical Weekend on 29 August this year.
It was my pleasure to host a reception for this weekend, and to attend a special dinner held at the Botanic Gardens, which was organised by Ms Robyn Cahill. I congratulate Robyn on an excellent evening. The weekend acknowledged the tremendous work of over 100 surgical trainees who have served Royal Darwin Hospital and the Northern Territory over the past 30 years.
It has always been a challenge to maintain a complete and high quality surgical service in an isolated city with a small population. Over many years, Darwin and the Territory have been well served by a number of surgeons of remarkable skill and broad competency. For example, Alan Bromwich served as Chief Surgeon in the Territory between 1958 and 1981. His brief included supervision of surgery throughout the Territory. He was assisted by Arun Mahajani who began in Darwin in 1972 and continued through until 1992.
John Hargreaves spent all 40 years of his professional life in the Territory and became an internationally recognised reconstructive and hand surgeon until his retirement in the late 1990s. Masoud Mahmoud has made another significant contribution in recent years. As the principal eye surgeon, he has directly contributed to the treatment and prevention of eye disease throughout the Territory for 25 years.
Surgeons such as these have devoted their lives to the service of the people of the Northern Territory and served as mentors and role models for others who followed. In the late 1960s, Alan Bromich established a regular rotation of surgical trainees from the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital in Sydney, most of whom were subsequently mentored by Jonathon Wardill. This arrangement continues to this day, and has been augmented by similar rotation schemes from Adelaide and North Queensland. This group of surgical trainees, along with others appointed locally in Darwin, has gained much by their training experience in Darwin. They have also contributed enormously in terms of their hard work, enthusiasm, skill and knowledge to both their patients and their mentors. Many of these former trainees were present during the Back to Darwin Surgical Weekend and have gone on to distinguish themselves in many areas of surgical endeavour. We thank them for their contribution.
The weekend included a special tribute to Jonathan Wardill. I would like to spend some time discussing his history in the Northern Territory. Jon Wardill arrived in the Territory in 1976. He was born and educated in Melbourne, graduating in medicine, along with Helen, his wife, from Melbourne University in 1979. After several years of junior rotations in Melbourne, they travelled to southern England where Jon trained as a surgeon and Helen as an anaesthetist from 1972 to 1976. Jon was admitted as a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of England in 1974 and, subsequently, a Fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons in 1977. After finishing their time in England and, I believe, short of funds, they accepted an offer to work at the Darwin Hospital as a way of paying their fares back to Australia. They knew nothing of Darwin and expected only to stay a short while. Twenty seven years later they show no sign of leaving.
Jon was appointed initially as a senior registrar to Alan Bromwich and later took over as senior surgical specialist. In the early 1980s, he was directed by the Health Department to establish a private practice, but Jon’s ongoing commitment and service to the public hospital, surgical training and the people of the Top End has been exceptional. He has taught and inspired over 50 surgical trainees who have come under his mentorship in that time. Jon continues to serve the Royal Darwin Hospital as a specialist hand surgeon, and continues to serve Territorians in a busy general surgical practice.
In doing this, of course, we recognise that excellence in surgery is not a one person affair. Jon’s wife Helen, as well as her contribution as an anaesthetist, was an essential part of the team that allowed Jon to contribute so much. It is acknowledged that none of the tremendous work of these surgeons would be possible without the countless number of dedicated, high quality nursing staff, resident doctors, and administrative staff.
I am grateful for having had the opportunity to share in the celebrations of the Back to Darwin Surgical Weekend. The success of our surgical history will ensure that Darwin and the Territory will be well served for many years to come. I offer my congratulations to the organisers once again, particularly to the many doctors who travelled to Darwin for the weekend.
I also rise tonight to share with the House the pleasure I had in visiting the community health centres at Barunga and Wugularr, which is Beswick, on 25 September 2003. These communities are approximately 80 km and 110 km respectively south-east of Katherine and are two of the communities which are to be serviced by the Sunrise Health Service. I thank the health staff and Sunrise Health Service personnel for their gracious hospitality during my visit. I would also like to highlight the excellent work being carried out in the Barunga community in regards to reducing the rates of childhood anaemia and other preventable childhood diseases.
Mr Deputy Speaker, the conference Learning Lessons - Approaching Indigenous Health Through Education in Darwin, November 2000, highlighted the importance of establishing links between education and health to achieve positive health outcomes. The December 2002 Chronicle magazine, a magazine produced by the Department of Health and Community Services, reported on the success achieved in the Barunga community through the development of strong links between health and education. It was good to be able to meet the Barunga health staff and some of the staff from the Barunga school during my visit, to hear first-hand that the program is continuing and the positive results reported in the Chronicle in December 2002 are being maintained in 2003.
In the past, the Barunga health staff would conduct school screening and then follow-up abnormalities identified as per the treatment protocols and guidelines. Health improvements were achieved, but not at the level the health staff had anticipated. The Barunga health staff found that working in a more community-oriented manner, they have been able to achieve greater health gains in the status of child health in the community. Discussions between the Aboriginal health workers, nurses, doctors, teachers, and the local store manager, and consultation with the parents and carers, resulted in a collaborative approach to child health initiatives, leading to significant health improvements being achieved.
Children from pre-school through to primary school are screened twice a year, checking, amongst other things, their haemoglobin, weight, hair, skin and eyes. Children with low haemoglobins or other identified medical conditions are treated according to protocols, with their parents’ consent, and reviewed on a regular basis to ensure their health is improving. Children with low haemoglobin are offered deworming treatment. Children are then offered oral iron supplements, with daily orange juice to assist in the absorption of the iron into the blood stream. Health staff attended school every morning for approximately 15 minutes to follow up and treat children with identified medical conditions. This regular and ongoing contact also leads to new conditions being detected early and treated appropriately, thereby avoiding future complications from untreated conditions.
The teachers at the Barunga school have been instrumental in developing a nutrition program at the school, focussing on teaching the children healthy food choices and the importance of strong blood. Subsidised healthy lunches are available from the store. Local mothers prepare breakfast, morning tea and lunch for the younger children. Health staff and teachers reported that children are making healthier choices with orange juice and yogurt sales increasing from the local store. Health staff have documented significant increases in the children’s haemoglobin levels and reduction in other preventable illnesses. Teachers have reported significant improvement in the children’s behaviour, concentration levels, and MAP testing results. I congratulate those involved in achieving these gains in child health levels, and look forward to being informed of ongoing developments.
I also wish to tell the House that the Territory is gaining a reputation across Australia for providing leadership in palliative care for indigenous people. This was highlighted at the Palliative Care Inter-governmental Forum meeting, and the National Palliative Care Conference, both held in mid-September in Adelaide. Staff from the Top End and Central Australian Resource and Advisory Palliative Care Teams are being accessed for their expert knowledge and skills in providing appropriate palliative care for indigenous people. Beverly Derschow, an Aboriginal Health Worker with the Top End Palliative Care Team, has been seconded for six months over the next two years for the National Health and Medical Research Council project in the development of a model for indigenous palliative care in rural and remote Australia. Charles Darwin University and Queensland University are coordinating this project. Simon Murphy, one of our clinical nurse consultants, is also part of the coordinating group for this project.
‘A time to reflect’ was the theme for the palliative care conference held in Adelaide, and Territory palliative care staff presented papers on indigenous and remote palliative care, which were very well received. Topics included Indigenous Palliative Care in the Top End, which included telling a palliative care indigenous client story. This was written by Bev Derschow and Simon Murphy. Why Worry About Aboriginal Palliative Care was written by Dr Ofra Fried, a palliative care medical officer with Central Australia, who has also published articles on indigenous palliative care. The Reality and Logistics of Remote Palliative Care: A Case Mix was by Fred Miegel, a nurse consultant in Central Australia, and An Indigenous View on Death, Dying and Spirituality was presented through stories and didgeridoo playing by James Baban, Aboriginal policy officer. These staff have gained exceptional knowledge in culturally appropriate palliative care for indigenous people; skills which are recognised nationally and of which the Territory can be proud. These expertise has now gone offshore with two staff from the Top End team - Noeline Coutts, the manager, and Sandra Sumantra, social worker - invited to attend a palliative care congress in Bali.
Bali does not have formal palliative care services, but the need has been identified and these representatives will provide practical advice and support for their Balinese colleagues in establishing much needed palliative care services. Dr Maria Witjoksono, wife of the Northern Territory Vice-Consul for Indonesia, is part of their team and she is currently up-skilling in palliative care medicine in Australia. This expertise and cultural awareness has been an integral component for the hospice planning, whereby specific indigenous input was sought. I commend the work to honourable members.
Ms CARNEY (Araluen): Mr Deputy Speaker, tonight I talk about an event that I was involved in Alice Springs on 19 September. I am pleased that the Health minister is here because I am sure she will be very interested in this. She will not be interested in this bit in particular, but I have been learning golf for the better part of the year; a great game but one of the most time consuming, so I do not get to play it as often as I would like.
However, four other women and I, who are also golf players but at quite different levels, decided that we would organise a women’s golf day in Alice Springs. In order to make it interesting for women, we arranged a number of activities and sponsorships. We also thought it important to raise money for a good cause. So, with the assistance of the Cancer Council, we ran a golf day called Play Golf for Breast Cancer. The proceeds of monies raised - which at this stage is in the vicinity of $2500 - will go to breast cancer research. Over and above getting women together to network and have a fun day, we thought it appropriate to raise what we could for breast cancer research.
I had the job of welcoming women on the day, and I commented in my opening speech, that I was aware that out of the close to 100 women who participated on that day, that some of the participants had either been directly or indirectly affected by breast cancer. For those who were not, then it was likely that they would be either directly or indirectly at some point over the next 15 years.
I believe because we pitched the day specifically for breast cancer research, that partly explained why we had a such an overwhelming response from Alice Springs’ women. We also had an overwhelming response from a number of sponsors. I will seek to table the list rather than read them out, but it was an incredible response from businesses, some of whom ordinarily provide sponsorship to these sorts of days. There were new people on the list and not all, though many, of these businesses were in fact run by women. We were able to provide an array of prizes at the end of the day, and also provide the 100 women with a bag of goodies, I suppose, which included vouchers, sponsorship, arrangements, cosmetics; you name it, it was in the bag.
This day was made possible by an organising group of five. They were Dee Davies, Renee Manuel, Karen Jones, Deb Pepper and myself. The response was so overwhelming that a company from Sydney contacted us and they wanted to provide a prize. For reasons I will not go into, it was held up at the last minute and a freight company from interstate agreed to urgently freight this prize up to us at no cost, such was the appeal and the draw of breast cancer research.
It is important to note also that in addition to raising funds for very important and valuable research we also had lots of support from local men in Alice Springs. I especially thank representatives form the NT Fire and Rescue Service who gave up their rostered days off, I might say, to be what we call the ‘cart tarts’ for the day. They drove around and provided the women with an array of alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks. I thank those gentlemen. I also thank Mildy Raveane from Crowne Plaza and Steve Rattray, who provided not only entertainment but something I had not heard of prior to this golf day, which is a jelly vodka shot; they provided the jelly vodka shot on the 17th, and we made up close to a hundred, and all of them had gone by the end of the day.
It is also noteworthy that one of our sponsors was a company called Moving Pictures. One of the owners of that company is Ms April Goodman, whom I saw today when I attended the Telstra Business Women’s Awards. April, I am very pleased to say, won the Young Telstra Business Woman of the Year NT. She runs the photographic studio with her husband, Matt, whom I might say, have been extraordinarily generous, not just to me, but to many people in Alice Springs over many years. Their business is clearly successful. April is an outstanding businesswoman in her own right, but their generosity, not just in terms of their business, but the generosity of spirit is something that is very much appreciated, not only by me, but by many others in the community.
I would like to read the extract from the Telstra Women’s Awards program, that was provided to us today. It reads as follows:
April Goodman owns ‘Moving Pictures’, a photographic business complete with a fully equipped digital lab. April has more than 12 years experience as a photographer, and has coordinated photographic events such as the 2002 World Masters Games in Melbourne, the Finke Desert Race and the Alice Springs Masters Games. In addition to sporting events, April photographs tourism and commercial projects, fashion events, weddings and individual portraits.
I am sure all members will join with me in congratulating April on her outstanding achievement as Telstra Young Business Woman of the Year NT. I might say that in relation to the golf day that we ran, not only did April and her husband, Matt, donate many photographs, but we also insisted that they take photographs and try to sell them to women who participated. They very kindly split the difference and donated to Breast Cancer Research half of the value of all of the photographs sold.
The response to Play Golf for Breast Cancer Day was so overwhelming that we have had offers of a perpetual trophy, offers of more sponsorship next year and although we did not initially anticipate that we would have an event next year, the response was such that it is very difficult not to. Some women said after the day, or at the conclusion of the day, that it was the best golf day they had ever attended, it was the best organised, it was the most enjoyable. Some women said that we should organise it monthly; others wanted it twice a year. The committee of five agreed that we would definitely organise it next year. I would like to thank very sincerely again Karen Jones, Deb Pepper, Renee Manuel and Dee Davies.
In conclusion, a week or so after this event, I received an invitation from the local paper to participate in an advertising feature for Breast Cancer Awareness Week. I was placed in what I felt was a very difficult decision for my conscience, and that was I needed to decide whether I would be political or whether I would not be political in the advertisement I placed. I elected not to be political and talked about the success of the golf day and how important it was for all women to undertake regular breast checks.
I resisted in that advertisement the temptation of saying that under this government, breast cancer screening in Alice Springs has reduced significantly. There is a coordinator and a radiographer who are shipped in from interstate. The service only very vaguely resembles what it used to be. We will continue to draw this issue to the attention of women in Alice Springs in appropriate forums. We also, at every opportunity, will plead with the Health minister and the Chief Minister, who is Minister for Women’s Policy, to lift their game and to provide the women of Alice Springs a service which has greater access, which is open all of the time. A service, I might say, that all women deserve and have every right to expect.
On that disappointing note toward the end, I once again thank all of those involved in the Play Golf for Breast Cancer Day. I am sure members will join with me in congratulating April Goodman as the Young Telstra Business Woman of the Year NT.
Mr VATSKALIS (Casuarina): Mr Deputy Speaker, I would like to speak about some events that took place in my electorate.
I was very pleased and proud on 1 October to open the extension of the Dripstone Childcare Centre in Ellengowan Drive. This is a community run organisation that offers an excellent service to the young families in Casuarina and other suburbs of Darwin. I have known the people who run the Dripstone Childcare Centre, and was familiar with the situation with the Childcare Centre, for a long time from my previous life when I worked at the Health department. It is true, I was watching with great anxiety the need for the Childcare Centre to be upgraded but, unfortunately, there were no funds available.
When I visited the Childcare Centre and I realised that there were funds needed urgently, but when they could not secure a development loan from the Commonwealth or any other funding organisation, I offered them a demountable that we had arranged to acquire to resolve a previous problem in Casuarina, a demountable that was purpose built to accommodate up to 50 children. I was very happy when they had a look at the demountable and accepted it. The demountable was installed on site and is now operational. It is fully air conditioned with suitable facilities for children under two years old, a specially constructed bathroom, a specially constructed kitchen, an area for the young children to sleep, and areas to play. I was very proud to open it on 1 October in the presence of many parents and certainly many children.
I have formed a special relationship with some of the schools in my electorate - Nakara, Alawa and Dripstone. Certainly Nakara, which is the biggest primary school. I recently attended the assembly at Nakara Primary School. I have to say that I attend the assembly every month at each of the schools. At these assemblies I present the Kon Vatskalis, member for Casuarina awards to children who have made special achievements in the month before. This award consists of a certificate and a $25 voucher from a local bookshop for the children to buy some books to further their literary careers and to be able to spend some time reading, rather than watching television. It was timely because it was before the holidays, so I had two children who had worked very hard to receive this award and were able to buy some books. I think the parents were more happy because they would be kept quiet for at least a week reading their books.
I witnessed the presentation of certificates to students who received their awards for the Australian School Maths Competition: 82% of the Nakara students who sat achieved either a credit or a distinction. They were ranked against 462 000 students from 3300 schools world-wide. These certificates will go to: Daniel Johns for special achievement. Distinctions were received by Daniel Johns, Emma Kay, Sean Bourke, James Carson, Jeremy Liew, Dylan Taft, Corey Albian, Carly Bassett, Jochi Maker, and Thomas Treacy. Credits were received by Andrew Forrest, Max King, Tara Alexander, Aaron Vanderaa, Irini Vazanellis, Chris Lay, Sarah Chatterton, Kate Harbison, Rachel McLean, Taylor Noonan, Alan Chan, Simon Baker Jones, Victoria Treacy, Rhyanna Bryan, Kate Newman, Eric Blanch and Emily Bryan.
We always congratulate the children, because they are children’s awards, but I think congratulations belong to the teachers who teach these children at Nakara school, and also to the parents. The reality is, unless the parents look after their children and push their children to achieve and study, we will not have these kinds of results. Big congratulations to all the teachers, the students, and the parents at Nakara Primary School. I am very proud to be associated with Nakara Primary School.
I would also like to mention several high achievers from Dripstone High School who participated in the Australian National Chemistry Quiz. Amber-Lou Santer received a High Distinction; Stephanie Davies and Kira Gibney received a Distinction; and Shaun Echhoff a Credit. Also from Dripstone High, congratulations to Sandy Suy who received a Distinction in the Australasian Schools Computer Skills Competition. Credits went to William Page and Dene Hillman.
In the last few days, I have been doorknocking my electorate in order to keep in touch with the people, and some of them are quite alarmed to see their local member, it must be election time. I assured them that elections are in the next two years and that I am just trying to keep in touch with them. Another way to maintain contact with my electorate is the organisation of community barbecues that give the public the opportunity to come to the community barbecue, or sausage sizzle as you call it, at the local park, and discuss with the local member some of the issues in the electorate. I have to admit that quite a few people come with some issues that somehow do not come to our electorate office or they do not bring it to our attention. In the more informal environment of the park they can talk openly about these issues. I am very happy to be able to assist them and, in most cases, to resolve some of these issues.
Also, in my electorate office, I receive a number of people from my electorate. Elyse Lynch from the Chief Minister’s Youth Round Table asked me to assist her with a project. Usually children or young adults from schools come and ask a number of questions about different aspects in order to prepare an essay or an assignment to present either at the school or at some other function that takes place. I wish them all the best and good luck.
Finally, I would like to speak about Mary Salter. Mary Salter, one of my constituents in Tiwi, has been the president of the Deafness Association for many years. At the recent AGM, Mary decided to retire at the early age of almost 84 years old. Mary has been a wonderful advocate for people with hearing impairments for many years. Being deaf herself, she has provided a great example to others. I thank Mary for her dedicated community work and wish her well in her retirement, which I somehow think is not going to be long, because I am pretty sure she will find something else to be involved in, the same way she was involved in the Deafness Association. I am pretty sure I am going to see her again around Casuarina Plaza talking to people in the Health Department, or even coming to my electorate office and utilising either my computer or our photocopier. Good luck, Mary, and I cannot wait to see you again.
Mrs BRAHAM (Braitling): Mr Deputy Speaker, as members are aware, I travelled to Apia in Samoa for the 15th CPA Australasian and Pacific Region Seminar with the member for Sanderson. The aims of these seminars are to exchange ideas and information on matters of general and common interest between the regions, with particular reference to parliamentary practice and procedures of the Westminster system. It is also important to maintain liaison between the Australian region and the Pacific branches. The seminar was held in the Parliament House in Apia and it is quite a different building to what we are standing in here tonight. It is built on a circle with rather outstanding views of the tropical mountains of Samoa; something that we certainly do not get much of a view of here.
The Speaker of the Samoan parliament is Hon Toleafoa Faafisi. He was first elected to parliament in 1991, re-elected in 1996, and in 2001. He was elected Speaker in his second and third term. He has a number of responsibilities as well as being the Speaker, including the Chairman of the Standing Orders Committee, the House Committee and the Parliamentary Associations and Unions Committee. I was very pleased to able to chair some of the sessions that were held in Samoa.
We had a very wide range of representation from around the Pacific and Australia at the seminar. There were representatives from Tonga, Cook Islands, Niue, Fiji, New Zealand, Samoa, the Australian states and territories, as well as the Commonwealth. Mr Bob Speller, the Chairman of the CPA Executive Committee from Canada, also attended. As you can image, all being parliamentarians, there was indeed lively debate on a number of issues including papers on the Samoan parliament. This is the value of going to these seminars; we do learn so much about what happens in other parliaments and other places.
The Samoan parliament is made up of 49 members, three of whom are women. Members have to have a title or ‘matai’ before they can stand for parliament. This does, in fact, limit the number of women who can contest an election as the title is usually given to a male member of the family. A small group of the women who attended met with two of the women parliamentarians who were seeking guidance and advice. It became quite clear to us that their system of government is dominated by people with a matai title. This, of course, was traditionally held by men, so the women were questioning us on how we could, perhaps, suggest they overcome this. We were very sympathetic to them, as the two women we did meet were very knowledgeable and had a lot to offer.
However, at the end of the session it was suggested to us by one of the women in Samoa that perhaps we were interfering in an area that was not of our concern. I say this because, quite often, we feel as though we can go into somewhere new and try to influence change that we believe should happen but, in fact, we are perhaps not sensitive enough to what is already there; the culture that was there. As they said, it was a structure that has been there for many years in Samoa, and any change will take a long time. Although I can sympathise with not being able to stand for parliament, not having that opportunity and for very few women to be in parliament themselves, it is obviously something that Samoan people themselves will have to decide whether they can broaden that ability to be able to represent the villages in the parliament.
Many of the papers that were delivered were very topical; not just to us, but to the islands. We had a very honest and open session from the member from the Cook Islands. He described the difficulties they are facing at the moment, both politically and economically, that have threatened the stability of their government. The Cook Islands has had four different governments in the last four years, and the last one nearly bankrupted the country. They are facing a great task to try to get back some economic stability. Its economy is dominated by tourism, but there are significant in-roads in black pearl farming, offshore finance and longline fishing. Might I add, the last topic, longline fishing, enabled Northern Territory Senator, Nigel Scullion, to wax lyrical on one of his favourite topics.
Interestingly, because of the difficulties they have had in financial matters Cook Islands no longer has its own currency. It uses the New Zealand currency as does the small island of Niue. Both countries and many of the islands are suffering from declining populations as the loss of their labour to New Zealand and Australia and other parts of the world impacts on what really is a very struggling human resource base. Statistics show that over the past 15 years, the Cook Islands’ population has decreased by 9000 to approximately 12 000 people left. When we talk about declining populations, we are certainly not in the same league as these small islands.
The member from Niue talked about the difficulties this small Pacific Island is having with only 1700 people left on the island. It is really becoming too small to be viable as a country in its own right. About 24 000 of its people have moved to New Zealand and about 16 000 have moved to Australia. At a reception that we held in Alice Springs, I invited a number of the Pacific Island people who now live in Alice Springs to meet with the representatives from the different islands. The member from Niue met his aunty. You can imagine how excited he was about this and very happy to see her after so long. However, his statement to her was quite simply, ‘Come home, we need you’. He explained that he is the last of his family there to look after the land and all the family members. When I asked her why she did not return to her family island, she quite said, quite simply, ‘Lifestyle’ and that is what they are looking for when they go to other countries. So we may be distressed at what we see as a small decrease in the Territory population but we just do not have any idea of how it can effect the small nations such as these islands.
It is very easy to see the vulnerability of these particular small nations. Samoa, although a very happy, very close community with family groups being very dominant, will find it difficult to maintain its economic viability because of its small population, its lack of resources and its undeveloped infrastructure. The Samoan people are extremely artistic, very musical, and we were fortunate to be there for their festival. Tourism has increased since the Bali bombing so they have had a positive spin-off from that particular incident. While we were there, there was a cruise ship in the harbour. It has some very fine resorts and hotels and accommodation to cater for tourists but really needs to do a lot more to capitalise on that tourist market. I am quite sure their visit to Alice Springs gave them an insight on how we cater for our tourists.
I must make comment on the hotel we stayed in, it is the Aggie Gray Hotel and has been established since the war. It has the philosophy of, ‘if there is a job for a local, then give it to them’. They must have had over 300 staff and sometimes there seemed to be more staff than guests. The staff were always well groomed, very happy and certainly very polite. Interestingly, there are no unemployment benefits in Samoa and the only people who receive a benefit are the elderly. So work is quite valued as the family must support its members. I have to admit, it made me wonder about the abuse that sometimes happens in Australia with the benefits that are given out and the expectations people in Australia often have of a government handout. Wages in Samoa are very low but the way it was put to us is that what they did receive was certainly a livable wage and they were able to support their families in this context.
We were also fortunate to have a briefing by the Australian High Commissioner in Samoa. Australia contributes quite a large amount of money to the small islands and now I have to say that knowing how much they rely upon this assistance, I would certainly support continuing to do so as long as the money is targeted to specific projects. In Samoa, the money that Australia gives goes mainly to education and health.
The second half of the seminar was held in Alice Springs. I was extremely pleased at the success of this segment. There were two site visits: one to the School of the Air where the provision of distance education was presented by the Principal Steve Bobos; and one to the Desert Park where introduction to the park and a session on Desert Knowledge was presented. They were both very well received.
I thank all of the presenters, including the ex-minister Barry Coulter for his session on the railway, and the member for Sanderson on his presentation on statehood. I believe that a list of the papers have been circulated to members and I encourage all members to take advantage of the information they provide.
It was very good to have Bob Speller, the Chairman of the CPA Executive Committee and a member from Ottawa, there so he could see the difficulties experienced by small jurisdictions. It is unfortunate that I have been unable to attend executive meetings of the CPA as the Australian regional representative, but a by-elections, sittings and a wrist problem have made it impossible this time around.
I wish to place on record my thanks to the Clerk for his involvement as Secretary, to Graham Gadd, Jane Gunner, Samantha Mannette and Jan Sporn for their assistance in ensuring the smooth running and organisation of the Alice Springs session.
I urge all members to continue to participate in CPA activities. It is unfortunate that cheap shots are often made at members who do participate, and that the media does pick up and continue to run that line. However, this seminar has proven that the Northern Territory has much to offer, and that we can benefit from interaction with other parliaments. We should continue to support the CPA and the valuable work it does in promoting democracy to the benefit of those Commonwealth countries.
Mr KIELY (Sanderson): Mr Deputy Speaker, it is with great delight that I stand before you tonight to speak about my participation as a delegate from this parliament to the 15th CPA Australian and Pacific Regional Seminar. As we have heard from the Speaker, who was also one of the hosting officers of the seminar, it was a great place to be.
Madam Speaker would have indicated the size and location of the island, so I will not go into that. When we arrived we were greeted by the Prime Minister of Samoa, and he said some pretty interesting things. I have a copy of his speech, and I wish to read some of his comments in respect of the timeliness of the seminar. He said:
- Your seminar this week provides a timely avenue for your members to exchange views and information on matters of common interest, regionally and domestically, and to explore ways and means to further the aims of your association. It is also an excellent opportunity for your members to re-focus on parliamentary democracy and what it means in tangible terms for individual countries and the Pacific region as a whole.
He went on to say that this particular conference was quite timely given the involvement of Australia and other Pacific nations in the Solomon Islands. He said:
- On another level, our countries are also members of the South Pacific Forum, which brokered the initiative to send an intervention force to restore peace and order and bring back normalcy to the Solomon Islands. The unanimous support for this collective course of action amongst our Pacific nations underscores the trust and maturity of that relationship. I am pleased to announce that our contingent of police officers left last night for duty in the Solomon Islands to serve alongside personnel from Australia, New Zealand and other Forum countries.
It was through the meeting of such a group that I learned more about the Samoan people, who are great travellers and participants in the global democracy movement. It was through meeting a contingent of Samoan police who were fulfilling their duty as part of a peace keeping force in Timor that I came to know of the Samoan community’s presence in Darwin. Quite a number of them live in my electorate and I am pleased to count them amongst my friends.
Having met the Timor contingent, which would come down here on rest and recreation, when the opportunity to travel as a delegate to the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association’s 15th Australian and Pacific Regional Seminar came up that I accepted it. I thought it would be a wonderful way to get over there and look at the country from which valuable members of our community have come; that it would help inform me better of the issues they confront in their day to day lives in our community.
It was certainly a very interesting time. It was a real eye-opener, and it was good to see not only the role of Australia and all the states that were represented, but our relationship with the Pacific nations. It is a relationship that, whilst reported on in the popular press, I did not fully appreciate or understand. And our relationship stunned me a little bit at times, because it was a bit neo-colonialist in some ways and you were looked at, Australia and New Zealand, as people with greater influence than perhaps should be exerted in the Pacific regions. It was quite interesting, talking to members from the Cook Islands and Fiji, from Niue, I did not even know Niue existed to tell you the truth, and to talk to these people about how they saw Australia and New Zealand’s role in the Pacific.
Also amongst the participants there was Nigel Scullion, the Senator for the Northern Territory. Of course, we had a good contingent from the Northern Territory there in the form of the Speaker, who was co-hosting, and the Clerk, who was there to assist. They were there because the Northern Territory was also co-host. This seminar was a week in Samoa and a week in Alice Springs. It was quite interesting to see the issues that we find beset our communities in Alice Springs are somewhat similar to those issues that we find in the Pacific islands. These are issues of logistics, of remoteness, and providing services to the community over vast distances. These are the things that we have in the Territory, and particularly the Pacific island nations were astounded at the time it took to fly from the island of Samoa to New Zealand, or from New Zealand to Australia, and it took that time again to fly from Sydney into Alice Springs. Instead of flying over the ocean, which they are used to, they flew over country, over desert and mountains, and they were pretty stunned by it all. For many of them, it was the first time they had flown that far into the interior of Australia. They are great travellers, make no mistake about that, but they had never travelled into the interior of Australia.
Whilst I could talk about Samoa and the countryside and the people, it was of more interest to me to see the reaction of our Pacific island countrymen, and how they perceived the Australian interior. There was one memorable moment, where the Speaker of the Samoan parliament, who was in Alice Springs, went to the Desert Park. There was a display on in the theatrette about the beginnings of the Alice Springs area of the country. It went through the whole presentation of the rock formations and the Dreaming. At the end of it all, as the screen lowered to reveal from the screen to where they were actually looking at the West MacDonnell Ranges, was a moving thing for the Speaker. He actually had tears in his eyes, they were tears of joy, but they were genuine. This man was actually moved because his comments were that, you have managed to keep your Dreaming, your thoughts. He saw this as a collective thing of the Australian people; he did not see it as an Aboriginal thing or a European thing. He saw it as the country around there. He said, you have managed to keep that, whereas, we with the influences that have changed our island, and the changes brought on by Christianity and everything, he sort of felt this slight emptiness within him. He was moved, and many people who saw him react in this way, and who spoke to him afterwards, were also deeply moved by it.
There were many interesting people on this seminar. It was a parliamentary association seminar and there were members from all walks of political life. There was a member from One Nation from Western Australia, there were CLP members, there were Liberal, there were Labor, there were Greens, the National Party from New Zealand, and Greens from New Zealand, and Greens from the ACT. We were not there with political axes to grind, and we were not there with political point scoring to make. We were there to inform, to share ideas, and to get different perspectives of the world, and it was very successful.
One of the presentations I found really interesting was that from Hon Samisoni Speight Tikoinasau. Sami - as we were all getting around calling each other by our first names - is an MP in the Fijian Parliament and, of course, as you might have guessed by the name Speight, is related to Mr George Speight. He delivered a paper on Multi-party Cabinet. He was putting up a case by saying that we have this multi-party Cabinet which is being implemented into about four nations in different parts of crisis – that was South Africa, Ireland, Fiji and, I think perhaps - it was not Zimbabwe; the fourth one escapes me. It is the system whereby the majority - you may well pull 55% or, say. 45% of the vote. The minor parties might account for another 10%, and then another party might pick up the other 40%-odd - 45%. Under their multi-party Cabinet, any party that acquires any more than 10% actually gets a member in Cabinet. According to their constitution, they cannot form a minority government - they cannot form a government with the minor parties and, therefore, have a majority. He was saying that no one else accepts this; no other Westminster democracy. If you can form a government, then you form a government and you rule. If it has to be with a minor party in a coalition, then so be it. You cobble that together. His point was saying that this is very hard on the political parties of Fiji.
I have never even thought about that, or run into that before. I just throw that in, because this is something that I learned: that it was truly a professional and personal development seminar for me. There was other areas – and the papers are all listed, so I will not go into them here. But let me say that, from the viewpoint of being away with so many people of different political persuasions, both on foreign soil and within our own jurisdictions, was excellent and I learned much from them. I learned about tolerance. Let me say that I learned a lot from Senator Scullion. His focus is the Territory and I had great talks with him. It is the first time I actually sat down and had a social discussion with Senator Scullion. I was very happy about that.
From broadening that side of my perspective on life was good; from listening to the issues that surrounds the Pacific nations. They have some huge environmental issues facing them; huge population drifts, and they are pretty crook on New Zealand and Australia because they have larger populations centres over here than they have back in their own nation states. It is making it hard pretty hard to operate because it is not only a brain drain but a brawn drain. They are finding it difficult to get by and they are trying to get their people back.
Samoa is a beautiful country. I would certainly go back there as a tourist. It has some unique issues. It is not countryside that I am used to; it is very, very hilly. The people are very friendly. The culture, whilst it is Christian, is a little different to ours. But I must also talk about their health system because, while we were there, there is no doubt you have seen that Madam Speaker turned turtle, as we say in the islands. Madam Speaker came out of the parliament; missed a small step and – no, I would like to say here and now, I want to dispel two stories that are going around. It did not happen straight after the kava ceremony, but she did drink a full cup. It did not happen after the kava ceremony, so there is no alcohol or other drug involved. And no, Senator Scullion did not tip her out in the thought that this would cause a by-election in Braitling. These two stories I want to put to bed straight away.
However, Madam Speaker did fall over the steps; trip over. When I met her a few minutes afterwards, she asked me to take a photograph for her of these big fifty-persons boats that were racing by, which attracted everyone’s attention; a significant event. I said: ‘Why can’t you take it, Loraine?’ She said: ‘I have fallen over’. I had a look. At first I noticed a graze on her finger but then I noticed her wrist and it was expanding before my eyes. I said ‘Look, Loraine, I think you have really done some serious damage here’. Let me say that for those members who were thinking that on her 65th birthday, the Speaker should consider retirement because she is getting on, well, I do not think so. She was as strong as an ox and the way she handled the injury was fantastic, and I was just amazed the way she did it all. She just really stuck in there. We got a car, and the Speaker and the Assistant Speaker took her to hospital. I went with her as well because I did not know what we were getting into as far as would there be any language difficulties or whether I would have to bring back a message about what was going on, because we did not know how serious a break it was and there was a thought that it might have been a couple of main bones in her arm.
In the hospital, thanks to the good offices of the Speaker, whom might I say is a practising GP and had a lot of contacts there, Madam Speaker was able to get x-rayed, have that looked at, and they made the decision on the spot. They gave her the option of having it reset there; then they had another look and said that because of the swelling they could not do anything for three days so they would immobilise it. Of course, that three days would see us back in Australia. Through all this, Madam Speaker was quite - the pain threshold of this woman was pretty incredible. She did not grimace, did not grouch about it at all, went through it all, got all bandaged up in a cast, although she did complain that it was a little bit warm, at one stage, from memory, because there was some sort of chemical reaction going on with the plaster. For three days there, Madam Speaker had to battle alone.
Madam SPEAKER: Thank you for your moral support.
Mr KIELY: And yes, she was injured, not ill. We arrived in Alice Springs, and because it was a serious injury, it had to be manipulated back into place and then to see her with that frame on her arm. Full thanks to the doctors in Alice Springs. They did a wonderful job. I commend them for their work.
Finally, I would recommend to all members to go to a CPA if the chance avails itself. They are worthwhile. The criticisms from the press are highly unwarranted. I would urge all members to go.
Ms LAWRIE (Karama): Mr Deputy Speaker, I am heartened to hear the good words from Madam Speaker and the member for Sanderson about their CPA travels.
I rise tonight to acknowledge a far more local situation. On 31 August, I hosted a Karama Neighbourhood Watch sausage sizzle and picnic day at Karama School. Karama Neighbourhood Watch has been newly reinvigorated only a few short months ago in response to community concerns about crime issues that were hitting the NT News. It whipped up a bit of local fear and frenzy. Residents thought that they would be pro-active about it and reinvigorate the Neighbourhood Watch. I have to say that was a terrific response and a very mature response by residents.
At that stage, there was some unwarranted hysteria in the media. The first thing we decided to do, I suggested to the Karama Neighbourhood Watch team of which I am a part, that perhaps we might want to introduce ourselves to the neighbourhood and have a bit of a get together, a get to know you day. This turned into our sausage sizzle and picnic day.
I have to say that it became somewhat bigger than Ben Hur. My electorate officer, Nicole Lewis, and I coordinated a little core team of workers to organise the day. I acknowledge Meg Angus, Ted Dunstan, Ken Hockey and Ian Richardson. We met weekly in my electorate office to discuss ideas and plans for the day. It formed up that we would run a sausage sizzle and picnic day from 2 pm until 4 pm on a Sunday afternoon at the local school. I contacted all the schools in the electorate and invited them to have a group of youth perform to showcase how great our local schools are. I acknowledge that we had terrific entertainment. We had a group of kids called the Sing Song Signers, a large part of them from Holy Family School. We had the very well loved and highly regarded Manunda Terrace Rope Ragers do their fantastic skipping demonstration. The Karama School had their ATSI and modern dances as well as their Karama School Choir. Marrara Christian College had a fantastic band that rounded off the day’s entertainment.
Every fifteen minutes there was an activity. On the half hour we had school group entertainment on the Karama school stage and everyone gathered into the assembly area to watch it. In hindsight, I made the task a bit harder for myself because I decided on every other fifteen minutes that there would be a game, an activity of some sort that I would run, and these games ended up being tug-of-war and sack racing. I have to say I underestimated the enthusiasm of the local population for these games. There were significant numbers of tug-of-war competitions and significant repeats of sack racing because the kids just went into the sack racing with gusto. We had about 40 sacks, and all the kids would line up have a go. I managed to get some prizes donated from local organisations: Crocodylus Park had family passes, the minister for Police provided CMax Cinema passes, I donated quite a few book vouchers as prizes and the kids joined in the games with gusto. Knowing that there were prizes, I am sure, caused quite a lot of frenzy about the fun and entertainment.
We had a graffiti wall. Mitre 10 donated the mesh and the star pickets, and we had paints donated. I donated a jumping castle for the little ones to be on, the under 10s. Support from the local businesses was overwhelming. I take my hat off to Coles Karama. They donated over 300 kg of sausages, around 50 loaves of bread, all the sauce we needed, and all the onions we needed. Brumbys joined in with another 50 loaves of bread. So we were able to give away the food which, in a lower socioeconomic like area like Karama, was a very welcome thing. I reckon every kid lined up and had about three goes at the sausages each because by 3 pm we had run out of food and were going out to Coles to get more. That is how popular the sausage sizzle was. Panda Takeaway donated $100 which enabled me to cover the expense of quite a few incidentals, such as ice. We went through something like 52 bags of ice. I had hundreds of drinks donated by Parmalat, and the Karama Shopping Centre covered half the expense of the drinks. We went through hundreds of drinks.
The army participated. They were incredibly popular with their ASLAV. They had about 300 local kids looked through that ASLAV on the day, putting their little helmets on and climbing up and clambering through. Speaking to the officers at the end of the day, they said that they write reports to their superiors when they attend such events, and their report would say that they would wholeheartedly support it in the future. They were absolutely thrilled with the response of the community to the officers and to the equipment they had on display.
The police were champions. The Neighbourhood Watch team, Senior Sergeant Rod Strong and other members such as Senior Sergeant Dean Maloney and the officer in charge of Casuarina, Steve Heyworth at that stage, put in a big effort to help us set up and to run the day in a very positive fashion. It was very heartening for me to see an average of six or so police through those hours mingling with the local community, mingling with some of the kids who indeed are the ratbags on the streets causing trouble. To be able to break the barriers down like that and to see people to start to see each other was very heartening and very much a bonding period, I believe, for members of our community.
Emergency Services participated and had a lovely display. Victims of Crime Assistance League, VOCAL, were there as well to show just what sort of support they can give to victims of crime.
A bit of a highlight of the day was a spur of the moment celebrity tug-of-war. I sprung it on our police minister when he turned up to encourage participants, so the police minister with the police took on the Emergency Services and army guys. There were reports of about 400 people cheering on this celebrity tug-of-war. I have to say that the police, with our minister, acquitted themselves incredibly well. Within the first few moments, you would have been forgiven for believing it was all over, red rover and that Emergency Services and army had it won. They started with a great deal of strength, but before our very eyes, we saw the police really dig in. I can report that the minister was not the anchor as some people indicated he might be. Indeed, he was one of the taller, leaner athletes of the team and they dug in, they started to work as a team and pull as a team and ended up winning the tug of war competition to the enormous cheers of the crowd.
I want to thank the helpers on the day, the people who showed up, members of our Neighbourhood Watch team. We had Helene and Joe Clarke; Joe has numerous back complaints and health complaints, but he sat there and he cooked hundreds of sausages. Helene and Joe, I really take my hat off to you, thank you so much for your hard work. To Andy Collier who also, along with Lisa Greenslade, cooked the sausages and helped out on the BBQ, thank you. I put Julie Fawcett through a form of torture by having her in charge of the jumping castle, and I have promised Julie she will not be in charge of the jumping castle next year. She certainly had no idea just how forthright up to 10 year olds are these days. Greg Wills came along and helped out with the jumping castle, and Sharon Stubbs spent all day in the Parmalat drinks van. Again, I acknowledge the work that Parmalat did in supporting this event. They gave us the drinks van for free, and they gave us 50% of our drinks on the day for free and, as I said, Karama Shopping Centre really kicked in with a large donation to cover the rest of the drinks expenses.
So, what started as an idea of just a bit of a get together where we had no idea how many people would show up, we thought we might be optimistic and cater for 200, some people said they thought there were 600 there. I am settling on the more conservative figure of 500, but I know that it certainly was a massive event for Karama. We have never seen anything like it in the past. Everyone said to me that we should do this more often and I said, ‘Not likely’, as I had started setting up at 9 am, and by that stage I was somewhat exhausted. What I did indicate was that certainly I believe the Neighbourhood Watch team should look at doing it annually. I believe it is an event that can grow. Local businesses were very good in their support. I know the army is keen to get back and support us. For everyone who participated that day, it had a very good feeling about it, everyone was happy, everyone was mingling. We had our indigenous constituents creating a didgeridoo and basket weaving. It was a very good reflection on the harmony that we do have in that suburb.
In another positive vein, I want to congratulate Melanie Jans, who has been the youth outreach worker for the northern suburbs for the Darwin City Council. Melanie came from Western Australia to take up the position. It was a six month position and I know she is finishing up, but I want to acknowledge the hard work that Melanie has done, particularly in the area of Malak, to work with the youth and to give them a focus. She started up a boys youth group and a girls youth group and has been taking those youths on activities and keeping them out of trouble. Melanie, as a bit of a wrap to her six month experience, organised a Malak youth festival that took place on 1 October at Holtzerland Park, opposite Malak Shopping Centre, and I had the pleasure of officially closing that event.
We had participation by the youth beat, Danila Dilba, Anula Family Karate, a band, rock climbing, face painting and, again, NT sports, such as rugby and football and netball, were all there supporting the kids and doing activities with them. It was a very positive festival. Quite a few hundred kids were there; mums and dads were there. It was a really lovely day during the Wednesday of the school holiday week for the families and particularly the youth of the Malak area.
I am sorry to see Melanie go. I was, I guess, somewhat cynical about the process that Darwin City Council embarked upon having a six month position for a youth worker. I felt that they had not really integrated that position into other existing youth services. I raised queries at the outset about where the worker would be placed, how they would integrate into other youth services, and I suggested that a sole worker, working through the northern suburbs, was given too hard a task to fulfil. I have to say that Melanie exceeded all my expectations in her sheer dedication and hard work. She did end up going out and sitting physically with the YWCA team of youth workers at Malak, which was a suggestion I had made at the outset to Darwin City Council, one that at the outset was not taken up. I know Melanie was disappointed it took some months to get her there, working in amongst the other youth workers.
However, what she has shown is that it can be done; that cooperation between tiers of government can work. I encourage Darwin City Council to look at a continuation of Youth Outreach; to look at it in a coordinated fashion to deal with the gaps rather than overlaying on top of existing youth services. There are gaps there that we have recognised and that youth workers are aware of. I look forward to the YWCA’s YRAP program getting up and running, because much of this recreational work that Melanie Jans pursued needs to continue if we are to keep our youth out of serious at-risk behaviour.
I acknowledge that the community that I represent has its issues just as any suburban community does with crime and families going through somewhat incredibly difficult life and social circumstances which at times are distressing. We witnessed just this week the very tragic death in a Malak home of a young father. These are the things that daily I am confronted with in a lower socioeconomic area where families are just torn apart through the pressure of life. I want to say that what we are showing out in that community is that when the community works together; we can make a meaningful difference to each other’s lives, and we bring in a great deal of strength, harmony and support that people need to get through what is often a very difficult existence.
I encourage the Karama Neighbourhood Watch people, and the people who have worked with Melanie Jans to continue the hard work, and I commit to the full support of my electorate office.
Mr BONSON (Millner): Mr Deputy Speaker, tonight I speak about the late, great Terry Lew-Fatt, who was born on 20 February 1937 and, unfortunately, passed away on 28 August 2003.
Terry Lew-Fatt was not only a great man, but he was a great family man, great father, grandfather, a great Territorian and, very importantly, a great Darwinite in the true sense. One of the founding families, the Lew-Fatt family of Darwin, is obviously a fantastic contributor to the lifestyle that we lead now with the beliefs that Darwinites have about the way you should live your life.
I will be drawing on a couple of sources to try to encapsulate Terry Lew-Fatt’s life. I also recognise minister Jack Ah Kit’s contribution, as he has known the Lew-Fatt family all of his life. I am honoured, actually, to be giving an adjournment on this great Territorian. One source, in particular, that I would like to talk from is a book called Under the Mango Tree: Oral Histories with Indigenous People from the Top End, collected by Peg Havnen. Basically, it is a book with local indigenous Territorians telling their life experiences, what was important to them, or what was important to their lives as Darwinites and Territorians. On page 67 of the book, Under the Mango Tree, the story is headed: ‘A Sporting Life with Terry Lew-Fatt’:
- My father’s father was Chinese. He was a woodcutter, cutting wood over Delissaville way and carting it back to Darwin. While his wife was away in China, he had an affair with a full-blooded Aboriginal women living near Delissaville, and my father was born. When his wife came back from China, they all got friendly; even the Aboriginal lady, and the Chinese brought my father up. My mother’s father was Filipino. He jumped ship, a cattle ship, and her mother was an Aboriginal women from the Queensland and Northern Territory border. I was born in Darwin in 1937. There was another six brothers and three sisters, ten of us altogether. So, there’s quite a lot of Lew-Fatts living in Darwin.
The other source I would like to speak from was the funeral service, and in the introduction it has:
- We are here today to give thanks to God for the life of Terry Lew-Fatt.
Terry was the eldest of 10 children born to Walter and Monica Lew-Fatt. During the war in Darwin, they were evacuated to Peterborough in South Australia and upon their return spent a year in Pine Creek. Terry did his schooling in Darwin and married Betty in 1965 at this very church. They had two children, Mark and Vanessa.
I had quite a range of occupations in my working career, but my biggest love was sport. That’s what I lived for. Even from my earliest days I was sport mad. If I didn’t have a football I would walk along and practise kicking an imaginary football. But I think basketball was my game. When I was small, I used to watch the Harlem Globetrotters at the pictures and when I’d started playing basketball I wanted to do what the Harlem Globetrotters could do. Especially Marcus Hayne …
Terry goes on to talk about his dedication to the sport:
- I practised and practised and practised. I used to get up about six o’clock in the morning and ride my pushbike up to Daly Street Stadium. I’d train there until about half past eight or nine o’clock when it got hot, then ride home. About four o’clock I’d ride my bike back up the court again and train there right up till I couldn’t see and that would probably be up to about seven, half past seven.
I played my first serious basketball game at fourteen, at the old stadium in Cavenagh Street where the RSL is now. The next year we had a team called Pioneers. It was mostly made up of school boys, the Bonsons and Ahmats and Cubillos. We won our first premiership. I remember winning that game. The scores were level, twenty all, playing four quarters of ten minutes. There was twenty seconds to go and someone says to shoot because it was nearly time. You had no clock those days, so I panicked and threw the ball just alongside the centre and it hit the hoop and it bounced back and went in. The bell rang and we won the grand final. It wasn’t like it is now where only the family turns up at a basketball game. Those days you had to get to the game at seven o’clock to get a seat or you’d be standing. I mean, there’d be a thousand or more people there. The Fire Brigade people used to sit on the roof of the Fire Station to watch the games.
Mr Deputy Speaker, my father was a fireman, and I remember the old days in Daly Street sitting up on the roof of the fire station watching games for free, and it used to get a packed house up there. He continued:
When we won that grand final, just like football, the crowd ran onto the court to congratulate the players. When you look at the photos from that grand final, you can’t see the concrete on the court for the people.
He had an outstanding record as a basketballer. He first made a representative state team at 16 years. He represented his state 10 times, and went on to say:
- I could have gone fourteen times, but they picked the state side when they played Easter carnival and four of those years we didn’t have the money to go. I started off the youngest player in the team and finished up the oldest player. We played against some good teams in Darwin in those days - China, New Zealand, Israel, the Australian Olympic side. Because, after they finished playing down south, they’d come through Darwin before leaving the country. The Easter carnivals were also very big. We’d get teams from Mount Isa, Katherine, Tennant Creek, Alice Springs.
He talked about his life in football and his experiences there. As we all know, Ted Egan will be the Territory’s new Administrator. Ted Egan was one of the founding members of the St Mary’s Football Club, and Terry was one of its founding players. He said:
- I started playing with St Mary’s Football Club in 1953-54. The club started in 1952, but my father wouldn’t let me play because he said I was too young. Ted Egan, Ronnie Smith and Father Collins started St Mary’s.
[Ted] decided we should put a team in. They went to Father Collins to get some more players because Father Collins was involved in Bathurst Island and Garden Point. They got hold of some of the Aboriginal boys working for the Army, Navy and RAAF and formed a team. They were very good. The full-blood Aboriginals used to come over by boat from Garden Point. It took them about eight or nine hours, a long way for a football game, but they came, unless there was a cyclone around.
He went on to talk about the skills of Aboriginal athletes that he saw. He talked about Michael Long:
- Darwin has produced many good Aboriginal athletes. Whether it is part-Aboriginal or Aboriginal, they’ve always got skill for any sport. It’s natural. Just natural. And I think Michael Long did the right thing in cutting out all that Aboriginal abuse on the field and things like that.
Looking at his record:
- The first year I coached, we won the A and B grade NTFL premiership [I understand that is the only time that has ever been done] and I was only 21. I captained the side about seven or eight times in A grade. Also one year I was captain/coach, best and fairest and leading goal kicker in the same year. In 1957-58, I equalled best and fairest in the NTFL and I am a two hundred games life member.
He talked about Michael Ahmat and what a great player he was, and how he played in Mexico and Tokyo.
He talked about his brothers. Benny was a very good basketball player. He mentioned that Benny and John Bonson made the Australian team and played in New Zealand, and Brian Dixon was another good Territory player.
These are some of those who spoke at Terry Lew-Fatt’s funeral: Camille Lew-Fatt, Aunty Joan Butts from South Australia, Brian Dixon, Keith Kemp, Vic Ludwig and John Bonson. They spoke about what a fine man he was and his ability to always remain calm and cool in all circumstances. To reflect on what Keith Kemp and family had to say:
- I feel privileged to have been invited by Terry’s family to speak at today’s service. There are many of you here today who remember the wonderful times we all shared in the ‘good old days’ of the Parap Camp. It was during these times that Terry and I developed a valued and enduring friendship, which asked for nothing more than respect and trust for each other and family members. Fond memories of this valued friendship will remain with us forever.
It is a daunting task to stand before Terry’s loving family and friends to find the words that have not already been expressed by others, in loving notices and emotive newspaper articles.
‘Touching quotes’ … on some of these: a beautiful, kind and gentle man; a sporting genius who enriched the lives of everyone he met; a perfectionist in whatever sport he pursued; a sportsperson who never had a nasty thought about anyone; one of Territory sport’s favourite sons and one of nature’s true gentlemen. And so the quotes and praise continue to appear.
Above and beyond Terry’s outstanding sporting qualities and his perfect role model image was his love of family and they in return, their own adoring and overwhelming love of him.
To be so loved and admired by so many people is a fitting tribute to a very special person.
Mr Deputy Speaker, I would like to table a group of documents that I put together that best summarise Terry’s life. My condolences go to Mark and Vanessa. My thanks to Benny Lew-Fatt for assisting in this adjournment. It is fair to say that not often in life do you meet a truly great gentleman. I had the opportunity to work with Terry Lew-Fatt at the Northern Land Council, and I remember him taking me home for lunch, and he was sixty-something years old, and he was shooting the basketball. I was catching and fetching and passing it back to him. Until the day he died, he was active in sports and often attended many sporting games, and liked to watch his family and friends play their sports and achieve what they could. Terry Lew-Fatt was a true gentlemen who will be sorely missed.
Motion agreed to; the Assembly adjourned.
Last updated: 04 Aug 2016