2008-09-10
Madam Speaker Aagaard took the Chair at 10 am.
Mr MILLS (Blain): Madam Speaker, I present a petition from 567 petitioners praying that funding for after hours bulkbilling medical services in Palmerston are reinstated. The petition bears the Clerk’s certificate that it conforms with the requirements of standing orders. Madam Speaker, I move that the petition be read.
Motion agreed to; petition read.
Madam SPEAKER: Honourable members, I would just like to remind particularly new members of two standing orders.
Standing Order 46 is about obeisance:
Standing Order 65 is about members to be referred to by their electorate. For example, if you are referring to me in the Chamber you would call me ‘Madam Speaker’. If I am in my chair on the floor I would be called ‘the member for Nightcliff’. You cannot combine my names in any way. You cannot call me ‘Jane’ or ‘Jane Aagaard’ in any context. The only exception to this is you can refer to the Chief Minister or a minister by that title, or the Leader of the Opposition.
Mr HENDERSON (Chief Minister): Madam Speaker, I present a report to acknowledge the professionalism and commitment to service of the ADF personnel based with 1st Brigade at Robertson Barracks, who I helped farewell at a parade at Robertson Barracks on Monday. I wish them well during their deployments overseas on active duty.
This was a very special event also attended by a number of other dignitaries which included, the Administrator of the Northern Territory, Mr Tom Pauling, AO QC and Mrs Pauling; the Minister for Defence, the Honourable Joel Fitzgibbon, MP; the Minister for Defence, Science and Personnel, the Honourable Warren Snowden, MP; the Chief of the Defence Force, Air Chief Marshall Angus Houston, AC AFC; Commander 1st Division, Major General Richard Wilson, AM; Commander Northern Command, Air Commodore Ian Meyn, ADC; the local member for Solomon, Mr Damien Hale; the Leader of the Opposition, Mr Terry Mills; and His Worship, the Mayor of Palmerston, Mr Robert Macleod.
The ADF and its support agencies, such as Defence Housing Australia and the Defence Materiel Organisation, are major contributors to our economy. Of all the Australian permanent Defence Force personnel, 10% are based in the Northern Territory. The current Defence expenditure by the Commonwealth in the Territory totalled $1.08bn in 2006-07. However, aside from the expenditure that Defence contributes to our economy, Defence members and their families make significant contributions to our community in many ways. For instance, they are valuable members of our sporting communities and Defence partners are much valued employees within the private sector, the public sector, our academic institutions, and also local government.
The parade on Monday comprised over 1200 of the 1360 ADF members who will be deploying on operations with Security Detachment 14, Timor-Leste Battle Group 5, Force Communications Unit 1, Mentoring and Reconstruction Task Force 1, and Special Operations Task Group 8. The majority of those on parade were from 1st Brigade. I understand a few members from the Air Force, Navy and other units within the Army also participated. The parade was commanded by Brigadier Michael Krause, ADC, Commander 1st Brigade, who I was pleased to see attend the opening ceremony of the Legislative Assembly yesterday morning.
It is worth noting that in his address to the parade, the Chief of the Defence Force, Angus Houston remarked on this being the largest parade of ADF capability he had witnessed prior to active deployment. This really was something very special. To hear the Chief of our Defence Forces saying that this was the largest parade, outside of Anzac Day, that he has ever seen in one place, was quite special. The different contingents certainly made an impressive sight, filling all three roads around the parade ground. The farewell parade was conducted to provide an opportunity for members of 1st Brigade and the wider Army community to bid farewell to all the members deploying on active duty to operations in East Timor, Iraq and Afghanistan over forthcoming months.
At the conclusion of the parade, I had the opportunity to chat informally with many of the young men and women from the different contingents who are deploying. Some will be travelling to operate in more friendly places than others, but each theatre that they will operate in will carry a degree of risk and require a high state of readiness.
I found this an uplifting experience. The impression that I gathered on the day from those who I met is that they will be good ambassadors for Australia. They are confident, well-spoken young men and women who are well prepared for their deployment. They cannot wait to make a difference for the people in the countries to where they are deployed. They have worked hard in the lead-up training and are, obviously, dedicated to the duties they perform and to the country which they serve. I trust their efforts will contribute to making the world a safer and more peaceful place..
I hope members will join with me in doing two things: first we should wish them well for their mission, and hope that they return home safely to their families and loved ones at the conclusion of their tour of duty; and second, we should acknowledge the sacrifice made by the families and loved ones of those who will be left behind, and extend to them the special support that we can offer, because of our history and reputation of welcoming and accepting Defence as an integral part of our community.
Mr MILLS (Opposition Leader): Madam Speaker, I welcome the report. It was a very important parade and I was honoured, as Opposition Leader, to be there. It was also good to see the member for Nelson there as well.
It was a significant event to see so many troops standing disciplined, prepared, and ready to serve their country in the interests of bringing greater stability within the region and beyond to Afghanistan, Baghdad, and Timor-Leste. They deserve our full support.
To follow on from what the Chief Minister said, what we can do most practically is to extend our full support to the families who remain, particularly in Palmerston where many of those families live, and also across Darwin. The practical way in which we can show support for those families is to advance the agenda in here to strengthen law and order in our community, and to provide good health services for those families, so that they know that whilst their loved ones are serving in foreign places, they are in a strong and increasingly secure environment here. That would be the best thing we can do for those who and serve.
Mr WOOD (Nelson): Madam Speaker, I also welcome the report from the Chief Minister. There has been much discussion in the paper about whether soldiers are heroes. To some extent I think that is irrelevant. These are all young people going off to war. That is what we should be focusing on. Heroes may happen. These are all people who are going to war who could put their lives on the line for the country they are fighting in, and ultimately for our country. The safety of our country depends on a peaceful world, and that is exactly why our troops are going overseas. There is a certain amount of discussion which, I believe, actually hides the fact that these are very brave young men and women who are going off to defend, not only the country they are working in, but our country as well, and we should focus on that.
In my case, I have a young man who is going to Afghanistan in October. He is married to my niece, so I have some personal feelings about his future. He is going to a dangerous part of the world. I know that that does cause worry and anguish for his wife, Marie. Of course, that applies to all the families of those young people going overseas. We should certainly think of those people, not only the ones going overseas, but the families staying at home. They also have to bear the burden of the break in families, and they are worrying about their spouses overseas. That is something we should not forget as well.
We should also, as the Northern Territory, be very proud of these people. They are citizens of the Northern Territory. At times we call them AJs and are worried about them flying around in their cars. Well, they do that. They are young people. In the end, they are providing a very brave service for our country, and we should recognise that.
Mr HENDERSON (Chief Minister): Madam Speaker, I apologise to the member for Nelson. I should have acknowledged that the member for Nelson was there in the rollcall I put forward. This is really about acknowledging the service of these young men and women. In regard to the dispersal of Defence personnel right across Darwin, it is not just Palmerston. I saw some numbers the other day from Defence Housing Authority that show over 850 properties in the northern suburbs of Darwin. There is a fellow who lives three doors down the road from me who is being deployed to Afghanistan in October. His wife had a baby a few months ago. I was talking to him and his wife on Monday. Just put yourself in their shoes. Afghanistan is a very dangerous place. We had nine serving Australian soldiers injured only a week ago. The deaths that we have seen have occurred in Afghanistan. For those mums who are at home with children, every day is a tough day.
Madam SPEAKER: Chief Minister, your time has expired.
Ms ANDERSON (Parks and Wildlife): Madam Speaker, I will update the House on progress towards having the West MacDonnell Ranges World Heritage listed.
During the 2005 election, this government promised to progress the nomination of this wonderful region to the World Heritage List as a matter of priority. By doing this, Labor marks an important departure from the hostility of previous Territory governments to World Heritage matters. It was a departure that clearly indicated a desire to work with the Australian government to put the best that the Territory has to offer on the world stage. As with our approach on joint management, Labor will work constructively with other parties to improve our great parks. World Heritage Listing does not come easy. It is a long process. However, like joint management, the benefits of drawing in greater expertise for managing and promoting the region are substantial.
To qualify for World Heritage listing, nominated priorities must have values that are understandable and universal. There are strict criteria and, understandably, the bar is set high. At the outset, I want to make it clear that while the Territory government is and will do everything it can to progress the World Heritage nomination, the decision rests with the Australian government and, ultimately with the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO).
Before the park can be World Heritage listed, it must first get National Heritage Listing. Also, the Australian government will only nominate priorities to UNESCO that are included on the Australian World Heritage Tentative List. These are two critical milestones, and we are working hard to achieve them.
In December 2007, the Territory government submitted a nomination to the Australian Heritage Council for National Heritage listing of the West MacDonnell’s. The Australian government considered 129 nominations and selected 13 for assessment on its 2008-09 work program. I am delighted to inform the House, that the assessment for the West MacDonnell Ranges was one of these. So we are well on the way.
Members: Hear, hear!
Ms ANDERSON: The Australian Heritage Council will now spend time assessing the merits of the nominations against their criteria. On receiving this good news, my department immediately lodged a nomination for inclusion on Australia’s World Heritage Tentative List. These milestones have been met on the back of hard work by the Parks and Wildlife Commission, which has commissioned and contributed to the preparation of a number of key reports, on both cultural and natural values, to support the nominations. Local and national experts have been used to get the best possible information in front of the Australian government.
These reports will be made available to all Territorians via my department’s website. I urge all members to take the opportunity to read them to find out just how special the West MacDonnell’s are.
Of course, the West MacDonnell’s are also my country - I do not take any convincing. The beautiful ranges include some of my favourite places such as, Palm Valley, Ellery Creek and Gosse Bluff (Tnorala). The broader area also includes some of my people’s most ancient and precious places, such as Puritjarra and Kulpi Mara rock shelters, and rock art complexes at Kulpi Mara and Irtikiri. While initial nominations focus on the West MacDonnell National Park, with landholder and community support, the World Heritage nomination could easily be expanded to include some of these additional areas.
I also believe that our prospects of World Heritage listing will be significantly enhanced by meaningful recognition and roles for traditional owners connected to the West MacDonnell National Park. Our case will be helped by the joint management arrangements that have been put in place by this government.
There are 16 estate groups within the park, and the Central Land Council Joint Management Officers have done an excellent job facilitating the formation of three planning groups to work with Parks and Wildlife Service staff on the joint management plan. These groups have met many times over the past 18 months and drafting of the joint management plan is currently under way.
While we are working towards World Heritage listing and joint management, Parks and Wildlife is already engaging traditional owners in work, training and business opportunities in the park. Flexible employment projects are providing traditional owners with opportunities to work with rangers on park management programs. Aboriginal organisations such as Ingkerreke Outstation Resource Centre and Tjuwanpa Outstation Resource Centre are becoming increasingly ‘contract-ready’.
Madam Speaker, for these and many other reasons, I congratulate the Commonwealth government for agreeing to assess the suitability of the West MacDonnell National Park for inclusion on the National Heritage List, and undertake to be active in pursuing the next milestone along the path to World Heritage listing.
Members: Hear, hear!
Mr CHANDLER (Brennan): Madam Speaker, I thank the minister for her report today. The Country Liberal Party created one of the finest park systems in the world, and that is why this government is able to do this today. The Country Liberals support World Heritage Listing for the West MacDonnell’s National Park.
Ms ANDERSON (Parks and Wildlife): Madam Speaker, I thank the opposition for positive engagement on promoting heritage listing.
Ms McCARTHY (Children and Families): Madam Speaker, I am pleased to address this House as the new Minister for Children and Families during a very important week: National Child Protection Week.
This week is important in highlighting the need to better protect our children from abuse and neglect. This year’s theme for National Child Protection Week is Children See, Children Do - Make Your Influence Positive.
This theme is extremely important as it highlights the crucial part that role models play in the lives of children. Children mimic their role models; whether it is a parent, relative, teacher or sports coach. As role models, we need to consider the very real impact we have on a child’s life and ensure our impact on the youngest members of our society is a positive one.
During the week community events are taking place right across the Northern Territory, to highlight both child protection itself and the place of role models in the lives of children. I am pleased to be able to report to the House that event locations for Child Protection Week include Groote Eylandt, Katherine, Yipirinya, Yulara, Galiwinku, Batchelor, Bagot Community, Noonamah, Pigeon Hole, Maningrida, Minjilang, Alice Springs, Katherine and Darwin. Child Protection Week is truly a Territory-wide event.
I especially congratulate event organisers and participants on the events organised for this week. These events are crucial in highlighting the campaign’s theme while also ensuring that the prevention of child abuse and neglect remain paramount in our community.
During National Child Protection Week it is important to consider our own child protection and family support system. On 1 July this year, Family and Community Services was renamed as Northern Territory Children and Families. The new name is more reflective of the priorities of the division. Children and Families is part of the Department of Health and Families. Since 1 July, the division has already implemented a number of initiatives to improve child protection and family support services.
These include:
implementation of the Care and Protection of Children Act which promotes the wellbeing of children to protect them from harm and help them reach their full potential;
our Closing the Gap of Indigenous Disadvantage package makes a significant number of commitments and funding aimed at promoting the interests of Indigenous
children and families right across the Northern Territory;
the establishment of a Children’s Commissioner. I am pleased to say that Dr Howard Bath has been appointed the Children’s Commissioner. His role will be pivotal
in ensuring the safety of children and improving services for children. I look forward to working with him to improve the lives of children and families across the Northern
Territory;
the expansion of the Child Abuse Task Force which includes the establishment of a new unit in Central Australia. This task force brings the resources of police and child
protection workers together to ensure a collaborative and more effective working relationship between the two agencies; and
the recruitment of additional child protection workers.
Over the coming weeks I will be meeting people across the Territory, seeking their views to assist the government to develop fresh ideas to help protect our children. Supporting our families and protecting our children is a key priority of this government. As the minister responsible I will be working hard to ensure we do exactly that.
Members: Hear, hear!
Ms CARNEY (Araluen): Madam Speaker, I congratulate the minister on her first ministerial report in this important area. I wish you well. I worked well with your predecessor and I sincerely hope that we can have an equally good working relationship.
You may recall during Estimates in June I asked your predecessor to extend a briefing to me on the questions we did not get around to. She kindly said yes. Since the election I have liaised with your chief of staff to organise that briefing. I still want it. I think it is still very important. I ask the minister to expedite that. If it can be done during these sittings that would be most welcome.
I also thank you for the acknowledgement that you made at the breakfast. That was a great breakfast and to see so many highly motivated and very clever people in the same room is always a buzz but particularly uplifting given this area.
Nevertheless minister, you would be concerned, and as concerned as I am, by the report in The Australian last week, and I have not yet obtained the report, but I will. It was a story regarding a report from the Secretariat of the National Aboriginal and Islander Child Care, or SNAICC, which said that the Territory’s child protection system remained: ‘… seriously flawed with a chronic lack of capacity to deal with the issue …’ It went on to say: ‘… there was a culture within under-resourced childcare agencies in the Territory that if a child is living on the land they won’t go in and remove the child …’ The report went on and said: ‘… there had been no significant increase in notifications of abuse or removal of children despite an extensive focus on child abuse and neglect over the past year …’.
It went on and made some other damning comments in relation to the progress of child abuse in the Territory.
I ask you, minister, in your reply to comment on that and, perhaps we can have a debate about it.
Madam SPEAKER: Member for Araluen, your time has expired.
Ms McCARTHY (Children and Families): Madam Speaker, I thank the member for Araluen for her response. I hope to be able to work just as closely with her as my predecessor. Please be reassured that the briefing will occur. I can talk with you about that.
As soon as I read the article by SNAICC I attempted to speak and interact with them - and any organisation outside of government, be it the Commonwealth or the Territory - and have those relationships with them.
I am happy to give you a more detailed response regarding the issues raised in that report in the briefing. Regarding notifications there has been a difference between what the SNAICC article was about and what the department has. I am happy to speak about that with you in the briefing.
Ms SCRYMGOUR (Arts and Museums): Madam Speaker, on 29 July 2008, I announced a commitment by this government of $300 000 over two years to be used for conservation work, artists and family consultation, and research needed to stage an international tour of the Papunya Tula boards held by the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, or MAGNT. The exhibition would open in Araluen, then travel interstate and to international venues, and finish at MAGNT.
As I said at the opening night of the Telstra Awards:
Leading public galleries and experts on Papunya have been personally informed about this proposal. There is widespread enthusiasm for this project with offers of assistance and expertise. In carrying out the conservation work and research, staff at the MAGNT will meet groups and individuals with an interest and expertise in the Papunya art movement. These include the artists themselves; the National Gallery of Victoria; the Victorian Museum; the Art Gallery of New South Wales; the South Australian Art Gallery and Museum; the National Gallery of Australia; as well as scholars such as Vivienne Johnson, and Dick Kimber. These discussions have already commenced.
There are important sensitivities related to the public display or description of some of these early works due to their secret, sacred nature. These will be dealt with in full consultation with the Papunya artists and their families.
We are especially privileged in the Territory, thanks to the vision and foresight of Dr Colin Jack-Hinton, to be the custodians of this important collection. As minister, and personally, I feel a strong sense of duty towards this collection and its importance in the history of individual artists and the Western Desert art movement. This will be the first step towards making the legacy they have left to the world’s cultural and aesthetic heritage available to all.
Mr BOHLIN (Drysdale): Madam Speaker, I thank the Minister for Arts and Museums for that report. It is very enlightening to see the arts coming to the forefront of the people. Artwork such as that of the Papunya Tula people is important to the culture of the people of Central Australia.
Having spent some time in Central Australia, in Kintore, it is important. I have seen the artists doing their works and I look forward to seeing some of those artworks that have been previously hidden for some time - it is shameful. It is great to see there is going to be some conservation of those art works. I look forward to seeing that. process unfold in front of the people’s eyes, because that is what they were intended for. I look forward to assisting you with organisations such as Papunya Tula to ensure that this continues to be delivered for the people .
Ms SCRYMGOUR (Arts and Museums): Madam Speaker, I acknowledge and welcome the member for Drysdale’s input to the Arts portfolio. It is an important portfolio and I look forward to working with him. I also acknowledge my colleague, the member for Macdonnell, who is a very patriotic local member in this important area. We have many collections in MAGNT and we can become one of the world’s leading cultural institutions.
It is our government that has put that money, for the first time, towards the conservation and preservation work. I look forward to working with the member for Drysdale, and if you need information or briefings I will be happy to give those to you.
Reports noted pursuant to standing orders.
Bill presented and read a first time.
Dr BURNS (Justice and Attorney-General): Madam Speaker, I move that the bill be now read a second time.
The purpose of this bill is to amend various acts that fall within the Justice portfolio and to make a number of other consequential amendments. Acts amended in this bill include the Consumer Affairs and Fair Trading Act and the Professional Standards Act. The bill also contains amendments to the Powers of Attorney Act and Regulations and the Fines and Penalties (Recovery) Regulations.
I will detail the amendments in the order in which they are contained in the bill. The Consumer Affairs and Fair Trading Act is amended to include a provision to enable the minister to appoint a Deputy Commissioner of Consumer Affairs. The long title for the Consumer Affairs and Fair Trading Act sets out that the Consumer Affairs and Fair Trading Act is to provide for the appointment of Deputy Commissioners of Consumer Affairs. However, there are no substantive provisions in the Consumer Affairs and Fair Trading Act. This bill solves this problem by permitting the appointment of a Deputy Commissioner. Over time, this role will provide the Department of Justice with greater organisational flexibility.
The Powers of Attorney Act and Regulations are amended in this bill to ensure that the same administrative actions and registration safeguards apply to powers of attorney as apply to other instruments registered by the Registrar-General. The Powers of Attorney Act at present does not require any witness for a general power or revocation, except under section 6(4) where executed by direction. It further requires a witness for an enduring power of attorney, being a person who is not the donee of the power or a near relative of the donee, but not a qualified witness. The Powers of Attorney Act allows an instrument creating or revoking a power of attorney, or an instrument creating a power supporting a dealing in relation to land, must be registered.
Currently, powers of attorney need to be registered to enable any transaction signed under the Land Title Act and endorsed by the donee. The amendment ensures that the witnessing requirements are similar to those under the Registrar-General’s directions to make them consistent with other forms.
The amendment also provides that a power of attorney is to be witnessed by a ‘qualified witness’. This amendment is necessary, as a power of attorney is a powerful instrument which enables someone to act on another’s behalf, including to sell property, and should be treated equally to any transfer document which requires a qualified witness.
The bill defines ‘qualified witness’ in the same terms as persons listed in schedule 1 of the Land Title Act, namely in the Northern Territory:
a Commissioner for Oaths;
in a state, territory or place within Australia; and in a place outside Australia:
any person approved by the Registrar-General’s directions.
The amendments also require that the witnessing requirements are to match those under the Registrar-General’s directions to make them consistent with other forms.
Amendments are also made to the Professional Standards Act to avoid the unnecessary numbering of schemes as subordinate legislation.
The bill amends the Professional Standards Act to disapply to section 57 of the Interpretation Act. Section 57 of the Interpretation Act requires that subordinate legislation made in each calendar year is to be numbered in a regular arithmetical series, beginning with the number one, as close as possible to the order in which it is made. Additionally, that subordinate legislation may, without prejudice to any other method of citation, be cited by the number given to it and the calendar year in which it is made.
This bill ensures that professional standards schemes are not, and never have been, subordinate legislation for the purposes of the Interpretation Act. Further, they are not, and never have been, required to be published in the Gazette for the purposes of the Professional Standards Act.
The Fines and Penalties (Recovery) Regulations are amended to enable the Fines Recovery Unit to collect and enforce debts owed to the Northern Territory by persons pursuant to the Crimes Compensation Act, Crimes (Victims Assistance) Act and, in future, the Victims of Crime Assistance Act.
In order to reduce expenditure on Crimes Victims Assistance debt recovery and improve recovery rates, it was determined that two key changes to the recovery process were required.
First, since 2007, the Solicitor for the Northern Territory assumed conduct of all crimes victims assistance legal proceedings, including obtaining judgment debts against offenders. As a result the cost of recovery has reduced significantly from last financial year.
Second, it is envisaged that expenditure on crimes victims assistance recovery could be further reduced and rates of recovery could be improved, if the Fines Recovery Unit was given authority to collect and enforce crimes victims assistance debts. The result being that the Solicitor for the Northern Territory would no longer have to rely on private collection agents and would not incur the associated costs.
Given the Fines Recovery Unit’s core business is to collect fines and penalties owed to the Territory, it is arguably in the best position to also recover crimes victims assistance debts. As a government agency, the Fines Recovery Unit has access to information held by government which is essential to locating persons who owe money under the Crimes Compensation Act, Crimes (Victims Assistance) Act and, in future, the Victims of Crime Assistance Act and assessing their capacity to repay their Crimes Victims Assistance debts.
In addition, the Fines Recovery Unit has wide-ranging powers including suspending licences and vehicle registrations, seizing property and garnishee of wages or salary in order to enforce payment of the debts where necessary.
Madam Speaker, I commend the bill to honourable members and I also table a copy of the explanatory statement.
Ms CARNEY (Araluen): Almost word perfect from last time, minister. I move that the debate be adjourned. Can the minister confirm that it is the same bill as last time?
Dr BURNS (Justice and Attorney-General): To my knowledge, Madam Speaker, it is exactly the same bill.
Ms Carney: Thank you.
Debate adjourned.
Bill presented and read a first time.
Dr BURNS (Justice and Attorney-General): Madam Speaker, I move that the bill now be read a second time.
The main purpose of this bill is to make amendments to the Classification of Publications, Films and Computer Games Act consequential to amendments and proposed amendments by the Commonwealth to its Classification (Publications, Films and Computer Games) Act 1995.
A secondary purpose is to redraft all of the offence provisions, so that they become subject to the modern principles of criminal responsibility as contained in Part IIAA of the Criminal Code.
The bill also amends the act to simplify aspects of prosecutions. Finally, the bill removes an anomaly regarding children’s access to pornography.
Australia’s laws regarding censorship and classification of publications, films and computer games comprise three main elements.
The first is the Commonwealth’s Classification (Publications, Films and Computer Games) Act 1995. This act sets out the mechanisms for classification of materials. It provides for:
the establishment of the Classification Board, which classifies materials;
The second element comprises state and territory enforcement acts. The Northern Territory act is the Classification of Publications, Films and Computer Games Act. This act, together with its state equivalents, contains nearly all of the offence provisions relating to classification and censorship. Thus, whilst it is the Commonwealth law that establishes the censorship framework, it is state and territory law that actually determines what materials are lawful or unlawful in any particular jurisdiction.
The only significant exception to this framework is Part 10 of the Commonwealth act, which deals with the prohibition of possession of certain pornographic materials in areas prescribed under the Northern Territory National Emergency Response Act 2007.
The third element of the scheme is the classification code contained in the Schedule to the Commonwealth act when enacted in 1995 and as amended from time to time. The classification code provides the basis on which classification decisions are made. In many ways it is the core of the national scheme. It can only be amended by agreement of the Commonwealth and all the states and territories. On only one occasion has the Commonwealth enacted legislation that displaced the code in breach of the national agreement. That action occurred in 2007 when the former Commonwealth government enacted legislation relating to materials dealing with terrorism.
These three elements are regulated by an intergovernmental agreement. The classification code and the agreement can be found at websites for the Commonwealth Attorney-General’s department and the Classification Office. In accordance with the intergovernmental agreement, the Standing Committee of Attorneys-General (Censorship) or SCAG, has agreed to various amendments to the Commonwealth act and the consequential amendments to state and territory acts.
In 2007, the Commonwealth enacted the Classification (Publications, Films and Computer Games) Amendment Act 2007. The main purpose of this act was to reflect administrative changes made at the Commonwealth level. The legislation abolished the Office of Film and Literature Classification as a separate agency, and moved administrative and policy functions into the head offices of the Commonwealth Attorney-General’s department. There were also some rearrangements to the respective responsibilities of the Director of the Board and the Convenor of the Review Board.
These Commonwealth changes led to a need for minor amendments to Northern Territory legislation. These consequential amendments are as follows:
change the definition of ‘approved form’ so that it refers to forms approved by the Commonwealth minister under section 8A of the Commonwealth act.
The forms were previously approved by the Director;
changes that reflect the fact that the Convenor of the Review Board can now issue evidentiary certificates. Evidentiary certificates are used in court
proceedings, for instance, in the prosecution of contraventions of the Northern Territory act and are prima facie evidence of the matters stated in the
certificate; and
change the definition of ‘film’ to take into account the fact that films can now have add-on features, such as translations, and navigations. The effect of the
amendments is that such changes do not lead to a need for a reclassification of the film. Similarly, the amendments mean that there is no need for
reclassification if films are packaged as a compilation.
I will now deal with these amendments in more detail. The Northern Territory act defines the word ‘film’ by reference to the definition of that word in the Commonwealth act. The definition of ‘film’ in section 14A of the Commonwealth act has been amended so that it is clear that when previously classified films are brought together on a single device, the product does not require classification simply because of the fact of compilation.
The amendment is a response to changing technologies that ensure the regulatory burden to industry is not inadvertently increased. This bill makes the required consequential changes to the Northern Territory act. In particular, section 35 of the Northern Territory act currently makes it an offence to sell or publicly exhibit a classified film unless the film is sold or exhibited with the same title as that under which it was classified. Under section 35 if a number of already classified films were compiled onto one DVD, which was then marketed under a single named product, section 35 is, without the amendment in the bill, contravened.
New section 3AA of this bill incorporates section 14A of the Commonwealth act into the Northern Territory act in the same terms. It makes amendments to section 35 of the Northern Territory act to provide that the prohibition on selling or exhibiting a classified film other than that with the title under which it was classified is not contravened by the sale or public exhibiting of a classified film if it is contained on one device consisting of two or more classified films. The inclusion of the new section 3AA in the Northern Territory act, along with amendments to section 45, also ensure that section 45 of the Northern Territory act, which prohibits the sale of an unclassified film, is not breached by compilation of several classified films onto a single device.
Section 45 is also amended to take account of modifications referred to in section 21(2) of the Commonwealth act. The general rule in section 21(1) of the Commonwealth act is that if the classified film is modified it becomes unclassified when the modification is made. Section 21(2) of the Commonwealth act provides for certain exceptions to the rule so that declassification does not occur. Section 35 of the Northern Territory act prohibits the sale or public exhibition of a classified film unless it is sold or exhibited in the form in which it was classified.
Hence, a film that is modified other than in conformity with the exceptions in section 21(2) of the Commonwealth act cannot be sold or exhibited in the Northern Territory unless it is reclassified. The Commonwealth amending act amends section 21(2) so that adding subtitles, captions, dubbing and audio descriptions to an already classified film will not amount to a modification of the classified film that would require the film to be reclassified. Similarly, the addition of navigation aids that assist the viewer to move around a film will not require the film to be reclassified.
The Commonwealth amendment has highlighted the need to ensure that modifications that will not affect the classification status of the film, as set out in section 21(2) of the Commonwealth act, do not render the film unsaleable or unable to be publicly exhibited in the Northern Territory. Hence, the bill makes a consequential amendment to section 45 of the Northern Territory act to the effect that the sale or public exhibition of films modified in accordance with section 21(2) of the Commonwealth act are not unlawful in the Northern Territory.
The Northern Territory act, while primarily concerned with offence and enforcement matters, also provides some scope for organisations approved by the Director of the Classification Board to apply for an exemption from classification with respect to a specific film at a specific event.
However, there is less scope for an exemption that will permit a cultural institution to apply for a broad exemption relating to ongoing public exhibition of interactive multimedia exhibitions that incorporate changing, moving images, or selections from a back catalogue of archived moving images, which may not otherwise be exempt.
To accommodate the contemporary moving image exhibitions that are intrinsically unsuitable for classification and to facilitate the exhibition of archived film material, this bill provides a mechanism, similar to that act for organisations to carry on activities of an educational, cultural, or artistic nature approved by the Director of the Classifications Board. These amendments regarding moving image exhibitions follow on from amendments made to the Victorian legislation and agreed to by SCAG.
The Victorian amendments were designed to accommodate an exemption for the exhibition of contemporaneous interactive moving images and other films and computer games held by the Australian Centre for the Moving Image, a Victorian cultural institution. An amendment to the Commonwealth act to provide a power to exempt an organisation in relation to computer games was made to facilitate the amendment to the Victorian enforcement act. This Commonwealth amendment will also facilitate the making of exemptions under this proposed amendment to the Northern Territory act.
The amendments contained in new sections 96 to 100 of the Northern Territory act will enable approved Northern Territory cultural institutions to apply to the Director of the Classification Board or to the Northern Territory minister for an exemption from the classification scheme for the purpose of all or any of the institution’s activities or functions that relate to films or computer games.
This bill gives the Director some guidance as to the types of organisations that may be approved for the purpose of applying for an exemption. The reputation of the organisation in relation to film and computer games, and the conditions it intends to impose concerning the admission of people to exhibitions involving film or computer games are included in the matters the Director must have regard to in determining whether to approve an organisation. The Director is also required to give effect to any ministerial directions and guidelines in relation to approving an organisation under section 100.
In 2008, the Commonwealth introduced into parliament the Classification (Publications, Films and Computer Games) Amendment (Assessments and Advertising) Bill 2008. This bill was passed by the House of Representatives in March 2008 and expected to be passed by the Senate in June 2008. SCAG had previously agreed that states and territories should make amendments consequential to an earlier version of the bill introduced, but not passed, by the former Commonwealth government.
The 2008 Commonwealth bill provides for:
replacing the prohibition on advertising unclassified films and computer games with a new scheme that will allow advertising, subject to conditions set out in a new Commonwealth instrument; and
accompanied by a report that complies with the conditions set out in the new Commonwealth instrument.
Schedule 1 of the Commonwealth bill is part of a package of reforms involving amendments to state and territory legislation and to legislative instruments under the Classification Act. The proposal was developed in response to industry concerns that the current advertising arrangements were cumbersome and outdated.
The increasing risk of piracy means products are often available for classification only very close to their release date. The current prohibition, with limited exceptions only for public exhibition films, places unnecessary regulatory limitations on the marketing of classifiable products.
This bill enables a legislative instrument under the Commonwealth act to set out conditions on advertising unclassified films and computer games, and establish an industry-based, self-assessment scheme whereby the likely classification of an unclassified film or computer game is assessed by an authorised industry assessor for the purpose of advertising that film or game together with classified films or games before it is classified.
Schedule 2 of the Commonwealth bill enables an industry-based, self-assessment scheme to be established for films that are episodes of a television series and series-related material where that series has been broadcast in Australia. The proposal was developed in response to the increasing number of television series being released on video and DVD. Current arrangements for classification of such films are both expensive and time consuming.
The scheme will allow an application for classification of a box set of episodes of a television series to be accompanied by a report from an authorised assessor. The aim of this proposal is to streamline the classification process, respond to the changing technological environment for entertainment media, and reduce the cost to industry.
Quality assurance processes and safeguards are included in the scheme to ensure the ongoing integrity of the classification process.
These amendments led to the following consequential amendments to the Northern Territory act:
amend the provisions dealing with the advertising of unclassified films so that such advertising is regulated by an advertising scheme put in place under the
Commonwealth act rather than under the exemption scheme that has existed since 1995; and
The legislation also provides for the repeal and/or amendment of the 86 offence sections contained in the act. They have all been amended so as to conform to the modern principles of criminal responsibility as contained in Part IIAA of the Criminal Code.
The penalty provisions have also been modified so that they all rely on section 34DB of the Interpretation Act so that the penalty for a corporate offender is five times the monetary penalty specified for each of the offences.
During the enactment of the Northern Territory National Emergency Response Act 2007, members of the Senate noted an apparent anomaly in the provisions of the act to prohibit persons under 18 years of age from accessing pornography. Such persons are not permitted to access pornography in places open to the public.
However, in other situations, persons are excused from criminal liability if they are the parents or guardians of the child. That is, the legislation permits parents and guardians to allow their children in the home and other non-public places access to X 18+ films and category 1 and 2 publications. These provisions reflect the model bill developed by the Australian Law Reform Commission in the early 1990s.
They are also contained in the Australian Capital Territory’s Classification (Publications, Films and Computer Games) Enforcement Act 1995. No doubt these provisions reflect the view that there are some children, for example those aged 16 or 17, for whom responsible parents may correctly take the view that there is no problem in the child accessing pornography. However, the Little Children are Sacred Report does indicate that there are parents who may not be able to deal with this issue in a proper way. Accordingly, this bill will remove the various defences.
The bill also includes new section 115. This is designed to simplify the prosecution process by providing that the factual allegation of the classification status of a film, publication or computer game is evidence of that status. The new section is proposed for the purpose of avoiding the need for time consuming and expensive formal classifications and materials.
The final substantive amendment in the bill is that it provides that exemptions can be made by way of some regulation. SCAG is to consider later in 2008 proposals concerning research into pornographic materials. Such proposals may require exemptions. Current thinking is that exemptions of such a nature should be agreed to by ministers and reflected in regulations rather than exemptions given by ministers or by the national director.
The opportunity has also been taken to rationalise the numbering of provisions of the act and to make the necessary consequential amendments to other Northern Territory legislation.
Madam Speaker, I commend the bill to honourable members and table a copy of the explanatory statement.
Ms CARNEY (Araluen): Minister, not as word perfect as the last one, but not bad. Can you please confirm before I adjourn this that the bill is the same bill that you tabled on 12 June this year?
Dr BURNS (Justice and Attorney-General): As far as I am aware it is the same bill.
Debate adjourned.
Bill presented and read a first time.
Dr BURNS (Justice and Attorney-General): Madam Speaker, I move that the bill be now read a second time.
The purpose of this bill is to amend the Criminal Code in two key areas. First, it creates a specific ‘hit and run’ offence, providing substantial penalties for drivers who leave the scene of an accident in which a person has been killed or seriously injured. Second, it provides an offence targeted at those people who stupidly endanger drivers and passengers of vehicles by throwing objects like rocks at vehicles or shine laser pointers into vehicles.
The bill also provides an interpretation section which will go into Part IIAA of the Criminal Code. The reason for this interpretation section is to give effect to the way in which Parliamentary Counsel has drafted the offence provisions and make them clearer and easier to apply.
Recent incidents in both the Northern Territory and other states have highlighted the desirability of enacting a specific offence targeting drivers who leave the scene of an accident where someone has been killed or seriously injured and do not render assistance. Failing to stop in these circumstances is cowardly and falls too far short of what a humane society requires of its citizens.
The bill creates section 174FA of the Criminal Code which makes it an offence for a driver of a vehicle that is involved in an incident causing death or serious harm to another person, to fail to stop and give assistance in circumstances in which he or she knows or is reckless as to whether or not the vehicle has been involved in an incident and knows or is reckless as to whether or not the person has been killed or seriously harmed.
Where the incident results in death, the maximum penalty for failure to stop and render assistance is 10 years imprisonment. Where the incident results in serious harm, the maximum penalty is seven years imprisonment.
The penalties mirror those for dangerous driving causing death and dangerous driving causing serious harm. This is deliberate. It not only reflects that the abandonment of a person who is dead, dying or seriously injured deserves serious punishment, regardless of who is to blame for the accident, but also it importantly removes the incentive for those persons who think they might be charged with dangerous driving causing death or dangerous driving causing serious harm to escape from the scene. Specifically, it provides a strong deterrent against people who may choose to flee an accident scene to avoid a breath test.
Recent reports in the media have also highlighted the danger and stupidity of throwing things like rocks at a vehicle and of shining a laser beam at a vehicle. This government does not tolerate this sort of antisocial and potentially very dangerous behaviour.
There are, of course, already a number of offences in the Northern Territory which apply when someone throws an object and causes injury or damage - ranging from murder, manslaughter, causing serious harm to aggravated assault and criminal damage. There are also general endangerment offences in the Criminal Code which apply in situations where the act results in the danger or death or serious harm.
Most of these offences could also apply to directing a laser beam. Laser pointers are also ‘controlled weapons’ under the Weapons Control Act. Persons under 18 are prohibited from using or possessing a laser pointer and adults are also prohibited from using or possessing them unless they have a lawful excuse, which reflects the fact that there are legitimate uses for laser pointers. The maximum penalty under the Weapons Control Act is two years imprisonment.
There is, however, a gap in the law, particularly in relation to throwing things. The act of intentionally throwing something at a car where there is a potential to harm someone, is inadequately catered for in our current laws. If no injury or damage results, then under the endangerment offences in the Criminal Code the prosecution must prove that the act gave rise to the danger of death or serious harm and that the defendant was reckless as to those levels of danger. Depending on the particular scenario, it might not be possible to prove that there was a danger of death or serious harm or that the defendant was reckless as to those levels of danger.
Section 180A provides that the danger be only that of harm and the defendant be reckless as to the danger of harm. This is a much lower level of danger and it is consequently much easier to establish. It is a lesser offence than the other endangerment offences and this is reflected in the lower maximum penalty of four years imprisonment. However, the four year penalty demonstrates the seriousness of the offence will be a significant deterrent to those people who, reckless as to the fact that they could cause harm to the occupant of a vehicle, throw rocks or bottles or some other object at it.
Section 180A also applies specifically to directing laser pointers at vehicles or vessels. The government is of the view that the penalties under the Weapons Control Act, whilst adequate in many situations, do not adequately reflect the seriousness and dangerousness of shining laser beams into vehicles. That is why we have created a specific offence, section 180A, to target not only those people who endanger the occupants of vehicles by throwing things but also those who endanger them by shining laser beams at or into vehicles.
Madam Speaker, I commend the bill to honourable members and table a copy of the explanatory statement.
Ms CARNEY (Araluen): Madam Speaker, before adjourning the bill, can the minister confirm that the bill is the same one as that introduced on 11 June?
Dr BURNS (Justice and Attorney-General): Madam Speaker, as far as I am aware this bill is the same bill.
Debate adjourned.
Mr MILLS (Opposition Leader): Madam Speaker, I see that the notice I gave …
Ms LAWRIE: A point of order, Madam Speaker! The Clerk was on his feet and it is Orders of the Day.
Madam SPEAKER: There is no point of order.
Members interjecting.
Madam SPEAKER: Order!
Mr MILLS: Madam Speaker, I noted the call that I received. I see that the notice I gave yesterday is listed on General Business.
Madam SPEAKER: In accordance with the routine of business, that would be where it would appear on the Notice Paper. It is, in fact, General Business.
Mr MILLS: Madam Speaker, I seek leave that General Business be now brought on.
Leave denied.
Mr MILLS (Opposition Leader): Madam Speaker, I move that so much of standing orders be suspended as would prevent me from introducing a bill entitled Sentencing Amendment (Violent Offences) Bill 2008 (Serial 4).
The reason I seek this leave is to take government at their word. They pledged that they would listen to what the community had to say. What was most important was that if we conduct an election campaign on certain premises, the result of that campaign establishes a certain premise for our actions from that point on.
Law and order was a core issue and principally, the issue of violent assaults. The opportunities afforded the opposition are restricted, and we appreciate the opportunity that we have to bring business before the House. However, the way that is constructed - this being a core issue and one of direct concern to Territorians - it would be necessary and required of us to ensure that this matter is brought before the Chamber without delay.
If we follow the procedures that are established by this government, the opposition does not have the opportunity to bring this matter up until some time in October. This would mean that it is put on the table in October and discussed some time in March. Frankly, that is too late. It runs against the issues that were responded to by this government and by the opposition in the wash-up from the election. What was established was a concern about law and order, and the government’s response was that they would listen.
I am surprised that government has not taken the opportunity to act. We are required to act and bring a bill forward immediately. We need to be serious about these matters. We are not playing games in here. This is way beyond politics. Our community spoke very clearly. If we are going to take the opportunities and the responsibility that we have, we need to bring it on. If government will not bring it on, it is the obligation of the opposition to bring it on.
Therefore, I ask honourable members to acknowledge what the community has said. Bear in mind the maiden speeches that were made yesterday, which said you were going to listen to the community and you were going to serve their best interests - not the best interests of your party. The community made it absolutely clear that they want action to deal with violent offenders. Here is an opportunity to respond to that immediately. The government has not taken that opportunity. We acknowledge that there are certain matters which have been brought before the House which were stood over from before the last session. We are happy to allow these matters to be attended to because we see them as important.
The community has already established what is important in their mind. Hence, the result that we see in this Chamber. So, what do we do? Sit here and follow due process? I think it is a coward who hides behind process. We need to look at and recognise what the community wants - they want to see action; they want to see change. If the government has failed to do that, it is our obligation to do so. Therefore, I request support for bringing this matter before the House.
Ms LAWRIE (Leader of Government Business): Madam Speaker, the Leader of the Opposition is simply grandstanding.
Members interjecting.
Madam SPEAKER: Order!
Ms LAWRIE: Listen to the rabble; they are already a rabble. We listen …
Ms Carney: You are already just the same as you were before the election.
Mr Mills: Disingenuous.
Madam SPEAKER: Order!
Ms LAWRIE: They crank up straightaway. We listened to what the Leader of the Opposition had to say in his argument regarding removing the practices of this Assembly which have been in place, not just under this government, but since the Legislative Assembly was formed. Since the Legislative Assembly …
Mr Elferink: We just did it for you on three bills. You just set aside process for him.
Madam SPEAKER: Order!
Ms LAWRIE: … was formed, it has been the practice of the opposition to deal with its legislation on General Business Day. It is arrogance in the extreme for the Leader of the Opposition to come in here today and say: ’We have legislation; you are not bringing yours on’. We issued a media release on the weekend, clearly stating …
Members interjecting.
Ms LAWRIE:… on the public record …
Mr Mills: Government by media release!
Ms LAWRIE: They cannot help themselves. They are so arrogant that they will not allow members to stand in this Chamber and speak without constant interjections.
The government issued a media release about the parliamentary program of sittings and the legislation that we would be bringing forward. We raised our sentencing legislation, and our legislation dealing with violent offenders. We flagged that publicly, therefore flagging it to the opposition, that that is absolutely a priority of this sittings for this government.
This sittings we will deliver legislation on our election commitments. We do not need the Leader of the Opposition in here grandstanding and flapping around this morning to do what is actually the business of government. We will proceed with the business of government. We have the Orders of the Day before us. There is no urgency in what the Leader of the Opposition argued. This legislation goes to General Business Day, as has been the practice of the Legislative Assembly since the Assembly was formed.
Madam Speaker, I move that the question be now put.
The Assembly divided:
Motion agreed to.
Madam SPEAKER: The question as put by the Leader of the Opposition that so much of standing orders be suspended as would prevent him from introducing a bill is now put.
Motion negatived.
Continued from 9 September 2008.
Mr HENDERSON (Chief Minister): Madam Speaker, on 9 August the people of the Territory gave Labor a mandate for government for a third term. I am tremendously heartened by the trust placed in my colleagues and me to lead the Territory through this very exciting period of our history.
It was a close and hard fought election. I congratulate all new members on their election to this House. It is indeed a great privilege for us all. It was an election with a clear message for my government; messages that we are listening to and will act on.
I am privileged to lead a government which reflects the breadth of the Territory community - from our remote communities in the bush to the city. This gives us the capacity to hear the voices of all Territorians. We have ministers born in the deserts and arid lands of Central Australia and Tennant Creek. We have a Deputy Chief Minister born in the saltwater country of the Top End. We have ministers representing pastoral and regional lands and ministers, including myself, reflective of the Darwin community. We have ministers and members who come from both the private and non-government sectors, and the public sector, from the shop floor to management. Due to that diversity, our government is open to the ideas and opinions of Territorians from all walks of life. We will use this diversity to hear all the voices of our community to discuss fresh ideas about governing the Northern Territory.
The first demonstration of this has been the government’s decision to create a Department of Regional Development, Primary Industry, Fisheries and Resources with a strong regional focus. This department will have its leadership based in Alice Springs. Our government will ensure that for other departments, decision-making …
Members interjecting.
Dr BURNS: A point of order, Madam Speaker! Some of the new members should familiarise themselves with standing orders, particularly Standing Order 51 about no interruption. They should be showing some courtesy to the Chief Minister in relation to this. Some of them should know better.
Members interjecting.
Madam SPEAKER: Member for Fong Lim and member for Greatorex, when the Speaker is speaking, you are to be silent.
I will remind honourable members of Standing Order 51:
Mr HENDERSON: Our government will ensure that, for other departments, decision-making power is provided to the regions so that local planning can provide for true local outcomes. Nobody better knows how a community runs than those who live there. I have asked my Chief Executive to present to Cabinet by year’s end a program for increasing regional decision-making from each agency.
During the course of the election my government made a number of commitments that we would undertake if returned to office. Each and every one of those commitments will be fulfilled. I have already had each commitment confirmed by Cabinet and each minister has received a copy of the promises in their portfolios. In addition, every agency affected has received these commitments as part of their working program. I am announcing today that the government will be reporting against commitments directly to this House twice a year in the June and November sittings.
Over the next four years I will lead a government that will engage our community with fresh ideas - delivering real results for Territorians. It is true that the Territory is experiencing growing pains. That is the price of success and rapidly expanding economic growth. The Australian Bureau of Statistics released statistics last week that increased the growth forecast of the Northern Territory to lead the nation at 7.9% - an extraordinary result. It is a significantly expanding economy and it is a challenge that we are up for. We must act now to address these growing pains so we can successfully harvest the opportunities that this growth provides for us all.
Over the coming weeks, the government will be announcing a significant change in the way we engage Territorians and deliver results for Territorians. My colleagues and I believe it is time for us to re-evaluate the way we work as a government with our public sector to plan and develop the Territory and deliver services for Territorians. I look forward to speaking further on these issues in the future.
I announce today the significant increase in the government’s focus on planning for the Territory’s growth and delivering coordinated services of growing Territory needs. Today, I am announcing we are strengthening the public service in these vital areas to ensure the best possible planning advice is acted upon as we grow.
We will establish the Territory Growth Planning Unit, in the Department of the Chief Minister, which will be responsible for coordinating action and forward planning across the whole of government. The unit will have the necessary human resources to provide the best possible advice to government. I expect that the unit will contain demographers, economists, planners and other relevant professionals. It will provide government with the tools and advice it needs to make decisions about the direction of growth on behalf of Territorians.
Of course, we will not wait for this unit to be put in place before making some critical decisions. Work is already under way on a growth planning model for Darwin, Palmerston, and the Litchfield area. This economic model will be a vital tool in assisting us to decide issues such as land turn-off and consequent future service and infrastructure needs.
On Monday, the Minister for Planning and Infrastructure published the next stage of land release for the Darwin and Palmerston areas. Later today, my colleague will be announcing the preferred tenderer for the release of land at Bellamack. Next week, she will be advising this House of land release plans right across the Northern Territory. These plans will see a major increase in the release of land, especially in 2010 and 2011 onwards. To achieve this, the government will bring forward many millions of dollars worth of infrastructure expenditure on headworks and other essential services.
I am pleased to announce that the government will also develop and implement a Territory housing plan. This plan is based on the premise that every Territorian who wants to, should be able to buy or rent a house at an affordable limit. These plans will not be focused on the Palmerston and Darwin areas alone. Projects defining and shaping the growth of Katherine, Tennant Creek, Nhulunbuy, and Alice Springs will also occur.
Unlike the spectre of rural decline faced in so many parts of Australia, towns in the bush are growing. By 2023, Wadeye will have a greater population than present day Nhulunbuy. By that date the number of Aboriginal population centres with more than 2000 people is likely to be eight or nine times the current number and there will be at least three over the 3000 population mark. Planning for their future will also be an important part of our program delivering real results for Territorians.
My government will ensure that the remote transport plan is established. This plan will provide for the short- to long-term needs of public transport in the bush. It will also include a regional aviation strategy.
This Labor government has grown the economic pie of the Territory considerably. We will continue to do so. Our challenge is twofold. We need to continue to grow the Territory both economically and socially, and we need to ensure that all Territorians share in the growth and benefits. That is why my government will increase its efforts to keep the economy growing, attracting business and projects to the Territory. We will continue to support local, small, and medium businesses to grow and develop.
Honourable members are fully aware of my government’s commitment to bring INPEX to Darwin. We began our efforts 12 months ago with a small chance that this project could come our way. Today, we have a strong chance of securing the largest infrastructure project in the Territory’s history. I made winning this project the centrepiece of my commitment to the electorate in the recent election. I intend to work hard to be successful in this venture.
Immediately prior to the government entering caretaker mode, we finalised an agreement with Jetstar to build an international aviation hub in Darwin. This is an exciting project that will deliver immediate and long-term benefits to Territorians. We are also working with resource companies to develop significant mining projects right cross the Territory. We have recently announced major project status for the development of a common-user facility in Tennant Creek.
A challenge to our economic expansion remains the provision of labour. I am proud of the efforts of successive Labor governments to train Territorians as participants in our workforce. We are widely recognised as undertaking one of the most extensive per capita training efforts in the nation. However, more has to be done as the demand for labour is increasing.
A Workforce Growth Unit will be established in the Department of Business and Employment expanding the work already undertaken. It will coordinate the government’s efforts to attract people to live and work in the Territory. I expect it to be constantly knocking on the door of our interstate and near neighbours and to be seeking workers, both skilled and unskilled, from further afield. To ensure this unit addresses regional needs offices will be based in Katherine and Alice Springs.
My government is determined that Indigenous Territorians will be the beneficiaries of accelerated growth and social development. The centrepiece of our efforts will be Closing the Gap of Indigenous Disadvantage. This is the largest social spending program of its kind in the Territory’s history. It has the aim of ensuring that by 2027 every baby born in the Territory has the same opportunity to excel and to be best they can be.
We are targeting child protection, education, health, housing, jobs, policing and community safety. In 12 months much has been achieved. We have introduced the Care and Protection of Children Act, appointed a Children’s Commissioner, and created an additional 18 child protection worker positions. We have expanded the workforce in our sexual assault referral centres, increased the penalties for trafficking drugs to remote communities from five to nine years, and strengthened alcohol laws. New schools are being built. New police stations are in place. In partnership with the Commonwealth, we are embarking on the biggest housing program since self-government. It starts rolling out in earnest in the coming year in Tennant Creek.
The Deputy Chief Minister is delivering a centrepiece education project called Transforming Indigenous Education. This project will provide Indigenous people with the tools to engage in education and participate in the Territory’s growth and development.
In addition to the work planned under Closing the Gap, the government will also provide a more robust employment strategy for Indigenous Territorians. This will involve employment within both the public and private sectors. We will create regional job hubs in Tennant Creek and Nhulunbuy with a strong emphasis on Indigenous employment, and we will ensure that Ti Tree economic growth has major project status. We will work actively to link Indigenous workers to the booming resource and construction industries.
I reject the accusations that have been made regarding the Territory government’s use of Indigenous funding. This government is the only government in the nation that has undertaken a thorough review of its expenditure and determined how we are spending the money we have received. We have independent verification of that work. My government will defend our position, at any time and in any place, against these blatantly political and scurrilous accusations. I am astounded at the breathtaking hypocrisy of our opponents who for 27 years starved Indigenous communities of the funds they needed to become part of the mainstream of the Northern Territory. Any investigation of expenditure must include an examination of the backlog of the deficit that we inherited in 2001. I am happy to be subject to such scrutiny and I expect that the Territory and federal governments before us should be subject to the same scrutiny in their efforts.
I believe that the Territory is a ‘can do, go ahead’ place, but I do not support growth at the expense of our environment. I believe we are uniquely placed to use the cutting edge of modern technology to allow us to have both growth and strong environmental values and outcomes. The Territory possesses internationally significant biodiversity. I am pleased to advise the House that over the next term of government it is our intention to bolster our national parks and wilderness areas with a new way of environmental protection – the creation of eco-links.
Eco-links will bring together all types of landholders in the Territory - from Indigenous traditional owners to pastoralists, from federal, Territory and local governments to freehold property owners - in a common effort to support our biodiversity. The Arafura to Alice EcoLink will be a priority of my government. We will continue to support our world-leading, joint-management approach to national parks, despite the opposition of those who have a narrow vision about the way this Territory should be run. We will ensure that joint ownership translates into an employment future for Indigenous Territorians.
We will also participate in the efforts of the national government to change the way we tackle climate change as a nation. In February 2009, we will release the Territory’s climate change policy through our dedicated Office of Climate Change. As part of the government’s response to climate change, we will be upgrading all government buildings to appropriate energy efficiency standards. We will also ensure that the NT Fleet is 20% green within five years. We will continue the moratorium on clearing in the Daly region. Science, not emotion, will guide our decisions on the future development in this area.
The government will continue its efforts to make our Territory safe. Living in safety is a right. I will defend that right. Labor governments have vigorously resourced our police force. Since 2001, we have recruited an additional 240 police. We are now committing to a further 82 police and 12 police auxiliaries over the next four years. We are undertaking a major exercise in lifting the police presence in the community. With our Safer Streets program, we are introducing police beats at Territory shopping centres in Alice Springs, Palmerston, Casuarina, Karama, and Parap. We will also place CCTV in a number of shopping centres across Darwin and Palmerston. Two weeks ago, I announced an additional $1.1m for CCTV in the Alice Springs CBD and a grant of up $200 000 a year to assist in monitoring costs.
However, community safety is not solely a police issue. Our policing will link with new approaches to tackling juvenile crime, with the introduction of Family Responsibility Agreements on the one hand, and the funding of youth rehabilitation camps on the other. Both of these initiatives have the aim of punishing those who break the law, but also work on repairing one of the fundamental causes of crime - family breakdown.
The effects of alcohol drive much of the crime and family breakdown experienced in our community. We will continue our efforts to reduce the alarming levels of alcohol consumed in the Territory through community-based planning. It will not be easy. I am fully aware of the resentment some people, who drink sensibly, feel when restrictions are placed on them. We will seek a balance. The balance for this government will be measured by increased community safety. We must defeat the scourge of alcoholism that blights so many Territory lives, together with the violence that so often accompanies grog abuse.
I have made it clear that men and women who commit serious and unprovoked acts of violence will go to gaol. In a similar way, domestic and family violence is a community problem and therefore needs a community response. In recognition of this, the Territory government has committed $15m over four years to support the introduction of universal mandatory reporting of domestic and family violence. The Northern Territory government remains committed to finding effective solutions to domestic and family violence within our community and to promoting the safety and health of families.
Increasing population and economic growth brings with it an increased demand for services. Through years of record budgets we have lifted the resources available to tackle remote Indigenous health and education outcomes. I believe we are slowly starting to see positive outcomes from these resources, with improved life expectancy and improved treatment of illness. We are also making headway in providing Indigenous students with improved literacy and numeracy, through programs such as the National Accelerated Literacy Program, which we have pioneered. However, we have much more to do.
We will also be looking closely at the service needs of our fastest growing communities: Palmerston and the rural areas. Together with the Commonwealth government, we will deliver a super clinic for the area and we will improve ambulance services. The Health Minister will also undertake a broader look at the emerging needs of the area over the long term. We will continue our efforts to provide a broader range of specialist services in the Territory. We have expanded these services dramatically over the last seven years and we will continue that expansion.
Like the community at large, the government has been frustrated by the stop/start efforts to deliver oncology services. These highly specialised services are hard to attract to the Northern Territory. However, we have persisted and are now delivering. Work is now under way on building the necessary infrastructure at Royal Darwin Hospital.
We will also begin the implementation of a 10-year $45m cardiac health plan which will bring high quality care to thousands of Territorians. This will include specialists, specialist equipment and upgrades at Alice Springs and Royal Darwin Hospitals in this critical area of health care.
I am proud of the program of extensive reform and renewal that this Labor government has embarked on in the delivery of education to Territorians, and it has not stopped. We want to transform education in the Territory so each and every one of our students is getting the best education in the country. Over the next four years, we will embark on the largest investment in schools and education infrastructure in the Territory’s history. This historic program, $246m, will go to upgrades for 85 primary, middle and senior schools across the Territory.
I am also particularly proud to announce today that, in our third term, the government will focus a major effort on improving early childhood education. Planning for this is already under way and details will be announced in the future. This plan will contain the commitment we made during the Territory election to the Families as First Teachers program. This program will develop an education culture from the birth of children through to their start at school. The lack of a developed education culture is at the root of most problems in remote education - resulting in poor attendance.
As His Honour, the Administrator said, we have a unique lifestyle here in the Territory. A lifestyle that is freer, more outward looking and characterised by a willingness to ‘give it a go’. These are values that are increasingly rare in other places.
My government will continue to support and enhance that approach to life. We will support the recreational fishers of the Territory. We will continue to expand sporting opportunities across the Territory and we will support the natural creativity of Territorians, as they express themselves through art and performance.
Most importantly, I will commit myself and my government to providing a cohesive, multiculturally diverse Territory, where the rights of all and the rights of our Territory collectively, are recognised and respected. To that end, I will work with federal government, Indigenous landholders and fishermen, both recreational and professional, to implement a practical plan for implementing the decision of the High Court regarding Blue Mud Bay.
I turn to the important issue of governance of the Territory. Over the next four years, my government will work with all Territorians to progress the transition to statehood. We are committed to statehood. However, we will not do it in the divisive way it was attempted in the past - an act that set back the process many years.
To demonstrate our desire to provide a more mature governance structure I will be introducing fixed four year terms before the end of this year.
I will also be introducing, before the end of the year, a code of conduct for all parliamentarians to demonstrate to the community that we take their trust in us seriously. I will also be introducing an increased disclosure of interests of members of the Legislative Assembly.
Madam Speaker, over seven years of office we have changed the political landscape for the better. Those seven years have brought profound change and have laid the groundwork for fresh ideas for a future that will be exciting and challenging for the Northern Territory. Those fresh ideas will set the course for the next four years and beyond, as we deliver results for the Territory and for Territorians.
Ms CARNEY (Araluen): Congratulations, Madam Speaker, on your re-election as the Speaker of this Chamber, one that is supported by the opposition.
I will spend my contribution today talking briefly about the election in Araluen, then go back to where the Country Liberal Party was three years ago, and then talking about the government.
In relation to my election in Araluen, I was very humbled and absolutely honoured by the vote. I think the two party preferred vote in my electorate was close to 75%. I was genuinely humbled by that and was in a state of shock for several days. It was a good election campaign. We all get better at things as we get older and election campaigns are no exception.
I have many people to thank. I have already thanked them in a number of ways. However, there are two people who I would particularly like to place on the Parliamentary Record. First, Dee Davies, who was my campaign manager. We worked well and efficiently together, as we always do, as she went over and above her call of duty. Second, Michael Jones, who happens to be in the Chamber, which is something of a coincidence, and I am thrilled that you are, Michael. Thank you. We could not have done it without you. I could not have done it without you. Thank you very much indeed.
To the voters of Araluen - I have already written to my constituents thanking them and thanking those who voted for me for the first time. I said to those in my electorate that, regardless of how people voted, I will be their loyal and faithful servant and will continue to represent them and advocate for their needs and wishes.
However, it is worth noting how people voted in my electorate on polling day. I have traditionally managed to attract some Labor voters. This election was considerably different. I had Labor voters almost lining up saying to me: ‘I have never voted Liberal in my life, I am going to vote for you’. Two reasons were articulated. The first was they thought I was a good local member and that they should, in their words, ‘give me another spin’. Second, they were sick and tired of government.
That is a problem for a political party – every political party experiences it over the years. However, when your ‘rusted on voters’ jump to the other side, as they did when the CLP lost government in 2001, you know you have a problem. If you do the sums, members opposite will appreciate how many of Labor’s ‘rusted on voters’ jumped ship. I am very grateful to them. I said to them that their vote means twice as much. You have to work twice as hard for a Labor person’s vote. I have seen some of those Labor voters since the election and they said: ‘We are sick and tired of the government. We wanted to send a message’. I have said to them: ‘Let us hope that the Labor government performs so well in Alice Springs that we can have them voting Labor again at the next election’.
So there is a broader dimension to this. Let us hope, for the sake of the town in which I live and for the sake of my constituents, that Labor does considerably better over the next four years than it has over the last seven and, in particular, over the last three.
Thank you to everyone. I am sure other speakers will talk about their election experiences. I also congratulate members on both sides who are newly elected. This can be at times a very strange occupation, but it is invariably a very enjoyable one. I hope that it is enjoyable and very interesting for you all.
On 29 June 2005, I stood in this place as an Opposition Leader, a leader of what I thought was, and it is probably true, the smallest opposition in the southern hemisphere. To be an opposition of four is pretty bad. To be an Opposition Leader of four was almost beyond description. However, I said at the time in the Address-in-Reply some things that I thought might be useful to quote back. It is somewhat self-indulgent to quote oneself back, but the comments are noteworthy and it should be done in any event.
I said on 30 June:
I went on to say:
I then went on to say:
It is somewhat prophetic in the sense that I do not think it was widely anticipated that Labor would lose as many seats as they did. However, I think each and every one of us, in a personal sense, as well as in terms of our political parties, can never lose sight of the fact that anything can happen.
People say to me I have a safe seat. I reject that completely. In 2001, I won the seat of Araluen by 134 votes two party preferred. People say that Alice Springs is a CLP town. I remind members that in 2005 Richard Lim won his seat by about 100 or so votes. There is no such thing as a safe seat in the Northern Territory. As parliamentarians we can work even harder if we are motivated by not losing our seat. The people whom we represent get a better outcome if they see their politicians working as hard as they possibly can.
I would now like to raise some matters about the government. I suspect they will not like it; if they do not they can always leave. The result in Alice Springs was considerable in terms of the backlash against government. What was terribly interesting was that when Clare Martin was Chief Minister and we had the parliamentary sittings in April 2007, she did deserve what she got. No one enjoys standing up and being booed, but Clare did deserve what she got. However, Clare was not alone. It was the government, as a whole, that copped the anger and frustration of the mainstream people in Alice Springs. These were not the usual suspects; many of these people had never been to a demonstration in their lives before.
Government did do some interesting backflips along the way. Regarding CCTV cameras, the minister did a response to a petition some months prior to going to Alice Springs saying: ‘No, no, no, we are not going to have CCTV cameras’. As a result of the demonstration, during the sittings, he said: ‘Okay, we will give you CCTV cameras’. We kept saying: It is not enough; and we will agree to differ in that respect. However, whilst we did see government moving somewhat, the people of Alice Springs were not getting enough. We tried consistently, both in and out of this Chamber, to tell those opposite that things in Alice Springs were not good and that bold corrective action was required. Unfortunately for Alice Springs - it was ultimately demonstrated in the election results - those opposite were too arrogant and too proud to say: ‘Yes, you are right. We need to do better in Alice Springs’.
Many things happened during the last term, but I note with great interest a media release issued by the members for Macdonnell and Stuart and the then member for Central Australia, Elliot McAdam.
I note with interest that the members for Macdonnell and Stuart were not good enough to put on the footy team prior to the election we just had, when government had the numbers. However, now that they have considerably fewer on their team, suddenly the members for Stuart and Macdonnell are suddenly good enough to have as ministers. That is a matter for the government, I suspect.
However, the members for Macdonnell and Stuart now ministers, declare their undying love and affection for the people of Alice Springs since 9 August.
In a media release dated 21 February 2007, they really got stuck into me as a result of an adjournment debate I made the night before about issues in Alice Springs and how government needed to act. This is February 2007. You were in Alice Springs in April 2007. Some people say that government members were shocked by what they saw outside the convention centre. You should not have been. It was not as though you were not on notice. Anyway, out came this caustic media release saying that the members for Macdonnell and Stuart had expressed their disappointment in Ms Carney’s ongoing attacks on the Central Australian capital. I was Opposition Leader then. They said: ‘The Opposition Leader continues to talk down Alice Springs, her own community’. Where do you people get off? I would not expect to see another media release like this …
Ms LAWRIE: A point of order, Madam Speaker! The Opposition Whip knows to address the Chair.
Madam SPEAKER: There is no point of order, but if you could direct your comments through the Chair, thank you.
Ms CARNEY: Thank you, Madam Speaker. I ask the question again: where do they get off? This was a dreadful media release and I was pleased to see it did not get any oxygen. The member for Macdonnell described some of my comments as diatribe, and that they were unwelcome. Then the member for Stuart said, and I quote: ‘The Martin government is about action, not words’.
Members interjecting.
Ms CARNEY: I do not think so! I have a sneaking suspicion that about 75% of people in my electorate did not think so either.
I will talk about the Office for Central Australia. When Labor came to office in 2001, they were fresh, energised, and were much better than they are now. In my view the Office for Central Australia was not performing at its best under the CLP. Labor took a fresh approach to the Office for Central Australia - recently it changed its name to the Chief Minister’s Office - and we were invited to the opening of the office where they gave out a document I kept this copy as I tend to keep interesting things. It says:
Fantastic, I thought. It continues:
I implore you to take yourselves back to what you wanted to achieve in 2001 for the place I live. You wanted to do better. You wanted to deliver services. You wanted to be fair dinkum. You wanted to ensure that, the voices, wishes, and aspirations of the people on the ground were heard by people in this building who have the power to change their lives. You do not have that anymore in the office now described as the Office for the Chief Minister.
There are many reasons why you do not have it. My Labor opponent in the election, Mr John Gaynor said, remarkably in my view, on one of the brochures he issued that he had been in charge of the Chief Minister’s Office in Alice Springs for three years. In other words since the last election.
I played on that. I said: ‘This man has been in charge of the Chief Minister’s Office in Alice Springs for three years’. Do you know why I did that? It made people think - he is the one. He is part of the reason that the message is not getting through. He is not communicating properly or the ministers here are not listening; maybe it is a combination of both. He did a media interview in which he said: ‘I communicate with all the ministers and they are well briefed on the issues of Alice Springs’. Really? He said: ‘I think Alice Springs has done pretty well under the Labor government’. Really? ‘We have made commitments and delivered them’. Really? ‘We are doing our best’. I say, it is not good enough. I put on my flyer, ‘You just cannot believe Labor, and you just cannot believe the Labor candidate for Araluen’, and ‘Put Labor last; they put you last’.
If you want to have an office in Alice Springs that represents the ministers that does not operate very well at all, then that suits us politically. However, there are things beyond politics. I want better outcomes for the town where I live. I want the Labor Party to go back to where they were in 2001, when they set up the Office for Central Australia. I want it to work well. I want it to assist in the delivery of services. I commend this document. I am happy to give it to members. There must be many documents in the government’s offices that give a bit more background to the Office for Central Australia. I implore you to do better with that office.
Regarding the Chief Minister: polling was released this week – I gather this is CLP polling - which said that the Chief Minister was nowhere near as popular as his predecessor, and that he had pretty high unfavourability. That does not surprise me. I think his judgment has over the years, been invariably terrible. His judgment in regard to calling the election and giving the reasons why we needed an election amounted to being almost embarrassing. It does say a lot about his judgment. He was the one who promoted Len Kiely and Matt Bonson, people who should never have been promoted to the ministry. Someone said yesterday they understood that the Chief Minister has since indicated perhaps that was a mistake. Too right that was a mistake. From memory we had a bit to say about it at the time.
No surprises that the Chief Minister’s judgment has been called into question in an election when he made - in my view and the view of others - so many bad judgment calls. I thought it was outrageous, and I could be wrong here, but there was an article in the NT News a couple of weeks ago about Clare Martin. It had the appearance of maybe someone on the fifth floor having a word to a friendly journalist and saying: Gee a scapegoat would be good, let us blame Clare.
The days are long gone where women have to take responsibility for the appalling behaviour of men. I appreciate that while the Chief Minister was scrambling and so desperate, the member for Karama was very keen to become Chief Minister. We will watch that issue with interest.
The Chief Minister’s judgment has been highly suspect over the years, but particularly since he became Chief Minister. Clare Martin would not have gone to an election when the bloke you mob voted in last November did. Clare Martin would not have bolted when Hendo did. Clare Martin would not have called an election on the back of the Country Liberals advertising about law and order. We had just finished a two week advertising campaign. Just after that your Chief Minister says, let us have an election. His reason was INPEX. Even people in Araluen who regarded themselves as relatively unaffected by INPEX, were saying, why are we going to an election because of this gas plant? Clare Martin would have starved the CLP of funds. She would have let us do our advertising and spend our money. Then she would have struck in about March or June 2009. He is your boss. You voted for him. Well good luck to you all. You deserve him.
We look forward to a very busy four years. My electorate and I expect to see much better outcomes rather than just words from the ministers in this government. They do expect to see some action. I will be acting on their behalf and pursuing government members relentlessly to ensure that better results are achieved for Alice Springs.
Members: Hear, hear!
Debate suspended.
VISITORS
Madam SPEAKER: Honourable members, I draw your attention to the presence in the Speaker’s Gallery of Mr Patrick Secker MP, federal member for Barker in South Australia, and his wife, Mrs Sharon Secker. On behalf of all honourable members I extend to you a very warm welcome.
Members: Hear, hear!
Madam SPEAKER: Honourable members, I also draw your attention to the presence in the gallery of Mrs Vicki O’Halloran, Chief Executive Officer of Somerville Community Services, together with nine managers from Somerville Community Services. On behalf of all honourable members I extend to you a very warm welcome.
Members: Hear, hear!
Madam SPEAKER: Honourable members, I draw your attention to other visitors here as part of the Parliamentary Education Program. On behalf of all honourable members I extend to you a very warm welcome.
Members: Hear, hear!
Mr CONLAN (Greatorex): Madam Speaker, I move that so much of standing orders be suspended as would prevent this House from censuring the Minister for Health for his gross incompetence and mismanagement of the Territory …
Ms LAWRIE: Madam Speaker, we will take the censure.
Madam SPEAKER: The government has indicated it will take the censure motion.
Ms LAWRIE: A point of order, Madam Speaker! We have indicated we will take the censure motion. I take it we are now moving directly to the censure motion; therefore, Question Time has ended. I ask that members place further questions on the Written Question Paper.
Ms Carney: So you do not want the censure motion recorded by the cameras.
Mr Elferink: Do we switch the cameras off now?
Madam SPEAKER: The cameras go. It is part of our standing orders. Members of the media, please stop the filming at this point. Take the cameras out please. Please continue, member for Greatorex.
Mr CONLAN (Greatorex): Madam Speaker, I move that the Minister for Health be censured for:
(a) his gross incompetence and mismanagement of the Territory Health system which led to the unnecessary death of Mrs Margaret Winter;
I will now run through those points of the motion. The minister stands condemned here today for his incompetence and for misleading this parliament and Territorians. He stands condemned as a weak and hopeless minister who takes no responsibility for his actions or for the death of Mrs Margaret Winter. He stands condemned for allowing systemic failures in our health system, particularly those systemic failures at the Royal Darwin Hospital. He stands condemned because he knew of the nursing staffing crisis at the Royal Darwin Hospital and did absolutely nothing.
He stood here in Question Time today and weaselled his way around the important and direct line of questioning put to him by the opposition. He failed to answer any questions. He did the same last year when the then shadow minister for Health, my predecessor, the member for Greatorex, asked him questions relating to staffing issues at Royal Darwin Hospital. I will get to the point about what the minister knew later. However, it begs the question. Back then the minister was hiding the truth about nursing numbers at the Royal Darwin Hospital and, unfortunately, it took a public coronial inquest to find the truth.
I move to the nursing staffing crisis. The Coroner’s Report states that:
The Coroner found:
The Coroner had to call in an expert on nursing numbers to give evidence, given the failure of the department to cooperate to determine the adequacy of nursing staff. It is interesting that the minister has become so enlightened about nursing staff numbers he has now employed the very expert used by the Coroner to implement one of the recommendations, an expert known to Health Department officials for some time.
The expert is Professor Christine Duffield from the University of Technology. She gave evidence that, on the night in question in 2006, there should have been 25 nurses to 33 patients in Ward 4A. On that night, Ward 4A had only 18 nurses – that is seven short. We could get bogged down just looking at the systemic failures that occurred that evening. However, that evening is just a reflection of the long-term failure by the minister and the department to deal with the nursing staffing crisis. As the coronial inquest pointed out, this is a snapshot of the Territory health system at Royal Darwin Hospital. It is not a one-off.
This crisis started well before Mrs Winter’s preventable death. The crisis started when the minister, the government and his Health Department started putting their own bottom line over the care of patients in our hospitals. We have two Executive Directors of Nursing, Marie Hughes and Professor Di Brown. They were both saying, before and after the event, that the crisis was harming patients.
The Northern Territory Branch of the Nursing Federation is saying that the safety and wellbeing of patients and nurses are being put at risk because of this crisis. The General Manager of the Royal Darwin Hospital as quoted in the Coroner’s Report states:
I now move to accountability and knowledge of the minister. One of the most appalling events in this whole sorry saga is the minister’s unwillingness to accept any responsibility for the nursing staffing crisis at Royal Darwin Hospital. The minister has said it is his responsibility to provide adequate resourcing. The Coroner notes that:
How is this adequate resourcing, given you admit there was a nursing staffing crisis?
The minister is a coward - hiding behind the coat-tails of his bureaucrats. People are dying at our hospitals and the minister fails to take responsibility for this situation and the situation that may develop in the future.
The minister is a coward who is happy to put out press releases about good news. However, when the bad news comes apparently it is not your responsibility. You are either a mushroom, an incompetent, or a liar. I am not sure which one. One thing is certain - the Minister for Health knows he will not take responsibility for things that go wrong. He will not provide the necessary resources, leadership or policy framework.
I repeat – the minister is a coward. I have made up my mind. Members on this side of the House have all made up our minds. He has been caught out. His own annual report says he is at the top of the administrative tree - circled right at the top is the minister. There is the whole principle of the Westminster system - something this minister has failed to grasp. A system of government which clearly says a minister bears ultimate responsibility for the actions of their ministry or their department. We can put this aside - the facts speak for themselves.
When he was appointed Minister for Health in August 2006, he had a briefing from his department. He met with senior staff, no doubt inquiring about the running of the Royal Darwin Hospital. Minister, you have given this place every indication that you meet regularly with the department and senior management staff. How could you not know what was happening in your very own back yard?
I quote from the Parliamentary Record on 11 October 2007 where you say:
Minister, are you telling this parliament and the Territory public that in all the meetings with your department and the senior management team at Royal Darwin Hospital, they have never raised with you their concerns about nursing staffing levels? They have never raised with you any of those concerns with you about staffing levels at RDH.
Ms Carney: They rang us. They rang us remember?
Ms LAWRIE: A point of order, Madam Speaker! I know it is a censure and therefore we put up with the accusations bandied around. However, for the member for Araluen to yet again shout across the Chamber at the minister is against standing orders. Also, the member for Greatorex should be referring to the Chair.
Ms CARNEY: Speaking to the point of order, Madam Speaker. As the Leader of Government Business presumably knows, there is a considerable amount of latitude allowed in censures. The extension of what she is saying is that we sit in silence during a censure. That would be unprecedented.
Madam SPEAKER: Honourable members, while I am not expecting silence during a censure, I should be so lucky, it would be good if I could hear. Member for Greatorex, please continue.
Ms SCRYMGOUR: A point of order, Madam Speaker! Can you please ask the member for Greatorex - I understand about latitude and the excitement that gets generated from the other side when they think they are on to something - to direct his comments to you as the Chair?
Mr CONLAN: Certainly, Madam Speaker. Was the minister telling this parliament and the Territory public that in all the meetings he said he had with his department and senior management team at RDH, they never raised with him concerns about: staffing levels at RDH; the skills mix; the recruitment freeze policy; and the fact that his government’s under funding at Royal Darwin Hospital had created a nursing staffing crisis at the hospital which had endangered the lives of patients and killed one 64-year-old woman in 2006?
Was it his duty of care as Health Minister, when he knew about the staffing crisis and what was causing it - chronic under funding at Royal Darwin Hospital - to do something? He says that resourcing was his responsibility - yet he did nothing.
The Coroner notes that in 2006 and 2007 there was no additional money for nurses for general medical wards, apart from indexation. That is inadequate resourcing, as quoted by the Coroner. He did nothing in the face of concerns raised by senior staff at the hospital that said the government’s policies were putting patients’ lives at risk. I expect the minister will get up and say: ‘It was recruitment difficulties that led to the staffing crisis at Royal Darwin Hospital’. The Coroner also points out that there were approximately 60 nursing applications sitting on the desk that went unanswered.
Minister, the Coroner says you were wrong. We say that you are wrong. I list some of the real reasons: the decision by your government to place a recruitment freeze on nurses at the Royal Darwin Hospital; the minister’s failure to implement an accurate measure of staffing; the minister’s complete contempt to consider patient needs over the government’s own bottom line; and his failure to listen to nurses working at the hospital and their union representation.
In his comments the other day to the media, the minister said that policy setting was also his responsibility. The Coroner found that three policy decisions caused the nursing crisis. So if policy setting is the minister’s responsibility and the Coroner has found that three policy decisions had caused the nursing crisis at Royal Darwin Hospital, surely that falls back onto the minister. You do not set all the policy, just some policy. The policy gets your name in lights. However, does it meet the needs of Territorians? Is the minister going to tell us he is the Minister for Health on some things like publicity and spruiking the party line - but when things do not go quite right like the very serious situation that we are now facing at Royal Darwin Hospital, in the wake of this Coroner’s report that he is not the Minister for Health, but some other shadowy figure that sits behind a highly paid, hard-working taxpayer job?
I turn now to the attitude to the death of Mrs Winter. A woman has died, under very suspicious circumstances, at the Royal Darwin Hospital. You would think that such an event would, at the very least, trigger an internal review. We would like to see an external review. It took the pleading of a nurse at the hospital to the General Manager for an investigation to take place. It is absolutely appalling and shocking.
In addition, when the Coroner presented the brief to the department that alleged the death was directly related to an imposed reduction in nursing staff, the minister was concerned that he and his department would be seen in a bad light so he and his department prepared two reports to protect their backsides.
The timing of the news flash to the minister and the comments of the Coroner all show the minister and his department rushing to protect themselves and hide from the truth. This is an appalling situation. It is a shameful situation that the minister can treat such a death with contempt.
Ms LAWRIE: A point of order, Madam Speaker! I know this is a censure, but it is absolutely disgusting for the member for Greatorex to allege that the minister is treating a death, a tragic death, with contempt. He clearly has not.
Madam SPEAKER: There is no point of order. It is a Censure Motion.
Mr CONLAN: Thank you, Madam Speaker. As the Coroner says they were both ordered in preparation for the inquest rather than in response to her death. Can you believe that? The reports were ordered in preparation for the inquest, not as a result of the death of Mrs Margaret Winter in 2006. It is appalling. It strikes right to the heart of the minister who is taking no responsibility for the death of Mrs Winter.
Two reports to the Coroner were effectively shot down in flames - reports that try to hide the truth. It was the minister and his department allowing a nursing staffing crisis to build at the Royal Darwin Hospital which led to the death of Mrs Margaret Winter.
Territorians should be appalled. I am sure they are appalled. We on this side of the House are appalled by this and question whether the minister is really up to doing his job. Counsellor Kelvin Currie for the department conceded:
Counsellor Currie stated, as reported by the Coroner:
It is an appalling situation. It again questions whether the Health Minister of the Northern Territory is up to doing the job.
The minister’s attitude to the inquest has set an example for his bureaucrats. It is appalling that the Coroner not only found systemic failures within the health system but the arrogance towards the Coroner’s inquest process. Coronial inquiries are a hearing of the court into the circumstances of a death - very simple. The department seemed to treat it like it was preparing for a chook raffle. The Coroner could not even decide whether some of the information was deliberately misleading or whether the bureaucrats even knew what they were talking about.
Information requested by the Coroner was either incorrect, inaccurate or misleading. Counsel for the department conceded that the department’s preparation for this inquest was, late, under-resourced, and in general, not particularly well prepared. When asked in the inquest for the methodology used to determine staffing numbers, the then Assistant Secretary of Acute Health said: ‘Um, um’.
The Coroner requested information from the department in the lead-up to the inquest which included a request for the basis on which the Royal Darwin Hospital is currently staffing their wards; the current situation for obtaining additional staff for a shift if the team leader thinks they are required; and the methodology to set nursing FTEs from 2005 to the present. He said: ‘We did not receive information in writing on any of these points’.
This is not the first time that the department has taken a cavalier attitude to formal investigations. As reported in the Northern Territory News yesterday, the Ombudsman accused the Health department and the Royal Darwin Hospital of providing misleading reports to the Health and Community Service Complaints Commission investigating the fall of a patient at Royal Darwin Hospital. Only five days before when the Coroner found similar action, the head of the Health department said: ‘Um, it is a one-off’. This does not appear to be a one-off, but a pattern, as highlighted by the Coroner. This is a snapshot of the situation at the Royal Darwin Hospital. This is a pattern that is trying to hide from the truth, and trying to hide from Territorians. What hand has the minister had in this? Perhaps we will never know.
I turn to the response after the Coroner’s report. There were a few glib lines and some comments about doing something, but nothing is really going to change. I will provide a case in point. In the minister’s media release on 5 September 2008, he said:
It is interesting that he finds he has responsibility for staffing issues. Does this not contradict with his statement to the media earlier that day that the department has responsibility for operational matters? Clearly, there is a contradiction. He has just remembered what is his responsibility. Is this a case of convenience to, as they say ‘privatise the gains and socialise the losses’ or make the positive announcements and run when the proverbial hits the fan?
I return to the original point about nursing hours per patient day staffing models. The minister did not say in his media release that he and the Labor government had already agreed to implement this model some 12 months ago. The model could have been implemented back in 2005 when the report was first prepared for the Territory. It takes the death of a woman for the minister to finally suggest he is going to do something. This could have prevented the death of Mrs Margaret Winter. The Australian Nursing Federation has been pushing for the introduction of the methodology for many years. The former Assistant Secretary, Mr Campos, commissioned a report into Northern Territory Nursing Workload Review in 2005. The Acute Care Services Nursing Hours per Patient Day Project Report 2007, recommended the implementation of a staffing framework. The minister’s department then commissioned a review of the review of the report titled, ‘Review of Nursing Hours per Patient Day’. The minister had also agreed to introduce the model in the previous EBA with nurses.
Despite the minister’s press release, there are still doubts about whether that model will be introduced. Only a week before the commencement of the inquest, the department had agreed to benchmark the model for a 12 month period. As the Coroner notes, this appears to be an agreement to measure the current staffing levels against the nursing hours per patient day model. However, there is no agreement to put on nursing staff to remedy the deficiencies identified.
On 27 August, in the Nursing Federation Fact Sheet 7/2008, the department was still talking about validating the model. When are we going to see this? What will it take? The most damning comment on this issue comes from the Coroner when he says that:
It does not get much clearer than that.
The Coroner also says:
It took a public Coronial Inquest and a public condemnation of the minister and his department to act. As we have seen he has not fully acted. Minister, unless you act, you will have more blood on your hands, not just that of Mrs Margaret Winter. Any efforts to recruit staff will be neutered. There will be no nurses willing to work in an environment where they are forced to work overtime and cannot deliver their duty of care to patients because they are overworked and under resourced.
The Health Minister and his government, over the years of incompetence, have been putting the lives of patients at risk in our Territory hospitals. I ask the minister to report to this parliament a firm date that this model will be implemented. We want an answer to the question asked by the Coroner, what the current staffing level is against this new model and when and how you will go about remedying what has obviously been a very serious shortfall?
Territorians do deserve answers on this very serious issue of the death of Mrs Margaret Winter. Our nurses need answers. The minister needs to provide the nurses of the Northern Territory with some serious answers. It is time for the minister to stop giving us lip service and glib answers to the very serious questions that were put to the minister in this House during Question Time today. Stop being the minister for smoke and mirrors and stand up and be the Minister for Health. Stand up and do the job that Cabinet has appointed you to do and be the Minister for Health – rather than hiding behind bureaucrats and your department, and running a mile when things start to go wrong. Start to take responsibility.
It is a shame – it is a shame on you, minister, that this family will now be spending Christmas without their mother, their grandmother, their sister, their loved one, their friend, as a result of a preventable death at the Royal Darwin Hospital . Something you clearly knew about well before the incident took place.
Dr BURNS (Health): Madam Speaker, first I again pass on my sincere condolences and the condolences of the Northern Territory government to Mrs Winter’s family and friends. I also apologise again for the very traumatic circumstances and experience of reliving the circumstances of her death through the coronial process. It has been a very difficult time for the family and I hope they are able to find some comfort in the fact that through this process the Territory health system will become stronger and safer.
The member for Greatorex has made a number of allegations and assertions. In a measured way, I will respond to them. In Question Time I quoted from the coronial findings about the chain of responsibility and the Coroner’s specific comments about that. The Coroner talks about the level of knowledge and accountability in this. This is the crucial and central aspect that the member for Greatorex has alluded to.
Mr Conlan interjecting.
Dr BURNS: I afforded you the courtesy of saying what you had to say, member for Greatorex. You said a lot. Please afford me the opportunity of replying to what you have said.
In the coronial report which I have read very carefully a number of times, the Coroner reports on the level of knowledge and accountability in paragraphs 72 and 73 which I quote:
Along with what I have said earlier here today, I think that is a pretty clear statement from the Coroner about where the responsibility lies for these decisions. The Coroner did not mention me as minister or put responsibility at mine or the government’s feet anywhere in the coronial. I challenge the member for Greatorex to point that out. That is a very important aspect of what we are talking about. The opposition is making political mileage out of this by accusing me. I will stand here and take it.
As a minister, I have never lied to this parliament. I have always been truthful before this parliament. I will continue to be. I will take the hard things and this is a very hard thing. Someone has died. As the member for Greatorex said, someone is without their mother and grandmother forever. That is a very sad outcome, and this is a preventable death. I am not shying away from that. However, the circumstances of Mrs Winter’s death are clearly identified within the Coroner’s finding. There was a cascade of events which started with an enrolled nurse wrongly identifying Mrs Winter’s level of risk for a fall. She was assessed as medium risk, and the enrolled nurse put her at low risk. Then there was a cascade of events which, as the Coroner rightly points out, were exacerbated by a nursing shortage brought about by management within that hospital.
I have spoken a number of times in this parliament today about the extra resources that government put in to the Royal Darwin Hospital. I am disappointed with what the Coroner has found in this particular matter.
The member for Greatorex has asked a very direct question of me: was I aware of nursing shortages at Royal Darwin Hospital? I think his exact words were: ‘Well, you meet regularly with your department’, which I do on a weekly and possibly more frequent basis, ‘were you aware of nursing shortages at Royal Darwin Hospital?’ The answer is yes.. As the Coroner acknowledged, it is difficult to recruit nurses. This is the context of nursing shortages which were put to me. The Coroner states:
The Coroner also found in the background of nursing shortages and problems with recruitment, that senior managers had put barriers in terms of recruiting nurses and putting the right FTEs according to the ask of nursing managers into that hospital and the medical wards in particular.
I accept the findings of the Coroner in their entirety. However, I am disappointed. The Coroner mentioned on a number of occasions that he made very specific findings about the role of Mr Peter Campos in this particular tragedy. He also talked about the withdrawal of delegations by the then CEO, Mr Robert Griew. He has since been replaced by Dr David Ashbridge. I have every confidence in David Ashbridge. I think he is a great CEO and he is doing a great job. There was also the General Manager of Royal Darwin Hospital and he has been replaced by Dr Len Notaras. Those are some of the changes that have occurred. Mr Campos is not returning to the Northern Territory Health Department. There have been a number of changes within the management structure at Royal Darwin Hospital and within the Health department. I will outline soon some of the other changes that have occurred at Royal Darwin Hospital since Mrs Winter’s death.
The member for Greatorex talked about a ‘nursing freeze’. I do not believe that language is used anywhere in the Coroner’s report. I would be indebted to the member for Greatorex if he can point to wherever the Coroner actually points to a ‘nursing freeze’. The Coroner stated in paragraph 52:
That is what he found. He did not find a nursing freeze. That is very important.
Ms Lawrie: He made it up.
Mr Conlan: No, I did not.
Ms Lawrie: Yes, you did. Well, where is it?
Mr Conlan: It is terminology. Have not you heard of that?
Madam SPEAKER: Order, order!
Dr BURNS: I wish to stick to what is in the actual Coronial. There have been important changes at Royal Darwin Hospital. The assertion by the opposition is that the role of a minister should involve personally setting up staff rosters and approving extra staff shifts in periods of high workloads. That does not happen. Any reading of the Public Sector Employment and Management Act which is the guidelines for ministers and CEOs, clearly states that those sort of responsibilities are departmental responsibilities. For a minister to be involved in that would be a clear breach of that act. As ministers and members of parliament we not only pass laws we have to adhere and abide by them. The Public Sector Employment Management Act is our guideline.
Much of what the member for Greatorex had to say shows that he does not understand or has not read the Public Sector Employment and Management Act. It is very important, member for Greatorex, if you aspire to be a minister, you should be very familiar with what is in that act. There are guidelines and ministers can cross the line and break the law.
Ministerial duties do not include the hiring and firing of individual public servants. That is very clear. Since Mrs Winter’s death, there has been a new hospital management team in place at Royal Darwin Hospital. That is very important to remember.
It is also important to focus on the Coroner’s recommendations. First, he recommends an appropriate nursing staffing methodology. I have given an undertaking that Professor Christine Duffield will oversee the implementation of that. You asked for the time frame?
Mr Conlan: Yes.
Dr BURNS: Six months for the full implementation starting at Royal Darwin Hospital and right across every hospital within the Northern Territory. It is a complex issue, member for Greatorex. It is not as simple as saying: ‘Okay, we are going to have six nurses here and seven nurses there’. It is a moving formula that depends on the needs of patients and their stay in the hospital, and the particular ward that they are on. It is not a simple undertaking. As it said in the Coroner’s findings, it gives consideration to case mix, acuity and patient turnover. If additional staff are needed - PCAs, nurse specials, extra nurses for overflow beds - then the nursing resource coordinator should have delegated authority to make this decision. Nursing staff at Royal Darwin Hospital are currently making those decisions. I have given an undertaking that if any further delegation is required that should occur without delay.
The third recommendation was a very specific one of the Coroner. He said nursing staff should be required to complete either the observation special or the neurological observation chart, but not both. That will be implemented also.
The Coroner found that quality and safety issues need to be dramatically improved at Royal Darwin Hospital. I will spend some time on that because that is actually a crucial aspect. In July 2007, as part of the realignment and reform agenda of RDH, the quality and safety program, as well as the quality unit within RDH, was reviewed. As a result of this review, a strengthened and expanded quality and safety structure is now in place at RDH.
The Quality and Safety Unit reports directly to Professor Ken Donald AO, who is the Acting Director of Medical Services. Professor Donald is a very well known and respected clinician right across Australia. We are very lucky to have him in that position. Professor Donald also currently holds the position of Commissioner of the Queensland Health Quality and Complaints Commission. That commission is responsible for the oversight of quality activities in all public and private health services in Queensland. One of its specific roles is to develop a standards framework and adopt quality safety and clinical practice standards for implementation by health services.
The quality unit reports to Professor Donald, and has six officers to oversee, implement, analyse, train, and improve quality throughout the hospital. That is a significant change. The quality unit positions have been redesigned to ensure incumbents hold a level of knowledge and expertise necessary to coordinate a contemporary safety, quality, and risk management team. The RDH governance group, nursing program coordinators, divisional nursing and medical co-coordinators, and RDH Safety and Quality Committee support the quality unit, to ensure an organisational culture that values clinical safety, manages system vulnerabilities, and minimises preventable harm to patients through systems that support organisational performance and improvement at RDH.
Crucially, the falls prevention policy was front and centre. The Coroner also called for an audit of that particular policy. Royal Darwin Hospital has introduced a number of measures to reduce the incidence of falls, a problem that is all too common in hospitals right across Australia. A falls prevention policy is in place on each ward. Staff are educated about the policy and guidelines when inducted onto the wards. Regular nursing in-services are conducted on the falls prevention strategy. A falls prevention strategy in-service program for Personal Care Assistants commenced this year. A falls risk assessment is done by nurses as part of patient admission. Audits are now conducted to check compliance with falls risk assessment on admission. In the Medical Division, which has patients at high risk, compliance has increased from 89% to 93%.
In relation to the call from the member for Greatorex for a review, I believe it is important to note that Royal Darwin Hospital is nationally accredited with the Australian Council on Health Care Standards through the Evaluation and Quality Improvement Program, or EQIP. It undergoes annual assessments and rigorous biannual onsite surveys by independent, external surveyors to verify that it is meeting national standards for clinical performance and quality. There is an annual review in terms of quality and safety. Every two years there is a rigorous, onsite inspection and survey and reports by independent, external surveyors verifying that it is meeting national standards.
It is very important to note that Len Notaras is a board member of the Australian Council on Health Care Standards and a founding member of the Australian Council on Safety and Quality. Len Notaras is front and centre in terms of health care standards, quality and safety.
Royal Darwin Hospital is accredited as a training institute for a number of Royal Colleges, the Australian Medical Council, and the Medical Board. These are very important aspects of what the hospital is doing.
I have already talked about the difficulties in securing nurses as it is a very competitive market. The department has a strategy for nurse recruitment. There are funds for nurses and nursing positions. I want to see them filled.
On the issue of nursing overtime, which is a crucial aspect that was raised by the Coroner, at my direction, there has been a new policy implemented. The decision point of that policy is reached at 60 hours total work in a week. Nursing management is required to ensure that further overtime is done without compromising employee safety or the quality of patient care. The Nurse Manager discusses the matter of increased overtime with a nurse, and the Nurse Manager also considers the nurse’s recent pattern of overtime and sick leave before offering overtime. There is a system. Unfortunately, overtime is still a necessary part of the hospital’s operation. I am not denying that. However, given the background of nursing shortages, it will remain so until we recruit more nurses into our hospital.
This policy is having a very positive effect. Over 2007-08, instances where nurses at Royal Darwin Hospital have performed overtime additional to 60 hours of rostered work dropped from 24 instances in January 2008 to six in March 2008. This is a significant fall with the introduction of this particular strategy. It is not ideal, but in an environment of international nursing workforce shortages, it is closely managed.
Much to the consternation of the members opposite, I did show the graph which was extracted from the Northern Territory Health Department’s own annual report under the CLP days. I am more than happy to circulate this to members opposite. It clearly shows a decrease in nursing numbers in the financial years 1996-97 to 1998-99.
Members interjecting.
Dr BURNS: This is an extract from the Northern Territory Health Department’s own Annual Report. I know you do not want to hear …
Members interjecting.
Dr BURNS: … they did not add nurses into this equation. The CLP did not add nurses into this equation …
Members interjecting.
Dr BURNS: Since we came to power we have invested significant resources into nursing positions right across the Territory: an extra 433 nursing positions throughout the Territory and over 160 doctor positions within our public system. Let us dwell on that. The Leader of the Opposition on 8 August 2008 started talking about this. This is from the NT News, August 2008:
He also said on 7 August, on ABC radio, ‘he is going to save $50m a year.’
As the Minister for Health and as a former minister for Public Employment, I am aware that the main agencies you can cut public servants from are Health and Education because they have the big numbers. There are probably agencies such as Sport and Recreation which have very few numbers. They are mainly administering grants and external grants. There is a range of agencies that do not have a lot of employees. Where is he going to get those employees from? I think he is going to be getting them from the Health department and the Education department. You only have to look at this graph. The largest numbers are service providers like nursing. I think what the Leader of the Opposition was leading to was the same scenario as they had from 1996-97 to 1998-99. He was going to be cutting nursing numbers. He has never come clean with where he was going to cut these nurses from. Over the next four years he might talk about it …
Mr ELFERINK: A point of order, Madam Speaker! Could the minister table that document for us, please.
Dr BURNS: Member for Port Darwin, you would be aware it has been tabled quite a number of times. I am keen to table it. I am keen for members opposite to have a good look at it. It is tabled. You will clearly see 200 nurses stripped out of the system there. The other assertion from the CLP is that the department is swimming in senior executives. That is where Richard Lim was going with a lot of what he had to say on the floor of this parliament. I have been advised that when we came to power in 2001, there were 62 executive FTE’s in the department of Health and by June 2008 there were 64. The incredible expansion we have had in expenditure and staff has only resulted in two extra executive staff. That is something that members opposite should be considering.
We spend a lot more than other jurisdictions in terms of hospitals. It is there to be seen in the Australian government’s State of our Public Hospitals June 2006 Report. This is a federal government publication. The 2008 report, with data for 2006-07, found the Territory spends $2223 per person on hospitals compared to a national average of $1213. I believe we are spending significantly above our weight in our hospitals. I talked about Royal Darwin Hospital actually doubling its expenditure since we came to power in 2001. How did we do that? We did it through GST money. Despite the earlier protestations of members opposite that somehow we were squandering GST money, we actually invested significant amounts of that within our health system.
At Royal Darwin Hospital there has been an increase from $112m per annum in 2001 to the current financial year where it is actually $225m. The cumulative total of how much extra money has been put in to Royal Darwin Hospital since we came to government is over $460m. Nearly $0.5bn. That is not chicken feed in anyone’s language. That is significant bucks. Where did it go? It went into Ward 3B which had been closed by the CLP government 10 years before and turned into an administration area. There are 18 beds with another six to come. We also have a 24 bed Rapid Admission Unit which receives $7.8m recurrent funding, with 70 extra staff, a hospice, and changes to the birthing unit.
There is a whole range of initiatives that this government has done. Can we do more? Yes, we can do more. We will be doing more, specifically in the medical wards the Coroner identified.
The Coroner also identified in his report that there were some wards which were over allocation. He also points to increases in nursing numbers during calendar year 2007. Against this backdrop of increased expenditure within our system, what was happening at a Commonwealth level under the Howard government? I am sure my colleague will go to this as well. The Australian Health Care Agreement …
Mr Tollner interjecting.
Dr BURNS: Member for Fong Lim, you have a bit of form on this. A 50/50 contribution between Commonwealth governments and state and territory governments in funding for hospitals under the Australian Health Care Agreement. Where did it end up at the end of the Howard years? It ended up being 70% Territory money and 30% Commonwealth money. That is a shame. I have an estimate which I think is fairly reliable. It was well publicised that they had stripped $1.1bn out of public hospitals all around Australia per year. Based on this figure and our relativities, a conservative estimate of the shortfall in Commonwealth funds by the Howard government to our NT hospitals grew to approximately $80m per year in 2007-08. Another estimate would be that Royal Darwin Hospital accounts for about 70% of our hospital activity across the Territory. So 70% of $80m is $50m to $60m. That is a lot of money.
It is to the credit of this government that we allocated funds to Royal Darwin Hospital. We doubled the funding. We have put extra positions in there. We put extra positions right across the Territory.
Madam Speaker, I am proud of my record as Health Minister. Being Health Minister is a very difficult portfolio, probably one of the most difficult portfolios you can have. If you think I do not feel Mrs Winter’s death personally, you have another thing coming. I have read the Coroner’s report very carefully and I believe the Coroner’s report speaks for itself. His findings are true. I accept them in their entirety and I have given an undertaking that every one of his recommendations will be implemented.
Mr TOLLNER (Fong Lim): Madam Speaker, I support the member for Greatorex in the motion of censure. The minister is clearly incompetent. He has been telling fibs to the parliament. He has failed to implement any measures that ensure appropriate nursing and staffing levels are maintained at RDH. He has allowed the department to provide incomplete, inaccurate and misleading information to the Coroner. He has not provided adequate protection to whistleblowers. His cowardice in not taking responsibility for his actions and the actions of his department warrants support. I have just heard him blame his department, John Howard, and everyone he can think of. However, he will not take any responsibility himself.
I will take members through the events leading up to this Censure Motion, commencing with several quotes from the Coroner’s Report.
The Coroner found that the recruitment freeze at Darwin Hospital in 2006:
The Coroner states:
The evidence of this was overwhelming at the time around early 2006 and continued throughout the year. There was a review by the department that concluded at the start of 2006. They identified an overall shortfall of approximately 82 nursing full-time equivalent positions across five hospitals in the Northern Territory.
The Coroner found:
Registered Nurse Denby Kitchener, who was the Nursing Director of the Division of Medicine in 2006, gave evidence to the inquiry that:
Further evidence to the Coronor states:
The Australian Nurses Federation, in evidence to the Coroner, stated they:
The Australian Nursing Federation newsletter in September 2006 stated that:
The minister became Minister for Health in early 2006. The Coroner notes that the minister is the head of the administrative tree for Acute Health. This is not just any normal minister. This minister came to this parliament with some pedigree in the area of medicine. He has university qualifications in medical areas. He is not a Minister for Health who was once a truckie or a brickie, who could be forgiven for not knowing too much about medicine. This guy actually has some sort of university qualification in relation to medicine. He is a bloke who you would think would know what was going on.
On his appointment, he received briefings. He has told us that he received briefings constantly, weekly, sometimes more than weekly; he receives briefings from the Department of Health, from his department. He put out a media release in September to say that he had been briefed by the Health Department CEO, Mr Robert Griew. In October 2006, Registered Nurse Marie Hughes, the Executive Director of Nursing from February 2004 to October 2006, was stood down, after telling Health management in October 2006 and quoted in the Coroner’s report:
On 13 December, Margaret Winter had a fall in her room. Margaret Winter is a grandmother, who is loved by her children and grandchildren. She had a hard life and she was a volunteer at the Red Cross. She had a fall. On 16 December 2006, Mrs Winter passed away. On 18 December, two days after the death of Mrs Winter, this minister put out a media release saying that the health system is in good shape. Remember this is a man with a medical background. This is a man who should know better, who is regularly briefed by the department.
In January, the Minister for Health callously issued another media release saying the NT hospitals are better resourced. He said in that media release, ‘… not only is the Territory government providing better health services but we are ensuring we have the staff to deliver it’. We knew that was not the case.
Professor Di Brown, the Executive Director of Nursing from October 2006 to May 2007, states in the Coroner’s report that:
In March 2007, a focus group was conducted at RDH. We will not go and get some nurses, we will run a focus group. That was prepared by Professor Brown. She stated in the Coroner’s report:
So their focus group is telling them something that they already knew. You would reckon that the minister was in on this. He is a member of the Labor Party. We know their penchant for creating committees and running focus groups. It has the fingerprints of the Labor Party minister all over it.
On 18 April 2007 the Minister for Health says, during the adjournment debate:
Later in April the Department of Health provided a news brief mentioning the commencement of an inquest. Shock, horror. The brief makes reference to the inquest containing allegations about staffing. Goodness me. It also says the media might be interested in it. I think the media has been pretty interested in it when you look at today’s paper, minister. Your prediction there came true.
The Coroner states:
It was something that was probably cooked up straight out of the minister’s office.
Similarly, there was a report handed to the Coroner, prepared at the request of the department by Mrs Cheryl Lowe a Healthcare Consultant, which concludes:
Mrs Lowe concluded that:
The Coroner dismissed this based on incorrect calculations and insufficient information.
This points to a department and the head of a department, the minister himself trying to cover up deficiencies in the department.
On 4 September, Greg Cavenagh found:
The nursing staffing issues on 13 December 2006 were not confined to that day, but are a snapshot of an ongoing nursing staffing crisis at the Royal Darwin Hospital in 2006 and 2007. We are told today the reason for this is John Howard. John Howard did not do his job, he cut money out. Meanwhile we are being told the Labor Party are pouring money into the hospital. That is an absolute disgusting shame and you should resign.
Dr BURNS: A point of order, Madam Speaker! I did not blame John Howard. I illustrated a background of funding decreases from the Howard government against our funding increases, so I will not be verballed.
Mr TOLLNER: Well, do not be verballed on it minister. I know you were trying to defer attention to John Howard, defer attention to previous CLP governments, defer attention to anywhere else except to yourself. Grow a spine, minister, grow up and take responsibility.
Ms SCRYMGOUR: A point of order, Madam Speaker! Can you please remind the new member for Fong Lim - he has not been in this parliament for very long …
Mr Conlan: Oh, just stop patronising and just get to the point or order.
Ms SCRYMGOUR: Hold on, member for Greatorex, this is a very important issue.
Can you please ask the member for Fong Lim to direct his comments through the Chair.
Madam SPEAKER: Thank you, Deputy Chief Minister. Member for Fong Lim, if you can direct your comments through the Chair, which is the orderly way of conducting a debate, that would be helpful.
Mr TOLLNER: Madam Speaker, this minister is a cur. He is a coward and a cur. He tries to deflect attention from himself and his own shortcomings constantly. We hear in his speech a while ago that he is blaming a shortfall in funding by the Howard government, some shortfall of funding from 1996 to 2001, from previous CLP governments, for faults that have happened now. We have a whole range of stuff. He quotes very carefully from the Coroner’s findings:
I have just quoted from a wrong page. The point is he is sitting there trying to say that the Coroner accepted that finding nurses was difficult. This is a direct extract from the Coroner’s report, saying:
The facts are here. They have been pointed out extraordinarily well by the member for Greatorex. The minister should stand up, grow a backbone and take responsibility for this. He should resign immediately and give Territorians some sort of hope in the democratic institutions that we have in the Territory.
I will read from the Criminal Code section 183:
We have heard all about the ministerial code …
Ms LAWRIE: A point of order, Madam Speaker! This is a censure. There is a great deal of latitude, but the member for Fong Lim is misleading. The Coroner made no findings of criminality in the Coronial …
Mr Tollner: I did not say …
Members interjecting.
Ms LAWRIE: … so misleading …
Madam SPEAKER: Order! Please pause. I will seek some advice from the Clerk.
Ms Carney: Do you want me to speak to the point of order, Dave?
Ms Scrymgour: He should be big enough to speak for himself, he brought it up.
Members interjecting.
Madam SPEAKER: Order! Member for Fong Lim, I would like to clarify: are you implying that the minister is liable for criminal action?
Mr TOLLNER: No, Madam Speaker, what I …
Madam SPEAKER: A simple no. Is that what you are implying? Because if you are, then you must withdraw.
Mr TOLLNER: No, Madam Speaker, what I did was read out section 183 of the Criminal Code. There was no implication in that whatsoever.
Madam SPEAKER: Thank you very much.
Ms LAWRIE: Madam Speaker, a point of order! He is saying that he simply read out the section of the Criminal Code. If that is not an implication …
Members interjecting.
Madam SPEAKER: Order! There is no point of order. Please resume your seat.
Mr Elferink: Can we stop the clock while this is going on?
Madam SPEAKER: Please stop the clock.
Mr ELFERINK: Madam Speaker, the quality of the member’s argument is the issue for the member, not the issue for the Leader of Government Business.
Madam SPEAKER: There is no point of order. You can start the clock again. Member for Fong Lim, have you completed your speech?
Mr TOLLNER: I could keep going if you like …
Madam SPEAKER: It is not necessary.
Mr WOOD (Nelson): Madam Speaker, I will speak on the Censure Motion before us today. I rarely speak on Censure Motions but this one is important. However, I will not be voting on this Censure Motion. I am not trying to avoid the seriousness of it, but I find it difficult to support a Censure Motion which says the minister is lying to the parliament. I am not saying the government has no responsibility in what has happened - far from it - there are some serious questions that need to be asked about government in general. However, they can be very colourful and they can have some very biting language. Even though I might at times have a disagreement with the minister, I respect him and I do not believe he would lie to this parliament.
Mr Elferink: You ought to do a track through his executive numbers, Gerry, they do not match what he just said.
Madam SPEAKER: Order!
Mr WOOD: That does not mean that the government has to wear a lot of the responsibility of what the Coroner has been talking about. This is not only about our present Minister for Health, it concerns the previous Minister for Health under whom some of these concerns were initiated. If you read the Coroner’s report, you will find this went back prior to August 2006 when Dr Toyne was the Health Minister. We can go back and say that minister should also be brought to account.
You have to ask if it was because there was one minister, then another minister, both presiding at a time when nursing numbers were an issue, and when many of the things that the member for Fong Lim has raised were actually happening. Was that because of departmental people who were doing their own thing and not informing the minister? I do not know. I say those people should be out if they were doing something and not reporting to the minister. Was it an overall policy of the government at that time to restrict how much money could be used in this department? Was it the waterfront? Did you take money away that should have been used to recruit nurses? I do not know.
It may be that this issue is larger than just a particular minister. Was it the policy of the government to restrict funds in these areas so that they could use funds in other more …
Mr Elferink: Non-core functions.
Mr WOOD: If it is not a core function, you can call it that. Many people have said to me at times: ‘Why do we not have this road fixed?’ or ‘Why is this not happening?’ In the same breath, they would say: ‘I bet you it is because of the wave pool’. Maybe what we are looking at here is a governmental failing in priorities.
If we had enough nurses - and, if you read what the Coroner said, if there had been enough nurses - this possibly would not have happened. I am also concerned that it is nearly two years since then. Recommendation 105 said:
I ask the minister: why is that so? Whether it was the previous minister or the current minister who was looking after this particular issue at that time, and what the cause of that was, we could debate. We have moved two years on to right now and it appears as though those things are still occurring. There are recommendations here and the minister said he will carry out those recommendations. I understand that employing nurses is a very difficult job.
I recall when I was in hospital - it might have been about the time of this death - I had some skin cancer that had to be taken off the side of my leg. I stayed in hospital for a week and had the time to have a chat with the nurses. They told me the amount of overtime they were doing was incredible.
They would also tell you that nurses come and go. A lot of nurses are like backpackers who work for 10 months and then pack up and go somewhere else. You could say they were having a working holiday. I do not deny that it has not been easy for hospitals to obtain nurses and keep them in those hospitals. The government did talk at one stage about getting nurses from the Philippines via Ireland. That was one of the great grand schemes for getting more nurses to the Darwin hospital that was raised in parliament. There is no doubt that we have difficulty getting nurses and it applies to teachers and police as well. Therefore we have to make a bigger effort. If we are still getting the Coroner saying in 2008 that there are significant issues with nursing staffing, then I have to ask: are we trying hard enough? The government needs to respond and say: what have we done or are we still under a departmental guideline which is restricting how many nurses can be employed? That appears to be what happened in 2006.
I believe the government should be condemned for what happened. It is a very serious matter, and the Coroner has condemned certain things that happened at that time. He puts that fair and square at the department and the department is run by the minister and the minister is part of the government. The minister was not the only Minister for Heath around the time these things were happening. The government needs to have a good hard look at itself and ask: were our priorities right? How did this occur? These are the questions that we should be asking. How come there was a policy which said that one of the staff was allowed to have 40 to 50 applications sitting on his desk that were not being looked at quickly? Why was that so? Why was there a policy within the department which said we are going to restrict the number of nurses? They are the answers we need to find. Why was that policy there and is it still there? That is what we have to look at.
Madam Speaker, I support the intent of the Censure Motion, but I do not support some of the wording of it. As we have heard from many of the maiden speeches today people in this House are genuine in the reasons they are here. I find it very hard to accept that the Minister for Health - who might have failed in some of what he did, I am not saying he has not - has lied to this parliament. I think he is a decent bloke. I think we should target this to say this is the government at fault here, the government has not done its job and we should be trying to find out more about what occurred and what caused it. We should look at that in more depth, and make sure – because after all this debate that is why we are here – it does not happen again.
Ms LAWRIE (Leader of Government Business): Madam Speaker, I pass on my and the government’s sincere condolences to the family of Margaret Winter. We have all been deeply saddened by her death. I know, through the Health Minister, that Health Department and Royal Darwin Hospital staff are very disturbed by the facts of this case. They work hard every day to provide the very best care they can.
The Territory health system is a large and extremely busy organisation. Tens of thousands of people, many of whom are seriously ill, injured or infirm, pass through the doors of our hospitals and our health clinics every day and every year. Royal Darwin Hospital is at the very centre of this activity. There are over 56 000 presentations to the Emergency Department of Royal Darwin Hospital each year; over 40 000 patients admitted for care; and about 90 000 outpatient attendances. However, even in this busy hospital, one of the busiest hospitals in the country, not one person should fall through the cracks. No matter where they live, no matter who they are, Territorians deserve the best possible health and medical care.
Since 2001, that has been at the heart of the Labor government’s fundamental health care goal. We have backed up that goal with funding increases and massive frontline staff recruitment, both budget and policy settings, that strongly advocate for and have been administered by our successive ministers for health including the Health Minister we have now. Even the opposition could find it hard to deny the big increases in nursing and doctor numbers. They would like to say that funding increases do not translate to results. It is only by increasing the health budget by 89% since 2001 and by 101% at Royal Darwin since 2001, that we are able to employ the extra 433 nurses and 162 doctors across our health system. At the same time executive contracts have only risen by two. Despite the opposition continually saying the health resources have been awash with the appointment of executives, executive contracts from 2001 have risen 62 to 64 between 2001 and today.
At Royal Darwin Hospital alone, the essential health workforce has been expanded by an extra 164 nurses. That is an increase of 48%. There are an extra 68 doctors, an increase of 40%. The Minister for Health showed us the chart indicating the stripping out of nurses in our hospital system. We have had to rebuild off the back of neglect. Neglect is not something that you are able to overcome in a resources sense overnight. It takes long-term sustained effort to raise our health system to one on par with the rest of the nation. This is at the time when the previous federal government - and I know that the member for Fong Lim got touchy about this because he was the member for Solomon who failed to deliver Commonwealth funding in core areas of service delivery - right across Australia was reducing its relative contribution to Australia’s public hospitals; from about 50% down to near 30% in the Territory’s health care funding.
The Territory government’s absolute focus on increasing health funding is delivering results. We have 100 extra beds at Royal Darwin Hospital - that is an outcome - including a state-of-the-art 24 bed Rapid Admission Unit to ease the strain on the Emergency department. We have refurbished and reopened Ward 3B as a 24 bed general medical ward - the same ward the CLP had mothballed - it was no longer a surgical ward, it became administrative. These beds have helped to reduce the bed block in our hospital.
We have opened the Territory’s first hospice. I remember the long years of fights to get that hospice. The CLP did not ever commit to a hospice. However, today we have a hospice and we have Territorians dying with dignity with the care of dedicated palliative care teams and the nurturing of their families. We opened the 12 bed award winning facility in August 2005 at a cost of $4.2m.
Ms Carney: Do you remember how the curtains and cutlery were donated? Talk about gild the lily.
Ms LAWRIE: The member for Araluen talks about the fact that the community was contributing to things such as the curtains. I participated in those public meetings to secure a hospice and it was the intent and desire of the families who have lost their dear ones to protracted illness to contribute to the hospice. There was a real intent and desire all the way along for people to add and to contribute to the hospice so that it had a home-like feel to it. Yet the member for Araluen would not get that, the harsh and cold member for Araluen.
We have also constructed the $2.5m birthing centre, the birth place of more than 90 babies. New specialist services provided by Royal Darwin Hospital include …
Mr ELFERINK: A point of order, Madam Speaker! I do not believe that the Coroner once mentioned birthing centres or palliative care. I think this goes to the very heart of relevance.
Madam SPEAKER: Just pause for a minute and I will seek some advice.
Ms LAWRIE: Madam Speaker, I am happy to speak to the point of order. To point out the very relevance of health funding resources going into the system because if you are providing a hospice and the appropriate birthing care, it goes to the heart of the fact that we have changed systemically the delivery of services.
Madam SPEAKER: There is no point of order. Please direct your comments to the actual motion.
Ms LAWRIE: Certainly, Madam Speaker. The opposition would have us believe through their Censure Motion today that the Health Minister has neglected to pursue the role of adequately resourcing Royal Darwin Hospital and services provided in the hospital and the hospital precinct. Included in that are the services provided such as new staff, a haematologist, a cancer care nurse, more paediatricians, a gastroenterologist, an extra eye surgeon, an intensive care specialist, a wound care nursing consultant, more allied health professionals, pharmacists, radiographers, an oral maxillary facial surgeon, expanded burns capacity with more burns beds and extra burns nurses, trauma experts, and an expanded capacity in the emergency department and operating theatres. This is not a Health Minister who has been asleep at the wheel. This is a Health Minister who has pursued the funding and the budget resources required to deliver real services to Territorians at Royal Darwin Hospital.
This government recognises that, fundamentally, the strength of the hospital lies with its staff and their capacity to fulfil their duties to the best of their ability. The front line of patient care is our nurses. They are essential for patients to achieve good health outcomes from their time in hospital.
Earlier today, the Minister for Health has outlined a process of independent oversight to ensure that the nurse hours per patient day staffing model is implemented quickly and completely at Royal Darwin. The member for Nelson, when speaking to the Censure Motion, said that he wanted to be assured that the Health Minister is putting in place the model required to respond to the Coroner. That is exactly what the Minister for Health is doing. Not only is he ensuring that the nurse hours per patient day staffing model is implemented quickly but he is putting an independent expert in place to ensure that occurs. We accept that this model is the best way to ensure patient care and the Nursing Federation wants it. Independent experts advocate for its introduction and the Coroner has found that it would assist nurses to fulfil their duties. We all agree that this is the best way forward, so it is time we implement it without delay.
You cannot ignore the health system funding arrangements when you are looking at the stress of resources in the hospital. It is appropriate to look at what the health care funding arrangements are at the highest level. We know that in the past the hospitals …
Mr Tollner: You are the Treasurer.
Ms LAWRIE: I will pick up the interjection. I am the Treasurer, that is exactly right, which is why I am going to point out the bleeding obvious to you. In the past, the Health Care Agreement provided for a 50/50 split on funding; 50% from the Commonwealth, 50% from the states and territories. However, it was under the Howard government that …
Mr Tollner: Ah, John Howard’s fault.
Ms LAWRIE: … the former member for Solomon was a very proud member - standing up for the Territory and advocating for the Territory - but under that government it slid. Canberra withdrew the funds out of health care and pushed the states and territories to putting more in. The split became 70% states and territories, 30% Commonwealth. This is at the same time the Commonwealth coffers were filling with GST out of the taxes of Territorians, out of the taxes of Australians …
Mr Elferink: The federal government’s coffers were filling up with the GST - is that what you just said?
Madam SPEAKER: Order!
Ms LAWRIE: Were they delivering it to where we needed it the most, into our hospitals and our Health Care Agreement? No, they were not. I will not mention the fact that they completely walked away from the infrastructure in that time and the whole nation is paying for that now ...
Mr Tollner: It is all Howard’s fault.
Ms LAWRIE: I will pick up on the interjection from the member for Fong Lim. No, it is not all Howard’s fault. It is never any one thing. That is the point of having things such as Coronial inquiries into tragic deaths, to find out where the failures exist so that good government responds, as our Health Minister has responded, and has clearly stated that he accepts all of the Coronial recommendations. He has acted by putting in place an independent expert to oversight the critically important nurse staffing model that will be implemented at Royal Darwin Hospital.
This is not a Health Minister shying from his responsibility. This is not the action of a coward, as the member for Greatorex would have us believe. It is the action of a Health Minister who is aware and who very appropriately and thoroughly goes through Coronial reports to find the issues raised in them and where recommendations can lead to better health outcomes for Territorians, and acts decisively, swiftly, and bravely to appoint an independent expert to oversight the action. It is not a coward who acts in that way.
Ms Carney: Where does the word ‘oversight’ come from? What is it?
Ms LAWRIE: I will pick up on the interjection from the member for Araluen – ‘oversight’. The member for Araluen is dismissive of an independent expert, as well she may be.
Ms CARNEY: A point of order, Madam Speaker! That is an outrageous suggestion, untrue, and I ask that the member withdraw it.
Ms Lawrie: You can make a personal explanation.
Madam SPEAKER: Sorry, I did not hear it. I take this opportunity to remind members of Standing Order 51:
Minister, please continue.
Ms LAWRIE: Madam Speaker, the question of nurse staffing levels is a very appropriate question for this Chamber to debate. The Minister for Health has ensured that the Health budget has grown. He has ensured that we are putting those additional resources into the frontline services where they need to be - into nurses and doctors.
We have just had an election. The Labor government, going into that election, publicly announced we would recruit an extra 160 nurses. What did the opposition announce in their election commitments? Not one extra nurse.
Mr Tollner: Promises are cheap. Actions speak louder than words. Where are your actions?
Ms LAWRIE: The member for Fong Lim shows his ignorance - promises are cheap. I can assure you nurses do not come cheaply. I can assure you that 160 nurses is not a cheap Territory commitment at all. Thank God, they are not in charge of our budget.
This is a little, opportunistic, and grubby Censure Motion. While the arrogant opposition over there tries to make political mileage from what is an absolutely tragic event, this government will choose to get on with the job of good government to act and to fix the problems quickly.
Madam Speaker, I move that the motion be now put.
Motion agreed to.
Madam SPEAKER: The question now is that the motion as put by the member for Greatorex be now agreed to.
Motion negatived.
ADDRESS-IN-REPLY
Continued from earlier this day.
Ms SCRYMGOUR (Deputy Chief Minister): Madam Speaker, the Chief Minister has outlined to the Legislative Assembly the critical importance of the next four years of listening to the people of the Northern Territory. I go one step further and suggest that we also have much to learn from the people of the Northern Territory. What works in one place may not work in another and what is appropriate in town may not be the right thing for the bush. In short, there is no one size that fits all, and this is something we must be sensitive to and aware of. We need fresh ideas, and many of those will come from outside of government. That is nowhere clearer than in my portfolios of Education and Training, Indigenous Policy, and Arts and Museums.
The first two portfolios deal one way or another with overcoming decades of neglect and disempowerment for Aboriginal Territorians, while the Arts portfolio presents great hope for the future. In each context, however, the real art will be to maintain and improve the level of services currently available to the general population while addressing the long-term needs of Indigenous Territorians. It is not an easy prospect and there are no off the shelf instant solutions. Moreover, it is not a task that will be met in this life of this parliament.
The work we continue with today and the new directions we are to take will not reap benefits until long after most of us, I imagine, have ceased being politicians in this place. The future we work for today goes well beyond the four years of this, the 11th Assembly, and will continue to the 15th Assembly at the very least. It is over that period we will get real results.
Educating for the future is the way forward for the whole Northern Territory, from kids doing Year 12 at Darwin High School, to a child enrolling at Yilpara Outstation in Arnhem Land. The key to the approach of the Henderson Labor government to education is summed up by two points: increased resources across the entire school system, and the allocation of those resources in a way that will radically boost student involvement and family and community engagement in education.
In the area of increased resources, this government is committing to the largest spend on educational resources in the Territory’s history, with a $246m infrastructure program over the next four years, starting in 2008-09. Seventy-four primary and large group schools over the next four years will receive $300 000 each for upgrades. In addition to the $300 000 a number of these schools will receive more significant upgrades.
This government will commit the following: $5m upgrade of Casuarina Secondary College which will happen in 2010-11; $3m upgrade of Dripstone Middle School; $1m upgrade of Sanderson Middle School; and $3m upgrade to Tennant Creek High School.
There will also be $6m to convert homeland centres to schools, with $2m for a further expansion of Yirrkala CEC; $1.5m upgrade for Maningrida CEC; and $1.5m upgrade for Kalkarindji CEC. In addition, a $1.25m upgrade will be made for Shepherdson Collegeat Galiwinku, $1.25m for Gunbalanya CEC, and $1.25m upgrades for Angurugu CEC, Numbulwar School, Milingimbi CEC, and Lajamanu CEC.
The $246m program includes a number of significant projects announced in Budget 2008-09: $48m to build a new primary school and middle school at Rosebery; $2m for the next stage of the Ross Park Primary School upgrade; $2m for a new middle school at Alparra in the Sandover region; $2m for the Yilpara Homeland Centre to become a school; $2m for Stage 2 of upgrades at Alawa Primary School; $2m for Nakara Primary School; and $2m for Leanyer Primary School.
Budget 2008-09 also allocated $1.55m to Yirrkala CEC, $1.25m to Ramingining CEC, $1.25m for Yuendumu CEC. $1.5m for Ngukurr CEC, an allocation of $1m each for Ali Curung CEC, and Malak Primary School, and $0.5m for Jingili Primary School.
Labor has always been a reforming party in education. In the next three years we will be rolling out the new certificate of education, the NTCE, to be developed jointly with South Australia, commencing in 2009 for Year 10 students, 2010 for Year 11 students, and 2011 for Year 12 students. Work has already begun on the implementation of the first year of the National Assessment Program for Years 3, 5, 7, and 9. We will be trialling alternative distance learning education delivery methods including a virtual school trial where a Darwin teacher delivers the same material through a virtual and electronic medium for a class of students learning Japanese in Darwin, Katherine, Tennant Creek, and Nhulunbuy.
A key element of Closing the Gap of Indigenous Disadvantage is the radical transformation we must make in delivering education to Aboriginal Territorians in the bush, towns, and cities. Much has been achieved in the last seven years but far more has to be done. During the next four years we will develop and activate Community Partnership Education Boards to improve student engagement and community involvement in our remote areas. The Northern Territory government and the Australian government will work together with communities and service providers to establish community partnership education boards in remote communities. We will be starting with two regions, Miwatj and the Warlpiri triangle.
The concept for the CPEBs will be informed by learnings from other successful community engagement projects. Groups of communities will work through a change process which will move them towards increasing self-governance and management at a local level. Capacity and capability building will be necessary components. The ultimate aim is the decentralisation of real power, responsibility, and accountability where the groups of communities work under one governance structure, that is the Community Partnership Education Boards, to manage the delivery of quality education and training, as well as social and emotional support services to the children and adults. The boards will ensure the coordinated and effective use of resources and expertise acting as consumer representative fund holders with responsibility for the purchase of education and training services.
The range of potential services and programs include: preschool, primary, middle, and senior years education supported by distance learning services as required; careers advice and enterprise and vocational education; higher education and other adult education including training and upskilling programs; library services; student welfare services to address social and emotional wellbeing and special needs; school-based police and nurses, youth workers, professional learning and mentoring programs for teachers, support staff, community and board members; and language and cultural programs involving community members. The model could also include a regional residential hostel. There will be opportunities to develop flexible working arrangements for staff and changes to the school day and school year to meet local needs.
We will continue to deliver the National Accelerated Literacy program. The National Accelerated Literacy program is changing the lives of many of our kids. It is the Territory’s most ambitious education intervention. It aims to increase the rate at which reading skills are acquired for those many children who have poor or non-existent literacy.
We will introduce the Families as First Teachers program - an election commitment. This is a new program to improve Indigenous literacy and numeracy by helping families give their young children the best possible start in life. Early childhood and childcare services, which were previously under the Department of Health and Families, are being integrated into the education arena at the start of the 2008-09 year, focusing on learning in the early years. Under Families as First Teachers we commit to deploying early childhood educators to start young children on the educational path and help with their health and general wellbeing. The educators will work with families to reinforce the importance of good health and reading at home, and getting kids ready for school.
An additional $1.3m will be provided in 2008-09, with $2.6m ongoing for 2009-10. The funding is for 20 additional early years’ educators, with 10 starting this financial year. It is an ongoing program. The 20 early years’ educators would also be backed by the provision of learning resources such as books and other costs like transport and accommodation. The educators will be deployed in remote Indigenous communities across the Territory, with the Warlpiri triangle, Borroloola, Maningrida, Yirrkala, Wadeye, Ali Curung, Ngukurr, Hermannsburg, and the Tiwi Islands as likely locations. We further commit to targeting students with poor attendance records and an education campaign on the value of schooling by supplying 10 additional teachers in remote areas, increasing to 26 by 2011-12 to respond to an expected increase in enrolments and attendance. We will be employing four additional student counsellors to improve child protection outcomes, increasing to 10, by 2011-1112, and $800 000 to provide confidential office and interview space.
Other commitments include: the back to school payment will be increased to $75 in the next calendar year; $280 000 to be provided to the Wadeye school to help develop their oval; and to create an IT parents portal $300 000 will be allocated to provide technology this financial year. The aim is to give parents the online capacity to look at student records, homework that is due, etcetera. This is due to come online by mid-2009. We will provide $100 000 to assist Territory students to get to the Pacific School Games. We will completely revamp driver training in the Territory. There will be $1m additional to be provided for driver training to DTAL. This program is to be completely revamped and re-badged as Drive Safe NT, and to focus on real defensive driving training. A skid pan at Hidden Valley will be needed. This provides an area of asphalt for the teaching of defensive driving at a cost of $250 000 programmed for this financial year.
Creating a homegrown, skilled workforce is vital for the health of the Territory’s economy. We are acknowledged as having created the largest and most effective training program per capita in the nation. We will continue to strengthen our efforts over the next four years through setting a new target of 10 000 new apprenticeships and traineeships commencements now that the previous target of 10 000 has been met within the four year target. This will see the continuation and expansion of pre-employment programs, employee and employer incentives, VET scholarships, and expansions of the NTPS Public Sector Training program, particularly targeting Indigenous Territorians and those from disadvantaged groups.
By strengthening VET in the Northern Territory Certificate of Education or the NTCE we aim to increase recognition of the knowledge and skill levels that are achieved by students who undertake work to increase the options available to ensure there is an increase in the number of productive, engaged young people. We will expand the Workready program over the next four years by raising the annual commitment to $900 000. This new commitment highlights our focus on ensuring that we have the most highly trained and skilled employees in our workforce.
We will be expanding the Build Skills NT program. Build Skills NT has a focus on existing workers by encouraging recognition of prior learning, re-skilling, and up-skilling, particularly workers in our critical skill shortage industries. We are committed to developing current Territory workers so they can invest in and get a direct benefit from our growing economy. This commitment doubles the investment to $1m per year for the next three years.
I turn now to the Indigenous Policy area. There are some keys elements to Indigenous Policy we are committing to over the next four years. We will implement Closing the Gap of Indigenous Disadvantage, a generational plan of action aimed at addressing the gap in outcomes between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Territorians within a generation. We have set ambitious but achievable targets for the next five, 10 and 20 years, and identified priority areas for action in the next five years. We have committed $286.4m towards the five-year action to implement the Closing the Gap policy. This commitment includes: $79.3m for child protection; $38.6m to implement the remote area policing strategy, community justice and other safety measures; $10.1m for alcohol and drug management; $23.4m to achieve better health outcomes; $42.3m for housing in Indigenous communities; $70.6m towards education; $13m to improve Indigenous employment and economic development; and $8.9m towards cross-cultural understanding and engagement in service delivery.
The package also includes more than 200 new jobs such as: a Children’s Commissioner; 10 more child protection workers; 37 additional specialists within Family and Children’s Services, or FACS; 40 additional police for the Remote Policing strategy, Child Abuse Task Force; four specialist alcohol rehabilitation workers; 26 family violence support workers; 10 community correction officers; 10 school counsellors; 47 more teachers and assistant teachers for remote schools and preschools; alcohol compliance inspectors; 23 specialist FACS staff for the Child Abuse Task Force. We are determined to end the cycle of Indigenous disadvantage.
We will develop a practical plan to resolve the issue surrounding the High Court’s Blue Mud Bay decision. The key parts to this plan include: compliance with the law as now determined by the High Court; the capacity for recreational fishermen to go fishing on affected waters without charge or need for an individual fishing permit; economic development opportunities for Indigenous Territorians; appropriate arrangements for commercial fishing and the protection of fishing stocks; and any necessary resource management and regulatory changes required.
We will undertake significant efforts to focus on the extent and reason for urban drift by: developing a discussion paper on homelands policy over an 18-month period; developing a comprehensive community engagement strategy involving key stakeholders; and conducting workshops across the Territory.
The Northern Territory government has decided that all government infrastructure located on Aboriginal land should be underpinned by a form of leasing appropriate to its use and economic life. Section 19 leases under the Aboriginal Land Rights (Northern Territory) Act are such a mechanism.
I turn to Arts and Museums. The Northern Territory, per capita, has amongst the highest involvement in the arts in the nation. I am fond of telling my Cabinet colleagues that Territorians may love their sport, but they are huge supporters of the arts. Last year’s attendance figures of 70 000 at the Darwin Festival is larger than the combined total of all visiting sporting sides. Over the next four years we will undertake the development of a 10-year plan for the museum sector, development of a policy for creative industries that will go well beyond an arts policy as such, but will seek to integrate the arts with broader technologies and applications.
We have increased annual funding to the arts to $6m per year, more than double the amount of seven years ago. Over the next four years we will increase project funding by $100 000, beginning in 2009-10 and ongoing recurrent; increase festival funding by $200 000 per annum, beginning in 2009-10 and ongoing recurrent; provide an additional $250 000 per annum to building stronger arts business beginning in 2009-10 and ongoing. It is anticipated that $150 000 of the $250 000 would be allocated to a touring program for Aboriginal music with the remainder to bolster building strong arts business projects; touring Indigenous art projects.
We have committed $300 000 over two years, commencing in 2008-09, to be used for conservation work, artist and family consultation, and research needed to stage an international tour of the Papunya Tula Boards held by MAGNT. The exhibition would open in Araluen and then travel to interstate and international venues and finish at MAGNT.
The Chief Minister has undertaken to report to parliament twice a year on the progress against Labor’s election commitments. The commitments in my portfolios that I have outlined today will be part of that reporting process.
Madam Speaker, the Territory faces great challenges. In meeting these challenges we must be prepared to embrace fresh ideas. One size will not fit all, but if we want to achieve the real results required by the Territory community, we must be prepared to take on new ways of doing things.
Mr ELFERINK (Port Darwin): Madam Speaker, I respond to the Address-in-Reply debate. I listened very carefully to what the Administrator had to say about what his government intends to do.
For the explanation or edification of newer members, the protocols of the Westminster system means that the Governor-General, the Governor or, in our case, the Administrator, who represents the Crown, works with the parliament and with the government in a very specific way. That is a protocol that has developed over many centuries in England primarily, and it is a protocol by which the parliament and government of the day have slowly gained ascendancy over the absolute right of the Crown to rule.
The English Civil War, which saw the removal of the monarchy for some time and the replacement of the Crown with, essentially, a republican president, for a lack of better words, in the form of Oliver Cromwell, was the beginning of that process. Although Charles II tried to re-assert his royal prerogative and his absolute right to rule, after his death, the truth is that the parliament and the government that had withdrawn from the parliament, gained ascendancy over time.
So much so that when Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II was asked by a journalist what she would have done with the dismissal of Mr Whitlam, her reply was, ‘I would have asked my Prime Minister what to do’. Clearly, that is not what our representative, Sir John Kerr, did in Australia, and there is no shortage of criticism of that period. Having read the account by Sir Garfield Barwick, the then Chief Justice of the High Court of Australia, as to why he gave the advice to Sir John Kerr that he had the constitutional power to dismiss the government, I remain unconvinced, quite honestly, that the constitutional power existed. However, that is all ancient history.
The Administrator came into this place and delivered a speech which he would have gone to the government for and sought advice. The advice he would have received is: ‘Here is one we prepared earlier for you, Mr Administrator.’ He said: ‘Thank you very much, I will take that off to the parliament and I will read that out because my government will do all of these things.’ He has done that entirely appropriately. What that started then was a debate about the intentions of this government.
I welcome the structure the Chief Minister announced today during Question Time where he laid on the table: ‘This is what we are going to do in the term of our government and not only that I am going to come back every six months and tell the parliament how we are going and how we are tracking to achieve those sorts of things.’ I am attracted to that because it does generate a level of accountability that one would hope to see in government. I welcome that very much.
He has gone out on a limb, there is no doubt about that because we now have a bit of paper in front of us. We had 11 copies made immediately and each member on this side of the House has their copy of it. There are quite a few election commitments in this document and I look forward to seeing each of these commitments being kept by the government. I approve of the approach the Chief Minister has taken. I presume - without having read the election commitments document at length – they actually reflect the Administrator’s address to this House and I presume they reflect the department or ministry by ministry breakdown that we are about to hear in the Address-In-Reply process.
We had a day of maiden speeches yesterday - I know the common terminology is first speeches but I quite like maiden speeches - and I have to say that I was impressed with the maiden speeches I heard. I will particularly note the new members for Nhulunbuy and Barkly because I enjoyed the intelligence that was in those maiden speeches. I enjoyed the thought and the passion that drives both the member for Nhulunbuy and the member for Barkly. They clearly put a great deal of work and effort into their maiden speeches. One of the great joys of maiden speeches is that they capture the idealism of the members delivering them.
The same is true for the speeches made on this side of the House. The member for Brennan spoke in very esoteric terms about those things that are important to him and how his personal philosophy drives him to certain conclusions. The underlying thread and the optimism that percolates through all these maiden speeches - the dedication - was captured in part by what the Administrator said during his address to this House. He said his government would listen, plan, and act.
On the first day of parliament with all those maiden speeches and all of the optimism that we heard, we then start to get into the second day of parliament and the parliamentary process where the optimism starts to decay and subordinate itself to the practical matters of government. I urge members never to lose their optimism and passion for what they do and the love of the Territory which has brought them to this place.
However, the practical matters of our parliamentary process and the party system means that we have to engage in compromise. Sadly that includes self-compromise. It is not much fun subordinating yourself to systems sometimes because it sticks in your craw that you have to do it.
It was interesting this morning when we tried to bring on our legislated bill only to bring in a second reading speech; I might add, we did not want to debate the thing out this morning. All we wanted to do on this side of the House was introduce a matter that was of such importance to Territorians that both the government and the opposition, the Labor Party and the Country Liberal Party spoke at length during the election campaign about the issue of sentencing. It is all well and good, there was a bit of argy bargy about that in this place.
However, then we came to a vote, and what we were voting on was an actual question for the House, several things happened. The Leader of the Opposition stood up and said: ‘Why is that down in the Order of Business?’. The Speaker explained that it was down in the Order of Business because that is the way the Notice Paper is put together. The Leader of the Opposition said: ‘I seek leave to bring it forward’. The Speaker put it to the House and the Assembly, on the voices, said: ‘No, you cannot bring it forward’. At that point the Leader of the Opposition said: ‘I am going to move a motion that we actually put aside standing orders a little’. We had done this earlier for the Attorney-General and allowed him to introduce several bills. We said: ‘We would like the opportunity to also suspend standing orders, put them aside for a little, only to the degree that would enable him to introduce his bill and do his second reading speech’.
Sadly, the Leader of Government Business, and I presume, at the behest of the Chief Minister, said: ‘No, no, no, no, no. We are not going to let you do that. We are not even going to let you talk about it’. I am not sure if all members are aware but the word parliament is actually derived from the French parlay ‘to speak’. This is a house of speaking. This is where we talk. This is where we debate something out. All of a sudden we find ourselves dealing with a gag motion because the Leader of Government Business said: ‘I move that the question be put’ – I think that was right? Yes, that the question be put. So the rules of debate mean that that particular motion is not debated, so the question is put and it is called a gag motion because it has the effect of gagging the people who are trying to debate something out in the House.
Then take the optimism of yesterday and apply it to that situation because the House divides - this is why I called the division - and what happens is that the members who spoke so optimistically the day before about openness and the pleasures of being in this House and being part of the active and vibrant process of the governance of the Northern Territory, are bound by their party system to make a decision of which I do not think they realise the enormity. I ask them at a later time to reflect upon this: that their first vote, in the House that they spoke so highly of yesterday, was to gag a debate which is now irrevocably on the Parliamentary Record. The reason I divided the House …
Mr Knight: Rubbish! We do not want to gag debating.
Mr ELFERINK: I will pick up on that interjection. That is exactly what happened. What happened is these people, because of your arrogance, were forced to gag a debate in their very first vote in this House. Very first vote! That is the disgraceful conduct that has led to you guys losing so much support from the community. You have lost this support. It is not wrong. Check the Parliamentary Record. The first vote we divided on was silencing the opposition using the numbers in this House. We are not going to debate the motion to bring something on. It was not even like we were going to try to pass the legislation. We were just asking: ‘Can we please bring something on earlier?’ The answer was: ‘No, and you are not going to talk about it and we are going to force a vote’. So the vote was forced and then all of a sudden these people with such aspirations found themselves voting, sadly, to stifle the very Chamber that they spoke about so optimistically not 24 hours before.
I urge members to think about the mechanics of what they are doing in this place. If they want to be true to their language, if they want to be true to what they have said, then I urge them to think about what is actually happening in this place. People think that the parliament is a vehicle to make government possible. No, not all the time. Sometimes parliament is a vehicle to make government accountable. I ask members to think about the underlying things they are doing whilst they are going through the less pleasant parts of their job including stifling debate in this House.
I also wish to talk about something the Administrator said. It has a lot to do with the introduction of the reasons for going to an early poll. The Administrator started talking about INPEX. During the election campaign a rather spurious and silly argument was raised by the Chief Minister; that we must give INPEX certainty. Other than the fact that had already been achieved, we were quite happy to go to the polls because we knew how much on the nose this government was becoming. The government did some polling called benchmark polling back in February this year. As a result of that polling, it was discovered that the ALP brand was tracking down, but the reason they could not go early was (1) there was a legislative instrument that they would have had to change preventing an early election being called, and (2) the recognition level of the Chief Minister at that stage was still very low. In fact, if what my sources tell me is correct, the recognition level of the Chief Minister was so low more people thought that Clare Martin was still the Chief Minister in January or February this year not Paul Henderson.
They had to elevate the image of the Chief Minister before they went to the polls and that would have been irritating to the Chief Minister because he would have wanted to govern in his own right - and he now does. However, he waited. So, time passes and he does all the things that the Chief Minister has to do. We see him introducing, in front of 14 000 Territorians - all from the northern suburbs, of course - Elton John. By the way, it was a good concert and we enjoyed it. We saw all of these glossy brochures being shoved into our letterboxes, all with the Chief Minister’s smiling face, to elevate the image of the Chief Minister as we tracked towards the period where an election could be called.
If memory serves me correctly, the first time that an election could have been called was around 29 June. I could be wrong on that, but it is roughly about that time. It was about three weeks before the capacity for the election to be called and the decision to call the election occurred and off he went. He was anxious to get it up, and his reason for doing it was that INPEX needed security. In spite of the fact that the CLP had been saying that we were not entirely happy with the location because INPEX had not been given any extra choices, if it was a case of INPEX yes or no – absolutely - we support INPEX and that is …
Mr Henderson: Does not support it at Middle Arm; that is still your position.
Mr ELFERINK: I just said we remain critical of the fact that you did not give INPEX any other choice because your planning processes were too weak! You did not get the planning right. Other areas were located but because of this government’s refusal to do the little spending you needed to bring those areas up to standard, because there was no other gas supply on the horizon, you said: ‘We will just let Middle Arm go ahead’. If it is a choice between INPEX coming or not, INPEX is coming under the CLP …
Mr Henderson: Rubbish!
Mr ELFERINK: I beg your pardon? Rubbish? Not true. How desperate was this Chief Minister? So, out trots the government saying: ‘We are going to give INPEX security’. What was the first thing they did? They pulled the image of the Chairman of INPEX from Japan and there is Paul on the Labor advertisement shaking hands with the Chairman of INPEX. Did you ask INPEX? ‘No, we did not ask if we could use the footage in a party political ad, we just though we would use it’.
Mr Henderson interjecting.
Mr ELFERINK: Well, maybe they did ask. Is that why you were just about to get to your feet? You just did not get a reply. It was sloppy and embarrassing. Small wonder the Chamber of Commerce had a head explosion when they found out what you were doing. I remember watching Chris Young come out and say: You are joking! You have to be thunderously nave if you are going to do that sort of thing, and I am fascinated that they still continued. You still saw the same footage in a later Labor advertisement. How arrogant can you get? In spite of the rousing chorus of criticism, it still appeared in the later advertisement. I was dismayed.
The next thing is that we have the Western Australian election that has just occurred, and they are still unresolved as far as I am aware. I have not read a paper nor I have seen the result. Maybe somebody by interjection can tell me if there is a result. The fact is, either way if it is a Liberal government or a Labor government in Western Australia, it provides us with a golden opportunity as far as INPEX is concerned, based on the very argument that the Chief Minister put up. The golden opportunity is that INPEX is thinking to itself: I am about to reach into the petty cash drawer for $12bn - not an insubstantial amount of money by any measure - and I am going to make a decision as a board of where I am going to put my onshore gas infrastructure. Am I going to build near Maret Islands; does not that require a legislative change? Or, am I going to do it in the Northern Territory? Does that require legislative support?’ INPEX will be thinking: where are we going to go where we can be certain of an outcome? If legislation is required in Western Australia, if Carpenter or Barnett flinch in answering this question - I will put the question shortly - INPEX must look to Darwin. The question is this: can you guarantee passage of appropriate legislation?
Ms Scrymgour: Grills, you do not even know the members, it is Grills.
Mr ELFERINK: Grills is the leader of the Nationals.
Ms Scrymgour: Yes, and Barnett the Liberals.
Mr ELFERINK: Yes, and he will be Premier …
Members interjecting.
Madam SPEAKER: Order, order! Deputy Chief Minister, please cease interjecting.
Ms Scrymgour: Sorry, Madam Speaker.
Madam SPEAKER: Member for Port Darwin, please direct your comments through the Chair. There has been too much cross Chamber debate.
Mr ELFERINK: Thank you, Madam Speaker. The joy is that neither side, whether it is a Labor Premier or a Liberal Premier in Western Australia, will be able to look INPEX in the eye and say: ‘Yes, we can guarantee passage of the appropriate legislation.’ This is a golden opportunity.
Mr Henderson: Which we created, no thanks to you.
Mr ELFERINK: Oh, my goodness gracious me. How good are these guys? While the Chief Minister is walking on water about these sorts of issues the holes in his feet will be the reason he sinks; they will let the water through.
The fact is that we do support INPEX and now we have an opportunity to say that at least 24 out of 25 members of this House will support bringing INPEX to the Northern Territory, something I wholeheartedly support. I hope that you would be grateful for that support, Chief Minister, because it makes the chances of bringing INPEX here so much more certain. I have actually spoken to Sean Kildare from INPEX.
Members interjecting.
Mr ELFERINK: Did you ring him on Sunday morning straight after the election?
Madam SPEAKER: Order, order!. Member for Port Darwin, please direct your comments through the Chair, not across the Chamber to other members.
Mr ELFERINK: Madam Speaker, I will give the Chief Minister the comfort of being able to say to INPEX that in terms of legislative influence within the parameters of what has been so far promised, INPEX will be supported by at least 24, if not 25 members of this House. That is good news and I am glad to be able to stand up in this House and offer that contribution to bringing INPEX to the Northern Territory. I hope the Chief Minister is grateful for that offer.
One of the things that has been of massive concern over the last few years in this Chamber is the issue of land releases. The minister for Lands has repeated several times: ‘We cannot release too much land because it will cause a flood of land in the market and house prices will crash and the place will flood.’ She sat there and continued to refuse to release land. Slowly we have seen land prices crawl up - which is great if you happen to be a landowner; awful if you are trying to get into the home ownership market. All of a sudden Saul has fallen off her horse and become Paul and we have a road to Damascus conversion. Hey presto, we are releasing some 3000 lots. Thanks to the good Lord that she has finally had that conversion. However, house prices have now gotten to such a point that it is extremely difficult for young people to get into the market. That is a great sadness and tragedy because there was a time when getting into the market was not that difficult. There was a time when you were capable of paying off your own house in your own lifetime. That is less possible nowadays.
I turn specifically to one announcement she made during her answer to a question this morning and that was the answer about the release of land at Bellamack. I listened carefully, I craned forward because I was waiting for her to repeat the quote we heard in and outside of this House prior to the election that blocks would be turned off by early 2009. That quote changed today. That quote today was blocks will released by 2009. The missing word is ‘early’. The fact is this minister, prior to the Northern Territory election, was fully aware of the fact there was no possibility of turning off blocks in early 2009. Her own and various proponents were all telling her not before late 2009. The truth is she knew it. Her answer today in that question portrays that fact.
Those blocks will not be turned off in early 2009. The implication of early 2009 is what? February? March? The truth is we will not be seeing those blocks turned off until October or November at the earliest. That is a great shame because the pressure she has now brought to bear by constipating the land release process now means that we are stuck with house prices that make getting into the house market an extremely difficult thing, particularly for young families.
Members interjecting.
Madam SPEAKER: Order!
Mr ELFERINK: Madam Speaker, I certainly hope that this dose of Metamucil assists the member and the government in realising the things they have to do.
As members are aware I am also the shadow treasurer of the Northern Territory. There are just a couple of things I cannot resist but note for the record’s sake in terms of replying to the Administrator’s opening speech that started this debate.
Government has become this wonderful instrument of spin. Even today, during the health debate, we heard the spin, the ‘how-do-we-deal-with-the-media’ cycle remains much more important than actually dealing with the issues. There is no greater area of spin than in the economic management of the Northern Territory.
The Treasurer and the government are beneficiaries of a tax they steadfastly and passionately resisted prior to forming government in 2001. They fought the then Territory government, which lined up with every other state in every other jurisdiction, Labor and Liberal, and signed up to an agreement that would see the GST or a broad-based consumption tax become the standard basis of consumption taxing processes in this country, rather than the former narrow-based wholesale-based taxes. The reason all the states lined up, including the former Country Liberal government, was because the Treasury Department sat down and scratched out the projections and they said ‘whoopee’.
For political reasons at the time, the then ALP opposition said: ‘Oh no, no, we have to resist this. This awful tax is all wrong, it is all horrible’. The fact is that it has been manna from heaven for this government, far exceeding expectations, and has been a river of gold. Unexpected - not only expected and projected taxation revenues - the stuff that actually came beyond the projections. Every year there is a projection as to how much the GST will provide in the next year. Since the introduction of the GST to this financial year has been $1.2bn. This government has been the beneficiary over that seven year period of $1.2bn more than they anticipated they would get. That equals an unexpected GST windfall. It fell over them, it washed over them and they spent so much of it, and the nett debt continues to rise.
Budget Paper No 2 is a very telling document because if you look at the balance sheet for the general government sector one could be forgiven for thinking that nett debt was coming down. Throw in the non-financial public sector, that is where you will find Power and Water, you will find that nett debt is going up and projected to go up substantially over time. Then we add to that the superannuation liability, which the former member for Nhulunbuy when Treasurer, not a few years ago in this place, said it would never exceed $1.6bn. It is far in excess of that. My goodness gracious me, where is it now? $2.5bn? I appreciate that that is a result of actuarial projections that change it, but it is also a product of things that government can do and should consider doing something about when they are dealing with wages explosions.
Madam Speaker, the problem is that the Chief Minister does not understand how these systems work so he strolls into this place and says that those systems were closed off so there is no further debt that flows from them. Well, that is not true. It is wrong. When the Treasurer was asked about what the Chief Minister says, found herself saying: ‘Well, the Chief Minister is right’, and then she had to very surreptitiously close the door. Today, to add insult to injury, I heard the Treasurer say, and I am going to check Hansard to make sure that this is absolutely true, but I quote: ‘The federal government coffers were filling with GST’. Madam Speaker, no they are not.
Mr Henderson: She did not say that.
Mr ELFERINK: Well, let us have a look at Hansard, sunshine, because if that is what she said she is wrong, wrong, wrong, and it goes to the very competence of this government and the capacity of this government to manage the financial condition of the Northern Territory of Australia.
Mr VATSKALIS (Business and Economic Development): Madam Speaker, I begin by acknowledging the Larrakia people on whose traditional land we stand on today. I also congratulate you on your re-election to the high office of Speaker. Your ongoing commitment to the Territory is one that we all respect. I look forward to working with you again.
I was very proud to be here yesterday to celebrate the opening of the Eleventh Assembly of the Northern Territory. I say that because there are places in the world where parliaments do not open, parliaments do not exist, and people do not have the liberty or the privilege to vote for someone to represent them. In some cases, people like us who are prepared to represent those people find themselves shot, executed, or imprisoned for the rest of their lives. A typical example is Myanmar, not to mention, my own country, where for seven years, parliament did not exist, politicians did not exist, and the results were terrible for my country.
I was very proud and privileged to stand amongst you, and especially privileged because as a person born in another country coming here quite late as a young migrant, to be re-elected for a third term to represent the people of Casuarina makes me very humble and very honoured. I say that because my seat of Casuarina is a microcosm of the Northern Territory. The statistics show that one in four is born overseas. There is a significant number of Indigenous people, people who work in the public service, people who have their own small business, and all they want to do is to live, work and raise a family in the Territory, in Casuarina.
I have met all of my constituents in Casuarina. It is my habit every Saturday, especially during the period of time that is not wet or humid or the build-up, to walk in Casuarina, to attend functions, to hold community barbecues, and to go to the assemblies. That gives me the opportunity to meet every single person irrespective of whether they vote for me. I am able to find out what bothers them, if there are any issues, if there is something that disturbs them, if the government has done something they do not like, or if the government has done something they like. That gives me great pleasure. I like being with people. I deal well with people, even when people are not very pleased with what I have done or the government has done. I am prepared to listen to what they have to say. I am prepared to say that, in some cases, I am wrong and I am prepared to take the issue to the government or to the relevant minister to ensure it does not happen again.
I was very pleased in this past seven years to do a lot for Casuarina, especially for the schools. I am a very strong supporter of education. I know many people complain about young people, but the reality is unless we provide the means for the young people to be educated and to find a job, we have no right to complain. We have to be there with young people, guiding them, providing the means to be educated, and the means to find a job. Then we have the right to complain if something goes wrong.
Thank you to the relevant minister who enabled me to provide $2m for the Alawa Primary School Stage 2 redevelopment; $2m for the Nakara Stage 2 redevelopment; a new police station in Casuarina; the lights for the Nakara Park, for our people who like soccer, are currently under consultation; $850 000 for the Tracy Village Club lights so they can play games at night; playgrounds in Alawa and Nakara through funding of the Darwin City Council; a roundabout in Brinkin that took 18 years to complete, despite the fact that it had been promised by previous governments; $300 000 to the Casuarina Reserve, one of the most visited reserves in the Northern Territory; a CCTV system in the Casuarina precinct and a police front in the Casuarina Shopping Square; $5m for the Casuarina Senior College; and $3m for the Dripstone Middle School. A commitment of $300 000 per primary school is a significant investment by our government to ensure our kids are educated. One of the most important is the greenbelt at Rapid Creek, all the way from the RAAF Base to Rapid Creek, connecting Nightcliff and Casuarina, which is a fantastic development.
Another is the second stage of the Leanyer Recreation Park. I was involved when Lake Leanyer was first designed, and I was horrified to find out there was a hole in the ground full of water with no disinfectant, but kids were allowed to swim. I remember with pride that I closed that lake, following the Coronial inquiry, after a tragic accident when a young girl died. I am pleased that we have developed a state-of-the-art water park for all Territorians to enjoy.
I have listened to the other side. I know the election results very well, but there are some things that I want to raise because it is a democracy. People vote the way they want and people elect the people they want. My last time here there were 19 members of the Labor Party, and only four on the other side. This time there are 11 on the CLP, one Independent and 13 of us. I was irked by some of the comments made by the Leader of the Opposition and others. I find it extraordinary that we had an opposition that went on and on with advertisements on television about crime, and kept telling us that the election was coming; it was going to be early. When the election was called, they were totally unprepared. They were so unprepared they had not even registered their name, Country Liberals. I believe, they are still the Country Liberal Party.
Regarding the number of votes, what appears now is, yes you might have the most votes, but you have to remember also that you waved the white flag for the seats of Arnhem and Macdonnell. After a quick look at the Northern Territory Electoral Commission, if we extrapolate the results of 2005 for Arnhem and Macdonnell to today’s elections, we find out that the Labor Party will still have more votes than the CLP. As the Chief Minister said, a win is a win. The reality is, in an AFL, Rugby or soccer match one more goal is a win. Irrespective of that, we are here for all Territorians.
The one thing that disturbed me greatly was the false advertisements about crime in the Territory. Goebbels, the propaganda minister of Nazi Germany, would be very proud of that advertisement. He was the one who said: Lie, lie, something will stay behind. I remember the statistics: ‘73% increase in crime in the Territory in the past seven years’. A lie! I have the Long Term Recorded Crime Statistics, December Quarter 2007 Northern Territory - key findings - six years of data. Let us have a look at it. Sexual assaults: during the 12 months to the end of December 2007, there were 8% fewer than in the 12 months ending 2002. House break-ins: during the 12 months to the end of December 2007, there were 47% fewer than the 12 months ending 2002. Commercial break-ins: during the 12 months to the end of December 2007, there were 25% fewer than the 12 months ending 2002. Motor vehicle theft and related offences during the 12 months to the end of December 2007, there were 40% fewer than the 12 months ending 2002. However, there was an increase in assaults. During the 12 months to the end of December 2007, there were 41% more assaults than 12 months ending 2002, but in the same document it says:
The Police Commissioner came out publicly, and that is the first time you see a Police Commissioner coming out and supporting a political government, because he was upset, like everyone else, when he heard the truth. Many thanks to Ken Parish, because he was the one who brought that to my attention through his blog on one of the websites.
So your advertisements about crime are absolutely untrue. I am happy to table this official document which shows exactly what happened in the Territory about crime.
A member: Very good, it is all doctored.
Mr VATSKALIS: It is all documented in …
Madam SPEAKER: Order!
Mr VATSKALIS: I am happy to provide every …
Dr Burns: You must have been part of it then. Police statistics.
Mr VATSKALIS: Well, that is right. That is a very good point.
A member: The Commissioner made a direction …
Dr Burns: Are you blaming the Commissioner now? You are on the record now.
Mr VATSKALIS: Madam Speaker, I now turn to the key priorities for the next four years within the ministerial portfolio areas for which I am responsible.
The Northern Territory government, through my departments, will continue to invest in the services needed to expand the Northern Territory economy. The Territory has experienced strong economic and employment growth over recent years, and the value of industry output is expected to continue to rise in 2008-09 in response to increasing global demand, particularly in China.
A key priority for my department of Business and Employment will be to focus on developing a comprehensive plan to link employment, business, and economic development to ensure business needs are met. This will include identifying what business needs, what skills we have in the Territory, and what training we need to deliver, and weaving this profile and information through critical strategies such as business and skilled migration, Defence support, industry, and employment development.
To ensure that the Territory can maximise its support of all levels of business, from major projects to small regional businesses, strong research and policy underpinning workforce development is essential. This function will be located within the Employment Division of my Department of Business and Employment.
The Northern Territory government’s current employment strategy, Jobs Plan 3, is focused on increasing employment opportunities for Territorians, industry partnerships, and improved pathways to real jobs in regional and remote centres. Jobs Plan 3 has delivered a range of incentives to employers and apprentices and trainees, and its success is reflected in a record number of 3186 apprentices and trainees now in training. In addition to this, we are closing in on the Jobs Plan target of 10 000 commencements over four years.
My new Department of Business and Employment is well placed to consult and work with businesses, industry associations, employers, communities, unions, and employment and training providers to develop a new jobs strategy. This new strategy will deliberately throw together the practices and policies that contribute to creating an efficient, highly skilled workforce through a workforce development framework.
Workforce development is not just about business, it is also about creating and facilitating access to employment. The department has a strong focus on regional areas and looks to provide access to learning and jobs by way of establishing regional job hubs with a commitment of $500 000 ongoing from 2009-10, with the first regional job hub to be set up in Nhulunbuy, followed by Tennant Creek. The hubs will provide analysis of the job market in the region, a better understanding of what jobs are available, and facilitate the matching of training requirements and skills of jobseekers to those available jobs.
The unique demography of the Territory is well known, as are the challenges of engaging remote and Indigenous workers into industry. Workforce development must be flexible enough to meet the needs of all Territorians through access to economic development and appropriate training.
The 2008 Workforce NT report will be released later this year, and I am pleased to say that it will have a more rigorous focus on linking education and training to employment.
The strong economic conditions have also meant that employers are experiencing skill shortages. The Workforce Growth NT program is targeted towards attracting skilled and unskilled labour to the Territory from across Australia and overseas. This program will be the government’s driver in attracting skilled labour and unskilled labour from around Australia and overseas to the Territory.
Projects designed to increase migration to the Territory will include: innovative and strategic advertising campaigns; bringing together local businesses, government agencies and major projects to identify workforce shortages; identifying opportunities to attract migrants; mapping labour shortages particularly for labour projects; promoting the Territory to attract migrants both within Australia and overseas; developing strategies designed to bring skilled labour to the Territory; and matching labour skills with the specific needs of the Territory.
My department will take responsibility for the development and maintenance of The Territory website under this program to attract both international and interstate workers. The website provides an online solution to link workers to real jobs and employers to potential employees. Overall, the program will deliver three additional positions to provide improved services to the business community in Alice Springs, Katherine, and Darwin.
My Department of Business and Employment will coordinate the scoping of current future employment opportunities and sectoral workforce demands with a particular focus on the skill and labour demands generated through major projects. While the government will continue its primary focus on training Territorians to address skilled shortages, business and skilled migration, and interstate worker attraction provide business and employers with several options through which to address skill shortages and build the Territory’s population and its workforce.
This year my department will participate in events in New Zealand, South Africa, the United Kingdom, and Germany and nationally in southern and eastern Australia. My government will continue to lobby the Australian government for a seasonal labour project in the Northern Territory for East Timor. We see this as a means of addressing labour needs across the horticultural sectors, where the demands for unskilled labour is critical during the short harvest ‘window’, particularly for our mango industry.
Advertising and information sessions will continue to ensure that Territory businesses are aware of skilled migration schemes, NT Job Shows and the available options to address skill shortages. The department will work both with the NT Industry Capability Network, or NTICN, and the Chamber of Commerce NT to develop a program of briefings to provide industry with an update of major projects. This will maximise opportunities for small businesses to win work for these projects.
One major Territory project is the Defence Support Hub - an industrial estate near the Army’s Robertson Barracks. The aim of the hub is to allow prime contractors and subcontractors to form strategic clusters to deliver industry support to Defence, attracting new and larger Defence related contracts to the Territory. The Defence Support Division will continue to focus strongly on profiling and promoting the Territory’s defence support industry capability to Defence and defence prime contractors.
In October, my department will lead a delegation of seven Northern Territory business and industry representatives to the 2008 Land Warfare Conference and Exhibition in Brisbane. A Northern Territory government and industry exhibit at the conference will promote our industry capability to support the Defence presence and operations in the north.
It is exciting to think our defence history will hit the big screen in November with the release of Australia, the movie featuring the bombing of Darwin during World War II. Australia will be released worldwide. My department, Tourism NT, will highlight the true Northern Territory experiences featured in the film through a proactive marketing campaign. We are investing $600 000 into our campaign and will be working hard to ensure potential travellers, international or domestic, link the outback, friendship, romance, Indigenous culture, and great generosity to the Northern Territory - both to the Top End and the Red Centre.
Australia is not all that potential Territory tourists will see to inspire them to travel here. During September and October we will begin the rollout of the first ever global marketing campaign for the Red Centre, with the first phase of activity to run in United Kingdom, Germany, United States, Scandinavia, and Australian markets. More than $1.5m in Northern Territory government funds has been invested to refresh the image of the Red Centre of Australia. I look forward to sharing more of the details of this campaign when I officially launch it later this month.
An additional initiative to support tourism visitation to Central Australia and ensure a more robust and sustainable sector is the development of a draft action plan to strengthen the position of Alice Springs and the Centre region. Tourism NT has been working in partnership with other NT government departments, Tourism Central Australia, and the Alice Springs Town Council to develop this plan which is due to be released later this year. It will help to identify and develop unique experiences that this beautiful part of the world can offer that meet the needs of a changing global consumer.
In the Top End, Tourism NT will invest over $1.2m in promoting Kakadu National Park through a Global Kakadu campaign planned for 2009. In order to stimulate demand in the drive market we are investing $0.5m in activities for Katherine and Tennant Creek with print campaigns planned for early next year. The campaign will include advertising in targeted drive publications and be supported by the production of a ‘Drive the NT’ guide.
We are building on our strengths as a nature and cultural destination through niche activities such as bird watching. From March to June this year, my department ran a bird watching campaign in New Zealand with a motivational message to encourage New Zealanders to experience the abundance of the unique native bird life in Australia’s Outback, the Northern Territory. A similar campaign has been running in the United Kingdom since August.
Our partnership with Jetstar will see more domestic tourists travelling to the Territory and we will monitor this closely to ensure that the partnership delivers on every element we have signed for. The August announcement that Jetstar will base seven planes and 280 flight crew in a Darwin international hub is a critical component of ensuring aviation access in and out of the Territory. The new airline hub provides us with the opportunity to sell our strategic geographic location to companies and industries looking to build Northern Territory based businesses. The good news is not only focused on the Top End; on 28 August, Tiger Airways announced it will fly from Adelaide to Alice Springs three times a week from March next year.
We must also recognise that we, as Territorians, are particularly keen to stay at home during our holidays. As we are aware, fishing is very much a way of life for many Territorians and the government is keen to ensure the sustainable development of recreational fishing - wait for it - it will remain ‘the lure of the Territory’.
In order to maximise these opportunities, we need a sustainable management framework underpinned by good fisheries research. My Department of Regional Development, Primary Industry, Fisheries and Resources is planning a comprehensive recreational fishing survey for 2009-10 at a cost of approximately $400 000. This will give us essential data on recreational fishing participation, fishing effort, and catch to ensure that the high quality fishing experiences available today continue for future generations. The government is committed to preparing a comprehensive development plan over the next 12 months, recognising the considerable contribution that fishing makes to our great lifestyle and in creating jobs through the Territory.
One of the main issues for recreational fishers is access and we have allocated $4m to be spent in 2010-11 to upgrade the Palmerston Boat Ramp, including a security facility. This is on top of the commitments already made to construct another ramp in Darwin Harbour near East Arm and upgrades to the boat ramps at Dinah Beach and Channel Point. We have increased our commitments for fishing access and infrastructure funds to $1m per annum over the next four years. We will continue to work with the Amateur Fishermen’s Association of the NT to ensure the best use of those funds.
Importantly, this government continues to support the successful Indigenous Marine Ranger program and will continue to work with Indigenous communities to develop opportunities to participate in and manage our fisheries.
I must point out that the mining, petroleum, primary industry and fisheries sectors account for about 40% of the Territory’s GSP. The Territory’s mineral and energy industries are performing well and continue to expand. Through my department’s $14.4m major investment attraction program, Bringing Forward Discovery, we are encouraging further investment from China and Japan into the Territory’s mining and energy sectors. We are still the only Australian jurisdiction with a dedicated China Investment Strategy. As part of Bringing Forward Discovery, we have launched the exciting new $2.4m Geophysics and Drilling Collaboration program and I am pleased to say that the response from exploration companies wanting to enter into partnerships with government to explore greenfield terranes has been excellent.
The Primary Industry Group of my department delivers strategic services that support profitable and sustainable primary production. The Primary Industry Group has $24m which allows for continuing work in delivery of services in crops, forestry and horticulture, pastoral production, research and demonstration farms, diagnostic services, biosecurity, and product integrity divisions. With record live cattle numbers passing through the Port of Darwin, we continue to investigate new markets for Territory cattle. Currently, we have educational assistance and scoping projects under way in Vietnam, Malaysia, Borneo and Sabah over and above our work in the major markets in Indonesia and the Philippines.
The Department of Business and Employment will be contributing to the development of the government’s Climate Change strategy which is being led by the Department of the Chief Minister. One of the Henderson government’s commitments in this area is to develop a ‘Green Fleet’ strategy to significantly reduce carbon emissions associated with the operating of NT Fleet by placing greater emphasis on the fuel efficiency and carbon emissions of vehicles purchased by NT Fleet. The Henderson government has also committed to introducing a ‘Green Leasing’ strategy which will result in reduced carbon emissions associated with leased government office accommodation. My department will be consulting with the property industry and developing an options paper for government consideration later this calendar year for input into the Climate Change strategy.
Northern Territory government procurement is worth approximately $2bn per year of which 78% is spent in the Northern Territory. We have a responsibility to take into account the impact on climate change associated with the production and use of the goods and services procured by government. My department is currently developing a ‘Green Procurement’ strategy which will aim to minimise carbon emissions associated with government procurement.
This will be one of the features of future whole-of-government ICT contracts. My department has already commenced planning for the next round of contracts due to commence in mid-2010.
Another government strategic priority which my departments will be contributing to is Closing the Gap between outcomes for Indigenous people and other Territorians. My Department of Business and Employment will be coordinating cross-cultural training for Northern Territory Public Service staff. The department is responsible for the recruitment and support of NTPS Indigenous apprentices, and will be developing an Indigenous entry level employment program. My department has also been charged with working with the private sector to boost Indigenous employment in the Northern Territory associated with government procurement activity, and through joint government-private sector programs.
One success story is the Indigenous Pastoral Program, which is focused on bringing land in remote regions back into pastoral production, creating Indigenous employment and training, and growing the Territory’s cattle herd Since this program commenced an additional 53 000 head of cattle are being run.
I wish to draw your attention to the Land Development Corporation. The corporation is the Northern Territory government’s leading industrial land developer and drives strategic industrial land development stimulating economic growth in the region. It positions the Northern Territory and its industries to take advantage of major industrial projects which are about to start or accelerate. The corporation provides business with easy access to strategically located industrial land, and offers a choice of lot sizes that have been levelled and connected to power and water. This allows businesses to continue to focus on their core activities.
The corporation will soon release a Registration of Interest for the development of Stage 1 of a 15 ha waterfront development site in the East Arm Marine Services Precinct. Five new lots in the vicinity of the new Hudson Creek recreational boat ramp, within the East Arm Marine Services Precinct, are scheduled to be available at the end of 2008-09.
The Land Development Corporation is also finalising the Stage 2 design of the Darwin Business Park with a subdivision to provide 19 new industrial lots. This is scheduled to commence late 2008.
The Land Development Corporation does an excellent job, and part of that job is the development of common user facilities. The common user facilities are developed by government to provide a short-term lease, on a user-pays principle for major projects. For example, when we had the G3 development in Nhulunbuy, one of the comments we received from the company was that they would love to be able to assemble all the modules in Australia and in the Territory in particular. However, we did not have a large block with waterfront access to create these large modules which would then be loaded onto a boat for transporting I am very happy to say we have a 20 ha block in the East Arm area with water frontage which is now being provided with services with an allocation of $1.5m.
I spoke before about the Defence Support Hub. Money has now been allocated to start providing services, and we will be calling for expressions of interest very soon. We already have a number of companies that want to be associated with the Defence industry in the Territory. I was very encouraged to hear the comments by the Minister for Defence, Joel Fitzgibbon. He said he finds it crazy that we have to load equipment from Darwin to take it to South Australia for repairs or maintenance and then reload it on the train to bring it back. As a result, the Army is losing this equipment for up to eight weeks. This is the place where things should happen.
The arrival of Jetstar with their brand new airplanes gives us the opportunity for developing the aviation industry which then can be expanded to other industries. Let us not forget that the new platform for the Army - the Abrams tanks - have a turbine engine. Until now, we did not have the technology or the capacity to maintain this type of engine. Now, with Airnorth acquiring the first – and soon to acquire the second – jet airplane, having a workforce trained in the maintenance of jet engines, and with the arrival of Jetstar, gives us the opportunity to develop the workforce and the facilities so that these tanks can be maintained here.
The development of these facilities is essential if we are going to get INPEX in the Northern Territory. I know that the member for Port Darwin mentioned INPEX and Western Australia. The reality is, whichever party wins in Western Australia, INPEX will not be able to take an area or a piece of land to establish their facility in the very new future. Maret Islands are out of the question because of the significant pressure by the fishing, tourism, and Indigenous interests. In addition, the Kimberly is out of the question too, as the federal minister for Environment has already ordered a review of the whole area which is not going to happen tomorrow - it will probably take the best part of two years - and interest has been expressed for the delivery of gas in Japan by 2013.
I know that the opposition has gone to great lengths to say how much they supported INPEX. However, I recall the front page headlines in the newspaper about the Leader of the Opposition opposing INPEX in the current location that we are proposing, despite the fact, as it was later revealed by INPEX themselves, that he had been briefed and told that INPEX had to be located at that particular site or it would not be here at all. It took Chris Young and the Chamber of Commerce condemning him for this stunt, and then the ex-Chief Minister of the Northern Territory, Shane Stone, bagging him, to change his opinion.
Very conveniently, he also forgets that with Glyde Point there was significant objection from people in the Northern Territory - even the member for Nelson was complaining about Glyde Point. I recall when I was the minister for Lands, I had to find a new corridor to bypass a black palm forest that was on very sensitive land, to re-route the services at Glyde Point. We found that Glyde Point was totally inappropriate due to strong currents, the proximity to the islands, and also that significant dredging had to take place in the area that would possibly affect the significant field of corals. It might look a very good piece of land to put something there, it is far away – out of sight, out of mind - but the reality is that there were a number of other factors that would affect the establishment of a hub for heavy industry.
The proposal by the CLP was the establishment of a smelter. I remember they were talking to Pechine at the time. There was going to be an aluminium smelter and a very significant sized power station to power the smelter. It is easy for everyone to say that is a good site, but the reality is, until you do the study and find out what actually is there, and how it is going to be affected by the establishment of heavy industry, you cannot make that decision.
I repeat that I am very proud to be part of the third term Labor government in the Northern Territory. I am excited about the challenges that lie ahead in my portfolios. I have the portfolio areas that make money. On this side of parliament, we work as a team. It is only this side of parliament that the leader of our party is secure in his position. On the other side, I do not really know who is in charge, as even this morning, one of the radio announcers asked the Leader of the Opposition and the member for Fong Lim.
Madam Speaker, my focus will remain on providing jobs and lifestyle opportunities for all Territorians and ensure that these remain sustainable in the future. It is going to be an exciting four years.
Debate adjourned.
Madam SPEAKER: Honourable members, I received the following letter from the member for Goyder:
Is the proposed discussion supported? The proposal is supported. I call the member for Goyder.
Ms PURICK (Goyder): Madam Speaker, I propose for discussion today the following definite matter of public importance: the need for an independent - truly independent - environmental protection agency, capable of initiating its own investigations and reporting to the parliament to secure the protection of the Territory’s environment for the present time and into our future.
Some members may find it a little ironic, given my previous position in regard to the establishment of an EPA. However, this matter is too important now, given the development proposals that are before the Northern Territory, the growth phase we are going through, and the important issues that are arising currently in regard to the environment and are confronting us. These include: pressure on our water supplies; increased demand for horticultural and agricultural land; wild fires; the health of our rivers; the advent of more uranium mines in the Northern Territory; and mitigating and adapting to climate change, to name just a few.
Human habitation and manufacturing depends on the use of chemicals, pesticides, and hazardous materials, with the potential side effects of pollution and contaminated land. We also have the issue of basic pests and weeds and we have only seen too clearly the impact of mimosa, salvinia, gamba and mission grass, and the ubiquitous cane toads and what they have done to our environment.
While the current Environmental Protection Agency we have was well intentioned, it misses the mark. It is simply a glorified ministerial council. We need a proper independent EPA which reports to the parliament and can investigate and instigate reviews and inquiries, and can take decisive action if need be. We need an authority that has independence in administration of the law. It needs to be resourced properly, operationally sound, strategically placed, and meet the expectations of industry and the broader community.
It is well known in industry that NRETA is under-resourced. In addition to their normal work they have to provide secretariat services to the current EPA. Not good enough! Something has to give and it does. I understand from my work and my contacts with industry and business people that the Assessment Division is under-resourced, which reflects on the quality and the quantity of the time that they devote to each project, regardless of whether it is a government or an industry project. More projects are planned for the Northern Territory. We have heard today of some of the projects that are planned for the Northern Territory. How is the current EPA, and NRETA, going to cope? It has to be adequately resourced, not only to do enforcement and prosecution if that is applicable.
A properly independent environmental protection authority could report to government on matters such as the carbon footprint of government. Does government actually know what its activities are doing in relation to the carbon footprint? I doubt it. Has government done life cycle analysis of the buildings it occupies? I doubt it. Did the government do a life cycle analysis of the convention centre, and what its carbon footprint is? I doubt it.
A properly independent EPA could do these activities and they could investigate and review government functions. For example, the consumption of fuel by government, the consumption of paper, the consumption of the number of vehicles, the kilometres they travel, the equipment that is used and what footprint that leaves on our society. They could make recommendations to parliament so that there are gains in mitigating the carbon footprint that the Northern Territory leaves on the globe. There are proposed industrial and other development projects all around us. We have heard about some of those today. We know there are mining proposals on the board, including new uranium mines. There are prospects for new phosphate and base metal mines, and industrial sands. Tourism has a huge impact on our environment, including coastal tourism, which is one of our growth industries.
There are proposed residential developments on the books. We have heard about Bellamack and Palmerston. Previously, there were announcements about Berrimah Farm and this is a case in point when a truly independent EPA could look at what is actually at Berrimah Farm. Let us go back to 1952 and look at the history of Berrimah Farm and what was there. It was a research farm where they did research. However, before it became a fully-fledged research farm it was a communications base in World War II. It was also an army dump for all sorts of materials.
Research means trials and tests on various horticultural and agricultural products and pesticides and herbicides. Members would be familiar with the terms DDT and Dieldrin which have been outlawed because of the effects on human health and how they go through the food chain. I have information at my disposal from people who lived at Berrimah Farm and they know where these products were used and trialled. It was also a quarantine station for agricultural and horticultural products brought into the Northern Territory.
More seriously, it was also the forestry impregnation plant. There are some fairly serious chemicals used in this process, and given that our standards and best practice levels of today are way above what they were 30, 40, 50, 60 years ago, my question, and the question of many people that I have been talking to regarding the government’s announcement for this kind of residential housing estate, is: exactly what is the state of that environment on that parcel of land? A fully and truly independent EPA could investigate and instigate an outside, independent review based on the science to know exactly what is there.
Members: Hear, hear!
Ms PURICK: We cannot have the situation of developing a housing estate with parklands, grasslands, and things for children, knowing that the soil underneath that area has the potential to be highly contaminated. That is the kind of matter that could and should be referred to the EPA if it is truly independent, reports to the parliament, and is directed by the parliament. The current EPA does not appear to have clear deliverables and outcomes, maybe they are coming, but time is of the essence.
We have a possibility of a massive billion dollar gas project coming onto our shore, and yet, we are still waiting for what their deliverables and outcomes can be. I do not think we can wait. Compared to other jurisdictions, the Northern Territory’s environmental legislation is pretty antiquated and not integrated or complementary. For example, there is different legislation which deals with different aspects of the same issue. There are more than 14 pieces of legislation dealing with the environment, possibly more, and they often do not talk to each other. There are cases of development and proponents’ applications where they meet the requirements of their environmental impact statement, put in their applications, almost get their approvals through the Environmental Assessment Act, who are told they have to then get approvals under the Soil Conservation and Land Utilization Act. That is not good enough for the proponents nor for the good governance of the Territory. This uncoordinated position leaves the Territory exposed and vulnerable to unsustainable environmental practices.
Madam Speaker, we need this kind of direct reporting to parliament so there is transparency and openness in how we go about our environmental protection and management in the Northern Territory. I commend this proposal to you and to the House.
Members: Hear, hear!
Ms ANDERSON (Natural Resources, Environment and Heritage): Madam Speaker, I thank the member for Goyder for bringing this debate forward. It is a very important issue. The member for Goyder proposes the need for an independent environment protection agency capable of initiating its own investigations and able to report those findings to parliament in order to secure the protection of the Territory’s unique environment. I welcome the member for Goyder’s endorsement of this government’s action on the EPA. We have delivered our 2005 election promise to deliver an independent legislated EPA in the terms put forward by the member for Goyder, so her support is very welcome.
In case the member is a little confused and thinks she is proposing something different, I will take you through what the EPA currently does under the Environment Protection Authority Act which was passed in this House last year. Even a quick read of this important legislation would lead the opposition to realise that we do, and I emphasise, we do have an independent EPA. They would realise that it is capable of initiating its own inquiries, its reports are tabled in parliament, and the EPA will play an important role in securing the protection of the Territory’s unique and beautiful environment.
I will start with section 6 of the act where it is established that:
These are real powers to conduct inquiries independent of government.
Section 8 of the act is devoted to the EPA’s independence and clearly states that:
Just to avoid any doubt, section 8 goes on to state very clearly that:
Is the EPA able to initiate its own inquiries? The answer is yes. Is the EPA independent of the minister and the department? The answer is yes. Must the EPA report be tabled in parliament? The answer is yes. If there is any further confusion, I would be happy to organise a briefing.
The EPA we have implemented has emerged from a very comprehensive process of community consultation on the environment and sustainable development and followed up with further consultation undertaken by the interim EPA Board during 2006. The clear message from these consultations is that the EPA needed to add value to processes already in place, and that the most important work for a new EPA would relate to high level strategic and policy frameworks, standard setting, and reviewing and ensuring our environmental laws are implemented. Government listened and put in place the best model for the Territory.
We now have an EPA comprising a board of four very capable and well qualified members. The EPA is chaired by Dr Andrew Tupper who has a wealth of experience in climate and science. The other members are: Professor Donna Craig who brings high level experience in environmental law; Professor Gordon Duff, an expert in ecology; and Ms Judith King, who has over 20 years broad experience in the public and private sectors. I think you would be hard pressed to find a more qualified group in the Territory. They bring enormous expertise and experience and they have my absolute trust and confidence in the work they do.
The EPA is now up and running and working on two very significant projects. First, and this gives full expression to their independence, the EPA initiated a project to develop overarching sustainability principles for the Territory with the aim of clarifying what can sometimes be a confusing concept and tailor it to Territory circumstances. Second, government has referred a project to the EPA to review environmental assessment arrangements as they apply to major developments. The current environmental assessment processes work very well; that is why they are accredited nationally.
However, it is a very important process and we do not take anything for granted. We want to stay ahead of the pack. The EPA will review contemporary trends in this area to make sure they remain at a high standard. None of this work is secret and it can be found on the EPA website. Also, the community can log on and refer a project to the EPA. The EPA will examine the project against a set of criteria, make their investigations, and report according to their independent charter. The EPA is also directly engaging with the community. I met with them while I was in Alice Springs recently and they will be holding community meetings concerning the sustainability project on 26 September in Darwin.
Madam Speaker, we do have an independent EPA. The opposition can claim that it is proposing something different with this MPI. It is not. They are proposing exactly the same arrangements this government has put in place. They are obviously unsure - which is not surprising - it is only a few years ago that the opposition openly opposed an EPA, then proposed a one person Environment Commissioner, then it was an Environment Protection and Management Authority. They were almost there. I am pleased that the opposition has now taken this extra step and supports the EPA that this government has delivered.
Members: Hear, hear!
Mr CHANDLER (Brennan): Madam Speaker, I would love to thank the minister for her comments and her information. It all sounded lovely and if I absolutely trusted this government, I would walk away from here very comfortable with those comments. Unfortunately, the last seven years has changed my mind.
I will just point out two points in the act. Under Part 2, Environment Protection Authority, section 5 (1), Functions:
That, to me, appears like legislation which is very limiting. I draw members’ attention to section 8, Independence:
What about that recommendation? It can and could be held back from this parliament, from the people of the Northern Territory.
I would like to thank the minister for her comments, but in the Towards an Environment Protection Authority for the Northern Territory, June 2007, page 3 states: ‘Whole-of-government approach’. How can the minister say there is a whole-of-government approach when it is clear that there is no or very limited consultation between key stake holders? My understanding is the whole-of-government approach includes different tiers of government if necessary, particularly when they are one of the key stakeholders, local government being the case in point.
Can the minister provide an example of the current EPA having a clear public profile? It seems to me that the acronym ‘EPA’ needs one additional letter - the letter ‘I’ for Independent - Independent Environmental Protection Authority. An Independent Environmental Protection Authority is needed to properly oversee the protection of the Northern Territory’s unique and beautiful environment. The Northern Territory is one of the world’s last great wilderness frontiers. The Territory’s environment must be protected by a completely independent EPA.
The Labor government promised to deliver an independent EPA. What they delivered was an emasculated EPA, attached to the Environment department, at the discretion of the minister. The environment is too important to be subject to back door political pressure without the independent scrutiny of a fully independent EPA.
Again, I quote from the document Towards an Independent Protection Authority: How can the current EPA ‘engender community confidence in its independence?’ A fully independent EPA should be able to initiate its own investigations into any matter - any matter it considers necessary - and should be able to table that report in parliament without interference. An independent EPA should recognise the important role of the Environment Centre NT as an advocate for the environment and as a vehicle to assist in the establishment of a balanced opinion.
Yesterday, and again today, we heard from the government of three more development opportunities in Palmerston - we are still waiting for Bellamack, by the way – and the inflated land prices that has created for the people of Palmerston and beyond. We also heard, prior to the election and throughout the election campaign, and again from the member beside me, of the proposed redevelopment of the Berrimah Farm. These developments require review from an environmental point of view, and this can only truly occur when all Territorians are assured the EPA is truly independent. This will be the only way the government can meet one of its own criteria; that is, to engender community confidence.
Mr WOOD (Nelson): Oh, this brings back memories! EPAs that were interim EPAs and EPAs that would seem to be EPAs but were not EPAs.
Ms Purick: Interim Boards.
Mr WOOD: Yes, an EPA Board that signed off on documents as if it was an EPA, and they did not really exist. We have a long history of establishing an EPA in the Northern Territory.
We can argue the case about whether it can or cannot do certain things, but the minister just said - and I believe this proves the point - two of the things that the EPA is looking at – and I am not saying they are not important – (1) the overarching principles for sustainability, and (2) the review of the environmental assessment arrangements in relation to mining. Fine, fantastic. However, if an EPA is going to have what I think is the role of an EPA, it should have looked at the diversion of the McArthur River, and it should be having a look at INPEX, the suitability of Berrimah Farm, the effect of major subdivisions, and the mineral sands or the forestry land on the Tiwi Islands. That is what an EPA should be doing.
To me, this other stuff it is doing is minor. I have always believed that an EPA should be out there, independent, and taking on the big projects to protect the environment of the Northern Territory. Has this EPA taken on one of those projects? For instance, the government is pushing the gas. The Minister for Planning and Lands has already taken the power away from our independent Development Consent Authority. If she is going to take on that role, what is the chance of getting an independent assessment of INPEX? None, unless we have an EPA that is willing to do it, separate from government. If someone is going to convince me that there is going to be a fair, balanced and neutral decision-making body in relation to whether INPEX should go on Blaydon Point, then they are going to have to come up with some other scheme than what we have at the present time, where the minister who is a member of the Cabinet - and a Cabinet that would have decided that INPEX is going in the middle of the harbour – is also the same minister who is going to approve this under the Development Consent Authority process. Here is a classic example of where the EPA should be involved.
The member for Brennan mentioned the new suburbs of Palmerston. I always laugh a little when it comes to land clearing. We have some of the strictest controls of land clearing, I would say, anywhere in Australia. We can argue about moratoriums, even if you did not have a moratorium on the Daly River, we have some of the strictest controls in land clearing. I would have to say that some of that came originally when the Litchfield Shire land clearing guidelines came into being, where from allowing people only to clear half their block of land, more stringent controls were introduced, and eventually that led to better clearing controls for the whole of the Northern Territory.
We make a big noise over whether we should clear land in the Daly, but do we do anything or say anything about how much land will be cleared in Bellamack, Zuccoli and Johnston. There is some very nice bush, a lot of wildlife and biodiversity. The minister has made a statement, and I thank you for making a statement, that Mitchell Creek, or what is left of Mitchell Creek, will be saved, because the rest is a drain or a nice grass paddock. Why should there not be an environmental impact study done?
Apart from the public comment, government asked for people to put in submissions regarding the Palmerston west suburban area. I was one of possibly three people who put in a submission, no two. You would have to ask if that was great. I have not heard anything back. I walked the area as much as I could. I thought there were areas that certainly should be protected. I do not know whether they were protected. I have not heard anything back. I would have liked to see someone like the Environment Protection Authority go into the area and do a proper and thorough analysis.
What is the difference between the environment that is destroyed by the suburbs of Palmerston and Darwin and the environment that is destroyed by Daly River? Why do we make so much fuss about that when we have destroyed Mitchell Creek? Mitchell Creek feeds into the harbour. I used to do Waterwatch studies on Mitchell Creek, and I remember taking the then Mayor of Palmerston to collect freshwater prawns. It fed directly into Darwin Harbour yet we have, by poor planning and poor development, turned it into a drain for fertilisers coming off nice suburban lawns in that area.
In fact, our previous member for Brennan, James Burke, and I were at a meeting, and maybe the member for Blain, with the DCA to discuss why people like Delfin were going to build a suburb on the headwaters of the Mitchell Creek. That required an enormous effort to stop that. Good planning should have said it should not have happened in the first place. The development of large numbers of blocks of land in Palmerston is so big that surely an independent EPA should have come in and looked at that.
We could talk about what is in the act. We can say in theory that they can do certain things. They say the authority’s functions are to give advice and make recommendations. I want to see an EPA that says: ‘Sorry, we have looked at Bellamack, Zuccoli and Johnston, and some of this cannot be touched, it is too important.’ In the case of those suburbs, there is heritage, ecologically important sites and probably cultural sites.
If there are big projects in the Northern Territory that do affect the environment, I ask the government where is the role of the EPA in deciding whether those projects should go ahead? If the EPA is as independent as you say, if the EPA can basically look at anything it wants to – if that is your reading of the act – then show me examples where it has actually happened. That is what an EPA should be about.
I support the motion. If we are going to have an environment protection agency, do not have one that fills an academic role in highlighting deficiencies in legislation, or looking at some philosophical issues about the environment. Have an environment protection agency that is targeted - so we do not have a huge bureaucracy - and when I say targeted, I mean looks at major projects in the Northern Territory that will affect the environment. That is a very important role. I love the environment but I also think we need development, and what is that in simple terms? It means I support sustainable development.
That is an area that we should be really pushing for an EPA to take hold of. People might not agree with me on a radioactive waste facility. I know that. I can live with that. However, if you talk about the science and you do not believe me and I do not believe you, here is a classic organisation, an EPA, that could have a look at the realities of it and take the politics out of it. I have heard so much politics about the radioactive waste facility I sometimes think it is too much to handle. If you do not accept what I think for whatever reason – whether it is political or whether it is you think my science is wrong - get an independent study of it.
Ask an EPA group to see whether it is possible. That would take some of these major issues away from the political argy bargy we have and leave it with very well qualified people who are able to bring in people from other areas of expertise. Let them come out with a report and see whether I am right, you are right, or maybe there is a solution in between.
Madam Speaker, I support the member for Goyder in her matter of public importance. If the government does not agree with me, so be it. I will only agree with it when I see this EPA taking on major projects in the Northern Territory to protect our environment.
Members: Hear, hear!
Ms LAWRIE (Treasurer): Madam Speaker, this is an absolutely extraordinary MPI. Not just the CLP’s historical opposition to an EPA but even more extraordinary is the person who lodged it. Having chaired the parliament’s environment committee’s inquiry into the establishment of an EPA, I remember debates on this subject and there is no one in the Territory who has fought harder against the establishment of an EPA than the current member for Goyder.
She fought hard against the EPA and even harder against an independent EPA. Who knows, tomorrow we might get an MPI from the member for Fong Lim about banning nuclear waste dumps. You can only assume this is a brazen attempt to immediately distance herself from her past - and that is sad.
It was the Labor government which established the task for the inquiry into the establishment of an EPA. This is after years of the CLP government refusing to establish an EPA. We became the only place in Australia without one.
Ms Purick: We are the only place that has fireworks as well. Maybe we should get rid of them?
Ms LAWRIE: I pick up on the interjection. The member for Goyder says that is because we are the only place that has fireworks as well. I have to say what a nonsense interjection. To compare the role of an EPA to letting off fireworks on Territory Day has to be one of the most extraordinary cases of drawing a long bow I have ever heard in this Chamber.
I outline the history of the process. It was the ALP in opposition that committed to looking into whether the Territory needed to establish an EPA. It was a 2001 election promise. What did we do? In our first term of parliament we ensured the environment committee of the parliament undertook the inquiry into the EPA. I chaired that committee and the member for Nelson was also a member of that committee. The committee handed down a variety of models because -surprise, surprise! - committee members could not agree on a model. So a variety of models were presented for government’s consideration.
The member for Goyder submitted ardently to that process against the EPA. There are many things that she is on the record as saying. I will not read all of them out because there are only a few that are required to outline the extraordinary hypocrisy of this MPI. I am sure she is arguing that she was simply doing her job then as the head of the Minerals Council and that they were not her personal views. Aside from the lack of integrity this is also not believable.
On several occasions she actually went out of her way to state that the views she was putting forward were her own views. In her submission to the Sessional Committee on Environment and Sustainable Development Inquiry into An Environmental Protection Agency for the Northern Territory she outlined her opposition to the establishment of an EPA and her further opposition to it being independent, and I quote:
She went on to say:
And she certainly did not want it to be independent …
Mr Elferink: Nor did you. Did you ever see your model? You have an EPA which is going to be totally funded from a government department and reports to a minister.
Madam SPEAKER: Order! Member for Port Darwin!
Ms LAWRIE: I pick up on the interjection from the member for Port Darwin.
Madam SPEAKER: Please pause, minister. Member for Port Darwin, I ask you to cease interjecting. Thank you.
Ms LAWRIE: Madam Speaker, I know he is getting hot under the collar because of the hypocrisy that is being exposed here through the debate of the MPI. I can understand how you would feel rather uncomfortable if you were sitting on the opposite side of the Chamber tonight in terms of the hypocrisy. It is extraordinary.
As I was saying, the member for Goyder certainly did not want it to be independent and I quote:
Unlike the CLP and the member for Goyder, the government has been consistent all the way through. It was this government which first talked about looking into the establishment of the EPA as a 2001 election commitment. It was this government which then established the parliamentary committee to inquire into the need for the EPA. It was this government which then went on to accept the establishment of an EPA and appointed an interim EPA Board.
We went further. We did not just say we will create our own model and introduce that into legislation. The Environment minister of the Labor government said to the interim board: ‘Go out and consult across the Territory and hear what people have to say about what they want to see from a Territory EPA’. This was not the government consulting. It was esteemed, independent members of that interim EPA board. That is government saying: ‘Let us know what Territorians think and in your expert roles advise us on what model you think should be introduced in legislation’. An arm’s length process, not meddling and not deciding what it should be, but giving the independent interim board the opportunity to go out across the Territory - which they did.
They went out and held public hearings just as the environment committee had done. They went across the Territory. They sought expert information. Many submissions came in. They came forward with the model that the Territory government has introduced into legislation. They said very clearly in their recommendations that for the EPA to be effective it needs to be independent. We heard the Environment minister quote from the legislation. They indicated what is most required for an EPA to do in the Territory, because the Territory is a largely underdeveloped jurisdiction, moving through a development phase. It would be duplication and a waste of a small jurisdiction’s resources to get all the environmental assessment processes that currently occur in the Office of the Environment within the department of the Environment, and duplicate that into an EPA. What they said was that the EPA needs to be a high level, policy setting body that could self-initiate and also take references from the government.
In these matters the proof is always in the pudding. The poorly researched debate from the opposition talked about the need to look at the carbon footprint and the life cycle analysis. They completely ignored the fact that we have gone on to establish an Office of Climate Change which is doing all this and currently has a discussion paper out which the members opposite ought to read. They did not even know until the minister told them that it has already chosen a reference of its own initiative: overarching sustainability principles for the Northern Territory. If there is nothing …
Ms Purick: They have not developed them, though.
Ms LAWRIE: I pick up on the interjection. The independent EPA is determined to have a look at it and go through what process it deems appropriate because the legislation ensures that the government cannot determine the type of research they do, the way they gather their material, and they way they undertake their inquiry. That is their business. We do not tell them how to do their business. They have chosen the task, which is looking at the overarching sustainability principles for the Territory, and they are going about it in their own fashion to do the research. Yet, the member for Goyder seems to think that that is a bad thing.
Anyone who bothers to try to get into the issues of sustainability will know that they are highly complex, and far reaching, and they cover a myriad of aspects of life. Anyone who understands the nature of the environment of the Territory knows that our desert regions are vastly different to our wetlands in the north. I am not surprised that they are taking whatever time they deem necessary to produce sound, overarching sustainable principles for the Territory.
I am hard pressed to think of anything more important in the context of environmental debate for the Territory. In contemporary settings there is nothing more important than sustainability. What has the Territory government chosen to refer to them as a task? Review the environmental processes as they apply to major projects. We have not shied away and we have not said: ‘Do not touch our environmental processes, leave them alone, we will have a look at them ourselves, we are very happy’. We have said to the independent EPA: ‘You have a look at that, and you provide us with your recommendations’.
The EPA by legislation and by the membership is independent. When the members of the committee - and this an important point - travelled interstate and met with the Western Australian and South Australian EPAs, the core message coming through to us was that the independence of the EPA can be attributed to the strength and the nature of the people you appoint. It is the people who make something independent.
If you are going to run the line, as the member for Brennan did, that he truly does not trust the government, is he actually saying he does not trust the integrity and the professionalism of the members of the EPA? If that is the case, then it is a despicable assertion, because they have proven to be people of great integrity and they have been selected, based on their professionalism and their integrity, to give fair, frank, open, and honest advice to government on environmental matters they look into.
Madam Speaker, the whole MPI is nonsense, led by the member who ardently fought against an EPA and said to the committee that it was her own view. As a committee we met with key mining stakeholders on the ground and one of the good things that came from those consultations was that the mining sector was saying: ‘We do not have an issue with the EPA because we deal with EPAs in other jurisdictions’. We are introducing contemporary best practice to environmental assessment into what we do; quite a different line that was coming out of their spokesperson, the now member for Goyder.
It was the Labor government that said we would look into establishing an EPA while the CLP was still refusing to have one. When we came to government we followed through on that commitment. We had an inquiry to consider introducing an EPA and we have now established an EPA. We have passed legislation in the Chamber. They are independent; it is written into the legislation. They have self-initiated a reference, and they have another significant reference from government. They are independent by practice and they are reporting to parliament which is the other aspect of the MPI. This MPI is nonsense.
Mr WESTRA van HOLTHE (Katherine): Madam Speaker, I will refer the government to this legislation, and particularly section 5 of that act. I will read it out for the benefit of all:
(1) The Authority’s functions are to give advice and to make recommendations to the Territory, businesses and the community about ecologically sustainable development.
Madam Speaker, every part of that legislation refers to the minister. That can hardly be considered as independent.
Members: Hear, hear!
Mr WESTRA van HOLTHE: I will refer now to section 24 of the act: Availability of advice or recommendation.
(1) When the Authority gives advice or makes a recommendation, it must give a copy of it to the Minister and make it available to the public in a way the Authority considers appropriate.
As far as I can determine those reasonable grounds are not defined in the act. The act further says:
(3) In addition, before making the advice or recommendation available to the public, the Authority must give the Minister reasonable notice of its intention to do so.
That particular subparagraph gives the minister a heads up on whether he is going to allow that information to be provided to the public.
Section 25: Minister to notify Authority of decision on advice or recommendation:
That is the minister’s decision in the way I am looking at this legislation, which goes on to say:
That takes away the authority from the EPA to give that information out to the public unless the minister has (a) seen it first, and (b) approved its release. Madam Speaker, that is not independent.
Discussion concluded.
Ms LAWRIE (Leader of Government Business): Madam Speaker, I move that the Assembly do now adjourn.
Mr HENDERSON (Wanguri): Madam Speaker, I thank my constituents in Wanguri for returning me in the election on 9 August as the local member. I am genuinely humbled by the results in Wanguri and humbled by the confidence that my constituents in Wanguri, Leanyer, and Lyons have now placed in me for another term. Whilst the election was a tough one, it feels fantastic to have crossed the line. It is also an absolute privilege to know that your constituents support you and have confidence in you. For all of us here, it is a tremendous honour and privilege to be elected to this assembly. I thank each and every person who voted for me, and for the ones who did not I will serve those constituents professionally and diligently and do everything I can to represent their interests in this Assembly.
The Wanguri electorate gained the new suburb of Lyons, due to the re-distribution, from my colleague, the member for Casuarina, who has done a lot of good work previously getting to know the constituents there. It is wonderful to see a new suburb going up in Darwin. About 30% of the suburb will be going to Defence personnel, DHA Housing, but many other Territorians are taking the opportunity to build the house of their dreams in Lyons. I am looking forward to representing those constituents. Wanguri, as an electorate, is going through significant growth as is the rest of the Territory.
Post the election, I am feeling enthused, energised and ready to hit the ground running. As always, there are a great number of people who must be thanked for their time and the support they offered to me in this particular campaign. First, to my wonderful wife, Stacey, and three fantastic children - Alasdair, Liam, and Isobel. We cannot do the job here that Territorians entrust us to do without the support of our family and my two boys, Alasdair and Liam, were a part of the campaign team this time, and it was great to have them on the team. My family obviously is fundamental to my life and I am thankful that they support me in what I do.
This year we christened my campaign team ‘Team Hendo’. We had the shirts, the hats, and it was a fantastic time. My campaign team was just enormous, they are all friends and I could not do it without the core of the team George, Kosta, Roberto, Jana and my electorate officer, Morgan. They met every evening and organised the support team around them. You are all great friends and I thank you so much for your support. Thank you to all the other people who helped, whether it was putting up posters, letterboxing, or endorsements.
It is always very humbling to get those endorsement flyers out where constituents are quite happy to say thank you and to endorse you again as a result of the work that you do for them. I thank all of those people who were happy to endorse me by helping out on the day and providing support to me and the others – thank you to you all. Special thanks must go to Inacio and Maria, Ron and Jeannie, Brian and Perla, Jas, Wilfred, Khalid and Rita, John and Nali, Richard and Maxine, Eddie and Jane, Doreen and Jack, Denis, Trish, and Ian – these are only a few of the people who went out of their way to help me – I sincerely thank you all.
I had many people donate their knowledge and their time and that was very humbling. To realise that people believe in me enough to give their spare time to assist is humbling. We are all very busy, we all have families, everyone I know is busy in their own lives and to have people spend their precious time helping me to get re-elected, is something I will never forget.
I would also like to mention the schools around Wanguri and their fantastic principals. I really enjoy visiting the schools. I thank Jenny from Wanguri, Henry from Leanyer, Kate from St Andrew’s, and Bernadette from Holy Spirit. The doors to the schools are always open and I will continue to give them advice and support, as I have over the years because they are a key part of the electorate.
My electorate office is in the Hibiscus Shoppingtown in Leanyer and I am lucky to have the backing of the centre management and the tenants. They are a fantastic group of tenants and the management team is fantastic. My thanks go to Laura and Paul for all their help and support.
Thanks must also go to the central campaign team - you kept us all going - without your planning and guidance, we would not be here right now.
Throughout the campaign, I made promises to the constituents of Wanguri and I cannot wait to get out and start delivering. These promises include $300 000 for each primary school to upgrade their facilities; a $3m upgrade for Dripstone Middle School; a $5m upgrade to Casuarina Secondary College; a new Police Beat shopfront at Casuarina Square; the completion of the $7.4m upgrade to the Casuarina Police Station; and Stage 2 of Lake Leanyer. The families of the northern suburbs, Darwin, and the Territory are really going to enjoy the water slides.
When children from the bush schools come to Darwin to do a tour of Parliament House, I always encourage the teachers to take the children to the water park to have a great time. It is a place for all Territorians.
I welcome the three new Labor MLAs: Michael Gunner, member for Fannie Bay; Lynne Walker, member for Nhulunbuy; and Gerry McCarthy, member for Barkly. They gave very impressive maiden speeches and I know those members are going to make an enormous contribution not only to their electorates but to the parliament and to the people of the Northern Territory. I extend my sincere congratulations on your win. I also congratulate the other members who were elected to this House. It is a tremendous honour. As I said during the campaign, the election was going to be close; a handful of votes was going to determine the result and the people of the Territory always get it right. So to those new members, congratulations!
While it is sad to see colleagues go, I thank my former colleagues who are no longer MLAs: James Burke, Matty Bonson, Len Kiely, Clare Martin, Chris Natt, Kerry Sacilotto, Syd Stirling, Elliot McAdam and Ted Warren. Each and every one of you did a fantastic job. I thank you for your friendship, camaraderie, and the commitment and contributions you made to your electorates, the people of the Territory, and this parliament during the terms you served. Syd Stirling served nearly 18 years; 18 years worth of service to the Northern Territory. It is an enormous commitment and I put on the record my thanks to my former colleagues for their great commitment to this place and the Labor Party.
Mr ELFERINK (Port Darwin): Madam Deputy Speaker, this is your maiden trip in the Chair. I will try to not make it too painful for you.
I will follow up on something that came up during the Address-in-Reply debate today. During the time I have not been a member of parliament, I have still kept an eye on what has been going on in this place. One of the things I noticed late in the last parliamentary term, earlier this year, was the rather astonishing defence run by the Treasurer of the Chief Minister’s assertion that changing current wages did not have an effect on the superannuation liability. It was an extraordinary defence because under no measure or yardstick of financial management or actuarial assessment could you ever make that statement and then have a defensible position afterwards. If you change the current – it is not always going to be the case - wages and conditions of the whole public service, there will be an effect, a resonating impact into the ongoing liability of the Northern Territory regarding its superannuation.
There are certain things that the government cannot do in relation to the actuarial assessments of the superannuation liability. That much has been made obvious by the fact that it has blown out from $1.4bn to $2.5bn and is projected to blow out even more if you take the time to read Budget Paper No 2.
However, it would be helpful if the Chief Minister and the Treasurer could get their heads around how this system works, so that the Treasurer does not find herself agreeing with the Chief Minister who is utterly wrong. He was simply wrong by saying that there was no impact on current wage changes on the superannuation liability. His argument, at the time, was that the schemes - referring to the Commonwealth Superannuation Scheme and NTGPASS - had closed down. This is astonishing because that does not mean there are not still members in those schemes who are still in the public service. There are many members of the Commonwealth Superannuation Scheme – a very generous scheme – and the NTGPASS scheme who are still members of the public service today. Under their conditions, when there is a change in their pay it resonates into their pay-out - or their pension in the case of the CSS members - into the future.
It is bad enough that the single largest liability that the Northern Territory carries into the future is not only misunderstood by the Chief Minister but misunderstood by the Treasurer who tries to defend it. A few questions were asked the following day and there was a muttering under the breath of the Treasurer who said: ‘Yes, well, wages do affect the CSS and the NTGPASS members’, but it was muttered under her breath during Question Time and I missed it until I actually read the Hansard.
It is bad enough that she does not understand that, but this is a clanger, this is an absolute beauty. I have to quote the Treasurer from today during her reply in the censure debate when she said:
She is not talking about the Commonwealth Grants Review Commission. No, she is talking about the federal government, because she went on to say:
She was referring to the GST. I do not have my wallet with me but I have here in my drawer the full amount of money that the Commonwealth has received from GST revenues. Ooops, nothing, it is empty. The Commonwealth has not drawn one cent from GST revenues. The whole agreement, which she should be more than aware of, was that the GST revenues would exclusively flow to the states. What she was trying to refer to, albeit somewhat inexpertly, is that the Commonwealth’s income was going up at a greater rate than the states’ incomes were going up. That does not mean that the states’ incomes were not going up; the Commonwealth was getting more at a higher rate.
The effect is, if you take the slice of Commonwealth against state income, you get this really interesting graph because, as a proportion, the states and territories are getting less than the Commonwealth was getting. That is not a major surprise. That is partly due to the resources boom. You have income taxes and because wages are going up you get more money going into Commonwealth coffers. However, that does not mean to say that the Commonwealth was getting anything out of the GST.
It is beyond my imagination and comprehension how a Treasurer, who clearly does not understand how our superannuation liability works and struggles with the basic ABC Economics 101 when it comes to fiscal management and where the money goes when the taxation is collected, can stand up here and say that she is the greatest Treasurer since - what was his name? - Placido Domingo, or Paul Keating was when he was Treasurer of this country.
These sorts of mistakes from the Treasurer are irritating to listen to because it demonstrates that, once again, spin wins over substance every time as far as this government is concerned. It is all about dressage and those sorts of things. She mentioned a black hole earlier – or was it the Chief Minister I cannot recall - it was a dreadful black hole that the CLP promises were going to be. I recall that the CLP’s promises actually added up to less than the Territory government’s promises. If that is the case, if ours was a $100m black hole, what was their’s going to be? Or were they going to raise taxes?
I will now speak regarding the comments, and I invite the Health Minister to explain this to me, about the 62 Executive Contract Officers, or Executive Officers, I would like that clarified also; there were 62 in 2001 when they came to government and there are 64 now. I have done a little searching while that speech was being delivered, and I am now somewhat confused. I ask the Health Minister to clarify this for me; I heard him say there are currently only 64 executives in the department. According to page 117 of the last annual report, there are 4701 full-time equivalents in the department. If that is correct, and I accept it is correct, then there should be, and there is, a breakdown in the annual report which describes who sits where. The annual report says that 2% of the staff of the department rests in its executive. I just calculated 2% of 4701 people and that is 94 executives. I am confused about how he can say that there were only 64 and I invite him to explain that.
The other thing I am confused about is that in the 2002-03 annual report only 1% of Health staff were listed as being executives. That annual report does not give you an exact amount of numbers as to how many people were in the Health Department at that stage so I had to go to the OCPE website to find out how many people were in the Health Department then. The December quarter figure was 3890. If the annual report says that 1% of 3890 were executives that equals 39. So I am a little confused as to how he can claim there were only 62 executives in 2001, when – I have actually used 2002-03 figures - my calculations show 39 executives, or 1% of the department, which magically morphs into 94 executives, which is 2% of 4701 executives. I am very curious to see where these numbers are coming from.
I listened carefully and I have not seen the Hansard yet, but I think he was referring to Executive Contract Officers. Now those are not quite the same as Executive Officers. Executive Contract Officers appear with an ECO level attached to them, and they are a different package to an Executive Officer. If you look at a thing called an ECO1, they get a package of somewhere around $160 000 a year at the moment, compared with an EO1, who is still an employed non-contract officer, who receives $98 000 at the moment. It would be cute beyond imagination if the minister was referring to ECO levels and not EO levels, because if he is doing that, it will have the effect of masking the actual number of executives in the department.
I invite the minister, during the course of the adjournment debate tonight, to clarify that because on the numbers I have been able to find in government records today, compared with the numbers that he said were currently in the department, there is a yawning chasm. He says 62 and 64 over a certain period. The numbers that I have been working on give me 39 and 94. There may be an explanation for that, but the minister has said proudly and clearly - he stood up with his hand on his heart in this place – ‘I have never lied to this House’. If that is true can he explain to me why I cannot find the numbers in the pages he is referring to?
Madam Speaker, I invite the minister to respond to this and explain to me how this works.
Ms McCARTHY (Arnhem): Madam Deputy Speaker, it is a great pleasure to stand here tonight to thank the people of Arnhem for their 100% support of me in this Assembly and no doubt my colleague, the member for Macdonnell, feels the same.
I will highlight certain places in my electorate to say thank you to those who were ready and willing to support me on the campaign in particular to Eddie Chisholm, Uncle Phillip Quall and Andrew Ah Kit for your terrific support and preparation in the lead up to the election, but in particular after the news that I had been automatically elected to parliament. Thank you to Eddie, Uncle Quall and Andrew for maintaining your support as we continued to support the member for Barkly and the member for Stuart in their campaigns. In particular to my electorate officer Charles Powling, a very big thanks to you. You are just fantastic. It has been wonderful to work with you over the past three years and I look forward to the next four years. Thank you for your terrific support and unfailing loyalty to the Labor party and the people of Arnhem.
I worked closely with the Katherine Labor Party branch during the election campaign. I pay tribute to Sharon Hillen, a terrific candidate for us in the Katherine region who worked hard, and to her team. Sean Heffernan is a strong advocate for Labor values in the Katherine region and I say thank you to Sean. I also thank John King for the tremendous work he put into the election campaign for the Katherine region. I congratulate each and every member who is here in the House and take this opportunity to remind all members that we are here to serve the people of our constituency in a fair and no doubt vocal manner, but always with the firm belief that we are going in a direction that is for the betterment of all people across the Northern Territory. I congratulate each of you.
Members: Hear, hear!
Ms McCARTHY: Congratulations to you, Madam Deputy Speaker, on your election to the position of Deputy Speaker, and to the member for Nightcliff, on her unanimous re-election as the Speaker of the House.
I want to pick up on some particular comments raised by the member for Araluen relating to Central Australia and my colleagues, the members for Stuart and Macdonnell. It is a fantastic to know that we have two amazing people in Cabinet who will speak, and have spoken very strongly, for Central Australia.
It is indeed an honour to work beside them. I am confident that the people of Central Australia know that their voices are going to be heard by the member for Macdonnell and the member for Stuart. They will be supported wholeheartedly by their colleagues on this side of the parliament to ensure that the voices of those in Central Australia and the Barkly region - to include the member for Barkly - are heard and their desires will be acted on. I put that on the record for the member for Araluen.
In preparation for the opening of parliament there were some sad spots over the last couple of weeks in my communities. One of these was at Numbulwar and the other was in my homelands, the Borroloola region, where we have had many funerals. It has been quite a sad time for the people of Numbulwar.
I pay tribute to a terrific man, whose name I cannot mention here, but one day I will be able to put on the Parliamentary Record that this man was the leader of the Red Flag Dancers and a strong leader for the people of Numbulwar. Sadly, he passed away while visiting family on Groote Eylandt over a month ago. I send condolences to the Yilila Singers and the band members, and to the community of Numbulwar for your loss and know that your loss is felt quite deeply throughout Arnhem Land and through the Gulf region.
Another strong advocate and wise leader for the Yanyuwa, Garawa, Mara and Gudanji peoples of the Gulf region was my Mimi, my grandfather, Mr Hammer, who gave great service to the people of the Northern Territory through his advocacy on the Northern Land Council and his work on the Aboriginal Areas Protection Authority which was previously known as Aboriginal Sacred Sites.
The funeral was strange this time. I use the word ‘strange’ simply because at every funeral you went to, this man was there. He is the one who organised the coffins, organised the bodies being brought to the community, and he talked to the families. Usually, when families are grieving over someone they have lost, there are some family struggles. I know it is not unique to Aboriginal culture. I know that all families have their own struggles with funerals. In the Borroloola community, this man made a huge difference bringing peace amongst the clan groups, following custom, knowing when to bury a person, and where that person should be buried. Sometimes there would be arguments over whether that person should be buried near Robinson River, or the island country further to the north in the Sir Edward Pellew, or whether they should be buried at Ngukurr.
This time it was this man’s burial, so it was a very strange funeral. For Aboriginal people in Arnhem Land, funerals are part of life, a really sad part of life, and people go to funerals every week. When you went to the funeral of this man, this great man, you could sense that there was a massive change, to know that this one person who had a tremendous impact, such a positive impact, on the Gulf region was no longer there.
I place on the record in the parliament, in this place of law for the people of the Northern Territory, that there was one lawmaker who needs to be acknowledged by this parliament.
To his family in the Limmen Bight region and in the Borroloola region and all his mob through to Ngukurr and Numbulwar and to Groote, we say thank you for this great man. He will always be remembered. May his children and grandchildren walk in his ways with wisdom and strength and courage to bring about such peace amongst other people.
Members: Hear, hear!
Ms McCARTHY: I will talk about Groote Eylandt and pay special tribute to two people who have given their service to the Angurugu people in particular: Kathy and Bryan Massey, two non-Aboriginal people, a couple who have lived on the island for the past 20 years and have done a wonderful job working in the aged care service on Groote. I say to Kathy and Bryan: thank you so much for your commitment to overseeing so much in the community of Angurugu, a place which is usually renowned in newspapers for pretty violent acts, lots of fighting, and lots of trouble. Kathy and Bryan seem to have made that place their home and have endeared themselves to the clan groups on Groote. They looked after a lot of the people as they got older and even the young ones, because some of them would be struck with this disease called Machado-Joseph Disease (MJD). It is a very crippling disease similar to Parkinson’s Disease. MJD affects only one clan group, the Lalara clan. Kathy and Bryan took great care of many people in their time. They are leaving the community when the MJD research centre is being set up by their daughter, who is wonderful woman too; she is taking on the role. I say thank you to the Massey family for your fantastic contribution to the people of Groote Eylandt. All your good work will be carried on by your daughter.
I will speak about my communities of Milingimbi and Ramingining. I was very pleased to be at Milingimbi just a couple of weeks before the election was called. Milingimbi was experiencing a great gathering of a lot of the clan groups from as far away as Yirrkala, Gapuwiyak, Elcho, Ramingining, and Maningrida. Many of them came for a very special ceremony of law about respecting law and about knowing who is related to who, and the relationships. This is a ceremony that happens very year. It is a very special ceremony. It is also a time for people to feel strong and proud.
The news of the Blue Mud Bay decision was received with great joy by all the people across Arnhem Land who are largely my constituents and, no doubt, by the people of the Arafura region, and the Daly region, as the waterline goes around.
I say to this House how wonderful it is for the people of the Arnhem region to feel so strong and to feel acknowledged and respected for the long history of culture and heritage there. I also give reassurance to this parliament that the strength of that decision is also about acknowledging the truth of this country and the history of the Aboriginal struggle. This decision by the High Court vindicates so much the strength of that culture, and that living culture today. I reassure the parliament and all colleagues here that the Aboriginal people of Arnhem Land will work to the best of their ability to ensure that this is about a path of walking together while at the same time it has to be about employment and the future business developments for the regions, where traditional owners and the sea country can provide an income for them and their children and those who wish to benefit from it.
Madam Deputy Speaker, on that note, I congratulate the people of Arnhem.
Ms CARNEY (Araluen): Madam Deputy Speaker, tonight I will talk about this can. I am very glad you are here, Attorney-General, because Consumer Affairs is covered by your portfolio and my shadow portfolio. I bought this can in Alice Springs, emptied it down the sink at home and brought it to parliament because I thought it was a can worthy of discussion in this parliament.
Someone pointed it out to me and I purchased it at Coles in the fridge near the checkouts for all to see. It is made by the Coca-Cola company - I tasted it; it is disgusting – and it is called ‘Mother’ which is not in and of itself an offensive term. In fact, the term ‘mother’ is commonly well understood by all of us. Everyone has or had a mother at some stage. ‘Mother’ is a great word. However, when we look more closely at this can we see that it is used in a manner which is sexist and offensive. I propose to read a couple of bits off this can. I cannot add the other word to ‘mother’ - it starts with an ‘f’ - it is an unparliamentary word. In the context of what is written on this can it is clear that this can of drink is not intended to be sold as nice warm and fuzzy mother; it is intended to be sold as the vulgar slang and the pejorative term mother ‘blank’. It says, ‘It’s a mother of a caffeine hit’. It says:
It also says, after declaring that it has a high caffeine content:
I think that is offensive. I am stunned that Coca-Cola was allowed to sell this in supermarkets in this country. For Coca-Cola to embark on what I regard as profoundly sexist language, not to mention a very clear reference to vulgar slang, I think is offensive and should not be allowed. I have done some searching on the Advertising Standards Bureau website and it does say, from the information I have been able to print off, that it is the appropriate authority to send a complaint to. There is a code of ethics. Section 2.1 of the Australian Association of National Advertisers Code of Ethics says:
It goes on to list a number of things, one of which is sex. There are also references on other parts of the website to pregnant women. I thought, in 2008, we had moved beyond putting on stuff that we can buy in supermarkets terms like, ‘up the duff’, and I am genuinely stunned.
I will look at how I can properly complain; I think I can do it online and I will do it. Can I urge others who share my views, and I am hopeful that 24 of my parliamentary colleagues will share my views about this particular can, to complain. I will not table this, and it is pretty hard to photocopy, but I will hand it around. It also says on the side, ‘mother of all energy kicks’. I think that is disgraceful. I searched the word ‘mother blank’ on my computer and was invited to go to places I did not want to go. There can be no doubt that the term ‘mother blank’ is an insulting one and in this day and age, although we know young people use it, I do not believe it is a term that adults should use and it certainly should not be put on cans of coke.
I appeal particularly to the women members of this parliament on both sides. to also complain because I feel certain that, particularly those with children, would not want their kids to see rubbish like this for sale as they are lining up at Coles.
I have made my point, Madam Deputy Speaker, and with those remarks I will hand this around for members to have a look at.
Mr WESTRA van HOLTHE (Katherine): Madam Deputy Speaker, although the subject of my first adjournment debate is a rather serious one it is a topic that is close to the hearts of many people in the Northern Territory, Australia, and across the globe.
Cancer is a major blight in our community. One in three men and one in four women in Australia will be directly affected by cancer in the first 75 years of life. It is estimated that in 2006 there were 106 000 new cases of cancer diagnosed in Australia. Of that figure, 60 600 were males and 45 400 were females. Cancer is the leading cause of premature death in Australia. In 2004, more than 38 000 Australians died from cancer. Lung cancer is the most common cause of cancer death in Australia, followed by colorectal cancer, cancer of unknown primary site, prostate cancer, and breast cancer. These five cancers caused more than half of all the deaths from cancer in 2004.
I acknowledge the victims, the families of the victims and other people who have been affected by all cancers, either directly or indirectly. I too have been indirectly touched by cancer, with the death five years ago of my father in-law, and the recent diagnosis of a dear friend of mine, Connie Swinstead, with terminal cancer that began in her lung and has now manifested itself in her brain. Connie and Dennis, my thoughts are with you, as I am sure the thoughts of your family and friends are also.
I do not seek to diminish the degree of tragedy caused by all forms of cancer. However, my contribution to this debate this evening will focus on the ravages of breast cancer. Generally over the last 20 years, the rate of incidence of breast cancer in Australian women has been increasing by 34%. However the mortality rate has been falling by around 21%. In 2004, breast cancer was the third most common form of cancer in Australia, with over 12 000 new cases, the most common cancer affecting Australian women. In 2005, breast cancer was the fifth most common most cause of cancer death in Australia with over 2500 deaths reported which was 7% of all cancer related deaths. It was the most common cause of cancer death in females with 2716 deaths, which represented a staggering 16% of all female deaths, and 17 men died from breast cancer in Australia in the same year.
Breast cancer is the most common invasive cancer diagnosed in females in Australia, and it is rare in males. It is an insidious killer; it has no respect for who you are or where you live. Although there is evidence to suggest the prevalence of breast cancer is high in certain socioeconomic groups, it really does not care if you earn $500 000 a year, or if you live on the poverty line. It can affect anyone, just about anytime. The number of new cases of breast cancer per annum increased from 5318 in 1983 to 12 027 in 2002, with more than 13 000 new cases in 2006, and the projection for the year 2011 is 14 800.
BreastScreen Australia public mammography screening program commenced in most states in 1991 and in others soon afterwards. Since then there has been very little change in the number of new cases of breast cancer per 100 000 people in women under 50 years of age, while in the age group 50 to 69 years there has been a considerable increase in incidence. There was also an increase in the 65- to 69-year-old group. Women living in the areas of highest urbanisation had significantly higher rates of breast cancer in 1998 to 2002. In major cities, there were 117 new cases of breast cancer per 100 000 people compared with the 114 in inner regional areas, 105 in outer regional areas, 101 in remote areas, and 94 in very remote areas.
Women living in higher socioeconomic status areas have a significantly higher incidence of breast cancer and women living in low socioeconomic status areas have a significantly lower incidence. In the 2000-02 period, women in the highest socioeconomic status quintile had an incidence rate of a 134 new cases of breast cancer per 100 000 population. This is significantly greater than the women in the second highest quintile which in turn was significantly greater than the rate of breast cancer experienced by women living in areas that fall into the remaining three quintiles of socioeconomic status. Women living in areas of low socioeconomic status quintile had an incident rate of 110 new cases per 100 000 population significantly lower than the rest of the population.
Breast cancer is the most common cancer experienced by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women but the incident rate is lower than for the non-Indigenous population. Despite lower incidence, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women had 9% higher rates of breast cancer mortality than the Australian female population as a whole, based on age standardised rates for the 2000-04 period for Queensland, Western Australia, South Australia, and Northern Territory registered deaths.
Breast cancer in males is rare. The number of new cases of breast cancer in males per year increased from 43 in 1983 to 84 in 2002. In terms of international comparison data on breast cancer in females, Australia had a higher age standardised incidence of breast cancer against developed countries of the world in 2002. However, Australia’s incidence was lower than that of the United States of America, New Zealand, United Kingdom, and Canada. Similarly, Australia had a higher age standardised rate of mortality from breast cancer than the more developed countries in the world in 2002. Sadly, in the 2001 National Health survey, 12.2% of women aged 50 to 59, 11.2% of those aged 60 to 69, and 27.9% of those aged 70 years and over reported that they have never had a mammogram.
On the upside, the number of women receiving mammography screening and BreastScreen Australia program has been steadily increasing. The goal of the BreastScreen Australia screening program is 70% participation rate by women aged 50 to 69 in a two year period. Although the figures are a little dated, the total expenditure on breast cancer was $241m in 2000-01. Of this $96m was spent on population screening mammography, $72m on hospital admitted patients, $21m on out of hospital medical costs, and $27m on pharmaceuticals requiring a prescription. In 2000-01 breast cancer had an estimated life time treatment cost of $11 897.
I shudder to think about the cost to the health system in more recent years. There are many organisations across the Territory and throughout Australia that provide assistance and support for breast cancer patients, recovered patients, and family and friends. To name just a few, the Cancer Council of Australia, the Cancer Councils of the various states and territories, together with organisations such as Dragons Abreast. To all these organisations I tip my hat. They provide the support directly and through fund raising to a degree that should be the envy of similar organisations of the developed world. Under their umbrella ordinary people do amazing things. All sorts of people volunteer their time and effort to raise funds for, and awareness of, this scourge.
On the face of it, it may seem callous to single out particular individuals when so many contribute so much to this very worthy cause, yet I intend to do just that. The reason for me following this course of action will become apparent later.
In Katherine, there are more than 20 women who are current breast cancer survivors. Like many more cancer survivors all over the world, this group of tough and determined women commit time and energy towards supporting, ultimately, the cause of finding a cure for this horrible disease. It is easy to understand why breast cancer survivors would want to fight for this cure. Simply, they do not want more women to go through the trauma, the pain, and the fear that they have already experienced. I applaud their efforts.
Then there is a group of people who have never experienced the horrors of cancer, yet they still commit themselves to support the breast cancer cause. This group of individuals are special people. They are selfless and caring individuals who manage to find the time out of their busy lives to run fundraising events and promote the cause towards an eventual cure.
Sometimes, life is not fair. Why is it that some of those caring and committed individuals, those who have no present vested interest in supporting the cause for a cancer cure, are struck down with the very disease they are fighting so hard to eradicate from the human landscape? It would be like a person whose life was committed to road safety and reducing road deaths being run over by a car. Unfortunately, it happens - probably all too frequently. Then what happens? We - that is you and I and staff of the parliament - virtually become a statistic. We become a statistic by entering into the group of people who know yet another cancer sufferer.
Recently, the electorate officer for the member for Katherine - that is my electorate officer - was diagnosed with breast cancer. Pat Witte has served both me and the former member for Katherine, Fay Miller. She is a tireless and devoted person who always has the interests of others at heart. Pat is one of those people who, up until now, has not had a direct vested interest in breast cancer. Despite this fact, Pat is one of those people whose selfless volunteer work has touched the lives of cancer sufferers and survivors - and she now joins those ranks. For example, Pat Witte was one of the instrumental few who organised the Big Pink Breakfast in Katherine in 2007. The breakfast was well attended and raised a significant sum of money donated to cancer research.
Last week, Pat underwent a surgical procedure and I am pleased to advise she is well. I know surgical procedures these days tend to be less invasive than in the past, and that recovery times have significantly improved. Pat’s surgery was nowhere near insignificant yet, less than 24 hours after the surgery, Pat was up and about and, except for the presence of a drain from the affected area, looked extremely fit and well. Three days later Pat was back in Katherine resting and, by all accounts, looking as well as she did before the procedure. I do not know too much about the finer details of the treatment of any cancer, but I do know that surgery is not always 100% successful in removing all the cancer. The process, as I understand it, is to have further tests after surgery to determine if there are any indicators of remaining cancer in lymph glands. From there, there is a determination made as to whether further treatment is required in the form of radiotherapy or chemotherapy. Sometimes, in the very best of circumstances, there is no further treatment required.
Today, Pat Witte, to her and to my delight, and I am sure the delight of all who know her, was advised that there appears to be no residual cancer. She is not out of the woods yet as she still must meet with her oncologist to determine if any further treatment is required.
Madam Deputy Speaker, I am sure all the members of the House share with me the desire to wish her well and a very speedy recovery. I must say that I am looking forward to Pat returning to work as soon as she is able.
Members: Hear, hear!
Dr BURNS (Johnston): Madam Deputy Speaker, it has been a privilege to meet many residents of Millner who have become part of the Johnston electorate.
When doorknocking along Ryland Road, Millner, I met Maree de la Cruz, a long-term Territory resident and was inspired by her family story. In particular, I will remember Ken de la Cruz, who passed away in December 2004 after living in the Territory for more than 40 years. He gave 38 of those years to public service.
Ken and his wife, Maree de la Cruz, moved into Millner in November 1967, no doubt, one of the first families to do so. Ken came to the Northern Territory from Innisfail, Queensland in the early 1960s and Maree from New South Wales in 1957. They met, married, and produced three wonderful children: Jody, Sven and Namin, who all attended Millner Preschool, Millner Primary School, and Nightcliff High School. Ken first worked as an orderly at the old Darwin Hospital at the end of Mitchell Street, and then with the public service for the next 38 years. Initially he commenced duty with the old Commonwealth Department of Construction, working in the road maintenance area. Prior to Cyclone Tracy, he worked as a tally clerk for the 2 Mile workshops in the electrical workshop and the water and sewerage section.
Although Maree and the children were evacuated after Cyclone Tracy, Ken stayed and worked with the water and sewerage section where there was a big job to be done getting services back up and running. His family returned to Darwin after the clean-up and moved back into their home in Millner.
Ken went on to work with the Soils Laboratory until transferring to FEPPI and the Department of Education in clerical positions. He was medically retired due to ill health in 1999. Ken was one of those amazing people who gave an enormous amount of time to voluntary work. He is well remembered for his involvement on committees over many years including the Darwin Amateur Boxing – he was an active member for 30 years and a life member; the Aboriginal Eye Health Committee; and, up until his passing, nearly 10 years on the Danila Dilba Health Board. He was also on the Darwin Rugby League judiciary for 19 years. He was a Commissioner for Oaths and then became a Justice of the Peace, a position he held for 26 years with honour and trust.
Not many people know this, and Maree has let me know this, but in the 1980s, Roger Steele asked Ken to stand for pre-selection for the CLP in Millner. Ken never had any ambition of becoming a member of government, but he decided to give it a go because Roger was so insistent. However, the selection committee decided on Shorty Robinson to run for the CLP. As history shows, the successfully elected member for Millner became Terry Smith for Labor, who served the Millner electorate for many years and was a very popular member. I am sure Ken, if he had been elected, would have been a very hard-working and popular member.
Maree also worked as a public servant for 20 years, mainly in the ministerial liaison areas of the Department of the Chief Minister and Community Development and Health. Maree retired from the public service in 2004. Given the family’s history of diabetes, Maree was involved as a member of the Diabetes Australia board for 15 years.
Being a true Territorian, fishing and camping were Ken’s passions. Ken passed away in December 2004. He was regarded by all those who knew him as a gentleman, a reserved man who always showed respect to people. His quiet nature and gentle manner endeared him to many from all walks of life. Ken and Maree were married for over 40 years. They have been blessed with two beautiful grandsons, Jayden and Zane. Maree and her two sons still reside in Millner in the same house they moved into in 1968. They still consider it the best suburb to live in.
I am enjoying meeting the people of Millner following the redistribution and election which made me their local member.
I mentioned that Maree and Ken’s children attended Millner Preschool and Millner Primary School. Millner Primary School will be celebrating its 40th birthday on 19 September with an International Indigenous Food Fair. This will be a great opportunity to see the memorabilia the school has collected during its past, and for present and past students to reunite and remember their school days. Thousands of students have passed through Millner, so it is going to be a fantastic occasion.
Another great event being held in the Johnston electorate shortly is the 2008 NT BMX Titles, which are being held at the Jingili BMX Club with pre-titles on Wednesday, 1 October and the titles on Friday, 3 and Saturday, 4 October. The titles are being sponsored by Bright Eyes Sunglasses of Darwin, as well as Ardverkas Concreters, Bikes to Fit, K9 Cycles, Danila Dilba and NT Electrical.
The committee running this event comprises: Brooke Ellison as the President; Vice President, Jai Mertin; Secretary and Canteen Manager, Jacquie Dobson; Public Officer, Jason Eecen; Treasurer, Helen Pitts; Race Registrar, Lisa Coon; and Riders Rep, Vanessa King. Unfortunately this year I am unable to attend the official opening due to an interstate commitment, so I will take this opportunity to wish the riders all the best with the titles and to congratulate the committee on all their hard work.
Members: Hear, hear!
Dr BURNS: Congratulations also go to a few students from Moil Primary School who recently excelled in their chosen sport.
In the Darwin Junior Football League, Jarod Luis was acknowledged for his participation in the Under 12s Dockers team; and Zac Luis and Sienna Bennett-Kellam were awarded the participation trophy in the Under 10s Dockers team. Braith Franklin, of the Mindil Aces Soccer Club, was awarded a certificate for outstanding effort and contribution. Ngaire Gahan came 2nd Overall Team and 3rd at the Bars in the recent Northern Territory Gymnastics Championships 2008.
I also congratulate Dylan Hage-Grey and Darren Brown, who I read about in the Wagaman Primary School Newsletter. The newsletter reported that the boys:
What a fantastic effort!
During the recent cluster Sports Carnival held at the Arafura Stadium, Sarah MacLachlan and Jakisa Bachu of Wagaman Primary were selected to compete at the Northern Territory Athletics Carnival as northern suburbs representatives. I wish Sarah and Jakisa all the best as they compete at athletics.
Returning to Millner Primary School, I take this opportunity to mention Mrs Margaret Moon, who until recently has been working as an ESL Teacher, or English as a Second Language Teacher, at Millner School with students from all cultural backgrounds. Every year during Education Week, which is 1 to 7 September, many schools celebrate their links to Asian culture with their communities. The importance of these celebrations is to acknowledge the rich cultural diversity of our communities and to nourish community harmony. Furthermore, engagement with Asia in our schools enhances students understanding of Asian cultures. Last week, all schools in the Northern Territory were encouraged to celebrate the types of Asian engagement they have in their school.
A new feature of this year’s Engaging with Asia Week was an encouragement award for a teacher who has contributed to embedding Asian studies into the school culture. Mrs Moon was announced as the winner of the ‘Asia in Schools Encouragement Award’ and I take this opportunity to congratulate her on this wonderful achievement which recognises all her hard work, enthusiasm in supporting students, and in helping the school deliver quality education about Asia. As Dr Terry Quong, the Principal of Millner Primary School said:
In acknowledging her award, Margaret believes it was made possible by the dynamic and caring staff at Millner Primary School, who work towards valuing diversity. This semester, Margaret has taken on a new position as the ERICUS project officer. ERICUS stands for Educating Remote Indigenous Children in Urban Settings. It is funded through Closing the Gap in the Department of Education and Training and seeks to improve educational outcomes for urban and remote Indigenous children. I wish Margaret all the best in a new and challenging role.
I thank the electors of Johnston for once again placing their faith in me. It was a different electorate for me this time. The redistribution meant that I had approximately 2000 new electors out of a total number of constituents of about 4750. I lost approximately 1500 people through the redistribution and gained around 2000. However, I make this commitment that I will continue to doorknock as I have over the past seven years, I will continue to meet my electors, and I will continue to be at the Rapid Creek Markets every Sunday between about 7 am and 12 pm. I value that opportunity. Anyone can talk to me about any issue whatsoever.
As a number of people have indicated recently, with the opening of this new Assembly of parliament, accessibility of local members is certainly a big factor and having a personal relationship with your constituents is very important.
I also congratulate Jo Sangster, my opponent, who did very well at the election. She secured a swing of approximately 7.3% on a two party preferred basis and I saw her as a high profile and talented candidate. I wish her all the best as she returns to Darwin City Council.
There was one pleasing thing for me in the results: I secured a swing to me from 55% in the primary vote up to 58%, but that 58% of primary votes is then attributed as two party preferred. This means that there was a swing of 7.3% against me in the electorate of Johnston and I have taken that message on board.
The Labor Party has undertaken to review the issues surrounding the election and we have to have a good honest look at them and we will follow a process. I undertake to represent all the constituents of Johnston. It is now a very diverse constituency which also takes in Millner and areas of Coconut Grove, including Litchfield Court, which is a Territory Housing complex. There are many issues and concerns regarding this complex and I can see that I have a lot of work to do. I have given the residents an undertaking that I will work hard on their behalf to address some of those issues that trouble them. I did not say I had a magic wand or that I would be able to fix those problems overnight, but I will work hard to address those issues, just as I will work hard to continue to work hard for the electors of Johnston. It is an honour to serve them again in this new Assembly.
Members: Hear, hear!
Motion agreed to; the Assembly adjourned.
PETITION
Palmerston – After Hours Bulkbilling Service
Palmerston – After Hours Bulkbilling Service
Mr MILLS (Blain): Madam Speaker, I present a petition from 567 petitioners praying that funding for after hours bulkbilling medical services in Palmerston are reinstated. The petition bears the Clerk’s certificate that it conforms with the requirements of standing orders. Madam Speaker, I move that the petition be read.
Motion agreed to; petition read.
- To the Honourable the Speaker and members of the Legislative Assembly of the Northern Territory,
- We the undersigned respectfully showeth the Northern Territory government no longer provides after hours bulkbilling medical services at the Farrar Medical Centre in Palmerston. Medical services in Palmerston have been reduced and there are insufficient after hours services for the community.
Your petitioners therefore humbly pray that we, the undersigned, ask the Minister for Health, Dr Chris Burns, MLA, to restore funding to this valuable community service. And your petitioners, as in duty bound, will ever pray.
STATEMENT BY SPEAKER
Conduct in the Chamber
Conduct in the Chamber
Madam SPEAKER: Honourable members, I would just like to remind particularly new members of two standing orders.
Standing Order 46 is about obeisance:
- Every Member shall make obeisance to the Chair when passing to or from his seat and on entering and leaving the Chamber.
Standing Order 65 is about members to be referred to by their electorate. For example, if you are referring to me in the Chamber you would call me ‘Madam Speaker’. If I am in my chair on the floor I would be called ‘the member for Nightcliff’. You cannot combine my names in any way. You cannot call me ‘Jane’ or ‘Jane Aagaard’ in any context. The only exception to this is you can refer to the Chief Minister or a minister by that title, or the Leader of the Opposition.
MINISTERIAL REPORTS
ADF Deployments from Robertson Barracks
ADF Deployments from Robertson Barracks
Mr HENDERSON (Chief Minister): Madam Speaker, I present a report to acknowledge the professionalism and commitment to service of the ADF personnel based with 1st Brigade at Robertson Barracks, who I helped farewell at a parade at Robertson Barracks on Monday. I wish them well during their deployments overseas on active duty.
This was a very special event also attended by a number of other dignitaries which included, the Administrator of the Northern Territory, Mr Tom Pauling, AO QC and Mrs Pauling; the Minister for Defence, the Honourable Joel Fitzgibbon, MP; the Minister for Defence, Science and Personnel, the Honourable Warren Snowden, MP; the Chief of the Defence Force, Air Chief Marshall Angus Houston, AC AFC; Commander 1st Division, Major General Richard Wilson, AM; Commander Northern Command, Air Commodore Ian Meyn, ADC; the local member for Solomon, Mr Damien Hale; the Leader of the Opposition, Mr Terry Mills; and His Worship, the Mayor of Palmerston, Mr Robert Macleod.
The ADF and its support agencies, such as Defence Housing Australia and the Defence Materiel Organisation, are major contributors to our economy. Of all the Australian permanent Defence Force personnel, 10% are based in the Northern Territory. The current Defence expenditure by the Commonwealth in the Territory totalled $1.08bn in 2006-07. However, aside from the expenditure that Defence contributes to our economy, Defence members and their families make significant contributions to our community in many ways. For instance, they are valuable members of our sporting communities and Defence partners are much valued employees within the private sector, the public sector, our academic institutions, and also local government.
The parade on Monday comprised over 1200 of the 1360 ADF members who will be deploying on operations with Security Detachment 14, Timor-Leste Battle Group 5, Force Communications Unit 1, Mentoring and Reconstruction Task Force 1, and Special Operations Task Group 8. The majority of those on parade were from 1st Brigade. I understand a few members from the Air Force, Navy and other units within the Army also participated. The parade was commanded by Brigadier Michael Krause, ADC, Commander 1st Brigade, who I was pleased to see attend the opening ceremony of the Legislative Assembly yesterday morning.
It is worth noting that in his address to the parade, the Chief of the Defence Force, Angus Houston remarked on this being the largest parade of ADF capability he had witnessed prior to active deployment. This really was something very special. To hear the Chief of our Defence Forces saying that this was the largest parade, outside of Anzac Day, that he has ever seen in one place, was quite special. The different contingents certainly made an impressive sight, filling all three roads around the parade ground. The farewell parade was conducted to provide an opportunity for members of 1st Brigade and the wider Army community to bid farewell to all the members deploying on active duty to operations in East Timor, Iraq and Afghanistan over forthcoming months.
At the conclusion of the parade, I had the opportunity to chat informally with many of the young men and women from the different contingents who are deploying. Some will be travelling to operate in more friendly places than others, but each theatre that they will operate in will carry a degree of risk and require a high state of readiness.
I found this an uplifting experience. The impression that I gathered on the day from those who I met is that they will be good ambassadors for Australia. They are confident, well-spoken young men and women who are well prepared for their deployment. They cannot wait to make a difference for the people in the countries to where they are deployed. They have worked hard in the lead-up training and are, obviously, dedicated to the duties they perform and to the country which they serve. I trust their efforts will contribute to making the world a safer and more peaceful place..
I hope members will join with me in doing two things: first we should wish them well for their mission, and hope that they return home safely to their families and loved ones at the conclusion of their tour of duty; and second, we should acknowledge the sacrifice made by the families and loved ones of those who will be left behind, and extend to them the special support that we can offer, because of our history and reputation of welcoming and accepting Defence as an integral part of our community.
Mr MILLS (Opposition Leader): Madam Speaker, I welcome the report. It was a very important parade and I was honoured, as Opposition Leader, to be there. It was also good to see the member for Nelson there as well.
It was a significant event to see so many troops standing disciplined, prepared, and ready to serve their country in the interests of bringing greater stability within the region and beyond to Afghanistan, Baghdad, and Timor-Leste. They deserve our full support.
To follow on from what the Chief Minister said, what we can do most practically is to extend our full support to the families who remain, particularly in Palmerston where many of those families live, and also across Darwin. The practical way in which we can show support for those families is to advance the agenda in here to strengthen law and order in our community, and to provide good health services for those families, so that they know that whilst their loved ones are serving in foreign places, they are in a strong and increasingly secure environment here. That would be the best thing we can do for those who and serve.
Mr WOOD (Nelson): Madam Speaker, I also welcome the report from the Chief Minister. There has been much discussion in the paper about whether soldiers are heroes. To some extent I think that is irrelevant. These are all young people going off to war. That is what we should be focusing on. Heroes may happen. These are all people who are going to war who could put their lives on the line for the country they are fighting in, and ultimately for our country. The safety of our country depends on a peaceful world, and that is exactly why our troops are going overseas. There is a certain amount of discussion which, I believe, actually hides the fact that these are very brave young men and women who are going off to defend, not only the country they are working in, but our country as well, and we should focus on that.
In my case, I have a young man who is going to Afghanistan in October. He is married to my niece, so I have some personal feelings about his future. He is going to a dangerous part of the world. I know that that does cause worry and anguish for his wife, Marie. Of course, that applies to all the families of those young people going overseas. We should certainly think of those people, not only the ones going overseas, but the families staying at home. They also have to bear the burden of the break in families, and they are worrying about their spouses overseas. That is something we should not forget as well.
We should also, as the Northern Territory, be very proud of these people. They are citizens of the Northern Territory. At times we call them AJs and are worried about them flying around in their cars. Well, they do that. They are young people. In the end, they are providing a very brave service for our country, and we should recognise that.
Mr HENDERSON (Chief Minister): Madam Speaker, I apologise to the member for Nelson. I should have acknowledged that the member for Nelson was there in the rollcall I put forward. This is really about acknowledging the service of these young men and women. In regard to the dispersal of Defence personnel right across Darwin, it is not just Palmerston. I saw some numbers the other day from Defence Housing Authority that show over 850 properties in the northern suburbs of Darwin. There is a fellow who lives three doors down the road from me who is being deployed to Afghanistan in October. His wife had a baby a few months ago. I was talking to him and his wife on Monday. Just put yourself in their shoes. Afghanistan is a very dangerous place. We had nine serving Australian soldiers injured only a week ago. The deaths that we have seen have occurred in Afghanistan. For those mums who are at home with children, every day is a tough day.
Madam SPEAKER: Chief Minister, your time has expired.
West MacDonnell Ranges – World Heritage Listing
Ms ANDERSON (Parks and Wildlife): Madam Speaker, I will update the House on progress towards having the West MacDonnell Ranges World Heritage listed.
During the 2005 election, this government promised to progress the nomination of this wonderful region to the World Heritage List as a matter of priority. By doing this, Labor marks an important departure from the hostility of previous Territory governments to World Heritage matters. It was a departure that clearly indicated a desire to work with the Australian government to put the best that the Territory has to offer on the world stage. As with our approach on joint management, Labor will work constructively with other parties to improve our great parks. World Heritage Listing does not come easy. It is a long process. However, like joint management, the benefits of drawing in greater expertise for managing and promoting the region are substantial.
To qualify for World Heritage listing, nominated priorities must have values that are understandable and universal. There are strict criteria and, understandably, the bar is set high. At the outset, I want to make it clear that while the Territory government is and will do everything it can to progress the World Heritage nomination, the decision rests with the Australian government and, ultimately with the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO).
Before the park can be World Heritage listed, it must first get National Heritage Listing. Also, the Australian government will only nominate priorities to UNESCO that are included on the Australian World Heritage Tentative List. These are two critical milestones, and we are working hard to achieve them.
In December 2007, the Territory government submitted a nomination to the Australian Heritage Council for National Heritage listing of the West MacDonnell’s. The Australian government considered 129 nominations and selected 13 for assessment on its 2008-09 work program. I am delighted to inform the House, that the assessment for the West MacDonnell Ranges was one of these. So we are well on the way.
Members: Hear, hear!
Ms ANDERSON: The Australian Heritage Council will now spend time assessing the merits of the nominations against their criteria. On receiving this good news, my department immediately lodged a nomination for inclusion on Australia’s World Heritage Tentative List. These milestones have been met on the back of hard work by the Parks and Wildlife Commission, which has commissioned and contributed to the preparation of a number of key reports, on both cultural and natural values, to support the nominations. Local and national experts have been used to get the best possible information in front of the Australian government.
These reports will be made available to all Territorians via my department’s website. I urge all members to take the opportunity to read them to find out just how special the West MacDonnell’s are.
Of course, the West MacDonnell’s are also my country - I do not take any convincing. The beautiful ranges include some of my favourite places such as, Palm Valley, Ellery Creek and Gosse Bluff (Tnorala). The broader area also includes some of my people’s most ancient and precious places, such as Puritjarra and Kulpi Mara rock shelters, and rock art complexes at Kulpi Mara and Irtikiri. While initial nominations focus on the West MacDonnell National Park, with landholder and community support, the World Heritage nomination could easily be expanded to include some of these additional areas.
I also believe that our prospects of World Heritage listing will be significantly enhanced by meaningful recognition and roles for traditional owners connected to the West MacDonnell National Park. Our case will be helped by the joint management arrangements that have been put in place by this government.
There are 16 estate groups within the park, and the Central Land Council Joint Management Officers have done an excellent job facilitating the formation of three planning groups to work with Parks and Wildlife Service staff on the joint management plan. These groups have met many times over the past 18 months and drafting of the joint management plan is currently under way.
While we are working towards World Heritage listing and joint management, Parks and Wildlife is already engaging traditional owners in work, training and business opportunities in the park. Flexible employment projects are providing traditional owners with opportunities to work with rangers on park management programs. Aboriginal organisations such as Ingkerreke Outstation Resource Centre and Tjuwanpa Outstation Resource Centre are becoming increasingly ‘contract-ready’.
Madam Speaker, for these and many other reasons, I congratulate the Commonwealth government for agreeing to assess the suitability of the West MacDonnell National Park for inclusion on the National Heritage List, and undertake to be active in pursuing the next milestone along the path to World Heritage listing.
Members: Hear, hear!
Mr CHANDLER (Brennan): Madam Speaker, I thank the minister for her report today. The Country Liberal Party created one of the finest park systems in the world, and that is why this government is able to do this today. The Country Liberals support World Heritage Listing for the West MacDonnell’s National Park.
Ms ANDERSON (Parks and Wildlife): Madam Speaker, I thank the opposition for positive engagement on promoting heritage listing.
National Child Protection Week
Ms McCARTHY (Children and Families): Madam Speaker, I am pleased to address this House as the new Minister for Children and Families during a very important week: National Child Protection Week.
This week is important in highlighting the need to better protect our children from abuse and neglect. This year’s theme for National Child Protection Week is Children See, Children Do - Make Your Influence Positive.
This theme is extremely important as it highlights the crucial part that role models play in the lives of children. Children mimic their role models; whether it is a parent, relative, teacher or sports coach. As role models, we need to consider the very real impact we have on a child’s life and ensure our impact on the youngest members of our society is a positive one.
During the week community events are taking place right across the Northern Territory, to highlight both child protection itself and the place of role models in the lives of children. I am pleased to be able to report to the House that event locations for Child Protection Week include Groote Eylandt, Katherine, Yipirinya, Yulara, Galiwinku, Batchelor, Bagot Community, Noonamah, Pigeon Hole, Maningrida, Minjilang, Alice Springs, Katherine and Darwin. Child Protection Week is truly a Territory-wide event.
I especially congratulate event organisers and participants on the events organised for this week. These events are crucial in highlighting the campaign’s theme while also ensuring that the prevention of child abuse and neglect remain paramount in our community.
During National Child Protection Week it is important to consider our own child protection and family support system. On 1 July this year, Family and Community Services was renamed as Northern Territory Children and Families. The new name is more reflective of the priorities of the division. Children and Families is part of the Department of Health and Families. Since 1 July, the division has already implemented a number of initiatives to improve child protection and family support services.
These include:
implementation of the Care and Protection of Children Act which promotes the wellbeing of children to protect them from harm and help them reach their full potential;
our Closing the Gap of Indigenous Disadvantage package makes a significant number of commitments and funding aimed at promoting the interests of Indigenous
children and families right across the Northern Territory;
the establishment of a Children’s Commissioner. I am pleased to say that Dr Howard Bath has been appointed the Children’s Commissioner. His role will be pivotal
in ensuring the safety of children and improving services for children. I look forward to working with him to improve the lives of children and families across the Northern
Territory;
the expansion of the Child Abuse Task Force which includes the establishment of a new unit in Central Australia. This task force brings the resources of police and child
protection workers together to ensure a collaborative and more effective working relationship between the two agencies; and
the recruitment of additional child protection workers.
Over the coming weeks I will be meeting people across the Territory, seeking their views to assist the government to develop fresh ideas to help protect our children. Supporting our families and protecting our children is a key priority of this government. As the minister responsible I will be working hard to ensure we do exactly that.
Members: Hear, hear!
Ms CARNEY (Araluen): Madam Speaker, I congratulate the minister on her first ministerial report in this important area. I wish you well. I worked well with your predecessor and I sincerely hope that we can have an equally good working relationship.
You may recall during Estimates in June I asked your predecessor to extend a briefing to me on the questions we did not get around to. She kindly said yes. Since the election I have liaised with your chief of staff to organise that briefing. I still want it. I think it is still very important. I ask the minister to expedite that. If it can be done during these sittings that would be most welcome.
I also thank you for the acknowledgement that you made at the breakfast. That was a great breakfast and to see so many highly motivated and very clever people in the same room is always a buzz but particularly uplifting given this area.
Nevertheless minister, you would be concerned, and as concerned as I am, by the report in The Australian last week, and I have not yet obtained the report, but I will. It was a story regarding a report from the Secretariat of the National Aboriginal and Islander Child Care, or SNAICC, which said that the Territory’s child protection system remained: ‘… seriously flawed with a chronic lack of capacity to deal with the issue …’ It went on to say: ‘… there was a culture within under-resourced childcare agencies in the Territory that if a child is living on the land they won’t go in and remove the child …’ The report went on and said: ‘… there had been no significant increase in notifications of abuse or removal of children despite an extensive focus on child abuse and neglect over the past year …’.
It went on and made some other damning comments in relation to the progress of child abuse in the Territory.
I ask you, minister, in your reply to comment on that and, perhaps we can have a debate about it.
Madam SPEAKER: Member for Araluen, your time has expired.
Ms McCARTHY (Children and Families): Madam Speaker, I thank the member for Araluen for her response. I hope to be able to work just as closely with her as my predecessor. Please be reassured that the briefing will occur. I can talk with you about that.
As soon as I read the article by SNAICC I attempted to speak and interact with them - and any organisation outside of government, be it the Commonwealth or the Territory - and have those relationships with them.
I am happy to give you a more detailed response regarding the issues raised in that report in the briefing. Regarding notifications there has been a difference between what the SNAICC article was about and what the department has. I am happy to speak about that with you in the briefing.
Proposed International Tour of Papunya Tula Material by MAGNT
Ms SCRYMGOUR (Arts and Museums): Madam Speaker, on 29 July 2008, I announced a commitment by this government of $300 000 over two years to be used for conservation work, artists and family consultation, and research needed to stage an international tour of the Papunya Tula boards held by the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, or MAGNT. The exhibition would open in Araluen, then travel interstate and to international venues, and finish at MAGNT.
As I said at the opening night of the Telstra Awards:
- These boards, some 220 pieces from the very earliest consignments from Papunya Tula are what the MAGNT is about—and what it can be in the future.
Upon completion of the conservation and other work, they will be able to seen by the general public for the first time in history. They represent an early vision of the Museum and Art Gallery from Dr Colin Jack-Hinton — our first director — who acquired these first works — the genesis of Western Desert art.
As we gather the works together, and exhibit them here in the Territory, across the nation, and internationally, they will represent what the MAGNT can become in the future: a leading arts and cultural institution.
It will take the beauty of early Papunya Tula to the world, and lay the foundations for our other holdings of Indigenous and other art to be exhibited in new and exciting ways.
Leading public galleries and experts on Papunya have been personally informed about this proposal. There is widespread enthusiasm for this project with offers of assistance and expertise. In carrying out the conservation work and research, staff at the MAGNT will meet groups and individuals with an interest and expertise in the Papunya art movement. These include the artists themselves; the National Gallery of Victoria; the Victorian Museum; the Art Gallery of New South Wales; the South Australian Art Gallery and Museum; the National Gallery of Australia; as well as scholars such as Vivienne Johnson, and Dick Kimber. These discussions have already commenced.
There are important sensitivities related to the public display or description of some of these early works due to their secret, sacred nature. These will be dealt with in full consultation with the Papunya artists and their families.
We are especially privileged in the Territory, thanks to the vision and foresight of Dr Colin Jack-Hinton, to be the custodians of this important collection. As minister, and personally, I feel a strong sense of duty towards this collection and its importance in the history of individual artists and the Western Desert art movement. This will be the first step towards making the legacy they have left to the world’s cultural and aesthetic heritage available to all.
Mr BOHLIN (Drysdale): Madam Speaker, I thank the Minister for Arts and Museums for that report. It is very enlightening to see the arts coming to the forefront of the people. Artwork such as that of the Papunya Tula people is important to the culture of the people of Central Australia.
Having spent some time in Central Australia, in Kintore, it is important. I have seen the artists doing their works and I look forward to seeing some of those artworks that have been previously hidden for some time - it is shameful. It is great to see there is going to be some conservation of those art works. I look forward to seeing that. process unfold in front of the people’s eyes, because that is what they were intended for. I look forward to assisting you with organisations such as Papunya Tula to ensure that this continues to be delivered for the people .
Ms SCRYMGOUR (Arts and Museums): Madam Speaker, I acknowledge and welcome the member for Drysdale’s input to the Arts portfolio. It is an important portfolio and I look forward to working with him. I also acknowledge my colleague, the member for Macdonnell, who is a very patriotic local member in this important area. We have many collections in MAGNT and we can become one of the world’s leading cultural institutions.
It is our government that has put that money, for the first time, towards the conservation and preservation work. I look forward to working with the member for Drysdale, and if you need information or briefings I will be happy to give those to you.
Reports noted pursuant to standing orders.
JUSTICE LEGISLATION AMENDMENT BILL
(Serial 3)
(Serial 3)
Bill presented and read a first time.
Dr BURNS (Justice and Attorney-General): Madam Speaker, I move that the bill be now read a second time.
The purpose of this bill is to amend various acts that fall within the Justice portfolio and to make a number of other consequential amendments. Acts amended in this bill include the Consumer Affairs and Fair Trading Act and the Professional Standards Act. The bill also contains amendments to the Powers of Attorney Act and Regulations and the Fines and Penalties (Recovery) Regulations.
I will detail the amendments in the order in which they are contained in the bill. The Consumer Affairs and Fair Trading Act is amended to include a provision to enable the minister to appoint a Deputy Commissioner of Consumer Affairs. The long title for the Consumer Affairs and Fair Trading Act sets out that the Consumer Affairs and Fair Trading Act is to provide for the appointment of Deputy Commissioners of Consumer Affairs. However, there are no substantive provisions in the Consumer Affairs and Fair Trading Act. This bill solves this problem by permitting the appointment of a Deputy Commissioner. Over time, this role will provide the Department of Justice with greater organisational flexibility.
The Powers of Attorney Act and Regulations are amended in this bill to ensure that the same administrative actions and registration safeguards apply to powers of attorney as apply to other instruments registered by the Registrar-General. The Powers of Attorney Act at present does not require any witness for a general power or revocation, except under section 6(4) where executed by direction. It further requires a witness for an enduring power of attorney, being a person who is not the donee of the power or a near relative of the donee, but not a qualified witness. The Powers of Attorney Act allows an instrument creating or revoking a power of attorney, or an instrument creating a power supporting a dealing in relation to land, must be registered.
Currently, powers of attorney need to be registered to enable any transaction signed under the Land Title Act and endorsed by the donee. The amendment ensures that the witnessing requirements are similar to those under the Registrar-General’s directions to make them consistent with other forms.
The amendment also provides that a power of attorney is to be witnessed by a ‘qualified witness’. This amendment is necessary, as a power of attorney is a powerful instrument which enables someone to act on another’s behalf, including to sell property, and should be treated equally to any transfer document which requires a qualified witness.
The bill defines ‘qualified witness’ in the same terms as persons listed in schedule 1 of the Land Title Act, namely in the Northern Territory:
a Commissioner for Oaths;
in a state, territory or place within Australia; and in a place outside Australia:
any person approved by the Registrar-General’s directions.
The amendments also require that the witnessing requirements are to match those under the Registrar-General’s directions to make them consistent with other forms.
Amendments are also made to the Professional Standards Act to avoid the unnecessary numbering of schemes as subordinate legislation.
The bill amends the Professional Standards Act to disapply to section 57 of the Interpretation Act. Section 57 of the Interpretation Act requires that subordinate legislation made in each calendar year is to be numbered in a regular arithmetical series, beginning with the number one, as close as possible to the order in which it is made. Additionally, that subordinate legislation may, without prejudice to any other method of citation, be cited by the number given to it and the calendar year in which it is made.
This bill ensures that professional standards schemes are not, and never have been, subordinate legislation for the purposes of the Interpretation Act. Further, they are not, and never have been, required to be published in the Gazette for the purposes of the Professional Standards Act.
The Fines and Penalties (Recovery) Regulations are amended to enable the Fines Recovery Unit to collect and enforce debts owed to the Northern Territory by persons pursuant to the Crimes Compensation Act, Crimes (Victims Assistance) Act and, in future, the Victims of Crime Assistance Act.
In order to reduce expenditure on Crimes Victims Assistance debt recovery and improve recovery rates, it was determined that two key changes to the recovery process were required.
First, since 2007, the Solicitor for the Northern Territory assumed conduct of all crimes victims assistance legal proceedings, including obtaining judgment debts against offenders. As a result the cost of recovery has reduced significantly from last financial year.
Second, it is envisaged that expenditure on crimes victims assistance recovery could be further reduced and rates of recovery could be improved, if the Fines Recovery Unit was given authority to collect and enforce crimes victims assistance debts. The result being that the Solicitor for the Northern Territory would no longer have to rely on private collection agents and would not incur the associated costs.
Given the Fines Recovery Unit’s core business is to collect fines and penalties owed to the Territory, it is arguably in the best position to also recover crimes victims assistance debts. As a government agency, the Fines Recovery Unit has access to information held by government which is essential to locating persons who owe money under the Crimes Compensation Act, Crimes (Victims Assistance) Act and, in future, the Victims of Crime Assistance Act and assessing their capacity to repay their Crimes Victims Assistance debts.
In addition, the Fines Recovery Unit has wide-ranging powers including suspending licences and vehicle registrations, seizing property and garnishee of wages or salary in order to enforce payment of the debts where necessary.
Madam Speaker, I commend the bill to honourable members and I also table a copy of the explanatory statement.
Ms CARNEY (Araluen): Almost word perfect from last time, minister. I move that the debate be adjourned. Can the minister confirm that it is the same bill as last time?
Dr BURNS (Justice and Attorney-General): To my knowledge, Madam Speaker, it is exactly the same bill.
Ms Carney: Thank you.
Debate adjourned.
CLASSIFICATION OF PUBLICATIONS, FILMS AND COMPUTER GAMES AMENDMENT BILL
(Serial 1)
(Serial 1)
Bill presented and read a first time.
Dr BURNS (Justice and Attorney-General): Madam Speaker, I move that the bill now be read a second time.
The main purpose of this bill is to make amendments to the Classification of Publications, Films and Computer Games Act consequential to amendments and proposed amendments by the Commonwealth to its Classification (Publications, Films and Computer Games) Act 1995.
A secondary purpose is to redraft all of the offence provisions, so that they become subject to the modern principles of criminal responsibility as contained in Part IIAA of the Criminal Code.
The bill also amends the act to simplify aspects of prosecutions. Finally, the bill removes an anomaly regarding children’s access to pornography.
Australia’s laws regarding censorship and classification of publications, films and computer games comprise three main elements.
The first is the Commonwealth’s Classification (Publications, Films and Computer Games) Act 1995. This act sets out the mechanisms for classification of materials. It provides for:
the establishment of the Classification Board, which classifies materials;
The second element comprises state and territory enforcement acts. The Northern Territory act is the Classification of Publications, Films and Computer Games Act. This act, together with its state equivalents, contains nearly all of the offence provisions relating to classification and censorship. Thus, whilst it is the Commonwealth law that establishes the censorship framework, it is state and territory law that actually determines what materials are lawful or unlawful in any particular jurisdiction.
The only significant exception to this framework is Part 10 of the Commonwealth act, which deals with the prohibition of possession of certain pornographic materials in areas prescribed under the Northern Territory National Emergency Response Act 2007.
The third element of the scheme is the classification code contained in the Schedule to the Commonwealth act when enacted in 1995 and as amended from time to time. The classification code provides the basis on which classification decisions are made. In many ways it is the core of the national scheme. It can only be amended by agreement of the Commonwealth and all the states and territories. On only one occasion has the Commonwealth enacted legislation that displaced the code in breach of the national agreement. That action occurred in 2007 when the former Commonwealth government enacted legislation relating to materials dealing with terrorism.
These three elements are regulated by an intergovernmental agreement. The classification code and the agreement can be found at websites for the Commonwealth Attorney-General’s department and the Classification Office. In accordance with the intergovernmental agreement, the Standing Committee of Attorneys-General (Censorship) or SCAG, has agreed to various amendments to the Commonwealth act and the consequential amendments to state and territory acts.
In 2007, the Commonwealth enacted the Classification (Publications, Films and Computer Games) Amendment Act 2007. The main purpose of this act was to reflect administrative changes made at the Commonwealth level. The legislation abolished the Office of Film and Literature Classification as a separate agency, and moved administrative and policy functions into the head offices of the Commonwealth Attorney-General’s department. There were also some rearrangements to the respective responsibilities of the Director of the Board and the Convenor of the Review Board.
These Commonwealth changes led to a need for minor amendments to Northern Territory legislation. These consequential amendments are as follows:
change the definition of ‘approved form’ so that it refers to forms approved by the Commonwealth minister under section 8A of the Commonwealth act.
The forms were previously approved by the Director;
changes that reflect the fact that the Convenor of the Review Board can now issue evidentiary certificates. Evidentiary certificates are used in court
proceedings, for instance, in the prosecution of contraventions of the Northern Territory act and are prima facie evidence of the matters stated in the
certificate; and
change the definition of ‘film’ to take into account the fact that films can now have add-on features, such as translations, and navigations. The effect of the
amendments is that such changes do not lead to a need for a reclassification of the film. Similarly, the amendments mean that there is no need for
reclassification if films are packaged as a compilation.
I will now deal with these amendments in more detail. The Northern Territory act defines the word ‘film’ by reference to the definition of that word in the Commonwealth act. The definition of ‘film’ in section 14A of the Commonwealth act has been amended so that it is clear that when previously classified films are brought together on a single device, the product does not require classification simply because of the fact of compilation.
The amendment is a response to changing technologies that ensure the regulatory burden to industry is not inadvertently increased. This bill makes the required consequential changes to the Northern Territory act. In particular, section 35 of the Northern Territory act currently makes it an offence to sell or publicly exhibit a classified film unless the film is sold or exhibited with the same title as that under which it was classified. Under section 35 if a number of already classified films were compiled onto one DVD, which was then marketed under a single named product, section 35 is, without the amendment in the bill, contravened.
New section 3AA of this bill incorporates section 14A of the Commonwealth act into the Northern Territory act in the same terms. It makes amendments to section 35 of the Northern Territory act to provide that the prohibition on selling or exhibiting a classified film other than that with the title under which it was classified is not contravened by the sale or public exhibiting of a classified film if it is contained on one device consisting of two or more classified films. The inclusion of the new section 3AA in the Northern Territory act, along with amendments to section 45, also ensure that section 45 of the Northern Territory act, which prohibits the sale of an unclassified film, is not breached by compilation of several classified films onto a single device.
Section 45 is also amended to take account of modifications referred to in section 21(2) of the Commonwealth act. The general rule in section 21(1) of the Commonwealth act is that if the classified film is modified it becomes unclassified when the modification is made. Section 21(2) of the Commonwealth act provides for certain exceptions to the rule so that declassification does not occur. Section 35 of the Northern Territory act prohibits the sale or public exhibition of a classified film unless it is sold or exhibited in the form in which it was classified.
Hence, a film that is modified other than in conformity with the exceptions in section 21(2) of the Commonwealth act cannot be sold or exhibited in the Northern Territory unless it is reclassified. The Commonwealth amending act amends section 21(2) so that adding subtitles, captions, dubbing and audio descriptions to an already classified film will not amount to a modification of the classified film that would require the film to be reclassified. Similarly, the addition of navigation aids that assist the viewer to move around a film will not require the film to be reclassified.
The Commonwealth amendment has highlighted the need to ensure that modifications that will not affect the classification status of the film, as set out in section 21(2) of the Commonwealth act, do not render the film unsaleable or unable to be publicly exhibited in the Northern Territory. Hence, the bill makes a consequential amendment to section 45 of the Northern Territory act to the effect that the sale or public exhibition of films modified in accordance with section 21(2) of the Commonwealth act are not unlawful in the Northern Territory.
The Northern Territory act, while primarily concerned with offence and enforcement matters, also provides some scope for organisations approved by the Director of the Classification Board to apply for an exemption from classification with respect to a specific film at a specific event.
However, there is less scope for an exemption that will permit a cultural institution to apply for a broad exemption relating to ongoing public exhibition of interactive multimedia exhibitions that incorporate changing, moving images, or selections from a back catalogue of archived moving images, which may not otherwise be exempt.
To accommodate the contemporary moving image exhibitions that are intrinsically unsuitable for classification and to facilitate the exhibition of archived film material, this bill provides a mechanism, similar to that act for organisations to carry on activities of an educational, cultural, or artistic nature approved by the Director of the Classifications Board. These amendments regarding moving image exhibitions follow on from amendments made to the Victorian legislation and agreed to by SCAG.
The Victorian amendments were designed to accommodate an exemption for the exhibition of contemporaneous interactive moving images and other films and computer games held by the Australian Centre for the Moving Image, a Victorian cultural institution. An amendment to the Commonwealth act to provide a power to exempt an organisation in relation to computer games was made to facilitate the amendment to the Victorian enforcement act. This Commonwealth amendment will also facilitate the making of exemptions under this proposed amendment to the Northern Territory act.
The amendments contained in new sections 96 to 100 of the Northern Territory act will enable approved Northern Territory cultural institutions to apply to the Director of the Classification Board or to the Northern Territory minister for an exemption from the classification scheme for the purpose of all or any of the institution’s activities or functions that relate to films or computer games.
This bill gives the Director some guidance as to the types of organisations that may be approved for the purpose of applying for an exemption. The reputation of the organisation in relation to film and computer games, and the conditions it intends to impose concerning the admission of people to exhibitions involving film or computer games are included in the matters the Director must have regard to in determining whether to approve an organisation. The Director is also required to give effect to any ministerial directions and guidelines in relation to approving an organisation under section 100.
In 2008, the Commonwealth introduced into parliament the Classification (Publications, Films and Computer Games) Amendment (Assessments and Advertising) Bill 2008. This bill was passed by the House of Representatives in March 2008 and expected to be passed by the Senate in June 2008. SCAG had previously agreed that states and territories should make amendments consequential to an earlier version of the bill introduced, but not passed, by the former Commonwealth government.
The 2008 Commonwealth bill provides for:
replacing the prohibition on advertising unclassified films and computer games with a new scheme that will allow advertising, subject to conditions set out in a new Commonwealth instrument; and
accompanied by a report that complies with the conditions set out in the new Commonwealth instrument.
Schedule 1 of the Commonwealth bill is part of a package of reforms involving amendments to state and territory legislation and to legislative instruments under the Classification Act. The proposal was developed in response to industry concerns that the current advertising arrangements were cumbersome and outdated.
The increasing risk of piracy means products are often available for classification only very close to their release date. The current prohibition, with limited exceptions only for public exhibition films, places unnecessary regulatory limitations on the marketing of classifiable products.
This bill enables a legislative instrument under the Commonwealth act to set out conditions on advertising unclassified films and computer games, and establish an industry-based, self-assessment scheme whereby the likely classification of an unclassified film or computer game is assessed by an authorised industry assessor for the purpose of advertising that film or game together with classified films or games before it is classified.
Schedule 2 of the Commonwealth bill enables an industry-based, self-assessment scheme to be established for films that are episodes of a television series and series-related material where that series has been broadcast in Australia. The proposal was developed in response to the increasing number of television series being released on video and DVD. Current arrangements for classification of such films are both expensive and time consuming.
The scheme will allow an application for classification of a box set of episodes of a television series to be accompanied by a report from an authorised assessor. The aim of this proposal is to streamline the classification process, respond to the changing technological environment for entertainment media, and reduce the cost to industry.
Quality assurance processes and safeguards are included in the scheme to ensure the ongoing integrity of the classification process.
These amendments led to the following consequential amendments to the Northern Territory act:
amend the provisions dealing with the advertising of unclassified films so that such advertising is regulated by an advertising scheme put in place under the
Commonwealth act rather than under the exemption scheme that has existed since 1995; and
The legislation also provides for the repeal and/or amendment of the 86 offence sections contained in the act. They have all been amended so as to conform to the modern principles of criminal responsibility as contained in Part IIAA of the Criminal Code.
The penalty provisions have also been modified so that they all rely on section 34DB of the Interpretation Act so that the penalty for a corporate offender is five times the monetary penalty specified for each of the offences.
During the enactment of the Northern Territory National Emergency Response Act 2007, members of the Senate noted an apparent anomaly in the provisions of the act to prohibit persons under 18 years of age from accessing pornography. Such persons are not permitted to access pornography in places open to the public.
However, in other situations, persons are excused from criminal liability if they are the parents or guardians of the child. That is, the legislation permits parents and guardians to allow their children in the home and other non-public places access to X 18+ films and category 1 and 2 publications. These provisions reflect the model bill developed by the Australian Law Reform Commission in the early 1990s.
They are also contained in the Australian Capital Territory’s Classification (Publications, Films and Computer Games) Enforcement Act 1995. No doubt these provisions reflect the view that there are some children, for example those aged 16 or 17, for whom responsible parents may correctly take the view that there is no problem in the child accessing pornography. However, the Little Children are Sacred Report does indicate that there are parents who may not be able to deal with this issue in a proper way. Accordingly, this bill will remove the various defences.
The bill also includes new section 115. This is designed to simplify the prosecution process by providing that the factual allegation of the classification status of a film, publication or computer game is evidence of that status. The new section is proposed for the purpose of avoiding the need for time consuming and expensive formal classifications and materials.
The final substantive amendment in the bill is that it provides that exemptions can be made by way of some regulation. SCAG is to consider later in 2008 proposals concerning research into pornographic materials. Such proposals may require exemptions. Current thinking is that exemptions of such a nature should be agreed to by ministers and reflected in regulations rather than exemptions given by ministers or by the national director.
The opportunity has also been taken to rationalise the numbering of provisions of the act and to make the necessary consequential amendments to other Northern Territory legislation.
Madam Speaker, I commend the bill to honourable members and table a copy of the explanatory statement.
Ms CARNEY (Araluen): Minister, not as word perfect as the last one, but not bad. Can you please confirm before I adjourn this that the bill is the same bill that you tabled on 12 June this year?
Dr BURNS (Justice and Attorney-General): As far as I am aware it is the same bill.
Debate adjourned.
CRIMINAL CODE AMENDMENT (HIT AND RUN AND OTHER ENDANGERMENT OFFENCES) BILL
(Serial 2)
(Serial 2)
Bill presented and read a first time.
Dr BURNS (Justice and Attorney-General): Madam Speaker, I move that the bill be now read a second time.
The purpose of this bill is to amend the Criminal Code in two key areas. First, it creates a specific ‘hit and run’ offence, providing substantial penalties for drivers who leave the scene of an accident in which a person has been killed or seriously injured. Second, it provides an offence targeted at those people who stupidly endanger drivers and passengers of vehicles by throwing objects like rocks at vehicles or shine laser pointers into vehicles.
The bill also provides an interpretation section which will go into Part IIAA of the Criminal Code. The reason for this interpretation section is to give effect to the way in which Parliamentary Counsel has drafted the offence provisions and make them clearer and easier to apply.
Recent incidents in both the Northern Territory and other states have highlighted the desirability of enacting a specific offence targeting drivers who leave the scene of an accident where someone has been killed or seriously injured and do not render assistance. Failing to stop in these circumstances is cowardly and falls too far short of what a humane society requires of its citizens.
The bill creates section 174FA of the Criminal Code which makes it an offence for a driver of a vehicle that is involved in an incident causing death or serious harm to another person, to fail to stop and give assistance in circumstances in which he or she knows or is reckless as to whether or not the vehicle has been involved in an incident and knows or is reckless as to whether or not the person has been killed or seriously harmed.
Where the incident results in death, the maximum penalty for failure to stop and render assistance is 10 years imprisonment. Where the incident results in serious harm, the maximum penalty is seven years imprisonment.
The penalties mirror those for dangerous driving causing death and dangerous driving causing serious harm. This is deliberate. It not only reflects that the abandonment of a person who is dead, dying or seriously injured deserves serious punishment, regardless of who is to blame for the accident, but also it importantly removes the incentive for those persons who think they might be charged with dangerous driving causing death or dangerous driving causing serious harm to escape from the scene. Specifically, it provides a strong deterrent against people who may choose to flee an accident scene to avoid a breath test.
Recent reports in the media have also highlighted the danger and stupidity of throwing things like rocks at a vehicle and of shining a laser beam at a vehicle. This government does not tolerate this sort of antisocial and potentially very dangerous behaviour.
There are, of course, already a number of offences in the Northern Territory which apply when someone throws an object and causes injury or damage - ranging from murder, manslaughter, causing serious harm to aggravated assault and criminal damage. There are also general endangerment offences in the Criminal Code which apply in situations where the act results in the danger or death or serious harm.
Most of these offences could also apply to directing a laser beam. Laser pointers are also ‘controlled weapons’ under the Weapons Control Act. Persons under 18 are prohibited from using or possessing a laser pointer and adults are also prohibited from using or possessing them unless they have a lawful excuse, which reflects the fact that there are legitimate uses for laser pointers. The maximum penalty under the Weapons Control Act is two years imprisonment.
There is, however, a gap in the law, particularly in relation to throwing things. The act of intentionally throwing something at a car where there is a potential to harm someone, is inadequately catered for in our current laws. If no injury or damage results, then under the endangerment offences in the Criminal Code the prosecution must prove that the act gave rise to the danger of death or serious harm and that the defendant was reckless as to those levels of danger. Depending on the particular scenario, it might not be possible to prove that there was a danger of death or serious harm or that the defendant was reckless as to those levels of danger.
Section 180A provides that the danger be only that of harm and the defendant be reckless as to the danger of harm. This is a much lower level of danger and it is consequently much easier to establish. It is a lesser offence than the other endangerment offences and this is reflected in the lower maximum penalty of four years imprisonment. However, the four year penalty demonstrates the seriousness of the offence will be a significant deterrent to those people who, reckless as to the fact that they could cause harm to the occupant of a vehicle, throw rocks or bottles or some other object at it.
Section 180A also applies specifically to directing laser pointers at vehicles or vessels. The government is of the view that the penalties under the Weapons Control Act, whilst adequate in many situations, do not adequately reflect the seriousness and dangerousness of shining laser beams into vehicles. That is why we have created a specific offence, section 180A, to target not only those people who endanger the occupants of vehicles by throwing things but also those who endanger them by shining laser beams at or into vehicles.
Madam Speaker, I commend the bill to honourable members and table a copy of the explanatory statement.
Ms CARNEY (Araluen): Madam Speaker, before adjourning the bill, can the minister confirm that the bill is the same one as that introduced on 11 June?
Dr BURNS (Justice and Attorney-General): Madam Speaker, as far as I am aware this bill is the same bill.
Debate adjourned.
ORDER OF BUSINESS
Notice No 1 – General Business – Sentencing Amendment (Violent Offences) Bill (Serial 4)
Notice No 1 – General Business – Sentencing Amendment (Violent Offences) Bill (Serial 4)
Mr MILLS (Opposition Leader): Madam Speaker, I see that the notice I gave …
Ms LAWRIE: A point of order, Madam Speaker! The Clerk was on his feet and it is Orders of the Day.
Madam SPEAKER: There is no point of order.
Members interjecting.
Madam SPEAKER: Order!
Mr MILLS: Madam Speaker, I noted the call that I received. I see that the notice I gave yesterday is listed on General Business.
Madam SPEAKER: In accordance with the routine of business, that would be where it would appear on the Notice Paper. It is, in fact, General Business.
Mr MILLS: Madam Speaker, I seek leave that General Business be now brought on.
Leave denied.
SUSPENSION OF STANDING ORDERS
Introduction of Bill - Sentencing Amendment (Violent Offences) Bill (Serial 4)
Introduction of Bill - Sentencing Amendment (Violent Offences) Bill (Serial 4)
Mr MILLS (Opposition Leader): Madam Speaker, I move that so much of standing orders be suspended as would prevent me from introducing a bill entitled Sentencing Amendment (Violent Offences) Bill 2008 (Serial 4).
The reason I seek this leave is to take government at their word. They pledged that they would listen to what the community had to say. What was most important was that if we conduct an election campaign on certain premises, the result of that campaign establishes a certain premise for our actions from that point on.
Law and order was a core issue and principally, the issue of violent assaults. The opportunities afforded the opposition are restricted, and we appreciate the opportunity that we have to bring business before the House. However, the way that is constructed - this being a core issue and one of direct concern to Territorians - it would be necessary and required of us to ensure that this matter is brought before the Chamber without delay.
If we follow the procedures that are established by this government, the opposition does not have the opportunity to bring this matter up until some time in October. This would mean that it is put on the table in October and discussed some time in March. Frankly, that is too late. It runs against the issues that were responded to by this government and by the opposition in the wash-up from the election. What was established was a concern about law and order, and the government’s response was that they would listen.
I am surprised that government has not taken the opportunity to act. We are required to act and bring a bill forward immediately. We need to be serious about these matters. We are not playing games in here. This is way beyond politics. Our community spoke very clearly. If we are going to take the opportunities and the responsibility that we have, we need to bring it on. If government will not bring it on, it is the obligation of the opposition to bring it on.
Therefore, I ask honourable members to acknowledge what the community has said. Bear in mind the maiden speeches that were made yesterday, which said you were going to listen to the community and you were going to serve their best interests - not the best interests of your party. The community made it absolutely clear that they want action to deal with violent offenders. Here is an opportunity to respond to that immediately. The government has not taken that opportunity. We acknowledge that there are certain matters which have been brought before the House which were stood over from before the last session. We are happy to allow these matters to be attended to because we see them as important.
The community has already established what is important in their mind. Hence, the result that we see in this Chamber. So, what do we do? Sit here and follow due process? I think it is a coward who hides behind process. We need to look at and recognise what the community wants - they want to see action; they want to see change. If the government has failed to do that, it is our obligation to do so. Therefore, I request support for bringing this matter before the House.
Ms LAWRIE (Leader of Government Business): Madam Speaker, the Leader of the Opposition is simply grandstanding.
Members interjecting.
Madam SPEAKER: Order!
Ms LAWRIE: Listen to the rabble; they are already a rabble. We listen …
Ms Carney: You are already just the same as you were before the election.
Mr Mills: Disingenuous.
Madam SPEAKER: Order!
Ms LAWRIE: They crank up straightaway. We listened to what the Leader of the Opposition had to say in his argument regarding removing the practices of this Assembly which have been in place, not just under this government, but since the Legislative Assembly was formed. Since the Legislative Assembly …
Mr Elferink: We just did it for you on three bills. You just set aside process for him.
Madam SPEAKER: Order!
Ms LAWRIE: … was formed, it has been the practice of the opposition to deal with its legislation on General Business Day. It is arrogance in the extreme for the Leader of the Opposition to come in here today and say: ’We have legislation; you are not bringing yours on’. We issued a media release on the weekend, clearly stating …
Members interjecting.
Ms LAWRIE:… on the public record …
Mr Mills: Government by media release!
Ms LAWRIE: They cannot help themselves. They are so arrogant that they will not allow members to stand in this Chamber and speak without constant interjections.
The government issued a media release about the parliamentary program of sittings and the legislation that we would be bringing forward. We raised our sentencing legislation, and our legislation dealing with violent offenders. We flagged that publicly, therefore flagging it to the opposition, that that is absolutely a priority of this sittings for this government.
This sittings we will deliver legislation on our election commitments. We do not need the Leader of the Opposition in here grandstanding and flapping around this morning to do what is actually the business of government. We will proceed with the business of government. We have the Orders of the Day before us. There is no urgency in what the Leader of the Opposition argued. This legislation goes to General Business Day, as has been the practice of the Legislative Assembly since the Assembly was formed.
Madam Speaker, I move that the question be now put.
The Assembly divided:
- Ayes, 13 Noes, 12
Mrs Aagaard Mr Bohlin
Ms Anderson Ms Carney
Dr Burns Mr Chandler
Mr Gunner Mr Conlan
Mr Hampton Mr Elferink
Mr Henderson Mr Giles
Mr Knight Mr Mills
Ms Lawrie Ms Purick
Mr McCarthy Mr Styles
Ms McCarthy Mr Tollner
Ms Scrymgour Mr Westra van Holthe
Mr Vatskalis Mr Wood
Ms Walker
Motion agreed to.
Madam SPEAKER: The question as put by the Leader of the Opposition that so much of standing orders be suspended as would prevent him from introducing a bill is now put.
Motion negatived.
ADDRESS-IN-REPLY
Continued from 9 September 2008.
Mr HENDERSON (Chief Minister): Madam Speaker, on 9 August the people of the Territory gave Labor a mandate for government for a third term. I am tremendously heartened by the trust placed in my colleagues and me to lead the Territory through this very exciting period of our history.
It was a close and hard fought election. I congratulate all new members on their election to this House. It is indeed a great privilege for us all. It was an election with a clear message for my government; messages that we are listening to and will act on.
I am privileged to lead a government which reflects the breadth of the Territory community - from our remote communities in the bush to the city. This gives us the capacity to hear the voices of all Territorians. We have ministers born in the deserts and arid lands of Central Australia and Tennant Creek. We have a Deputy Chief Minister born in the saltwater country of the Top End. We have ministers representing pastoral and regional lands and ministers, including myself, reflective of the Darwin community. We have ministers and members who come from both the private and non-government sectors, and the public sector, from the shop floor to management. Due to that diversity, our government is open to the ideas and opinions of Territorians from all walks of life. We will use this diversity to hear all the voices of our community to discuss fresh ideas about governing the Northern Territory.
The first demonstration of this has been the government’s decision to create a Department of Regional Development, Primary Industry, Fisheries and Resources with a strong regional focus. This department will have its leadership based in Alice Springs. Our government will ensure that for other departments, decision-making …
Members interjecting.
Dr BURNS: A point of order, Madam Speaker! Some of the new members should familiarise themselves with standing orders, particularly Standing Order 51 about no interruption. They should be showing some courtesy to the Chief Minister in relation to this. Some of them should know better.
Members interjecting.
Madam SPEAKER: Member for Fong Lim and member for Greatorex, when the Speaker is speaking, you are to be silent.
I will remind honourable members of Standing Order 51:
- No Member may converse aloud or make any noise or disturbance which in the opinion of the Speaker is designed to interrupt or has the effect of interrupting a Member speaking.
Mr HENDERSON: Our government will ensure that, for other departments, decision-making power is provided to the regions so that local planning can provide for true local outcomes. Nobody better knows how a community runs than those who live there. I have asked my Chief Executive to present to Cabinet by year’s end a program for increasing regional decision-making from each agency.
During the course of the election my government made a number of commitments that we would undertake if returned to office. Each and every one of those commitments will be fulfilled. I have already had each commitment confirmed by Cabinet and each minister has received a copy of the promises in their portfolios. In addition, every agency affected has received these commitments as part of their working program. I am announcing today that the government will be reporting against commitments directly to this House twice a year in the June and November sittings.
Over the next four years I will lead a government that will engage our community with fresh ideas - delivering real results for Territorians. It is true that the Territory is experiencing growing pains. That is the price of success and rapidly expanding economic growth. The Australian Bureau of Statistics released statistics last week that increased the growth forecast of the Northern Territory to lead the nation at 7.9% - an extraordinary result. It is a significantly expanding economy and it is a challenge that we are up for. We must act now to address these growing pains so we can successfully harvest the opportunities that this growth provides for us all.
Over the coming weeks, the government will be announcing a significant change in the way we engage Territorians and deliver results for Territorians. My colleagues and I believe it is time for us to re-evaluate the way we work as a government with our public sector to plan and develop the Territory and deliver services for Territorians. I look forward to speaking further on these issues in the future.
I announce today the significant increase in the government’s focus on planning for the Territory’s growth and delivering coordinated services of growing Territory needs. Today, I am announcing we are strengthening the public service in these vital areas to ensure the best possible planning advice is acted upon as we grow.
We will establish the Territory Growth Planning Unit, in the Department of the Chief Minister, which will be responsible for coordinating action and forward planning across the whole of government. The unit will have the necessary human resources to provide the best possible advice to government. I expect that the unit will contain demographers, economists, planners and other relevant professionals. It will provide government with the tools and advice it needs to make decisions about the direction of growth on behalf of Territorians.
Of course, we will not wait for this unit to be put in place before making some critical decisions. Work is already under way on a growth planning model for Darwin, Palmerston, and the Litchfield area. This economic model will be a vital tool in assisting us to decide issues such as land turn-off and consequent future service and infrastructure needs.
On Monday, the Minister for Planning and Infrastructure published the next stage of land release for the Darwin and Palmerston areas. Later today, my colleague will be announcing the preferred tenderer for the release of land at Bellamack. Next week, she will be advising this House of land release plans right across the Northern Territory. These plans will see a major increase in the release of land, especially in 2010 and 2011 onwards. To achieve this, the government will bring forward many millions of dollars worth of infrastructure expenditure on headworks and other essential services.
I am pleased to announce that the government will also develop and implement a Territory housing plan. This plan is based on the premise that every Territorian who wants to, should be able to buy or rent a house at an affordable limit. These plans will not be focused on the Palmerston and Darwin areas alone. Projects defining and shaping the growth of Katherine, Tennant Creek, Nhulunbuy, and Alice Springs will also occur.
Unlike the spectre of rural decline faced in so many parts of Australia, towns in the bush are growing. By 2023, Wadeye will have a greater population than present day Nhulunbuy. By that date the number of Aboriginal population centres with more than 2000 people is likely to be eight or nine times the current number and there will be at least three over the 3000 population mark. Planning for their future will also be an important part of our program delivering real results for Territorians.
My government will ensure that the remote transport plan is established. This plan will provide for the short- to long-term needs of public transport in the bush. It will also include a regional aviation strategy.
This Labor government has grown the economic pie of the Territory considerably. We will continue to do so. Our challenge is twofold. We need to continue to grow the Territory both economically and socially, and we need to ensure that all Territorians share in the growth and benefits. That is why my government will increase its efforts to keep the economy growing, attracting business and projects to the Territory. We will continue to support local, small, and medium businesses to grow and develop.
Honourable members are fully aware of my government’s commitment to bring INPEX to Darwin. We began our efforts 12 months ago with a small chance that this project could come our way. Today, we have a strong chance of securing the largest infrastructure project in the Territory’s history. I made winning this project the centrepiece of my commitment to the electorate in the recent election. I intend to work hard to be successful in this venture.
Immediately prior to the government entering caretaker mode, we finalised an agreement with Jetstar to build an international aviation hub in Darwin. This is an exciting project that will deliver immediate and long-term benefits to Territorians. We are also working with resource companies to develop significant mining projects right cross the Territory. We have recently announced major project status for the development of a common-user facility in Tennant Creek.
A challenge to our economic expansion remains the provision of labour. I am proud of the efforts of successive Labor governments to train Territorians as participants in our workforce. We are widely recognised as undertaking one of the most extensive per capita training efforts in the nation. However, more has to be done as the demand for labour is increasing.
A Workforce Growth Unit will be established in the Department of Business and Employment expanding the work already undertaken. It will coordinate the government’s efforts to attract people to live and work in the Territory. I expect it to be constantly knocking on the door of our interstate and near neighbours and to be seeking workers, both skilled and unskilled, from further afield. To ensure this unit addresses regional needs offices will be based in Katherine and Alice Springs.
My government is determined that Indigenous Territorians will be the beneficiaries of accelerated growth and social development. The centrepiece of our efforts will be Closing the Gap of Indigenous Disadvantage. This is the largest social spending program of its kind in the Territory’s history. It has the aim of ensuring that by 2027 every baby born in the Territory has the same opportunity to excel and to be best they can be.
We are targeting child protection, education, health, housing, jobs, policing and community safety. In 12 months much has been achieved. We have introduced the Care and Protection of Children Act, appointed a Children’s Commissioner, and created an additional 18 child protection worker positions. We have expanded the workforce in our sexual assault referral centres, increased the penalties for trafficking drugs to remote communities from five to nine years, and strengthened alcohol laws. New schools are being built. New police stations are in place. In partnership with the Commonwealth, we are embarking on the biggest housing program since self-government. It starts rolling out in earnest in the coming year in Tennant Creek.
The Deputy Chief Minister is delivering a centrepiece education project called Transforming Indigenous Education. This project will provide Indigenous people with the tools to engage in education and participate in the Territory’s growth and development.
In addition to the work planned under Closing the Gap, the government will also provide a more robust employment strategy for Indigenous Territorians. This will involve employment within both the public and private sectors. We will create regional job hubs in Tennant Creek and Nhulunbuy with a strong emphasis on Indigenous employment, and we will ensure that Ti Tree economic growth has major project status. We will work actively to link Indigenous workers to the booming resource and construction industries.
I reject the accusations that have been made regarding the Territory government’s use of Indigenous funding. This government is the only government in the nation that has undertaken a thorough review of its expenditure and determined how we are spending the money we have received. We have independent verification of that work. My government will defend our position, at any time and in any place, against these blatantly political and scurrilous accusations. I am astounded at the breathtaking hypocrisy of our opponents who for 27 years starved Indigenous communities of the funds they needed to become part of the mainstream of the Northern Territory. Any investigation of expenditure must include an examination of the backlog of the deficit that we inherited in 2001. I am happy to be subject to such scrutiny and I expect that the Territory and federal governments before us should be subject to the same scrutiny in their efforts.
I believe that the Territory is a ‘can do, go ahead’ place, but I do not support growth at the expense of our environment. I believe we are uniquely placed to use the cutting edge of modern technology to allow us to have both growth and strong environmental values and outcomes. The Territory possesses internationally significant biodiversity. I am pleased to advise the House that over the next term of government it is our intention to bolster our national parks and wilderness areas with a new way of environmental protection – the creation of eco-links.
Eco-links will bring together all types of landholders in the Territory - from Indigenous traditional owners to pastoralists, from federal, Territory and local governments to freehold property owners - in a common effort to support our biodiversity. The Arafura to Alice EcoLink will be a priority of my government. We will continue to support our world-leading, joint-management approach to national parks, despite the opposition of those who have a narrow vision about the way this Territory should be run. We will ensure that joint ownership translates into an employment future for Indigenous Territorians.
We will also participate in the efforts of the national government to change the way we tackle climate change as a nation. In February 2009, we will release the Territory’s climate change policy through our dedicated Office of Climate Change. As part of the government’s response to climate change, we will be upgrading all government buildings to appropriate energy efficiency standards. We will also ensure that the NT Fleet is 20% green within five years. We will continue the moratorium on clearing in the Daly region. Science, not emotion, will guide our decisions on the future development in this area.
The government will continue its efforts to make our Territory safe. Living in safety is a right. I will defend that right. Labor governments have vigorously resourced our police force. Since 2001, we have recruited an additional 240 police. We are now committing to a further 82 police and 12 police auxiliaries over the next four years. We are undertaking a major exercise in lifting the police presence in the community. With our Safer Streets program, we are introducing police beats at Territory shopping centres in Alice Springs, Palmerston, Casuarina, Karama, and Parap. We will also place CCTV in a number of shopping centres across Darwin and Palmerston. Two weeks ago, I announced an additional $1.1m for CCTV in the Alice Springs CBD and a grant of up $200 000 a year to assist in monitoring costs.
However, community safety is not solely a police issue. Our policing will link with new approaches to tackling juvenile crime, with the introduction of Family Responsibility Agreements on the one hand, and the funding of youth rehabilitation camps on the other. Both of these initiatives have the aim of punishing those who break the law, but also work on repairing one of the fundamental causes of crime - family breakdown.
The effects of alcohol drive much of the crime and family breakdown experienced in our community. We will continue our efforts to reduce the alarming levels of alcohol consumed in the Territory through community-based planning. It will not be easy. I am fully aware of the resentment some people, who drink sensibly, feel when restrictions are placed on them. We will seek a balance. The balance for this government will be measured by increased community safety. We must defeat the scourge of alcoholism that blights so many Territory lives, together with the violence that so often accompanies grog abuse.
I have made it clear that men and women who commit serious and unprovoked acts of violence will go to gaol. In a similar way, domestic and family violence is a community problem and therefore needs a community response. In recognition of this, the Territory government has committed $15m over four years to support the introduction of universal mandatory reporting of domestic and family violence. The Northern Territory government remains committed to finding effective solutions to domestic and family violence within our community and to promoting the safety and health of families.
Increasing population and economic growth brings with it an increased demand for services. Through years of record budgets we have lifted the resources available to tackle remote Indigenous health and education outcomes. I believe we are slowly starting to see positive outcomes from these resources, with improved life expectancy and improved treatment of illness. We are also making headway in providing Indigenous students with improved literacy and numeracy, through programs such as the National Accelerated Literacy Program, which we have pioneered. However, we have much more to do.
We will also be looking closely at the service needs of our fastest growing communities: Palmerston and the rural areas. Together with the Commonwealth government, we will deliver a super clinic for the area and we will improve ambulance services. The Health Minister will also undertake a broader look at the emerging needs of the area over the long term. We will continue our efforts to provide a broader range of specialist services in the Territory. We have expanded these services dramatically over the last seven years and we will continue that expansion.
Like the community at large, the government has been frustrated by the stop/start efforts to deliver oncology services. These highly specialised services are hard to attract to the Northern Territory. However, we have persisted and are now delivering. Work is now under way on building the necessary infrastructure at Royal Darwin Hospital.
We will also begin the implementation of a 10-year $45m cardiac health plan which will bring high quality care to thousands of Territorians. This will include specialists, specialist equipment and upgrades at Alice Springs and Royal Darwin Hospitals in this critical area of health care.
I am proud of the program of extensive reform and renewal that this Labor government has embarked on in the delivery of education to Territorians, and it has not stopped. We want to transform education in the Territory so each and every one of our students is getting the best education in the country. Over the next four years, we will embark on the largest investment in schools and education infrastructure in the Territory’s history. This historic program, $246m, will go to upgrades for 85 primary, middle and senior schools across the Territory.
I am also particularly proud to announce today that, in our third term, the government will focus a major effort on improving early childhood education. Planning for this is already under way and details will be announced in the future. This plan will contain the commitment we made during the Territory election to the Families as First Teachers program. This program will develop an education culture from the birth of children through to their start at school. The lack of a developed education culture is at the root of most problems in remote education - resulting in poor attendance.
As His Honour, the Administrator said, we have a unique lifestyle here in the Territory. A lifestyle that is freer, more outward looking and characterised by a willingness to ‘give it a go’. These are values that are increasingly rare in other places.
My government will continue to support and enhance that approach to life. We will support the recreational fishers of the Territory. We will continue to expand sporting opportunities across the Territory and we will support the natural creativity of Territorians, as they express themselves through art and performance.
Most importantly, I will commit myself and my government to providing a cohesive, multiculturally diverse Territory, where the rights of all and the rights of our Territory collectively, are recognised and respected. To that end, I will work with federal government, Indigenous landholders and fishermen, both recreational and professional, to implement a practical plan for implementing the decision of the High Court regarding Blue Mud Bay.
I turn to the important issue of governance of the Territory. Over the next four years, my government will work with all Territorians to progress the transition to statehood. We are committed to statehood. However, we will not do it in the divisive way it was attempted in the past - an act that set back the process many years.
To demonstrate our desire to provide a more mature governance structure I will be introducing fixed four year terms before the end of this year.
I will also be introducing, before the end of the year, a code of conduct for all parliamentarians to demonstrate to the community that we take their trust in us seriously. I will also be introducing an increased disclosure of interests of members of the Legislative Assembly.
Madam Speaker, over seven years of office we have changed the political landscape for the better. Those seven years have brought profound change and have laid the groundwork for fresh ideas for a future that will be exciting and challenging for the Northern Territory. Those fresh ideas will set the course for the next four years and beyond, as we deliver results for the Territory and for Territorians.
Ms CARNEY (Araluen): Congratulations, Madam Speaker, on your re-election as the Speaker of this Chamber, one that is supported by the opposition.
I will spend my contribution today talking briefly about the election in Araluen, then go back to where the Country Liberal Party was three years ago, and then talking about the government.
In relation to my election in Araluen, I was very humbled and absolutely honoured by the vote. I think the two party preferred vote in my electorate was close to 75%. I was genuinely humbled by that and was in a state of shock for several days. It was a good election campaign. We all get better at things as we get older and election campaigns are no exception.
I have many people to thank. I have already thanked them in a number of ways. However, there are two people who I would particularly like to place on the Parliamentary Record. First, Dee Davies, who was my campaign manager. We worked well and efficiently together, as we always do, as she went over and above her call of duty. Second, Michael Jones, who happens to be in the Chamber, which is something of a coincidence, and I am thrilled that you are, Michael. Thank you. We could not have done it without you. I could not have done it without you. Thank you very much indeed.
To the voters of Araluen - I have already written to my constituents thanking them and thanking those who voted for me for the first time. I said to those in my electorate that, regardless of how people voted, I will be their loyal and faithful servant and will continue to represent them and advocate for their needs and wishes.
However, it is worth noting how people voted in my electorate on polling day. I have traditionally managed to attract some Labor voters. This election was considerably different. I had Labor voters almost lining up saying to me: ‘I have never voted Liberal in my life, I am going to vote for you’. Two reasons were articulated. The first was they thought I was a good local member and that they should, in their words, ‘give me another spin’. Second, they were sick and tired of government.
That is a problem for a political party – every political party experiences it over the years. However, when your ‘rusted on voters’ jump to the other side, as they did when the CLP lost government in 2001, you know you have a problem. If you do the sums, members opposite will appreciate how many of Labor’s ‘rusted on voters’ jumped ship. I am very grateful to them. I said to them that their vote means twice as much. You have to work twice as hard for a Labor person’s vote. I have seen some of those Labor voters since the election and they said: ‘We are sick and tired of the government. We wanted to send a message’. I have said to them: ‘Let us hope that the Labor government performs so well in Alice Springs that we can have them voting Labor again at the next election’.
So there is a broader dimension to this. Let us hope, for the sake of the town in which I live and for the sake of my constituents, that Labor does considerably better over the next four years than it has over the last seven and, in particular, over the last three.
Thank you to everyone. I am sure other speakers will talk about their election experiences. I also congratulate members on both sides who are newly elected. This can be at times a very strange occupation, but it is invariably a very enjoyable one. I hope that it is enjoyable and very interesting for you all.
On 29 June 2005, I stood in this place as an Opposition Leader, a leader of what I thought was, and it is probably true, the smallest opposition in the southern hemisphere. To be an opposition of four is pretty bad. To be an Opposition Leader of four was almost beyond description. However, I said at the time in the Address-in-Reply some things that I thought might be useful to quote back. It is somewhat self-indulgent to quote oneself back, but the comments are noteworthy and it should be done in any event.
I said on 30 June:
- Much has been said and written about the future of my party, the CLP, as a result of this election. Those doomsayers who suggest that it is the end of the road for the CLP have no regard to history, do not have a thorough understanding of the present and need to open their minds as to the possibilities of the future. I remind Territorians and members of the Assembly that, on this day four years ago, the CLP held 18 seats in parliament, and Labor held seven. This was only four years ago, and today’s seating in the Chamber shows how quickly and dramatically things can change in the Northern Territory.
I went on to say:
- We have small, volatile electorates with a highly transient population; it demonstrates that, at each election, anything is possible.
This opposition, although few in number, knows that every seat is gettable at the next election. We know that politics is the art of the possible. We know that governments get sloppy and arrogant. We know that we will enjoy the challenges before us and that we will capably identify and exploit the opportunities that are presented to us.
I then went on to say:
- All Territorians, regardless of how they voted, have, I suggest, an expectation that an opposition party, whatever its political colour, provides them with an effective opposition; democracy demands an effective opposition. Territorians deserve and expect their government to be kept accountable, given that all governments are so notoriously bad at doing it themselves.
It is somewhat prophetic in the sense that I do not think it was widely anticipated that Labor would lose as many seats as they did. However, I think each and every one of us, in a personal sense, as well as in terms of our political parties, can never lose sight of the fact that anything can happen.
People say to me I have a safe seat. I reject that completely. In 2001, I won the seat of Araluen by 134 votes two party preferred. People say that Alice Springs is a CLP town. I remind members that in 2005 Richard Lim won his seat by about 100 or so votes. There is no such thing as a safe seat in the Northern Territory. As parliamentarians we can work even harder if we are motivated by not losing our seat. The people whom we represent get a better outcome if they see their politicians working as hard as they possibly can.
I would now like to raise some matters about the government. I suspect they will not like it; if they do not they can always leave. The result in Alice Springs was considerable in terms of the backlash against government. What was terribly interesting was that when Clare Martin was Chief Minister and we had the parliamentary sittings in April 2007, she did deserve what she got. No one enjoys standing up and being booed, but Clare did deserve what she got. However, Clare was not alone. It was the government, as a whole, that copped the anger and frustration of the mainstream people in Alice Springs. These were not the usual suspects; many of these people had never been to a demonstration in their lives before.
Government did do some interesting backflips along the way. Regarding CCTV cameras, the minister did a response to a petition some months prior to going to Alice Springs saying: ‘No, no, no, we are not going to have CCTV cameras’. As a result of the demonstration, during the sittings, he said: ‘Okay, we will give you CCTV cameras’. We kept saying: It is not enough; and we will agree to differ in that respect. However, whilst we did see government moving somewhat, the people of Alice Springs were not getting enough. We tried consistently, both in and out of this Chamber, to tell those opposite that things in Alice Springs were not good and that bold corrective action was required. Unfortunately for Alice Springs - it was ultimately demonstrated in the election results - those opposite were too arrogant and too proud to say: ‘Yes, you are right. We need to do better in Alice Springs’.
Many things happened during the last term, but I note with great interest a media release issued by the members for Macdonnell and Stuart and the then member for Central Australia, Elliot McAdam.
I note with interest that the members for Macdonnell and Stuart were not good enough to put on the footy team prior to the election we just had, when government had the numbers. However, now that they have considerably fewer on their team, suddenly the members for Stuart and Macdonnell are suddenly good enough to have as ministers. That is a matter for the government, I suspect.
However, the members for Macdonnell and Stuart now ministers, declare their undying love and affection for the people of Alice Springs since 9 August.
In a media release dated 21 February 2007, they really got stuck into me as a result of an adjournment debate I made the night before about issues in Alice Springs and how government needed to act. This is February 2007. You were in Alice Springs in April 2007. Some people say that government members were shocked by what they saw outside the convention centre. You should not have been. It was not as though you were not on notice. Anyway, out came this caustic media release saying that the members for Macdonnell and Stuart had expressed their disappointment in Ms Carney’s ongoing attacks on the Central Australian capital. I was Opposition Leader then. They said: ‘The Opposition Leader continues to talk down Alice Springs, her own community’. Where do you people get off? I would not expect to see another media release like this …
Ms LAWRIE: A point of order, Madam Speaker! The Opposition Whip knows to address the Chair.
Madam SPEAKER: There is no point of order, but if you could direct your comments through the Chair, thank you.
Ms CARNEY: Thank you, Madam Speaker. I ask the question again: where do they get off? This was a dreadful media release and I was pleased to see it did not get any oxygen. The member for Macdonnell described some of my comments as diatribe, and that they were unwelcome. Then the member for Stuart said, and I quote: ‘The Martin government is about action, not words’.
Members interjecting.
Ms CARNEY: I do not think so! I have a sneaking suspicion that about 75% of people in my electorate did not think so either.
I will talk about the Office for Central Australia. When Labor came to office in 2001, they were fresh, energised, and were much better than they are now. In my view the Office for Central Australia was not performing at its best under the CLP. Labor took a fresh approach to the Office for Central Australia - recently it changed its name to the Chief Minister’s Office - and we were invited to the opening of the office where they gave out a document I kept this copy as I tend to keep interesting things. It says:
- The Office for Central Australia has been established by the Northern Territory government to provide a vital link between the Central Australian community and the government. We have been charged with ensuring that Central Australian issues and needs are incorporated into government policies and programs.
Fantastic, I thought. It continues:
- The office reports to the Chief Minister and to her representative in Central Australia, the Minister for Central Australia. We liaise directly with all ministerial officers on particular issues. In this way, we can ensure the most direct access to government.
I implore you to take yourselves back to what you wanted to achieve in 2001 for the place I live. You wanted to do better. You wanted to deliver services. You wanted to be fair dinkum. You wanted to ensure that, the voices, wishes, and aspirations of the people on the ground were heard by people in this building who have the power to change their lives. You do not have that anymore in the office now described as the Office for the Chief Minister.
There are many reasons why you do not have it. My Labor opponent in the election, Mr John Gaynor said, remarkably in my view, on one of the brochures he issued that he had been in charge of the Chief Minister’s Office in Alice Springs for three years. In other words since the last election.
I played on that. I said: ‘This man has been in charge of the Chief Minister’s Office in Alice Springs for three years’. Do you know why I did that? It made people think - he is the one. He is part of the reason that the message is not getting through. He is not communicating properly or the ministers here are not listening; maybe it is a combination of both. He did a media interview in which he said: ‘I communicate with all the ministers and they are well briefed on the issues of Alice Springs’. Really? He said: ‘I think Alice Springs has done pretty well under the Labor government’. Really? ‘We have made commitments and delivered them’. Really? ‘We are doing our best’. I say, it is not good enough. I put on my flyer, ‘You just cannot believe Labor, and you just cannot believe the Labor candidate for Araluen’, and ‘Put Labor last; they put you last’.
If you want to have an office in Alice Springs that represents the ministers that does not operate very well at all, then that suits us politically. However, there are things beyond politics. I want better outcomes for the town where I live. I want the Labor Party to go back to where they were in 2001, when they set up the Office for Central Australia. I want it to work well. I want it to assist in the delivery of services. I commend this document. I am happy to give it to members. There must be many documents in the government’s offices that give a bit more background to the Office for Central Australia. I implore you to do better with that office.
Regarding the Chief Minister: polling was released this week – I gather this is CLP polling - which said that the Chief Minister was nowhere near as popular as his predecessor, and that he had pretty high unfavourability. That does not surprise me. I think his judgment has over the years, been invariably terrible. His judgment in regard to calling the election and giving the reasons why we needed an election amounted to being almost embarrassing. It does say a lot about his judgment. He was the one who promoted Len Kiely and Matt Bonson, people who should never have been promoted to the ministry. Someone said yesterday they understood that the Chief Minister has since indicated perhaps that was a mistake. Too right that was a mistake. From memory we had a bit to say about it at the time.
No surprises that the Chief Minister’s judgment has been called into question in an election when he made - in my view and the view of others - so many bad judgment calls. I thought it was outrageous, and I could be wrong here, but there was an article in the NT News a couple of weeks ago about Clare Martin. It had the appearance of maybe someone on the fifth floor having a word to a friendly journalist and saying: Gee a scapegoat would be good, let us blame Clare.
The days are long gone where women have to take responsibility for the appalling behaviour of men. I appreciate that while the Chief Minister was scrambling and so desperate, the member for Karama was very keen to become Chief Minister. We will watch that issue with interest.
The Chief Minister’s judgment has been highly suspect over the years, but particularly since he became Chief Minister. Clare Martin would not have gone to an election when the bloke you mob voted in last November did. Clare Martin would not have bolted when Hendo did. Clare Martin would not have called an election on the back of the Country Liberals advertising about law and order. We had just finished a two week advertising campaign. Just after that your Chief Minister says, let us have an election. His reason was INPEX. Even people in Araluen who regarded themselves as relatively unaffected by INPEX, were saying, why are we going to an election because of this gas plant? Clare Martin would have starved the CLP of funds. She would have let us do our advertising and spend our money. Then she would have struck in about March or June 2009. He is your boss. You voted for him. Well good luck to you all. You deserve him.
We look forward to a very busy four years. My electorate and I expect to see much better outcomes rather than just words from the ministers in this government. They do expect to see some action. I will be acting on their behalf and pursuing government members relentlessly to ensure that better results are achieved for Alice Springs.
Members: Hear, hear!
Debate suspended.
VISITORS
Madam SPEAKER: Honourable members, I draw your attention to the presence in the Speaker’s Gallery of Mr Patrick Secker MP, federal member for Barker in South Australia, and his wife, Mrs Sharon Secker. On behalf of all honourable members I extend to you a very warm welcome.
Members: Hear, hear!
Madam SPEAKER: Honourable members, I also draw your attention to the presence in the gallery of Mrs Vicki O’Halloran, Chief Executive Officer of Somerville Community Services, together with nine managers from Somerville Community Services. On behalf of all honourable members I extend to you a very warm welcome.
Members: Hear, hear!
Madam SPEAKER: Honourable members, I draw your attention to other visitors here as part of the Parliamentary Education Program. On behalf of all honourable members I extend to you a very warm welcome.
Members: Hear, hear!
SUSPENSION OF STANDING ORDERS
Proposed Censure of Minister for Health
Proposed Censure of Minister for Health
Mr CONLAN (Greatorex): Madam Speaker, I move that so much of standing orders be suspended as would prevent this House from censuring the Minister for Health for his gross incompetence and mismanagement of the Territory …
Ms LAWRIE: Madam Speaker, we will take the censure.
Madam SPEAKER: The government has indicated it will take the censure motion.
Ms LAWRIE: A point of order, Madam Speaker! We have indicated we will take the censure motion. I take it we are now moving directly to the censure motion; therefore, Question Time has ended. I ask that members place further questions on the Written Question Paper.
Ms Carney: So you do not want the censure motion recorded by the cameras.
Mr Elferink: Do we switch the cameras off now?
Madam SPEAKER: The cameras go. It is part of our standing orders. Members of the media, please stop the filming at this point. Take the cameras out please. Please continue, member for Greatorex.
MOTION
Proposed Censure of the Minister for HealthMr CONLAN (Greatorex): Madam Speaker, I move that the Minister for Health be censured for:
(a) his gross incompetence and mismanagement of the Territory Health system which led to the unnecessary death of Mrs Margaret Winter;
I will now run through those points of the motion. The minister stands condemned here today for his incompetence and for misleading this parliament and Territorians. He stands condemned as a weak and hopeless minister who takes no responsibility for his actions or for the death of Mrs Margaret Winter. He stands condemned for allowing systemic failures in our health system, particularly those systemic failures at the Royal Darwin Hospital. He stands condemned because he knew of the nursing staffing crisis at the Royal Darwin Hospital and did absolutely nothing.
He stood here in Question Time today and weaselled his way around the important and direct line of questioning put to him by the opposition. He failed to answer any questions. He did the same last year when the then shadow minister for Health, my predecessor, the member for Greatorex, asked him questions relating to staffing issues at Royal Darwin Hospital. I will get to the point about what the minister knew later. However, it begs the question. Back then the minister was hiding the truth about nursing numbers at the Royal Darwin Hospital and, unfortunately, it took a public coronial inquest to find the truth.
I move to the nursing staffing crisis. The Coroner’s Report states that:
- Nursing staffing deficiencies on 13 December 2006 contributed to both the fall and the failure to do observations.
The Coroner found:
- … the total number of nurses on duty were too low’.
The Coroner had to call in an expert on nursing numbers to give evidence, given the failure of the department to cooperate to determine the adequacy of nursing staff. It is interesting that the minister has become so enlightened about nursing staff numbers he has now employed the very expert used by the Coroner to implement one of the recommendations, an expert known to Health Department officials for some time.
The expert is Professor Christine Duffield from the University of Technology. She gave evidence that, on the night in question in 2006, there should have been 25 nurses to 33 patients in Ward 4A. On that night, Ward 4A had only 18 nurses – that is seven short. We could get bogged down just looking at the systemic failures that occurred that evening. However, that evening is just a reflection of the long-term failure by the minister and the department to deal with the nursing staffing crisis. As the coronial inquest pointed out, this is a snapshot of the Territory health system at Royal Darwin Hospital. It is not a one-off.
This crisis started well before Mrs Winter’s preventable death. The crisis started when the minister, the government and his Health Department started putting their own bottom line over the care of patients in our hospitals. We have two Executive Directors of Nursing, Marie Hughes and Professor Di Brown. They were both saying, before and after the event, that the crisis was harming patients.
The Northern Territory Branch of the Nursing Federation is saying that the safety and wellbeing of patients and nurses are being put at risk because of this crisis. The General Manager of the Royal Darwin Hospital as quoted in the Coroner’s Report states:
- RDH is inadequately staffed by nurses to meet patient needs. To compensate for this, nursing staff are being asked to work increasing amounts of overtime and agency staff are used extensively. Despite this, many of the wards are still understaffed and the skill mix is poor. For example, in the roster period beginning February 8 there were over 1100 unfilled shifts, and as many as 55 shifts a day staffed through overtime or agency employment.
I now move to accountability and knowledge of the minister. One of the most appalling events in this whole sorry saga is the minister’s unwillingness to accept any responsibility for the nursing staffing crisis at Royal Darwin Hospital. The minister has said it is his responsibility to provide adequate resourcing. The Coroner notes that:
- In 2006-07 there was no additional money for nurses for general medical wards (apart from indexation) …
How is this adequate resourcing, given you admit there was a nursing staffing crisis?
The minister is a coward - hiding behind the coat-tails of his bureaucrats. People are dying at our hospitals and the minister fails to take responsibility for this situation and the situation that may develop in the future.
The minister is a coward who is happy to put out press releases about good news. However, when the bad news comes apparently it is not your responsibility. You are either a mushroom, an incompetent, or a liar. I am not sure which one. One thing is certain - the Minister for Health knows he will not take responsibility for things that go wrong. He will not provide the necessary resources, leadership or policy framework.
I repeat – the minister is a coward. I have made up my mind. Members on this side of the House have all made up our minds. He has been caught out. His own annual report says he is at the top of the administrative tree - circled right at the top is the minister. There is the whole principle of the Westminster system - something this minister has failed to grasp. A system of government which clearly says a minister bears ultimate responsibility for the actions of their ministry or their department. We can put this aside - the facts speak for themselves.
When he was appointed Minister for Health in August 2006, he had a briefing from his department. He met with senior staff, no doubt inquiring about the running of the Royal Darwin Hospital. Minister, you have given this place every indication that you meet regularly with the department and senior management staff. How could you not know what was happening in your very own back yard?
I quote from the Parliamentary Record on 11 October 2007 where you say:
- Since becoming Health Minister, I have actively worked with the department and senior management team at RDH …’
Minister, are you telling this parliament and the Territory public that in all the meetings with your department and the senior management team at Royal Darwin Hospital, they have never raised with you their concerns about nursing staffing levels? They have never raised with you any of those concerns with you about staffing levels at RDH.
Ms Carney: They rang us. They rang us remember?
Ms LAWRIE: A point of order, Madam Speaker! I know it is a censure and therefore we put up with the accusations bandied around. However, for the member for Araluen to yet again shout across the Chamber at the minister is against standing orders. Also, the member for Greatorex should be referring to the Chair.
Ms CARNEY: Speaking to the point of order, Madam Speaker. As the Leader of Government Business presumably knows, there is a considerable amount of latitude allowed in censures. The extension of what she is saying is that we sit in silence during a censure. That would be unprecedented.
Madam SPEAKER: Honourable members, while I am not expecting silence during a censure, I should be so lucky, it would be good if I could hear. Member for Greatorex, please continue.
Ms SCRYMGOUR: A point of order, Madam Speaker! Can you please ask the member for Greatorex - I understand about latitude and the excitement that gets generated from the other side when they think they are on to something - to direct his comments to you as the Chair?
Mr CONLAN: Certainly, Madam Speaker. Was the minister telling this parliament and the Territory public that in all the meetings he said he had with his department and senior management team at RDH, they never raised with him concerns about: staffing levels at RDH; the skills mix; the recruitment freeze policy; and the fact that his government’s under funding at Royal Darwin Hospital had created a nursing staffing crisis at the hospital which had endangered the lives of patients and killed one 64-year-old woman in 2006?
Was it his duty of care as Health Minister, when he knew about the staffing crisis and what was causing it - chronic under funding at Royal Darwin Hospital - to do something? He says that resourcing was his responsibility - yet he did nothing.
The Coroner notes that in 2006 and 2007 there was no additional money for nurses for general medical wards, apart from indexation. That is inadequate resourcing, as quoted by the Coroner. He did nothing in the face of concerns raised by senior staff at the hospital that said the government’s policies were putting patients’ lives at risk. I expect the minister will get up and say: ‘It was recruitment difficulties that led to the staffing crisis at Royal Darwin Hospital’. The Coroner also points out that there were approximately 60 nursing applications sitting on the desk that went unanswered.
Minister, the Coroner says you were wrong. We say that you are wrong. I list some of the real reasons: the decision by your government to place a recruitment freeze on nurses at the Royal Darwin Hospital; the minister’s failure to implement an accurate measure of staffing; the minister’s complete contempt to consider patient needs over the government’s own bottom line; and his failure to listen to nurses working at the hospital and their union representation.
In his comments the other day to the media, the minister said that policy setting was also his responsibility. The Coroner found that three policy decisions caused the nursing crisis. So if policy setting is the minister’s responsibility and the Coroner has found that three policy decisions had caused the nursing crisis at Royal Darwin Hospital, surely that falls back onto the minister. You do not set all the policy, just some policy. The policy gets your name in lights. However, does it meet the needs of Territorians? Is the minister going to tell us he is the Minister for Health on some things like publicity and spruiking the party line - but when things do not go quite right like the very serious situation that we are now facing at Royal Darwin Hospital, in the wake of this Coroner’s report that he is not the Minister for Health, but some other shadowy figure that sits behind a highly paid, hard-working taxpayer job?
I turn now to the attitude to the death of Mrs Winter. A woman has died, under very suspicious circumstances, at the Royal Darwin Hospital. You would think that such an event would, at the very least, trigger an internal review. We would like to see an external review. It took the pleading of a nurse at the hospital to the General Manager for an investigation to take place. It is absolutely appalling and shocking.
In addition, when the Coroner presented the brief to the department that alleged the death was directly related to an imposed reduction in nursing staff, the minister was concerned that he and his department would be seen in a bad light so he and his department prepared two reports to protect their backsides.
The timing of the news flash to the minister and the comments of the Coroner all show the minister and his department rushing to protect themselves and hide from the truth. This is an appalling situation. It is a shameful situation that the minister can treat such a death with contempt.
Ms LAWRIE: A point of order, Madam Speaker! I know this is a censure, but it is absolutely disgusting for the member for Greatorex to allege that the minister is treating a death, a tragic death, with contempt. He clearly has not.
Madam SPEAKER: There is no point of order. It is a Censure Motion.
Mr CONLAN: Thank you, Madam Speaker. As the Coroner says they were both ordered in preparation for the inquest rather than in response to her death. Can you believe that? The reports were ordered in preparation for the inquest, not as a result of the death of Mrs Margaret Winter in 2006. It is appalling. It strikes right to the heart of the minister who is taking no responsibility for the death of Mrs Winter.
Two reports to the Coroner were effectively shot down in flames - reports that try to hide the truth. It was the minister and his department allowing a nursing staffing crisis to build at the Royal Darwin Hospital which led to the death of Mrs Margaret Winter.
Territorians should be appalled. I am sure they are appalled. We on this side of the House are appalled by this and question whether the minister is really up to doing his job. Counsellor Kelvin Currie for the department conceded:
- That the response of the Royal Darwin Hospital and of the Department to the death was deficient.
Counsellor Currie stated, as reported by the Coroner:
- That there should have been a (Root Cause Analysis) which would’ve provided an immediate analysis at the ward and medical level, and attempt to ensure that all systems were operating appropriately.
It is an appalling situation. It again questions whether the Health Minister of the Northern Territory is up to doing the job.
The minister’s attitude to the inquest has set an example for his bureaucrats. It is appalling that the Coroner not only found systemic failures within the health system but the arrogance towards the Coroner’s inquest process. Coronial inquiries are a hearing of the court into the circumstances of a death - very simple. The department seemed to treat it like it was preparing for a chook raffle. The Coroner could not even decide whether some of the information was deliberately misleading or whether the bureaucrats even knew what they were talking about.
Information requested by the Coroner was either incorrect, inaccurate or misleading. Counsel for the department conceded that the department’s preparation for this inquest was, late, under-resourced, and in general, not particularly well prepared. When asked in the inquest for the methodology used to determine staffing numbers, the then Assistant Secretary of Acute Health said: ‘Um, um’.
The Coroner requested information from the department in the lead-up to the inquest which included a request for the basis on which the Royal Darwin Hospital is currently staffing their wards; the current situation for obtaining additional staff for a shift if the team leader thinks they are required; and the methodology to set nursing FTEs from 2005 to the present. He said: ‘We did not receive information in writing on any of these points’.
This is not the first time that the department has taken a cavalier attitude to formal investigations. As reported in the Northern Territory News yesterday, the Ombudsman accused the Health department and the Royal Darwin Hospital of providing misleading reports to the Health and Community Service Complaints Commission investigating the fall of a patient at Royal Darwin Hospital. Only five days before when the Coroner found similar action, the head of the Health department said: ‘Um, it is a one-off’. This does not appear to be a one-off, but a pattern, as highlighted by the Coroner. This is a snapshot of the situation at the Royal Darwin Hospital. This is a pattern that is trying to hide from the truth, and trying to hide from Territorians. What hand has the minister had in this? Perhaps we will never know.
I turn to the response after the Coroner’s report. There were a few glib lines and some comments about doing something, but nothing is really going to change. I will provide a case in point. In the minister’s media release on 5 September 2008, he said:
- I have directed the department to implement, without delay, the Nursing Hours per Patient Day staffing model, as recommended by the Coroner.
It is interesting that he finds he has responsibility for staffing issues. Does this not contradict with his statement to the media earlier that day that the department has responsibility for operational matters? Clearly, there is a contradiction. He has just remembered what is his responsibility. Is this a case of convenience to, as they say ‘privatise the gains and socialise the losses’ or make the positive announcements and run when the proverbial hits the fan?
I return to the original point about nursing hours per patient day staffing models. The minister did not say in his media release that he and the Labor government had already agreed to implement this model some 12 months ago. The model could have been implemented back in 2005 when the report was first prepared for the Territory. It takes the death of a woman for the minister to finally suggest he is going to do something. This could have prevented the death of Mrs Margaret Winter. The Australian Nursing Federation has been pushing for the introduction of the methodology for many years. The former Assistant Secretary, Mr Campos, commissioned a report into Northern Territory Nursing Workload Review in 2005. The Acute Care Services Nursing Hours per Patient Day Project Report 2007, recommended the implementation of a staffing framework. The minister’s department then commissioned a review of the review of the report titled, ‘Review of Nursing Hours per Patient Day’. The minister had also agreed to introduce the model in the previous EBA with nurses.
Despite the minister’s press release, there are still doubts about whether that model will be introduced. Only a week before the commencement of the inquest, the department had agreed to benchmark the model for a 12 month period. As the Coroner notes, this appears to be an agreement to measure the current staffing levels against the nursing hours per patient day model. However, there is no agreement to put on nursing staff to remedy the deficiencies identified.
On 27 August, in the Nursing Federation Fact Sheet 7/2008, the department was still talking about validating the model. When are we going to see this? What will it take? The most damning comment on this issue comes from the Coroner when he says that:
- … the introduction of an evidence based staffing methodology is long overdue and is essential if Royal Darwin Hospital is to provide a safe environment for patients.
It does not get much clearer than that.
The Coroner also says:
The Department’s persistence in ignoring the recommendations of its own reports, and its’ own industrial agreement, in relation to the implementation of an evidence based methodology means the RDH is still setting nursing numbers without sufficient reference to the evidence in relation to the numbers required for safe care.
It took a public Coronial Inquest and a public condemnation of the minister and his department to act. As we have seen he has not fully acted. Minister, unless you act, you will have more blood on your hands, not just that of Mrs Margaret Winter. Any efforts to recruit staff will be neutered. There will be no nurses willing to work in an environment where they are forced to work overtime and cannot deliver their duty of care to patients because they are overworked and under resourced.
The Health Minister and his government, over the years of incompetence, have been putting the lives of patients at risk in our Territory hospitals. I ask the minister to report to this parliament a firm date that this model will be implemented. We want an answer to the question asked by the Coroner, what the current staffing level is against this new model and when and how you will go about remedying what has obviously been a very serious shortfall?
Territorians do deserve answers on this very serious issue of the death of Mrs Margaret Winter. Our nurses need answers. The minister needs to provide the nurses of the Northern Territory with some serious answers. It is time for the minister to stop giving us lip service and glib answers to the very serious questions that were put to the minister in this House during Question Time today. Stop being the minister for smoke and mirrors and stand up and be the Minister for Health. Stand up and do the job that Cabinet has appointed you to do and be the Minister for Health – rather than hiding behind bureaucrats and your department, and running a mile when things start to go wrong. Start to take responsibility.
It is a shame – it is a shame on you, minister, that this family will now be spending Christmas without their mother, their grandmother, their sister, their loved one, their friend, as a result of a preventable death at the Royal Darwin Hospital . Something you clearly knew about well before the incident took place.
Dr BURNS (Health): Madam Speaker, first I again pass on my sincere condolences and the condolences of the Northern Territory government to Mrs Winter’s family and friends. I also apologise again for the very traumatic circumstances and experience of reliving the circumstances of her death through the coronial process. It has been a very difficult time for the family and I hope they are able to find some comfort in the fact that through this process the Territory health system will become stronger and safer.
The member for Greatorex has made a number of allegations and assertions. In a measured way, I will respond to them. In Question Time I quoted from the coronial findings about the chain of responsibility and the Coroner’s specific comments about that. The Coroner talks about the level of knowledge and accountability in this. This is the crucial and central aspect that the member for Greatorex has alluded to.
Mr Conlan interjecting.
Dr BURNS: I afforded you the courtesy of saying what you had to say, member for Greatorex. You said a lot. Please afford me the opportunity of replying to what you have said.
In the coronial report which I have read very carefully a number of times, the Coroner reports on the level of knowledge and accountability in paragraphs 72 and 73 which I quote:
- I find that the withdrawal of recruitment delegations, and the setting of total nursing ‘FTEs’ were Departmental decisions, and that Assistant Secretary Peter Campos was involved in implementing the barriers to recruiting PCAs, and was well aware of the barriers instituted to recruiting nurse specials. Thus I consider that the Department, rather than the Hospital, is responsible for key decisions that created the nursing staffing crisis in 2006.’
I find also that the very significant concerns of nursing management about insufficient nursing ‘FTEs’ and the consequent large use of agency and overtime, and the implications this had for patient care, were communicated to senior managers in the Department; that is, they had knowledge of the very difficult situation that had resulted from the policy decisions that were being made in 2006.
Along with what I have said earlier here today, I think that is a pretty clear statement from the Coroner about where the responsibility lies for these decisions. The Coroner did not mention me as minister or put responsibility at mine or the government’s feet anywhere in the coronial. I challenge the member for Greatorex to point that out. That is a very important aspect of what we are talking about. The opposition is making political mileage out of this by accusing me. I will stand here and take it.
As a minister, I have never lied to this parliament. I have always been truthful before this parliament. I will continue to be. I will take the hard things and this is a very hard thing. Someone has died. As the member for Greatorex said, someone is without their mother and grandmother forever. That is a very sad outcome, and this is a preventable death. I am not shying away from that. However, the circumstances of Mrs Winter’s death are clearly identified within the Coroner’s finding. There was a cascade of events which started with an enrolled nurse wrongly identifying Mrs Winter’s level of risk for a fall. She was assessed as medium risk, and the enrolled nurse put her at low risk. Then there was a cascade of events which, as the Coroner rightly points out, were exacerbated by a nursing shortage brought about by management within that hospital.
I have spoken a number of times in this parliament today about the extra resources that government put in to the Royal Darwin Hospital. I am disappointed with what the Coroner has found in this particular matter.
The member for Greatorex has asked a very direct question of me: was I aware of nursing shortages at Royal Darwin Hospital? I think his exact words were: ‘Well, you meet regularly with your department’, which I do on a weekly and possibly more frequent basis, ‘were you aware of nursing shortages at Royal Darwin Hospital?’ The answer is yes.. As the Coroner acknowledged, it is difficult to recruit nurses. This is the context of nursing shortages which were put to me. The Coroner states:
- I heard evidence, which I accept, that it is generally difficult to secure nursing staff due to an Australia-wide and international shortage of nurses, as well as the difficulty of getting nurses to come to the Northern Territory. I also accept that there is a particular difficulty in securing nurses to work during the wet season, that is at the time Mrs Winter died.
The Coroner also found in the background of nursing shortages and problems with recruitment, that senior managers had put barriers in terms of recruiting nurses and putting the right FTEs according to the ask of nursing managers into that hospital and the medical wards in particular.
I accept the findings of the Coroner in their entirety. However, I am disappointed. The Coroner mentioned on a number of occasions that he made very specific findings about the role of Mr Peter Campos in this particular tragedy. He also talked about the withdrawal of delegations by the then CEO, Mr Robert Griew. He has since been replaced by Dr David Ashbridge. I have every confidence in David Ashbridge. I think he is a great CEO and he is doing a great job. There was also the General Manager of Royal Darwin Hospital and he has been replaced by Dr Len Notaras. Those are some of the changes that have occurred. Mr Campos is not returning to the Northern Territory Health Department. There have been a number of changes within the management structure at Royal Darwin Hospital and within the Health department. I will outline soon some of the other changes that have occurred at Royal Darwin Hospital since Mrs Winter’s death.
The member for Greatorex talked about a ‘nursing freeze’. I do not believe that language is used anywhere in the Coroner’s report. I would be indebted to the member for Greatorex if he can point to wherever the Coroner actually points to a ‘nursing freeze’. The Coroner stated in paragraph 52:
- I heard evidence that in addition to the problems caused by the slowing down of recruitment of nurses in the first half of 2006, the number of nursing full-time equivalents (FTEs) was set at a level that was too low for the 2006/7 financial year.
That is what he found. He did not find a nursing freeze. That is very important.
Ms Lawrie: He made it up.
Mr Conlan: No, I did not.
Ms Lawrie: Yes, you did. Well, where is it?
Mr Conlan: It is terminology. Have not you heard of that?
Madam SPEAKER: Order, order!
Dr BURNS: I wish to stick to what is in the actual Coronial. There have been important changes at Royal Darwin Hospital. The assertion by the opposition is that the role of a minister should involve personally setting up staff rosters and approving extra staff shifts in periods of high workloads. That does not happen. Any reading of the Public Sector Employment and Management Act which is the guidelines for ministers and CEOs, clearly states that those sort of responsibilities are departmental responsibilities. For a minister to be involved in that would be a clear breach of that act. As ministers and members of parliament we not only pass laws we have to adhere and abide by them. The Public Sector Employment Management Act is our guideline.
Much of what the member for Greatorex had to say shows that he does not understand or has not read the Public Sector Employment and Management Act. It is very important, member for Greatorex, if you aspire to be a minister, you should be very familiar with what is in that act. There are guidelines and ministers can cross the line and break the law.
Ministerial duties do not include the hiring and firing of individual public servants. That is very clear. Since Mrs Winter’s death, there has been a new hospital management team in place at Royal Darwin Hospital. That is very important to remember.
It is also important to focus on the Coroner’s recommendations. First, he recommends an appropriate nursing staffing methodology. I have given an undertaking that Professor Christine Duffield will oversee the implementation of that. You asked for the time frame?
Mr Conlan: Yes.
Dr BURNS: Six months for the full implementation starting at Royal Darwin Hospital and right across every hospital within the Northern Territory. It is a complex issue, member for Greatorex. It is not as simple as saying: ‘Okay, we are going to have six nurses here and seven nurses there’. It is a moving formula that depends on the needs of patients and their stay in the hospital, and the particular ward that they are on. It is not a simple undertaking. As it said in the Coroner’s findings, it gives consideration to case mix, acuity and patient turnover. If additional staff are needed - PCAs, nurse specials, extra nurses for overflow beds - then the nursing resource coordinator should have delegated authority to make this decision. Nursing staff at Royal Darwin Hospital are currently making those decisions. I have given an undertaking that if any further delegation is required that should occur without delay.
The third recommendation was a very specific one of the Coroner. He said nursing staff should be required to complete either the observation special or the neurological observation chart, but not both. That will be implemented also.
The Coroner found that quality and safety issues need to be dramatically improved at Royal Darwin Hospital. I will spend some time on that because that is actually a crucial aspect. In July 2007, as part of the realignment and reform agenda of RDH, the quality and safety program, as well as the quality unit within RDH, was reviewed. As a result of this review, a strengthened and expanded quality and safety structure is now in place at RDH.
The Quality and Safety Unit reports directly to Professor Ken Donald AO, who is the Acting Director of Medical Services. Professor Donald is a very well known and respected clinician right across Australia. We are very lucky to have him in that position. Professor Donald also currently holds the position of Commissioner of the Queensland Health Quality and Complaints Commission. That commission is responsible for the oversight of quality activities in all public and private health services in Queensland. One of its specific roles is to develop a standards framework and adopt quality safety and clinical practice standards for implementation by health services.
The quality unit reports to Professor Donald, and has six officers to oversee, implement, analyse, train, and improve quality throughout the hospital. That is a significant change. The quality unit positions have been redesigned to ensure incumbents hold a level of knowledge and expertise necessary to coordinate a contemporary safety, quality, and risk management team. The RDH governance group, nursing program coordinators, divisional nursing and medical co-coordinators, and RDH Safety and Quality Committee support the quality unit, to ensure an organisational culture that values clinical safety, manages system vulnerabilities, and minimises preventable harm to patients through systems that support organisational performance and improvement at RDH.
Crucially, the falls prevention policy was front and centre. The Coroner also called for an audit of that particular policy. Royal Darwin Hospital has introduced a number of measures to reduce the incidence of falls, a problem that is all too common in hospitals right across Australia. A falls prevention policy is in place on each ward. Staff are educated about the policy and guidelines when inducted onto the wards. Regular nursing in-services are conducted on the falls prevention strategy. A falls prevention strategy in-service program for Personal Care Assistants commenced this year. A falls risk assessment is done by nurses as part of patient admission. Audits are now conducted to check compliance with falls risk assessment on admission. In the Medical Division, which has patients at high risk, compliance has increased from 89% to 93%.
In relation to the call from the member for Greatorex for a review, I believe it is important to note that Royal Darwin Hospital is nationally accredited with the Australian Council on Health Care Standards through the Evaluation and Quality Improvement Program, or EQIP. It undergoes annual assessments and rigorous biannual onsite surveys by independent, external surveyors to verify that it is meeting national standards for clinical performance and quality. There is an annual review in terms of quality and safety. Every two years there is a rigorous, onsite inspection and survey and reports by independent, external surveyors verifying that it is meeting national standards.
It is very important to note that Len Notaras is a board member of the Australian Council on Health Care Standards and a founding member of the Australian Council on Safety and Quality. Len Notaras is front and centre in terms of health care standards, quality and safety.
Royal Darwin Hospital is accredited as a training institute for a number of Royal Colleges, the Australian Medical Council, and the Medical Board. These are very important aspects of what the hospital is doing.
I have already talked about the difficulties in securing nurses as it is a very competitive market. The department has a strategy for nurse recruitment. There are funds for nurses and nursing positions. I want to see them filled.
On the issue of nursing overtime, which is a crucial aspect that was raised by the Coroner, at my direction, there has been a new policy implemented. The decision point of that policy is reached at 60 hours total work in a week. Nursing management is required to ensure that further overtime is done without compromising employee safety or the quality of patient care. The Nurse Manager discusses the matter of increased overtime with a nurse, and the Nurse Manager also considers the nurse’s recent pattern of overtime and sick leave before offering overtime. There is a system. Unfortunately, overtime is still a necessary part of the hospital’s operation. I am not denying that. However, given the background of nursing shortages, it will remain so until we recruit more nurses into our hospital.
This policy is having a very positive effect. Over 2007-08, instances where nurses at Royal Darwin Hospital have performed overtime additional to 60 hours of rostered work dropped from 24 instances in January 2008 to six in March 2008. This is a significant fall with the introduction of this particular strategy. It is not ideal, but in an environment of international nursing workforce shortages, it is closely managed.
Much to the consternation of the members opposite, I did show the graph which was extracted from the Northern Territory Health Department’s own annual report under the CLP days. I am more than happy to circulate this to members opposite. It clearly shows a decrease in nursing numbers in the financial years 1996-97 to 1998-99.
Members interjecting.
Dr BURNS: This is an extract from the Northern Territory Health Department’s own Annual Report. I know you do not want to hear …
Members interjecting.
Dr BURNS: … they did not add nurses into this equation. The CLP did not add nurses into this equation …
Members interjecting.
Dr BURNS: Since we came to power we have invested significant resources into nursing positions right across the Territory: an extra 433 nursing positions throughout the Territory and over 160 doctor positions within our public system. Let us dwell on that. The Leader of the Opposition on 8 August 2008 started talking about this. This is from the NT News, August 2008:
- Opposition Leader Terry Mills, says he would get rid of 700 public service general staff and 40 executive officers, over three years. The Public Sector union said it was 10% of the general public service.
He also said on 7 August, on ABC radio, ‘he is going to save $50m a year.’
As the Minister for Health and as a former minister for Public Employment, I am aware that the main agencies you can cut public servants from are Health and Education because they have the big numbers. There are probably agencies such as Sport and Recreation which have very few numbers. They are mainly administering grants and external grants. There is a range of agencies that do not have a lot of employees. Where is he going to get those employees from? I think he is going to be getting them from the Health department and the Education department. You only have to look at this graph. The largest numbers are service providers like nursing. I think what the Leader of the Opposition was leading to was the same scenario as they had from 1996-97 to 1998-99. He was going to be cutting nursing numbers. He has never come clean with where he was going to cut these nurses from. Over the next four years he might talk about it …
Mr ELFERINK: A point of order, Madam Speaker! Could the minister table that document for us, please.
Dr BURNS: Member for Port Darwin, you would be aware it has been tabled quite a number of times. I am keen to table it. I am keen for members opposite to have a good look at it. It is tabled. You will clearly see 200 nurses stripped out of the system there. The other assertion from the CLP is that the department is swimming in senior executives. That is where Richard Lim was going with a lot of what he had to say on the floor of this parliament. I have been advised that when we came to power in 2001, there were 62 executive FTE’s in the department of Health and by June 2008 there were 64. The incredible expansion we have had in expenditure and staff has only resulted in two extra executive staff. That is something that members opposite should be considering.
We spend a lot more than other jurisdictions in terms of hospitals. It is there to be seen in the Australian government’s State of our Public Hospitals June 2006 Report. This is a federal government publication. The 2008 report, with data for 2006-07, found the Territory spends $2223 per person on hospitals compared to a national average of $1213. I believe we are spending significantly above our weight in our hospitals. I talked about Royal Darwin Hospital actually doubling its expenditure since we came to power in 2001. How did we do that? We did it through GST money. Despite the earlier protestations of members opposite that somehow we were squandering GST money, we actually invested significant amounts of that within our health system.
At Royal Darwin Hospital there has been an increase from $112m per annum in 2001 to the current financial year where it is actually $225m. The cumulative total of how much extra money has been put in to Royal Darwin Hospital since we came to government is over $460m. Nearly $0.5bn. That is not chicken feed in anyone’s language. That is significant bucks. Where did it go? It went into Ward 3B which had been closed by the CLP government 10 years before and turned into an administration area. There are 18 beds with another six to come. We also have a 24 bed Rapid Admission Unit which receives $7.8m recurrent funding, with 70 extra staff, a hospice, and changes to the birthing unit.
There is a whole range of initiatives that this government has done. Can we do more? Yes, we can do more. We will be doing more, specifically in the medical wards the Coroner identified.
The Coroner also identified in his report that there were some wards which were over allocation. He also points to increases in nursing numbers during calendar year 2007. Against this backdrop of increased expenditure within our system, what was happening at a Commonwealth level under the Howard government? I am sure my colleague will go to this as well. The Australian Health Care Agreement …
Mr Tollner interjecting.
Dr BURNS: Member for Fong Lim, you have a bit of form on this. A 50/50 contribution between Commonwealth governments and state and territory governments in funding for hospitals under the Australian Health Care Agreement. Where did it end up at the end of the Howard years? It ended up being 70% Territory money and 30% Commonwealth money. That is a shame. I have an estimate which I think is fairly reliable. It was well publicised that they had stripped $1.1bn out of public hospitals all around Australia per year. Based on this figure and our relativities, a conservative estimate of the shortfall in Commonwealth funds by the Howard government to our NT hospitals grew to approximately $80m per year in 2007-08. Another estimate would be that Royal Darwin Hospital accounts for about 70% of our hospital activity across the Territory. So 70% of $80m is $50m to $60m. That is a lot of money.
It is to the credit of this government that we allocated funds to Royal Darwin Hospital. We doubled the funding. We have put extra positions in there. We put extra positions right across the Territory.
Madam Speaker, I am proud of my record as Health Minister. Being Health Minister is a very difficult portfolio, probably one of the most difficult portfolios you can have. If you think I do not feel Mrs Winter’s death personally, you have another thing coming. I have read the Coroner’s report very carefully and I believe the Coroner’s report speaks for itself. His findings are true. I accept them in their entirety and I have given an undertaking that every one of his recommendations will be implemented.
Mr TOLLNER (Fong Lim): Madam Speaker, I support the member for Greatorex in the motion of censure. The minister is clearly incompetent. He has been telling fibs to the parliament. He has failed to implement any measures that ensure appropriate nursing and staffing levels are maintained at RDH. He has allowed the department to provide incomplete, inaccurate and misleading information to the Coroner. He has not provided adequate protection to whistleblowers. His cowardice in not taking responsibility for his actions and the actions of his department warrants support. I have just heard him blame his department, John Howard, and everyone he can think of. However, he will not take any responsibility himself.
I will take members through the events leading up to this Censure Motion, commencing with several quotes from the Coroner’s Report.
- In early 2006 the CEO of the Department of Health withdrew the delegation to appoint Royal Darwin Hospital staff from the General Manager and gave it to the Assistant Secretary, Mr Campos. This was instituted because the department wanted staffing levels contained for budgetary reasons.
- Mr Campos displayed a very slow (deliberate or otherwise) response time in processing or approving/declining (the applications) and he gave oral evidence that he remembered a point where there where 40-50 staffing applications … sitting in Mr Campos’ office without a formal response.
The poor turnaround of Mr Campos caused the RDH to lose a number of important staff particularly nursing, as these staff applied for different hospitals across Australia and accepted more responsive hospitals before RDH was in a position to respond ... consequently RDH went through a period where it was struggling to staff its roster and nurses were required to work extensive overtime to ensure adequate staffing levels.
The Coroner found that the recruitment freeze at Darwin Hospital in 2006:
- … had a significant impact on the hospital for 18 months and beyond.
The Coroner states:
- … the number of nursing full-time equivalents (‘FTE’s’) was set at a level that was too low for the 2006-07 financial year.
The evidence of this was overwhelming at the time around early 2006 and continued throughout the year. There was a review by the department that concluded at the start of 2006. They identified an overall shortfall of approximately 82 nursing full-time equivalent positions across five hospitals in the Northern Territory.
The Coroner found:
- That the combined effect of these policies, on top of normal recruitment difficulties, was that there was a significant gap between the number of ward based nurses working ‘FTE’ and the number required for safe care.
Registered Nurse Denby Kitchener, who was the Nursing Director of the Division of Medicine in 2006, gave evidence to the inquiry that:
- … the shortage of nursing staff was a general problem around that time … and that the lack of nursing resources had created an ‘extraordinarily difficult situation to be working in’.
Further evidence to the Coronor states:
- Mary Vitikus, who was a Nursing Resource Coordinator in 2006 (and still is) said that she remembers it as being a ‘horrible time’, and that the dry season in 2006 ‘was just like a wet season, hardly any staff, no agency and no staff here and I think everybody was just so worn out from doing overtime’.
The Australian Nurses Federation, in evidence to the Coroner, stated they:
- … received numerous communications in 2006 and 2007 from nurses who had applied to RDH for work but were told that there weren’t jobs available or who had lodged applications but were told they couldn’t be processed as there were no vacancies.
The Australian Nursing Federation newsletter in September 2006 stated that:
- Nurses are being pushed to the limit and are concerned about the safety and wellbeing of their patients and colleagues.
The minister became Minister for Health in early 2006. The Coroner notes that the minister is the head of the administrative tree for Acute Health. This is not just any normal minister. This minister came to this parliament with some pedigree in the area of medicine. He has university qualifications in medical areas. He is not a Minister for Health who was once a truckie or a brickie, who could be forgiven for not knowing too much about medicine. This guy actually has some sort of university qualification in relation to medicine. He is a bloke who you would think would know what was going on.
On his appointment, he received briefings. He has told us that he received briefings constantly, weekly, sometimes more than weekly; he receives briefings from the Department of Health, from his department. He put out a media release in September to say that he had been briefed by the Health Department CEO, Mr Robert Griew. In October 2006, Registered Nurse Marie Hughes, the Executive Director of Nursing from February 2004 to October 2006, was stood down, after telling Health management in October 2006 and quoted in the Coroner’s report:
- That nursing shortages were putting patients at risk and in danger of catastrophes.
On 13 December, Margaret Winter had a fall in her room. Margaret Winter is a grandmother, who is loved by her children and grandchildren. She had a hard life and she was a volunteer at the Red Cross. She had a fall. On 16 December 2006, Mrs Winter passed away. On 18 December, two days after the death of Mrs Winter, this minister put out a media release saying that the health system is in good shape. Remember this is a man with a medical background. This is a man who should know better, who is regularly briefed by the department.
In January, the Minister for Health callously issued another media release saying the NT hospitals are better resourced. He said in that media release, ‘… not only is the Territory government providing better health services but we are ensuring we have the staff to deliver it’. We knew that was not the case.
Professor Di Brown, the Executive Director of Nursing from October 2006 to May 2007, states in the Coroner’s report that:
- She was acting General Manager early in 2007 and she had a meeting about nursing staffing with the other General Managers and the Assistant Secretary and she said ‘you realise your decisions are causing people to be harmed by this, that if we do not have enough nurses it causes harm to patients’ and there was no response.
In March 2007, a focus group was conducted at RDH. We will not go and get some nurses, we will run a focus group. That was prepared by Professor Brown. She stated in the Coroner’s report:
- They find it difficult to refuse (overtime) and some staff have felt coerced into doing overtime when they are told that there’s no one else available to do it.
So their focus group is telling them something that they already knew. You would reckon that the minister was in on this. He is a member of the Labor Party. We know their penchant for creating committees and running focus groups. It has the fingerprints of the Labor Party minister all over it.
On 18 April 2007 the Minister for Health says, during the adjournment debate:
- Sometimes, overtime is necessary to cope with the peaks of demand that all hospitals experience.
Later in April the Department of Health provided a news brief mentioning the commencement of an inquest. Shock, horror. The brief makes reference to the inquest containing allegations about staffing. Goodness me. It also says the media might be interested in it. I think the media has been pretty interested in it when you look at today’s paper, minister. Your prediction there came true.
The Coroner states:
- In the lead up to the inquest I also received a report from Ms Penny Parker, Quality Manager, Acute Care Division, Department of Health and Community Services. This report stated that ‘the time line of events leading up to the deterioration of Mrs Winter indicates that the major contributing factors were clinical handover and communication rather than a critical shortage of nurses’. Ms Parker gave evidence that she did not specifically consider nursing numbers in preparing her report and thus I put no weight on her conclusion ...
It was something that was probably cooked up straight out of the minister’s office.
Similarly, there was a report handed to the Coroner, prepared at the request of the department by Mrs Cheryl Lowe a Healthcare Consultant, which concludes:
- … the major factor contributing to the late detection of (Mrs Winter’s) deterioration appears to be a lack of prioritisation of patient care, rather than a lack of nursing care hours to complete the task of half hourly neurological observations.
Mrs Lowe concluded that:
- … the skill mix appears to be reasonable for the casemix of the ward.
The Coroner dismissed this based on incorrect calculations and insufficient information.
This points to a department and the head of a department, the minister himself trying to cover up deficiencies in the department.
On 4 September, Greg Cavenagh found:
- Nursing staffing deficiencies on the 13 December 2006 contributed to both the fall and the failure to do observations; the total number of nurses was too low, the proportion of agency and overtime nurses and nurses from a different area in the hospital were too high, and the nursing skills mix was problematic. This situation was compounded by barriers to calling in additional nurses if patient acuity required it.
The nursing staffing issues on 13 December 2006 were not confined to that day, but are a snapshot of an ongoing nursing staffing crisis at the Royal Darwin Hospital in 2006 and 2007. We are told today the reason for this is John Howard. John Howard did not do his job, he cut money out. Meanwhile we are being told the Labor Party are pouring money into the hospital. That is an absolute disgusting shame and you should resign.
Dr BURNS: A point of order, Madam Speaker! I did not blame John Howard. I illustrated a background of funding decreases from the Howard government against our funding increases, so I will not be verballed.
Mr TOLLNER: Well, do not be verballed on it minister. I know you were trying to defer attention to John Howard, defer attention to previous CLP governments, defer attention to anywhere else except to yourself. Grow a spine, minister, grow up and take responsibility.
Ms SCRYMGOUR: A point of order, Madam Speaker! Can you please remind the new member for Fong Lim - he has not been in this parliament for very long …
Mr Conlan: Oh, just stop patronising and just get to the point or order.
Ms SCRYMGOUR: Hold on, member for Greatorex, this is a very important issue.
Can you please ask the member for Fong Lim to direct his comments through the Chair.
Madam SPEAKER: Thank you, Deputy Chief Minister. Member for Fong Lim, if you can direct your comments through the Chair, which is the orderly way of conducting a debate, that would be helpful.
Mr TOLLNER: Madam Speaker, this minister is a cur. He is a coward and a cur. He tries to deflect attention from himself and his own shortcomings constantly. We hear in his speech a while ago that he is blaming a shortfall in funding by the Howard government, some shortfall of funding from 1996 to 2001, from previous CLP governments, for faults that have happened now. We have a whole range of stuff. He quotes very carefully from the Coroner’s findings:
- I do not accept the department’s position throughout this inquest that recruitment difficulties essentially outside the department’s control were the key cause of nursing staffing issues in 2006.
I have just quoted from a wrong page. The point is he is sitting there trying to say that the Coroner accepted that finding nurses was difficult. This is a direct extract from the Coroner’s report, saying:
- I do not accept the Department’s position throughout this inquest that recruitment difficulties, essentially outside the department’s control, were the key cause of nursing staffing issues in 2006.
The facts are here. They have been pointed out extraordinarily well by the member for Greatorex. The minister should stand up, grow a backbone and take responsibility for this. He should resign immediately and give Territorians some sort of hope in the democratic institutions that we have in the Territory.
I will read from the Criminal Code section 183:
- Failure to supply necessaries
Any person who, being charged with the duty of providing for another the necessaries of life, unlawfully fails to do so whereby the life of that other person is or is likely to be endangered or his health is or is likely to be permanently injured, is guilty of a crime and is liable to imprisonment for seven years.
We have heard all about the ministerial code …
Ms LAWRIE: A point of order, Madam Speaker! This is a censure. There is a great deal of latitude, but the member for Fong Lim is misleading. The Coroner made no findings of criminality in the Coronial …
Mr Tollner: I did not say …
Members interjecting.
Ms LAWRIE: … so misleading …
Madam SPEAKER: Order! Please pause. I will seek some advice from the Clerk.
Ms Carney: Do you want me to speak to the point of order, Dave?
Ms Scrymgour: He should be big enough to speak for himself, he brought it up.
Members interjecting.
Madam SPEAKER: Order! Member for Fong Lim, I would like to clarify: are you implying that the minister is liable for criminal action?
Mr TOLLNER: No, Madam Speaker, what I …
Madam SPEAKER: A simple no. Is that what you are implying? Because if you are, then you must withdraw.
Mr TOLLNER: No, Madam Speaker, what I did was read out section 183 of the Criminal Code. There was no implication in that whatsoever.
Madam SPEAKER: Thank you very much.
Ms LAWRIE: Madam Speaker, a point of order! He is saying that he simply read out the section of the Criminal Code. If that is not an implication …
Members interjecting.
Madam SPEAKER: Order! There is no point of order. Please resume your seat.
Mr Elferink: Can we stop the clock while this is going on?
Madam SPEAKER: Please stop the clock.
Mr ELFERINK: Madam Speaker, the quality of the member’s argument is the issue for the member, not the issue for the Leader of Government Business.
Madam SPEAKER: There is no point of order. You can start the clock again. Member for Fong Lim, have you completed your speech?
Mr TOLLNER: I could keep going if you like …
Madam SPEAKER: It is not necessary.
Mr WOOD (Nelson): Madam Speaker, I will speak on the Censure Motion before us today. I rarely speak on Censure Motions but this one is important. However, I will not be voting on this Censure Motion. I am not trying to avoid the seriousness of it, but I find it difficult to support a Censure Motion which says the minister is lying to the parliament. I am not saying the government has no responsibility in what has happened - far from it - there are some serious questions that need to be asked about government in general. However, they can be very colourful and they can have some very biting language. Even though I might at times have a disagreement with the minister, I respect him and I do not believe he would lie to this parliament.
Mr Elferink: You ought to do a track through his executive numbers, Gerry, they do not match what he just said.
Madam SPEAKER: Order!
Mr WOOD: That does not mean that the government has to wear a lot of the responsibility of what the Coroner has been talking about. This is not only about our present Minister for Health, it concerns the previous Minister for Health under whom some of these concerns were initiated. If you read the Coroner’s report, you will find this went back prior to August 2006 when Dr Toyne was the Health Minister. We can go back and say that minister should also be brought to account.
You have to ask if it was because there was one minister, then another minister, both presiding at a time when nursing numbers were an issue, and when many of the things that the member for Fong Lim has raised were actually happening. Was that because of departmental people who were doing their own thing and not informing the minister? I do not know. I say those people should be out if they were doing something and not reporting to the minister. Was it an overall policy of the government at that time to restrict how much money could be used in this department? Was it the waterfront? Did you take money away that should have been used to recruit nurses? I do not know.
It may be that this issue is larger than just a particular minister. Was it the policy of the government to restrict funds in these areas so that they could use funds in other more …
Mr Elferink: Non-core functions.
Mr WOOD: If it is not a core function, you can call it that. Many people have said to me at times: ‘Why do we not have this road fixed?’ or ‘Why is this not happening?’ In the same breath, they would say: ‘I bet you it is because of the wave pool’. Maybe what we are looking at here is a governmental failing in priorities.
If we had enough nurses - and, if you read what the Coroner said, if there had been enough nurses - this possibly would not have happened. I am also concerned that it is nearly two years since then. Recommendation 105 said:
- Overall it is not surprising that significant issues with nursing staffing still exists. The Department’s persistence in ignoring the recommendations of its own reports and its’ own industrial agreement, in relation to the implementation of an evidence based methodology means the RDH is still setting nursing numbers without sufficient reference to the evidence in relation to the numbers required for safe care.
I ask the minister: why is that so? Whether it was the previous minister or the current minister who was looking after this particular issue at that time, and what the cause of that was, we could debate. We have moved two years on to right now and it appears as though those things are still occurring. There are recommendations here and the minister said he will carry out those recommendations. I understand that employing nurses is a very difficult job.
I recall when I was in hospital - it might have been about the time of this death - I had some skin cancer that had to be taken off the side of my leg. I stayed in hospital for a week and had the time to have a chat with the nurses. They told me the amount of overtime they were doing was incredible.
They would also tell you that nurses come and go. A lot of nurses are like backpackers who work for 10 months and then pack up and go somewhere else. You could say they were having a working holiday. I do not deny that it has not been easy for hospitals to obtain nurses and keep them in those hospitals. The government did talk at one stage about getting nurses from the Philippines via Ireland. That was one of the great grand schemes for getting more nurses to the Darwin hospital that was raised in parliament. There is no doubt that we have difficulty getting nurses and it applies to teachers and police as well. Therefore we have to make a bigger effort. If we are still getting the Coroner saying in 2008 that there are significant issues with nursing staffing, then I have to ask: are we trying hard enough? The government needs to respond and say: what have we done or are we still under a departmental guideline which is restricting how many nurses can be employed? That appears to be what happened in 2006.
I believe the government should be condemned for what happened. It is a very serious matter, and the Coroner has condemned certain things that happened at that time. He puts that fair and square at the department and the department is run by the minister and the minister is part of the government. The minister was not the only Minister for Heath around the time these things were happening. The government needs to have a good hard look at itself and ask: were our priorities right? How did this occur? These are the questions that we should be asking. How come there was a policy which said that one of the staff was allowed to have 40 to 50 applications sitting on his desk that were not being looked at quickly? Why was that so? Why was there a policy within the department which said we are going to restrict the number of nurses? They are the answers we need to find. Why was that policy there and is it still there? That is what we have to look at.
Madam Speaker, I support the intent of the Censure Motion, but I do not support some of the wording of it. As we have heard from many of the maiden speeches today people in this House are genuine in the reasons they are here. I find it very hard to accept that the Minister for Health - who might have failed in some of what he did, I am not saying he has not - has lied to this parliament. I think he is a decent bloke. I think we should target this to say this is the government at fault here, the government has not done its job and we should be trying to find out more about what occurred and what caused it. We should look at that in more depth, and make sure – because after all this debate that is why we are here – it does not happen again.
Ms LAWRIE (Leader of Government Business): Madam Speaker, I pass on my and the government’s sincere condolences to the family of Margaret Winter. We have all been deeply saddened by her death. I know, through the Health Minister, that Health Department and Royal Darwin Hospital staff are very disturbed by the facts of this case. They work hard every day to provide the very best care they can.
The Territory health system is a large and extremely busy organisation. Tens of thousands of people, many of whom are seriously ill, injured or infirm, pass through the doors of our hospitals and our health clinics every day and every year. Royal Darwin Hospital is at the very centre of this activity. There are over 56 000 presentations to the Emergency Department of Royal Darwin Hospital each year; over 40 000 patients admitted for care; and about 90 000 outpatient attendances. However, even in this busy hospital, one of the busiest hospitals in the country, not one person should fall through the cracks. No matter where they live, no matter who they are, Territorians deserve the best possible health and medical care.
Since 2001, that has been at the heart of the Labor government’s fundamental health care goal. We have backed up that goal with funding increases and massive frontline staff recruitment, both budget and policy settings, that strongly advocate for and have been administered by our successive ministers for health including the Health Minister we have now. Even the opposition could find it hard to deny the big increases in nursing and doctor numbers. They would like to say that funding increases do not translate to results. It is only by increasing the health budget by 89% since 2001 and by 101% at Royal Darwin since 2001, that we are able to employ the extra 433 nurses and 162 doctors across our health system. At the same time executive contracts have only risen by two. Despite the opposition continually saying the health resources have been awash with the appointment of executives, executive contracts from 2001 have risen 62 to 64 between 2001 and today.
At Royal Darwin Hospital alone, the essential health workforce has been expanded by an extra 164 nurses. That is an increase of 48%. There are an extra 68 doctors, an increase of 40%. The Minister for Health showed us the chart indicating the stripping out of nurses in our hospital system. We have had to rebuild off the back of neglect. Neglect is not something that you are able to overcome in a resources sense overnight. It takes long-term sustained effort to raise our health system to one on par with the rest of the nation. This is at the time when the previous federal government - and I know that the member for Fong Lim got touchy about this because he was the member for Solomon who failed to deliver Commonwealth funding in core areas of service delivery - right across Australia was reducing its relative contribution to Australia’s public hospitals; from about 50% down to near 30% in the Territory’s health care funding.
The Territory government’s absolute focus on increasing health funding is delivering results. We have 100 extra beds at Royal Darwin Hospital - that is an outcome - including a state-of-the-art 24 bed Rapid Admission Unit to ease the strain on the Emergency department. We have refurbished and reopened Ward 3B as a 24 bed general medical ward - the same ward the CLP had mothballed - it was no longer a surgical ward, it became administrative. These beds have helped to reduce the bed block in our hospital.
We have opened the Territory’s first hospice. I remember the long years of fights to get that hospice. The CLP did not ever commit to a hospice. However, today we have a hospice and we have Territorians dying with dignity with the care of dedicated palliative care teams and the nurturing of their families. We opened the 12 bed award winning facility in August 2005 at a cost of $4.2m.
Ms Carney: Do you remember how the curtains and cutlery were donated? Talk about gild the lily.
Ms LAWRIE: The member for Araluen talks about the fact that the community was contributing to things such as the curtains. I participated in those public meetings to secure a hospice and it was the intent and desire of the families who have lost their dear ones to protracted illness to contribute to the hospice. There was a real intent and desire all the way along for people to add and to contribute to the hospice so that it had a home-like feel to it. Yet the member for Araluen would not get that, the harsh and cold member for Araluen.
We have also constructed the $2.5m birthing centre, the birth place of more than 90 babies. New specialist services provided by Royal Darwin Hospital include …
Mr ELFERINK: A point of order, Madam Speaker! I do not believe that the Coroner once mentioned birthing centres or palliative care. I think this goes to the very heart of relevance.
Madam SPEAKER: Just pause for a minute and I will seek some advice.
Ms LAWRIE: Madam Speaker, I am happy to speak to the point of order. To point out the very relevance of health funding resources going into the system because if you are providing a hospice and the appropriate birthing care, it goes to the heart of the fact that we have changed systemically the delivery of services.
Madam SPEAKER: There is no point of order. Please direct your comments to the actual motion.
Ms LAWRIE: Certainly, Madam Speaker. The opposition would have us believe through their Censure Motion today that the Health Minister has neglected to pursue the role of adequately resourcing Royal Darwin Hospital and services provided in the hospital and the hospital precinct. Included in that are the services provided such as new staff, a haematologist, a cancer care nurse, more paediatricians, a gastroenterologist, an extra eye surgeon, an intensive care specialist, a wound care nursing consultant, more allied health professionals, pharmacists, radiographers, an oral maxillary facial surgeon, expanded burns capacity with more burns beds and extra burns nurses, trauma experts, and an expanded capacity in the emergency department and operating theatres. This is not a Health Minister who has been asleep at the wheel. This is a Health Minister who has pursued the funding and the budget resources required to deliver real services to Territorians at Royal Darwin Hospital.
This government recognises that, fundamentally, the strength of the hospital lies with its staff and their capacity to fulfil their duties to the best of their ability. The front line of patient care is our nurses. They are essential for patients to achieve good health outcomes from their time in hospital.
Earlier today, the Minister for Health has outlined a process of independent oversight to ensure that the nurse hours per patient day staffing model is implemented quickly and completely at Royal Darwin. The member for Nelson, when speaking to the Censure Motion, said that he wanted to be assured that the Health Minister is putting in place the model required to respond to the Coroner. That is exactly what the Minister for Health is doing. Not only is he ensuring that the nurse hours per patient day staffing model is implemented quickly but he is putting an independent expert in place to ensure that occurs. We accept that this model is the best way to ensure patient care and the Nursing Federation wants it. Independent experts advocate for its introduction and the Coroner has found that it would assist nurses to fulfil their duties. We all agree that this is the best way forward, so it is time we implement it without delay.
You cannot ignore the health system funding arrangements when you are looking at the stress of resources in the hospital. It is appropriate to look at what the health care funding arrangements are at the highest level. We know that in the past the hospitals …
Mr Tollner: You are the Treasurer.
Ms LAWRIE: I will pick up the interjection. I am the Treasurer, that is exactly right, which is why I am going to point out the bleeding obvious to you. In the past, the Health Care Agreement provided for a 50/50 split on funding; 50% from the Commonwealth, 50% from the states and territories. However, it was under the Howard government that …
Mr Tollner: Ah, John Howard’s fault.
Ms LAWRIE: … the former member for Solomon was a very proud member - standing up for the Territory and advocating for the Territory - but under that government it slid. Canberra withdrew the funds out of health care and pushed the states and territories to putting more in. The split became 70% states and territories, 30% Commonwealth. This is at the same time the Commonwealth coffers were filling with GST out of the taxes of Territorians, out of the taxes of Australians …
Mr Elferink: The federal government’s coffers were filling up with the GST - is that what you just said?
Madam SPEAKER: Order!
Ms LAWRIE: Were they delivering it to where we needed it the most, into our hospitals and our Health Care Agreement? No, they were not. I will not mention the fact that they completely walked away from the infrastructure in that time and the whole nation is paying for that now ...
Mr Tollner: It is all Howard’s fault.
Ms LAWRIE: I will pick up on the interjection from the member for Fong Lim. No, it is not all Howard’s fault. It is never any one thing. That is the point of having things such as Coronial inquiries into tragic deaths, to find out where the failures exist so that good government responds, as our Health Minister has responded, and has clearly stated that he accepts all of the Coronial recommendations. He has acted by putting in place an independent expert to oversight the critically important nurse staffing model that will be implemented at Royal Darwin Hospital.
This is not a Health Minister shying from his responsibility. This is not the action of a coward, as the member for Greatorex would have us believe. It is the action of a Health Minister who is aware and who very appropriately and thoroughly goes through Coronial reports to find the issues raised in them and where recommendations can lead to better health outcomes for Territorians, and acts decisively, swiftly, and bravely to appoint an independent expert to oversight the action. It is not a coward who acts in that way.
Ms Carney: Where does the word ‘oversight’ come from? What is it?
Ms LAWRIE: I will pick up on the interjection from the member for Araluen – ‘oversight’. The member for Araluen is dismissive of an independent expert, as well she may be.
Ms CARNEY: A point of order, Madam Speaker! That is an outrageous suggestion, untrue, and I ask that the member withdraw it.
Ms Lawrie: You can make a personal explanation.
Madam SPEAKER: Sorry, I did not hear it. I take this opportunity to remind members of Standing Order 51:
- No Member may converse aloud or make any noise or disturbance which in the opinion of the Speaker is designed to interrupt or has the effect of interrupting a Member speaking.
Minister, please continue.
Ms LAWRIE: Madam Speaker, the question of nurse staffing levels is a very appropriate question for this Chamber to debate. The Minister for Health has ensured that the Health budget has grown. He has ensured that we are putting those additional resources into the frontline services where they need to be - into nurses and doctors.
We have just had an election. The Labor government, going into that election, publicly announced we would recruit an extra 160 nurses. What did the opposition announce in their election commitments? Not one extra nurse.
Mr Tollner: Promises are cheap. Actions speak louder than words. Where are your actions?
Ms LAWRIE: The member for Fong Lim shows his ignorance - promises are cheap. I can assure you nurses do not come cheaply. I can assure you that 160 nurses is not a cheap Territory commitment at all. Thank God, they are not in charge of our budget.
This is a little, opportunistic, and grubby Censure Motion. While the arrogant opposition over there tries to make political mileage from what is an absolutely tragic event, this government will choose to get on with the job of good government to act and to fix the problems quickly.
Madam Speaker, I move that the motion be now put.
Motion agreed to.
Madam SPEAKER: The question now is that the motion as put by the member for Greatorex be now agreed to.
Motion negatived.
ADDRESS-IN-REPLY
Continued from earlier this day.
Ms SCRYMGOUR (Deputy Chief Minister): Madam Speaker, the Chief Minister has outlined to the Legislative Assembly the critical importance of the next four years of listening to the people of the Northern Territory. I go one step further and suggest that we also have much to learn from the people of the Northern Territory. What works in one place may not work in another and what is appropriate in town may not be the right thing for the bush. In short, there is no one size that fits all, and this is something we must be sensitive to and aware of. We need fresh ideas, and many of those will come from outside of government. That is nowhere clearer than in my portfolios of Education and Training, Indigenous Policy, and Arts and Museums.
The first two portfolios deal one way or another with overcoming decades of neglect and disempowerment for Aboriginal Territorians, while the Arts portfolio presents great hope for the future. In each context, however, the real art will be to maintain and improve the level of services currently available to the general population while addressing the long-term needs of Indigenous Territorians. It is not an easy prospect and there are no off the shelf instant solutions. Moreover, it is not a task that will be met in this life of this parliament.
The work we continue with today and the new directions we are to take will not reap benefits until long after most of us, I imagine, have ceased being politicians in this place. The future we work for today goes well beyond the four years of this, the 11th Assembly, and will continue to the 15th Assembly at the very least. It is over that period we will get real results.
Educating for the future is the way forward for the whole Northern Territory, from kids doing Year 12 at Darwin High School, to a child enrolling at Yilpara Outstation in Arnhem Land. The key to the approach of the Henderson Labor government to education is summed up by two points: increased resources across the entire school system, and the allocation of those resources in a way that will radically boost student involvement and family and community engagement in education.
In the area of increased resources, this government is committing to the largest spend on educational resources in the Territory’s history, with a $246m infrastructure program over the next four years, starting in 2008-09. Seventy-four primary and large group schools over the next four years will receive $300 000 each for upgrades. In addition to the $300 000 a number of these schools will receive more significant upgrades.
This government will commit the following: $5m upgrade of Casuarina Secondary College which will happen in 2010-11; $3m upgrade of Dripstone Middle School; $1m upgrade of Sanderson Middle School; and $3m upgrade to Tennant Creek High School.
There will also be $6m to convert homeland centres to schools, with $2m for a further expansion of Yirrkala CEC; $1.5m upgrade for Maningrida CEC; and $1.5m upgrade for Kalkarindji CEC. In addition, a $1.25m upgrade will be made for Shepherdson Collegeat Galiwinku, $1.25m for Gunbalanya CEC, and $1.25m upgrades for Angurugu CEC, Numbulwar School, Milingimbi CEC, and Lajamanu CEC.
The $246m program includes a number of significant projects announced in Budget 2008-09: $48m to build a new primary school and middle school at Rosebery; $2m for the next stage of the Ross Park Primary School upgrade; $2m for a new middle school at Alparra in the Sandover region; $2m for the Yilpara Homeland Centre to become a school; $2m for Stage 2 of upgrades at Alawa Primary School; $2m for Nakara Primary School; and $2m for Leanyer Primary School.
Budget 2008-09 also allocated $1.55m to Yirrkala CEC, $1.25m to Ramingining CEC, $1.25m for Yuendumu CEC. $1.5m for Ngukurr CEC, an allocation of $1m each for Ali Curung CEC, and Malak Primary School, and $0.5m for Jingili Primary School.
Labor has always been a reforming party in education. In the next three years we will be rolling out the new certificate of education, the NTCE, to be developed jointly with South Australia, commencing in 2009 for Year 10 students, 2010 for Year 11 students, and 2011 for Year 12 students. Work has already begun on the implementation of the first year of the National Assessment Program for Years 3, 5, 7, and 9. We will be trialling alternative distance learning education delivery methods including a virtual school trial where a Darwin teacher delivers the same material through a virtual and electronic medium for a class of students learning Japanese in Darwin, Katherine, Tennant Creek, and Nhulunbuy.
A key element of Closing the Gap of Indigenous Disadvantage is the radical transformation we must make in delivering education to Aboriginal Territorians in the bush, towns, and cities. Much has been achieved in the last seven years but far more has to be done. During the next four years we will develop and activate Community Partnership Education Boards to improve student engagement and community involvement in our remote areas. The Northern Territory government and the Australian government will work together with communities and service providers to establish community partnership education boards in remote communities. We will be starting with two regions, Miwatj and the Warlpiri triangle.
The concept for the CPEBs will be informed by learnings from other successful community engagement projects. Groups of communities will work through a change process which will move them towards increasing self-governance and management at a local level. Capacity and capability building will be necessary components. The ultimate aim is the decentralisation of real power, responsibility, and accountability where the groups of communities work under one governance structure, that is the Community Partnership Education Boards, to manage the delivery of quality education and training, as well as social and emotional support services to the children and adults. The boards will ensure the coordinated and effective use of resources and expertise acting as consumer representative fund holders with responsibility for the purchase of education and training services.
The range of potential services and programs include: preschool, primary, middle, and senior years education supported by distance learning services as required; careers advice and enterprise and vocational education; higher education and other adult education including training and upskilling programs; library services; student welfare services to address social and emotional wellbeing and special needs; school-based police and nurses, youth workers, professional learning and mentoring programs for teachers, support staff, community and board members; and language and cultural programs involving community members. The model could also include a regional residential hostel. There will be opportunities to develop flexible working arrangements for staff and changes to the school day and school year to meet local needs.
We will continue to deliver the National Accelerated Literacy program. The National Accelerated Literacy program is changing the lives of many of our kids. It is the Territory’s most ambitious education intervention. It aims to increase the rate at which reading skills are acquired for those many children who have poor or non-existent literacy.
We will introduce the Families as First Teachers program - an election commitment. This is a new program to improve Indigenous literacy and numeracy by helping families give their young children the best possible start in life. Early childhood and childcare services, which were previously under the Department of Health and Families, are being integrated into the education arena at the start of the 2008-09 year, focusing on learning in the early years. Under Families as First Teachers we commit to deploying early childhood educators to start young children on the educational path and help with their health and general wellbeing. The educators will work with families to reinforce the importance of good health and reading at home, and getting kids ready for school.
An additional $1.3m will be provided in 2008-09, with $2.6m ongoing for 2009-10. The funding is for 20 additional early years’ educators, with 10 starting this financial year. It is an ongoing program. The 20 early years’ educators would also be backed by the provision of learning resources such as books and other costs like transport and accommodation. The educators will be deployed in remote Indigenous communities across the Territory, with the Warlpiri triangle, Borroloola, Maningrida, Yirrkala, Wadeye, Ali Curung, Ngukurr, Hermannsburg, and the Tiwi Islands as likely locations. We further commit to targeting students with poor attendance records and an education campaign on the value of schooling by supplying 10 additional teachers in remote areas, increasing to 26 by 2011-12 to respond to an expected increase in enrolments and attendance. We will be employing four additional student counsellors to improve child protection outcomes, increasing to 10, by 2011-1112, and $800 000 to provide confidential office and interview space.
Other commitments include: the back to school payment will be increased to $75 in the next calendar year; $280 000 to be provided to the Wadeye school to help develop their oval; and to create an IT parents portal $300 000 will be allocated to provide technology this financial year. The aim is to give parents the online capacity to look at student records, homework that is due, etcetera. This is due to come online by mid-2009. We will provide $100 000 to assist Territory students to get to the Pacific School Games. We will completely revamp driver training in the Territory. There will be $1m additional to be provided for driver training to DTAL. This program is to be completely revamped and re-badged as Drive Safe NT, and to focus on real defensive driving training. A skid pan at Hidden Valley will be needed. This provides an area of asphalt for the teaching of defensive driving at a cost of $250 000 programmed for this financial year.
Creating a homegrown, skilled workforce is vital for the health of the Territory’s economy. We are acknowledged as having created the largest and most effective training program per capita in the nation. We will continue to strengthen our efforts over the next four years through setting a new target of 10 000 new apprenticeships and traineeships commencements now that the previous target of 10 000 has been met within the four year target. This will see the continuation and expansion of pre-employment programs, employee and employer incentives, VET scholarships, and expansions of the NTPS Public Sector Training program, particularly targeting Indigenous Territorians and those from disadvantaged groups.
By strengthening VET in the Northern Territory Certificate of Education or the NTCE we aim to increase recognition of the knowledge and skill levels that are achieved by students who undertake work to increase the options available to ensure there is an increase in the number of productive, engaged young people. We will expand the Workready program over the next four years by raising the annual commitment to $900 000. This new commitment highlights our focus on ensuring that we have the most highly trained and skilled employees in our workforce.
We will be expanding the Build Skills NT program. Build Skills NT has a focus on existing workers by encouraging recognition of prior learning, re-skilling, and up-skilling, particularly workers in our critical skill shortage industries. We are committed to developing current Territory workers so they can invest in and get a direct benefit from our growing economy. This commitment doubles the investment to $1m per year for the next three years.
I turn now to the Indigenous Policy area. There are some keys elements to Indigenous Policy we are committing to over the next four years. We will implement Closing the Gap of Indigenous Disadvantage, a generational plan of action aimed at addressing the gap in outcomes between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Territorians within a generation. We have set ambitious but achievable targets for the next five, 10 and 20 years, and identified priority areas for action in the next five years. We have committed $286.4m towards the five-year action to implement the Closing the Gap policy. This commitment includes: $79.3m for child protection; $38.6m to implement the remote area policing strategy, community justice and other safety measures; $10.1m for alcohol and drug management; $23.4m to achieve better health outcomes; $42.3m for housing in Indigenous communities; $70.6m towards education; $13m to improve Indigenous employment and economic development; and $8.9m towards cross-cultural understanding and engagement in service delivery.
The package also includes more than 200 new jobs such as: a Children’s Commissioner; 10 more child protection workers; 37 additional specialists within Family and Children’s Services, or FACS; 40 additional police for the Remote Policing strategy, Child Abuse Task Force; four specialist alcohol rehabilitation workers; 26 family violence support workers; 10 community correction officers; 10 school counsellors; 47 more teachers and assistant teachers for remote schools and preschools; alcohol compliance inspectors; 23 specialist FACS staff for the Child Abuse Task Force. We are determined to end the cycle of Indigenous disadvantage.
We will develop a practical plan to resolve the issue surrounding the High Court’s Blue Mud Bay decision. The key parts to this plan include: compliance with the law as now determined by the High Court; the capacity for recreational fishermen to go fishing on affected waters without charge or need for an individual fishing permit; economic development opportunities for Indigenous Territorians; appropriate arrangements for commercial fishing and the protection of fishing stocks; and any necessary resource management and regulatory changes required.
We will undertake significant efforts to focus on the extent and reason for urban drift by: developing a discussion paper on homelands policy over an 18-month period; developing a comprehensive community engagement strategy involving key stakeholders; and conducting workshops across the Territory.
The Northern Territory government has decided that all government infrastructure located on Aboriginal land should be underpinned by a form of leasing appropriate to its use and economic life. Section 19 leases under the Aboriginal Land Rights (Northern Territory) Act are such a mechanism.
I turn to Arts and Museums. The Northern Territory, per capita, has amongst the highest involvement in the arts in the nation. I am fond of telling my Cabinet colleagues that Territorians may love their sport, but they are huge supporters of the arts. Last year’s attendance figures of 70 000 at the Darwin Festival is larger than the combined total of all visiting sporting sides. Over the next four years we will undertake the development of a 10-year plan for the museum sector, development of a policy for creative industries that will go well beyond an arts policy as such, but will seek to integrate the arts with broader technologies and applications.
We have increased annual funding to the arts to $6m per year, more than double the amount of seven years ago. Over the next four years we will increase project funding by $100 000, beginning in 2009-10 and ongoing recurrent; increase festival funding by $200 000 per annum, beginning in 2009-10 and ongoing recurrent; provide an additional $250 000 per annum to building stronger arts business beginning in 2009-10 and ongoing. It is anticipated that $150 000 of the $250 000 would be allocated to a touring program for Aboriginal music with the remainder to bolster building strong arts business projects; touring Indigenous art projects.
We have committed $300 000 over two years, commencing in 2008-09, to be used for conservation work, artist and family consultation, and research needed to stage an international tour of the Papunya Tula Boards held by MAGNT. The exhibition would open in Araluen and then travel to interstate and international venues and finish at MAGNT.
The Chief Minister has undertaken to report to parliament twice a year on the progress against Labor’s election commitments. The commitments in my portfolios that I have outlined today will be part of that reporting process.
Madam Speaker, the Territory faces great challenges. In meeting these challenges we must be prepared to embrace fresh ideas. One size will not fit all, but if we want to achieve the real results required by the Territory community, we must be prepared to take on new ways of doing things.
Mr ELFERINK (Port Darwin): Madam Speaker, I respond to the Address-in-Reply debate. I listened very carefully to what the Administrator had to say about what his government intends to do.
For the explanation or edification of newer members, the protocols of the Westminster system means that the Governor-General, the Governor or, in our case, the Administrator, who represents the Crown, works with the parliament and with the government in a very specific way. That is a protocol that has developed over many centuries in England primarily, and it is a protocol by which the parliament and government of the day have slowly gained ascendancy over the absolute right of the Crown to rule.
The English Civil War, which saw the removal of the monarchy for some time and the replacement of the Crown with, essentially, a republican president, for a lack of better words, in the form of Oliver Cromwell, was the beginning of that process. Although Charles II tried to re-assert his royal prerogative and his absolute right to rule, after his death, the truth is that the parliament and the government that had withdrawn from the parliament, gained ascendancy over time.
So much so that when Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II was asked by a journalist what she would have done with the dismissal of Mr Whitlam, her reply was, ‘I would have asked my Prime Minister what to do’. Clearly, that is not what our representative, Sir John Kerr, did in Australia, and there is no shortage of criticism of that period. Having read the account by Sir Garfield Barwick, the then Chief Justice of the High Court of Australia, as to why he gave the advice to Sir John Kerr that he had the constitutional power to dismiss the government, I remain unconvinced, quite honestly, that the constitutional power existed. However, that is all ancient history.
The Administrator came into this place and delivered a speech which he would have gone to the government for and sought advice. The advice he would have received is: ‘Here is one we prepared earlier for you, Mr Administrator.’ He said: ‘Thank you very much, I will take that off to the parliament and I will read that out because my government will do all of these things.’ He has done that entirely appropriately. What that started then was a debate about the intentions of this government.
I welcome the structure the Chief Minister announced today during Question Time where he laid on the table: ‘This is what we are going to do in the term of our government and not only that I am going to come back every six months and tell the parliament how we are going and how we are tracking to achieve those sorts of things.’ I am attracted to that because it does generate a level of accountability that one would hope to see in government. I welcome that very much.
He has gone out on a limb, there is no doubt about that because we now have a bit of paper in front of us. We had 11 copies made immediately and each member on this side of the House has their copy of it. There are quite a few election commitments in this document and I look forward to seeing each of these commitments being kept by the government. I approve of the approach the Chief Minister has taken. I presume - without having read the election commitments document at length – they actually reflect the Administrator’s address to this House and I presume they reflect the department or ministry by ministry breakdown that we are about to hear in the Address-In-Reply process.
We had a day of maiden speeches yesterday - I know the common terminology is first speeches but I quite like maiden speeches - and I have to say that I was impressed with the maiden speeches I heard. I will particularly note the new members for Nhulunbuy and Barkly because I enjoyed the intelligence that was in those maiden speeches. I enjoyed the thought and the passion that drives both the member for Nhulunbuy and the member for Barkly. They clearly put a great deal of work and effort into their maiden speeches. One of the great joys of maiden speeches is that they capture the idealism of the members delivering them.
The same is true for the speeches made on this side of the House. The member for Brennan spoke in very esoteric terms about those things that are important to him and how his personal philosophy drives him to certain conclusions. The underlying thread and the optimism that percolates through all these maiden speeches - the dedication - was captured in part by what the Administrator said during his address to this House. He said his government would listen, plan, and act.
On the first day of parliament with all those maiden speeches and all of the optimism that we heard, we then start to get into the second day of parliament and the parliamentary process where the optimism starts to decay and subordinate itself to the practical matters of government. I urge members never to lose their optimism and passion for what they do and the love of the Territory which has brought them to this place.
However, the practical matters of our parliamentary process and the party system means that we have to engage in compromise. Sadly that includes self-compromise. It is not much fun subordinating yourself to systems sometimes because it sticks in your craw that you have to do it.
It was interesting this morning when we tried to bring on our legislated bill only to bring in a second reading speech; I might add, we did not want to debate the thing out this morning. All we wanted to do on this side of the House was introduce a matter that was of such importance to Territorians that both the government and the opposition, the Labor Party and the Country Liberal Party spoke at length during the election campaign about the issue of sentencing. It is all well and good, there was a bit of argy bargy about that in this place.
However, then we came to a vote, and what we were voting on was an actual question for the House, several things happened. The Leader of the Opposition stood up and said: ‘Why is that down in the Order of Business?’. The Speaker explained that it was down in the Order of Business because that is the way the Notice Paper is put together. The Leader of the Opposition said: ‘I seek leave to bring it forward’. The Speaker put it to the House and the Assembly, on the voices, said: ‘No, you cannot bring it forward’. At that point the Leader of the Opposition said: ‘I am going to move a motion that we actually put aside standing orders a little’. We had done this earlier for the Attorney-General and allowed him to introduce several bills. We said: ‘We would like the opportunity to also suspend standing orders, put them aside for a little, only to the degree that would enable him to introduce his bill and do his second reading speech’.
Sadly, the Leader of Government Business, and I presume, at the behest of the Chief Minister, said: ‘No, no, no, no, no. We are not going to let you do that. We are not even going to let you talk about it’. I am not sure if all members are aware but the word parliament is actually derived from the French parlay ‘to speak’. This is a house of speaking. This is where we talk. This is where we debate something out. All of a sudden we find ourselves dealing with a gag motion because the Leader of Government Business said: ‘I move that the question be put’ – I think that was right? Yes, that the question be put. So the rules of debate mean that that particular motion is not debated, so the question is put and it is called a gag motion because it has the effect of gagging the people who are trying to debate something out in the House.
Then take the optimism of yesterday and apply it to that situation because the House divides - this is why I called the division - and what happens is that the members who spoke so optimistically the day before about openness and the pleasures of being in this House and being part of the active and vibrant process of the governance of the Northern Territory, are bound by their party system to make a decision of which I do not think they realise the enormity. I ask them at a later time to reflect upon this: that their first vote, in the House that they spoke so highly of yesterday, was to gag a debate which is now irrevocably on the Parliamentary Record. The reason I divided the House …
Mr Knight: Rubbish! We do not want to gag debating.
Mr ELFERINK: I will pick up on that interjection. That is exactly what happened. What happened is these people, because of your arrogance, were forced to gag a debate in their very first vote in this House. Very first vote! That is the disgraceful conduct that has led to you guys losing so much support from the community. You have lost this support. It is not wrong. Check the Parliamentary Record. The first vote we divided on was silencing the opposition using the numbers in this House. We are not going to debate the motion to bring something on. It was not even like we were going to try to pass the legislation. We were just asking: ‘Can we please bring something on earlier?’ The answer was: ‘No, and you are not going to talk about it and we are going to force a vote’. So the vote was forced and then all of a sudden these people with such aspirations found themselves voting, sadly, to stifle the very Chamber that they spoke about so optimistically not 24 hours before.
I urge members to think about the mechanics of what they are doing in this place. If they want to be true to their language, if they want to be true to what they have said, then I urge them to think about what is actually happening in this place. People think that the parliament is a vehicle to make government possible. No, not all the time. Sometimes parliament is a vehicle to make government accountable. I ask members to think about the underlying things they are doing whilst they are going through the less pleasant parts of their job including stifling debate in this House.
I also wish to talk about something the Administrator said. It has a lot to do with the introduction of the reasons for going to an early poll. The Administrator started talking about INPEX. During the election campaign a rather spurious and silly argument was raised by the Chief Minister; that we must give INPEX certainty. Other than the fact that had already been achieved, we were quite happy to go to the polls because we knew how much on the nose this government was becoming. The government did some polling called benchmark polling back in February this year. As a result of that polling, it was discovered that the ALP brand was tracking down, but the reason they could not go early was (1) there was a legislative instrument that they would have had to change preventing an early election being called, and (2) the recognition level of the Chief Minister at that stage was still very low. In fact, if what my sources tell me is correct, the recognition level of the Chief Minister was so low more people thought that Clare Martin was still the Chief Minister in January or February this year not Paul Henderson.
They had to elevate the image of the Chief Minister before they went to the polls and that would have been irritating to the Chief Minister because he would have wanted to govern in his own right - and he now does. However, he waited. So, time passes and he does all the things that the Chief Minister has to do. We see him introducing, in front of 14 000 Territorians - all from the northern suburbs, of course - Elton John. By the way, it was a good concert and we enjoyed it. We saw all of these glossy brochures being shoved into our letterboxes, all with the Chief Minister’s smiling face, to elevate the image of the Chief Minister as we tracked towards the period where an election could be called.
If memory serves me correctly, the first time that an election could have been called was around 29 June. I could be wrong on that, but it is roughly about that time. It was about three weeks before the capacity for the election to be called and the decision to call the election occurred and off he went. He was anxious to get it up, and his reason for doing it was that INPEX needed security. In spite of the fact that the CLP had been saying that we were not entirely happy with the location because INPEX had not been given any extra choices, if it was a case of INPEX yes or no – absolutely - we support INPEX and that is …
Mr Henderson: Does not support it at Middle Arm; that is still your position.
Mr ELFERINK: I just said we remain critical of the fact that you did not give INPEX any other choice because your planning processes were too weak! You did not get the planning right. Other areas were located but because of this government’s refusal to do the little spending you needed to bring those areas up to standard, because there was no other gas supply on the horizon, you said: ‘We will just let Middle Arm go ahead’. If it is a choice between INPEX coming or not, INPEX is coming under the CLP …
Mr Henderson: Rubbish!
Mr ELFERINK: I beg your pardon? Rubbish? Not true. How desperate was this Chief Minister? So, out trots the government saying: ‘We are going to give INPEX security’. What was the first thing they did? They pulled the image of the Chairman of INPEX from Japan and there is Paul on the Labor advertisement shaking hands with the Chairman of INPEX. Did you ask INPEX? ‘No, we did not ask if we could use the footage in a party political ad, we just though we would use it’.
Mr Henderson interjecting.
Mr ELFERINK: Well, maybe they did ask. Is that why you were just about to get to your feet? You just did not get a reply. It was sloppy and embarrassing. Small wonder the Chamber of Commerce had a head explosion when they found out what you were doing. I remember watching Chris Young come out and say: You are joking! You have to be thunderously nave if you are going to do that sort of thing, and I am fascinated that they still continued. You still saw the same footage in a later Labor advertisement. How arrogant can you get? In spite of the rousing chorus of criticism, it still appeared in the later advertisement. I was dismayed.
The next thing is that we have the Western Australian election that has just occurred, and they are still unresolved as far as I am aware. I have not read a paper nor I have seen the result. Maybe somebody by interjection can tell me if there is a result. The fact is, either way if it is a Liberal government or a Labor government in Western Australia, it provides us with a golden opportunity as far as INPEX is concerned, based on the very argument that the Chief Minister put up. The golden opportunity is that INPEX is thinking to itself: I am about to reach into the petty cash drawer for $12bn - not an insubstantial amount of money by any measure - and I am going to make a decision as a board of where I am going to put my onshore gas infrastructure. Am I going to build near Maret Islands; does not that require a legislative change? Or, am I going to do it in the Northern Territory? Does that require legislative support?’ INPEX will be thinking: where are we going to go where we can be certain of an outcome? If legislation is required in Western Australia, if Carpenter or Barnett flinch in answering this question - I will put the question shortly - INPEX must look to Darwin. The question is this: can you guarantee passage of appropriate legislation?
Ms Scrymgour: Grills, you do not even know the members, it is Grills.
Mr ELFERINK: Grills is the leader of the Nationals.
Ms Scrymgour: Yes, and Barnett the Liberals.
Mr ELFERINK: Yes, and he will be Premier …
Members interjecting.
Madam SPEAKER: Order, order! Deputy Chief Minister, please cease interjecting.
Ms Scrymgour: Sorry, Madam Speaker.
Madam SPEAKER: Member for Port Darwin, please direct your comments through the Chair. There has been too much cross Chamber debate.
Mr ELFERINK: Thank you, Madam Speaker. The joy is that neither side, whether it is a Labor Premier or a Liberal Premier in Western Australia, will be able to look INPEX in the eye and say: ‘Yes, we can guarantee passage of the appropriate legislation.’ This is a golden opportunity.
Mr Henderson: Which we created, no thanks to you.
Mr ELFERINK: Oh, my goodness gracious me. How good are these guys? While the Chief Minister is walking on water about these sorts of issues the holes in his feet will be the reason he sinks; they will let the water through.
The fact is that we do support INPEX and now we have an opportunity to say that at least 24 out of 25 members of this House will support bringing INPEX to the Northern Territory, something I wholeheartedly support. I hope that you would be grateful for that support, Chief Minister, because it makes the chances of bringing INPEX here so much more certain. I have actually spoken to Sean Kildare from INPEX.
Members interjecting.
Mr ELFERINK: Did you ring him on Sunday morning straight after the election?
Madam SPEAKER: Order, order!. Member for Port Darwin, please direct your comments through the Chair, not across the Chamber to other members.
Mr ELFERINK: Madam Speaker, I will give the Chief Minister the comfort of being able to say to INPEX that in terms of legislative influence within the parameters of what has been so far promised, INPEX will be supported by at least 24, if not 25 members of this House. That is good news and I am glad to be able to stand up in this House and offer that contribution to bringing INPEX to the Northern Territory. I hope the Chief Minister is grateful for that offer.
One of the things that has been of massive concern over the last few years in this Chamber is the issue of land releases. The minister for Lands has repeated several times: ‘We cannot release too much land because it will cause a flood of land in the market and house prices will crash and the place will flood.’ She sat there and continued to refuse to release land. Slowly we have seen land prices crawl up - which is great if you happen to be a landowner; awful if you are trying to get into the home ownership market. All of a sudden Saul has fallen off her horse and become Paul and we have a road to Damascus conversion. Hey presto, we are releasing some 3000 lots. Thanks to the good Lord that she has finally had that conversion. However, house prices have now gotten to such a point that it is extremely difficult for young people to get into the market. That is a great sadness and tragedy because there was a time when getting into the market was not that difficult. There was a time when you were capable of paying off your own house in your own lifetime. That is less possible nowadays.
I turn specifically to one announcement she made during her answer to a question this morning and that was the answer about the release of land at Bellamack. I listened carefully, I craned forward because I was waiting for her to repeat the quote we heard in and outside of this House prior to the election that blocks would be turned off by early 2009. That quote changed today. That quote today was blocks will released by 2009. The missing word is ‘early’. The fact is this minister, prior to the Northern Territory election, was fully aware of the fact there was no possibility of turning off blocks in early 2009. Her own and various proponents were all telling her not before late 2009. The truth is she knew it. Her answer today in that question portrays that fact.
Those blocks will not be turned off in early 2009. The implication of early 2009 is what? February? March? The truth is we will not be seeing those blocks turned off until October or November at the earliest. That is a great shame because the pressure she has now brought to bear by constipating the land release process now means that we are stuck with house prices that make getting into the house market an extremely difficult thing, particularly for young families.
Members interjecting.
Madam SPEAKER: Order!
Mr ELFERINK: Madam Speaker, I certainly hope that this dose of Metamucil assists the member and the government in realising the things they have to do.
As members are aware I am also the shadow treasurer of the Northern Territory. There are just a couple of things I cannot resist but note for the record’s sake in terms of replying to the Administrator’s opening speech that started this debate.
Government has become this wonderful instrument of spin. Even today, during the health debate, we heard the spin, the ‘how-do-we-deal-with-the-media’ cycle remains much more important than actually dealing with the issues. There is no greater area of spin than in the economic management of the Northern Territory.
The Treasurer and the government are beneficiaries of a tax they steadfastly and passionately resisted prior to forming government in 2001. They fought the then Territory government, which lined up with every other state in every other jurisdiction, Labor and Liberal, and signed up to an agreement that would see the GST or a broad-based consumption tax become the standard basis of consumption taxing processes in this country, rather than the former narrow-based wholesale-based taxes. The reason all the states lined up, including the former Country Liberal government, was because the Treasury Department sat down and scratched out the projections and they said ‘whoopee’.
For political reasons at the time, the then ALP opposition said: ‘Oh no, no, we have to resist this. This awful tax is all wrong, it is all horrible’. The fact is that it has been manna from heaven for this government, far exceeding expectations, and has been a river of gold. Unexpected - not only expected and projected taxation revenues - the stuff that actually came beyond the projections. Every year there is a projection as to how much the GST will provide in the next year. Since the introduction of the GST to this financial year has been $1.2bn. This government has been the beneficiary over that seven year period of $1.2bn more than they anticipated they would get. That equals an unexpected GST windfall. It fell over them, it washed over them and they spent so much of it, and the nett debt continues to rise.
Budget Paper No 2 is a very telling document because if you look at the balance sheet for the general government sector one could be forgiven for thinking that nett debt was coming down. Throw in the non-financial public sector, that is where you will find Power and Water, you will find that nett debt is going up and projected to go up substantially over time. Then we add to that the superannuation liability, which the former member for Nhulunbuy when Treasurer, not a few years ago in this place, said it would never exceed $1.6bn. It is far in excess of that. My goodness gracious me, where is it now? $2.5bn? I appreciate that that is a result of actuarial projections that change it, but it is also a product of things that government can do and should consider doing something about when they are dealing with wages explosions.
Madam Speaker, the problem is that the Chief Minister does not understand how these systems work so he strolls into this place and says that those systems were closed off so there is no further debt that flows from them. Well, that is not true. It is wrong. When the Treasurer was asked about what the Chief Minister says, found herself saying: ‘Well, the Chief Minister is right’, and then she had to very surreptitiously close the door. Today, to add insult to injury, I heard the Treasurer say, and I am going to check Hansard to make sure that this is absolutely true, but I quote: ‘The federal government coffers were filling with GST’. Madam Speaker, no they are not.
Mr Henderson: She did not say that.
Mr ELFERINK: Well, let us have a look at Hansard, sunshine, because if that is what she said she is wrong, wrong, wrong, and it goes to the very competence of this government and the capacity of this government to manage the financial condition of the Northern Territory of Australia.
Mr VATSKALIS (Business and Economic Development): Madam Speaker, I begin by acknowledging the Larrakia people on whose traditional land we stand on today. I also congratulate you on your re-election to the high office of Speaker. Your ongoing commitment to the Territory is one that we all respect. I look forward to working with you again.
I was very proud to be here yesterday to celebrate the opening of the Eleventh Assembly of the Northern Territory. I say that because there are places in the world where parliaments do not open, parliaments do not exist, and people do not have the liberty or the privilege to vote for someone to represent them. In some cases, people like us who are prepared to represent those people find themselves shot, executed, or imprisoned for the rest of their lives. A typical example is Myanmar, not to mention, my own country, where for seven years, parliament did not exist, politicians did not exist, and the results were terrible for my country.
I was very proud and privileged to stand amongst you, and especially privileged because as a person born in another country coming here quite late as a young migrant, to be re-elected for a third term to represent the people of Casuarina makes me very humble and very honoured. I say that because my seat of Casuarina is a microcosm of the Northern Territory. The statistics show that one in four is born overseas. There is a significant number of Indigenous people, people who work in the public service, people who have their own small business, and all they want to do is to live, work and raise a family in the Territory, in Casuarina.
I have met all of my constituents in Casuarina. It is my habit every Saturday, especially during the period of time that is not wet or humid or the build-up, to walk in Casuarina, to attend functions, to hold community barbecues, and to go to the assemblies. That gives me the opportunity to meet every single person irrespective of whether they vote for me. I am able to find out what bothers them, if there are any issues, if there is something that disturbs them, if the government has done something they do not like, or if the government has done something they like. That gives me great pleasure. I like being with people. I deal well with people, even when people are not very pleased with what I have done or the government has done. I am prepared to listen to what they have to say. I am prepared to say that, in some cases, I am wrong and I am prepared to take the issue to the government or to the relevant minister to ensure it does not happen again.
I was very pleased in this past seven years to do a lot for Casuarina, especially for the schools. I am a very strong supporter of education. I know many people complain about young people, but the reality is unless we provide the means for the young people to be educated and to find a job, we have no right to complain. We have to be there with young people, guiding them, providing the means to be educated, and the means to find a job. Then we have the right to complain if something goes wrong.
Thank you to the relevant minister who enabled me to provide $2m for the Alawa Primary School Stage 2 redevelopment; $2m for the Nakara Stage 2 redevelopment; a new police station in Casuarina; the lights for the Nakara Park, for our people who like soccer, are currently under consultation; $850 000 for the Tracy Village Club lights so they can play games at night; playgrounds in Alawa and Nakara through funding of the Darwin City Council; a roundabout in Brinkin that took 18 years to complete, despite the fact that it had been promised by previous governments; $300 000 to the Casuarina Reserve, one of the most visited reserves in the Northern Territory; a CCTV system in the Casuarina precinct and a police front in the Casuarina Shopping Square; $5m for the Casuarina Senior College; and $3m for the Dripstone Middle School. A commitment of $300 000 per primary school is a significant investment by our government to ensure our kids are educated. One of the most important is the greenbelt at Rapid Creek, all the way from the RAAF Base to Rapid Creek, connecting Nightcliff and Casuarina, which is a fantastic development.
Another is the second stage of the Leanyer Recreation Park. I was involved when Lake Leanyer was first designed, and I was horrified to find out there was a hole in the ground full of water with no disinfectant, but kids were allowed to swim. I remember with pride that I closed that lake, following the Coronial inquiry, after a tragic accident when a young girl died. I am pleased that we have developed a state-of-the-art water park for all Territorians to enjoy.
I have listened to the other side. I know the election results very well, but there are some things that I want to raise because it is a democracy. People vote the way they want and people elect the people they want. My last time here there were 19 members of the Labor Party, and only four on the other side. This time there are 11 on the CLP, one Independent and 13 of us. I was irked by some of the comments made by the Leader of the Opposition and others. I find it extraordinary that we had an opposition that went on and on with advertisements on television about crime, and kept telling us that the election was coming; it was going to be early. When the election was called, they were totally unprepared. They were so unprepared they had not even registered their name, Country Liberals. I believe, they are still the Country Liberal Party.
Regarding the number of votes, what appears now is, yes you might have the most votes, but you have to remember also that you waved the white flag for the seats of Arnhem and Macdonnell. After a quick look at the Northern Territory Electoral Commission, if we extrapolate the results of 2005 for Arnhem and Macdonnell to today’s elections, we find out that the Labor Party will still have more votes than the CLP. As the Chief Minister said, a win is a win. The reality is, in an AFL, Rugby or soccer match one more goal is a win. Irrespective of that, we are here for all Territorians.
The one thing that disturbed me greatly was the false advertisements about crime in the Territory. Goebbels, the propaganda minister of Nazi Germany, would be very proud of that advertisement. He was the one who said: Lie, lie, something will stay behind. I remember the statistics: ‘73% increase in crime in the Territory in the past seven years’. A lie! I have the Long Term Recorded Crime Statistics, December Quarter 2007 Northern Territory - key findings - six years of data. Let us have a look at it. Sexual assaults: during the 12 months to the end of December 2007, there were 8% fewer than in the 12 months ending 2002. House break-ins: during the 12 months to the end of December 2007, there were 47% fewer than the 12 months ending 2002. Commercial break-ins: during the 12 months to the end of December 2007, there were 25% fewer than the 12 months ending 2002. Motor vehicle theft and related offences during the 12 months to the end of December 2007, there were 40% fewer than the 12 months ending 2002. However, there was an increase in assaults. During the 12 months to the end of December 2007, there were 41% more assaults than 12 months ending 2002, but in the same document it says:
In late 2004, the Northern Territory Police launched their Violent Crime Reduction Strategy, with a consequential increase in the number of recorded Assault offences in 2005 and subsequent years. These increases in assaults largely reflect the impact of operational changes the Police have made in the reporting and recording of domestic violence related Assaults.
The Police Commissioner came out publicly, and that is the first time you see a Police Commissioner coming out and supporting a political government, because he was upset, like everyone else, when he heard the truth. Many thanks to Ken Parish, because he was the one who brought that to my attention through his blog on one of the websites.
So your advertisements about crime are absolutely untrue. I am happy to table this official document which shows exactly what happened in the Territory about crime.
A member: Very good, it is all doctored.
Mr VATSKALIS: It is all documented in …
Madam SPEAKER: Order!
Mr VATSKALIS: I am happy to provide every …
Dr Burns: You must have been part of it then. Police statistics.
Mr VATSKALIS: Well, that is right. That is a very good point.
A member: The Commissioner made a direction …
Dr Burns: Are you blaming the Commissioner now? You are on the record now.
Mr VATSKALIS: Madam Speaker, I now turn to the key priorities for the next four years within the ministerial portfolio areas for which I am responsible.
The Northern Territory government, through my departments, will continue to invest in the services needed to expand the Northern Territory economy. The Territory has experienced strong economic and employment growth over recent years, and the value of industry output is expected to continue to rise in 2008-09 in response to increasing global demand, particularly in China.
A key priority for my department of Business and Employment will be to focus on developing a comprehensive plan to link employment, business, and economic development to ensure business needs are met. This will include identifying what business needs, what skills we have in the Territory, and what training we need to deliver, and weaving this profile and information through critical strategies such as business and skilled migration, Defence support, industry, and employment development.
To ensure that the Territory can maximise its support of all levels of business, from major projects to small regional businesses, strong research and policy underpinning workforce development is essential. This function will be located within the Employment Division of my Department of Business and Employment.
The Northern Territory government’s current employment strategy, Jobs Plan 3, is focused on increasing employment opportunities for Territorians, industry partnerships, and improved pathways to real jobs in regional and remote centres. Jobs Plan 3 has delivered a range of incentives to employers and apprentices and trainees, and its success is reflected in a record number of 3186 apprentices and trainees now in training. In addition to this, we are closing in on the Jobs Plan target of 10 000 commencements over four years.
My new Department of Business and Employment is well placed to consult and work with businesses, industry associations, employers, communities, unions, and employment and training providers to develop a new jobs strategy. This new strategy will deliberately throw together the practices and policies that contribute to creating an efficient, highly skilled workforce through a workforce development framework.
Workforce development is not just about business, it is also about creating and facilitating access to employment. The department has a strong focus on regional areas and looks to provide access to learning and jobs by way of establishing regional job hubs with a commitment of $500 000 ongoing from 2009-10, with the first regional job hub to be set up in Nhulunbuy, followed by Tennant Creek. The hubs will provide analysis of the job market in the region, a better understanding of what jobs are available, and facilitate the matching of training requirements and skills of jobseekers to those available jobs.
The unique demography of the Territory is well known, as are the challenges of engaging remote and Indigenous workers into industry. Workforce development must be flexible enough to meet the needs of all Territorians through access to economic development and appropriate training.
The 2008 Workforce NT report will be released later this year, and I am pleased to say that it will have a more rigorous focus on linking education and training to employment.
The strong economic conditions have also meant that employers are experiencing skill shortages. The Workforce Growth NT program is targeted towards attracting skilled and unskilled labour to the Territory from across Australia and overseas. This program will be the government’s driver in attracting skilled labour and unskilled labour from around Australia and overseas to the Territory.
Projects designed to increase migration to the Territory will include: innovative and strategic advertising campaigns; bringing together local businesses, government agencies and major projects to identify workforce shortages; identifying opportunities to attract migrants; mapping labour shortages particularly for labour projects; promoting the Territory to attract migrants both within Australia and overseas; developing strategies designed to bring skilled labour to the Territory; and matching labour skills with the specific needs of the Territory.
My department will take responsibility for the development and maintenance of The Territory website under this program to attract both international and interstate workers. The website provides an online solution to link workers to real jobs and employers to potential employees. Overall, the program will deliver three additional positions to provide improved services to the business community in Alice Springs, Katherine, and Darwin.
My Department of Business and Employment will coordinate the scoping of current future employment opportunities and sectoral workforce demands with a particular focus on the skill and labour demands generated through major projects. While the government will continue its primary focus on training Territorians to address skilled shortages, business and skilled migration, and interstate worker attraction provide business and employers with several options through which to address skill shortages and build the Territory’s population and its workforce.
This year my department will participate in events in New Zealand, South Africa, the United Kingdom, and Germany and nationally in southern and eastern Australia. My government will continue to lobby the Australian government for a seasonal labour project in the Northern Territory for East Timor. We see this as a means of addressing labour needs across the horticultural sectors, where the demands for unskilled labour is critical during the short harvest ‘window’, particularly for our mango industry.
Advertising and information sessions will continue to ensure that Territory businesses are aware of skilled migration schemes, NT Job Shows and the available options to address skill shortages. The department will work both with the NT Industry Capability Network, or NTICN, and the Chamber of Commerce NT to develop a program of briefings to provide industry with an update of major projects. This will maximise opportunities for small businesses to win work for these projects.
One major Territory project is the Defence Support Hub - an industrial estate near the Army’s Robertson Barracks. The aim of the hub is to allow prime contractors and subcontractors to form strategic clusters to deliver industry support to Defence, attracting new and larger Defence related contracts to the Territory. The Defence Support Division will continue to focus strongly on profiling and promoting the Territory’s defence support industry capability to Defence and defence prime contractors.
In October, my department will lead a delegation of seven Northern Territory business and industry representatives to the 2008 Land Warfare Conference and Exhibition in Brisbane. A Northern Territory government and industry exhibit at the conference will promote our industry capability to support the Defence presence and operations in the north.
It is exciting to think our defence history will hit the big screen in November with the release of Australia, the movie featuring the bombing of Darwin during World War II. Australia will be released worldwide. My department, Tourism NT, will highlight the true Northern Territory experiences featured in the film through a proactive marketing campaign. We are investing $600 000 into our campaign and will be working hard to ensure potential travellers, international or domestic, link the outback, friendship, romance, Indigenous culture, and great generosity to the Northern Territory - both to the Top End and the Red Centre.
Australia is not all that potential Territory tourists will see to inspire them to travel here. During September and October we will begin the rollout of the first ever global marketing campaign for the Red Centre, with the first phase of activity to run in United Kingdom, Germany, United States, Scandinavia, and Australian markets. More than $1.5m in Northern Territory government funds has been invested to refresh the image of the Red Centre of Australia. I look forward to sharing more of the details of this campaign when I officially launch it later this month.
An additional initiative to support tourism visitation to Central Australia and ensure a more robust and sustainable sector is the development of a draft action plan to strengthen the position of Alice Springs and the Centre region. Tourism NT has been working in partnership with other NT government departments, Tourism Central Australia, and the Alice Springs Town Council to develop this plan which is due to be released later this year. It will help to identify and develop unique experiences that this beautiful part of the world can offer that meet the needs of a changing global consumer.
In the Top End, Tourism NT will invest over $1.2m in promoting Kakadu National Park through a Global Kakadu campaign planned for 2009. In order to stimulate demand in the drive market we are investing $0.5m in activities for Katherine and Tennant Creek with print campaigns planned for early next year. The campaign will include advertising in targeted drive publications and be supported by the production of a ‘Drive the NT’ guide.
We are building on our strengths as a nature and cultural destination through niche activities such as bird watching. From March to June this year, my department ran a bird watching campaign in New Zealand with a motivational message to encourage New Zealanders to experience the abundance of the unique native bird life in Australia’s Outback, the Northern Territory. A similar campaign has been running in the United Kingdom since August.
Our partnership with Jetstar will see more domestic tourists travelling to the Territory and we will monitor this closely to ensure that the partnership delivers on every element we have signed for. The August announcement that Jetstar will base seven planes and 280 flight crew in a Darwin international hub is a critical component of ensuring aviation access in and out of the Territory. The new airline hub provides us with the opportunity to sell our strategic geographic location to companies and industries looking to build Northern Territory based businesses. The good news is not only focused on the Top End; on 28 August, Tiger Airways announced it will fly from Adelaide to Alice Springs three times a week from March next year.
We must also recognise that we, as Territorians, are particularly keen to stay at home during our holidays. As we are aware, fishing is very much a way of life for many Territorians and the government is keen to ensure the sustainable development of recreational fishing - wait for it - it will remain ‘the lure of the Territory’.
In order to maximise these opportunities, we need a sustainable management framework underpinned by good fisheries research. My Department of Regional Development, Primary Industry, Fisheries and Resources is planning a comprehensive recreational fishing survey for 2009-10 at a cost of approximately $400 000. This will give us essential data on recreational fishing participation, fishing effort, and catch to ensure that the high quality fishing experiences available today continue for future generations. The government is committed to preparing a comprehensive development plan over the next 12 months, recognising the considerable contribution that fishing makes to our great lifestyle and in creating jobs through the Territory.
One of the main issues for recreational fishers is access and we have allocated $4m to be spent in 2010-11 to upgrade the Palmerston Boat Ramp, including a security facility. This is on top of the commitments already made to construct another ramp in Darwin Harbour near East Arm and upgrades to the boat ramps at Dinah Beach and Channel Point. We have increased our commitments for fishing access and infrastructure funds to $1m per annum over the next four years. We will continue to work with the Amateur Fishermen’s Association of the NT to ensure the best use of those funds.
Importantly, this government continues to support the successful Indigenous Marine Ranger program and will continue to work with Indigenous communities to develop opportunities to participate in and manage our fisheries.
I must point out that the mining, petroleum, primary industry and fisheries sectors account for about 40% of the Territory’s GSP. The Territory’s mineral and energy industries are performing well and continue to expand. Through my department’s $14.4m major investment attraction program, Bringing Forward Discovery, we are encouraging further investment from China and Japan into the Territory’s mining and energy sectors. We are still the only Australian jurisdiction with a dedicated China Investment Strategy. As part of Bringing Forward Discovery, we have launched the exciting new $2.4m Geophysics and Drilling Collaboration program and I am pleased to say that the response from exploration companies wanting to enter into partnerships with government to explore greenfield terranes has been excellent.
The Primary Industry Group of my department delivers strategic services that support profitable and sustainable primary production. The Primary Industry Group has $24m which allows for continuing work in delivery of services in crops, forestry and horticulture, pastoral production, research and demonstration farms, diagnostic services, biosecurity, and product integrity divisions. With record live cattle numbers passing through the Port of Darwin, we continue to investigate new markets for Territory cattle. Currently, we have educational assistance and scoping projects under way in Vietnam, Malaysia, Borneo and Sabah over and above our work in the major markets in Indonesia and the Philippines.
The Department of Business and Employment will be contributing to the development of the government’s Climate Change strategy which is being led by the Department of the Chief Minister. One of the Henderson government’s commitments in this area is to develop a ‘Green Fleet’ strategy to significantly reduce carbon emissions associated with the operating of NT Fleet by placing greater emphasis on the fuel efficiency and carbon emissions of vehicles purchased by NT Fleet. The Henderson government has also committed to introducing a ‘Green Leasing’ strategy which will result in reduced carbon emissions associated with leased government office accommodation. My department will be consulting with the property industry and developing an options paper for government consideration later this calendar year for input into the Climate Change strategy.
Northern Territory government procurement is worth approximately $2bn per year of which 78% is spent in the Northern Territory. We have a responsibility to take into account the impact on climate change associated with the production and use of the goods and services procured by government. My department is currently developing a ‘Green Procurement’ strategy which will aim to minimise carbon emissions associated with government procurement.
This will be one of the features of future whole-of-government ICT contracts. My department has already commenced planning for the next round of contracts due to commence in mid-2010.
Another government strategic priority which my departments will be contributing to is Closing the Gap between outcomes for Indigenous people and other Territorians. My Department of Business and Employment will be coordinating cross-cultural training for Northern Territory Public Service staff. The department is responsible for the recruitment and support of NTPS Indigenous apprentices, and will be developing an Indigenous entry level employment program. My department has also been charged with working with the private sector to boost Indigenous employment in the Northern Territory associated with government procurement activity, and through joint government-private sector programs.
One success story is the Indigenous Pastoral Program, which is focused on bringing land in remote regions back into pastoral production, creating Indigenous employment and training, and growing the Territory’s cattle herd Since this program commenced an additional 53 000 head of cattle are being run.
I wish to draw your attention to the Land Development Corporation. The corporation is the Northern Territory government’s leading industrial land developer and drives strategic industrial land development stimulating economic growth in the region. It positions the Northern Territory and its industries to take advantage of major industrial projects which are about to start or accelerate. The corporation provides business with easy access to strategically located industrial land, and offers a choice of lot sizes that have been levelled and connected to power and water. This allows businesses to continue to focus on their core activities.
The corporation will soon release a Registration of Interest for the development of Stage 1 of a 15 ha waterfront development site in the East Arm Marine Services Precinct. Five new lots in the vicinity of the new Hudson Creek recreational boat ramp, within the East Arm Marine Services Precinct, are scheduled to be available at the end of 2008-09.
The Land Development Corporation is also finalising the Stage 2 design of the Darwin Business Park with a subdivision to provide 19 new industrial lots. This is scheduled to commence late 2008.
The Land Development Corporation does an excellent job, and part of that job is the development of common user facilities. The common user facilities are developed by government to provide a short-term lease, on a user-pays principle for major projects. For example, when we had the G3 development in Nhulunbuy, one of the comments we received from the company was that they would love to be able to assemble all the modules in Australia and in the Territory in particular. However, we did not have a large block with waterfront access to create these large modules which would then be loaded onto a boat for transporting I am very happy to say we have a 20 ha block in the East Arm area with water frontage which is now being provided with services with an allocation of $1.5m.
I spoke before about the Defence Support Hub. Money has now been allocated to start providing services, and we will be calling for expressions of interest very soon. We already have a number of companies that want to be associated with the Defence industry in the Territory. I was very encouraged to hear the comments by the Minister for Defence, Joel Fitzgibbon. He said he finds it crazy that we have to load equipment from Darwin to take it to South Australia for repairs or maintenance and then reload it on the train to bring it back. As a result, the Army is losing this equipment for up to eight weeks. This is the place where things should happen.
The arrival of Jetstar with their brand new airplanes gives us the opportunity for developing the aviation industry which then can be expanded to other industries. Let us not forget that the new platform for the Army - the Abrams tanks - have a turbine engine. Until now, we did not have the technology or the capacity to maintain this type of engine. Now, with Airnorth acquiring the first – and soon to acquire the second – jet airplane, having a workforce trained in the maintenance of jet engines, and with the arrival of Jetstar, gives us the opportunity to develop the workforce and the facilities so that these tanks can be maintained here.
The development of these facilities is essential if we are going to get INPEX in the Northern Territory. I know that the member for Port Darwin mentioned INPEX and Western Australia. The reality is, whichever party wins in Western Australia, INPEX will not be able to take an area or a piece of land to establish their facility in the very new future. Maret Islands are out of the question because of the significant pressure by the fishing, tourism, and Indigenous interests. In addition, the Kimberly is out of the question too, as the federal minister for Environment has already ordered a review of the whole area which is not going to happen tomorrow - it will probably take the best part of two years - and interest has been expressed for the delivery of gas in Japan by 2013.
I know that the opposition has gone to great lengths to say how much they supported INPEX. However, I recall the front page headlines in the newspaper about the Leader of the Opposition opposing INPEX in the current location that we are proposing, despite the fact, as it was later revealed by INPEX themselves, that he had been briefed and told that INPEX had to be located at that particular site or it would not be here at all. It took Chris Young and the Chamber of Commerce condemning him for this stunt, and then the ex-Chief Minister of the Northern Territory, Shane Stone, bagging him, to change his opinion.
Very conveniently, he also forgets that with Glyde Point there was significant objection from people in the Northern Territory - even the member for Nelson was complaining about Glyde Point. I recall when I was the minister for Lands, I had to find a new corridor to bypass a black palm forest that was on very sensitive land, to re-route the services at Glyde Point. We found that Glyde Point was totally inappropriate due to strong currents, the proximity to the islands, and also that significant dredging had to take place in the area that would possibly affect the significant field of corals. It might look a very good piece of land to put something there, it is far away – out of sight, out of mind - but the reality is that there were a number of other factors that would affect the establishment of a hub for heavy industry.
The proposal by the CLP was the establishment of a smelter. I remember they were talking to Pechine at the time. There was going to be an aluminium smelter and a very significant sized power station to power the smelter. It is easy for everyone to say that is a good site, but the reality is, until you do the study and find out what actually is there, and how it is going to be affected by the establishment of heavy industry, you cannot make that decision.
I repeat that I am very proud to be part of the third term Labor government in the Northern Territory. I am excited about the challenges that lie ahead in my portfolios. I have the portfolio areas that make money. On this side of parliament, we work as a team. It is only this side of parliament that the leader of our party is secure in his position. On the other side, I do not really know who is in charge, as even this morning, one of the radio announcers asked the Leader of the Opposition and the member for Fong Lim.
Madam Speaker, my focus will remain on providing jobs and lifestyle opportunities for all Territorians and ensure that these remain sustainable in the future. It is going to be an exciting four years.
Debate adjourned.
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The sitting suspended.
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MATTER OF PUBLIC IMPORTANCE
Need for Independent Environment Protection Agency
The sitting suspended.
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MATTER OF PUBLIC IMPORTANCE
Need for Independent Environment Protection Agency
Madam SPEAKER: Honourable members, I received the following letter from the member for Goyder:
- Madam Speaker,
I propose for discussion this day the following definite matter of public importance:
The need for an independent Environment Protection Agency capable of initiating its own investigations and reporting to the Parliament to secure the protection of the Territory’s unique and beautiful environment.
Yours sincerely,
Member for Goyder.
Is the proposed discussion supported? The proposal is supported. I call the member for Goyder.
Ms PURICK (Goyder): Madam Speaker, I propose for discussion today the following definite matter of public importance: the need for an independent - truly independent - environmental protection agency, capable of initiating its own investigations and reporting to the parliament to secure the protection of the Territory’s environment for the present time and into our future.
Some members may find it a little ironic, given my previous position in regard to the establishment of an EPA. However, this matter is too important now, given the development proposals that are before the Northern Territory, the growth phase we are going through, and the important issues that are arising currently in regard to the environment and are confronting us. These include: pressure on our water supplies; increased demand for horticultural and agricultural land; wild fires; the health of our rivers; the advent of more uranium mines in the Northern Territory; and mitigating and adapting to climate change, to name just a few.
Human habitation and manufacturing depends on the use of chemicals, pesticides, and hazardous materials, with the potential side effects of pollution and contaminated land. We also have the issue of basic pests and weeds and we have only seen too clearly the impact of mimosa, salvinia, gamba and mission grass, and the ubiquitous cane toads and what they have done to our environment.
While the current Environmental Protection Agency we have was well intentioned, it misses the mark. It is simply a glorified ministerial council. We need a proper independent EPA which reports to the parliament and can investigate and instigate reviews and inquiries, and can take decisive action if need be. We need an authority that has independence in administration of the law. It needs to be resourced properly, operationally sound, strategically placed, and meet the expectations of industry and the broader community.
It is well known in industry that NRETA is under-resourced. In addition to their normal work they have to provide secretariat services to the current EPA. Not good enough! Something has to give and it does. I understand from my work and my contacts with industry and business people that the Assessment Division is under-resourced, which reflects on the quality and the quantity of the time that they devote to each project, regardless of whether it is a government or an industry project. More projects are planned for the Northern Territory. We have heard today of some of the projects that are planned for the Northern Territory. How is the current EPA, and NRETA, going to cope? It has to be adequately resourced, not only to do enforcement and prosecution if that is applicable.
A properly independent environmental protection authority could report to government on matters such as the carbon footprint of government. Does government actually know what its activities are doing in relation to the carbon footprint? I doubt it. Has government done life cycle analysis of the buildings it occupies? I doubt it. Did the government do a life cycle analysis of the convention centre, and what its carbon footprint is? I doubt it.
A properly independent EPA could do these activities and they could investigate and review government functions. For example, the consumption of fuel by government, the consumption of paper, the consumption of the number of vehicles, the kilometres they travel, the equipment that is used and what footprint that leaves on our society. They could make recommendations to parliament so that there are gains in mitigating the carbon footprint that the Northern Territory leaves on the globe. There are proposed industrial and other development projects all around us. We have heard about some of those today. We know there are mining proposals on the board, including new uranium mines. There are prospects for new phosphate and base metal mines, and industrial sands. Tourism has a huge impact on our environment, including coastal tourism, which is one of our growth industries.
There are proposed residential developments on the books. We have heard about Bellamack and Palmerston. Previously, there were announcements about Berrimah Farm and this is a case in point when a truly independent EPA could look at what is actually at Berrimah Farm. Let us go back to 1952 and look at the history of Berrimah Farm and what was there. It was a research farm where they did research. However, before it became a fully-fledged research farm it was a communications base in World War II. It was also an army dump for all sorts of materials.
Research means trials and tests on various horticultural and agricultural products and pesticides and herbicides. Members would be familiar with the terms DDT and Dieldrin which have been outlawed because of the effects on human health and how they go through the food chain. I have information at my disposal from people who lived at Berrimah Farm and they know where these products were used and trialled. It was also a quarantine station for agricultural and horticultural products brought into the Northern Territory.
More seriously, it was also the forestry impregnation plant. There are some fairly serious chemicals used in this process, and given that our standards and best practice levels of today are way above what they were 30, 40, 50, 60 years ago, my question, and the question of many people that I have been talking to regarding the government’s announcement for this kind of residential housing estate, is: exactly what is the state of that environment on that parcel of land? A fully and truly independent EPA could investigate and instigate an outside, independent review based on the science to know exactly what is there.
Members: Hear, hear!
Ms PURICK: We cannot have the situation of developing a housing estate with parklands, grasslands, and things for children, knowing that the soil underneath that area has the potential to be highly contaminated. That is the kind of matter that could and should be referred to the EPA if it is truly independent, reports to the parliament, and is directed by the parliament. The current EPA does not appear to have clear deliverables and outcomes, maybe they are coming, but time is of the essence.
We have a possibility of a massive billion dollar gas project coming onto our shore, and yet, we are still waiting for what their deliverables and outcomes can be. I do not think we can wait. Compared to other jurisdictions, the Northern Territory’s environmental legislation is pretty antiquated and not integrated or complementary. For example, there is different legislation which deals with different aspects of the same issue. There are more than 14 pieces of legislation dealing with the environment, possibly more, and they often do not talk to each other. There are cases of development and proponents’ applications where they meet the requirements of their environmental impact statement, put in their applications, almost get their approvals through the Environmental Assessment Act, who are told they have to then get approvals under the Soil Conservation and Land Utilization Act. That is not good enough for the proponents nor for the good governance of the Territory. This uncoordinated position leaves the Territory exposed and vulnerable to unsustainable environmental practices.
Madam Speaker, we need this kind of direct reporting to parliament so there is transparency and openness in how we go about our environmental protection and management in the Northern Territory. I commend this proposal to you and to the House.
Members: Hear, hear!
Ms ANDERSON (Natural Resources, Environment and Heritage): Madam Speaker, I thank the member for Goyder for bringing this debate forward. It is a very important issue. The member for Goyder proposes the need for an independent environment protection agency capable of initiating its own investigations and able to report those findings to parliament in order to secure the protection of the Territory’s unique environment. I welcome the member for Goyder’s endorsement of this government’s action on the EPA. We have delivered our 2005 election promise to deliver an independent legislated EPA in the terms put forward by the member for Goyder, so her support is very welcome.
In case the member is a little confused and thinks she is proposing something different, I will take you through what the EPA currently does under the Environment Protection Authority Act which was passed in this House last year. Even a quick read of this important legislation would lead the opposition to realise that we do, and I emphasise, we do have an independent EPA. They would realise that it is capable of initiating its own inquiries, its reports are tabled in parliament, and the EPA will play an important role in securing the protection of the Territory’s unique and beautiful environment.
I will start with section 6 of the act where it is established that:
- (1) The Authority may do all things necessary or convenient to enable it to perform its functions.
(2) Without limiting subsection (1), the Authority may do the following:
(a) conduct the inquiries it considers appropriate;
(b) require the Chief Executive Officer of an Agency … to give it relevant information.
These are real powers to conduct inquiries independent of government.
Section 8 of the act is devoted to the EPA’s independence and clearly states that:
- (1) The Authority is not subject to the Minister’s direction.
Just to avoid any doubt, section 8 goes on to state very clearly that:
- (2) In particular, the Authority is not subject to the Minister’s direction in relation to the preparation and contents of any advice or recommendation of the Authority.
- (2) The minister must, within 6 sitting days after receiving the report, table a copy of it in the Legislative Assembly.
Is the EPA able to initiate its own inquiries? The answer is yes. Is the EPA independent of the minister and the department? The answer is yes. Must the EPA report be tabled in parliament? The answer is yes. If there is any further confusion, I would be happy to organise a briefing.
The EPA we have implemented has emerged from a very comprehensive process of community consultation on the environment and sustainable development and followed up with further consultation undertaken by the interim EPA Board during 2006. The clear message from these consultations is that the EPA needed to add value to processes already in place, and that the most important work for a new EPA would relate to high level strategic and policy frameworks, standard setting, and reviewing and ensuring our environmental laws are implemented. Government listened and put in place the best model for the Territory.
We now have an EPA comprising a board of four very capable and well qualified members. The EPA is chaired by Dr Andrew Tupper who has a wealth of experience in climate and science. The other members are: Professor Donna Craig who brings high level experience in environmental law; Professor Gordon Duff, an expert in ecology; and Ms Judith King, who has over 20 years broad experience in the public and private sectors. I think you would be hard pressed to find a more qualified group in the Territory. They bring enormous expertise and experience and they have my absolute trust and confidence in the work they do.
The EPA is now up and running and working on two very significant projects. First, and this gives full expression to their independence, the EPA initiated a project to develop overarching sustainability principles for the Territory with the aim of clarifying what can sometimes be a confusing concept and tailor it to Territory circumstances. Second, government has referred a project to the EPA to review environmental assessment arrangements as they apply to major developments. The current environmental assessment processes work very well; that is why they are accredited nationally.
However, it is a very important process and we do not take anything for granted. We want to stay ahead of the pack. The EPA will review contemporary trends in this area to make sure they remain at a high standard. None of this work is secret and it can be found on the EPA website. Also, the community can log on and refer a project to the EPA. The EPA will examine the project against a set of criteria, make their investigations, and report according to their independent charter. The EPA is also directly engaging with the community. I met with them while I was in Alice Springs recently and they will be holding community meetings concerning the sustainability project on 26 September in Darwin.
Madam Speaker, we do have an independent EPA. The opposition can claim that it is proposing something different with this MPI. It is not. They are proposing exactly the same arrangements this government has put in place. They are obviously unsure - which is not surprising - it is only a few years ago that the opposition openly opposed an EPA, then proposed a one person Environment Commissioner, then it was an Environment Protection and Management Authority. They were almost there. I am pleased that the opposition has now taken this extra step and supports the EPA that this government has delivered.
Members: Hear, hear!
Mr CHANDLER (Brennan): Madam Speaker, I would love to thank the minister for her comments and her information. It all sounded lovely and if I absolutely trusted this government, I would walk away from here very comfortable with those comments. Unfortunately, the last seven years has changed my mind.
I will just point out two points in the act. Under Part 2, Environment Protection Authority, section 5 (1), Functions:
- (c) on its own initiative in accordance with criteria and arrangements agreed with the Minister.
That, to me, appears like legislation which is very limiting. I draw members’ attention to section 8, Independence:
- (1) The Authority is not subject to the Minister's direction.
- (2) In particular, the Authority is not subject to the Minister's direction in relation to the preparation and contents of any advice or recommendation of the Authority.
What about that recommendation? It can and could be held back from this parliament, from the people of the Northern Territory.
I would like to thank the minister for her comments, but in the Towards an Environment Protection Authority for the Northern Territory, June 2007, page 3 states: ‘Whole-of-government approach’. How can the minister say there is a whole-of-government approach when it is clear that there is no or very limited consultation between key stake holders? My understanding is the whole-of-government approach includes different tiers of government if necessary, particularly when they are one of the key stakeholders, local government being the case in point.
Can the minister provide an example of the current EPA having a clear public profile? It seems to me that the acronym ‘EPA’ needs one additional letter - the letter ‘I’ for Independent - Independent Environmental Protection Authority. An Independent Environmental Protection Authority is needed to properly oversee the protection of the Northern Territory’s unique and beautiful environment. The Northern Territory is one of the world’s last great wilderness frontiers. The Territory’s environment must be protected by a completely independent EPA.
The Labor government promised to deliver an independent EPA. What they delivered was an emasculated EPA, attached to the Environment department, at the discretion of the minister. The environment is too important to be subject to back door political pressure without the independent scrutiny of a fully independent EPA.
Again, I quote from the document Towards an Independent Protection Authority: How can the current EPA ‘engender community confidence in its independence?’ A fully independent EPA should be able to initiate its own investigations into any matter - any matter it considers necessary - and should be able to table that report in parliament without interference. An independent EPA should recognise the important role of the Environment Centre NT as an advocate for the environment and as a vehicle to assist in the establishment of a balanced opinion.
Yesterday, and again today, we heard from the government of three more development opportunities in Palmerston - we are still waiting for Bellamack, by the way – and the inflated land prices that has created for the people of Palmerston and beyond. We also heard, prior to the election and throughout the election campaign, and again from the member beside me, of the proposed redevelopment of the Berrimah Farm. These developments require review from an environmental point of view, and this can only truly occur when all Territorians are assured the EPA is truly independent. This will be the only way the government can meet one of its own criteria; that is, to engender community confidence.
Mr WOOD (Nelson): Oh, this brings back memories! EPAs that were interim EPAs and EPAs that would seem to be EPAs but were not EPAs.
Ms Purick: Interim Boards.
Mr WOOD: Yes, an EPA Board that signed off on documents as if it was an EPA, and they did not really exist. We have a long history of establishing an EPA in the Northern Territory.
We can argue the case about whether it can or cannot do certain things, but the minister just said - and I believe this proves the point - two of the things that the EPA is looking at – and I am not saying they are not important – (1) the overarching principles for sustainability, and (2) the review of the environmental assessment arrangements in relation to mining. Fine, fantastic. However, if an EPA is going to have what I think is the role of an EPA, it should have looked at the diversion of the McArthur River, and it should be having a look at INPEX, the suitability of Berrimah Farm, the effect of major subdivisions, and the mineral sands or the forestry land on the Tiwi Islands. That is what an EPA should be doing.
To me, this other stuff it is doing is minor. I have always believed that an EPA should be out there, independent, and taking on the big projects to protect the environment of the Northern Territory. Has this EPA taken on one of those projects? For instance, the government is pushing the gas. The Minister for Planning and Lands has already taken the power away from our independent Development Consent Authority. If she is going to take on that role, what is the chance of getting an independent assessment of INPEX? None, unless we have an EPA that is willing to do it, separate from government. If someone is going to convince me that there is going to be a fair, balanced and neutral decision-making body in relation to whether INPEX should go on Blaydon Point, then they are going to have to come up with some other scheme than what we have at the present time, where the minister who is a member of the Cabinet - and a Cabinet that would have decided that INPEX is going in the middle of the harbour – is also the same minister who is going to approve this under the Development Consent Authority process. Here is a classic example of where the EPA should be involved.
The member for Brennan mentioned the new suburbs of Palmerston. I always laugh a little when it comes to land clearing. We have some of the strictest controls of land clearing, I would say, anywhere in Australia. We can argue about moratoriums, even if you did not have a moratorium on the Daly River, we have some of the strictest controls in land clearing. I would have to say that some of that came originally when the Litchfield Shire land clearing guidelines came into being, where from allowing people only to clear half their block of land, more stringent controls were introduced, and eventually that led to better clearing controls for the whole of the Northern Territory.
We make a big noise over whether we should clear land in the Daly, but do we do anything or say anything about how much land will be cleared in Bellamack, Zuccoli and Johnston. There is some very nice bush, a lot of wildlife and biodiversity. The minister has made a statement, and I thank you for making a statement, that Mitchell Creek, or what is left of Mitchell Creek, will be saved, because the rest is a drain or a nice grass paddock. Why should there not be an environmental impact study done?
Apart from the public comment, government asked for people to put in submissions regarding the Palmerston west suburban area. I was one of possibly three people who put in a submission, no two. You would have to ask if that was great. I have not heard anything back. I walked the area as much as I could. I thought there were areas that certainly should be protected. I do not know whether they were protected. I have not heard anything back. I would have liked to see someone like the Environment Protection Authority go into the area and do a proper and thorough analysis.
What is the difference between the environment that is destroyed by the suburbs of Palmerston and Darwin and the environment that is destroyed by Daly River? Why do we make so much fuss about that when we have destroyed Mitchell Creek? Mitchell Creek feeds into the harbour. I used to do Waterwatch studies on Mitchell Creek, and I remember taking the then Mayor of Palmerston to collect freshwater prawns. It fed directly into Darwin Harbour yet we have, by poor planning and poor development, turned it into a drain for fertilisers coming off nice suburban lawns in that area.
In fact, our previous member for Brennan, James Burke, and I were at a meeting, and maybe the member for Blain, with the DCA to discuss why people like Delfin were going to build a suburb on the headwaters of the Mitchell Creek. That required an enormous effort to stop that. Good planning should have said it should not have happened in the first place. The development of large numbers of blocks of land in Palmerston is so big that surely an independent EPA should have come in and looked at that.
We could talk about what is in the act. We can say in theory that they can do certain things. They say the authority’s functions are to give advice and make recommendations. I want to see an EPA that says: ‘Sorry, we have looked at Bellamack, Zuccoli and Johnston, and some of this cannot be touched, it is too important.’ In the case of those suburbs, there is heritage, ecologically important sites and probably cultural sites.
If there are big projects in the Northern Territory that do affect the environment, I ask the government where is the role of the EPA in deciding whether those projects should go ahead? If the EPA is as independent as you say, if the EPA can basically look at anything it wants to – if that is your reading of the act – then show me examples where it has actually happened. That is what an EPA should be about.
I support the motion. If we are going to have an environment protection agency, do not have one that fills an academic role in highlighting deficiencies in legislation, or looking at some philosophical issues about the environment. Have an environment protection agency that is targeted - so we do not have a huge bureaucracy - and when I say targeted, I mean looks at major projects in the Northern Territory that will affect the environment. That is a very important role. I love the environment but I also think we need development, and what is that in simple terms? It means I support sustainable development.
That is an area that we should be really pushing for an EPA to take hold of. People might not agree with me on a radioactive waste facility. I know that. I can live with that. However, if you talk about the science and you do not believe me and I do not believe you, here is a classic organisation, an EPA, that could have a look at the realities of it and take the politics out of it. I have heard so much politics about the radioactive waste facility I sometimes think it is too much to handle. If you do not accept what I think for whatever reason – whether it is political or whether it is you think my science is wrong - get an independent study of it.
Ask an EPA group to see whether it is possible. That would take some of these major issues away from the political argy bargy we have and leave it with very well qualified people who are able to bring in people from other areas of expertise. Let them come out with a report and see whether I am right, you are right, or maybe there is a solution in between.
Madam Speaker, I support the member for Goyder in her matter of public importance. If the government does not agree with me, so be it. I will only agree with it when I see this EPA taking on major projects in the Northern Territory to protect our environment.
Members: Hear, hear!
Ms LAWRIE (Treasurer): Madam Speaker, this is an absolutely extraordinary MPI. Not just the CLP’s historical opposition to an EPA but even more extraordinary is the person who lodged it. Having chaired the parliament’s environment committee’s inquiry into the establishment of an EPA, I remember debates on this subject and there is no one in the Territory who has fought harder against the establishment of an EPA than the current member for Goyder.
She fought hard against the EPA and even harder against an independent EPA. Who knows, tomorrow we might get an MPI from the member for Fong Lim about banning nuclear waste dumps. You can only assume this is a brazen attempt to immediately distance herself from her past - and that is sad.
It was the Labor government which established the task for the inquiry into the establishment of an EPA. This is after years of the CLP government refusing to establish an EPA. We became the only place in Australia without one.
Ms Purick: We are the only place that has fireworks as well. Maybe we should get rid of them?
Ms LAWRIE: I pick up on the interjection. The member for Goyder says that is because we are the only place that has fireworks as well. I have to say what a nonsense interjection. To compare the role of an EPA to letting off fireworks on Territory Day has to be one of the most extraordinary cases of drawing a long bow I have ever heard in this Chamber.
I outline the history of the process. It was the ALP in opposition that committed to looking into whether the Territory needed to establish an EPA. It was a 2001 election promise. What did we do? In our first term of parliament we ensured the environment committee of the parliament undertook the inquiry into the EPA. I chaired that committee and the member for Nelson was also a member of that committee. The committee handed down a variety of models because -surprise, surprise! - committee members could not agree on a model. So a variety of models were presented for government’s consideration.
The member for Goyder submitted ardently to that process against the EPA. There are many things that she is on the record as saying. I will not read all of them out because there are only a few that are required to outline the extraordinary hypocrisy of this MPI. I am sure she is arguing that she was simply doing her job then as the head of the Minerals Council and that they were not her personal views. Aside from the lack of integrity this is also not believable.
On several occasions she actually went out of her way to state that the views she was putting forward were her own views. In her submission to the Sessional Committee on Environment and Sustainable Development Inquiry into An Environmental Protection Agency for the Northern Territory she outlined her opposition to the establishment of an EPA and her further opposition to it being independent, and I quote:
- ... the current system of environmental assessment and management by Government for the resource industry is objective, fair and open to scrutiny and is relevant for contemporary operations.
She went on to say:
- … major changes to the current arrangements cannot be justified …
And she certainly did not want it to be independent …
Mr Elferink: Nor did you. Did you ever see your model? You have an EPA which is going to be totally funded from a government department and reports to a minister.
Madam SPEAKER: Order! Member for Port Darwin!
Ms LAWRIE: I pick up on the interjection from the member for Port Darwin.
Madam SPEAKER: Please pause, minister. Member for Port Darwin, I ask you to cease interjecting. Thank you.
Ms LAWRIE: Madam Speaker, I know he is getting hot under the collar because of the hypocrisy that is being exposed here through the debate of the MPI. I can understand how you would feel rather uncomfortable if you were sitting on the opposite side of the Chamber tonight in terms of the hypocrisy. It is extraordinary.
As I was saying, the member for Goyder certainly did not want it to be independent and I quote:
- I think the word ‘independent’ is grossly misused, it is almost devoid of meaning these days.
- We have some of the better legislations in Australia whether it be the Environmental Assessment Act or whether it be the Mining Management Act.
- … people seem to get hung up on this word ‘independence’ …
Unlike the CLP and the member for Goyder, the government has been consistent all the way through. It was this government which first talked about looking into the establishment of the EPA as a 2001 election commitment. It was this government which then established the parliamentary committee to inquire into the need for the EPA. It was this government which then went on to accept the establishment of an EPA and appointed an interim EPA Board.
We went further. We did not just say we will create our own model and introduce that into legislation. The Environment minister of the Labor government said to the interim board: ‘Go out and consult across the Territory and hear what people have to say about what they want to see from a Territory EPA’. This was not the government consulting. It was esteemed, independent members of that interim EPA board. That is government saying: ‘Let us know what Territorians think and in your expert roles advise us on what model you think should be introduced in legislation’. An arm’s length process, not meddling and not deciding what it should be, but giving the independent interim board the opportunity to go out across the Territory - which they did.
They went out and held public hearings just as the environment committee had done. They went across the Territory. They sought expert information. Many submissions came in. They came forward with the model that the Territory government has introduced into legislation. They said very clearly in their recommendations that for the EPA to be effective it needs to be independent. We heard the Environment minister quote from the legislation. They indicated what is most required for an EPA to do in the Territory, because the Territory is a largely underdeveloped jurisdiction, moving through a development phase. It would be duplication and a waste of a small jurisdiction’s resources to get all the environmental assessment processes that currently occur in the Office of the Environment within the department of the Environment, and duplicate that into an EPA. What they said was that the EPA needs to be a high level, policy setting body that could self-initiate and also take references from the government.
In these matters the proof is always in the pudding. The poorly researched debate from the opposition talked about the need to look at the carbon footprint and the life cycle analysis. They completely ignored the fact that we have gone on to establish an Office of Climate Change which is doing all this and currently has a discussion paper out which the members opposite ought to read. They did not even know until the minister told them that it has already chosen a reference of its own initiative: overarching sustainability principles for the Northern Territory. If there is nothing …
Ms Purick: They have not developed them, though.
Ms LAWRIE: I pick up on the interjection. The independent EPA is determined to have a look at it and go through what process it deems appropriate because the legislation ensures that the government cannot determine the type of research they do, the way they gather their material, and they way they undertake their inquiry. That is their business. We do not tell them how to do their business. They have chosen the task, which is looking at the overarching sustainability principles for the Territory, and they are going about it in their own fashion to do the research. Yet, the member for Goyder seems to think that that is a bad thing.
Anyone who bothers to try to get into the issues of sustainability will know that they are highly complex, and far reaching, and they cover a myriad of aspects of life. Anyone who understands the nature of the environment of the Territory knows that our desert regions are vastly different to our wetlands in the north. I am not surprised that they are taking whatever time they deem necessary to produce sound, overarching sustainable principles for the Territory.
I am hard pressed to think of anything more important in the context of environmental debate for the Territory. In contemporary settings there is nothing more important than sustainability. What has the Territory government chosen to refer to them as a task? Review the environmental processes as they apply to major projects. We have not shied away and we have not said: ‘Do not touch our environmental processes, leave them alone, we will have a look at them ourselves, we are very happy’. We have said to the independent EPA: ‘You have a look at that, and you provide us with your recommendations’.
The EPA by legislation and by the membership is independent. When the members of the committee - and this an important point - travelled interstate and met with the Western Australian and South Australian EPAs, the core message coming through to us was that the independence of the EPA can be attributed to the strength and the nature of the people you appoint. It is the people who make something independent.
If you are going to run the line, as the member for Brennan did, that he truly does not trust the government, is he actually saying he does not trust the integrity and the professionalism of the members of the EPA? If that is the case, then it is a despicable assertion, because they have proven to be people of great integrity and they have been selected, based on their professionalism and their integrity, to give fair, frank, open, and honest advice to government on environmental matters they look into.
Madam Speaker, the whole MPI is nonsense, led by the member who ardently fought against an EPA and said to the committee that it was her own view. As a committee we met with key mining stakeholders on the ground and one of the good things that came from those consultations was that the mining sector was saying: ‘We do not have an issue with the EPA because we deal with EPAs in other jurisdictions’. We are introducing contemporary best practice to environmental assessment into what we do; quite a different line that was coming out of their spokesperson, the now member for Goyder.
It was the Labor government that said we would look into establishing an EPA while the CLP was still refusing to have one. When we came to government we followed through on that commitment. We had an inquiry to consider introducing an EPA and we have now established an EPA. We have passed legislation in the Chamber. They are independent; it is written into the legislation. They have self-initiated a reference, and they have another significant reference from government. They are independent by practice and they are reporting to parliament which is the other aspect of the MPI. This MPI is nonsense.
Mr WESTRA van HOLTHE (Katherine): Madam Speaker, I will refer the government to this legislation, and particularly section 5 of that act. I will read it out for the benefit of all:
(1) The Authority’s functions are to give advice and to make recommendations to the Territory, businesses and the community about ecologically sustainable development.
- (a) on a reference made by the Minister; or
(b) on a reference:
- (i) made by someone else in accordance with criteria and arrangements agreed with the Minister; and
- (ii) accepted by the authority; or
- (iii) on its own initiative in accordance with criteria and arrangements agreed with the Minister.
Madam Speaker, every part of that legislation refers to the minister. That can hardly be considered as independent.
Members: Hear, hear!
Mr WESTRA van HOLTHE: I will refer now to section 24 of the act: Availability of advice or recommendation.
(1) When the Authority gives advice or makes a recommendation, it must give a copy of it to the Minister and make it available to the public in a way the Authority considers appropriate.
As far as I can determine those reasonable grounds are not defined in the act. The act further says:
(3) In addition, before making the advice or recommendation available to the public, the Authority must give the Minister reasonable notice of its intention to do so.
That particular subparagraph gives the minister a heads up on whether he is going to allow that information to be provided to the public.
Section 25: Minister to notify Authority of decision on advice or recommendation:
- If the Authority gives advice or makes a recommendation to the Territory, the Minister must, as soon as practicable after a decision is taken on the advice or recommendation, …
That is the minister’s decision in the way I am looking at this legislation, which goes on to say:
- … give written notice to the Authority of the decision.
That takes away the authority from the EPA to give that information out to the public unless the minister has (a) seen it first, and (b) approved its release. Madam Speaker, that is not independent.
Discussion concluded.
ADJOURNMENT
Ms LAWRIE (Leader of Government Business): Madam Speaker, I move that the Assembly do now adjourn.
Mr HENDERSON (Wanguri): Madam Speaker, I thank my constituents in Wanguri for returning me in the election on 9 August as the local member. I am genuinely humbled by the results in Wanguri and humbled by the confidence that my constituents in Wanguri, Leanyer, and Lyons have now placed in me for another term. Whilst the election was a tough one, it feels fantastic to have crossed the line. It is also an absolute privilege to know that your constituents support you and have confidence in you. For all of us here, it is a tremendous honour and privilege to be elected to this assembly. I thank each and every person who voted for me, and for the ones who did not I will serve those constituents professionally and diligently and do everything I can to represent their interests in this Assembly.
The Wanguri electorate gained the new suburb of Lyons, due to the re-distribution, from my colleague, the member for Casuarina, who has done a lot of good work previously getting to know the constituents there. It is wonderful to see a new suburb going up in Darwin. About 30% of the suburb will be going to Defence personnel, DHA Housing, but many other Territorians are taking the opportunity to build the house of their dreams in Lyons. I am looking forward to representing those constituents. Wanguri, as an electorate, is going through significant growth as is the rest of the Territory.
Post the election, I am feeling enthused, energised and ready to hit the ground running. As always, there are a great number of people who must be thanked for their time and the support they offered to me in this particular campaign. First, to my wonderful wife, Stacey, and three fantastic children - Alasdair, Liam, and Isobel. We cannot do the job here that Territorians entrust us to do without the support of our family and my two boys, Alasdair and Liam, were a part of the campaign team this time, and it was great to have them on the team. My family obviously is fundamental to my life and I am thankful that they support me in what I do.
This year we christened my campaign team ‘Team Hendo’. We had the shirts, the hats, and it was a fantastic time. My campaign team was just enormous, they are all friends and I could not do it without the core of the team George, Kosta, Roberto, Jana and my electorate officer, Morgan. They met every evening and organised the support team around them. You are all great friends and I thank you so much for your support. Thank you to all the other people who helped, whether it was putting up posters, letterboxing, or endorsements.
It is always very humbling to get those endorsement flyers out where constituents are quite happy to say thank you and to endorse you again as a result of the work that you do for them. I thank all of those people who were happy to endorse me by helping out on the day and providing support to me and the others – thank you to you all. Special thanks must go to Inacio and Maria, Ron and Jeannie, Brian and Perla, Jas, Wilfred, Khalid and Rita, John and Nali, Richard and Maxine, Eddie and Jane, Doreen and Jack, Denis, Trish, and Ian – these are only a few of the people who went out of their way to help me – I sincerely thank you all.
I had many people donate their knowledge and their time and that was very humbling. To realise that people believe in me enough to give their spare time to assist is humbling. We are all very busy, we all have families, everyone I know is busy in their own lives and to have people spend their precious time helping me to get re-elected, is something I will never forget.
I would also like to mention the schools around Wanguri and their fantastic principals. I really enjoy visiting the schools. I thank Jenny from Wanguri, Henry from Leanyer, Kate from St Andrew’s, and Bernadette from Holy Spirit. The doors to the schools are always open and I will continue to give them advice and support, as I have over the years because they are a key part of the electorate.
My electorate office is in the Hibiscus Shoppingtown in Leanyer and I am lucky to have the backing of the centre management and the tenants. They are a fantastic group of tenants and the management team is fantastic. My thanks go to Laura and Paul for all their help and support.
Thanks must also go to the central campaign team - you kept us all going - without your planning and guidance, we would not be here right now.
Throughout the campaign, I made promises to the constituents of Wanguri and I cannot wait to get out and start delivering. These promises include $300 000 for each primary school to upgrade their facilities; a $3m upgrade for Dripstone Middle School; a $5m upgrade to Casuarina Secondary College; a new Police Beat shopfront at Casuarina Square; the completion of the $7.4m upgrade to the Casuarina Police Station; and Stage 2 of Lake Leanyer. The families of the northern suburbs, Darwin, and the Territory are really going to enjoy the water slides.
When children from the bush schools come to Darwin to do a tour of Parliament House, I always encourage the teachers to take the children to the water park to have a great time. It is a place for all Territorians.
I welcome the three new Labor MLAs: Michael Gunner, member for Fannie Bay; Lynne Walker, member for Nhulunbuy; and Gerry McCarthy, member for Barkly. They gave very impressive maiden speeches and I know those members are going to make an enormous contribution not only to their electorates but to the parliament and to the people of the Northern Territory. I extend my sincere congratulations on your win. I also congratulate the other members who were elected to this House. It is a tremendous honour. As I said during the campaign, the election was going to be close; a handful of votes was going to determine the result and the people of the Territory always get it right. So to those new members, congratulations!
While it is sad to see colleagues go, I thank my former colleagues who are no longer MLAs: James Burke, Matty Bonson, Len Kiely, Clare Martin, Chris Natt, Kerry Sacilotto, Syd Stirling, Elliot McAdam and Ted Warren. Each and every one of you did a fantastic job. I thank you for your friendship, camaraderie, and the commitment and contributions you made to your electorates, the people of the Territory, and this parliament during the terms you served. Syd Stirling served nearly 18 years; 18 years worth of service to the Northern Territory. It is an enormous commitment and I put on the record my thanks to my former colleagues for their great commitment to this place and the Labor Party.
Mr ELFERINK (Port Darwin): Madam Deputy Speaker, this is your maiden trip in the Chair. I will try to not make it too painful for you.
I will follow up on something that came up during the Address-in-Reply debate today. During the time I have not been a member of parliament, I have still kept an eye on what has been going on in this place. One of the things I noticed late in the last parliamentary term, earlier this year, was the rather astonishing defence run by the Treasurer of the Chief Minister’s assertion that changing current wages did not have an effect on the superannuation liability. It was an extraordinary defence because under no measure or yardstick of financial management or actuarial assessment could you ever make that statement and then have a defensible position afterwards. If you change the current – it is not always going to be the case - wages and conditions of the whole public service, there will be an effect, a resonating impact into the ongoing liability of the Northern Territory regarding its superannuation.
There are certain things that the government cannot do in relation to the actuarial assessments of the superannuation liability. That much has been made obvious by the fact that it has blown out from $1.4bn to $2.5bn and is projected to blow out even more if you take the time to read Budget Paper No 2.
However, it would be helpful if the Chief Minister and the Treasurer could get their heads around how this system works, so that the Treasurer does not find herself agreeing with the Chief Minister who is utterly wrong. He was simply wrong by saying that there was no impact on current wage changes on the superannuation liability. His argument, at the time, was that the schemes - referring to the Commonwealth Superannuation Scheme and NTGPASS - had closed down. This is astonishing because that does not mean there are not still members in those schemes who are still in the public service. There are many members of the Commonwealth Superannuation Scheme – a very generous scheme – and the NTGPASS scheme who are still members of the public service today. Under their conditions, when there is a change in their pay it resonates into their pay-out - or their pension in the case of the CSS members - into the future.
It is bad enough that the single largest liability that the Northern Territory carries into the future is not only misunderstood by the Chief Minister but misunderstood by the Treasurer who tries to defend it. A few questions were asked the following day and there was a muttering under the breath of the Treasurer who said: ‘Yes, well, wages do affect the CSS and the NTGPASS members’, but it was muttered under her breath during Question Time and I missed it until I actually read the Hansard.
It is bad enough that she does not understand that, but this is a clanger, this is an absolute beauty. I have to quote the Treasurer from today during her reply in the censure debate when she said:
Canberra withdrew the funds out of health care and pushed the states and territories to putting more in. The split became 70% states and territories, 30% Commonwealth. This is at the same time the Commonwealth coffers were filling with GST …
- The federal government’s coffers were filling up with the GST …
She is not talking about the Commonwealth Grants Review Commission. No, she is talking about the federal government, because she went on to say:
- Were they delivering it to where we needed it the most, into our hospitals and our Health Care Agreement? No, they were not.
She was referring to the GST. I do not have my wallet with me but I have here in my drawer the full amount of money that the Commonwealth has received from GST revenues. Ooops, nothing, it is empty. The Commonwealth has not drawn one cent from GST revenues. The whole agreement, which she should be more than aware of, was that the GST revenues would exclusively flow to the states. What she was trying to refer to, albeit somewhat inexpertly, is that the Commonwealth’s income was going up at a greater rate than the states’ incomes were going up. That does not mean that the states’ incomes were not going up; the Commonwealth was getting more at a higher rate.
The effect is, if you take the slice of Commonwealth against state income, you get this really interesting graph because, as a proportion, the states and territories are getting less than the Commonwealth was getting. That is not a major surprise. That is partly due to the resources boom. You have income taxes and because wages are going up you get more money going into Commonwealth coffers. However, that does not mean to say that the Commonwealth was getting anything out of the GST.
It is beyond my imagination and comprehension how a Treasurer, who clearly does not understand how our superannuation liability works and struggles with the basic ABC Economics 101 when it comes to fiscal management and where the money goes when the taxation is collected, can stand up here and say that she is the greatest Treasurer since - what was his name? - Placido Domingo, or Paul Keating was when he was Treasurer of this country.
These sorts of mistakes from the Treasurer are irritating to listen to because it demonstrates that, once again, spin wins over substance every time as far as this government is concerned. It is all about dressage and those sorts of things. She mentioned a black hole earlier – or was it the Chief Minister I cannot recall - it was a dreadful black hole that the CLP promises were going to be. I recall that the CLP’s promises actually added up to less than the Territory government’s promises. If that is the case, if ours was a $100m black hole, what was their’s going to be? Or were they going to raise taxes?
I will now speak regarding the comments, and I invite the Health Minister to explain this to me, about the 62 Executive Contract Officers, or Executive Officers, I would like that clarified also; there were 62 in 2001 when they came to government and there are 64 now. I have done a little searching while that speech was being delivered, and I am now somewhat confused. I ask the Health Minister to clarify this for me; I heard him say there are currently only 64 executives in the department. According to page 117 of the last annual report, there are 4701 full-time equivalents in the department. If that is correct, and I accept it is correct, then there should be, and there is, a breakdown in the annual report which describes who sits where. The annual report says that 2% of the staff of the department rests in its executive. I just calculated 2% of 4701 people and that is 94 executives. I am confused about how he can say that there were only 64 and I invite him to explain that.
The other thing I am confused about is that in the 2002-03 annual report only 1% of Health staff were listed as being executives. That annual report does not give you an exact amount of numbers as to how many people were in the Health Department at that stage so I had to go to the OCPE website to find out how many people were in the Health Department then. The December quarter figure was 3890. If the annual report says that 1% of 3890 were executives that equals 39. So I am a little confused as to how he can claim there were only 62 executives in 2001, when – I have actually used 2002-03 figures - my calculations show 39 executives, or 1% of the department, which magically morphs into 94 executives, which is 2% of 4701 executives. I am very curious to see where these numbers are coming from.
I listened carefully and I have not seen the Hansard yet, but I think he was referring to Executive Contract Officers. Now those are not quite the same as Executive Officers. Executive Contract Officers appear with an ECO level attached to them, and they are a different package to an Executive Officer. If you look at a thing called an ECO1, they get a package of somewhere around $160 000 a year at the moment, compared with an EO1, who is still an employed non-contract officer, who receives $98 000 at the moment. It would be cute beyond imagination if the minister was referring to ECO levels and not EO levels, because if he is doing that, it will have the effect of masking the actual number of executives in the department.
I invite the minister, during the course of the adjournment debate tonight, to clarify that because on the numbers I have been able to find in government records today, compared with the numbers that he said were currently in the department, there is a yawning chasm. He says 62 and 64 over a certain period. The numbers that I have been working on give me 39 and 94. There may be an explanation for that, but the minister has said proudly and clearly - he stood up with his hand on his heart in this place – ‘I have never lied to this House’. If that is true can he explain to me why I cannot find the numbers in the pages he is referring to?
Madam Speaker, I invite the minister to respond to this and explain to me how this works.
Ms McCARTHY (Arnhem): Madam Deputy Speaker, it is a great pleasure to stand here tonight to thank the people of Arnhem for their 100% support of me in this Assembly and no doubt my colleague, the member for Macdonnell, feels the same.
I will highlight certain places in my electorate to say thank you to those who were ready and willing to support me on the campaign in particular to Eddie Chisholm, Uncle Phillip Quall and Andrew Ah Kit for your terrific support and preparation in the lead up to the election, but in particular after the news that I had been automatically elected to parliament. Thank you to Eddie, Uncle Quall and Andrew for maintaining your support as we continued to support the member for Barkly and the member for Stuart in their campaigns. In particular to my electorate officer Charles Powling, a very big thanks to you. You are just fantastic. It has been wonderful to work with you over the past three years and I look forward to the next four years. Thank you for your terrific support and unfailing loyalty to the Labor party and the people of Arnhem.
I worked closely with the Katherine Labor Party branch during the election campaign. I pay tribute to Sharon Hillen, a terrific candidate for us in the Katherine region who worked hard, and to her team. Sean Heffernan is a strong advocate for Labor values in the Katherine region and I say thank you to Sean. I also thank John King for the tremendous work he put into the election campaign for the Katherine region. I congratulate each and every member who is here in the House and take this opportunity to remind all members that we are here to serve the people of our constituency in a fair and no doubt vocal manner, but always with the firm belief that we are going in a direction that is for the betterment of all people across the Northern Territory. I congratulate each of you.
Members: Hear, hear!
Ms McCARTHY: Congratulations to you, Madam Deputy Speaker, on your election to the position of Deputy Speaker, and to the member for Nightcliff, on her unanimous re-election as the Speaker of the House.
I want to pick up on some particular comments raised by the member for Araluen relating to Central Australia and my colleagues, the members for Stuart and Macdonnell. It is a fantastic to know that we have two amazing people in Cabinet who will speak, and have spoken very strongly, for Central Australia.
It is indeed an honour to work beside them. I am confident that the people of Central Australia know that their voices are going to be heard by the member for Macdonnell and the member for Stuart. They will be supported wholeheartedly by their colleagues on this side of the parliament to ensure that the voices of those in Central Australia and the Barkly region - to include the member for Barkly - are heard and their desires will be acted on. I put that on the record for the member for Araluen.
In preparation for the opening of parliament there were some sad spots over the last couple of weeks in my communities. One of these was at Numbulwar and the other was in my homelands, the Borroloola region, where we have had many funerals. It has been quite a sad time for the people of Numbulwar.
I pay tribute to a terrific man, whose name I cannot mention here, but one day I will be able to put on the Parliamentary Record that this man was the leader of the Red Flag Dancers and a strong leader for the people of Numbulwar. Sadly, he passed away while visiting family on Groote Eylandt over a month ago. I send condolences to the Yilila Singers and the band members, and to the community of Numbulwar for your loss and know that your loss is felt quite deeply throughout Arnhem Land and through the Gulf region.
Another strong advocate and wise leader for the Yanyuwa, Garawa, Mara and Gudanji peoples of the Gulf region was my Mimi, my grandfather, Mr Hammer, who gave great service to the people of the Northern Territory through his advocacy on the Northern Land Council and his work on the Aboriginal Areas Protection Authority which was previously known as Aboriginal Sacred Sites.
The funeral was strange this time. I use the word ‘strange’ simply because at every funeral you went to, this man was there. He is the one who organised the coffins, organised the bodies being brought to the community, and he talked to the families. Usually, when families are grieving over someone they have lost, there are some family struggles. I know it is not unique to Aboriginal culture. I know that all families have their own struggles with funerals. In the Borroloola community, this man made a huge difference bringing peace amongst the clan groups, following custom, knowing when to bury a person, and where that person should be buried. Sometimes there would be arguments over whether that person should be buried near Robinson River, or the island country further to the north in the Sir Edward Pellew, or whether they should be buried at Ngukurr.
This time it was this man’s burial, so it was a very strange funeral. For Aboriginal people in Arnhem Land, funerals are part of life, a really sad part of life, and people go to funerals every week. When you went to the funeral of this man, this great man, you could sense that there was a massive change, to know that this one person who had a tremendous impact, such a positive impact, on the Gulf region was no longer there.
I place on the record in the parliament, in this place of law for the people of the Northern Territory, that there was one lawmaker who needs to be acknowledged by this parliament.
To his family in the Limmen Bight region and in the Borroloola region and all his mob through to Ngukurr and Numbulwar and to Groote, we say thank you for this great man. He will always be remembered. May his children and grandchildren walk in his ways with wisdom and strength and courage to bring about such peace amongst other people.
Members: Hear, hear!
Ms McCARTHY: I will talk about Groote Eylandt and pay special tribute to two people who have given their service to the Angurugu people in particular: Kathy and Bryan Massey, two non-Aboriginal people, a couple who have lived on the island for the past 20 years and have done a wonderful job working in the aged care service on Groote. I say to Kathy and Bryan: thank you so much for your commitment to overseeing so much in the community of Angurugu, a place which is usually renowned in newspapers for pretty violent acts, lots of fighting, and lots of trouble. Kathy and Bryan seem to have made that place their home and have endeared themselves to the clan groups on Groote. They looked after a lot of the people as they got older and even the young ones, because some of them would be struck with this disease called Machado-Joseph Disease (MJD). It is a very crippling disease similar to Parkinson’s Disease. MJD affects only one clan group, the Lalara clan. Kathy and Bryan took great care of many people in their time. They are leaving the community when the MJD research centre is being set up by their daughter, who is wonderful woman too; she is taking on the role. I say thank you to the Massey family for your fantastic contribution to the people of Groote Eylandt. All your good work will be carried on by your daughter.
I will speak about my communities of Milingimbi and Ramingining. I was very pleased to be at Milingimbi just a couple of weeks before the election was called. Milingimbi was experiencing a great gathering of a lot of the clan groups from as far away as Yirrkala, Gapuwiyak, Elcho, Ramingining, and Maningrida. Many of them came for a very special ceremony of law about respecting law and about knowing who is related to who, and the relationships. This is a ceremony that happens very year. It is a very special ceremony. It is also a time for people to feel strong and proud.
The news of the Blue Mud Bay decision was received with great joy by all the people across Arnhem Land who are largely my constituents and, no doubt, by the people of the Arafura region, and the Daly region, as the waterline goes around.
I say to this House how wonderful it is for the people of the Arnhem region to feel so strong and to feel acknowledged and respected for the long history of culture and heritage there. I also give reassurance to this parliament that the strength of that decision is also about acknowledging the truth of this country and the history of the Aboriginal struggle. This decision by the High Court vindicates so much the strength of that culture, and that living culture today. I reassure the parliament and all colleagues here that the Aboriginal people of Arnhem Land will work to the best of their ability to ensure that this is about a path of walking together while at the same time it has to be about employment and the future business developments for the regions, where traditional owners and the sea country can provide an income for them and their children and those who wish to benefit from it.
Madam Deputy Speaker, on that note, I congratulate the people of Arnhem.
Ms CARNEY (Araluen): Madam Deputy Speaker, tonight I will talk about this can. I am very glad you are here, Attorney-General, because Consumer Affairs is covered by your portfolio and my shadow portfolio. I bought this can in Alice Springs, emptied it down the sink at home and brought it to parliament because I thought it was a can worthy of discussion in this parliament.
Someone pointed it out to me and I purchased it at Coles in the fridge near the checkouts for all to see. It is made by the Coca-Cola company - I tasted it; it is disgusting – and it is called ‘Mother’ which is not in and of itself an offensive term. In fact, the term ‘mother’ is commonly well understood by all of us. Everyone has or had a mother at some stage. ‘Mother’ is a great word. However, when we look more closely at this can we see that it is used in a manner which is sexist and offensive. I propose to read a couple of bits off this can. I cannot add the other word to ‘mother’ - it starts with an ‘f’ - it is an unparliamentary word. In the context of what is written on this can it is clear that this can of drink is not intended to be sold as nice warm and fuzzy mother; it is intended to be sold as the vulgar slang and the pejorative term mother ‘blank’. It says, ‘It’s a mother of a caffeine hit’. It says:
- If you need a mother of an energy hit, you need Mother. It delivers twice the kick in a big black can. So now when your mate turns up with a wussy sized can, you can raise your Mother up and proudly say, did yours come with a man bag.
It also says, after declaring that it has a high caffeine content:
Okay, we now know that’s why you’re drinking it, but our lame legal guys made us warn you not to feed this to kids, up the duff women or the weak who just can’t tolerate it.
I think that is offensive. I am stunned that Coca-Cola was allowed to sell this in supermarkets in this country. For Coca-Cola to embark on what I regard as profoundly sexist language, not to mention a very clear reference to vulgar slang, I think is offensive and should not be allowed. I have done some searching on the Advertising Standards Bureau website and it does say, from the information I have been able to print off, that it is the appropriate authority to send a complaint to. There is a code of ethics. Section 2.1 of the Australian Association of National Advertisers Code of Ethics says:
Advertising or Marketing Communication shall not portray people or depict material in a way which discriminates against or vilifies a person or section of the community on account of …
It goes on to list a number of things, one of which is sex. There are also references on other parts of the website to pregnant women. I thought, in 2008, we had moved beyond putting on stuff that we can buy in supermarkets terms like, ‘up the duff’, and I am genuinely stunned.
I will look at how I can properly complain; I think I can do it online and I will do it. Can I urge others who share my views, and I am hopeful that 24 of my parliamentary colleagues will share my views about this particular can, to complain. I will not table this, and it is pretty hard to photocopy, but I will hand it around. It also says on the side, ‘mother of all energy kicks’. I think that is disgraceful. I searched the word ‘mother blank’ on my computer and was invited to go to places I did not want to go. There can be no doubt that the term ‘mother blank’ is an insulting one and in this day and age, although we know young people use it, I do not believe it is a term that adults should use and it certainly should not be put on cans of coke.
I appeal particularly to the women members of this parliament on both sides. to also complain because I feel certain that, particularly those with children, would not want their kids to see rubbish like this for sale as they are lining up at Coles.
I have made my point, Madam Deputy Speaker, and with those remarks I will hand this around for members to have a look at.
Mr WESTRA van HOLTHE (Katherine): Madam Deputy Speaker, although the subject of my first adjournment debate is a rather serious one it is a topic that is close to the hearts of many people in the Northern Territory, Australia, and across the globe.
Cancer is a major blight in our community. One in three men and one in four women in Australia will be directly affected by cancer in the first 75 years of life. It is estimated that in 2006 there were 106 000 new cases of cancer diagnosed in Australia. Of that figure, 60 600 were males and 45 400 were females. Cancer is the leading cause of premature death in Australia. In 2004, more than 38 000 Australians died from cancer. Lung cancer is the most common cause of cancer death in Australia, followed by colorectal cancer, cancer of unknown primary site, prostate cancer, and breast cancer. These five cancers caused more than half of all the deaths from cancer in 2004.
I acknowledge the victims, the families of the victims and other people who have been affected by all cancers, either directly or indirectly. I too have been indirectly touched by cancer, with the death five years ago of my father in-law, and the recent diagnosis of a dear friend of mine, Connie Swinstead, with terminal cancer that began in her lung and has now manifested itself in her brain. Connie and Dennis, my thoughts are with you, as I am sure the thoughts of your family and friends are also.
I do not seek to diminish the degree of tragedy caused by all forms of cancer. However, my contribution to this debate this evening will focus on the ravages of breast cancer. Generally over the last 20 years, the rate of incidence of breast cancer in Australian women has been increasing by 34%. However the mortality rate has been falling by around 21%. In 2004, breast cancer was the third most common form of cancer in Australia, with over 12 000 new cases, the most common cancer affecting Australian women. In 2005, breast cancer was the fifth most common most cause of cancer death in Australia with over 2500 deaths reported which was 7% of all cancer related deaths. It was the most common cause of cancer death in females with 2716 deaths, which represented a staggering 16% of all female deaths, and 17 men died from breast cancer in Australia in the same year.
Breast cancer is the most common invasive cancer diagnosed in females in Australia, and it is rare in males. It is an insidious killer; it has no respect for who you are or where you live. Although there is evidence to suggest the prevalence of breast cancer is high in certain socioeconomic groups, it really does not care if you earn $500 000 a year, or if you live on the poverty line. It can affect anyone, just about anytime. The number of new cases of breast cancer per annum increased from 5318 in 1983 to 12 027 in 2002, with more than 13 000 new cases in 2006, and the projection for the year 2011 is 14 800.
BreastScreen Australia public mammography screening program commenced in most states in 1991 and in others soon afterwards. Since then there has been very little change in the number of new cases of breast cancer per 100 000 people in women under 50 years of age, while in the age group 50 to 69 years there has been a considerable increase in incidence. There was also an increase in the 65- to 69-year-old group. Women living in the areas of highest urbanisation had significantly higher rates of breast cancer in 1998 to 2002. In major cities, there were 117 new cases of breast cancer per 100 000 people compared with the 114 in inner regional areas, 105 in outer regional areas, 101 in remote areas, and 94 in very remote areas.
Women living in higher socioeconomic status areas have a significantly higher incidence of breast cancer and women living in low socioeconomic status areas have a significantly lower incidence. In the 2000-02 period, women in the highest socioeconomic status quintile had an incidence rate of a 134 new cases of breast cancer per 100 000 population. This is significantly greater than the women in the second highest quintile which in turn was significantly greater than the rate of breast cancer experienced by women living in areas that fall into the remaining three quintiles of socioeconomic status. Women living in areas of low socioeconomic status quintile had an incident rate of 110 new cases per 100 000 population significantly lower than the rest of the population.
Breast cancer is the most common cancer experienced by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women but the incident rate is lower than for the non-Indigenous population. Despite lower incidence, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women had 9% higher rates of breast cancer mortality than the Australian female population as a whole, based on age standardised rates for the 2000-04 period for Queensland, Western Australia, South Australia, and Northern Territory registered deaths.
Breast cancer in males is rare. The number of new cases of breast cancer in males per year increased from 43 in 1983 to 84 in 2002. In terms of international comparison data on breast cancer in females, Australia had a higher age standardised incidence of breast cancer against developed countries of the world in 2002. However, Australia’s incidence was lower than that of the United States of America, New Zealand, United Kingdom, and Canada. Similarly, Australia had a higher age standardised rate of mortality from breast cancer than the more developed countries in the world in 2002. Sadly, in the 2001 National Health survey, 12.2% of women aged 50 to 59, 11.2% of those aged 60 to 69, and 27.9% of those aged 70 years and over reported that they have never had a mammogram.
On the upside, the number of women receiving mammography screening and BreastScreen Australia program has been steadily increasing. The goal of the BreastScreen Australia screening program is 70% participation rate by women aged 50 to 69 in a two year period. Although the figures are a little dated, the total expenditure on breast cancer was $241m in 2000-01. Of this $96m was spent on population screening mammography, $72m on hospital admitted patients, $21m on out of hospital medical costs, and $27m on pharmaceuticals requiring a prescription. In 2000-01 breast cancer had an estimated life time treatment cost of $11 897.
I shudder to think about the cost to the health system in more recent years. There are many organisations across the Territory and throughout Australia that provide assistance and support for breast cancer patients, recovered patients, and family and friends. To name just a few, the Cancer Council of Australia, the Cancer Councils of the various states and territories, together with organisations such as Dragons Abreast. To all these organisations I tip my hat. They provide the support directly and through fund raising to a degree that should be the envy of similar organisations of the developed world. Under their umbrella ordinary people do amazing things. All sorts of people volunteer their time and effort to raise funds for, and awareness of, this scourge.
On the face of it, it may seem callous to single out particular individuals when so many contribute so much to this very worthy cause, yet I intend to do just that. The reason for me following this course of action will become apparent later.
In Katherine, there are more than 20 women who are current breast cancer survivors. Like many more cancer survivors all over the world, this group of tough and determined women commit time and energy towards supporting, ultimately, the cause of finding a cure for this horrible disease. It is easy to understand why breast cancer survivors would want to fight for this cure. Simply, they do not want more women to go through the trauma, the pain, and the fear that they have already experienced. I applaud their efforts.
Then there is a group of people who have never experienced the horrors of cancer, yet they still commit themselves to support the breast cancer cause. This group of individuals are special people. They are selfless and caring individuals who manage to find the time out of their busy lives to run fundraising events and promote the cause towards an eventual cure.
Sometimes, life is not fair. Why is it that some of those caring and committed individuals, those who have no present vested interest in supporting the cause for a cancer cure, are struck down with the very disease they are fighting so hard to eradicate from the human landscape? It would be like a person whose life was committed to road safety and reducing road deaths being run over by a car. Unfortunately, it happens - probably all too frequently. Then what happens? We - that is you and I and staff of the parliament - virtually become a statistic. We become a statistic by entering into the group of people who know yet another cancer sufferer.
Recently, the electorate officer for the member for Katherine - that is my electorate officer - was diagnosed with breast cancer. Pat Witte has served both me and the former member for Katherine, Fay Miller. She is a tireless and devoted person who always has the interests of others at heart. Pat is one of those people who, up until now, has not had a direct vested interest in breast cancer. Despite this fact, Pat is one of those people whose selfless volunteer work has touched the lives of cancer sufferers and survivors - and she now joins those ranks. For example, Pat Witte was one of the instrumental few who organised the Big Pink Breakfast in Katherine in 2007. The breakfast was well attended and raised a significant sum of money donated to cancer research.
Last week, Pat underwent a surgical procedure and I am pleased to advise she is well. I know surgical procedures these days tend to be less invasive than in the past, and that recovery times have significantly improved. Pat’s surgery was nowhere near insignificant yet, less than 24 hours after the surgery, Pat was up and about and, except for the presence of a drain from the affected area, looked extremely fit and well. Three days later Pat was back in Katherine resting and, by all accounts, looking as well as she did before the procedure. I do not know too much about the finer details of the treatment of any cancer, but I do know that surgery is not always 100% successful in removing all the cancer. The process, as I understand it, is to have further tests after surgery to determine if there are any indicators of remaining cancer in lymph glands. From there, there is a determination made as to whether further treatment is required in the form of radiotherapy or chemotherapy. Sometimes, in the very best of circumstances, there is no further treatment required.
Today, Pat Witte, to her and to my delight, and I am sure the delight of all who know her, was advised that there appears to be no residual cancer. She is not out of the woods yet as she still must meet with her oncologist to determine if any further treatment is required.
Madam Deputy Speaker, I am sure all the members of the House share with me the desire to wish her well and a very speedy recovery. I must say that I am looking forward to Pat returning to work as soon as she is able.
Members: Hear, hear!
Dr BURNS (Johnston): Madam Deputy Speaker, it has been a privilege to meet many residents of Millner who have become part of the Johnston electorate.
When doorknocking along Ryland Road, Millner, I met Maree de la Cruz, a long-term Territory resident and was inspired by her family story. In particular, I will remember Ken de la Cruz, who passed away in December 2004 after living in the Territory for more than 40 years. He gave 38 of those years to public service.
Ken and his wife, Maree de la Cruz, moved into Millner in November 1967, no doubt, one of the first families to do so. Ken came to the Northern Territory from Innisfail, Queensland in the early 1960s and Maree from New South Wales in 1957. They met, married, and produced three wonderful children: Jody, Sven and Namin, who all attended Millner Preschool, Millner Primary School, and Nightcliff High School. Ken first worked as an orderly at the old Darwin Hospital at the end of Mitchell Street, and then with the public service for the next 38 years. Initially he commenced duty with the old Commonwealth Department of Construction, working in the road maintenance area. Prior to Cyclone Tracy, he worked as a tally clerk for the 2 Mile workshops in the electrical workshop and the water and sewerage section.
Although Maree and the children were evacuated after Cyclone Tracy, Ken stayed and worked with the water and sewerage section where there was a big job to be done getting services back up and running. His family returned to Darwin after the clean-up and moved back into their home in Millner.
Ken went on to work with the Soils Laboratory until transferring to FEPPI and the Department of Education in clerical positions. He was medically retired due to ill health in 1999. Ken was one of those amazing people who gave an enormous amount of time to voluntary work. He is well remembered for his involvement on committees over many years including the Darwin Amateur Boxing – he was an active member for 30 years and a life member; the Aboriginal Eye Health Committee; and, up until his passing, nearly 10 years on the Danila Dilba Health Board. He was also on the Darwin Rugby League judiciary for 19 years. He was a Commissioner for Oaths and then became a Justice of the Peace, a position he held for 26 years with honour and trust.
Not many people know this, and Maree has let me know this, but in the 1980s, Roger Steele asked Ken to stand for pre-selection for the CLP in Millner. Ken never had any ambition of becoming a member of government, but he decided to give it a go because Roger was so insistent. However, the selection committee decided on Shorty Robinson to run for the CLP. As history shows, the successfully elected member for Millner became Terry Smith for Labor, who served the Millner electorate for many years and was a very popular member. I am sure Ken, if he had been elected, would have been a very hard-working and popular member.
Maree also worked as a public servant for 20 years, mainly in the ministerial liaison areas of the Department of the Chief Minister and Community Development and Health. Maree retired from the public service in 2004. Given the family’s history of diabetes, Maree was involved as a member of the Diabetes Australia board for 15 years.
Being a true Territorian, fishing and camping were Ken’s passions. Ken passed away in December 2004. He was regarded by all those who knew him as a gentleman, a reserved man who always showed respect to people. His quiet nature and gentle manner endeared him to many from all walks of life. Ken and Maree were married for over 40 years. They have been blessed with two beautiful grandsons, Jayden and Zane. Maree and her two sons still reside in Millner in the same house they moved into in 1968. They still consider it the best suburb to live in.
I am enjoying meeting the people of Millner following the redistribution and election which made me their local member.
I mentioned that Maree and Ken’s children attended Millner Preschool and Millner Primary School. Millner Primary School will be celebrating its 40th birthday on 19 September with an International Indigenous Food Fair. This will be a great opportunity to see the memorabilia the school has collected during its past, and for present and past students to reunite and remember their school days. Thousands of students have passed through Millner, so it is going to be a fantastic occasion.
Another great event being held in the Johnston electorate shortly is the 2008 NT BMX Titles, which are being held at the Jingili BMX Club with pre-titles on Wednesday, 1 October and the titles on Friday, 3 and Saturday, 4 October. The titles are being sponsored by Bright Eyes Sunglasses of Darwin, as well as Ardverkas Concreters, Bikes to Fit, K9 Cycles, Danila Dilba and NT Electrical.
The committee running this event comprises: Brooke Ellison as the President; Vice President, Jai Mertin; Secretary and Canteen Manager, Jacquie Dobson; Public Officer, Jason Eecen; Treasurer, Helen Pitts; Race Registrar, Lisa Coon; and Riders Rep, Vanessa King. Unfortunately this year I am unable to attend the official opening due to an interstate commitment, so I will take this opportunity to wish the riders all the best with the titles and to congratulate the committee on all their hard work.
Members: Hear, hear!
Dr BURNS: Congratulations also go to a few students from Moil Primary School who recently excelled in their chosen sport.
In the Darwin Junior Football League, Jarod Luis was acknowledged for his participation in the Under 12s Dockers team; and Zac Luis and Sienna Bennett-Kellam were awarded the participation trophy in the Under 10s Dockers team. Braith Franklin, of the Mindil Aces Soccer Club, was awarded a certificate for outstanding effort and contribution. Ngaire Gahan came 2nd Overall Team and 3rd at the Bars in the recent Northern Territory Gymnastics Championships 2008.
I also congratulate Dylan Hage-Grey and Darren Brown, who I read about in the Wagaman Primary School Newsletter. The newsletter reported that the boys:
- … wrote and illustrated their own novel as part of a Darwin City Council Library competition. Their book, titled ‘Battle of the Bands’, was selected as highly commended for the 9 to 12 year age group, and has been catalogued and included in the Darwin Library collection.
What a fantastic effort!
During the recent cluster Sports Carnival held at the Arafura Stadium, Sarah MacLachlan and Jakisa Bachu of Wagaman Primary were selected to compete at the Northern Territory Athletics Carnival as northern suburbs representatives. I wish Sarah and Jakisa all the best as they compete at athletics.
Returning to Millner Primary School, I take this opportunity to mention Mrs Margaret Moon, who until recently has been working as an ESL Teacher, or English as a Second Language Teacher, at Millner School with students from all cultural backgrounds. Every year during Education Week, which is 1 to 7 September, many schools celebrate their links to Asian culture with their communities. The importance of these celebrations is to acknowledge the rich cultural diversity of our communities and to nourish community harmony. Furthermore, engagement with Asia in our schools enhances students understanding of Asian cultures. Last week, all schools in the Northern Territory were encouraged to celebrate the types of Asian engagement they have in their school.
A new feature of this year’s Engaging with Asia Week was an encouragement award for a teacher who has contributed to embedding Asian studies into the school culture. Mrs Moon was announced as the winner of the ‘Asia in Schools Encouragement Award’ and I take this opportunity to congratulate her on this wonderful achievement which recognises all her hard work, enthusiasm in supporting students, and in helping the school deliver quality education about Asia. As Dr Terry Quong, the Principal of Millner Primary School said:
- Awards like these reinforce a strong vibrant multicultural nature of our wonderful school.
In acknowledging her award, Margaret believes it was made possible by the dynamic and caring staff at Millner Primary School, who work towards valuing diversity. This semester, Margaret has taken on a new position as the ERICUS project officer. ERICUS stands for Educating Remote Indigenous Children in Urban Settings. It is funded through Closing the Gap in the Department of Education and Training and seeks to improve educational outcomes for urban and remote Indigenous children. I wish Margaret all the best in a new and challenging role.
I thank the electors of Johnston for once again placing their faith in me. It was a different electorate for me this time. The redistribution meant that I had approximately 2000 new electors out of a total number of constituents of about 4750. I lost approximately 1500 people through the redistribution and gained around 2000. However, I make this commitment that I will continue to doorknock as I have over the past seven years, I will continue to meet my electors, and I will continue to be at the Rapid Creek Markets every Sunday between about 7 am and 12 pm. I value that opportunity. Anyone can talk to me about any issue whatsoever.
As a number of people have indicated recently, with the opening of this new Assembly of parliament, accessibility of local members is certainly a big factor and having a personal relationship with your constituents is very important.
I also congratulate Jo Sangster, my opponent, who did very well at the election. She secured a swing of approximately 7.3% on a two party preferred basis and I saw her as a high profile and talented candidate. I wish her all the best as she returns to Darwin City Council.
There was one pleasing thing for me in the results: I secured a swing to me from 55% in the primary vote up to 58%, but that 58% of primary votes is then attributed as two party preferred. This means that there was a swing of 7.3% against me in the electorate of Johnston and I have taken that message on board.
The Labor Party has undertaken to review the issues surrounding the election and we have to have a good honest look at them and we will follow a process. I undertake to represent all the constituents of Johnston. It is now a very diverse constituency which also takes in Millner and areas of Coconut Grove, including Litchfield Court, which is a Territory Housing complex. There are many issues and concerns regarding this complex and I can see that I have a lot of work to do. I have given the residents an undertaking that I will work hard on their behalf to address some of those issues that trouble them. I did not say I had a magic wand or that I would be able to fix those problems overnight, but I will work hard to address those issues, just as I will work hard to continue to work hard for the electors of Johnston. It is an honour to serve them again in this new Assembly.
Members: Hear, hear!
Motion agreed to; the Assembly adjourned.
Last updated: 04 Aug 2016