2015-02-24
Madam Speaker Purick took the Chair at 10 am.
STATEMENT BY CHIEF MINISTER
Death of Frank McGuiness
Mr GILES (Chief Minister): Madam Speaker, it is with great sadness that I inform the House yesterday I received news that former Northern Territory Auditor-General, Frank McGuiness, had passed away. On behalf of all members of this parliament I express my deep condolences to Frank’s wife, Pat and to Brian, Katie, Catherine, Andy, Aidan and Emily.
Frank had a long and distinguished career in the public service spanning over four decades, initially in South Australia, and in the Northern Territory from 2002 where he served as Auditory-General. Tirelessly committed to ensuring the best outcomes for the Territory, Frank enjoyed a positive and productive relationship with members of this House, departmental chief executives and his colleagues at all levels within the public service.
He was greatly respected as a man of high morals and unfaltering good judgment. Frank retired last year and was looking forward to spending more time riding his beloved bike around the world. I remember the member for Nelson making some comments in a statement at that time. Like the hard worker he always was, Frank agreed to a few last projects before heading off. He was a great servant of the Northern Territory and I know he will be greatly missed. It was terrible news to receive.
In due course I will be recommending the Assembly debate a condolence motion for Frank after we have an opportunity to converse with the family. I ask that all members pass on their condolences to Frank’s family.
Ms LAWRIE (Opposition Leader): Madam Speaker, the opposition thanks the Chief Minister for advising the House of the passing of Frank McGuiness on Friday. It has been deeply saddening news for all of us.
We all acknowledged the outstanding contribution Frank McGuiness made to our Territory when marking his retirement as the Auditor-General. Frank was passionate about the Territory and the integrity of good government. He served all of us incredibly well for so long and not just in his role as Auditor-General. He was someone I could call at any stage to seek guidance and advice from. With his genuine warmth as a person with a regard for humanity and love of the institution of government, he was outstanding on the national stage as well as in the Territory.
It has been an enormous shock to us all. Our thoughts and love go to Pat and his family. We welcome the news of a formal condolence motion because Frank McGuiness is very deserving of such an honour. May he rest in peace.
Mr WOOD (Nelson): Madam Speaker, I feel I have lost a good friend and will say more at the condolence motion. I used to meet Frank nearly every morning when having breakfast at Melissa’s under the West Lane car park. He was more than just an Auditor-General; you could have a joke and a laugh with him. I feel we have lost someone special.
Ms LAWRIE (Opposition Leader): Madam Speaker, pursuant to the requirements of section 24(1)(a) of the Electoral Act I move that this Assembly express that this government no longer possesses the confidence of the Assembly.
A motion of no confidence is the most serious and significant motion that can be introduced in this parliament. We have not done so lightly. Under normal circumstances the Territory community would have the reasonable expectation that the parliament would run its fixed four-year term until the next election, but the circumstances confronting the Territory community and this parliament are far from normal and demand action from the members of this Assembly.
This government has failed to reflect the values of our society. Territorians have always supported each other, rather than a grasping self-interest. We have looked after each other and accepted and embraced difference and diversity because we know it leads to harmony and innovation. This makes the Territory a very special place to live.
You have abandoned the journey to statehood, and through your appalling behaviour you have made us a national laughing stock which has trashed our reasonable claim to statehood. We were once proud of who we are and our opportunities, punching above our weight nationally. Instead, your CLP circus has descended into chaos and disrepute. We are so much better than that.
There is grief for the loss of integrity in the institution of public service where opinion is valued. There is grief among even the CLP that the actions of this Chief Minister show he is disconnected from our community and his self-serving is not serving them.
This is a call-out to members of this parliament to shake off this embarrassing government and trust Territorians to make decision about how they will be governed.
Territorians have been betrayed by the Giles CLP government, and the trust that should exist between a government and the citizens it governs has been broken irretrievably. This fundamental breach of trust cannot be fixed by the Giles CLP government, an incompetent administration that has failed to listen to the people.
In the prayer of intercession at the opening of this parliament we prayed that:
In all of this, the CLP government has failed. This arrogant Chief Minister and his dysfunctional 10 Cabinet members lack the will, cohesion and competence essential to deliver effective government. An early election is the only way to fix the mess created by this Chief Minister and the CLP circus he purports to lead.
The Giles CLP government is incompetent, dishonest, dysfunctional, arrogant and out of touch with our community. The Giles CLP government has been self-serving; it regards families and businesses with contempt. Across the Territory, the Giles CLP government has alienated every key constituency and community group through its incompetence, arrogance and dysfunction.
It is not just the Labor opposition exposing and articulating these serious deficiencies in this rotten CLP government. Community groups, members opposite, even the Chief Minister himself – in the infamous leaked Alice Springs recording – have expressed their concerns about the ineptitude and arrogance of the Giles CLP government.
The alarm bells of members opposite should be ringing loud and clear because even long-term CLP members and supporters, disgusted with the Giles-led government, are abandoning ship.
The remote communities who voted you into government, teachers, nurses, police, firefighters, paramedics, public servants, businesses, non-government organisations, unions and many others have had enough. Above all, the Territory community is totally disillusioned with this arrogant Chief Minister and his incompetent CLP government.
Will members opposite finally listen to the community’s concerns or do they support more of the same arrogance, chaos, infighting, dishonesty, introspection, self-indulgence and jobs for their mates?
This motion of no confidence is not about us, it is about the reasonable expectations of Territorians about the priorities, competence and behaviour of the government elected to serve them. Serving the community, which is the fundamental role of good government, is an alien concept for this arrogant Chief Minister.
Territorians want a stable and competent government, not a circus driven by mutual antipathy and botched leadership challenges that has trashed our reputation and made us a national and international laughing stock. The Chief Minister recently said:
Territorians are sick of the bumbling. Territorians want a government that values and invests in schools and education communities, not a regime that sacks teachers, rips resources from education and lies about what it has done.
In government, Labor brought secondary education to the bush for the first time. We delivered 465 new teachers to our schools. We upgraded all 74 government primary schools, built new middle schools, upgraded senior schools and built the new Nemarluk special school, part of a $30m infrastructure program for special schools, which you are still re-announcing.
We recognised the importance of getting our children to school, introducing Every Child, Every Day as an attendance policy to work with school communities. Our NAPLAN results were improving. However, we recognise this is not the only measure for success, since many of our students speak English as a second language.
Territorians want a government that invests and builds a viable health service, not one that mismanages health infrastructure and mocks nurses when they raise legitimate concerns about the crisis in our hospitals.
In government, Labor opened over 127 extra hospital beds and upgraded every hospital emergency department – except Gove hospital, because the CLP stopped that project when they came to government. We employed an extra 855 nurses and 294 doctors. We delivered the Territory’s first cancer care treatment centre and hospice, and opened the NT medical school. We led the nation with electronic health initiatives to assist patients, with more than 50 000 people registered across remote communities.
Territorians want a government with effective law and order policies and which values police, not one which fails to deliver on its promise to reduce crime by 10% each year, and then breaks its promise to recruit 120 additional police.
In contrast, Labor in government introduced the most comprehensive alcohol reform in the Territory’s history – Enough is Enough – and employed an extra 400 police. We rolled out 24-hour CCTV cameras and introduced precinct banning notices to combat antisocial behaviour. We established the NT Alcohol and Drugs Tribunal and reformed sentencing to introduce expanded community corrections including a jobs program.
Territorians want a government that puts downward pressure on the cost of living, not one that burdens families and businesses with savage tariff increases for electricity, water and sewerage and other government services. Labor invested in our power and water network; a $1.5bn infrastructure repairs and maintenance program to rebuild a system which was reaching critical failure under years of CLP underspend. We built new power stations, zone substations and closed the Larrakeyah sewage outfall, while building and repairing power and water infrastructure in the bush.
Territorians want a government that maintains and operates public assets such as TIO in community interest – not privatisation zealots who flog off taxpayer assets without a mandate. When in government and considering whether to sell this important asset, we recognised its importance as a public insurer for vulnerable homes and businesses. Importantly, we listened to Territorians.
Territorians want a government that supports business, not one that damages the investment environment, burdens business with costs and operates on a ‘cash for access’ basis.
Territorians want a government that strikes a balance between development and the environment, not one that overrides good science and environmental values to give water rights to its mates.
Territorians want a government that values its employees and inspires the public service with a clear vision for the Territory’s future, not a shambles that provides no leadership and is instead focused on giving plum jobs to mates.
Territorians want a government that works with unions to deliver fair employment outcomes and safe workplaces, not one that seeks to remove fair and reasonable workers compensation in the Northern Territory and fails to respond appropriately to workplace accidents.
Territorians want a government in which probity and decency are guiding principles, not a closed shop for secret deals and slush funds such as Foundation 51.
Territorians want a fair and sensible land use approach to planning, not an arbitrary system of ad hoc spot rezoning that ignores long-established planning principles.
Territorians want a government that protects and supports vulnerable children and their families, not one that slashes funding to our crucial non-government support services and strips out resources from its child protection agency.
Territorians want a government focused on policy and program outcomes, not one that has no policies for Indigenous affairs and is content to watch the federal government rip $500m in funding from crucial programs.
Territorians want a government capable of managing the economy in the public interests. After two years in government there is no announcement of any financial investment decision on our next major project.
This Chief Minister talks about developing the north but excludes the very Territorians who have invested in our great land, unless they are in his tight circle of mates. The glossy brochures and advertising campaigns on developing the north are hollow rhetoric. There are no new projects. Instead of a second port, you are hell-bent on selling off our existing port – a sneaky ‘lease’ in your spin.
The gas pipeline to connect with the eastern seaboard should be based on strong feasibility for the best route, not the placing of your politics that may damage its viability.
Territorians want a jobs plan for locals and investment in training instead of the cuts to training that have occurred under the CLP and no comprehensive jobs plan.
In government we secured the $34bn Ichthys project, the nation’s second-largest commercial investment. We created 26 000 new jobs and reduced the unemployment rate from 7.4% to 4%, even during the tough global-financial-crisis-affected years. We delivered tax cuts to small businesses that saved them $365m and meant they could invest in local jobs. It created 26 000 apprenticeships and traineeships and enjoyed the highest VET participation rate in Australia.
Prior to the global financial crisis we delivered eight budget surpluses in a row, then made the responsible decision to invest $4.6bn in infrastructure to protect Territory businesses and jobs during the global-financial-crisis-affected years. The legacy of our sound financial management is a Territory economy growing at the fastest rate in our nation and a manageable debt.
Despite the spin of the CLP, debt was $2.8bn when the CLP took government and took just 8% of revenue to service it. We had a deficit reduction strategy with a sensible step-down on infrastructure, not the hand brake the CLP has applied. We were honest about surplus and deficit, rather than changing reporting to the operating balance which you have done – another CLP sham.
The CLP has not delivered a single new major project since elected in 2012 and every project the CLP has lauded was on Labor’s forward capital works program or under construction. Rebranding and ribbon cutting is not progress. The only infrastructure investment that is occurring in the Territory was achieved under Labor. The roads and bridges funding the Chief Minister referred to in his Alice Springs CLP Branch rant was funding signed off under Labor.
Territorians want a government that has a plan for infrastructure that caters to growth in our large cities and towns but builds the crucial links in our bush. Labor had a 10-year infrastructure plan. The CLP has put us all back two years.
Good government would understand that small- and medium-sized businesses are struggling and despair at the CLP chaos and dysfunction. A total of 340 businesses have closed their doors since you came to government, yet you still fail to respond. The business community needs certainty, and under the CLP they have had two Chief Ministers and six Treasurers.
Territorians tell me every day they are fed up with the CLP government and want a government that listens and responds to their concerns, not one obsessed with its own self-interest, engaged in ideological rants against unions and workers.
In Central Australia the jobs for the boys is a consistent complaint, with people telling me if you are not a part of the Chief Minister’s in crowd you do not get a look in. Over the past two years long-term locally-owned businesses have closed their doors in Central Australia and the community is feeling the loss. You have had the opportunity to invest in locally-driven projects like the second stage of the Todd Mall and have knocked it back. Elsewhere in Central Australia the remote communities are asking why they have been forgotten by the CLP – no significant infrastructure, jobs lost from schools and the local repair crews have had to watch maintenance contractors fly in and fly out and do the work they were once employed to do.
Territorians want a government which delivers on election commitments. The contracts signed by the CLP across remote communities have been ignored. Funding has dried up. Civil maintenance crews do not have work or equipment in working order. They watch contracts for government tenders go to interstate firms as the local work dries up. In our remote communities the men who did this great work have to watch contractors fly in and fly out. Too many jobs have been stripped from our local remote schools and clinics. The much-promised housing and roads funding has not materialised.
Territorians want a government which protects and supports our vulnerable children. In this it is a significant failing.
I will elaborate on a few issues. I have already mentioned how this arrogant Chief Minister and his incompetent government fail to measure up to the reasonable expectations of Territorians. There is no better example of this arrogance than the Chief Minister’s decision to ram through the sale of TIO without consulting the community and ignoring their legitimate concerns about the sale. The Chief Minister had no mandate to sell TIO. Your government told Territorians the policy would not change because you had a gentlemen’s agreement with the new owners, yet you failed to provide those legal protections. There was then the statement from the Chief Minister that TIO was not to be sold, it was just a ‘change of ownership’ – a complete lack of honesty.
As a consequence of his arrogant determination to sell this iconic public asset premiums are now going up. Flood protection and other coverage is either no longer available or becoming cost prohibitive. Territorians were also short-changed on the real value of the sale of that asset. CLP members opposite know in their hearts that Territorians will not forget this betrayal and the sale of TIO will be remembered at the next election.
Another glaring example of the Chief Minister’s arrogance and policy failures endemic in his incompetent government is the savage burden of cost-of-living increases imposed on Territory families and businesses. Deny it all you want, but every time a family gets their power and water bill they are aghast. It has doubled under your watch.
No one will forget the Chief Minister’s ridiculous assertion that ‘Darwin has the lowest cost of living of any Australian capital city’. At the time, the NT News asked, ‘Just what planet are you guys living on?’ How much more out of touch can this incompetent government and arrogant Chief Minister possibly be?
How could a Chief Minister seriously interested in probity and decency in government possibly reinstate the Treasurer to his former post and add the departments of Lands and Planning and Mines and Energy for good measure? The reinstated Treasurer is infamous for his homophobic rant and admission that he runs his office on a ‘cash for access’ basis:
This is the modus operandi of the Treasurer, who is now minister for two of the Territory’s most important development portfolios. Extraordinary! The Chief Minister’s decision to reinstate this Treasurer shows an absolute and fundamental lack of judgment. The Treasurer has failed to apologise for his rant.
The gay, lesbian and transgender community of the Northern Territory has written to the Chief Minister seeking a sincere apology from the Treasurer, and if not, that the Treasurer be removed from Cabinet. What has occurred? That has fallen on deaf ears.
No one opposite could possibly hold their head up high when the record of the Giles CLP circus is put under the microscope. Some credit is due to the member for Araluen who has had the courage to stand up against – in her own words – the lack of honesty, integrity and respect shown by this Chief Minister.
This is a Chief Minister who knifed the former CLP Chief Minister, Terry Mills, when he was on a trade mission in Japan, knifed him again while on his Ambassador post in Jakarta, then pretended he had nothing to do with it. This is a complete lack of honesty, integrity and respect.
Today is not the day for an election manifesto, but I assure Territorians that whenever the election is, Labor stands ready to be a decent and fair government for all Territorians. We will be inclusive and listen. Labor will not ignore your needs, hopes and aspirations and we will deliver on our election commitments. We will govern in the Territory’s best interest.
I reiterate – and this is important – that if elected we will enact legislation to establish an independent commission against corruption so the modus operandi of the Chief Minister and his Treasurer which pervades the CLP government is never seen again in the Northern Territory.
Now is the time for members opposite to listen to the community. Look at the Chamber; they show their arrogance. Now is the time to regain some self-respect and give Territorians the opportunity to cast judgment on an incompetent and arrogant Chief Minister who is way out of his depth leading a dysfunctional, embarrassing and deeply divided government.
Madam Speaker, I urge members to support his motion. I commend the motion to the House.
Mr ELFERINK (Attorney-General and Justice): Madam Speaker, there are a number of ways I might choose to approach this motion. I am mindful of the prayer we say in parliament every day we sit in this House which finishes with the line, ‘for the true welfare of the people of the Northern Territory’.
Every time I have failed in my role as a member of this House – or for that matter, a minister – it was because I lost sight of that very important quote. If anybody visits my office upstairs on the fifth floor of Parliament House they will soon discover that quote, ‘for the true welfare of the people of the Northern Territory’ is written large on every door. It is something I singularly try to remain focused on but, being mortal, one fails from time to time. When I do remember it – and I try to remember it all the time – is when I and members of this parliament, as a general principle, gain their greatest successes.
I listened very carefully to the speech the Leader of the Opposition has read into the Hansard record and I was struck by how well-crafted it was. In crafting it, she denied it as an election manifesto. Nevertheless, it gives you precisely that election manifesto and, I suspect, is a speech she was intending to deliver last week.
She is right, the people of the Northern Territory deserve good government. There are independent observers who suggest this hysterical position taken by the Leader of the Opposition is not reflected as stridently in the community as she would have you believe. Not least of which was reference recently in an editorial in the NT News which said we were not a bad government at all. Yes, we have had some internal challenges but …
Members interjecting.
Mr ELFERINK: I hear the laughter, but this is the problem. They laugh now in the face of their own challenges, but it is about us once again. It is like being stalked by the members opposite, because their total focus is on the CLP and not the true welfare of the people of the Northern Territory. Even in her election manifesto in this House, what she chose to do is concentrate almost exclusively on the actions of the CLP.
I recall the member saying – or rattling out – some of the achievements of the former Labor government and – shock horror – some of them were not bad. However, to do that is to deny the truth that all governments do many good things. If she wanted to go back in history to the point of self-government, and even beyond, the Country Liberals in this jurisdiction produced many fine results – not least of which was a railway from Alice Springs to Darwin, the Yulara Resort and the many mines which were opened under the CLP’s management during those years.
Finally, after 28 years of CLP government the Labor Party was given a go. We heard a list provided by the Leader of the Opposition saying, ‘This is the stuff we achieved and you guys have achieved nothing’. That is demonstrably untrue. Moreover, not only is it demonstrably untrue, there were such inaccuracies in her speech as to beggar reasonable belief.
Her reference to crime rates not going down in no way are reflected within the results we received across the board. Last week in this House the Chief Minister outlined that:
This is the sort of thing we have come to expect from the Leader of the Opposition: find a statistic wherever you can, buried in a report, and rely on it as though it were the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. It is a twisted logic she brings into this place.
One would suggest that tumble weeds are rolling down the streets of Darwin on the basis of the comments made by the Leader of the Opposition. When I walk out of this House and cast my eyes upon the skyline, it is ever changing, providing jobs and strength to a strong economy in the Northern Territory. It is an economy continuing to go from strength to strength.
We heard from the Leader of the Opposition that Labor members were wonderful budgetary managers. I can only ask this of the member opposite: how did we end up, under her as Treasurer, with a projected debt of $5.5bn?
She is from the left, where money does not matter, it falls like manna from heaven. It sprinkles upon the fields to be collected and cast around in some splendid left-wing belief that it will continue to rain upon us. It is a nonsense she perpetrates.
The Leader of the Opposition was well advised to bring a written speech into this House, because one of the things she did was what she rarely does in this House – present a reasonable and temperate approach to her craft. I invite other members and people who are listening to this debate to look at some of the offerings she has given to this House over time, because they do not reflect measure, countenance or temperance, they reflect anger. I have sat here and watched the Leader of the Opposition lacerate those people around her when she is unsatisfied with their performance.
I have heard her in this House name public servants simply to score a political point. She offers up to the public service and the unions of the Northern Territory ‘all will be sweetness and light under my leadership’, but the truth is I can identify a number of places in the Parliamentary Record where she has named public servants deliberately to win a political point in this House and, thereby, has run down their reputation in this coward’s castle and refused to rearticulate those comments outside of this House ...
Ms Lawrie: Rubbish!
Mr ELFERINK: She said ‘rubbish’, Madam Speaker. If I was so inclined, I could quote the names back to her. I shall not because I have a greater respect than she has.
The Leader of the Opposition suggests that we have done nothing since coming to government in the Northern Territory. I assert that we have done plenty. Moreover, it was clear from the Chief Minister last week that not only have we done plenty, but we will continue to do plenty more to serve the true welfare of the people of the Northern Territory.
I look at the history of what we have done in this House, and I am proud of many of the achievements which, in many instances, were criticised or, moreover, resisted by the members opposite. Under this government you are now allowed to take control of your own care if you lose capacity through advanced personal planning, something the members opposite had the option to do but never introduced or passed through this House.
There is alcohol mandatory treatment. The solution from the members opposite in relation to alcohol in our community was to simply do one thing: have a Banned Drinker Register that was statistically and demonstrably unable to demonstrate its success or worthiness. We, however, have taken more strident steps in this area, but we have done it with a fundamental philosophical difference. Members opposite are quite happy to say that the whole of society has an issue when a handful of people in that community behave in a certain fashion. That is the rationale and the belief behind the Banned Drinker Register. However, the Banned Drinker Register was not supported by statistics a year after its introduction.
We, on this side, however, were quite prepared to target the individuals themselves who were responsible for miscreant behaviour …
Members interjecting.
Mr ELFERINK: Madam Speaker, we listened in silence to what the member opposite had to say. The true colours are now starting to shine through. They cannot contain themselves because of their lack of discipline ...
Ms Lawrie: You cannot be honest.
Madam SPEAKER: Order!
Mr ELFERINK: This is the alternate government, members of which cannot listen to criticism. They can dish it out, but they cannot listen to criticism when it is levelled at them.
We have introduced alcohol mandatory treatment into this community. The reason we have done so, and put some 600 people through it already, is because we do not want individuals dying without a last-ditch response in our community. Yet, the moment they got a chance to criticise they did. They resisted the policy at every opportunity. As a consequence I can only assume they would return the situation to what it was under them for so many years so these people would die in our gutters and parks, rather than making an attempt to rescue them. That is a shameful approach to alcohol mandatory treatment and the response to alcohol in our community.
We also introduced into the Northern Territory police on the bottle shops ...
Members interjecting.
Madam SPEAKER: Order, order!
Mr ELFERINK: They are laughing again.
I wonder if the people listening to this debate would be proud of the alternative government and their conduct ...
Ms Lawrie: Not sustainable.
Mr ELFERINK: Madam Speaker, I pick up on the interjection from the member opposite, ‘not sustainable’. What is sustainable is a drop of more than 50% of alcohol-related assaults in Tennant Creek. The member for Barkly criticised the policy and said Labor will get rid of it. That is a reprehensible abandonment of the duties you promised to fulfil by virtue of the fact you are not thinking about the true welfare of the people of the Northern Territory but a political point. That is what makes the position of the members opposite so entrenched and reprehensible. It is about politics and complaining about the government of the day.
Alternative policies are rarely articulated. In this written speech delivered to the House we have finally started to hear some, but until now it has been complaint, vitriol and bitterness. Unfortunately, we have seen many of the members opposite too oft removed from this House because of their conduct.
We do not protect kids, according to the members opposite. How do you measure success in child protection? Is it the number of kids you take into care? Sadly, there are over 800 under the care of the CEO of my department. Is that a success? Is it a success when we remove all those children? Or do we leave them in their families where they are often abused, neglected or even sexually abused? The challenge from the members opposite is we are not doing enough. We do plenty. We work very hard and strive to protect those children. However, anything we do is not applauded, lauded or allowed to pass by unnoticed; it is criticised by the members opposite. It is a challenge for this government, as it was for them when they were in government, to protect the children of the Northern Territory.
There is also a role for the parents to play and passive welfare continues to feed much of that malignancy in our community. The opposition is perpetually silent on those issues.
We provided legislation to ban smoking in cars to protect our children, breast screening services for their mothers and global school budgets to help those children who are successful in our communities to step forward ...
Ms Fyles interjecting.
Mr ELFERINK: Well, the global school budgets enable schools and parents to take control of what is happening in their schools in a far more sustained way than was ever envisaged under the Labor alternative in the Northern Territory.
Having been involved with a number of school councils over the years, as well as having been president of my own childcare group, I know parents are a much better guide for what should occur with their kid’s education than their educators.
I am amazed at the level and passion parents bring to their kid’s education. By enabling global school budgets to occur we can and will improve outcomes for kids in the future. We continue to support parents in a number of ways, including the $200 voucher for sports because that important policy sees kids getting healthier every single day.
Since coming into government, we supported and drove through legislation to protect workers in the workplace from being assaulted by creating a mandatory sentence for perpetrators. ‘We believe in workers’, said the Leader of the Opposition. Then why would they resist legislation that would protect workers? They did that because it was about the politics rather than protecting workers in the workplace.
I have been heartened to see a number of people go to gaol for assaulting workers in the workplace since the passage of that legislation. I stand by the integrity of it as it protects workers in their most sacred place, their place of work. That is where they earn the money to feed and shelter themselves and their families. That is protecting workers.
We also introduced mandatory sentencing for other violent offences. I am glad to see people are continuing to come into the custody of our corrections system because we have responded in a positive way. One punch legislation, which is something that was an issue but a few months ago across this country, was dealt with by the CLP government 18 months ago as part of our promises and commitments to the electorate.
The toughest legislation in the country is on property forfeiture. Friends of criminals stridently argue that we should not go after a drug dealer’s property, whether it was derived from crime or not. I am proud to say this government went to the High Court of this country to defend that legislation and its strident impact on drug dealers in our community. Are the drug dealers whingeing? Absolutely! I had a number of them make representations to me saying ‘Oh my goodness, you are taking my house off me’. The answer is, ‘Yes, we are. We are taking your house away from you for being a drug dealer’.
We have the Pillars of Justice policy which has seen a number of very important policies rolled out over the last couple of years. They include things like the domestic violence strategy which is now being rolled out across the Territory. I am comfortable with the assistance of the minister for Community Services, Hon Bess Price – in fact, the partnership of Bess Price. We will continue to roll out a domestic violence policy which will, ultimately, become the benchmark for the rest of the country because we have the vision and courage to press through on these areas.
Domestic violence was attended to with a mountain of platitudes while those members opposite were in government. Beyond that, no fundamental policy was introduced to address the support of victims of domestic violence, and to make sure the perpetrators were taken out of circulation. Such legislation is before the House for debate today. I will be intrigued to see if they will support the legislation later in the day.
The Northern Territory sex offenders’ public website is something the members opposite are already vacillating on and showing no great sense of courage about. We, as a government, will press on with this and introduce it. We will call it Daniel’s Law so we remember Daniel Morecombe. We hope we can add a string to the bow of those people who want to protect their children from paedophiles in our community. The members opposite still have not been able to articulate anything like a clear position on something this government truly believes in.
The Northern Territory Civil and Administrative Appeals Tribunal continues to operate, making justice accessible for all Territorians in a way never before done. For years I sat on the benches opposite and made comments about the need for a civil and administrative appeals tribunal in the Northern Territory. Whilst it is not politically sexy, it nevertheless has started to operate successfully. The level of satisfaction with that particular approach to the justice system continues to be of a high standard.
We continue to see the private sector build here. We are building the Palmerston hospital which will be operational by the year 2018 – delivered on time.
We are building the new Supreme Court in Alice Springs. We are pressing on with ensuring we can move youth from the Court of Summary Jurisdiction into their own court system in the Northern Territory. The Sentenced to a Job program continues to see Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people enter employment from their gaol cells so they can teach themselves important skills and make a quid along the way.
These things were only mooted by the Deputy Leader of the Opposition when he had this portfolio. To his eternal shame, he articulated an idea nebulously and never followed through. This is the difference between the members opposite and those on this side of the House – we follow through.
We heard a fine speech from the Leader of the Opposition, but why did she not attend to all the issues she outlined when she was in government for 11 years? The answer is the speeches were thick on the ground and Hansard is writ large with all of the ‘gonnas’ from the former Labor government. The execution of those ideas were rare oases in a desert of non-functionality.
I ask those listening to remember the last time there was a motion of no confidence in this House as the Labor government decayed in the Northern Territory – scratching around desperately to keep power at all costs, with a whatever-it-takes attitude.
This government continues to roll out land release. We have released 6000 blocks for 6000 dwellings, and there is more to come across the Northern Territory. We continue to supply childcare assistance, and provide the Back to School and Learn to Swim Vouchers, which I spoke to before. We have economic growth, placing us at the forefront of the nation.
Yet, what do we hear from the members opposite? Complaints and vitriol, the naming of public servants and anger. This is not an alternative government, it is an opposition entrenched in the mindset of opposition.
The Northern Territory’s economy grew by 6.5% to $21.2bn in 2013-14. This is the highest growth rate of all jurisdictions, well above the national growth rate of 2.5%.
We continue to reduce red tape. We bring bills into this House to ensure red tape is removed so businesses can go about doing their business.
We will continue to pursue the gas pipeline which has now been given major project status in the Northern Territory. The Chief Minister continues to deal with people like Gina Rinehart.
We wait, with great expectation, to see a cancer facility built in Darwin in the near future, thanks to the support of the private sector – which the Labor opposition seeks to hobble with regulation and drive down, despite the fact they should be the primary employer in the Northern Territory.
What we have witnessed here today is politics at its most base and wretched. In trying to describe a future for the Northern Territory, the alternative Chief Minister of the Northern Territory, the Leader of the Opposition, went into stalk mode and started to pour vitriol onto opposite members.
Madam Speaker, I remind the Leader of the Opposition in the most strident terms, it is not about her or us, it is about the true welfare and the future of the people of the Northern Territory.
Mr GUNNER (Fannie Bay): Madam Speaker, a no confidence motion is the most serious issue this Assembly can debate. I do not have confidence in this government and I will support this motion of no confidence.
For me, this motion is about more than the bitter infighting which has plagued the CLP and publicly torn them apart over the last few weeks. This is a motion about good government, whether we have one and whether this government puts Territorians first. It is about this government being honest with Territorians and faith Territorians put in the CLP to deliver good government only a short two-and-a-half years ago. That trust had been broken, and a trust deficit now exists between the CLP government and the Territory people.
We have all shared in the joke of the CLP over the last few weeks. It is a joke that has serious consequences. As a Territorian, it has hurt me to see us lose national credibility in our ability to run ourselves. It wounds me to know that Territorians have never held a lower opinion of politicians. As politicians, we are possibly at our lowest ebb and it should worry us all. The CLP members are the ones who have dragged us there, but we have all been tainted and are on notice.
Territorians want us to keep it simple, to do our jobs, to put them first and to stop personal politics. That is why I entered politics. Like all of us, I am asked by people from time to time why I entered politics. My simple answer is I love working with people and I want to make a difference. If we have time for a deeper, broader conversation I will talk about how I hate saying goodbye. Like all Territorians who grew up here, I got sick of saying goodbye. If you have lived in the Territory for any length of time you will know what I am talking about. At school, high school, university, work, with family and friends, we say goodbye too often. We have a problem. We want our community to be strong, for people to plant deep roots in Territory soil. I want to make the Territory a better place. I want people to choose to move here and to stay here longer. I want the place I love to be the place even more people love.
What we are talking about is the basics of good government. Government is about ensuring we all have the opportunity to build a better future for ourselves, our families and the whole community. We believe the central role of government is to ensure all Territorians, no matter where they live, where they come from or who they are, have the opportunity to live meaningful and productive lives. That opportunity starts with ensuring we have world-class health and education systems.
I believe the next Territory election will be about restoring confidence and trust of Territorians in our public and elected officials. It will be about restoring national credibility in our ability to run ourselves. This is the consequence of the contract that has been broken by the CLP government. A basic article of faith which has to exist between a government and the people is that a government will be honest.
This government has not been honest with Territorians. It was not honest before the last election with the promises that were made, and it has not been honest with them in the brief years since.
The CLP promised to cut the cost of living and broke that promise. In fact, the current Chief Minister said Darwin had the lowest cost of living of any Australian capital city. That, quite simply Madam Speaker, fails the mall test. It is only five minutes from here. Walk down the mall and people will tell you, you are dreaming. In fact, all their broken promises fail the mall test. That is why we are here. Walk down the mall and ask any Territorian about the CLP promises.
The CLP promised to cut the cost of living, protect frontline workers and cut crime by 10% each and every year. Parents will tell you about the teachers they have lost from their schools and the larger classrooms their children now sit in. People will talk in shock about the open war that has started between the Chief Minister and police, and the low morale of police. People are beyond shocked at the treatment our firefighters have received.
Pensioners will become teary when talking about their power bill. I have seen a father rip up a power bill. I have had too many families say that the increase in power, water and sewerage bills has pushed them towards making that decision they do not want to make: to pack up their lives and find somewhere cheaper to live. They do not believe the Chief Minister when he says Darwin has the lowest cost of living of any Australian capital city.
There is a broken dialogue between the CLP government and the people of the Northern Territory – they simply do not believe you anymore. Honesty has been lost in our public discourse. They do not believe the Chief Minister when he said he knew nothing about Terry Mills losing his job in Indonesia. They do not trust the Chief Minister when he said he no longer plans to sell the port, just privatise it. This trickery with ‘lease’ and ‘sale’ and ‘buy’ and ‘sell’ simply does not wash with Territorians. It is too tricky by half.
The Leader of the Opposition has highlighted many of the issues and we would need days of debate to fully catalogue the litany of incompetence, arrogance and disdain which are the hallmarks of a bad government. We have had the secrecy, the slush funds and the jobs for mates not on merit. We have had the broken promises and treating Territorians like fools. We have had the refusal to listen to Territorians.
People’s frustration is palpable. Why will the government not listen? You can hear the stress and anger in people’s voices and sometimes despair. At the markets on the stalls, at their doors, over the phone, in e-mails or when people pull us up in supermarkets they tell us they cannot understand how a government could not hear the loud, simple messages from people on power and water bills, TIO and a government that should tell the truth.
The CLP government has trashed the bond of trust which must exist between Territorians and their government if we are to have any chance of confronting the enormous challenges the Territory faces. The Assembly should express no confidence in this bad CLP government and a Chief Minister who was not elected by Territorians or his party room and only remains on the back of a threat to burn the House down. Territorians have lost all faith and confidence in you and the CLP.
I believe the next Territory election will be about restoring the confidence of Territorians in our public and elected officials. It will be about restoring national credibility in our ability to run ourselves. We are at our lowest ebb with the Territory people as a result of the actions of the CLP and that honesty has been lost in public discourse.
We believe the central role of government is to ensure all Territorians, no matter where they live, where they come from or who they are, have the opportunity to live meaningful and productive lives. That opportunity starts with ensuring we have world-class health and education systems. We have enormous challenges across the Territory in providing not only these services, but ensuring outcomes that should be the norm in a First World country such as ours.
The CLP cuts to social services is a broken promise. Our teachers, our educators, our crucial frontline health workers, our non-government sector and our public servants we all rely on to coordinate and deliver these services have had their faith and trust in this government broken.
The dysfunction of this government has seen the CLP neglect one of the most important responsibilities of government, ensuring young Territorians have a safe and healthy environment in which to grow, learn and become productive members of our community. We have a generational problem and need to be serious from the start of the early days of childhood to turn the hardest challenge facing us as Territorians into a positive future. We need a fresh new approach to early childhood development in the Territory. We need a government the community can trust to provide leadership that brings education and health professions, researchers, non-government organisations and, most importantly, local communities together to give our children the best start in life. However, this government has shown it cannot reach out and work with local communities because the trust is gone.
Let us be clear, the measure of our competency as an administration, a jurisdiction and a self-governing Territory is how we tackle this challenge of the lives of those amongst us who are the least fortunate, who are born with the prospect of shorter lives, less hope and more challenges. This task should be borne of optimism which will bring successful change to their lives and our Territory. This may be the hardest task but it brings the most rewards.
Our people are our greatest resource. It is true of Australia and of the Northern Territory. They are our most important natural resource. Our people are our culture, our community and our economy. We believe we have to grow the economy to create and share opportunities for the healthy, educated population we are investing in. That is what we want from a Territory. This is one of the basic articles of good government. A strong economy delivers jobs, and trust is crucial for a thriving economy in ensuring we are creating the high-skill, high-wage jobs now and for our kids in the future.
Businesses across the Territory need to have trust and confidence in government to invest, to take risks and to create the wealth we all share in. Financial markets, credit rating agencies and national and international investors must also have confidence in government to ensure we are an attractive investment destination. Our many friends across the world, but most importantly our Asian trading partners and friends, must have confidence in our government if we are to make the most of our location at the doorstop of the region in the Asian century.
How many of these crucial partners have confidence in this CLP government and this Chief Minister when they have no confidence in themselves? We need a government that listens to business. We need a government that invests in skills and education. We need a government that harnesses technology and innovation to carve out a place for the Territory in the global economy of the 21st century.
We need a government whose leader can travel overseas without the fear of being knifed by colleagues while doing so. We need a government that works in partnership with businesses and industry, unions, non-government organisations and land councils and listens to them and takes them and their concerns seriously, not one that is always looking for the argument. We need to do these basics of good government as part of working with our community to grow our economy.
To recap, if we want good governance then we need to have investment in the health and education of Territorians and a positive and constructive relationship with our community that directs investment which allows us to grow our economy and share opportunities.
We also need a Territory that people want to live in. One of the things that makes the Territory such a fantastic place to live is its stunning natural environment. An open, transparent and fair planning system is crucial to ensuring this remains the case and we have sustainable and appropriate development across the Northern Territory. How can Territorians have any trust or confidence in our planning system when the current minister for planning admits:
How can we have any confidence in a government which used its numbers to cancel an independent inquiry into donations and Foundation 51, then were told that donations will open doors? The Chief Minister on one hand said:
However only a few weeks ago he bragged to an Alice Springs CLP Branch meeting:
This is a Chief Minister who raised, in 10 minutes, $1.5m for an election. From whom? On what promise? What was discussed in 10 minutes that led to $1.5m in donations for the CLP for an election? This is the same Chief Minister who ruled out an independent inquiry into donations, who said a smart politician does not handle the money. However, this Chief Minister raised $1.5m in 10 minutes to bankroll the CLP election campaign. Territorians have a right to know who donated and on what conditions. How did the Chief Minister raise $1.5m in 10 minutes?
Only a full and independent judicial inquiry can restore confidence in our public officials and political system. Only the adoption of a Territory version of an independent commission against corruption and the creation of an integrity commissioner can clear the stain those opposite have left on confidence in government. Can it be any wonder that Territorians’ opinion of us right now can be so low when you get actions like that from those opposite? They ruled out an inquiry into political donations, and the Chief Minister said on one hand, ‘A smart politician does not handle the cash’, then on the other, ‘I have raised $1.5m in 10 minutes’.
There can be no debate about what we need – a full and independent judicial inquiry to restore confidence in our public officials and political system. We absolutely need it. We were to have it but the CLP cancelled it. We need a full and independent judicial inquiry to restore confidence in our public officials, our elected officials and our political system. We need to adopt a Territory version of an independent commission against corruption. We need to clear the stain those opposite have left on confidence in government.
Sometimes the best disinfectant is sunlight; we need to rip open the curtains and let the light in. Only an election and change of government will see this happen. At the heart of this debate are two competing visions of the role of government. The brazenness of the CLP’s values could not be more explicit over the last few years. At its essence, the CLP sees government as a preferment machine, the core purpose of which is to look after themselves and their mates. It is a silver-circle approach to politics.
Politicians must be, and seen to be, above reproach. Instead, the CLP defies transparency and inhabits a Territory where it appears the lucky few are showered plum jobs, given lucrative gifts of public resources and open allegations about donations and the inside running of valuable and sensitive information are made but remain uninvestigated.
While the CLP and its chosen ones live it up at our expense, the rest of us are told to tighten our belts. We pay more for our power and water and for our housing. All the while, the CLP makes more and more cuts, slashing the health, education and community safety resources we rely on to build a better future. It is not about balancing the books, it is about an ideological zest for smaller government, one in which the less well-off can fend for themselves, and the silver circle live large and well.
This is not the view those on this side of the Assembly take. Government is about ensuring we have the opportunity to build a better future for ourselves, our family and the whole community. As I have said several times, we believe the central role of government is to ensure all Territorians, no matter where they live, where they come from or who they are, have the opportunity to live meaningful and productive lives.
This CLP government has breached the faith of Territorians on the most fundamental level. We need a government that can restore and rebuild trust within the community. We need a government that will be honest and put Territorians first. It is not complicated, it is very simple. Territorians want us to do our jobs and put them first, which is why they voted us in and we are here.
We need a government that understands and respects the views of the community. It is clear this government has failed to listen to Territorians on a number of issues. The government is not honest with Territorians when talking to them. This government has lost the trust and faith of the community and is operating in a very serious trust deficit with the community.
Madam Speaker, we do not have confidence in this government. This view has been put very strongly to us by people from large swathes of the community. That is why I urge members to do the right thing and support this motion.
Mrs LAMBLEY (Araluen): Madam Speaker, I will talk on this no confidence motion in the Giles government, brought on by the Leader of the Opposition.
To be honest, I prefer to remain silent on the backbench and not contribute to this debate, but being silent is not why I became a member of parliament or have worked so hard over the last four-and–a-half years. Saying and doing nothing is not what I am about, but it is a whole lot easier in the short term – as I am about to find out.
The reason I came into politics four-and-a-half years ago is because I love my town of Alice Springs. I refer to Alice Springs as the centre of the universe, and it is. I love everything about Alice Springs – the people, landscape, opportunities, diversity and lifestyle. I am here, first and foremost, for the people of the Alice Springs and my electorate of Araluen. As a minister I served the whole of the Northern Territory, but as a backbencher my interest is focused well and truly on my town of Alice Springs. I have nothing else to do now other than look after my town and my electorate and ensure we get the best deal from the government.
With regard to this vote of no confidence in the government, I know Territorians want to see this instability within government resolved, one way or another. They either want the leadership instability within government resolved, or go to the polls. Territorians do not want our government to continue as a source of jokes and ridicule across the country. They do not want to hear politicians talking about themselves, they want to hear what we are doing to progress the Northern Territory for them.
The opposition has presented this motion. This is an important motion, because despite what we would like to present to the public we all know the political instability within our government remains unresolved. However, it is important to also state that the political instability within the opposition ranks is equally as volatile, providing no alternative for Territorians. Delia Lawrie, the Leader of the Opposition, is just as unpopular with her colleagues as our leader, Adam Giles, is with his. There is no difference whatsoever.
At the outset, I state very clearly I will always have confidence in, and be philosophically aligned with, the Country Liberal Party and conservative politics. I inherently align with Country Liberal Party values, philosophies and policies, and I will always be faithful to the many amazing people who have been, and continue to be, a part of this truly great party – the Country Liberal Party.
However, I do not have faith in the leadership of Adam Giles. I do not have faith in Adam Giles. Adam Giles was voted out of the position of Chief Minister on 2 February 2015 – just 22 days ago. Nine members of his team decided they no longer had faith in his leadership. Nine out of 14 CLP parliamentary wing members voted to have him removed from the position of Chief Minister. Just 22 days ago, Adam Giles lost the support of a majority of his colleagues and he was voted out. His colleagues generally felt he had lost touch with average Territorians, he was arrogant and his general dishonesty was eroding any respect we had for him.
International convention is such that once a government leader has lost the majority support of his or her colleagues they resign. We were advised it is unprecedented in Australian political history that a leader not resign under these circumstances. Adam Giles did not resign. Instead, he threatened that he would prefer to bring down our government and take us to an early election, rather than resign and make way for Willem Westra van Holthe to become the new Chief Minister of the Northern Territory.
His supporters also threatened to bring on an early election. Adam Giles told the Alice Springs CLP Branch meeting on Wednesday 4 February, that Kezia Purick, Bess Price and David Tollner would all prefer to have an early election than accept Willem Westra van Holthe as the new Chief Minister.
Adam Giles did not do the honourable thing and resign, as have all other leaders of government in the history of Australian politics. He refused. Rather than do the honourable thing, he instead offered the alternative of an early election. In hindsight maybe that is what we should have done. Perhaps we should have agreed with Adam Giles, Bess Price, Kezia Purick and David Tollner and called an early election. I suspect in hindsight they were right. We would not be in this standoff we now find ourselves – a majority of wing members not supporting their leader. Rather than accept an outcome unsatisfactory to all members of the parliamentary wing, we should have agreed to go to the polls. However, the nine parliamentary wing members who did not support Adam Giles were of the view that this was not a desirable thing to do at that point in time. They believed it was not desirable to bring the government down by going to an early election we would most likely not win.
Adam Giles is not the legitimate leader of this government. No vote has been taken in the parliamentary wing since 2 February 2015. Willem Westra van Holthe remains the anointed leader based on that vote on 2 February.
The truth is on 3 February Adam Giles threatened his way into remaining leader in the subsequent parliamentary wing meeting. He threatened to bring the government down and take us to an early election just 22 days ago rather than concede he lost support of nine of the 14 members of the parliamentary wing.
I have no faith in a government led by Adam Giles. I have stated publicly that I believe Adam Giles has no integrity. I stand by that statement. That alone is enough to mean he should not hold a position of community leadership.
I believe a political party should be bigger than one person and as such I have not sought to depart from the Country Liberal Party. The Country Liberal Party is bigger than just Adam Giles, it is about all of us – the thousands of supporters throughout the Northern Territory. I believe in the Country Liberal Party and its great tradition. I do not believe in Adam Giles or his leadership.
This period in history is a chapter I wish I was never a part of and was never written. The Country Liberal Party has been, and is, capable of so much more. We came to government just two-and-a-half years ago with great expectations and the support of a clear majority of Territorians. We have disappointed ourselves and our supporters despite the fact we have achieved so much, as the member for Port Darwin outlined earlier.
We are capable of so much more and the community expects it. The Territory has changed and is no longer a frontier, it is a maturing community of wonderful diversity, but with so many challenges still not fulfilled.
Certain members of this government, and even the federal parliament, do not seem to understand the community expects more from its leaders than getting drunk at topless bars or telling bare-faced lies.
In addition to having no faith in the Chief Minister, I have no faith in the Treasurer, nor do I believe he is an appropriate person to be a leader in our community. With this in mind it would be disingenuous and dishonest of me to provide support to a proposition that leaves these people in leadership positions.
As such, I am advising I will not be siding with the opposition or the government on this motion, I will be abstaining. I will not be a hypocrite, a party to this bad behaviour or complicit in this business.
Is this a case of sour grapes? No! Being dumped from Cabinet came as an enormous relief. No more second guessing the Chief Minister, wondering what we have not been told and what is truthfully going on. If I was not dumped, it was just a matter of time before I walked. Integrity and honesty is everything to me.
I miss my ministerial duties. The greatest pleasure I had in the four-and-a-half years of being a member of parliament was being Minister for Health, Minister for Education, Minister for Disability Services and, surprisingly, Minister for Correctional Services. That took a while to get my head around, but I loved it in the few weeks I held the position.
My intent is not to tear down our government but to be a voice of truth and reason. The CLP government, under the leadership of Adam Giles, has made some serious mistakes. Adam Giles has made serious errors and demonstrated a serious lack of honesty and integrity in executing his role. If we do not go to the polls we have a huge amount of work to do to regain the confidence of Territorians.
At this point I apologise to the Alice Springs branch of the Country Liberal Party which I addressed on Saturday morning. I reassured them I would not go public again and make any controversial statements about the Chief Minister. At that time I did not think I would, but things progress quickly in politics and today I find myself in a position where I have to be true to my own integrity.
A starting point for Adam Giles is to apologise for the terrible accusations and allegations he made in the Alice Springs Country Liberal Party Branch meeting on 4 February 2015. He defamed and damaged the reputations of me and many other colleagues. He breached the confidentiality of the parliamentary wing. He needs to apologise without reservation to the Northern Territory Police Force. He needs to apologise to his colleagues for casting aspersions on our credibility and conduct.
I believe Adam Giles needs to step down from his position and give us all an opportunity to rebuild before we lose everything. Look at what happened in Queensland just a few weeks ago.
In closing, I put on the record two pieces of information that people may not be aware of which have disturbed me more than anything over the last 22 days. In addition to sacking me from Cabinet, Adam Giles sacked my adviser, a gay gentleman with a wealth of experience as a ministerial adviser. To top it off he also sacked a disabled woman I specifically employed when I was the Minister for Disability Services. I employed this wonderful young woman as part of my personal campaign to break down the barriers that people with disabilities face when they are looking for employment and because of her skills. Her disability was no issue really, but she was and identified as disabled, and we had just signed her to a 12-month contract. Adam Giles sacked this woman and that I find extremely disturbing and upsetting. The sacking of those two staff members has appalled me the most.
Madam Speaker, in concluding my comments on the record, I will be abstaining from voting on this motion.
Mr WOOD (Nelson): Madam Speaker, I thank the member for Araluen for one of the most honest speeches I have heard in this parliament. I realise how difficult it must be to be a true loyal CLP supporter and make that speech. Well done.
I will not be supporting or opposing this motion because it should be a motion of no confidence in all of us. We are the laughing stock of the nation. We are the most disunited bunch of amateurs that have ever ruled the Territory. We have set back statehood, maybe forever. Everything we do seems to be a mixture of who will win the next election at what cost. Should our party reign supreme? Look at me, look at me. Have we forgotten who elected us? It was not the party, it was the people.
We now have a government seen by many as a joke. The joke question I was asked on the weekend was, ‘Who will be the next Chief Minister?’ The government can only blame itself. It started with the way it got rid of Terry Mills – while he was overseas and behind his back. Then it scrapped the BDR without even giving it a fair go. It gave a water licence to a political friend without a drop of science or proof of commitment to use the water.
Three CLP members walked out and became Independents and in the process accused the government of insulting them and not doing enough for the electorates in the bush. They then joined the PUP and not long after left that party. The government was then hanging on by its teeth.
The government still continues, but gets more arrogant and less consultative. The government set up the Planning Commission without a planner included. The government passed legislation that cancelled the conflict of interest within the Planning Commission. It seems CLP affiliates are appointed to various boards and commissions. As I said before, this reminds me of the cadres of various communist regimes – infiltration of the party within the system.
Without any public consultation or debate, the government then sold off two government assets, the Government Printing Office and the Darwin Bus Service. It did that just after parliament wound up just before Christmas. They think Territorians are fools.
The government announced a Palmerston North suburb with no discussion, no consultation and before the Darwin regional plan was completed. When I asked for the plans I was not allowed to have them – total arrogance.
The government kicked the badminton club out of Sports House, where they had been for years, without caring what happened to them. Badminton fought back with the biggest petition ever presented to this parliament. Those people fought against an arrogant government because they did not like to be treated with disrespect.
During estimates, government announced it was looking at doubling the number of pokies at pubs and clubs with no consultation – oh, except with the pubs which gave it $150 000 at the last election.
The Treasurer was then sacked for homophobic statements, which he later said he did not say. But the Chief Minister sacked him anyway and reinstated him a few months later.
The Planning Commissioner released a discussion paper on the Darwin Regional Land Use Plan before Christmas in 2011, even though over 1000 people signed a petition against it and there were many other submissions. Nothing changed. It looks like the NT Planning Commission made up its mind: rural Territorians are irrelevant – developers rule.
Then there was the whiff of another government asset, TIO, being sold off. ‘We have not made up our mind’, but who believes that? Once again, the Chief Minister thinks Territorians are silly. When it was too late and the people started to make a noise we found out the government had sold it. They pretended to consult by telling people through the media what a wonderful idea it was to sell TIO.
The Chief Minister could not even face a meeting at Charles Darwin University to tell people why he was selling TIO. He said that the meeting was set up by the Labor Party and the unions, when it was organised by two panel beaters and me.
While that was going on, the political donations issue popped up its ugly head when it blew up big time in New South Wales. Foundation 51, Peter Maley and the Blain by-election were all in the mix, and that was a mess. The Chief Minister said Foundation 51 had nothing to do with the government, as if the government had nothing to do with the CLP. Once again, the Chief Minister thinks Territorians are fools. They are not. We found out through the Northern Territory Electoral Commission Foundation 51 is a front for political donations with lots of big developers’ names on the list.
Surely, that deserves an inquiry. Even though the CLP did not want one, it got one because members were asleep at the wheel. The Chief Minister promised he would still have an inquiry, as quoted in the NT News two days before the Casuarina by-election, but – surprise, surprise – straight after the election he broke that promise and killed off the inquiry, with half an inquiry. Territorians are not fools.
Did I hear the port might be up for sale? It must be a rumour. What about the Tiwi land deal? Anyone who questioned where the $1m from the Land Development Corporation went, and what it was for, was accused of not supporting Tiwi Islanders’ attempts to break the cycle of welfare dependency. Once again, that is treating Territorians like fools. The public is entitled to know where money is being spent. It has nothing to do with race, it is to do with accountability and transparency. When the Chief Minister makes those statements, you know he must be hiding something.
Somehow, Francis Xavier was brought back to the fold after a minister flew to the Tiwi Islands and convinced him to return – to give the government more than a one-vote breathing space in parliament. Government said there were no favours promised. Territorians are not fools. With the deal thrown in over fishing rights without discussing the issue with the Pirlangimpi mob, you wonder about the relationship between the Tiwi Land Council and the CLP.
Back to the pokies. Before Christmas, when parliament had gone home, the government took the cap off pokies and doubled the amount for the pubs, with 10 more for the clubs. Was there any discussion? Yes, with the AHA. Was there any discussion with the parliament, the NGOs or the people? None!
Government released the Darwin Regional Land Use Plan just before Christmas 2014. What a surprise! There were no changes except for the Elizabeth River Dam, which was changed because of the Blain by-election. There were no public meetings, no listening and vested interests got what they wanted. Planning is now a joke.
The Chief Minister shed his Police portfolio as part of the umpteenth Cabinet reshuffle, then the Police Commissioner was sacked for behaviour which is not yet clearly understood. Then the Chief Minister accused senior police and politicians of a conspiracy theory, but apologised after Vince Kelly let fly. This was all while waiting for a judicial inquiry promise – and still waiting.
In the meantime, just like the 3 am casino deal by Paul Everingham, there was a 1 am leadership takeover attempt – ending in a mess – with a statement that will make you blush today when the vote is taken, as the veneer of unity is papered over so finely you can see through it.
I might regret those words, after listening to the member for Araluen. Her words of integrity and honesty are still ringing in my ears.
The ghost of Terry Mills returned as he was stabbed again for putting his face on Facebook with a cheesy grin. The Chief Minister said he knew nothing about his sacking as he is not the Minister for Business now. Territorians will not believe that. No one mentioned it through the corridors of the fifth floor? No one said, ‘We had better tell the Chief Minister before we sack Mr Mills’? Remember the Chief Minister was the Minister for Asian Engagement.
The port issue has come up again. The Chief Minister wants to lease it but not sell it. Fair go! But it does not make any difference, it will not be run by the people. The government hopes to make money out of it. The Chief Minister set up the committee to look at port leasing with the terms of reference giving the impression that the deal has already been done. Government made the same mistake of not listening, not learning and not including the public in the discussion of whether we should sell one of the last government assets. This is a case of now having a window dressing committee so the government can say, ‘We consulted’. Territorians want to be part of the discussions, but government just keeps on leaving them out.
Yes, the government has done some good things, but it drowns under the pile of debris left by cyclone Giles. As I said before, the government is arrogant and leaves the people behind. It does not give people the opportunity to have a real conversation about what is going on. The Darwin regional plan is a classic example of a government which, in reality, pretended to consult so it could get the outcome it wanted for its friends. If you do not believe me, you need to talk to the independent company that looked at the consultation process.
For a few fleeting moments, I thought during the recent chaos that things might change when the nearly Chief Minister said the following:
Unfortunately, that Chief Minister only lasted until mid-morning.
When I watch the vote I will ponder on everything the Treasurer said about his colleagues:
what the Speaker said about the Treasurer:
what the Deputy Chief Minister said about the way the government was being run:
what the member for Araluen said about the Chief Minister after she was sacked:
and the Chief Minister said on 3 February:
The Attorney-General said on radio, I think yesterday, that the motion today would probably fail because of simple arithmetic. When the vote is taken, will it be the case of some CLP members wanting to support this motion but cannot bring themselves to vote with the opposition? Of course, as the member for Araluen said, they could always abstain.
The Attorney-General has also said we are here for the true welfare of the people of the Northern Territory. I say that is mythical, as you can see from what has happened over the last two-and-a-half years. The government is for the true welfare of the CLP, its political donors and some big CLP egos. The welfare of Territorians has been the last thing on the minds of members of this CLP government.
Yes, I know the Attorney-General has done some great work in his portfolios, and I am not trying to denigrate that. However, the people do not see that. They see what is happening elsewhere in the government, and it is pretty poor.
Why, with this horrible record of government, will I not support this motion against the government? I will abstain, simply because if I supported the motion I would, by default, support the Labor opposition. Presently, I do not think it is doing so well either, not because it has some internal issues to sort out but because it is not, at the moment, showing itself to be an alternative government. I do not say that as a personal opinion, but from the feedback I heard in the community when I asked. It is a simple fact: people do not like either mob at the moment.
The main reason I will not support this motion is because we are all guilty of causing this sad state of affairs. The public has no confidence in us. The word ‘politician’ holds no respect nor is it an occupation anyone would strive to take up because it is held in contempt by the community. Listen to not just what is said in the papers, but by ordinary folk who have lived in the Territory for years. Some of them are strident CLP supporters. They give you a shake of the head or a roll of the eyes and that is all you need to see what they are thinking.
This motion should probably be directed at the whole of parliament to pass a motion of no confidence in ourselves. Perhaps we should sack ourselves and start again. If we did, people who put their name up for election would need to go through a scrutiny process as highlighted in a letter I read in the Australian Financial Review on 12 February which said:
If we followed those lines it would give us a good chance to have quality people in this parliament. Perhaps – I have spoken on this before – we could scrap the party system so everyone had to stand as Independents. This would mean we would have 25 Independents in parliament and, therefore, no need to have the Westminster system which needs parties and does not work properly. Because of the small numbers we have in our present parliament, when you have a party as we have today with only 13 or 14 members, the choice of who should be a minister is quite limited. But, with 25 Independents there is much larger choice and a better chance of getting the right person for the job.
With the Chief Minister and ministers worked out and Independents ready to go, we could get down to work on common issues that need solutions without the barriers and limitations caused by political party intolerance.
‘I cannot work with socialists’, I hear. I say, ‘Get real’. The Territory has so many issues where we could all work together for the true welfare of the people of the NT. All members could be actively involved in solutions and not spend their time on character assassinations, rumourmongering, gossip, finger pointing and general crap and spin that permeates this place – a great example for others! We might even consult with the people.
As it is not likely the government will make such a radical move, the other choice is to pull up our socks, show leadership on all sides, ask searching questions, give truthful answers and in return answer questions, cooperate where possible and, perhaps in the words of the present Deputy Chief Minister, be more consultative with Territorians and engage with them before we make important and crucial decisions for the future of the Northern Territory.
If we cannot do this perhaps we should have a second Commonwealth intervention. Clear the decks, start again and bring in a new form of government as highlighted, and perhaps call it a government of national unity. It has been done in other places. Radical yes, but anything would be better than the mess we have at the moment.
Regardless of all those issues, the previous Labor government – when I held the balance of power – supported a four-year term which is still 18 months away. All governments will have their ups and downs, and this government is as down as you can get. I have always supported the four-year term. If there is to be an election the government can call it if it wants.
The member for Araluen said she would abstain. If the nine members who do not support Adam Giles abstained – even if I abstained – it would be an interesting vote. They would then take responsibility for their own mess. It is not my responsibility to fix the mess or pick who should lead the CLP. I might have my personal opinion but it is not my responsibility. The responsibility rests with the government. If the Chief Minister thinks something should happen, then he has the power and numbers on the floor today to allow an election to occur.
I am not the one responsible for bringing this government down; the government should be responsible. It should say, ‘We are not fit to govern this Territory’. If that is what they believe because they cannot get unity amongst themselves, then they have the power to have an election. Let me see what you do today in the vote.
I also quote the same as the Leader of the Opposition – the prayer of intercession that Bishop Greg Anderson read on the opening of this parliament where he said:
Madam Speaker, are those words simply decoration?
Mr VOWLES (Johnston): Madam Speaker, this is the most serious matter that can come before this Assembly. It is not a move the opposition has taken lightly.
The events of the last few weeks have confirmed, in the minds of many Territorians I spoke to, that this CLP government and Chief Minister are simply unfit to govern. They have destroyed the bond of trust and respect that must exist between Territorians and our government if we are to work together to build a better future for all Territorians.
Never in the history of the Territory have we seen government members so focused on themselves and their childish bickering. Never in the history of the Territory have we seen the concerns of Territorians so arrogantly and explicitly betrayed and dismissed.
We heard the member for Araluen say in her contribution she has no confidence in a man who has no integrity to run the Northern Territory and does not support a man who, in her words, does not have the majority of confidence or support in the party wing.
This is a Chief Minister who has arrogantly ruled the Northern Territory after he knifed Terry Mills, not once, but twice, while he was overseas. This is a Chief Minister who was not elected by Territorians to govern. This is a Chief Minister who has proven over the last 22 days that he wants leadership at all costs, and if he does not have it he will bring the House down. He proved and confirmed to many Territorians, within his own party wing and outside, that he is all about himself and not about the Territory. He has proven that over the last 22 days. That is a complete disgrace.
We accepted the loss of government in 2012. Since that day – even that evening – we have worked tirelessly and diligently, and have been disciplined to be an alternative government for Territorians. We have worked tirelessly, and continue to work tirelessly, to be the voice of Territorians. We worked tirelessly to be the alternative government. I take the member for Nelson’s comments. We are listening, we are working and we are ready to govern for Territorians. We will listen and we will be the voice of Territorians. That is what they are screaming for.
Every Sunday at the Rapid Creek Markets in my electorate, my doors are open. A number of people – both Labor and CLP, and people who are just genuinely interested in politics – have come to me over the last 22 days, three months, even the last two years, and said, ‘What a bloody disgrace you all are, because you are not listening’. I say to them, ‘I do not care what your political affiliation is, let us have a discussion about this’. I tell them what I and Labor are doing to be elected in 2016. We want to listen and have those conversations.
One thing is very clear: this government, led by an incompetent, disgraceful, arrogant person who lacks integrity and leadership, does not know what that means. He does not know what it means to stand up for Territorians and be a leader of a political party which is supposed to represent all Territorians. He is playing his own little games within his own party. There are some things over the years which have had bipartisan support, but that is out the door under this leadership.
As we heard from the member for Araluen, he is not the leader his party wants. Five never beats nine. What we heard from the member for Araluen in her contribution – I thank her, it was very brave – reminds me, and should remind everybody in parliament, what we are here for. We are supposed to represent our people, our party and our policy. She portrayed today that she has a deep respect for her political party – different to mine. She also showed integrity and what it means to be a member of parliament. You are supposed to represent between 4500 to 5000 people in your electorate.
As a minister, she stood proud of her decisions regardless of whether we thought them right or wrong. She stood proud of those decisions, because she was happy and proud to represent the decisions Cabinet was making. We have since heard it is being led by somebody who does not have the confidence.
After the contribution by the member for Araluen, I urge this current Chief Minister – who is not the one his own party wing wants – to stand down immediately. If he does not – I hope he is writing his resignation letter or at least trying to sort out legislation for the member for Port Darwin – how do we bring an election on regardless of the vote?
We are here to represent Territorians, not ourselves or our own political ambitions and leadership. For many months we have heard chatter about the Chief Minister living in an ivory tower on The Esplanade in a $1m apartment, swanning around everywhere in private jets.
I am happy if I am wrong, but I am sure I heard an interview where the Chief Minister said, ‘It was unanimously voted on in the party wing that I would be Chief Minister’. We heard from the member for Araluen that is not true. We have a Chief Minister who is a pathological liar about anything that might harm his leadership, not his aspirations. He has achieved that. Within seven or eight years of landing in the Territory, he has gone from the person involved in the intervention to Chief Minister.
We know a few things were leaked over the first part of this four-year term. We had a situation where we asked a question of a minister, and he would answer for thirty seconds before passing it to the Treasurer. Lo and behold, where did that information come from? We are not entirely sure, but the question went to the then Transport minister, Adam Giles, who spoke for thirty seconds. We could not believe that he passed it to the Treasurer.
At that moment I thought, ‘What am I doing in this Chamber? Is this what it is about?’ This minister was setting up the Treasurer of his own government. I thought, ‘We need to be careful of this bloke; he is all about himself’. He wanted nothing but the leadership, which he has. Many Territorians have come to me and said, ‘This bloke is a pathological liar’. He tells so many lies that, sooner or later, you do not know what the truth is. You cannot do that anywhere. It goes down to who you are as a person and what you stand for.
The member for Nelson said we, on this side of the Chamber, are not ready to govern. I disagree with that 100%, because we are ready to govern. We are ready to listen, and continue to listen, to Territorians. We have gone to the regions. The Leader of the Opposition has travelled throughout the Northern Territory over the last two-and-a-half years, but extensively over the last six months to remote communities. We have held community Cabinets in remote communities. We have visited people, we have listened. We have said, ‘We are here to listen. You gave us the message, we are here to listen.’ That is what we are doing: continuously listening.
If you do not learn from your mistakes, then what are you? You are arrogant, not listening, not governing for everybody and not carrying out your role as a parliamentarian. Our role is to represent everybody, regardless of who they vote for, who they support, who they are, where they live and what their background is. It should not matter.
We are here to do our job because we put our hand up to do this. We went through a stringent process to be candidates for our electorates. To be elected is the greatest honour, if you want to be a member of parliament. I was born in the old Darwin Hospital and bred in the Territory and I cringe and have had migraines because of how bad this Chief Minister is. People are telling me how bad he is. I asked, ‘Why am I taking on all of this government’s bad decisions and their stress?’
This bloke – I do not like the term ‘blow-in’ – does not know, understand or respect the Territory. I have said many times I believe you are a Territorian if you come here to live and work, and this is your home. I will embrace that, because that is what the Territory is built on, not people coming here for their own political aspirations to change the Territory with what they want to do. Do you know why I put my hand up to become a parliamentarian? Because I was sick of the Country Liberal government’s Chief Ministers making decisions then taking off down south, not to live with those decisions.
I was raised in Jingili which I now represent, and the rural area. There are people there who say to me every weekend, ‘I remember you when you were this small. Just remember, if you do something wrong I will come and clip you around the ear.’ That is what keeps you real.
The CLP government needs to make a decision today. As I said, I hope this non-elected party wing Chief Minister of the Northern Territory stands down immediately, because there is no coming back from that. He should stands down immediately or make the changes in here to bring on an election and let Territorians decide.
The former elected Chief Minister, Terry Mills, won government for the CLP because people in the bush trusted him to deliver CLP promises. Mr Mills has since said the bush appears to have been abandoned by your government after you took over the helm. Territorians in the bush have been taken for granted and this CLP government and Chief Minister have failed to deliver promises of better roads, housing and infrastructure. They are in breach of the many contracts they signed with Indigenous communities across the Northern Territory. Those communities are chomping at the bit to extract the conversation about this betrayal.
One of the Chief Minister’s first acts on taking over as the leader of this government was to scrap the Indigenous Affairs portfolio declaring:
Now we know the truth. Territorians have had an opportunity to judge his leadership, not on what he says, but on what he does. Progress in closing the gap has stalled and the Chief Minister has not delivered on the CLP election promises to improve education opportunities and outcomes in the bush. This is a disgrace. He has not even been able to deliver projects like the new Ngukurr health centre or the Maningrida Trade Training Centre funded by Labor three years ago.
After two years of chaotic government the CLP has comprehensively failed to deliver on its contracts with remote communities across the Northern Territory. It has failed to deliver 2000 new homes across the Territory, and we do not know how many will make it to the bush.
Debate suspended.
The Assembly suspended.
Continued from earlier this day.
Mr VOWLES (Johnston): Madam Speaker, the CLP has failed to establish government business in retail centres at major towns like Borroloola. It has failed to support school boarding facilities in the gulf region. It has failed to upgrade roads in the gulf region to provide year-round access to Borroloola. It has failed to provide year-round access between the Daly River and Wadeye. It has failed to improve health and education services in Nhulunbuy.
The people of northeast Arnhem Land are still waiting for a fully-funded upgrade of the 30-year old accident and emergency department at Gove District Hospital. Instead, the priorities of this government, the Chief Minister and his right-hand man, the Treasurer, seem to lie in other policy areas, making it easier to increase the number of poker machines available in bush clubs and pubs, using police officers to guard bottle shops instead of the Banned Drinker Register and using a long-awaited medical facility purpose-built to support bush patients for an alcohol treatment and detention centre. To add insult to injury, this disgrace of a government is making life hard for bush patients requiring hospital support and ordinary mums and dads confronted with bed block and double-bunking of the government’s own making at Royal Darwin Hospital.
The Chief Minister maintains he has delivered the CLP election promise of $5200 for each dwelling in Territory homelands and outstations. We still hear of outstation service providers, but are yet to see any of these funds or access repairs and maintenance to these government-funded houses.
The Chief Minister recently told his Alice Springs CLP branch that the CLP, unlike Labor, had no Indigenous policy. Why can he not see what other Territorians can see: his leadership failure to fulfil promises to Territorians living in the bush?
Over 35% of our population are Indigenous and over 70% of that population live in our regional and remote townships as well as homelands across the Northern Territory. The most recent Closing the Gap report has been described as profoundly disappointing with progress stalling and often going backwards across nearly all indicators.
Building and improving Indigenous education outcomes was a core promise of former CLP elected Chief Minister Terry Mills, but under your watch the review of Indigenous education seems to be put in the too-hard basket. Work on this has stalled and our bush schools are struggling to maintain progress after heavy budget and staff cuts. After a long inquiry into Indigenous education, we still do not know the government’s plans and how they will be funded.
We have had six ministers for Housing and remote housing remains in disarray. Progress on remote housing rebuilds and investment in new housing has slowed. In many communities essential housing maintenance which directly affects health and the safety of residents has gone backwards, let alone the widening chasm of incarceration of Indigenous Territorians under the Country Liberals government. Closing the Gap is critical for the future wellbeing and prosperity of all Territorians.
The Chief Minister and the CLP government have failed to build on the momentum created under the former Labor government, both here and in Canberra. The Chief Minister sat back while the Australian government – his mates in Canberra – ripped $500m from Indigenous services across Australia. He said that after a late budget night chat with the Commonwealth minister he was not concerned about the impact of those cuts in the Northern Territory.
He stood by while the federal government ripped over $11m from primary healthcare in the Northern Territory, including funding for important programs like tackling Indigenous smoking and activities linked to alcohol and other drugs. Sadly, chaos, confusion and instability are not just a hallmark of the Country Liberals government under our current Chief Minister, they are also becoming the hallmark of the CLP’s approach to Indigenous affairs and its policies.
The CLP won government on the back of a promise to address Indigenous disadvantage and improve conditions for Indigenous Territorians, especially those living in the bush. The people in the bush put their trust in former CLP Chief Minister, Terry Mills, and his contracts with the bush. They put their faith in the Country Liberals government. On knifing Terry Mills the first time, the Chief Minister said he would govern for all Territorians and it was not necessary to have a minister responsible for Indigenous affairs. At the same time, he told Territorians he was doing a fantastic job in the bush. This exemplifies how out of touch this Chief Minister is.
The member for Stuart, as Minister for Local Government and Community Services, failed in her work to support the coordination of government services. This is a disgrace. She failed to deliver contracts in the bush and something needs to be done.
Madam Speaker, Territorians and I urge members on the other side of the House to support this motion. You were elected to this parliament to do the right thing by Territorians and let their voices be heard.
Ms LEE (Arnhem): Madam Speaker, I support the motion of no confidence in the member for Braitling, Adam Giles. A persistent leaker of information to undermine your leaders, you misinformed people about your grandmother being born under a tree and you publicly stated that your party has fewer than 500 members, which should disqualify it in accordance with the NTEC guidelines.
My father was born under a tree, the same as my grandmother and grandfather. I am sure the member for Namatjira had the same experience. I do not know about other members across the Chamber but I know my parents were born under a tree – that is definite.
From the first day I met this man, my instincts told me he was not trustworthy. I was introduced to the Country Liberal Party. I hoped at that time I had made a good decision to join and support the Country Liberals. I wanted to believe the members truly had the best interest of Territorians, and the people of Arnhem especially, at heart.
At that time I was new to the game of politics – even though I had grown up with politics – and I trusted to be guided and supported. It seems I was nave to believe in this group. Lo and behold, before anyone knew it, within a few months of being in government we had a change of Chief Minister and leader of the party with the member for Braitling appointing himself the new Chief Minister over the elected and true Chief Minister, Terry Mills. He did so with complete disregard for the political process and democracy.
As a new unelected self-appointed little leader, Adam Giles, the member for Braitling, assumed to control everything and everyone in his party, from his local branch to the political wing, through to the parliamentary wing. His strategy quickly became obvious, which was to divide and conquer, putting a wedge between people. He is very devious, we know that. He is pretty good at that game. He changes his portfolios at a whim, rewarding those who are yes men and yes women and pushing away those who do not agree with him, even publicly abusing them.
I can only describe his leadership as toxic. His toxic-leadership approach harmed the people who had relied on him to manage important affairs of the Territory and the party. I congratulate the member for Araluen for her courage to say in parliament that Adam Giles should never have been Chief Minister. It is true; I agree with that. He does not have the stomach, the integrity, the gut, the will or the heart to do the job. He is a little blow-in. He has no understanding of the Northern Territory and the people, our heritage, our fight and where we want to go in the Northern Territory. He has no idea.
His favourite method of over-control was to poison enthusiasm, creativity and innovative expression. I believe the little member for Braitling defines leadership as being in control of everyone and everything. He created a toxic environment where people were rewarded for agreeing with him – especially the member for Stuart – and punished for daring to think differently or disagree. He rewarded yes people and promoted them to leadership roles while stabbing his own in the back. People who were critical thinkers questioning issues were shut out from decision-making responsibilities. His leadership style caused a high turnover rate of ministerial portfolios, a decline in productivity, less innovation and internal conflicts.
So far, we have had three Chief Ministers. I have lost count of how many Deputy Chief Ministers, Treasurers, Education ministers, Police ministers, Housing ministers. We all know the list goes on and on. This is not good for the Territory, for the confidence of business or for the people, especially Indigenous people who are already suffering.
The bullying, abuse and arrogance has been a relentless pattern in his endeavour to secure power and control. His actions as a leader, by tightly controlling everything, effectively prevented his party from thinking outside his way. He is not looking for team mates, he just wants people to do as he says without question. Just do as he says or you are out.
His lack of communication, and by isolating people and strictly controlling all information, has made his party less effective. No wonder nine of his colleagues and party members are frustrated and no one trusts this self-appointed little leader. With no trust, how will you all perform and be proactive?
If you live by the sword then you have to be ready to die by the sword. You threw Terry Mills out when he was not even seven months into his term. He spent 11 years fighting the ALP as opposition. He worked very hard when there were only four CLP members of parliament at one stage. Then you came along from the Blue Mountains with your little shovel and decided you wanted to be the top dog of the Northern Territory. You did not even have the guts to wait for Terry to return from overseas.
It is always about your ego. Your desperate need to overcome everything has destroyed, beyond salvage, everything, and you are left with control over nothing.
For good measure you decided to sack Terry Mills again only a few days ago while he was working overseas. What goes through your mind, I wonder, and what kind of a person would do that to another person?
You have been undermining your leaders for a very long time. I saw that firsthand when I was in the CLP. I could no longer be a part of the CLP and joined the member for Namatjira, Alison Anderson, because I saw clearly that you are an ineffective leader and do not have the support of your colleagues, nor do you have the best interests of the people of the Northern Territory at heart – just another little show pony. This has always been about you and only you.
Your leadership has damaged the reputation of the Northern Territory and the people within this parliament who represent Territorians. Your loyal branch members, no doubt, live in hope that the situation will change, but sadly for the Territory, as long as you remain in this position nothing will change for the better. I hope they know that too.
Territorians deserve and demand better of us in this parliament, as the member for Nelson stated. They were promised change with real leadership – so says your CLP slogan. Where is that real leadership from your slogan during the election?
Your party is hollow to the core as, over time, factions and infighting have taken their toll causing it to rot in the centre. On the outside things look normal, but there are serious problems under the surface.
We have, as a result, a depressed economy, unfair demands and a workforce expected to keep a house of cards working, to no avail. People of the bush are suffering. My people are hurting and suffering, and this little self-appointed Chief Minister does not even care. To expect you to change and transform for the better, after a lifetime of the same habits, would be a big ask, and I do not think it is possible.
At a time when the community is uniting against violence against women, bullying in the workplace is equally as unlawful and disgusting. I have personal knowledge of this violence after my partner cheated on me with my niece. You seem quite at home attacking female members of the parliament. You do not have any issues calling out abuse and insults to me and my colleague, the member for Namatjira, across the Chamber while you hold a cannon to your party’s head if they dare challenge you. It seems you have elevated yourself now to hurling abuse at your female colleagues with no shred of evidence, at any opportunity you are given.
The member for Araluen can be forgiven for stating publicly that you lack honesty, respect and integrity. You said you can ‘never work with that woman again’. If we take from the transcript of recording made at your local branch recently, you do not deny making the statement because you believe she hurt you. The Territory is at stake here and if you are unable to put your differences aside how will you effectively run this government?
Your reappointed Treasurer once publicly said, ‘Territory politics is immature’. He felt sad for new members of the CLP parliamentary wing. ‘They have come into what can be perceived as a nest of vipers’, he said. This must make you the king of vipers.
You have been incredibly irresponsible, making rash public statements without any shred of evidence about the NT Police. You have undermined the very institution Territorians rely on with confidence for safety and protection especially. Your public announcement has angered both NT Police and the Police Association – what a disgrace! – who rightly feel you are using the force as a political football. Everybody can see that. You make serious allegations about senior police officers without any evidence. To date, you have not produced a shred of evidence to support your outrageous childish outburst when amongst what you thought were your loyal branch members. You bring shame to the portfolio of Police minister. You have abused your position, and in order to defend your personal feelings you were prepared to accuse the police without any evidence to back you up.
You declared yourself when things got tough all because of petty rumours – you claim – when you still had no evidence. Do you think an apology will fix it? The damage is done and I hope you are satisfied with yourself. You are a disgrace!
This has been all about you. ‘Me, me, me’, says the self-appointed little Chief Minister. That is all I read into the transcript of the recording of your branch meeting. You take no responsibility whatsoever. You blame everyone else and everyone else is at fault. ‘What about me?’, you cried. Admit it; you are just not capable of acknowledging others – your way or the highway.
Your NT Police minister, Peter Chandler, sided with the police over your criticism. You have caused a great deal of hardship and the CLP has been beset by your damaging infighting involving private and public spats. We move from one negative headline to another about your leadership. It was predicted a tough year for the CLP and the little boy himself, Adam Giles, as the party dogged by a rift:
Another article said:
You have been caught out. Your bluff has been called. This parliament will not allow you to continue to run down this Territory – not even the police force. If you need to go to an election, then so be it. A clean-out can be pretty healthy. We simply cannot continue this way, especially not under your leadership.
Madam Speaker, I urge my fellow parliamentarians on all sides to support this motion. Let us clean this House and get rid of this little boy once and for all.
Ms MANISON (Wanguri): Madam Speaker, this motion we presented today is of the most serious nature and not one we take lightly. We have progressed down this path because if we had not we would be walking away from the people we represent. We have no doubt in our minds that people are sick and tired of this government and the farce it has become.
People are sick and tired of the non-stop drama and the circus that is and has been constantly played out since August 2012 under this CLP government. Territorians are over the arrogance, betrayals, broken promises and instability the CLP government has offered. Fundamentally, Territorians just want to see good government. They want a government they can have faith in and trust. They want a government that fulfils its commitments, offers certainty and stability and makes the Territory a better place for all. That is why we are in this job. The reason most of us put our hand up to do it is because we want to see a better Northern Territory.
I was quite moved by the strength and integrity displayed in the debate by the member for Araluen. It is extremely clear there are some deep problems within the government which cannot be fixed – it has gone too far. It cannot get on with governing the Northern Territory. It has been a mess since August 2012.
The points of conversation I hear are how hopeless this lot is and whether they are serious. Is this how they think we want to see the Northern Territory run? Even CLP supporters are ashamed of the performance of this government. It has been a complete disgrace, to say the least.
One of the most important motions you can put before this Assembly is want of confidence in the government and whether they can keep governing. So far, two members from the government have spoken to this motion. I am curious to see if other members of the government try to tell people why they should have confidence in them. If you do not speak in this debate and put your point of view, it shows you do not have much confidence in yourselves. Let us see who tells Territorians why they should still be in government, because so far the performance of the CLP government has been a disgrace.
You had over 10 years in opposition, champing at the bit, wanting to get back into government and have the honour and privilege of governing the Northern Territory. You sat there for over a decade waiting for that opportunity. After sitting on the opposition benches wanting the opportunity to drive positive change and make a better life for people in the Northern Territory, what a disappointment you have been to the Northern Territory.
I have a huge amount of respect for some extremely hard-working members in government who take their job seriously. Often when I look across the Chamber I see the look of disappointment and frustration on their faces at the actions and arrogant performance of some of the government members. You can see they feel they are letting their constituents down.
What really gets to them, and to us on this side, is the missed opportunities. Members in government and on this side know when the history books reflect upon the legacy of the Giles government and what has happened, there will be some pretty damning words used. ‘Arrogant’ will be one, ‘chaotic’ will be another. ‘Dysfunction’, ‘uncertainty’ and ‘instability’ will also be words that describe the past few years of life under the CLP government. This is not a legacy to be proud of. The consequences of a government that is arrogant, chaotic, dysfunctional and unstable are not good for the Territory – no one benefits.
The horrendous performance of this government is something Territorians talk about. I hear it at work, at the shops, when doorknocking and in my personal life. Everyone is talking about it. For the past two-and-a-half years discussion of the performance of the Territory government has been never ending. We have gone from one blow-up to another and the government has failed to get much done. This has occurred because of your actions, decisions and internal relationships.
What has become abundantly clear is division within the CLP government still runs extremely deep. We know in the failed coup that occurred only 22 days ago nine members of government did not support the member for Braitling as Chief Minister of this parliament. Nine of them! I always look at that in the sense of being the captain of a team with 14 team mates. If nine did not support you and said you should go as you were not doing a good job, staying is not leadership, it is being outright irresponsible to your team. You cannot lead a team cohesively if you do not have majority support.
If nine members of the CLP government do not support the leader it is a disaster for the Northern Territory. How on earth can you get on with doing your job of governing the Northern Territory when you do not get along? Too much blood has been let and the wounds are far too deep for you to move on from this. The people of the Northern Territory deserve better. They deserve a functional government that is working in their best interests, not individuals, egos and somebody’s pure delight in maintaining power. That is not good for anyone and is absolutely disgraceful.
The member for Araluen demonstrated a huge amount of integrity today, speaking her mind and taking part in this very difficult conversation. She has demonstrated a new level of bravery with her constituents in mind – people she represents.
Most of us in this Chamber believe we have been voted in by the people of our electorates to represent them, do the best job possible of ensuring a better life for them by creating opportunities for them and making the Northern Territory the best possible place we can.
We have some huge challenges in the Northern Territory with the highest proportion of people in lower socioeconomic circumstances living in Third World situations – in a country like Australia. We have some of the biggest health and education issues in this country. If we are to make a difference in these people’s lives, then you need a cohesive, functional government, and we simply do not have that.
For two-and-a-half years people have seen chaos and madness and they are over it. They want an election so they can make their decision and put some stability back into the Northern Territory. At the moment it is chaotic madness. Under the leadership of the member for Braitling, the Northern Territory has been getting national media coverage saying we are a joke and we cannot govern ourselves. Because the situation has been so chaotic, dysfunctional and mad, to put it mildly, people are now questioning whether we can self-govern or be given statehood, and it is a disgrace. To take the Territory to the point where people are questioning whether or not we can govern ourselves is outrageous! There is no doubt in my mind people would like an election to vote in members as they see fit. They do not want to see chaos ruling any longer.
We have seen the internal issues within the CLP, and it is very clear those relationships will not mend. In my electorate there have been several reasons why people have lost faith in you, aside from the infighting. They have lost faith in you because of the promises you have broken and the way you are going about your job. For example, in 2012 the government made some very firm promises about reducing the cost of living. One of the government’s first actions was to put the price of power and water through the roof. We have seen money taken out of the pockets of Territorians, despite the promises you made to them to reduce the cost of living. We have seen the flow-on effects from those power and water price increases that were never really thought about and how they are hitting businesses’ rates and fees.
For example, it is important to most people to own their own property, live their dream and build a life in the Territory. Your government has made it so much harder for low- and middle-income earners and first homebuyers to buy a property so they can continue to call the Territory home.
We have heard big promises about crime reduction. In your latest crime statistics just released, in the Darwin region property crime – home break-ins – has gone up 49%, motor vehicle theft is up 23% and assaults are up 8%.
There were some fairly big commitments about alcohol and alcohol management. One you kept was scrapping the BDR – despite the consequences – in the first days after you took over government. In my electorate there are people drinking in the parks. I have had to have a few conversations with the police over the last few months with regard to that. We are seeing that in Leanyer and Wanguri.
However what gets to people most about the Giles government is arrogance. This government has gone about business failing to consult with or listen to Territorians. A clear example of that was the sale of TIO. Many questions were asked of ministers about what was happening with TIO and they failed to answer them clearly. Then, a few days after the Casuarina by-election, lo and behold, we were moving down the pathway of selling TIO.
It was the campaign you drove around the sale of TIO that frustrated and annoyed people because you were treating them like idiots. You we saying, ‘If we are to sell TIO, what would you like us to spend the money on?’ You did not even ask the fundamental question, ‘Would you like to see TIO sold? Yes or no.’ You did not even try to engage in any meaningful or constructive debate with Territorians about the reasons you felt TIO should be sold. Instead you said to people, ‘If we were to sell TIO, what would you like to spend the money on?’ People are not fools, they could see right through that. They were extremely frustrated with that approach.
There have also been some questions about the conduct of this government with regard to political donations. Some very serious questions were raised with regard to Foundation 51. The member for Nelson was successful in moving for an inquiry into those donations, which was agreed to in this parliament. However, then the government did a blackflip on that and decided not to proceed down that path. It made people ask the questions, ‘What on earth are you hiding? Why will you not be transparent about where the money comes from?’ They are not feeling very reassured after they heard the member for Fong Lim say that donations, effectively, open his door. People want to see more transparency and scrutiny of the government through an ICAC.
There have also been 14 government reshuffles the public service has had to bear. That has created a huge amount of instability and made it very hard for many people within the public service to get on with their jobs.
In my electorate business people and people working within the private sector are very concerned about the instability and the lack of consistency in the performance of government. People say the only thing it is consistent with is its instability and chaos. They have lost confidence and are deeply concerned about attracting investment in the Northern Territory, which is completely understandable when you see a circus played out in front of you. People have lost trust in the government.
I come back to the behaviour of the government, which has been questioned in the last few weeks. The coup was an event people will not forget for some time. We all remember the history of the initial leadership vote. It was probably the first time after that we ever heard the member for Braitling referred to as a little boy.
He finally got his way by knifing the former Chief Minister while he was representing the Northern Territory on a trade mission to Japan – of all countries, given their high values of respect and trust. Three members left the party and crossed the floor. One of them has gone back, mind you. The current Treasurer was kicked out of Cabinet, and now is back.
Then, in this coup, nine members of this government demonstrated very clearly they did not support the Chief Minister by voting against him. How on earth can a government function to serve the people of the Northern Territory when nine of the members do not support the Chief Minister? They do not think he is doing a good job and that he should be the Chief Minister of the Northern Territory.
The fact that he has dug in and effectively threatened to take the House down if he does not stay in the big job is a disgrace. The member for Araluen, in debating this motion, pointed out that international convention is such that once the government leader has lost majority support of his or her colleagues, they resign. He did not resign, which is unprecedented. The fact that he has dug in trying to stay in that job, ruling a completely chaotic government, is outrageous. That is not what we are here for. We are here to represent the people of the Northern Territory and make this a better place.
Madam Speaker, the people of the Northern Territory have lost confidence in this government. I urge members of this parliament to do the right thing and support this motion. There will be long-lasting impacts because the government has lost the confidence of the people of the Northern Territory.
Ms WALKER (Nhulunbuy): Madam Speaker, do we have no other members of the government leaping to their feet to defend themselves in this no confidence motion? Are there people in the lobby room who have torn up their speeches and said, ‘Blow that, I am not saying anything to support the member for Braitling as Chief Minister’? It is very interesting.
If they are voting on this motion of no confidence they should be on the record talking about all the amazing things they want to claim they have done in two-and-a-half years, but in their heart of hearts they know they have completely trashed the Territory. It took the member for Araluen to speak openly and honestly, and I daresay at a high price. She has put it on the record and I expected some of her nine colleagues would at least follow.
I support the motion that the government no longer possesses the confidence of the Assembly because this government is a train wreck which has betrayed the confidence of Territorians from day one. Nobody has confidence in this government. Even a majority of the CLP party wing has no confidence in its own government members who suffered their own internal vote of no confidence just a few weeks ago. For the life of me I cannot work out, nor can anybody else, how five beats nine.
Good on you, member for Braitling. We know you got hammered the night of the coup, but you bounced back, and along with four of your supporters somehow managed to claw back power. All the while, Territorians and the nation have observed the internal brawling of the CLP party wing from day one. It has failed to govern, to deliver on its empty promises and to run the Territory. Its members are so self-serving and self-interested they have failed miserably to serve the people of the Northern Territory and their interests.
I am sure I am not the only one who looks back to the CLP’s election win and the many things they promised and asks where it all went wrong. How did it end up such a train wreck? I always said it would end up in tears one day.
This morning I discovered on my desk a glossy little brochure about the five-point plan and in it a happy snap of the old days. There are happy faces of members lining up for an election having their photograph taken. A little spiel alongside that photograph said, ‘Our candidates will fight for you and your family and bring about real change to the Territory’. All they have done for two-and-a-half years is fight amongst themselves.
Let us look at the litany of failures. The CLP promised Territorians it would plan properly for the future, build opportunities for Territory families and improve community safety, education and health services. It promised to improve services for Territorians no matter where they lived. Instead, we have a government focused on the wrong priorities: jobs for mates, internal bickering, disruption to government services, ever-increasing costs of living and an uncertain future under the CLP. With that uncertain future are far too many Territorians who are suffering under the poor decisions and terrible policies of the CLP.
The CLP said it was completely unacceptable to have one standard for our towns and another for the bush. After two years, people in the bush are still waiting for any sign that the CLP has a real plan to lift bush services, improve family support services or boost local jobs and create a brighter future for our Territorians living in bush communities. I am sure the member for Stuart will respond in this debate to tell me otherwise.
One of the key services Territorians expect their government to deliver is first-class health – not just acute care when we are really sick but to also support GP services, primary community-based healthcare, chronic disease and promotion of health lifestyles.
Importantly, the Territory also has a key role in supporting the national effort to Close the Gap on Indigenous Disadvantage, particularly in health and life expectancy. Under the CLP we are at real risk of losing hard-won traction in our health gains, especially important gains in closing the gap in health outcomes for Indigenous Territorians.
Virtually all the new health initiatives and infrastructure investments the CLP has all too easily taken credit for over the past two years were planned and budgeted for by Labor at Territory and federal levels. The new accident and emergency facilities in Alice Springs and Tennant Creek, operating theatres, reduction in elective surgery wait times and improvements to new remote health clinics are all initiatives funded by Labor. In September last year, the CLP government bragged about a $50m program to improve remote NT health clinics but failed to mention that all of this work was initiated by Labor, both here and federally.
In the meantime, there have been no new projects from the CLP. Three years after funding was made available by Labor Ngukurr still waits for its new clinic, and work to enhance local control and management of remote health clinics has stalled. There has been little doubt about the commitment of the member for Araluen to improving remote health, but we are still left wondering what more could have been achieved in the last two years with more support from Cabinet.
Let us not forget the early actions of this government and the member for Fong Lim in rejecting $135m of Commonwealth health funding, including funding for a children’s wing at Royal Darwin Hospital – which was a firm commitment from Labor – $10m for renal facilities and $5.8m for a medi-hotel at Gove to support patients from the northeast Arnhem regions. The member for Fong Lim said medi-hotels were not needed because they were ‘just for long grassers’. Yes, they were his words which are on the Parliamentary Record.
The CLP government has even been unable to proceed with $13m of improvements to the accident and emergency department at Gove hospital funded by federal Labor. In the meantime, the 30-year-old – probably closer to 40-year-old – accident and emergency department still requires this Commonwealth-funded upgrade. It is a regional facility the Health minister described as ‘antiquated and tired’. To this day, no one in Gove has heard any news of the plans despite regular assurances that in a couple of weeks’ or months’ time, there will be a commitment and we will know an outcome.
I have been trying since before Christmas to get a briefing in two different Health ministers’ offices about the status of Gove hospital, amongst other things. The last time I tried to get a briefing was on the day after the coup. Because there were bombs going off and fires on the fifth floor that needed to be put out, any briefings that I or anybody else had on that particular day had been cancelled.
In estimates we heard the now former Health minister warn of what she described as a profound impact, a $33m cut to the Territory budget as a consequence of Commonwealth cuts to our health budget. The Commonwealth has since conceded they cannot slash our hospital funding as planned, but we still have an over-$11m cut to the NT Health budget this year with no real explanation of where the cuts are being made. Our health system is being managed on the run.
You can ask any number of public servants who will tell you that is exactly how the public service is running at the moment as there have been so many changes, so many jobs switched, corporate knowledge gone, constant restructures and constant change of ministerial responsibility. It is small wonder the public service is in a mess.
We have still to hear how the CLP government plans to manage Tony Abbott’s cuts of $377m out of our Health budget over the next decade. All we know is that our Health minister – whoever that might be today or tomorrow – will have to look at more ways to generate revenue, shifting more of the cost burden to Territory families and the likelihood of fewer services in the bush, with patients being scooped up and brought to major centres for treatment rather than building capacity for preventative health in our regional and remote areas. That is simply not good enough.
We are losing services in community-based primary care, with a shift to resourcing hospital-based acute care. This is a fact and it comes at a much greater cost to families, communities and the taxpayer.
We have heard distressing accounts of nurses and other health staff being bullied in an already stressful and difficult work situation, as well as the use of short-term contracts to leverage staff management, particularly of remote nurses. We have seen NGO health service providers forced to impose cuts to their operations and services, and put on the government leash of short-term contracts that limit their ability to provide quality services and to recruit, retain and build their health workforce.
The CLP also promised in its post-election action plan that it would reinforce Royal Darwin Hospital as the Territory’s premier hospital. Instead, the RDH and its hard-working staff are struggling with bed block and longer wait times in the emergency department, largely due to the hijacking of its medi-hotel – designed by Labor to reduce bed block in the RDH – for the CLP’s entirely political plan to replace the BDR with its mandatory alcohol detention scheme, for which it will release no data or statistics other than a few anecdotes about a couple of success stories.
Who will forget the appalling sight of the Chief Minister in this House mocking and laughing at hard-working nurses who were so frustrated they were signing petitions to the government about their workload pressures in RDH? That was shameful behaviour from the Chief Minister. However, as we now know, it was pretty typical of the way he operates.
The CLP could not even introduce paid parking at the Royal Darwin Hospital in a way that worked for patients, let alone staff. It still resists answering any questions about cost and where the revenue goes, claiming it is all commercial-in-confidence.
Under Labor, Territorians would see the Palmerston hospital under way right now, but under the CLP all we have seen are more delays and PR stunts to give an impression of progress as it seeks ways to involve the private sector in building the hospital and delivering health services. Under the CLP, Territorians in the rapidly-growing Palmerston region have to put up with the chaos in the RDH and delays in access to improved health services until the work starts at Palmerston in, perhaps, 2016 or, more likely, later. Just last week the Chief Minister could not even answer a simple question regarding when the doors will open at the 24-hour A&E department at the new Palmerston hospital.
The CLP promised to support the development of a private hospital in Alice Springs in Central Australia. After two-and-a-half years, that commitment to Centralians seems to have quietly disappeared.
Territorians in the bush continue to wait for remote health clinics to be upgraded and new remote clinics to be built, three, four or more years after Labor made funds available for that very purpose. Instead of improving health services across the board, this government preferred to budget $28m to prop up its mandatory alcohol rehabilitation scheme and create chaos at the RDH by hijacking hospital patient accommodation at the medi-hotel for the detention of problem drinkers.
What of the police and their confidence in their elected officials? How can they possibly have confidence when they know their minister is capable, at any time, of accusing them of conspiring to get rid of him? The member for Araluen was quite correct when she said in this debate earlier that the Chief Minister needs to apologise to police.
The extraordinary words from the Chief Minister’s mouth during the failed coup showed every police officer that this Chief Minister would be willing to throw them under the bus to protect his own job. The NT Police Association, which speaks on behalf of 1400 sworn officers, has been damning of this Chief Minister’s arrogance and contempt of the police force. How can the police have any confidence in this government? Such is their lack of confidence they have even said they do not want the Chief Minister to take the role back from the member for Brennan.
Apart from the breach of trust, what of the other broken critical promise to provide 120 extra police? Police resources are, as we know, so tied up with TBLs – with police stationed outside liquor stores, effectively as bouncers – that police are taken away from their core business of catching criminals and keeping the community safe. We are so short of police that during the cyclone Elcho Island had just two policemen trying to deal with a community of 3000 in a crisis, and there were no policemen at all in the communities of Milingimbi and Ramingining.
The CLP promised to cut crime by 10% per year every year, which it then revised quickly down to just 10% over its four-year term. But, no, its law and order policies reflect only what has an impact on the statistics, not on the actual prevention of crime and the protection of Territorians. Police join the force to serve and protects citizens, not to stand at bottle shops for hours on end checking ID.
This government’s policy-free zone on alcohol has been filled by a measure thought of by rank and file police members to help give their workmates a break at night because its policies on law and order have utterly failed. We have a Chief Minister who is deluded about the negative impacts of alcohol, who told his party members in Alice Springs:
This is a Chief Minister out of touch, who we know holds dear, in his own words, ‘drinking as a core value’ for Territorians.
The crime statistics released last week showed over the course of last year there were 846 domestic violence-related assaults in the Territory. Will the Chief Minister tell service providers in Alice Springs, and victims of domestic violence, that Alice Springs does not need domestic violence support services despite the fact there were 846 domestic violence offences and 975 alcohol-fuelled assaults in Alice Springs last year? It is still too many, and by no means an indication that responsive and, importantly, prevention services are needed. This Chief Minister is ignoring the calls of the Police Association to develop sustainable alcohol policy. We know that and that TBLs are simply not sustainable.
What government employee profession has seen how cruel this government is more than our firefighters? With an EBA which expired more than 18 months ago, firies have been locked in a bitter pay dispute with government that is seeing them lose many experienced firefighters to other states and professions. They have been kicked in the guts by this government’s steadfast refusal to help firefighters who contract cancer on the job. We, on this side, in good faith proposed a law – not once, but twice with a private members’ bills brought forward by the member for Fannie Bay – to look after these men and women who put their life on the line. Not once, but twice, the government has said no.
Even now, their proposed law does not cover firefighters who contracted cancer before August 2012. It only covers 12, not the recommended 18 cancers. If you want to judge a government on whether it is fit to govern, just look at how it treated the firefighters and you will have your answer.
How shameful it was to hear a minister of the Crown in this House last week describe a rally organised by Territory firefighters on the steps of parliament as a ‘cynical scam with firefighters as the pawns’. Shame on that minister! He is wrong and he should be apologising to those firefighters.
The paramedics whose EBA expired in July 2013, like the firies, is another profession that save lives every day and that is accused by this government of trading on its good name. The sheer arrogance and contempt this government has shown its paramedics beggars belief, especially when it is estimated that about $300 000 would probably fix their EBA issue – around about the same amount of money that was donated to the Alice Springs Golf Club.
Ideologically, it cannot let someone else have a win; it foolishly clings to these positions well past common sense and common decency because it has no common sense and no common decency. This government has lost the confidence of all of its emergency workers and that is atrocious.
I am sure we all recall the endearing image of the member for Port Darwin, Facebook-ing a photograph of him smiling, telling public servants their jobs were safe. What rubbish, what lies! Hundreds and hundreds of public servants’ job have gone. Public employment, as a general rule, has suffered under this government as it has ideologically embarked on a campaign to rip out as many conditions as possible, offer pay rises less than CPI and get senior management to issue voting instructions when having ballots. It is horrific the way this government treats its public service through fear and intimidation. They have endured 14 ministerial reshuffles in 30 months – that is about one every 60 or 70 days – where they have had to rip everything up and go back to the drawing board.
I can advise this House that the people of Nhulunbuy have no confidence whatsoever in this government. They not only have no confidence in the leader, they despise him and have no respect for him. The events of the last two weeks aside – the failed coup, coup, coup, the changes of leaderships and midnight media conferences – have caused people in Nhulunbuy to approach me asking what the hell is going on with this government.
All of that aside, it is Adam Giles the people of Nhulunbuy hold to account for calling off a gas deal that was brokered by Terry Mills. Given the contribution of the member for Araluen, who I believe to be honest and truthful, surely questions about whether or not proper Cabinet process was followed need to be asked about decisions made by Chief Minister Adam Giles.
It is too late to undo anything that has happened in Nhulunbuy as more than 1100 jobs have gone – and more jobs indirectly through spouses of Rio Tinto employees and contractors – along with $500m in export earnings from the refinery and a reduction of about 2% of gross state product. It is shameful and all due to one man sitting on that side of the House.
We bring this motion of no confidence before the House on behalf of Territorians who have had enough, who have no confidence in this government and Adam Giles, who is not fit to be Chief Minister.
I look forward to hearing other members on the government benches defend their government and Chief Minister, or have they gone to the lobby and ripped up their speeches saying, ‘No way. I am not going back in there.’
Madam Speaker, I urge all members to support this motion.
Ms MOSS (Casuarina): Madam Speaker, this is an important and serious motion about the selfishness that has become the cornerstone of this term of the Country Liberals government.
The recent events within the Northern Territory government have been nothing short of bizarre. Honestly, you cannot make this stuff up. Territorians are sick of this nonsense and of not being valued by this government.
I am here because I want to be part of positive social change in the Northern Territory and a part of making the Territory a place people want to live, stay, work, thrive and have opportunities they do not have anywhere else. That is possible if we value people and invest in them.
I support this no confidence motion on the grounds this government has constantly let down the people of the Territory who elected it. Those people have lost confidence in the CLP and have a right to feel disappointed.
I have been in parliament for four months. I was reflecting earlier on some of the major things that have happened in that time such as the shutdown of the inquiry into political donations, the sale of TIO, the backflip on education funding and the backflip on youth funding that occurred about 24 hours after the failed coup.
At the last election Territorians thought they were electing a team of people to run the Territory. Instead they have elected 16 individuals who seem to share nothing but their membership of the Country Liberals. They do not share ideals or a vision, and it would seem in some cases they do not even share party room meetings.
Those opposite have demonstrated that 13 of those now 14 individuals are prepared to put their own interests ahead of their team, their electorates and the Northern Territory. I make exception for the member for Araluen, who this morning made an extraordinary and brave statement to this House on the state of affairs in the CLP government.
We have had two speakers from the CLP government and I hope we hear from more. I ask those on the other side of the House to reflect briefly on something the member of Araluen said this morning:
I sincerely hope we hear more from the government this afternoon. Remaining silent is the way to show Territorians how much confidence you have in your ability to govern with honesty, integrity, respect and in the best interests of Territorians.
How can Territorians trust a government to govern when the government cannot trust itself or trust the person leading it? How can decisions be made and policies implemented when 14 individuals spend more time looking over their shoulders than looking over their ministries?
Territorians want a government that is focused, forward thinking, acts in their best interests and is consultative and concerned about involving the community in decision-making. Territorians deserve a government that continually strives to improve and innovate, takes people with it and looks after them.
I note in the Chief Minister’s statement last week on the direction of the government there was four lines in the whole statement under the title ‘Helping vulnerable Territorians’. It was the shortest segment in the statement which was quite interesting and very upsetting given some of the issues outlined by my colleagues are ones we debate on a regular basis in this House.
Territorians deserve a government that can admit when it has made the wrong decision. They have seen this government constantly scrambling to fix things that have been a result of poor planning and poor decision-making.
Territorians deserve a government which stands for good policy and invests in people. I quote the Chief Minister on his view of the CLP’s policy from an Alice Springs branch meeting that was recorded earlier this month:
If the CLP government, as a collective, does not know what it stands for, how can anyone else have faith and understanding in it? How can we, as Territorians, have any faith that there is a plan for quality education, health and job creation when our own Chief Minister admits there is no CLP policy?
One has to ask how someone can sleep at night having taken the job of a colleague while they were overseas, or knowing they have flown in a Queen-class private jet to China while everyday Territorians struggle to pay their rising bills. How does one sleep at night knowing one has cut resources to youth services, education and child protection with minimal consultation? How does one sleep at night having effectively told the public that schools must be wrong about their budgets when they are voicing very legitimate and accurate concerns about the future of our children? How does one not apologise for homophobic language directed at a colleague knowing it has offended the community? And not only that, but afterwards was rewarded because the member in question has gained ministries at the expense of other CLP members of parliament.
In my inaugural speech in this House, I reflected on the fact there are many people in our community who do not feel connected to the political system and who are disillusioned. The actions of this CLP government only serve to move us backwards in that, which is a shame for the Territory.
Territorians deserve a government which is accountable and transparent. The biggest example of this government’s lack of that is the sale of TIO from underneath Territorians when they were very clearly saying no. The Chief Minister did not attend a big public meeting held in my electorate to engage honestly with Territorians about that sale. The government did not consult or answer the questions of the general public, but forged ahead anyway.
It goes to the root of why it is so offensive, after two-and-a-half years, to hear a government say it will start to be consultative. It is not the experience of Territorians. We need a government which is genuinely consultative and wants to continuously improve its engagement with people. I am very proud, that alongside my colleagues on this side of the House, we have been engaging with the community and stakeholders.
I raise the Country Liberals own point from their five-point plan, referenced by the member for Nhulunbuy:
Before he was elected Chief Minister, Terry Mills said in a Sky News debate, ‘We’ll say plainly what we’re going to do and if we don’t do that, your call. You vote us out.’
Terry, I could not have said it better myself.
I do not remember the CLP saying plainly that they would slash teacher numbers, hike power and water prices, cancel the Arafura Games or defund youth services. I feel particularly sorry for the Territory’s young people in all of this because they are the people we tell to strive for more and they will inherit the Territory. We want them to reach out to us as elected officials and have a say in how the Territory is run. Watching the way the CLP government operates, why would they?
Year 12 students have watched their schools lose teachers and subject choices because of the decisions of this government. They have seen engaging and valuable programs and services lost both within and outside their school environments. They watched this government backflip a few weeks ago – 22 days ago – with $4.2m into a sector that has been trying to be heard by this government for two-and-a-half years. We are still unsure where that money – which is a fraction of what was lost – will go.
Alice Springs continues to scream out for an integrated night response for their young people so issues can be easily identified and addressed. Stakeholders in Katherine are also clearly articulating their needs. It is a shame we lost so many valuable services across the Territory because those youth and community services and people supporting our families built relationships. Relationships are incredibly important to service delivery.
Why would any young adult put their faith in the government of the Northern Territory when the individuals opposite put their own needs and aspirations ahead of a solid plan for the Territory’s youth? How hypocritical it must look to the average young person, when the CLP acts with such immaturity.
When I was doorknocking, senior Territorians were constantly expressing concerns over their rising bills and expenses. They expressed their concerns over the federal government’s desire to introduce a GP co-payment, which for many seniors in my electorate has huge consequences considering how often they visit hospital. It tacks onto the already growing costs crippling families across the Territory. Many seniors are also primary carers for their grandchildren.
Was the CLP government fighting their Liberal mates in Canberra about the GP co-payment? The CLP government removed and changed support available to our senior Territorians, who have already contributed so much to our community. There was a change to eligibility for the concession scheme, with a $2m reduction. More seniors, including those with disabilities, need to be looked after in hospital due to a lack of supported accommodation, which is making the bed block even worse. They are receiving their power bills and feeling the financial strain more than ever. Where is the reduction in the cost of living for those Territorians?
In Casuarina, we still await the implementation of important recommendations from the transport safety audit announced in September – at a push – to ensure the safety of our bus drivers, commuters, school children and people travelling to work. Territorians need more than a sticker on a bus.
We have a backlog at last count of over a 1000 unresolved cases in the child protection system, according to last year’s report from the Children’s Commissioner. We need more investment in families, children, the sector, our child protection case workers, early intervention and prevention.
Last week, we debated an amendment to the Care and Protection of Children Act, despite calls from the sector to allow for appropriate time for consultation to ensure the most strong and appropriate response and result for the Territory’s children.
The National Alcohol Policy Scorecard said we have the second-worst performing government in the country on alcohol policy. Member for Port Darwin, if the response is so good, why has the portfolio been dropped? If we are to talk about alcohol mandatory treatment, let us not forget this government cannot articulate its measure of success or agree to an independent assessment of alcohol mandatory treatment, which costs Territorians $28m a year.
These issues are important and require strong policy responses and a team that will work together to deliver them with the aim of achieving the best possible outcomes for Territorians. We on this side of the House are ready to do that. We want our disability and health sectors to know who their minister is from week to week, to have stability and to have a voice.
Division and instability in government are often fodder for the public and media. Politics becomes interesting when the government’s disagreements spill out into the public domain. Clearly, the CLP’s instability and division have not been minor spats and polite disagreements. They have been ongoing feuds, fuelled by hatred and self-interest and apparently bullying, which has seeped its way into how the Territory is being governed.
Territorians were promised a lower cost of living, a safer community, stability and unity. The member for Araluen this morning made the point we all already know: the instability continues. Territorians were assured that if they voted in the CLP the cost of living would drop. They did, and it did not. That is what Fact Check would call a broken promise. In fact, the NT News and Territorians are calling it a broken promise.
We have a Chief Minister who asserts that he will take the Police portfolio back after making disgraceful comments about rumoured police involvement in the failed coup and apparently sees fit to call for a judicial inquiry when the rumours are about him.
We have made national news for all of the wrong reasons, with national stakeholders scratching their head wondering what is happening in the Territory. It is damaging and an embarrassment.
Two Chief Ministers – nearly three, five Deputy Chief Ministers – nearly six, three Police ministers, five Health ministers, five Treasurers, five Education ministers, five Housing ministers, five Business ministers and five Sports ministers – and a partridge in a pear tree. In two-and-a-half years that is quite an achievement. Territorians have never seen anything quite like it. It is like an episode of The Walking Dead where we are all waiting to see who will be resurrected next and when. In the meantime, the community, the non-government sector, the business sector and the public service all just wait.
Territorians deserve better than this. They deserve to know who their Health minister is from week to week. They deserve to not feel ashamed of their government. They deserve government members who care more about the people than themselves. They deserve good education, good healthcare, a safe community and to enjoy the fruits of their labour. Sadly, too many Territorians are being denied these things. The members opposite who call themselves a government have put themselves individually over the wellbeing of the people. Sadly, for two long years Territorians have been subjected to a dysfunctional government led by a Chief Minister who is clearly out of his depth and does not have the support of the majority of his colleagues.
Madam Speaker, I implore the members opposite to speak on this motion and tell Territorians why they should have confidence in you. I commend the motion to the House.
Ms FYLES (Nightcliff): Madam Speaker, this motion comes as no surprise to the people of the Northern Territory who have witnessed unprecedented events over the past few weeks. I never thought when I was elected only just two-and-a-half years ago I would be listening to what I have heard in this parliament today.
I acknowledge the member for Araluen and the strength of what she said today. But where are the rest of the government members? To hear from only two is appalling.
The Chief Minister remains in his role purely through unprecedented tactics and a disregard for the Australian democratic process. Imagine if we said a team won the rugby league grand final 5:9, there would be an investigation on every level. Yet, the member for Braitling remains as the Chief Minister of the Northern Territory, not because he was elected by the people or his parliamentary wing, but because he simply refuses to resign. He does not have the confidence of his parliamentary wing, the majority of parliamentary members of the Legislative Assembly, nor does he have the confidence of Territorians. At least nine members of the CLP did not want him to be the leader. He no longer has the confidence of his own party.
I know the future looks bleak for this government when traditionally staunch CLP supporters and voters approach me asking questions about the government’s humiliating mismanagement and its seemingly inability to communicate outside the party room, or even within. We are not fooled by coy attempts to convey united, stable camaraderie by the echoed pleas that things will change. What needs to change is the government leading the Northern Territory.
As the member for Araluen told the House, Territorians want to see this instability within government resolved one way or another. They either want the leadership instability within government resolved or they want to go to the polls. Territorians do not want our government to be a source of jokes and ridicule across the country.
The actions that took place in the first week of February were merely the tip of the iceberg, with the CLP unable to provide stable leadership, coupled with voters’ frustration with the hollow rhetoric and the arrogance of our self-interested Chief Minister.
On Monday 2 February, nine CLP MPs voted for a new leader, with a promise to be more consultative, an admission by the MLAs there was discontent with the direction of the government. Territorians learnt through a 1 am media conference that our new Chief Minister would be William Westra van Holthe.
I do not disagree that the Chief Minister’s leadership and conduct have been selling the NT short. However, as so often happens within the CLP’s decision-making, proper process was not followed and the Chief Minister wrestled back power. Instead of changing Chief Minister, the Territorians got a carnival of uncertainty.
The events of the first couple of weeks of February highlight what has been happening for over two years. The last two-and-a-half years have seen a circus of governance with one ridiculous act followed by another. The CLP’s humiliating upheaval in the first week of February was unprecedented in Australian political history, and you can thank the dwindling confidence in the Prime Minister nationally for the limited media coverage. However, it did go national and international.
Chief Minister, we are not fooled. Your party, this parliament and an overwhelming majority of voters know only an election will bring real stability. Chief Minister, talk to Territorians, hear what they say and stop treating them with contempt and undermining their intelligence. You know as well as anyone that the events that took place earlier this month are not over. No amount of reshuffling, handshaking, and pathetic media events will convey solidarity to convince anyone otherwise.
You need to show respect for our community and voters and give them a chance to choose their leader. You are the unelected Chief Minister and remain in that position because you refuse to listen and acknowledge the view of the majority of your colleagues who do not want you in the position. You are so arrogant that you refuse to resign.
The incidents of the first week of February are an embarrassment to Territorians. It is further evidence of the CLP government’s willingness to govern for itself not the people of the Northern Territory. How can you govern for all Territorians when you cannot even decide who should lead you?
In my community of Nightcliff people are sick to death of the pathetic rhetoric constantly sprouted by CLP MLAs, particularly the Chief Minister, and the lack of fair, sound policy. They worry when they hear nine out of 14 MLAs categorically state he is not fit to lead the NT, yet he is still Chief Minister. It is time for the CLP government to step back and think about its time in government. It needs to go back to the drawing board and consult the public and stop the evasive answers and the attempts to deflect questions. The Chief Minister’s fight to maintain control through his 10th Cabinet reshuffle shows his self-interest and desire to hang onto power.
The Chief Minister no longer has the confidence of his party, this parliament or the people of the Northern Territory. It is time for an election to end the carnival side show.
In addition to the government’s incapacity to manage its own affairs, the CLP government has failed to deliver sound progressive policy for the Northern Territory. In fact, the Chief Minister said so when he told his Alice Spring’s branch meeting it had no Indigenous affairs policy. The government is a policy vacuum.
It has nothing to show but disdain for our education system, cutting $125m from the education budget since coming to power. We have at least 125 fewer teachers and 60 fewer support staff in Territory schools. If all this is sounding like groundhog day I am not surprised. When a government refuses to work with the people it is governing the same mistakes will be made repeatedly.
In 2013 the then Education minister – one of six reshuffles we have seen – said the Territory had the best resourced schools in the nation but the worst results. The solution was to provide fewer teachers and less funding to our schools to miraculously deliver better results. I do not know what it will take to get action in our education system. Letters from school councils highlighting that the government appears hell-bent on making sure it has a lasting negative impact on our children’s education saw no change.
The government’s savage education cuts are having a huge impact, not only in our urban schools but in our bush schools. Concerned parents have contacted me and my colleagues on this side of the House. They are worried about the loss of Indigenous languages and cultural support positions which are vital to support our children.
In the bush we have seen huge cuts in teacher numbers under the leadership of the member for Braitling, with 47 teachers going in the Arnhem region alone. Nowhere is the savagery of the cuts better highlighted than at Gunbalanya, where five teacher positions were lost – two primary, two middle, one secondary – and a number of support staff. The CLP could not even guarantee a specialist ESL teacher for the community, where English is a second language. This highlights how terrible your government is in dealing with education. You have ripped out funding and teacher numbers and it is hurting our community. Is this what deliver for the bush electors who supported you – nothing?
You owe Territorians an explanation and should stop hiding and avoiding the questions. You failed Territorians in the most basic duty of delivering a sound education through providing appropriate resources. To make matters worse, you have consistently misled on the extent of the cuts to teacher and support positions. You have slashed grants, failed our Indigenous students by slashing ESL positions and have scrapped the GEMS position at our middle schools. You have failed our best and brightest students by reducing one-on-one teacher and student time and cutting classroom support. The list goes on of the cuts to education and the chaos you have caused. It is clear you are unwilling to invest in the future of young Territorians and are determined to make a mockery of our schools. How can less funding and fewer teachers lead to better results?
Chief Minister, the way you have handled our education system highlights just how much you do not care. Where will you be in a few years? Maybe that is why you simply do not care. You are not here for the Territory; you are here for yourself.
Sadly for the people of the Northern Territory, the CLP’s failures in education are not isolated. The growing concerns in the health sector demonstrate the unwillingness of the government to consult with workers, to acknowledge and show respect for those working on the front line.
Under your leadership the CLP has shown its inability to work with the community, instead labelling hard-working paramedics as self-interested and greedy and laughing at our emergency department nurses. I will never forget that moment in parliament when you laughed at them. You have absolutely no respect for our frontline workers.
The CLP has generated a significant record in repeatedly failing to improve the health system. In addition to petty and ego-driven squabbling over the EBA, the delayed opening of Labor’s medi-hostel and the reduced bed capacity at the Royal Darwin Hospital, you have been more concerned with garnering media attention than real progress. How many times can we have sod turnings and diggers at the Palmerston hospital site? Territorians want you to just get on with the job!
Another failure of your government is the extra pressures on those working in Territory hospitals – especially our training hospital of Royal Darwin. The lack of the 100 beds at the medi-hostel put real pressure on Royal Darwin Hospital and it is still in chaos. We need real changes, solutions and consultation with the brave and resilient people who every day deal with, and provide critical care to, ill and injured Territorians.
This motion must be supported so we can have a leader who is for all Territorians, who will deliver and not simply do things just to keep himself in power. In 2012, when you were elected under the leadership of Terry Mills, you came up with a five-point plan. You backflipped on that plan. Where is it now?
You sold TIO without any consultation. You rammed it through on urgency. This move highlights your arrogance. TIO was valued by Territorians because it provided an insurance safety net for our unique conditions. The only no-loophole cyclone, storm surge and flood insurance cover they provided is what Territorians needed. While other private insurers service the Territory market, none provided the same level of cover provided by TIO. But your government ignored the concerns of Territorians.
People in my electorate face skyrocketing premiums. A local resident in a storm surge area of Darwin reported before the sale that other insurers charge over 100% more and did not provide the same level of cover, but you ignored all this – you arrogantly rammed it through. A Katherine resident reported to the media that the only other private insurer that would cover him charged an extra $8500 per year.
Territorians will never forget that sneaky sale of TIO. TIO did not need to be sold to fund flood mitigation, it was profitable. The Chief Minister’s announcement about flood mitigation investment does not address all households at risk. You have not even seen fit to invest in flood mitigation in your own home town of Alice Springs, although you have not been there for a while.
Now these households face the risk of not being able to insure their homes against storm surge and flood. You should have listened to some of the comments from Territorians on social media that highlighted their anger at selling public assets. Maybe then you would start to understand.
The CLP’s law and order reform has proven to be disastrous. After scrapping the BDR in 2013, it was the most violent year in the Territory’s history. There has been a spike in public drinking hot spots and an increase in antisocial behaviour, compounded in my community by the closure of the Nightcliff Police Station – which I might add Terry Mills promised in 2012 would become a 24-hour police station. I questioned Terry Mills about that and he said he would honour his commitment. However, you arrogantly say there is no issue. How can the community of Nightcliff, Rapid Creek and Coconut Grove have confidence in you when you turn your back on commitments? Member for Braitling, they do not have confidence, which is why this motion is before us today.
Nightcliff now sees the regular presence of the mobile police station in an attempt to deal with the rapidly-increasing antisocial behaviour and protect local residents. This is not a sustainable measure and its continued presence is quite simply an indication for Nightcliff to have its own permanent police station.
You cannot hide from these issues, Chief Minister. You cannot deny it was your choice to shut the Nightcliff Police Station. It has been harmful for visitors, business owners and local residents alike. The latest measure of temporary beat locations is unsustainable and does nothing to address the issues that antisocial behaviour stems from.
In the release of the crime statistics last week we have seen a 49% increase in house break-ins in Darwin and a 22% increase in motor vehicle theft. Anecdotally, we have been hearing that in our communities from people who have approached us and spoken of incidents. But the extent of the figures is staggering.
Your government’s failure around alcohol policy is appalling. Your five-point plan promised the electorate that problem drinkers would be removed from the streets. I do not know what universe the Chief Minister lives in, but there are plenty of problem drunks on our streets and it is getting worse. The latest data shows alcohol-related assaults are up 21% in Darwin and 5% in Palmerston. There is also a 40% increase in domestic violence in Darwin, a 21% increase in Palmerston and a 7.4% increase Territory-wide. We know more often than not domestic violence is fuelled by alcohol.
Where temporary beat locations are in place, alcohol-related crime data is down, but that is against a backdrop of all the experts saying the policy is unsustainable. In the House last week, the Chief Minister stated they may become permanent, all because he will not admit the Banned Drinker Register was a good policy and had an impact on our community.
The Chief Minister has admitted the CLP does not have many policies; it simply bumbles around. Speaking at the CLP branch meeting in Alice Springs, the Chief Minister said:
Despite the harm in our community, the Chief Minister stated that drinking is ‘a core social value’.
This is what the NT Police Association had to say about TBLs, ‘Our members have been concerned about temporary beat locations since August last year. What we have been trying to do is work with the government of the day and the Commissioner of Police to develop sensible alcohol policies that are all-encompassing, that just do not rely on one shot in the locker.
‘We have been working on this for some time with the Police Association and we are still not satisfied with the response we have to date. We will continue to advocate for a sensible policy.’
The Australian Hotels Association also thinks the CLP’s policy is unsustainable, but the Chief Minister refuses to listen. Des Crowe from the AHA agreed with the police union, saying:
The member for Daly, a member of your own team, has promoted the suggestion that the BDR be returned, and that alcohol policy should be above politics. In your arrogance and your leadership, you would rather waste taxpayers’ money on police manning bottle shops, which is not what police officers signed up to do, because you have no policy. I have heard firsthand of the reduction in police patrols. Police being sent to Katherine to man the TBL locations meant police were pulled off the front line in Darwin over Christmas.
In my community, with the closure of the police station, we are forgotten. Police cannot staff the rosters to cover the Nightcliff area. Calls are made which go up the list then fall back down. This is because of your leadership.
The Chief Minister told his party members in Alice Springs:
This highlights how out of touch you are.
You are ignoring the calls of the NT Police Association to develop a sustainable alcohol policy. It has clearly stated the temporary beat locations are not sustainable as they draw too heavily on our police resources. You have broken your promise of 120 more police on the beat, which affects alcohol policy and policing.
You lifted the cap on poker machines with no consultation with our community or the NGO sector which picks up the pieces. We already have the highest proportion of poker machines in the nation. Last financial year, Territorians lost $68m on poker machines. More poker machines in our communities – in our pubs and clubs – will impact on gamblers and their families. Research shows problem gamblers are more likely to play poker machines than any other form of gambling. Despite this evidence, and with no consultation, you made a decision. It is clear your government is not taking the wellbeing of the community into account, providing more evidence it has put profits before people.
There was an agreement to hold an inquiry into political donations last year, but you overturned that. The question of what you have to hide remains. Today, on this side of the House, we said if Labor is elected we will hold an independent commission against corruption to look at these serious questions, because there are so many serious questions. We have an arrogant Chief Minister and an incompetent government. Territorians are extremely concerned about the networks involving the CLP and Foundation 51.
Not long ago the Chief Minister said in this Assembly, ‘A smart politician does not handle money’. If a smart politician does not handle money, why has he racked up thousands of dollars of expenditure for alcohol on his private government-issued credit card? Once again, the utterance has been exposed as a deception.
In the explosive leaked recording of the infamous Alice Springs branch meeting, the Chief Minister said:
You bragged the money is not in the bank. Where is it, member for Braitling? This is an unprecedented revelation in Northern Territory political history which raises so many unanswered questions about your lack of probity and integrity.
A leaked e-mail revealed that Foundation 51 Director, former CLP Treasurer and former Chair of the Land Development Corporation, Graeme Lewis, discussed Foundation 51 with the Chief Minister on many occasions.
Recently, the member for Blain admitted receiving a loan for $10 000 from someone he had never met on the basis that he would not have to repay the loan if he lost the Blain by-election. The Attorney-General accepted a $5000 donation from former Magistrate, Peter Maley, before he was appointed to the office. Mr Maley subsequently admitted donating $50 000 to the CLP while serving as a Magistrate.
Then, more than two years after the mandated deadline, Foundation 51 disclosed a donation of $200 000 to the CLP. The Chief Minister’s response:
The Chief Minister frankly admitted the activities of Foundation 51 and the CLP smell, but he will not show any leadership and call a judicial inquiry to fully expose the shonky deals. No wonder the member for Araluen said he lacks honesty, respect and decency.
Madam Speaker, I could go on today. I am here to represent my community and I acknowledge that we have the most chaotic, dysfunctional, arrogant government in the Territory’s history that is lurching from one crisis to another. There are so many examples. I hope to have highlighted a few today. This is the most important motion our parliament can debate. The people of the Northern Territory deserve better. I urge members to support this motion.
Ms ANDERSON (Namatjira): Madam Speaker, I support this motion of no confidence and speak to the nine members who signed the original form to throw Adam Giles out of the Chief Ministership. Those nine people must have their own integrity and morality on where they stand. They must draw a line in the sand about the things that have been said about them publicly.
I take this opportunity to talk about the member for Araluen who – out of the 14 members sitting there and the nine whose signatures are on that paper – has the guts to stand up and put herself into a position which is about her integrity and say, ‘I will not support this man because he has never been duly elected’.
He lied last year about his grandmother having been born underneath a tree. There was no such thing! The old girl said, ‘I was not born underneath a tree, I was born in a hospital, for goodness sake’. Lie after lie occurred with this Chief Minister.
I will talk about the integrity of the member for Araluen. The member for Araluen has been a long-term resident of Alice Springs who came from a social work background – which I have said in this House many times. She gave not just non-Indigenous people, but Indigenous kids, an opportunity to work in her business when she first started Mad Harry’s.
She worked with my two eldest children at the interpreter service at the Alice Springs Hospital when she was a social worker. She encouraged those two young Indigenous kids, in their first time in employment, to have a look at the professional stream instead of always just looking at the Indigenous stream. I applaud the member for Araluen’s enthusiasm to encourage young kids to not always look at their careers identifying as an Aboriginal person, but also challenge the professional stream.
She and her husband, Craig, with Mad Harry’s in Alice Springs, have given many opportunities to Indigenous and non-Indigenous people through their businesses in Alice Springs. She is a long-term resident who contributes to Alice Springs socially and economically.
The Johnny-come-lately reckons he comes from the Blue Mountains in New South Wales. I have spoken to many Indigenous people in New South Wales but cannot see where he fits into any family in New South Wales. You can ring the New South Wales Land Council and they will tell you the man fits nowhere in Aboriginal society of New South Wales.
When thinking about Aboriginality, I remember ATSIC had to identify this little boy and acknowledge him as an Aboriginal person. We signed an Aboriginality form for him to say he was seen as, and was, an Aboriginal person in Aboriginal society. That needs to be challenged.
This man has caused complete destruction. He has come from somewhere else, will not continue to live in the Northern Territory but has destroyed a party, destroyed human beings, been rude towards colleagues by openly talking about the member for Katherine and the minister for corrections and child protection. These people have integrity and have been in the Northern Territory for a long time, much longer than the little boy who says he comes from New South Wales. He needs to be questioned.
This motion clearly asks the nine who put their signatures on that paper 22 days ago to question their morals and integrity about where they stand in this. Do you support this man to make sure he does the right thing for Territorians or have you changed your mind? Have you changed your mind in 22 days to say, ‘We did not trust him 22 days ago but we trust him now. We have complete faith in him.’
Member for Drysdale, I believe your father-in-law was mentioned as one of the people he would be getting rid of. Is that something you believe in? Will you stick up for him? The nine members whose signatures are on that paper said, ‘We no longer have confidence in you as your wing colleagues’. Those are the things you have to talk about in this House.
This person came into this great Territory of ours as an outsider and insulted many great Territorians who have been here a lot longer than him. He has just blown in from the Blue Mountains of New South Wales and he will blow back out, but these great Territorians such as the members for Katherine, Araluen, Barkly and Nhulunbuy are long-term Territorians who have relationships with people.
Looking at the way the former Chief Minister was done away with, which has happened again, it is a sorry state that not only as politicians, but as Territorians, we have allowed this nonsense to happen in the Northern Territory. The former Chief Minister was stabbed in the back twice.
This motion urges us all to come together as Territorians and say to this fellow, ‘This is not the Territory way. That is not the way Territorians behave. Maybe if you do not want to live with those rules of the way that we have been brought up as Territorians, then you need to leave.’ There is already talk around his electorate of Braitling – and bring the gerrymander on, I am looking forward to it. I have not said anything about it so far but the interviews quite clearly show there will be a gerrymander. He is not just a little boy, but is also a coward as he is not prepared to take anybody on ...
Madam SPEAKER: Member for Namatjira, while it is a motion of no confidence in the government, you cannot escape the fact you should not be using language like that. If you could withdraw please.
Ms ANDERSON: I withdraw, Madam Speaker. It is quite clear that the Deputy Chief Minister – for 15 minutes – who I congratulated quite openly in a text message will not stick up for himself and will keep saying he will support this Chief Minister. I sent him a message saying, ‘Congratulations, Deputy Chief Minister, good on you’. The answer back was, ‘Thank you, Alison, no problems’. It is great to see you jump up and down and protect someone you had no confidence in and were quite clearly ready to throw out ...
Mr Elferink: Alison, all I am trying to protect is probity.
Ms ANDERSON: Okay. I have said it myself, you do not have to protect me.
Mr Elferink: I am not protecting you, I am protecting this House from you.
Ms ANDERSON: Right. It is great to see your own morality and dignity being questioned, because you are the biggest loser in this. You were Deputy Chief Minister for maybe four hours – or less than that. You are a good man, John. I have lots of respect for you, as many people in my electorate do. You cannot let your morality and dignity be questioned by someone who is not from here and does not have any respect for you.
Madam Speaker, I support the Opposition Leader’s motion to this House.
Mr McCARTHY (Barkly): Madam Speaker, I have listened attentively to the contributions to this historic debate from all members. Today is one of the rare occasions in the history of the Northern Territory that a motion of no confidence in a government has been debated. If passed, the motion would lead to a fresh election, which the community is demanding.
As the Leader of the Opposition said in her compelling contribution this morning, we have not introduced this motion lightly, but to keep faith with all those Territorians who are fed up with this incompetent and dysfunctional CLP government, led by an arrogant and out-of-touch Chief Minister. We had to create an opportunity for Territorians to be heard as the Chief Minister and his CLP government has simply stopped listening. This motion is not about us, the opposition; we are here on behalf of Territorians. Anybody in this House who denies this issue is not at the top of the conversation list of any political discussion in the Northern Territory – urban, remote and regional – is kidding themselves.
This is about the reasonable expectation of the community that their government will be honest, competent and accountable. Territorians deserve nothing less. When a government consistently fails these basic tests of competence and accountability it is in the hands of this parliament to make a difference, which is what the Territory opposition is doing with this motion.
The debate is historical because of the honest and courageous contribution from the member for Araluen.
In the two-and-a-half years in which the CLP has governed the Northern Territory, the community has not had confidence in it. They were given the top-shelf chance to show who they were and what they could do for the Territory after a swag of promises were made. It progressively unravelled into dysfunction, instability and complete chaos.
This motion represents trying to limit the damage. It is in our interests, on behalf of Territorians who have requested the Territory opposition step in and use parliamentary process, to limit the damage. When I speak of damage I start at the macro level, when the Chief Minister tried to verbal members on the other side regarding policy.
The statehood journey was well and truly under way and, in 2012, it was destabilised by the member for Fong Lim and supported by the CLP opposition. When the CLP came into government it completely abandoned the statehood agenda. This Chief Minister has no ambitions of statehood for the Northern Territory; he is preoccupied with himself, which is most unfortunate.
In the chaotic calamity of the last few months, as members on this side have reiterated, we have become the laughing stock of the nation. We are up there with the Northern Territory News front page on national media as a laughing stock. This has seriously disadvantaged our statehood push, our campaign, our national platform to be recognised as a seventh state. The Chief Minister can wear the blame fairly and squarely as a leader who has allowed this calamity to dominate the national agenda.
As a politician – I do not sit comfortably with that term – I am now included in the laughing stock. The member for Nelson alluded to the serious issue of the profession of an elected community member now being denigrated. I hold the Chief Minister to blame for that chaos and calamity based on self-interest, arrogance, and an out-of-touch member of parliament not listening to Territorians.
I cop my fair share of criticism within the community and I level the blame at the Chief Minister. The bush is articulating politics like never before. It is enlightening to see bush residents starting to evaluate the government of the Northern Territory. I have been involved in the bush for more than half of my life, for 35 years. The discussions wherever I go relate to the Giles CLP. It is very simple – and I have raised this point in this House many times – if you make big promises then people will listen, but they have an expectation that you will deliver.
The Chief Minister of the Northern Territory is purely focused on his own self-interest, leadership and the style and swagger that goes with the lead minister of the Northern Territory, and has forgotten the bush. But the bush has not forgotten you, Chief Minister. The bush is holding you to account. It wants to know what the opposition will do about this. I am in regular dialogue with constituents across the Barkly electorate, many of whom support the CLP, and they are asking the same question, ‘When will you guys, as an opposition, stop the rot? When will you limit this damage? When will you stand up for Territorians?’ That is why this motion is before the House.
The cost of living debate was a good one that emerged from the recent Power and Water Corporation debate. There were a number of members on this side who debated with the Treasurer over the cost of living in the Territory and the concerns about the CLP policy settings. The Treasurer used an analogy about a toaster and brown toast. Yes, that was a good analogy to use because we will continue to debate you in a policy argument that your settings are hurting Territorians, particularly the lower socioeconomic element of our community, those people on fixed incomes. Those policy settings need to be addressed. We will continue to take that up with you, as a government that refuses to listen. However, there may be some changes afoot now you have been exposed in this debate and the truth is out.
The developing northern Australia debate is a good one. The Leader of the Opposition, as a natural progression in the electoral cycle, is now leading the articulation of the opposition policy development. She mentioned the development of northern Australia and the damage that is being done when we are not the north that is the future of this nation but the laughing stock of it.
We can connect that to our leadership and the Chief Minister appropriating $33m into the account of his Chief Minister’s department, with that money then providing high-class media advertising, glossy brochures, lots of advertisements and television advertising campaigns. That was taxpayers’ money spent to talk about himself and the CLP and its position on developing northern Australia.
When you look at the rubber on the road, with $0.4m appropriated to Ord River Stage 3 and $0.3m appropriated to the Alice Springs Golf Club, it does not stack up. The $33m that was loaded into the Chief Minister’s department to allow him to promote himself, fronting all these grand statements, should be supporting those Territorians who are hurting. The business community is very concerned and has asked us to voice the opposition and make it very clear that 340 businesses closed in the Northern Territory under the leadership of the the Giles CLP. That is an understatement. A total of 120 of those businesses are in Alice Springs, where the Chief Minister launched his political career.
Contractors who come to me in regional areas use the term ‘contributors’. If you are not a contributor you do not get a shake under the CLP. It is disgraceful as these were your heartland voters. These people supported the CLP for 27 years. They had a taste of Labor. We had a regional air link into Tennant Creek under Labor. It was extended from two days a week to three days a week, purely reflecting the economic activity in the regions. We now have a business community representing regional contractors who are asking me to address the issue relating to ‘contributors'. If you are not a contributor you do not get a shake. This is dishonest and you need to do something about it. The Chief Minister needs to go.
Regarding Indigenous housing, I mentioned Senator Nigel Scullion in Borroloola enlightening the Northern Territory that federal Indigenous housing money has been handed to the Northern Territory government. Once again, it was loaded into the account of Hon Adam Giles, the member for Braitling. People in my electorate and many Labor electorates are asking the same question: when will this be addressed? The business community wants the work and the people in the regions and remote areas need the housing. The federal Senator said it was loaded into the CLP account. Where is the action, ladies and gentlemen? There is nothing.
It has been stalled like the non-existent 10-year infrastructure construction project you inherited from the Department of Construction that has been shelved and rebadged into contracts for your mates that relate to ‘contributors to deliver’. It is a disgrace.
Minister Elferink debated in this House. I always enjoy his contributions. As the self-appointed legal counsel of the CLP he had to defend the indefensible. It was the most lightweight argument I have ever heard from the member for Port Darwin. I have learnt from this man of intellect, but unfortunately he had to defend the indefensible. His argument dropped away. It started to repeat itself after about 10 minutes. I felt sorry for him because he knows this is disgrace. He knows what Territorians are saying. He sits on roundabouts and talks to people and is now caught up in this complete chaos and calamity.
Member for Port Darwin, yes, there is activity on the Darwin skyline relating to 2000 home units that were approved under Labor. I was the minister at the time. I remember the previous Chief Minister, Paul Henderson, and the Leader of the Opposition going south and bringing the financial sector to Darwin to show we were different, we were emerging from the GFC and we had a countercyclical, step-out plan for fiscal management – and they started lending money. From 100% sales off a plan they started to look at Darwin and lending money, and that translates to the cranes on the skyline we all celebrate.
The policy settings of the CLP have been based on broken promises. I am continually dealing with people in the bush regarding education. These are locals – not teachers we bring in from interstate – who have lost their jobs because of this calamity of a policy setting called global school budgets, which was $23m short on funding. We had a new minister who had the guts to admit it and deliver the $23m. By the way, that is just to pay the existing salaries; there is a further shortfall. That person was sacked and is gone.
Regarding the TBLs, the Giles way of politics is to verbal a person. The way he verbals a person was used by the member for Port Darwin because, let us say, he had nothing left. He had no more shots in the locker, so he used me as an example – that the Chief Minister tried to verbal about temporary beat locations.
As a voice for the people I put on the record again that Aboriginal people in the Barkly are very disturbed about temporary beat locations because it discriminates against them. The community is very concerned. The police officers who train to have a celebrated career say they will not get it standing outside a bottle shop or a club in Tennant Creek in the blistering sun hour after hour risking skin cancer.
I warned the CLP all the holistic policy setting would do is force problem drinkers out. Our problem drinkers have gone to Mount Isa. I suggest many are here, which is reflected in the crime rates of Palmerston and Darwin. This is a result of poor policy setting. We are all about trying to solve domestic violence but we say to you guys this is not sustainable, it has ramifications and is failing in a holistic sense.
The last point I will make about TBLs – since I am continually verballed by the member for Braitling trying to score a few political points in his complete desperation – is that TBLs in the regions have put people on the road. We have people searching out grog from areas where police are not standing outside the alcohol outlets. If you put alcohol with motor vehicles you know what you have.
I will continue to debate this. The Leader of the Opposition will stand firm on Labor’s previous policy of Enough is Enough and all the components in addition to the Banned Drinker Register. People in the regions now have been able to compare and we believe we can compress a good policy setting. However, we have a Chief Minister who will not listen and an Attorney-General who is completely focused on trying to howl you down and both have stopped listening to Territorians, which is why they are in the spot they are in. Frankly, Territorians have had enough.
I encourage the member for Nelson to vote on this motion because this is the last chance to get sanity back into land release in the rural area. Labor’s policies of the rural villages and intensification were rolling out and we were taking Territorians with us. The CLP has stepped in and taken the opportunity to cut up large tracts of land privately owned by their mates – dare I say ‘contributors’. This will become an ad hoc reactionary land release policy. The member for Nelson can shut that down today.
I urge the member for Nelson that if there is nothing else in this debate he will do to stand up for Territorians today, he can vote for this no confidence motion against the Giles CLP to try to prevent the rural area being cut up into 600 m2 blocks under this chaotic government which is self-serving and its members only interested in themselves.
The opposition is the voice of the people. The member for Fannie Bay coined it very well: NT people are our most precious asset and we will always stick up for them. The other speakers on this side have given a very comprehensive summary through different portfolio areas.
I remember when the member for Braitling, the Chief Minister, started his arrogant and aggressive verbal attacks in opposition. He verballed refugees, calling them ‘scum’. I was new in this House and not familiar with all the parliamentary processes. But I had a sense of morality so I went upstairs and reported it to government colleagues, ‘This is not right, this should not be done’.
The Chief Minister, while in opposition, had the opportunity to make an apology and tell the truth. He chose not to, and that was years ago. It is the same now.
This no confidence motion is about the people of the Northern Territory, as the member for Nightcliff said, and this parliament. I calculate 19 members of this parliament who want this guy gone in the interests of the people of the Northern Territory. It is about the members in general who have the responsibility.
The member for Braitling came into this House last week with a cut-and-paste statement, ‘I will turn over a new leaf, be a good guy and tell the truth’. The member for Araluen told the truth. As recently as yesterday, the Chief Minister of the Northern Territory was exposed as being completely careless with the truth on ABC radio. Today, on the same ABC program, he was not telling the truth. He was mean spirited. He only leads with self-interest and should be thrown out.
Mr Deputy Speaker, I urge every member to stand up for Territorians …
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER: Member for Barkly, your time has expired.
Ms LAWRIE (Opposition Leader): Mr Deputy Speaker, it is extraordinary that the Chief Minister does not defend his own government in this motion of no confidence. He left it to the member for Port Darwin, about whom he made incredibly offensive remarks in the leaked records from the Alice Springs branch meeting. He left it to him to, at best, give a lame, half-hearted response.
I did not get through the count – I have not seen the Hansard – but I think he made reference to about three achievements of the government in two-and-a-half years. I stand to be corrected; it could be five or six.
Thank you for giving enduring powers to those with illnesses – the living will ...
Mr Elferink: Which you were critical of.
Ms LAWRIE: We were supportive of it. We were on the path of doing it in government. There was no issue with that legislation.
The temporary beat locations have been unsustainable ...
Mr Elferink: They just got rid of all the drunks …
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order!
Ms LAWRIE: You can rant and rail all you want, member for Port Darwin, but this is the arrogance exhibited by your government. The Police Association, the Australian Hotels Association and respected doctors who work at the frontline describe them as unsustainable and have called repeatedly for the reintroduction of the BDR, yet you still cling to this as your great policy initiative.
There has been some success in reduction of alcohol consumption, but drinkers will move to the next takeaway outlet to get access to grog. That is why the temporary beat locations are simply unsustainable. The member for Nightcliff articulated the impact stripping away those crucial police resources have on our communities.
In this no confidence motion in this Chamber today – the most serious motion that can be debated – the member for Araluen’s contribution summed up the concerns of many people about the lack of character and judgment shown by the Chief Minister. No other senior Cabinet members defended the role of the government ...
Mr Elferink: Because we want to get on with business.
Ms LAWRIE: Surely, at the very least, you could have articulated some of your views and achievements, but the contempt this government shows Territorians has been seen in this Chamber today by your abject failure to participate in this most serious debate, with the exception of the members for Port Darwin and Araluen.
The member for Araluen spelt out what most of us can plainly see: one of the reasons why this motion is before the parliament is that the political instability within the government remains unresolved. At the heart, that is a serious matter for the Northern Territory. Territorians cannot stand the circus they have seen in the last two-and-a-half years. They cannot stand by and watch the paralysis of government and business investment fleeing the Territory because of the level of instability. These are all critical issues.
Yes, you have trashed our reputation nationally and internationally and made us a laughing stock. The question remains how is it that the Chief Minister who does not have the support of nine of his colleagues – who the member for Araluen today pointed out is not really the anointed Chief Minister because the member for Katherine is – remains the Chief Minister? The member for Araluen said his colleagues genuinely thought he had lost touch with average Territorians, he was arrogant and his general dishonesty was eroding any respect we had for him. That is from one of your own.
Everywhere we go, as elected members of this parliament, we are constantly being stopped by Territorians from all walks of life, all backgrounds, all professions, all regions of the Territory saying, ‘Get rid of this government. It is an embarrassment. It does not care what it does to us and we cannot keep coping with its decisions.’
You chose to bury your head in the sand, but the dire impact of the cost of living is enormous. Families literally cannot pay their power and water bills and are struggling. They are having to grapple with the most horrendous of decisions: whether or not they should pack up and leave their home in the Territory they love simply because this government made an arbitrary decision to increase power, water and sewerage tariffs.
I say ‘arbitrary’ because in a briefing Labor had with Mr Tregilgas after the tariff increases, we asked on what financial analysis were the tariff increases made. He advised us that it was a rough estimation on tariff increases elsewhere in Australia – in stark contrast, I might add, to the forensic Reeves report Labor had instigated when it was in government when considering tariff increases. This is the problem …
Mr Elferink: You chose to ignore it.
Ms LAWRIE: I pick up on the interjection from the member for Port Darwin. That report was implemented. In 2009 we embarked on the first significant tariff increases for some 20 years – 10 years of CLP and 10 years of Labor – and we were honest about that. We gave the report’s executive summary to industry and community organisations and explained the tariff increases to everyone. We explained how we weighed up the impact of tariff increases on Territorians.
None of this, of course, occurred under the CLP because it is far too arrogant. It is putting profits before people. The Auditor-General’s report of last week showed us that Power and Water has created $150m in new revenue, new profit, as a result of those tariff increases. The government then turned around and denied this.
There is no honesty in this government. As many of my colleagues and speakers in this Chamber today have said, trust has been breached. It has irrevocably been broken. There is a significant trust deficit. Yes, sadly, it reflects on every politician in the Northern Territory at the moment because people cannot believe what their elected members of government say, because they say one thing and do another. They say the most ridiculous lies.
How on earth does this Chief Minister hold his head up high when nine of his own colleagues want him gone? How does he then say, ‘There is nothing to see here; we are united’, and then that day sack a colleague from Cabinet. That is not unity. How does he then pretend it is all okay and settled then sack the former Chief Minister, the Ambassador to Indonesia and ASEAN, and pretend he had not? No wonder his own parliamentary colleague, the member for Araluen, says he lacks integrity, honesty and respect. She is not the only person saying it, we hear it all the time. We hear the deep and grave concerns across our regional towns, our remote communities and in our capital city.
One of the biggest disappointments of the past two-and-a-half years is the funding ripped out of crucial Indigenous programs. We have a vast challenge to close the gap in disadvantage. In the past two-and-a-half years $500m has been ripped out of Indigenous program funding by the federal government. What did this government do in response? Did it rail, fight, try to claw back every dollar for the Territory? No, the Chief Minister chose not to have an Indigenous affairs portfolio. Then, when resurrecting it recently, he chose not to establish a department or a specific unit within his department to drive forward improvements for the people who voted the CLP to government – those living across remote constituencies in the Northern Territory.
We do not want to see any more harm being done to Territorians, further cuts to education, ignoring the crisis in health, failure to deliver additional funding into crucial infrastructure to build the Territory or chaos, dysfunction and instability. Territorians deserve far better than this. Let Territorians decide about your policies, which the Chief Minister has since admitted you lack. Test those and your intention to sell the port, or give it a sneaky name of a lease, with the public. Test the strength of your views and direction at the polls. Support this motion if you are so sure what you are doing is for the benefit and welfare of Territorians. Test it at the polls because Territorians are doing that most rare thing of calling for an early election.
It is remarkable in politics for any party to seek an early election. We did not do so lightly during the constitutional crisis day when most people had no idea who the Chief Minister of the Northern Territory was. We were fielding calls from around the country and from overseas bureaus asking who the Chief Minister of the Northern Territory was. At 1 am there had been a coup and the member for Katherine stood next to the member for Port Darwin and said, ‘I am the Chief Minister and here is my Deputy Chief Minister. The government has not been operating the way we think it should so we will be a changed government and we will consult. We will have a judicial inquiry into the allegations surrounding the former Police Commissioner’, which would, of course, involve the former Police minister, the current Chief Minister.
The chaos of the morning ensued. We do not have to guess about the role the member for Braitling played because he went on a rant in an Alice Springs branch meeting which was recorded and those transcripts leaked. He said he was ‘hammered’. Who in a responsible leadership role does that? He described who would go and stay. It has been a revolving Cabinet door.
Yes, that day we said there needs to be an election. This is not democracy. A Chief Minister who is not Chief Minister by the will of his own team is not democracy. A government that has irrevocably broken the trust of Territorians does not deserve to continue as government.
The Chief Minister made extraordinary allegations in relation to a coup by his own members and senior police. He promised a judicial inquiry into this, but of course there is still no terms of reference or judicial inquiry weeks later. We know the form of this Chief Minister because he scrapped the political donations judicial inquiry as soon as he settled the numbers during the last time of upheaval. As the member for Araluen has articulated, the political instability within our government remains unresolved.
I hope members opposite do the right thing by Territorians they have been elected to serve and support this motion of no confidence which would prompt a trigger to sit for eight days to give the government members time to argue in this Chamber. The members for Braitling, Fong Lim, Sanderson, Stuart, Brennan and Daly could come in here and argue – within that eight days of recalling parliament through the powers of your Speaker – why you should be the government, because you have not argued that today.
Then, if that lapsed, Territorians would be given the choice. They would be given the chance to end the instability that has paralysed the government of the Northern Territory and is preventing so many crucial outcomes from occurring for Territorians.
Mr Deputy Speaker, we commend this motion to the House.
The Assembly divided:
Ayes 10 Noes 13
Mr Tollner
Mr Westra van Holthe
Motion negatived.
Mr ELFERINK (Attorney-General and Justice): Mr Deputy Speaker, I move that the February 2015 Auditor-General’s Report to the Legislative Assembly be printed and I seek leave to continue my remarks at a later date.
Leave granted.
Debate adjourned.
Continued from 29 October 2014.
Ms FYLES (Nightcliff): Madam Speaker, the opposition does not find this bill contentious. It enables public sector agencies to lawfully collect, use and disclose personal information to assist in disaster and emergency management, which is extremely important. This bill clarifies for public sector agencies their abilities to use, disclose and share personal information after the immediate threat of an emergency situation passes. We have our fair share of emergencies in the Territory, and our emergency services, police and government departments do a great job in challenging circumstances to protect Territorians and connect them to support services in the aftermath. The ongoing support can be multifaceted, involving a number of agencies. These changes are sensible to assist those agencies to lawfully manage information flows between departments.
I was surprised, when I took a briefing for this bill, that we did not already have this in place. It makes sense. As a previous cyclone shelter volunteer, at times of emergency and in the aftermath it is important for government agencies to share information. When I was involved, the cyclones were fairly low level, but I imagine in more catastrophic events such as last weekend, with the evacuation of many people, it is important to share this data.
It also sensibly extends the definition of ‘law enforcement agency of police’ to include emergency services and the fire service. Streamlining the code of practice approval process is also supported.
Mr Deputy Speaker, the opposition fully supports this bill. As I said at the outset, it is not contentious at all. We look forward to this bill being in place to help agencies should we have to face a natural disaster or an emergency situation. Hopefully, that will be later rather than sooner, but at least we have the provisions in place.
Mr WOOD (Nelson): Mr Deputy Speaker, I had to change tack all of a sudden. I thought we were doing the Bail Act. We are not doing that, but the Information Act. I thank the minister for bringing this bill before the House. I understand this allows the sharing of information between various bodies in times of an emergency. That is very important.
I noted an issue when I was reading this. I would like clarification of what information or processes are in place that will protect the public. In other words, will the public know what you are doing with the information you want to share? We are obviously sharing information about the public between agencies in times of emergency. What protections are there for the public to ensure that information cannot be misused?
I did not have many other issues with it. As I said, the safeguards is the main concern I have. Obviously it makes sense that in a time of emergency you do not want to be tied up in red tape trying to find information about certain people, where they live, who are they, etcetera. It makes good common sense.
I support the bill. As I said, I was rushing around thinking we would do the Bail Act. While I am here, I have to apologise to the Attorney-General. Last week we debated about the police. I am just trying to think what the name of the bill was ...
Mr Elferink: That was the special powers legislation.
Mr WOOD: The special powers legislation. I was not sure whether it was under you or the minister for police ...
Mr Elferink: It went under the minister for police but I made a couple of comments.
Mr WOOD: That is right. Anyway, in my hurry sometimes, with my enthusiasm to comment on bills, I quoted from a letter from the president of the Police Association which had nothing to do with the bill. I received a phone call from Vince Kelly – bless his heart, he is a wonderful bloke, regardless of what the member for Fong Lim thinks. He is a dedicated police officer who works hard and has a great social conscience.
He kindly informed me that some police had noticed I had spoken and requested that certain matters be raised during the debate that had nothing to do with the bill. So I have egg on my face which is appropriate for an ex-chicken farmer.
I apologise to the minister and the Police Association. If it was something that may have upset a number of the members of the police force, I apologise. These things happen from time to time, but luckily in this case I did have enough time to rush out and get the Information Amendment Bill instead of us talking about the Bail Act.
Mr ELFERINK (Attorney-General and Justice): Mr Deputy Speaker, I could pick up on the last point by the member for Nelson. This is at the point where, of course, I grab the back of his hand and pat it softly and say, ‘It is all right, dear, we are not really that worried about it’. I thank him for the acknowledgement. I cocked an eyebrow when you were reading it, but clearly it inspired or impelled Vince in a way that it did not impel me to walk across the room and have a chat. We like a broad debate in this House, with latitude extraordinaire given to certain members.
I pick up on the other point the member for Nelson made in relation to the integrity of the information that is passed. The best way to answer that question is we just rely on the integrity of people to be smart. We hire professional public servants to look after this information and they are very careful with it, sometimes frustratingly so even within their ministerial domain.
I will outline what I consider to be a general principle I apply to issues of rights to privacy across my ministerial portfolio. We are talking about corrections, child protection in particular, health and those things when it comes to the passage and movement of information. Perhaps I can outline my philosophy which will give you some idea as to what drives this type of thing.
Has the member heard of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs? I am sure he would have run into it at some point ...
Mr Wood: You have mentioned it in parliament before.
Mr ELFERINK: In that case you will be aware there are five tiers to Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. The lowest tier deals with the most fundamental elements of people’s needs – the need to have food in your stomach and to have shelter to survive. The next rung is safety and security. It is an oversimplification but will do for the purpose of this conversation.
Many people will talk about the hierarchy of needs. As you go up through the hierarchy you end up at self-actualisation which is when you walk out of the university clutching your degree, feeling good about yourself. It implies something that many people do not extrapolate from it; what I would call a hierarchy of rights.
If you apply that rationale to this legislation before the House where we talk about rights of privacy and those things, those rights exist in their own hierarchy. The best way to describe that is in relation to their juxtaposition to the hierarchy of needs. For example, the rights to privacy, whilst important, should not overrule or override the fundamental human right to safety. This bill seeks to allow information to be shared which deals with people’s safety, security, sustenance and the like. It is in times of emergency and exceptional need, when those fundamental human rights are being threatened, we are now moving to step aside and out of this domain of protecting more pedestrian rights, which could be cultural rights or the right for privacy. I hope that gives some enlightenment of what the thinking is to the member for Nelson.
In regard to the security of that information if I, as a police officer, became aware of information from somebody’s health or child protection record I am still bound by the Criminal Code Act, if memory serves me, but also other legislation applicable to public servants, to deal with that information with great confidentiality. Whilst it would remain within the orbit of government, or under certain limited circumstances within the orbit of government and some NGOs, it is still not there for public distribution.
Ultimately I believe we can say we can trust our police officers, medical officers, child protection workers, housing officers and educators to be discreet with other people’s information as a matter of principle. On occasions when the information is used inappropriately, it is done to the horror of many other professionals in the field. When you see a person accessing information or read about it in the newspaper, it is because it is considered to be such a profound breach of trust it is considered to be one of the more onerous breaches of decorum for public service management as a general principle.
That is the comfort I can give you. Frankly, I suspect this legislation will do little more than make lawful something which was probably lawful anyhow but we are removing all doubt. It is important that we remove all doubt around these things because common sense would dictate you would never let a person come to harm because you refuse to open a file.
It is not entirely unlike the anecdote, probably untrue, of the quartermaster at the Battle of Isandlwana refusing to give cartridges to soldiers when the Zulus were attacking on the grounds they had not filled out the proper paperwork. It is that type of rationale, if legislation creates it, that I despise. It is that rationale, when used by public servants, that I equally despise.
I urge all public servants to take necessary risks. So long as they act in good faith, and on the right side of gross negligence and criminality, then as far as I am concerned they deserve to be supported and looked after by governments, no matter of which persuasion, they work for.
Mr Deputy Speaker, other than that, I thank honourable members for their support. I would have been very surprised if this bill had encountered any substantial resistance. Clearly it has not, and it is time to continue making good law on behalf of the people of the Northern Territory.
Motion agreed to; bill read a second time.
Mr ELFERINK (Attorney-General and Justice) (by leave): Mr Deputy Speaker, I move that the bill be now read a third time.
Motion agreed to; bill read a third time.
Mr STYLES (Employment and Training): Mr Deputy Speaker, the Country Liberals government is a champion of vocational education and training and understands the important role it plays in developing our economy.
Today I outline the Country Liberals’ changes to better support the needs and expectations of business and industry. We are driving hard on a number of initiatives to move to a more transparent and contestable vocational education and training framework for the Northern Territory, driven by economic development priorities and business and industry needs. Essentially we are implementing a model that maximises our return on investment for Northern Territory vocational education and training funding. We articulated this strongly among our election commitments in coming to government ...
Mr McCARTHY: A point of order, Mr Deputy Speaker! Will we be given a copy of this statement?
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER: That is a question for the Whips and the Leader of Government Business. That is not a point of order. Please continue, minister.
Mr STYLES: As part of our business policy we made clear commitment for skills training to be targeted towards employment outcomes and jobs for Territorians. To capitalise on market opportunities, government needs to invest in activities within the vocational education and training sector that provide local business and industry with the skilled employees it is demanding. Importantly, we need to skill Territorians for real jobs in the Territory, in sectors and industries that are growing or will grow.
As we all know, the Territory is benefiting from significant economic prosperity and growth. In the September 2014 quarter Business Outlook, Deloitte Access Economics forecast the Northern Territory economy to outperform the national economy over the next five years. Deloitte forecast that the Northern Territory economy will grow at an average rate of 4.9% per annum between …
Mr McCARTHY: A point of order, Mr Deputy Speaker! Standing Order 36: I draw your attention to the state of the House.
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER: Ring the bells.
A quorum is present.
Mr STYLES: Deloitte forecast that the Northern Territory economy will grow at an average rate of 4.9% per annum between 2013-14 and 2017-18. This is the highest growth rate of all jurisdictions and well above the 2.9% annual average growth forecast for Australia over the same period.
Further, the CommSec State of the States report released in January this year shows the Northern Territory leads the way on five out of the eight indicators supplied: economic growth, equipment investment, unemployment, dwelling starts and construction work.
In overall performance, the Northern Territory is ranked as the equal best performing economy in Australia alongside New South Wales and ahead of Queensland and Western Australia – the two other northern jurisdictions – which makes us the obvious choice as the lead jurisdiction in developing the north.
Now, more than ever, we have to grasp this opportunity and realise our full potential. Framing the Future sets out the framework to do this, with one of the key ingredients being a skilled workforce. We must help improve the capacity and productivity of our workforce by investing in skills development in areas where it will make a difference. The key to understanding business and industry demands in vocational education and training is to grow a skilled workforce for the future.
Another important component of our election commitments was for the employment and training function of government to be driven from within the business portfolio, and to re-establish the Northern Territory Employment and Training Authority to advise the government on training policies and priorities.
I am pleased to report that an industry-based Northern Territory Employment and Training Advisory Board has been established. The board has a full agenda, overseeing the improvements under way in our vocational and training framework for the Territory. Their recommended legislation, policies, funding, business models and strategic policy settings will inform how we invest in vocational education and training into the future. The board is chaired by highly-regarded business executive, Mr Andy Bruyn. The other members of the board are equally well-known business leaders. They are Ms Karen Sheldon, Mr Peter Barclay, Mr Gary Coleman, Mr Greg Ambrose-Pearce, Mr Michael Long, Ms Roslyn Frith and Mr Wayne Kraft.
The outcome we seek through the efforts of this board is a more productive, transparent, contestable and efficient vocational education and training framework in the Territory, aligned to the needs of business and industry.
To ensure the work of the board addresses and meets the skill development needs of business and industry, it is ably supported by six industry-owned training advisory councils: the Service Industries Training Advisory Council; Primary Industries Training Advisory Council (NT) Inc; Transport, Engineering, Automotive Training Advisory Council (NT) Inc; Cultural, Recreation and Tourism Training Advisory Council Inc; Major Industries Training Advisory Council Ltd; and Human Services Training Advisory Council Inc. The government provides funding for the operation of these councils which facilitate an important conduit between industry and the Department of Business.
The government will continue to explore the best methods of ensuring the training sector is driven by the needs of business and industry. The broad program will be completed between now and the end of 2015. The intention is for a new framework for vocational education and training in the Territory to be in place for the 2016 academic year. This will consist of: new training legislation to replace the out-of-date Northern Territory Employment and Training Act; the new Vocational Education and Training Investment Plan which will ensure investment of public funding each year is aligned with the Northern Territory’s economic priorities; and a new funding model which will be transparent and create a more contestable vocational education and training market while providing appropriate subsidisation for priority areas where market failure prevails.
At this moment, the broad-ranging consultations of the review of the Northern Territory Employment and Training Act are nearing finalisation. Industry associations, employers, training providers, government agencies and other key vocational education and training stakeholders participated in these consultations and explored the review issues outlined in a widely-distributed discussion paper. The outcomes of these consultations will help inform the development of the new training legislation. I look forward to introducing a bill, later in the year, for a reformed act which is contemporary and provides for a strong vocational education and training sector in the Territory.
As we work through these reforms, we are making immediate changes, where necessary and possible, to better meet the needs of business and industry. A good example of this is the support we currently deliver to upskill the construction industry.
In the five years to November 2013, there was a 60.9% increase in the construction workforce. During 2014, in response to a call for support from the Master Builders Association of the Northern Territory, the Department of Business entered into agreements with the Master Builders Association and the Housing Industry Association to facilitate training for 90 people in the building industry to undertake a Certificate IV in Building and Construction.
Major projects and economic growth generate sufficient employment and business development opportunities across many industries. They also increase the demand for local skilled labour. The Giles government has provided support through the Industry BuildSkills Program, which significantly reduces the cost of training for participants, making it more accessible. This commitment has already extended for 2015, with 50 additional places supported by the Department of Business following an approach from the Master Builders Association to continue the program. It is envisaged a similar arrangement will continue with the Housing Industry Association.
This is an important strategic industry development investment at a time for opportunity and growth. Both the Housing Industry Association and the Master Builders Association continue to report high levels of inquiries and enrolments in these courses as a result of employment and career opportunities available in the building and construction industry. Some people are already in the industry, but see the opportunity to start their own building business and some need to obtain extra skills for their job.
This initiative is assisting industry to respond during a time of unprecedented growth, helping to avoid a shortage of qualified and licensed builders in the Territory and produce local graduates with a focus on quality.
I inform the House of another example with an initiative recently undertaken in the Katherine region where the Department of Business, in collaboration with Katherine businesses, boosted the number of work-ready apprentices available for local employers. This innovative program, aimed at people in the region interested in an apprenticeship in automotive or engineering trades, assisted new entrants through the vital first year of their apprenticeship, and has provided local businesses with second-year tool- and job-ready apprentices.
This new approach to the delivery of the first year of training and work involved 11 apprentices employed by Group Training NT attending Charles Darwin University’s Katherine rural campus in a live-in arrangement. They completed the first stage of their apprenticeships in conjunction with a range of trade-related projects at the university, and at work placements with local employers who supported the on-the-job training requirements. Three of the participants have obtained employment and the remaining eight are going through various application and recruitment processes with local employers. Group Training NT is confident the majority of these will secure ongoing employment in their chosen apprenticeship.
Mr Geoff Crowhurst of Crowhurst Engineering in Katherine, was a driving force behind this program being delivered locally, and should be congratulated. He led discussions with the Department of Business on behalf of the Katherine Mining Services Association to set up this program.
We, on this side, listen. No more training for training’s sake and no more top-down programs rolling out so many Certificates I and Certificates II that they are used as wallpaper. Industry needs, and we expect, job-ready trainees at a minimum of Certificate III which I will talk about more shortly.
On 27 January this year, a similar program commenced for heavy commercial vehicle mechanics. This program will see 20 participants being employed by Group Training NT and attending Charles Darwin University where they will complete the off-the-job requirement for the first year of the apprenticeship, supported by work-based projects at the university and work placements with local employers.
This program is being jointly funded by Shell Australia, through the Shell Prelude Social Investment Fund, and the Department of Business. It will assist Territorians from a range of diverse backgrounds to get a start in an apprenticeship and possibly a lifelong career.
These are examples of how the government now collaborates with the business community to design and facilitate tailor-made vocational education and training solutions for sectors, industries and groups or clusters of businesses.
We are making a significant investment in vocational education and training in the Northern Territory. In 2014-15, nearly $86m in grant funding will contribute to the delivery of training and the support of the vocational education and training sector. Of that total, $28.8m is committed to support apprentices, trainees and their employers.
We are performing well in comparison to our interstate counterparts. The Northern Territory has one of the highest vocational education and training participation rates across all jurisdictions, and importantly, it is higher than the Australian rate.
Since 2010, in excess of 8850 Territorians have completed an apprenticeship or traineeship, with at least 30% of these being in occupations identified on the Northern Territory Skilled Occupation Priority List. In 2014 there were 2854 apprentice and traineeship commencements. Currently there are 3778 apprentices and trainees in training. Of these, 48.44% are in traditional trades, many of which are experiencing skill shortages.
To assist in maintaining and growing our apprentice and trainee numbers, the Northern Territory government continues to provide financial incentives to employers to encourage them to employ new apprentices and trainees. In the current environment, where the previous federal Labor government withdrew about $1bn of support, this is particularly important.
You only have to look at what Labor does, not what it says. Unlike Labor, conservative governments recognise the need to keep pace with the ever-changing needs of industry. No more training for training sake!
The Giles government welcomes the federal government’s move to establish a dedicated ministry of skills and training under the minister for Education and offers Hon Simon Birmingham MP its every support.
The National Centre for Vocational Education Research has reported high levels of satisfaction with the quality of training students receive in the NT. Successful training completions for the calendar year 2013 were at their highest level at 80.83%, compared to 78.88% in 2012. On average, nearly 88% of Northern Territory graduates and 91% of those who completed modules were satisfied with the overall quality of their training. Just over 92% of Northern Territory graduates were employed or in further study after completing their training. Of those employed after training, an average of 85% of graduates and 80% of those who completed the modules found their training relevant to their current job.
Ensuring Territorians have a sufficient level of qualifications to enter the workforce and be productive is a priority of this government. We have expanded the student entitlement to a government-funded training place at Certificate III level or above for Territorians who do not already have this level of qualification, enabling both public and private training providers to deliver this training. This initiative has broadened the choice of training providers available to individuals and businesses, enabling greater choice and range of flexible quality training provision.
Achieving acceptable vocational education outcomes is not without its challenges. Around Darwin there is the challenge of continued high demand for skilled labour coupled with low unemployment. The December 2014 labour force figures show, yet again, the Northern Territory has the lowest unemployment rate in the country at 3.6%, a decrease from the previous month.
Along with this general labour shortage skilled shortages are still very marked, particularly in professional and most trade occupations. Outside Darwin we face a number of different challenges in delivery of vocational education and training including remoteness, weather and population demographic. The Territory’s population is approximately 31% Indigenous with over 60% of these people living in remote communities with limited access to vocational education and training.
Low levels of foundation skills among our Indigenous population, particularly those in remote areas, impacts on their ability to achieve outcomes in vocational education and training without significant support. Many communities across the Northern Territory are remote and only accessible by air during the Wet Season. In extreme cases communities become isolated making delivery of training impossible. The high cost of delivering training in the Northern Territory, particularly in remote areas, continues to be an impediment to continuous and quality service delivery.
I am advised that many training providers are scaling back their training delivery in regional and remote areas, including the larger regional areas, due to the small student numbers which makes delivery unviable. To counteract these challenges this government is funding and facilitating a broad range of training courses and programs to try to meet the needs of business and industry. These are delivered through public and private training providers in urban, regional and remote locations.
To support Indigenous people the government is providing vocational education and training programs for Indigenous Territorians where training is linked to community projects with employment outcomes. During 2014, 92 programs were supported under the Indigenous Responsive Program across 45 communities in the Northern Territory involving about 1131 participants. In 2015 three programs have already commenced to support 36 participants.
There are many success stories from these programs. For example, 14 participants from the Tiwi Islands successfully completed a Certificate II qualification enabling them to gain Coxswains Grade 2 licences to operate marine vessels on the islands. The training has provided ongoing employment for workers involved in the Tiwi Islands Regional Council’s vehicle and passenger service between Bathurst and Melville Islands, and has provided career pathways and greater opportunities for the local community rangers.
Another program had results on the national stage. Injalak Arts and Crafts is located at Gunbalanya, about 330 km east of Darwin. It has been trying to engage women in screen printing and production for some time. Funding was provided to run screen printing and production training, enabling seven local Indigenous women to manufacture screens from scratch and produce prints on specially selected materials. The materials have been purchased by Australian designers and have made their way into the fashion circuit, appearing at the last Melbourne fashion week.
I am told the screen and fabric production has enabled the women to produce and market highly sought-after printed fabrics to generate a steady income for the women and the arts centre. The training workshop resulted in the agreement between Injalak and the women, providing printing space two-and-a-half days per week to ensure ongoing production of screens and fabric production. What a brilliant success story.
While this training did not involve a full qualification, it demonstrates the importance of developing skill sets and the role that skills development for a specific purpose has in response to a business or employment opportunity. Training activity in skill sets and individual units of competency is relatively high in the Northern Territory. Individuals seek training in specific skill sets or units to upgrade and update their skills – for example, to meet licensing requirements or simply because they need a specific skill for a specific job activity.
This is particularly so for existing workers and Indigenous Territorians in regional and remote communities. Until recently, the Northern Territory was one of the few jurisdictions that provided funding for the delivery of skills set training. In a rapidly-changing economy, other jurisdictions are now undertaking similar approaches.
Looking to the future it is evident that the Northern Territory will continue to experience economic growth, leading to prosperity and future development. It will increase the demand for skilled labour. In many situations, labour will need to be quickly reskilled for jobs that are not yet designed. This will place greater demands on the vocational education and training sector to be competent, efficient, responsive, transparent and free of red tape.
The Northern Territory is party to a national agenda to address these factors. As I said earlier, we are working hard on our own Territory agenda, which is consistent with national objectives.
Also looking to the future, members will know that this government, led by our Chief Minister, is making strong representations on behalf of the Territory in advance of the White Paper on Developing Northern Australia.
This paper will set out a clear, well-defined and timely policy platform for realising the full economic potential of the north, including a plan for implementing these policies over the next two, five, 10 and 20 years. It will explore ways to capitalise on the region’s strengths, provide the best regulatory and economic environment for business and identify critical infrastructure for long-term growth and public and private planning and investment. It will identify the potential for further development of the region’s minerals, energy, agriculture, tourism, defence and other industries.
Once published, the White Paper will be an important consideration for our vocational education and training priority settings. I anticipate we will need to increase our efforts to address labour shortages, both skilled and unskilled, to maximise northern Australia development.
The Territory needs a training system that can provide Territorians with the skills they require to do their jobs now and into the future. The Country Liberals’ focus is ensuring training providers engage with business and industry to identify their needs and to use that engagement to inform their training and assessment strategies. This will improve assessment outcomes and produce skilled graduates who are able to fill available jobs.
At a national level, industry has been given a formal leadership role in the provision of input and advice in relation to policy direction and decision-making. I intend for this to also be the case at the Territory level. The work of the Northern Territory Employment and Training Authority Advisory Board is central to this. By virtue of its name, employment and training should not be about training for its own sake but about training for vocational employment outcomes.
Vocational education and training is critical to our future economic growth. Just as important is the leadership role that business and industry must have in that process. Be it apprenticeships and traineeships, training delivered to job seekers, existing workers, school students or to Indigenous Territorians in remote communities, the vocational education and training sector’s contribution to the Territory community is crucial.
In closing, I have outlined changes the Country Liberals have already made, as well as those we are now making to improve the vocational education and training framework for the Northern Territory. Unlike the previous Labor government, we have given business and industry a formal leadership role in policy directions and decision-making through the operation of the Northern Territory Employment and Training Authority Advisory Board.
I have outlined initiatives under way to improve our legislation, the policies and funding models we use and the strategic policy settings which determine where our public investment is made in vocational education and training.
Building a skilled and dynamic workforce to meet the needs of the Territory’s future is paramount. Having in place a more productive, transparent, contestable and efficient vocational education and training framework for the NT, aligned to meeting to needs of business and industry, is the way to get there.
Mr Deputy Speaker, I move that the Assembly take note of this statement.
Debate adjourned.
Mr ELFERINK (Leader of Government Business): Mr Deputy Speaker, I move that the Assembly do now adjourn.
Mr WESTRA van HOLTHE (Katherine): Mr Deputy Speaker, most Territorians will know of Dr Clyde Fenton and the many lives he saved in the outback as the Northern Territory’s original flying doctor.
Dr Fenton first came to Katherine as the Government Medical Officer in March 1934. After privately raising money for an aircraft, he started an aerial ambulance rescue service which has since grown to become the Northern Territory Aerial Medical Service. It was called that a number of years ago and now has transformed into other forms of aerial medical services across the Top End.
A self-taught pilot, he flew without the help of navigation equipment, air charts and often proper landing strips. With no navigation equipment or radios, landings were made on strips lit by kerosene flares or car lights, and only the railway lines and Katherine River were available to estimate his position.
Calls for medical assistance would come through the two Royal Flying Doctor Service stations at Cloncurry and Wyndham, and were relayed to him by telegram. Dr Fenton flew his Gipsy Moth all over the Northern Territory, helping people in need of medical attention, picking up patients and returning them to Katherine for medical treatment.
To the civil aviation department, Dr Fenton was considered a bit of a disaster, but to the people of the outback he was considered a hero. During his career, he survived plane crashes, made a flight to China in a small open aircraft and was once stranded for five days after a forced landing.
On 14 May 1940, Dr Fenton was called up to the RAAF, where he was eventually based at Manbulloo airstrip near Katherine from which he made many emergency medical flights. In August 1942, No 6 Communications Flight was formed, with Flight Lieutenant Fenton in command. This unit delivered mail and food supplies to Army and RAAF outposts as far afield as the Wessel Islands. The unit was, at various times, based at the Ross Smith Aerodrome in Darwin and the Batchelor Airstrip.
One of the planes he few, a Gipsy Moth, is currently on display at the Fenton Hangar at the Katherine Historical Society Precinct, also known as the Katherine Museum. In January this year, the Chief Minister and I, as the local member for Katherine, had the honour of presenting the Katherine Museum with a regional grant. This grant will ensure that Dr Clyde Fenton’s Gipsy Moth will be better protected against the harsh Top End elements.
The Katherine Museum will use the $200 000 Northern Territory government grant to help air-condition the display housing Dr Clyde Fenton’s iconic Gipsy Moth, and will hopefully go a long way to installing a solar array to help defray the electrical running costs of not only the hangar, but of the museum itself.
I take this opportunity to thank Simone Croft and Friends of the Katherine Museum who have worked tirelessly to raise funds and awareness for the Katherine Museum and this important historical treasure it houses. Simone, staff, volunteers and the Committee of the Katherine Museum have carried on the work of the former Historical Society President, John MacNamara, who died on 13 September last year.
Mr Deputy Speaker, it was John’s goal to make sure air-conditioning was installed in the shed to better protect the Gipsy Moth that belonged to Dr Clyde Fenton. Sadly, John died before he could see this project completed. John championed the preservation of Dr Fenton’s plane and this grant is a nice way to honour his memory.
Mr McCARTHY (Barkly): Mr Deputy Speaker, tonight I make some comments reflecting community concern about the heavy hand of the new minister for Local Government in taking over elected councils in the Northern Territory.
In recent weeks she announced the takeover of two councils – the Litchfield Council and the Tiwi Islands Regional Council. Tonight I will focus on the Litchfield Council takeover, but I am sure we will hear more about her intervention in the Tiwi Regional Council and motivations for that action in coming weeks.
The minister announced the takeover of the Litchfield Council on 27 January this year. We know there have been ongoing difficulties involving the mayor, relatively new CEO and some other council staff. However, what remains unexplained is why the minister or her advisers thought it necessary for her to suspend all the council and appoint a departmental administrator to take over the role of the elected council.
No allegations have been made against the four elected members representing the four Litchfield council wards so why have they been suspended? Why an independent administrator was not appointed to assist these elected councillors continue their business on behalf of the people who voted for them to represent their interests, is an important question for the minister.
What other options were considered and discounted by the minister? Why does the appointed administrator have the dual role of investigation and administration? Why are these not two distinct roles? Why was the Local Government Disciplinary Committee, a group set up for this role, not allowed to consider all the available evidence in investigating complaints?
We have heard the Chief Minister say time and time again, in the context of local government, that he was ‘returning the voice to local people’. Here is a clear example of local people being denied their voice. Their elected representatives have been put to one side and replaced with a departmental person working for the minister.
Two weeks ago, the minister told the Katherine Times:
Residents of the Litchfield Council are left wondering what the agenda might be. The Litchfield Council has been steadily choked under the CLP government. Informed council sources tell me this includes $12m stripped from the council to build a national championship swimming pool, $2m taken from the Freds Pass Community Board, no respectful consultation with the council regarding changes to the zoning laws in Holtze, Noonamah Ridge and Hughes and no support to make safe dangerous black spots in local roads.
Council and residents are concerned about potential changes to the Litchfield planning scheme, reducing minimum lot sizes and affecting the lifestyle of Litchfield residents. Local people are concerned about any government plans to change the boundaries of Litchfield municipality. This is not the time to be weakening the voice of residents’ elected representatives.
Recently we have seen more trumpeting from the member for Fong Lim of the merger of Litchfield Council with other large councils. We know this is a habit within the CLP government. The member for Fong Lim pushes and bullies his own agenda through other ministers.
On behalf of the concerned residents of the Litchfield Council area, we call on the Minister for Local Government and Community Services to come clean on what is happening here, answer the questions and show more support for the four elected local government representatives cast aside as a consequence of her actions.
Mr Deputy Speaker, on behalf of the residents of Litchfield, I look forward to the minister updating the House on the matters raised and answering questions. This represents the new leaf in the Giles’ government listening to the people and making life easier, simpler and safer. I look forward to your response, minister.
Mrs FINOCCHIARO (Drysdale): Mr Deputy Speaker, on 24 December 2014 the Territory paused to take stock of the enormous journey we, as a Territory and as Territorians, have taken to rebuild, revitalise and grow Darwin following the devastating impact of Cyclone Tracy 40 years ago to the day.
As a born and bred Territorian and a person whose family survived the cyclone and contributed to the rebuild, I was very proud of the commemorations that took place between November 2014 and January 2015.
In 2013 and 2014, Cyclone Tracy survivors lobbied the Northern Territory government and the City of Darwin to do something truly special to commemorate the 40th anniversary of Cyclone Tracy. Cyclone Tracy survivors gathered together to workshop commemoration ideas and heavily influenced the outcomes delivered by both the City of Darwin and the Northern Territory government.
Cyclone Tracy survivors also created various Facebook groups where survivors had the opportunity to share the stories of their journey and support one another in a way that has been unprecedented to date. The strength and power of the thousands of people from around the country joining together in this online real time forum gave healing, grieving and memories a safe place to be expressed and shared.
At the outset, I thank the many Territorians who engaged in the development of the 40th anniversary commemorations. Your ideas, passion, inspiration and determination served as the foundation of a sequence of commemorative events we can all be proud of.
As parliamentary secretary to the Chief Minister, I had the privilege of being part of the government’s contribution to the commemorations. I worked with some wonderful people who worked very hard to deliver the commemorations in a respectful, contemplative and diverse manner so Territorians could be offered a wide range of events to cater for sensitivities, including those survivors who did not want to be overtly reminded of the devastation Tracy caused. My thanks go to the members of the steering committee, Ms Mez Korbetis from the Department of Business, Scott Chenery, the Command Warrant Officer, Headquarters of Northern Command, Anna Malgorzewicz, General Manager, Community and Cultural Services at the City of Darwin, Hugo Leschen, Department of Arts and Museums and Nuala Murphy and Janet Hanigan from the Department of the Chief Minister.
One of the initiatives was the formation of a Cyclone Tracy website which gave Territorians the opportunity to view government and council organised events, post their own community events to the website and share stories and photos on the website which will be collated as part of our history.
The commemorations included a commemorative all faith church service where we heard the stories of Territorians who were impacted in different and devastating ways by the cyclone. We gathered as a community respectfully and in contemplation. The service followed a reception at Parliament House were 500 people gathered to reflect, and in many cases catch up with Territorians they had not seen in years.
The City of Darwin sensitively approached the lighting of the Christmas tree in Raintree Park and dedicated the dimming of the lights to Tracy survivors and those who lost their lives.
There was a wide range of commemorations by a wide range of organisations including the revitalisation of the Cyclone Tracy exhibition at the Museum and Art Gallery which has seen 27 000 visitors through its doors since it opened. Tours of the NT Archive Centre and the extensive Tracy collection were very popular and booked out quickly. Of course, there were the Northern Territory Library Before Tracy exhibition as well as digital arts projects, the recording of oral history, the production of the documentary Blown Away and the production of the book called Tracy Tales: How the Darwin Business Community Survived the Great Cyclone.
In total there were 31 commemorations listed on the Cyclone Tracy website which is a tribute to the many people and organisations who hosted commemorations, the work of the public service and the work of the staff at the City of Darwin.
I again thank the community for being so involved in the development of commemorations. I hope the 40th anniversary of Cyclone Tracy raised awareness amongst new Territorians of the strength and resilience of our great city.
Mr Deputy Speaker, we have been devastated by war and rebuilt. We have been devastated by Tracy and rebuilt. We are stronger and wiser for it and I am so proud to be a Territorian.
Ms FYLES (Nightcliff): Mr Deputy Speaker, earlier in debate on the motion of no confidence, I spoke about the lack of confidence the Northern Territory community has in this government. Due to time, I did not get to finish my speech. I will raise some points this evening to have them on the record.
I was talking about the Chief Minister and Foundation 51 and how he, for so long, has denied any knowledge but is now saying publically:
The Chief Minister has reinstated the member for Fong Lim who openly claimed that money opens doors:
This highlights your lack of judgment and questions about your leadership. Chief Minister, the government you have led has hurt many Territorians. You have caused so much pain to the people you are meant to represent. Territorians do not have confidence in your government. You increased power and water bills hugely. People in our community literally cannot afford to pay those bills. I saw some people comment on social media early today about getting their power bill after a blackout last night. Professionals, families, people who work hard and want to be able to enjoy the Territory lifestyle are struggling with their bills. It breaks my heart to hear stories from the childcare ladies who look after my children who literally cannot pay these bills and cry thinking about it. You so arrogantly dismiss them.
A government should not cause pain to Territorians, yet the Chief Minister has burdened families and businesses with huge power and water increases. Every day families struggle with the pain of the cost of living. Governments should be supporting businesses not damaging confidence. A government which respects everyone meets people to hear their ideas – not only those who pay, as the member for Fong Lim openly stated. You should be willing to meet with and hear everyone’s great ideas.
A government should be investing in education and health but what have you delivered for our health system? Where is the investment for our much-needed paediatric children’s wing at RDH?
There should be sensible planning, not the ad hoc spot rezoning we are seeing. In Nightcliff we are seeing our beautiful seaside suburb changing with spot rezoning that does not fit its character. My colleague, the member for Nelson, is battling to keep the rural area rural. Good government is not about spot rezoning when there are so many questions.
I have given notice of a motion regarding Nightcliff island for tomorrow evening. You issued a lease for nearly 100 ha of our harbour without talking to anyone. Were you hoping we would not notice? This is how you govern: you just do things and do not explain. We saw your arrogance in Question Time today where you just simply refused to answer questions.
You have slashed the funding to our NGOs and you have ripped the heart out of our child protection system. We spoke earlier of your disregard for the nurses in the emergency department and our firefighters. Our firefighters are asking for something that other firefighters in Australia and our airport firies have. The most you can throw back is ‘Why did Labor not do it?’ We were on our way, as I understand. Paul Henderson had made the statement that if re-elected it would be instated.
You quiver over a date of the election. That is appalling. How can you sleep at night? We saw the helmets lined up on the steps of parliament last week for those firefighters who have sadly lost their lives. We have people battling. You are not talking huge sums of money, you are talking about people’s lives and supporting their families while they battle horrendous diseases. It is appalling. We should be doing everything we can to support them.
The member for Fong Lim, who so arrogantly last year – it may have been the year before – was ranting and raving in debate. He followed the firefighters on to the steps, when the member for Fannie Bay moved legislation that would protect those firefighters. You looked them in the eye and said you would do something, yet you have done nothing. It is appalling that you will not support those who help us when we are at our most vulnerable – our ED nurses and firefighters.
Regarding sports and recreation, do you think we have forgotten about the Arafura Games? People have not. We are repeatedly told it was a great sports event which helped our kids and was good for sport. It was raised at the opening of badminton a few weeks ago.
The cruel nature of cancelling these games at the 11th hour showed no foresight and angered our community, local athletes and volunteers. You have forgotten about it. It angered businesses, hospitality, tourism and retail. What message does that send to our Asian neighbours?
You knifed the elected Chief Minister when he was in Japan, you cancelled the games that celebrate sport and culture with our Asian neighbours, then you again knifed the former Chief Minister while he was in Jakarta. You have such contempt.
Those games were so important as it helped our Paralympics qualifiers in Darwin. We hear about sports awards, but you have made one of the most stupid decisions in cancelling those Arafura Games. You just do not care about people.
We talked today about the Chief Minister no longer having the confidence of his own party, parliament or the people of the Northern Territory. You stated in an interview after ousting Terry Mills:
How is the CLP government of today any different? The infighting and self-interested manner of this government continues. It a joke that you will not resign. Territorians are sick of it. Chief Minister, in 2013 in an interview after the first knifing of Terry Mills you stated:
You were absolutely right: we are not any better, we are worse. The Territory deserves better. Numerous members in the House today have outlined the 15 ministries since 26 August 2012. We have had two Chief Ministers plus one self-claimed one, three Police ministers, five Deputy Chief Ministers, five Health ministers, six Treasurers, six Education ministers – and the list goes on. How can the public service and Territorians have confidence? How can people form relationships and get things happening?
How can you govern when you cannot govern yourselves? You are a leader who is considered inadequate by two-thirds of your own team, but you arrogantly deny it. You have your head in the sand. You have described your own Deputy Chief Minister as not having the capacity, capability, tenacity or professionalism to be Chief Minister, but when you need his support, you keep him in the role of deputy. Or is that simply to stay in your role? This is what Territorians think. Territorians are questioning our ministers’ skills and ability to lead in those portfolio areas. Are they simply in that position so you can stay in your job – so you can keep their vote and keep them on side? Territorians deserve a good government, but you have a lack of good governance and policy, and it is hurting Territorians.
I have spoken today about the many impacts on my community. I proudly represent Nightcliff, Coconut Grove and Rapid Creek. What your government has done to our community is appalling. Our schools are struggling with the funding and teacher number cuts. The proposed man-made island off our coast is causing great stress to the community.
You have shut down our police station. Your measures – or lack thereof – around alcohol policy and support for our police, who do the best job they can, is appalling. We see antisocial behaviour every day. People cannot go safely to their local shops with their children and grab a coffee without witnessing antisocial behaviour. Nightcliff Woolworths is a hot spot and we need support, but your government has cut that.
To highlight how incompetent your government is in policy and direction, let us have a look at your Indigenous affairs policy. In your own words you ‘wrote it over Christmas’. You went on to state, ‘there’s very little policies on what we agree on’ within your own party.
How can you lead the Territory? How can you govern? Enough is enough. Reshuffling the hand will not change the cards. The Chief Minister no longer has the confidence of his own party, this parliament, or the people of the Northern Territory. The only way to end this circus is an election.
Mr Deputy Speaker, as I said, this is the last part of my speech I did not get time to finish today. I wanted to raise some of those points on behalf of my community. We have serious issues that need addressing, yet we have a circus of a government. We have an arrogant Chief Minister who will not acknowledge that he needs to go.
Mr WOOD (Nelson): Mr Deputy Speaker, a comment, following on from the member for Nightcliff.
I remember I heard the Chief Minister saying there has been a reduction in drunken violence in the Northern Territory. I wish the Chief Minister had been walking down Smith Street at 7 am this morning in the area of Lindsay Street. I had to ring the police because there were people all over the road. They were a danger to themselves and to others. They were well and truly influenced by alcohol.
I have also been talking to a policeman this week who raised some concerns about the temporary beat locations. People know where they are and they go to other bottle shops.
I gather there have been a lot of drunks in Darwin in recent times. It would be interesting to see if the government could bring some figures to parliament in relation to how many people have been locked up in the last few weeks in Darwin, and whether there has been a reduction in that type of behaviour. It is a bit of a rude shock to see what I did this morning at 7 am in Darwin – hearing yelling and screaming and seeing people doing all sorts of things in the main streets.
However, I digress from what I intend talking about. The Deputy Speaker might be interested in this, because I know he attended the greyhounds last year for the Darwin Cup.
The greyhound racing fraternity has been coming in for a bit of criticism, and some of that is well deserved. I will read a statement from Greyhounds Australasia on 16 February 2015 in relation to the Four Corners disclosure of people using live baits:
When this incident occurred I rang Craig Sant, who is not only the race caller but the manager/secretary, to ask what he thought. He said down south there are people who make a living out of greyhounds who will cut corners to make sure their dogs win. Here we have many greyhound owners, many of whom live in my electorate, who do it as a hobby. They enjoy it. They take their family out for the night and their children help train the greyhounds. He believes there is nothing happening in the Northern Territory as was shown on Four Corners. He believes there is no live baiting. We are such a small community if someone was to do that people would know quickly.
What has happened in other parts of Australia is disgusting. The Darwin Greyhound Association is a great little group which gives people an opportunity to enjoy the sport of greyhound racing. It gives people who would like to own or part-own a dog the opportunity to participate and is a great family sport.
Notwithstanding that, it would be good if the minister responsible for animal welfare looked at it to make sure an independent body checked it out so there is no doubt anything illegal is happening. I do not believe there is.
I know quite a few of the people on the management list. Nick Day has been around for years and has been involved in football, in business and is now President of the Darwin Greyhound Racing Club at Winnellie Park. Rob Brennan is vice president and has been president before. If you look through some of these names you see many local people who love the sport, and the last thing they would want to do is damage the sport they love so much.
I received an e-mail and understand that person was very concerned after seeing the Four Corners program, as I was. It is terrible people are using live baits for greyhounds.
Another part of the greyhound industry people may not know about is the Greyhound Rehoming Association. That body asks people to care for retired greyhounds ...
Mr Gunner: And it dropped post the program.
Mr WOOD: Yes. People have a fear of greyhounds because they have to wear a muzzle. They only wear a muzzle because they do not want them to bite the dogs they are running with. They make wonderful pets and it is great to see the greyhound industry is not only supportive of the welfare of the dogs while they are racing, it is also supportive of their welfare when they retire through the rehoming association.
If people have doubts, visit the Darwin Greyhound Racing Club at Winnellie Park on Sunday nights. I saw a note that there are some doubts about whether the Sky Channel will still broadcast their events in their newsletter. I hope that is not the case because the reason they have been able to put a little more money into the betting pool is we now go Australia-wide. That is a great way to help people in the industry.
You only have to spend $1 each way on one dog. You do not have to be extravagant in your betting habits when you go there. There is a race every 20 minutes and some races take less than 30 seconds and your money is gone in a flash. But it is good fun. Sporting and other groups attend.
It is a bit of old Darwin when you see the old shed there. There are nice meals and the TAB. If you go in the Dry Season you can watch the NRL, the AFL and still watch the dogs. I recommend it to people as something different and inexpensive.
If you have concerns about anything you see there talk to members of the Darwin Greyhound Association. I am sure they will be willing to take any questions. They are a good mob of locals and they need support.
The minister responsible for animal welfare, the Minister for Primary Industries and Fisheries, perhaps should make a statement which would give some independence to the matters before us at present.
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER: Thank you for that ad for DGA, well deserved.
Ms MANISON (Wanguri): Mr Deputy Speaker, this evening I ask the government a few questions about important environmental issues in the Northern Territory.
My first question is one many are wondering about. Where is the Hawke report into hydraulic fracturing, or fracking as it is also known? Many Territorians are eagerly awaiting the findings of the inquiry we know the CLP government has sat on since late last year when they received the report from Dr Allan Hawke. It has now been almost three months the government has sat on the report and people are wondering why. Given there were well over 200 submissions to this inquiry, it is abundantly clear there is a deep interest in this inquiry and its findings.
The silence is deafening. This has led to two trains of thought regarding why it has taken so long to release the findings of the Hawke inquiry. One of the assumptions is this might be another example of the government’s internal chaos within its parliamentary wing given it cannot figure out who should be Chief Minister or the minister. People are struggling to do their jobs because government members cannot get along together and the business of government has ground to a standstill.
We heard the Treasurer last week say he has not seen the report and was waiting to see it in Cabinet. He is only newly returned to Cabinet, after some time on the backbench.
There is also a train of thought that the Hawke inquiry report has been to Cabinet already and government has been trying to figure out how to deal with the findings and to prepare a response to silence opposition to and concern about fracking.
We want to know that the full report delivered to government will be released to the public. People are waiting to see the report. Rumours are that it will be released very soon but we are still waiting. When will that report be released by the government and why have they sat on it?
I also have questions about the government trying to silence independent voices which protect, conserve and defend our natural environment. Under the CLP funding to critical environmental groups which are the voice for the environment have been cut. Good governments should welcome scrutiny and be open to having their policies and actions put under the microscope. It is a critical part of being a good government. But under the CLP our long-standing and proud environmental advocates are having their voices silenced.
The Environment Centre of the NT and the Arid Lands Environment Centre are facing uncertain futures as they are losing the capacity to do their vital work. They are shedding jobs, cutting back on their projects, and the environment is not getting the level of protection it needs. These groups understand they cannot be fully dependant on government funding to survive, but they have copped double blows from the NT and the federal government and it is getting a bit too much to bear.
Today the Environment Centre of the Northern Territory released a media statement I will read. The title of it is, ‘Maintain the Territory’s Voice for the Environment – Stop the 2015 Cutbacks’. It reads:
The Environmental Defenders Offices of Australia also received a funding cut in the vicinity of $10 000 which, in the scheme of things, does not sound like much but it adds up. It is funding they should be given and it should be reinstated.
Mr Deputy Speaker, it is very concerning that the important voices of the environment are being silenced. We need to see the government looks very carefully at the consequences those funding cuts will have to the protection of our environment.
Mr GUNNER (Fannie Bay): Mr Deputy Speaker, this evening I draw the minister’s attention to an important planning issue that goes to the heart of what kind of Palmerston people want to live in. Should Zuccoli be subdivided to allow for 181 lots, of which 179 will be medium density or multiple dwellings? Of these, 132 of the allotments, or 80% of the subdivision, will be between 300 m2 and 499 m2. This is a highly-concentrated, dense community.
This is not a salt-and-pepper development. Labor supports small blocks but in a salt-and-pepper approach. We want people to have housing choice which requires a mix of housing. It is fair to say the elements of a good planning regime would strike an appropriate balance between urban density, amenity and community views. This is missing with this subdivision. Locals and Palmerston City Council have made it very clear this seriously worries them. This is an issue of concern to Palmerston residents and has led to the unanimous outrage of Palmerston City Council.
I seek leave to table the council’s media release of last week where they made it clear that they do not support the poorly planned small lot development in Zuccoli.
Leave granted.
Mr GUNNER: We are concerned with the subdivision design of Zuccoli. I will summarise the issue. The land is zoned FD. A Palmerston East area plan now exists over Zuccoli, Johnston and Mitchell etcetera. The planning scheme allows the development application for the purpose of a subdivision on land zoned FD providing there exists an area plan for the subject land – which there does – and the proposed subdivision complies with the area plan, which is questionable in this case although a matter of interpretation for the DCA.
Whilst there is a range of views on appropriate density for urban subdivisions there can be no question that proper consultation with the community is essential to good planning outcomes. When a council – in this case, Palmerston City Council – speaks with one voice, it is important to listen. Every single alderman and the mayor have made their voice very clear on this issue. They are expressing serious concerns on behalf of their community.
I am sure the minister must agree that it is a community’s reasonable expectation that planning processes allow outlying legislative and relative instruments are complied with.
The Palmerston City Council is so concerned with the subdivision that is being planned they have sought legal advice. I seek leave to table their legal advice.
Leave granted.
Mr GUNNER: It is critical the minister addresses council’s and community concerns of the DCA approval of an amended subdivision development for Zuccoli, subject to certain conditions.
The DCA decision has an important qualifier. It states that it is considered that the proposal is consistent with the future use of the land. But it went on to state:
Given all these considerations it is important, in my view, for the minister to open up a proper dialogue with the Palmerston City Council and the community. This is critical to make sure the community is part of answering the question: what kind of Palmerston do people want to live in?
The Mayor of Palmerston has stated that the council is calling on the minister to step in and right this wrong before it goes too far. The ball is in the minister’s court and I urge him to talk with Palmerston City Council and local residents. When a council talks with one voice, it is important to listen.
Another development in the municipality of Palmerston has also brought the need for proper consultation with the community on planning issues into sharp focus. A proposal to construct 82 two-bedroom and four three-bedroom single multiple dwellings on Angel Road, Palmerston, was strongly opposed by local residents. Former shadow minister for Planning, Ken Vowles, met residents and heard from them directly.
Labor had flagged this as a site for a public housing seniors village. The change of use was not a popular decision with local residents. They have also had concerns about the element of the proposal that has come forward. The proposed development is in the electorate of Brennan, which is represented by the former Lands and Planning minister. The concerns of residents were expressed strongly at a public meeting attended by the member for Johnston, Labor’s then shadow minister, and more than 50 residents. The member for Brennan also attended that meeting.
The meeting was coordinated by passionate local resident Krystal Stove, who has made strong ongoing representations to government about the residents’ concerns. The proposal was deferred and subsequently approved by the DCA.
Some improvements to access points of the development have been incorporated, but residents are very concerned about changes that have severe impacts on street parking.
The development now has some two-storey dwellings, and residents say they are very concerned about urban density in their suburb.
Krystal Stove and residents want to meet with the new Lands and Planning minister and the former minister, the member for Brennan, so they can listen to their concerns about the development in Angel Road. We urge the CLP government to listen.
On a personal note, we lost two people over the last few days who contributed quite differently to Territory public life. It was my pleasure, through work, to meet and get to know both of them very well.
Frank McGuiness, the former Auditor-General, was frank and fearless, a fighter for open and accountable government, a gentleman and a valuable public servant. He will be greatly missed.
As Chair of the Public Accounts Committee, I saw firsthand his valuable contribution. I do not think I could have carried out my role anywhere near as well as I like to believe I did without Frank’s contribution. I believe I speak for almost every Chair of the Public Accounts Committee in saying that Frank was quite priceless.
We also lost ‘Cambo’, Campbel Giles, who was a passionate, strong person, someone others were drawn to. She was magnificent and her Labor family will miss her greatly. She has left behind a wonderful man in Matt and a beautiful daughter in Elsie. They are in our thoughts and prayers. We will continue on in a great Labor tradition. The thought of Campbel will always be with us, helping us continue those Labor values, as we do in the Chamber today and every day. ‘Cambo’ might be gone but she will live on in our actions and deeds, and we will miss her greatly.
Motion agreed to; the Assembly adjourned.
STATEMENT BY CHIEF MINISTER
Death of Frank McGuiness
Mr GILES (Chief Minister): Madam Speaker, it is with great sadness that I inform the House yesterday I received news that former Northern Territory Auditor-General, Frank McGuiness, had passed away. On behalf of all members of this parliament I express my deep condolences to Frank’s wife, Pat and to Brian, Katie, Catherine, Andy, Aidan and Emily.
Frank had a long and distinguished career in the public service spanning over four decades, initially in South Australia, and in the Northern Territory from 2002 where he served as Auditory-General. Tirelessly committed to ensuring the best outcomes for the Territory, Frank enjoyed a positive and productive relationship with members of this House, departmental chief executives and his colleagues at all levels within the public service.
He was greatly respected as a man of high morals and unfaltering good judgment. Frank retired last year and was looking forward to spending more time riding his beloved bike around the world. I remember the member for Nelson making some comments in a statement at that time. Like the hard worker he always was, Frank agreed to a few last projects before heading off. He was a great servant of the Northern Territory and I know he will be greatly missed. It was terrible news to receive.
In due course I will be recommending the Assembly debate a condolence motion for Frank after we have an opportunity to converse with the family. I ask that all members pass on their condolences to Frank’s family.
Ms LAWRIE (Opposition Leader): Madam Speaker, the opposition thanks the Chief Minister for advising the House of the passing of Frank McGuiness on Friday. It has been deeply saddening news for all of us.
We all acknowledged the outstanding contribution Frank McGuiness made to our Territory when marking his retirement as the Auditor-General. Frank was passionate about the Territory and the integrity of good government. He served all of us incredibly well for so long and not just in his role as Auditor-General. He was someone I could call at any stage to seek guidance and advice from. With his genuine warmth as a person with a regard for humanity and love of the institution of government, he was outstanding on the national stage as well as in the Territory.
It has been an enormous shock to us all. Our thoughts and love go to Pat and his family. We welcome the news of a formal condolence motion because Frank McGuiness is very deserving of such an honour. May he rest in peace.
Mr WOOD (Nelson): Madam Speaker, I feel I have lost a good friend and will say more at the condolence motion. I used to meet Frank nearly every morning when having breakfast at Melissa’s under the West Lane car park. He was more than just an Auditor-General; you could have a joke and a laugh with him. I feel we have lost someone special.
MOTION
Want of Confidence in Government
Want of Confidence in Government
Ms LAWRIE (Opposition Leader): Madam Speaker, pursuant to the requirements of section 24(1)(a) of the Electoral Act I move that this Assembly express that this government no longer possesses the confidence of the Assembly.
A motion of no confidence is the most serious and significant motion that can be introduced in this parliament. We have not done so lightly. Under normal circumstances the Territory community would have the reasonable expectation that the parliament would run its fixed four-year term until the next election, but the circumstances confronting the Territory community and this parliament are far from normal and demand action from the members of this Assembly.
This government has failed to reflect the values of our society. Territorians have always supported each other, rather than a grasping self-interest. We have looked after each other and accepted and embraced difference and diversity because we know it leads to harmony and innovation. This makes the Territory a very special place to live.
You have abandoned the journey to statehood, and through your appalling behaviour you have made us a national laughing stock which has trashed our reasonable claim to statehood. We were once proud of who we are and our opportunities, punching above our weight nationally. Instead, your CLP circus has descended into chaos and disrepute. We are so much better than that.
There is grief for the loss of integrity in the institution of public service where opinion is valued. There is grief among even the CLP that the actions of this Chief Minister show he is disconnected from our community and his self-serving is not serving them.
This is a call-out to members of this parliament to shake off this embarrassing government and trust Territorians to make decision about how they will be governed.
Territorians have been betrayed by the Giles CLP government, and the trust that should exist between a government and the citizens it governs has been broken irretrievably. This fundamental breach of trust cannot be fixed by the Giles CLP government, an incompetent administration that has failed to listen to the people.
In the prayer of intercession at the opening of this parliament we prayed that:
… you care for the poor and distressed. Make us a just society where the rights of all are acknowledged and upheld, where those who are oppressed are made free and where corruption has no place.
In all of this, the CLP government has failed. This arrogant Chief Minister and his dysfunctional 10 Cabinet members lack the will, cohesion and competence essential to deliver effective government. An early election is the only way to fix the mess created by this Chief Minister and the CLP circus he purports to lead.
The Giles CLP government is incompetent, dishonest, dysfunctional, arrogant and out of touch with our community. The Giles CLP government has been self-serving; it regards families and businesses with contempt. Across the Territory, the Giles CLP government has alienated every key constituency and community group through its incompetence, arrogance and dysfunction.
It is not just the Labor opposition exposing and articulating these serious deficiencies in this rotten CLP government. Community groups, members opposite, even the Chief Minister himself – in the infamous leaked Alice Springs recording – have expressed their concerns about the ineptitude and arrogance of the Giles CLP government.
The alarm bells of members opposite should be ringing loud and clear because even long-term CLP members and supporters, disgusted with the Giles-led government, are abandoning ship.
The remote communities who voted you into government, teachers, nurses, police, firefighters, paramedics, public servants, businesses, non-government organisations, unions and many others have had enough. Above all, the Territory community is totally disillusioned with this arrogant Chief Minister and his incompetent CLP government.
Will members opposite finally listen to the community’s concerns or do they support more of the same arrogance, chaos, infighting, dishonesty, introspection, self-indulgence and jobs for their mates?
This motion of no confidence is not about us, it is about the reasonable expectations of Territorians about the priorities, competence and behaviour of the government elected to serve them. Serving the community, which is the fundamental role of good government, is an alien concept for this arrogant Chief Minister.
Territorians want a stable and competent government, not a circus driven by mutual antipathy and botched leadership challenges that has trashed our reputation and made us a national and international laughing stock. The Chief Minister recently said:
- … so we sort of bumbled around for a long time, we still are bumbling around a bit ...
Territorians are sick of the bumbling. Territorians want a government that values and invests in schools and education communities, not a regime that sacks teachers, rips resources from education and lies about what it has done.
In government, Labor brought secondary education to the bush for the first time. We delivered 465 new teachers to our schools. We upgraded all 74 government primary schools, built new middle schools, upgraded senior schools and built the new Nemarluk special school, part of a $30m infrastructure program for special schools, which you are still re-announcing.
We recognised the importance of getting our children to school, introducing Every Child, Every Day as an attendance policy to work with school communities. Our NAPLAN results were improving. However, we recognise this is not the only measure for success, since many of our students speak English as a second language.
Territorians want a government that invests and builds a viable health service, not one that mismanages health infrastructure and mocks nurses when they raise legitimate concerns about the crisis in our hospitals.
In government, Labor opened over 127 extra hospital beds and upgraded every hospital emergency department – except Gove hospital, because the CLP stopped that project when they came to government. We employed an extra 855 nurses and 294 doctors. We delivered the Territory’s first cancer care treatment centre and hospice, and opened the NT medical school. We led the nation with electronic health initiatives to assist patients, with more than 50 000 people registered across remote communities.
Territorians want a government with effective law and order policies and which values police, not one which fails to deliver on its promise to reduce crime by 10% each year, and then breaks its promise to recruit 120 additional police.
In contrast, Labor in government introduced the most comprehensive alcohol reform in the Territory’s history – Enough is Enough – and employed an extra 400 police. We rolled out 24-hour CCTV cameras and introduced precinct banning notices to combat antisocial behaviour. We established the NT Alcohol and Drugs Tribunal and reformed sentencing to introduce expanded community corrections including a jobs program.
Territorians want a government that puts downward pressure on the cost of living, not one that burdens families and businesses with savage tariff increases for electricity, water and sewerage and other government services. Labor invested in our power and water network; a $1.5bn infrastructure repairs and maintenance program to rebuild a system which was reaching critical failure under years of CLP underspend. We built new power stations, zone substations and closed the Larrakeyah sewage outfall, while building and repairing power and water infrastructure in the bush.
Territorians want a government that maintains and operates public assets such as TIO in community interest – not privatisation zealots who flog off taxpayer assets without a mandate. When in government and considering whether to sell this important asset, we recognised its importance as a public insurer for vulnerable homes and businesses. Importantly, we listened to Territorians.
Territorians want a government that supports business, not one that damages the investment environment, burdens business with costs and operates on a ‘cash for access’ basis.
Territorians want a government that strikes a balance between development and the environment, not one that overrides good science and environmental values to give water rights to its mates.
Territorians want a government that values its employees and inspires the public service with a clear vision for the Territory’s future, not a shambles that provides no leadership and is instead focused on giving plum jobs to mates.
Territorians want a government that works with unions to deliver fair employment outcomes and safe workplaces, not one that seeks to remove fair and reasonable workers compensation in the Northern Territory and fails to respond appropriately to workplace accidents.
Territorians want a government in which probity and decency are guiding principles, not a closed shop for secret deals and slush funds such as Foundation 51.
Territorians want a fair and sensible land use approach to planning, not an arbitrary system of ad hoc spot rezoning that ignores long-established planning principles.
Territorians want a government that protects and supports vulnerable children and their families, not one that slashes funding to our crucial non-government support services and strips out resources from its child protection agency.
Territorians want a government focused on policy and program outcomes, not one that has no policies for Indigenous affairs and is content to watch the federal government rip $500m in funding from crucial programs.
Territorians want a government capable of managing the economy in the public interests. After two years in government there is no announcement of any financial investment decision on our next major project.
This Chief Minister talks about developing the north but excludes the very Territorians who have invested in our great land, unless they are in his tight circle of mates. The glossy brochures and advertising campaigns on developing the north are hollow rhetoric. There are no new projects. Instead of a second port, you are hell-bent on selling off our existing port – a sneaky ‘lease’ in your spin.
The gas pipeline to connect with the eastern seaboard should be based on strong feasibility for the best route, not the placing of your politics that may damage its viability.
Territorians want a jobs plan for locals and investment in training instead of the cuts to training that have occurred under the CLP and no comprehensive jobs plan.
In government we secured the $34bn Ichthys project, the nation’s second-largest commercial investment. We created 26 000 new jobs and reduced the unemployment rate from 7.4% to 4%, even during the tough global-financial-crisis-affected years. We delivered tax cuts to small businesses that saved them $365m and meant they could invest in local jobs. It created 26 000 apprenticeships and traineeships and enjoyed the highest VET participation rate in Australia.
Prior to the global financial crisis we delivered eight budget surpluses in a row, then made the responsible decision to invest $4.6bn in infrastructure to protect Territory businesses and jobs during the global-financial-crisis-affected years. The legacy of our sound financial management is a Territory economy growing at the fastest rate in our nation and a manageable debt.
Despite the spin of the CLP, debt was $2.8bn when the CLP took government and took just 8% of revenue to service it. We had a deficit reduction strategy with a sensible step-down on infrastructure, not the hand brake the CLP has applied. We were honest about surplus and deficit, rather than changing reporting to the operating balance which you have done – another CLP sham.
The CLP has not delivered a single new major project since elected in 2012 and every project the CLP has lauded was on Labor’s forward capital works program or under construction. Rebranding and ribbon cutting is not progress. The only infrastructure investment that is occurring in the Territory was achieved under Labor. The roads and bridges funding the Chief Minister referred to in his Alice Springs CLP Branch rant was funding signed off under Labor.
Territorians want a government that has a plan for infrastructure that caters to growth in our large cities and towns but builds the crucial links in our bush. Labor had a 10-year infrastructure plan. The CLP has put us all back two years.
Good government would understand that small- and medium-sized businesses are struggling and despair at the CLP chaos and dysfunction. A total of 340 businesses have closed their doors since you came to government, yet you still fail to respond. The business community needs certainty, and under the CLP they have had two Chief Ministers and six Treasurers.
Territorians tell me every day they are fed up with the CLP government and want a government that listens and responds to their concerns, not one obsessed with its own self-interest, engaged in ideological rants against unions and workers.
In Central Australia the jobs for the boys is a consistent complaint, with people telling me if you are not a part of the Chief Minister’s in crowd you do not get a look in. Over the past two years long-term locally-owned businesses have closed their doors in Central Australia and the community is feeling the loss. You have had the opportunity to invest in locally-driven projects like the second stage of the Todd Mall and have knocked it back. Elsewhere in Central Australia the remote communities are asking why they have been forgotten by the CLP – no significant infrastructure, jobs lost from schools and the local repair crews have had to watch maintenance contractors fly in and fly out and do the work they were once employed to do.
Territorians want a government which delivers on election commitments. The contracts signed by the CLP across remote communities have been ignored. Funding has dried up. Civil maintenance crews do not have work or equipment in working order. They watch contracts for government tenders go to interstate firms as the local work dries up. In our remote communities the men who did this great work have to watch contractors fly in and fly out. Too many jobs have been stripped from our local remote schools and clinics. The much-promised housing and roads funding has not materialised.
Territorians want a government which protects and supports our vulnerable children. In this it is a significant failing.
I will elaborate on a few issues. I have already mentioned how this arrogant Chief Minister and his incompetent government fail to measure up to the reasonable expectations of Territorians. There is no better example of this arrogance than the Chief Minister’s decision to ram through the sale of TIO without consulting the community and ignoring their legitimate concerns about the sale. The Chief Minister had no mandate to sell TIO. Your government told Territorians the policy would not change because you had a gentlemen’s agreement with the new owners, yet you failed to provide those legal protections. There was then the statement from the Chief Minister that TIO was not to be sold, it was just a ‘change of ownership’ – a complete lack of honesty.
As a consequence of his arrogant determination to sell this iconic public asset premiums are now going up. Flood protection and other coverage is either no longer available or becoming cost prohibitive. Territorians were also short-changed on the real value of the sale of that asset. CLP members opposite know in their hearts that Territorians will not forget this betrayal and the sale of TIO will be remembered at the next election.
Another glaring example of the Chief Minister’s arrogance and policy failures endemic in his incompetent government is the savage burden of cost-of-living increases imposed on Territory families and businesses. Deny it all you want, but every time a family gets their power and water bill they are aghast. It has doubled under your watch.
No one will forget the Chief Minister’s ridiculous assertion that ‘Darwin has the lowest cost of living of any Australian capital city’. At the time, the NT News asked, ‘Just what planet are you guys living on?’ How much more out of touch can this incompetent government and arrogant Chief Minister possibly be?
How could a Chief Minister seriously interested in probity and decency in government possibly reinstate the Treasurer to his former post and add the departments of Lands and Planning and Mines and Energy for good measure? The reinstated Treasurer is infamous for his homophobic rant and admission that he runs his office on a ‘cash for access’ basis:
- … your donation will open my door ...
This is the modus operandi of the Treasurer, who is now minister for two of the Territory’s most important development portfolios. Extraordinary! The Chief Minister’s decision to reinstate this Treasurer shows an absolute and fundamental lack of judgment. The Treasurer has failed to apologise for his rant.
The gay, lesbian and transgender community of the Northern Territory has written to the Chief Minister seeking a sincere apology from the Treasurer, and if not, that the Treasurer be removed from Cabinet. What has occurred? That has fallen on deaf ears.
No one opposite could possibly hold their head up high when the record of the Giles CLP circus is put under the microscope. Some credit is due to the member for Araluen who has had the courage to stand up against – in her own words – the lack of honesty, integrity and respect shown by this Chief Minister.
This is a Chief Minister who knifed the former CLP Chief Minister, Terry Mills, when he was on a trade mission in Japan, knifed him again while on his Ambassador post in Jakarta, then pretended he had nothing to do with it. This is a complete lack of honesty, integrity and respect.
Today is not the day for an election manifesto, but I assure Territorians that whenever the election is, Labor stands ready to be a decent and fair government for all Territorians. We will be inclusive and listen. Labor will not ignore your needs, hopes and aspirations and we will deliver on our election commitments. We will govern in the Territory’s best interest.
I reiterate – and this is important – that if elected we will enact legislation to establish an independent commission against corruption so the modus operandi of the Chief Minister and his Treasurer which pervades the CLP government is never seen again in the Northern Territory.
Now is the time for members opposite to listen to the community. Look at the Chamber; they show their arrogance. Now is the time to regain some self-respect and give Territorians the opportunity to cast judgment on an incompetent and arrogant Chief Minister who is way out of his depth leading a dysfunctional, embarrassing and deeply divided government.
Madam Speaker, I urge members to support his motion. I commend the motion to the House.
Mr ELFERINK (Attorney-General and Justice): Madam Speaker, there are a number of ways I might choose to approach this motion. I am mindful of the prayer we say in parliament every day we sit in this House which finishes with the line, ‘for the true welfare of the people of the Northern Territory’.
Every time I have failed in my role as a member of this House – or for that matter, a minister – it was because I lost sight of that very important quote. If anybody visits my office upstairs on the fifth floor of Parliament House they will soon discover that quote, ‘for the true welfare of the people of the Northern Territory’ is written large on every door. It is something I singularly try to remain focused on but, being mortal, one fails from time to time. When I do remember it – and I try to remember it all the time – is when I and members of this parliament, as a general principle, gain their greatest successes.
I listened very carefully to the speech the Leader of the Opposition has read into the Hansard record and I was struck by how well-crafted it was. In crafting it, she denied it as an election manifesto. Nevertheless, it gives you precisely that election manifesto and, I suspect, is a speech she was intending to deliver last week.
She is right, the people of the Northern Territory deserve good government. There are independent observers who suggest this hysterical position taken by the Leader of the Opposition is not reflected as stridently in the community as she would have you believe. Not least of which was reference recently in an editorial in the NT News which said we were not a bad government at all. Yes, we have had some internal challenges but …
Members interjecting.
Mr ELFERINK: I hear the laughter, but this is the problem. They laugh now in the face of their own challenges, but it is about us once again. It is like being stalked by the members opposite, because their total focus is on the CLP and not the true welfare of the people of the Northern Territory. Even in her election manifesto in this House, what she chose to do is concentrate almost exclusively on the actions of the CLP.
I recall the member saying – or rattling out – some of the achievements of the former Labor government and – shock horror – some of them were not bad. However, to do that is to deny the truth that all governments do many good things. If she wanted to go back in history to the point of self-government, and even beyond, the Country Liberals in this jurisdiction produced many fine results – not least of which was a railway from Alice Springs to Darwin, the Yulara Resort and the many mines which were opened under the CLP’s management during those years.
Finally, after 28 years of CLP government the Labor Party was given a go. We heard a list provided by the Leader of the Opposition saying, ‘This is the stuff we achieved and you guys have achieved nothing’. That is demonstrably untrue. Moreover, not only is it demonstrably untrue, there were such inaccuracies in her speech as to beggar reasonable belief.
Her reference to crime rates not going down in no way are reflected within the results we received across the board. Last week in this House the Chief Minister outlined that:
- Alcohol-related assaults were down 16% Territory-wide over the past year … The effects have been especially visible in Alice Springs where alcohol-related assaults are down 30%, and Tennant Creek, where they are down a staggering 53%.
This is the sort of thing we have come to expect from the Leader of the Opposition: find a statistic wherever you can, buried in a report, and rely on it as though it were the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. It is a twisted logic she brings into this place.
One would suggest that tumble weeds are rolling down the streets of Darwin on the basis of the comments made by the Leader of the Opposition. When I walk out of this House and cast my eyes upon the skyline, it is ever changing, providing jobs and strength to a strong economy in the Northern Territory. It is an economy continuing to go from strength to strength.
We heard from the Leader of the Opposition that Labor members were wonderful budgetary managers. I can only ask this of the member opposite: how did we end up, under her as Treasurer, with a projected debt of $5.5bn?
She is from the left, where money does not matter, it falls like manna from heaven. It sprinkles upon the fields to be collected and cast around in some splendid left-wing belief that it will continue to rain upon us. It is a nonsense she perpetrates.
The Leader of the Opposition was well advised to bring a written speech into this House, because one of the things she did was what she rarely does in this House – present a reasonable and temperate approach to her craft. I invite other members and people who are listening to this debate to look at some of the offerings she has given to this House over time, because they do not reflect measure, countenance or temperance, they reflect anger. I have sat here and watched the Leader of the Opposition lacerate those people around her when she is unsatisfied with their performance.
I have heard her in this House name public servants simply to score a political point. She offers up to the public service and the unions of the Northern Territory ‘all will be sweetness and light under my leadership’, but the truth is I can identify a number of places in the Parliamentary Record where she has named public servants deliberately to win a political point in this House and, thereby, has run down their reputation in this coward’s castle and refused to rearticulate those comments outside of this House ...
Ms Lawrie: Rubbish!
Mr ELFERINK: She said ‘rubbish’, Madam Speaker. If I was so inclined, I could quote the names back to her. I shall not because I have a greater respect than she has.
The Leader of the Opposition suggests that we have done nothing since coming to government in the Northern Territory. I assert that we have done plenty. Moreover, it was clear from the Chief Minister last week that not only have we done plenty, but we will continue to do plenty more to serve the true welfare of the people of the Northern Territory.
I look at the history of what we have done in this House, and I am proud of many of the achievements which, in many instances, were criticised or, moreover, resisted by the members opposite. Under this government you are now allowed to take control of your own care if you lose capacity through advanced personal planning, something the members opposite had the option to do but never introduced or passed through this House.
There is alcohol mandatory treatment. The solution from the members opposite in relation to alcohol in our community was to simply do one thing: have a Banned Drinker Register that was statistically and demonstrably unable to demonstrate its success or worthiness. We, however, have taken more strident steps in this area, but we have done it with a fundamental philosophical difference. Members opposite are quite happy to say that the whole of society has an issue when a handful of people in that community behave in a certain fashion. That is the rationale and the belief behind the Banned Drinker Register. However, the Banned Drinker Register was not supported by statistics a year after its introduction.
We, on this side, however, were quite prepared to target the individuals themselves who were responsible for miscreant behaviour …
Members interjecting.
Mr ELFERINK: Madam Speaker, we listened in silence to what the member opposite had to say. The true colours are now starting to shine through. They cannot contain themselves because of their lack of discipline ...
Ms Lawrie: You cannot be honest.
Madam SPEAKER: Order!
Mr ELFERINK: This is the alternate government, members of which cannot listen to criticism. They can dish it out, but they cannot listen to criticism when it is levelled at them.
We have introduced alcohol mandatory treatment into this community. The reason we have done so, and put some 600 people through it already, is because we do not want individuals dying without a last-ditch response in our community. Yet, the moment they got a chance to criticise they did. They resisted the policy at every opportunity. As a consequence I can only assume they would return the situation to what it was under them for so many years so these people would die in our gutters and parks, rather than making an attempt to rescue them. That is a shameful approach to alcohol mandatory treatment and the response to alcohol in our community.
We also introduced into the Northern Territory police on the bottle shops ...
Members interjecting.
Madam SPEAKER: Order, order!
Mr ELFERINK: They are laughing again.
I wonder if the people listening to this debate would be proud of the alternative government and their conduct ...
Ms Lawrie: Not sustainable.
Mr ELFERINK: Madam Speaker, I pick up on the interjection from the member opposite, ‘not sustainable’. What is sustainable is a drop of more than 50% of alcohol-related assaults in Tennant Creek. The member for Barkly criticised the policy and said Labor will get rid of it. That is a reprehensible abandonment of the duties you promised to fulfil by virtue of the fact you are not thinking about the true welfare of the people of the Northern Territory but a political point. That is what makes the position of the members opposite so entrenched and reprehensible. It is about politics and complaining about the government of the day.
Alternative policies are rarely articulated. In this written speech delivered to the House we have finally started to hear some, but until now it has been complaint, vitriol and bitterness. Unfortunately, we have seen many of the members opposite too oft removed from this House because of their conduct.
We do not protect kids, according to the members opposite. How do you measure success in child protection? Is it the number of kids you take into care? Sadly, there are over 800 under the care of the CEO of my department. Is that a success? Is it a success when we remove all those children? Or do we leave them in their families where they are often abused, neglected or even sexually abused? The challenge from the members opposite is we are not doing enough. We do plenty. We work very hard and strive to protect those children. However, anything we do is not applauded, lauded or allowed to pass by unnoticed; it is criticised by the members opposite. It is a challenge for this government, as it was for them when they were in government, to protect the children of the Northern Territory.
There is also a role for the parents to play and passive welfare continues to feed much of that malignancy in our community. The opposition is perpetually silent on those issues.
We provided legislation to ban smoking in cars to protect our children, breast screening services for their mothers and global school budgets to help those children who are successful in our communities to step forward ...
Ms Fyles interjecting.
Mr ELFERINK: Well, the global school budgets enable schools and parents to take control of what is happening in their schools in a far more sustained way than was ever envisaged under the Labor alternative in the Northern Territory.
Having been involved with a number of school councils over the years, as well as having been president of my own childcare group, I know parents are a much better guide for what should occur with their kid’s education than their educators.
I am amazed at the level and passion parents bring to their kid’s education. By enabling global school budgets to occur we can and will improve outcomes for kids in the future. We continue to support parents in a number of ways, including the $200 voucher for sports because that important policy sees kids getting healthier every single day.
Since coming into government, we supported and drove through legislation to protect workers in the workplace from being assaulted by creating a mandatory sentence for perpetrators. ‘We believe in workers’, said the Leader of the Opposition. Then why would they resist legislation that would protect workers? They did that because it was about the politics rather than protecting workers in the workplace.
I have been heartened to see a number of people go to gaol for assaulting workers in the workplace since the passage of that legislation. I stand by the integrity of it as it protects workers in their most sacred place, their place of work. That is where they earn the money to feed and shelter themselves and their families. That is protecting workers.
We also introduced mandatory sentencing for other violent offences. I am glad to see people are continuing to come into the custody of our corrections system because we have responded in a positive way. One punch legislation, which is something that was an issue but a few months ago across this country, was dealt with by the CLP government 18 months ago as part of our promises and commitments to the electorate.
The toughest legislation in the country is on property forfeiture. Friends of criminals stridently argue that we should not go after a drug dealer’s property, whether it was derived from crime or not. I am proud to say this government went to the High Court of this country to defend that legislation and its strident impact on drug dealers in our community. Are the drug dealers whingeing? Absolutely! I had a number of them make representations to me saying ‘Oh my goodness, you are taking my house off me’. The answer is, ‘Yes, we are. We are taking your house away from you for being a drug dealer’.
We have the Pillars of Justice policy which has seen a number of very important policies rolled out over the last couple of years. They include things like the domestic violence strategy which is now being rolled out across the Territory. I am comfortable with the assistance of the minister for Community Services, Hon Bess Price – in fact, the partnership of Bess Price. We will continue to roll out a domestic violence policy which will, ultimately, become the benchmark for the rest of the country because we have the vision and courage to press through on these areas.
Domestic violence was attended to with a mountain of platitudes while those members opposite were in government. Beyond that, no fundamental policy was introduced to address the support of victims of domestic violence, and to make sure the perpetrators were taken out of circulation. Such legislation is before the House for debate today. I will be intrigued to see if they will support the legislation later in the day.
The Northern Territory sex offenders’ public website is something the members opposite are already vacillating on and showing no great sense of courage about. We, as a government, will press on with this and introduce it. We will call it Daniel’s Law so we remember Daniel Morecombe. We hope we can add a string to the bow of those people who want to protect their children from paedophiles in our community. The members opposite still have not been able to articulate anything like a clear position on something this government truly believes in.
The Northern Territory Civil and Administrative Appeals Tribunal continues to operate, making justice accessible for all Territorians in a way never before done. For years I sat on the benches opposite and made comments about the need for a civil and administrative appeals tribunal in the Northern Territory. Whilst it is not politically sexy, it nevertheless has started to operate successfully. The level of satisfaction with that particular approach to the justice system continues to be of a high standard.
We continue to see the private sector build here. We are building the Palmerston hospital which will be operational by the year 2018 – delivered on time.
We are building the new Supreme Court in Alice Springs. We are pressing on with ensuring we can move youth from the Court of Summary Jurisdiction into their own court system in the Northern Territory. The Sentenced to a Job program continues to see Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people enter employment from their gaol cells so they can teach themselves important skills and make a quid along the way.
These things were only mooted by the Deputy Leader of the Opposition when he had this portfolio. To his eternal shame, he articulated an idea nebulously and never followed through. This is the difference between the members opposite and those on this side of the House – we follow through.
We heard a fine speech from the Leader of the Opposition, but why did she not attend to all the issues she outlined when she was in government for 11 years? The answer is the speeches were thick on the ground and Hansard is writ large with all of the ‘gonnas’ from the former Labor government. The execution of those ideas were rare oases in a desert of non-functionality.
I ask those listening to remember the last time there was a motion of no confidence in this House as the Labor government decayed in the Northern Territory – scratching around desperately to keep power at all costs, with a whatever-it-takes attitude.
This government continues to roll out land release. We have released 6000 blocks for 6000 dwellings, and there is more to come across the Northern Territory. We continue to supply childcare assistance, and provide the Back to School and Learn to Swim Vouchers, which I spoke to before. We have economic growth, placing us at the forefront of the nation.
Yet, what do we hear from the members opposite? Complaints and vitriol, the naming of public servants and anger. This is not an alternative government, it is an opposition entrenched in the mindset of opposition.
The Northern Territory’s economy grew by 6.5% to $21.2bn in 2013-14. This is the highest growth rate of all jurisdictions, well above the national growth rate of 2.5%.
We continue to reduce red tape. We bring bills into this House to ensure red tape is removed so businesses can go about doing their business.
We will continue to pursue the gas pipeline which has now been given major project status in the Northern Territory. The Chief Minister continues to deal with people like Gina Rinehart.
We wait, with great expectation, to see a cancer facility built in Darwin in the near future, thanks to the support of the private sector – which the Labor opposition seeks to hobble with regulation and drive down, despite the fact they should be the primary employer in the Northern Territory.
What we have witnessed here today is politics at its most base and wretched. In trying to describe a future for the Northern Territory, the alternative Chief Minister of the Northern Territory, the Leader of the Opposition, went into stalk mode and started to pour vitriol onto opposite members.
Madam Speaker, I remind the Leader of the Opposition in the most strident terms, it is not about her or us, it is about the true welfare and the future of the people of the Northern Territory.
Mr GUNNER (Fannie Bay): Madam Speaker, a no confidence motion is the most serious issue this Assembly can debate. I do not have confidence in this government and I will support this motion of no confidence.
For me, this motion is about more than the bitter infighting which has plagued the CLP and publicly torn them apart over the last few weeks. This is a motion about good government, whether we have one and whether this government puts Territorians first. It is about this government being honest with Territorians and faith Territorians put in the CLP to deliver good government only a short two-and-a-half years ago. That trust had been broken, and a trust deficit now exists between the CLP government and the Territory people.
We have all shared in the joke of the CLP over the last few weeks. It is a joke that has serious consequences. As a Territorian, it has hurt me to see us lose national credibility in our ability to run ourselves. It wounds me to know that Territorians have never held a lower opinion of politicians. As politicians, we are possibly at our lowest ebb and it should worry us all. The CLP members are the ones who have dragged us there, but we have all been tainted and are on notice.
Territorians want us to keep it simple, to do our jobs, to put them first and to stop personal politics. That is why I entered politics. Like all of us, I am asked by people from time to time why I entered politics. My simple answer is I love working with people and I want to make a difference. If we have time for a deeper, broader conversation I will talk about how I hate saying goodbye. Like all Territorians who grew up here, I got sick of saying goodbye. If you have lived in the Territory for any length of time you will know what I am talking about. At school, high school, university, work, with family and friends, we say goodbye too often. We have a problem. We want our community to be strong, for people to plant deep roots in Territory soil. I want to make the Territory a better place. I want people to choose to move here and to stay here longer. I want the place I love to be the place even more people love.
What we are talking about is the basics of good government. Government is about ensuring we all have the opportunity to build a better future for ourselves, our families and the whole community. We believe the central role of government is to ensure all Territorians, no matter where they live, where they come from or who they are, have the opportunity to live meaningful and productive lives. That opportunity starts with ensuring we have world-class health and education systems.
I believe the next Territory election will be about restoring confidence and trust of Territorians in our public and elected officials. It will be about restoring national credibility in our ability to run ourselves. This is the consequence of the contract that has been broken by the CLP government. A basic article of faith which has to exist between a government and the people is that a government will be honest.
This government has not been honest with Territorians. It was not honest before the last election with the promises that were made, and it has not been honest with them in the brief years since.
The CLP promised to cut the cost of living and broke that promise. In fact, the current Chief Minister said Darwin had the lowest cost of living of any Australian capital city. That, quite simply Madam Speaker, fails the mall test. It is only five minutes from here. Walk down the mall and people will tell you, you are dreaming. In fact, all their broken promises fail the mall test. That is why we are here. Walk down the mall and ask any Territorian about the CLP promises.
The CLP promised to cut the cost of living, protect frontline workers and cut crime by 10% each and every year. Parents will tell you about the teachers they have lost from their schools and the larger classrooms their children now sit in. People will talk in shock about the open war that has started between the Chief Minister and police, and the low morale of police. People are beyond shocked at the treatment our firefighters have received.
Pensioners will become teary when talking about their power bill. I have seen a father rip up a power bill. I have had too many families say that the increase in power, water and sewerage bills has pushed them towards making that decision they do not want to make: to pack up their lives and find somewhere cheaper to live. They do not believe the Chief Minister when he says Darwin has the lowest cost of living of any Australian capital city.
There is a broken dialogue between the CLP government and the people of the Northern Territory – they simply do not believe you anymore. Honesty has been lost in our public discourse. They do not believe the Chief Minister when he said he knew nothing about Terry Mills losing his job in Indonesia. They do not trust the Chief Minister when he said he no longer plans to sell the port, just privatise it. This trickery with ‘lease’ and ‘sale’ and ‘buy’ and ‘sell’ simply does not wash with Territorians. It is too tricky by half.
The Leader of the Opposition has highlighted many of the issues and we would need days of debate to fully catalogue the litany of incompetence, arrogance and disdain which are the hallmarks of a bad government. We have had the secrecy, the slush funds and the jobs for mates not on merit. We have had the broken promises and treating Territorians like fools. We have had the refusal to listen to Territorians.
People’s frustration is palpable. Why will the government not listen? You can hear the stress and anger in people’s voices and sometimes despair. At the markets on the stalls, at their doors, over the phone, in e-mails or when people pull us up in supermarkets they tell us they cannot understand how a government could not hear the loud, simple messages from people on power and water bills, TIO and a government that should tell the truth.
The CLP government has trashed the bond of trust which must exist between Territorians and their government if we are to have any chance of confronting the enormous challenges the Territory faces. The Assembly should express no confidence in this bad CLP government and a Chief Minister who was not elected by Territorians or his party room and only remains on the back of a threat to burn the House down. Territorians have lost all faith and confidence in you and the CLP.
I believe the next Territory election will be about restoring the confidence of Territorians in our public and elected officials. It will be about restoring national credibility in our ability to run ourselves. We are at our lowest ebb with the Territory people as a result of the actions of the CLP and that honesty has been lost in public discourse.
We believe the central role of government is to ensure all Territorians, no matter where they live, where they come from or who they are, have the opportunity to live meaningful and productive lives. That opportunity starts with ensuring we have world-class health and education systems. We have enormous challenges across the Territory in providing not only these services, but ensuring outcomes that should be the norm in a First World country such as ours.
The CLP cuts to social services is a broken promise. Our teachers, our educators, our crucial frontline health workers, our non-government sector and our public servants we all rely on to coordinate and deliver these services have had their faith and trust in this government broken.
The dysfunction of this government has seen the CLP neglect one of the most important responsibilities of government, ensuring young Territorians have a safe and healthy environment in which to grow, learn and become productive members of our community. We have a generational problem and need to be serious from the start of the early days of childhood to turn the hardest challenge facing us as Territorians into a positive future. We need a fresh new approach to early childhood development in the Territory. We need a government the community can trust to provide leadership that brings education and health professions, researchers, non-government organisations and, most importantly, local communities together to give our children the best start in life. However, this government has shown it cannot reach out and work with local communities because the trust is gone.
Let us be clear, the measure of our competency as an administration, a jurisdiction and a self-governing Territory is how we tackle this challenge of the lives of those amongst us who are the least fortunate, who are born with the prospect of shorter lives, less hope and more challenges. This task should be borne of optimism which will bring successful change to their lives and our Territory. This may be the hardest task but it brings the most rewards.
Our people are our greatest resource. It is true of Australia and of the Northern Territory. They are our most important natural resource. Our people are our culture, our community and our economy. We believe we have to grow the economy to create and share opportunities for the healthy, educated population we are investing in. That is what we want from a Territory. This is one of the basic articles of good government. A strong economy delivers jobs, and trust is crucial for a thriving economy in ensuring we are creating the high-skill, high-wage jobs now and for our kids in the future.
Businesses across the Territory need to have trust and confidence in government to invest, to take risks and to create the wealth we all share in. Financial markets, credit rating agencies and national and international investors must also have confidence in government to ensure we are an attractive investment destination. Our many friends across the world, but most importantly our Asian trading partners and friends, must have confidence in our government if we are to make the most of our location at the doorstop of the region in the Asian century.
How many of these crucial partners have confidence in this CLP government and this Chief Minister when they have no confidence in themselves? We need a government that listens to business. We need a government that invests in skills and education. We need a government that harnesses technology and innovation to carve out a place for the Territory in the global economy of the 21st century.
We need a government whose leader can travel overseas without the fear of being knifed by colleagues while doing so. We need a government that works in partnership with businesses and industry, unions, non-government organisations and land councils and listens to them and takes them and their concerns seriously, not one that is always looking for the argument. We need to do these basics of good government as part of working with our community to grow our economy.
To recap, if we want good governance then we need to have investment in the health and education of Territorians and a positive and constructive relationship with our community that directs investment which allows us to grow our economy and share opportunities.
We also need a Territory that people want to live in. One of the things that makes the Territory such a fantastic place to live is its stunning natural environment. An open, transparent and fair planning system is crucial to ensuring this remains the case and we have sustainable and appropriate development across the Northern Territory. How can Territorians have any trust or confidence in our planning system when the current minister for planning admits:
- ‘When I have talked to people about donating money and the like, the best you can say is ‘your donation will open my door if you ever need to talk to me about something’.
How can we have any confidence in a government which used its numbers to cancel an independent inquiry into donations and Foundation 51, then were told that donations will open doors? The Chief Minister on one hand said:
- A smart politician does not handle money. It is all done by the party, which should be looking after it.
However only a few weeks ago he bragged to an Alice Springs CLP Branch meeting:
- So we had a Parliamentary Wing meeting, I said Government falls over we go to an election, 10 minutes before I went to the wing meeting I raised $1.5m for the party for the election, which isn’t in the bank. So I raised money for a campaign if we needed it, $1.5m is not enough but it’s a pretty damn good start and I said right we’re going to the polls and I was going to the polls yesterday, make no bones about it.
This is a Chief Minister who raised, in 10 minutes, $1.5m for an election. From whom? On what promise? What was discussed in 10 minutes that led to $1.5m in donations for the CLP for an election? This is the same Chief Minister who ruled out an independent inquiry into donations, who said a smart politician does not handle the money. However, this Chief Minister raised $1.5m in 10 minutes to bankroll the CLP election campaign. Territorians have a right to know who donated and on what conditions. How did the Chief Minister raise $1.5m in 10 minutes?
Only a full and independent judicial inquiry can restore confidence in our public officials and political system. Only the adoption of a Territory version of an independent commission against corruption and the creation of an integrity commissioner can clear the stain those opposite have left on confidence in government. Can it be any wonder that Territorians’ opinion of us right now can be so low when you get actions like that from those opposite? They ruled out an inquiry into political donations, and the Chief Minister said on one hand, ‘A smart politician does not handle the cash’, then on the other, ‘I have raised $1.5m in 10 minutes’.
There can be no debate about what we need – a full and independent judicial inquiry to restore confidence in our public officials and political system. We absolutely need it. We were to have it but the CLP cancelled it. We need a full and independent judicial inquiry to restore confidence in our public officials, our elected officials and our political system. We need to adopt a Territory version of an independent commission against corruption. We need to clear the stain those opposite have left on confidence in government.
Sometimes the best disinfectant is sunlight; we need to rip open the curtains and let the light in. Only an election and change of government will see this happen. At the heart of this debate are two competing visions of the role of government. The brazenness of the CLP’s values could not be more explicit over the last few years. At its essence, the CLP sees government as a preferment machine, the core purpose of which is to look after themselves and their mates. It is a silver-circle approach to politics.
Politicians must be, and seen to be, above reproach. Instead, the CLP defies transparency and inhabits a Territory where it appears the lucky few are showered plum jobs, given lucrative gifts of public resources and open allegations about donations and the inside running of valuable and sensitive information are made but remain uninvestigated.
While the CLP and its chosen ones live it up at our expense, the rest of us are told to tighten our belts. We pay more for our power and water and for our housing. All the while, the CLP makes more and more cuts, slashing the health, education and community safety resources we rely on to build a better future. It is not about balancing the books, it is about an ideological zest for smaller government, one in which the less well-off can fend for themselves, and the silver circle live large and well.
This is not the view those on this side of the Assembly take. Government is about ensuring we have the opportunity to build a better future for ourselves, our family and the whole community. As I have said several times, we believe the central role of government is to ensure all Territorians, no matter where they live, where they come from or who they are, have the opportunity to live meaningful and productive lives.
This CLP government has breached the faith of Territorians on the most fundamental level. We need a government that can restore and rebuild trust within the community. We need a government that will be honest and put Territorians first. It is not complicated, it is very simple. Territorians want us to do our jobs and put them first, which is why they voted us in and we are here.
We need a government that understands and respects the views of the community. It is clear this government has failed to listen to Territorians on a number of issues. The government is not honest with Territorians when talking to them. This government has lost the trust and faith of the community and is operating in a very serious trust deficit with the community.
Madam Speaker, we do not have confidence in this government. This view has been put very strongly to us by people from large swathes of the community. That is why I urge members to do the right thing and support this motion.
Mrs LAMBLEY (Araluen): Madam Speaker, I will talk on this no confidence motion in the Giles government, brought on by the Leader of the Opposition.
To be honest, I prefer to remain silent on the backbench and not contribute to this debate, but being silent is not why I became a member of parliament or have worked so hard over the last four-and–a-half years. Saying and doing nothing is not what I am about, but it is a whole lot easier in the short term – as I am about to find out.
The reason I came into politics four-and-a-half years ago is because I love my town of Alice Springs. I refer to Alice Springs as the centre of the universe, and it is. I love everything about Alice Springs – the people, landscape, opportunities, diversity and lifestyle. I am here, first and foremost, for the people of the Alice Springs and my electorate of Araluen. As a minister I served the whole of the Northern Territory, but as a backbencher my interest is focused well and truly on my town of Alice Springs. I have nothing else to do now other than look after my town and my electorate and ensure we get the best deal from the government.
With regard to this vote of no confidence in the government, I know Territorians want to see this instability within government resolved, one way or another. They either want the leadership instability within government resolved, or go to the polls. Territorians do not want our government to continue as a source of jokes and ridicule across the country. They do not want to hear politicians talking about themselves, they want to hear what we are doing to progress the Northern Territory for them.
The opposition has presented this motion. This is an important motion, because despite what we would like to present to the public we all know the political instability within our government remains unresolved. However, it is important to also state that the political instability within the opposition ranks is equally as volatile, providing no alternative for Territorians. Delia Lawrie, the Leader of the Opposition, is just as unpopular with her colleagues as our leader, Adam Giles, is with his. There is no difference whatsoever.
At the outset, I state very clearly I will always have confidence in, and be philosophically aligned with, the Country Liberal Party and conservative politics. I inherently align with Country Liberal Party values, philosophies and policies, and I will always be faithful to the many amazing people who have been, and continue to be, a part of this truly great party – the Country Liberal Party.
However, I do not have faith in the leadership of Adam Giles. I do not have faith in Adam Giles. Adam Giles was voted out of the position of Chief Minister on 2 February 2015 – just 22 days ago. Nine members of his team decided they no longer had faith in his leadership. Nine out of 14 CLP parliamentary wing members voted to have him removed from the position of Chief Minister. Just 22 days ago, Adam Giles lost the support of a majority of his colleagues and he was voted out. His colleagues generally felt he had lost touch with average Territorians, he was arrogant and his general dishonesty was eroding any respect we had for him.
International convention is such that once a government leader has lost the majority support of his or her colleagues they resign. We were advised it is unprecedented in Australian political history that a leader not resign under these circumstances. Adam Giles did not resign. Instead, he threatened that he would prefer to bring down our government and take us to an early election, rather than resign and make way for Willem Westra van Holthe to become the new Chief Minister of the Northern Territory.
His supporters also threatened to bring on an early election. Adam Giles told the Alice Springs CLP Branch meeting on Wednesday 4 February, that Kezia Purick, Bess Price and David Tollner would all prefer to have an early election than accept Willem Westra van Holthe as the new Chief Minister.
Adam Giles did not do the honourable thing and resign, as have all other leaders of government in the history of Australian politics. He refused. Rather than do the honourable thing, he instead offered the alternative of an early election. In hindsight maybe that is what we should have done. Perhaps we should have agreed with Adam Giles, Bess Price, Kezia Purick and David Tollner and called an early election. I suspect in hindsight they were right. We would not be in this standoff we now find ourselves – a majority of wing members not supporting their leader. Rather than accept an outcome unsatisfactory to all members of the parliamentary wing, we should have agreed to go to the polls. However, the nine parliamentary wing members who did not support Adam Giles were of the view that this was not a desirable thing to do at that point in time. They believed it was not desirable to bring the government down by going to an early election we would most likely not win.
Adam Giles is not the legitimate leader of this government. No vote has been taken in the parliamentary wing since 2 February 2015. Willem Westra van Holthe remains the anointed leader based on that vote on 2 February.
The truth is on 3 February Adam Giles threatened his way into remaining leader in the subsequent parliamentary wing meeting. He threatened to bring the government down and take us to an early election just 22 days ago rather than concede he lost support of nine of the 14 members of the parliamentary wing.
I have no faith in a government led by Adam Giles. I have stated publicly that I believe Adam Giles has no integrity. I stand by that statement. That alone is enough to mean he should not hold a position of community leadership.
I believe a political party should be bigger than one person and as such I have not sought to depart from the Country Liberal Party. The Country Liberal Party is bigger than just Adam Giles, it is about all of us – the thousands of supporters throughout the Northern Territory. I believe in the Country Liberal Party and its great tradition. I do not believe in Adam Giles or his leadership.
This period in history is a chapter I wish I was never a part of and was never written. The Country Liberal Party has been, and is, capable of so much more. We came to government just two-and-a-half years ago with great expectations and the support of a clear majority of Territorians. We have disappointed ourselves and our supporters despite the fact we have achieved so much, as the member for Port Darwin outlined earlier.
We are capable of so much more and the community expects it. The Territory has changed and is no longer a frontier, it is a maturing community of wonderful diversity, but with so many challenges still not fulfilled.
Certain members of this government, and even the federal parliament, do not seem to understand the community expects more from its leaders than getting drunk at topless bars or telling bare-faced lies.
In addition to having no faith in the Chief Minister, I have no faith in the Treasurer, nor do I believe he is an appropriate person to be a leader in our community. With this in mind it would be disingenuous and dishonest of me to provide support to a proposition that leaves these people in leadership positions.
As such, I am advising I will not be siding with the opposition or the government on this motion, I will be abstaining. I will not be a hypocrite, a party to this bad behaviour or complicit in this business.
Is this a case of sour grapes? No! Being dumped from Cabinet came as an enormous relief. No more second guessing the Chief Minister, wondering what we have not been told and what is truthfully going on. If I was not dumped, it was just a matter of time before I walked. Integrity and honesty is everything to me.
I miss my ministerial duties. The greatest pleasure I had in the four-and-a-half years of being a member of parliament was being Minister for Health, Minister for Education, Minister for Disability Services and, surprisingly, Minister for Correctional Services. That took a while to get my head around, but I loved it in the few weeks I held the position.
My intent is not to tear down our government but to be a voice of truth and reason. The CLP government, under the leadership of Adam Giles, has made some serious mistakes. Adam Giles has made serious errors and demonstrated a serious lack of honesty and integrity in executing his role. If we do not go to the polls we have a huge amount of work to do to regain the confidence of Territorians.
At this point I apologise to the Alice Springs branch of the Country Liberal Party which I addressed on Saturday morning. I reassured them I would not go public again and make any controversial statements about the Chief Minister. At that time I did not think I would, but things progress quickly in politics and today I find myself in a position where I have to be true to my own integrity.
A starting point for Adam Giles is to apologise for the terrible accusations and allegations he made in the Alice Springs Country Liberal Party Branch meeting on 4 February 2015. He defamed and damaged the reputations of me and many other colleagues. He breached the confidentiality of the parliamentary wing. He needs to apologise without reservation to the Northern Territory Police Force. He needs to apologise to his colleagues for casting aspersions on our credibility and conduct.
I believe Adam Giles needs to step down from his position and give us all an opportunity to rebuild before we lose everything. Look at what happened in Queensland just a few weeks ago.
In closing, I put on the record two pieces of information that people may not be aware of which have disturbed me more than anything over the last 22 days. In addition to sacking me from Cabinet, Adam Giles sacked my adviser, a gay gentleman with a wealth of experience as a ministerial adviser. To top it off he also sacked a disabled woman I specifically employed when I was the Minister for Disability Services. I employed this wonderful young woman as part of my personal campaign to break down the barriers that people with disabilities face when they are looking for employment and because of her skills. Her disability was no issue really, but she was and identified as disabled, and we had just signed her to a 12-month contract. Adam Giles sacked this woman and that I find extremely disturbing and upsetting. The sacking of those two staff members has appalled me the most.
Madam Speaker, in concluding my comments on the record, I will be abstaining from voting on this motion.
Mr WOOD (Nelson): Madam Speaker, I thank the member for Araluen for one of the most honest speeches I have heard in this parliament. I realise how difficult it must be to be a true loyal CLP supporter and make that speech. Well done.
I will not be supporting or opposing this motion because it should be a motion of no confidence in all of us. We are the laughing stock of the nation. We are the most disunited bunch of amateurs that have ever ruled the Territory. We have set back statehood, maybe forever. Everything we do seems to be a mixture of who will win the next election at what cost. Should our party reign supreme? Look at me, look at me. Have we forgotten who elected us? It was not the party, it was the people.
We now have a government seen by many as a joke. The joke question I was asked on the weekend was, ‘Who will be the next Chief Minister?’ The government can only blame itself. It started with the way it got rid of Terry Mills – while he was overseas and behind his back. Then it scrapped the BDR without even giving it a fair go. It gave a water licence to a political friend without a drop of science or proof of commitment to use the water.
Three CLP members walked out and became Independents and in the process accused the government of insulting them and not doing enough for the electorates in the bush. They then joined the PUP and not long after left that party. The government was then hanging on by its teeth.
The government still continues, but gets more arrogant and less consultative. The government set up the Planning Commission without a planner included. The government passed legislation that cancelled the conflict of interest within the Planning Commission. It seems CLP affiliates are appointed to various boards and commissions. As I said before, this reminds me of the cadres of various communist regimes – infiltration of the party within the system.
Without any public consultation or debate, the government then sold off two government assets, the Government Printing Office and the Darwin Bus Service. It did that just after parliament wound up just before Christmas. They think Territorians are fools.
The government announced a Palmerston North suburb with no discussion, no consultation and before the Darwin regional plan was completed. When I asked for the plans I was not allowed to have them – total arrogance.
The government kicked the badminton club out of Sports House, where they had been for years, without caring what happened to them. Badminton fought back with the biggest petition ever presented to this parliament. Those people fought against an arrogant government because they did not like to be treated with disrespect.
During estimates, government announced it was looking at doubling the number of pokies at pubs and clubs with no consultation – oh, except with the pubs which gave it $150 000 at the last election.
The Treasurer was then sacked for homophobic statements, which he later said he did not say. But the Chief Minister sacked him anyway and reinstated him a few months later.
The Planning Commissioner released a discussion paper on the Darwin Regional Land Use Plan before Christmas in 2011, even though over 1000 people signed a petition against it and there were many other submissions. Nothing changed. It looks like the NT Planning Commission made up its mind: rural Territorians are irrelevant – developers rule.
Then there was the whiff of another government asset, TIO, being sold off. ‘We have not made up our mind’, but who believes that? Once again, the Chief Minister thinks Territorians are silly. When it was too late and the people started to make a noise we found out the government had sold it. They pretended to consult by telling people through the media what a wonderful idea it was to sell TIO.
The Chief Minister could not even face a meeting at Charles Darwin University to tell people why he was selling TIO. He said that the meeting was set up by the Labor Party and the unions, when it was organised by two panel beaters and me.
While that was going on, the political donations issue popped up its ugly head when it blew up big time in New South Wales. Foundation 51, Peter Maley and the Blain by-election were all in the mix, and that was a mess. The Chief Minister said Foundation 51 had nothing to do with the government, as if the government had nothing to do with the CLP. Once again, the Chief Minister thinks Territorians are fools. They are not. We found out through the Northern Territory Electoral Commission Foundation 51 is a front for political donations with lots of big developers’ names on the list.
Surely, that deserves an inquiry. Even though the CLP did not want one, it got one because members were asleep at the wheel. The Chief Minister promised he would still have an inquiry, as quoted in the NT News two days before the Casuarina by-election, but – surprise, surprise – straight after the election he broke that promise and killed off the inquiry, with half an inquiry. Territorians are not fools.
Did I hear the port might be up for sale? It must be a rumour. What about the Tiwi land deal? Anyone who questioned where the $1m from the Land Development Corporation went, and what it was for, was accused of not supporting Tiwi Islanders’ attempts to break the cycle of welfare dependency. Once again, that is treating Territorians like fools. The public is entitled to know where money is being spent. It has nothing to do with race, it is to do with accountability and transparency. When the Chief Minister makes those statements, you know he must be hiding something.
Somehow, Francis Xavier was brought back to the fold after a minister flew to the Tiwi Islands and convinced him to return – to give the government more than a one-vote breathing space in parliament. Government said there were no favours promised. Territorians are not fools. With the deal thrown in over fishing rights without discussing the issue with the Pirlangimpi mob, you wonder about the relationship between the Tiwi Land Council and the CLP.
Back to the pokies. Before Christmas, when parliament had gone home, the government took the cap off pokies and doubled the amount for the pubs, with 10 more for the clubs. Was there any discussion? Yes, with the AHA. Was there any discussion with the parliament, the NGOs or the people? None!
Government released the Darwin Regional Land Use Plan just before Christmas 2014. What a surprise! There were no changes except for the Elizabeth River Dam, which was changed because of the Blain by-election. There were no public meetings, no listening and vested interests got what they wanted. Planning is now a joke.
The Chief Minister shed his Police portfolio as part of the umpteenth Cabinet reshuffle, then the Police Commissioner was sacked for behaviour which is not yet clearly understood. Then the Chief Minister accused senior police and politicians of a conspiracy theory, but apologised after Vince Kelly let fly. This was all while waiting for a judicial inquiry promise – and still waiting.
In the meantime, just like the 3 am casino deal by Paul Everingham, there was a 1 am leadership takeover attempt – ending in a mess – with a statement that will make you blush today when the vote is taken, as the veneer of unity is papered over so finely you can see through it.
I might regret those words, after listening to the member for Araluen. Her words of integrity and honesty are still ringing in my ears.
The ghost of Terry Mills returned as he was stabbed again for putting his face on Facebook with a cheesy grin. The Chief Minister said he knew nothing about his sacking as he is not the Minister for Business now. Territorians will not believe that. No one mentioned it through the corridors of the fifth floor? No one said, ‘We had better tell the Chief Minister before we sack Mr Mills’? Remember the Chief Minister was the Minister for Asian Engagement.
The port issue has come up again. The Chief Minister wants to lease it but not sell it. Fair go! But it does not make any difference, it will not be run by the people. The government hopes to make money out of it. The Chief Minister set up the committee to look at port leasing with the terms of reference giving the impression that the deal has already been done. Government made the same mistake of not listening, not learning and not including the public in the discussion of whether we should sell one of the last government assets. This is a case of now having a window dressing committee so the government can say, ‘We consulted’. Territorians want to be part of the discussions, but government just keeps on leaving them out.
Yes, the government has done some good things, but it drowns under the pile of debris left by cyclone Giles. As I said before, the government is arrogant and leaves the people behind. It does not give people the opportunity to have a real conversation about what is going on. The Darwin regional plan is a classic example of a government which, in reality, pretended to consult so it could get the outcome it wanted for its friends. If you do not believe me, you need to talk to the independent company that looked at the consultation process.
For a few fleeting moments, I thought during the recent chaos that things might change when the nearly Chief Minister said the following:
- Under my leadership, this government will be more consultative with Territorians and engage with them before we make important and crucial decisions on the future of the Territory.
Unfortunately, that Chief Minister only lasted until mid-morning.
When I watch the vote I will ponder on everything the Treasurer said about his colleagues:
- I’ve got a bunch of colleagues sitting behind me throwing knives in my back.
I just can’t be part of a party that doesn’t accept me and the work that I’m doing.
what the Speaker said about the Treasurer:
- ‘I have not and will not accept what Tollner has said and done. He is a disgrace.’
what the Deputy Chief Minister said about the way the government was being run:
- … discontent with the direction of government has been around some time ...
what the member for Araluen said about the Chief Minister after she was sacked:
- ‘He lacks honesty, he lacks respect, and he lacks integrity, and for those reasons I feel quite relieved to be stood down from cabinet today.’
and the Chief Minister said on 3 February:
‘I don’t believe that Willem Westra van Holthe has the capacity, capability, or tenacity or the professionalism to be Chief Minister ... I think today he has made quite a tactical error. If you do want to be Chief Minister, surely you get your numbers right and get Government right’.
…
… all I can do is apologise. It is a disgraceful thing that has occurred. It’s immature politics.
…
There is no doubt the Country Liberals have been divided for many, many, many years on a range of different areas, policy and structural and personalities ... What we have seen as a result of last night is a party completely disintegrate in terms of different factions, warring factions ...
The Attorney-General said on radio, I think yesterday, that the motion today would probably fail because of simple arithmetic. When the vote is taken, will it be the case of some CLP members wanting to support this motion but cannot bring themselves to vote with the opposition? Of course, as the member for Araluen said, they could always abstain.
The Attorney-General has also said we are here for the true welfare of the people of the Northern Territory. I say that is mythical, as you can see from what has happened over the last two-and-a-half years. The government is for the true welfare of the CLP, its political donors and some big CLP egos. The welfare of Territorians has been the last thing on the minds of members of this CLP government.
Yes, I know the Attorney-General has done some great work in his portfolios, and I am not trying to denigrate that. However, the people do not see that. They see what is happening elsewhere in the government, and it is pretty poor.
Why, with this horrible record of government, will I not support this motion against the government? I will abstain, simply because if I supported the motion I would, by default, support the Labor opposition. Presently, I do not think it is doing so well either, not because it has some internal issues to sort out but because it is not, at the moment, showing itself to be an alternative government. I do not say that as a personal opinion, but from the feedback I heard in the community when I asked. It is a simple fact: people do not like either mob at the moment.
The main reason I will not support this motion is because we are all guilty of causing this sad state of affairs. The public has no confidence in us. The word ‘politician’ holds no respect nor is it an occupation anyone would strive to take up because it is held in contempt by the community. Listen to not just what is said in the papers, but by ordinary folk who have lived in the Territory for years. Some of them are strident CLP supporters. They give you a shake of the head or a roll of the eyes and that is all you need to see what they are thinking.
This motion should probably be directed at the whole of parliament to pass a motion of no confidence in ourselves. Perhaps we should sack ourselves and start again. If we did, people who put their name up for election would need to go through a scrutiny process as highlighted in a letter I read in the Australian Financial Review on 12 February which said:
- In the developed world, which amazingly includes Australia, most sophisticated organisations hire their personnel with the appropriate education, social and intelligence skills.
If they are a top-of-the-tree performer then they usually have an ongoing further education system, to bring lesser staff up to the required performance level. This applies to most organisations, business, sport, medicine, education, military, police, social groups, science, etc. The one huge organisation missing from this system is the government. Our system of selecting politicians is that a large group of untrained citizens select people from a random list of options in their area. No thought or measurement of these candidates’ ability is taken into account, there is no rsum supplied for perusal, no record of the candidate’s previous experience, no review of their social interaction ability.
So in comparison to lesser organisations, such as business or sporting clubs, the government does no analysis of performance standards of new pollies. Therefore we get a group of people with education ranging from graduate to high school dropout with no training in the skills required for a politician. The skills I believe should be learned by our pollies would be: public speaking, crisis management, anger management, accountancy for non accountants, forward planning, networking, social interaction, teamwork, business systems, communication, empathy and humility. These skills are available from many training businesses.
Roger Wolfe, Balwyn, Vic
If we followed those lines it would give us a good chance to have quality people in this parliament. Perhaps – I have spoken on this before – we could scrap the party system so everyone had to stand as Independents. This would mean we would have 25 Independents in parliament and, therefore, no need to have the Westminster system which needs parties and does not work properly. Because of the small numbers we have in our present parliament, when you have a party as we have today with only 13 or 14 members, the choice of who should be a minister is quite limited. But, with 25 Independents there is much larger choice and a better chance of getting the right person for the job.
With the Chief Minister and ministers worked out and Independents ready to go, we could get down to work on common issues that need solutions without the barriers and limitations caused by political party intolerance.
‘I cannot work with socialists’, I hear. I say, ‘Get real’. The Territory has so many issues where we could all work together for the true welfare of the people of the NT. All members could be actively involved in solutions and not spend their time on character assassinations, rumourmongering, gossip, finger pointing and general crap and spin that permeates this place – a great example for others! We might even consult with the people.
As it is not likely the government will make such a radical move, the other choice is to pull up our socks, show leadership on all sides, ask searching questions, give truthful answers and in return answer questions, cooperate where possible and, perhaps in the words of the present Deputy Chief Minister, be more consultative with Territorians and engage with them before we make important and crucial decisions for the future of the Northern Territory.
If we cannot do this perhaps we should have a second Commonwealth intervention. Clear the decks, start again and bring in a new form of government as highlighted, and perhaps call it a government of national unity. It has been done in other places. Radical yes, but anything would be better than the mess we have at the moment.
Regardless of all those issues, the previous Labor government – when I held the balance of power – supported a four-year term which is still 18 months away. All governments will have their ups and downs, and this government is as down as you can get. I have always supported the four-year term. If there is to be an election the government can call it if it wants.
The member for Araluen said she would abstain. If the nine members who do not support Adam Giles abstained – even if I abstained – it would be an interesting vote. They would then take responsibility for their own mess. It is not my responsibility to fix the mess or pick who should lead the CLP. I might have my personal opinion but it is not my responsibility. The responsibility rests with the government. If the Chief Minister thinks something should happen, then he has the power and numbers on the floor today to allow an election to occur.
I am not the one responsible for bringing this government down; the government should be responsible. It should say, ‘We are not fit to govern this Territory’. If that is what they believe because they cannot get unity amongst themselves, then they have the power to have an election. Let me see what you do today in the vote.
I also quote the same as the Leader of the Opposition – the prayer of intercession that Bishop Greg Anderson read on the opening of this parliament where he said:
- Loving God, you have made all people in your image and you care for the poor and distressed. Make us a just society where the rights of all are acknowledged and upheld, where those who are oppressed are made free and where corruption has no place. Give government, companies, the media and social institutions the desire to act for the good of all rather than for the advantage of a few and give us the blessings of peace and good order for your glory, Amen.
Madam Speaker, are those words simply decoration?
Mr VOWLES (Johnston): Madam Speaker, this is the most serious matter that can come before this Assembly. It is not a move the opposition has taken lightly.
The events of the last few weeks have confirmed, in the minds of many Territorians I spoke to, that this CLP government and Chief Minister are simply unfit to govern. They have destroyed the bond of trust and respect that must exist between Territorians and our government if we are to work together to build a better future for all Territorians.
Never in the history of the Territory have we seen government members so focused on themselves and their childish bickering. Never in the history of the Territory have we seen the concerns of Territorians so arrogantly and explicitly betrayed and dismissed.
We heard the member for Araluen say in her contribution she has no confidence in a man who has no integrity to run the Northern Territory and does not support a man who, in her words, does not have the majority of confidence or support in the party wing.
This is a Chief Minister who has arrogantly ruled the Northern Territory after he knifed Terry Mills, not once, but twice, while he was overseas. This is a Chief Minister who was not elected by Territorians to govern. This is a Chief Minister who has proven over the last 22 days that he wants leadership at all costs, and if he does not have it he will bring the House down. He proved and confirmed to many Territorians, within his own party wing and outside, that he is all about himself and not about the Territory. He has proven that over the last 22 days. That is a complete disgrace.
We accepted the loss of government in 2012. Since that day – even that evening – we have worked tirelessly and diligently, and have been disciplined to be an alternative government for Territorians. We have worked tirelessly, and continue to work tirelessly, to be the voice of Territorians. We worked tirelessly to be the alternative government. I take the member for Nelson’s comments. We are listening, we are working and we are ready to govern for Territorians. We will listen and we will be the voice of Territorians. That is what they are screaming for.
Every Sunday at the Rapid Creek Markets in my electorate, my doors are open. A number of people – both Labor and CLP, and people who are just genuinely interested in politics – have come to me over the last 22 days, three months, even the last two years, and said, ‘What a bloody disgrace you all are, because you are not listening’. I say to them, ‘I do not care what your political affiliation is, let us have a discussion about this’. I tell them what I and Labor are doing to be elected in 2016. We want to listen and have those conversations.
One thing is very clear: this government, led by an incompetent, disgraceful, arrogant person who lacks integrity and leadership, does not know what that means. He does not know what it means to stand up for Territorians and be a leader of a political party which is supposed to represent all Territorians. He is playing his own little games within his own party. There are some things over the years which have had bipartisan support, but that is out the door under this leadership.
As we heard from the member for Araluen, he is not the leader his party wants. Five never beats nine. What we heard from the member for Araluen in her contribution – I thank her, it was very brave – reminds me, and should remind everybody in parliament, what we are here for. We are supposed to represent our people, our party and our policy. She portrayed today that she has a deep respect for her political party – different to mine. She also showed integrity and what it means to be a member of parliament. You are supposed to represent between 4500 to 5000 people in your electorate.
As a minister, she stood proud of her decisions regardless of whether we thought them right or wrong. She stood proud of those decisions, because she was happy and proud to represent the decisions Cabinet was making. We have since heard it is being led by somebody who does not have the confidence.
After the contribution by the member for Araluen, I urge this current Chief Minister – who is not the one his own party wing wants – to stand down immediately. If he does not – I hope he is writing his resignation letter or at least trying to sort out legislation for the member for Port Darwin – how do we bring an election on regardless of the vote?
We are here to represent Territorians, not ourselves or our own political ambitions and leadership. For many months we have heard chatter about the Chief Minister living in an ivory tower on The Esplanade in a $1m apartment, swanning around everywhere in private jets.
I am happy if I am wrong, but I am sure I heard an interview where the Chief Minister said, ‘It was unanimously voted on in the party wing that I would be Chief Minister’. We heard from the member for Araluen that is not true. We have a Chief Minister who is a pathological liar about anything that might harm his leadership, not his aspirations. He has achieved that. Within seven or eight years of landing in the Territory, he has gone from the person involved in the intervention to Chief Minister.
We know a few things were leaked over the first part of this four-year term. We had a situation where we asked a question of a minister, and he would answer for thirty seconds before passing it to the Treasurer. Lo and behold, where did that information come from? We are not entirely sure, but the question went to the then Transport minister, Adam Giles, who spoke for thirty seconds. We could not believe that he passed it to the Treasurer.
At that moment I thought, ‘What am I doing in this Chamber? Is this what it is about?’ This minister was setting up the Treasurer of his own government. I thought, ‘We need to be careful of this bloke; he is all about himself’. He wanted nothing but the leadership, which he has. Many Territorians have come to me and said, ‘This bloke is a pathological liar’. He tells so many lies that, sooner or later, you do not know what the truth is. You cannot do that anywhere. It goes down to who you are as a person and what you stand for.
The member for Nelson said we, on this side of the Chamber, are not ready to govern. I disagree with that 100%, because we are ready to govern. We are ready to listen, and continue to listen, to Territorians. We have gone to the regions. The Leader of the Opposition has travelled throughout the Northern Territory over the last two-and-a-half years, but extensively over the last six months to remote communities. We have held community Cabinets in remote communities. We have visited people, we have listened. We have said, ‘We are here to listen. You gave us the message, we are here to listen.’ That is what we are doing: continuously listening.
If you do not learn from your mistakes, then what are you? You are arrogant, not listening, not governing for everybody and not carrying out your role as a parliamentarian. Our role is to represent everybody, regardless of who they vote for, who they support, who they are, where they live and what their background is. It should not matter.
We are here to do our job because we put our hand up to do this. We went through a stringent process to be candidates for our electorates. To be elected is the greatest honour, if you want to be a member of parliament. I was born in the old Darwin Hospital and bred in the Territory and I cringe and have had migraines because of how bad this Chief Minister is. People are telling me how bad he is. I asked, ‘Why am I taking on all of this government’s bad decisions and their stress?’
This bloke – I do not like the term ‘blow-in’ – does not know, understand or respect the Territory. I have said many times I believe you are a Territorian if you come here to live and work, and this is your home. I will embrace that, because that is what the Territory is built on, not people coming here for their own political aspirations to change the Territory with what they want to do. Do you know why I put my hand up to become a parliamentarian? Because I was sick of the Country Liberal government’s Chief Ministers making decisions then taking off down south, not to live with those decisions.
I was raised in Jingili which I now represent, and the rural area. There are people there who say to me every weekend, ‘I remember you when you were this small. Just remember, if you do something wrong I will come and clip you around the ear.’ That is what keeps you real.
The CLP government needs to make a decision today. As I said, I hope this non-elected party wing Chief Minister of the Northern Territory stands down immediately, because there is no coming back from that. He should stands down immediately or make the changes in here to bring on an election and let Territorians decide.
The former elected Chief Minister, Terry Mills, won government for the CLP because people in the bush trusted him to deliver CLP promises. Mr Mills has since said the bush appears to have been abandoned by your government after you took over the helm. Territorians in the bush have been taken for granted and this CLP government and Chief Minister have failed to deliver promises of better roads, housing and infrastructure. They are in breach of the many contracts they signed with Indigenous communities across the Northern Territory. Those communities are chomping at the bit to extract the conversation about this betrayal.
One of the Chief Minister’s first acts on taking over as the leader of this government was to scrap the Indigenous Affairs portfolio declaring:
- Indigenous issues will receive a greater focus by making all of the Government’s Ministers responsible for improving living conditions for Indigenous Australians.
Now we know the truth. Territorians have had an opportunity to judge his leadership, not on what he says, but on what he does. Progress in closing the gap has stalled and the Chief Minister has not delivered on the CLP election promises to improve education opportunities and outcomes in the bush. This is a disgrace. He has not even been able to deliver projects like the new Ngukurr health centre or the Maningrida Trade Training Centre funded by Labor three years ago.
After two years of chaotic government the CLP has comprehensively failed to deliver on its contracts with remote communities across the Northern Territory. It has failed to deliver 2000 new homes across the Territory, and we do not know how many will make it to the bush.
Debate suspended.
The Assembly suspended.
MOTION
Want of Confidence in Government
Want of Confidence in Government
Continued from earlier this day.
Mr VOWLES (Johnston): Madam Speaker, the CLP has failed to establish government business in retail centres at major towns like Borroloola. It has failed to support school boarding facilities in the gulf region. It has failed to upgrade roads in the gulf region to provide year-round access to Borroloola. It has failed to provide year-round access between the Daly River and Wadeye. It has failed to improve health and education services in Nhulunbuy.
The people of northeast Arnhem Land are still waiting for a fully-funded upgrade of the 30-year old accident and emergency department at Gove District Hospital. Instead, the priorities of this government, the Chief Minister and his right-hand man, the Treasurer, seem to lie in other policy areas, making it easier to increase the number of poker machines available in bush clubs and pubs, using police officers to guard bottle shops instead of the Banned Drinker Register and using a long-awaited medical facility purpose-built to support bush patients for an alcohol treatment and detention centre. To add insult to injury, this disgrace of a government is making life hard for bush patients requiring hospital support and ordinary mums and dads confronted with bed block and double-bunking of the government’s own making at Royal Darwin Hospital.
The Chief Minister maintains he has delivered the CLP election promise of $5200 for each dwelling in Territory homelands and outstations. We still hear of outstation service providers, but are yet to see any of these funds or access repairs and maintenance to these government-funded houses.
The Chief Minister recently told his Alice Springs CLP branch that the CLP, unlike Labor, had no Indigenous policy. Why can he not see what other Territorians can see: his leadership failure to fulfil promises to Territorians living in the bush?
Over 35% of our population are Indigenous and over 70% of that population live in our regional and remote townships as well as homelands across the Northern Territory. The most recent Closing the Gap report has been described as profoundly disappointing with progress stalling and often going backwards across nearly all indicators.
Building and improving Indigenous education outcomes was a core promise of former CLP elected Chief Minister Terry Mills, but under your watch the review of Indigenous education seems to be put in the too-hard basket. Work on this has stalled and our bush schools are struggling to maintain progress after heavy budget and staff cuts. After a long inquiry into Indigenous education, we still do not know the government’s plans and how they will be funded.
We have had six ministers for Housing and remote housing remains in disarray. Progress on remote housing rebuilds and investment in new housing has slowed. In many communities essential housing maintenance which directly affects health and the safety of residents has gone backwards, let alone the widening chasm of incarceration of Indigenous Territorians under the Country Liberals government. Closing the Gap is critical for the future wellbeing and prosperity of all Territorians.
The Chief Minister and the CLP government have failed to build on the momentum created under the former Labor government, both here and in Canberra. The Chief Minister sat back while the Australian government – his mates in Canberra – ripped $500m from Indigenous services across Australia. He said that after a late budget night chat with the Commonwealth minister he was not concerned about the impact of those cuts in the Northern Territory.
He stood by while the federal government ripped over $11m from primary healthcare in the Northern Territory, including funding for important programs like tackling Indigenous smoking and activities linked to alcohol and other drugs. Sadly, chaos, confusion and instability are not just a hallmark of the Country Liberals government under our current Chief Minister, they are also becoming the hallmark of the CLP’s approach to Indigenous affairs and its policies.
The CLP won government on the back of a promise to address Indigenous disadvantage and improve conditions for Indigenous Territorians, especially those living in the bush. The people in the bush put their trust in former CLP Chief Minister, Terry Mills, and his contracts with the bush. They put their faith in the Country Liberals government. On knifing Terry Mills the first time, the Chief Minister said he would govern for all Territorians and it was not necessary to have a minister responsible for Indigenous affairs. At the same time, he told Territorians he was doing a fantastic job in the bush. This exemplifies how out of touch this Chief Minister is.
The member for Stuart, as Minister for Local Government and Community Services, failed in her work to support the coordination of government services. This is a disgrace. She failed to deliver contracts in the bush and something needs to be done.
Madam Speaker, Territorians and I urge members on the other side of the House to support this motion. You were elected to this parliament to do the right thing by Territorians and let their voices be heard.
Ms LEE (Arnhem): Madam Speaker, I support the motion of no confidence in the member for Braitling, Adam Giles. A persistent leaker of information to undermine your leaders, you misinformed people about your grandmother being born under a tree and you publicly stated that your party has fewer than 500 members, which should disqualify it in accordance with the NTEC guidelines.
My father was born under a tree, the same as my grandmother and grandfather. I am sure the member for Namatjira had the same experience. I do not know about other members across the Chamber but I know my parents were born under a tree – that is definite.
From the first day I met this man, my instincts told me he was not trustworthy. I was introduced to the Country Liberal Party. I hoped at that time I had made a good decision to join and support the Country Liberals. I wanted to believe the members truly had the best interest of Territorians, and the people of Arnhem especially, at heart.
At that time I was new to the game of politics – even though I had grown up with politics – and I trusted to be guided and supported. It seems I was nave to believe in this group. Lo and behold, before anyone knew it, within a few months of being in government we had a change of Chief Minister and leader of the party with the member for Braitling appointing himself the new Chief Minister over the elected and true Chief Minister, Terry Mills. He did so with complete disregard for the political process and democracy.
As a new unelected self-appointed little leader, Adam Giles, the member for Braitling, assumed to control everything and everyone in his party, from his local branch to the political wing, through to the parliamentary wing. His strategy quickly became obvious, which was to divide and conquer, putting a wedge between people. He is very devious, we know that. He is pretty good at that game. He changes his portfolios at a whim, rewarding those who are yes men and yes women and pushing away those who do not agree with him, even publicly abusing them.
I can only describe his leadership as toxic. His toxic-leadership approach harmed the people who had relied on him to manage important affairs of the Territory and the party. I congratulate the member for Araluen for her courage to say in parliament that Adam Giles should never have been Chief Minister. It is true; I agree with that. He does not have the stomach, the integrity, the gut, the will or the heart to do the job. He is a little blow-in. He has no understanding of the Northern Territory and the people, our heritage, our fight and where we want to go in the Northern Territory. He has no idea.
His favourite method of over-control was to poison enthusiasm, creativity and innovative expression. I believe the little member for Braitling defines leadership as being in control of everyone and everything. He created a toxic environment where people were rewarded for agreeing with him – especially the member for Stuart – and punished for daring to think differently or disagree. He rewarded yes people and promoted them to leadership roles while stabbing his own in the back. People who were critical thinkers questioning issues were shut out from decision-making responsibilities. His leadership style caused a high turnover rate of ministerial portfolios, a decline in productivity, less innovation and internal conflicts.
So far, we have had three Chief Ministers. I have lost count of how many Deputy Chief Ministers, Treasurers, Education ministers, Police ministers, Housing ministers. We all know the list goes on and on. This is not good for the Territory, for the confidence of business or for the people, especially Indigenous people who are already suffering.
The bullying, abuse and arrogance has been a relentless pattern in his endeavour to secure power and control. His actions as a leader, by tightly controlling everything, effectively prevented his party from thinking outside his way. He is not looking for team mates, he just wants people to do as he says without question. Just do as he says or you are out.
His lack of communication, and by isolating people and strictly controlling all information, has made his party less effective. No wonder nine of his colleagues and party members are frustrated and no one trusts this self-appointed little leader. With no trust, how will you all perform and be proactive?
If you live by the sword then you have to be ready to die by the sword. You threw Terry Mills out when he was not even seven months into his term. He spent 11 years fighting the ALP as opposition. He worked very hard when there were only four CLP members of parliament at one stage. Then you came along from the Blue Mountains with your little shovel and decided you wanted to be the top dog of the Northern Territory. You did not even have the guts to wait for Terry to return from overseas.
It is always about your ego. Your desperate need to overcome everything has destroyed, beyond salvage, everything, and you are left with control over nothing.
For good measure you decided to sack Terry Mills again only a few days ago while he was working overseas. What goes through your mind, I wonder, and what kind of a person would do that to another person?
You have been undermining your leaders for a very long time. I saw that firsthand when I was in the CLP. I could no longer be a part of the CLP and joined the member for Namatjira, Alison Anderson, because I saw clearly that you are an ineffective leader and do not have the support of your colleagues, nor do you have the best interests of the people of the Northern Territory at heart – just another little show pony. This has always been about you and only you.
Your leadership has damaged the reputation of the Northern Territory and the people within this parliament who represent Territorians. Your loyal branch members, no doubt, live in hope that the situation will change, but sadly for the Territory, as long as you remain in this position nothing will change for the better. I hope they know that too.
Territorians deserve and demand better of us in this parliament, as the member for Nelson stated. They were promised change with real leadership – so says your CLP slogan. Where is that real leadership from your slogan during the election?
Your party is hollow to the core as, over time, factions and infighting have taken their toll causing it to rot in the centre. On the outside things look normal, but there are serious problems under the surface.
We have, as a result, a depressed economy, unfair demands and a workforce expected to keep a house of cards working, to no avail. People of the bush are suffering. My people are hurting and suffering, and this little self-appointed Chief Minister does not even care. To expect you to change and transform for the better, after a lifetime of the same habits, would be a big ask, and I do not think it is possible.
At a time when the community is uniting against violence against women, bullying in the workplace is equally as unlawful and disgusting. I have personal knowledge of this violence after my partner cheated on me with my niece. You seem quite at home attacking female members of the parliament. You do not have any issues calling out abuse and insults to me and my colleague, the member for Namatjira, across the Chamber while you hold a cannon to your party’s head if they dare challenge you. It seems you have elevated yourself now to hurling abuse at your female colleagues with no shred of evidence, at any opportunity you are given.
The member for Araluen can be forgiven for stating publicly that you lack honesty, respect and integrity. You said you can ‘never work with that woman again’. If we take from the transcript of recording made at your local branch recently, you do not deny making the statement because you believe she hurt you. The Territory is at stake here and if you are unable to put your differences aside how will you effectively run this government?
Your reappointed Treasurer once publicly said, ‘Territory politics is immature’. He felt sad for new members of the CLP parliamentary wing. ‘They have come into what can be perceived as a nest of vipers’, he said. This must make you the king of vipers.
You have been incredibly irresponsible, making rash public statements without any shred of evidence about the NT Police. You have undermined the very institution Territorians rely on with confidence for safety and protection especially. Your public announcement has angered both NT Police and the Police Association – what a disgrace! – who rightly feel you are using the force as a political football. Everybody can see that. You make serious allegations about senior police officers without any evidence. To date, you have not produced a shred of evidence to support your outrageous childish outburst when amongst what you thought were your loyal branch members. You bring shame to the portfolio of Police minister. You have abused your position, and in order to defend your personal feelings you were prepared to accuse the police without any evidence to back you up.
You declared yourself when things got tough all because of petty rumours – you claim – when you still had no evidence. Do you think an apology will fix it? The damage is done and I hope you are satisfied with yourself. You are a disgrace!
This has been all about you. ‘Me, me, me’, says the self-appointed little Chief Minister. That is all I read into the transcript of the recording of your branch meeting. You take no responsibility whatsoever. You blame everyone else and everyone else is at fault. ‘What about me?’, you cried. Admit it; you are just not capable of acknowledging others – your way or the highway.
Your NT Police minister, Peter Chandler, sided with the police over your criticism. You have caused a great deal of hardship and the CLP has been beset by your damaging infighting involving private and public spats. We move from one negative headline to another about your leadership. It was predicted a tough year for the CLP and the little boy himself, Adam Giles, as the party dogged by a rift:
- NT Chief Minister Adam Giles will be hoping the election of a new deputy – the fourth in just over two years – ends the internal divisions that have threatened the … (CLP) rule in the Northern Territory.
Another article said:
- The CLP Government appeared to still be very much in turmoil yesterday as failed deputy chief minister John Elferink lashed out at the NT News and stormed out of a press conference over allegations he conspired with police to roll Chief Minister Adam Giles.
You have been caught out. Your bluff has been called. This parliament will not allow you to continue to run down this Territory – not even the police force. If you need to go to an election, then so be it. A clean-out can be pretty healthy. We simply cannot continue this way, especially not under your leadership.
Madam Speaker, I urge my fellow parliamentarians on all sides to support this motion. Let us clean this House and get rid of this little boy once and for all.
Ms MANISON (Wanguri): Madam Speaker, this motion we presented today is of the most serious nature and not one we take lightly. We have progressed down this path because if we had not we would be walking away from the people we represent. We have no doubt in our minds that people are sick and tired of this government and the farce it has become.
People are sick and tired of the non-stop drama and the circus that is and has been constantly played out since August 2012 under this CLP government. Territorians are over the arrogance, betrayals, broken promises and instability the CLP government has offered. Fundamentally, Territorians just want to see good government. They want a government they can have faith in and trust. They want a government that fulfils its commitments, offers certainty and stability and makes the Territory a better place for all. That is why we are in this job. The reason most of us put our hand up to do it is because we want to see a better Northern Territory.
I was quite moved by the strength and integrity displayed in the debate by the member for Araluen. It is extremely clear there are some deep problems within the government which cannot be fixed – it has gone too far. It cannot get on with governing the Northern Territory. It has been a mess since August 2012.
The points of conversation I hear are how hopeless this lot is and whether they are serious. Is this how they think we want to see the Northern Territory run? Even CLP supporters are ashamed of the performance of this government. It has been a complete disgrace, to say the least.
One of the most important motions you can put before this Assembly is want of confidence in the government and whether they can keep governing. So far, two members from the government have spoken to this motion. I am curious to see if other members of the government try to tell people why they should have confidence in them. If you do not speak in this debate and put your point of view, it shows you do not have much confidence in yourselves. Let us see who tells Territorians why they should still be in government, because so far the performance of the CLP government has been a disgrace.
You had over 10 years in opposition, champing at the bit, wanting to get back into government and have the honour and privilege of governing the Northern Territory. You sat there for over a decade waiting for that opportunity. After sitting on the opposition benches wanting the opportunity to drive positive change and make a better life for people in the Northern Territory, what a disappointment you have been to the Northern Territory.
I have a huge amount of respect for some extremely hard-working members in government who take their job seriously. Often when I look across the Chamber I see the look of disappointment and frustration on their faces at the actions and arrogant performance of some of the government members. You can see they feel they are letting their constituents down.
What really gets to them, and to us on this side, is the missed opportunities. Members in government and on this side know when the history books reflect upon the legacy of the Giles government and what has happened, there will be some pretty damning words used. ‘Arrogant’ will be one, ‘chaotic’ will be another. ‘Dysfunction’, ‘uncertainty’ and ‘instability’ will also be words that describe the past few years of life under the CLP government. This is not a legacy to be proud of. The consequences of a government that is arrogant, chaotic, dysfunctional and unstable are not good for the Territory – no one benefits.
The horrendous performance of this government is something Territorians talk about. I hear it at work, at the shops, when doorknocking and in my personal life. Everyone is talking about it. For the past two-and-a-half years discussion of the performance of the Territory government has been never ending. We have gone from one blow-up to another and the government has failed to get much done. This has occurred because of your actions, decisions and internal relationships.
What has become abundantly clear is division within the CLP government still runs extremely deep. We know in the failed coup that occurred only 22 days ago nine members of government did not support the member for Braitling as Chief Minister of this parliament. Nine of them! I always look at that in the sense of being the captain of a team with 14 team mates. If nine did not support you and said you should go as you were not doing a good job, staying is not leadership, it is being outright irresponsible to your team. You cannot lead a team cohesively if you do not have majority support.
If nine members of the CLP government do not support the leader it is a disaster for the Northern Territory. How on earth can you get on with doing your job of governing the Northern Territory when you do not get along? Too much blood has been let and the wounds are far too deep for you to move on from this. The people of the Northern Territory deserve better. They deserve a functional government that is working in their best interests, not individuals, egos and somebody’s pure delight in maintaining power. That is not good for anyone and is absolutely disgraceful.
The member for Araluen demonstrated a huge amount of integrity today, speaking her mind and taking part in this very difficult conversation. She has demonstrated a new level of bravery with her constituents in mind – people she represents.
Most of us in this Chamber believe we have been voted in by the people of our electorates to represent them, do the best job possible of ensuring a better life for them by creating opportunities for them and making the Northern Territory the best possible place we can.
We have some huge challenges in the Northern Territory with the highest proportion of people in lower socioeconomic circumstances living in Third World situations – in a country like Australia. We have some of the biggest health and education issues in this country. If we are to make a difference in these people’s lives, then you need a cohesive, functional government, and we simply do not have that.
For two-and-a-half years people have seen chaos and madness and they are over it. They want an election so they can make their decision and put some stability back into the Northern Territory. At the moment it is chaotic madness. Under the leadership of the member for Braitling, the Northern Territory has been getting national media coverage saying we are a joke and we cannot govern ourselves. Because the situation has been so chaotic, dysfunctional and mad, to put it mildly, people are now questioning whether we can self-govern or be given statehood, and it is a disgrace. To take the Territory to the point where people are questioning whether or not we can govern ourselves is outrageous! There is no doubt in my mind people would like an election to vote in members as they see fit. They do not want to see chaos ruling any longer.
We have seen the internal issues within the CLP, and it is very clear those relationships will not mend. In my electorate there have been several reasons why people have lost faith in you, aside from the infighting. They have lost faith in you because of the promises you have broken and the way you are going about your job. For example, in 2012 the government made some very firm promises about reducing the cost of living. One of the government’s first actions was to put the price of power and water through the roof. We have seen money taken out of the pockets of Territorians, despite the promises you made to them to reduce the cost of living. We have seen the flow-on effects from those power and water price increases that were never really thought about and how they are hitting businesses’ rates and fees.
For example, it is important to most people to own their own property, live their dream and build a life in the Territory. Your government has made it so much harder for low- and middle-income earners and first homebuyers to buy a property so they can continue to call the Territory home.
We have heard big promises about crime reduction. In your latest crime statistics just released, in the Darwin region property crime – home break-ins – has gone up 49%, motor vehicle theft is up 23% and assaults are up 8%.
There were some fairly big commitments about alcohol and alcohol management. One you kept was scrapping the BDR – despite the consequences – in the first days after you took over government. In my electorate there are people drinking in the parks. I have had to have a few conversations with the police over the last few months with regard to that. We are seeing that in Leanyer and Wanguri.
However what gets to people most about the Giles government is arrogance. This government has gone about business failing to consult with or listen to Territorians. A clear example of that was the sale of TIO. Many questions were asked of ministers about what was happening with TIO and they failed to answer them clearly. Then, a few days after the Casuarina by-election, lo and behold, we were moving down the pathway of selling TIO.
It was the campaign you drove around the sale of TIO that frustrated and annoyed people because you were treating them like idiots. You we saying, ‘If we are to sell TIO, what would you like us to spend the money on?’ You did not even ask the fundamental question, ‘Would you like to see TIO sold? Yes or no.’ You did not even try to engage in any meaningful or constructive debate with Territorians about the reasons you felt TIO should be sold. Instead you said to people, ‘If we were to sell TIO, what would you like to spend the money on?’ People are not fools, they could see right through that. They were extremely frustrated with that approach.
There have also been some questions about the conduct of this government with regard to political donations. Some very serious questions were raised with regard to Foundation 51. The member for Nelson was successful in moving for an inquiry into those donations, which was agreed to in this parliament. However, then the government did a blackflip on that and decided not to proceed down that path. It made people ask the questions, ‘What on earth are you hiding? Why will you not be transparent about where the money comes from?’ They are not feeling very reassured after they heard the member for Fong Lim say that donations, effectively, open his door. People want to see more transparency and scrutiny of the government through an ICAC.
There have also been 14 government reshuffles the public service has had to bear. That has created a huge amount of instability and made it very hard for many people within the public service to get on with their jobs.
In my electorate business people and people working within the private sector are very concerned about the instability and the lack of consistency in the performance of government. People say the only thing it is consistent with is its instability and chaos. They have lost confidence and are deeply concerned about attracting investment in the Northern Territory, which is completely understandable when you see a circus played out in front of you. People have lost trust in the government.
I come back to the behaviour of the government, which has been questioned in the last few weeks. The coup was an event people will not forget for some time. We all remember the history of the initial leadership vote. It was probably the first time after that we ever heard the member for Braitling referred to as a little boy.
He finally got his way by knifing the former Chief Minister while he was representing the Northern Territory on a trade mission to Japan – of all countries, given their high values of respect and trust. Three members left the party and crossed the floor. One of them has gone back, mind you. The current Treasurer was kicked out of Cabinet, and now is back.
Then, in this coup, nine members of this government demonstrated very clearly they did not support the Chief Minister by voting against him. How on earth can a government function to serve the people of the Northern Territory when nine of the members do not support the Chief Minister? They do not think he is doing a good job and that he should be the Chief Minister of the Northern Territory.
The fact that he has dug in and effectively threatened to take the House down if he does not stay in the big job is a disgrace. The member for Araluen, in debating this motion, pointed out that international convention is such that once the government leader has lost majority support of his or her colleagues, they resign. He did not resign, which is unprecedented. The fact that he has dug in trying to stay in that job, ruling a completely chaotic government, is outrageous. That is not what we are here for. We are here to represent the people of the Northern Territory and make this a better place.
Madam Speaker, the people of the Northern Territory have lost confidence in this government. I urge members of this parliament to do the right thing and support this motion. There will be long-lasting impacts because the government has lost the confidence of the people of the Northern Territory.
Ms WALKER (Nhulunbuy): Madam Speaker, do we have no other members of the government leaping to their feet to defend themselves in this no confidence motion? Are there people in the lobby room who have torn up their speeches and said, ‘Blow that, I am not saying anything to support the member for Braitling as Chief Minister’? It is very interesting.
If they are voting on this motion of no confidence they should be on the record talking about all the amazing things they want to claim they have done in two-and-a-half years, but in their heart of hearts they know they have completely trashed the Territory. It took the member for Araluen to speak openly and honestly, and I daresay at a high price. She has put it on the record and I expected some of her nine colleagues would at least follow.
I support the motion that the government no longer possesses the confidence of the Assembly because this government is a train wreck which has betrayed the confidence of Territorians from day one. Nobody has confidence in this government. Even a majority of the CLP party wing has no confidence in its own government members who suffered their own internal vote of no confidence just a few weeks ago. For the life of me I cannot work out, nor can anybody else, how five beats nine.
Good on you, member for Braitling. We know you got hammered the night of the coup, but you bounced back, and along with four of your supporters somehow managed to claw back power. All the while, Territorians and the nation have observed the internal brawling of the CLP party wing from day one. It has failed to govern, to deliver on its empty promises and to run the Territory. Its members are so self-serving and self-interested they have failed miserably to serve the people of the Northern Territory and their interests.
I am sure I am not the only one who looks back to the CLP’s election win and the many things they promised and asks where it all went wrong. How did it end up such a train wreck? I always said it would end up in tears one day.
This morning I discovered on my desk a glossy little brochure about the five-point plan and in it a happy snap of the old days. There are happy faces of members lining up for an election having their photograph taken. A little spiel alongside that photograph said, ‘Our candidates will fight for you and your family and bring about real change to the Territory’. All they have done for two-and-a-half years is fight amongst themselves.
Let us look at the litany of failures. The CLP promised Territorians it would plan properly for the future, build opportunities for Territory families and improve community safety, education and health services. It promised to improve services for Territorians no matter where they lived. Instead, we have a government focused on the wrong priorities: jobs for mates, internal bickering, disruption to government services, ever-increasing costs of living and an uncertain future under the CLP. With that uncertain future are far too many Territorians who are suffering under the poor decisions and terrible policies of the CLP.
The CLP said it was completely unacceptable to have one standard for our towns and another for the bush. After two years, people in the bush are still waiting for any sign that the CLP has a real plan to lift bush services, improve family support services or boost local jobs and create a brighter future for our Territorians living in bush communities. I am sure the member for Stuart will respond in this debate to tell me otherwise.
One of the key services Territorians expect their government to deliver is first-class health – not just acute care when we are really sick but to also support GP services, primary community-based healthcare, chronic disease and promotion of health lifestyles.
Importantly, the Territory also has a key role in supporting the national effort to Close the Gap on Indigenous Disadvantage, particularly in health and life expectancy. Under the CLP we are at real risk of losing hard-won traction in our health gains, especially important gains in closing the gap in health outcomes for Indigenous Territorians.
Virtually all the new health initiatives and infrastructure investments the CLP has all too easily taken credit for over the past two years were planned and budgeted for by Labor at Territory and federal levels. The new accident and emergency facilities in Alice Springs and Tennant Creek, operating theatres, reduction in elective surgery wait times and improvements to new remote health clinics are all initiatives funded by Labor. In September last year, the CLP government bragged about a $50m program to improve remote NT health clinics but failed to mention that all of this work was initiated by Labor, both here and federally.
In the meantime, there have been no new projects from the CLP. Three years after funding was made available by Labor Ngukurr still waits for its new clinic, and work to enhance local control and management of remote health clinics has stalled. There has been little doubt about the commitment of the member for Araluen to improving remote health, but we are still left wondering what more could have been achieved in the last two years with more support from Cabinet.
Let us not forget the early actions of this government and the member for Fong Lim in rejecting $135m of Commonwealth health funding, including funding for a children’s wing at Royal Darwin Hospital – which was a firm commitment from Labor – $10m for renal facilities and $5.8m for a medi-hotel at Gove to support patients from the northeast Arnhem regions. The member for Fong Lim said medi-hotels were not needed because they were ‘just for long grassers’. Yes, they were his words which are on the Parliamentary Record.
The CLP government has even been unable to proceed with $13m of improvements to the accident and emergency department at Gove hospital funded by federal Labor. In the meantime, the 30-year-old – probably closer to 40-year-old – accident and emergency department still requires this Commonwealth-funded upgrade. It is a regional facility the Health minister described as ‘antiquated and tired’. To this day, no one in Gove has heard any news of the plans despite regular assurances that in a couple of weeks’ or months’ time, there will be a commitment and we will know an outcome.
I have been trying since before Christmas to get a briefing in two different Health ministers’ offices about the status of Gove hospital, amongst other things. The last time I tried to get a briefing was on the day after the coup. Because there were bombs going off and fires on the fifth floor that needed to be put out, any briefings that I or anybody else had on that particular day had been cancelled.
In estimates we heard the now former Health minister warn of what she described as a profound impact, a $33m cut to the Territory budget as a consequence of Commonwealth cuts to our health budget. The Commonwealth has since conceded they cannot slash our hospital funding as planned, but we still have an over-$11m cut to the NT Health budget this year with no real explanation of where the cuts are being made. Our health system is being managed on the run.
You can ask any number of public servants who will tell you that is exactly how the public service is running at the moment as there have been so many changes, so many jobs switched, corporate knowledge gone, constant restructures and constant change of ministerial responsibility. It is small wonder the public service is in a mess.
We have still to hear how the CLP government plans to manage Tony Abbott’s cuts of $377m out of our Health budget over the next decade. All we know is that our Health minister – whoever that might be today or tomorrow – will have to look at more ways to generate revenue, shifting more of the cost burden to Territory families and the likelihood of fewer services in the bush, with patients being scooped up and brought to major centres for treatment rather than building capacity for preventative health in our regional and remote areas. That is simply not good enough.
We are losing services in community-based primary care, with a shift to resourcing hospital-based acute care. This is a fact and it comes at a much greater cost to families, communities and the taxpayer.
We have heard distressing accounts of nurses and other health staff being bullied in an already stressful and difficult work situation, as well as the use of short-term contracts to leverage staff management, particularly of remote nurses. We have seen NGO health service providers forced to impose cuts to their operations and services, and put on the government leash of short-term contracts that limit their ability to provide quality services and to recruit, retain and build their health workforce.
The CLP also promised in its post-election action plan that it would reinforce Royal Darwin Hospital as the Territory’s premier hospital. Instead, the RDH and its hard-working staff are struggling with bed block and longer wait times in the emergency department, largely due to the hijacking of its medi-hotel – designed by Labor to reduce bed block in the RDH – for the CLP’s entirely political plan to replace the BDR with its mandatory alcohol detention scheme, for which it will release no data or statistics other than a few anecdotes about a couple of success stories.
Who will forget the appalling sight of the Chief Minister in this House mocking and laughing at hard-working nurses who were so frustrated they were signing petitions to the government about their workload pressures in RDH? That was shameful behaviour from the Chief Minister. However, as we now know, it was pretty typical of the way he operates.
The CLP could not even introduce paid parking at the Royal Darwin Hospital in a way that worked for patients, let alone staff. It still resists answering any questions about cost and where the revenue goes, claiming it is all commercial-in-confidence.
Under Labor, Territorians would see the Palmerston hospital under way right now, but under the CLP all we have seen are more delays and PR stunts to give an impression of progress as it seeks ways to involve the private sector in building the hospital and delivering health services. Under the CLP, Territorians in the rapidly-growing Palmerston region have to put up with the chaos in the RDH and delays in access to improved health services until the work starts at Palmerston in, perhaps, 2016 or, more likely, later. Just last week the Chief Minister could not even answer a simple question regarding when the doors will open at the 24-hour A&E department at the new Palmerston hospital.
The CLP promised to support the development of a private hospital in Alice Springs in Central Australia. After two-and-a-half years, that commitment to Centralians seems to have quietly disappeared.
Territorians in the bush continue to wait for remote health clinics to be upgraded and new remote clinics to be built, three, four or more years after Labor made funds available for that very purpose. Instead of improving health services across the board, this government preferred to budget $28m to prop up its mandatory alcohol rehabilitation scheme and create chaos at the RDH by hijacking hospital patient accommodation at the medi-hotel for the detention of problem drinkers.
What of the police and their confidence in their elected officials? How can they possibly have confidence when they know their minister is capable, at any time, of accusing them of conspiring to get rid of him? The member for Araluen was quite correct when she said in this debate earlier that the Chief Minister needs to apologise to police.
The extraordinary words from the Chief Minister’s mouth during the failed coup showed every police officer that this Chief Minister would be willing to throw them under the bus to protect his own job. The NT Police Association, which speaks on behalf of 1400 sworn officers, has been damning of this Chief Minister’s arrogance and contempt of the police force. How can the police have any confidence in this government? Such is their lack of confidence they have even said they do not want the Chief Minister to take the role back from the member for Brennan.
Apart from the breach of trust, what of the other broken critical promise to provide 120 extra police? Police resources are, as we know, so tied up with TBLs – with police stationed outside liquor stores, effectively as bouncers – that police are taken away from their core business of catching criminals and keeping the community safe. We are so short of police that during the cyclone Elcho Island had just two policemen trying to deal with a community of 3000 in a crisis, and there were no policemen at all in the communities of Milingimbi and Ramingining.
The CLP promised to cut crime by 10% per year every year, which it then revised quickly down to just 10% over its four-year term. But, no, its law and order policies reflect only what has an impact on the statistics, not on the actual prevention of crime and the protection of Territorians. Police join the force to serve and protects citizens, not to stand at bottle shops for hours on end checking ID.
This government’s policy-free zone on alcohol has been filled by a measure thought of by rank and file police members to help give their workmates a break at night because its policies on law and order have utterly failed. We have a Chief Minister who is deluded about the negative impacts of alcohol, who told his party members in Alice Springs:
- There are a lot of people who work in sobering up shelters and all of these things that respond to alcohol, that respond to dealing with cases of domestic violence and all of those people are not needed here and they haven’t been needed in Alice Springs as much for more than 12 months.
This is a Chief Minister out of touch, who we know holds dear, in his own words, ‘drinking as a core value’ for Territorians.
The crime statistics released last week showed over the course of last year there were 846 domestic violence-related assaults in the Territory. Will the Chief Minister tell service providers in Alice Springs, and victims of domestic violence, that Alice Springs does not need domestic violence support services despite the fact there were 846 domestic violence offences and 975 alcohol-fuelled assaults in Alice Springs last year? It is still too many, and by no means an indication that responsive and, importantly, prevention services are needed. This Chief Minister is ignoring the calls of the Police Association to develop sustainable alcohol policy. We know that and that TBLs are simply not sustainable.
What government employee profession has seen how cruel this government is more than our firefighters? With an EBA which expired more than 18 months ago, firies have been locked in a bitter pay dispute with government that is seeing them lose many experienced firefighters to other states and professions. They have been kicked in the guts by this government’s steadfast refusal to help firefighters who contract cancer on the job. We, on this side, in good faith proposed a law – not once, but twice with a private members’ bills brought forward by the member for Fannie Bay – to look after these men and women who put their life on the line. Not once, but twice, the government has said no.
Even now, their proposed law does not cover firefighters who contracted cancer before August 2012. It only covers 12, not the recommended 18 cancers. If you want to judge a government on whether it is fit to govern, just look at how it treated the firefighters and you will have your answer.
How shameful it was to hear a minister of the Crown in this House last week describe a rally organised by Territory firefighters on the steps of parliament as a ‘cynical scam with firefighters as the pawns’. Shame on that minister! He is wrong and he should be apologising to those firefighters.
The paramedics whose EBA expired in July 2013, like the firies, is another profession that save lives every day and that is accused by this government of trading on its good name. The sheer arrogance and contempt this government has shown its paramedics beggars belief, especially when it is estimated that about $300 000 would probably fix their EBA issue – around about the same amount of money that was donated to the Alice Springs Golf Club.
Ideologically, it cannot let someone else have a win; it foolishly clings to these positions well past common sense and common decency because it has no common sense and no common decency. This government has lost the confidence of all of its emergency workers and that is atrocious.
I am sure we all recall the endearing image of the member for Port Darwin, Facebook-ing a photograph of him smiling, telling public servants their jobs were safe. What rubbish, what lies! Hundreds and hundreds of public servants’ job have gone. Public employment, as a general rule, has suffered under this government as it has ideologically embarked on a campaign to rip out as many conditions as possible, offer pay rises less than CPI and get senior management to issue voting instructions when having ballots. It is horrific the way this government treats its public service through fear and intimidation. They have endured 14 ministerial reshuffles in 30 months – that is about one every 60 or 70 days – where they have had to rip everything up and go back to the drawing board.
I can advise this House that the people of Nhulunbuy have no confidence whatsoever in this government. They not only have no confidence in the leader, they despise him and have no respect for him. The events of the last two weeks aside – the failed coup, coup, coup, the changes of leaderships and midnight media conferences – have caused people in Nhulunbuy to approach me asking what the hell is going on with this government.
All of that aside, it is Adam Giles the people of Nhulunbuy hold to account for calling off a gas deal that was brokered by Terry Mills. Given the contribution of the member for Araluen, who I believe to be honest and truthful, surely questions about whether or not proper Cabinet process was followed need to be asked about decisions made by Chief Minister Adam Giles.
It is too late to undo anything that has happened in Nhulunbuy as more than 1100 jobs have gone – and more jobs indirectly through spouses of Rio Tinto employees and contractors – along with $500m in export earnings from the refinery and a reduction of about 2% of gross state product. It is shameful and all due to one man sitting on that side of the House.
We bring this motion of no confidence before the House on behalf of Territorians who have had enough, who have no confidence in this government and Adam Giles, who is not fit to be Chief Minister.
I look forward to hearing other members on the government benches defend their government and Chief Minister, or have they gone to the lobby and ripped up their speeches saying, ‘No way. I am not going back in there.’
Madam Speaker, I urge all members to support this motion.
Ms MOSS (Casuarina): Madam Speaker, this is an important and serious motion about the selfishness that has become the cornerstone of this term of the Country Liberals government.
The recent events within the Northern Territory government have been nothing short of bizarre. Honestly, you cannot make this stuff up. Territorians are sick of this nonsense and of not being valued by this government.
I am here because I want to be part of positive social change in the Northern Territory and a part of making the Territory a place people want to live, stay, work, thrive and have opportunities they do not have anywhere else. That is possible if we value people and invest in them.
I support this no confidence motion on the grounds this government has constantly let down the people of the Territory who elected it. Those people have lost confidence in the CLP and have a right to feel disappointed.
I have been in parliament for four months. I was reflecting earlier on some of the major things that have happened in that time such as the shutdown of the inquiry into political donations, the sale of TIO, the backflip on education funding and the backflip on youth funding that occurred about 24 hours after the failed coup.
At the last election Territorians thought they were electing a team of people to run the Territory. Instead they have elected 16 individuals who seem to share nothing but their membership of the Country Liberals. They do not share ideals or a vision, and it would seem in some cases they do not even share party room meetings.
Those opposite have demonstrated that 13 of those now 14 individuals are prepared to put their own interests ahead of their team, their electorates and the Northern Territory. I make exception for the member for Araluen, who this morning made an extraordinary and brave statement to this House on the state of affairs in the CLP government.
We have had two speakers from the CLP government and I hope we hear from more. I ask those on the other side of the House to reflect briefly on something the member of Araluen said this morning:
- … I prefer to remain silent on the backbench and not contribute to this debate, but being silent is not why I became a member of parliament ...
I sincerely hope we hear more from the government this afternoon. Remaining silent is the way to show Territorians how much confidence you have in your ability to govern with honesty, integrity, respect and in the best interests of Territorians.
How can Territorians trust a government to govern when the government cannot trust itself or trust the person leading it? How can decisions be made and policies implemented when 14 individuals spend more time looking over their shoulders than looking over their ministries?
Territorians want a government that is focused, forward thinking, acts in their best interests and is consultative and concerned about involving the community in decision-making. Territorians deserve a government that continually strives to improve and innovate, takes people with it and looks after them.
I note in the Chief Minister’s statement last week on the direction of the government there was four lines in the whole statement under the title ‘Helping vulnerable Territorians’. It was the shortest segment in the statement which was quite interesting and very upsetting given some of the issues outlined by my colleagues are ones we debate on a regular basis in this House.
Territorians deserve a government that can admit when it has made the wrong decision. They have seen this government constantly scrambling to fix things that have been a result of poor planning and poor decision-making.
Territorians deserve a government which stands for good policy and invests in people. I quote the Chief Minister on his view of the CLP’s policy from an Alice Springs branch meeting that was recorded earlier this month:
- At the moment, from where I’m sitting there is no policy of the CLP … And that’s why a lot of times the pollies don’t know what they stand for.
If the CLP government, as a collective, does not know what it stands for, how can anyone else have faith and understanding in it? How can we, as Territorians, have any faith that there is a plan for quality education, health and job creation when our own Chief Minister admits there is no CLP policy?
One has to ask how someone can sleep at night having taken the job of a colleague while they were overseas, or knowing they have flown in a Queen-class private jet to China while everyday Territorians struggle to pay their rising bills. How does one sleep at night knowing one has cut resources to youth services, education and child protection with minimal consultation? How does one sleep at night having effectively told the public that schools must be wrong about their budgets when they are voicing very legitimate and accurate concerns about the future of our children? How does one not apologise for homophobic language directed at a colleague knowing it has offended the community? And not only that, but afterwards was rewarded because the member in question has gained ministries at the expense of other CLP members of parliament.
In my inaugural speech in this House, I reflected on the fact there are many people in our community who do not feel connected to the political system and who are disillusioned. The actions of this CLP government only serve to move us backwards in that, which is a shame for the Territory.
Territorians deserve a government which is accountable and transparent. The biggest example of this government’s lack of that is the sale of TIO from underneath Territorians when they were very clearly saying no. The Chief Minister did not attend a big public meeting held in my electorate to engage honestly with Territorians about that sale. The government did not consult or answer the questions of the general public, but forged ahead anyway.
It goes to the root of why it is so offensive, after two-and-a-half years, to hear a government say it will start to be consultative. It is not the experience of Territorians. We need a government which is genuinely consultative and wants to continuously improve its engagement with people. I am very proud, that alongside my colleagues on this side of the House, we have been engaging with the community and stakeholders.
I raise the Country Liberals own point from their five-point plan, referenced by the member for Nhulunbuy:
- Be accountable.
If we don’t deliver, throw us out. There will be no more political deals ... The only deal we’ll have is with you, to help make your life better.
Before he was elected Chief Minister, Terry Mills said in a Sky News debate, ‘We’ll say plainly what we’re going to do and if we don’t do that, your call. You vote us out.’
Terry, I could not have said it better myself.
I do not remember the CLP saying plainly that they would slash teacher numbers, hike power and water prices, cancel the Arafura Games or defund youth services. I feel particularly sorry for the Territory’s young people in all of this because they are the people we tell to strive for more and they will inherit the Territory. We want them to reach out to us as elected officials and have a say in how the Territory is run. Watching the way the CLP government operates, why would they?
Year 12 students have watched their schools lose teachers and subject choices because of the decisions of this government. They have seen engaging and valuable programs and services lost both within and outside their school environments. They watched this government backflip a few weeks ago – 22 days ago – with $4.2m into a sector that has been trying to be heard by this government for two-and-a-half years. We are still unsure where that money – which is a fraction of what was lost – will go.
Alice Springs continues to scream out for an integrated night response for their young people so issues can be easily identified and addressed. Stakeholders in Katherine are also clearly articulating their needs. It is a shame we lost so many valuable services across the Territory because those youth and community services and people supporting our families built relationships. Relationships are incredibly important to service delivery.
Why would any young adult put their faith in the government of the Northern Territory when the individuals opposite put their own needs and aspirations ahead of a solid plan for the Territory’s youth? How hypocritical it must look to the average young person, when the CLP acts with such immaturity.
When I was doorknocking, senior Territorians were constantly expressing concerns over their rising bills and expenses. They expressed their concerns over the federal government’s desire to introduce a GP co-payment, which for many seniors in my electorate has huge consequences considering how often they visit hospital. It tacks onto the already growing costs crippling families across the Territory. Many seniors are also primary carers for their grandchildren.
Was the CLP government fighting their Liberal mates in Canberra about the GP co-payment? The CLP government removed and changed support available to our senior Territorians, who have already contributed so much to our community. There was a change to eligibility for the concession scheme, with a $2m reduction. More seniors, including those with disabilities, need to be looked after in hospital due to a lack of supported accommodation, which is making the bed block even worse. They are receiving their power bills and feeling the financial strain more than ever. Where is the reduction in the cost of living for those Territorians?
In Casuarina, we still await the implementation of important recommendations from the transport safety audit announced in September – at a push – to ensure the safety of our bus drivers, commuters, school children and people travelling to work. Territorians need more than a sticker on a bus.
We have a backlog at last count of over a 1000 unresolved cases in the child protection system, according to last year’s report from the Children’s Commissioner. We need more investment in families, children, the sector, our child protection case workers, early intervention and prevention.
Last week, we debated an amendment to the Care and Protection of Children Act, despite calls from the sector to allow for appropriate time for consultation to ensure the most strong and appropriate response and result for the Territory’s children.
The National Alcohol Policy Scorecard said we have the second-worst performing government in the country on alcohol policy. Member for Port Darwin, if the response is so good, why has the portfolio been dropped? If we are to talk about alcohol mandatory treatment, let us not forget this government cannot articulate its measure of success or agree to an independent assessment of alcohol mandatory treatment, which costs Territorians $28m a year.
These issues are important and require strong policy responses and a team that will work together to deliver them with the aim of achieving the best possible outcomes for Territorians. We on this side of the House are ready to do that. We want our disability and health sectors to know who their minister is from week to week, to have stability and to have a voice.
Division and instability in government are often fodder for the public and media. Politics becomes interesting when the government’s disagreements spill out into the public domain. Clearly, the CLP’s instability and division have not been minor spats and polite disagreements. They have been ongoing feuds, fuelled by hatred and self-interest and apparently bullying, which has seeped its way into how the Territory is being governed.
Territorians were promised a lower cost of living, a safer community, stability and unity. The member for Araluen this morning made the point we all already know: the instability continues. Territorians were assured that if they voted in the CLP the cost of living would drop. They did, and it did not. That is what Fact Check would call a broken promise. In fact, the NT News and Territorians are calling it a broken promise.
We have a Chief Minister who asserts that he will take the Police portfolio back after making disgraceful comments about rumoured police involvement in the failed coup and apparently sees fit to call for a judicial inquiry when the rumours are about him.
We have made national news for all of the wrong reasons, with national stakeholders scratching their head wondering what is happening in the Territory. It is damaging and an embarrassment.
Two Chief Ministers – nearly three, five Deputy Chief Ministers – nearly six, three Police ministers, five Health ministers, five Treasurers, five Education ministers, five Housing ministers, five Business ministers and five Sports ministers – and a partridge in a pear tree. In two-and-a-half years that is quite an achievement. Territorians have never seen anything quite like it. It is like an episode of The Walking Dead where we are all waiting to see who will be resurrected next and when. In the meantime, the community, the non-government sector, the business sector and the public service all just wait.
Territorians deserve better than this. They deserve to know who their Health minister is from week to week. They deserve to not feel ashamed of their government. They deserve government members who care more about the people than themselves. They deserve good education, good healthcare, a safe community and to enjoy the fruits of their labour. Sadly, too many Territorians are being denied these things. The members opposite who call themselves a government have put themselves individually over the wellbeing of the people. Sadly, for two long years Territorians have been subjected to a dysfunctional government led by a Chief Minister who is clearly out of his depth and does not have the support of the majority of his colleagues.
Madam Speaker, I implore the members opposite to speak on this motion and tell Territorians why they should have confidence in you. I commend the motion to the House.
Ms FYLES (Nightcliff): Madam Speaker, this motion comes as no surprise to the people of the Northern Territory who have witnessed unprecedented events over the past few weeks. I never thought when I was elected only just two-and-a-half years ago I would be listening to what I have heard in this parliament today.
I acknowledge the member for Araluen and the strength of what she said today. But where are the rest of the government members? To hear from only two is appalling.
The Chief Minister remains in his role purely through unprecedented tactics and a disregard for the Australian democratic process. Imagine if we said a team won the rugby league grand final 5:9, there would be an investigation on every level. Yet, the member for Braitling remains as the Chief Minister of the Northern Territory, not because he was elected by the people or his parliamentary wing, but because he simply refuses to resign. He does not have the confidence of his parliamentary wing, the majority of parliamentary members of the Legislative Assembly, nor does he have the confidence of Territorians. At least nine members of the CLP did not want him to be the leader. He no longer has the confidence of his own party.
I know the future looks bleak for this government when traditionally staunch CLP supporters and voters approach me asking questions about the government’s humiliating mismanagement and its seemingly inability to communicate outside the party room, or even within. We are not fooled by coy attempts to convey united, stable camaraderie by the echoed pleas that things will change. What needs to change is the government leading the Northern Territory.
As the member for Araluen told the House, Territorians want to see this instability within government resolved one way or another. They either want the leadership instability within government resolved or they want to go to the polls. Territorians do not want our government to be a source of jokes and ridicule across the country.
The actions that took place in the first week of February were merely the tip of the iceberg, with the CLP unable to provide stable leadership, coupled with voters’ frustration with the hollow rhetoric and the arrogance of our self-interested Chief Minister.
On Monday 2 February, nine CLP MPs voted for a new leader, with a promise to be more consultative, an admission by the MLAs there was discontent with the direction of the government. Territorians learnt through a 1 am media conference that our new Chief Minister would be William Westra van Holthe.
I do not disagree that the Chief Minister’s leadership and conduct have been selling the NT short. However, as so often happens within the CLP’s decision-making, proper process was not followed and the Chief Minister wrestled back power. Instead of changing Chief Minister, the Territorians got a carnival of uncertainty.
The events of the first couple of weeks of February highlight what has been happening for over two years. The last two-and-a-half years have seen a circus of governance with one ridiculous act followed by another. The CLP’s humiliating upheaval in the first week of February was unprecedented in Australian political history, and you can thank the dwindling confidence in the Prime Minister nationally for the limited media coverage. However, it did go national and international.
Chief Minister, we are not fooled. Your party, this parliament and an overwhelming majority of voters know only an election will bring real stability. Chief Minister, talk to Territorians, hear what they say and stop treating them with contempt and undermining their intelligence. You know as well as anyone that the events that took place earlier this month are not over. No amount of reshuffling, handshaking, and pathetic media events will convey solidarity to convince anyone otherwise.
You need to show respect for our community and voters and give them a chance to choose their leader. You are the unelected Chief Minister and remain in that position because you refuse to listen and acknowledge the view of the majority of your colleagues who do not want you in the position. You are so arrogant that you refuse to resign.
The incidents of the first week of February are an embarrassment to Territorians. It is further evidence of the CLP government’s willingness to govern for itself not the people of the Northern Territory. How can you govern for all Territorians when you cannot even decide who should lead you?
In my community of Nightcliff people are sick to death of the pathetic rhetoric constantly sprouted by CLP MLAs, particularly the Chief Minister, and the lack of fair, sound policy. They worry when they hear nine out of 14 MLAs categorically state he is not fit to lead the NT, yet he is still Chief Minister. It is time for the CLP government to step back and think about its time in government. It needs to go back to the drawing board and consult the public and stop the evasive answers and the attempts to deflect questions. The Chief Minister’s fight to maintain control through his 10th Cabinet reshuffle shows his self-interest and desire to hang onto power.
The Chief Minister no longer has the confidence of his party, this parliament or the people of the Northern Territory. It is time for an election to end the carnival side show.
In addition to the government’s incapacity to manage its own affairs, the CLP government has failed to deliver sound progressive policy for the Northern Territory. In fact, the Chief Minister said so when he told his Alice Spring’s branch meeting it had no Indigenous affairs policy. The government is a policy vacuum.
It has nothing to show but disdain for our education system, cutting $125m from the education budget since coming to power. We have at least 125 fewer teachers and 60 fewer support staff in Territory schools. If all this is sounding like groundhog day I am not surprised. When a government refuses to work with the people it is governing the same mistakes will be made repeatedly.
In 2013 the then Education minister – one of six reshuffles we have seen – said the Territory had the best resourced schools in the nation but the worst results. The solution was to provide fewer teachers and less funding to our schools to miraculously deliver better results. I do not know what it will take to get action in our education system. Letters from school councils highlighting that the government appears hell-bent on making sure it has a lasting negative impact on our children’s education saw no change.
The government’s savage education cuts are having a huge impact, not only in our urban schools but in our bush schools. Concerned parents have contacted me and my colleagues on this side of the House. They are worried about the loss of Indigenous languages and cultural support positions which are vital to support our children.
In the bush we have seen huge cuts in teacher numbers under the leadership of the member for Braitling, with 47 teachers going in the Arnhem region alone. Nowhere is the savagery of the cuts better highlighted than at Gunbalanya, where five teacher positions were lost – two primary, two middle, one secondary – and a number of support staff. The CLP could not even guarantee a specialist ESL teacher for the community, where English is a second language. This highlights how terrible your government is in dealing with education. You have ripped out funding and teacher numbers and it is hurting our community. Is this what deliver for the bush electors who supported you – nothing?
You owe Territorians an explanation and should stop hiding and avoiding the questions. You failed Territorians in the most basic duty of delivering a sound education through providing appropriate resources. To make matters worse, you have consistently misled on the extent of the cuts to teacher and support positions. You have slashed grants, failed our Indigenous students by slashing ESL positions and have scrapped the GEMS position at our middle schools. You have failed our best and brightest students by reducing one-on-one teacher and student time and cutting classroom support. The list goes on of the cuts to education and the chaos you have caused. It is clear you are unwilling to invest in the future of young Territorians and are determined to make a mockery of our schools. How can less funding and fewer teachers lead to better results?
Chief Minister, the way you have handled our education system highlights just how much you do not care. Where will you be in a few years? Maybe that is why you simply do not care. You are not here for the Territory; you are here for yourself.
Sadly for the people of the Northern Territory, the CLP’s failures in education are not isolated. The growing concerns in the health sector demonstrate the unwillingness of the government to consult with workers, to acknowledge and show respect for those working on the front line.
Under your leadership the CLP has shown its inability to work with the community, instead labelling hard-working paramedics as self-interested and greedy and laughing at our emergency department nurses. I will never forget that moment in parliament when you laughed at them. You have absolutely no respect for our frontline workers.
The CLP has generated a significant record in repeatedly failing to improve the health system. In addition to petty and ego-driven squabbling over the EBA, the delayed opening of Labor’s medi-hostel and the reduced bed capacity at the Royal Darwin Hospital, you have been more concerned with garnering media attention than real progress. How many times can we have sod turnings and diggers at the Palmerston hospital site? Territorians want you to just get on with the job!
Another failure of your government is the extra pressures on those working in Territory hospitals – especially our training hospital of Royal Darwin. The lack of the 100 beds at the medi-hostel put real pressure on Royal Darwin Hospital and it is still in chaos. We need real changes, solutions and consultation with the brave and resilient people who every day deal with, and provide critical care to, ill and injured Territorians.
This motion must be supported so we can have a leader who is for all Territorians, who will deliver and not simply do things just to keep himself in power. In 2012, when you were elected under the leadership of Terry Mills, you came up with a five-point plan. You backflipped on that plan. Where is it now?
You sold TIO without any consultation. You rammed it through on urgency. This move highlights your arrogance. TIO was valued by Territorians because it provided an insurance safety net for our unique conditions. The only no-loophole cyclone, storm surge and flood insurance cover they provided is what Territorians needed. While other private insurers service the Territory market, none provided the same level of cover provided by TIO. But your government ignored the concerns of Territorians.
People in my electorate face skyrocketing premiums. A local resident in a storm surge area of Darwin reported before the sale that other insurers charge over 100% more and did not provide the same level of cover, but you ignored all this – you arrogantly rammed it through. A Katherine resident reported to the media that the only other private insurer that would cover him charged an extra $8500 per year.
Territorians will never forget that sneaky sale of TIO. TIO did not need to be sold to fund flood mitigation, it was profitable. The Chief Minister’s announcement about flood mitigation investment does not address all households at risk. You have not even seen fit to invest in flood mitigation in your own home town of Alice Springs, although you have not been there for a while.
Now these households face the risk of not being able to insure their homes against storm surge and flood. You should have listened to some of the comments from Territorians on social media that highlighted their anger at selling public assets. Maybe then you would start to understand.
The CLP’s law and order reform has proven to be disastrous. After scrapping the BDR in 2013, it was the most violent year in the Territory’s history. There has been a spike in public drinking hot spots and an increase in antisocial behaviour, compounded in my community by the closure of the Nightcliff Police Station – which I might add Terry Mills promised in 2012 would become a 24-hour police station. I questioned Terry Mills about that and he said he would honour his commitment. However, you arrogantly say there is no issue. How can the community of Nightcliff, Rapid Creek and Coconut Grove have confidence in you when you turn your back on commitments? Member for Braitling, they do not have confidence, which is why this motion is before us today.
Nightcliff now sees the regular presence of the mobile police station in an attempt to deal with the rapidly-increasing antisocial behaviour and protect local residents. This is not a sustainable measure and its continued presence is quite simply an indication for Nightcliff to have its own permanent police station.
You cannot hide from these issues, Chief Minister. You cannot deny it was your choice to shut the Nightcliff Police Station. It has been harmful for visitors, business owners and local residents alike. The latest measure of temporary beat locations is unsustainable and does nothing to address the issues that antisocial behaviour stems from.
In the release of the crime statistics last week we have seen a 49% increase in house break-ins in Darwin and a 22% increase in motor vehicle theft. Anecdotally, we have been hearing that in our communities from people who have approached us and spoken of incidents. But the extent of the figures is staggering.
Your government’s failure around alcohol policy is appalling. Your five-point plan promised the electorate that problem drinkers would be removed from the streets. I do not know what universe the Chief Minister lives in, but there are plenty of problem drunks on our streets and it is getting worse. The latest data shows alcohol-related assaults are up 21% in Darwin and 5% in Palmerston. There is also a 40% increase in domestic violence in Darwin, a 21% increase in Palmerston and a 7.4% increase Territory-wide. We know more often than not domestic violence is fuelled by alcohol.
Where temporary beat locations are in place, alcohol-related crime data is down, but that is against a backdrop of all the experts saying the policy is unsustainable. In the House last week, the Chief Minister stated they may become permanent, all because he will not admit the Banned Drinker Register was a good policy and had an impact on our community.
The Chief Minister has admitted the CLP does not have many policies; it simply bumbles around. Speaking at the CLP branch meeting in Alice Springs, the Chief Minister said:
- … there’s very little policies … we agree on ...
At the moment from where I’m sitting there is no policy of the CLP …
… we sort of bumbled around for a long time, we still are bumbling around a bit in that regard …
Despite the harm in our community, the Chief Minister stated that drinking is ‘a core social value’.
This is what the NT Police Association had to say about TBLs, ‘Our members have been concerned about temporary beat locations since August last year. What we have been trying to do is work with the government of the day and the Commissioner of Police to develop sensible alcohol policies that are all-encompassing, that just do not rely on one shot in the locker.
‘We have been working on this for some time with the Police Association and we are still not satisfied with the response we have to date. We will continue to advocate for a sensible policy.’
The Australian Hotels Association also thinks the CLP’s policy is unsustainable, but the Chief Minister refuses to listen. Des Crowe from the AHA agreed with the police union, saying:
- The current TBLs are not a sustainable model and would no doubt be impacting on police morale as well as resources and, certainly from our point of view, we do not need these glorified bottle shop attendants standing on notice just outside our areas. The government seems to have inconsistencies in terms of alcohol policy.
The AHA is considering the BDR as an alternative measure.
The member for Daly, a member of your own team, has promoted the suggestion that the BDR be returned, and that alcohol policy should be above politics. In your arrogance and your leadership, you would rather waste taxpayers’ money on police manning bottle shops, which is not what police officers signed up to do, because you have no policy. I have heard firsthand of the reduction in police patrols. Police being sent to Katherine to man the TBL locations meant police were pulled off the front line in Darwin over Christmas.
In my community, with the closure of the police station, we are forgotten. Police cannot staff the rosters to cover the Nightcliff area. Calls are made which go up the list then fall back down. This is because of your leadership.
The Chief Minister told his party members in Alice Springs:
- There are a lot of people who work in sobering up shelters and all of these things that respond to alcohol, that respond to dealing with cases of domestic violence and all of those people are not needed here and they haven’t been needed in Alice Springs as much for more than 12 months.
This highlights how out of touch you are.
You are ignoring the calls of the NT Police Association to develop a sustainable alcohol policy. It has clearly stated the temporary beat locations are not sustainable as they draw too heavily on our police resources. You have broken your promise of 120 more police on the beat, which affects alcohol policy and policing.
You lifted the cap on poker machines with no consultation with our community or the NGO sector which picks up the pieces. We already have the highest proportion of poker machines in the nation. Last financial year, Territorians lost $68m on poker machines. More poker machines in our communities – in our pubs and clubs – will impact on gamblers and their families. Research shows problem gamblers are more likely to play poker machines than any other form of gambling. Despite this evidence, and with no consultation, you made a decision. It is clear your government is not taking the wellbeing of the community into account, providing more evidence it has put profits before people.
There was an agreement to hold an inquiry into political donations last year, but you overturned that. The question of what you have to hide remains. Today, on this side of the House, we said if Labor is elected we will hold an independent commission against corruption to look at these serious questions, because there are so many serious questions. We have an arrogant Chief Minister and an incompetent government. Territorians are extremely concerned about the networks involving the CLP and Foundation 51.
Not long ago the Chief Minister said in this Assembly, ‘A smart politician does not handle money’. If a smart politician does not handle money, why has he racked up thousands of dollars of expenditure for alcohol on his private government-issued credit card? Once again, the utterance has been exposed as a deception.
In the explosive leaked recording of the infamous Alice Springs branch meeting, the Chief Minister said:
- … 10 minutes before I went to the wing meeting I raised $1.5m for the party for the election, which isn’t in the bank. So I raised money for a campaign if we needed it, $1.5m is not enough but it’s a pretty damn good start and I said right now we’re going to the polls ...
You bragged the money is not in the bank. Where is it, member for Braitling? This is an unprecedented revelation in Northern Territory political history which raises so many unanswered questions about your lack of probity and integrity.
A leaked e-mail revealed that Foundation 51 Director, former CLP Treasurer and former Chair of the Land Development Corporation, Graeme Lewis, discussed Foundation 51 with the Chief Minister on many occasions.
Recently, the member for Blain admitted receiving a loan for $10 000 from someone he had never met on the basis that he would not have to repay the loan if he lost the Blain by-election. The Attorney-General accepted a $5000 donation from former Magistrate, Peter Maley, before he was appointed to the office. Mr Maley subsequently admitted donating $50 000 to the CLP while serving as a Magistrate.
Then, more than two years after the mandated deadline, Foundation 51 disclosed a donation of $200 000 to the CLP. The Chief Minister’s response:
- I think it’s time for someone from the CLP to do something in this regard, it obviously smells ...
The Chief Minister frankly admitted the activities of Foundation 51 and the CLP smell, but he will not show any leadership and call a judicial inquiry to fully expose the shonky deals. No wonder the member for Araluen said he lacks honesty, respect and decency.
Madam Speaker, I could go on today. I am here to represent my community and I acknowledge that we have the most chaotic, dysfunctional, arrogant government in the Territory’s history that is lurching from one crisis to another. There are so many examples. I hope to have highlighted a few today. This is the most important motion our parliament can debate. The people of the Northern Territory deserve better. I urge members to support this motion.
Ms ANDERSON (Namatjira): Madam Speaker, I support this motion of no confidence and speak to the nine members who signed the original form to throw Adam Giles out of the Chief Ministership. Those nine people must have their own integrity and morality on where they stand. They must draw a line in the sand about the things that have been said about them publicly.
I take this opportunity to talk about the member for Araluen who – out of the 14 members sitting there and the nine whose signatures are on that paper – has the guts to stand up and put herself into a position which is about her integrity and say, ‘I will not support this man because he has never been duly elected’.
He lied last year about his grandmother having been born underneath a tree. There was no such thing! The old girl said, ‘I was not born underneath a tree, I was born in a hospital, for goodness sake’. Lie after lie occurred with this Chief Minister.
I will talk about the integrity of the member for Araluen. The member for Araluen has been a long-term resident of Alice Springs who came from a social work background – which I have said in this House many times. She gave not just non-Indigenous people, but Indigenous kids, an opportunity to work in her business when she first started Mad Harry’s.
She worked with my two eldest children at the interpreter service at the Alice Springs Hospital when she was a social worker. She encouraged those two young Indigenous kids, in their first time in employment, to have a look at the professional stream instead of always just looking at the Indigenous stream. I applaud the member for Araluen’s enthusiasm to encourage young kids to not always look at their careers identifying as an Aboriginal person, but also challenge the professional stream.
She and her husband, Craig, with Mad Harry’s in Alice Springs, have given many opportunities to Indigenous and non-Indigenous people through their businesses in Alice Springs. She is a long-term resident who contributes to Alice Springs socially and economically.
The Johnny-come-lately reckons he comes from the Blue Mountains in New South Wales. I have spoken to many Indigenous people in New South Wales but cannot see where he fits into any family in New South Wales. You can ring the New South Wales Land Council and they will tell you the man fits nowhere in Aboriginal society of New South Wales.
When thinking about Aboriginality, I remember ATSIC had to identify this little boy and acknowledge him as an Aboriginal person. We signed an Aboriginality form for him to say he was seen as, and was, an Aboriginal person in Aboriginal society. That needs to be challenged.
This man has caused complete destruction. He has come from somewhere else, will not continue to live in the Northern Territory but has destroyed a party, destroyed human beings, been rude towards colleagues by openly talking about the member for Katherine and the minister for corrections and child protection. These people have integrity and have been in the Northern Territory for a long time, much longer than the little boy who says he comes from New South Wales. He needs to be questioned.
This motion clearly asks the nine who put their signatures on that paper 22 days ago to question their morals and integrity about where they stand in this. Do you support this man to make sure he does the right thing for Territorians or have you changed your mind? Have you changed your mind in 22 days to say, ‘We did not trust him 22 days ago but we trust him now. We have complete faith in him.’
Member for Drysdale, I believe your father-in-law was mentioned as one of the people he would be getting rid of. Is that something you believe in? Will you stick up for him? The nine members whose signatures are on that paper said, ‘We no longer have confidence in you as your wing colleagues’. Those are the things you have to talk about in this House.
This person came into this great Territory of ours as an outsider and insulted many great Territorians who have been here a lot longer than him. He has just blown in from the Blue Mountains of New South Wales and he will blow back out, but these great Territorians such as the members for Katherine, Araluen, Barkly and Nhulunbuy are long-term Territorians who have relationships with people.
Looking at the way the former Chief Minister was done away with, which has happened again, it is a sorry state that not only as politicians, but as Territorians, we have allowed this nonsense to happen in the Northern Territory. The former Chief Minister was stabbed in the back twice.
This motion urges us all to come together as Territorians and say to this fellow, ‘This is not the Territory way. That is not the way Territorians behave. Maybe if you do not want to live with those rules of the way that we have been brought up as Territorians, then you need to leave.’ There is already talk around his electorate of Braitling – and bring the gerrymander on, I am looking forward to it. I have not said anything about it so far but the interviews quite clearly show there will be a gerrymander. He is not just a little boy, but is also a coward as he is not prepared to take anybody on ...
Madam SPEAKER: Member for Namatjira, while it is a motion of no confidence in the government, you cannot escape the fact you should not be using language like that. If you could withdraw please.
Ms ANDERSON: I withdraw, Madam Speaker. It is quite clear that the Deputy Chief Minister – for 15 minutes – who I congratulated quite openly in a text message will not stick up for himself and will keep saying he will support this Chief Minister. I sent him a message saying, ‘Congratulations, Deputy Chief Minister, good on you’. The answer back was, ‘Thank you, Alison, no problems’. It is great to see you jump up and down and protect someone you had no confidence in and were quite clearly ready to throw out ...
Mr Elferink: Alison, all I am trying to protect is probity.
Ms ANDERSON: Okay. I have said it myself, you do not have to protect me.
Mr Elferink: I am not protecting you, I am protecting this House from you.
Ms ANDERSON: Right. It is great to see your own morality and dignity being questioned, because you are the biggest loser in this. You were Deputy Chief Minister for maybe four hours – or less than that. You are a good man, John. I have lots of respect for you, as many people in my electorate do. You cannot let your morality and dignity be questioned by someone who is not from here and does not have any respect for you.
Madam Speaker, I support the Opposition Leader’s motion to this House.
Mr McCARTHY (Barkly): Madam Speaker, I have listened attentively to the contributions to this historic debate from all members. Today is one of the rare occasions in the history of the Northern Territory that a motion of no confidence in a government has been debated. If passed, the motion would lead to a fresh election, which the community is demanding.
As the Leader of the Opposition said in her compelling contribution this morning, we have not introduced this motion lightly, but to keep faith with all those Territorians who are fed up with this incompetent and dysfunctional CLP government, led by an arrogant and out-of-touch Chief Minister. We had to create an opportunity for Territorians to be heard as the Chief Minister and his CLP government has simply stopped listening. This motion is not about us, the opposition; we are here on behalf of Territorians. Anybody in this House who denies this issue is not at the top of the conversation list of any political discussion in the Northern Territory – urban, remote and regional – is kidding themselves.
This is about the reasonable expectation of the community that their government will be honest, competent and accountable. Territorians deserve nothing less. When a government consistently fails these basic tests of competence and accountability it is in the hands of this parliament to make a difference, which is what the Territory opposition is doing with this motion.
The debate is historical because of the honest and courageous contribution from the member for Araluen.
In the two-and-a-half years in which the CLP has governed the Northern Territory, the community has not had confidence in it. They were given the top-shelf chance to show who they were and what they could do for the Territory after a swag of promises were made. It progressively unravelled into dysfunction, instability and complete chaos.
This motion represents trying to limit the damage. It is in our interests, on behalf of Territorians who have requested the Territory opposition step in and use parliamentary process, to limit the damage. When I speak of damage I start at the macro level, when the Chief Minister tried to verbal members on the other side regarding policy.
The statehood journey was well and truly under way and, in 2012, it was destabilised by the member for Fong Lim and supported by the CLP opposition. When the CLP came into government it completely abandoned the statehood agenda. This Chief Minister has no ambitions of statehood for the Northern Territory; he is preoccupied with himself, which is most unfortunate.
In the chaotic calamity of the last few months, as members on this side have reiterated, we have become the laughing stock of the nation. We are up there with the Northern Territory News front page on national media as a laughing stock. This has seriously disadvantaged our statehood push, our campaign, our national platform to be recognised as a seventh state. The Chief Minister can wear the blame fairly and squarely as a leader who has allowed this calamity to dominate the national agenda.
As a politician – I do not sit comfortably with that term – I am now included in the laughing stock. The member for Nelson alluded to the serious issue of the profession of an elected community member now being denigrated. I hold the Chief Minister to blame for that chaos and calamity based on self-interest, arrogance, and an out-of-touch member of parliament not listening to Territorians.
I cop my fair share of criticism within the community and I level the blame at the Chief Minister. The bush is articulating politics like never before. It is enlightening to see bush residents starting to evaluate the government of the Northern Territory. I have been involved in the bush for more than half of my life, for 35 years. The discussions wherever I go relate to the Giles CLP. It is very simple – and I have raised this point in this House many times – if you make big promises then people will listen, but they have an expectation that you will deliver.
The Chief Minister of the Northern Territory is purely focused on his own self-interest, leadership and the style and swagger that goes with the lead minister of the Northern Territory, and has forgotten the bush. But the bush has not forgotten you, Chief Minister. The bush is holding you to account. It wants to know what the opposition will do about this. I am in regular dialogue with constituents across the Barkly electorate, many of whom support the CLP, and they are asking the same question, ‘When will you guys, as an opposition, stop the rot? When will you limit this damage? When will you stand up for Territorians?’ That is why this motion is before the House.
The cost of living debate was a good one that emerged from the recent Power and Water Corporation debate. There were a number of members on this side who debated with the Treasurer over the cost of living in the Territory and the concerns about the CLP policy settings. The Treasurer used an analogy about a toaster and brown toast. Yes, that was a good analogy to use because we will continue to debate you in a policy argument that your settings are hurting Territorians, particularly the lower socioeconomic element of our community, those people on fixed incomes. Those policy settings need to be addressed. We will continue to take that up with you, as a government that refuses to listen. However, there may be some changes afoot now you have been exposed in this debate and the truth is out.
The developing northern Australia debate is a good one. The Leader of the Opposition, as a natural progression in the electoral cycle, is now leading the articulation of the opposition policy development. She mentioned the development of northern Australia and the damage that is being done when we are not the north that is the future of this nation but the laughing stock of it.
We can connect that to our leadership and the Chief Minister appropriating $33m into the account of his Chief Minister’s department, with that money then providing high-class media advertising, glossy brochures, lots of advertisements and television advertising campaigns. That was taxpayers’ money spent to talk about himself and the CLP and its position on developing northern Australia.
When you look at the rubber on the road, with $0.4m appropriated to Ord River Stage 3 and $0.3m appropriated to the Alice Springs Golf Club, it does not stack up. The $33m that was loaded into the Chief Minister’s department to allow him to promote himself, fronting all these grand statements, should be supporting those Territorians who are hurting. The business community is very concerned and has asked us to voice the opposition and make it very clear that 340 businesses closed in the Northern Territory under the leadership of the the Giles CLP. That is an understatement. A total of 120 of those businesses are in Alice Springs, where the Chief Minister launched his political career.
Contractors who come to me in regional areas use the term ‘contributors’. If you are not a contributor you do not get a shake under the CLP. It is disgraceful as these were your heartland voters. These people supported the CLP for 27 years. They had a taste of Labor. We had a regional air link into Tennant Creek under Labor. It was extended from two days a week to three days a week, purely reflecting the economic activity in the regions. We now have a business community representing regional contractors who are asking me to address the issue relating to ‘contributors'. If you are not a contributor you do not get a shake. This is dishonest and you need to do something about it. The Chief Minister needs to go.
Regarding Indigenous housing, I mentioned Senator Nigel Scullion in Borroloola enlightening the Northern Territory that federal Indigenous housing money has been handed to the Northern Territory government. Once again, it was loaded into the account of Hon Adam Giles, the member for Braitling. People in my electorate and many Labor electorates are asking the same question: when will this be addressed? The business community wants the work and the people in the regions and remote areas need the housing. The federal Senator said it was loaded into the CLP account. Where is the action, ladies and gentlemen? There is nothing.
It has been stalled like the non-existent 10-year infrastructure construction project you inherited from the Department of Construction that has been shelved and rebadged into contracts for your mates that relate to ‘contributors to deliver’. It is a disgrace.
Minister Elferink debated in this House. I always enjoy his contributions. As the self-appointed legal counsel of the CLP he had to defend the indefensible. It was the most lightweight argument I have ever heard from the member for Port Darwin. I have learnt from this man of intellect, but unfortunately he had to defend the indefensible. His argument dropped away. It started to repeat itself after about 10 minutes. I felt sorry for him because he knows this is disgrace. He knows what Territorians are saying. He sits on roundabouts and talks to people and is now caught up in this complete chaos and calamity.
Member for Port Darwin, yes, there is activity on the Darwin skyline relating to 2000 home units that were approved under Labor. I was the minister at the time. I remember the previous Chief Minister, Paul Henderson, and the Leader of the Opposition going south and bringing the financial sector to Darwin to show we were different, we were emerging from the GFC and we had a countercyclical, step-out plan for fiscal management – and they started lending money. From 100% sales off a plan they started to look at Darwin and lending money, and that translates to the cranes on the skyline we all celebrate.
The policy settings of the CLP have been based on broken promises. I am continually dealing with people in the bush regarding education. These are locals – not teachers we bring in from interstate – who have lost their jobs because of this calamity of a policy setting called global school budgets, which was $23m short on funding. We had a new minister who had the guts to admit it and deliver the $23m. By the way, that is just to pay the existing salaries; there is a further shortfall. That person was sacked and is gone.
Regarding the TBLs, the Giles way of politics is to verbal a person. The way he verbals a person was used by the member for Port Darwin because, let us say, he had nothing left. He had no more shots in the locker, so he used me as an example – that the Chief Minister tried to verbal about temporary beat locations.
As a voice for the people I put on the record again that Aboriginal people in the Barkly are very disturbed about temporary beat locations because it discriminates against them. The community is very concerned. The police officers who train to have a celebrated career say they will not get it standing outside a bottle shop or a club in Tennant Creek in the blistering sun hour after hour risking skin cancer.
I warned the CLP all the holistic policy setting would do is force problem drinkers out. Our problem drinkers have gone to Mount Isa. I suggest many are here, which is reflected in the crime rates of Palmerston and Darwin. This is a result of poor policy setting. We are all about trying to solve domestic violence but we say to you guys this is not sustainable, it has ramifications and is failing in a holistic sense.
The last point I will make about TBLs – since I am continually verballed by the member for Braitling trying to score a few political points in his complete desperation – is that TBLs in the regions have put people on the road. We have people searching out grog from areas where police are not standing outside the alcohol outlets. If you put alcohol with motor vehicles you know what you have.
I will continue to debate this. The Leader of the Opposition will stand firm on Labor’s previous policy of Enough is Enough and all the components in addition to the Banned Drinker Register. People in the regions now have been able to compare and we believe we can compress a good policy setting. However, we have a Chief Minister who will not listen and an Attorney-General who is completely focused on trying to howl you down and both have stopped listening to Territorians, which is why they are in the spot they are in. Frankly, Territorians have had enough.
I encourage the member for Nelson to vote on this motion because this is the last chance to get sanity back into land release in the rural area. Labor’s policies of the rural villages and intensification were rolling out and we were taking Territorians with us. The CLP has stepped in and taken the opportunity to cut up large tracts of land privately owned by their mates – dare I say ‘contributors’. This will become an ad hoc reactionary land release policy. The member for Nelson can shut that down today.
I urge the member for Nelson that if there is nothing else in this debate he will do to stand up for Territorians today, he can vote for this no confidence motion against the Giles CLP to try to prevent the rural area being cut up into 600 m2 blocks under this chaotic government which is self-serving and its members only interested in themselves.
The opposition is the voice of the people. The member for Fannie Bay coined it very well: NT people are our most precious asset and we will always stick up for them. The other speakers on this side have given a very comprehensive summary through different portfolio areas.
I remember when the member for Braitling, the Chief Minister, started his arrogant and aggressive verbal attacks in opposition. He verballed refugees, calling them ‘scum’. I was new in this House and not familiar with all the parliamentary processes. But I had a sense of morality so I went upstairs and reported it to government colleagues, ‘This is not right, this should not be done’.
The Chief Minister, while in opposition, had the opportunity to make an apology and tell the truth. He chose not to, and that was years ago. It is the same now.
This no confidence motion is about the people of the Northern Territory, as the member for Nightcliff said, and this parliament. I calculate 19 members of this parliament who want this guy gone in the interests of the people of the Northern Territory. It is about the members in general who have the responsibility.
The member for Braitling came into this House last week with a cut-and-paste statement, ‘I will turn over a new leaf, be a good guy and tell the truth’. The member for Araluen told the truth. As recently as yesterday, the Chief Minister of the Northern Territory was exposed as being completely careless with the truth on ABC radio. Today, on the same ABC program, he was not telling the truth. He was mean spirited. He only leads with self-interest and should be thrown out.
Mr Deputy Speaker, I urge every member to stand up for Territorians …
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER: Member for Barkly, your time has expired.
Ms LAWRIE (Opposition Leader): Mr Deputy Speaker, it is extraordinary that the Chief Minister does not defend his own government in this motion of no confidence. He left it to the member for Port Darwin, about whom he made incredibly offensive remarks in the leaked records from the Alice Springs branch meeting. He left it to him to, at best, give a lame, half-hearted response.
I did not get through the count – I have not seen the Hansard – but I think he made reference to about three achievements of the government in two-and-a-half years. I stand to be corrected; it could be five or six.
Thank you for giving enduring powers to those with illnesses – the living will ...
Mr Elferink: Which you were critical of.
Ms LAWRIE: We were supportive of it. We were on the path of doing it in government. There was no issue with that legislation.
The temporary beat locations have been unsustainable ...
Mr Elferink: They just got rid of all the drunks …
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order!
Ms LAWRIE: You can rant and rail all you want, member for Port Darwin, but this is the arrogance exhibited by your government. The Police Association, the Australian Hotels Association and respected doctors who work at the frontline describe them as unsustainable and have called repeatedly for the reintroduction of the BDR, yet you still cling to this as your great policy initiative.
There has been some success in reduction of alcohol consumption, but drinkers will move to the next takeaway outlet to get access to grog. That is why the temporary beat locations are simply unsustainable. The member for Nightcliff articulated the impact stripping away those crucial police resources have on our communities.
In this no confidence motion in this Chamber today – the most serious motion that can be debated – the member for Araluen’s contribution summed up the concerns of many people about the lack of character and judgment shown by the Chief Minister. No other senior Cabinet members defended the role of the government ...
Mr Elferink: Because we want to get on with business.
Ms LAWRIE: Surely, at the very least, you could have articulated some of your views and achievements, but the contempt this government shows Territorians has been seen in this Chamber today by your abject failure to participate in this most serious debate, with the exception of the members for Port Darwin and Araluen.
The member for Araluen spelt out what most of us can plainly see: one of the reasons why this motion is before the parliament is that the political instability within the government remains unresolved. At the heart, that is a serious matter for the Northern Territory. Territorians cannot stand the circus they have seen in the last two-and-a-half years. They cannot stand by and watch the paralysis of government and business investment fleeing the Territory because of the level of instability. These are all critical issues.
Yes, you have trashed our reputation nationally and internationally and made us a laughing stock. The question remains how is it that the Chief Minister who does not have the support of nine of his colleagues – who the member for Araluen today pointed out is not really the anointed Chief Minister because the member for Katherine is – remains the Chief Minister? The member for Araluen said his colleagues genuinely thought he had lost touch with average Territorians, he was arrogant and his general dishonesty was eroding any respect we had for him. That is from one of your own.
Everywhere we go, as elected members of this parliament, we are constantly being stopped by Territorians from all walks of life, all backgrounds, all professions, all regions of the Territory saying, ‘Get rid of this government. It is an embarrassment. It does not care what it does to us and we cannot keep coping with its decisions.’
You chose to bury your head in the sand, but the dire impact of the cost of living is enormous. Families literally cannot pay their power and water bills and are struggling. They are having to grapple with the most horrendous of decisions: whether or not they should pack up and leave their home in the Territory they love simply because this government made an arbitrary decision to increase power, water and sewerage tariffs.
I say ‘arbitrary’ because in a briefing Labor had with Mr Tregilgas after the tariff increases, we asked on what financial analysis were the tariff increases made. He advised us that it was a rough estimation on tariff increases elsewhere in Australia – in stark contrast, I might add, to the forensic Reeves report Labor had instigated when it was in government when considering tariff increases. This is the problem …
Mr Elferink: You chose to ignore it.
Ms LAWRIE: I pick up on the interjection from the member for Port Darwin. That report was implemented. In 2009 we embarked on the first significant tariff increases for some 20 years – 10 years of CLP and 10 years of Labor – and we were honest about that. We gave the report’s executive summary to industry and community organisations and explained the tariff increases to everyone. We explained how we weighed up the impact of tariff increases on Territorians.
None of this, of course, occurred under the CLP because it is far too arrogant. It is putting profits before people. The Auditor-General’s report of last week showed us that Power and Water has created $150m in new revenue, new profit, as a result of those tariff increases. The government then turned around and denied this.
There is no honesty in this government. As many of my colleagues and speakers in this Chamber today have said, trust has been breached. It has irrevocably been broken. There is a significant trust deficit. Yes, sadly, it reflects on every politician in the Northern Territory at the moment because people cannot believe what their elected members of government say, because they say one thing and do another. They say the most ridiculous lies.
How on earth does this Chief Minister hold his head up high when nine of his own colleagues want him gone? How does he then say, ‘There is nothing to see here; we are united’, and then that day sack a colleague from Cabinet. That is not unity. How does he then pretend it is all okay and settled then sack the former Chief Minister, the Ambassador to Indonesia and ASEAN, and pretend he had not? No wonder his own parliamentary colleague, the member for Araluen, says he lacks integrity, honesty and respect. She is not the only person saying it, we hear it all the time. We hear the deep and grave concerns across our regional towns, our remote communities and in our capital city.
One of the biggest disappointments of the past two-and-a-half years is the funding ripped out of crucial Indigenous programs. We have a vast challenge to close the gap in disadvantage. In the past two-and-a-half years $500m has been ripped out of Indigenous program funding by the federal government. What did this government do in response? Did it rail, fight, try to claw back every dollar for the Territory? No, the Chief Minister chose not to have an Indigenous affairs portfolio. Then, when resurrecting it recently, he chose not to establish a department or a specific unit within his department to drive forward improvements for the people who voted the CLP to government – those living across remote constituencies in the Northern Territory.
We do not want to see any more harm being done to Territorians, further cuts to education, ignoring the crisis in health, failure to deliver additional funding into crucial infrastructure to build the Territory or chaos, dysfunction and instability. Territorians deserve far better than this. Let Territorians decide about your policies, which the Chief Minister has since admitted you lack. Test those and your intention to sell the port, or give it a sneaky name of a lease, with the public. Test the strength of your views and direction at the polls. Support this motion if you are so sure what you are doing is for the benefit and welfare of Territorians. Test it at the polls because Territorians are doing that most rare thing of calling for an early election.
It is remarkable in politics for any party to seek an early election. We did not do so lightly during the constitutional crisis day when most people had no idea who the Chief Minister of the Northern Territory was. We were fielding calls from around the country and from overseas bureaus asking who the Chief Minister of the Northern Territory was. At 1 am there had been a coup and the member for Katherine stood next to the member for Port Darwin and said, ‘I am the Chief Minister and here is my Deputy Chief Minister. The government has not been operating the way we think it should so we will be a changed government and we will consult. We will have a judicial inquiry into the allegations surrounding the former Police Commissioner’, which would, of course, involve the former Police minister, the current Chief Minister.
The chaos of the morning ensued. We do not have to guess about the role the member for Braitling played because he went on a rant in an Alice Springs branch meeting which was recorded and those transcripts leaked. He said he was ‘hammered’. Who in a responsible leadership role does that? He described who would go and stay. It has been a revolving Cabinet door.
Yes, that day we said there needs to be an election. This is not democracy. A Chief Minister who is not Chief Minister by the will of his own team is not democracy. A government that has irrevocably broken the trust of Territorians does not deserve to continue as government.
The Chief Minister made extraordinary allegations in relation to a coup by his own members and senior police. He promised a judicial inquiry into this, but of course there is still no terms of reference or judicial inquiry weeks later. We know the form of this Chief Minister because he scrapped the political donations judicial inquiry as soon as he settled the numbers during the last time of upheaval. As the member for Araluen has articulated, the political instability within our government remains unresolved.
I hope members opposite do the right thing by Territorians they have been elected to serve and support this motion of no confidence which would prompt a trigger to sit for eight days to give the government members time to argue in this Chamber. The members for Braitling, Fong Lim, Sanderson, Stuart, Brennan and Daly could come in here and argue – within that eight days of recalling parliament through the powers of your Speaker – why you should be the government, because you have not argued that today.
Then, if that lapsed, Territorians would be given the choice. They would be given the chance to end the instability that has paralysed the government of the Northern Territory and is preventing so many crucial outcomes from occurring for Territorians.
Mr Deputy Speaker, we commend this motion to the House.
The Assembly divided:
Ayes 10 Noes 13
- Ms Anderson Mr Barrett
Ms Fyles Mr Chandler
Mr Gunner Mr Conlan
Ms Lawrie Mr Elferink
Ms Lee Mrs Finocchiaro
Mr McCarthy Mr Giles
Ms Manison Mr Higgins
Ms Moss Mr Kurrupuwu
Mr Vowles Mrs Price
Ms Walker Ms Purick
Mr Tollner
Mr Westra van Holthe
Motion negatived.
MOTION
Print Paper – February 2015 Auditor-General’s Report to the Legislative Assembly
Print Paper – February 2015 Auditor-General’s Report to the Legislative Assembly
Mr ELFERINK (Attorney-General and Justice): Mr Deputy Speaker, I move that the February 2015 Auditor-General’s Report to the Legislative Assembly be printed and I seek leave to continue my remarks at a later date.
Leave granted.
Debate adjourned.
INFORMATION AMENDMENT BILL
(Serial 101)
(Serial 101)
Continued from 29 October 2014.
Ms FYLES (Nightcliff): Madam Speaker, the opposition does not find this bill contentious. It enables public sector agencies to lawfully collect, use and disclose personal information to assist in disaster and emergency management, which is extremely important. This bill clarifies for public sector agencies their abilities to use, disclose and share personal information after the immediate threat of an emergency situation passes. We have our fair share of emergencies in the Territory, and our emergency services, police and government departments do a great job in challenging circumstances to protect Territorians and connect them to support services in the aftermath. The ongoing support can be multifaceted, involving a number of agencies. These changes are sensible to assist those agencies to lawfully manage information flows between departments.
I was surprised, when I took a briefing for this bill, that we did not already have this in place. It makes sense. As a previous cyclone shelter volunteer, at times of emergency and in the aftermath it is important for government agencies to share information. When I was involved, the cyclones were fairly low level, but I imagine in more catastrophic events such as last weekend, with the evacuation of many people, it is important to share this data.
It also sensibly extends the definition of ‘law enforcement agency of police’ to include emergency services and the fire service. Streamlining the code of practice approval process is also supported.
Mr Deputy Speaker, the opposition fully supports this bill. As I said at the outset, it is not contentious at all. We look forward to this bill being in place to help agencies should we have to face a natural disaster or an emergency situation. Hopefully, that will be later rather than sooner, but at least we have the provisions in place.
Mr WOOD (Nelson): Mr Deputy Speaker, I had to change tack all of a sudden. I thought we were doing the Bail Act. We are not doing that, but the Information Act. I thank the minister for bringing this bill before the House. I understand this allows the sharing of information between various bodies in times of an emergency. That is very important.
I noted an issue when I was reading this. I would like clarification of what information or processes are in place that will protect the public. In other words, will the public know what you are doing with the information you want to share? We are obviously sharing information about the public between agencies in times of emergency. What protections are there for the public to ensure that information cannot be misused?
I did not have many other issues with it. As I said, the safeguards is the main concern I have. Obviously it makes sense that in a time of emergency you do not want to be tied up in red tape trying to find information about certain people, where they live, who are they, etcetera. It makes good common sense.
I support the bill. As I said, I was rushing around thinking we would do the Bail Act. While I am here, I have to apologise to the Attorney-General. Last week we debated about the police. I am just trying to think what the name of the bill was ...
Mr Elferink: That was the special powers legislation.
Mr WOOD: The special powers legislation. I was not sure whether it was under you or the minister for police ...
Mr Elferink: It went under the minister for police but I made a couple of comments.
Mr WOOD: That is right. Anyway, in my hurry sometimes, with my enthusiasm to comment on bills, I quoted from a letter from the president of the Police Association which had nothing to do with the bill. I received a phone call from Vince Kelly – bless his heart, he is a wonderful bloke, regardless of what the member for Fong Lim thinks. He is a dedicated police officer who works hard and has a great social conscience.
He kindly informed me that some police had noticed I had spoken and requested that certain matters be raised during the debate that had nothing to do with the bill. So I have egg on my face which is appropriate for an ex-chicken farmer.
I apologise to the minister and the Police Association. If it was something that may have upset a number of the members of the police force, I apologise. These things happen from time to time, but luckily in this case I did have enough time to rush out and get the Information Amendment Bill instead of us talking about the Bail Act.
Mr ELFERINK (Attorney-General and Justice): Mr Deputy Speaker, I could pick up on the last point by the member for Nelson. This is at the point where, of course, I grab the back of his hand and pat it softly and say, ‘It is all right, dear, we are not really that worried about it’. I thank him for the acknowledgement. I cocked an eyebrow when you were reading it, but clearly it inspired or impelled Vince in a way that it did not impel me to walk across the room and have a chat. We like a broad debate in this House, with latitude extraordinaire given to certain members.
I pick up on the other point the member for Nelson made in relation to the integrity of the information that is passed. The best way to answer that question is we just rely on the integrity of people to be smart. We hire professional public servants to look after this information and they are very careful with it, sometimes frustratingly so even within their ministerial domain.
I will outline what I consider to be a general principle I apply to issues of rights to privacy across my ministerial portfolio. We are talking about corrections, child protection in particular, health and those things when it comes to the passage and movement of information. Perhaps I can outline my philosophy which will give you some idea as to what drives this type of thing.
Has the member heard of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs? I am sure he would have run into it at some point ...
Mr Wood: You have mentioned it in parliament before.
Mr ELFERINK: In that case you will be aware there are five tiers to Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. The lowest tier deals with the most fundamental elements of people’s needs – the need to have food in your stomach and to have shelter to survive. The next rung is safety and security. It is an oversimplification but will do for the purpose of this conversation.
Many people will talk about the hierarchy of needs. As you go up through the hierarchy you end up at self-actualisation which is when you walk out of the university clutching your degree, feeling good about yourself. It implies something that many people do not extrapolate from it; what I would call a hierarchy of rights.
If you apply that rationale to this legislation before the House where we talk about rights of privacy and those things, those rights exist in their own hierarchy. The best way to describe that is in relation to their juxtaposition to the hierarchy of needs. For example, the rights to privacy, whilst important, should not overrule or override the fundamental human right to safety. This bill seeks to allow information to be shared which deals with people’s safety, security, sustenance and the like. It is in times of emergency and exceptional need, when those fundamental human rights are being threatened, we are now moving to step aside and out of this domain of protecting more pedestrian rights, which could be cultural rights or the right for privacy. I hope that gives some enlightenment of what the thinking is to the member for Nelson.
In regard to the security of that information if I, as a police officer, became aware of information from somebody’s health or child protection record I am still bound by the Criminal Code Act, if memory serves me, but also other legislation applicable to public servants, to deal with that information with great confidentiality. Whilst it would remain within the orbit of government, or under certain limited circumstances within the orbit of government and some NGOs, it is still not there for public distribution.
Ultimately I believe we can say we can trust our police officers, medical officers, child protection workers, housing officers and educators to be discreet with other people’s information as a matter of principle. On occasions when the information is used inappropriately, it is done to the horror of many other professionals in the field. When you see a person accessing information or read about it in the newspaper, it is because it is considered to be such a profound breach of trust it is considered to be one of the more onerous breaches of decorum for public service management as a general principle.
That is the comfort I can give you. Frankly, I suspect this legislation will do little more than make lawful something which was probably lawful anyhow but we are removing all doubt. It is important that we remove all doubt around these things because common sense would dictate you would never let a person come to harm because you refuse to open a file.
It is not entirely unlike the anecdote, probably untrue, of the quartermaster at the Battle of Isandlwana refusing to give cartridges to soldiers when the Zulus were attacking on the grounds they had not filled out the proper paperwork. It is that type of rationale, if legislation creates it, that I despise. It is that rationale, when used by public servants, that I equally despise.
I urge all public servants to take necessary risks. So long as they act in good faith, and on the right side of gross negligence and criminality, then as far as I am concerned they deserve to be supported and looked after by governments, no matter of which persuasion, they work for.
Mr Deputy Speaker, other than that, I thank honourable members for their support. I would have been very surprised if this bill had encountered any substantial resistance. Clearly it has not, and it is time to continue making good law on behalf of the people of the Northern Territory.
Motion agreed to; bill read a second time.
Mr ELFERINK (Attorney-General and Justice) (by leave): Mr Deputy Speaker, I move that the bill be now read a third time.
Motion agreed to; bill read a third time.
MINISTERIAL STATEMENT
A New Direction for Vocational Education
and Training in the Northern Territory
A New Direction for Vocational Education
and Training in the Northern Territory
Mr STYLES (Employment and Training): Mr Deputy Speaker, the Country Liberals government is a champion of vocational education and training and understands the important role it plays in developing our economy.
Today I outline the Country Liberals’ changes to better support the needs and expectations of business and industry. We are driving hard on a number of initiatives to move to a more transparent and contestable vocational education and training framework for the Northern Territory, driven by economic development priorities and business and industry needs. Essentially we are implementing a model that maximises our return on investment for Northern Territory vocational education and training funding. We articulated this strongly among our election commitments in coming to government ...
Mr McCARTHY: A point of order, Mr Deputy Speaker! Will we be given a copy of this statement?
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER: That is a question for the Whips and the Leader of Government Business. That is not a point of order. Please continue, minister.
Mr STYLES: As part of our business policy we made clear commitment for skills training to be targeted towards employment outcomes and jobs for Territorians. To capitalise on market opportunities, government needs to invest in activities within the vocational education and training sector that provide local business and industry with the skilled employees it is demanding. Importantly, we need to skill Territorians for real jobs in the Territory, in sectors and industries that are growing or will grow.
As we all know, the Territory is benefiting from significant economic prosperity and growth. In the September 2014 quarter Business Outlook, Deloitte Access Economics forecast the Northern Territory economy to outperform the national economy over the next five years. Deloitte forecast that the Northern Territory economy will grow at an average rate of 4.9% per annum between …
Mr McCARTHY: A point of order, Mr Deputy Speaker! Standing Order 36: I draw your attention to the state of the House.
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER: Ring the bells.
A quorum is present.
Mr STYLES: Deloitte forecast that the Northern Territory economy will grow at an average rate of 4.9% per annum between 2013-14 and 2017-18. This is the highest growth rate of all jurisdictions and well above the 2.9% annual average growth forecast for Australia over the same period.
Further, the CommSec State of the States report released in January this year shows the Northern Territory leads the way on five out of the eight indicators supplied: economic growth, equipment investment, unemployment, dwelling starts and construction work.
In overall performance, the Northern Territory is ranked as the equal best performing economy in Australia alongside New South Wales and ahead of Queensland and Western Australia – the two other northern jurisdictions – which makes us the obvious choice as the lead jurisdiction in developing the north.
Now, more than ever, we have to grasp this opportunity and realise our full potential. Framing the Future sets out the framework to do this, with one of the key ingredients being a skilled workforce. We must help improve the capacity and productivity of our workforce by investing in skills development in areas where it will make a difference. The key to understanding business and industry demands in vocational education and training is to grow a skilled workforce for the future.
Another important component of our election commitments was for the employment and training function of government to be driven from within the business portfolio, and to re-establish the Northern Territory Employment and Training Authority to advise the government on training policies and priorities.
I am pleased to report that an industry-based Northern Territory Employment and Training Advisory Board has been established. The board has a full agenda, overseeing the improvements under way in our vocational and training framework for the Territory. Their recommended legislation, policies, funding, business models and strategic policy settings will inform how we invest in vocational education and training into the future. The board is chaired by highly-regarded business executive, Mr Andy Bruyn. The other members of the board are equally well-known business leaders. They are Ms Karen Sheldon, Mr Peter Barclay, Mr Gary Coleman, Mr Greg Ambrose-Pearce, Mr Michael Long, Ms Roslyn Frith and Mr Wayne Kraft.
The outcome we seek through the efforts of this board is a more productive, transparent, contestable and efficient vocational education and training framework in the Territory, aligned to the needs of business and industry.
To ensure the work of the board addresses and meets the skill development needs of business and industry, it is ably supported by six industry-owned training advisory councils: the Service Industries Training Advisory Council; Primary Industries Training Advisory Council (NT) Inc; Transport, Engineering, Automotive Training Advisory Council (NT) Inc; Cultural, Recreation and Tourism Training Advisory Council Inc; Major Industries Training Advisory Council Ltd; and Human Services Training Advisory Council Inc. The government provides funding for the operation of these councils which facilitate an important conduit between industry and the Department of Business.
The government will continue to explore the best methods of ensuring the training sector is driven by the needs of business and industry. The broad program will be completed between now and the end of 2015. The intention is for a new framework for vocational education and training in the Territory to be in place for the 2016 academic year. This will consist of: new training legislation to replace the out-of-date Northern Territory Employment and Training Act; the new Vocational Education and Training Investment Plan which will ensure investment of public funding each year is aligned with the Northern Territory’s economic priorities; and a new funding model which will be transparent and create a more contestable vocational education and training market while providing appropriate subsidisation for priority areas where market failure prevails.
At this moment, the broad-ranging consultations of the review of the Northern Territory Employment and Training Act are nearing finalisation. Industry associations, employers, training providers, government agencies and other key vocational education and training stakeholders participated in these consultations and explored the review issues outlined in a widely-distributed discussion paper. The outcomes of these consultations will help inform the development of the new training legislation. I look forward to introducing a bill, later in the year, for a reformed act which is contemporary and provides for a strong vocational education and training sector in the Territory.
As we work through these reforms, we are making immediate changes, where necessary and possible, to better meet the needs of business and industry. A good example of this is the support we currently deliver to upskill the construction industry.
In the five years to November 2013, there was a 60.9% increase in the construction workforce. During 2014, in response to a call for support from the Master Builders Association of the Northern Territory, the Department of Business entered into agreements with the Master Builders Association and the Housing Industry Association to facilitate training for 90 people in the building industry to undertake a Certificate IV in Building and Construction.
Major projects and economic growth generate sufficient employment and business development opportunities across many industries. They also increase the demand for local skilled labour. The Giles government has provided support through the Industry BuildSkills Program, which significantly reduces the cost of training for participants, making it more accessible. This commitment has already extended for 2015, with 50 additional places supported by the Department of Business following an approach from the Master Builders Association to continue the program. It is envisaged a similar arrangement will continue with the Housing Industry Association.
This is an important strategic industry development investment at a time for opportunity and growth. Both the Housing Industry Association and the Master Builders Association continue to report high levels of inquiries and enrolments in these courses as a result of employment and career opportunities available in the building and construction industry. Some people are already in the industry, but see the opportunity to start their own building business and some need to obtain extra skills for their job.
This initiative is assisting industry to respond during a time of unprecedented growth, helping to avoid a shortage of qualified and licensed builders in the Territory and produce local graduates with a focus on quality.
I inform the House of another example with an initiative recently undertaken in the Katherine region where the Department of Business, in collaboration with Katherine businesses, boosted the number of work-ready apprentices available for local employers. This innovative program, aimed at people in the region interested in an apprenticeship in automotive or engineering trades, assisted new entrants through the vital first year of their apprenticeship, and has provided local businesses with second-year tool- and job-ready apprentices.
This new approach to the delivery of the first year of training and work involved 11 apprentices employed by Group Training NT attending Charles Darwin University’s Katherine rural campus in a live-in arrangement. They completed the first stage of their apprenticeships in conjunction with a range of trade-related projects at the university, and at work placements with local employers who supported the on-the-job training requirements. Three of the participants have obtained employment and the remaining eight are going through various application and recruitment processes with local employers. Group Training NT is confident the majority of these will secure ongoing employment in their chosen apprenticeship.
Mr Geoff Crowhurst of Crowhurst Engineering in Katherine, was a driving force behind this program being delivered locally, and should be congratulated. He led discussions with the Department of Business on behalf of the Katherine Mining Services Association to set up this program.
We, on this side, listen. No more training for training’s sake and no more top-down programs rolling out so many Certificates I and Certificates II that they are used as wallpaper. Industry needs, and we expect, job-ready trainees at a minimum of Certificate III which I will talk about more shortly.
On 27 January this year, a similar program commenced for heavy commercial vehicle mechanics. This program will see 20 participants being employed by Group Training NT and attending Charles Darwin University where they will complete the off-the-job requirement for the first year of the apprenticeship, supported by work-based projects at the university and work placements with local employers.
This program is being jointly funded by Shell Australia, through the Shell Prelude Social Investment Fund, and the Department of Business. It will assist Territorians from a range of diverse backgrounds to get a start in an apprenticeship and possibly a lifelong career.
These are examples of how the government now collaborates with the business community to design and facilitate tailor-made vocational education and training solutions for sectors, industries and groups or clusters of businesses.
We are making a significant investment in vocational education and training in the Northern Territory. In 2014-15, nearly $86m in grant funding will contribute to the delivery of training and the support of the vocational education and training sector. Of that total, $28.8m is committed to support apprentices, trainees and their employers.
We are performing well in comparison to our interstate counterparts. The Northern Territory has one of the highest vocational education and training participation rates across all jurisdictions, and importantly, it is higher than the Australian rate.
Since 2010, in excess of 8850 Territorians have completed an apprenticeship or traineeship, with at least 30% of these being in occupations identified on the Northern Territory Skilled Occupation Priority List. In 2014 there were 2854 apprentice and traineeship commencements. Currently there are 3778 apprentices and trainees in training. Of these, 48.44% are in traditional trades, many of which are experiencing skill shortages.
To assist in maintaining and growing our apprentice and trainee numbers, the Northern Territory government continues to provide financial incentives to employers to encourage them to employ new apprentices and trainees. In the current environment, where the previous federal Labor government withdrew about $1bn of support, this is particularly important.
You only have to look at what Labor does, not what it says. Unlike Labor, conservative governments recognise the need to keep pace with the ever-changing needs of industry. No more training for training sake!
The Giles government welcomes the federal government’s move to establish a dedicated ministry of skills and training under the minister for Education and offers Hon Simon Birmingham MP its every support.
The National Centre for Vocational Education Research has reported high levels of satisfaction with the quality of training students receive in the NT. Successful training completions for the calendar year 2013 were at their highest level at 80.83%, compared to 78.88% in 2012. On average, nearly 88% of Northern Territory graduates and 91% of those who completed modules were satisfied with the overall quality of their training. Just over 92% of Northern Territory graduates were employed or in further study after completing their training. Of those employed after training, an average of 85% of graduates and 80% of those who completed the modules found their training relevant to their current job.
Ensuring Territorians have a sufficient level of qualifications to enter the workforce and be productive is a priority of this government. We have expanded the student entitlement to a government-funded training place at Certificate III level or above for Territorians who do not already have this level of qualification, enabling both public and private training providers to deliver this training. This initiative has broadened the choice of training providers available to individuals and businesses, enabling greater choice and range of flexible quality training provision.
Achieving acceptable vocational education outcomes is not without its challenges. Around Darwin there is the challenge of continued high demand for skilled labour coupled with low unemployment. The December 2014 labour force figures show, yet again, the Northern Territory has the lowest unemployment rate in the country at 3.6%, a decrease from the previous month.
Along with this general labour shortage skilled shortages are still very marked, particularly in professional and most trade occupations. Outside Darwin we face a number of different challenges in delivery of vocational education and training including remoteness, weather and population demographic. The Territory’s population is approximately 31% Indigenous with over 60% of these people living in remote communities with limited access to vocational education and training.
Low levels of foundation skills among our Indigenous population, particularly those in remote areas, impacts on their ability to achieve outcomes in vocational education and training without significant support. Many communities across the Northern Territory are remote and only accessible by air during the Wet Season. In extreme cases communities become isolated making delivery of training impossible. The high cost of delivering training in the Northern Territory, particularly in remote areas, continues to be an impediment to continuous and quality service delivery.
I am advised that many training providers are scaling back their training delivery in regional and remote areas, including the larger regional areas, due to the small student numbers which makes delivery unviable. To counteract these challenges this government is funding and facilitating a broad range of training courses and programs to try to meet the needs of business and industry. These are delivered through public and private training providers in urban, regional and remote locations.
To support Indigenous people the government is providing vocational education and training programs for Indigenous Territorians where training is linked to community projects with employment outcomes. During 2014, 92 programs were supported under the Indigenous Responsive Program across 45 communities in the Northern Territory involving about 1131 participants. In 2015 three programs have already commenced to support 36 participants.
There are many success stories from these programs. For example, 14 participants from the Tiwi Islands successfully completed a Certificate II qualification enabling them to gain Coxswains Grade 2 licences to operate marine vessels on the islands. The training has provided ongoing employment for workers involved in the Tiwi Islands Regional Council’s vehicle and passenger service between Bathurst and Melville Islands, and has provided career pathways and greater opportunities for the local community rangers.
Another program had results on the national stage. Injalak Arts and Crafts is located at Gunbalanya, about 330 km east of Darwin. It has been trying to engage women in screen printing and production for some time. Funding was provided to run screen printing and production training, enabling seven local Indigenous women to manufacture screens from scratch and produce prints on specially selected materials. The materials have been purchased by Australian designers and have made their way into the fashion circuit, appearing at the last Melbourne fashion week.
I am told the screen and fabric production has enabled the women to produce and market highly sought-after printed fabrics to generate a steady income for the women and the arts centre. The training workshop resulted in the agreement between Injalak and the women, providing printing space two-and-a-half days per week to ensure ongoing production of screens and fabric production. What a brilliant success story.
While this training did not involve a full qualification, it demonstrates the importance of developing skill sets and the role that skills development for a specific purpose has in response to a business or employment opportunity. Training activity in skill sets and individual units of competency is relatively high in the Northern Territory. Individuals seek training in specific skill sets or units to upgrade and update their skills – for example, to meet licensing requirements or simply because they need a specific skill for a specific job activity.
This is particularly so for existing workers and Indigenous Territorians in regional and remote communities. Until recently, the Northern Territory was one of the few jurisdictions that provided funding for the delivery of skills set training. In a rapidly-changing economy, other jurisdictions are now undertaking similar approaches.
Looking to the future it is evident that the Northern Territory will continue to experience economic growth, leading to prosperity and future development. It will increase the demand for skilled labour. In many situations, labour will need to be quickly reskilled for jobs that are not yet designed. This will place greater demands on the vocational education and training sector to be competent, efficient, responsive, transparent and free of red tape.
The Northern Territory is party to a national agenda to address these factors. As I said earlier, we are working hard on our own Territory agenda, which is consistent with national objectives.
Also looking to the future, members will know that this government, led by our Chief Minister, is making strong representations on behalf of the Territory in advance of the White Paper on Developing Northern Australia.
This paper will set out a clear, well-defined and timely policy platform for realising the full economic potential of the north, including a plan for implementing these policies over the next two, five, 10 and 20 years. It will explore ways to capitalise on the region’s strengths, provide the best regulatory and economic environment for business and identify critical infrastructure for long-term growth and public and private planning and investment. It will identify the potential for further development of the region’s minerals, energy, agriculture, tourism, defence and other industries.
Once published, the White Paper will be an important consideration for our vocational education and training priority settings. I anticipate we will need to increase our efforts to address labour shortages, both skilled and unskilled, to maximise northern Australia development.
The Territory needs a training system that can provide Territorians with the skills they require to do their jobs now and into the future. The Country Liberals’ focus is ensuring training providers engage with business and industry to identify their needs and to use that engagement to inform their training and assessment strategies. This will improve assessment outcomes and produce skilled graduates who are able to fill available jobs.
At a national level, industry has been given a formal leadership role in the provision of input and advice in relation to policy direction and decision-making. I intend for this to also be the case at the Territory level. The work of the Northern Territory Employment and Training Authority Advisory Board is central to this. By virtue of its name, employment and training should not be about training for its own sake but about training for vocational employment outcomes.
Vocational education and training is critical to our future economic growth. Just as important is the leadership role that business and industry must have in that process. Be it apprenticeships and traineeships, training delivered to job seekers, existing workers, school students or to Indigenous Territorians in remote communities, the vocational education and training sector’s contribution to the Territory community is crucial.
In closing, I have outlined changes the Country Liberals have already made, as well as those we are now making to improve the vocational education and training framework for the Northern Territory. Unlike the previous Labor government, we have given business and industry a formal leadership role in policy directions and decision-making through the operation of the Northern Territory Employment and Training Authority Advisory Board.
I have outlined initiatives under way to improve our legislation, the policies and funding models we use and the strategic policy settings which determine where our public investment is made in vocational education and training.
Building a skilled and dynamic workforce to meet the needs of the Territory’s future is paramount. Having in place a more productive, transparent, contestable and efficient vocational education and training framework for the NT, aligned to meeting to needs of business and industry, is the way to get there.
Mr Deputy Speaker, I move that the Assembly take note of this statement.
Debate adjourned.
ADJOURNMENT
Mr ELFERINK (Leader of Government Business): Mr Deputy Speaker, I move that the Assembly do now adjourn.
Mr WESTRA van HOLTHE (Katherine): Mr Deputy Speaker, most Territorians will know of Dr Clyde Fenton and the many lives he saved in the outback as the Northern Territory’s original flying doctor.
Dr Fenton first came to Katherine as the Government Medical Officer in March 1934. After privately raising money for an aircraft, he started an aerial ambulance rescue service which has since grown to become the Northern Territory Aerial Medical Service. It was called that a number of years ago and now has transformed into other forms of aerial medical services across the Top End.
A self-taught pilot, he flew without the help of navigation equipment, air charts and often proper landing strips. With no navigation equipment or radios, landings were made on strips lit by kerosene flares or car lights, and only the railway lines and Katherine River were available to estimate his position.
Calls for medical assistance would come through the two Royal Flying Doctor Service stations at Cloncurry and Wyndham, and were relayed to him by telegram. Dr Fenton flew his Gipsy Moth all over the Northern Territory, helping people in need of medical attention, picking up patients and returning them to Katherine for medical treatment.
To the civil aviation department, Dr Fenton was considered a bit of a disaster, but to the people of the outback he was considered a hero. During his career, he survived plane crashes, made a flight to China in a small open aircraft and was once stranded for five days after a forced landing.
On 14 May 1940, Dr Fenton was called up to the RAAF, where he was eventually based at Manbulloo airstrip near Katherine from which he made many emergency medical flights. In August 1942, No 6 Communications Flight was formed, with Flight Lieutenant Fenton in command. This unit delivered mail and food supplies to Army and RAAF outposts as far afield as the Wessel Islands. The unit was, at various times, based at the Ross Smith Aerodrome in Darwin and the Batchelor Airstrip.
One of the planes he few, a Gipsy Moth, is currently on display at the Fenton Hangar at the Katherine Historical Society Precinct, also known as the Katherine Museum. In January this year, the Chief Minister and I, as the local member for Katherine, had the honour of presenting the Katherine Museum with a regional grant. This grant will ensure that Dr Clyde Fenton’s Gipsy Moth will be better protected against the harsh Top End elements.
The Katherine Museum will use the $200 000 Northern Territory government grant to help air-condition the display housing Dr Clyde Fenton’s iconic Gipsy Moth, and will hopefully go a long way to installing a solar array to help defray the electrical running costs of not only the hangar, but of the museum itself.
I take this opportunity to thank Simone Croft and Friends of the Katherine Museum who have worked tirelessly to raise funds and awareness for the Katherine Museum and this important historical treasure it houses. Simone, staff, volunteers and the Committee of the Katherine Museum have carried on the work of the former Historical Society President, John MacNamara, who died on 13 September last year.
Mr Deputy Speaker, it was John’s goal to make sure air-conditioning was installed in the shed to better protect the Gipsy Moth that belonged to Dr Clyde Fenton. Sadly, John died before he could see this project completed. John championed the preservation of Dr Fenton’s plane and this grant is a nice way to honour his memory.
Mr McCARTHY (Barkly): Mr Deputy Speaker, tonight I make some comments reflecting community concern about the heavy hand of the new minister for Local Government in taking over elected councils in the Northern Territory.
In recent weeks she announced the takeover of two councils – the Litchfield Council and the Tiwi Islands Regional Council. Tonight I will focus on the Litchfield Council takeover, but I am sure we will hear more about her intervention in the Tiwi Regional Council and motivations for that action in coming weeks.
The minister announced the takeover of the Litchfield Council on 27 January this year. We know there have been ongoing difficulties involving the mayor, relatively new CEO and some other council staff. However, what remains unexplained is why the minister or her advisers thought it necessary for her to suspend all the council and appoint a departmental administrator to take over the role of the elected council.
No allegations have been made against the four elected members representing the four Litchfield council wards so why have they been suspended? Why an independent administrator was not appointed to assist these elected councillors continue their business on behalf of the people who voted for them to represent their interests, is an important question for the minister.
What other options were considered and discounted by the minister? Why does the appointed administrator have the dual role of investigation and administration? Why are these not two distinct roles? Why was the Local Government Disciplinary Committee, a group set up for this role, not allowed to consider all the available evidence in investigating complaints?
We have heard the Chief Minister say time and time again, in the context of local government, that he was ‘returning the voice to local people’. Here is a clear example of local people being denied their voice. Their elected representatives have been put to one side and replaced with a departmental person working for the minister.
Two weeks ago, the minister told the Katherine Times:
- ‘I am [prepared to sack councils], that’s right ...
‘You have to be tough in order to get things done ...
Residents of the Litchfield Council are left wondering what the agenda might be. The Litchfield Council has been steadily choked under the CLP government. Informed council sources tell me this includes $12m stripped from the council to build a national championship swimming pool, $2m taken from the Freds Pass Community Board, no respectful consultation with the council regarding changes to the zoning laws in Holtze, Noonamah Ridge and Hughes and no support to make safe dangerous black spots in local roads.
Council and residents are concerned about potential changes to the Litchfield planning scheme, reducing minimum lot sizes and affecting the lifestyle of Litchfield residents. Local people are concerned about any government plans to change the boundaries of Litchfield municipality. This is not the time to be weakening the voice of residents’ elected representatives.
Recently we have seen more trumpeting from the member for Fong Lim of the merger of Litchfield Council with other large councils. We know this is a habit within the CLP government. The member for Fong Lim pushes and bullies his own agenda through other ministers.
On behalf of the concerned residents of the Litchfield Council area, we call on the Minister for Local Government and Community Services to come clean on what is happening here, answer the questions and show more support for the four elected local government representatives cast aside as a consequence of her actions.
Mr Deputy Speaker, on behalf of the residents of Litchfield, I look forward to the minister updating the House on the matters raised and answering questions. This represents the new leaf in the Giles’ government listening to the people and making life easier, simpler and safer. I look forward to your response, minister.
Mrs FINOCCHIARO (Drysdale): Mr Deputy Speaker, on 24 December 2014 the Territory paused to take stock of the enormous journey we, as a Territory and as Territorians, have taken to rebuild, revitalise and grow Darwin following the devastating impact of Cyclone Tracy 40 years ago to the day.
As a born and bred Territorian and a person whose family survived the cyclone and contributed to the rebuild, I was very proud of the commemorations that took place between November 2014 and January 2015.
In 2013 and 2014, Cyclone Tracy survivors lobbied the Northern Territory government and the City of Darwin to do something truly special to commemorate the 40th anniversary of Cyclone Tracy. Cyclone Tracy survivors gathered together to workshop commemoration ideas and heavily influenced the outcomes delivered by both the City of Darwin and the Northern Territory government.
Cyclone Tracy survivors also created various Facebook groups where survivors had the opportunity to share the stories of their journey and support one another in a way that has been unprecedented to date. The strength and power of the thousands of people from around the country joining together in this online real time forum gave healing, grieving and memories a safe place to be expressed and shared.
At the outset, I thank the many Territorians who engaged in the development of the 40th anniversary commemorations. Your ideas, passion, inspiration and determination served as the foundation of a sequence of commemorative events we can all be proud of.
As parliamentary secretary to the Chief Minister, I had the privilege of being part of the government’s contribution to the commemorations. I worked with some wonderful people who worked very hard to deliver the commemorations in a respectful, contemplative and diverse manner so Territorians could be offered a wide range of events to cater for sensitivities, including those survivors who did not want to be overtly reminded of the devastation Tracy caused. My thanks go to the members of the steering committee, Ms Mez Korbetis from the Department of Business, Scott Chenery, the Command Warrant Officer, Headquarters of Northern Command, Anna Malgorzewicz, General Manager, Community and Cultural Services at the City of Darwin, Hugo Leschen, Department of Arts and Museums and Nuala Murphy and Janet Hanigan from the Department of the Chief Minister.
One of the initiatives was the formation of a Cyclone Tracy website which gave Territorians the opportunity to view government and council organised events, post their own community events to the website and share stories and photos on the website which will be collated as part of our history.
The commemorations included a commemorative all faith church service where we heard the stories of Territorians who were impacted in different and devastating ways by the cyclone. We gathered as a community respectfully and in contemplation. The service followed a reception at Parliament House were 500 people gathered to reflect, and in many cases catch up with Territorians they had not seen in years.
The City of Darwin sensitively approached the lighting of the Christmas tree in Raintree Park and dedicated the dimming of the lights to Tracy survivors and those who lost their lives.
There was a wide range of commemorations by a wide range of organisations including the revitalisation of the Cyclone Tracy exhibition at the Museum and Art Gallery which has seen 27 000 visitors through its doors since it opened. Tours of the NT Archive Centre and the extensive Tracy collection were very popular and booked out quickly. Of course, there were the Northern Territory Library Before Tracy exhibition as well as digital arts projects, the recording of oral history, the production of the documentary Blown Away and the production of the book called Tracy Tales: How the Darwin Business Community Survived the Great Cyclone.
In total there were 31 commemorations listed on the Cyclone Tracy website which is a tribute to the many people and organisations who hosted commemorations, the work of the public service and the work of the staff at the City of Darwin.
I again thank the community for being so involved in the development of commemorations. I hope the 40th anniversary of Cyclone Tracy raised awareness amongst new Territorians of the strength and resilience of our great city.
Mr Deputy Speaker, we have been devastated by war and rebuilt. We have been devastated by Tracy and rebuilt. We are stronger and wiser for it and I am so proud to be a Territorian.
Ms FYLES (Nightcliff): Mr Deputy Speaker, earlier in debate on the motion of no confidence, I spoke about the lack of confidence the Northern Territory community has in this government. Due to time, I did not get to finish my speech. I will raise some points this evening to have them on the record.
I was talking about the Chief Minister and Foundation 51 and how he, for so long, has denied any knowledge but is now saying publically:
- I think it’s time for someone from the CLP to do something in this regard, it obviously smells ...
The Chief Minister has reinstated the member for Fong Lim who openly claimed that money opens doors:
When I have talked to people about donating money and the like, the best thing you can say is ‘your donation will open my door if you ever need to talk to me about something’.
This highlights your lack of judgment and questions about your leadership. Chief Minister, the government you have led has hurt many Territorians. You have caused so much pain to the people you are meant to represent. Territorians do not have confidence in your government. You increased power and water bills hugely. People in our community literally cannot afford to pay those bills. I saw some people comment on social media early today about getting their power bill after a blackout last night. Professionals, families, people who work hard and want to be able to enjoy the Territory lifestyle are struggling with their bills. It breaks my heart to hear stories from the childcare ladies who look after my children who literally cannot pay these bills and cry thinking about it. You so arrogantly dismiss them.
A government should not cause pain to Territorians, yet the Chief Minister has burdened families and businesses with huge power and water increases. Every day families struggle with the pain of the cost of living. Governments should be supporting businesses not damaging confidence. A government which respects everyone meets people to hear their ideas – not only those who pay, as the member for Fong Lim openly stated. You should be willing to meet with and hear everyone’s great ideas.
A government should be investing in education and health but what have you delivered for our health system? Where is the investment for our much-needed paediatric children’s wing at RDH?
There should be sensible planning, not the ad hoc spot rezoning we are seeing. In Nightcliff we are seeing our beautiful seaside suburb changing with spot rezoning that does not fit its character. My colleague, the member for Nelson, is battling to keep the rural area rural. Good government is not about spot rezoning when there are so many questions.
I have given notice of a motion regarding Nightcliff island for tomorrow evening. You issued a lease for nearly 100 ha of our harbour without talking to anyone. Were you hoping we would not notice? This is how you govern: you just do things and do not explain. We saw your arrogance in Question Time today where you just simply refused to answer questions.
You have slashed the funding to our NGOs and you have ripped the heart out of our child protection system. We spoke earlier of your disregard for the nurses in the emergency department and our firefighters. Our firefighters are asking for something that other firefighters in Australia and our airport firies have. The most you can throw back is ‘Why did Labor not do it?’ We were on our way, as I understand. Paul Henderson had made the statement that if re-elected it would be instated.
You quiver over a date of the election. That is appalling. How can you sleep at night? We saw the helmets lined up on the steps of parliament last week for those firefighters who have sadly lost their lives. We have people battling. You are not talking huge sums of money, you are talking about people’s lives and supporting their families while they battle horrendous diseases. It is appalling. We should be doing everything we can to support them.
The member for Fong Lim, who so arrogantly last year – it may have been the year before – was ranting and raving in debate. He followed the firefighters on to the steps, when the member for Fannie Bay moved legislation that would protect those firefighters. You looked them in the eye and said you would do something, yet you have done nothing. It is appalling that you will not support those who help us when we are at our most vulnerable – our ED nurses and firefighters.
Regarding sports and recreation, do you think we have forgotten about the Arafura Games? People have not. We are repeatedly told it was a great sports event which helped our kids and was good for sport. It was raised at the opening of badminton a few weeks ago.
The cruel nature of cancelling these games at the 11th hour showed no foresight and angered our community, local athletes and volunteers. You have forgotten about it. It angered businesses, hospitality, tourism and retail. What message does that send to our Asian neighbours?
You knifed the elected Chief Minister when he was in Japan, you cancelled the games that celebrate sport and culture with our Asian neighbours, then you again knifed the former Chief Minister while he was in Jakarta. You have such contempt.
Those games were so important as it helped our Paralympics qualifiers in Darwin. We hear about sports awards, but you have made one of the most stupid decisions in cancelling those Arafura Games. You just do not care about people.
We talked today about the Chief Minister no longer having the confidence of his own party, parliament or the people of the Northern Territory. You stated in an interview after ousting Terry Mills:
- We weren’t doing – well, we weren’t managing our communications strategy properly, there was a whole range of areas in administration that wasn’t quite working, we were a divided team. Our division was affecting our performance.
How is the CLP government of today any different? The infighting and self-interested manner of this government continues. It a joke that you will not resign. Territorians are sick of it. Chief Minister, in 2013 in an interview after the first knifing of Terry Mills you stated:
- … we were somewhat of a joke.
You were absolutely right: we are not any better, we are worse. The Territory deserves better. Numerous members in the House today have outlined the 15 ministries since 26 August 2012. We have had two Chief Ministers plus one self-claimed one, three Police ministers, five Deputy Chief Ministers, five Health ministers, six Treasurers, six Education ministers – and the list goes on. How can the public service and Territorians have confidence? How can people form relationships and get things happening?
How can you govern when you cannot govern yourselves? You are a leader who is considered inadequate by two-thirds of your own team, but you arrogantly deny it. You have your head in the sand. You have described your own Deputy Chief Minister as not having the capacity, capability, tenacity or professionalism to be Chief Minister, but when you need his support, you keep him in the role of deputy. Or is that simply to stay in your role? This is what Territorians think. Territorians are questioning our ministers’ skills and ability to lead in those portfolio areas. Are they simply in that position so you can stay in your job – so you can keep their vote and keep them on side? Territorians deserve a good government, but you have a lack of good governance and policy, and it is hurting Territorians.
I have spoken today about the many impacts on my community. I proudly represent Nightcliff, Coconut Grove and Rapid Creek. What your government has done to our community is appalling. Our schools are struggling with the funding and teacher number cuts. The proposed man-made island off our coast is causing great stress to the community.
You have shut down our police station. Your measures – or lack thereof – around alcohol policy and support for our police, who do the best job they can, is appalling. We see antisocial behaviour every day. People cannot go safely to their local shops with their children and grab a coffee without witnessing antisocial behaviour. Nightcliff Woolworths is a hot spot and we need support, but your government has cut that.
To highlight how incompetent your government is in policy and direction, let us have a look at your Indigenous affairs policy. In your own words you ‘wrote it over Christmas’. You went on to state, ‘there’s very little policies on what we agree on’ within your own party.
How can you lead the Territory? How can you govern? Enough is enough. Reshuffling the hand will not change the cards. The Chief Minister no longer has the confidence of his own party, this parliament, or the people of the Northern Territory. The only way to end this circus is an election.
Mr Deputy Speaker, as I said, this is the last part of my speech I did not get time to finish today. I wanted to raise some of those points on behalf of my community. We have serious issues that need addressing, yet we have a circus of a government. We have an arrogant Chief Minister who will not acknowledge that he needs to go.
Mr WOOD (Nelson): Mr Deputy Speaker, a comment, following on from the member for Nightcliff.
I remember I heard the Chief Minister saying there has been a reduction in drunken violence in the Northern Territory. I wish the Chief Minister had been walking down Smith Street at 7 am this morning in the area of Lindsay Street. I had to ring the police because there were people all over the road. They were a danger to themselves and to others. They were well and truly influenced by alcohol.
I have also been talking to a policeman this week who raised some concerns about the temporary beat locations. People know where they are and they go to other bottle shops.
I gather there have been a lot of drunks in Darwin in recent times. It would be interesting to see if the government could bring some figures to parliament in relation to how many people have been locked up in the last few weeks in Darwin, and whether there has been a reduction in that type of behaviour. It is a bit of a rude shock to see what I did this morning at 7 am in Darwin – hearing yelling and screaming and seeing people doing all sorts of things in the main streets.
However, I digress from what I intend talking about. The Deputy Speaker might be interested in this, because I know he attended the greyhounds last year for the Darwin Cup.
The greyhound racing fraternity has been coming in for a bit of criticism, and some of that is well deserved. I will read a statement from Greyhounds Australasia on 16 February 2015 in relation to the Four Corners disclosure of people using live baits:
- The Australian greyhound racing industry is taking action against industry participants caught engaging in the illegal practice of live baiting.
Ahead of ABC’s Four Corners investigation revealing alarming evidence of the practice, the industry controlling authorities in New South Wales, Victoria and Queensland moved to suspend or stand down 23 participants alleged to have been involved in live baiting. Last week, Greyhounds Australasia instigated an urgent review of all national and local trial arm lure rules and will appoint an independent probity auditor to assess the industry’s current greyhound welfare and integrity rules and policies and recommend any changes required to ensure we are meeting the community’s expectations.
Scott Parker, CEO of Greyhounds Australasia, the peak body for the industry in Australia and New Zealand, said: ‘I am appalled at some of the footage shown on the Four Corners program. The use of live animals to train greyhounds is disgusting, illegal, unethical and totally rejected by the industry.
- ‘I am very disappointed that a number of our participants apparently have no respect for the law in their desire to succeed. The 30 000 participants who play by the rules have had their reputations severely and unfairly damaged by this appalling conduct.
The industry accepts responsibility for doing more to rid the sport of this illegal and immoral practice. Racing Queensland Ltd has already announced the establishment of an independent taskforce to investigate the issue and other independent reviews in other states are likely to be announced in the next 24 hours.
‘I call on every one of our licensed participants to make sure they support the work of their controlling authority at all times and contribute to the ongoing success of their valued and rewarding industry, Mr Parker said.
When this incident occurred I rang Craig Sant, who is not only the race caller but the manager/secretary, to ask what he thought. He said down south there are people who make a living out of greyhounds who will cut corners to make sure their dogs win. Here we have many greyhound owners, many of whom live in my electorate, who do it as a hobby. They enjoy it. They take their family out for the night and their children help train the greyhounds. He believes there is nothing happening in the Northern Territory as was shown on Four Corners. He believes there is no live baiting. We are such a small community if someone was to do that people would know quickly.
What has happened in other parts of Australia is disgusting. The Darwin Greyhound Association is a great little group which gives people an opportunity to enjoy the sport of greyhound racing. It gives people who would like to own or part-own a dog the opportunity to participate and is a great family sport.
Notwithstanding that, it would be good if the minister responsible for animal welfare looked at it to make sure an independent body checked it out so there is no doubt anything illegal is happening. I do not believe there is.
I know quite a few of the people on the management list. Nick Day has been around for years and has been involved in football, in business and is now President of the Darwin Greyhound Racing Club at Winnellie Park. Rob Brennan is vice president and has been president before. If you look through some of these names you see many local people who love the sport, and the last thing they would want to do is damage the sport they love so much.
I received an e-mail and understand that person was very concerned after seeing the Four Corners program, as I was. It is terrible people are using live baits for greyhounds.
Another part of the greyhound industry people may not know about is the Greyhound Rehoming Association. That body asks people to care for retired greyhounds ...
Mr Gunner: And it dropped post the program.
Mr WOOD: Yes. People have a fear of greyhounds because they have to wear a muzzle. They only wear a muzzle because they do not want them to bite the dogs they are running with. They make wonderful pets and it is great to see the greyhound industry is not only supportive of the welfare of the dogs while they are racing, it is also supportive of their welfare when they retire through the rehoming association.
If people have doubts, visit the Darwin Greyhound Racing Club at Winnellie Park on Sunday nights. I saw a note that there are some doubts about whether the Sky Channel will still broadcast their events in their newsletter. I hope that is not the case because the reason they have been able to put a little more money into the betting pool is we now go Australia-wide. That is a great way to help people in the industry.
You only have to spend $1 each way on one dog. You do not have to be extravagant in your betting habits when you go there. There is a race every 20 minutes and some races take less than 30 seconds and your money is gone in a flash. But it is good fun. Sporting and other groups attend.
It is a bit of old Darwin when you see the old shed there. There are nice meals and the TAB. If you go in the Dry Season you can watch the NRL, the AFL and still watch the dogs. I recommend it to people as something different and inexpensive.
If you have concerns about anything you see there talk to members of the Darwin Greyhound Association. I am sure they will be willing to take any questions. They are a good mob of locals and they need support.
The minister responsible for animal welfare, the Minister for Primary Industries and Fisheries, perhaps should make a statement which would give some independence to the matters before us at present.
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER: Thank you for that ad for DGA, well deserved.
Ms MANISON (Wanguri): Mr Deputy Speaker, this evening I ask the government a few questions about important environmental issues in the Northern Territory.
My first question is one many are wondering about. Where is the Hawke report into hydraulic fracturing, or fracking as it is also known? Many Territorians are eagerly awaiting the findings of the inquiry we know the CLP government has sat on since late last year when they received the report from Dr Allan Hawke. It has now been almost three months the government has sat on the report and people are wondering why. Given there were well over 200 submissions to this inquiry, it is abundantly clear there is a deep interest in this inquiry and its findings.
The silence is deafening. This has led to two trains of thought regarding why it has taken so long to release the findings of the Hawke inquiry. One of the assumptions is this might be another example of the government’s internal chaos within its parliamentary wing given it cannot figure out who should be Chief Minister or the minister. People are struggling to do their jobs because government members cannot get along together and the business of government has ground to a standstill.
We heard the Treasurer last week say he has not seen the report and was waiting to see it in Cabinet. He is only newly returned to Cabinet, after some time on the backbench.
There is also a train of thought that the Hawke inquiry report has been to Cabinet already and government has been trying to figure out how to deal with the findings and to prepare a response to silence opposition to and concern about fracking.
We want to know that the full report delivered to government will be released to the public. People are waiting to see the report. Rumours are that it will be released very soon but we are still waiting. When will that report be released by the government and why have they sat on it?
I also have questions about the government trying to silence independent voices which protect, conserve and defend our natural environment. Under the CLP funding to critical environmental groups which are the voice for the environment have been cut. Good governments should welcome scrutiny and be open to having their policies and actions put under the microscope. It is a critical part of being a good government. But under the CLP our long-standing and proud environmental advocates are having their voices silenced.
The Environment Centre of the NT and the Arid Lands Environment Centre are facing uncertain futures as they are losing the capacity to do their vital work. They are shedding jobs, cutting back on their projects, and the environment is not getting the level of protection it needs. These groups understand they cannot be fully dependant on government funding to survive, but they have copped double blows from the NT and the federal government and it is getting a bit too much to bear.
Today the Environment Centre of the Northern Territory released a media statement I will read. The title of it is, ‘Maintain the Territory’s Voice for the Environment – Stop the 2015 Cutbacks’. It reads:
- The Territory’s peak community environment group, Environment Centre NT, is once again calling on the NT Government to reinstate its funding, as it deals with the impact of a loss of $185 000 effective of June 30.
The Environment Centre’s Chair, Tony Young, said it is critical that all governments recognise the important role the Environment Centre plays in improving legislation, policy and planning, supporting sustainable living choices and shining a light on environmental issues facing the Territory.
Mr Young highlights that, ‘For over 35 years, the Environment Centre has worked tirelessly to protect the Territory’s environment.
‘The Environment Centre represents a broad network of dedicated, passionate members of the community seeking to inform better decision-making towards a vision of ecologically and socially sustainable development. It actively promotes sustainable living; as well as conservation of special places such as Kakadu, Limmen National Park, Darwin Harbour, and our incredible free-flowing rivers. It also continues to support Aboriginal Traditional Owners to raise the wider community’s awareness of the importance of protecting culture and country.
‘The Environment Centre will continue to be a central community hub and to support its ongoing programs such as COOLmob Smart Cooling in the Tropics, the Kimberley to Cape Initiative and other projects, as well as its vital Nuclear-Free, Nature Territory, Safe Climate and Living Rivers campaigns.
‘However, total cuts to core funding provided by the NT Environmental Protection Authority mean its capacity to provide detailed policy and sustainable living advice is now uncertain.
‘The Environment Centre is a courageous and credible voice on matters of environmental importance to the Territory and the nation. It has always emphasised the need for evidenced-based policy, research and education, and works with a broad range of people across many sectors.
‘This approach has seen the Environment Centre take a central role in policy making in the NT, from lobbying to scrap the proposed Elizabeth River ‘recreational’ dam to legal challenges over water allocations and raising awareness of the risks of a proposed expansion of Ranger Uranium Mine.
- ‘Its views have, until recently, been valued by all sides of politics.
‘We have had amazing responses from all corners, as the community bands together to maintain the Territory’s voice for the environment – including offers to build a website, make a video, undertake research, to take photographs or to host an event.
Mr Young said that given this level of community support, the Environment Centre will emerge stronger.
‘However unfortunately due to the cuts to our core funding, the Centre can now only afford to open three days a week until funds are restored, even with the support of our volunteers.
‘During this time the Environment Centre has appointed Anna Boustead as a part-time Acting Director.’
Ms Boustead said that, ‘over the next few weeks, we will be asking everybody who values our unique and special Territory environment to contribute in any way they can to keep their Environment Centre going, whether that be by volunteering, making a donation or becoming a member.’
The Environmental Defenders Offices of Australia also received a funding cut in the vicinity of $10 000 which, in the scheme of things, does not sound like much but it adds up. It is funding they should be given and it should be reinstated.
Mr Deputy Speaker, it is very concerning that the important voices of the environment are being silenced. We need to see the government looks very carefully at the consequences those funding cuts will have to the protection of our environment.
Mr GUNNER (Fannie Bay): Mr Deputy Speaker, this evening I draw the minister’s attention to an important planning issue that goes to the heart of what kind of Palmerston people want to live in. Should Zuccoli be subdivided to allow for 181 lots, of which 179 will be medium density or multiple dwellings? Of these, 132 of the allotments, or 80% of the subdivision, will be between 300 m2 and 499 m2. This is a highly-concentrated, dense community.
This is not a salt-and-pepper development. Labor supports small blocks but in a salt-and-pepper approach. We want people to have housing choice which requires a mix of housing. It is fair to say the elements of a good planning regime would strike an appropriate balance between urban density, amenity and community views. This is missing with this subdivision. Locals and Palmerston City Council have made it very clear this seriously worries them. This is an issue of concern to Palmerston residents and has led to the unanimous outrage of Palmerston City Council.
I seek leave to table the council’s media release of last week where they made it clear that they do not support the poorly planned small lot development in Zuccoli.
Leave granted.
Mr GUNNER: We are concerned with the subdivision design of Zuccoli. I will summarise the issue. The land is zoned FD. A Palmerston East area plan now exists over Zuccoli, Johnston and Mitchell etcetera. The planning scheme allows the development application for the purpose of a subdivision on land zoned FD providing there exists an area plan for the subject land – which there does – and the proposed subdivision complies with the area plan, which is questionable in this case although a matter of interpretation for the DCA.
Whilst there is a range of views on appropriate density for urban subdivisions there can be no question that proper consultation with the community is essential to good planning outcomes. When a council – in this case, Palmerston City Council – speaks with one voice, it is important to listen. Every single alderman and the mayor have made their voice very clear on this issue. They are expressing serious concerns on behalf of their community.
I am sure the minister must agree that it is a community’s reasonable expectation that planning processes allow outlying legislative and relative instruments are complied with.
The Palmerston City Council is so concerned with the subdivision that is being planned they have sought legal advice. I seek leave to table their legal advice.
Leave granted.
Mr GUNNER: It is critical the minister addresses council’s and community concerns of the DCA approval of an amended subdivision development for Zuccoli, subject to certain conditions.
The DCA decision has an important qualifier. It states that it is considered that the proposal is consistent with the future use of the land. But it went on to state:
- The Consent Authority acknowledges that the Northern Territory Planning Scheme does not adequately address the situation that lots over 600 m2 and identified as zone MD (Multiple Dwelling – use Single Dwelling) could be subdivided …
Given all these considerations it is important, in my view, for the minister to open up a proper dialogue with the Palmerston City Council and the community. This is critical to make sure the community is part of answering the question: what kind of Palmerston do people want to live in?
The Mayor of Palmerston has stated that the council is calling on the minister to step in and right this wrong before it goes too far. The ball is in the minister’s court and I urge him to talk with Palmerston City Council and local residents. When a council talks with one voice, it is important to listen.
Another development in the municipality of Palmerston has also brought the need for proper consultation with the community on planning issues into sharp focus. A proposal to construct 82 two-bedroom and four three-bedroom single multiple dwellings on Angel Road, Palmerston, was strongly opposed by local residents. Former shadow minister for Planning, Ken Vowles, met residents and heard from them directly.
Labor had flagged this as a site for a public housing seniors village. The change of use was not a popular decision with local residents. They have also had concerns about the element of the proposal that has come forward. The proposed development is in the electorate of Brennan, which is represented by the former Lands and Planning minister. The concerns of residents were expressed strongly at a public meeting attended by the member for Johnston, Labor’s then shadow minister, and more than 50 residents. The member for Brennan also attended that meeting.
The meeting was coordinated by passionate local resident Krystal Stove, who has made strong ongoing representations to government about the residents’ concerns. The proposal was deferred and subsequently approved by the DCA.
Some improvements to access points of the development have been incorporated, but residents are very concerned about changes that have severe impacts on street parking.
The development now has some two-storey dwellings, and residents say they are very concerned about urban density in their suburb.
Krystal Stove and residents want to meet with the new Lands and Planning minister and the former minister, the member for Brennan, so they can listen to their concerns about the development in Angel Road. We urge the CLP government to listen.
On a personal note, we lost two people over the last few days who contributed quite differently to Territory public life. It was my pleasure, through work, to meet and get to know both of them very well.
Frank McGuiness, the former Auditor-General, was frank and fearless, a fighter for open and accountable government, a gentleman and a valuable public servant. He will be greatly missed.
As Chair of the Public Accounts Committee, I saw firsthand his valuable contribution. I do not think I could have carried out my role anywhere near as well as I like to believe I did without Frank’s contribution. I believe I speak for almost every Chair of the Public Accounts Committee in saying that Frank was quite priceless.
We also lost ‘Cambo’, Campbel Giles, who was a passionate, strong person, someone others were drawn to. She was magnificent and her Labor family will miss her greatly. She has left behind a wonderful man in Matt and a beautiful daughter in Elsie. They are in our thoughts and prayers. We will continue on in a great Labor tradition. The thought of Campbel will always be with us, helping us continue those Labor values, as we do in the Chamber today and every day. ‘Cambo’ might be gone but she will live on in our actions and deeds, and we will miss her greatly.
Motion agreed to; the Assembly adjourned.
Last updated: 04 Aug 2016