Debates Day 1 - Tuesday 23 May 1995
Parliamentary Record 11
Debates for 7th Assembly 1994 - 1997; ParliamentNT; Parliamentary Record; 7th Assembly 1994 - 1997
1995-05-23
Made available by the Legislative Assembly of the Northern Territory
English
Debates
Legislative Assembly of the Northern Territory
Darwin
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Legislative Assembly of the Northern Territory
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DEBATES - Tuesday 23 May 1995 that. It is symptomatic of the paralysis from which this government has suffered in recent times. To demonstrate what I mean when I say that there has been lack of communication, when I say that they are not talking to each other, and when I say that this budget contains figures which are straight-out wrong, I would like to draw the attention of honourable members to the Housing Commission figure. We have a Housing Commission figure which was introduced not in the budget and not even the day after the budget... Mr Coulter: It was in the budget. Mr EDE: The minister had many chances to mention it, but he did not do so. It was dropped by the minister responsible. For the Sunday Territorian ... Mr Coulter: How impertinent of him! The minister responsible mentioned it! Mr EDE: Yes, but not in this House. What did he say? He said that Housing Commission rents have been increased by nearly 18%. Millions of dollars will be raised by that increase, yet have a look at the budget figures. In Question Time, the Treasurer said in this regard: Dont worry about any of those. They are all in the book. If they were not announced in the actual budget speech, they are in the book. Mr Coulter: Yes. Mr EDE: Mr Speaker, look at page 11 of Budget Paper No 3: Revenue from Territory Sources. Rentals for the Northern Territory Housing Commission indicate an expected drop of $0.75m in the revenue from the commission. A $770 000 drop is indicated yet it was announced on Sunday that Housing Commission revenue will increase by millions of dollars. Members of the government say that they are talking to each other! Of course they are not talking to each other. It appears that the Treasurer has gone ahead with his figures and has said that there will be an increase in the number of people receiving rebates or whatever which will result in a slight drop of $750 000, but another minister has said that the government will jack up the rents and has put a figure of 18% on that. He said it was only to cover inflation. Total inflation over the last 3 years has been about 5% and 18% is way above that. This represents an increase that is known by one minister, but that is not known by the Treasurer. Can anybody look at that and say that this reflects anything but total incompetence? This government has shown itself to be totally incapable of handling a leadership change, an issue such as euthanasia and a budget all at the same time. It is like the old trick of asking someone to rub their backside and pat their head at the same time. Ask the Treasurer to try to do that! Ask him to do 2 things at the one time and he will get both wrong. This government, with the collective minds of the 9 ministers opposite, was supposed to be doing 3 things at the one time. They might have been able to keep 2 balls in the air, but certainly they could not keep 3 of them in the air. The ball that dropped first was the budget, the one that governs increases in taxes that affect peoples lifestyles and jobs. The whole future economy of the Northern Territory was the ball that was dropped because they were too busy worrying about keeping the other 2 balls in the air. 3465