Territory Stories

Debates Day 1 - Tuesday 23 May 1995

Details:

Title

Debates Day 1 - Tuesday 23 May 1995

Other title

Parliamentary Record 11

Collection

Debates for 7th Assembly 1994 - 1997; ParliamentNT; Parliamentary Record; 7th Assembly 1994 - 1997

Date

1995-05-23

Notes

Made available by the Legislative Assembly of the Northern Territory

Language

English

Subject

Debates

Publisher name

Legislative Assembly of the Northern Territory

Place of publication

Darwin

File type

application/pdf

Use

Attribution International 4.0 (CC BY 4.0)

Copyright owner

Legislative Assembly of the Northern Territory

License

https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Parent handle

https://hdl.handle.net/10070/281694

Citation address

https://hdl.handle.net/10070/413979

Page content

DEBATES - Tuesday 23 May 1995 Mr Coulter: Make a submission as to how you think it should be collected. Mr BAILEY: Mr Speaker, as much as anything, the taxation issue is that Territorians have been king hit to pay for the excesses of the government over the last 5 or 10 years. One of the few intelligent points that the member for Jingili made in his speech was that, many years ago, we took on debts for the future. Money was spent on State Square, on Yulara and the Sheraton hotels and on the Trade Development Zone. The people of today have to pay off those debts. This years budget is the beginning of the government screwing Northern Territory taxpayers to pay for the debts of the past. If this government had been responsible in the past, the Territory could have stayed way below the average level of taxes and charges imposed interstate. The other interesting comment - and I would love to hear the Treasurer respond to this - is that the increase in taxation is part of our road to statehood. Is the minister saying that we cannot move to become a state unless we raise more of our own revenue? Mr Coulter: That is what you have been saying. Mr BAILEY: No. That is what I am asking you. Mr Coulter: That is what you have been saying. Mr BAILEY: What are you saying? Yes or no? Mr Coulter: That is what you have been saying. Mr BAILEY: What we have been saying is that we must acknowledge that, through fiscal equalisation, a significant proportion of the Territorys funding comes from the Commonwealth. Mr Coulter: You are saying we should be ashamed that 80% of our funding comes from the Commonwealth. That is what you have been saying. Mr BAILEY: That is what you are doing. You are saying that, for the Territory to become a state, it has to raise more of its own taxes. Mr Coulter: That is what you are saying. Mr BAILEY: That is what you have done. Mr Coulter: What is the significance in your argument that 80% of our funding comes from the Commonwealth? That was what you were saying last week. Mr SPEAKER: Order! Mr BAILEY: Mr Speaker, one of our concerns is the reduction in the overall capital works budget. The government has been saying that there is growth in other areas. Whilst the government claims that it is coming to grips with some of the debt, it is at the expense of the 3559