Debates Day 6 - Thursday 15 May 2014
Parliamentary Record 12
Debates for 12th Assembly 2012 - 2016; ParliamentNT; Parliamentary Record; 12th Assembly 2012 - 2016
2014-05-15
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DEBATES Thursday 15 May 2014 4447 the terms of the licence issued. There would be a definite separation between the landowner and the proponent grower. Perhaps we will not have to go to the committee stage. There will be extremely strong regulatory controls to reduce risks to the safety and security of persons within the poppy growing and processing industry and in the wider community. It is governments strong intention to work proactively with licensees to build a successful and sustainable industry in the Northern Territory. Before I close I want to acknowledge the important contributions made by the Departments of Primary Industry and Fisheries, Health, the Northern Territory Police, Attorney-General and Justice, and Land Resource Management. I know some individuals who have gone over and above in the effort they applied to this and I express a sincere thank you to them. It would be remiss of me not to mention the sterling efforts of the Office of Parliamentary Counsel, which skilfully translated agreed policy into the robust regulatory regime evident in the bill before us. Lastly, I again thank members for their contribution to debate. I appreciate the indications from both the opposition and the member for Nelson that they will support passage of this bill. I also say I do not take urgency lightly and if I thought there was an opportunity to delay debate of this bill I would have done so. However, doing that would have seriously impacted on the commercial trial for the 2014 calendar year. Thank you very much everyone, and I commend the bill to the House. Motion agreed to; bill read a second time. Mr WESTRA van HOLTHE (Primary Industry and Fisheries)(by leave): Mr Deputy Speaker, I move that the bill be now read a third time. Motion agreed to; bill read a third time. REORDER OF BUSINES Mr WESTRA van HOLTHE (Primary Industry and Fisheries): Mr Deputy Speaker, I move that Government Business, Orders of the Day No 19, Appropriation (2014-2015) Bill 2014 (Serial 79) be called on now. Motion agreed to. APPROPRIATION (2014-2015) BILL (Serial 79) Continued from 14 May 2014. Mr GUNNER (Fannie Bay): When I finished yesterday I was talking about the broken promise around police and the decision not to get 120 extra police. Since speaking yesterday, the NT News editorialised it today and I will read that: We wont cop spin on safety Territorians have a right to know how Police Commissioner John McRoberts intends to keep the community safe within the constraints of his new budget. It is easy to defer questions back to the Government, and even easier for its spin doctors to reel off the appropriate lines. Similarly, it is easy for the opposition parties to attack with sweeping statements about how cuts in any given department will end life as we know it. The only loser is the public, which much wrestle with both extremes and determine which line they distrust the least. Greater transparency is needed from the heads of all government organisations think hospitals, prisons, schools, councils but all will squib direct responses for formulated bureaucratese. The public, and media organisations, are accustomed to this. But the public would be right to expect more from an agency charged with implementing our most fundamental right to feel safe. In the NTPFES, the buck stops with Mr McRoberts. He is the man who must ultimately deliver on the Governments forced efficiency savings and what Police Association President Vince Kelly has labelled broken promises about extra police numbers. We are concerned with the decision not to recruit the police the CLP promised and the decision to cut the police budget. On the point the NT News made about opposition parties, I will list three concerns we have. We have more than three, but I will give three examples. They talk about sweeping statements. Three things that worry us are: in the short term