Parliamentary record : Part I debates (11 November 1986)
Debates for 4th Assembly 1983 - 1987; ParliamentNT; Parliamentary Record; 4th Assembly 1983 - 1987
1986-11-11
Made available by the Legislative Assembly of the Northern Territory
English
Debates
Northern Territory Legislative Assembly
Darwin
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Legislative Assembly of the Northern Territory
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https://hdl.handle.net/10070/220605
https://hdl.handle.net/10070/698931
DEBATES - Tuesday 11 November 1986 always take place but, in any budget, appropriations to all electorates are considered. In my electorate, we have seen the formation of the Litchfield Shire this year. I hope that the Litchfield Shire will receive favourable financial consideration for its establishment but I have received no official notification of this even though I have been told roughly what the amount is. It is roughly what was promised by the previous Minister for Community Development. It is' very nice that those promises have been fulfilled but I would still like to see the hard cash shown in the books of the Litchfield Shire. I must say that very little information has been volunteered to me about the funding of the Litchfield Shire, either before or after its formation, from officers of the Department of Community Development. I am not saying that I have not obtained this information in 1 way or another. However, there were only 2 occasions on which information was volunteered to me by officers of the department and both of those occurred before the formation of the Litchfield Shire. It appears that somebody is trying to do a mushroom job, not only on me but on other people in the rural area. However, we always obtain the information in the end. Considerable effort is expended in obtaining the information and it would make it easier all round if we could all work in peace and harmony and information be volunteered willingly. Mr Speaker, when reading the budget papers, one sees that there are many interesting developments taking place in the rural area and in my electorate. Closer inspection shows that these can be divided into projects specifically for the benefit of residents there and projects planned for others who use our rural area as their community playground and recreation area. I do not object to this development at all, but I want to make it clear that there are 2 sorts of development in my electorate. One of the most important projects planned there is the proposed building of stage 1 of the new Berry Springs School at a cost in excess of $lm. This is welcomed by the parents and the teachers in the area. It takes account of the increasing numbers of children in the rural area. The population in the rural area is increasing as is evident to anybody who has read the report of the Distribution Committee. There will be building at the Humpty 000 Primary School. The room that is planned for the Humpty 000 Primary School will be used by the pre-school for the time being. While I am on the subject of the Humpty 000 Primary School, I would like to draw honourable members' attention to an event at the weekend which was the first of its kind in Australia. I refer to the successful mango fair which was held at the school and I will speak about that at a later date. I would like to comment also on the success of the farm at Taminmin High School. Recently, the Minister for Education gave a grant of $15 000 for further work at the farm. This was welcomed with open arms by the school authorities and the farm manager. It will be money well spent and it would do honourable members no harm to inspect the work being done at the farm and to learn of the projects planned for the future. The zucchini crop there will bring in not a few hundred but a few thousand dollars this season. I was very interested in an item relating to Aboriginal housing in the correctional services appropriation. Alice Springs Prison has a project to employ prison labour to build simple housing for use in isolated communities in central Australia. These simple dwellings are built of substantial 809