Debates and Questions - Day 1 - 24 April 2020
Parliamentary Record 27
Debates and Questions for 13th Assembly 2019 - 2020; ParliamentNT; Parliamentary Record; 13th Assembly 2016 - 2020
2020-04-24
Made available by the Legislative Assembly of the Northern Territory
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Debates and Questions
Legislative Assembly of the Northern Territory
Darwin
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Legislative Assembly of the Northern Territory
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DEBATES AND QUESTIONS Friday 24 April 2020 8369 Mrs LAMBLEY: Would you like to speak, Member for Katherine? I will sit down in a minute and you can have your say. I am obviously getting up your nose, because sometimes the truth hurts. You do not want to hear it Members interjecting. Mrs LAMBLEY: They are all yelling, now. The truths hurts. You have not provided us an opportunity to really look under the rocks that are embedded very firmly at the moment. Let us be honest, there is no opportunity today to get answers to any questions that Territorians might have. I think that is a very poor indictment of this failing Gunner government. Before the Coronavirus you sent us to the brink of no returninsolvency. We were in a state that Territorians had never seen before: stone-cold broke. The fact is, we have to and want to spend money for the welfare and the good of the Northern Territory. But what that looks like beyond the Coronavirus is a dismal, bleak picture. That is where this government does not want to go. Ms Nelson: Well, I think the PAC will be looking forward to seeing you at their meetings, thenasking the questions. Mrs LAMBLEY: The Member for Katherine continues to chatter on there and she can have her turn next. I will sit down in a minute. You can have a bit of a talk oroh, that is right, you are not talking, are you? Only the ministers with carriage of the bills are allowed to talk today. As the Member for Spillett said before, I am happy to stay here all night. I will come back tomorrow; I do not have much on. I could come back any time over the weekend. I am available and more than willing to represent the interests of Territorians and, in particular, the folks from Alice Springs who have no voice in this parliament whatsoever at the moment. I will be supporting this bill but I have grave fears of where our Treasurer is taking us. I have grave fears about the future of the Northern Territory under the governanceor lack of governanceof this mob over here. I do not see any competence at all. The fact it is silent and you have stopped our ability to scrutinise you today makes me worried. I think that all Territorians should be extremely worried by what has happened today. Madam SPEAKER: Does anyone on the teleconference wish to speak? Member for Nhulunbuy, are you on the line? No response. Ms MANISON (Treasurer): Madam Speaker, I presented this urgent legislation today because it goes to the heart of what we have been doing since COVID-19 rolled out as one of the biggest global crises we have seen since, let us face it, the Global Financial Crisis and, prior to that, World War II. We have been going hard at it. We looked to respond swiftly and decisively from day one. Our number one priority has been all about saving lives and jobs. That is the context around every decision, and is exactly what this legislation goes to the heart of. This is about helping save business through this very difficult time so they can put more money in their pockets to keep Territorians employed; get out of the restrictions they are having to live within and do business in; and are able to rebound out of it hard and fast. We want to get businesses up and running as quickly as possible. We want the Northern Territory to get to what the new normal will be as quickly as possible. We want to capitalise on all the opportunities ahead of us, because it will get better. We will get through this. There is still much risk ahead. There is no doubt about that when we see amazing nations like Singapore looking like it was ahead of the pack, going backwards so swiftly. We have to make very measured decisions coming out of COVID-19 restrictions and assess the risks that each decision presents. To us this was very straightforward. How do we save lives and jobs? I put on the record my thanks to the leadership from our Northern Territory business community of Greg Ireland from the Chamber of Commerce, Paul Palmer and Alex Bruce from Hospitality NT and Ruth Palmer from the Property Councilto name a few of the people who have been speaking to usalong with Drew Wagner from the resources sector. We have been listening to wonderful people who have been working with us. We asked what the best response was, to put in place right now, to save jobs and support businesses at the time they need it.