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June 13, 2023 14 mins

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Speaker 1 (00:00):
As I said, the Treasurer, Evil Laula is going to
be in the hot seat today at budget estimates, after
what was an interesting day for the Deputy Chief Minister
Nicole Madison yesterday. And I'll get to that in a moment.
But joining me on the line right now is the
opposition leader Leah Finocchiaro. Good morning to you, Leah.

Speaker 2 (00:17):
Good morning Katie and to your listeners.

Speaker 1 (00:19):
Now, Leah, I understand that there has been some questions
asked this morning about the payout made to the former
Northern Territory Police Commissioner Jamie Chalker.

Speaker 2 (00:31):
Yes, I've been in estimates this morning, grilling the Treasurer
and of course asked where that money for the payout
has come from, and astonishingly it has come from the
police bottom line. That means the police budget has suffered.
Whatever this mysterious figure is of mister Chalker's payout, that's
come directly from a police budget which already under pressure

(00:54):
under resol So why.

Speaker 1 (00:56):
Why has the Northern Territory Police, Fire and Emergency Services
budget had to take had to take that hit.

Speaker 2 (01:05):
Had to take that hit. That's a great question and
it's exactly what I asked, because people will be very
angry to find out that this bungle, which is all
the making of Natasha Farles, has not only cost taxpayers,
however much it might be, but that that's come from
the police resource budget. Now I asked why Treasury hadn't
paid for that, why a top up hadn't been provided

(01:27):
to our police to supplement that figure that they've had
to pay, and the Treasurer tried to brush it off
as some sort of HR issue and that this is
all very very normal practice across government. But I think
territories will be horrified to hear, you know, about this
coming from that bottom line, particularly off the back of
the budget, not really providing any more money to our police,

(01:49):
who we know are under resource, overworked of finding a
tremendous crime crisis that keeps escalating in its severity. And
yet once again our police have asked to do more
with less.

Speaker 1 (02:01):
So they let me just get to the bottom of this.
So you've asked the Treasurer where that money has come from.
She's confirmed that it's come from the budget of the
Police Foreign emergency services. Now do we know how much?

Speaker 2 (02:16):
No, we don't know how much. I asked on several
occasions and she said she didn't know the amount. She
directed me to ask the question of the Public Employment
Commissioner or the Police Commissioner, which of course we will
I'm sorry, not police commissioner, the Police Minister, which of
course we will over the course of the next two weeks.

(02:38):
But I was astonished to see that police had to
suffer that blow, particularly at a time out.

Speaker 1 (02:45):
Well, this is the thing. There's a lot of reasons
why that is quite surprising to me. I mean, for one,
I will say that I think that our Northern Territory
Police could certainly use additional resources. I don't know how
much money they've got there that is in the bank,
ready to to be paid out to former commissioners as required.
But the other part of this is we've also got

(03:07):
because correct me if I'm wrong, my understanding is that
we've got a bucket of money that is for the
Northern Territory Police, Fire and emergency services. You've also got
a situation where you've got fieries right now who are
still struggling over their pay dispute.

Speaker 2 (03:24):
That's exactly right, Katie. And we know that there are
not enough fieries across the territory. Tenant Creek at the
moment is being filled with people on a rotating roster
from Taiwan. There are no full time fieries based in
Tenant Creek and that situation is replicated right across the territory.
I think we've all seen the fire trucks driving around
expressing their grave distaste for the government and their inability

(03:50):
to get to the bottom of this pay deal off
the back of course of the absurd public servants pay
frees and all the other rubbish we've seen over the
last couple of years. So this is emergency services in crisis.
Of course, as you know, Katie, we have tried seven
times in Parliament to have an inquiry into this issue,
which the government have shot down. But this is just

(04:10):
another blow for our police, another example of labor turning
their back on the front line and not supporting our
men and women in blue pop well every day.

Speaker 1 (04:20):
I really hope, I really hope that we're able to
get to the bottom of how much money we are
talking about here. I think that you know that our
rank and file officers, our fieries, our emergency services, all
Territorians really have a right to know how taxpayers dollars
are being spent lea. I do want to ask you

(04:41):
any questions asked this morning from you about the damage
to Howard Springs and how much that's cost.

Speaker 2 (04:48):
Indeed, and again the Treasurer said she would not answer
that this morning, she would answer it later today when
we get to the infrastructure section of the budget. So
that was disappointing. I again asked us who would be
taking the blow for that cost, and that will be
the infrastructure budget and she tried to pass it off

(05:08):
as saying, oh, well, departments have to have a bit
of money spare for incidentals and things that you couldn't predict.
But I don't think the infrastructure budget would have predicted
the multimillion dollar cost at Howard Springs is inevitably going
to cost the taxpayer. And that means that that money
isn't going into roads or upgrading infrastructure in our schools

(05:30):
and all the other priorities that Territorians would have preferred
it to go to. So yet again another department being
dished out the blow of government failure, and it's just
going to mean less services for Territorians on the ground,
and of course this is their money. And I went
very hard on that. I said Treasurer. This is not
your money, Treasury, This is not your money. It's not

(05:52):
my money. Our territorians go to work every single day,
to work hard. They pay their dues through tax and
expect services in exchange for that tax. And you know,
this is just another example of tax dollars being wasted
at a time when Territorians are struggling to get food
on the table the cost of living.

Speaker 1 (06:11):
Well, Leah, we've got a comment here, I guess from
Grumpy and Catherine. He'd said, good morning, Katie. I wonder
if Evil Lula is going to be quizzed about the
cost for the internal repairs at the Howard Springs facility.
It might be another question for Lea Finocchiaro to ask.
And Leah, you've already asked that question, and you're going
to ask it again by the sounds of things, later
on today. Please stay to Yeah, please do keep us

(06:33):
up to date and let us know whether any of
that detail is actually provided, because I think it's imperative
that territorians actually do get that level of detail. As
I said earlier, and we're talking about, you know, about
the payout to the former Northern Territory Police Commissioner, it
is taxpayers dollars and I think that we've all got
the right to know exactly how much money is being

(06:55):
spent and in different areas, and also that is the
whole purpose of the process of budget estimates. Leah, I
do want to ask you. I know that yesterday during
question time the Deputy Chief Minister, or sorry not question time,
we could almost call it that during questions during estimates. Well,

(07:17):
questioning did reveal that the Deputy Chief Minister, Nicole Madison
said that crime is not the biggest concern among travelers
choosing not to come to the Northern Territory. So Nicole
Madison said cost of living and other outside pressures such
as airline connectivity and a trend towards traveling overseas again
were leading to a downturn in some markets. Leah, what

(07:39):
do you think do you think that the crime crisis
is having an impact on tourism or is cost of
living more significant?

Speaker 2 (07:46):
I think this government is so hypocritical. We've got tread
that the Deputy Chief Minister saying that she had boken
to people in Alice Springs who are having a bumper
season but couldn't name us. Sing I was in Alice
Springs last week speaking to Tourism Central Australia and I
can assure you people are down compared to any other

(08:09):
year and that crime is having a major impact. Now
for the Deputy Chief Minister to turn around yesterday and
blame the downturn in visitation on cost of living, yet
in the same breath have done nothing to advance our
cause in getting cheaper flights in and out of the
territory just shows that this government is completely out of touch,

(08:32):
out of ideas, and they've dropped the ball. They are
not fighting for cheaper flights, they are not fighting to
bring down those costs so that people can come to
the territory. They've got a complete hands off approach. And
yet this is the number one thing when you talk
to people in Darwin and Catherine Tenant, Alice, wherever, people

(08:53):
are talking about the cost of flights. I was door
knocking in Alice Springs a couple of weeks ahow and
a lady said she'd be leaving because she couldn't afford
to spend the same amount on and it was like
the cost of flying back to her family in Sydney
was the same as traveling to Europe, and she said
that is just ridiculous, and yet our Minister for Tourism
had no answers on that what she was doing to

(09:14):
pressure airlines to increase competition.

Speaker 1 (09:17):
I mean it comes down to though, doesn't it Like
it comes down to demand. It's one thing for the
minister to be fighting for, you know, for additional flights,
but if we don't have the demand there, I mean,
how can you expect an airline to make a commercial
decision to put on additional flights to the territory.

Speaker 2 (09:34):
Well, we need to create the demand by making sure
the territory is safe. But let's not forget the aide
Triple C put out a report just a week or
two ago saying that the price of jet fuel had
decreased and that airlines weren't passing on those savings. And
this is where being an active, proactive, you know, fighter
of a minister is so important. Unfortunately in the territory

(09:55):
we just don't have that. There's no one championing or
putting pressure on airlines to say, on a second, we
need a good deal. We're disadvantaged in the regions, we
live far away from everything, and ultimately that's their job
to go in and fight tooth and nail every single day.
And what we saw yesterday was a tourism minister who
doesn't have any fight in her and I think that's

(10:17):
at a huge detriment to our economy. And of course
you know this time of year is where our tourism
ministry make their money for the rest of the year
so they can get through to the next season, Katie,
and if they can't, I'm so terrified to think of
the jobs and businesses we will lose over this coming
web thas Lia.

Speaker 1 (10:34):
Just on that, just on the flights, because again, like
you've touched on, it's something that's being raised with you
when you're out on the doors. It's something that gets
raised with us very often. It's something that I myself.
You know, you go to book flights and you think, goodness, me,
I can't go and visit my family because it is
so incredibly expensive. But what would you do differently, How
would you do things differently if you were in power

(10:55):
to try to reduce these costs and try to enable
Territorians to be able to fly and see their families.

Speaker 2 (11:02):
You've got to increase competition. So firstly, we need to
tackle crime and rebuild our reputation so we can get
our economy moving. If we tackle crime, more people will
want to come and that deals with demand. Then in
terms of getting more airlines to the territory, we have
to be in their faith every single day, fighting the
good fight, putting the case forward, finding out what's stopping

(11:24):
them at their end, and working out if there is
something government can do to facilitate a better outcome for
its people. And whether it's working with our airport corporations,
whether it's incentives, whether it's marketing strategies, all of these
things are options. But if you have a government sitting
back and hoping that things are magically going to happen,
they won't. And time has shown that laziness on behalf

(11:47):
on the part of labor government ministers is not leading
to better outcome for Territorians. I'm gobsmack that this minister
has not been on the phone to the PM, the
National Tourism Minister, fighting for better airline access, better prices
in the regions and in the Bush. It is a
number one issue people are talking about outside crime is

(12:09):
cost of living and the dire impact of having connectivity
to family means a lot of people are making the
decision to lead because if they can't see friends and family,
then they feel too isolated to live here. And that's
not okay, Lea.

Speaker 1 (12:23):
Just moving on, We are going to have to get
ready to wrap up. But what else is going to
be on the agenda for you for the COLP today
when it comes to estimates and the questioning of evil
Aula who has indeed got the portfolios of Treasury as
well as Transport, Infrastructure Logistics, a number of other portfolios
like education as well.

Speaker 2 (12:42):
That's right, so Howard Springs would definitely be on the list.
Of course, a failure to deliver any major projects over
the last six years, the fact that we've got reports
like Deloitte and Concept and the ABS saying our economy
is one of the worst, if not the worst performing
in the nation. The fact that we have a ten
billion dollar debt. Of course, education, the crisis around school

(13:06):
counselors and support for our teachers, teachers being abused at school.
All of those types of things we're going to forensically
go through over the whole course of today. But already
one day in, I mean it was shocking yesterday under
the Mining Minister we unveiled that it takes three to
five years for this government to approve a mining exploration

(13:28):
license when it only takes two hundred and eighty six
days in WA and last year there were twenty one
minds seeking approval and this year do you know how
many are still seeking approval?

Speaker 1 (13:38):
Cadi? How many?

Speaker 2 (13:39):
Twenty one? Yeah? Right, So in our whole twelve months,
not a single mind has been approved. This government has
totally dropped the ball, lost its fight and has no
idea how to get the territory moving again.

Speaker 1 (13:53):
Lea, we are going to have to wrap up. I
know you've got to get back in there and continue
asking those questions. Do you think that we're going to
get an answer when it comes to how much was
paid out to the former police commissioner.

Speaker 2 (14:07):
I don't think so. I think this government will stop
at nothing to continue to keep that a secret. But
what I know is if the police are having to
pay for a stuff up of Natasha files, that this
government has completely dropped the ball on what is important
to the community, where its priority should be. And I
think territori and would judge them extremely harshly for this disaster.

Speaker 1 (14:29):
Well, Lea Fanocchiaro, the opposition leader really appreciate you stepping
out of estimates this morning to speak with us. Thanks
so much for your time.

Speaker 2 (14:37):
No worries, take care everyone.

Speaker 1 (14:38):
Thank you,
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