Opposition accuse government of avoiding scrutiny after questions submitted over Turf Club
The government has come under fire after it responded to over 200 written questions on the Darwin Turf Club saga with copy-pasted answers, and claimed a $89m fund wasn’t their policy.
Northern Territory
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THE Opposition has published responses to over 200 questions it submitted to government ministers on the Turf Club saga, lashing the answers as part of an effort to “shut down scrutiny at every opportunity”.
CLP leader Lia Finocchiaro also slammed a line from the Jobs and Training Minister Paul Kirby, who claimed in his two-sentence response that the “Jobs Fund is not a policy of the Northern Territory Government”.
The bombshell Independent Commissioner Against Corruption report into the procurement of the Darwin Turf Club grandstand included a string of correspondence in which NT Department of Industry, Tourism and Trade chief executive Shaun Drabsch proposed the $12m grant could be sourced from the “Jobs Fund”.
The Jobs Fund scheme, designed to fund private projects, was announced in October 2018 – over two years after Michael Gunner became Chief Minister.
Despite being asked by the CLP, Mr Kirby was unwilling to answer questions such as “how much money remains in the Jobs Fund” and “how many industry support programs and capital grants have been awarded by the Jobs Fund”.
The government provided only several sentences in response to each of the 11 documents sent to Ministers, all of which were similarly worded.
Variations of “the ICAC Report made no findings of unsatisfactory conduct against any government department or Minister” were found in at least six of the responses.
Ms Finocchiaro said the responses were unsatisfactory and accused the government of dodging scrutiny.
In response to questions from the NT News, Chief Minister Michael Gunner again reiterated the ICAC investigation had “made no findings against government or any Minister”.
“This independent investigation happened because Territory Labor Government referred the matter to the ICAC,” Mr Gunner said. “This is why the Territory Labor Government established the ICAC.”
Originally published as Opposition accuse government of avoiding scrutiny after questions submitted over Turf Club
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