NT Government raids $89 million Local Jobs Fund to help pay for Home Improvement Scheme

Money from an $89 million NT Government scheme designed to fund private projects and boost jobs has been siphoned away to help pay for a maligned coronavirus economic stimulus package.

MONEY from an $89 million NT Government scheme designed to fund private projects and boost jobs has been siphoned away to help pay for a maligned coronavirus economic stimulus package.

The slow-going Local Jobs Fund, announced in October 2018, was meant to provide private companies with loan guarantees, concessional loans, co-investments and grants but the uptake has been so low that millions have been redirected to the NT Government’s Home Improvement Scheme.

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The NT News can reveal only about $9 million of the $89 million set aside for the Local Jobs Fund has been shared among three projects in the jurisdiction.

One section of the scheme – the Loan Guarantee Fund – had zero uptake, according to the Department of Trade, Business, and Innovation, so the $20 million set aside for it has been diverted to help pay for the oversubscribed Home Improvement Scheme.

The Home Improvement Scheme, which doles out vouchers to homeowners to spruce up their property using local tradies, was initially meant to cost $30 million but blew out to $100 million after a tsunami of interest. Combining the original cash pot and the $20 million taken from the Local Jobs Fund, the NT Government still needs to find an extra $50 million.

The department has declined to detail which other funding pots would be raided beyond saying the Government was “working through reprioritisation from agency budget savings (due to COVID-19)” to fund it.

Opposition Leader Lia Finocchiaro slammed the Government for its lack of transparency, saying the information should be freely available.

“The diversion of funds shows that the Gunner Government is scrambling for funding to prop up the poorly designed Home Improvement Scheme, but also that the Local Jobs Fund has failed as there has been no uptake in the program,” she said.

“No wonder the Chief Minister is so intent on hiding the books. When you get a glimpse of them, they look very messy.”

The Home Improvement Scheme, designed as stimulus for the NT’s construction sector through the coronavirus pandemic, has been slammed by small businesses due to a slow approvals process that resulted in about 1000 vouchers, out of 20,000 applications, being approved in a month.

The scheme is likely to be a hot button topic at this afternoon’s Public Accounts Committee hearing into the NT’s coronavirus response.

The Local Jobs Fund did not start taking applications until May 2019, more than seven months after it was initially launched.

It was also marred in controversy after it was revealed a Queensland-based government organisation had been tasked to administer the loans at a cost of $192,000 over five years.