NT Treasurer Dave Tollner says Terry Mills paid for gas drama

Territory taxpayers faced $4 billion in penalties for failing to deliver the full amount of gas to Gove under the newly-elected Mills Government, outgoing Treasurer Dave Tollner has claimed

NT Treasurer David Tollner says $4 billion worth of penalties for failing to deliver a full amount of gas to Gove was a key reason for the removal of Chief Minister Terry Mills in 2013. PICTURE: Helen Orr

Territory taxpayers faced $4 billion in penalties for failing to deliver the full amount of gas to Gove under the newly-elected Mills Government, outgoing Treasurer Dave Tollner has claimed.

The realisation of the penalties were critical in the removal of then Chief Minister Terry Mills, who was on a mercy dash to Japan to secure more gas to meet the 30 petajoules being promised.

In an exclusive interview with NT Business Review, Mr Tollner said this sealed the fate of Mr Mills’s leadership.

“The thing that damned Terry completely was the gas to Gove issue,” Mr Tollner said. “They needed 30 petajoules piped over to Gove to keep the refinery going. The most we could get together was 17 petajoules and we were 13 petajoules short.

“We were the ones guaranteeing the gas and if they don’t get the 30 petajoules they were going to come looking to us for compensation. We would have had between $3 and $4 billion in liabilities.

“No one seems to ask what was Terry Mills doing over in Japan when we made the decision to roll him? I can tell you what he was doing. He was trying to find gas. But everybody knew Inpex had contracted all its gas and they didn’t have a cigarette lighter of free gas to give to anybody,” Mr Tollner said.

“We wouldn’t have saved Gove, we were going to bankrupt the Territory. In my mind he had to go. This was more than icing on the cake.”

Mr Mills called the story “Dave Tollner’s version of history”, adding “he is wrong”. He said there were two trips to Japan. The first trip was to build the case for an expansion of the Territory gas pipeline infrastructure.

“The purpose of (the second) trip was to introduce a new Government and its Chief Minister to the INPEX board and to inspect the new receiving terminal.

“It was on that trip to Japan I was replaced as Chief Minister by Adam Giles.”