Treasurer Nicole Manison flags tough budget to help ease NT’s battered finances

THE Northern Territory Government has not ruled out tough belt-tightening measures to sandbag its battered finances when it eventually releases a budget

Chief Minister Michael Gunner when he announced the Langoulant report into repairing the NT Government’s budget

THE Northern Territory Government has not ruled out tough belt-tightening measures to sandbag its battered finances when it eventually releases a budget.

Treasurer Nicole Manison on Friday declared “budget discipline is well and truly here to stay” as she defended the government’s budget repair progress a year after the scathing Langoulant report was released.

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The quarterly budget repair update, released without fanfare on Friday, found only a third of the 74 recommendations the government accepted have been completed, while 42 are “nearly complete” or “underway”

Ms Manison said budget repair had been “on track” until the economy-crippling coronavirus, flagging increased spending in departments responsible for frontline response.

She revealed the Government was exceeding its cap on the number of public servants by 99 people, though it had cut 62 executive positions, which is 10 more than its goal of axing 52 positions.

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The NT Government is adamant it will not release a full budget before the August election because it doesn’t know how much revenue it will get from the Federal Government, and the Territory’s own source revenue is “difficult to assess” while the local economy is in COVID-19-induced flux.

“You just cannot forecast some of those revenues coming in at this point, because we are certainly still in the thick of the COVID-19 crisis across the nation,” Ms Manison said.

Asked if Territorians could expect belt-tightening and potential austerity measures going forward, she said the government was focused on the COVID-19 health response and would “look at those issues into the future” but “budget discipline” would stay.

Opposition Leader Lia Finocchiario accused the government of playing politics by releasing the report “secretly”, something Ms Manison denies.

“(The budget repair update) shows how reform will be slowed because of the Chief Minister’s arrogant decision to cancel the 2020 Budget prior to the election, stopping accountability and transparency on the management of the Territory’s finances,” Ms Finocchiario said.