Warning: A dark mood will turn hostile if Gunner Government fails to perform for NT business in 2018

2018 is going to be a defining year for the Territory Government. It is the year that will test their capability as both leaders and managers of our Territory economy

Master Builders CEO Dave Malone

2018 is going to be a defining year for the Territory Government. It is the year that will test their capability as both leaders and managers of our Territory economy.

Trust me, this is not some glib off-the-cuff line from a representative of an industry doing it pretty darn tough.

It’s a sober assessment of where the Territory economy is right now.

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And where we are in the political cycle and my assessment of the mood across the business community.

I genuinely believe that 2018 can bring almost anything. My great hope is that it proves to be the year where we start to rebound with really solid growth, no matter the “headwinds” — a term economists have proven to love in recent times.

But hope only carries you so far. What is far more important in the end are the things that get done and the outcomes that are achieved.

Indulge me for a moment, as I want to repeat the last part of that line: “and the outcomes that are achieved”.

Those outcomes are the things that will define this Government.

How strong will our population grow? What level of private investment will we achieve? How many great jobs will be created? And will our growth trajectory turn back towards at least our long-term averages?

The government has had its hands on the levers for almost 18 months now. In that time, most, if not all, of the key indicators have been drifting.

When they first slipped their shoes under the desks on the fifth floor of Parliament House back in 2016, the dye for those had already been cast. Their predecessors’ decisions and actions were shaping the economy.

We all know that economies do not shift course all that rapidly. Think aircraft carrier rather than speedboat. But after 18 months, we all rightly expect the aircraft carrier to have started to turn around. Why? Because economic leadership and management is one of the “big” jobs of any government.

Usually in this part of the political cycle, modern governments try to put a veneer over the economic story by trotting out a great long list of all the things they are doing. Sort of like an activity list or a report card. And at one level I suppose it’s nice to know that people are working hard.

But it can also be a deflection. What matters far more is what I’ve mentioned already: population, investment, jobs and growth.

Do well on those fronts in 2018 and the government will have put in place the building blocks for a very long stay in the Big House. And possibly they will have also opened a crucial new door in our long-term economic development.

Fail on those fronts though, and what is a dark mood today will become positively hostile.

All governments have a time window to prove that their agenda works and that is where we are today.

That is why 2018 is such a defining year