Analysis: Surplus hint cold comfort for CEOs

Chief Minister Michael Gunner says he trusts his departmental underlings. He trusts CEOs so much that he’s threatening to sack them if they suffer the inevitable budget blow out.

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CHIEF Minister Michael Gunner loves his departmental underlings.

Just ask him.

“We trust CEOs to work towards delivering better services to Territorians in partnership with their ministers,” Mr Gunner said yesterday at his post-budget press conference.

He trusts CEOs so much that he’s threatening to sack them if they suffer the inevitable budget blow out.

That’s not a big stick approach so much as a bazooka to the head approach.

Heaven knows what the consequences would’ve been, had the GST not delivered a surprising boost to the NT government’s bottom line.

Mr Gunner would be thanking his lucky stars for the cash injection.

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Analysis: This will be the Gunner Government’s make-or-break budget

While this budget contained little in the way of shiny new projects or big-ticket items, what it did contain was stability, no major cuts or drastic overhauls.

Instead, all we got was enough buckets to keep the ship sinking any further.

The major challenge remains how to get the Territory’s head above water, since the budget shows deficits for as far as the eye can see.

While the Treasurer left the window open for a surprise surplus, thanks to some nice mining royalties or a surge in development in and around Darwin, Mr Gunner still has to keep the books as close to balanced as possible to keep debt under $15b.

When asked yesterday whether a surplus was possible within 10 years, Mr Gunner cheekily answered: “I hope I’m the Treasurer that gets to deliver that.”

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