Costings farce shows Territorians face poor election choices all round from our major parties
NO matter who they pick on Saturday, our Territory — filled with go-getters and potential — will more than likely be led by a group of people who would struggle to organise a piss-up at a brewery with a fistful of 50s
Opinion
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TO use the current state of affairs around political parties and policy costing as an analogy, it has become clear Territorian voters have three options — a party who said they would do it then didn’t, the party who couldn’t get it done in time, and the party who reckons they don’t need to.
It sends a message to Territorians that no matter who they pick, this jurisdiction filled with go-getters and potential will more than likely still be led by a group of people who would struggle to organise a piss-up at a brewery with a fistful of fifties.
Yet this is what our three major parties have done.
Territory Alliance’s Terry Mills, the leader of a party who will “reset governance” and bring trust back to NT politics, promised on July 31 to submit their policies to Treasury so punters would know how much it would all cost.
Now he’s confirmed they aren’t doing that.
The CLP, the party that will “fast track” approvals, couldn’t meet a deadline, seemingly misplacing an email from Treasury in their inbox somewhere.
Territory Labor put their cash-intensive commitments into the Territory’s COVID-19 fiscal update, and why wouldn’t you as the party campaigning on the platform of “forget all the stuff-ups in the last four years and the soaring debt, just remember that you haven’t died from COVID-19”.
It’s time for our elected politicians and those who want to be elected to put Territorians first. Remember, we pay you.
... and another thing
As is newspaper custom, we will publish our election editorial in Friday’s NT News — the day before polling day.
Given the importance of the election for our future, an abridged 1500-word version will run in print and a longer 2500-word version will be published on ntnews.com.au.
There are so many points that need to be made ahead of this election.
As much as Labor wants you to believe this election is all about coronavirus, nothing could be further from the truth.
Matt Williams, Editor
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