Matt Cunningham opinion: Fyles government secrecy taking Territorians for fools

The Territory government’s inability to call a spade a shovel leaves its constituents feeling as though they’re being taken for fools, writes Matt Cunningham.

Peter Beattie was one of the most effective politicians this country has ever seen — the former Queensland premier ruling the Sunshine State for almost a decade from 1998 to 2007.

During this time his government endured no shortage of scandal, but Beattie was unlike many politicians.

Rather than hide, obfuscate, deflect or deny, he made an art form of accepting when his government had failed, admitting its mistakes, apologising and working on a way to fix them. As the Sydney Morning Herald wrote in 2004: “The way Beattie operates is counterintuitive; where most politicians reflexively deny or downplay stuff-ups or misbehaviour by their government, Beattie’s approach is to draw attention to them, apologise for them and even to campaign against them.”

Beattie’s approach is in stark contrast to that of the NT Labor Government.

Take exhibit A, the Cavenagh St shade structure.

Built more than five years ago, the government promised in late 2018 that within 12-to-18 months the structure would be covered in vines, providing much-needed shade to help cool the CBD.

When the vines appeared to be wilting, several experts questioned the choice of vine and suggested the government reconsider its approach.

“I don’t know why the government chose to plant Orange Trumpet because they won’t be big enough,” Top End gardening expert Sandra Byrnes told the NT News in April 2019.

“It looks like they got them from a wholesaler even though there are many better suited species.”

This might have been a good point to take stock, admit they got it wrong and start again but instead, in March 2020 the government rolled out its own expert.

In a video posted to social media under the heading “Debunking the myths with an expert”, we were told the structure would be completely covered within two-to-three years.

A bit like the vine, those comments have not aged well.

While the shade structure is not a matter of life and death, the fact the government has dug its heels in so adamantly on an issue of relative triviality is instructive.

The Cavenagh St shade structure remains a monument to Territory government obfuscation, Matt Cunningham writes. Picture: Che Chorley

This week’s budget estimates hearings have revealed more examples of the government denying, deflecting, and downplaying on a range of far more serious issues.

On several occasions earlier this year when asked about damage to the Howard Springs quarantine facility by flood evacuees, Chief Minister Natasha Fyles said the issue had been a matter of “wear and tear”.

This week we learned there had in fact been almost $300,000 worth of damage done to the facility, including 673 broken windows, $35,000 in damage to sewage systems and $11,450 spent replacing fire extinguishers — hardly wear and tear in anyone’s language.

So why was the Chief Minister so determined to downplay what had happened?

The government’s inability to call a spade a shovel leaves its constituents feeling as though they’re being taken for fools.

Tourism Minister Nicole Manison told the committee it was cost-of-living issues, rather than crime, that was impacting tourism in Central Australia.

Police Minister Kate Worden said she had no idea how much former commissioner Jamie Chalker had been paid to walk away from his job, but could still say with absolute conviction it had no impact on police operations, even though this mysterious amount of money had come out of the police budget.

Matt Cunningham is the Northern Australia Correspondent and Darwin Bureau Chief at SKY NEWS Picture: Justin Kennedy

And Education Minister Eva Lawler attributed the Territory’s woeful school attendance rates in part to parents taking their kids to Bali outside of the school holidays.

I’d hazard a guess this is a long way down the list of issues affecting school attendance.

This government hates scrutiny even though it gets little of it.

It’s scrapped scrutiny committees and done away with changes to question time that had reduced pointless Dorothy Dixers.

One of the few times it is properly scrutinised is during estimates.

Yet when the heat is turned on it has a habit of blowing up, as evidenced by Lawler’s extraordinary outburst this week because she was unhappy shadow education minister Jo Hersey had asked questions about crime.

Instead of answering the questions, she attacked Hersey, calling her “pathetic” before it all descended into an unedifying slanging match that forced deputy chair Joel Bowden to cut the live stream.

Rather than continuing to avoid, deflect and deny, the government would be better off taking a leaf out of Peter Beattie’s book.

For its failure to honestly answer questions only leaves the public wondering if it has something to hide.

Matt Cunningham is the Sky News Darwin Bureau Chief and North Australia correspondent.