Public servant jobs must be axed: How the Gunner Government is failing the Territory economy

THE Territory is officially broke. In fact, we’re worse than broke. And it’s farcical to think we can find our way out of this mess without making significant cuts to the biggest drain on our coffers, writes MATT CUNNINGHAM

After years of spending beyond our means the stark reality of the situation has finally been revealed. The Northern Territory is officially broke

THE CHICKENS have finally come home to roost.

After years of spending beyond our means the stark reality of the situation was finally revealed on Friday.

The Northern Territory is officially broke.

In fact, we’re worse than broke. Right now we are borrowing money just to pay for our day-to-day operational expenses, including the wages of public servants.

And we’re borrowing money to pay interest on the money we’ve already borrowed.

We’re like a uni student who has been using the credit card to go to the pub. Now that credit card is maxed out we’re going to beg mum and dad for the money to pay it off.

Treasurer Nicole Manison will fly to Canberra next week to ask her federal counterpart Josh Frydenberg for some cash.

Frydenberg will no doubt ask the same question a parent might ask of their cash-strapped child. What on earth have you been doing with your money?

After all, it’s only a few months since former Treasurer Scott Morrison came to Alice Springs and dropped off a cheque for $259 million.

This was top-up money to compensate for reductions in GST revenue that actually increased our share in the previous financial year by $123 million.

But Ms Manison still had the hide on Friday to blame GST cuts for the current budget disaster.

Worse still, she again resorted to the tired old line that this is somehow the fault of the “former chaotic CLP Government.”

Amid all its scandals, the CLP Government at least had a plan to tackle this looming financial crisis. How much worse would today’s situation been if not for the sale of TIO or the $500 million we made through the lease of the Darwin Port?

The front page of Friday’s NT News trumpeted three major projects that would help kickstart the NT economy; the Northern Gas Pipeline, the Sea Dragon prawn farm and Landbridge’s luxury hotel.

Those projects were all conceived under the CLP Government. In contrast, the Gunner Government gave us a fracking moratorium that has set the onshore gas industry — and the thousands of jobs that could come with it — back years.

Yet it has the gall to say the CLP failed to plan for the post-Inpex wind down.

The CLP’s plan was actually pretty similar to the Henderson Labor Government’s plan. Develop the gas industry and turn Darwin into a manufacturing and servicing hub.

The “Aberdeen of the south”.

But that plan was put on ice to appease the confected outrage of the anti-frackers. While they might not say so publicly, several members of Henderson’s former cabinet have been left dismayed at the state of the current administration.

This Government has now been in power for almost two-and-a-half years.

It’s staring down a $3 billion net debt that we learned on Friday will blow out to a staggering $35.7 billion in just over a decade if something doesn’t change.

So what’s the Government’s plan to fix this? The short answer is it doesn’t have one. Ms Manison on Friday ruled out raising power prices or making cuts to the public service.

The very least she could do is stop it from growing. Between 2003 and 2016 the NT public service grew by 41 percent, despite an population increase of just 21 per cent.

And last year the government employed an extra 293 public servants, despite the population being stagnant.

It beggars belief we keep hiring public servants we don’t have the money to pay. It’s even more farcical to think we can find its way out of this mess without making significant cuts to the biggest drain on its coffers.

Instead Manison will just go cap in hand to Canberra and try to make this a political issue of us-versus-them.

It’s a game NT governments of all persuasions have been playing for decades, but the game is finally up.

Canberra is not going to hand over a blank cheque just so the NT Government can continue on its merry spending spree. If the Federal Government does decide to help bail us out of this mess, there will surely be some serious strings attached.

This Government needs to decide what it wants the NT to be.

Does it want to be the mendicant state, sucking up the federal money delivered to address indigenous disadvantage and spending on netball courts at Marrara?

Or does it want to stand on its own two feet? To cut red tape, create its own revenue streams and tell the world that the Territory is open for business.

And to address the elephant in the room that is the public service.

After years of spending beyond our means the stark reality of the situation was finally revealed on Friday. The Northern Territory is officially broke.