CLP plan to switch mining royalty system without spending cash ‘challenging’: Treasury

NT Treasury boffins have warned the CLP’s plan to switch out the Territory’s existing royalties system for another without spending money will be “challenging”

THE CLP’s plan to switch out the Territory’s existing mining royalties system to the one used by Western Australia without spending any money will be “challenging”, NT Treasury boffins have warned.

NT Treasury, releasing analysis on how the CLP’s policies would impact the NT’s budget bottom line, also warned that in general, the “significant worsening” of the Territory’s fiscal position as evidenced in the COVID-19 update meant there was no room in the budget now and going forward to pay for new policy decisions without making the books worse.

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Treasury boss Craig Graham told the CLP its plan to keep the switch from the NT’s hybrid mining royalty scheme to the ad valorem model revenue neutral would be “challenging” and meant there was an “element of uncertainty” around the impact of the policy on the budget.

Overall, Mr Graham said the CLP’s election commitments included $27.9 million of new capital investment and $45.1 million of new operational policy commitments, both across four years.

Opposition Leader Lia Finocchiaro. Picture: Che Chorley

But the CLP plans to fund new capital projects through reprioritising existing projects on the books, with Mr Graham saying if this is done, the projects should have no impact on the preliminary budget estimate.

NT Treasury managed to get analysis of CLP’s policy costings out before close of business on Thursday, despite “some confusion” within the party that caused it to miss the original deadline of August 14 by five days.

Despite the stuff up though, Opposition Leader Lia Finocchiaro seized on the argument that the CLP was the only party that had submitted its policies to Treasury.

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NT Labor wrote to Treasury to let them know that all its cash-intensive policies had been included into the COVID-19 fiscal update and wouldn’t impact the budget.

In a letter to the party, Mr Graham said based on his analysis, he agreed this to be true.