NT government has ‘reasonable’ case to ask for federal financial bailout, economist Saul Eslake says
THE Northern Territory has a ‘reasonable’ argument to ask the federal government for another GST bailout, an economist has said, describing the jurisdiction’s accounts as ‘a mess’.
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THE Northern Territory has a “reasonable” argument to ask the federal government for another GST bailout, an economist has said, describing the jurisdiction’s accounts as “a mess”.
It comes as Chief Minister Michael Gunner yesterday began selling the government’s frugal, “narrow focus” budget, with a fiscal strategy he says is “similar” to that of the federal government.
Mr Gunner also repeated the rhetoric that there could be no “spendathon” because there isn’t a “white knight” coming to save the Territory from its own financial mess, and it was time to be less dependent on the GST.
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Economist Saul Eslake said the Territory, due to the state of its books pre-pandemic, was “simply not able” to splash as much cash as other governments to support economic recovery. And he believed the NT wouldn’t be able to balance the books despite the measures they hade taken to rein in finances without a federal handout.
“I think the NT has a reasonable case to go to Canberra and ask for another (GST) bailout,” he said.
“When you are poor, you have to beg.”
Describing the NT’s finances as “a mess” made worse by the impact of COVID-19 on Australia’s shrinking GST pool, Mr Eslake said the government’s move to freeze public service wages for four years was “not an unreasonable” austerity measure.
The most recent government data on public sector salaries shows the average Territory government worker earned a gross salary of about $95,000, which is 15 per cent more than the national average salary for public servants.
The measure, Mr Eslake said, wouldn’t help the Territory’s economy in terms of consumer spending.
But he added that it “wouldn’t hurt too much” as public servants were relatively well paid.
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The NT government’s debt to revenue ratio is expected to hit 132 per cent this financial year.
It is projected to rise to 179 per cent in 2023/24.
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