NT govt to spend $10m building digital platform for business approvals, slash red tape under Budget plan
ROUTINE business approvals in the Territory are set to go paperless under the NT Government’s red tape- slashing $10m plan to create a wholly online platform to speed up the process.
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ROUTINE business approvals in the Territory are set to go paperless under the NT Government’s red tape- slashing $10m plan to create a wholly online platform to speed up the process.
The plan, borne out of the Territory Economic Reconstruction Commission’s (TERC) draft report, will be detailed in the NT’s first pandemic-era budget to be released today.
The NT News can reveal the government will shuffle $10m from “existing” resources” into the Corporate and Digital Development Department to move standard business approvals onto an online platform.
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At the moment, standard food and retail approval applications are largely paper-based and in-person processes.
The government expects to have a prototype platform ready to go by the end of the year.
It comes as the NT government confirms it is “progressing” three key reforms outlined by the TERC in its draft report, with funding to be detailed in the budget.
This includes $1.2m for a feasibility study into an “electricity superhighway” between Darwin and Alice Springs in a bid to scope out opportunities for a transmission link and a “potential link” to the National Electricity Grid.
The closest grid nodes to the Territory are near Prominent Hill, Adelaide and once the joint-government backed Copperstring 2.0 project is completed in Queensland, the NT will have the option of connecting via Mount Isa.
The government will also spend $6.6m on the Renewable Remote Power Program, starting with a pilot program to supplement power at Wurrumiyanga, on the Tiwi Islands, with renewable energy.
A further $3.7m will be spent “accelerating” work into securing the NT’s water supply infrastructure, including advancing the Adelaide River Off-Stream Water Storage Project.
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It comes after the government on Monday revealed it would boost the federal government’s JobMaker program through a $7.8m supplement of its own.
The federal deal provides eligible employers a wage subsidy of $200 a week if they hire a JobSeeker under the age of 30 or $100 if the worker is aged 30 to 35.
The NT will expand on this by topping up the subsidy for the 30 to 35 age bracket by $100 a week and handing out $200 a week if the worker is above 35.
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