NT politics: CLP caught peddling false figures about the number of business closures in the Territory

Last week, Marie-Clare Boothby gave a combative press conference where she told Territorians the NT had lost 106 businesses in the last 12 months. The only problem is, it wasn’t true.

CLP business and tourism spokeswoman Marie-Clare Boothby speaking with Treeti Business Consulting's Megan Holzfeind outside an empty shopfront in the Smith Street Mall. Picture: Supplied

The Country Liberal Party has been caught out peddling false statistics about the number of business closures across the Territory in the last 12 months, with their claim that there had been an overall reduction in enterprises shot down by the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

Last week, opposition spokeswoman for tourism and business, Marie-Clare Boothby, gave a press conference out the front of Smith Street Mall’s Darwin Souvenirs & Gifts – which recently closed after almost 20 years in business – in which she told Territorians the Labor government was failing in its economic stewardship.

“What we’ve got is a Labor government who over eight years are demonstrating that they don’t know how to grow our economy,” she said.

As part of her case, she cited Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) to support her claim “there’s been 106 businesses that have closed over the last 12 months”.

However, after being contacted by this masthead, an ABS spokesman confirmed this was not correct.

“The 106 businesses referred to as closing in the NT refers to the net movement of surviving businesses, which represents movements of businesses between states and territories,” he said.

“In the four quarters between June 2023 and March 2024, the NT had a net increase of 456 businesses.”

The true number of business closures (mostly businesses cancelling their ABNs) in the 12 months prior to March 2024 was in fact 2675.

But that figure was dwarfed by the number of new businesses registering for an ABN in the Territory across the period: 3237.

The CLP’s furphy about business closures is all the more baffling as their core point, that the Territory’s economy is flailing, is backed up by the figures.

According to the latest from the Australian National Accounts, the Territory was alone among the states and territories in seeing its gross state product (GSP) decline in 2022–23, and by a whopping 5.3 per cent at that (our nearest state was Tasmania, which saw its GSP rise by 1.1 per cent).

Ms Boothby said one of the biggest barriers to business success in the Territory is overwhelming crime, which is backed up anecdotally by the recent closures of Lucky Bat Cafe, The Deck, and gelataria Johnn Johnn’s (temporarily after an assault on boss Johnn Koenig).

An empty shopfront in Smith Street Mall. Picture: Supplied

“We have been talking about and focusing on crime so much because we need to get that under control,” she said.

And, as Ms Boothby pointed out, tourism figures for the Territory also remain worryingly soft.

According to recent ABS data, there were 10.5 per cent fewer overseas arrivals to the Territory in March 2024 compared to March 2023.

Compared to March 2019, pre-Covid, short-term overseas visitation in the Territory is down 27.2 per cent (although the only jurisdictions where overseas visitation has rebounded are WA, Tasmania and the ACT).

Chief Minister Eva Lawler said the CLP was “making it even tougher for small businesses by using dodgy figures to talk the Territory down for political purposes”.

“We know that it is very challenging to run a small business in the Territory and there’s more to do to support our incredible hard working business people,” she said.