Time to ‘live within our budget’ Manison says as Labor pivots attack strategy towards opposing parties

THERE are no “flashy” big-ticket promises from NT Labor, as the incumbents’ campaign pivots to attacking opposition parties over their cash-intensive policies

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THERE are no “flashy” big-ticket promises from NT Labor because the party knows the Territory has to “live within our budget”, Treasurer Nicole Manison has said as the incumbents’ campaign pivoted to attacking opposition parties over their cash-intensive policies.

This comes as the NT Treasury is scheduled to release costings of opposition party promises on Thursday.

Throughout the build-up to election day, now three days away, Territory Alliance has emerged as the largest spending option for voters, announcing commitments costing up to $665m, before their revenue-reducing policies such as payroll tax and stamp duty suspension are factored in.

Chief Minister Michael Gunner and Treasurer Nicole Manison speaking address media with four days to go before the 2020 NT election. Picture: Che Chorley

The CLP has been cautious, saying a lot of its policies can be implemented using “existing departmental budgets”, while putting price tags on smaller ticket items like mobile CCTV cameras for Palmerston and grants for the agriculture industry.

Ms Manison, appearing at her first press conference in nearly three weeks, said NT Labor knew the government had to “live within our budget”, particularly in light of the economy-wrecking coronavirus, before questioning how the other parties would pay for their big-ticket items.

NT’s net debt is expected to hit $8.2bn by July, up from $1.8bn in mid-2016.

Before coronavirus hit, NT’s net debt was meant to hit $6.9bn by July 2021.

Territory Alliance’s Terry Mills defended the spending as the “right kind of investment” to grow the economy, saying t it was a move backed by economists and driven by having “faith in the future of the NT … This is not the time for austerity measures.”

As Ms Manison and Chief Minister Michael Gunner tried to ramp up Labor’s faithful rhetoric of how the other parties would “cut, sack and sell”, Opposition Leader Lia Finocchiaro reiterated that public service jobs would be “safe” under the CLP, before criticising the government’s tactics as “cheap”.

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“(The Chief Minister) has spent the entire campaign … not talking about his plans for the future,” she said.

“We have always said we will put in our costings and ensure Treasury takes a look.”

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