Gunner’s final budget passes after two weeks of Estimates

The budget that Michael Gunner handed down before stepping down has passed, after two weeks of hearings in Estimates.

THE 2022-23 Budget has passed into law, months after its architect Michael Gunner stepped down as chief minister in dramatic fashion.

Mr Gunner was not present in parliament on Thursday for personal reasons.

The NT government is projected to post a deficit of $1.11bn in 2022-23, with debt rising to $8.71bn.

Included in the budget books is a $1.7bn infrastructure spend, over half of which will be spent on transport.

It forecasts that the Territory government will be almost back in surplus by 2026.

Chief Minister Michael Gunner announcing his resignation from the top role in May. Picture:(A)manda Parkinson

The passing of the budget was delayed on Thursday after the parliament entered a timely vote to decide who would become the next speaker.

The previous speaker, Ngaree Ah Kit, was appointed a minister during Natasha Fyles’ first reshuffle since taking power.

Labor nominated Mark Monaghan as speaker, while the CLP nominated former speaker Kezia Purick to take up the role again. Both MLAs accepted the nomination.

Mr Monaghan won the ballot 15 votes to nine.

Daly MLA Dheran Young was elected deputy speaker.

Opposition leader Lia Finocchiaro blasted the budget, saying the only measure to repair the budget was a cut to the funding of the Independent Commissioner Against Corruption.

Ms Finocchiaro also railed against the “austerity” of pay freezes for public servants and chastised the government for relying on a projected windfall in GST revenue to balance the books in coming years.

“(Territorians) are continuing to leave in droves because crime is out of control, because they can’t see the vision of this government, because it does not have one,” she said.

“There’s no concrete information about where we’re going to get half a billion dollars.”

Deputy Chief Minister Nicole Manison hit back, saying numbers in the budget were “rock solid”.

“Treasury don’t put figures in those estimates if they don’t think that they are actually real,” Ms Manison said.

“They’re not going to go and hyper-inflate the budget for presentation purposes.”

Public and social housing has 5900-person waitlist

THE NT government would need to double the number of public housing units it owns to cover growing waitlists, with some people waiting up to 10 years for a unit.

It comes amid a recruitment spree within a government department to recoup some of the $60m owed by remote housing tenants.

Figures provided in Estimates show there are 5902 applications on the public housing waiting list.

At the same time, there were just 5909 public housing units owned by the NT government.

It took the department 130 days on average to move a new tenant into an empty home and there were nearly 300 homes sitting empty for a variety of reasons.

Some areas had waits of eight to 10 years.

Housing and Homelands Minister Selena Uibo said the government understood “pressures in our urban centres and our regional towns” and was working to release further land to provide more affordable homes.

Public housing units like those in the Narrows are heavily sought after, with waiting lists for up to ten years. Picture: Zizi Averill.

CLP housing spokesman Bill Yan described the waitlists as “crazy” at a time of increasing rental rates, particularly in Darwin.

Also in Estimates, Ms Uibo told the Committee on Wednesday that $60m is owed by those renting out remote houses in the NT.

Over $22m of that figure is owed by former or current tenants in the Top End and Ms Uibo stressed the figure was “cumulative” and had been accruing over a number of years.

Department of Tourism, Industry and Trade deputy chief executive Brent Warren told Estimates an extra 20 remote tenancy officers were recruited last year to help recoup some of the money.

“The core driver of that was about making sure they could get out regularly and repeatedly to all communities to be doing check-ins directly with tenants about their tenancy,” Mr Warren said.

“This goes to not just managing their payments, but also making sure that house inspections have been done, that maintenance has been reported, and that we have the latest accurate data about who’s in the house.”

Mr Warren said the department was making sure families were not subjected to repayments of over 25 per cent of their household income.

Damage bill still rising from Wadeye unrest

THE damage bill for repairing and rebuilding homes in Wadeye is set to surpass $5m.

That sum is based on the damage sustained to 80 of the 125 homes impacted during unrest in the remote community earlier this year, Estimates heard on Wednesday.

An “early estimate” of the damage to these 80 properties was between $4m and $5m.

Costs are expected to rise further as the remaining 45 homes are assessed.

There are 288 public housing properties in Wadeye, meaning nearly half of social houses in the township were damaged or destroyed during the unrest.

Estimates heard on Wednesday that 545 people were displaced by the violence.

In questioning, the CLP sought to get clarity on whether taxpayers would foot the bill for repairs, drawing a rebuke from both Housing and Homelands Minister Selena Uibo and local Labor MLA Dheran Young.

Housing and Homelands Minister Selena Uibo fronted Estimates on Wednesday. Picture Katrina Bridgeford.

Ms Uibo said criminal damages were a matter for police and the courts.

“It's disappointing to see the line of questioning around prioritising what it costs to taxpayers rather than the care and welfare of other Territorians,” Mr Young said.

Araleun MLA Robyn Lambley disagreed, saying Budget Estimates was focused on financial costs to departments and the questioning was fair.

Ms Uibo said a $200,000 emergency grant had been provided to the West Daly Regional Council for demountable toilets, water access and telecommunications to be provided to displaced people in those homelands.

A further $160,000 had been spent on NT government staff visiting communities impacted by the unrest.

Later on Wednesday, Ms Uibo said 293 of the 5909 NT government-owned homes in urban areas were vacant.

That comprised of 67 homes in Alice Springs and 22 in Katherine.

She said these included properties that were awaiting demolition or alterations.

Vision of the unrest earlier this year in the remote community of Wadeye, which was later described as a crisis.

No minister claims responsibility for $400k veterans funding

POLITICIANS were left scratching their heads on Tuesday after the Veterans Minister became the third Labor frontbencher to tell Estimates they weren’t responsible for overseeing veterans funding.

The mystery began with Chief Minister Natasha Fyles on Tuesday last week, when she said she was not responsible for funding in the budget for veterans.

Ms Fyles told the Opposition that questions should be directed at Veterans Minister Paul Kirby.

Treasurer Nicole Manion likewise said Mr Kirby was best placed to answer questions about the subject when she appeared last Wednesday.

But in a turn which left followers of the saga befuddled, Mr Kirby on Tuesday told the CLP that questions about funding should have actually been directed at Ms Fyles.

Veterans Minister Paul Kirby has told Estimates his boss Natasha Fyles is in charge of funding for veterans. Picture: Floss Adams.

“I think we explained last year that the veterans funding allocation sits with Defence, which at that stage probably would have been Minister Manison, I think at this stage now would be the Chief Minister,” he said.

“So I’m certainly the line Minister, but the budget allocations do sit with the Chief Minister.”

Mr Kirby was then unable to say how much money had been allocated in the 2022-23 budget for veterans, before later being told via a text message it was $450,000.

He said a large part of his job was meeting with federal bodies and ministers to secure better funding from Canberra for veterans.

A similar confusion existed last year, when the CLP was mystified by the Veterans Minister not being responsible for funding for veterans.

Corrections’ massive overtime bill revealed

JUSTICE Minister Chansey Paech has been caught on the hop in Budget Estimates, unable to say how many jobs are currently vacant in Corrections.

Appearing alongside Mr Paech in Estimates, Corrections Commissioner Matthew Varley revealed the department had paid $13.53m in overtime to corrections workers in the 11 months to May 2022.

At the same time, attrition in Corrections also increased two per cent to 10 per cent, a figure higher than the rate being suffered in NT Police.

Neither Mr Paech nor Mr Varley could not tell the Committee how many jobs vacancies were present in Corrections, citing “rolling recruitment” processes.

Mr Paech said work to determine the cause of an exodus was still being conducted, but that “anecdotally” a significant cause was people moving south.

Labor MLA Chansey Paech was unable to say how many positions remain unfilled within NT Corrections. Picture: (A)manda Parkinson

The CLP’s justice spokesman Steve Edgington said the lack of information around recruiting was “worrying when it comes to corrections (and) prisoner safety”.

Mr Edgington said the overtime bill “demonstrates that there is a shortage of staff” within Corrections.

Araluen MLA Robyn Lambley blasted the lack of transparency around the number of vacant positions within the department, accusing the Justice Minister of “deliberately avoiding answering questions”.

“By not answering the question, it is implying that the figures are so terrible that you don’t want to tell us what is says,” she said.

“This is budget estimates, Minister.”

Ms Lambley was also scornful of the state of the Alice Springs Correctional Facility, describing it as having undergone a “staggering decline”.

CLP justice spokesman Steve Edgington said the lack of transparency around Corrections recruiting was concerning. Picture: Katrina Bridgeford.

“I was really shocked and deeply disappointed that a facility in my town of Alice Springs has been left to disintegrate to the bare minimum,” she said.

“It’s a depleted, inactive space.”

Ms Lambley also quizzed why the prison’s bakery was no longer operating, noting its previous role helping prisoners rehabilitate.

Mr Paech defended the performance of corrections, saying it had endured a “number of restrictions” through Covid-19.

“I acknowledge there has been some dispute over some years around the bakery element,” he said.

“One of the challenge for prison industries is it is not allowed to compete with the commercial practices in those local communities.”

Attorney-General flags changes to mandatory sentencing laws

THE act of spitting on emergency workers could attract tougher penalties under new laws being drafted up by the NT government.

Similar laws proposed by the CLP which would’ve attracted a mandatory sentence for such offences were voted down by the government earlier this year.

Estimates on Tuesday began with Attorney-General Chansey Paech in the hot seat.

He will also be grilled on local government later in the day before colleague Paul Kirby answers questions on his portfolios.

When asked what reforms were under way in the criminal justice space, Mr Paech said the government would have a bill to toughen penalties on assaults on frontline workers.

“We will have a bill before the assembly which will increase the penalties for assaults (like) spitting and so forth,” he said.

“We value our hardworking police, fire and emergency services and we will actually commit to that reform and bring in those penalties.”

Attorney-General Chansey Paech has vowed reforms to mandatory sentencing will reach parliament this year. Picture: (A)manda Parkinson

The CLP’s Steve Edgington then asked for a timeline for the reforms, to which Mr Paech said it would be “before the Assembly as soon as it can”.

“And yes, my intention is that that bill will be before the Assembly this year.”

Mr Paech flagged that work was already underway through a number of programs from Territory Families to “combat the levels of anti-social behaviour across the Territory”.

The NT News understands mandatory sentencing will be repealed for some offences, when coupled with further rehabilitation.

Mr Paech also rejected the suggestion that mandatory sentencing be scrapped for convicted murderers and rapists, calling that aspersion “entirely incorrect”.

On Monday, it was revealed that 157 police were assaulted in the nine months to March this year.

Police Minister Kate Worden and Commissioner Jamie Chalker faced a grilling over the state of the force’s rank-and-file during the hearings.

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Originally published as Gunner’s final budget passes after two weeks of Estimates