NT budget: Big promises made for funding ahead of election

The stifling wet season in the Top End normally keeps pollies away, unless there’s an election coming up, writes MATT CUNNINGHAM.

THE general rule that the number of federal politicians you’re likely to see in the Top End is inversely proportionate to the relative humidity has one notable exception.

Those same politicians’ typical phobia of our stifling wet season can be overcome for a war commemoration ahead of a khaki election.

And so Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese landed in Darwin last weekend for the 80th anniversary of the Bombing of Darwin.

Before the week was out, both of the major parties had made “major” pre-election funding announcements.

But if you dive into the detail, there’s good chance we’ve been promised sweet bugger all.

Albanese says Labor will spend $200m upgrading and sealing roads including the Santa Teresa Rd, Mereenie Loop Rd and all-weather access to Maningrida.

It sounds like a lot of money.

The Coalition’s deal sounded better still, pledging $678m for the upgrade of the Outback Way, although on close inspection it was revealed just $124m of this money was earmarked for the NT, with the rest to be spent in Queensland and WA.

But in both cases, the money is a drop in the ocean of the funding required to bring the Northern Territory’s roads up to a decent standard.

The Northern Territory was left with a massive infrastructure deficit when it obtained self-government in 1978.

That deficit has never been eroded. Nowhere else in the country are their major towns inhabited by thousands of people that are effectively inaccessible by road for significant parts of the year.

The Prime Minister Scott Morrison, Defence Minister Peter Dutton and Minister for Defence Personnel Andrew Gee during the 80th anniversary commemorations of the Bombing of Darwin at Darwins Esplanade. Picture: Glenn Campbell

But this is the case in the Territory, as anyone who’s tried to drive from Darwin to Nhulunbuy or Wadeye in the wet season will attest. It will take billions of dollars to fix this problem, not the relatively pitiful amounts that drip out come Budget time.

In 2018 the Turnbull Government announced it would spend $180 million to “seal” the Central Arnhem Road.

The good people of the Gove Peninsula will be able to tell you that four years on, that’s a long way from becoming reality.

When the 2018 Budget arrived we discovered there would be no money for the project that financial year, just $5m in 2019/20, $10m in 2020/21, and $145m earmarked for 2021/22.

It would pay the NT to keep a close eye on this year’s Budget to make sure that money arrives.

But even if it does, it’s a fraction of what would be required to seal the 680km track some people ironically refer to as a “highway”.

The best estimates say sealing an outback road costs $1m a kilometre. $180m won’t do much more than fix a few potholes.

In fact the dream of “sealing” the Central Arnhem Road appears to have been consigned to the backburner.

The NT infrastructure department’s website now notes the “long-term objective” is to provide a two-lane sealed connection for the entire road. How “long-term” is not specified.

The Coalition is not the only guilty party when it comes to bundling necessary recurring funding into a “major” announcement.

When Albanese was asked on Sunday if his $200m was coming in an upfront, lump-sum payment, the best he could offer was that it would “be in the Budget”.

That doesn’t mean it won’t be in the Budget and spread across four years.

While we may have inherited our infrastructure deficit from Canberra, the feds are not solely to blame for its continued existence. Northern Territory governments have made an art form of redirecting federal funding – often sent to address Indigenous disadvantage – and squandering it on unnecessary projects to try to win over votes in urban areas.

If the Palmerston Regional Hospital wasn’t enough to convince you of this, take a drive down Progress St in Nightcliff and admire the absurd extravagance of the Nightcliff Police Station. While remote cops work out of demountables, this Taj Mahal of police stations shutters its doors outside business hours.

“To serve and protect”, scream the massive words attached to the side of the building.

“To divert and neglect” might have been more accurate.

Originally published as NT budget: Big promises made for funding ahead of election