360 with Katie WoolfNT Treasurer Bill Yan says the Federal budget delivered a slap in the face for Territorians, pointing to the $5 tax cuts and deeming the $200 million to upgrade the Stuart Highway as ‘maintenance money’
Now, five dollars a week is certainly my understanding. That's what's been reported largely and widely when we talk about the when we talk about those tax cuts, I mean from what I've got in front of me right now, the info I've got in front of me, it is seven. Sorry, So we're literally going to go to a point where we're seventeen billion dollar tax cut package. Now that's being sold obviously as a centerpiece of the government's cost of living relief plan, but for millions of working Australians it is only going to amount to about five dollars a week. Now, the federal minister saying fifty dollars a week is what she's got in front of her, I don't know how exactly that breaks down. The only thing that I can sort of wrap my head around is whether the government is sort of going off all the other announcements that they've made prior that could be cost saving measures and then adding that five to it. I don't know anyway, Maybe the Northern Territory treasure Er Bill Yan's got a better idea.
Good morning to you, Bill, Good Morningding, Good morning to er on.
The top end, Bill, do you have much of an idea of just how much we're going to save a week on this seventeen billion dollar tax cuts.
I think I'm just as confused as you and everybody else in the territory's dated, but my understanding it's a five bucks and with the cost of living pressures, apparently coffee is going up, so it's might about the seven bucks a cup, So your five bucks isn't even going to buy you a cup of coffee.
Well, this is you know, this is the thing right around Australia. The news headlines right around Australia. You know, I've seen some of those, some of those headlines and make happy meal Jim, you know, and that's how much or what you'll be able to buy a week with the cost of living savings measures, Others saying, you.
Know, you'll be able to buy yourself a coffee.
So there is no doubt that a lot of people are feeling as though what has been announced simply isn't enough to deal with the cost of living issues that we are facing right around Australia, but particularly in a place like the Northern Territory.
Yeah, absolutely, Katie. And when you look at the federal bugs budget that's been handed down, and it's certainly a bit of a slap in the face for us here in the territory. And I suppose to put in perspective, and I know you're a Queenslander, and I'm going to have a bit of a poker at the banana benders. But the federal government announced seven point two billion dollars to make safe and do upgrades to the Bruce Highway. Well, they're giving the entire territory seven point one billion dollars to run the entire place. Yeah, so that's that's that's certainly a bit of a slap in the phase for us here in the territory. And out of that seven point one there's two point five. With that that's tide punning, which I don't have any discretion over. We have to spend it, as the federal governments says, we have to spend it. So it makes a lot things.
Really tough from your perspective.
Is what is new in the Northern territory, Like, what is new from the federal budget for the Northern territory.
Is it just that two hundred million for the.
Only specific news stuff in this budget? Is that two hundred million for the short high between Catherine Daralen and out of that two hundred and we have to chip in another forty million dollars to get that program off the ground. So the federal government made an announcement on a program and committed the territory, of course, then to an additional forty million dollars on that projecting idea. At the moment, Ky, it's forty million dollars that I don't have, so we don't have to work through how we can deliver that project. Added into the future years, it's another forty million bucks all of a sudden that I've got to find when I'm trying to produce a budget and I'm scripping and saving where i can to make sure that we don't blow the debt completely out. And now I've got the Fed saying, well, okay, we'll give you two undred million, but you've got to stump up another forty And look, I.
Mean the thing is built.
Like.
I don't want to be body slamming and all, you know, the federal government. I don't want to be having a crack and sounding like I'm a winder or sounding like we're not grateful because there is money being invested into the Northern Territory.
But like you know, when you look at.
This year's budget and when you look at what is in there for the Northern Territory, I feel like they've kind of, you know, not don't care.
I don't know what the right word is.
Yeah, Well, we've been speaking to the federal government for quite some time, ever since we got in and there's some commitments that we need from the Feds to grow our economy here. And I've said it and I said it this morning again in another press conferences. I don't need a hand out, I need a bit of a hand up. I need the federal government to be putting money into projects that are going to stimulate our economy instimulate private sector investments. So defense is one. We've seen no announcements for additional defense spending here on the top end. And we've got those infrastructure projects Middle Arm and the infrastructure corals and infrastructure hubs, Tenant Creek and Catherine. Now, the federal government got that money tied up in equ which rains it's not actual cash. You know, I haven't it's really really difficult to get them to releasing that cash to start delivering those projects so that we can get Budloo moving, at middle A moving and a number of other things. So there was no commitment in that federal budget to release some of that equity funding is into cash so we can get these things moving because we need that. We know from the Day and Major Business Groups Forum last week that private sector investment is what's going to pull the territory out of the current financial crisis it sees itself in. But we need we need some help from the federal government to do that.
Mate. I don't know whether you heard the federal minister on the show just a short time ago, the Minister for Northern Australia, Madeline King, I certainly did ask you know, what's in the budget for the Northern Territory and she went through, you know, everything that has been promised over the last number of years, like you've just you know, like you have just touched on. But when I sort of tried to ask us some further questions about what's in it, you know, for the Northern Territory this year, as we've also touched on that two hundred million for the Stuart Highway, well you know, she sort of didn't want to or didn't go into that level of detail from your perspective as the Northern Territory treasurer. I mean, are you are you feeling a bit let down by the federal government today?
Oh?
Absolutely, Cat, I'm really disappointed. I think everybody in the territory should feel extremely disappointed. And what really sad me today is we had Melanerie McCarthy come out and make veiled threats because we were criticizing the federal government about the budget saying what do you watch or she said we should watch our language or they might reduce their funding. Well, I'm not going to make any excuses or apologize for standing up for territories and standing up for what we want and what we need to the federal government. The stuff that she said this morning is absolutely appalling. Katie. So we've got three we've got three federal labor members in that government down there. What have they been doing for us? That's the question I sort of asked, because we've got very little out of this budget two hundred million dollars additional on top of effective what is maintenance money? What have they been doing for us at the end of the day.
Bill in terms of the tax cuts, what do you think? What do you make of some of the cost of living measures that have been announced.
Do you think that they're going to help territories.
Well, we've seen there's the tax cuts, which we still don't know exactly how much that's going to be, but it's been reported by everybody it's about five bucks. Look, the federal government have put up some money for another six months of those energy subsidies, but that disappears in six months, so that's going to hit people in the pocket coming into Christmas unless they can find another twenty plus billion dollars to keep those going. We've done some fairly tangible things here in the territory ourselves, which was the free licenses for one year. We actually put a freeze on vehicle regios. That the things that sort of matter to people there are small things, but actually they all add up, so they actually provide that little bit of relief to people in territory. The power the power subjects will help us, but only for six months. And what's going to happen after that six months. No, of course nobody knows. So the tax cuts a minimal. We'll see that power substy but I don't see much else on the horizon for us up here as far as cost of living benefits to territories bill.
When you look at, you know, the infrastructure spend.
We've spoken at lengths.
About, you know, the way that we feel we haven't received as much as we might like. I mean, I'll be very blunt about it. Are you being a bit of a winger? Given the fact that we've got a massive GST increase? Am I being a bit of a winger? I mean, I don't know.
Well, the thing is, the GST increase doesn't effectively come from the budget. Our GST increases due to relatively and that's done by the Federal Grants body, So they look at our GST relatively and we've got a little uptick in jere which is great, But again it's that maintenance money. We need, that real investment from the federal government if we're to pull ourselves out of the financial hole that we're in now. The infrastructure stuff is great, but I've been banging on about it all week for a couple of weeks. I'll be banging on about it in Parliament again today. We've seen the previous governed had a five billion dollar infrastructure program. They spent one point two billion dollars this financial year that we're dealing with now. But they only put three hundred and thirty million dollars into that infrastructure budget forward next for next year. So that's like the nine hundred million dollars short for in the infrastructure program. So where do we find that money, Katie? So that's that's stuff that we're going to have to borrow. These are projects that are already in play, that are already already that we have to pay for that you certainly can't stop. So we're going to be borrowing money to deliver an infrastructure program that we're talking five billion dollars with only three hundred and thirty million dollars allocated to deliver. It's just that these are the things that we're finding as we work through the budget process.
Bill, I want to ask you about another topic something you and I have spoken about on numerous occasions.
The port. Will it seem like it's back on the agenda?
I know Sky News reporting that that Labor MP Luke Gosling had said there will be more to say about the port returning to Australian hands. The opposition, the federal opposition, sees the government needs to act the Shadow Home Affairs Minister James Patterson telling Sky News the Northern Territory government's decision to lease Darwin Port to Chinese company Lanmdbridge was a mistake. Minister, Is there any update on the port from your perspective?
Well, this is this is the thing, Ky, We've just seen a federal budget. They've tossed three point two or three point six million dollars at the Whale Steel Works. There's no mention in that budget anywhere of anything about the dam and port. So it seems Louke, the self appointed salesman for the port, it wasn't his ideas weren't supported in their federal budget. So where does it really sitcat you? If they were serious about this, if the federal government were serious about the security of the port longer term, we would have seen something in the budget and it's not there.
And from your perspective, I mean, does the Northern Territory have the capacity or the money here to take that port back.
Well, that's what we spoke to the federal government about just last month, and what we've been talking to them since November about what the future of the port looks like. We know that there's those issues around that the financial concerns of Landbridge. That's what kicked these discussions off back in November. So we've been working through with the federal government with that and that's why we spoke to them just last month about the future of the port and where does it stand and will they step in and help us, And at that point in time, there was no support from the federal government to do that. So we have live Gosling saying one thing, but his parliamentary colleagues and the federal government not backing him in on it. So I just I don't know where that stands. I don't know why he actually went down that road if there was no support from the federal government to actually do it. So it seemed like a bit of grand standing to me.
And so from your perspective as the Treasurer of the Northern Territory and as the Minister for Infrastructure, there's no there is no capacity here like Lambridge have not done anything to break their lease. They've not you know, yeah, there's no reason to take that lease from them.
Well, no, there were those solvers issues which we're working with Lanbridge on to determine. And again we've been working with the federal governor to determine where that actually hits because there was a breach in payment of a bond, so that's what triggered those discussions back in November. That's something that we're still working through to see what that looks like. It's very hard to determine a course with a foreign based company, but that's the work that's happening between US and the federal government to determine it and then where it sits longer term.
All right, will Bill Yan, the Northern Territories Treasurer, Minister for Infrastructure and other portfolio, is good to speak with you this morning. Always appreciate your time and let us know if you hear anything else about that.
Port we'll do kay. Do you have a great day you too.
Thank you.
