00:02In the wake of natural disasters and in the face of an ongoing fuel crisis, the Labor
00:07opposition wants more cost of living relief for Territorians.
00:10We have not seen any new initiatives under the CLP government for businesses, those small
00:15business packages that we asked for in March after the floods, after the cyclone impact.
00:21We have not seen the CLP do the heavy lifting that even our territory businesses and our
00:26hospitality industry has asked for.
00:28They believe the budget has failed to account for frontline services or create an ongoing
00:33pipeline of infrastructure projects.
00:36Not spending, not delivering and not putting out projects that are going to better Territorians
00:40only hurts the territory economy in the long run.
00:44Crossbench members taking aim at the focus on corrections at the expense of welfare, healthcare
00:49and social services.
00:51They also talked about it being a budget for everyday Territorians.
00:54The question I have to ask is which everyday Territorians are they talking about?
00:58Because it's certainly not the renters in my electorate, it's not the women who have
01:02nowhere to go when they're fleeing violence, it's not people who need long term investment
01:06in healthcare and mental health and disease prevention.
01:09The main issue industry stakeholders have with the new budget is that it's too surface level.
01:14They say that the investment in infrastructure is too short term and the investment in welfare
01:18and social services will fail to get to the root cause of issues faced by the Northern Territory.
01:24The Australian Medical Association has praised money for new wards at Royal Darwin Hospital
01:28and a new CT scanner at Tennant Creek but said the health budget is littered with cuts for
01:34essential services.
01:35So cuts in primary care, cuts in disease prevention, cuts in mental health, people don't necessarily
01:39notice how much is being taken away from them.
01:41It's only down the track when those services aren't there that we start to go well hang
01:44on where are all the doctors we were supposed to train, where are all the facilities we're
01:47supposed to have.
01:48The building industry optimistic with a renewed focus on defence infrastructure.
01:52When we're building defence projects it multiplies through the community, right, so
01:57it helps our small businesses, it helps our businesses, it supports sporting clubs.
02:02But there's still a lot of uncertainty around a pipeline of large infrastructure projects
02:07to keep the economy moving.
02:08We just need that certainty around pipeline.
02:11We want to be able to build our workforces but more importantly keep our workforces here.
02:15The budget is set to pass by the 18th of June.
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