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Speaker 1: What a busy day it is going to be, not

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Speaker 1: just the Northern Territory budget being handed down today, but

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Speaker 1: the federal budget as well. The Northern Territory budget set

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Speaker 1: to be handed down at ten am, the Federal budget

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Speaker 1: later this evening. So what can we expect, Well, some

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Speaker 1: big promises have already been made by the Northern Territory government.

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Speaker 1: In fact, a big spending budget. I think you'd have

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Speaker 1: to say after years of hearing that there's never been

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Speaker 1: more money invested in our Northern Territory police and lines

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Speaker 1: like you can't police your way out of rising crime

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Speaker 1: rates and jailing is failing, well we are seeing a

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Speaker 1: massive investment into Northern Territory police. Joining me on the

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Speaker 1: line is the Independent Member for Aura Lund. She's also

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Speaker 1: a former Treasurer of the Northern Territory, Robin Lambley. Good

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Speaker 1: morning to.

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Speaker 2: You, Good morning Katy.

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Speaker 1: How are you very well?

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Speaker 2: Robin?

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Speaker 1: What is it like on a day like budget day

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Speaker 1: when you're a treasurer? Is it fairly daunting?

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Speaker 2: Well? I only delivered one budget, Katie, and that was

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Speaker 2: the mini budget a couple of months after we got

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Speaker 2: in in twenty twelve, and I found it extremely stressful.

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Speaker 2: I felt like it was my big day of performing

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Speaker 2: or not performing and if you could perceive it. But yes,

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Speaker 2: the burden will be on the Chief Minister slash treasurer

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Speaker 2: this morning as she presents this very important budget, that's

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Speaker 2: for sure.

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Speaker 1: And by the look of it right now, Robin and

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Speaker 1: I guess we always see these big announcements prior to

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Speaker 1: the budget actually being handed down, But it looks like

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Speaker 1: it's a budget for an election, a big spending budget.

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Speaker 2: Well it is, Katie, But I do know that this

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Speaker 2: enormous allocation of something to the police is essentially money

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Speaker 2: to fix Labour's crime crisis. And I'm very reluctant to

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Speaker 2: reward bad behavior. This is very much what we need.

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Speaker 2: But it really is a message that they have failed

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Speaker 2: more police and more prisons because of their eight years

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Speaker 2: of failing to curb crime, to stop crime, to prevent crime.

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Speaker 2: I just see it as a sign that they really

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Speaker 2: have let themselves down and territory ends down and jailing

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Speaker 2: is failing, that's for sure.

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Speaker 1: Well, And I mean it really goes against some of

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Speaker 1: the things that they've been saying for quite a number

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Speaker 1: of years. And I will say that you know, we're

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Speaker 1: not hearing as much of that rhetoric now that Evil

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Speaker 1: Ala is the Chief Minister, but certainly under Natasha Files

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Speaker 1: and when we were hearing a lot more from the

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Speaker 1: likes of Chancey Paike, those lines were being trotted out

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Speaker 1: very regularly. Jailing is failing and you can't police your

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Speaker 1: way out of the issues that we're experiencing. But you know,

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Speaker 1: Alice Springs is sort of proving to be a bit

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Speaker 1: of an example that if you do have adequate numbers

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Speaker 1: of police there, it can make a huge difference.

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Speaker 2: Yes, and we saw that recently with the curfew that

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Speaker 2: ended about a month ago. We're now under what they're

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Speaker 2: calling a post curfew strategy, and it's about policing. It's

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Speaker 2: about putting in enormous resources to try to stop crime. Ironically,

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Speaker 2: we're seeing crime creeping back Vocatie. There's been a lot

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Speaker 2: of reports over the last week or two of pretty

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Speaker 2: bad incidentss of crime and a high number of incidents.

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Speaker 2: So you know, it's something that they should have prevented

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Speaker 2: years ago. I know that there's always a crime problem

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Speaker 2: right throughout the territory. We're renowned for that. But they

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Speaker 2: had plenty of time to nip this in the bud

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Speaker 2: particularly down in Alice Springs years ago under Gunner and

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Speaker 2: Nicole Manison. They should have jumped on it, but instead

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Speaker 2: they just denied it. They neglected the situation, They didn't

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Speaker 2: do their job. So either I commend her for being realistic.

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Speaker 2: She's taken all that ideological crap out of her narrative.

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Speaker 2: You know, Chancy Paike, it was the one has been

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Speaker 2: the one for years sprouting this sort of nonsense. Jarling

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Speaker 2: is failing and pretending that he hasn't been locking up

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Speaker 2: more Aboriginal people than any other Attorney General or government

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Speaker 2: in the history of the Northern Territory. The reality is

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Speaker 2: they open the door to crime and they've locked up

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Speaker 2: more people than ever before.

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Speaker 1: And so Robin, taking that into account, I mean, what

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Speaker 1: do you make of the announcements that they've made so

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Speaker 1: far in relation to corrections and also into police obviously

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Speaker 1: very much needed, But as you've really touched on to many,

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Speaker 1: it's going to be seen as as I guess, you know,

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Speaker 1: a real kind of acknowledgment that they have failed in

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Speaker 1: their policies and in the way in which they've been

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Speaker 1: doing things.

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Speaker 2: Completely, Katie, they're being hypocrites. Then they never take responsibility

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Speaker 2: or accept blame for the mistakes they've made in the past.

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Speaker 2: I just hope Territorians and particularly people Darwin reflect when

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Speaker 2: it comes to the election in a few months time,

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Speaker 2: just on what actually has happened over the last eight years,

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Speaker 2: because it's not pretty and we're all suffering and we

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Speaker 2: will continue to suffer because changing criminal behavior bad behavior

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Speaker 2: is a lot harder than preventing it in the first place.

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Speaker 2: And as I said before, they've had ample opportunity years

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Speaker 2: ago to turn it around, and they didn't. They chose

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Speaker 2: not to. They belittled and mocked people like myself for years,

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Speaker 2: saying that we were overreacting and pretty much didn't know

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Speaker 2: what we were talking about. And here we are now

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Speaker 2: where this budget will all be about policing and jailing,

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Speaker 2: and that's exactly what they need to do. I mean,

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Speaker 2: the colp are on the same page. Of course, we

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Speaker 2: need more prisons because we've got more criminals. I mean,

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Speaker 2: that's the real situation that we're facing. It was interesting

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Speaker 2: a couple of weeks ago when Albanezi came to Alice

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Speaker 2: Springs statement standing in front of Chancey Paik, our Attorney General.

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Speaker 2: He made the statement we're not going to be driven

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Speaker 2: by ideology. And there's Chancey nodding in the background, the

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Speaker 2: greatest culprit of all who lifted the alcohol bands back

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Speaker 2: in twenty two to twenty three that caused carnage and

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Speaker 2: the tsunami of domestic violence that we're still trying to

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Speaker 2: deal with in places like Alice Springs, and has been

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Speaker 2: spinning this rectrick around the fact that he's saving Aboriginal people,

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Speaker 2: when in fact he's the greatest symbol of failing his

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Speaker 2: own people that exists in the territory at the moment,

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Speaker 2: so I was pleased at Albanese he was able to

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Speaker 2: articulate that at that moment because it just really resounded

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Speaker 2: with a lot of people seeing that he was doing

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Speaker 2: it in the presence of Chancey Paig, who we know

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Speaker 2: has been responsible for a lot of these very bad decisions,

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Speaker 2: as was Natasha Files when she was Chief Minister. So

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Speaker 2: Eva's a bit of a breath of fresh air, but

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Speaker 2: she's not the solution. The solution is a change of

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Speaker 2: government caters.

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Speaker 1: From my perspective, Well, Robin, I do want to ask today,

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Speaker 1: what are you expecting from the budget? I mean, we've

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Speaker 1: heard some of the big spend items, But what are

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Speaker 1: you expecting when it comes to our debt, and and

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Speaker 1: you know our expenses year on.

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Speaker 2: Year, Well, if you look at what labor have done

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Speaker 2: over the last eight years, they have added one billion

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Speaker 2: dollars of debt every year to the Northern Territory. So

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Speaker 2: they started off with less than two billion dollars of

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Speaker 2: debt in twenty sixteen, and we now have ten billion

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Speaker 2: dollars of debt. So I can only assume that over

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Speaker 2: the following year we'll have another one billion dollars of debt,

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Speaker 2: which takes us to eleven billion dollars, which is actually

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Speaker 2: in the forecast, So they won't disappoint us there. They

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Speaker 2: will continue to drag us down. And of course most

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Speaker 2: of us are aware that we are paying over a

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Speaker 2: million dollars to service our debt every day in the

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Speaker 2: Northern Territory, which is just staggering considering we don't even

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Speaker 2: have two hundred and fifty thousand people in the territory.

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Speaker 2: So we cannot continue down this trajectory. Yes, spending is good.

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Speaker 2: People like to see money being spent, but we all

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Speaker 2: know sensible people know that the money has to come

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Speaker 2: from somewhere and sooner or later the spending has to stop.

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Speaker 1: Well it's not monopoly money, that is for sure, Robin.

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Speaker 1: So we do have to pay it back and the

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Speaker 1: spending has to stop at some point. And we also

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Speaker 1: really have to create our own source revenue, you know,

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Speaker 1: We've got to actually have projects and things happening in

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Speaker 1: the Northern Territory that get the economy moving, and that's

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Speaker 1: something that there's been a real criticism of the government

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Speaker 1: about over recent years. One of the bits of legislation though,

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Speaker 1: that is up for debate over the coming days. There's

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Speaker 1: a few things. There's a Liquor Legislation Amendment Bill as

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Speaker 1: well as the Minerals Royalty Bill, which I'm sure they

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Speaker 1: are hoping is going to make a little bit of

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Speaker 1: a difference when it comes to getting some of those

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Speaker 1: major projects going. What do you make of that bit

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Speaker 1: of legislation, Robin.

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Speaker 2: So the Mineral Royalties Bill is changing the system of

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Speaker 2: royalties charged to mining companies from one based on profit

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Speaker 2: to one based on value. And what it will mean

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Speaker 2: is less money will be generated through this, I think,

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Speaker 2: but it will free up It will mean that the

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Speaker 2: territory is more attractive to the mining industry. What we've

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Speaker 2: seen and under this Labor government is fewer minds actually

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Speaker 2: producing anything in the Northern Territory. I think we've gone

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Speaker 2: from there was a reduction of one mind last year,

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Speaker 2: so we only had nine productive mind throughout the whole

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Speaker 2: of the territory. So all this sort of pumped up

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Speaker 2: narrative and marketing campaign we hear around mining, it really

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Speaker 2: isn't expanding at all. And in all reality we're facing

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Speaker 2: the closure of several big mines in the upcoming years.

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Speaker 2: So they were forced into doing this. This is a

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Speaker 2: COLP policy that they've been pushing for years and finally

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Speaker 2: just before the election you've got this Northern Territory Labor

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Speaker 2: government changing it to exactly what the City ELP you

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Speaker 2: have been putting on the table and advalaorium royalties based mining.

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Speaker 1: Yeah. Well I do remember that because I actually mcied

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Speaker 1: something for the Minerals Council before the last election, and

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Speaker 1: I do remember this being spoken about in the Northern Territory.

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Speaker 1: Will the current Northern Territory government saying they wouldn't go

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Speaker 1: down this path and the COLP saying that they would.

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Speaker 1: And now well it seems the Northern Territory government.

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Speaker 2: Is it's interesting, Katie, Yeah, in a twist and.

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Speaker 1: A half piked Maybe, I don't know.

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Speaker 2: Possibly where's that therapy dog where we need it?

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Speaker 1: Still under the desk? I think the therapy dog is

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Speaker 1: still under the desk, or it most knuck out.

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Speaker 2: But we all will there one by the end of

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Speaker 2: the day.

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Speaker 1: Potentially, Robin. It is going to be a really interesting

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Speaker 1: couple of weeks. Correct me if I'm wrong, But this

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Speaker 1: is really the last couple of weeks as well. This

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Speaker 1: parliamentary sittings where any legislation can be debated before the

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Speaker 1: election is.

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Speaker 2: Not well it should be. We have these two weeks

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Speaker 2: of parliament and then we have two weeks of budget

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Speaker 2: estimates hearings in June, and then we go back into

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Speaker 2: Parliament to pass the budget. Now it isn't out of

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Speaker 2: the norm that they might try and pass other legislation

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Speaker 2: on that final Thursday after budget estimates. Years ago, I

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Speaker 2: put through my Alcohol Mandatory Treatment Bill on that day

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Speaker 2: and we got out of there at two am in

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Speaker 2: the morning. So if this government is really desperate to

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Speaker 2: get some legislation through before the election, they may.

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Speaker 1: Well do that.

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Speaker 2: But presumably all the legislation they intend to put through

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Speaker 2: before the election will happen over the next two weeks.

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Speaker 1: Well, Robin Landley, it's good to speak with you this morning.

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Speaker 1: We'll hopefully see you on Friday.

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Speaker 2: For the week that was, I look forward to it.

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Speaker 1: Katie, good stuff, thank you,