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Speaker 1: But look questions again being asked yesterday about MLA travel

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Speaker 1: after an ABC freedom of information requests detailed three of

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Speaker 1: the government's eight backbenches charge taxpayers a combined eleven thousand

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Speaker 1: dollars to travel as an assistant minister, a title not

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Speaker 1: officially recognized by the NT Parliament. Now, it's not the

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Speaker 1: first time it's happened. In fact, the now opposition leader

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Speaker 1: was scrutinized back in twenty nineteen for taking a taxpayer

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Speaker 1: funded trip to Canberra in an assistant minister capacity. Now

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Speaker 1: joining us on the line, well, he is the former

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Speaker 1: Independent member for Nelson. Jerry would good morning to you, Jerry.

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Speaker 2: Good morning, Katie, humid hot morning.

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Speaker 1: Oh it is a warm one. Lovely to have you

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Speaker 1: on the show now, Jerry, as a member of Parliament

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Speaker 1: who traveled pretty rarely when you're in office and always

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Speaker 1: provided a detailed report of any of the outcomes from

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Speaker 1: your travel, what do you make of the latest revelations

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Speaker 1: around assistant ministerial travel.

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Speaker 2: I don't sure why we need them to me. It

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Speaker 2: looks a bit of like window dressing, or I said

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Speaker 2: to someone now O day, they feel like Katherine Kim saying, yeah,

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Speaker 2: look at me, look at me. I mean, you know,

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Speaker 2: ministers have their people assisting them in their departments and

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Speaker 2: that's fair enough, but I just think it's an unnecessary

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Speaker 2: sort of added bureaucracy, you might say, which is more

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Speaker 2: I think political. It's sort of more like advertising when

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Speaker 2: we need back benches. When your back benches working, the

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Speaker 2: electorates and obviously backbenches sho'll be getting out and learning

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Speaker 2: about the territory. So if you live in a suburban Darwen,

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Speaker 2: you might necessarily know about the building program at you

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Speaker 2: and Demur or something. So there are times when I

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Speaker 2: think you can get out and that's what I used

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Speaker 2: to do. But you had a travel allowance for that,

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Speaker 2: which was I think combined with the electoral allouance, and

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Speaker 2: that's what you used. And when you go on a

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Speaker 2: travel you need to report back to your community as

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Speaker 2: why you went there and what you found out. Because

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Speaker 2: there's no doubt that members of Parliament need to learn

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Speaker 2: because they don't know everything, and that's an important part

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Speaker 2: of their role. But to add another layer, you might

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Speaker 2: say that I think is unnecessary. And you know, when

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Speaker 2: times are tight with the budget, I don't think we

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Speaker 2: should be wasting money we should making sure we spend

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Speaker 2: it properly.

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Speaker 1: Yeah. Look, my views the same as yours, particularly when

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Speaker 1: I first sort of read the headline on this story.

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Speaker 1: Then you go into a bit further detail about who's

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Speaker 1: gone and where they've gone. I mean, we've got a

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Speaker 1: situation where Coda Patel has then gone to the Beaterloo

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Speaker 1: project I believe twice to have a look at that project.

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Speaker 1: You've then got Ollie Carlson in her role as the

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Speaker 1: Assistant Minister for Treasury. I think it was traveling to

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Speaker 1: Noulham Boy. I don't have much detail on what that

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Speaker 1: trip was all about. And then of course Laurie Zeo

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Speaker 1: traveling in her role as the assistant as one of

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Speaker 1: the assistant ministers for an event that I believe the

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Speaker 1: minister couldn't attend. So in some instances I get it,

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Speaker 1: But like you've said, do you know in others, like

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Speaker 1: if you're going out to check out the Bloo project, again,

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Speaker 1: good thing to do, but you do get a travel allowance.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, and look, if you're going out there, you know,

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Speaker 2: once upon a time you had to tell people what

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Speaker 2: you did. I think the travel allounce you had to

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Speaker 2: report on what you did. I think that's been put

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Speaker 2: into the electoral all ounce I might't be a bit

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Speaker 2: out of touch here. I think you don't have to

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Speaker 2: do that anymore, and I think that's a bad move.

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Speaker 2: If you want to open a transparent government on all

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Speaker 2: sides of Parliament, you need to tell people what you're

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Speaker 2: doing where you've spent money and people then have a

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Speaker 2: bit more trust in what politicians are doing. But if

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Speaker 2: you're not reporting back on where you spent the money,

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Speaker 2: then people start to say, oh, that was all about.

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Speaker 2: But I just think that assistant ministers, I think it's

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Speaker 2: just a bit of window addressing for the party. The

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Speaker 2: Labor Party did the same. I just think it's you

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Speaker 2: know what, are we going to have a deputy assistant someone?

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Speaker 2: And I agree that. I agree. Look where say minister's

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Speaker 2: got two functions on the same time. Yeah, you might

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Speaker 2: just ask one of the back benches would you step

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Speaker 2: in for him? You'll have the speech prepared because the

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Speaker 2: department would have prepared the set, so he represents the

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Speaker 2: minister there. But that's not an assistant minister. That's just

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Speaker 2: filling in for we're in the minister. Yeah, you can't

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Speaker 2: do it.

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Speaker 1: Well, Look, I think it's worth porting out. They don't

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Speaker 1: get paid additional money to be those assistant ministers. I

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Speaker 1: guess it's more a matter of them, you know, having

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Speaker 1: some additional knowledge in those areas. However, you know when

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Speaker 1: you then when they are heading away on trips. I

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Speaker 1: think the point that you made, which I really think

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Speaker 1: is a good one, is that you've got to be

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Speaker 1: able to sort of, you know, to outlay the tangible

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Speaker 1: outcomes from that trip. And for a lot of us,

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Speaker 1: we may not have a big issue you know with

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Speaker 1: the with the assistant ministers or the members of parliament

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Speaker 1: going to visit certain projects for example, to learn more

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Speaker 1: about them, if people in their electorates are asking about it.

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Speaker 1: But give us those tangible outcomes. And Jerry, I know

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Speaker 1: that that is something that you used to always do.

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Speaker 1: You would write reports, you'd make sure you're deliver the

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Speaker 1: one to the studio for me whenever you went somewhere.

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Speaker 2: Well, I just think you bring people into your confidence

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Speaker 2: and you also helping them understand that. So I went

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Speaker 2: on looked at different energies through Europe, and because nuclear,

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Speaker 2: looked at hydrogen, looked at wave, look at sola, all

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Speaker 2: sorts of things that I saw there so I had

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Speaker 2: a better understanding of we don't have nuclear power, except

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Speaker 2: that we have a little bit of leukocytes, but that's

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Speaker 2: really medicine. But for me, I needed to get a

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Speaker 2: better understanding of just hearing people say no, it's terrible,

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Speaker 2: or someone's saying it's great, have a look, go and

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Speaker 2: talk to the people that run them. And that's exactly

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Speaker 2: what I did. But I looked at it, looked at

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Speaker 2: other things. I wasn't going there with a sole purpose

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Speaker 2: of one thing. I was trying to learn broaden my

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Speaker 2: knowledge of how energy is produced in other parts of

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Speaker 2: the world. And it was the same with learning about

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Speaker 2: government in Canada, where you got two parts of Canada

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Speaker 2: that don't have parties polegal parties, and I thought, oh,

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Speaker 2: be a good idea for the Northern territory. But of

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Speaker 2: course the parties are like that idea of the territory.

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Speaker 2: But I still think it's a great way to do

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Speaker 2: to run a government.

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Speaker 1: Yeah. Well, Jerry Wood, I always appreciate your insight. Thank

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Speaker 1: you very much for having a chat with me this morning.

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Speaker 2: Thanks Katie, thank you