Bailout belief a ‘disgrace’
IT would be “disgraceful” for the NT Government to “spend like drunken sailors” and expect the Federal Government to bail it out, the CLP has said.
CLP treasury spokeswoman and candidate for Fannie Bay Tracey Hayes called on the Government to be transparent and clear about its fiscal position. Her comments come as international credit rating agency Moody’s Investors Service released fresh analysis saying it would expect the Commonwealth to provide “extraordinary support” if the NT “faced acute liquidity stress”.
The NT has the worst credit rating of any jurisdiction in
Australia ever. It remains at “stable” Aa3.
Moody’s report stated one of the factors behind this is because they believe there is a “high likelihood” the Federal Government would save the NT from the brink of bankruptcy due to “potential reputation risk” to Australia.
“They can’t spend like drunken sailors, not be transparent and clear, and expect Uncle Scott (Morrison, the Prime Minister) to bail us out every time we’re in trouble,” Ms Hayes said.
“That’s a disgrace.” According to Moody’s analysis the NT’s debt in 2021 would be 144 per cent of its total revenue.
The true scale of NT’s debt in 2019/20 following the coronavirus pandemic is not yet known.
The NT Government is due to hand down its fiscal outlook on July 29.
Territory Alliance leader Terry Mills likened NT Labor to treating the Territory like a “poor kid in a rich family”.
“The eternal child that has potential but will not accept responsibility nor work hard because the Commonwealth will always be there to blame or to bail us out,” he said.
Treasurer Nicole Manison said the NT was on “the road to recovery”.
“We are on the road to recovery – and we’re doing it with jobs, not cuts, asset sales and power price rises,” she said.
QUIETLY removing the police’s authority to fine people if they repeatedly fail or refuse to social distance a day before a major protest is a top-tier example of the NT Government failing to realise the optics.
The issue isn’t about the police now being unable to ticket people for breaching the 1.5 metre rule outdoors, this is about the way it was done.
A significant change, issued on a Friday, time unknown because it’s not time stamped, without fanfare. A textbook example of governments “taking out the trash”.
Apparently the revocation of the directive by the Chief Health Officer had been in the works since the Roadmap to Recovery had been released weeks ago.
And it had nothing to do with the Black Lives Matter protest, which was expected to draw large crowds and has become a political hot potato between jurisdictions and the Federal Government, happening the next day.
In all likelihood this could be true, but Territorians are unlikely to see it that way due to how it was done.
Now the NT Government will have to try and convince us it was all above board.
Keeping physical distance is now purely a social responsibility in the NT, there will be no enforcement.
The Government’s incredible ability to kick itself in the face aside, Territorians must do their best to keep up these coronavirus hygiene norms and make sure they keep up that physical distancing that was supposed to be around for a long time.