Wake- up call for our PM

DOES anyone really care about government debt?

The answer is, maybe not, provided we have decent roads to drive on, good schools to attend and the best darn healthcare system in the world.

That seems to be the conclusion those in charge of Annastacia Palaszczuk’s Government have come to when devising Jackie Trad’s first Budget.

It’s big spending, big taxing and big borrowing.

And boy, has Trad copped a bollocking from the commentators.

It wasn’t so long ago when Ms Palaszczuk was talking debt reduction strategies.

Now we can see what that strategy is: offload all that nasty general government debt on to the off- balance sheet corporations like Ergon so they can take on even more debt.

Here’s how Jackie Trad’s Budget strategy puts it: “The Government will continue to provide additional funds for infrastructure investment while responsibly managing debt. This is being achieved while retaining strategic assets, such as electricity, port, rail and water businesses, in public ownership.”

What they don’t say is that pushing all that debt on to electricity and water corporations is keeping our bills sky high and stuffing the economy. But heck, what else can they do? Well, they could lower costs and stimulate the economy but that is a move our risk- averse politicians seem unwilling to take.

Here in sunnysville we don’t seem to have done too badly, apart from crushing electricity charges that are hundreds of dollars more than those of people in Brisvegas.

It’s hard to put your finger on any big- ticket item the Government is funding here, apart from the new stadium, which is costing them around $ 140 million.

The Budget’s capital works program gives some idea for how we fared.

It shows the region based on Townsville has been allocated about $ 736 million which is, admirably, $ 150 million more than last year’s election budget.

Changes in government structure make it hard to compare but there is $ 25 million more for transport and main roads. Presumably our roads will improve. That is if they can ever finish the job. IT took a sucker punch, but finally the PM is focused on kids in the NT.

Newspapers are at their best when they make the powerful uncomfortable and force action from those who are doing nothing. That’s exactly what happened with the NT. News forced the Prime Minister to finally engage in the national shame that is the endless sexual and physical abuse of kids in the Top End.

For months we have read about a new wave of assaults, the worst of which was the rape of a two- year- old girl. Over time we have learnt about the endless opportunities for this child to be saved from a destructive home and seen not a single person fired for their failure.

This all lands on the Prime Minister’s desk because he was so quick to call a royal commission into apparent abuse at the now defunct Don Dale detention centre.

Malcolm Turnbull was so moved by a TV show reporting the abuses that, by the next morning, he announced swift action and offered plenty of condemnation to all involved. He has been largely silent on the problems in the NT and North Queensland. He said nothing when reports emerged that babies are being stillborn in FNQ because the mothers have syphilis, a condition that can be treated with a couple of trips to a GP.

The NT News has been relentless in their pursuit of f the bureaucratic failures and excuses that have condemned yet another generation of kids to squalor and abuse.

They, like me, believe there is no future for these kids if we all look the other way and let abusers hide behind the excuse of culture for the most unforgivable of crimes.

The spark that set them off was a comment from Turnbull where he essentially put the issue in the complicated or too hard d basket.

Their front page on Thursday screamed “It’s been four months since the rape of a two- year- old girl sparked a national crisis and nine months since he has set foot inside the Territory. The missing in action Prime Minister for the East Coast has shown he … SIMPLY DOES NOT CARE”.

It was a scream from Darwin h heard the country over. The paper o often quoted for its unique, and often funny, take on life in the NT was sick of it.

The PM’s first response was to joke j about the headline not including a crocodile, an attempt to ridicule the newspaper’s place in the media. But by the end of the day he was forced to acknowledge his own failures, announcing he would meet with the Mayor of Tennant Creek on Monday and come to the NT in August.

Was the headline hurtful to a PM who w takes great pride as a grandfather? Yes, but that’s what it took to make him see what we see. Ignoring abuse stands in the way of a baby born in Tennant Creek this weekend from a life where they can grow to be whatever they want. Maybe even prime minister one day.

Congratulations to the NT News, my Sky News colleague Matt Cunningham and News Corp chief reporter, Paul Toohey, for never giving up on this story, and more importantly, the kids in the NT.