Northern Territory Loses In Commodity Driven Budget

'It is ironic that Australia's commodity resources are located, mined and processed in regional Australia and yet these areas, the root cause of the tax collection windfall that has benefited the Federal Government, have the least to celebrate from the budget in 2006.' Federal Member for Lingiari Warren Snowdon said today.

'The Howard Government has missed a golden opportunity to address the unmet social, educational, transport and communication infrastructure needs of regional Australia. Workers and families in regional Australia contribute directly to Australia's commodity boom and deserve full access to services that other Australians take for granted,' Mr Snowdon said.

'Regional areas like the Northern Territory face the highest fuel prices and have the least access to communications, childcare, health services and higher education and training facilities. With the big budget surplus and commodities tax revenue set to continue, now was the ideal time to act,' Mr Snowdon said.

'If Australia is to take full advantage of a prolonged commodity boom riding on the resource-hungry Chinese and Indian economies, it would make sense that regional Australia is fully equipped to be the engine room for wealth creation and at the same time ensure regional sustainability well into the future. This vision has escaped the Howard Government.

'As an example, the Howard Government has abolished a $13.7m incentive program in rural and regional Australia which provided extra incentive to employers to take on apprentices. How does this assist the labour shortage and skills needs of the Territory? Where is the support for locals, while this government facilitates the importation of foreign workers?' Mr Snowdon said.

'The road funding announcements for the Northern Territory apart from the one off extra payment for local government based Roads to Recovery Program is less than catch up. There is no new funding for unincorporated roads and the Territory has a 9000km net work. The welcome funding for the Victoria Hwy is much needed especially in the wake of flooding due to Cyclone Monica. However, compare this to the Federal rescue package for Cyclone damaged Queensland,' Mr Snowdon said.

'In the area of childcare the need is for capital funding and operational funding to support existing Child and Family Day Care programs. The Government offer of funding for placements and rebates for parents will not address the fundamental bottlenecks and waiting lists encountered by Mums and Dads in Territory centres like Katherine, Tennant Creek and Alice Springs.'

Tax cuts are always welcome, but their benefit for families and contribution to wider economic objectives are small bacon compared to what it required to ensure a better deal for regional Australians. In this budget Territorians still face higher fuel prices, higher fuel taxes and pay more for food and everything else. Also fuel prices in regional Australia will increase further with the scrapping of the Fuel Sales Grant Scheme from 1 July.

2006-05-10