Natasha Griggs (Solomon, Country Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

As I was saying last night when debating these appropriation bills, I am delighted that, as part of this year's budget, we are going ahead with our community safety program to spend $300,000 on providing CCTVs in and around Darwin and Palmerston. CCTVs have delivered great benefits where they have been installed. They are invaluable tools in solving and preventing crime. I know that they will be embraced by the Solomon community. We will be enlisting help from the community during the selection process. I am actually in the process now of organising a committee that is made up of police, Neighbourhood Watch and some business groups to identify key hotspots around Darwin and Palmerston.

One really good element of the Safer Streets Program is that we are using money generated from proceeds of crime to tackle crime and the criminals who commit them. Unlike Labor, we deliver on our CCTV rollouts. This is one of a number of things that we have done since we have come to government to assist the Northern Territory Police in doing their job to make the streets of Darwin and Palmerston safer. In February immigration minister Scott Morrison visited Darwin to announce that the Commonwealth would spend $48 million to employ around 100 police officers to oversee the asylum seekers still based in the territory.

During my first term of parliament, back in the bad old days of opposition, I worked hard to achieve the best outcomes for Solomon should we win the 2013 election. When the people of Solomon put their faith in me last year for another term in Canberra I had already secured funding from my colleagues here in Canberra. One of the best promises our new government has made—and this one is close to my heart—is for the hospital for the people of Palmerston. I have lived in Palmerston for over 20 years and now my son, Aaron, and his wife, Amy, are raising their baby daughter, Evie, in Palmerston.

Providing a state-of-the-art hospital in Palmerston is a very personal wish not just for me but for thousands of others around the Top End. The $110 million for a hospital in Palmerston is a firm commitment from the Abbott government that they take very seriously developing north Australia. The Prime Minister said:

These are important, tangible short-term commitments to the people of the north. We want to back that with a strategic vision that will help to make Northern Australia one of the great contributors to the extraordinary economic developments that we see to our north in our region in China, India and elsewhere.

The Joint Select Committee on Northern Australia has travelled extensively throughout north Australia. I am proud to say that there was such overwhelming interest in the public hearings in Darwin that our committee has agreed to come back for a second visit in August to ensure that all Territorians get their voice heard in terms of north Australia.

Another display of the coalition's commitment to deliver for the people of Darwin and Palmerston is the record amount of spending on roads in the Territory. I welcome the coalition's investment in the Territory with the $90 million regional roads productivity package and the $77 million Northern Territory roads package announced in the federal budget. This comes on top of the $70 million already promised by the Abbott government to duplicate Tiger Brennan Drive, which was one of my election promises.

The budget for 2014-15 is part of the government's economic action strategy to invest in productivity enhancing infrastructure which will create jobs, improve safety, reduce travel times and, most importantly, boost economic growth. This is $237 million to improve Territory roads. I worked in opposition and in government to have these important projects funded not just in Solomon but across the entire Northern Territory. The people of Lingiari also deserve increased road funding, even if their member was not effective in his advocacy to get that.

Throughout my time in opposition I had the opportunity to advocate for our local sporting clubs and secure funding for a variety of different projects that will get the children and adults in my electorate out and about and participating in sport. We recognise that local sport is an important aspect of the Top End community. Community sports organisations encourage a healthy and active lifestyle for both children and adults.

The Jingili BMX Club just last weekend tried out their new all-weather track for the first time. The coalition provided $1.5 million worth of funding to ensure this project was finally delivered. Unfortunately, in true Labor style, the money was promised in 2010 but the Labor government did not action it until four weeks out from an election. I look forward to visiting the new track next month when it will be used in competition for the first time. This is fantastic news for Territory BMX riders, who can now ride all year long and host international standard tournaments and not be disadvantaged by the wet season.

Berrimah Riding Club is another great local organisation in my electorate. They will receive around $5,000 to construct a shade structure over their horse wash bays. Not only does this funding benefit Berrimah Riding Club; it also assists other organisations that uses the Robbie Robbins Reserve facility.

The South Darwin Rugby League Football Club will receive $99,000 for much-needed upgrades to Warren Park, where a majority of the Northern Territory junior rugby league games are held on a Saturday morning. Upgrades to the park will include installation of a demountable for officials, roller door upgrades, construction and installation of removable shade structures, plumbing repairs, irrigation upgrades and field lights.

In addition to this, the Palmerston Football Club will receive $8,700 toward construction of new locker rooms for players and the Darwin Table Tennis Association will receive $13,000 for the purchase of 15 internationally certified table tennis tables for competition.

Another key election issue in my electorate centred around the coalition's policy to stop the flow of asylum seeker boats into the Northern Territory. I am so pleased to be able to say we have delivered on that promise. We said before the election that we would stop the boats, and that is exactly what we have done. That is good governance—carrying out promises made before an election. This is what the coalition is all about.

I am delighted in particular that this policy goal has been so quickly achieved. Overflowing detention centres in the electorate of Solomon meant an added burden on our healthcare system, emergency services and other social infrastructure, which I spoke about many times in this House. Those burdens did not please the people of Darwin and Palmerston. Sadly, people were dying trying to get to our country It was our Navy personnel who were tasked with pulling deceased bodies from the water when people-smuggling vessels sank. The only humane thing to do was to stop the boats. It was the only way to be fair both to Australian taxpayers and to desperate asylum seekers fleeing their countries.

Recently, we announced that two of the Darwin detention centres would close down. This is a dividend of the coalition's policy to stop the boats. The Defence Establishment Berrimah and the Darwin Airport Lodge will cease operations this financial year. This will directly affect my constituents, with pressure easing on the Royal Darwin Hospital and other social infrastructure. As I said, this is just one example of how the coalition is mopping up the mess left behind by the Labor Party and it infuriates me that my constituents must now do all the heavy lifting for the Labor Party's laziness and irresponsible actions. The coalition government's budget is addressing the debt and deficit disaster left behind by the Australian Labor Party. This Labor Party's legacy is unsustainable and must not be allowed to continue. To fail to tackle the borrowing of $1 billion every month just to pay the interest is unsustainable.

While the coalition is used to cleaning up Labor's mess, it does not make it any easier. Nor is it fair on the hardworking Australian taxpayers. When the coalition last left office, Australia had a $20 billion surplus and $50 billion in the bank, but over six years Labor squandered this and ran up five record deficits, $123 billion in projected deficits and gross debt heading towards $667 billion. The measures outlined in this year's budget are absolutely necessary so that we can secure Australia's economic future, and the tough decisions we are taking now are necessary to avoid even tougher decisions having to be made in the future.

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