Nova Peris (NT, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I continue to talk to the Asset Recycling Fund Bill 2014 and related bill. If I can go back to where I was before the debate was interrupted. The people of the Northern Territory know that selling Power and Water will guarantee two things; higher prices and longer, more frequent blackouts. So I am very concerned that Power and Water will be sold off under the scheme if this bill is passed.

I am also concerned that the people of the Northern Territory will get no say. It will just be announced one day and that is the way the Northern Territory government currently operates. We will wake up one morning and there will be an article on the front page of the Northern Territory News telling us that Power and Water will be sold. A deal has been done with the Abbott government and it will be sold. The Territory Insurance Office, TIO, is the only remaining government-owned insurance and banking institution in the country. There has been much talk about the potential sale of Power and Water over many years. As the only remaining financial institution in government ownership, it can be seen by some as an obvious candidate for sale. But let me tell you that people in the Northern Territory do not want it sold.

Living in a cyclone-prone area we have an extra interest in home and contents insurance. It is already expensive and people simply do not want TIO sold. Again, from their public comments, the Northern Territory government are clearly looking at selling TIO. They refuse to rule it out.

The next candidate is the Port of Darwin. The port is less visible in the day-to-day lives of people in the Northern Territory than Power and Water, and TIO. But it is still extremely important to Territorians. Private investment in the port and its operations should be encouraged but, in an underdeveloped economy, we should not be selling off the assets that are so crucial to our plans to develop the north. Again, it would be outrageous if funds for our roads, to get cattle and minerals to the port, depended on the sale of our port. Those are my concerns about what the Northern Territory government would do with this fund.

That is why I support Labor's position on any potential sale that it be subject to a disallowable instrument. If the CLP government sell off any of our assets without proper consultation process or against the public interest, then we can block it from being eligible for sale under this scheme.

If a state or territory government go through the proper processes of selling an asset, if they undertake a full cost-benefit analysis and take their plans to an election and receive the endorsement of the community and the people of the Northern Territory, then and only then a contribution from the Commonwealth under this scheme will be warranted.

However if a government—and the CLP government in the Northern Territory are probably the most unlikely to do this—just suddenly announce a sale without any analysis and in complete opposition to community sentiment, then it is not appropriate that the Commonwealth support the sale through this scheme.

Finally, these are my main points. Our infrastructure spending should not be dependent on selling our infrastructure. In order to get our fair share of infrastructure funding, we should not be required to sell off our vital public assets. I am concerned that the Commonwealth government will use this fund to encourage the Northern Territory government to sell off our assets. I am also concerned that the Northern Territory government will use this fund to do what they want to do and that is to sell off our assets.

We are only getting less than one per cent of the Abbott government's infrastructure budget over the next seven years. Selling everything is not the solution.    The Commonwealth parliament should be allowed to block a sale through a disallowable instrument.