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

You think it might be hard to find a more incompetent, divided, dishonest government than the Abbott government. But tonight I give you: the Northern Territory government.

The Abbott government's colleagues in the Northern Territory are without a doubt the most farcical government this nation has ever seen. That might sound like a big statement, but some of the events that have occurred this year are unprecedented in Australian political history—from a failed midnight coup and a Chief Minister who refused to resign, and who is still governing against the will of his own colleagues, to members of the same party launching some of the most malicious allegations and slurs we have ever seen in politics.

I could spend my next 10 minutes talking tonight about the bizarre and incredible dysfunction and infighting, but I would have only just begun. Territorians know that their government is dysfunctional and they do not need me to remind them. Instead I intend to focus on some of the practical realities that Territorians are facing, with both Commonwealth and Territory governments in such a state of crisis.

I will start with the Palmerston hospital. Both governments have completely dropped the ball on this project. This project is so important, not just for Palmerston residents, but for all of the Northern Territory as the pressure on the Royal Darwin Hospital has become so enormous that the hospital is in a constant state of crisis.

Darwin and Palmerston need extra hospital beds right now. Unfortunately the first patients to be seen in the Palmerston hospital are many years away. It is important to note that until the CLP and the Abbott government got their hands on the Palmerston hospital, the project was due to open later this year. We are still around 18 months away from construction even beginning, and perhaps longer. In August—