Leader of the Opposition, Lia Finocchiaro, says the next fortnight of Estimates is the first real test of the new Fyles Labor Cabinet and a critical opportunity to put its new Ministers under the microscope.
“Territorians should be extremely concerned that the new Chief Minister has already slashed the amount of time for Opposition and Independent members to carefully scrutinise expenditure in multiple departments: Chief Minister, Health, Treasury, Infrastructure, Police, Education, and Territory Families.
“Scrutiny of these critical portfolios has gone from 36 hours in 2021, to just 23 hours this year. Natasha Fyles had an opportunity to be different to Michael Gunner, but it seems that avoiding scrutiny is their signature,” said Mrs Finocchiaro.
Deputy Leader of the Opposition, Gerard Maley, says he hopes the Fyles Government is better prepared than last June, when Labor Ministers took a staggering 209 questions ‘on notice’, because they didn’t know the answer to questions, including:
- How many people in remote communities had been vaccinated;
- What is the monthly maintenance cost for the shadeless shade structure;
- How much did the police department spend on overtime; and
- How many assaults on youth justice workers involved weapons?
“An additional four weeks were required to answer those 209 questions because the relevant Minister wasn’t across their brief. Of the questions they did answer, Labor admitted:
- Damage to the Holtze prison from the 2020 riot had blown out to at least $30 million;
- Only one mine had moved from exploration to production since Labor came to power;
- 72 youth justice officers were attacked at detention centres in just nine months; and
- More than 60% of all arrests by Strike Force Trident (1st July 2020 to 1st March 2021) were youths.
“Despite the Fyles Labor Government doing everything in its power to hide from scrutiny, we will hold Ministers to account and ask the questions Territorians want answers to,” said Mr Maley.
ENDS