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May 10, 2023 • 13 mins

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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Yesterday, the leader of the opposition, Lea Finocchiaro, delivered her
budget in reply and in an unexpected move and announced
Bill Yan, the Member for Aamajira, is going to take
over the opposition's treasurer portfolio and become the Treasurer if
the CLP were to be elected. Now Bill Yan joins
me on the line. Good morning to you, Bill, Good

(00:21):
morning Katie, how are you really well?

Speaker 2 (00:23):
Thanks so much for your time, Bill.

Speaker 1 (00:25):
Before we get into the budget reply, I understand there
was a debate about crime overnight after emotion was brought
on by Robin Lamley, the Member Farara lun.

Speaker 2 (00:35):
What happened.

Speaker 3 (00:37):
Well as usual with Labor, Katie. Robin bought her motion
which was about crime in al Springs and what Labor
a not doing to address crime down Ericles. Labor changed
the motion so they could pat themselves on the back
and say how much the government's doing to reduce crime
in the area. So we changed the motion back again
so we could speak about the lack of action by

(00:59):
Labor on what they're specifically doing in our springs. But
it's usual form Forulay, but they don't like being criticized
about what they're not doing, and they change the emotions
as they can to talk about all the good things
that they think they're doing in the area, and that's
certainly not the case, particularly for our springs, that's for sure.

Speaker 1 (01:16):
Well, I tell you what, it's high time that they
started listening to territories because today we know that there's
going to be another rally outside of Parliament House. We
also know overnight a number of vehicles stolen. My understanding
is that seven youths are now in custody as a
result of those vehicles being stolen overnight. I just don't

(01:37):
understand what else needs to happen for this government to
open their eyes and take notice.

Speaker 3 (01:43):
Well, and that's the thing just keeps escalating and escalating
and escalating, and it comes down to no consequence for actions.
I was shown a video on TikTok just last week
before I came up. This way, young kids in a
stolen product. They can barely see over the wheel. They're
actually chasing the police in the stolen legle. This stuff

(02:06):
is mad and was it going to take. It's going
to take another death of an innocent person just being
somewhere that they shouldn't be, or is going to put
it in the wrong place at the wrong time, or
one of these kids that have stolen the vehicle crashing
it because they can't control the vehicle. What's going to
take for the government to really stand up and take
a long, hard look at this and actually takes an action.

Speaker 2 (02:27):
I really don't know. I mean, it was.

Speaker 1 (02:30):
It became pretty clear to me on Tuesday when I
interviewed the Chief Minister that she feels as though what
they are doing right now is the path that they
need to continue on. I'm beginning to wonder, though, you know,
whether her parliamentary colleagues feel the same, because surely they
are listening to normal people at this point in time.

Speaker 2 (02:46):
Who are saying that they've had enough.

Speaker 1 (02:48):
But Bill, I'll move along because we know that that
budget reply, well, it was delivered yesterday, and you've got
a promotion in that speech and now you're the opposition
spokesperson for treasury. Are you surprised that this move was
made by Leah Fanocchiaro.

Speaker 3 (03:04):
We had the discussion early in the week about it,
and it's always been a plan of le'z not to
be the Treasurer leading into twenty twenty four. She picked
up the portfolio when we after twenty twenty election, of course,
because I said, we're all a little bit green and
sort of learning the ropes, and I said, now we're
we're coming up to three years in, so it was
good time to make that change. Of course, it diversifies

(03:27):
and strengthens the team leading into twenty twenty four. And
I'm really quite proud to be asked to take on
the role. I have no doubt it's going to be
a hell of a challenge and a steep learning curve,
I have no doubt about that. But I'm really looking
forward to it actually to making sure that we look
at the money that is coming into the territory. Territory
is money, how it's spent, and make sure that we

(03:48):
spend in a way that's certainly going to benefit every
territory in the best way we possibly can.

Speaker 1 (03:53):
Bill In that speech delivered by Leah, she said that
the COLPS planned for the territory will take control of
our straights, rebuild our reputation, and get our economy moving forward.

Speaker 2 (04:05):
Again, what exactly is that plan?

Speaker 3 (04:09):
Well, first and foremost is investment in our police. And
there's one thing it's really quite interesting that's happened just
this week. If you look at the Queensland budget, they're
throwing out twenty thousand dollars incentives to get police to
come across the Queensland. And if that's not an open
poaching method to take probably some disillusioned Northern Territory police

(04:32):
officers who I'm not happy with what's taking place here
across the Queensland, then I don't know what is. It's
a missed opportunity by the files government to probably try
and attrack some police back across the territory and restore
some confidence in territories about how they're going to tackle
crime by increasing the number of police that we have

(04:54):
and giving the resources that they need. So that's probably
the number one thing that we're focused is making sure
that our police are resourced properly to be able to
do their job and cut down some of that red
tape that's a barrier to industry and to business. We
see it every time under a labor government, the red tape,
and now it's called beige tape. It just keeps cropping

(05:16):
up and it's a barrier to people getting in and
developing the territory. So we still leave the checks and balances,
but we can get there a lot easier and a
lot quicker if we make some of those processes easier
and get our public service working with business and working
with them well to develop the territory in the future.

Speaker 1 (05:35):
Bill, how much is it going to cost to fulfill
some of those promises i e. You know, getting more
boots on the ground for the police. Has the CRP costed.

Speaker 3 (05:44):
This, No, Look, we haven't costed this at this stage, Katie,
And that's something we'll be doing leading into twenty twenty
four to look at police numbers and how those resources
are are best used across the territory. Will take some
number crunching. We haven't done that at this stage.

Speaker 1 (06:00):
But is it I mean, is it irresponsible to make
those promises without doing that.

Speaker 3 (06:06):
Well, we need to make the call. We need to
resource the police because at the end of the day,
we need to make sure that people in the territory
feel safe in our own homes, at work and just
going about their day day lives. Because at the moment, Katie,
as we know, people don't. You've only had to look
at what's happened overnight with those the ram rage and
the Solemn vehicles and the home invasions. People are not
safe it seems anywhere anymore. So we have to resource

(06:28):
our police to do their job effectively and give them
back the tools they need to do their job. Yes,
it will cost money. We need to have a look
at how we're going to do that. We need to
crunch numbers to see what that's going to look like.
But it's certainly something that where's the CEOP are committed
to doing to making sure that they said the people
of the territory are safe again.

Speaker 1 (06:48):
Bill, There is no doubt that crime is the number
one issue right now across the Northern Territory. But people
also want to see the economy boosted and they want
that budget to be managed responsibly.

Speaker 2 (07:00):
How would the CLP get the.

Speaker 1 (07:01):
Economy moving You mentioned just a moment ago cutting that red.

Speaker 3 (07:04):
Tape, Well said, we need to start backing in our mining,
whether that's onshore gas minerals and our partial and our
tourism industries. There it's our own source revenue that is
going to boost the territory economy. Whilst it's great to
get those large numbers of GST from the federal government,

(07:24):
well it only takes a slight recession and the Federal
treasure I mentioned this in his budget just the other
day that it's possible that the Australian economy could go
into a small recession. Now we go into a small recession, also,
those GSC numbers for us here in a territory will drop,
so we'll see that level of debt increase. We're already
at nine point nine to eight billion now, which is

(07:47):
what is at one point three million dollars in interest
repayments every day, and that's like it's sixty thousand dollars
debt to every adult and territory. We can't sustain that
longer term because it will be our kids and our
grandkids that are paying back our debt or Labour's debt
from this point in time. So we need to be
boosting and working with industry to develop our own source revenue.

(08:11):
It would seems sadly that if you get a major
project status with the Labor government, it's like it's the deathnel.
Every time a grant major project status, the project falls
over one of.

Speaker 1 (08:21):
The lines that the Labor Party always pulls on the
COLP And you know it's fair enough because the last
time you guys were in you did cut public service jobs.
Are you guys going to be cutting public service jobs
to rain in the budget?

Speaker 3 (08:36):
Leia said yesterday in our budget replied, we won't be
cutting any public service jobs. We need to support our
public service and we need our public service there to
support territories and support those all important projects and industries
that are gain to grow our economy into the future.
So that's a commitment from Lea yesterday and we'll certainly

(08:57):
be sticking to that. We need said we need our
public service, but at the end of the day, we
need to make sure that our public service is supporting
those growth industries and working closely with them for that
development so we can grow our own source revenue.

Speaker 2 (09:14):
Here to Territory Bell before I let you go.

Speaker 1 (09:17):
A couple of weeks ago, there was information circulating that
the Alice Springs branch of the CLP was set to
move a vote of no confidence in Leafanochi Ao. Now
it's the Litchfield branch. Does the rank and file of
the CLP have the confidence in Leafanochi Aro.

Speaker 3 (09:35):
Well, it seems to be some discontent amongst it seems
a particular branch. I can categorically say it's not the
Alice Springs branches, it's not the one that I'm a
member of.

Speaker 1 (09:45):
So did that So did that vote of no confidence
in Alice go ahead?

Speaker 3 (09:50):
No, it didn't. No, categorically not Katie. It didn't happen
in Alice Springs. So they said, it's happened from the
or it's come from the Litchfield branch. But the end
of the day, said with that, discontent is just sort
of trying to detract from the things that we need
to do as ce LP that there's so many pressing
issues at the moment around crime and the economy that

(10:12):
are affecting everyday territories. Sadly, this is a little bit
of a distraction as to what we're trying to do.
But I can tell you now that I'm focused and
the team certainly focused on doing that work to represent territories,
particularly around those hot topics. As you said, crime, it's
just a hither out of control and where we're trying

(10:32):
to hold the government to accountman, And sadly, the distractions
from some of the rank control members again just a distraction. Bill.

Speaker 1 (10:41):
Are you annoyed by that side show that seems to
be going on at the moment. Honestly, I think to myself,
what happened to the COLP back in twenty twelve is
that they would decimated and it was because, you know,
for a lot of reasons, but a lot of this
kind of garbage was going on. I mean, are you
annoyed that this kind of thing is continueing to happen
within the party? Oh?

Speaker 3 (11:02):
I certainly am, Katy. It really annoys me because at
the end of the day, I said, I'm focused to
delivering for the people of my electric representing the people manager,
but also focused on representing the bigger picture stuff for
all territories. And that's what my focus is, and that's
what the team's focus is. And sadly, I said, this
is a distraction sitting behind the SEALP at the moment.

(11:24):
But again it's it's like any party and any group.
You always have some people agree and some people that
won't agree. And that look, that's the great thing I
suppose about the CELP in some respects as of the
diversity of the members. But yeah, I said, it annoys me.
I said, I just want to get on with focusing
on delivering for people here in the territory, and we

(11:46):
have this sitting in the background and I said, it's
just a distraction, which is really really unfortunate.

Speaker 1 (11:51):
So, Bill, from your perspective, is Lea fanok Ao safe
as the leader of the CLP?

Speaker 3 (11:57):
Certainly is Katie, absolutely no doubt.

Speaker 2 (11:59):
And she has the support of the Parliamentary Wing.

Speaker 3 (12:02):
Yes she does. Yeah, absolutely, support of all the members
of the wing.

Speaker 1 (12:06):
And so so do you think this is just a
few trouble makers.

Speaker 3 (12:11):
Oh, there's just some people who who I said, may
have some differences with Leah, and that's maybe all of these.
I said, I'm not privy to what takes place in
the Litchfeld branch, probably though I haven't actually read the
motion yet, so I'm probably one of those people that
are in the dark and I only hear, yeah, what
I'm getting through on media and some of the stuff

(12:32):
on social media. But yeah, look, it's it's just look,
at the end of the day, it's a distraction, but
we're focused on delivering those key things for territories that
are affecting us all at the moment.

Speaker 1 (12:42):
Bill, just very quickly, we are hearing that the galleries,
the open gallery there at Parliament is going to be
closed today around question time. Do you know anything about this?

Speaker 3 (12:53):
Yeah, I just heard about this probably about half an
hour ago, Katie, and it's it's obviously a decision of
government to close gallery and it's quite unfortunately. I think
there'll be a lot of people that are disappointed who
may have liked to come in to question time today
and have a listen to what goes on, because again
we'll be focusing on some of those crime issues and

(13:14):
those things that are affecting territories and people might have
wanted to come in and have a bit of a
look and have a little bit of listen about me
what the parliamentary process looks like and what goes on
and they won't get that opportunity today, which is probably
going to upset a lot of people and it's quite unfortunate.

Speaker 1 (13:29):
Well, we'll see what we can find out. Bill Yan,
the Member foranma Jira. Always appreciate your time. Thanks so
much for joining us this morning.

Speaker 3 (13:36):
Cheers Katie, so thank you.
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