Extract from NT Hansard, 18 Februrary 2015
Mr McCARTHY to TREASURER
Treasurer, last week you denied you had lost the Treasurer’s job for making homophobic slurs. When you resigned late last year the Chief Minister said,
I want to make sure that Territorians know they have a government who stands for all and will provide leadership on what those community expectations are.
Our gay, lesbian, and transgender community has publicly called on you to apologise. Will you now do the right thing and apologise publicly for those appalling comments, acknowledge that your comments were offensive, and affirm that you value and respect all Territorians regardless of their sexual orientation and gender identity?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, can I say straight up that I am not a homophobe at all. I am not going to discuss what has occurred in the past. I think that is in the past. My job at the moment is to be Treasurer of the Northern Territory. I am very keen to see that Northern Territory gets on to a firm financial footing, as was committed to a couple of years ago by the Chief Minister. We said we would balance the books by 2017-18. That is my focus, member for Barkly. That is what I am focused on and at this point in time I can tell you I am working away already on this year’s budget.
This budget will be – I can give you some heads up – it will be another belt-tightening budget. We said two years ago that we would not be doing slash and burn budgets. We said we would not be sacking public servants and the like. I know that Labor made a big deal of that at the time. They said that thousands and thousands of jobs would disappear. The reality is – as I think the Attorney-General said yesterday, or the Minister for Public Employment said yesterday – that we have the same amount of public servants now as we did back in 2012 when we came to government. The reality is that we are finding efficiencies within the public service. We are finding savings within the public service without laying off staff.
Ms MOSS: A point of order, Madam Speaker! Standing Order 113: relevance. The question was actually about whether or not you would be issuing an apology and it was not to do with this year’s budget.
Madam SPEAKER: The minister does have a couple of minutes to answer the question, but if you can get to the point.
Mr TOLLNER: Madam Speaker, I answered that. I said I would not be dwelling on the past and the fact is I am not dwelling on the past, I am telling the member for Barkly what I am dwelling on and that is making sure that the books of the Northern Territory are balanced by 2017-18; the government is on track to do that. This next budget will again be another responsible budget. We will continue to find savings that we need in order to reduce Labor’s projected $5.5bn debt.
Mr McCARTHY: A point of order, Madam Speaker! Standing Order 113: relevance. I thank the Treasurer for a lecture on Treasury, but it is quite obvious that he is not prepared to apologise to the gay, lesbian, or transgender community on this matter.
Madam SPEAKER: Member for Barkly, please be seated.
Mr TOLLNER: Madam Speaker, as I said, in answer to the member for Barkly; we are not getting into the gutter; we are not talking about ourselves. I think the Chief Minister made that point adequately over the last couple of days. We are focused on the good government of the Northern Territory and that is absolutely what I am focused on …
Mr Barkly interjecting.
Mr TOLLNER: … I think that is what Territorians want to know about. I have read the tea leaves myself; I have realised that I have probably had a couple of run in’s with my friends from the NT News. I have put that behind me; let bygones be bygones. My focus now, member for Barkly, and to everybody in the Chamber, is the good government of the Northern Territory.
Link to Hansard http://notes.nt.gov.au/lant/hansard/hansardd.nsf/WebFullTextTranscript/C18ED3F9146C78A669257DF00041B528?opendocument