Leader of the LIA FINOCCHIARO MLA

MEDIA RELEASE

2 DECEMBER 2020

For immediate circulation

Territory Economic Reconstruction Commission report exposes incompetence of the Gunner Labor Government

The Territory Economic Reconstruction Commission’s final report doesn’t tell the Gunner Labor Government anything it shouldn’t have already known about rebuilding the Territory economy. The whole process was completely unnecessary and quite frankly a waste of time, Opposition Leader Lia Finocchiaro said today. “Yesterday’s final report talks a lot about developing resources, energy, agriculture and the need to remove red tape to get the Territory going again. We didn’t need another report to tell us that,” Mrs Finocchiaro said. “However, now that it’s done, the important thing is that the Gunner Labor Government takes action and implements economic reform to boost business activity and create jobs. Our economy is in the bin, unemployment is climbing and businesses need the government to work with them to deliver outcomes. “If the Gunner Labor Government had listened to the CLP Opposition during the election campaign, they would have heard our policies to scrap the hybrid mining tax, develop gas resources, create a Territory Coordinator for major projects and slash approvals timeframes by 50 per cent. They didn’t. They passed the buck to the Reconstruction Commission. “This whole exercise of appointing the Reconstruction Commission, having an interim report and waiting until December for a final report to be handed down on what the Government should have already known or worked out for itself, wasn’t necessary and was a waste of time.

“There are no KPIs and the report is clearly written to allow to say he is ‘following’ the report even if his actions don’t match his words. “Now we need positive results and we need them fast. Otherwise, Territorians will continue to suffer with fewer opportunities than elsewhere in the country. And that will continue to be on the Gunner Labor Government,” Mrs Finocchiaro concluded.

ENDS

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