Boost for remote housing, GST share in Commonwealth's NT cash splash
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More than $250 million in untied GST funding will be delivered to the Northern Territory, but the Treasurer has rebuked claims it is a "reward" for approving fracking.
Federal Treasurer Scott Morrison is expected to announced the Commonwealth will restore $136 million in GST to the Territory, plus an additional $123 million.
Both Mr Morrison and Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull have repeatedly urged the Gunner Government to lift the moratorium on fracking.
But NT Treasurer Nicole Manison has rejected claims the funding windfall was a "reward" for green-lighting the industry last week.
"I've been lobbying the Treasurer very hard about this issue and I'm delighted to see that that work has paid off," Ms Manison said.
"What the Federal Treasurer [saw] fit to do, after looking at our GST situation, is to pay in our GST this year … based on on our relativity from the [2017-18] year."
Though welcoming the announcement, Chief Minister Michael Gunner said the Territory was still under significant budget pressure.
The Government has announced a reduction in wages growth for public servants as well as job cuts in a bid to find $800 million in savings to offset cuts to the Territory's share of the GST.
"It's excellent, but it's only a third of what we were losing out on," he said.
Funding boost for remote housing
In a separate cash splash, the Commonwealth is expected to contribute more than $500 million to Indigenous remote housing in the Northern Territory.
The Territory Government has long lobbied its federal counterparts to match a $1.1 billion housing program over ten years.
Mr Gunner said the Federal Government had now agreed to match the funding over half that time.
"We've always known what Northern Territory is doing … but we now have $550 million over five years from the Australian Government towards remote housing as well," he told Mix 104.9 FM.
"Overcrowding in remote communities, and dysfunction in remote communities, contributes a lot to our nomadic population and those pressures we get in our towns.
"So having the Australian Government signing up to that five-year deal … is just a huge result for the Territory."
Topics: business-economics-and-finance, money-and-monetary-policy, government-and-politics, budget, industry, oil-and-gas, nt, alice-springs-0870, darwin-0800
