Media release from the Deputy Leader of the Opposition, Gerard Maley:
The damage at the taxpayer owned facility at Howard Springs according to the Labor Treasurer is still just ‘wear and tear’ and claimed ‘Territorians don’t want to know the details.’
Deputy Leader of the Opposition Gerard Maley said “Eva Lawler despite knowing that these would be important questions on the minds of Territorians, came ill-prepared to outline the details. She STILL said on four occasions the damage was wear and tear.”
“The Treasurer said the total cost to the budget was $288,000 so far, then went on to say $45,000 had been spent on repairing 100 windows. The Minister also said there was a further 576 windows still to be replaced, at $450 (a window) that would be $304,200 in window replacement alone.”
“The surrounding communities have experienced havoc from evacuees being bussed to local facilities including bottle shops and returning to the facility drunk. The taxpayer paid $229,000 for this bus service, and the Treasurer did not reveal how much the sobering up shelter later erected at the facility had cost.”
“With the damage assessment still yet to be complete we can expect these costs to go up and up.”
What we know so far:
“This doesn’t include, staffing costs, additional trades, furniture replacements, cleaning bills, the full time position at $180k per year, costs of police and ambulance calls outs and no doubt much more.”
“Unbelievably, Eva Lawler said “she wouldn’t do anything differently” and the Government had no way of knowing damage would occur. So Territorians should know that Labor is not only happy with wasting your money, they would happily do it all again, they never learn!
“What a recipe for disaster, taking people from remote communities with alcohol restrictions in place and allowing them full access to alcohol was always going to create problems, including to the safety of those evacuees.”
