A Northern Territory parliamentarian dressed in footy gear and a beanie sits in a camp chair surrounded by protest signs, a stuffed toy dog and rooster, and drinks an iced coffee. He is picketing parliament over government cuts to budget estimates hours. Inside the building, the government asks itself questions and acts as a conduit for a reporter who’s investigating them.
Welcome back, Northern Territory politics.
On Monday parliamentary estimates began, ostensibly to scrutinise the new Labor government’s first budget before it’s passed on Thursday but it followed more than two weeks of controversy that has threatened the promise of a more unified parliament just 10 months into the term.
Outside was Gerry Wood, in his Hawks jersey and some mis-apostrophed signs, calling for “longer working hours” on behalf of the “united MLA’s union”.
“Only because I’m a Hawthorn supporter and I had to look like a local unionist,” he tells Guardian Australia in explanation of his set-up. “But it was also having a bit of a go at the government for saying we’re lazy.”
The conservative independent says he was using lightheartedness to highlight the government’s lack of collaboration with the crossbench.
This month the government revealed that the estimates schedule would only allow for 30 hours of questions on the budget, with a further 30 later this year on the yet-to-be released annual reports.
The split would provide “two bites of the cherry”, the government said, adding that it had flagged its intentions in a 2015 pre-election discussion paper.
The opposition leader, Gary Higgins, labelled it “high-handed arrogance” in contrast with Labor’s promise to restore trust in government, while others pointed out that the second set of questions would come well and truly after the budget was passed.
After failing to convince the government to compromise, the two opposition members and five independents announced they would boycott the hearings. The government called their bluff.
The attorney general, Natasha Fyles, queried whether the boycotters would hand back their salary for those days and the chief minister, Michael Gunner, went on radio and branded the action a sham.
“They cannot be arsed going into parliament and asking questions for 30 hours,” he said.
Instead the government opened up estimates to the public, calling on “everyday mums and dads, Territory businesses, community stakeholders” to send their questions in.
The opposition still sent in their questions and, trumpeting the act as a great example of open and transparent government, the attorney general’s department released the answers 10 days early, hours before the Queen’s birthday long weekend. In its haste, it also accidentally attached some internal briefings.
By the time estimates began, few questions had come in from the public and the government was quizzing itself with a series of Dorothy Dixers.
On Tuesday the “questions from the public” included some highly detailed queries about travel entitlements from a NT News journalist, Chris Walsh.
The boycott had resulted in government members grilling their colleagues with questions on behalf of an investigative reporter, in a setting that lawfully required they answer in full. With opportunities like these, who needs freedom of information?
“They lost the plot,” Wood says. “For quite a considerable amount of time in recent years I’ve been talking about consensus government, working together. We couldn’t be further away from that now.”
It’s a strong statement, given the notoriously fractious nature of the Country Liberal party government.
“That’s what disappoints me so much. I thought we’d move on and have a much more inclusive parliament. I was pretty shocked by what happened with the last government – they seemed to be pretty dictatorial … But the new government has brought stuff forward which I think is not inclusive.”
Estimates hearings continue until Wednesday.
