Worry-warts might be tempted to conclude that something is amiss in the Northern Territory when the NT Government spends only 50% of the funding allocated to it by the Commonwealth Grants Commission for services to Indigenous communities. Crikey readers may recall the odd bit of media over the last 18 months suggesting that things were not entirely tickety-boo on remote communities in the NT, so an underspend of this magnitude comes as something of a shock.

But this is a mere bagatelle compared to the discrepancy in the Family and Children’s Services category, where the NT Government’s own figures indicate that it spent $43m, rather than the $218m that the CGC deemed appropriate. For those of a mathematical bent, this represents an underspend of 75.9%.

However, it seems that everything is OK. Late last week, the Senate Standing Committee on Community Affairs investigation into “Government expenditure on Indigenous affairs and social services in the Northern Territory” handed down its report. The thrust of the finding was one of “no case to answer.”

The Coalition senators on the Committee, adopted a different view, noting in a dissenting report that “this inquiry has exposed serious questions about the spending priorities and accountability mechanisms of the Northern Territory Government”. The only Greens senator on the Committee, Rachel Siewert, wrote of her “disappointment” with the approach taken in the majority report.

Siewert notes the apolitical role of the Commonwealth Grants Commission, but points out that a Senate Committee has “an obligation” to delve a bit deeper. Then she cuts to the chase, pointing out that once the smoke has been cleared and the mirrors removed, there is still a significant gap in outcomes for Indigenous communities and a significant gap in the level of government services they receive.

The Grants Commission, an independent body which oversees the distribution of GST to the states and territories, is scurrying away from the spotlight, saying that it has no role in making political judgements about the way the governments spend their revenue. GST funding is untied and the Commission makes recommendations only.

The NT Treasurer Delia Lawrie was rather less reticent, issuing a media release titled “Senate Inquiry Finds No Evidence of Underspending”. It might be argued that this is a very long bow to draw on a highly technical finding which focused principally on the terminology employed in the Committee’s terms of reference.

She might equally have noted that the committee’s finding that “historically, service provision has been poor, that there have been significant backlogs in infrastructure provision and that these problems have been compounded by governance failure at all levels” is hardly a vindication of the Northern Territory Government.

Crikey spoke in Darwin yesterday with a disappointed Barry Hansen, Chair of the Northern Territory Council of Social Service. Hansen is a chartered accountant who knows a thing or two about books and the juggling thereof. He has received national media coverage for his outspoken comments about the NT Government’s fiscal failings, and is “fingered” as the major protagonist in the introduction to the Senate Committee’s report.

“The Treasurer’s understanding of the report appears to be less than complete,” Hansen told us dryly.

“The report by the four ALP Senators claims that the Commonwealth Grants Commission does not have a ‘funding formula’ as referred to in the Terms of Reference, and that this prevented them from reporting on the underspending. Use of a technicality to suppress what presumably otherwise could only have been a finding of underspending, has not served the NT or its Aboriginal citizens well.”

“Labor solidarity is alive and well!” Hansen concluded.

*Graham Ring is currently doing some part-time work for NTCOSS