NT opposition delivers 2024 budget reply, promising first homebuyer grants and payroll tax changes
3 min readThe Northern Territory opposition has delivered its budget reply ahead of August’s territory election, promising to slash the jurisdiction’s largest source of tax revenue despite the NT’s net debt sitting at a record level.
Opposition Leader Lia Finocchiaro did not detail any savings measures during her budget reply speech on Wednesday morning, instead announcing her Country Liberal Party (CLP) would raise the payroll tax-free threshold from $1.5 million to $2.5 million.
The NT’s threshold is currently the equal second highest in Australia, according to the Department of Treasury and Finance, meaning the majority of small businesses already don’t pay payroll tax.
Ms Finocchiaro said the change would mean more than 1,300 business would save up to $55,000.
This would leave a $40 million hole in the territory’s coffers.
It comes as the NT budget on Tuesday revealed a record net debt of $9.4 billion, which is set to rise to $11 billion next financial year.
“The change will see the territory lead the nation with the most generous payroll tax-free threshold in the country,” she said.
“We will also make apprentice and trainee wages exempt from payroll tax as part of that new $2.5 million threshold.
“This will encourage more businesses to invest and grow territory talent, and put on more apprentices and trainee positions, giving our kids a go.”
The budget reply also included the announcement of the CLP’s $20 million Home Grown Territory Program, which includes a $50,000 grant for first homeowners if they build a new property, and a $10,000 grant for first homebuyers purchasing an existing home.
People who move to the territory and build a new home will also be given $30,000 if the CLP wins power, regardless of whether they currently, or have previously, owned a home.
To access the grants, home buyers must live in the property for at least 12 months.
Currently, first homebuyers in the NT who purchase or build a new house can access a $10,000 grant.
Ms Finocchiaro said the scheme was “the most generous .. in the country”.
“We must give Territorians the confidence to stay here and people to come and live here,” she said.
“Australians struggling to buy their first home dealing with the skyrocketing housing markets in New South Wales and Victoria, they used to come to the territory, but now they are looking to Queensland and Western Australia.”
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Federal budget billions for NT
Alongside the NT’s 2024-25 budget on Tuesday, the Australian government also handed down its latest financial papers, with billions of dollars in funding for the NT for the years ahead.
In its flagship spend for the territory, the Albanese government has locked in a promise of $2.1 billion to improve remote Aboriginal community and homelands housing over the next decade.
This commitment comes with the ambitious promise to halve overcrowded housing by 2034.
The federal budget also contains money for Alice Springs to help solve its long-term social issues, including a commitment of $18 million for Central Australian boarding school facilities.
There are also dedicated funds for Kakadu National Park and neighbouring Jabiru, to help repair ageing infrastructure and transform Jabiru from a mining town to a tourism hub.
The budget also features a share of $1.2 billion to create a feasibility study for “common use infrastructure” to drive the planned Arafura Rare Earths mining project near Alice Springs.
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