Northern Territory Chief Minister Michael Gunner has partly blamed wasteful public service spending for his government's budget crisis and will call in all department heads to justify cost blowouts.
Treasury announced last month the NT Government was borrowing to cover day-to-day expenses including public servants' wages, with the deficit to hit $1.5 billion this fiscal year and net debt to hit $35.7 billion by 2030.
The Plan for Budget Repair Treasury interim report released late last year recommended cutting public service spending growth from the six per cent-plus it has been for 18 years to below three per cent for a decade to avoid debt soaring to unmanageable levels.
That would involve cutting annual budget expenditure growth from about $400 million a year to $200 million a year based on current figures, according to Mr Gunner's office.
Government chief executives will appear before the budget review subcommittee chaired by Mr Gunner to justify their spending and show how they will cut budgets.
Former West Australian under-treasurer John Langoulant who is conducting a fiscal review report in the NT, warned government agency boards would be made accountable for meeting their budgets, which could involve CEOs losing their jobs as happened recently in WA.
Mr Gunner said the health, police and corrections departments were serial offenders in terms of blowouts.
"There are legitimate reasons why there are pressures on those agencies, we know the reasons why police are busy at night, why the hospitals are full, why the prisons are full," Mr Gunner told reporters.
"There is a lot we need to do in the structural budget repair space and social reform around generational changes."
The NT economy is also performing poorly in the wake of the end of the natural gas boom driven by the construction of the Inpex project in Darwin and cuts in GST revenue have also been blamed for the fiscal crisis.
Opposition Leader Gary Higgins said cutting spending growth by half was just a small step.
"We've suggested a freeze on executive recruitment and a stop on wasteful practices such as promotional fence wrap and stickers and rockets - immediate action they can take."
