THE Northern Territory government has denied it is trying to avoid scrutiny by releasing its budget on the same day as the federal budget on Tuesday.
The Country Liberals' timing of their budget to be released on the same day as Canberra's is unusual, says Opposition Leader and former treasurer Delia Lawrie.
"It occurred last year with the CLP scrambling to avoid scrutiny; they're backing that up by trying to hide under interest in the federal budget again this year," Ms Lawrie told reporters on Monday.
She said she was most concerned about cuts to the public service, education and health service delivery.
"We're hearing about increases to fuel costs coming out of Canberra, which would be a huge hit to territorians already struggling under the weight of hefty power and water bills, and an out-of-touch CLP treasurer who's just taken home ownership even further out of reach of territorians by scrapping the first home owners' grant for people trying to buy into the existing housing market."
The changes to the grant - which has been cut from $12,000 to nothing for those buying existing homes, and increased to $26,000 for those buying new properties - were necessary to stimulate the building sector, said Treasurer Dave Tollner.
He said the NT is never really able to time its budget to have time to factor in federal spending.
"There's still belt-tightening measures in this budget but having said that, there is still sunshine," he said.
"Tough decisions" would help to address the NT's debt and secure a stable future for the children, he said, but the NT is on track to balance the $6 billion budget by 2017/18.
Ms Lawrie accused the government of pork-barrelling to the tune of $80 million in the lead up to last month's Blain by-election, something which Mr Tollner rejected.
"I flatly deny that this government is pork barrelling; we put the money where it's needed and this budget continues that," he said.
He also promised there would be no job cuts "at all" in Tuesday's budget.
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