NT underspends infrastructure budget

The Northern Territory government has announced it has spent half a billion dollars on infrastructure since July.

However, that is only a third of the $1.5 billion committed in the 2015-16 budget.

"You just cannot do the work in a 12-month period, so often the money allocated for that particular job will be revoted into next year ... that just continues with providing employment for Territorians," Infrastructure Minister Peter Chandler said on Thursday.

"It's a massive infrastructure spend and it benefits the local economy, it benefits local business, and that's good because it's good for jobs."

He denied that public servants were cutting corners in order to approve tenders quickly to stimulate the economy.

"No, but they're working really, really hard," he said.

"They really have found new ways to push out their tenders a lot quicker than they have in the past."

The federal government has already announced there will be a reduction in the NT's slice of the GST by about $145 million next financial year.

When asked if he was concerned there would be more cuts to the NT's bottom line in a jurisdiction heavily reliant on Canberra for funding, Mr Chandler said his government was trying to diversify the local economic base.

"We work our butts off lobbying Canberra to ensure we get our fair share of money; that lobbying will not stop, we will continue to demonstrate quite clearly why resources are needed here in the NT," Minister Chandler said.

"We don't want to see peaks and troughs into the future, it's why we've got to have a diverse economy and why we're focusing on areas like tourism, the onshore oil and gas sector, it's very important for the longevity of the NT.

"At the end of the day we want to wean ourselves off reliance on Canberra."

WHAT INFRASTRUCTURE DID THE NT GOVERNMENT SPEND $504 MILLION ON?

* $351m Capital Works program

* $111m on the Repairs and Maintenance program

* $25m on the Minor New Works program

* $17m on non-program works for government and private-sector projects

(SOURCE: Infrastructure Minister Peter Chandler, April 2016)