New pensioners squeezed in NT budget

MEANS-TESTING retirees will drive families out of the Northern Territory, the Labor opposition says.

The 2014/15 budget, unveiled on Tuesday, provides $27.9 million in funding for seniors, carers, pensioners and veterans, with concessions for utilities, rates, spectacles, car registration and travel, but new members will be means-tested.

The Country Liberal government is "going after retirees in the Territory", Opposition Leader Delia Lawrie said.

"They're failing to understand the importance of keeping the elderly here, which really anchors families to the Territory in already tough conditions," she said.

But the scheme had grown tenfold from $2 million a decade ago to $27.9 million today, Treasurer Dave Tollner said.

"It's very generous and supports everybody - some of the richest people in Darwin access these benefits," he said, and although they are entitled to do so, it is not what the scheme was designed to do.

"We're not in the business of taking things off people. We're trying simply to find efficiencies.

"It's not saving us anything. It's just preventing a future blow-out in costs."

The NT's sole independent, Gerry Wood, said the means testing was a backward step.

"There's a fair chance people will just pack up and go live with their relations down south," he told AAP.

"We're trying not to lose our senior people."

Taxation revenue is expected to increase by $83 million to reach $568.6 million in 2015, Ms Lawrie said, making the current administration "the highest-taxing government in the Territory's history".

"There's too much pain on Territorians right now. The cost of living is a huge issue," she said.

She pointed to high utility prices and the change to the first-home owner grant, which is no longer available for those buying an existing home, but offers $26,000 to those building a new property.

"That's where the bulk of homeowners enter into home ownership - through those old flats, through the old, run-down, fixer-upper houses," Ms Lawrie said.

"Housing is going to become more of a stress for Territorians as a result of this announcement."

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